u/ClevelandSpigot

I mean, he was a pretty conservative Republican.

I really want to like The Wire. I mean, I really do. Several people have stated that it is the best show that was ever made, and it is routinely at the top of lists of shows - even above Breaking Bad. The Wire is also a crime show - a genre that I love. And, I heard that it is inspired by true events.

A few years ago, I watched the first episode. I could not bring myself to queue up the second episode. But, I keep thinking about the first episode.

What I did not like about it was that it just dropped you into the show. For the first half, I was not sure who I was watching, or their positions. I also did not like how it portrayed police officers. I'm not on either extreme of the love/hate cop scale. But, when they all came in the next day hungover, I was pretty disgusted with them.

I was also pretty disgusted with how some of the superiors were talking to the main character about his "behavior". As far as I can tell, he was just doing his job.

So, for anyone who has watched this show, and/or really likes it, can you tell me more about it? I am hoping that it is just a show where you have to make it a few episodes in before it becomes enjoyable.

Has she produced any evidence to support that very serious allegation?

If this has to do with gerrymandering, do you think that typically-blue states are not already gerrymandered?

I've worked at this company for decades now. It's a good company. Most people who leave usually try to come back. We also hire young people.

There is this one girl, who still works for the company, who started working for us about ten years ago. She was young - like early 20s - when she started, so she's now in her 30s. She's smart. Responsible. Well-spoken. Personable. Cute. Hard-working. She volunteers for a lot of in-company events. She's seen a couple small promotions. The point is, she's a good kid.

The greater area would be outside of a a midwestern city. If you know these cities, they usually sprawl, and then you have some old city neighborhoods, and then within a few miles you are in rural country. Highways are obviously popular routes of transit, but so are state and local routes. Our company would be in a newer office park, in one of these rural areas several miles outside of a midwestern city.

There is a popular local bar right outside of the office park that is popular for people who work in the office park to go to. We would be considered to be pink-collar. There is also a blue-collar presence there. Tow-truck drivers. Truck drivers. Companies like Cintas, and some large landscaping companies. This bar is a nice restaurant and bar where parents bring their kids to sit in the booths, and there is a completely separate bar area. Clean. Brightly lit. You get the setting.

This happened about five years ago. One week, she's talking to a random group of us at work. She tells this story about something strange that happened to her the previous Friday night, when a bunch of them went to this bar outside of the office park.

She had a few drinks, nothing major or irresponsible, socialized, and then bid everyone adieu and went to drive home.

She comes back to consciousness with her sitting outside, in a ditch with some rocks. She drove one of those Juke cars at the time, and when she stood up, her car was parked on the shoulder of a state route, in the middle of the woods, still running, right there in front of her. A stop sign and four-way intersection was a stone's throw away. It was dusk, and her headlights were on. She brushed herself off, and looked all over herself. She was perfectly fine. Nothing missing. Nothing out of order.

It took her a few moments to get her bearings back, and when she did, she had no idea where she was. No cars came by. She looked at the signs at the intersection up there, and at her phone, and she was able to pinpoint her location. She wasn't too far from the bar that she was just at, but it was not at all in the correct direction for her to go home, and she would have had to have basically just been making random turns on the local routes to get to where she was.

She was fine, if a little muddy from the ditch. The car was not damaged. It was just parked there, running, as if she had just parked it and got out and sat down on the ground in the ditch. She had absolutely no memory of how she got there. She simply got back into her car and drove home. Nothing else happened.

Obviously, the topic of her maybe getting roofied at the bar came up. And it's not impossible. And that is the conclusion that everyone else came to, and that she barely missed being the victim of a horrible crime.

But, I think about this story from time to time, and I do not know exactly how roofies work, but I do not think that it allows you to perfectly operate a vehicle, and be coherent enough to be able to park your car and just get out.

Oh, and it was much later than it should have been. She was missing about an hour of her time. So, she was driving around, roofied up, for an hour, and then was able to park her car at some random intersection in the middle of the woods, and get out. And then she came back to consciousness? I really don't think that could have happened.

I was looking at Polymarket. One of their wagers is moving up and down. It now says that if you put $1000 one way, and that way wins, you will win $1300. It also says that if you put $1000 the other way, and that other way wins, you will win $1500. Either way, you profit. Where is the money to pay all those winners coming from?

I live in the Great Lakes area. Gainfully employed. Single. No children. Middle-aged. Veteran of the Marine Corps.

I'm toying with the idea of liquidating everything and going off-grid. I have been thinking about this for several years now, but I'm not someone to just recklessly do something that major. I've been watching a lot of vlogs about it, and doing some troubleshooting and problem-solving. I'm currently having a great time figuring out the details of such a change in my life.

For the land and living conditions part, someplace in Nebraska or neighboring states. Buy 20 acres of undeveloped land for about $40K. Less than a mile from a road and water source.

On the front-half, run a campground to help get some income. On the back half, that would be mine alone.

I also plan on somehow finagling some Appaloosa horses for myself. Maybe even breed them for sale. Appaloosa horses are very versatile horses that are very useful in a lot of different areas, they are very friendly to humans, and they are easy to raise. Maybe sell horse rides. Maybe also allow customers to bring ATVs to the land. This is all flexible.

For buildings, their purposely wouldn't be many, but they would all be prefab. Something like those houses you can buy on Amazon for up to $10K, and they can be placed anywhere flat, and they unfold. For myself, some prefab barn that can just be delivered to the site. Empty inside. Maybe the same for the campers. Again, very flexible.

Since the whole thing would be advertised as a sort of recreational campground, not much in the way of utilities would be needed or expected. I would set up a typical solar power station for those random needs of electricity, or for emergencies. I would have to figure something out about the water. That's probably the trickiest part. Fresh water.

Another tricky part is that, if you have ever been to this area of America, you know that it is beautiful, but very, very flat. Would it be weird for someone to go camping in the middle of a flat field in Nebraska?

How would I pay for it? I would liquidate my life. I would get with a financial person and figure it all out. I have a 401K and a house. Conservatively speaking, taking all financial liabilities into account, I would probably have a net of somewhere around $150K.

My parents are not rich, but they are having a wonderful retirement. They have lots of money from Social Security, various pensions (they lived and worked during a time when such things existed), and their own 401Ks. They have higher incomes now than when they were working. I recently helped them with some financial stuff, and it's not uncommon for them to just have a random checking account with like $8K in it, Just sitting there. Liquid, they are probably worth a $1 million. Non-liquid? About $1.5 million.

I am saying this because they love us three children. I have always strived to not be a burden on them. All three of us kids have. I have my own stable life, and my parents keep saying that if I ever needed money, or even just really, really wanted some money, I just have to ask. I've never taken them up on that offer. I never had to, and never wanted to. So, if I had to go to them with this plan and asked for, say, $20K, I feel confident that they would have no problem with giving me that.

Worst-case scenario. I get the land and a small empty barn to live in. I just live there like a hermit for the rest of my life. Hunt. Fish. Farm. Eventually get an inheritance.

Suggestions? Critiques? Obstacles?