frequent flyer

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I like the F-250 b/c of the better brakes and cooling capitacity over a half-ton, and the unloaded ride.

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F-250 rides way worse than a half ton.

But everything else you said is spot on. I also don't trust the half ton motors from Ford at the moment, where I'm a big fan of the 7.3L V8 gas motor in the F-250.

But I'm still going GMC over Ford right now.

GMC with the 6.6 Gas

ETA: The Duramax is great, but it's like a $12K option. Wouldn't touch it unless you regularly tow 12k+

In some ways Trump has exceeded expectations.

But yeah him pussyfooting around with H1B and not actually draining the swamp (and pushing to get DOGE cuts codified and permanent) has been frustrating. Those were big issues for me.

I guess some would argue that every industry is somewhat exploitative. But clearly it's good for the country to have high agricultural output.

But this got me thinking with all the social media posts about the black snow (heavy ashes falling from the sky) in parts of the Baton Rouge area from the burning of the sugar cane fields. Farmers burn sugarcane fields before harvest to clear away dry leaves and tops, making it easier and cheaper to harvest the sugar-rich stalks. This practice creates significant air pollution and particulate from the burning of the organic matter and all pesticides/herbicides sprayed in those fields......but environmental regulators look the other direction for the sugar industry.

Cane in particular offers low job density per acre, and much the labor it does bring on tends to rely heavily on migrant visas during harvesting season, bypassing a lot of the local labor pool and concentrating the earnings on the corporations and families that own the operations.

From a macro-economic perspective - is it economically safer for the state's agricultural output be more diverse (maybe increasing production and processing of cattle, poultry, beans, etc. and reducing the amount of acreage devoted to sugar exclusively)?

Should the recent immigrant labor reform efforts slowly target agriculture to rebuild the local labor agricultural labor pool?

From an environmental perspective - should regulators end the practice of selectively enforcing the laws for some industries but exempting agriculture? Or should they relax standards for all industries?

Should price floors and price controls for the output from any industry be set to protect producers that rely so heavily on lax environmental controls and migrant labor?

My thoughts are that if the oil and gas industry was this reliant on exemptions from emissions laws or migrant labor.....a lot of locals in Louisiana would be furious. Why do we look the other way for sugar?

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It's about the illusion of fantasy. Disney supporters don't care about meta crap, they love it for the feeling they get when they are there in a make-believe place that caters to their desire to escape.

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Too many creepy adults in Magic Kingdom. That park in particular is supposed to be geared for kids. The park is also very old, with poor management of crowds and lines. It makes Disney a hideous experience for families if they aren’t well practiced at managing their time and planning their experience weeks and weeks in advance.

EPCOT is significantly better. It’s more modern, there is better infrastructure, etc. You still need fast passes and lighting lanes to make it less miserable. IMO not worth the trip to Disney since those tools handcuff you to specific times at specific parts of the park. Kids won’t understand why you can’t make spontaneous decisions to try something they see.

30 years ago you could make the trip work without painstakingly planning every detail. You would have a good time. I don’t think that’s possible anymore.

That said….there are character meals and some rides that 5-10 year olds absolutely love. I just think Disney has to step up their game in a huge way if they want to continue this “Disney adult” thing into the next generation. And I don’t mean more paid influencers- they need to seriously upgrade their older properties.

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What’s the best suburb/outskirts city of Baton Rouge to move to and why? Will buy some property and build. 50+ couple w/ no kid considerations. Thoughts?

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This one is easy. New Roads or St Francisville.

Both quiet small towns with lots of well off old folks. Both have hospitals and lots of old people stuff to do. New Roads has more shopping and amenities. St Francisville has prettier typography.

Mirage was the first "mega resort" on that strip. It's smaller than most of the newer stuff now. And I think it only opened around 1990 or so.

Luxor and Excalibur are even worse. Too old to be competitive, too young to be historical.

I'll celebrate when it's at $2.79. Should be another month or two.

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Looking at purchasing a newer GMC Acadia. 23-24 model year. Does anyone have any advice on these models. Comparing it against a Honda Pilot, which is a bit more money, but solid. The newer Pilot looks a bit smaller interior wise.

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The 2023 ones were smaller and IMO not as good. The 2024 models are very good and significantly larger.

The new ones are definitely larger than the Pilot, which might help justify the price. I'd look at the Elevation model and option it up.

The 2007-2016 Acadias sucked, the 2027-2023 models were okay, and the 2024 - present models are surprisingly good.

:rotflmao:

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It’s now mainstream and very normal - Pretty cool how the Democrats do this

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This isn't just a Democrat thing. We have a major issue in this country; most people don't appreciate that.