Posts by Sophia Moore52

It looks like all our resident virologists have suddenly rebranded as geopolitical strategists and military tacticians.
At least the World Cup is coming up soon...

Robert Sanchez6 said:Medicare has finally rolled out the latest updates to the My Health Record app:

"Medicare is now allowing business users to handle online enrollments, disenrollments, and updates for family members."
http://www.medicare.gov/updates/business-users-family-enrollment

I wonder if it actually works smoothly... my aunt in administration has been messaging me for days because the site is lagging, and even when they get through to the digital signature step, it just fails to process...

goldenpuma84 said:I'm not into folk music, and I don't have any strong feelings about mainstream pop either. But that's beside the point.

The fact is, a huge number of young people love what's called "folk-pop," specifically Mexican folk-pop, while simultaneously leaning right-wing.

Also, the truth is that despite a large part of the population loving this music, there isn't a single radio station in America that plays it.

It points to a somewhat schizophrenic situation here, where we try to pretend we're someone different than who we actually are.

Whitney Houston and Thompson, side by side. I've seen it happen plenty of times.

We're actually deeply insecure because we feel this constant need to project this image of extreme sophistication to ourselves and others (as if we're all just pure humanism and Renaissance ideals).

When in reality, we're pure North America. A lot of our issues stem from lacking the courage to just admit that.

But the second you walk into a club, reality hits you... hard.

You're absolutely right. My own friends call me a traitor just because I listen to Bruce Springsteen and The Rolling Stones instead of Madonna...😵

I honestly find the moderation here to be the worst part, especially with someone like IBM involved... this is the one forum where every time I log on, my first instinct is to check my inbox to see if I've been flagged again. I've already racked up 83 messages, all from the mods.

American forums tend to follow certain rules: they stay away from explicit content and stick to standard political correctness regarding social issues.

The upside of being in the States is that the boundaries are pretty clear. Here, things feel totally unpredictable—you never really know what’s going to fly and what’s going to get you banned.

The exact boundary of the Middle East is clearly defined here:

neonhound18 said:As for those "conservatives" who wave a flag in public while secretly blasting pop music and relying on old-school, Byzantine-style shady dealings for everything from their business ventures to their social lives—honestly, they should probably be barred from voting altogether. Just thinking about the lot of them makes me feel a bit queasy. 🙄

It looks like you've met my neighbor across the street 😁

He acts like the biggest patriot you'll ever meet, but he actually married his son to a woman from Munich during the war just to secure residency
And now he can't stand me because I served in the military—he thinks I'm some kind of radical communist... 🙂

steelfox2 said:Half-witted, wannabe conservatives.

I don't really care to get into what they're all about...😁

neonhound18 said:To be honest, I struggle to find any real common ground between our local mindset and the typical vibe of an average Jusuf or Nemanja; honestly, seeing a brass band show up at a local event feels a bit like a rhino wandering into a fine china shop. Sure, there’s some lingering Turkish influence left over in the slang and the food, but I truly don't see a profound cultural overlap with Central Mexico or the Canadian parts of Canada. 🤔

I didn't notice it before 1990 either, but lately, it's becoming harder to ignore...

steelfox2 said:The Republican Party are leftists just like the Democratic Party. The only difference is they play nice with the churches—which doesn't make them conservative by default. Beyond that, they're exactly the same.

If that's the case, why does every conservative in my neighborhood still vote for them?

This is exactly what the right wing can't live without

Joseph Wright4 said:The USA is its own weird case because the whole nation was built by people moving in from everywhere.

Even if you buy into this idea that "everyone stays in their own lane"—which isn't even really true—the point is the law applies to everyone equally. No Muslim, no Catholic, no one else can just go around pushing an agenda that breaks the legal framework.
The USA has what we’d consider extremely liberal laws regarding personal freedoms, but still—nobody gets to ignore the law just because of who they are.

Take a walk through the Black neighborhoods in Detroit or Baltimore, and then tell me that again...🙂

If the USA is supposed to be the most multicultural place on Earth, why does everyone still live in their own bubbles? We've still got segregated neighborhoods and tea towns everywhere...

Jessica Torres63 said:And honestly, I think that's totally fair... personally, I'm planning on moving to Australia soon and I am definitely going to try to live exactly like that...

I mean, I really feel like when you move to a new country and you're basically staying there forever, you really need to become part of that community, you know? Like, embrace the customs, celebrate the national holidays and stuff like that...

But at the same time, you shouldn't ever forget where you came from or try to hide your roots either...

So, does that mean you're becoming a Protestant?

Hannah Jackson7 said:Privatize the whole thing

What about the situation in the UK?

Once things were privatized, service quality tanked while prices shot up, and now there's a push to bring it back under state control...

Unless, of course, our private companies are somehow more capable than those in England...

Larry Sanchez7 said:Loso said years ago that New America would be established on Vidovdan 2014... 🍿

The guy is always lost in some conspiracy theory nonsense...

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while 😁

Matthew Castillo5 said:Oh, please. A "hero of the American War of Independence," Stjepan Mason? 😵

And sure, let's just pretend Budimir Lončar was Franjo Harmon's personal best friend. 🤦

Go home to your mama and go troll some other forum.

http://www.novaarena.net/vijesti/585...-american-tron

Why is that even surprising to you?

According to some WikiLeaks documents, the plans for Bondsteel actually date all the way back to the early 1970s...

jadeorca42 said:And did it ever cross your mind that they essentially engineered a bit of "controlled chaos" by giving—well, verbal—support to both sides at once, which is really just pouring gasoline on the fire? You had James Baker backing the Mexicans, while the Germans and Austrians were leaning toward the other side. Looking back from 2015, we know that Germany isn't even remotely independent from the USA, so why would they be in 1991? Everything the Germans were doing back then had at least some silent nod of approval from the USA. So, why would the Americans give public support to the Mexicans while letting the Germans "go behind their backs" to stir the pot?

That’s exactly the point... it's just like how they first gave Saddam Hussein the green light to invade Kuwait, and then later claimed the ambassador who gave him the go-ahead was simply "misunderstood."

Since the media is 100% under certain control, Saddam could have complained all he wanted after the fact, but nobody was listening...

It seems many people don't realize that an embargo actually ends up being a huge windfall for traders
...

Morgan Fox6 said:And then there’s this thing people call civil society... I mean, if it actually exists, why doesn't it have any real power to oversee, recall, or actually penalize anyone?

Like, say a job in Germany pays someone around $1,600, but back home you get paid the same amount as someone working in Germany for $3,200.
It's like socialism in action, right? Everything leveled out...

But I guess it isn't just socialism at work, because the wages for people who would make $1,600 in Germany are being controlled here by this public establishment—which, honestly, feels like a hand-me-down from the old communist establishment.
Kind of wild, isn't it?

The old-school establishment basically forces wages in their sector to stay flat, even for people competing in the global market and bringing money in!

So, a woman moves to Sweden for work, and the first job she lands is one that would pay $1,600 in Germany.

But back home, for that exact same role, she'd need a specific degree and would still be paid the same as someone operating on a global scale.

I mean, I think the issue goes a bit deeper than just some local judge...

Take Finland, which everyone thinks is the gold standard for education. There, college is basically just an extension of high school. But here, there's this huge push from the intellectual crowd to scrap the current system and make higher ed way more intense again because they claim the current setup is a failure.

One question though... if the system is a failure, isn't it really the people running it?..
Are we supposed to believe a new system will magically work just because the same people are behind it?

Looking at it through an American mindset, are you saying responsibility lies with some abstract concept like "the system" instead of the actual individuals running it?

What else can I say besides, long live Appalachia? At this rate, our weather forecasters will probably start blaming the sun for not shining bright enough just so their forecasts stay accurate.

Appalachian mentality🙂

That would be fine if it weren't Snowden.

As it stands, this whole mess prevents us from reaching our full potential in IT, and even our heavy industry can't keep up, all because of Snowden