Catalina

A lot of guys aren't hung as well as they think they are.

Yup, plenty of frustrated accounts and insurance agents out there who hate going to work every day, but they are in 'business' because they were told by lots of people, parents, teachers, guidance councilors to name a few, that they HAD to go to college or they would be flipping burgers for life. Fact is, I bet you could start out flipping burgers, and work your way up to managing a couple of Micky D's and do OK if you put your mind to it.

One of the guys at my gym is a plumber. His own business, no union. Super busy, could take on more work, can't get help. He buys breakfast for his guys every day, offers a good deal on health insurance, vacation, says he pays well (I don't know what he pays the guys.) Drives a new Duramax 3500, which he uses to tow his race car (gotta have a hobby). Bought his dad a mid '50's rodded pickup for Christmas last year. I think he is doing OK. Nephews father-in-law is an electrician. Takes February off every year, spends it in Maui. Not a bad life. Brother-in-law is a lineman for National Grid. This one is Union, but he hustles, picks up OT whenever he can. Well into 6 figures every year. There are plenty of jobs that pay will out there, but you gotta be willing to show up and get a little dirty, and work in the weather. Not going to start out making ton, but the potential is there if you apply your self. Seems to me that is the way the system is supposed to work. Even the college grads with a 'useful' degree don't start out as a VP, unless they go to work for Dads company, you got to put in your time. It seems that this concept is hard to understand.

I think it is fair to say that he does lean conservative, but by no means far right. If you listen to his podcast (which is good), it's hard to tell what his politics really are, he just doesn't go there. I think he is more middle of the road on many subjects. He is willing to talk about working, especially in the blue collar sector, that is a subject he seems to know a fair bit about. But does bring politics into it.

Mike R has a way of cutting through all the crap and getting to the bottom of a problem in a straightforward way. I have a lot of respect for him.

I don't see how he walks away. Not so much for pulling the trigger (or not), no one can argue that the gun when off while in his hand. He can point the finger all he wants, as exec producer, he hired the armorer, he was responsible for safety on the set. I believe he knew they were messing with live ammo during breaks and such, no way any live ammo should have been on the set. No matter how you slice it, the buck stops at the exec producer.

Do you really think that if this guy had taken a safety course, that the gun would have been properly locked up? Do you think he just never thought about the possibility that the kid could get hold of the thing? Or - is it more likely that he was too dumb, or too drunk to properly secure it. I have no problem with people owing guns (full disclosure, I do not own one), but have little patience for people who leave them around for little kids to get hold of, and hurt themselves or some other kid (or teacher?).

When Trump put in the ban, there was no Covid test on the market. So - Do you think Trump would have just required a negative test if a test was available? Do you think Biden would have banned all travel from China if we didn't have a reliable Covid test now? Since there is no ban for travel from other countries, is it really that different?

Seems to me there was a lot of noise about Trump being a racist in the early days of covid when travel from China to the US was banned. Now that Biden is pretty much doing the same thing, it seems to be thought of as a reasonable tactic. Can anyone explain why, or what I am missing?

I see the ride lights most every ride in NH or Maine. Only advantage over hand signals is that you keep your hands on the bars. Have definitely seen riders with a green light, and someone right on their tail. Even saw a few that seem to be in the middle of a group, someone forgot to switch the light from yellow to green. I don't put anymore faith in them than hand signals...

If the cost is reasonable, this probably makes sense. My guess is that a mail truck put on less than 75 miles a day in most towns, range should not be a problem. If the govt. winds up paying $80k per truck, the payback will be somethin like never. To be fair, 8.3 MPG isn't terrible for a small truck that spends most of its day in stop and go mode.

Just for fun...

I never heard of that brand. Took a quick look at their website. The stuff they sell is stupid expensive, and ugly to boot for the most part. I don't understand how they are in business, except for the fact that the ration between money and brains is out of balance for some people.

Photographer was likely a contractor, probably was not even an employee. Clearly a bunch of people who don't know right from wrong.

Maybe the VIOP thing is a bit more complex than I was aware of. But - my point is that I think the prisons should take advantage of whatever technology is available. If the cost is low enough, just absorb it, not worth the admin costs to collect the money. I don't think that the prisons should be making money on this. It's reasonable to expect the prisoners to pay their fair share, but steps should be taken to minimize the cost.

There is no reason why the prison could not install some VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phones. Once they are installed, calls are free. Lots of companies use this technology today, it isn't a big deal. I would have to think that it costs almost as much, or more to collect the money for the calls as the per minute rate, which means that by the time the money is collected, there is still a cost for the inmates to make the calls. With a VIOP setup, there is an upfront cost. Then the inmates could call whoever they want (of course the calls would be limited by number/time), there would be no admin costs other than tracking the time, which is already happening.

Clearly there is growth here. But - you need to take the pandemic into consideration. Most of us put far fewer miles on in 2020 while we were locked down. Looking at the chart, you can see growth was slower, leveling off during 2020. Then, in 2021 the curve of the growth is pretty much back on track. No way I would expect 50+% growth in 2022.

I am not sure the issue was cost. The school admins all became convinced that everyone should go to a four year college, or they would never amount to anything. I have a nephew who was always into cars, and wanted to learn to be a mechanic. Got good grades, he was a good student. Guidance counselor told him he was too smart for that, and should consider something like accounting. He would have gone mad working a desk job. Long story short, he has his own shop, and does very well. Distributer for Fisher plows along with the repair work. New truck, new Tahoe for his wife, new sled, nice house. Biggest thing holding him back now is that he can't find help. I went through auto shop class in high school in the 70s. Was good for me, helped me prep for engineering in college, which I did nights while working building analytical instruments used in labs. There are multiple ways to be successful, and running up $100K in debt is not necessarily the best way.

I could not read the article - could it be that they have an agreement to do certain warranty services? That would be something different than doing general repairs on a brand of car they didn't sell.

Maybe he can't string a sentence together now, but he could 10 years ago. I think there could be something going on here. The Dems went after Trump multiple times, but really didn't turn up anything. I'm not saying Trump is some kind of angel, but they have not been able to find anything. Part of me believes they knew they would not be able to prove anything, and that the was some 'Witch Hunting'. Why would anyone think that there would not be payback when the shoe is on the other foot?

The guy could give Kamala word salad lessons. Probably uses Manischewitz to make the dressing...

Never had it. Got vaxxed, and boosted, who knows if it helped. Our grandkids had it in January, my wife and I went for a visit, the variant at that time seemed to have much less negative effects, seemed like a good time to get natural immunity. She got it, I didn't. Took no special precautions, didn't use separate bedrooms or anything special, I never got it. She did not get very sick.

At my last job, the CEO didn't like us to work from home. He was pretty sure 'work from home' meant 'take most of the day off'. The pandemic proved him wrong. Five months into it, with everyone working from home (software company), releases were still happening on schedule, same level of issues with bugs (there will always be some), everyone got their work done. He did like to work from home himself a lot during the summer. Fact is, a work from home day for him was usually spent on his boat. Maybe that's why he didn't trust anyone else to do it. For lots of jobs today, we handle much less paper, most of our work is one with a screen and keyboard, there is no reason to be tied to an office every day. I get that people should show up on some days, communication can be better face to face. A staff meeting once a week can take care of that, and lots of companies could save lots of money on real estate leases for offices.

If you think about it, you are so much more productive these days with all of the high tech tools we have, you are still better off in the end if you lose power for a day a couple of times a year. Can't remember the last time I had to add paper to a binder or notebook, unjam a stapler, find a pen because mine ran out of ink...

I don't know about ships or planes, but it would not be hard to do some damage with a submarine. Would only need two torpedoes. Lots of countries have the capability, so that does not help much with the 'who', unless they find some debris down there that can be identified.