@lain@SNEK@sun@eris It's worse than grandpa recently. He's been talking to invisible people and shaking invisible hands. I think he's so juiced that he cannot understand anymore when he's on a green screen and when he's live. Just living in a drug-fueled nightmare.
@sun@anemone@Hyolobrika I don't see how any doubt is possible that national service is introduced as a step to draft. It's not a slippery slope at all, it's a measured progression. It's like how gun registration precedes confiscation.
In addition, U.K. is the most crazy with Russophobic madness in Europe (for certain values of "in"), been for many years. They really itch for a full-on war. Worse than Polaks even. They 100% rely on dragging the U.S. into it again. That is the context that makes them push for a draft no matter what.
I knew my wife since 1983 but we got together in a shotgun marriage in 1988.
A friend of mine lost his wife of some 20 years to a disease (cancer IIRC). Then he got married to his high school passion who apparently waited all those years.
My father only dated his 2nd wife for about a year. She's much younger than my mother.
@sun He wants to measure it against the beginning of the Biden's presidency, in which case this is an improvement, at least in macro. Certainly neither Trump's prosperity nor Biden inflation bubble can hold a candle to the 1959.
This is a fairly interesting article if you consider interesting the struggle of the ruling class to gaslight people who hold 3 jobs in order to pay rent.
"This is perhaps Biden's top problem as he seeks a second term in office: convincing Americans that the economy is working for them without talking down or sounding dismissive."
A super hard job, I sympathize.
"Another challenge for Biden is that many Americans are probably comparing today's US economy to the economy in 2019. On that basis, yes, inflation is worse now, gas prices are higher, and there are unnerving wars in Europe and the Middle East."
How terrible.
"There’s a good chance the economy would have looked more or less the same from 2017 to 2021 if Biden were president instead of Trump. Same for the last three years, if Trump were in office instead of Biden."
.. remember this argument, because:
"Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine sent energy prices soaring just as the OPEC+ nations were cutting output and American drillers were focusing on profitability over market share."
But why did the old prices soar? Because -
1. Biden's response was to sanction Russia and reduce oil supply. It was a decision, not an inevitable consequence of Russia losing patience with NATO expansion.
2. Biden denied licenses to American oil exploration companies. They focused on profitability because they were denied expansion by a decision.
"I think the widely publicized macro numbers are good. It's the subsurface numbers that are troubling, at least for the common consumer. Personal bankruptcy filings are up, home foreclosures up, business bankruptcy filings are up, auto repossessions up, personal savings rate down, and credit card delinquencies up."
A stunt like that used to be unthinkable for a Secretary of State. He could hate Republicans as much as Obama, but the domestic politics were supposed to stop at the border. A cabinet level executive of U.S. Government represented America, not the Democrat Party abroad.
This sort of corruption of our institutions is nothing new to me. Remember how Obama presented Queen of England with a DVD set? Everything is shit, and Blinken is a piece of shit, and America voted for it. So I'm not going to seethe here too hard. But it's funny how far we've fallen.
My unemployed daughter relayed a conversation with her girl friends, some of whom are equally jobless. The topic: how is it possible that they are unable to find jobs when the economy is booming (according to the government)?
Note that they are not experts in underwater lesbian basket weaving studies. They used to hold office positions in FANG companies, bossing peons around a little bit.
Her mother tried to inject a suggestion that perhaps the government is somewhat too upbeat when reporting economic news. The economy is actually terrible, which is why there aren't jobs. But unfortunately, she made a mis-step by mentioning that Democrats are in power and that got her tuned out.
So the jobs situation remains a big mystery among the educated liberals.
Cannot wait for them try to get to the bottom of stagflation. The Fed keeps adjusting the rates, but it does not help. How can it be? Tune in for these podcasts to know why, say your Tumblr friends!
@shibao LOL. In Austin, a taco chain exists called "Torchys". They offer a taco called "Democrat", which is quite good, and a taco called "Republican", which is the worst shit ever.
@Moon@coolboymew On Fediverse, no less! Fortunately or unfortunately apparently he lost interest in Mastodon. I unsubscribed long ago, but I checked just now. His last post was 2 months ago.
I remember that I thought "Painters" was the point at which Graham jumped the shark with his essays. But I suspect that I was negatively biased by his claims that founders living in rat cages of San Francisco was necessary for startups. Unfortunately, at the time it looked like he was winning and I probably felt like being extra critical.
It all happened before the Wuhan Corona and the exodus from Frisco to Tahoe.
The sweetest part for me is, I knew a guy in 1998, Andy Banta, who lived in Tahoe. He commuted to work at Sun in MPK twice a week. Sun tolerated him because he was very good and we still had vestiges of meritocracy back then. Talk about being ahead of the curve.
@thendrix@EvilSandmich@Turdicus@Hoss@Moon The ammo suggestion does not work because of its poor density. Do you have any idea how large a room with 1,000,000 rounds of 5.56 needs to be?
Government agencies and other organizations stockpile ammo because it's feasible for them to own, maintain, and guard warehouses. But your apartment is not a warehouse.