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Brisketexan

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Everything posted by Brisketexan

  1. Blame…credit. Potato potahto.
  2. They can't just let THIS fire burn, it's too big, mean, and destructive. You have to contain it if possible. Now, they should probably look at being more aggressive about controlled burns in the panhandle going forward, but that's a separate path.
  3. I've also learned not to place bets on games of Calvinball. Because my bet cannot account for the new rule of "you lose all your points if you touch the 'no touching' tree before you dunked the ball into the barrel." Seriously. I regularly have no fucking idea what this court will do, which is a huge problem in itself (courts and the law are supposed to be relatively predictable -- that way, people can make informed decisions about how to behave). I mean, we DO know how Alito and Thomas will go. But as to the rest of them....no fucking idea. Just maintain pessimism. It's been the safe bet since 2016.
  4. Owner. Dropped crack pipe. Bare electrical wires. Pretty much an unlimited menu of how a place like that can burn down.
  5. I wonder if that fire will improve that place's review scores?
  6. Mmmmm......"flavouring." It's the "u" that makes it.
  7. It's America 2024 where the GQP MAGA movement exits. Always bet on "this is bad, really bad."
  8. That thing being "making Trump an untouchable king." We were founded as a rebellion against absolute monarchy. It's only fitting that our final act of self-immolation will be the installation of an absolute monarchy.
  9. "hopefully" is doing a lot of work there....
  10. There's a Popeye's close to your house?
  11. Counterpoint: the microplastics are like flavor crystals!
  12. This. Some of y'all seem not to realize that whoever replaces Mitch, it will be worse, and will leave us longing for the kind, humane, even-handed leadership of Mitch. Remember how many of us thought Rick Perry was a shit governor.....and now, we'd trade him for Abbott in a heartbeat? Never forget the GQP rule: it only gets worse.
  13. I'm sure they can find someone even more awful and repellent than Ted. You gotta have faith in the GQP. They always come through for such things.
  14. Solid nominee for "understatement of 2024," and even though the year is young, that may have the staying power to win the title.
  15. Bummer. He was always a funny dude.
  16. I mean, yeah, I totally do. Must be in my other pair of pants. They're at the cleaners. So, umm, could you spot me $300 million till I can pick them up?
  17. The prairie is designed to burn. It's a key part of the natural cycle there. It's actually (in the big picture) very healthy for the land. Controlled burns are a smart and good thing. Wildfires like this? Well, that's nature being nature and she gives zero fucks. Good for nature. Bad for us. Living anywhere on this earth carries pros and cons re natural benefits vs. natural hazards. Tornadoes and prairie fires are the hazards of the plains. We can do our best to plan for them, mitigate them, etc. But sometimes, they're going to fucking bite some good people in the ass. So, that's when we need to be there for each other. We help folks out when a hurricane hits the coast, we can help folks out when a prairie fire hits the panhandle. It's the good thing to do if you grasp that we live in community with each other.
  18. Lemme fix that for you: That's the play. The Saudis, Russians, etc. will happily float a few hundred million on the chance that ends up being the winning bid to take full legal title to an actual president of the United States. Shit, they'd be dumb NOT to take that flyer.
  19. So, was trying to find an appropriate thread for this post, which is about an observation on the plain and obvious lasting nature of institutional racism, and how it places minorities behind the curve for generations. I was recently at an event honoring some of the great black lawyers in Central Texas. It's not the first one I've been to, but as I read the bios of these folks -- truly outstanding lawyers, all of them, people who went to top-notch schools (mostly in the north, by the way), had notable achievements academically, etc. -- it clicked that most of them that I've read over those years involve long terms of working as a government lawyer. Not all of them, but almost all, started their careers as government attorneys. Those jobs are fine jobs, and a much needed and appreciated public service. But make no mistake, if a student graduates today from Michigan, or Stanford, etc., with honors, they have a clear path to a job with a high-end law firm that pays 5X what an entry level gov't attorney job pays. But back when these folks were graduating law school - the 70s-80s - that was not the case. So, until up to about 30 years ago (and let's be plain and clear, the way isn't entirely clear even today), that top-notch black law student had a much harder time even getting in the door of Fancy Law Firm LLP. And even if he/she did, remember that the lawyers at Fancy Law Firm LLP all went to the same schools together, their parents went to the same schools, and a good chunk of them were hired because 1) yes, they did well in law school, but also 2) their dad was friends/business associate with the hiring partner, who vouched for them and walked them right into their job. The black law students? Their dad did NOT go to school with or associate with the hiring partner, because that simply did not happen back in the day. A generic high achieving white student, with no connections, was already more likely to get an interview and be hired than an identical black student. Then layer on the fact that many of those white students ALSO had generational family connections that could give them a leg up in the job application process...a leg up that few black students had. Now, take that out another generation. The parents of today's black students are STILL underrepresented in the ranks the Fancy Law Firm LLP type places, as well as the people who network with and are connected to the attorneys there. So a black student even today likely has fewer connections and advantages to help him get that job at Fancy Law Firm LLP. So, why are DELIBERATE efforts to recruit diverse candidates important? Because the long-term effects of systemic, institutionalized racism STILL skew the playing field, and make it more likely that white candidate X can get a particular job than black candidate Y. In order to try to level that field, we need to DELIBERATELY LOOK FOR AND TO minority candidates. No, not without making sure that they are qualified. But to make sure that they aren't missed. The Hiring Partner at Fancy Law Firm LLP gets 20 resumes sent to him by old connections, pushing their kid, or their nephew, or whatnot. What would be helpful is if Hiring Partner ALSO had a policy/incentive/something like that to affirmatively gather 20 resumes from minority students who do NOT have connections to Fancy Law Firm LLP. Then, you interview and hire appropriately, and honestly. Because honestly....some of those nepotism resumes may have a nice academic ring to them, but the candidate is a dim bulb or dud. And some of those minority resumes are going to belong to some impressive SOBs who you never would have met if you hadn't sought them out. That dynamic is what DEI and such is all about. And is it needed? I'd say the resumes of impressive minority lawyer after impressive minority lawyer reflecting long tenures in government jobs says "yes, it is still needed." Legacies, connections, and nepotism matter. A lot. DEI is necessary to even come close to creating equal opportunity in light of the unequal distribution of those advantages.
  20. "The same thing that happens every night with respect to Trump. Nothing. Absolutely nothing."
  21. Blah blah blah. Remember the rule for this timeline: it only gets worse, and there is no bottom. Meaning....we are going to soon yearn for the days of the kind, measured, humane leadership of Mitch. Because whoever replaces him will be much, much, much worse. How? No idea. I just know that the GQP will find a way to pull it off.
  22. That the fine folks at Wendy's corporate didn't realize, INSTANTLY, that "surge pricing" was exactly how every single human was going to interpret their "dynamic pricing" pitch makes the company leadership singularly unqualified to run the fucking company. "We had no idea that using a term that is synonymous with 'fucking over the consumer' would actually be interpreted as us planning to fuck over consumers!" Dumbasses.
  23. It's not like GQP governors aren't 100% consistent about their inconsistency. He'll sidle up to Biden with his hand out, and as he's given the money, berate Biden for being a commie socialist.
  24. Tell the governor what's happening up in the Panhandle is "un fuego de los carteles," and they'll get right on it.
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