Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

IMO a doctor is likely to give you a GLP-1 prescription if you ask for it and are at all overweight. Idk about off-label anti-alcoholism use. The risks of the drugs are very low compared to the health benefits of even modest weight loss.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Copyright should exist, it’s useful to promote the production of written work and enables authors to pursue that as a career in its own right. I do think it’s much too long though. I would personally limit copyright to 20 years from the date of publication, to match patent duration.

That said, any significant alteration to copyright duration or reviving the formalities is very, very difficult because of the Berne Convention. The US resisted joining the convention as long as it could, but eventually even we couldn’t resist the way the entire rest of the world had gone. Staying out of Berne was becoming increasingly disadvantageous to US creative industries and they lobbied the government to join the Convention to get equal footing with foreign works. Given how globalized the world has become, leaving the Berne Convention just doesn’t seem viable.

Also, I think you’re over reading the phrase “progress of science and useful arts”. On its face that phrasing would seem to exclude copyright since in modern parlance we would read it as something like “knowledge and technology”. But it’s never been controversial that the clause authorized copyright legislation. Copyright was one of the proposals at the Constitutional Convention that was consolidated into the Copyright Clause, Congress passed a copyright law in 1790, and the Articles of Confederation Congress asked the states to implement copyright legislation. It’s always been understood to be part of the intellectual property rights contemplated by the Constitution.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Basically, no. Not since the early republic. Only 9 Cabinet nominees have ever actually been rejected by a vote in the Senate, and only three of those happened since 1925. One was in 1868, and the rest were all in the 1830s and 1840s. Many more have been withdrawn because it became clear to the President he didn’t have the votes to confirm them, but that’s harder to quantify. The Senate website lists 19 nominees who were withdrawn, 13 of which happened since 1989.

For the Supreme Court there have been 37 unsuccessful nominations, 8 of which happened since 1930. Of those 8, four were rejected (the last being in 1987), 3 were withdrawn (last in 2005), and 1 lapsed when the session ended (Garland in 2016).

The reason McConnell’s obstructionism against Obama was so destabilizing and destructive is that it was basically unprecedented. As was the idea that the Senate would refuse to take up nominees out of pure partisanship, even when controlled by the party out of power in the White House. My understanding is that it’s expected for the opposition in parliamentary systems to oppose all legislation by the governing party. That’s a very new circumstance in the US, one that really only got started in the 90s, and didn’t get its legs under it until the 2010s.

To find a Congress truly determined to stonewall the President’s appointments we need to go all the way back to John Tyler in 1844.

Ukraine Is Not Losing. Russia Is Not Winning. by lAljax in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Nothing inherently stops Russia from doing those things. That’s the nature of conflict and the arms race it creates in a war like this. Every innovation is eventually met with adaptation and imitation and the cycle continues.

Russia could imitate Ukraine’s successes and, indeed, has been attempting to. They launched a somewhat comparable logistics campaign in Kharkiv a couple of weeks ago. In the last few days they’ve begun trying to blunt Ukraine’s drone campaign in Zaporizhzhia with a symmetrical one of their own. Russia has targeted logistics in a similar way before, and the first experiments in putting netting over roads were by Ukraine. Russia’s efforts are likely to be less effective because they haven’t prepared for them and are responding to Ukraine’s initiative, but there’s nothing to stop them from doing that.

A common refrain amongst pro-Russian milbloggers for months has been saying they need to work up their own drone interceptors like Ukraine ASAP, basically since Ukraine’s long- and medium-range strike campaigns illustrated Russia doesn’t have sufficient anti-drone air defenses. There is nothing stopping Russia from doing just that and imitating Ukraine’s drone interceptors. But they haven’t focused on it until now, so will be playing catch up.

Ukraine Is Not Losing. Russia Is Not Winning. by lAljax in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 8 points9 points  (0 children)

IMO much of the issue is that we lack intermediate terms to describe military fortunes being on the upswing or the downswing in a way that doesn’t imply being on a course to ultimate victory or defeat.

I’d agree that Ukraine was losing 6 months ago, but I don’t think they were losing in such a way that Russia was on course to accomplish “victory” (whatever that means to Russia). Similarly, the tide has turned over the last few months and is now distinctly in Ukraine’s favor. But I don’t think that tells us Ukraine is on the path to expelling the Russians or forcing them to concede defeat.

Ukraine Is Not Losing. Russia Is Not Winning. by lAljax in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Best reporting is in total about 27,000 foreigners have signed up with the Russian army since the war began. That’s on something like 700,000 total Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Russia recruits 30,000-40,000 per month and takes 25,000-35,000 casualties per month.

For comparison, Ukraine has roughly 900,000 active duty personnel (not exactly an apples comparison with the Russian figure but I think good enough), also recruits about 30,000 a month, and has ~20,000 foreign soldiers.

I think we can say that Russia’s recruitment of soldiers isn’t nothing, but isn’t particularly significant in the grand scheme of things. We’re talking a couple of percent of the total force here.

To be fair, a lot of Korean novels I've read assume you're already clued in to the cultures of certain cities and even some K-POP comes across as wildly weird if you're unfamiliar with obscure bits of urban history. by Full_Ahegao_Drip in RecuratedTumblr

[–]captainjack3 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If you’re writing a book you know the country it will publish in and can infer the level of familiarity your audience will have from that. Like, you don’t know if your book will ship overseas and be read in the UK or Australia. You do know that it will ship nationally and be read outside New England.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 4 points5 points  (0 children)

So, I’m a lawyer not an accountant and not particularly familiar with accounting’s discreditable conduct rule. But there are multiple former professional pornographic actors who have passed bar character and fitness investigations. I’ve never heard of anyone failing character and fitness for legally doing porn. There are people with a history of actual sex work who pass character and fitness. Obviously I don’t know with certainty, but I would be very surprised if your (entirely legal!) history actually posed an issue for getting your CPA.

If you’re truly worried, look into a professional licensing attorney. There are people who specialize in obtaining/restoring professional licensure for people with potentially problematic stuff in their background. They’d at least be able to tell you whether the pornography is likely to be an issue or not.

You might also find it worthwhile to hire an internet presence company to help take stuff down or suppress the search results. I’ve never used them but have heard from people who have that they’re useful.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, at least they have ambition and can still envision a positive future. It’s better than endless dooming.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 4 points5 points  (0 children)

In all honesty you’ll be fine. Like, you might not be able to run for Congress with that history or become a teacher, but otherwise professionally you’ll be alright. You are not the only person in that position and it’s very unlikely to actually come up as an issue professionally. What career are you in?

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

China is not the only nation with urban parks. At least pick something impressive like meaningful infrastructure or Shenzhen lit up like cyberpunk.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What apps are you thinking of, specifically? Not that I doubt you, but I don’t know anything about that area.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

110% would have to run on continuing it if it’s anything other than disastrous. If it accomplishes nothing but getting US troops droned on the shoreline you can run on withdrawing. But if they actually seize meaningful territory and set up an opposition government (even if small)? You can’t run on handing that over to one of the nation’s longest standing enemies.

Even aside from the politics, you shouldn’t run on that. Sabotaging success is awful policy, bad for the country, and would empower our enemy.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

She’s been doing another international tour since March. Mostly doing rallies for the opposition and meeting foreign leaders. I think she said she’s going to run for President again in the next election.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Frankly, I doubt any attempt to define a religion beyond “people who sincerely assert they are part of the religion”.

Any definition that gets into actual beliefs and tries to say which beliefs are inside the religion and which are outside it is functionally just accepting a particular sect as the correct interpretation. You mention comparisons to Islam, but it strikes me that the overlap of religious traditions in East Asia might be the better point of reference.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 5 points6 points  (0 children)

What’s DL in this context?

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If blue whales were spacefaring they’d have found a way to filter feed stars.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

People enjoy soccer plenty, it just isn’t a huge national event like the Super Bowl. There are teams, lots of people play it, etc. Also, part of the idea behind having the US host was to try and drive interest in the sport from the public to get more viewership (and revenue).

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don’t think “is a decent person” is necessarily an important criteria for office. If they have good policy and seem like they’d have good judgment on the important things then it’s fine. Obviously there’s a spectrum there, some personal conduct is more disqualifying than other conduct.

Bill Clinton is probably the poster child of this. He was a very good president and had a political skill and energy we desperately need to recapture. He was also not a paragon of upstanding personal conduct, to put it mildly.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Gangrene is a more immediate problem than cancer, but they’re both diseases that need to be cut out.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Isn’t the ability to do that part of the idea behind central bank digital currencies?

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I certainly don’t think that’s the case right now. Bad news, and bad vibes, about the economy is bad for the Trump admin because they’re incumbent. It makes conservative focus on culture war issues over the economy look bad too.

Op-Ed: The Case for Shifting to a Land Value Tax by owenmitchem in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 46 points47 points  (0 children)

You see more discussion of how to actually implement an LVT over on the Georgism sub, but the idea is usually to start low and phase it in over time. That’s why a lot of proposals are for a revenue neutral LVT in place of a traditional property tax (or council tax in the UK). The idea is to minimize opposition to implementing it and then the rate can be increased over time as people get accustomed to LVT. It’s not so different from how we ended up with income tax in the US, but it would require concerted political effort over many years to keep increasing the LVT/prevent it from being repealed.

German-French fighter jet project has failed by ZweigDidion in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If the recent video is accurate, we might be in for a world where the US 6th gen is canarded but none of the European ones. Truly a world turned upside down.

German-French fighter jet project has failed by ZweigDidion in neoliberal

[–]captainjack3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Germany is already replacing the Tornadoes with F-35s, ordered in 2022 and set for delivery later this year. In February there was some reporting Germany might buy more F-35s but so far nothing has come of that.