Jenksismyhero

QUOTE (bmags @ May 17, 2017 -> 09:38 AM) They are the ones who let him hang. I know what you mean, but frankly I'm not interested in their political motivations. Aside from something grossly unethical and a red line that the nation has not let cross before (obstruction of justice on an investigation of the president), they have now ample evidence in the last week that he is dangerously incompetent. Dangerously. The blurting out to Russia. The western wall comment. The reports that people are putting Trumps name into as many paragraphs as they can just to keep him reading. He can't do this job. At some point you'd want the responsibility as citizen reps to say "listen, we had a fun weekend dressing him up, but Bernie is dead" The problem is "can't do the job" is not an impeachable offense. Nor is that a standard we want to start holding Presidents too (candidates yes, but not after they've been sworn in). If that's the case, every 4 years, regardless of party affiliation, we'll have calls for impeachment. They can't go after Trump for looking un-presidential. In a lot of ways that's why he got elected. People wanted something new/different in Washington, and they certainly got it. And the Comey firing, the intelligence leak...those are in a grey area of legality. So although stupid, unprofessional, unethical, etc. I think you'd be hard pressed to find judges, let alone congressman, willing to call it illegal and impeachable. But hey, it's not 5pm yet, let's see what happens today!

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 17, 2017 -> 09:27 AM) "Listen, the President is a dumb child, you can't take him at his word!" is an interesting spin they're trying to put on both the Russia intel and Comey stories. I bet that's the truth. He's a bulls***ter. He doesn't care about details. He doesn't understand the ramifications of his actions. He's totally in over his head. All of these mistakes are chalked up to "moron that doesn't understand what he's doing and why it can be perceived as unethical/illegal." Take the Comey firing - he was shocked it got a negative reaction. He clearly didn't think it through. Same with the Russian leak stuff. He just started bulls***ting in his meeting, completely oblivious to the fact that he was going to get a spy killed.

QUOTE (bmags @ May 17, 2017 -> 09:04 AM) profiles in cowardice Honestly though, that's the smart play on his/their part. They get nothing from going after Trump. They lose some of their base if they do that. They can sit back, be quiet, and let Trump hang himself.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ May 16, 2017 -> 04:18 PM) JB is in the same group as LBJ, Curry, Durant, etc? Is he top 5? No. Is he top 10-12, a franchise guy and a national brand? Yes. I still maintain that the Bulls would be stupid to trade Butler, a relatively cheap, All-Star/borderline super-star player, for a bunch of picks that odds say will not pan out and whose ceilings are right where Jimmy Butler is right now. And the FO knows this. They don't want to go through the 00's again with no headlining name. They have someone who will sell tickets and jerseys. They'll try to piece together a team around him. And no matter what they do, they're not beating Lebron in the next 3-4 seasons unless he suffers an injury.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 17, 2017 -> 12:17 AM) Does anyone want our program? Its basically handicapped. Welcome to the club, Rock. It's been 10 years for Illinois basketball. Tough to watch your program go through the greatest decade in its history, followed by the worst decade in its history.

QUOTE (Sox-35th @ May 16, 2017 -> 02:49 PM) It's entirely true, though. The Bulls literally couldn't have done worse than they did this year. They're bad, out in the first round, they don't have a tier 1 superstar, their front office is still in tact. The Bulls are lodged in NBA hell.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ May 16, 2017 -> 01:13 PM) http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/16/middleeast/w...s-aide-comment/ It hasnt gotten a lot of headlines because of Trump's other disasters, but his administration made a bunch of enemies with Israel the other day when they implied that the Wailing Wall wasnt Jewish territory. Of course this has been walked back, but it just shows that he clearly has no coherent knowledge of the Middle East. fixed

Lots of talent to work with next year. We'll see if it translates to on-court success.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 12, 2017 -> 02:27 PM) Also, we really don't know if Trump's net worth is billions or not. We have no idea. He could be leveraged to the hilt. True. I was using Forbes' estimate from a couple of months ago that had him at 3.5 based mostly on his real estate holdings.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 12, 2017 -> 02:09 PM) Proof Trump records WH convos? https://twitter.com/pbump/status/863105260927188992 That's Obama, not Trump. edit: OIC. Just to show the capability exists. Yeah, see that's what I thought. I thought I had read Presidents record some convos to preserve important moments for future libraries.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 12, 2017 -> 01:45 PM) The Kardashians are filthy rich. I bet they are very smart. Donald Trump as POTUS is IMO a gift from reality television. I know a few people who voted for him just because they liked the Apprentice. Not sure if you're trying to be funny here, but they are. They are geniuses in the social media game. They have no other discernible skills yet they've created an empire. There's some intelligence there too, even if they say/do/think grade level stuff.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 12, 2017 -> 01:39 PM) He was born a multimillionaire with amazing connections. He's gone bankrupt many times. He regularly screws over contractors and business partners. Crimson isn't lying or exaggerating when he says US financiers haven't wanted anything to do with him in a long, long time. He's built most of his empire on selling his name to things and his reality TV show. He's a fantastic showman. He won the election in a tide of personality and resentment towards Clinton. What has he done, especially since descending the escalator in 2015, that demonstrates intelligence? Bankrupt or not (not sure why this is a total negative, if anything it proves he's intelligent enough to use the system to his advantage), he's got a net worth of billions. Complete morons would have taken those millions and pissed them away. He doesn't have to be intellectually smart to have some intelligence. He obviously can read people. He can connect with people. He can, at least in some business deals, hire the right people to make money for him. Sorry, I hate the dude as much as you guys, but i'm not going to ignore reality and claim a guy that is worth billions has zero intelligence. That's just dumb. Perhaps the argument here is intellect vs. skill. IMO he's got some skills, which require a base level of intelligence. Professional athletes may not be ivy-league smart, but they have exceptional skill and intelligence in a specific area that allows them to excel. I think Trump has some level of that or he would have washed out decades ago.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 12, 2017 -> 01:28 PM) greg- One of the points you bring up for the intelligence of Trump is his business success. This is quite common. Others point out in contrast that he's not actually been all that successful by various measures. But here's the key in my view. How did he get there? He infamously got a few million dollars from Daddy to get started, which already puts him in a better place than 95% of the people going into Real Estate. But even more importantly - truly, this is the key in my view - his Dad was already in Real Estate and he gave his son THE CONNECTIONS. That is everything in Real Estate. That is the key to the kingdom. He was handed everything on a silver platter. And what did that get him? By most projections, less profit than he would have had if he had just put the few million in an index fund. He hasn't accomplished anything special. He was handed everything, managed to stay moving forward thanks to his willingness to step on anyone for a dollar, and bullied his way to success. Just about anyone who is as willing as he is to treat others like crap could have done the same if given the same opportunities. Alright, I agree that Trump is not smart. I agree that he was provided a huge head start. But taking a few million and some connections and making an empire worth, even conservatively, several BILLION, is still SOMETHING. I'm sure a lot of us got money from our parents for school or in cash and we're not multi-millionaires. And despite his dumbness, he still managed to be an absolute nobody politically and beat out other republican candidates and Hillary in the election. There's SOME intelligence there. A complete moron does not attain the Presidency in 2017.

I thought all meetings in the oval are recorded?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 12, 2017 -> 10:42 AM) White House staff subtly hinting that Nixon was recording conversations is what first tipped off Congress in that case. The President blasting it out himself on twitter is something else. Just call me Raja!

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 12, 2017 -> 07:49 AM) Trump is now threatening Comey via Twitter https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/...007411132649473 This is so asinine. If Comey told Trump what Trump claims (that Trump wasn't being investigated), Trump should want those tapes released.

QUOTE (bmags @ May 11, 2017 -> 09:41 AM) Almost every article has been 10+ sourced with this administration, because if you don't talk to Haberman/Thrush or Kessler/Parker/Costa, then the chances you are the one getting s*** talked about. Trump loves being covered. He is influenced by the media, and his administration knows that. This is not a tight-lipped group. I can see this when the staff is talking about other staff members. But not Trump himself. I don't doubt that Trump was growing tired of Comey and was pissed that Comey wouldn't take his wiretap claims seriously and that he continued to pursue the Russia probe. I find it hard to believe that 30 people in the WH, FBI and DOJ (1) had first hand knowledge of this and (2) would be willing to completely contradict the WH official statement to a reporter.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 11, 2017 -> 09:40 AM) It's 30 people from the WH, Capital Hill, Justice and the FBI. Trump's inner circle is small, but he's also not exactly a crafty and careful operator. Knowing that Trump was pissed no one was going along with his ridiculous claims about Obama wiretapping him or that he wanted the Russia s*** to be dropped in favor of finding whoever leaked the Flynn information to the public doesn't require being close to Trump himself. I'm guessing a whole lot of career FBI guys and particularly Comey loyalists are going to be leaking like crazy now, and they might have had insight at least from the FBI/Justice side. Right, but how would those people know that Trump was growing tired of Comey? They wouldn't have first hand knowledge of that. And he's been barking about leaks to the press for months now. If it's anyone close to that inner circle they wouldn't be around anymore. I agree he's been a terrible manager and he's allowed a lot of bickering/sparring between his staff members, but he allegedly continues to be undermined by people in the admn. I'm not sure what the benefit is for those people to be talking anonymously when they're making their employer less electable. They're ruining their future job prospects.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 10, 2017 -> 10:25 PM) Multiple FBI and White House leaks are contradicting the official story. https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/862452839788027906 From wapo Not to go all conspiracy theorist here, but I find it REALLY hard to believe there are 30 people willing to talk off the record/anonymously about something that probably only a handful of people knew about. We already know Trump supporters are delusional people, so there aren't a lot of "free-thinkers" remaining in the administration. And reports have always been it's a very small inner circle around him. I dunno, not really buying this one.

We're entering Frank Underwood territory here. Also, I loved Anderson Cooper's eyeroll during his interview with Kellyanne Conway (she lives!)

Took a few months, but my wife and I got caught up on House of Cards. Other than the handful of "wtf?" moments that seemed totally out of place and only there for shock value (season 2, meachum), I think it's a pretty solid show.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 5, 2017 -> 02:29 PM) Adverse selection. They'll get undercut on pricing, lose market share, and either have to change or will be driven out. Why? The assumption is that none of the main insurers will want to offer these insurance plans/coverage. So you have millions of potential customers to be picked up. If you're providing a service that no one else is providing, customers will find you. If there's competition for those customers, all the better.

I'm curious why one of the giant insurers wouldn't go ahead and maintain the plans as they are now as a huge marketing ploy, or market to the unemployed people seeking insurance for same. They'll up the rates, obviously, but at least you'll look like the one good insurance company out there. The new House bill doesn't force insurance companies to remove these protections, it just takes away the mandates.

QUOTE (ptatc @ May 5, 2017 -> 01:53 PM) My boy was in the same situation. If you want a little advice, find something he likes to do, my son liked word finds and coloring race cars, and bring them to the teacher before the year starts. Explain to the the teacher that when your child is done with their work, give him/her these otherwise my child will get bored and make your life a living hell. We figured this out halfway through kindergarten and did it every year until 3rd grade. Most teachers were receptive to it once he caused issues when he was bored. That's a great idea. I think we'll do that. I can see my son going either way really. He could think he's hot s*** for knowing all the answers and enjoy feeling that way, or he will get bored and distracted and cause trouble. I guess we'll see in a few short months!