Recent submissions

Comment · 3 years ago
I am absolutely allowed to insult the person, who is overstepping his authority to physically detain me. In fact, I am morally allowed to do much more. There "real people" are attacking me, and the rights of everyone here. This is a defense, and a very mellow form of it.

there are normal border patrol agents who don't go on a powertrip, and follow the letter of the regulations. This is 90% of my travel. Then there are ones who see you chewing gum after 12 hour flight breath, think you are disrespecting them, and make your life hard. They get the offensive defense, because they initiated an attack.

Try this: fly 50 times a year, only answer questions you have to answer, not all questions asked, and see what happens 10% of the time on re-entry. If regulations were followed by Our Employees, nothing at all should happen. but it does. When it does, you can spend hours writing complaints no one reads, or you can make the offender's life as bad as you possibly can, with words and passive action.

What you are suggesting, is a slow quiet path to tyranny.

Comment · 3 years ago
Is there really a market for a response though? Now, I'll be honest that I know very little about this market. What I do know from doing a decade of presales before covid hit, is that people who buy GPUs go for aggregate max on a big node farm. Now, most of my clients who bought GPU-heavy scale-out nodes were in the financial industry, so maybe deep learning stuff is different. Their workloads were massively parallel, and could scale out instead of needing something singularly fast.

So I guess my question is - what use case is there for a huge truck that goes 200mph and take 4 trips, when you could just buy 16 regular trucks, and move your apartment in the same amount of time at half the cost.

Comment · 3 years ago
So, I will admit - my Ukraine-experience-based Opinion about Ukraine may be wrong. It is my opinion. Have you, um, been there, not like a tourist? Like rented an apartment, dealt with their government offices and low level officials? How about just managers and people in offices and on the street?

"to their voluminous public statements" - I'm sorry - what??? My comment was literally about many of their public statements being propaganda, and your reply is... based on their public statements? What do you think about China's public statements that American soldiers brought covid to China?

The people who get in power there, are mostly toxic pieces of power tripping corrupt crap. You should at least - if you're only basing your experience on reading internet news while sitting on your couch - look into the history of their police and politicians and officials. They execute people or lock them away for life when they get in the way. They literally beat gay people to death for holding hands - something I've personally watched. They are very close to that same drunken macho trash that is Russians.

That, sir, is my opinion. I am not asking you to buy that assesment, and I'm not here to convince a random internet stranger of jack. The whole purpose of my post, is so people like you, who form strong opinions based only on things you Chose yourself to read, step back and realize you're behaving just like the redneck self-brainwashing crap taking over this country.

>I'm not sure what innuendo

The innuendo is not there. The accusation that someone took a normal event and spun it to keep themselves angry, and is trying to spread that bs on the internet, is there, in plain text.

>gathering in Crofton

no one gathered anywhere. that was literally the whole point of that simple comparison paragraph. now if someone were to spin it as a gathering, that would be a bad actor spreading conspiracy theories. Get it now? of course you don't.

Have a good life buddy. bbye, and enjoy your velcro shoes. that's another one you won't get, and the cause for not getting it, is the cause of the velcro shoes.

Comment · 3 years ago
I unfortunately do not, as this was over 20 years ago. I guess "trust me" that it happened, because - again "trust me" - this was the thing that over 20 years ago got me to never take another toll road. I did give google a go as well, and after a full 45 seconds could not find it.

Here is an article https://www.wbez.org/stories/how-your-private-illinois-tollw...

"many of the requests for I-Pass records in civil matters were divorce cases"

This is from the first search result linked in the other reply.

"In child custody disputes, a parent who believes the other parent is not fulfilling their parental duties may use this data to establish the parent is not caring for the child. A parent may use the data to establish the other is not with the child, but instead on the road headed to a different location, such as a race track. The parent who believes the other is not meeting their obligations may be able to use this information during custody litigation or as support for a modification to an existing agreement"

"“We routinely utilize I-Pass records in discovery,” says Maureen A. Gorman, a divorce litigator at my Chicago law firm."

Now, let me spread some more anger, because let's face it, people love being angry. Road tolls were supposed to be temporary, to finance building the roads. They were never supposed to stay permanent. Toll revenue is more than road maintenance. In fact, over 50% of toll revenue, is redirected to other uses, and increases close to 100% per decade. Some of it is used for mass transit - so people in cars, pay for people on the subway. Many toll roads (and city parking meters, and red light and speed cameras) are run by private companies, with taxpayer-paid city staff enforcing that private corporation's profit.

What can you do? Only thing I've found is to not participate, at a great inconvenience to yourself. No, I don't use city parking meters. I pay way, way more, for private parking - although I'm only in a car a few weeks per year, usually in a work-paid rental. The benefit - for me - is to fall asleep fast, without laying there for hours in the dark getting more and more pissed off at things I can't fix.

Comment · 3 years ago
you keep making up that strawman "making loans to people who can't pay." they literally pay, and they literally always pay, by the definition of the phrase "unforgivable loan." It is not the bank's job to make sure you take out a loan and live comfortably, instead of taking out a loan and have to sleep on a bunk bed with a roomate for a decade, while eating lentils and the cheapest of ground beef.

I'm not going to bother reading your reply, because you seem to regurgitate the same thing over and over again, without understanding that what you are saying is factually wrong. All I can say is, good luck in life without comprehension of simple things. You're gonna need it.

Comment · 3 years ago
>You don't know anything at all about this person.

I know what he wrote. No personal experience, no credible sources, his reply was a bunch of twitter links. As such, all I do know about this person, is he has no personal experience with the matter, as per his comment.

>Pure ad-hominem and absolutely against site guidelines.

He literally keeps posting one-side of the news, and random twitter links. If you feel attacked by facts, it's time to go vote for trump. stating facts, is not against site rules. In addition - you're not in charge of site rules, and you should eff off with your spam.

> it doesn't make you an "expert" about anything

and as I've said to the other guy, you should read the thing to which you are replying instead of making up a strawman. nowhere did I say I'm an expert at anything. I shared rare personal experience so people can form more balanced opinions, based on extra information.

Comment · 3 years ago
No, I am not suggesting the non-existent strawman you made up where people don't eventually repay their non-forgivable loans. Yes, I am suggesting that taking on a guaranteed profit with zero risk is not stupid. I am not sure what you don't understand about that.
Comment · 3 years ago
First, I'm not going to click on your twitter links or know what they are, because like those trumpers I just made fun of, you seem to think twitter is some kind of a source of something.

Second, there is no martial law requiring men to defend their country right now, and there is no mass mobilization. Here is what there is, and I actually know and skype with people who this has happened to. There are assholes walking the streets and grocery stores, hunting men. When they find you, they lock you up in a room for a day. During that day, they ask you for increasing amounts of cash to let you out. If you are still there at the end of the day, congratulations, you are now in the army. This is reality.

What makes me an expert, compared to someone like yourself who has not been to either country, and gets his opinions from random twitter accounts and one-sided news, is my parents escaped the USSR, I have lived and worked in both countries, and I have and currently do, talk almost daily to people I know in both countries.

>It is not an excuse for invasion ... lastly, let me remind you that yesterday, today, and tomorrow

I am not sure to whom you are replying. try reading what I wrote, and replying to that. your little rant seems unrelated to the conversation.

>I've watched the Russian preparations for war unfold since October 2021.

you haven't watched anything. you have watched twitter clips from random people, while sitting on your couch, and selecting just the news you want to read, translated into your language by someone. the parrot, is literally you. I am contributing first hand personal experience from myself, and people I actively talk to on the ground in both places. you don't want to read it? you seem to not have. then don't reply to the voices making up a strawman in your head. if you don't read, you can't reply to what's written.

if a quarter of a book page is "a wall of text" to you, this actually explains a lot.

Comment · 3 years ago
I say this as an anti-GOP American who has lived a year an a half in Ukraine, has friends I currently financially support in Ukraine, and thinks Russia should be economically turned into North Korea:

Belarus, the country, is "within spitting distance" of Kiev. There has always been tight integration between their armies, as well as open borders. There have Always been Russian soldiers close to Kiev, because that's where the city is geographically. What you are doing is putting a conspiracy-spin on something that is a common occurrence.

To put this in other terms, here's what you stated: "A large number of armed Republicans have been found in the city of Crofton around Jan 6, spitting distance from the white house." Reality: The statement is true. It omits the inconvenient fact that for the last 50 year it's been a republican county with high gun ownership, and that's where they live.

There is an immense amount of propaganda from Ukraine. Ukraine is an extremely corrupt country. They are trying to clean it up, but that's not a viable task at scale. We shipped $25bil in cash there last year - much of that, went into someone's pocket. I read Ukrainian news, in Ukrainian. They constantly announce people getting arrested with millions of fresh dollars in cash. They arrested a government official who stole 18 train cars worth of humanitarian aid, and sold it at his chain of stores. Their banks officially steal money from foreigners and locals under a new asset-forfeture type of law.

Personal story: I have some friends there and a baby who is my goddaughter. Their city got leveled, they escaped westward and now live close to Poland. The government won't let men out of the country, despite my friend having a sick wife, and a 2yo baby. I've wired about $50k over there last year, and continue to send about 1/3 of my salary this year. He rents an apartment. The cities in the west, which are fairly safe - the locals escaped to Poland, Germany, and Canada, and are collecting welfare checks triple the size of their pre-war salaries. They then rent out their apartments to refugees from the east. Rent prices are 5x what they used to be, and they're making bank on their fellow nationals who can't leave. The reason they can't leave, despite a law like that being against the constitution there? Zelensky keeps holding popular votes, and everyone votes to force men to stay in the country. Because they're making bank on the rent.

Recently, a new regulation passed, allowing the national bank to take money out of people's accounts, if they receive over $11k in a 30 day period. I wired $15k to my friend for the next 3 months of living expenses. The national bank confiscated the wire transfer, asking my friend for proof of where it came from. I had my bank send a letter saying it came from my direct-deposited salary (in America), and wrote a letter myself saying this is financial aid for my goddaughter's family. The bank refused to deposit the funds into my friend's account, and refused the request from Wells Fargo to reverse the wire. I then tried to send using paypal-xoom as it's still free for now. They're blocking transfers to Ukraine, because apparently many of their customers have had the funds confiscated, and never returned to the sender.

From what you wrote, you're on a dopamine rush, and the Ukrainians are infallible heroes. I've lived in Moscow for 4 years for work, I've lived in Ukraine for almost two. I have professional contacts and friends in both places. The only difference between the people in charge of Ukraine, and the people in charge of Russia, is Ukraine doesn't have the military to go threaten the world - and if they did, they would. And yes, there are lots of nazis there, and they do celebrate nazis on public media. Less than we do stateside, but that's a stretch of truth, not a lie from Putler. Step back, analyze the situation with logic, and don't let your feelings guide your beliefs. Otherwise, you're the same as the nutjob republicans, just have different opinions.

Comment · 3 years ago
those are contradictory statements. all student loans are eventually payed back. giving a zero-risk loan that is guaranteed to be payed back, with no chance of losing the money, and 100% chance of making money via interest is not a mistake for a bank. the only person failing is the one who destroys their life by taking the loan. since you like throwing out an unfounded "stupid" unlike my "founded stupid," let me also let you know about how loans work, since you don't, but are opinionated on the subject on which you lack knowledge. Only about 10k/year is a direct loan to the student. The rest need a cosigner who passes a credit check.

not everyone is allowed to fail. the banks for example are not. it appears people who failed basic civics were also allowed to pass high school.

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