foxbat

Another Hoosier Conference school QB at the helm at UIndy?

A cheater and a tweeter. 😆 Lord, I apologize for that.

I would think that #2, would end up being less tier and more $0/$25. I doubt that may folks would continue to show up on GID and pay $10 "just to look." I think that the site probably makes decent enough money off of the ads; however, probably not enough to sustain the site it total and certainly not enough for folks to get rich off of it. I just did a quick check and there were 25 people logged on right now ... with 17 of them being Guest status. If that's the way the site tends to go in general, then guest traffic is by far the highest level of traffic. As such, I would doubt, as you say, the conversion rate is high. Charging many of these folks $10 just to look would lose many of them ... not to mention, perhaps, some of those that lurk with an account name. Assuming that decent enough money is made from ad traffic, you don't want to chase off lurkers which, IMO, a $10 read-only fee/price would do. With that said, changing the advertising scheme from a click/click through to a more impressions-heavy structure might also be more advantageous as opposed to forcing a paysite fee. Ultimately, I think the current admin are holding true to TA's original gameplan and, given that so much of his reasoning behind the site was tied to his love of the game and the community, I'd say it's only fair for those who bought into that idea, serving in the current admin, to be allowed to carry that forward. There's a pretty organic feel to the site right now and much of that stems to its origins, including the freesite business model. I think TA also realized that not everyone is a fanatic right out the gate and some need time to catch the fever or come out of their shells. Some folks lurk for a season or more before even getting an id or making their first post. I think I lurked for three months or so before getting an id and then probably another two to three months before making a post. I think went to seasons before finally becoming a Booster and, even that first year was based on one of the GIDs prominent members actually buying me a membership. Since that time, I've been a Booster regularly and even paid the generosity of the GID member forward by paying for a membership for another member that hadn't held Booster status. I think that for lurkers who might be converted exposure/time are important to that conversion and a $10 read-only rate or a required fee for everyone would be like tossing water on a smoldering ember. My thought on this would be to not have GID as a paysite. I would, however, encourage folks who are lurkers to think about a donation to GID this way ... how many mediocre movies that you seen in the last year where you plopped down full ticket price, had some less than great popcorn, and a one gallon cup filled with 16 oz. of drink with more ice than a polar ice cap? That's about the cost of Booster status and, unlike that movie experience, you get GID for the whole year. Not a bad entertainment value ... even for the penny-pincher among us all.

There was an article a few years back talking about that scene in Children of Men. It's a single take scene that was actually accidental as the director called cut in the middle of the scene ... where the blood hits the lens ... but no one heard him, so the scene continued through to the end. That idea of splatter on the camera must have been something that he ended up liking because, toward the end of the movie during the street shootout, there's another instance of errant material hitting the lens that remains in the final cut. Pretty iconic is that opening beach scene in Saving Private Ryan.

Use the copy link in YouTube. When you paste the link in the GID thread, tell it to post the link as plain text. It will take out the underlining at first and then all of a sudden you will see the link text replaced with the video show up in the post. Add any other text that you want at that point ... if any ... and then click on the Submit Reply button.

Drinking a beer while it was frying and then another while eating the fried potato?

I think several folks on GID called this one back when it was announced. Unfortunately, Walker and Ryan spent a lot of time trying to convince Winsconsites, and the country, what a great deal it was without looking at the real return and likelihood that it would even come to fruition. It's a shame that neither is still around to take their lumps over it. Hopefully Walker et al. weren't in such a rush to get a headline that they didn't pay attention to the out clauses in the contracts.

It's the work of the Deep State operatives that he left behind as well as Hillary working out of her top-secret bunker high atop the Ozarks with the help of Simon Bar Sinister.

Another of the topics that has proven popular in this forum over the years ... revived again.

Before the GID crash, I had a post where I was tracking who would be out, who would stay, and who was in the air by the start of Trump's 3rd year. Most of the folks that we figured would be out ended up disappearing like Sessions, Kelly, Mattis, etc. One of the folks I had marked in yellow was DNI, Dan Coates. I had thought that he might leave on his own, especially if Mattis and/or Kelly disappeared. He may well end up doing so, but the President might start tweeting and, in one of those tweets, accidentally or purposely fire Coates. https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-pushes-back-spy-chiefs-differ-north-korea-115050237.html

They have all of these orange barrels and shifting lanes, but but I think it's just like soma for the masses up this way to make them "believe" that work is being done and something might get better.

Or heading toward the privatized prisons.

There's a lot that didn't get done for two years. Driving on I-65 this morning I couldn't figure what was more treacherous, the ice or the regular condition of the roads. An infrastructure bill, which could have gotten bi-partisan support, would have been a nice starting point two years ago.

Surprised this didn't get a whole lot of coverage in the media nor here ... then again, the shutdown, national emergencies, Roger Stone, etc. kind of pushed what would normally be a front-page item back a page or two: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/trump-national-golf-club-fires-194934788.html FTA: Dozens of undocumented immigrants employed by Donald Trump’s ‘Trump National Golf Club’ in Westchester County, NY were fired earlier this month, as Trump waged a war in Washington to keep others like them from entering the country using a border wall. The immigrants in question were longtime employees of the golf course. Many of them had earned employee-of-the-month awards and had received glowing letters of recommendation for other employment. A few even had the keys to Eric Trump’s weekend home, The Washington Post reports.

Interesting choice for response to SOTU ... https://www.yahoo.com/news/abrams-former-georgia-governor-candidate-democrats-state-union-195337969.html FTA: Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost Georgia's recent gubernatorial election, will deliver the Democrats' response to Republican President Donald Trump's State of the Union address next week, the top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, said on Tuesday. “I’m very excited she has agreed to be the responder,” Schumer told reporters, adding that he had asked her to give the response several weeks ago. I would not be surprised to see Abrams challenge for a national position out of GA in 2020. She might be able to pick up a rep slot, but I seriously think that, given the political winds and her showing in GA's governor's race in 2018, she could have a shot at Perdue. Perdue has a 95.4% "vote with Trump" rating. He also was the guy who came out and tried to run interference for Trump's "sh*thole" comments. Of late, he's been urging Trump, even after the shutdown ended, to continue pushing for his wall funding. He's going to potentially be vulnerable should Abrams be the Senate challenger in GA. She could also potentially provide uptails for a Democratic presidential contender. Trump won GA by 5% in 2016. Abram's running, plus Kemp's shenanigans, will have a potential for a fired-up voter turnout which could be problematic for both Perdue and Trump, should Trump decide to run again.

Not sure who here in Indiana, but I've got news running in the background while working from home today and I saw a sign at Stone's arraignment this morning that said "Christians support Roger." Probably someone related to that sign holder.

Those shoes don't go with that skirt.

Still hope for us as a country ... and as decent people: https://abcnews.go.com/US/1000-mourners-attend-funeral-unaccompanied-veteran/story?id=60675971 FTA: The funeral of an unaccompanied veteran in Killeen, Texas, was attended by more than 1,000 people -- including hundreds of bikers -- after a cemetery put out a call on social media asking strangers to come pay their respects. The Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery asked the public to attend Air Force Veteran Joseph Walker’s funeral on Facebook after failing to reach any of his family members or friends.

The 400+ folks that tunneled under an existing wall should've been a tip off, but Trump was too busy measuring the wall prototypes for drapes.

Yeah, I listened when he said it was a crisis back in spring of 2018 with the first caravan that was going to overrun the US and take over. That didn't come to fruition, so he rolled it out again during the mid-terms ... and again, it wasn't true then either. I heard him right before the shutdown started, as did the GOP and everyone else when he said it was all figured out ... only to have Ann and Rush whisper in his ears and scrap the whole thing. I also listened at the start of the shutdown when he said it would be months if need be. We heard him when he said everyone in the country tells him that they want the wall ... when it isn't actually the case. We heard him when he said that trade wars were easy. We also heard him when he said no one in his campaign had any contact with Russia only to find out actually LOTS of them did ... even if they claim they didn't remember at the time. We also heard him when he said he'd hire only the best people and how great they all were ... right up to the time when he bad-mouthed them all as they left them or he decided they wouldn't do what he wanted. Yeah, we heard him ... much like the boy who cried wolf, it's kind of hard to tell whether there's really anything that he's really going to do. As for that DACA olive branch, that's not the first time that he's dangled it and not the first time that he's also yanked it away. He's actually the cause of the DACA "emergency" situation anyway. He rescinded it without a fix in place. Just like with the healthcare. He's done that several times and folks, on both sides of the aisle, are starting to realize that until Trump puts it down on paper, he's not really negotiating in good faith. It's just that the GOP is stuck between a rock and a hard place because there are folks that, no matter how many times the story changes with still believe what Trump is selling. Trump claims that he's "negotiating" but he reminds me more of some local mafia folks in really bad mafia movies ... "Hey, nice house you have there. Be a shame if something happened to it." And even after the protection is paid, the house mysteriously "catches on fire" and there's the mafia guy there again offering to give the home owner a "good price" to help put out the fire.

"... until the next time."

While that kind of thing drives him, I think he's likely to take a potential opening if it's offered to him in the form of a split in the GOP ranks where he can blame issues on them and then exit stage left. He can say, "I had everything going my way, but the Deep State folks like Romney, Murkowski, Collins, Flake, just could let the status quo go and, until they are all gone, it doesn't make sense to waste any more of anyone's time on this. When the people get serious about getting rid of the status quo in the GOP, then perhaps I'll come back." Now that will never come to fruition, but it will provide for him to "even some old scores" as he exists. It'll also allow him to do birther-like attacks across the board, but especially against any Republican's who didn't give him full reign ... including folks like Graham who flopped back and forth. I also would not put it past him to buy part interest in a news outlet and continue his "fight" from the outside where he can be the guy in the spotlight without actually having to worry about being in the story.

I think if Johnson hadn't pulled out, he may well have been primaried too.

Remind you of anyone? You know you've got a potential problem when the Nixon Foundation tries to distance themselves from you: https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/25/politics/nixon-foundation-distances-stone/index.html FTA: "This morning's widely-circulated characterization of Roger Stone as a Nixon campaign aide or adviser is a gross misstatement. Mr. Stone was 16 years old during the Nixon presidential campaign of 1968 and 20 years old during the reelection campaign of 1972," the Nixon Foundation tweeted. The foundation added, "Mr. Stone, during his time as a student at George Washington University, was a junior scheduler on the Nixon reelection committee. Mr. Stone was not a campaign aide or adviser. Nowhere in the Presidential Daily Diaries from 1972 to 1974 does the name 'Roger Stone' appear."

Then why post an article entitled "Making Community College 'Free' Will Harm Serious Students" and highlight a sentence talking about the seriousness of student effort if all you really care about in the argument is whether it's funded by taxpayer dollars? This is like the local pastor arguing before the city council that he doesn't want a strip club next to his church because they fill up his recycling bins with the beer bottles from the strip club patrons.