Re: Got to give myself a little talking to this time.
 

18 is too smooth, and too expensive. And none of the Macallans are enhanced with ice. Laphroaig Quarter Cask is the whiskey you want if you're seeking premium flavor which is improved with ice or water. But it is a quite peaty, so be warned. (Once you develop a taste for it, however, it's hard to drink anything else.)

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Don't pretend that back to antiquity, every time technology disap0lced a mass amount of workers, there hasn't been an interim period of extreme pain before that same technology created enough jobs to replace to those lost.

Economists, being McScientists and McAntropologists of the most dubious sort, love to cite laws in the absolute, out of context, and without consideration of time. Only a profession so full of shit and so often wrong would offer the argument, "Technology always ultimately creates more jobs!" without noting the process is lengthy and savages those unlucky enough to live through its more extreme instances.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

True. But wages? Not so good: http://www.epi.org/publication/chart...ge-stagnation/

Donald Trump is the GOP nominee for President. Normally, I'd agree apocalyptic results would be outlier possibilities. But... Well, I'm not so quick to take anything off the table anymore. We are living in a bit of a Bizarro Universe.

The population has been growing on Earth for a pretty long period of time. In almost every country, its statistically impossible to state that there are less jobs as a result of tech than there were in years before. Inevitably, sooner or later, more jobs appear as more bodies appear. People tend to find stuff to do. The shitshow that took place during those tech upheavals is the interesting story.
Jesus, man, really? Investment in education? Retraining? These are the most tired salves trotted out by the most uncreative politicians. They're the liberal equivalent of the conservatives' tired argument, "Just lower taxes on business and the job creators will fix everything!" That these "solutions" are still bandied about in the political sphere shows the intellectual stagnation of this country. Or more ominously, the collusion of the two parties to offer nothing more than competing forms of lip service to serious problems.

Re: Not Bob Wishes He Was Someone Just a Little More Funky...
 

And give Chris Robinson a stroke.

Re: Not Bob Wishes He Was Someone Just a Little More Funky...
 

I rent an apartment on the UWS from the Black Crowes road manager. Are they the cool band or are CCs?

Re: Not Bob Wishes He Was Someone Just a Little More Funky...
 

The Counting Crows guy has dreadlocks, which are counterculture, so probably them. Let's freak out a little with some Funkadelic. "Funky Dollar Bill" for the Daily Dose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfVSqQ7FcDY

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

There is one and only one sensible solution to what ailes us in politics today.

And, yes, that is it.

Re: Not Bob Wishes He Was Someone Just a Little More Funky...
 

Let the record reflect laughter.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

There was some smashing of the aforementioned looms, but no, I don't think there are any significant historical examples of "extreme pain" in the form of meaningfully lowered living standards for any significant portion of the population.

I mean, it's possible I'm not aware of them, but you'd think something like the "steam engine famine" would be something we'd all know about.

Again, this is a historical observation as much as an economic one. History is simply lacking in examples of technology making the world poorer.

You seem to be thinking about this in a much too static way. As if Day X has level Y of employment and technology, only to be disrupted on Day X+1 with a large shock the needs time to sort out. Instead, there's constant variability in employment and technology and few or no massive shocks. Day X+1 might have three fewer bank tellers than the day before, that one of those people got a different job for the same pay, one took a job with lesser pay and one was unemployed for a bit until they found something else. There are problems to be dealt with there, but no, technology didn't great a great mass of unneeded workers.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

This is a fundamentally different observation than "technology is going to leave us with a lot of unneeded workers."

I also saw something today about more recent, short-term data on improving wages, but I didn't look at it closely (Teddy hurt his knee!), and can't put my finger on it right now.

It's much less bizarro when you accept: (1) racists gonna racist and misogynists gonna misogyny, (2) the abject weakness of the rest of the GOP field, (3) the complete failure of the GOP to define themselves as for anything other than "not Obama" and their increasingly unpopular culture war.

Regardless, the rise of populist movements tells us a lot about voter sentiment. It doesn't tell us much about the economy, which no one, much less those voters, really understands.

Yes, you're getting it now.

Do tell.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Ollie wants to be Bob Dylan ...
 

True and timely story -- I was dropping some old books off for Podunkville's Our Lady of Perpetual Motion's annual rummage sale yesterday after work, and saw a bunch of CDs for sale. Within mere inches of each other were copies of "Shake Your Moneymaker" and "Recovering the Satellites."

When I saw CDs from Better Than Ezra, Moxy Früvous (!), and the Wallflowers, I realized that someone bit the bullet and finally decided to clear out the old bedroom of their thirtysomething* child.

*Maybe even fortysomething at this point. Yikes.

Re: Ollie wants to be Bob Dylan ...
 

Can I just say, I've laid in extra popcorn for this Mexico trip/immigration speech combo. What could go wrong?

Re: Ollie wants to be Bob Dylan ...
 

Someone who has digital music went all Marie Kondo.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

For Sebby.