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EdamAnchorman

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Everything posted by EdamAnchorman

  1. Half of me wants to say: But the other half of me would be fine if the R party was just blown into nonexistence.
  2. Read the article. There's even a video of cicadas pissing.
  3. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2317878121
  4. There is still an embargo and Americans are not allowed to travel for tourism, but there are several reasons for which we are allowed to travel. Look it up; the most popular is, "to help and support the Cuban people." Supposedly, you're supposed to do something like 40 hours worth of helping the people each day, and you're supposed to keep receipts that they can check for up to 5 years or something. We stayed in privately-owned AirBnBs and did several private tours, all of which count toward that goal. We did a farm tour in Viñales where our guide (a farmer) took us through tobacco fields and to a tobacco / honey / coffee farm. The gov't takes 90% of their crop, but they're allowed to do whatever with the remaining 10% and I may or may not have hypothetically in an alternate universe perhaps not purchased 50 cigars from this farmer (there's some gray area there, as they are not "branded" cigars; they are made and sold by the farmer not the government so nobody could tell me if they were illegal but idc because now I have them in my humidor). We also did a vintage car tour and an Afro-Cuban / Santeria tour in Havana; both supported privately-owned businesses. Inflation there recently has been crazy af (something like 100 - 500x?), the gov't ration books don't provide shit, and COVID / Trump's policy shift from Obama wrecked a lot of their tourism (country's main source of income) so they are facing a pretty bad time all around. Because of the embargo, we had to take a fat stack of cash and change it there (American credit cards and bank cards will not work), but tourists from other countries do not face this restriction, although you can really only use credit in a limited number of shops and there were long lines for the ATMs that were actually working (side note, the gov't restricts Cuban citizens to withdraw max 5,000 Cuban pesos per day, which currently is only about $16 USD). Bottom line was that we had an amazing time, and nearly all Cubans we met were friendly and helpful and had a lot of good things to say about American people. It also helped a lot to have a native Spanish speaker (father-in-law) and fluent Spanish speaker (my wife); I'm not sure how well I could've gotten around with limited Spanish. It was amazing to hear all kinds of stories like our Viñales hostess and how her 2 sons had to sell drugs for a coyote just so they could get to Grenada where they're barely making enough to eat but she says, "at least they're free". Or our Havana hostess who was a pharmacist but also does the hosting/AirBnB concierge gig because her pharmacist job pays less than $15 a month and that's not even enough to feed herself let alone her family (doctors make a whopping $20 a month)... I'd definitely recommend going, but do your research first and plan well.
  5. Man, I drag on capitalism a lot but after spending a week in Cuba and talking to a lot of people, the situation there is totally fucked up and a lot of their history should not be celebrated. (Of course their situation is complicated and due to many problems.............)
  6. Average cup size might be D or DD but there's no way in hell 34 or lower is avg. I mean, just walk around WalMart.
  7. And the thing about it is that he's wrong. He's just wanking into a ceiling fan on LinkedIn. At most big companies, several hundred thousand dollars is a rounding error. "Every dollar counts", yeah only when they're negotiating your salary / benefits. Furthermore, it's typical to actually get punished for not spending out any budget that has been allocated to you. If I ask for $120k to buy an instrument or $5k for travel to a conference, I get no kudos for coming in under that. Finance actually gets upset because it creates more work for them if I come in significantly under, AND next year when I ask again they'll say, "well you didn't allocate properly last year, so we're gonna give you less this year." Vendors have actually tried to give me discounts and I have had to tell them "no" (and then I enjoyed the puzzled look on their face). The whole thing is just bonkers.
  8. Wow, fuck that guy, seriously. I, on the other hand, parked in short term parking at Newark last time I had to travel for work. I was really proud to expense that $370 parking charge.
  9. That kinda stuff happens all the time. Happened a few times when I was living in a townhouse development in NJ 2011.
  10. I'm not trying to take the piss or anything but sincerely asking how much of this was due to Biden and how much was due to a competent administration / cabinet / advisors / etc. I get what we're up against with orange T, that backing his challenger is important and the situation is different because we have a 1-term incumbent and so forth... Even if the answer is that a lot of it was due to the administration, that's still not a reason to vote against Biden, just want to be clear and honest about all this.
  11. They played three new songs, pretty good stuff. There's a decent recording of one of the few shows they played this week.
  12. Nice! I was lucky enough to see them twice in 2022 and once in 2023. Always a great show. Their projectionist is throwing some great stuff up there.
  13. I think the really hardcore Trumpers don't think he is being disruptive in a "benevolent" way. They hate the system and don't care if it is damaged. This voting bloc likely has never or rarely voted in the past, which is why the polling missed them in 2016. I think it's important to say that a lot of these people want to change what they see as "the system" and they don't care if it is done in a violent way. See Jan 6th. Again, I don't think these people feel tricked. As far as they see it, just by fucking with the system like he is and will continue to do, he is fighting for them. Doesn't matter that he's a billionaire. Doesn't matter what he says about them. Doesn't matter if his policies directly benefit or hurt them in the immediate term. If he's helping to destroy the system, he's for them.
  14. GYBE is touring Europe twice in 2024, and they're playing a handful of dates in the NE USA right now. Supposedly they are playing 3 new songs. I'm going to see them tonight in Delaware. https://cstrecords.com/pages/godspeed-you-black-emperor 24 Feb 2024 - New York, NY @Outline at Knockdown Center (with Alan Sparhawk, Marina Herlop and Maria BC) 25 Feb 2024 - Wilmington, DE @Arden Gild Hall (with Mat Ball) 26 Feb 2024 - Homer, NY @Homer Center for the Arts (with Mat Ball) 27 Feb 2024 - Oshawa, ON @Biltmore Theatre (with Mat Ball) 28 Feb 2024 - Kingston, ON @Grand Theatre (with Mat Ball) 07 Mar 2024 - Mexico City, MX @Pitchfork Music Festival CDMX 10 Apr 2024 - Tampere, FI @Pakkahuone 11 Apr 2024 - Tallinn, EE @Kultuurivabrik 12 Apr 2024 - Riga, LV @Hanzas Perons 13 Apr 2024 - Vilnius, LT @Loftas 14 Apr 2024 - Warsaw, PL @Progresja 16 Apr 2024 - Gdansk, PL @B90 17 Apr 2024 - Kraków, PL @Kamienna 12 18 Apr 2024 - Bratislava, SK @Majestic Music Club 19 Apr 2024 - Prague, CZ @Meet Factory 20 Apr 2024 - Vienna, AT @Arena 21 Apr 2024 - Budapest, HU @Dürer Kert 23 Apr 2024 - Zagreb, HR @Tvornica Culture 24 Apr 2024 - Graz, AT @Dom Im Berg 25 Apr 2024 - Ljubljana, SI @Kino Siska 27 Sep 2024 - Dublin, IE @National Stadium 29 Sep 2024 - London, UK @Troxy 30 Sep 2024 - Glasgow, UK @Barrowlands 01 Oct 2024 - Manchester, UK @Ritz 02 Oct 2024 - Bristol, UK @Marble Factory 03 Oct 2024 - Coventry, UK @The Empire 04 Oct 2024 - Tourcoing, FR @Le Grand Mix 05 Oct 2024 - Esch-Alzette, LU @Kufa 06 Oct 2024 - Paris, FR @Le Trianon 08 Oct 2024 - Nantes, FR @Stereolux 09 Oct 2024 - Nancy, FR @L'Autre Canal (Jazz Pulsation Festival) 10 Oct 2024 - Zürich, CH @Volkshaus 11 Oct 2024 - Lausanne, CH @Les Docks 12 Oct 2024 - Frankfurt, DE @Zoom 14 Oct 2024 - Berlin, DE @Huxleys 15 Oct 2024 - Amsterdam, NE @Paradiso 16 Oct 2024 - Brussels, BE @AB 18 Oct 2024 - Athens, GR @Floyd
  15. I think what Satans Little Helper is saying is that it seems like the lion's share of Trump voters don't care about facts. They don't care about what's true and what's not true. Your dismantling argument would have almost no effect on them. IMO, hardcore Trumpers are deeply selfish, first and foremost. My theory that conservatism is built on the bedrock of selfishness stands beside this, but these people are selfish to the n-th degree. Many of them also feel they have been screwed by the system. They are low-income earners, and they blame their lot in life on "the system". Then someone charismatic comes along who is truly outside that system. Sure, your argument does show how, technically, Trump is not an "outsider" by some metrics, but you have to admit he is an outsider in that he is playing the game his way. His voters don't care what way that is or how he does it, they just care that someone is screwing with the system in ways that are novel. And they will support that no matter what. They will disregard facts (easy for deeply selfish people), and vote for him just to fuck with the rest of us who are trying to play the game within the previously established rules. It probably wouldn't matter if it was someone other than Trump, as long as it was a super-charismatic leader who does nearly everything in a selfish way while fucking with the system his/her own way. Try and get into the mindset of someone like this, someone who is supremely selfish and feels like they have been screwed / held down by the system. Then read your argument back to yourself. Has almost no effect. All they care about is that someone who acts / feels like they do (or like they aspire to) is getting into power and screwing with a system that they despise.
  16. I'm surprised it's taken KenTacoHut this long to do something like this. Why not go balls to the wall and stuff that shiz inside a taco or gordita shell?
  17. https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/how-renaults-lego-gearbox-changed-hybrid-game
  18. Yeah they totally needed to hone their focus a bit and choose one or perhaps 1.5 main struggles, but instead we got like 4 protagonist / antagonist struggles, all half-baked and ALL revealed in the final episode. Calling back to S1, sometimes less is more.
  19. Mostly agree with all of this, and furthermore I have 3 gripes about the reveals in the finale:
  20. My wife went through medical menopause at 28, so I honestly don't even remember what that was like.
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