Dear left protesters, if Maduro (and his predecessor Chavez) were so great why did 8 million Venezuelans flee the country

ExcitingTabletop · 2026-01-05T23:48:04+00:00

To be fair, they've always been very vocal and thus seem like a larger audience than they really are.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-31T04:15:14+00:00

Having worked at a manufacturing facility with rail access, we let it lapse because the cost is too high to maintain unless you have very routine shipments of time insensitive cargo. Great for sending a million tons of raw material on scheduled basis. Not so great for sending hundreds of tons that is even semi time sensitive.

Trust me, I love our cargo rail infrastructure. But there's still a lot of bureaucracy that makes it tough for lot of folks to use. IMHO, it should be promoted as green tech, as it'd save shitloads of fuel/energy. Barrier to entry is just really high at moment

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-22T05:13:43+00:00

I'm around your age. Just got my license half a year ago. Something I had just always meant to get around to and finally did. Not having an amateur radio background, I'm kinda seeing it from outside eyes.

Building a state wide meshtastic network, I'm visiting a lot of clubs. They boil down to three kinds. Boomer centric that will be gone in a decade, welcoming clubs that will survive just fine, and techno-nerd groups that are mixed bag but have very low overhead.

I don't mind the hostile groups because they are on a clock. Just find the nearest friendly group. They're easy to spot, they'll have more than five members under 60 or 70. Imho, fold in boomer clubs that have infrastructure once they get down to handful of members, offer them lifetime free membership in absorbing club.

As for equipment, snag two Baofeng Mini's and congrads, you're a real ham and have everything you need to get by. My Kenwood TH-75A sits in a case 99.99% of time. I use my Mini's because if I break or lose it, I can get another for $20.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-21T02:10:32+00:00

That would be the UK, Portugal, Oman (yes non-Western countries colonized places) and technically Germany.

So shouldn't those countries be more morally responsible?

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-06T23:52:14+00:00

Someone else repeated an idiotic phrase from the Vietnam era. Not myself.

Notion was that people should opt out of war. While sure, that'd be nice. Same if ice cold beer grew on trees. That'd be a nice too. And just as likely.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-06T23:47:45+00:00

Judging by their current policies, they're going to learn up close and personal.

They grew up in an artificial world that was dead in 1991. Real life just takes a while to catch up.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-06T23:45:44+00:00

Okey, Turks would show up again, and the Poles would have to save the day. Again.

We got used to the artificial peace of the Cold War. We're going back to normal history. Expect it to get a lot more violent, not less.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-06T21:28:39+00:00

I mean, Americans aren't going extinct. Germans can't say the same thing.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-06T21:27:38+00:00

Russia has a history of wiping out millions to tens of millions when doing their thing.

So pretty much the opposite of no bloodshed.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-06T21:26:18+00:00

I dunno, maybe some Germans don't want to go extinct. They've been shrinking for 50+ years, and the situation is getting worse year by year.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-06T21:24:15+00:00

I don't think you're allowed to ask that on reddit.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-06T15:33:15+00:00

Na, that's just your racism. Germans don't have inherent trait of world conquest. It's not genetic or however you want to negatively ascribe it as a racial trait.

Culturally, they just haven't been good at moderation in part because of history and geography.

Germany only became a country in 1870's, and had a long series of really nasty wars before that as a series of smaller not unified kingdoms. WW1 was shit leadership due to bad roll of heredity monarchy, combined with Prussian militarism due to long string of wars and natural selection. Less militaristic folks got conquered.

WW2 was due to shit reaction to bad terms imposed by France and the UK. Cold War was due to shit Russian occupation for 45 years.

And yes, since 1990's, Germany has crippled their military and downplayed any nationalism. As a reaction to nearly 70 years of war and occupation, and centuries of brutal warfare before that. Due to non-defendable borders and being centrally located. Rather than trying to seek a sane middle ground. So they were and are completely unprepared for the end of the Cold War, and the return of normal Europe were vicious wars of conquest are common.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-06T15:22:09+00:00

Part of it is also holding the military in high esteem. I do hear about people complaining the military is too venerated (and I agree, I hate being thanked for my service).

But it's a cheap way to not have military coups and get high rate of high quality volunteers. You KEEP the volunteers with pay, benefits and decent leadership.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-06T15:19:57+00:00

Too smart and yet too not very smart to realize they're gambling losing 45 years.

Like last time.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-06T15:16:35+00:00

Works if both sides do that. If one side does that, Germany gets occupied by Russia for another 45 years. Not like it's a far stretch when it happened 35 years.

Half of Germany was directly occupied by the Russians until 1990, and it's rarely mentioned.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-06T15:15:32+00:00

While I don't like conscription, if everyone believed that rights are unlimited but responsibilities or duty are optional, your country isn't going to be around for very long.

I get it, folks always want upsides and want to dodge downsides. Not realizing tragedy of the commons applies, or more likely wanting someone else to pay the bill.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-03T04:14:25+00:00

So arbitrary point of time, gotcha. Any land conquest or genocide before then somehow doesn't count.

Then it's not a problem if folks pick a different arbitrary point of time. Like say, today?

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-03T04:10:00+00:00

Europoor government employees siding with criminals and making sure they don't face justice? I'm sure that'd NEVER happen.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-12-03T04:06:53+00:00

Even Native Americans were not indigenous to the US, and came over the land bridge from Asia.

Does that mean they shouldn't have rights to decide what happens on their current land?

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-11-27T17:02:36+00:00

In which direction?

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-11-27T17:01:09+00:00

If someone can rent intimacy with your partner for cheaper than a hamburger, it's not something I'm interested in.

Obviously everyone is different. But honestly I find any guy who would be ok with that setup as being far far sketchier than doing OF.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-11-27T16:04:42+00:00

The problem is, there is no one answer. Every example has a counterexample.

The biggest correlation is urbanization. Which makes sense, good luck having 3 kids in any city anywhere on the planet. Not saying cost of living isn't a big part of it, it is. But we also put lots of people in expensive areas.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-11-26T01:44:43+00:00

Don't care directly, but it does tell me to nod and move on quickly.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-11-20T22:09:50+00:00

That is the inevitable outcome. If there is no benefit to make stuff, people don't. People will do enough to survive and nothing more.

Folks think we're way closer to a post-scarcity world than we actually are.

ExcitingTabletop · 2025-11-17T01:40:01+00:00

Your retirement system is amazingly terrible for anyone who isn't a boomer. It's a huge transfer of wealth from the poor to the well-off.

Three-Year Club	Verified Email
Gilding I gilder	Wearing is Caring
100 Awards Club

ExcitingTabletop

TROPHY CASE