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What possibly makes you think that 20 second edited videos are accurate representations of reality?

Sure, that's easy. Lisa is a great engineer; she's designed some of the powertrains for the Ford EV's. She's also trans. Being woke means that I better understand what she's going through. When she was younger she had to go to Sweden for her surgery; nowadays she could have stayed here and gotten it. That's a good thing. She still faces discrimination and has to be very careful who she tells, which is not a good thing. Annika is a logician, and teaches courses in logic and philosophy at college. She was raped by her thesis advisor when she was 20, and it shaped the rest of her life. It was painful to hear about, but I am glad I know that now; to use that term, I am more woke. I also better understand why women don't come forward when they are raped, especially when they see what happens to other women who do. My best friend in middle school, Matt, came out as gay about 20 years ago. Again I'm glad I now know that, and know a little about what he went through while trying to decide to come out. 20 years ago there were serious barriers to people who wanted to come out. All of these people have touched my life, and I am glad that I am woke enough to understand some of what they went through, although I certainly don't understand everything about them. Sure, for some people it might be easier to remain ignorant of all of that. If you don't know anyone who was raped, it's much easier to say "eh, women lie, amiright?" and thus not think worse of someone who has a rape accusation against them. If you don't know your friend is gay, it's easy to think that nothing you said ever hurt him. If you don't know the woman you work with is trans, there are lots more off-color jokes you can tell her without worrying that you will offend her. I prefer understanding to ignorance; I think that makes for a better society overall. Even if it cuts down on the dirty jokes I can tell.

The advantage would be more opportunity for more people. As more people get acceptance instead of discrimination they will be more able to thrive. The more people who can thrive in any society the better off that society will be. A better question is what advantage to society is there to holding people down?

I think Biden has too much respect for the office to make a mockery of it. Respect isn't something much understood these days.

Hi folks, For some reason, Trump appeared at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention to woo them to his side. What a total failure. Donald Trump's appearance . . . was met with fierce backlash on social media, after the former president ranted off-topic insulting the Black journalists who interviewed him, the MAGA hopeful also claimed not to know the race of his opponent The idiot thinks that people actually like him, his rallies notwithstanding. Talk about doing something stupid. Jerry Baumchen 'Boiling with anger': Social media erupts after Trump Q&A disaster with Black reporters (msn.com)

Hi tk, I look at this event as a good thing. In other words, it is only going to get better. Jerry Baumchen

The Harris campaign should just start taking short clips from this, and start running them as campign ads.

Just so I'm clear, my idea is to get rid of it and not give it in the hands of some other non government body to be regulated . Like PIA for example. That's gonna be equally bad or even worse!

Trump thought Harris "was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she went, she became a Black person." Up next - Trump is baffled when Pete Buttigieg starts out a white man then - BAM! - suddenly he made a turn and became gay!

Hi Deyan, Re: IMO we should get rid of the TSO altogether. I agree completely. It is somewhat inconceivable to me how an agency can monitor an industry that they know nothing about. In 39 yrs of holding/using TSO's, I found that the FAA inspectors only wanted to see my records. I once offered to show an FAA inspector a new container that I was developing; he did not want to even see it. Jerry Baumchen

When they're exactly what he wants reality to be.

Not smart enough to fake bone spurs, then?

Static line is how we train all our students at my club, initial jump and ground course is £150 (with uni club discount) and further student jumps are £40, with £5 back if you pack the rig. About as affordable as this sport gets in the UK nowadays, but still quite a lot to ask of a student who is balancing rent, food, studying, etc. Here AFF courses range from £1500 to £2500 depending on dropzone, advance payment, and other factors. Not the sort of money the average 20-something has lying around. Thats before we get into gear, further qualifications, etc. I'm speaking from a British perspective, but I must say, rig hire in the US seems extortionate, no wonder you guys buy your own stuff ASAP, its £10 hire a jump at my dropzone for licensed skydivers, with £5 back if you pack it. If it cost what it does in the states to hire a rig I can confidently say the sport would be completely unaffordable to me.

Speaking as a young person who runs a university skydiving club. Yeah, it’s really difficult cost wise, especially due to AFF, which is completely unaffordable for 90% of students, and for a lot of dropzones in my country that’s the only pathway to a licence on offer. Our club is lucky that its nearest dropzone still does category system training, but even then it’s a difficult sell. Even as a licensed jumper, skydiving is 90% of my disposable income, pretty much our entire club budget goes to making the sport as affordable and accessible as possible. Its not a sport you can do as a hobby at my age, it has to be a passion not only because of the money, but also because weekends are for a lot of students the only free time they have, and most don’t want to spend it at a dropzone in the middle of nowhere on weather hold. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sport and it’s worth the sacrifice to me. But you have to be a very specific type of person and that’s reflected in the number of people that return to our club for a second jump. On a more optimistic note, there are some excellent schemes for young people to help offset the cost, such as the Royal Aero Club Trust Bursary

It always strikes me about these discussions that crop up around wealth taxes chasing people away. Imagine being a billionaire - an honest to god richer than Croesus billionaire - and giving up your home in the place you most wanted to live because you're about to pay a couple percent more tax. As if you couldn't still have anything a person could ever want... except a slightly bigger number in the bank.

There was recently a post in SC about the greatness of crypto, how its the new currency of Jebus and the right. "Trump declared “on day one I will fire Gary Gensler”, the SEC chair nominated by current President Joe Biden. The crowd cheered loudly and started to chant “Trump” at this declaration." in a recent speech. He wants the US to become a "crypto capital of the world" With the US govt buying it and "never selling it". It goes hand in hand with his wanting to disband the IRS. Nothing that billionaire criminals want more than no tax mechanism of the state and complete freedom to move money around.