Jenksismyhero

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 10:22 AM) They already don't focus any of their time on those states because 1) they're generally very safe states for one party or the other and 2) still barely have any electoral votes. They only focus on the "swing states" that conceivably could go either way. Look at the bottom 15 states: Wyoming-safe R Vermont-safe D Alaska-safe R North Dakota-safe R South Dakota-safe R Delaware-safe D Montana-safe R Rhode Island-safe D Maine-safe D New Hampshire-sort of a tossup, but only has 4 EV's. lots of attention due to being the second state in the nomination process, but otherwise largely ignored. Hawaii-safe D Idaho-safe R West Virginia-safe R lately, maybe less so if it's a white Democrat, but still only 5 EV's Nebraska-safe R New Mexico-safe D lately, still only five EV's Nevada-the first one that might be a more contested state? Went Obama twice, Clinton twice and R for all other elections back to 1980. Now compare that to the "Swing states" people actually bother campaigning in: 3 Florida 6 Pennsylvania 7 Ohio 9 North Carolina 10 Michigan 12 Virginia 22 Colorado So the EC doesn't actually mean anyone bothers to pay attention to the smaller states, but it does mean that an overwhelming majority of the population gets ignored for a handful of large-mid states that happen to be polling close in that election cycle. I have no problem with Presidential candidates focusing their attention on our most populous states that represent a wide variety of people and industry rather than what we get now. You're right, but this is all cyclical. It might not be this way in 20 years or 50 years. Illinois could become a GOP stronghold. Florida and Ohio can become locks for Democrats. Who knows what can happen going forward. And populous states don't mean a wide variety of people get heard. Look at our beautiful state. It's the people of Chicago versus everyone else. Politicians don't campaign in Springfield and Peoria for Illinois delegates, they focus on Chicago and that's the main reason why this state continues to vote Dem.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 09:48 AM) I think what Bernie supporters are hoping for is what happened in 2008. Going into the Iowa caucuses, Obama wasn't necessarily seen as a "serious" candidate, and Hillary had the votes "locked up" in many states, including the black vote. Once Obama made a couple of strong showings, though, things started to really shift in his favor. It also helped that Clinton's campaign apparently didn't understand how delegates were actually awarded. But Obama won Iowa by 8 points in 2008 and Clinton finished 3rd. Bernie's going to crush it in NH, but I think Clinton has this locked up by Super Tuesday. Your point about choosing the nominee heavily on states the party won't even win in the general is another mark against the Electoral College in my opinion. If we had a national popular vote, those Democratic votes in South Carolina and the Republican votes in Illinois would still matter. Yeah but that's benefit of the EC. You have 10-15 states that collectively don't have the population of the top 3, so why would politicians waste their time campaigning in those sparsely populated states? They wouldn't. They'd focus on California, Texas, New York, etc.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 09:54 AM) I will say the Bulls team last year had some really bad runs when Dunleavy was out of lineup, much stronger with him in it. He is one of the few players who plays within the flow of an offense. He always makes decisions quickly and keeps things moving. Love him as a player. Yep, I think he's going to change how the offense runs just by his decision making and movement.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 09:40 AM) The Bulls are just lost right now. There is some sort of a battle going on in the lockerroom that isn't very clear right now, but what it looks like from my point of view is the Bulls hired the college equal of Marc Trestman, and the lockerroom is divided between guys who are taking advantage, and the guys who want that structure of Thibs back. I haven't been impressed with Hoiberg, but I haven't really seen the Trestman level screw ups either. I think he's a guy that inherited a team with expectations and then immediately got hit with really tough injuries. Not having Dunleavy is a huge missing component to this team. People say he's old, but he's a very smart player, a very good shooter, and a guy that moves without the ball. One of the few on the roster that does that well and that's really what this team is missing. He's also lost Noah and Rose for some games. Moore and Hinrich here and there. And now Mirotic. That's not easy. This team is probably a lost cause, but getting the 3 position solidified with Dunleavy is going to help immensely IMO, assuming he's 100%. That's all that really matters at this point. Either they reach their peak at the end of the year heading into the playoffs, or they continue to play .500 ball and bow out early. No sense in getting all worked up over it before the All-Star break.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 1, 2016 -> 12:18 PM) Where are all of these guaranteed jobs gonna come from? The "state" takes all employment over and goes from there? He's basically outlining a communist/socialist system. And ironically it would end with the same "unjust" results people have a problem with now - a select few who are insanely rich, everyone else is poor in comparison.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 1, 2016 -> 05:59 AM) Our current system is designed to make some people very wealthy. The idea is they will employee people. Developing a system that is designed at its core to be the best for the worker is a challenge that so far no one has successfully produced on a large scale over a long time. I think that's the benefit, not the design.

Not sure if anyone here is a board gamer, but I found a copy of Robinson Crusoe this weekend and played a few games. Really, really fun co-op/survival game. Highly recommended.

Expiring contracts aren't really that valuable anymore given the huge jump in the cap that's coming. Plus there's no shot the Bulls blow this up when there's a small chance of beating the Cavs and getting to the Finals.

Groce's offense for 4 seasons now has been - shoot 3's and pray they go in. How many 6, 8, 10 min stretches without scoring do we have to sit through?

Yeah i'm a little nervous about this. I'm going to Puerto Rico in a month. My wife is half way through a pregnancy. This thing is spread through mosquitoes and not contact, but I read something yesterday that said it may spread through sex. Some researcher got it and then his wife (luckily not pregnant) also got it and she never left the country.

What do you guys use it for? Music? Weather updates?

Murder isn't a normal, rational act so I don't think trying to place that sort of perspective on it gets you anywhere. Though I do agree with you that he's acting as an innocent person would throughout the whole show/case. The taped phone calls he had with Jodi mere hours before and after he supposedly killed Teresa is pretty persuasive to me. Unless he's a legit pyschopath (lack of any and all empathy), which doesn't appear to be the case, he is EXTREMELY calm and collected throughout those conversations.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 02:45 PM) So from the true-car / costo / car guru estimate, ended up move them down close to an extra thousand (and my actual price paid was lower than the furthest recorded sale range that they had in there database for my area). I was actually surprised that the costco price was the cheapest starting point of the three. Theoretically, if someone didn't want to spend the time, just using the car services gets you pretty darn close already. Good to know. The only time I bought a new car I was able to get the dealer cost of the car from a friend of a friend, so when I went to the dealership I was just honest with the guy and told him this is what i'm going to pay, can you do it, if not i'm going to the next dealer. He kept telling me it was impossible and that I didn't qualify for certain rebates. I said ok thanks anyway and started to walk away. Then of course he caved and I got it for that price. I hate the whole process. It's stupid that car dealerships can't be more like a retail store. I know the price of the fridge, why the need to negotiate? I can maybe sort of understand it if it's for a used car, but not new ones. And especially since the dealers are buying those straight from the manufacturer with manufacturer rebates and financing. They're literally just holding the car for days or weeks until they can sell it. That's why I like the idea of carmax. No haggle pricing. Anyone ever go there? I wonder how much they jack up the price. If it's like 500 bucks more, it's worth it to me to not have to waste my time calling around and negotiating.

QUOTE (three up three down @ Jan 26, 2016 -> 08:18 AM) Planning on going to Savannah, GA this fall. Going to be very nice. Be sure to walk around the downtown area and relax in the parks. Really cool layout down there. The river section is the main tourist trap, sort of a poor man's navy pier, but still worth walking up and down. There's a visitor/tourist center somewhat close by if you need a jumping off point.

So how much did you save off the TrueCar estimate? edit: NM, see that in your prior post.

I was looking for a new show to watch and Netflix kept recommending Peaky Blinders to me. A BBC show about a 1919 gang outside of London. I gave it a shot and I have to say I really, really enjoyed the first season. Only 6 episodes, an hour a piece. Pretty great for being relatively short. There's a 2nd season on Netflix and they just wrapped filming on season 3.

This is more or less the theory I have about what happened (from a random internet post I was emailed):

Bulls are like 10-2 against top teams and .500 against everyone else. So weird.

Come on, stop shooting jump shots.

Ugh like 3 more.

Rose has gotten unlucky on some of his finishes. This should be a 12 point lead.

QUOTE (ozzfest @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 09:56 PM) You can also sign big FAs or trade for stars. But Garpax doesn't do either of those things. You fundamentally don't understand how the NBA works. No team that is any good trades for stars. They simply don't have the assets to do it. Pau to the Lakers is the rare exception and everyone agreed Memphis got screwed in the trade and something fishy was going on.

QUOTE (ozzfest @ Jan 23, 2016 -> 02:06 AM) Longest tenured execs in NBA: Riley (95 Heat), Kupchak (Lakers 2000), RC Buford (Spurs '02), Ainge (Boston '03), Paxson (Bulls '03). One of those names stands out like a sore thumb. How much longer does Paxson get in Chicago? His name probably doesn't belong on the above list. He hasn't even come close to a championship. All of those other executives have won one or multiple titles. What's funny is that GarPax have done exactly what any owner wants - fill the seats, make people interested and stay out of the tax. That's what they've done. They're close to the league leaders in attendance, merchandise sales, etc.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 08:27 AM) Yeah, that's probably it's strongest point. Lots of beaches obviously, all the water sports/activities you could ever want, big resorts if that's your sort of thing, small B&B (Hana area) if that's what you're looking for, restaurants from cheap-but-delicious fried fish to $$$$ fine dining, hiking, shopping, etc. Best meal in our whole trip was probably the fresh-caught Mahi hacked into chunks right in front of you and tempora-fried in the back of a bus/kitchen thing on the road to Hana. Mama's Fish House. My favorite meal on our 2 week trip to the islands.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 22, 2016 -> 01:13 PM) I dunno. Hitting in the 20s doesn't make up for missing earlier... doug mcdermott rings a bell. He's got better stats than Korver (if you factor in the average minutes played) at the same point in his career. Are you really giving up on McDermott so soon? I think his progression has been just fine. He made a good jump from year 1 to 2. No reason to expect he can't continue that.