President Donald Trump

[nullnor]

i think i read that it was the democrats that got rid of the filibuster for supreme court picks? .. actually in 2013 democrats changed the rules in the senate to block republican filibusters of nominees in lower courts, but they left the filibuster for supreme court nominees in place. in 2016 after Gorsuch couldn't get 60 votes McConnell got rid of it.

but hey, if fox news says democrats did it, then it must be true.

[gcstomp]

null, I appreciate the timestamps on your posts. You pulled an all-nighter, and I usually see an artistic flair landing somewhere between a mushroom trip and the pov of an old russian novel where suffering is portrayed so well. Russians endured tyranny under their czar regime, as well as great suffering during two world wars and under Josef Stalin, they present bleak frozen fields and slow starvation as an art form. We have our own current dystopian reality, while Ann Coulter proudly appears in panel declaring the children seen crying in videos at detention centers were merely “child actors” who were given scripts while rest of table smiles and laughs, U.S. cage kids that have escaped death from far off country, dangerous journey to cross border, my wife is a teacher and had had children tell her of a 6 week journey from central america on foot.

We have, still, now, thousands of children that have been forcibly separated from parents despite judgement declaring a stop and reunification within 30 days, 14 for children under 5. But life goes on, and toddlers are being forced into courtrooms alone, expected to mount a defense for themselves, no legal representation given but children have been given a list of agencies that could assist. Of course a 3 year old may not know why they left old country, certainly wouldnt be able to vocalize coherent defense, and fate of parent may already be decided with parent already deported. This is rich material for this generations great voices, its beyond me to express how sad I am at what we are at this point.

[Bernie Brewer]

I’m sorry, what?

[nullnor]

i did alright for a while but then i guess ventured off the track. what kind of worries me is we feel the same way with trump that they felt with obama. for example, get your vitamin c tablets and gold and bury it in the back yard. although, they've been saying it for years. but the revelation that we are doing it now wasn't lost on me. it makes me think that something's changed. i probably would've deleted those 2 posts because that's not really how i feel. in the old days i probably would've had a complete meltdown. so i guess i have changed. i was really just sort of picking on CBB and Bernie, heh. i kind of owe the conservatives at this site a lot for putting up with my shit over the years. plus i think a person can appreciate a good midnight meltdown.

i was at work. i got laid off last month but i think it's the warn act that lets you work 90 more days. so that's also where dystopia is coming from. i got a great severance, 2 weeks for every year, plus 4 weeks if you stay to the end of 90 days. so im good for 38 weeks. i think im going to go to HVAC school. never collected unemployment before. i've been laid off before. i guess nowadays they call it a reorganization. and i can probably get unemployment extended. end up with almost 2 years of pay while retraining in a 1 year school.

yeah my company took the Trump tax cuts and laid me off. lol. H1B1 or most of us got outsourced to India. but those guys get treated like crap. companies make people work as contractors to deny them benefits when essentially they are full time employees. i am not really that upset though. out with the old in with the new. survival of the fittest. they'll make the company better, and i'll go do something better for me too. if it doesn't challenge you it won't change you. .. it just sucks i have so much work to do. i'll have to actually go out in the daylight and talk to people.

Russia's history is kind of fascinating. the tartars. i read a little about it. i don't they smile a lot in russia. you're not supposed to unless it's warranted.

on the immigration refugee thing. i wasn't going to say anything because everything already seems bad. but how well were any of the foster parents or people caring for them now vetted. also, there was a story about a dreamer from Iowa deported (2 misdemeanor drug offenses) a few weeks ago that was killed.

[nullnor]

i'm glad most of my white co-workers got laid off with me. i really hated them. heh

[nullnor]

no more free WSJ Weekend editions for me

i haven't really been reading them lately. they're piling up in my car, which makes me look like even more of a bum.

[Bernie Brewer]

Nully feel free to tweak me anytime. Who can’t use a good tweaking on occasion (I’m not really sure what that even means myself, but what ever!).

Good luck on the job hunt. My son in law is in the HVAC business and can’t find good help. If you’re willing to work and get dirty you’ll do great. No school needed just talk to an HVAC repair place and they’ll likely take you on as an apprentice.

[gcstomp]

Null, hvac is great idea if that direction you are thinking. Here in Florida there is never enough trained guys for demand. And you will greeted like Elvis when pull up to fix a home system and air has been out in the 6 month summer we endure. Good luck!

[nullnor]

thanks for the input. it seemed like a good idea but wasn't completely sure. i went to this school before but f'd up and wanted to build my own computer while they taught me electronics. which was useless. but that was 20 years ago. nowadays i would caution people about thinking about a career in IT. it's pretty ruthless.

it's kind of like the IT culture was started by people that really didn't put as much thought into the human aspect of the workplace. that's what the teacher said in class 20 years ago when a black guy asked why the 2 IDE hard drive slots were called a master and a slave. lol. i think he was right.

but that's good. do this for a year and get a job and then i'll always have something. then maybe i can go to night school and invent a time machine.

[TranaGreg]

but that's good. do this for a year and get a job and then i'll always have something. then maybe i can go to night school and invent a time machine.

or maybe you've already done that & just forgot about it

[nullnor]

i think a person should utilize any natural talents when choosing a profession. like if your a quick thinker you could be a lawyer. or if you have fast reflexes you should be an athlete. I have natural 3 talents that i know of. 1) i'm good with animals. so i hope to still use it someday. 2) i can catch things really fast that i drop before it hits the ground. it's super-freaky. i think as a baby i dropped a lot of food. and 3) i never sweat...if anyone knew how little i physically sweat i'd be accused of being an alien. i can shower once a week like it's nothing. if i ever used deodorant, which i gave up on, it would be like ladies ban roll-on.

this could be a Seinfeld episode where Jerry has AC problems in a heat wave and noticing his repair guy never sweats. later the guy loses his job because of George and is living on the street and Jerry keeps noticing the guy never smells. maybe i should hide a small spray water bottle to make it look like i perspire and hide my true planetary origin.

[Hornsby]

In what amounts to the dictionary definition of a new dump (July 3rd), the Senate select Committee on Intelligence concluded that Russia did indeed interfere with the 2016 elections with the purpose of helping Trump win.

(CNN)Breaking with their House Republican counterparts, the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that the intelligence community properly concluded in January of last year that Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to help Donald Trump when Moscow meddled in the 2016 election.

The Senate panel released a summary Tuesday of its examination of the intelligence community's January 2017 assessment, which laid out the case of Russia's election meddling and concluded that Putin was trying to help Trump win.

The Senate report said that the intelligence community's assessment of Russia's intentions were sound, which is at odds with the House Intelligence Committee Republicans' report that found "significant intelligence tradecraft failings" in the assessment of Putin's objectives.

"The Committee has spent the last 16 months reviewing the sources, tradecraft and analytic work underpinning the Intelligence Community Assessment and sees no reason to dispute the conclusions," Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr said in a statement, reiterating what he had initially said in May.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/03/politics/senate-intelligence-putin-donald-trump/index.html

This also in...water is wet.

And in their upcoming "Summit", Trump wants a meeting with Putin without anyone else present. Nobody to interpret, no cameras or people to take notes, nothing to document what may be discussed. What could possibly be discussed that nobody should know about it?

[Sour Masher]

I'm curious what folks here think of Trump reversing affirmative action policies. I'm not sure how much impact his moves will actually have on universities, but the federal government is now going to encourage (not sure exactly what that means) universities to use "color blind" admission policies, and no longer consider race when trying to create a diverse campus. Do people here think this is a good thing or a bad thing? How much impact will these policies actually have on admission practices?

Full disclosure. While this is an issue I understand the other side on, and I do understand that as our society changes, it may be best to alter existing policies to better serve the initial goals of the policies, I spend part of my summer running the writing portion of our "affirmative action" program, and I love it. The admission policies of the program do strongly consider race (but also other things, like students in the program all have families making below 35k a year, most are first generation college students, and all must have strong academic backgrounds, as the program is highly competitive). The majority of under-represented minorities (black and Latino) on our campus come to us through this program. The students in the program are not all under-represented minorities--10-15% are white, and another 10% or so are Asian (independent of this program, Asians are our biggest minority group on campus by far), but, again, it is a conscious mission of the program to give opportunities to applicants who are under-represented and who come from backgrounds that make attending college challenging. I'm a big cheerleader for the program and the support it gives students who really need it. Many of my all-time favorite and best students have only been able to come to this university because of the support system this program gave them.

I do not yet know what impact this federal policies will have for our program, which does rely on federal dollars indirectly, but is primarily funded by state funds.

[TranaGreg]

I'm curious what folks here think of Trump reversing affirmative action policies. I'm not sure how much impact his moves will actually have on universities, but the federal government is now going to encourage (not sure exactly what that means) universities to use "color blind" admission policies, and no longer consider race when trying to create a diverse campus. Do people here think this is a good thing or a bad thing? How much impact will these policies actually have on admission practices?
...

just my initial thought, but asking this of a bunch of middle aged fantasy baseball fans probably won't provide a response representative of those most impacted by the policy.

[Judge Jude]

I think it's better to go by economic background than race, at this point.