jas007

There's a common perception that the typical American suburban homes are built as he described, and may not last longer than 20-30 years. Cheap materials. Cheap construction. Builders cutting corners wherever they can. And there's some truth to it, depending on local building codes, what the builders can get away with, and the climate in the area where the houses are constructed. For example, builders slap up some of the cheapest junk you can imaging out in the suburbs of Arizona. Cheap materials, cheap labor. And the relentless heat doesn't help. And it's not just Arizona. And yet people buy that stuff and banks loan money, so the game continues. On the other hand, you CAN find quality construction in the US. But you probably won't find it in a newly constructed suburb in the lower price brackets. Many times, you'll find that older homes are of higher quality all the way around. I grew up in a house built in 1932. It's still in great shape. Ditto for just about every house in the neighborhood, many of which were built before that. Slate roofs, copper gutters, brick exteriors, plaster walls, large lots. Try building a house like that today ands see what it costs.

Buying these drugs off the street is probably not a good idea. Why not go to a hospital and get the real thing? Don't end up dead.

I'm sure much of the middle part of the country still seems about the same to many people, except for inflation and exorbitant housing costs. Peoria, Illinois, Des Moines, Iowa, Dallas, Texas, Columbus, Ohio. All normal as can be, especially in the suburbs. But what starts on the coasts has a way of spreading. In any event, any place that I would want to move to is already seeing its share of trouble. It's all theoretical, though. I'm not going back anytime soon. I left there for several reasons, and until I see a few fundamental changes, I won't be back.

I was forced to take a year of Latin, back in the day. 1965, I think. I also had to take another foreign language, so I took French. The choices were French, Spanish, or Greek. At This point, I forgot all the latin, but I can sort of still read French.

Did I say that? Can you read? I didn't "conclude" anything.

Some of us have been there and done that. Sometimes people want to go on an adventure. Explore the world. Sometimes it's, nice not to have all the nonsense to deal with. Here, I pay my rent, my electric, my water, and my internet bill. That's it. Once a year I file my taxes. Life couldn't be much easier. And when I want to travel, I pack a suitcase, book a ticket, and go. I could go back to America tomorrow. It's not hard. Go online, buy a ticket, order a ride to the airport. About 27 hours later, I'd be back. I probably won't be doing that anytime soon, though.as things are little chaotic there right now, if you haven't noticed.

I don't know about the million dollar offer, but I did see a headline about "recent polling." Not many people live there, right? 60,000 or so?

How much storage do you have on your iPad? Depending on what's on there, you may be able to store some of it for free on Google. In Google Photos, for example. I think you get something like 15 GB for free on Google. There's also Google Drive and Google Docs. I think it's all counted towards the free 15 GB. After that, you can buy more, but I'm not sure about the price. Anyway, if you go that route, just go into your settings and specify that you don't want your photos backed up to the Apple cloud automatically. That's not to say you couldn't move some of them there manually. The set Google Photos to automatically accept your pics. Anyway, I subscribe to the Apple One individual plan for $19.95 a month. That includes 250 GB of cloud storage, Apple TV, Apple Music, and Apple games (which I never use). I figure it's not too much of a bad deal, since I use the storage, I use the Apple Music, and I use the Apple TV.

Apparently, the people in Greenland don't have a problem being part of the USA. As for the people in Panama? I don't know who gets the profits from the Panama Canal, but I highly doubt they're being distributed to everyday Panamanians. A return of the Canal Zone to the US probably wouldn't make much difference to them. They might even be better off, with the return of some US military personnel to the area. Whatever happens, I doubt it will happen by way of military force.

It's' not really a democracy, though. It's a Republic. The current crop of "Democrats" would very much like to change that, though. Because if they could, America wild be ruled by East and West Coast idiots, probably forever. Wherever you are in the world, I think you'll find that, with Trump, the world will be a more peaceful place. As President, he controls US foreign policy, and will have a lot to say about that, fortunately. Or would you rather be ruled by the Globalist cabal of unelected people with nefarious intent? Because that's what was in the works.

It's' not really a democracy, though. It's a Republic. The current crop of "Democrats" would very much like to change that, though. Because if they could, America wild be ruled by East and West Coast idiots, probably forever. Wherever you are in the world, I think you'll find that, with Trump, the world will be a more peaceful place. As President, he controls US foreign policy, and will have a lot to say about that, fortunately. Or would you rather be ruled by the Globalist cabal of unelected people with nefarious intent? Because that's what was in the works.

No one has given Trump dictatorial powers. The US wasn't set up that way and it isn't about to change just because the voters got sick of how the Democrats were destroying the country and wanted to try something different. Legally, there's a "separation of powers." The executive, the legislative, and the judicial. The constitution was set up to prevent a dictator-like situation. And t works. Sometimes too well, as we can se from the gridlock in DC. Still, it's better than the alternative. Will the voters be disappointed? Many of them, especially all the people who will lose their jobs in the coming months and years. Not necessarily because of Trump and the budget cuts that will be implementing where he can, but because of new disruptive business models and the rise of artificial intelligence. And that's happening at warp speed. A new industrial revolution of sorts. Millions of people will lose their jobs to AI "agents" and businesses implementing artificial intelligence solutions. Accountants, some lawyers, paralegals, clerical workers. Basically, anyone engaged in a mid-level white collar job should be prepared for unemployment. And it won't be just those people. Robotics is also coming of age. Humanoid robots available at a very reasonable cost. Just the occasional recharging, and they're good to go. And they will be able to be programed to do all sorts of different tasks. People will be losing factory jobs. In any event, the country can no longer afford business as usual. The bond market is already on life support. So it's change or else.

Hardly. Just an illustration of what might happen if people don't perform their job. Look up the concept of "standard of care" in the context of medical malpractice. If you're a doctor and a plaintiff can prove that you didn't provide medical services that conformed to the standard of care expected, guess what? It happens every day, by the way. Law firms make a fortune. Put it in another context if that helps. You want the transmission rebuilt on your car. Or you hire a contractor to install a new roof. You pay for and you expect those people to do a proper job. If they don't. how is it somehow a defense if they were busy with other priorities, that, while "productive," had nothing whatever to do with the job you hired them to do?

Yep. She usually speaks her mind. Mostly, it's funny.

Of course they're "productive" is a certain sense, but obviously can be counterproductive on balance, if the end result is the breakdown of the system because core duties were ignored. How is that so hard to understand? Imagine you're in a hospital for open heart surgery. During your surgery, an entire team is there. The surgeon, the anesthesiologists, the nurses. each with their own function. Each plays a critical role. And of course, you can rightly expect that the hospital's back-up electric generators will work in case of a power outage. Your life depends on an entire team, all attending to their jobs. Your surgery is botched and you die. Reason? Maybe the anesthesiologist was daydreaming about some DEI project. Or maybe, it was the surgeon, or both. Or the nurse failed in some core aspect of her job for a similar reason. You're dead because people weren't performing their core functions. Get it? There are certain basics. Forget those, and you're not doing your job.

Arguing with a taxi driver probably isn't the smartest thing to do. I wonder what this was all about? The amount of the fare? Usually, even if they quote you what they think is a rip off rate, it doesn't seem like such a big deal, and it's probably better just to say OK that to wait around trying to find another cab with a lower rate.

Depending on your US banks and it's foreign ATM fee, you can pay a lot to take out money when you consider that fee, the foreign transaction fee, and the currency conversion fee, and the fee charged by the local ATM. that's just how it is unless you plan it out in advance. Some US banks won't charge a foreign transaction fee, some won't if you have the right kind of account with a certain balance level. Others might refund any foreign ATM fee.

Non-productive agendas are all well and good, provided the core functions of government aren't ignored. Here. in the case of the fires, there was a systemic failure. A failure at every level, no doubt caused, at least in part, by people in authority focusing on their pet agendas rather than their jobs. For example, the mayor of LA knew fires were possible. She had weather forecasts, she keow it was the season for Santa Ana winds, and yet where was she? In Africa, not at all worried about LA and its people.

The article I was referring to has nothing to do with MTG. I'm not sure what her theories are on the whole thing. Sometimes she seems to be nuts, but I like her just because she's good at stirring up trouble. Sometimes, that's a good thing. Calling into question mainstream beliefs to allow for more discussion.

Basically, it's an article about two fire experts and what they think could have prevented the fires. They emphasized the need for proper forest management techniques, better building materials, and the fact that while very high winds no doubt contributed to the severity of the fires and that containment of the fires might have been an exercise in futility once they became widespread, proper management of the brush and so on might have stopped some of the fires from starting in the first place. That's just basic stuff. Basic precautions. Do what can be done and do it diligently. Fires will happen periodically, as they always do, but basic precautions must be maintained.

I think I've seen pictures. Maybe they're still floating around.

I don't doubt that it's called a "conspiracy theory." However, that doesn't mean it's not true. Do you need examples?

This is an interesting article: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-11/fire-experts-asses-los-angeles-blazes-amid-changing-times

If I'm not mistaken, the Central Festival lower level has two food courts? One is right net to the Tops grocery store, and the other is in another area, but still on that same level.

Of course, you keep ignoring the fact that the reservoir for the Palisades area was empty and had been empty for months. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-10/as-flames-raged-in-palisades-a-key-reservoir-nearby-was-offline