(Yet Another) Currently Being Pissed Off By...

[Pista]

It is the electronics.
I cleaned the filter (that was.....wet..) & no dice.
So I called a service guy who has seen the problem before. He's taken the whole control panel away to fix it.

So does that mean you've lost control?

Haha. That happened years ago I think

[eastmidswhizzkid]

after posting this racist filth Tory[s] bitch [/s]councillor Rosemary Carrol was suspended from the Pendle council, only to be reinstated so the party could retain control of the council. cunts

[Being645]

It is terrible and disgusting what's going on in the UK. First the sick and disabled and now open racism.
I've also been watching that "Windrush scandal" closely, though you won't find a single word about all
these developments in German papers ... what a sad and nasty world this has become over the last decade ... ... and it's getting worse ...

[UniversalRinging]

Eastmidswhizzkid & Being645: Aaaaarrrrggghhhh! f**king vile!

CBPOB:

Where to start... Moved again because my ex-landlord pulled some creepy harassing s**t. New place's shower exploded and plumbers have been banging for two days. Taxes were a drawn out nightmare. And every day our moron in charge does something else to make the world more dangerous. So, writing's impossible and I've been getting the worst sleep in years.

Today's the first day of getting my s**t back together. I bow my head over this giant pot of coffee and pray...

[markfiend]

And every day our moron in charge does something else to make the world more dangerous.

Yeah. Great idea when you're trying to negotiate with North Korea about their nukes to unilaterally scrap the deal that stops Iran from building them too. That's really going to convince Pyongyang that you'll keep your side of the bargain.

[Alex66]

And every day our moron in charge does something else to make the world more dangerous.

Yeah. Great idea when you're trying to negotiate with North Korea about their nukes to unilaterally scrap the deal that stops Iran from building them too. That's really going to convince Pyongyang that you'll keep your side of the bargain.

And within hours Iran and Israel are bombing the s**t out of each other, FFS can't people just talk out their differences like adults.

[UniversalRinging]

Alex66: I just read about that this morning. I recently read a bit of analysis (can't remember where, otherwise I'd link) which compared the current geopolitical situation to the one just before WWI and Jesus f**king Christ does that seem apt today.

Markfiend: Lol. I think you give him too much credit. Doesn't seem like this narcissistic amoral jackass actually makes decisions based on strategy, actions, consequences or anything else that would normally enter into a world leader's mind. I can't think of any motivation besides the attitude of: f**k it, let's show the world how tough I am. And the rest of the ghouls in positions of power are just letting it happen because the side-effects of instability line up with their private interests. Aka war is profitable.

This is just my muddled, sleep deprived take. Honestly can someone explain this s**t? Like, WHY?

[EvilBastard]

Alex66: I just read about that this morning. I recently read a bit of analysis (can't remember where, otherwise I'd link) which compared the current geopolitical situation to the one just before WWI and Jesus f**king Christ does that seem apt today.

Markfiend: Lol. I think you give him too much credit. Doesn't seem like this narcissistic amoral jackass actually makes decisions based on strategy, actions, consequences or anything else that would normally enter into a world leader's mind. I can't think of any motivation besides the attitude of: f**k it, let's show the world how tough I am. And the rest of the ghouls in positions of power are just letting it happen because the side-effects of instability line up with their private interests. Aka war is profitable.

This is just my muddled, sleep deprived take. Honestly can someone explain this s**t? Like, WHY?

Why? Because there's nothing like a good war to stiffen the sinews and summon up the blood. Thatcher knew it in 82, GWBush in 2002 - Trump needs a nice fat war to guarantee his win in 2020. He needs to side with the Israelis who guarantee nice fat dividends to the arms companies in the US (you want perverse? how's this: under the Camp David Peace Accord the US gives Israel north of $3bn a year. Almost every penny of this comes back to the US in the form of military contracts, in effect subsidising the US armaments industry (which includes Boeing. And yet the US has the gall to cry foul about the subsidies that the EU grants to Airbus). And getting up the noses of the Iranians suits him well, since as far as he's concerned all Muslims are terrorists (neatly ignoring the fact that Iran is Shi'a and pretty much every fundamentalist terror group is Sunni, and that they're largely funded by Saudi Arabia, but we can't p*ss off the Saudis for fear that they turn the taps off and cause a spike in oil prices).

The short answer to why? Well, because why not? And because not going to war is way more effort than going to war. You go to war over the Who and the What - it takes way more effort to understand the Why. And yet, when you understand the Why, you realise that the case for war is weak and untenable. The difference is between Information and Intelligence. I'll tell you a little story:

Many many years ago, when I was a mere stripling of an Evil Bastard, my godfather was an officer in the Royal Artillery. We used to go and visit him and his family when they were stationed at SHAPE in Belgium. His C/O was a guy called Frank Kitson. Kitson wrote the book (quite literally - his stuff is still used to teach courses at Sandhurst and West Point) on counter-terror - he'd served in Northern Ireland, Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising, and sundry other commands. In his view every non-regular fighting force (i.e. paramilitaries) could be dealt with in the same manner as a street gang, because they had similar command and cell structures.

Anyway, I remember being in Kitson's office - I was maybe 6 or 7 years old, probably playing with cars on his rug - he was babysitting for my sister and me. He was working on something, and he said, "Do you know the difference between information and intelligence?" I said I didn't. He sent his AdC down to the mess, and he came back with a tomato and a slice of melon. "Ok," he said, "you know what these are, right?" Yes, it's a tomato and a slice of melon. "Well done, we'll make an officer of you yet. Now, here's some information you didn't know: a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable." Err...ok? "Right, now I want you to imagine that you're helping your mum to make a fruit salad. So, here's my question: which of these things are you going to put in it? You can choose either the tomato, or the melon. Which is it going to be?"
"Well duh - the melon, obvy."
"OK - but why not the tomato? That's a fruit too."
"Yeah, but...well, a tomato doesn't belong in a fruit salad."
"And there, young Bastard, is the difference between information and intelligence. You have the information - a tomato is a fruit - but you also have the intelligence to know that it doesn't belong in a fruit salad. If you're going to make good decisions then you need to have both of those things."

That conversation happened 40 years ago, but Uncle Frank's "Tomato Analogy" has stayed with me - and any time I hear a politician promote something misguided and ill-informed I wonder whether he would benefit from the same lesson.

[markfiend]

Genuinely, I think Trump's sole motivation for reneging on the Iran deal was to undo something Obama did. See also ACA, DACA, the DREAMers...

Further, given Trump's oft-noted somewhat tangential contact with truth and honesty, I don't think he even really understands what "truth" and "lies" mean with respect to his own speech. He just says whatever he thinks will be of advantage to him in that moment. This is why he can so shamelessly contradict himself; he genuinely doesn't see that it matters. He's a bullshitter, pure and simple.

See On Bullshit (I had to tinyurl it because the board software mangles the link)

[UniversalRinging]

Evil Bastard: See, this is what confuses me. I'm not a conspiracy type of person, but I'd really like to have all these connections spelled out in one document with charts. Like, why are Trump admin white supremacists hardline Israel? Like, how is Netanyahu's son an alt-righter? What's the deal with Putin and Syria, Iran and Israel? Why is Saudi Arabia softening on Israel? I'm sure so much of this has to do with kickbacks like you say. "And because not going to war is way more effort than going to war." - This! I feel like cantaloupe-face and his weirdo advisors are going along because they're out of their depth too and either way the fallout's not going hit them where it counts.

Markfiend: Ooof. So with you on this one.

[markfiend]

why are Trump admin white supremacists hardline Israel?

I think it's to do with Christian Eschatology - Armageddon (seems to) require the existence of Israel for the whole Rupture thing to occur properly.

[Being645]

why are Trump admin white supremacists hardline Israel?

I think it's to do with Christian Eschatology - Armageddon (seems to) require the existence of Israel for the whole Rupture thing to occur properly.

Exactly. They want Judgement Day come and then - of course - take over ... lol ...

[UniversalRinging]

Markfiend & Being645: For real? That's wild.

[markfiend]

Oh the interface between the far-right and Christian Dominionism is some scary scary shít...

[sultan2075]

CBP off by bad contractors and weather. We had a small leak from our balcony deck into our living room, and after a lot of argument, finally got the condo association to send out a contractor to fix it (exteriors issues like roofs and the balcony are their financial responsibility). So they sent out a couple of guys who looked at what we all assumed was the source of the leak, picked it apart, gave it a thorough inspection, said that wasn't it, but it was something else, and fixed that something else.

Come today, it's pissing down rain... and what was once a single small leak has now become 4 leaks. And I'm missing Deafheaven tonight to try and deal with it myself (large plastic tarps from home depot).

[lordofthepies]

“You fight for your country and they call you racist. But the days when those kind of insults work is over. The establishment media are the dogs of the system. Every day, we become stronger and they become weaker. Let them call you racists, xenophobes or whatever else, wear these like a medal.�

https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-ba ... ref=scroll

[markfiend]

CPOB annual review bollox. What I really want to write is "I see no point at all in filling out this form that will only ever be read once, by my line manager."

[emilystrange]

the bollox than is the teachers' pay rise. no, we are not all getting 3.5%. yes, the extra money i'll get is LESS than the extra someone who's just qualified (ie this month) will get.
i don't mind if they get it, but my % rise doesn't even equal theirs on a monetary level, after all these years?

[markfiend]

So what do you do when you overhear your line manager say about the piece of software you spend 99% of your work time wrangling with...

"{$Foo} isn't a widely used system and doesn't attract the best talent"

[Pista]

The plastic hand crank sheared off my can opener a few days back so I had to deploy the Swiss army knife which is all well & good if you're Bear Grylls.
Boo.

Bought new new can opener with a steel hand crank.
Yay!

Since then, every can I have bought has a ring pull top.

[Swinnow]

Surely beer cans don't count though bro

[Pista]

Surely beer cans don't count though bro

Oh gosh!
Maybe that's how the old one got busted.

[MadameButterfly]

So what do you do when you overhear your line manager say about the piece of software you spend 99% of your work time wrangling with...

"{$Foo} isn't a widely used system and doesn't attract the best talent"

well first you just breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth and repeat until you have calmed down. then the next day or the day after you go into your line manager's office and say you need to have a chat. you tell this person exactly what you heard and ask if you should carry on "wasting" your time on the piece of software which isn't widely used and that YOUR talent would rather be put to something that WOULD be appreciated. stay dead calm and see what happens.

[lazarus corporation]

Systems problems, slow servers, intransigent engineers, bloody stupid powers-that-be

Still, only T minus 11 days until the project in my sig publishes. s**t, I guess that means I should finish it.

[markfiend]

So what do you do when you overhear your line manager say about the piece of software you spend 99% of your work time wrangling with...

"{$Foo} isn't a widely used system and doesn't attract the best talent"

well first you just breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth and repeat until you have calmed down. then the next day or the day after you go into your line manager's office and say you need to have a chat. you tell this person exactly what you heard and ask if you should carry on "wasting" your time on the piece of software which isn't widely used and that YOUR talent would rather be put to something that WOULD be appreciated. stay dead calm and see what happens.

Well. It seems it was just a case of tactlessness on my manager's part. She was talking about the vendors of said software, not about me/us working here adapting and customising it.

I shouldn't take things so personally, apparently...