The City on Fire

Quote: Gandler

I just got this email from a bank which I will not name:

"So our teammates may observe Juneteenth—the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of slavery ending in the United States—we’re closing at 2 pm this Friday, June 19.
Juneteenth is a day of remembrance and an opportunity to commemorate African American freedom and celebrate Black culture. This year, it’s also an opportunity to speak up and create better dialogue in our communities.

Cuomo just signed an executive order making Juneteenth a state holiday for all state employees. Next year, the single party state will make it a permanent state holiday.

After the election, Biden will make it a national holiday.

Quote: Tanko

Cuomo just signed an executive order making Juneteenth a state holiday for all state employees. Next year, the single party state will make it a permanent state holiday.

After the election, Biden will make it a national holiday.

How will Biden do that from his retirement home?

No need for a holiday IMHO. Just lets people fixate on slavery and blame it for everything they do not like.

And kind of funny Cuomo makes it a holiday. Democrats were furious when Lincoln freed their slaves.

Quote: Mission146

I would totally agree with that, so then you make it so that it's not even a possibility. You could even make a few exceptions for outright hate speech or any speech that itself (incitement to riot, etc.) would actually be a crime.

Yeah I would not even go that far (because "hate speech" is a loose term now a days). Unless you post something illegal it should not be used against you.

Quote: Mission146

That's how I feel about it. With all of this talk about white privilege and police violence from CKaep, I think he tends to forget that there are people making an extremely small fraction of what he does getting told when they can or can not use the bathroom.

Yeah..... He also had white parents and grew up in an upper middle class suburb, so even before he was famous, its not like he was struggling growing up.... Not sure why he is chosen representative for black people.... But, yeah he is a joke....

Quote: Mission146

I think the will COULD be there, but not the ability. If there's one thing religious folks can't stand, it's being outnumbered. When you have the ones going out into public to pimp their churches, you can watch them visibly wilt at even the slightest hint of argument; it's actually really funny. Then you get the whole, "The things you are saying are terrible, sir!" How? The only person I'm trying to convince is the one who started trying to convince me first; the others I'm leaving completely alone.

Maybe nobody cares where you are. It's when they get you inside that it's a real problem. It really doesn't even matter for most adults, but the whole entire system is in place to brainwash the kids...and I guess to keep as much pressure as possible on the adults they already have. The only way their arguments are in anyway actually convincing is if you're not smart enough to have a contrary opinion already. It's all peer pressure and echo chamber once you get inside. Maybe there aren't essentially any entire towns that are like that anymore, I guess it's possible, but like I said...I think they're mostly on the defensive now. The reign is over.

Maybe. I don't think too much about it, Christians are not an issue for me (other than an occasional annoyance).
The will may there with some very fringe churches, but even then I don't think so.

Quote: Mission146

Maybe, but I have to admit, aside from having read maybe half of the Quran, in total, I don't really know much about them. I don't see them as being any kind of a threat at all in this country, and if they ever do achieve any societal changing level of power here, it'll be long after I'm dead.

Huge threat. Especially if you travel aboard.
They make up less than 1% of America (far less), and look at how many terror deaths they have caused in the last 20 years? And, bear in mind we don't even have that many extremists, most Muslim Americans are pretty moderate and hardly religious. Like we talked about in the other thread there are some countries where extremism is the norm.....

Quote: Mission146

It's a good term. That's pretty much exactly what it is. I'd say they might end up being worse than religion has been in the recent history of this country, but not worse than religion has ever been historically. At least they're not going around actually killing folks. Can you imagine being some random plumber who gets socially martyred for making a semi-political joke on Facebook without the 27 necessary precisely-worded qualifiers? At least all the Christians would do is tell you that you're evil and going to hell...in most cases.

Not yet. But they are doxing people and camping outside the houses of Officers and others they don't like.
How long until they take it a step further?

Quote: Mission146

I don't know any, but I could count my unrelated non-forum friends on one hand and have a few fingers left.

I think it's that way with a lot of people, or at least, was. I think social media provides a degree of separation...even for the Far Left doing what we were talking about earlier, that it's almost like you're doing that thing to a concept of a person rather than an actual person. What I mean is that the person is bombarding someone's employer with phone calls to report what a bad person they have working for them, but they've never actually met that person, nor have they been to the building owned/operated by the employer....might never have been to the state. They're making the concept of that person worse off, and it's so much easier, because they don't even have to see the consequences or interact with them after the fact.

Meantime, they might well strike up a perfectly happy casual conversation with that same person in the checkout line of the grocery store, or something.

Yes there is truth to that. But, this guys was pretty extreme talking to him in person if politics came up.

Quote: Mission146

That's reasonable in terms of direct pay. I still want to know what private job they are comparing it to.

See and that is the problem. Its hard to find a direct civilian equivalent. My current position is Dental Specialist (68E), equivalent to a Dental Assistant in terms of training. However, you also have to train for combat and do a lot of general Army stuff. I mean the closest private civilian equivalent would be a Dental Assistant who is also an armed security guard for the clinic (if such a role exists).

I used to be a medic (68W), probably the closest civilian equivalent was EMT-b, but in the military you can do more advanced things than you can in the civilian world. Also, the training is all about battlefield response. So the closest equivalent in the private sector would probably be Armed Security Guard who is an EMT (these positions do actually exist at some casinos). I mean in terms of direct pay the Army is less for both (especially considering the number of hours and other duties etc...)

Quote: Mission146

Yeah, when it comes to the benefits it's the tuition assistance I was saying is absolutely ridiculous. National Guard, too. I think the appropriate amount is something more along the lines of $0.00. Why should the Federal Government offer a better combo pay/benefits package than most of your 1-2 day/month jobs are going to be able/willing to offer doing anything else? AND THEN...they have the audacity to compare their pay/benefits to private sector employment...okay...why is the Government competing with private sector for part-time employees?

TA is capped at 4500 a year or 16 credit hours a year. Hardly an overwhelming benefit.

My regular employer offers education re-imbursement too (with no limit). Most major employers off their workers education re-imbursement (even Walmart). This is hardly a unique and impressive benefit.

And, even if I use 100% of it every year (I don't), it only costs tax payers 4500.

What other crazy benefits am I leaving out?

Quote: Mission146

I don't hold it against you. I don't even really know what you do. I just think the whole entire structure of it is a pointless waste of money. I don't know what the insurance is all about, but even any access to insurance at all is better than what many part-time employees get elsewhere---which is no insurance through that employer whatsoever.

Well, I think have the ability to pay into the plan is reasonable. (active duty its 100% free).

Quote: Mission146

I mean, your whole entire job is essentially socialized. It's paid for by the taxpayer. The taxpayer is paying for you to have a better part-time job than they do...unless they want to also do that. Not to mention all the friggin' TV ads that the taxpayer is paying for.

The Army has the best TV ads I think of any organization. 100% money well spent.

By that logic any gov job is socialized.... Which is true, but divisive phrasing. (I don't view socialism as a bad thing, but I know you do).

Quote: Mission146

Maybe, I don't know much about it.



No, there aren't. We can certainly try and fail, though.

Or succeed. The future can be brighter.

Quote: Gandler

.. America has been better than most countries….

Are you kidding me
Owning another human is disgusting
You are defending this????????????
It does not matter what other countries did or have done
Slavery is wrong. I find it disgusting that the South actually fought a war over this
Its a huge stain on the South that will never go away.

Quote: Tanko

Cuomo just signed an executive order making Juneteenth a state holiday for all state employees. Next year, the single party state will make it a permanent state holiday.

After the election, Biden will make it a national holiday.

Sounds good to me!!

Quote: terapined

Are you kidding me
Owning another human is disgusting
You are defending this????????????
It does not matter what other countries did or have done
Slavery is wrong. I find it disgusting that the South actually fought a war over this
Its a huge stain on the South that will never go away.

Wow this is one of the most aggregious cases of selective quoting that I have seen.

Where did I say slavery is good?

You take a quote of me saying America has been better than most countries (empirically true) and somehow skew it to be a defense of slavery?

I pointed out the timetable of countries working to remove slavery. Which as you may or may not know still occurs in other parts of the world...

Again America is better than most countries. This is not a slavery defense, this is a statement about America (not sure how this needs to be pointed out).....

Quote: AZDuffman

Quote: Tanko

Cuomo just signed an executive order making Juneteenth a state holiday for all state employees. Next year, the single party state will make it a permanent state holiday.

After the election, Biden will make it a national holiday.

How will Biden do that from his retirement home?

No need for a holiday IMHO. Just lets people fixate on slavery and blame it for everything they do not like.

And kind of funny Cuomo makes it a holiday. Democrats were furious when Lincoln freed their slaves.

AZ... you have to stop fixating on the fact that decades or centuries ago the Democrats were pro-slavery. Whatever you think of the modern Democrat party, that is not who or what they are today. You can argue that their policies are failures, and have led to many Blacks and Black communities failing, but the ideology at least IS pro-minority.

NO ONE is voting Republican because they think the Democrats are the party of slavery.

As far as the Holiday BS, agree. There should be NO fixed holidays, in the sense that virtually ALL businesses close. Give workers 5 or so 'floating' holidays and let THEM decide which ones they want to celebrate. I'd pick New Years, Memorial, Independence, Labor, and Thanksgiving. Frankly, as a Jew, I used to work virtually every Christmas, and have the guy I was working for just work any regular Saturday I was assigned. A win-win for both of us.

Quote: SOOPOO

AZ... you have to stop fixating on the fact that decades or centuries ago the Democrats were pro-slavery. Whatever you think of the modern Democrat party, that is not who or what they are today. You can argue that their policies are failures, and have led to many Blacks and Black communities failing, but the ideology at least IS pro-minority.

NO ONE is voting Republican because they think the Democrats are the party of slavery.

No, but we keep hearing how somehow the GOP is the "racist" party when the Democrats are the ones with that history, keeping a KKK leader in the Senate until his 2000s death, even praising him. Since we are tearing down any statue with a history of racism we need to tell those people the real history.

Quote:

As far as the Holiday BS, agree. There should be NO fixed holidays, in the sense that virtually ALL businesses close. Give workers 5 or so 'floating' holidays and let THEM decide which ones they want to celebrate. I'd pick New Years, Memorial, Independence, Labor, and Thanksgiving. Frankly, as a Jew, I used to work virtually every Christmas, and have the guy I was working for just work any regular Saturday I was assigned. A win-win for both of us.

That works except for places that must close. A good trade you made there. We had a Jewish dealer who worked a Christmas Eve house party every year. It was that or sit home with his wife, which he did after. He loved it. They loved him.

Quote: SOOPOO

As far as the Holiday BS, agree. There should be NO fixed holidays, in the sense that virtually ALL businesses close. Give workers 5 or so 'floating' holidays and let THEM decide which ones they want to celebrate. I'd pick New Years, Memorial, Independence, Labor, and Thanksgiving. Frankly, as a Jew, I used to work virtually every Christmas, and have the guy I was working for just work any regular Saturday I was assigned. A win-win for both of us.

5 seems stingy. My company gives us 9 paid holidays (includes Black Friday and Xmas eve) and there are still a couple federal holidays we have to work on.

Quote: ams288

5 seems stingy. My company gives us 9 paid holidays (includes Black Friday and Xmas eve) and there are still a couple federal holidays we have to work on.

My last contract with my hospital, for which I was the lead negotiator for my group of doctors, I negotiated ZERO holidays for us. However, we got one more week of vacation than we would have gotten. So if you did not work Christmas you were charged a PTO day. Or Labor Day. Etc... It was great. Some people didn't mind at all working the Holidays, while others loved not having to work them. (We needed 3 out of our 13 doctors to work on those 'major holidays') One year, we had a partner just pregnant, and she asked to work ALL of the available holidays so she could get a fully paid extra week off after delivering.

We got 40 PTO days a year, plus 5 'conference' days, so it worked out to 8 weeks if you didn't work the holidays. Didn't seem stingy to me!