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Everything posted by Gromnir
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... it's copyright (not trademark) which is at issue. trademark doesn't expire, so boebert is complete wrong on that aspect. what is happening is that steamboat willie is gonna enter public domain in 2024, potential ending disney's ownership o' one depiction o' the cartoon rodent. the thing is, the only version o' mickey which enters public domain in 2024 is the steamboat willie version. however, disney lobbyists were indeed instrumental in getting the copyright term extension act of 1998 passed, so instrumental fact that the act is known more common as the mickey mouse protection act. the act tacked on a potential twenty years o' additional ownership for copyright holders. we wouldn't be surprised if disney is making a half-hearted effort to get another extension act passed, but given recent court cases and legislation, such efforts look like a non-starter. regardless, such a law wouldn't be mickey specific any more than were the so-called mickey mouse protection act. however, it is unlikely anybody really wants to use the character o' mickey mouse from steamboat willie or the story and art from the cartoon. is folks no doubt looking for a way to sell truck mud flaps, waffle irons and gawd knows what else emblazoned with a familiar disney image, but in most such cases, trademark is gonna be preventing the usage. if you are functional selling disney with your image, then you are outta luck trying to use even a public domain version o' mickey. keep in mind the folks who has wanted to use mickey from steamboat willie has been doing so unencumbered by the law for many years, 'cause the most relevant usage for image is as parody which avoids copyright. wake us up in a few years when characters such as batman and superman is set to enter public domain. HA! Good Fun!
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venison sloppy joes is pretty much the same as our ordinary sloppy joe recipe (which replaces green bell pepper with jalapeño, but is gonna otherwise look similar to just about everybody else's sloppy joe recipe,) with one change: bacon. venison is sooper lean. once you brown ground venison, it loses a whole lotta its flavour save for a bit o' background gamey. ½-1 piece o' thick cut bacon per pound o' venison, chopped, reintroduces missing fat w/o being overwhelming. recommendation: do not cook the bacon to death as that would defeat the purpose o' adding the bacon. ... am s'posing the bacon fix would work if we had to make sloppy joes with particular lean ground beef, but am not a complete savage, so have never yet been so estranged from the civilized as to find our self faced with such a dilemma. HA! Good Fun!
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when movies were a relative new medium, the notion of motion pictures as an artform were an unbounded concept. five minutes o' film showing a woman cleaning out a fireplace were thought no less movie worthy than birth of a nation... and in retrospect, probable more worthy. great sculpture and paintings ordinarily capture a single moment w/o requiring a narrative to be evocative. what makes motion pictures different? so we got un chien andalou and the like. is unfortunate movies now has a recognized form, but am also admitting a few o' the early great works o' film impress us less than they is s'posed to. am suspecting the urge to achieve edgelord status were no different 'mongst the "legit" art crowd o' the 1900s than it is today. HA! Good Fun!
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as is lent we do a fair 'mount o' vegetarian fare. today is a soup which tastes much better than it sounds. 4T olive oil two big leaks, maybe three. chop thin 2T (or more) minced garlic 1 head o' cabbage... green is fine. is gonna be a big pot o' soup so am likely missing the value in going with savoy. we slice thin, but if you wanna chop, it won't hurt. 1C dry butter beans. rinse and then soak overnight before making soup. 1.5 C butter beans is ok too. three yukon gold taters. the soup is gonna be more "creamy" if the potatoes break down complete, so dice your potatoes according with the assumption you will likely be looking at 90ish minutes cooking time. 8ish C vegetable stock 4-6 sprigs o' bundled thyme salt lemon parmesan cheese a big pot or dutch oven heat oil and butter in your big pot. add the leaks and cook medium-high until just getting some color. the garlic and cabbage goes in next. stir contents kinda vigorous as you don't want the leaks to be caramelizing at the bottom of the pot. cabbage otta lose a whole lotta water as it cooks-- 8-10 minutes. every remaining ingredient save for lemon and parmesan goes in the pot and then adjust heat after you got contents at a nice simmer; will likely require an hour or so for potatoes and beans to be cooked 'nuff. am not gonna tell you how much salt is required 'cause am not certain. start with 1t added at same time you add stock and other ingredients, but you likely need more. if you are using store bought stock, then maybe less. you may always add salt, but is tougher to remove, so be reasonable. ladle soup into a bowl and give the contents a squeeze o' lemon and a bit o' cheese. serve with crusty bread. HA! Good Fun! ps when is not lent, we add short ribs, which make the soup a whole lot better and also not at all vegetarian. pretty much same directions but season and sear short ribs in you dutch oven as a first step, then set aside. return to the pot along with stock, beans and whatnot. we also substitute at least 1/2 o' the olive oil with butter.
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given how habitual wrong dp prognostications is (e.g. russia invasion), and recognizing his endemic bass ackwards conspiracy riddled post hoc ergo propter hoc reasoning (chinese labs, "proof" of election tampering, etc.,) am actual finding his input reassuring, particular with the anticipated and predictable russian propaganda factory link to highlight the silliness. am not sure what is the spin here on psaki. is doubtful the wh will need work hard to find somebody new to take peter doocy's lunch money almost daily. gotta admit psaki has been one o' the better press secretaries in recent memory, so no doubt her absence will be missed. hunter biden is relevant... again? why? is a serious question. for years now hunter has been a known train wreck. the reason why the laptop weren't a real story is not so much 'cause o' the russian disinformation angle but 'cause o' same reasons it weren't a story october 2020-- the fbi and bill barr had been in possession o' the "laptop from hell" since november 2019 and nothing came o' it. the worst laptop photos and emails from the laptop were already leaked a long time past and we discovered *gasp* that hunter biden has bad selfie discipline and had involved himself in all kinda get-rich-quick schemes with foreign business entities. thank goodness nobody were electing hunter. if joe biden had given hunter top security clearance and made him part o' the day-to-day operations o' the wh, then there would be a story, or at least you would think so. never happened. know what also never happened? the trump doj under barr never found anything on hunter other than possible tax evasion, for which hunter is still being investigated and should not be getting off the hook. you think the trump administration woulda' looked the other way if there were anything else? pre 2020 election some folks in the media were too quick to dismiss a story 'bout hunter biden as complete fake. the thing is, "fake" weren't the problem. the fail o' the story is same now as then 'cause the october surprise is still not particular relevant save for the recognition that hunter is a mess. am no more surprised by that revelations in 2022 than we were in 2020. Flu-conomics: The next pandemic could trigger global recession A 2009 study by economists at the Brookings Institution analyzed the direct economic impact of closing schools during a flu pandemic. Since about one-quarter of civilian workers in the United States have a child under 16 and no stay-at-home adult, closing all the nation’s K-12 schools for two weeks would result in between $5.2 billion and $23.6 billion in lost economic activity; a four-week closing would cost up to $47.1 billion dollars — 0.3 percent of GDP. “Those are only the first-order effects,” says Ross Hammond, who led the Brookings study. “There are also multiplier effects from a multibillion-dollar decline in economic output.” He looked only at lost wages, but people whose income falls because they don’t work for several weeks don’t spend as much, and the people who don’t receive that spending cut their own in turn. In addition, he said, “The decrease in supply of some goods as factories run at less than full capacity might lead to inflation.” story is from 2013, so... wanna do a search for inflation in the US related to the spanish flu? add putin's one-man war o' stoopid to the mix o' factors punishing economies in 2022 and then look to assign blame to US democrats for the economic fallout? perhaps if the trump administration hadn't f'd the pandemic response, things would be better. maybe if there had been leadership to combat the +40% o' anul cranial affixed americans who were possible taking hydroxy and ivermectin while ignoring common sense social distancing guidelines, the US would be in a better economic position, but given how canada and europe is facing much o' the same economic issues, that is a suspect conclusion. doesn't much matter though 'cause Presidents, ordinary non populist Presidents, is indeed blamed for economic problems which is largely outta their control or is more likely to have been exacerbated by a previous administration. biden and democrats will be blamed for inflation, and indeed some o' such blame will be deserved, but not most. regardless, is reassuring to see dp make more prognostications and observations. w/o skarpen_one, you and comrade need pick up the slack as the best weather vanes o' wrong. am tending to agree democrats will face difficult results in 2022, but fact dp thinks is so makes the outcome far less certain. trump 2024? possible but unlikely as am recognizing the only thing which rouses democrat voters from their typical indolence is the possibility o' a second trump Presidency. ah well, were our oversight in forgetting to add you to the list. our bad. HA! Good Fun!
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Former Trump advisor Peter Navarro calls Mike Pence a "traitor to the American Caesar of Trump" somebody wanna tell pete that caesar declared self a dictator? Inside Pence-world's preparation for a Jan. 6 legal showdown “Professor Eastman acknowledges that his proposal violates several provisions of statutory law,” Jacob wrote in that memo. And it concludes: “If the Vice President implemented Professor Eastman’s proposal, he would likely lose in court.” pence were no hero. the vp were active promoting the stolen election narrative both before and after november 2020. however, when it got to the point where pence were asked to get his own hands dirty and perform an overt illegal act, he wavered and then refused. A Judge Says Trump Broke the Law. Here’s Why That Matters. Carter’s ruling that Eastman was not entitled to withhold the emails because lawyer-client privilege does not apply to felonious behavior is very much an Emperor’s New Clothes moment. Unlike Watergate, the Iran-Contra affair, and many other important scandals of the past, the investigation into Trump’s efforts to illegally overturn the 2020 election did not need to uncover well-hidden secrets in order to get to the truth, although there were some secrets — including Eastman’s road map for how to steal the election. But the bulk of what Trump did was in plain sight. So as important as it is to fill in all the details, the most important thing is what Judge Carter did on Monday: accurately labeling Trump’s actions. ... kinda puts merrick garland in a bind. once you got a judge declare laws were likely violated, then it makes tougher for the doj to declare they found no evidence worthy o' prosecution. in any event, pence's "treason" is at least temporarily vindicated as now you got a fed judge ruling that the plot trump and eastman promoted, the plot which would rely on pence involvement, were (knowing) illegal and thus not worthy o' privilege claims. HA! Good Fun! ps good news/bad news addition: Federal judge blocks Florida restrictive voting law In a stinging 288-page ruling, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Mark Walker declared the bulk of the state’s new voting rules unconstitutional and issued a permanent injunction barring their enforcement. ... ok, but the bad news is our recognition o' the shadow docket case we mentioned earlier in this thread. the Court has already telegraphed their overt animosity towards the vra provisions which judge walker used to grant his injunction. judge walker did what he were s'posed to do (and what texas fed judges refused to do insofar as roe v. wade applicable cases) but this is likely a short-lived victory for defenders o' the vra. and am gonna repeat how is no way five years ago we woulda' predicted a near unanimous congressional gop as well as a scotus majority would be seeking to purge section 2 o' the vra. am not quite at dystopian nightmare stage, but along with the attempted january 6 insurrection and the general p00p stain on all things constitutional which were the trump Presidency, am not looking forward to what comes next.
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unfortunate, rush limbaugh, newt gingrich, steve bannon and others realized you don't need to appeal to The People to successful install a President. the trump base represents an all-too significant % o' the republican party, but not anywhere near all and likely not even a majority, though the gop has become so complicit with trumpism it is difficult for those in power to extricate themselves. if you are a gop candidate and more than 1/3 o' registered voters is more loyal to a populist such as trump than to traditional conservative values, or some fuzzy notion o' the republican party, then you need pander to trump for support, a problem which itself only exists 'cause o' the all too predictable problems J. Stevens identified in his citizens united dissent. trumpism is a minority movement, but 'cause o' the curious electoral college mechanics o' the US, a movement which is bankrupt o' ideals but instead full embraces odious and ignorant appeals to grievance, it were able to exploit a flaw in the system. potus as described in The Constitution is not popular elected. is in part why the "inner soul of the people" schtick don't work. trump also generated more loathing than any Presidential candidate in living memory, which is why so many democrats actual got off their arse to vote for a not popular candidate such as biden. successful elected Presidents were typical a consensus candidate, arguable representing the will o' the people, which is in part why soul stuff worked. the thing is, historic US polarization made a mockery o' such typicals. the real evil, the one folks refuse to see 'cause it is the ugliness confronting 'em in the mirrors, is too many americans, republican, democrat and independents, saw trump as no worse than the alternatives or perhaps as the one candidate who might bring 'bout needed change. trump spent four years proving those folks wrong and 'cause o' polarization, trump actual became more popular than when he were initial elected. a candidate such as donald were improbable in American politics. it took an unlikely juxtaposition o' factors to make the successful candidacy o' a not particular popular candidate such as 45 possible. who woulda' predicted more than a generation o' unmitigated and increasing income disparity which led to considerable white working class american rage at all things washington? is no way americans would ignore such for decades, yes? successful trumpism required the Court turning a blind eye to dark money and election profiteering, which made gop complicity in obvious trump evils not only possible but probable. recall, every gop presidential candidate vilified trump for his muslim ban announcement as the bigoted fear mongering it so transparent were, but now those same folks is full embracing border walls, crt and other nonsense. trumpism were dependent on a curious Constitutional aberration which has the President NOT elected by popular vote in spite o' most americans believing such to be the case. furthermore, while a european and parliamentary leader may be unsuccessful for years and retain power surprising nobody, that were never a real possibility in the US... until trump. etc. trump hardly is representative o' the inner soul o' the american people, but he does speak to the torpor, willful ignorance and complicity o' far too many americans. perhaps makes worse that trump is less representative o' the american soul, but rather the american capacity for self-delusion and denial as well as the recognition o' a curious alignment o' improbables... improbables which the current gop is successful exploiting in an attempt to repeat same mistakes. HA! Good Fun! ps we also forgot to mention how fox news and social media changed the equation. increased polarization as a result o' the success o' fox news, breitbart and social media's targeting algorithms which fed the lunatic fringe the news they wanted to believe were a self perpetuating and magnifying calamity in a way not previous understood.
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The TV and Streaming Thread: Where is Ricky Gervais when you need him???
Gromnir replied to Zoraptor's topic in Way Off-Topic
am more annoyed by the possibility it were less 'bout temper and more 'bout relative power. will smith, like so many actors, athletes and executives, has learned he is insulated from consequences. most people with power realize it is fundamental wrong to do violence to others unless one is protecting those who cannot defend themselves from violence. however, there is exceptions. will smith correct anticipated the consequences o' his actions. shame on the academy. shame on his defenders. shame on will smith. am understanding will smith were asked to leave following the incident. he refused to do so. can imagine if gorth or Gromnir smacked an employee at subway and then refused to leave? what woulda' been the consequences? for those who have not read, insights from kareem abdul-jabbar Will Smith Did a Bad, Bad Thing that said, the oscars slap is hardly the worst thing an actor, athlete or executive has gotten away with (this week?) sans any real consequences. doesn't make the slap less offensive, or at least it should not. as to aphasia... our symptoms is transient and nowadays we suffer such every six months or so. curious, but not uncommon for those suffering our flavour o' migraine, our frequency o' incidence is decreasing as we age. regardless, aphasia is why we always carry a laminated card with us we may offer to concerned onlookers explaining our inability to speak. once happened on a plane, leading to a bit o' panic. is a few explanations for relative brief symptoms o' aphasia which is less concerning than stroke. not many. doesn't sound like bruce willis' aphasia is transient and infrequent if it is forcing him to stop acting. am wishing best o' luck to bruce willis and his family. -
The What Are You Reading thread (now with a simpler name)
Gromnir replied to Amentep's topic in Way Off-Topic
just finished the three-cornered war 'bout to start one mighty and irresistible tide am willing to recommend the first offering we mention. readable. HA! Good Fun! -
The TV and Streaming Thread: Where is Ricky Gervais when you need him???
Gromnir replied to Zoraptor's topic in Way Off-Topic
sadly, we have no trouble believing how many have reflexive defended will smith. is another one o' those impulse control incidents which so disappoint us 'cause actors, athletes and executives get a different standard and am almost as disturbed by people rushing to defend the wrongdoer as we is by the initial battery. this is so not a "public eye" incident being unnecessarily magnified. how many people did chris rock insult during the eve before his gi jane quip? will smith were okie dokie with all the previous jokes, so his speech 'bout being a "protector" strikes us as hornswoggle. am knowing mr. smith didn't wanna look like a b!tch by apologizing to chris rock, but that woulda' taken far more courage and woulda' meant something. 'cause o' trump, the washington correspondent's dinner stopped the tradition o' having comedians host. gonna do the same for the oscars? am guaranteeing if you got a comedian host the oscars next year there will be a joke more offensive than the gi jane bit. antifa thinks is swell to respond to offensive speech with violence, and is a shocking number o' americans who do not have a problem with such behaviour. and anybody who is going around and smacking people 'cause o' the equivalent o' the chris rock gi jane joke, seek professional help. do in private and get away with such behaviour don't make your actions less disturbing. if you genuine do not have the impulse control to restrain yourself from attacking a comedian, then you got a problem and you should seek help. making excuses? is disappointing but not surprising. HA! Good Fun! ps is not fair there is a different standard for minorities, but will smith's smack will be used to legitimize the firm held views o' too many fox viewers and cops who believe minority men is violent by nature. is not will smith's fault we gotta be extra careful when pulled over by cops for some bs at 2:00am. even so, pretend will smith's actions is complete insular is also fantasy. -
have mentioned more than once how a functional wealth tax or the like is a nightmare for the irs and likely not viable. y'all know the audit o' trump's historic tax refund is ongoing, right? at the time o' the initial audit, trump barely were exceeding the billionaire threshold, and may even have been a bit shy o' the mark. https://www.npr.org/2020/10/02/919411676/congressional-committee-has-been-reviewing-trump-tax-refund-for-nine-years the impracticality o' functionally auditing billionaires yearly on assets which is gonna include valuation o' business and art makes this a non-starter and is one reason why the previous biden suggested millionaire tax on unrealized gains were limited to tradeable securities with easily determined values. as such am suspecting this is more o' an election year offering than anything else. but once more am feeling the need to observe how capital gains is the most obvious way to get at rich person money, and the current capital gains scheme means rich people need face a lower overall tax rate than most middle class taxpayers-- we had to clarify this issue once before in regards to the misunderstanding related to an obama quote related to warren buffet's secretary. hopeful a repeat explanation is unnecessary. as to the proposed scheme, with the way family money and foundations is structured, a significant % o' billionaires is gonna avoid being billionaires for tax purposes. furthermore, the irs is nowhere up to the job o' tracking unrealized capital gains o' billionaires, and more practical solutions for adding teeth to the capital gains scheme is far easier to implement and is more likely to produce results. the most obvious problems with fixing capital gains is the solutions confuse folks and such fixes don't produce the eye-popping percentages which is gonna elicit an "amen!" or "#$%& yeah!" from the assembled progressive congregation. americans understand income tax. the fact most rich people pay only a fraction o' their taxes 'cause o' their income is only the initial stumbling block when trying to explain why stratospheric increases o' income tax rates is a largely symbolic effort as 'posed to a practical means o' seeing rich people pay more. HA! Good Fun!
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we would be surprised if any reasonable seasoned adult posting on this board has managed to go through life and never have a supervisor/boss who were clear and obvious unqualified for their position due to lack o' common sense and/or ability. have met a few boss types who displayed shocking impulse control issues; if Gromnir had behaved as did these executive types, we never woulda' had a career and we likely woulda' been sent to prison. HA! Good Fun!
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we got a couple beatings as a kid, but wouldn't have been for something such as cheating at school, or so we s'pose since it never were an issue. in retrospect, we woulda' preferred beatings to our ordinary punishment. when we done wrong our grandfather would stare at us with a look o' hard stony judgement, but as to our mistake he would likely remain as silent as a notre dame gargoyle. instead o' verbal excoriating, our grandfather would assign us a chore, such as digging a drainage trench in near frozen soil, or fixing fence lines in snow/rain or whatever. after many hours/days o' soul crushing labor, we would be asked what we done wrong and how we would fix wrong. bad answer meant we got more hours/days o' chore. cycle would repeat until it were Gromnir who came up with the answers our grandfather wanted to hear. hurl telling his daughter to apologize wouldn't happen 'cause is something Gromnir would need intuit. hurl's daughter implying the teacher's use o' "retard" somehow justified the wrong would get us more sweat, shivering, blisters and/or bone wearying fatigue. 'course Gromnir were never a teenage girl and hurl is not a crusty old oglala on a small ranch in the dakotas during the 70s and 80s. ... we did get a couple beatings for not proper taking care o' livestock/animals. improper care o' animals were 'bout the only thing which ever got us a brief and memorable beating. our mother would yell at us and we did once get a backhand from our father when we "talked back." *shrug* cheating weren't gonna be a thing for us. were never even a thing we considered before college. gonna admit to being tempted once or twice in university/grad school/law school, but we were especial protective o' our academic reputation; as a minority student in the 80s/90s, there were more than a few tucker carlson types who assumed we had not earned our seat at boalt. cheat woulda' been giving legitimacy to the claims o' such dirtbags and we had a chip on our shoulder the size o' olympus mons. dunno. am unsure how teens view academic cheating nowadays. cindy makes a social media posts suggesting kim is trying to steal wendy's boyfriend and am suspecting we got war of the roses 2022. "o', i have lost my reputation! i have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial."-- othello, act 2, scene 3. kids is just as concerned (more) 'bout their reputation today as when we were a teenager. am nevertheless baffled by what the new generations believe is worth fighting to protect, and have always been unnerved by teenage "reasoning." HA! Good Fun!
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one o' our dogs will roll in p00p, dead snake or just 'bout anything nightmarish foul. if the dog is off its leash and it notices the source o' evil before Gromnir (a near guarantee as we do not have canine sense o' smell) the pooch will attempt to bathe in the feces, slurry, whatever. if we can't stop our dog from rolling in deer p00p, then what chance would we have o' reasoning with a teenage girl? deer poop is particularly vile in the late summer and early fall when the critters is clear eating considerable blackberries-- the resulting scat becomes a noisome jelly/jam which is curiously water replant. nevertheless am certain our dog issue is a laughable minor nothing compared to the difficulty o' raising a teenage girl. good luck. HA! Good Fun!
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nobody should wanna know how Gromnir's brain works. nevertheless, am sharing a brief trip down the rabbit hole. so @ShadySands made the following post yesterday: which 'cause o' the mentat thing reminded us o'... the thing is, we couldn't help but notice how the sun were coming from a direction to make the parasol somewhat ineffective as it is being held, which brought to mind a bit o' peter ustinov from spartacus the parasol bit by sir ustinov were improv. and then we recalled ustinov's grandfather were a russian noble, which got us thinking 'bout... and so on and etc. a single image leads us ever more far afield from the original subject matter... and on that note, am gonna bring back to brad, albeit from deadwood. HA! Good Fun! ps and thinking 'bout brad dourif career, we couldn't help but recall a few o' the werner herzog collaborations, such as...
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Supreme Court declines to give update on Justice Thomas hospitalization status The court said Sunday that Thomas had been admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington on Friday after experiencing “flu-like symptoms,” and he was diagnosed with an infection. His “symptoms are abating,” and he was expected to be released Monday or Tuesday, the court said in a statement at the time. But on Wednesday morning, court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said she had no update to provide. edit: according to a tmz report (not joking) based on a convo outside a coffee shop in dc, J. Breyer were asked about clarence thomas and the retiring Justice remarked he thought thomas was doing "fine."
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wtf. no oral arguments. no meaningful opinion written save for the dissent. haven't seen mention at most major news sites, but The Court, by means o' yet another per curiam and unsigned shadow docket decision no less, said the wisconsin state supreme court were acting unconstitutional when it tentative sided with the state governor in an election redistricting dispute. am gonna get into this more later, but 'cause is shadow docket, am having more questions than answers save to observe how beyond expectations and reason it would appear The Court has nevertheless gutted section 2 of the VRA, reading its protections almost opposite as how it has previous been read, which should be frontpage news... everywhere. "Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in one of the language minority groups identified in Section 4(f)(2) of the Act." new shadow docket decision states, with improbable convoluted language, that, "whether a race-neutral alternative that did not add a seventh majority-black district would deny black voters equal political opportunity,” should be determined via the strict scrutiny standard. am knowing this quoted portion likely don't mean anything to most readers, but strict-scrutiny is a near auto-fail and it means minorities complaining that a facial neutral redistricting plan (which is functional every such plan as who is gonna announce via the text o' such a plan that the motivation for the redistricting is racial animus,) must needs overcome an impossible hurdle to win when they argue redistricting is discriminatory. for those concerned 'bout judicial activism, this kinda behavior from The Court should cause outrage. (edit: included to avoid double-post) additional wtf material: pomerantz is not just some schnook. in his resignation letter he states he gots "no doubt" that trump were "guilty of numerous felony violations," and that failure to hold trump accountable amounts to "a grave failure of justice." seasoned litigators rare speak that way. ever wonder why Gromnir qualifies responses? certainty is elusive. pomerantz is not indulging any kinda equivocation in his resignation letter, a letter which he knew would become public at some point. am admitted a bit nonplussed.
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calling bs on people not caring about women's sports before lia thomas. if you are american and o' an age with Gromnir, you instant know names such as bonney blair, wilma rudolph, janet evans and a host o' others. younger folks is gonna recognize other names. older will also know different icons. we cheered with everybody else when the US women's team dominated world soccer. and as a man if you got a sister, cousin, mother or friend who has competed in sports, then chances are you care 'bout women's sports, which thanks to title ix and the like is a significant portion o' the population. unfortunate it seems the politics o' victimization works for all genders and ages in 2022. tell us we don't care enough 'bout softball or any women's sport when is not time for the olympics? sure. so what? tell us we didn't care 'bout women's sports before this ignores the fact we got a sister who competed in college sports and am knowing how unfair woulda' been the situation if she had to fight people born male to earn a place on the podium or even to earn a scholarship. as for the silliness o' suggesting a harrison bergeron approach for michael phelps, such is obvious indulging reductio ad absurdum even w/o adding seven exclamation points, although we didn't actual count the punctuation so excuse us if we claim too many. am tempted to simple sneer as a response. of course some folks are born bigger and stronger than their peers. again, jesse owens had to compete against people who did not need endure systemic racism their entire life, so he were at a disadvantage, but we recognize and glorify not only the transcendental heart o' jesse owens, but also his ability, and his ability were in part a function o' the gifts with which he were born. lia thomas's ability before trans were impressive, but not the kinda thing to garner national attention or awareness... until she started competing against women. sorry, but you and kelsey are ignoring the fact the only thing which makes lia's athletic ability noteworthy is her gender reassignment. lia not blowing away the competition in other events is part o' the point- when lia thomas was competing against men she weren't anywhere near top ten finishes. is not that nobody cared about women's sports before lia thomas. is that almost nobody cared 'bout lia thomas as a swimmer before she started competing against women, 'cause as harsh as is the truth, she were not a name which anybody but the most hardcore ncaa swimming fan were gonna recognize. her best event when competing v. men were #32 national? is good, but nobody outside the most rarefied swimming circles would know her name. lia thomas were most assured not a michael phelps. however, not as a result o' hard work or coaching or technique, she went from 550 to top ten in events. ask why too many americans don't care as much 'bout women's sports and unfortunate lia thomas provides the most obvious answer: a mediocre male collegiate athlete, a relative nobody, takes drugs and hormones which decrease her performance and then she becomes a top ten contender and ncaa champ? is also worth noting many o' lia thomas' teammates at penn think its unfair she competes 'gainst women. https://www.si.com/college/2022/03/03/lia-thomas-penn-swimmer-transgender-woman-daily-cover 16 Penn teammates sent an unsigned letter to Ivy League officials, requesting that Thomas be held out of the conference championship meet. The letter was organized by Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an Olympic gold medalist who heads Champion Women, a women’s sports advocacy group that focuses on Title IX issues. “If [Thomas] were to be eligible to compete,” the letter read, “she could now break Penn, Ivy and NCAA women’s swimming records; feats she could never have done as a male athlete.” is only six o' her teammates who strong support lia. the rules suck. the rules is not fair to lia and her competitors. preventing lia from any competition whatsoever would be unfair. the rules need changes. am nevertheless confused why folks pretend the current rules is fair. again, if lia were born female and underwent gender reassignment, there would be no story... unless she were janet evans, summer sanders or the like. the hormone and dug treatments as part o' gender reassignment would preclude lia from competing with men in part 'cause her performance were synthetic enhanced. 'course such is not an issue 'cause janet evens even with testosterone supplementation would not be able to compete with the likes o' micheal phelps. this story exists 'cause an obvious inequity which people is trying very hard to pretend doesn't exist. this isn't a political issue, or it shouldn't be. unfortunate it is. but again, am not in favour o' the outright bans which were imposed 'cause the gop is afraid o' wokeness or somesuch silliness. there needs to be meaningful debate and real solutions, but meaningful debate in the current environment is difficult to say the least. HA! Good Fun! ps so is clear, am not in any way criticizing lia thomas, whose name we keep misspelling-- apologies. she were a swimmer before reassignment and rules define how she is to compete post reassignment. lia is doing nothing wrong and deserves no criticism from Gromnir or anybody else. lia is following all rules. unfortunate, the rules is not recognizing a fundamental inequity as well as the all too obvious truth that being born male and benefiting from decades o' being male results is serious athletic advantages when compared to athletes born female. however, again, lia thomas is blameless in all this and we actual admire her courage as she is no doubt facing much unfair ridicule for trying to be the best lia thomas she can be.
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is not gonna be a popular position. oh well. am understanding why the utah governor did veto the ban, but is nothing 'bout the issue which is sane. ask self why steroids or blood doping is prohibited in most sports competitions. liam thompson were ranked 'tween 550 and 32 in events while competing as a man. after transgender, she is number 1 in multiple events and an ncaa national champion. is not gonna be anybody who suggests it were a change in coaching or additional hard work which boosted lia's ranking so dramatic. if am a woman having to compete 'gainst lia thompson, am gonna predict we would be more than a little angry, and our ire would have absolute nothing to do with our pov on transgender rights in general. jesse owens were remarkable and thanks to athletics he were able to compete with a racist system and triumph 'cause his real competition were the clock or measuring tape. athletics gave jesse owns and jim thorpe a level playing field 'pon which to compete, even if it took society as a whole decades to catch up to them. ... is understandable the rules has always addressed such issues posed by the lia thompson situation in terms o' performance enhancement and the transgender route does not enhance performance but typical impairs or impedes. lia thompson times were worse after transgender, so no performance enhancement were resulting from transgender. creates an ambiguity in the rules. insanity o' the situation when rules do not account for a new situation. as such is worth debating a different approach. we competed for multiple state championships in high school, and we did clean. angered us more than a little when we had to compete 'gainst guys who were doing something to improve their performance which were not related to technique or conditioning but resulting from some artificial boost. the situation ain't sane. a woman transitioning to compete as a man would instant trigger any number o' performance enhancing protocols-- testosterone levels would be too high and as such would be flagged as a violator o' any number o' performance enhancing guidelines. 'course the woman transitioning to compete 'gainst men is not gonna skew results so is no genuine issue worth identifying. your career as a collegiate runner or swimmer is over if you decide to compete with men after being born a woman and the fact you are getting testosterone treatments which would preclude your participation is a relative non factor. the reverse is decided not true. disparity. incongruous. as such, the results o' a rule which cannot cope with a new situation broken and is arguable not particular sane. am recognizing the concerns o' spencer cox and am in agreement the ban shoulda' been vetoed, 'cause the ban itself didn't fix a problem but tries and pretend as if it don't exist. however, am also suggesting the current situation ain't fair to many athletes and new rules tailored to a new reality need be considered. HA! Good Fun!
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let's not judge too harsh. after all, this libertarian patriot were being criminalized for nothing save protesting the injustice o' what he believed were a tainted election. so, in an effort to escape the tyrannical oppression o' a justice system which chooses to ignore fundamental rights o' free speech and association, our misunderstood hero emigrated to... belarus? sorry, is not possible to carry the joke forward and am wondering if even the board's most obtuse defenders o' oppressive regimes is gonna be able to make a convincing argument that belarus is an attractive destination point for those who believe it is the duty o' patriots to challenge government excess by means o' unfettered speech and free congress. moving on am gonna make a few observations 'bout the predictable ketanji brown jackson circus. 1) crt is a similar unfunny joke the gop is indulging and they are using a national platform to magnify the republican party's new focus on naught save grievance and victimhood. we would say more on this, but have kinda done-to-death crt. were nothing in the months past and is even more nothing today. nevertheless, white americans, fearing they is increasing marginalized 'cause folks such as tucker carlson tells 'em they should be afraid, has glomped onto an issue so utter devoid o' substance it beggars even our prodigious imagination. 2) am shamefaced at our own surprise regarding the gop attack on ketanji brown jackson's work as a federal public defender. am trying to wrap our noodle 'round this complaint. the argument put forth by lindsay graham and others is that judge jackson while working as a public defender were too zealous in her advocacy o' the cases o' suspected terrorists? ... serious? as an attorney it were jackson's ethical duty to do everything legal and aboveboard to defend her clients. any kid graduating US high school shoulda' learned this truth at some point, yes? is not some kinda special rule o' exclusion requiring a duty o' utmost loyalty and a zealous advocacy when the crimes to which the defendants is accused is particular heinous. and btw, is just lucky for some o' these clowns john mccain is dead, 'cause ketanji brown jackson filling briefs complaining that the use o' torture should be deemed unconstitutional and is unquestionable immoral is hardly a matter which legitimizes targeting her for scurrilous criticism. the biden doj ending this bs is one o' things nobody is gonna talk 'bout in months leading up to november 2022 or 2024, but it deserves recognition. gop is clear on the wrong side o' this and those defending were far more quiet when john mccain were in the room. 3) child porn cases *eye roll* am linking analysis from national review and wapo, so take your pick. quoting the national review analysis: "There is so little rain here for all the big wind, it’s hard to believe this is an issue." is arguable one case wherein judge brown went with a sentence low enough to get an obligatory spock raised eyebrow from Gromnir. am thinking there is legit questions as to the sentence in the sears case. however, is also noteworthy judge jackson afterwards did not grant the defendant compassionate release for medical reasons and the prosecutor did not seek to appeal the sentence. sears is also a singular exception to otherwise pedestrian sentencing from judge jackson which falls square w/i what would be deemed ordinary by even a casual observer o' the fed courts. 4) the circus is what the Court has brought 'pon itself. "What makes all this relevant to the bothersome application of "political pressure" against the Court are the twin facts that the American people love democracy and the American people are not fools. As long as this Court thought (and the people thought) that we Justices were doing essentially lawyers' work up here--reading text and discerning our society's traditional understanding of that text--the public pretty much left us alone. Texts and traditions are facts to study, not convictions to demonstrate about. But if in reality our process of constitutional adjudication consists primarily of making value judgments; if we can ignore a long and clear tradition clarifying an ambiguous text, as we did, for example, five days ago in declaring unconstitutional invocations and benedictions at public high school graduation ceremonies, Lee v. Weisman, 505 U. S. ___ (1992); if, as I say, our pronouncement of constitutional law rests primarily on value judgments, then a free and intelligent people's attitude towards us can be expected to be (ought to be) quite different. The people know that their value judgments are quite as good as those taught in any law school--maybe better. If, indeed, the "liberties" protected by the Constitution are, as the Court says, undefined and unbounded, then the people should demonstrate, to protest that we do not implement their values instead of ours. Not only that, but confirmation hearings for new Justices should deteriorate into question and answer sessions in which Senators go through a list of their constituents' most favored and most disfavored alleged constitutional rights, and seek the nominee's commitment to support or oppose them. Value judgments, after all, should be voted on, not dictated; and if our Constitution has somehow accidently committed them to the Supreme Court, at least we can have a sort of plebiscite each time a new nominee to that body is put forward." --J Scalia, planned parenthood v. casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992) in recent decades the Court has made itself fair game for accusations o' political bias. in the past so-called activist judges, most often favoured by liberals, were the most frequent targets o' such criticism, but today is arguable clarence thomas, J. brett kavanauagh and J. sonia sontamayor is all indistinguishable as naked political creatures with the so-called conservatives in no way elevating the discourse or distancing themselves from the partisan fray. HA! Good Fun! ps in our estimation, clarence thomas no longer deserves the traditional "J." removed.
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Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 3
Gromnir replied to ShadySands's topic in Computer and Console
we played trickster in the beta nowhere near deep enough to make meaningful observations, but as far as am aware, you may only access the nocticula fight via trickster and demon paths. socothbenoth is trickster only, or so we believe. HA! Good Fun! -
HA! Good Fun!