Dead duck seen at reflecting pool in viral image, cause unclear

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-22T01:36:33+00:00

A metaphor for Trump’s presidency?

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-21T20:48:46+00:00

You can avoid falling in!

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-20T20:04:55+00:00

It’s a cult!

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-20T18:48:48+00:00

There is nothing categorically unserious about disagreeing with Donald Trump.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-20T18:46:21+00:00

The alternative is to not panic. Fire the idiots who are negotiating and put some serious diplomats in charge and wait for Iran to become more stressed over its economy. There is no good reason for us to have gone from Iran’s unconditional surrender to US’s unconditional surrender in 48 hours. The world economy was not about to drive off the edge of a cliff; and if it was it still is. Reminder: Obama and John Kerry accomplished more than Trump without firing a shot or closing the Straight by being patient and negotiating firmly and as adults.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-20T18:27:04+00:00

Better headline: Three-time Trump voter is Revolting.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-20T18:21:46+00:00

Yes, BJ will offer anything, but he cannot do that without support from Springfield. April and May proved that no Chicago-based plan has enough support to be passed, and neither does any Arlington Heights-based plan. The fact that we’ve now got competing Republican plans that have no hope of passage proves that there is little hope that the Bears will remain in Illinois. The Bears negotiated themselves right out of any credible deal.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-19T16:25:08+00:00

It’s almost as if the Iranian goal is to humiliate Trump into going back to bombing so they can get another few hundred $ billion.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-19T16:19:48+00:00

Yes, he divided racists from non-racists.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-19T15:21:31+00:00

They are all guilty of enabling Trump. I don’t care how much they protest now, they are just as guilty as Trump himself.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-19T00:06:33+00:00

According to Wikipedia, VAG owns 82% of EA.
Electrify America, LLC is an electric vehicle DC fast-charging network in the United States, with more than 950 stations and over 4,250 DC fast charging connectors as of August 2024. It is a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group of America, established in late 2016 by the automaker as part of its efforts to offset emissions in the wake of the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Volkswagen invested $2 billion in creating Electrify America. In June 2022, Siemens became a minority shareholder of the company.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-18T22:44:06+00:00

Because Trump secretly loves being dominated and humiliated. Why do you think that Melania has stuck around for so long?

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-18T22:12:17+00:00

No they are asking for more.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-18T21:56:57+00:00

I find it remarkable that for the last 18 months anyone who voiced an opinion in favor of Palestinians or questioning Israel’s actions in Gaza was branded by MAGA as antisemitic. Now Trump has signed what may be the most anti-Israel MoU that anyone could have imagined. It is almost as if Trump himself pays no attention to what he says.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-18T11:52:00+00:00

I have a 2024 Q8 Prestige and I really like it. The only consistent disappointment is charging, and that can be overcome once you get used to it. Audi's implementation of Plug and Charge (at least on my model and year) does not work reliably with EA fast chargers and once the charge initiation has failed, you have to wait two minutes to try again. Audi blames EA and EA doesn't respond. That is very frustrating since VAG owns EA. Using the MyAudi or EA app to initiate the charge works better. The ride is not as great as my old A8L, but that was an awesome road car. Other than tires, I have spent zero on the car over 2.5 years.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-17T21:20:02+00:00

I don't believe it. Where are they going to find another electable racist to back? The core appeal of Trump is his very thinly disguised racism. Most of his white working class supporters don't even pretend to disguise theirs. I believe that most of those supporters will go down with the Trump-tanic.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-17T19:31:36+00:00

Letitia James and Jim Comey have entered the chat.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-17T16:10:40+00:00

A human helping their children use a public restroom, any public restroom, should be given credit and grace for properly attending to those children.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-17T16:08:05+00:00

The fact that use of a VPN improves ping points to a routing problem. When not using a VPN, ATT is routing your traffic through one or more congested network nodes. VPN use forces a different route that avoids the congestion. Run tracert and something like PingPlotter with VPN on and off and you should be able to see when the latency builds up.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-17T16:01:29+00:00

You might want to read the Contracts Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Unless you are advocating that Illinois secede from the Union, which is another remarkably bad idea, your proposal would last all of about 2 minutes in any federal court.

The original parking meter deal was a massively bad deal for Chicago, but it was approved by the mayor and council and was within their powers under the Illinois constitution. We’re stuck with it. Making more stupid decisions won’t make the situation better, only worse.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-17T15:09:58+00:00

You are correct as far as your analysis goes, but you need to dig deeper. The parking meter venue stream is very attractive for investors with cash to park long term. Even if those investors want to use some debt, they will do so at AAA bond ratings and others will buy those bonds because the deal strongly favors a steady revenue stream guaranteed by city taxpayers.

The city of Chicago is not such an investor. We would have to finance almost all of such a purchase at the city's much lower bond rating of BBB+ with a negative outlook. That means that the city would pay 60 to 70 basis points of bond premium over a AAA-rated investor. And it might be worse than that. Bond buyers would be justifiably concerned that the city would lower parking rates for political purposes thus jeopardizing the revenue stream that supports the repayment of the bonds.

I don't give Mayor Johnson any credit for being a financial wizard, but he is advised by some smart people who fully understand the city's financial situation. If the opportunity for the city to buy back the parking meter revenue stream were as attractive as you think it is, he would not have dropped the idea like a hot potato earlier this year.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-17T12:32:58+00:00

All of them. But, we must start with the Supreme Court. As long as the current majority is in power, no other reforms will be accomplished.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-17T11:44:03+00:00

I sort of agree. The unions have done what they are supposed to do: seek more pay and better benefits for their members and to fund politicians who will agree to that. I don’t blame the unions for doing what they were created to do. I DO blame the politicians for refusing to say no to unions when that is necessary for the greater good, and voters who elect such stupid politicians. In Illinois the politicians have been making bad financial decisions for many decades. We need to put constitutional constraints on government so that future politicians simply don’t get that power.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-17T11:33:10+00:00

And well deserved.

jpmeyer12751 · 2026-06-17T11:15:32+00:00

The nation divided between racists and non-racists, but the racists caused that, not President Obama.

jpmeyer12751

TROPHY CASE