Erik88

This is a scenario where I'm glad I have dash cams in both vehicles. If they are just blocking the road and not threatening me I'm going to wait before just ramming a bunch of people. I'm not going to be the next Reginald Denny though. If it looks like they are going to do me harm then I'll do what I have to. I'm not going to get into specifics.

I just want to say that what you see on TV is not really an accurate representation of this country, especially for young people. Yes, there are a lot of far left young people in the country but don't let the media fool you into believing this reflects all of us. Have some faith. Twice in the past month I've been around different groups of 25-35 year olds and politics has been brought up. These are all working professionals with careers. NONE of them like Biden. Not one. Most of them admitted they think Trump is divisive, and they wish he would shut up, but they still plan on voting for him. I'm sure a few silent ones may have disagreed but the majority of those I was with will vote for Trump. It almost seems like the ones that speak out against capitalism seem to be the young people that can't get a good job and feel like they have been left behind. They are probably buried in student loan debt too. When democrats start offering them debt forgiveness you might see why it appeals to them. Just trying to offer some perspective. I don't think he will be the LAST Republican president but it might be a while. That's a long winded way of saying I still think the GOP has a chance to turn this around. Don't think we're doomed and that every young person is just banging the socialism drum.

The real reason the GOP is so against mail in voting is because it will encourage more poor people to vote. There is no evidence it's going to lead to more voter fraud. Trump even established that voter fraud committee at the beginning of his term and they had to disband it after not finding the proof they were looking for. When I lived in Florida we always did mail in ballots and it was nice. After thinking about it, a lot of older people here are going to vote for Trump but they are also high risk and may want to stay home. Seems like the GOP might want to reconsider their stance or risk having people chose to stay home rather than go stand in a huge crowd. We know Georgia just failed miserably because they had fewer machines set up to help encourage social distancing. Elderly people can't stand in line for 3-4 hours.

6 people out of 470,000 residents. Only 114 active cases. Not that anyone asked, but I don't believe the data supports closing the entire country again. It made sense in population dense areas like NY. It doesn't make sense for us. We have hospitals here in Knoxville that have only seen 1-2 COVID patients. I'd like to see an option where high risk individuals could choose to stay home and receive unemployment assistance. I'm seeing elderly folks that are out and about and not even wearing masks. Apparently they don't care about COVID anymore.

I've grown to love my overpriced Sig MPX. But there is no reason to spend that much money when the PSA equivalent does the same thing.

I think that once we have better data they will find the death rate is a lot lower than they initially thought. It's starting to look like more and more people had the virus, without symptoms. That's going to automatically bring down the death rate but we may never know the real number. That being said, 67,000 Americans have died in the last 6 weeks alone. That's not like the "flu" that so many people kept comparing it to. I don't think there is some great conspiracy here but I do think the initial models and data we had were likely flawed. I think most people believe that number would have been far worse without distancing. Did it warrant a total shutdown? I have no idea. I think most people had the right intentions. Whether they admit to the flaws remains to be seen. I don't envy people like Bill Lee. When you have every medical expert in your state warning what could happen, you're not left with many good options.

Oh yeah. And who exactly is committing these murders? Hint-not the people that are going to sign up for a carry permit class and they probably wouldn't legally qualify even if they tried.

It's no longer a fringe idea though. 16 states allow people to carry without a permit. Vermont has been like this for many decades and it's not been an issue. If you think about it, the people that were going to carry without a permit are doing it and the rest of us go get a permit. It's not like the current system is really stopping anyone from carrying a concealed gun. I'd love to see us switch to constitutional carry. The current class is a joke anyways. "As of November 1, 2019, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota (residents only; concealed carry only), Oklahoma, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming (residents only) do not require a permit to carry a loaded concealed firearm for any person of age who is not prohibited from owning a firearm. Permitless carry in North Dakota and Wyoming is applicable to residents only; nonresidents must have a permit to carry a concealed handgun in these states. All aforementioned jurisdictions do not require a permit to openly carry either except for North Dakota and certain localities in Missouri."

I wonder how many financed their $10k quad for 5 years at 10%? My wife's friend just bought a new $65k boat. They said the marina wouldn't negotiate at all. They paid full sticker price. Apparently enough people are buying boats that they didn't have to give a discount. That blew my mind.

My mistake. I didn't catch that. Now I've got some random strangers to find.

CNN didn't conduct the study. I'm sure you can find the same info on other outlets. I'll lick random strangers in Nashville before I take medical advice from our President. If you find him to be credible I'm sure you can start taking his miracle drug.

I think I'll trust the experts before listening to Trump. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/22/health/us-coronavirus-friday/index.html

I just don't think the data supports that for this particular topic. The issue is that most of the hard right people out protesting are doing it in states where Democrats are in charge. I don't think that's a coincidence. There are plenty of Republican voters who claim to love the constitution but look the other way with the GOP craps on their rights. They care about the 2nd Amendment, and that's about it. The protesters in Michigan were flying Trump flags, while complaining about the very thing he told us to do. Who exactly are they mad at? A few people on here got pissed at Bill Lee but the truth is that they will all be lining up to vote for him next time.

That was a good video but I'm not sure it proved they are helping our cause. If you notice, most of the protesting took place in states where they have a democrat for Governor. It really seemed like they were more upset that a Democrat was telling them what to do. There were a handful of demonstrators in Florida, but nothing like what we saw in Michigan, NC and a few other places. There were 42 states that imposed some sort of social distancing rules and most of the protesters seemed to be in states with Democrats for governors. I'm not even sure how the the things tie together. If you want to protest the lockdown, why do you need to dress like a JV seal team and bring your AR? If you want to have a gun rights rally, by all means, do it. I would bet that these guys in Michigan wouldn't have showed up if a Republican had issued the same orders. This woman was just elected last year. I'm sure these guys were still salty about it and none of them voted for her. They probably hated her before the lockdown and this was just an easy excuse to go show that displeasure. That's my take on it.

I've heard they are really good but I've never tried them.

Spotted this today. Downtown Knoxville is full of these trees, most grow along the creek. They look like wild blackberries but they aren't growing on a vine.

Since we were previously discussing the Mayor of Nashville wanting to raise taxes, I thought this was interesting. The city of Knoxville released their budget, with no tax increases. Key words- "Years of responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars affords us the ability to weather the economic implications of this storm without furloughing staff, cutting services, or deferring maintenance of critical infrastructure,” she said. https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/no-new-taxes-knoxville-mayor-kincannon-releases-first-budget-proposal-announces-covid-19-recovery-fund/51-9c4e2471-ce56-4aec-87c1-146b171da45e

I googled various types of maple trees I swear!

This is the last one in my yard. Also a massive tree. I'm guessing I should know this one. The leaf looks familiar.

You guys have a lot of tree knowledge. Now I'm determined to stump you.

I'm firmly in the "knives scare me more than guns" camp.

Anyone want to take a stab at this one. Mostly smooth bark, huge tree.

Thanks. I learned something new. It looks like they have a pretty small natural range so I bet this one was planted.

It definitely appears to be that. Not sure which one. I've never heard of these.

Not that I can tell. If anything it smells good.