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I'll put that down to cocktail hour posting. TK, we on the left here are largely in agreement that Biden is basically like a condom: totally necessary for the job at hand but best discarded after a single use.

Trump is weak to the core, in his essence as a person. Biden is weak because he's old as hell and showing it.

You're equating abortion and trans-gender surgery, specialty medical procedures that not every medical professional is trained to provide, with selling a lousy wedding cake? We disagree, then. If you open a retail shop for business to the general public then you must sell your products to the entire general public. To do otherwise is nothing short of discrimination and that we should all strive to end.

I sometimes wonder if gas companies have it somewhere in the back (or middle) of their minds that keeping prices high will also hurt the Democrats at the polls, and help Republicans who are more inclined towards giveaways for the fossil fuel industry and much more hostile towards competing renewables.

Hi Bill, As I continue to say, 'The American electorate is uninformed & prefers to stay that way.' A GOP CongressCritter across the river in Washington state continues to run ads on why the high prices for gasoline is Biden's fault because he is causing the shortages. THERE ARE NO SHORTAGES!!!!!!!! Jerry Baumchen

Anyone else have one of these pamphlets (see pic)? Copyright 1975 by Donald Beck (of DJ Associates, founder of PIA). Interestingly, photo credit on the front provided by Strong. Mine is in pristine shape and I was lucky enough to be gifted it about 12 years ago, so it sits next to my other parachuting books/pamphlets/etc. Just curious if others have seen it. Thanks!

Yes, that is absolutely true. Trump is also too old for the job, and proven incompetent in other ways as well. Biden shows clear signs of his age catching up with him. Jobs requiring mental acuity often have mandatory retirement ages. Commercial pilots at 60 or 65. Biden will be 82 years old in 2022 and even further along the path of decline. POTUS is a high stress and very important job. He would be fine as a Senator, they don't get woken in the middle of the night to deal with a crisis. As Hilary pointed out with Trump.

Ah! So the problem is oil companies not wanting to invest their own money. Agreed. The future expectation is reduced consumption through: 1) Running out of cheap oil 2) Competition from Tesla and the like Not through legislation. Through competition (a conservative holy grail) and depletion of resources (something conservatives would like to pretend does not exist.) Well, since you can't make up your mind whether it's Biden's fault or the oil company's fault - we are in good company.

Weird argument coming from a guy whose "tribe" cuts the foreskin off male babies and in some cases has a designated male suck it off the penis. Edited: penile gland or pineal gland is something entirely different....lol

I enjoy reading your perspectives and thoughts on the things we discuss. In that way you make my world better. I am certain I am not alone.

Yes, there is a world wide shift away from fossil fuels of all kinds and toward renewables. Major investment firms are meeting the market demand from investors to avoid the sector. All this makes investment in refineries and oil production a more risky proposition than it has been in the past. And this will act to reduce the supply and therefore temporarily increase the price and the profit of the product. In turn this will act in the same way carbon taxes do. It will encourage investment in alternatives like EVs and a host of new sources of energy supply. This is how the long slow process of reducing the carbon load in the atmosphere will begin. Probably too late to avoid significant sea level rise, but we don't really know. Get used to it. It is the way of the future. Even a Trump or a Trump like figure railing away and spouting off like an angry SC commenter will not be able to change this. The smart money is moving toward the future and away from the past.

Why wonder about something that would never happen? Like asking someone living next to a volcano what they’d do if it started erupting powdered sugar instead. Who cares? Let’s just live in reality and deal with the fact that the volcano is still dangerous. By the way, the question reminds me of Ivanka deflecting criticism of Trump’s outright nepotism and grift in giving her a seat at the table in international conferences. She said ‘if it was Chelsea Clinton here you wouldn’t be complaining’. Again, the point is that Chelsea Clinton would never have been there, just like Trump will never suddenly become a respectful, diligent and professional statesman.

In my opinion: It can be worth it, depending on what you value most. I started my rigging course in 2019, basically apprenticing for a Master Rigger in his loft here in the Netherlands. Last fall I have taken and passed the Dutch examination for senior rigger. It is worth it for me because my technical knowledge of equipment vastly improves. And even so is the stuff I know that I don't know. As a CRW-dog, I was already more-than-average interested in equipment prior to 2019, but I now know that I knew next-to-nothing back then. It is worth it for me because it gives me good satisfaction to do a job properly, and to make and fix things. My sewing machine skills have improved and are still improving further. It is not worth it for me because the money earned isn't stellar. As a technical person, I make more money in less time and effort in my day job than I can ever make with rigging. You can earn a living as a rigger, but don't expect to become rich doing it. And the training is long and costly. So it boils down to what you find most important in your life. For me, the first two points definitely outweigh the third. And I agree with previous remarks that currency as a rigger is important. In that sense, I am lucky with the Dutch labour possibilities, as I have a 4-day/week day job and spend the fifth day of the week rigging and the weekend relaxing/skydiving.

Yes, so that local drilling, I assume you grasp that time frames can be a problem. And actually, the oil companies have, I think, over 9000 unused leases in hand, and their own properties, so that tiresome canard really needs a rest.

Joe certainly is NOT the best president we have had... however is still head and shoulders above the seditious conspiracy from the other option (at this point). But the entire system is exposed here as failing. We have 'pile of shit 1' over here OR 'pile of shit 2' over here to choose from. Seditious conspiracy/fascism OR the inability to get anything done. The only people that can fundamentally change the system from a two party system is the two parties. And they have no interest in doing that. Haning onto power is the priority and getting anything done is secondary. Personally, I will take the do-nothing president over the dictator wannabee mostly because I understand the causes of inflation and I don't vote based on the price of gasoline. Yeah it's bad, but fascism is worse. It's not Joe's fault but it is now his responsibility. And they cannot get even the simplest things done. Looking forward to the civil war so we can get around to killing them all and restoring the actual democracy that was planned in the first place. I might even vote right wing bat shit crazy in order for that to happen even faster. The sooner we tear off the Band-Aid, the better Yes I still think we can save the republic, but it looks pretty grim right now. at least I can leave back to Canada if I need to. At least I have options. All you Americans are fucked. You are stuck here in this farce of a shit-show.

To be clear, I think that an employee who makes the decision to discriminate should be dismissible and no boss should kick it down stream to avoid being held for discrimination.

Yes. In fact we are exporting record amounts, although FOX News is not carrying the news for some odd reason. From Bloomberg: =========================== US Exports Soar As World Works to Replace Russian Supplies April 20, 2022 at 9:18 AM PDT The U.S. exported the most oil and petroleum products in history last week as countries across the world work to replace Russian supplies in the wake of the war in Ukraine. Exports of U.S. crude and petroleum products surged to a weekly record of 10.6 million barrels a day during the week ending April 15, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The country’s exports also outweighed its imports by the most ever in government data going back to 1990. =========================== https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-20/u-s-oil-exports-soar-as-world-works-to-replace-russian-supplies So what word would you use for it? They have record amounts of oil and are exporting more than ever before. They are keeping refinery capacity low to keep prices high. Less refinery capacity = lower operating costs = more demand = higher profits. Enron had this down to a science back in the 2000's.

With gas prices at $5 a gallon, Biden tells oil companies to cut costs for Americans Biden blasts oil refiners for record profits on pain at the pump Tucker Carlson: The price of US gas now qualifies as a catastrophe in which he blames Biden just like Brent will do shortly. So FOX defends big oil price gouging and the GOP blames the president. All just pandering to the base while the consumer is F*#ked. It plays well in midterms to blame gas prices on Biden. probably his age.

Pete Buttigieg would be perfect for this except for that one 'flaw' that republicans - and even centrist bigots - will never accept about him. (Talking about his impossible to pronounce last name of course.)

Hi Ken, I'm with you. Last time around he was in an Anybody But Trump scenario. That will not work in two years. Re: he will need to inspire voters In 2008, a young, virtually unknown senator from Illinois did just that. When I would listen to Obama speak, it reminded me of JFK in Berlin in the summer of '63. When I listen to Biden speak, I am reminded of a very old man. While I wish it were not true, age does take a toll. Jerry Baumchen

Good news...Epix 2 is now available on Garmin Connect.

Nah, they were perfectly fine with him lying to the public repeatedly. What broke them was him lying to them repeatedly.

It's worth remembering that the only really consistent Trump policy was to cancel every program, treaty, policy, or law from the Obama administration, and replace it with nothing. He cancelled the CDC's collaboration with the Chinese to monitor for emerging viruses, with the result that we were unaware of the Covid outbreak for months. He ignored the national pandemic response plan that was developed after the H1N1 outbreak, and failed to develop any national plan of his own. He went so far as to tell states they had to order their own PPE, setting up a scenario where states had to bid against each other and drive up the price, then he seized shipments destined for blue states and sent them to states whose governors sucked up to him. It's true he did allow the government to fund fast-tracked vaccine development (though that was a "no-brainer") but then he failed to develop any sort of a plan to distribute the vaccines, and blocked the incoming Biden administration from getting the information they needed to develop their own plan. Apart from Covid, he cancelled the program for dealing with black lung disease, and replaced it with nothing. He withdrew the US from the WHO, leaving us with no mechanism for collaborating with other countries to deal with a world-wide pandemic. He withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and replaced it with nothing, with the result that Iran stopped abiding by the deal and is now closer to a nuclear weapon than the have ever been. I could go on and on and on. Hatred of Obama is not a substitute for a national policy on anything. Hundreds of thousands of people died as a result, and people will be worse off for a long time because of Trump's obsession with erasing Obama from history.

Seen on a FB group - If you want to go on a camping trip, to a state that welcomes camping, I will happily drive you and never talk about that camping trip to anyone.

You have two parties here. One has been working nonstop to take away women's rights. A second has been working to protect them. They have succeeded for over 50 years - and they just suffered a defeat. So you think that makes them the same. OK then.

Would it? For real? Surely even among the minority of the population who are regular, active Republican voters there is no mandate for this absolute madness? Am I giving them too much credit or do you think it would just be a reflexive ‘oppose anything the Democrats like’ move? Though I was giving them too much credit on the abortion. I cannot believe the ‘No exceptions’ laws that are being enacted. How can anyone who claims to be ‘pro-life’ support a law which demands that a non-viable pregnancy be left to kill the mother? These sanctimonious hypocrites are fucking disgusting.

And such a brave policy, it is. So how did the announcing email read? "Hey, all y'all's, this new abortion law thing is especially mas no bueno for some of our employees and we get it! So, we are going to take a fraction of what we save by having our corporate tax domicile located here in Talibanland and offer free bus transport to a more abortion enlightened, but less tax friendly for us, state. Please don't take note of the fact that your abortion benefit is less costly to us than the ridiculous child care benefit you wanted." Am I close?