WTF? (**NSFW**)

[Hopefulflyer389]

36 minutes ago, jazzdude said:

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/base-intruder-makes-aboard-military-aircraft-unit-charge/story?id=75713268

I thought the red line on the ramp was impenetrable...#yolo

That red line makes me walk way too many unnecessary steps 

[Lawman]

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/base-intruder-makes-aboard-military-aircraft-unit-charge/story?id=75713268

I thought the red line on the ramp was impenetrable...#yolo

See we would have better security... but we were too busy having them harass a bunch of dudes going to/from their Helicopters in a marked vehicle while wearing flight gear.


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[FUSEPLUG]

[ClearedHot]

4 hours ago, FUSEPLUG said:

Do you know the story of this "incident?"

[FUSEPLUG]

2 minutes ago, ClearedHot said:

Do you know the story of this "incident?"

Funny you should ask... as I searched for the pic, I thought I remember hearing it was more than just the “Amn Dipshit dropped his cell phone and was searching for it when he drove under an F-15” as described in the news (I use that term loosely) story I saw. 
 

I feel a solidly told refresher is in order on this one. 

[ClearedHot]

1 hour ago, FUSEPLUG said:

Funny you should ask... as I searched for the pic, I thought I remember hearing it was more than just the “Amn Dipshit dropped his cell phone and was searching for it when he drove under an F-15” as described in the news (I use that term loosely) story I saw.

I feel a solidly told refresher is in order on this one. 

Supposedly it was the drivers pants that were dropped not a cell phone.  Multiple folks who were at Eglin when it happened said Amn Snuffy was getting a BJ from Amn Suffett when he became overly excited and lost control of the vehicle.

[M2]

1 hour ago, ClearedHot said:

Supposedly it was the drivers pants that were dropped not a cell phone.  Multiple folks who were at Eglin when it happened said Amn Snuffy was getting a BJ from Amn Suffett when he became overly excited and lost control of the vehicle.

[GKinnear]

On 2/6/2021 at 1:19 PM, arg said:

https://local12.com/news/nation-world/snow-removal-dispute-leads-to-double-murder-suicide-in-pennsylvania-cincinnati-goys-spaide

https://photos.smugmug.com/Mobile-uploads/i-sZQNsVC/0/78733bc6/640/received_170185234600466_mp4-640.mp4

Whoa...holy shit dude...a NSFL warning.

 

Death on a battlefield is one thing...that was something else entirely.

[pawnman]

20 hours ago, GKinnear said:

Whoa...holy shit dude...a NSFL warning.

 

Death on a battlefield is one thing...that was something else entirely.

Life pro tip... if someone is pointing a gun at you, don't tell them "go ahead".

Similar incident in Abilene a couple years ago.  Neighbors in a dispute over a shared dumpster.  One guy comes out with a gun.  Other guy says "what are you gonna do, shoot me?" First guy proceeds to shoot him.

[FLEA]

WTF?

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/man-builds-guitar-out-of-his-dead-uncles-skeleton-uses-it-to-play-black-metal

[arg]

KC should have signed her

https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/houston-texas/article/lake-jackson-mom-tackle-15943328.php?fbclid=IwAR2vjmkF_NpEUlJiCd6WT2Ecf1lAOC8g6T-wVrjGVJgV6lmzMaJtNQw-bK4

[arg]

Somebody's not thinking

[tac airlifter]

I don’t get it.

[jazzdude]

I don’t get it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_assassination_rifle

[tac airlifter]

7 minutes ago, jazzdude said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_assassination_rifle

Yikes!

[arg]

On 2/17/2021 at 8:08 PM, MyCS said:

Texas mayor resigns after telling residents desperate for power and heat "only the strong will survive"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tim-boyd-mayor-colorado-city-texas-resigns-power-outages/

You know, the guy does have somewhat of a point. Who is ultimately responsible for their families safety and well being? You as the head of household or the government? I would say you. Many folks were sitting in their houses with no heat or running water waiting for the .gov to come and save them. That didn't happen. You need to be prepared. 

[17D_guy]

On 2/21/2021 at 12:00 AM, arg said:

You know, the guy does have somewhat of a point. Who is ultimately responsible for their families safety and well being? You as the head of household or the government? I would say you. Many folks were sitting in their houses with no heat or running water waiting for the .gov to come and save them. That didn't happen. You need to be prepared. 

And no natural gas.  So, dig a well for water, and set up a bike to pedal for power?  I've got friends who ran out of food and power, they went through their 72 hr kits.  Their generators ran out of fuel.

You ready to go 3 days or more without power, water and gas in a major city? 

What the hell is government for if it's not to make sure our communities have utilities? How are our every-day Americans getting blamed in this failing of the business, regulators, and government?

[SocialD]

2 hours ago, 17D_guy said:

And no natural gas.  So, dig a well for water, and set up a bike to pedal for power?  I've got friends who ran out of food and power, they went through their 72 hr kits.  Their generators ran out of fuel.

You ready to go 3 days or more without power, water and gas in a major city? 

What the hell is government for if it's not to make sure our communities have utilities? How are our every-day Americans getting blamed in this failing of the business, regulators, and government?

 

I guess I didn't see it so much as as blaming them, but telling them that this is life...some assembly required.  We screwed up, but you can't always just sit there and wait to be saved.  This isn't about the .gov providing the utilities, that time was long past (and undoubtedly will come later), it was about survival.  Like we learned in survival, you may have to affect your own rescue. 

Gas tanks, generators, wood burning stoves/fireplaces, guns, bullets, food stores....suddenly preppers don't look so crazy!  

[Guardian]

Where does it say the US or State government exists to make sure our utilities are working? Very confused.

[Lawman]

Where does it say the US or State government exists to make sure our utilities are working? Very confused.

I mean... they seem to have no business billing me for them and if I saw fit to take myself off the grid, they will use the power of the courts to force my commitment to support them.

Now that’s not to say the Mayor didn’t have a reasonable point even if messaging was totally bonkers. It shouldn’t be so easy for people to simply throw up their hands and wait for the rescue they expect to immediately take place. This seems to be a force of personal resilience that we have somehow abandoned in general. However there is reasonable expectation that the governing and private companies we grant sole operation of utilities to go managing that responsibility in good faith. That’s exactly why there are power companies being sued by people provided they can prove that bungling priority shows harm.


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[Guardian]

Huh?

[Lawman]

Huh?

Did you flip a switch in your house and the lights come on?

Ok you know how that is like an expectation because you pay a bill... yeah that’s part of being a 1st world country. And no, you can’t choose to not be part of that. There have been court cases literally requiring property owners to reattach themselves to power/water/etc utilities.

Turns out there is an actual category which makes something a public utility vs just another commercial business. If a private company wants to make themselves part of that enterprise, they have to meet certain expected capabilities. A lot of them are safety related like you can’t just kill people with crap wiring, others are expectation related like yes you have to pay overtime and maintain a grid of sufficient resilience we don’t see rolling blackouts because it snowed. Right now there is a war going on in legislation as to whether or not to categorize digital data exchange (ie the thing we are talking via) as a utility and that fight is ongoing. We long ago decided that sewage, water, electricity, etc were public utilities.

So yes, the governmental oversight and the private companies responsible for designing and managing Texas electrical utilities absolutely have questions to answer here.


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[Majestik Møøse]

Suck it old people, you’re on your own! I believe in survival of the fittest!

[brabus]

I haven’t read much specifics on the Texas situation, but two thoughts:

- It was a once in a century weather event for that region...should their power grid be built to withstand something that might happen in 100 years from now? Is that extra money and effort worth it? Put it this way, 5 years from now Texans see a bond on their ballot for billions to “winterize” their power grid to withstand blizzard conditions. It’s going to cost those taxpayers a sizable increase in tax...how many will say “fuck that, this is Texas, I’ll take my chances with some 100 year storm!” Probably enough to kill that bond, and I wouldn’t really blame them. I also don’t buy warranties on every item I buy at Lowe’s.

- SocialD brings up a great point about self reliance. I live in the north, have lost power for a week (along with everyone else). Everyone helped themselves and their neighbors. Nobody sued the state or sat there crying for gov to save them. Frustrating sure, but utilities were destroyed by a string of storms, and it took a ton of time/effort to fix, while those dudes worked in severe conditions. We accepted it as an annoyance, thankful people were working to fix it, and we took care of ourselves. Gov is not the answer, not being whiny pussies and having a willingness to put some elbow grease in is the answer.  
 

Edit: Not a spear at Texans, I’m guessing most are taking care of themselves/neighbors and not being whiny pussies. Comment above is addressing this general topic, agnostic of specific location in the U.S. 

Edited February 23, 2021 by brabus

[jazzdude]

I haven’t read much specifics on the Texas situation, but two thoughts:
- It was a once in a century weather event for that region...should their power grid be built to withstand something that might happen in 100 years from now? Is that extra money and effort worth it? Put it this way, 5 years from now Texans see a bond on their ballot for billions to “winterize” their power grid to withstand blizzard conditions. It’s going to cost those taxpayers a sizable increase in tax...how many will say “ that, this is Texas, I’ll take my chances with some 100 year storm!” Probably enough to kill that bond, and I wouldn’t really blame them. I also don’t buy warranties on every item I buy at Lowe’s.
- SocialD brings up a great point about self reliance. I live in the north, have lost power for a week (along with everyone else). Everyone helped themselves and their neighbors. Nobody sued the state or sat there crying for gov to save them. Frustrating sure, but utilities were destroyed by a string of storms, and it took a ton of time/effort to fix, while those dudes worked in severe conditions. We accepted it as an annoyance, thankful people were working to fix it, and we took care of ourselves. Gov is not the answer, not being whiny pussies and having a willingness to put some elbow grease in is the answer.  
 
Edit: Not a spear at Texans, I’m guessing most are taking care of themselves/neighbors and not being whiny pussies. Comment above is addressing this general topic, agnostic of specific location in the U.S. 

Texas lost power in 2011 due to a much less severe winter. Here's the recommendations following the 2011 event: https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/08-16-11-report.pdf
It's also the only CONUS state that elected not to winterize it's grid to meet federal recommendations, and is one of the reasons their grid is isolated. Their grid is also not government run, but run by a non-profit.

I agree with you that government is not the only answer to problems. Learning skills useful in emergencies is good (heat/shelter, water purification, etc), and is having emergency supplies (though this assumes people have excess money in their budget to purchase those supplies). Neighbors helping neighbors is a good thing-that's community. But government is also a reflection of community, and allows the community to plan and pool resources together to achieve common goals for the community.

You're also right that there's a trade off; maybe Texans don't want to pay money more to prevent rare disasters. But then they'll pay the price once the risk they accepted is realized, and that price won't be paid with money (though extended power outages can't be good for businesses or the economy either), but with lives.

On your money discussion, you can make the same argument for defense spending. Do we *need* all the F-35s the AF wants to buy? Or KC-46? Sure, there is an OPLAN, but that's also just something that might happen (possibly never happen), so are those investments worth it? Put another way, I bet money for one or two F-35s or a KC-46 would go a long ways towards fixing electrical grid issues in Texas. Plus, it's much harder to generate military missions if there's no power on base, so the issue isn't unrelated from defense, just not as sexy as a weapon system.