Gromnir

is also linked on page 24 o' this thread. HA! Good Fun!

an equally relevant picture, but more adorable. The Invisible War on the Brain lack o' comprehension from reader does not equal mislead or lie from media. HA! Good Fun!

we will admit there were info we were previous unaware o' from the briefing. for instance, we had no idea the military were working with ncaa and nfl, but it makes sense in retrospect. regardless, as already noted, the fact the bunkers were saddam era structures not designed to withstand the iran ballistic missile attacks such as were directed at al-asad is not new news. the cnn article we linked is from january 14, 202 after all. that is less than a week following the attacks and contemporaneous with increasing reports o' tbi 'mongst personnel at the air base. HA! Good Fun!

no mystery. https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/13/middleeast/iran-strike-al-asad-base-iraq-exclusive-intl/index.html the bunkers troops sheltered in were not designed to protect human beings from the missile attack from iran. HA! Good Fun! ps the bunkers being wrong for task is not new news, however, we did notice info from today for anybody genuine interested in actual reading. Department of Defense Informational Session on Traumatic Brain Injury "We recognized this beginning early in the current conflicts and began working with the Veterans Administration, as well as with the NCAA, the NFL and other stakeholders to develop a series of screening measures, which we've updated over the years, and we're able to use very effectively during this event. "In this particular event, the nature of the munitions was different than what I experienced at Balad or in other locations. "So if you're familiar – and many of you have been down-range over the last 15 or 20 years – you know, we had small munitions; we had small rockets that would hit bases. Balad used to be called "Mortaritaville." There’d be the frequent attacks on the base. "And they were obviously dangerous, but very different than what happened at Al Asad, when theater ballistic missiles landed. "Why is that important? "The magnitude, or the size of the munition, certainly creates a different exposure for the service members who are in the area of the blast. And that's something that I'll come back to several times in my comments here." ... "And then the other mandatory reporting criteria are "a direct blow to the head," which in this case didn't happen, fortunately, and somewhat surprisingly, given the magnitude of the attack." ... "And if you're 18 or 19 or 20 years old, even though we've trained everybody who deploys down-range on what to look for, it's quite common that we'll have folks who will say, you know, 'I just was blasted; of course I'm not going to feel quite right, I'm going to ride this out for a few days,' or 'I'm going to wait and see if this gets better.' And then they come in, several days or weeks after the fact." ... "BRIG. GEN. FRIEDRICHS: Yes. "Q: Okay. That's the clarification. "And then can you talk a little bit about either, you know, the – the physics of the – of how the physics of the ballistic missile impact, you know, medically or biologically impact differently? You know, why this attack – any more details in why this attack, the ballistic missile strikes would have been different from the rocket or mortar attacks that you were citing as, you know, the common occurrences (inaudible) – "BRIG. GEN. FRIEDRICHS: Yeah, it's the size of the munition. It – you know, it's just the – "Q: What does that do to the brain specifically? Can you just talk about that? "BRIG. GEN. FRIEDRICHS: So if – I'll – I'm going to try using an analogy which may be helpful. You know, firecrackers on the Fourth of July – you've got a small firecracker that has a small blast, goes off for a short period of time; much larger firecracker, larger blast, goes off for a longer period of time. The larger munition – the larger the munition, the larger the blast that's created, the more effect there will be on the human body. And the brain is, you know, an extraordinary part of our body and it's – our body is designed to protect the brain quite a bit. It sits inside the skull. It is surrounded by fluid to help cushion it as you're moving. It – if you have a large blast, that larger blast will have a greater impact on the brain than a smaller blast will, and that's the point that I was trying to make. "Q: But what does it do to the brain? Could you just spell it out so we can convey that to our – our readers? "BRIG. GEN. FRIEDRICHS: Yeah, so it can do a variety of things. The most obvious one is if it actually causes an immediate bruise to the brain itself, and, you know, sometimes that can cause bleeding within the skull, or an – an injury that usually is going to be readily apparent. Other times, it can cause injury at the microscopic level, not as readily apparent, where individual nerves are damaged or torn, sometimes called shearing. And if you can picture a nerve that kind of gets pulled by the blast effect, that's something that is harder to see on imaging studies and – but still, a very real damage within the individual nerves that are damaged there, going forward. "So it can be the spectrum of injury, from individual nerves being damaged to larger areas of the brain being damaged. In this case, we really did not see people with significant injuries where large areas of the brain were damaged, which I think, you know, again, is good news. It – it shows that as we've improved our protective equipment over time, it is much more effective than what was available in years past, especially with a blast like this. "But, some of this injury is not going to be readily apparent until you get down to the microscopic level and can see it there, and that's why these evaluations and things like MRIs are – are very valuable."

am pretty sure hurl understands just fine. and that is the problem. HA! Good Fun!

"The Global Hunger Index 2018 ranks India at 103 out of 119 countries on the basis of three leading indicators -- prevalence of wasting and stunting in children under 5 years, under 5 child mortality rate, and the proportion of undernourished in the population." https://www.indiafoodbanking.org/hunger 3000 children in india die of hunger every day. however, if it makes you feel better, india did improve its ranking by 1 in 2019. is now 102... but only 117 countries were evaluated in 2019. poverty has decreased in india in recent years, but has actual increased in many rural predominant agriculture dependant areas. edit: india shares most of border with china, pakistan and nepal, and is not like you can get a bunch o' people to hop in a rickety boat in the arabian sea hoping to make it to europe. HA! Good Fun!

some o' that is valid. ... with weinstein in the news, am recalling the first time we saw kill bill in theatre. saw in a relative full theatre and Gromnir and friend were literal the only two people laughing. ludicrous doesn't bother us. heck, we mentioned how much we like the admitted terrible last dragon. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

am knowing you are focusing on the scattelogical angle, but am expressing hope you get positive results from your procedures. also, am knowing endoscopy and colonoscopy is considered relative routine, but am also knowing they sometimes require general anesthesia, which by definition should not be considered routine. ... also can't help but observe how you went and got yourself in presumably the best physical condition you have been in for a long time and now you got all these unpleasant gi issues. doesn't seem fair, does it? regardless, gl. HA! Good Fun!

almost as amusing as your attempt at using kids as a human shield. you of all posters decrying fake? HA! regardless, don't say stoopid stuff and you will avoid Gromnir harassment. is hard to see how christ pov is inappropriate when issues o' christian values arise, but perhaps you can convince somebody, anybody, that you ain't just talking nonsense. lord only knows why you would bring up "people from other countries." you somehow see your victimization as the result o' national origin? and we specific observed you ain't a poster child for evangelical christians already and that it would be unfair for your curious views to be read as representative. more relevant to thread, 'cause a skrap scrape is predictable pointless: bernie on 60 minutes whole lotta pivots and non answers which is gonna get tougher as the field narrows. get asked 'bout shifting a % o' private corporate ownership to employees and answer is trump is a liar? get asked bout cost o' all his social programs and bernie admits he don't know, but that a modest wall street tax will cover? how does that work? lack o' willingness/ability to answer obvious questions has been our biggest complaint regarding bernie... other than bernie bro behaviour and a few recent outright lies from the sanders campaign senior leadership regarding bloomberg and others. oh, and to avoid double-post: modi HUMAN RIGHTS IN INDIA UNDER ATTACK not a fan o' modi. however, am gonna note a weird fact related to the oliver vid... and not the elephant dung. the textbook reference "on page twenty-two" which got the oliver crowd torqued is, well, weird. ... is actual from seminole oral tradition. one o' the earliest verified written records involved neamathla sharing the story with the governor o' florida in the 1820s. so the indian government, w/o proper attribution, uses an american indian folktale to teach racism to schoolchildren? HA! Good Fun!

am having a hard time squaring why it is we cannot bring our self to sit through something like hobbs and shaw, but we kinda enjoyed deadpool. HA! Good Fun!

it's not every day a flat-earther dies in a rocket accident. Daredevil 'Mad' Mike Hughes Killed In Crash Of Homemade Rocket HA! Good Fun!

christian evangelicals not wanting to talk 'bout christian values? am thinking such is cause for suspicion. the need to proselytize and spread the word is part o' the definition o' what is evangelical after all. that said, clearly skarp doesn't speak for anybody (perhaps not even skarp) much less christian evangelicals, so is unfair to make him the poster child for an entire group. HA! Good Fun!

oh, and giant foam fingers being sold at sporting events. not a nice thing. if they purchase then 'course some fan is gonna equip their 2' foam digit and block the view o' a handful o' people. get rid o' foam fingers and handguns to make the world a better and less angry place. HA! Good Fun!

"nice things" is the sticking point. bump stocks, for example, is maybe not the best example o' nice things being ruined by the inability o' folks to behave. a worst possible outcome o' bump stocks should not have come as a surprise to anybody. we had no idea bump stocks even existed until vegas, and like gd, when we saw/heard the video, we thought it were obvious the shooter were using automatic weapons which woulda' necessarily have been prohibited by law. discover a simple mod made legal weapons behave like full-auto were surprising to us. we will go a step further and claim that if every handgun in the US disappeared tomorrow (impossible) am thinking we would all be safer and only a few would genuine miss their nice things. baseball bats, hunting knives and crow bars have utilitarian value complete divorced from their lethality. handguns... is some folks who enjoy going to the range with their handgun. additional, have met some extreme small number o' people who hunt with a handgun and it takes a herculean effort not to roll our eyes in their direction... with the possible exception o' folks who hunt bear and keep a .454 casull or something similar as a sidearm. yeah, am thinking the government (particularly the fed) should not be in the business o' telling gd what is a nice thing. also, the second amendment affords gd certain protections (less than he likely believes and more than a good reading o' history would suggest) which makes it improbable the government will ever take his guns from him. even so, am having a hard time working self up to agree with the general proposition regarding nice things when issue is handguns and bump stocks and similar. kinda our cliff edge for nic things is https://goldpawseries.com/product/st in another anecdotal story in support o' climate change. our little dogs started suffering from serious sunburn the last couple years. tell us five years ago we would soon be clothing our dogs and we would ridicule you. even so, here we is. if the small canines is out in sacramento valley sun for more than an hour or two, they get sunburned, so we had to buy them t-shirts. is embarrassing, but doggie safety first. toes the line for nice things. HA! Good fun!

your graphic with the outlier comparative numbers were by definition a measuring contest, and our recent post regarding factors leading to income inequality in the US recognizes just how difficult it has become to advance in the past 30 years, so am not sure what your point is other the generalized notion that a nordic welfare state = good/better. am not disagreeing the US needs change to address income inequality. have said so multiple times as emphatic as possible. however, use misleading numbers and norway in particular serves little purpose. as for zor continued misrepresentations. for the thousandth time, we quoted harvard economists who pointed out how w/o drastic measures russia would have currency collapse w/i a general time frame as a response to your ridiculous belief russia would laugh off various sanctions because o' their reserves. reserves which were indeed drastic reduced while austerity measures were implemented and large numbers o' russians dropped below even russia's poverty line. russia were not laughing off sanctions and their reserves didn't save 'em from taking extreme measures to avoid complete collapse, a collapse which may have actual been better in the long run as prolonged anemic growth and even negatives has 'em functional languishing even further than we expected and no real changes has been made to their petroleum based economy. as for your norway misrep and other laundry list o' gripes... *groan* am only surprised you left out a few o' your more colorful wrong grievances. misrepresenting ar-15s and the new zealand need for high rate o' fire to stem the bunny apocalypse, being just a couple more comical but minor blunders by zor in recent years. you wanna indulge your revisionist fantasies once again? zor is pretty much the only one who doesn't realize how past efforts have gone, but be our guest. HA! Good Fun!

the biggest threat to gun rights is predictable tragedy. sure, gun violence is doled out most consistent by handgun users shooting people they know, but a couple mass shootings with "assault rifles" targeting children or crowds o' innocent bystanders is the stuff which motivates the otherwise ambivalent masses to cry outrage. is not reasonable, but is predictable. HA! Good Fun! ps one more quick observation 'bout income inequality. the US has had a cyclical capital v. labor tension since the founding. check on US miner riots o' early 20th century for perspective. what is weird 'bout 2020 is that angry labor has chosen a skeevy and self-interested capitalist to champion their cause? how does that happen?

just gut intuition by #s? in any event... the last 30 years has indeed seen a dramatic increase in income inequality in the USA and many o' the causes is global. all those manufacturing jobs which went to emerging economies dependent on cheap labor has not resulted in a fundamental change in US education and workforce development. isn't much the US can do 'bout cheap labor elsewhere, but has been ineffectual and pathetic attempts to respond to such changes. the great recession, which started not in the US btw, were also a major hit to income inequality from which the US has not genuine recovered. businesses trimmed fat or utter collapsed and the shift in labor has been towards more education and more specialization. simultaneous, and this should be no surprise, but those hurt most by recession were those already in debt. those folks with disposable income were able to buy debt and property o' those struggling just to survive. Gromnir literal bought foreclosure properties on courthouse steps for nickels and dimes on the dollar. oh, and obamacare made income inequality worse. those low skill but full-time jobs were disappeared in part as a response to obamacare requiring employers to provide healthcare coverage for full-time employees. replace such jobs with contractor and part-time exacerbated labor issues. stock market has indeed experienced substantial prolonged growth, but again, with so many shifted into poverty by disappearance o' manufacturing jobs and by the dramatic impact o' the recession, only a small percentage o' folks were able to take advantage o' such. in the last 19 months alone, we have seen equity on property jump by a considerable amount and we made 600k off o' what were then $2.25 million. those at lower end o' economic spectrum is struggling with crippling debt while top 1% is enjoying massive growth. taxes? well one obvious issue is capital gains. low US capital gains tax had been universal applauded by democrats and republicans 'cause so many people were overinvested in their home, and as shocking as it may be, the average time 'tween sale o' house for typical american is 'bout 5-6 years. were not an aristocrat thing by any means. keep capital gains tax low meant every homeowner would keep more equity when selling her home. recent 30 years has seen homeownership change substantial... and in spite o' the recession, new home owners, as a group, is still buying way 'bove their means. bipartisan efforts at deregulation exacerbated aforementioned issues. etc. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

sorry, but it ain't true that opportunity is equal. us doesn't have a historic class o' aristocrats or similar such, and 30 million is a kinda arbitrary number to choose. am honest not sure where your graphic comes from 'cause is an outlier. top 3 countries with share o' millionaires by population is switzerland, hong kong and then the USA. norway just cracks the top 10. https://www.forbes.com/sites/camilomaldonado/2019/10/23/credit-suisse-top-1-own-nearly-50-of-global-wealth-and-chinas-wealthy-now-outnumber-americas/#389a97e32ede please note income inequality numbers as well. take a looksee where denmark and sweden rank. and norway? https://oec.world/en/profile/country/nor/ isn't even a true service-based economy. were a comical epic fail on these board some years ago with the posting o' a bloomberg graphic which compared russia to norway insofar as currency collapse during a petroleum nose dive. graphic were attempting to show how much worse russia suffered than norway and such point were complete lost on the poster. however, the reason for the mistake were 'cause the trajectory o' currency fail were similar between russia and norway. no, norway ain't as vulnerable to petroleum fluctuations as is russia, but is not gonna be a meaningful comparison to any diverse and service-based economy. norway? HA! Good Fun!

keep in mind the US ain't selling universal happiness. never has. the sales pitch here is opportunity. the chance to change your stars is why most folks will accept less today in the hope o' a better tomorrow. look at the forbes list o' richest people in the world and you is gonna see more than one self-made billionaire from the USA. take a peek at jeff bezos' story if you are unfamiliar. not universal happiness. universal opportunity. the thing is, opportunity as the reward is not what it once were. most folks ain't aiming for billionaire status, but they want a legit shot at better. ... this is where it gets tough for us. we grew up poor. grew up poor not just by US standards but by freaking gaza standards. compare gaza to pine ridge by any traditional measure o' quality o' life standards and gaza wins... save for literacy 'cause they don't much care 'bout educating their women folk in gaza. possible you think Gromnir is exaggerating? mentioned in another thread how we were watching better call saul season 4. character we most identify with ain't the lawyers but is gus. no coati, but we had coyotes and our home were a dilapidated patchwork structure with corrugated aluminum panels, and plywood salvaged from... various places. grandparents maintained as best they could with what they had. we were often hungry and during winters we were always cold. when we got old enough to realize how poor we were, we got very very angry. so at age 50, we give half our wealth away to a couple charities and retire. current have ~$3million in real estate and another near $3million in ira and other assets. have us try and tell you is impossible to improve your situation in 2020 US would be a tough sell. our relatives have no idea how much money we made in the past couple decades as we live relative humble (other than the 87 buick) and we don't intend on sharing such info. we went home to visit once in a rental car which were deemed too fancy and during the night the vehicle were demolished with frozen apples. why apples? apples is red, but only on the outside. get it? the thing is, am knowing just how lucky we have been. stuff weren't handed to us on a silver platter and mom and dad didn't send us to best schools and pay for college. woulda' taken very little to derail our ambitions. most important, our grandparents gave us hope. have tried to explain endemic hopelessness, but am thinking it is impossible to explain unless you lived in a place such as pine ridge or any o' the hundreds and thousands o' similar impoverished communities in the US. tell kids they may improve their situation when they live in conditions such as you see in linked images 'bove is a tough sell. tell kids they may improve their situation when they see their parents, uncles, aunts and cousins try and fail over and over and over again. if all the adults in your life has tried and failed, then what is the point o' trying in the first place? might as well make the best o' what little you got rather than wasting effort on hopeless. is entire communities in the US which has abandoned hope. those communities know (right or wrong) opportunity is a lie. is two fed political issues we believe to be most pressing: national debt and income inequality. national debt issues should be self evident, but ain't. income inequality has reached a point where am believing national government need intervene. mentioned previous in this thread how bernie likes to point out that the three richest people in the US own more than the bottom 50% combined. the thing is, if you have $1 worth o' assets and no debt, you own more than the bottom 50% combined. US manufacturing jobs are disappearing and won't be coming back no matter what trump promises. automation and ai will replace any number o' jobs in the coming decades, particularly those low skill jobs which require less education, which is gonna hit the bottom 50% harder, yes? just repeating self. regardless, selling overall happiness to Americans is not near as effective as you might believe. in the USA you gotta pitch opportunity as 'posed to general welfare. at same time, is a growing portion o' Americans who has complete given up on the opportunity sales pitch. is another cause o' divisiveness. HA! Good Fun!

you and bear claw meeting once every couple o' years? then again, perhaps you are bear claw in this story? HA! Good Fun!

it's just another flavor o' "fake news" nonsense. is no need to provide you with a response 'cause they are all liars and they twist the facts however it suits them. if the real issue is they and them, then substance o' an argument becomes incidental and apparently fodder for comical hyperbole. HA! Good Fun! ps why would somebody keep bringing up obama to somehow counter our observation 'bout actual employment rates, particular when we already stated obama were using same fuzzy math to inflate numbers? jobs which were lost during the recession, particular jobs involving no specialized skills and/or less education never came back. look at dates and numbers o' graph... though apparent even pictures isn't simple enough to understand for the they and them folks.

well, anything which could be considered escapist. call sci-fi escapist kinda ignores a large % o' scifi. 1984, fahrenheit 451, and brave new world is gonna be tough to label as escapist. no power trip fantasies in much o' the more dystopian scifi. similar, but kinda reversed, fantasy works such as beowulf, gilgamesh and the iliad/odyssey could be described as escapist, but is doubtful you see such labels attached. regardless, am agreeing the article suggest an overbroad categorization, but is probable some merit in identifying much o' modern entertainment to be escapist. am doubting any reputable academic or mental health pro would be afeard o' a rich fantasy life and indulging in a bit o' escapism from time-to-time. level where such fantasies becomes psychotic, debilitating or harmful is a legit but am suspecting a very minor concern. HA! Good Fun!

seeming hasn't rained here for more than a month, and this is the rainy season. if we don't get rain soon, is gonna be a brutal fire season this summer. will have gorth sympathy. real reason for response however were the levee breaks contribution. had us recall freshman year at Cal and a fellow db who were a big prince and r&b/pop fan. he were also... angry. didn't like... uh, how to put this. didn't like the dominant social and economic paradigm o' the US to a startling degree. *shrug* our teammate didn't have much knowledge o' traditional blues, but hanging 'round Gromnir he got an earful o' oldie stuff like blind willie mctell and newer contributions including a major dose o' buddy guy. teammate became a bit o' a blues fan, but he were genuine angry when he realized gershwin were responsible for writing summertime and were infuriated when he discovered the aforementioned when the levee breaks and were performed by led zeppelin, a collection o' pasty-faced brits. ... gotta give the guy credit. in spite o' initial believing we had tricked him, he came 'round a bit and began to consider other possibilities. eventual became a fan o' stuff like the allman brothers and had become a bit less militant, which is an odd thing to happen at Cal... even during the late 80s. power o' music and all that. HA! Good Fun!

*chuckle* is not complicated how 2.5-3 people outta 100 working age adults could leave the workplace and not return. couple decides bob should stay home and be a full-time house dad, raising the kids n' such. bethany moves into her folk's basement and becomes a full-time influencer and picks up the occasional dj job. phil gets fired and decides to just retire early-- can make it work with a few more tuna fish sandwiches instead o' trips to europe. etc. prophecy fulfilled. instead o' considering numbers or reading articles, folks who don't want to confront reality instead play blame game. get butthurt and suggest if roles were reversed, folks on other side would be arguing just same... which doesn't affect numbers whatsoever and ignores fact Gromnir were indeed on other side and were complaining when obama were doing same funny numbers silliness with the economy. am always enjoying a real-life and real-time example which proves a recent made point. HA! Good Fun! ps speaking o' obama, an additional (and predictable) contribution to lost participation were obamacare and requirement o' full-time employees to be getting medical coverage from their employer. more than a few business shifted to schemes which maximized part-time and contract work so as to avoid obamacare responsibilities. in addition to businesses cutting fat, which is typical following any recession, obamacare had more than a few businesses changing the nature o' employment to avoid insurance coverage costs.

that was yang's plan. aside, and not directed at hoon, we do feel a bit prophetic "am knowing folks don't like to read more than headlines which reinforce their already held beliefs," and right on cue we had a response which proves point. is like magic. HA! Good Fun!