OT: 17 Day Vacation!!!!

lousubcap

For all the hand-wringing and posturing, the institution will deal with wherever the various investigations, grand juries, congressional committees etc end up. But letting the processes play out in the 24 hour news cycle doesn't put eyeballs on the screen so we get frequent media hyped drama and that has quite an impact on the public relations/reactions puzzle. 
For those of us with several completed laps of the sun, we made it thru Watergate and Nixon and we will make it thru this, whatever "this" is or "that" becomes.  Enough on a bourbon fueled LEO evening.  

JohnInCarolina

TheToast

@Eggdicted_Dawgfan No, by 'backed the wrong horse' (not 'whore'! Thought this was a universal saying but maybe it's British) I didn't mean that some Trump supporters may start wishing to have voted Hilary. From my point of view, Hilary was a terrible candidate and I imagine most votes for her were a vote against Trump, rather than a vote for Hilary, if you know what I mean. 

nolaegghead

tis a universal expression, at least in cultures that have horse race betting.

He did that on purpose, as it is one of any reasons to shout various forms of "lock the b!tch up", as a cognitive bias in propaganda.

TheToast

The whole thing echoes the silliness that's happening in the UK now with Brexit. Many people who voted out are saying things like they'd be happy if they're poorer just so long as they're out of the EU (ie poorer but no actual positive benefit) and this statement: '58% of Leave voters would pay up to £1000 *per year* to keep their EU citizenship'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/leave-voters-ready-pay-to-keep-eu-citizenship-brexit-poll-lse-opinium-a7819001.html

People willing to put up with worse conditions for themselves and the rest of the country rather than admit they voted for something that turned out bad. 

nolaegghead

I am not surprised at all.

Eoin

TheToast said:

The whole thing echoes the silliness that's happening in the UK now with Brexit. Many people who voted out are saying things like they'd be happy if they're poorer just so long as they're out of the EU (ie poorer but no actual positive benefit) and this statement: '58% of Leave voters would pay up to £1000 *per year* to keep their EU citizenship'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/leave-voters-ready-pay-to-keep-eu-citizenship-brexit-poll-lse-opinium-a7819001.html

People willing to put up with worse conditions for themselves and the rest of the country rather than admit they voted for something that turned out bad. 

Brexit is an almighty cluster**** based on a vote against the European 'Elite' orchestrated by the UK Elite (Conservative Right) who didn't like that their own power base was being eroded by the UK being in the EU. The fact that they are happy to see the country poorer because of their political ideology says it all.

TheToast

@eoin Literally pointless holidaying in Europe now because the pound is so weak. This summer I worked out that 2 weeks in Italy were as much money as two weeks in Mauritius so we went there instead. Despite it being an 11hr rather than a 3hr flight. So annoying to have so many countries on your doorstep that are as expensive as London to stay and eat in

Eoin

TheToast said:

@eoin Literally pointless holidaying in Europe now because the pound is so weak. This summer I worked out that 2 weeks in Italy were as much money as two weeks in Mauritius so we went there instead. Despite it being an 11hr rather than a 3hr flight. So annoying to have so many countries on your doorstep that are as expensive as London to stay and eat in

We tend to holiday here because travel is such a PITA these days. Cornwall next week.

thetrim

nolaegghead said:

Foghorn said:

@TheToast, would you say that those who continue to support Trump must just actually not like - maybe even hate - the U.S.?

Seriously, no one can believe that.  Hate the government, yes.  The country, no.

We got a great example of hating the country from our last President.  

TheToast

thetrim said: We got a great example of hating the country from our last President.  

What does that mean? (Not trolling. Serious question). Thanks

HeavyG

This made me chuckle this morning:

nolaegghead

TheToast said:

thetrim said: We got a great example of hating the country from our last President.  

What does that mean? (Not trolling. Serious question). Thanks

I dunno.  But I'm sure it's related to fake birth certificates, being a secret Muslim, Infowars, Bengazi, Pizzagate, Pope endorsing Trump, etc. 

JohnInCarolina

nolaegghead said:

TheToast said:

thetrim said: We got a great example of hating the country from our last President.  

What does that mean? (Not trolling. Serious question). Thanks

I dunno.  But I'm sure it's related to fake birth certificates, being a secret Muslim, Infowars, Bengazi, Pizzagate, Pope endorsing Trump, etc. 

you left out the FEMA camps and black helicopters, although I guess Infowars could be all inclusive.

nolaegghead

HeavyG said:

This made me chuckle this morning:

LOLZ!

JohnInCarolina

HeavyG

Article in the Washington Post today made me think of the "I hate that faxing is still a thing" thread from a couple days ago.

There's at least one employer that wants prospective employees for temporary seasonal jobs to "Apply by FAX".

Not sure that many people that would be taking these low wage service jobs have ready access to a fax machine (and apparently that's the point):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/apply-by-fax-before-it-can-hire-foreign-workers-trumps-mar-a-lago-club-advertises-at-home--briefly/2017/08/07/7198576c-792f-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html?utm_term=.9a7dc48265e0

billt01

In other news....

While the media ( social and news) continue to write articles to get the average Joe to argue with each other about "THEIR" party. We continue to pay extremely high taxes into a system which knows no limit spending on an every day occurrence. If you get up in America, go to work like good little boys and girls, and pay your taxes, your feeding the beast every day.

Don't get me wrong, I have bought into this way of life too. People working until 66 years of age when they could have retired somewhere ~50 if they were able to keep their taxable wages and had a decent savings regiment.

But that's OK, everyone keep arguing (R) and (D), all the while the country is continuing to spend everyone's money on politicians. I mean hey, they gotta eat to right?

GrillSgt

Foghorn

billt01 said:

In other news....

While the media ( social and news) continue to write articles to get the average Joe to argue with each other about "THEIR" party. We continue to pay extremely high taxes into a system which knows no limit spending on an every day occurrence. If you get up in America, go to work like good little boys and girls, and pay your taxes, your feeding the beast every day.

Don't get me wrong, I have bought into this way of life too. People working until 66 years of age when they could have retired somewhere ~50 if they were able to keep their taxable wages and had a decent savings regiment.

But that's OK, everyone keep arguing (R) and (D), all the while the country is continuing to spend everyone's money on politicians. I mean hey, they gotta eat to right?

@billt01, while I'm all for making our government more efficient, I'm curious about a couple of things.

1) Can you give me an example of a first world country that has to pay for defense that has a better run government than we do and lower taxes? (note, I don't know if one exists, and even if it doesn't that doesn't make our government optimal)

2) Can you give me an example of a population where a significant percentage of them actually contribute enough to a "decent savings regiment" to retire 10+ years early?  It seems to me that 95+% of the world lives at or beyond their means no matter how much they make.  The only way to get a significant portion of the population to contribute more to savings/investment would be to make it mandatory and potentially run by the government.  And now we're getting back to big government.  

I think a lot of us are good at identifying pieces of the problem.  I do it, too.  But I'm pretty sure there aren't any easy solutions because of all the moving parts.  That doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss them - or that we should give up.  

fishlessman

while the right doesnt look to be winning, the left sure looks to be losing bigley    200 days of tweeting, the donald looks around and sees all the good things that have been done, relaxes and takes a vacation

GATraveller

This all seems so political and stuff.

billt01

Foghorn said:

billt01 said:

In other news....

While the media ( social and news) continue to write articles to get the average Joe to argue with each other about "THEIR" party. We continue to pay extremely high taxes into a system which knows no limit spending on an every day occurrence. If you get up in America, go to work like good little boys and girls, and pay your taxes, your feeding the beast every day.

Don't get me wrong, I have bought into this way of life too. People working until 66 years of age when they could have retired somewhere ~50 if they were able to keep their taxable wages and had a decent savings regiment.

But that's OK, everyone keep arguing (R) and (D), all the while the country is continuing to spend everyone's money on politicians. I mean hey, they gotta eat to right?

@billt01, while I'm all for making our government more efficient, I'm curious about a couple of things.

1) Can you give me an example of a first world country that has to pay for defense that has a better run government than we do and lower taxes? (note, I don't know if one exists, and even if it doesn't that doesn't make our government optimal)

2) Can you give me an example of a population where a significant percentage of them actually contribute enough to a "decent savings regiment" to retire 10+ years early?  It seems to me that 95+% of the world lives at or beyond their means no matter how much they make.  The only way to get a significant portion of the population to contribute more to savings/investment would be to make it mandatory and potentially run by the government.  And now we're getting back to big government.  

I think a lot of us are good at identifying pieces of the problem.  I do it, too.  But I'm pretty sure there aren't any easy solutions because of all the moving parts.  That doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss them - or that we should give up.  

95+% of Americans do live beyond their means. The rest of the world just tries to live..

My point with that comment...if the government gives me back ~30% of my lifetime earnings, and I could retire early (~50ish)

If one thinks the majority of tax dollars goes to the military, go talk to my Henry County board of education superintendent who just requested a ~900K salary all the while I am still buying glue sticks for the entire classroom...

And that sir/ma'am is on a county level...

If government is great, its because everyone finances it....

fishlessman

now thats a vacation

lkapigian

fishlessman said:

now thats a vacation

I seriously thought this thread was going to be about @nolaegghead vacation

DoubleEgger

lkapigian said:

fishlessman said:

now thats a vacation

I seriously thought this thread was going to be about @nolaegghead vacation

That was a hiatus after the election. 

DoubleEgger

Every time I hear about Russia, this instantly pops into my mind. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QS2a44F5TgM


I wouldn't mind if the Gipper was in charge of our foreign policy from the grave. 

GrillSgt

So I'm assuming you don't support Trump's removing sanctions and his reluctance to enact the new ones. Correct?

nolaegghead

Obummer should have been prescient enough to predict Russia's annexation of Crimea and the Russian meddling of the 2016 election.  Although in all fairness, they did tell the current administration Flynn was compromised when they found out about it. 

Foghorn

I didn't mean to suggest that most of our taxes go to the military.  But I do think that not having a military (e.g. Costa Rica) gives a country a head start on keeping governmental costs down. 

I'm still trying to figure out the logistics of having the government give you back 30% of your lifetime earnings. Does that mean that you propose a process whereby 30% of everything you earn should go to a government retirement plan in addition to what we pay in taxes, and then when we turn 50 or so we can retire on that money?

Or is that approximately what you have paid in taxes and you are proposing that the sole function of the government should be running a retirement plan for the citizens, but that we should have no other governmental function - no federal highways, parks, military, etc?

Or is it somewhere in between/combination?