GoCommiesGo

2 minutes ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

Is Musk breaking any laws with his Ukraine games?  Violating sanctions by giving aid to Russia maybe?

I'm interested to see if this affects any of his government contracts. At this point I'm sure an argument can be made that he is not acting in the best interest of the US and is questionable if he or his companies should be receiving any money from the taxpayer. 

You have to replace the tax collected from gasoline to maintain the state road system some how. For the EVs it’s going to be in an extra fee of some type. It shouldn’t be punitive and more than would be collected via a gas tax on a similar combustion engine. 
 

IMO the fairest way is to remove the gas tax and just create tiers based on vehicle weight and charge a fee based that. The heavier a vehicle the more wear and tear it places on the road system. You drive a civic touring edition (3,077lbs) awesome you pay X a year, you drive a F-150 crew cab (6-7,000lbs) cool you pay X times 2/3, you drive a hummer EV (9,063lbs) you pay X times 3/4. Or something like that, infrastructure has to be paid for in some way. 

On 8/11/2023 at 8:35 PM, PleaseBlitz said:

NOAA forecasters increase Atlantic hurricane season prediction to ‘above normal’

It's going to be interesting if congress does nothing to add additional funds to the Disaster Relief Fund. September is the last month expected to have cash on hand without adding additional appropriations. 

How does the parking work with the passes? 
 

We bought the parking pass through SeatGeek and it’s a digital download. Way back when you had the placard that you put in the car.
 

Do you scan at a gate now? 

No season tickets, but I will be attending my first game in over a decade with my buddy and our wives. Give the stadium a peek and see how it all feels. 

We got four club level seats for the Giants game, first time in many years I'm excited for a season. 

Quote

Former library spaces at some schools will be converted into rooms where students who misbehave will be relocated to watch lessons virtually, work alone, or in groups with differentiated lessons. Books will remain on shelves and students will still be able to borrow books on a honor code system.

That is wild, are they hiring additional teachers to help make sure these kids stay on track and on topic? This is just crazy, even by Texas standards. 

14 hours ago, Die Hard said:

My wife and I finished watching it a few weeks ago.

 

I didn’t recommend it because it’s not for everyone. It’s one of those strange crazy genres.

 

If you like Mrs Davis…. you’d probably dig Preacher. That was pretty cool/amazing until the last 3 episodes that filled me with regret/disappointment.

I started watching Mrs. Davis this week, I love the absolute craziness of this style of show. Preacher is a solid comparison and was what I thought of after the first two episodes. 

@CobraCommander

I guarantee the people complaining are the bartenders. I never served but have some close friends who served and worked the bar. Bar was the place if you could keep up the pace and were personable enough. Friend of mine used to work at Mex at Power Plant, his best was like a grand on Saturday night shift. 

45 minutes ago, PeterMP said:

I do think there is a good chance that minority favoritism in government contracts and hiring is next.  It is the next logical step.  And I do suspect that will have a larger economic impact on minorities than this decision

This is an interesting thought, I'm not sure how many people are aware of the different subclasses that make up the small business segment for government contractors. If they do change that and remove the different designations that's going to hurt a lot of people, not just the business owner but the employees that make up the business. I believe we have six designations for small businesses and the total award value for these businesses at just my agency is north of $800 million a year.

Though in some respects it may not be a terrible thing, people game the system in some wild ways. My favorite one is a Alaskan Native Women started a business with a service disabled veteran, she owned 51% he owned 49%. They were able to categorize themselves under every designation and based on the purchase received substantial favoritism because of her status as a native Alaskan. 

42 minutes ago, Llevron said:

 

You and Trump could be wiener cousins! That's kinda dope. 

I believe the term is "Eskimo brothers". 

2 hours ago, TradeTheBeal! said:

Good heavens.  The whole tailgate is granola wagon owners.

 

Dire.

There’s a sweet 2018 XF S sportbreak at the Jaguar dealer near my house. It’s exceptionally tempting. 

27 minutes ago, Long n Left said:

Car hoe!

Damn straight! Having kids really slowed me down. 

I’m 40, I’ve owned 22 cars since I turned 16. In no particular order. 
 

1. 1987 Caddy Brougham 

2. 1987 Ford Bronco Sport 

3. 1990 Volvo 740 Turbo Wagon (I miss this car still)

4. 1991 Mercedes 190E

5. 1990 Mazda Miata, first generation 

6.1994 Jeep XJ (Cherokee) 

7. 1996 Mercedes C220

8. 1994 Jetta 

9. 1999 Honda Insight

10. 2005 Subaru Impreza RS

11. 1999 Dodge Durango

12. 2005 Ford Expedition 

13. 2010 VW Routan

14. 2005 Dodge Ram

15. 2011 GMC Terrain

16. 2014 Chevy Volt

17.  2013 Jetta

18. 2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited 

19. 2005 Chevy Suburban 

20. 2004 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

21. 2022 VW Atlas (current)

22. 2011 Jetta SportWagen TDI (current)

Twitter is anti American. 

I don't like that at all. 

12 hours ago, tshile said:

Yeah that too. Something like most people couldn’t come up with 2k for an emergency 

You're very optimistic. 

Fortune: 57% of Americans can’t afford a $1,000 emergency expense, says new report. A look at why Americans are saving less and how you can boost your emergency fund

Quote

 And when push comes to shove, the majority (57%) of U.S. adults are currently unable to afford a $1,000 emergency expense.

Watched Marauders last night. Good action / heist movie, story was actually pretty solid, not what I expected. Ending was meh, but worth a watch it's a tight 1:40 minutes, though they could have cut ten or so minutes of extraneous story. 

What surprised me the most was Christopher Meloni absolutely killed it, I expected him to be decent, but he did a great job. If your doom scrolling and want to see some blasting worth a watch. 

3 minutes ago, tshile said:

I wonder what the correlation between being able to screw around on a forum mid day of a work day, and income would be. 
 

 

In my experience the higher your title of responsibility / pay becomes, the less your average day to day workload is. It doesn't necessarily mean you do less work, just the work you do is of a more complex or immediate nature. 

Your household has a middle-class income, and you have the financial security associated with the middle class. Your income is higher than others in your Zip code and high for the Baltimore metro area as a whole. The Baltimore metro area is an expensive place to live, so you might be considered high income somewhere else in the country.

This feels right, we are straddling a line of upper middle class and middle class. 

9 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

I think she may need to update her google research. 

@Fergasun

I'm basing this on people in our OCFO that I've talked to and the email we received earlier this week from our director. As I said, this is specific to my agency and may not apply across the board. 

The federal budgeting process is insanely complicated at the department / agency level. I don't think many people truly understand even the simple basics of the difference between appropriated and non-appropriated funding, let along the "color" of money that is specific to each agency. 

My agency has both styles of funding and I believe we have something like 20 different fund codes that vary between 90 day, 1 year, 2 year, 5 year and no year funds. At this point, and this is specific only to where I work, we have all of our appropriated funding. We are expected to be able to continue without a lapse through the end of the fiscal year. We have no expectations of employee furloughs or having to stop performing the agency mission. 

The debt ceiling effects spending where all of the appropriated funding has not been transferred or loaded to the specific department / agency. For social security you may have enough money to pay social security but not enough to pay the employees to process the payments, or the type of funding that is available to the agency is not the correct type of funding to perform that specific activity. 

Some agencies may try to reprogram funding some may just continue doing normal business. Either way, if they do nothing it's going to be a **** show.

Watched Dungeons & Dragons yesterday. It was a fun movie; I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope the movie generated enough interest for them to make a sequel.

I used to watch the D&D cartoon that was on for a hot minute in the 80s. I loved the Easter egg of including them in a brief section of the movie.

My buddy and I are going to our first game in ten years. Haven’t spent a dime on this team in ten years, I’m excited for this change. 

@Fergasun

My entire basis is that they shouldn’t negotiate. This is being done because the last time it was done they were rewarded with a negotiation. From a practical standpoint the cuts and changes to appropriations should happen during the budget process, you shouldn’t be able to demand reductions of future spending by threatening to default on current spending. 
 

This juncture is the best time to put the foot down and attempt to force the GOP to act like governing officials. Don’t blow up the country by preventing debt service, act like adults work and negotiate the future budget with the spending cuts.