Guard Dog

The USA is now firmly stuck in a rut where folks believe liberty and Democracy are the same thing. I keep hearing people say "we're losing our democracy". How do they figure that? There will still be an election in November and the winners will still take office. And very little will change. Because we are continually replacing one set of abusive masters for another. Gromnir has pointed out that Trump is spectacularly and even historically bad. And he's right. But the choices offered are spectacularly and historically bad and slightly less bad. Does anyone seriously believe Biden will be less abusive of executive power than Trump? Obama wasn't. Bush was only slightly less abusive than Obama. What we are losing is liberty. There are only three ways to go here. Just give up and accept that this is the new normal. Pick up a rifle. Or stop voting for the "lesser evil". Put me down for option 3.

That is not re-defining patriotisim. That is pretty much what it is. Mark Twain once said "Patriotisim is loyalty to your country all the time... loyalty to it's government only when it deserves it". I think you'll agree it has not been very impressive over the years.

My nomination for the coolest desk lamp of September goes to:

Trump Camp Insists They Do Not Need Florida to Win Yeah, that is all kind of wrong. First of all it's Trump's home state. Only Polk and Nixon have ever won without carrying their home state. Second there are four big electoral prizes, New York, California, Texas and Florida. New York and California will never, ever, ever elect a Republican to national office again. Oh they will still send 'em to Albany and Sacramento but not to DC. The Democrats will never win Texas. Two words: gun control. They can win everything on I-35 from Round Rock to Laredo but they are never going to "turn Texas Blue". So that means Florida is pretty important. If Biden wins Florida he goes into the rest of the night with 3 aces in his had and two cards to draw. Trump would have one and looking at drawing against a made hand. Fun fact, the last President who didn't win Florida was JFK in 1960. You guys know what that means right? As much as we pick on the Sunshine State we are all it's bitches! Think about THAT for a moment!

Another difference between the two events was that Obama did not become personally involved until it was a "thing". It would not come as a surprise to me if the removal of demonstrators came from or was at least discussed in front of Trump before it happened. FYI, I think you are right. It was Holder that suggested it. Obama would of course have to give the OK and it never happened so he didn't.

I seem to recall Republicans justifiably acting in horror at the heavy handed and violent treatment of citizens during the Cliven Bundy standoff in '14. I seem to recall and article in the WaPo where Obama considered using drones on the protesters and militia types there. Not that Obama would have drawn a distinction. But when it's Trump manhandling people out of a public place so he can have a photo op it's all cool. That is where we are now. Nothing is morally wrong so long as it's you "team" doing it.

Your children will be adults by then with lives of their own. If those lives are in CA you won't want to move far. Fortunately for you Arizona & Nevada are close by!

Philosophically I am against the government actively participating in the economy beyond a regulatory role. And even that should be limited. If a company is going out of business because of mismanagement, bad business models, bad luck I have only one solution: Darwin was right about natural selection. The next company worn't make the same mistakes.

Yep. Among other reasons going all the way back to the Vietnam war. Getting off the gold standard made it possible for rapid economic growth. With the dollar untethered to a physical commodity there is literally no limit to the amount of dollars that can exist theoretically. But it also opened us up to gross mismanagement and made us a date with destiny in the somewhat near future.

Here's everything you need to know in one sentence: Ordinarily I would not touch Bonds if they took dried dog poop for payment. They are long term and low yield and are no longer a "safe" place to park money. But at least the municipal bonds have tax advantages. In this case there are no advantages and the trust does not even "own" the asset they are leasing back. If the city defaults that's just tough s--t for you. But, that is the case of a regular debt bond as well. Hence the reason I never touch 'em.

Remind me again how this is the "most important election in American history" Threat to Dollar as Reserve Currency This is why debts & spending deficits matter. But hey, I'm well prepared for complete economic collapse. How are y'all doing?

I joke about the term quite a bit but it would not be a stretch to call me a "prepper". I do check off a few of the boxes. Particularly the antisocial and firearm boxes. But actual bunkers are a bit much for me. Some of these are nice though. The Bunker Magnates Hate to Say They Told You So I don't know that I would call "prepping" a paranoia based life style. But I WILL agree there are some seriously paranoid MF's on the FB pages and Pinterest pages where tips and tricks are discussed. But it isn't paranoid to want a life jacket in your boat before you go fishing. Or a fire extinguisher in your kitchen. But, when it comes to bunkers even the best won't sustain more than a few months. Most only a few days. If there is an event that can only be survived by going underground things will not be OK in that short a time. If there was a nuclear war would you really WANT to survive it? So an actual bunker kind of sounds like a waste right?

Another article on the possible evidence of microbial life in the upper atmosphere of Venus https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2020/09/14/hints-of-life-on-venus/

T'aint natural I tell ye! He's in league with Lucifer I tells ye!

If anyone is still playing FO4 I found a GREAT radio mod. It's a Boston version of Galaxy News Radio. The DJ is fully voiced and does news and banter. Whoever he is he sounds a like Morgan Freeman. The best part is the music. They play all 1930's & '40's blues. Great stuff! Galaxy News Radio - Boston Mass.

In my world it's 1390 and the Eastern Roman Empire is in fine shape. The progeny of the Makedon line rules from Egypt to the Urals. I did NOT like how they handled the Byzantine Empire though. It starts and plays no different than any other feudal kingdom. In both start years it was a well established and unified political entity. OK, this game is fun. Mostly. But the more I play it the more the cracks begin to show. The problem is I have read too much history. This isn't history it's a computer game. S--t is going to happen that would not and could not happen in real life. Like Venice converting to a different faith. But being a student of history I find that extremely immersion breaking. Like Humanoid's experience where the Pope loses the Papal States and calls for a Crusade to Jerusalem. If he called for a Crusade to retake Rome that would make perfect sense. The eastern cultures need to be better fleshed out too. These are radically different peoples and cultures than Europe but they all play the same in game. That really needs work. Maybe I'm being too critical here. Imperator had the same problem. Everything felt very "Roman". Now a year later there are Greek and Carthaginian culture packs and other from mods. Another thing I like about I:R that I wish CK3 took example of was combat formations. In I:R you could set your order of battle. If the enemy puts skirmishers in front you counter with cavalry in front. Heavy infantry in phalanx you counter with skirmishers on the flanks. That kind of thing. I'd like CK3 to give us more control over the battles.

I didn't make it. Just laughed at it

Federal Spending Tops $6 Trillion for First Time; Deficit Tops $3 Trillion for First Time BTW, this is NOT going to get better if/when Biden wins. Especially if the goddamned Democrats control Congress. They are going to go hog wild.

Got a chuckle out of this

I found something rather important I didn't know about. When you start a new game on the lower right there is a Game Rules box. Click that and you can customize away some of the annoying and historically inauthentic things the games does. For instance you can limit diplomatic interactions to rulers within a reasonable distance. You can also make cultural and religious conversions rare and painstaking (as they should be). The game's defaults are sort of "anything goes" which I didn't like. I hardly noticed until Venice became Orthodox in my last game. WTF? The freaking Pope is just next door!

Worse still we are still in combat operations in Afghanistan. There are young men there today who are fighting in the same war their fathers fought over an event that occured before they were even born. That is almost something from a Joe Halderman novel.

Sure. They were not alive when this happened. 20 years on even December 7 became just another day on the calendar.

This is one of those thing where you always remember where you were when you found out what was going on. I was at the Canoe Creek Turnpike Service Plaza on the Florida Turnpike. I was driving from Atlanta back to West Palm Beach. I got gas and went inside for coffee. I saw the footage on TV and just assumed it was the anniversary of the '93 bombing. Then the second plane hit while I was watching. It was dead silent in that place. Everyone was watching.

I'm with Gfted. I've reached the age where I'd rather throw money at a problem and let someone else deal with the details.