Gromnir

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!

not to put words in shady's mouth, but that isn't what he said. if were just kobe who died, shady woulda' been ok with critique o' kobe, yes? maybe not fair to lump him in with you and hurl and skarp on this. and how long is enough o' a grace period for fans o' an accused rapist? we waited a day. how much time do you need to grieve before it becomes kinda horrific not to mention kobe's 2003 issues? kp raised example o' harvey weinstein. imagine harvey dies today. if hollywood sudden pretended not to recall #me too and we got Presidents and celebrities pouring out their heartfelt sorrow at harvey's passing, would you be surprised? why? if somebody did a "whoa. hold on a sec," and pointed out that harvey were not a swell guy, would you be annoyed by the critique coming a day after his passing? if the internet, following epstein's suicide, gave us non-stop adulation regarding all the charity works in which jeffery were involved while ignoring the darker subject matter, would you not have been a bit shocked? if kobe died september 2003 in similar circumstances, would we be having this same conversation? if kobe's victim were your sister or mother or close friend, would you feel same? am not gonna change hearts and minds on this, so am quits. that said, mention kobe's death didn't bother us 'til we had a day's worth o' weeping and laments w/o any recognition o' 2003. found such accidental and/or willful oversight to be disturbing. what does such oversight say 'bout the living?

if were an issue o' recreational drug use or unpaid taxes or something similar, we would agree. sexual assault? rape? am unmoved by the feelings o' fans and well wishers at this time... or anytime since 2003. how reflects on living? imagine how his rape victim(s,) a living person must feel. she is no doubt conflicted 'cause she took the money rather than forcing trial and now must needs listen as celebrities and Presidents lament the passing o' a great person. btw, one o' his lawyers, jeffrey scott shapiro, wrote a book and claimed other women were willing to come forward with "me too" stories right up until team kobe started attacking the the victim's reputation in public. how do the other women, most whom we assume is living, feel? am indeed moderate disturbed by how the outpouring o' grief for kobe reflects on the living. as gd mentioned, he forgot 'bout the incident. were 2003 after all and after 'bout a year, most o' kobe's sponsors returned and very few people bothered to mention the unfortunate incident in CO. fact so many forgot is understandable, but is all the more reason to be mentioning... to remind the living. o.j. is in a different wing o' the gallery. different kinda wrong and were a generational kinda trial. ben and kobe never made it to trial, but every few decades we have a court case which polarizes a nation and facts become secondary. stuff such as lizzie borden, o.j. and trump is curious. 'course lizzie and trump ain't athletes, but if not for the bone spurs, who knows what kinda sports giant trump mighta' become. HA! Good Fun! ps as for gd recollecting michael vick and not kobe, am not gonna criticize. have mentioned once or twice how we worked county probation for a few years-- juvenile hall. we worked mostly security and intake, but also we were in j-unit, where the high security "kids" were held awaiting trial. j-unit kids were being held for such stuff such as multiple homicides and/or rape. odd, but we discovered we didn't care what a person were being held for as we were able to treat 'em all the same. or rather, we were able to not care. were surprised how easy it were for us to kinda encapsulate crimes and make the offenses a non issue. when a new resident were added to the population o' j-unit, we would read file. seemed responsible. unfortunate, we read file o' a person who had, in addition to a carjacking, done unspeakable things to multiple dogs. literal unspeakable for us as we refuse to ever discuss details. we mention 'cause we realized after reading file, we did not treat the resident same as everybody else. we were no longer unbiased and fair, though were more subtle than overt. nevertheless, we could not forget what we had read in the file. for us rape and murder were water off a duck's back, but graphic animal cruelty were different? might say something wrong 'bout Gromnir, but am sharing 'cause we never forgot how easily our impartiality were undercut, and were result o' harm to animals.