Objectively intelligent.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

The core rationale of the Sanders campaign is that the Democratic Party hasn't been speaking to a lot of people, who feel disenfranchised and have been sitting out, and he is going to mobilize these people to grow the base of the party. If that sort of thinking were going to appeal to anyone on this board, it would be Sebby.

I'm sympathetic to the idea that someone ought to do the above, I just am utterly unconvinced that Sanders is the guy. He seems more like Jeremy Corbyn than the 2008 Obama (before he took off the mask and revealed himself as a centrist).

Corbyn was a weak personality. And blunt truth telling is not a part of British politics (save in Parliament, but even there it’s mostly bitchy slap fighting). Corbyn appeared tired and effete.

Bernie is in Brit terms, always, congenitally “on the nose.” He’s a ball of very strange charisma, and his main appeal, like Trump’s, is seeing through narratives, ignoring them often, and telling people what they know is true but politicians cannot say.

Pete sings a BS song about how education will lift up the disenfranchised. That crap is written for him by someone who assumes voters are all still largely credulous. Bernie says, “You know what’d lift people up? If we canceled all the debt they’re paying for outrageous tuitions. And made school free, or at least affordable.” Game to Sanders.

Bernie and Trump both know the public has no patience for long term fixes. The people who want severe change want it retroactive to 12 years ago.

Corbyn had none of that sauce.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

They're retired, and I'm a little more worried about whether they'll be able to get into somewhere like where you work if they start to show symptoms. I don't imagine that anyone will want to evacuate them to the US, and it's not clear to me that they'll be in a good position to get medical care in Italy.

Apropos of your work, these were some former colleagues of Ms. Slothrop.

If the virus keeps having the impact it is, Bernie may walk away with this election. What happens in China hits here a quarter to two later, right? So the market’s tanking already and predicting the near term future for us. This could be a fucker of a global recession if panic takes hold. Three rate cuts aren’t going to fix the problem. This isn’t about propping asset values. This would be a worldwide freezing of trade and growth.

I’d be seriously concerned if I were Trump. Bernie’s “free stuff” message is going to be awfully enticing if we see another downturn.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Of the people on this board, maybe Sebby is the most likely to have written this:

[LessinSF]

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?

I'm supposed to go hiking in the UK in may. As of today I have no plans to cancel.

I am looking forward to crashing flight prices.

[LessinSF]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

It's going to be all over us here pretty soon. It seems like no big deal unless you're old and have respiratory issues. But having just muscled through two months of some form of bronchitis/walking pneumonia/sinus infection (when you've family in health care, you get everything), I do not want to spend any more time wheezing, coughing, and sneezing.

Not so much with this one. Of course it kills the older, infants and those with respiratory issues. But an unusual percentage of the dead are young, healthy doctors and there is no indication that repeated exposure makes the infection worse once you already have it.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Of the people on this board, maybe Sebby is the most likely to have written this:

It would be nice if we could get people to understand this...

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by LessinSF

Not so much with this one. Of course it kills the older, infants and those with respiratory issues. But an unusual percentage of the dead are young, healthy doctors and there is no indication that repeated exposure makes the infection worse once you already have it.

I thought that I saw data that it has very low mortality rate among the young -- is that wrong?

eta: Not sure how good this data is, but



That doesn't go below the age of 10, but the article says "The study did not report any deaths in children younger than 10, who represented less than 1% of the patients."

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Of the people on this board, maybe Sebby is the most likely to have written this:

I'd be the first to sign up for high taxes in exchange for free school, better health care, etc. But I'd want those services administered by Swedes, Danes, or even the French. Americans would fuck it up.

In order to have a high tax, high quality service system, you need quality administrators. And you also need a population that is not addicted to consumption for consumption's sake.

People in Europe are satisfied, I think, more with experience, and smaller but higher quality items, than are Americans. Americans don't see much value in sitting in a cafe and just burning an afternoon. They aren't interested in driving a sensible car (they like Mercedes, but they don't want to own one for 15 years... they'd rather get a new, bigger gold-packaged SUV Benz every three years).

Edward Bernays fucked this place up nearly a century ago when he converted us to a brutally aspirant economy. We're like Buddhists in reverse. Nothing's ever enough, and we're obsessed with our status relative to one another.

I don't see how you convert that mindset to the more mature mindset exhibited by many Europeans. They seem to understand contentment at a level we simply cannot comprehend.

And the argument cannot be avoided that (the author addresses it), to have that level of taxation and services, one must concede some freedoms in a very direct manner. We'd rather concede freedoms indirectly. I think this is because in the indirect, predatory freedom-robbing system we have, any man can by amazing luck and skill become the predator, the Croesus-like rentier. In a system where the govt has more control, that possibility seems more remote. That's probably untrue, but the illusion is hard to counter.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by LessinSF

Not so much with this one. Of course it kills the older, infants and those with respiratory issues. But an unusual percentage of the dead are young, healthy doctors and there is no indication that repeated exposure makes the infection worse once you already have it.

Great. That makes me feel a whole lot better.

I haven't put this physical instrument through all of the excesses I have to die of a fucking flu born in some rat-infested Chinese bodega. I'm owed a massive heart attack during sex, or in the midst some indulgence in vice. Maybe skiing into the base of a chair lift pole, a la Sonny Bono. Or finally shot by my exasperated spouse.

Not a goddamn cold. The fates owe me better.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Adder

It would be nice if we could get people to understand this...

In the hope of perhaps drawing Slave out, here's a lyric from a philosopher who nailed reality quite well back in 2010:

Stuck here ten thousand years, don’t know how to act,
Everything forgotten, especially the facts.
The way we live is running scared; I don’t like it much,
All things come to he who waits but these days most things suck.

We are the chosen ones, we don’t know right from wrong,
We don’t know what’s going on, don’t know enough to care.
We are the dogs of war; don’t even know what for,
But we obey the law, get back in line.

We are trapped in luxury, starving on parole,
No one told us who to love, we have sold our souls.
Why do we vote for faceless dogs? We always take the bait.
All things come to he who waits, but all things come too late.

We are the sacrifice, and we don’t like advice,
We always pay the price, pearls before swine.
Now we are only slaves, already in our graves,
And if you think that Jesus saves, get back in line.
If you think that Jesus saves, get back in line.

Eerily predictive. A faster and more accurate poetic sketch of modern America is hard to find.

ETA: This channeled, or borrowed from, another philosopher of the late 60s, who also wrote about the unspoken feudal order of things:

Facing the world ain't easy when there isn't anything going
Standing at the corner waiting watching time go by
Will I go to work today or shall I bide my time
'Cos when I see that union man walking down the street
He's the man who decides if I live or I die, if I starve, or I eat
Then he walks up to me and the sun begins to shine
Then he walks right past and I know that I've got to get back in the line
Now I think of what my mamma told me
She always said that it would never ever work out
But all I want to do is make some money
And bring you home some wine
For I don't ever want you to see me
Standing in that line
Cause that union man's got such a hold over me
He's the man who decides if I live or I die, if I starve, or I eat
Then he walks up to me and the sun begins to shine
Then he walks right past and I know that I've got to get back in the line

We've all got masters. I'll say this in defense of the American character: Dumb as it can be, rejecting masters always feels right. Even if you know you're never rejecting any of them but instead just trading one for another.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

People in Europe are satisfied, I think, more with experience, and smaller but higher quality items, than are Americans. Americans don't see much value in sitting in a cafe and just burning an afternoon. They aren't interested in driving a sensible car (they like Mercedes, but they don't want to own one for 15 years... they'd rather get a new, bigger gold-packaged SUV Benz every three years).

People respond to incentives. Europeans drive more sensible cars, because fuel taxes, regulation and space make it impractical to do otherwise.

We could change the incentives here too, if we had the political will. We do not because, as that excerpt describes, we see "freedom" in our bad incentive system. We're all worse off for it - big SUVs are deadly beyond their environmental and spacial wastefulness - but fuck you I got mine.

[Hank Chinaski]

https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-...the-utah-house

It's all fun and games until they come for your porn.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I'd be the first to sign up for high taxes in exchange for free school, better health care, etc. But I'd want those services administered by Swedes, Danes, or even the French. Americans would fuck it up.

In order to have a high tax, high quality service system, you need quality administrators. And you also need a population that is not addicted to consumption for consumption's sake.

People in Europe are satisfied, I think, more with experience, and smaller but higher quality items, than are Americans. Americans don't see much value in sitting in a cafe and just burning an afternoon. They aren't interested in driving a sensible car (they like Mercedes, but they don't want to own one for 15 years... they'd rather get a new, bigger gold-packaged SUV Benz every three years).

Edward Bernays fucked this place up nearly a century ago when he converted us to a brutally aspirant economy. We're like Buddhists in reverse. Nothing's ever enough, and we're obsessed with our status relative to one another.

I don't see how you convert that mindset to the more mature mindset exhibited by many Europeans. They seem to understand contentment at a level we simply cannot comprehend.

And the argument cannot be avoided that (the author addresses it), to have that level of taxation and services, one must concede some freedoms in a very direct manner. We'd rather concede freedoms indirectly. I think this is because in the indirect, predatory freedom-robbing system we have, any man can by amazing luck and skill become the predator, the Croesus-like rentier. In a system where the govt has more control, that possibility seems more remote. That's probably untrue, but the illusion is hard to counter.

The bastard son of Alexis de Toqueville and Hunter Thompson.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

The bastard son of Alexis de Toqueville and Hunter Thompson.

"We were somewhere around Barstow, which was odd, as Barstow wouldn't yet exist for one hundred and twelve years, when the drugs began to take hold..."

[LessinSF]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

I thought that I saw data that it has very low mortality rate among the young -- is that wrong?

I butchered my post. I meant to refer to the spate of youngish, healthy doctors and nurses exposed to it who have died.