mrmarklin
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Posts posted by mrmarklin
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On 7/27/2020 at 2:29 PM, Still_Small_Voice said:
I wonder if the stimulus spending (printing trillions of dollars) is also at play in the surge of gold and silver prices? Ironically the precious metal palladium has taken the place of platinum it seems. Platinum is now selling at less than 50% of the price of gold. It is at $942 per ounce as of July 27th.
Printing money is a potential problem. But a lot more goes into inflation analysis than that.
Debt is also a problem, if the debtor has a bad debt/equity ratio. Luckily, the US has a lot of equity, with asset numbers into the hundreds of trillions. So the debt is very manageable from an equity point of view.
Problems do arise if income does not cover debt interest. This is typically temporary in an economy as large as the US. But as we have learned, the financial pain can be significant. -
As an investment advisor, please be cautious about buying gold or silver as any sort of investment. It costs money to store properly, and also pays no income. It’s a SHTF only deal. And that’s very unlikely, at least here in the US.
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This is a true Story.
I was in Switzerland last September 2019 eating in a nice restaurant in Lucerne with several friends. The conversation varied, but at one point I held out against Socialism and railed against the evilness of it. Topics were changed and we went on to other subjects.
As we were eating dessert, a couple came to the table and stated that they had overheard the conversation about the evils of Socialism. They were from Russia, and had lived there during the Soviet period. Now living in Chicago, they stated that anyone who has lived in a socialist society hates socialism. They hated it, that's why they emigrated from Russia as soon as they could. They came to hate their local politicians in Chicago, and were looking to leave there as well.
No one who has lived through what happened behind the Iron Curtain likes socialism except the ones who had privileged positions in those societies.
As far as the NHS goes, I have been in the UK many, many, times and have some good friends there. My friends wife made a very good living selling...………….wait for it...…………...Health Insurance! The NHS is not for everyone for sure.
Also it is a big political football. Almost daily in the press the NHS has front page headlines. Good or bad depending on the POV of the newspaper. So why any normal government would want to take on the responsibility for the general health of their population is beyond me. A way to buy votes, I assume.
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On 7/11/2020 at 7:12 PM, Plein Air said:
I should have phrased that --- I am open to suggestions of specific places I could move to...... original post edited. Thanks for catching that incorrectly phrased wording.
I am retired, have maybe 10 years left before I die from a fatal, incurable illness. I have lived all over the US and in Canada. I am definitely moving somewhere fairly far from where I live now, once our home sells, just looking at options that get me out of the USA for a while so I can watch the crap storm from afar.
There is Sweden. They had not lock down for covid, and it is a first World modern country. Not a lot of crazies. Be prepared to pay high taxes, however.
I have been there. It seems a good country.
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6 hours ago, Jamie123 said:
Having dissed it so often in the past, I think it's time I made some defence of the British system of policing and justice, and made a case that it is not quite so inferior to the US system as some people (naming no names) have suggested. To be specific, it seems to me that in the US, a lot of the powers which in the UK are reserved for the judiciary are actually given to police - making them a LOT more powerful than their UK counterparts. (You can begin to see perhaps why Judge Dredd - though American in the story - was a British creation: an extreme parody of an American cop.)
(By the way, when I say "British" I mean "appertaining to The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". I do not mean Europe. If you want to know how things are done in Europe, you will need to ask some Europeans.)
US: Police can take away your drivers license, if they say you were driving drunk.
This would vary on a State by State basis. Here in CA, this is not true.
UK: Police cannot take away your license. They can arrest you, perform breath/blood/urine tests on you, hold you at the police station until sober, and later present evidence to a court that your license should be revoked. (Usually with the test results it's an open-and-shut case, but all the same - the authority to revoke is with the court, not the police.)
US: Police can give you a criminal record simply by arresting you.
No.
6 hours ago, Jamie123 said:UK: Police have no power to give you a criminal record. They can only present evidence to a court that you should be convicted of a crime. If the prosecution case is successful, you will get a criminal record. Otherwise you will not. (Some people will argue that an arrest creates a PNC record. It does indeed - but a PNC record is not a criminal record. Neither is it made public. Furthermore, people get PNC records for all sorts of things, including being reported missing.)
US: Police can take away your property on the pretext that it was obtained illegally, and keep the proceeds for their own use. If you want it back, you must hire lawyers to fight your case. This often costs more than the seized property was worth.
Sadly, this is mostly true. But it is being modified, hopefully.
UK: Police can do no such thing. To deprive you permanently of your property, a case would need to be made before a court of law.
US: Police can commit violence upon your person and damage/destroy your property, and so long as no judge ever ruled that exact set of actions to be “unconstitutional”, they cannot be sued.
Not true. Jurisdictions can be held accountable for the actions of police.
UK: Police can be sued, exactly the same as anyone else. Admittedly courts might consider the “split second decision” needed by an officer in an emergency situation when deciding whether to hold them liable, but there is no blanket immunity, “qualified” or otherwise.
Police as individuals have some immunity. But the jurisdictions they work for can be held accountable.
Now this is all likely a rather biased and oversimplified analysis (based partly on stuff my American wife has told me). If you think I'm wrong, please put me right...just so long as I am wrong, and not just presenting things with a different spin from what you would prefer to hear.
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On 5/27/2020 at 7:05 AM, Jonah said:
I never saw Steve Young bear any kind of testimony about Jesus Christ on national tv
but he may have done so in a less public setting.Steve Young used to be a common fireside speaker here in the SF Bay Area in his playing days.
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22 hours ago, BobMaster said:
Plenty of things in life are a "red flag", things like, growing up in a broken home (i.e. divorced parents), or growing up in an abusive home, or lack of motivation, playing video games all day or too much focus on work.
Would you advise someone marry an individual who comes from a divorced home? I most certainly would advise against it, and growing up in a divorced home will have by far more impact on future married life than pornography usage. The same goes for marrying someone who was verbally/emotionally/physically abused as a child-way, way worse impacts later in life than pornography usage.
There will never be the "perfect" husband or "perfect" wife. It's about picking what faults you are willing to life with (and if you think your spouse doesn't have faults, you are either naive or willfully blind), and then once married not focusing on those faults.
Sometimes as LDS, we hyper-focus on the active sins but ignore underlying issues that absolutely will cause major problems in marital relationships-such as being raised by a single-mother, or being abused as a child.
We seem to have compassion for the young adult raised in a divorced home or being abused and tell our youth, "don't judge them" b/c it's not their fault. Yet then condemn a young man for looking at porn b/c it is his fault. Except when the truth is laid bare, how you were raised as a child will have much greater impact on the kind of spouse you are vs. pornography.
The things you pointed out are red flags. As someone who married a person who came from an alcoholic and abusive family I can say, given a choice, I would have made another choice. But I was young and dumb.
We have a successful family, but life could have been easier. -
On 3/7/2020 at 9:42 AM, Idrawhorses said:
I've been dating a wonderful guy for about 6 months. I knew up front that he had a pornography addiction that had started at a very young age and has had a massive impact on his life. Pornography addiction is, at the core, a dopamine addiction, I know.
He hadn't been temple worthy for quite some time and wasn't when we started dating. He finally was able to stop regular pornography use and go back to the temple recently. He's always been honest with me in every aspect regarding his addiction.
He wants to marry me, but he is waiting and respectful of my decision. Part of me really wants to get married, but I think I need to wait until he's been clean longer.
How long should he be clean before I consider discussing marriage again and possibly getting engaged? Any general advice?
It's a red flag. Fugetaboutit.
Plenty of fish in the ocean. Pass on this one.
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On 5/15/2020 at 10:54 AM, CanMormonGirl said:
I know there is no such thing as "the one". I know there are many different people I could have a good marriage with. That's not what I'm hung up on. In my initial post I mentioned how some people will say they know a person is right for him/her, not that they found the only person who is right for him/her.
With that in mind, my query was really about whether or not it's realistic to expect that everyone can feel sure about the decision to marry someone, or if perhaps depending upon the personality some might not ever feel completely sure and just have to take that leap of faith.
I believe it takes a minimum of a year to get to know a person enough to want to marry them. That puts you through a "life cycle" of holidays, vacations, dealing with family problems, sicknesses, going to Church, possibly receiving callings, etc. etc. Hopefully, one can see it all works out and how your future partner deals with day to day problems.
Seven months is too short for this IMHO. You're just barely getting past the hormonal/infatuation stage of the relationship.
Carry on...……..
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Since lying to the FBI, or for that matter, most government officials is a felony, best advice is don't even be a witness. That's why people who are seemingly on the periphery of these cases tend to lawyer up immediately.
Flynn had no reason to believe that he was the target of anything. He was the National Security Advisor, after all.
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On 5/13/2020 at 8:06 PM, Traveler said:
Maybe @Just_A_Guy or anyone else can answer - Why was the questioning of Flynn allowed in court when he was interviewed and not allowed his Miranda rights: mainly the right to remain silent, the right to have an attorney present and that anything he said could be held against him in a court of law? Why has this argument not used to prevent Flynn's conviction? or to void his conviction?
The Traveler
Flynn's case was never tried AFAIK. He entered a plea bargain under financial duress as well as a threat by the DOJ that his son would be dragged into the mire with him.
I'm sure competent attorneys could have gotten him off, knowing what we know now, but the cost was simply too great in many ways compared to the light sentence bargained for. And at the time there seemed no light at the end of the tunnel for him to get his life back.
Serious DOJ misuse of power, but the government has almost unlimited resources, and most of the rest of us do not.
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As a matter of information, when I was on my mission, it was told to us in the SLC mission center that 60% of us would go inactive. This was in 1967. I was shocked.
But then one realizes that this is the overall church activity rate at that time. So not surprising in retrospect.
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On 4/23/2020 at 7:46 AM, Emmanuel Goldstein said:
China has been at war with us since the late 40s. China plays the long game and we, in the west, need to realize that China is not our friend and never will be until the Communist regime comes to an end.
Even after that. China is very xenophobic and always has been. The idea about using capitalism to open up China more is a good one and perhaps will end up working IMO. But it's a seemingly long road.
But in the end China will be xenophobic. That will not change in my lifetime.
But don't worry about China taking over the world. Culturally, they're incapable of that.
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You must realize, of course, that Andy Reid, the current Super Bowl winning coach of the Kansas City Chiefs is LDS, right?
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In general, I should be able to choose with whom I do business.
The Civil Rights Act got it half correct. There should never have been codified any so called Jim Crow laws requiring discrimination. But the idea of "public accommodation" for business is incorrect. And this public accommodation is what the LGBTQ groups have been asserting.
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I work in an essential Industry so no change in work routine or income.
Biggest change by far is SF Bay Area traffic. My commute of 15 miles is now around 15 minutes whereas it used to be almost an hour.
For me all else is normal. Except my favorite restaurants are closed except for takeout, which is not my favorite thing to do.
I refuse to wear a mask or not travel to my country home. SIP is ridiculous IMHO. BtW, I’m a 72 year old diabetic. No fear.
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1 hour ago, prisonchaplain said:
I get the thinking and have been sympathetic for most of my life. Yet, here we are, with both of our churches acting as model citizens by voluntarily going to online services and practicing stringent social distancing. The mayor of Louisville, KY was overbearing in his ban on drive-in churches. The mayor of Greenville, MS was off the charts in ordering state troopers to give $500 tickets to all who attended a drive-in church service. Power does indeed tend to corrupt. On the other hand, during a pandemic would government not be practicing its basic role of protecting citizens from enemies foreign and domestic by restricting us from any disease-spreading behaviors?
The short answer to your question is no.
Let’s keep this in perspective. Covid 19 is not the bubonic plague that wiped out 1/3 of Europe in the Middle Ages. Most people that get it recover. And the ones that don’t tend to have serious health issues anyway.
This lock down is ridiculous and a way that the elites are trying to control people. Just because they think they can.
- Still_Small_Voice, NightSG and Vort
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My point about Hitler was that he took advantage of an “emergency “ to obtain power as Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He then arranged things to rule as an absolute dictator for twelve years, even though he was not technically a dictator at all. Mostly his decrees had a legal basis.
Even though we have a supposed emergency here in the US, we must be cautious about giving up any of our God guaranteed rights.
Actually we should be adamant about not giving up any, including church attendance. AFAIK there is no legal basis to arrest anyone attending church.
- Vort, Still_Small_Voice, NightSG and 2 others
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2 hours ago, blondie)) said:
Any public gatherings are going to be cancelled, religious ones included. I would agree with you, we have liberties in the Constitution to meet together, but there are exceptions for health reasons. The coronavirus is a public emergency, luckily we have the Internet to help us with our worship. Heck, we are using the Internet to communicate NOW. Sometimes we are too quick to freak out about things. Quarantining for a few weeks is NOT a big deal if it means we can slow the spread of coronavirus to the point where we don't have to worry anymore.
I must call you out on this.
Hitler ruled Germany for twelve years under a legal emergency decree by the Reichstag.
No supposed emergency ever justifies any compromise of our God given rights. No exceptions.
The decrees so far here in the US are not even legal IMHO.- NightSG, Colirio, Still_Small_Voice and 2 others
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9 hours ago, anatess2 said:
Well, as this first page of this thread clearly indicates... Yes. Religious liberty is threatened in the USA.
It is and the powers that be are using this pandemic as an excuse to suppress not only religion, but gun rights and freedom of assembly and free speech. All in the name of "safety".
None of this is legal of course, and I'm mostly ignoring any and all of these stupid orders. I won't wear a mask or gloves, and I go where and when I please. Over Easter we had a nice family gathering of over ten people at the house. Shocking I know.
None of this has been legislated or voted upon by the people it restricts.
Sadly, all my favorite restaurants are closed except for takeout.
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1 hour ago, JohnsonJones said:
I read that due to Pandemic concerns, the Trump administration has stopped controlled burns on public lands in the areas of Washington, Oregon and California. These controlled burns are normally used to take out overgrown areas or areas prone to being more catalysts for wildfire growth. Without the controlled burns it could enable wildfires to spread more rapidly and fiercely.
It doesn't mean it will be a bad year (it could even be a good year), but without the pro-active controlled burns the likelihood of wildfires going out of control are higher. It's a no win scenario in this. They want more social isolation and distancing to control the virus which means less people out there an interacting (Which would be required, at least to a degree, with a controlled burn), but the fall out of it could have ramifications we have not dealt with yet.
Good Luck CA, and possibly WA and Oregon.
Here In CA we have had a relatively wet spring so far. I'm certainly not expecting any unusual activity. BTW controlled burning is an EnviroNazi issue. They're agin' it. There wasn't much going on anyway. That's some of the reason fires get so out of hand here.
Gold Hits Record High and Surpasses 1,900 Dollars Per Ounce
in Current Events
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Some of you should subscribe to Recoil magazine and similar. 😆