The New Coffee Room

Wonderful news - no more taxes

Amazon has trimmed off it's Amazon Express Stores. We had one near our house that opened 2-3 years ago. They spent a fortune to purchase the building and expand. Business was a fraction of the store that it replaced. I'm wondering if Bezos is anticipating a hit to the economy and trimming sails in advance of the apocalypse downturn.

I had the chance to buy a rebuilt in SD10 for $1,500 about 3 years ago. It was an instance where the owner had passed and they wanted the piano gone by the end of the week. WAF - Wife acceptance factor came into play - couldn't imagine having a 9 ft Baldwin and 7 ft Steinway in a 20x24 ft living room - at least until I sold one of them.

I took it at 70 - and didn't watch the video. One thing to consider is that in 7 years they'll likely cut the benefit for everyone by about 25% as funds will have run out. They'll have to cut it again a few years later. Of course, congress could fix it - but that's not going to happen.

Actually, I've seen a few videos that anticipate that the government will do what was done in Argentina, Greece, Poland and a couple of other countries is that once the national debt is sufficiently out of control, the government will nationalize pensions, 401Ks and IRAs - to make things better for all of us.

You are my people! I have from 5- 55lbs, some in the garage and some in the living room where people always have gym equipment.

@Mik said in Anybody use dumbells?:

I don't have a problem with cardio at home, but I enjoy getting out and going to the gym. Down 60 lbs over the past 10 months.

WOW!! That's great!

I once had about 30 cases of diet coke that I wanted to donate to the local food pantry. They refused it - only healthy food. It seemed a bit silly. I sold them on FB marketplace.

Actually, I think they were saying “f*ck nice”.

“We are federales...Badges? We ain’t got no badges! We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!”

And no, I didn't go to the group down the block so I have no idea what we're all supposed to do.

Neighborhood groups have formed. One of the neighbors on our block held a meeting to sort through what to do. There are all kinds of informal ad hoc groups around the area. A friend attended a protest near one of the detention centers. Per her, there were a variety of groups there - not a massive centralized effort - more a bunch of small tribes.

I know a few AWFUL women. Has a nice ring to it.

The remnants of the Raven's body to be shown later.

I possess and am the subject of some of the worst looking running photos of ALL time. I have friends who look great. One woman friend had a picture of her taken in the late stages of a marathon with her smiling and looking like she should be on the cover of Vogue. I look like a before picture to be included in Morticians Monthly Magazine.

.Lotta dancing going on here, but I think we all agree that the shooting was unjustified. Also, I don't think anyone is arguing that his bringing a gun was foolish. I think we're also agreed that the rush to say stupid things didn't serve to add credibility to the government- but that is not unique to this administration.

We're arguing on his motivations and terminology, hypocrisy of one side or the other. Fun stuff as always. I think we're all agreed that his earlier behavior should have had consequences - but whether that was an indication he was a rabid agitator - or whether he learned from that and came to the party this time to be more responsible - we may never know.

Cute cat. Has a name been chosen?

@Horace said in ICE kills a US citizen in Minneapolis:
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"That's an absolute joke of a take. He was there to agitate, and he aggressively inserted himself into the middle of an already violent law enforcement encounter. "

ICU nurses have a long history of domestic terrorism. Really?

My take...

1. Best to not light a match to see where the dynamite is. It was foolish to bring the gun. If you're facing off against Bruce Lee, the knife in your hand will not likely provide protection - but gives Bruce the opportunity to "defend himself" to your detriment. I think we're all in agreement that bringing the gun was a mistake - but many of the 2nd amendment crowd would typically support - e.g. Kyle Rittenhouse brought weapon to protest - no problem.

2. The expanded ICE project was launched quite rapidly - with little time to provide guardrails of code of conduct or standard operating procedures. Few enterprises developed that quickly, with that kind of scale and no experience are destined for success. In fact, the "quotas" that have been provided to ICE employees may provide incentives to bend the law to achieve results.

3. While you've suggested otherwise, I don't think the nurse represented an intentional agitator, let alone domestic terrorist. He was classified as an observer to document ICE activities. In the videos, things seemed to go south when he tried to assist the woman who had been pushed to the pavement. Some would think that assisting a woman thrown to the ground was a compassion gesture - maybe something a nurse would be do. But, other more knowledgeable people, of course, see this as wanton aggression perpetrated against authority

4. The shooting began while Pretti was pinned on the ground by several agents, and continued after he collapsed motionless. One agent fired three rounds into Pretti's back while he was bracing himself with one hand still holding his phone. This is a measured response to a perceived threat? Not excessive? Appropriate? How was he aggressively resisting when pinned to the ground after the first shot? Was his aggression attempting to help up the woman?

5. When professional police are involved in a shooting, the area is sealed off to preserve the crime scene. There are procedures to be followed to ensure the integrity of an investigation. This time?

6. Within hours, without any investigation, high-ranking officials provided the following: White House advisor Stephen Miller alleged without evidence that Pretti was a "domestic terrorist" who tried to "assassinate federal law enforcement". DHS Secretary Kristi Noem accused Pretti of brandishing his firearm and committing "an act of domestic terrorism". Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino speculated Pretti was "more than likely" there to assault officers. That's nonsense.

If one reads 1491 and 1493...

There was no written language (not true everywhere), no codified law (wrong),no durable institutions (untrue in several places), no cities (Tenochtitlan had a population 4x larger than London in 1491), no philosophy (really?), no science (the Aztecs did things e.g. Agriculture we still haven't figured out), no architecture that scaled (e.g. Tenochtitlan??), no technological trajectory that suggested imminent development.

Seems like he's arguing for manifest destiny and a certain mustached man who argued for the supremacy of a certain tribe.

Not everyone is excited with the choice