Gromnir

y'know, that sorta reasonable behaviour is so last century. nobody is gonna take you seriously in 2022 unless you express your outrage at them. being practical and recognizing the need for compromise might as well make you one o' them. curiously, is ok if your fury and indignation at the designated injustice or villain dujour is limited to frequent social media posts. voting and grassroots activism or volunteering is swell and all, but nowadays is all 'bout getting followers and accumulating likes from witty tweets. HA! Good Fun! ps as he is from wv, am getting why manchin defends the fossil fuel industry and coal in particular. am admitted having a bit more difficulty understanding why he seems to hate kids, particularly poor kids.

Sandy Hook Parents’ Attorney Tells Judge ‘Various’ Federal and ‘Law Enforcement’ Agencies Want Access to Alex Jones’s Inadvertently Disclosed Data Judge Gamble denied the mistrial motion and indicated that Jones’s legal team likely would not be able to stuff the proverbial toothpaste wholly back into the tube. “I’m not going to seal the quantity of information without knowing what’s in it,” she said. Medical records, she indicated, likely would remain sealed. “We can have a little bit of time while we’re waiting to research whether there’s some reason I should not allow Mr. Bankston to make those two disclosures,” she added, referring to the Jan. 6 Committee and plaintiffs’ lawyers from the Connecticut litigation. after a brief in camera viewing, expected outcome is all those texts 'bout which alex jones took the 5th regarding post election voter fraud nonsense and january 6th is gonna end up with the january 6 committee and the doj. HA! Good Fun!

she is reasonably popular with independents, and arizona is an oddball state with ~30% identifying as independent. 'course for primaries sinema's popularity with independents and republicans is immaterial. only registered democrats vote in democrat primaries. her behaviour the past couple years is just so... weird. if there is method to the madness, we don't see it, and she ain't having any sorta consistency which would make these kinda moves predictable; can't even chalk it up as her being an idealogue. am admitted perplexed. HA! Good Fun!

Kyrsten Sinema Is Demanding Democrats Keep A Tax Break For The Super-Wealthy am not sure how many times on this board we has mentioned the hedge fund exception as one o' the few ez and obvious ways to address US tax issues. is not as if am particular insightful neither as guys like bill gates, warren buffett and a host o' other billionaire but not hedge fund managers has identified the hedge fund exception as a clear abuse which needs be addressed. nevertheless, sinema is backing the wall street guys which would be ok for a democrat in the nineties and if your name were clinton. take a quick peek at the calendar and see it is most certain not 1994. point is, am not certain how this doesn't add to the admitted long list o' reasons why arizona democrats is looking to primary the senator in a couple years. ... previous to 2004 when she joined the democrats, she were a spokesperson for the green party. makes us wonder what sorta infernal bargain were struck by the arizona politician. HA! Good Fun!

the most obvious solution is to get folks good paying jobs and health care coverage 'cause exploiting anger and fear is what folks such as steve bannon and limbaugh were doing extreme successful for the last couple decades. is far less outrage from folks who have financial security for themselves and their family. also, the more education a constituency enjoys, the less likely they is targets for radicalization. is largely correlative evidence supporting the tendency to see lower radicalization rates as education increases, but so what? get people more education and economic security and the crazy element decreases. so insofar as the radicals, all shady need do is reverse the trend o' red states to teach base approved curriculum via a pedagogy designed to not offend those who is already radicalized while simultaneous fixing the income disparity problem which has been growing for decades. ez peasy. am not seeing any fix for the complicity o' the vast majority o' gop moderates. you are correct in recognizing the truth that calling self moderate is dubious if you are willing to go along with the radicals. nevertheless, the radicals is at least 33% o' the gop in 2022 and to win in races 'gainst moderate democrats in battleground states, the radicals cannot be alienated if the gop wants to get republican candidates elected. is a transactional decision on the part o' moderate republicans to look away from the rot in the party. how do you fix complicity if there is no practical bridge too far? the crazy o' january 6 and fed troops in portland kidnapping protesters didn't result in change? Donald Trump: 'I Could ... Shoot Somebody, And I Wouldn't Lose Any Voters' wasn't true in 2016. maybe not true in 2022... but am far less certain. HA! Good Fun! ps win no matter the cost is a US 2022 problem.

the kansas abortion numbers is the reverse o' the trump v. biden results from the 2020 election. is not a win issue for republicans. however, given the US tribalism and polarization we see today, am unsure how much meaning we derive from the results in kansas save for as an issue-specific concern. sure, a whole lotta republicans is obvious reluctant to support a few o' the draconian abortion bans we are seeing implemented by republican controlled legislatures in numerous states, which would appear to reveal a disconnect tween the elected and the voters. even so, how many republicans in kansas, texas, ohio, mississippi or elsewhere will now vote for a democrat 'cause o' their personal pro choice stance? the republican party needs the increasing radicalized and angry base to win elections, but moderate republican voters, and many independents, will ignore or accept any gop excess as long as the alternative is voting democrat. HA! Good Fun!

the only interweb cooking site we got bookmarked and check regular is american test kitchen. am mentioning 'cause we saw a video on the atk site which we found interesting... well, at least a minute or so were interesting as tomato water intrigued us not at all. am thinking were 'bout 3:30ish is what were new for us. has to do with tomato jelly, and is not some kinda tomato preserve but is a method to return concentrated tomato flavour back into long simmering tomato dishes. is probable less useful if you use roma tomatoes for your sauce (romas has less jelly and seeds than other tomato varieties) but am suspecting we may use this technique to infuse fresh tomato jelly goodness into sauces when using canned or romas as the base. clarification-- what we meant were if we make sauce from can or am using romas, then we could also squeeze out the jelly from a few fresh and vine-ripened beefsteak tomatoes which we then add to our sauce after a period o' long simmer. ... kinda makes obvious what a food dork/nerd we is that we found a tomato video worth sharing, but so it goes. gonna embrace our truth. HA! Good Fun! ps (late edit) one o' the reasons we add a small 'mount o' worcestershire sauce to our tomato based sauces is 'cause o' the high glutamate levels o' tomatoes. nucleotides functional turbo charge the flavour from glutumates and am not exaggerating as is a 30-40x enhancement. the anchovies in worcestershire, when using small quantities, is gonna go unnoticed in a large pot o' tomato sauce, but the neucleotides make a big difference to the umami quality o' the tomatoes.

begs the question: will the enhanced edition release also be delayed? regardless o' answer, am likely gonna wait 'til a week or so post enhanced edition to try more wotr. HA! Good Fun!

sure weren't particular helpful to bush. as we noted, at the time the President took serious political heat for the move which were unpopular with evangelicals and conservatives. am s'posing the idea is bush were willing to undercut his own political leverage to possible future enrich his defense secretary? after 2001 rumsfield was no longer a board member o' a pharmaceutical company, but he did have financial interest in gilead and gilead has a history o' shiesty shenanigans... and rumsfield sold most o' his gilead stock in 2005 making media worthy money by taking advantage o' the avian flu scare and the resulting explosion o' stock value 'cause o' tamiflu patents. the patents gilead acquired on hiv drugs didn't happen 'til 2003, the same year pepfar legislation became law, which is gonna trigger the conspiracy folks but ignores actual timing o' relevant events. fauci were sent to africa by bush in early 2002 which were some time after bush had discussed the issue with other cabinet members. so, a complex bush scheme to enrich not himself but rumsfield by supplying sub-saharan africa with life saving antivirals requires a bit o' conspiracy theory manipulation as well as all too common post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacies. tough sell. HA! Good Fun! ps am recalling a couple stories from ~2011 referencing a complaint from 2007 directed at gilead vis a vis hiv treatments. the underhanded stuff didn't involve the hiv drug patent per se but beginning in 2006 gilead were implementing functional forced licensing agreements. am uncertain what became o' the complaint, but am admitting if gilead were involved our starting (and admitted not complete fair) assumption is that they were doing something unabashed terrible to a mind boggling number o' people for an improbable amount o' time.

is plenty o' reasons to dislike President bush, but he went against party and gained the ire o' many conservatives by not only caring 'bout a disease which at the time were considered a curse on homosexuals by too many in this country but by sending money to africa with almost no short-term roi prospects. sure, in 2022 we got kinda/sorta bipartisan support for pepfar, but such were most assured not the case at the time. you and Gromnir can do little 'bout the hiv problem which continues to plague too much o' the world, but you may vote for representatives, senators and Presidents who care 'bout the same stuff you do, and those people collective may bring 'bout the changes you believe is appropriate. and sometimes, as in the case o' bush, determined individuals may bring 'bout monumental change. you caring might mean as little as self-educating and then voting for national level government folks who are capable o' making the world a better place, or at least a world a bit less terrible. is a flood in bangladesh which kills hundreds or thousands tomorrow or next year. we have empathy for the dead and those survivors who must rebuild... again. however, unless we know somebody who actual died, is unlikely we weep over the bangladesh deadly floods. at the same time am forced to decide just how concerned we actually are 'bout the dead and future dead in places like bangladesh. how do we change our votes based on candidates who could do something? am honest enough to admit a Presidential candidate's position on infrastructure aid to bangladesh is not a priority. chilloutman is unlikely to be concerned 'bout anything bad happening in south america. *shrug* converse, while the khashoggi murder represents the death o' one reporter we never met, we would/will change vote depending on how our elected officials responded. ... am also gonna recognize how at the time we were ambivalent 'bout bush's efforts to combat hiv in africa. helping were the right thing to do but the help were also representing a whole lotta money and while we ain't a maga proponent am gonna concede we prioritize homeless US veterans over nameless and faceless multitudes in sub-saharan africa. is perhaps unfortunate a US President has more power to help those in africa than he does homeless and/or mental ill in topeka. even so, while pepfar were not a voting priority for us in the early 2000s, am glad bush were more caring o' the suffering o' those in africa than were Gromnir. HA! Good Fun!

self-lawyering all too often results in self-harm and we highly recommend avoiding such conjecture. regardless, the school board released a single statement to the public stating that teachers got first amendment freedoms which need be observed but the board were nevertheless suspending the teacher and investigating him 'cause o' his reported presence at the Capitol on january 6. turns out the teacher were never at the Capitol-- just some douchey twitter nonsense posted while he were in DC for the stop the steal rally... posts which seemed to advocate insurrection . school board does investigation which clears the teacher o' any actionable malfeasance and tells him he should return to work. teacher's complaint is two-fold: 1) he wants a public apology to clear his name. 2)the board were wrong to public release info regarding their investigation o' the teacher's january 6 activities. 'ccording to teacher, as a member o' the teacher union collective bargaining agreement provisions, the board were precluded from discussing the matter o' his investigation until he had been provided a process to defend himself. having not read the agreement, we cannot say what is the school board duties. however, as the matter o' the teacher's january 6 activities were a matter o' public interest thanks in large part due to the teacher's questionable social media practices, the rules for board behaviour is likely not as cut-and-dry as teacher's lawyer might claim. whatever beef the teacher has with the board is largely a contract issue related to his collective bargaining agreement. media pundits latched onto a rando story and skewed the narrative a bit so that it fits whatever is their chosen point o' view, but is less substance to the story than one might assume based on reports from cnn or fox or wherever. HA! Good Fun!

twice-baked taters is a good start. am original from the midwest so we got family who has no doubt found a way to add gravy and deep fry... probable add a pickle o' some sort as well. not a criticism. am personal a proponent o' the Cheese and Meat school o' cooking. every meal leaving our kitchen needs promote cheese and/or meat with both being the ideal plating solution. bread and sweets is swell and all, and am understanding vegetables and fruits have nutritional value or some such. that said, from our pov, most o' those other "foods" is platforms or vehicles for cheese and/or meat. ... gonna admit we also require garlic. is a handful o' garlic-free recipes in our regular rotation, but those is outliers. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna take "whataboutism" for $800, alex. HA! Good Fun!

am also a fan o' brisket, but am also cheap and brisket has become scary expensive o' late, so we found an alternative. we do not smoke meat too often, but when we do we got the little chief. as an alternative to brisket we use a 4-5lb chunk o' chuck at least 4" thick with as much intermuscular connective tissue as we can find and a fair amount o' internal fat. trim off all the external fat. might be difficult to find such thick cuts o' chuck w/o speaking to your butcher and requesting. regardless, we cook virtual the same way we would brisket with low and slow smoke for hours ('bout 5-6 depending on how long it takes to reach right internal temp o' 'bout 145F.), then wrap in foil (tight) for an additional +3 three hours in a regular oven at 225F. goal is to get to almost fall apart tender, but not quite. is art and not science so is no specific time or internal temp which is gonna enlighten you as to when is actual done. regardless, once we hit almost fork tender, we remove meat from foil and then put back in the oven for another twenty minutes so the surface crust gets dry and sets up a bit. take outta the oven and tent for another twenty minutes before slicing. takes a long time to cook not-brisket this way, but is almost complete hands-off for +90% o' total time. we didn't mention what kinda chips we use for smoke 'cause everybody has their own preference and nobody is right. only seasoning is dalmatian-- salt and pepper. we go heavy on the salt. is 4" cuts, so you want extreme salt and is best to let sit in fridge overnight after seasoning. am too cheap to do brisket nowadays particular when the chuck turns out so great. HA! Good Fun!

short answer "On Sunday, a ruling party member of Serbia’s parliament even tweeted that Serbia may “also be forced to begin the denazification of the Balkans,” invoking the same spurious framing through which Putin justified his invasion of Ukraine." *shrug* sock puppets. HA! Good Fun!

is worth noting 'bout half o' oglala is christian, most o' those is catholic. during and particular after the so-called "indian wars," more than a few o' the christian missionaries, at great personal risk, placed themselves 'tween the US government and native peoples. is also easy to forget just how many US military officers and enlisted men vilified the treatment o' indigenous peoples, and the basis for such vocal rejection o' US policy were typical rooted in the christian beliefs o' those military men. we always hear stories o' massacres and violence, but we rare hear 'bout the ordinary line officers who open criticized President grant and others. the oglala o' the late 1800s were understandably less concerned with the history o' christianity than they were with the actions and behaviour o' those claiming to be christian. elanor is a passionate young woman, and we applaud her efforts, but try and imagine the nineteen year-old criticizing the faith o' black elk and others who converted to catholicism. one o' the great powers o' the young is the ability to see the world in black and white with stark contrasts 'tween right and wrong. the bad guys is often obvious to young people: the government, republicans, the church, boomers. fight with absolute certainty you is right and that the people you are fighting against is bad is a strength and young people has brought 'bout important change in this world 'cause they often/usual fight with absolute certainty they is right... even if they ain't so right as they thought. am not a fan o' organized religion, but am personal reluctant to curse any major faith. most o' us recognize the manifest unfairness o' damning all muslims 'cause o' the actions taken by individuals on 9/11, yes? that would be wrong. am not gonna do same for christians and blame 'em for the many transgressions o' the christian faithful over the centuries. black elk saw wisdom in catholic teachings that he did not believe invalidated his own beliefs. am personal not believing Gromnir is up to the task o' judging black elk or the many other oglala who found value in their earnest held christian faith. *descends from soap box* HA! Good Fun!

Update 1.4.0d BETA is more than a few significant changes. however, am not gonna help test this release-- will wait for the enhanced edition and the post release plague o' bugs which follows. ... might take a quick peek at the dlc scheduled for august 11, but for now am anticipating no new wotr gameplay for us 'til september 29... or maybe a week or so post september 29 as past experience suggests the initial enhanced edition release will be rough. HA! Good Fun!

as an aside, am not sure why there has never been a fafhrd and gray mouser movie or tv vehicle. is four or five decades worth o' fafhrd and gray mouser stories and leiber's prose style were far easier (better) than tolkien's. c.s. lewis has had animated and live action adaptions o' his works. has been how many conan/robert e. howard movies and shows? there were a couple aborted attempts to do elric movies and tv, which is nevertheless more than has ever been done insofar as leiber's rogues. am having no idea what is the situation with the intellectual property, so perhaps the leiber estate don't want movies or tv, but the absence o' arguable the most entertaining o' the early fantasy works o' fiction from tv and movies is a curiosity. HA! Good Fun!

... ... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57950.Swords_and_Deviltry *shrug* tolkien, howard and leiber arguable represent three o' the top five fiction sources for original d&d. HA! Good Fun!

is worth repeating that Gromnir is a ubi advocate in the sense am recognizing that as automation becomes more common and ai improves, vast swaths o' US jobs is gonna disappear, never to be replaced. ubi, long-term, is unavoidable in our estimation. whatever resistance we got to ubi is sole based on matters o' practicality and implementation. there has been numerous ubi experiments conducted over the decades in europe and the US and none o' those efforts has been sustainable and positive. to manage US $12k per year as some envision would require and additional near $3 trillion per year and is impossible to magic into existence that kinda money. to achieve ubi requires Congress to pass paradigm shifting legislation and am not seeing that happening anytime soon, even if all the kinks in past programs could be addressed so is feasible with a diverse republic such as the US. HA! Good Fun! ps keep in mind Gromnir also is not bothered by free rider problems in large social programs. as we noted, am disappointed, baffled and not surprised by the folks who is angered 'cause kids who ain't needy might get free school lunch or breakfast while attempting to feed those who desperate need such a program. so what if bill gates receives ubi if hundreds o' thousands and possible millions is lifted outta poverty? can't let a few hypocrites and ne'er-do-wells sabotage beneficial social programs. as we observed, "any social program is gonna suffer a free rider problem." inevitable. our point were naught save to address the most common ubi hypocrisy we has seen on these boards.

we would say the friedman observation that, "The number of people on welfare has been skyrocketing. Why? Because once they get on welfare, we make it almost impossible for them to get off," is indeed complete wrong. is not almost impossible to "get off" welfare and statistics reveal most persons/families do indeed stop taking free money sooner as well as later. yeah, there is more than a handful o' folks who abuse the system. any social program is gonna suffer a free rider problem. unlike welfare/snap/disability, with ubi it is initially rich people and middle class who will be free riders exploiting the handout, yes? based on extreme limited example o' obsidian feedback, the most ardent appeal o' ubi is a prospective free rider exploit where individuals who have jobs and own property and can afford to send kids to college nevertheless want the free money. regardless, the welfare trap is not as friedman describes... nowhere close. HA! Good Fun! ps to make clear, to describe as a trap near impossible to escape when more than 50% stop taking welfare w/i the first year and 90% terminate benefits w/i five years, strains credulity, no? if Gromnir or @Achilles made such a boast we would at best be accused o' gross hyperbole.

what fruit? am assuming is a non factor for stuff such as cherry, apricot and even grape jams... and 'course orange marmalade, which am s'posing is technical jam. converse, never woulda occurred to us to try and remove the seeds from something such as blueberries. raspberry, blackberry and strawberry is perhaps targets for seedless, but am admitting have never seen such and now that am forewarned we will avoid. unrelated, am serious considering downsizing our place, which would mean needing staring kitchen anew. the problem we got is the property we own which makes the most sense is having a downdraft cooktop and the current cabinets would allow for only a 30" wide cooktop replacement. if we wanna do gas or induction we would likely need one o' those telescoping downdraft risers, but the countertop is also only 24" deep, so is an extreme tight fit. there is a nice wolf 30" induction cooktop we had considered, but am gonna need serious professional consultation 'cause is no way am doing this our self. HA! Good Fun!

interesting third point. too bad is complete wrong. the majority o' adult welfare recipients get benefits less than a year and 90% stop w/i five years. somewhere 'tween 1/2 and 2/3 who leave welfare w/i a year do so 'cause they found meaningful gainful employment... ~15% leave 'cause o' marriage and the remainder is attributable to a variety o' reasons. am wondering how much further the numbers would drop if you accounted for the functional unemployable. for example, seeing as how we does such a bang-up job in this country addressing mental illness o' our homeless population, more than 25% is serious mental ill and ~45% has some documented mental illness. those mental ill individuals is not ideal future employees save for possible gop Presidential candidates and air traffic controllers. the "welfare trap" isn't what is advertised. darn inconvenient facts. HA! Good Fun!

we lived williston, nd for a bit. arid winters, relative speaking. less than a couple feet o' snow all winter. ... is tough to explain how much difference wind chill makes to folks who are unaware. -20F lows is cold, but when wind chill makes -70F and when such conditions last for weeks on end... am guessing is all relative. HA! Good Fun!

ps: possible unnecessary clarification. am not suggesting US schools is anywhere teaching that "socialism is automatically better than capitalism." sure, the new deal is all too often taught as good w/o nuance, but am not claiming is a stoopid endemic either/or fallacy happening in schools where 'cause some aspect o' socialism is indeed glorified it necessarily means capitalism is being derided. such non-existent indoctrination is an imaginary hobgoblin and refuting is not worthy o' debate... but here we are... again. unfortunately, the current gop platform thrives on grievance and if the reality don't fit a narrative o' grievance, the not so alt anymore right creates bs to fit a narrative o' fear and rage which motivates the base. HA! Good Fun!