Stupid. A more appropriate comparison would be to show the US's inflation rate compared to other (advanced) countries.

Go look it up at places like https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/inflation-rate-by-country

Whether Obama/Trump/Biden; Pre- or Post-pandemic... the United States is doing fine... most advanced/developed countries in the G7/10/12 are doing far, FAR worse.

While stagnation and/or sustained deflation is worse, a country that goes into hyper-inflation (think Venezuela), like Trump like to do for his properties, is the worse.

The myopic lens, living-under-a-rock people like Bob goes through their lives, and how little they know of the world... man.... is sad & pathetic.

It's Hollywood using the excuse that it's "introducing a classic for this generation" some such BS.

Roald Dahl’s works are being rewritten to rid of age-old stereotype/racism/sexism/imperialism/whatever-ism fit for this political cycle because there are THAT many stupid people who can't see an old work in old lens.

Oops this turned into a semi rant. But I am legitimately open to discussion here, and am curious to get your thoughts on a few points Bob. That is, IF you're willing to actually think about them beyond the level of repeating talking points.

I find it interesting how divergent the two overall "sides" are in this country, in terms of where they focus. None of the issues brought up in this video are really on the radar of most progressives, beyond being aware some on the right are talking about them. And I'm guessing a lot of the concerns progressives discuss rarely come up in your chosen media landscape. A lot of the issues in the video are largely off of my radar, and I have to wonder how you feel they should be addressed - like, actual proposed solutions rather than just complaining about / worrying about them.

We only dedicate one day to remember our fallen soldiers

How many should there be? Arguably we have more than one already: there's Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and it seems that Sept 11th is often used for the purpose as well.

I'd argue we should spend more time acknowledging and understanding the principals behind WHY our soldiers died in the various conflicts which caused them to fall in the first place. Let's make sure our citizenry appreciates what we collectively rejected in the Revolutionary war. Why it was important that we kept the country together rather than allowing the south to split off in the mid-1800s. Why we chose to honor our diplomatic agreements and support our allies in WW1. Why we fought against the countries and governments we did in WW2. What our goals were in Korea and Vietnam, and what lessons we learned from those conflicts and from the Cold War in general. Commemorating and remembering those we've lost absolutely matters, but if we're ONLY doing that while forgetting why they fought OR ignoring what we learned then we're doing them an equal or greater disservice. Remember that America was built on the idea of forming "a more perfect union" - not a perfect one, a MORE perfect one - a work in progress. We're striving towards an ideal, not assuming we're already there. Learning from our past successes, failures, and our struggles around both outcomes is vital. If our self-analysis is no deeper than hero worship we'll never make real progress towards that theoretical perfect union.

The only mask that's gonna save us is duct tape on their mouths

Yeah, sound medical advice and evidence-based science is terrifying. Better to shut up those whose words we dislike, because we're reactionary authoritarian babymen. I truly do not understand being more afraid of reasonable safety measures than of a virus which has been shown to cause serious harm in the short and long terms. The only reason this "masks = liberal / maskless = conservative" crap came about is because politics has devolved to the level of team sports in the US, and one party has chosen "the opposite of whatever our political opponents say" as their entire governing philosophy. (And yes, ONE party - research and understand the GOP's 2020 platform if you want to argue the point.) This video even seems to reach a reasonable conclusion at the end, while coming up just short of that final logical leap to "maybe I should question what the public faces of MY side have been claiming in this Us vs Them madness." Seriously - keep going friend, you're almost there! George Washington was 100% right in wanting to avoid political parties being a force in the US, and it makes me immensely sad that his fears came true.

Big oil runs the world / the only wars to get fought are with the countries who have natural resources they want

Solid point here, no sarcasm. The US military has long been a tool of our profit-driven form of "free market" imperialism. A really great way to combat this, specifically with an eye to ending Big Oil's goddamn death grip on our foreign policy goals, would be an aggressive implementation of renewable energy projects. Remember the space race? America can be an absolute beast at clever engineering solutions when we dedicate ourselves to it. Fuck the petrostates, we have the available land and resources to absolutely kick ass in the realms of solar and wind power, and be leaders in the the post-hydrocarbon reality. We can certainly agree on that, right Bob? Left / Right nonsense fully aside, I think any reasonable American can agree on at least two points: let's stop sending heaps of cash to buy oil off of the Saudis (etc), and Fuck Cancer.

But if a white man acts too white he's white trash / he's a racist he's a bigot he's a monster

What the fuck is this horseshit? What does "acting too white" even fucking look like? Watching NASCAR on a sailboat while listening to polka? Typically when I see racism from white people it's in the form of denying that brown-hued people deal with any additional difficulties in life due to their skin tone, or denying that there have been structural obstacles for them through history, or lamenting that their white children are being burdened with a broader lens on culture or with (gasp! shock!) an accurate accounting of actual US history, including the ugly bits that we shouldn't be proud of (but MUST learn from). I'm progressive / lefty as fuck and there is no aspect of "white culture" or "acting white" which upsets me in the slightest. UNLESS one counts "denying racism exists / has ever existed" as a fundamental value of being white. Which... why would anyone want to claim that nonsense? If you want to listen to classic country music in a rusty pickup truck while driving to an evangelical church, then discuss hockey over Buds after 18 holes with the rest of your tractor pull team, then absolutely go nuts my fellow caucusoid! Just recognize and understand that your life experiences may not be the same as those of others. Further, if we care about trying to avoid unnecessary, avoidable unfairness in life (recognizing that life will never truly be fair, for anyone), then it might be reasonable for some governmental / legal / structural recognition in furtherance of that notion. There is absolutely room for legitimate policy disagreement here without being accused of racism. It's denial of others' reality which tends to garner the label of racist (sexist etc) - steer clear of denying the lived experiences of other people, allow for the possibility they may have encountered difficulties you haven't / won't, and we've room for further discussion.

Edit / final point: I voted the video back up to 0 from the -1 where I found it. Because while I disagree with a lot of the positions taken by the performer, they may have reached them through no fault of their own and with no true malice. Misinformation / disinformation is a devious shit of a motherfucker, and the rot it causes can run deep. It is painful to abandon deeply-held beliefs, on a fundamental level. If nothing else, the video gives us room to discuss some specific viewpoints held by people who think of themselves as good, but which can lead to harm.

But Eileen Gu is the classic American Capitalist. She follows where the (sponsorship) money is. Expert at her sport AND doublespeak. She's living her American Dream!

It's not kowtowing to China. It's just "smart business" if you take off that racist lens.

If Walmart is so patriotic, then they can stop sourcing from China.

If the American Auto Industry is so patriotic, they can stop buying their parts from China.

If Corporate America is so patritotic, they can stop opening up factories in China.

China's not forcing shit on America. It's America that love lapping up the cheapest shit they can find in China and beyond. Corporate America is not willing to pay a fair wage in America, they're even less willing to pay of living wage anywhere else, many forcing a "996" work schedule on staff (https://www.npr.org/2021/08/30/1032458104/12-hour-6-day-996-work-schedule-illegal-china-deaths-tech-industry).

"China"... it's an American addiction. Not the other way around.

From a YouTube comment:

Frame: Bcrow Rlight v2 3030 trueX
Motor: Rcinpower GTS V3 2080kv
Battery: Dogcom 1350mah 150c 6s
Props: HQprop R35
Esc: Flycolor Xcross60A
Antenna: Rush tiny tank + cherry antenna
Cam: Runcam nano racer 3 (secret lens)
Receiver: ImmersionRC Ghost Zepto
Goggles: ImmersionRC Rapidfire (Orqa 16:9 mod)


From my comment:

I swear to Christ if you show up in my neighborhood with one of those fucking things, I'm buying a MANPAD.

The camera isn't racist. The homeowner might be a racist (we would not know unless he/she uploads every instance of such attempts to give a cold-hard-fact account that's free of manipulation -- even though that's STILL not factoring in the socio-econo-racial problem of the neighborhood -- if you choose to see things with a racial lens). But the comment absolutely is racist.

Years ago, living in my suburb home, my bike was stolen by 2 kids (garage door was open as I was mowing the lawn, but I went inside for the loo for 2 mins), I was lucky and spotted them about 5~6 streets down (took 2 lucky correct turns). They were 2 kids about 8~10 y.o. One White one Asian. Guess which one was the older, pack leader (hold my adult-size bike) and absolutely showing no remorse after getting caught?

Regardless, the kids parents might have a hard life working on weekends at low paying jobs so couldn't spend time with these kids. Who knows? I'm not so quick to judgement without knowing the root causes.

Thing is, I blame society-at-large and not see it as a racial thing. Kids are kids, easy to succumb to such temptation without good parental/peer/mentor guidance. Especially nowadays, they see adults making a CAREER/LIVING as Porch Pirates, what examples are adults giving them to imitate? You have like 40% of the adult population celebrate con mans and elect them Senators, Governors & President!

Warning! Soft focus lens alert! Don't be fooled!

You utter fuckwit.

(not you, Morhaus, the dude in the video).

What exactly do you think happens to the people and funds holding those shorts? They have to pay the difference. They are contractually obligated to pay up -- period.

Everyone involved in the short was probably broke long before GME even hit $50. But, as we all learned from Goodfellas, "Fuck you, pay me!"

They're broke and on the hook for shit-tons of money. Guess where they're going to get that money? By selling solid assets. They're gonna dump everything they have to make up for the short loss. Who's holding the shares that're about to start tanking? The funds 401ks are invested in because they have to hold solid, reliable assets. The same funds people are relying on for their futures. These are the people who'll REALLY get fucked by this. If you've got a long enough timeline, hopefully, you'll get your money back (although at a loss of compounded value). If you're 65 and looking at your golden years through a lens of 20%+ returns, you're about to find out what happens when an irrational market decides to return to sanity.

Those are the first order effects. The second order effects range from the merely worrying to the outright fucking terrifying. There's a reason Goldman sent out its little missive last night after Mark Cuban pulled his stunt. This isn't just playing with fire, this is sitting in a room full of gasoline while Skippy, The Face-Ripper Ape On Meth, goes berserk with a blowtorch. God help us if this triggers some latent long-tail event.

The good news is that the idiocy of the crowds has apparently decided to dump GME in favor of silver. GME tanking will be bad, but mostly to people who should pay the price for dabbling magic they didn't understand. GME dumping will be good if you're worried about 2008 repeating itself, only without the whole "not letting AIG" fail thing.

People do not understand how fragile and insanely-interconnected the markets are, and how easily the whole goddamn thing could be brought down. We never solved the problems of 2008, we just dumped money on them; we never solved the underlying issues that lead to the Temper Tantrum of December 2018; and we sure the fuck didn't fix the fundamental issue that almost brought the whole show down on September 17 of 2019. And all this was before Covid. There's a reason I went all-in on bonds back in August and that Warren Buffet is sitting on a mountain of cash, and this is pretty much it.

So yeah, congrats to the little guy and all that shit, but don't think for a second that people at the top are going to be the ones who pay.

That's a damned good summation of the whole affair, and I may just have to send this to my right-wing dad. He's seen the world through a Fox/Rush lens since the 80s, and I feel this could be useful as "Hey, this is how *I* saw the 6th" rather than trying to explain it piecemeal and have to stop and discuss / argue about everything along the way.

That is not the moon. It's lens flare from the sun. You can't actually see the moon in this video. You would see the dark side of the moon if you were in the shadow.

Congratulations! Your video, World’s Largest Optical Lens, has reached the #1 spot in the current Top 15 New Videos listing. This is a very difficult thing to accomplish but you managed to pull it off. For your contribution you have been awarded 2 Power Points.

This achievement has earned you your "Golden One" Level 28 Badge!

Your video, World’s Largest Optical Lens, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

i assumed they used lens distortion, chroma aberration, DoF, etc. based on physical lenses in all their movies but the split diopter is a really nice touch.

I concur. This is more a fail than a success. The commission, I assume, is not to have something "cool" to see -- like watching aerial parkour -- but to have footage at each stages of detonations for the engineers to analyze if every calculations/explosive hookups went off as planned.

With that as parameters, there's almost nothing to see here. If the drone is equipped with a wide-angle lens and/or multi-cam setup (filming both the building and the smokestack at the same time) than maybe the video would be useful. What I see here is crap, narrated by clowns.

@mxxcon: The drone controllers are the assholes IMO. Shouldn't be paid, or paid 10-20% of the commission, max!

Let me drop a few quotes from teh report here

"1. Potential Coordination: Conspiracy and Collusion

As an initial matter, this Office evaluated potentially criminal conduct that involved the collective action of multiple individuals not under the rubric of “collusion,” but through the lens of conspiracy law. In so doing, the Office recognized that the word “collud[e]” appears in the Acting Attorney General’s August 2, 2017 memorandum; it has frequently been invoked in public reporting; and it is sometimes referenced in antitrust law, see, e.g., Brooke Group v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 509 U.S. 209, 227 (1993). But collusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the U.S. Code; nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law. To the contrary, even as defined in legal dictionaries, collusion is largely synonymous with conspiracy as that crime is set forth in the general federal conspiracy statute"

Or, like i have to keep reminding my dad, yes they didn't find "collusion" because there's no legal definition for it and they were never looking for it. They were looking for conspiracy and obstruction of justice.