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Question posed on my other internet community: Do you think the cost of living in your area is worth it? What makes HCOL and LCOLs different from each other experientially?

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I live in San Diego and would say yes. I actually don’t consider San Diego other than the cost of housing, I don’t consider San Diego a HCOL area.

I am also born and raised in San Diego and all my immediate family, most of my extended family and a lot of my friends all still live in San Diego. San Diego has great weather, beaches, mountains for hiking, and the best Mexican food in Southern California.

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i think that despite what you say, the fact you chose to live somewhere means that the COL in your area is worth it.

it could change, of course, as we are seeing now. e.g. HCOL in NYC with none of the perks might make you change your mind. or the ability to work remotely in a way that was not an option before.

there are lots of factors in any decision to live somewhere, obviously the costs, but people put different values on different perks. i might think access to amazing classical music is worth paying for (i do) whereas someone else might think it is a non-factor. similarly with proximity to family which i put hardly any value on.

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to answer the what makes it different .. i think it has a lot to do with who you are and what is important to you

i have 5 first cousins in Sweden. 4 live in/near Stockholm which is super-HCOL. one lives way up north near the Arctic Circle.

i remember, one time he commented (and this has stuck with me), that he is super happy that the thing he values the most (outdoors, less people, lots of space) is luckily not what everyone else values, so not only does he get to pay less, but he actually is not compromising to get what he wants.

he also (secondarily) happens to like good wine and food and travel , but takes all the $$ he otherwise saves and goes to Paris whenever he can.

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and to answer your question, yes.

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Not worth it in Santa Barbara, no.

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Yes. Although both Portland and the Bay Area are way way way better than Louisville. No matter how inexpensive Louisville is, I would not move back.

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Only speaking for myself: Yes very much so, but of course my rent is rather on the low side.

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No

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Follow up: what keeps you here?

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Cal football? and that he can't get away from Twist...

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I could write a novel on this topic.

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Go for it!!!

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i wrote one above

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So, one night stands don't count? Hmmmm... I can't rightly recall, there was a lot of overlapping GF's.

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1 week until the election, how are we all feeling? Will Biden and the Dems coug this election? Is Trump heading for a landslide defeat? Will SCOTUS still the election for trump?

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Nervous. Very little has happened in a number of years that gives me much confidence in much of anything working out well, or even as predicted.

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The dems will always coug something. It's in their nature

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Obviously, I meant steal. We really need an edit button on here.

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Trump is heading for a big defeat, I hope it's a landslide, but I'm not sure. The SCOTUS pick does not help him at all, makes right-wing voters complacent, pisses off the left.

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Trump loses popular vote by a lot, disputes ballot counts in multiple states as they take days to count, leaving presidency uncertain. Meanwhile, Dems pick up 3 Senate seats, leaving Senate control hinging on the indeterminate Presidency. House remains in Dem control easily, leaves Representatives looking on in horror.

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eh, if he losses either FL or TX it's all over, and no Repubs are going throw him any lifeline once he's a loser.

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If he losses Florida or Ohio it is all over. If Biden wins Florida or Ohio it doesn’t matter what happens in Texas but I doubt Biden wins Texas. However, it should be close and that might help the Dems win a senate seat.

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I certainly hope he is headed for a landslide defeat and want to believe that.

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Have you been following Tim Alberta's Funny Feelings on Politico? If you haven't you should check them out; this is the first of 16 reasons why 2020 ain't 2016:

"1. Four years ago, Trump won with a coalition of voters. While the fabled working-class whites were central to this coalition, he couldn’t have won without sizable support from suburban white women; from seniors ages 65 and older; and from independents who voted for Barack Obama in the previous election. Today, that coalition is in tatters. Trump ran competitively with college-educated white women against Hillary Clinton, losing them by 7 points; polling now suggests he could lose them by 25 points or more. Trump won seniors by 7 points against Clinton; polling now shows him consistently trailing among seniors by 5 to 15 points. Trump won independents by 4 points; polling now shows Joe Biden running up big margins with those voters. None of this means the president can’t assemble a new coalition to win this November. Indeed, his team has spent considerable time and resources targeting Hispanic voters and Black men, believing inroads with those groups could offset heavy losses elsewhere. Whether he’s successful, the fact remains: Trump’s coalition from 2016 no longer exists."

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/10/27/alberta-final-feelings-2020-election-432718

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I think many in his coalition wanted to try something new and believed he would rise the to the decorum of the office, become more presidential. Except for his rapid, core supports, many now just have serious Trump fatigue and are ready to move on.

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Today in Wikipedia: The Japanese Navy always eats curry on Fridays so sailors can better track days

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Maritime_Self-Defense_Force#Culture_and_naming_conventions/

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i should do that. i LOVE japanese curry

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Take a virtual tour through this $375k 3+4 3,100 sq ft L'ville house for sale.

Click on the 3D Tour button, then see how many seconds you can go before you feel like you want to run away.

https://www.redfin.com/KY/Louisville/8800-Blue-Lick-Rd-40219/home/84240362

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Another sad moment when you realize that I could easily afford this house but am decades away from being able to a similar home in California.

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@ I thought Amazon warehouses were larger @

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Not the greatest part of town. This is the southern end. The nicer parts are Eastern Louisville and the highlands which is just SE of downtown. The neighborhoods are hit or miss, even within the neighborhoods.

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I got to the first-floor bedroom, saw that pillowcase, and immediately had the urge to take a shower.

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Did you look behind the TV? Sweet pics of the owners.

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As Twitter user Jennifer Miller notes, the lack of an Oxford comma doesn't help in this case.

https://twitter.com/natalie_allison/status/1320838259036114944

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Visiting the emergency room on vacation

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No exactly emergency room, but my sister hurt herself skiing up in Tahoe. Maybe a broken or hurt finger. Anyways, the nurse at the ski resort was our art teacher in elementary school.

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UGH. Spent all day there yesterday, with an uncontrollable nose bleed soaking through towels. Went first to urgent care who took one look at me and sent me to the ER. Doc dosed me up with cocaine (!) to try to stop the bleeding and numb the nose, neither worked. Bleed was too far up my nose to be able to cauterize it. I now have a balloon shoved up my right nostril applying pressure to the bleed in the hopes it will stop it (it has stopped seeping, so fingers crossed). Also, not allowed any pain killers since they act as blood thinners, and I have a pinched nerve in my neck so that's been fun. Have to go back Thursday to get the balloon out.

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That sounds bad on near epic proportions! Any idea what triggered all this?

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My guess is some combo of altitude, dryness and overuse of NSAIDs to help defeat the pinched nerve.

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So sorry to hear and very unpleasant. I hope you are on the mend soon!

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well that sucks but on the plus side...cocaine!

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I cannot wait to see what the ER charges for a bit of blow.

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Some people get the nosebleed because of the cocaine rather than the way Scootie did it, I have no view on which is better

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so what would happen if Scootie had to take a drug test for work? Honest, my doctor prescribed it...

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Ugh. Not the best vacation. Hope you get better.

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😬 that sounds awful. Hope you get better soon.

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That sounds horrible. Hope it gets better.

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Ran around Las Vegas as wife developed ear infection. Literally ran down the Blvd going from one Minute Clinic to the next, trying to catch them before they closed. One lady gave no f**ks and closed 30 minutes early. Ended up in the emergency room. $600 ear drops.

Son in the emergency room after he tore his toenail off in OBX.

I accidentally kicked a sea urchin in Croatia. Hospital staff laughed at me, said there wasn't anything they could do except tell me to soak my toe in olive oil, and essentially told me to not be a cry-baby.

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I hear Croatian sea urchins are especially nasty, specifically thems from the Dubrovnik area...

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so just relating stories. good to hear that you are not currently in the ER

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Rank 'em: Texas-style(s), KC-style, Memphis-style, Carolina style(s)

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My brother's been watching some BBQ shows on Netflix (one's a deep dive and one's a competition)

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The one with Tootsie?

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Perhaps? I didn't pay that much attention. Is she the one who also works at the high school?

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That's the one. It's a very visually appealing show, though it is light on technique. I've been trying to smoke beef ribs on my grill at home (with hickory chips) and my results are solidly in the C-D range. AKA fully cooked, starting to get tender, but clearly not BBQ status yet.

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I tried baby back ribs with a Memphis rub. I think towards the end I was running out of time and I added too many pieces or charcoal and wood chips and it got too hot. Made the outside a bit charred. Still tasted good though.

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My Wife makes fantastic ribs, but she does them low and slow in the oven, then I take them up on the roof and grill them for a bit. It's a hella lot easier that way.

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So I would love more videos about technique.

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Wait, you are still talking about smoking ribs right??

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North Carolina pulled pork and you guys can have the rest, I don’t like eating ribs and I don’t care about brisket

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Texas, Memphis, everyone else.

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I thought you would've gotten some while there for the Ole Miss game.

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Moi?

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yeah that's weird. I thought I replied to your comment...weird

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Texas, KC, Carolina - not familiar with Memphis

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KC all the way, then Texas, Memphis, and California

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anyone who doesn't have Texas as #1 doesn't know BBQ

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You’d think that coming from the proud tradition of turning perfectly adequate meat into leather, I’d be pro Texas barbecue, and yet...

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better than drowning the end product in sauce to disguise the inadequacies and inferiority

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Are we ranking bbq or super-spreader events?

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This is a good question

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Off topic, but are you familiar with New Model Army?

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Cromwell’s soldiers or the band?

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The band, silly.

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I’m currently listening to a compilation of their releases from 1980 - 1984. Pretty good!

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Did you know that the Coldstream Guards had their origins from the New Model Army?

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they were one of my favorite bands in my transition from all metal all the time and adding goth/death rock/alt to my listening

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KC (especially the spicy variety)

Texas

Carolina

Memphis

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Texas

Carolina

Memphis

the best bbq and brisket i ever had was at Snows BBQ (Lexington TX) when we went to Austin for the game vs UT.

we (@heyalumnigo and my daughter) woke up at 600a, drove an hour to get in line before it opened at 800a on Saturday's only. they close when they run out of food.

you cant buy beer, but the pitmaster walks around passing out beer if you want some

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That was phenomenal BBQ. Thanks for driving. I didn't get to the hotel until maybe 12:30 or 1 AM after flying into San Antonio.

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KC

Texas

Western Carolina

Memphis

Eastern Carolina (don't tell anyone, I'll be lynched),...

[scroll for 3 minutes]

South Carolina style

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Today in Covid19

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Elsewhere in college

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Southern Miss is now on their third head football coach this season.

https://twitter.com/Brett_McMurphy/status/1321119362015744003

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Wisconsin's 1st and 3rd string QBs get Covid. 2nd string out with injury. 4th string has a 100% college career completion rate and has scored a TD every time he threw the ball in college. Rating 455.3.

Badgers a 4.5 point favorite over Nebraska

https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/_/id/4242332/danny-vanden-boom

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Did I mention that my older daughter’s bestie at Wisconsin caught the ‘rona? Oops. (She’s fine)

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my wife was talking ti her recent college intern from Michigan.

he said that "all the freshman have it, everyone else is fine"

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First thing I thought of when I saw Uw QBs test positive was you and your older daughters bestie at Wisconsin.

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Tested positive, but fine so far? Or had symptoms and has recovered from them? (And hopefully now testing negative again?)

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Tested positive, feels like she has a bad cold, currently hanging out in the plague dorm if I understand things correctly

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That's not exactly what most would define as "fine"!

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She’s not on a ventilator and she’s in more danger from her enraged mother 🤷🏼‍♂️

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The enraged mother threat is not to be discounted. First year away at college was bound to lead to that at some point in any event though.

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update on my nephew at Wisc. no symptoms but just stuck in home w/ quarantine restrictions.

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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Linda Carter: still got it

https://twitter.com/reallyndacarter/status/1321152779973545985?s=21

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Boy Howdy

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Damn she's 69 years old.

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Nice

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Heh, watched a 70's WW episode a few days ago. They are quite amusing in a campy way.

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During the virus I've met some of my neighbors hanging out in the park across the street. One family has a four year old who is my new girlfriend. She is going to be Wonder Woman for Halloween and was styling in her costume the other day. Good stuff.

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WaPo: Trump visited his own properties on official business 280 times, costing tax payers millions and millions. WaPo has the receipts. Spoiler: rooms for >14x rack rate, $3 water, $6k floral arrangements. Meanwhile, Trump has only donated $8,020 to his own 2020 reelection campaign.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ballrooms-candles-and-luxury-cottages-during-trumps-term-millions-of-government-and-gop-dollars-have-flowed-to-his-propertiesmar-a-lago-charged-the-government-3-apiece-for-glasses-of-water-for-trump-and-the-japanese-leader/2020/10/27/186f20a2-1469-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html

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Moscow Mitch adjourns Senate until after election proving that he prioritizes Conney-Barrett, Senate re-election campaigns, and then last... the American people.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mitch-mcconnell-just-adjourned-the-senate-until-november-9-ending-the-prospect-of-additional-coronavirus-relief-until-after-the-election/ar-BB1aqkhY

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If they lose the White House, the GOP will pivot hard to the deficit so they can legitimize all the ways they will seek to undo a Biden agenda .

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I read an interesting piece with the hypothesis that McConnell is seeing polls which indicate that there’s no saving most of the vulnerable senators, so there was no gain for keeping the vote until after the election to try and juice their results.

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Murkowski flipped and voted aye even before the election but she's not up this cycle.

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Well there’s no downside for her at the moment

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I could see him doing that. Just goes along with the narrative to keep the shit they're spewing and fuck everyone else.

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heh...I hope voters remember all the shit that has gone down the last 4 years for many elections to come.

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They won’t because most voters have a short memory, are idiots, and are lazy.

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The dems had better hammer it into the voters heads every 2 years. But they probably won't.

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I agree that they should and they probably will but my concern is whether the Democratic and anti trump voters will come out. I think once trump is gone you will see people get comfortable, relaxed or even start to splinter into other groups that may not fully support democrats in 2022.

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If they win, especially big, then there is the need to be prepared for the backlash. Underestimating that has got both sides in trouble before, and it may be an even greater risk this time.

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I could see the AOC/Bernie try to get the dems to be more progressive. I wonder if that will lead to less support in future elections.

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NY Times: Trump told 131 lies/inaccuracies in 90 minutes at one of his recent rallies

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1321089282786893826

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That is a huge undercount. Every time he speaks, he lies.

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The one area in which he is unequivocally a hard worker

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Jim Jordan with the quality hires

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Federal judge denies DOJ attempts to intervene with E. Jean Carroll's defamation case vs. Trump.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/27/politics/read-doj-carroll-case-request-rejected/index.html

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Oct 27, 2020Liked by SGBear

I happened across this group on my run this morning. Today's statue was the Trump impersonator standing on the edge of a three foot high gold throne and they'd rigged something up that had him pissing into the seat. It's titled Fill This Seat.

https://www.trumpstatueinitiative.com/

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PRO

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Clemson Tigers QB Trevor Lawrence hints at staying for senior season rather than opting for NFL draft

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30198976/los-angeles-dodgers-fans-get-next-best-thing-world-series-drive-in

Clemson Tigers quarterback Trevor Lawrence is leaving the door open about his football future despite previously saying he planned on heading to the NFL after this, his junior season.

The 6-foot-6 Lawrence, considered the likely No. 1 pick in next spring's NFL draft, said he hasn't ruled out returning to Clemson for another year instead of going pro.

"My mindset has been that I'm going to move on," Lawrence said Tuesday. "But who knows? There's a lot of things that could happen."

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I wonder how much of this is that he doesn't want to be a Jet.

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ICYMI: Not-Ready trick play used by Arizona

https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1320819181172961283

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Funny thing is that the coverage wasn't bad even with the trick play, but Hopkins got it anyway.

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CAL

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And so it begins.

Cal's MBB team member tests positive for la Rona. Practices paused for 2 weeks.

https://twitter.com/CalMBBall/status/1321137018336735232

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Go Bears!

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WSwim: Abbey Weitzeil sets American 50m short-course record, overtaking a 16-year record held by Dana Torres

https://twitter.com/CalWSwim/status/1320848660213551106

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Kids attending school

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My 15 year old is 100% remote, the school district has not indicated whether they have any near term plans to reopen. The data suggest that they should stick to K - 5 and special needs kids.

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I know they were talking about moving some of the elementary school kids into the HS to allow spreading them out. I don't think that ended up happening.

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I honestly can't wait until I can send my kid back. He's 5. I'm not worried about virus transmission.

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No 1 has all virtual at UPenn so it took him a couple of weeks to get used to running his section online. No 2 has mixed online and on campus classes, depending on which class it is. No 3 has been all online at Benicia HS. It was supposed to be hybrid and they're hoping it will be hybrid soon. I could see after Christmas if it keeps getting better.

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it is NOT getting better ...

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Yeah I don't think so either. Especially since I'm sure there will be families that will gather over Christmas.

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Beginning last Monday K-2 had the option of opting in to one day per week of in-person learning. Older students will steadily be incorporated into the one-day-per-week system over the coming weeks. From what I could tell, several of the neighborhood kids opted out.

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in New Rochelle, hybrid was supposed to start at the beginning of the school year but got delayed and changed to a phased-in approach.

8th grader is opting to stay remote even though hybrid (2 days a week) started this week.

11th grader has been remote, but will start hybrid (2 out of 6 days) in a few weeks.

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