The Current Events, News, and Politics Thread
07-16-2018, 09:48 PM
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,026
Total Cats: 6,592
I mean, from what I've been able to gather, you also appear to love your work. The same seems to be true of literally everyone I know who I'd consider to be successful and happy.
From one point of view, my perspective is biased, as I've only had two jobs in my life that I didn't love. I left the first after two days. I stuck with the second for several months because they kept promoting me every couple of weeks until I was eventually a department manager at K-Mart, and I wasn't experienced enough yet to know that this wasn't enough to make a career out of. (I took some amount of mirth in the fact that, at the time, I was living with my maternal grandmother, who worked at the Wal-Mart about a mile away. We hung our Red & Blue vests over the same chair in the living room every evening, and enjoyed a friendly rivalry concerning the topic.)
My honest appraisal: If you're working at a job that you don't like, you're not trying hard enough. Not trying hard at the job you don't like, but trying hard at improving your skills in an arena which makes you employable at a job that you enjoy.
A lot of folks would probably read this and accuse me of being privileged. And, to some extent, I won't deny that. I grew up in a home which was sufficiently stable to afford me the luxury of illegally breaking into telephone company and cable company facilities after hours, stealing technical manuals and junked hardware that was in the dumpsters. And reading every single book on electronics that was available at the local public library. (There weren't many in the Charlotte County Library system, at which point I learned about the miracle of Inter-Library-Loan, and was amazed that it was completely free.) I was able to afford to buy a soldering iron from Radio Shack for about $4 (this was 80s money), and spent much of my free time hanging around a combination of computer stores, Radio Shack, the phone company and the cable company, and generally making enough of a nuisance of myself that various engineers and technicians finally gave up and decided to teach me some stuff. I'll never forget Gino Ferranti for as long as I live. He worked in the telco Central Office, and let me into the Inner Sanctum and showed me the wonders of the telephone switching system and the management computer which controlled it. To this day, I still see in my mind the meticulous craftsmanship at the Main Demarcation Frame whenever I am doing wiring work. Or, more recently, supervising wiring work.
In the fullness of time, I found work in a field which was compatible with my interests. And, by not being a total ********, I've enjoyed success in this field.
The first such occurrence was when I was 16 years old. It happened in the parking lot of the Charlotte County Memorial Auditorium, when I got hired by the owner of a local AM radio station. It was a bizarre and confusing situation, and I remember little of it. From what Hal Kneller, the owner, has told me in the years following, it was mostly because I seemed polite and composed in the midst of a crisis situation.
* = I found out long after the fact that I came damned close to being fired from my job at Harris two months after I started, for being an arrogant *****. I was saved by the fact that I was right about a fairly significant yet obscure technical problem which would have otherwise ruined the rather large job we were working on. That experience taught me that, even if you know you're right, that's no excuse to be a dick about it.
Reply
0
0
07-17-2018, 08:07 AM
What if I told you that I couldn't think of a single job right now that I know I would love that also pays enough to support a family? Most people find something they are good at, supports the lifestyle they want, and doesn't make them miserable. A job doesn't have to be something you love.
Reply
0
0
07-17-2018, 08:41 AM
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma
Posts: 196
Total Cats: 24
Ryan,
If what you posted is your actual life experience I can feel nothing but pity for you.
For the last 40 years I have been a draftsman / designer / fabricator and can honestly say that it has been the perfect profession for me.
It has also given me a good living with enough put back that I should be able to get by when I decide to retire about the time I am 70.
My grandfather was a preacher and some of his sermons gave me my outlook on life that I follow to this day..
I could almost write a book about his sermons and how they actually shaped my life as I was growing up.
One that comes to mind from almost 50 years ago is this.
"It is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable".
Of course he spent the rest of the sermon giving examples and tying it back to the bible.
After Sunday dinner I was helping him feed the horses and we were discussing the sermon.
My comment to him was that it seems like he got the sermon a bit wrong because as a 12 year old it seems to me that it would be even better to be rich and happy.
He just laughed and I might be right but to wait 10 or 20 years before making up my mind.
If what you posted is your actual life experience I can feel nothing but pity for you.
For the last 40 years I have been a draftsman / designer / fabricator and can honestly say that it has been the perfect profession for me.
It has also given me a good living with enough put back that I should be able to get by when I decide to retire about the time I am 70.
My grandfather was a preacher and some of his sermons gave me my outlook on life that I follow to this day..
I could almost write a book about his sermons and how they actually shaped my life as I was growing up.
One that comes to mind from almost 50 years ago is this.
"It is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable".
Of course he spent the rest of the sermon giving examples and tying it back to the bible.
After Sunday dinner I was helping him feed the horses and we were discussing the sermon.
My comment to him was that it seems like he got the sermon a bit wrong because as a 12 year old it seems to me that it would be even better to be rich and happy.
He just laughed and I might be right but to wait 10 or 20 years before making up my mind.
Reply
0
0
07-17-2018, 08:41 AM
Boost Czar
Thread Starter
iTrader: (62)
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Chantilly, VA
Posts: 79,493
Total Cats: 4,080
i went from a 30min - 1.5hour commute to an 8min-15min commute -- doing the exact same work, getting paid more. i also no longer have to pay $160 a month for a parking spot, or waste all the gas.
I think it's all bigger than that. it's more about the teet.
I think it's all bigger than that. it's more about the teet.
Reply
0
0
07-17-2018, 09:14 AM
Boost Czar
Thread Starter
iTrader: (62)
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Chantilly, VA
Posts: 79,493
Total Cats: 4,080
tolerant left alert:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e...tion-f0f5njjrd
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e...tion-f0f5njjrd
Sir Christopher Meyer, the former ambassador to the US, is in hospital after two youths attacked him at Victoria station in London yesterday afternoon.
Sir Christopher, 74, was left with injuries to his left eye, nose and lip after the assault. His wife, Baroness Meyer, said that he was taking the Tube home when he was attacked.
“He looks terrible. His left eye is like a golf ball and bleeding, the nose looks like it could be broken,” she said.
...
Sir Christopher, 74, was left with injuries to his left eye, nose and lip after the assault. His wife, Baroness Meyer, said that he was taking the Tube home when he was attacked.
“He looks terrible. His left eye is like a golf ball and bleeding, the nose looks like it could be broken,” she said.
...
Reply
0
0
07-17-2018, 09:20 AM
Boost Czar
Thread Starter
iTrader: (62)
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Chantilly, VA
Posts: 79,493
Total Cats: 4,080
because collusion makes a good distraction, bro.
OBAMA: Governor Romney, I'm glad that you recognize that Al Qaida is a threat, because a few months ago when you were asked what's the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia, not Al Qaida; you said Russia, in the 1980s, they're now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War's been over for 20 years.
But Governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s.
You say that you're not interested in duplicating what happened in Iraq. But just a few weeks ago, you said you think we should have more troops in Iraq right now. And the -- the challenge we have -- I know you haven't been in a position to actually execute foreign policy -- but every time you've offered an opinion, you've been wrong. You said we should have gone into Iraq, despite that fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction.
You said that we should still have troops in Iraq to this day. You indicated that we shouldn't be passing nuclear treaties with Russia despite the fact that 71 senators, Democrats and Republicans, voted for it. You said that, first, we should not have a timeline in Afghanistan. Then you said we should. Now you say maybe or it depends, which means not only were you wrong, but you were also confusing in sending mixed messages both to our troops and our allies.
But Governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s.
You say that you're not interested in duplicating what happened in Iraq. But just a few weeks ago, you said you think we should have more troops in Iraq right now. And the -- the challenge we have -- I know you haven't been in a position to actually execute foreign policy -- but every time you've offered an opinion, you've been wrong. You said we should have gone into Iraq, despite that fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction.
You said that we should still have troops in Iraq to this day. You indicated that we shouldn't be passing nuclear treaties with Russia despite the fact that 71 senators, Democrats and Republicans, voted for it. You said that, first, we should not have a timeline in Afghanistan. Then you said we should. Now you say maybe or it depends, which means not only were you wrong, but you were also confusing in sending mixed messages both to our troops and our allies.
Reply
0
0
07-17-2018, 09:30 AM
Boost Czar
Thread Starter
iTrader: (62)
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Chantilly, VA
Posts: 79,493
Total Cats: 4,080
when you let city dwellers do their blue-state thing:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...wed/744741002/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...wed/744741002/
BALTIMORE – Just before a wave of violence turned Baltimore into the nation’s deadliest big city, a curious thing happened to its police force: officers suddenly seemed to stop noticing crime.
Police officers reported seeing fewer drug dealers on street corners. They encountered fewer people who had open arrest warrants.
Police questioned fewer people on the street. They stopped fewer cars.
...
The surge of shootings and killings that followed has left Baltimore easily the deadliest large city in the United States. Its murder rate reached an all-time high last year; 342 people were killed. The number of shootings in some neighborhoods has more than tripled. One man was shot to death steps from a police station. Another was killed driving in a funeral procession.
...
“Immediately upon the riot, policing changed in Baltimore, and it changed very dramatically,” says Donald Norris, an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, who reviewed USA TODAY's analysis. “The outcome of that change in policing has been a lot more crime in Baltimore, especially murders, and people are getting away with those murders.”
Police officials acknowledge the change. "In all candor, officers are not as aggressive as they once were, pre-2015. It’s just that fact," says acting Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle, who took command of Baltimore's police force in May.
Tuggle blames a shortage of patrol officers and the fallout from a blistering 2016 Justice Department investigation that found the city's police regularly violated residents' constitutional rights and prompted new limits on how officers there carry out what had once been routine parts of their job. At the same time, he says, police have focused more of their energy on gun crime and less on smaller infractions.
"We don’t want officers going out, grabbing people out of corners, beating them up and putting them in jail," Tuggle says. "We want officers engaging folks at every level. And if somebody needs to be arrested, arrest them. But we also want officers to be smart about how they do that."
The change has left a perception among some police officers that people in the city are free to do as they please. And among criminals, says Mahogany Gaines, whose brother, Dontais, was found shot to death inside his apartment in October.
“These people don’t realize that you’re leaving people fatherless and motherless,” Gaines says. “I feel like they think they’re untouchable.”
...
Police officers reported seeing fewer drug dealers on street corners. They encountered fewer people who had open arrest warrants.
Police questioned fewer people on the street. They stopped fewer cars.
...
The surge of shootings and killings that followed has left Baltimore easily the deadliest large city in the United States. Its murder rate reached an all-time high last year; 342 people were killed. The number of shootings in some neighborhoods has more than tripled. One man was shot to death steps from a police station. Another was killed driving in a funeral procession.
...
“Immediately upon the riot, policing changed in Baltimore, and it changed very dramatically,” says Donald Norris, an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, who reviewed USA TODAY's analysis. “The outcome of that change in policing has been a lot more crime in Baltimore, especially murders, and people are getting away with those murders.”
Police officials acknowledge the change. "In all candor, officers are not as aggressive as they once were, pre-2015. It’s just that fact," says acting Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle, who took command of Baltimore's police force in May.
Tuggle blames a shortage of patrol officers and the fallout from a blistering 2016 Justice Department investigation that found the city's police regularly violated residents' constitutional rights and prompted new limits on how officers there carry out what had once been routine parts of their job. At the same time, he says, police have focused more of their energy on gun crime and less on smaller infractions.
"We don’t want officers going out, grabbing people out of corners, beating them up and putting them in jail," Tuggle says. "We want officers engaging folks at every level. And if somebody needs to be arrested, arrest them. But we also want officers to be smart about how they do that."
The change has left a perception among some police officers that people in the city are free to do as they please. And among criminals, says Mahogany Gaines, whose brother, Dontais, was found shot to death inside his apartment in October.
“These people don’t realize that you’re leaving people fatherless and motherless,” Gaines says. “I feel like they think they’re untouchable.”
...
Reply
0
0
07-17-2018, 11:49 AM
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,026
Total Cats: 6,592
When Russians are doing more to protect the US constitution than most Americans:
Maria Butina, Russian gun-rights advocate who sought to build ties with NRA, charged with acting as a covert Russian agent
by Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Jackman and Devlin Barrett July 16 at 8:46 PM Email the author
A Russian woman with ties to a senior Russian government official was charged in Washington on Monday with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation, including by building ties to the leadership of the National Rifle Association and other conservative political organizations.
Maria Butina, 29, who recently received a graduate degree from American University, was arrested Sunday in the District and made her first appearance in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson, where she was ordered held without bond.
Butina is accused of trying to cultivate relationships with American politicians to establish “back channel” lines of communication and seeking to infiltrate U.S. political groups, including an unnamed “gun rights organization,” to advance Russia’s agenda. Descriptions in court papers match published reports about Butina’s interactions with the NRA.
The case, which is not part of the special counsel investigation into Russian interference, lays out the strongest allegations to date of American involvement in Russia’s influence operations.
Butina was allegedly assisted in her efforts by a U.S. political operative who helped introduce her to influential political figures. That person was not charged and is not named in court papers, but the description matches that of Paul Erickson, a GOP consultant who sought to organize a meeting between then-candidate Donald Trump and Alexander Torshin, Butina’s Russian colleague and a former Russian senator, at a May 2016 NRA convention.
NRA officials and Erickson did not respond to requests for comment.
Butina’s attorney, Robert Neil Driscoll, denied that she is a Russian agent and said she was merely networking to develop relationships with Americans.
He told the judge that she had testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed session several months ago and had offered before her arrest to cooperate with the government.
Butina did not speak during the brief hearing, other than to state her name. A detention hearing and preliminary hearing were set for Wednesday.
The Russian Embassy said in a statement to the Interfax News Agency that it is “seeking consular access” to Butina “with the aim of defending her legal rights.”
A former furniture store owner from Siberia and gun-rights activist, Butina was the first to publicly quiz President Trump about his views on Russia when she asked him a question at a town hall in July 2015.
She also briefly met Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, at the NRA convention in May 2016, according to a person familiar with the encounter.
Court filings do not mention her interactions with Trump and his son, but do recount Butina’s other contacts regarding the NRA convention and the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual event attended by government and political leaders in Washington. Erickson sought to arrange a meeting for Torshin with Trump at the February 2017 breakfast, according to a person familiar with the event.
After attending the event with a large Russian delegation, Butina wrote to an organizer to offer “important information for you to further this new relationship” with Russia, according to court filings. The nature of the information is not described.
The charges against Butina were announced days after the Justice Department unveiled an indictment against 12 Russian intelligence officers for allegedly conspiring to hack Democrats in 2016 and just hours after Trump cast doubt on Russia’s involvement in an extraordinary joint news conference with President Vladi-mir Putin.
Over the weekend, law enforcement officials became increasingly concerned that Butina appeared to be planning to leave the Washington area, according to people familiar with the matter. Investigators were concerned such a trip could pose operational challenges for their work and decided to make an arrest, these people said.
Although special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is aware of the details of the Butina case, the investigative work began before he was appointed to that job, and it has continued to be handled by federal agents and prosecutors outside of his office, these people said.
In an affidavit filed with the court, FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson outlined a two-year alleged effort by Butina to penetrate and influence the U.S. political system for Russia’s benefit by building ties to the American conservative movement.
Butina’s efforts in the United States came as a number of Republicans began rethinking the party’s traditional hostility to Russia, forming new bonds with Putin’s government around conservative social views on religion and same-sex marriage. That shift culminated with the November 2016 election of Trump, who had argued throughout his campaign that the United States should seek warmer relations with Russia.
As early as March 2015, Butina emailed the American political operative about her belief that the Republican Party would likely win the White House in 2016, according to court papers. She proposed a special project to use the NRA to build relations with the GOP.
She wrote that “the resulting status needs to be strengthened” before the 2016 election and asked for a $125,000 budget to help her attend “all upcoming major conferences” of the Republican Party.
According to the affidavit, the FBI found evidence on Butina’s computer that she kept an unnamed Russian official closely apprised of her activities. Descriptions of the official in the complaint match Torshin, a Russian central banker who has also built ties with the NRA.
In one March 2016 email to an unnamed American, Butina described Torshin’s “desire in our Russian-American project” and indicated that a Putin representative had expressed support “for building this communication channel.”
Butina began reaching out to NRA members and other American gun enthusiasts in 2013 and hosted delegations of NRA executives and gun activists in Moscow. She and Torshin also attended a series of NRA events in the United States starting in 2014.
In June 2015, as Trump announced his candidacy, Butina wrote a column in the National Interest, a conservative U.S. magazine, suggesting that only by electing a Republican could the United States and Russia hope to improve relations.
The next month at FreedomFest, a libertarian political event in Las Vegas, she asked Trump at a public event: “What will be your foreign politics, especially in the relations with my country?”
“I know Putin and I’ll tell you what, we get along with Putin,” Trump responded, in the first of his many campaign statements about his desire to build better ties with Russia.
Butina told The Washington Post in April 2017 that her question to Trump was “happenstance” and that she has never been an employee of the Russian government.
Butina also attended an NRA convention in May 2016, where Erickson worked to get Torshin a meeting with Trump. In an email to the campaign, Erickson referred to Torshin as “Putin’s emissary” in an effort to improve relations with the United States, The Post and other media organizations previously reported.
The meeting did not happen, but Torshin had an interaction at the event with Trump Jr., who has said it was brief and not memorable. Trump Jr. also interacted with a woman described as Torshin’s assistant who he later came to believe was Butina, according to a person with knowledge of the episode.
Butina also accompanied Erickson to Trump’s inauguration, one of a number of Russians who attended the festivities and toasted to better relations between Russia and the United States.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...b0b_story.html
Maria Butina, Russian gun-rights advocate who sought to build ties with NRA, charged with acting as a covert Russian agent
by Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Jackman and Devlin Barrett July 16 at 8:46 PM Email the author
A Russian woman with ties to a senior Russian government official was charged in Washington on Monday with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation, including by building ties to the leadership of the National Rifle Association and other conservative political organizations.
Maria Butina, 29, who recently received a graduate degree from American University, was arrested Sunday in the District and made her first appearance in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson, where she was ordered held without bond.
Butina is accused of trying to cultivate relationships with American politicians to establish “back channel” lines of communication and seeking to infiltrate U.S. political groups, including an unnamed “gun rights organization,” to advance Russia’s agenda. Descriptions in court papers match published reports about Butina’s interactions with the NRA.
The case, which is not part of the special counsel investigation into Russian interference, lays out the strongest allegations to date of American involvement in Russia’s influence operations.
Butina was allegedly assisted in her efforts by a U.S. political operative who helped introduce her to influential political figures. That person was not charged and is not named in court papers, but the description matches that of Paul Erickson, a GOP consultant who sought to organize a meeting between then-candidate Donald Trump and Alexander Torshin, Butina’s Russian colleague and a former Russian senator, at a May 2016 NRA convention.
NRA officials and Erickson did not respond to requests for comment.
Butina’s attorney, Robert Neil Driscoll, denied that she is a Russian agent and said she was merely networking to develop relationships with Americans.
He told the judge that she had testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed session several months ago and had offered before her arrest to cooperate with the government.
Butina did not speak during the brief hearing, other than to state her name. A detention hearing and preliminary hearing were set for Wednesday.
The Russian Embassy said in a statement to the Interfax News Agency that it is “seeking consular access” to Butina “with the aim of defending her legal rights.”
A former furniture store owner from Siberia and gun-rights activist, Butina was the first to publicly quiz President Trump about his views on Russia when she asked him a question at a town hall in July 2015.
She also briefly met Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, at the NRA convention in May 2016, according to a person familiar with the encounter.
Court filings do not mention her interactions with Trump and his son, but do recount Butina’s other contacts regarding the NRA convention and the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual event attended by government and political leaders in Washington. Erickson sought to arrange a meeting for Torshin with Trump at the February 2017 breakfast, according to a person familiar with the event.
After attending the event with a large Russian delegation, Butina wrote to an organizer to offer “important information for you to further this new relationship” with Russia, according to court filings. The nature of the information is not described.
The charges against Butina were announced days after the Justice Department unveiled an indictment against 12 Russian intelligence officers for allegedly conspiring to hack Democrats in 2016 and just hours after Trump cast doubt on Russia’s involvement in an extraordinary joint news conference with President Vladi-mir Putin.
Over the weekend, law enforcement officials became increasingly concerned that Butina appeared to be planning to leave the Washington area, according to people familiar with the matter. Investigators were concerned such a trip could pose operational challenges for their work and decided to make an arrest, these people said.
Although special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is aware of the details of the Butina case, the investigative work began before he was appointed to that job, and it has continued to be handled by federal agents and prosecutors outside of his office, these people said.
In an affidavit filed with the court, FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson outlined a two-year alleged effort by Butina to penetrate and influence the U.S. political system for Russia’s benefit by building ties to the American conservative movement.
Butina’s efforts in the United States came as a number of Republicans began rethinking the party’s traditional hostility to Russia, forming new bonds with Putin’s government around conservative social views on religion and same-sex marriage. That shift culminated with the November 2016 election of Trump, who had argued throughout his campaign that the United States should seek warmer relations with Russia.
As early as March 2015, Butina emailed the American political operative about her belief that the Republican Party would likely win the White House in 2016, according to court papers. She proposed a special project to use the NRA to build relations with the GOP.
She wrote that “the resulting status needs to be strengthened” before the 2016 election and asked for a $125,000 budget to help her attend “all upcoming major conferences” of the Republican Party.
According to the affidavit, the FBI found evidence on Butina’s computer that she kept an unnamed Russian official closely apprised of her activities. Descriptions of the official in the complaint match Torshin, a Russian central banker who has also built ties with the NRA.
In one March 2016 email to an unnamed American, Butina described Torshin’s “desire in our Russian-American project” and indicated that a Putin representative had expressed support “for building this communication channel.”
Butina began reaching out to NRA members and other American gun enthusiasts in 2013 and hosted delegations of NRA executives and gun activists in Moscow. She and Torshin also attended a series of NRA events in the United States starting in 2014.
In June 2015, as Trump announced his candidacy, Butina wrote a column in the National Interest, a conservative U.S. magazine, suggesting that only by electing a Republican could the United States and Russia hope to improve relations.
The next month at FreedomFest, a libertarian political event in Las Vegas, she asked Trump at a public event: “What will be your foreign politics, especially in the relations with my country?”
“I know Putin and I’ll tell you what, we get along with Putin,” Trump responded, in the first of his many campaign statements about his desire to build better ties with Russia.
Butina told The Washington Post in April 2017 that her question to Trump was “happenstance” and that she has never been an employee of the Russian government.
Butina also attended an NRA convention in May 2016, where Erickson worked to get Torshin a meeting with Trump. In an email to the campaign, Erickson referred to Torshin as “Putin’s emissary” in an effort to improve relations with the United States, The Post and other media organizations previously reported.
The meeting did not happen, but Torshin had an interaction at the event with Trump Jr., who has said it was brief and not memorable. Trump Jr. also interacted with a woman described as Torshin’s assistant who he later came to believe was Butina, according to a person with knowledge of the episode.
Butina also accompanied Erickson to Trump’s inauguration, one of a number of Russians who attended the festivities and toasted to better relations between Russia and the United States.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...b0b_story.html
Reply
0
0
07-17-2018, 01:37 PM
Moderator
iTrader: (12)
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Tampa, Florida
Posts: 20,652
Total Cats: 3,011
So let me get this straight. The leftist journalists are more worried about an American university student wanting to build relationships with politically active organizations than a US Secretary of State taking actual BRIBES to sell nuclear bomb making materials to the same country?
How odd.
How odd.
Reply
0
0
07-17-2018, 02:12 PM
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2018
Posts: 288
Total Cats: 38
What do y'all think about Trump believing Putin over your purple heart recipient conservative republican ex-FBI director?
Several other countries have implicated Russia in meddling with elections (in case you don't trust your own agencies) and it seems they have a knack for disinformation, e.g.:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cozy_Bear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fancy_Bear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malays...ines_Flight_17
Over the internet I see a lot of Trump supporters trying to deflect this by saying it happened during the Obama administration or deflecting it to Hillary. But even if those are complicit or partially to blame - how can you accept not condemning Russia? I'm a bit baffled.
Several other countries have implicated Russia in meddling with elections (in case you don't trust your own agencies) and it seems they have a knack for disinformation, e.g.:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cozy_Bear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fancy_Bear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malays...ines_Flight_17
Over the internet I see a lot of Trump supporters trying to deflect this by saying it happened during the Obama administration or deflecting it to Hillary. But even if those are complicit or partially to blame - how can you accept not condemning Russia? I'm a bit baffled.
Reply
0
0
07-17-2018, 04:33 PM
I don't "love" my job, though I am very pleased with it. I find my job to be moderately entertaining, relatively rewarding, and relatively stress-free while at the same time everyone around me seems to think that I'm exceptionally good at what I do. Much of the time while I am at work, my mind wanders through silly questions and tries to solve relatively meaningless problems which don't tend to impact my job.
I suppose I can see the potential lure to living in the city. I do actually own a home within the city and thoroughly enjoy my 15 minute commute and relative proximity to all of the necessities and desireables. I'm currently in the market for a home and I suppose I don't see the appeal of buying a stereotypical suburb home over continuing to live in my home in the city - compared to my current living situation, the only thing that I would gain by doing so would be a longer (and far more painful) commute.
Still, I do desire to live outside of the city. Columbus, OH is fortunately not yet what anyone would consider a "large metropolitan area", but rather it's what I consider a "small city". At about 20 minutes outside of the city, you are passing through the heart of most of our suburbs, and at 30 minutes in any direction you're passing large swaths of farmland with north-northwest being perhaps the notable exception.
As it stands, my lifestyle desires are a nice home on a large parcel of land - somewhere between 30 and 100 acres - which is a relatively available land size in my price range at about the 45-minute mark of a commute. Effectively the antithesis of city living, I want to be able to **** off of my back deck, own a 2-5 acre fishing pond, cut running/biking/4-wheeler trails, and thoroughly enjoy the complete lack of interaction with other people while I'm at home.
Depending on how you look at it, I'll be able to retire in <4 years at age 37 or <9 years at age 42. In my next life, I think I desire to be an engineer of some sort (hydrological engineering has always been super appealing) or an economic analyst. Both sound like they could be lovable second careers for me.
I suppose I can see the potential lure to living in the city. I do actually own a home within the city and thoroughly enjoy my 15 minute commute and relative proximity to all of the necessities and desireables. I'm currently in the market for a home and I suppose I don't see the appeal of buying a stereotypical suburb home over continuing to live in my home in the city - compared to my current living situation, the only thing that I would gain by doing so would be a longer (and far more painful) commute.
Still, I do desire to live outside of the city. Columbus, OH is fortunately not yet what anyone would consider a "large metropolitan area", but rather it's what I consider a "small city". At about 20 minutes outside of the city, you are passing through the heart of most of our suburbs, and at 30 minutes in any direction you're passing large swaths of farmland with north-northwest being perhaps the notable exception.
As it stands, my lifestyle desires are a nice home on a large parcel of land - somewhere between 30 and 100 acres - which is a relatively available land size in my price range at about the 45-minute mark of a commute. Effectively the antithesis of city living, I want to be able to **** off of my back deck, own a 2-5 acre fishing pond, cut running/biking/4-wheeler trails, and thoroughly enjoy the complete lack of interaction with other people while I'm at home.
Depending on how you look at it, I'll be able to retire in <4 years at age 37 or <9 years at age 42. In my next life, I think I desire to be an engineer of some sort (hydrological engineering has always been super appealing) or an economic analyst. Both sound like they could be lovable second careers for me.
Reply
0
0
07-17-2018, 04:41 PM
I appreciate the sentiment, but it doesn't really answer why regions which have higher-than-average levels of employment and higher-than-averages wages tend to skew blue. Quite the opposite, really.
Seattle, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, San Diego, Dallas, Houston, Boston, Denver, the list goes on. I'm sure there may be an outlier or two, but thus far every city in the US I've checked which has continuously ranked highly in GDP and education for any length of time, and is the home of significant industry and commerce, also tends to be in a blue area of that map.
Seattle, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, San Diego, Dallas, Houston, Boston, Denver, the list goes on. I'm sure there may be an outlier or two, but thus far every city in the US I've checked which has continuously ranked highly in GDP and education for any length of time, and is the home of significant industry and commerce, also tends to be in a blue area of that map.
Reply
0
0
