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Eskimohorn

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Posts posted by Eskimohorn

  1. Political hatred for the man aside, I am honestly shocked his opening number was 5%.  For such a "brilliant negotiator", he could probably have asked for 15-20% and likely gotten it to both collect much needed cash and 'permit' the other candidate to show fealty/save face.  Effectively getting them into "who likes Trump the mostest out of everybody in our homeroom class" kinda thing.  Which may very well still unfold.  

    When you have no agenda except kleptocracy and extortion, it makes it easy to not trade in favors. He has no respect or understanding of branches of government and believes he’s king.
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  2. Um, 70% of Texans live in the big four metro areas.
    The issue is strategic, not political. Rural Texas got bright red as the Democratic Party abandoned efforts to win rural county courthouses in the 90s and hasn’t gone back since and consequently lose rural areas by default while the GOP still contests elections in the urban and suburban counties, and the efforts add up.
    So example- Travis County went 72% for Biden- other urban counties were blue, but less so. The bluest county in the Panhandle was Potter- where Amarillo held Trump down to 68%. The panhandle as a whole (including Potter) was over 80% for Trump. Further south on the western edge of the Big Country, Midland county was 75%.
     
    In other words- it’s rural Texas that is out of touch with Texans. They are just so intensely out of touch that they are able to carry the state in coalition with disaffected city dwellers.
     


    Texans includes people in cities. And from my perspective in Austin, dems in city council are being dunked on from issues like homelessness, public safety and affordability. Dems need to be the party of good governance and not get sucked in too much on wedge issues. But they need to be competent and responsive and have a clear communication. When Fitlump is one of our best council members in some respects, you see the rot exposed. And state gov is exploiting this weakness.

    Hell, even the grifter Dan Patrick understands that investors are driving up the price of single family homes. And with our upzoning scheme, welcomed by investors, developers and realtors, we will make each plot even more lucrative. His study on the issue will be a money grab but nevertheless.
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  3. Yes, turnout percentage is higher.  But the state is growing much faster than it did in 1992 (the previous high before 2020).  Both in percentages, and obviously raw numbers.  What's more the growth is younger (obviously, but I mean not just kids but 18-45's moving here/beginning to vote finally), the growth is more people of color (obviously Hispanic, but also Asian).  And most glaring to me...more urban/suburban than rural.  We are now sitting at 85%+ urban/suburban in Texas (obviously you'd need to break that down college/non-college).  In 1992, that number was closer to only 65-70%.  That's the shift that is the most promising, even more than age.  But give the rural/exurb folks credit, they vote at a drastically higher clip than anyone else.   

    Perhaps, but the democrats share of hispanics is less. And transplants to Texas are more conservative than they were in the past.

    The democratic party strongholds in cities are out of touch with Texans and are largely impotent, either by being new urbanists or playing on national politics. And, largely being shat on by the state, who are derelict in their duty.

    Florida and Texas are out of play, once battleground states that are now playgrounds for theofascism and gqp activism.
  4. Chinatown came out the same year as The Godfather II so I don't fault it for "only" winning one Academy Award.
    Chinatown is a phenomenally good movie. I use some variation of "Forget it, Jake -- it's Chinatown" line all the time.

    In the context of screenplay discussion, I implied the screenplay was exceptional. It was the foundation of an all-time movie. Not disparaging the movie at all which was part of my Columbia House VHS collection along with Se7en and some others.
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  5. Bowen Yang has become my new least liked. He's edged out Keenan at playing the same character in every role.

    Let’s give Bowen another 10 years before he “edges out” Keenan at playing a character to death.
  6. I don't care about typos.
    This wasn't that. Typos are unintentional.

    Maybe we should take your interpretation of typos to the grammar board. Again, there’s not one. Let’s stay on the topic of Sweat getting popped.
  7. This kind of shit is how we get "for all intensive purposes" and "I could care less" and "get untracked."

    Take it to the grammar board. Oh, there’s not one? Because no one gives a shit about typos. We could care less but it means we’re dead.
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  8. The Usual Suspects also won an Oscar for Best Screenplay. Made a star out of Spacey. It's likely LA Confidential doesn't have Spacey in the cast without his Oscar performance in The Usual Suspects. 
     
    Don't get me wrong, love all three films. This is film making at its best. I just give the edge to TUS. The one thing both LAC and Chinatown have over TUS is setting. Those time periods in LA are perfect for the genre. 

    Respect TUD but “by far the better script” is suspect
  9. “Pretty big bunny, huh?”
    That’s so Joe.
    I’m reminded of this:
    IMG_2218.thumb.png.90785028d0a3829bbe8f5282b87a2efe.png
    vs. this:
    IMG_2217.png.63dedfe7b966f3090b865640abedfdd0.png

    Having a relatively normal human person in office means they work with others and follow direction, even as simple as an Easter Bunny photo op.

    “wait for the First Lady to be ready and when we cue you, please join the bunnies on the balcony. Then just wave to the crowd.”

    Now do that 10,000 more times, sometimes with meetings with foreign adversaries and intelligence briefings. Having Trump wing being President, like a strange uncle visiting for Christmas is not optimal.
  10. Good movie, far from the best script of all time. Not even the best in its genre, I'd say The Usual Suspects is a far better script. Just my opinion though. 
     
    Nicholson was great, as was John Huston.

    Well Chinatown was nominated for 11 Oscars and the only thing that won was screenplay. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt since Towne was writing for Jack Nicholson and McQuarrie for Stephen Baldwin.

    Though adapted from a book, best screenplay in this genre is LA Confidential.
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  11. Yeah, fighting the homeless issue by defunding the police, that's a solution.

    Well part of “defunding” APD was reallocating resources to social services as well as responsibilities from APD so they could focus on crime.

    Social workers dont have a union so that doesnt go over as well.
  12. Lower level of 35 in Austin near 38th 1/2 will pucker you up quite nicely.  The onramp is....spicy.....vertical wall to your right, speeding traffic on the left, and a short ass merge lane.  

    Had a Ford Escort that took a minute to get to 65mph. To enter 35 there…it was challenging
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  13. For those who might be concerned about the big drop off in Diggs’ production in the latter part of 2023, it almost perfectly correlated to when Dorsey got fired and Joe Brady took over as the Bills’ OC. Which indicates the reduction was more a matter of scheme and play calling, not ability. 

    In the playoffs it was a matter of ability. He was terrible and cost the Bills bigtime.
  14. Agreed. The housing here won’t be fixed. Ever. Waaay too much chicken fucking.
    When we vote for things like Project Connect, we just make it more expensive but no one cares to understand that this increases both ownership and renting real estate. Pretty cool stuff to vote for. To make matters worse, they didn’t even have the accurate amount it would cost.
     
    I can’t fathom putting together a package for a city of a million people and being a few billion off of the true number.

    Project Connect, taxes, and building costs have meant fuckall for Austin housing prices since we’re in a global real estate market. In fact, making it less profitable to own an extra home or build a new home has helped stabilize the market. Things like inflation and interest rates have worked together in complicated fashion along with global economy to shape our housing market.

    The other issues that need to be understood is the depth and breadth of the homeless problem. The first is that what we see being the problem is the long-term homeless, who migrate to Austin and can fit in one or more of these categories: Mental illness, addicts, or career criminal. This is a regional and national problem. Austin has little ability to solve these issues in the longterm.

    Where affordability really causes homelessness are people and families temporarily displaced. Thats your single mothers, abused children, termed foster kids, divorced dads. One or more Surly posters may find themselves living on friend sofas or motels. Guess what: you may be homeless.
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  15. My son who lives in the St. Elmo ‘hood hears overnight gunshots at least twice weekly. Sometimes close, some further away. 
    A few years ago he found a bullet lodged in the metal roof of his house.

    Or car backfires. Tell your son to grow a pair and enjoy the food trucks and chess boxing tournaments. Where was he when you were mowing down fools in Saigon? Right, slick!
  16. Hasn’t that been happening since the 80’s? Since the “Reagan revolution” and the AIDS crisis?

    Not at the scale that its currently happening. After the 2018 primary beatdown, where suburban soccer moms abandoned the GQP, they redoubled the efforts to create crises at local meetings (city, county, school board, PTAs, churches).
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