“Oh, come on, Mandy. What’s wrong with California?”
“Really? REALLY??? Okay, poorly-aimed gunfights viewed as urban recreation, taxes through the roof on everything, bums everywhere, open-air drug markets operating in broad daylight, halfwits who try to outrun the cops in their 200,000-mile bone-stock shitboxes, hobos using public spaces as open-air toilets, the most basic house costs a million bucks, normal people have to live two hours from work, state & local governments have declared war on the common man, glass-egoed ethnic gangbangers who take eye contact as a mortal threat, illegal aliens that walk in daylight, homosexuals that walk in daylight, everything gives you cancer, sexual predators who ply their trade as if God Himself gave them permission, real-life Bond Villains trying to conquer the world by trapping everyone in a Brave New Worldwide Electronic Feudalism, everyone’s flaky as hell, auto theft & narcotics trafficking so common as to be openly viewed as legitimate sectors of the economy, environmental laws that favor plants & animals over people, far & away the most totalitarian car inspection regime in America, Rice Boys, Lower Case G’s, criminal gangs from every country on the planet, serial killers with refrigerators full of human heads, celebutante fame whores that refuse to just fucking evaporate already, smoking’s illegal but marijuana’s encouraged, government regulations that’re chasing all the non-criminal businesses out of the state, burglars who have more rights than the homeowners who shoot them, public employee unions powerful enough to bankrupt whatever legitimate government they have left out there, roads & bridges disintegrating because the government uses their funding to hire diversity zampolits, militarized police with itchy trigger fingers & a Judge Dredd mentality who’ll arrest white men for speeding while black thugs burn down a liquor store a hundred feet away, pornographers who operate under the impression that the First Amendment applies to THEM and really, how far could I go on this tangent without using the word ‘cannibal?’
I’ll just say it - it’s an evil place where only monsters can thrive. And the ones who aren’t stealing BMWs, burning down entire cities in the name of "racial justice," murdering each other over facial expressions, manufacturing entire libraries of smut or writing as many noxious laws as fast as they FUCKING can are either stoned out of their minds on pretty much any chemical substance they can get their filthy little hippie hands on, or shouting from the mountaintops that all of this absurd horror is what Paradise looks like.
I mean, have you ever noticed that every single social pathology currently tearing this country to shreds got started in either Los Angeles or Frisco?”
Ice, that was epic. Is this your original bile or a copy-pasta from a movie/book I’m not familiar with? Either way, many thanks. I’m old and grumpy but at least I’m not alone in screaming at the chaos enveloping our republic.
No dog whistle... "they" just means people, as in, "you know what they say..."
...in all fairness, that's exactly what a lot of people are doing. So many people are leaving California that it has an outsized effect on the economies, home prices, and politics of the places they're fleeing to. Examples like Idaho, Texas, Utah, Colorado...
Well “who” would be your friends and family, but I think you meant “what”. The what would be anything that I mentioned. I’m far from an apologist for the state, but it has had the 7th largest economy in the world for a long while, and it is very easy to find good employment here. The no se hablan that does odd jobs for has been here 10-15 years and makes 25/hr. My children’s Caucasian citizen nanny is making 30/hr cash. The geography is spectacular, if one can open their eyes to see it. The hunting is still quite good here, once you submit to the myriad, ever-changing and arbitrary gun laws. The skiing is great, we have world class surf, all the sports teams, the desert racing, good racetracks. Excellent food, world class wine, all the stuff man. But really it’s all about community. If you have it, you’ll stay for it, if you don’t, all the money in the world won’t keep you.
There’s plenty wrong with the state, yes. If we could break the back the public employees unions, I think that would go a really long way. Do I have hope for it to happen? Hardly. I’m here till I feel called to go somewhere else. But then, that’s most places, yes?
Ha... this would be comedy, if it wasn't for the fact that the paralyzing delusion you're now displaying pretty well represents what's wrong with California...
...I suppose, in your delusion, it seems like that only the people you consider "bad" are the ones fleeing, and the people you consider "good" are the ones staying. But since I'm honest AND actually living in the real world, let me just say this: normal people understand that California is a modern dystopia, a case study of potential and opportunity squandered and wasted by a political environment of lunacy and a culture of stupidity and depravity. That's why they're leaving. You have been programmed with delusions of racism, sexism, and injustice by a failed California political class that is literally incapable of doing anything right, thus it must distract sheep like yourself, lest they actually return to reality and start asking basic questions...
I’ve lived here for 29 of my 40 years and I still think CA is a good place to live. I also think that just about everything he said is true. My friend walked up on an anal train during pride week. The child of a friend of a friend encountered fentanyl on Chrissy field and almost died. If you make $200k, income tax + sales tax + property tax is like $35k(1.2 house, 50k spent) which leaves you with $99k after the fed is done with you. Oh and you have zero rights regarding what is injected into your kids, and if you don’t spring for private education, you have zero say in what they teach them either. Oh and gas is $2 more than the rest of the country. Oh and they can impound your car if they don’t like your stand alone.
There’s a ton of good people here and the geography is amazing and there’s a ton of money to be made, but...
I wrote what I did out of a profound sense of pain and anger.
California used to be the America of America, truly the apex of human civilization and a place I might have very well loved to live in, until a coalition of narcissistic, sociopathic, morally-bankrupt orcs turned it into an civilizational abattoir - and for no higher reason than that they wish to rule their fellow man unchallenged, but they can't do THAT in daylight, so they enveloped the realm and its good people in darkness.
At the very least we're carrying the water for all those low tax red states .
The instant you leave the three big cities here it becomes very Conservative indeed .
I came here first time in the summer of 1969 and yes, _all_ of California was *very* different and dirt cheap even in the big cites to live, rent or buy .
Are you saying that Assemblyman Scott Weiner is the best America has to offer?
You cool with children being chemically and surgically sterilized against their parents' wishes?
Democrats say the protect democracy, but when they have enough power, like in California and as are trying in Michigan, they set up what are essentially one party states that shut out any effective opposition. How is it really a choice if you get to choose between two Democrats for the U.S. Senate? They hold elections in North Korea too.
I heard a leftist professor at NYU (who wants to believe she's part of the "resistance", hah!) say that Republicans can't win presidential elections if they don't cheat. If you have to cheat to have a chance to win, is the game actually fair?
Most of the big box chains will fire you for apprehending a shoplifter or fighting with a customer if you are not a member of loss prevention or management. Flood the streets with illegals, encourage shoplifting and rioting...trying to turn this country into a shit hole.
Who ripped up the Fairness Doctrine?? Who says Corporations are people and have more rights then you? Who said that Money(campaign Money) is a form of speech. Why is the USA lagging behind the rest of the first world countries?
It's maddening, and there's not really anything the common man can do to stop it. Voting doesn't work. I'm sick of looking at a sea of third worlders when I should be looking at my countrymen.
As I noted elsewhere, the population has more than doubled since 1960, yet like most "first world" countries the native population reproduces at less than replacement rate.
All we Canadians (and Americans too) are mongrels and immigrants, and are better for it. My forebears came here in the 1890's but that in no way makes me superior to my neighbour who arrived 10 years ago. Ask the First Nations (aka Native Americans) what they think of "illegal immigrants".
Ah yes, immigration is our strength. No proof is ever offered for this. The Indians should've executed every last one of us. Why should we repeat their mistake?
I consider myself an immigrant on stolen land. my ancestors had to deal with European immigrants trying to steal their land too. And their ancestors stole land from the native people living in that area
I’ve said it before. The Thanksgiving celebration was the Native Americans who were here at the time way of giving a going away party. No one ever leaves.
Don't bother denigrating us by referring to us as mongrels. We are a fine people and the European settlers that crossed the ocean created two of the greatest countries on the face of the earth. Yes, there is absolutely a differnece betweeen the people that came here 150 years ago to a barren landscape compared to the immigrants that cross the border for free shit. Our people and out culture created this land.
And I don't care what the natives think, they lost.
"And I don't care what the natives think, they lost."
People groups have been doing their best to wipe other people groups off the face of earth since there have been more than one group of people on the earth. Why is it that the "native american" group are suddenly heroes? And how do we know they were here first anyway? Maybe they were mean to someone else before we were mean to them, in which case we're forgiven ... ? What a mess.
I wear the mongrel badge proudly, even though I am, to use antiquated taxonomy, a Boomer WASP (English, Scottish, AND German). May I suggest an alternative: hybrid? My neighbour is your worst nightmare: visible minority Muslim, with 5 young children, but he is a fine fellow and calls me "brother". I thank gods I live in the most culturally diverse country that has ever existed. Half of humanity's problems would be solved if we were all beige. I am enriched by the cornucopia of cultures I see on the TTC.
Throughout US history, I can't speak for Canadia as I don't even know what street it's on, there have been extended periods of time where all immigration has been restricted. The recent influx and by recent I mean the last half century with no end in sight, is unprecedented both in absolute terms AND PROPORTIONALLY!!! Short of going from 0 > 1 when the first European set foot in the New World there has never been a larger proportion of immigrant and first generation/pregnant on the plane relative to the number of people whose parents were born in this country.
The last few years in Canada have seen immigration like never thought possible. 900k international students alone in the last year and about 560k regular immigrants. It's mindblowing. Also, a great deal of them are Indian and Chinese. Indians in Ontario and Chinese in British Colombia. The Chinese tend to use Canadian housing markets to launder money too.
First Nations? You mean Siberian-Americans? The ones that were waging wars of slavery and conquest, practicing human sacrifice and cannibalism long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
Earlier immigrants to Canada more or less embraced the cultures that were established by the Scots and French.
Also, what's the deal with Montreal smoked meat? It's just a form of pastrami. Like fish & chips, another national food introduced by Jewish immigrants.
Here's the problem. The approximate supply of people who would readily move to North America stands at perhaps 3 billion. How do you determine who comes and who doesn't?
Immigration is like pouring salt into water. There is a saturation point. We've hit it. Probably hit it 20 years ago. Since we've had 50 years of absolutely unrestricted immigration, let's try 20 or 30 years without it then evalute.
Ah yes, the typical 2023 Redditor response: "Well White people's ancestors murdered all the Natives, so the current unlimited migration into the west is just righteous retribution for the past"
Yeah no. We created something great here and we are entitled to preserve it.
I was in Hamtramck yesterday picking up a transformer for the *furnace and the only poles I saw were holding up lights and wires.
*So the furnace control board was acting like it had no power but there was 110 between the switch and ground and 110 on the board going to the transformer. Replaced the board and transformer with new ones, still wouldn't work. What do you think the problem was?
He's the victim of a lifetime of media that shows black men, no matter how obese, sloppy, and untrained, as hyper-alphas whose word may not be contested, nor actions challenged.
I watched a dude who felt that way get a porcelain sink to the head a while back, courtesy of some "retard" white boy.
You may draw your own conclusions about where on the Kardashev Scale lives the culture that celebrates perpetual aggression, obesity and sexual promiscuity.
Mormons wear funny underwear, Jews wear tiny beanies and strings off their clothes. Sikhs carry a bladed weapon as a religious obligation. You do the math.
CT resident here. Seems about right. Over the last several years there's been a surge in car thefts. The reduction in juvenile prosecution under the current (and former) governors has essentially created a "catch and release" system for property theft.
However, steal from the town / PD and all of a sudden, it's an entirely different set of rules. A car stolen in town rammed a police cruiser - the full force of the PD continues to hunt for the "teen". I'm sure when / if they find them, somehow that won't be a "catch and release".
On an F1 side note - ya'll hear about Charles taking the approach to intervene and get his watch back after being mugged?
There is a school of thought that says the main purpose of government controlled law enforcement is to remove the death penalty as punishment for most crimes. As the legal system becomes less effective in controlling crime, it will result in more severe punishment outside the legal system.
That's my understanding too - that "an eye for an eye" was a limiting principle and was designed to prevent bloody revenge & reprisals to friends, family, etc.
It was Charles earlier, I don't know if it was a Richard Mille watch too. On one hand, it sucks, on the other, walking around in public with a $300,000 watch...
Carlos's muggery was in Milan, I've spent some time there over the years, it seems like a very safe place.
Controversial or not, I don't think mugging should be a potential outcome for wearing an ugly and highly valuable watch, but I get accountability and "asking for it".
The possibility also exists that I am naively optimistic.
Well, in the US public wearers of ugly and expensive jewelry tend to wear it into nightclubs and strip clubs, where a simple mugging is likely to end up in a fusillade of gunfire. Europe, for all its faults, is a more quaint snatch and run jurisdiction, at least outside no-go zones in France and Sweden.
And no, mugging shouldn't be a potential outcome, more like a predictable result. And yes, you seem like a nice, optimistic guy.
"...and in other news, Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard was robbed of approximately $20,000 in solid gold, leaving him unable to chew solid food."
That may have been in the back of the stewards minds when they left both drivers off the hook for driving extremely slow during Q. Someone on a web site mentioned the fans would be in an uproar and the stewards would fear for their lives. A response was "Italy is not Brazil". And then we have the stolen watch, which is like Brazil.
Sep 6, 2023·edited Sep 6, 2023Liked by Jack Baruth
Because of the Spectrum/Disney beef I was unable to watch the race this weekend but I was pleased to see that Liam Lawson performed well. As I commented last week, I rate him highly and hope to see him paired with Yuki next year at AT.
As far as California is concerned, maybe I’m in the minority here, but my heart truly breaks when I see what’s happening to that state. I enjoyed my time living there and it’s sad to see a large majority of the Golden State’s citizenry willingly vote themselves down the proverbial toilet.
The elections in California are rigged. First off they changed the rules so only democrats appear on the ballot in almost ALL elections. That's what 'open primaries' which are as unconstitutional as it gets, causes. But they even took it further than that with other laws.
Second, illegals are encouraged to vote (and even helped) - which also is unconstitutional, but California hasn't believed that the constitution applies to them for many decades now. They flaunt it, and even Supreme Court rulings constantly.
To paraphrase what they say: You can vote yourself into this state of affairs, but you can only shoot your way out of it. California has fallen, and it will never come back.
I wonder how many "Californians" are actually Californians. It's baffling to me that any member of that population would ever willingly subject themselves to the nonsense going on there.
I believe it was Victor Davis Hanson that recently said 1/3 of the residents of California were born in a different country. Hanson is a life long resident of CA.
Yes! And Hanson also understands physical work having run a farm while teaching university courses. Much like my math teachers in high school who held masters degrees from Vanderbilt University when that actually meant something. Both of them also ran family farms.
If you live in a more conservative city, they do their best to hold the line. And I mean that literally in some cases - when the BLM riots were in full swing, our cops basically defended the city border and kept them out, which is why what happened to Santa Monica, Fairfax, Melrose, and other majority-white areas in SoCal etc didn't happen to us.
If you're an F1 fan, F1TV is well worth the $80/season. With F1 Multiviewer, you can watch the main feed, live timing, and multiple driver onboards all at once. Watching live, you also get AI transcription of all team radio messages. It's awesome.
I think I'm also paying five bucks a month for Peacock to watch IndyCar. Increasingly I'm finding it not worth the outlay, to say nothing of my time investment.
If you are willing to wait 4-5 hours after a race, there's a RUSSIAN web site that has just about every racing series in the world except IMSA. The guy rips off Sky's simulcast of the NBC races. Have a good ad blocker though. The porn popups without one are Interesting.
The picture quality isn't all that good, but then again neither is the racing. Portland looked like more people in the pits than in the stands. "The Captain" seems more interest about the Speedway than trying to grow the series. Next up is something like team charters to make Indy 500 starting spots locked in that is being tossed about.
I'd be really surprised if IndyCar still exists in 10 years.
Back when I was between careers newly divorced drinking a fifth of Old Crow a day there was a great torrent site specializing in motorsports. They had everything from the earliest gladiators racing with riding mechanics to the race that ended just an hour ago. Does anyone have a link to that? Does it still exist?
I mentioned this in passing to my wife earlier this summer. She didn't look particularly enthusiastic about said benefits, but she also only rolled her eyes at the idea of me on the couch half of every Sunday afternoon, which means next year, perhaps after we finish our attic...........
I love the government of Connecticut! They have no problems with abusing YOUR money, but heaven help you if you abuse theirs, even when it's their fault!
As for California, Victor David Hanson recently was talking about this. The people running California, and especially Newsom, have this weird death-wish thing going on. De-Civilization. That is what they are doing. They are intentionally destroying civilization because there is just something fundamentally wrong with them.
I know this guy who has come out in recent years and said that it's all the work of the devil.
And you know what? I'm starting to believe he's right. We've always known that evil exists in the world - California, and yes even Washington DC, shows us what happens when it gets the upper hand.
Around the turn of the century, I moved from Pennsylvania to Connecticut for work. I'd had a carry permit in PA for years and wanted to get one in CT. So I asked the cops and was told that I had to complete a course. Okay, I said, but I've had a carry permit in PA for years. Doesn't matter what PA thinks, said the cops. They needed to make their own determination of my suitability.
So another state's opinion doesn't matter when it comes to my carrying a gun?
So, if PA called CT and said I was a wanted fugitive, do you supposed CT would tell them it didn't matter what PA thought of me? That CT had to make up its own mind about me?
If I was in charge of the country, I'd raid every one of those illegal weed shops and charge the owners just to punt the issue to congress. Think of all the free money! Should weed be legal? Meh, don't care but it isn't right now.
If you're talking about plants, it depends on the time of day. During the day, particularly when flowering, cannabis plants smell like fresh cannabis. At night when their respiration cycle reverses, cannabis plants just smell like other green plants, particularly right after the lights go out or the sun goes down.
It's been an outstanding summer for outdoor grows in Ohio and Michigan. Hardly had to water more than a half dozen times. The plants are about 10 feet tall and the flowers are tightly clustered on the stalks. I'll know in about three weeks how the indica strains come out and the sativas 2-4 wks later.
Texas and Oklahoma HAVE (Suppressors that is) and OH WOW are the feds coming unglued over THAT! And their legalization is completely within the bounds of the law as well! But that's never stopped the feds before.
Let's face it: the primary difference between Left-ish nose-thumbing, such as weed and sanctuary cities, and Right-ish nose-thumbing, like gun stuff, is that with the latter they will drop the ATF out of helicopters, punch your pregnant wife, and stomp your cats to death on the way out, Louis Katona style.
Everybody knows that you'll never see the Feds drop a platoon into a "legal" weed operation. Make a few full-auto weapons, and they'll kill your family when they're done killing you.
Chop a couple of inches too much off a shotgun barrel after being pestered continuously by federal agents to do so, and they'll shoot your wife while she's holding your infant son and laugh about it.
Also, so far as the evil in DC goes, I often think about how it's too bad that United 93 never reached its true destination. And also when Jan 6 happened everyone acted like it was an assault on our democracy, but the Capitol building has to be the single most corrupt building in our 50 states.
And when Anti-fa, a few months prior actually set fire to government buildings in DC in an ACTUAL attempt to overthrow the government and storm the whitehouse (and probably kill Trump) NO ONE CARED.
Sep 6, 2023·edited Sep 6, 2023Liked by Jack Baruth
MotoGP's competition got closer and we'll see how sore Bagnaia is after miraculously not having his leg(s) broken after a nasty high side and Brad Binder riding over his legs in a lap 1 accident. The earlier lap 1 accident took five riders out and 4 were able to restart with Bastianini out again with injuries and also penalties for causing the incident into turn 1.
The Aprilia factory team finished the 1-2 victory, a first for Aprilia who were dominant after the race restart, with Jorge Martin a distant 3rd and Brad Binder making up no points as his bike had a technical failure. Marc Marquez finished again (! what a statement) and Quartararo had a 7th place finish. Again, we'll see if Yamaha can keep closing the gap or if this was a one off due to so many riders getting wiped out and starting on different tires/being mildly injured.
If Bagnaia is hurt enough to affect his ride there could be a serious challenge coming but it remains to be seen as we enter this weekend for an Italian GP.
MotoGP is indeed tits. Real racing right up there with non-winged Sprint Cars and Midgets.
Dorna, the sanctioning body is headed down the F1 Highway to Hell though. Electronic rider aids, ride-height control, spec tires, and now aero bodywork.
You should also give World Superbikes a chance, its the two wheel equivalent of touring cars where you can see race prepped litre bikes go head to head. Great stuff.
Apparently Binder went over Paccos kneepads, it looked to me like he ran over Paccos shins, but it all happens so fast on the coverage, it's often hard to tell
"According to law enforcement authorities, the bag was clearly marked with a bank’s insignia and found outside the same bank. "
If I found money in a bank bag, I'd like to think I'd walk into the bank and return the money. If you can identify the owner, you should do your best to return it.
That is true. But how do we know that the authorities are telling the truth? Law Enforcement is allowed to lie, and does so fairly often. Also governments lie all the time.
If they have a video clearly showing the bag's markings, I'll believe them. Otherwise? It's just hearsay.
This is a bit of a hand wave IMO. I have bank bags from when I had my own business. In all cases, that was MY money, not the bank's -- and if someone had handed in that bag, the bank would have put it in unclaimed funds.
Yeah, big "If you can identify the owner" I've found $40 lying on the ground. No way of knowing whose 40 it was so I was $40 richer. I've also found stuff where I could identify the owner and did and returned it. A bag with 5k of cash in it, I'd think there would be a deposit slip but who knows?
It was actually a decent F1 race this weekend (maybe the 2nd one of the season). Max not on pole, had to fight to get by Sainz, and then Ferrari let their drivers’ fight for the podium. But I follow Indy Car as the racing is closer and I can go to a race or two every season without declaring bankruptcy! Only wish the championship was still on the line at Laguna this weekend. First season in 18 years that it hasn’t been decided on the last day. Still be fun at the Corkscrew with a beer in hand! Hope Herta wins with his Dad’s livery!
Lewis also did the wrong thing. Look at his ungraceful response when asked about Verstappen's achievement.
Buying from amazon and smoking weed with covid handouts - I think this is already the status quo?
I wasn't aware of the Connecticut case, but do you or me get the same level of investigative support from the cops if we lost something worth 5k USD? Another example that the machine only works for itself.
I don't think anything Sainz did was illegal. It was on the limit, but he drove a 9.x/10 race in my opinion.
Worse yet, he has nothing AFTER the sport. Nico has a perfect family. Alonso will race WEC and Dakar. Kimi is smashing broads two at a time. Lewis is gonna hold the camera while 100% African dudes poke holes in Shakira's posterior fornix.
I will always have sympathy for Lewis based on the stories of his childhood I've heard from a fellow competitor. But I'd be very pleased if he never won another race. He has had his day.
I moved to the CITY of St. Louis when I got back from a three year expat gig in Seoul because my wife grew up here and was tired of the rural life we had been living. I read Next Door mainly for the entertainment value and shake my head at the white progressives (and they ARE progressive) complaining about their cars and bicycles and lawn mowers being stolen.
You know who I don't see complaining? Black folk in the hood. I am convinced that most of the "man found shot" reports on the news are actually people handling situations because they know the police and the CA aren't going to do anything about someone breaking into their hooptie. That's going to become more common in the "nice" areas as well.
SSS isn't an effective strategy for somebody who is middle class. The authorities couldn't care less about the dalits murdering one another because they are regarded as animals. But if you are a generally decent member of the peasant class and you take matters into your own hands, you can expect them to move heaven and earth to hang you in the public square.
Real life example: I know of a prosecutor's office in a red state that made a deal with a man who cut a hole in a toddler's stomach so he could use the tike's guts as a fleshlight that went to the mat on a clear-cut self defense case simply because the prosecutor didn't like the "righteous" attitude the person who used lawful self defense took about the whole matter.
When you were in school, did you ever encounter a bully that the school administrators didn't do anything about? Always citing the fact that he had a rough home life and "you have to understand", etc? That describes our "justice" system extremely well. Bad guys get understanding. You get the full weight of the law.
The ancient Greeks believed that man was in the worst position in the world, because was powerless like an animal, but had the mind of a god and so was cognizant of his powerlessness. Gods had power and animals had the mercy of being unaware of their low state.
To be middle class is to be the man of the above example.
This is so depressing. Do the cops have such faith in the professionalism of the thieves that they know they can't find them or do they just not care? Growing up watching Adam 12 and CHiPs, this was not the way things were supposed to go.
They do not care. Most people have no understanding of what crime is in the United States. Clearance rates for murder...meaning there is a dead body and the police have a primary suspect...is about 50% nationally. (The FBI's UCR is hopelessly optimistic about that) Now that's *murder*. In the most violent places in this country less than a third of murders are cleared. And, again, that just means a primary suspect is identified. It doesn't mean they are successfully prosecuted or jailed. If you look at almost any major urban or suburban area, solving violent crimes where people are maimed or killed isn't even a 50/50 proposition.
It gets no prettier for property crimes. If thieves have any level of sophistication at all, they get away with it until they get sloppy or unlucky.
This state of affairs continues until the public demands change. The public has to know this is the state of affairs before they can demand change...and that's why you don't see the press covering any of the real statistics on crime. Because if you knew how common it was and how ineffectual the system was you'd realize you were next and you'd burn it down and replace it with something that works.
That would put a lot of powerful people out of jobs and cut off their flow of money. And we can't have that.
Good thing we aren't experiencing anything like that at a national level, right?
A staggering number of violent assaults are perpetrated every year without the person who did it even sniffing a police officer. A smart person who had a little bit of luck and targeted carefully could well get away with it. Violent criminals get caught because they do it over and over and over again. Sooner or later the numbers catch up to them.
That makes a one-off act of murder plausible for some. Doesn't exactly help me sleep at night. I've heard of crime reports vs. crimes solved in places like Detroit, but figured it had to be an anomaly and was far better elsewhere.
This former Ann Arbor resident is tempted to say there's the problem, you were renting a storage unit in Columbus. Honest question: Do you think storage units in your county are less susceptible to theft than in a big city? It's not like there aren't any meth heads in rural Ohio.
How much of Max's dominance is the driver, and how much of it is the car? Can someone who feels knowledgeable on F1 speak on what specific skills he has in comparison to his rivals? I don't feel experienced enough to pick up on the nuances to his driving, at least from the current television coverage. Is he smarter, braver, more calculated?
I'm an idiot, but he seems to win more races and finish a lot higher than Perez in the same (?) car, compared to Hamilton/Bottas and their slew of races with both men on podium, if not one-two.
Also Adrian Newey is a walking cheat code. The car is bad fast with Max in it.
Teams want the WCC, the WDC is "Nice". While I have no doubt that they favor Max, they do want it close for the WCC. This year it's probably in the bag, but they'd much prefer "Closer" regardless of Perez's finishing positions.
The metric according to the scribes when RB would change drivers like people change underwear was less than half a second. If you couldn't do that, you were useless to them.
Funny with the salty talk from MB these days. At one time there was a talk of "Some day Max might race for MB". I doubt that will ever happen now. Max has already said if the racing wasn't enjoyable he'd move on. With the BS he's had to hear from MB, I doubt he could push that aside for any amount of money.
MB has turned into "That Guy" that no one wants to be around.
My opinion: he has a better feel for available traction than everyone else. That's something you can't really teach. I have far more of it than the average club racer but Max is so far ahead of me i can't see him.
The feel for traction is in my opinion the biggest reason a couple of the greatest riders in motocross were so much further ahead than the competition, which I assume at least on a motorcycle comes down to having a fairly light touch on the controls, therefore not muting the feel that the suspension and tires are giving you for what grip is available. Presence of mind and an acute sensitivity for the beginnings of tire slip are probably also important, but I'm kind of guessing here.
From my dinner in Austin last week, in which I had the good fortune to sit next to a guy who was climbing the karting ladder with Max and his cohort (and ended up in sports cars instead):
Max and Jos were extremely competitive, extremely prepared, and absolutely not there to have fun. They were laser focused on dominance.
This person - who is a Merc F1 simulator driver - says that Lewis is the greatest of all time, but he’s also British AND they pay him a LOT of money…
We are not far from the time when implying that a white person is the greatest at ANYTHING will put you on the bread lines. As Taibbi just said, the cannonball was dropped at the top of the building and it's not stopping just because it passes your favorite floor.
Saying Lewis is the greatest of all time is like singing along with everyone else in church in 1750. But anyone who has eyes can see that Max operates at the next level up, particularly in bad conditions.
Overrated? Yeah. He would have a couple of WDCs without the rocket ship being that much better. I think his current problem is, the years with a rocket ship dulled his race craft. If this car's capabilities compared to RBs was 6-7 years ago, he might still have some fight in him to win with him as the key ingredient.
I think that could happen to Max and anyone else over time. Passing backmarkers with a blue flag waving isn't passing anyone using your talent.
Max was born and bred to be where he is now. From the time he could first walk his dad, Jos, had him in karts and pushed him to win. Jos was a fierce journeyman F1 driver but started too late to develop the talent required to win. He ruthlessly managed Max and his career through karting and all the junior series, giving Max the many years of competitive training and the mental toughness to be the best. Negotiating Max into Red Bull's first seat in the team with the Smartest Man in F1 - Adrian Newey - responsible for the cars is the end result.
In response to a question about a particularly aggressive move during a race Max responded with " Ya, if I didn't do that, my dad would have kicked me in the balls!"
Seat time, mental toughness, and natural ability and the right car at the right time.
Lewis is very much the same story, very difficult to maintain that level of effort and be in the right car at the right time.
Red Bull earlier in the season were clearly better than all of the other teams by a decent margin. Right now they still have the best car on the grid but that gap has closed a good bit. Despite his recent struggles, Checo is still a driver worthy of an F1 seat but if he's starting outside the points after qualifying, it's not a guarantee he'll finish on the podium.
Max is simply performing on another level right now. He just doesn't make mistakes and can push the car to it's absolute limit. Even when Mercedes was at their most dominate, Hamilton would just disappear some races. Max has benefited from having overall the best car on the grid and a tremendous streak of reliability so far. However, you could drop him in a Williams today and he'd likely be on podiums every race going forward.
In a grid where the top 16-18 cars are often within one second a lap, the driver is starting to make MORE difference than it did in, say, the Schumacher era, or the years of Mercedes ubiquity, IMO.
Sep 6, 2023·edited Sep 6, 2023Liked by Jack Baruth
This week I helped my 11th grade daughter with her homework, and since most of her assignments are utterly insipid - "tell us again how awesome the native Americans were" - this one surprised me. The assignment was reading and commenting on the majority opinion and the Hugo Black dissent in Tinker v. Des Monies, the 1969 case about Vietnam War protestors wearing black armbands and known for this quote from the majority: "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."
In Black's dissent, he wrote: "It is a myth to say that any person has a constitutional right to say what he pleases, where he pleases, and when he pleases." He then proceeded to lay out a dystopian future where loud-mouthed brain-dead activist students and teachers control the classrooms and subject everyone else to political speech that they can't avoid while ignoring the core subjects that the school was set up to teach. Which is, of course, the public education hellscape that we live in today.
Fucking homework. It's allegedly supposed to help you learn the material. Why the hell am I doing homework for material I already know? Just give me a test dammit.
I actually liked poetry, or should I say I liked the teacher. Had him in Jr High and he moved up to HS. He was a "What do you think it means" guy. There was no right answer, but he was looking for a reasoned response. If you could do that, B or B+ at a minimum. A rare teacher, even back in the 70s.
In the '60s, post Sputnik, American public education was pretty good. Not only can't young adults today afford starter homes like baby boomers could they also got a crappier education.
I’m using the picture my mom took of me getting on the bus for the first time to send me to kindergarten for my obituary. Knew gravy train of Looney Tunes, grilled cheese sandwiches, and tomato soup came to an end that day. I looked pissed/distraught
I did really well in school, but from an early age viewed it as a means to an end. Do well in school gets me into college. Do well in college (in a useful major) gets me a well paying job. Well paying job gets me a "cool" car. Cool car was my life motivation from about age four.
I didn't have those motivations in school. What was the point of doing well when I was going to go to college (that let everyone in) and tuition was going to be paid for me (without scholarships or parental backing)? And the only point of college was to get into the university (still working on that). Even if I somehow didn't bother with student assistance, a semester was less than two grand.
Welcome to Canada!
Now my largest motivations come from actually trying to do something I want to do, like motorsport engineering or working on a race team.
The funny thing is I actually do think the American Indians were awesome, especially warrior tribes like the Comanche for example. But public education just treats them like piteous victims, to the point where even the students get exhausted by the entire thing.
Oh, no doubt. Always praise your opponents even if people think you are lying. It ends any follow-ups. With the NE Pats, while it's looking more and more like it was Brady, Belichick ALWAYS praises the opponent. Even if no one believes him, there's no where to go in the media with stories after that.
"The NY Jets are a formidable opponent." He said that when the Pats were taking the Jets lunch money and he'll say it now if the Jets clean the Pat's clock.
It takes a strong will to remain even-keeled even if underneath you don't mean it.
Mr. Wolf sounds "weak". While he owns I believe a third of the team, I'm betting the other 2 thirds are shaking their heads.
Counterpoint - our CinC is still rockin’ it cognitively and he’s what, 96 years old. I can think of at least 4 octogenarians in the Senate who’re still sharp as a tack--just NOT when answering questions in front of a camera.
If you are inclined towards money as one option for change, I like True The Vote, TX based, and Judicial Watch. TTV works on election integrity (oxymoron) and cleaning up voter rolls and was a Lois Lerner target. Judicial Watch uses the courts and Freedom of Information very effectively.
“Oh, come on, Mandy. What’s wrong with California?”
“Really? REALLY??? Okay, poorly-aimed gunfights viewed as urban recreation, taxes through the roof on everything, bums everywhere, open-air drug markets operating in broad daylight, halfwits who try to outrun the cops in their 200,000-mile bone-stock shitboxes, hobos using public spaces as open-air toilets, the most basic house costs a million bucks, normal people have to live two hours from work, state & local governments have declared war on the common man, glass-egoed ethnic gangbangers who take eye contact as a mortal threat, illegal aliens that walk in daylight, homosexuals that walk in daylight, everything gives you cancer, sexual predators who ply their trade as if God Himself gave them permission, real-life Bond Villains trying to conquer the world by trapping everyone in a Brave New Worldwide Electronic Feudalism, everyone’s flaky as hell, auto theft & narcotics trafficking so common as to be openly viewed as legitimate sectors of the economy, environmental laws that favor plants & animals over people, far & away the most totalitarian car inspection regime in America, Rice Boys, Lower Case G’s, criminal gangs from every country on the planet, serial killers with refrigerators full of human heads, celebutante fame whores that refuse to just fucking evaporate already, smoking’s illegal but marijuana’s encouraged, government regulations that’re chasing all the non-criminal businesses out of the state, burglars who have more rights than the homeowners who shoot them, public employee unions powerful enough to bankrupt whatever legitimate government they have left out there, roads & bridges disintegrating because the government uses their funding to hire diversity zampolits, militarized police with itchy trigger fingers & a Judge Dredd mentality who’ll arrest white men for speeding while black thugs burn down a liquor store a hundred feet away, pornographers who operate under the impression that the First Amendment applies to THEM and really, how far could I go on this tangent without using the word ‘cannibal?’
I’ll just say it - it’s an evil place where only monsters can thrive. And the ones who aren’t stealing BMWs, burning down entire cities in the name of "racial justice," murdering each other over facial expressions, manufacturing entire libraries of smut or writing as many noxious laws as fast as they FUCKING can are either stoned out of their minds on pretty much any chemical substance they can get their filthy little hippie hands on, or shouting from the mountaintops that all of this absurd horror is what Paradise looks like.
I mean, have you ever noticed that every single social pathology currently tearing this country to shreds got started in either Los Angeles or Frisco?”
"Well, yeah, but besides all that?"
PREACH
Amen brother
Ice, that was epic. Is this your original bile or a copy-pasta from a movie/book I’m not familiar with? Either way, many thanks. I’m old and grumpy but at least I’m not alone in screaming at the chaos enveloping our republic.
That was all me, man.
And I'm glad you enjoyed it.
That was all you?
GET THIS MAN A GUEST POST
Thank you.
...as "they" say... I feel dat, bruh..
Apart from the homophobic ranting part, I also don't like the dog whistles here .
If you're so afraid of Commie Kalifornia, feel free to leave ~ you won't be missed .
-Nate
No dog whistle... "they" just means people, as in, "you know what they say..."
...in all fairness, that's exactly what a lot of people are doing. So many people are leaving California that it has an outsized effect on the economies, home prices, and politics of the places they're fleeing to. Examples like Idaho, Texas, Utah, Colorado...
You're lying plain and simple .
If you're a racist, homophobic or anti semetic that's fine, in America you're allowed to do that .
Be ready for honest folks to push back .
People are leaving Commifornia yes, not the ones who make it a good place to live .
-Nate
Who does make it a good place to live? I'm not on the up and up but I don't recall seeing a lot of migration to California, but plenty out.
Well “who” would be your friends and family, but I think you meant “what”. The what would be anything that I mentioned. I’m far from an apologist for the state, but it has had the 7th largest economy in the world for a long while, and it is very easy to find good employment here. The no se hablan that does odd jobs for has been here 10-15 years and makes 25/hr. My children’s Caucasian citizen nanny is making 30/hr cash. The geography is spectacular, if one can open their eyes to see it. The hunting is still quite good here, once you submit to the myriad, ever-changing and arbitrary gun laws. The skiing is great, we have world class surf, all the sports teams, the desert racing, good racetracks. Excellent food, world class wine, all the stuff man. But really it’s all about community. If you have it, you’ll stay for it, if you don’t, all the money in the world won’t keep you.
There’s plenty wrong with the state, yes. If we could break the back the public employees unions, I think that would go a really long way. Do I have hope for it to happen? Hardly. I’m here till I feel called to go somewhere else. But then, that’s most places, yes?
Ha... this would be comedy, if it wasn't for the fact that the paralyzing delusion you're now displaying pretty well represents what's wrong with California...
...I suppose, in your delusion, it seems like that only the people you consider "bad" are the ones fleeing, and the people you consider "good" are the ones staying. But since I'm honest AND actually living in the real world, let me just say this: normal people understand that California is a modern dystopia, a case study of potential and opportunity squandered and wasted by a political environment of lunacy and a culture of stupidity and depravity. That's why they're leaving. You have been programmed with delusions of racism, sexism, and injustice by a failed California political class that is literally incapable of doing anything right, thus it must distract sheep like yourself, lest they actually return to reality and start asking basic questions...
I’ve lived here for 29 of my 40 years and I still think CA is a good place to live. I also think that just about everything he said is true. My friend walked up on an anal train during pride week. The child of a friend of a friend encountered fentanyl on Chrissy field and almost died. If you make $200k, income tax + sales tax + property tax is like $35k(1.2 house, 50k spent) which leaves you with $99k after the fed is done with you. Oh and you have zero rights regarding what is injected into your kids, and if you don’t spring for private education, you have zero say in what they teach them either. Oh and gas is $2 more than the rest of the country. Oh and they can impound your car if they don’t like your stand alone.
There’s a ton of good people here and the geography is amazing and there’s a ton of money to be made, but...
I wrote what I did out of a profound sense of pain and anger.
California used to be the America of America, truly the apex of human civilization and a place I might have very well loved to live in, until a coalition of narcissistic, sociopathic, morally-bankrupt orcs turned it into an civilizational abattoir - and for no higher reason than that they wish to rule their fellow man unchallenged, but they can't do THAT in daylight, so they enveloped the realm and its good people in darkness.
"Decent people shouldn't live here. They'd be happier someplace else"
- Jack Napier, "Batman"
Well ;
At the very least we're carrying the water for all those low tax red states .
The instant you leave the three big cities here it becomes very Conservative indeed .
I came here first time in the summer of 1969 and yes, _all_ of California was *very* different and dirt cheap even in the big cites to live, rent or buy .
-Nate
Are you saying that Assemblyman Scott Weiner is the best America has to offer?
You cool with children being chemically and surgically sterilized against their parents' wishes?
Democrats say the protect democracy, but when they have enough power, like in California and as are trying in Michigan, they set up what are essentially one party states that shut out any effective opposition. How is it really a choice if you get to choose between two Democrats for the U.S. Senate? They hold elections in North Korea too.
I heard a leftist professor at NYU (who wants to believe she's part of the "resistance", hah!) say that Republicans can't win presidential elections if they don't cheat. If you have to cheat to have a chance to win, is the game actually fair?
As a critic of nerd culture, a nerd himself, once said, "We think we're the Rebellion, but we're actually the Empire."
ronnie's paranoia, self pity and endless alt-right bullshit is very annoying .
-Nate
"Call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye"
Now Nashville, Austin, Tampa, . . . look like paradise.
Most of the big box chains will fire you for apprehending a shoplifter or fighting with a customer if you are not a member of loss prevention or management. Flood the streets with illegals, encourage shoplifting and rioting...trying to turn this country into a shit hole.
Who ripped up the Fairness Doctrine?? Who says Corporations are people and have more rights then you? Who said that Money(campaign Money) is a form of speech. Why is the USA lagging behind the rest of the first world countries?
a) the Fairness Doctrine was a gross violation of the 1st amendment.
2) I will believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.
iii) money doesn't talk, it swears.
lagging behind in what?
1987 FCC, 1906 Supreme Court 2010 Supreme Court, and how are we lagging? Too free for you?
Who are we lagging behind? The UK? Germany? France? Sweden? Italy? Spain?
No, we’re all circling the same drain.
You're assuming America should emulate other countries.
Warts and all, that'd generally be a regression.
"Who said that Money(campaign Money) is a form of speech"
Who said that making a documentary critical of Hillary Clinton isn't a form of speech?
The state how somehow decided that the solution to crimes committed by illegals or even regular immigrants is simply more immigrants.
As Mickey Kaus notes, the only solution offered by The Powers That Be to EVERY problem this country faces is: more immigration, and faster.
It's maddening, and there's not really anything the common man can do to stop it. Voting doesn't work. I'm sick of looking at a sea of third worlders when I should be looking at my countrymen.
And all this happened in less than a lifetime.
As I noted elsewhere, the population has more than doubled since 1960, yet like most "first world" countries the native population reproduces at less than replacement rate.
All we Canadians (and Americans too) are mongrels and immigrants, and are better for it. My forebears came here in the 1890's but that in no way makes me superior to my neighbour who arrived 10 years ago. Ask the First Nations (aka Native Americans) what they think of "illegal immigrants".
Ah yes, immigration is our strength. No proof is ever offered for this. The Indians should've executed every last one of us. Why should we repeat their mistake?
Well, we had to start with _some_ immigration at _some_ point. Where to stop or slow it has been the question since.
I consider myself an immigrant on stolen land. my ancestors had to deal with European immigrants trying to steal their land too. And their ancestors stole land from the native people living in that area
I’ve said it before. The Thanksgiving celebration was the Native Americans who were here at the time way of giving a going away party. No one ever leaves.
Don't bother denigrating us by referring to us as mongrels. We are a fine people and the European settlers that crossed the ocean created two of the greatest countries on the face of the earth. Yes, there is absolutely a differnece betweeen the people that came here 150 years ago to a barren landscape compared to the immigrants that cross the border for free shit. Our people and out culture created this land.
And I don't care what the natives think, they lost.
"And I don't care what the natives think, they lost."
People groups have been doing their best to wipe other people groups off the face of earth since there have been more than one group of people on the earth. Why is it that the "native american" group are suddenly heroes? And how do we know they were here first anyway? Maybe they were mean to someone else before we were mean to them, in which case we're forgiven ... ? What a mess.
I wear the mongrel badge proudly, even though I am, to use antiquated taxonomy, a Boomer WASP (English, Scottish, AND German). May I suggest an alternative: hybrid? My neighbour is your worst nightmare: visible minority Muslim, with 5 young children, but he is a fine fellow and calls me "brother". I thank gods I live in the most culturally diverse country that has ever existed. Half of humanity's problems would be solved if we were all beige. I am enriched by the cornucopia of cultures I see on the TTC.
Correct. Any group that exists today is here because they conquered other groups.
If you look hard enough at the history of any group squawking about their rights to land, you’ll find that they took that land from someone else.
Throughout US history, I can't speak for Canadia as I don't even know what street it's on, there have been extended periods of time where all immigration has been restricted. The recent influx and by recent I mean the last half century with no end in sight, is unprecedented both in absolute terms AND PROPORTIONALLY!!! Short of going from 0 > 1 when the first European set foot in the New World there has never been a larger proportion of immigrant and first generation/pregnant on the plane relative to the number of people whose parents were born in this country.
The last few years in Canada have seen immigration like never thought possible. 900k international students alone in the last year and about 560k regular immigrants. It's mindblowing. Also, a great deal of them are Indian and Chinese. Indians in Ontario and Chinese in British Colombia. The Chinese tend to use Canadian housing markets to launder money too.
First Nations? You mean Siberian-Americans? The ones that were waging wars of slavery and conquest, practicing human sacrifice and cannibalism long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
Earlier immigrants to Canada more or less embraced the cultures that were established by the Scots and French.
Also, what's the deal with Montreal smoked meat? It's just a form of pastrami. Like fish & chips, another national food introduced by Jewish immigrants.
It's kinda like Quebec cheese curds I think. Not a new concept, but a particular style of it.
Speak for yourself.
I was born in New Jersey to American citizens. That makes me a native American.
I was born in Illinois. That makes me Canadian. Seriously though, the A in Scott A is a very Quebecian name.
Here's the problem. The approximate supply of people who would readily move to North America stands at perhaps 3 billion. How do you determine who comes and who doesn't?
Immigration is like pouring salt into water. There is a saturation point. We've hit it. Probably hit it 20 years ago. Since we've had 50 years of absolutely unrestricted immigration, let's try 20 or 30 years without it then evalute.
Ah yes, the typical 2023 Redditor response: "Well White people's ancestors murdered all the Natives, so the current unlimited migration into the west is just righteous retribution for the past"
Yeah no. We created something great here and we are entitled to preserve it.
I was in Hamtramck yesterday picking up a transformer for the *furnace and the only poles I saw were holding up lights and wires.
*So the furnace control board was acting like it had no power but there was 110 between the switch and ground and 110 on the board going to the transformer. Replaced the board and transformer with new ones, still wouldn't work. What do you think the problem was?
The flux capacitor?
No. I'll just say that Alternating Current is weird.
I replaced a furnace blower control board and that fixed it for me. Happily, did not need to go further than that.
Mickey seems to have fallen off the face of the earth.
Mickey who? Oh, Kaus.
Wonderful commenting system, Substack. Great job. /s
Speaking of Mickey Kaus, he wrote this in 1999 about Daniel Patrick Moynihan
https://www.kausfiles.com/archive/index.09.23.99.html
Which adds to the argument that Moynihan was Deep Throat.
They don’t want what those Sikh 7-11 owners did to that shoplifter in Stockton to happen again:
https://youtu.be/wjqeIkbtnlI?si=8SeWWilXLJNv3gOT
Did he LOOK like a student of history?
Well, he DID get schooled...
They let that clown off easy. Should have been multiple "Your mother!!!!" into the nads.
They DID keep the shirt.
Yeah, he's Mr. Tough Guy till Ghandi starts going all Braveheart on him with a broom handle.
"YOU MAY TAKE OUR LIVES, BUT YOU'LL NEVER TAKE OUR MARLBOROS!!!"
He's the victim of a lifetime of media that shows black men, no matter how obese, sloppy, and untrained, as hyper-alphas whose word may not be contested, nor actions challenged.
I watched a dude who felt that way get a porcelain sink to the head a while back, courtesy of some "retard" white boy.
You may draw your own conclusions about where on the Kardashev Scale lives the culture that celebrates perpetual aggression, obesity and sexual promiscuity.
Everybody has a plan until they get hit in the face.
you dont mess with sikh people
they're usually a lot more violent if you mess with them
Always cracks me up when I hear a Texas Sikh talk. They have the beard, the turban, sometimes the knife and they sound like a good ole boy.
Mormons wear funny underwear, Jews wear tiny beanies and strings off their clothes. Sikhs carry a bladed weapon as a religious obligation. You do the math.
CT resident here. Seems about right. Over the last several years there's been a surge in car thefts. The reduction in juvenile prosecution under the current (and former) governors has essentially created a "catch and release" system for property theft.
However, steal from the town / PD and all of a sudden, it's an entirely different set of rules. A car stolen in town rammed a police cruiser - the full force of the PD continues to hunt for the "teen". I'm sure when / if they find them, somehow that won't be a "catch and release".
On an F1 side note - ya'll hear about Charles taking the approach to intervene and get his watch back after being mugged?
This has happened to BOTH Ferrari drivers now!
In the United States, one or both of them would be dead.
We hanged horse theives, and that was for boosting just ONE horse.
What about for 500?
We're gonna need a shitload of trees.
It's America. We've got 'em.
Got a thousand or so right here at my place, in fact.
Oh, AT LEAST, I would think.
Thank you for offering to host the hangings,
I will bring an insufficient amount of Canadian rye and whiskey.
There is a school of thought that says the main purpose of government controlled law enforcement is to remove the death penalty as punishment for most crimes. As the legal system becomes less effective in controlling crime, it will result in more severe punishment outside the legal system.
"Any you boys seen Car Thief Eddie?"
"No sir, Sheriff. Heard he went back to LA."
That's my understanding too - that "an eye for an eye" was a limiting principle and was designed to prevent bloody revenge & reprisals to friends, family, etc.
Lando was also relieved of HIS Richard Mille timepiece after a concert, outside Wembley relatively recently.
All great PR for … RM.
How do you fence a Richard Mille?
Seriously
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/whats-behind-the-continued-rise-in-watch-theft
Relevant
At this point I believe these aren't actually robberies... staged actors playing a role in gaining Richard Mille more attention.
I don’t think it’s that … but I can see why you are skeptical.
It was Carlos, but yeah, not in the US.
It was Charles earlier, I don't know if it was a Richard Mille watch too. On one hand, it sucks, on the other, walking around in public with a $300,000 watch...
Carlos's muggery was in Milan, I've spent some time there over the years, it seems like a very safe place.
Controversial or not, I don't think mugging should be a potential outcome for wearing an ugly and highly valuable watch, but I get accountability and "asking for it".
The possibility also exists that I am naively optimistic.
Well, in the US public wearers of ugly and expensive jewelry tend to wear it into nightclubs and strip clubs, where a simple mugging is likely to end up in a fusillade of gunfire. Europe, for all its faults, is a more quaint snatch and run jurisdiction, at least outside no-go zones in France and Sweden.
And no, mugging shouldn't be a potential outcome, more like a predictable result. And yes, you seem like a nice, optimistic guy.
"...and in other news, Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard was robbed of approximately $20,000 in solid gold, leaving him unable to chew solid food."
- SNL Weekend Update
Wearing it is part of his sponsorship agreement.
That may have been in the back of the stewards minds when they left both drivers off the hook for driving extremely slow during Q. Someone on a web site mentioned the fans would be in an uproar and the stewards would fear for their lives. A response was "Italy is not Brazil". And then we have the stolen watch, which is like Brazil.
Because of the Spectrum/Disney beef I was unable to watch the race this weekend but I was pleased to see that Liam Lawson performed well. As I commented last week, I rate him highly and hope to see him paired with Yuki next year at AT.
As far as California is concerned, maybe I’m in the minority here, but my heart truly breaks when I see what’s happening to that state. I enjoyed my time living there and it’s sad to see a large majority of the Golden State’s citizenry willingly vote themselves down the proverbial toilet.
The elections in California are rigged. First off they changed the rules so only democrats appear on the ballot in almost ALL elections. That's what 'open primaries' which are as unconstitutional as it gets, causes. But they even took it further than that with other laws.
Second, illegals are encouraged to vote (and even helped) - which also is unconstitutional, but California hasn't believed that the constitution applies to them for many decades now. They flaunt it, and even Supreme Court rulings constantly.
To paraphrase what they say: You can vote yourself into this state of affairs, but you can only shoot your way out of it. California has fallen, and it will never come back.
Deeply saddening. It might be a showcase of things to come for the rest of the country and the western world as well.
not oklahoma--or south dakota i bet
Ballot harvesting helps too.
I always enjoy explaining California to my liberal mother who lives in MD. From our conversation last week:
"You've seen the Godfather and the Sopranos, right? Where crime is the family business? Now imagine if they ran the government."
"We hang the petty thieves, and appoint the great ones to public office."
- Aesop
I have a woman on my route in Ohio who votes both in California and her new home. They'd probably put a stop to it if she didn't behave appropriately.
I heard a clip of NYU professor Ruth Ben Ghiat say that the Republicans cannot win future elections legally.
I emailed her asking how an election can be fair if the only way one side can win is to cheat. I won't hold my breath waiting for a response.
I wonder how many "Californians" are actually Californians. It's baffling to me that any member of that population would ever willingly subject themselves to the nonsense going on there.
I believe it was Victor Davis Hanson that recently said 1/3 of the residents of California were born in a different country. Hanson is a life long resident of CA.
Hanson is a relic of the old ways, a farmer who can speak conversationally of Greece and Rome.
I consider it an honor that the first thing that I got paid to write was published at PJ Media right next to an essay from Prof. Hanson.
That's cool - I wrote for them too back in the day (around 2008 or so) and really enjoyed it.
Yes! And Hanson also understands physical work having run a farm while teaching university courses. Much like my math teachers in high school who held masters degrees from Vanderbilt University when that actually meant something. Both of them also ran family farms.
If you live in a more conservative city, they do their best to hold the line. And I mean that literally in some cases - when the BLM riots were in full swing, our cops basically defended the city border and kept them out, which is why what happened to Santa Monica, Fairfax, Melrose, and other majority-white areas in SoCal etc didn't happen to us.
If you're an F1 fan, F1TV is well worth the $80/season. With F1 Multiviewer, you can watch the main feed, live timing, and multiple driver onboards all at once. Watching live, you also get AI transcription of all team radio messages. It's awesome.
Yeah it's the only subscription for which I'm paying right now, outside Substack.
I think I'm also paying five bucks a month for Peacock to watch IndyCar. Increasingly I'm finding it not worth the outlay, to say nothing of my time investment.
If you are willing to wait 4-5 hours after a race, there's a RUSSIAN web site that has just about every racing series in the world except IMSA. The guy rips off Sky's simulcast of the NBC races. Have a good ad blocker though. The porn popups without one are Interesting.
The picture quality isn't all that good, but then again neither is the racing. Portland looked like more people in the pits than in the stands. "The Captain" seems more interest about the Speedway than trying to grow the series. Next up is something like team charters to make Indy 500 starting spots locked in that is being tossed about.
I'd be really surprised if IndyCar still exists in 10 years.
Back when I was between careers newly divorced drinking a fifth of Old Crow a day there was a great torrent site specializing in motorsports. They had everything from the earliest gladiators racing with riding mechanics to the race that ended just an hour ago. Does anyone have a link to that? Does it still exist?
I am so incredibly disappointed with Roger.
How interesting?
I mentioned this in passing to my wife earlier this summer. She didn't look particularly enthusiastic about said benefits, but she also only rolled her eyes at the idea of me on the couch half of every Sunday afternoon, which means next year, perhaps after we finish our attic...........
I often watch the replay after everyone goes to bed. Has the added benefit of forcing me to stop looking at my phone for the weekend.
F1 TV is more than worthwhile…
I love the government of Connecticut! They have no problems with abusing YOUR money, but heaven help you if you abuse theirs, even when it's their fault!
As for California, Victor David Hanson recently was talking about this. The people running California, and especially Newsom, have this weird death-wish thing going on. De-Civilization. That is what they are doing. They are intentionally destroying civilization because there is just something fundamentally wrong with them.
I know this guy who has come out in recent years and said that it's all the work of the devil.
And you know what? I'm starting to believe he's right. We've always known that evil exists in the world - California, and yes even Washington DC, shows us what happens when it gets the upper hand.
Around the turn of the century, I moved from Pennsylvania to Connecticut for work. I'd had a carry permit in PA for years and wanted to get one in CT. So I asked the cops and was told that I had to complete a course. Okay, I said, but I've had a carry permit in PA for years. Doesn't matter what PA thinks, said the cops. They needed to make their own determination of my suitability.
So another state's opinion doesn't matter when it comes to my carrying a gun?
So, if PA called CT and said I was a wanted fugitive, do you supposed CT would tell them it didn't matter what PA thought of me? That CT had to make up its own mind about me?
Amazing how the Feds ignore state legalization of marijuana. Imagine if states were to legalize full-auto or suppressors.
If I was in charge of the country, I'd raid every one of those illegal weed shops and charge the owners just to punt the issue to congress. Think of all the free money! Should weed be legal? Meh, don't care but it isn't right now.
Saddest thing about weed legalization was the discovery of how many of my neighbors seem to have no other hobbies.
Just one neighbor for me but it the smell is chronic.
If you're talking about plants, it depends on the time of day. During the day, particularly when flowering, cannabis plants smell like fresh cannabis. At night when their respiration cycle reverses, cannabis plants just smell like other green plants, particularly right after the lights go out or the sun goes down.
It's been an outstanding summer for outdoor grows in Ohio and Michigan. Hardly had to water more than a half dozen times. The plants are about 10 feet tall and the flowers are tightly clustered on the stalks. I'll know in about three weeks how the indica strains come out and the sativas 2-4 wks later.
Yeah, or if states wanted to ignore FMVSS regulations or U.S. v Enmons.
Texas and Oklahoma HAVE (Suppressors that is) and OH WOW are the feds coming unglued over THAT! And their legalization is completely within the bounds of the law as well! But that's never stopped the feds before.
Let's face it: the primary difference between Left-ish nose-thumbing, such as weed and sanctuary cities, and Right-ish nose-thumbing, like gun stuff, is that with the latter they will drop the ATF out of helicopters, punch your pregnant wife, and stomp your cats to death on the way out, Louis Katona style.
Everybody knows that you'll never see the Feds drop a platoon into a "legal" weed operation. Make a few full-auto weapons, and they'll kill your family when they're done killing you.
Or simply reduce the barrel length of a shotgun a as Mr. Weaver found out.
Size matters!
(those gun laws are stupid as hell)
Chop a couple of inches too much off a shotgun barrel after being pestered continuously by federal agents to do so, and they'll shoot your wife while she's holding your infant son and laugh about it.
"Equal justice" has always been a fucking lie.
I did not know that!
It's hard not to see it as pure evil.
Also, so far as the evil in DC goes, I often think about how it's too bad that United 93 never reached its true destination. And also when Jan 6 happened everyone acted like it was an assault on our democracy, but the Capitol building has to be the single most corrupt building in our 50 states.
And when Anti-fa, a few months prior actually set fire to government buildings in DC in an ACTUAL attempt to overthrow the government and storm the whitehouse (and probably kill Trump) NO ONE CARED.
It took me a second to understand your United 93 destination comment. Well played
They wish to turn the entire world, or at least the whole of America, into one giant Rio de Janiero: A few palaces surrounded by a human landfill.
All so they can stay in power unchallenged.
MotoGP's competition got closer and we'll see how sore Bagnaia is after miraculously not having his leg(s) broken after a nasty high side and Brad Binder riding over his legs in a lap 1 accident. The earlier lap 1 accident took five riders out and 4 were able to restart with Bastianini out again with injuries and also penalties for causing the incident into turn 1.
The Aprilia factory team finished the 1-2 victory, a first for Aprilia who were dominant after the race restart, with Jorge Martin a distant 3rd and Brad Binder making up no points as his bike had a technical failure. Marc Marquez finished again (! what a statement) and Quartararo had a 7th place finish. Again, we'll see if Yamaha can keep closing the gap or if this was a one off due to so many riders getting wiped out and starting on different tires/being mildly injured.
If Bagnaia is hurt enough to affect his ride there could be a serious challenge coming but it remains to be seen as we enter this weekend for an Italian GP.
Always appreciate your MotoGP synopsis!
Same here!
I've started watching MotoGP regularly, thanks to these updates!
MotoGP is the tits. wild race.
MotoGP is indeed tits. Real racing right up there with non-winged Sprint Cars and Midgets.
Dorna, the sanctioning body is headed down the F1 Highway to Hell though. Electronic rider aids, ride-height control, spec tires, and now aero bodywork.
Yea thank you for the breakdown. Now I half way know what is going on when my brother in law talks about it. I really should watch.
You should also give World Superbikes a chance, its the two wheel equivalent of touring cars where you can see race prepped litre bikes go head to head. Great stuff.
I was saying to a Portuguese mate of mine who is a proper MotoGP nerd, how lucky Pacco is not to have been killed like Simoncelli in that highside
I thought I was watching someone get broken bones and out for a bunch of the season at the least.
He was quite fortunate in the way he landed, spun, and Binder knocking into Jorge Martin to push Jorge away and put Binder on his specific path.
Apparently Binder went over Paccos kneepads, it looked to me like he ran over Paccos shins, but it all happens so fast on the coverage, it's often hard to tell
"According to law enforcement authorities, the bag was clearly marked with a bank’s insignia and found outside the same bank. "
If I found money in a bank bag, I'd like to think I'd walk into the bank and return the money. If you can identify the owner, you should do your best to return it.
That is true. But how do we know that the authorities are telling the truth? Law Enforcement is allowed to lie, and does so fairly often. Also governments lie all the time.
If they have a video clearly showing the bag's markings, I'll believe them. Otherwise? It's just hearsay.
Who are these "authorities" you speak of?
You don't mean the cops, do you?
Because they wield Power, not Authority.
The cops AND the government officials behind the charges.
Government officials...
They should all be legally required to dress like the Hamburglar.
This is a bit of a hand wave IMO. I have bank bags from when I had my own business. In all cases, that was MY money, not the bank's -- and if someone had handed in that bag, the bank would have put it in unclaimed funds.
Yeah, big "If you can identify the owner" I've found $40 lying on the ground. No way of knowing whose 40 it was so I was $40 richer. I've also found stuff where I could identify the owner and did and returned it. A bag with 5k of cash in it, I'd think there would be a deposit slip but who knows?
Keep in mind that this was
a) a government employee;
b) someone who works for the government;
c) someone who was both a) and b) and also dropped a relatively heavy and sizable bag outside the bank without noticing.
I wouldn't bet the life of my child on there being ANY paperwork in there, let alone any that was filled out.
The "news" claims there was paperwork in the bag identifying the owner.
Of course the "news" is told to report a lot of things.....
I wonder how many hoops the bank would make you or me jump through to recover a bag of money that we left at the bank.
It was actually a decent F1 race this weekend (maybe the 2nd one of the season). Max not on pole, had to fight to get by Sainz, and then Ferrari let their drivers’ fight for the podium. But I follow Indy Car as the racing is closer and I can go to a race or two every season without declaring bankruptcy! Only wish the championship was still on the line at Laguna this weekend. First season in 18 years that it hasn’t been decided on the last day. Still be fun at the Corkscrew with a beer in hand! Hope Herta wins with his Dad’s livery!
Portland was entertaining. Great racing
Lewis also did the wrong thing. Look at his ungraceful response when asked about Verstappen's achievement.
Buying from amazon and smoking weed with covid handouts - I think this is already the status quo?
I wasn't aware of the Connecticut case, but do you or me get the same level of investigative support from the cops if we lost something worth 5k USD? Another example that the machine only works for itself.
I don't think anything Sainz did was illegal. It was on the limit, but he drove a 9.x/10 race in my opinion.
Lewis is probably mad about not being the centre of attention for once and that F1 has a new golden boy.
not once, but always.
He is a middle aged man in decline. I sure that gets to him. I’ve never been an f1 champ and it gets to me. I Still don’t like the guy
Worse yet, he has nothing AFTER the sport. Nico has a perfect family. Alonso will race WEC and Dakar. Kimi is smashing broads two at a time. Lewis is gonna hold the camera while 100% African dudes poke holes in Shakira's posterior fornix.
Dude… don’t make me feel bad for him
I will always have sympathy for Lewis based on the stories of his childhood I've heard from a fellow competitor. But I'd be very pleased if he never won another race. He has had his day.
I’d like to see him get married, have a few kids, get humbled a bit (a lot), be genuinely happy…. And never win another race.
I thought he was boinking that blonde physical therapist that hangs around him.
Guess his retirement is the cuck chair.
I hope that's not the case, because that nice old lady therapist is the spitting image of his mother.
Maybe that's what turns his crank. You never know these days!
I thought he already had a second career - modeling men's pajamas???
Sure looks that way!
You or I would probably get the opposite; civil asset forfeiture.
" do you or me get the same level of investigative support from the cops if we lost something worth 5k USD?"
Lol. Of course not. "Here is your police report to turn into insurance"
You can steal from each other, but don’t you dare steal from the govmint.
My storage unit theft amounted to $43,000 worth of items at present-day auction value. Many of the items were unique and identifiable at a distance.
Columbus Police didn't even bother to call me after the case was filed, let alone do any work.
was so shocked to hear of their lack of response i clutched my pearls
"Gasp and swoon, I just caught the vapors!"
"That's why I didn't report it stolen. I didn't want to answer any ticklish questions about how I got it back."
I moved to the CITY of St. Louis when I got back from a three year expat gig in Seoul because my wife grew up here and was tired of the rural life we had been living. I read Next Door mainly for the entertainment value and shake my head at the white progressives (and they ARE progressive) complaining about their cars and bicycles and lawn mowers being stolen.
You know who I don't see complaining? Black folk in the hood. I am convinced that most of the "man found shot" reports on the news are actually people handling situations because they know the police and the CA aren't going to do anything about someone breaking into their hooptie. That's going to become more common in the "nice" areas as well.
Unfortunately, self defense for the palefaces is not a wise thing in many states.
Three S's, man. Same as for coyotes.
SSS isn't an effective strategy for somebody who is middle class. The authorities couldn't care less about the dalits murdering one another because they are regarded as animals. But if you are a generally decent member of the peasant class and you take matters into your own hands, you can expect them to move heaven and earth to hang you in the public square.
Real life example: I know of a prosecutor's office in a red state that made a deal with a man who cut a hole in a toddler's stomach so he could use the tike's guts as a fleshlight that went to the mat on a clear-cut self defense case simply because the prosecutor didn't like the "righteous" attitude the person who used lawful self defense took about the whole matter.
When you were in school, did you ever encounter a bully that the school administrators didn't do anything about? Always citing the fact that he had a rough home life and "you have to understand", etc? That describes our "justice" system extremely well. Bad guys get understanding. You get the full weight of the law.
The ancient Greeks believed that man was in the worst position in the world, because was powerless like an animal, but had the mind of a god and so was cognizant of his powerlessness. Gods had power and animals had the mercy of being unaware of their low state.
To be middle class is to be the man of the above example.
I'm not sure I can begin to comprehend that. The whole thing makes my brain hurt.
This is so depressing. Do the cops have such faith in the professionalism of the thieves that they know they can't find them or do they just not care? Growing up watching Adam 12 and CHiPs, this was not the way things were supposed to go.
He probably just got a lazy one. Like most professions, not all cops are bad but most of them are 80/20
Seven Mary three and four responding
They do not care. Most people have no understanding of what crime is in the United States. Clearance rates for murder...meaning there is a dead body and the police have a primary suspect...is about 50% nationally. (The FBI's UCR is hopelessly optimistic about that) Now that's *murder*. In the most violent places in this country less than a third of murders are cleared. And, again, that just means a primary suspect is identified. It doesn't mean they are successfully prosecuted or jailed. If you look at almost any major urban or suburban area, solving violent crimes where people are maimed or killed isn't even a 50/50 proposition.
It gets no prettier for property crimes. If thieves have any level of sophistication at all, they get away with it until they get sloppy or unlucky.
This state of affairs continues until the public demands change. The public has to know this is the state of affairs before they can demand change...and that's why you don't see the press covering any of the real statistics on crime. Because if you knew how common it was and how ineffectual the system was you'd realize you were next and you'd burn it down and replace it with something that works.
That would put a lot of powerful people out of jobs and cut off their flow of money. And we can't have that.
Good thing we aren't experiencing anything like that at a national level, right?
So you're saying I can get away with it? Interesting!
IF ANY FEDERAL AGENTS ARE READING THIS POST I WANT TO CLARIFY THAT IT WAS IN JEST AND I DO NOT PLAN TO COMMIT A HOMICIDE
A staggering number of violent assaults are perpetrated every year without the person who did it even sniffing a police officer. A smart person who had a little bit of luck and targeted carefully could well get away with it. Violent criminals get caught because they do it over and over and over again. Sooner or later the numbers catch up to them.
That makes a one-off act of murder plausible for some. Doesn't exactly help me sleep at night. I've heard of crime reports vs. crimes solved in places like Detroit, but figured it had to be an anomaly and was far better elsewhere.
This former Ann Arbor resident is tempted to say there's the problem, you were renting a storage unit in Columbus. Honest question: Do you think storage units in your county are less susceptible to theft than in a big city? It's not like there aren't any meth heads in rural Ohio.
I have no idea because I'm not gonna use one and it would be unwise to open the door to my barn unless I've told you to do it.
How much of Max's dominance is the driver, and how much of it is the car? Can someone who feels knowledgeable on F1 speak on what specific skills he has in comparison to his rivals? I don't feel experienced enough to pick up on the nuances to his driving, at least from the current television coverage. Is he smarter, braver, more calculated?
I'm an idiot, but he seems to win more races and finish a lot higher than Perez in the same (?) car, compared to Hamilton/Bottas and their slew of races with both men on podium, if not one-two.
Also Adrian Newey is a walking cheat code. The car is bad fast with Max in it.
NO!!!!! THEY ARE INTENTIONALLY GIVING PEREZ A BAD CAR!!!!!!!!!!!! </sarc>.
"We gave Max the fast car for the lulz and also because we are scared of Jos"
-Christian Horner
That actually makes sense!!!
Teams want the WCC, the WDC is "Nice". While I have no doubt that they favor Max, they do want it close for the WCC. This year it's probably in the bag, but they'd much prefer "Closer" regardless of Perez's finishing positions.
The metric according to the scribes when RB would change drivers like people change underwear was less than half a second. If you couldn't do that, you were useless to them.
Funny with the salty talk from MB these days. At one time there was a talk of "Some day Max might race for MB". I doubt that will ever happen now. Max has already said if the racing wasn't enjoyable he'd move on. With the BS he's had to hear from MB, I doubt he could push that aside for any amount of money.
MB has turned into "That Guy" that no one wants to be around.
Unrelated to the point of this thread, but my kids' favorite driver is Bottas. They don't know anything about him other than how his name sounds.
The mullet/mustache combo is rad. I like him for that alone, and he doesn't seem like a bad dude.
He would fit right in up here.
That's what I was thinking -- the U.P. is a second Finland.
It's the second week of deer camp, and all the guys are here...
There are indeed a lot of Finns up here! Some months it seems like half the deeds I enter are Finnish names.
I imagine that driving for LewisMercedes was MISERABLE. at least he is having fun now.
He let his hair down! Literally!
My nephew loves Stoffel van Dorn, or however it is spelled, because of that proto drive to survive about him.
The family was baffled.
My opinion: he has a better feel for available traction than everyone else. That's something you can't really teach. I have far more of it than the average club racer but Max is so far ahead of me i can't see him.
Is it possible to develop it (I know you just said it can't really be taught, but I'm dumb and persistent) and is there a best method of doing so?
Go run ten years of regional autocross with a correctly prepped car; you'll walk away with SOMETHING.
The feel for traction is in my opinion the biggest reason a couple of the greatest riders in motocross were so much further ahead than the competition, which I assume at least on a motorcycle comes down to having a fairly light touch on the controls, therefore not muting the feel that the suspension and tires are giving you for what grip is available. Presence of mind and an acute sensitivity for the beginnings of tire slip are probably also important, but I'm kind of guessing here.
I try to drive with my fingertips, like Schumacher did. This isn't always possible in cars without power steering :)
Jett seems to have a good handle on this. It makes he and his bike look very calm/settled
From my dinner in Austin last week, in which I had the good fortune to sit next to a guy who was climbing the karting ladder with Max and his cohort (and ended up in sports cars instead):
Max and Jos were extremely competitive, extremely prepared, and absolutely not there to have fun. They were laser focused on dominance.
This person - who is a Merc F1 simulator driver - says that Lewis is the greatest of all time, but he’s also British AND they pay him a LOT of money…
We are not far from the time when implying that a white person is the greatest at ANYTHING will put you on the bread lines. As Taibbi just said, the cannonball was dropped at the top of the building and it's not stopping just because it passes your favorite floor.
Saying Lewis is the greatest of all time is like singing along with everyone else in church in 1750. But anyone who has eyes can see that Max operates at the next level up, particularly in bad conditions.
I appreciate the gentle correction!
No correction intended, just offering a potential explanation for why someone would say that.
Only sarcasm on my end!
Greatest of all time? Arguably in F1. The rest of motorsports? He'd be lucky to make it into my top 10.
Pure talent? Maybe Senna or one of the old guys who raced on skinny tires and went to a lot of funerals.
What's your opinion of Danny " on the gas" Ongias as a motorsport driver? He had some success across the board I think.
Max "Ivan Drago" Verstappen.
lol Lewis is overrated garbage
Overrated? Yeah. He would have a couple of WDCs without the rocket ship being that much better. I think his current problem is, the years with a rocket ship dulled his race craft. If this car's capabilities compared to RBs was 6-7 years ago, he might still have some fight in him to win with him as the key ingredient.
I think that could happen to Max and anyone else over time. Passing backmarkers with a blue flag waving isn't passing anyone using your talent.
Are there any specific exercises (as in music) coaches have drivers do first, before even attempting a course at speed?
I know that I learn best from exercises.
I think Ross Bently addresses that in his Substack?
Max was born and bred to be where he is now. From the time he could first walk his dad, Jos, had him in karts and pushed him to win. Jos was a fierce journeyman F1 driver but started too late to develop the talent required to win. He ruthlessly managed Max and his career through karting and all the junior series, giving Max the many years of competitive training and the mental toughness to be the best. Negotiating Max into Red Bull's first seat in the team with the Smartest Man in F1 - Adrian Newey - responsible for the cars is the end result.
In response to a question about a particularly aggressive move during a race Max responded with " Ya, if I didn't do that, my dad would have kicked me in the balls!"
Seat time, mental toughness, and natural ability and the right car at the right time.
Lewis is very much the same story, very difficult to maintain that level of effort and be in the right car at the right time.
Red Bull earlier in the season were clearly better than all of the other teams by a decent margin. Right now they still have the best car on the grid but that gap has closed a good bit. Despite his recent struggles, Checo is still a driver worthy of an F1 seat but if he's starting outside the points after qualifying, it's not a guarantee he'll finish on the podium.
Max is simply performing on another level right now. He just doesn't make mistakes and can push the car to it's absolute limit. Even when Mercedes was at their most dominate, Hamilton would just disappear some races. Max has benefited from having overall the best car on the grid and a tremendous streak of reliability so far. However, you could drop him in a Williams today and he'd likely be on podiums every race going forward.
In a grid where the top 16-18 cars are often within one second a lap, the driver is starting to make MORE difference than it did in, say, the Schumacher era, or the years of Mercedes ubiquity, IMO.
This week I helped my 11th grade daughter with her homework, and since most of her assignments are utterly insipid - "tell us again how awesome the native Americans were" - this one surprised me. The assignment was reading and commenting on the majority opinion and the Hugo Black dissent in Tinker v. Des Monies, the 1969 case about Vietnam War protestors wearing black armbands and known for this quote from the majority: "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."
In Black's dissent, he wrote: "It is a myth to say that any person has a constitutional right to say what he pleases, where he pleases, and when he pleases." He then proceeded to lay out a dystopian future where loud-mouthed brain-dead activist students and teachers control the classrooms and subject everyone else to political speech that they can't avoid while ignoring the core subjects that the school was set up to teach. Which is, of course, the public education hellscape that we live in today.
"Tell us again how awesome the Native Americans were"
I'd have a field day with that prompt and it would likely culminate with an in-school detention.
Black sounds like one of those far predictors of the future you desperately hope is wrong, but sadly isn't. Sometimes we need that.
Man, I hate school.
I hated school from the first day I started till the day I graduated. Just awful. I hate work too, but at least it pays me.
Looking back, so much of it was wasted time.
The education system is built by women for women. It's where inspiration goes to die.
School made me hate poetry, 19th Century American literature, and exercise. I got my command of the language from my mom and dad, outside of school.
Fucking homework. It's allegedly supposed to help you learn the material. Why the hell am I doing homework for material I already know? Just give me a test dammit.
I actually liked poetry, or should I say I liked the teacher. Had him in Jr High and he moved up to HS. He was a "What do you think it means" guy. There was no right answer, but he was looking for a reasoned response. If you could do that, B or B+ at a minimum. A rare teacher, even back in the 70s.
In the '60s, post Sputnik, American public education was pretty good. Not only can't young adults today afford starter homes like baby boomers could they also got a crappier education.
Yes. Pay to work in school, or get paid to work, at work. I'll take the latter.
I’m using the picture my mom took of me getting on the bus for the first time to send me to kindergarten for my obituary. Knew gravy train of Looney Tunes, grilled cheese sandwiches, and tomato soup came to an end that day. I looked pissed/distraught
I'm 66. I've never outgrown Looney Tunes.
That's because they were intended for adult audiences as well. Used as short between Warner Bros. features.
"Kill the Wabbit!! KILL THE WABBIT!!!!!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZTE9MDoaLs&ab_channel=ElmerFuddVEVO
They're timeless and topical at the same time.
The products of mad geniuses.
I particularly like how Friz Freleng was the inspiration for Yosemite Sam.
I also love the unedited, old-school Looney Tunes, before they started censoring the violent parts, so we wouldn't try to blow up a roadrunner.
I just want the future that the Jetsons had.
https://www.b98.tv/
I did really well in school, but from an early age viewed it as a means to an end. Do well in school gets me into college. Do well in college (in a useful major) gets me a well paying job. Well paying job gets me a "cool" car. Cool car was my life motivation from about age four.
I didn't have those motivations in school. What was the point of doing well when I was going to go to college (that let everyone in) and tuition was going to be paid for me (without scholarships or parental backing)? And the only point of college was to get into the university (still working on that). Even if I somehow didn't bother with student assistance, a semester was less than two grand.
Welcome to Canada!
Now my largest motivations come from actually trying to do something I want to do, like motorsport engineering or working on a race team.
The funny thing is I actually do think the American Indians were awesome, especially warrior tribes like the Comanche for example. But public education just treats them like piteous victims, to the point where even the students get exhausted by the entire thing.
The Council of Birmingham declared bankruptcy yesterday (Tuesday 9/5). Is MORE IMMIGRATION the solution?
Here are the Councillors (Chaman Lal is also Lord Mayor):
https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/councillors/name
A lot of shared last names there, and none of them are British!
I'm sure none of them are working in concert to achieve secondary goals at the cost of the native population.
Nothing about Toto Wolf, 10 wins and Wikipedia?
Also TF saying essentially SHAM is the only driver that always owns up to his mistakes.
Toto isn't stupid. He is throwing red meat to the supporters.
Oh, no doubt. Always praise your opponents even if people think you are lying. It ends any follow-ups. With the NE Pats, while it's looking more and more like it was Brady, Belichick ALWAYS praises the opponent. Even if no one believes him, there's no where to go in the media with stories after that.
"The NY Jets are a formidable opponent." He said that when the Pats were taking the Jets lunch money and he'll say it now if the Jets clean the Pat's clock.
It takes a strong will to remain even-keeled even if underneath you don't mean it.
Mr. Wolf sounds "weak". While he owns I believe a third of the team, I'm betting the other 2 thirds are shaking their heads.
Bill is 70 years old. The mind does slow down with age.
Counterpoint - our CinC is still rockin’ it cognitively and he’s what, 96 years old. I can think of at least 4 octogenarians in the Senate who’re still sharp as a tack--just NOT when answering questions in front of a camera.
Ergo, Fetterman is a precocious prodigy!
"technically, he can't get more retarded"
I saw the whole video. The guy that got his ass beat was talking a whole lot of shit. He fucked around and found out.
Plastic garbage can on wheels he was filling from the shelves by the armful.
When does the mafia make a comeback? The obvious solution is to turn off the cameras and employ the three s's.
Smile, shotgun and a Shovel?
Shoot, shovel, shut up
Shit, shower, shave?
While I agree that being hygienic and presentable matters, I hardly think that's the time for it.
To all my bike racing boys in here - how about SEPP FUCKIN KUSS?
(I haven't watched todays stage so no spoilers plz)
He can hang on. I know it.
If you are inclined towards money as one option for change, I like True The Vote, TX based, and Judicial Watch. TTV works on election integrity (oxymoron) and cleaning up voter rolls and was a Lois Lerner target. Judicial Watch uses the courts and Freedom of Information very effectively.