veqq
17hr ago
The whole movement is bankrupt. While I theoretically understand "imperfect instrument" or "who cares about corruption if they still solve problems", it's literally not clear that MAGA is better for libertarians, conservative christians or anyone with a desire for intergenerational stability.
veqq
18hr ago
Poland have scaled back their farm worker scheme
It was mostly Ukrainians at the start, too.
veqq
18hr ago
Libya stabilized quite a few years ago (with 2 governments) although this week Haftar intervened in Sudan. Now, it's not great (HDI etc. lower than under Gaddafi) but
veqq
2d ago
Stephen Miller's reach goal is 3,000/day, which, if we're generous and assume that government workers get in a whole 52 weeks a year, would be 156,000/yr
day =/= week
veqq
3d ago
While I did not find any neutral specific numbers, my gut feeling is that shipping a container by railway is several times more expensive than by container ship.
Rail is surprisingly more efficient than many forms of shipping (e.g. barges).
veqq
4d ago
no one thinking this was something that needed to be changed.
They were better. Abandoning them's just one more sign for how far this godless, corrupted, festering society has rotted.
veqq
4d ago
tubing ... recently stopped to focus on his family.
Luke Smith had left the internet for 2-3 years, until (sadly) returning a few weeks ago, with a bigger beard, to declaim the evils of the internet.
veqq
4d ago
Protectionism is often the disease. Rather than erroneous regulation enabling complacency, the solution is becoming more competitive. That means simplifying the regulatory environment, improving logistics and encouraging similar businesses in the same area.
veqq
7d ago
Your numbers are off and your explanation is more confusing. The $1.8T deficit is more than 25% of federal spending. (Debt issues are far worse if you include more local government.) Interest payments are 15%. As others noted, it would take 10 years to pay off the debt, if all current tax revenue only went to that. In reality, we'd have to cut spending by 30+% and spend the rest of our natural lives paying down the debt. None of this will happen. The government will simply inflate it away as it has done before.
veqq
8d ago
you could easily reduce spending by 10% and not to pay this interest payment and be in the same situation
What?
veqq
17d ago
In Morocco I got about 150 likes per day and literally didn't have time to look at 3/4ths. I think online dating is evil and have never otherwise tried, so nothing to compare.
veqq
24d ago
The problem with free markets is that they require a modern state.
The movie "Becoming Jane" sees a lawyer talking to a judge:
- Why are you here?
- To learn the law
- Which has no other end but what?
- The preservation of the rights of property.
- Against?
- The mob. Therefore order is kept because we have (the army? prudence? I forget how it goes past here and the transcripts cut off)
veqq
27d ago
about National Weather Service cuts
Relatedly, the site rewrite's been put on ice: https://beta.weather.gov/
veqq
30d ago
Has there ever been a golden age of critical thinkers, schooled to think well, untainted by the technology of its era, or the character of its students?
Those growing up around 1900-1914 seemed closest, the great flower of our civilization, who died under flowering shrapnel on the French frontier.
I base this belief on reading historical (highschool/Gymnasium/lycée) exams (and submitted answers, with sample bias, of course) and cheat books (with more detail than modern academic treatments of the same... This is how I originally came to this.) They should write poetry on different topics in a certain style (movement or author), find problems in economic or business data, articulate various thinkers' contrasting beliefs about a topic etc. Transposed to modern times, have a student write a memoization macro, calculate some vector angles, write an essay on LaRoche, McKinley and and Teddy Roosevelt's views on tariffs, another on leadership (why the most popular kid's popular and what prevents the writer from taking his place, and to what extent the (chosen group/nation/state/movement) needs good leaders vs. institutions) ...written in Mandarin. The Overton window was far wider in those days, with multiple popular opinions about why x or y state was illegitimate with justifications from Renaissance, Classical and Biblical sources, advocating for paganism/atheism/state controlled religion etc. etc. Unfortunately, the war seemed to invalidate the whole framework and civilization behind this and mass education never recovered.
That's still a far cry from our ideal, but...
a massive class of consumers (the old and decrepit)
They don't have much wealth. Because wages continue to increase quickly, the 30-40 year olds are sending their parents more money each year than their whole anemic pensions, while saving themselves (although what asset classes they can save substantial sums in, is questionable right now.) It's not like the US where e.g. retired UPS workers get pension adjustments over inflation while current workers don't and aren't on track to receive any such benefits. (Also, the Chinese old seem to return to/reside in the country side, living very cheaply and consuming even less than their paltry wealth would suggest, compared to the racket of e.g. US retirement homes.)
Auctoritas vs. potestas, is pre-Christian (compare Potestas/Kratos the God, supporting dictatorship and advocating for random violence) although Christianity somewhat reenvisioned them. (N.b. further concepts like imperium remeasure the semantic fields in different ways in different thinkers' works.)
Moral authority (earned by correctness, selflessness and hard-earned reputation (dignitas, not yet dignity, but social standing) vs. raw exercising of power. Without moral goodness, power is illegitimate. But moral goodness without power is also lacking - although Socrates condemned to death has the highest authority of all, if it can't work good in the world, it's a tad selfish - like a desert hermit, isolated from society for his own soul compared to those monks' kenosis, who engage with the dirt and grime of humanity and lift it up, however slowly, through holy struggle and love.
A modern systems thinker, applying EA (is this now looked down upon? Well, applying financial metrics and industrial engineering) can improve the lot of thousands instead of spending their time administering aid to individuals, one at a time. To some extent, the traditional Christian image/aesthetic looks down upon this, preferring the Pope to bathe the poor's feet, Navy Devos to teach people to read etc. I at least think overall betterment's important.
I believe Christianity is fairly "aristocratic", believing everyone can be better and flourish (overcoming their sinful urges), but forgiving them for succumbing to this fallen world. (My faith is grounded in gnostic-curious Platonism, though.) The lower classes can rise beyond that station, but if they don't, they still have their own path to God. (N.b. this is not prosperity gospel, rather just... If you don't waste your time on vices and sloth, you can trivially better yourself and the life of those around you, building, learning, teaching etc.)
veqq
1mo ago
Trivial to find: https://odysee.com/@LightElf:0/Kanye-West-Heil-Hitler:9
Not worth listening to, rather terrible, but such is our fallen society that some like rap.
veqq
1mo ago
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yig8pTFBULI?si=11Qu7wUkT9184Ds5&t=1800
Some fund managers talk about capitalism without bankruptcy akin to Christianity without hell, meaning a loss of accountability, leading to nihilism etc. This is something we often discuss here "Elites have no skin in the game" etc. which I've been mulling over for a long time. It's interesting to see them arrive at it from a distinct intellectual framework.
veqq
1mo ago
Described here: https://x.com/pope_predictor/status/1892995523340058889
veqq
1mo ago
Hinduism is the equivalent of "Mediterranean religions" (including e.g. Mithraism and Greek mystery cults... and Renaissance Catholics writing about Greek mythology, besides the Greek and Roman pagans...). There are mono- and polytheistic Hindus! Yea, there are Buddhists!
Christianity is a single specific branch, equivalent in nesting to e.g. Shaktism. The Catholic Church would then be equivalent to an organization of temples adhering to Shaktism. In Hinduism, there is e.g. Mundeshwari Devi which is like a single small building, but "in operation" for about 1300 years.
veqq
1mo ago
It depends on so much... How much do you know about the market, valuation etc.? What's your investment horizon? What's your ratio between net worth : monthly savings amount : monthly spending amount? What type of accounts are these held in (e.g. how much of a tax hit will you take selling?) Do you plan to stay in the US indefinitely? What would you do with the money instead? (Bonds are trash, although e.g. dollar denominated Turkish corporate debt is quite interesting right now. USD will be inflated away, which hard assets protect against - but US equities are not generally such hard assets, primarily valued for good will and imputed future growth. Vice stocks (BTI) and certain small industrial companies (PPSX, HNRG) are nice. I'm a long term commodities bull, but the macro's complex and Trump's policies might as well be designed to destroy the energy industry so I can't recommend favorites like (VALE, PBR.A).
I've personally been almost 100% in the other widow maker (junior gold miners) for about a year and a half, since the regional banks rerated. There's still a long room to go (with many companies' earnings equal to their market caps) as gold's doubled while most are much cheaper than in 2021 - but the margin of safety's declined. More importantly, you can't hold a commodity producer for a long time, requiring future selling - which would require you to understand them well enough to correctly exit. That adds tax complexities, depending on account type etc.
You should probably not do anything. Funnily, APL is the one I would most strongly suggest you exit.
Generally, they're not particularly memorable 4 hour reads. But the first 2 Fabius Bile books (Promogenitor, Clonelord) are solid. Maybe Eisenhorn? The Infinite and the Divine! Fehervari's Requiem Infernal has some of the best prose in the past 100 years (mixed with vague, wordy evocativity) and sits with you for weeks after; his others are good too.
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