gut

Yeah, an amendment should be a cut-and-dry decision.

However, I think you have at least 30 states that would vote to repeal.  The Senate filibuster might be the only thing stopping it.

Not sure how many countries have birth-right citizenship, but I don't think it's more than a handful, if that, among OECD countries.

Holy shit, maybe because he's like 18 but Baron is twice the douche Don Jr. and Eric are, combined.

I hope he was mocking Trump impersonators with those antics.  He was channeling all the most punchable people ever.  All at once.

OK, the swearing in of the POTUS is important, I guess (certainly questionable after the last 3-4 people to occupy the office).

But the rest of this inauguration ceremony is just useless and wasteful pomp.

We should not have the equivalent of a coronation for a public servant.

Every social media app has been taken over by the right wing?

Oh nos....however will you gaslight the electorate with your propaganda unchallenged now?

Anyway, Trump wanting the govt/people/whatever to own 50% in some sort of joint venture is pretty alarming.  That would effectively make Tik Tok state-run media.

posted by Ironman92

Went for 2 for no reason, now they have to have one if they can score

Thought the same thing in real time.  Granted, that was an easy catch.  But the XPA is at least as easy.

Probably had scored too fast, anyway.

posted by ptown_trojans_1

If tiktok wants to survive, they need to change ownership to a non Chinese entity. Plain and simple. 

I'm struggling a bit to understand how selling it solves the underlying problem.  If the coders remain Chinese, and based in China...

Even if all the code and IP is transferred to the US, how confident are you all the backdoors that inevitably exist will be closed, or that the Chinese won't be able to regularly hack it?

I think I finally figured it out.

The left normalizes mental illness.  The right celebrates it.

posted by Heretic

Now it's time to see who is stupid/crazy enough to want to work for Senile Jerry! Odds are it will be some retread who will excite no one.

Fingers crossed he trades for Tomlin

Mike McCarthy has done more in the playoffs the last 10-15 years than Tomlin, yet somehow he's been fired twice.

posted by friendfromlowry

I’ve seen a lot of support of Tomlin that he’s never had a good QB since Roethlisberger. They obviously missed on Pickett. Idk that you could fault him for not turning Wilson or Fields into better options.

They had the same issues with Ben.  Tomlin has won 3 playoff games in the last 15 years.  He had Ben for most of that.  Of those 3 wins, two were against mediocre QBs and the other was when CIN completely gave away the game in the last minutes. He's just massively outclassed and outcoached.

The problem is Tomlin.  Not the players and not QB.  It's certainly not the QB's fault the way his defense (highest paid in the league this year) gets routinely and repeatedly tooled in the playoffs.

Tomlin runs simple, conservative schemes and doesn't change anything in the playoffs.  Doesn't give his players the best chance at succeeding.

The numbers in their last 6 playoff losses are simply astounding.  Outscored 73-0 in Q1.  Something like 145-60 in the first half.  Haven't led a single minute of any game.  At least they broke the string of giving up 40+.

Other teams are building something whereas Tomlin is just trying to preserve his streak of non-losing seasons.  And the proof is in the pudding.  In addition to that horrendous playoff string, the Steelers have lost at least 3 straight in 5 of the last 7 years after Thanksgiving.  Late season collapses have become a trend.

That's coaching and scheme.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Tomlin's only real postseason success is due to Cowher's coaches and players.  Mediocre Mike is the most overrated coach in all of sports history. 

https://x.com/edkrassen/status/1878083935072129105?s=46&t=xrxfs6mLIefacKYITrkV2A

https://x.com/acnewsitics/status/1878396679813988652?s=46&t=xrxfs6mLIefacKYITrkV2A

My take is this was a true natural disaster. Had nothing to do with dei or water or lack of firefighters. This was all about several months with no rain, less than 10 percent humidity and 80 mph wind. You could have had 100 more fire trucks and it wouldn’t have mattered. They had all of their hydrants going for 15-18 hours. It’s not designed for that especially at 2000 ft of elevation. Should they evaluate lots of things sure. But in this instance I don’t think it would have mattered. My two cents 

Yeah, there will be plenty of finger pointing but the reality is shit happens.

The only thing that could mitigate and potentially prevent this is a buffer zone around residential areas that the fires can't jump.  But the eco-nuts would allow no such thing.

And the other issue is decades of housing mismanagement have forced people to seek out more affordable options in areas that maybe aren't safe to build.

Hundreds of billions will be spent re-building in these areas where it's just a matter of time until it happens again.  At some point we need to start re-thinking about the futility and wisdom of continually rebuilding in disaster zones.

Tomlin sucks.

I said it years ago and someone gave me shit.  That someone owes me an apology.

Tomlin will never win another playoff game.  Just coming close would be an accomplishment.

Outscored 73-0 in the first quarter of his last 6 playoff games.

Now the Steelers can lose 38-13 and the weekend isn’t a wash

As for insurance, I don't know what the solution is but we have to figure it out.  If you're going to live on the coast and get whacked by a hurricane, or in the desert and have your home destroyed by wildfire...the question is how do you socialize the losses and should those losses even be socialized beyond the areas affected?

Won't be popular with the environmentalists, but maybe one solution is to have a burn barrier around communities.  I think 1/2 mile wide probably would keep the fire from jumping across even in very strong winds.  If you choose to live outside those safe zones, then you have to fully accept the risk and cost of loss.

You can add this to the issue of healthcare insurance, too.  Bottom line is most people don't want to pay what it actually costs.  Maybe it's time to severely restrict FEMA funds to truly unnatural/freak events.  The old "1 in 500 year" event sounds rare, but given the size of the US there's going to be a handful of such events every year.

Going to be interesting to see the fall out.  Some in CA are going to blame the Dem govt for mismanagement.  Others will blame the Dem govt for not doing enough to stop climate change.

posted by Dr Winston O'Boogie

I think there are more people living in areas that aren’t meant to have that level of development.  Mother Nature makes it very clear to not live:

- on a flood plain

-on a hurricane prone beach

-next to a volcano

- in the middle of a desert

-in an area that replenishes itself with wildfires.

Yeah.  It's time to start thinking about real solutions instead of wasting money trying to prevent climate change that actually isn't causing this.  Insurance is pulling out of these areas because the rates they need to charge to cover losses would be prohibitive.  That means taxpayers in Ohio and other areas not usually hit by disasters are left to foot the bill.  And I'm sure in some of these areas, like tornado alley, it's all the people can afford (same issue with people that lost their homes in Hawaii to a volcano eruption 4-5 years ago).

The other interesting thing is from 1988-1997, 88% of fires were caused by people (which includes things like power lines).  Yet lightning caused fires burned 52% of the land despite being 12% of the cause.

Wildfires out west have actually been declining, but acreage has increased dramatically.  Inadequate management and fewer fires is mainly why it's burning so much more, combined with about 2-decades of mostly drought.  A few years of healthy rain and snow only fuels growth that later dries out to become fuel.

Globally, wildfires are decreasing AND acreage burned has been trending down over the last two decades.  There may not be a trend either way, and the decline can be attributed to agriculture and other factors.  But point being climate change is not causing an increase in frequency or severity (same with hurricanes, and I believe flood events).

It really irks to see the same people that routinely push climate change disinformation accusing people of being anti-science and spreading lies.  Media today doesn't deal in information, they deal in narratives.  And they attack people who dispute or disagree with the narrative.

posted by geeblock

Anyone play golden tee? My brother and I signed up for a tournament in Nashville aug 7-10 

Loved that game.  I was terrible, but will be my first purchase for my game room if and when I finally buy a new place.

posted by iclfan2

Zuckerberg went onto Rogan, and one of the things he said was that the Biden admin would call up the Meta team and scream at them to take down things that were true or jokes. When they didn’t, his companies started getting investigated. Now, I don’t trust Zuckerberg to do anything he says, like the clown fact checkers thing, but boy does the left hate free speech. 

Zuck is perfectly fine with lying, and he's somewhat in damage control trying to restore confidence in the platform. 

But this also isn't surprising, or inconsistent with what we've heard from others.  What's a little jarring is his claim of being targeted if they didn't cooperate.  When you start talking individuals or smaller companies, that's really fucking scary.  And if Trump was doing this, the leftwing media meltdown would make Jan. 6 look like a sneeze.

"I can't force you to do this, and I can't regulate what you do...but I can investigate you for other shit if you don't cooperate".  The cost and distraction of an investigation makes complying a no-brainer even if you have nothing to hide.

If 90% of the media wasn't in the tank for Dems this couldn't happen.  This wouldn't happen with Repubs.  Shoot, that same media will blow up over Repubs for far less, without proof.

By the way, if there's any truth to what Zuck is saying it's probably really fucking illegal.  And if 90% of his employees weren't on board I'd bet there would have been [even more] major whistleblowing.

Got rid of an old atari system and dozens of game about 5 years ago.  It still worked, sort of.  The joysticks were notoriously fragile, and I never looked for replacements.  Plus I would have needed to find an adapter for modern tvs.

I still occasionally play some of the old 2600 games on emulators.

Have looked at a few 2600 emulators/cabinets that have like 100 of the best games.  Maybe some day...