Youtube comments of (@ronjon7942).

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  29. My wife and I did the Kaibab down and back, was a rough 13 hrs. She’s an ER nurse, so she was pretty sure we were gonna be prepared. I knew we could water up at Phantom Ranch, but made sure we had enough water on our own for down and back…I carried 5gal and Jodi carried 3. It was only about 100deg at the bottom, but we still drank a lot. Jodi’s secret weapon was to bring a bunch of those plastic wrapped dill pickles and brine - which under normal circumstances are SALTY! But we drank so much and dry sweat so much, when we took our packs off, I was stunned the inside of the packs were completely white with our salt. I drank that brine like it was pure water, the salt tasted SO good. In retrospect, Jodi saved us from some unhealthy consequences. We also had plenty of Clif Bars and electrolyte packets. We still had plenty of water for the hike back up, but we still filled up at the bottom, plus it was much cooler - by the time we reached the top, we were guided by a full moon - also because of Jodi’s planning. What was mind blowing was how il prepared so many people were. One guy stumbling on his way back up was delirious with heatstroke and dehydration - no food, and one 12oz bottled water bottle. We sat with him for an hour, getting him to shade, watered up, etc. and left him w a gallon of water. He was in the worst shape but we ran into several others that needed more water. The best, or worst, depending on your perspective, was running into a boyscout troop of 12 and two counselors who got ‘lost’ when their hike got extended 3 or 4 days…apparently, they intended to hike from the east somewhere, to the park at the South Rim by following the river. But they neglected to account for all the canyons that bisected the ‘edge’ which they had to walk around - this added the extra days. The boys were reasonably healthy, but ravenous and thirsty. They ate most of our power bars, drank a ton of water, then took off to get help. The two counselors were in rough shape - overweight, out of shape, dehydrated and hungry. Same routine - gave them some food, left them some water, made sure they were in the shade. Glad we over prepared. And it was a good thing Phantom Ranch had water. Also to note, forget about cell phones, they don’t work down in the canyon, are spotty at best on the North Rim, and nobody wants to see cell towers frakking up the view. Maybe walkie talkies are a better idea?? Also, stay the f on the trail. If you’re in trouble, hikers and Rangers will help, and the Rangers are trained to save you and manage your rescue. If they can see/find you. Next time, we’ll bring the same, but maybe a little less water. Instead, we’re bringing some IV bags with salts and electrolytes and more appropriate first aid supplies, as we ran into some sprained ankles and the like - prolly within the realm of possibility to run into head traumas and shock. Moral of the story? Don’t fuck with Arizona heat. It’s no joke.
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  314. Don't ask me, I'd keep everything! If one doesn't already exist, I'd recommend a department in, say, the Smithsonian be created for this task, although there's that risk they would lean towards my personal preference, as realistically untenable it is. It's awfully difficult to determine what future generations will consider historically significant, and it is for them we're preserving history for. There are so many examples of aircraft being demolished at Davis-Monthan that we wished were saved, as well as so many private industry's prototypes that were scrapped that a lot of us mourn over for not being preserved. Clearly, we're doing much better at preserving historically significant artifacts, the YF-23s being excellent examples. I completely understand the quandary NASA has with respect to the MLPS: where do we put them, who's going to fund the preservation, who is going to manage the upkeep and display? This is well outside of NASA's original charter and ought to be the purview of a department chartered for this task. Maybe the best decision would be to scrap much of this equipment, and perhaps a thorough 3D digital rendering placed in an online archive is sufficient. Maybe there is a process whereby the public can decide, or at least have an input (probably more realistic). As well as we as a nation are doing at preserving our past, it's dramatically obvious what a particular ideology is doing to either revision or erase America's history and legacy. A depressing example is of a third grader being asked to name a single president, and the only answer was George Washington; when asked what Washington is known for, the only response was that he was a slave owner. This example was from Elon Musk, asking a friend's child attending a public school. This is so wrong and so dangerous for this nation's future. Preserving artifacts is, no doubt, extremely important. Educating the young and old alike about the greatness, the not-so-great, and the abject failures of America is vital. The grand truth and the ugly truth must not be erased (or cancelled, the trendy far left term so popular today) or revised, or even swept under the rug, and the falsification of what happened should well be criminalized. This is important stuff. Kudos to Curious Droid for making a conversation about it.
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  342. ⁠ @Rubeless Maybe she did. But she’s changed her mind on that, her party affiliation, perhaps some other issues. She HAS changed her mind on a number of issues, but her core beliefs and principles have not - she was feared as an independent thinker while a Democrat. She did toe the line on a number of things, but she was independent enough where she probably would have been ejected from the party anyway. As she became completely Constitutional, and recognized the danger of the far left socialist marxists, she understands the importance of the Second Amendment. No one can argue she has gone ALL IN on her stance on core, traditional, American values and beliefs. And sure, she’ll likely use her platform and visibility for a key position in the next administration - God knows I HOPE she does! I don’t watch or listen to every episode she makes, but I have listened to her channel often, and have seen her be interviewed on several of the channels I’m subscribed to. She is, as far as I can tell, completely consistent with her messages and completely open about her core values and beliefs. And also so far as I can tell, they align with The Constitution and its Amendments - especially The Bill of Rights - as well as the spirit and intent of Our Founding Fathers. But remember, she struck out on her own completely against this current system and culture of corruption and incompetence and totalitarianism. She has been canceled severely and threatened seriously, along with her family. I don’t think I would have her courage. But I definitely would follow her leadership, even in battle if it came to that. I’ve chosen to believe her. And in her.
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  429. That’s really doubtful - we certainly have done alright heading off global wars, but except for the oldest among us, global warfare is completely out of our realm of experience. I’m assuming (forgive me if I’m incorrect presuming here) you’re referring to regional conflicts, but the little I know of history seems to suggest America’s worldwide involvement has reduced conflict. If we’re involved in 95% of worldwide conflict, it’s because we’re involved in 100% of, well, everything, so it’s not really fair to assign blame. Stay with me here a second…. Per capita, the world has never known as much peace as it has right now, even if millions more now than any other time in history are suffering. Population has dramatically increased in large part due to positive American (and European) factors, and capitalism and energy has raised more people out of the worst abject poverty than ever. Given the history of human violence in history, when populations were a mere fraction of what they were AND in the absence of a world superpower, it stands to reason that in the absence of the United States’ stabilizing force but with today’s extreme population, regional and global warfare and violence would surge to unprecedented levels. At least, that’s what we good American, democratic, capitalists are taught to believe. I don’t know, maybe you’re right, and we’re making things worse, or have made things worse by ‘meddling.’ But when I look to regions where the United States, democracy , and capitalism have less influence, such as China, parts of Asia, Africa, Russia, Muslim Middle East, and parts of Europe, it seems like violence, misery, extreme poverty, and lack of personal freedom are the rule.
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  441. I think I understand how it may seem that way (or you may have a dark witticism I can relate to), with 1,415 sailors of the Hood gone in three minutes. I wrote an OP on this episode about relating to their terror, with humility, in a very small way. But not all ships sunk had close to that number of crew. Plus, even ships that sunk tended to have large numbers of survivors, picked up even by the enemy - with gruesome exceptions, though few in number. The attrition of airmen was, as you point out, enormous; but not infinite. Even though an infantryman in the trenches of WWI had a slightly better chance at survival than a crewman in the RAF Bomber Command, 55,000 airmen were killed - again, an enormous number, but not infinite. German attacks against the UK resulted in around 70,000 civilians killed - not a low number, certainly - but perhaps lower than expected when compared to the civilian casualties of the Axis, Russia, China… I’m not versed in ground warfare statistics, so I won’t embarrass myself…hopefully not further. Liberty ships had a lot of losses until the u-boat threat was nullified. The design type numbered 2,710 constructed, with around 300 sunk; but they had small crews, totaling between 10 and 15. Some were troop carriers, holding up to 550 soldiers - I don’t know how many of these, if any, were sunk. A lot of men died in these convoys, to be sure, but many were rescued because of said convoys. Total RAF Bomber Command casualty numbers were around 75,000, with over 55,000 killed. Bomber Command lost 8,325 aircraft of all types, on strike missions. USAAF (that is, ALL aircraft) suffered around 90,000 casualty deaths, with the entire US Army (Army and Army Air Force) suffering 936,000 casualties, around 295,000 dead. Around 44,000 aircraft of all types were lost overseas - interestingly, around 22,000 aircraft were lost within the continental United States; hopefully the casualty count was low. We and the UK had a lot of casualties, to be sure, and sure, there are some coverups that crop up, but in general, the US and UK statistics are considered reliable, primary sources. Since the stat’s most important and immediate use was for determining tactical and strategic factors, it’s considered almost silly to imagine they’ve been intentionally falsified. Our losses pale in comparison to Russia, Germany, Italy, China, and Japan, yes, but those numbers are out of scope for this comment - but mentioned out of respect for the dead. Sorry, this got long and convoluted, but this was a good casualty refresher as I went back and forth between this reply and source material - and a reminder to be thankful for those who made the greatest sacrifice.
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  545. I’d say we achieved parity w the Soviets in the early 60s, when our rockets stopped blowing up seemingly every other launch. But we left the Soviets in the dust in 66, the year Korolev died; the USSR then had problems after problems, culminating in the series of N1 failures, including the horrific N1 explosion on the launch pad that killed under three hundred people. The Soviets could never regain their momentum following the loss of Korolev, whereas the US was finding its stride, and everything started coming together - with, of course, the Apollo 1 tragedy, that could have knocked us off the rails. Because NASA was wide open to the American public, and the Soviets were generally secretive about everything except for their successful missions, keeping American morale up during NASA’s rough patches was tough. This was further exacerbated by the American public only hearing of the USSR’s triumphs. But after Yeltsin and Gorbachev, we learned the Soviets had more than their share of problems, although this doesn’t diminish the significance of their successes and big wins - no matter what, the Soviets will always and forever have that coveted ‘first to space’ record. I think it says a lot about the spirit and drive of the Americans of that generation to persevere under the failure circumstances of NASA’s early Space Race history, as well as persevere in the face and fear of the perceived notion that the Soviets were unstoppable. We could have just folded, given up, acknowledging space flight as too dangerous, difficult, and expensive. We didn’t. That generation had intense belief in the excellence of American technology, and a hard fought for pride in our nation, our democracy, and our way of life.
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  572. Was it a wear strip or a shim that departed the DC-10? I’m guessing the wear strip. And what was it about the strip that wasn’t done in accordance with the manufacture’s guidelines? Type of alloy? Type and number of fasteners? Drilled 37 times?!?! That’s a lot of holes spaced way too close together, making for a severely weakened strap. However, the piece that eventually impacted the Concorde looks like the spacing and number of fasteners was proper - does anyone think it was the underlying metal the strip was riveted to? In addition to far too many drilled holes, perhaps the holes were too large to secure the bucked side of the rivets, allowing it to fall off eventually. The strip to the left looks like structural blind rivets, maybe Cherries?, were also used - I could see where the holes would be too large for the rivet’s expansion on the blind side. Maybe their landing was hard, the shock being enough to escape from the barely sufficient fasteners…. If 32:30 is of the actual DC-10, it may have been time to remove and replace that piece of angled structure, the piece of rounded channel the strap was fastened to, instead of just the strap. I’m still puzzled as to how the strip fell off; perhaps countersunk screws in addition to rivets might have led to something more airworthy, and a better outcome. And then there are the wear strips adjacent to the missing strip; Petter mentions one (the ‘lower’ in the photograph?) being too long, but it looks like the ‘upper’ is as well. I’m not sure either would’ve been a contributor, especially if the airline simply cut an appropriately sized piece of sheet metal and made their own strip. Maybe they did actually use a part numbered strip from McDonnell Douglas, but surely a technician would have filed the ends to fit. I’m just not seeing how the lengths would have contributed unless there was something seriously incorrect with the fasteners. It would be interesting to read the litigation papers and associated maintenance paperwork, along with the investigation report. Does anyone know if France makes their results public like the NTSB does? Edit: I learned from a different video it was a titanium strip (I now recall MentourPilot mentioned this) from the thrust reverser area. Whilst I’m not certain of the exact location or its function, I originally thought it was somewhere in the engine cowling region and was a piece of aluminum. Upon learning it was related to the thrust reverser and may be a wear strip for moving metal-on-metal contact, not replacing the piece with the 37 (rather than 12) holes seems to me to be poor inspection and maintenance practices were in place. The fact the strip was replaced a second time without addressing the part beneath points to a disappointing lack of attention to proper maintenance and safety. Interestingly, this video interviewed a former English Concorde pilot who cited 32 “reliable witnesses” who testified the smoke and/or fire started well before the tire struck the piece of titanium…
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  689. I’m a right of center moderate…also known as a classical conservative. I love classical liberals; my best friends are classical liberals - well, over half are - the remainder are classical conservatives, independents, and even a fair number of libertarians. America was built, managed, and protected by both classical conservatives and liberals, independents, and libertarians. Of course, those on the spectrum further right and left definitely had and have their roles as well, but were still guided by their more fundamental perspectives of the Constitution and Democracy. The Republican Party’s a bit of a mess, but it seems to be coming together in a way that will matter in 2024. We need work, for sure, but that’s not the topic at the moment. The Democrat Part, though, has been successfully, and even brilliantly (to give grudging respect to the hijackers’ strategy) hijacked by the far left extremist socialist stalinists. And the poor left of center moderates don’t know where they belong and who to vote for. Because the current administration, which is thoroughly controlled by a corrupt and socialist machine, no longer represents and respects their values, beliefs, and democratic principles. They almost can’t vote Republican because they probably would vomit to associate with the far right - heck, I feel the same, sometimes - and they probably are also hesitant to associate with MAGA Republicans. Can’t really blame them. But they’re also jammed up with voting Democrat this election, because this Democrat Party is no longer THEIR Democrat Party. It’s gone, STOLEN. So what do they do? How are they supposed to vote? Like a man without a country, they’re about half the population of America without a party! What’s going to happen? Do they split the party, and become “The Reformed Democrat Party?” Do they initiate a party COUP to take control of the Democrat Party, and KICK OUT the socialists? Will the socialists break from the party on their own and create a new Socialist Party? (I cringe at capitalizing ‘socialist party’) Can and will all the Classical Democrats, that other half the entire population, protest against the radical socialists and break with the current Democrat Party, and vote Republican, just for this election? Then work to rebuild their party, cutting out the cancer that’s literally killing our democracy? (Disclaimer: I don’t consider MAGA only the far right or the extreme right. At the moment, I feel it includes all Trump supporters, those favoring his Populist sentiment, and us right-of-center moderates. I hope it can and will include centrists, independents, libertarians, and especially the classical liberals. So if it will get Trump elected, sure, call me MAGA. Whatever; just win the frakking election.)
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  792. My reply to a comment; also to those who may vote for Trump, despite Gov. DeSantis being the superior candidate: Well put. If Trump really cared for our country instead of himself, letting his ego drive him to get even w Biden, plus getting his pathological need for attention satiated, he would step down and get out of the way of Gov. DeSantis. The best thing for the country would be for Trump to step down and throw all his support, and supporters, into Gov. DeSantis' campaign. Governor DeSantis is so far beyond Trump in so many ways, and Trump is so far out of the league of the Governor, it would be an absolute travesty were he not elected our next president. But Trump being for himself first, and always, he'll continue to run, steal votes from Gov. DeSantis' campaign, thereby gift wrapping the election to President Biden; four more years handed to the left, four more years to drag our country into the gutter. Governor DeSantis is a patriot in the truest sense of the word, and I believe he'll always do what's best for America, get things done, be fiscally responsible, and make sure our government gets back to work running this country instead of Congress just going round and round with this stupid, childlike display of political infighting. Also, Gov. DeSantis has something Trump will never have: integrity. I'm so disgusted having to vote for the least worst candidate; I detest Trump as a person and was embarrassed he was elected our leader, and I literally felt dirty and sickened voting for him just to keep Hillary and then President Biden out. I will gladly vote for Gov. DeSantis because he is the best candidate we could ever hope for, maybe the best since President Reagan. He is a good man, and when I cast my ballot it will be for an American hero.
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  885. Well, it happened to Spain and parts of France, so imagining a super strong muslim country in Europe isn’t hard - one simply has to open a history book. As far as forcefully taking land and homes from Palestine, it cuts both ways. Israel was driven from the Holy Land, their homeland, and given the historical significance of the land and the Jews, I respect their claim to it as the most valid. Finally, the UN assigned the land to Israel, which was barren wasteland the Israeli’s cultivated and made bountiful. What little was occupied was done so my squatters without any legal deed to it; essentially nomads pitching a tent in the middle of nowhere, nationless and stateless, little more than random tribes with no legal standing of even a city state. From anyone’s point of view, the patch of wasteland they picked to sleep on is no different than any other - with the exception that the land they’ve been given could be fertile if only they would choose to make it so. But their priority isn’t to elevate their culture into something better than subsistence farming or requiring handouts and food, water and construction materials to be shipped in; their priority is death. As far as conquering civilizations go, Israel was one of the most accommodating. The rule is to eradicate the original inhabitants, or at best, enslaving them. Israel did neither, and goes so far as to extend citizenship to any Palestinian that wishes to move to Israel, in addition to providing significant areas of Israeli territory as sovereign Palestinian territory. And while Israel has, simce 1948, been attacked and had overcome the various muslim invaders, from Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran, not to mention terror strikes and rocket attacks on its civilian population, and Iran-funded terrorist organizations operating within Israel’s borders - at this point in time, Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel still honored her pledge to provide territories to the Palestinians. The same Palestinians who train and indoctrinate their children, at home and at school, that their responsibility and duty as muslim is to drive Israel into the sea, killing every Jew. But when Palestine’s stated and reiterated goal is revealed, both by word and action, as existing only to bring the destruction of Israel and death to every Jew, don’t get upset when Israel has to make frequent raids to either defend herself, or do so preemptively. The Palestinians are given every opportunity, by Israel as well as America, to forge a self sufficient, productive, legitimate, and respectable government and nation, yet they squander this away, instead building ‘terror tunnels’ and hoarding vast amounts of weaponry. Money given to them by the international community to be used for food, medicine, infrastructure (NOT tunnels - those are weaponized constructs with no practical purpose except to kill), hospitals, shelters, desalination facilities, schools, homes, and education in order to learn to become a self sufficient, productive, and prosperous people - the money is instead diverted from these quality of life projects into funding their regime of hate and death.
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  961. I’m a right of center moderate…also known as a classical conservative. I love classical liberals; my best friends are classical liberals - well, over half are - the remainder are classical conservatives, independents, and even a fair number of libertarians. America was built, managed, and protected by both classical conservatives and liberals, independents, and libertarians. Of course, those on the spectrum further right and left definitely had and have their roles as well, but were still guided by their more fundamental perspectives of the Constitution and Democracy. The Republican Party’s a bit of a mess, but it seems to be coming together in a way that will matter in 2024. We need work, for sure, but that’s not the topic at the moment. The Democrat Part, though, has been successfully, and even brilliantly (to give grudging respect to the hijackers’ strategy) hijacked by the far left extremist socialist stalinists. And the poor left of center moderates don’t know where they belong and who to vote for. Because the current administration, which is thoroughly controlled by a corrupt and socialist machine, no longer represents and respects their values, beliefs, and democratic principles. They almost can’t vote Republican because they probably would vomit to associate with the far right - heck, I feel the same, sometimes - and they probably are also hesitant to associate with MAGA Republicans. Can’t really blame them. But they’re also jammed up with voting Democrat this election, because this Democrat Party is no longer THEIR Democrat Party. It’s gone, STOLEN. So what do they do? How are they supposed to vote? Like a man without a country, they’re about half the population of America without a party! What’s going to happen? Do they split the party, and become “The Reformed Democrat Party?” Do they initiate a party COUP to take control of the Democrat Party, and KICK OUT the socialists? Will the socialists break from the party on their own and create a new Socialist Party? (I cringe at capitalizing ‘socialist party’) Can and will all the Classical Democrats, that other half the entire population, protest against the radical socialists and break with the current Democrat Party, and vote Republican, just for this election? Then work to rebuild their party, cutting out the cancer that’s literally killing our democracy? (Disclaimer: I don’t consider MAGA only the far right or the extreme right. At the moment, I feel it includes all Trump supporters, those favoring his Populist sentiment, and us right-of-center moderates. I hope it can and will include centrists, independents, libertarians, and especially the classical liberals. So if it will get Trump elected, sure, call me MAGA. Whatever; just win the frakking election.)
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  1325.  @jamesreynolds4487 I was disappointed, too, that she wasn’t selected - as a right-leaning centrist and a moderate, I find her very appealing. But after viewing a LOT of comments from brothers and sisters who align further to the right, there seems (just my opinion) to be a lot of mistrust of her - specifically her previous views on the 2A, and that she rejected the democrat party - at great political, professional, and especially personal, cost, I think. I’m guessing there’s a fear she’ll change her stance on the Second Amendment, or won’t be loyal to the Republican party. I’VE chosen to believe her, and accept her ‘enlightenment,’ but if she’s controversial to a large percentage of Trump’s base, it might be foolish to nominate her. Personally, I don’t think Trump would lose any votes from his base - they would all still align. But perhaps crucially, she could have swung a lot of women voters, as well as undecided conservatives and independents. He’d probably even gain a lot of ‘classical’ liberals - left-of-center moderates - who used to vote democrat but now feel their party abandoned them. Which it did. The democrat party has become so extremely far to the left, those people are technically Conservatives! They can’t really stand with the current administration, but still, they’ve been indoctrinated to hate Trump. They may find voting for him…somewhat distasteful…but having Tulsi Gabbard as his running mate may have made that acceptable in this unique situation they find our nation in.
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  1355. Rob, or Robby, you’re trying too hard to take the high road and meeting in the middle. Cbs is a far left media outlet bought and paid for by the last administration and its puppet masters. You know this. I know this. Everyone knows this. Your stance would make sense if cbs was a real news organization - but it’s not. It’s mandate is to promote and edit everything to favor the left, and to demonize Trump - same as the other ‘Club Left’ msm’s. Cbs has lost ALL credibility; I don’t even trust them to report the weather because they even spin that to support the climate narrative. Be careful who you associate your sympathies too, because your credibility will suffer from that association. This is the second time I’ve observed this from you. It would be one thing if cbs was totally above board and was being wrongly criticised, but they’re not. Please be careful. I suspect this may have been in response to you leaning pretty far right prior to the election and were directed to ‘even it out’ a little - which is fine. We don’t need another biased outlet, even one biased to the right. But in this case, you’re backing the wrong horse. Cbs airbrushed harris’ incompetence, it’s wrong, and we’re sick of the msm fawning all over people who, frankly, hate this country. Maybe take some cues from Victor Davis Hanson; eventually he’ll need someone to pass the torch to. I could see that being you…a long time in the future, but sure. You could do it. But, not like this.
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  1357. After the OpenAI news of Feb2023 and your excellent and timely episodes, Dagodo, a re-watch of your previous AI essays is a good rehash to look at these earlier perspectives with the benefit of hindsight. Good then, good now; you do good work, and I'll always choose your research over an AI's spin. I think when the excitement fades, AI will prove to be a major force for knowledge , good, and enterprise, (I especially can't wait to use it to learn programming Python!) but I think people will trust its accuracy the same way we do as with, for example, search results and Wikipedia. Those two examples have been immensely helpful to me, but the more important the situation, the more I fact check Wikipedia and chase down cited sources - as the originators intended; and w search results, reading into the several hits gives me confidence in the conclusion I draw from my initial query. I can reasonably assume this is what OpenAI is striving for as well, I'm looking forward to interacting with it and discovering how trustworthy I find it; one major thing for me is learning how the training data is selected, and how is it verifiable the AI is learning from true information; another is learning what safeguards are in place that will prevent bad actors from supplying fraudulent information to skew AI output. At any rate, it's certainly bound to be a great starting point for a lot of my research. I'd be curious as to how it 'scrapes' data from sites that require a username/password (from a human, presumably:)), or accesses factual and/or proprietary information from sites that require a paid subscription. From experience, these more restricted sources are extremely desirable for authentic, trustworthy and non repudiated information on various subjects - sources I would absolutely want an AI to be trained with. Perhaps these would be profitable niches for entrepreneurs to generate revenue from the AI paradigm??
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  1364. Well put. If Trump really cared for our country instead of himself, letting his ego drive him to get even w Biden, plus getting his pathological need for attention satiated, he would step down and get out of the way of Gov. DeSantis. The best thing for the country would be for Trump to step down and throw all his support, and supporters, into Gov. DeSantis' campaign. Governor DeSantis is so far beyond Trump in so many ways, and Trump is so far out of the league of the Governor, it would be an absolute travesty were he not elected our next president. But Trump being for himself first, and always, he'll continue to run, steal votes from Gov. DeSantis' campaign, thereby gift wrapping the election to President Biden; four more years handed to the left, four more years to drag our country into the gutter. Governor DeSantis is a patriot in the truest sense of the word, and I believe he'll always do what's best for America, get things done, be fiscally responsible, and make sure our government gets back to work running this country instead of Congress just going round and round with this stupid, childlike display of political infighting. Also, Gov. DeSantis has something Trump will never have: integrity. I'm so disgusted having to vote for the least worst candidate; I detest Trump as a person and was embarrassed he was elected our leader, and I literally felt dirty and sickened voting for him just to keep Hillary and then President Biden out. I will gladly vote for Gov. DeSantis because he is the best candidate we could ever hope for, maybe the best since President Reagan. He is a good man, and when I cast my ballot it will be for an American hero.
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  1399. Did I infer correctly he suffered heart palpitations due to a fall or near fall? I wouldn’t have seen it as I simply can no longer watch our two Executive Branch leaders. I do have to admit that was the most reasonable statement ever uttered by Mrs. Clinton, though, as contemptible as I find her. Like her or hate her, she’s mastered the politics game. Unlike President Carter…approached next. I do have to question and look into the polling caricature of President Carter. He was hamstrung by the disastrous optics of the Iranian hostage rescue, along w the unpopular cancellation of the B-1 bomber where he instead approved the top-secret funding of the B-2 stealth bomber, to be sure, and suffered in silence over it. In large part, however, I believe he was an unpopular President because he administered according to his Evangelical Christianity Faith - something intolerable in swamp politics. As a Christian Catholic, I’m at odds with some of his church’s doctrines and beliefs, but in my mind his public proclamation of loving Jesus Christ makes him a personal hero. I wish I had but a fraction of this great man’s great Faith. As quoted from the RNS (Religion News Service), “Jimmy Carter’s religious values were never far from his presidency or his policy.” I believe this is why people ignore his many social accomplishments and consider him a poor President, perhaps to a mistaken interpretation of the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment, perhaps to Godless critics, or a society reminded how far from The Founding Fathers we have drifted. To me, this puts the citizenry, the media, academia, and political partys in a bad light, but as these groups write the historical narrative, President Carter’s credibility during his presidency, suffered. Watching this man actively demonstrate his deep personal commitment to human rights, both during his term and after, is so humbling, and he deserves the recognition and respect given to the Saints. His legacy should not be measured by these polls so favored because they can be selected and manipulated to suit any opinion, but instead be measured by his living and leading, unwavering, by his beliefs and character.
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  1412. I’m sorry. It’s rough. I’m a moderate conservative, I had a relationship with a girl who was an HR head that championed DEI. The relationship was killing me, and 4-5 years later, I’m still affected by the breakup - shoot, I haven’t even held hands with, or even gone out socially with, another woman, and not sure where I even stand with that situation. But… She was so devoted to her cause, yet so aggressive and downright mean to anyone who had a differing opinion, after we broke up I began to get interested in her social paradigm, then eventually politics. I still thought the Left and Right could coexist if I just learned more about hers and their side. I went into this because of my past friendships, most of whom were what are now termed classical Liberals, but also right of center Conservatives (which I identify with), moderates, Independents, and even some Libertarians. But I learned the Democrat Party had been hijacked by socialists, and the more I learned, the more I realized there was no middle ground where these people and me, with my beliefs, would ever be able to meet. I learned that an extremely powerful minority had taken over so many of our institutions, and they were seeking nothing short of a form of socialist stalinism, for lack of a better term. They hate capitalism, they hate Democracy, they shit on the Constitution, they hate and despise us members of the middle class, they actively conduct censorship on a frighteningly massive scale because they both control and collude with the legacy media and social media because they’ve weaponized the DOJ and FBI, and above all, they hate our 2nd Amendment and are doing everything they can to litigate against legal gun owners, create more legislation and regulations to further restrict gun ownership and use, and seek to eliminate gun purchases and ownership and ultimately confiscate our firearms. A group of elites seek to overthrow our constitutional government and replace it with socialism, and that certainly can’t happen with an armed electorate. History paints a clear, but grim, picture on exactly how this takes place. This same elite entity has made us a borderless nation and welcomed over 10million immigrants with housing, food, cell phones, work permits, and transportation, and are seeking to enable them to vote - in some cases in California, immigrants CAN vote in local elections. The result of this will be the addition, so far, of 10million registered Democrat voters, a spike in crime, and the potential for an untold number of terrorist attacks, as not all of these illegal immigrants are from Latin America. K, maybe you skipped the prior paragraph - that’s OK. Your situation is not unique, but you must do something, maybe just this one time, but you still must. You need to vote for the Republican presidential candidate, knowing that your vote does not mean you support Trump or that you’ve even changed parties and have become Republican. You’re voting for the Republican presidential candidate so that you can vote OUT these socialist elites that have hijacked the Democrat Party, and have programmed and brainwashed your friend and tens of millions people just like your friend. These people must be voted out and stripped of their power and influence. Remember, when you vote for the Republican presidential candidate in 2024, it does NOT mean you support Trump. And it need not indicate you’ve become a Conservative. Please read something I’ve written below, and let me know your thoughts. I also posted them, but also, they are here.
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  1413. My opinion….we need a way, a message, a pathway, for classical Liberals to vote on the Republican ticket, that is palatable to them. I think the first thing we need to stop saying is “support Trump.” Classical Liberals need to know that, for this election (hopefully ALL elections for a while), they can vote the Republican candidate while simultaneously NOT supporting Trump. It is not an easy decision to make such a dramatic change, and we’ll go a long way by respecting this difficulty. What they’re considering is complicated. Classical Liberals are absolutely NOT changing their beliefs, values, and principles while they mull over the decision to change political parties. It is very important we’re clear that if they change parties and vote Republican, they’re doing so because the Democrat Party no longer represents their values, beliefs, and principles. They absolutely are NOT turning into Republicans, and they absolutely are NOT voting for Trump. What they’re doing is NOT voting for the current socialist Democrat Party. They want their party back, and right now their only recourse to get it back is to vote Republican. I hope to God this gets picked up all the Conservative channels I’m subscribed to. I so believe the only way to get these formerly left of center moderates and liberals is for us to respect the extraordinarily difficult position they are in. I think the only way we will get their vote is to invite them to vote for the Republican presidential candidate in order to have the chance to rebuild THEIR Democrat Party. I think it’s incredibly important we, that is, the entire Conservative news and editorial ecosystem, invite them with respect, and assure them we understand they need not become Republicans just because they voted for the Republican candidate. I pray Fox News, Sky News Australia, Dave Rubin, Megyn Kelly, Victor Davis Hanson, Thomas Sowell, Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, Michael Knowles, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Russell Brand, Ann Coulter, Konstantin Kisn, Jonathan Cahn, Tucker Carlson, Matt Walsh, Bill O’Reilley, JP Sears, Dave Chappelle, Dana Loesch, Piers Morgan, Tulsi Gabbard, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Tim Pool…shoot, why not CNN, MSNBC, WAPO, NYT, NPR, The Guardian, The Atlantic….oh, and of course, Joe Rogan….everyone! will take this message to all those on the fence, who want to vote their conscience. These people are our friends, our brothers and sisters, fellow Americans, HALF THE POPULATION OF AMERICA, and they too want their nation back. It could mean millions of votes for us to begin taking our Democracy back.
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  1426. Repost: ​​⁠​⁠True statements all. Tlacui will have a difficult time rationalizing how his party fought the Civil War in order to keep their slaves. Before his very eyes, obama and biden have successfully divided our nation, reintroduced the concept of racism to a greater degree than the first half of the 20th century, in a socialist bid to separate us according to their arbitrary lines based on race, ethnicity, and gender. In their highly successful attempt at removing Christianity from our society, they have replaced God with their version and vision - their god of a socialist society where we are all willfully dependent upon the state. He's blinded almost as sure as the North Korean people, a successfully transformed useful idiot, projecting on to Conservatives the very thing his socialist ideology actually is - he just can't step outside his new self and view the chaos of this new order from the outside looking in. That the Conservatives are now the most rational, most Constitutional, least racist, and most accepting of actual individuality and differences in values, opinions, and beliefs, is completely lost on him. Are their racist Conservatives? Sure. Are there homophobic Conservatives? Sure. But when rational scholars and intellectuals can point out these far left socialist marxist stalinists are following, almost to the letter, how socialist movements take hold, any objective analysis will demonstrate what is happening to our society, to our detriment. It is no joke, no coincidence, not unintentional - this movement seeks to undermine our societal and cultural stability, erode our traditional American values and morals, undermine our freedoms of speech, expression, and religion, destroy the freedom of the press by precisely adhering to the very definition of fascism by subjugating the legacy media outlets, infiltrating and taking over our institutions of academia, our financial systems, the social media along with the technology giants, corporations, the military industrial complex, and recently the military. There is no consistency on the enforcement of the law, they're aggressively pursuing disarming legally armed citizens and eliminating the 2nd Amendment, turning our cities into dystopian centers of rioting and lawlessness, allowing wide open borders in a concerted and highly successful effort to increase their voting base, generally dismantling the Constitution insofar as it impedes THEM, brazenly interfering with elections by inundating candidates with frivolous lawsuits with zero or little basis and removing opposing candidates from ballots, lying about nearly ALL aspects of the pandemic to shut down our economy to make us more dependent on the government, destroying countless small and large businesses and using it as a method to further weaken and destroy the middle class, burden us with dramatic restrictions and regulations on quarantines and lockdowns where NONE of restrictions were necessary or based upon scientific evidence and data, wrecking generations of young people with subpar or no education while in lockdown, and untold devastation for millions of families regarding mental health issues due to isolation, depression, anxiety, and addiction...where does one stop when describing the deliberate agenda that has been, and is being, forwarded by the obama and biden administrations and the elites even OUTSIDE America, pulling the strings to advance their ideology. The other scandal which has a firm grip on the world is the climate change scandal, which is just as devastating to the world economies as Covid. It has scandalized the scientific community, done drastic damage to worldwide energy policies, supplies, and security...the list is too long for now; hopefully tlacui has read this and at least something has penetrated his cloud of ignorance, not of his doing. And it's important to realize this isn't just a national movement: the UK and Australia are experiencing the EXACT same phenomena, just with a cooler accent - it is uncanny when tuning in to their independent media channels. And of course, the infection has taken hold within the entire EU and every other democratic nation. It's a worldwide 'pandemic' in its own right, being manufactured and manipulated by elites at a worldwide level and scale. One need only view publicly available information that the EIB, the WHO, the IMF, e ITU, the World Bank, the WTO, the UN, UNESCO, and others, present to understand how their principles, policies, and practices, are generally unaligned with yours and my freedoms, priorities, security, etc., and much more aligned with a conspiracy-sounding world order. So go ahead, keep your head down, and don't vote Conservative. Maybe Esperanza can become a reality after all.
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  1568. ⁠ @serval_ssbm That assumption seems valid. Had we voted harris in democratically (and by republic mechanisms), half the country believes that would have taken us a major step towards socialism and then marxism, immediately threatening our First and Second Amendments. So the far left’s democratic victory would have come at the expense of the moderate, centrist left and right’s Constitutional freedoms. Had the far left won, do you really believe they’d have felt they were preserving everyone else’s rights and freedoms? Given their feral approach to shoving their ideology down our throats because we have different views and opinions and values, zero sum describes the situation quite clearly - had they won. As it stands, THEIR First Amendment rights seem quite intact, even though they were doing everything possible to give them away. And if you argue that the far left narrative WAS what they were trying to protect, what happens when that narrative becomes more and more marxist until even the far left voters begin to feel disenfranchised and then persecuted? I think democracy and freedom are compatible only when there is intention to keep them so. There’s nothing inherent in either that automatically implies the other. And then there’s the other perspective. The far left probably DOES feel persecuted, but to me it seems because the narrative is demanding they feel that way. Perhaps the far left is wary (I certainly am) of, for example, the evangelical right gaining a foothold again, and setting back social liberalism. I think the far left has disproportionate influence and isn’t representative of the majority, moderate left. If true, President Trump seems to be about the best option our entire nation could have. He’s socially liberal and fiscally conservative, with warts and positive attributes both sides can reasonably live with. His Administration is also counter revolutionary, in that it’s trying to bring us back to a center. If I was the classical left, I’d embrace his social liberalism and try and work with it, and not let the radical progressives continue pushing and/or pulling the democrat party further to the left - we (collectively) don’t want that. The way I see it, if the left continues to try and commit unalive-icide, the further right is going to sit back and gain strength, take over the government after President Trump leaves office, and we’re going to start the far left reactionary movement all over again. The extremes are killing us.
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  1602. Mmmm, yes and no. Look, I’m a right leaning centrist moderate. Most of my best friends are similar but lean left, and fancy themselves liberal. And they are; I refer to them as ‘classical liberals.’ My theory is that the radical far left socialist marxist elites have HIJACKED the democrat party - a very subtle transition and a smooth, strategic move. And this put my ‘classical democrat’ friends in a tough spot…because who are they gonna vote for? Either the (far left socialist puppet) democrat nominee or the Independent…but most democrats aren’t libertarian, and it’s highly unlikely they’d vote Republican - and voting for Trump is probably unthinkable. The irony, of course, is the far left has moved the new center SO far to the left, my ‘classical liberal democrat’ friends are now WAY right of center, into [gasp!] Conservatism! Democrats didn’t kill their own party…their party left them. Remember this - before obama, democrats and republicans had, at their core, MUCH more in common than not. Obviously, we had different views, beliefs, opinions, attributes, faults, strengths - but we both were AMERICANS, we loved our nation, cherished The Constitution and our Democracy and our Republic, would fight for our freedom and for the freedoms of nations and their people, were proud of our heritage and history, honored our Founding Fathers, believed in American exceptionalism and nationalism, were proud of our great nation, respected - at times, grudgingly - our elected leaders whether we voted for them or opposed, and when things got tough, we put the UNITED in the United States. We were brothers. What we’re careening towards presently is what our Founding Fathers warned us about, and what every soldier and leader has sworn to protect us from - enemies both foreign AND domestic. Our Constitution has built within it many, MANY safeguards to defend ourselves from these threats, specifically the looming domestic perils we are experiencing now and which have gained significant traction and alarming momentum. Bulwarks against this nascent tyranny
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  1628. Yeah it’s 120 in Phoenix, kinda why I moved there. I mountain bike regularly in 120 heat - granted I go through a gallon of water, but it’s manageable if you prep for it. And temps greater than 125 happen often enough, but no one cares - people just continue to do what they do in the summer - use clean, zero emissions nuclear power to run our air conditioners the same regardless whether its 75 or 127. The vast vast majority just adapt by flipping from house to car to work to grocery store to house, in air conditioned comfort. AZ has the added bonus you don’t sweat, so you don’t ruin your clothes between stops, like in Miami. It’s not that big of a deal, you just stay indoors just like everyone who has moved there from Wisconsin, Maine, etc, stayed inside all winter. And it’s as normal as snow in northern Wisconsin - making a fuss about a 1 or 2 deg bump is silly when you take in all that is involved with taking a temp. Also, Phoenix is generally warmer because of the urban landscape - all the surrounding towns have long merged together to make one, big, Phoenix, and all that concrete, asphalt and steel absorb and re-radiate a LOT of heat. It’s normal for the temperature on the 202 freeway to be anywhere from 10-20 deg warmer than the stated temperature, due to the asphalt and the cars metal and engines - especially during the rush hours. The whole citywide heat bubble, and that we happen to live in a giant valley, kinda messes with our weather - I do wish we got more monsoons, but they generally miss us. Anyway, 120s heat - we call that peak summer in a desert. Stop califnoria-ing my Arizona by misusing what’s normal in an effort to advance your master’s agenda, you useful idiots. Who leaves out a detail like a plane’s AC went out in 108deg heat, unless you’re manipulating the story? And really, even at 70-75 deg on a sunny day in an airplane w broken air conditioning will become sweltering in short order.
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  1648. My opinion….we need a way, a message, a pathway, for classical Liberals to vote on the Republican ticket, that is palatable to them. I think the first thing we need to stop saying is “support Trump.” Classical Liberals need to know that, for this election (hopefully ALL elections for a while), they can vote the Republican candidate while simultaneously NOT supporting Trump. It is not an easy decision to make such a dramatic change, and we’ll go a long way by respecting this difficulty. What they’re considering is complicated. Classical Liberals are absolutely NOT changing their beliefs, values, and principles while they mull over the decision to change political parties. It is very important we’re clear that if they change parties and vote Republican, they’re doing so because the Democrat Party no longer represents their values, beliefs, and principles. They absolutely are NOT turning into Republicans, and they absolutely are NOT voting for Trump. What they’re doing is NOT voting for the current socialist Democrat Party. They want their party back, and right now their only recourse to get it back is to vote Republican. I hope to God this gets picked up all the Conservative channels I’m subscribed to. I so believe the only way to get these formerly left of center moderates and liberals is for us to respect the extraordinarily difficult position they are in. I think the only way we will get their vote is to invite them to vote for the Republican presidential candidate in order to have the chance to rebuild THEIR Democrat Party. I think it’s incredibly important we, that is, the entire Conservative news and editorial ecosystem, invite them with respect, and assure them we understand they need not become Republicans just because they voted for the Republican candidate. I pray Fox News, Sky News Australia, Dave Rubin, Megyn Kelly, Victor Davis Hanson, Thomas Sowell, Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, Michael Knowles, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Russell Brand, Ann Coulter, Konstantin Kisn, Jonathan Cahn, Tucker Carlson, Matt Walsh, Bill O’Reilley, JP Sears, Dave Chappelle, Dana Loesch, Piers Morgan, Tulsi Gabbard, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Tim Pool…shoot, why not CNN, MSNBC, WAPO, NYT, NPR, The Guardian, The Atlantic….oh, and of course, Joe Rogan….everyone! will take this message to all those on the fence, who want to vote their conscience. These people are our friends, our brothers and sisters, fellow Americans, HALF THE POPULATION OF AMERICA, and they too want their nation back. It could mean millions of votes for us to begin taking our Democracy back.
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  1704. I’m a right of center moderate…also known as a classical conservative. I love classical liberals; my best friends are classical liberals - well, over half are - the remainder are classical conservatives, independents, and even a fair number of libertarians. America was built, managed, and protected by both classical conservatives and liberals, independents, and libertarians. Of course, those on the spectrum further right and left definitely had and have their roles as well, but were still guided by their more fundamental perspectives of the Constitution and Democracy. The Republican Party’s a bit of a mess, but it seems to be coming together in a way that will matter in 2024. We need work, for sure, but that’s not the topic at the moment. The Democrat Part, though, has been successfully, and even brilliantly (to give grudging respect to the hijackers’ strategy) hijacked by the far left extremist socialist stalinists. And the poor left of center moderates don’t know where they belong and who to vote for. Because the current administration, which is thoroughly controlled by a corrupt and socialist machine, no longer represents and respects their values, beliefs, and democratic principles. They almost can’t vote Republican because they probably would vomit to associate with the far right - heck, I feel the same, sometimes - and they probably are also hesitant to associate with MAGA Republicans. Can’t really blame them. But they’re also jammed up with voting Democrat this election, because this Democrat Party is no longer THEIR Democrat Party. It’s gone, STOLEN. So what do they do? How are they supposed to vote? Like a man without a country, they’re about half the population of America without a party! What’s going to happen? Do they split the party, and become “The Reformed Democrat Party?” Do they initiate a party COUP to take control of the Democrat Party, and KICK OUT the socialists? Will the socialists break from the party on their own and create a new Socialist Party? (I cringe at capitalizing ‘socialist party’) Can and will all the Classical Democrats, that other half the entire population, protest against the radical socialists and break with the current Democrat Party, and vote Republican, just for this election? Then work to rebuild their party, cutting out the cancer that’s literally killing our democracy? (Disclaimer: I don’t consider MAGA only the far right or the extreme right. At the moment, I feel it includes all Trump supporters, those favoring his Populist sentiment, and us right-of-center moderates. I hope it can and will include centrists, independents, libertarians, and especially the classical liberals. So if it will get Trump elected, sure, call me MAGA. Whatever; just win the frakking election.)
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  1801. Reminds me of an exgirlfriend, who was a Chief People Officer heavy into diversity and inclusion. We were watching a movie and I made a comment on how the oriental woman was one of my favorite actors, but I couldn’t recall her name at the moment. Like 5 or 10 minutes later, I sensed I had deeply offended her somehow when she proceeded to correct me by saying the proper term now is ‘asian.’ Even better was when she used me as an unenlightened white male example during her next day’s conference call about D&I. I felt it was time to move on when she criticized the all white male board for being all white and male, AND proceeded to say’our’ time has passed. It was crazy when I realized how much I had changed my behavior around her, and how trapped I felt being unable to express myself or my opinions because it wasn’t worth the humiliation of being constantly corrected. I guess I had to experience it like that to fully grasp how incipient her progressive and socialistic beliefs are towards any meaningful discourse that are contrary to that narrative. Too bad in a way, as she was raking in about $220k, more than twice my salary at the time - wouldn’t have been able to think or speak, but hey…we’d have been well off! Interestingly, she was for any religion that was essentially not Christian and not mainstream, basically making some rude ‘jokes’ about my Lord and Savior, and how her people of yore had Christ executed. I let it roll as I assumed she was kidding and that maybe she was letting me in on some bad Jewish humor, but I don’t know now. I’d never actually say anything like this, but I often wondered how she’d have taken it if I criticized another’s faith, as an experiment to point put her hypocrisy. But I simply wouldn’t, couldn’t, use religion this way - and I’m far and away not the best Christain example there is; I’m hopefully at least a ‘good enough’ Catholic that respects differences and enjoys talking about those differences, usually finding we have more in common than not. Oh, and meaningful discourse isn’t me disrespecting anyone or finding some token examples of affirmative actions on my part to justify my whiteness - but when I learned I had eaten a sandwich too quickly such that she was worried about the negative impression I may leave with her friends or colleagues, having any intellectual dialogue was pretty much impossible. Boy, that honeymoon ship sailed away quickly. In fairness, she did warn me that she wasn’t for everybody - right she was.
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  1871. Nikki Haley is not wrong about chaos following Trump. It obviously means nothing to us with respect to the primaries and caucuses, where Trump is likely to win all, but she could be correct if the general is close again. Then it boils down to the left and right moderates, independents, and the undecided, where a candidate other than Trump may do better against either biden, dingbat, or Michelle. Personally knowing many people who ARE on the fence about not only which candidate to vote for, but which PARTY, I could easily see where Haley might be more favorable to them than Trump, if she's played against any one of the three democrat goofballs. Doesn't matter, though, since Trump will win the primaries and caucuses - probably all of them. Unless she's a de facto Republican candidate due to Trump either dying or being in jail, there's simply no way the majority of Republicans will vote for her. And it's debatable that Trump's base still wouldn't vote for him in the general even if he were behind bars, which would be an election catastrophe since it will split the Republican votes across two candidates. Because, unless every Republican voter is on board with some mythical, unifying strategy, millions of moderate Conservatives are NOT going to vote for a candidate in the klink. Frustratingly, but realistically, given there are probably an equal number of voters who will vote either only for Trump (assuming he lives and is free) or only for a democrat, the entire race is probably down to the less than a million or so swing voters - who knows, maybe only a few hundred thousand! A conclusion to draw, however, might be that it's very important that Nikki Haley stay in the race, just in case the worst happens to Trump - if for no other reason than to just keep her in the minds of voters. And instead of every Conservative and MAGA Republican voter, media outlet (yes, you, Fox), and independent journalist channels criticising and ridiculing Governor-Ambassador Nikki Haley's campaign, we should be encouraging it. Or at least tolerating it! Clearly, she's no threat to President Trump in the Primaries, and if and when Trump becomes Candidate President Trump, it's not like there will be this groundswell of write-in votes for her. BUT, she could be the critical and necessary fail safe if the absolute worst happens that makes it impossible for Trump to be the Republican presidential candidate. So be nice to Nikki. Just sayin'.
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  1910. Of course he did. This is so common I don’t understand why a Republican task force hasn’t been created to root this out. From hiring paid for actors to show up at protests (pro hamas riots almost everywhere) and campaign events (every harris rally), to using people and agents to stir up trouble at protests (think Jan6), to creating the conditions for race riots (George Floyd), to situations described in this episode, the left and far left are liars and are unrelenting with their manipulation of their political base. They simply will not stop and unless they are held severely to account, their cowardly, totally corrupt behavior will continue. Lying, misrepresenting, and breaking the law aren’t just commonplace, they’re explicit policy, because they have no integrity or shame. The reason for this behavior is they believe their ideology should be thrust upon We The People to usher in socialism, splitting our Nation into the dual class system of elites and the poor. And they will continue, by any means necessary, to forward this ideology. They have no hesitation towards breaking the Law because they despise The Constitution, which gives them license to break ‘our’ laws as they believe they do not apply to them. But they are masters at hiding behind the laws they despise, because they know we are foolish enough to follow them and operate within our legal system. We think they are disgraceful, have no honor or respect, traitorous. But they may have convinced themselves they’re serving their higher cause, and may even view themselves as patriots. There can be no middle ground with these marxists - they despise us.
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  1970. I’d ideally like us to be prepared for world-wide oil shortages by having a strategic reserve MUCH greater than what we have now (along with making it illegal for a president to tap into it to lower gas prices during an election year, or to tank oil production because of some bullshit Green propaganda without raising gas prices TOO much to pacify his voters). With a massive reserve ‘on reserve,’ then we import most of our petroleum from wherever, to use up all of their oil first. And if any exporters try to jack us over by hikimg oil prices, we just say “frak you,” and immediately collapse their export market by stopping oil imports and dipping into our massive reserves. Easy peasy. Whatever; as long as we end up with all or most of the oil left in the planet within our borders when the rest of the world runs out. We’ll still need a lot of gas for our military, industry, and economy (and our SUVs and pickups, and heat and hot water) to ensure our security when everyone else gets desperate. We can use that remaining oil to (finally) transition to nuclear; also solar and wind - perhaps the technology will be mature enough by then to actually use them to generate and store electricity. You know, use solar and wind when it makes economic and practical and technological sense to do so, rather than having politicians and corrupted scientists and ignorant activists forcimg an energy policy because they need votes, and to sleep blissfully not realizing that forcing immature technologies down our throats is actually causing far more environmental harm, damage, and destruction than oil is. Ps: I’m not some pro-petroleum nut, nor a pro-nuclear nut, nor am I an anti-wind and anti-solar nut - frankly, I could give a shit where my energy comes from. I’m also not a pro- or anti-climate nut - sure, I care about the environment and pollution. Who doesn’t. If it’s definitively proven either that humans are impacting the climate or we’re just experiencing normal climate activity, I really don’t worry about it much. I think it would be a good idea to try and reduce certain gas emissions (in fact, those super nasty gases were reduced by more natural gas usage, and reduced far more than solar or wind ever have done - a clear indication that using fossil fuels isn’t’bad’). I also think we need to keep awareness of the environment in mind and regulated, which I think we already do a pretty good job at. Good Lord, we don’t meed MORE regulations; please just use the ones we already have (in triplicate, probably). But for the love of Christ, please use intelligence when preparing for an energy transition, and have a PLAN! Energy policy is HUGE for the US, at least as, if not more, important than national security policy. It will take decades to get this infrastructure built up and working; please try to understand we’re going to need to use fossil energy during this entire time…and that doing so isn’t a bad thing. I’m absolutely not saying we should base policy decisions solely on the market, but the market needs to be an overwhelmingly significant factor - a helluva bigger influence than some ex-barista-turned-crazy anti-everything-American activist.
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  1981. I've a red/green deficiency and I fail the Ishihara number tests; I have to compensate for day-to-day but I've learned to compensate. When I need to or want to (for example, watch an astronomy doc that's heavy on cgi colors) experience and differentiate colors, even reds and greens, I wear a contact lens in my non-dominant eye that is colored red in the center. While wearing it, I usually pass the number/color tests with 100%. It's absolutely fascinating to see colors, especially reds, just pop for me. I live in the desert, which of course has a lot of washed out colors that aren't always so exciting to look at, but I use it often when I go hiking during the spring and summer blooms when the flowers add brilliant color to an otherwise drab landscape. For those interested, the contact lense is a gas permeable contact lens with a colored (I thought the term used was 'smoked') red dot in the center, somewhat larger than the pupil. I found out about it from an ophthalmologist while getting a simple vision test for glasses; I mentioned being colorblind and it happened he had an interest in the condition. He let me borrow a pair of non-prescription glasses where the left lens was colored dark red, it was actually amazingly life changing. He pointed me to an ophthalmology grad school (Eye Institute of Milwaukee) who contacted a couple manufacturers to see if they had any. One still made them (sorry, can't remember) and they shipped a sample, it worked great, and I ordered up a couple. 30 some years ago, they were only $150 apiece. Surprisingly (for me) I still have them; in fact I've not ever used the 'spare' yet. I don't use it often, but I have used it when I need to view color-coded performance graphs, charts, wires, etc. works well. [chuckle] I do use it when viewing the Flight Data Recorder outputs during Mentour's accident investigation videos. Hope this helps. There do seem to be glasses available nowadays that are supposed to do something similar to my GP lenses, which have been available since the late 70s. I do want to explore them but I haven't gotten around to yet, and there seem to be some available for under $30 online, but knowing nothing about the technology I'm hesitant regarding their legitimacy. They do claim to be most effective for red-green, and as I recall, use Ishihara tests to indicate if they're likely to work or not.
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  1990. This is my SIC leader, a heartbeat away from the Presidency of the mightiest nation the world has ever known. I am so proud. I feel so safe, so secure. I’m so happy America can be so confident to be a beacon of Democracy to the world. —————— Wait, what? She went from binoculars to 50m away to the James Webb Space Telescope? Brilliant display of knowing her audience. You’d expect her to be escorted by the highest ranking soldiers, but these fellas had to have been the three who drew short straws. Or given the option of cleaning the latrines or escorting this…sigh, elected official. Well, ok, not truly elected, selected…by an even worse example of an American citizen. Just when one thought her embrace of North Korea was the worst that could have happened, she just kept sinking lower and lower. But, wait - perhaps she’s afraid to fly and popped some benzoes that hadn’t half lifed out of her system. Maybe our President’s lack of mental acuity was more than what her immune system was able to fight off. Or, maybe she’s just incompetent and not capable of political office. How…how!…did this happen? Is it really that easy to infiltrate the highest levels of our government with treasonous individuals bent on gutting our Constitution? I’m embarrassed of my nation’s Executive Branch, and am so disgusted, disappointed, frustrated, and fearful of the extreme far left liberal progressive’s grasp on our country’s Federal and State branches of government and the destructive direction they’ve plunged the United States to. Thank you, Australia, for calling us out. I am so ashamed as to what we’ve become.
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  2015. To Brittany and Sam, under Jasper118's post: ​ I respectfully disagree, Sam, Christianity WAS instrumental and foundational to the origin of our nation and it's principles helped guide America through its early growth and expansion. Our Founding Fathers depended upon their belief in God to justify separation from England and write the Declaration of Independence, and architect our system of government and legal framework, and create the Constitution and our Bill of Rights. Christian principles guided our country's pursuit of life, liberty and justice, along with the unique concept of freedom and choice for its citizens - eventually all citizens. They wisely prohibited the State from imposing a state religion, unimaginable then, and provided the freedom to choose any religion a person wished - including choosing to not believe one. I'm not pretending they or anyone else elected to a stewardship responsibility, or myself for that matter, were perfect Christians, but they were good enough to allow an idea and a young nation a chance to survive, then thrive. As the video points out, geography, resources, and climate didn't hurt. Whether you believe in God or not, belief in God was instrumental to the rise of our current nation. Any atheist or agnostic who objectively looks back to our history must conclude Christianity is very much part of the heritage of America. To declare otherwise would be deeply revisionist. Perhaps the combination of geography, resources and climate would have always led to a single government possessing such a world dominating empire within the same borders, and a belief in God wasn't necessary. But, that's not how it happened. I happen to believe in God and am a Catholic Christian - not a very good one, but one nonetheless. I don't know if any of "it" is true, but it's what I choose to believe and I hope what I perceive as evidence of God is actual evidence. But even if it's false, even if it could be PROVEN that belief in God is false, one still has to conclude that that belief was central to the creation of our system of government and subsequent way of life. Treating your neighbor as you'd like to be treated isn't a bad guideline to live by, irrespective of whether or not the Sermon on the Mount actually happened.
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  2076. If Russia conquers Ukraine, of course they’ll be more of a threat. Since the war’s over, sanctions will prolly be dropped even though Russia’s the aggressor. Trade will happen, Ukraine will feed Russia and sell grain everywhere else, and much the same will happen with manufacturing. Zelenskyy didn’t mean Russia will literally threaten us on our shores, across the ocean. He’s implying they’ll have the resources to build and maintain ICBMs and SLBMs, with their submarine fleet laying in wait off our shores (so in a sense, that’s literal). He’s not wrong about a stronger Russia if Ukraine falls. Zelenskyy’s also not wrong that the US and Europe don’t have a choice but to support Ukraine, unless we want a powerful Russia who becomes a threat on par with China. That’s the hand he’s been playing up to now, and it’s the box he was expecting to put President Trump. But he played his hand like a chump. Which wouldn’t matter, because President Trump has a better hand since he’s trying to make a business deal about the immediate situation Ukraine is in. The Russian threat, while real, is too far down the road to use to dictate terms to President Trump. Zelenskyy will be back because he has no choice. And once he acknowledges his place in the world pecking order, he will gratefully accept the business deal and terms set by President Trump. The dancer-turned-dictator needed to be punished in public, embarrass himself with his tantrum in front of the entire world, quickly
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  2124. I’m a right of center moderate…also known as a classical conservative. I love classical liberals; my best friends are classical liberals - well, over half are - the remainder are classical conservatives, independents, and even a fair number of libertarians. America was built, managed, and protected by both classical conservatives and liberals, independents, and libertarians. Of course, those on the spectrum further right and left definitely had and have their roles as well, but were still guided by their more fundamental perspectives of the Constitution and Democracy. The Republican Party’s a bit of a mess, but it seems to be coming together in a way that will matter in 2024. We need work, for sure, but that’s not the topic at the moment. The Democrat Part, though, has been successfully, and even brilliantly (to give grudging respect to the hijackers’ strategy) hijacked by the far left extremist socialist stalinists. And the poor left of center moderates don’t know where they belong and who to vote for. Because the current administration, which is thoroughly controlled by a corrupt and socialist machine, no longer represents and respects their values, beliefs, and democratic principles. They almost can’t vote Republican because they probably would vomit to associate with the far right - heck, I feel the same, sometimes - and they probably are also hesitant to associate with MAGA Republicans. Can’t really blame them. But they’re also jammed up with voting Democrat this election, because this Democrat Party is no longer THEIR Democrat Party. It’s gone, STOLEN. So what do they do? How are they supposed to vote? Like a man without a country, they’re about half the population of America without a party! What’s going to happen? Do they split the party, and become “The Reformed Democrat Party?” Do they initiate a party COUP to take control of the Democrat Party, and KICK OUT the socialists? Will the socialists break from the party on their own and create a new Socialist Party? (I cringe at capitalizing ‘socialist party’) Can and will all the Classical Democrats, that other half the entire population, protest against the radical socialists and break with the current Democrat Party, and vote Republican, just for this election? Then work to rebuild their party, cutting out the cancer that’s literally killing our democracy? (Disclaimer: I don’t consider MAGA only the far right or the extreme right. At the moment, I feel it includes all Trump supporters, those favoring his Populist sentiment, and us right-of-center moderates. I hope it can and will include centrists, independents, libertarians, and especially the classical liberals. So if it will get Trump elected, sure, call me MAGA. Whatever; just win the frakking election.)
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  2125. My opinion….we need a way, a message, a pathway, for classical Liberals to vote on the Republican ticket, that is palatable to them. I think the first thing we need to stop saying is “support Trump.” Classical Liberals need to know that, for this election (hopefully ALL elections for a while), they can vote the Republican candidate while simultaneously NOT supporting Trump. It is not an easy decision to make such a dramatic change, and we’ll go a long way by respecting this difficulty. What they’re considering is complicated. Classical Liberals are absolutely NOT changing their beliefs, values, and principles while they mull over the decision to change political parties. It is very important we’re clear that if they change parties and vote Republican, they’re doing so because the Democrat Party no longer represents their values, beliefs, and principles. They absolutely are NOT turning into Republicans, and they absolutely are NOT voting for Trump. What they’re doing is NOT voting for the current socialist Democrat Party. They want their party back, and right now their only recourse to get it back is to vote Republican. I hope to God this gets picked up all the Conservative channels I’m subscribed to. I so believe the only way to get these formerly left of center moderates and liberals is for us to respect the extraordinarily difficult position they are in. I think the only way we will get their vote is to invite them to vote for the Republican presidential candidate in order to have the chance to rebuild THEIR Democrat Party. I think it’s incredibly important we, that is, the entire Conservative news and editorial ecosystem, invite them with respect, and assure them we understand they need not become Republicans just because they voted for the Republican candidate. I pray Fox News, Sky News Australia, Dave Rubin, Megyn Kelly, Victor Davis Hanson, Thomas Sowell, Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, Michael Knowles, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Russell Brand, Ann Coulter, Konstantin Kisn, Jonathan Cahn, Tucker Carlson, Matt Walsh, Bill O’Reilley, JP Sears, Dave Chappelle, Dana Loesch, Piers Morgan, Tulsi Gabbard, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Tim Pool…shoot, why not CNN, MSNBC, WAPO, NYT, NPR, The Guardian, The Atlantic….oh, and of course, Joe Rogan….everyone! will take this message to all those on the fence, who want to vote their conscience. These people are our friends, our brothers and sisters, fellow Americans, HALF THE POPULATION OF AMERICA, and they too want their nation back. It could mean millions of votes for us to begin taking our Democracy back. ———————————————-
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  2129. My opinion….we need a way, a message, a pathway, for classical Liberals to vote on the Republican ticket, that is palatable to them. I think the first thing we need to stop saying is “support Trump.” Classical Liberals need to know that, for this election (hopefully ALL elections for a while), they can vote the Republican candidate while simultaneously NOT supporting Trump. It is not an easy decision to make such a dramatic change, and we’ll go a long way by respecting this difficulty. What they’re considering is complicated. Classical Liberals are absolutely NOT changing their beliefs, values, and principles while they mull over the decision to change political parties. It is very important we’re clear that if they change parties and vote Republican, they’re doing so because the Democrat Party no longer represents their values, beliefs, and principles. They absolutely are NOT turning into Republicans, and they absolutely are NOT voting for Trump. What they’re doing is NOT voting for the current socialist Democrat Party. They want their party back, and right now their only recourse to get it back is to vote Republican. I hope to God this gets picked up all the Conservative channels I’m subscribed to. I so believe the only way to get these formerly left of center moderates and liberals is for us to respect the extraordinarily difficult position they are in. I think the only way we will get their vote is to invite them to vote for the Republican presidential candidate in order to have the chance to rebuild THEIR Democrat Party. I think it’s incredibly important we, that is, the entire Conservative news and editorial ecosystem, invite them with respect, and assure them we understand they need not become Republicans just because they voted for the Republican candidate. I pray Fox News, Sky News Australia, Dave Rubin, Megyn Kelly, Victor Davis Hanson, Thomas Sowell, Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, Michael Knowles, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Russell Brand, Ann Coulter, Konstantin Kisn, Jonathan Cahn, Tucker Carlson, Matt Walsh, Bill O’Reilley, JP Sears, Dave Chappelle, Dana Loesch, Piers Morgan, Tulsi Gabbard, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Tim Pool…shoot, why not CNN, MSNBC, WAPO, NYT, NPR, The Guardian, The Atlantic….oh, and of course, Joe Rogan….everyone! will take this message to all those on the fence, who want to vote their conscience. These people are our friends, our brothers and sisters, fellow Americans, HALF THE POPULATION OF AMERICA, and they too want their nation back. It could mean millions of votes for us to begin taking our Democracy back.
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  2132. Agree. Why we haven’t restarted the production line (or the F-23) is beyond me, especially given the money this administration has wasted on…well, I’ll leave it alone. But the amount of money needed to retool and restart production is starting to become a rounding error to what has been printed out of thin air. And there’s no way - none - that the serial production of operational gen6 aircraft will be done before 2040, and soon to be 2045. At the earliest. There’s no reason to believe it won’t take at least 20 years of development to field a new fighter, given political realities and changing military priorities - one notable being replenishment of our weapons stockpiles. ——- Lockheed Martin is building Javelins at a rate of around 2,000/year, and hopes to increase this to 4,000/year in less than two years. The max production rate is 6,840/year in a year or more, although I’ve not been able to substantiate this, nor find anything to support such a specific number - especially given the fluidity and shortages in the supply chain. This info is from a few 2nd quarter 2022 articles; in Sep 2022, the DoD awarded LM and Raytheon a contract for around 1,800 missiles. Again from a 2022 article, we’ve supplied 7,000 to Ukraine, there were over 37,000 built since 1994, and it’s estimated we have 20-25,000 remaining in inventory; closer to 20,000 by now. THE POINT: This is just one example, there are of course many more that are similar. Lockheed Martin is supposedly investing their dollars to ramp up production (I highly doubt this), knowing they’ll be paid up because they know they’ll get the contract. Regardless, they’re going to have a lot of projects that will detract from a lower priority gen6 project - especially if they’re using their own R&D funds (again, doubtful) for the gen6. Other companies will be affected the same. Of course, nothing is getting produced unless budgets are approved. There are a lot of expensive priorities and the current administration isn’t going to let the military get funding unless it’s advantageous to do for an election cycle. Inflation isn’t going away, and neither are higher prices for fuel, metals, composites, electronics, etc - both will continue rising, possibly for another four years. The last thing on Congress’ list of expensive priorities, including our commercial infrastructure, massive social spending, the Navy’s new carriers and submarines and surface vessels, the Air Force’s new ICBMs, continental missile defenses, the F-35 program, the B-21, and on and on…the last thing Congress is going to fund is some future gen6 magic weapon system they’re going to have a hard time believing we need. If we were shortsighted enough to cut our promised fleet of 750 Raptors to far fewer than 200 (assuming around 150 combat capable, probably half that number operational at any point in time, from the actual 186 produced) simply because there was no ‘immediate’ need, we’ll be just as shortsighted about a gen6 project we can kick the can down the calendar. Gates and the Obama administration would not account for military needs of the future, eliminating a very real deterrence element the Raptor would have provided. Why would “Obama’s third administration” treat the gen6 fighter any differently? Politics will push the gen6 out to 2045 or beyond. Politicians of today, from both sides, are inherently shortsighted. The furthest ahead they will think to is their next election. Their long term thinking does not extend past their own reelection, unless that future something benefits them and increases their reelection chances. So just restart the F-22 and/or the F-23 production line(s), with the expectation of adding the obvious engineering upgrades - primarily the electronics and communications and making them modular and more easily upgraded, and of course increasing fuel capacity. Say, perhaps even the cranked arrow Raptor, the longer range ground attack design proposed by LM - a version positively perfect for the Pacific theater. Sorry, didn’t mean to ramble, although doubt anyone will make it this far. I tend to think ‘out loud’ by writing. Sometimes commenting becomes journaling. :)
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  2246. Especially given the scientific evidence that states healthy people need not have to take the shot or worry about as much as worrying about the flu. Even so, if the Military announced a command to be vaccinated, based on the most authoritative evidence at the time. It is not oppressive for a military to have a universal requirement all soldiers are expected to obey and carry out. When the proper information was eventually made available, the Military, along with every other organization who were not idiots, changed their stance to taking the vaccine optional and, eventually, private. Orders are orders. I imagine there are battlefield situations whereby someone is ordered to do something that will result in that person getting killed, so having unknown, probably not serious or long term, health risks (although I did get seriously sick after a booster, so it happens) wouldn't be enough to exempt you from obeying the order. However we've discovered that evidence is mostly false, and an authority is probably criminally issuing restrictions and guidelines that are unnecessary. These unnecessary and ineffective regulations have resulted in several impacts at local, state, and federal levels, and ALL the impacts have been hugely devastating at a national scope. The following impacts include some, but not all, of the following: obviously, detrimental effects to the number and quality of military personnel due to concerns over the vaccine; pretty much bringing our economy to a standstill for two years, wreaking havoc the nation is still recovering from; and untold number of small and medium businesses that were forced to close and cease operations, generally permanently; a huge, untold number of layoffs from companies of all sizes due to the destroyed economy; setting an entire generation of students behind by two years of classroom education and socialization due to the inadequacies of teaching children, youth, and secondary education students remotely; massive increases in mentally related problems like depression, anxiety, addiction, domestic violence, boredom and nihilism. There seems to be no end of negatives which are the result of, and also the responsibility of, individuals and institutions the entire nation trusted. And evidence is piling up that said individuals and institutions knew from the start that all of their most impactful guidelines and regulations were ineffective and unnecessary. There are individuals and institutions that need to be held accountable, probably prosecuted and punished, for a most significant set of economic, social, medical, cultural, and military effects, effects that probably have been the worst our society has seen or will see, in our lives. The unnecessary and ineffective actions we took, based upon the words of supposed professionals expert in the handling of Covid, and a pandemic in general, were criminal; criminal of the highest level, and of such widespread and devastating effects, even treasonous.
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  2258. Always thought the 994/A and the TRS-80 (especially with the Radio Shack comic) were really modern and sleek looking. I was in awe with these silver colored, high tech mysterious machines and wanted one as a ten or twelve year old kid. And if these sleek machines were mysterious, the IBM PC was this magical high end supercomputer for some ethereal business reason. And IBM was this giant of a company even my parents had some odd, big company reverence for - probably their body language alone made me perceive a PC would be forever out of my reach. But I didn’t actually think that much about because I was focused on the TRS-80 and its myriad of sleek peripherals, but also thought the TI99 looked cool too. And I thought the ‘Texas Instruments’ name sounded high tech. I had several TI calculators, and was dazzled by all the weird mathematical keys. I subconsciously believed TI made the best and most accurate calculators to the odd point where if I had addd two numbers together on some ‘off brand’ calculator, I’d have to do the maths on a TI just to make sure it was correct! Silly, but hey; I was twelve. Soooo I knew my parents got me a computer for Christmas, because there was this big heavy box wrapped in newspaper under the tree. Come Christmas Eve with Mom, Dad, and two older sisters, it’s finally my turn to open a “big” present!!” I tear open the box to find 😮 … A log. What a buzz kill letdown. Who does that to a kid. Christmas sucked. I tried to keep an appreciative attitude, but that pretty much ruined it for me. The next day - Christmas Day - I did get a computer, but I wasn’t excited about it now. It was a Commodore 64, which I thought was pretty cool bc of all the ads I saw about it showing it off connected to a bunch of peripherals, but the stubby, dark brown keyboard computer looked out of proportion to me, and it didn’t have that silver high tech, modern sleekness that caught my heart. Kinda like wanting to go to prom with hot Mary Jane, but getting stuck with an ugly betty. Later when the 128 came out, that really was eye catching but still forever out of my reach. So I was meh about C64. Plus the log trauma was there - laf, apparently still is. So I never got into the Commodore because it was an ugly betty. Same with the Apple products like the Apple II. I didn’t like the color and didn’t think it looked very high tech - not like the shiny TI99 and TRS-80. I did think word processing with Script64 was cool, but I couldn’t get interested in programming on it. I think I must have thought it wasn’t a “real” computer, since it wasn’t large and didn’t have all those big electronic things on it that a computer needed to be a real computer. And inwardly didn’t trust or feel like the cryptic stuff on the display and in the programming books could be what I thought was real programming. So learning how to program just didn’t ignite. I think things would have been much different had I gotten a TI99 or the TRS-80. Ok, thanks for listening. Carry on.
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  2277. I agree with the discounting premise as well. Not to raise a touchy subject, but insurance companies HAVE to do the same. Whether or not it’s done meaningfully or ethically is an entirely new episode with a lot of research before we can realistically have an opinion. Sure, it’s cold and calculated, especially if you or your loved is being quantified. So, give an alternative. Our Capitalist means of exchange is the USD, and the formula wisely disregards the highly subjective value of the person. My wife to me is worth my life. Nancy likely was the same to Ron, and Mrs. Thompson and their two kids were probably valued by Brian Thompson with HIS life. But what value do I place on a stranger, or a group of strangers? Would I risk my life for others, like Daniel Penny? If there’s a young woman with her child, and an elderly man, all strangers to me, and I can only save one or the other, what kind of value judgment do you think I’ll make? Other than with high level, and yes - arbitrary, economic factors, how else would you propose these calculations happen? In Milwaukee, three men were killed buildings a baseball stadium. Does that mean we cease building baseball stadiums because their lives were precious, therefore ALL lives are too precious to risk? How would you propose to come to a settlement with the families? At the other extreme, because no dollar amount can ever be used to quantify a human, what if we just set the value to zero? Does that mean we just send miners into a Kimberlite hole so we get our diamonds, and if they perish, oh well? Their families get no compensation? Heck, if there’s no dollar amount attached to a miner, why have safety equipment - it’s too expensive! Why bother with company employment insurance, if their lives and deaths don’t cost anything? Obviously the proper answer lies within those extremes. If you can do better, let’s talk about your proposed solution. Otherwise you’re just criticizing, not unlike the old bats on the view.
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  2345. I'd fly in it, absolutely I would. It doesn't have any bearing on whether or not I'd fly in it, but my thought is that it will be the safest airplane on the planet for awhile! Despite the fact I work on aircraft, I don't particularly care what I fly in as long as it's a reputable airline, western technology, and well fed pilots so I think Petter is correct; I'd go a step further and say most people won't even think about it. I am surprised Boeing hasn't rebranded the MAX, and still continue to call the system 'MCAS.' I get the game Boeing was forced to play in order to compete w AirBus, but it turned around and bit them in the face. Of course it's horrible, the death toll, I hope that weighs heavily on the minds of the corporate decision makers. I hope the deaths won't be in vain and that Boeing finds its way back home from this, figuratively and literally. Boeing was - and is - an industry darling, an American icon. Inventing, engineering and manufacturing the greatest and the most innovative air- and spacecraft in the world, loved by its employees, respected as a giant in the industry, trusted by the American public...its history parallels our nation's history, and our nation's survival and our rise to post-WWII greatness, our national security, indeed our way of life! is due in no small part to Boeing. I hope this tragedy is the demarcation where Boeing decides to go back to its roots, and revives itself to again becoming an engineering focused and engineer-led company with a culture of safety and excellence, answerable to its employees and accountable to the public, and relocated back to Seattle so management (re-staffed by business oriented engineers, or at least engineering focused business administrators) and engineering are again enabled to get and stay on the same page and solve problems together. If Boeing succeeds at becoming Boeing again, it may be a way to honor and memorialize those who perished. This may be the appropriate time to cut out the cancer that is the former McDonnell-Douglas corporate structure and remove them from the company. The merger changed Boeing; I've learned there's a joke that McDonnell-Douglas bought Boeing with Boeing's money. The McDonnell-Douglas management team brought a business mentality that prioritizes short term profits and cost reductions, at the expense of R&D, long term planning, employee satisfaction and employment, product quality, safety and perhaps worst of all, Boeing's reputation. A financial bureaucracy runs the company, displacing engineers from leadership, a bureaucracy that went as far as moving the corporate headquarters to Chicago. This physical separation of engineering and management reinforces the cultural shift from building airplanes to creating wealth for shareholders. Before the merger of the two companies, this same team of executives with such a short term mindset managed to nearly destroy McDonnell-Douglas, one of the greatest, most successful, and most important aerospace companies in the world. Only the merger with Boeing saved them from collapse, becoming another historical footnote. Their failure of leadership is catching up with Boeing; how could they have been given another chance to bring another giant of a company to ruin?
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  2434. ITRI seems like it accomplished exactly what governments should do for their citizens and society. It also seems like here in the US, half the nation WANTS our government to do for them as well, but only in the form of handouts so they simply don’t have to work. When the US government passed the Chips Act, I was hoping it would operate like ITRI, but it just blindly handed $billions to firms to build more fabs (which is great), and then that was it - the government turned away and looked for the next thing to throw taxpayer money at. Did any of that Chips money go towards gearing up tech schools to educate Americans how to build chips, competitively on the world market? Last I heard, TSMC in Arizona was getting so frustrated with just the construction costs of building the fabs, they were trying to bring in their own construction personnel to bring the costs down. Also, not even our construction workers had the education necessary to finish building the fab and outfitting it with it with the technology necessary to bring it online. Whereas ITRI “acted like project managers” to deal with gearing up the infrastructure all the way through to bringing the infrastructure online to make chips, the US just writes a check and walks away. Corruption also finds a way in (thinking First Solar), and ultimately, nothing gets accomplished, other than politicians using it as a way to advance their careers or standing. Meanwhile, we just continue getting chips from SK, Taiwan….and AZ fabs are idle. Maybe we should have given Taiwan the $52billion as a subcontractor to do what the USG can’t.
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  2450. I don’t know…maybe not working on his image so hard, and trying to get his face on the news. With a House almost evenly split (which, take note, is the ideal situation the Founders wanted), the next Speaker is fast going to realize moving legislation is going to require cooperation, collaboration, communication , and compromise. As intended, and often, perhaps, to our frustration, the process will be slow. Conversely, the rapidity with how this gang of eight was able to upend the House and remove Rep. McCarthy is extremely troubling. That Rep. Gaetz identified and exploited the loophole that was not intended to be used this way…that only 4% of republican representatives were able to sack a Speaker…this is a serious violation of decorum, tradition, and the spirit and intent of the accepted means of removing a sitting Speaker. Rep. Gaetz and his cohorts acted without integrity, and behaved in too radical of a fashion. This is a maneuver I would expect from the radical progressive left, and is not behavior I want to see within a party that needs to present as unified, now more than ever. What I do think Americans are justifiably upset about is when politicians take advantage of the system in order to hold legislation hostage in the name of party politics. I do not think that was the case with Rep. McCarthy, I believe he has always acted in good faith, realistically aware he needs to respect the democrat representatives that account for the other half of this country’s population. Having a majority, however slight or great, does not give that party carte blanche, and certainly does not mean that party may act without consideration of the minority.
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  2455. “We acknowledge there are many different truths. …I’m certain the truth exists for you; and probably for the person next to you. But this truth may not be the SAME truth.” “This is…when we merge facts about the world with our BELIEFS about the world. So we all have DIFFERENT TRUTHS.” This is the radical far left in action. Redefining what is true, and forcing their version of it upon those who believe in the actual truth. See how she conflated truth with beliefs, and redefined ‘truth’ as ‘belief,’ BUT subtly gives the word ‘belief’ the same meaning, the same emphasis, the same authority, and the same DEFINITION as the word ‘truth?’ She is ultimately giving everyone (in this case her and the radical, socialist left) the freedom to redefine ANY word into meaning whatsoever they choose. This also gives them the power to discriminate against anyone who believes in an absolute truth and force them into believing however the left chooses for us to think. This is what happens when someone hates our Constitution, refuses to acknowledge truth, and seeks to our inalienable rights. This is what happens when someone hates God and/or refuses to believe in an absolute truth. She is attempting to remove a moral basis we all can agree upon into a free for all whereby the dominant party can impose its tyrannical will. This is what happens when a society lets the truth be redefined as whatever a society likes. What this eventually leads to is a government free to decide what the truth is, and force this decision upon its citizens. Since the citizenry chooses to believe in no absolute truth, the ruling party has been given the freedom to define truth as whatever suits them the most. We will have relinquished our rights to be governed by objective truth.
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  2476. I have chosen to believe we are alone in the galaxy, and therefore, the universe, from cells through intelligent life. I don’t have any religious inhibitions regarding alien life, nor do I subscribe to any anthropic tendencies that restrict life, including humans, to Earth. So many things had to have happened to allow life to end up with us in 2024 that it seems to me unlikely to have happened. And of course, there’s no evidence. I was watching a Moon origins documentary a few hours ago, and it was suggested that had Theia not smacked the Earth, we wouldn’t be here. Had hundreds or thousands of events happened, or not happened, life may not have had the opportunity to start. However, if evidence shows up I will absolutely be blown away with excitement, regardless if it’s a bacteria or a sentient alien. It will be the greatest discovery ever and HFY, I’ll be onboard. I’m just not interested in a dedicated search for it. I’m excited by the prospect of discovery, and settlement, expansion, and the exploitation of our solar system, leading to who knows where and how. And if we find some life on the way, great! Sometimes I get annoyed by scientists who are so certain, but their enthusiasm engages the public, leading to funding, getting us closer to settling other moons and planets. Plus, they’re genuinely excited and passionate about finding life, so by all means - search for it! They are busy helping our space industry move forward, and that’s good enough for me. And if it inspires people to learn and strive for space related careers, good for you; keep on believing.
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  2520. Simplifying the political and cultural crisis we find our nation to demographics and using Jan6 as proof of white male insecurities over their loss of status reeks of another elitist narrative using another sleight of hand, shifting all fault away from the radical left to the radical right. Ms. Walter says the poor do not start civil wars, and basically erases the BLM riots from this dialogue. Could it be the media’s use of the words ‘insurrection’ and ‘protest’ to describe the two situations and gloss over the reality of which is more indicative of our current and future crises? I don’t give a damn about one’s skin color, religion, or ethnicity and America was doing just fine at making racism generationally obsolete and integration and assimilation the social and cultural norm - that is until Obama upended all the progress we made at interracial harmony, and creating the most divisive American society since before 1964. What I care about is the cultural and moral erosion of America’s traditional institutional values by the radical far left progressives seeking to upend and undermine our nation’s democracy. I care about the insidious perversion of Constitutional principles by the ruling elites intent on destroying our desired form of governance in favor of marxism, socialism, and/or communism. It’s these far left radicals I’m willing to bear arms against to protect and defend the America I love and believe in. My Black, Muslim, and Mexican neighbors and friends are prepared to do the same. This progressive extremism must be sought out and destroyed, and if civil war is necessary to purge this cancer, this enemy within, so be it. I’ve sworn to protect my country and the Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic. I’m glad Ms. Walter was brave enough to touch on this topic that is inevitable unless progressivism can be eliminated peacefully. Obviously I have some disagreements with her reasoning and what feels like trying to deflect who would bear the historical responsibility of a civil war. I’m afraid she’s another useful idiot being used as a tool by the far left; perhaps she doesn’t realize it. She’ll find she’ll be judged to be on the wrong side if she is naive enough to think the Jan6 participants and their brethren will be the catalyst for America’s next civil war. That fault will reside with the radical left progressives in government, bureaucratic, media, and corporate leadership as they continue to erode away and destroy American Democracy. There will come a time when the removal of the progressive cancer can no longer be done peacefully; when true, patriotic, American citizens have been pushed too far, and are forced to rise up against these elitist marxists with arms if necessary.
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  2551. So you’re equating some amateur athletes getting together every four years to compete in games with global conflict, wars, and economies, wondering why we can’t just eliminate our militaries. Can you point to a single instance in history, just once, when this ever happened? Maybe it did here and there on a regional scale but the reason we haven’t heard about it is because the de-militarized society was immediately taken over. Peace is not a normal concept for humanity - if a nation wants or needs something another nation needs or wants, they’re going to go to war over it. The only antidote, ever, is peace through strength - among other things, it allows for the exchange of wants and needs by allowing commerce and its enforcement. Population growth is so much greater now than at any other time, it’s easy to dismiss this, but the world has been at peace now to a much greater extent than ever before. Yes, millions are suffering and dying due to conflict, but billions aren’t. And those circumstances that have allowed for the population explosion, as well as lifting billions out of poverty, are due in large part because of strong militaries. Exactly how peaceful do you think billions of people would be if there were no militaries? And as far as what George Carlin says, George said whatever he needed to say to draw crowds and make money. He said a lot of things, most of which I found repulsive. I never put much stock in anything that people have to say when how they rake in the cash depends upon what they have to say - there’s that conflict of interest thing going on there.
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  2558. 5:20 nailed it. Speaking solely of myself, I spent most of my life being a fraud, thinking my sense of self was flawed and couldn’t possibly be attractive. This manifested, after several decades, into self loathing and all that entails. I had an average or below-average number of girlfriends, a 20-25 year marriage, and two post-marriage relationships that were disasters. Those last two relationships were instrumental in beginning to accept myself. I’ve been alone 4-5 years and have learned that I’m actually being ok with being me. Although it’s lonely at time, sure, I’ve grown accustomed to being alone. If interactions with woman don’t seem to be what I’m looking for, I’ve no interest in being a chameleon for the sake of companionship. I want a long term relationship; I actually liked being married. But I won’t compromise needing to find someone compatible. I’d rather be alone than be miserable with myself for having to be someone I’m not. What works for me in the courtship process is a willingness to be alone if I don’t see it working out. Besides, it’s also not fair to the woman. Fast forward, I’ve found someone I mesh perfectly with, and am falling in love with. Unfortunately, we’re 2,000 miles apart at the moment, which is hard so we’ll see. I consider her sooo far out of my league, physically - she is jaw dropping beautiful. I’m not the Elephant Man, but on a male attractiveness scale, I’d give myself a 5 out of 10. However, she seems to find me attractive, especially on an emotional and spiritual level, and I’m coming around to believing her. I hope it works, because I was starting to think what I wanted didn’t exist. But if it doesn’t, well, it doesn’t. I would rather be alone than to sacrifice being me.
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  2573.  @utah_koidragon7117 I was going to comment something similar. To say the public should vote away the problem isn’t realistic. At best, they can MAYBE vote out some people responsible for the initial problem, but chances are the newly elected will just fall in line and keep the status quo. Or be outvoted. You’d need to vote in a bunch of people in who campaigned on this, but it’s a single issue. People might agree insurance sucks, but they like a different issue the opposing candidate has, and vote him instead - for example. The people who are getting crushed the most are probably a demographic that doesn’t much vote. That’s sad, and yeah, shame on them, but it doesn’t change the reality there needs to be reform. I have NO idea how to solve this, or even make a dent. It has to be something that will cost them, where it’s cheaper to cover medical costs than it is to deny them. The only thing I can think of is yet MORE regulation, but how will that pass? We’ve a populist President; this is likely the best, and maybe the only time the grass roots have a chance to create a groundswell their elected leader will listen to. Regardless of Trump’s support of corporations, he’d probably do something radically creative to make changes or start over. I don’t think he’d ignore his constituents, but we’d have to be organized, large, span the country, and loud. Otherwise, UHC, et al, will lobby as usual and keep the status quo. Neither the insurance companies nor the US Government are gonna do it just because.
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  2782. Wait wait, the pic at 2:26 is misleading, as this waste is secondary waste; higher volume, radically lower toxicity with half lifes measured in hundreds of years that contains low level radiation 2:27 items such as gloves, suits, containers, and so on - similar, if not identical to, the low level radiation detritus from imaging devices used within hospitals. The high level radiation stuff is the burnt fuel residuals, currently stored on site at the nuclear power facilities - the volume of ALL high level radioactive waste created by ALL the nuclear reactors in ALL the world could fit inside a room in a house - bedroom, bathroom, living room, I'm not sure. Also, current generation reactors are only able to use 10% of the fissile matter, leaving a lot of that small amount of volume that fits into a room, with potential to be reused. And a lot, if not most, of 4th gen reactors are to use the current waste as fuel, and to burn nearly all, if not 100%, of that waste as fuel, creating a small amount of waste with half lifes of around 300 years. That picture is is pretty misleading - at the very least, some context of the volume of the low level waste portrayed in the photograph should be explained. There's a pretty significant story behind it, and it is not unfavorable to nuclear. Even if we didn't reuse the high level waste, there will be so little of it especially when compared to the waste from burning petroleum, I do not believe it's an insurmountable problem - certainly not one to stopmusing nuclear over. The comparison of waste amounts isn't laughable, of course, but it is surreal.
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  2803.  @gregbrogan9061  great point. I read a study that indicates the support we're giving Ukraine is a great deal helping diminish Russia's military threat along w crippling Russia's economy. This turmoil may result in a possible end to Putin's regime, of course if this happens there's the fear someone worse will fill the vacuum. Also, there's the possibility a floundering Putin regime may consider the nuclear option - hopefully their nuclear forces are in the same poor shape as their conventional forces. Regarding comments about Ukraine vs homelessness, we need to do both, not either or. America must support Ukraine or any country in conflict with Russia or China, the consequences of not doing so will be much greater than our internal social issues. Not only is it necessary for the national security of our nation, but those of our allies and trading partners; it's a responsibility America has for being the wealthiest and most powerful economy in the world. If we as a people really want to address and eliminate homelessness, expecting the state and federal governments to just divert money to the issue so we NIMBY citizens can just go on with our lives just isn't working. Obviously. We as citizens are going to have to be willing to get our hands dirty with our social responsibilities and get involved with making solutions, and not expecting our local governments to do the job there not necessarily equipped to do - it's a lot like expecting police officers to deal with our mental health crisis, another issue we've swept under the rug so we citizens don't have to confront the issue.
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  2807. I’m a right of center moderate…also known as a classical conservative. I love classical liberals; my best friends are classical liberals - well, over half are - the remainder are classical conservatives, independents, and even a fair number of libertarians. America was built, managed, and protected by both classical conservatives and liberals, independents, and libertarians. Of course, those on the spectrum further right and left definitely had and have their roles as well, but were still guided by their more fundamental perspectives of the Constitution and Democracy. The Republican Party’s a bit of a mess, but it seems to be coming together in a way that will matter in 2024. We need work, for sure, but that’s not the topic at the moment. The Democrat Part, though, has been successfully, and even brilliantly (to give grudging respect to the hijackers’ strategy) hijacked by the far left extremist socialist stalinists. And the poor left of center moderates don’t know where they belong and who to vote for. Because the current administration, which is thoroughly controlled by a corrupt and socialist machine, no longer represents and respects their values, beliefs, and democratic principles. They almost can’t vote Republican because they probably would vomit to associate with the far right - heck, I feel the same, sometimes - and they probably are also hesitant to associate with MAGA Republicans. Can’t really blame them. But they’re also jammed up with voting Democrat this election, because this Democrat Party is no longer THEIR Democrat Party. It’s gone, STOLEN. So what do they do? How are they supposed to vote? Like a man without a country, they’re about half the population of America without a party! What’s going to happen? Do they split the party, and become “The Reformed Democrat Party?” Do they initiate a party COUP to take control of the Democrat Party, and KICK OUT the socialists? Will the socialists break from the party on their own and create a new Socialist Party? (I cringe at capitalizing ‘socialist party’) Can and will all the Classical Democrats, that other half the entire population, protest against the radical socialists and break with the current Democrat Party, and vote Republican, just for this election? Then work to rebuild their party, cutting out the cancer that’s literally killing our democracy? (Disclaimer: I don’t consider MAGA only the far right or the extreme right. At the moment, I feel it includes all Trump supporters, those favoring his Populist sentiment, and us right-of-center moderates. I hope it can and will include centrists, independents, libertarians, and especially the classical liberals. So if it will get Trump elected, sure, call me MAGA. Whatever; just win the frakking election.)
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  2825. What do you propose as an alternative? And why would you think you would do anything differently? There will ALWAYS be the poor, there will always be people struggling. There will ALWAYS be the rich, there will always be the super rich. There wasn’t EVER a middle class in ALL of history until fairly recently. Most of the country is middle class, and banks and government regulation makes it possible. Maybe it’s not the only way, but it’s what we have. Like it or hate it, we value banks and hyper qualified individuals. Do I wonder about these crazy high c-level salaries? Shoot, I can’t even wrap my head around the numbers. But I’m not about to believe the current ‘equity’ BS will suddenly make poor people not be poor. And I certainly don’t want anyone who can’t pay their bills in charge of my money, retirement accounts, and mortgage. And yeah, I’m struggling right now. I had it, and due to bad decisions and personal issues, either lost it all or walked away from it. I’ve lost jobs through accounting restructuring, and no fault of my own. Now I’m back to where I started - with almost nothing. But I’m not going to wail that ‘these types’ should give me a chunk of their outrageous income. I’m not going to waste time dreaming I’m owed a job just because I’ve been at one for so long. Life’s a risk. It’s hard. Deal with it, or be prepared to be poor. Life’s also pretty awesome. It depends on your attitude and how you choose to live it. And yeah, I’m still working on this last part.
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  2905. Pathetic. In some insane way, she thinks she’s supporting him? Does she really like her position that much as head of the ladies tea party? What an elitist monster - she fits right in with the rest of the socialist marxists. I bet even hillary grudgingly respects jill for putting her own interests ahead of all else. If he wasn’t such a miserable human being, I might have sympathy for him. But he was, he is, and I don’t. Too bad our entire nation is the world’s laughing stock, and even worse is how he disgraced the Office of the President and Vice President during his career. Worse still is how badly the radical far left elitist socialist marxist stalinists has disgraced the very same office - along with The Constitution, the law, our form of government, our scientific, academic, historical, technological, business, and press institutions. Since obama, our American way of life has been eviscerated in his and the elites ambition to implement socialism. But, America is beginning to put together that obama and joe are the #1 & #2 worst presidents in history. And as their legacies fade, and America guts this socialist cancer and destroys it, future historians will agree over how terrible those two men were to traditional American values. Fortunately, persecution makes Americans, that is, American in spirit, stronger and willing to fight for what we believe to be right. We will fight to take back our nation the Founding Fathers gave us, with their minds,their brilliance, their courage, and their blood. Laf, so yeah, there you have it. Jill’s a power-loving she-monster. The French Revolution and the guillotine may offer some inspiration…such as Marie Antoinette on October 16, 1793.
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  3062. This masterpiece of pontication 🤔 was in response to a thread started by TheRedRaven, agreeing and expanding on a comment made by Steve Pemberton. These are my humble opinions 🙄 on drawing conclusions from YouTube generally; in advance, I apologize if I’ve offended anyone or what I wrote is too disagreeable, it isn’t my intention to create conflict. Petter, you’re doing great things with your channel and I strongly believe you to be a trustworthy source of information and insight, thank you for your work. As so many others have pointed out, your level of detail is amazing, and the way you strive to present as much context as possible is appreciated. Your focus on safety and learning from these accidents and incidents has had a huge impact on my attitude towards performance maintenance and repairs of aircraft. @StevePemberton You make good points, and if there’s one flaw of these YouTube investigations (my opinion), and one thing that makes me uneasy, is that the only (maybe ‘primary’ is a better word) source is the investigation final report. I don’t have a suggestion to make things better and I’m not sure I’d do it any differently were I a YouTuber, but what concerns me is how a particular person’s style for their video essays can bias viewer’s opinions. For example, I’ve little doubt the majority of people believe John Taylor is responsible for causing this crash, but as you point out, it’s not so clear cut as that; drawing a conclusion from a single video and/or source always makes me a bit uncomfortable. Watching videos from multiple presenters is better, as they provide the obvious but important different perspectives and even biases and hopefully different or additional information; reading the investigation report, news reports and articles from investigative journalists, and related court proceedings in this case, is better yet. I believe MentourPilot, Airspace, Disaster Breakdown, Mini Aircraft Investigations, Green Dot, Long Haul, Mayday: Air Disasters, Smithsonian, On the Move, Wonder, and so many others, do the best they can to present facts in as unbiased and objective way as they can, but different perspectives are bound to influence different viewers, well, differently, and along the way, viewer’s own biases and predispositions are going to cause them to reach different conclusions. Some are quick to judge and seize on a particular reason for a particular disaster, sometimes rightfully so; some may question conclusions and look elsewhere, again sometimes rightfully; some are somewhere in the middle. For example, I don’t question the titanium metal strip on the runway was ultimately the cause of the accident, but I don’t believe it was the start of, and maybe not even the end of, the tragedy. I’m even less sure of conclusions drawn and drawing conclusions when it comes to investigating human factors. My hesitation towards biases, perspectives, and conclusions drawn was really made manifest with Iran Air Flight 655 by watching videos from the authors above and more, reading through all the comments, and reading the US Navy Final Report. Depending on how the videos reported seemed to have a direct influence on how viewers responded; indeed, watching some videos had me initially concluding the US Navy really screwed up and murdered, even if unintentionally, the civilian passengers. Watching others led me to change my conclusion to accidental homicide. Still others, showing a point of view more favorable to the Navy, changed my conclusion to the US Navy acted appropriately and this was a terrible accident. Finally, after reading the US Navy Final Report and learning the Navy issued NOTAMs to other airlines and nations which agreed to constantly monitor the emergency frequency and respond with priority requests to identify, acknowledged the Navy was on a heightened state of alert following the Stark incident along with Iran attacking other nation’s civilian cargo ships, and alter their routes away from an active battle zone, I currently believe the Iranian government is solely responsible for the outcome, essentially murdering its citizens to create and take advantage of an international incident. My point? My conclusion kept shifting the more information and perspectives I accumulated. By the way, I’m open to changing my own conclusion if and when new information becomes available. I do wish changing actual outcomes was as easy as changing my mind and that, as in the case of Flight 655, all those people were still alive.
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  3107. This was a response to someone who asked about high speed aircraft. I had a couple of conjectures; one about the Blackbird/J58 family, and another about whether air is ducted away from the low-bypass turbofan section on fighters traveling at high supersonic speeds up to Mach 2.5+. Can anyone elaborate and clarify? Thank you. Laf, there is that. A turbofan can generate a HUGE amount of thrust, but the acceleration and final velocity is efficient and effective for the transonic speeds of airliners and large transport planes. For aircraft designed for speeds up to high Mach2 aircraft, the thrust is accomplished by accelerating the combusted air/fuel mixture to a high velocity within the jet engine core, driving the aircraft to high speeds. For Mach3 aircraft like the Blackbird’s J58, an additional feature was added that bypssed a majority of the incoming air into the afterburner section, acting as a ramjet - the forward velocity of the aircraft was high enough, and the J58 was designed such, that the incoming air was compressed ‘naturally?’ by the velocity of the incoming air - and not by the compressor blades section. The compressor section still spun (and thus did the turbine section) but the majority of the incoming air was bypassed to the afterburner section. What has been said about the Blackbird/J58 family, is that at its top speed, the majority of the thrust was a result of the compressor section ‘pulling’ the aircraft, but I don’t fully grasp this phenomena. What I DO know about the Blackbird family, is that it flies most efficiently at its Mach3.2 speeds - that is, it covers more ground per pound of fuel at top speed than it does after takeoff and during refueling operations. But don’t let that ‘efficiently’ word fool you into thinking the Blackbird is somehow ‘economical’ traveling at Mach3+ - it’s not. The airframe is primarily one big gas tank, and it uses a GINORMOUS amount of JP7 to blast through its 2 hours at speed, before it needs to find its tanker aircraft, like, RIGHT NOW. Current Mach2+ fighters use a low bypass turbofan, which is a compromise that gives the aircraft a more fuel efficient sub- and transonic envelope, and a more efficient supersonic envelope where most of the incoming air is accelerated through the ‘turbojet’ core. I don’t know for certain, but I suspect for supersonic travel, the incoming air is ducted somehow away from the low-bypass fan section. But I never looked into this, so like I mentioned, I’m only theorizing here. If I’m guessing correctly, I don’t know if the airframe has diverter ducts, or if somehow the engine can shut off the airflow to the fans - thinking out loud here. For all I humbly know, nothing is ducted and the air always still flows through both the turbofan bypass and the core turbojet sections, regardless of the high Mach2 aircraft speeds.
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  3140. Ok, you nailed it. Let's go full on socialism because the only alternative will bring us closer to a totalitarian state - which, as JP points out, is what's best for all of us. If only we had JFK, a loyal husband true to his wife, or LBJ, who only had the utmost respect for Blacks, especially in private, or Nixon, who never tried censoring anyone ever, or Ronald Reagan, who never fooled around when he was an actor and always made the entire planet take Sunday off, or Bill Clinton, the model of fidelity - even moreso than JFK, or Jimmy Carter...wait, he actually was a Godly man - just rated one of the worst presidencies after obama and biden. Within the limits the American have been desensitized to, no one cares. In fact, his most loyal supporters likely APPROVE most of which you bothered to list, and during and after the biden disaster only highlights the positive effects the Trump administration had, and in most cases which haven't been blindly dismantled by joe and his puppet masters, still has. The border, the economy, world peace, the respect and fear and awe our enemies have shown us, the humanitarian aid we have distributed, the most positive impacts to minorities and a further disintegration of racism, a strong military that was used quickly, decisively, and successfully to maintain global stability and security, one that you should appreciate - further protections surrounding the freedom of religion, specifically Christianity as this has had a profound impact on the formation of our nation's national, political, cultural, and legal framework - a point called out by Trump, regardless of what he personally believes, strengthening freedoms of expression and speech, paradoxically also freedom of the press...can I stop now? Do you get the point? As Bill Clinton famously said, "It's the economy, stupid." Pick your battles. Regardless who or what you're voting for, from the president of your property association, to the city mayor, to captain of the local softball team, to the president of the local astronomy club, to the president of the USA, it will always be more likely there are the least bad candidates instead of the the perfect ones.
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  3294. Well…not necessarily. The flow of ice depends upon force, generally gravity - as long as there’s a slope steep enough for ice to flow (think alpine glaciers), it will flow like the plastic solid it is. Continental glaciers also flow due to slope, but also due to the weight (force) of the ice upstream of the flow, pushing against the downstream ice. The northern, upstream ice accumulates due to snowfall, but it can’t keep accumulating forever, especially if there is a downward slope. Eventually it’s going to have to start flowing, even if it takes as long as the entire ice age to carve out the lakes. An ice sheet 7 miles thick moving slowly is going to have both the pressure of its weight bearing against the rock, and the force to push the ice ahead of it to grind that rock. I don’t think it’s necessarily helpful to consider the portion of the glacial sheet the carved the Great Lakes as ‘fast ice’ because even the slowest ice will cut just as long as it’s moving. It may be that all of Canada (OK, probably not all, but run with this thought) has had its bedrock scoured, similar to the Lakes but: A - maybe there’s some intrinsic weakness in the region where the Lakes basins were cut deeper, but not necessarily faster (this actually rings a bell) B - perhaps the slope in the basin region AND the precipitation to the north of the basin was greater, such that more glacial flow occurred here as opposed to Canada to the west C - when the ice age ended, somehow the glacial melt water had a faster exit, or simply AN exit, from the Great Lakes region than the sheet over western Canada; therefore, while the sediments that fell out of the glacier and on to the Lakes’ basins were washed away by the violent flooding from the meltwater. But, in western Canada, where similar scouring of the underlying bedrock had taken place, the glacial melt could not, for whatever reasons, exit quickly. Perhaps that section of the ice sheet more or less melted in place, the drainage did not move fast enough to carry away the sediments the glacier was transporting, and the sediments simply remained where they were deposited at the end of the ice age - burying the just-as-deep depressions. C part2 - to summarize my part C word salad, ALL of Canada was ground down to the bedrock. However, when the glaciers began to melt at the end of the ice age, over most of Canada (except for the Great Lakes basin), the melt waters did not flow fast enough to carry away the majority of sediments. The sediments therefore remained in place, burying all the other potential great lakes. C part3 - within the Great Lakes basins, after the ice age, melt waters WERE able to flow fast enough to wash away all the sediments covering the carved out basins - probably eastward towards the Atlantic, as the narrator suggests. What about the huge rock erratics; where’d they go? Glad you asked. Some probably stayed in place and are at the bottom of the lakes. But, in rivers in the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) during the Spring thaws, I’ve watched, and listened to, fairly large boulders 2 feet in diameter get bowled downstream simply by the river’s current. Pretty cool. Anyway, I can’t even comprehend an ice sheet 7 MILES thick, but the raging floods that must have occurred while those giants melted must have been Biblical. D - finally, components from all of the above. And probably more. All this to say than thinner ice sheets won’t necessarily run faster nor necessarily gouge deeper than thicker ice sheets, and I’d even go so far as to say they generally don’t.
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  3352. I use my iphone (ipad, Mac) almost exclusively as a PC, for finances and whatnot, and as a TV, mainly for YouTube, which I enjoy commenting/journaling on for certain channels. I message just to update friends and work, really try to avoid talking (ironically, talking is probably the one function I don't use on my phone), and prefer moving everything to texts instead. I abhor voicemail and rarely bother checking. I also abhor email and use it only when necessary. My block and spam lists are huge. I have never been on any social media platform, ever, mainly bc I never trusted the potential and upcoming (way back then when MySpace was a thing) data mining. Except for You Tube, I don't use anything google. Ever since I found they were reading/data mining my gmail email, that was that. Maybe it's naive or just false hope, but I decided to trust Apple's promise to encrypt everything and to not view/use any data. I know not having social media is not normal, but I've just never been interested in it - although I can see where it's very useful and fun to keep families and old friends connected. Maybe some day. Right now, even though I'm sociable and enjoying engaging with people, I'm more of a loner fighting against tendencies towards isolating. Ok, this got long. See? Where I use comments as my form of journaling, learning about myself and the world with writing and thinking? I have the occasional conversation, but I never expect anyone to actually read these - and I also don't think of it as some digital legacy. It's just that a lot of channels really engage my brain, inspiring me to write. Writing to me is a slower and more deliberate approach toward thinking - writing is just about as fast as I can think intentionally about a subject. Goodness, I feel like I'm creating a profile for a dating service - again, a social media platform genre I've never tried.
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  3383. ⁠ @bigfellamike1913 True statements all. Tlacui will have a difficult time rationalizing how his party fought the Civil War in order to keep their slaves. Before his very eyes, obama and biden have successfully divided our nation, reintroduced the concept of slavery to a greater degree than the first half of the 20th century, in a socialist bid to separate us according to their arbitrary lines based on race, ethnicity, and gender. In their highly successful attempt at removing Christianity from our society, they have replaced God with their version and vision - their god of a socialist society where we are all willfully dependent upon the state. He's blinded almost as sure as the North Korean people, a successfully transformed useful idiot, projecting on to Conservatives the very thing his socialist ideology actually is - he just can't step outside his new self and view the chaos of this new order from the outside looking in. That the Conservatives are now the most rational, most Constitutional, least racist, and most accepting of actual individuality and differences in values, opinions, and beliefs, is completely lost on him. Are their racist Conservatives? Sure. Are there homophobic Conservatives? Sure. But when rational scholars and intellectuals can point out these far left socialist marxist stalinists are following, almost to the letter, how socialist movements take hold, any objective analysis will demonstrate what is happening to our society, to our detriment. It is no joke, no coincidence, not unintentional - this movement seeks to undermine our societal and cultural stability, erode our traditional American values and morals, undermine our freedoms of speech, expression, and religion, destroy the freedom of the press by precisely adhering to the very definition of fascism by subjugating the legacy media outlets, infiltrating and taking over our institutions of academia, our financial systems, the social media along with the technology giants, corporations, the military industrial complex, and recently the military. There is no consistency on the enforcement of the law, they're aggressively pursuing disarming legally armed citizens and eliminating the 2nd Amendment, turning our cities into dystopian centers of rioting and lawlessness, allowing wide open borders in a concerted and highly successful effort to increase their voting base, generally dismantling the Constitution insofar as it impedes THEM, brazenly interfering with elections by inundating candidates with frivolous lawsuits with zero or little basis and removing opposing candidates from ballots, lying about nearly ALL aspects of the pandemic to shut down our economy to make us more dependent on the government, destroying countless small and large businesses and using it as a method to further weaken and destroy the middle class, burden us with dramatic restrictions and regulations on quarantines and lockdowns where NONE of restrictions were necessary or based upon scientific evidence and data, wrecking generations of young people with subpar or no education while in lockdown, and untold devastation for millions of families regarding mental health issues due to isolation, depression, anxiety, and addiction...where does one stop when describing the deliberate agenda that has been, and is being, forwarded by the obama and biden administrations and the elites even OUTSIDE America, pulling the strings to advance their ideology. The other scandal which has a firm grip on the world is the climate change scandal, which is just as devastating to the world economies as Covid. It has scandalized the scientific community, done drastic damage to worldwide energy policies, supplies, and security...the list is too long for now; hopefully tlacui has read this and at least something has penetrated his cloud of ignorance, not of his doing. And it's important to realize this isn't just a national movement: the UK and Australia are experiencing the EXACT same phenomena, just with a cooler accent - it is uncanny when tuning in to their independent media channels. And of course, the infection has taken hold within the entire EU and every other democratic nation. It's a worldwide 'pandemic' in its own right, being manufactured and manipulated by elites at a worldwide level and scale. One need only view publicly available information that the EIB, the WHO, the IMF, e ITU, the World Bank, the WTO, the UN, UNESCO, and others, present to understand how their principles, policies, and practices, are generally unaligned with yours and my freedoms, priorities, security, etc., and much more aligned with a conspiracy-sounding world order. So go ahead, keep your head down, and don't vote Conservative. Maybe Esperanza can become a reality after all.
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  3386.  @xaviercockerton6989 I'm really not sure where you're going with this. Are you prejudiced towards peasants? Would you feel better if they were elites, scholars, intellectuals, thought leaders, corporate executives...? And what are your thoughts regarding the manipulation of events by non-participants, as being uncovered and revealed by newly released and discovered evidence? And you're really proposing censorship of a comedic satire? Are you an actual socialist favoring totalitarianism? And by declaring 'biden doesn't go far enough,' is this a tacit admission this administration DOES censor free speech? Who are you? Are you a disgusted socialist working for the administration, scouring the internet for anything critical of the socialist agenda? It is very interesting what you're writing and deciphering what sort of an American you are. I don't fully understand where you're going with 'a new Roman Empire...' Are you equating biden (or obama) or a socialist/totalitarian government with the Roman Empire? I think you are possibly the most subversive anti-American I've come across. I'm not sure if you just got frustrated and blew your cover, but I guess I had no idea agents such as yourself exist! And finally, since you consider this episode as 'views [which] are harmful,' do you really believe this channel is meant to be taken literally? Are you unaware this is an art form known as satire? I would have thought it impossible for anyone to take this seriously, and not take it as comedy, but in perusing the comments, you're not the first who seems to have taken this entirely incorrectly. This is a curious phenomenon indeed.
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  3424. Regarding unemployment stats for AZ being low at the moment, and suggesting it’s in any way related to biden econ policies… ⁠Arizona is a bit of an anomaly right now. Our state has been Red for a long time, and has had a VERY favorable and friendly environment for business, specifically high tech. Very energy intensive tech, satisfied by plentiful cheap power provided by nuclear power - two words that are basically swear words to the far left socialists who would rip that out at their earliest opportunity. AZ also is geologically stable, predictable climate - if a bit warm, plenty of available land, and free from weather-related natural disasters - all excellent checkboxes for massive data centers, chip fabs, national defense companies, aircraft manufacturing, finance & insurance headquarters, and so on. NONE of this is a result of democrat policies. In fact, just the opposite - failed democrat policies in California have resulted in a MASSIVE exodus of Californians to the Phoenix area, most, if not all, able to work remotely. Due to this and the aforementioned qualities, the unemployment rate is pushed artificially low, but this will change. Due to the failure of democrat fiscal policy AND the influx of people from California, rents are now sky high and home prices are even higher, more than DOUBLING since I moved to Tempe around five years ago. Perhaps you have seen the t-shirts stating “Don’t California my Arizona.” Middle class folks simply cannot continue to afford rent, and certainly can’t afford a home, and the same holds true for younger couples and families just starting out, as salaries have stagnated. Salaries have not even kept pace with inflation, never mind not being even close to keeping up with the dramatic increases in rent and home prices. I moved to Tempe in 2018-2019, and although I rented then, I looked at an average three-bedroom ranch, no basement, two-car garage, average suburban yard, right across the street, for $210,000. In 2022, it went for $560,000 and was on the market less than two weeks. And if this was like every other home buying story I heard, aggressive buyer pressure likely bid the asking price up another $20-$30,000. This is not sustainable. Something is going to crack. So don’t be so glib about AZ’s present economic bubble being the result of any magical democrat economic policy, because it surely was not. Don’t forget that not very long ago - around fifteen years ago when we started vacationing to Arizona, that same $560,000 ranch was likely on the market for $50,000 or less, and couldn’t even have been given away.
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  3449. I have severe restless legs that are so horrible at night I’ll kick and spin for HOURS and will generally get about 15min of sleep for several nights until I get so exhausted I’ll start sleeping standing up or sitting up with my legs down. During the day, my restless legs can be bad enough where I find it difficult to sit still, forcing me to stand up and keep trying to stretch out my calves. It also affects my forearms to where I find it almost impossible to do any fine motor work with my hands and fingers - like even simply writing. I feel like I’m going to jump right out of my skin. I can also feel quite claustrophobic, I can’t where clothes that are too snug - if my socks are too tight, I feel like my feet and legs are ‘trapped’ and I’ll have to either take them off or only wear short socks up to my ankles. I’m currently taking prescription meds to help: gabapetin - 600mg morning, 600mg noon, 1200mg night; ropinerole - 1mg night; iron supplement (ferrous sulfate) - 325mg twice daily. This seems to be helping, but I can still experience severe episodes both at night and day. While I just recently started using prescription meds a couple months ago, prior to those, I had been using kratom for about 3-4 years. Just randomly, I noticed taking kratom made my RLS stop. When my legs begin to cramp, I’ll take 1-2 tablespoons and my legs and arms are completely normal within 20-30min. It works 100% of the time and is utterly reliable. My concern, and why I am trying gabapetin, ropinerole, and iron, is that I’m wondering if the intense RLS is actually a kratom withdrawal symptom. I’ve had RLS for about 25 years ago, but they were not anywhere near as intense as they were when I started the prescription regimen, about two months ago. However, after those two months, they remained intense and I caved and resumed taking kratom to eliminate them. I’m not exactly sure what my next steps will be. I would like to stop taking kratom for at least six months, to give me confidence I’m not addictively dependent on it, and I’m still taking the prescription meds in case the drugs need to build up in my system - ropinerole can take up to two months to build up. Additionally, I just recently doubled my gabapetin doses. I guess I’ll just have to begin not taking kratom and see how it goes. One positive outcome of the intense RLS was that I was exercising more, in hopes of tiring myself more naturally. I also take meds to help with sleep, although there aren’t any I’ve taken that have proven effective or don’t have negative side effects that tended to keep me awake. Benzodiazepines also work reliably for RLS as well as for sleep, but they’re not effective long term because of tolerance buildup. Besides, they are addictive, a schedule 2 (I think), and no doc will prescribe them for long term anyway. I suppose I’ll have to check online for user/support groups for kratom, to see other people’s thoughts and experiences. I hope this may have helped, especially anyone suffering and struggling with Restless Legs Syndrome. It’s no joke. I originally started using kratom for the feeling of ‘wellbeing’ it provided. I never really associated the feeling with opioids - I’ve only used prescription pain medication - but I can see where the comparison is probably similar. But I never took it consistently; often I would forget about it for weeks or months, so I never really thought much about it being addictive. I also noticed some pain relief in my neck (I’ve had a couple spinal fusions) and especially for a pinched nerve that would run down the back of my leg and up into my back - the sciatic nerve? It may have helped after drinking too much alcohol - a hangover, I guess - but nothing significant. Certainly not better than simply not drinking :)
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  3461. This guy got really lucky - I think; bear with me. He and the Belgian coach (or competitor, whatever) got hammered, the wrong people noticed, and he was brought in front of a board of people, and HUMILIATED…by people he knew and people he didn’t, by people he respected and people he didn’t. He was subjected to a very, very powerful, external force of having this mental and physical disease EXPOSED. That is about as uncomfortable a position to be in, and in his case, was stronger than his desire to keep drinking. He didn’t simply decide one day to quit; he didn’t simply exercise will power to quit. He was fortunate enough that an external event happened that perfectly coincided with, and shamed him into, stopping drinking. We alcoholics DREAM of a miracle like this, that makes us instantly able to stop. God blessed this guy differently than the majority of us. Most of us need to go through the hell of loss, followed by God blessing us into accepting and embracing our powerlessness and surrendering our alcoholism to Him. We’re lucky enough to have a program of recovery that helps keep us abstinent - mine happens to be therapy and AA and God; others have been gifted with other means of help, some with a higher power and some with something entirely different, if a god or a higher power isn’t your thing. Every one of us would LOVE to be magically, instantaneously, cured of alcoholism - who wouldn’t? Why God gifted this guy as he did isn’t ours to understand; God blessed us differently, with a program of recovery, and I am grateful I at least have this. Most alcoholics, or at least a lot of alcoholics, don’t ever find freedom from the slavery of addiction.
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  3467. Wait, the pilot had to actually be ordered to eject? Man, ground control really is in charge of their pilots, even to the extent of thinking. Then again, he rode it into the ground on his initiative, killing his crewmate. Too bad about it’s actual performance and capabilities; I remember reading my Soviet Airpower book by Gunston when I was a kid, and thought it looked wickedly warlike and loved its looks. —————- I wouldn’t worry about the backlash over your joke, it’s clearly not racist as it’s based on something that’s happening, nor is it sexist as the women interviewed are choosing to have this done to accentuate their beauty. Personally I didn’t catch the joke, but for people to knee jerk straight into racism and sexism seems…well, unfortunately typical in our stupidly PC world we’re trapped in. From the Guardian: Iran has the highest rate of nose surgery in the world. According to a report in the conservative Etemad newspaper, as many as 200,000 Iranians, mostly women, go to cosmetic surgeons each year to reduce the size of their nose and make the tip point upwards. For many, surgery is a reaction to the restrictive rules of compulsory hijab. "They won't let us display our beauty," one woman said. "It's human nature to want to seek out attention with a beautiful figure, hair, skin … but hijab doesn't let you do that. So we have to satisfy that instinct by displaying our 'art' on our faces." Others see it simply as taking advantage of the benefits of modernity. "Science and technology have progressed, and people can look more beautiful," said one. "Why shouldn't we?" ————- I’m betting Iranian women are strong enough to take a joke, and need not be defended by our gallant protectors of some unknowable attempt of homogeneity of humanity.
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  3528.  @StevePemberton2  You make good points, and if there’s one flaw of these YouTube investigations (my opinion), and one thing that makes me uneasy, is that the only (maybe ‘primary’ is a better word) source is the investigation final report. I don’t have a suggestion to make things better and I’m not sure I’d do it any differently were I a YouTuber, but what concerns me is how a particular person’s style for their video essays can bias viewer’s opinions. For example, I’ve little doubt the majority of people believe John Taylor is responsible for causing this crash, but as you point out, it’s not so clear cut as that; drawing a conclusion from a single video and/or source always makes me a bit uncomfortable. Watching videos from multiple presenters is better, as they provide the obvious but important different perspectives and even biases and hopefully different or additional information; reading the investigation report, news reports and articles from investigative journalists, and related court proceedings in this case, is better yet. I believe MentourPilot, Airspace, Disaster Breakdown, Mini Aircraft Investigations, Green Dot, Long Haul, Mayday: Air Disasters, Smithsonian, On the Move, Wonder, and so many others, do the best they can to present facts in as unbiased and objective way as they can, but different perspectives are bound to influence different viewers, well, differently, and along the way, viewer’s own biases and predispositions are going to cause them to reach different conclusions. Some are quick to judge and seize on a particular reason for a particular disaster, sometimes rightfully so; some may question conclusions and look elsewhere, again sometimes rightfully; some are somewhere in the middle. For example, I don’t question the titanium metal strip on the runway was ultimately the cause of the accident, but I don’t believe it was the start of, and maybe not even the end of, the tragedy, and I’m even less sure when it comes to human factors. My hesitation towards biases, perspectives, and conclusions drawn was really made manifest with Iran Air Flight 655, and watching videos from the authors above and more, reading through all the comments, and reading the US Navy Final Report. Depending on how the videos reported seemed to have a direct influence on how viewers responded; indeed, watching some videos had me initially concluding the US Navy really screwed up and murdered, even if unintentionally, the civilian passengers. Watching others led me to change my conclusion to accidental homicide. Still others, showing a point of view more favorable to the Navy, changed my conclusion to the US Navy acted appropriately and this was a terrible accident. Finally, after reading the US Navy Final Report and learning the Navy issued NOTAMs to other airlines and nations which agreed to constantly monitor the emergency frequency and respond with priority requests to identify, acknowledged the Navy was on a heightened state of alert following the Stark and Iran attacking other nation’s civilian carto ships, and alter their routes away from an active battle zone, I currently believe the Iranian government is solely responsible for the outcome. My point? My conclusion kept shifting the more information and perspectives I accumulated
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  3530. A reply to a comment below: As a right leaning centrist moderate, registered Independent, I absolutely would consider voting for Mr. Kennedy, even if Trump’s on the ticket. If Gov. DeSantis wins the nomination, voting for Mr. Kennedy might be a more difficult endeavor. If DeSantis decides to wait til 2028, I may vote for Mr. Kennedy based on his moderate centricity, even knowing the positive effect Trump will have on our economy. The con of another Trump administration, in my view, will be the continuation of the divisiveness started by Obama; no doubt the extreme left will hunker down hard, letting their feral hatred of Trump fester and grow. I’m so tired of the wasted energy this hatred consumes, by the extreme left AND right. I could have a conversation with Mr. Kennedy, and be the smarter for it - I think he’s a principled man. I’m just not sure how the left extremists will react, if they will strive for common ground (cannot see that happening), or if society will finally reject both right and left extremism and they’ll both fade away, should Mr. Kennedy win the nomination and the presidency. Regardless, I’ll be engaged, hoping the Democrat Party does the right thing by nominating him. I just hope I live long enough to see Democrats and Republicans talk to each other respectfully, move our country forward together, have some BBQ parties, and get back to getting the nation’s work done and back to making the nation the priority that our great nation needs them to.
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  3531. Response to: Kevin did not keep his promises, what else was Matt to do? I don’t know…maybe not working on his image so hard, and trying to get his face on the news for his future ambitions? Sarcasm aside, Rep. Gaetz does not speak for me, he certainly didn’t act in accordance with his constituency (no time for that nonsense to have happened), and absolutely did not speak for his Republican colleagues. He acted unilaterally, his personal politics dictated his actions in this case, and the swiftness he and his seven associates were able to remove a sitting Speaker should be very disconcerting, if not terrifying, to we Constitutionalists. With a House almost evenly split (which, take note, is the ideal situation the Founders wanted), the next Speaker is fast going to realize moving legislation is going to require cooperation, collaboration, communication , and compromise. As intended, and often, perhaps, to our frustration, the process will be slow. Conversely, the rapidity with how this gang of eight was able to upend the House and remove Rep. McCarthy is extremely troubling. That Rep. Gaetz identified and exploited the loophole that was not intended to be used this way…that only 4% of republican representatives were able to sack a Speaker…this is a serious violation of decorum, tradition, and the spirit and intent of the accepted means of removing a sitting Speaker. Rep. Gaetz and his cohorts acted without integrity, and behaved in too radical of a fashion. This is a maneuver I would expect from the radical progressive left, and is not behavior I want to see within a party that needs to present as unified, now more than ever. What I do think Americans are justifiably upset about is when politicians take advantage of the system in order to hold legislation hostage in the name of party politics. I do not think that was the case with Rep. McCarthy, I believe he has always acted in good faith, realistically aware he needs to respect the democrat representatives that account for the other half of this country’s population. Having a majority, however slight or great, does not give that party carte blanche, and certainly does not mean that party may act without consideration of the minority. The next Speaker will likely fast find out McCarthy was an effective Speaker. Hopefully, he or she won’t experience Rep. Gaetz disapproval and wrath, and suffer former Speaker McCarthy’s indignity.
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  3538. I’m a right of center moderate…also known as a classical conservative. I love classical liberals; my best friends are classical liberals - well, over half are - the remainder are classical conservatives, independents, and even a fair number of libertarians. America was built, managed, and protected by both classical conservatives and liberals, independents, and libertarians. Of course, those on the spectrum further right and left definitely had and have their roles as well, but were still guided by their more fundamental perspectives of the Constitution and Democracy. The Republican Party’s a bit of a mess, but it seems to be coming together in a way that will matter in 2024. We need work, for sure, but that’s not the topic at the moment. The Democrat Part, though, has been successfully, and even brilliantly (to give grudging respect to the hijackers’ strategy) hijacked by the far left extremist socialist stalinists. And the poor left of center moderates don’t know where they belong and who to vote for. Because the current administration, which is thoroughly controlled by a corrupt and socialist machine, no longer represents and respects their values, beliefs, and democratic principles. They almost can’t vote Republican because they probably would vomit to associate with the far right - heck, I feel the same, sometimes - and they probably are also hesitant to associate with MAGA Republicans. Can’t really blame them. But they’re also jammed up with voting Democrat this election, because this Democrat Party is no longer THEIR Democrat Party. It’s gone, STOLEN. So what do they do? How are they supposed to vote? Like a man without a country, they’re about half the population of America without a party! What’s going to happen? Do they split the party, and become “The Reformed Democrat Party?” Do they initiate a party COUP to take control of the Democrat Party, and KICK OUT the socialists? Will the socialists break from the party on their own and create a new Socialist Party? (I cringe at capitalizing ‘socialist party’) Can and will all the Classical Democrats, that other half the entire population, protest against the radical socialists and break with the current Democrat Party, and vote Republican, just for this election? Then work to rebuild their party, cutting out the cancer that’s literally killing our democracy? (Disclaimer: I don’t consider MAGA only the far right or the extreme right. At the moment, I feel it includes all Trump supporters, those favoring his Populist sentiment, and us right-of-center moderates. I hope it can and will include centrists, independents, libertarians, and especially the classical liberals. So if it will get Trump elected, sure, call me MAGA. Whatever; just win the frakking election.)
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  3685.  @TheArtofKelso Arizona is a bit of an anomaly right now. Our state has been Red for a long time, and has had a VERY favorable and friendly environment for business, specifically high tech. Very energy intensive tech, satisfied by plentiful cheap power provided by nuclear power - two words that are basically swear words to the far left socialists who would rip that out at their earliest opportunity. AZ also is geologically stable, predictable climate - if a bit warm, plenty of available land, and free from weather-related natural disasters - all excellent checkboxes for massive data centers, chip fabs, national defense companies, aircraft manufacturing, finance & insurance headquarters, and so on. NONE of this is a result of democrat policies. In fact, just the opposite - failed democrat policies in California have resulted in a MASSIVE exodus of Californians to the Phoenix area, most, if not all, able to work remotely. Due to this and the aforementioned qualities, the unemployment rate is pushed artificially low, but this will change. Due to the failure of democrat fiscal policy AND the influx of people from California, rents are now sky high and home prices are even higher, more than DOUBLING since I moved to Tempe around five years ago. Perhaps you have seen the t-shirts stating “Don’t California my Arizona.” Middle class folks simply cannot continue to afford rent, and certainly can’t afford a home, and the same holds true for younger couples and families just starting out, as salaries have stagnated. Salaries have not even kept pace with inflation, never mind not being even close to keeping up with the dramatic increases in rent and home prices. I moved to Tempe in 2018-2019, and although I rented then, I looked at an average three-bedroom ranch, no basement, two-car garage, average suburban yard, right across the street, for $210,000. In 2022, it went for $560,000 and was on the market less than two weeks. And if this was like every other home buying story I heard, aggressive buyer pressure likely bid the asking price up another $20-$30,000. This is not sustainable. Something is going to crack. So don’t be so glib about AZ’s present economic bubble being the result of any magical democrat economic policy, because it surely was not. Don’t forget that not very long ago - around fifteen years ago when we started vacationing to Arizona, that same $560,000 ranch was likely on the market for $50,000 or less, and couldn’t even have been given away.
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  3753. The B-1 HAS been updated. Like, a LOT. But like Love said, the 52’s cheaper to operate and they both pretty much have the same mission capabilities. Yeah, the B-1’s faster on paper but it probably hasn’t gone supersonic since the B-1B was in the prototype phase; certainly never in an operational sortie.* In a near-peer fight, neither the B-1 nor the B-52 would even be able to commence a bombing run before being blown out of the sky; the best they’d be able to do would be as platforms launching standoff cruise missiles and hypersonics - which is exactly their current strategic use. The only possible way they’d be able to drop gravity bombs would be if air superiority and destruction of SAM sites were achieved, such as over Afghanistan or Kosovo. But the B-1 is tired out. It was used extensively in Afghanistan; it’s huge bombloads (50,000lbs on wing hard points, 75,000lbs in bomb bay, more than the B-52s 70,000lb max) coupled with low level flights have just worn it out. It’s really not able to be upgraded anymore, it would need to be completely rebuilt - as in down to the stringers, bulkheads, and formers for the fuselage, ribs, stringers, and spars for the wings, and reskinned with new sheet metal. Importantly, the swing wing pivot mechanism, a HUGE piece of massive titanium (I believe) would likely need replacing. This would be a new, 0-hour airframe - the expense would be enormous, Congress would never approve it, and it would be career suicide to even propose it. The current plan makes sense. The B-52 is a strong airframe, reasonable to maintain, and apparently easy to upgrade, such as the fleet being re-engined, new avionics and displays, and weapons capability. It’s also legal by treaty to carry nuclear weapons, along with the B-2 and now the B-21; the B-1 had its nuclear capabilities removed per SALT or START - can’t remember offhand. Also, the funds that would be required for the B-1 are better spent on the B-21. The B-52 will almost certainly even outlast the B-2 as the B-2 is expensive to maintain and operate and is already 30-some years old - it’s strategic stealth capabilities will simply be, if not already, outmatched by Russian and Chinese SAM tech, and we don’t need another stand-off platform, especially one as expensive to operate as the Spirit. *Regarding supersonic flight during operational sorties, I listened to a report by an analyst on YouTube (I really wish I had saved the link) who did a study on how many times the speed of sound was exceeded during the entire VietNam war - it was zero. I found that completely unexpected, until one considers how fast the fuel load is spent on full afterburner. Still, I was really surprised the answer was ‘not once.’
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  3827. Sometimes the passion just pulls you in. It is so otherworldly and so beautiful, and that urge to explore something so unknown and extreme is hardwired into our biology. Some of us may have more wires than others, and act upon those instincts. Further, 'we will not go to the Moon because it is easy, we go to the Moon because it is hard.' Some have devoted their entire lives to developing revolutionary new technologies to descend so deeply for much longer periods of time, and have sacrificed much for this need of theirs...family even, and lives. What keeps divers alive is the confidence one has in their equipment, abilities, planning and execution, and their comrades - similar to other passions of people, such as rock climbing, skiing to the North and South Poles, being an astronaut or a test pilot, walking a tightrope or slacklining. A competent diver never gambles, though, and thinking we're an exception because we somehow won something really isn't how we think. The vast majority of cave dives are successful and great care and planning go into every project or expedition with great emphasis placed on safety. It only takes a few seconds to drown so mistakes can be deadly really fast. What is really difficult and disturbing to cope with is a death of a human so far removed from the surface, floating in the blackest of darkness, alone. It reaches to visceral fears that are within everyone's psyche, a terror deeply embedded in our genes, a primal instinct. Reading or viewing something about a person dying in an underwater cavern is indeed scary stuff; you may forget the details, but never the impact it has on your mind.
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  3857. Oh, and a comment regarding CELESTIAL NAVIGATION…. It turns out the famous SR-71 Blackbird spy plane used a star tracker, called the Astro-NAV System or ANS, to provide guidance and correction to the aircraft’s inertial navigation system, or INS. The Blackbird would ‘calibrate’ the ANS, nicknamed R2-D2 by the crews, by fixing the location of several stars while on the taxiway prior to a mission - and the ANS was sensitive enough to see stars during daytime. During flight, the inertial navigation system was used for the autopilot, and the INS was continuously monitored and updated by the ANS to ensure the SR-71 was on its proper course with an accuracy of less than 2000 feet fore or aft, and no more than 300 feet off the centerline of the flight path - pretty good for an aircraft cruising aroumd 2100mph, or Mach 3…in the mid-1960s. At altitudes around 85,000 feet, clouds weren’t a problem :). Mission times from takeoff to landing took between 4-6 hours or longer, with a couple hours over the target after inflight refueling. The Blackbird used fuel like crazy, and super accurate navigation was crucial in meeting up with the highly specialized tanker aircraft dispersed along the planned route or routes. While keeping the Blackbird on course during the duration of the flight, the ANS picked at least two pre-programmed stars, and with the use of a chronometer (yes, just like THAT chronometer) could determine precisely the SR-71’s position. This was particularly important when skirting as close as possible to the USSR’s borders without crossing - which was expressly forbidden by express orders from the President. Navigating the aircraft, which had a turning radius of,90 miles and covered over 3,000 feet per SECOND, on a varying course was challenging, to say the very least. The backseat RSOs, the Reconnaissance Systems Operators, joked that “you can’t jam the stars!”
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  3895. Oh brother. And I was gonna audit courses at ASU. In fairness, I do regret not taking the time to learn Spanish since living in Arizona, but now have to move to Northern Wisconsin. But still might, as I plan on coming back. Anyway…. This guy is not unreasonable in a one on one conversation, and this seemed a reasonable discussion. But wow, the differences in what I think vs he is incredibly…different. Maybe this really does make sense to someone who doesn’t know much Standardized American English as opposed to my point of view as a white guy who speqks only English. I truly don’t understand the racist slant as not learning English puts anyone living in America at a disadvantage. Plus, as another commenter pointed out, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India, and so many other countries put an emphasis at speaking English because of the opportunities it opens up. Additional, any country with air personnel within an airline must speak English to be allowed entry into the EU and US for obvious safety reasons. Even Russia and former USSR countries had or were in process of transitioning to English for the same reasons, although Russia has likely relaxed that effort since most countries have disallowed them airport privileges. Also, English is the language adopted for the worldwide financial industry. There’s nothing about this and airlines needing to use English that’s intended to be racist; it’s simply, overwhelmingly, beneficial to use a common language for these two examples. Given the advantages, maybe someone could make an argument that it’s racist to not require a citizen, or someone on a work- or student-visa speak English; at the very least, it’s cruel to educate someone in America (or the EU, SE Asia, etc, for that matter) and not require them to speak the native language because it severely restricts their opportunities and income potential.
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  3899. Nikki Haley is not wrong about chaos following Trump. It obviously means nothing to us with respect to the primaries and caucuses, where Trump is likely to win all, but she could be correct if the general is close again. Then it boils down to the left and right moderates, independents, and the undecided, where a candidate other than Trump may do better against either biden, dingbat, or Michelle. Personally knowing many people who ARE on the fence about not only which candidate to vote for, but which PARTY, I could easily see where Haley might be more favorable to them than Trump, if she's played against any one of the three democrat goofballs. Doesn't matter, though, since Trump will win the primaries and caucuses - probably all of them. Unless she's a de facto Republican candidate due to Trump either dying or being in jail, there's simply no way the majority of Republicans will vote for her. And it's debatable that Trump's base still wouldn't vote for him in the general even if he were behind bars, which would be an election catastrophe since it will split the Republican votes across two candidates. Because, unless every Republican voter is on board with some mythical, unifying strategy, millions of moderate Conservatives are NOT going to vote for a candidate in the klink. Frustratingly, but realistically, given there are probably an equal number of voters who will vote either only for Trump (assuming he lives and is free) or only for a democrat, the entire race is probably down to the less than a million or so swing voters - who knows, maybe only a few hundred thousand! A conclusion to draw, however, might be that it's very important that Nikki Haley stay in the race, just in case the worst happens to Trump - if for no other reason than to just keep her in the minds of voters. And instead of every Conservative and MAGA Republican voter, media outlet (yes, you, Fox), and independent journalist channels criticising and ridiculing Governor-Ambassador Nikki Haley's campaign, we should be encouraging it. Or at least tolerating it! Clearly, she's no threat to President Trump in the Primaries, and if and when Trump becomes Candidate President Trump, it's not like there will be this groundswell of write-in votes for her. BUT, she could be the critical and necessary fail safe if the absolute worst happens that makes it impossible for Trump to be the Republican presidential candidate. So be nice to Nikki. Just sayin'.
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  3943. This is a great question! G3’s most likely correct; with the heat from radioactive decay and the heat from the collisions of asteroid and meteor impacts, the two bodies were indeed molten. And if they weren’t completely molten blobs, the resultant post-collision Earth almost certainly would be. I suppose parts of the cores may have be partially solid, and perhaps the combined core might be a little kattawompus, but even that is unlikely as neither planet was fully differentiated at this point. That is, the heavier iron and cobalt were still working their way down through the magma ocean to create a core that eventually solidified. There weren’t distinct layers like the mantle and crust as we know them today, it would have been one giant, deep magma ocean, perhaps surrounding the start of a core, even before the collision. It wasn’t until the Great Bombardment stopped, well after the collision, that the earth had pretty much all the mass it was going to get. Being relatively quiet, but still molten, the heavier compounds sunk, the lighter ones rose, and the planet differentiated to what we have now. With the heat from impacts gone, and the heavier radioactive elements sunk, the crust could ‘freeze’ and the magma cooled within the mantle into a thick, hot taffy with pockets of magma that, to this day, spew up through the crust as volcanoes. By now, the inner core is solid due to the massive pressure of the weight of material on ‘top’ of it, or rather, surrounding it. The radioactive decay is still extremely hot, and this keeps the outer core a hot, molten layer, along with the heat generated by the heavier iron compounds and allows that are still sinking, converting their potential energy into kinetic, in turn being converted to more heat. Relative to each other, the solid inner core can rotate within the liquid outer core, or the outer core spins and fluctuates around the inner core…or both. The outer core’s mixing motion is mostly driven by the convection currents that are created from the heat flow from the inner to the outer core. The relative motion of the outer core is significantly large. The theory indicates the core behaves similarly to a dynamo, which is a device that generates an electrical current, which in turn creates a magnetic field. The relative motion between the core layers somehow generates large, strong, and varying electric currents within the electrically conductive fluids in the outer core. The fluctuating electric currents in turn generate the huge magnetic field surrounding the earth. Eventually it will cease when the outer core solidifies. Sorry for the tangent, but I wanted to impart how much mixing and differentiation has occurred, and how much motion is happening to this day. The mantle’s mixing motion occurs the same way as the outer core’s, but much, much slower because of its taffy-like consistency, and at a huge scale. The mantle will continue to differentiate as long as the core releases huge amounts of heat into it. The heat drives the formation, continuation, and circulation of stupendously large fluid convection currents. The motion of these enormous convective cells in the mantle are what drive the motion of the crustal plates, termed plate tectonics. All of this seeks to explain why there are no remnants of the planetary collision that created the Moon. The planet is mostly differentiated, and the convective motion of the Earth’s inner layers is still happening, thoroughly mixing and combining the compounds from the two planetary bodies.
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  3948. I worked at Merge Healthcare, they make image archives for rad systems. I guess most hospitals had an on prem archive, with a bkup copy (millions of images) in the cloud. IBM bought Merge with the express purpose of training their Watson bullshitnAI with these images. Apparently all the hospitals signed off on Merge and IBM proprietary access to everything (de-identified and anonymized) that resides on an IBM cloud archive. There are hundreds of hospitals with billions of images getting dumped into the Watson AI data lake to train it to diagnose. BILLIONS. Their army of lawyer suits said ‘too fucking bad’ but nobody gave a shit anyway. That was the largest software acquisition by anyone, anywhere. At least up to that point. Prolly only 5-8 years ago. More than what IBM paid for RH. That was the sole reason for acquisition. Ballsy. Laf, Ginny’s balls. I couldn’t believe it, Oh, and everything is turnkey and ‘self repaired’ by Merge/IBM. We could turn on encryption on any of the archives, but I think they used LUKS (good stuff), but whatever. The hospitals couldn’t pick their own encryption, and guess who had complete control of all these encryption keys. Not a bad deal. I wonder how good Watson is now. Evidently, it was horrible, and it got drummed out of hospital radiology department everywhere. But, in fairness, this was a long time ago, and watson was probably it. Ginny really went balls deep with watson, so maybe? Regardless, with billions of images to train the…LLMS?? (Would they still be called Language Models if they were CTs, Xrays, US, whatever?? Shoot, was ‘LLM’ even in the AI dictionary yet, 8-10 years ago?? No idea. But your chapter on Adobe rang the bell. Maybe someone will find this interesting. Our office is in Hartland, but those Watson teams were all over the world. So, if you’re interested, winters suck in WI, but I doubt any AI folk had to relocate there. ——-
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  3978. Wasn’t everyone making or taking bribes and contributions then? That was just the way it was done, and naturally everyone’s going to get as close to the line of what’s acceptable and not acceptable. 20 some years ago in the IT industry, we were ‘bribed’ by vendors all the time, the more $ the more commensurate the handouts. It’s also not really fair to judge a company’s sales practices with today’s ethical standards; if every manufacturer is doing the same thing, is it really a manufacturer’s fault for trying to equalize their competitive landscape? Ask Grumman, I guess, but you can bet they learned fast - either know whom to make contacts w, or stay out of the export market. There isn’t a company out there that wouldn’t push their sales strategy to the absolute limit of what they could get away with. A pet project of mine is to delve into the various tenders that ended up making the F-104 the de facto NATO fighter of the time, and I’m trying to find the various aircraft and manufacturers the F-104 was competing with. It’s a little difficult bc each country then, like now, managed their own bidding process, so the potential contender list was different. My goal is to provide evidence that what’s called bribery now was sales strategy then, and most everyone did it, and also to prove that amongst the various designs submitted, the F-104 was either generally the highest performing (against the Fiat G91, for example) or comparable enough in performance (MirageIII) to its competition. So if anyone would like to help or collaborate, please let me know! The insights Ed provided in this episode were amazing, especially learning of what the pilots thought of the 11 vs 104. The F-104’s one of my favorites, and so is Lockheed Martin for that matter, and both will always be; that’s the motivation to care about looking into this task. But if it turns out bribery wasn’t a common sales strategy, or that the F-104 was always the inferior pick, well, I’d like to find that out too. Maybe I’ll be surprised.
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  4044. I brought this up in a new relationship, and she understood its importance. I said I also require: being wide open and discussing lovemaking like we discuss the book we’re each reading; and that she tell me exactly what do to to please her, even - actually, especially - while we’re performing. And give me feedback on how it felt or feels. I told her how important it was in my relationship. Ultimately, we need to have conversations about it as freely and open as the emotional, spiritual, and mental aspects that we both need. I didn’t do all of this at once, of course, but when I did it, I was explicit. Seemed to work. For me to enjoy sex, I need her engaged and present and fully aware that while I’m lusting over her body, I’m pouring my feelings of love, respect, and on, into as intensely mentally as I am physically. Anyway, she’s aware that I, personally, have no desire for just sex. I enter into a relationship only with someone I see a long term connection possible. To me, sex is the ultimate physical expression of love, lusting is deeply intertwined with lovemaking, and it must be present to build and maintain our emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual bond. The woman must know, believe, and fully accept my loving, my connection, and commitment require a sexual relationship to help seal and maintain the bond. It’s just as important as respecting and loving her with my mind and soul and heart - take any one of those away, the relationship will die. Relationships are hard, cuz they have to be constantly maintained and fussed over - I guess that’s why they’re such a huge commitment.
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  4067. Too bad. I boycotted these channels due to all the inaccuracies, specifically the mismatch between the aircraft being talked about and the accompanying photographs; on his Spitfire doc, for example, the video introduces the classic prop plane with a photo of an early jet, the Supermarine Attacker! I have to unsubscribe, somewhat reluctantly since Dark Skies started out as a decent resource of technical and historical aircraft knowledge. Unfortunately, this and the other Dark channels are just too untrustworthy; I just don’t have the time to watch content I know is just wrong but I can ‘self-correct’ because I’m well versed in aviation topics. I can’t even watch the other channels; I don’t know much about ships, so I can’t watch Dark Seas because I can never be certain that what I’m listening to is accurate or even true, or if the pictures and video even correspond to the dialogue. What is frustrating and incredibly irresponsible is him misguiding and misinforming an audience that may not be expert in the topics he covers - and that’s the point! He’s supposed to be the expert! These viewers are relying on his expertise, and he’s failing them. We’re trusting him that he’s found a compelling topic, done his research, compiled info from source material, and presents truth from a particular perspective. Apparently he must not consider himself a sort of journalist or investigative reporter, as at least they have professional standards they’re expected to adhere to. Think what you will about the media, they do censure writers that turn out flagrantly inaccurate, untrue and uncollaborated work. This guy is just whistling along fat, dumb and happy collecting his YT paycheck, and meanwhile , people are accumulating knowledge, basing decisions and forming opinions with false information. If anyone knows of a YouTube policy or procedure in regards to filing a complaint, please post. If any think this is over the top, just imagine Dark Whatever editing something in Wikipedia that you assume, and need, to be true.
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  4110. I THINK I’m one of, or close to, the voters who might not vote for Trump (I will, btw). I’m a right leaning moderate, registered Independent, and Governor DeSantis would have been my pick. But with the groundswell of very-pro Trump supporters, it makes little sense to still cast my ballot for DeSantis - it would essentially be a vote for biden…or whoever will end up being the Democrat nominee. The extreme far right frustrates me, even scares me a bit - especially after hearing Bill Maher call them out for their lunacy. :) And it disturbs me greatly if these Congressmen and Congresswomen are truly representative of their electorate; these would not be people my friends and I would gravitate towards at our city picnic. So, despite my distaste for ‘our’ far right, I have concluded that the next four years are Trump’s time, meanwhile hoping the next eight are DeSantis’ as we bring the Republican party back towards the center and to normalcy. Perhaps at the same time, the Democrat party can reconstitute the party back to the classical liberals, many of whom are my best friends. I believe the Democrat Party has been hijacked by this far, far left socialist marxist (even stalinist) movement, that views the classical liberals with disgust and disdain. Moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans must both take back their respective parties, and either push out or relegate their extremists back to the fringe. Biden, or any puppet of obama and the socialist marxist movement, simply are not good for America, Democracy, or the Constitution, and I can’t vote for that. Trump, like I said, isn’t my favorite, but at least I can look at his four years of his presidency and conclude I’d rather have four more of that over the alternative. For this election, being a Trump supporter does not mean I’m suddenly a right wing extremist, but I, and probably most like me (and even more than a few left of center, classical liberals), have little choice but to vote Trump. RFK would have been a meaningful competitive candidate, and I honestly would have considered voting for him. But the socialist machine has made his candidacy impossible. Clearly it’s not his turn either, but perhaps it can be in 2028. Now, on with the rest of this episode. And give me a little credit: I AM, after all, viewing a media outlet that swings left. I even try to watch CNN and MSNBC!
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  4138. Governor DeSantis is the type of leader we idealized in high school Civics class in the latter 80s, even while having a presidential icon in President Reagan. What is so amazing to me is that his words, platform, and goals he has for the federal government are not the typically hollow campaign promises our lackluster string of candidates we’ve had since President Bush, Sr., have made to we voters, only to be bogged down with partisan politics and feral party infighting. None have had the leadership abilities to assert authority over the Congressional disasters we’ve had for decades. The best a president has been able to do is undue the work of the previous presidency, and make deals to gain control of the House and/or Senate. Unfortunately, when this has finally been accomplished, his term is over, the opposition party assumes the presidency, and the same swamp cycle begins yet again. The difference with Gov. DeSantis is that he can point to his overwhelmingly successful administration of Florida. We know he’ll do it because he’s done it. I think he’s exactly the leader we need to bring Congress to heel, and is moderate and centrist enough to encourage moderate centrists within both parties to work together to stop the right and left extremism, with the leadership to force this cooperation if he finds it necessary. I applaud the way he wants to reduce the size of government, make bureaucrats fireable (and fire them) gut or eliminate the various Departments, give back to the states what belongs to the states (education, for example), and force the acccountability of our elected public servants back to We the People. He is the one who can do this and make our government get back to work running our country. We didn’t anticipate this infighting, gridlock, extreme partisan politics, and allowing our federal government to reign supreme over the states and citizenry back in my high school Civics class. I want this schoolyard behavior within all three branches, and the bureaucratic fourth branch, to stop; it is unacceptable to run our country this way. This is not what I signed up for when I cast my ballot, and this is not what our Founding Fathers intended this experiment in democracy to devolve to. I really am awestruck this great man is only 44, and am glad he is as he will need every ounce of energy he has to make this future miracle happen. Plus, I’m so tired of being led by old men, fossils well past their prime that should have retired years ago. They have not had what it takes to manage the greatest nation, and continually fail at developing our economy into one ever more vibrant. Perhaps God had his hand in this, nudging Gov. DeSantis into turning Florida around and upwards to excellence, and being inspired to become our next President. Perhaps this is God’s way of giving us a candidate who can reverse our plummet into evil, paganism, despair, and hopelessness. Perhaps Gov. DeSantis is our gift to get our nation back. It’s now up to us, and all we have to do is vote for him. That’s a pretty good deal.
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  4141. There are few people I detest more than Fauci…biden, certainly; obviously the low hanging fruit like hitler, stalin, etc.; obama, for sure. But how one man single handedly halted our economy for two years, and all the associated side effects due to the lies, the false information, the regulations and requirements that the entire populace were burdened with…this is the greatest scandal perpetrated by a single person in all of history. And the man walks around with complete freedom and impunity, without the barest hint of acknowledging any wrongdoing, nor any trace of assuming any responsibility or accountability. If he was simply wrong, and acted as he did, and believed sincerely he was operating with what was the best information at the time, he would STILL be criminally responsible for mistakes that had such an historically devastating effect on America. BUT, as the scandal unfolds that he absolutely knew then the facts that are coming into the light now, that he halted the economy by forcing everyone to stay quarantined at home, that the virus wasn’t any more deadly than the flu for healthy people, from children to older adults, that masks were ineffective, that there were and still are serious and legitimate concerns over the efficacy, the danger, and potentially serious side effects of the vaccine and boosters….that he knew ALL of this from the beginning, when the virus had first been released, yet still CHOSE to act as he did…there simply are no words to describe the monster that Fauci is. (Sorry, that’s a long sentence.) The only thing that makes sense to me, the only reason this man has not been executed if he were working alone (still a distinct possibility given his insufferable ego), is that he was directed. With so many scandals surrounding this administration, with so many conspiracies once considered fringe or nuts from 2015 and on but which are accumulating evidence they indeed had occurred, and that the extreme far left has such a socialist, stalinist, and communist agenda, it is entirely plausible and reasonable that the powerful forces underpinning this current administration and bureaucracy ad seized on the ‘pandemic’ as an opportunity to weaken America, make the citizens dependent upon the state, and further advance socialism by weakening and destroying so much of our middle class.
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  4142. Good Lord, the X article at 9:15 reads exactly like activist climate change writing. It’s so pathetically obvious this was written to appeal to emotion, completely bypassing rational thought. And it’s so charged up with aggressive, negative rhetoric, it not only makes it difficult to have a conversation about the subject, it’s written to preemptively shout down any alternative point of view of the topic. And it’s written thusly by design. This has been such a common theme all these years. It feels like someone at the top has a perspective, maybe even an agenda, how a grand vision needs to take place. And with stone cold rationality and intention, has commissioned these narratives that are so highly charged with words that appeal to emotional manipulation, they’re seized upon by activist tools that use them as weapons against anyone who dares dissent. And it doesn’t matter if the narrative is supported by facts or if it’s completely wrong, because that’s not its purpose. Its purpose is to advance the agenda of the puppet master. Oops, sorry, I got on my soap box again, with not enough sleep. Sorry. Laf, all I originally intended to write was to compliment Sal on this episode. Once again, Sal validates why I like waiting for his analysis of current events. I guess when he started using facts, experience, and common sense to explain the situation, it reveals the stark contrast between what we should have and what we actually have. I wrongly assumed government would be able to handle these contingencies by investing and preparing ahead of time, and getting the public educated they’re worthwhile investments we hope we never have to use. Instead, it just points out the short term vision and elimited, linear thinking our government has. For instance, if someone observes we haven’t had to use the investments in infrastructure, designed to protect us and safeguard our homes, towns, and cities from unforeseen threats and extremes, last year or maybe even the year prior, we’re probably not going to need them. Ever. At least not in the short term. Instead, they’ll kick that can (that can of ‘risk’) down to future politicians’ dilemmas, and use those responsible investments on shiny, new programs and projects that will get them reelected. Or advance some large-scale narrative or ideology. Or, more likely, both. Yeah, so a couple towns burn to the ground; a few dozen or hundred businesses are destroyed - after just getting un-destroyed by the genius moves during the pandemic; citizens - who count on the government’s foresight, preparedness, and leadership during crises and disasters - are wiped out financially, rendered homeless, even killed. And it’s justified. Their unpreparedness for basic government services and responsibilities - in this case, as basic as fire protection - in order to instead ‘prepare’ to keep themselves in power, advance their political careers, and further their agendas, is at the expense of the citizens who hired them to manage a functional society. “Certainly,” they tell themselves; “Certainly it’s terrible what the people of California are going through. But if they only understood our vision and our plan for the future, they would absolutely see we ARE preparing for their common good. If the little people could only see the big picture, and comprehend our vision, of course they’d agree the misfortune of a few justify the continuation of our leadership.” Just listen to John Kerry explain to bis cohorts how special people like him and they are. If it wasn’t so chilling to think about, and they didn’t believe it to be true, it would sound completely ridiculous.
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  4189. When I was just a pup, I was a hardware tech for IBM on the RS/6000, although it may have been rebranded as Power (after the Power processor family), or maybe it was pSeries…whatever. Anyway, it was around the year 2000, and I was sent to work on some new Power3 SMP servers - think it was the p660 H- and M-Series, which were up to 4-way and 6-way SMP. Back then, a 6-way SMP machine was a big deal. I was really struttin’ my stuff with my colleagues when I got trained on the p680-S85, which was a giant of a standalone server. When it rolled out, it was the fastest standalone SMP server IBM had. Maxed out, it had four 6-way ‘books’ for up to 24 600MHz processors, with 16MB of L2 cache. Dizzying. For memory, it had up to 96GB of ECC SDRAM on either four or eight large cards (about the size of an oven cookie sheet), where the memory was soldered on. As far as I know, every server before and after used SIMMs or DIMMs, but those memory cards were a feature for reliability. So, around 2001, the biggest, baddest, fastest standalone server in the world at that time was a 24-way, 600MHz, 96GB RAM, SMP server. It was contained within two, refrigerator-sized racks - one rack for the processors and memory, the other rack with four IO drawers with a maximum of 56 pci adapters. The rack could also hold SCSI and/or SSA drawers. If it was using SSA adapters, it could conceivably connect to hundreds and hundreds of SSA disk within dozens and dozens of tall racks of disk drawers. Amazing system. If it was clustered using HACMP, it could be one of 32 nodes, sharing those disk with every other node. It was also unique as it could also act as a node in an SP2, Scalable Processor/Scalable PowerParallel cluster. The SP clusters were huge, parallel processing, shared disk, shared memory (using fast HPS switches) supercomputers with up to 512 nodes. The actual cluster nodes were in their own special racks, the latest nodes being 4-way, 450MHz, 16GB RAM SMP servers, so having a number of p680s as SP nodes could have been a big jump up for specific applications and jobs. The p680s would connect to the SP cluster’s HPS switch using special PCI adapters. Some universities had 512-node SP supercomputers; I heard from other techs the NSA had a LOT of them. ASCI White was a famous, 512-node SP2 supercomputer that was ranked number one in the Top500, from Nov2000 to Nov2001. ASCI Blue Pacific was another supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore; Seaborg at Lawrence Berkley. Deep Blue was another SP supercomputer, an older, microchannel-node, SP1 cluster that was good at chess. All of these SP supercomputers ran AIX as their OS. I really miss AIX, it’ll always be the best OS, even today. Wow! Sorry, this REALLY brought back memories. So, it’s around 2000, and I’m being trained in Austin. Austin was where, at that time, the Power hardware was designed and manufactured. AIX may have been as well, but I’m not sure. Anyway, we’re in the lunchroom, and it’s just buzzing with engineering excitement. Then a banner is put up: “Power4 breaks 1GHz!” Everyone goes crazy - almost SpaceX crazy. The next year, the Power4, 32-way, 1.3GHz, 256GB RAM, p690 came out, and changed things into what we see today. It contained the first dual-core (today’s terminology) 4-way MCM (multi-chip module) processor complex. Four MCMs were (carefully) installed to make a 32-way SMP. A big deal. The thing was in a rack well over 6 feet tall. Same size as a mainframe, and internally, it could hold 96 disk drives, and 160 PCI-X adapters, connected to a near infinite amount of storage, as fibre channel had gone mainstream about the same time. This is also when LPARs (logical partitions) (VMs/Virtual Machines, to use todays VMware terminology, went mainstream for the first time outside a mainframe environment. In fact the people who started VMware were LPAR engineers who left IBM. With this first iteration, the individual lpars could use any processor, and any memory, and any individual adapter - nothing was virtualized then. You could have a 32-way SMP server down to 32 single processor servers. Today, memory, cpu, and IO are all virtualized as you’d expect, and the core count has gotten significantly higher; also, as you’d expect. I left IBM around this time, to become an AIX sysadmin. I was lucky enough to admin p660s, a p680 (!!!), and engineer the layout of the p690 (so fun), and also the p595 - a mainframe-sized Power6 machine, w up to 1TB RAM. Before that, I got big into IBMs processor/memory and VIO/PowerVM virtualization, and thoroughly into fibre channel director management. Replacing the beloved p690 with the p595 was pretty cool. Oh yeah, plus we used HACMP/PowerHA, clustering one p690 with another, and then one p595 with another, with cross-site, synchronized, fibre channel storage, in two locations about 8-10 miles apart. Man, that was a fun job. What a world. Time to boot up my 6-core, i5, 32GB PC.
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  4209. My humble answer to upgrading (rather, rebuilding) the B-1 and mothballing the B-52. Please correct and fill in a couple of my ‘can’t remembers.’ The B-1 HAS been updated. Like, a LOT. But like Love said, the 52’s cheaper to operate and they both pretty much have the same mission capabilities. Yeah, the B-1’s faster on paper but it probably hasn’t gone supersonic since the B-1B was in the prototype phase; certainly never in an operational sortie.* In a near-peer fight, neither the B-1 nor the B-52 would even be able to commence a bombing run before being blown out of the sky; the best they’d be able to do would be as platforms launching standoff cruise missiles and hypersonics - which is exactly their current strategic use. The only possible way they’d be able to drop gravity bombs would be if air superiority and destruction of SAM sites were achieved, such as over Afghanistan or Kosovo. But the B-1 is tired out. It was used extensively in Afghanistan; it’s huge bombloads (50,000lbs on wing hard points, 75,000lbs in bomb bay, more than the B-52s 70,000lb max) coupled with low level flights have just worn it out. It’s really not able to be upgraded anymore, it would need to be completely rebuilt - as in down to the stringers, bulkheads, and formers for the fuselage, ribs, stringers, and spars for the wings, and reskinned with new sheet metal. Importantly, the swing wing pivot mechanism, a HUGE piece of massive titanium (I believe) would likely need replacing. This would be a new, 0-hour airframe - the expense would be enormous, Congress would never approve it, and it would be career suicide to even propose it. The current plan makes sense. The B-52 is a strong airframe, reasonable to maintain, and apparently easy to upgrade, such as the fleet being re-engined, new avionics and displays, and weapons capability. It’s also legal by treaty to carry nuclear weapons, along with the B-2 and now the B-21; the B-1 had its nuclear capabilities removed per SALT or START - can’t remember offhand. Also, the funds that would be required for the B-1 are better spent on the B-21. The B-52 will almost certainly even outlast the B-2 as the B-2 is expensive to maintain and operate and is already 30-some years old - it’s strategic stealth capabilities will simply be, if not already, outmatched by Russian and Chinese SAM tech, and we don’t need another stand-off platform, especially one as expensive to operate as the Spirit. *Regarding supersonic flight during operational sorties, I listened to a report by an analyst on YouTube (I really wish I had saved the link) who did a study on how many times the speed of sound was exceeded during the entire VietNam war - it was zero. I found that completely unexpected, until one considers how fast the fuel load is spent on full afterburner. Still, I was really surprised the answer was ‘not once.’
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  4234. Excellent show as usual, Lex. I had difficulty starting this particular podcast, but now I’m intensely interested in Mr. Pakman’s conversation. I still don’t know how to digest these terms in a general sense; however, this clip DID reinforce what I have been slowly realizing, especially at around 4:00. David mentions “…the problem with a lot of these terms, and they’re used very casually by people who call into my show, is that *unless we define them each time*…” and I agree their current usage tends to stifle a conversation. I’m not sure if this ‘re-definition’ is intentionally subversive, or if there are just so many people bandying them about to argue (or shout) their particular opinion, but the terms no longer have a precise, consistent, and meaningful description. And I’m guilty of perpetuating their misuse. Things are moving so quickly for me, I’m not properly using them to elucidate and make plain my opinion; rather, as a right leaning moderate/centrist, I have been using them as weapons to use against my perceived far left, socialist threat. It’s as if there’s no time left for meaningful discussion, and I have to instead redefine them myself, both to squash the ‘other side,’ and to feed into the narratives to the right of my own to find receptive ears. I’m not being rational then. But the far left has been so effective at re-defining terms, it feels like being rational has been overwhelmed by irrationality. The far left isn’t interested in having a conversation, evidenced painfully, for example, by cancel culture and reputational destruction.
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  4266. That makes little sense. Prime Minister Churchill, according to your revisionist logic, was supposed to surrender to Germany because of the potential death of civilians in London at the hands of the Luftwaffe? Britain was supposed to simply capitulate because of six letters or telegraphs? I'm certainly glad you're not in charge of our military defense. Furthermore, Dresden wasn't revenge for London, it was because of the limitations of strategic and precision bombing where, in clear visibility, only 30% of bombs fell within 1,000 feet of the target, dropping to less than 10% in poor visibility, in 1944, by the AAF, and with the Norden bomb sight. All strategic targets, which included cities, were bombed by the greatest number of bombers possible and as often as necessary, to even have a chance at destroying the targets. Aided by the winds and weather conditions, the incendiary loads over Dresden kicked off an unusually intense firestorm, causing more deaths and destruction than usual. I recognize Dresden was and is controversial, but until the third reich surrendered, the blood is solely on their hands, certainly not Churchill's nor even Harris', nor Spaatz and Doolittle. No Allied commander had even close to the overall view of Germany we have today, but they were certainly aware at how quickly the Nazi's could and did move their factories and production lines when given the chance. Non-strategic targets one day became strategic targets on another day. If you want to drag Britain's and America's conduct and honor through the mud, over the lives of the enemy, that's on you. I prefer to be proud of the sacrifices so many Britons and Americans made to purge the world of the evil of the Nazi scum. Bomber Command lists almost 60,000 men killed out of 125,000, a nearly 50% death rate, a higher rate than the infantry, and a significant percentage of the total value of the 357,000 killed. The Eighth ACAF lists 26,000 dead out of a total of 200,000 people of all positions in the organization. The UK and US lost nearly 100,000 civilians, against Germany's 780,000. These stats pale to the estimated 35,000,000 to 60,000,000 total lives lost to eradicating the Nazis and the Empire. That's a lot of death for you to have the freedom to adhere to your disgusting, disrespectful, ignorant, and hateful opinions.
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  4296. Disagree, these island acquisitions are right out of lessons learned from ramping up the capability of the B-29 to burn down the enemy’s homeland. You are correct that it was American naval aviation which brought the fight to the Japanese navy, eventually (with a lot of blood, determination, death, luck and sacrifice - I don’t want this to sound like a sanitized analysis) and generally providing America with control of the seas. But this was done to get close enough to the mainland to accommodate the AAC bombing campaign and potential land invasion. We seem to be, in my view, acting appropriately in order to get air assets as close as possible to China, to fight a conventional conflict, blockade the country, and to sink shipping if necessary. I can envision stealth aircraft missions to take out ground-based S2S and S2A missile systems to enable a degree of air superiority, using the island bases for first (and only) strikes to originate, and carrier forces for the same. Hopefully this allows bombing and cruise missile attacks from these same bases and carriers, but especially lets naval assets in close enough for major cruise missile attacks. I believe this will repel an active Chinese invasion of nearby nations and territories, namely Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and other allies, and is what’s preventing one from happening. An all out war with China probably will not start. We may do well with an initial, conventional attack from the air and sea using the same air- and sea-launched cruise missiles mentioned above. However, we’ll never be able to invade China, and they’re almost certainly going to use tactical nuclear weapons on our islands and carriers…immediately. And despite worldwide condemnation, in reality no one will blame them. We’d do the same if Chinese forces were based in Central America, Cuba, and /or Canada.
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  4315. Especially given the scientific evidence that states healthy people need not have to take the shot or worry about as much as worrying about the flu. Even so, if the Military announced a command to be vaccinated, based on the most authoritative evidence at the time. However we've discovered that evidence is mostly false, and an authority that is probably criminally issuing restrictions and guidelines that are unnecessary. These unnecessary and ineffective regulations have resulted in several impacts at local, state, and federal levels, and ALL the impacts have been hugely devastating at a national scope. The following impacts include some, but not all, of the following: obviously, detrimental effects to the number and quality of military personnel due to concerns over the vaccine; pretty much bringing our economy to a standstill for two years, wreaking havoc the nation is still recovering from; and untold number of small and medium businesses that were forced to close and cease operations, generally permanently; a huge, untold number of layoffs from companies of all sizes due to the destroyed economy; setting an entire generation of students behind by two years of classroom education and socialization due to the inadequacies of teaching children, youth, and secondary education students remotely; massive increases in mentally related problems like depression, anxiety, addiction, domestic violence, boredom and nihilism. There seems to be no end of negatives which are the result of, and also the responsibility of, individuals and institutions the entire nation trusted. And evidence is piling up that said individuals and institutions knew from the start that all of their most impactful guidelines and regulations were ineffective and unnecessary. There are individuals and institutions that need to be held accountable, probably prosecuted and punished, for a most significant set of economic, social, medical, cultural, and military effects, effects that probably have been the worst our society has seen or will see, in our lives. The unnecessary and ineffective actions we took, based upon the words of supposed professionals expert in the handling of Covid, and a pandemic in general, were criminal; criminal of the highest level, and of such widespread and devastating effects, even treasonous.
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  4382. That guy is a sociopath. But consider, that maybe he's right and he has no clue about the new crimes policies that exist letting shoplifters go - that would mean he's actually being fed the low crime rates and statistics (because no one is reporting crimes of $1000 or less, it seems like aggregate crime rates are falling), and believes 'his' state is a beacon of the innocent. Another, after the high crime drives out ALL of the retail segment, maybe crime DROPS DRAMATICALLY because there's nothing left to steal? And again, Newsom is fed this POST CRIME data, and things look great. Could any governor be that clueless? So disconnected from the state of his state? There's no way he doesn't know - perhaps his narcissism is driving him to present CA in the best light, with the most favorable statistics. He just continued his charade that everything is perfect with his plans and policies, and went so far as to blame the shopkeeper for the theft he just witnessed! Since he is a narcissist, maybe he's sold himself on the lie that everything is good; he's repeated the false crime narrative so many times, he now believes it. Or is he so pathologically narcissistic that, because he's the top man, everything around him MUST be the best within every category, out of every other state? Maybe his brain simply cannot conceive that any policy of his would result in the criminal behavior his eyes are are witnessing. He is, after all, a sociopath. If he IS clueless, where is he getting his news and info that everything is going so well? No doubt he watches CNN and MSNBC - are they simply not featuring the rampant crime and lawlessness and the rapid decline of retail businesses in cities across the state? What and how are they editorializing the situation such that after Newsom listens to his media outlets, he can conclude his state has little or no crime?
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  4403. I can't tell where you're landing on this due to your grammar usage. My apologies if I'm misreading your comment, but if you're of an opinion that Ms. Kelly doesn't 'dig for the truth,' I disagree. I believe Megyn Kelly adheres to a very high standard of journalistic integrity. Obviously she has a Conservative bias - she says as much! This is hardly cause to pretend she's not a journalist. Everything she reports on or editorializes is verifiable. Unless she's a master of manipulating her viewers, every time she's made a factual error or an inaccurate claim, Kelly has very publicly issued a retraction and apology, and corrected the oversight. Furthermore, the very fact she discloses her biases proves her commitment to ethical journalism. This is especially apparent because so many of her competing peers have the nerve to publicly state their reporting is unbiased and non-partisan - which is wildly and laughably irresponsible and unethical. If you are of the belief that an individual's journalistic integrity requires they not have an opinion, I believe you are mistaken. I think I understand what you mean when you refer to 'report on it as it is,' but I believe your scope is far too narrow or limited. To use the weather as an example, my read on what you refer to as 'digging for the truth' would be that I woke up and see snow on the ground; I turn on the news and find that it measurably and verifiably snowed three inches. This is a pretty literal example of a journalist digging for the truth, although it's pretty dry reporting. But journalism is more than just reporting scalar quantities like snow depth and other facts and figures. I might like a journalist from Tucson adding some flavor of incredulousness about 3" of snow in the desert, or one from Milwaukee expressing another typical day. Each example requires integrity to convey the fact it snowed. Perhaps you're describing frustration at journalists who go out of bounds of reporting AND journalistic integrity by manipulating facts with opinions, colored by biases in order to advance a narrative and/or seek to tell you what or how to think?? Maybe?
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  4454. My opinion….we need a way, a message, a pathway, for classical Liberals to vote on the Republican ticket, that is palatable to them. I think the first thing we need to stop saying is “support Trump.” Classical Liberals need to know that, for this election (hopefully ALL elections for a while), they can vote the Republican candidate while simultaneously NOT supporting Trump. It is not an easy decision to make such a dramatic change, and we’ll go a long way by respecting this difficulty. What they’re considering is complicated. Classical Liberals are absolutely NOT changing their beliefs, values, and principles while they mull over the decision to change political parties. It is very important we’re clear that if they change parties and vote Republican, they’re doing so because the Democrat Party no longer represents their values, beliefs, and principles. They absolutely are NOT turning into Republicans, and they absolutely are NOT voting for Trump. What they’re doing is NOT voting for the current socialist Democrat Party. They want their party back, and right now their only recourse to get it back is to vote Republican. I hope to God this gets picked up all the Conservative channels I’m subscribed to. I so believe the only way to get these formerly left of center moderates and liberals is for us to respect the extraordinarily difficult position they are in. I think the only way we will get their vote is to invite them to vote for the Republican presidential candidate in order to have the chance to rebuild THEIR Democrat Party. I think it’s incredibly important we, that is, the entire Conservative news and editorial ecosystem, invite them with respect, and assure them we understand they need not become Republicans just because they voted for the Republican candidate. I pray Fox News, Sky News Australia, Dave Rubin, Megyn Kelly, Victor Davis Hanson, Thomas Sowell, Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, Michael Knowles, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Russell Brand, Ann Coulter, Konstantin Kisn, Jonathan Cahn, Tucker Carlson, Matt Walsh, Bill O’Reilley, JP Sears, Dave Chappelle, Dana Loesch, Piers Morgan, Tulsi Gabbard, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Tim Pool…shoot, why not CNN, MSNBC, WAPO, NYT, NPR, The Guardian, The Atlantic….oh, and of course, Joe Rogan….everyone! will take this message to all those on the fence, who want to vote their conscience. These people are our friends, our brothers and sisters, fellow Americans, HALF THE POPULATION OF AMERICA, and they too want their nation back. It could mean millions of votes for us to begin taking our Democracy back.
    1
  4455. I’m a right of center moderate…also known as a classical conservative. I love classical liberals; my best friends are classical liberals - well, over half are - the remainder are classical conservatives, independents, and even a fair number of libertarians. America was built, managed, and protected by both classical conservatives and liberals, independents, and libertarians. Of course, those on the spectrum further right and left definitely had and have their roles as well, but were still guided by their more fundamental perspectives of the Constitution and Democracy. The Republican Party’s a bit of a mess, but it seems to be coming together in a way that will matter in 2024. We need work, for sure, but that’s not the topic at the moment. The Democrat Part, though, has been successfully, and even brilliantly (to give grudging respect to the hijackers’ strategy) hijacked by the far left extremist socialist stalinists. And the poor left of center moderates don’t know where they belong and who to vote for. Because the current administration, which is thoroughly controlled by a corrupt and socialist machine, no longer represents and respects their values, beliefs, and democratic principles. They almost can’t vote Republican because they probably would vomit to associate with the far right - heck, I feel the same, sometimes - and they probably are also hesitant to associate with MAGA Republicans. Can’t really blame them. But they’re also jammed up with voting Democrat this election, because this Democrat Party is no longer THEIR Democrat Party. It’s gone, STOLEN. So what do they do? How are they supposed to vote? Like a man without a country, they’re about half the population of America without a party! What’s going to happen? Do they split the party, and become “The Reformed Democrat Party?” Do they initiate a party COUP to take control of the Democrat Party, and KICK OUT the socialists? Will the socialists break from the party on their own and create a new Socialist Party? (I cringe at capitalizing ‘socialist party’) Can and will all the Classical Democrats, that other half the entire population, protest against the radical socialists and break with the current Democrat Party, and vote Republican, just for this election? Then work to rebuild their party, cutting out the cancer that’s literally killing our democracy? (Disclaimer: I don’t consider MAGA only the far right or the extreme right. At the moment, I feel it includes all Trump supporters, those favoring his Populist sentiment, and us right-of-center moderates. I hope it can and will include centrists, independents, libertarians, and especially the classical liberals. So if it will get Trump elected, sure, call me MAGA. Whatever; just win the frakking election.)
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  4466. You make a fair comment, but, respectfully, I’d like to suggest you may be confusing Petter’s unwavering positive attitude with blind faith. After watching dozens of his videos, I believe his expressions and perspectives regarding MAX updates and explanations are consistent with his other accident investigations. The only real difference (and it’s a big one) is we’ve not had many, if any, step by steps updates of an ongoing investigation, so we Mentour viewers are getting a lot of content regarding the MAX in general, and Boeing in particular. Indeed, so is everyone else because of the media coverage, which can present in such a way as to enrage rather than inform. Petter’s style is focused on learning from accidents in order to prevent them from happening again, rather than taking a more punitive approach and condemning Boeing. For those biased against Boeing at the moment may find his positivity and optimism rather aggravating. He’s presenting facts and new information as they come in, and I believe he’s properly avoiding making subjective judgments and expressing opinions where the information is incomplete. Petter’s audience have come to appreciate his objectivity and positivity as well as his consistency. He’s no sap, he’s a believer in the system. I’m a Lockheed fanboy myself, but I’ve always thought highly of Boeing and still do. I think the corporate structure has changed towards the negative after the McDonnell-Douglas merger, and that the same leadership that drove McDonnell-Douglas into the ground have badly affected Boeing’s previous culture of excellence and safety, but my trope on that has been posted into another video’s comments section:). But Boeing is a lot more than these fraudsters, hopefully the oversight of the company by the FAA, Congress, and the public will be enough to get it back on track. Boeing’s in the spotlight right now, even the smallest infraction is going to be under a microscope and magnified by the media, deservedly so, I suppose. But negativity breeds more negativity, and at some point it’s no longer informative, productive nor even trustworthy. Sure, Petter has a loyalty-to-Boeing component - he flies a 737 and knows his passengers will be safe in one. But I don’t think anyone would think he’d be any different if we were discussing an ongoing investigation of an A300. We all need his positive attitude during this, it makes his MAX and Boeing videos a trusted source.
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  4594. My opinion….we need a way, a message, a pathway, for classical Liberals to vote on the Republican ticket, that is palatable to them. I think the first thing we need to stop saying is “support Trump.” Classical Liberals need to know that, for this election (hopefully ALL elections for a while), they can vote the Republican candidate while simultaneously NOT supporting Trump. It is not an easy decision to make such a dramatic change, and we’ll go a long way by respecting this difficulty. What they’re considering is complicated. Classical Liberals are absolutely NOT changing their beliefs, values, and principles while they mull over the decision to change political parties. It is very important we’re clear that if they change parties and vote Republican, they’re doing so because the Democrat Party no longer represents their values, beliefs, and principles. They absolutely are NOT turning into Republicans, and they absolutely are NOT voting for Trump. What they’re doing is NOT voting for the current socialist Democrat Party. They want their party back, and right now their only recourse to get it back is to vote Republican. I hope to God this gets picked up all the Conservative channels I’m subscribed to. I so believe the only way to get these formerly left of center moderates and liberals is for us to respect the extraordinarily difficult position they are in. I think the only way we will get their vote is to invite them to vote for the Republican presidential candidate in order to have the chance to rebuild THEIR Democrat Party. I think it’s incredibly important we, that is, the entire Conservative news and editorial ecosystem, invite them with respect, and assure them we understand they need not become Republicans just because they voted for the Republican candidate. I pray Fox News, Sky News Australia, Dave Rubin, Megyn Kelly, Victor Davis Hanson, Thomas Sowell, Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, Michael Knowles, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Russell Brand, Ann Coulter, Konstantin Kisn, Jonathan Cahn, Tucker Carlson, Matt Walsh, Bill O’Reilley, JP Sears, Dave Chappelle, Dana Loesch, Piers Morgan, Tulsi Gabbard, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Tim Pool…shoot, why not CNN, MSNBC, WAPO, NYT, NPR, The Guardian, The Atlantic….oh, and of course, Joe Rogan….everyone! will take this message to all those on the fence, who want to vote their conscience. These people are our friends, our brothers and sisters, fellow Americans, HALF THE POPULATION OF AMERICA, and they too want their nation back. It could mean millions of votes for us to begin taking our Democracy back.
    1
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  4647. Response to tq's infantile 'blood on Churchill's hands' misrepresentation: That makes little sense. Prime Minister Churchill, according to your revisionist logic, was supposed to surrender to Germany because of the potential death of civilians in London at the hands of the Luftwaffe? Britain was supposed to simply capitulate because of six letters or telegraphs? I'm certainly glad you're not in charge of our military defense. Furthermore, Dresden wasn't revenge for London, it was because of the limitations of strategic and precision bombing where, in clear visibility, only 30% of bombs fell within 1,000 feet of the target, dropping to less than 10% in poor visibility, in 1944, by the AAF, and with the Norden bomb sight. All strategic targets, which included cities, were bombed by the greatest number of bombers possible and as often as necessary, to even have a chance at destroying the targets. Aided by the winds and weather conditions, the incendiary loads over Dresden kicked off an unusually intense firestorm, causing more deaths and destruction than usual. I recognize Dresden was and is controversial, but until the third reich surrendered, the blood is solely on their hands, certainly not Churchill's nor even Harris', nor Spaatz and Doolittle. No Allied commander had even close to the overall view of Germany we have today, but they were certainly aware at how quickly the Nazi's could and did move their factories and production lines when given the chance. Non-strategic targets one day became strategic targets on another day. If you want to drag Britain's and America's conduct and honor through the mud, over the lives of the enemy, that's on you. I prefer to be proud of the sacrifices so many Britons and Americans made to purge the world of the evil of the Nazi scum. Bomber Command lists almost 60,000 men killed out of 125,000, a nearly 50% death rate, a higher rate than the infantry, and a significant percentage of the total value of the 357,000 killed. The Eighth ACAF lists 26,000 dead out of a total of 200,000 people of all positions in the organization. The UK and US lost nearly 100,000 civilians, against Germany's 780,000. These stats pale to the estimated 35,000,000 to 60,000,000 total lives lost to eradicating the Nazis and the Empire. That's a lot of death for you to have the freedom to adhere to your disgusting, disrespectful, ignorant, and hateful opinions.
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  4691. My opinion….we need a way, a message, a pathway, for classical Liberals to vote on the Republican ticket, that is palatable to them. I think the first thing we need to stop saying is “support Trump.” Classical Liberals need to know that, for this election (hopefully ALL elections for a while), they can vote the Republican candidate while simultaneously NOT supporting Trump. It is not an easy decision to make such a dramatic change, and we’ll go a long way by respecting this difficulty. What they’re considering is complicated. Classical Liberals are absolutely NOT changing their beliefs, values, and principles while they mull over the decision to change political parties. It is very important we’re clear that if they change parties and vote Republican, they’re doing so because the Democrat Party no longer represents their values, beliefs, and principles. They absolutely are NOT turning into Republicans, and they absolutely are NOT voting for Trump. What they’re doing is NOT voting for the current socialist Democrat Party. They want their party back, and right now their only recourse to get it back is to vote Republican. I hope to God this gets picked up all the Conservative channels I’m subscribed to. I so believe the only way to get these formerly left of center moderates and liberals is for us to respect the extraordinarily difficult position they are in. I think the only way we will get their vote is to invite them to vote for the Republican presidential candidate in order to have the chance to rebuild THEIR Democrat Party. I think it’s incredibly important we, that is, the entire Conservative news and editorial ecosystem, invite them with respect, and assure them we understand they need not become Republicans just because they voted for the Republican candidate. I pray Fox News, Sky News Australia, Dave Rubin, Megyn Kelly, Victor Davis Hanson, Thomas Sowell, Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, Michael Knowles, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Russell Brand, Ann Coulter, Konstantin Kisn, Jonathan Cahn, Tucker Carlson, Matt Walsh, Bill O’Reilley, JP Sears, Dave Chappelle, Dana Loesch, Piers Morgan, Tulsi Gabbard, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Tim Pool…shoot, why not CNN, MSNBC, WAPO, NYT, NPR, The Guardian, The Atlantic….oh, and of course, Joe Rogan….everyone! will take this message to all those on the fence, who want to vote their conscience. These people are our friends, our brothers and sisters, fellow Americans, HALF THE POPULATION OF AMERICA, and they too want their nation back. It could mean millions of votes for us to begin taking our Democracy back.
    1
  4692. I’m a right of center moderate…also known as a classical conservative. I love classical liberals; my best friends are classical liberals - well, over half are - the remainder are classical conservatives, independents, and even a fair number of libertarians. America was built, managed, and protected by both classical conservatives and liberals, independents, and libertarians. Of course, those on the spectrum further right and left definitely had and have their roles as well, but were still guided by their more fundamental perspectives of the Constitution and Democracy. The Republican Party’s a bit of a mess, but it seems to be coming together in a way that will matter in 2024. We need work, for sure, but that’s not the topic at the moment. The Democrat Part, though, has been successfully, and even brilliantly (to give grudging respect to the hijackers’ strategy) hijacked by the far left extremist socialist stalinists. And the poor left of center moderates don’t know where they belong and who to vote for. Because the current administration, which is thoroughly controlled by a corrupt and socialist machine, no longer represents and respects their values, beliefs, and democratic principles. They almost can’t vote Republican because they probably would vomit to associate with the far right - heck, I feel the same, sometimes - and they probably are also hesitant to associate with MAGA Republicans. Can’t really blame them. But they’re also jammed up with voting Democrat this election, because this Democrat Party is no longer THEIR Democrat Party. It’s gone, STOLEN. So what do they do? How are they supposed to vote? Like a man without a country, they’re about half the population of America without a party! What’s going to happen? Do they split the party, and become “The Reformed Democrat Party?” Do they initiate a party COUP to take control of the Democrat Party, and KICK OUT the socialists? Will the socialists break from the party on their own and create a new Socialist Party? (I cringe at capitalizing ‘socialist party’) Can and will all the Classical Democrats, that other half the entire population, protest against the radical socialists and break with the current Democrat Party, and vote Republican, just for this election? Then work to rebuild their party, cutting out the cancer that’s literally killing our democracy? (Disclaimer: I don’t consider MAGA only the far right or the extreme right. At the moment, I feel it includes all Trump supporters, those favoring his Populist sentiment, and us right-of-center moderates. I hope it can and will include centrists, independents, libertarians, and especially the classical liberals. So if it will get Trump elected, sure, call me MAGA. Whatever; just win the frakking election.)
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  4738. Nikki Haley is not wrong about chaos following Trump. It obviously means nothing to us with respect to the primaries and caucuses, where Trump is likely to win all, but she could be correct if the general is close again. Then it boils down to the left and right moderates, independents, and the undecided, where a candidate other than Trump may do better against either biden, dingbat, or Michelle. Personally knowing many people who ARE on the fence about not only which candidate to vote for, but which PARTY, I could easily see where Haley might be more favorable to them than Trump, if she's played against any one of the three democrat goofballs. Doesn't matter, though, since Trump will win the primaries and caucuses - probably all of them. Unless she's a de facto Republican candidate due to Trump either dying or being in jail, there's simply no way the majority of Republicans will vote for her. And it's debatable that Trump's base still wouldn't vote for him in the general even if he were behind bars, which would be an election catastrophe since it will split the Republican votes across two candidates. Because, unless every Republican voter is on board with some mythical, unifying strategy, millions of moderate Conservatives are NOT going to vote for a candidate in the klink. Frustratingly, but realistically, given there are probably an equal number of voters who will vote either only for Trump (assuming he lives and is free) or only for a democrat, the entire race is probably down to the less than a million or so swing voters - who knows, maybe only a few hundred thousand! A conclusion to draw, however, might be that it's very important that Nikki Haley stay in the race, just in case the worst happens to Trump - if for no other reason than to just keep her in the minds of voters. And instead of every Conservative and MAGA Republican voter, media outlet (yes, you, Fox), and independent journalist channels criticising and ridiculing Governor-Ambassador Nikki Haley's campaign, we should be encouraging it. Or at least tolerating it! Clearly, she's no threat to President Trump in the Primaries, and if and when Trump becomes Candidate President Trump, it's not like there will be this groundswell of write-in votes for her. BUT, she could be the critical and necessary fail safe if the absolute worst happens that makes it impossible for Trump to be the Republican presidential candidate. So be nice to Nikki. Just sayin'.
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  4744. Thanks to Katherine Maher, like NPR, Wikipedia has become an instrument of the progressive far left, immediately making it an extremely biased, and therefore unreliable, information source. It’s unfortunate, but another example of an institution being taken over by the left and turned into a propaganda outlet. Anything remotely related to so-called climate science, the trans movement, the electoral college, Jan6, George Floyd, socialism, marxism, leftist biographies…anything far left is biased favorably or has a false neutrality. Predictably, precisely the opposite is true for anything to the right of Maher’s progressivism - including left leaning moderate and left of centrist views. Just as she’s done with the so-called unbiased NPR with its editorial staff of 87 registered democrats vs 0 registered Independents or Republicans, she has forced wikipedia to take a severely hard left turn. As far as fundraising and funding, Maher has also solicited The Tides Foundation to fund and manage a $240 million endowment. Please go to influence.org to see what Tides is about - it is decidedly NOT for unbiased repositories of information. Remember this endowment the next time you are hassled for a donation. Also remember what you are tacitly supporting by continuing to use Wikipedia as a trustworthy, unbiased, fact based source of information. If you’re curious still, make a change - ANY change - to obama’s bio, and keep track of the elapsed seconds til the change is reverted. Now do the same for President Trump, but make it interesting: edit or add something less than favorable and watch it stick. Now go to J6, find an instance of the word ‘insurrection’ and change it to ‘riot.’ If you’re far left, congratulations - you’ve managed to corrupt another quasi institution. If you’re to the Right (even if you’re a registered ‘classical’ Democrat), I recommend going down the list of search results and picking anything other than wikipedia. I actually blocked the site, but hey, that’s just me. I’m working towards learning how to remove them from my search engine’s results list. I plead others to do likewise. Maher was objectively humiliated in front of Congress. However, she felt no humiliation; she exuded arrogance and elitism, and her contempt for Rep. Gill was palpable. She’s the archetype of the far left and is insidious in her mission to maintain control over the narrative she used at Wikipedia, and continues to use at NPR, as a cudgel against Democracy. Recall, this is the woman who argues (on a TEDTalk) that truth is an obstacle to consensus, there are many truths, not just one objective truth; and that The First Amendment is her number one challenge in censoring bad information, one week after suspending Uri Berliner, who subsequently resigned stating the platform had become an activist organization for far left progressive ideals. “The number one challenge that we see here is, of course, the First Amendment in the United States,” Maher said at the panel hosted by the Atlantic Council's research lab. Of course it is, Katherine, when you are an elitist socialist marxist bent on fostering totalitarianism. Who’s the authoritarian, Katherine? Who’s the fascist, Katherine? Certainly no one I’ve voted for. Would you really condone this woman’s views on Free Speech by using this platform? Can you trust the information within wikipedia is true? Can you trust the platform to replace the self governing original idea, replaced by moderator censorship?
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  4749. I left a sexless marriage after years of both of us being frustrated. I think our drives were about the same, but we could never ‘sync’ up something fundamental that we both had, but couldn’t share for whatever reason. When we did have sex, it was devoid of love; when we had moments of love, it was devoid of sex. Next relationship, we were completely open about sex, and love and lust seemed in harmony. We were on the same page with most things, and I was to take care of her providing security and financial freedom - which seemed to work as she was a great sexual partner, a great companion, and we were best friends. Buuuuut, she got lazy, let herself go, and sex was suffering. When she went from a size 0 to outweighing my 220lbs, I ended it. Dodged a bullet, especially since we were engaged. Next relationship was also highly sexual. We were both around 50, and I wanted the relationship to be permanent with the same love-lust combination, but she either wasn’t at the ‘love’ level or not interested in a love relationship. It was all about sex with her, and me performing whenever she wanted it. At a different stage in my life, this might have been awesome, but we also had personalities that didn’t mesh well. She was a corporate exec and had a need to control, which grated me. I don’t mind being in charge if the situation calls for it and the situation is acceptable to me, but I don’t need to control. However, I reject being controlled - not by a particular choice or because of pride, but because that’s simply my nature. We also were at opposite sides on the political spectrum, and she was into dei at work before I knew dei was a thing, which eventually I found repulsive. Now, for 4-5 years I’ve been on my own, no dates, no hookups, not even holding hands - sexless by choice. I’m far happier because there’s no drama or conflict, although it’s lonely sometimes. I’m not opposed to a relationship; in fact, I very much want one. But my relationship standards are pretty specific, and if they can’t be met, I prefer to be alone. I’d rather be sexless on my own terms than on someone else’s yet still in a relationship.
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  4873. Maybe not humiliation as experienced by the biden administration, but the military and the citizens (including me) are VERY humiliated by our administration's withdrawal. Biden left them to the wolves and he knew it. Yeah, we were fatigued, yeah it was expensive. But in his rush to get out, 13 Americans died needlessly, thousands of Afghans were likely immediately killed, untold thousands, if not tens of thousands, have their fates sealed. Women's rights are gone, children are being raised as terrorists, the government gutted, infrastructure.... 20 years and $2.7 trillion gone and wasted...for what? So biden could announce he ended the war and brought our troops home, all so he could claim points for his upcoming reelection bs. It's humiliating because how he did it was wrong, and I'm so very ashamed of our leadership. Of all the wrong ways to withdraw, our idiot president picked the very worst. Irritatingly, he's so self centered, he's already forgotten about the misery he's caused. Don't get me wrong, Afghanistan should have done more to shore up their government and military; they had plenty of time and assistance, and they failed. But this culture does NOT seem conducive to democracy, and we tried forcing a concept upon them they have no experience or intuition for. They likely had adjusted to being 'ruled' by a military power, and in that regard they'll likely fall in line with the Taliban. Unfortunately, the taliban isn't much different than hamas, regardless of their attempts at giving the illusion of international legitimacy.
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