Politics

RobertDyck · 2020-01-04 11:08:36

A big reason for going to Mars is to get away from draconian government, and people abusing authority to screw you over. The First Amendment to the US Constitution says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

However, this is happening right now in Lenawee County, Michigan...

ACLU Defends Amish Community’s Religious Freedom Against Lenawee County’s Threat to Bulldoze Homes

Today the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (ACLU) and the law firm Wright & Schulte, LLC counter-sued the Lenawee County Health Department for violating the constitutional and civil rights of an Old Order Amish community by threatening to demolish every Amish-owned home in the county, in effect expelling an entire faith community from its borders. The Amish community, which lives in accordance with their religious beliefs by abstaining from using electricity, hydraulic power, running water, and other modern technology, faces expulsion from Lenawee County as a result of lawsuits that local officials filed against them last month.

This is because they use a hand-pump for water instead of running water? I've stayed in cottages that don't have running water. My grandparents' "new" house built in the 1950s had running water, but the old house built by my great grandparents still used a hand pump. When we visited my grandparents, if we were the only ones there we would stay in the house, but when other relatives were there we stayed in a camper trailer. When we stayed in the camper, we used the hand-pump. When we camped in campgrounds in Provincial parks, there were hand-pumps for water. So this is bogus to put it politely.

People on Facebook are saying "follow the money". They're after the land.

SpaceNut · 2020-01-04 11:18:42

Zoning laws gone amuck as they live this way as a part of there religion.

Just think they have a roof over there heads, can keep warm, they feed themselves...

In this reality they are steps ahead of many of the homeless...

tahanson43206 · 2020-02-04 19:42:42

For SpaceNut re topic ...

Your State is now the focus of attention.

The elections officials where you live are reassuring everyone their software and procedures are reliable and well tested.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2020-02-04 20:10:08

We will soon see if hacking protection has occured to once more put some faith back into our election process. Being a primary that only limits whom you can vote for based on how you register it is a better test than a caucus as its more like an actual election while the other is just a single party event for each.
Seems the glitch was in clonflict with windows 10 as it works best with JavaScript turned on...

SpaceNut · 2020-02-08 10:33:37

It appears that we have come through the confederate statue removal to a place in time that now would not allow for recognition of those that lead for the right reason in there place in history to be honored still for leadership and not of the evils of the confederacy.
Bill to end Lee-Jackson holiday and replace it with Election Day passes House

SpaceNut · 2020-02-08 11:06:21

Another aspect of the Trump administration is that other nations are no longer seeing the US as a faithfull alley.
Despite Looming China Threat, President Duterte Orders End to Military Pact With US

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte warned the United States late on Thursday that he would cancel an agreement on the deployment of American troops and equipment for exercises, if Washington did not reinstate the visa of a political ally, who oversaw his deadly war on drugs.

The weather has been anything of a kindly mother to parts of the US as Governor declares state of emergency following 'devastating' floods in eastern KY

Heavy rainfall and extensive flooding have prompted Kentucky's Republican governor to declare a state of emergency. Gov. issued the executive order on Monday declared a state of emergency that gives officials the ability to request help from the National Guard and other assistance from the state and federal government.

Senators’ handwritten notes offer a new view of President Trump's impeachment trial
scribbled “protecting the election” – and underlined it. three Republicans and four Democrats – shared part of what they wrote.

71 year old protesting Trump

These days, McGinty devotes about two hours a day to protesting, crashing rallies planned by the Villagers for Trump group and parking his golf cart in well-trafficked areas where people are most likely to see his signs: “TRUMP BIGOT AND RACIST,” “TRUMP IS A SEXUAL PREDATOR” and “TRUMP COMPULSIVE LIAR.” He said he rotates between about 30 posters carrying various anti-Trump sentiments. He sits in his cart reading while he puts them on display, enjoying the confrontations that follow.

Nothing new for those that can actually read and will not follow blindly says is all fake news

Fight over Trump’s impeachment shifts to battle over the impact on Senate races

A pair of Democratic super PACs on Friday announced reservations for a several-million-dollar digital ad campaign targeting Republican senators in Arizona, Maine and North Carolina, two days after the trio voted to acquit Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Democrats need to win a minimum of three seats and the presidency, with the vice president providing the tie-breaking vote, to claim the majority, and a new study shows Senate races are increasingly correlated to presidential performance.

Democrats see an opening after McConnell short-circuited the trial without witnesses.

Collins is getting death threats after impeachment acquittal

Wonder how many more are getting threats.

kbd512 · 2020-02-08 16:15:03

SpaceNut,

What common interests does the US share with a government that's mass murdering their own people by the thousands?

Do you naively believe that they would be a reliable ally of the US with someone like Rodrigo Duterte in charge?

Philippine President Duterte told our own former President Obama that he could go to hell. President Trump had nothing whatsoever to do with that, nor does he have any control over what their President is doing now. Once Duterte's people grow tired of being murdered or they murder the wrong person or group of people, however long that takes, the situation will quickly transform into a plain old ruthless dictatorship without any pretense of being "tough on crime", leading to a bloody uprising, swiftly followed by utter chaos, thereafter they'll rinse & repeat the cycle.

You think a nation with that kind of inner turmoil would ever be capable of resisting the Chinese, even with American help?

Dream on.

We simply have to deal with the North Korean government now because decades of inept US foreign policy created the circumstances that caused them to pursue a nuclear weapons program. Unless you think our foreign policy should prop up ruthless and unstable dictatorships, you should at least recognize the wisdom of disengaging with them.

The Chinese government's inability to stop meddling with things they don't understand and can't control has proven to be a greater credible threat to their own peoples' survival, maybe the rest of us too, than any military activities directed at another country. At least half of their industrial output is on hold until they either get a handle on this novel coronavirus or it simply spreads globally, which is probably inevitable at this point. If they don't, then you can take it to the bank that the US will be forking over billions of dollars in aid to prevent them from imploding the way Russia did. We had to do the same thing multiple times with communist Russia.

SpaceNut · 2020-02-09 16:31:06

The threat to our nation continues on in the form of Trump to Propose $4.8 Trillion Budget With Big Safety-Net Cuts

The White House proposes to cut spending by $4.4 trillion over a decade. Of that, it targets $2 trillion in savings from mandatory spending programs, including $130 billion from changes to Medicare prescription-drug pricing, $292 billion from safety-net cuts—such as work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps—and $70 billion from tightening eligibility access to federal disability benefits. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would see its budget decline 9%, but with the coronavirus sparking global panic, $4.3 billion in funding for fighting infectious diseases would be preserved.

Trump proposes 21% cut in U.S. foreign aid in budget proposal

Calliban · 2020-02-09 17:21:30

SpaceNut wrote:

The threat to our nation continues on in the form of Trump to Propose $4.8 Trillion Budget With Big Safety-Net Cuts
The White House proposes to cut spending by $4.4 trillion over a decade. Of that, it targets $2 trillion in savings from mandatory spending programs, including $130 billion from changes to Medicare prescription-drug pricing, $292 billion from safety-net cuts—such as work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps—and $70 billion from tightening eligibility access to federal disability benefits. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would see its budget decline 9%, but with the coronavirus sparking global panic, $4.3 billion in funding for fighting infectious diseases would be preserved.
Trump proposes 21% cut in U.S. foreign aid in budget proposal

Spacenut, this is actually a sensible thing to be doing. The US government is about $20trillion in debt. Taxes have failed to meet spending commitments since the turn of the century and debt has grown very rapidly since 2008. Something has to give, else the end result will look a lot like hyperinflation in post WW1 Germany. The US as a nation, would probably never recover from that.

Trump is biting the bullet, so to speak. And he probably realises just how severe the coming debt-energy recession is going to be. So he is preparing spending cuts, so that post recession, US government spending can actually be brought inline with the greatly reduced tax revenue that the government is likely to receive. If he fully understood the debt-energy situation, his solution would probably look different. But reduced government spending is more sensible than the opposite at present.

Last edited by Calliban (2020-02-09 17:28:31)

SpaceNut · 2020-02-09 18:14:32

I agree that Trump should seek a 21% cut in foreign aid down to $44.1 billion in the upcoming fiscal year compared with $55.7 billion enacted in fiscal year 2020.

The ones that he is biting are the poor, retired, disabled living on minimum wage so when those that give taxes in are reduced in number as they become the new sick and dieing where in the collected will continue to fall short. Spending that is with in the US needs to stay.
What should be looked at is the waste within government that allows them to write a budget and to keep spending more just to keep the budget not reduce it so as to save money.

I see it everyday with no attempt to rein it in at where I work for government waste and abuse.

kbd512 · 2020-02-09 19:10:44

Calliban,

I think you're wasting your time. SpaceNut can tell you anything and everything about his ideology and what he wants, and will parrot back any media articles that support his ideology that he can find, but he can't even begin to explain to you how his ideas would fix anything without using someone else's money or quite simply money that nobody has. Sure, we can take everything the rich people have, as he would no doubt like to do. However, you can skin a sheep once per lifetime. After that, nobody in America will be rich because there won't be any point to spending all your time and effort making money for someone else to benefit from. That's a great idea for mediocrity, which I guess is what most people aspire to these days. After they have enough money to stave off misery, they won't put in any additional work for something better and will caterwaul loudly over anything that looks like Person A has more than Person B (and never even question the notion that maybe Person A just did more work or more useful work than Person B)- because they feel "entitled" to X / Y / Z and gosh darn it, why isn't someone just giving them everything for free? This is all based on very old and very sophomoric ideas that have never worked anywhere else they've been tried, at all or ever.

Take note of this sophomoric idea that we're going to bring hordes of poor illegal immigrants here from other countries and somehow increase wages for poor people or general prosperity. Anyone with an understanding of basic economics could tell you how well that would work, but our magical thinkers ignore basic economics because it's not congruent with their ideology. It would be funny if they were just joking or had some ulterior motive, but they actually believe this nonsense.

Lastly, and perhaps the most funny, is that SpaceNut says he sees waste and abuse every day where he works, but hasn't said a word about what he's attempted to do to eliminate that waste or abuse. Maybe he thinks good governance is someone else's responsibility, rather than his own, even though he's employed by our government and, in contractually defined legal terms (or at least this appears in the terms of every government contract for goods or services that I've ever seen), has a responsibility to the tax payers to be a good steward of the peoples' money, no matter how unpopular that makes him amongst his co-workers or supervisors.

SpaceNut · 2020-02-09 19:32:30

The chain of command upward is a filter to making change for what I am seeing no matter how happy the level that I support in the saving of funds are. Remember what whistle blowers get for telling the truth.

Saving of time or any other waste reduction that I can implement as its other organization contractors and processes that are being
wasteful. They claim expirations on many products and they are false for use in other manners but these end up in a dumpster.

Heatshrink is an item with a supposed expiration which is untrue if it shrinks when heat is applied and it shrinks...another application is to cut and isolate electrically disconnected leads from causing shorts and fires while items are removed should power get reapplied to them.

I save on an average week my entire wage for the year waste in materials, time and more ...

kbd512 · 2020-02-09 20:47:30

SpaceNut,

I have no idea if MIL-DTL-23053 differs from AMS-DTL-23053, but if there's no re-test waiver granted in the MIL standard, then the command is obligated to follow standardized instructions and your only recourse is to get the instructions changed. Incidentally, industry says the material can be re-tested and shelf life can be extended up to 50%, or up to some maximum number of re-test periods after which the instructions say the material is to be discarded. There are also other considerations beyond whether or not the material will simply shrink to fit, such as how long it will last in service without dry rotting or some other undesirable adverse condition such as a breakdown in dielectric strength.

Edit:

I would strongly urge you to get the instructions changed. I encountered a situation I found undesirable regarding training on communications equipment from my time in the Navy and my solution was to get the operating instructions and training regimen changed. Nobody helped me do it, nor did I expect any, but I thought it was important enough that I simply spent my free time to get it done. I did have the backing of the officers from my command on the implementation of the new training and operating instructions for the equipment. There's a lot of inertia to overcome and there are many good reasons to be resistant to change in an organization where the results of poorly thought-out changes can get people killed, but with enough pain things will change.

Last edited by kbd512 (2020-02-09 20:59:39)

SpaceNut · 2020-02-09 21:14:49

Dry rot happens with rubbers and not with the Polyolefin heat shrink tubing in which control enviroment does not creat the condition for degridation.

There is a retest but they never do one as its cheaper to throw it out and order new but what that does is incur more fees, handling ect that they are not counting when making that choice and they are not calculating the cost of a submarine that sets in port for repairs days to weeks later for waiting for more to come in as they are operating with zero on hand..

The same thing happens with epoxies, RTV, Silicone compounds... the list just goes on and on...including Duct tape....
There is no permanent duct tape installations and the mil spec is junk for how it is used.

Another thing that happens is ordering of materials that are not used to do the work with in the work instructions and when you attempt the proper return that same contracting excuse gets used to throw it out. So it is better that I collect and hold until it is expired for use under repairs where it is allowed to be utilized in the repair process.
This includes fasteners of all types of materials grades and lengths, O-rings of all sizes and rubber materials, ect.. short and sweet you can not work with zero....

Expired sheet rubber has a secondary use as well for paint and sand blasting coverup operations which will not need new materials for a distructive practice as its not permanently installed as well. That saves the navy $100 a sheet used for that purpose rather than picking it into the dumpster.

kbd512 · 2020-02-09 22:12:59

SpaceNut,

Ah, well, when it comes to electrical things I phone experts. I'm not current on the vagaries of electrical insulation materials. I can't imagine a scenario where the fasteners go bad unless they're being stored in a tank of sea water, so throwing those away seems pretty dumb to me.

If the purchase cost of the material and handling fees were taken into account, what is the cost differential between purchasing new material and re-testing existing stocks after they expire and require a re-test for re-certification?

If your electrical work was completed faster by not waiting for new materials, would the sub still be sitting in port for other repairs?

Are other repairs held up to complete your work?

I know we maintain a reasonably healthy fleet of subs, but there are only 50 or so of them to go around and we have at least that many surface task groups that require protection from other subs, to say nothing of the independent tasking our subs undertake. As such, how much extra maintenance time are we talking about? A day? A week? A month?

SpaceNut · 2020-02-09 22:32:37

Many of the items are a simple inspection and relabel of of the materials at very low cost.
Testing of epoxies, RTV is just that seeing if it performs as intended with sampling of the material for dry time and performance.

The materials for reorder require extra payment from the vendor to rush and ship, beyond a possible extra cost for the materials by the vendor. Some materials might be a 100 day contract order for wait time to 16 week lead time for arrival of replacement materials. Other work can be held up as electrical must be tested as well once repair is performed which can keep other work from starting if you are waiting for materials.

If work is completed early the sub is processed back to sea early.
There is a backlog of repair to subs that are keeping them from performing as needed as news reports have indicated.

kbd512 · 2020-02-09 23:23:44

SpaceNut,

Do you already have sufficient personnel to do the inspection and re-label of materials? If not, or if the number of additional personnel or work hours required is significant, then that could rapidly reduce any potential cost benefits. Maybe you could make the case that you need more personnel to correct the maintenance backlog, but once the work has been completed someone will inevitably try to justify getting rid of the extra workers instead of using some of their time to maintain the material supply, even though not having sufficient head count to maintain the supply system is also kinda dumb. Anyway, your point goes back to my admonition that we really ought to spend more time reducing maintenance through better design or reducing materials waste from our "disposable everything" mentality.

kbd512 · 2020-02-10 08:57:19

Calliban,

Apparently, 62% of likely Democrat voters from New Hampshire who were surveyed were less concerned with the survival of humanity than they were with ensuring that President Trump is not reelected. I think that fairly well cements the idea that they're suffering from mass hysteria and brainwashing from the nihilists who populate our media and indoctrination centers (formerly educational institutions). Statements like the one they just made don't require a quantum leap in logic to figure out that they're even less concerned with America than they are with implementing their ideology, consequences unimportant.

New Hampshire Democrats would rather have a giant meteor smash into Earth "extinguishing all human life" than see President Donald Trump reelected.

Ultimately, America, and by extension western civilization, is doomed because we have a critical mass of people who lack sufficient reasoning capacity to reject fundamentally evil or otherwise self-destructive ideas. These people are so hopelessly enslaved to their ideology that wiping out all human life is preferable to allowing someone to govern that they have political disagreements with.

What more needs to be said? Isn't that enough?

Edit:

Even if this was supposed to be funny at some level, it still says more about their thought process than words ever could. President Trump, one man they've never met nor care to even attempt to understand, is driving them mad. The strange thing is that President Trump is merely doing a lot of what former President Obama did or talked about doing, which means their own ideology is driving them crazy.

Last edited by kbd512 (2020-02-10 09:39:08)

Calliban · 2020-02-10 12:29:54

KBD12,

The division between the Democrats and Republicans is largely a racial division. Some 90% of Republicans are white Christians. Some 60% of Democrats are white, but that fraction is heavily Jewish. So ideological division is only part of the schism. It is essentially a power struggle between one group of (mainly white) people that have a vested interest in keeping the US a largely white European country and others who want it to be something completely different. There is unlikely to be any compromise between the two groups. You cannot compromise with people that want you gone.

A few links to ponder.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/160373/dem … white.aspx
https://www.timesofisrael.com/almost-6- … publicans/
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2 … -leanings/
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comme … epublican/

In my opinion, democracy only works when the voters and political players are sufficiently racially homogenous. In every country there are ethnic differences. But differences between white Europeans can be bridged. When we start trying to build commonality with people that have completely different racial origin it doesn't work. There are simply too many divisions for each racial group to see each other as one people. A lot of people get very upset about that. But as the links show, it is a very obvious fact of life.

Perhaps it is time to acknowledge the fact that the reason Democrats don't see things the ways you do is that they are not like you. They are essentially, a different nation made up of completely different people, growing within the old one. And they simply do not share your long term interests. They want to replace the US with something fundamentally different. The Democrats and Republicans are two different nations and that's all there is to it. Very soon, the higher birthrate and continuous immigration of non-whites to the US, will make Republican sentiments a minority position. At that point, the US will be finished as a nation, barring Civil War 2.

Last edited by Calliban (2020-02-10 12:47:18)

louis · 2020-02-10 19:27:15

You could have said the same in the 1950s but back then the Republicans were the party for African Americans and Democrats were the party fo' the white folks happy with the Jim Crow laws. Jews won't vote for the Democrats when they become a fully pro-Arab, pro-Islam party. Many have already gone over to the Republicans.

Racialising politics always leads to disaster.

Calliban wrote:

KBD12,
The division between the Democrats and Republicans is largely a racial division. Some 90% of Republicans are white Christians. Some 60% of Democrats are white, but that fraction is heavily Jewish. So ideological division is only part of the schism. It is essentially a power struggle between one group of (mainly white) people that have a vested interest in keeping the US a largely white European country and others who want it to be something completely different. There is unlikely to be any compromise between the two groups. You cannot compromise with people that want you gone.
A few links to ponder.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/160373/dem … white.aspx
https://www.timesofisrael.com/almost-6- … publicans/
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2 … -leanings/
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comme … epublican/
In my opinion, democracy only works when the voters and political players are sufficiently racially homogenous. In every country there are ethnic differences. But differences between white Europeans can be bridged. When we start trying to build commonality with people that have completely different racial origin it doesn't work. There are simply too many divisions for each racial group to see each other as one people. A lot of people get very upset about that. But as the links show, it is a very obvious fact of life.
Perhaps it is time to acknowledge the fact that the reason Democrats don't see things the ways you do is that they are not like you. They are essentially, a different nation made up of completely different people, growing within the old one. And they simply do not share your long term interests. They want to replace the US with something fundamentally different. The Democrats and Republicans are two different nations and that's all there is to it. Very soon, the higher birthrate and continuous immigration of non-whites to the US, will make Republican sentiments a minority position. At that point, the US will be finished as a nation, barring Civil War 2.

SpaceNut · 2020-02-10 19:45:52

So its ok to hate anyone not white, to look down on all others in superiority of being white....
Well white is not white anymore nor is black just black just check genetics....
We did not learn anything from the centuries of this have we...

kbd512 · 2020-02-10 21:37:53

Calliban / Louis / SpaceNut,

I really don't understand this fascination with skin color. Then again, I've been around the world a time or two and couldn't help but notice that most people were far more similar than they were different, irrespective of what they looked like, until you start asking them what they believe in, which is where you find out just how different they can be. I've met a cab driver from Nigeria that I have more in common with than people who look just like I do. Much like myself, he just wants the opportunity to pursue what he considers worthwhile and wants our government to stay in its own lane. I can't speak to anyone else's opinion, but for me this is about what we, as a nation, value. I could honestly care less about the skin color of my fellow Americans, or where they hail from for that matter. What I want is some set of worthwhile core values placed upon citizenship. Skin color is definitely not a core value.

Terraformer · 2020-02-11 03:57:55

However, kbd, you are living in America, which has never really been a nation-state. Calliban is British. When you are the indigenous inhabitants of a country, your position on immigration is going to be different. Skin colour isn't a core value, but ethnicity should be, just as it is in other countries that aren't ashamed of being ethnic homelands, such as Japan or Israel.

kbd512 · 2020-02-11 08:47:16

Terraformer,

Yes, my perspective as an American is different, but I'd humbly suggest that even the Japanese and Israelis should want people who wish to become productive citizens, which can't be determined through skin color or ethnicity or other types of tests that discriminate on the basis of anything other than being a good citizen. Our citizens either have or have not bought into the idea of being an American, and that is what I prize over all other considerations. We don't need any more socialists, communists, statists, or other subversives, no matter what they look like. We already have far too many of those people here and they add nothing of value to our experiment with self-governance because their policy goals are directly at odds with a limited representative government of, by, and for the people.

Terraformer · 2020-02-11 11:15:44

kbd, it really isn't difficult to get. If a country exists as a homeland for a particular nation, then it is important that the people of that nation remain a dominant majority in their own country.

America is somewhat different, being culturally rather than ethnically nationalist, but cultural nationalism still isn't the same as believing in an abstract idea, which is what the civic "nationalists" push. Someone can become an American (culture), whereas they couldn't become English (ethnicity), but that still requires them to shed their previous culture and adopt another, not just a set of abstract values. It's a process that takes generations, really.

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