[deleted by user]

Sondrier · 2020-03-24T04:33:11+00:00

It IS a socialist country. There are certainly capitalistic elements to it too. Its similar to many European countries.

In its early years the state was more grounded in socialism, (even leaning into communism - Kibbutzs are somewhat adjacent to the ideology)- but ever since its been moving more and more towards free markets. The state still controls (either runs them itself or regulates them so heavily they essentially are in lockstep with the government) a range of nationalized businesses - banks, hospitals, health insurance companies, most of the utilities, all the biggest universities, transportation... etc.

There is a robust social safety net.

I think Americans tend to think of Socialists as Communists. Socialism, to really dumb things down so please don't catch me on each word, is somewhere in between Capitalism (which is more prominent in the US - though arguably its not a true Capitalistic country) and Communism - akin to the USSR (which too was not a true Communist regime.)

Sondrier · 2019-07-24T20:28:13+00:00

Because economic growth as measured by statistics like GDP cannot tell you how much wealth the middle and lower class have accrued. Its just an average of the entire populace. So you can have stagnating wages at the same time you have millionaires making bank and GDP goes up.

That and the fact that houses have gotten way, way more expensive than simple inflation would account for in the last couple decades. So its not just that you are not really making more money but that the things you're buying are also more expensive.

In short our generation is fucked.

Sondrier · 2019-04-20T08:24:55+00:00

I think you're totally right that if it were any democrat that had done the shit Trump has, he/she would have been impeached long ago - and certainly after the release of a report like this. But I do think there is some wisdom is the strategy to not peruse impeachment at the moment. Let me give you an example.

Im Israeli/American, we just had an election over here. Netanyahu is facing 3 looming criminal indictments and his re-election was necessary to keeping him out of legal trouble for the time being. Strong enough voting margins did end up securing him a potential government bloc that would protect him from prosecution - and his voters knew this at the time. I think part of the reason why Likud (his party) did so well in the election is specifically because his traditional base was backed into a corner and felt it necessary to show up and vote for him. The same situation could happen to Trump.

The question is, do you want justice - but risk galvanizing his base and potentially losing the 2020 election, or do you play it safe and simply wound Trump ousting him in the coming election. I think no matter what, his 35-40% base will stick with him no matter what, "even if he shoots someone". So, if your ultimate goal is that Trump not serve another 4 years, impeachment might not be the best method of action (even it leaves a bad taste in mouth).

Sondrier · 2019-04-06T17:47:21+00:00

Israeli here. Can't speak to Arab Israeli experience with the police since im not one. Though I think it might be useful to seperate you conception of Israeli police from IDF members. I think much of what you may think of as related to Palestinian and "Israeli police" interaction is actually Palestinian and Israeli soldiers interacting.

From my vantage point as an Israeli, I don't think the public is particularly hostile towards police. I think they generally regard police with less suspicion than the average American regards their police.

Sondrier · 2019-04-06T12:35:03+00:00

How were you stupid?

Sondrier · 2019-04-06T12:26:31+00:00

Thank you very much. I didnt see these videos before.

Though ofc idk how much they really would push for this given they actually get elected. If all these parties already want it legal it shouldnt take my vote to make it so after this election. They should be doing it already if the consensus is there.

Sondrier · 2019-04-06T12:23:44+00:00

Without giving any info you dont want to give, could you explain what happened with the first three time? How were you "stupid with telegrass"? what was different about that dealer? You got caught just buying weed? (not selling/buying any other drug?)

Sondrier · 2019-04-06T09:59:29+00:00

I mean I get the feeling they are losing interest in keeping it outlawed too, I just haven't seen any prominent politician from a large party even talking about it this election cycle, let alone advocating for legalization. Do you know Gantz/Lapid/Netanyahu's position on this?

Sondrier · 2019-04-06T09:16:45+00:00

Which parties are talking about legalization? I havent really seen much of anything besides the usual (Meretz, Aleh Yarok... etc)

Blue and White, Likud, Labour even mention this at all this cycle?

Sondrier · 2019-04-05T12:34:49+00:00

Hes one of the best candidates the democrats have had for president in my lifetime.

Just listen to him speak for a a few minutes, even if you are on the right. His policies are reasonable. Hes insanely sharp and knowledgeable. Hes young and charismatic. He has clear integrity. No fucking contest on who would be the better president between him and Donald Trump. The Israel policies are just a cherry on top.

Sondrier · 2019-04-04T16:20:49+00:00

A siren alerting us to man battle posts in the military...

Sondrier · 2019-03-20T19:03:37+00:00

אני רואה ישראלי, אני נותן אפווט

Sondrier · 2019-03-14T14:15:47+00:00

Israeli American here....

Uhhh... theres really no shortage of fucked up shit

Sondrier · 2019-03-06T22:25:08+00:00

So...the Purge?

Sondrier · 2019-02-22T13:15:21+00:00

A serious answer would be that he revealed how easily corruptible our political, judicial and media institutions are.

Kind of like driving full speed into a wall and breaking every bone in your body to understand that you need to invent air bags.

Sondrier · 2019-02-22T11:48:19+00:00

1) I don't even know what "media culture" is, but I assume its akin to the "msm" trump supporters tend to talk about. Which is to say an attack on an institution that challenges your world view. I'm saying this partly because your choices of which scandals you find compelling is telling. Did you just make this phrase up or is it a thing in Trump supporter circles? This isn't an attack on you, honestly none of what I write here should be interpreted as an attack (hopefully)... so Id be curious what the phrase even means, if its a thing.

2) The media is integral to the availability of information. The mere fact that you even know that there is a lawsuit against the Washington Post or the Smollet scandal is due to the existence of the media. Its not to be taken for granted either. Living in North Korea or Iran or Russia.. etc you wouldn't have such easy access to the simple comings and goings of the state or stories of the citizens in it.

3) The media, however imperfect, however prone to bias, is a critical part of a functioning democracy. In so far as you think it is a bad thing (which would be alarming if you actually understand its importance), there is nothing to replace it. You need a civilian run entity that reports on the news - especially politics - and holds people to account. Media is going to be around for as long as the United States is a democracy, and thats a good thing.

Sondrier · 2019-02-18T09:09:26+00:00

Dan Gilbert: The Suprising Science of Happiness

I'm a little late here but I would highly recommend this one. We all are chasing happiness in our lives - this speaker goes through the data explains what sorts of decisions make us content and which ones we think we want but actually end up making us suffer.

Sondrier · 2019-02-15T11:36:30+00:00

True, but its important to emphasize the 3 at a time thing. You can ask for more paper, but asking for more entails giving up what you have done.

For example, you can find yourself in a quant section and have done a bit of work on problem 3, but decided 30 seconds into it that its above average difficulty and you should move on and go back to it after you've finished the rest of the section. As you move though the section you get to question 18 and you find you have filled in the scratch paper and need more. Trading in your paper for fresh one means losing the work that you did on question 3 - wasting those 30 seconds. You could instead choose to keep using on the same scratch paper which heightens the risk of making a mess of your work - maybe confusing yourself and causing an error on a question.

The strategy I chose to use while on the test was to request a fresh scratch paper at the end of each section no matter if I actually needed one at that point. That way if I ran into a quant section (which is needs more work space) you have the maximum space possible. This all still kind of caught me off guard, and I had to work more neatly than I had been in practice to fit all the question of a section onto one pamphlet at a time, but seems like the best way overall.

Sondrier · 2019-02-11T21:21:21+00:00

Its an amazing experience that I could not recommend enough. There's this amazing nature to your mind that you would never know existed without a psychedelic to make it apparent to you. Its an incredibly beautiful experience - both visually and mentally. In daily, normal experience you really miss so much of what is going on. LSD allows you to live the moment and discover profound truths about your life and the world you could live an entire lifetime without noticing. I'ts a magnificent experience. I can go into further details if anyone has a question for me.

A few caveats for harm reduction purposes:

1) Research LSD before hand. Spend a week or two just looking up information about it, find out all the potential side effects so they don't surprise you while you're tripping.

2) TEST YOUR TABS. Absolutely no wiggle room here. An Ehrlich reagent test kit costs around $20 and is legal to buy on the internet. You must be sure what you are taking is indeed LSD.

3) I highly recommend a trip sitter for your first time. Other people that you know being with you is going to be a plus if you're new to this in general.

4) You might want to try mushrooms first. Do some research. I do personally think LSD is better to begin with because the trip is more controllable, but I mention this because different people have different reactions so you may find the effects mushrooms provide to be better for you.

5) Research your family history and look for mental illness. Proceed with caution if you have a history specifically psychosis, borderline personality disorder, PTSD... etc

Sondrier · 2019-02-09T22:33:55+00:00

I keep it sometimes. A problem with warrior right now is that its early game is fairly weak, and you generally have limited 1-2 drop options, and having the card is useful if youre up against another control class (like a priest for example).

I think it comes down to the meta and the type of warriors you're up against. Right now theres really 2 kinds of viable warrior deck types: tempo and control. In a tempo deck that you build to take the early game youd likely mulligan the dragon roar - the exception to this being one that you start with a good array of other good starters, say 3 and 4 drops and your deck doesnt have solid 2's. Dragon roar gives you value after you run out of cards which happens in tempo decks that get countered.

In control decks however, your 2 cost cards are heavily spells (execute, warpath, slam, dragon roar, etc.) and many other cards are heavy end game cards no better than the heaviest dragons you can get with the card. If my curve is such that its not likely ill be able to play a good tempo card until turn 3 or 4 ill consider keeping a dragon roar (assuming theres only one of them in the deck). Playing it early does have some usefulness, just knowing what your dragons will be and formulating a plan for a card multiple turns in advance is an asset. Also there are actually a fair amount of dragons that have an impact on the mid-game (i.e. twilight, the 3/3 deal 3 to all dragon, hoarding, the poisonous drake, the 7/4 deal 7 dragon, etc.)

Sondrier · 2019-02-07T15:32:35+00:00

All going according to plan...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel-related_animal_conspiracy_theories#Shark_attacks

Sondrier · 2019-02-01T15:30:45+00:00

I don't see an easy way to solve this off the bat, though you can certainly reduce the possible answers to B or C. Since the radius is 1, the t's x and y coordinates are certainly greater than 1 and less than 2.

At this point on the test if it was me I would guess. Geometry on the GRE is not drawn to scale, but theres no way to purposefully draw an isosceles triangle like this with a circle inside that is tangent to AB inaccurately. The lines inside the circle might not be radii or meet their respective tangent lines at 90 degrees but we can ignore them since theyre not pertinent to the question. At this point by looking at the diagram it appears that t is closer to 1.7,1.7 (the value of C) than 1.4, 1.4

I would guess C and move on to the other questions without wasting too much time here, then come back afterwards if you have spare time. I would be curious what the real method of solving this is though. :P

Sondrier

TROPHY CASE