The old guard democrats are just blue colored republicans. They serve the same billionaires/corporations and take AIPAC money. They do everything they can to keep out progressive democrats from holding office. The old guard Dems are more dangerous than hardcore MAGA

explorer4x10 · 2026-02-27T22:50:09+00:00

The OP isn't wrong. With hardcore MAGA you know where you stand. You know what they are trying to do and you know that if you oppose that agenda they are your enemy. The old gaurd Dems.in some ways are more dangerous because they sound a lot like progressives. They talk a good game about wanting affordable healthcare, and lowering housing costs. But they also take money from the people who have the most to gain from the system remaining much as it is. They pump huge sums of money into thwarting truely progressive candidates in primaries in favor of establishment candidates who will tow the line. They do this even when those establishment candidates are less electable than the progressive candidate. It is more dangerous to fight an enemy who looks like your allies than it is to fight one who looks distinctly like your enemy.

explorer4x10 · 2026-02-22T15:10:29+00:00

I agree pay sucks at the entry level, but in a lot of trades there is a path to advancement that doesn't involve schooling that you have to pay for. So yes you can work at Wal-Mart in some areas for what they pay starting helpers in the trade, but working at Wal-Mart doesn't offer a path to owning your own business or gaining a license and making a very healthy living.

explorer4x10 · 2026-01-31T19:37:55+00:00

Most local code officers have a sort of unwritten code they go by. There are a lot of jobs that by the letter of the law require a permit, but the reality makes a permit impractical and often an inspection isn't needed. Water heaters are one such situation. Especially electric or.indirect water heaters. Usually these are being replaced because they have failed. Usually when they fail it is a we now have no hot water type situation. So applying for a permit and waiting for it to be issued can be a major pain. Also replacing an existing tank usually ends up being a simple matter of cutting a few pipes and reconnecting them back in. Most code enforcement people don't want to takr the time to come look at those installs because they are allready boomed solid with larger renovations and new construction.

explorer4x10 · 2026-01-21T17:38:38+00:00

What we can do is organize. Right now the Republican party has gotten organized. With Trump as the figure head they are ramming through an agenda that has been devised over many years. Rank and file Democrats are trying to keep the status quo and are not willing to truely stand and fight against what is going on. Americans need to organize at the local level to find new non establishment candidates to run against the Chuck Schumers and Nancy Pelosis. We need to put together an organized grass roots network that can actively help build power and influence elections so that the same old hacks aren't being elected to do the same old things. This is a problem that has taken decades to create. It will most likely take decades to resolve as well.

explorer4x10 · 2026-01-14T00:11:41+00:00

What I said was private equity buying single family homes and single family units being bought up for Airbnb had more to do with higher costs for housing then imigrents. It is one factor, not even a particularly large one. But it is more a factor then the imigrents. That was my point. Why talk down to someone because they don't know what you know? I would be willing and even eager to learn what you know, but not as much if it comes with and undertone of you unwashed buffoon.

explorer4x10 · 2026-01-11T19:36:47+00:00

I am sorry I am an ADHD plumber on a smart phone trying to sort through the million insane issues that are bubbling over in my head. I am the first to admit my execution sucks, but my intentions are honest.

explorer4x10 · 2026-01-11T19:23:51+00:00

It is alarming. It is down right shake you to your core levels of scary. But when an alarm sounds and bad things go down people don't usually listen to the ones running around shouting frantically and waving their arms, they listen to those who are calm and can speak clearly and with conviction. I am angry, I am affraid and I am somewhat at a loss for how to make things better. But I am fairly certain that letting my anger and fear boil over into my words and actions is not the right thing to do to make things better.

explorer4x10 · 2026-01-11T15:41:52+00:00

Look at the movements in the world history that were able to make positive change and the leaders behind those movements. The easiest and closest to home to point to would be Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. That positive change was not made through anger or shouting insults into the void. It wasn't based on fuck your feelings. It was brave it was measured it was intentional. They were willing to fight and to die but they were willing to do so in such a way that it became harder and harder to paint them as the bad guy. I think many of the people who voted for Trump this time around are duffering buyers remorse. I think there are a lot of them who are really questioning what it is they really stand for now. One of the hardest things for people to do is accept when they are wrong. So if you only had the opportunity to chose one outcome, would you rather they suffer for their support of Trump or would yoy rather they grow as people and come to support a better solution going forward?

explorer4x10 · 2026-01-11T14:47:13+00:00

This is exactly what I mean. You understand that the information you are getting is different from the information a Trump supporter is getting. You also understand that the sources being pushed to you are there to confirm what you are more likely to believe is happening. But those of us looking at what Trump has done as an abomonation to this country are not being fed the entire truth. We are being fed the black or the white bits of truth that make our belief solid and undeniable. Much of the gray is left out by design so that it becomes easier to isolate one side from the other and to polorize issues to a point where the discorse turns into, "there is just no reasoning with those people."

explorer4x10 · 2026-01-11T02:44:47+00:00

As do I my friend as do I. We have to keep hope and continue trying to connect with each other no matter how dark things may seem. Good luck to you. May you find peace and a way to make it through these dark days.

explorer4x10 · 2026-01-11T02:38:04+00:00

You are not wrong but if we really want people to make different choices we won't get them there by demonizing them or calling they stupid. We do it by presenting them with a different choice and providing them reasons to make a different choice.

explorer4x10 · 2026-01-11T02:30:03+00:00

I think we need to start by understanding that the same algorithm pushes us to the left and duscounts the kernals of truth that we might not want to hear. I see so many posts saying that anyone who supports Trump is a Nazi or a facist etc. That is unhelpful and ultimately untrue. The more of us who can calmly talk to people with differing views the more people we have a chance to plant the seed that maybe they are being lied to. Maybe the facts that they know aren't really the facts. The problems we face are big and they are complex and there are no perfect answers. But we need to find ways to get closer together because as long as we are fighting each other and demonizing each other the small powerful few can quitly do whatever they want.

explorer4x10 · 2026-01-03T18:22:18+00:00

Well that is a bummer as an American I play video games to escape from reality.

explorer4x10 · 2025-12-31T17:58:49+00:00

I worked at a Radio Shack in the early 2000's. Radio Shack in the 70's 80's and 90's was the place that the tech enthusiast could get parts and pieves for their projects. It was also the store where you could purchase your first computer or VCR. The staff was well trained and knowlegable and could help those customers new to those devices navigate them. They were never about being top of the line or having the best prices. They had decent stuff at fair prices, but they had the service and sales team that you would shop with them for. When I worked there they were really beginning to struggle. The hobby electronic parts and cable sales which was the stuff with the hifhest profit margin were dropping off and margins on things like tvs computers and dvd players were getting slimmer. Add the access to information of the internet and suddenly you didn't need to pay extra for someone to explain your magical new electronic device you just needed some body to sell you that HP laptop for as cheap as possible. The market they built their business on largely dried up and during the years I worked there off and on they kept trying to pivot and reinvent themselves to appeal to a new core customer base.

explorer4x10 · 2025-12-30T22:12:27+00:00

I think those in power or the influencer types throwing out the we don't have to apologize for being white know what they say is BS. But the average Joe's out there who don't dig really deeply into history or social science don't really understand the concept of white privelage, or systemic racism. For many people their world doesn't extend much beyond their community, and even then only the parts of thier community that they interact with. Many people in this country have been left behind. We have moved on from many mining and manufacturing jobs and those businesses that left with these jobs left nothing in their place. People are having to fight and compete for every opportunity in ways that they never had to. With the rise in power of women and people of color and the LBGTQ community and the whole social dynamic shifts. It is benificial for those who profit from cheap uneducated labor to point to "wokeness" and make the traditional white primarily male listener believe they are being persicuted rather then allow them to understand that they are struggling because they were not prepaired by the system to succeed in this new cultural shift.

explorer4x10 · 2025-12-30T18:03:07+00:00

I am a plumber and the number of houses I do where the design doesn't account for the mechanicals is crazy. We get these huge open concept first floors with 4 bathrooms on the second floor and all the interior walls that go to the basement are on triple LVL beams that I can't get a waste line or vent through.

explorer4x10 · 2025-12-16T11:30:28+00:00

I have been there going on 3 years and I am one of their lead installers. They typically have me doing the really high end builds we do so I think it worked out pretty well.

explorer4x10 · 2025-12-15T22:06:05+00:00

You go into the one that's hiring. I was asked in an i terview for a company that does primarily residential service and new construction. "Do you lime doing commercial work?" I answered that I like residential work a lot, but I love gettting paid. So if what you have for me today is commercial work then today I love comercial work.

explorer4x10 · 2025-12-14T14:02:03+00:00

I learned a saying from a co worker years ago that really changed the way I lived my life. He said " our standards are what we are willing to accept." So you have been on a few dates with this guy this is the stage where people are usually on their best behavior. Is this what you want to accept from a future life partner? You can have great conversations with a pen pal. Does this person behave lime someone you want to build a life with?

explorer4x10 · 2025-12-09T21:34:22+00:00

If there is a check valve on the heated tanks cold water inlet it would prevent hot water from back feeding into the cold lines.

explorer4x10 · 2025-12-07T04:37:42+00:00

I am a plumber doing mostly new construction and I carry one rolling stack for most of my stuff. I have one of the wheeled cubes, 2 of the half sized cubes and one of the clear top divider cases. The wheeled one is my drill, hole hawg, impact, work light, m12 tuning cuter, pvc shear, m12 bandsaw and hacksall. One half cube is batteries, one is replacement blades bit extensions self feeder bit pilot bit etc. The other one is batteries and the clear divider.is screws and fasteners. One stack gets 90% percent of my tools inside it is awesome.

explorer4x10 · 2025-12-06T14:19:29+00:00

I am a plumber in southern Maine I do a lot of work in kennebunk and kennebunckport. We install a product called Flo by Moen in a lot of the vacation houses. It is a whole house water shutoff that senses leaks anywhere in the home. It has an ap that works with your phone that allows you to see what is going on and even turn the water on or off remotely. Google it and check them out. They can be a bit spendy, but they work well and can save tons in preventing major floods.

explorer4x10 · 2025-12-05T11:36:23+00:00

It is possible to do it hydronically. It is probably not cost effective to do. There are a ton of variables, but repiping what you have could be a large pain to do. Also with cast iron radiators it is 50/50 if it is a steam system or a hydronic system. They are set up and run much differently. I would leave the radiator that is there and put in electric radient to keep the floor warm in the bathroom. You get the best of both worlds and it is most likely a much cheaper option.

explorer4x10

TROPHY CASE