In my house similar situations happen rather frequently. Just replace MS office with some large GIS data set, or linux distro I want to try on some other box. Having Netflix and Hulu or YouTube running at the same time is is fairly common too.

Well it did happen in Minneapolis, MN. I believe that the guy who shot back even won his lawsuit even if it took a few years.

I was under the impression that the only things that people have made that will show that there was intelligent life on this planet in millions of years would be the giant bronze propellers on our largest ships. Not sure about their longevity over a billion years but I have heard estimates that they will last a few million.

Those are just hood ornaments.

I haven't hear anyone claim that the US gov doesn't want to pay its debts, and it constitutionally must pay them so it is moot point. I sure wasn't saying that nor was I trying to imply that and was merely pointing out for the uninformed how things are structured and how we got there. There are problems facing the government once the bond redemption starts in earnest and those are mostly ignored which is the other point I was trying to make. The budget is already a mess and Social Security is just going to gradually make a bigger mess but I doubt anyone would know the difference.

I wouldn't say Social Security is properly funded for decades as the date the trust fund runs out is in 2033 according to the last Trustees Report which is the point at which it will be unable to pay full benefits. So less than 2 decades which means you will likely be caught up in it. The point at which it starts to take in less in taxes and interest and begin to draw down the trust fund.

So the decisions that one wants to make is how to deal with the problem and there really are a finite number of solutions. They could:
1. Raise taxes to ensure social security is fully funded. (democrat plan)
2. Decrease the rate at which benefits increase. (Republican plan)
3. Some combination of 1 & 2
4. Ignore the problem and in 2033 just fully fund it out of the general fund. (what will happen from 2017 to 2033)
5. Ignore the problem and in 2033 tell all social security recipients to fuck off and enjoy their 75%. (what the current plan out of the US government is)

I understand that and figured that is what happened, but with such a simple tax form it should have taken 10 minutes to do the audit not a couple of hours.

It is just struck me as a colossal waste of time, especially since all of the info I had, except form 1040EZ, gets sent independently to the IRS as well. Even at that they already had a copy of my 1040EZ because I sent it to them when filing my taxes which is what they were checking so I didn't need to be there. I could understand if they found a problem having me go through the song and dance but this was just wasteful.

Not good enough. I have stated that H-1B employees should be the highest paid people doing work at the company they are performing the work for or are employed by. We are always told that companies can't find a single US worker who has these skills and that they can't train someone up to do the job so these must truly be special people and thus deserving of extraordinarily high compensation. Companies seem to function just fine when a member of the board leaves before a replacement is founds so if these people are so critical they should be compensated better than even the members of the board. I also mean total compensation: wages, bonuses, relocation benefits, medical, stock options, use of corporate transport, vacation, etc.

Make that law and I will believe the companies when they make these statements about a lack of workers or not having the right skillset.

Another idea someone else had was to make it mandatory that for each H-1B a company brings on they have to hire an American to shadow and learn these rare skills from them and eventually take over their job. Again, make this law and I will believe the BS flowing from the corporate talking heads.

Hell if I heard that I would have started looking for a new job immediately and about 10 minutes before tender my 2 week notice I would have forwarded all the info on the issue to US ICE and the FTC and let them open an investigation into the company.

Well this issue is already lumped in with immigration. There was an article back about a week and a half ago about how an amendment to the current immigration bill was going to have a higher cap on H-1B visas of like 195k. So maybe it will get striped or killed, I don't know but one of my senators is one of the ones who has been pushing the higher cap for a while now.

People like AC don't want to save now for the future. Why live with less now so you have more later when it just prevents them from having fun. These are also the same people who would have bought as much house as they could have gotten a loan for just before the crash.

They are republicans they don't believe in evolution.
Now that I have that barb out of the way it is basically applicable to all side but I find it somewhat interesting that in this case we have 2 republicans in support of American jobs and higher pay of American workers while one of the main supporters of expanding the H-1B program is a Democrat from Minnesota.

What you describe is the difference between a statesman and a politician. Sadly we have far too few statesmen.

Burn heretic!

So in general just like every other issue.

To quote the late George Carlin: