Things Smackie Thinks You Need to Know...

Julian, wrote:
Is Newsom in real peril or what? Are these polls of the "scare Dems into showing up" variety or is this actually close? Starting to feel like an error to throw no Democratic candidate out there on the Recall side (of course, that went south with Bustamante).

So many unknowns here, but yes, legit possibility. 

His polls are worsening, people's frustration around schooling, masks, the spread of the Delta variant, vaccine requirements, etc all make for an impossible polling situation here.  Should wildfire season start early, he could be in big trouble because the only way to prevent the wildfires is PSPS (Public Safety Power Shutoffs) and that just pisses everyone off, even though the Governor has nothing to do with that. 

His one big hope is that we are continuing our mail-in ballots so that does benefit him as turnout would be much lower if it were in person, and only the really motivated would show up at the polls.  At this point I think he squeaks it out but so much can happen between now and Sept 14.

The one thing I hope we do fix in this state is that we make it much harder to recall an elected official.  It is WAY too easy to get this on the ballot.     

vansmack wrote:
The one thing I hope we do fix in this state is that we make it much harder to recall an elected official.  It is WAY too easy to get this on the ballot.   

for sure that's going to happen right after DC becomes the 51st state and we fix the electoral college

Side-burbs wrote:

vansmack wrote:
The one thing I hope we do fix in this state is that we make it much harder to recall an elected official.  It is WAY too easy to get this on the ballot.   

for sure that's going to happen right after DC becomes the 51st state and we fix the electoral college

Um, it wouldn't be that hard in CA. 

2/3 majority of both houses of the CA legislature would have to support it (which the Dems already have - 77.5% of the Senate and 74% of the Assembly) and 50+1% of the vote in a ballot initiative, which by this polling won't be a problem at all.

The only question remaining is do we move the signature threshold up from 12% (among the lowest of any state) to something like 20% or do we actually create a threshold by which an elected official can be recalled.  Hell, maybe we even do both.

I agree

These Cali recalls are beyond ridiculous and a complete waste of time and energy


Embarrassing


If we want to strengthen democracy- and I do - surely there are better ways of doing so

I can’t even think of what Gavin has done that is so terrible

“Shooore let’s weaken our Gov”


Wtf

This kinda seemed like the appropriate thread for this
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-19/onlyfans-to-block-sexually-explicit-videos-starting-in-october

First, I’ve never heard of this site.  But if I had, I would have changed the headline to OnlyFans is going out Business.

The first sign was hiring Mia Khalifa to advertise that they’re opening OnlyFans to athletes, musicians and non-Adult entertainers.  Now this.  Good luck!

vansmack wrote:
First, I’ve never heard of this site. 

I might concede that you are not a paying supporter nor every visited onlyfans
but I'm hard pressed to believe you've never heard of it

but I agree, such a weird business decision to walk away from all that cash they must be making off that
just open a new site OnlyAdultFans and have that content there

So OnlyFans' model, as I understand it, is to throw away their only differentiator and, de facto, come second-to-market in a space dominated by Patreon. Got it. Checks out.

Sigma-hatch wrote:
but I agree, such a weird business decision to walk away from all that cash they must be making off that

It's likely very bank/credit card processor driven. There's this fascinating article I read about a year ago in . . . I don't remember what, lets say The Atlantic, and if not The Atlantic, another magazine of similar ilk, about the early days of paid internet porn and how no bank would touch it with a ten-foot pole because of money laundering concerns (publicly) and massive chargebacks/"my wife saw the bill and I never ordered this!" concerns (in reality) and one bank out of South Dakota was running 95% of the legal porn credit card transactions in America, at a really nuts rate.

Julian, wrote:It's likely very bank/credit card processor driven.

I think that's what I read is one issue, the other is they are trying to go public, so they think this will impact that
I just think they should spin off a separate company just dedicated to that and take all those 'content providers' and move them there….done with millions to make

Yes, they are trying to go public and yes, most investors won’t invest in porn, so they plan to clean up their act, which will drive their subscribers away and thus bite the hand that feeds. Hence my prediction they will go under.

https://www.axios.com/onlyfans-investors-struggle-9cc92523-6607-40ad-9893-4175e7966b52.html

Decent thred on this
https://twitter.com/postcultrev/status/1428584131835748359?s=21

MasterCard is the villain here

this is good news: Turnout for the CA recall election is currently outpacing turnout in the 2020 general election, a strong sign for Democrats.

Justin wrote:


OnlyFans says never mind, it actually won’t ban porn on October 1st

Genius level marketing move.  Now everybody knows about them!

Slyhatch wrote:
this is good news: Turnout for the CA recall election is currently outpacing turnout in the 2020 general election, a strong sign for Democrats.

These early voters are disproportionately Democratic (54%), white (69%) and age 65 or older (42%). That tracks with trends observed during the November 2020 election, in which Democrats rushed to vote early while Republicans — often citing concerns about fraud — waited to cast their ballots in person on Election Day.

kosmo wrote:
Kacey Musgraves - Star Crossed
Friday 9/10

I told Hoya that I couldn't wait to hear her new "divorce album" when the news of their split broke:

Kacey Musgraves has joined country’s long tradition of divorce albums — familiar refrains that help listeners wallow and heal

And followed it up with "just wait until she has a baby"…..

vansmack wrote:

kosmo wrote:
Kacey Musgraves - Star Crossed
Friday 9/10

I told Hoya that I couldn't wait to hear her new "divorce album" when the news of their split broke:

Kacey Musgraves has joined country’s long tradition of divorce albums — familiar refrains that help listeners wallow and heal

And followed it up with "just wait until she has a baby"…..

my first listen thoughts were Kacey please please give us some more up tempo songs… the only things that truly jumped out at me was the flute solo on "there is a light" and the final song sung in spanish which is a cover "gracias a la vida"

will take it for a listen in the car later today.. 

kosmo wrote:

vansmack wrote:

kosmo wrote:
Kacey Musgraves - Star Crossed
Friday 9/10

I told Hoya that I couldn't wait to hear her new "divorce album" when the news of their split broke:

Kacey Musgraves has joined country’s long tradition of divorce albums — familiar refrains that help listeners wallow and heal

And followed it up with "just wait until she has a baby"…..

my first listen thoughts were Kacey please please give us some more up tempo songs… the only things that truly jumped out at me was the flute solo on "there is a light" and the final song sung in spanish which is a cover "gracias a la vida"

will take it for a listen in the car later today..

When a flute solo is a highlight of an album…

Yada wrote:
When a flute solo is a highlight of an album…

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull made a career of it. 

I could also argue that the flute solo is the highlight of Canned Heat's self-titled album.

And who could forget that one time at Band Camp.