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Happy New Year You Surly Bastards!
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Happy New Year You Surly Bastards!

flatdawgs

Certifiably Surly
  • Joined

Posts posted by flatdawgs

  1. 31 minutes ago, Tuco said:

    Seriously man, just fuck off. You keep using this story as cudgel against the Somalian as a whole, as if they imported welfare fraud from Somalia. It's exactly why the Trump administration is pushing it and you are just lapping it up. White people, including Aimee Bock, commit plenty of fraud, but your main take-away is that we must do something about those unethical African immigrants.

    I live in the state with the third-highest number of Somali immigrants (also very high on the list for Eritreans and Somalis, but they're not as Moooooslim). WA is also a state with a "Nordic-style social safety net" equal to or better than Minnesota's, and for some of the same reasons - many Scandihoovians moved here as well, quite a few via Minnesota; here they joined Asians and developed a "Japandinavian" sense of social structure from design to labor rights to social welfare that in the main persists to this day.

    The very middle class Seattle neighborhood I grew up in, mostly white/Asian at the time, has had a mosque and a lot of kick-ass East African food for decades now. I see Somalis every day. There have been no signs that they are committing fraud at a greater level than any other group. (To be fair, our Italian community in the last century also had few to no ties with organized crime; it's weird to me to hear "this group does that" as a blanket statement.)

  2. 30 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

    Eight states – California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington

    In Washington, at any rate, over 60% of ballots are returned via drop box rather than USPS already (higher in more urban counties, lower in more rural). During the pandemic it was closer to 75%. WA has the most liberal voting laws in the country; your ballot if mailed only needs to be postmarked by Election Day, not received. This is a clear shot at that, however my guess is that there will be even more drop boxes added due to this along with some pointed commentary regarding rural and senior voters getting screwed/fed to the leopards (to say nothing of the odds your taxes may end up being late). WA is D +20 and I don't expect much change in results, but this shit pisses me off. States like Nevada worry me more than the four Pacific states, in which not a single R represents a congressional seat touching salt water.

  3. @Samson's Wig those are great points, and despite having visited Austin many times I admittedly don't know much about the transportation system there other than that it has a lot more space for roads (whether or not that's the best use of real estate is a different matter, but it is what it is) than SF or Seattle. I admit to being shocked that per your post there are only 2 million monthly bus rides in Austin? If that's the case, then certainly everyone moving from a bus to a Waymo isn't going to cause the issue that it would in a lot of other cities. Some issues, yes, but not at the same scale. Seattle's regional public transportation systems (various bus systems, local and commuter rail, streetcars, monorail, foot and car ferries) serve about 4.1 million people and are interconnected fare-wise. Removing that system for Waymos would indeed destroy the highway system for those who choose or need to drive except perhaps in some farther-flung suburbs and exurbs. Obviously per your post Austin is a completely different matter and a good place for the Waymo experiment to get off the ground.

    I have noticed that Waymos have arrived even here, currently "mapping" the area, and once they're active I look forward to seeing for which use cases they might work for me. Having choices for what is the best way(s) to take any given trip is the optimal solution. There are many trips I take where I would never consider driving, and others where I would never consider not. It'll be interesting to see where Waymos fit in.

  4. Single (or even two) passenger car trips do not scale up well enough to replace public transit. Put 40 people from some rando bus in individual cars and see how quickly your road space fills up. Now do that for every person in every bus/train. Those Waymos ain't going anywhere fast in the parking lots every road would quickly become. That's in a city like Austin - it would be exponentially worse in a San Francisco or Seattle where topography limits the road space to begin with. That's one reason most of us in cities like that use transit at least on some of our trips. I drive for some things, take the train (or bus) for others simply due to traffic and/or parking issues at the other end.

    Waymos are great for the "last mile" trips, for certain point-to-point trips where transit routes or schedules don't work, and for local errands/bar nights etc., and may even be useful enough in some circumstances to allow a family to have one fewer car. They definitely have a place in a city's transportation options. Just remember, though - every person in that bus or train is someone who isn't on the road making traffic even worse - even if it's in a Waymo. 

  5. 1 minute ago, miguelito said:

    That shot of the fans after the TD: there are dozens of us. Dozens!

    My brother and SIL are there... mainly because they're leaving on a cruise tomorrow so were in town anyway. 😂

    I remember going to a Freedom Bowl in Anaheim years ago when down there for a UW Rose Bowl and getting tickets for a buck. Found out from where we were sitting related to the Tulsa end zone that "Tulsa" backwards is "a slut". That's all I remember about that game. 

  6. 28 minutes ago, bolverk said:

    Wow. Was the fire somehow related to the storms or just a freak accident? Glad you're okay.

    Thanks brother - much appreciated. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the old guy is unpleasant and not all there upstairs (not Surly level, but still) so likely was an accident of some sort. Smelled smoke and stepped outside to see flames shooting out from the soffits, called 911 and yelled at him to get out (couldn't get to the house as he's got security fencing but it was fully involved by then anyway). He'd gotten out unharmed, thankfully. 

  7. 8 hours ago, bolverk said:

    @flatdawgs You've been awfully quiet the past few days since you first posted about the atmospheric river from the Philippines. Doing okay, brother?

    Thanks, @bolverk - am on a hill in the city so not bad; there was local flooding at the bottom of the hill. Nothing like the mountains and areas north of the metro area got, and another one is expected next week.

    Next door neighbor's house burned down Thursday evening - fortunately no injuries and everything was so soaked none of our houses were damaged, so I guess the rain did some good in that regard.

  8. Atmospheric river originating in the Philippines has been hitting western Washington all week; nearly all rivers on this side of the state will reach all-time record flood stages this evening. Six million people are under flood watches or warnings (fortunately we have a LOT of hills, but the valleys are getting hammered).

  9. 17 hours ago, Covri said:

    She definitely hasn't improved at all since the first term. 30 years in America and she still sounds that bad.

    And here I thought she got in as a Genius.

    Foreign language is compulsory in Slovenian education starting in first grade; most children take English from then throughout their education. Oh, and she's stupider than even I thought if she's from Slovenia and hates Christmas. I spent the holidays in Ljubljana a couple of years ago and it was amazing - beautiful little city, markets, the whole bit. Everyone I interacted with spoke flawless English. 5/5, would return. 

    (I get the challenges with trying to speak a non-native language when in a different country and don't wish to belittle it- my Portuguese is at best mediocre and it's a serious challenge for me when I'm there. That said, I just started learning a couple of years ago, not 40+.)

  10. ·

    Edited by flatdawgs
    clarified match is during Pride Week, just to warn any Qataris on the board

    2 hours ago, ztejas said:

    I'm sure the 16 Qataris and couple of hundred Egyptians that show up in town will have already had their eyes opened by the time the match begins. It's not terribly challenging to run into the rainbow anywhere and everywhere in the area, and Pride Week is a pretty big deal, parade and festival and all. That draw is pretty perfect for this, though. 😂

  11. 21 minutes ago, tokamak said:

    I think they're gonna move shit around to try to best satisfy local TV markets. Thought I read somewhere that the locations will be finalized early next week.

    Tomorrow morning, I believe, 11am CT. The delay is definitely to try and align TV times with local markets as best as possible. 

  12. 1 minute ago, LurkingHorn said:

    Won't we know the location of the games but probably not the times? 

    The only thing I've seen says they'll announce "the locations and times" at 11a CT Saturday - maybe that's because most cities are hosting games from two groups (Seattle's are B and G). We'll definitely know which teams are in which groups today, but maybe not which group games are where.

    Seattle (and Vancouver) being exactly equidistant between Europe and Asia, it will be interesting to see who gets placed in the PNW.

  13. 46 minutes ago, LurkingHorn said:

    Not that anyone here cares, but I did go ahead and book all my arrangements to Seattle for the US game. Holy shit is this going to be an expensive trip. Didn't want to do it after the draw in case we draw a team with a big following and the prices go up even more. 

    Since that game is against a pot 2 team, the USA’s possible opponents are Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria and Australia - mostly pretty good matchups. Since I live here, I'm hoping to go to a match or two, but probably won't be that one.

    It looks as though we won't actually know where the vast majority of games will be played until tomorrow morning, though, as they're trying to set optimal TV times for as many countries as possible. 

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