Straight Dope Message Board

[enipla]

The bids/proposals are due March 29th. Nine days to bid on what would be one of the biggest construction projects ever (Panama canal has it beat, but what else? The Chunnel perhaps, Hoover dam, Three Gorges dam).

Nine.
Days.

Hahaahahhahahahahah.

<snip>hour to cut through it with a "sledgehammer, car jack, pick axe, chisel, battery operated impact tools, battery operated cutting tools, Oxy/acetylene torch or other similar hand-held tools.

Bolding mine. Car jack? BWWWaAAhhahaahahah.

Chisel, battery operated cutting tools? Was the RFP written by a 10 year old?

[ElvisL1ves]

The old saying goes "Show me a thirty foot wall and I'll show you a thirty five foot ladder."

[enipla]

Originally Posted by ElvisL1ves

The old saying goes "Show me a thirty foot wall and I'll show you a thirty five foot ladder."

Or a shovel.

[OttoDaFe]

Originally Posted by running coach

Don't forget sanitary facilities, housing, food, laundry, etc. Some areas are too far for the workers to be commuting.

That part can be contracted out to Sheriff Joe Arpaio — I'd imagine he'd be willing to supply tents, rotten bologna sandwiches and pink underwear at only a slight markup.

[Count Blucher]

Originally Posted by enipla

Or a shovel.

Or a rope. Less money, less work.

30' Wall........................Billions of dollars.
50' of Rope....................Less than $4.

Knowing that your entire country is being led by A Fucking Moron............Priceless

[Little_Pig]

Just for yuks, I tuned in to watch Trump give a rally speech in Louisville (I got tired of waiting for him to do one in Nuremberg). Here is a highlights clip. WARNING: This is a link to the most truthful news organization web site in the world.

What struck me afterwards was how gullible the audience was. After doing some digging I can now understand one of the reasons as to why Trump went to Kentucky for his rally.

"Forty percent of Kentucky’s working age population ages 16 to 64 functions at the two lowest levels of literacy—not being able to read at all or having very limited to moderate reading ability. Statewide averages mask the reality that large numbers of Kentucky counties have levels of literacy comparable only to those of developing nations—not other states."

cite. See page 4 and 5 or knock yourself and read the whole depressing thing.

[Bryan Ekers]

Originally Posted by Little_Pig

See page 4 and 5 or knock yourself and read the whole depressing thing.

I would, but I'm from Kentucky.

[Rick Kitchen]

Right wingnut Tomi Lahren was on The View Friday, and she actually said something NotCrazy; “I can’t sit here and be a hypocrite and say I’m for limited government but I think the government should decide what women do with their bodies.”

Now Daily Caller is saying she's being leaving Glenn Beck's "news" site because her fellow right wingers are pissed at her.

[Muffin]

Originally Posted by Little_Pig

"Forty percent of Kentucky’s working age population ages 16 to 64 functions at the two lowest levels of literacy—not being able to read at all or having very limited to moderate reading ability. Statewide averages mask the reality that large numbers of Kentucky counties have levels of literacy comparable only to those of developing nations—not other states."

cite. See page 4 and 5 or knock yourself and read the whole depressing thing.

That explains something that I found very odd back in the mid-80s. I spent a summer driving throughout the USA, mostly on back roads. On a dirt road in Kentucky I spent a few hours helping a fellow with his gas station's paperwork, getting him set up to accept credit cards (I had tried to pay for my gas with a credit card only to be told that he had the papers). I was wondering how a person with a gas station could get by without accepting credit cards, but it did not occur to me that he could barely read until we started going through the paperwork. That in turn got me wondering how a person could run a gas station while barely knowing how to read.

The report to which you linked has answered my long unanswered query. How very sad.

[smithsb]

Betsy DeVos, Education Secretary - Kentucky - this won't go well.

[E-DUB]

that's their model for the entire country. Poor, uneducated, Republican.

[eschereal]

We drove highway 627 from Winchester to Paris, and in the first twelve or fifteen miles, both sides of the road were endlessly lined with horse fences. The pall of wealth seemed almost overwhelming. Kentucky has the full range of toothless hillbillies to julep-sipping colonels, but it looks to be exactly the highly stratified type of society that Republiopathic policies are aimed toward, so the Devosiate ethos of education starvation is precisely suited to the goal of national kentuckification.

Also, the smallest three-house town has a church (where I am from, by contrast, the smallest three-house town has a tavern).

[Little_Pig]

Originally Posted by Bryan Ekers

I would, but I'm from Kentucky.

[OttoDaFe]

Originally Posted by Bryan Ekers

I would, but I'm from Kentucky.

How do you get your computer to work with a hand-cranked phone? "Hello Central, give me the Internet?"

[Euphonious Polemic]

Originally Posted by E-DUB

that's their model for the entire country. Poor, uneducated, Republican.

Sad but true. Half of the country now gets it's news from the equivalent of the crazy guy on the corner who shouts about contrails controlling his brain, while pissing himself.
This is who they listen to now. Anything else is "fake news".

They just listen to whichever crazy corner screamer shouts the loudest.

[CalMeacham]

A Republican congressman from Pennsylvania claims that God is a polluter.


Rep. Scott Perry was asked at a town hall in Red Lion on Saturday if he supported President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency in light of Pennsylvania’s “history of environmental problems.”


“Don’t we need a stronger EPA to protect the environment?” the questioner asked.


Perry, who has worked to restrict and limit the EPA’s abilities, didn’t directly answer the question.


Instead, he spoke of the Chesapeake Bay strategy, which he said was “forced on” the state and “left some violators out.”


Then he added:




“And by the way, some violators ― if you believe in, if you’re spiritual and you believe in God ― one of the violators was God, because the forests were providing a certain amount of nitrates and phosphates to the Chesapeake Bay.”


The crowd can be heard shouting in disbelief as Perry spoke.


“Oh, c’mon,” one person cried out.


At least one local religious leader took issue.


Rev. Mitch Hescox, head of the Evangelical Environmental Network, told PennLive that while some pollutants are naturally occurring, most are from fertilizers and chemicals.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...0be71dcf773f5?

[Steve MB]

Republicans have been accusing trees of causing pollution for decades, probably out of jealousy of the trees' superior intellect.

[elucidator]

Their bark, worse than their bite. And if you've seen one redwood tree, you've seen them all. Which will be literally true rather soon.

[Kobal2]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...0be71dcf773f5?

Well that only means that the EPA must impose stronger regulations on God(s).

[Little_Pig]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...0be71dcf773f5?

Bat Shit For Brains is also a "Brigadier General" in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

[Little_Pig]

Trump's Fox News source regarding wiretapping gets his balls cut off.

[Muffin]

Originally Posted by Little_Pig

Bat Shit For Brains is also a "Brigadier General" in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

Love that link. He ended up in diversion after lying about shit.

[TonySinclair]

Originally Posted by Little_Pig

Trump's Fox News source regarding wiretapping gets his balls cut off.

This is like a bad dream. Trump can pick up the phone and have any of a number of intelligence agencies tell him exactly what is happening, but instead he relies on rumors from people that even Fox News can't abide.

How long before he wants to drop a nuke on Kansas because he read a National Enquirer story about aliens landing in a cornfield? What would you do if you were a military officer responsible for executing that order?

[jsc1953]

Originally Posted by Little_Pig

Trump's Fox News source regarding wiretapping gets his balls cut off.

Is Fox News actually developing some semblance of journalistic integrity? These are truly extraordinary times in which we live.

[Muffin]

Originally Posted by jsc1953

Is Fox News actually developing some semblance of journalistic integrity?

Nah, they're just sacrificing their goat to protect their president and themselves. Must not blame Trump, must not blame Fox, ergo must blame goat.

[Monty]

Originally Posted by Little_Pig

Bat Shit For Brains is also a "Brigadier General" in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

Not that I like the dude (as I don't), but why the quotation marks?

[Robot Arm]

Originally Posted by TonySinclair

How long before he wants to drop a nuke on Kansas because he read a National Enquirer story about aliens landing in a cornfield? What would you do if you were a military officer responsible for executing that order?

That's easy, you pay the National Enquirer to run a story saying Kansas was nuked. Trump reads it and is happy, and it's got to be cheaper than actually bombing Kansas. Win-win.

[dropzone]

Originally Posted by eschereal

Also, the smallest three-house town has a church (where I am from, by contrast, the smallest three-house town has a tavern).

Wisconsin?

[ElvisL1ves]

Originally Posted by enipla

Or a shovel.

Or a catapult.

[ElvisL1ves]

Originally Posted by Muffin

That in turn got me wondering how a person could run a gas station while barely knowing how to read.

There weren't any verger's jobs open?

[Ukulele Ike]

Originally Posted by dropzone

Wisconsin?

Or the west of Ireland.

[Ukulele Ike]

We stayed in Leenaun once, in a B&B, on a biking tour. There were about six houses, and two pubs. We asked the boniface which one he drinked in, and he said "Well, we go to the one....then we go to t'other."

[kaylasdad99]

Originally Posted by Muffin

Love that link. He ended up in diversion after lying about shit.

ISWYDT.

Originally Posted by ElvisL1ves

There weren't any verger's jobs open?

You too, Mom...

[xenophon41]

Originally Posted by Ukulele Ike

We stayed in Leenaun once, in a B&B, on a biking tour. There were about six houses, and two pubs. We asked the boniface which one he drinked in, and he said "Well, we go to the one....then we go to t'other."

Sure, an' that's why there's two of 'em.

[Rick Kitchen]

The Republican Party of Virginia is demanding that the state's Democratic Attorney General apologize for speaking at a mosque.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...ction=politics

[Sterling Archer]

Last year, Obama could not get a hearing for his Supreme Court nominee because apparently a president nominating a justice during his last year in office was too controversial.

This year, we are proceeding full steam ahead with a Supreme Court nominee hearing, because there are no such concerns about a president who is under investigation for collaborating with Russia.

[Icarus]

Originally Posted by Sterling Archer

Last year, Obama could not get a hearing for his Supreme Court nominee because apparently a president nominating a justice during his last year in office was too controversial.

This year, we are proceeding full steam ahead with a Supreme Court nominee hearing, because there are no such concerns about a president who is under investigation for collaborating with Russia.

Who is also in his last year in office...........

[CalMeacham]

According to The New York Times' Margot Sanger-Katz, using CBO figures, if you were to simply repeal Obamacare outright, there would be one million more people covered than would be by the proposed Traumpcare replacement:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/u...peal.html?_r=0

The Republican bill would actually result in more people being uninsured than if Obamacare were simply repealed. Getting rid of the major coverage provisions and regulations of Obamacare would cost 23 million Americans their health insurance, according to another recent C.B.O. report. In other words, one million more Americans would have health insurance with a clean repeal than with the Republican replacement plan, according to C.B.O. estimates.

...

The C.B.O. estimated what would happen after a simple repeal when it considered a bill that Congress passed last year. (President Obama later vetoed that bill.) The bill left parts of Obamacare in place, so the 23 million estimate didn’t come with the kind of detailed analysis that accompanied last week’s score of the American Health Care Act. But the similarity of the two estimates highlights some of the difficulties of the current proposal, both for Democrats, who are strongly criticizing potential coverage losses, and for the repeal-or-die crowd, who hate the structure of this new bill.

[Kobal2]

See ? It just goes to show what the Republicans always tell you. Government is just super inefficient.

[elucidator]

Which is why they want us to have government run by business people. Right now, they are producing the health care equivalent of New Coke. What could go wrong?

[Typo Negative]

Trump warns House Republicans: Pass it or lose your jobs

But at a private meeting with House Republicans at the Capitol, the president also delivered a blunt warning that many of those present would lose their seats in next year’s midterm congressional elections if the effort failed.

Does he not understand how politics work? Gallup has his approval rating on the high 30s. You can't push people around when your numbers are in the toilet. 538 has his approval higher, but only at 42.9.

[adaher]

Trump doesn't know how political capital works, and he also apparently doesn't know how to manage his coalition. ACA is not a top tier issue for the white working class except for maybe a few provisions of it, like the cadillac tax and perhaps the coverage mandates that make it more expensive than it has to be. The Republican bill is not what they are looking for and if they pass it they'll lose more seats than if they don't.

Democrats already proved how this works: they didn't pass health care reform in 1993, they lost 54 seats. They did pass it in 2010, they lost 63. The Democrats' failure to pass health care in 1993 didn't lead to follow on effects in subsequent elections. The damage was limited to 1994. Whereas Democrats woes over ACA didn't stop until Donald Trump was elected.

Passing a bad bill will cost Republicans the House in 2018, the Presidency and Senate in 2020. Not passing a bill may allow Republicans to barely keep the House.

[Bayard]

Old news that's resurfaced recently: Whack job Trump advisor Roger Stone has a tattoo of Nixon on his back. I guess that was easier than always retaping the "kick me" sign.

http://www.snopes.com/roger-stone-nixon-tattoo/

Stone is a loony, but props to him for being in such good shape at his age. Good triceps.

[elucidator]

You talk as though we were living in an era of sense and reason, where carefully considered proposals yield expectable results.

[74westy]

Originally Posted by Bayard

Old news that's resurfaced recently: Whack job Trump advisor Roger Stone has a tattoo of Nixon on his back. I guess that was easier than always retaping the "kick me" sign.

http://www.snopes.com/roger-stone-nixon-tattoo/

Stone is a loony, but props to him for being in such good shape at his age. Good triceps.

So... Did he lose a bet or something?

[Kobal2]

Originally Posted by 74westy

So... Did he lose a bet or something?

Nope. He brags that he's the only man with a dick on either side. Actual true story.

[Robot Arm]

Originally Posted by 74westy

So... Did he lose a bet or something?

From Bayard's link:

Stone told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that he admired Nixon’s resilience and that the tattoo was a daily reminder that “when you get knocked down, when things don`t go your way, when you`re defeated, you got to get up and fight again. It`s simply that.”

It's on his back! How often do any of us see our backs? How can something be a daily reminder on his back?

[k9bfriender]

Originally Posted by Robot Arm

From Bayard's link:It's on his back! How often do any of us see our backs? How can something be a daily reminder on his back?

It's there as scenery when he puts his head up his ass.

[Rick Kitchen]

Congressional Republicans are upset that Mad Dog Mattis is hiring Democrats to fill positions in his Department.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...s-obama-236329

[wonky]

Originally Posted by Robot Arm

From Bayard's link:It's on his back! How often do any of us see our backs? How can something be a daily reminder on his back?

Well, and Nixon resigned. That seems like he got knocked down and stayed the fuck down.