Geeto67

What I liked: - He hired a speechwriter apparently, rehearsed his speech, and didn't do his usual "ad lib nonsense". As far as speeches go it was pretty well written. It was a lot simpler than some of the SOTU speeches from the last three presidents, and I am not sure if they did that to appeal to his base or to make it easier for him to memorize or work with. - I liked the overall positive tone. What I didn't like: - The Soviet cold war era like distortion of facts to the point it is propaganda. I'm glad he hired a professional speechwriter, now he needs to hire a professional fact checker so he isn't just starting with lies and applying spin. here are some good neutral reads if you want to know how accurate his statements actually were: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/jan/30/fact-checking-donald-trumps-2018-state-union-speec/ https://apnews.com/e37867ab28704abfbd9ac3dc8ae9612d I get that every politician does spin, but at the core you have to have some kernel of objective fact. If not you are just outright lying. - The other thing I didn't like is he linked the opioid crisis to immigration. yeah we all know heroin from down south is a problem...but honestly, poor mexicans crossing the border with children don't own airplanes, or go fast boats, and that is how a lot of it gets in here. Additionally 40% of the overdose population can be tied back to abuse of prescribed medicine or stolen prescriptions. over 96% of new addicts are coming into this through prescriptions through their doctor. So this idea that immigration will "fix" the opioid crisis is laughable at best. I am frankly not surprised, he doesn't have the clout to take on big pharma and he knows it, if he took this head on he'd lose so to duck it this way makes sense from a strategy standpoint. However, I am concerned in crafting this narrative that a large part of the population, esp his supporters, will buy into it and that will set back the efforts of others to work on this as well. It's not that he didn't help this situation, I actually feel he made it worse.

Is the "danger to manifold" idiot light on?

https://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/cto/d/v8-5-speed-swapped-gmc-jimmy/6443357995.html this looks like a fun sleeper/DD: I used to have a 1995 blazer 4 door with the Vortec 4.3 and it was ok. I drove a friends 2 door stick zr2 and instantly thought it was much better but needed more power. This one has both. What is interesting to me is I thought the NV3500 was a Jeep/Dodge trans but apparently it was used in silverados as well. I have an NV3550 swapped into my wrangler and I love it.

yup, but nobody lives forever. If the fans don't see the team using it, then over time they won't use it as well. People fear change, but eventually change normalizes. It may never fully go away, but it will be another foot note like the dodgers used to play in brooklyn, the Atlanta braves used to play in Milwaukee and before that boston, or that the Milwaukee brewers used to be called the Pilots. I know people get fanatical over sports teams, and they are kind of looked at as a sort of public entity where the fans feel like they have a little piece of ownership, but lets not forget they are mostly privately held for profit businesses. The owners can do whatever they want if they feel like it and are willing to put up with the consequences of public opinion. At the end of the day this is like being upset that your local walmart changed it's sign from blue to green.

agree about the relevance but the polls are not without their own criticism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Redskins_name_opinion_polls I think Louis Gray said it best: "You wouldn't [take a poll] with any other race. You wouldn't have African-Americans vote to decide whether or not any sort of racial epithet would be offensive" I have to be honest - in the realm of things America needs to atone for with the first nations people and tribes, this is kind of a non-starter for me. I would rather see people taking an interest in poverty and education initiatives that affect first nation people, substance abuse programs, eminent domain land taking (e.g. dakota pipeline), lack of access to financial institutions, housing, domestic violence, etc.... than be making a flap over the name of a sports team. That being said, if the team wants to change the name because it's no longer relevant on their own and to try to reach a broader audience - good for them. If the people want to still wear it, good for them. Who cares. As long as the team isn't endorsing it anymore, eventually the "wahoo generation" will die out and those that grew up with the new block letter and such will replace them. History is filled with some really ugly, awful, forgotton, discarded mascots and it didn't take all that long to get rid of them - one or two generations and people move on.

Why do you think that? Native American Nations have been formally protesting this issue since the 1940's. Honestly, the US media doesn't really cover their protests anymore because they are not news given how widespread and well known, or at least not interesting it has become. You have to go to foreign based media sources usually to find anything: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/cleveland-indians-native-americans-rally-logo-161025193242211.html http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/architect-douglas-cardinal-files-human-rights-complaint-against-use-of-cleveland-s-name-logo-1.3806662 great attitude. seriously. I kinda hope everyone looks at it like this. It's gotten to the point where it's outlived it's relevance and it's time for something new.

This. Remember, before the Payday scam, he was in jail in the 1990's for mail fraud and another lending scheme that charged businesses fees for loans that they never delivered. So he was always a guy looking for a good scam. Putting the ethics of payday lending aside for a moment, what makes this esp despicable is that he went out of his way to rip people off on the back of a (albeit shitty) legitimate business model. He could have just followed the disclosure laws and interest rate caps and been completely in the clear, but instead he ran to hide in first nation country so as to keep ripping people off. He knew what he was doing was illegal and even now has showed no remorse for it. Heck when the FTC first filed charges against him in 2014, his brother and business partner committed suicide, presumably from the guilt or to avoid prison. So fuck this guy with both ends of a double ended dildo. sideways.

This thread just keeps on giving

Leaking information is sub-optimal. It is one of those sometimes necessary but sometimes illegal paths that exist in government. Nobody wants a leaky organization, and usually how much info being leaked is a sign of how good or poor an administration's leadership structure is. You can't point to leaking information and say "well it's all going to come out anyway" when there are processes for information dissemination. Processes sometimes have timing requirements, it and whether this memo is relevant or not it certainly looks like the timing requirements in this one are being exploited. Well you are speculating and you are going to read it in the light most favorable to your position. From my perspective, McCabe stepping down is just another in a long line of people scurrying to get their careers out of the way of the hurricane that is just interacting with DJT. I mean Comey was a hard line republican and Trump still fought with him over stuff that isn't even there. McCabe wasn't appointed to director position so much as he was asked to walk in a dead mans boots, Trump fought with him, and then Trump installs another Republican, Chris Wray, while continuing "the FBI is out to get me" rhetoric. If I were McCabe I would step down too just to beat the hangman out of town - esp since Wray seems to be way more conciliatory to Trump than Comey. The last thing a new director is going to tolerate is a deputy arguing with him internally. Not everything has to be a conspiracy theory. Sometimes it could just be about a long term government employee wanting to keep his pension.

for the gasoline: hit it with white vinegar and water (50/50 mix) and then baking soda/water mix. Make sure you soak up as much of the vinegar/water mix before applying the baking soda - otherwise you'll have a big foamy mess. If you really want to get fancy you can sub club soda for water.

Anybody here ever build a home built go-kart for their kid? My daughter is fast outgrowing her power wheels type ride on. At first I thought about modding it, but then looked into parts and cost and in the end you are still left with a crappy plastic tub unibody and a size constraint. I thought about soapbox but she won't be eligible for another year, and honestly she just wants something to ride around our neighborhood, not something that is a competitive motorsport. Also my wallet looked at soapbox stuff and kinda said "nope". So here I am trying to figure out whether I should look at a go-kart kit we can put together, or maybe try and do something weird like a go-kart replica T-bucket, or try something electric powered. So what have others done?

And it's fairly recent too. As in the last 10 years. You have some pretty long term moderate republican senators exiting the party or staying silent (Mitt Romney I am looking at you), leaving the tea party insurgents to pull the republicans more to the right as a whole. in 2010, 35% of republicans polled aligned with tea party ideals but post 2014 that has grown to 52%. Part of the Tea Party strategy (post 2012 losses) is to put electibility over philosophy or ideals (party over country) which is why the GOP is kind of the marketing machine it is currently - the high road is a single lane path, but the low road is a highway. What's interesting is that on the HOR side of side of things, where hardcore trump supporters fearing a political loss are announcing retirement in large numbers. Since HOR slots are usually more volatile because they are geographically local - I think a lot of them are fearing that backing trump is becoming unpopular, esp in states or districts that carried trump by a very narrow margin (like NJ or MI). https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/10/politics/house-retirement-tracker/index.html

Way to put your own hatred and selfishness against the good of the country and it's citizens. Let's assume it's not racially motivated, removing his legacy because you don't like him as a person and don't want him to be looked at as a political success rather than actually reviewing the policies and removing the ones that harm and letting stand the ones that help is the definition of party over country. For someone who considers themselves a patriot, this is probably about the most un-patriotic thing I have heard. Politicians are not your friends. Most of them are not even all that likeable in person, and very few can serve as a moral compass in living through example. They are advocates of concerns and issues that affect the American people and instruments of their solutions. The moment you put the man or woman ahead of the issue you lose the point. I get that Obama isn't your guy - but to take the approach that every single thing he did is bad for American, when you probably can't recite or have researched everything he has done for America means this isn't about our country at all. so if it isn't about our country, then what is it about? Slow your roll, let's get some facts straight: 1) The memo isn't an FBI memo (as in FBI drafted it) on the warrant or spying on trumps specifically - it's a memo drafted by the Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee regarding spying abuses in the FBI. 2) It is not currently known if these "abuses" are specific to trump or are addressing general abuses practices. Anybody with knowledge of the contents is not saying anything, it is a small group of republicans who don't have knowledge that are ALLEGING that the memo is specific to trump 3) it is unclear as to whether the memo is connected to any ongoing investigation, or how accurate it is. There have been some statements made that the memo may have some factual inaccuracies as it was drafted by outsiders of the FBI who may not have had a full understanding of the practices being reviewed. Also if an investigation resulted from the memo, then as a matter of government policy it would not be discussed until after the investigation is complete - at which point it will become a matter of public record as long as it doesn't present a risk to national security. So we have 1 of two situations: Situation 1: The memo is a distraction. Trump supporters in government know this but also know procedurally it can't be released right now so they can benefit from speculation and spin. or Situation 2: The memo does actually speak to FBI handling of matters involving trump, at which point it will eventually become public when the investigation is complete, but may not be able to be released before due to government policies and procedures to prevent unfairly influencing the investigation. Either way, we will know it eventually - the push to know it before Muller has completed his investigation is only to interfere with the investigation.

Make less sense. I dare you. It's no hypocritical so much as you are talking about two different "types of government control" and don't understand the difference. Some people wanted Bernie Sanders in the last election, and some of his policies required more government intervention which is 1 type of government control: "Future Expansion of overall government power". Some people (the majority of Americans actually) don't like trump in office right now because of the second type of government control: "Current power held by the executive branch". If anything Trump has weakened government control through his lack of appointments, his roll back of the work his predecessors have accomplished, his general deregulation - I don't think anybody else but you is confused that he is actually reducing overall government "control" and yet you talk about it like people are pissed that he has more power than his predecessors. He doesn't, he has the same power as those that preceded him - the executive branch powers have not been expanded. You keep looking for a narrative that craps on "Liberals" when the reality is you just don't know enough about politics and government. I don't mean this as an insult - you don't really say anything fact based, or researched, it's all just picking at an imaginary "liberal" enemy on some ground of you "perceived" moral superiority. You resort to insults because your intellect literally runs out of road and you grasp at any kind of straw so as not to have to face the fact you are out of your league in these conversations. It's sad and the sign of a person of weak constitution lacking objectivity. I honestly feel really sad for you - It must be really hard walking through life feeling disenfranchised from society and not understanding why or how to fix it. I keep hoping you'll turn a corner and actually figure out how to rise above the partisan marketing and start to actually see things from an objective point of view, but really I think you are a lost cause.

https://annarbor.craigslist.org/cto/d/1923-street-legal-custom-ford/6473925960.html I don't even know where to begin. A carbe'd rotary engine, 6 wheels, and a 1923 T-bucket cockpit. holy cow.

yeah yeah, whatever. There is always going to be some group you can point to that he may not have helped to draw some specious false equivalency so you can say "see they are all terrible". Except they are not. Most presidents before the current one had agendas that focused on problem solving. You may not agree with the method by which they address the issue, but there was at least some objective goal to try and mover the needle to improving a situation. I just don't see that with this administration. Take something like the "Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order". It's hard to argue against something that both adds transparency to government subcontract employment and gives subcontractors employment protections of the same standards we see in the private sector. It also saves the government and the taxpayers money because it exposes itself to less risk of lawsuit through the actions of their subcontractors. The only ones who were really against it were the contractors themselves with histories of discriminatory practices and the few politicians they had lobbied (mostly on the republican side). So why repeal something like this? As near as I can tell it is mostly because it was an Obama EO and that's it. It's not because he disagreed with it, it's not because there was a flaw in it or it was ripe for abuse, it was because he didn't like the person who wrote it. From my perspective that is not the role of a political office. There is no consideration for the purpose of this rule or whether it is a benefit for the american people. As of December he has rolled back 88 different EO, Policies, and actions of his predecessor from something as significant as federal land management revision plans to something as benign as a bike sharing station at the white house for staff. And as near as I can tell based on the rhetoric it's just because of who signed them. And the only time he has reversed it is when the public made a fuss (see the ban on importing elephant trophies). Most Americans would struggle to name 2 or 3 items on that list of 88, so I don't think there is going to be a lot of outcry for a lot of them. Now here is the thing I don't get - some conservatives generally are mistrustful of the government screwing the people over, and here are some orders to make that more difficult, and yet those same conservatives are perfectly OK with letting them be repealed. Why? you would think they would see more transparency and accountability to the people as a good thing right?

victim mentality. if it were really not true (and you weren't insecure about any of those things) you wouldn't have felt the need to respond.

says the guy who whines like a little girl with a skinned knee when people called him stupid on the Internets. :dumb:

yeah, and your average Chinese citizen has half the carbon foot print of the average American. How about American's need to step the fuck up and take personal responsibility for their impact on the environment. Too hard? ok - enter government regulation to force them to do that. Then enter trump to fuck those regulations into the ground because "fuck the environment", right guys?

ok, here is some but by no means a comprehensive list: Women: - Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order: Trump eliminated a requirement for federal contractors to provide employees with basic information about their pay, including hours worked, overtime earnings, and any pay deductions. Such information is critical for all workers—particularly women, who are more likely to work in hourly jobs—to ensure that they are being paid what they have earned. Trump also made it easier for federal contractors with chronic violations of sex discrimination and other employment laws to keep getting federal funding https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/trump-just-revoked-protections-women-workplace/ https://womenintheworld.com/2017/04/04/trumps-revocation-of-fair-pay-order-leaves-women-vulnerable-to-workplace-abuse/?refresh - Overtime rule: Trump delayed the Obama administration’s overtime rule, which would have given 3.2 million women the right to overtime pay. Single mothers and women of color—who experience some of the largest pay disparities—would have seen the greatest benefit from the rule https://www.npr.org/2017/07/26/539438892/labor-department-starts-to-roll-back-obama-overtime-rule - Federal Hiring Freeze: Trump’s federal hiring freeze forced at least two military bases to suspend enrollment at military child care facilities when they were unable to hire child care providers. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/02/21/federal-hiring-freeze-suspends-army-child-care-programs.html - Title X: Trump signed a bill to overturn Obama-era protections for Title X grantees, allowing states to block Title X funding for providers that also offer abortion with nonfederal funds, including Planned Parenthood. Title X funding provides critical reproductive, educational, and counseling services related to family planning and contraception to 4 million clients each year. (Keep in mind no title X funds are currently used for abortion, this is cutting off federal funding for other women's health services because a facility happens to provide abortions as well. It's targeted at Planned Parenthood but impacts small and rural private hospitals as well. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/13/523795052/trump-signs-law-giving-states-option-to-deny-funding-for-planned-parenthood Children: - Transgender students: Trump administration rescinded Obama-era guidance to keep transgender students in schools, including equal access to bathrooms and other school facilities and programs (yes the school can now send a transgendered student home). https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/us/politics/devos-sessions-transgender-students-rights.html - Budget: slashed nutrition assistance for WIC (school lunches), After School Programs, head start programs, community service programs (boys and girls clubs, AmeriCorps, etc..) and several other programs. LGBTQ: - suspended data collection of LGBTQ individuals for the purposes of analyzing discrimination. https://www.npr.org/2017/06/20/533542014/collecting-lgbt-census-data-is-essential-to-federal-agency-document-shows Students: - Student Loan debt: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded an Obama-era rule that limited the fees that loan companies can charge struggling borrowers. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-20/betsy-devos-hands-victory-to-loan-firm-tied-to-adviser-who-just-quit And we haven't even covered immigrants, the disabled, people battling opioid addiction, and countless other groups you probably don't give a shit about. I mean there are literally dozens of little actions like this that barely made the news and if you weren't paying attention you easily missed. And that's kind of the point isn't it - everyone is too busy reading about Stormy Daniels to care about VA child care and pay transparency. Yup big companies are making out like bandits. Because a large corporation is the "real heart of America". US used to be the #1 polluter. Now China is #1 and we are #2. We dropped to #2 because of a variety of factors of which us polluting less was one. We still have the second highest carbon foot print per person in the world (Saudi Arabia is #1, China is #10). https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/31/how-us-carbon-pollution-compares-with-the-rest-of-the-world.html As far as spending? I believe China is spending somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 Billion dollars on combined pollution cleanup efforts in it's country. I genuinely cannot find what the US is spending other than the EPA's proposed budget of $8 billion. However, China is outspending us on innovation in clean energy: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/jan/12/military-climate-spending-us-china

Short term "small" impacts don't really reach your demographic, of if they did you may not have known because it wasn't covered in the media. Longer policy decisions take time to implement and nobody is feeling the effects yet. Has nothing to do with the left "feeling" it more unless you count all women, minorities, and immigrants as "the left" (hint: they aren't). In terms of the left "feeling them", well that really comes down to partisian positions on the issues. If you are conservative, I don't really think you are going out of your way to read a lot about the projected effects of pulling out of the Paris accord is in detail because global warming isn't important to you. If you are on the left, you are probably reading a lot about it and adding to the noise. Again part of the partisan divide right now is a lot of people maintaining their own bubble. . They never gave anybody a chance. It's not their job. President's earn their chances. W was crucified in the media because of the Florida election issues and the supreme court but was "saved by 9/11. Backlash against Obama began on day 1 of his presidency (including trump calling for his birth certificate and the press covering that nonsense). None of this is new, Kennedy was savaged in the press over voter fraud allegations in the 1960 election, and I'm sure you have seen the "Dewey beats Truman" headline photograph in the history books. It's not the "media's" job to give anybody a "chance", it's their job to report newsworthy events and this dope has a lot of them. So many in fact it may actually be a strategy to keep other smaller things out of the news. His attacking the press doesn't help because it just strengthens their resolve to report. There is a difference between something being accurate and unpleasant to hear, and something being false and unpleasant to hear. He has a mixture of both which makes him such a controversial figure. What I don't hear is solutions or plans to fix. I'm not really into rhetoric that just shits on one group and then says "we are going to fix it" without an articulated well thought out plan. And when a plan comes through it's obvious it was made up on the spot. My grandma said quasi bigoted shit about groups of people too when she was alive, and I loved my grandma - but you bet your ass I wouldn't have asked her to develop a foreign immigration policy. Just because someone endears themselves to you by saying "the hard stuff" you agree with but can't say yourself, doesn't mean they have an answer.

so...I have heard that these early cars are a bit maintenance/repair intensive. At least that is their internet reputation. Have you found that to be true? if so what's the usual stuff?

I dunno...$300K sounds high. I have friends who are physicians that didn't incur that much debt going to med school. Maybe if he was factoring in the cost of flying to rack up hours outside of his training it would make more sense, but then again he's probably out of pocket for those (or his instructing people is paying for it). BTW, since I didn't see it earlier I should point out - being an A&P and being a pilot are two wildly different things. I talk a lot on this forum about these two brothers I grew up with because one races an LS powered fox and the other races a '67 firebird and used to have a very fast subaru, but both of them are senior A&P's at Jet Blue. Only one has his private license to fly and he only started last year, but he's been an A&P since graduating high school. The other was a Subaru tech for years before going back to school to be an A&P. He was able to get a job because his brother was already at Jet Blue (networking is important) and put in a good word for him. Now I think they have been there at least 8 years and one is training the incoming mechanics, and the other has jumped out of spinning wrenches and is on the executive side in the maint department. The one with the license has a partnership in a plane, and occasionally "rents" out the plane and himself to Jet Blue to fly parts to airports in high priority situations. The big advantage to being an A&P over a tech in the automotive industry is that the airlines are big corporations and that comes with a lot more potential for advancement and job security than working with mom and pop dealerships. However, you do have to put in your time and actually be good at it, and those jobs are hard to get and usually require you to work at a place like netjets or a smaller operator for years before being eligible for entry level. Also, small airports are filled with A&Ps who are scratching out a living servicing Pipers and Cessnas in rented hangars so it is competitive. Cordell, have you considered trying to get a Job with GM or Honda? or one of their suppliers? Working for the OEM might give you the change of pace you want without keeping you feeling like you are stuck at the bottom. It feels like your complaint is that you have hit the glass ceiling in your industry and can't figure out how to break through - maybe start to get creative with your job searches and start reaching for other things. It's a thought.

To be fair, neither of you are in the demographic where any short term changes would impact. You aren't women, you aren't minorities, you aren't immigrants, you aren't receiving public assistance, you have health insurance etc...I can see how you look are around your life and say, yep the wallpaper is still the same color so everything must still be alright. Dude's been in office for 1 year, most policies take several years to fully implement and take effect so if you are expecting instant change you aren't really going to see it. Look at his tax plan for example - you aren't going to feel the full effects of it until tax season 2019. we won't know if it was good for america or bad till at least 2020 (although those good at math aren't making positive long term noises). I don't think either of you see the bigger picture here and are looking at the extrapolated harm that is coming. Look at the approach to the environment - all climate change initiatives have been rolled back and we are not working on innovating in this area. The entire world is going to leave the US behind in this regard because they are continuing to move forward. I don't know about you guys but I like clean air and clean water, and I like that the last 30 years of progress in this area means that stuff is a lot better than when I was a kid. I do not want to see a backslide. Is it immediately bad? nope. Is bad coming? yes. how much? that all depends on whether someone else (like a democratic congress) comes in and puts a stop to the ongoing harm. but please, by all means, keep those heads in the sand. I hear sand is a good filter for polluted water.

voting someone into office is not the same thing as constantly making baseless accusations against someone else. who is this "we", I'm just talking about you. And not even you personally, you in the abstract as someone who thinks it's ok to declare something a fact without any proof or evidence. Having trouble with "suspect" and "actually" are we? People aren't Schmucks for wanting something "more than a feeling" (unless you are a fan of the band Boston) to confirm their suspicions. People are wrong constantly, requiring some kind of proof is pretty pragmatic. I'm surprised you don't know that. Prove anybody did her a favor. Oh wait, you can't and also you don't want to because reality is hard. The FBI has no love for democrats of any stripe, if they had something they could make stick you bet your ass they would have done it. But it's easier for you to deal with her being a crook than there really not being anything worthwhile there so I will try not to destroy this safe space you have built for yourself. I'll just laugh at you. because knee jerk reactions work so well. This isn't "smelling smoke" this is someone showing you a picture of fire and you called the fire department. Fact check it yourself, it's probably more paint by numbers than you think Oh wait, you're lazy and don't want to be bothered. Also, why bother - she's not a factor here. You keep talking about her and I keep saying: so what? she's not relevant anymore. Focus on the now Tim, past is behind us. Freedom of the Press is 1st amendment. I don't know what you are talking about, but I only hear 1 person talking about limits on the press and he's currently in charge of the executive branch of government. If you are complaining that some vegan college student doesn't want to hear your old man nonsense, that's not the same thing as the CIC of the country shitting on the constitution. But we aren't talking about 2A so the constitution is meaningless and useless to you anyway. If you were any more "Nationalist" they would automatically Socialist and Party to the description. Per capita the difference between immigrant and non immigrant families receiving social benefits is 20%. That's not a big number, and it gets much smaller when you remove US born children of immigrants who are receiving a benefit. In terms of overall population, there are just more native people receiving a social benefit. How about rather than casting some false moral deficiency on foreign people, we work on the root causes of poverty such as education and job assistance? Oh wait, you think poor people are poor because they are lazy, nevermind. how? we are the biggest kid on the school yard and were at the forefront diplomacy. Now? worthless. It's not that "they" don't like the phrase "America First" so much as those Americans who know that "America First" was the rally call of Nazi-ism and later Soviet interference in America. Excuse me if I don't really trust anybody using that phrase as being altruistic. I will say one of the greatest financial innovations and contributions to national security of the 20th entry is the American ability to weaponize debt and foreign aid. Honestly, our foreign aid buys us cheap insurgents that put political pressure on stable regimes in dozens of countries, and having the Saudi's and Chinese buy our bonds means they have a vested interest in protecting their money and therefore our interests when otherwise there is no motivation. She's making money, I know that. She can do whatever she wants, but she's outside the political sphere. You can think whatever you want, but that don't make it true - and considering you aren't exactly a political insider I'd just chalk this up to your usual paranoia. If it is so obvious, where is your proof? I highly doubt you were ever concerned with convincing me, I had no delusions to the sort with you. I just liked adding to the noise because it used to be fun, but honestly I am starting to worry about how stable you really are from the things you say. How you can read anything you wrote and still think you are mainstream in some way is an amazing twist of logic.