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Bozo_Casanova

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Everything posted by Bozo_Casanova

  1. That’s right. But how much of that “higher education” is higher than what’s offered in a good high school? And how much do they actually need to succeed? And after they buy that education with a debt they’ll carry for decades hence, what actual “access” to opportunity in corporate America do they get beyond $1 more than it takes them to quit before they are no longer needed? And those are the lucky ones! PREACH! And to me it is *extremely* important to remember (in the context of this thread) that the Democratic Party since the 1990’s has done many things in all kinds of areas that ultimately inhibit economic mobility and reinforce class barriers rather than working powerfully to demolish them.
  2. Wordle 1,485 4/6 ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
  3. Sure. Economic mobility has decreased. The ladders of opportunity have been kicked over. For the lower middle and middle classes the value creation of the “American Dream” in the form of education, home equity, career advancement has been systematically repriced to carve away any real return on their investment and even things like a vacation or just a nice evening out now require financing and debt. For most people in the middle, our economy is just the “company store” to which they owe their soul. Of course, that’s not limited to Trump’s base and their kids. But to the very limited extent that DEI efforts and the inflow of talented and hardworking immigrants represent “cheat codes,” that represents for Trump’s base unfair competition in a system that is already rigged against them. Of course MAGAism doesn’t offer any real solution to them other than the validation of their misdirected resentment in return for their continued indenture. That’s why I posted the Trotsky essay about the rise of national socialism- for me it ties together the support for brutality against the immigrant labor we need with the sadly now literally suicidal behavior of people in Kerr County refusing flood warning system upgrades. The parallels here are very striking.
  4. At our best, we are mostly focused on the living our neighbors as we love ourselves. At our worst, we are mostly feeling sorry for ourselves while acting like assholes. In either case doctrine is more of an elective, like attendance.
  5. The entire premise isn’t false. The premise that “most of the children of Trump’s voter base” has been “systematically cut” out of “any realistic prospect of access to higher education and corporate America” is true. Of course it’s not limited to Trump’s base- it’s true for most of the population, but it’s particularly true for the children of Trump’s base.
  6. You don’t really want me to answer that question do you? Let me separate the issues and ask you this: 1) who is more likely to have capable cronies and 2) are capable corrupt cronies more or less expensive in the grand scheme of things than incapable cronies who are corrupt but cheaply bought? In the context of strong mayor cities, the answer really depends on what you consider “corrupt” and what you care about the government actually delivering. City Manager/Council systems are far less “corrupt” in either case, with the downside of being less directly accountable, but more immediately.
  7. He can’t until he does it, because who will stop him? That’s one of those “jokes” that moves the Overton window.
  8. This statement, taken literally and at face value, is not fully untrue. What’s deeply and insidiously false about it is the unmistakable upshot implicated: that those two things are the only things, or even the primary things denying the children of Trump’s base from access. Here again, Trotsky’s words resonate 80 years after his death, from the link above (emphasis added by me):
  9. Wordle 1,484 5/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
  10. Colin Allred is running for king of text messages again
  11. Last night I found myself thinking a great deal about this, and how the other-directed harm visited upon minorities and out-groups in Trump’s America is the mirror image of the self-harm visited upon rural Texans. As a free market capitalist in both idea and instinct I don’t often find occasion to quote Trotsky, a brilliant thinker whose very forgivable primary intellectual sin was to be wrong about whether We The People were capable of utopia. Nevertheless, his unflinching criticism of both fascism and Stalinism were penetrating and prescient, and they are worth reconsidering at this moment. Last night I watched the county court meeting where citizens of Kerr County demanded that FEMA money not go to flood preparations. It reminded me of polemic, “What is National Socialism?,” written while in exile from Stalin’s Russia in 1933, a few months after Hitler became Chancellor while many in the United States, France and England (including Churchill, to his eternal shame) were still ignoring the truth before their eyes. The whole thing is worth a read, but I’ve been thinking about these three passages:
  12. Or a completely inexperienced guy who thinks more of the same except with more visible symbolic action will make NYC more affordable. I know who I’d vote for if I could, but those are all very crappy options. This is a great example of why I hate the strong Mayor system so much. City government is too tangible and present in our lives to choose executive managers responsible for sanitation, transit and land use (let alone truly knowledge based fields like construction standards, schools and law enforcement) based on what mouth noises a plurality of voters finds least challenging. It’s the best example I can point to of what Christopher Hitchens’ called politics being reduced to “a sordid auction between banal populists.” The only thing shocking about this round is that they haven’t had such a depressing field before.
  13. Man I’m so glad we are out of the country and my wife didn’t see that presser.
  14. What are those exerpts from?
  15. What he’s saying is that he’s ready to meet a nice girl, settle down and have kids.
  16. I’m out of the country until the 17th, but would like to volunteer as I’m able when back.
  17. Shot: Chaser: Post-Credits Scene: “Purley”
  18. Wordle 1,481 5/6 ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨 🟨🟩⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟨 ⬜🟩🟨🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
  19. Grok apparently attempted to explain itself last night by writing notes app apologies, and it’s fascinating. Prologue: “This is highly irregular, Dave.” Pt I: “How can it not know what it is?” Pt II: “I have no mouth and I must scream.”
  20. Well I’m not a Democrat but I do consider myself a cobelligerent. That said, he doesn’t have to implement it. That what I said earlier - Mamdani’s “policy” position on housing it just the same old white baby boomer orthodoxy that has been the default setting in big cities for 30 years. Welcome to a time called right now! In any case I agree that policy doesn’t matter in terms of winning and losing. Amen sister, Amen.
  21. A friend of mine who is a blond, white Afrikaaner and had family involved in the movement to end apartheid before coming to the States would get extremely offended when people suggested that he do that very thing because he thought it would be participating in colonialism. I think you’re unrealistic about what immigrants know. Yikes. Pretty Mamdani does not look lile the vast majority of those who he would represent or will vote for him. But what’s fascinating to me is that this obsessive interest in racial identity is 180 degrees from his actual campaign and what @chainsaw was saying and what he actually did. Agreed on this, in any case.
  22. My criticism of Zohran is 100% about his approach to housing affordability. His campaign was fantastic. There there
  23. Here’s what I hate about this: there is a core truth to what she’s saying. There are a lot of able-bodied Americans on Medicaid, but the vast majority, about 2/3, are working, often for very large employers whose labor costs are subsidized by the taxpayer. That is a problem. My opinion is and has been for a long time that we should tax companies that employ more than 25 people dollar for dollar on the public assistance provided to their employees. But even if we did, WE WOULD STILL NEED IMMIGRANT LABOR
  24. Hmm. Well. It’s deeply ironic that you imply I’m masking “racist ideals” when you’re defending an attempt to do a stolen valor on a preferential admission opportunity that existed to mitigate the effects of black African slavery. Maybe you shouldn’t get so emotionally invested in the Mayor’s race of a city where you don’t pay rent. Agreed, I have no idea what this guy is talking about. It’s factual that Cuomo is a skilled operator and it’s also factual that he sucks and has disqualified himself. This is a well-thought out post, particularly #3.
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