Posts by Jerry Martinez6

mistybadger2 said:The guy spelled it out perfectly. Most banks set everyone's limit to zero and swapped the permitted amount for whatever was considered the standard limit back before the decision at end of 2017.
Basically, they pulled the same shady stunt on everyone.
The few people who caught onto the game—the minority—negotiated a legitimate permitted overdraft. Everyone else is stuck dealing with the unpermitted mess.
Most people didn't realize that behind all this jargon, they were essentially getting fleeced for an extra 30%.
Meanwhile, that snake of a Governor has been smirking about it for four years.
You really have to watch out for these banking bottom-feeders. Given how easily Americans can be misled and the sheer corruption in our government, these guys have found themselves a gold mine that most criminals could only dream of.

First off, last night there was a paid fluff piece claiming the Federal Reserve "recommended" that banks stop screwing people over and offer meal-plan style repayments instead of freezing accounts (an anonymous article, obviously). Then today, we get another piece about how "Secretary Mnuchin reacted and announced new legislation," tucked right behind a paywall. And then you have Mr. "I shouldn't get involved" showing up here; I guess he has to justify that massive salary, even if it means listening to some kid from the sticks for half an hour. It’s easy enough to do what you're told when there's money in it.

First of all, we really are a colony, and second, we are a damn pathetic colony. It's an understatement to say they wouldn't act like this back home. I'll end up like those crazy people across America, shouting "End the Fed" -> "End the Federal Reserve." 😁
And Mnuchin... man, how can you be such a naive sucker?

Nathan Evans78 said:Is there a group of you guys out there who just bolted and left all their bills unpaid or something? I honestly can't wrap my head around where those 800,000 entities came from.

I don't think so, because in my experience, they shut down my overdraft the second I stopped receiving a paycheck here in the States—it was pretty much instant, maybe after two months? I can't remember exactly. I'm not sure if the rules have changed lately, but as I understand it, if you aren't drawing an income in the US, you aren't getting credit from the Federal Reserve, and I assume it works the same way with all the other major banks. If that's the case, we're talking about 800,000 able-bodied, employed Americans plus retirees, veterans, and so on. And these are the ones deep in the red—so what about everyone else? Are they just slightly in the red? Is everybody in debt? How is this even possible?

So, you say your buddy drives a semi? Listen to this...

A teacher walks into a classroom and starts asking the kids what their parents do for a living and whether they have a decent lifestyle and all that stuff. First little girl stands up and goes:

"My mom is a... my mom is a prostitute. But I don't really care because she brings home tons of cash and we live pretty well. So yeah."

The teacher is a bit taken aback, but whatever, life happens. She just moves on. Next kid stands up:

"My dad is a... my dad is a cop. He's just a regular cop, he goes out on patrol and stuff. He writes those parking tickets and things. A little bit for the government... a little bit for us... but I don't mind at all because my dad brings home plenty of money and we have a good standard of living. That's it."

The teacher is starting to realize exactly what kind of situation she’s found herself in, but hey, you see everything these days. She calls for the next one. A little boy stands up:

"My dad... my dad drives a truck... he's a trucker, and... and he's always driving, he's never home, he works a lot and stuff, he's constantly on the road, and..."
-And what? The teacher says, "Go on, keep going," right?
-And...
-Come on, just say it, don't be shy.
-And...
-And if it wasn't for the mother of that cow and the father of that horse over there, we'd be loaded!

There you go. That's what happens when you're surrounded by hookers and cops.

slysurfer14 said:I don't know what you're talking about, I was already seeing a profit by my second year...
that's why you analyze the market first, figure out what works, instead of just staring over your fence and copying the neighbor...
For example, my cousin lives near Zadar, and after the war, everyone jumped into olives except for one guy everyone mocked because he planted almonds.
Those olive guys haven't even seen their first harvest yet, but this guy is harvesting almonds like crazy and making a killing...

Look, I could probably write a whole book here, but if we stick to that shortsighted coastal mindset of just planting almonds, peaches, or mandarins, we aren't getting anywhere. Let me put it simply: industry and agriculture are the bedrock, but they are deeply layered. You have the land, the machinery, the seeds, the fertilizer, the raw yields—you feed the next link in the chain. You have meat processing, and I won't even bother listing the thirty other industries that exist solely because agriculture supports them. Everything else builds on top of that. A strong agricultural sector means a strong nation. You can't have a powerhouse state without solid agriculture, and you can't have solid agriculture without a powerful state. It’s a cycle of cause and effect, and honestly, it all boils down to this: this country is a total mess, and there's no point looking any further.

To get back to your post: what exactly are you feeding people with those almonds, man? And just because YOU are profitable, who actually cares? Who gives a damn if YOU are making money? Are you an American? Do you actually love America? Or do you just love your own profit? It’s the same question for the importers, the middlemen, the bulk buyers of foreign goods, and the free-market enthusiasts: do you actually care about America, or would you rather everything be part of Germany, Spain, or the Netherlands? What are you even doing here?

rowdypilot19 said:So, basically, the incentives aren't taxed, while everything else is.

I mean, that seems fine to me... I don't really get what people find weird about that?

You want to know what's weird? What's weird is that despite all this endless complaining, the Midwest isn't under siege, because apparently money is just growing on trees out there—it's just that Midwesterners are too lazy to go pick it up. That's the real mystery. Go back and actually read this thread from the beginning. If you want real profitability in farming, you have to play the long game for ten years, and it only takes one bad storm to reset your progress back to zero. So please, just get started, and maybe in ten years we can talk about how much cash you've actually made.

Look, if you set aside the subsidies, the political shifts, the idiots running the show, the corruption, the nepotism within import lobbies, the mess at Walmart, and the competition with those massive vineyards in Herzegovina, etc., etc.—just plant something. As far as I'm concerned, I don't care. Pick whatever you think will make a profit and go for it. Plant pineapples for all I care! 🤣
Just stop trying to act like you're smarter than everyone else. Especially now, when land and housing in the Midwest are practically dirt cheap—so cheap that nobody would even buy a shack there 😁 because, you know, there's always some other excuse 😉. If you live off the land, someone's always going to insult you for being a "hillbilly," but if you're out there hustling and cutting corners, then suddenly you aren't a hillbilly (yeah, right 😁). Hard work is a major deterrent to urbanites, and well, we're just built this way, I guess. It's a shame we pushed out all those hardworking folks from the region; they were real farmers. Something might have actually survived thanks to them, since we clearly aren't interested in that kind of life. But hey, we certainly know better than anyone else! If only everyone else knew what we know...

Just keep hustling! 🤣

rowdypilot19 said:Look, why don't you start by actually defining what "morality" means to you first? 🍿

I mean, is it really considered moral if someone who's actually killing it at work gets paid the exact same amount as the guy who spends his whole shift sleeping on the job? 🍿

Look, morality is just a construct—a total fabrication. Just imagine if you were sitting there right now, exactly as you are, and then suddenly you hit the jackpot and walked away with $90 million from the Powerball or whatever. Would you be the exact same "moral" person you are today without those 90 million bucks in your pocket? Not a chance, so it’s all just an idea we made up. And as for this whole "quality of work" debate, that's entirely subjective too. Is it really fair that someone graduating from an Ivy League school with a 4.0 GPA makes the same salary as some guy who barely scraped by with Cs? Or is it okay that someone gets promoted solely because their uncle is an executive while the actual "high achiever" stays stuck in the same cubicle until retirement? Quality is just as much of a construct as anything else. Then again, maybe that supposed "high achiever" is just a massive jerk who needs to be put in their place. Maybe the only true virtue left is being immoral? Oh wait...

Andrew Murphy said:A rural cooperative could potentially provide enough food to sustain an entire urban residential development.
That is the concept at hand.
It leads me to wonder: is it possible to establish a Commercial farm based on capital investments from these residents? They would essentially pool their funds to fund a shared production site in the countryside, intended primarily for their own consumption, while any surplus could be sold directly through the Commercial farm's operations.

I am not entirely certain about the legal specifics regarding a Family farm, but I am considering the term "Small family farm" as a new business model.
The idea involves collective capital being invested into a single property that a landlord then leases out to these investors...
How might one legally structure such an arrangement, and what are your thoughts on the feasibility of this idea?

It sounds intriguing, but

Urban dwellers would need some kind of corporate entity or specific legal status to make this work—I don't know the exact regulations, but you can't pull this off without a formal company. Since they wouldn't be investing directly into a Family farm, but rather through a business, they wouldn't actually be working the land themselves; they'd be hiring employees who need wages, payroll taxes, utilities, and overhead covered. A better way might be if the residents held something like vouchers or credits to buy goods from the farm at a massive discount since they'd essentially be acting like shareholders, but you'd still need professionals to manage and organize the whole operation. The bigger hurdle, though, is that most people living in cities are struggling financially and don't have extra cash for these kinds of investments; running a farm isn't cheap, and there's the risk of total failure due to inexperience, not to mention the complexities of land ownership and all that.
It might be simpler if certain rural cooperatives offered products to the nearest major city at preferential rates, perhaps even negotiating what gets grown and how much, giving citizens priority access to cheaper goods while the city government invests in these rural cooperatives. For example, a cooperative could open five or six butcher shops or markets in the city where residents could buy meat at 50% less than anywhere else just by showing ID. It would be a win-win; either the city has the budget for it, or they take out a municipal bond, and the farmers get a guaranteed market and distribution network ready to go.

The real nightmare is corruption, because if someone like a corrupt mayor or a shady political machine gets their hands on it... honestly, I don't know, maybe cities like New York or Chicago already have similar initiatives?

And then suddenly, government pensions are going to be "secure" (yeah, right). Oh, and don't forget the guaranteed meal allowance or a dedicated spot for your bike. A 20% cut feels less like a policy change and more like fate—it’s like when a doctor tells you you’ve got terminal cancer, but then tries to sweeten the blow by saying they’ve got a special bed reserved just for you right by the window so you can feel better about it. That's basically how this works.

wearytrucker22 said:Sure, why not? Just move 300,000 Germans into the Midwest and send 300,000 Midwesterners over to Germany. Or just deport our politicians to Finland and swap them out for Finnish ones. Whatever works.

Why don't you just send 300,000 of those "patriots" over to Bavaria? Leave just one behind in Florida so you don't have to look too far for them. Forget about the Midwest; focus on your own backyard.

unmountable boot volume

https://neosmart.net/wiki/unmountable-boot-volume/

The issue here is that I'm dealing with a laptop, and if the drive has actually kicked the bucket... well, that's a different story. Mostly, I'm wondering if anyone here has actually messed around with this specific rescue CD and what your experience was like. Is there any way to make something useful happen using just a standard Windows 7 DVD? Reinstalling Windows is my absolute last resort—really, truly the final option—because I want to exhaust every single possible tool in the shed first. If anyone has successfully navigated this before, please hit me up with some details.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6IzdPbf8W8

😁

rage against

I don't know, man, Cypress was always legendary to me. After twenty years, finally getting to see them live and realizing they still absolutely crush it... I lost my mind when they introduced the crew and that one guy did a skit straight out of "Bring the Noise." 😁 Pure insanity. 😁

Grinderman feels like if The Doors were on crack right now. Cave is easily one of the most high-energy acts I've ever seen live, but honestly? It’s just too much noise and not enough melody. You’d have to be completely tripping out just to keep up with the vibe.
What was up with that tiny little guitar that evil Brad plays during that last song (or maybe the second to last)?

Day one was definitely better. Last night was a total letdown, even though there were three times as many people there. And that stupid headphone party? What an absolute disaster...

I’m looking to pick up some Willis Jackson more Gravy and honestly, pretty much anything else anyone might have in stock from The Gator

edit: I should probably mention—I’m strictly hunting for LPs here, don't bother with CDs

I’ve got that *Electroma* thing, or whatever you want to call it, by Daft Punk, but it never really clicked for me. I honestly think they have much better stuff out there if you actually bother to look.

Anyway, movies like *Trainspotting* or *Spun* have killer soundtracks and capture that drug culture perfectly, and then you've got acid house—which is more about the trip than the tunes, really. But none of those are strictly "electro" movies in terms of their actual themes; they just happen to use great electronic soundtracks to set the mood.

Are you serious? You mean Mickey Rourke playing some candy maker?
And what about that half-animated flick with the Winona Ryder and Neo vibe?

Honestly, Cheech & Chong are legends no matter how you slice it. For some reason, I keep thinking about the original Clerks too—I guess having that specific state of mind is everything.

Okudzava said:

Let me show you where the Cross of Iron grows!!! Man, what a legend...

The bells of St. Patrick's Cathedral—just because of this 😁

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9nGyPz9uT0

SOMEONE MAKE HIM STOP !!!!

Honestly, Casablanca easily beats Fantasia, but play that Sam and Ave Maria track again... mmmmmmm, absolutely incredible.

That recent stuff with Taylor Swift is absolutely wild—it’s honestly fantastic. Thanks for the heads-up, man!

Give me a break, he’s perfectly healthy, anything is possible if you try enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYKN5xoq8RM