Leaderboard

One of my all time favourite jokes. Donald Trump is meeting The Queen, and he says to her: “As I'm the President, I'm thinking of changing how the country is referred to, and I'm thinking that it should be a Kingdom." To which the Queen replies. ‘I'm sorry Mr Trump, but to be a Kingdom, you have to have a King in charge - and you're not a King." Donald Trump thought a while and then said: "How about a Principality then?" to which the Queen replied, "Again, to be a Principality you have to be a Prince - and you're not a Prince, Mr Trump” Trump thought long and hard and came up with, "How about an Empire then?" The Queen, getting a little pissed off by now replied, " Sorry again, Mr Trump, but to be an Empire you must have an Emperor in charge - and you are not an Emperor." Before Trump could utter another word, The Queen said: "I think you're doing quite nicely as a Country."

I joined dz.com back in 2002, as someone in my 20’s and still indoctrinated by my evangelical parents I used to argue with Kallend about merits of Christianity. Over the last 20 years I’ve come to detest evangelicals. They are truly a poisonous lot.

Yes, it means to get rid of, or "dump" Trump. In restaurant terms, it means to take an item off the availability list because the kitchen ran out of it. In 2020 the numbers were 86451103 (election day in 2020 was Nov 3). The only people who think "86" means to assassinate are those who would also consider "take care of" as having the same meaning. Funny, because a crime boss would try to say in court that he wasn't making a threat when he told someone that they had a nice family, and "it would be a real shame if something happened to them."

I make a point of never looking down at anyone merely for what they believe about the nature of existence. We all have to believe something. I believe that we can never know. I prefer to ignore beliefs and only judge on behaviour.

History remembers the Urban II's, not the Mother Theresas.

This worries me more: "It was supposed to be a routine appearance, a visit from the commander in chief to rally the troops, boost morale and celebrate the Army's 250th-birthday week, which culminates with a Washington, D.C., parade slated for Saturday. Instead, what unfolded Tuesday at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, bore little resemblance to the customary visit from a president and defense secretary. There, President Donald Trump unleashed a speech laced with partisan invective, goading jeers from a crowd of soldiers positioned behind his podium -- blurring the long-standing and sacrosanct line between the military and partisan politics. As Trump viciously attacked his perceived political foes, he whipped up boos from the gathered troops directed at California leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom -- amid the president's controversial move to deploy the National Guard and Marines against protesters in Los Angeles -- as well as former President Joe Biden and the press. The soldiers roared with laughter and applauded Trump's diatribe in a shocking and rare public display of troops taking part in naked political partisanship." Trump never misses a chance to spread division.

It’s arguable that Trump hasn’t hurt me personally. But he has most certainly hurt what I believe and for me that’s worse.

The only real conversation I remember having is that no one gives a shit about the linked videos… Wendy P.

And who can even guess how many under the table spiffs Trump will get for himself or his princeling buddies.

So we’ve gone and bombed Iran. Not sure whose wet dream that was, but I’m sure they’re rich and influential. I have one longtime acquaintance who said he feels safer already. Because there’s nothing like being the biggest guy in the room. At least until you remember you don’t own the house. Fuck me Wendy P.

I suppose if they mine the Straits of Hormuz the price of oil might go up, might there be a few beneficiaries in that space? I don't think Russia uses the Straits. We do to ship gas to India, I think, but I will never believe this was anything more than dick swinging by President Hurt Feelings.

If you have to do good things out of fear of damnation, you're not a good person to begin with. There is both good and bad among believers and non-believers. Your point is starting to sound as disdain about an entire group of people. If that disdain were directed at Trans or Blacks . . .

As a refresher, here is one of Tom's early photos documenting bacterial activity on one of the bills - in response to the issue at the time: what made the holes in the bills.

He’s talking about digging a firepit. Slim had his arms full of wood for the fire. Brian didn’t so much dig into the sand but rather smoothed it out with his hand. Cattle had escaped and ran through the beach a few days earlier. The sand on the bar was pockmarked and uneven from the hooves of the cows. The Ingrams don’t have anything to do with the money other than finding it. This is just scurrilous bullshit from the Rackstraw grift.

Hence the number of people that are "god fearing". How about the fake prophets spoiling it for the majority who live with pure intents?

Religion continues to be the deadliest thing on the planet. I can never understand celebrating death over the beautiful life we somehow get to experience.

“More than 10,000 people came together in a powerful and peaceful demonstration. Your commitment to exercising your First Amendment rights with respect, dignity, and unity reflects the very best of our city,” the post read. “No arrests. No serious injuries. Just one strong, united message — delivered peacefully.“

And we did it all to ourselves and the country we ostensibly love so much. We could have packed the courts, Biden could have stepped down and Harris could have said not me not a chance, our ossified leaders in the House and Senate could have ended their own thievery and self aggrandizement and gone home, we could have read the room a lot better and moderated the message, but we didn’t. Instead we whined, cried, deplored, and jumped up quickly to turn off Fox News instead of countering with our own propaganda. Maybe seeing US Marines threatening by their presence US citizens will wake up those who still insist on only going high and gripping their principles.

Not a war. It’s a Special Religious Operation.

Trust me, he's not the only one. Your parameters for "attack" are different from many people's. That's fine, but that doesn't make someone else any more wrong about it than you. Wendy P.

Because those countries began shifting to a republic in the 20th century with a monarchy as mostly ceremonial, whereas the US seems to be shifting from a republic to a monarchy?

I'm not clear why these "no kings" events and slogans are so popular. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Japan . . . all have monarchies and democracy seems to be doing better there than here in the US right now.

Welcome to The First Amendment. I have never appreciated seeing our flag burned, it's emotional and hits me pretty deeply. That's the intent. I support the First Amendment FULLY. I'm angered to see it being attacked. I think this will get significantly worse. I will fully place the blame for what happens on the current criminal administration.

Does anyone understand why the Mexican flags in the LA riots? It seems like the most idiotic move you could make. It gives credibility to Trump’s argument of an invasion and undermines the message of “we are here as Americans and for the American way of life” I’d imagine it would be confronting and possibly even offensive to many Americans seeing a foreign flag being waved as American flags are burnt, regardless of your views on Trump and immigration?

I know you have a wide view, no worries.

I acknowledge my position is anecdotal evidence. But, I also came out in post 180 with a non-emotional response of: What I disagree with is Trump finding ways around the court system to deport people without a hearing (Due Process). Stop the open doors, open ports, when undocumented are "identified" begin due process and vett them properly. If they been paying taxes, good members of the community. no history of crime in their country of origin. then there needs to be a pathway.

Yeah well with base698 mostly gone, brent gone, and @dogyks reduced to adding clichéd comments trying to make himself sound wise (having blocked almost everyone to avoid actually having a discussion), there's not really much to say except we see the news and agree that it sucks? They can't really defend their positions so they basically just left.

Since the US has the highest number of inmates in the world by far and the highest per capita of any functioning democracy, I'd say those folks are called Americans - wouldn't you?

Quick maths check: 400,000 times 8 is 3.2 million. So yeah, Obama must have deported way more than 400,000 per year in that 3 year period if he was deporting fewer than that for the other 5 years. Or, just maybe, your numbers are bullshit. So yeah - do you think you might want to check whether the reason why some of your numbers sound so crazy is because they are all a work of fiction?

Why would Cooper demand a flight to Mexico with no stops in US. To keep law enforcement off his back. The problem with that theory is "time" becomes a real factor. Anything can happen. The Air Force can even decide to shoot the plane down! Cooper's best strategy for escape is a quick in-and-out before LE can even organise. LE and the pilots wont have time to even know where or when Cooper has bailed! Instinctively Cooper takes that route. Its a good tactical decision. A flight to Mexico with no stops in US may be a strong political stance by a guy with a grudge to express, but it is not a sound tactical escape decision. If Cooper does not know where he is he does have a sense of time, and he can see he is over land. He knows he is somewhere over Washington or Oregon and he can see the lights of cities coming up ahead. By identifying Tacoma from the air he has already told us he knows the geography of Washington. That is a given. The lights he is seeing ahead in the air will give him bearings on the ground. The tactical issue for Cooper is time. Staying two steps ahead of anything LE can do. Cooper's decision to bail NOW has given him time, the most precious asset he needs right now. Cooper jumps and vanishes into history - literally! Cooper has used the opportunities available to him to write a page into the history books. Cooper knows. It is ourselves guessing fifty years later! By that standard Cooper escaped ... and won. Claims of a Bayesian analysis are superfluous. (not real) Cooper is a man with priorities. Escape is a higher priority to Cooper than the money. That's what the bomb is all about. I think Cooper would prefer destruction to being caught. That may be why money was ever found on a sandbar miles from his LZ years later.

I need to buy more popcorn.

Afternoon, Jerry. I looked at the site. I would donate if it were more a bipartisan or Independent's focused pac. It is good to see a grass roots movement for changing out the old guard. Maybe some momentum.

You start to understand how they get away with it. Baffle with bullshit and it’s just too exhausting to try and stay on top of.

That's a data point, useful in the current situation. Maybe you have not owned businesses but often you do need to take a long view; in fact many corporations that currently make no money trade on the stock market. What you never want is a schizophrenic, ignoramus of a president whipsawing the markets and suppliers you rely on forcing you into accepting losses that outside interests think you should ignore.

I can help. The thinking inside the mainstream media is that talking about problems only makes them worse.

Absolutely not, especially the .1T to upgrade his new flying whorehouse to Presidential standards.

Thanks to the anti-American movement in the republican party, the meaning of "patriot" isn't the same as it was when those words were spoken.

Don't seem to be too many of those in the House GOP right now.

Crazy coming back here after a looong time... I stopped skydiving a few years (make that 6(?)) ago after becoming a dad and loosing two close friends to the sport. Still flying indoor (way too rarely though). Signed up in 2003 and dropzone.dom helped me get hooked up with many a dropzone and thus many friends. Thank you for making this possible.

I'd say there are a lot of impenetrable simpletons. No one with a scintilla of intellectual honesty or ability would buy into that crap.

Connections are made on the Internet. Skydiving partners and life-long friends will be made at the DZ. Getting a parachute packing class will be a great ice-breaker. Spend a few evenings around the firepit developing relationships - the partnership will happen.

Gabbard just didn't get the message. The IAEA has stated again and again that their monitoring will show if and when the bomb making decision gets made. They just stated again that no decision has been made. Even Netanyahu hasn't stated that the bomb making decision hasn't been made. He just states that they can start building it at any time. A former Israeli prime minister stated that since the war started that Iran hasn't made the decision to build the bomb. Trump is lying to peddle his message to his base. Nothing new here. His two week delay to make a decision is just him seeing which direction the flags are blowing in front of the WH.

They do shipping on that river, right? Some time ago someone posted a video of a large ship passing by, I think it was on that river but I could be misremembering. Anyway, the ship displaced quite a lot of water sideways, even affected the water level on the shoreline by a number of feet. So it's conceivable that if the bundle was at the bottom near the center but still somewhat buoyant, that a passing ship might push it aside towards the shore?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgq7wd7xg2o The purge continues. 500 000 legal immigrants being kicked out. Someone really needs to switch off Netflix in the Whitehouse. They think Family guy is good policy.

No kings: N. Korea, El Salvador, Libya, S. Sudan, Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuala, Myanmar, Hungary, Eritrea, Belarus, USA . Kings: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Tonga, Spain.

WOW, nice to see you change... I was 8:11 to 8:15 until recently.. 8:11 all the way now...

12 years ago today, my friend Dave came out running and screamed "It's a BOY!, it's a BOY!" with tears streaming down his face... We never went back to Thailand again.

CKRET • DB Cooper in Skydiving History & Trivia May 1, 2008 · Report reply And so I shall Maurico, Sorry, I have been crazy busy but I did make some progress. We could not find a photo (yet) of the bag used for the money but I was able to confirm it was like the one I posted, a simple money sack. As for the "shocking " information about the money, I spoke with the individual who carried the money from the bank to the airport the night of the hijacking. When I was talking with him he recounted that they were in the vault running the money through the counting machine and strapping the bundles. I didn't catch it at, first but later in our conversation I caught on to the strapping part and said, "wait a minute." "you were strapping the $20.00 bundles with $2,000 paper straps?" He said "yes" and I almost fell out of my chair. So I then started putting calls into Brian Ingram. He called me back and we spoke about the discovery of the money. What I found was that the money was not recovered near the water but about 20 to 40 feet from the edge. He said he found it in an area that had recently been covered in water. So I thought, "well not really much of a difference." I then asked for the details about the condition of the money when he found it and he confirmed, after speaking with his parents, that the money absolutely had rubber bands around the bundles. This makes sense because there is no way paper straps would have kept the money together over the years. So this all means, on face value, that if the money given to Cooper by the bank had paper straps and the found money had rubber bands....... well you could see how I was a bit perplexed. This would mean that either Cooper lived and repackaged the money or someone found the money and repackaged it. Which would be "par for the course" with regard to this case. I then went back and re-interviewed the bank security manager and found out that he wasn't directly involved in packaging the money, only carrying it to the airport. He was relaying what their normal procedure was for processing and packaging money for shipment. The funds that were given to Cooper were not pulled from their circulating cash but from a security fund that was prepackaged for these types of incidents. This money was not strapped because the bank did not want any subjects to know where it came from so it was packaged with rubber bands. My head was spinning for a few days until I could get it straight. As for the "oscillation" explanation that still stands. The crew was referring to the equipment not the pressure bump. In fact, a hand written log that was being kept as the evewnts unfolded has an entry at 8:11 that the crew reported the cabin pressure was "fluctuating." So the time reported when the crew mentioned the oscillations was when Cooper most likely started down the stairs. The further he got down the stairs the more air would be rushing through the cabin. The pressure bump, which would be when he jumped, occurred (according to Rataczak) 10 to 15 minutes after their last contact with Cooper at 8:05. CKRET aka Larry Carr conflated packets and bundles... he didn't get that packets were paper banded and bundles rubber banded. He also incorrectly stated that each packet (100 bills) was randomized, he misunderstood. Bundles were randomized not packets. Also, Grinnell didn't know if the bundles were randomized. IMO, the balance of evidence tips to randomized bundles of packets. The TBAR money most likely landed as a 3 packet rubber banded bundle.. as it went to Cooper.

Trump is a con-man. His record as a con-man is long and public. They knew he lied all the way through his first term. Yet they voted for him anyway. Well, they got the result they voted for, just not the one they expected.

I think the Sabre 2 is a great canopy made by Performance Designs. I have owned a 190, 170, 150 and 135 throughout my skydiving progression. Here is a breakdown of my experience with those wings, exit weight around 200lb. Openings: Usually what the Sabre2 takes the most flak for, inconsistent headings on opening. Overall my experience is really good, most jumps are smooth and on heading, some have a small 90 turn and the random one a bit more. I would say the most consistent thing about this canopy opening is the closed-end cells. Anytime I had a 'bad' opening I would blame it on my body position or not coming out of the track enough, still totally acceptable openings though. Never had a line twist with this wing at any size. Control Inputs: Risers are a great tool for controlling the canopy, I found all the pressures to be acceptable and I can maneuver the canopy easily without having to use toggles. Fronts are great to get that dive started before a landing and rears feel powerful, though I don't have much to compare too (Mainly a Crossfire 1). Flare is sensational, practice stalls up top and it seems like you can pull the toggles down forever before it stalls. When coming in to land I never have any problem using my toggles to convert all my forward speed to lift. Harness: I have never really been impressed by the harness inputs on this wing. The crossfire I jumped for a while, was at less wingloading, but had way more control using the harness. I can definitely finish my 90 swoops with harness after some front riser input but I really have to lean to get some output. Overall, it's a great wing to learn on. I have about 600 jumps across different square footages and wingloadings and have loved every second under this canopy. I would call this wing the jack of all trades and master of none, there is a probably a canopy that does a specific thing better than this one but this is one where you could flare out your big WS, chuck your PC, then ride down and do a 270 and drag pond