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2020 Democratic Nominee


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11 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

All people should have a path that allows for dignity and self-sufficiency. 

A federal jobs guarantee. + Wealth tax.

We need a massive redistribution of wealth. We need the money that wealthy people have to get out of lockup and get circulating in the economy. $100B is 1.5+M jobs at $60k/year. And that's not one year, that money is moving because people making $60k/year spend that money. As long as that money isn't captured and frozen by capitalist monetary systems, that money continues to move.

We don't need to worry about the morons. That's a bullshit categorization that doesn't actually mean anything. It's provincial self-stroking. There are wrench-turners in Western Kentucky with 2x the common sense and wisdom of your average McCombs undergrad. Silicon Valley is full of fucking morons who just fail perpetually and still get rich due to marketing and financial speculation.

You have to get rid of the hatred of the working class if you're going to ever think about this in a way that will help.

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Just now, bad_teammate said:

A federal jobs guarantee. + Wealth tax.

We need a massive redistribution of wealth. We need the money that wealthy people have to get out of lockup and get circulating in the economy. $100B is 1.5+M jobs at $60k/year. And that's not one year, that money is moving because people making $60k/year spend that money. As long as that money isn't captured and frozen by capitalist monetary systems, that money continues to move.

We don't need to worry about the morons. That's a bullshit categorization that doesn't actually mean anything. It's provincial self-stroking. There are wrench-turners in Western Kentucky with 2x the common sense and wisdom of your average McCombs undergrad. Silicon Valley is full of fucking morons who just fail perpetually and still get rich due to marketing and financial speculation.

You have to get rid of the hatred of the working class if you're going to ever think about this in a way that will help.

Dude, I said up front that I used hyperbole to make the point.  However, I'll stand on the point that not everyone can hack a high dollar white collar job (and yes, there are people who make shitty decisions in any job you can imagine, and my oil-patch/farmer grandfather may not have had a 150 IQ, but he was wise and experienced....but he still couldn't have ever been a doctor).  That's just the way it is.   Shit, it's similar to the fact that I could never hack it as an NFL running back or even as a hard-working ditch digger -- my gifts ain't physical.  That isn't hatred of the working class.  Far from it.  A functioning economy and society needs to have work for people of all skills and gifts -- human dignity and the ability to earn a living should be a baseline value for every person.

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2 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Here's a piece in HBR temporizing that it won't until it does except where it already has and by that time there won't be that many drivers and these things take time because the infrastructure and controls won't be in place until they are and maybe some of it will be against the law or maybe not???  

 

 

Thanks for sharing that. Some interesting stuff, but I'm not sure that's nearly a deep enough dive. The three hypotheses that article posits are:

3) There aren't as many truck drivers as people think (basically that it's something like 2 million instead of 3). Okay - so what? That's still a shit ton of jobs.

2) Automation is still kinda far off. Okay - but even if it's 10 years from now, it's something we need to start thinking about (which was how this entire conversation started). That's basically just a two term-president away. We're not _that_ far off, even by the most conservative estimates. You think Sequoia and Goldman Sachs are pumping capital into Uber for a 30 year plan? 

1) Truck drivers do a lot of other stuff besides drive. Sure - but 90% of their job is driving. The primary "human" work they put forth is loading and unloading which can easily be done by someone incredibly low-skilled (read: low pay) at the distribution center. Besides that it's on-road maintenance for things like flats (which don't even require immediate intervention on an 18 wheeler) and unexpected mechanical issues. All of that can be handled by a network of mechanics. I suspect a third party company that has mechanics within 30 minutes of any major highway point will exist before full automated driverless is even green-lit. That's not even really a change to status quo, is it?. Are truck drivers getting out and replacing major engine parts on the side of the road? (legitimately asking - I don't know to what level they can fix mechanical issues on the fly vs. taking it into a shop). 

So the article basically just says:

We're replacing 2 million (not 3!) at some point in the future (but longer than people think!), and we might end up with +20,000 jobs unloading and loading at distribution centers, and another +10,000 for a mobile mechanic network.

What happens to the other 1.97 million jobs? And the millions of support jobs that surround the interstate trucking industry. I mean, who the shit eats gas station hamburgers besides truckers? 

And won't someone think of the lot lizards, and their meth dealers?

Edited by BradInATX
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51 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

You're going to get a happy ending from a robot masseuse, so get used to it.

Also, on the automation issue, and even in a larger sense, the transformation of our economy from being labor-intensive to service-intensive, is the question that looms over our future.  And I put it in harsh terms, to avoid ambiguity: what are we going to do with our morons?

Understand that by definition, 50% of Americans are of below-median intelligence.  Not everyone can grow up to be a computer programmer, doctor, engineer, etc.  We used to have a HUGE job sector for folks on the lower end of the intelligence band: for the longest time, it was agriculture (while it takes some common sense and a solid work ethic, you didn't need to be a genius to farm).  Then, as we became less agrarian, we filled that gap by becoming a manufacturing society.  Again, while it takes some common sense, it doesn't take a genius IQ to work most assembly lines.  And the point is, all of that is good, honest work.  Work that for a long time, could provide for a person/family.  When those jobs go away (or more particularly, when the types of those jobs that pay a living wage or better go away), what are we going to do with the folks who used to fill them?

What are we going to do with the farm workers, the coal miners, and the wrench-turners on the assembly line now?  Sure, there are some jobs that may work in substitute, but not in the numbers needed to occupy that full segment of the work force.  All people should have a path that allows for dignity and self-sufficiency.  If we don't answer that question correctly -- whether it's AI or something else that's making it a pressing question -- our society is fucked.  I'm listening to anyone who has good ideas about it -- right, left, I don't care.  Acknowledge the problem and brainstorm solutions, that's what we need.

i just assumed they would all be moved to amazon concentration camps fulfillment centers...

 

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35 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

However, I'll stand on the point that not everyone can hack a high dollar white collar job

Sure, but it's not like we need a nation of middle managers and executives.

Quote

A functioning economy and society needs to have work for people of all skills and gifts -- human dignity and the ability to earn a living should be a baseline value for every person.

I want you to try to imagine a great future. What does a fair and just economy look like? The VAST majority of work that needs to be done can be done by the VAST majority of people.

- teachers
- child care
- elder care
- healthcare workers
- maintenance and infrastructure
- logistics (driving, warehouse, etc...)
- wind/solar installation/maintenance
- waste recycling/management

There is so much shit that we need to get done that we're not doing.

We should have 15:1 teacher:student ratios.

We should have universal childcare.

Every disabled person should have homecare.

Every community should have well-staffed hospitals and clinics.

Every road should be maintained, every bridge maintained.

Every old building should be retrofitted and brought up to code.

Our entire energy system needs to be replaced.

Our waste-management needs to be radically changed.

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1 hour ago, BradInATX said:

) Truck drivers do a lot of other stuff besides drive. Sure - but 90% of their job is driving. The primary "human" work they put forth is loading and unloading which can easily be done by someone incredibly low-skilled (read: low pay) at the distribution center. Besides that it's on-road maintenance for things like flats (which don't even require immediate intervention on an 18 wheeler) and unexpected mechanical issues. All of that can be handled by a network of mechanics. I suspect a third party company that has mechanics within 30 minutes of any major highway point will exist before full automated driverless is even green-lit. That's not even really a change to status quo, is it?. Are truck drivers getting out and replacing major engine parts on the side of the road? (legitimately asking - I don't know to what level they can fix mechanical issues on the fly vs. taking it into a shop). 

Just a quick point, when electric trucks overtake internal combustion engine trucks, and yes, it is going to happen, the network of mechanics will pretty much be out of a job too.  Electric vehicles have FAR fewer parts and issues.  Many problems are software related that can be fixed over the air.

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I want you to try to imagine a great future. What does a fair and just economy look like? The VAST majority of work that needs to be done can be done by the VAST majority of people.

- teachers

- child care

- elder care

- healthcare workers

- maintenance and infrastructure

- logistics (driving, warehouse, etc...)

- wind/solar installation/maintenance

- waste recycling/management

There is so much shit that we need to get done that we're not doing.

We should have 15:1 teacher:student ratios.

We should have universal childcare.

Every disabled person should have homecare.

Every community should have well-staffed hospitals and clinics.

Every road should be maintained, every bridge maintained.

Every old building should be retrofitted and brought up to code.

Our entire energy system needs to be replaced.

Our waste-management needs to be radically changed.

Here’s what I really can’t understand...why are you trying so damned hard to argue with me when I’m AGREEING WITH YOU?

 

I agree, not everyone can or should be white collar. And not only is there nothing wrong with that, there’s a lot right with it. Every job type you listed is valuable, and we should value them more. Shit, I regularly drop into conversation that the people who do the most to save and preserve life in this country are...water and sewer utility workers. Clean water and effective sewage removal and treatment are the greatest public health improvements of the last millennium. That’s one of the most important jobs we have.

 

So...on this issue, we’re pretty much on the same page. Not sure why you’re pushing back so hard. Habit, I guess.

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Why are y’all arguing about robots in the Dem 2020 thread?

I know Mayor Pete is a candidate and all but........

Also, if Warren thinks hooking her wagon to Julian “Polling 2% in his home state of Texas” Castro is a good strategy to make Texas more competitive, she’s pretty bad at math.

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5 hours ago, Bama Chick said:

Why are y’all arguing about robots in the Dem 2020 thread?

I know Mayor Pete is a candidate and all but........

Also, if Warren thinks hooking her wagon to Julian “Polling 2% in his home state of Texas” Castro is a good strategy to make Texas more competitive, she’s pretty bad at math.

National Dems still think the Castro brothers are still the future of their party for some reason. 

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25 minutes ago, Calihorn said:

National Dems still think the Castro brothers are still the future of their party for some reason. 

Because the future of your party is Hispanic and young.  The median age of Warren, Sanders, Biden, and Bloomberg-top 4 on name rec.---is 75 years old.  And they're also the 4 whitest people who've never been in my kitchen.  I like Julian a lot and I'm not a member of the Democratic party, but I donated to his campaign.  Now, I'll hit submit and wait for the flurry of posts about how my pointing out age and whiteness of those candidates is wrong, but if you'd just look at the quote above, you'll see I was merely responding to a claim about the Castro brothers than I think is erroneous.  I think they have a very bright future in national politics and I look forward to being a small part of it.  

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1 minute ago, Lobo said:

Because the future of your party is Hispanic and young.  The median age of Warren, Sanders, Biden, and Bloomberg-top 4 on name rec.---is 75 years old.  And they're also the 4 whitest people who've never been in my kitchen.  I like Julian a lot and I'm not a member of the Democratic party, but I donated to his campaign.  Now, I'll hit submit and wait for the flurry of posts about how my pointing out age and whiteness of those candidates is wrong, but if you'd just look at the quote above, you'll see I was merely responding to a claim about the Castro brothers than I think is erroneous.  I think they have a very bright future in national politics and I look forward to being a small part of it.  

Millennials and Hispanics are part of the future coalition of our party. The Castro brothers are not. Bit of a difference

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Then if voters don't project identity onto candidates and vote strictly based on a precise evaluation of policy stances...half your field doesn't belong up there as they share neither identity nor policy nor values.  

Anyway, Julian will be a Senator or VP candidate by the end of this decade.  That'll become infinitely more clear once Beto fever has finally broken.  

Edited by Lobo
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What statewide race was Julian supposed to run for?  Sitting Cabinet Members do not run for office back in their home states.  It's almost never happened in 240 years.  He would have made a formidable candidate for Abbott in 2018 though and you're right---they do both have a tendency to cautiously wait for all the stars to align before they jump into something.  But it's not like Julian has sat out multiple cycles in Texas.  He jumped in for Mayoral election though even though the odds were stacked against him in 2005.  He eventually wins in 2009 and then goes from there to HUD.  And then he jumps back in the fray in 2020.  He also hung back in 2018 because like many in Texas, he was just waiting for Beto to stop talking.

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1 hour ago, Calihorn said:

Millennials and Hispanics are part of the future coalition of our party. The Castro brothers are not. Bit of a difference

This, it shouldn't be shocking who us young people support and it goes well beyond the candidate's age and race. It's insane some of y'all still don't get it.

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41 minutes ago, GSU&UT said:

This, it shouldn't be shocking who us young people support and it goes well beyond the candidate's age and race. It's insane some of y'all still don't get it.

"What do you mean you don't support the coward that stands for nothing. He looks just like you!!!!"

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13 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

Are you really arguing that Elon Musk is stupid because the boring company didn’t work?

 

11 hours ago, bad_teammate said:

If he actually believed it would work and wasn't just selling bullshit fantasy to maintain the con, yes.

The highway tunnel makes no god damned sense. It's absurd.

Who said it didn't work?  The highway tunnel is the headline grabber.  The company now has a real and more mundane contract for a Vegas people mover tunnel, and is getting interest from many municipalities for utility and sewer tunnel work.  There is also interest in hyperloop tunnels which is the real boondoggle in my opinion.  The main thing the company is trying to do is to dig more quickly and cheaply. Part of that is getting states/cities on board with smaller diameter tunnels for vehicles, trains, and people. The other part is automating the diggers. 

I think the highway thing was always a vanity project that Musk used venture capital to build in a location that was useful to him and nobody else. Doesn't the test track go from the Space X offices to LAX?  That should tell you what it was about. 

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9 hours ago, GSU&UT said:

This, it shouldn't be shocking who us young people support and it goes well beyond the candidate's age and race. It's insane some of y'all still don't get it.

Okay, so what exactly do you not like about Julian Castro?  What has an honorable public servant like him done to you to deserve your disapproval?  

I get that he didn't have as much of a chance as many other candidates, but I still don't get (and I agree with Hugo) why so many of you dismissed him out of hand while shoving each other to see who could worship at the altar of Beto the hardest.  

And message received-age and race have never been issues with candidates in the Democratic Party.  Never came up with Clinton nor Obama.  Got it.  

Anyway, Bloomberg is gonna be in Austin on Saturday.  I have a +1 invite if any of you want to come to the meet n' greet with me.  

Edited by Lobo
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It is a big tent. We need everyone to win on-board to win in November. Castro will make a fine civil servant in any nominee's cabinet. Just glad he went for the instrumentalist progressive rather than one of the conservative Democrats. The boomers had their day in the sun (and their candidates). Time to think of a bright future so we can take care of the Silver Tsunami of boomers aging rapidly. They are cutting off their noses to spite their faces by sticking with neoliberalist policies that would prefer the old just go away and die.  They will not fare well with one of the conservative Democrat candidates. 

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2 hours ago, Lobo said:

Okay, so what exactly do you not like about Julian Castro?  What has an honorable public servant like him done to you to deserve your disapproval?  

I get that he didn't have as much of a chance as many other candidates, but I still don't get (and I agree with Hugo) why so many of you dismissed him out of hand while shoving each other to see who could worship at the altar of Beto the hardest.  

And message received-age and race have never been issues with candidates in the Democratic Party.  Never came up with Clinton nor Obama.  Got it.  

Anyway, Bloomberg is gonna be in Austin on Saturday.  I have a +1 invite if any of you want to come to the meet n' greet with me.  

I don't have anything personal against Castro. When you've grown up being told you have to go to college to earn a decent wage, then subsequently graduate with five figures of debt during a financial crisis, and see boomers constantly deny that humans contribute to climate change and absolutely refuse to do anything about it, you may decide that you're tired of candidates who propose nothing but half-assed policies. There was a Quinnipac poll a couple of months ago that showed Bernie getting 53% of the vote from people under 30, that is not only the most but a majority. Castro could barely talk about a medicare public option and gleefully put on his campaign site that this is "medicare-for-all" which is patently false to anyone who really wants it.

Quit viewing politics through a superficial lens if you want to understand why so many of us may want radical change, those of us who feel like our institutions, health care systems, judicial systems are failing us at every step of the way.

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21 minutes ago, GSU&UT said:

I don't have anything personal against Castro. When you've grown up being told you have to go to college to earn a decent wage, then subsequently graduate with five figures of debt during a financial crisis, and see boomers constantly deny that humans contribute to climate change and absolutely refuse to do anything about it, you may decide that you're tired of candidates who propose nothing but half-assed policies. There was a Quinnipac poll a couple of months ago that showed Bernie getting 53% of the vote from people under 30, that is not only the most but a majority. Castro could barely talk about a medicare public option and gleefully put on his campaign site that this is "medicare-for-all" which is patently false to anyone who really wants it.

Quit viewing politics through a superficial lens if you want to understand why so many of us may want radical change, those of us who feel like our institutions, health care systems, judicial systems are failing us at every step of the way.

I'm not viewing it through a superficial lens.  I'm asking as a Hispanic why so many Democrats shit on Castro out of the gate.  Of all the candidates who've dropped out thus far, he was the one that got shit on the most on this board---and this is mostly a board of people in Texas.  So I am wondering why.  Your post speaks a little to that, but not enough IMO.  Sure his policy explanations fell short, but you guys gave way more slack to shitheads like O'Rourke, Gillibrand, Ryan, et. al. than you did Castro.  I'm curious as to why that is?  Some bullshit Cardinal sin that he didn't prep a statewide candidacy in 2016 while serving in the Cabinet?  It's not done you racist fucksticks.  

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10 minutes ago, Lobo said:

I'm not viewing it through a superficial lens.  I'm asking as a Hispanic why so many Democrats shit on Castro out of the gate.  Of all the candidates who've dropped out thus far, he was the one that got shit on the most on this board---and this is mostly a board of people in Texas.  So I am wondering why.  Your post speaks a little to that, but not enough IMO.  Sure his policy explanations fell short, but you guys gave way more slack to shitheads like O'Rourke, Gillibrand, Ryan, et. al. than you did Castro.  I'm curious as to why that is?  Some bullshit Cardinal sin that he didn't prep a statewide candidacy in 2016 while serving in the Cabinet?  It's not done you racist fucksticks.  

You're responding to me in place of other people, I never posted anything really about Castro. I've shit on Biden, Pete, Klobuchar, and to a lesser extent Warren and that's about it. I can't tell you why other posters dislike him, I just never supported him because he was in no way aligned with real progressive values beyond maybe some stuff on immigration.

I'm simply giving the, correct, explanation that millennials aren't weighing someone's age and race above all other factors when they look at presidential candidates.

Edited by GSU&UT
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I didn't say they were weighing it above all factors.  Just that it was a factor.  You're right, you weren't shitting on Castro like most.  Sorry, he was my guy.  I get testy.  He's my gente.

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Did anyone pay close attention to the campaign Castro ran?  It wasn’t your typical mediocre stuff.  He focused on the disabled, the poor, and the imprisoned.  He’s arguably more liberal than Bernie on immigration.  I know the Berners are guillotines or bust but Castro wasn’t a moderate in this race.  

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13 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

The Castro hate is weird AF.  

Castro is from the area and most of us are very familiar with him. Castro the person is a soggy turd so it makes sense that he is not popular here.

Dude could be a douche if he had more personality but he is uninspiring and pretty much sucks.

 

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1 hour ago, Lobo said:

I didn't say they were weighing it above all factors.  Just that it was a factor.  You're right, you weren't shitting on Castro like most.  Sorry, he was my guy.  I get testy.  He's my gente.

Your guy is a pinche mamón.

Edited by F250
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37 minutes ago, Lobo said:

a south pacific baked confection?  
 

Man, you have really specific tastes.

I knew a guy whose wife was from the Philippines, one day he shows up to work with a box of pastries and offers them to a few of us "would you like some mamón?" Major "what the fuck did you just say" moment.

Yeah, it doesn't mean the same thing in the Philippines as it does in San Antonio.

 

 

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25 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Castro might be a douche but the chicks love him.  Not Beto level love tho.  He checks the boxes for a solid VP pick.

No they don't and no he doesn't.

He is a latino Buttigieg without the charisma.

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11 minutes ago, F250 said:

No they don't and no he doesn't.

He is a latino Buttigieg without the charisma.


I know you think Castro is a prick but Latino Buttigieg?   Very unfair.  I mean, he’s an ambitious politician for sure but not the military programmed kind. 
 

I haven’t really formed much of an opinion of him but I don’t have a good reason to hate the guy yet. 

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5 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:


I know you think Castro is a prick but Latino Buttigieg?   Very unfair.  I mean, he’s an ambitious politician for sure but not the military programmed kind. 
 

I haven’t really formed much of an opinion of him but I don’t have a good reason to hate the guy yet. 

He is Buttigieg, very similar paths but Pete unlike Castro seems to have bigger balls and actual ambition. Castro is a ladder climber without any real leadership skills. Everything he does is calculated but his ambition is set to "don't rock the boat" mode.

His very limited political career was a dizzying journey of not taking a stand on anything controversial until it was safe to do so, then he would waffle as soon as he would get pushback. No political compass whatsoever.

Plus he is a coconut and that kind of thing I will not abide.

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