:eek:

I hope you’ve finally got all this crap behind you. That’s horrible.

It’s a date. :p
I don’t drink so I’ll just have a coke but sounds good to me. :tup:
I will add one thing that some may find controversial re. Civil war: keeping the discussion strictly on states’ rights, I support the north crushing the south and formalizing the fact that federal law/government trumps state law/government, a loose confederation of member states cannot ever become a world power. In order to achieve economic and military etc supremacy, we needed to put that to bed.

I still think we have a strong nation, however, other world powers are catching up quickly. We enjoyed about 3 decades of a head start post wwII as the rest of the world had to rebuild etc and we were the primary source of raw materials and labor for that.

I think when folks say like you did that we are not as great as we used to be it stems from a few factors, some social and some economic.

Let’s look at economic first. If you look at our economy now, we are way bigger and more profitable and powerful than we were vs the 50’s or 60’s. But, the economy has transitioned from a manufacturing based one where there were plenty of good paying blue collar jobs (we have to give some credit to the organized labor unions here) into a more technology and service based economy.

/\ that has resulted in a lot of previous blue collar low to medium skilled jobs disappearing and being replaced with lower paying service sector jobs or higher paying white collar jobs. There are still plenty of high skilled manufacturing jobs out there but those aren’t enough to replace the millions of low and medium skilled jobs that are gone.

Those low and medium skilled jobs most of them will never come back, not bc of immigration or anything else social, but bc of AI and automation and tech advances that help boost a company bottom line.

Bottom line, the above changes have put pressure on the economic classes of people and many working class and middle class folks got squeezed into a lower economic class and some got squeezed up into upper middle class and wealthy class.

A separate discussion can be had where we can talk abou how anyone even someone working a couple part time minimum wage jobs can still retire after 40 years as a millionaire (investing duh). But our education system and our advertising/popular culture creates and encourages financial ignorance and greed w/o the patience to build wealth. //that’s another discussion :tiphat:

Ok, I feel like I missed/glossed over some of the economic stuff in my first part of my rebuttal but it’s good enough for 5am. :icon17:

Edit, I will add one last thought re economic factors in creating angst, the increasing shrinking of the middle and working class has made many folks feel like the American dream we were sold that every generation is a bit better off than the last etc is dying.

Second factor for some feeling we are in decline, social changes:

So what’s the biggest thing that happened between the Korean and Vietnam wars? Well, the 60s happened, and that means we’re talking about the civil rights movement and then in the 70s, the beginning of the gay rights movement. The 90s and 2000s brought the trans rights movement as well.

Oh, and of course women’s liberation movement of the late 60s and 70s.

As the decades have gone on, the number of non Anglo European whites in this country has increased as well.

Now, if you see the stuff I just listed above as bad, then you think we as a nation are in decline and our values and culture are changing for the worse and things were better in the old days.

If, however, you are black, Hispanic (like yours truly), a woman, or LGBTQ, then the country is better now because the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness applies more equally to you now than on the past.

It’s easy to say you support equal rights for everyone when there’s very few that are different than you and you and yours dominate the cultural landscape. You gotta actually put your money where your mouth is when that means your power/popular culture is lessening and now sharing space with others. Aka, we are now truly becoming a multi ethnic and racial etc society— aka less white, less christian, less heterosexual.

The “make America great again” slogan was NEVER about economic return to 50s so called greatness, it was completely about returning to a old American culture from that era that favored straight white, christian men. — those folks get to play in the meritocracy and everyone else fights for the leftover scraps.

The changing of the cultural landscape has only been accelerating over the last 20 years even faster, it’s made many white, conservative leaning Midwest and southern folks feel like their country isn’t theirs anymore, that they don’t count as much anymore. And to be fair, a lot of the unfair privileges this group took for granted at the expense of the other groups I listed above ARE gone now. Now, more and more straight, white, conservative men have to compete in a world that is ACTUALLY more of a true meritocracy vs just amongst each other.

You said we got lead astray and got weak as a nation somewhere between Korean War and Vietnam.

I don’t agree with that at all, I firmly believe that as we increase the number of Americans who can truly have access to the right to life, liberty and the persuit of happiness equally fairly and justly, then we as a nation are better for it.

If you want all Americans to stop being so divided and come together more (as do I), then you have to support equality for all LGBTQ, black, Hispanic, women, non Christians etc so we can finally move past some groups of Americans being second class citizens and we can all focus on figuring out how to make our new economic/technological system work fairly for everyone.

PS- the only people I’ve seen ACTUALLY trying to start a civil war are the mostly white conservative men like the ones who attacked the capitol in an attempted insurrection on Jan 6.

Good Thursday Morning All. 91* for a high with 0% chance of rain again. :bowdown: Hope you all have a Great Thursday. Time to get this Thursday Rolling!! :happydance: Stay Safe, Stay Positive and Keep Washing Those Hands. :tup:

I look at it from a Darwinian POV. Lack of diversity is not good for any evolving system - too much inbreeding (positive feedback for negative traits) happens. More diverse species have a better chance of long-term survival.

It is not necessarily true that more diverse societies have a better chance of long-term survival. Only monarchies, oligarchies, et al, have lasted for more than a few hundreds of years. Even those have eventually crumbled. But maybe a diverse, egalitarian society could do well.

:gtfo2:

Their security measures are no better than any other credit card. Also... Apple sucks :icon17:

Only idiots pay for porn lol

Bingo. In manufacturing here. We see way more of an increase in productivity when we add a new automated welding cell for simple repetitive parts than we do from adding more human welders. Given our location does not allow for easy expansion in number of personnel, the choice is pretty easy on whether to go for more humans or more automation. Considering out ability to maintain customers is also based on the pricing we provide them with, and considering the scale and dollar value for which we are playing, cost wins. End of story.

I'm lucky that what I do is still domestic, considering what payment looks like for persons in say Thailand or Malaysia. Outsourcing is its own monumental problem.

:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2:

so it just arrived... super super super stoked.

Hey, you calling me an idiot?

No........just slow on the uptake............:rofl2:

NO. I would call you a worthless simp if you are paying any women or men online. If you pay to onlyfans, you deserve the cessppool you live in.
Not picking on you, just saying there are some worthless shitbags without a life worth living.

Wow dude... im pretty sure he was just making a joke. Relax