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EdamAnchorman

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Posts posted by EdamAnchorman

  1. 4 hours ago, trying to be less rude said:

    once again, this bothsidesism is not supported by the facts. GOP gerrymandering is much worse, and the dems actually went all out trying to fix the situation with major federal legislation, and they came close.

     

    i think you would be happy if i told you everything is hopeless? unfortunately that is not the case, there is work to be done. you're correct that it won't be easy. the public servants out there need the support of voters. that includes keeping one's self informed.

    I agree with your second paragraph.  Wrt the first, I am a realist and a cynic by nature, and I wonder if the Ds are trying this legislation primarily because the Rs fucked the situation beyond repair and just drew ridiculous maps (going ape shit crazy IS their M.O., as you well know).

    If what they're doing actually fixes the problem, then I'm all for it. I just wonder about their motivations. Would the Ds be pushing for this legislation if they were the ones with the advantage?  I'd like to think so (more than Rs who just fuck everyone over for their own ends), but I'm just not sure.

    To be clear, I'm not staying that both sides are just as bad, I do realize that the Rs are basically beyond repair, while the Ds do seem to try to occasionally do some good (when they can manage to get out of their own way and when we're not involved in any major conflicts).

    • Like 1
  2. 10 hours ago, trying to be less rude said:

    i just cited legislation that establishes unbiased redistricting commissions

     

    the legislation, the freedom to vote act, would establish non-biased redistricting commissions. they actually attached a provision to the bill that would allow it to bypass the filibuster! they can do that! manchin and sinema tanked it. 2 more dem senators and we could pass the Freedom to Vote Act and have neutral districts.

     

    OK cool, I haven't read the legislation but my point is that these D-bag politicians (Rs definitely, Ds less likely but nonzero on average) are incentivized to find ways around this legislation.  Take the Ohio case as the first shot.  A fair map stipulation was in the Ohio constitution.  It did not work, the voters went to the polls with unconstitutional maps.

    I guess I'm saying that I believe it will be really fucking hard to force these assholes to do something they really really don't want to do (on either side), draw fair maps.

    I would have to really read the legislation to know how serious the Ds are about this and how likely it is to work, so take what I am saying with the caveat that I am ignorant on that.

  3. 4 hours ago, zero said:

    you're right. it's almost as if we need a completely neutral, non-political take on how to best determine this.

    half joking/half serious - feed the American voting district map into chatGPT, let it come up with the best solution...then let it tell us how dumb the whole 2 party system is lol.

    To be fair, in the Ohio case the Ohio supreme court struck down the many bullshit maps that the Rs submitted, correctly saying that they were unconstitutional (unfair).  The courts are supposed to be the neutral party here, but the Rs strategy of stall until the last minute forced the Ohio voters to go to the polls with the same unconstitutional districting maps, with no real consequences for the politicians failing to do their job.

    I know that at my job, if I just refused to do what I was told 4 times in a row, I'd kinda get fired.

    There's a pretty good podcast about that recent situation in Ohio.

  4. 15 hours ago, trying to be less rude said:

    yeah man. why do you think 48 dems/independents voted for the Freedom to Vote Act in the Senate but the republicans uniformly voted against it? That would have established unbiased redistricting commissions. 

    OK, but the Rs in Ohio appeared to play nice and play along all the while introducing language that would let them ignore the will of the people by determining themselves what "fair" metrics to use for redistricting.

    Of course they voted for it, it's good PR, that's what the Ds' base wanted.  All I'm saying is, that I have a hard time seeing either party when, in control, striving to draw truly fair districting maps.  That being said, I do think Ds in power would be less damaging than Rs in power.  And I'm also open to being surprised if some politicians actually follow through with attempting to end gerrymandering.  From what I've heard and read, the Ds attempt in Ohio did seem to be in good faith, but was that only because they knew they were getting screwed by the current maps?

  5. 2 hours ago, trying to be less rude said:

    there are some "centrist" GOPs but the party seems unable to do the smart thing and get behind them. trump brings goons out of the woodwork who don't vote otherwise, so the party is in a weird position where trump is really hurting them in some ways but in other ways they see it as unwise to break with him. the republican party may be on track for a really sad showing in 2024, as no republican candidates seem capable of really criticizing him (except for christie who will mildly criticize him for almost killing him), and trump is likely to be prosecuted as the greatest traitor in american history, right in prime campaign season. 

     

    with any luck there will be a good blue wave, which is needed, such as to address the gerrymandering problem. the REDMAP project, using AI to gerrymander districts, has locked up state legislatures in swing states, such that dems get a clear majority of the popular vote but repubs get a large majority of seats. fixing gerrymandering is exceptionally difficult, this is one of the ways the country is maimed. we nearly addressed it with the Freedom To Vote Act but it failed by 2 votes in the Senate

    If there is a blue wave, do we trust the Ds to actually fix the gerrymandering problem in that they'll make it as fair as possible or will they "fix" it meaning they'll just gerrymander it back to slanting more blue?

    I'm thinking of the recent case in the Ohio state legislature where the people overwhelmingly voted for a resolution to force a fair redrawing of the districts, but the shithole Rs refused to do it on the back of some sneaky language they put in that allowed them to loosely define a "fair" redrawing any way they wanted.  Not saying they wouldn't have done this anyway, but it seems they were empowered by the Ds previously gerrymandering the fuck out of the state to lean blue.

    My point is, that for this issue to really be fixed, it seems that one party is going to have to stand up and be the adult in the room (which is what the majority of Americans want, it seems), and I just don't see either party doing that right now, thinking it will hurt them at the ballot box in the short term.  Nobody's willing to give an inch.

  6. 9 hours ago, exitonly said:

    still going with the make america great again, again. was the capitol riot part of the greatness or what.  we’re we great for 4 years and now not great or do we still need to get great again. i’m very confused by all of this. sounds like trump is pro ukraine though

    I've come to think that "Make America Great Again" is code for "Make it OK to Be Openly Racist in America Again".

    But that doesn't fit so nicely on a lil' red hat.

    • Like 2
  7. 3 hours ago, TubularCorporation said:

    If it does. 

    As far as I can tell, the last major advance that has been made in battery technology was when alkalines were developed in the 50s (EDIT: I double checked and this is actually wrong, compact alkalines came to market in 1949 but they were invented in 1901, so every major battery technology in use today is older than 100 years, other thanthat 1949 chemistry tweak that made alkaline batteries mor epractical). The lithium ion tech that electric cars use was developed over 100 years ago, before WWI, even though it wasn't brought to market in a practical form until the 70s.  There have ben advances in manufacturing techniques and cost, but the underlying technology is VERY old and pretty much mature.

    When I was just out of college, around 2003, one of my roommates was doing a postgraduate research fellowship at MIT in this exact field.  There hadn't been a significant advance in decades, and he said it was a field where you kept doing paid fellowships until you either made the one new discovery that revolutionized everything, which he said was less likely as winning the lottery, or retired.  He was 40 and still doing research.  About 5 years later he quit and moved to Canada.

     

    I hope we get a source of cheap graphene or something that at least lets us make them smaller, that would be the biggest advance in generations even if it wouldn't really be a new technology.

    First of all, there's a lot you can do within the current tech just playing with chemistry to make them safer (LiFePO4), with trade-offs of course.  I agree that practically all recent "major" battery tech advances, e.g., solid state, are vaporware at this point.

    Second, I don't wanna sound like a free-market douchebag, but if the safety profile of current tech poses a significant enough risk as EVs become more prevalent, the market will hopefully incentivize more radical innovation.

  8. 12 hours ago, ignatius said:

    the rockets all blew up in the process of making them better. seems to work for them. their stated goal w/this launch was to "clear the tower" so by that metric it was a success. it's a huge rocket. 400ft long/tall and huge cargo pod on the top that can carry cargo or up to 100 people (wtf).  so, as for that.. the engineers will get it sorted. there's another launch in a month or so. 

    he's not the guy designing them or building them. other people do that. he is just telling them what he wants and telling them when it needs to be done by etc.. that's my guess. not saying he isn't smart at some things. he's still a twat. 

    the whole twitter thing is a shitshow and i suspect a tax write off and whimsical folly for elon the troll 420 69 bro. and being able to shit off $44 billion on something like this is absurd of course. 

    i finally drove some teslas. they drive nice. they do have tons of torque and drive nice enough but i'm nervous there's no forceable exit tool in the car in case it catches fire and decides to lock me in. i roll the window down when i drive them at work. they are kind of annoying in some ways. every thing you want to do other than roll down the window, windshield wipers, hazard lights, open the door... it's all in the screen. adjusting the side mirrors requires going into the screen to select that page then using the little wheels on the steering wheel to make adjustments. it's annoying. i know that's how they keep costs down or whatever.. so they don't have to make a bunch of small parts and systems for doing all that shit.. but it's not like they're cheap. expensive cars. anyway.. they're decent cars. though i'm well aware of all the problems with them and dangers of battery fires that do not go out. 

    con man would be close to what he is but he does actually make things.. he's a salesman, a manipulator as much as anything. a troll. he's got an agenda and he'll meddle in whatever way he wants to get there. 

    To be fair, the whole "EV fire" thing is pretty much FUD.  Regular gas cars catch fire at a higher rate.  That being said, an ICE fire is easier to put out than a Li-ion battery fire for sure, but safety (and fire-fighting technology) will catch up as EV battery technology advances.  We're only using super-flammable chemistry now because that gives us the best energy density / cost ratio and safety was kind of the sacrificial lamb there.  Tesla is already using LiFePO4 batteries which are much less flammable, but they are less energy-dense (heavier per kWh) and lose a bit more range in colder weather.

  9. 9 hours ago, zlemflolia said:

    well if you look at how the framework of capitalism itself "got things going" it involves

    -mass genocide

    -land enclosure

    -theft of personal property

    -privatization of public resources

    nothing about that is great

    and once it "gets going", how does it expand and make money?  literal theft of the surplus labor value of the workers, each of whom is coerced into working there by the threat of homelessness or poverty

    Thanks for taking me out of context.  I was talking about getting a new business off the ground / creating new jobs.  You probably knew that but couldn't pass up an opportunity to troll.  I have a feeling that you might be confusing capitalism with imperialism with the whole mass genocide, theft of personal property... stuff wrt what I said.

    IMO, the incentives for job and wealth creation for everyone are the most effective in capitalism with respect to creating new and innovative companies.  From my experience, smaller, new companies are much more pro-worker.  Problems begin to arise when that company grows to a point where it cannot sustain enough growth through innovation and market expansion, and then it has to rely on squeezing the workers and doing more shady things like "cheating" on or evading corporate taxes, or going to foreign countries and taking their land / labor.  That's when I believe capitalism fails the working class, and I don't have a solution of what to do after that.  Now, aside from changing the mindset of an entire population, I don't see how one could create the same incentives for new companies to be created and accelerate faster in any other system that's out there right now, but I'll admit I am not nearly as knowledgeable on this subject as some of you and I'm more than willing to be educated.  I'll also admit that what I said above assumes that the model for an economy should be infinite growth, which I think is something that will have to change in the not-too-distant future.

    On a personal note, I'm much more socialistic in my beliefs than you probably think.  I work for a giant company and despise it almost every hour of every working day.  I have had a front row seat in witnessing my employer do so many truly shitty, immoral things.  However, I'm a realist and not about to go live on a commune, so I decided to take my employer for as much money as possible from the inside, and have encouraged many colleagues to do the same.  I employ the golden rule, I treat my employer as well / poorly as it treats me.  I'm lucky in that I'm somewhat of a specialist which puts me in a position to take my employer for $$$ while pretty much doing as much or as little work as I choose (although my work ethic and morals won't allow me to totally fleece my employer).

    • Like 3
  10. 23 hours ago, auxien said:

    can't just open up the homes to the homeless, i guess? because of greed? i understand it's a much more complex problem than that, but the solution shouldn't be too far from that.

    By and large, the homeless you see are not homeless solely for lack of a home.  The overwhelming majority are homeless because of addiction, mental health issues, or both.  Give them a house without fixing the underlying issues, and it's likely that they'll lose the house and end up back on the street.

    Some portion could probably make it off the street with sufficient social / medical programs and support, and perhaps family support.  Note that on average, the USA sucks ass at those things; ergo, this is what you get.  America is just ideologically ill-equipped to deal with the underlying causes of homelessness.

    • Like 1
  11. I'm starting to think that capitalism is great for getting things going, but once a publicly-traded company grows to a certain size, capitalism will always dictate that they continue growing. For bigger companies, this almost always comes at the expense of the employees.  Cutting benefits, "doing more with less", mergers, just-in-time supply chains, etc.

    When I started working for my employer (Johnson & Johnson) 11 years ago, my division (Consumer Products: slow-growing, steady) was seen as a ballast of sorts.  When the pharma and med. device divisions were more volatile, we provided a ballast for the company.  We still had a pension plan (lol) and great benefits.  The most recent CEO took over and within a year, froze the pension plan, reduced health care benefits for retirees, and spun off my division to become a separate company (because they shopped us around and we were too big for someone to buy).  Rumor is that he's going to do the same to med. device, just leaving J&J to be a pharma company, where the stock price can go up much faster (nevermind that J&J actually started as the Consumer business, gauze, Band-Aid, etc.).  It's disgusting.  Although I'm lol-ing hard that J&J has to keep the (multi-billion dollar) talc litigation liability, even though they shed us, and that their Texas two-step bankruptcy maneuver has just been shot down in appellate court.

    • Like 3
    • Farnsworth 1
  12. 1 hour ago, Upset man said:

    Hahaha shit “indicated”

    covfefe

     

    I'm no lawyer, but Georgia seems like it would be easier to prosecute compared to Jan. 6th.  "We just need to find....   18,000 votes."  Oh okay fuckhead, brb gonna go check the lost and found at the polling stations across the state.

    • Like 3
  13. 4 hours ago, zero said:

    correct. I have to go in them on occasion for the job. it's a bit of a trippy experience. 

    Nice!  I'm a small rain fan (not near a foamer), even built some tanker cars out of Lego (posted in the Lego thread here years ago).

    Plus, I'm a chemical engineer so rail cars are at the intersection on those two things.  Always found them interesting.

    • Like 1
  14. 7 hours ago, toaoaoad said:

    I've become obsessed with arugula in the past couple weeks. Always thought of it as kind of a specialty thing but it's been dirt cheap lately, in those clamshell containers of mixed salad greens. Just straight arugula at the same price point. Whatever particular nutrients are in this stuff, my body is just like fuck yeah gimme :emotawesomepm9:  It has so much intense flavour, I just eat it right out of the container.  I'm dieting right now and trying (mostly successfully) to completely cut sugar and processed foods for awhile, so that could have something to do with it. Things start to taste better with that shit out of your system.

    If you haven't tried it yet, try the bowl of arugula with a splash of olive oil & vinegar, and some freshly-cracked black pepper and salt.

    • Like 1
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