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Posts posted by flatdawgs
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2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:
Yeah, how you wouldn't do one of the jillion fantastic roast dinners on offer all over, I don't understand. That's one thing they do very, very well.
The roast dinners are generally great and pretty much every pub has them. You can get them every Sunday (at the least); many do a special Christmas dinner for regulars as well. That said, my sister and BIL have always kept the Thanksgiving dinner tradition for their family and have done for the nearly 20 years they've lived there. They want roast beast, they can get that anytime.
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15 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:
So this is allegedly from US Southern Command? And we're still trying to convince ourselves that "oh, the military wouldn't follow illegal orders" when it comes to this (or anything else)?
There's a lot of rot that will need to be excised when the time comes. I still have hope that the vast majority of our military will do the right thing in any circumstances when illegal orders are given, but it's gonna be messy if that comes to a head.
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11 minutes ago, Superhero said:
Starting construction without a full set of documents isn’t out of the norm. On most projects we work on these days, the drawings are broken into different packages, eg foundations, site, structural, architectural, etc. But you at least need the architects to “freeze the backgrounds” so other designers can get to work.
Yes, this is typical, particularly on larger projects where you can "stage" the various permits (clearing/grading, dry utilities, site, foundation etc.) and begin work on each in turn. Of course here there's likely no permitting authority, or if there is it was ignored, so here we are.
We try to "freeze the backgrounds" as early as possible, especially where stuff is touching ground, so that those permits can be obtained early and subsequent work begun. Freezing the backgrounds in other areas sometimes doesn't occur until closer to building permit application, mainly due to clients constantly changing their minds. (Right, McCrery?)
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11 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:
They/he was announced as the architect pretty much from the get-go, definitely before the demo.
I remember because I looked him up and he seemed credible.
But he should have known he was working for a grimy little pimp and that the "visions" would diverge.
I suppose the notion of working on an historic project was too tempting.
Oh, he was definitely on from early days - when the renderings came out it was difficult to even find out who the architect was, but eventually I found a blurb somewhere. He's definitely creditable but the weird thing was is, unlike most architecture firms his was difficult to find much info on. At the time there were about 2 intern-level staffers on LinkedIn and his website looked like something a small residential shop would've done about 10 years ago.
Most of his work appears to have been on Catholic churches and for a conservative Catholic university, along with some smaller neoclassical projects. His work isn't bad - style is irrelevant; we all work in the style we tend to be comfortable with, and neoclassical certainly is an appropriate style here - but he seems to be one of those architectural demagogues that believe in One True Style, much like King Charles or Trump himself (or Speer/Hitler, if you want to take it there).
He was all on board but is now the perfect example of the frog on the scorpion. "You knew what I was when you got on."
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1 hour ago, Francisco 2.0 said:
McCrery declined an interview request through a representative who declined to answer questions about the architect’s interactions with Trump in recent weeks.
Trump’s intense focus on the project and insistence on realizing his vision over the objections of his own hire, historic preservationists and others concerned by a lack of public input in the project reflect his singular belief in himself as a tastemaker and obsessive attention to details. In the first 10 months of his second term, Trump has waged a campaign to remake the White House in his gilded aesthetic and done so unilaterally — using a who’s-going-to-stop-me ethos he honed for decades as a developer.
Multiple administration officials have acknowledged that Trump has at times veered into micromanagement of the ballroom project, holding frequent meetings about its design and materials. A model of the ballroom has also become a regular fixture in the Oval Office.
The renovation represents one of the largest changes to the White House in its 233-year history, and has yet to undergo any formal public review. The administration has not publicly provided key details about the building, such as its planned height. The 90,000-square-foot structure also is expected to host a suite of offices previously located in the East Wing. The White House has also declined to specify its plans for an emergency bunker that was located below the East Wing, citing matters of national security.
On recent weekdays, a bustling project site that is almost entirely fenced off from public view contained dozens of workers and materials ready to be installed, including reinforced concrete pipes and an array of cranes, drills, pile drivers and other heavy machinery, photos obtained by The Washington Post show.
Plans for the addition as of Tuesday had not been submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission, a 12-member board charged by Congress with overseeing federal construction projects and now led by Trump allies. A preliminary agenda for the commission’s next meeting, scheduled for Dec. 4, does not include the ballroom project under projects expected to be covered at the meeting or reviewed by the body in the next six months. White House officials say that the administration still plans to submit its ballroom plans to the commission at “the appropriate time.”
The administration’s rapid demolition of the East Wing annex and solicitations from companies and individuals to fund the new construction have caused controversy over the project, which Trump believes the White House needs to host special events. Democrats, historical preservation groups and some architects have criticized the project’s pace, secrecy and shifting specifications. The White House initially said this summer that the ballroom would cost $200 million and fit 650 people, while Trump in recent weeks asserted that it could cost $300 million or more and would fit about 1,000 people.
McCrery has kept his criticism out of the public eye, quietly working to deliver as Trump demanded rushed revisions to his plans, according to two of the people with knowledge of the conversations. The president — a longtime real estate executive who prides himself on his expertise — has repeatedly drilled into the details of the project in their Oval Office meetings, the people said.
McCrery has wanted to remain with the project, worried that another architect would design an inferior building, according to a person with knowledge of his thinking.
McCrery, a classical architect and the founder and principal of McCrery Architects, had designed works like the U.S. Supreme Court bookstore and the pedestal for President Ronald Reagan’s statue in the U.S. Capitol. The ballroom was the largest-ever project for his firm, which has specialized in designing churches, libraries and homes.
Trump hired McCrery for the project on July 13. Eighteen days later, the White House announced the ballroom project, with officials promising to start construction within two months and finish before the end of Trump’s second term.
Trump also appointed McCrery in 2019 to serve a four-year term on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which provides advice to the president, Congress and local government officials on design matters related to construction projects in the capital region.
Democrats have pressed the White House and its donors for more details on the planned construction and what was promised to financial contributors. The ballroom is being funded by wealthy individuals and large companies that have contracts with the federal government, including Amazon, Lockheed Martin and Palantir Technologies. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post.)
Several donors have cast the decision in statements as an investment in the future of a building that belongs to the American people, pushing back on the suggestion that their largesse was intended to curry favor with Trump.
A donor list released by the White House of 37 businesses and individuals who underwrote the ballroom is not comprehensive, administration officials acknowledged, leaving open the possibility that millions of dollars have been funneled toward the president’s pet project with no oversight.
“Billionaires and giant corporations with business in front of this administration are lining up to dump millions into Trump’s new ballroom — and Trump is showing them where to sign on the dotted line,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) said in a statement last week. Warren and her colleagues also introduced legislation that would impose restrictions on White House construction and require more transparency from donors.
Fuck McCrery. He knew what he was getting into. No architect takes over a project - assuming his tiny firm wasn't involved from the start - without a full understanding of what had been done to date. I've done this on multiple large projects; you normally get all previous work (the client typically owns the rights) and often chat with the previous architect before going forward. He deserves all the shit that is about to come his way.
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4 hours ago, Brisketexan said:
Daughter special-ordered one for a Thanksgiving meal she’s cooking in Germany tomorrow, boy cooked one for his crew in Glasgow today. I’ve messaged to see how much they ran.
My sister and her family live in London and have for 17 years (they're dual citizens now) - she told me this morning turkeys were running £80-£100 this year. She said to hell with it, chicken it shall be.
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Brazil
in Cloak Room
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The French Foreign Legion is after me at the order of the French president. Our president confirms this.
Non, ils ne regrettent rien. /Edith Piaf
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16 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:
Think about this. Rwanda is the peacekeeping force. We like Rwanda.
Yeah, Rwandan forces were a good choice by Mozambique and I'm sure ExxonMobil and Total were happy to see them in Mocimboa da Praia. The SADC forces seemed to have deployed into more civilian/local communities; that mandate ended last year unfortunately.
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13 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:
Oil.
Seems like, oh, Nigeria has some of that as well. Surprised they've not started up on Mozambique now that Ansar al-Sunna and ISIS is back in Cabo Delgado province (large nat gas reserves) and raising hell with civilians again. Maybe it's because the moçambicanos don't speak English as well.
(I know you know the region well, Inka)
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1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:
One of them is, they’ve shown artillery units firing decorated shells.
”OU Sucks” is a pretty short message.
You know, if they mess that one up and it says "UO Sucks", I'll pay for that one.
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1 hour ago, Gatorubet said:
Westlaw legal research now has an AI assisted aspect. So I asked a legal question the other day, and it gave me an answer that was absolutely wrong and guided by a Supreme Court decision in our state that had been specificallylegislatively overturned.
So I told the AI “ you dumb fuck, a statute overturned that decision”. It then gave an answer that was directly opposite from the answer it gave me five minutes before.
Even though there’s a disclaimer saying, “don’t rely on what I told you”, there has to be a vast army of dumb shits who won’t do that and will submit briefs full of nonsense. As it is, people have submitted briefs where AI completely fabricated case cites and holdings. I mean, it made up legal shit that never existed. We know this because judges have been sanctioning the shit out of lawyers for using AI and not checking.
For a society that has already pretty much abandoned critical thinking, AI should be the nail in the coffin on that issue
This is a huge problem for me as well. I have junior staff doing code research (building, fire, ADA, zoning etc.) and they invariably rely on AI to do this. Nearly daily it returns incorrect answers similar to what you got - wrong code, section was revised, etc. Although I require staff to return the actual code cite language and section reference to me, a lot of them just want to take the AI result as gospel. The last search I did, for a building code reference in a WA state suburb, current (2021) code, returned a reference to the 2009 Santa Clara CA building code. When I showed it to staff, they started to get it - I hope....
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1 hour ago, HenryJames said:
"You know the best way to raise your income 26%? Move from a red state to a blue state."
Yeah, makes about as much sense. These people are shameless.
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Israel
in Cloak Room
1 hour ago, Brian Fantana said:956's favorite Zionist Twitter source is at it again
Aside from what may have happened to his family in Mandatory Iraq, looking at the guy's photo I'm pretty sure his parents weren't killed by anyone in 1941 and likely not even his grandparents.
(as an aside, there was a pro-German coup in Iraq in April/May 1941; it was put down by British and Commonwealth forces following which - i.e. back under British control - riots in Baghdad's Jewish Quarter killed about 200. Bad shit, no doubt; but where was the asylum from a British protectorate supposed to come from?)
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6 minutes ago, South Austin said:
The dumbest guy in my fraternity became an architect.
My dumbass brother became an attorney, so I get it 😂
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39 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:
The article was probably written and edited by AI.
The rest of your point stands however. An architect or engineer isn't professional now? Plus, you can see how this trickles down to red states---imagine opening up architectual licensing to anyone that wants one. What could possibly go wrong.
Huh... 30 years in the profession and now I find out it's not a profession. Well, at least the great pay and short hours make up for... WAIT. FUCK.
(yeah, this will go over super well in the A&E community - as an architect I needed to go through several years of mandatory internship then 9 exams. It's thankfully simplified now, although still rigorous. My engineering friends and colleagues have similar rigors to endure before becoming licensed. Sure would've been a lot easier to walk off campus with my degree and yell "I'm an architect now!" and been done with it.)
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2 hours ago, Captain Ron said:
He's some sort of locker room glue. Holds the team together. I don't get it, I just know that's the reason why Poch likes him.
He had the same reputation last go-around - a young McKennie even talked about it then. He plays a different role for club now and more than held his own this past summer against some top-level competition (UEFA, CONMEBOL, and CONCACAF club champions) and shut down some guy named Messi in a cup final, frustrating the hell out of him in the process. He's not likely to see many minutes, but having a guy like that on the sideline/in the clubhouse isn't necessarily a bad thing.
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If you look a bit further south, about halfway between Seattle and Portland, you'll find that the city of Longview (and another one, can't recall at the moment which) flipped their city government from R to D. Now, this part of the state is about as hard MAGA as they get around here - Lewis County is Alabama with scenery - so this was an even bigger surprise to me than Wilson's election.
I didn't dislike Harrell, but along with the things you pointed out he continually slow-walked the residential rezoning process mandated by state law, to the point where even Spokane currently has more liberal upzoning.
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11 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:
Quoted for emphasis. Nearly 30 years ago, we were in the tres fronteras region, and spent a couple of nights in Paraguay. We ended up stopping at the Hotel Tirol for lunch. Beautiful place, jungle flowers coming down to the courtyard, hummingbirds all over. But we all commented rather immediately "hmmm....kinda got a bit of a nazi vibe going on here. Hotel....TIROL....in Paraguay. Yeah, we probably shouldn't linger here." Turns out....
Yeah, Stroessner (Paraguayan dictator from the mid-50s until 1989) was a bit of a fan of the Nazis, quite a few of whom - like Mengele - figured this out. He was, of course, supported by the US during nearly the entirety of his regime, and although he had to self-exile in Brazil for the remaining 15 or so years of his life his party has ruled almost uninterruptedly since then. Unlike Uruguay or Chile, Paraguay is, to say the least, more than a bit ambivalent about that era.
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22 minutes ago, Macanudo said:
What about the Boys from Brazil?
God, the Brazilians hate that book, and for good reason - they fought with the Allies against the Germans in Italy and in the Atlantic. Their expeditionary forces even had a cool name: As Cobras Fumantes - the Smoking Cobras (or Snakes).
Argentina, on the other hand....
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6 hours ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:
Hegseth will be along any minute to call them DEI promotions & not real life taking warriors like his own drunken self.
*warfighters
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27 minutes ago, Snake Diggity said:
This. What the fuck. If there really is evidence that would be severely damaging to Trump, why the fuck wasn’t it released years ago and why the fuck aren’t people oppposed to Trump who know about it not talking about what it is? If there’s not evidence against Trump, why isn’t Trump just releasing the files? None of this makes any sense.
Yeah, this whole thing is weird. If now there are allegedly 100 GOP reps who are willing to vote to release the files, why do they need Rep. Grijalva's signature on the discharge petition? Why can't one of those 100 who haven't signed do it now?
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5 hours ago, Zepol87 said:
I was Navy ATC. No thanks
Brother was Army ATC, then civilian after he got out. Saint Ronnie fired him and the world eventually ended up with yet another attorney then judge.
Thanks a lot for that, Ronnie - yet another reason you sucked.
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1 hour ago, Valmy77 said:
I don't believe PR was ever offered statehood.
The various PR statehood / commonwealth / independence plebiscites have generally been boycotted or deemed unrepresentative by one faction or another. It's far from a sure thing, should a binding referendum be held, that statehood would even be desired.
(see also Ghost's comment above)
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The GQP: Trumpist Death Cult
in Cloak Room
Posted
Nobody wins in a shovel fight.
Well, at least that guy didn't.