Official Off Topic Discussion Thread #1

[imabot]

So it's ok that other Countries have been unfairly raping us when it comes to trades? They have been taxing the crap out of our products and costing us tons of money. What was it...Canada taxes our dairy 265%? How is that fair?

Nafta(which I've personally opposed since day 1) Benefits Canada and Mexico but we get screwed.

"Some 14 million U.S. jobs depend on the agreement with our nation’s two largest export markets, Canada and Mexico. Together, these countries spend nearly $500 billion purchasing U.S. exports annually"

"The Peterson Institute’s research shows that overseas investment is an engine for American job creation. For example, case studies in Mexico show a win-win relationship from establishing research and development facilities outside the U.S.: every 131 jobs added in Mexico lead to 333 jobs created here at home."
Sounds good to me.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-debt-to-gdp

Wow. This is this some sort of that "news" that people are talking about.

Obama accomplished this in 2012 at which point our debt exceeded our GDP. Maybe that's confusing. If our Debt equals our GDP by 2028, it means that we will be right where we were back in 2012 before Obama rang it up to 105%.

And oh... we were at 118% right after WW2, before the apocalypse.

The national debt is on track to approach 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2028, said the nonpartisan CBO, which analyzes legislation for Congress.

“That amount is far greater than the debt in any year since just after World War II,” CBO said, adding that the debt is now about 77 percent of GDP, a measure of the size of the economy

Weird. The article I read said other wise.

 

[Kris P Bacon]

Hello @J. H. Maybe it will help if you think of most current human societies as addicts. Addicted to abundant low cost energy. Addicted to technology. Addicted to personal vehicle and mass air transportation. Addicts do not much care what their addiction leads to in the long run as long as they get what they crave today.

Here is a question. I have central air for my three bedroom house but have run it but so far this season for a few hours on 3 very hot humid nights while I slept. I keep my electric use down that way. My last bill was $56 for 32 days. Are you willing to go without AC during the summer most of the time? Before you jump to the conclusion that it is because I cannot afford to use it, that is not the case.
That is a way to cope.

I am the same way. I am 37 and never drove a vehicle. I recently nixed cable in favor of antenna TV and I can turn my TV into a computer VIA HDMI cable. I have been a lifelong cyclist and when we moved, I moved 80% of our house on a bike trailer that I fabricated (mostly from repurposed dumpster finds) not bad for a conservative. Al Gore, eat your carbon footprint out.

 

[Kris P Bacon]

Hello @J. H. Maybe it will help if you think of most current human societies as addicts. Addicted to abundant low cost energy. Addicted to technology. Addicted to personal vehicle and mass air transportation. Addicts do not much care what their addiction leads to in the long run as long as they get what they crave today.

Here is a question. I have central air for my three bedroom house but have run it but so far this season for a few hours on 3 very hot humid nights while I slept. I keep my electric use down that way. My last bill was $56 for 32 days. Are you willing to go without AC during the summer most of the time? Before you jump to the conclusion that it is because I cannot afford to use it, that is not the case.
That is a way to cope.

I am the same way. I am 37 and never drove a vehicle. I recently nixed cable in favor of antenna TV and I can turn my TV into a computer VIA HDMI cable. I have been a lifelong cyclist and when we moved, I moved 80% of our house on a bike trailer that I fabricated (mostly from repurposed dumpster finds) not bad for a conservative. Al Gore, eat your carbon footprint out. View attachment 1321487

 

[PYRU]

You know what? What happened to these "clean" energy companies we gave all this money to? Some never even did a thing the others are in the red/bankrupt. That's a bad investment in my book. I for one wasn't b an explanation of where OUR money went.

I guess I'm the enemy (oil/gas/papermill/chemicals). We're ALOT cleaner than you are lead to believe.

Here's the deal the air & everything is a lot dirtier going in than going out. We were forced to meet unreal epa regulations and the technology wasn't even there to meet those unreal numbers. So now we're meeting all these regulations, BUT our global partners are allowed to charge us astronomical numbers for meeting regulations that are already met. It may have good intentions but it is the most corrupt idea out there. It's pushed so hard because it's easy to back door everything and hide money.

I'm all for clean energy, but the technology just isn't there yet. It's needs so much r&d to be effective.I can go into the engineering of how a solar panel works and why b it's inefficient right now. Same with a windmill. We need to slowly convert and as it gets more efficient slowly switch over. Its not a light switch and as you already saw this country collapses otherwise.

 

[PYRU]

Here's another thing why are you keeping monster fish in monster aquariums if your worried about your foot print?

Large lights, pumps, and huge waterchanges are not exactly low impact compliant. Not to mention enslaving fish that could otherwise have a huge river to live in right?

 

[PYRU]

"Some 14 million U.S. jobs depend on the agreement with our nation’s two largest export markets, Canada and Mexico. Together, these countries spend nearly $500 billion purchasing U.S. exports annually"

"The Peterson Institute’s research shows that overseas investment is an engine for American job creation. For example, case studies in Mexico show a win-win relationship from establishing research and development facilities outside the U.S.: every 131 jobs added in Mexico lead to 333 jobs created here at home."
Sounds good to me.





Weird. The article I read said other wise.

@jaws7777
Should get a kick out of this

 

[jaws7777]

Thanks for the straight answers, like I said was just curious. As I'm not a citizen of the U.S I don't have much of an opinion and if I did it's not really my business.
Like most countries we have our own immigration issues here, legal and illegal. It's hard to have a rational discussion no matter what side of the fence ou are on as you instantly get labelled a racist or greenie (I guess our version of liberal)
Like most things it's not simple and the cynical part of me thinks the politicians really play it up so we spend time arguing with each other and keeping us distracted from their own dodgy behaviour.

No worries man. I'm there's always two sides to any argument and the "correct" side is usually somewhere in the middle.


I totally agree our gov/media is forcing this divide I feel like it's a slight of hand thing. We argue endlessly about what they WANT us to argue about and don't see the larger picture.

[


HA, I didn't read this properly and thought you said you "actually screwed a man then smoked a cigarette" and I thought my wife would probably be pretty angry if I did that too.......
A relapse isn't uncommon so keep at it, I've been saying I'd quit since my kid was born and 3 years later am still smoking. Good luck with quitting, 6 months clean shows you have strong willpower so yoi will beat it eventually I'm sure.

Lol yeah that wouldn't go over well.

This only a fraction of the list.
* The DOW daily closing stock market average rose more than 15% since the election on November 8th. (On November 9th the DOW closed at 18,332 – on March 1st the DOW closed at 21,115).
* Since the Inauguration on January 20th the DOW rose 6.5% . (It was at 19,827 at January 20th and reached 21,115 on March 1st.)
* The DOW took just 66 days to climb from 19,000 to above 21,000, the fastest 2,000 point run ever. The DOW closed above 19,000 for the first time on November 22nd and closed above 21,000 on March 1st.
* The DOW closed above 20,000 on January 25th and the March 1st rally matched the fastest-ever 1,000 point increase in the DOW at 24 days.
* The US Stock Market gained $2 trillion in wealth since Trump was elected!
* The S&P 500 broke $20 Trillion for the first time in its history.
* In the history of the DOW, going back to January 1901, the DOW record for most continuous closing high trading days was set in January of 1987 when Ronald Reagan was President. The DOW set closing highs an amazing 12 times in a row that month. On February 28th President Trump matched President Reagan when the DOW reached a new high for its 12th day in a row!

President Trump decreased the US Debt in his first 100 days by $100 Billion. (President Obama increased the US debt in his first 100 days by more than $560 Billion.)

The US Manufacturing Index soared to a 33 year high in this period which were the best numbers since 1983 under President Reagan.

President Trump added 298,000 jobs in his first month alone (after President Obama said jobs were not coming back!).

Housing sales are red-hot. In 2011, houses for sale were on the market an average 84 days. This year, it’s just 45 days.

Illegal immigration is down 67% since President Trump’s Inauguration.

NATO announced Allied spending is up $10 Billion because of President Trump.

After being nominated by President Trump, Constitutionalist Judge Neil Gorsuch was confirmed and sworn in as Supreme Court Justice in early April.

The President has signed 66 executive orders, memoranda and proclamations as of April 19th, including:

* Notifying Congress of a strike on Syria after it was reported that the country used gas on its citizens.
* Dismantling Obama’s climate change initiatives.
* Travel bans for individuals from a select number of countries embroiled in terrorist atrocities.
* Enforcing regulatory reform.
* Protecting Law enforcement.
* Mandating for every new regulation to eliminate two.

Epic reply. Seriously one of the best replies I've seen. Kudos bro

You have no idea what you're talking about. I'm convinced you're just a troll. No need to waste anymore time with you.

He doesn't ait he's wrong about anything and only changes the subject when he is.

So it's ok that other Countries have been unfairly raping us when it comes to trades? They have been taxing the crap out of our products and costing us tons of money. What was it...Canada taxes our dairy 265%? How is that fair?

Nafta(which I've personally opposed since day 1) Benefits Canada and Mexico but we get screwed.

More b.s talking points. I wonder how many jobs this would create if these trade deals were fair.

@jaws7777
Should get a kick out of this

I'm not gonna waste my time even getting into it. Again the guy is cherry picking his points and can't admit when he's wrong or atleast could be wrong.

 

[jaws7777]

Let's just take the Iran deal. Anyone looking at this would have to question oshamas loyalty I don't care what he did during his term no way does that help this country. That one deal only happens if the person Making is trying to even the playing field.

BUT IS EVENING THE PLAYING WHAT HE GETS PAID TO DO ?

Say what you will about Trump but he would have never passed such b.s

 

[skjl47]

We were forced to meet unreal epa regulations and the technology wasn't even there to meet those unreal numbers.

It may have good intentions but it is the most corrupt idea out there. It's pushed so hard because it's easy to back door everything and hide money.

Hello; These comments are in line with what I think about government efforts to regulate. Some EPA ideas may start out as basically decent notions but by the time the final decrees come out the content is not realistic.
Not that these are the best examples but they sort of fit. Back in 1972 I had a car that got 40+ MPG on the highway. In 1985 I had another car that got over 40 MPG on highway trips. Neither of these cars would be allowed to be built today.
The 1972 was a Porsche 914 with an air cooled engine. The EPA has regulated air cooled engines out of existence for cars.
The other car was a 1985 Honda Civic HF. It even had AC and still was very fuel efficient. Both cars were very light and if built now would be heavier due to the many regulated items being added. My guess being that if we could take those same basic cars and add the fuel efficiency technology available now a days, then we likely would get much better MPG than back decades ago in non hybrid cars.

One more way to look at things. Over the decades passenger cars had to meet more and more stringent regs. Pickup trucks did not so much as there was no practical way to have the haul/tow capacity and such stringent emission and mpg standards. Fast forward a few decades and we find that drivers very often have a all the bells and whistles pickups and pickup like SUV's. The consumer found a way around the restrictive regs on cars because the manufactures started building trucks with all the stuff a passenger car might have. Try this. Go to a dealer and try to find a basic regular cab long bed pickup. Sure there will be a few at the big dealers but not as many as the extended cab styles with so many luxury features. My closest Ford dealer almost never has a regular cab with an 8 foot bed. So many pickups are never used as pickups anymore.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Back a ways I included a question in one of my run on posts. No one has commented as yet. It may have gotten lost in all the other stuff.

The question is why we are having classes to teach English to what I understand are illegal aliens? If in fact illegal alien children are in our schools then why is that as they should be deported anyway?