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Neat. But societies don't work through anecdote. You can pull yourself up by the bootstraps all you want (I certainly did as I sit comfortably in the upper 10%), but the distribution of wealth doesn't lie, and the boomers leveraged trillions of future wealth into their pockets, so now their kids have to pay more for housing, education, transportation, and investments. All while real wages have stagnated or declined. But hey, we can get TVs pretty cheap... And while all this has happened, the upper echelon of society has engineered weapons-grade blinders to avoid the unpleasantness of the increasingly desperate reality of those in the bottom half. It's much more comfortable that way, until the proletariat come knocking on your door with their pitchforks and torches. Most intelligent animals have a very finely-tuned sense of fairness, and brother, it hasn't been fair for a while. COVID was the single greatest transfer of wealth to the top earners in history. Most people can't follow the complicated chain of financial implements used to move money from the middle-class pockets into the investment accounts of the rich(Robinhood, Bitcoin, etc), but they can still smell a scam somewhere in there. What's amazing to me is how the conservatives have been asleep at the wheel. They seem so fucking proud of their non-representative success stories, like yours, that they have completely missed the raping and pillaging of our capitalist system by politicians, foreign actors, and the financial industry. Those who *do* are now subordinated to those who manipulate. I hope I'm wrong, but we'll know very soon. The chickens have all come home to roost at the same time, and the "smart money" (insiders) are already positioning themselves for the pain. I expect they'll all be on CNBC shilling their holdings to the retail investors before they become much less valuable. The final scam before the bill comes due.

I think most Americans should watch the German period drama "Our Mothers and Our Fathers." Is a German perspective of WW2 and the Nazi rise to power. Sort of gives insights that painting every German as absolute evil in 1942 is a very broad brush. Many had no idea what was actually happening at concentration camps until the end of the war, many believed they were just fulfilling patriotic duty. Many believed Jewish treatment was abhorrent but the political system was still in tact enough to reverse it. It's not an apologetic piece by any means. But it's a really good sense of the slow and methodical numbing approach the Nazi party used to change society into such a horrific machine and some of the awful choices faced. One of the more interesting parts is when one character only recognizes the awfulness of what's happening after he's already been deep enough to become complicit in it and the mental turmoil it causes him until the final episode. Point is, it's a good perspective for Americans because we have this complex that this is something that could never happen to us, that it would be impossible. The reality is, Hittler was an overwhelmingly popular elected leader to start and a decade later he completely turned his country into one of the most evil empires in history. We are always a breath away from losing our democracy/humanity/values/culture unless we are vigilant about protecting it.

Sigh

Wait…so let me get this straight. This is what the left wants: - Abortion up until the moment of delivery - Taxpayer funded abortions up until the moment of delivery - Taxpayer funded healthcare, whether or not the woman decides to terminate the pregnancy or have the delivery - Taxpayer funded welfare payments for women whether or not she gets pregnant, and if she does get pregnant it’s irrelevant whether or not she wants to terminate the pregnancy, and then she still gets welfare payments after the abortion or the delivery, regardless if she chooses to keep the baby or puts it up for adoption - Taxpayer funded birth control options - Businesses being forced by the government to pay a woman for work after she’s delivered a baby, even for her not doing any work during that time …and I’m sure there are others that I missed. Oh and the left believes now this all applies to men since supposedly science now says that men can also get pregnant. But yes…it’s only the anti-abortion crowd that’s the problem. Full disclosure: As I’ve mentioned in previous posts on this issue, if the argument for being pro-abortion is because one truly believes in maximum individual liberty then I’ll support their opinion (ie the Libertarian Party)…but since they don’t, they (the left, just like the right), are just picking and choosing what individual “liberties” they want and believe others should have. So let me know if you want to discuss how the Libertarian Party platform is the way to go and I’ll be right there with you. Until then, regardless of my personal opinions on abortions, it’s best to leave it up the states. And if it’s so popular as the left tells us, then I guess the Dems will win just about every federal and state election this November…though I have my doubts. This is probably a good time to remind those that Prozac thinks the government should be able to arrest/prosecute/put you in prison if you have a firearm magazine that holds more than 10 rounds. But yes, those who disagree with him are the hypocritical assholes.

Sounds like a good recommendation. Looks like it's available on Amazon, with the US title "Generation War." As a side note, it stars Volker Bruch, who also stars as Detective Gereon Rath in Babylon Berlin, a German neo-noir series that is still in production. It's set in the inter-war years in Germany, and also shows the country's slide towards WWII.

And of course the lawyer is good old Mikey Weinstein, champion for justice.

Forget Delta or United. Here's your future boys😱 https://nypost.com/2022/06/27/inside-giant-flying-luxury-hotel-that-can-stay-in-the-air-for-years/

With this TA, it appears they haven't even gotten off the couch to reach for the neck of that goose.

If you’re joining the ARC go ahead and print off a copy of USERRA as bedtime reading. It’s not very long and can keep you and your employer out of hot water. https://www.justice.gov/crt-military/userra-statute (13) The term "service in the uniformed services" means the performance of duty on a voluntary or involuntary basis in a uniformed service under competent authority and includes active duty, active duty for training, initial active duty for training, inactive duty training, full-time National Guard duty, State active duty for a period of 14 days or more, State active duty in response to a national emergency declared by the President under the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), State active duty in response to a major disaster declared by the President under section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170), a period for which a person is absent from a position of employment for the purpose of an examination to determine the fitness of the person to perform any such duty, a period for which a System member of the National Urban Search and Rescue Response System is absent from a position of employment due to an appointment into Federal service under section 327 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, and a period for which a person is absent from employment for the purpose of performing funeral honors duty as authorized by section 12503 of title 10 or section 115 of title 32.

Woohoo August pin on…Aug 23 that is. 51X here!

Your job is required to let you take any time off for military obligations for up to 5 years total. You do not need to burn PTO. Some offer differential pay. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Could also belong in WTF thread....

https://www.investopedia.com/roll-over-traditional-thrift-savings-plan-to-roth-ira-5219467 Details vary based on what exact accounts you have.

Ever read "The Heart of Darkness"? The parallels are unreal. Joseph Conrad's novel about colonial Africa, late 1800s I think. I had to read it for classes a couple times, once in high school and twice in college. "For a time I would feel I belonged still to a world of straightforward facts; but the feeling would not last long. Something would turn up to scare it away. Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn’t even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech—and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives—he called them enemies!—hidden out of sight somewhere." Anyway that book inspired a couple follow-ons, the classic Apocalypse Now, the newer sci-fi movie Ad Astra, and a video game 10 years back or so called 'Spec-Ops: The Line'.

Thanks for the post. My response to SocialD was wrt adoption. For some reason there are people (most on the left…not sure of SocialD’s philosophy) who actually think that there are massive amount of babies, that if given up for adoption, would not be able to find homes. I think it’s great that parents are willing to foster children…though more foster care isn’t the solution as it’s still part of the broken system. Adoption, preferably at birth, fixes many of those problems. For some reason those on the left never publicly voice support for mothers with unwanted pregnancies to have their babies and give them up for adoption.

Yeah, other CEOs must be salivating about only having to meet/beat this offer.

Do you have kids? Were you ever one? To imply that a bunch of 16-17 year olds supposed to have the experience and rationality to ignore/refute/buck their parents, teachers, role models, politicians, etc is just absurd. Just like when the boomers complain about millennials and genZ getting participation trophies. Well yeah, clown, who exactly bought the trophy? If your argument blames teenagers, it's probably a pretty weak argument.

This is simply not true in a historical context. As pointed out, the median income is no longer capable of buying the same things. And the distribution of wealth over the generations at specific ages has shifted dramatically lower. The college scam has started millions off with crippling debt. Millennials did not create this world, their parents did.

Same here but the lead dog at this point rarely winds the race. He has done some great things here and I think he can do the job without being a giant narcissistic douche canoe. Sanders/Warren could have been catastrophic. For the record, I don't want EITHER party to have so much power that they can pass straight party line legislation. I prefer we stay in the middle and SLOWLY agree on change. Concur, but his negative personality traits will likely prevent him from stepping to the side for the good of his party and the country. I also think Biden should be disqualified. The suppression of the Hunter Laptop is in my opinion hiding some corruption, but the bigger issue is his mental decline. It is obvious and very concerning. DeSantis/Haley would seem the most powerful option and I think they would do good things. Both are highly intelligent and seem to make choices that match their beliefs not their politics. We are seeing a new generational gap. Think about the last 50 years where the WWII generation shaped politics as the boomers grew up. Living through a world war gave folks great perspective. The current generation has their face buried in a cell phone and is beyond entitled. For them, war (GWOT/ISIS/Ukraine), is a normalized thing that is FAR away and does not impact their daily life. They see occasional snippets but it doesn't interfere with their insta selfie while holding a venti vanilla sweet cream cold brew with three pumps of vanilla, three pumps of caramel syrup, one pump of cinnamon dolce syrup, three pumps of hazelnut, two pumps of toffee nut syrup, two pumps of mocha, two pumps of white mocha, eight pumps of pumpkin sauce, three pumps of maple pecan syrup, and five shots of espresso.

I’d take W as a CC. Probably would have pretty wild roll calls and a good party atmosphere.

Or both

Oh, come on. You know very well that many will slip through our woeful social safety net and even the ones who manage to take advantage of all we have to offer will slip so far behind they’ll never recover, AND they’ll be criticized as a drain on society by the very people forcing their morals on them. I can’t tell if you missed my point or are being purposely obtuse. In either case here it is one more time: The anti-abortion movement in this country is filled with some of the most hypocritical assholes on the planet. The generalization that pro-lifers only care about life until conception is rooted in truth. Some of y’all need a lesson from George: