War Room Lounge v51: A Total Non-Starter

[Lubaolong]

Not your best, prof

Is he calling himself a professor now?

 

[Prokofievian]

Short term unemployment for some people can happen from time to time (print lab workers, switchboard operators, etc), but it's never widescale enough that those people will find entirely saturated job markets and be out of work indefinitely.

I'm all for education and tech training being incentivized at the federal level but for young students, not displaced workers. Usually the people who are truly displaced find themselves in that condition because they're old or too stubborn, not because they're untrained. It's easy to picture Cleetus, the 55 year old disgruntled coal plant worker who got his job killled by liberals and their clean energy (we can hope!), but enough of those actually exist that they should garner that much attention?

I think we're at a different stage of automation that is going to be much more problematic than any other one before it. I don't think AI is fundamentally the same thing as a steam engine, or an induction motor. A lot of very complex work can actually be done better by machines now than any human with any training. It's not just about completing a specifically designed task at a rate that humans can't hope to keep up with. It's that the extent of the jobs machines will soon be able to do extend to the limits of human capacity, I argue up to the limits of saying what is true and what is not true. That last bit is my personal concern about AI: that science becomes automated, and science gets substituted for truth.

 

[Limbo Pete]

Is he calling himself a professor now?

 

[Islam Imamate]

I do believe it could be restricted to the poor or to (responsible) parents.

Who would be considered responsible parents? Those who have kids after getting married? Those who have a certain number of kids?

 

[Limbo Pete]

Where's the dunce cap?

@waiguoren has been hogging it for a whiiiile now

 

[Fawlty]

@waiguoren has been hogging it for a whiiiile now

Great, now I have to clean off the plum juice stains before I put it on.

 

[Jack V Savage]

Who would be considered responsible parents? Those who have kids after getting married? Those who have a certain number of kids?

If they're poor, they're irresponsible by definition and their kids should be punished for that. That's the way to get a good society.

 

[Limbo Pete]

Great, now I have to clean off the plum juice stains before I put it on.

Someone should make a dunce cap av that we can pass around when bets are lost, etc

 

[Lubaolong]

I glanced over debate night 2. If you're not Kamala or Buttigieg, don't think you can feel too good about how it went.

Impression from some of the other candidates:

Bernie: No real progress made. If you don't jive with Bernie already, he didn't do anything to win anyone new over. Before, he seemed more unique compared to now where he comes across as a less appealing guy in a group of similar, but less fanatic guys.

Swalwell: This guy seems hard to like. He tried hard to land some soundbites but mostly failed. I also think it's probably impossible for him to win a general election with a stern plan for an immediate and mandatory buyback on assault rifles.

Yang: He has one solution to everything: $1k a month to all Americans. It fixes everything, including climate change (?)

Gillibrand: too much interrupting and over-speaking. One of her people must have said something, because there was a dramatic change in her behavior at one point. She went hard for the feminist vote, which would make sense if she was the only female candidate, but she's not, and not even a decent one.

Hickenlooper: This dude was proud of what he did in Colorado, super proud. Unfortunately, that's really all he had to say.

Marianne Williamson: What in the world is going on with this lady? Her presentation is unsettling, to say the least. If it's alright with most other people, and I'm guessing it is, I'd rather not see her in the next set of debates.

Michael Bennet: This guy didn't really do anything wrong other than just being himself. He almost couldn't have been more invisible if he tried.

Biden: Kamala cut him, and now the blood is in the water. Everyone is going to be after him on past mistakes (except Bernie, which was weird), and he's going to keep bleeding points from that nice big lead. He didn't really do much to make any new ground. This was a small net loss.

 

[Lubaolong]

Are there really people in favor of the "free" four-year university for all Sanders/Warren plan? Seems like a horrible idea. Who's supporting this?

 

[Prokofievian]

Bernie: No real progress made. If you don't jive with Bernie already, he didn't do anything to win anyone new over. Before, he seemed more unique compared to now where he comes across as a less appealing guy in a group of similar, but less fanatic guys.

I think this is likely to be his role in the primaries. I'm not even sure he sees himself as the presumptive nominee: I think he's just trying to make it impossible to do a Hillary and say ''no we can't.''

 

[Fawlty]

Are there really people in favor of the "free" four-year university for all Sanders/Warren plan? Seems like a horrible idea. Who's supporting this?

Not interested in that. People need to be invested in their own higher education, for reasons they probably don't understand until they get older. I'm okay with giving people help, and even lots of help. Maybe go free for the poorest with the most promise.

 

[Prokofievian]

Are there really people in favor of the "free" four-year university for all Sanders/Warren plan? Seems like a horrible idea. Who's supporting this?

Having experienced it in two different countries, I do. Here's what Yang gets wrong about ''free'' college: the funding isn't tied to the student. That would be a horrible idea. The funding is tied to the institution. Thus, these institutions are quite picky. Uni that I went to in Finland accepts about 5% of applicants. The one in Holland I'm at accepts about the same. Free college doesn't mean everyone gets a college education. It just means student debt doesn't exist in your society.

 

[Fawlty]

I glanced over debate night 2. If you're not Kamala or Buttigieg, don't think you can feel too good about how it went.

Impression from some of the other candidates:

Bernie: No real progress made. If you don't jive with Bernie already, he didn't do anything to win anyone new over. Before, he seemed more unique compared to now where he comes across as a less appealing guy in a group of similar, but less fanatic guys.

Swalwell: This guy seems hard to like. He tried hard to land some soundbites but mostly failed. I also think it's probably impossible for him to win a general election with a stern plan for an immediate and mandatory buyback on assault rifles.

Yang: He has one solution to everything: $1k a month to all Americans. It fixes everything, including climate change (?)

Gillibrand: too much interrupting and over-speaking. One of her people must have said something, because there was a dramatic change in her behavior at one point. She went hard for the feminist vote, which would make sense if she was the only female candidate, but she's not, and not even a decent one.

Hickenlooper: This dude was proud of what he did in Colorado, super proud. Unfortunately, that's really all he had to say.

Marianne Williamson: What in the world is going on with this lady? Her presentation is unsettling, to say the least. If it's alright with most other people, and I'm guessing it is, I'd rather not see her in the next set of debates.

Michael Bennet: This guy didn't really do anything wrong other than just being himself. He almost couldn't have been more invisible if he tried.

Biden: Kamala cut him, and now the blood is in the water. Everyone is going to be after him on past mistakes (except Bernie, which was weird), and he's going to keep bleeding points from that nice big lead. He didn't really do much to make any new ground. This was a small net loss.

I think that's all about right, though Gillibrand seems to have done pretty well for some reason.

 

[Ruprecht]

When I started uni it was free for nationals, and there were quite a few "permanent students" living on the student allowance and just studying for life. I took my time and took a bunch of courses out of sheer interest for similar reasons. That's despite the heavy restrictions on places offered and transfers allowed.
Then in my second year they introduced student debt and charged nationals a fixed rate of @$2000 a year. The also deregulated fees for international students. Straight away that cut out most of the Austudy bludging, and got universities hooked on international student fees. Even though national student debt is subsidised by foreign students, those charges have followed a rapid upwards trend for similar reasons to the increases in the US. Esspecially once they allowed unis to offer a certain number of places to nationals that have the means to pay unsubsidised fees even if their scores weren't high enough.
Just another example of how the privatisation and neoliberalism of the '90s destroyed Australian egalitarianism and meritocracy in favour of wealth polarisation and preferential options for the wealthy.

 

[BarryDillon]

If they're poor, they're irresponsible by definition and their kids should be punished for that. That's the way to get a good society.

 

[BarryDillon]

Are there really people in favor of the "free" four-year university for all Sanders/Warren plan? Seems like a horrible idea. Who's supporting this?

Me, and everyone else with an IQ over 145.

 

[Islam Imamate]

If they're poor, they're irresponsible by definition and their kids should be punished for that. That's the way to get a good society.

Normally that is what I assume is meant but I give him more credit than that so I wanted to see his answer.

 

[Lead]

Are there really people in favor of the "free" four-year university for all Sanders/Warren plan? Seems like a horrible idea. Who's supporting this?

I think healthcare and college are the issues that are pointing out the more serious candidates. Buttigeig pointed out something that people should’ve already thought out in their head. Should a Harvard grad who goes on to make a six figure salary have his college all paid through with government funding or should we just give aid to lower income households and make community college affordable (we do this to a degree)
A safety net is what should be focused on and abolishing private insurance, eliminating college debt, and making all college free goes way beyond that.

 

[Ruprecht]

Not a motorcycle fan or so, but I wonder if this thing has the potential to hurt Harley Davidson.

Well it's a lot better looking than their previous shot.
The R1200C reminded me of the vintage kitchen appliances which are popular these days.
Not even Pierce Brosnan's 007 could sell it.

That new bike actually does look like the R12s from the interwar era.

The cruiser market isn't doing all that hot though, not only because of the competition from Indian and the metrics, but the market is firmly tied to the baby boomers and they are reaching the age where they stop riding (and/or die). Hence why Harley massively changed their corporate strategy last year, is aiming for younger riders and is coming out with an electric bike, a streetfighter and an adventure bike.