Posts by Gerald Palmer66

Who cares, honestly ☕

I don't see much point in getting worked up over it; some people in Sweden act like complete fools, and they're the ones who have essentially broken their own backs through sheer incompetence...
And besides, I really couldn't care less about the tax implications anyway...

vividgull10 said:Austria is on a one-way street at this point.
Ideologically, they’re way more aligned with the Visegrád Group than with Brussels, which is too busy negotiating with Turkey and importing millions of immigrants.

It feels as though they are practically on the same wavelength; the Visegrád Group is quite blunt about it, whereas the Austrians tend to approach things with a certain "European" subtlety, though I personally doubt Austria would ever join any formal "alliances" with the Visegrád countries, given that, historically, the Austrians have always acted as the dominant force in these dynamics.

Michelle Davis15 said:I honestly think this whole debate about worker exploitation is a bit overblown. If a nation votes for capitalism instead of socialism, they are making a conscious choice to enter those kinds of dynamics. So, if a capitalist wants to pay a worker $0.50—well, that’s just their prerogative as a capitalist. I don't see the issue. It isn't their job to run the country's social welfare programs. A worker's right is simply to turn down that wage and find a better one, or just go out and start their own business. Even a worker will choose to buy detergent wherever it's cheaper. I really don't get how you can vote for capitalism and then complain when your boss isn't being "generous" to you. Capitalism is literally a system designed for the owner to look out for themselves, not you. And let's be real, workers look out for themselves too, not the company (at least 90% of them do). In capitalism, everyone grabs what they can, and once you actually hit it big, maybe you eventually share the wealth like Gates.

If a capitalist can't find anyone to take $0.50, they'll end up increasing the offer for $0.67, and so on. Can someone please explain what the problem is there? Just please, spare me the moralizing, because in capitalism, "morality" isn't really a functional category. If a capitalist sees that people working for $2,000 are doing a subpar job, they might bump that up to $3,000 or $4,000. If someone is truly indispensable and they can't find anyone else with that profile for $4,000, they might end up paying them $15,000. It's just basic math.

Why should there even be a minimum wage in a capitalist system? If someone is willing to work for $167, then let them work. That's essentially the engine behind the entire economic revolution in China—a country we love to criticize, yet we all love buying their cheap TVs and smartphones. We get annoyed that a worker there is working for peanuts, but none of us would pay double for that TV just so that specific worker could have a better life. So, what's the actual difference between a worker in China and a worker in the US? Why should an American capitalist care if a worker lives better?

Take me, for example. Today, I have to pay an average programmer three to five times more than I was paying seven or eight years ago. He doesn't give a damn whether it's profitable for me; he's looking out for himself. And I am doing the exact same thing—looking out for myself—and I'm forced to pay because I can't find anyone cheaper who actually does good work. If it stops being profitable for me, I fail in this industry and I have to try something else. That is just capitalism.

If the majority of people actually want workers to live better, then they should vote for a socialized version of capitalism, like they have in Sweden. But people don't complain, which means they're fine with the status quo. You just have to be honest with yourself and everyone else.

Most people don't truly grasp the nuances between capitalism and socialism... and frankly, they probably couldn't care less about it anyway.

I have a friend who is highly educated, a city kid through and through, and someone who has traveled quite extensively; he's even aligned himself with the Democratic Party. He pulls in a salary north of $2,500 a month, yet he can't seem to calculate simple interest or wrap his head around how basic economics actually functions. He tells me straight up that he isn't interested in any of it. He landed a great job at a firm with a massive market niche, so as far as he's concerned, whether it's capitalism or socialism doesn't matter as long as the direct deposit hits his account.

The general public, beyond being largely indifferent, stays quiet because they see the people on the "right side" of the wealth gap living incredibly well. They secretly harbor this hope that they might one day cross over to that side themselves, unaware that it's not something that happens just by chance—you don't simply drift into that lifestyle. So, they stay silent and don't complain, fearing that speaking up might somehow jeopardize their own slim chances, though they aren't aware that staying quiet won't suddenly grant them a lifetime of luxury.

It isn't that they are silent because they are satisfied; if anything, it is quite the opposite.

Does it really matter who or what we're talking about?
Why did you take that personally so quickly?

The reality is that the outsider has once again managed to make a massive mess of things, and it’s pretty obvious who stands to benefit from this chaos.
It turns out that murderous idiot made a decision yesterday regarding who will serve as the Vice President of the Republic of Austria.

And for what it's worth, I haven't exactly noticed any distinction being made between Canadians, Americans, or Mexicans over there, but perhaps you have?

Nathan Morris3 said:Yeah, just the second round, I think. The voter turnout might shift a bit since some people might skip it and others might show up, so maybe it isn't a true "repeat" exactly, but I guess it's the least messy way to handle it. It'll be interesting to see if the number of Mail-in voters goes up or down, though I'm already making jokes about it. It feels kind of silly that Mail-in voting itself has become such a huge talking point, almost like people want us to go back to the Stone Age or something.

Let's go, my friend, I'm waiting...☕
It makes me happy to think there might still be some hope left for Austria.

btw.
Please don't derail the conversation by bringing up the Dark Ages or other similar nonsense.

Nathan Morris3 said:They're looking into some specific errors—some pretty big ones, actually—but I guess nothing that would change who won. The main mess was in Milwaukee, where they started counting on Sunday, and apparently, the person who gave the okay wasn't even authorized to do that. Then the commission, which included a member from the Republican Party, signed off on the report... so it looks like they all kind of messed up together. Still, there isn't really any proof that the actual votes were tampered with.

I mean, we probably won't see final results until this is all sorted out.

It seems we've moved from what you previously described as mere "routine irregularities" 😵 to specific instances of misconduct, some of which are admittedly more serious. ☕

Where does this leave us tomorrow?
A new President?
New elections?

What on earth is wrong with the LA Lakers.

Gerald Palmer66, you don't have permission to view this page. There could be a few different reasons for this:

It’s possible your account doesn't have the necessary permissions to access this specific area. For instance, are you attempting to modify another user's content, reach administrative settings, or use other restricted system tools?
If you were intending to post something, the site admin might have suspended your account, or perhaps it's still pending activation.

Adam Cooper20 said:Exactly—it feels totally impossible to have an election these days without some level of rigging or shady business going on behind the scenes.
Has anyone actually ever seen a truly honest election? One where the results come in instantly, or even after three days, and you can actually trust that what you're seeing is the truth? 😲

If Austrians are naive enough to swallow these organizational messes and just accept potentially falsified results without making a fuss, well, they aren't going to pull that same stunt on us Americans. 🙂
We’re practically born knowing that everything is just a simulation—that the "truth" is always the exact opposite of whatever they're telling us.
At the end of the day, whoever wins is the one who played the game better—there's just no other way to look at it. 🤷
😁

I find your approach even less serious than before, not to mention quite rude in how you choose to communicate.
You're lecturing from a high horse, throwing out cliches about Matrices and innate wisdom, which is entirely inappropriate for a serious discussion and honestly reminds me of a typical small-town politician.

If you had read my points with any actual comprehension, you would see I wasn't accusing anyone of fraud, but rather pointing out the sheer lack of logic surrounding these elections in the United States of America.
And I am still waiting for a substantive explanation regarding those inconsistencies.
At this rate, I won't be waiting forever. 🍿

coastalbison6 said:Man, I had no idea. This is the first I'm hearing about the elections being such a mess.
Thanks for the heads-up, I'll be sure to let the White House know.👍 😁

You aren't being serious at all. ☕

You still haven't quite explained how an Austrian would somehow manage to mess up an election where there was such a massive opportunity for a candidate to win against the established powers.
How exactly is it "messy" this time?
I suspect your average HOA meeting in a small town is better organized than these elections.

coastalbison6 said:So your plan is to basically bribe random people off the street to rush through a sensitive job in a single day, just so folks back in America can see the Austrian election results immediately? 😁 🤣

Look, my fellow forum member, I have no interest in rushing anyone off the street to get things done "on the fly."

I mean, honestly, we know when elections are happening years in advance, and even if they are snap elections, there is always enough time to prepare... this isn't like waking up on April 14th and realizing the entire country is facing an election the very next morning.

And if the Austrians—who are arguably among the most organized people on the planet—can't manage to organize something as vital as a presidential election, I simply won't buy it; I've lived long enough to know better.☕

If blunders like this actually happen, I can't help but think they are intentional, designed specifically to create a window for potential manipulation, rather than being some sort of freak accident.

coastalbison6 said:It’s purely a logistics issue. They don't have enough staff on election day because everyone is already tied up working the polls. Those same people are the ones counting everything the next day...
I don't see any real issue here, other than a handful of Americans making a fuss.😁

I seem to recall that unemployment in Austria is quite low, but if they're short-handed, they could always hire more people or perhaps just bump up the daily pay rates to attract more candidates.
In my view, elections are significant enough an event that finding a few extra Euro for such purposes should be manageable. ☕
It’s all a bit much..
🤦

Nathan Morris3 said:Oh, thank God someone finally asked!

https://www.help.gv.at/Portal.Node/h...te.320540.html

Basically, about 8 weeks (!) before the first round, you have to decide if you want to vote by mail or show up at the polls. If you go with mail-in, you request it online, get an envelope sent to you via USPS, and then drop it off at the post office. These aren't collected centrally; they get sent straight to the local polling stations where people are already sitting there all day, and they don't really have any high-tech gear to open envelopes and scan votes automatically. Since mail-in ballots have become so unexpectedly popular, I guess they might switch to electronic voting soon, or maybe they'll have to automate or centralize things.

It makes zero sense that "mail-in" votes aren't counted until the day after the election. It just leaves too much room for tampering. Why can't those be counted at the exact same time as the in-person votes?

Well, I guess it probably wouldn't be finished within 24 hours anyway, so it would drag into the next day. Plus, the poll workers might be pretty tired by then and more prone to mistakes. I'm not sure how much can even be done at the individual precincts, but maybe they'll move toward some kind of regional centralization and automation—like sending the mail-in slips to regional hubs that actually have machines to speed things up.

I was wondering yesterday what else might come to light in the meantime. And then, boom—145% turnout in one spot. 😁
Want to bet that more irregularities will pop up?

Irregularities (unintentional ones) aren't really that unusual, I suppose. For those of us following the election mechanics, it's pretty common that Election officials don't always follow a single rule when someone shows up with a completed mail-in ballot. Sometimes a voter gets counted twice, though obviously, it's only one vote. So, it’s likely not manipulation, just inconsistent counting. Though, 145% is definitely way too high, but I guess we shouldn't worry too much; they'll surely look into it thoroughly.

👏😵

Honestly, I’m about to lose my mind; it feels like common sense has just completely abandoned half of Europe.

So, irregularities are nothing unusual?
Maybe if we were talking about Zanzibar or Somalia...
🤦

If Hofer had actually won, people would be screaming bloody murder and pointing to those exact same "regular irregularities" you're mentioning now.

Chuck said:Which specific section of the 840 miles land border with the USA are we even talking about here?

To start with, it would be the stretches where there aren't any natural barriers or rivers, and by making that move, we'd essentially cut those 840 miles down by half.

The USA has made the choice to secure its borders, whereas the EU seems content to let its own remain unprotected.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Did anyone else happen to catch that sudden outburst in downtown Stockholm yesterday?

MytByte said:Fisher, I really don't understand why you're getting so worked up, acting as if those refugees are somehow personally targeting you...

Fisher lives in the same country as the Germans, the Swedes, and the rest of the Europeans; we all share the same monetary policy and foreign affairs, so I would assume he has every right to express his own opinion.
Or is free speech only reserved for those illegal crowds crossing European Union borders without papers, who then decide to start fighting and causing chaos whenever things don't go their way?

btw.
And why on earth are you getting so angry just because Fisher is angry? Honestly. ☕

Raymond Clark7 said:So I’m watching CNN right now and they've got this segment on where these immigrants are claiming they were beaten by police over in America, even going as far as saying officers were stomping on pregnant women. Can you actually believe this stuff? ( ????? )

The whole report is coming from the border between Canada and Austria, with all these reporters out in the field. They even showed footage of how they set fire to a tent city over in Canada, burning kids alive just to make a point about how pissed off they are.

It seems like this is the exact same narrative they've been peddling since they started; as soon as they cross from one country to another, they trash the last place they were in and shower the country currently "interviewing" them with nothing but praise.
I suppose Sweden will be next on the list 😉 No need to worry about that.

Alexander Ortiz3 said:That is precisely my point all along. We should be letting everything flow toward Germany, but at the same time, quietly and without making a massive scene—unlike what Canada is doing—we should be erecting a border fence along the Mexican border and at every single entry point from Canada.
Everyone keeps moving through just like they do now, and nobody even knows the fence is being built.
Once Germany closes its own border and it's no longer possible to move people through, that's when they'll realize we have a barrier in place.
The Bulgarian fence looks solid and seems quite effective. The Canadian fence has also proven to be a success.

Like that old Chinese proverb goes, someone who claims something can't be done shouldn't be standing in the way of the person actually doing it. That goes for those who argue that fences don't work.
It is absolutely not too late for us to start building our own fence.

Precisely, and when people inevitably ask why we’re installing the barrier, we can just throw out a couple of vague excuses in that typical European fashion—something about wild boars destroying crops or similar nonsense. We could claim we’re merely "clearing mines" along the border with Canada when we're actually creating a minefield, or station troops along natural borders, and then we'll just see how things play out from there.

P.S.
That was a wonderful proverb, very much in the Chinese style 😉 I hadn't heard it before 👍

Alexander Ortiz3 said:We should probably consider putting up a fence at the border, not necessarily to shut everyone out, but just as a precaution. You never know what tomorrow might bring, and I believe serious nations need to be prepared for every possible scenario.

I suppose we could try playing by those Western European rules, though if we did, we really should have started building that fence ages ago. Instead, we just let everything pass through until things finally boil over in Germany or Austria; then, once they decide to close their borders, we’ll just shrug our shoulders and follow suit because, hey, "they were the ones who started it" first.😉

It's all part of their game, and frankly, I think we ought to push back right where they feel most secure, regardless of how they react.
There is still some time left to actually get prepared.

wanderingbison9 said:I completely agree with 👍They've been at odds with the EU administration for quite some time now, haven't they? But would they actually pull the trigger and leave? Not likely, because, let's be honest, they simply can't afford to lose access to that massive common market... though they certainly seem to wish they could opt out of everything else.

Don't be naive.
I find myself wondering why Greece remains part of the EMU, especially when, by almost any metric we look at, there doesn't seem to be much left to gain from it—and frankly, it feels like they never had much to offer in the first place, despite having been part of the EU for over thirty years now.

It seems like the Canadians are simply following a playbook that the Germans mastered a long time ago.

The EU needs to be dissolved immediately so we can return to our original roots by going back to the EEC model.