impartialobserver

What is sad about American politics is that no matter how great your ideas... you will lose unless you have a terrible case of verbal diarrhea. You need to be brash, unfiltered, and made big, bold claims and if you have nothing to back them up.. so be it.

Another reason that we do not have impactful third parties in the USA is that folks take probability of winning into account before the actual policies or characteristics of the candidate. To like a candidate but have them lose is pointless according to most.

I am no baseball fan but from the outside looking in.. Toronto has underachieved.

Do you know why a third party has virtually no chance of making an impact in American politics? We like certain, familiar, known.... and third parties and their candidates are mostly unknown to the lay citizen.

The primary reason that I do not like Trump is his well demonstrated tendency to take conspiracy theories seriously. I can't take someone seriously who honestly believes in these mostly fabricated (but not disprovable) stories.

Being in a city where gambling is legal and somewhat ubiquitous.. I see that person who thinks that they can outsmart the casino often. I want to tell them that they are braindead but why rob them of some joy. Yes, they will lose money and have less joy in the future but at present... they are enjoying themselves.

For today, going to the more mellow end of the spectrum..

A lot of this neglects the impact of automation. We met with leaders in the mining industry and guess what? They have for the last two years been replacing low level mining personnel with machines. That mythical time where manufacturing was the key to one's economic growth may be in the past. Do I like this? Not especially but nothing I can do to stop it.

ESPN radio did this experiment. For one week, the talk show hosts only focused on stats, analytics, and breaking down games. No predictions, no social topics, no "hot takes". Ratings dropped by 85%. The second week, they turned the tables and had the hosts do nothing but strong, adamant opinions and predictions along with carte blanche to bring social justice topics into it. Ratings not only recovered from the previous week but were up 15% in the net. That should tell you all you need to know about our preferences when it comes to extreme opinions.

The current two party system in America does create some interesting dynamics. A factor that gets left out of this discussion is the impact of the internet and technology. 1985... if I was to write out a political opinion, I had to write it out on paper, mail it, and send it to a newspaper where they had discretion on whether to include it or not in the letters to the editor section. Today.. everybody can distribute their opinions in seconds and do so with anonymity and no recourse. When you sent a letter to the editor.. you had to include your name and the fact that it showed up in the Courier News (just an example) tells one that you are somewhat local to gooding, idaho. A forum like this.. geography is meaningless and everyone is anonymous.

Trump wins Iowa.. no one could have seen this coming...

Have already done so for another reason... gall bladder/liver issues. Have not completely given those up but mostly. Have lost 27 lbs. in a month but not so sold on feeling better or such. Oh well.. life goes on

The one time that I read an article on https://www.projectveritas.com/... it was such unprovable garbage. It was basically the National Enquirer with different topics.

From what I have read about this... It does seem like the punishment does not fit the crime.

An older city has the older urban core. Older buildings, older roads are expensive to maintain (should not be but that is for another day) and so the affluent, young to middle age, move to the bedroom community or suburb. What is left is an older urban centre where legal, accounting, and government employees work but largely leave it after 5 pm. The businesses are low end retail, niche restaurants, and some bars. Not a lot of affordable residential. As a side bar, we do all sorts of analysis on home prices and apparently Toronto has seen some incredible growth in housing cost in the last 10 years. On the outer ring of the downtown or old urban core is the run down part of town, Old, decrepit apartments, duplexes, and the usual section 8/government-assisted housing. This is where your crime is incubated. Either it is where the crime happens (muggings, stabbings, domestic violence) or it is where it is sourced in the form of drugs. In the case of drugs, this outer ring is where they are made or sold, depending on the substance. When I was homeless in 1999, the group that i associated with for sake of protection were largely drug mules that got their product from a house just on the edge of downtown SLC. Newer cities do not have this dynamic. They have no old urban core or it is very small (Twin Falls, Idaho as a great example). Also, being a population of 50K, it still has some small town flavor hence not everyone is completely anonymous. Lastly, when a city sees considerable growth that growth does not come from poor people. It is mostly affluent middle income earners who had the resources to move from x to y. Your middle income earner is not who is going to commit most of your crimes.

Its all subjective and everyone has their own tastes and preferences. Have been to 25 or so breweries 12 states (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, and Missouri). My preference is for the stronger ales (9.0% ABV or greater and at least 70 IBU). However, have developed a taste for the German varietals lately such as Dunkelweizen, Bock, Maibock, Oktoberfest, etc. What separates one from another is their ability to make more than one style and does their product not have the stale almond flavor in the back. When brewers get lazy and either do not clean their equipment or crank up the yeast.. that is when you get the off taste. Anyways, that is my 2 cents.

I love it how when you explain a situation.. it must mean that you condone it. I do not condone it but nothing I say is going to change it. Yet another person who can't delineate possible choices and good choices. The illegal can get another job. It happens all of the time. Agriculture, landscaping, and low end restaurants are the usual choices. Slaves did not make wages and have choice over what to spend the money on.. that is the difference.

Somewhat related but this is the group that largely does not care about politics. Most politicos have this belief that everyone is as passionate and obsessed as they are. They can't fathom that not everybody comes home and immediately puts the cable news on and starts digesting political news and does so until 12 am or so.

This is not exactly slavery. First, there are being paid. Second, they have choice. They can quit the job and go elsewhere. Just because the choice is not optimal does not mean it does not exist. When I would help out family friends in Eastern Idaho.. the illegals would tell me about how they would go from one grower to another depending on wages, distance to the job site, and so on.

Another song that I have never grown tired of is Rush - Limelight

cities with lower crime have somethings in common. 1. Relatively new or have seen growth in just the past decade 2. Not the largest cities.. 25k to 100K and 3. They are relatively affluent (which probably leads to the growth).

So if you saw them out in public at a gas station, convenience store, hardware store, etc. and you had never seen this specific drag queen before (and therefore know absolutely nothing about them)... would you confront them? Yes or no will suffice.

I live in Reno but have been to LV three times (2 for work and 1 for pleasure). Its fun but too hot for my liking. Reno is warm but not quite as that of LV. Summer highs in Reno are at most 105 for a week and then back to 97 to 100. Vegas is high of 110 with a low of 85 from early may to late Sept. The beauty of NV is the wide open spaces and libertarian attitude. The politics here are pretty subdued in comparison to Oregon, Washington, Texas, Minnesota, and Illinois.

The brewery in America that I would say makes the best beer is Dust Bowl Brewing out of Turlock, CA with Bayern Brewing out of Missoula, MT. Had some stuff from Double Shift Brewing out of Kansas City, MO and it was pretty solid stuff.

not sure how I show non-compliance. All that happened here was that non-essential businesses were ordered to close for 3 weeks. I guess I could go the business that was deemed non-essential and stand at the door for 3 weeks.