Objectively intelligent.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

When it gets cold, how does outdoor dining go? We revert to caveman days?

Tents, heat lamps, fire pits. Patagonia should IPO.

If I were a contractor, I’d start specializing in those “all year” rooms with sliding or folding glass doors.

I think another long term trend may be restaurants locating in areas with space, so they can adjust. It’s not like this’ll be the last pandemic.

It’s warm here now until December anyway, so it’ll be like rustic fall novelty dining and drinking going forward. January and February will suck. But they always do.

Natural gas could jump from this. Cleanest way to run all the heat I’m describing.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/22...krugman-china/

Right, so now Krugman is admitting what Ross Perot said in 1992 -- that globalization allowed to run unfettered would slam lower end US jobs.

It's hardly surprising that Perot, who ran a business, would grasp this while Krugman, who has never made a payroll, would not.

But aside from that, a chain of responsibility emerges. It starts with the Powell Doctrine, which demanded relaxation of all govt involvement in regulation generally, then Reaganism, which put the concept on steroids while championing old school GOP free trade policies, peaked in the 90s with economists like Krugman making the argument globalization's harms were overhyped and washed by its benefits (rather than unevenly distributed, with some suffering horribly while others benefit terrifically), and crested and broke in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, which led to Trumpism -- a wrecking ball aimed into "neoliberal" trade policies.

In the end, it looks like the GOP was both the cause and later undoing of a liberalization of what used to be a central pillar of its platform: Free trade. Lots of people decry the Clintons and Obama for economic centrism which sold out the old core of the Democratic Party. But it appears the GOP blew up its own good thing... By co-opting the moderate Clintonite Democrats and making neoliberal policy appear to be an inevitability and necessity rather than a choice, it left the voters who had been savaged by globalization out in the cold, with no choice but to vote for a protest candidate like Trump, who then made a mess of free trade.

Where lunchbox Joe goes with it no one knows.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

When it gets cold, how does outdoor dining go? We revert to caveman days?

Yeah, we're not equipped for this. Winter is going to be bad.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Just another case of media bias: NYT pulls a piece about Georgia voters after two ordinary Georgia voters quoted turn out to be Republican operatives. Apropos of which, this was the best thing I've read about the political media in a while.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Tents, heat lamps, fire pits. Patagonia should IPO.

Good luck finding any.

[Icky Thump]

It was sent by a lawyer who has been doing this for, 20 or so years.

>>I’m told [Company G] is the successor to [Company B] . . .
Can anyone tell me/figure out in what state it is incorporated?

Please don’t reply to all.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

When it gets cold, how does outdoor dining go? We revert to caveman days?

Dunno but the way the squirrels are chowin down it's looking to be a very cold winter.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Just another case of media bias: NYT pulls a piece about Georgia voters after two ordinary Georgia voters quoted turn out to be Republican operatives. Apropos of which, this was the best thing I've read about the political media in a while.

The Vox article had some interesting insights. But this was some seriously fucked up shit:

The other answer is darker because I think this is where we are going. The Republican Party has become a counter-majoritarian party. It can only win elections by making it harder to vote, and by making it harder to understand what the party is all about. The conflict with honest journalism is structural, not just a matter of broken practices or bad actors. And I believe the people who report on politics in the United States are going to have to confront that reality, whether Trump wins or loses.

Translation: Majority makes right. This is a mere repackaging of Trump's view that the only law is the law of power.

Because the majority of this country wants X, to be in the minority and want Y means one is a bad actor?

The majority of Ohio will likely vote for Trump this fall. Does that mean that the minority that seeks a different result are bad actors?

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

The Vox article had some interesting insights. But this was some seriously fucked up shit:

The other answer is darker because I think this is where we are going. The Republican Party has become a counter-majoritarian party. It can only win elections by making it harder to vote, and by making it harder to understand what the party is all about. The conflict with honest journalism is structural, not just a matter of broken practices or bad actors. And I believe the people who report on politics in the United States are going to have to confront that reality, whether Trump wins or loses.

Translation: Majority makes right. This is a mere repackaging of Trump's view that the only law is the law of power.

Because the majority of this country wants X, to be in the minority and want Y means one is a bad actor?

The majority of Ohio will likely vote for Trump this fall. Does that mean that the minority that seeks a different result are bad actors?

I think that statement was about skewing elections so minorities could win elections rather than about who is right or wrong.

But, yeah, if you're approach to winning an election is to try to skew the results or bar people from voting, you're an asshole and in the wrong.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Just another case of media bias: NYT pulls a piece about Georgia voters after two ordinary Georgia voters quoted turn out to be Republican operatives. Apropos of which, this was the best thing I've read about the political media in a while.

Back in the day, when I worked in politics, there was nothing we loved more than a lazy reporter.

More than once a few of us hung out with some combination of beer, caffeine, and delivered food to bang out the core of an article that showed up under some reporter's byline, even though he really just edited our work, or even put together a proposed editorial that ran with minimal change in a major newspaper.

Assume a sizable amount of what we all read on politics was written by an operative not a reporter. Especially true of places like Fox that are pretty explicitly just a wing of the Republican party.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

When it gets cold, how does outdoor dining go? We revert to caveman days?

You're welcome to come down here. For me "cold" is about 55.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan

You're welcome to come down here. For me "cold" is about 55.

If it weren't for my kids I might head south, although the South is pretty much doing bad on the virus thing.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

The Vox article had some interesting insights. But this was some seriously fucked up shit:

The other answer is darker because I think this is where we are going. The Republican Party has become a counter-majoritarian party. It can only win elections by making it harder to vote, and by making it harder to understand what the party is all about. The conflict with honest journalism is structural, not just a matter of broken practices or bad actors. And I believe the people who report on politics in the United States are going to have to confront that reality, whether Trump wins or loses.

Translation: Majority makes right. This is a mere repackaging of Trump's view that the only law is the law of power.

Because the majority of this country wants X, to be in the minority and want Y means one is a bad actor?

The majority of Ohio will likely vote for Trump this fall. Does that mean that the minority that seeks a different result are bad actors?

Are you stupid or both? In a democracy, the majority should prevail. The GOP could change to try to win a majority, but it would rather try to do things like pack the Supreme Court and suppress the vote to keep power. Journalists should recognize this, instead of pretending it's not happening.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Are you stupid or both? In a democracy, the majority should prevail. The GOP could change to try to win a majority, but it would rather try to do things like pack the Supreme Court and suppress the vote to keep power. Journalists should recognize this, instead of pretending it's not happening.

Frankly, Republicans in today's America could, if they chose to, win consistently without engaging in voter suppression, court packing, or other marginal gamesmanship. All they'd have to do is drop some of their ideological radicalism. But that won't play in Republican primaries, which is why Romney, who put in place a market based, moderate healthcare system with near-universal coverage in Massachusetts, couldn't run on his record and had to disclaim his greatest accomplishment.

They have consciously chosen to be radical right assholes.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

If it weren't for my kids I might head south, although the South is pretty much doing bad on the virus thing.

It's a challenge to get a handle on what's happening here because we're so big. Up until last week, in Houston, our R0 was under 1 and our numbers were getting really under control. Other parts of the state were pretty much in crisis.

But it's been slowly creeping up, and everyone is getting nervous.

I think Republicans are going to suddenly care about it (so they can blame Democrats) after the election.

But I'm beginning to thing the summer wave will be a mere hiccup compared to what's coming.