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My memory is that you didn’t really like Trump, but felt it was more important to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House, so you voted for him. Id submit that Trump is a greater threat to how our country operates; one of the best things about the US is that we trust our succession, and that the person fills the position, not that the position is wrapped around the person. But that was threatened in 2020, and Trump has made it clear that he doesn’t intend to accept a loss this year, that he plans to pardon people who consider an invasion of the Capitol and the shenanigans that went along with it to be OK. In addition, his need for personal loyalty (rather than to the position) is very concerning. Personally, I consider this to be a significant threat to the structure of the country. Wendy P.

I get all my power from solar. California now goes hours getting all its power from renewables for weeks on end - and all that is time we are not burning natural gas, thus saving that gas for the less developed parts of the US. As a result, natural gas prices are dropping, and air quality is improving. Solar fabrication equipment is one of the few things we export to China. US companies that make solar equipment are making billions and employing hundreds of thousands. So the citizens of the US will - and are already - benefiting from this. Jealousy is such an ugly emotion. Become a scientist or engineer, discover/invent something important and you too can be a millionaire! Only in your imagination. I am perfectly happy for you to think I am stupid. Like George Santos calling someone dishonest, or like Trump calling someone a liar. It's more a badge of honor than anything else.

If the mandate of NPR is to report facts wouldn't republicans be excluded by definition?

The reality is that based on where we’re at today, Biden is the only alternative. Maybe in 7 months, we’ll look at President Elect Trump and wish that there had of been another option, but at this stage in the game, Biden’s our horse. No doubt that Trump is a threat, but I wouldn’t write Biden off as nothing more than the lesser of evils. He’s done some good thinks like the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPs act, student debt….that are materially improving lives for lots of people. It’s hard to imagine that the trend wouldn’t continue if he gets another 4 years.

As an outsider it's interesting to see the polarised debate. I am not sure that I would vote for someone in their 80's. Trump is awful, but I find it hard to believe Biden is the best alternative. Overall it is a really sad indictment of the state of US politics. The US have lost all moral authority on democracy and it's going to be interesting to watch.

This thread has been going for three years now. What is puzzling is the fact, that apart from his enablers getting verdicts and having to face some serious consequences, the main goon has still managed to escape all efforts to dish out a vital conviction that Puts him into the place any normal joe blow would have been in no time

Are you gonna tell that to the guy in the other thread who think taxes are just pointless envy? I don't think he wants to redistribute any money from wealthy people to poor people.

I will argue that the biggest things damping Tesla sales are: 1. Tesla lying about range. 2. Tesla lying about capabilities of "Autopilot", (and Elmo making annual announcement that FSD will be here in "a few months", for ten years running). 3. Elmo being a gigantic all-around asshole. There is no way in hell I will ever own a Tesla as long as Elmo has any control over it.

It might have been you who posted about the loathsome man who was called in the kill all of the rats in a city -- how no matter how loathsome he was, the rats were a worse problem. Of course, that was an analogy for Trump. Personally, I think that Trump is the loathsome man who will encourage worse pests than the rats that he was originally "hired" to kill. So I'll vote for whoever has the best chance of keeping him out of the presidency. No, Biden was never my first choice. But Trump is my last. I'd rather have RFK Jr than him. But barring someone dropping dead (if only!), the race is between Biden and Trump, so I'm voting for one of them. Biden hasn't done a bad job. He's by no means perfect, but with a Congress who's happy to hurt the country as long as it also hurts Biden's chances of being re-elected, I'm not sure what he could accomplish. Wendy P.

Curtis, you're profile lists you as jumping at AZ, with two jumps. It would be irresponsible for someone on the Internet to guide you on a purchase at this time. There are great Instructors and Riggers at the DZ there. Please ask them to give you some guidance on what you should be jumping this early. We don't know your skillset. My advice to new jumpers has always been - Finish your A License and then let's sit down and talk about gear choices. And, we would begin with your reserve size first and build a rig around that.

“A man came up to me - big man, strong man - with tears in his eyes”…..

No shit, Sherlock. That’s the problem not the potential or viability of renewables. By that logic why fight crime at home when Haiti is so ridden with theft, drugs, and murder?

1) He didn't fart 2) OK he farted but there's this explanation that it's not like regular gross farting 3) Obama did it first.

Keep in mind that someone, somewhere also calculated the percentage of those that would not comply with the mask mandates, so additional mandates were added. At that time, we did not know what we were facing, how bad it was going to be, if it was natural or manufactured, nor could anyone forecast the extent up to and including the end of human and/or animal life. I had no issue with every arrow in the quiver being used to defend against whatever this "was" to be, mask mandates, social distancing, accelerated vaccines, and lockdowns and will still maintain that the lockdown was a month too short. I am not a science guy, so for those with advanced degrees - we rely on them to guide us. Which they did. Were mistakes made; yes. But, we had to try anything and everything. And, to this day; I look around and think, "We made it through it." ~MINO

New episode out now! DB Cooper and the JFK Assassination with my good friend John Limbach. https://thecoopervortex.podbean.com/e/db-cooper-and-the-jfk-assassination-john-limbach/ Enjoy!

Our office was in the path of totality..big boss catered BBQ and we all went out and watched it together. Was a great show, but I'm in the same boat for lack of photos. I figured there'll be literally millions of pictures, many of them taken by better photographers than me. I'd prefer to watch it with my eyes rather than through my phone.

Hi Keith, Re: I don't think either team has a good choice and am faced with not voting for a P at all. The best instructor I had in college was a math teacher. His position was that if had not tried your homework, you could not ask questions about it in class, later. My position is that anyone who does not vote for POTUS, should not comment on the outcome. Once I became eligible, I have never failed to vote in ANY election that I was allowed to do so. IMO it is our most important civic responsibility. Jerry Baumchen PS) I've voted for POTUS 15 times; IMO only 3-4 times were there good choices. C'est la vie.

Indiana provides an example of unintended consequences: ‘Severely decreased their sexual intimacy with their husbands’: Indiana appeals court uses Mike Pence’s religious liberty law to block abortion ban

And that's mostly always a good thing. An exception would be when the nation is on the verge of an autocracy by electing a demented, narcissistic, madman who is being enabled by a corrupt political party that, at best, represents a minority of Americans. In that situation it's important to see the other side of the aisle for what they have become: blindered and brainwashed enemies of the nation, not a font of good ideas. Later, after we beat the bastards back down into their holes, we can reengage in polite and meaningful dialogue.

I'm glad to maintain my sense of open-mindedness to receive and consider good ideas from both sides of the aisle.

They're probably just ticked off at some troll trying to be cute

I think personal transfers of weapons should take place at an FFL or the local Cop Shop. Background checks on every weapon movement of ownership. Well regulated should actually mean something, and be enforced.

Unfortunately you can WALK from Chicago to a gun store in Indiana in 15 minutes, buy a gun in a state with weak gun laws (ranked 30/50), then 15 minutes later be back in Chicago with a gun that you couldn't legally buy in Illinois. With a car you can do it even faster. Which is why a national solution is the only one that will work.

I always have an issue with the idea of 'illegal guns'. There is no such thing as an illegal gun. That's like saying there is an illegal car. It is another gun lobby/NRA talking point distraction. Remington, Winchester, S&W do not have an assembly line that creates illegal guns for criminals to use. We have guns that are obtained, trafficked, or owned illegally BECAUSE we do not have any laws to track guns. If we tracked every gun from its manufacture until its disposal, we would go a long way to finding out how guns get into the hands of criminals. But we don't do that, nor do we even try to.

Comparing any gun law to 'the rest of the country' is meaningless given that the rest of the country has ineffective guns laws as well. If the country wants to reduce gun violence, then we need to model gun laws on the countries that have less gun violence and stop pretending that the causes are judges, or mental health, or open carry, or good-guy-bad-guy, or suicides or whatever. The reason we have so much gun violence is that guns are readily accessible to pretty much anyone in the country and there are no laws worth talking about. Look at what it took to get two parents convicted of manslaughter when they bought their mentally ill kid a semi-auto rifle and then he shot up his school. In any other civilized country, that original purchase would never have happened.

Ask your canopy coach. If you're thinking crossbraced, you should definitely be working with one. I can see a few things potentially wrong with your plan. 1. You are jumping from a super docile canopy (spectre) to super aggressive (xb) with no intermediate planforms. Usually people will jump an aggressive elliptical non cross braced such as a katana or crossfire or x-fire for a long time before cross braced. 2. 1.6 seems too low wing loading for cross braced. Go work with a canopy coach, don't ask the Internet for advice.

The FBI was so honed in to the skydiving community and the community itself then was so tight knit, that I doubt "one of their own" would be able to pull it off and either A. not be found out or B. not eventually spilling the beans.

Agreed. However, I don't see a murder by an illegal immigrant to be any better or worse than a murder by a US citizen. Hopefully this means you will support the next border control bill. They do. I volunteer at a homeless shelter here that targets the over-55 and homeless veteran population in San Diego. There are hundreds of others who volunteer there as well. And as a nation we spend $250 billion a year on veterans in the form of pensions, VA benefits including medical care, education, rehab, loan guarantees, construction of new facilities and housing support. You mean conservative border policies. Republicans just killed a bill that would have gotten billions for more border patrol, more overtime for them, better unmanned assets (drones) better scanning technoloy at ports of entry and more judges/jails/lawyers to process them. They opposed it to hurt Biden, but the result is that they are hurting Americans. I didn't say anything about ignorant red states, just that they are (on average) less educated. Yep. Heather Heyer REALLY got a taste of Southern hospitality (at the hands of a Trump supporter.) And when Trump supporters marched to vandalize, deface, loot, kidnap and kill in DC, they learned how the US Justice system works. My electric bill is $6 a month and I pay less than $100 a year for fuels (mainly natural gas for our stove and hot water heater.) But yes, on average they are lower. So are electrical reliability rates. Red states also tend to have much higher pollution levels than blue states. You get what you pay for. Same here. The people who have worked in the startup I am at now are Asian, white, black, Hispanic, Arab, cis, trans, straight, gay, male and female. The people who live at the homeless shelter I volunteer at are a similar mix, and are unfailingly polite (if sometimes a little odd.) My neighbors are Italian, Chinese, Filipino, Mexican, Pakistani and Iraqi immigrants, along with a bunch of San Diego natives. The other kids at my kids' school are also fairly diverse, and include nonbinary kids. I like it that way. And I am glad the trans and nonbinary people I know are not living in a place where conservatives mock and attack them, and try to pass laws against them.

New episode out now! DB Cooper is like playing Best Ball with my good friend Chris Broer. https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-mdyit-15c5483 Enjoy!

Man, that’s just appalling. Unless, I suppose, that you think people do not as a matter of their true nature adopt a different approach to their gender than is listed on their birth certificate. Unless, that is, that you do not believe our perceptions of ourselves and the world around us happens at the level or our brains. And unless you are convinced that any deviation from an accepted norm is a matter of choice. If that’s what you think, oh well. What I see are people trying to live the only life they will ever have as comfortable with themselves as they possibly can.

I want to say that she joined the convent sometime in the very early 80's, because I believe she worked for NWA for another 9 or 10 years after the hijacking. I think a lot of the Cooper witnesses and participants were somewhat media shy because of what happened in the late 70's with the Coffelt stuff. Flo, Tina, Rat, and others were talking pretty freely to this movie producer from Hollywood who was trying to make some production based on Coffelt's story. There's a 302 where the FBI admonishes all of them and basically says "we can't stop you from talking to whomever you wish, but you need to understand that if you provide anyone with any information that could hurt the investigation in any way, you can be prosecuted." So I think that shut them up for quite a while. Tina was always a very religious and empathetic person. I don't think her going to the convent had anything whatsoever to do with Cooper. My list of suspects is just compiled of names in the FBI Files and names that others have put forward. I'll PM it to you.

No one predicts past events like BH.

Basically, there are a lot of assumptions in the Constitution that the majority of government actors are basically trying to do the right thing. Wendy P.

Is that the one where you could put any name down and click the box that said you were a scientist? I heard Mr. Banana Rama's scientific accomplishments are very special. And, who isn't aware of the science behind the healing powers of Mongolian overtone singing? Do you not see the irony touting your scientific record and then hyping the validity of the Great Barrington Declaration based on the number of signatures?

How about for a second you resist your impulse to take cheap shots at them for being trans sex workers, and process the larger message of the story: climate change is going to have the biggest affect on those with the fewest resources. I can grumble that insurance raised our deductible for a roof replacement due to local hail damage, or comment on the road I rode the school bus on every day as a kid has washed out 3 times in the past year due to storms larger than anybody in the area ever remembers seeing...shit that inconveniences or concerns me, but doesn't do much more right now. People who have zero financial buffer and are living in particularly affected areas are going to be hit the hardest. That's going to include Thai trans sex workers and many others living hand to mouth. You could show a bit of empathy, or at minimum keep your mouth shut and count your blessings for having the sheer dumb luck of being born a white dude in North America....or, you could have a chuckle 'cause they wear dresses but were born with penises.

Yeah, but I’d bet you’d vote for her over pretty much any possible democrat. Wendy P.

Nope, if Trump wins we'll all be looking back at these as the good old days.

The line sequence was: sheath-and-core dacron kevlar spectra vectran/hma Kevlar has poor abrasion resistance. It is also skinnier than dacron, so less friction in slider grommets and harder openings. Also, kevlar doesn't stretch much, so less shock absorption than dacron.

When you roll a 401K into a Roth you have to pay taxes on the converted amount in the year of conversion.....

If unconstrained greed is such a good thing, I guess we can call you a fan of Alex Murdock. Sensible people realize there needs to be limits to greed. When people build their fortune facilitated by a society that provides them with an educated work force, infrastructure that allows them to access their supply base and get their products to market, and on and on, yet claim they shouldn’t have to help pay for any of that, they are worse than the mythical welfare queen they so fear.

He does know better. But once in a while attempted humor in the guise of a cheap shot is allowed by forum rules.

No one could have forseen this, but the people who started Trump's disastrous Truth Social are starting to go to jail for their crimes. “Michael and Gerald Shvartsman admitted in court that they received confidential, inside information about an upcoming merger between DWAC and Trump Media and used that information to make profitable, but illegal, open-market trades,” US Attorney Damien Williams said in a press release. https://www.yahoo.com/news/two-investors-trump-media-insider-171511936.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

The cost of gun violence in lost wages, lawsuits, healthcare, enforcement etc is currently over $500 billion. That is an even crazier number. So let's say that gun buyback isn't that effective. It costs $19 billion and it only reduces gun violence by 10%. That is still a big win - we save $31 billion. (And of course a huge amount of misery, grief and loss.) https://time.com/6217348/gun-violence-economic-costs-us/

Good for you, a PBS show. Jonathon Haidt gave a TED talk in 2008 that sounded smart and ended with the claim that enlightened liberals could by means of moral humility find common ground with conservatives. Well, that didn't age well. He was talking some light lifting with understanding Bush conservatives, of course, not MAGA. I did like this prescient slide he posted at the beginning of his talk though:

Only you would say that.

There was an An-2 based at my DZ for a number of years. When it first arrived, the local FAA told the owner, no jumping from that aircraft. Pinocchio told me that no one ever jumped out of that airplane here.

Lady Liberty keeps her blindfold on as she cries for the state of American justice. A rich White guy with 78.75 million shares of DJT stock sits $10 a share richer this morning alone than he did yesterday afternoon. She sees his new grifting of bibles, shoes, etc. to prey upon the weak minded cultists that whoreship him. He has figured out how to milk the cows dry. How to laugh at judgements and sanctions. Now recognizing what a lifetime of scamming the system has taught him.

There are plenty of issues with uncontrolled immigration; it's just that an increase of per capita crime isn't among them. It's an easy thing to point to, but it's kind of like pointing at the one car wreck where seat belts were a detriment, and saying that proves that seat belts are bad. Wendy P.