ScottishFox

I'm inclined to agree. But then I would have to ask, all things considered, was it stupid enough that he deserved to be killed for it?

That turns out to not be the unvarnished truth.
 
This link covers through 2011 and states that PAEA expenses were estimated to be $5.6 billion per year for the first 10 years (page 3). Even without PAEA, the Postal Service started being in the red in 2009 and continued in the red through 2011 due to declining revenues (Figure 4).
 
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41024.pdf
 
====
 
At this link, the 2014 stats shows a net loss of $5.5 billion. So if you exclude those estimated PAEA expenses and take into account several postage rate increases in the intervening years, the USPS would have shown a profit. (page 41)
 
https://about.usps.com/publications/annual-report-comprehensive-statement-2014/annual-report-comprehensive-statement-v2-2014.pdf
 
====
 
At this link, the 2018 stats shows a loss of $3.9 billion (and a 2017 loss of $2.7 billion) 
 
https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2018/pr18_093.htm
 
Of particular interest, that USPS annual report states
 
 
So in recent years, the Postal Service has been running huge losses plus hasn't even been paying the PAEA at all.
 
It's difficult to argue that the reason the Post Office is in the red is because of PAEA expenses which the Post Office itself admits it hasn't been paying. They aren't paying PAEA out of revenues. They aren't paying PAEA out of borrow funds. They have no PAEA pre-funding expenses because they aren't paying PAEA, regardless of what the legislation is supposed to obligate them to pre-fund.
 
We can argue about the best ways to fix the Post Office. But lets not start off on a false basis. If we completely repealed PAEA, it wouldn't make a difference to the fact that the Post Office was running deeply in the red even before COVID.
 
(As a point for discussion, nationwide sIngle-payer healthcare would likely huge strides toward solving the Post Office overall funding problems by drastically reducing their expenses but I haven't gone through their expense reports to see exactly what kind of impact that'd have.)

Being that it's 2020, I wouldn't be surprised if Trump pushed for testing of some whacky cure and it actually turned out to work, thus paving the road for him to be President for Life.
 
Because . . . apocalypse.
 
So, yesterday, I had to go to the ER due to a high fever (had surgery Monday, high fever no bueno). They didn't find anything. Got a third COVID swab (the proper brain-tickler type) inside of a week. I'm starting to get used to the stupid things at this point.

I've longed to figure out a way to get a week off at least during this. But, it seems I am hampered my own work honor code about not making things unnecessarily hard on my co,workers.
 
Curse you, Code vs Slacking

My oral hygiene has gone to a whole new level during this - only took hot-boxing myself in my mask a couple of times to hammer that lesson home

I think you just hit the crux. "Roofs, plumbing, electricity, food..." all vital, but none glamorous. Part of the environment we all see every day, easy to take for granted. Just not as flashy as guns and badges and fast cars. And the dangers these varied professionals face are impersonal, without the thrill of active aggression.

Surprising number of jobs are more dangerous and yet those people don't get hyped up like super heroes even though we all need roofs, plumbing, electricity, food and the like.

Surprising number of jobs are more dangerous and yet those people don't get hyped up like super heroes even though we all need roofs, plumbing, electricity, food and the like.

Roofers and open-ocean fishermen are in higher risk jobs.
 
Edit: Loggers too, apparently.

I'd use a Multipower with two slots, one for Flight and the other for TP.

Hello everyone.  I was hoping that all the people that post here might be able to help me make sense of the Reduced Penetration limitation.  
 
I understand mechanically that if you hit, your divide the damage dice in half and roll them, then apply the BODY damage separately against defenses, but combine the STUN before applying.  This is to simulate something that is stopped more easily by armor or tougher defenses.
 
I see that it is used for shotguns as well as claws on monsters in the bestiary.   But at least at the HEROIC levels of game, it seems like these weakens the attacks to be almost useless.   Anyone with 3 or 4 PD of Resistant defense would be virtually immune.  This doesnt seem to make sense to me, especially with shotguns or large creature claws.
 
Am I missing something important?   Any insights would be appreciated.  
 
 

A comparison of Gabbard and Harris political views:
 
https://www.politico.com/2020-election/candidates-views-on-the-issues/tulsi-gabbard/
 
https://www.politico.com/2020-election/candidates-views-on-the-issues/kamala-harris/

No disagreement here.  The current administration lies with the best of them.  Also, politicians as a whole (both sides) are scummy liars who will say anything to get more power.
 
 
The free speech threat I've seen has been growing steadily since the UC Berkley riots chasing Milo off campus.  150 violent, masked agitators.  Apparently the openly gay, married to a black guy (now) speaker had the wrong opinions about some things and the very same campus that protested FOR free speech decades earlier protested against it.  I've lost count of the number of conservative lawsuits filed because they simply can't get permission to speak at public schools as they are thwarted again and again for having speakers with the wrong opinions.  I personally find Milo intentionally offensive and since his social media banning - tragically deranged.  Still, if people want to see that show - they should be allowed to.
 
College campuses have become incredibly intolerant.  I've seen the police called on a PragerU reporter for asking a question.  When the police came they asked what the reporter had done and the student says,
"Well, they're racist so they shouldn't be allowed on campus and be able to talk to people".
 
I remember people calling my wife - who is Mexican - racist for voting for Trump and promptly ghosting her.
I had a guy show up to my home D&D game wearing a politically themed Punch a Nazi shirt.  AKA - It's OK to punch Trump supporters (like my wife) because they're Nazi's.  She's voted Democrat her entire (LONG) adult life and only in 2016 were things so crazy that she finally switched parties out of desperation.  This same lifetime Democrat is HAPPY with how Trump is handling things.  I'll probably vote for Jo Jorgensen because I'm so disgusted with Democrat and Republican I can't vote for either one.
 
How many people have been punched for wearing a MAGA hat while people walk around with hammer and sickle shirts without issue?  Che Guevara shirts?  No problem.
 
HR departments and big tech have picked up the fun with whole areas of discussion that will get you banned/fired for having the currently mainstream conservative opinion.  How about The White Coat summit and doctors being tech platform banned for contradicting the W.H.O. (which has done a bang up job with Coronavirus so far.  Especially fond of their refusing to listen to doctors from Hong Kong - which could have saved 10s of thousands of lives).
 
How about the presidents twitter/twitch accounts getting suspended for  - again - pretty mainstream conservative view points?
 
I watch Bill Maher and John Oliver AND Tucker Carlson.  I like to get a broad array of opinions, but one set of those opinions is getting smashed by cancel culture and big tech.  Can you imagine if we would have allowed this behavior with telephone companies in the past?  Says here you're a registered Democrat - No phone calls for you.
 
I remember people calling my wife - who is Mexican - racist for voting for Trump and promptly ghosting her.  Want to find out WHY she made that choice?  No?  Just assume evil and disappear?  Okay....
 
 
 
That's pretty disgusting.  Sorry you're going through that.  I've heard and read similar things from left-leaning acquaintances of mine and it is beyond disturbing.
 
Things like "If people are still conservative at this point you've had your chance.  At a minimum they need to be taken into custody and re-educated.".
Hard pass on the re-education camps - for anyone - in my opinion.
 
 
Ditto.  Last time the anti-Jewish sentiment ramped up things turned out badly for everyone.
 
I also feel pretty similarly about the anti-white tripe the last few years.  White Privilege is racist garbage, imo, though I'd be down for Majority Privilege.  Because the former is racist and too often incorrect (I was a minority white for 15+ years and I did NOT feel privileged to be physically attacked and to struggle to find work for being white).  Selecting any race for open season on abuse only leads to horrible things.

I recall this KKK idiot passing around material in Junior High when I still lived in a overwhelmingly white area.  Like over 99%.  He was blaming black people for all of societies problems.
And I told him something along the lines of, "Man, there's like 1 black guy in town.  Your problems are because of YOU!"
 
California this year - again - has on the ballot the option to roll back government protections against hiring based on race and gender.  Unless I misread something it's like they want to repeal the civil rights act.  Well intentioned or not - that road leads to hell.
 
OK, I've rambled on for too long.

Love this place and you guys for even entertaining conversations like this.  And HERO system.  God I love this game system.  I got a table back up and running this Saturday (with clean freaky Corona protections in place).  Blue and gold D6s for life.

This is a byproduct of mutual intolerance.
 
Someone who disagrees with you can't just have a differing opinion.  They can't have had a lifetime of their own experiences and have reached a different conclusion on how things should work.
 
They have to - at the very least - be dangerously, stupidly wrong.
 
Usually that isn't enough anymore.  Now someone who disagrees with you has to be evil.  Not a little evil.  Very evil.
 
That's where we lost the plot.  Trump's stupidity and diarrhea of dishonesty isn't killing relationships.  We are.  We've become intolerant ass-hats.
 
My Sunday D&D table is pretty evenly split politically (couple of hard conservatives, couple of hard liberals and a couple of moderates) and we try to avoid political discourse while gaming, but it usually flares up once or twice.
One of the die-hard lefties at the table pulled me aside the other day and just thanked me for being so easy to talk to and disagree with (which we do on a lot of topics). 
 
I'm old enough to remember when that was the norm.  When we could disagree intensely, even mock each others ideas without throwing our friendships out the window.
 
I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.  It used to be the liberals defending free speech from tyrannical thought-policing evangelical types.  Now it's completely reversed where the conservatives are defending free speech from tyrannical thought-policing political correctness types.

And because America is really good at handling Coronavirus - The public health director in California resigned suddenly. 
 
It wasn't brought up in the resignation letter, but there's supposedly a very recently discovered flaw in the CA reporting system that may have as many as 300,000 cases not reported yet.

As someone from the right and hearing the chatter. It is as if, Biden consulted with Trump himself.  This might be the one choice that was most hoped for on the right fo get the pick. (maybe, maybe Stacey Abrams, would have been a better pick for Gop, but debateable)

Not a good person; then again, neither is Biden. Ahhh...I enjoy being reminded that the choice is between raccoon vomit and porcupine diarrhea.

Cool.  Did you notice the text above the graph (bolding added)?
 


 
To be fair, all the statistics being tossed around are a crap shoot, given the questionable accuracy of case and death counts, the time from infection to death, etc.  I just found the inclusion of that text amusing.

No disagreement here.  The current administration lies with the best of them.  Also, politicians as a whole (both sides) are scummy liars who will say anything to get more power.
 
 
The free speech threat I've seen has been growing steadily since the UC Berkley riots chasing Milo off campus.  150 violent, masked agitators.  Apparently the openly gay, married to a black guy (now) speaker had the wrong opinions about some things and the very same campus that protested FOR free speech decades earlier protested against it.  I've lost count of the number of conservative lawsuits filed because they simply can't get permission to speak at public schools as they are thwarted again and again for having speakers with the wrong opinions.  I personally find Milo intentionally offensive and since his social media banning - tragically deranged.  Still, if people want to see that show - they should be allowed to.
 
College campuses have become incredibly intolerant.  I've seen the police called on a PragerU reporter for asking a question.  When the police came they asked what the reporter had done and the student says,
"Well, they're racist so they shouldn't be allowed on campus and be able to talk to people".
 
I remember people calling my wife - who is Mexican - racist for voting for Trump and promptly ghosting her.
I had a guy show up to my home D&D game wearing a politically themed Punch a Nazi shirt.  AKA - It's OK to punch Trump supporters (like my wife) because they're Nazi's.  She's voted Democrat her entire (LONG) adult life and only in 2016 were things so crazy that she finally switched parties out of desperation.  This same lifetime Democrat is HAPPY with how Trump is handling things.  I'll probably vote for Jo Jorgensen because I'm so disgusted with Democrat and Republican I can't vote for either one.
 
How many people have been punched for wearing a MAGA hat while people walk around with hammer and sickle shirts without issue?  Che Guevara shirts?  No problem.
 
HR departments and big tech have picked up the fun with whole areas of discussion that will get you banned/fired for having the currently mainstream conservative opinion.  How about The White Coat summit and doctors being tech platform banned for contradicting the W.H.O. (which has done a bang up job with Coronavirus so far.  Especially fond of their refusing to listen to doctors from Hong Kong - which could have saved 10s of thousands of lives).
 
How about the presidents twitter/twitch accounts getting suspended for  - again - pretty mainstream conservative view points?
 
I watch Bill Maher and John Oliver AND Tucker Carlson.  I like to get a broad array of opinions, but one set of those opinions is getting smashed by cancel culture and big tech.  Can you imagine if we would have allowed this behavior with telephone companies in the past?  Says here you're a registered Democrat - No phone calls for you.
 
I remember people calling my wife - who is Mexican - racist for voting for Trump and promptly ghosting her.  Want to find out WHY she made that choice?  No?  Just assume evil and disappear?  Okay....
 
 
 
That's pretty disgusting.  Sorry you're going through that.  I've heard and read similar things from left-leaning acquaintances of mine and it is beyond disturbing.
 
Things like "If people are still conservative at this point you've had your chance.  At a minimum they need to be taken into custody and re-educated.".
Hard pass on the re-education camps - for anyone - in my opinion.
 
 
Ditto.  Last time the anti-Jewish sentiment ramped up things turned out badly for everyone.
 
I also feel pretty similarly about the anti-white tripe the last few years.  White Privilege is racist garbage, imo, though I'd be down for Majority Privilege.  Because the former is racist and too often incorrect (I was a minority white for 15+ years and I did NOT feel privileged to be physically attacked and to struggle to find work for being white).  Selecting any race for open season on abuse only leads to horrible things.

I recall this KKK idiot passing around material in Junior High when I still lived in a overwhelmingly white area.  Like over 99%.  He was blaming black people for all of societies problems.
And I told him something along the lines of, "Man, there's like 1 black guy in town.  Your problems are because of YOU!"
 
California this year - again - has on the ballot the option to roll back government protections against hiring based on race and gender.  Unless I misread something it's like they want to repeal the civil rights act.  Well intentioned or not - that road leads to hell.
 
OK, I've rambled on for too long.

Love this place and you guys for even entertaining conversations like this.  And HERO system.  God I love this game system.  I got a table back up and running this Saturday (with clean freaky Corona protections in place).  Blue and gold D6s for life.

No disagreement here.  The current administration lies with the best of them.  Also, politicians as a whole (both sides) are scummy liars who will say anything to get more power.
 
 
The free speech threat I've seen has been growing steadily since the UC Berkley riots chasing Milo off campus.  150 violent, masked agitators.  Apparently the openly gay, married to a black guy (now) speaker had the wrong opinions about some things and the very same campus that protested FOR free speech decades earlier protested against it.  I've lost count of the number of conservative lawsuits filed because they simply can't get permission to speak at public schools as they are thwarted again and again for having speakers with the wrong opinions.  I personally find Milo intentionally offensive and since his social media banning - tragically deranged.  Still, if people want to see that show - they should be allowed to.
 
College campuses have become incredibly intolerant.  I've seen the police called on a PragerU reporter for asking a question.  When the police came they asked what the reporter had done and the student says,
"Well, they're racist so they shouldn't be allowed on campus and be able to talk to people".
 
I remember people calling my wife - who is Mexican - racist for voting for Trump and promptly ghosting her.
I had a guy show up to my home D&D game wearing a politically themed Punch a Nazi shirt.  AKA - It's OK to punch Trump supporters (like my wife) because they're Nazi's.  She's voted Democrat her entire (LONG) adult life and only in 2016 were things so crazy that she finally switched parties out of desperation.  This same lifetime Democrat is HAPPY with how Trump is handling things.  I'll probably vote for Jo Jorgensen because I'm so disgusted with Democrat and Republican I can't vote for either one.
 
How many people have been punched for wearing a MAGA hat while people walk around with hammer and sickle shirts without issue?  Che Guevara shirts?  No problem.
 
HR departments and big tech have picked up the fun with whole areas of discussion that will get you banned/fired for having the currently mainstream conservative opinion.  How about The White Coat summit and doctors being tech platform banned for contradicting the W.H.O. (which has done a bang up job with Coronavirus so far.  Especially fond of their refusing to listen to doctors from Hong Kong - which could have saved 10s of thousands of lives).
 
How about the presidents twitter/twitch accounts getting suspended for  - again - pretty mainstream conservative view points?
 
I watch Bill Maher and John Oliver AND Tucker Carlson.  I like to get a broad array of opinions, but one set of those opinions is getting smashed by cancel culture and big tech.  Can you imagine if we would have allowed this behavior with telephone companies in the past?  Says here you're a registered Democrat - No phone calls for you.
 
I remember people calling my wife - who is Mexican - racist for voting for Trump and promptly ghosting her.  Want to find out WHY she made that choice?  No?  Just assume evil and disappear?  Okay....
 
 
 
That's pretty disgusting.  Sorry you're going through that.  I've heard and read similar things from left-leaning acquaintances of mine and it is beyond disturbing.
 
Things like "If people are still conservative at this point you've had your chance.  At a minimum they need to be taken into custody and re-educated.".
Hard pass on the re-education camps - for anyone - in my opinion.
 
 
Ditto.  Last time the anti-Jewish sentiment ramped up things turned out badly for everyone.
 
I also feel pretty similarly about the anti-white tripe the last few years.  White Privilege is racist garbage, imo, though I'd be down for Majority Privilege.  Because the former is racist and too often incorrect (I was a minority white for 15+ years and I did NOT feel privileged to be physically attacked and to struggle to find work for being white).  Selecting any race for open season on abuse only leads to horrible things.

I recall this KKK idiot passing around material in Junior High when I still lived in a overwhelmingly white area.  Like over 99%.  He was blaming black people for all of societies problems.
And I told him something along the lines of, "Man, there's like 1 black guy in town.  Your problems are because of YOU!"
 
California this year - again - has on the ballot the option to roll back government protections against hiring based on race and gender.  Unless I misread something it's like they want to repeal the civil rights act.  Well intentioned or not - that road leads to hell.
 
OK, I've rambled on for too long.

Love this place and you guys for even entertaining conversations like this.  And HERO system.  God I love this game system.  I got a table back up and running this Saturday (with clean freaky Corona protections in place).  Blue and gold D6s for life.

I'll clamor down as well.  I was certainly close to saying unfriendly things.
 
It's not that I think you are a problem, ScottishFox.  I'm arguing that the 'thought leadership' saying 'liberals need to be more tolerant' are astroturfing like crazy what I'm actually dealing with when I'm trying to be tolerant.

Social media has exacerbated intolerance and hatred exponentially IMO.  It allows you to easily voice 'opinions', but without the courtesy, temperance and natural back and forth dialogue of a face-to-face setting.

Guess I'll have to wear something else when I run.  Damn.

300000 test results, not cases.  At California's 6% average test positivity that's still 18000 new cases, maybe three days' worth.  The backlog has already been caught up.
 
Kind of a refreshing change to see someone get removed for putting up the wrong numbers for once...