If you want a job in government, 99% of the time you basically have to be a member of a political party. Take the Democratic-Republican coalition in Washington, D.C., for example... if you're actually part of one of those parties, do you honestly think you still have a conscience? The only thing driving you is the dream of getting a cushy, unearned position.
I know this guy who used to be a teacher at a local school; he mostly just messed around and didn't do a lick of actual work. Eventually, he got fired. He wasn't exactly struggling for cash back then, but he was getting by. Once he couldn't find anything else in his field, he decided to head over to Germany. He’s working there now and making twice what he made as a teacher, but damn, he has to spend all day on his feet. He spends half his time trash-talking Germany like everything there is wrong and everyone is to blame, yet here he is, living a perfectly normal life.
Why? Because you have to work, I guess. But he’s constantly looking for a way to crawl back into some cozy government role where he can do nothing and just scrape by—he'd take half the pay just to avoid being on his feet all day. It's the same vibe with the crew at JU; they just want to do zero work and call it a day. They effectively put in two hours a day and don't even care that their offices are tiny.
And people like that are the ones teaching our kids today.
James Anderson5 said:So true. Moral lines aren't really drawn by whether you're cutting corners, but by how much you're doing it and whether you're being blatantly shameless about it. Like, maybe it's fine to pocket a few extra bucks from a couple of customers a day, but it's definitely not okay to join a massive corporation just to sit around and do nothing, or take bribes at a healthcare agency to get drugs added to a list, or rob a state-owned company until it goes bankrupt. Society is basically at rock bottom, with only a few rare exceptions...
They were hiring Slovaks and other foreign nationals for years too (people who didn't necessarily have some incredible skills we couldn't find ourselves), so what's the actual difference between them and the ones you mentioned? Maybe the trick is that they have a perfect excuse to jack up their prices since they often work with government contractors...
I can't tell if this is sarcasm or what? You shouldn't be stealing from your employer, but let's be real—people do it just to survive because they're working for peanuts. If things were actually normal, it wouldn't even cross your mind. You'd have a decent salary, tips, and live like any regular waiter in a functional country. If the boss didn't have to deal with such insane taxes, he’d pay you a fair wage, you wouldn't feel the need to skim from him and essentially steal from the government at the same time. You wouldn't risk your job over a few stolen bucks, and he wouldn't risk his business by paying you $333 under the table.
It honestly baffles me when people act shocked that money was embezzled, stolen, or handed out as bribes. Look, that’s literally why the government exists... I seriously doubt there isn't a single layer of society in the US where someone isn't paying off an inspector, a cop, a judge, or just calling in a favor from a buddy, a cousin, or even their old man. And then you have people acting all outraged, like, "Oh my god, they stole a billion dollars!" We all know how the game is played. Whether it's Todoric, Mamic, Nadan, or whatever other name you want to throw in there, it's been happening forever and it isn't stopping anytime soon.
I actually have a friend who dropped $200 on a cop just to avoid losing his license while driving through Austria. He ended up getting months of jail time instantly instead.
There is simply zero chance—not even a 1% shot—that you can be 100% straight with the rules here. In other countries, you might get by with maybe 20% of the time without screwing anyone over, giving you at least a fighting chance at being a decent human. But here? If you aren't ripping off your boss twice a day, you won't be able to afford rent. And if you don't rip off the government, your waiter isn't going to be able to pay their bills or give you anything extra under the table. It's just one big endless cycle.
Peter Thompson4 said:Nah, we won't have any issues needing those cheap Chinese TVs, at least not for us living in Washington, D.C., since the whole gang just slashed the book budget in half.
Hopefully they actually pay back the citizens for all the money we've already poured in.🤷
rapidstag2 said:brightpilot6, you went ahead and picked up that Sony TV for your folks—how is it actually performing for them? I’m currently scouting for a decent deal during Black Friday, but it looks like that specific model has been pulled from the shelves. Does anyone know what the modern equivalent would be?
I’m all for punishing people when they don't contribute to the discussion. Points just pile up over time... I've got more than I can count myself, though I never bothered to ask why or how, nor did I ever complain once they landed in my account. When I troll, I troll... and I’m more than happy to deal with whatever fallout comes my way. He’s just full of it, spinning the same old story and recycling the same tired quotes from the same old threads every single week... including all those new accounts that'll probably just log back in once they realize they've been played.
I think we can all agree that even a year ago, the quality of posts and discussions here was twice what it is now. I’m not trying to be a contrarian, but when someone starts using their past reputation as a shield just to justify writing like that Overlord guy who still won't shut up... claiming he was "just being ironic" while actually just nuking every single debate in sight. Constantly replying with the same tired questions and turning every discussion into an exhausting slog with certain people just kills the drive to participate. But hey, maybe it's just me...
Honestly, since things have gone completely sideways on the Soccer board—especially over at American Soccer where new trolls seem to pop up every single day and actual discussion has just vanished... Who’s even running the moderation over there? If I drop a single insult, someone hits me with a 500-point penalty instantly, yet these trolls can sign up and run wild in the threads without anyone lifting a finger; they just keep posting indefinitely. Is there any hope of turning the American Soccer sub-forum back into a decent place to write, or has it already spiraled past the point of no return?
Just one more thought: if you drop three grand on a UHD TV today, don't expect anything for three grand to actually hit that UHD level in a few years. That’s why I suggested in my previous post that you should grab a top-tier set now for half your budget, save the rest, and then pick up another one for two grand once you see where the tech is actually heading...
And regarding what our colleague said—you aren't going to see UHD much anyway. If you head over to Germany, forget about getting decent internet since they're pretty terrible with fiber optics. You'll end up with something like 18 Mbps and your UHD will just buffer constantly...
So, you're better off just seeing how FHD content looks on your current Television and HD displays. Personally, I think UHD might end up meeting the same fate as 3D televisions. There's just no way it becomes a true standard anytime soon, yet manufacturers keep hiking the prices because of it.
Like, "Wow, look at this UHD 4K TV!" That’s just how I am with all technology, whether it's a laptop or a PC. You buy something that gets the job done and satisfies your needs, and then you just swap it out in two years.
darkseal9 said:Man, all that cash wasted on trashy shows and garbage programming... honestly, I’m starting to dread even having the TV on when there's actually decent stuff playing outside.
Actually, people in the US have way more downtime than in the old days back home. Since the standard is a 40-hour week, anything extra usually comes with overtime pay. In the old system, working 60 hours a week was just standard procedure without any extra perks. If you dared to say no, you were basically breathing down the neck of management. Of course, if you're at a government agency, you're basically pulling 20-hour weeks, so none of this applies to them.
Alright, let's get serious for a second. Since you're probably out of the country right now, you're saying things feel just as expensive as they do back home... Just hang tight until you stumble upon a good sale before you pull the trigger on a new TV. Don't go rushing into a bad purchase. They always pop up eventually. A few months ago, I snagged a TV at Jupiter for $600 that usually goes for $1,000, and today that $1,000 price tag is pretty standard.
Personally, I’d never drop that kind of cash on a TV given how insanely fast the technology is evolving. I’d rather grab something decent for $2k now, then see what the cutting edge looks like again in a year or two. Just look at that ultra-thin model LG released; I think it's sitting around $6k.
It's actually thinner than a smartphone, and everything suggests that's exactly where TV tech is heading... Either way, you can't really lose, and honestly, an average user isn't going to notice much difference between OLED and QLED or whatever else is out there.
Peter Thompson4 said:Well, here's the thing then. I'm moving soon, probably in about six months, and I've already started looking at TVs and honestly, I'm totally stuck because I was already pretty much sold on getting a Samsung TV. There wasn't even a doubt in my mind, so I figured I'd just start browsing around, checking different stores to see where I could snag the best deal, and then I stumbled upon a mountain of reviews that basically say LG's OLED absolutely destroys Samsung's QLED.
I'm willing to drop up to maybe $5,000 on a TV, but generally, I'm looking mostly in that $3,000 to $3,500 sweet spot. I really don't want to blow tens of thousands of dollars just to end up with some random junk... obviously, I want the absolute best, just like everyone else... And look, I have zero interest in experimenting with some random budget Chinese brand or whatever they call them. For me, top tier means LG or Samsung, though I might consider a Sony if the deal is right, but anything else just doesn't cut it for me...
I have no idea why you're asking me. I was just pointing out that there's someone else on this forum who knows their stuff.
I don't know the first thing about televisions.
Maybe try checking the Information Technology subforum.
The second one is fine, though I don't really need maxed-out specs. I just want it to be as cheap as possible. I don't see the point in dropping $630 on a laptop just to watch movies or browse forums, you know? Is there anything even cheaper than this HP model listed below?
First off, I'm siding with Ryan Hall4, who showed up acting totally unhinged, so there you have it... Modern movies are just tailored for today's mindless crowds and the aggressive marketing machine that keeps sucking people in because they get all their news from Facebook and Instagram, where paid ads are hitting them from every single angle.
You see the exact same thing happening with soccer—the actual quality of play is worse than it used to be, and the obsession with viewership numbers is killing the sport. It’s perfectly normal that someone who hasn't seen *12 Angry Men* wouldn't know what a real movie is, or someone thinks *Casablanca* is stupid just because it's in black and white and lacks the sci-fi special effects of something like *The Avengers*... much like how people are suddenly obsessed with modern soccer and massive transfer fees when they didn't give a damn about the game before.
The *Avengers* kind of reminds me of that one movie—maybe it was *New Year's Eve*—where they just threw twenty A-list stars into a blender and called it a movie, and everyone rushed to the theaters to see it.
Nowadays, they churn out films that don't make any sense at all. People are losing their minds over *Dunkirk*, yet there isn't really a plot to speak of; there are five better movies about Normandy out there, but somehow this is considered a masterpiece. It's the same deal with the *Avengers* smashing box office records.
My Windows 10 connection keeps dropping every 20 seconds like clockwork right after the latest update. The Wi-Fi card itself is perfectly fine, so it's definitely not hardware... It looks like KB4057247 is the culprit; apparently, it's some kind of iVanti patch, and I can't figure out how to strip it off my machine.
I've already tried using Uninstall updates and even attempted a fresh start, but that thing just sticks around like it owns the place. I'm losing my mind here!