unclevlad

Not a Pats fan either, but the nasty side of me was amused. As Pariah said.......

The Fox News *anchors* have been a little more independent, as I understand. The Kool-Aid brewers have tended to be the talking heads. This is also of a pattern, IMO, with Fox's Arizona projection...I might argue it was premature too, based on the still-narrow margin, but that wasn't what the criticism was about so much as "how dare you present bad news!!!" Both current Georgia Senators are whining about the *Republican* Secretary of State because they're going into a runoff, and basically echoing Trump's fraud charges. This is the Trump legacy...toxicity and hate.

Because it's Trump, that's why. This is no different from HOW many similar such actions? EDIT: twisted thought. Trump's notion of a 'concession speech' might be firing Dr. Fauci. He'd have to construct grounds, and it wouldn't hold up in the end according to most..but for spite, he can do it. One reason he hasn't, IMO, is it would've sent a major shock to the stock market, and it likely would've cratered for a bit. But now? The market's already figuring Trump's out the door, and that nothing significant is going to be done before Biden. So firing Fauci is simply a continuation of the "there's nothing wrong, it's all going away very soon now" fantasy. As long as Trump is out the door in January, it's meaningless.

It also depends on which Batman you're talking about, as to whether 'super' fits or not. And, should the ability to operate at "super" levels when needed, in the normal course of his actions, not ultimately imply he is a super? The fact that it's intermittent at best isn't particularly compelling to me. If it was only because he put on a super-suit, when that's exceptionally rare...that wouldn't count, but when he generally carries around the stuff, it does, IMO. Hero...to start with, recognize that "superhero" is almost implicit for every mainstream character from Marvel or DC. At the higher levels, it becomes a member of the collective term "superhero comics" despite the isolated anti-hero, vigilante, or outright villain being the main character. Then: Batman is a founding member of the JLA (1960). Of the JUSTICE League. AFAIK he's never left it. Batman was *long* associated with the Gotham PD through Commissioner Gordon, meaning he was staying on the good side of the law...maybe just barely. Batman's got a long, LONG history, and even for the comics, a messy one. It doesn't help that DC's publishing history has been a confused, muddled MESS recently, with the apparently multiple complete reboots. So it's not all that clear even from a pedantic standpoint that "vigilante" is correct...and it's absolutely not true that it's the sole characterization that fits. Saying that "Batman is NOT a superhero" will draw ridicule from virtually anyone who only casually follows this sort of thing, and IMO at best "you're really splitting hairs" from even serious supers types.

You're arguing reality. First thing to recognize is that Trump never argues reality because it's not on his side. He argues with innuendo and rumor, or with straw men. No evidence just proves a cover-up, but what else do you expect from the Deep State? The fact that there is no evidence of fraud proves there is fraud. The Deep State itself isn't a claim; it's an axiom, or a point taken on faith, depending on one's philosophical preferences. The Deep State is not challengeable because it is True. So any attempt to discredit any of these is simply crashing against that Truth, in the minds of those who've bought into his circular argument. That might only be a small part, tho. A large part has also been demonization, and this goes well beyond Trump. Once you've dehumanized the opponent, well of course anything and everything is possible for them. No proof? CLEVER BUGGERS, AREN'T THEY!!!!

No, he didn't do it in advance, IMO, because he didn't need it until now. Had he won...no fraud whatsoever. Probably congratulate the Republican poll watchers for their vigilance in keeping the election honest. This move is completely consistent with the whole Deep State conspiracy narrative.

It still didn't.....

whiners

Note to Bucs: with less than 6 minutes left, a 10:1 pass:run play ratio is an invitation to disaster. And it is not the way to ensure QB longevity. Just thought I'd point that out. EDIT: Thanks, NBC. Bucs set record for fewest rushing attempts in a game. 5. That counts taking the knee on the last play of the game.

Oh, good. The etiquette of the situation felt complex.

Is it gauche to take extreme pleasure in the ineptitude shown by Tommy Brady's offense with his sterling new addition?

Tim's managing the complaints desk. Send him over there....

Well 2020 certainly sucks, but... I'm not as sad as I might be because, hey, he held on for a year. And *magnificently*. Rest in peace, sir. You will not be forgotten.

At this point, the major importance of Georgia and Arizona going to Biden is...call it insurance. A couple days ago when it was just "ok, Arizona and Nevada will be enough" is when I started to relax. But if Georgia and Arizona both go to Biden, then a reversal of any one of the late-deciding, highly contested states won't change things. I'm hoping, too, that this will be reason enough to stop any one state from electoral college shenanigans. It would take several states acting together, and...well, maybe that's possible, but *that* much collusion seems unlikely. Who knows, Trump might even concede and stop the legal actions. I doubt it, tho.

BTW: someone was asking about the overall popular vote. NY Times shows it. It's on their electoral college display; under each candidate. In VERY small font. As of end of Saturday the 7th, it was about 74.6M for Biden, 70.4M for Trump. I don't think there are enough outstanding ballots to change that significantly. If y'alll will excuse me, the wine is saying 'hello'. Enjoy the eye candy from earlier. (But all of em look WAY better in person.)

I do like Eco Drives; I have several. If you want a beater, you cannot beat a BM-8180...and I generally don't like day-date, which this has. My 8180 might be...15 years old now? Gosh, I really don't know. Plus an older Stiletto ultra-thin. Then some upscale...Eco Drive One, Chronomaster. Seiko's solar quartz work well too; my one RF watch is a Seiko. Mixed bag there; the time zone doesn't register, so I have to manually set DST. That shouldn't be the case, it should happen implicitly. The indicator is built into the time coding. At this point, I simply won't buy a non-solar quartz.

Hm. Here's a particularly nice shot. Sorry, you can't get any of these. Left: AnOrdain Model 1 in Hebridean Blue. The watch is available, I think that color isn't. Center Bleau Modest Cream. A Kickstarter project; there were issues that slowed things down, and the guy hasn't offered anything since. Too bad. These two are both true, fired enamel dials. Ceramic powder is placed on the dial, then melted. It produces a dial like nothing else but it's a ROYAL PITA, but man do I love me my enamel dials..... Right: Vapaus Veli. Another Kickstarter project. The Veli is still made. HOWEVER...the green was a stretch goal during the campaign, and Vapaus promised to never release it as a standard color. So this can be legitimately called extremely rare; there are 8 with this hands set (and 8 with their alternate). And if anything's harder to find than a good red dial, it might have been a good green dial. More recently, I know of a few...but after white/silver, black, and blue, and maybe the dark gray-brown you see in galvanized dials, numbers drop off SHARPLY. You see bright colors like yellow and orange in dive watches, but I'm not a dive watch guy. I like Big Dials with skinny bezels, as you can see.

Oh, you wish to know? Well of course you wish to know; the proof of this is, you asked. Very well, I shall tell you. <OK, that's enough of my Paarfi style.> Nothing fancy. Hamilton Jazzmaster Thinline auto with what they call a burgundy dial. Not sure I would, not seeing it live; it's in that tricky middle ground between a purple-burgundy and a slightly purplish brown. Nice color, tho. Discontinued. This is a pretty good private seller's (closed) listing; the pics show how the dial color shifts. https://watchcharts.com/listing/1114607/hamilton-jazzmaster-thinline-automatic-swiss-dress-watch-box-papers Price was too good, given that it's got a 2892 in it, and the dial color is unusual and quite nice. This'll tend to be a late fall watch....burgundy and colors along those lines are, for me, Thanksgiving and to a degree Christmas colors. But anything in the red/burgundy range, for a man's watch, is QUITE rare. This has been my watch for the last week, as it was my *big* 60th birthday gift to myself. That's not red gold, it's ship's bronze. It'll probably get put away; I like to swap regularly. Might well be the Hammy; checking the mail this evening, I noted the tree in my front yard had turned a *very* nice red. That's kinda rare down here, and won't last at all; the weather just doesn't seem to support it. Or maybe the dryness. I saw several trees on the street that had nice color; I think it was that surprising, serious cold snap a week and a half ago; lows a couple nights were below freezing. And for October, that's *unheard of*. As in, not just set record lows but I think set them by WIDE margins. So that might've started the color shift. But for the last 2 or 3 days we've been right back to the highs being *just* under record highs for the day....

To top off a very nice day overall... I'd ordered myself a new watch, just for grins, through a gray market dealer. They'd said 3-5 weeks (gray market, that happens) but it'd shipped a few days ago. It was scheduled to arrive Monday. Just came in. Happy, happy. About to pour the wine......

So what? I'm sure the sycophants will be upset. Eek. Ask me if I care about them. I might have a problem with privacy issues, if personal information is included...but the posts themselves are public speech and no right to privacy can be attached. Deriding this because making a list is something a dictator would do is beyond laughable, considering Trump's actions. Altho dictator might be less accurate than, say, mob boss.

Mr. Biden, Yes, I know your speech is important right now. But I can't bring myself to watch. Nothing personal; I am simply burned out. And wrung out. But there is now light at the end of the tunnel, and we have reason to believe it's not another train about to crash into us. I'll listen...but later.

Well, yeah, but sometimes the problem isn't the framework, it's the translation of the source material into the framework. Some things become really tough. Other times, it's the framework itself where the underpinnings tend to not translate. That's the problem here. Try to build a character where the guideline is 16 DC attacks, let's say. With no damage negation or damage reduction, and in a system where you can't buy up the point where you're stunned or knocked out except by buying up the (expensive) underlying stat. Or figure how to *use* a 16 DC attack when you can't buy up your total END., save by the same means. Champs Now explicitly wants to model tactical combat, where avoiding combat matters, and where recovering and thinking *how* to u se your powers matters a LOT. High-level supers are the diametric opposite.

A lovely day in the Big 10. Whiny Nebraska AND overrated Michigan both go down.

Even if true, so what? The only aspect the kiosk eliminates is the register person. It doesn't eliminate everyone in the back. In fact, it's quite possible that one or two of the counter people move to similar positions...just behind the scenes. Or...the counter's been reduced because the drive-thru is much busier, so there's another simple shift. So what was the overall impact on number of employee-hours? Not saying it's not trending down...but not necessarily by as much as you're suggesting. Finally, focusing solely on rising wages is too narrow. Automation should, in principle, allow multiple other benefits...fewer mistakes, trading off higher initial cost for lower ongoing cost (and here, rising wages changes the break-even point a bit, but doesn't change the overall argument), lower supervision needed, that sort of thing. (WAY back in the day when I worked at McD's...on a crush day like after a home football game, we'd have 30 crew in the store, and 3 managers.)

Figure it's basically clickbait. The argument doesn't need to make sense, just draw attention. And it worked.