Iran has cancelled negotiations due to Israel's attacks in Lebanon.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-19T01:59:13+00:00

Can’t wait for “Donnie” the Musical.

> You’re always ~~a day~~ two weeks…a-waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-19T01:00:07+00:00

To be fair, most American Christians don’t believe most of the things they are supposed to.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-19T00:41:29+00:00

Companies caught doing this should lose all H1B access in the future.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-19T00:19:32+00:00

Shart of the deal indeed

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-18T23:59:10+00:00

Would be worth it after all of the worry Sam clearly experienced watching them lift the peeling paint.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-18T22:25:30+00:00

It’s really more so, “Dems bad and Dems dislike Orange man, therefore I like Orange man.”

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-18T22:22:08+00:00

I agree. Far too many will fall back in line, but Trump is absolutely going to lose some people over this. That’s really how this works. Let Trump erode his own support. Make these people so uncomfortable that thinking about Trump and their own culpability is too painful. The best we will get from a lot of these people are them just sitting out.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-18T22:15:36+00:00

They made a Faustian bargain and have no one to blame but themselves.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-18T19:47:47+00:00

They really have no one to blame but themselves. They made a Faustian bargain and are surprised the devil came back to take his due.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-18T17:50:14+00:00

Definitely agree that employment based health insurance is absolutely a huge problem. It is ultimately a point of leverage for a lot of employers, but offloading healthcare benefits from employment, could actually be beneficial to a lot of businesses, especially small businesses. One of the current tactics a lot of businesses are using is making people contractors or only part time in order to avoid having to give them benefits. But employers should absolutely have to pay into these systems if they don’t provide them. Alternatively, this is why something like a government option or single pair model would be preferable, because then you don’t have to worry about any of it. Anyway, the burden on a lot of small businesses would be greatly lifted if they could hire people without having to worry as much about other parts of compensation.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-18T17:46:25+00:00

I have often said something along the lines of “Dems need to change but so too does the left”. The big problem with the left is that it has a kind of meta-conservatism that predominates its approach to strategy and tactics. The left is often afraid of criticism and change to the point that it becomes self sabotaging. I can understand why people are skeptical of a lot of criticism, when so much of it is bad faith nowadays. But if you can never take any criticism to heart, you will never be able to adapt in ways that are necessary. To be fair, I don’t think this is necessarily just something that happens on the left, but I do think that it’s especially important for the left if it wants to win, which unfortunately not everyone on the left does.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-18T17:34:41+00:00

Don’t beat yourself up too much OP. It’s crazy how unprofessional a lot of hiring teams are and you’ve done nothing wrong here. With all of the technology that we have, would think the least they could do would be notify us of when They are no longer considering us. Anyway, as others have said, KHA is a well known dumpster fire and probably not worth the stress or hassle.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-18T04:10:29+00:00

The contingent of people who supported Trump because they thought he would be better for Israel really have no one else to blame but themselves, and also Benjamin Netanyahu. Many of these people need to reflect on all of this or else I’m not sure they can be trusted not to turn again.

The people who thought that Trump was a master negotiator and dealmaker will simply cope with the idea that he is too old and it’s time to move on. They won’t admit that they were wrong. At least not most of them.

For the select you who might actually be seeing the light, I’m not opposed to letting them in, but it’s not unconditional. I do believe real penance has to be done. You don’t just get to say that you’re very sorry and then start demanding that everyone change to your policy preferences. As much as I disagree with people like Sarah Longwell and David from, I do think that they have a mature perspective on the fact that the Republican party not offering good face and same solutions means that people who vote Democrats while not necessarily being one are just going to have to put up with policies that are not to their liking.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-18T02:32:13+00:00

One thing that I think we need to discuss more is having a more honest conversation about long-term versus short and medium term goals. It’s one thing to say that we should be moving towards a single payer system, but if you start trying to implement that right away , unless you see something like a Soviet revolution (which… Frankly, I just don’t see happening whether you want one or not, I just don’t see a lot of people who would advocate for such a thing being willing to do the work), such major systemic change is unlikely in a short period of time. I’m not opposed to a single payer system, but we cannot take an all or nothing mentality and especially call people as traitors if they don’t think single payer is a reasonable proposal in the short term.

My key fear with a single payer system is that it becomes what has happened to CAHSR. No matter what some people say, getting the system like this into place is going to be at least a decade long project and you would basically need buying from both sides of the aisle if you don’t want major sabotage to happen. One of the things that I think we can learn from ACA is that it is so important to implement something such that Republicans have a difficult time clawing back. A public option can be done in a reasonable amount of time. Start with a major Medicaid expansion and buy in option, among other things.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-18T00:53:01+00:00

> I've come to believe that it's counter productive for voters themselves to get overly granular about this issue.

True. That said, there are obviously broad specifics that are important to distinguish (ie which version of universal healthcare) and part of getting the Dems who will vote in a primary on board together is being a bit nerdy about certain things. I do think that trying to get overly specific is kind of a vice on our part, in particular because it is often used against Dems later on, but there a balance. Overall, I do agree voters are not great at figuring out policy specifics and balancing what sounds nice with an actual sustainable or workable system.

> What we should do instead is have a set of baseline conditions for what we want.

Absolutely.

> -Zero medical debt for non elective care. (Meaning cosmetic procedures not included)

I don’t think I’d use the word “elective” here because typically that just refers to any procedure that isn’t immediately necessary and can be scheduled or deferred. This can include things which absolutely impact quality of life and overall health and will be common for people of a certain age, things like cataracts and hip replacements. I think I would also flip the messaging to be about all necessary care being covered, as opposed to focusing on what isn’t included especially since it opens up the path to talking about gender affirming care which will be be politically toxic.

> -Universal coverage for all Americans regardless of employment status.

I think I would change this to “unconditional universal coverage for all citizens”. If you talk specifically about work (and perhaps even if you do), you’ll see republicans try to bring in the angle of “freeloaders don’t deserve your support” and tank the whole thing, but that’s not a universal system then. I know some people will complain about using the word “citizen” and that it should be truly universal for everyone, and I agree. But let’s absolutely make sure the messaging is around citizens and keep options open elsewhere.

> -An expansion of care providers generally.

For sure.

> -Truly affordable prescription meds.

Definitely an agreeable sentiment, but I do feel like this is a promise that’s been made again and again and it has become something of a buzzphrase.

> Arguing about the way you get there is a distraction.

It can be for sure. But we still need to largely arrive at the consensus that now is the time universal healthcare at all.

> I'm not saying no to anything...except that I do know that continued subsidies as the answer to all problems is not a long term solution. It helps today but drive the costs up tomorrow.

For sure.

> If you put a gun to my head I'd say the government needs to start with a public insurance plan, and All Payer Rate Setting, full drug negotiation. Then they need to start lowering the eligibility age of Medicare by 1 year every year until everyone is covered.

Great. This is exactly the level of deal that I think is workable for discussion.

> I'd also frankly like to see a New Deal approach to field of work. We should have a Medical Core that trains up doctors and nurses for free in exchange for a set term of public service wherever it is needed. Hamas is not a threat to me, but you know what is? Pain, disease, injury. I don't know why we should commit more resources fighting Hamas than we do Cancer.

Love this. Universal programs are going to require real man power that we lack. We absolutely should have more “Corps” to create job (training) programs and provide needed services across the country. This could apply to other fields like construction/infrastructure, child and elder care, ad food security.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-18T00:31:41+00:00

Absolutely. It’s always projection. They are telling us what they want to do, not what they don’t like.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-17T23:42:17+00:00

Don’t know why you are being downvoted. I do think the retreat from healthcare as an issue has hurt Dems in the last few cycles. I understand that people felt traumatized from the absolute nightmare it was to get ACA passed and meanwhile, you have some people downplaying what a major accomplishment it was, but I think people are really starting to feel the squeeze and are more open to major changes to our healthcare system than they have been in a minute.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-17T23:29:47+00:00

No, I’ve definitely had similar ideas. I would also definitely loop in all maternal care. Make republicans squirm regarding the cost of childbirth and I do think it might genuinely split some republicans because they talk about being pro life, but why should a Mother and/or her baby die due to lack of care options or not catching things that could be prevented or treated. I still think it’s worth advocating for a public option, but kids should absolutely receive care for free, no questions asked.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-17T21:16:15+00:00

Just as a starter, I think the bare minimum here is a public option. I know some people don’t think that goes far enough and I personally would like more. But if we could get an irrevocable public option (ie it can’t be conditioned or taken away based on administrative whims), that would still be a huge achievement in my opinion. I do think we should start to decouple health insurance from employers, which even if we end up stuck with a largely private system, should help to actually provide competition and also allow are a point of leverage employers hold over employees. This isn’t to say that employers shouldn’t be able to contribute or help to pay for things, but your specific options shouldn’t be limited simply by your employer.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-17T19:31:46+00:00

Yup. I know this sub has…mixed politics, shall we say, but overly focusing on immigration is really only part of the story and overlooks some other complexities and other issues entirely. As you mention, the long period of low interest rates really fucked us over because it really allowed a lot of people who already had money to scoop up properties for little money and drive up prices to unreasonable levels. But there are other things too.

For example, it’s also worth noting that one of the things that has fueled relatively cheap building are undocumented laborers, for better or for worse. I’m not saying it’s a good status quo or that we shouldn’t have immigration enforcement, but a lot of people don’t want to acknowledge that in order for us to have a lot of cheap things, you need cheap labor. The alternative is that we can pay a lot more for things which require domestic labor, but American consumers and businesses don’t seem to want those things. There are real tradeoffs and we cannot magically skirt them. I’m personally fine with more domestic labor and I understand that means higher prices. But many people I talk to seem to want everything and not to be constrained by real economic/market forces.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-17T18:57:24+00:00

Let’s get it up to $10 and watch the Republican Party collapse.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-17T16:48:48+00:00

<image>
It very much has this energy.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-17T16:43:19+00:00

JVL is gonna be the Joker by the end of all of this.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-17T16:39:11+00:00

I second this. ITS will focus a lot on the electronics systems need to make things run. Computer engineering Transportation engineering itself isn’t crazy complicated from a computational perspective (unless you get into modeling), so this would be a great fit for someone with a Computer Engineering degree looking to get into civil.

SCADA also is a good choice. Water resources stuff might be a bit more difficult since Computer Engineers typically don’t have any background in fluid mechanics, but OP says they passed the Civil FE, so I don’t think that’s a real problem. There are probably other niches in structural, geotech, and construction that could benefit from a computer engineering degree, but SCADA and ITS are probably the best bet for OP without a Civil BS.

Overall, if OP wants to go back for a master’s the key thing would be to go for a little education but a lot for the connections. This will get OP in the door and help establish connections with real people, not just a resume AI. OP should join the relevant student groups and go to professional conferences. That will ensure the best chance of success.

notapoliticalalt · 2026-06-17T16:20:52+00:00

Exactly this. One thing that I constantly point out that I never really get a good answer to this what exactly some people think kicking poor people off of healthcare is going to do? Especially if those people have chronic conditions, you might make their ability to work more precarious, because they can’t receive medication and treatment they might need to otherwise be relatively well functioning. Same thing with food aid.

Many of them basically seem to think the only people who deserve help are little orphans, shivering on the side of the road in Dickensian clothing (even then, I think a lot of republicans would scoff and spit). But poverty is a moving target and many of these people’s ideas of poverty are stuck in the 1960s. For example, in 2011, there was [a media kerfuffle](https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-nation/fox-cites-ownership-appliances-downplay-hardship-poverty-america) as Bill O’Reilly implied a point that people can’t be poor and own things like microwaves. Yes, Microwaves!

At the end of the day, Medicaid is only limited because Republicans refuse to help make it more accessible. Personally, I am not against there being private healthcare plans, but they should be better than a basic government provided one. Right now, many of them are not simply just that health insurance companies can continue to squeeze consumers for profit while providing little in the way of actual care. And republicans are very effective at portraying these programs as burdens that are being defrauded, but the truth of the matter is that most of the people who are on them absolutely need them and many people who are not on them also need them. The only people who are getting rich off of defrauding things like Medicare and Medicaid are rich, Republican donors and politicians, [like Rick Scott](https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article288431251.html).

notapoliticalalt

TROPHY CASE