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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[FlyingVProd]

We went from having our own awesome Space Shuttles which were built in my hometown by friends and family, to sending our astronauts to space on Russian rockets, while Obama was in office. I know Boeing is to blame as much as Obama is. Someone should have saved Rockwell and someone should have saved the Space Shuttle program.

Now we need a new American company to replace Rockwell. They can make new spaceships in Mojave.

We need someone besides Elon Musk, we need new people to rise to the top.

Salute,

Tony V.

[josh]

We went from having our own awesome Space Shuttles which were built in my hometown by friends and family, to sending our astronauts to space on Russian rockets, while Obama was in office. I know Boeing is to blame as much as Obama is. Someone should have saved Rockwell and someone should have saved the Space Shuttle program.

Now we need a new American company to replace Rockwell. They can make new spaceships in Mojave.

We need someone besides Elon Musk, we need new people to rise to the top.

Salute,

Tony V.

Is it too much to ask you to actually research your topics before you post garbage?

Former president George W. Bush initiated the Space Shuttle’s cancellation back in 2004 as part of his Vision for Space Exploration, where its main purpose in the coming years was to “help finish assembly of the International Space Station.” He announced that the Space Shuttle will retire from service in 2010, after three decades of duty.

In that same speech, Bush broached the idea of a new Crew Exploration Vehicle to bring the United States back to the moon and eventually take it to planet Mars. In terms of budget, he said the new endeavors will be fueled by an $11 billion reallocation within NASA’s five-year budget of $86 billion at that time.

Effectively saying no new funds will be provided, Bush added that funding decisions in the future will be “guided by the progress we make in achieving our goals.”

Here’s the situation back then, as outlined by Frost: the Space Shuttle program remained pricey to operate, with the 20-year-old Orbiters getting more expensive to maintain. It would aid in completing the new space lab but would not assist in the new Constellation project that would take astronauts out of low Earth orbit.

https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/54868main_bush_trans.pdf

The shuttle's chief purpose over the next several years will be to help finish assembly of
the International Space Station. In 2010, the space shuttle, after nearly 30 years of duty,
will be retired from service.

Our second goal is to develop and test a new spacecraft, the crew exploration vehicle, by
2008, and to conduct the first manned mission no later than 2014.

The crew exploration vehicle will be capable of ferrying astronauts and scientists to the
space station after the shuttle is retired. But the main purpose of this spacecraft will be to
carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds. This will be the first spacecraft of its
kind since the Apollo command module.

Our third goal is to return to the moon by 2020, as the launching point for missions
beyond.

So, don't blame Obama for the end of the Space Shuttle program - it ran longer than it would have. But Congress never gave either Bush or Obama the money for a new program - and the NASA budgets that allowed for supporting the various non-publicly funded rockets and ships are a result of Obama's NASA and then Trump's.

[FlyingVProd]

Bush might have initiated ending the Shuttle program, which was foolish, but the Shuttle program was terminated on Obama's watch, and Rockwell should have been saved. All of the money that went to Space X, and to Russia, etc, could have went to Rockwell and could have saved jobs in my hometown. And I know Boeing is to blame too. My hometown was a beautiful, proud area, now it is a ghetto with a high crime-rate. And it is happening all over America. Once proud areas are turning into ghettos. Once proud people are now unemployed and ashamed. It sucks. Americans love to work, and Americans love to do great things. And America has always been so proud of NASA and our space program, and putting men on the moon was awesome, and my hometown was so proud of the Shuttles. We need leaders who will bring back our pride. We want to do great things, and we want to be proud of our accomplishments. America is a land of achievers.

Salute,

Tony V.

[josh]

Bush might have initiated ending the Shuttle program, which was foolish, but the Shuttle program was terminated on Obama's watch...

WTF?!

Bush CUT THE FUNDING for maintaining the program, Tony.

Obama didn't have a way to change that.

[josh]

https://www.facebook.com/CollegeHumor/videos/3308363782544560/

What undecided voters sound like at the moment.

[luee]

I blame the liberal elites who have an insatiable need for cheap nannies and recreational drugs. Homelessness and crime abound specially in the so-called sanctuary cities. Yeah, open the borders and make them all legal they shout. Uncle Joe should not go down that road. A disaster at this pandemic time with astronomical unemployment rates and missed rental payments.

[FlyingVProd]

Drapetomania was the name of the mental illness for slaves who did not like being slaves and who wanted to run away. The slave owners said that if the slaves had food and shelter that they should be happy, and if they wanted to run away then something must be wrong with them, they said they must be mentally ill for not being happy as a slave.
 
Link...
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drapetomania
 
And then the South actually fought a war and people died over slavery. The slave owners did not want to give up slavery.
 
And it is the same thing with communist slave labor in China, they are denied basic human rights and they are not paid fair and they are not treated well. Some people just refuse to pay people fair. They want slave labor instead of paying people fair.

People have to fight, just to be free and to be paid fair.

Salute,

Tony V.

[bodiddley]

How about the slave labor in the US where prisoners make $0.30 an hour?


(it varies per state, with a few states paying nothing at all, and some but not many over $1 per hour)

[josh]

I blame the liberal elites who have an insatiable need for cheap nannies

Of course you do.

Because the conservative elites who did the same things, in spades, are above reproach.

[bodiddley]

1. Basic english...correct grammar and spelling.
No having to write essays and spend years trying to work out what Shakespeare was ranting about.
2. General maths...add up, subtract, divide...measure.
3. Geography ...so they won't be telling Jay Leno in the street talk that the largest country in South America is Africa.
4. American history...so they'll know all about their own country. How many stars and how many stripes on the flag, for example.
5. Learn Chinese...China is buying up America.
6. Learn Spanish.

Uh, you do realize that Chinese is a very difficult language, both spoken and written.  And its usefulness still rather limited in the US. 

As for China buying up the US, I'm not sure what you are really referring to, but it'll likely be no different than when the Saudis were "buying up America" followed by the Japanese (remember them?). 

Generally foreigners flush with new riches tend to overpay for prestige assets and frequently make bad deals, since they don't understand the market well and cultural obstacles that will occur. 

You might want to watch the documentary American Factory in which a giant Chinese glass manufacturer buys an old US auto plant and tries to succeed with its Chinese practices in the US heartland.   Or look at that article on Foxconn in WI, where the whole project was sham to the detriment of Wisconsin.

[bodiddley]

The US educational system needs to be improved, but a lot of the problem relates to the socio-cultural problems in society whereby it's very difficult to actually teach and maintain order in some schools.  While lots of children are not properly prepared for school and learning.  The downfall of stable two-parent families has a lot to do with this.  I really haven't kept up with educational challenges in the US much the past decade or two, but they used to say that free nursery school or kindergarten advances life-long learning significantly.

Sidenote:  I've always thought that the ascendancy of rap and lyric-based music meant that you could teach young people poetry and poetics, including fundamentals such as meter and rhyme and other techniques to express themselves in that genre -- alliteration, internal rhyme, rhyme schemes, synecdoche, metonymy, false rhymes, etc.

If you teach them the techniques of poetry and an understanding of poetics combined with writing their own lyrics/poetry, i think this could be popular and useful learning.

[bambu.]

How about the slave labor in the US where prisoners make $0.30 an hour?


(it varies per state, with a few states paying nothing at all, and some but not many over $1 per hour)

Some people believe that prisoners working on the inside are taking jobs away from workers on the outside.

[facilitatorn]

It’s good there is enough metal assembled for the failed wall project to weld neck collars on every member of the trump administration so they will be easy to identify in public for the rest of their lives. Otherwise it would have been a total waste.

[bodiddley]

How about the slave labor in the US where prisoners make $0.30 an hour?


(it varies per state, with a few states paying nothing at all, and some but not many over $1 per hour)

Some people believe that prisoners working on the inside are taking jobs away from workers on the outside.

The idea of having prisoners learning a trade -- how to use machine tools or whatnot, makes sense.  And saving taxpayer money by having prisoners wash the dishes, mop the floors, handle the laundry, act as librarians, etc also makes sense.  Giving them a routine, getting them used to a regular job, occupying their time, and such can be beneficial.   But paying them less than $1 an hour is awful.  Money which they are just likely to recirculate to the likely overpriced prison store (I owe my soul to the company store fashion).

Hell, you could pay prisoners $6 an hour, thereby paying half what you would a civilian, and have $2 of that go to a state crime restitution fund, another $2 saved into a bank account for when they are released, and still pay the prisoners $2 an hour which would be double or even quadruple or more than what they earn now.

Took me two minutes of thought to come up with that.
Sure prison budgets would go up.  But they are artificially low due to current slave labor practices.  My proposal could be tinkered with, but seems more humane with prisoners working to get some kind of money to have upon release, and victims being helped as well.

[FlyingVProd]

With the fires in California, a lot of prisoners fight the fires, and do fire prevention work, etc, and I support that. It is good to get the prisoners out and to let them work. I do not think that they should be paid anything. They are prisoners who are paying their debt to society for past wrongs, and it is punishment, there should not be any reward. Make them clean brush in the forest, and cut fire breaks, and fight fires, and remove dead trees, etc, and do not pay them anything. They are criminals who are being punished, they should not be paid. Sentence them to hard labor, and make them do fire prevention work, etc. 

Salute,

Tony V.