Posts by Sean Fox60

I honestly feel like some players just get swallowed up by the sheer scale of these massive organizations. It's easy to lose your identity when you're just another cog in a machine that's built to win at any cost. Do you think the pressure of a huge transfer fee actually ruins a player's natural game?

test002 said:Maybe it’s because the Republican Party was the one actually building the military and the state while winning the war, whereas the Democratic Party just walked out of the legislature right when the country was being formed?

The League of Communists basically paved the way for multi-party politics in America and called for elections where the Republican Party ended up winning after most of the old guard jumped ship over to them.

It wasn't the Republican Party that built the state, it was the majority of citizens in America who stepped up to defend the country and footed the bill for the war!

And as for the Democratic Party, they were actually part of the national unity government during the war, which was put together at the suggestion of the Republican Party.

Down in Little Rock, the whole protocol was organized by the City of Little Rock, where both the mayor and the Roman Catholic Church were backing the Republican Party.

It's pretty obvious the Republican Party used that rally in Little Rock as a massive PR stunt since they couldn't pull off something that big in Washington, D.C., which is why people there were pushing back against it.

Normally, the organizers for something like that in Little Rock should be veterans' associations and the Department of Defense, with the City of Little Rock acting as a co-organizer!

Bradley Sanders4 said:Can we please have just one thread where nobody brings up the partisans or the Soviet Union? 🙂 🙂

Edit. This isn't a request.

I’ve never heard of a nation called "The People's Dungeon," but I definitely spent my years living and working under the banner of what used to be called America.

Now, unfortunately, I’m living and working in the land of the free, the USA!

I totally respect your little rule here since you won't let anyone actually lay out the facts or write down what was actually good or bad about The People's Dungeon, just like how people argue over the pros and cons of the American welfare state.

Bryan Booth said:Just try to wrap your head around this scenario for a second: what if, after the next election, we end up with Donald Trump as Prime Minister and George Santos running the Treasury? Imagine the absolute chaos that would look like.

This whole thing is going nowhere!

As of right now, we don't even know how many representatives the next US Congress will actually have.

Right now, all we see is;

1. a coalition led by the Republican Party,
2. a coalition led by the Democratic Party.

There isn't a third serious coalition in sight, and honestly, that’s just more tragedy for America!

- Whoever holds the majority in the US Congress gets to form the Government!
- If the Republican Party fails to grab a majority through their own coalition, they could;

1. try to build a majority using parties that made it into Congress via the Democratic Party,
2. or lean on some or all of the minority representatives—they currently have a right to 8 seats.

- At this point, it would be in the best interest of America if a third coalition formed that could pull in as many votes as possible compared to those two existing groups!

Joshua Davis79 said:This feels like a bit of a setup... honestly, I'd much rather see them pass laws that actually allow referendums to decide the really big, essential issues. But let's be real: that idea is such a long shot for both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party that I find it hard to believe Congress would ever pass something like that as long as those two parties are calling all the shots...

The Puppet Parliament had to amend the Constitution just to make a binding referendum regarding the European Union constitution even possible in terms of voters making the final call. With those changes, you can actually push back against Congress by gathering signatures from 10% of voters, which lets us force a referendum on any proposed Constitution or law. To pull this off, we really need to start a citizens' association with its own bank account and a massive crew of volunteers—because let’s face it, trying to grab over 425,000 signatures without help is basically impossible! An association can also organize petition drives to demand specific changes suggested by the Government, Congress, or the President. We've got the Referendum Law on our side!

Henry Edwards33 said:Sean Fox60, we don't debate moderator warnings here—they’re color-coded for a reason. If you feel like something went sideways or you just have questions, skip the public thread and send the mods a DM or reach out through the help desk.
The topics are separated on purpose. I’m pointing you toward the Agriculture section because that’s where the actual experts hang out—the people who live and breathe this stuff every single day.

Try to see why we handle specific issues differently depending on which subforum you're browsing.

I totally get that, which is exactly why I mentioned that agricultural products are basically commodities when you factor in production costs—it's just so landowners actually wrap their heads around the math!

In the other threads, I can definitely dive deep into specific production costs or break down the tech side of things. I run a farm with grain, veggies, about half an acre of fruit, Christmas trees, and poultry, so I'm more than happy to jump in and help out in any topics I know my way around.

gentlecanyon65 said:..... so I've been doing some deep thinking and scrolling through a ton of stuff lately ....

The price for farmland out here is actually pretty reasonable, so since I’ve got some decent cash sitting around and I’m definitely not the type to just sit on my ass all day, I started wondering why the hell I wouldn't just dive into agriculture
..... My big idea is to set up some permanent walnut orchards.... once they're established, they don't require an insane amount of daily grind, which means this doesn't even have to be my main hustle, yet it could still pull in some serious profit after a few years.... so my plan is to snag maybe 12 to 25 acres of land and plant a massive WALNUT grove ....

Now look .... I'm no professional farmer, but I know how to handle a shovel, and with a bit of reading and some solid advice, I think I could make it work .... but honestly, I just can't get the math to make sense in my head ....

I heard that USDA subsidies for walnut orchards can go up to about $13333 per acre ....

Come on, let me hear what you guys think about this!!! ☕ 🙄

1. Any agricultural product is basically just a commodity when you look at production costs, regardless of whether you already own the land or if you're looking to buy it!
2. There are risks involved; weather conditions (frost, droughts, hail, floods), plus pests—wildlife, mice, diseases
3. You've got input costs for tilling the soil, vet bills if you have livestock, and packaging costs for fruit or veggie farming

WALNUTS are probably one of the trickiest crops to make work (you've got frost risks, and then those big yields might only hit once every 5 to 7 years), so location and variety are everything! You can make money off the nuts or even sell the trees themselves if they're high-quality specimens. You mostly just deal with basic soil prep and fertilizing, and you don't even have to worry about heavy pruning!

Henry Edwards33 said:This is the Economics subforum, so let's keep the discussion regarding investing in Agriculture focused on the bottom line. If you want to geek out over crop yields, pest control, or whatever else, head over to the Agriculture section instead.

Look, everyone needs to wrap their heads around one simple thing: agriculture is basically just a commodity when you look at it through the lens of production costs. It’s just how the math works.

When you're looking at expected gross product per acre, it really all comes down to what kind of fruit you're growing and the local climate you're working with, so there isn't one single number that fits everyone.
When you look at the expected gross product per acre in livestock, honestly, it all just comes down to the local climate and how much tech you're throwing at it. Raising cattle in a feedlot setup is definitely going to be the most expensive route you can take, whereas sticking to pasture-raised methods is a whole different ballgame entirely.
If you're seriously looking to sink some money into buying land, you can't just stop at the purchase; the next big move is sitting down and really figuring out what you’re actually going to produce on that soil and exactly how you're going to make it happen.
Look, if you're just messing around with this as a hobby, that’s one thing entirely, but once you start talking about actually putting real money on the line, we're playing a completely different game. $0.33 So, the real question boils down to how much you can actually pull back on your initial investment. $0.33 ?

I really hope everyone out there actually gets what it takes to run a country and understands just how much risk is involved in keeping things moving.

Looks like we’re staring down a rough season where we'll probably get hit by a killer frost first, only to have the whole thing baked by a massive drought right after.

Some folks really went all in on planting corn this season, putting down about 4... $2000 I ended up plowing under the burnt stalks on about an acre, which honestly feels like such a waste. I lost roughly five acres of fruit to that killer frost we had, so there goes my projected income right out the window. Now I’m looking at paying for the soil prep using grant money just to stay afloat, and if this weather keeps acting up next year, I'm probably going to be stuck spending everything on a chainsaw to just clear out the dead trees.

Drew Mitchell76 said:As for plowing, that’s just not an option for us. Our setup is designed specifically for mowing with standard lawnmowers, so we prefer immediate mulching—it just works better for our workflow. We don't bother collecting the grass because, frankly, we have no use for it.

If we started plowing, we’d be forced to level out the entire field again just so we could mow it properly, and that’s just extra work we don't need.

For the time being, we can still move the fallen leaves over to another field to plow under, which suits us perfectly. We were actually thinking that down the road, compost might be our only real option...

Sure, you can plan on mowing with a mower, but remember that walnut trees need high-quality soil to really thrive!
It’s way faster for me to just run a disc harrow through to kill off the weeds, which helps lock in the moisture and lets me till in some manure or synthetic fertilizer! I leave the grass alone until it's time to harvest the walnuts so the ground doesn't turn into a muddy mess, then I just zip through it with a string trimmer real quick! Just yesterday, I finished tilling about two acres of orchard! On the hilly parts, I don't bother plowing at all—I just mow, and we've always left the grass standing near the trees to keep the mice from making a nest.

You can easily make compost by setting up a few piles right there in the orchard!

At the end of the day, Agriculture is a business when you look at the production costs!
You really have to approach it with that mindset and adapt your whole operation accordingly!

Drew Mitchell76 said:I’ve got about 50 walnut trees planted on my property, along with a few hazelnut bushes that mostly just serve our own kitchen needs.

The walnuts went into the ground back in '95, and honestly, I’m pretty happy with how they’ve turned out. They aren't some fancy, specific cultivar—just a solid, homegrown variety I picked up from a local nursery—but they produce these large, pale nuts. Back then, you didn't have nearly as many options to choose from as you do today. We stay on top of them, though—liming, weeding, and fertilizing regularly—plus we keep the grass mowed around the trees all summer long with the mower. Because of that extra care, they've grown surprisingly fast for their age, especially since walnuts can be such slow starters. Right now, the yield isn't massive—maybe around 50 pounds once you shell them—but we’re hopeful those numbers will climb in a few years.

It’s a bummer... I really wanted to post two photos, but I can't get them to upload because the allowed file size
is absolutely ridiculous; whenever I try to shrink the images down, they become completely invisible...

I was hoping to ask some of the fellow members here—since I see quite a few of you have committed to growing walnuts—how you deal with the leaf situation. It’s becoming a real headache for us. Every autumn, we gather up all the leaves; usually, we just haul them over to my uncle’s farm to be plowed under, or we toss them into the compost pile. But as the volume keeps increasing, hauling them to my uncle’s field and managing the compost is becoming a massive chore. I’d love to hear how the rest of you handle this mess...

I usually do some shallow tilling in my orchards during the fall, including the walnuts! During the summer, I run a disc harrow through them a few times, let the grass grow out after mowing so things aren't a muddy mess during harvest, and then once the leaves finally drop, I just go in for a light till. I'm actually heading out tomorrow to plow part of my plum grove; I already finished one section, and I'll get to the walnuts a bit later!
Generally speaking, if you can till your orchards, you really should! If you leave them as just grass, you don't get any moisture retention or good organic buildup over the winter!

Listen up everyone, if you own any land, you really need to pay attention because the United States Department of Agriculture is currently working on some big changes to the Agricultural Land Law on behalf of the Federal Government! You can actually head over to the USDA website right now and submit your comments on the Draft Bill

Honestly, the way they've laid out the proposal for state-owned land seems like it was tailor-made just to benefit guys like Ivica Todorić and his circle

Plus, this whole plan to force people to deal with the Agency for harassment regarding how private land is leased or sold is nothing more than a massive headache designed to create unnecessary expenses for landowners

Robert Hall7 said:Unbelievable. Now they’re demanding political loyalty just to land a janitorial gig? It’s ridiculous. And don't even get me started on this "surplus labor" nonsense. Would the cabinet ministers be out there vacuuming carpets and scrubbing curtains themselves? Of course not. So why should I have to vet my seasonal wardrobe based on party lines? "Oh, you're a Democrat? Get out. You lean toward the Libertarians? Scram." What a joke. They pass over the talented, hardworking people and just hire whoever fits the political mold. Pure incompetence.

They aren't keeping the talented and capable ones at all, they're just hiring whoever will carry out the agenda of that Democratic Party coalition I've dubbed the UNRECOGNIZEDORGANIZATION, by mixing together Japanese and American!

teta-elza is hilarious, but for those actually losing their jobs, it’s a total nightmare!

swiftcyclist42 said:Let me add a few more "achievements" to the list:

1. Removing official recognition and sponsorship for Wounded Knee
2. Dissolving the council for the national language standard
3. Renaming two ministries from English to Spanish
4. Treating partisans the same as American veterans
5. Losing billions of dollars by walking away from oil fields in Syria
6. Implementing retroactive capital gains taxes
7. Introducing property taxes
8. Refusing to extradite former secret police criminals to German courts
9. Insisting on not disavowing a convicted double murderer
10. Threatening to abolish the Commission on the Investigation of Communist Crimes

Feel free to keep the list going...

- That time the minister, Jakovina, basically blocked any public bidding for state land!

The Democratic Coalition is just playing games with us, acting like we're some kind of weird hybrid of Japan and the USA! I told the Democratic Party politicians that straight up during the campaign!

They’re treating people who actually work for a living in this country like they don't matter at all!
We should stage a whole performance right in front of Stjepan Mason's office, asking what his purpose even is and who he's actually serving!

And how does Stjepan Mason pull in 22 $0.00 every single month? Someone working in payroll should probably run the numbers based on the base wage rate of 3 $0.00 and then factor in the basic Pension Fund percentage—though I'm not even sure what that rate is anymore. The real question is whether you need 30 or more employees contributing $1000 just so Mason can pocket 22 $0.00?

- And seriously, how many more years is Mason going to live off the system, collecting a pension because of his title rather than actual contributions to the Pension Fund?

Anyone got the exact wording of the referendum question?
Does anyone actually have the text handy? I was there at the polls just like most of the citizens back when we were part of the American republics! If my memory serves me right, it asked something along the lines of which entities could join together in a federation with the existing republics of the former America?

James Harris16 said:But they won't, I suppose. It’s the old "too many cooks in the kitchen" problem. Who is actually going to step up and propose which days should be holidays? You have employers complaining there are too many days off, workers claiming there aren't enough, and religious institutions arguing for more faith-based observances to become official. It's a mess.
That is why politics dictates the schedule. If the Democratic administration previously removed May 30th from the calendar, why hasn't the Republican Party reinstated it as a national holiday during their eight years in power if they truly believe it was a mistake?

Look, my birthday is February 15th and even the government recognizes that! So when was the United States officially born? It was January 15th when other countries finally gave us recognition, and that’s the exact moment we truly gained our status as a country!

James Harris16 said:The former republic became the Republic of America through constitutional changes prior to January 15, 1992.

I’ve actually got two different versions of the Constitution sitting right here in front of me because I wanted to figure out our best move against this regime-controlled Congress. According to the version they forced on us, we actually have the power to call our own referendum on proposed Constitutional changes or new laws if we want to. They even gave us a democratic way to force their hand by gathering signatures from 10% of the voters to trigger a referendum!
So, today I sent out some letters to various advocacy groups to get a formal committee started to collect those necessary 10% of signatures for a massive piece of legislation regarding agriculture.

And honestly, those representatives can come at us with whatever they want regarding the public holiday law too!

bluecyclist64 said:Quentin Tarantino:

John Doe As I was sitting there yesterday, nursing a lukewarm coffee and watching the rain hit the window, I found myself reflecting on what was said. It’s funny how certain conversations linger in your mind long after they've ended, much like that old, heavy feeling you get when you realize a situation is far more complex than anyone initially admitted. There is a particular kind of weariness that comes with observing the world move in circles, repeating the same mistakes while expecting a different outcome. It makes one wonder if we are actually progressing or just rearranging the furniture in a house that's slowly falling apart. I am not here to defend the collaborators, nor am I looking to attack the resistance fighters. My perspective comes from a place of heavy, firsthand grief: over 80 men from my own village were killed during that era, mostly while fighting to uphold the regime of Nazi Germany. It’s a tragedy that weighs on me deeply. I feel a profound sense of sorrow for the victims of the American people and for the sheer, catastrophic error of establishing a state modeled after Nazi Germany—a regime that aligned itself with a power that was doomed from the start. Even if they had wanted to, they never could have won a second war across America and Africa; they simply lacked the manpower and the resources to sustain such a fight.

It sounds to me like you're suggesting I’m actually mourning the loss of Nazi Germany simply because they lacked the manpower to see the war through to the end.
Am I mistaken?

There is an old adage that holds quite a bit of weight if you look at it through a certain lens: one swallow doesn't make a spring. It’s a sentiment I’ve found myself reflecting on quite often lately, especially when watching how people react to isolated incidents or singular moments of change. We tend to get caught up in the excitement of a single positive sign, thinking the season has shifted entirely, when in reality, true momentum requires a much larger movement. It takes more than a solitary bird to signal a complete transformation of the landscape.

Quentin Tarantino:

My father served in the home guard, and when the end came at Jonestown, he was placed in the column designated for the Cross, rather than being among those executed in the woods over in Canada. Every year, we light a candle to honor the memory of those lost during the Siege of El Paso.

Well, look at that. It turns out your old man was in the Home Guard, which is exactly why the partisans let him walk instead of pulling the trigger—unlike what happened to most of the guys in the Nationalists.
I don't feel any sympathy for the rank-and-file members of the regime, with one glaring exception: those poor, misguided kids that Adolf Hitler mobilized just to serve as fodder. It was a calculated move to ensure the high-ranking officials could slip away in civilian clothes while the youth took the brunt of the fighting. That’s exactly why you see such a staggering number of "civilians" caught in the crossfire during the resistance movements; they weren't just bystanders, they were pawns sent out to cover the tracks of the elite.
My uncle actually saved my life once. Back when I was just a kid, he pulled two of us out of a mess involving some old-school underground resistance fighters—real hardline types. He managed to get us away from that whole situation, handed us some civilian clothes to wear so we could blend in, and then burned the uniforms to make sure there was absolutely no trace left behind.

Quentin Tarantino:

I have no intention of celebrating April 10th or June 22nd. Those aren't days for festivities; they are days meant for mourning.

I don’t really bother celebrating specific dates or holidays. To my mind, celebrations are only worth the effort when I actually have some extra cash in my pocket and—more importantly—when I'm not stuck behind a desk working.

Honestly, you’d have to be totally out of your mind to feel bad about Germany losing! My issue isn't with the outcome, it's with how badly things were miscalculated when leaders rushed to declare a state under Nazi Germany's thumb without seeing where the wind was blowing.

They really should have waited to see how things played out, especially since the Americans hadn't even stepped into the fight yet. That was a massive blunder by the politicians, not the people. Most of the casualties we saw back then were just from internal fighting anyway.

bluecyclist64 said:The commemorations have been scheduled: the 10th will honor those who fell under the Third Reich regime, while the 22nd is set aside for the followers of that movement.

Quincy Adams:

This whole mess is nothing more than the direct consequence of the failures of our American politicians.

It would be an overstatement to suggest that our politicians lack a storied tradition... In fact, one could argue they possess a legacy that spans generations. Looking back at the political landscape of the United States, there is a certain predictability to the theater of power that feels almost ritualistic. I remember sitting in a small diner in Chicago years ago, watching the news cycle churn through yet another scandal involving a senator who had promised everything and delivered nothing. It felt less like news and more like a recurring episode of a very old, very tired drama. There is a heavy, wearying continuity to how things are run here. We see the same patterns of rhetoric, the same calculated maneuvers, and the same inevitable disillusionment. It isn't just a matter of bad luck or a few rogue actors; it is baked into the very fabric of the system. You can trace the lineage of modern political maneuvering straight back through the decades, seeing how the tactics have merely evolved from blunt force to subtle manipulation. It’s a cycle that seems designed to persist, regardless of which party holds the gavel or which face is plastered on the campaign posters. One begins to realize that the players change, but the script remains remarkably consistent.

Quincy Adams:

If you ask me, Americans would have been better off if we had never established a single significant date on our calendar.

It’s a classic case of cause and effect, isn't it? One inevitably triggered the other. 😉

Quincy Adams:

It is a tired old truth that history rarely cares about your intentions. You can find decent, honorable people on both sides of almost any conflict—whether they were serving in the ranks of the Third Reich or fighting as guerrillas for the Communist Party. Goodness isn't a political affiliation.

Of course, there were some among the Nazis too. The issue is simply that they represented about as small a percentage as white people do in Africa. I mean, don't get me wrong—they certainly existed...

Quincy Adams:

We are still paying the heavy price for the creation of the Soviet Union today, and I suspect we will be footing the bill for its collapse for at least another forty years—likely until the very last defenders of the USA have passed on.

There’s no denying it: people will always find something to pay for. It’s an inevitable part of the human condition. Whether it's taxes, subscriptions, or just the general cost of keeping the lights on, there is always some price to be extracted from the public. I've seen it play out my entire life, through various economic cycles and shifts in policy, and the pattern remains stubbornly consistent. People will always find a way to foot the bill for something.

Quincy Adams:

If you ask me, we should scrap those two existing holidays entirely. Instead, we ought to focus our celebrations on more meaningful milestones—specifically the Founding of the National Guard and Independence Day.

What does a retiree stand to gain from a single day of idleness?

Quincy Adams:

Sean Fox60 As I have noted before, there is a certain pattern to how these things unfold. It isn't just about the facts on the page; it’s about the underlying momentum that carries a narrative forward, often regardless of whether that narrative holds water. One begins to see the same cycles repeating themselves, much like watching a slow-motion train wreck where everyone knows the outcome but nobody wants to be the one to shout a warning. I remember sitting in a small diner outside of Chicago back in the late nineties, listening to an old veteran talk about how the political landscape had shifted almost overnight. He had this way of looking at you—tired, eyes heavy with the weight of too many winters—that made you realize how quickly "certainty" can turn into chaos. That sense of shifting ground is exactly what we are dealing with now. We tend to believe our institutions are permanent fixtures, but history suggests they are far more fragile than we care to admit. When the foundations start to crack, people usually prefer to ignore the fissures rather than deal with the structural repairs. It is a wearying cycle, truly. Do you honestly believe the partisans were proponents of democracy?

What does any of that have to do with the current situation? Honestly, I find it hard to view someone like Bill Clinton as a true democrat in this context.

Quincy Adams:

If the younger generation is ever going to rise to a higher level of civilization, we are going to be forced to adopt an entirely different perspective on how we view victims.

And what if I suggested that we just call them all victims—the Jews suffocated in gas chambers and the Nazi leaders executed after the war? That wouldn't fly, would it?

Quincy Adams:

Some people were released from Auschwitz...

What for? A free weekend pass? Please, don't make me laugh.

Quincy Adams:

...some actually managed to break out of the camp!

And who exactly rescued them? The Third Reich?

Quincy Adams:

How many people were saved from the woods in Austria during the mass shootings following Waterloo and the selection for the columns; those destined for execution, or the Stations of the Cross?

I know of at least one—your father, wasn't it? Perhaps someone else was saved alongside him, what do you think?

Quincy Adams:

My father is no longer living, but I would love to see those who are still alive lay wreaths and light candles for their victims!

Go ahead then, brother; light your candles and lay your wreaths for whoever you please...

I’m just trying to stick to the facts here. An American from my neighbor's village was actually released from the Auschwitz camp! And an American—my mother's uncle—died from illness while in Auschwitz!
My dad was in the infantry, so he ended up in the Jonestown column during the Cross march, rather than being part of those groups shot down in the woods over in Austria!
We should be lighting candles every year on the anniversary of the Siege of Stalingrad!

I’m not celebrating April 10th or June 22nd. Those are days for mourning.

Kimberly Cox59 said:Honestly, more innocent lives were lost at Auschwitz than at Jonestown. Please, just stop trying to defend the Nazis. They were the absolute worst part of American history—just traitors and mass murderers.

Look, I'm not out here defending the Nazis, and I'm definitely not attacking the resistance either! The reality is that over 80 guys from my own hometown ended up dead, mostly fighting to defend the Third Reich. I just feel for all the victims of the American people and think it was such a massive mistake to declare the Third Reich in the first place, especially since they sided with Germany, which never stood a chance of winning a second war in Europe or Africa because they simply didn't have the manpower to pull it off!

bluecyclist64 said:Never!
That would be nothing less than an insult to every single victim of the Nationalists terror.

Do you honestly think those partisans were some kind of democrats?

If the younger generation can manage to step up and take a more civilized approach, then we really need to look at the victims through a different lens. Some people actually made it out of Auschwitz, others managed to escape during camp breakouts. But how many people actually survived being hunted through the woods of Austria during those mass shootings after Waterloo, or while they were being picked out for execution during their own version of the Stations of the Cross?

My old man isn't around anymore, but I’d love to see the people who are still with us actually show some respect by laying wreaths and lighting candles for those they lost!