The self-driving taxis and humanoid robots companies like Tesla are developing are just a thinly disguised way of getting around immigration law. We're a very long way away from having autonomous humanoid robots that can clean your house for you. But one remotely piloted by someone in Bangladesh wearing a haptic suit? If the tech was cheap enough, that sort of thing would be profitable.
It's effectively an extremely perverse and exploitive form of immigration. When we bring immigrants in, they typically take low-level jobs. But they also get opportunities to advance themselves further. Moreover, in the US at least, any children immigrants have on US soil automatically become US citizens. So yes, immigrants come in on the bottom of the social ladder, but they have an opportunity to climb.
Here though? This is a way of getting all the labor we want from immigrants but without offering them the usual deal in return. And even worse, they won't even be owed minimum wage.
It goes beyond just that. I think a Democratic presidential candidate could do well addressing elitist thinking in general. I think they could do quite well with a pledge not to appoint anyone to their cabinet or to a court that graduated from an Ivy League school. One of the reasons we keep seeing the same shitty approaches is that both parties recruit heavily from the same handful of schools. This they're recruited from the same social circles. I would suggest that candidates just flat out state that they'll be filling all their major spots with people who got their education at state schools.
I was in Houston for Hurricane Harvey. We didn't get flooded, but the whole city was paralyzed for two weeks. And that was just to get basic transportation functioning again. I was teaching undergraduate students at the time, and my class was just cancelled for two weeks in the fall term. We just missed two semesters of the fall term with no makeup.
My home didn't get flooded, but many of my students and colleagues did experience flooding. We did however have a leak open up in the back wall of our townhome. We had a leak that allowed water in the back wall, which resulted in water damage in two rooms. I filed a claim with insurance, but they lowballed us, and after the hurricane, contractors only wanted to work on big projects, whole house gutting and repair. So I actually did the repairs myself. I figured I could either use the insurance payment to cover 1/3 of the repair cost, or I could use the insurance payment to buy the tools I needed to do it myself. I first built an access scaffolding behind the unit to fix the leak. Afterwards on the inside I tore out a bunch of drywall and repaired the interior damage.
Oh well, it put me down the path I'm on now. I eventually got really into woodworking, starting with the tools I had bought to do that repair. And further down the road, that put me on the path to pursuing a PhD in wood science. So what a tangled web we weave, I suppose...
A lever and a proper surface on which to stand.
One trans person will commit a misguided act of violence in a protest against anti-trans laws. All price increases from then on are blamed on transgender terrorist cells targeting the supply chain.
Of course, deportation requires cooperation of the other country. Until your new home is willing to accept you, you will of course have to remain in custody...
Unethical life pro tip: get an apartment that isn't at the end of a hallway and has floors above and below. In some cases, you can turn off your heat completely and simply steal heat from your neighbors, leeching off of them like some sort of thermal mosquito. It won't be as warm as is comfortable without bundling up, but it may be warm enough to get by just by bundling up. Watch out for freezing pipes though!
For an added techno bonus: install a smart thermostat connected to a camera pointed at the door with facial recognition tech built in. If anyone other than the residents walk in, the thermostat is automatically reset to 72F/22C. That way if you DO burst a pipe, and the landlord walks in, they won't have any proof you did it!
Maybe. On a completely unrelated note, can you let me know the next time you'll be in public, preferably not standing within several feet of anyone else and anything flammable?
In terms of yourself, it already effectively is legal. When was the last time someone was prosecuted for attempting suicide?
If you're trying to hide it, be careful with fabrics you wear, some will show straps and other things. Though if you want to hide it, you might be better off with a sports bra. But really, layers are your friend. Maybe consider an undershirt or wear a jacket/hoodie. But also keep in mind that if you notice a change in silhouette, others may as well. But anyway, congrats on the milestone.
If I were a teacher in Texas, I would think, "you have no idea what you have just done." The New Testament is a very subversive book if you actually read it. Time to start having class discussions about Marxist philosophy centered around various Bible passages. Time to start teaching lessons with completely different conclusions, each based directly on Bible verses, in order to reveal the internal contradictions.
My God in Heaven. It WAS aliens all along. A UFO intercepted Earhart's plane and turned it to stone with a space ray! Or, possibly, a wizard did it.
Honestly, I wonder people should start a movement that overtly supports capitulation to and cooperation with China. Start a movement that at least portrays things as being better in China, the people in China actually being freer, that leaders are held accountable, etc. Maybe even overtly say that you wouldn't care if the CCP wholesale took control of the country.
Do I actually espouse or believe any of these things? No. But honestly the ownership class could use a good heart attack once in awhile. Imagine if we had some decent percentage of the population overtly championing Maoism. Suddenly Medicare for All wouldn't seem so extreme, would it?
Because utilitarian ethics isn't the be and end all of moral decision making? Elections are just as much about holding people accountable as they are about choosing the utilitarian optimal future policy path.
It is crucial to remember that most of history's greatest atrocities were justified on utilitarian grounds - the greatest good for the greatest many. That's how eugenics was justified. That's how the crimes of the Nazis were justified. That's how the Tuskegee Experiment was justified. And it's how powerful men get away with being sexual predators. ("Yes, he may be a monster, but he's doing important work...")
Utilitarian decision making has its place. But at some point you also have to hold people accountable. And that's what you've missed. Remember, this is the only shot the voters ever got at holding Biden/Kamala responsible for their actions. This is literally the only way we as citizens have of directly holding these people accountable. Protests have their place, but voting is all we get in terms of direct accountability.
What is the point that you would stop using utilitarian ethics and start holding leaders accountable? What crime would be so bad that you wouldn't vote for a leader if you thought their overall policies would be superior to their opponent? Where do you personally draw the line? Because if you have no line...well God help you. Because you are already lost.
Republicans have significant division in their caucus. Look at the chaos they had with electing a House speaker. Most of the Republicans in the House will talk the talk, but ultimately they really don't want to tear down the entire government. But there's a quarter of them or so that would eagerly vote for a bill that just shut the Federal government down entirely. There's some real whackadoos there. Or some people who will simply never vote for a debt limit increase under any circumstance.
And Republicans are looking like they're going to have a razor thin margin in the House, probably only 4 or 5 seats. History has shown that when the House GOP needs to actually govern, they fail miserably. They also have quite a few histrionics within their ranks who will object to any significant bill just for the sake of getting attention. Inevitably, any significant legislation to come out of the House will require at least a few Democratic votes.
And then in the Senate, there's the filibuster to worry about. Republicans are loathe to repeal the filibuster; as on balance, it helps Republicans a lot more than it helps Democrats. So any significant legislation beyond basic budgets and court confirmations is going to require the participation of at least a few Democratic Senators.
And this actually does concern me. Democrats suffer from pathological bipartisanship. It is in their DNA to always offer an olive branch, try and be the better person, and seek a compromise. It just takes a few compromising Democrats to see some really terrible legislation passed. If Republicans try to pass anti-trans legislation, they will not be able to do so on their own. In the House, some of the Histrionics Caucus will object to its because it doesn't go far enough. And they won't have the 60 votes they need in the Senate. But if a few centrist Democrats decide, "hey, I can compromise on this. I'll vote for this, but in exchange I'll ask them to water it down a bit. So we'll end up taking away fewer civil rights..."
Fuck it. Let's dig out the interstates, highways, and suburban streets large and small, and turn them all into canals.
Why are we'all in such a rush, anyway? If you need to talk to someone right away, we got video conferencing. If you, in an emergency, really need to move somewhere fast, there's helicopters. I say we just consign the whole 'car' idea to the dustbin of history, and just convert everything over to canals. If some insist on speed, we can consider adding a train system. But the only means of private mechanized transport must be by watercraft! That should be enough.
Let's make elections truly interesting. Let's make voting a competitive event. Specifically, let's count and publish live the results of early, absentee, and election day votes as they come in!
Let's make elections TRULY interesting. Our current system strictly prevents any vote totals from being released until the last polls have closed at the end of election day. I say we do the exact opposite. Let's publish vote totals for every election LIVE!
When you vote early or send in an absentee ballot, it may be counted early, but currently those results are held secret until the last polls close on election day. Instead, let's have states and counties publish online live running totals of votes as they come in! Also we can invest in more rapid ballot-counting equipment so that election day results can be published minute-by-minute. Election day will be a mad dash with both sides competing live against each other, against a ticking clock with live vote totals that anyone can see. In close races, both sides will be running around with their hair on fire trying to find a few more votes. You might even see elaborate vote strategies; for example one side might deliberately reserve a chunk of voters until the 11th hour, just to make their opponents overconfident.
Elections are far too boring. Let's publish live running vote totals and turn them into a spectator sport! Embrace the madness. Embrace the beautiful chaos. Turn election day into something people can watch like a sporting event. Let's publish election results as they come in!
The Planet of the Apes film franchise has single-handedly shaped entire fields of biological research.
The Planet of the Apes film franchise has single-handedly shaped entire fields of biological research. As long as it remains in the public consciousness, no biologist or geneticist will ever experiment with trying to engineer chimps and other apes to be more intelligent. Any research proposal remotely related to the topic will be immediately shot down by someone simply stating, "do you want Planet of the Apes? Because this is how you get Planet of the Apes!"
Become US President. Procede to start a four year career of petty theft and break ins at homes within the limits of the District of Columbia.
Forget grand corruption. I want to see some small-time thievery from our presidents. If we're going to have a criminal president, I want them to be less "mobster," and more "meth addict."
Become president. Procede to start a four-year personal petty crime wave. Break into people's homes to just to steal their televisions. Break into construction sites to steal copper wiring. Habitually steal catalytic converters from cars parked in the Pentagon parking lot. Offer the proceeds of your crimes to a local charity, in cash, just to break into their office at night and steal it back.
Oh, and after each crime, issue a formal pardon to yourself, completely absolving yourself of criminal liability. Also, don't forget the best part. As you embark on this wave of petty crime, you'll have Secret Service protection! So even if someone does catch you, in broad daylight, laying on a dolly under their truck, stealing their cat with a sawzall, they won't be able to even get near you! The Secret Service will prevent anyone from being able to physically stop you! Hell, you can break into people's houses at night, just to rough up the place!
Let's direct half of the National Science Foundation budget to hire a bunch of priests, mystics, nuns, and holy men to spend all day praying for divine inspiration for our various research efforts.
We'll cover all our bases and hire people of all faiths. We'll have tens of thousands of people praying to boost our science output. It's sure to work!
Run for president on the sole platform of deliberately starting a completely unprovoked global thermonuclear war.
Your campaign slogans will be things like: Whelp, we invented crocks. I think we're done here. The fact we built ChatGPT proves we need to be sent back to the Stone Age. We've had a good run. Time to quit while we're ahead. Time to see if nuclear winter cancels out global warming.
When campaigning, promise that you will only do one thing in office. Upon taking the oath of office, you will immediately demand the nuclear football and order the launch of the entire US nuclear arsenal, all at once, in a completely unprovoked first strike against every other nuclear power and against every national capital on the planet.
In debates, your answers will be simple and direct: What will I do about our falling education standards? I'll start a nuclear war! What will I do to ease America's tax burden? I'll start a nuclear war! How will I improve racial justice in the country? I'll start a nuclear war!
What are the best non-reddit trans forums out there?
I find that one of things that keeps me coming back to reddit, despite its myriad problems, is its niche communities like the various reddit trans forums. I know there are a lot of trans meme forums out there. But I'm more interested in those providing discussion, news, etc. What are your recommendations for the best trans forums out there, news sites, etc?
St James’s Hospital advised Paige Behan to go instead to Holles Street
Texas sues for access to records for those seeking out-of-state abortions, HRT and surgery for gender dysphoria
The lawsuit takes aim at federal privacy rules, including one enacted this year that Ken Paxton, the state attorney general, called “a backdoor attempt at weakening Texas’ laws.”
Buy a Zamboni. Wait for a severe winter storm. While the city plows are trying to melt the ice, go out there and start thickening and polishing the ice all the way down the highway.
Bonus points if you can get a bunch of friends together and assemble a whole fleet of them.