yep

Timely ITT:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brook...nty-by-county/

Betsy DeVos think that Obama didn't do enough to protect accused rapists when it came to rape on campus

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUSKCN1BI2ER

Republicans hate women and yet women still vote for them.


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jesus ****ing christ

1) apparently you didn't get the memo, but UBI doesn't come with strings like "you can only get this money if you agree not to work". You can have the money AND an edifying career.

2) if you hate your job that pays you to do nothing, why haven't you gotten another job?

Maybe we need more confederate symbols that are actually used in this way, like "LOSERS" spelled out with battle flags or whatever. Not that it would accomplish anything, just that the tortured arguments that dumb right wingers would come up with to kindly ask you stop denigrating their heritage* would be ****ing hilarious. IT ONLY REPRESENTS THE END OF SLAVERY IF YOU DISPLAY IT AS IT WAS IN 1865


*meanwhile half the people doing this would be residents of Union states

Wait until you get paid to do nothing and work at home all day then get back to me. It sucks you in like the frog in the frying pan. Getting up and driving to work isn't really that fun if you don't have to. But then before you know it, you get "lazy brain" and are sitting around festering. You start doing stupid **** like post 200 times a day arguing politics on a poker forum.

This is my experience anyway, YMMV.

Yeah it's ****ing stupid that some of us have to be forced into working, and then get satisfaction out if it. Violates all kinds of first principles. But for whatever reason, that's my flawed human reaction to the situation.

Also due to bonus situations there's a short window of the year where it makes financial sense for me to quit. And finally I'm planning to drive to S. America at the end of the year (because I hate my job) - so quitting before then makes no sense.

Anyway - again - all I'm proposing is that just flat out handing out cash may not be the best version of the Star Trek future where no one really has to work. *Personally* - I think if we can find a way to give people more and more leisure time, while still having a purposeful work life and feel like they're contributing to society, that *could* be a much better approach.

Obviously the UBI crowd disagrees. That's fine because neither is ever gonna happen anyway, at least not until we end racism for good. Ha ha oh wow.

The festering sounds better than most jobs, but then I have below average work ethic. I still like not needing to set an alarm most days.

Good luck with that

(jk assume you're taking a ferry somewhere)

(related: great Outside Magazine article on the Darien Gap, the "world's most dangerous jungle" often used as a route for immigrants to try to make it into Central America and onward to the US)

Yeah you can't drive through the Darien Gap. There are a couple of shipping methods. There used to be a ferry, which would be awesome. But that shut down in the 00s I think.

Freaking 90 miles of jungle and it's going to cost $2k and take 1-2 weeks to get around, depending on timing. Also the paperwork and all the different agencies you have to find is a total nightmare apparently.

Here's a bunch more details: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/9...-year-1664900/

I find this take way more offensive than 'the civil war wasn't about slavery'

I've been stuck on the couch for 3 hours. I've gone from sitting to completely prone. Trying to get motivated to get up and eat half a grapefruit, but failing so far.

I didn't work for 5 years living off poker winnings and it was ****ing awesome.

I did the same thing. Poker is work.

It was better as well because I didn't have to feel like **** for not having anything to do on Fri/Sat nights - as those were the best $$ nights. Now I just drink alone and feel sorry for myself.

Edit: just finished my last meeting of the day. Nobody works on Fridays. Gonna do the Fred Flintstone yabba dabba do outta here and go write my novel!

FWIW - with each post I'm becoming aware this whole thing may just mean I'm actually below average, maybe well below average, on the self-motivation scale. I seem to be capable of big things in short bursts, but overall I just succumb to sloth until I reach a state of listless torpor.

One of the big hospital groups around here does the same thing.

I spent 6 months in a job where I did almost nothing, I made $95k to start and got a raise to $105k with potential bonuses. It was excruciating and I quit. If I could come home at the end of every day I would have preferred spending my days in prison.

To be fair a lot of it could be 30 years of *having* to work, and it's such and ingrained habit by now that I'm lost w/o it. Maybe if I never had to work I would have cultivated more self-motivated creative endeavors.

I assume there have been studies on the idle rich who never had to work a day in their lives if they didn't want to. It would be interesting to see their mental health compared to the rest of society. Of course people only on UBI-only would have much different lives than the idle rich. But I feel like it's safe to assume the mental health of the idle rich would represent an absolute ceiling for a work-optional future.

I know one guy who's never really had a job. He went to Burning Man 21 years in a row, goes to Santacon every year, Jazz Fest every year, Oktoberfest every year, has run with the bulls, and is always posting from all around the globe. But he's also pretty much completely lost his mind to hardcore partying for 30+ years. I didn't even look him up the last couple times I went to SF because when he gets drunk he's incoherent and insane.

Aside from the money, not having a job >>>>>>> having a job and nothing to do. That's when you're working for someone else. I've mostly been self- employed and again, aside from the money, it's cool if there's no work.

Employing people as well, I can tell you a fair number of people hate waiting around when there's no work. That includes people who are fine being lazy on their own time.

I'm fine being lazy on my own time. To a point. And once I hit that point, I've now become so hopelessly lazy it's a gargantuan struggle to pull out of it. But unfortunately the brain doesn't really shut down and goes into neurotic completely unproductive side trips that turn into downward spirals.

Report from the front lines of said struggle: still on the couch, still posting incessantly on 2p2.

I had a stretch for a few months between jobs where I had nothing to do but play pub poker and video games. It was pretty fun, but you've got to keep active and hit the gym and read books or you will just turn into a ball of goo.

I've been going to my morning workout. Which is good because I have to sign up the day before, then I get fined $15 if I miss it. I learned I definitely need structure/obligations like that after my first stint as a full time poker player.

I need everything in my life to be like this. I will work on my blog today or someone fines me. I will finish processing my pics from Canada or shame is brought upon my family. etc.

Also I've been hiking up a mountain every weekend for the last 2 months. Monday I finally conquered a really hard trail on Mt. Baldy - 4k' in 4.5 miles. Brutal. So I need to remind myself of stuff like that.

But that was after one of the worst days ever on Sunday, trapped in my bedroom by the heat feeling like a useless POS. I seem to need a horrible day to motivate me to get out there the next day. Or something.

This therapy session has been good though

So about that explosion at the chemical plant in Houston. They used to have to publish the chemicals housed at the plant, but Texas regulators pulled that regulation back. The chemical company said the explosions were harmless, but when first responders were around the plant.

Probably not best to take chemical companies at their word

http://www.ibtimes.com/political-cap...oss-negligence

Ostracism will be the death of them. Just give it time.

Posting this mostly so well named will read it, because I think he'll like it:

http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/05...g-uncertainty/

At first I was worried that I should be insulted by the presumption that I would enjoy a Scott Alexander blog link, given some of his previous work. But that book does look pretty interesting.