btq96r

It's nice to say I'll just buy everything I can afford, but like food gone to waste, I don't like the idea of buying guns that just sit there, especially new ones. Aside from taking up space, getting a CZ isn't a one time contained purchase considering I'd put at least a micro red dot on it. A decent plinker of a .22LR pistol is easier on cost, and diversifies my stable more than a Scorpion would. But yeah, I'll get the Scorpion too someday.

Thanks for the recommendations, all. I knew I'd get solid recommendations to consider. Lots of love for the Taurus', though I can see why. I'll have to whittle down the plethora of TX22 offerings to one I like. Then I'll have to make a choice between a .22LR handgun, or a CZ Scorpion 3+. Tough life for me, folks.

Thinking of buying a new gun for the first time in a long time. One option is a .22 LR pistol, which I think will be just fun, and pretty useful in a bunch of situations. Anyone want to plug their favorite make and model? M&P22 by S&W, and Walther P22 are my leading contenders, but quite open to the gestalt if different. One thing to consider, this isn't going to be some heavy use, competition gun, so I don't need top end/top buck. Some fun and plinking are my main ideas for this gun, figure throw it in the range bag whenever I go shoot something else just to enjoy.

Was just wondering the other day why we hadn't seen you posting in a bit. Sorry to see it wasn't just needing an internet break. Hoping the health issues are resolved with the best outcomes possible.

We did. It was informative, well acted, and entertaining.

Mortgage lenders are getting desperate to close deals. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240516437694/en/UWM-Announces-0-Down-Purchase-Program They'll say this is different because NINJA loans aren't in play, and ARMs aren't carrying the load...but it's still not a great idea. The concept that housing should be some protected market that isn't susceptible to corrections and crashes when things get bad is a wrong one. One of the things that made the Great Recession happen through the housing market was a lack of skin in the game when it came to mortgages. It's a lot easier to walk away from a home you didn't put anything down on, and your mortgage was in effect an approximation of rent in terms of financial burden. Having money you had to save, and at risk in the event of default...well, then you're much more apt to cut back on luxuries, get a side gig, and other things to keep from losing the asset and all that invested money in foreclosure.

The minimum wage should be indexed to something, not subject to the complete political whims of Congress and the President like any other legislation. And again, it was always intended to be a liveable wage, certainly in conjunction with some federal programs for additional assistance. The poverty guidelines work as useful as anything else. For a single person, that's $15,060, or $7.24 when you divide it by 2,080 hours (52wks x 40hrs). For a family of four, that classic nuclear family with Mother, Father, two kids to at least continue a replacement population level (because Social Security and Medicare), that amount along the same math is $15 if only one parent is working. I'm led to believe this is when America was Great which some are trying to Make Again. It would be nice to know how many jobs are in that $7.25-$15 range so the economic impact could actually be gauged to promopt a decision, not just be too wide a canyon as to suggest we'd be Evel Knievel'ing it to try and cross. I'm with you that it's not really AI in the way we defined that before it became a word every company trying to buy and sell it wants in their quarterly earnings call transcript. But it's going to be a disruptor sooner rather than later.

The counter to that is, so many of those execs and managers couldn't come close to doing what the workers do. In some industries that require licensing, you see very few people from the rank and file rise in management. When you get to that point, you have two sets of people who can be easily replaced. Yet only one side currently gets equity as a comp incentive way more often than not. I just used 10% as an example for discussion purposes. The period based reward of shares can be used for labor employees too. I'm all for aligning logical performance measures. And you can tailor that by section. Factory workers X number of units shipped, Y% of quality control pass rate...IT can be managed in network up/downtime, average ticket open to resolved time...whatever accounting and HR can be evaluated by; I'll admit I don't much to offer in ideas for them. But the idea is to award more ownership for employees and teams that show they want to own the work product. That way workers are being rewarded more for their contributions to the vision being developed and mapped out by their executives. Again, these will be fractional compared to how many stock units are out for the general public on exchanges, or privately held. But my main point is, company equity, private or public should be more freely dished out to give incentives beyond the paycheck or bonuses. Yeah, I get people want cash, but getting folks invested in their companies again is something we need to consider. Throw in proper vesting safeguards and I think it can work.

I get the logic behind your statement here. I'm an support management at my own company, and I don't qualify for their private equity purchases or grants (the doctors I work with can buy in, and some get grants as comp). Through index funds, have my net worth tied to companies I'm not a labor or management participant in. So, I say all the below as someone who benefits from the labor of others in companies other than my own for future income beyond my job. Some folks shouldn't or just can't make the transition from worker bee to what I'll call office level management. Not a knock on them, if that's a path they can take and do it well, more power to them. Let's say they offer the line employees an extra 10% of their salary in stock. No W2 pay cut, just 10% of the gross in stock grants. That is a fractional cost in nominal value to the company, and if done through a reasonable vesting schedule, can reward employees who stick around and help grow the company and/or keep it profitable. And with AI at a spark, soon to be a fire before we know it, on the way to becoming a star in terms of outputs and use, I think those who actually use their hands and intuition are going to become a more valuable commodity than in middle management at the moment. So, this is something we'll keep debating, and rightfully so.

If you look at the divide between rewards based on returns from the labor outputs between workers and executives/investors, there's a case in plenty of industries. It's more of a discussion about equity (financial equity, not DEI equity) than anything about basic minimums and work structures, but it's a real conversation. I'm hoping we see the pendulum swing towards labor workers getting stock grants as a norm, not offered at a discount as part of an ESPP. That would close up the gap and level part of the playing field....especially if stock holdings among union members was voted collectively.

Because there is a societal interest in making sure a floor of standards to prevent exploitation of low income workers exists. The minimum wage was just one part of a broader package that also set the standard work week, and put guardrails on minors working. All three things were out of whack leading up to, and during the depression.

Dude always came across as loving life and being incredibility grateful for his good fortunes along the way. Made a lot of late night PAC-12 basketball watchable if that was the only thing to watch wherever you were. Listening to sports media today, hearing all kinds of tributes of the kind of teammate he was when he played, and before the microphones were turned on in his media gigs. Just tales of a guy who made everyone laugh, would wrestle you for the check at dinner, and would remember the names of all your kids even if he jokingly forgot yours and gave you a nickname in its place. I can only hope to be spoken of as well when mine own time comes.

At least with minimum wage you have to show up and (presumably) work to get it. UBI is conditioned on nothing other than existing for the most part. Tying economic benefit to some type of service provided (public or private) is a benefit to society, the economy, and the individual. Even "that commie" FDR and his administration knew work was the best way forward, not just handouts for the sake of them. As much as people want to look back at the New Deal being something that a boatload of people on the gov teat, it was in return for work of all types the nation and the individual benefited from.

I have a lot of sympathy for those who fall into credit card debt. Our consumer culture does everything to encourage it, and now the "rewards" for doing so are practically a game within a game for those chasing status, points, cash back, and everything else that distracts them from bad decisions, big and small. We even have research that shows a form of neurological impact from this. I got into a pretty rough shape with debt in my early 20s, and literally paid the price. Being a 21yr old with a $6k credit limit on a MasterCard, and going to Las Vegas after the 2023 Iraq deployment was fun, but I was paying it off almost until my next deployment, and not always on time. I even took out a payday loan to afford a fun weekend and tickets to a concert. But most of the time I was just spending on drinks, and stupid things I didn't need, or even remember. To my shame still this day, a few years into my mismanagement of money, I missed the phone call from the mother of a friend of mine who died in Iraq. I didn't take the call because I didn't recognize the number, and was being hounded by a credit card company, and one that went into collections. That sobered me up. I haven't carried a balance on a credit card, or had a payment on interest since I think 2010. It was a painful road to get there complete with more missteps and lessons. But those lessons stuck. As much as I don't recommend it, the way it's shaped me were a benefit of sorts. There is no doubt times are getting tough for far too many folks. I fully believe the right path is to live within one's means, but I also think that life and those means are losing dignity because our consumer and vulture capitalism paradigms are spiraling out of control. We should be having a national conversation about this, but of course we're not that country anymore. The sad irony is, in a healthy market, if everyone lived within their means, our economy would crash like a Porsche hitting a tree that suddenly appears in the middle of the road. It's both scary and ugly how much of our economic returns are coming from people living paycheck to paycheck (and not saving much), or those living past their paycheck on credit. Maybe we need that toxic shock to change things. I hope not, but that's where my mind goes.

Few people find themselves in that kind of situation and react with as much courage, skill, and quickness like that. I'd be interested to know how much ground he had to cover in that short a time. Hero stuff indeed.

Happy we're seeing the good outcome here. Hoping the changes in lifestyle keep you around for a while to come.

Mothballs. Or do some folks still use them? Just typing this brings back the smell of my grandfather's house.

Gun owners pretending they weren't in business are the ones who brought this down. As long as the background check system isn't a bogged down mess, I don't see this going away. As @JohnSutton1980explained pretty well, Congress ceded this authority to the executive branch...they had fundraising to attend to, I'm sure. Better to have something you pretend to care about when asking folks for money.

If people bought a gun every time that notion crept into their minds....well, I guess some do. But, you'll be fine. Let your desires and your budget guide you, not the political situation. We seem to be in a nice area of both sides want to argue about it rather than push the issue one way or the other.

No meme to go with it?

I think the feds had a good case this guy was clearly an unlicensed dealer. He apparently bought 150 firearms in less than 3 years and was selling them. Still, that doesn't earn a death sentence. And I would actually welcome federal hearings on this, because there's enough for both sides to pick open. Republicans can go after the ATF in general, and Democrats can pry into heavy handed law enforcement tactics. This is the search warrant if anyone wants to give it a look. The word "threat" doesn't appear, and the word "danger" is only used once to describe how Malinowski couldn't be followed during part of the investigation because he was running red lights and the agent didn't want to risk the safety of other motorists. https://www.kark.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/85/2024/03/Ex.-1-Search-Warrant-003.pdf This isn't some drug dealer who can flush the stash, and I'm thinking this would have been best done with a knock on the door before he went to work, or as others have mentioned, pulling him over on the way to work with the help of the local PD. I'm getting to the point where specific instructions on the scope and tactics of a search warrant may need to be approved by a judge, not just 6a-10p, or anytime day or night. There should be oversight on if a no-knock is used. If this was a no-knock raid, law enforcement executing search warrants aren't going to understand someone's first instinct to loud banging, or forced entry could be to get their gun and be ready, then we don't need them breaking down the door unless there is an anticipated reaction with gunfire. And that would be quite a claim to make. This is a tragedy on so many levels. I only hope he had a decent life insurance policy that won't be invalidated for the sake of his family. Maybe he knew he was screwed, and didn't want to account for his actions. We'll never know for sure if suicide by cop was the way he wanted to leave this world because the ATF just can't resist being a SWAT team with federal funding. Not for nothing, their own guy might have been wounded because of the tactics here.

Troy is a solid brand. Not as big name or flashy, but I've never been disappointed by their products for the price point. Vortex helped me with something similar once. I think these smaller companies understand how to endeer brand loyalty pretty well.

The grift that keeps on grifting. Now I really think this is just a PR stunt. One that cash flows.

While I wouldn't put it past Chicago, I don't think they're trying to get some nationwide win here. More like just seeking some easy PR by throwing a case in the courts to say they're "doing something". Like any other battlefield, once the winter fades away, action picks up. March-October is shooting season in the Windy City.

Best wishes on the recovery road. Seems you have plenty of experience to draw from here if you need some help or motivation along the way.