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greatn posted:I don't think so. It's no different than giving an interviewee a glass of water and getting prints from it. Except for that whole thing where you can refuse a glass of water lawfully, whereas you may not be able to lawfully refuse sitting down in a chair and talking to police. baw posted:I think the biggest problem with economics is that it's both a soft science and something that is an important part of the national political dialogue, so you're stuck with idiotic ideas surviving long past their due date because influential people benefit from them, and voters themselves being swayed by easily-falsified talking points because economics is extremely complex and a lot of proven ideas don't pass the common sense test at first glance. Which means it's pretty much garbage. Anything that works perfectly in theory but has zero predictive power and very little reflective power should be discarded. I say this as an Econ major.
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Mar 2, 2015 19:05
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UV_Catastrophe posted:Despite dripping with "both parties are equally bad" and coming across as a chicken little, this article was a better read than I thought. In the last couple of years, I feel we've really just been lucky that we haven't been hit in the face with a truly destabilizing political event that we couldn't side-step around. For instance, I have to wonder how a theoretical repeat of the 2000 election would go down if the republican candidate won the popular vote and lost the electoral college to Hillary in 2016. I cannot imagine the level of incoherent rage that we would see. The completely insane amount of false equivalence made the article pretty lovely, IMO. Everyone here is pretty much in agreement that there is no left in America, yet the left is somehow just as responsible for governmental intransigence as the right. How, exactly, is that supposed to work? Sounds a bit like Eco's ur-fascism theory - the left is all powerful in its ability to match the right, except when they're not.
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Mar 3, 2015 17:12
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VitalSigns posted:Jesus loving Christ, why are we such obsequious little toads when it comes to Israel. Because if you don't fellate, you're anti-Semitic. Peruse the I/P thread if you've got any questions about whether that's true.
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Mar 3, 2015 19:12
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Kalman posted:... You know, sometimes the accusations of anti-semitism are crap, but there are always people like you to help us remember that some people really are anti-Semitic. Sheldon Adelson is a rich, racist Jew and a GOP kingmaker. That is not an anti-Semitic statement, however much you desperately want it to be.
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Mar 3, 2015 19:20
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My Imaginary GF posted:Whys it matter that he's a Jew? He's an American exercising his first amendment rights. Because we're talking about Israel, a self-proclaimed Jewish nation, and people in America that have exceptionally strong and influential ties to Israel. Make sense?
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Mar 3, 2015 19:26
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SpiderHyphenMan posted:What about the fact that a Christian Fundamentalist Zionist was our last President? Can I point that out? No, how dare you. That's anti-Christian. My Imaginary GF posted:You aren't criticising him for expressing an opinion you disagree with, you're criticising him for being Jewish and expressing an opinion you disagree with. OK, please take issue with what I've said on this page, and please try to paint it as anti-Semitic. I'm interested to see what you'll have to say.
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Mar 3, 2015 19:27
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My Imaginary GF posted:Don't have to paint it as anti-semetic, it is anti-semetic. You use old, rich, and racist as descriptors for jews and go on to say they're kingmakers. If you don't see how this fits into anti-semitic rhetoric of jewish bankers influencing policy to get their way and controlling the media, there is nothing to discuss with you. You don't belong in any position of authority in America, and fortunately, your ilk are not represented in serious policy circles. You know that you quoted two entirely different posters there, right? Just making sure you're not going senile, Rahm.
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Mar 3, 2015 22:22
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How wrong is it that I sincerely hope that PPACA is struck down for red states and not for blue (state exchange) states? I mean, sure, there's plenty of poor people with children who have done nothing wrong who will suffer greatly, but goddamn will my schadenfreude button be pushed.
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Mar 4, 2015 17:38
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PupsOfWar posted:did u know people like you are a nontrivial part of the reason the rural poor vote Republican I was kidding, honestly. But why is that? Aren't most Americans spiteful?
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Mar 4, 2015 22:45
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Internet Webguy posted:And you all had the gall to say that Occupy Wall Street didn't accomplish anything. That image was from a Seattle WTO protest, BTW.
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Mar 12, 2015 20:55
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comes along bort posted:Y'know, relatively useless politicians cracking wise about suspending democracy on camera isn't limited to the GOP. Yeah that's not even close to what Graham said, ("I think we ought to" vs "I will literally command the military") and it's being said by a state level politician.
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Mar 12, 2015 21:19
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ComradeCosmobot posted:The NYPD would like to remind Wikipedia readers that Eric Garner did not "[raise] both his arms in the air" but merely" flailed his arms about" I know I'm being a bit histrionic, but this doesn't seem an awful lot different from this: 
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Mar 13, 2015 20:18
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JT Jag posted:The Gridiron Dinner is considered to be a private party where an entire room full of press people get away from the cameras to break bread for a single evening, so a ton of cameras and recording devices would spoil the entire point of it. At least, that's their rationalization. I don't see the problem. In fact, extend their embargo to everything 100 percent of the time as American media is virtually all reactionary garbage that people would be more educated and informed without.
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Mar 15, 2015 15:14
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See y'all just need to care like the Lorax and you'll able to stop all that. It's a lack of caring and letter writing that has caused this.
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Mar 17, 2015 14:30
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Fried Chicken posted:But policing social media and forum posts by people on my own side but not rhetorically identical to me lets me signal my own righteousness instead of having to do the hard, often unrewarding, and almost never compensated work of trying to build a better world! What sort of things are you advocating for, and more importantly, what direct effect do you see coming from those actions? I'm so loving tired of the "just get off twitter and do something! I don't know what, but do it and be a great man, lorax, there was no one left to stand up for me, when good men do nothing, dead quote olympics, etc."
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Mar 17, 2015 16:33
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Haha, the gently caress are you talking about? My bullshit? Mind quoting exactly what you're calling out? Don't bother explaining how working for "the party" has any direct effect on things that affect real people.
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Mar 17, 2015 16:41
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Boon posted:It's almost as if staying current and debating politics while pursuing another career entirely is an abomination unto man. Nice ninja edit.
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Mar 17, 2015 16:45
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I asked for what I could do to make a change. I don't think working for the Democrats is going to make positive changes fast enough to avert climate change or another economic collapse, especially considering they've only made the milque-est of toast overtures to these ideas. The only thing that is more annoying than watching Democrats actively work towards the destruction of the climate and the economy is their smug supporters who wave their tiny "at least we're better than them" flags.
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Mar 17, 2015 17:00
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Franco Potente posted:Google Ron Paul. No thanks. I think Hillary will be able to solve the myriad problems facing America, because Radbot fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Mar 17, 2015 |
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Mar 17, 2015 17:02
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So your position is that there aren't more liberal city councilmen/women in America because there aren't enough campaign staff to work for them? Interesting idea. It doesn't sound true or backed by any evidence, but interesting nonetheless. I looked and there's no socialist candidate for mayor of Denver, nor Denver city council, do you have any suggestions there?
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Mar 17, 2015 17:07
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ElegantFugue posted:Welp, sorry everyone! I super totally wanted to do my best to make the world suck less, but turns out there's not actually a single button that instantly makes things better. Guess there's no real solution and I'll just have to poo poo on anyone actually trying, oh well I'd never poo poo on anyone actually trying, like the people marching in Ferguson. Phonebanking for a dem doesn't seem like trying, to me. stinkles1112 posted:Run for it yourself. It's just this line of thinking that's so lovely. If I'm not willing to literally give up my career and my life as I know it and run for an unpaid city council position, then I should just shut up. No thanks. Ghost of Reagan Past posted:Pick up your phone and call some group whose work you appreciate. Ask them how you can get involved. This is actually useful advice. I think I'll call my local chapter of the ACLU.
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Mar 17, 2015 17:14
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Uh, he destroyed private unions almost single handedly. Unions are the safety net of the middle class. I mean, I'd love to organize for SEIU or something but half of America would literally think you're anti-America for doing that at this point. I'd personally be near-disowned from my family. I do find it a bit precious that people are arguing I should throw away my life, career, and family to run for dog catcher, and yet they'd never do it themselves.
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Mar 17, 2015 17:16
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Denver has more residential development than nearly any city in the nation, it's just all incredibly expensive luxury condos or scrapes of existing homes converted into luxury duplexes or townhomes. The link between the Denver city government and the ridiculous amount of developer wealth flooding into the city is well documented. Is there any evidence that speaking at these meetings will produce a measurable effect in the same way that developers have influence over the local government? I mean I get that y'all think that giving approval fingers at a meeting does something, but I'd really like to see evidence. Putting myself in the shoes of a city councilmember, someone who's willing to fund my reelection in return for relaxing affordable housing laws seems far more convincing than some dude talking. Fried Chicken posted:So you hate the "smug supporters who wave their tiny "at least we're better than them" flags." in a post where you are smugly proclaiming you won't volunteer because you are better than the largest group working on this issue? What a loving joke that Dems are "the largest group working" on the issues of economic sustainability and climate change. You're delusional.
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Mar 17, 2015 17:20
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site posted:Radbot doesn't like much of anything offered on the liberal side I already said I'm going to call the ACLU and see if I can help with some pro bono consulting. I am a dues-paying member. The ACLU actually makes a difference and a positive change. Democrats do not. And again, if you're aware of any folks "on the liberal side" in my state or city (Denver, CO) that I could advocate for, let me know! I couldn't find any.
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Mar 17, 2015 17:24
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Just give me a shred of evidence that participating in Democratic campaigns slows the march of climate change, empowers the middle and working classes, and/or inhibits Wall Street in any way. TIA.
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Mar 17, 2015 17:26
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ElegantFugue posted:Oooh, maybe they'll ask you to phone bank for them That's not what pro bono consulting means.
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Mar 17, 2015 17:28
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Xibanya posted:This is great. I like it because it makes sense and I want to believe it's true. Our society could still regress to the mean, but maybe if we all think it can't then it won't. What is the mean, in this context?
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Mar 17, 2015 19:01
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Of all the conservative tropes, the "if I'm not fellated enough, I'll take my business and your jobs and go home" is probably the loving stupidest. The fact that so few are able to follow that thought to its logical conclusion ("and then someone else willing to work for a stupid amount of money and not a stupid insane amount of money came in and created all the jobs again") speaks very poorly for Americans. They don't seem to understand that 99, while less than 100, is still considerably different than 0.
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Mar 18, 2015 17:28
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haveblue posted:A computer that can upsell (or have any kind of conversation a human would be completely comfortable with) is right under fusion power and moon bases on the list of things that have been 10 years away for decades. Yeah, no. I work in eCommerce and our upselling techniques are preeeety awesome. The best tactic is to sell you on something cheap, get your credit card, and then upsell you at that point. Believe me when I tell you that I wouldn't have a job unless I was very good at upselling people via a computer. Hell, I've been upsold to a large fry at a loving Carl's Jr. kiosk. They're more complicated than burping your order at a cashier, but everyone under 30 seems to use them. Are y'all living in a different world?
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Mar 18, 2015 18:51
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Fried Chicken posted:I assume this is some in house stuff your company has developed? Because the COTS stuff I've worked with sucks poo poo, and I haven't seen anything presented that looks much better. Not really the place for it (PM maybe?) but I'd be interested in talking shop about your system, compare your online conversions vs face to face conversions. The fact that we can't get the ecomm to catch up with the store and the shrinking mall traffic really hurt us this year. I don't have any data about our face-to-face conversions, unfortunately. I'm not even sure where anything would have to be "off the shelf", we've done things as simple as adding a lightbox modal to the checkout page (after the CC has been acquired) to attach another super-profitable service, and attach rates nearly doubled. No, I have not done a peer-reviewed study to determine the relative effectiveness of in-person vs eCommerce upselling, but I was simply refuting the idea that upselling is impossible when done by a computer. edit: What's the point of having a seat warmer in the car when they cannot even in theory have control of the vehicle beyond pushing a panic button? Just someone for cops to intimidate or something?
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Mar 18, 2015 20:24
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I don't care if it's cruel, I'm going to experience peak schadenfreude when Medicare is turned into a voucher program and GOP voters find out what that actually means.
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Mar 18, 2015 21:46
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Spaceman Future! posted:Duh, it means the demonrats broke Medicare I hope they think that, maybe it'll make them mad enough that they'll have a coronary that kills them (instead of costing taxpayers millions of dollars).
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Mar 18, 2015 21:51
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chitoryu12 posted:Top Gear had a recent news segment covering a prototype for a self-parking car, where you just get out at the front door of your location and let the car drive off to park itself. They immediately made fun of the inevitable question: what happens if the car can't find a parking space? Does it drive around in a panic and will you have a hundred Kias swarming around downtown looking frantically for a place to park, or will it just go home? Will we need to have "missing car" posters put up on walls and lampposts when your car drives off and never comes back? I'd imagine it would return to where it dropped you off, while messaging your phone that it can't find a parking space. Top Gear, always making fun of technology more complicated than a pushrod.
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Mar 18, 2015 22:08
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Raenir Salazar posted:Where the technology does catch up to their standards they praise it, like hybrid/electric cars that can drive as fast as supercars and so on. Yeah kinda like how they intentionally hamstrung the Tesla to show that electric cars are bad, right? Or how they don't like the Leaf because, err, it's totally faggy or whatever those UK assholes' slur is
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Mar 18, 2015 22:21
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My question is, why would everything become automated when all you'd need to do is automate a big enough chunk of the workforce (say, just fast food) to create a massive permanent underclass that will terrify people into having jobs that only pay for room and board? If I own a trucking company, I'd rather pay humans slave wages and deal with a crash every now and then rather than paying millions upfront to retrofit my trucks for some dumb reason like the safety of other drivers.
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Mar 19, 2015 14:23
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Phone posted:Create a massive permanent underclass? Surely you're mistaken and meant to say "utilize the existing massive permanent underclass". Nah, it's not big enough. Semiskilled workers like truck drivers are relatively well paid and won't work for subsistence wages if other options are available. I'm talking like straight up 20% unemployment along with our decreased LFPR. The fact is that people WILL work for slave wages if they must, and we as Americans have decided that we're OK with near-slave wages already (like $8.50/hr in San Mateo, CA, suburb of San Francisco). Why pay for expensive automation when you can just curbstomp labor?
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Mar 19, 2015 14:30
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Gravel Gravy posted:Because eventually the technology will be cheaper once it reaches that scale. Big businesses or even small businesses aren't really thinking about the sociological impact when they employ or let go a work force but are driven by their numbers. I personally care about road safety but let's not pretend that the calculus isn't determined by whether it's cheaper to pay out a settlement versus buying a fleet of robot trucks. hobbesmaster posted:Autopilots that can keep a plane in the air were invented in the 1930s. And who cares if auto land doesn't work at Bumfuck, MS Regional Airport? Place the transceivers at like a few dozen airports and you're covering 80% of domestic air travel. It's not that robots will be able to deal with every situation perfectly, they will be able to deal with the majority of situations perfectly, which will still cause cascading effects in unemployment.
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Mar 19, 2015 14:37
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DemeaninDemon posted:Saying a technology will or won't happen is pretty dumb. About the only thing we can count on in the future is the GOP being fuckwads. See: phone technology vs fusion. The only thing more dumb than predicting whether technologies will "happen" is pretending like we don't have this poo poo already and that one of the largest companies in the world has stated that they want this tech publicly available within 5 years.
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Mar 19, 2015 14:45
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DemeaninDemon posted:Following distance is the best indicator of douche driver. The difference of course being that Iran has no nukes, whereas Google has built dozens (hundreds?) of selfdriving cars and passed the one million mile, accident free driving mark many months (years?) ago.
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Mar 19, 2015 14:51
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computer parts posted:Most long haul stuff (at least by tonnage iirc?) is done by train so it's not like there's a terrible amount of demand for stuff beyond what a person can normally* do. Which is why it's rare to see semis on interstate routes like 70, right?
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Mar 19, 2015 14:52
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