Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[AlabamAlum]

I don't find Chipotle or Qdoba all that appetizing. Too many calories, too salty. I used to love Baja Fresh but that chain is no longer in Michigan. I used to go there just for the hot sauce. Del Taco is OK but the food is a little heavy.

Taco Bell is the champ.

I wouldn't buy Tabasco but most restaurants have that and Franks. I use it on my omelette and it does the trick. Valentino's extra hot sauce in the liter bottle is where it's at.

You decry the calories and salt at Qdoba but go to Taco Bell?

[Cody_Russell]

I actually like Taco Bell's breakfast. However, that's unfair for me to say because all breakfast is great IMO.
Idk if I'd get anything beef related at Taco Bell based on negative rumors I've heard about that.

[Jeff Buchanan]

On the issues........ Trade, security, monetary and fiscal policy, foreign relations, all things that the President can and frequently does have an impact on, are monumentally complicated.

Trump speaks at a level about these things that is both appealing and understandable to the average American if not completly avoiding the more complex more difficult to understand elements. Not that I think he needs to because the average voter isn't going to understand the complexities.

But what seems to be appealing about trump to some also seems to become more important than what is so disturbing about him, all of these issues getting plenty of press and thoroughly discussed in this forum. I see a sort of risk/reward analysis being adopted by those who I think do understand the complexities of the issues.

So people then, the ones who do understand the issues, are willing to risk the future of this country to a man who may or may not completely understand all the complexities of the presidency but certainly has a bad reputation for dealing honestly with business associates, running companies he has owned into the ground and generally being a pompous, dictatorial type? That's what I don't get.

[froot loops]

You decry the calories and salt at Qdoba but go to Taco Bell?

Two tacos 340 calories, try finding something under 500 at either Qdoba or Chipotle. Both chains have incredibly salty meats.

[hack]

You can get to 450 with a bowl at Chipotle, but it's hard. half sourcream, half guac, no cheese. barbacoa, fajita veggies, romaine, salsa. It's basically the lunchtime equivalent of Woody Allen saying ``you can live to 100 but you have to give up all the things that make it worth doing.'' I prefer to get the veg at Chipotle, so the guac comes free. That's actually the higher-cal route, but it's about the flavours there and not the protein. Baja Fresh has EXCELLENT salsas, but you get about half the food at the same price. Which is enough for a meal, but still just get the sense I'm not getting a good deal.

I don't know what to say about Valentino's. I ran out a while ago and need to remember to buy more, but I just recall something in there that feels like interference. I'd guess it has some cumin and other stuff in there. Praise for Tabasco for letting the peppers do all the talking, if maybe a tad too much.

[hack]

As his army blatantly annexed Crimea, Vladimir Putin went on TV and, with a smirk, told the world there were no Russian soldiers in Ukraine. He wasn’t lying so much as saying the truth doesn’t matter. And when Donald Trump makes up facts on a whim, claims that he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheering the Twin Towers coming down, or that the Mexican government purposefully sends ‘bad’ immigrants to the US, when fact-checking agencies rate 78% of his statements untrue but he still becomes a US Presidential candidate – then it appears that facts no longer matter much in the land of the free. When the Brexit campaign announces ‘Let’s give our NHS the ?350 million the EU takes every week’ and, on winning the referendum, the claim is shrugged off as a ‘mistake’ by one Brexit leader while another explains it as ‘an aspiration’, then it’s clear we are living in a ‘post-fact’ or ‘post-truth’ world. Not merely a world where politicians and media lie – they have always lied – but one where they don’t care whether they tell the truth or not.

How did we get here? Is it due to technology? Economic globalisation? The culmination of the history of philosophy? There is some sort of teenage joy in throwing off the weight of facts – those heavy symbols of education and authority, reminders of our place and limitations – but why is this rebellion happening right now?

This could be a long-winded statement of the obvious or it could be interesting. Tomorrow's lunchtime read. http://granta.com/why-were-post-fact/.

[AlabamAlum]

Two tacos 340 calories, try finding something under 500 at either Qdoba or Chipotle. Both chains have incredibly salty meats.

Sure, you can get two tacos for 340, but those two tacos aren't a lot of food (and they have 610mg of sodium), but that's about all you get. Most of the burritos are in the 400-600 range each, with a couple at 800+ and over a 1000mg of sodium.*

At Qdoba you decide what you get. The calories for grilled chicken or rice or whatever are the same at either place, really. What varies is taste and amount.

And I'm not a Taco Bell hater, but the taste and quality isn't close to Qdoba imo.

*dietary sodium, with good kidneys and a decent BP, isn't nearly as bad for you as most think.

[Da Geezer]

Hack said:

Also notable: The other countries that recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea are North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, and Nicaragua.

Are you saying that these are the only countries that recognise Crimea as Russian?

Are you Dems really saying that a platform that calls for increasing spending on the military, allowing fracking on public lands, and bombing ISIS is preferable to Putin as opposed to shrinking the military, banning all fracking, and silence on ISIS as the Dems propose? C'mon, really?

What some of you are saying is that Hillary is much more predictable than Trump, and the Russians prefer predictability. That argument has merit.

Trump in no way "invited" hacking by Russia or anyone else. Watch the complete video. CNN outdid themselves in their editing, and others are following. Trump basically says "I sure wish the Russians would release the 30,000 emails that were lost when Hillary destroyed her hard drive(s)". His statement is based upon his belief that Hillary's server was hacked by the Russians and others. The only way Trump could be inviting anything is if you believe Hillary is still using the Clinton.com server. Maybe she is. But if the Russians have those emails, they are surely keeping them to blackmail Hillary once she is elected.

[froot loops]

How confident are you in Trump during a Cuban missile crisis situation?

[froot loops]

Hack said:


Are you saying that these are the only countries that recognise Crimea as Russian?

Are you Dems really saying that a platform that calls for increasing spending on the military, allowing fracking on public lands, and bombing ISIS is preferable to Putin as opposed to shrinking the military, banning all fracking, and silence on ISIS as the Dems propose? C'mon, really?

What some of you are saying is that Hillary is much more predictable than Trump, and the Russians prefer predictability. That argument has merit.

Trump in no way "invited" hacking by Russia or anyone else. Watch the complete video. CNN outdid themselves in their editing, and others are following. Trump basically says "I sure wish the Russians would release the 30,000 emails that were lost when Hillary destroyed her hard drive(s)". His statement is based upon his belief that Hillary's server was hacked by the Russians and others. The only way Trump could be inviting anything is if you believe Hillary is still using the Clinton.com server. Maybe she is . . .

Do you as a republican believe that Vladimir Putin is a better leader than President Barack Obama?

[hack]

Yes, those are the countries that recognize Crimea as Russian.

As it turns out there's been a ton of writing on the Trump/Putin connection before this. Some big names involved, with very long histories of expertise: Franklin Foer, Anne Applebaum, Masha Gessen. Certainly the matter is not up for debate amongst those who have looked into it. Putin wants Trump in, is doing what he can, and has a history of backing other candidates who might cause instability on his Western front or weaken NATO, such as Marie Le Pen in France. I haven't read all of these, but here's some links:

http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/07/26/trump-putin-fallacy-failure-of-imagination/

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/07/vladimir_putin_has_a_plan_for_destroying_the_west_and_it_looks_a_lot_like.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/how-a-trump-presidency-could-destabilize-europe/2016/07/21/9ec38a20-4f75-11e6-a422-83ab49ed5e6a_story.html

Overall, I definitely get the desire to give your guy the benefit of the doubt. I will do the same for my dog in the fight. But at some point you've got to allow for what's known. The Slate piece explains the roots of it, in part, making the point that Trump's legacy of lawsuits and bankruptcies make it hard for him to go to US banks for capital, so he's gone out and sought backing from various pools of international cash instead, and that led him to Russia years ago. And now he says he wouldn't back the Baltics if they invoked NATO's mutual-defence clause, and at a press conference says that he'll ``look at'' the Crimea issue. Even before he said that the Trump campaign had already removed pro-Ukraine verbiage from the party platform. All of this is pure gold for Putin. Russian foreign policy is, almost exclusively, an act of preserving a level of prestige and influence won long ago but far more than the country would have if ever those levers were rebalanced. He plays zero-sum games for global prestige at the cost of the US and Europe -- backing Assad, hacking, opposing gas pipelines that would reduce Europe's reliance on Russian gas, etc. etc. I really can't see any purpose at this point in continuing to wonder what Putin wants out of this election, or whether there's a Trump connection. The question at this point for the federal authorities is whether anything illegal has happened. The question for voters is obvious.

[hack]

Trump basically says "I sure wish the Russians would release the 30,000 emails that were lost when Hillary destroyed her hard drive(s)".


Geezer it was a recorded press conference, so there's no need to paraphrase. We can know without a doubt exactly what he said. http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/27/trump...e-missing.html

[Hannibal]

LMAO. You guys are really serious about this "Trump is Putin's puppet" business.

Last week: #TRUMPISLITERALLYHITLER

This week: Trump is Putin's puppet

This is the kind of shit that George Orwell wrote about.

[hack]

You don't have to take my word for it. Did you read any of those links? I am curious why you're so sure he does not have any ties to Putin or Russia. What makes you certain of this?

[Hannibal]

Hack said:

Trump in no way "invited" hacking by Russia or anyone else. Watch the complete video. CNN outdid themselves in their editing, and others are following. Trump basically says "I sure wish the Russians would release the 30,000 emails that were lost when Hillary destroyed her hard drive(s)". His statement is based upon his belief that Hillary's server was hacked by the Russians and others. The only way Trump could be inviting anything is if you believe Hillary is still using the Clinton.com server. Maybe she is. But if the Russians have those emails, they are surely keeping them to blackmail Hillary once she is elected.

This. The basic premise of all of the phony outrage and pig squealing currently taking place isn't even true. Donald Trump didn't invite Russia to hack anything. Russia can't commit any more hacking to find the lost e-mails, because they are gone permanently. Nobody can get them unless they already have them.