Gee… wonder if this ever could have been predicted when Patriot Act was brought out.

Immigration? Come on in, we’ll worry about it later!

So many takes but the legislative branch built together an immigration plan, one that involved quite a lot of money to the border to help enforce it and crack down. Both Dems and GOP worked together on that one. Then Trump said to bail on it, that immigration was a winning ticket for Presidency and congress Republicans sank the bill.

So… legit the thing you’re bitching about is a political tool by the Republicans.

I keep saying it. Hamas knew what it was doing, and literally the whole world danced to the song they put on, and I’d be legit shocked if the ones in charge that came up with the attack are actually in the strip.

Hamas attacked Israel in one of the most aggressive and heinous methods that has been seen in a long while, the Israel that has a history of retaliating with absolute and overwhelming force with zero chill, at a time when the leadership of Israel was looking for an opportunity to invade. So Israel is gonna Israel, and now the Palestinians in Gaza who would go against Hamas, as you said that would be happy to subjugate the Palestinians, are going to be more supportive of Hamas where the two-state solution isn’t even being as supported as it once was because the calls for revenge are coming.

Regionally, Israel gained it’s zero-chill attitude because it was surrounded by countries that want to exterminate it, it’s required western backing to keep there. But Egypt and Israel haven’t been quite at each others throats as much anymore, and Saudi Arabia and Israel were working out a deal. This put Israel back at square one in terms of local diplomacy.

Western countries have had to be the supporters to Israel, it kinda exists in that sort of meddling. When Israel attacked the strip, there were multiple countries ready to throw in and escalate it from a small war to a full all out multi-national war. That much rattling sabers means the west continues its support, even when they hand the weapons to Israel to say ‘don’t use it over here.’ and watches Israel do just that.

The west supporting Israel has only helped fan the flames of anti-semetic rhetoric with the feeling of Israel pulling an excess of political power upon itself. The right wing hawks are willing to help keep escalating the war because, well they’ve never had a problem starting wars in the Middle East. The political left is tearing itself apart because it typically is a coalition of differing beliefs, the US is having a problem that the not-ultra-right wing party of the Democrats got where they are because depending on the state it was coalitions of Muslim and Jewish voters, both of whom are mad and are threatening to stay home despite the other runner is someone who will make things worse, which could be the sort of thing to rally the religiously held Muslim countries together.

What angers me is how much of this I predicted when Hamas attacked. I’m just a guy who works on equipment, one would hope the world leaders would see this exact same train of thought and turn off the music instead of getting in line and waltzing to the beat.

Bentonville AR is being turned into a bicyclists haven. To the tune of Arkansas laws are making it that bicyclists don’t have to pay attention to traffic laws. That’s neat, wonder why… Ah. And while bicycling is one of the better things I guess billionaires can do, in the region buying bicycles are far beyond affordable anymore to a walmart wage because it’s gotten so over the top fancy, and the Waltons literally have a helicopter with a bike rack to fly out to the trails. My dad is irritated because of how often it shakes his house as it goes over.

Same city, Alice Walton had a really nice museum built in the area that was surely out of the good of her heart… Ah. Unless really local, one might not know of her nickname “Drunken Alice” where she has a history of dwi’s and wrecks, including one where someone was killed, yet somehow nothing seems to stick.

Yea… I’ve got a bit of an axe to grind with the Waltons having grown up in their personal playground, I agree with you to think this is a problem with just Amazon is ludicrous, and despite only living a state away it’s amazing to hear how people bitch about Amazon, it’s chokeholds, it’s problems, its wrecking of the country, and gives a full pass to Walmart. We live in an oligarchy.

Completely unrelated to my bitching about Walmart, but a perfect example of execs doing this nonsense and how I got in trouble because I can’t stop snarking: Worked for a medical testing facility, ran by a doctor. Said doctor buys himself a brand new shiny Lamborghini, then through the whole email has an announcement that for one day for 4 hours where any of the staff can get a picture with the Lambo and share on the company page. Now I met said doc once during training, but otherwise worked 3rd shift with two other people, he certainly never showed up when we had issues.

So when the day happened, it was one of those I commented it’s the first time I think I’m glad that 3rd shift gets ignored on any staff events. Think about it for a second, then ask the others “Who has the newest car?”, turns out was a Nissan Juke. So each of us go out and get a picture with the Juke, then sent the pictures in to where people were supposed to send in the pics with the Lambo. Turns out they got 4 pictures, the 3 with the Juke, and 1 with the Lambo. Got told by our manager said doc was pissed and to keep our heads down.

I’ll say it once, I’ll say it again, Hamas played the whole damn world like fucking puppets with one attack.

I’d be absolutely shocked if the actual leaders that planned the attack are in the strip. Now any Palestenians that might have been against Hamas in the strip are stuck fighting a nuclear power in full “us vs them” mentality, Israel reacted exactly how Israel does any time it has been attacked, which is with overwhelming and vicious force now putting the country doing monstrous actions against civilians going for what looks like a full genocide, your exact point on a rival religion suddenly now giving a lot of voice to the conspiracy theories, it has created an even bigger divide in the US (but then again what doesn’t anymore) and Saudi Arabia who was working on deals with Israel has backed all the fucking way off and NATO is sitting there awkwardly trying to decide exactly where on the line it wants to walk seeing as the US can’t bring itself to go against Israel while Russia is rather uppity at the moment.

Taking away any conversation on ethics, which is nearly impossible… I just can’t believe these leaders are this fucking short sighted.

Matthew 23 is Jesus absolutely bitching out the religious leaders “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.”

As you say, the so-called ‘Christians’ really act like the Pharisees in the Bible that is called out against. If the bible they claim to believe in is true, then a loooooooooooooooooot are probably going to be in for a rude awakening because they were warned in the same book, Chapter 7 verse 23 when the person they claim to follow says “I never knew you.”

There’s a quote attributed to Ghandi but it’s not verified to actually be by him. But is a very appropriate one in my day to day “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Can’t be added on with multiple “Once in a generation” natural disasters happening on a yearly basis with temp records breaking yearly, nations with the power to demolish the world rattling sabers over a fight that’s been going before we were born, zero chance of moving upwards in the crushing capitalism, all the while the leadership is fighting over identity politics instead of acknowledging any of the problems. Surely none of those are add on factors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP2tUW0HDHA frankly… probably the opposite.

I figure it’s a combination of problems. I come home from work exhausted and don’t want to go out. So I’m at home alone. On the bad side, the work, the stress, the balance of keeping everything because the way the modern world has gone to make it difficult to look for new jobs especially if you lost yours just makes going out difficult.

But that’s because to “go out” I’d have to drive half an hour or more away to maybe a bar. And the bar is filled with people who are going to visit said bar.

We’re at a point where it’s easier to communicate with people hundreds of miles away instead of someone in our neighborhood, and comfortable enough to do it, while stressed enough to not make the attempts. Stack on those that are married, there’s the problem of just having enough time of day from both people having to work overtime.

hey, if you type in your pw, it will show as stars ********* see!

I mean, public trust is dropping. Which meant it went from “Ugh, this will be useless” to “Fuck, this will break everything!”

That would change overnight if we had personel getting pasted by IDF while dropping off supplies.

We had citizens in the war zone for a month until Egypt made a corridor. NPR was talking directly to them as they begged the US government to help them get out.

The US isn’t going to stare down the IDF at all

Look, last two elections I looked at the third parties, the most prominent was when it was Trump v Hillary. Green party couldn’t get a candidate that felt coherent enough to put up a fight against any of the other parties. Libertarian party has consistentently been Republicans who don’t want to call themselves Republican.

Those were the best two options. So yea… while both options suck, one is a moldering garbage fire and the other is running over to the garbage fire with gasoline, I’m going to do what I can to stop the gasoline. So yes, I can vote 3rd party, just as well as I can piss in the wind and hope it gets in one of the leaders eye.

You want 3rd party? Do the same thing the Republicans have been doing for the past 30 years and stop doing what the Democrats have considered the best plan. Don’t focus on the Presidency as the pure win/lose. Focus on it on the locals. Mayors, state legislators, governors. When the locals start following then start chipping to get into the senate and legislative branches. That’s when the chance will be had. But until a 3rd party is willing to play the same game as Republicans did where there will be no uncontested election no matter how small, no one is going to care because it’s quite telling how involved they are when all the local ballots are only filled with (D) and ®

I use the shockz (another open ear headset) daily with my job. Work on equipment, a lot of tedious opening up a machine and fixing it. I don’t have a singular place but move around a lot. Going from earbuds that I have to take out just to have a conversation if someone comes up and asks questions vs the open ear allows me to be able to know what’s happening around me, keeps from annoying those around me with whatever I’m listening to, and I’ve chewed through so many audiobooks which has kept me from losing my mind.

That’s a major part, but the key problem IMO is that the USA has shown multiple times that a change in president leadership can be enough to shatter existing promises and expectations.

FTFY

The US is fighting to even pay it’s own debts because of the political grabass going on in the Legislative branch and who knows now what the Judicial branch is going to throw up to change. The President is just the most visible change.

Same here!

Lets be honest, my retirement plan is my corpse getting tossed in a dumpster.

Well sure. Only an optimist goes “Wow, this is as bad as it can get.”

The pessimistic crowd is of the opinion it can ALWAYS get worse. We may not know how, but it can get worse.

I think it is obvious where I am on the spectrum when I say I don’t think we’ve begun to see how bad it can get.

While… I agree with you on companies like Intuit pulling this is bullshit, depending on the region you’re in the trash example used is… not great.

Speaking in the Kansas City region where City of Kansas City trash pickup is literally two bags allowed, no cans used, often late, the bags tear easily, and with this whole freeze thing they’re still behind two weeks out. I live outside in one of those 5 (I’m not kidding, one literally started up last year) overlapping truck routes and it is insanely better. That said, previous town I lived in the town did the trash pickup and they did a good job, got the cans that could be auto lifted and even regularly had large item pickup days for free so even better than where I’m at now.

Turbotax, H&R Block, and the other tax companies are massively wealthy companies that actively lobby to push laws to keep them from being simple. There are states that they have managed to bar the same thing from happening in.