Gromnir

he is representing his constituency. in the past republicans considered the alt-right to be a fringe element filled with "race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot(s)." however, the last three years has forced republicans, particular republicans who are looking to be re-elected, to face reality the alt-right and fringe is now the core. republicans will win or lose their individual state races just so long as they keep the core satisfied. guys such as rand paul, in spite o' the generalized public loathing o' Congress, has never been as popular 'mongst his constituency as he is today. same is true for guys such as the one in the video we linked. what happened? the terrible truth is rand paul started representing his constituency as they are rather than attempting to do what he believed were best for his constituency. circles back to why so many question democracy. shoulda' always been more fear o' democracy, but with untenable income disparity folks is justifiable wondering why it don't matter if you are majority or minority 'cause everybody but the 1% is getting p00ped 'pon. voters is justifiable angry. trump's core is folks who feel marginalized. the trump core is, statistical, uneducated, which might partial explain why they support muslim bans and border walls and ignore warnings from mueller report and impeachment. doesn't matter in long run 'cause trump core is now the core o' pretty much 90% o' national office republicans. is folks who has been told they is part o' the privileged majority for decades but they don't feel particular privileged as they is losing their manufacturing jobs or needing take out another loan they cannot afford to keep their farm viable for one more year. democracy has failed these folks... and every other identifiable group save the 1% has a similar reason to be angry at democracy. alternatives to democracy is worse, and democracy can be fixed in ways other systems cannot. doesn't matter if you feels like you have been taking a beating for decades with democracy as the dominant paradigm. regardless, the terrible truth is rand paul is now representing his constituency. is democracy at work. god help us all. HA! Good Fun! ps Farm bankruptcies jumped 20% in 2019, even with billions in aid from U.S. have made the observation previous how is not shocking the core wanted to believe trump in 2016. the genuine surprise is how Americans, who has always held Presidents more accountable than perhaps is deserved, has ignored trump impotence and incompetence. no other President could fail to deliver so dramatic and consistent and nevertheless maintain a stranglehold on their party.

were more to finale than the last couple minutes o' the newhart finale. regardless, were obvious intentional satire o' dallas. y'know, 'cause it were a comedy and all. suzanne pleshette showing up in finale were brilliant. HA! Good Fun!

we saw a single full episode o' seinfeld and it weren't the finale. while am able to name numerous good tv show finales, am admitting bad ends is even easier to identify. both battlestar galactica finales managed to be terrible? HA! Good Fun!

hurl's dietary issues inspired us to make thai (thaish?) grilled chicken sandwiches with a peanut satay sauce. yummy. in truth, hurl's dietary issues with wheat and nuts and whatnot only occurred to us after making dinner, but were a schadenfreude coincidence. HA! Good Fun!

you can refuse but is pointless. judge will, in every jurisdiction we know, allow alternative service once good faith efforts made for personal service fail. such alternatives include delivery to a responsible agent o' defendant who is over 18 or even mail. am not gonna defend hillary, but for celebs service may be calculated for an embarrassing photo op. refusal is not an attempt to get outta a lawsuit, 'cause chances are you ain't gonna get out o' eventual being actual or constructive served, but such efforts is a way to force mail or other alternative delivery. such alternatives deny the plaintiff a chance to have paparazzi or reporters present for process moment. HA! Good Fun!

am not certain if you is being sarcastic. is a long video, and am understanding why you wouldn't watch the whole thing, but is worth viewing if you wanna hear how at least a few folks see the new kinda asymmetrical warfare which is becoming more prevalent 'mongst US adversaries. look at fraudulent facebook posts as insular is problematic. US has indeed been reactive to individual efforts by russians, chinese, iranians and others w/o recognizing the fact that each incursion is part o' larger and broader efforts. optics o' facebook and twitter nonsense is that such petty and minor keeps such attacks beneath response threshold. https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4822045/user-clip-hr-mcmaster&start=605 HA! Good Fun! ps whether you agree with opinions o' speakers in video is irrelevant. am posting 'cause these folks who, like 'em or nor not is experts, view 2020 security issues holistic. gotta get out o' the cold war threats mentality.

myopic. there has been moments and times when Congress refused to act to reign in a President who violated public trust and/or severe exceeded Constitutional purview. the President has more power today than during most o' past, so again, is not exact analogous, but is reason we warned folks to look to andrew johnson trial as 'posed to clinton, 'cause 2020 kinda divisiveness is more akin to civil war Congress than 1990s. abraham lincoln, andrew jackson and thomas jefferson are only the most dramatic examples we would point to which predate 43, 44 and 45. HA! Good Fun!

no, we got you. given the tribalism o' the past decade in particular, we suspect if roles were reversed, democrats would be reflexive defending en masse. however, you did indeed specific use obama as your example/punching bag. has been 45 Presidents and a few o' them weren't even elected to the office. pretend as if they is interchangeable is flawed. as we have noted previous in discussions with gd, am doubtful democrats woulda' circled the wagons for hillary if had done same-- she weren't popular enough to move the party as a whole. you might suggest that your hypothetical is an everything else being equal kinda thing, but is not possible for us to credit such a fantasy. this situation is almost unique with an unpopular President who nevertheless has a stranglehold on his party indulges in the worst kinda self-promotion and outright deceit w/o any care for the republic and the Constitution. is not like lego bricks with one red and one blue. you keep trying to make it democrat v. republican or they v. them and is not so simple. HA! Good Fun!

as much as we disliked obama, we weren't "scared" o' him as President. obama pushed limits o' Constitutional beyond what we believed were appropriate and legal, but try and conjure up a realistic scenario in which we woulda' been in same position with obama as we are with trump and we will disagree. lesser o' two evils has worked fine for multiple centuries. has been a couple o' close calls and a small number who were outright mistakes, but voters stuck with lesser o' evils choices has largely avoided nightmare scenarios. regardless, as much as we disliked the obama Presidency, am thinking is unfair to make trump and obama equivalent... though we will concede how the trump excesses were made more likely by obama and previous Congress playing fast and loose with norms, standards, rules and laws. HA! Good Fun!

today were the first day since impeachment vote we were genuine shocked and disturbed by claims from those defending trump. admitted, the ground kept shifting as Congressmen supporting trump altered their defense o' the President, but were nothing true surprising. we lamented how Congress failure to act on mueller report made it possible for politicians in a post trump America to solicit and accept dirt from foreign powers to alter US elections as long as coordination were short o' criminal conspiracy. were a terrible precedent and one mueller, during the few moments he were animated during testimony, attempted to drive home... and failed. with impeachment we lamented how if trump avoided any kinda meaningful censure for his solicitation o' ukraine to investigate biden, future politicians would be able to not only receive dirt, but could request and coordinate with foreign powers to interfere with US elections with little concern o' sanction. we so undersold the boldness, the arrogance, o' trump's defenders. you not need to be a Constitutional scholar to be nonplussed by wh defense. before trump were elected, we doubt a single senator-- republican, democrat or independent-- would have championed the notion it were ok for a US politician to accept foreign dirt on a political rival w/o informing the fbi o' such communications. am positive no senator would argue a US politician were unimpeachable if they active solicited and coordinated with foreign powers to interfere in domestic elections. today we have sailed beyond the edge o' the map, far beyond any point even Gromnir's cynical soothsaying mighta' foreseen. a good faith belief o' a President or Congressman that their reelection is in the public interest functional insulates such actors from claims their actions is impeachable? will be some who think we are being hyperbolic. nope. this is so far outside our experience and expertise as to be complete uncharted waters. hic sunt dracones

you do realize given our borderline ocd this will continue to gnaw at us beyond all reason, yes? part o' gorth's nefarious plan to drive us more insane. HA! Good Fun!

start a sentence as follows: why would allen iverson ... end sentence with either real or made up stuff and then have folks try and guess which stuff were real and which were fake. maybe turn into a drinking game or a recurring late night talk show skit. allen iverson is. best not to question. for all we know, ai saw ocean's 12 the night previous and decided the backpack method were a keen idea. maybe he were gonna go down to banks of the delaware river and throw jewelry at the ducks but realized january is not best time to hurl hundreds of thousands o' dollars worth o' jewelry at philadelphia water fowl. you think such suggestions is too outrageous? not for ai. HA! Good Fun!

ok, am gonna admit this image has bothered us every time we view. bottom left o' the pic, next to the woman in the snakeskin (or at least animal print ) jacket is somebody doing something vague with their hands which looks like kinda picking at their fingernails. ew. real issue is... stripped object is a hat? am maybe looking at it wrong, but am not certain at what am looking. is probable obvious and am having somehow made difficult, but... HA! Good Fun!

hate to say it, but am thinking ds9 were so good 'cause roddenberry had died, but hadn't died too remote. core star trek themes and characters and character development choices were still being used in ds9, but after roddenberry death, the star trek folks were able to do a bunch o' shows they never coulda' attempted with a roddenberry driven show. religion. moral ambiguity. war. ds9 were still everything most star trek fans loved 'bout star trek while embracing more difficult themes and less savory characters... especial when those unsavory characters were s'posed the good guys. however, and am admitted repeating self, every star trek series we ever watched (admitted haven't seen more than first episode o' discovery and no picard) had at least a handful o' fantastic episodes. with so much star trek to choose from, watch a half dozen best options for each series has you with many choices and many hours o' some o' the best scifi tv entertainment evar... and some o' best tv period. thanks to stuff such as netflix, we watch those handful from each series every so often and am reminded just how good every star trek has been... when star trek was good. as for shows which ended good we will admit cheers is near top o' the list but am having no difficulty naming other wins. breaking bad and angel (and we didn't particular like angel show) is stuff which would be known to the obsidian crowd. barney miller were too old for most folks to recall but were a near perfect finale and am doubting many watched newhart but can't help but smile when am recollecting end o' the show. an inexplicable ambivalent choice for us is the the wire which if you ask us next week 'bout the finale we may have a different opinion. might be an outlier, but am recalling how much we disliked most o' the mash finale, so if such an admission complete undercuts what we has already observed, then so much the better as you may feel thorough justified in ignoring the rest o' our post. HA! Good Fun!

on some level, such a revelation would be refreshing. turns out the illuminati is a bunch o' grumpy old ex-hippy peaceniks who want more bank regulation and universal health care? hard to see that kinda illuminati as particularly frightening. HA! Good Fun!

yes. nevertheless, if you are looking to make a point and wanna claim technical accuracy... sure, am suspecting is other bernie crazies out there in America. shady jokes, but am betting there is more than a few loons who managed to work their way up the volunteer hierarchy o' any number o' campaigns desperate for warm bodies willing to do work for no and near-no pay. don't need look particular hard. fact you got one or a dozen is hardly surprising. am gonna mention this again, 'cause is still mind boggling to us, but trump keeps attacking windmills.... and not metaphorical. the guy gets elected President and he public claims the sound from wind turbines causes cancer. the President has, more than once suggested how impeachment and removal o' his corpulent arse from office will lead to literal civil war. am genuine not certain what counts as excessive crazy in 2020 politics. we keep applying a 1980s or 1990s standard and am realizing daily how out of touch we are. the bernie crazy were arrested btw. HA! Good Fun!

allen iverson could, we suspect, replace florida man as a recurring meme. HA! Good Fun!

freedom dividend is a bit like freedom fries? again, yang needs Congress to get his taxes. we'll just tax amazon and other companies voters instant recognize as sooper successful and rich is not a particular well thought out plan. as already mentioned, alaska already has a freedom dividend which hasn't worked the way yang promises. check out alaska permanent fund dividend. $1000 per adult money is not gonna sudden appear, and pretend like increased well being and hoped for better education is gonna natural bolster economy is just fantasy nonsense. HA! Good Fun! ps in spite o' criticism o' ubi from hoover institute folks and fact it has never yet worked... anywhere, am in favor o' collecting more data. human nature and politics is some o' the biggest hurdles seen in ontario canada and finland and other places where tests petered out and died. yeah, the economic problems o' a multi trillion dollar a year program is daunting, but is true that the manufacturing jobs which has been a pillar o' america's labor force for so long is gone and not coming back while automation and ai will replace even more jobs in years to come. this is an idea (an old idea which first gained traction in the late 18th century btw) which needs to be explored. turn the US into the experiment to test such w/o dealing first with all the problems? dumb. dumb on a grand scale.

we so often disagree with gd, but will observe a kinda/sorta agreement on the bernie observation. is a fundamental and pervasive misconception 'bout what Presidents do in our system. trump, for first two years, had both senate and house backing and nevertheless accomplished almost nothing worth repeating. anybody else still waiting on the big infrastructure program? heck, infrastructure investment had bipartisan support and we still got nothing. sure, for a guy self promoting as a deal maker such impotence should be emasculating, but one must also needs recognize how the President, any President, can't do the vast majority o' all the things they promise while running for office w/o Congress actual passing laws. yang wants to give $1000 to every adult? ok, beyond fact such stuff hasn't worked as planned in europe and alaska, where is money gonna come from to make such a plan work? is only so many dod dollars which may be diverted from disaster rebuilds and levee maintenance projects even if yang goes with emergency powers declaration and hopes Courts move as slow as they have with trump. warren has more comprehensive plans than yang, but is a freaking house o' cards which is utter doomed 'cause real world intrudes on her fantasies. can get the healthcare and education support but only if her tax scheme is adopted as envisioned and certain economic thresholds is achieved. alter one card and the whole thing tumbles. even w/o a looming recession worries, is no way tax scheme o' warren gets passed by Congress w/o serious compromises, which results in fails and compromises o' all those programs dependent on money which is no more real than the stuff hasbro prints for their monopoly game. is same story for most all the other candidates. particular with current polarization which makes bipartisan support for any paradigm shifting program unlikely if not impossible, voters is nevertheless looking to vote for a messiah rather than a President. is stoopid. is wrong. is doomed. oh, and tulsi may not be crazy, but we don't get her campaign 'cause running as an islamophobe who cozies up with some o' the world's more notorious authoritarians while expressing homophobic personal beliefs and attacking the Church of Obama on fox with some regularity is no way to secure the democratic nomination. only things she gots gong for her is: 1) pretty much everybody hates hillary these days, so getting hillary hate is a win for tulsi and 2) most vets want an end to "endless wars"... though tulsi is actual in favor o' endless drone strikes and special forces assassinations, so whatever. regardless, Presidents aren't meant to do what most voters want 'em to do. thank goodness for the disconnect. we can't imagine how much worse the last three years mighta' been if trump coulda' indulged all his erratic and impulsive urges. HA! Good Fun!

for any interested https://www.c-span.org/video/?70097-1/judge-nathaniel-jones-tribute begins at 1:58 and we would recommend listening to at least 8:30ish. should be worth the effort. judge jones speaks at 34:00ish. HA! Good Fun!

a few days ago spent almost 24 hours stuck in a room with a talkative republican with no way to escape. pretended to sleep for a few hours were our only relief. regardless, were a surreal experience and we thought the poor guy's head would explode when we observed how criticizing obama to make trump seem less mendacious and impotent were a waste o' time 'cause: 1) obama flaws did nothing to diminish trump's inability to get anything substantive requiring meaningful executive action done in three years save for a tax cut for rich and relief for small business owners... and we admitted the small business owner thing were actual a noteworthy positive. 2) as Gromnir didn't approve o' most obama policies, foreign and domestic, constant railing 'bot obama were less effective than he appeared to believe. we felt a little sympathy for the fellow as we could tell he had no idea how to respond to somebody who were not polarized in the way he expected. were likely outside his experience. however, am not subscribing to the notion o' a choice 'tween the democrats and republicans is wasted. is a false dichotomy and the kinda lazy binary thinking which only makes another four years o' trump more likely. HA! Good Fun! ps to be fair, we also observed how trump stepping in to direct the atf to prohibit bump stocks were a positive and warranted given the disgusting reluctance o' Congress to do anything 'bout the issue... a view which offended our temporary roomy's purist second amendment notions. go figure.

doesn't much concern us how long somebody has been here, but factual misrepresentations as well as a misplaced desire to inject race into a topic is unfortunate regardless o' a poster's national origin. in the short time skarpen has been posting (HA!) he has made a habit o' logic and fact fails which is disproportionate plentiful relative to post count. unrelated, but on-topic and curious relevant, sad news o' the passing o' nathaniel r. jones got much less press than kobe.

just noticed we didn't elaborate on the caramelized tomato paste option. is a slightly more labor intensive way to get umami flavor into the sauce as 'posed to worcestershire. 2:1 tomato paste to oil ratio. for amount of sauce you are looking at 'tween 2ish tablespoons o' caramelized paste. 'course as you are caramelizing, vegetable oil is a better choice than extra virgin olive oil. add oil to paste in pot/pan over medium heat for a few minutes. you still use 1/4 C o' extra virgin olive oil for the sauce, but use veggie oil to caramelize the paste. we buy the tomato paste in a tube, but if you purchase in a can, caramelize the entire can and then freeze whatever you do not use. saves well. am not sure what kinda joke is the tomato paste can sizes from processors, but is always too little or too much... and then what do you do with maybe 1.5T o' leftover tomato paste anyways? make little tablespoon sized balls or cubes o' paste and then freeze. use as needed whenever. as you mentioned crock pot, we will mention our typical cooking receptacle for marinara is actual a porcelain coated dutch oven. as we noted earlier, no metal contact with tomatoes is ideal. tomatoes have enough acid to stain the porcelain a bit, but c'est la vie. a splash or two o' worcestershire is a bit easier and if you tell folks you caramelized tomato paste to get extra depth o' flavor, chances are they won't realize the difference. HA! Good Fun!

marinara is meatless, but throw in some sausage is not gonna ruin any marinara. marinara "recipes" is almost pointless as there is maybe a handful o' ingredients and nothing particular complicated. is little tricks individuals use which may (or may not) improve. 1/4 extra-virgin, best quality you can find, olive oil 4-6 cloves garlic... sliced thin like paulie does don't need actual razor, but smaller is the mince or slice, the more flavor with less bitter you get. 1/2 large onion fine chopped. a couple 28 oz cans o' plum/pear tomatoes (crushed by hand in a glass bowl) small handful o' basil. chop or tear or even mince. salt & pepper red wine optionals: dried spices... forbear maybe a bit o' sugar 1/2 teaspoon worcestershire caramelized tomato paste heat oil and add onion. we add salt pepper and whatever dried spices we may fancy at this point. using dried basil and oregano? not our thing, but we have done so and some folks like, so... whatever. add dried spices to onion and oil as will suffuse oil with flavor. stir onion 'til well and good translucent but not caramelizing. add garlic and cook 'til noticeable fragrant. maybe a minute. likely less than 2 minutes for garlic. add tomatoes and bring to simmer. (can add your meat here as well.) cook for at least an hour. add 1/4 o' good dry red wine when adding tomatoes never hurts and is part o' our ordinary operation. tomatoes, particular if you cook in a metal pot/pan can take on a sharp and, well, metallic kinda bite. add 1/2 teaspoon o' sugar if you notice any metallic bite. the tiny bit o' sugar will not alter flavor o' sauce other than to counter the acids. last 10-15 minutes or so o' cooking, add your fresh basil. add at end will impart basil flavor but herb should remain bright green, which is aesthetic appealing. is actual better to cook in glass or nonstick pans/pots 'cause tomatoes is highly reactive. can strain the seeds outta the tomatoes if you really want to. is curious, but while we live in the sacramento valley, which boasts arguable the tastiest tomatoes on the planet, we prefer canned tomatoes for marinara... if nothing else. no doubt there is some arcane science which would explain, but we cannot say what is reason for superiority o' canned. many folks swear by san marzano tomatoes. most stores carry san marzano variety. can always order from amazon. a small splash o' worcestershire (small) will add a bit o' welcomed umami flavor, but if you add sausage is likely unnecessary. bolognese is a classic italian meat sauce and is not served with pasta. traditional bolognese does not include any tomato. a ragu, on the other hand, will include tomato, but not much, and may be served with pasta. as tomato is a minor addition to ragu, am not thinking it is not what you were looking at building. HA! Good fun!

you shouldn't. 'course you are paying for all the unfortunate and broader economic side effects which come with students en masse unable to pay off their student loans. becomes a pragmatic question o' which costs to you is less in the long run. gd shouldn't need pay either way, but he will. need make choices. these are adults making the mistakes with student loans, but we do sympathize a bit. dangers o' student loans is a bit better communicated today than when we were going to school, but only slight. more than once we were told by school and family members how invest on education were never a waste. Ha! you got schools and parents and freaking society pushing the notion University is a need and if you don't go to college you will be a failure. heck, might only be slight hyperbole to observe how if the med school student in the example 'bove had gone to a trade school for hvac, they could be thinking o' early retirement 'stead o' looking forward to another $350k o' payments. observe how there is nothing wrong with trade schools is so weird, 'cause it rightful presupposes many people believe there is something wrong with trade schools. so stoopid 'course we cannot complain. low interest (relative) student loans is how we were able to get started in real estate investment while in school. work near full-time while going to school full time were difficult, but a few years o' pain were worth it in the long run... worth it for us. other than loan sharks, how else would Gromnir, with no assets, get tens o' thousands o' dollars in loans for three consecutive years? we owned multiple properties before graduation. HA! Good Fun!