[MSL]

 Wow, Mojo! According to what we learned about you, your family, your style, your interests and your educated mother, this brother you mentioned looks like the "black sheep of the family". I wish it's a story from his younghood and that nowadays he's already not doing this, because it's embarrassing for all of the family; something like "One of us is a 'street-fighter'." or "One of us is playing the 'knockout game'!" (For those, who miss the news about this 'game' -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knockout_game).
 Well, it's nothing new for me -- I remember around 1984-1985 we had some hooligans in our class. Once they went to a school for mentally challenged kids not to support them or to do something good for them -- they went there to fight with them. Just a senseless fight! But that time they were 9-10 years old. Many years later I met one of them and I saw he become a comparatively intelligent, polite and normal policeman.
 Around 2003-2004 another person -- a 17-years old schoolboy who practiced with me JKD (Jeet Kune Do, the Bruce Lee's martial art) surprised me in this way: we walked nearby a medical university in our city, when I saw a group of foreign (Indian) university students walking in front of us. And I told that boy that I know one of these Indian university students and he also practice a martial art. My meaning was: "Look, he is our foreign Martial art colleague." and that 17-years old guy reacted: "Yeah! Let's go and beat him now!"  He was really excited of this 'idea' and I waste 2-3 minutes to stop him and to explain him that it's a good Indian student (because there were some bad Indians, but it's another topic), a kind of my friend, a person who never behaves aggressive, a 'cool guy', etc., and at last that boy understood that it's not good just to go to beat people, because he wants to fight!
 Now, from time to time, we are teaching kindergarten level kids and it's a common situation every time in 1-2 classes to spot a boy (and sometimes -- a girl) to just hit/kick/grab/etc. others just 'for fun' and our normal reaction is to stop him/her and to teach how the senseless aggression is bad. If you don't educate a person from his/her early age, later (especially if he/she is under aggressive influence from the medias, neighbors, friends, etc.) it's too late to change his/her mind. (I know it sounds very simple for you and probably very obvious and useful, because you learned these so basic education and psychological facts. I type it for the youngsters, who think that fights are 'normal'.) And here comes my serious advice:
1. Fighting without reason is risky -- even you are 'the best', you can lose something valuable like an eye, ear... some people (like Bruce Lee) are dying of cerebral edema (if you take a look of the causes -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_edema#Causes  -- you may see that it can result from brain trauma/, i.e. someone hit your head and later, some day you're dead (or you have serious health problems), because of that hit ago.
2. Fighting without reason is risky also, because many people don't only fight back -- they have weapons, they may shoot back! (Another case is when they collect many friends and/or relatives and they find you and beat you all together.)
3. Fighting without reason is risky for your future: if you are not lucky enough and you hurt somebody with a weaker body he/she may die and then you'll have to face police, court, jail... Then it's not easy to live well finding jobs in your area or abroad. For example I had to show many times abroad my conviction status certificate (it is an official document issued by a Bulgarian District court which contains information about the criminal record of an individual.^{http://www.wikiprocedure.com/index.php/Bulgaria_-_Obtain_a_Conviction_Status_Certificate}). And if you didn't know what's a criminal record: "A criminal record or police record is a record of a person's criminal history, generally used by potential employers, lenders etc. to assess his or her trustworthiness."^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License}
 TAKE SOME TIME AND READ AT LEAST ABOUT THE "Traveling with a criminal history": https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Traveling_with_a_criminal_history
 
 In a word: think more responsibly about your present and about your future!
Well, because it was mentioned already about work/jobs, I can ask a simple question: If in the real US life jobs like lawyer and surgeon are one of the most profitable and most desired? (Because I watched many films, where lawyer or surgeon/doctor is a label for a successful man and very good husband.)

[SEO]

Ohhhh my... I read all the article (the one about traveling with a criminal history). I didn't realize how one's life really sucks, if there is some of those criminal histories.

Mojo, what do you think about WWE? Steve Austin ('Stone Cold') is maybe popular and well-known in your state and around? Are there many fans of the 'professional wrestling'? I think it's a great show. (Yes, it's exactly a show and not real. I emphasize it, because some young people think it's all real. Ha-ha. )

[mojo]

I much agree with your assessment on picking fights, MSL. No doubt the business with the bridge there were guns there but just not drug out into sight. Some of them, people actually do think and only if the other side drags out weapons do they show up.

The incident I spoke of, was when my bother was young. He's not like that today. We are all rather wild to some degree in our early adulthood, when we still believe we are 'bullet proof'.

Keep in mind that movies are entertainment. What is shown is sometimes close to real life but often not. In today's world here there are so many lawyers but not enough paying clients to make the education worth while. Just like in the entertainment world, for every group that got famous, there are 100 or a 1000 who never made the grade. For a while competition was so bad to just get a case to take to court that some personal injury lawyers got the name of 'ambulance chasers' trying to get business while the potential client is laying there injured. Not exactly the mark of a reputable business in dealing with their clients.

Much of the jobs in the US that haven't already been outsourced are now and in the near future being threatened. Among them, surgeons and doctors. Everything from Wall Street stock traders to truck drivers should be seeing the handwriting on the wall that this is the last years of making money at these jobs. Soon, within the next 5 to 10 years no one will be needing those types of employees because the job will no longer exist. We can see how that goes and what results are from that to the economy by looking back at factory labor work. Today, manufacturing in the US has been gutted and not much exists in comparison to yesteryear. When some one from a company that pays well, with good benefits, is hiring, you don't see 4 or 5 people show up to apply, you  see thousands. That in itself is an indication of just how bad the economy is doing no matter how it is said to be by the government.

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Mojo, what do you think about WWE?

I used to follow the professional wrestling matches on tv as a sort of Sunday entertrainment with another family. We'd all get together on the day when the show came on to have a bit to eat, drink, and watch the evening's entertainment. But that was back when I was young.

Today, I pay no mind to it. I could not tell you the names of wrestlers, the wrestling organizations they belong to, or what the latest rassle dazzle moves are. Nor who are the good guys and who are the bad ones.

As you say it's entertainment (showtime) not what goes on in RL. Someone gets hit up side the head with a metal chair, isn't going to turn around like he got hit in the head with a paper clip. If you are sharp eyed and the camera man messes up, when one wrestler takes the other's head and runs it down the rope, you'll find he has a hand on the guy's forehead to protect it from burns. Very much, it's more fake than real. It's showmanship. They get paid well to put on a good show and to do that it has to look believable.

[MSL]

 As usual, I didn't expect it to be so complicated. But now I understand. I can compare this case with another one -- we had a teenager /mostly online/ student. A schoolboy, that time 13 or 14. And he was a clever one, but no any idea about the webmastering. And once he said: "Teach me how to make a website." (He imagined that it will be something like: 1. A, 2. B, 3. C and you're done! ) And when I told him to check out about the HyperText Markup Language (i.e. the HTML), which I think is the easiest way, he got it and decided not to ask me to teach him in 1 hour time how to make websites.
 After I got the complexity of what you said, I only want to add: please, don't waste any time for this, because of me. I'm okay and glad, anyway, when you post your art here.
 May I ask something else? What is the easiest object to create and what is the hardest? /I mean the objects from the reality, not dots, triangles and others. For example: "fried chicken is one of the hardest, and a sky is one of the easiest". In this sense is my question./

[MSL]

 I post my answer and question in a wrong thread. It was as an answer + question about the art thread!

[Alexa]

We can't move a single answer/reply from one thread to another thread. We can only move a thread from one board to another board or to split a thread. I hope this is not very big trouble for you dear guys.

Are there some plans for re-industrialization? I read something online about it, but it was only a short opinion of some netizen and I was just interested to learn a bit more about it; How do you think?

[mojo]

Not to worry about the clipping and moving when the software doesn't allow it. I simply took the question and added it to the answer without worrying about where it was. It's easy to open multiple tabs and refer to the original question and answer in another thread that way.

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Are there some plans for re-industrialization?

I am not 100% sure I grasp the fundamental essence of the question, so pardon if I miss the mark.

We are in the grips of a new age. Just like when the US went from being in the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age. To give a little history on that and what that means to a society, I'll add a little fill in info here.

In the Agricultural Age, it took 20% of the working population to produce the food for the nation. For the rest of the nation to be able to buy food at the city market, 1/5^th of the working population had to work at farming, ranching, and the like.

When the Industrial Age began to work it's way down to the farmer/rancher in changes with new equipment, such as the tractor, suddenly the farmer didn't need so many working hands anymore. His tractor allowed him to cover far more land without more people; rather he needed fewer. This upset the working conditions and requirements of farm labor. Within just a few short years, farmers only needed 2% of the working population to produce the same amount of food for the nation. With all the farmers going to the new method in order to keep the price down so they could sell their products, there was an upheaval in labor. No one was hiring farm laborers because they no longer needed them.

At the same time, laboring jobs moved to the city. Those without jobs on the farm were located in the rural areas out in the country and it often took them months of travel by foot to make it to the city where they heard jobs were. Those industrial jobs were no longer looking for a pair of hands to do labor. They needed people who understood how to work with machines and how to fix them. This resulted in masses of unemployed people, homeless, and without money to buy basic living supplies. (maybe at this point it is beginning to sound familiar with today's world)

As a result of so many people without jobs, the economy began to crater. The Great Depression was beginning. Without jobs, there was no money to buy things. Consumer buying is what powers the market.

This lesson has been forgotten or ignored in today's world. Wall Street's credo is 'What have you done for us today'? Every company/CEO/stock is determined by the quarter, not by its future potential to extend it's market (unless that brings in more profits). So companies are discouraged from investing in future expansion for a bigger market down the road. To do so is an expense, not a profit and Wall Street only wants to see profits.

Many of today's companies are now finding out they have sort of created a monster with off shoring jobs for cheaper labor. In this I mean that what was once a cheap labor market is undergoing changes. Those who are doing the labor have found out that working a job gives forth a better life than being without one and they would like more pay and more benefits than they have been getting. It evident to them they are being used on the cheap. They now want their part of the increased profitability due to their efforts in working.

Companies on the other hand see their cost of labor increasing; the same problem they had with US workers. So they are considering moving once again. Either to repeat the process of finding a cheap labor source in another country; resetting the clock for a while, or moving back to the countries they originated at with a new plan.

The new plan can be demonstrated with the Apple corporation that makes computers. They are planning on moving back to the US to make their computers. Only this time, workers won't be part of the picture. It will be mostly automated. For the first time in these advances of Ages, less workers will be required as new jobs won't be created to replace old ones. There's no need of the same amount of workers to repair the robots. So new processes now create less jobs over all than ever before, breaking the mold of previous Ages.

This in essence is why the great upset in the economy as well as jobs today and in the future. Within another generation, having a job will be a mark of social distinction, not a life goal.

[MSL]

 Thanks for that you manage it fast! Good to see you already used to the SMF 2.0 software!
 Maybe a good article about the re-industrialization: http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/11/can-re-industrialization-save-the-middle-class/
 And I have a question about the cactus food? Did you ate/cook something with cactus and what's the taste like? (If so -- is it a popular food over there. I know it's a Mexican dish and that's all I know about it.) Except pitaya (dragon fruit), I haven't any culinary experience about it. And I hope it'll be interesting for the most of the others around!

[mojo]

Actually no, I've not had any experiences with cactus as a food supplement. I once knew of a gentleman who made cactus wine. His ingredients called for cactus flowers which happen only once a year.

[SEO]

Which is the most popular sport now there? Baseball?

[MSL]

 A sort of political or geopolitical question, but I want to know the reactions of the common people, if you noticed some that time and recently: "General Wesley Clark: Wars Were Planned" (A source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023524967)
 I ask this, because it's full of different conspiracy theories (and reactions), but when a famous person like a general with a solid history and experience states something like this, then I think the reactions deserve more attention and I'd like to know about them from a purely sociological interest, and as an objective observer; not to make a political and/or military debate, because as we can see this forum isn't created to make political propaganda or something like this.

[mojo]

Which is the most popular sport now there?

Usually it's seasonal with what sport is presently going on. Football (as we American's know it) has ended with the Superbowl. This means that the Basketball playoffs will soon be taking place and will fill the title as most popular in it's turn. Right at the end of Basketball, Baseball will be starting up. Popular sport will then rotate for most to it. It's an annual cycle.

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"General Wesley Clark: Wars Were Planned"

Many of us are having a hard time with all this. It's like our country got stolen some where along the line. What we see government now doing is hiding and covering up stuff to prevent the public from knowing what it's doing.

Much the same occurred during the Nixon years. It ended with the impeachment of Nixon and a total distrust in those in power. Shortly after that, the party and it's Congress critters were pretty much voted out of office. We are now facing the same thing again. Sooner or later the nut will crack and enough will be learned by the public to demand legal answering in court over items such as you are talking of.

Lots of it will be unable to be taken to court due to the Statue of Limitations. But some charges have no time limit, ever.

During this election season, it's not good to be part of the status quo or what is known as a Washington insider. It is believed by much of the population that is where the problem is. Those in power are fearful of loosing that power with good reason. Not that there are better choices as far as candidates go but that the citizenry is fed up with how the government has been run and some heads are going to roll this election season.

It is things such as you mention that the government stonewalling on preventing the truth from being exposed. Everything that comes up in court can not be a National Security issue. At some point even the most foolish must come to the realization that we the public are being lied to.

[MSL]

I had to debate (and almost quarrel) with 4-5 US citizens, who were 'big patriots' and for them USA is 100% perfect, best, super and so on. I think you're more true patriot, because you can see and admit the (political and non-political) problems and I think all the progressive people around the world will respect you more than those 'hooray-patriots'.
And this is why I can't argue at all with you, because you can see the obvious. I can only add that this is a common problem: as far as I know when the Cuban missile crises ends -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis#Crisis_ends -- that Turkish part ("the Jupiter missiles in Turkey removed") was a secret and most of the people around the world didn't know about it (I'm sorry, if my information is wrong about it, but I'm sure we may have many other examples how the USSR hide some information and so on). So, I think that many of the thinking persons around the world have a similar or the same feeling -- they are not the real owners of their own countries. I disagree with theories that there is only one powerful center (like Aliens, Freemasonry, 'Jews', 'Satan', etc.), which controls everything and all the politics/geopolitics is just a 'theater'. But I tend to agree with a person online, who said something in this sense: "Only around 50-100 guys take the important decisions for the world's future nowadays: 10-15 in the USA, 10-15 in Russia, 10-15 in China and some more in some other countries." And this is just, because of the 'system bug' that allows too much power (and/or money) to be concentrated in too small percent of the people. I think some of the WikiLeaks (their slogan is "We open governments"^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks}) leaks showed that opinion makes some good sense.
 So, let's ask something related: what is the predominate point of view currently over there about Edward Snowden^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden} -- a hero, a coward, a traitor...?
 (Again to say it: I'm interested only as a humanitarian -- I like to explore the human nature, the people, the societies. And I'm trying to stay as much as possible apolitical. A short good article about my current and recent attitude: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apoliticism ).

[mojo]

You've hit on a thorny issue with Snowden and I have no doubt you are aware of this. There are people on both sides of the fence who will defend their viewpoints almost to the death, type thorny.

To me Snowden is a hero. He did what he did, knowing what the results would be and had the courage to stand on his principals regardless. This comes out similar to the oath taken by all public officials as well as all military members. There is a part in there that states to "defend the nation against all enemies, both foreign and domestic". The question coming down to what or who is the enemy.

Our nation, the USA, is supposedly founded on Democratic principals. But if you look around, nearly every nation, no matter what it's political structure is, claims to be democratic.  So the intent and meaning is not set in stone but rather seems to be set in how words can be manipulated into appearing to be misrepresented into that idea.

Take Snowden's case here as something that goes hand in hand with these supposed principals. According to various government officials there are ways to handle misuse of government power or illegal actions where the government is involved. A place to go to and make charges against various top officials, policies, or methods that are in use but are not legal. A place to whistle blow about wrongs within the system where the one revealing these actions are protected against reprisal by those in power. That's the official stance put out for public consumption and what's on the books as a method to deal with these instances. Yet in practice it didn't seem to work for Snowden nor for the other whistle blowers from within. It instead came out to be a way to identify those who would uphold the principals and put the thumbscrews to them while hiding the real problems.

This is why Snowden did what he did because the system in place failed him. Instead of the charges made being investigated, the ones in power used the reports to retaliate against those with the knowledge to know what was wrong and the integrity to say something about it.

Obama has used the system to prosecute more whistle blowers than all other presidents in the history of the US combined. It tells me that coverup and setting the example of what happens to a whistle blower is more important than rectifying wrongs in the system. This is a strong ear mark of corruption. The ability to hide wrong doing and punish those who would seek to correct it. In these actions, we the citizens of this nation see what is and is not important by demonstration and it leads us to believe this country is headed in the wrong direction.

Understand I love my country. The opinions I express are the results of frustration; the inability to alter the course of this nation by a single individual. I have no desire to do terrorism, no desire to start a civil war, no desire to do other than change the direction this nation is headed in by legal means.

But Snowden was a crack in the wall that gave the citizens proof of what they suspected.

[И.]

  You see, you people, started some military, geopolitical topics (generals, presidents, enemies) and the forum got medals! This is what we call congenial. I want to ask only one political question and now I want to tell you why only one, because it's something serious: we monitored closely a community, which made a "revolutionary" jump from a community without politics board to a community with political board. Believe it or not but in a short period of time this board became not only internal popular, but also external popular. It attracted not only the core members and the other already members of the community, but a number of new members, who registered in that originally not political oriented community only to join the political topics and to follow their political interests. This situation diluted them in one or another level, in my own opinion. Why I share this? Because I want to remind you that: "Want to hurt an online community? Problem solved: just bring the religion and the politics over there." 'More politics and religion" = "More reasons to find disagreements and hostility." I think we had some topic about it here or I read it in another place? Doesn't matter.
Excuse me for my loooooooooooooooooong, long intro. Here comes the question:
Can you (mojo) tell me is there some difference in the perceptions when it is about Julian Assange (this Julian Assange: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange) ? He is something like E. Snowden, but he is not an American (he is an Australian). What do you think about him? As a foreigner is he less 'hero' and more 'enemy' for those, who think Snowden is good? I'm eager to read your comment, I know you can express many intriguing thoughts.
Disclaimer: I and all my relatives, friends and neighbors have no ties with E. Snowden and no ties with J. Assange. We know them just from the news.