Tornados
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@Texas-Hawk-10 ugh, what’s the temp up to there? My bro is definitely investing in a generator. Hang in there.
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@Crimsonorblue22 said in Tornados:
@Texas-Hawk-10 ugh, what’s the temp up to there? My bro is definitely investing in a generator. Hang in there.
Heat index was about 105° today. Spent most of today driving around to charge my phone and at a local bar that has AC.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 still no power? I hear Abbott is in Asia. People will die from the heat. Hopefully the old people will get to shelters. You do have water? 🪭🪭🪭🪭🪭
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@Crimsonorblue22 Still no power, and no clue how hot it is in my apartment becausr my thermostatis off too, but it’s upper 80’s at least inside my apartment. I’m going to have to throw out pretty all the food in my fridge and freezer which sucks.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 sucks! Sorry. I know if you don’t open freezer it last a few days. I hope you don’t have a big freezer full of meat. Ice chest and ice? I’d throw out the fridge stuff before it stinks up the place. Lots of cold showers!
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@Crimsonorblue22 said in Tornados:
@Texas-Hawk-10 sucks! Sorry. I know if you don’t open freezer it last a few days. I hope you don’t have a big freezer full of meat. Ice chest and ice? I’d throw out the fridge stuff before it stinks up the place. Lots of cold showers!
Not a lot of meat, but it’s already gone bad and will be getting tossed next time I’m home. My mom got power back overnight so I’m hanging out there and will check on my place throughout the day.
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I finally got power back late morning today, but no internet and no estimate on when it’ll be back. Definitely going be looking for a different internet provider after this.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 thinking positively things could be much worse. But yes with probably cry with cost of groceries right now in this country absolutely ludicrous.
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@kjayhawks Yes, pretty much everything in this country is ridiculous right now. I’m embarrassed for and saddened by this country. I have never talked politics much, but we need help. I almost hope that no one here expresses their political beliefs, because I’m afraid there would be a lot of people that I wouldn’t like anymore. But if you’re so inclined, pray for the USA.
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@nuleafjhawk pretty much my sentiments.
The article NYT ran today about Elon Musks goal to have 1 million people on Mars in 20 years was an interesting distraction, minus the “Elon has happily donated his sperm to populate the colony” part.
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I think in terms of describing the symptoms of the problem we can stay more or less on the same page with a little effort. Its when people talk about root causes and solutions, particularly when root causes are embellished, simplified or outright fabricated to facilitate solutions, that we venture into wonkytown.
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@approxinfinity said in Tornados:
@nuleafjhawk pretty much my sentiments.
The article NYT ran today about Elon Musks goal to have 1 million people on Mars in 20 years was an interesting distraction, minus the “Elon has happily donated his sperm to populate the colony” part.
At least he wasn’t angry at it. Maybe a little Hawk Tuah girl for inspiration.
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@nuleafjhawk the entire infrastructure of this country is failing and you don’t have to be a genius to figure it out or put solutions in place to fix it. Both sides are plenty corrupt and are lining their own pockets with our money. It will be the less of two evils in November if there is such a thing. One man has made a living as a con artist the other likes sniffing children and seems to have the brain capacity of a toddler on his best day.
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All I’ll say on the matter is we’ve got two shit sandwiches so pick whichever bread has your favorite color of mold
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Well, you’ve wound me up… Hold on to your top hats. I assume you all wear that fashionable head gear since we’re all governed by a constitution was last updated when top hats in vogue, even though there have been massive technological advances in telecommunications, medicine, and so many other fields in the past 90 years.
Although it isn’t stated explicitly, I think most people would agree that both Declaration of Independence and the constitution imply that the government has the responsibility to provide security for its citizens. And it’s doing a crappy crappy job right now.
I’m talking about Fraud. Phone fraud. Internet fraud. Hacks hacks hacks.
It’s an individual security issue and a privacy issue (neither of which the constitution addresses because these are contemporary concepts.) At this point, probably 99.9% of American’s have had at least some personal data leaked. Today’s latest hack is AT&T. But don’t worry. It’s just all of their customers and all of the call data and texts.
Millions of people’s data is stolen pretty much monthly. And when that happens, it’s the victim’s responsibility to deal with the fallout. Even if its not identity theft, you still have to sign up for credit reporting and monitor your credit (which requires putting more of your data in yet another system that will probably be hacked.)
Why isn’t this a massive campaign issue?
The issue is politically indiscriminate; young and old, rich and poor, and red and blue people’s data is getting hacked. It’s a ubiquitous problem and unambiguously a bad thing. No one is going to argue that a little fraud is ok… or that some kinds of fraud are legitimate. I T I S A L L B A D.
How hard is it for a candidate to wake up and say they will get tough on fraud? Hold businesses responsible for lax IT security — there have to be consequences. Hit fraudsters hard no matter where they are and lean on partners to help us reach across borders — there have to be consequences.
That’s my 2cents.
wait, what was this thread? lol
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@bskeet thats a great issue to focus on. Another is spam. I get spam texts and calls every day. If politicians focused on things that Americans gave an actual shit about, they could win on that instead of these single issue voter issues that they hype up intentionally to drive wedges into the populace with.
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@approxinfinity 100% agree on the divisive issues that the parties have pushed forward. Most of those issues only affect a small percentage of citizens. Digital fraud affects virtually everyone.
Spam is a form of fraud. I’m sure you’ve had that email from the former prince of Namibia who wants to give you $50m in cash? Not to mention the phishing and extortion emails…
I actually think that the fact that people have put up with spam has led us to where we are now with so many forms of online fraud and so little consequence.
The label “spam,” which is cute and sounds harmless, is probably part of the problem as well.
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@approxinfinity (because they’re the ones spamming people)
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You guys want to start a political party?
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@approxinfinity I’m very much retired from that line of work
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LOL I don’t want to. But maybe we need to.
I have a sense that deference (or worse, ambivalence) has been one of the reasons we are where we are. Both parties are doing a disservice to the country.
That said, each are massive machines, and collectively, they are titanic.
It’s not impossible to put a dent in them, I guess, if you’re an iceberg.
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It’s sort of darkly humorous we asked for a prominent person to run as a third party candidate and in the ultimate monkeys paw curl we got an admitted sexual predator with literal brain worms
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@approxinfinity I think we could put our minds together and do a better fairly easily is the sad part lol.
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@kjayhawks just need some decent people to try, really.
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@approxinfinity it’s very sad how true that is, I feel Washington is starved on those type of people.
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In a country of 300 million-ish people it’s almost unbelievable that we can’t find TWO people who are running at full capacity and aren’t perverted, self righteous, misogynistic, convicted criminal assholes.
Yes, @approxinfinity , let’s start our own political party.
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@nuleafjhawk I’m a registered independent for a reason not sure how anyone can not be embarrassed by claiming one of main parties in this country really for the past few decades. I tell people all the time if everyone had the guts for actual change, they’d vote for someone not affiliated with those parties. Vote every last one of them out. I’d bet a hefty amount the average person would be better at budgeting. Imagine you and your wife being broke, then deciding to spend more money that you didn’t have. Common sense and logic in Washington could fix about 75% of the issues in this country.
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@FarmerJayhawk said in Tornados:
It’s sort of darkly humorous we asked for a prominent person to run as a third party candidate and in the ultimate monkeys paw curl we got an admitted sexual predator with literal brain worms
Don’t say that too loudly…Elon may be listening.
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@kjayhawks I am admittedly politically ignorant. I’ve never been interested in the whole thing. But now, I’m fearful for the first time in a long time. Only bad things can happen if either of these …people are our next President. I wish this country would abandon the Republican/Democrat ideology and vote for the most qualified, best person. We need to revamp this government.
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@nuleafjhawk I tend to agree with George Carlin - “Think about how dumb the average person is and realize that half the people out there are dumber than that!” These are the same people who elect our leaders. Of course the people in charge are morons, they were elected by millions of idiots.
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@dylans love it!
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Heres my theory.
Idiots can be good. Man is inherently neither good nor bad. Man is inherently neither lazy nor motivated.
We are the product of our environments.
And right now its easy to be lazy. And its hard to be good.
So people aren’t good, and people are lazy.
This is why I registered www.ez2bgood.com I just havent done anything with it…. Yet.
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All I ask for is a candidate (not just at the presidential level) that will consistently put citizens’ interests above the interests of PACs, massive donors, and themselves.
Is that too much?
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I will say, there is some comfort in knowing that I’m not holding these concerns by myself, alone.
Clearly, this community is on the upper half of George Carlin’s bell curve (thx @dylans ) Maybe there’s enough entropy in the bottom half to nominate and elect someone above a “moron”.
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@approxinfinity what the he!! Is that symbol?
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Its my approxinfinity symbol.
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@approxinfinity as I always say good times create weak people. Tough times create strong people, if you look at the cycle maybe we were too good from after WW2 to the 1990s. I tell my kids constantly this generation is so weak if you are willing to put in the work you will easily make it. As a guy that hires people, if I can find someone that will show up and stay on task below the age of 30. It’s an Absolute miracle and an act of god himself.
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@kjayhawks said in Tornados:
@approxinfinity as I always say good times create weak people. Tough times create strong people, if you look at the cycle maybe we were too good from after WW2 to the 1990s. I tell my kids constantly this generation is so weak if you are willing to put in the work you will easily make it. As a guy that hires people, if I can find someone that will show up and stay on task below the age of 30. It’s an Absolute miracle and an act of god himself.
I’m going to push back on this a bit a ask a question. Who’s responsible for instilling that mentality in Gen-Z and young Millennials? That blame lies squarely at the feet of younger Boomers and Gen-X because that’s who raised those kids and are now having to deal with consequences of those parenting choices.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 while i dont disagree that one could spread the blame around, i am a fan of the inverse of the old saying:
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
Harry S Truman
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the blame. At the least, blame isnt a magic bullet.
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@approxinfinity said in Tornados:
@Texas-Hawk-10 while i dont disagree that one could spread the blame around, i am a fan of the inverse of the old saying:
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
Harry S Truman
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the blame. I think blaming is unfortunately a convenient reason for all of us to do nothing.
I’m sorry, but I’m calling bullshit right now because of all the preventable shit I’ve dealt with this week due to the greed and selfishness of Boomers and Gen-X. That’s doesn’t doesn’t apply to all Boomers and Gen-Xers, but it’s the mindset and mentality of those generations at large that have many of the issues in this country today through public policy.
I don’t really wanna jeep going on this because I will absolutely get into a culture war and flame Boomers and Gen-X right now because of the bullshit myself and millions of people here in Houston have gone through and still going through in the aftermath of Beryl because of the leadership in this state and city that have caused this situation here.
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Has blaming an entire generation been a successful solution to anything?
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I mean. I hear you. But just saying that i think advocating solution is much more important than blame.
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@approxinfinity said in Tornados:
I mean. I hear you. But just saying that i think advocating solution is much more important than blame.
The real solutions will never happen because they aren’t in the best interests of those in power who make the rules and policies. Getting money out of politics such as super PACs, corporate lobbying, and stuff like that. Congressmen make $174,000 per year. There’s no reason members of Congress should become millionaires off of that job. Having to maintain two residences (Washington DC and home district) should prevent politicians from becoming wealthy.
Second, term limits. Being a politician should not be a career. There’s no reason why someone who was first elected to national office in the 1960’s or 1970’s is still in office. This would also apply to the Supreme Court as well.
Third, age limits. There’s no reason we should be choosing between a 78 year old narcissist and an 81 year old with cognitive issues for the most powerful office in the world. In November, for the third election in a row, whoever gets elected will be the oldest elected president in US history.
4th, institute ranked choice voting. This allows more third party candidates to have a chance in local and statewide elections as well as Congressional elections.
But like I said, none of those things will ever happen in the US because those things don’t benefit those currently in power. Those currently in power didn’t get into federal level politics for benevolent reasons.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 said in Tornados:
The real solutions will never happen because they aren’t in the best interests of those in power who make the rules and policies.
I fear this is 100% correct.
Fraud and digital security is now such a big business, any dramatic decrease would harm an entire sector. They make enough money to lobby lawmakers to filibuster as long as possible, then craft impotent, exploitable laws.
It’s been like this for a long time in Pharma. Some say cancer treatments are too big of a business now for a true cure to be faithfully and vigorously pursued.
I don’t know if I believe that. I’d like to believe otherwise. But I do believe that there is strong evidence that all three branches of the government have become ethically and morally bankrupt. Not everyone, but even one person is too many.
These people are in trusted positions in our institutions. Some don’t take that trust seriously. They don’t care about conflicts of interest. They act as though they are entitled to whatever they can get away with. Leveraging loopholes, exploiting positions of power.
It’s despicable. And it’s not something new.
But it does seem to be epidemic (or maybe even celebrated), and that’s new.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 so, not to be offensive, but to be blunt, i hear you stating a lot of facts that are undoubtedly true, and positive steps that could be taken, and there is obviously value in having a grasp of reality, but when you go so far as saying “things will never change”… its like, what is the point in dilligently paying attention to details of the past only to assume that there is no positive path forward?
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@Texas-Hawk-10 let me rephrase…. Lets assume we are Dr Strange and have identified the one reality where “we win”. How does it happen?
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Term limits and reducing the influence of parties and PACs are fundamentally irreconcilable
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@approxinfinity said in Tornados:
@Texas-Hawk-10 so, not to be offensive, but to be blunt, i hear you stating a lot of facts that are undoubtedly true, and positive steps that could be taken, and there is obviously value in having a grasp of reality, but when you go so far as saying “things will never change”… its like, what is the point in dilligently paying attention to details of the past only to assume that there is no positive path forward?
This is how younger generations feel when they look and see all the things their parents and grandparents were able to achieve by certain ages and those goals are completely out of reach for many Millennials and Gen-Z Americans.
If you want something practical that has a chance of happening, then raising the federal minimum wage to something in line with the median cost of living is a start. It’s been 15 years since minimum wage was increased and $7.25 an hour is not a livable wage anywhere in the US which is what minimum wage is supposed to be, the minimum liveable wage in the US.
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@FarmerJayhawk terms limits should be the number 1 priority. @Texas-Hawk-10 you definitely have some valid points sir. But the system is part of the issue, very very few families have a parent that says home. Up until the late 90s most moms stayed at home and raised children now someone else raises our children most the time. The average week day I get a few hours with my kids as does my wife.
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@approxinfinity I just rewatched Infinity War and Endgame earlier this week. They seem to be aging well.
I think the point of that story is that it is naive to think that complex problems can be solved with a simple solution, even with primeval, celestial power at your fingertips, so to speak. Real solutions are messy and hard and require sacrifice.
That last thing is the real kicker. Most American leadership is very sacrifice-averse. Too many leaders in the public sector and private sector avoid putting their own “skin in the game” at all costs. It’s all about playing the game with someone else’s skin in the game – make someone else make the sacrifice – avoid responsibility if something goes wrong, but position yourself to take credit if it goes well.
For businesses, it doesn’t matter what the margins are, Wall Street demands companies grow profits every quarter. It’s not acceptable to have the same profit as the previous quarter. If it doesn’t grow, it’s failure.
It’s a corrosive mix of hypocrisy, selfishness and greed.
If the younger generations are looking for good role models, they don’t have many options. People talk about ‘servant leadership’ but you just don’t see much of it these days.
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@kjayhawks I totally disagree. If you turn over the Congress constantly you get 1) greater influence by lobbyists. It takes years to become a serious policy expert. And there aren’t term limits for lobbyists so they’re always going to be more knowledgeable than members on issues if you have term limits. 2) you’ll empower the administrative state. Same logic applies. Members of Congress without expertise can’t write clear, thorough laws so they write vague laws with gaps the administration fills in on a whim. The ACA is probably the best example of a very poorly written law that has spawned approximately a gazillion regulations, intended or not, from unelected bureaucrats. There will be more of them without an informed Congress. We need much more Congressional capacity, not less.
