nigel99

Gold toilets on all aircraft?

Thanks for the info on the Bombas socks, I see they are in Aus now. I like that kind of model. There’s an Aussie Mexican food chain Zambreros with a plate for plate initiative. It was part of the founding ethos and it’s a large part of why I tend to get their food over competitors.

I agree it’s complicated. But I think social costs need to be considered, by those outside of businesses. It’s unrealistic to expect businesses to do things for the greater good. Also being brutally honest, you’ll probably find your average Filipino works a lot harder than your average western low skilled worker.

Exactly. The tax system is an effective tool if used properly.

It could be rebates to businesses that onshore call centres. I’d like to see supermarkets charged a ‘tax’ for each self checkout and make it less financially viable than employing people. I’m not certain of the dynamics in other countries but in Australia we’ve seen a huge erosion of job opportunities that disproportionately affect young school leavers, single moms and other disadvantaged people. I know many 16-25 year olds who have lost out and are now on Centrelink (welfare), I’ve got 2 of them sitting out back at the moment - despite regularly applying for jobs. Supermarket checkouts have been replaced by self checkouts and post Covid our supermarkets have switched from employing people to restock shelves at night (which gave lots of single moms an income source), to requiring workers to multitask and restock during the day. It’s got clear business benefits as there is less stock on the shelves, lower labour costs etc, but it has a social cost. One young girl I know mentioned how many elderly people used to chat at checkout, and would say how much they valued the social interaction that they didn’t get otherwise. Businesses are profit driven, and although they “should” have some level of social responsibility they don’t. Meanwhile it’s the government’s role to balance the greater societal costs. You joke about elevator operators, but there are developmentally challenged people (my older brother is one), who would only just be capable of that job, but would love it. Similar with petrol pump attendants. Got forbid I partially agree with JD but giving people the opportunity for the dignity of work is a good thing. We shouldn’t remove the social safety net that exists- and ours is much better than that of the US. We have also lost sight of businesses need to operate. Our minimum wage is $25 an hour, which is good and I fully support, but penalty rates on the minimum wage raise it to between $30 and $60 for after hours, weekend or public holidays. Paying someone $60 an hour on a public holiday to make coffee isn’t sustainable and the consequence is that those opportunities have disappeared. School kids used to love the Christmas break as it was an opportunity to work the longer hours and make some cash.

Call centres, check out operators and other low skilled jobs are an area that I believe government should incentivise businesses to create and keep locally.

If he senses that he’s going to lose the midterms or if the courts get any teeth.

Break, brake? Used in a sentence on being poorly educated :)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/05/15/florida-death-row-inmate-glen-rogers-donald-trump/83656998007/ Well having your last words go out to Trump sure is commitment. Very fine people as Trump supporters.

I saw a pretty interesting analysis comparing the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ (WTF kind of name is that anyway), with some of the power consolidation in Germany. I can’t find the original link and think this is the correct Wikipedia article they referred to in their analysis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleichschaltung

In general I’ve found good engineers make very poor managers. Unfortunately all too often the less competent engineers rise into management. This is sometimes worse than having a non technical manager. But I agree with you, people should be doing time on the tools before rising into management. Doing an engineering degree and then an MBA to leap frog the process hasn’t ever worked well in my experience

Oh my bad. Merican English can have odd miscommunications. In my world that is a Chartered Engineer (which I am), and PE is physical exercise.

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/south-africas-president-shoots-down-trumps-genocide-claims-in-oval-office-im-sorry-i-dont-have-a-plane-to-give-you/ The really telling comment that this is an Elon inspired vendetta “I’ve got friends from South Africa, one in particular and he says ….” Adding insult to injury and showing just how much of a banana republic the US has become, the South African president says “Sorry I don’t have a jet to give you” Watching that interview and Trump flipping through printed pages like a car salesman, I don’t think that decorum exists in the Whitehouse anymore. I don’t think I’d be surprised if it came out they they were having literal circle jerks in the Oval Office.

New Mexico is a lovely state, I’m not surprised.

I honestly don’t think you understand DEI or what it means. So now we get to see a glimpse of your biases. People with degrees are idiots, unlike the jocks who are good at PE. It makes sense that you would struggle with women like Harris being competent, as in your world deadlift weight is directly correlated to IQ. Trump on the other hand being able to lift 300lbs of lard is a genius

Discrimination isn’t always black and white. People in wheelchairs shouldn’t be discriminated against for an office job, but they’re not going to be climbing ladders as a roofer. In your black and white world are you going to argue that people in wheelchairs shouldn’t have ramp access to offices? Or that because there are ramps into buildings they should be given specialist equipment to enable them to do roofing? As far as tangential characteristics, there’s a lot of evidence to show that a diverse group tends to have higher performance. But humans are naturally drawn to copies of themselves. So if you’ve got a company that only employs graduates from Oxford University because “it’s the best”, is discriminating. The lie that is told by the anti DEI believers is that diversity means accepting inferior people. There are many DEI policies and practices that are sensible and practical. 20 odd years ago in the UK it was fairly common practice to have a photo on your CV. These days best hiring practices remove names, genders and race from the CV’s removing innate bias. The only people it hurts are Uncle Fred’s nephew who knows someone and gets a leg up. Lastly sorry to say it but with bias involved I’m certain that your violinist will be perceived as mediocre no matter how good they are, if you’ve got people who believe that only blond white women can play well. You only need to look at your political views to see that there are those of who believe that Trump is “better” than Harris, because a woman could never be better than a man.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5280612-trump-golden-dome-missile-defense/ Israel has the iron dome, Trump needs to be better so his version is the “golden dome”. Has anyone told him that gold isn’t the ideal material for strength against an attack? Surely you could pick a better name for a program? Mind you stealth aircraft are useless because they’re not pretty…

I’ve been mulling over the situation in the US and I think it’s unprecedented. The rise of fascism and oligarchs are following a historical path and are nothing new. But I’m not sure the “reality TV” governing for ratings is not something that has happened before? The teasers of “I’m going to announce a big deal soon”, the baiting of journalists and foreign dignitaries with inflammatory posts or comments prior to meeting etc.

It’s really hard to see how you guys in the US are going to recover from this. Hate being negative but I think you’re past the point of no return.

Well there’s a part truth to this. Harris wanted to address price gouging and large corporations tend to dodge paying taxes. Not saying this is Trump’s rational but it’s an argument I would support.

How’s this one Trump’s plan to 'release terrorists near homes of Supreme Court justices'

Hard to believe it was nearly 10 years ago.

Makes me think of popsjumper. He had wanted to vote for Trump and was an avid swiftie.

Holy shit, I had an aneurism trying to make sense of that.

Kristi Noem’s DHS considering U.S. citizenship reality show, to have immigrants pitted against each other to compete for U.S. citizenship on air in a show called The American.