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I'll take (incompetent + decent) over (incompetent + evil).

I think posting a video of dropping shit on your opponents is obscene.

On the whole I'm happier having people around who are willing to fix my roof, make a new patio, help landscape my yard than I am to have people around who are clearly frustrated Gestapo wannabes.

I'm sure Crazy Horse felt the same way.

Most of us have a part of the brain we use to empathize with or feel concern for other people. In Trump's brain that part is a mass of worms. He is unable to feel concern for anyone except himself and possibly his children (who are an extension of himself). Born into extreme wealth, and never having had to worry for a second about money, he is incapable of imaginig himself in the position of being unable to afford food or anything else. That also explains why he is so uncaring about military personnel he rips from their families and jobs to carry out his political theater. To Trump people are just tools to be used and discarded when they are no longer useful, or obstacles to be destroyed. But nevertheless to some people he's still better than Harris, or Biden, or Obama. For "reasons".

Apparently I'm living in a war zone. Funny, my street seems remarkably quiet, as does everywhere I've driven in the city today. Just like it was yesterday, and last week, and last month. Only disturbances I've heard about are in places where a bunch of armed, masked thugs claiming to be federal agents seem to be doing their best to foment trouble. I wonder how a draft dodger knows what a war zone looks like, anyway.

I just wish it were a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.

Yes, I know. You'd rather ban that language. I would rather people be allowed to say whatever they like (outside of the yelling "fire!" in a crowded theater direct-harm examples) so they can be convinced they are wrong (or prove they are right.) I understand how you can't permit that sort of freedom, since it would undermine your position. I agree. Right wing terrorism is at an all time high. A record number of republicans think violence is the right way to solve the country's problems. Trump has LITERALLY BANNED WORDS from all government communications. I am sorry you don't understand this; I suspect it's your steady diet of Breitbart, OAN and FOX News that results in your ignorance on topics like this. List below: https://pen.org/banned-words-list/ Anyone can out them all they like. But your side knows it will lose that challenge, so you ban them instead, Nope. Specifically they are Trump's. Again, if you got outside your OAN/Breitbart/FOX bubble you'd see that.

Look, everyone. This has gone on far enough. Those "felonies?" They can be just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I mean, who among us doesn't have a few felonies? And that rape? Well, women, amirite? They're always accusing alpha males of whatever. Plus she was ugly. Like coyote ugly. And that pedophilia thing? Look, they all probably said they were 18. How could he know? Again, women, amirite? Can't trust em, even if you pay em. And don't start with that "paying porn star to lie about his banging her." Every man in America wants to do that, and they'd all pay to cover it up! Right? And sure, his adminstration conspired with Russia against the United States. But Putin, like Hitler, isn't ALL bad. They did some good things. Yeah, yeah, he thinks that windmills cause cancer, that you can nuke hurricanes, that you can inject bleach to cure COVID, and that Tylenol and vaccines cause autism. But at least he speaks his mind. But Harris? BLACK! A WOMAN! And that LAUGH!

Do you think he cares, though? How does he get directly hurt by evidence in a trial? Thanks to the rampant corruption of the Republicans on the Supreme Court he has absolute immunity from any charges that would result, and in terms of PR his followers and client media will flat out ignore anything that reflects badly on him while taking the allegations against his opponents as gospel. BTW, when it comes to retribution, Trump made sure that James Comey's daughter was fired from her position as a federal prosecutor earlier this year. A woman who (I assume) has a family and a mortgage losing her livelihood overnight for no reason other than retrbution against her father. Just imagine the pettiness, the vindictiveness, the willingness to abuse government power for personal reasons, frankly the absolute lack of understanding that he is supposed to act in the interests of the government and the people rather than the government existing to serve him that goes into doing something so low.

Often taxpayer funds maintain the facilities that political parties use for free - like public halls and convention spaces. But overall there's far more private donations than public funding. Keeping independent voters from voting for people in either party's primary leads to further polarization and penalizes centrist candidates.

In the book How Democracies Die, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt discuss their research that looked into the cause of authoritarian regimes that replaced more democratic societies. There are a lot of famous ones out there: Iraq under Hussein Hungary under Orban Kampuchea under Pol Pot Germany under Hitler The Soviet Union under Stalin Italy under Mussolini Libya under Gaddafi They set out to answer the question "how does this happen?" How do authoritarian strongmen take control of democracies and societies that are more democratic than authoritarian? Why do people cede their power to an autocrat? During their studies, they found some common themes that appeared in all transitions to autocracy. 1. Rejecting the principles of democracy. Fledgling autocrats start by attacking the principles of democratic society. They question elections, claiming they were rigged against them. They threaten judges and electors, hoping to cow them into supporting the autocrat, rather than do their jobs to ensure justice and fair elections. 2. Denying the legitimacy of opponents. Opponents are portrayed as criminals or threats to national security. They are often arrested or threatened with arrest, and the autocrat's supporters often carry out these threats with implicit backing from the autocrat. 3. Tolerating or encouraging violence. Autocrats encourage riots and civil unrest, and often later call their followers engaging in such riots heroes. They then use their power to protect those rioters, to create a more loyal base willing to do violence. At the same time they try to incite violence at a state level, by using state forces to create conflict where there was none - and then using that conflict as an excuse for more brutal controls. 4. Curtailing civil liberties. The first target of autocrats is the media - restricing their access, feeding them misinformation, threatening them with arrest, and using state power and influence to shut any dissenting opinions down. At the same time, state and state affiliated media sources are supported, promulgated and funded in order to get the autocrats message out. After that they start restricing individual rights, like banning certain types of speech or certain sorts of communication. As these go on, there are several other ancillary steps the autocrat takes. Expanding executive power. They will often govern through executive edicts, ignoring the legislative and judicial branches. They will claim that any limits to their power are false, or evil, or a result of an enemy trying to harm the country. Politicizing independent institutions. Ordinarily nonpartisan organizations, like the police, the national guard and the judiciary, are taken over by the autocrat to do their bidding. Disinformation. Falsehoods that help the autocrat are spread continuously, relentlessly and deliberately to confuse the issues surrounding the autocrat. Quashing dissent. Dissenters are criminalized, and the right to assemble and speak freely is limited by the autocrat. Scapegoating vulnerable communities. A scapegoat community is chosen, generally one with little to no power, and one that is visibly and notably different from the autocrat's community. They are vilified and turned into the evil that is holding the country back, and so must be stopped at all costs. This allows the autocrat to seize extraordinary powers to "deal with the emergency." Seen any of that going on recently?

I thought the Access Hollywood tapes would have been the end of Trump. But his supporters made excuses. I thought caracaturing a disabled man would have been the end of Trump. But his supporters made excuses. I thought findings of fraud and rape by US courts would have been the end of Trump. But his supporters made excuses. I thought felony convictions would have been the end of Trump. But his supporters made excuses. I am APPALLED by the video he posted of himself wearing a crown and shitting on No Kings protesters from a fighter jet. Has any President of the United States of America ever gone public with something so vile, vulgar, disgusting and low class? Can you imagine any former president doing such a thing - Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan, Carter, either Bush, Obama, not even Nixon or Johnson. As much as I disagreed with many of them, each one of them behaved with a level of decorum that is totally absent in Trump. And still his supporters stay silent.

Mark is not suggesting that they SIGN the paper. Rather that they refuse to sign or vacate their offices. BTW, the Australian Newspaper signed the agreement, then seeing they were out of step with everyone else rescinded their agreement (said their lawyers had reviewed the terms and they couldn’t in good faith comply).

Somehow you seem think that incoherence is a mark of excellence.

Wrong president?

There's something very wrong with people who are obsessed with what other consenting adults do with their genitalia.

A nun walks into mother superiors office and lets out a sigh, heavy with frustration. "What troubles you, Sister?" asked the Mother Superior. "I thought this was the day you spent with your family." "It was," sighed the Sister. "And I went to play golf with my brother. We try to play golf as often as we can. You know I was quite a talented golfer before I devoted my life to Christ." "I seem to recall that," the Mother Superior agreed. "So I take it your day of recreation was not relaxing?" "Far from it," snorted the Sister. "In fact, I took the Lord's name in vain today!" "Goodness, Sister!" gasped the Mother Superior, astonished. "You must tell me all about it!" "Well, we were on the fifth tee — and this hole is a monster, Mother — 540 yard par 5, with a nasty dogleg right and a hidden green ... and I hit the drive of my life. The sweetest swing I've ever made. And it's flying straight and true, right along the line I wanted ... and it hits a bird in mid-flight!" "Oh my!" commiserated the Mother Superior. "How unfortunate! But surely that didn't make you blaspheme, Sister!" "No, that wasn't it," admitted the Sister. "While I was still trying to fathom what had happened, this squirrel runs out of the woods, grabs my ball and runs off down the fairway!" "Oh, that would have made me blaspheme!" sympathized the Mother Superior. "But I didn't, Mother!" sobbed the Sister. "And I was so proud of myself! And while I was pondering whether this was a sign from God, this hawk swoops out of the sky and grabs the squirrel and flies off, with my ball still clutched in his paws!" "So that's when you cursed," said the Mother Superior with a knowing smile. "Nope, that wasn't it either," cried the Sister, anguished, "because as the hawk started to fly out of sight, the squirrel started struggling, and lost his grip on the ball, and it fell right onto the green, and rolled to about 18 inches from the cup!" The Mother Superior sat back in her chair, folded her arms across her chest, fixed the Sister with a baleful stare and said ... "Jesus fucking Christ! -- You missed the God damn putt, didn't you?"

Let me help because a new old America now exists. The US is currently led by a dictator King out for blood. He only hires loyal servants who obey without question. The courts are nothing but a speed bump. A federal judge appointed by Reagan stated that “The effect of these targeted deportation proceedings continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day,” .. William Young concluded, in a scathing, 161-page opinion that he described as the most crucial he’s delivered in his 30 years on the bench. Previously US judges ruled that many actions of the King are unconstitutional. Those opinions mattered not in the King's kingdom. Oyez, oyez, oyez, from the town criers on FOX there was no criticism or even mention of those opinions. In the public markets there was no criticism of the King because people didn't want to be put to the sword. Commanders who served bravely in the armies of the land were brought together. They listened in silence as the naked King berated them, praised himself and promised vengeance on his enemies.

Well, that and reversing everything first Obama and then Biden accomplished, and imprisoning every person who has ever tried to hold him to account for his numerous crimes, and destroying every institution that might try to limit his dictatorial ambitions.

"Her policies" - as if Trump has EVER had a single policy on anything besides grifting from the US.

You have never enumerated anything that actually made her worse, other than a hand-waving "her policies." And the little innuendo in his birthday card to Epstein, combined with his talking about walking around in beauty queen (and teenage pageant) dressing rooms because he can get away with it, all paint a fairly creepy picture. Not to mention his now-unwillingness to release the Epstein files, and constant misdirection (Look! aid to Argentina! Look! Bombing Venezuelan fishermen! etc) Wendy P.

THIS is what is ending the American experiment. That millions can support the worst possible example of what a human should never be, will destroy this democracy is beyond incomprehensible. 34 felony convictions Rapist Pedophile Pedophile rapist Nothing but bankruptcy in business He stole from children with cancer While most of us could NEVER possibly have these qualities in a coworker, we have them in the pedo potus. I will never understand this insanity. America has lost it's standing in the world. China and Russia will take horrific advantage of this. "Whoosh" indeed.

It says a lot about you that you still believe that. The fact that you rank a pedophile, rapist, felon as arguably better than a successful prosecutor is pretty sick. Only you know what deep seated prejudice allows you to hold that view.

Just about everything about the current government is "sad". What's even sadder is the number of Americans who voted for it.

You're reflecting too much locally. Some citizens love convicted felons, rapists, conmen, flim flam artists, etc. Most countries refuse to endorse them.

GWB’s group fabricated the intelligence that led to the invasion of Iraq. GWB’s group created the Afghan quagmire and set its government up for failure. They made no attempt to understand the politics of the region before setting up a random warlord as President and sending a couple of college kids to write him a constitution. Culminating in the ‘08 financial crash GWBs entire presidency was a global disaster of seismic proportions, the aftershocks and ramifications of which created the conditions of misery and dissatisfaction that Trump himself capitalised on in his campaigns.

You call me a liar but the post you cite supports my case not yours. "Holds water" means it is feasible, not that I believe it to be true. Yes I did. For the theory to work he does not need a specific path to a specific spot. He just needs the direction that gets him to a general area. South is all the path he needs. You clearly have no idea how aviation works. Airliners take designated routes so that they do not crash and die. They were taking a low altitude flight in limited visibility over varying terrain at a time when they might expect there to be other air traffic. They would not and did not abandon this survival protocol for a hijacker. That letter twice uses a phrase that indicates more advanced military training. That does not prove a compass but makes it a high likelihood. I had and flew a couple round reserves from that era including a 26' conical. They were steerable. I knew several people who had 26' conicals including one guy who flew it as a main. They were steerable. I'll up the bet to twenty. I think I do. The old Fly would have posted the document to clarify it one way or the other. The current Fly is just being a dick. To everybody. In one short sentence you confirm your hypocrisy. ----------------- I'll ask again - What happened to you? You have always been a thorough and detailed researcher. But you used to be objective and open minded. Now you're just rude, short-sighted, dismissive, and a complete jerk to everybody. No, you are not a genius while everyone else is a moron. I dunno, maybe having a rock star call your house does something to your head.

C'mon Jerry everyone knows that those republicans that kiss the fat King's ass don't have hearts.

He was, in fact, a criminal, a druggie, and probably a liar (every human lies). None of those justified killing him, any more than being a racist hate-spewing asshole justified killing Charlie Kirk. That's why we have laws. For now, at least. Wendy P.

You specifically said the rights reaction to both, and never mentioned the left in your question, which was a perfectly valid question on why the right only cares for one and not the other. Concise means short and to the point. Your previous post was short but not concise if you meant to say something different. Granted your posts are rarely short or concise, but usually almost incoherent ramblings so that post was a refreshing change. I’m sure you relate well to the lyrics in Pink Floyd’s Another brick in the wall. We don’t need no education

Another closet conservative. I'll be damned.

As long as your birth name wasn’t Julie… Wendy P.

In a move that did get some attention, but was quickly drowned out by so many other items, the Pentagon based press corps walked away en masse rather than knuckle under to the demands that they submit to carte blanche censorship. Maybe there is some hope for civilization. https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/15/media/pentagon-press-hegseth-restrictions-journalists-fox

That post was of no use to me. Being smarter than a turtle and all.

Tom’s 2023 analysis of the money shows that the rubber bands were on the ends and the center opened up and let the diatoms in and the very edges could also open up and let the diatoms in. If that bundle is rolling on a sandy river bottom there is no way silt (smaller then diatoms) and other debris aren’t getting lodged in the middle opening and outside crevices. The middle opening and outside edge crevices quickly close up when it gets out of the water. There not open for sand debris to enter in it’s water logged condition while in situ on the sand bar. I think your smart enough to get the no silt thing. You just choose to believe it doesn’t mean anything because it clashes with your theory . Cooperites no longer subscribe to the natural arrival via spring flood because of this finding. Tom Kaye - “So being this clean kinda says this money was never exposed to the water in the way you’d think.” Whether you choose to accept it or not it puts further constraints on how the money got to tbar.

"Trump floated on Monday that he was considering invoking the Insurrection Act to justify the deployment of National Guard troops to Portland, Ore.. The president called the situation in Portland an “insurrection.” " The man who was the leader of a real life insurrection and who pardoned all his co-insurrectionists.

That sentence? The whole thing read like a Dr Seuss story and the more that I read the less that I knew.

Indeed, and my metric is to not irreversibly harm our nation by inciting a confused citizenry to divide and conquer themselves so one ideology might consolidate dictatorial power as Trump is clearly doing. In fact, he loudly telegraphed his intentions long before the last election. Christian against Muslim, rich against poor, blue against red, cities against farms, science against ignorance and on and on and on. Somehow, according to your worldview, there is less harm in that idea than in E Pluribus Unum. I disagree.

Hi folks, After a local federal judge [ appointed by Trump ] blocked his use of the Oregon National Guard, Trump has moved the California National Guard to Oregon: Kotek: California National Guard arrives in Oregon, on Trump’s orders - oregonlive.com Looks like it is going to be a shit-show for a while. I think that this is one issue that Trump will double-down on; he does not want to look weak. Jerry Baumchen PS) Judge blocks National Guard troops from deploying to Portland - oregonlive.com

Hi John, Give him a little more time & he will declare that this country is being over-run by rapists & murderers and we that need a national police force. Usually, called the Secret Police. His Congress will go along with him. Jerry Baumchen

My wife said she was good at multitasking. But I don't think she really is. The other night I told her to sit down and shut up, and she couldn’t do either!

I completely agree. A frequent SC poster PM'd me a week or so back. He was pissed because I kept posting about fraud, corruption and the endless criminal and unconstitutional acts from the Trump administration. I guess he thought should just post positive things about America. The Winston Churchill approach. War and cancer is messy, dirty. The current garbage dump is going to stink for at least another year and a half. Stay strong brother. Canada is much closer. March 6, 2025 | 3:00 pm Are Americans Moving to Canada? Truth Behind the Migration Trend and from Buzzfeed: Americans Are Revealing The Reasons Why They Moved To Canada, And It's A Difficult Truth Most Americans Aren't Ready To Hear

So Trump just banned the words "emissions" and "climate change" from any government publication. Orwell, 1984: "Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it." Orwell, 1984: "It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well. . . . Don't you see the beauty of that, Winston?” Orwell would be proud of you. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/28/energy-department-climate-change-emissions-banned-words-00583649

A good summation as to why its the cabinet and advisors that make a leader and not the pure intellect of the individual. GW Bush was widely mocked for not being the sharpest tool in the box. But he had a good group around him so he muddled through it all.. King Trump on the other hand has surrounded himself with pure lackeys. Hence the absolutely scatterbrained policy. The one caveat is that project 2025 is pushed by Bannon, Miller, etc. and Trump is likely oblivious to the cost of those policies.

Oh no. The just laws apply to abusers of the system? Liberals will say its time to put "retribution" behind us all. Its time for a "fresh start". In other countries- French ex-president Sarkozy sentenced to 5 years in prison in Libya campaign financing case -Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting Brazil coup and Brazil ex-president Jair Bolsonaro's son charged with coercion That idiot Biden pissed around for four years getting King Trump prosecuted and in the end still couldn't get his ass into gear. Other countries treat everyone equally before the law. In America.......the rich and powerful get away with whatever they want.

No I never said I believed his theory to be true. I said it sounded feasible. My bottom line is and has always been that ultimately we don't know what is true and likely never will. You guys have discussed the daylights out of this while I was elsewhere, but a few other points to consider... You didn't give a definitive answer to 'path'. Airliners generally don't just cruise around wherever they feel like, they are assigned to specific designated air routes that account for terrain and traffic. Are there really 'dozens and dozens' of such designated routes from Seattle to Reno that might have taken them over widely varying terrain? That doesn't sound very efficient. If Cooper had done some research, would 23 have emerged as the likely route? I don't think you know the answer to this, I'd be interested in Robert99's take if he's reading. Repeating what they 'might have' done introduces many of the 'assumptions' you so dislike from others. Evidence lies in what they did do. I think it's more likely than not that Cooper had a compass. If he's not sure where he's going to land, it would pretty much be a necessity. You posted a letter that you think Cooper might have written. I'm not saying I believe that to be true, but if it is... That letter makes a couple references to using 'what uncle taught me'. That is not some random phrase that he made up. That is a somewhat known term that references military training. And it doesn't generally come from entry level grunts. It's usually used by people further down the rabbit hole of training and experience. If that is Cooper, then he's tactical. All but guaranteed that he has a compass. He does seem familiar with the area. If he's done some time/speed/distance calculations and he watches his direction in flight, he might have a reasonable idea where he is whether he can see lights or not. Nobody is saying that he can target a specific field, but knowing general area enough to target better terrain is feasible. 'Ten miles wide' does not negate that. Georger's comment about the preciseness of parachuting in those days, and my answer to it were general in nature and not specific to Cooper. Exactly where is it established that Hayden's bailout rigs were non steerable? Is that another assumption? If I remember this right, the packing card for the museum rig says that canopy is a 26' conical. I had (and used on my first malfunction) one of those, and it was steerable. They were a fairly common reserve when I was starting out as a jumper, and all of them that I was aware of were steerable. Since they all stem from the same design, I'd be surprised if there were any that weren't. Does Poynter's book list any? I don't remember what the canopy was in Hayden's rig that Cooper did use. Might it have been steerable? Does The Parachute Manual list that? Even if steerable, they wouldn't have much forward speed to work with, so it wouldn't really affect his overall drift by a lot, but it would help him avoid obstacles on landing.

I'm not the one literally banning words. That's you guys. I'm not the one removing history from museums because it doesn't make whites feel good. That's you guys. I'm not the one telling cops they can discriminate against colored people. That's you guys. Orwell would be proud of you for following his work so closely. You can always just cancel her, outlaw the words she uses and ban the book. You guys are getting really good at that. Yep. So you've decided that rape, pedophilia, felony etc is ethical - or at least not objectionable. O brave new world that has such people in it.

I own a Vector 348 and am renting a Pilot 188 ZPX, have a PD 160 reserve. I am renting the canopy from a Master rigger who is highly regarded- he verified it was going to fit and would be safe to jump in that size container. It is a brand new canopy, I have been learning to pack with it, jumping it both with other packers packing it for me and also packing and jumping it myself a few times. There have been no problems with the bag extracting or the canopy coming out of the bag so far. Am using the original D bag that came with the V348 It was fitted with a near new Sabre2 170 that I packed for practiced a few times before getting the Pilot 188 ZPX. Feels very similar to pack into the container as that did- both are a full fit. I had to work about the same to close the container for each canopy type. Neither are fun to pack yet. The Pilot ZPX that is brand spanking new is extremely slippery, not even close to fun to pack or bag. It is not easy for me to pack, I am slow and I take my time. And sometimes swear when packing But openings have been sweet. Bear in mind this is just my opinion based on what I have felt and seen packing it as a less experienced skydiver, and that I took advice from a rigger that knows his stuff. UPT do say the V348 is a full fit with a LPV Pulse 190 which is also equivalent or so pack volume to a Sabre2 170. Talk to a rigger you trust about it. Hope this is helpful. :)