The New Coffee Room

@Horace The guy owned a business that greased the machinery between contractors and government contracts. In other words he was an independent sales and marketing agent. We used to use such agents - in fact, several based out of Houston - to grease the wheels of foreign oil and gas companies. Commissions sometimes went as much as 12%. Most buyers told the seller which agent to engage, if you didn’t follow that advice, your chances of winning the bid was reduced 90%.

Right but one used it to build stuff the other to try to destroy democracy and the rule of law.

@Doctor-Phibes said in Ibrahm X Kendi would be so proud: How about 'Pervert' when referring to homosexuals? Homosexuals are indeed perverts. Just trying to start a fight.

@jon-nyc said in Luigi Trials: So it was part and parcel to the drop of the terrorism charge. Yep.

Heck, I have ridden in ride share driven by a high school alum 20+ years my senior.

@89th said in The 3T club: Not wrong! This is just the QQQ (basically tracks the top 100 nasdaq non-financial companies, I think?) vs the S&P. It’s a good investment except when it isn’t. I very much remember its flat decade. That happened during my high earning / investing years.

said in And now, the corruption.: It is corruption, but not illegal. Like the paintings. Still, I think you'd find the Trump family's corruption, as measured in dollars, to exceed the sum of any and all corruption of the other 44 men who held the office combined. I can't actually think of very many scandals that enriched members of the president's family. Hunter Biden. Do we count Billy Beer? I'd say no, no one bought it thinking they'd get influence. The major historical scandals - Grant's whiskey ring, Harding's Teapot Dome, enriched cabinet members, not family members. But even then the numbers are relatively tiny. We (US) all had to learn about the teapot dome scandal - it netted 400k for the interior secretary - maybe 8MM today.

That's awesome!!!!

This seems ill advised. The people who believe Israel had a role aren’t going to be persuaded by Bibi denying it. All this does is plant the idea in people’s heads who otherwise might not follow the fringes of magastan. https://x.com/israelipm/status/1968511432032391272?s=46

@Doctor-Phibes said in Tyler Robinson Investigation: @Renauda said in Tyler Robinson Investigation: @Horace I prefer dunks on actual people who say actual things, but sure, we can dunk on imaginary people saying imaginary things too. Tell that to the current POTUS. He imagines a lot about not only people but countries and what he imagines the people in those countries say and do. I will refrain from any comments or observations the POTUS has made recently about groups of people and their real and imagined affiliations of a US domestic nature. You are most welcome to let your imagination run wild with what I wrote above. The obvious difference between my flight of fancy and those of The Greatest Living Human and his followers is that I acknowledged that it was a flight of fancy. Maybe if I'd stated that it was an Alternative Fact it would be more acceptable. Possibly probable.

Don’t google image search this surgery. ***=NSFW content***click to show No really, don’t.

@jon-nyc thanks!!

I'm only missing the hydraulic motion actuators. $2,000-$3,000 would fix that.

There are plenty I’m sure who would love to twist this tragedy into an opportunity to go violent.

@Mik said in Uh oh: Ooopsie. Hoisted on his own petard...again. Ha, good line

@Axtremus said in Deporation - Not Just for Spanish people any more: 2026 is less than four months away. How big a deal is it in the realm of multi-$billion construction projects? Yeah but they didn’t specify what month.

@jon-nyc said in The other shooter: Also Makes you wonder why he’s hanging around a college campus at his age. Same reason I would, but they gotta be 18+

We are going to have some seriously smart and educated people coming up in the next generations, along with some seriously stupid ones who just rely on AI for everything. Jon Von Neumann, who has a reasonable claim to being the greatest intellect ever, had full time specialized tutors throughout his childhood. A version of him without that, would almost certainly not have been the towering force he became. Now, everybody will have a world class tutor in any subject, at their fingertips.

If someone would like another example, the following people seem to have declared two or three different homes as their primary residence when applying for a mortgage: Greg Abbot Scott Bessent Lisa Cook Notice any differential legal treatment among the three cases?

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