leh-nerd skin-erd

I appreciate your contribution to the dialogue, you’ve given me much to think about. How many asterisks is too many? When a poster uses 7 # in a row, how many words could it represent? Is it too much to ask for one comma in the last sentence after a plethora of asterisks and hashtags? You seem to live in a silo of discontent, I just don’t really see the point in being perpetually closed-minded. Still, thank you.

I didn’t get any of that from what @sherpa wrote, though English is my native language and to my knowledge I’ve never had a head injury.

You said the other day that critics faced censorship, harassment and exile.

The “51st state” comment was disrespectful to be certain, though in context of Trudeaus weakened state it was sort of funny. Addressing economic imbalance to the extent it occurs I have less of an issue with. That said, in the world of international politics, it’s hard to figure out what declarations of “acts of war” really mean from administration to administration. It’s not that long ago a boatload of cash was shipped on a cargo plane to a country absolutely and vocally determined to destroy our nation—-and folks like Tibs were all for the party sending it.

I don't disagree with you here, but incursions into foreign countries can get very dicey. That's really pretty ironic given the support foreign countries provide to people looking to gain access illegally into ours. What are your thoughts on US action against cartels (and let's be honest, action against powerful/corrupt individuals in Mexico) across the border, +/- 150 miles in? Would you support that sort of action by the military?

You make it sound pretty good, what with the blackouts, censorship, gas shortages, accumulating garbage, and the threat or exile for complaining about blackouts, accumulating garbage, censorship, gas shortages, harassment and/or exile from the homeland. I'm not sure how you square the 'free' part of education and healthcare given the other concerns you've raised here. Question--are the educators immune to threats of harassment and exile, or do they generally follow the directive of the government?

Significant accomplishments to be sure. That said, like every other aspect of life, there are excellent doctors, good doctors, average doctors, below average doctors, and poor doctors--all of whom went to medical school, passed exams, etc. Using the opiod crisis as one example, what one has to hope for is that in a time of need, their phyiscian researched, analyzed, considered their situation and made the appropriate recommendation for the patient at the time. Blind faith is never the answer, though I would agree lots of people of all political stripes take information from sources that are not reputable.

Not really, I'm just worried you'll get stuck in the trunk.

No, on the one hand, I fear you are a hacker intent on stealing my tens and tens of dollars and you have a link embedded in the account. On the other, I fear for you that one day you may lock yourself in the trunk of your 2017 Nissan Leaf. I'm a complicated soul. For the record, I am not against non-American engineers being hired.

Who is against non-American engineers, Tibs? I wasn’t aware that was a platform.

For sure. A legend amongst legends in Hollywood, where those most virtuous tread according to a survey of the top publicists in the biz. He’s been called the Alec Baldwin of his generation. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67375220

Well, I think the issue with masks can be traced back to guidance, confusion and the crappy job done by people like Faucci and other leaders in government sending conflicting messages. I wore masks, social distanced, installed the magic plexiglass shield, vaxxed, had employees working from home….and watched a menagerie of dumbasses abuse the public trust. Fauci et al were not transparent about what our government was up to, the partnership with China, the possibility of a lab leak. We had politicians making rules up on the fly, treating different people differently, and in many cases completely disregarding their own rules and regulations. As for “me, me, me”, it seemed to me most Americans were compliant for much of the pandemic. However, when it became apparent it was largely a pandemic of the compliant, people stopped believing. Example: I flew back from Fla to NY during the pandemic, and live in NY. The rule in place to save the works according to Cuomo was that as a resident, I was required to quarantine and as I recall, get checked before returning to work (although that may have been a different time). Interestingly, for a resident of a contiguous state on the same plane as I, who worked or had business in NY, the rule was not in place. So, an infected soul in seat 29A was free to travel roam the state and infect so long as he lived in Mass or Ct. It was pretty silly.

He might have missed a story or two about voter turnout, changes in perspective and the perils of assuming you can perpetually shove **** down voters throats and they might not vote against you.

He finally beat Medicare after 50 years in public service. What more can be asked of him? What more can he ask of himself?

What caught my eye was your comment on Trump supporters and ignorance. As far as I can tell, faith in pollsters and the work they do is pretty low across the board for any numbers of reasons. Your explanation here may be part of the reason why, but certainly isn’t limited to supporters of the incoming administration. Personally, I cannot remember a pollster declaring in advance of a poll “Hey, we fudge the numbers to avoid looking bad so take our work with a grain of salt.”.

Don’t let me fool you, B—4th&kreskin has assured me he has figured my **** out.

Maybe, so institutional incompetence would certainly be a possible explanation, though not the only one. Unlikely—the more likely outcome would be an emboldened and ecstatic liberal base would pour it on. On the other hand, a demoralized GOP base hearing from multiple sources that the end was nigh might well have opted to stay home. That she missed is not an explanation, it’s an outcome. Why it occurred is a whole ‘nother question that will be of interest to some, but not to others.

I really enjoy reading your posts, occasional condescending tone notwithstanding. I don't know Ann Selzer from Alka Seltzer. To answer your question, one reason she might fudge her numbers would be an attempt to influence voter turnout. Another might be she has a drinking problem and screwed up the number but is unwilling to admit it. A third might be she's being blackmailed by the KGB in keeping with the "Russians in our midst" era in American politics. Regardless, she's a professional pollster and it is what it is.

One of the reasons I didn’t want Trump to run again was his propensity to get out in front of this sort of thing. My personal preference is to let the process play out through law enforcement channels, though we likely all agree that politics certainly can factor into these stories from time to time. However, in the calm light of day, I’m no more fond of strategic, organized misinformation than the knee jerk Twitter style. The people drawn in by that sort of thing strike me as no less gullible and no less manipulated. See, for example, Biden’s cognitive state and the massive amount of people who couldn’t see it. Or, the notion of slippage, no reasonable prosecutor, etc.

A bit off the topic of his Presidency, but declaring a national day of mourning and closing the federal government is pretty obnoxious.

The reality T is that the guy lived, he loved, he lead, he retired and he died after a full and long life. There's no 'pissing on his grave'---people have feelings about his leadership or lack thereof. Let the politicians and talking heads do their thing and reinvent or reimagine the guy as they see fit, and if it aligns with your worldview, embrace it. If not, it's all fair game.

Seemed like a guy who lived by his values, his values included outreach and helping others. Over a lifespan of 100 years in public service, you're likely to have some fans and some detractors. His presidency was what it was, largely panned by both sides of the aisle, but from an achievement perspective, he spent a bit of time as the most powerful man in the world. There is that. Plus, doing all that as the first Little Person President is really something.

I think it’s undeniable that people victimized by violent criminals in the country illegally should consider themselves lucky because of the heavily researched downward effect study. At a minimum, they should acknowledge that there was no appreciable effect on their quality of life—the murder/assualt/robbery/rape/crime actually is a net positive. I think the perpetrators are the real victims here. It’s perp-blaming, and it’s wrong.

If you think JB was voted out of office, you’re precisely the one “…with the problem over realizing the FACT of who lost”. You’re planting seeds of silliness and harvesting the crop of dumbness all in one statement! As for respect, I never suggested I didn’t respect you!

Even assuming @Tiberius doesn’t read the news/watch the news/hear someone talking about the news when he’s going through the tunnels on his birthday at Chuck E Cheese, have a radio/cell phone and/or ever go into a convenience store, it’s really hard to imagine how he came to the conclusion that Biden was voted out of office.