Bob_Church

airdvr

Sometimes I have to remember that I am older and have experienced more. My distrust started with Vietnam and more so Watergate. The veil came off and I realized the government didn't always have our best interests at heart. Hasn't changed much in the 50 years since then.

My theory is that the population in general got too tired to keep watching out for itself so we started pretending that The Democrats are The Party of the People.
That makes everything so much easier. No more watching out for the crap that all politicians pull, just vote Democrat and you've done your duty.

ryoder

I looked it up on IMDB, to see if their were any familiar names.
There was: Stephen Colbert
This looks like something for my "To See" list.

No matter how good you think it might be, it's better.

rushmc

Quote

From:
The Conversation is an independent, not-for-profit media outlet that uses content sourced from academics and researchers.

Emphasis mine

This group you list are known to be highly left wing. With almost 95% of their political donations going to the Democrats. All credibility is lost after this point

Back when I was at the phone company we were union, which was good, but something that pissed off more and more of us was the way they automatically gave the money to the Democrats. If you questioned them on it they'd just say "would you rather we gave it to the Republicans" and go back to ignoring us. What we wanted, but they didn't care, was to not give it to anyone. As it was the Democrats knew they were going to get our money so didn't give a shit about us and the Republicans knew they weren't going to get the money so they didn't give a shit about us.
Why do they have to give it to someone? Why not bank it, create a list of things that the rank and file wanted from politicians and give it to those who did those things that helped us. They could have a committee that said "this guy passed that law, let's give him this amount". That sort of thing.
But no. One guy, a guy who had a lot of clout in Athens among his fellow phone company employees, started making some real noise about this stuff once including where the hell is all the money going to, not just the political donations. Darrell wasn't just another loud mouth, people listened to him and he could make a difference. A car full of Union Officials drove from Cleveland out to his house in New Marshfield one night and after that he not only refused to talk about it but made a point of mentioning to everyone and anyone that he wasn't talking about it.

BillyVance

Cool! Maybe it'll show up on Amazon Prime or Netflix... eventually...

Have you seen the cartoon Happy Tree Friends? You have to see it to understand just how fucked up it is. Looks like a little kid's show, but it really isn't.

I'll give it a shot. The first episode of cartoon president is on HULU's subscription site. It's on Showtime's online site but that's so screwed up that I gave up on it. I'm subscribed to Showtime through Netflix but every singe time I try to use it through Roku it makes me sign back on. Again. And even that doesn't always work. It's the only network I have trouble with and I wish that if they don't want me to use it they'd just come out and say so.

There's an animated series on Showtime that's called
"Our Cartoon President" and it's must see tv.

Trump comes off badly because, well, he's Trump but they don't spare the reality on anyone. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Shumer demonstrate how to make sure the Democrats never see the inside of the Whitehouse again.

While watching the cave drama I started reading ABS (Australian Broadcasting System) on a regular basis. They've got good news reports for around the world and of course Australia.
But something that really caught my eye was the extent of domestic violence in Australia.
And it doesn't really seem to be getting any better. DV is a serious problem in the US but after a major change in attitudes in the 80s or so it really has been getting better. But not so down under. It's like reading about rural US in the 50s.

https://www.whiteribbon.org.au/understand-domestic-violence/facts-violence-women/domestic-violence-statistics/

BillyVance

They have to remove the floor panels to expose the bomb bay doors, which sit about, I don't know, 8-12 inches below the floor in the plane.

Neil is known for his sense of humor, if you know what I mean, and one time a first jump student sitting behind the pilot kept edging as far away from the open door as possible. Neil casually said "watch that door, it pops open sometimes."

Not a good idea.

Spain designs sub that submerges just fine. "Oh, it's supposed to come back up?"


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44871788

ryoder

Fark:
Deep color, velvety red, no real sign of ageing, still very youthful and firm berry fruits on the nose, heavily Cabernet in style, blackcurrant leaf, with a cedar wood / cigar box spice coming through, followed by a strong mouse finish

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5962517/Six-German-workers-ill-rabbit-fever.html

They don't say anything about how much more processing would have gone into the must. I wonder if the finished product would have been safe.

Phil1111

We Still Need NATO
https://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/01/15/we-still-need-nato/

Is America Getting a Bargain With NATO?
https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/08/natos-a-deal/496952/

Why Nato is good for the US too
https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/why-nato-is-good-for-the-us-too

America’s NATO Problem: We’ve Forgotten Why We’re a Member
https://www.csis.org/analysis/americas-nato-problem-weve-forgotten-why-were-member

Ok. Four opinion pieces in which the authors say "I think we still need NATO" But having read all four of them I can't see anything concrete, just the opinions of four people.

"The irony, and I almost don't even want to go down this road, is that Trump on one hand talks about how great Russia is and on the other hand wants other countries to spend more to defend against him. "

This assumption that Russia is still the problem reminds me of the 70s when people would bellow "buy a Jap car!!!! Hell no, we just fought those sons a bitches!"
Certain sects of Islam are the new enemy. That's why I can't get upset about Russia taking The Crimea. Look at it. It wasn't going to stay independent for any length of time and I'd much rather Russia had it than the alternatives and I suspect most of those who live there feel the same way, at least the ones not looking to kill all infidels.

"The irony, and I almost don't even want to go down this road, is that Trump on one hand talks about how great Russia is and on the other hand wants other countries to spend more to defend against him. "

However Trump may feel or not this is a long term situation and needs to be worked out. Who is being defended? Are those who are being defended doing at least their share? And I'm not talking some percentage, that's a number someone pulled out back in the 40s. But are the countries that worry about being invaded doing what they should or just riding on the US' Cold War mentality?

"Right. But the aircraft is still overloaded per the mfr's specs."

What are those specs? They must be different from what I was told.
According to AOPA

"Ask 205/206 owners why they were drawn to such ordinary-looking airplanes, and the answer will nearly always center on load-hauling capability. Both airplanes have generous weight and balance limitations, and generally, filling the seats will not require an hour's worth of calculator time to keep the airplane in the envelope. With a useful load of 1,500 to 1,800 lbs. depending on the model, the aircraft competes with most other heavy singles and many light twins. "

The result being that you can't put more skydivers into a 206 than it can carry.

wolfriverjoe

*********

Quote

pay more into NATO.

What do you mean by that?

Trump's attempt to get other countries to pay in more. I've heard some beliefs that we do not need bases around the world that we should leave NATO to its own devices.

Is there a list of which nations are paying how much?

No.

Because that's not how it works.

Nobody (as in no country) "pays in" to NATO. There aren't any dues or fees that some sort of "NATO Treasurer" collects.

The idea is that each member country should spend a certain amount (2% of GDP) on their own defense budget.

Not NATO, Rammstein. Isn't that a shared facility?

DJL

***

Quote

pay more into NATO.

What do you mean by that?

Trump's attempt to get other countries to pay in more. I've heard some beliefs that we do not need bases around the world that we should leave NATO to its own devices.

Is there a list of which nations are paying how much?

tkhayes

And I am not sure that it is even possible to take off with a Cessna 182, even with minimum fuel, with a pilot a 5 jumpers and stay inside of the gross weight limit.

Unless the jumpers and pilots are all Chinese acrobats or something like that. Lots of places do it, it is a great reliable aircraft that will fly well outside the weight limits, but actually doing the math for any given load on any given day? I bet it does not meet the mustard at all

DHC-6 with 22 jumpers and 4 loads of fuel on board is not much different. But planes fly. And history says it is not 'unsafe'. We had as many as 16-17 on a Beech 18 back in the 80's, 3300' ASL DZ too.... good thing the ground was flat prairie - you can hang in ground effect for a long long time waiting for that bit of lift..... airspeed is my friend.....

But the 206, and i believe the 207 is similar, is sort of unique in that you can't overload it with jumpers. If you can squeeze another person in the aircraft can deal with it. The aircraft can. The jumpers, not so much.
I HATED 206 loads. I'd be nauseous by the time we got to altitude and there wasn't anything anywhere near like a comfortable position once you got six big guys and the pilot in it. And all those times you'd feel your stomach lift then hear that "thump" as too many people squeezed into the back too soon and it went down on its tail.

DJL

******
She had too much political clout and everyone knew it. In any other election Bernie Sanders would've been gone before the first quarter. Everyone else stayed home so she took the nomination.

What? You don't think the DNC had anything to do with it?

Yes, she owned the DNC which is what forced out Bernie. If there was a broader field they would have forced out those candidates too. It seems as though Sanders and Webb were the only two who got the memo that the DNC had already picked HRC to go all the way so nobody else ran.

I think Sanders was an unwitting shill. They wanted to put on the appearance of an actual, legitimate process so they put someone up there as an opponent but made sure it wasn't someone who could somehow win. I think they overdid the unelectable part myself. But they made it very clear, even introducing HRC as the next candidate before the decision had been officially made and with Sanders sitting right there in the room.

At the World Meet in 1981 I did a lot of eight ways where the only other English speaker was Nancy Dwyer. Planning the jumps got really interesting but great fun.
It added another level of stuff to work out.
We did a LOT of drawing in the dirt with sticks.

"New boyfriend is due "

He's due for what?

Just kidding, I'm married and trying to make this one work.
Good hunting.

"I do not think you understand fully what that 2% spending GOAL looks like in actuality. There is no NATO bank account or funding line that exists where countries deposit 2% of their GDP to be used at the discretion of NATO. "

I think you've stated the biggest problem when it comes to the politics of NATO. Too many people think that it's some standalone force with its own ships, planes and soldiers. If that were the case then why are we depositing our 2% into their swiss bank account but not other countries? But of course it isn't. It is a kind of unique situation, I think, in which to belong to an organization you don't pay money into the kitty, you vow to spend a certain minimum on certain things.
It seems more like a homeowners association than anything.

"As I alluded to before, members contribute in different ways to the alliance which have farther reaching strategic implications that spending 2% of their GDP. "

It would be interesting to break down US defense spending in ways that showed us how much of it applied to NATO and how much didn't. I doubt it's possible, even if we had access to the numbers because it would be so hard to draw a line between spending to protect other NATO nations and moneys that we'd spend defending ourselves if NATO were to be dissolved.
And the other thing I'd be interested in knowing is which countries are spending less than 2% because they're at a point where further spending wouldn't make them any more secure or when it's just "someone will come to our rescue if we're invaded."
And as you point out it gets especially complicated when we're talking about a group of countries that vow to help each other when members are the ones they're worried about.
In your opinion, is NATO serving a purpose these days?

oldwomanc6

***Man drove car sitting on bucket and steering with pliers
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-44819316

Funny!

My first though is that is how someone in West Virginia would drive, not Virginia; then I realized it was the other Norfolk.




Small world though. West Virginia was where I was living when we watched tv by using pliers since us kids always had all the knobs ripped off within a week of getting a tv.

jbrasher

Yes, and even comes with Mike's autograph :-)

And he even spells it right. He's always been a class act.

chuteguy

Hey everyone!

So I did my first tandem jump on July 5th. I loved it! Now I want to get into the sport. My first jump was at Skydive Snohomish in Snohomish, WA. It is an amazing DZ but only allows C/D licensed solos. The only options in WA for training are pretty far from me. However, I'll be in Ohio for 6 weeks starting tomorrow and there are a number of schools down there. I wanted to get some opinions on the three options I saw and get some general questions answered.

First, DZ selection. I made a poll but I'd like to hear about the DZ's I listed. They offer static line and AFF depending on the location. I will be staying in Chillicothe, so these locations are 1-2 hours drive for me. I can get there after work and on weekends. Does this sound reasonable? Early evening jumps and 4-5 weekends sounds like enough time to cram my training into.

Second, there are two options in the area for training for my A license. Static line and AFF. I'm leaning towards AFF but that is an additional 40 minute drive. I will be banging out these 25 jumps in a relatively aggressive timeline and want to minimize travel time but I also want the best training I can get. I'm sure there are threads on this but the specific school I choose might make me go one way or the other. What is the general feeling on the two training styles?

I'm looking forward to starting my skydiving career and learning a lot. Can't wait for my weekends to be full of that rush I got the first time.

-Drake

Personally, I don't think you can beat Greene County. They're not called The Legend for nothing.