James Arryn

Have never been, will never go. It sounds like my least favourite place on earth.

No, he’s ‘legacy’. The fact that so much of this is done in broad daylight makes the degree to which people are shocked by the other ways it’s done kinda surprising to me. I mean, it’s just the Invisible Hand at work again, right? edit: in the interests of transparency, I ought to fess up to being part of the problem. Those people on the fringes of academia who write essays/etc. for other students...I was one of them for a fairly long time. Like everyone, I had my own moral code: i would never in a million years pass someone else’s work off as mine, but passing my work off as someone else’s didn’t trouble me one iota. Suppose ‘intellectual vanity’ could replace ‘moral code’ in a lot of ways.

Sooooo...AOC and campaign finance scandal, now? Is this why we can’t have nice things? Honestly, her Cohen depo was the first time I actually liked her in person, and now....yeah. How long does alcoholism take, anyone know offhand?

I think starting a war would be the more traditional out.

Mostly Toronto, Canada, but I spend ~ half of each year travelling.

I think his complete narcissism wins out, plus many cowards are fine dealing out death if there’s no danger to themselves. Hitler could be charming, but was much more persuasive/charismatic. I’ve read accounts by high level generals who purposely limited their meeting times with him because they’d otherwise find themselves leaving the meeting in complete agreement with him on w/e the discussion was about. And I don’t mean threatened or coerced, but actually convinced. Part of this was another huge way Trump is not a Hitler: der Fuhrer understood combat and was extraordinarily detail oriented, to the point of baffling generals with detailed knowledge of their units/commands that was greater than their own. It freaked them out, but also impressed them, which is why after his initial (almost universally panned by GHC) gambles actually worked very well they deferred to his strategic ‘genius’ long after it became apparent he was either deteriorating or had just gotten lucky early on. That can compare a bit to Trump in terms of how often we saw career pols overcome their objections to Trump debacles because of this vague sense he understood and/or shaped their base on some intuitive level they were lacking. But there are so many other ways they don’t compare...for example Hitler actually had a positive* plan as opposed to just a list of things he wanted to stop. Sure, it was an insane plan, but my point is he had an actual endgame beyond personal aggrandizement and being able to implement his bigotry/repay grudges...and so many Mussolini fits. Umberto Eco’s piece on true facism is worth a read, but as far as Trump’s Il Duce pose, to me the best was at that...economic?...summit pretty early on when he shoves his way through the incredulous other leaders and then goes Full Mussolini for the cameras, Funny if it didn’t come with so many implications. *just in case, positive in the sense of working towards something, active, not in any way in the sense of being good or even un-evil.

I been pointing this out since 4ever.

I could actually see Trump having someone bumped off just for the thrill of power. Like not some random guy he has killed for no other reason, I don’t think, but if an opportunity came across his desk where assassination was an option, I could see the thrill being a decisive internal factor in his choice.

You mean you warned us that the GOP wouldn’t prevent the GOP from getting it’s way? Because I warned boarders in here who were convinced pushing him through would cost the GOP (because no one believed that they couldn’t if they wanted) that Americans are so ‘winning’ obsessed that when Kavanaugh was eventually confirmed, GOPers would play it as a ‘win’...when all it was was an instance of not losing to themselves. And many Americans would but it wholesale. Wow, you mean the side with enough votes to confirm from the get-go managed to confirm? Incredibelievablerful! How you ou go from that to ‘sexual assault accusations are political loser ’ when it actually did give some GOPers pause en route to their already-in-hand win is interesting. Certainly GOPers and supporters don’t seem to care too much what their guys do in this regard, but from the studies I’ve seen that's mostly them saying that they haven’t seen any proof, even so far as to say they have never heard the ‘grab them by the pussy’ tape and remain ‘open minded’ until they do, but that they have no intention of seeking out such ‘fake news’. Iow, the specifics of the issue are immaterial, they are going to back their guy come hell or high water, and they will engage in wilful ignorance if that’s what it takes.

I’m honestly confused. What context am I missing? It seems a pretty linear point to me...an NBA network show put up a list of great scorers whose career games of 40 points or more were fewer than Harden’s put up in this ~2/3rds of a season alone. I just chose to mention Dirk because I think of him as primarily a great scorer. The only point is about how historic what Harden’s doing is...I’m really not sure what context could even be added. If I’d picked a HOFer who was more like a defensive guy or w/e, like a Pippen or pure passer or w/e maybe, but Dirk was if anything much more one dimensional than Harden is, and if it’s efficiency Dirk’s (by a fair margin) highest TS% was .612. Harden’s career TS% is .610, and this year sits at .624...so....again, confused. Edit, for clarity in case I’m being obtuse, the point I’m making: Harden has more 40 or more point games in 51 games this season than Dirk had in 1493 games in his career.

Latest Harden update: as of yesterday he leads the league in every single advanced stat designed to be comprehensive, PER, WS, BPM, RPM, VORP, VA, and EWA. Obviously at over 36/game (only below Wilt and fractionally below Jordan’s best season) all time, he’s having an historic season. Over the past 27 games he’s averaging almost 41 ppg to go along with 8/8/3. But just one line for effect: Harden has already had more 40pt+ games this year than Dirk had in his entire HOF career.

1) I am hearing a lot about this. 2) I had somehow not registered the fact that he was a Democrat.

Of all the cursed teams, the Knicks make the least sense. Kinda like what my Dad says it was like to be a Leafs fan during the Ballard years.

Graham’s behaviour has become so increasingly reckless and irrational that I’m actually wondering if something’s wrong with him. But the bad news is Trump hearing he can essentially threaten everything seems like one of those natural fits.

Lindsey Graham has apparently decided the stakes in the Washington game of chicken weren’t high enough, and is urging Trump to tie in debt limit increase with the border wall dispute.