cjet79
Anarcho Capitalist on moral grounds
Libertarian Minarchist on economic grounds
User ID: 124
cjet79
3d ago
I'm not sure the US public has the stomach to force a recalcitrant state back into the fold.
Ballot Access - I said this back when Trump was potentially gonna get kicked off Colorado ballots. Neither of the two major parties will be off of a state ballot in any state. It does not matter what rules or procedures they fail to follow they will be on the ballot. I am 95% certain on this. In this 5% chance that it happens, I would like a followup bet that some portion of the US breaks off into its own country. Those are the consequences if you don't maintain the illusion of democracy.
The opposite is true of 3rd party candidates. A single failure to follow a single rule, or a single failure to get a triple the number of required signatures will result in them being off the ballot.
edit- went and did some research.
The most recent example of a major Democratic or Republican presidential candidate not appearing on a state ballot was in 1964. Lyndon B. Johnson, the incumbent president and Democratic candidate, was not on the ballot in Alabama. Instead, Alabama had former Governor John Malcolm Patterson as a stand-in candidate for the Democratic Party. This situation stemmed from complex political dynamics and disagreements within the party related to civil rights issues and other national policies at the time.
Before the 1964 instance involving Lyndon B. Johnson, another notable case occurred in the 1956 presidential election. That year, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican incumbent, was not on the ballot in Alabama either. In his place, a slate of unpledged electors was listed instead. This was due to internal disputes within the state's Democratic Party, which was deeply divided over issues such as civil rights. These unpledged electors were intended to be free to vote for a different candidate other than the official party nominees if they were elected.
So aside from Alabama being weird chatgpt could only give me two other examples:
- 1860 Presidential Election: As mentioned earlier, Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln was not on the ballot in several Southern states due to his anti-slavery platform. This exclusion was not limited to Alabama but included states like Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
- 1912 Presidential Election: In this election, Theodore Roosevelt, who had previously been a Republican president, ran as a candidate for the Progressive Party (also known as the Bull Moose Party) after failing to secure the Republican nomination against incumbent President William Howard Taft. In some states, such as California, the situation led to a split in which both Taft and Roosevelt were competing for Republican votes, effectively making Roosevelt a major candidate running outside the traditional two-party system, impacting ballot dynamics.
So in one instance we had a literal civil war. And in the other three instances we had major party realignments happening.
cjet79
3d ago
Perfect weather would be going through a yearly seasonal cycle in 4 months instead of 12. There would be a perfect day of winter, snowing 20F, not windy. A perfect day of spring, 70F and humid after just raining with green shooting up everywhere. A perfect day of summer 90F, with a slightly cooling breeze, occasionally big fluffy clouds to give some relief from the sun, and a pool to jump in to cool off. A perfect day of fall, 60F with leaves falling, a cooling breezing that makes sweaters comfortable, and dry weather for some good fire pits in the evening.
I genuinely like weather variations, but I tend to get sick of weather extremes after a month. So just a faster set of seasons would be good.
If I had to pick a single type of weather I'd pick room temperature 70F with no sun or wind. Basically no weather, since I'd get sick of any extremes after enough time.
cjet79
5d ago
I was thinking Netflix picked it up for a second season because it was probably dirt cheap. They basically need a random car shop, maybe a second one for Stavros occasionally calling in remotely to film his lines.
Actor and writer salaries, only one of which is even close to a major star, and he isn't gonna tank it with high salary expectations cuz it's partly his passion project.
I watched the show and wrote the review while I was pretty drunk. I was smiling and lightly chuckling. It wasn't as laugh out loud funny as other comedy stuff I've watched. But I really did get a sense of liking the characters and wanting to root for them. Not just cuz I know Shane's SNL cancellation. It was the same sense I got rooting for the characters in the office when they thought their branch might be closed.
cjet79
6d ago
I'm someone that generally sees the two parties as pretty close to each other in actual policy positions. Even if they loudly scream about how different they are.
Not my random opinion. It's what is predicted by public choice economics for a first past the post / two-party system. The party with the median voter wins, so that is where party behavior trends towards.
Lots of people here like to complain about the Democrats being in favor of open borders, but as someone who is actually in favor of open borders I mostly see the Democrats as ok with the current immigration situation, but not interested in opening up things any further.
If you think we have open borders right now .. I think we disagree on too much of base reality and we won't get very far talking with each other.
All of that to say, I would not be surprised if the bill looks semi strict on immigration but basically lacks any real teeth.
cjet79
8d ago
I watched Tires on Netflix.
Its a short series. about 2 hours total, 6 ~20 minute episodes.
I enjoyed it. No, that's not quite right. I enjoy an ice cream flavor like chocolate. But I don't root for chocolate. I wouldn't be excited to encounter someone in an ice cream shop that bought chocolate ice cream. I'm rooting for Tires. I'm rooting for Shane Gillis. I'm rooting for an auto service shop to make just barely enough money to be profitable.
The series was funny. It had heart. It understood and portrayed blue collar work in a way that Hollywood can never replicate.
I started writing this thinking I'd have a lot more to say. I guess I don't. Watch it. I liked it a lot. If you like it as much as I do, I think you are the kind of person I could have a beer with and we'd get along.
cjet79
9d ago
Its a toy selling cartoon. A lot of the architectural and vehicle design decisions look like they were made to be scaled down into tiny model versions. Main example is the giant outdoor slide on the paw patrol tower.
cjet79
10d ago
I immediately thought of English slang. "Hey Yo" shouted loudly across a street ends up sounding like "Ay Yo"
cjet79
11d ago
Xbox exclusive, Netflix exclusive, exclusive interview with a person, etc. plenty of exclusive type language used for mass products.
cjet79
11d ago
Inclusion has a weird status in culture, because its opposite is not always seen as a bad thing.
Diversity : Homogeneity :: Equity : Unequal :: Inclusion : Exclusive
Exclusivity is still a widely accepted marketing and branding decision. Media networks love to brag about exclusive events, where only they get to show something. Hollywood in general loves exclusive events where only the biggest stars can attend. Clubs brag about their exclusive requirements. High end brands love to use cost as a way to exclude the riff raff and readily imply that only the rich and discerning can afford to choose their brand.
I do wonder if exclusion has enough staying power to survive scrutiny by the culture. I am 90% sure it will stay around. Marketers will just have to very carefully tiptoe around who is being excluded, and the rules on who it is ok to exclude will likely shift randomly depending on the whims of internet mobs.
cjet79
11d ago
Not meant to be a ringing endorsement, just an honest assessment.
If you want a ringing endorsement from me check out Ar'kendrithyst or Mother of Learning.
cjet79
12d ago
Its one of those stories where the flaws don't bother me too much or they are actually kind of a positive.
I'd consider Runesmith kinda mediocre, but its also held my attention much longer than other stories.
I think the author is very good at creating interesting worlds/settings, decent at desperate and action packed combat scenes, and good at a steady sense of progression for the main character.
The grammar and word choice and editing leave a great deal to be desired. I think the author uses voice to text, because there are sometimes words that sort of sound correct if you are speaking out loud, but are totally the wrong word choice. If you are an editing stickler this story is a hard pass. I am mostly not a stickler for tight editing. As long as I can mostly understand it then I'm fine. Though repeated bad explanations like in translated novels will wear me down into frustration eventually.
The dialogue and social scenes sometimes annoy me. The author likes to create "anime scenes". Where the main character and side characters are doing silly and embarrassing things. The side characters are filled with beautiful women. Its not Harem, but it falls into a side genre that I'm gonna call "Harem Eyes". The MC isn't sleeping with a bunch of people, but the author is definitely undressing all of them with his writing. There are lots of beautiful big breasted women around. Its almost like being set in a harem setting, without the actual harem showing up.
The main character is also mostly rational in their long term approach to problems. They will sometimes make emotional hero-like decisions in the moment. Generally I am not getting frustrated with the main character for being an idiot to drive the plot forward.
Without the MC holding an idiot ball the author seems to have some trouble advancing the plot sometimes. So instead the MC just seems fantastically unlucky. Also because the author often describes mundane events and interesting events with the same amount of leading details you never really know when a bout of bad luck is about to strike the MC. I kinda like that surprise.
cjet79
12d ago
I'm back to reading The Runesmith after taking a half year break to let chapters build up.
I also recently read a new story by Arcs the author of Ar'Kendrythryst. The story is only available on their patreon right now, so no link. The author being ridiculously prolific released what they called "part one of book one" and it was 130,000 words long, which is nearly twice the length of a standard book.
cjet79
12d ago
I'm part of a heritage/ancestry organization. Descendants of some people that came to the US in the 1620's. I'm mainly a member cuz my mother and grandfather cared about it a bunch and bought lifetime memberships for their kids. I have helped them with some website stuff a few times.
cjet79
14d ago
I know of one person that met their spouse on here: https://www.itsjustlunch.com/
Both of them weren't very attractive. The one I knew was a nice person and good conversationalist, but I imagine dating apps did not treat them kindly.
cjet79
14d ago
If no one is doing intersolar colonization then I really don't see a need to worry.
cjet79
14d ago
If we discover advanced alien civilizations existing doesn't that actually lessen the evidence for the Dark Forest theory? Something like massive infrared indicators imply that they are not hiding. Dark Forest theory implies hostile and hidden. @hydroacetylene
If this is a valid way of spotting alien civilizations. I think it becomes very important to look at groupings of stars. A cluster of 100 stars all having this indicator right next to each other suggests an expanding and potentially grabby aliens. If its just 100 stars spaced out randomly in the galaxy then that maybe implies that expansion and colonization is not something anyone has bothered with. If there are 100 stars with this indicator that are sort of close to each other but not exactly next to each other then it might imply islands of habitability (explained in this video). I also think if the candidates are randomly dispersed it also means its more likely that this explained by a natural phenomenon (like planets crashing and causing a debris cloud).
I believe propellant-less propulsion is possible and just not widely explored enough. The physics limitation is that you just need something to push or pull on that isn't the craft itself. We know of forces already that do this. Gravity and electromagnetism. Maybe we'll find other forces that do this. Maybe we will find something else to push on in space.
cjet79
16d ago
Definitely could have had some better word choice there. "filled" seems to replace "infested" just fine.
cjet79
16d ago
We have Sunday threads if someone just wants to throw out a short question.
Otherwise what Primaprimaprima said is kinda true we don't want people who cant contribute three sentences to a discussion to be the ones that dictate what gets talked about.
Some people don't care what is talked about they just want something. But many posters care a great deal about the specific topic, and thus a low quality entry on a topic they don't care about is a double negative. It's crowding out topics they might care about, and it isn't interesting enough to expand what they might care about.
cjet79
16d ago
Context is ultimately a suggestion, not required. I happen to think it's a good suggestion, and I also happen to think that people will dismiss the need for it more than they should.
You having personal experience with one of these camps is interesting context! I don't go near a college campus on a regular basis.
cjet79
16d ago
I don't watch the news. My smartphone news feed is heavily curated. I in fact do not leave the home most days because I work from home. My main outside trips are to pick up my kids from school and to go grocery shopping. I am not on Facebook, Instagram, twitter, etc. My reddit browsing is limited to gaming and fantasy fiction subreddits.
There are things I "hear about" in the sense that I might have seen a news headline. That was probably as aware as I would have gotten about Campus protests.
As unaware as I am, my wife is even more unaware. Most topics barely pierce her awareness. Unless it shows up directly at her workplace she usually doesn't know about them. Since the closest person to me is just as unaware I find this state of things normal, and the opposite hyper awareness of culture war issues strange.
cjet79
16d ago
Come on man. There is no goddamned way that anyone posting here is unaware of the core of the story.
There are other good reasons to ask for context:
- To avoid talking about nothingburgers. Sometimes people have weird news feeds and they get small incidents show up on their feed.
- For future readers. We do keep a list of old quality posts. The reader of a post is not just the people here this week.
- For additional depth and discussion. For example, if they had linked Brown University they could have started a discussion about divestment.
Yeah, they did that - it's right there!
Yeah they sort of did, which is why I half parroted their words.
Some of you seem to very much live in the culture war. You are very aware of what is going on and the latest news. And you also seem to want to replicate that newsfeed here?
I'll admit I just don't get it. If I didn't read this website I'd probably be unaware of a large portion of the culture war. I am not certain I would have known about the campus protests if I had not read about it here on TheMotte. I specifically need the context. I basically live under a rock. I hangout with my family and my neighbors, and we talk about local stuff mostly.
At the same time I don't want a scrolling doomlist of every item in the culture war. That is what twitter and mainstream news outlets are for. I don't visit those websites because I don't want the scrolling doomlist of every item in the culture war. If there is something novel and interesting to be discussed about a particular item, sure, lets have that conversation.
What do you want here exactly? Do you want this to just be a twitter clone (but with indents!) where we write a few sentences to performatively crap on our outgroup? I don't see the point.
cjet79
16d ago
that many of them perceive the barrier to entry to be too high.
Exactly! Its a perception thing, so I am trying to clear it up by changing that perception. WhiningCoil and others are making it more difficult by adding to the false perception. You of course are asking them to stop posting these bad interpretations of the rules, and thus discouraging posting, right?
Saying that they're mistaken, it's really not that high, isn't going to change anyone's mind.
There are different barriers to posting. One of those barriers is being afraid that the mods won't like your post and you'll get banned or in trouble. I can lower that barrier. I can't lower other barriers like "I don't know what to post about", or "I don't really want to talk about anything".
Could you summarize what she is saying? I'm just not big into watching political commentary.
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