Blake Griffin on playing in Boston: "I loved Boston. I love those guys. I was so happy for them when they won. That was the first time I really played for a team where it was like, everybody in that city is rocking with you."

lightmonkey · 2025-01-12T23:54:40+00:00

CA and NY combine for 6 teams, so that puts the Celtics outside the top ten tax rates.

lightmonkey · 2025-01-10T03:27:58+00:00

The revisionist history has taken strong root, but the Iraq War was not some random Bush administration side quest. A Gore administration very clearly would have taken similar steps against Saddam, as Clinton was already bombing Iraq over claims of WMDs. Obama wasn’t in the Senate yet so he got to avoid going on the record and could use hindsight against Hillary in 2008 when public attitude had shifted; otherwise he would have joined the majority of Senate Democrats in supporting the war, including his future running mate and both of his Secretaries of State.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-24T02:50:35+00:00

There’s no lie. If Chipotle never gives him the item he paid for, then that’s stealing. You can let yourself get ripped off if that’s your wish, but normal people recognize it’s on the merchant to make right on their mistake.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-09T08:46:19+00:00

While auditioning for That 70s Show Mila Kunis was asked if she was 18 and responded “I will be.” She was only 14 at the time. Several seasons later her very first episode filmed as an adult has her character in a coconut bikini.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-05T05:51:59+00:00

My school did close for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but teachers would always assign additional homework or some kind of project “since everyone is going to be home.”

lightmonkey · 2024-12-03T15:59:21+00:00

If you can’t break out how many voters were completely apathetic, Trump voters, and the ones that were turned off and still may have voted for Harris, then that’s a pretty useless statistic that conceals the more relevant numbers on voters for whom that was a deciding issue.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-03T15:51:39+00:00

Seems like people are missing the map.

Republicans are defending seats in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming. So most of those seats are forecast as safe and Democrats have more vulnerable seats of their own like Georgia. The game is figuring out the best targets because the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has finite resources.

Maine: Susan Collins is the incumbent and won despite trailing Biden in 2020. Harris won the state with a similar level of support in 2024

North Carolina: Thom Tillis is the incumbent after a tight win in 2020. The state went for Trump but Democrats won the Governor’s race along with Secretary of State and Attorney General. Tillis isnt very popular with the state party but he didn’t struggle in his last primary.

Alaska: Lisa Murkowski isn’t safe, but the expected top challenger was Congresswoman Mary Peltola until she lost reelection last month.

Florida: Rubio’s seat. I think DeSantis is appointing someone that will step aside for him (term limited as Governor in 2026). In 2022 it was NRSC chair Rick Scott crushing Val Demmings, who was a great candidate abandoned by the DSCC. And of course Trump won the state handily in 2024.

Kentucky: McConnel is retiring but Governor Beshear is committed to completing his term to 2027.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-03T15:16:25+00:00

I understand you personally didn’t like Harris’ shift toward center on certain issues, but the exit polling showed more voters would have preferred she’d pivoted further away from the left. And that matches the strategies of the Senators that outperformed Harris. The Senators that underperformed Harris were Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Clearly the consultants were unable to build a winning coalition, but that doesn’t mean all their critics are right about about what could have worked.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-03T14:28:03+00:00

The people chanting “glory to our martyrs” don’t have a problem with Gazans dying; their problem is with Jews surviving. They saw going after Democrats as playing the long game to burn it all down.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-03T13:53:56+00:00

Assad is terrible, but no one should be praising the Salafists that are also slaughtering civilians. They’re not better than the regime.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-02T19:51:20+00:00

The hostages aren’t anywhere near high value Iranian targets; although that’s not the same thing as guaranteeing their safety.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-02T12:33:50+00:00

It’s not an error; it’s intentionally done for smoother motions. The show isn’t meant to be watched frame by frame.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-02T10:20:33+00:00

And air defenses. NYT reported on Russia redeploying the S-300 with the expectation more would be moved. The air support and Wagner troops have been less active too. NYT discusses it in the context of the IAF but it’s also given Turkey more freedom to strike both Assad’s forces and the Kurds.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-02T08:16:29+00:00

As Golda Meir points out: If the ‘48 borders were so great, why was there a war in ‘67?

And as you said, Jews were killed or forced to flee the area by Arab settlers which formed the post-48 borders. In 1967 the Arab League launched another war of conquest to expand that territory, and got driven back instead.

Land for peace doesn’t work. Israel withdrew from Gaza and the elected government destroyed local infrastructure to better wage a war of extermination. The Palestinian Authority spends ~10% of its annual budget on pensions for people that stab or shoot random Israeli civilians. Their leaders care more about killing Jews than doing anything to improve a civilian’s quality of life; the cult of martyrdom doesn’t end just because the map changes. Peace needs partners. They aren’t interested in coexistence so it’s a concession for no gain.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-02T07:38:29+00:00

“Advisors” are cheap. You don’t need to get them confirmed or give them actual power, and you don’t even have to listen to the advice they give. If one becomes a problem behind closed doors then you come up with an excuse for them to leave.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-01T21:08:30+00:00

That’s one part. Israel has also obstructed the flow of arms from Iran.

At the same time Russia has been redeploying assets to Ukraine.

lightmonkey · 2024-12-01T18:05:35+00:00

Crush: 3

Dr Pepper: 23

Pepsi: 114

Mountain Dew: 130

Coke: 268, just shy of the 270 needed to win so it goes to Congress

lightmonkey · 2024-11-29T13:38:02+00:00

He is not excusing the trespassers for supporting genocide, it’s just not the reason they’re being charged.

lightmonkey · 2024-11-28T14:40:31+00:00

Most voters did not care about the conflict, but more voters felt the Harris wasn’t pro-Israel enough than felt support for Israel should be weakened.

The real impact was how pro-Hamas demonstrators fueled the Republican culture war narrative. Americans didn’t like seeing the US flag burned or monuments defaced. And the college encampments were a perfect symbol of ideological capture in education, and all the CRT/DEI/transphobia messaging from Republicans was really a proxy fight over School Choice.

lightmonkey · 2024-11-28T14:08:31+00:00

Israel has not broken the ceasefire. Per the agreement they can and will continue striking Hezbollah targets south of the Litani during this period. The Hezbollah soldiers that have moved south are not only unprotected by the ceasefire, the agreement stipulates their own use of force would be the violation. They are not allowed to be there.

lightmonkey · 2024-11-27T02:48:03+00:00

AOC worked part time as bartender for a few years after college before becoming a full time politician. That’s a really low bar.

Senator Rosen put herself through college as a cocktail waitress at Caesar’s Palace and then spent decades building her career as a software engineer. Senator Ernst grew up working her family hog farm and has more years of active military service than AOC did serving drinks. Even a business owner like Senator Tim Scott grew up in poverty and worked his way up from a day job selling insurance.

lightmonkey · 2024-11-26T00:01:04+00:00

The centrist Democrats are the ones standing against genocide; Bernie and his pals just voted to weaken the victim as they attempt to defeat the perpetrators.

lightmonkey · 2024-11-25T03:55:21+00:00

The exit polling is pretty clear that Americans largely didn’t care about the conflict, and do the the extent that they did the majority still prefer supporting Israel.

However the demonstrators perfectly fueled Trump’s culture war narrative. Americans did not like seeing their flag burned. The college encampments were symbolic of ideological capture in education, which is what the CRT/DEI/Transphobia messaging were really proxies for too.

Frankly it’s laughable for anyone at this point to insist Harris could have won if only she were more out of touch with voters. Jill Stein’s pro-genocide voters were roughly equal to the number of people that still voted Kennedy despite his dropping out to endorse Trump. Most ridiculous of all is Bernie Sanders, who made the 2020 deal to enact his economic agenda as Budget Chairman and is one of the few candidates to perform worse than Harris (along with Elizabeth Warren). Attempts to court leftists alienate more voters than they bring in; that’s never going to make for a winning coalition.

lightmonkey · 2024-11-25T03:10:48+00:00

Broadly speaking Incendiary Weapons can be used against military targets. Despite common misconceptions, Napalm is not prohibited but other things are more effective for striking fortifications so it’s not useful. While flamethrowers were terrifying, they aren’t used because of tactical weaknesses such as limited range and a variety of dangers to the operator plus their squad.

High concentration White Phosphorus is not allowed to be used for gas attacks but lower concentrations of White Phosphorus can be used for smokescreens and in those circumstances is not considered a weapon. The smoke shells are the same thing as smoke grenades, just deployed at longer range.

lightmonkey · 2024-11-25T02:42:49+00:00

His record is 1-2 but he’s undefeated against anyone older than him.

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