dual_sport_dork

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
  1. He is not a sitting president yet.

  2. He was not a sitting president when the offenses occurred in 2016, either, when he had yet to be elected. Even if the "presidential immunity" ruling could somehow be twisted to apply to this as if it were an official act, he was in no way shape or form president at that time.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 12 hours ago (4 children)

I found some additional articles on what he said about this, and he did indeed flat out say he expects the "other countries" to pay the tariffs. For instance, this.

A sweeping tariff policy will kill two birds with one stone, Trump says: It could find a new source of revenue for the U.S. government, which could offset losses from lowering or eliminating certain forms of income tax, while extracting money from rival governments.

That's not how tariffs have worked at any point in history.

[–] [email protected] 166 points 13 hours ago (14 children)

They all thought the foreign company paid the tariff.

This is probably what Trump thinks, too. I can easily believe he is that stupid.

I'm also wondering just what the fuck Trump and co. are going to do with all the money obtained from these tariffs. Just, like, spend it all on hookers and blow or what? Remember how you all believed this was the party of "low taxes?" Yeah, guess what a tariff is, fuckers.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Some people are apparently incapable of learning anything except by rote. To them, every problem or situation has one solution, and they have no answer for any situation that has not previously been explicitly spelled out to them and the solution memorized, and failing that they not only won't know what to do but they flat out won't even try. There is no such thing as figuring out a new solution to anything based on logic or deduction. In any process, they will refuse to understand how the result is actually derived from the actions taken, nor what each step does or why it is done.

I've had to work with several people like this over the years and it's both exhausting and infuriating.

In my line of work I have also been forced to interact with people, mostly clients, who cannot understand hypotheticals. Any abstract or non-concrete concept is completely lost on them and worse, usually exposing them to one will make them irrationally angry in response -- which they will immediately direct at you, you nerd.

These people are not only allowed to vote, but also drive cars, own firearms, and have children. It's shocking.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Here's the problem with that, though. It's not going to be like there will be roving goon squads going from door to door snatching away your wives and daughters or anything. Even the MAGA-heads are just barely clever enough not to form themselves into any kind of entity that you could physically fight.

Instead, they're going to chip away at everybody with asinine laws and legislation, selective enforcement and remote harassment, by filing mountains of frivolous lawsuits, etc. They'll seize property. They'll get you fired from your job. They'll kick you off of your health insurance and freeze your bank accounts. Those responsible are never going to actually expose themselves in any capacity in which they can get got, because they're cowards; they're going to hide behind their desks and layers of security and fences and metal detectors and cops and the secret service. If it turns to outright violence vis-a-vis war in our own cities, it would be monumentally stupid for them to send troops marching down the street, and they won't. They'll just remotely bombard an entire city block and blame all the collateral damage on "leftists" or "wokeism" or whatever. And idiots will believe it, and then blame the victims.

"That's ridiculous," you say. "The government would never bomb anyone on US soil."

You want to bet?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

An AC-130U. We can play a game of see how many times you can hit it with the side guns before it lands in the ocean.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I, too, have one of these "landlord special" properties.

I predict really the only thing you're going to have much trouble with is plumbing. Everything you find will be rigged, or leaks "fixed" with gobs of silicone rather than actually replacing the fitting, shut off valves omitted to save costs, etc.

Don't go crazy buying tools just yet, but be prepared for the fact that you will, over time, wind up having to invest in quality plumbing tools probably including some specialty stuff like broken stub extractors, short-throw tubing cutters, faucet seat wrenches, etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Thanks.

I have a set of matching super historically authentic pants in the same pattern and material (with suspenders!) as well. I might even still fit in them, but I haven't tried in a while.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

I usually attack it with a terrycloth and some Flitz. A little will go a surprisingly long way.

There are various methods of oiling, waxing, or otherwise preserving it afterwards. I prefer boiled linseed oil for that, personally.

In Ye Modern Times, you could also just make your mail out of something that doesn't rust. I didn't, though.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

IIRC the whole thing about the land mines exploding when you step off of them is purely down to the Bouncing Betty or the German S-Mine, which saw widespread use and gained its infamy in WW2. They almost worked in the manner described, actually going off with a time delay rather than waiting until the hapless soldier removed his foot from the plunger. But they used a small lift charge to pop the main explosive up into the air a couple of feet and then went off, with the aim of shrapneling in a circle a whole group of soldiers passing by and not just whoever stepped on it. Obviously this wouldn't work so well if someone were standing on it at the time.

The popular conception formed that they went off "after you stepped off of them," which was true in most cases (who was going to just stand there like a nincompoop after you'd just triggered it?) and then Hollywood writers of the era just assumed that most or all landmines worked that way and wouldn't let that misconception go. So now here we are.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Just slap a blue filter over that lens and you're good to go.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago

In the original comic her neck was broken, and it's not clear if it's due to Spiderman's failure at grasping physics or if the Green Goblin had already killed her before chucking her corpse off the bridge, but Peter Parker blames himself for it anyway.

 
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submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

...when he will find himself standing in a hardware store confronted with a wall of bird feeding accessories. This is, I'm told, some kind of twisted coming of age thing. Up until now you've thought about two, maybe three birds in your entire life. Tops. But then, bang: Suddenly the topic of a bird feeder is vitally important. It's serious business.

There's a snag, though.

"What about this?" She'll ask. "It's so cute, like a little tiny house. And it's only $14.97!" It's not even sold yet and you can see it's already falling apart. The wood's split, and clearly nobody taught the children in that sweatshop how a square works. Or a clamp. There's a gold sticker on the bottom, half peeling off. It says 'Made In China.'

"Come on, I could make that in about 10 minutes with crap I have lying around my workshop."

"Yes, dear," your wife will say, while patting your arm.

This is what 300,000 years of evolution has brought us. Countless generations worth of genetic fine-tuning, passed down through mitochondrial DNA, veritably ensured the delivery of that precise response. The woman has watched you rebuild transmissions, heft Labrador sized rocks over your head, and replaster the entire house. But this, this thing consisting of no more than five ratty planks of wood, elicits a sarcastic "yes, dear."

This is it, isn't it? Men, Mars. Women, Venus. Every single one of those dumbass 1950's stand-up routines, distilled. It turns out it was all true. Well, part of it, anyway.

But some things are a matter of principle.

This is a bird feed suet cake holder I literally made out of offcuts and random crap I had lying around on my workbench, in ten minutes. Using nothing -- nothing, I say -- other than my compound miter saw and cordless drill. And a spot of wood filler, because there was a gnarly knot hole on the plank I wound up using on the top. It's held together with Spax screws and you could probably also use it as a jack stand for a bus.

Parameters drafted: Zero. Measurements made: Zero. Components purchased: Zero. And spending $14.97 on a ramshackle piece of shit? Studiously avoided.

 

Pop!

 

I'll bet you a nickel I'll never pull this off again.

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