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pyrohornIII

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Posts posted by pyrohornIII

  1. On 4/4/2018 at 10:09 AM, atomheartbevo said:

    Oil industry in Oklahoma - it's like gun control in a way - give up a little now to try and fix things/correct the course, or do nothing and then something else bad happens, and somebody will then come along and take a whole lot, all the while placing the blame on you.

    And unfortunately for the oil industry (and Republicans) in Oklahoma, unlike Texas, Oklahoma doesn't have a large enough and diverse enough economy to cover this up.  People in Oklahoma know what was done for the O&G industry, while watching the schools go downhill at the same time.

    And on top of all of that, we now have Trump's little trade war.  Oklahoma has manufacturing and aerospace industries that could very well be hurt, and those are well-paying jobs (compared to many other jobs in Oklahoma).  That's not getting into the farmers getting screwed over hard.

    Mix education into that - many rural Oklahomans want decent schools, because they want their kids to do better, and they've watched way too many out-of-staters coming in for the better jobs.

    Too many of the politicians are older and/or not thinking long-term - they are thinking an election or two from now, rather than 20 years from now, and just wanting to satisfy their masters.

    Actually in quite a bit of rural Texas too much tax base still is in oil and gas.   Our Emergency Services District (ESD) contracts for emergency services, which usually means a privatized EMS and one or more VFDs.   Our total ESD taxable valuation went down by half due to a decrease in O&G prices and reduction in production.  That is huge when you go from half a million in collections to $250K.  That is less than the salary alone for an ambulance with a paramedic on board 24/7.  And ESD taxes are capped by the Texas Constitution at 10 cents/$100. 

    The way I understand it there have been some favorable changes to tax evaluation for O&G in the recent years to go along with this reduction due to pricing and production. 

    Another thing is property valuation and protest.  It's amazing what Luminant and some others have been getting away with for years now. 

    http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/luminant-energy-disputing-lower-appraised-value/article_db7af8ca-b465-50a8-b118-74379986e690.html

     

    I know if it's hurting first responders, it has to be hurting our schools too.  I can't help wonder how some are going to pay their bond obligations.

  2. 3 hours ago, F250 said:

    It's a case of having the poors. Texas, one of the wealthiest states is a very red state but doesn't suckle on the government teat.

     

    2 hours ago, FondrenRoad said:

    Most of those states have no urban job centers.  Texas and Georgia have been moving down the list because they have spent a few decades urbanizing rather than stagnating.  They've also been becoming bluer because of it.  There are a couple outliers like Oregon and Tennessee which are more urban than rural, but still on the take.  Atlanta is the worst thing that could have ever happened to Alabama.  It takes away all Bama's talent and leave it with Tahoes and Moores.  Houston/Dallas do the same to LA, AR, and MS.

    It's telling that the stats for states with best public schools are the inverse of the stats for federal dependence.  So that begs the question of how all that federal money is spent, if not on increasing education and job opportunities in those states.   How much of it is pork barrel spending that rewards certain contributors and not so much the individuals in that state?

    https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-best-schools/5335/

  3. 19 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

    It's interesting that halfway down that page you see that the Red states are more dependent on federal assistance than Blue states.   I wonder if that is because the R's direct money back into their own states or districts, or if it is because there is more need there because the economy sucks in those states.

  4. Maybe I was a week early:

    Quote

    Running Out of Punching Bags, Trump Turns on Mattis

    https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/donald-trump-timeline-syria-troop-withdrawal

    Quote

    ntil recently, Donald Trump’s campaign to purge naysayers had spared the Pentagon. In the absence of more proximate targets, however, it appears the president has turned his attention to foreign policy, jeopardizing his relationship with perhaps his only remaining sane adviser. Indeed, in the past week, Trump has made James Mattis’s job nearly impossible by declaring that he would send the military to guard the border with Mexico (the White House later clarified that he meant the National Guard), and insisting that the U.S. pull out of Syria (something Mattis promised last year would not happen), leading to a spectacular showdown on Tuesday, when the conflict between Trump and his generals reportedly boiled over during a meeting of top aides in the Situation Room.

    According to the Associated Press, Mattis argued “that an immediate withdrawal” from Syria “could be catastrophic and was logistically impossible to pull off in any responsible way,” and offered a one-year timeline as an alternative—to which Trump responded that five or six months ought to do the trick, and “indicated that he did not want to hear in October that the military had been unable to fully defeat the Islamic State and had to remain in Syria for longer.” A person familiar with the meeting told CNN that attendees left Tuesday’s meeting “beside themselves,” arguing that Trump’s lack of desire to put together any sort of recovery plan for Syria—restoring basic needs such as water, power, and roads—would most certainly tip the country back into ISIS’s hands. “It is a huge gamble that ISIS is not going to come back and that we are going to rely on others to stabilize Syria,” an official said.

    (more in article)

     

  5. I don't understand why the the evangelicals push for Trump's impeachment so Pence can move in.  It seems Pence is much more in line with their agenda.  I would think congress would see Pence as more malleable and easy to predict/control.

    Or do they know Pence is as deep in this as Trump is?  

     

  6. "He's a f*cking moron." Robert Mueller is counting on that.

    Quote

    If there's one thing I love, it's watching a master at work. Randy Johnson pitching a no hitter. Michael Jordan soaring through the air, tongue wagging as the flash bulbs pop. Salvador Dali grandly stroking his brush across the canvas. Van Cliburn tickling the ivories as the beauty of the music pours out of the Steinway.

    And now Robert Mueller is painting the legal equivalent of the Mona Lisa, and he's getting ready to use El Presidente Pendejo as his canvas. Donald Trump has two overwhelming weaknesses, paranoia, and his voracious ego, and Mueller is going to use both of them to hoist Trump on his own petard.

    Robert Mueller is writing a report on Trump's time in the White House, outlining whether or not Trump obstructed justice, and he'd like to ask Trump a few questions about his "intent." Oh yeah, and he's the "subject" of an active DOJ investigation. Only The Clueless Wonder could make lemonade out of this orchard, running around the west wing pumping his fist and high fiveing because he's only a "subject," and not a "target." How can even Trump not see the two major problems here?!?

    First of all, let's look at the report. If Robert Mueller had spent the last eleven months investigating The Cheeto Prophet for possible obstruction of justice, and found no evidence of wrongdoing, well then, he wouldn't need to ask Trump about his "intentions" at all, would he? The simple fact that Mueller wants to ask him about his "intent" means that there are at least some actions that hold possible culpability of criminal intent. The fact that Mueller needs to ask Trump why he said or did certain things indicates that there could be a problem with those things.

    Now, let's look at this "subject" vs "target" nonsense. And let's make the example so simple that even the Fox and Friends hosts can understand it;

    Cop: Well, the DA isn't quite ready to charge you yet, but he'd like you to come in and answer a few questions for him."

    You: Kewl! It's great to know that he doesn't like, you know, suspect me or anything. What time does he want me there?

    Even a driver who witnesses an accident loathes having to talk to the cops, afraid that they'll ask him if he switched lanes real quick, or if he'll take a breathalyzer test. Apparently, nobody has yet managed to get it through Trump's thick skull, and into the tapioca residing therein, that Paul Manafort literally spent months as the "subject" of an FBI investigation before he got slapped with enough indictment counts to keep him in a non Armani designed orange jumpsuit for the rest of his miserable life. And Trump is almost literally drooling at the prospect of setting Robert Mueller straight.

    Robert Mueller just publicly played Trump's ego like a ukulele at a luau. After all, wasn't it Trump that wrote the second best selling bible of all time, "The Art of the Steal?" Trump has been conning real estate rubes for almost 40 years now, if anybody can pull the wool over some government issue ambulance chaser, it's him. Trump wants this investigation over with, and the fact that Mueller is preparing a "report" is music to his ears. In Trump's deluded, fantasy world mind, there can only be one result of such a report, complete exoneration. All Trump has to do is to convince Mueller that he "din't do nuffin'." And lying comes as naturally to Trump as breathing.

    If Trump wants to talk to Mueller, he is going to talk to Mueller, and there's nothing his lawyers can do to stop it. They can counsel him to the stupidity of letting Mueller play a game of whack-a-mole with his story until they're blue in the face, but if Trump decided to get into that armored Suburban and pootle on over to Mueller's office for a fireside chat, there's nothing they can do but resign in protest. And you can bet your ass that Mueller will keep up a steady stream of plaintive pleas in the media, that the only thing that is keeping him from completing his "report" is his session with Trump. Mueller will keep on casting that $400 fly lure into the stream until the trout that is Trump bites, and bite he will, his ego, and greed to see the investigation end will require it.

    But Trump isn't the only one that Robert Mueller just played like a Stradivarius either. He just played Rod Rosenstein and the US congress as well. When Mueller files a "report," he files it with Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein reads the report, and then decides between  three things, a) to release it to the public, b) to release it to the appropriate congressional committees, or c) to put it in a filing cabinet. By announcing the existence of, and the impending release of the report, Mueller has just ensured that it will become public. When Mueller announces that it has been sent to Rosenstein, the congressional committees will immediately demand a copy. If Rosenstein resists, the committees will subpoena a copy, they'll have to, or risk like looking like they're holding a can of whitewash and a brush in their hands. And when congress gets their copy, there is no way that they can keep it secret, the public outcry for it's release will be overpowering. They may be able to redact things like classified sources and information, or grand jury testimony, but at the very least the conclusions, and supporting documents will have to be made public.

    Rex Tillerson was right, he's a fucking moron. And Robert Mueller has just put Trump into a box with no safe exits. If Trump talks to Mueller, he'll lie his ass off, and Mueller's report will show the lies, along with the contradicting evidence, laying Trump open to not only obstruction of justice, but lying to the FBI as well. And if Trump refuses to meet with Mueller, then Mueller may subpoena him to appear before the grand jury. And even if he doesn't, it will be painted that Trump may be obstructing justice by refusing to speak to Mueller, he must be guilty. Game. Set. Match.

    It’s here! The moment you’ve been dreading looking forward to. My new e-book President Evil. A common man looks at Trump and the 2016 primaries. You can get it now on Amazon. And please feel free to leave a review at either Amazon or goodreads, every review helps, positive or negative.

     

    • Like 1
  7. 8 minutes ago, burntorangebongos said:

    I am a chick. I was just trying to understand  her thinking. Theirs was a unique situation in that he would be a high dollar earner and that seems to have incented her initial cooperation to stay silent about the first incident. 

    I'm not trying to color all women by her situation or decisions.  The bad thing is she did nothing to protect herself from his volitility or ask for counseling for him. He is fucked up and needs help before he can ever be in a relationship.

     

    A lot of times women endure verbal abuse first, their self respect is destroyed and rebuilt in a way that leaves them feeling worthless.  Then when the physical crap starts, they feel they deserve it.  They have to endure it, because they have been told so many times no one else will have them, they have no other place to go.    Some also feel that the guy isn't all that bad, they can change them over time, etc.   There are a lot of other factors, but locking oneself into an abusive relationship often see themselves as the one that is fucked up, not the beater.

  8. 5 hours ago, Dr. Teeth said:

    He does the same thing every time and the media falls for it. They take what he does as having far more substance. Writers are talking about how his words have some truth to it because small businesses and retailers are being hurt by Amazon. Never mind that it is mostly because of the work Walmart started. He can't go after Walmart though.

    And never mind that Amazon is successful because it is something that people want and that new technologies are allowing.

    But the press will pick up on one thing that "has truth to it" and buy into the argument. It is how he won.

    Yep no one in DC downgraded Walmart while they were destroying small mom and pop businesses across rural America, not only closing up those shops but getting a tax abatement while they did it.  Now Amazon is doing what Walmart did and it's all the sudden bad business.

  9. On 3/29/2018 at 12:44 PM, MAROON said:

    so good.  Lotte sort of grows on you, then you see her naked and she really grows on you!  Love this show.

     

    Babylon-Berlin-Lisa-Liv-Fries-Charlotte-

    She plays the lesbian bartender in Counterpart as well.   Better boob scenes, IMO.

    image?id=878744%26xmax=500%26ymax=500&f=

  10. 3 minutes ago, yaqdum said:

    ha.  perhaps the most dangerous killer of the wild west days was a little-noted texan named jim miller.  deacon jim miller many called him because of his devout methodist upbringing and continued practicing faith.  his habit in season was to wear a long broadcloth overcoat that was staple gear for the ministry.  something was very seriously wrong with that man.  he very likely killed two of his grandparents in a fit of anger when he was six years old.  as a teen he shot and killed his sister's husband as the man slept.

    nobody knows how many people that man killed.  he's not celebrated at all.  no movies.  no nothing.  he was no courageous and dashing good guy or bad guy of the west.  he was a slinking coward who shotgunned people off their horses after they passed his hiding place.  so how did he get away with it?  he was useful to the wealthy ranchers.  when they needed someone to disappear, ol' jim got the call.  the few times jim miller found himself in a courtroom he had the best lawyers a bunch of rich ranchers could afford.  one time he happened to be on trial just as a big tent revival hit town.  they allowed him to attend the revival and he was very loudly saved that day.  at the trial all the top people in town testified, one right after another, that they had seen that man converted.  there was no way jim miller henceforth would be any trouble at all.

    miller's end came in oklahoma, of all places.  he had been hired to shotgun the local mayor who was a rancher near ada, ok.  those people there knew his record.  they knew the lawyers would get him off.  miller knew it, too.  and the jailers.  they brought a piece of carpeting to make his cell more comfortable.  he received his shirts freshly starched and ate better than nearly anyone in the oklahoma of that day.  he generously repaid the jailers for their care, of course.  the town had had enough, and one night a large group of men gave the jailer a simple option:  get out of the way or die.  his decision came quickly.

    across the alley from the jail was a livery.  the old wooden building had the roof structure openly visible, of course, and there was a great place to haul miller and the three men on trial with him up onto the joists.  properly secured, a body dropped from that height would fall just the right distance.  all four men could have briefly attested to that fact.  there's a famous pic of the four men dangling alongside a bored horse munching straw.  miller is the one on the far left in his famous broadcloth coat and with a hat cocked at a funny angle.  the men that night said miller was the one who didn't beg or cry.  he knew his long run was over, and he asked to go out wearing his dapper hat.  they refused but plopped his hat rakishly on his quiet head to take the photo.  you can find that photo on the 'net if you so choose.  if you do, note all four heads at odd angles.  the hangings worked.  the necks were broken.

    sounds like the jeff daniels character in Godless was based a little on that guy.

  11. 2 hours ago, bernorange said:

    Not trying to be a dick or pendantic, but a discussion is difficult when language is vague. What do you consider a compromise? What do you mean by 'assault style weaponry'?

    I understand.  I grew up in rural Texas.  We carry guns for thing like snakes, nutria and other vermin.  We also carry them for hunting.  Where I grew up most trucks had a gun rack over the back window and a 22 and a shotgun in it (even in the school parking lot).   Some carried larger caliber, but most guns were bolt, pump, breakover or lever action, and pistols were revolvers.  

    I don't understand the need for anyone in the public having more than that.   Seems anything more is kept for the intention of shooting other people (either offense or defense).    To me anything beyond single shot per trigger squeeze is overkill.  

    I have no problem with being educated on the terms I use, and agree that the language is vague.  Is there a site somewhere that states what is legal and what isn't?  What is legal that can be transformed to illegal rather easily?  Something simple and accepted by all parties?

     

  12. 7 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

    Wouldn’t all born-again Christians rather spend their Sunday’s on the golf course than in church?

    Quote

    Mexico has got to help us at the border … A lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of DACA,” President Trump says before going into church on Easter morning.

    Granted it was a photo op.  He didn't have to rant about Mexico and the border.  All he needed to say was something positive and ask that today be all about Easter.  He missed the opportunity to roast the MSM for being more concerned about things than celebrating Easter!  Greatest national Holiday behind July 4th!  MAGA!

  13. 1 hour ago, Laga4 said:

    I don't think so.  

    I live out in the country and the postal carrier delivers most of my Amazon packages,  but it gets sent to Dallas by UPS. 

     

     

     

     

    d

    I think you are both saying the same thing.    I am in the same boat as Laga4 and get a lot of amazon stuff the same way.  It is size dependent whether it comes USPS or private carrier.

  14.  

    Apparently there can be no middle ground.   I do not understand why there can be no compromise over assault type weaponry.   

    Here is a prime example of where we are now, the tactics being waged, the bogeyman theory of the right being espoused by Nugent.

    Quote

    NRA board member and conservative rocker Ted Nugent blasted the survivors of the Parkland school shooting, claiming there is “irrefutable” evidence that “they have no soul.”

    During an appearance on The Joe Pags Show, the Republican guitarist described the student gun reform advocates “as mushy brained children who have been fed lies.”

    “They’re actually committing spiritual suicide because everything they recommend will cause more death and mayhem,” Nugent continued. “Guaranteed.”

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ted-nugent-parkland-survivors-mushy-brained-children-article-1.3907005

  15.  

    Started Trump: An American Dream on Netflix last night.   Got through the first episode.   It's good.  Amazing how he really hasn't changed at all since he was young.  Doing the same shtick he was doing then, talking the same way.   There was a moment of Fred talking too, and they sound identical in their hucksterism.

    I can't figure out how to get the trailer to link here.   And its not available on Youtube yet.  Sorry

     

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