Guard Dog

Matt Lauer from NBC was fired. Why? Sexual misconduct. http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/29/media/matt-lauer/index.html

Now, a country that wants the government to do something about the homeless and proceeding to vote Trump into office, THAT's ironic. Don't blame me. I voted for Johnson. Oh, and thanks a lot. Now I'll be humming that song all day.

Yeah the Memphis newspaper is making a very big deal about the racist angle right now. I think it's literally made up from thin air. And I doubt Gasol wanted Fizdale fired. Gasol is playing like crap and did not suffer his justified benching gladly and shot his mouth off to the press. It was Wallace and the front office Clown College who fired Fizdale. Hardly their first act of self sabotage. Yes the team is playing badly but there are reasons for that, none of which are Fizdale's fault. But he's the one to be served up for sacrifice. He's hardly the first coach that has happened to. But for the Grizz I predict this will be the beginning of a total death spiral.

OK, let's work this out. Trump made a "funny" by calling a Caucasian woman who lied about being Cherokee the name of a Tsenacommacah woman, while talking to a group of Navajo while standing in front of a portrait of Andrew Jackson who is known for fighting the Seminoles (and British). This is what everyone is worked up and "offended" over right? First off, all of those Nations named are separate people with different languages and cultures. The only thing they all have in common is they all lived on the same continent much like Spain, Germany, & Italy are all on the same continent. So the only way this is "offensive" is if you lump all native american Nations into one lump. Which is often done especially by people trolling around for things to be offended by. And doing so is itself a little offensive I'd imagine. Are Italians and Germans the same thing because they are both white and both live in Europe? Put another way if Trump made a stupid joke about Christopher Columbus not really being Spanish while talking to a group of Romanians while standing in front of a picture of Edward II of England would that be offensive? So what we're left with is Trump making a stupid comment that has no relevance to the occasion or people he was talking to. But if you are expecting anything OTHER than stupid comments to fall ot of his mouth by now you have not been paying attention.

Double post

BREAKING NEWS: DONALD TRUMP SAID SOMETHING CRASS AND MEANLY SARCASTIC IN A NEWS CONFERENCE! DETAILS AT 11! IN OTHER NEWS THE SUN ROSE TODAY! IIRC it was Scott Brown who tagged her with the nickname Pocahontas in the 2012 Senate Campaign in MA. It's a pretty low class schoolyard thing to do, tagging someone with an unflattering nickname. But as Sharp One and others pointed out, she's hardly blameless for it.

Regardless of whether she is being disingenuous about it (I think she is), using a racial slur to describe her, even as a joke, is not ok. That Trumpelthinskin decided to use that racial slur during a meeting with the Navajo is indefensible. If Elizabeth Warren self-identifies herself as having some Native American ancestry, I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt. Just because we don't necessarily see it doesn't mean it's not there. The actor who played Zach from Saved By the Bell is a quarter Indonesian -- he doesn't necessarily look it. A childhood friend of mine who has pale skin, red hair, and green eyes claimed he was black. Didn't believe him until I met his parents. Mom was a ginger but his dad was definitely black. Except she was publicly debunked by the New England Historic Genealogical Society and the Oklahoma Historical Society. She lied to the AALS back in the '80s to help with finding a job, Then the Boston Herald found out, ran the story and she was obligated to stick with her lie.

The irony is the people want the "government" to help the homeless. This usually comes from the misguided notion that nothing ever happens except when the "government" does it. But instead of helping the homeless the government hurts them by shutting down the people who actually ARE helping them. And I might add, doing it in such a way that costs the tax payer nothing. Still not sure how that's ironic. Terrible, maybe. Ironic, though? The irony is the thing that people seem to think is there to "help" does the opposite of helping. Take that guy that thinks the earth is flat for example. Here is a fellow who thinks we all live on a flat disk at the center of the universe and everything we've ever been told is fake. And to prove it he's going to climb onto a rocket fuel bomb he built himself and blast himself into space. Clearly this is a fellow we'd be better off if he were removed from the gene pool. And he was likely about to do that for us. But noooo the government has to step in and screw THAT up!

Guard Dog: Well, at least Wallace can't screw this team up any more than he has. Chris Wallace: Oh yeah? Watch this! Marc Gasol is 6 of 17 the other night. Utterly ineffective. And he has been for a while now. The team is buried in a seven game losing streak, Conley is hurt, Chandler Parsons has never NOT been hurt (when was the last time he had half the minutes in a game on the floor?) and the only two guys who seem to hustle are a no name rookie (Dillon Brooks) and a middle of the road power forward (Jamichael Green). They absolutely croak in the 2nd half, Gasol rants to the media and now Fizdale gets fired? Last year this team out performed expectations. They have been a team in decline for a while now. Bad drafts, bad free agent picks (Parsons) and bad upper management. Only two things have kept the Grizz relevant, Conley and decent coaching. Conley is out, has been for 8 games and the Grizz lost seven of those because the "veteran" leadership of Gasol & Parsons is MIA. Ah screw it. 93 days until Spring Training.

The irony is the people want the "government" to help the homeless. This usually comes from the misguided notion that nothing ever happens except when the "government" does it. But instead of helping the homeless the government hurts them by shutting down the people who actually ARE helping them. And I might add, doing it in such a way that costs the tax payer nothing.

People seem to have this idea that politics is the end-all-be-all of everything. If the Koch Brothers do own time 2-3 levels down along with a hundred other things they are not going to concern themselves with editorial choices or other nuts and bolts parts of day to day operations. In other words they will be far more interested in how many issues sell than what is actually IN those issues. Politics is fun and all but business is business. I think Mother Jones is the worst publication in the free world. I would not wipe my butt with it if it was the only thing I found in a porta-john after an all you-can-eat binge at Chipotle. But I I owned Mother Jones and it was making money I would tell the editors not to change a thing.

It's funny, there are groups, charities & churches for example, TRYING to help the homeless and the government is shutting them down: http://wqad.com/2017/04/20/shut-down-the-city-of-davenport-closes-timothys-house-of-hope/ http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2017/11/08/malibu-church-told-they-must-stop-feeding-the-homeless/ http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/dundalk/bs-md-church-homeless-fine-20161212-story.html https://thinkprogress.org/city-demands-church-stop-sheltering-the-homeless-85af2cac718b/ http://nj1015.com/nj-church-told-its-not-allowed-to-take-in-the-homeless-from-the-cold/ https://www.fastcompany.com/3046331/this-homelessness-organization-says-you-should-stop-donating-to-the-homeless And people think that same government should do something about the homeless! Now THAT is irony!

Time was relevant? Huh. I thought it was relative. In all seriousness it's sold next to the grocery store checkout, sharing space with Good Housekeeping, The National Inquirer and Archie comics. It wasn't exactly a bastion of great journalism from the get go.

Now reading this.

No kidding. Especially this one:

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US. Happy Thursday everyone else.

Going back to Micheal and Jeanette I heard a lot of good advice for them. What I didn't hear, that I was hearing a lot of previous to that post is "you're born poor, you die poor because you live in a (mostly) capitalist country. So just give up". If they listen to any of you their situation will improve. If the listen to Majestic and Sharp One they will likely reach their goals. They are not going to make it unless one (or preferably both) find higher paying jobs. Doing that is easy, you just acquire the skills the higher paying jobs require. They need to go to school. And it does not have to be Penn, Temple, LaSalle etc. Britghtwood, UTI, Philadelphia Community college will all do fine. Just because you can't go to an Ivy League school does not mean you can't get an education. Atoms still have protons, neutrons, and electrons when you lean about them in a community college. The other thing I heard was get out of Philadelphia. Yes. The absolutely should look at that. 1. You need to go where the work is. If you can't find suitable employment where you are you need be ready to look elsewhere. 2. Cost of living is absolutely a consideration. It's just baffles me the rank defeatism I'm hearing from KP, Number guy, and others that it's impossible to better yourself in a capitalist economy. It's not. It's not even all that hard. You decide to do it and you do it. Becoming a millionaire is a lot harder that becoming affluent if that's your goal. That does require a bit of luck. There are two good paths to it. First off is you will need an advanced education. You are looking at grad school in all likelihood to find a career where salary and basic investments alone can get you there. It's a long and hard road to walk and it requires a commitment but it's open to anyone and can even be done without a great deal of cost if you're smart about it. The other is to start a business. This is a riskier road because the initial investment is the once you can least afford to lose. In my most recent business venture I re-mortgaged my home for the max amount to cover my share of the start up costs. Had our company failed I likely would have lost everything. All of my assets were tied up in my home at the time. I literally pushed every chip I had to the center of the table. That is often what it takes. And if we missed it I likely would have tried again at some point once I recovered. Success is sometimes an act of pure will. Yes I was lucky that I knew people who could invest and help pull this thing together. But my entire career I made a point of networking and staying in touch with business contacts. Is that really luck then or just being smart? Once your business is off the ground you need to work hard and run it carefully. Forget holidays, forget weekends, vacations, etc. All you are going to do is work. It was not unusual for me to work 100 to 120 hours a week. Literally every waking moment at times. In the beginning. Once we stabilized and began to grow steadily that pace did ease up because we were in a position to hire employees to help. But that first year one of the partners and myself literally did every single task from design, purchasing, installation, contract negotiation, everything. That is what it takes. The people who commit like that have a good shot at succeeding. It's still not a guarantee. You can still do everything right and fail. Like I said, this is life, it isn't fair. Yes there is a big disparity of wealth. If Micheal and Jeanette were the children of wealthy parents they would not have to worry about the same problems they do. Their task would be easier. But starting at a disadvantage in terms of money is NOT a show stopper. It's a problem to be worked around. People do it every single day.

OK, we're spinning our wheels here. Let's come at this another way. Meet Micheal & Jeanette The are a newly married couple living in Philadelphia let's say. Micheal makes $29k a year working as unskilled labor for a construction company. Jeanette makes $12k working part time at a grocery store. Neither has an education beyond high school. They are renting a small, not so nice apartment. They have one car with a payment and a few credit cards. Their basic expenses eat up 90% of their income. They dream of an upper middle class lifestyle with a house,two cars, two kids, a retirement plan, a nice vacation every year. Realistically they will need a family income around $70k give or take to achieve their goals. The are asking all of us how to do it. What is your advice?

If you guys want to see an example to follow, ask Gromnir to tell you his life story. No one on this board has bridged a bigger gap between misery and success than he has. And I'll give you a hint... he didn't get it because it was handed to him.

The plural of anecdote isn't data, and the data says you're vastly more likely to stay a miserable failure than you are to pull yourself up by the bootstraps. Especially if you don't even try.

LOL! 40 hours? That's L-A-Z-Y! And what else? Free weekends? What do you expect after that? A mansion? Get to work and stop complaining. OK, sarcasm and acid wit is all fine and good. But you are dipping into it a lot. You are a smart guy sharpie, you can up your game a bit and make compelling arguments without that.

What do you suppose he meant by economic fairness then? Based on everything we've been discussing these last three pages that is my interpretation of his message. If I'm incorrect 213374U then please let me know. Now then. You are of course correct KP. It's much easier to make money if you start with money. And more often than not what starts in rags ends there. No one chooses to be poor. But you CAN choose to try to do something about it. If you are looking for a guarantee, there is none. This is life. It isn't fair.There are no guarantees save one: if you don't try to improve your situation, it will not improve. Every last one of us has the opportunity in the country and other like it to do that. The ones that do and succeed do not own an apology to the ones that don't try.

Sadly, there is no evidence that suggests that this "perfect competition" environment that would ensure absolute economic fairness and control of your destiny is anything but a fantasy. None. In fact, the more things veer towards deregulation, the worse the results for the vast majority. The typical ancap comeback is "that's because there's still much regulation impeding proper competition", but that's an unfalsifiable load of ****ing horse****, my friend. Pure rhetoric. Being honest, what do think is the cause for the expanding ranks of the working poor? Are they lazy? Are they stupid? Both? Didn't you get your education on the GI bill? Don't you think it's incredibly hypocritical then that you're crying bloody murder about the same taxes that allowed you access to better employment opportunities? The bottom line seems to be: wealth redistribution, it's awesome if "the market" does it. If the state does it, it's oppression, tyranny, etc. right? But nominally, the state represents the people. Who does the market represent, exactly? As an aside, I find it rather baffling how you keep going on about being lined up and shot when it's actually you who's constantly reminding us how willing you are to take up arms to defend your property... maybe put the guns down for a second and try to work out a compromise that doesn't involve anyone getting shot, eh? OK the problem here is with the term "economic fairness". The goal should be equal opportunity but what you are looking for is equal outcome. Everyone gets a cookie. If there are not enough cookies to go around then everyone gets half a cookie. Tom worked 40 hours, Harry worked 20 and they both get the same half of a cookie. When everyone gets the same outcome there is never enough for everyone to have it all. So everyone gets a little no matter what. You reduce everyone regardless of work ethic, education, etc to the lowest common denominator. It's certainly equal but I would not call it fair. Equal opportunity means you can better your situation but it does not mean it will happen. Yes I did get my education thanks to the GI Bill. It is not a handout. First off I served in the military for 5 years to get it. Second I paid into it. They don't just give it to you, you have to contribute money into it. For me it was 1/4 of my pay after taxes. I think it's actually more now (but you get more money and more options for using it too). When I first got out of the service I started a business performing electronic test equipment calibration. I invested all the money I'd saved in the military towards it. I worked like hell to get it off the ground. I cold called clients, heck I even worked for free a number of times just to show what I could do in the hopes of getting future business. Two years later it was over. I had no assets, $12k in debt, and no outs. As far as I know I did everything right but because of bad luck, or simply selling a service for which there was no demand I failed. 13 years later I started another business with some partners and it was a success. A life changing success. I was able to do this because of the opportunities that are afforded in a free economy. Everyone has those opportunities. In the 1940s in Savannah GA there lived a man named Myers Anderson. He was a poor, working class black man with a wife and two young grandchildren he was raising. He built a small three bedroom home with his own hands using surplus material and salvaged odds and ends from his low wage construction job. He saved his money and started a coal oil business. After that became successful he bought some land and planted sorghum and millet that he sold as feed. By the time he died in the 1970s he was a reasonably wealthy man that sent both of his grand children to college. One of whom is now an Associate Justice on the US Supreme Court. A man I once met was the son of penniless dutch immigrants in Chicago. His father worked as a garbage man his whole life. After high school he went to a small college you've never heard of for two years but had to drop out because he could not afford his tuition. He joined the Army and saved his money. When he got out he used his savings and bought a garbage truck and started his own garbage collection business. Soon bought another. And then another. In 1972 he took his garbage business public. By this time he had more than 130 garbage trucks in two cities. In 1983 his company Waste Management was the biggest waste disposal company in the US. The man was now a millionaire. In 1985 he bought a small chain of video rental stores and renamed it Blockbuster. When he sold it in 1995 he was a billionaire. He bought the NFL's Miami Dolphins and started the MLB's Florida Marlins. He built three major charities in Florida and the largest (and nicest) no-kill animal shelter in the US. That was actually how I met him. His name is Wayne Huizenga. Debra Jayne Sivyer was working a part time job in Oakland CA making just $5 and hour. To say she and her husband were hard pressed to keep up with their bills would be an understatement. To make a little extra money she baked cookies in her kitchen and bagged them up in little bags of 3 and sold them to a few gas stations in her neighborhood. They were a hit. Soon she was selling cookies to gas stations and jiffy stores all over Alameda county. Then one day her and her husband borrowed money from his parents and opened a bakery. Today that business has over 650 stores world wide and her cookies are in every grocery store. You might know her by her married name: Debra Fields, or just Mrs. Fields. People work hard and improve their lives every single day in this country, and others with similar opportunities. I know a similar story about a man in Mexico who started a tequila business on a shoestring. I could go on all day. The beauty of equal opportunity is that anyone... anyone at all can change their lives if they just try to do it. Maybe it won't work. Maybe it will. Even if you fail just don't give up. Imagine if I had given up after I failed. My life would be completely different, maybe not in a good way. But if economic equality is the goal, then there is no chance of having anything more than what you have now, what everyone else has. That last bit about being line up and shot was supposed to be tounge-in-cheek. But to tell the truth is it ever did come down to the forced confiscation of property you had better believe I will not give it up without a fight. I'd rather die that day than live in the country where armed men can show up at your home and take whatever they want without us having the means to resist.