Comments by LapHunt (page 2)

Muddy, he's saying some good stuff but it's all empty talk. I see right through him. He's all b.s. and angling to be Trump's VP pick/in his cabinet. Every move of his is calculated for that purpose. Here in Toronto where I am, the city's population now is basically like 40% Indian work visas/foreign exchange students thanks to our stupid mass immigration-loving Liberal gov't, so some of this comes from familiarity with that culture and that kind of career opportunism, which he oozes in every conceivable way. I knew someone would bring up Bill Clinton and the sax on Arsenio. That was, frankly, the limit of how "cool" a potential president should be. No one needs the leader of the free world rapping Eminem like a street thug. Millennials (like Ramaswamy) and Gen Z are pushing the line further and further into the absurd. We're one step away from having those stupid MTV rap battles replace formal debates. You pander this much, you lose all credibility. Clinton straddled the line, but he didn't go "full retard" as the saying goes.

Hey Techman, it's an all nude club. Cheers. Dave, yes the guessing game is on as to when it will be torn down. It's supposed to be a condo development going up. I've heard anywhere from 1 to 3 years, to some speculating the deal might even fall through (latter seems unlikely). I feel like even if it isn't condos that do it in, this place won't make it to 2030.

^Most important thing to keep in mind re: Google searches are that they will be heavily tilted toward promoting globalism/internationalism/diversity ideology like all of these big tech companies. I mean, Lupita Nyong'o and Priyanka Chopra...sure, whatever you say, Google. I'll take Tawny Kitaen in that Whitesnake video every day of the week, thanks.

Ramaswamy is a phony. He is a slick, polished corporate huckster who should stay in his lane (the business world). His entire strategy in the GOP primary will culminate in his endorsing Trump once the field has narrowed sufficiently. He is scared of Trump and the MAGA base and will never say a bad word about Trump. His long-range goal is to be Trump's VP pick (will never happen) or be in Trump's cabinet. He is very similar to Kash Patel, another Indian-American Trump sycophant. Everything you see and hear from VR from now until about the South Carolina primary is choreographed theater until that inevitable endorsement of Trump.

"I do not believe that a Hindu or a Muslim is inherently immoral and incapable of being a good or even great president." Most people (of all faiths) tend to be moral for the most part. That includes people of these faiths. That said, let them govern countries where people of their faith are the majority. And let America be governed by someone who shares the majority faith of this populace.

It was discussed earlier in the thread that the Founders didn't explicitly make religion a requirement to live in America or to serve in government, as they wanted the country to have freedom of religion. That is indeed true. That being said, the tradition of the country and the way America's history unfolded was heavily Christian. George Washington himself was an Anglican. While I personally view the ideal President of the U.S. to be Christian, I would be open to arguments that a moral secular person, who would nonetheless place his hand on the Bible and agree to uphold the Constitution, could potentially honorably serve as President, but I have my doubts. Where the argument falls apart for me is when the notion is presented that someone of a religious and cultural tradition diametrically opposed to Christianity, such as a Hindu or a Muslim, could stand as President and remain true to the nation's founding ideals, cultural and spiritual identity. Would the citizens of India welcome a Catholic or Presbyterian to serve as their leader? The idea of Mr. Ramaswamy as President should be a non-starter. He is a smart young man. Let him enjoy his millions in the entrepreneurial sector and live well in the USA. Leave the leadership of this nation, its very highest office, to someone else.

I don't think RFK Jr. would run as an independent if he loses the Dem primary. I think he has too much respect for the tradition of the party once led by JFK (even though that party is now not even a shell of what it was under JFK). Cornel West, on the other hand, looks like he's going to run and that could definitely be an issue.

Vivek Ramaswamy's entire plan explained: 1. Spew anti-woke talk endlessly to appeal to moderate Republicans and disaffected Dems/independents. Literally do every TV hit and interview possible to increase exposure, including being one of four guests on a clown show like Gutfeld. 2. Claw his way up to 6-9% of national polling with, yes, the occasional outlier putting him higher. 3. Here's the key one: after probably the South Carolina primary, the entire anti-Trump wing of the party is going to coalesce around one candidate, which will almost surely be Ron DeSantis. This will be in order to avoid what happened in 2016 when a crowded field helped Trump win the nomination (though he would have likely won anyway). HOWEVER, Ramaswamy will present himself as the Trump savior and endorse Trump - unlike Pence, Haley, etc. who will support DeSantis. This will be done so Ramaswamy can leverage his support into a promise to be in Trump's cabinet and his Hail Mary hope that maybe Trump would make him his VP (he won't). In short, Ramaswamy is basically looking to be the 2024 GOP version of Pete Buttigieg. Exact same age as PB was in 2020 (37), slick talking and polished with every word focus-grouped. VR will never attack Trump during this whole primary season because he is too scared of Trump and the MAGA base teeing off on his race and Hindu background. VR is a Trump lapdog in waiting whose entire campaign is mapped out to culminate in a Trump endorsement after SC in the hopes of his own self-advancement. It will all be for naught because Trump will lose the general election (whether fairly or unfairly, he will not be returning to the Oval). All Ramaswamy is going to accomplish will be to cockblock a GOP nominee who could actually win the general.

@FMKB24: "I stayed at Horseshoe (formerly known as Bally's) [...] Their cheapest rooms are listed on their website for about $20-$30, the price is always fluctuating throughout the days..." Wow. I'll confess to be surprised by this. Even if you tack on the $45 per night resort fee, that's only $65-$75 per night. And you mentioned in an above post this was a weekend visit? Horseshoe is a Caesar's property and this seems like a bargain, doubly so for a weekend booking. I checked their website just now and didn't find anywhere near this low rate even for non-weekends.

@FMKB24: Which hotel did you end up staying at? Did you not find that the hotel rate/resort fee was higher than in the past? Also, having read through your Taxi story, my take is that your 2016 experience was with a clear ripoff cabbie who tried to capitalize on you and your buddy to try and charge you an exorbitant $45 for a ride that would be way less in 2016. I mean, even now that's a $14 ride on Uber (maybe $20-22 with an honest cabbie); anyone asking $45 for that back in 2016 was attempting highway robbery, so I wouldn't take that as the norm for 2016. My point is I wouldn't use that price as a base for comparison vs. now.

Vegas is falling. It's had downturns before (i.e. after the 2008 crash) but has managed to rebound. But this time feels different. The place has always been expensive, but the issue now is that with inflation being so prevalent, it's having a major effect on the entire tourism/leisure apparatus for a place like Vegas. On my recent trip, I chatted about this with local Uber/Lyft drivers who've been in the town for decades. They talk about how the price for everything is up, but what you get back for everything is down. Like, this literally is affecting everything from hamburger/steak dinner portions to lap dance quality to hotel room fees. The question is, will people still keep flocking there and pissing their money away for maybe half of what they were getting pre-2019? Or is it just "baked in" that this is what happens when you go to Vegas? I'd argue the latter, but in the past you'd have a good amount of fun in return for all that $$$. Now, the juice is nowhere near worth the squeeze.

"Most immigrants come to this country to pursue excellence...It’s what we need to revive." Vivek Ramaswamy (Tweet from Sep 13, 2022) This is about the most Romney/McCain-esque neocon thing one could possibly say. Furthermore, to make this statement in late 2022, when the country is being flooded with both illegal and so-called "legal" migration to the extent that American culture is vanishing before everyone's eyes, it is so tone deaf as to be disqualifying for a serious candidate in a Republican primary. It's no surprise that post-Tucker Fox News is giving Ramaswamy so much airtime these days. He's a big business shill who would be happy to see white Americans reduced to less than 10% of the population, all in the pursuit of corporate "excellence." As if this somehow captures the totality of American life and culture. All his talk is empty Obama-like pablum (Americana this, Americana that). In fact, he sounds like a globalist plant intended to get moderate conservatives to feel all warm and fuzzy about his anti-woke talk of "getting back to our ideals" meanwhile on the biggest issue when the chips are down as it pertains to the preservation of American culture (immigration) his words are indistinguishable from that of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or Pete Buttigieg.

mark94: "The RCP average of polls has it Trump, Desantis, Ramaswamy, then Pence. Ramaswamy is rising and some polls have him in second place." Yes, the RCP average has Ramaswamy third (by 0.4% over Pence mind you as of this writing), but there is not a single credible national poll where Vivek Ramaswamy has been above Ron DeSantis. Note that I say "credible" - some rinky dink polling company not recognized for GOP debate criteria wouldn't count. I tend to agree with 70-80% of your expressed ideological views and am disinclined to get into any kind of protracted back-and-forth, but this above claim really strains credulity.

Latest Reuters poll has DeSantis at only 13%. Ouch. Trump at 47, Pence at 8 to round out the top 3. Heavy D's poll numbers are really bad right now. It'll be very tough for him to recover from this. GOP voters just aren't gravitating to him.

^Yeah, I hear ya but not buying it chief. Kirk just read the pitch and belted it. His arms and upper body were fine. Lasorda would have surely pinch-ran for him if he had reached via walk or base hit. And he was really hurt as that was his only plate appearance of the entire series.

Alina "Headlights" Habba may prove to be a decent lawyer, but the issue for TrumpWorld here is that the judge assigned to this case is a D.C.-based Obama appointee. Headlights and her team will have their work cut out for them.

^Okay, but DeSantis isn't McCain or Romney.

So Vivek Ramaswamy has been all over the cable channels the last couple of days offering his take on the Trump indictment for Jan 6th. I just don't get how more people don't see this guy for the slimy used car salesman type that he is. It's just so painfully transparent to me that he's leaning into this whole sanctimonious "I could capitalize on this as Trump's opponent in the primary, but I won't because I'm bigger than that and believe this is wrong" angle. B.S. dude. You're doing it to suck up to Trump/Trump's base so when Trump gets the GOP nomination, you want him to pick you as VP or else put you in his Cabinet. Of course, all politicians do this to some extent but you can literally see the calculations going on in this snake oil salesman's head. This guy has no business being considered as a serious candidate for POTUS. The very thought of him in the role just seems silly. People rejected Dukakis for looking silly in the Snoopy military helmet back in '88. Imagine Ramaswamy in military garb (at all of his 5 foot 6) giving orders to the U.S. military. Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, would win a general election against Biden by four to six points. The GOP will need to do some serious soul-searching and decide if it wants to really win, or keep playing games and hand the election to the Dems. Donors and others need to move decisively behind the scenes within the next six months or they will be toast.

@SizeMatters - I agree with you. My point was the Gibson HR was completely understandable and a great moment given the circumstances. I was noting it merely to contrast with this new generation of players who strut around (more arrogantly and brazenly than Gibson did) when they hit a HR to extend a 8-3 lead to 9-3 in a regular season game in May. Kirk Gibson was baseball personified and a throwback to when baseball was a game truly emblematic of American culture. The undertone of my message is linked to demographic change. I didn't want to push that too heavily right away in my OP, but that really is the undercurrent of what I mean when I say "change the demographics, change the culture." Mind you, there were some wonderfully behaved diverse players in the past like Roberto Clemente and Albert Pujols who never engaged in such antics, but if we are being truthful and look at these 22-year old stars who are carrying on this way, I mean let's be honest, their names aren't Chapman or Smith. Again, what's happening in baseball is just a microcosm for what's happening to the country.

The value and ROI just isn't there like it used to be. I even found this to be the case in the years right before the pandemic (c. 2018-2019). But at least then $20-$25 was still the norm for a standard LD and a place like Mons in TB for example hadn't went off into the stratosphere with their ridiculous pricing. Vegas is/was my main vacation spot and $40 per is truly the new normal there. The quality is down and I would say dramatically so if one really thinks back to the drastically better SC times of say, the 2000s before the economic crash. Didn't realize it at the time but that period from the mid-to-late '90s to 2008 was the heyday. There was a reasonable post-crash rebound from 2013 to 2017 though imo. So yeah, plenty of times I walk into a SC and leave after only a beer because the talent just isn't there and I know the LDs are so hit and miss. Will need to scope out some spots in SoFlo now that Mons is a no-go. Really miss that Mons-style of walk in, see who's giving a good dance, and then just grab as many as you like at $20-$25 each. Some people don't like the lapdance factory atmosphere but I think it beats the VIP, charges-all-over-the-place model. Mons (in its heyday) had the system down imo.

It was only like 5-10 years ago that you could get a hot casino girl to your room for like $300-$400 from places like Cosmo, Trop, Caesars, etc. That seems to have doubled now. Post-pandemic, I doubt any true casino girl hottie would even consider under $500. In fact, an even G seems to be the new standard. But negotiating skills no doubt come in handy.

The Democrats actually do have a plausible way out of this but I don't think they'll take it. When even more details of this are revealed and Biden looks even worse in a few months, they could easily parade Joe in front of the press and have him pull a "I have come to realize, for the good of the country, that it is best I do not seek re-election for another term. I acknowledge now there were mistakes in judgment I made as regards my son's business and I should have been more forthright. Unlike Donald Trump, who will not accept his mistakes, the Democratic Party holds itself to a higher standard and I feel therefore it is best that someone else should become our nominee for 2024. It was my honor to serve you and accomplish [insert policy lie #1] and [insert policy lie #2], etc. etc." This would actually make the Democrats look good to moderates and independents and greatly help Newsom or whomever became the eventual nominee. But I want to be clear that there is no way I think they'll do this. They are too corrupt and the entire Biden admin is based on denial of facts and gaslighting the public. All one has to do is watch KJP lie and obfuscate on a daily basis. They have no shame and won't do this. It's just stupid because, if they did, it would be a win-win for them in that they'd: (1) get a non-senile nominee and (2) a slight boost from the public perception of turning the page and categorizing Biden's corruption as unacceptable. But they are just too damn corrupt to the core so won't take this rather easy out.

^Guessing "vanadium" was the result of auto spellcheck somehow...

It seems like it would be challenging because, among other reasons, there are so many potential casinos you can hit. It's like, if you were to scope out Caesar's Palace at midnight and not see anyone that catches your eye, it'd be tempting to then go over to Bellagio to see what it's like over there. Then maybe Aria...and on it goes. And while many of these casinos are linked by walkways, you're still shuffling about here and there and all that can add up. It does seem though like eventually one could find what they are looking for to a reasonable approximation.

This sounds like it's run by the same management team that ran Le Rouge Lounge a few years back at rotating venues. Those places were just ok.