Jump to content

SydneyCarton

Burnt Ends
  • Posts

    17,468
  • Joined

  • Days Won

    24

Posts posted by SydneyCarton

  1. 4 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

    Agree, and there are plenty of Trump voters who are exemplary in that arena, as uncomfortable and contradicting as it may seem.

     

    i think this is basically the entire premise of "The Zone of Interest."  Obviously the main characters in that movie were legitimately running Auschwitz so not comparing apples to apples here, but there were absolutely individuals in Germany who checked all the boxes of a stereotypical "good" person (helped families in need, rescued stray animals, donated blood).... and also voted for Hitler.  I'm in no way saying those are "good" people, but I think painting a caricature of "evil" oversimplifies the situation to a dangerous degree.

    To be very clear, I'm in no way trying to defend a Trump (or Hitler) vote, nor the people who cast them.  And I'm sure there will be replies that state that a vote for Trump outweighs any other good deeds a person may do, which is probably something I agree with more than I don't.  These are merely the confused ramblings of a man who is trying to understand how most of the people who he loves most in the world are able to see the world so differently.  

     

     

    I understand, and I wasn't trying to be critical of you or how you view the people you've grown to care about. 

    What I was attempting to do was simply to color the situation with a comparison to one in which we 100% have the advantage of hindisght. Becaue we do. Another way to look at it is, if 20 years down the road, where the country is a shitshow and women, non white people, and certainly LGBTQ+ rights have taken massive steps back, as well as a move towards a theocratic autocracy...if all of those worst fears come true, will look back with such understanding of those who facilitated and allowed those changes to be ushered in? 

    Or would you curse their names becuase you had a daughter who died because of an easily preventable medical procedure?

    • Hook 'Em 4
  2. 42 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

    This is something I've really grappled with over the last year or two.

    I think there's a desire to create simple "good" and "bad" labels for everyone and it's just not that simple.

    I have friends who would drop everything at a moment's notice to help me, no questions asked.  They are generous, donate to charities, and are raising what seem to be solid, well-adjusted children.  They are also almost assuredly voting for Trump.  Does this make them "bad?"

    My parents would give up their lives in a second for those that they love.  The household we grew up in was full of warmth and love and is the example I am trying to replicate for my family.  They are also almost assuredly voting for Trump.  Does this make them "bad?"

    I have brilliant co-workers who are phenomenal at building up a team, always make sure to share credit, and thrive in a culturally diverse work environment.  They are also almost assuredly voting for Trump.  Does this make them "bad?"

    Meanwhile, I know plenty of rude, self-centered Biden-voters who couldn't care less about those around them and take no responsibility for their actions.  Just because they pull the same lever as me in November, does that make them "good?"

    The closest rationalization I've been able to conclude is that some people are able to treat politics kind of like sports.  There's a team they root for and they'll continue to root for that team, regardless of the players involved.  I obviously don't agree with this and wish they saw what I see, but simply labeling all Trump voters as bad people oversimplifies the issue to a degree that ensures it will never get fixed.

    But... on the other hand, how can a "good" person look at Trump and not be immediately repulsed?  Even given what I said in the paragraph above, this still seems unbelievable to me.

    I don't have a solution, just a rant from someone who has struggled with this since he realized that the list of people who my wife and I would trust to raise our children if something happened to us is almost exclusively comprised of (likely?) Trump voters.

    If you replaced "Trump" with "Hitler" how do you feel about your statements? Honest Question. 

    • Hook 'Em 5
  3. 32 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

    After posting, I did a little research. (New Surly motto?)

    Undocumented immigrants from Mexico have a far lower rate of high school and college education than the American population overall. There was a good deal of analysis after 2016 showing that low educational attainment was one of if not the primary indicators of Trump support. An influx of high school dropouts could be a godsend for the GOP, yet they insist on slandering immigrants. I guess that’s the kind of thing self-destructive cults do.

    Because racism trumps actual political calculus, I guess. 

  4. 17 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

    Cops that want it seem to be able to find plenty of overtime or private work to kick that number up by 50%. 
     

    i guess an equivalency would be teachers doing private tutoring or just working some secondary summer job?

    and both come with a pension system so that’s an added monetary benefit that increases their total lifetime compensation a good bit, depending on the scope of compensation we are discussing. 

    Maybe. So maybe you're topping out at low six figures, and you're probably working lets call it 60 hours a week to do it. That sounds exhausting. 

    And with teachers, well, part of the sell was 3 months off, but reality, they all basically HAVE to work those 3 months for the extra money just to subsist. Or in some cases, buy their own school supplies. As for a lifetime pension...tha'ts not a guaranty. The US Post Office out front can tell you that, a pension system can disappear depending on a political decision. 

    • Hook 'Em 2
    • Rage+1 1
  5. 3 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

    So, I was talking to a magat-lite about this shit.  He and most I think confuse or conflate this with affirmative action, that is, the granting of material benefit based on being a disadvantaged race.

    I will admit that affirmative action may be problematic.  I am currently of the mind that it remains justified, but I have gone back and forth on the issue.

    But to clarify that the DEI ban is not one on affirmative action, let's quote the statute:

    Sec. 51.3525.  RESPONSIBILITY OF GOVERNING BOARDS REGARDING
      DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION INITIATIVES.  (a)  In this
      section, "diversity, equity, and inclusion office" means an office,
      division, or other unit of an institution of higher education
      established for the purpose of:
                   (1)  influencing hiring or employment practices at the
      institution with respect to race, sex, color, or ethnicity, other
      than through the use of color-blind and sex-neutral hiring
      processes in accordance with any applicable state and federal
      antidiscrimination laws;
                   (2)  promoting differential treatment of or providing
      special benefits to individuals on the basis of race, color, or
      ethnicity;
                   (3)  promoting policies or procedures designed or
      implemented in reference to race, color, or ethnicity, other than
      policies or procedures approved in writing by the institution's
      general counsel and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
      for the sole purpose of ensuring compliance with any applicable
      court order or state or federal law; or
                   (4)  conducting trainings, programs, or activities
      designed or implemented in reference to race, color, ethnicity,
      gender identity, or sexual orientation, other than trainings,
      programs, or activities developed by an attorney and approved in
      writing by the institution's general counsel and the Texas Higher
      Education Coordinating Board for the sole purpose of ensuring
      compliance with any applicable court order or state or federal law.

     

    Some of the statute can be construed as a ban on affirmative action, as I defined above.  And that, while controversial, might be somewhat legit.

    However, the bolded essentially forbids talking about race, color, or ethnicity in a university-sponsored environment, except as required by law or court order to address discrimination.  And that swallows the rest of it and is bullshit of the purest ray serene.

    Dude  You are quoting Richard Hanania.  You should be embarrassed.

    You're quoting a GRUHOrn sock. You know he's not embarassed. 

    • Hook 'Em 3
  6. 4 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

    Not sure it's a real novel wedge. I thought it was pretty well known that cops are generally un- and under-educated. About the last group of people I would ever think about in terms of a conversation about student loan debt or forgiveness. They have to be on like a top 10 list of highest paid professions that do not require a college degree. 

    You think police officers are highly paid? And before you counter with "I said top 10 highest paid professions without a college degree," lets just focus on you answering the first question. Becuase personally, despite having a degree, I don't think teachers make shit, and teachers and cops make on par (average salary for a cop in Houston is 66k). 
    So do you think cops are highly paid?

    Personally, my gut says that lots fo careers that depend on technical trades and your own hours for jobs would place higher. I know a let of well to do A/C technicians, lots of machinists that make good money. Guys who do their own things in construction and roofing. Electricians can make serious bank. Plumbers. Any career that involves personal hustle as part of the equation can make way more than a basic salaried position, like a police officer. I also know a lot of Executive Assitants that make mid six figures. Ditto office managers. 

  7. 4 minutes ago, elfenix said:

    I had a seminar course about modern thought. Had 10 or 12 books assigned that semester. We read women's lib, anti colonialism, and, for insight as to how propaganda works, Hitler. There was a stack of his awful tomes in the Co-op. I stopped selling my books back after I didn't have enough to get lunch, and I don't believe in throwing books out, so I still have the fucking thing, buried in a cabinet behind a row of other books at the bottom of the shelf.

    It's been in the back of my mind to college a bunch of older HS and College history books of the United States and bury them somewhere so I can show my kid how people change recorded history all the time in 10 or so years. Unfortuantely half priced books closed most of their Houston location, and I just haven't gotten around to figuring out what books, how to find/buy them etc. Might be something this board would be good at putting together. Just the difference in recent changes for what I was raised learning about the Civil War, Climate Change, Evolution, and now vaccines would be...stark. 

  8. 3 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

    the far right has adopted so many symbols that I think twice about someone when I see those symbols. Some of the symbols are obviously bad like the Confederate flag but others are seemingly harmless until you see the people who adopt it. For that one, I'm thinking about the "We the People" arm tattoos in the Declaration of Independence font. When I see that tattoo, it's very likely it's a GQP follower. For less committed fanatics, the We the People may just be a t-shirt.

    I've had this issue as well. These twats put up this flag on the end of my street awhile back, I've posted about it here. It wasn't an appeal to heaven, but I had to look it up, etc, and sure enough, nutter. I can't even remember what it was now, but yeah, shit is hard to track. If I see anything Jingoistic at this point I assume GQP. 

  9. 6 minutes ago, troph said:

    I would think so, but I can't speak for them. the irony of what the judgment will do to him - make him continue - is all I was pointing out. frankly it's a serious flaw in our system.

    OH no doubt. FTR I actualyl read several quotes of some parents saying that, but I can't speak towards a consenus of the Sandy Hook parents. 

  10. 15 hours ago, Walser said:

    Motherfucker!

    I had been wearing a pine tree flag hat for a couple years before Jan6. Except I meant it as An Appeal to Heaven should that bitchass fake billionaire orange chud really push for authoritarianism. I had no idea it had been co-opted by MAGAts. Those cosplaying twits don't even know what it means. When Jan6 was going down I had some friends text me that I guess you can't wear your hat anymore. I said why should I change, they're the ones that suck. Alas, I lost the hat at some point. /csb

    Some actual background:

    https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2017/04/16/john-lockes-appeal-to-heaven-its-continuing-relevance/

    One of lesser known grievances of colonist land owners is that the British would mark the best trees anywhere to be reserved as masts, as England had already cleared their forests of suitable ones. Hence the "pine tree".

    Really grinds my gears.

    Ki3_QP.gif

     

  11. 6 minutes ago, troph said:

    what's beyond ironic - and I'm not an AJ fan - is that on his public access show way back in the day, Trump is the very political personality that he would be railing against. Anti-fascist, but nah, grifters gotta grift.

    the other thing that is wildly problematic is that the Sandy Hook parents - God bless them - will only get paid if AJ gets to continue spewing vile propaganda to his audience.  AJ should be silenced, not forced to keep spewing hot garbage in order for them to be paid. 

    Pretty sure the Sandy Hook parents mostly all want him silenced and don't give AF about the money. 

    • Hook 'Em 3
    • Like 1
  12.  

    13 hours ago, Howlin wolf said:

    This doesn't make sense. You mean her blood pressure?

    Agreed and if she's on the fence about getting it and it’s getting into the evening hours, she should just get it. Better to have it placed by someone that's awake and her pain is not as bad yet, than to have it placed by someone that was asleep 5 mins ago and she's freaking out in pain. 

    yes, sorry her BP. Those 2 days all sort of run together. 

  13. 5 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

    X-post 

     

    just listened to this pod today with Caroline Spears or Climate Cabinet. It's worth a listen imo.

    She and her organization are trying to "Moneyball" elections for candidates who are good on climate. 

    They throw their money behind everyone from local water boards up to state legislature. 

    Basically their goal is to find elections throughout the country where they can get the most bang for their buck.

    One of her talking points was being bipartisan, kinda.  So they have looked through the way every candidate has voted in the last four years around the country.  They graded their votes as how beneficial or detrimental it was to climate.  They found 1000 Dems who received an A+ grade and 9 Rs.

    If they think the Rs are good on climate they give support them without advertising. 

    She talks about how ridiculous Rs are on climate. Citing examples about them being against the ideas of 15minute cities.  

    Meanwhile Dems who are good on climate also seem to be good on affordable housing, public transport etc. 

    I'm going to donate to them.  If you like the pod and want to as well here's their website.

    https://climatecabinet.org/

    Absolutely.

    image.thumb.png.9f699111767b57595cd138bacd8884ce.png

     

     

    • Hook 'Em 1
  14. 33 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

    Home ownership rate is stable multi-decade (some 66%). Median credit card utilization all time steady (10%). Delinquency rate is all time low. Unpaid rate and balance is like 1%.

    You dont need to be a math guy to find that.

     

    IMG_6489.thumb.jpeg.7331faa5358cc1a84c08ddb3a8e309c0.jpeg

     

    “But its because they lie to surveymonkey”.  Okay, but they selectively lie on different things at different rates at different times?

    Dont drink the doomerjuice. 

    IMG_6490.jpeg

    IMG_6491.jpeg

    Does your homeownership chart take into account coprorate owners or multiple home owners (rich boomers) or people leveraging homes for Air B&B as a career versus dwindling inventory? Becuase if it's just saying that 66% ownerhip of a home existing being stable, well, that's an entirely different dynamic. Those are important distinctions to understand.

    Your fed chart about emergency says "Cash or Equivalent." Which means people can cover it with a credit card. Which in general indicates they don't have the fluid cash to cover an emergency, IMO. I read where the links came from. It didn't seem as rosy as that one chart paints it, but I guess that's my interpretation of 25% of people skipping medical visits/treatment becuase they can't afford it:
    https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2022-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2021-dealing-with-unexpected-expenses.htm

    I want to respond to this specifically:
     

    Quote

    “But its because they lie to surveymonkey”.  Okay, but they selectively lie on different things at different rates at different times?

    Yes. The very nature of your original chart where "everyone is doing fine finacially" while thinking the US economy is completely FUBARD'D at the local and national level pretty much proves they're lying about something, whether they know it or not. 

    And here's another study that turns those numbers on it's head, saying it's 67% that can't cover that $400 expense:
    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/percentage-americans-unable-cover-400-133058811.html

     

    Quote

    According to the Fed’s 2022 Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households survey released last Monday, 37% of Americans lack enough money to cover a $400 emergency expense, up 5% from 32% in 2021 and back to 2019 levels.

    So, nearly one in four consumers would have to use credit, turn to family, sell assets or get a loan in order to cover any major unexpected cost. When asked about non-emergency expenses, 18% of Americans said the largest expense they could cover using only their savings was under $100.

    The report includes data gathered from the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED), which has been conducted since 2013 and includes answers from over 11,000 adult respondents. The SHED collects data on how people feel about their family’s finances to help understand the effects of broader economic trends over time.

    Both the Fed report and a recent survey by SecureSave, the financial technology platform co-created by Suze Orman to help individuals build employee benefit emergency savings, have inflation as the biggest factor affecting Americans’ finances, but the SecureSave study highlights a drastic decline in personal savings when compared to the Fed survey.

    The SecureSave study found a shocking 67% of Americans don’t have enough money saved to cover that same hypothetical unexpected $400 expense. Like the Fed study, a good number of SecureSave survey respondents (54%) found their savings have decreased in 2022.

    “This data is a huge red flag for our country’s economy: the overwhelming majority of American households are dangerously unprepared,” said Orman in a press release.

    According to the Federal Reserve study, for those not able to cover a $400 emergency expense, 16% said they would use credit cards to pay off the expense over time and 9% stated they would borrow the funds from a friend or family member.

    Other answers included selling something (6%), getting a bank loan or line of credit (2%) and taking out a payday loan, deposit advance or overdraft (2%). 13% claimed they would simply not be able to pay off the emergency expense at all.

     

    • Hook 'Em 1
  15. 17 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

    I was at a car museum somewhere in Ohio, and from a distance I saw a really stunning black 30's-era Mercedes limousine.  I said to my wife "man, that looks like something Hitler would have ridden in".

    We walked up and the placard showed the entire history of the car, including the photo of Hitler riding in it during a parade.  It was one of his personal vehicles.  Kinda creeped me out, to be honest.

    I mean, the good new is your nazi radar is on point, I guess. 

    • Haha 2
  16. 19 hours ago, 52-80 said:

    this is categorically false. it can be shown in a million measurements over any time frame that wealth and wages in real terms have increased for factory workers, restaurant workers, non-supervisory workers, low percentile earning workers, ad infinitum. and ive shown it here repeatedly.

    i dont know why people keep persisting this myth about the common worker….but the answer is embedded in this graphic, from todays Federal Reserve publication of a survey of 11,000 people across all economic statuses:

    IMG_6484.thumb.jpeg.ea33b32a87da643cd971b750dfdfb6a0.jpeg

    “Everybody else is suffering except for me”. Im no psychologist but uh…is this Messiah Complex or something?

    This graph tells a story, but I'm not sure it tells the story you think. But first, help me clarify something.

    Assessment of own financial self-being, well, that's just asking people what they think in regards to each of those lines? So it's basically something from fucking Survey Monkey, right?

    I'm not a math guy, but I know a little something about people and how they work. When asked how people are doing, pride and ego very often insist that they say "We're doing fine" becuase people are fucking embarrassed to say they're poor, or struggling, or doing badly. Which is why you see your top line consistently over 70% "Yeah, my finances are doing ok!" meanwhile credit card debt is at record high, fewer people own homes, etc. 

    Meanwhile, you have the next two lines. Which basically say the local and national economy is completely in the fucking shitty, despite all these motherfuckers apparently doing Just Fine with their own finances, all around them. And ignoring the fact that by most economic metrics, as well as the stock market, things have been going GREAT since 2020. So the returns are good, their finances are ok, and yet everything sucks, eh?

    TL;DNR: Posting a Self Assessment of how peopel "feel" isn't really any kind of supporting fact or data, I don't care if it came from the Federal Reserve, it might as well be a "Is he really into me?" quiz from the pages of a fucking Cosmo magazine. The wide disparity between the first line and the last two lines is clear evidence something is amiss in the survey. My guess? Humans are the flaw. 

  17. 1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

    Regarding the small inverter generators -- our heat is propane (tank buried in the front yard), as Austin chose not to run natural gas to our street.  (Thanks, Austin.)

    But, we lost all heat during the two recent freezes because the blower, dampers etc. couldn't run due to no electrical power.  I assume those are fairly small loads, though.  Anyone know if such a small generator could actually get such a system running?

    There are plenty of charts out there telling how many watts it takes to run something. There was a fairly long list in the manual for my inverter. But where do you plug in the control to a generator for a tank in the ground?

  18. 2 hours ago, Grimas said:

    Here's an old post I put up after the freeze about connecting a portable generator to your fuse box to power the house.  I can use propane, gasoline or connect to the natural gas line by the dryer if needed.  (post 394)

     

    Fun fact, my BIL who worked in electrical in the Navy ended up showing me how to, as safely possible, wire his generator through our dryer plug to power our house. We got it set up on Saturday, and left to work at my father in law's property, only to come back to our power having been restored. Dangerous, but if you're careful, it worked great in a pinch. 

    2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

    Question about how you wire it up:  do you go to the breaker box or do you literally plug everything into the generator (perhaps via power strips, load dependent)?

    There is no way I'll ever get to the power cords on our built-in appliances.

    WEll, the little one we had I plugged directly into appliances, and yes it was with cords, splitters, and it is very load dependant becuase it was a small one. 

    But if you get a bigger generator, you can do the dryer plug hack, or you can get a professional electrician to install a switch on your breaker box, and then you just power down from the grid and plug the genny into your breaker box. Then you can control which parts of your house get power by the breaker system. This works great for wheeled generators that you can just move by the breaker box from your garage and be up and have power in 5-10 minutes if you have your generator gas and oiled. 

    • Like 1
  19. Just now, Dahobbs said:

    Got it. I think we live in essentially the same neighborhood from your posts in this thread. That said, a massive tree that takes out your house enough to destroy a solar array means you likely have bigger problems than lack of power and could just as easily take out a generator. 

    Solar panels are considered attached to the house and are generally covered by HO policies. There are sometimes exclusions damage caused by wind or hail depending on where you live. There may also be issues getting damage covered if one didn't notify their insurer previously of the install. But I can't think of any reason that an insurer would refuse to cover a house entirely. I think that is misinformation and may even be against the law. Finally, if the roof is damaged enough to be replaced, I don't see how removing the panels is really any extra labor. Reinstalling, sure. 

    Yeah, we're both in the same area. And oddly,  saw a ton of tree damage ON roofs, but after all the cleanup I haven't seen that much actual hardcore roof damage. Most folks roofs from driving around mostly held or had minor damage. But a tree over the panels, if not completely taking them out, at least is preventing recharging. On the other hand, sure something can take out a natural gas genny, but that's a hell of a smaller target, statistically. Also, solar as other's said can be damage by hail or high winds in general, which also isn't really a problem with a generator that fits under my roof easement and is smaller than an office desk. 

    Just a difference of practicallity and opinion. 

    • Hook 'Em 2
×
×
  • Create New...