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"It's what happened to mortgage backed securities in 2008."

The rest of your post seems right, but what happened to MBSes was a bit different. It's had to describe, but basically, MBSes were pools of mortgages that were carved up into "Tranches" with varying risk. The highest risk tranches could be bought cheaply because it was assumed that the underlying mortgages would default sooner or later. Purchasers were betting on when the defaults would cut off their revenue stream, not if. The low risk tranches had high prices because they were assumed to be safe. The problem was that the assumed risk profile turned out to be seriously wrong and many of the "safe" tranches failed.

Here's a link that explains it. http://analytics-magazine.org/...

Or type 'planet money' and 'toxie' into your favorite search engine. First hit from Google is https://www.npr.org/2010/05/21... It's a fun read and it makes it pretty clear why pretty much nobody understood those monstrosities. (Kind of like cryptocurrencies in that respect)

Since my post got modded down, I'll ask again.

Why is it okay for Western nations to meddle in foreign elections, but not for Russia to do so?

The US has a long history of meddling in foreign elections: https://www.npr.org/2016/12/22/506625913/database-tracks-history-of-u-s-meddling-in-foreign-elections

Why is it okay for the US but not for Russia?

Modding me down is not an acceptable answer.

Are we really going to believe a nation that only has 28 websites, whose entire population has extremely limited access to the internet is going to be full of IT know-how to continuously plague the world?

"Doctor Occam, you're needed in surgical."

https://www.npr.org/sections/t...

And before you start touting nukes and rockets. Realize that nuclear bombs and rockets are basically 80 year old WWII technology.

The courts shut down the FCC regulating ISP's around 2005, claiming they did not have the authority to do so. In response, the FCC attempted to change the legal definition of what an ISP is until they could regulate. They failed in 2008 but succeeded in 2012. Then three years later Obama encouraged the FCC to go around congressional authority to impose new legal doctrine and voila! the Net Neutrality regulations that were just repealed. The vote was put to table within the FCC on the same grounds that caused the 2005 court ruling.

All these events that are recent history which have been conveniently ignored in the discussion of Net Neutrality. The FCC never had authority to do what they did but the gears of government are very slow.

Interesting, but your argument was rendered moot when the courts affirmed the Net Neutrality regulations in 2015.

Utah actually did something very similar and it found that it not only worked well it almost paid for itself https://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459100751/utah-reduced-chronic-homelessness-by-91-percent-heres-how.

Source? What I found is an interview with Mitchell Baker two days ago where she defends net neutrality.

Uh no, actually, the current era began with an incident on

Well I didn't really want to go that far back, but if we really want to we can start with 60 minutes back in the 1970's. I'm sure you already know that one.

Oh, if you want to go there, then let's go back to your old friend in the Publishing business. Or even....a made up incident!

But hey, at least you aren't going to war because of jealousy.

Meanwhile, oops... you believed another hoax!

Man, that is a crazy conspiracy Mashiki, and you don't even have a reason to blame the... You know, you wouldn't sound so crazy if you didn't make up such hysterical bullshit, but stuck to facts. Actual provable events.

Not your foaming at the mouth hyperbole.

Guess that's why some schools in the UK have seen a 2800% increase in kids suddenly claiming to be trans right?

Oh no! BIG HUGE PERCENTAGES! C'mon, you lying bullshitter, you know when you make blind claims of 2800% you'd just making yourself an obvious joke. You might as well complain that Hogwarts has had an outbreak of Goblin Flu for all the legitimacy that your complaints have.

Not been paying attention at all? I guess not.

Oh, is this like the time you wanted me to believe Satanic Worship was going on? Spare me your hysteria! You know what your moral panic doesn't mention? That the parents mentioned NOTHING other than a name change, a longer hair-style and different clothes. THE HORRORS!

Here's a real problem. Or this one. Or this!

Nope, I'm a citizen of the United States, and you may not understand this, but I want healthcare EVERYWHERE in my country, and more to the point, there are some practical considerations that necessitate my ability to cross state lines to get healthcare, as the boundaries of states were not set according to population or economics

How do you think it works in Canada?

According to you, it's apparently a death trap.

You know the single payer system that the left loves in droves? Each province is responsible for the level of healthcare. The federal government has no input. The fact that you want some bureaucrat in Washington to decide if Atlanta gets a new hospital is sure telling.

I sure don't want the idiots in Georgia deciding I get access to a hospital or not. And to be honest, they're not so good at paving their own roads. Or managing their own elections. Or staying away from other people's water. They need adult supervision. Sorry, but it's true.

Everybody everywhere has rationed healthcare. That's because health care resources are not infinite or unlimited.

Except the part where healthcare is rationed because the government is unwilling to pay for it right?

Nope, not when it's the insur

Some progressive city.

You know what city realized that criminalizing a horrible human rights problem, which homelessness is, is far more expensive than just buying people apartments? Salt Lake City. https://www.npr.org/2015/12/10...

Just miles away from me they're doing better yet than that and are building a tiny house/RV/tent community and people are going from homeless to having work building a community lifting themselves up, because people *want* dignity and shelter. Why has San Francisco morphed into this cold capitalist place where you've got to be a millionaire to live comfortably? Why are people assuming the worst about an entire group of people who have large numbers of military veterans and domestic violence survivors among them??

Uh no, actually, the current era began with an incident on

Well I didn't really want to go that far back, but if we really want to we can start with 60 minutes back in the 1970's. I'm sure you already know that one.

Man, that is a crazy conspiracy Mashiki, and you don't even have a reason to blame the... You know, you wouldn't sound so crazy if you didn't make up such hysterical bullshit, but stuck to facts. Actual provable events.

Not your foaming at the mouth hyperbole.

Guess that's why some schools in the UK have seen a 2800% increase in kids suddenly claiming to be trans right? Not been paying attention at all? I guess not.

Nope, I'm a citizen of the United States, and you may not understand this, but I want healthcare EVERYWHERE in my country, and more to the point, there are some practical considerations that necessitate my ability to cross state lines to get healthcare, as the boundaries of states were not set according to population or economics

How do you think it works in Canada? You know the single payer system that the left loves in droves? Each province is responsible for the level of healthcare. The federal government has no input. The fact that you want some bureaucrat in Washington to decide if Atlanta gets a new hospital is sure telling.

Everybody everywhere has rationed healthcare. That's because health care resources are not infinite or unlimited.

Except the part where healthcare is rationed because the government is unwilling to pay for it right?

That's a choice. Not a necessary element. If you don't like it, write your Prime Minister.

Again showing your ignorance. The PM has nothing to do with the state of healthcare in Canada, The premiers of each province do. On top of that, it is a necessary element otherwise you'd be as broke as someone in the US if you're a person who requires medications or specialized care. Why don't you go take a look at the green shield website and get an idea of how much you're gonna pay out, because many things aren't covered.

And what happens in the United States?

What's the difference between Canada and the US again? Right. You can't pay for your own healthcare in Canada at all, everyone get's in line and you just might die from waiting. Where as if you have money in most cases you can get that care.

Oh well, it's ok, I still remember you lying about

Can't figure out how that's related, but I've got a very good idea who you are now. I'll remind you, that it was the NDP that shut down the coal power plants and drove the price of electricity through the roof as well. And also required the utilities to build more transmission towers to cover cities that were suddenly off the grid. There's no lie in that.

I do like how you're so scared to stick your name behind what you're saying though. Such convincing truths after all.

Just spoke with some somebody who registered under the FAA system before the judge threw it out, this isnt (or at least wasnt then) a property registry at all. The rule simply required the Operator to register have a registration number and to place that number on any drones they fly. It's so that if the drone ends up somewhere it should not be, like (an airport runway, a prison, or maybe the white-house lawn, authorities have a way to trace it back to it's owner.

But it is the same Operator number on every drone you fly; the government knows that you are a drone operator, and you you do something illegal they can figure out it was your drone. But they dont know anything about the type or number of drones you have or anything, only that you are flying them, or at least are interested enough to get your name added to the list. And the fee was only something like $5, so we arent talking about a prohibitive monetary barrier.

Charities are often scams on both sides. e.g. The Clinton Global Fund.

Sorry, but the Clinton Global Fund has been assessed as not a scam, nor has its parent entity.

Why did it's funding go dry the day the bitch lost?

Why did the GOP tell so many lies about it?

Sorry HornWumpus, but you've discredited yourself.

You're just too much of a partisan ideologue.

PS:

Increasing the average farm plot size should be a goal.

It is. Of the Corporate Farming Oligarchy.

Stop being an ignorant mouthpiece, at least insist on being an informed one.

Then again, you're obsessed with the losing candidate, while the winning one just might be incapable of feeding himself in a few weeks.

The US government spends more per capita on healthcare than almost any other nation. Yes, the US government, excluding the private sector.

Per capita what? Per population? Per taxpayer? But what about in terms of healthcare received, or in terms of assessing the costs of healthcare?

Think about the difference. Then cite your sources. I'm sure you realize that hand-waved declarations of vague assertions are not especially persuasive when we know how easy it is to lie with statistics.

The problem with the US healthcare system isn't excessive stinginess by the government, it is excessive costs and excessive prices.

Indeed, among other things, it's lack of coverage. And bankruptcies.

Which isn't caused by the government being stingy, it's because the government isn't being thrifty enough by operating its own healthcare facilities. Oh wait, that's because the government is being made to be stingy under the false pretense of not providing its own healthcare facilities!

And the ACA did nothing to address excessive costs and prices (because drug companies, lawyers, and doctors tend to be big donors), instead it simply tried to force Americans to pay those excessive prices in perpetuity, which ensures that this will never get fixed.

Yes, it didn't have a public health insurance provision, let alone a healthcare provision, but we knew this at the time.

Do you not have any actual recall of the situation?

However, you forget the specific subsidies that did reduce the costs for the poor.

That some of us would have preferred hiring more doctors and providing better medical care directly, well, we didn't get a vote on that, now did we?

So if the money allocated to the border wall is unused, it does not go to healthcare

And by "healthcare", you mean the yachts and estates of wealthy doctors, insurance company executives, and pharmaceutical companies.

Now now, we're told "trickledown> " is essential by the GOP. It's their tax-plan now.

Sorry man, you've got less than you think.

But hey, at least you can get your pills.

Look, you know what's happening is due to the GOP, they're the party that's responsible now. And they're going to do their best job...of filling their own pockets. And baking

There is a dark side to full employment. This means we cannot have growth because companies will not be able to hire new people even if they wanted to. Kicking out people and focusing on these people who are different will hurt the economy. Because without these companies growing, there will be a point where all the people who wanted their stuff will have it, and stop buying it.

Because the unemployment rate is bullshit. Look at the labor force participation rate - AKA the "employment rate".

Note how it's declined precipitously since 2009. There are a lot of people available for work, which is why wages have been stagnant despite the "low" unemployment rate.

Just FYI, thinking back over who I've hired, I've hired probably 65% women, 35% men, mostly because I hired for people working under my direct daily supervision and I'm an alpha, dominate personality. In other words, there was no question I was the boss and the leader. A nice, caring boss maybe, but very much the boss. I generally want things to be done my way. At least, learn my way and start by doing it my way, then make changes only after you fully understand how I do it and why I do it that way. On average, more women are comfortable working in that type of than men. Men *generally tend* to want roles with more autonomy than what I hired for. The men generally didn't stick around as long as the women.

Sounds like you wanted cogs, not professionals, treating the latter badly in the name of "alphaness."

However, your experience is similar to what military leaders have said. Women train more easily. They follow instruction. They conform. But when novelty is needed, a "stepping-up", or in a high-stress environment, squads with women under perform in nearly every category tested.

Being a professional also involves following directions and patterns from above (within reason). It's part of professional discipline (which many people confuse with being cogs.)

I can see exactly where the op is coming from. I've seen my share of fools who simply can't follow directions. My way-or-the-highway. I actually had to work with one like that just recently (a woman mind you). And a few years before, with another one, a man. In both cases, they were both utterly destructive to productivity.

Ask a person to implement you a tree backed by several hash indexes, and you get all types of variations (even though the concept is simple.) And many of them will be wrong. So as the number of team members increase, you need to start having some patterns of coding, testing, and collaboration.

That is, you need processes. And processes do not need to be perfect, and sometimes not even 100% correct. But you need them to know what the hell people are doing under your command (you can't improve you cannot measure, and you cannot measure what you cannot track.) Have several dozen programmers under your wing working in multiple projects, and you begin to see the need for standardization.

People confuse creativity (professional creativity) with individuality. Furthermore (and specially in the MaleNerdVerse), people confuse individuality with being an obstinate monkey wrench blocking the gears. Hell, people confuse the dynamics of working in isolated 5-dude teams and working in engineering/enterprise projects requiring dozens, if not hundreds of collaborators.

Professionals (grown up people who care about the craft behind their work), they recognize the need to balance creativity, individuality and being part of a team that follows particular directions and processes (the things that makes them "cogs".)

Just FYI, thinking back over who I've hired, I've hired probably 65% women, 35% men, mostly because I hired for people working under my direct daily supervision and I'm an alpha, dominate personality. In other words, there was no question I was the boss and the leader. A nice, caring boss maybe, but very much the boss. I generally want things to be done my way. At least, learn my way and start by doing it my way,
then make changes only after you fully understand how I do it and why I do it that way. On average, more women are comfortable working in that type of than men. Men *generally tend* to want roles with more autonomy than what I hired for. The men generally didn't stick around as long as the women.

Sounds like you wanted cogs, not professionals, treating the latter badly in the name of "alphaness."

However, your experience is similar to what military leaders have said. Women train more easily. They follow instruction. They conform. But when novelty is needed, a "stepping-up", or in a high-stress environment, squads with women under perform in nearly every category tested.

A figurehead is usually the visible tip of a large iceberg. The true story is a quieter one that shapes the ground on which the debate occurs from behind the scenes.

50 Years Ago, Sugar Industry Quietly Paid Scientists To Point Blame At Fat

Was involved in an alleged murder of a person here in Arkansas awhile back. Apparently, it did not contain nor record anything incriminating as the accused murder was acquitted. Here is one of the articles: https://www.npr.org/sections/a...

*accused murderer* was acquitted...

CORRECTION: The case was dismissed (not acquitted by jury) basically due to lack of evidence. The prosecutor stated via another TV station in our area that the case can be re-opened if the prosecutor finds more evidence. http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/30/...

Was involved in an alleged murder of a person here in Arkansas awhile back. Apparently, it did not contain nor record anything incriminating as the accused murder was acquitted. Here is one of the articles: https://www.npr.org/sections/a...

*accused murderer* was acquitted...

Was involved in an alleged murder of a person here in Arkansas awhile back. Apparently, it did not contain nor record anything incriminating as the accused murder was acquitted. Here is one of the articles: https://www.npr.org/sections/a...

You win a prize for mentioning the word of the year, complicit

So it's cheapest -- as long as you ignore that pile of money over in the corner that someone else is paying, and one we promise will go away Real Soon Now. Good grief.

You do realize that the petroleum automotive complex was implicitly subsidized for almost the entirely of its existence?

For one thing, the road system was greatly overbuilt on government money.

For a second thing, our entire modern (inefficient) civic structure has been designed to accommodate the automobile since the last pony pile was scooped into a golden box and trunked off (in luxury) to the Smithsonian.

Third, in round numbers, from 1930–1990 the annual motor vehicle fatality rate in America was in near or above 20 deaths per 100,000 population. And you really think all of the associated costs were paid directly (or even indirectly) by the car owner?

It's harder to dig up cumulative historical statistics on spinal cord injuries.

Spinal Cord Injury Facts — 2009

The number of people in the United States who are alive in 2008 who have SCI has been estimated to be approximately 259,000 persons, with a range of 229,000 to 306,000 persons.

Swimming pools, horses, boating accidents, motorcycles, and primary industry (forestry, mining, farming) would all be large contributors, but you can bet automotive (including the aforementioned motorcycles) takes the largest slice out of the crown.

And of course, all those (extremely large) costs are precisely allocated, too (in some Randian fantasy world of your dreams).

Just last night my wife and I watched a documentary (of sorts) titled Comedy Warriors: Healing Through Humor (2013). It features five Iraq was veterans who returned home as amputees (4), with chronic spinal pain (one odd, pregnant lady), or as a burn victim (just one guy missing 25% of his original sheath to a total depth ++ underlying tissues, who kind of still had both his hands, but elected two years later to give one up when the effort to keep it saved just wasn't worth while). I made a dark joke to my wife as we were watching this: "that last guy looks like a Wookiee with his eyebrows seared off by a trash compactor methane supernova". (If you've never looked closely at a Wookiee before, a Wookiee's "eyebrows" cover his entire face and head. Use a camera, as it's not polite to stare.)

This film was better than expected, but you have to like visiting the real world, and make some reasonable allowances. Every spouse sat there quietly on the sofa concealing a hundred years of normal sorrows (see My Left Foot). Comedy therapy is about putting all that hidden anger to work, and it did (personal coaching from Lewis Black sure doesn't hurt). This was all certainly good for the vets. I wasn't finally so sure about the spouses (and ultimately you realize that there were propaganda guardrails firmly affixed, and that this was at least filmed in cooperation with Veterans Affairs or the suitable stay-positive-about-the-real-cost-of-freedom public agency; see The Tillman Story.)

Soldier Speaks Up A Decade After Pat Tillman's Friendly-Fire Death

To this day, Elliott, who has struggled with alcoholism, PTSD and divorce, all of which he traces to the friendly-fire episode, says he has never communicated directly with the Tillman family.

So there's several layers of graduate school in precisely who pays, if you're paying attention, and doing the math.

Finally (returning to the almost trivial), the negative externalities of mere automotive noise and mere automotive air pollution have long had serious deleterious effects on the surrounding human populations.

Then an option comes along that's prospectively (in the fairly ne

I doubt lawsuits will get very far - an entirely computer generated notice along the lines of "if you feel suicidal, you can call XXX-XXX-XXX to talk to someone" is going to fail tests for invasion of privacy

Sigh. Even TFS outright says "or contact local first-responders." Calling the cops on you because you might be suicidal is never the right thing to do, especially since there is a significant chance that the cops will just show up and murder you, even if people are standing by begging them not to.

and not exactly play well with a jury that can see Facebook is trying to do the right thing.

You mean "believe that" Facebook is trying to do the right thing, because they are not.

I'll just leave this here.

NPR's Planet Money did an episode of their podcast on this story. Episode 804: Your Cell Phone's A Snitch.

In this case the police started with one one of the robbers and going on from there. He had names and cell phone numbers. The police built their case based on using the data for the cell number of the ring leader.

Tom Wheeler ,the former head of the FCC, dismantled Ajit Pai's arguments for net-neutrality.

What happened was, that there was racist blowback from Obama by racist white voters [...]

And that's where people stop reading your post.

There is almost no real racism in the US, and the term is only used now to demean and belittle as a substitute for making an actual argument. Certainly it's not an appropriate label for half the nation.

We've had equality since about 1991 when Clarence Thomas was appointed to the supreme court. Not only do we have a black supreme court justice, but he's married to a white woman. I can remember being wonderstruck at that time by how amazing it was, and how far we had come(*).

There were no riots, no demonstrations, not much reaction at all when that happened. Just like when Obama was elected - it was only a matter of time before a reasonable presidential candidate happened to be black, and no one gave a fuck. It was a checkmark in peoples' minds, nothing more.

People don't like Obama not because he was black, but because he was awful! Lots and lots of actions that were patently unconstitutional on first reading, ordering US citizens killed, making up laws by executive action, prolonging two wars, screwing up health care... the list goes on.

It's easy to say that people who don't like Obama are racist, it might get you an "amen" from the cheap seats in the house, but it doesn't really reflect reality.

People don't like Obama because he was awful.

(*) Twenty-five years earlier and blacks couldn't marry whites in most of the south, by law. Fifty years earlier it was most of the US. It was illegal when (and where) Thomas was born.

First, putting 93% of their stores in majority-white zip codes is meaningless without also knowing what percentage of zip codes are majority-white. Pulling some demographics out of a zip code database gives 17,409 zip codes which are more than 50% white. 2591 zip codes where whites are 50.0% or fewer. So white-majority zip codes comprise (17409)/(17409+2591) = 87.0% of all zip codes.

That is, if Apple located the stores randomly based on zip code, you would expect 87% of them to be in white-majority zip codes. On top of that, there's a margin of error. 99% of the time, you'd expect these stores to fall within a range of (2.576)*sqrt((0.87)*(1-0.87)/(270)) = 0.0527, or +/- 5.3%. That is, 99% of the time you sprinkled the stores randomly in a table of zip codes, you'd end up between 81.7% to 92.3% of stores in white-majority zip codes. 93% falls just outside this range, so we're talking about just barely being 99% confident that this is a real deviation, not a random occurrence.

Second, these are zip codes, not areas of equal population or population. Zip codes vary in population by about a 7:1 ratio. It's much more advantageous for a business to put a store into a zip code with a high population. So if there's any correlation between zip code population and racial diversity, it could be enough to offset the margin statistical significance we found above. I don't have time to research this, but my hunch would be that the low population zip codes tend to be skewed towards white-minority (e.g. remote areas like Indian reservations, sections of Alaska with large Inuit population, etc) compared to white-majority zip codes. Since a business is unlikely to put a store in an area of low population, that would erase a good chunk of the discrepancy between 87% and 93%.

Third, related to the second, is that high population density zip codes tend to be smaller and near other high population density zip codes. So whereas a store in a medium population density zip code may be meant to stand on its own, a store in a high population density zip code may be meant to draw customers from nearby zip codes. That is, people in neighboring zip codes are expected to travel the short distance to the single store servicing all those zip codes. I also suspect that high population density zip codes tend to be more white-minority (e.g. the Bronx). If so, this would also skew the number of stores in minority zip codes down. Not because there are fewer stores within a x mile radius, but because there are more zip codes within an x mile radius.

tl;dr - This looks more like just a straight random distribution, with some biasing due to how minorities tend to distribute themselves geographically compared to whites. Not some form of discrimination on Apple's part.

Remember some years ago when Rick Santorum was running for the Republican nomination, and he got Google-bombed?
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/e...
https://www.npr.org/2016/02/25...

The lib-left thought it was hilarious, and guffawed a lot. When Rick Santorum complained, Google essentially said "not our problem".

When it turns out that Google-fixing might have hurt Hillary Clinton's run for the presidency, things are totally different. The lib-left goes full-feminist "That's not funny". Google doesn't consider this to be "not our problem"; they're all over it like flies over shit.

I guess it depends on who's ox is being gored. Guess which party Silicon Valley supports.

NPR Planet Money has a segment talking about telemarketers using spoofed caller ID with the same area code and exchanges to make people more likely to pick up the phone.

Read or listen here: https://www.npr.org/templates/...

Monsanto tried that too with their engineered crops. They were supposed to be unable to reproduce. And yet they did! Because mutations.

I think you're confusing three separate issues and believing they're a reality that fits what you want to believe.


Two: there have been lawsuits that monsanto pollen contaminated fields (you mention this below). It appears more likely the farmer in question intentionally cultivated GMO seeds, using roundup, and at any rate, that's much different from what you're suggesting.

Three: terminator seeds, which Monsanto developed, are unable to reproduce. These seeds were never sold. There's not much need: modern farmers aren't really interested in re-using seeds. First generation hybrids that are sold are superior, second generation seeds are a mix that aren't worth as much.

But hey, maybe you can react like they did, when they sued the farmers on whose fields the Monsanto crops had spread for copyright infringement and put them in prison for 10-20 years. Yes, that actually happened.

You're intentionally peddling lies here. The farmer in question planted the GMO seeds he didn't buy or license. I don't think he should have had to license seeds he obtained from his own land, so that part is shit, but he did knowingly use the seeds without paying the fee. He had to pay a small fine, NOT the lawyers fees, and he didn't fucking get sent to prison.

Written recipes from the time period still exist. Most are for wealthy people but there are regular recipes. For the wealthy recipes, there's some interesting podcasts where they recreate the recipe: https://www.npr.org/sections/m... https://www.npr.org/sections/t... (and many more) As for the ingredients, I know that this is unusual in the USA, but here in Switzerland I still buy most of my food direct from the farm. Here in Zürich there are some city-subsidized working farms placed strategically around the city. My local farm is about a 5-minute pleasant walk through cow pastures. Every week I buy raw whole milk, raw butter, freshly laid eggs, organic vegetables, bread, cheese, etc, and meat from the cows I walk past every week. We make our own yogurt with the raw milk. I think most people back then didn't really cook with recipes. They'd take whatever they got fresh that week and work with that. That's how my wife and I do it today too.

Written recipes from the time period still exist. Most are for wealthy people but there are regular recipes. For the wealthy recipes, there's some interesting podcasts where they recreate the recipe: https://www.npr.org/sections/m... https://www.npr.org/sections/t... (and many more) As for the ingredients, I know that this is unusual in the USA, but here in Switzerland I still buy most of my food direct from the farm. Here in Zürich there are some city-subsidized working farms placed strategically around the city. My local farm is about a 5-minute pleasant walk through cow pastures. Every week I buy raw whole milk, raw butter, freshly laid eggs, organic vegetables, bread, cheese, etc, and meat from the cows I walk past every week. We make our own yogurt with the raw milk. I think most people back then didn't really cook with recipes. They'd take whatever they got fresh that week and work with that. That's how my wife and I do it today too.

Which of these facts are you claiming is not a fact?: "the FBI told Fox News that its investigation had found no evidence so far warranting the filing of federal criminal charges in connection with the controversy, as it had not found any evidence of "enemy hunting", and that the investigation continued. On October 23, 2015, the Justice Department declared that no criminal charges would be filed. On September 8, 2017, the Trump Justice Department declined to reopen the criminal investigation into Lois Lerner, a central figure in the controversy.[1] " (wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...) (see also: https://www.npr.org/sections/i... )

What you really mean is that mean old nasty IRS was actually enforcing the regulations concerning 501(c) groups that were ILLEGALLY putting money into Republican campaigns, and were allowing the wealthy to anonymously contribute thousands of dollars which they wouldn't have been able to do through normal campaign donations. It seems like conservatives in general think that the laws don't apply to them, because they think they're doing "God's work", and to them, 'God's laws' (or rather, their very constrained and contorted INTERPRETATIONS of 'God's laws') always beat out 'Man's laws'.

This is the same dynamic that has conservatives excoriating Bill and Hillary (him for having an affair, and her for sticking by him in spite of the affair), while ignoring or excusing the serial philandering of Newt Gingrich, Henry Hyde's affair, Bob Livingston's affair, or the paraphilia of Denis Hastert. This is the same dynamic that allows conservatives to decry the actions of Harry Weinstein, while ignoring the similar allegations against Roy Moore.

You live in an echo chamber where everything you read tells you your views are virtuous and clever and the other side is evil and stupid. The reason Google got into such trouble is that they hire people from inside the same echo chamber and fire people when they point this out like Damore did.

You American left wingers have ironically become indistinguishable from the way you used to portray the religious right - self righteous authoritarians who think anyone who disagrees with them is stupid and/or evil. The American left even has doctrines equivalent to original sin (male privilege and white guilt) and hell (environmental collapse). As with original sin white guilt can only be expiated by continual penitence. As with the Christian fundamentalist version of hell environmental collapse can only be avoided by not doing fun stuff. And like the Christian fundamentalists the onus always seems to be on stopping other people doing fun stuff - people like Al Gore live in vast, energy efficient mansions while telling everyone else to use less energy to save the planet from global warming, analogous to the way Ted Haggard used meth and slept with rent boys in private while publicly telling everyone else to abstain from sin in order to save their souls from hellfire. Like the religious right in the 80's the modern American left wants to take away people's freedom, ostensibly for their own good. But like the religious right you always get the feeling that pursuit of political power is a significant part of the real reason. And the people wanting to set standards have no intention of living up to those standards themselves.

It's actually kind of amusing to watch from the outside. You don't know how much like the standard Hollywood portrayal of a hypocritical, power hungry fundamentalists your side sounds like. You can see characters like this in any Stephen King novel. What the left in the US don't realise is to at least half the US people like Al Gore look a lot like that to them.

The left in the US didn't used to be this way. Bill Clinton may have been an awful person when it came to sexual harassment and corruption, but he moved the party to the centre, a trick Tony Blair copied in the UK. It's only recently that the left has become captivated by identity politics and millennial fears of environmental catastrophe that can only be averted by vast amounts of central planning. Bernie for example wants Medicare for all. Something even NPR - a sympathetic media outlet - said would cost $32 Trillion over 10 years

https://www.npr.org/2017/09/14...

Payment is unclear. A generous plan that covers all Americans is going to require more revenue. There's no exact plan for how to pay for Sanders' bill, but he did on Wednesday afternoon release a list of potential payment options. Among the proposals: a 7.5 percent payroll tax on employers, a 4 percent individual income tax and an array of taxes on wealthier Americans, as well as corporations. In addition, Sanders' plan says the end of big health insurance-related tax expenditures, like employers' ability to deduct insurance premiums, would save trillions of dollars.

But even with all of those potential revenue-boosters, Sanders may still fall far short of the total amount of money needed to pay for his ambitious program. Altogether, his estimates of how much money his funding mechanisms would generate totals up to around $16 trillion over 10 years. In a 2016 report on his presidential campaign's "Medicare for All" plan, the Urban Institute estimated that the plan would cost $32 trillion over 10 years.

To put $32 Trillion in perspective the cumulative debt almost doubled under Obama - increasing from $10.63 Trillion to $19.4 trillion. Once again Politifact is a source sympathetic to the left.

âoeMarrying a child bride is as American as Apple Pie.â -creimer, in the same thread he calls someone else a pervert.

Please educate yourself. This is a very serious issue that's starting to get attention in the media.

Child marriage isn't just a practice that victimizes girls in poor countries. As this blog has previously reported, it's also long been an issue in the United States, involving girls from a wide range of backgrounds. Based on state marriage license data and other sources, advocacy groups and experts estimate that between 2000 and 2015 alone, well over 200,000 children — nearly all of them girls — were married. In nearly all cases the husband was an adult.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/08/30/547072368/a-look-at-the-loopholes-that-allow-child-marriage-in-the-u-s

Smallpox was eradicated because (1) it only infects humans, (2) the symptoms are highly visible, and (3) people who've had the disease are immune but no longer carriers. Once enough humans were vaccinated and infected persons were isolated, the disease was unable to find new hosts and was eradicated.

Unfortunately this is not the case for other diseases. We attempted to eradicate Yellow Fever in the early 1900s, but it failed because the disease can infect other species. Polio has been difficult because an infected person is often asymptomatic, and can unwittingly spread the disease. Likewise, measles has a long period between when an infected person can spread the disease, and when the symptoms first appear. Malaria is probably the disease we'd most like to eradicate, but you can get malaria multiple times. So vaccination only confers a low level of immunity.

The only other disease we're getting close to eradicating is Guinea worm. This is a parasitic disease, not a virus, but by educating people about drinking clean water or boiling or filtering before drinking, it was nearly eradicated. Unfortunately it ran into (1) above - it was thought that the worms could only infect people, and thus a global halt to infection for a short period of time would be enough to drive the worm into extinction. Then we discovered that dogs can also carry the form of worm which infects humans.

When faced with a myriad of different problem conditions like this, the best approach is usually a shotgun approach. You throw all sorts of different things against the wall in hopes of randomly finding something that sticks. That is the libertarian philosophy. Your insinuation that libertarians require personal profit as motivation is incorrect. Libertarians are free to donate their money to whatever causes they feel are worthy, and do so all the time. What libertarians are against is being forced to donate their money to causes they personally don't feel are worthy, or being prevented from donating their money to causes they feel are worthy.

What the GP is advocating is a market-based approach to combating diseases. A libertarian, being in favor of the shotgun approach, would approve of both for-profit and charitable means of fighting diseases. The anti-market folks (mostly liberal) would try to prevent for-profit approaches without even seeing if they would work. And likewise the pro-market folks (mostly conservative) would try to phase out charitable approaches in favor of for-profit approaches. To the libertarian, the anti-market folks can donate to the charities fighting diseases, the pro-market folks can donate to for-profit organizations fighting diseases, and everyone is happy (well, everyone except those who think they are "right" and feel they should be able to control how the "wrong" people spend their money).

It does require a certain level of focus, especially when stuff, you know, starts going wrong or becomes difficult. You know, it's something I think the military trains us really well for, is focusing on what we can control and ignoring what we can't, whether that's, well — in space we can't control, you know, the fact that we could meet our demise at any time. We can't control how distracting the Earth looks and how incredibly beautiful it is. We can't control how everything floats around, and that makes stuff more difficult, so yeah, compartmentalization is very important.

Something all of us should remember.

heck I don't know. probably just making it up.

https://www.politico.com/story...
https://thinkprogress.org/stev...

http://www.motherjones.com/pol...

https://www.npr.org/sections/t...

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/con...

---

https://www.childtrends.org/in...

In 2015, more than 1 in 6 U.S. children (18 percent) lived in households that were food-insecure at some point during the year, and 0.7 percent experienced the most severe level of need, where food intake is reduced and regular eating patterns are disrupted.[1]

https://www.nokidhungry.org/si...

Child Hunger is a Health Problem
While every American is morally offended by the existence of childhood hunger, pediatricians and public health
professionals see the tragic effects of this unnecessary condition graphically imprinted on the bodies and minds
of children;
â Hungry children are sick more often, and more likely to have to be hospitalized (the costs
of which are passed along to the business community as insurance and tax burdens);
â Hungry children suffer growth impairment that precludes their reaching their full
physical potential,
â Hungry children incur developmental impairments that limit their physical, intellectual
and emotional development.

---

Cause I'm just crazy that way.

Much of this could be addressed for *PENNIES* on the dollar yet republicans have been targeting poor children for over a decade now (it really started under bush JR).

NPR did a fantastic interview with Cow Clicker's creator, Ian Bogost, back in 2011.
Cow Clicker Founder: If You Can't Ruin It, Destroy It

> Seriously though, what about ...other addictive games ...

The difference is that other addictive games aren't data-mining the shit out of you compared to FecesBook because they don't have access to your contacts.

But your point is that other addictive games are bad definitely should be noted. They certainly don't get a "free pass" just because "See, we aren't as bad as FailBook!"

There needs to be a US law that a person can request all the data a company has collected about you.

No company should ever be allowed to take the law in to is own hands.

But they should be allowed to write it?

A defining hallmark of civilization is an increased GDP per person

As such i offer incontrovertible proof that urban areas are in-fact the bastions of civilization in an ocean of uncivilized savage sub-human populated rural communities.

https://stateimpact.npr.org/ne...

The R2 of .45 for urbanization vs GDP/person is as closed to definitive proof as possible where one can not do double blind studies on the nation state level.

That void is empty. The alien space ship that was originally hangered there has been moved to the vault A Thiruvandapuram Sri Padmanabha Swamy temple . Citation provided

First, see what kind of social and economic mischief you can carry out in the West by way of "anonymous" activity on the Internet - do it cheap, like get kids to help out, and take note how hard it is to trace back to the culprit.
(in parallel, see how much actual damage can be carried out, using Ukraine as a guinea-pig).
Next, notice well it all worked, beyond all reasonable expectations, even to the extent of swaying elections of public officials in the U.S. (they're holding Congressional hearings about us!), and encouraging open revolt against the state and inflaming street unrest.
Third, in view of the fact that Russian officials do not tolerate street unrest and open revolt against the state, conclude that this "research experiment" has proven without question that the Internet is a danger to the Motherland and its beloved leader, Valdimir Putin.
Fourth and finally, take pre-emptive action based on this valuable research to crush this threat and make sure it don't never happen here (Russian military take note... could be useful someday; continue research).
P.S.: President Xi says to Putin in his heavy Chinese accent, "way ahead of you."
P.P.S.: Kim Jong-un says it was all my idea.

Yeah, that's what people with zero understanding of running a business say. Most executives I've run across are easily worth more than what they're paid, and very few aren't. Just as a case in point:

https://aflcio.org/paywatch/TM...

The AFL-CIO thinks it's terrible that John Legere makes 533 times more than the line workers. But here's why he gets paid what he gets paid: He turned that carrier around from hemorrhaging customers to being the fastest growing carrier within three years, overtaking Sprint as the #3 carrier in the process.

Besides that, because of him, my phone bill has seen both a 50% reduction in cost and a massive increase in quality of service. The same can be said of non T-Mobile customers. When Verizon started losing subscribers for the first time in over a decade and kept doing so for several quarters, they abandoned their line of "customers don't want unlimited data" to offering unlimited data.

AFL-CIO is welcome to suck my balls. And the CWA union can suck my balls as well. It's because of them that Centurylink's employees are lazy as fuck and have made phone service here really turn to shit. I kid you not, Centurylink's employees, as per union rules, are required to bring a lawn chair and an umbrella to their work sites.

I personally have avoided working for unionized companies not only because I would have yet another boss to answer to, but I really don't want to have money taken out of my paycheck to fatten up some mafia boss that ultimately doesn't do anything for me other than pretend he's looking out for my best interests. (Not to mention union executives everywhere make well over 6 figures...tell me...why am I supposed to hate the CEO's pay, but not theirs?)

http://www.npr.org/templates/s...
https://www.justice.gov/usao-n...
http://nlpc.org/2016/02/01/top...
https://www.reuters.com/articl...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

The problem I see . . . is folks flagging stuff as 'controversial' because they disagree with it. Lots of the left wing channels got flagged. But even some science channels got flagged by the anti-climate change folks and the 'intelligent design' crowd.

On one hand I would say it generally isn't right to do that. On the other, my heart bleeds for them. I mean, it's not like the left wing goes out of its way to abuse, ... well ...

PragerU sues YouTube, Google for blacklisting its conservative educational videos

College melts down over plan for white people-free day on campus

Justice Department settles IRS lawsuits from 400 conservative groups claiming discrimination

Court Documents Show The IRS Focused Scrutiny On Conservative Groups

Now, thanks to filings in a federal lawsuit in Ohio, there is such a list, with 426 names on it. And yes, it's top-heavy with conservative groups:

— 62 had Tea Party or Tea Party Patriots in the name

— a additional 14 had Patriots in the name

— 30 groups had 9/12 or Liberty in the name (9/12 refers to groups inspired by conservative television personality Glenn Beck)

In all, 282 conservative groups were on the IRS list, about two-thirds of the total number of groups that got additional scrutiny.

The list also has 67 progressive organizations (16 percent of the total) and 21 nonpartisan civic groups, including three League of Women Voters chapters.

The IRS took a hard look at Friends of Abe, a group for Hollywood conservatives, and at five state chapters of Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition. But also at LULAC (the League of Latin American Citizens), seven state groups with Progress in their names and two Occupy groups.

The Deerfield Beach, Fla., chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women caught the agency's eye. So did the National Federation of Independent Business and a group recorded simply as The Institute. Thirty-two groups couldn't be identified

I could go on.

The only problem with giving the Democrats the roto rooter treatment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., is Americans expect everything now, it must happen yesterday and cleaning out the Democrats much like cleaning out the Republicans will take at least 6 years. Two minor elections and one full election. Not that it wont be chaotic fun to do so but too many Americans expect it served up a platter for them, someone else to clean up their mess.

I don't get, look how much fun it has been screwing over the establishment and making them look as stupid and clumsy as clowns in a clown car. This is the best time to enjoy politics, sure the outcomes at the moment aren't all that flash but you can see them literally falling apart in a blind panic, collapsing in the pile of bullshit the have crafted out of US politics.

Being a reformist is always way meaner than being a revolutionary. Revolutions tend to lead to one thing only, another revolution. The Reformists use the power of the state to clean the state and once started becomes pretty much impossible to stop. We are not fighting the authorities but backing those with honour and integrity and allowing them to do the job they want to do and providing them with the support and information to do that job. The best way to fight crime of any sort is for the authorities and the public to work together and that takes patience, cooperation and clear thought, the willingness to do the hard yards to get the touch down.

Maybe it was time for a little chaos in US politics, the established parties are too complacent and too beholden to large donations from small groups at the fringes of mainstream.

On the other hand, we definitely need to stop outside influences from pouring gasoline on the fire. Ineffective government isn't a good thing, despite what some people may say. A company where the CEO, board of directors, and all the VPs can't manage effectively quickly runs into trouble, and a government is not that different.

"Proving" something is safe is nigh impossible. If there's nothing to suggest it might be, why assume it is?

Indeed, if there's nothing to suggest it might be safe, you might be best to not assume it is.

Particularly when there are many scientists pointing out how the herbicide does not stay in the fields it was sprayed on, but kills crops in other fields far away.

I really wonder if the Republican party will even back him for re-election or officially support a different candidate. It has happened before.

I listened to this podcast about dicamba last summer. It was kind of interesting and fairly relevant to this story.