Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[SeattleLionsFan]

Trump is a 17-year-old jock in a letterman?s jacket who is trapped in a 70-year-old?s body. I try to overlook his words and concentrate on his actions, but it is hard.

Especially because the president?s words are some of the most powerful actions he can take.

[Kapture1]

I agree that it is better for DJT and KJU to be talking instead of dick tabling on Twitter. I also agree (unlike republicans) that we should be willing to talk to just about anyone in the world (including Iran, Cuba and Venezuela). I also agree that it is far too early to draw any conclusions about the success or failure of any summit (including that there was ?no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.?)

With that said, what concrete things did the US get out of the summit? I am not seeing much, so I?d love to hear what I?m missing.

besides Kim not testing any more rockets, destruction of their nuclear site, release of American hostages, and open lines of communication with a hostile regime, ability to retrieve the American dead, end of the Korean War, and a commitment to denuclearize the country? not much I guess.

[AlabamAlum]

1980s, dipshit. I'll give you a list, you have to rate them: Ted Danson, Tom Selleck, Tony Danza, Alan Thicke, Gerald McRaney, George Wendt, Rob Lowe, Tom Petty, Don Mattingly, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Bruce Willis, Dean Steinkuhler, Neil Patrick Harris, Don Johnson, Edward James Olmos, Mel Gibson and Earle Bruce.

Gerard Depardie, Val Kilmer, Dudley Moore, and Tom Berenger would like a word.

[AlabamAlum]

Michael J. Fox! Nobody put's Alex Keaton in a corner!

Speaking of that, Patrick Swayze, actor in the second finest movie of that generation - Road House (second only to Bloodsport, of course).

...and with that we have to add Jean Claud Van Damme. And since we added him, we must add Steven Segal and Chuck Norris...which makes me think of Rambo, so add Sylvester Stallone. Rambo makes me think of Predator, so add Arnold Shwartzennegar.

[WingsFan]

Since you bought up Arnold, this is hilarious

[SeattleLionsFan]

Talent,
I didn?t see your post earlier regarding the ?head tax? in Seattle. You are correct that Seattle governance is very progressive. Too progressive for me in fact. There is an actual socialist on the council that calls for protests of her own meetings.

Its also a pretty progrowth city that has a strong memory of the years when Boeing was in decline and Microsoft hadn?t blown up. They were tough years. So the mindset is all grow grow grow. Those are the two competing ideas in play on the Head Tax issue.

Overtop of that is the homelessness issue. There are about 12,000 homeless in Seattle. (There are about 7500 in SF). There are multiple reasons for that (including some social policies that may attract homeless) but the biggest driver is lack of affordable housing. The average rent is more than 2000 per month and homes average more than 800k. Plus there are 1000 people moving in per month placing even greater strain on the market.

As far as the head tax, it was wildly unpopular from the jump (based on Seattle pro-growth ideas). The problem is there is no income tax in Washington, so the tax system is wildly REgressive. Basically you can tax property and on sales. So it taxes the poor at much higher rates of income than others. The head tax was a means to address that. A stupid way, but a way.

Fwiw, I was ok with the tax but I wanted them to put it on workers. It?s a tax they bear ultimately, so I wanted them to be honest about it. They didn?t listen to me any more than you losers do. .

[froot loops]

I've been thinking about Road House lately, Scott Pruitt would make a good Brad Wesley in the remake.

Bloodsport is excellent but it has flaws. He leaves without the girl and Frank Dux did not set all of those records.

[iam416]

Bloodsport has no flaws. Cinematic nirvana.

SLF

Thanks for response and insight. Completely forgot that Washington has no income tax. Your breakdown of the fundamental competing interests makes it even more interesting to me.

[AlabamAlum]

I have probably mentioned this here before, but my finest internet work was "conquering" other threads on CNNSI. The outrage from the members of those threads I "took as my own" was perfect. But I was outdone a bit later by Talent's best work. We were on Wxing when he posted on a vegan forum that used the term "blood sport" to describe eating meat, hunting, something. Myself and a few others had been seriously debating on the forum re: the morality of eating meat, when Talent wandered over.

Anyway, Talent started slowly. Mentioned Frank Dux to the former owner (who was British - and the guy assumed that Dux was a writer on ethics or something). After the Dux name drop, Talent slowly worked the thread's 'blood sport' title into an homage for the movie to the guy's complete oblivious confusion. I would love to read over that bit again. It was masterful.

Since then, of course, Talent has become a poor man's Alex Jones with less charisma and a worse vocabulary, but I knew him back then. It's like how Nic Cage used to be a sought after A-lister and now is sadly doing straight-to-Hulu movies like "Bad Lieutenant- Port of Call: Cleveland".

[iam416]

I posted on a thread in that forum entitled "Should Bloodsports Be Banned?" -- vigorously defending the bulk of the franchise with special focus on the first. However, I did concede that the incomprehensibly awful Bloodsport 4: Dark Kumite should be banned. The post itself was my trademark overwrought garbage, but the response from the forum owner was well worth it.

In any event, reliving 20 year old forum exchanges rates and realizing your prime was back when M beat OSU is incredibly sad. Still, it's a 100 out of 100 choice if it's up against analyzing PDJT's tweets.

"Bad Lieutenant- Port of Call: Cleveland"

Heh.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I agree that it is better for DJT and KJU to be talking instead of dick tabling on Twitter. I also agree (unlike republicans) that we should be willing to talk to just about anyone in the world (including Iran, Cuba and Venezuela). I also agree that it is far too early to draw any conclusions about the success or failure of any summit (including that there was ?no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.?)

With that said, what concrete things did the US get out of the summit? I am not seeing much, so I?d love to hear what I?m missing.

I don't think you're missing anything despite Kap's listing.

IMO, much of what PDJT has done during the first year of his presidency is about future benefits. IOW, we don't know yet. There's not a lot to hang his hat on despite his claims that there is.

Certainly, I think there are some positives he can say he's responsible for. But, most of them come, depending on your world view, with negatives. The embrace of authoritarian leaders despite the repression of those they represent is an example. Another is the unwinding of banking regulations put in place during the Great Recession which have the potential of harm to consumers. There are others.

[Whitley]

Michael J. Fox! Nobody put's Alex Keaton in a corner!

Speaking of that, Patrick Swayze, actor in the second finest movie of that generation - Road House (second only to Bloodsport, of course).

...and with that we have to add Jean Claud Van Damme. And since we added him, we must add Steven Segal and Chuck Norris...which makes me think of Rambo, so add Sylvester Stallone. Rambo makes me think of Predator, so add Arnold Shwartzennegar.

If you have Swayze then you need to add Kevin Bacon and John Lithgow from Footloose. Footloose was of songs which reminds of the Muppet Movies, so need to put Jim Henson in there. Henson makes me think of movie franchises like Star Trek (which had 6 movies in the 80s) so need to add William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelly to the list.

[Whitley]

I don't think you're missing anything despite Kap's listing.

IMO, much of what PDJT has done during the first year of his presidency is about future benefits. IOW, we don't know yet. There's not a lot to hang his hat on despite his claims that there is.

Certainly, I think there are some positives he can say he's responsible for. But, most of them come, depending on your world view, with negatives. The embrace of authoritarian leaders despite the repression of those they represent is an example. Another is the unwinding of banking regulations put in place during the Great Recession which have the potential of harm to consumers. There are others.

Yep, and those regs were not that tough to begin with. There is another housing bubble coming too. 3rd party lenders (ie not the banks) are giving out the same kinds of loans and then selling them to the banks (since it is 3rd party loans the watered down regs dont apply here) who are getting the insurance against failure from the feds. Latest thing I saw from a couple months ago, was that 9% of these loans are 30 days behind. When the defaults happen again (and they will happen) and cascade, the taxpayer is going to have to bail out these places AGAIN. Another example of big business/banks socializing the expenses but keeping the profits private.

[crashcourse]

80's culture was cheers hill street blues platoon metallica direstraits iwant my mtv birth of cable tv

[AlabamAlum]

I posted on a thread in that forum entitled "Should Bloodsports Be Banned?" -- vigorously defending the bulk of the franchise with special focus on the first. However, I did concede that the incomprehensibly awful Bloodsport 4: Dark Kumite should be banned. The post itself was my trademark overwrought garbage, but the response from the forum owner was well worth it.

In any event, reliving 20 year old forum exchanges rates and realizing your prime was back when M beat OSU is incredibly sad. Still, it's a 100 out of 100 choice if it's up against analyzing PDJT's tweets.



Heh.

Our arguments on gun control, failed social programs, and was the North the 'moral actor' in the Civil War were must-see internet. I remember you joined me in the thread conquering and I joined you and RU in the cereal mascot wars.

Back in the heyday, being on the forum during a Tennessee game when you had 400(!) Vol posts to deal with. BOJ, Hack, Shiny, etc, etc, was just a blast. The "we either win, the other team cheats, or the refs gave the game away" were some of my fondest internet memories.

Btw, "Bama Bob" still hates you.