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Keyser_Soze posted:I'm not a fan when it's still light out at 9pm in the summer. Hmmm. As a woman that sometimes has to walk home alone late at night, I actually feel safer then tbh. Sad but true. Obviously I'd rather the time didn't have to be cocked about with for this to happen but I'll take what I can "desperately squints for silver lining"
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Mar 19, 2021 08:14
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Well that was one of the most depressing and alarming episodes. I need to call my local recycle center. The UK seems to be leagues ahead of the US in terms of plastic recycling (at least, it seeeeeems that way)
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Mar 22, 2021 19:40
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Just watch this instead without all the dumb jokes......sorry John.  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/plastic-wars/ Keyser_Soze fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Mar 22, 2021 |
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Mar 22, 2021 19:50
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Was I the only one who didn't care for the piece on Tucker? I kept waiting for them to dig into WHY Tucker is in some ways worse than other Fox News' talking heads but... nope
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Mar 22, 2021 20:58
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The only thing about that I found extra horrifying is the comment that he's a presidential hopeful
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Mar 22, 2021 21:08
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Narcissus1916 posted:Was I the only one who didn't care for the piece on Tucker? I kept waiting for them to dig into WHY Tucker is in some ways worse than other Fox News' talking heads but... nope It was nuts they left out his former head writer wrote insanely racist things on a racist forum.
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Mar 22, 2021 21:09
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It was extremely tame compared to what the online left has been saying about Tuckson for years.
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Mar 22, 2021 21:14
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Narcissus1916 posted:Was I the only one who didn't care for the piece on Tucker? I kept waiting for them to dig into WHY Tucker is in some ways worse than other Fox News' talking heads but... nope it was really boring and pointless because yea it just was normal 'guys did you know this guy sucks???' that can apply to any fox news freak without actually touching on what he actually did to be straight up proudly connected to actual white nationalist groups and poo poo. It's basically typical Oliver stuff, not bad but just really basic level. It's like how in his anti-Asian stuff he focused entirely on the 'china virus' poo poo which obviously was garbage, but completely ignored the much more bipartisan issues like the constant anti-China poo poo treating an entire nation as some hive of tricky 'others' out to hurt us and all.
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Mar 22, 2021 21:30
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Also as bad as the anti-China poo poo is, kung flu will never not be funny. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Mar 22, 2021 22:25
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Alan_Shore posted:Well that was one of the most depressing and alarming episodes. I need to call my local recycle center. The UK seems to be leagues ahead of the US in terms of plastic recycling (at least, it seeeeeems that way) What's really depressing is that tons of people have been saying all that about plastic for decades and people are still bamboozled by the corporate "recycle to feel good!" industry
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Mar 23, 2021 00:57
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I think it's weird he didn't mention how one of the reasons why the US has such anemic plastic recycling is because China used to buy up a lot of the US's recyclable trash, and that's why the US didn't develop big facilities and programs for recycling plastics domestically. China decided to quit recycling for America and that's one reason why things are so bad now. For plastics at least, I hear aluminum is pretty well-recycled. It is also definitely right to focus more on how companies producing plastic deserve to get more of the blame instead of just saying that consumers should have the full burden of making the system sustainable, and it's definitely not right that so many plastics are falsely implied to be recyclable. Putting misleading symbols on everything was deliberately misleading. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/912150085/waste-land Narcissus1916 posted:Was I the only one who didn't care for the piece on Tucker? I kept waiting for them to dig into WHY Tucker is in some ways worse than other Fox News' talking heads but... nope I'm not sure he is worse than Fox News's other people, he's just the most prominent and senior one left after so many of the others fell.
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Mar 25, 2021 18:21
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Orange Devil posted:Also as bad as the anti-China poo poo is, <redacted> will never not be funny.
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Mar 25, 2021 20:10
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The part about the peeps had me crying with laughter and I'm not entirely sure why !
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Apr 5, 2021 08:15
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It better be about Peepsi
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Apr 5, 2021 08:29
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This was a fine episode but Oliver's schtick of 'acknowledging the problem without looking at the root cause because this is still a show entirely run by the capitalist class' really shone when he tried to do the whole 'debt timeline' to show the republicans don't care about the debt when they're in charge (correct) but kinda glossed over Clinton and Obama both being major welfare gutters just like the republicans he was condemning.
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Apr 5, 2021 14:01
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With W it was much more stark from how very literally he said in his campaign that the government shouldn't make a profit, and part of that was he promised to send checks to everyone taken out of the surplus (after putting the lion's share aside for tax cuts for the wealthy). Trump's spending deficit was much more extravagant because he was costing the government a huge amount from his personal vacations (much of it getting put into his company, which is embezzlement) on top of the standard tax cuts and garbage. Also everything he did to "cut costs" just increased expenses and made things worse and removed our pandemic response team right before the worst pandemic in modern memory hit. Pete Butt during his campaign parroted the old republican line about how democrats are irresponsible about spending and he somehow wanted to change that and I wanted to strangle him. sexpig by night posted:This was a fine episode but Oliver's schtick of 'acknowledging the problem without looking at the root cause because this is still a show entirely run by the capitalist class' really shone when he tried to do the whole 'debt timeline' to show the republicans don't care about the debt when they're in charge (correct) but kinda glossed over Clinton and Obama both being major welfare gutters just like the republicans he was condemning. That's kind of a complex thing because the worst that was done to welfare under their administrations was done by Republican congresses. Obama did try to build a healthcare system even though he mostly failed.
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Apr 6, 2021 05:51
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So. Do you think before this episode anybody who read the script sat down with John in advance and said "So, John, I'm uh.. not quite sure 'Nobody really knows why the U.S. isn't in total economic collapse right now' is the slam dunk, placating argument you seem to think it is?" All the experts are wrong and nobody knows anything, might as well take up astrology! zzMisc fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Apr 6, 2021 |
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Apr 6, 2021 15:05
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I dunno, "economists don't know poo poo about how modern economies work so why should we listen to them?" seems pretty self-evident at this point.
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Apr 6, 2021 15:11
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I loved Brock's attempt at sneaking out in the morning, and the subsequent walk of shame.
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Apr 6, 2021 15:16
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Skippy McPants posted:I dunno, "economists don't know poo poo about how modern economies work so why should we listen to them?" seems pretty self-evident at this point. I once ate a probe in USPOL for saying that economics is one of if not the most corrupt academic discipline.
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Apr 6, 2021 15:38
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It's up there. The fact that it isn't relegated to the humanities has always puzzled me. No matter how much bunk math they try to stuff it with, it is far from being a "hard science."
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Apr 6, 2021 15:53
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I'm not really sure why economists thought it'd be such a huge tipping point because the debt's not like some kind of cosmic magical force, it's people and organizations run by people choosing to buy government bonds and give the government loans. The main peril is if people stop that because they think it's an insecure investment. That's why it was a big deal when the US's credit rating was dropped during one of the deficit ceiling battles. I actually thought was a real danger under the Trump administration that he'd try to default on the entire debt because he's done that so many times in his career. But for the foreseeable future, between the US's previous reliability and its global influence, it doesn't look like people are gonna really lose faith any time soon. There are other bad things that can happen when countries are unable to continue making debt payments, I think most France has the worst record about that with things like the invasion of Mexico. Maybe some assets could be confiscated, it's really just an excuse to mess with a country that can't otherwise defend itself and I don't think the US is at risk of that at all.
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Apr 6, 2021 17:08
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The thing about the national debt is that the bulk of it is not really "borrowed" from anyone, it's basically money that the US has minted in excess of what it has raised in revenue, and exists as a promise to, at some point in the future, tax that money back and remove it from circulation. So it's not like one day someone is just going to call in the US's loans and they end up going bankrupt. The bigger threat from a runaway national deficit is inflation, but economists tend to be very apocalyptic about the implications of inflation and real life examples of hyperinflation always have some other major factor rather than just "they have a high national debt" (like say, Germany after WW1 being stuck both with huge losses from their labour force due to deaths in the war and extremely harsh reparation payments on top of it). When you look at countries that have had major problems with their national debt, the unifying factor tends to be that they don't control their own monetary policy - Greece for example couldn't simply mint more Euros to cover their national deficit. In other countries, they may have a local currency but it is backed by USD, meaning that their credit rating is much more significant because it affects the exchange rate they can get on the global market.
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Apr 6, 2021 20:28
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Economics is fake because money is fake and is just a manifestation of political power. The US is the main economic political power so the rules of economics are whatever we say they are. The debt is equally fake because it's not real 'debt', it's not like China or Japan or the domestic bond holders literally can 'call in our debt', there's no actual mechanic to do so and even if there was when you're the global bank 'debt being called in' just means you get more of the fake play money you're saying we owe you to trade with us and ours. That's why it's such a farce when the democrats sop to the 'deficit hawks' every loving time, it's literally the global scale version of some six year old saying 'you can't go through the yard, it's lava now' and you genuinely spending four years of your life trying to build a lava proof bridge to get across the yard', sure that kid is being dumb but you're way dumber for treating their dumb made up game as real.
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Apr 7, 2021 02:58
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I'm done trying to understand national debt, etc. But I do have extra money, and I did buy the Nicolas Cage pillow. Will post a trip report when it arrives.
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Apr 7, 2021 07:02
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One Nut Wonder posted:I'm done trying to understand national debt, etc. But I do have extra money, and I did buy the Nicolas Cage pillow. Will post a trip report when it arrives. Username/post combo
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Apr 7, 2021 07:43
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sexpig by night posted:Economics is fake because money is fake and is just a manifestation of political power. Real as anything else in this world. Macroeconomics tends to wander into messes because you can't really do controlled experiments on an international level and tons of dumb jerks wander into the profession without real methods or rigor and end up getting loads of conservative think tank money for confirming their preconceptions. Conservatives try doing something similar for other academic fields, but other bought academics tend to keep their heads down more. You get more directly useful stuff out of smaller-scale microeconomics, but then it doesn't wind up making headlines in politics.
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Apr 7, 2021 17:52
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It's always been pretty strange that throughout my lifetime the democrats have been the actual fiscal conservatives, but the right gets to just say "huh uh, we are," and everybody treats what Republicans brand themselves as as loving gospel for no goddamned reason.
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Apr 8, 2021 00:07
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WSAENOTSOCK posted:It's always been pretty strange that throughout my lifetime the democrats have been the actual fiscal conservatives, but the right gets to just say "huh uh, we are," and everybody treats what Republicans brand themselves as as loving gospel for no goddamned reason. It really just boils down to "Republicans lower taxes and therefore are better at the economy because it means that I am paying less money (even when I'm not and often end up paying more)"
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Apr 8, 2021 00:15
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I think that in the eyes of many Americans, there's a clear distinction between spending money on Defense spending and tax cuts (the latter not being viewed as 'spending' in the eyes of these people at all) as opposed to spending money on social welfare programs and the overall bureaucratic financing. This is nonsensical to those of us who understand the complexities of government, but the right wing has spent a very long time cultivating this idea that the government helping people is intrinsically bad, somehow. It's a big reason why absolutely no Republican whatsoever voted for this most recent round of COVID stimulus, in spite of it being extremely popular and desperately needed. Defense spending and tax cuts operate on a completely different moral calculus, though. None of it has anything to do with economics I don't think, is the really crazy thing. I honestly feel like it goes back to all that Ayn Rand bullshit for a lot of them. They'd just rather see people die in poverty than receive help, and you might as well spend as much as possible on tax cuts because the real workers deserve to keep the money they earn 
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Apr 8, 2021 02:02
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Groovelord Neato posted:I once ate a probe in USPOL for saying that economics is one of if not the most corrupt academic discipline. There is nothing academic about economics. kaworu posted:I think that in the eyes of many Americans, there's a clear distinction between spending money on Defense spending and tax cuts (the latter not being viewed as 'spending' in the eyes of these people at all) as opposed to spending money on social welfare programs and the overall bureaucratic financing. This is nonsensical to those of us who understand the complexities of government, but the right wing has spent a very long time cultivating this idea that the government helping people is intrinsically bad, somehow. It's a big reason why absolutely no Republican whatsoever voted for this most recent round of COVID stimulus, in spite of it being extremely popular and desperately needed. Funneling money only to either: 1. Increase military power 2. Increase the wealth of the wealthy is very understandable as long as you understand the logic of empire and understand that the US is the largest and most successful empire of modern times. The only innovation is the manufacture of widespread popular consent to this order among even the lower classes of the imperial core. And I'm honestly not even sure if this is an innovation. Orange Devil fucked around with this message at 10:25 on Apr 8, 2021 |
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Apr 8, 2021 10:12
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I want that wolf plate. I bought the Nic Cage banana pillow, and I must have that plate.
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Apr 12, 2021 07:36
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I'm starting to think that this show is just an elaborate front for John's etsy store
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Apr 12, 2021 07:48
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Holy poo poo that gator twist. What the gently caress?
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Apr 12, 2021 08:44
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SlothfulCobra posted:I'm not really sure why economists thought it'd be such a huge tipping point because the debt's not like some kind of cosmic magical force, it's people and organizations run by people choosing to buy government bonds and give the government loans. The main peril is if people stop that because they think it's an insecure investment. That's why it was a big deal when the US's credit rating was dropped during one of the deficit ceiling battles. I actually thought was a real danger under the Trump administration that he'd try to default on the entire debt because he's done that so many times in his career. Remember when the rating agencies were exposed as the huge frauds they are in the subprime mortgages crash? Except the establishment still has to pretend they know what the gently caress they are talking about to keep the show running lol. US rated down oh no!!!!!!!
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Apr 12, 2021 10:44
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Skippy McPants posted:Holy poo poo that gator twist. What the gently caress? Hi, for anyone who hasn't lived in Florida, let me add some context: this is super common. It happened at a private Disney resort not long ago. Literally every body of water larger than 500 gallons will have a gator in it in the state. A few children a year are killed by gators: in elementary school (in Florida) they taught us how to run away from alligators!
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Apr 12, 2021 17:29
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Don’t you have to zig zag because they’re bad at changing directions?
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Apr 12, 2021 20:55
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:Don’t you have to zig zag because they’re bad at changing directions? Yeah, they can beat you in a straight run, so you have to serpentine wide enough to make them turn to follow you. The constant direction changes slow them down enough to get away. Honestly though, if you're that close you're probably hosed already. 
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Apr 12, 2021 21:47
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I mean, literally all of the top Google results say no, you should just run in a straight goddamn line, it's faster and gators aren't going to pursue someone who is running away from them. I think your elementary school may have been full of poo poo.
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Apr 12, 2021 23:44
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Well, it's Florida. The gators are armed. If you're running away from a gator with a gun, you gotta serpentine. And even if the gators aren't armed, teaching kids to serpentine away from danger is a good way to train them on how to escape live shooting situations.
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Apr 13, 2021 00:17
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