TGO David

Nice idea for a poll Dave!

It's hit or miss with college students. I've got one that graduated with a nursing degree and she's in serious demand these days. I've got another that scraped by with a degree in a very generalized IT program and will likely have student loan debt until he and his compdres manage to elect a socialist who will absolve them of their stupidity and saddle me with his debt as taxes.

Yes they are. On one hand I like to think that someone in government has some common sense and knows that happy subjects... I mean, citizens... are a good thing to have during tumultuous times. On the other hand, I know that the real reason is also rooted in common sense but it's the fact that we don't need a lot of alcoholics going cold-turkey through detox and flodding our emergency rooms right now. This is the exact same reason why hospitals usually have beer that can be dispensed by the pharmacy, to keep alcoholics from detoxing and coding. Mercifully the rest of us get to benefit as "enthusiasts" from this provision that allows liquor stores to remain open.

If I were a politician sitting on the precipice of society's collapse, I'd be walking a very reformed straight and narrow these days. Some of these idiots just act like they WANT to be dragged into the streets by angry constituents. They might get it, if that's what they are after.

I bet this is another harsh realization that people have to come to terms with as well.

On the subject of jobs and careers... We are in the beginning stages of a great reprioritization for the vast majority of society. Consumers, worker bees and captains of industry will at some point this year begin to evaluate what is necessary and what isn't. I predict that we are going to see a significant shift in the way that people around the world spend their time and their money. Some of the positive things that I would like to see result are people spending more time with their families and loved ones, more time on themselves improving their health or just getting out and enjoying life, and less time being a slave to debt and therefore a slave to the grindstone. I want to see companies realize that some jobs simply don't require an in-person presence in order for the worker to be productive and effective. I want to see the notion of 4-5 days crammed into an office, doing a job that we're doing right now from remote, come to an end. What I think is likely to happen from a negative perspective is that as people do the above, a lot of people are going to shift away from spending money on extravagent and frivilous things -- for at least a time -- and invest in the things that they wish they'd done ahead of this pandemic. The result may be that "pet ferret pube groomer" will no longer be a viable career, and a lot of businesses that provide nice-to-haves will cease to exist. If you scale back from the extreme of ferret groin sylists and look at other things that are nice to have, I think you'll see entertainment, dining and personal luxury businesses fold up too. Honestly I think we may see movie theaters and gymnasiums become a relic of the past as people bring both of those activities back under their own roofs. Technology and the quality of consumer equipment in both of those spaces is such now that you really shouldn't have to go mingle with crowds of strangers and pay high prices to get good results. Frankly, I think a lot of people who had established careers in things that essentially required benevolent patrons or self-indulgent consumers to support them are going to end up having to reinvent themselves, learn a valuable trade, or starve. It's probably a really good time to start talking to your high-school aged kids about what sort of jobs are absolutely necessary to society and encourage them to look really hard at those as career prospects. The world honestly doesn't need very many computer animation artists or professional cos-play actors. But I bet it will almost always need folks who know how to build shelter, grow food, install plumbing, wire up electricity, provide medical care and so forth. We're going to get a real gut-check about what's important and what's fluff on the back side of this whole thing. Don't be surprised when it happens.

I've read a lot of comments like that on a multitude of online sources. The G45 is the best G, in my opinion.

If the OP doesn't have to stay local and doesn't mind shipping his slide off for the work, I can personally vouch for Doug's work over at DP Customworks. https://www.dpcustomworksllc.com/ He did the optic milling and top serrations for me on this G45, and had it refinished in black Melonite.

As our country works hard to manage-down the rate at which people present the acute effects of COVID-19, to keep from overwhelming the limited resources in our hospitals, we also need to be figuring out how to get the economy going again by returning people to work. Medical evidence thus far substantiates the theory that once a person is exposed to and overcomes C19, they are resistant (if not immune) to reinfection. Those people should be allowed to return to their jobs so that they can resume earning a living, prevent their own personal bankruptcies, and get America moving again. There is no tenable strategy for keeping American businesses shut down long-term. Government subsidies aren't enough and will drain our country's coffers of money that it needs for other things. Sooner or later that well will run dry. Many of us are fortunate that we can work from home but you can't "virtually" build roads, construct buildings, manufacture consumer goods, or provide services that require human touch and interaction. There are a lot of people who are sitting idle right now, watching their bank accounts quickly draw down to a zero-dollar balance. The people need to start petitioning their elected representatives at the local, state, and federal level, to balance the urgent desire to deprive C19 of a means of transmission via quarantine with the urgent need to keep the pilot-light of our nation's economy from flickering and burning out. Relighting it won't be easy and more businesses are going to become casualties as each day passes. Just my cheerful Sunday-morning thoughts on things. Take 'em or leave 'em.

Good luck on the tuneup!

Strength in numbers. It sounds like most are upset about the lack of PPE, which I can understand. But what doesn't make sense is it's not that the hospitals have it and won't issue it, or can get it and won't buy it. The hospitals don't have enough and can't get more quick enough, so they're rationing it. Back to the strength in numbers part, if an employee here or there refuses to work, an employer might be inclined to fire them. If a large enough number walk out, it can shut down the business for a period of time - so the employer might capitulate. You know how unions work, I'm just talking through it. Again, this doesn't make sense because what the nurses want isn't anything that the hospitals really have control over.

I don't think I have an actual pic of mine. Back in the late 90's I had a Busmaster XM15-E2S. No collapsible stock, heavy barrel, fixed carrying handle. What a turd by today's standards. It was the Clinton era without an evil bayonet lug. I sold it to some rando on Craigslist before Craigslist stopped everyone from selling guns.

Nurses going on strike is a pretty real possibility right now. That's another thread that could cause the whole thing to unravel if someone starts pulling it. I've heard rumors that it's already happening. I really hope not.

According to your wish list I'd go with a Glock 43, M&P Shield, Sig P365 or maybe even the Springfield Hellcat. CZs are nice guns. They've earned the reputation of being "hipster guns" because they are not as popular in the US as Glock, S&W, Sig Sauer, etc. But that comes with an increased amount of effort to find magazines, which are normally more expensive than the other brands, and to find holsters without waiting to have custom leather or Kydex bent for them. If I'm buying a gun for current circumstances, I am thinking about sustainability. I want low-effort maintenance, low-effort access to parts, and low-effort access to accessories, while getting a high degree of reliability. I'd shop in the oder of the guns I listed.

Back after 9/11 the government was worried about infrastructure like that being used to slow/halt commerce as well.

Couple of things worth noting... 1. Several states' governors have ordered hospitals to stop doing elective surgeries during this outbreak, which empties out a surprising number of hospital beds, relieving the need for nurses, and stops a lot of income from flowing into the hospitals. You can only keep staff with nothing to do paid for so long when money isn't coming into the business. There are several reasons they are doing this, but one of the most logical is that you don't want elective (aka somewhat optional, or postponable) surgeries and after-care consuming personal protective equipment (PPE) when it is in drastically short supply and you know you're going to need every bit of it soon. 2. Many (most?) hospitals are sending patients home if they are well enough to recover at home, and aren't COVID-19 positive already. Sepsis is already a leading cause of preventable death in many hospitals. Think of COVID-19 exposure as another preventable cause. You want to get the reaonably-heathy people OUT of the hospital if you're starting to fill it up with infected patients -- or expect you will soon. Again, no patients for the moment means no money and idle, expensive clinical staff. Right now the State is looking for furloughed medical staff to volunteer to assist at the temporary COVID-19 "hospitals" it is erecting in Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga and Knoxville. I would hope they turn this into a "for pay" arrangement.

Make one! Step One... get a box. Step Two... cut a hole in the box. Step Three... put your ju Wait wait wait... wrong occasion. Step One... get a paper bag.

Oh, let's pretend like you don't have a clue what I'm talking about! That'll be fun! The Surgeon General has been downplaying the need for the public to wear masks for weeks. Then he pivoted and said we were all too dumb to know how to properly fit them to our faces, so we should just not compete against the healthcare industry as private buyers... but wrapping our faces with bandanas was a good alternate. It's amazing the number of clothing companies that rushed to produce bandanas for the medical industry over the past three weeks! Haven't you seen it happening? Everyone knows how effective they are!

Basic tactical fact: The time to hit your enemy is when he is weakest, stretched the most thin, and most distracted by other problems. With that said, what are some reasons why China would be hastily procuring petroleum so quickly after barely scraping through the COVID-19 pandemic? Some of the corpses that resulted from it over there have barely had time to get to room temperature, and this is now a top priority for their government. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-02/china-to-start-buying-oil-for-state-reserves-after-price-crash I said it earlier in this thread that China was going to emerge from the virus panemic ahead of the rest of the world and try to capitalize on that fact. The virus may have had a natural origin at its very genesis, and there's no real telling how it crossed from bats to people without diving into conspiracy theories, but these stories aren't theoretical: China seizes Covid-19 advantage in South China Sea https://asiatimes.com/2020/04/china-seizes-covid-19-advantage-in-south-china-sea/ Chinese air force’s drill ‘aimed at signalling deterrent around Taiwan’ https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3077997/chinese-air-forces-drill-aimed-signalling-deterrent-around Military Activity and Political Signaling in the Taiwan Strait in Early 2020 https://jamestown.org/program/military-activity-and-political-signaling-in-the-taiwan-strait-in-early-2020/ China might not outright attack the US (because drug dealers know its not wise to kill your best customer), but they might take this opportunity to wage a hostile takeover of a small strategic island country and dare the world to do anything about it. Y'all are well stocked on iPhones, cheap TVs and a lot of XM85 ammo, right?

Let me get my shocked face ready... I really hope that not many people fell for his claims to the contrary up to this point.

Anyone can after they've posted a few times. I think the magic # is 100.

There is an override so Benefactors can change it at will. Good point.

Let me spin this: If 3M were a French company with factories on American soil, employing American workers, how pissed would you be if we needed the masks being made here but the French government ordered 3M to send them back to the motherland? You'd expect that we'd be given a chance to at least buy some of what we made and keep them here for our own needs, right?

3M is a multinational company with its HQ in the US. The way the news is spinning this, they are an American company screwing over Americans to send masks to other countries. The reality is that they are a company with presences in other countries where those countries' residents view them as being a domestic employer. Trump should have resisted the urge to slam 3M for this but he doesn't do much that isn't impulsive and hyperbolic. Crucifying them during a White House press briefing just shows how surprisingly ignorant he is of how multinational firms practically exist without borders.

Gimme a bit to figure this out. I'm making a copy of our database to a test installation so I can monkey with it and not torpedo TGO. Learned my lesson about that this week.