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Messages - RideTheGlide

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256
Random / Re: 2020 Vision
« on: March 11, 2019, 12:21:52 PM »
Sure, they both think the money could be better wasted elsewhere.

There is a lot of other waste, but in this case the argument is against increasing the budget (and therefore the deficit and therefore the debt) by the amount of money he wants for the wall and not spending this particular sum of money we don't have at all.

257
Random / Re: 2020 Vision
« on: March 11, 2019, 11:25:55 AM »
Illegal immigration is just a political football. Neither side wants it solved, because it is such an easy campaign issue. Complete immigration reform could be pretty easy. You have a job, you get to be legal (show two months pay stubs for citizenship?). If you get here and don't have a job, get a job - show 2 months pay stub. The problem is enforcement on the business side, and it has do be done through competition. I.e. rat out your competition if they are hiring illegals and you are following the law. We HAVE to let people come here to work, it is a massive portion of the American economy. Having people come here to take advantage of the social safety net is solved by getting more people to work.

Take "the wall" for example. Ignore the cost per foot (which is ridiculous, even for government work), but the idea itself is sound. The R's are telling us that it is for safety of Americans (utilizing fear), the D's are telling us the wall is inhumane (making sure the R's look like heartless SOBs).

It is just a wall. There is already lots of wall, and yet we it has become this divisive political symbol. In my opinion, the wall does not really create much more safety for Americans (a negligible percentage increase), but a massive safety increase for illegal immigrants by coordinating their entry points and eliminating dangerous desert crossings run by criminals.

Actually, the DEMs and many REPs are saying that the wall really won't help much at all and it is a giant waste of money. That's the primary argument against it.

258
Random / Re: 2020 Vision
« on: March 10, 2019, 08:53:34 AM »
Touched on earlier - lots of jobs going away that won't come back:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/28/record-number-of-robots-were-put-to-work-in-north-america-in-2018.html

A little tidbit at the end:
Meanwhile, a 2018 report from the International Labour Organization concluded that robotization in developed countries negatively affects employment in emerging countries.

Not all the cheap labor being replaced is local.

259
Random / Re: Retiring But where?
« on: March 10, 2019, 07:09:43 AM »
Just checking in, seeing that I got 3 pieces of advice since I last did.

I am too risk averse at this point in the game to step out on my own. My latest Indeed estimate is that for my position with my experience in my area, I am paid 134% more than the going rate. I have done some poking around and they aren't wrong; a cut of 50% or more is likely if I wanted to be hired anytime soon. So jumping ship before it is blatantly obvious that I need to start packing up is not likely to work in my favor.

The good news is that the client has given me some very positive feedback about my work with their new project. I found the cause of a couple of big problems during a time crunch and one of my contacts tells me she hears my name a lot in a good way. There is no such thing as truly firm footing these days, but I am feeling a lot better than I did not long ago. I don't think the idea of contracting for a generic resource to do my work is going to fly. If they contract for me specifically, management would work the contract to make a profit and be happy to keep me around. There is a chance of that requiring some negotiation though.

The main topic of this thread is really important if you are in good, but not stellar, shape for retirement, which kind of describes my situation. If I land the right place and stay reasonably healthy, I should have a comfortable retirement. The right place would mean that I am happy there and my costs are close to what I expected. Moves are a gamble; sometimes people sell quickly for a profit, but all too often it goes the other way. Having to pay for a move and still paying upkeep, insurance and payments for the place you left for a while can burn through some cash.

I will have to be careful about falling in love with a specific town and/or house too quickly. I have a bad history with used vehicles just "feeling right" and ignoring warning signs. That's just the most obvious example; it's happened with other things. I am going to start doing visits to spots on my list this year geared more toward researching them as places to live; staying at an AirBnB in an area that is a likely candidate for a home, driving in traffic, seeing what there is to do when I am not paddling, fishing or just hanging out at the beach. Do at least a day or two of looking at homes in my range. I will also do some paddling and fishing.

260
Foil SUP / Re: In my head...
« on: March 09, 2019, 06:39:53 AM »
Very nice! If I do that in my head, I probably won't be awake in the actual photo.

261
SUP General / Re: Creek in Portugal - a travelogue in Vids and pics
« on: March 09, 2019, 06:11:21 AM »
I see you listened to Christopher Walken's advise at the end of the last video.  ;D
(link for the younger members who don't know WTH I am talking about - )

That was very nice! Pretty beach, good waves and I always enjoy your commentary.

262
Random / Re: 2020 Vision
« on: March 09, 2019, 05:59:22 AM »
Illegal immigration has been in decline for 10 years past the recession.  Statistically the period of economic growth (not recession) that we have been in is actually long and at the end of its cycle.  Have you been moderated here?  Has anyone ever been moderated for a political point?  They haven't.
Have a sense of humor, well maybe mine isn't so good.

I wrote:  I'm done, not going to argue with the moderator anymore. 
Thinking that your name Admin means that you run this board,  you would be moderator.

I am actually moderate (moderater than many). Certainly by today's standards.  A lot of us have to vote pretty far from our politics due to the choices on the ballot.  Post assured, you may be disagreed with but you won't be moderated based on a political opinion.

We have been largely in agreement on this thread. But if we had a disagreement, even though I have only been here a short while, I have learned what your kryptonite is...

This is my workstation:


263
Random / Re: 2020 Vision
« on: March 08, 2019, 10:49:14 AM »
That's precisely my point A-10, I think we need to reel back the civility just a bit.
Some people are repeat offenders who perhaps require reminding more frequently than others.

I will refer you to this pleasant comment from a few pages earlier:

Earth to A10 & RTG. Nobody gives a fuck what you think. That is all.....

I pretty much ignored it. It was such a clever comeback that I figured I would only embarrass myself if I tried to surpass it.

264
Random / Re: 2020 Vision
« on: March 08, 2019, 08:56:16 AM »
A-10, am I right in assuming that you (also) have Aspergers?
Nope. But I can see where you may have got that idea from (I do know a bit about AS).

If you are AS, I’d offer the advice, which, actually, you need a lot less than some here, that the last way a person is going to convince anyone to see things from their viewpoint is to hurl insults at them.

All CAPS with frequent misspellings and puzzling word choices is far more effective (not that I am making fun of any particular goverment official  ;D ).

265
Random / Re: 2020 Vision
« on: March 07, 2019, 01:58:38 PM »
If immigration was controlled, the wage would be higher than the $7.25 you speak of.

What do you base this on? Businesses wouldn't be greedy if we had tighter controls on immigration? How does that work?

266
Random / Re: 2020 Vision
« on: March 07, 2019, 12:02:06 PM »
A sobering statistic.

267
Random / Re: 2020 Vision
« on: March 07, 2019, 09:31:16 AM »
Maybe we’ll find it ramped up as his failures to deliver what he promised become ever more obvious.

The Trump folks are boasting about the economy but that is already tanking.  No real surprises there.  Add 2 Trillion to the debt with nonsensical tax breaks and you should get a boost.  You would hope that it would last more than a quarter though.  GDP hit 4.2, then fell to 3.4, then 2.7, and now we are looking at 1.5.  That is dismal.  And yet, Trump is still quoting his 4.2 figure from June :).  Retail sales were down 1.2% in the all important December (thanks for that shutdown, stable genius) which is the worst since 2009.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta updated its December quarter GDPNow growth rate forecast based on December retail sales and inventories and the estimate took a big hit, falling from 2.7% to 1.5%. This would be a substantial decrease from 4.2% in the June quarter and 3.4% in the September quarter. While the official number may not be as low as 1.5%, it appears certain that the economy isn’t achieving Trump’s statement of, “I see no reason why we don’t go to 4%, 5% and even 6%.”

Most of the things he claims credit for are trends he didn't screw up. Economic indicators and unemployment charts are continuations of the trajectory the graph was already on.

268
Random / Re: 2020 Vision
« on: March 06, 2019, 01:42:38 PM »
socialism liberal democrat commie pinko hippie==>these words instruct to turn one's brain off and jump in with the hateful dummy mob

what's funny is that, when polls strip away the turn-off-the-brain words, and describe attributes/detriments of specific programs, middle class often votes in favor of programs that they wouldnt were the dummy-mob words included

and yes, hippie---cuz i think this syndrome has roots as much in the 60's as it did in the 50's, courtesy of joe mccarthy nixon and roy cohn, trump's favorite lawyer (who was a close to a human piece of shit as is possible)

fear of those different from you is a powerful motivator if manipulated properly

I grew up watching the proxy war with the Soviet Union in Vietnam on the nightly news and we all knew what the second S in USSR stood for, so socialism became a dirty word. Kids are less afraid to use the term because they mean what it actually is supposed to be, not what the fear mongers define it as and not what the communist bloc countries called socialism. My kids give me a hard time about saying I am a liberal, when they think I am a socialist.

269
Random / Re: The Starbucks Poll
« on: March 06, 2019, 01:33:08 PM »
I voted left wing, but TBH I would prefer that a centrist run just because I think someone with my views could lose. The majority of people who could vote are left of center, but the majority of people who do vote not so much. The Trump faithful will go to the polls, boomers will vote and the youth vote is the sleeping giant. They are doing better but still have a long way to go to approach the % turnout of older people. If the kids turned out like that it would be the end of today's GOP.

270
Random / Re: The Starbucks Poll
« on: March 06, 2019, 01:16:44 PM »
Imagine Schultz at the first debate:


--Moderator: "And you are...?
--Schultz:  "Howard Schultz, with a 'c' ".
--Moderator:  "Alright then, Mr. Shultzc, our first topic is..."
My kids listen/watch some comedy thing where all the bits are around 7 seconds. The above reminds me of one.

"Hi, my name's Michael with a B and I am deathly afraid of insects."
"Uhm, where's the B?"
"There's a bee ?!?!"...

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