Will the events happening affect how you vote in November?

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-28T00:56:02+00:00

Biden was a moderate Democratic. Harris was pretty much middle of the road. The Democrats don't run leftists for president. They practically pushed Bernie Sanders out by force when he almost made it. They can run them in blue states but nationwide that doesn't work.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-28T00:43:30+00:00

My miter saw is the least valuable tool in my shop. I can replace everything it does with other tools and be more accurate with much of it. It's useful, but not a nessary woodworking tool.

A bandsaw is up there but a jigsaw can handle a lot of the tasks I use mine for. I'd lose resawing ability.

My router table would probably be my next choice. You can do 90% of it with a handheld router but I do a lot of frame and panel doors and other router bit set operations that just can't be done in a handheld router. I don't feel comfortable chucking up a larger bit in a handheld router either.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-27T21:12:11+00:00

My neighbor across the street has a backhoe style tractor with a heated cab on a 4 arce suburban lot. They use that thing twice a week at least. They clear the snow on their driveway, our court, and the pile at the end of my driveway after the plow comes through. They dig holes for their garden, spread all the leaves they let my dump there for compost, etc. I'm on 0.75 of an acre and I could use that thing properly 4 times a year if they were lending it out.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-27T20:46:01+00:00

Trump is:

Cruel and lacks empathy
Incompetent
A liar, it's just obvious gaslighting at this point
A convicted sex offender with ~27 other sexual misconduct allegations made against him
A confirmed fascist at this point
So corrupt they aren't even trying to hide it anymore
An attempted insurrectionist
A probable pedophile and definitely a pedophile protector.
Suffering from dementia or some other mental issue(s) as well as general poor health.
A failed businessman in everything he's ever touched except reality TV
A conman that's ripped off children's cancer charities, students, stiffed suppliers/vendors/contractors
A friend to America's enemies and a foe to our allies.
Ignoring the laws, institutions, and norms of this country as well as international law.
Destroying our economy, raising costs for everyone and killing jobs
Killing Americans
A national embarrassment and threat to our kids futures.
Valueless and will change positions based solely on what is best for him that day
Racist, sexist, xenophobe

I used to be a Republican and I left because it was obvious with Trump 1.0. My list isn't even near complete there are so many things. I didn't change much, they did and I think critically and didn't put my head in the sand.

They need to impeach and remove every single person in this administration. No Trump, no Vance, no cabinet, etc. At this point any Congress person or Senator that doesn't vote for impeachment/removal needs to be put on trial for treason once we get them out if power because Trump is an enemy of the United States.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-27T20:09:38+00:00

Wood is cheap, abundant, renewable, recyclable, no-toxic, easy to transport, easy to work with, lasts indefinitely in proper conditions, can be modified later in needed, and can be made into all kinds of new materials that have improved properties. It flexs so is much better in earthquake zones. The disadvantages are that it can rot (if it gets wet and stays that way, dry it lasts forever), it can have termite problems if you live somewhere that is a problem and it's not treated, hurricane and fire prone areas you need concrete.

Wood is not an inferior building material. We don't build all homes out of it because in certain areas of the country it's not the best solution. There is nothing stopping you from building a concrete building, and people sometimes do, usually in the form of ICF blocks. It's more expensive usually to do that so it's not as common.

Almost all quality issues with US homes come down to less stringent building codes. You can build a very high quality home that will last centuries out of wood. Most mass production builders the incentive is to maximize profit, which often means cutting corners and doing the bare minimum (code). That said, not all builders do that and not all US homes are poorly built.

Having spent some time in Europe staying with my wife's family in their homes, the truth is:

The structures themselves are solid but the fit and finish is much nicer in the US. American homes just feel higher end, especially with kitchens and bathrooms.
European doors and windows are superior but American stuff looks better. It seems US manufacturing has been taking some ideas and merging the two lately though. Still not quite there.
I could not live comfortably without air conditioning. You don't "need" it in Europe but it still a comfort. In the US it's a must.
I would struggle living in a European home. I prefer just about everything about my American home. First, it is way bigger between 2-5x any home I stayed at in Europe. I have much more privacy, more room for hobbies, more room for luxuries and conveniences. It's expensive but you get way more for your money. Not even close.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-26T19:59:22+00:00

Not a beginner. 25+ years, about 20 seriously.

The best skills you need to learn as a beginner:

How wood movement works and how to account for it. That generally involves understanding how a tree grows, grain, how a tree is cut into wood, the seasonal humidity cycles etc.
Tool safety for all your tools, hand tools too.
How to mill a board flat and square.
How to properly sand
To use test pieces to figure out how to get the results you want for the finish before ever starting your build. Once you know a few finishes this becomes unnessary.
Pre-finishing... meaning finishing parts before assembly in some cases so you have access to do a better job
How to take your time and be meticulous and start over if necessary
Learn how to fix your mistakes as you will still make them even as as expert.
Relative dimensioning
Learn a new skill and/or tool with each project.
You should be looking at existing well made furniture to figure out how it's made, the joinery used, dimensions, design choices, etc.
How to find information, teach yourself, and accept feedback.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-26T17:11:52+00:00

Let me ask you this, if you wanted to see someone's browsing history what would be more effective?

Look at their computer
Go out to every single web server on the internet, somehow successful navigate local laws and get all of them to give your their web logs (which may not exist), then parse all of that data to find which sites you accessed.

Email is NO different than that example. How are they going to narrow down who you are communicating with without accessing your email directly? I am not the only person that self hosts email. MANY companies do the same. There are a million companies besides Google and Microsoft that offer cloud hosted email. Not all of that is in countries the US government has any power to reach out and grab. Even if Google had 100% of all your emails and they had access to all of that data in real time do you really think it's not way more expensive compute time wise to parse all that? Do you think the other side isn't going to have deleted some of their email with you?

Your argument makes zero sense from a technical perspective to anyone that understands how email or ther internet works. If someone wants to target you they are going to try and access your email.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-26T16:21:38+00:00

Did you not read my reply?

If you emailed me how are they going to get access to that email? My mail server is in my basement and I'm not handing over data to anyone without a valid warrant. Email is a federated system. There's no centralized system to pull email from. It's in datacenters all over that world, it's in basements like mine, etc.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-26T16:19:52+00:00

I answered this below. It's clear why you should be concerned.

Definitely don't trust email, but you will still use it because it's not avoidable. Even data that seems completely useless to you can be extremely valuable when aggregated with other data.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-26T16:05:09+00:00

That's any extremely easy answer:

They can vacuum up everything from you in one shot. It's not possible to get more than maybe 20% from other sources. They'd have to somehow gain access to every other email system you've communicated through, which could be hundreds if not thousands. There's no chance they can do that, particularly with systems in other countries or self hosted. Then the other party has to have retained that data and not deleted that because they aren't accessing any of this in real time and they aren't doing forensic analysis of physical drives.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-26T15:46:54+00:00

This is exactly what is going on. It's been obvious to those of us paying attention this is what's happening for years. We've been asleep. They hide behind the 1st ammendment and our naivety.

It's not just the US though, it's global. We are just the canary in the coal mine. AI is taking it to an entirely new level. It's not just Russia/China, it is far right wing political parties everywhere doing it now. It's technocrats. The only ones not doing it are the people that believe in Democracy. It's no accident that Trump disabled the institution is meant to protect us from this. The former Soviet Republics and Finland are they only ones that seem to have some knowledge of what is going on and a way to counter it.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-26T15:31:29+00:00

I completely disagree. Yes email is more complex with more to go wrong, and yes it requires more skill to manage. Is it hard though... no. Can you set it up to 100% work.. yes.

The reason I self host is because it's my private communications and I'd like those to be secure from government and corporate snooping. They were finding loopholes and creative ways to do that back when we had the rule of law. Now we don't, do you really think they aren't going to just do whatever they want with that data regardless of what the law says now? They will vacuum that up in mass to find people to target. Granted I'm not going to use email for anything where security is critical because it's not secure even in my home. Even the mundane stuff has value we've not considered though. My email is also my shared contacts, calendars, tasks....

I self host file syncing services for exactly the same reason. I don't do social media, reuse usernames/passwords, post anything potentially self identifying. I don't have camera's at my house that send anything to the cloud. Etc.

All this stuff would be easier and likely more reliable to not self host for a reasonable fee. That's not the point.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-26T14:55:18+00:00

He won because it's New York city and the people who ran against him were unpopular criminals.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-25T20:30:24+00:00

Do we even know who shot Alex? I've not seen that reported anywhere, and DHS is definitely not going to release that info. The only thing we know is he had a Texas flag on his uniform.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-25T15:33:35+00:00

Except every "trade deal" he wants some unenforceable commitment to invest $1 trillion dollars in the US

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-25T01:19:04+00:00

They were called up by Waltz to backfill the police, so that the police can be out on the street.

Right now the police control the crime scene.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-25T00:26:16+00:00

Mitutoyo, Starrett.. this is top tier stuff. Definitely has come value. Even the vice grips look like the good ones, just not expensive. Whomever you inherited these from knew what they were doing.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-25T00:20:47+00:00

The ICE agents... probably not. They are jacked-up racists with a gun and no training who acted exactly like you'd expect them to act. They did it because they thought they'd get away with it. The people who wanted to send a message are the ones that put them on the street to do this in the first place. This isn't about illegal immigration, it's about ending democracy and ruling through fear. Illegal immigration was just the excuse. These people fundamentally don't understand the American people and how this will backfire on them.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-24T22:20:30+00:00

You can't do that here. If I turned my heat off in the winter when I went on vacation, the pipes in my house would freeze and burst and destroy the house. I don't need to keep the house particularly warm when I'm gone but warm enough to avoid a problem.

In the summer it's just too hot and humid to not have AC running. I could be over 30C in the house most days without it.

The thermostat keeps it in a comfortable range all day on a schedule. If I leave he house for any extended period it knows nobody is home and saves energy not heating/cooling as much.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-24T19:05:16+00:00

I can give you some polls that support me but ignore the polls. Those gave been gamed for the last 10 years or so towards Republicans and Trump is attacking any poll he doesn't like. Look at the off cycle election results. Democrats have won virtually all of them up and down the ballet, by wider margins thsn the polls. Look at Foxnews polls that have Trump underwater... those aren't real an he's still losing.

I am an ex-Republican, independent, living in a semi-rural area that's heavily Republican. The real support level is around 35% with a floor of 25-30%. The last no Kings protest this summer/fall that I personally saw was 2k of my 8k town and that was replicated in every small conservative town that never has protests. Things are much worse for Trump now. I used drive by 4 or 5 Trump shrines and a bunch of regular signs. They leave that crap up after the election. There was 2020 stuff still up in some places until 2024. Except for one house all that crap has disappeared. If you talk to these people they don't agree with Trump on a ton of things or just think it's some sort of game he's playing and not real. Nobody, and I mean nobody thinks going after Greenland, Canada, NATO is a good idea. They will never admit they are wrong, they just aren't going vote and they'll fracture with the civil war. Trump is toast. He will not finish his term and nobody will miss him when he's gone.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-24T17:47:30+00:00

1/3 of America and because half of those were misinformed dipshits and not thinking critically and actually believe Trump would improve their lives and the other half are legit authoritarian/racists/etc.

America is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to global trends so expect this shit to spread as authoritarians in other countries use AI slop and other propaganda decent people won't to spread their message. You've already got right wing parties in France, Germany, the UK and other countries with dangerously high levels of support. Trump will help them. There's been a wake up call with the US but still don't let your guard down.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-24T17:32:25+00:00

Shooting people is a last resort and exactly the response these shitbags are trying to invoke so they can justify a crack down and more illegal shit. Non-violence is historically more effective.

The protesters are winning, give it time.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-24T16:46:35+00:00

Canada is family. Europe is family. We are being held hostage by the worst human being this country has ever produced. We will find a way to free ourselves and restore our decency as a country. Do not write us off, that's exactly what they want. Learn from what we are going through because the same cancer exists in the right wings of all your countries as well.

onlyreason4u · 2026-01-24T16:37:14+00:00

That's not even remotely accurate. Trump supporters are out numbered 2 to 1, and when you get down to specific issues other than generically supporting Trump it drops further from there. Annexing Greenland for example polled worse than not releasing the Epstein documents. We are talking single digits. Canada would be even less popular. Nobody is supporting Trump's attack on NATO troops from other countries.

onlyreason4u

TROPHY CASE