Charles Burtron

Susanna's Biggest Fan, 8-Children Blessed... Working to develop solutions to the $2.7 trillion drinking water failing infrastructure crisis.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@apthirteen https://t.co/9Lu6pFAcMg

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@ClemsonTom @ClemsonTom we all know who the real “Clemson Presidente” is.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@apthirteen @apthirteen you witnessed one of the great moments of his career as well as this World Cup. What a blessing! Couldn’t happen to a more generous contributor to the Clemson X community! I look forward to the creative fruits it will spark.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@SteinerHereford @MattLeinartQB @SteinerHereford is right. Fearful and laying to not err. Poch should swap 4 out now.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@apthirteen They are fearful. Playing to not err.

[Erick Erickson @EWErickson]

“And what about our sins? Slavery was the original sin, and I won’t sand it down. The founders knew it. Jefferson knew it, and he owned slaves — the hypocrisy was staring right at them, and they kept kicking the can down the road. But here is what a poisoned telling of our history leaves out: the New England colonies began rejecting slavery before England itself did. And when the reckoning finally came, hundreds of thousands of men died on battlefields to make other men free. “As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,” read the original lyrics of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. That’s propitiation. One man suffers so others go free. A nation that will bleed that much to right its own wrong is not an evil nation. It is a great one, straining toward becoming a more perfect one. We had a black president. We had a black vice president. Our Secretary of State is the son of Cuban refugees. Anyone telling you the story that nothing here ever gets better is selling you something.”

https://t.co/x00baUJNoo

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

Balogun was focused on the ball, playing the ball. Look at the attitude of his face and eyes. His intent was always to play the ball. Contact was incidental.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@apthirteen Nobody can match them. That said, soccer has a cruel history of demonstrating how difficult it is to score with even the greatest talent in the tournament. This may be relevant when they play the most efficient goal scorer in the sport’s history. Otherwise, it’s their tourney.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@colecubelic All the measures flight attendants direct are to increase survivability during accidents. In this case, it is for the survivability of the person behind you. Maybe choose to honor the attendants and the lives of those around you.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@JamieSlonis Was offsides in the 1980’s. To increase goals a rule change in 1990’s requires the player in an offside position to be directly involved in receiving ball or interfering with the play. Hence, player in offside position is not called for infraction in this situation.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@davidpollack47 @USMNT Tonight is like Alabama’s game the week before the Iron Bowl.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@davidpollack47 @USMNT @davidpollack47, in pre-BCS, BCS, 4-team playoff, or 2026 terms?

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@FurkanGozukara Seattle? Boston? San Francisco? Where is this heat risk? Maybe Kansas City. Maybe. All others are climate controlled, north, or coastal. This is fake news.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@CRO31 @TigerCommenter @CRO31, congratulations on being a great father. It shows in how your children are honoring you. Enjoy these next few years!

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@ClemsonTom Christian Wilkins.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

I’ve seen derogatory plumber comments a couple of times this week. Plumbers are, on average, highly technical and savvy decision makers willing to get dirty to get the job done. We could use a lot of plumbers in government.

[The Real Mike Rowe @mikeroweworks]

I want to apologize for not responding to any of the 22 thousand comments my last post inspired. I’ve been filming all week and just noticed my observations about Jimmy Kimmel and a former plumber named Markwayne Mullin have gone viral. I've also noticed that many of the comments are from people who genuinely seem to believe that Jimmy wasn’t belittling plumbers at all, but was instead, simply trying to point out that Mullin is not qualified to lead the DHS. Here's a small smattering...

Roger Bicknell...
Mikey stop. Kimmel wasn't making fun of plumbers he was making fun of Mullin.

Rebecca Piatt Gonzalez...
Dearest Mike, it's not anything to do with his being a plumber. It's him NOT being skilled in Homeland Security.

Patrick Wise...
Being a plumber qualifies you to be a plumber. Period. The issue Jimmy and the rest of us at the adult table recognize is that jobs require certain training and experience and being a plumber does not qualify you to be Sec of DHS.

Had Roger, Rebecca, Patrick and all the others who rushed to Jimmy’s Kimmel’s defense actually read what I had written, they would see that I did not suggest - even remotely - that a plumber was inherently qualified to hold a cabinet position. What I said was that being a plumber should not disqualify a person from holding such a position. Big difference. Doctors, lawyers, veterinarians, fireman, and university professors are no more or less qualified to run the DHS than plumbers, electricians, or carpenters – but should they all be dismissed as “unqualified” simply because they made a living in some other vocation?

As I wrote in my original post, credentials and diplomas are great ways to bolster a person’s credibility, especially if we’re talking about mastering a specific skill. I think we can all agree that plumbers, accountants, mechanics, and surgeons should all have to prove themselves competent before hanging out a shingle. But what do their credentials and diplomas have to do with their actual competency? Are we not already surrounded by a legion of perfectly qualified experts who don't know what the hell they're doing? Moreover, what do credentials and experience have to do with wisdom, honesty, common sense, integrity, courage, the ability to lead, or any other virtue we’d like to have in our elected officials?

There are plenty of legitimate reasons to question Mullin’s suitability for this role. But there’s no legitimate reason to disqualify him simply because he used to be a plumber. Just as there was no legitimate reason to dismiss AOC because she used to tend bar. As for the joke itself, here’s an honest question. If Senator Mullin was a retired doctor instead of a retired plumber, do you believe he would have would made the same joke?

Roger, Rebecca, Patrick...be honest. Do you really think Jimmy would have said to his audience, "So, now we have a DOCTOR in charge of protecting us from terrorism? Hey – it worked for Dr. Suess – maybe it’ll work for Markwayne!"

Personally, I don't. Not in a million years. Why? Because no one would have found it funny, that’s why. Even though doctors are no more “qualified” to protect us from terrorists than plumbers are, Jimmy knows that doctors are widely respected in society, and that plumbers are not. He knows that medical degrees and doctorates are aspirational credentials, whereas plumbing certificates are not. The entire premise of his joke was based on a personal bias that he knew his audience shared – a bias that presupposes plumbers are uneducated, one-dimensional workers who never made it to college, and are therefore "unqualified" to do anything but plumb.

Jimmy is entitled to his opinion, along with anyone else who believes that Mullin is unqualified to lead the DHS. The Constitution, however, says otherwise, and so does the Senate. Likewise, reasonable people can disagree as to what is funny and what isn’t. Frankly, I couldn’t care less. What I do care about, is the extraordinary shortage of plumbers and electricians our country is facing, and the longstanding stigmas and stereotypes that continue to discourage people from considering a lucrative career in the skilled trades. Jimmy’s joke – and his audience’s reaction to it – is proof positive that those stigmas and stereotypes are alive and well.

PS. We have a lot of money set aside to help train the next generation of plumbers. Apply for a scholarship at https://t.co/vidLSYXCf6 Who knows? Could be the first step on your road to President..

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@dom_lucre That trash bag is often more than 75 pounds. Critical comments of the employee demonstrate a lack of understanding of the situation.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@C_3C_3 @brianhegseth Yes, but that is not a fair comparison. On average, plumbers are one of the most high intellect, solution savvy sector of the population. They would outperform most any cohort in solving real problems. You should consider a low IQ population segment for your comparison.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@courtneyknill We just did 3 months. It was tight.

[Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney]

All while serving as acting administrator of NARA.

[Charles Burtron @chuckburtron]

@QualkTalk Sample size is too small. Look at trends after 400 minutes.