Posts by Thomas Smith

Is it just me, or has the rumor mill reached a breaking point lately? I feel like I can't scroll through any sports feed without seeing some massive, earth-shattering trade speculation about a player who is clearly happy where they are.

It’s getting exhausting. One day, a certain veteran is supposedly being packaged in a blockbuster deal to a contender, and the next, it's like it never even happened. I remember back in the day, you actually had to wait for a press conference or a formal announcement to know if a roster change was real. Now, it feels like every mid-tier analyst with a Twitter account is trying to manufacture hype by linking players to teams that have no business talking to them.

I get that people want to speculate—it's part of being a fan—but it's hard to take any of these "sources" seriously when the math and the logic just don't add up. It just creates this constant state of anxiety for fans who actually care about the team's stability.

Does anyone else find themselves tuning out the trade deadline season because the noise is just too much, or do you actually enjoy the chaos?

Dear all, I am seeking guidance.
While serving as an interim manager, I was under a standard full-time employment contract, which meant I was entitled to overtime pay. An IRS advisor even confirmed this in a written opinion.
I was pulling 16-hour days. In the meantime, some "friendly" former colleagues decided to bury the company under a mountain of anonymous regulatory complaints regarding missing documentation—paperwork the municipal utility company should have had finalized by January 1st, 2008, per city ordinance. My term didn't even begin until April 2011, long after those deadlines passed. Nevertheless, the labor inspectors and both the local courts and the Supreme Court hammered both me and the firm. We all paid the fines. Once I saw the extent of the mess they were pinning on me, I decided to start calculating and billing my own overtime, up to the 180-hour annual limit. It was September at the time; I missed the window to request additional overtime authorization from the Department of Labor. That was my mistake, my oversight. Then, things took a turn for the worse. After I won the competitive selection process and was finally appointed as the permanent director, they started slashing my salary. A certain ombudsman—who committed a legally punishable offense by posting her response containing all my private, sensitive data on the office bulletin board for every single employee to see—decided to make an example of me. I had implemented real order at the company; we slashed monthly fuel costs from $9.00 net down to 16-$633 gross... among many other things. When I wrote to defend my dignity, this woman replied with "terrifying" figures claiming I had caused massive losses to the firm. She went so far as to write at the bottom of her response that the document should be distributed to everyone, multiplied and shared with the staff, and tacked it right onto the public notice board. I didn't want to drive up costs for her, the company, or the newly appointed director. Now, following a corporate reorganization of the utility company, they’ve cut me from the organizational chart despite the fact that my expertise in civil engineering is essential. I am currently working through my notice period. And by some "miracle," my previous overtime claims have suddenly surfaced in one of three anonymous complaints filed with the Department of Justice!!!! The other two are completely baseless, but they clearly want to destroy me—not just psychologically, as they have via six years of bullying, but physically too. I am holding onto my tablet so I don't do something foolish. It is certain that they will pursue this specific overtime complaint.
I ask for your help and advice:
1. Can the claim of "damaging the company" cover the total amount of overtime paid, or is it limited to the portion exceeding the allowed 30 hours per month?
2. Do I have the right to file a report with the District Attorney against the anonymous false accusers regarding the other two complaints?
3. Is it too late to report the improper wage payments from early 2012 to the Department of Labor?
4. What about filing a private lawsuit against this lady for libel regarding her illegal publication of my personal data to the entire staff?
5. Given that both the company and I already paid fines for documents that should have been established three years before my tenure (general technical requirements, employee handbooks, etc.), is it too late to act? Those court rulings became final in the fall of 2011. Do I have any standing to sue under contract law, given that the organizational structure clearly defines who is responsible for what? Who failed to perform their duties, and why was I the one hit with the penalty?
Thank you very much for any advice.

Sarah Bailey95 said:Nah, we definitely don't need paramilitary groups hanging around—we've already got the military and the police for that.

Give me a break... the Presidency used that exact same "logic" back when the old regime was falling apart. I’d say more, honestly, but I’ll probably just get slapped with another 30, 100, or 500 penalty points just for daring to have an opinion....

Since when did sovereignty and patriotism suddenly become "trendy"?

...though things never actually start with an "although," do they?....
Well, it seems to have resurfaced now that this current "'68 generation" has arrived, moving at a somewhat accelerated pace nearly 18 years after the war ended. I’m honestly worried that if the gap between then and '71 follows this trend, it’ll be cut in half, and we'll find ourselves facing the music much sooner than expected....
I suppose the folks upstairs have already crunched the numbers. It strikes me more and more that this entire country is starting to resemble one massive pre-Revolutionary War settlement... and I'm certain we'll see it clearly enough during the adoption of the constitutional amendment. All that "brothers building a house together" nonsense, plus how everyone becomes a hero once the fighting stops... they're practically begging for trouble. Or maybe that's just how it looks from where I'm sitting....

There isn't a single viable political alternative on the horizon as long as the Department of Justice and the entire judicial establishment refuse to go after the gangsters and deal with the criminal activity properly. They need to actually prosecute them. Only then can they prove to the people that the majority of these thieves have been cleared out. But to get to that point, we have to change the people running the show first. Since the judiciary—along with everyone else tasked with enforcing and guarding our laws—is subject to the law to appoint politics, we’re just stuck spinning in circles. In my estimation, early elections won't do a thing, and there won't be any real benefit after the next regular cycle either. I am a total pessimist. These old-guard remnants from the deep state are so thoroughly embedded in every party, so deeply rooted within "non-profits" and even veteran organizations, that expecting any meaningful change resulting from a shift in political leadership is a fool's errand. I think the only way forward is for each of us to focus on ourselves and our own families. We need to evolve by changing our mindset—moving away from that old socialist, lazy mentality toward a level of true democracy where things like "the husband finds out last" or "we have a stable majority in Congress" aren't even things we talk about. Other paths lead straight to revolution, and I'm not sure our children want that. Of course, these partisan operatives know exactly what they're doing. Personally, I don't care about violence or bloodshed; I haven't had a drop of interest left for this country we've built. We watched passively as constitutional rules were tweaked to favor new special interests, and now we watch silently as more constitutional changes are hammered out behind closed doors by the same group. It's obvious they coordinate amongst themselves while tossing distractions at the public like culture war grievances. And us? What are we supposed to do? Is there a smarter suggestion than "trust in yourself and your own horse"? Given the state of things, how do you change the people at the top? You can only do it by force, because the newcomers need to realize their necks are on the line too if they act the same way. That implies fratricide among our own kind... and that is something I cannot support. If things turn ugly, I'll be packing up the whole family and heading out. It'll end up being the same as it is now. Whatever happens, my own "horse" comes first, especially after every political gang in history has lied to me and let me down.

Melissa Peterson19 said:Every crime deserves prosecution and punishment. That applies to both the Civil War and World War II. However, there must first be proof. We need names—victims and perpetrators alike. That is what I demand when any veteran is being prosecuted, just as much as when we discuss 1945. There needs to be legal proof that the events in Blairsville constituted a crime. We have to establish who did what, where, and how. You cannot simply issue a blanket condemnation and convict an entire unit, like the 6th or 7th Brigade, for the liquidation of "Americans." Legally, that isn't possible. And that is what you are asking for? You can make declarations all you want, but what is the actual utility in that?

The fix is easy, really. Just like we stayed silent about the partisan atrocities, let's pass a law banning any talk of veteran crimes for the next 60 years of democracy. Then our great-grandchildren can play their games. They can shout, "Go ahead, put my great-grandfather on trial!" while demanding eyewitnesses, forensic evidence, the exact executioners, and—of course—a full confession. Maybe some descendants of those partisans would even want to film historical reenactments now... probably looking for some Americans to act as stunt doubles in the background. Yeah. Brilliant idea.

It’s true... why don't you guys ever actually get involved in the political scene?
In my experience, this place—much like certain other corners of the internet—is packed with plenty of decent, deep-thinking Americans who actually have some real things to say about the state of the union...
I’d love to hear what you all think.