JoeWeber

Um, no. Assuming you are spooling up to gotcha me you are referencing the North and South poles on this planet, yes?

Some things happen too quickly or too slowly to be obvious. Seriously, do you doubt continental drift or evolution because you can not see either happening in real time?

According to marine geophysicist Robin Bell of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, sea levels rise by about 1/16” for every 150 cubic miles of ice that melts off one of the poles. If you're willing to believe it, that is.

D'accord.

Would "Silly Goose" have passed your muster? I don't believe "sad figure" is an awful thing to say. We are all adults here, right?

Is that how you fancy yourself; a holy cop roaming the city streets beating and bruising non-believers and ripping away the veils of women?

I see. Is this the verse? The watchmen found me as they went about in the city; they beat me, they bruised me, they took away my veil, those watchmen of the walls.

I'm so happy for you. Watchmen on the Wall is just another wackadoodle glee club sponsored by the totally even keeled Family Research Council. So you've made another excellent choice. I R 1. R U 1 2?

I guess. But at the end of the day I'm a Skydiver, right? There is only so much you can expect.

I'm pretty sure I'm on his watchlist, and for good reason. I'm just hoping it's Amy's Birthday or something.

Joe, How bad was it really? I called him a sad figure. Is that really a PA? The rest of it was simply observations that are truthful and also, I'm guessing, not original except in wording. Here it is: I do not think Ron deserves a pass. If I saw him talking to an impressionable person I would intervene. I think that anyone who participates here who cares about truth that would not do the same needs to recalibrate their thinking. Maybe I'm wrong but that's how I see it. Joe

Thanks Yobnoc, I don't want a banning, that's for sure. But Ron begs a completely honest assessment, hopefully the ref's will agree. At a certain point we need to be able to say what we think is true without dancing around corners. I think what I wrote is true. Not just as Me vs. Ron but as reality vs. insanity. I might also say as in truth vs. falsehoods. We have crazy hard headwinds to sail against these days and if we are going to get to where we need to be we need to step up our game. Hopefully I'm here tomorrow.

You have got to be pulling my dingaling. That is insane even by your conspiratorial standards. When you were jumping and got a bad spot did you ascribe nefarious intentions to anyone? The pilot? The manifestor? The packers? The crapper cleaner? Were they all in cahoots, perhaps? Was it all planned long in advance to hide all tracks? Did you think it was actually a misdirection where you were used to confuse the real target? Did you think: "Yes. For sure. How else could it be explained?" You are a sad figure, Ron. You are, I think, irretrievably controlled by your delusions. And that makes you a very dangerous person. Good that you are sequestered with like minded loonies and away from the rest of us. Please stay there.

Kieth, I'm all for fixing the VA Health system and I'd start by creating far fewer patients to clog an already overcrowded system. But that's it's own thing and I don't think creating a basic social safety net package as a foundation for addressing working poverty in America should be dependent on solving that problem. You are absolutely right that a minimum wage number in one location may not be the right number elsewhere. I say we should, in a basic but humane way, simply take away the danger of being alive and breathing, remove risk from the absolute necessity of driving your car to work and your kids to school and also through educational opportunities make easier the task of finding a way to improve your circumstance beyond a locally decided minimum pay. Gotta start somewhere. Joe

Kieth, it seems to me that if there were a basic social safety net in place, as I posited above, then it would be easier to argue that the minimum wage number should be based on local conditions.

Right. Let's just add a meaningful but basic social safety net that could benefit any companies workers thus leveling the playing field. Again, basic health insurance (that also serves as occupational health insurance), basic no fault auto insurance (and hog tie the lawyers from both government programs with tort reform) and basic post high school college or trade school training. Then low wage workers are less of a burden or risk to potential employers and, along with gig economy workers, have a shot at moving up in the economy.

That's the thing. It's just head in the sand thinking to believe the costs aren't being borne by each of us like it or not. The problem is that the word socialism causes right wing heads to burst so we pay the bills very inefficiently. Instead of calling it socialism why not think societal living instead? Simply recognize that as long as you participate in societal living certain costs must be borne. If that is just not workable for you then find a way to opt out.

Not really but there is an excellent point in there. All of life's basic necessities can not be met with a minimum wage that small businesses can afford. The thing is that whether an employer provides it or not people need health care. That's why I'm a fan of some sort of opt in government plan. If you want more than that or your union negotiated a far better plan fantastic, but there should be something. The net effect is that an affordable minimum wage becomes more doable for the worker. Same with free community college or trade school, cheap government sponsored no fault auto insurance or even subsidized bus travel for that matter. Things of that nature. It's not socialism to pull down a little more money from hundred billionaires or even hundred millionaires to pay for these things.

This: "That's fine with me - at least that way the employees and customers are in control rather than the excessively greedy." You are inconsistent. Walk the walk. I support me getting rich while also supporting fair pay. You say you need to shop where my tax dollars subsidize workers because you have thin business margins and unfortunately live where the fortunates live.

I'll leave it to Christians to get all "Churchy", not my thing. But, yes, predatory pay practices is exactly what I meant. Walmart's employee's are subsidized by your tax dollars. Do some research.

The point is that it's not as sound bite simple as your first explanation implies and your second explanation disclaims. Clearly you have some choices. For example, you don't need to live where your circumstance and philosophy don't pair. But you do and thus need to frequent vendors with predatory pay practices to make ends meet. Unless, of course, it's not that close to the bone for you and it's actually more of a desire to keep as much of your money as possible subject to certain convenient conclusions. For the record, my businesses have never paid minimum wage to anyone for any job. Our walk through the door minimum pay is 14 bucks now. I expect that will go up. Around here that pays rent, utilities, car insurance, food etc. and leaves some money for clothes, meals out and stuff. Not high living but it seems to me that your minimum pay rate should be closely associated with an employees minimum expenses. It's not saving the world or solving the real macro issues but it sort of helps while those are being resolved.

Now tell the truth, do you shop Amazon? Have you ever bought from Walmart?

Holy Moly Ken, no need to go all linear ego over this. Let's just leave it to Ron to define the group his "we" includes but there is no doubt he is as ignorant as he believes we believe. He is also, deluded, credulous and blindered. None of which is to say he is without some smarts. After all, he easily trolls plenty of people here who definitely have smarts. He's also a master of secret messaging. For example, did you know that Linear Ego is an anagram of Orange Lie? He's tricky, too.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the democracy line: Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of the freshman Democratic congresswomen facing attacks from President Trump and his supporters, was cheered as she arrived back at her home district in Minnesota on Thursday. A crowd of people at the airport in the Twin Cities held banners with slogans such as "Stop Racism Now" and chanted "Welcome home Ilhan" as the congresswoman emerged from her flight.

Seriously, you have my admiration. I hope I can show the same level of insight and humility if I'm ever wrong