G650

Well, I certainly appreciate the rhyme my friend.

Wat

Torbush

The median Trump voter

Wow, humbuckers.

So I used to have 2, still have one. Personally, I think RM is a much nicer bike in several ways compared to those two, especially the Canyon. The Roubaix is a good bike but it's very long in the tooth design wise imo. The Roadmachine has some of the best ride compliance you will find anywhere while still have super nimble handling. They got the geometry just right. Definitely happy to answer any specific questions on the BMC though anytime.

This is a good post.

You gotta get that sweet, sweet Hello Kitty first

I typed a bunch of stuff but I feel like we are getting bogged down here. Politics has always been the same for me, it should be looking out for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable first and foremost. I will repost the old post I was referencing earlier, because while angry and strident, it probably articulates what I'm saying better even if some of the things I don't really mean. This was written in Feb 2016. The last paragraph pretty much encapsulates the core of my belief.

Fair enough, but what I'm trying to say is I am around that, and worse. You refer to small business owners, I'm talking about guys trying support families on 15 bucks an hour. We can have a different opinion of it, that's totally fine, but one thing that differentiates me from the vast majority of posters here is I don't exist in a professional setting. My days are spent with dudes who will work until their bodies break down for minimal pay, I don't need to go to a coffee shop to hear stories of the working man, I am in it 24/7. I appreciate the clarification though my friend.

I'm actually pretty chill. I just am at the point where niceties don't matter anymore, raw truth is pretty much all I'm good for. It sucks as I considered goredho one of my favorite dudes here for a multitude of reasons, but if he just wants to call names like the Johnny Sacks of the world then I don't really have space for that anymore. Trumps America y'all

Well, you know what, nevermind then. I did respect you quite a lot, probably as much as any poster here, but you can basically go fuck yourself if you want to say shit like intardnet to me. You have no idea what I know or experience, and if you just want to be dismissive knock yourself out.

You know I'm a lifelong construction worker right? I spend all day every day with guys scraping by, not blue collar, but no collar work. People's notions of mansplaining "The country " crack me up. I am closer to it than pretty much single other poster here. At any rate, I'm on the run, but you deserve a more complete response which I will definitely return to

I'd honestly appreciate if you fleshed the point out a bit more because I'm not 100% sure I am totally understanding what you are saying. Yes, it was the norm at some point, but not so much in my lifetime. What @Gatorubet wrote more closely mirrors my experience, though I was born in the 70's. The conception of what middle class life is now bears no resemblance to my childhood whatsoever.

QFT

I agree with part of this, and appreciate the thoughtful post (most of yours usually are). The fact that Democrats need to listen is 100% correct. And your last sentence is absolutely spot on. The middle, I vary on the items from somewhat to absolute over the top vehement disagreement. I don't know if you saw it, but I quoted in another thread a post I made on another board almost 10 years ago, and it says the exact same thing. People have never had it so good. Period. This is always the go to charge obviously, Democrats tell people this, and they get mad and don't vote for them. I totally agree with supposition that by the way. But I'm not a democrat running for office and I don't need anyone's vote, so I am happy to point this out. People are having to stretch money a teeny bit further, so you toss out any sense remaining of the American ideal? Considering having to make marginally tougher financial choices than 2019 still puts someone lightyears ahead of anyone, and I mean, anyone, living in say 1995. I'm just not going to agree with them, and my loyalty to them as a citizen has died. I'm not celebrating this, in fact I find it quite sad, but it's the truth. The social compact has been severed. Mainstream US governance has delivered the most prosperous and comfortable set of humans that has ever graced our planet. It's literal insanity to throw it away, and all of us are going to pay the price. And all over some nebulous emotional impulse that says they aren't doing as well as they should, which is by definition impossible to attain, there is literally nothing that anyone could do to change the way the feel because the sickness is inside them. Trump is unequivocally not describing their reality, he is describing the unreality they have created in their minds.

This circles back to similar ideas in the young men thread that astounded me. At what time are we talking about here? During the 1950s? I can definitely buy that. But in my lifetime? No one I know would have conceived of this. And I don't say this to deny it is prevalent by any stretch, but just to say it's so foreign to me to have that outdated of a concept of American that I struggle to understand how that got from older generations to younger people these days. It's like electricity arcing over a gap. I mean, that's what I've been saying

That's what my wife has used for years, but obviously every circumstance is different.

IUD

Lmaoooo

You act like that's an impediment to a job in the Trump admin

Not without mocking them

Accurate

I'm here for this

I honestly find this line of thinking fascinating as it's something that I have never perceived from the Democrats in almost 40 years (Tipper Gore), but get bombarded by from the Republicans.