JCauto

9 hours ago, Brunolem said:

Who let the d.. s out... 

Whoof whoof whoof... 

 

Really funny to see so many convinced that who is president matters... it doesn't! 

 

The US president is a figurehead, totally controlled by the "swamp" that Trump never drained for the obvious reason that the "swamp" swallowed him like all the others...

Geez, Brunolem, not even the Trump Brigade is riding into your rescue this time. I think they're a bit embarrassed that you pulled the "Ann Coulter" card and then sat back thinking you'd just won the game when you'd actually lost. There's a hidden message being given to you - up your game!

28 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

It gets worse than that. They not only neglect the forests but make harvesting any of it illegal. Some of that dead fall is perfectly marketable timber. Then you have the cities in CA sucking the water from everywhere they can. They are using it now to douse the fires. 

 

Most of the species out west rely on fire to propagate. The cones do not open and release seeds in the absence of fire. 

 

If the thesis of the Californian is that it is climate change, they are right. They are the very people causing it. The Colorado river runs dry before it hits Baja CA, look at Oroville and the reservoirs they build for water, such projects have disastrous effects. 

 

Make having a swimming pool in CA illegal. You can put away the rakes (I am talking about responsible logging actually) at this point because it is too late for fire breaks. 

 

Californians do not want a single tree cut down but suck the water out of every crevice. Nature is indifferent, if Californians won't thin the forests there will sooner rather than later be no forests left. As the forests get smaller every year localized climate change will become more severe. 

 

The best time for forest management was decades ago the second best time is today. They simply don't get it.

We don't agree on much I've noticed, but we're in accordance here.

On 9/4/2020 at 8:59 AM, Pattaya Spotter said:

The United States has more Nobel Prize winners in hard sciences (and in general) than any other country...but we're always striving to do better. Your country?

Ah yes, this old canard. I think you had a different username before, no? When I called you out on it a couple of months ago, you quietly failed to respond. I suppose you must have been banned and come back.

On 9/4/2020 at 8:01 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

IMO it's going to get to the stage that cops won't go near such persons as damned if they do and damned if they don't, but at least refusing to do their duty will attract less penalty than being accused of murder when just trying to do their thankless job.

Or, perhaps, we provide the same kind of training and insist upon the same sorts of qualifications that people who have to deal with those with mental health and drug issues undergo. Nurses need to study for several years to get qualifications, need certification, regular update training and testing, and are licensed and reviewed externally on a regular basis, especially when something goes wrong. These same people often show up at hospitals, where the orderlies somehow manage to take care of them without shooting them dead. 

Instead, we get the High School Bully/football player who can sign up after failing out of community college, take six months of training and be given a gun, a badge, and complete authorit-eh. And the pay they receive for being society's bullies is astonishing - they're literally being paid like Oil Rig and Logging workers without any of the concomitant danger.

I say make becoming a Police Officer much more difficult and require much more training and review, remove selective immunity and reduce their mandate so that those who have already demonstrated that they CAN deal with society's problems without extreme violence do so. 

On 9/3/2020 at 4:23 PM, Pattaya Spotter said:

It's Donald Trump's fault that people who never wanted him to be president are protesting him and his administration's policies...not sure that really scans. And a viral pandemic originating halfway around the world that causes the shutdown of major sectors of the economy, in the name of public health (and called for by his political opponents as well), is also the President's fault? Maybe Joe can sell this narrative to the American people but I have my doubts.

Perhaps you might explain why this then hasn't happened to all the other leaders around the world for whom, similarly, there was no fault in terms of the virus pandemic? Perhaps because they were judged based on how well they marshaled their country's resources to combat the threat and worked to unify their people for a response. That is why Trump is being judged incompetent, to have a lack of empathy and to have failed to lead which is, you know, the primary job of an elected Leader.

5 hours ago, Poet said:

The whole mail-in voting thing is a disaster waiting to happen. The postal service already struggles to deliver the relatively small number of legitimate absentee ballots on time.

You are going to end up with Trump winning on the night but, then, having the result reversed a month later when all the mail trucks finally turn up. The whole mess will add to the existing acrimony and, either way, half of Americans will believe their government to be illegitimate.

I have yet to hear anyone explain why it is safe for Americans to go to a supermarket but not a polling station.

 

How's this?

1. Supermarkets are large high-ceilinged spaces open 7 days a week, often 24 hours a day. Polling stations are open one day a year, for a limited time, and often in relatively small spaces. Therefore the traffic is going to be astronomically higher, the polling station will be smaller, the spacing will be less, and the people will be forced to stand in long lines with other voters for a much longer exposure than on a shopping trip.
2. Older voters are the most vulnerable to the virus, and should not increase their exposure to potential infection. There are alternatives to their grocery shopping such as delivery or having a relative do it for them and drop it off. You are saying they should not be able to vote without this risk.
3. The Postal Service was able to function perfectly well for all previous elections. Why is it no longer functioning well enough for this one? What changed? \

4. The Postal Service manages to handle a MUCH larger mail load over Christmas, why can they suddenly not handle a smaller mail load over the election?

I'm looking forward to the Militia members who were with the kid to be charged as accomplices to First Degree Murder. I know that, for example, when there is a drive-by shooting, those in the car are also charged as if they were the triggerman. 

1 hour ago, scammed said:

he was particularly bad, because he had the majority to balance budget,

but instead he went in the opposite direction and wasted tax money on 'green alternatives' through subsidies, and didnt even try to balance budget.

the rest at least to a degree can be excused for being blocked left and right,

but obama had a unique opportunity through popularity to get anywhere

I see - so if you have a majority in the Congress and the Presidency, then you should balance the budget is your point. You are of course aware that Trump had a majority in the Congress and the Presidency, as well as no pressing financial crisis and a strong economy, so therefore he obviously balanced the budget. Right?

You know of course that he didn't even attempt to. As jcsmith has ably pointed out, the Republicans only care about deficits when they're in the opposition, they've never been fiscally responsible when they're in power in modern times. No, YOUR President actually gave away 2 Trillion (that's a "T", not a "B") in deficit spending as a free bonus to wealthy corporations who then promptly spent it on stock buybacks to raise their stock prices so that they could then claim massive bonuses in salary for being such fine CEOs. Of course, then COVID-19 hits and they're caught without cash reserves and have to go straight back to the government trough to beg for more money after having just been handed a Brinks' truckful a few short years prior. 

What's that you fiscally conservative Republicans always say about the poor? Why don't they save for a rainy day? Why do they always depend on government handouts? If only they behaved like wealthy corporations, eh?

On 8/26/2020 at 5:17 PM, riclag said:

You got a source claiming he's a idiot

Sure. James Mattis, former Secretary of Defense appointed by Trump.

Wow, that's an impressive couple of speakers - Honey Bunny and Pumpkin really haven't aged very well. Perhaps Scott Baio or the Pillow Guy will bring the intellectual heft to carry all that water for the GOP.

Quite impressive to have been in power for almost 4 years and not yet have a platform for these minor issues such as COVID-19, re-opening schools, etc. Almost like their version of governing is to completely destroy and ignore the government.

Yes, the indoctrination of the youth through the Thai Scouts is a terrible thing that should be stopped. I presume that was what this article was about, correct?

On 8/20/2020 at 10:29 AM, cooked said:

Yes you're quite right of course, I was doing business in French for too long, sometimes I do get words mixed up. Really sorry about that.

This is typical of the way many arguments these days: don't stick to the point being made, just insult the messenger.

There's this:

WE   think you're wrong.

YOU  think we're stupid and / or evil.

A lack of a sense of humour seems to be involved also, but that's REALLY avoiding the subject at hand, as I'm sure you'll agree.

Well, no, actually. I was just poking gentle fun at you.

But the main point, which somehow managed to avoid your attention, was to ask "do you have a link to that unsubstantiated and unlikely claim that"

"Postal voting leads to fraud, indeniable. 20% of New Jersey Primary votes were refused, and a large percentage went missing.""

Evidence please.

On 8/18/2020 at 6:24 AM, Tippaporn said:

WSJ - The Postal Service’s Good Election Advice

 

News broke Friday that the U.S. Postal Service has warned dozens of states, via letters from USPS General Counsel Thomas Marshall, that their deadlines “for requesting and casting mail-in ballots are incongruous with the Postal Service’s delivery standards.” On cue, Democrats and the press portrayed this as evidence of Trumpian sabotage and voter suppression.

 

The truth is that USPS tried to avert election failure by alerting states, planned before DeJoy took over on June 15, which is the opposite of what the hoaxsters are claiming.  Not only that but Marshall posted on USPS.com nearly identical advice to election officials back in May.

 

Credit the shadow president, Obama, with starting this on a podcast Friday in which he accused Trump of trying to "actively kneecap the Postal Service."

First of all, thanx for the LOLZ - "shadow president". Hadn't heard that one before, highly amused.

So the USPS tried to avert election failure - who is running it, is it the Democrats somehow? Shadow President Obama? Why haven't the Trump Administration taken it over like they did the rest of the US Government?

By the way, can you explain how it is that the USPS can deliver all that Christmas mail and yet cannot manage ballots for an election as they have in every previous election in US history? What's different this time?

6 minutes ago, riclag said:

Online voting ! IMOP leaves room for to much controversy 

"Some states have embraced online voting. It's a huge risk.

People’s phones, tablets and computers are vulnerable to hackers. Securing the internet could take a decade or more. But some states are plowing ahead anyway".

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/08/online-voting-304013

 

Hey riclag - have you heard of this new thing called "cryptocurrency"? It's a crazy idea, but you basically convert your money from dollars or whatever other currency you have into digital currency that is secured via the Blockchain. Did you know that billions of dollars have been converted into this digital currency? I know! Amazing! How could people be so gullible as to put billions of dollars worth of money into something insecure and unproven like digital infrastructure that's vulnerable to hackers.

As you guessed, everyone who did this lost their shirts because the hackers stole all the money, now Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies are worthless. You were right again!

16 hours ago, CALSinCM said:

Three things that you can be assured of in life:
Death, Taxes, and that Reuters will never run an article that starts out like,
"Ex-Obama official says U.S. 'less secure' due to former vice-president's actions, endorses Trump."

Well, there would be if they could find one. I asked the question earlier, and I'm now almost to the end of the thread and have yet to see a single response to my simple question. It's the same thing you're talking about, actually. Perhaps you missed it?

"Why is it that so many ex-Trump advisors and cabinet members turn against him and warn the public after having worked with him whereas none have against Obama?"

2 hours ago, animalmagic said:

Might not be the Merc driver's fault.  Forensic tests may show he was only doing 55 kmh.

This is one of those rare occasions where the science varies according to the immutable principle of "do you know who my father is?". If they do, then this is the likely speed, whereas if they don't, a "1" is added to the front. QED!

4 hours ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

I guess the more precise question is how much higher is this figure from the "normal" background death rate for this period of time.

Indeed, and an excellent point. If you go on that basis, then the death toll would be more than 200,000.

I believe it's called "chumming the water". You throw some bloody bits about to attract the sharks and then when you get enough of a critical mass, there will be a feeding frenzy. They thought they'd milked this cow dry but the latest ham-fisted attempt to dismiss the charges has instead been like a new pastureland opening up. Now they're thinking about producing even more cheese. After all, this well will never run dry.

How was that for mixing metaphors?