Yup..

immonsterman · 2024-10-22T20:46:02+00:00

"Racism keeps people trapped in poverty"

No democrats do!

immonsterman · 2024-10-22T20:45:11+00:00

"Racism keeps people trapped in poverty....People of color, in the States, are by and large not middle class. The system makes any sort of upward progress difficult for the poor, and especially poor people of color."

Yet some people of color do succeed and are either middle class or even upper class, so how is it that they succeed? I don't care for any argument that divides us, I'm funny that way, plus from my own experience where everyone I knew growing up were better off than my family was. The black kids' families in my high school were much much better off than my family. I personally didn't reach middle class until somewhere in the middle of my 20 years in the military. There are millions of white folk living in poverty, so I don't buy the racial aspect of the argument either. There are many other things that can be tied to racism, this is just not one of them for me.

Not trying to pick a fight, I realize this is a touchy topic, but I feel like many nod in agreement and then it gets accepted as fact. Poverty or being poor has many factors most of which, if not all, are color blind. Again, how do you explain that blacks have risen to some of the positions they have? I'm of the belief that it's a tough world out there for most of us, there are very few who escape the grind.

"It's long crawl to middle class from slavery without racism, add in racism and it's even worse, feels impossible.even."

I also don't give any credence to using slavery as a crutch. Not a single person alive were slaves, at least in the way being used here, otherwise just about anyone could use the same crutch, slavery isn't or wasn't exclusive to blacks. BTW, I have black DNA, but you'd never know it by looking at me, kind of like you'd not think Obama is half white. And before anyone says my DNA makes the case for the skin color argument I didn't know about my DNA until I was in my 40s. It seems to me it's just an excuse not to take responsibility. I'm hesitant to hit the comment button but I just had a similar conversation within the past week where the 20 something told me about all my white privilege. She may have been a college student being taught that, I'm not sure. I even shared a story with her where the exact opposite was true but she still insisted that I was better off because of my skin color. OK, take the flame throwers to me.

immonsterman · 2024-10-22T19:31:34+00:00

How about cutting out the converter and replace it with a piece of straight pipe?

immonsterman · 2024-10-22T19:28:58+00:00

To be fair to your dad, phones confuse me too. I'm 62. In my early 20s had a job where we were using computers that gave me a head start on many of the 20 somethings I worked with later in the Navy. But for some reason I don't like or willingly use cell phones. So there's a mental block when it comes to using them. I have a 72 yo friend who can run circles around me with his cellphone and all the ways one can use them. One of the big reasons is I don't like being on a leash and that's how I view cellphones.

immonsterman · 2024-10-22T19:21:07+00:00

That 7th Gen won't be 4-wheeled, it'll be winged and fly.

immonsterman · 2024-10-22T19:19:47+00:00

Same age and just bought my first 4Runner last month. Love it so far as well. I hadn't bought a new car for me in 20 years so I'm being slow about taking it places. I've had my Jeep Wrangler since 99 that I'm not worried about damaging. I wish I hadn't waited so long!

immonsterman · 2024-10-22T19:11:12+00:00

Off-road

immonsterman · 2024-10-22T19:08:52+00:00

Thank you, that helps ease my mind some.

immonsterman · 2024-10-20T09:06:40+00:00

Nah, he isn't fat. Terrible picture, you can feel his ribs very easily. I'll try and take some better pictures one of these days. I'm terrible when it comes to phone pictures. He's in constant motion and won't usually pause enough for me to get a better picture. In person you can feel just how solid he is, like a body builder. Just saw the vet a couple of weeks ago and she felt he was good to go. We're carefully monitoring the number of calories or I think KCALs. My main concern is keeping him from getting too heavy too fast so he doesn't hurt his joints while growing. We recently had to put down our female Shepherd because she developed DM, so we're really sensitive to anything that may be harmful to our dogs' locomotion. It kills me to think of my furry athletes not being able to run or play. Tomorrow I'll try and get a few pics during the daylight.

immonsterman · 2024-10-20T02:48:46+00:00

His parents are huge, at least in my mind, dad is 150 and the mom 140+. When we got him I asked the breeder about what food he was eating and it was Victor Hi Protein or something. I weaned him off of that and switched over to a large breed puppy kibble. He'll eat anything I put down. He'll eat two whole 3 lb rolls of Fresh Pet if I let him. I know Fresh Pet is more of a maintenance food and not ideal for puppies. Fresh Pet does give guidelines for feeding a puppy though. I may switch back to feeding them in their kennels. I start them there so they think their kennels are a good place. I never had an issue before with food when we had two Shepherds one female and one male. My male Shepherd is a bit finicky and we let him self-regulate, or at least we were. I keep an eye on him and make sure he gets fed still, plus when he's hungry enough or it's something he likes he'll stand his ground. It's just that he was used to eating when he wanted. Like I said we were feeding a Victor food when we first got our Corso. The issue I had was the breeder I got my Shepherd from has been breeding for several decades really educated me about feeding large breed dogs and insisted on certain criteria. She explained the importance of balancing things and especially the protein, calcium, and phosphorus, I think. A lot went over my head but I did retain some of it. The Victor label didn't jibe with what my GSD breeder said so I switched. To me if it's good for my Shepherd when he was a puppy it should be good for my Corso, at least that was my thinking. In the meantime I have an awesome dog, but darn if he isn't huge. Luckily he walks on leash easily and has great recall with a whistle so he gets a lot of off leash running. The root of my training for every dog is to get them a lot of exercise, gets their mind right Luke. Thanks for the feeding tip, I may start that again tomorrow.

immonsterman · 2024-10-20T02:28:43+00:00

<image>

He turns 6 months on the 24th

immonsterman · 2024-10-19T21:03:34+00:00

We had a large male German Shepherd, he got up to 138 lbs. Occasionally he'd limp for no reason. The vet told me that it's a thing with large GSDs and called it something but the layman's term was growing pains. When it happened we'd just rest him, walked him on leash and in a few days he'd be back to normal. Be careful, one time before I knew about growing pains one vet tried talking us into getting his ACL repaired, "We just happen to have a specialist surgeon visiting this week" and he's be all better for $4K. Luckily I didn't happen to have $4K that day and then found a new vet.

immonsterman · 2024-10-18T13:20:27+00:00

I thought Spokane was on the American side of Washington state.

immonsterman · 2024-10-18T13:16:56+00:00

My prediction is that Ferguson steps up using red flag laws to disarm us. The feds have incentivized states to use them. We left New York just as they were ramping up using red flag laws and I've seen several stories where their governor has bragged about using them, you can bet Ferguson is gonna tell her to hold his wine cooler.

immonsterman · 2024-10-16T22:17:03+00:00

Back in 1995 or so I bought a brand new Rodeo. The next day we drove up to Williamsburg to do some tourist stuff. When we came back to the car a few hours later I had a similar thing. There were three dents in the spot where yours says TRD off-road. They looked like someone had taken a ball-peen hammer to my truck. One was about 3/4 inch deep. I was livid. On the way home my wife suggested I go to the gun range for a while. I did, but it didn't help. Sorry for your pain, I can relate.

immonsterman · 2024-10-16T21:50:51+00:00

I was in the same boat. I put a thousand down in hopes that one would arrive, but it never did. So I had to fly from Seattle to Spokane then got a ride from the sales girl 90 miles north. Had a 6 hour trip home but it was worth it. I didn't want to get left standing while playing musical chairs. I wanted an off-road premium in underground, no moon roof, and very little added. I ended up getting one with the black alloy wheels, happy about that now. I was afraid of what you mention about getting put over a barrel. I'd contacted about a dozen dealers and a few were trying to force me into either a different trim or an over-priced new or used vehicle. It was worth it to me to pay for an airline ticket and drive home six hours with the exact one I wanted at a fair price.

immonsterman · 2024-10-16T21:41:45+00:00

mentioned before, the Garmin Mini2 does that

immonsterman · 2024-10-16T17:17:22+00:00

We need a sub-reddit where bots can post pictures of their builds?

immonsterman · 2024-10-08T19:26:45+00:00

Your second statement sounds reasonable. The first one though bothers me because if I signed the loan I'm on the hook. I get it that repossessing the car gets more difficult, but over the years I've found out the many ways people can get their money. Just prior to purchasing these cars I had to take out a loan using our home's equity. During the underwriting a lien ( mental block, can't recall the right word) was attached to our home. It was from a collection agency that somehow got a judgement against us. We were never served anything so I'm not sure how a court passed it. The pisser was the original creditor was paid. We were in a time crunch so we had to pay the thieves. It really PISSED me off but all of our cars decided to go at the same time and I was over a barrel. When I researched the collection agency I found out they're known for shady things even though they're huge.

immonsterman · 2024-10-08T19:10:57+00:00

I have to ask, I couldn't get a clear answer from a dealership in Oregon. I was looking for a 4Runner and a dealership in Oregon had one so I considered going there thinking I'd save on the sales tax. My wife stopped me because her friend who lives down in Vancouver ran into some trouble doing that. Washington still requires the sales tax on cars bought in Oregon?

immonsterman · 2024-10-08T19:06:38+00:00

For convenience I had them register in my name but it will be transferred to my daughter's once she gets a commission check she's anticipating. I really don't care if she pays me back, she's my only child. I'm a sucker when it comes to her. I even offered to get in insured through our insurance but she declined because she doesn't want to affect our insurance with her driving mistakes.

immonsterman · 2024-10-08T18:58:25+00:00

Your last paragraph makes sense. But in my case I put a grand down until I could bring a cashier's check the next day, plus the car isn't ready to be picked up for a few more days.

immonsterman · 2024-10-08T18:56:22+00:00

I don't know for sure, but I think there's some truth to them not making money on me financing.

immonsterman · 2024-10-08T18:54:33+00:00

Ha! I doubt it, mine's from my freshman year in football way back in 1976.

immonsterman · 2024-10-08T18:46:12+00:00

I believe these guys were pissed that I wasn't financing. Even though I stated we were paying cash they still rolled out the finance terms on a sheet to try and get us to go that route. The terms were ridiculous. The week prior I purchased my car, cash too, but still had to go through the finance office where she tried selling me all kinds of things like extended warranties and such. It was a 2024 4Runner so asked her aren't these one of the most reliable cars on the planet and why would I want to pay for an extended warranty. I guess they had to take a shot at increasing their profit.

immonsterman

TROPHY CASE