impartialobserver

The obsession with HRC and now Trump is beyond me. Day after day.. writing about how you despise xyz and grasping on to every story/op-ed piece that agrees with you seems like such a waste of time. I made my mind up about Trump a long time ago and no real need to keep revisiting it.

You show your lack of knowledge every time that you post. Their budget issues are not due to slave reparations... those have not even been paid out. Do you really want to know what ails their budget? Or do you want to live in a fantasy world? Plenty of Conservatives live in the desert... AZ, NV, UT, NM, CO, WA, OR, and ID all have significant portions of their state that are desert and mostly populated by Conservatives.

The primary reason that I have never seriously considering moving to Portland is housing cost. I could get a job there in my field (programming, data analysis) easily but the salary would not be enough to comfortably afford a house that would be close to the office (if that was needed at all). They are not as expensive as San Francisco but still quite pricey. On top of that, Oregon has the second highest property taxes in America.

Well, obviously lower home prices and conservative politics do not lead to population gains or job gains in the case of West Virginia. The West Viriginia's of the west being Idaho and Montana have seen major population growth since the 1980's.. and yet WV is declining. Any thoughts as to why? https://www.census.gov/library/stories/state-by-state/west-virginia-population-change-between-census-decade.html https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WVNA

As always, you go off into left field. Susanville.. very conservative might I add, is in a desert. And you have thousands of acres of country surrounding it that only get their precipitation from snow and therefore from April to Sept.. its hot and dry. Guess what? It has always been this way. So now what happens when you suck the groundwater dry from such a place like this... ground dries out. This is not unique to CA.. This exact scenario has played out in conservative states such as WY, AZ, UT, and TX (western portion of it). The Kalahari do not use the water nearly as much as Americans do.. poor example. They have looked into desalinization plants and the costs are too high. Pumping something over mountains (of which there are none in Florida) is costly and prone to mechanical issues. The real issue is that the mostly dry area we now call SoCal, Inland Empire, Central Valley, and NE California were never meant to have large populations. Even the indigenous were smart enough to stay away.

Interesting fact about West Virginia... First, population 2000 - 1808344 2010 - 1852994 2022 - 1775156 Second, nonfarm employment Their employment reached its peak of 725,300 in June 2012.. long before Trump and Covid It is now at 699.6 as of March 2023 This is not due to an influx of LGBT folks coming to their state and therefore lowering the birth rate.

All I have to say about Russia is that if it is such a great place.. why is it seeing a population decline? Not just Covid either. Their decline started in the early 90's. Some parts in the eastern part of Russia are essentially ghost towns with deaths exceeding births in these places at a rate of 3 to 1.

If my son started to say stuff like he thought that he was a girl, I would listen and then tell him to give it time. If by the time he is 18 and still has these thoughts then it is up to him to act upon them or not. As for a drag camp.. it is not like the participants can't afford it on their own. If it means so much to them.. then find a way. When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with rock music (still am to this day). I found a way to earn the money to acquire the tapes and cd's.

the issue is that the law and its interpretation are subjective. Also, no matter the person and no matter how horrible they are.. they still seek self-preservation. Of course, he wants out just like every other criminal does and always has. So when you have a system that has any nuance... errr.. wiggle room, you will get cases like this. If you are too punitive/rigid then you get cases where someone serves long sentences for crimes that they did not commit or the punishment is too severe for the crime.

Unlike most.. I can acknowledge that life goes on whether Trump wins this time or not. My job will not change, nor will my commute (same distance), kids will still have needs, etc. Have been at this job since 2015.. and the only changes have been due to changing positions (programming to administrative) That being said, he is polarizing and does get people that would otherwise tune out normal politicians interested. My brother was mostly apolitical until Trump and now attends Trump rallies.

random song that popped up on my amazon music feed.

Long before Trump ran for President.. it was well known that he loved the spotlight and was self absorbed. That is the nature of a politician. Also, we knew that he loved to run his mouth with no fear of consequences. Having no filter has its place but not every time.

This shows that you have never been to the state and know nothing about it other than what you read from biased articles.. Just come to Susanville, CA once. They average 6.5 inches of precipitation per year. Now, read that again... 6.5 inches of precipitation. Now, add in a population of 20K that uses that paltry amount of water. Can you fathom what happens next?

Dressing in drag is not an artistic function such as dance, theatre, music, etc. It is more akin to lifestyle hence the lack of support. If this was some workshop on how to dress and act like a woman for the explicit purpose of theatre.. that's a bit different.

I have had a similar impression of Portland (as well as other cities). FOX news and internet forum posters always exaggerate the negatives and make it seem like they do not have a few bad neighborhoods but rather it encompasses the entire city or metro. I was in NYC in August 2022 and I did not see the filth, feces, trash, etc that everybody on other forums said I would see. While it was quite congested and very different from Reno.. it was not all that bad.

The issue in CA is a layered one. First, higher populations as opposed to 1900 has led to greater demand for the water. Therefore, a lot of places in the very northern most and southern most parts of the state have historically been rather arid and now you add in humans sucking the groundwater dry.. it makes for higher ground temps and drier soil. Second, the romanticizing of the old growth forest has led to vast areas being left alone and therefore dead leaves, pine needles, and other plant debris are left behind. Keep in mind that a lot of northern CA is uninhabited so saying that folks should just rake it up shows a lack of context.

That explains the out-migration but not the fact that fewer women in these Conservative states are having kids.

It is interesting how Las Vegas is not a hot bed for the sport but has been remarkably successful.

And so what is your explanation for why some very Conservative states such as Wyoming and West Virginia have a negative birth rate (deaths exceed births) and have seen population declines over quite a time span.

The reason for the lower birth rate amongst whites is not the increased number of openly accepted LGBT relationships/marriages. Most of these existed before... just under the radar. It is true from the data viewpoint that whites are the most common race amongst the LGBT community.. I am not sure as to why nor do I care.

the forest fires in CA are mostly a function of prioritizing other things over that of forest management. When you go years with minimal damage.. you think that you can get away with it for another year and then another year after that. As for the laws that have been contentious.. they are the ones concerning clearing brush and trees from near power poles and other utilities. Less-than-intelligent laws but those are the ones that have been impactful. I will bring it up again.. lots of Northern CA is vast and empty. I have been to the very NE portion. Lots of untouched country. Lots of fuel for a wildfire.

This is nothing new. After each news story it seems... closeted experts come out of the wood work. They knew nothing nor cared for years on end but now they are world renowned experts on xyz topic.

If someone wants to be drag when they are an adult.. so be it. Then it is a matter of pure choice with them incurring any and all costs associated with it. Before anyone says that men playing the roles of female characters in theatrical productions is the same.. it is not. That is a function of supply vs. demand in most cases. 5 female characters but only 2 females available to play those parts. To have an entire camp centered around it is not the same.

A woman violently confronted my wife once because my daughter has short hair. My then 5-year-old daughter hated brushing her hair and so she chose to have it short. This crazed lady was yelling at my wife about how we were grooming our daughter and making her into a boy.

I would not support an endeavor such as what is in the OP. I am not anti-drag or anti-trans, so just to cut you off. It is a matter of public funds versus private. If the funds were private and therefore the participants were paying their own money then I have no issue.