Senate The US Politics 2.0 Discussion Thread

Really slow to play catch up here but, I've met Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan) and when she's in character, she's exceptional.

When you see the picture of Morgan Freeman coupled with text that makes you hear his voice in your head. Philomena Cunk does that for a good portion of Brits

Plus Diane Morgan is just an absolute aces person to ever meet

 

So who wants to tell them that there are penis jokes in the Bible.

 

You think they've actually read the bible?

 

No, of course not.

 

The funny thing is that we listened to a Thersites the Historian video on the way, and he said that people would have considered Lyndon Johnson the “face of big government” back in his day. When we got to the gift shop, I told the employee at the counter about that and said she was the “face of big government” in this area.

 

Trump Issues Warning Of 'Potential Death And Destruction' If He's Charged With A Crime




In other news, Texas says Elon Musk plans to pollute too much

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texans-sound-off-against-elon-150001827.html

"The thought of this happening is horrifying," Erin, who runs an organic farm near the Boring Company facility, told Fox News. "This stuff — and we don't even know what it is — going into the river that we depend on for food production."

Ambrose told the publication he has concerns about Musk's propensity to "value speed over everything."

"I don't know if ya'll heard it as clearly as I did, but the reason they want to discharge treated wastewater into the river, is because they can't wait 24 months for that pipe to be run and the permanent infrastructure setup," Ambrose said during his public comment, according to a video from the event that was viewed by Insider.

Bastrop Mayor Connie Schroder said she would prefer The Boring Company waited to treat its wastewater at the city's plant, which is currently under construction, local news reported. Bastrop broke ground on its $32.6 million wastewater treatment plant in 2021, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

"This is just a short-term solution, and ultimately we hope to not even utilize the full capacity of what's being authorized," a Gapped Bass representative, Rajit Patel, said at the hearing, according to Fox News.

Patel explained the company's water treatment process for the wastewater before it would enter the water supply and said the company plans to eventually use the city's treatment plant, The Wall Street Journal reported.

He noted the wastewater will come from The Boring Company facilities, as well as SpaceX, per the Journal, though SpaceX is not listed on the permit application. Neither Musk or the company's president, Steve Davis, attended the meeting.​

So did we with Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

Diane is hilarious. Really enjoyed Cunk on Earth.

How did you meet her? And you met her in character?

 

Just from reading the headline, I fail to see why that even needs to be argued. It's patently obvious.

 

“Rich is the country with plenty of poor.”
-Joseph Heller

 

Interestingly, the Roman emperor Caracalla got himself assassinated by insulting the penises of his bodyguards.

 

@jcgoble3 Economists like Milton Friedman still think that is untrue and any day now the poor will be lifted up thanks to his wonderful *heavy scarism alert* economic teachings that the GOP treats holier then the Bible which is saying something. I guess when the 1% go from owning 99% of stocks like they do now to 100% it will happen.

Apparently David Pecker (so appropriately named, it's perfect considering who he was) was the witness today in NYC. Again will believe it when I see it when it comes to an indictment but considering Pecker helped kill damaging stories for decades including during the election, it does suggest Braggs is going after more then the hush money over Stormy Daniels.

 

I don't think most conservatives really claim their policies are great for the poor (although liberal policies may be worse for them) but that they're really good, helpful for the middle class, does help lift them up further, and believe and like that the middle class are also self-interested.

A big part of conservatives' success has been arguing that (mostly rich) liberals want to help, try to help the poor at the expense of and lowering the middle class while conservatives want to help both the rich and middle class, then later centrist Democrats like Clinton were then able to win by arguing that, unlike some others on the left, they did value the middle class most of all (and conservatives were hurting them).

 

A great trick that the bourgeoisie has played on the US "middle class" is the idea that they have more in common with the rich parasites at the top than with other workers. Get sick, miss a few mortgage or rent payments, face any financial hurdle in life and then it should be obvious which side you are on.

 

The New York Times is very concerned that Mississippi's decision to reject Medicaid funding is hurting the bottom line of hospitals in that state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/28/us/politics/mississippi-medicaid-hospitals.html

 

Hospitals are the healthcare safety net providers for communities, by law (EMTALA). If they go away, there's not any easy replacement. While one can technically use freestanding emergency rooms as a stopgap, their capacity is very different, and there's really no way to handle the many problems that require days of inpatient care versus a few hours. This is very clearly the framing their taking.

This isn't something to criticize. This is the kind of reporting that should exist and helps clarify issues. While I understand the distaste in framing this as an economic issue or in terms of these corporate entities, that's reflective of the reality we live in, where healthcare is a business and hospital systems are corporations (even if non-profit).

 

Segueing on yesterday (I was at the theater, bit hard to research and read through studies in English at the time... )

A computational reward learning account of social media engagement.

Consumer neuroscience and digital/social media health/social cause advertisement effectiveness.

Social media addiction linked to cyber-bullying.

The article itself is paywalled (pricetag is €43 for me).

Consequences on the brain.

The "online brain": how the Internet may be changing our cognition.

Consequences on the world.

Impact of social media on geopolitics and economic growth.
Can be good for business (surprise, surprise)...

... a bit less good for politics.

By the way, you can now earn degrees in neuromarketing - ie. to sanction learning how to manipulate the human brain to make money. Beautiful world, isn't it?

 

Excellent post.

Are responses that carry forward ideas and conversations more useful than upvotes?

Is my giving up votes actually creating a fix for the upvote addicted? Should we stop upvoting on the JCC to end the echo chamber and instead reply to a response we find upvotable or do nothing at all?

Maybe I’m giving upvotes to freely and it is a disservice. I don’t want people posting in the hopes they get a reward. I’d rather see conversation and hear ideas. Not parrots performing for crackers.

What is best for all us pidgins and rats in this Skinner Box together?

 

If only there was someone who opposed the "Likes" system from the beginning. Maybe he could have been an example by just spending years commenting directly to describe why he agrees with or enjoys something rather than clicking the Facebook/Instagram robot button.

Oh, wait.

 

Too bad @Ender Sai was banished or I’d tell him he was right all along.

 

That was such a low blow. Uncalled for.

 

I might like your post but I won’t upvote it. I won’t treat you like a pigeon in a lab experiment.

 

I see what you did there @jcgoble3

 

I hear you and agree with everything you wrote. Seeing how bleak the situation is becoming regarding attitudes toward population/public health in some of the poorest red states I wonder whether Republican legislators might actually take steps to shield hospitals from their most indigent patients. How much worse can the situation get? I don’t know what rock bottom looks like.

 

What we listened to this morning. Really wishing more candidates would say this.