[Cause]

Tiste Simeon, on 14 August 2018 - 06:20 PM, said:

Sheesh how bad is your country that the current state of America appeals? 😉

Hope it all goes well.

How do I put this...

Barack Obama was Americas first black president but Trump is Americas first African president. My country has had a 'trump' as president for the last 20 years but what's worse is that we have Trump ministers, we have trump leaders at parastatals. We have not collapsed to be like Zimbabwe or Venezuela yet but many politicians in my country actually believe both countries to be models to follow. Yes I am not joking. They look to Zimbabwe with 90% unemployment and actually say its not a bad thing. My government is now toying with the idea of changing the constitution to allow them to take farms from white owners and give them to black people without compensating the current owners. pretty much what set Zimbabwe on a collision course to rock bottom.

You know how everyone is watching trump to see if he will fire the attorney general to get one who will close all the investigations against him? My previous president did just that. He was going to be trialed for corruption, collusion (if their is a law he broke it) and so he just suspended the head of national prosecutions and instigated a review into his fitness to hold office. THe national prosecutor stood his ground (he had not done anything wrong) so he was offered an illegal incentive of 2 million dollars to take early retirement.

[Brujah]

Thanks all for the kind words.

[Maark Abbott]

Cause, on 15 August 2018 - 10:47 AM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 14 August 2018 - 06:20 PM, said:

Sheesh how bad is your country that the current state of America appeals? 😉

Hope it all goes well.

How do I put this...

Barack Obama was Americas first black president but Trump is Americas first African president. My country has had a 'trump' as president for the last 20 years but what's worse is that we have Trump ministers, we have trump leaders at parastatals. We have not collapsed to be like Zimbabwe or Venezuela yet but many politicians in my country actually believe both countries to be models to follow. Yes I am not joking. They look to Zimbabwe with 90% unemployment and actually say its not a bad thing. My government is now toying with the idea of changing the constitution to allow them to take farms from white owners and give them to black people without compensating the current owners. pretty much what set Zimbabwe on a collision course to rock bottom.

You know how everyone is watching trump to see if he will fire the attorney general to get one who will close all the investigations against him? My previous president did just that. He was going to be trialed for corruption, collusion (if their is a law he broke it) and so he just suspended the head of national prosecutions and instigated a review into his fitness to hold office. THe national prosecutor stood his ground (he had not done anything wrong) so he was offered an illegal incentive of 2 million dollars to take early retirement.

Yeah, sure, but you have penguins.

[Morgoth]

Cause, on 15 August 2018 - 10:47 AM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 14 August 2018 - 06:20 PM, said:

Sheesh how bad is your country that the current state of America appeals? 😉

Hope it all goes well.

How do I put this...

Barack Obama was Americas first black president but Trump is Americas first African president. My country has had a 'trump' as president for the last 20 years but what's worse is that we have Trump ministers, we have trump leaders at parastatals. We have not collapsed to be like Zimbabwe or Venezuela yet but many politicians in my country actually believe both countries to be models to follow. Yes I am not joking. They look to Zimbabwe with 90% unemployment and actually say its not a bad thing. My government is now toying with the idea of changing the constitution to allow them to take farms from white owners and give them to black people without compensating the current owners. pretty much what set Zimbabwe on a collision course to rock bottom.

You know how everyone is watching trump to see if he will fire the attorney general to get one who will close all the investigations against him? My previous president did just that. He was going to be trialed for corruption, collusion (if their is a law he broke it) and so he just suspended the head of national prosecutions and instigated a review into his fitness to hold office. THe national prosecutor stood his ground (he had not done anything wrong) so he was offered an illegal incentive of 2 million dollars to take early retirement.

This is so depressing.

[Cause]

Morgoth, on 16 August 2018 - 08:02 AM, said:

Cause, on 15 August 2018 - 10:47 AM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 14 August 2018 - 06:20 PM, said:

Sheesh how bad is your country that the current state of America appeals? 😉

Hope it all goes well.

How do I put this...

Barack Obama was Americas first black president but Trump is Americas first African president. My country has had a 'trump' as president for the last 20 years but what's worse is that we have Trump ministers, we have trump leaders at parastatals. We have not collapsed to be like Zimbabwe or Venezuela yet but many politicians in my country actually believe both countries to be models to follow. Yes I am not joking. They look to Zimbabwe with 90% unemployment and actually say its not a bad thing. My government is now toying with the idea of changing the constitution to allow them to take farms from white owners and give them to black people without compensating the current owners. pretty much what set Zimbabwe on a collision course to rock bottom.

You know how everyone is watching trump to see if he will fire the attorney general to get one who will close all the investigations against him? My previous president did just that. He was going to be trialed for corruption, collusion (if their is a law he broke it) and so he just suspended the head of national prosecutions and instigated a review into his fitness to hold office. THe national prosecutor stood his ground (he had not done anything wrong) so he was offered an illegal incentive of 2 million dollars to take early retirement.

This is so depressing.

No what's depressing is that this is just a snapshot. Id never leave this thread if I covered it all.

Politicians here regularly accuse the press of bias and being the enemy. We came dangerously close to passing a law that would have set up a journalistic tribunal which would have allowed the government to decide when certain stories couldn't be shared. The roadmap that bad governments follow is the same everywhere.

Luckily the one bastion we have is the courts which regularly rule such rubbish unconstitutional. It seems like half of the government is under investigation or known to have been actively colluding with a family of businessmen to essentially just hand out government to them in exchange for a percentage of the kick back. They arranged a purchase by south afria of billions of rands worth of trains that don't fit our railways, government took out billions of advertising a newspaper they printed which they then handed out to free to government agencies or just destroyed because surprise surprise no one actually ever read it.

Aids is a conspiracy.
Science isn't real.
The truth is counter revolutionary if its anti government

[Puck]

Just hat a monster of a hornet (4 cm/1.5 inches long at least), come flying in and trying to make itself at home. You dead, bitch

[worry]

RIP to Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, and to hell with the 4cm hornet, the Knave of Wasps.

[HoosierDaddy]

Cause, on 14 August 2018 - 10:37 AM, said:

My Greencard Lottery interview is in 9 days! I entered not confident I would win at all (but it was so easy) but because my country is possibly on a terminal decline and America may be a great opportunity for me to have a better life.

Now that its actually real and no longer months in the future its a scary thing. Even if I am approved in the interview (I am confident) I don't have to drop everything and go right away but its starting to dawn on me what a big deal immigration would be. Goodbye to friends and family. A different way of life. What can I afford to pack, to ship, what must I leave behind. Where do I stay, Do I rent? Do I buy. Furnishing the apartment. The USA is huge! What if the job opportunity turns out to be in another state?

I have never really found it difficult to make friends but I also believe their are friends and there are FRIENDS. If you have common interests with people and you spend time with them doing said interest friendship follows. I have family in the states but we are not close and the age gap is about a decade with the closest.

You delineate a fine line here, Cause. It is very easy to make friends here. We are generally outgoing and nice. Friend friends requires shared experiences and really knowing one another. Thing is the opportunity to build that is generally abundant; it just takes time.

[Cause]

HoosierDaddy, on 17 August 2018 - 12:37 AM, said:

Cause, on 14 August 2018 - 10:37 AM, said:

My Greencard Lottery interview is in 9 days! I entered not confident I would win at all (but it was so easy) but because my country is possibly on a terminal decline and America may be a great opportunity for me to have a better life.

Now that its actually real and no longer months in the future its a scary thing. Even if I am approved in the interview (I am confident) I don't have to drop everything and go right away but its starting to dawn on me what a big deal immigration would be. Goodbye to friends and family. A different way of life. What can I afford to pack, to ship, what must I leave behind. Where do I stay, Do I rent? Do I buy. Furnishing the apartment. The USA is huge! What if the job opportunity turns out to be in another state?

I have never really found it difficult to make friends but I also believe their are friends and there are FRIENDS. If you have common interests with people and you spend time with them doing said interest friendship follows. I have family in the states but we are not close and the age gap is about a decade with the closest.

You delineate a fine line here, Cause. It is very easy to make friends here. We are generally outgoing and nice. Friend friends requires shared experiences and really knowing one another. Thing is the opportunity to build that is generally abundant; it just takes time.

I guess Ill have to make an effort, try harder to make work friends actual friend friends. Go to community things to try and meet people etc. Still I will be leaving behinds friendships that have lasted 17 years or longer. They cant be replaced overnight, I know that, but that is what's got me down.



Also just in case you didn't believe me before. I only found out myself today, I guess it got buried under more important news but the South African Ambassador to Venezuela has only know retracted a promise he made a month ago pledging the South African army to help defend Venezuela from an American invasion. I'm sure America was pissing themselves with fright. It never ceases to amaze me how people who fought to end oppression in South Africa have an abiding love for dictators throughout Africa, the Caribbean and South America.

[Tsundoku]

Ran 9km up hill and down dale yesterday morning, half of it over a truly shitty goat track that meant I couldn't get into a rhythm.

So sore now. Calves, knees, lower back. And neck - from running with the head down-ish checking my footing.

Urgh.

[Cause]

Tsundoku, on 17 August 2018 - 07:30 PM, said:

Ran 9km up hill and down dale yesterday morning, half of it over a truly shitty goat track that meant I couldn't get into a rhythm.

So sore now. Calves, knees, lower back. And neck - from running with the head down-ish checking my footing.

Urgh.

Why?

[Tsundoku]

Because work. Cross country comp trials. Everyone available (ie not away, on course, injured etc) had to do it.

My aim was to NOT make the top 15 men as that would have meant I was on the team. Well, I succeeded on that part easily, but came in 11 mins after the winner which is about 5 mins slower than I wanted. Very light blow to the ego but I can't help getting slower in old age I guess.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 17 August 2018 - 10:51 PM

[Coco with marshmallows]

Cause, on 17 August 2018 - 07:46 AM, said:

It never ceases to amaze me how people who fought to end oppression in South Africa have an abiding love for dictators throughout Africa, the Caribbean and South America.

I think it's because a lot of the time it was those self same dictators that were funnelling arms/cash to them while the rest of the world did bugger all about the oppressions in place?

[Cause]

Coco with marshmallows, on 18 August 2018 - 06:41 PM, said:

Cause, on 17 August 2018 - 07:46 AM, said:

It never ceases to amaze me how people who fought to end oppression in South Africa have an abiding love for dictators throughout Africa, the Caribbean and South America.

I think it's because a lot of the time it was those self same dictators that were funnelling arms/cash to them while the rest of the world did bugger all about the oppressions in place?

Yes, definitely this is part of it. However when your buddy from Uganda who helped you during apartheid now wants to pass laws that say gay people are sub human and my governments response is that Uganda is for Ugandans to decide how to run you realize that something is not right. If the world had accepted South Africa was for South Africans to sort out Apartheid would still be happening. Its a lack of introspection 24 years after apartheid ended that still leads them to support people like Mugabe. They don't judge people by their actions today, they remember everyone based on thirty, forty years ago. I suspect its a huge reason why so many African countries become failed states.

Whether its inter or intra African country politics what's starts out as people looking the other way (maybe trying to deal with it internally) so as not to embarrass a struggle hero quickly leads down a path to culture which becomes everyone is corrupt so we should all look the other way and we should all stick up for each other. No one would tell Mugabe he was corrupt, becoming authoritarian or leading his country to ruin until it was too late. One of our presidents adapted the term 'quite diplomacy' for dealing with Mugabe. Which basically meant not siding with Europe, not saying anything bad about him in public and who even knows if anything said was private. The result is a Zimbabwe today that has collapsed, suffered a coup and has just had another round of fake elections. With millions of Zimbabwes already or trying to get into south Africa.

PARADISE is here bitches, on 20 August 2018 - 02:25 AM, said:

The anguish. My PS4 is a goner looks like. Thing will power up but will not input video signal on any tv I hook it up to.

Going to lose all my damn shows to turning in these Dvr boxes tomorrow.

1st world shit.

Might sounds silly but its happened to me. Try a different HDMI cable.

[Macros]

Damnit.
Post eaten TWICE. I suppose this is the right thread for that to happen in

Anyhow, my beautiful urbanista Rome headphones are dying, the left ear is starting to flicker in and out. I have a spare pair in Ireland but won't be home until Friday.

[Macros]

One of the neighbours was in a really bad car smash on Saturday morning, they turned her life support off this afternoon and she just passed. Only 21 years old, the family has had such a bad year of it already, this is just brutal on them

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Oh how awful

[Maark Abbott]

Unfortunately I see a lot of that stuff in my line of work. Must be horrible for the family.

[Itwæs Nom]

Kid I used to go to elementary with died in a car accident too on friday. One car crash, apparently they were driving far too fast, driver made it out alive (atleast in so far) but neither of the passengers did. He was either 20 or 21.
This "former schoolmates passing away" shit started way too soon.

[Tiste Simeon]

Maark Abbott, on 21 August 2018 - 07:37 AM, said:

Unfortunately I see a lot of that stuff in my line of work. Must be horrible for the family.

Yeah I've been to many fatal RTCs it's never fun.