Home » Open thread 10/6/23

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Open thread 10/6/23 — 33 Comments

  1. Ironic isn’t it. Good Jobs report mean bad news. This keeps up we will in real trouble.

  2. Very pretty. Don’t eat. 🙂

    Reminded me I have to secure the rum necessary to turn those elderberries I collected into brandy.

    Takes a year, but worth the wait.

  3. Read the ZeroHedge article. So all those teachers going back to the classroom mean better job numbers? Wait until the Oct numbers are in and the teachers won’t be part of the report. Not sure how many businesses will be hiring seasonal workers this yr. Amazon might.
    About the new Minium wage for those fast food workers. Robots, i.e. Ordering Screens, have little costs after install and they can be written off as a business expense. There go a lot of jobs.

  4. Whoops, Art Deco beat me to it. Well, I guess feeble minds think alike.

    It looks like the Democrats plan to give the January 6th treatment to 70 million people.

    Today, Matt Taibbi wrote:

    “Hillary Clinton last night on CNN said of Trump supporters, ‘You know, maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members.’ … [T]his would be funny, if Hillary Clinton’s mouth were not such an accurate weather vane for establishment thinking.”

    link: https://www.racket.news/p/have-they-gone-mad

  5. As usual, Hillary Clinton has clearly voiced the great fantasies and contemptious, grasping Orwellian authoritarianism of modern progressive elites with the general likability and winning personality of a tailless whipscorpion.

  6. Barry Meislin:

    I’ve read about that New Zealand health workers thing. As with so many articles by people who oppose vaccines, it fails to give the information a person would need to evaluate whether what it says is true or not. The missing information is this: “hundreds” (or at least over 100) were granted such exemptions, in a pool of 11,000 workers. That’s a very small number, and who were these people and in particular why were they exempted? It doesn’t say. The article implies that they just didn’t want to be vaccinated, but doesn’t offer any support for that and it’s only an implication. But we know that there are quite a few health reasons a person would opt out of vaccination that have nothing to do with the vaccination itself. For example, I have a friend with a condition that means that for her, vaccination of any sort is risky, and although she actually would prefer to get a vaccination he is unable to do so and carries around a certificate stating that. There are other conditions that make it difficult to get the shot, and it is highly possibly that the health workers in New Zealand who didn’t get the COVID shot have some of those conditions. At the very least, the article needs to address the issue and doesn’t, as far as I can see – which makes the article worthless except to advance a certain agenda.

  7. Right now we are at the same number of new home sales as in 2007.

    That’s a giant problem.

  8. Boned Loser:

    Time will tell how Jim Jordan acts regarding isolationism and foreign affairs. Will he be prey of a Scorpion attack by the Vlad wing of the Pyro party?

    The perfect is the enemy of the good.

  9. }}} Right now we are at the same number of new home sales as in 2007.

    That’s a giant problem.

    Not necessarily, as there are distortions in the market with regards to existing home sales.

    Not saying it’s NOT a problem, only that a simple look at those numbers does not consider all that matters.

    In general, the problem is, as always, the government fucking with shit and screwing it up.

    We really really need to get back to 19thC federalism. It’s the only actual answer, and it isn’t going to be easy to get There From Here.

    We need to utterly and completely repudiate PostModern Liberalism in all its forms and disguises, first — the majority of people NEED to understand that it is a socially — and societally — destructive force. And then we need to repudiate the notion that government solutions are generally positive.

    Government needs to be carrot and stick, not cart and horse, to take society where we wish it to go.

  10. AAAAAND, because no one else has said it…

    “Yer Mother Stinks of Elderberries”.

    😀

  11. Hello. I had a thought about math the other day. If it’s the case that certain number systems, such as the Roman one, didn’t have a really solid concept of the number zero, one could ask how those cultures managed to build astounding things nevertheless. Clearly either zero in a given number system is not absolutely necessary, or there is in fact a concept of zero as a number within that system, only that it might not have its own symbol or be explicitly articulated.

    It got me wondering, though. What discoveries or technologies would become absolutely unachievable, even undiscoverable, without a numeral zero? I suppose anything involving logarithms; perhaps trigonometry.

  12. Jim Jordan is a solid NO on more taxpayer cash for Ukraine.

    About 65% of both Democrats and Republicans support Ukraine. It is
    sad that I may need to find someone to vote for who isn’t Republican, but as people keep reminding me, you have to vote your preferences without compromise.

    Meanwhile, my trash is filling up with messages from Gaetz asking for money.

  13. What discoveries or technologies would become absolutely unachievable, even undiscoverable, without a numeral zero?

    Philip Sells:

    You can go a long way with positive numbers, as the Romans demonstrate. However…

    Digital computers are based on binary numbers: 0 and 1, which are often considered as logical values: false and true.

    Any technology requiring calculus or even high school algebra. Which rules out anything involving electricity beyond batteries. Lots more too, I’m sure.

    Really, one doesn’t get far with serious technology without zero. Although having zero doesn’t guarantee such progress.

    It’s a fascinating discussion how the West technologically blew past the rest of the world with the Renaissance.

  14. huxley, yes. I remember now a bit of what I had in mind when I was pondering the necessity of zero: large numbers become difficult or impossible to express, for instance, because at some point one needs a base-N system with placeholders. And you’re right about calculus. How does one approach limit problems, differentials and so on, without a zero?

  15. “Jim Jordan is a solid NO on more taxpayer cash for Ukraine.” – Chuck

    This may turn out to be an opportunity for conservatives/Republicans to force a shift in our southern border policy.

    Here’s an opinion piece by a WP writer where the Democrats can force a vote on Ukraine funding. He also explains how Gaetz and Co. (possibly unwittingly) outmaneuvered everyone in Congress:

    “…Part of the problem is that supporters of Ukraine aid were overconfident. Despite some Republican lawmakers’ public warnings that support inside the GOP caucus was crumbling, the Biden administration fully expected Congress would include billions in Ukraine aid as part of the most recent bill to keep the government running.

    Worse, everyone underestimated the MAGA members’ capacity for maneuver. Many assumed that the Republican leadership had far-right members such as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) under control. In fact, the House GOP leadership was quietly working with the hard-liners to separate the aid from other spending legislation. When McCarthy removed $6.1 billion in aid Ukraine aid from the temporary government funding bill last Saturday, it was meant to appease the hard-liners. Three days later, he was removed as speaker by the same MAGA members he had been trying to placate.

    Gaetz and his crew are pledging to oppose any new funding for Ukraine. If the next speaker won’t bring a Ukraine funding bill to the floor, House Democrats could force a vote on it through what’s called a discharge petition, and pass it with a minority of GOP votes. It’s a messy process, which is why it would only be possible once. That means such a bill would need to have enough funding to get Ukraine through the next year. That number is between $60 billion and $100 billion, depending on who you talk to. The GOP is sure to demand concurrent border-related funds in return.

    We’ll see how serious the support for Ukraine is in the House.

    Opinion: MAGA Republicans outplayed Kevin McCarthy and Democrats on Ukraine aid

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/10/06/ukraine-aid-congress-maga-gaetz/?=undefined

  16. “How does one approach limit problems, differentials and so on, without a zero?”
    I suspect, like bankruptcy: slowly and then quickly 🙂

  17. Brain E:

    So you found an opinion from the Washington Post that makes Rep. Blue Balls out to be a super genius, and of course the old screw Ukraine, go Russia! Time will tell.

    I am reminded what Democrats in Congress did to South Vietnam in 1973, cutting off aid and enabling the Communists to finally win. That was a boon to the Soviets and CCP, but those were Democrats. This time around the isolationist and Pyros in the Republicans are working to screw the Ukrainians and reward Russian aggression in Europe. What could conceivably go wrong with that? Don’t ask those Republicans they have “Reasons.”

    When Russia/Vlad started his war those Republicans had many Reasons; 13 minutes, NATO aggression, NATO expansion, Nazis, WEF, Dravos, Ukraine has always been part of Russia (?), Vlad is going to nuke us all (and somehow letting that threat work would make the west safer), to I don’t care it costs too much. Then again moral cowardice and “by the short hairs” is another view of some of the Republicans.

    But then Vlad only got one thing right in his plans for the Special Military Operation; attacking when Brandon was in “charge” tied Ukraine to him, and Brandon f*cks up everything he touches. So for many the loathing of Brandon has provided an excuse to give Vlad what he needs; opposition to the Ukrainian resistance. Conservative opposition to Russian aggression used to be steadfast, not with some nowadays. Reasons. By the short hairs.

    Isolationism has a long troubled history in American politics in the last 110 years.
    Time will tell how this phase sorts out.

  18. “This time around the isolationist and Pyros in the Republicans are working to screw the Ukrainians and reward Russian aggression in Europe.” -om

    First, the Ukraine war (from the administration perspective) maintains a window dressing of “defending democracy”, but Biden himself early on telegraphed– no, he just said it out loud– this was about regime change. Everything we’ve done so far has been one miscalculation after another by the really smart people in Washington DC. The sanctions haven’t worked. We underestimated the resilience of the Russian economy.

    We have slow-walked critical military hardware to Ukraine– giving them a false hope they could beat the Russians when all we’ve really wanted to do is bleed Russia. The fact Ukraine is bleeding is just collateral damage.

    I feel for the average Ukrainian citizen. Providing more military hardware will just prolong their suffering.

    If this is indeed a severe threat to the nations of Europe– they will respond with continued support. The fact that they aren’t– and mouth support but give little else of value makes the whole situation suspect. Many of the European countries are in better financial shape with better resources to provide financial aid (lower debt ratios than ours).

    Let’s be honest. Most of the politicians in DC don’t care about Ukraine. Lyndsey Graham said it pointedly– “Russians are dying” and later said, “it’s the best money we ever spent.”

  19. Brain E:

    “I feel for the average Ukrainian citizen. Providing more military hardware will just prolong their suffering.”

    The phony concern for Ukrainian suffering. They should just accept de-Nazification, Holodomor Part Duex, eh Brain E?

    Brain E feels for the “average Ukrainian citizen” but not enough to care. Not enough to oppose Russian aggression. Isolationists never learn from history. He cares more about poor bleeding Russia? Aggression is costly to Russians.

    Oh well. Time will tell.

  20. Attempting to browbeat Americans into supporting the war isn’t likely to produce the results you want.

    And your characterization of my concern as “phony” is based on what?

    How many Ukrainians will need to die before you realize the US won’t/can’t give the capabilities necessary to defeat Russia without precipitating an escalation that would be devastating to the world?

  21. Brain E:

    Your clutching at straws to “explain” or “understand” Russian aggression, seeming ignorance of Russian propaganda to eliminate Ukrainians who refuse to become “Russian,” and of course the Soviet history of genocide in Ukraine. But Ukraine shouldn’t fight against Russian imperial expansion because Reasons? Phony, when alternatives to Ukrainians are pretty grim.

    Russians stealing Ukrainian children, war crimes in Bucha, missile attacks on civilians; all the things Ukraine must accept for your concern to be mollified.

    Here you go, it’s old news. Maybe you can find a Washington Post editorial about it.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucha_massacre

    Phony concern.

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