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flatdawgs

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by flatdawgs

  1. The Portuguese had already reached and rounded the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean by then. I'm pretty sure Henry the Navigator kicked off the golden age of exploration, staring out at the vast ocean from Sagres. Cabral reached Brazil in 1500; it would be hard for me to believe that the only reason he did so was due to Columbus' voyage a few years before. Hell, da Gama completed his India voyage in 1498; regardless of Columbus, Portugal would have kept exploring - they had been for a half-century prior, quite lucratively - and due to that almost assuredly the Spanish (and likely the English) crown would have been obliged to do the same.
  2. I actually hope so, since it means I'll probably get to see one of their matches. Spent some time in Mindelo just before Covid and loved the place, so have been rooting for the tubarões azuis (Blue Sharks) to make it. Força Cabo Verde!
  3. Same as it ever was. When I was in Zambia, a decade or so ago now, some Chinese mining company managers were killed near Kitwe in the Copper Belt (I was in the South Luangwa, so not nearby). When I asked some Zambian friends about the incident, they said "we know colonialism when we see it." The Chinese were (are?) brutal and I'm sure they are not alone in that.
  4. In every other functioning democracy in the world, the government would have fallen.
  5. My avatar is not confirmed as caretaker president. Seriously, at one point Rajoelina was considered as a young leader who could clean up the country's endemic corruption and myriad other problems. Only about a third of the population has access to electricity. The country has mineral and O&G resources, particularly in the south, but as in many other places these are exploited by Western multinationals and the Chinese, and any returns are skimmed off the top. It is sad as it is a beautiful place with the kindest people.
  6. Albert Speer laughs - laughs - at that puny piece of shit arch. Do better.
  7. One of the reasons Japan and West Germany (and the rest of occupied Western Europe) became staunch allies after WWII - and stepped back from their generational resentments - was that the USA poured billions of dollars over quite a few years into rebuilding them and reintegrating their economies into the Western economic structure. Has anyone heard of any honest plans for that in Gaza, Trump Gaza Beach Resorts aside? Because if it doesn't happen, ain't nothing ever gonna change there. "Hey, we're not shooting at you any longer, enjoy the rubble!" It needs to be the West as well to build any sort of trust; middle eastern petrodollars are fine but if we want them to think there might be a better future, there needs to be hope that they can join that better future. (and oh yeah, the West Bank is still a thing)
  8. Do you or have you lived there? I'm not romanticizing it; I have residency and live there several months a year most years. And, yes, I feel the failings of unfettered capitalism are a large part of the problem; I'm much more a proponent of controlled capitalism that at least pays lip service to the greater good (see Norway for how this is done with their natural resources). Possibly this is due to where I was born and raised, which is much more that way than most other parts of this country; part of that is knowing that even a state like mine has the #2 economy (GDP per capita) in the nation while a more "free capitalist" state like Texas is 16th. I've done well enough for myself in a not terribly lucrative profession; I'm not opposed to making money but I am opposed to hoarding it at a cost to society. It seems to me that like most Reagan Republicans - of which I was never one - you don't seem to have actually lived there either. (One reason I read this board is to get opinions different than mine, so I appreciate your viewpoints!) I will say that in nearly every European country the public health care system is a base that's available to all; many/most also choose supplemental private care. In Portugal, which has decent government healthcare, the top end private cover is about 1/10th the cost it is here. (oh, and whatever NVidia did or didn't do compared to Europe is wholly irrelevant to my quality of life both there and here. In my own profession - architecture and building science - Europe is decades ahead of the USA in product and materials development.)
  9. That's certainly an American way to look at things. OTOH, one of the things I thoroughly enjoy every time I'm back in Europe is that isn't the be-all and end-all of life; quite the contrary. In all the time I've spent in Europe (almost every country; southeastern Portugal now my base when I'm over there), I have never once had a single person ask me how much I made or what giant corporations my US city is home to. I spent a good portion of last winter in Scandinavia and I think most people would consider their quality of life higher than that of the vast majority of the US. While you're not incorrect about political turmoil in some of the larger European countries, they are still facing what would be considered fairly normal political stresses. It's countries like Hungary and Türkiye, with some of the former Eastern Bloc nations thrown in, where you find similar issues to here. Not saying it's not necessarily coming, but at least for now in several countries the center-right and center-left parties refuse to form coalitions with the far right.
  10. This. All of this. My Mom knew the end was coming for two years but steadfastly refused to do any preparation whatsoever, including a will or naming an executor, or telling anyone about anything she had/where it was. As her oldest and her caretaker I had the inestimable joy of becoming the estate's administrator and sorting all that out. It took nearly 5 years before the estate was finally closed - and that with a very good estate attorney. The last best gift your parents can give you is to help make your life a little bit easier in the midst of grieving their loss. Talking with them now - as hard a subject as it is - will ease the burden while ensuring their wishes are followed.
  11. pretty sure they're out back, drowning it in a bathtub.
  12. Q for the Surly law dogs (IANAL, although my brother and ex were both attorneys and then judges so I got doused in it frequently lol) - do you think that law schools like UT will continue to seek ABA accreditation regardless of this? It seems many states including my own (WA) require all applicants to the bar to be graduates of an ABA-accredited law school, and in the current climate I don't see them changing that to accommodate other states who apparently for political reasons are removing the ABA accreditation requirement.
  13. Why bother with Nexus if you already have GE? Because I live near the Canadian border and cross it frequently (and fly in/out of Canada overseas occasionally), and with it I get the same bennies on the Canadian side as I do on the US.
  14. And he said it the next night... and then again on the PA system at Husky Stadium Saturday before the Ohio State game (the students went crazy; Julio and Woo were cracking up). Hey, why not this year?
  15. lol yeah, that's the joke I had in mind 😂
  16. Wait - Agent Vatnik was about to blow up a cemetery? Well, I guess that's one way to run up an impressive body count....
  17. A coup primer: it's always the colonels, rarely the generals.
  18. Switched over from GE to Nexus this time and it took 9 damn months to get the interview (despite 10 years of GE). OTOH, they kept GE active so it didn't matter too much, and you keep your KTN.
  19. There's a fun German word for this: teppichfresser. It even has some historical connotations.
  20. This is going to be a vicious fight - and one that we need to have. Here in WA, like Texas, we do not have a state income tax, and even mentioning one is the third rail of state politics. It means that we have a terribly regressive tax system (one of the very few things I dislike about the state). This year the Lege tabled a bill to place a small tax on people with an annual income of over 1 million dollars, almost exactly the state's top 1% of earners threshold. Almost immediately constant radio ads popped up about the state not raising taxes, funded by the usual suspects who would have C-suite people affected by it (Microsoft, T-Mobile, Expedia, Amazon, Alaska Airlines, etc.). Nothing, of course, about the 99% that do not have 7-figure incomes and would not be affected. This fight is going on in a state that has a near-supermajority D legislature, the second-largest economy per capita in the country (after NY), and the fourth highest income required to be 1% (after CT, MA and CA). Even here the Dems are not messaging it well at all, and that speaks to the discussion here and in the NYT's op-ed above. This stuff needs to be hammered home.
  21. Oh yeah, we're a total shithole. I doubt there will be a single Ohio State fan in Husky Stadium this Saturday, which of course is good for our couches, seeing as how we're a couch sanctuary city and all that.
  22. I've been told, right here on this very site, that raising emus is the way to go. Kind, docile, definitely not batshit crazy killing machines.... @Goredho
  23. Hey @PTINS - I just wanted to thank you for sharing the depth of your knowledge in a way that makes sense to O&G laypeople. It really adds to my understanding of what Ukraine is trying to do and why it is (or isn't) effective. Stuff like this continues to make this the best thread on the board and it's much appreciated.
  24. Well, here's how Austria handles that in their constitution: Parents decide their child's confession up to age ten, but by age fourteen, the child has the legal right to choose their own religion, free from parental or external imposition. (and Austria is not, shall we say, a particularly liberal nation)
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