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am_Unition  ·  1794 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Redacted Mueller Report has been Released

LawfareBlog put out their analysis today. I'd say "finally" put out their analysis, but it turns out that digesting a 400+ page document in an informed and independent way takes a few days.

Plenty of room for impeachment, and that's just within the scope of what Mueller focused on. The emoluments clause violations, damage to U.S. geopolitical allies, inhumane immigration policies, and about twenty other issues all add fuel to the fire. But do we want a President Pence instead? I say yes, simply 'cuz a) the nuclear codes and b) he isn't the demigod figurehead of a fucking cult, and he never will be, due to a complete and total lack of charisma.

user-inactivated  ·  1794 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Redacted Mueller Report has been Released

The calculation isn't President Pence anymore. If they impeach Trump it won't take less than a year, either President Pence won't happen or he won't have time to do anything. Since without the Senate impeachment isn't going to be successful regardless, the calculation is whether tying Trump down with it is worth risking getting him reelected by firing up the wingnuts.

steve  ·  1791 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Can China Take Care of its Elderly?

    The issue is likely to get quite a bit worse, thanks in no small part to China’s infamous one-child policy.

Some one I met in China shared a saying that was essentially "the child's feet don't hit the floor until they're four years old". It's a more colorful way of saying for each child, there are six doting adults who spoil them rotten. Since that is the case... the inverse will also be true... one person must work to support six aging senior citizens.

While the one-child policy has been much more loose for a decade or more... it's still a significant piece in the puzzle.

kleinbl00  ·  1791 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Can China Take Care of its Elderly?

It's been interesting to me watching the hippies and nature lovers arguing for fewer kids and fewer people because of our fewer resources while watching the brokers and money lovers arguing for more kids and more people because of our need for ever-higher production and ever-higher needs for elderly care. On the one hand, there's only one planet and we all have to share it. On the other hand, if your two parents don't have three kids then we'll never be able to take care of grandma!

“Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.”

- Kenneth Boulding

kleinbl00  ·  1791 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Can China Take Care of its Elderly?

I wonder if that's the number we can support. The US went from 50m to 100m between 1880 and 1910... take away the cell phones, the playstations, the cars and the planes and a number somewhere in there might be sustainable.

am_Unition  ·  1790 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Uber Questions

1337 H4X0R V33N

kleinbl00  ·  1790 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: April 24, 2019

I'm mixing post again. I thought I was done with that. It's been pleasant - I'm really good at it and one of my greatest frustrations with the entertainment industry is that the proliferation of content has gone hand-in-hand with the proliferation of bad sound. Nobody pays for it anymore because nobody cares. This kid's a year out of USC and has delivered a project in better shape than anything I've ever gotten out of my best buddy, who has been out of school for 20 years and whose clients include AT&T and Toyota.

Another buddy of mine is in NYC right now doing the live broadcast... of a Fortnite competition... at Madison Square Garden. The project I'm working on has one of his lead actors from ten years ago in it. Time marches on and we just get older. The jobs get shittier, the work gets scarcer and another buddy has the #1 movie in America right now because everyone is so scared of Avengers that all the studios held their real films so the box office was won last weekend by The Curse of La Llorona.

I'm in class with a bunch of 20-somethings. They live five to a house. They dumpster-dive. They're mad that anyone would pay to restore Notre Dame when there's so much poverty and inequality in the world. They go to a school that can't afford to keep its kitchen working because they can't afford a $2 slice of pizza so now they get truck stop sandwiches. And they aren't every student. There's CS majors at other schools. There's pre-law majors at other schools. There's rich kids whose way is paved who will end up as intermediate flacks in finance somewhere, making eight or nine times as much as the Art Kids. But the rich kids didn't used to be an order of magnitude wealthier than the art kids. And what breaks my heart is the art kids don't understand why they'd fight their lot in life. The disparity is so systemic that they don't see any other path.

Seven to a house if you include the children.

The kid who gave me the film project went to a school whose rack rate is $55k a year. Our school? $3k.

veen  ·  1790 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: April 24, 2019

I stumbled on Giving What We Can a week ago, and since then I've been thinking about giving much more on a regular basis to charity. Looked up a bunch of charities that strive for things I care about a lot, such as global warming and animal welfare. Found out which ones are well regarded and ended up with a few good ones.

Last weekend though, the gf and I visited my parents for Easter. It had been a while since I'd last seen them, and while we had a wonderful weekend, it was also pretty clear that they're not in a good place. My dad finally got something of a stable job - something he hadn't had since 2008 - but fell really badly and broke his shoulder in the first week. They got a pretty hefty bill from the energy company, which had promised the bill wouldn't be big. And there's a bunch of other stuff they're dealing with - enough that they're losing sleep over it.

So instead of helping charities, I decided to help them out instead. And despite my best efforts, there's this veneer of guilt and empathy and sadness around all of this - I feel bad for not doing more, for not helping more, for choosing what's near over what's far away. For doing more than fine myself. I don't know what's best, don't know if I can know. At least I can try.

kleinbl00  ·  1790 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: April 24, 2019

You doing better than your parents and turning around and helping them sounds like the basic parental goal going back to cave paintings. Whatever guilt you're managing to mine there, leave it in the goddamn ground - you got to where you are in no small part because of the sacrifices they made to you and at some point in the future those will be your children's grandparents and when they ask why Oma and Opa have it so rough you don't wanna say "because I gave money to Greenpeace."

goobster  ·  1790 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: April 24, 2019

For several years now, I have auto-deposited a couple hundred dollars a month into my parents bank account. It eases things a bit for them, and they are proud that their son can do this.

The guilt you feel is your own. You do it to yourself. Choose love, and that a perfectly valid expression of that love is sharing your bounty with your parents.

All you need to do is give it with the right intention. That's where your part ends. "I love you, and want you to have this." No judgment. No expectations for what it will be used for. No strings attached.

Being a provider for your parents in any capacity is a powerful thing, and - I feel - an important part of "growing up".