Him ruining the lives of his racist, nazi base is our best hope…they don’t do facts, data, common sense, or believe their eyes over the voices of the talking heads on their favorite news networks.

I think anonymity has a lot to do with it, but you certainly point out that there’s more than anonymity to factor in. I also agree that, especially in our problemed data sharing environment, having our data on public display would be troublesome (understatement of the year). My comments weren’t so much of a “we should do this,” as much as a point of the cost of fixing the problem. Fixing the problem would be worse than the problem itself, but not by much, since all of our data is collected anyway. I personally believe that social media should mostly be outlawed - but I’m old enough to remember a better world before it existed.

I’ve been a Linux user since the laptop I bought with Windows Me (Millennium Edition) crashed & burned. Someone smarter than me with computers got Windows 2000 working on that PC for about a week before the blue screen of death reappeared. I replaced that PC with one of those cheap ePCs that sold for $200-300, and came with either Windows XP or XanderOS (Linux). I went with Xander OS, opened a terminal, did a little typing, and ended up with a really nice netbook. I’ve been with Linux since, mostly Ubuntu and Mint, but also a short toe dip into Kali.

It concerns me a but, all the reading I’m doing here with regard to so many people talking to switching to Linux…a few years ago, I read like 2% of Americans used Linux, and that it wasn’t much of a hacking target, because there wasn’t much in low hanging fruit. I’m a bit concerned with the seemingly growing popularity now, though.

Trump - “I bet photoshop is one of those computer thingies…I definitely didn’t use that.”

If they really, really want to fix 99.8% of the problems with hate speech (and many other issues), each user needs to agree to have their real name, home address, email address, and phone number available to the public, in their profile. While what I’ve just said is completely absurd, for almost everyone, it’s the anonymity that empowers people to say the absolute worst things.

Why don’t most people in the checkout line (queue) at the grocery store act the same way they do in a traffic jam on a roadway? Because they’re much more likely to be held personally accountable for their conduct. I wonder how much traffic would change, if our name, address and telephone numbers were required to be posted on all sides of our vehicles?

You make great points, but some of the dehumanizing advantages used in the Middle East would me much less affective here…Canadians are just north of us, and not on the other side of the world. Their customs, traditions, religions, and holidays are similar to ours, and they look just like us. I’d bet that a good number of Americans have Canadian relatives. I live in VA, and my neighbors wife has dual US/Canadian citizenship, as she’s originally from Canada.

I’m originally from Erie, PA - going up to Niagara Falls was a regular day trip we’d do several times per year. Funny enough, I’ve never been to the American side of the falls. I’ve seen it grow from a destination where you could simply parallel park your car next to the railing looking over the falls, to the tourist trap destination it is today.

The good thing about the education system is that no matter how they try to defend and dumb it down, our people still have to compete with the global, population. We can’t import all of our mental talent. Schoolmaster the only place where people gain an education. Kids are smart, resilient, and can often see past the ill-will of adults, no matter how many toys and candies they have.

The great thing about trump may be that he’s so fucking terrible, that he may end up pushing people (voters) to make better, more sensible decisions at the voting booth, more than any other politician possibly can. What he’s doing, is not only about values, ideas, and hate anymore. He’s actually affecting the bank accounts and livelihood of the people who voted for him, and nothing about any of his policies will result in them not being damaged in at least some way. He is so fucking terrible that he may actually be the catalyst to snap the US out of this “conservative populist march towards fascism.”

Bernie Sanders is an Independent - one of the reasons he’s treated so badly by the DNC. There should be more Independents, as far as that goes.

I just see a lot of our military not being into invading Canada. There is a lot of gray space between aggressively applying 100% to a mission and outright desertion. As a person who’s spent a career in the military - I don’t really know about the infantry-based guys, but the people I served with are not simple order-following automatons - regardless of oathes to follow orders…doing the wrong thing is doing the wrong thing.

Maybe I’m out to lunch, but I’d bet there would suddenly be a lot of broken equipment, and a lot of injured personnel, along with a demand that the children of our political leadership, be among the first of the “cannon-fodder” and “bullet-cushions” to cross into “enemy” territory. I’d also bet that you could say goodbye to our all-volunteer military recruitment numbers. Logistics would likely be another nightmare, as our civilian population would likely have to be violently forced to allow the military use of the roads to transport themselves north. Unlike our previous military campaigns and wars, where Allied ports were made available to mass our troops and supplies, there would be no friendly ports outside our own borders.

I’m not saying it couldn’t be done - our military is larger than the next 13 largest militaries combined, after all. I’m suggesting that between the troubles of invasions in themselves, we’d also be dealing with near civil war conditions within our own borders, massive resignations of key people, desertions & AWOLs, protests and civil disobedience, equipment sabotage, and voluntary military ascession falling off a cliff.

There are plenty of military members who would absolutely, with full faith and dedication, follow any order given to them. I’m sure that there are at least some members of our military who (for some reason) would love to invade Canada. But between the domestic troubles, the half-hearted effort of those who would appear to be participating, and the pain of going to war in the first place. Nah, trump is just sabre rattling…it won’t happen.

The old moderate Democrats are not going to change…they keep trying to reach conservatives in a “middle” that keeps moving right. I’d say getting Democrats elected, then replacing them with better democrats in future elections would be the way to go, but there’s something to be said for getting nowhere with the same.old.people.in.the.same.old.positions.election.after.election.and.never.gaining.a.meaningful.majoritye. Either the positions or the people need to change. Since the existing people are not willing to change their positions on the issues, people must be the next thing to change. The party needs to progress into the future, with younger, more vital blood.

And look at them both, dwarfed by the 6 foot 9 inch first Lady! She should play basketball!

So, in the state where it’s completely OK to sacrifice an innocent child, because the vaccine has “bad stuff” in it - most likely the people saying that could not list ingredients, of course, while other pregnant women who’ve lost their pregnancies are regularly suspected of sabotaging, or otherwise finding ways to abort their pregnancies. The same state that’s also trying to extradite a doctor from NY over sending abortion medication to a TX resident.

So, the lesson here is to not abort an unwanted pregnancy, but instead, let the child be born, then decide you have an issue with vaccinations, before tossing your child into parks, play dates, and the brick & mortar petri-dish all parents know schools to be? I’m just trying to figure out the rules here…so a fetus is a person, but a child is not? Or maybe women don’t get to make choices with their bodies, but parents get to make choices for their children’s bodies? Of course parents make choices on their children’s behalf every day, but these choices?

Oh, and lets not forget, that meanwhile, Catholic Health Initiatives-Iowa, a faith-based health care provider, is arguing in a medical malpractice case that the loss of an unborn child does not equate to the death of a “person” for the purpose of calculating damage awards. Gee, what an awfully convenient twist in the rules, when money enters the scene - depending upon how this all plays out.

But…but…aren’t we exceptional? 🙄

I’m not doing anything for them. As far as I’m concerned, Luigi is a hero. You can tell he’s threatened those in power. There are convicted serial killers who’ve gotten less of an escort than Luigi.

If really like to know more about him, and what pushed him to do what he did.

In the US, when referring to veterans, some people seem to carry this big distinction between regular vets and “combat” vets. Sure, there are the stolen valor people, who would tell others they did things they didn’t, but for the most part, people who served, just got through it, and did what they had to do… The old, “heroes aren’t born, they’re made” thing - where we react to situations we’re thrust into. Not being thrust into harrowing situations doesn’t make one “less of” a man or woman.

Personally, I see more of the Luigi stuff coming, considering how things are going in the US. But, if like to know more about how this allegedly all came together in his case… he’s just some 20-something college kid - outside of his current predicament, that is.

I’m in the US and have a 1970 Fiat 500. That little car can handle quite a few of my needs. I sometimes use it for work, when I only have estimates. Normally I drive a full size Ford E150 van.

I appreciate the Fiat because it’s so different from everything on the roads here, just fun to drive, (I’m 54, so at an age where things like lumbar support and other creature comforts are nice) and it’s just uncomfortable enough to make me really appreciate our more modern and larger vehicles (the For van, a Mercury Cougar convertible, a Dodge 2500 4x4, and a Volvo XC70).

The only real bad side is that between it’s age and the fact that they were never freaky imported into the US, parts aren’t readily available. The last time I used it for work, it broke down.

Wow! How long until “the man” starts collecting passports, and requiring working immigrants to work off the debt of being allowed to work the fields, before allowing them access to their passports to be allowed to leave - likely with an ICE escort?

We were told at the time, that the Brits has a surface group in the area, and didn’t want a sub submerged in the same area. Neither we, nor our radar saw anything. But in 21 years spent in the navy, I’ve never seen seas like in that 1st deployment. Modern subs, with round hulls, are optimized for submerged steaming, only cruising on the surface when arriving/departing ports or when operationally necessary (i.e. shallow waters or transferring personnel).

I’ve probably been out in seas just as bad as that 1st deployment - when the boat is rocking at 600-800 feet submerged depth, it has to be really, really bad on the surface, but being submerged, I really didn’t get to see it on those occasions.

There were about 6 of us…you know, 5 making fun of me. We were offroading on trails in a wooded/forested area versus open mud/sand fields. As I was choosing directions on which trails to take, I used signals as was habit.

My first deployment in a fast-attack submarine, in the fall of 1991. We were working under British operational control, and they ordered us to cruise surfaced, in the North Sea. I was standing watch as a lookout, with another lookout and the Officer of the Deck (OOD), in the sail superstructure of the boat. We were wearing body harnesses and lanyards, clipped into the superstructure - normal procedure.

I was a sailor aboard USS SUNFISH (SSN549), a Sturgeon Class boat, where the sail superstructure was 25 feet tall. We were in 48 foot seas.

The 3 of us on watch that night were washed overboard more than 10 times each. Often all 3 of us at the same time… flung overboard, hanging by our lanyards, trying to roll around and grab onto the ladder rungs, or one another, to get back into the bridge pooka. None of us broke any bones or lost any teeth, but we were pretty battered and bruised by the end of it.

That was the first time I got to see the entire boat out of the water… at the top of the wave, I could see the stem planes, stabilizers, the end of the towed-array housing, and the propeller. At the bottom of each trough, we’d see just a tiny hole of sky, through the water, as it all crashed down upon us, and we all hold on, trying to stay inside the superstructure.

We pulled into the Navy Base at Rosyth Scotland the next afternoon. The windshield, booked in for surface operations, was completely missing, as well a the port running light. We sustained damage to our observation periscope and main communications antenna as well.

The experience was both scary and exhilarating.

Predictability is so much more important than being nice. Just follow the rules.