110 Comments
User's avatar
TheBuckeyeBear's avatar

Paging Scoots!!!

https://twitter.com/UPROXX/status/1387130686495248384?s=20

'Citizen Kane' lost its perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, making 'Paddington 2' the new greatest film of all-time

Expand full comment
Scootie's avatar

AS IT SHOULD BE.

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

But you've never seen Citizen Kane!

Expand full comment
TheBuckeyeBear's avatar

How do you guys test to see if a link is shady? I got a message on Fbook that says, "I think he's one of our friends" and a URL and it sounds like a spam message, so maybe my friend clicked on something that got into her messages?

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

Don't use facebook?

Whenever I get a suspicious email I always look at the link. If it's a valid company link like amazon.com then at least I'm less suspicious. SPAM links may show www.amazon.com/winme but it's always something else like www.imascammer.net/amazonwinme/clickonme.html

Hover over the link and the browser should always show the link it's going to open somewhere. On Chrome it's the lower left corner.

Expand full comment
TheBuckeyeBear's avatar

Cool, thanks. Yeah, she posted on her feed that she'd gotten hacked, so I'm glad I didn't click!

Expand full comment
goldenone's avatar

wow. And this right after the distillation of oxygen story from yesterday. Sounds like Elon will be able to relocate to Mars after all.

Expand full comment
Rocksanddirt's avatar

well that's a curious result.

Expand full comment
Wiata78's avatar

Maybe some Martian animal came by and peed on the lander.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

pqtm

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

Years ago, The Dalmore used to be my go to scotch at BevMo, it was decent, $26, 12 years old. Then they pulled it from the market, put in a fancier bottle, and started charging $60-70 for the same thing, so I stopped buying it. However, my electrician bought me a bottle recently, and while still good, the Balveine 12, or Aberluor 12 or both better & cheaper.

Expand full comment
g.oso's avatar

I do love a good Speyside

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

It's what's for dinner.....

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

I'm starving!

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

The housing market just accelerated to plaid thanks to Biden plan to raise capital gains tax.

Expand full comment
Scootie's avatar

The NYT says the proposal is to increase cap gains for incomes >$1MM. Is that right? If so, have at it, and I don't think that would affect the housing market at all, the population is just too small.

"The plan will also call for tax increases, including raising the top marginal income tax rate for wealthy Americans and raising the rate that people who earn more than $1 million a year pay on profits earned from the sale of stocks or other assets"

Expand full comment
Wiata78's avatar

Seems like this would work better for buyers than sellers?

Expand full comment
DC Trojan's avatar

Can you elaborate for those of us who aren't finance types?

Expand full comment
HeyStudentsBears's avatar

my take is that if you raise taxes on one set of assets that appreciate (stocks/crypto/etc) then it incentivizes people to find alternate investments, in this case housing.

there is still capital gains on real estate gains, but there is an exemption for the $250/500k of gains depending on filing status, so it makes the real estate investment a little more tax sheltered.

i assume everyone got the "accelerating to plaid" joke, but it is not finance term, just from Spaceballs, since the housing market was already hot even before the tax raise proposal.

Expand full comment
Scootie's avatar

There's no exemption on real estate investment currently, only on principal residences.

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

True, it's always been that way.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

Yes, you get me HSB.

Biden proposed an increased capital gains tax rate for those who earn above $400k from 20% to about 40%. Twenty percentage points is a shit ton of tax and reduces a LOT of incentive to invest. One pays taxes on profits from asset sales that aren't otherwise taxed through other regulations - namely real estate via Section 1031 (ie, you can trade up in properties tax-free so long as you do it quickly). The vast majority of Americans don't earn more than $400k and at best own only own one house, so they're not going to see higher taxes that way. However, in dollar terms, the majority of capital owners do earn above $400k, which means dollar flow will seek the highest returning investments net of tax - which is now real estate. Investors will now defer gains until there is a new administration that changes this tax policy

Expand full comment
Scootie's avatar

Does that $400K include the capital gain? Or is it just in ordinary income? Asking for me.

Expand full comment
HeyStudentsBears's avatar

i am not sure, but my guess is that they would not distinguish the source of income.

Expand full comment
DC Trojan's avatar

I would have thought that this would affect a different segment of the market though - what is discreetly referred to as "upper brackets" real estate. The tight supply that's affect most people is closer to median for their local market, no?

Expand full comment
Rocksanddirt's avatar

I don't know that this will have a longer term damage to other types of capital investments. Since the tax was lowered to the current level from where the new proposal puts it back at just in 2017. i.e., removing part of the 'Trump Tax Act'

Expand full comment
HeyStudentsBears's avatar

"a way to level the tax playing field between typical American workers and high earners who employ sophisticated efforts to minimize or evade taxation"

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/27/us/biden-news-today#biden-IRS-taxes

Expand full comment
HeyStudentsBears's avatar

speaking of this, does anyone use a "donor advised fund" to contribute to Cal?

given that we are going to contribute $X anyways, seems like a good idea to do it in a tax efficient way. on the other hand, it is clearly a "sophisticated effort to minimize or evade taxation"

Expand full comment
Scootie's avatar

But contributing to Cal is tax efficient anyhow, so why go through the DAF?

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

Best/worst accident to happen to you

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

I sometimes think of the accident that didn't happen. This was while I was in school at UCSC, probably in the spring of '84.

I was driving northbound on Highway 1 north of what is now the Montara Mountain bypass. Not far from that point, the roadway cut through a shoulder of the mountain, leaving a hill to the ocean side; there's almost no shoulder next to the mountainside.

I was the lead car in my direction going about 55 mph. As I was passing through that area about 100 yards away the road curves right around a corner of the mountain; it's a blind curve. A jacked up pickup truck passes a car coming in the opposite direction on that blind curve. He is in my lane headed straight towards me. I hit the brakes and pull to the right as far as I can. I'm up against the damn mountain and the driver's side is still halfway into the lane.

There was probably no more than 20 yards between me and the jackass when he passed the other car.

To this day, I'm not quite sure how I didn't end up dead...or worse.

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

Worst? Overstretching my FHL in my right leg while I was painting, and then doing the same to my left while the right was in a moon boot. Happened 26 years ago. First time I was out 2+ months, got better, but two years later, while goofing around with my son, aggravated it again, out for another couple of months. Did it a THIRD time, used patelofemoral tape to stabilize - got a cortisone shot.

Ever since then, have to stretch daily to keep it at bay.

Expand full comment
Tangtpt's avatar

Dislocated my wrist because I tripped over a crack in the sidewalk roller skating. Close second was bruising my kidney jumping off of steps outside my house. Spent just under a week in the hospital for that one after an uncomfortable "insertion".

Expand full comment
goldenone's avatar

Broken arm in a collision at home plate. Played catcher in high school.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

No 1's catcher broke his wrist during All-Stars 15U on a collision at home. Hurt them since they now had to move someone to catcher and eventually had to play someone that was wasn't great defensively at 2B. Also hurt that they had one key guy out for the first couple of games. If they moved out of districts they could've been pretty potent since they had 4 legitimate HS pitchers (one of the ones they missed the first couple of games).

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

No 3's HS team RF and 2B somehow collided yesterday on a pop fly to short RF. Or the 2B dove and the RF somehow landed on him. Not sure since I was behind the 3B dugout.

I think 2B had a seizure right after the collision and had a bunch of blood on the side of his face which came from his mouth; maybe he bit his tongue. Ambulance came and took him off. I'm guessing somehow he got knocked out and the seizures were similar to Jahvid Best's seizures when he got knocked out.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

Also had the umpire go on a power trip. Coach pulled the players in for a quick meeting after the inning and the first batter was still getting his helmet and gloves. The umpire told the pitcher to pitch and I don't think really gave the batter a warning. Kid threw, I think, 2 pitches and the umpire called both a strike. The kid (same 2B that got knocked out later in the game) hit a triple on the Left Center gap. Of course after two HBP they loaded the bases and didn't score (Dodgers special). There is a reason the team is 1-6.

Expand full comment
HeyStudentsBears's avatar

freshman year at Cal i couldnt get into English 1A and had to scramble for some writing requirement class. ended up taking SP44A (special programs) which was this intense "history of western civ" class.

that put me "accidentally" on the path to becoming a Classics major which was certainly unintended given that i was so focuses on math/physics. even though i still mostly do math-y stuff for work, it has been the best eye-opening experience in terms of a lifetime of reading and appreciation of art, culture, life, people ...

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

I hate art, despise culture, and have nothing but contempt for life...kinda like Pai Mei. And don’t even get me started on people... ;-)

Expand full comment
HeyStudentsBears's avatar

you seem to know enough people and culture to appreciate the genius of Pai Mei

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

Elsewhere in college

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

49ers basically traded 4 future starters to overdraft Mac Jones...yuck.

Expand full comment
sycasey's avatar

Are we sure that's who they're taking? There's been contradictory info out there (as you'd expect).

Expand full comment
Justbear's avatar

Do 49ers not like Jimmy G? I think he has the potential. (I don't like him btw)

Expand full comment
Ruey Yen's avatar

I think Jimmy G's stock is as high as that of Jared Goff now...perception changes in a hurry now and I think the 49ers would have to commit a lot to him financially if they don't flip him to the Patriots in the near future

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

They've already missed the opportunity to save the $20 million on the '21 cap. He doesn't have a lot of value right now bc he doesn't stay healthy - at least Goff stays on the field for the most part. Jared is the better QB, but if Belichick would take Jimmy off the Niners hands for a 3rd rounder, they should do it.

The way Shanahan was talking yesterday at the presser, it doesn't sound like Garoppolo will be on the team in Sept., which means they'll pass on Trey Lance, who is going to be the best QB in this entire draft in 5 years...

Unrelated, Kyle Shanahan seems like a real a$$hole.

Expand full comment
Scootie's avatar

BUT...Jimmy G is just so hot. Worth whatever it takes to keep him.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Maybe he'll retire due to injury and be a coach?

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

No, and they probably shouldn't...while he's Chad Hansen-dreamy, he's expensive and gets hurt...but they're hoping Mac Jones turns out to be pretty much the same player, so trading 4 picks for him seems really silly.

Expand full comment
Justbear's avatar

I guess it's like when Broncos signed Osweiler to a huge contract only to release him immediately when they figured he wasn't good. Got to cut loss and move on.

Expand full comment
sycasey's avatar

He's fine when he can stay healthy, but that latter part has been the problem.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Unfortunately, he's not fine, even when he stays healthy. Watch film of the '19 playoffs, other than the GB game where he threw 8 passes b/c they don't trust him, or the Arizona game in week 1 of 2020...or the road game in SEA last year when he was benched. He's broken, like Carson Wentz. He's immobile, inaccurate, misses reads, is late on throws, and his arm strength has slipped.

Time to move on.

Expand full comment
sycasey's avatar

I watched all of the 2019 season in which he was pretty good, including the first three quarters of the Super Bowl (I think the playcalling did him no favors in the 4th quarter). Not a superstar, but a competent starter you can win with. When he got "benched" against Seattle it was BECAUSE of the injury, which was clearly affecting his play.

That said, he was injured in both 2018 and 2020 and you're not worth much if you're always hurt.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

He had a sprained ankle...good QBs play through those. Hell, it doesn't matter much now anyways, but at the end of the day, he's a below average starter in this league with a $26 million price tag...you can get that for cheaper, which is why they traded 4 picks to take Mac Jones....yuck.

Expand full comment
sycasey's avatar

I suspect it was more than just a sprained ankle. You don't keep a guy out for the rest of the season just for that.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

He had a sprained ankle...good QBs play through those

Unfortunately Longshore had a broken one not a sprained one.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Sigh...that was a bummer. Torpedoed a good season...

Expand full comment
goldenone's avatar

I'm not sure how Jones will pan out. Seems like an awfully risky move.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Just awful and it's eventually going to cost Kyle Shanahan his job in San Francisco...not the pick, per se, so much as the price they paid to get a player that will simply make available plays. They've already failed the draft process.

Kyle Shanahan wants a puppet, tho, not a play maker, because Kyle thinks he's the star, not the QB. Biggest ego in the NFL...we'll see.

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

The stupidest draft move ever... boggles the mind.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

Jeff Fisher enters the chat...

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

pqtm

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

Today in Covid

Expand full comment
clapdoc's avatar

Three and a half days after my first Moderna shot, I have a sore throat with a wet cough and a slightly stuffy nose. No idea if it is nothing at all, a different illness, my immune system doing its job and building immunity to a mild form of the Covid, or whether I got it.

Expand full comment
goldenone's avatar

My 2nd Pfizer shot was postponed yesterday due to not enough available vaccine. Will get it tomorrow.

Expand full comment
DC Trojan's avatar

the extent to which reactionary opinion-generators are doubling down on masks as a sign of cultural rot is pretty impressive. I mean like decomposition is impressive.

Expand full comment
Terence's avatar

baby lungs.

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

I haven't seen that, but then again, I'm not on Twitter that much.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

I haven't been on Twitter since April 7, when I deactivated my account.

I do not plan on re-activating my account.

Expand full comment
goldenone's avatar

I don't use it too often these days.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

I've decided to leave Twitter because I find it too depressing. I'm already happier for it, although I do miss silly/humorous Twitter on occasion.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Apr 27, 2021
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

The only time I was on twitter before today was to ask the A's about getting a single ticket and BART about parking at Lafayette BART for the A's game. Before that it was for the Taco crawl. Today I'm trying to find out more info on the Nike Griffey Varsity Royal drop.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

Except that as of today it's only 97 days out of office.

Whatever.

Expand full comment
goldenone's avatar

Hmmm...I didn't do the math.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

It's actually fairly simple math...for me, at least.

January 1 to April 30 is 120 days. (31+28+31+30=120)

Subtract 20 for Inauguration Day (January 20).

Therefore, April 30 is 100 days after Inauguration Day.

Hence, April 27 = 97 days after Inauguration Day.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

PRO

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

YOUR NL WEST FIRST PLACE SAN. FRANCISCO. GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAANTS!

SF woodsheds the Rockies 12-0, lead by 9 after two innings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-qheN6TUPE

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401227382

Expand full comment
Scootie's avatar

Worry about them using up all their runs at once.

Expand full comment
goldenone's avatar

So I guess we can start talking about a Bay Bridge World Series this year

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Lock it up...it was never in doubt...hahaha

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Descalfiani with the shutout...

Expand full comment
goldenone's avatar

A's Down the Rays 2-1, despite a blown replay call by the umpires that took away a third Oakland run. Mark Canha, plunked for the 59th time, ties Sal Bando for the A's record of HBP's.

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

Why even have the reply if they aren't going to reverse an obvious mistake?

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

I still struggle with the fact that we have replay, yet there still have those brutal "non-reviewable" plays that fail to overturn obvious calls, regardless of the sport.

For example, I forget what ballgame it was, but a hitter this weekend actually illegally stuck his knee out to get hit with a pitch that was on the black, yet it's not reviewable. The above camera angle showed it perfectly, yet the ump can only review if the ball actually hit the player. Just brutal...if you're gonna have the replay, have the replay. This supports the CYA angle.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

I think you're thinking about the Dodgers/Padres game. It was a lefty hitter, maybe Raley or Beaty.

Chris Taylor pretended to get hit in the foot in the playoffs and they reviewed that he didn't get hit. They called him back and I think he hit a double on the next pitch.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

That sounds right. And I understand that replay can't read "intent," etc....but it happens in football too...the non-reviewable play is just silly.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

My cynical response: replay is about public relations. CYA. It is not about getting the call right.

Then again, I'm an outspoken critic of instant replay for a number of reasons. This just adds to it.

I will agree that Andrus should have been called safe and the run should have scored. Having said that, I understand why Andrus was called out and the replay didn't reverse the call.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

It's like the NBA. Towards the end of the game the officials make a call on a close play but they may not care too much if they're wrong since it would be overturned on replay.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

That is one of the criticisms I had of NFL replay about a year after it was adopted. That criticism stands. Comes under the heading of Instant replay undermines officiating.

Expand full comment
Cugel's avatar

I think that is true in the NFL, way, way less so in MLB.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

I'll make on amendment to what I said below. If New York hews a hard line upholding calls because they don't see enough to overturn, then MLB umpiring could possibly avoid not caring about the call. But if New York is wishy washy or even worse, flippant, then all of that goes out the window.

Expand full comment
FiatSlug's avatar

RE: MLB, give it time. The umpires will start exhibiting that behavior eventually.

Expand full comment
heyalumnigo's avatar

Disclosure, I didn't see the Andrus replay

Expand full comment
goldenone's avatar

Andrus' hand was clearly across the plate before he was tagged. Melvin ran out from the dugout right away and was tossed.

Expand full comment
dcblue's avatar

They were asking the same question on Sportscenter as I was getting ready for bed.

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

CAL

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

GO BEARS!

Expand full comment
SGBear's avatar

After the departure of Jaden Casey and Spencer Brasch, Cal needed another QB. Coach Musgrave gets 3-star QB Blake DeBisschop to commit as a PWO, Oregon's 6A passing yardage leader for 2021 from West Linn HS.

https://twitter.com/BlakeDeBissch12/status/1386787960113090563

Expand full comment