You clearly are not a consumer of cheap food. The point of those meals is that they have calories. The same people that buy them could very easily buy something as cheap or cheaper without calories.
The point of those meals is that they are very cheap and have a lot of calories. A single frozen pizza for example has all the calories you need to live for an entire day... if not more. And at a cost of about 5-8 USD.
As to this notion that people don't know how many calories are in the food... yeah they do. First, the information is clearly on the box. Second that is in large part why they are buying the food in the first place. People buy food because they are or anticipate being hungry.
Savvy?
As to poor people, you're assuming they're eating three meals a day. That mac and cheese meal might be half or all of their daily food. Forget this notion of "calories per meal" that's irrelevant to the body. What matters is calories versus work.
The body expends a certain amount of calories every day whether you do anything or not. That gives you a daily baseline burn rate. Labor in excess of breathing requires additional calories.
Saying someone is eating too much because they at 1400 calories in a meal ignores that they could be physically active or might not have eaten anything else for some time.
Unless you're talking calories versus work you're not talking about metabolism.
Further as to this attack on pre packaged food, the primary problem with such food is that it tastes poorly. Nutritionally there isn't a big problem with it. And the ongoing attack on it smacks of class-ism. We see this often with attacks on fast food restaurants because they have high calorie meals yet the high priced restaurants that have the same calories or more are not chastised. Why? Because its safe to criticize poor people or tell people they're doing everything wrong because they're poor. Never mind that the rich people are often doing the same thing in a more expensive way or have access to things that are unaffordable to poor people. Thus the poor people are being criticized for being poor.
If you don't have a lot of money and you are hungry... where are you going to get food? Think about it.
The arrogance of your position is frankly annoying.
You do realize you just made all that up... right?
I repeat my standing point that prior to modern times people were not fat and often ate lots of carbs. In fact, carbs are the staple calories of the entire modern world and have been for thousands of years.
Wheat, Rice, Potatoes, Maize... notice a pattern here?
That is what the modern world has been eating since the dawn of recorded time. Carbs. Where they fat? Nope.
What changes? The food? Nope. The activity? Yep. So... logically what caused this issue?
no, I was making an extreme example to make a point and some people have a very hard time dealing with arguments made with a sledgehammer.
The point I made is that exercise can make a 12 thousand calorie diet of pizza healthy.
Once you understand that... and I hope you NOW understand that... you understand that the diet itself is only healthy in context with the exercise. And that the exercise is probably a great deal more important then what you're actually eating.
Does that mean you can just eat chocolate cake all day? Probably not, there isn't enough in chocolate cake to keep a man alive. But assuming it had all the vitamins and minerals... you could live on it just fine for your whole life so long as you exercised properly.
It goes back to that stupid super size me documentary where the fool sat there, over ate at mc donalds, and didn't exercise. Shockingly he got fat. Never mind he would have gotten fat eating practically anything else like that.
Many alternative studies have been done where people eat the same thing and if anything lose weight. Famously, a school teacher ate at McDonalds every day for about a year as a school project. The kids managed his diet and he exercised. The teacher started out fat and got more healthy. Why? mostly exercise.
I'm not using him a guide. Anyone that did that would die absent his exercise regime. The guy was sucking down something like 12000 calories a day.
My point was that it isn't so much what you eat as whether, how much, and how you excise. Its not the food.
Take in the basic things you need to keep your body healthy... but the nature of that food and the quantity aren't that important. What is important is that you stay active enough to metabolize it in a healthy fashion.
Simply eat what your body needs... beyond that, exercise. That is why people are getting fat. Not because they're eating too much but because they're not doing anything.
Look at what Michael Phelps ate. Something like three pizzas a day or something. And he was in great health at the time. Won Olympic gold medals and everything.
The diet is the wrong way around to solve a problem. Which is how to stay healthy without exercising. Now maybe there is a diet that does that but most of them say "oh and exercise"... well, if you exercise the rest isn't important.
That's fine. Thrash around with your head under water... we are patient.
We offered Russia everything. We offered them help with modernizing. We offered them help with developing. We offered them forgiveness for the cold war. We offered them forgiveness for Stalin. We offered them help with their space program. We offered them membership into our diplomatic organizations. We offered membership into our economic organizations. We offered them peace, prospersity, and friendship.
Russia spat in our faces.
The last such attempt by the US was the Obama administration's "reset button"... naive... but they were hopeful Russia would understand the spirit under which it was offered.
And after all that, some little moron like you wants to tell me that its all our fault because we said some nasty things about Putin? You are utterly mindless.
Russia's population is falling and her territory is vast... her eastern frontier is weak and over time Russia is unlikely to be able to hold onto it without economic revival.
The US was trying to help Russia recover from decades of soviet mismanagement. We were trying to integrate them into the modern economy is more then a source of fuel and surplus military hardware. Russia could be a major industrial power. They stand at a crossroads between Europe and east Asia. We could run trains through Russia instead doing everything by containership. And Russia could get rich in the process.
But it won't happen because no one trusts Russia and no one likes Russia. And that is because they're belligerent, corrupt, unreasonable, deceitful, and absurdly arrogant to think they can get away with it. And as a result... they piss away everything.
Russia could have a bright future. They have vast natural resources, an educated population, they stand at a crossroads... but what do they do with it?
Imagine for a moment what Russia would look like if it were a western power. We'd have fixed the roads, built rail, brought in trade, brought in tourism, built up industry... And look at what the Russians have instead.
The Russians are destroying themselves. We need only help them undermine themselves until they're weak enough to be put back in their box.
Regardless, the good will the Russians had in the west... and the forgiveness for soviet past... its gone. Putin destroyed it.
Yes and everyone always attacks MS over the stupid browser. how about if you shipped windows in china with a version of IE that was really limited. Basically a crap version of IE that was just good enough to go download something better but quite obviously not a viable mainline browser. And by all means, let them install IE if they CHOOSE to do so but make sure that they have to choose to make that happen.
Look, I know exactly what china is doing. Same thing Russia did when they shut McDonald's down for health violations. Its a pretext to do protectionism. Which is fine. All nations piss in each other's coffee like this... but MS should probably do something to make it harder to cite them for violations. The browser issue is absurd at this point. But the chinese are going to use anything they think is even halfway credible.
You're deluded. As to what putin wants... he wants to rebuild Russia's lost glory through intimidation and guile. We are now quite wise to him at this point.
We did hope Russia would accept peace... We have invested hundreds of billions in Russia in the hope that they would be peaceful allies. We even talked about inviting them to NATO if they rehabilitated. But they have spat in our faces.
We handed them an olive branch and they broke it over their knee. So be it. The old cold warriors are being brought back on line. The United States will start to do to Russian Federation what it did to the Soviets. We will squeeze and wait. And after 30 years of being squeezed... Russia will probably fracture again. Probably in the far east... and then humbled again... we will offer Russia peace, friendship, and a place at the table. We'll see how small Russia needs to get before it is willing to behave itself.
As to your comical conspiracy theories about John McCain... the man is a buffoon, sir. He's no master planner of anything. If you want to worry about conspiracies from the US, he is the least of your worries. We have far darker and nastier fellows in our ranks then the likes of him. We however suppress those people when they're not needed. They are given no authority... no standing... and so do nothing. Until some fool like Putin decides to start upsetting world peace with pathetic power games. Then we let them go do what they want to do...
Boast as you wish on the issue. The Soviets feared these men and it is the planning of such people that keeps the chinese up at night.
There was no conspiracy... but now there will be... there will be thousands of conspiracies. It will be war by conspiracy. With the goal of grinding a madman into the ground. The current US administration is ideologically opposed to the idea that any foreign power can be an enemy. So they're a bit dopey. But if you've read any US papers... their foreign policy strategy has been discredited. We're going back on a cold war footing.
Congratulations. Such is the fruits of Putin's hubris.
Its a magnet for stupid lawsuits and everyone hates it anyway.
And seriously why does MS care what browser you use... they make nothing on it either way.
of course, every OS comes with a preinstalled browser... Possibly MS should just install the chinese browser instead in china. I'm sure the chinese have something appropriately stupid to foist on people. Throw that at them and then everyone can be annoyed by the chinese government for the first five minutes of using a new machine before they uninstall it and install something they'd rather have instead.
we can see both at the local and federal level that District Attorney and Attorney General should not be members of the formal executive branch but rather should be members of the judiciary or possibly some other branch of government. By putting them in the same administrative house as the police it means that the police or other government officials are shielded from prosecution. This creates a two tier legal system at the very least where there is one set of rules for everyone out of government and apparently almost no rules at all for those that are in it besides be loyal and obey your masters.
I don't believe the factions are secretly conspiring against the people at large. Its more likely they're just too locked into factional blinkers to be able to pull back.
I'd further point out, that they could be corrupt without being dysfunctional. In the past, the US government had a fair amount of corruption. Some of our most effective politicians for example were very corrupt. But they got things done. The current crop are worse... they're just as corrupt but due to infighting incapable of doing anything.
Consider that we built most of our national treasures beginning to end in less then four years. Today... it takes ten just to leave the planning phase.
I'd cite specific issues but again, those issues would be associated with given factions and those factions would feel the need to defend themselves. The point is that nothing can get done and everything being done will be crippled until people respect each other. Or we get a police state.
You say this like the US is doing this all on their own. The Ukrainian government is screaming bloody murder. And frankly, whatever you say about the Russians, they're doing their best to appear mercurial and scary.
The Russians are massing significant forces capable of invading Ukraine at the border. That is not in dispute. As to whether they've entered the country, there are alligations and ultimately you have to decide if you believe Putin or the US more.
You say you don't trust the US? Fine... why do you trust Putin? He's shown sudden unprovoked aggression in the past. And there is a serious worry that he is stoking world war 3.
This is increasingly a worry in the US. We thought this threat from Russia ended with the Cold War... but he's restarted the cold war and is putting the US in a position where it has to defend allies directly against russia which makes nuclear engagements possible.
This is madness. This is precisely how WW1 started. Large powers backed into diplomatic corners and bound by treaty or diplomatic obligation to fight their rivals...
At the same time, China and Iran are scratching at their cages. Both powers are contained by the US to a large extent and we simply cannot afford more of this crap right now. Our only options increasingly are to either collapse our whole international military machine which perserves peace, order, and economic stability throughout the world... or engage with some of these powers possibly leading to WW3.
We are doing our best to avoid this situation. Everything must be tried to avoid either outcome. However, Putin fucking with us over Ukraine is stupid. First of all, he's not getting it back. Second, all his actions in that region have only served to isolate and demonize Russia to NO useful purpose for Russia. And third, even if he does take it, it isn't worth anything Russia. The Ukrainians are very poor, their industry is a joke, they have almost no military capacity, and they don't have any resources that Russia doesn't have in abundance in Russia itself. Oh yeah, and the Ukrainians don't want to be reabsorbed by Russia.
Simply stop. When will you people learn. The world is better off without Russia's boot on people's backs. The difference between Western and Eastern Germany at the end of the cold war should have educated you. The old soviet model simply crippled people to no purpose. And Russia reasserting its authority over these regions will only serve to keep people poor and miserable.
Leave them alone. The Russians despite your silly protestations are attempting to claim Ukraine and it appears to be almost entirely about ego which is beyond pathetic.
The Russians are demonstrating on a daily basis why they deserve to be choked to death with trade sanctions. Perhaps after another 30 years of choking they can be let out to attempt to be civilized members of the world. Until then... Ruin upon their house.
First... moral standards are "his" moral standards.
Second, internet in general connects his people to the world... exposing them to other view points that might distort their indoctrination to his world view.
So what he is saying is "the people of my country might not believe in my values if exposed to alternative view points."
Which is rational. They probably won't. His world view is pretty weak on logic, argument, or supporting evidence. Its just do what I say or the sharp knives come out.
Putin is sending military forces into Ukraine. Your argument will have more credibility when either the US or Ukraine start sending troops, tanks, etc into Russia. Until then, Russia is the aggressor.
I have little patience for this "we need to be open minded about the people invading other countries" nonsense.
You're not telling me anything I don't already know and nothing you've said changes any of the arguments I made above.
You say the problem is politics and not technical. I said as much in my first sentence. However, just because the problem is political doesn't mean you can ignore it.
The political problems are already terminal. This country either clears some of this issue or it dies. Everything built by generations before us is falling apart because we are a society at war with ourselves.
The reason for this as I said was a general lack of respect for each other. A large number of americans hold a large number of americans in contempt. There is no respect. There is no common cause. There is no compromise. People see their own people as the enemy. People try to control the lives of people. People rebel and undermine the forces that try to control them. The system snarles on itself and goes into cardiac arrest.
In the meantime... there are no solutions. Just power plays. One group of people finds a way to force another group of people to do something against their will... often by shoving guns in their faces. The other group of humans tends to respond in kind or perhaps just finds ways to take the ability to send men with guns away so the threat is just words.
It goes back and forth... and it won't stop until we respect each other. Absent that... chaos.
Ask any group of americans anywhere in the US about other groups of people in the US and you'll find that given portions of the country hold other portions of the country in contempt. There is no respect for their opinions. Their views. Their interests. Their rights. Often these people held in contempt only live 20 to 40 miles away. Sometimes only across the street. And when one wars against the other all we have is chaos.
Do I need to be specific? I'd rather not. We're all so factional these days that if I reference anything anyone associated with that faction will take my post as an attack on their faction and war against me... thus missing the whole point of my post.
Here is what will work... what will bring balance to the Union. Leave people alone. Absent that... everyone will try to control everyone... everyone will try to undermine everyone... and we will only have chaos, weakness, and degeneration.
Either we come to an understanding not based on force, violence, or compulsion... but rather consent... or the republic is finished. We can devolve into an oligarchy or a dictatorship. Those are quite stable despite having an US vs THEM mentality in the citizenry. Some of them are even strengthened by it. Sense political weakness? Just beat the drums about the OTHER people, possibly kill a few thousand of them just to show them who is boss... and have a parade.
This is the world this internal strife is making inevitable. It might take 200 years for it to get that bad. But it will happen unless something changes. Look at how much has changed in such a small span of time. Imagine that sort of change ongoing... graph the trend.
No... there is no grand conspiracy. Its just people.
Either restore the old balance that everyone was happy with or forge a new one that people are just as happy with. The current controversy is a waste of time and accomplishes nothing but weakening the republic and pissing people off.
Seriously, setting up a social networking site is technically very simple. We have thousands of them. Why are the Ukrainians using an American system that has been compromised by crippling political correctness, is administered by Russians... aka the enemy, and all the other crap you could possibly windge on about facebook.
Why use it? Just set up your own social network, get people to join, and let the kids send profane selfies at each other.
Again, I offered a one off example that was unnecessary.
You are a classic example for why lawyers suggest that the defendant say nothing. You're attempting to draw me into defending something I don't need to defend. I offered the example out a sense that I should take the views of other people seriously enough to try and engage with them intellectually.
However, if you're going to make this a court case... fine. I'll listen to the advice of my legal council, retract ALL arguments I have made of any kind and merely ask you to prove the statement that prompted me to reply in the first place.
If you in fact have no interest in defending that position... fine by me... I don't care about reddit. I actually don't like reddit myself... and I have a penis. I group most of the hip social network sites into the same colorful stupid circus side show. So put this all down to my ignorance of reddit. I think I can survive that mark against myself from now until the end of time.
Here lies this guy... he didn't know a lot about reddit. Guilty as charged.
Regardless, the point I am arguing against has no evidence to support it. And I will note you're not defending facebook which again has comments buried and deleted arbitrarily... and yet women have no problem participating on it.
But here again, my Council is chastising me for even offering that. He would advice that I offer NOTHING and instead simply ask you to prove the counter case... which I shall pick apart... those defending it give up... and the case is once again dismissed with contempt.
You perhaps feel slighted because I perhaps snapped at you when you really only wanted to tell me that reddit has a lot of sausages. Well, if that's all that is going on then I apologize. Keep in mind that this is inherently a dishonest argument I am arguing against and that most of the people arguing against me are either idiots that don't know how statistics work or are callous little trolls that know damn well and don't care. In that environment, I am going to assume people are fucking with me on reflex unless they take some pains right at the start to confirm they are not in fact fucking with me. Had you prefaced your initial post to me with a white flag of peace, you would have possibly gotten a different response. Absent that, I saw contradiction on the battlefield and assumed you were engaging. In fact, I still don't know that you are not in fact fucking with me. I merely point all this out on the off chance that you're just a reasonable guy that got caught wrong footed in an internet flame war.
It would be cheaper and likely completely safe to warehouse it in the US. The facility they set up to handle this prior to the political problems should have worked just fine.
But no one is going to be reasonable on the issue... so who can you pay to take it off our hands?
Find a nuclear power with capacity and will to deal with the problem. The US used to have this sort of capability... but we're a nation divided. And because of that... we are incapable of dealing with even simple problems.
It all could be resolved with a little mutual respect and consideration. But again... that's not going to happen. We don't respect each other. A large number of Americans hold large numbers of Americans in contempt. And until we let each other live and let live... we will remain at war with ourselves.
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You clearly are not a consumer of cheap food. The point of those meals is that they have calories. The same people that buy them could very easily buy something as cheap or cheaper without calories.
The point of those meals is that they are very cheap and have a lot of calories. A single frozen pizza for example has all the calories you need to live for an entire day... if not more. And at a cost of about 5-8 USD.
As to this notion that people don't know how many calories are in the food... yeah they do. First, the information is clearly on the box. Second that is in large part why they are buying the food in the first place. People buy food because they are or anticipate being hungry.
Savvy?
As to poor people, you're assuming they're eating three meals a day. That mac and cheese meal might be half or all of their daily food. Forget this notion of "calories per meal" that's irrelevant to the body. What matters is calories versus work.
The body expends a certain amount of calories every day whether you do anything or not. That gives you a daily baseline burn rate. Labor in excess of breathing requires additional calories.
Saying someone is eating too much because they at 1400 calories in a meal ignores that they could be physically active or might not have eaten anything else for some time.
Unless you're talking calories versus work you're not talking about metabolism.
Further as to this attack on pre packaged food, the primary problem with such food is that it tastes poorly. Nutritionally there isn't a big problem with it. And the ongoing attack on it smacks of class-ism. We see this often with attacks on fast food restaurants because they have high calorie meals yet the high priced restaurants that have the same calories or more are not chastised. Why? Because its safe to criticize poor people or tell people they're doing everything wrong because they're poor. Never mind that the rich people are often doing the same thing in a more expensive way or have access to things that are unaffordable to poor people. Thus the poor people are being criticized for being poor.
If you don't have a lot of money and you are hungry... where are you going to get food? Think about it.
The arrogance of your position is frankly annoying.
You do realize you just made all that up... right?
I repeat my standing point that prior to modern times people were not fat and often ate lots of carbs. In fact, carbs are the staple calories of the entire modern world and have been for thousands of years.
Wheat, Rice, Potatoes, Maize... notice a pattern here?
That is what the modern world has been eating since the dawn of recorded time. Carbs. Where they fat? Nope.
What changes? The food? Nope. The activity? Yep. So... logically what caused this issue?
The activity.
End of discussion.
Then why were people from 50 years ago not hugely fat? Because they were not eating all your little hipster diets and they were not fat.
no, I was making an extreme example to make a point and some people have a very hard time dealing with arguments made with a sledgehammer.
The point I made is that exercise can make a 12 thousand calorie diet of pizza healthy.
Once you understand that... and I hope you NOW understand that... you understand that the diet itself is only healthy in context with the exercise. And that the exercise is probably a great deal more important then what you're actually eating.
Does that mean you can just eat chocolate cake all day? Probably not, there isn't enough in chocolate cake to keep a man alive. But assuming it had all the vitamins and minerals... you could live on it just fine for your whole life so long as you exercised properly.
It goes back to that stupid super size me documentary where the fool sat there, over ate at mc donalds, and didn't exercise. Shockingly he got fat. Never mind he would have gotten fat eating practically anything else like that.
Many alternative studies have been done where people eat the same thing and if anything lose weight. Famously, a school teacher ate at McDonalds every day for about a year as a school project. The kids managed his diet and he exercised. The teacher started out fat and got more healthy. Why? mostly exercise.
I'm not using him a guide. Anyone that did that would die absent his exercise regime. The guy was sucking down something like 12000 calories a day.
My point was that it isn't so much what you eat as whether, how much, and how you excise. Its not the food.
Take in the basic things you need to keep your body healthy... but the nature of that food and the quantity aren't that important. What is important is that you stay active enough to metabolize it in a healthy fashion.
Simply eat what your body needs... beyond that, exercise. That is why people are getting fat. Not because they're eating too much but because they're not doing anything.
Look at what Michael Phelps ate. Something like three pizzas a day or something. And he was in great health at the time. Won Olympic gold medals and everything.
The diet is the wrong way around to solve a problem. Which is how to stay healthy without exercising. Now maybe there is a diet that does that but most of them say "oh and exercise"... well, if you exercise the rest isn't important.
That's fine. Thrash around with your head under water... we are patient.
We offered Russia everything. We offered them help with modernizing. We offered them help with developing. We offered them forgiveness for the cold war. We offered them forgiveness for Stalin. We offered them help with their space program. We offered them membership into our diplomatic organizations. We offered membership into our economic organizations. We offered them peace, prospersity, and friendship.
Russia spat in our faces.
The last such attempt by the US was the Obama administration's "reset button"... naive... but they were hopeful Russia would understand the spirit under which it was offered.
And after all that, some little moron like you wants to tell me that its all our fault because we said some nasty things about Putin? You are utterly mindless.
You have no value to me in this discussion.
Good day, sir.
Almost no one spends any time picking the DA. We rarely even know who they are really. And the options are always a collection of insiders.
Russia's population is falling and her territory is vast... her eastern frontier is weak and over time Russia is unlikely to be able to hold onto it without economic revival.
The US was trying to help Russia recover from decades of soviet mismanagement. We were trying to integrate them into the modern economy is more then a source of fuel and surplus military hardware. Russia could be a major industrial power. They stand at a crossroads between Europe and east Asia. We could run trains through Russia instead doing everything by containership. And Russia could get rich in the process.
But it won't happen because no one trusts Russia and no one likes Russia. And that is because they're belligerent, corrupt, unreasonable, deceitful, and absurdly arrogant to think they can get away with it. And as a result... they piss away everything.
Russia could have a bright future. They have vast natural resources, an educated population, they stand at a crossroads... but what do they do with it?
Imagine for a moment what Russia would look like if it were a western power. We'd have fixed the roads, built rail, brought in trade, brought in tourism, built up industry... And look at what the Russians have instead.
The Russians are destroying themselves. We need only help them undermine themselves until they're weak enough to be put back in their box.
Regardless, the good will the Russians had in the west... and the forgiveness for soviet past... its gone. Putin destroyed it.
Are you comparing the united states to iran because the US invaded Saddam's Iraq?
Can you please not be such a pathetic tool?... Please...
Yes and everyone always attacks MS over the stupid browser. how about if you shipped windows in china with a version of IE that was really limited. Basically a crap version of IE that was just good enough to go download something better but quite obviously not a viable mainline browser. And by all means, let them install IE if they CHOOSE to do so but make sure that they have to choose to make that happen.
Look, I know exactly what china is doing. Same thing Russia did when they shut McDonald's down for health violations. Its a pretext to do protectionism. Which is fine. All nations piss in each other's coffee like this... but MS should probably do something to make it harder to cite them for violations. The browser issue is absurd at this point. But the chinese are going to use anything they think is even halfway credible.
You're deluded. As to what putin wants... he wants to rebuild Russia's lost glory through intimidation and guile. We are now quite wise to him at this point.
We did hope Russia would accept peace... We have invested hundreds of billions in Russia in the hope that they would be peaceful allies. We even talked about inviting them to NATO if they rehabilitated. But they have spat in our faces.
We handed them an olive branch and they broke it over their knee. So be it. The old cold warriors are being brought back on line. The United States will start to do to Russian Federation what it did to the Soviets. We will squeeze and wait. And after 30 years of being squeezed... Russia will probably fracture again. Probably in the far east... and then humbled again... we will offer Russia peace, friendship, and a place at the table. We'll see how small Russia needs to get before it is willing to behave itself.
As to your comical conspiracy theories about John McCain... the man is a buffoon, sir. He's no master planner of anything. If you want to worry about conspiracies from the US, he is the least of your worries. We have far darker and nastier fellows in our ranks then the likes of him. We however suppress those people when they're not needed. They are given no authority... no standing... and so do nothing. Until some fool like Putin decides to start upsetting world peace with pathetic power games. Then we let them go do what they want to do...
Boast as you wish on the issue. The Soviets feared these men and it is the planning of such people that keeps the chinese up at night.
There was no conspiracy... but now there will be... there will be thousands of conspiracies. It will be war by conspiracy. With the goal of grinding a madman into the ground. The current US administration is ideologically opposed to the idea that any foreign power can be an enemy. So they're a bit dopey. But if you've read any US papers... their foreign policy strategy has been discredited. We're going back on a cold war footing.
Congratulations. Such is the fruits of Putin's hubris.
I'd rather sell it to the Chinese or the Indians.
Its a magnet for stupid lawsuits and everyone hates it anyway.
And seriously why does MS care what browser you use... they make nothing on it either way.
of course, every OS comes with a preinstalled browser... Possibly MS should just install the chinese browser instead in china. I'm sure the chinese have something appropriately stupid to foist on people. Throw that at them and then everyone can be annoyed by the chinese government for the first five minutes of using a new machine before they uninstall it and install something they'd rather have instead.
we can see both at the local and federal level that District Attorney and Attorney General should not be members of the formal executive branch but rather should be members of the judiciary or possibly some other branch of government. By putting them in the same administrative house as the police it means that the police or other government officials are shielded from prosecution. This creates a two tier legal system at the very least where there is one set of rules for everyone out of government and apparently almost no rules at all for those that are in it besides be loyal and obey your masters.
This needs to be dealt with.
I don't believe the factions are secretly conspiring against the people at large. Its more likely they're just too locked into factional blinkers to be able to pull back.
I'd further point out, that they could be corrupt without being dysfunctional. In the past, the US government had a fair amount of corruption. Some of our most effective politicians for example were very corrupt. But they got things done. The current crop are worse... they're just as corrupt but due to infighting incapable of doing anything.
Consider that we built most of our national treasures beginning to end in less then four years. Today... it takes ten just to leave the planning phase.
I'd cite specific issues but again, those issues would be associated with given factions and those factions would feel the need to defend themselves. The point is that nothing can get done and everything being done will be crippled until people respect each other. Or we get a police state.
You say this like the US is doing this all on their own. The Ukrainian government is screaming bloody murder. And frankly, whatever you say about the Russians, they're doing their best to appear mercurial and scary.
The Russians are massing significant forces capable of invading Ukraine at the border. That is not in dispute. As to whether they've entered the country, there are alligations and ultimately you have to decide if you believe Putin or the US more.
You say you don't trust the US? Fine... why do you trust Putin? He's shown sudden unprovoked aggression in the past. And there is a serious worry that he is stoking world war 3.
This is increasingly a worry in the US. We thought this threat from Russia ended with the Cold War... but he's restarted the cold war and is putting the US in a position where it has to defend allies directly against russia which makes nuclear engagements possible.
This is madness. This is precisely how WW1 started. Large powers backed into diplomatic corners and bound by treaty or diplomatic obligation to fight their rivals...
At the same time, China and Iran are scratching at their cages. Both powers are contained by the US to a large extent and we simply cannot afford more of this crap right now. Our only options increasingly are to either collapse our whole international military machine which perserves peace, order, and economic stability throughout the world... or engage with some of these powers possibly leading to WW3.
We are doing our best to avoid this situation. Everything must be tried to avoid either outcome. However, Putin fucking with us over Ukraine is stupid. First of all, he's not getting it back. Second, all his actions in that region have only served to isolate and demonize Russia to NO useful purpose for Russia. And third, even if he does take it, it isn't worth anything Russia. The Ukrainians are very poor, their industry is a joke, they have almost no military capacity, and they don't have any resources that Russia doesn't have in abundance in Russia itself. Oh yeah, and the Ukrainians don't want to be reabsorbed by Russia.
Simply stop. When will you people learn. The world is better off without Russia's boot on people's backs. The difference between Western and Eastern Germany at the end of the cold war should have educated you. The old soviet model simply crippled people to no purpose. And Russia reasserting its authority over these regions will only serve to keep people poor and miserable.
Leave them alone. The Russians despite your silly protestations are attempting to claim Ukraine and it appears to be almost entirely about ego which is beyond pathetic.
The Russians are demonstrating on a daily basis why they deserve to be choked to death with trade sanctions. Perhaps after another 30 years of choking they can be let out to attempt to be civilized members of the world. Until then... Ruin upon their house.
First... moral standards are "his" moral standards.
Second, internet in general connects his people to the world... exposing them to other view points that might distort their indoctrination to his world view.
So what he is saying is "the people of my country might not believe in my values if exposed to alternative view points."
Which is rational. They probably won't. His world view is pretty weak on logic, argument, or supporting evidence. Its just do what I say or the sharp knives come out.
Putin is sending military forces into Ukraine. Your argument will have more credibility when either the US or Ukraine start sending troops, tanks, etc into Russia. Until then, Russia is the aggressor.
I have little patience for this "we need to be open minded about the people invading other countries" nonsense.
You're not telling me anything I don't already know and nothing you've said changes any of the arguments I made above.
You say the problem is politics and not technical. I said as much in my first sentence. However, just because the problem is political doesn't mean you can ignore it.
The political problems are already terminal. This country either clears some of this issue or it dies. Everything built by generations before us is falling apart because we are a society at war with ourselves.
The reason for this as I said was a general lack of respect for each other. A large number of americans hold a large number of americans in contempt. There is no respect. There is no common cause. There is no compromise. People see their own people as the enemy. People try to control the lives of people. People rebel and undermine the forces that try to control them. The system snarles on itself and goes into cardiac arrest.
In the meantime... there are no solutions. Just power plays. One group of people finds a way to force another group of people to do something against their will... often by shoving guns in their faces. The other group of humans tends to respond in kind or perhaps just finds ways to take the ability to send men with guns away so the threat is just words.
It goes back and forth... and it won't stop until we respect each other. Absent that... chaos.
Ask any group of americans anywhere in the US about other groups of people in the US and you'll find that given portions of the country hold other portions of the country in contempt. There is no respect for their opinions. Their views. Their interests. Their rights. Often these people held in contempt only live 20 to 40 miles away. Sometimes only across the street. And when one wars against the other all we have is chaos.
Do I need to be specific? I'd rather not. We're all so factional these days that if I reference anything anyone associated with that faction will take my post as an attack on their faction and war against me... thus missing the whole point of my post.
Here is what will work... what will bring balance to the Union. Leave people alone. Absent that... everyone will try to control everyone... everyone will try to undermine everyone... and we will only have chaos, weakness, and degeneration.
Either we come to an understanding not based on force, violence, or compulsion... but rather consent... or the republic is finished. We can devolve into an oligarchy or a dictatorship. Those are quite stable despite having an US vs THEM mentality in the citizenry. Some of them are even strengthened by it. Sense political weakness? Just beat the drums about the OTHER people, possibly kill a few thousand of them just to show them who is boss... and have a parade.
This is the world this internal strife is making inevitable. It might take 200 years for it to get that bad. But it will happen unless something changes. Look at how much has changed in such a small span of time. Imagine that sort of change ongoing... graph the trend.
This either stops or the republic dies.
No... there is no grand conspiracy. Its just people.
Either restore the old balance that everyone was happy with or forge a new one that people are just as happy with. The current controversy is a waste of time and accomplishes nothing but weakening the republic and pissing people off.
Seriously, setting up a social networking site is technically very simple. We have thousands of them. Why are the Ukrainians using an American system that has been compromised by crippling political correctness, is administered by Russians... aka the enemy, and all the other crap you could possibly windge on about facebook.
Why use it? Just set up your own social network, get people to join, and let the kids send profane selfies at each other.
Problem solved.
Happily ever after.
Again, I offered a one off example that was unnecessary.
You are a classic example for why lawyers suggest that the defendant say nothing. You're attempting to draw me into defending something I don't need to defend. I offered the example out a sense that I should take the views of other people seriously enough to try and engage with them intellectually.
However, if you're going to make this a court case... fine. I'll listen to the advice of my legal council, retract ALL arguments I have made of any kind and merely ask you to prove the statement that prompted me to reply in the first place.
If you in fact have no interest in defending that position... fine by me... I don't care about reddit. I actually don't like reddit myself... and I have a penis. I group most of the hip social network sites into the same colorful stupid circus side show. So put this all down to my ignorance of reddit. I think I can survive that mark against myself from now until the end of time.
Here lies this guy... he didn't know a lot about reddit. Guilty as charged.
Regardless, the point I am arguing against has no evidence to support it. And I will note you're not defending facebook which again has comments buried and deleted arbitrarily... and yet women have no problem participating on it.
But here again, my Council is chastising me for even offering that. He would advice that I offer NOTHING and instead simply ask you to prove the counter case... which I shall pick apart... those defending it give up... and the case is once again dismissed with contempt.
You perhaps feel slighted because I perhaps snapped at you when you really only wanted to tell me that reddit has a lot of sausages. Well, if that's all that is going on then I apologize. Keep in mind that this is inherently a dishonest argument I am arguing against and that most of the people arguing against me are either idiots that don't know how statistics work or are callous little trolls that know damn well and don't care. In that environment, I am going to assume people are fucking with me on reflex unless they take some pains right at the start to confirm they are not in fact fucking with me. Had you prefaced your initial post to me with a white flag of peace, you would have possibly gotten a different response. Absent that, I saw contradiction on the battlefield and assumed you were engaging. In fact, I still don't know that you are not in fact fucking with me. I merely point all this out on the off chance that you're just a reasonable guy that got caught wrong footed in an internet flame war.
Good day, sir.
It would be cheaper and likely completely safe to warehouse it in the US. The facility they set up to handle this prior to the political problems should have worked just fine.
But no one is going to be reasonable on the issue... so who can you pay to take it off our hands?
Find a nuclear power with capacity and will to deal with the problem. The US used to have this sort of capability... but we're a nation divided. And because of that... we are incapable of dealing with even simple problems.
It all could be resolved with a little mutual respect and consideration. But again... that's not going to happen. We don't respect each other. A large number of Americans hold large numbers of Americans in contempt. And until we let each other live and let live... we will remain at war with ourselves.
Your concession is accepted. Better luck next time.