DirtyWaterHotDog
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User ID: 625
DirtyWaterHotDog
14hr ago
If they execute on the plans, LA will be in the midst of America's biggest transit boom. I would wait a few years to find out if the up-zoning led to a loss in quality of life. Often, new infrastructure feels like a net negative until the whole plan gets executed. Many of China's once-ghost cities and trains-to-nowhere are a good example.
the shopping centers nearby are so crowded
Isn't that good for local business ?
Lights back up
That's just LA.
Also, the rent on these places wasn't any lower and rent has continued to rise precipitously in the area.
Wouldn't it have risen even faster if the apartments had not been built ?
DirtyWaterHotDog
14hr ago
I saw the Mr Hyde version about a year ago, where it was just a nonstop, Tourette’s, yelling swear words, almost incomprehensible what was going on.
I'm surprised that Thiel claims to have just found this out. It was practically an open secret that bill gates was an excitable genius with a short temper.
But he is not talking about Microsoft, but about the stuff which Gates does with his ill-gotten money
From all anecdotes that I hear, he became a lot less 'nonstop' post-microsoft. He was an angry/passionate dude in the 90s and early 2000s. Calmed down after.
s
DirtyWaterHotDog
4d ago
Sadly, I don't. I did not read western news back then :(
DirtyWaterHotDog
4d ago
Frankly, I was indeed worried that the bar was that low.
Reviewing the job profile, these qualification demands are more rigorous than I gave them credit for. I said a lot of things today, and I have been corrected on a good few. I am glad that happened. Turns out that US is a liberal first world nation, and standards are standards. I am satisfied.
Do you think 'randos' and 'bottom-feeder men with anger problems looking to get the high of having power over someone else' can qualify for a secret clearance?
Not anymore
NYPD's 26 weeks in their police academy, but plenty for their specialised role.
It's 6 months in the academy and then ~2 years in probation.
where the law is lagging popular opinion
If the law is wrong, why are they not changing regulations etc.?
That's the point the top comment is making. If popular opinion is in line with Trump, then the votes should bestow enough power onto the Republicans to formally change the regulations. That's the whole point of a democracy.
Instead, Republicans have slim filibuster-able majority in the House and the Senate. The House can user the nuclear option, eliminate the filibuster and pass whatever law they want to pass. If a sufficiently large majority agree with you, then win 59% senate seats and pass what you want.
The fact that Trump isn't doing that, shows that the popular opinion may not be fully onboard with this style of aggressive ICE deportation.
Given that 7 Republican house members explicitly oppose this style of ICE raids for non-violent illegals, I'd argue Trump is operating below simple majority on this issue.
it's a shame that our politicians have fully embraced the heat-over-light dynamics of the culture war, to the point where they really are teetering on the brink of starting a civil war
Trump brought this on himself.
There's a million ways he could've implemented the ICE program, and he chose one with the greatest optics of cruelty. Masked and armed bouncers dragging people away at gunpoint has horrible optics. There are documented cases of people being deported to random nations, a few people have been disappeared (from public tracking, limiting a family's visibility into where a loved one is) and there's a general allergy to due process. Horrible optics.
"Cruelty is the point". I didn't believe it during Trump 1. For Trump 2, I believe it.
Here are the 'job requirements' for a deportation officer. Literally randos. (I retract my statement, I was wrong here)
U.S. citizenshipHave a valid driver's licenseBe eligible to carry a firearm
There is reason that police & military training take time. Using a gun for law enforcement is a heavy responsibility. ICE is picking untrained civilians, giving them guns and asking them to go be bounty hunters.
Democrats are justified in believing that this will select for bottom-feeder men with anger problems looking to get the high of having power over someone else. Given that most illegal immigrants are brown, I can see why democrats would believe that the average ICE agent is a raging racist too.
If Democrats believe what they claim to believe, then their actions are in line with those values. ICE agents look like an angry paramilitary that a dictator would deploy against his populace. People believe what they see. Democrats are cherry picking, but the cherry picked images are still real images.
Democratic response as what it is - basically outright treason against the U.S. federal gov
It may be treason. It may not. An accusation must be validated by a supposedly neutral arbiter. In your characterization, when the state oversteps its powers to oppose the federal govt, it is treason.
Now, both parties have operated in a maximally oppositional manner since Obama was elected. The adversarial nature has only gotten further amplified with every subsequent President. Given the way laws are written, both parties fight it out in the massive grey area between words. States vs Federal tussles are the most common form of inter-party warfare. This is business as usual. The system leaves it to Courts to decide what the bounds of this grey area are.
As with all accusations in the US, until the supreme courts weighs in, it isn't formally treason. Given that no one have been convicted of Treason since WW2, I think you're being hyperbolic.
I hope that we can right this ship because man, I do not want to have to fight in a civil war I have to say. Having studied history, it's a lot more horrible than you might think.
I'm confused. Trump is consistently the first one to raise the temperature and to lower the bar for acceptable discourse. I don't want to sound like a kid. But, he started it. Only now, the democrats are responding.
Trump is the President and central figure to America's current polarization. If there is a civil war, it will be because of him. As the one in power, the onus is on Trump to reduce the temperature.
DirtyWaterHotDog
5d ago
The backlash being faced by Klien, Derek, Yglesias and Buttigieg is baffling. Everything they've said has been polite, non-accusatory and measured. Yet, they're being treated like Nazis by left social-media.
I don't have a read on how radicalized the younger democrats are. But, looking at reddit, bluesky or the youtube ...... they're being dogpiled.
DirtyWaterHotDog
5d ago
I'm speaking of young men aged 18-35. My opinions are colored by personal anecdotes from deep-blue cities.
I haven't met a non-communist straight man who has 'volunteered for the democrats' or 'worked on the campaign'. On the other hand, I know multiple women and LGBT men who have done so. I am the eldest of a family of male cousins. The college aged (18-25) cousins only express positive emotions about democrats when around women their age (reasons obvious).
I could be in an echo chamber. But, it sure feels like the truth.
You are also aware that local Democratic committees are composed of 1 man and 1 woman per precinct by rule?
I was not aware of this. Good rule. I went back and looked at the numbers. Now seems as good as time as any to be a young man in democratic party. A healthy number (~50%) of the young democratic leaders (major mayors, house reps, senators) are under 45 men. Try as I may, the real numbers don't match my intuitions.
I still have my suspicions. But, I stand corrected.
DirtyWaterHotDog
5d ago
Democrats don't want you dead, because the democrats asking for your head don't have any understanding of violence.
I live in the bluest of blue America, and I've heard a few people express glee at the idea of Trump's death. It comes from the oddest of places. The nicest boomer white ladies, the tiniest granola girlies, men so feminine they couldn't hurt a bee. (Literally. I recently happened to be a +1 for a friends event where they tried to resuscitate a bee. Safe to say, I held my tongue the entire afternoon. Wonderful people and not an ounce of violence in their body). Look at Jay Jones, he's the lowest testosterone black man I've seen in my life. What a woman dressed as a man would look like.
My point is, they shout about killing Trump because they are unable to imagine the act of killing, punching or drawing blood. Even when they express this emotion, it's usually with a glint of mischief rather than anger. They're not just angry at him. They are also indulging the kid inside of them that never got to say the word 'fuck'. It's no surprise that many of the left-wing terrorists have grown up in dysfunctional conservative families or are gamers. These communities have a clearer relationship with violence as children, having coopted vanilla progressivism at a later age.
They are angry at Trump. But not in a "bullied kids shoots up a school" way. But in a, "I cry in every therapy session" way.
I like to believe I am well adjusted. But, I had my fair share of fighting violent bullies in school. Once in a while you push someone too hard and they fall on their head or you misplace a punch and you see a man in true pain. In a "my actions could have caused real harm and I'm lucky I missed" sort of way. Life flashes in front of your face. It snaps you out of anger, and leaves you with a pit in your stomach. The slightest glimpse into real violence leaves a lasting negative taste in one's mouth (unless you're a psychopath). That's why well adjusted men don't make violent threats easily. The mental return damage of living with hurting someone is not worth it. It isn't a good feeling.
You need not be worried about the ones making threats. Not this group. Now, if demographics with a relationship with violence start saying the same things.......then, call in the national guard.
The democrats lost young men when they stopped staffing young men. The democratic party is split between the faces (who're men) and the staffers (no straight men). The party, from 2nd in command to bottom, is run by women and feminine (I don't mean this as an insult) men. The party talks to men as the 'other' because they are the 'other'.
It's clear that the democratic party would rather see Newsom and Buttigieg fall into a ditch once an electable woman shows up. Unfortunately for them, they can't get a woman elected, so the 2 of them are tolerated. A conventional straight man is only welcomed into the democratic fold if they are muslim or black (and usually communist + nepo baby to boot). Zohran and Hasan being the canonical examples.
In 2022-23, the tech industry cleared itself of the woke scolds. People were fired, replaced and sidelined. Companies rebranded, some quietly some loudly. There has been no such reckoning within the democratic party. We might be seeing the first signs of it, with Bari Weiss taking over CBS. But for the most part, the internal rhetoric of the democratic party is stuck in the last decade. The only outreach they're capable of doing is to the left of them. And that's why the AOC/DSA wing is ascendant.
Today, I can see that milquetoast commentators such as Ezra Klien and Derek Thompson sustain an uncomfortable alliance with the democratic party. I can't imagine how the average young man (who is definitely to the right of them, more patriarchal and more traditionally masculine) could feel welcome in the same democratic party.
DirtyWaterHotDog
8d ago
That's the plan! Been alternating between weightlifting and swimming. I'll report back end in December.
DirtyWaterHotDog
8d ago
This is year I get fit. (he said for the 5th time.)
No but really. I look great at 185lb and look fat at 200lb. The 15lb makes all the difference.
I've started doing cardio again. I'm cautiously optimistic. (What is this, wellness wednesday?)
(My Rothfuss-esque pathological need to reveal my inner monologue in brackets is unbecoming of a middle aged man. But, such is life)
DirtyWaterHotDog
8d ago
just the belly (╥﹏╥)
DirtyWaterHotDog
8d ago
The stubborn 10 pounds that's spilling out of my pants. (╥﹏╥)
indiscriminate chemotherapy wasn't working,
American R1 universities are scarily efficient machines. So efficient that they could support admin excess and woke parasitism without harming their productivity one bit.
In comparison, Washington has been an incompetent mess for a while. To extend the analogy, the US economy is the scarily productive machine that sustains Washington's parasitism and budget excess. A reformist (however incompetent) can get away with rearranging Washington, as long as they don't take a hammer to the economy. Similarly, MAGA should be careful about taking a hammer to the productive parts of the university system. Education reform needs to be surgical.
Spoken as if universities weren't asked for ideological fealty to the left in the past
I know ! During peak woke, math papers needed to fill out social-impact forms. 'Diverse' professors were getting hired left-right-and-center. It might hypocritical for the home of Weather-Underground professors to claim that Trump was the one to cast the first stone.
It all depends on what the conditions are, and whether those conditions are constitutional
More reasonable, but still rich coming from institutions that prided in running afoul of the 14th amendment.
UCal has already been on a tighter leash for some of these things than many other unis... and yes, even just actually complying with the actual law is going to be a fight for some of them
UCs are the biggest violators and the most at risk. They're the world's most prestigious public schools and have more to lose. They'll now have to compete with private universities with 1 hand tied behind their back. (IMO, for the best). They are the most expensive and most bloated public schools. (In comparison to mid-west elite public schools which are less wasteful). The over-performance of resident Asians means that UCs have large gaps between the median Asian/White and affirmative action candidates.
I welcome it.
DirtyWaterHotDog
11d ago
Clean-shaven privates just look better
yea
No, but if all psychotic crazies magically disappeared, then then mass-shootings would only go down by 10%.
It implies that the primary reason for mass-shootings in the US is not schizophrenia. And therefore, black people's higher vulnerability towards Schizophrenia isn't significantly affecting mass-shootings in the US.
It is a can worth opening, in no small part because Black people are 4x more likely to be schizophrenic. Schizophrenia in men leads to significantly higher rates of violent crime.
Thankfully, that psychosis does not translate to more mass shootings. Only about 10% of mass shootings are attributable to psychosis. It's possible that psychosis makes it harder to plan and execute a mass shooting. But that's my color commentary.
where is the line?
I consider myself to be a strong proponent of the Second Amendment, but that conversation made me consider the merits of having a chat with my local police department. Awkwarrrrrrd.
I'm not a fan of the 2nd amendment, and won't pretend to feel this conundrum as viscerally as you, or at all. But, 'crazy people shouldn't have guns' seems like an easy concession. I don't buy into slippery slope arguments. Afaik, 'First they came for the crazy people' isn't part of the original quote.
Guns aren't essential. They're somewhere between a hobby and a worst case backup if something crazy happens. For one, no one is entitled to a hobby. Second, if you've been institutionalized or are psychotic, then that 'something crazy' is YOU.
DirtyWaterHotDog
12d ago
Yep, citizen and green card holder social security cards look very different than that of visa holders.
This is confusing on so many levels.
Everything the district has on file indicates Dr. Robert affirmed that he was a citizen who was eligible to work for the school district
The district claims that he completed his I-9 verification. I can understand why they'd be in none the wiser. But to fake a citizenship ? He must have created a fake passport or a social security card. That's hard mode.
competed in the Olympics
Why was he illegal in the first place ? A nation's olympic representative would qualify for an O1 with an instant EB-1 green card. Public school districts are also eligible for cap-exempt H1bs. He could've become a citizen legally by now, if he wanted to. I won't be surprised if this is a case of 'dude keeps choosing the contrived illegal option over the straightforward legal option because people can be selectively stupid like that'.
That aside, I am a big fan of national ID cards. The US should have one, and so should every other country. I don't understand why the right is so opposed to it. It's the easiest way to control illegal immigration.
DirtyWaterHotDog
23d ago
This has a 'fired with cause's smell to it. Firing a part-unionized crew with long term contracts is tricky. When someone is fired with cause, the potential followup lawsuits are easier to deal with. See how messy Colbert's firing became. Don't need that.
It has a 'never waste a good crisis' smell too. I suspect legacy media executives has wanted to rehaul the legacy TV for some time now. This is the perfect excuse to do it. Kimmel, Oliver and Colbert were hired for the ascendent woke era. Then woke died and executives were left holding expensive contracts. They have outloved their boom cycle. Kirk is convienient cover for long overdue cleanouts.
There is pressure from Trump, but more importantly, there is pressure for customers and the bottom line. It's why I think internet celebs like Destiny and Hasan are safe. Their bottom lines and viewers are still aligned with their platforms (yt, twitch). Reddit is a whole another discussion. Reddit is the last bastion of the wokes. From CEO, employees to users, they're very blue. Power mods are being shackled. But that's to normiefy Reddit, not because of Trump. That's also why I am not worried about other internet platforms. Tiktok, YT and Instagram are already normiefied. The polarization of Blue sky, Reddit and Twitter helps their bottom line and suits their users. Trump has no play for them.
DirtyWaterHotDog
27d ago
DirtyWaterHotDog
29d ago
In this context, what does it mean for something to be a false flag ?
- Someone else killed him. They got the wrong guy.
- It's the right killer, but he was not working alone. He did this on direct instruction from a 3rd party.
- The killer was working alone. But, was targeted to be radicalized without his awareness. Some malicious party that even he is unaware of is orchestrating his brainwashing.
I expect not. It was easy to build for the longest time and then we artificially made it difficult. The current situation is the more anomalous one.
America has famously lagged behind other cities of the world in dense urbanism. So, we have a few decades of data from tall-dense cities to read into. NYC is the only exception in the US. and it is a good exception at that. Broadly, nothing catastrophic happened. Ofc, the assumption is that densification comes with an increase in aggregate local taxes and greater investment in public infrastructure (transit, services, etc).
I would like to hear the negative side-effects that you suspect more housing will bring.
IMO, The american youth starting to adopt a nihilistic lying flat mindset, and the lack of affordable housing (esp. in urban areas) has played a role in making it worse. However, building more housing alone is not going to solve this multifaceted problem. So, if the YIMBYs win, there will be more housing and nihilism will continue (if slightly slowed down). In 50 years, some may see that the nihilism and YIMBY movement coincided with each other and wrongly draw a causal link.
Building more housing is like fixing the Ozone layer. When you do it right, nothing happens. Life goes on, and people don't appreciate it because the negative thing never happened. Classic preparedness paradox.
To be clear,
build more housing != build more ugly housing.
This is a 5+1, and this is a 5+1. This is one of the reasons I am strongly against "affordable housing". Build more market rate housing, so the buyer can impose their aesthetic preferences onto the developer.
build more housing = building more housing in urban areas with a huge shortages.
Supply-demand is alright in most of the US. Mostly limited to Boston, NYC, DC, Miami, Austin, Phoenix, LA, SD, SF, Portland, Seattle problem.
build more housing != fit a studio into what used to be 4 bed, so we can all live in kowloon walled city.
build more housing != sprawl out more
More housing means more vertical expansion and more infills.
build more housing = build better transit.
That means safer transit too. (this is a huge issue between YIMBYs and Leftists. YIMBYs are generally pro-police and hard on crime)
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