Wednesday, January 10, 2018

What a difference a day makes

Well, it's been a little less than 24 little hours since the most recent LITD post, but, my, what's transpired since then.


  • Of course, the public crash and burn of Steve Bannon now includes being kicked out resigning as CEO of Breitbart, and losing his Sirius XM radio show
  • DJT holding a meeting with top Congressional Pubs and Dems, making a point of giving it live television coverage, and telling those assembled he's willing to look at a stand-alone bill granting amnesty to "dreamer" kids, telling Lindsey Graham specifically, "If you want to take it that step further, I'll take the heat." Coulter's resulting Twitter meltdown was delicious.
  • Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke telling Florida Governor Rick Scott and Senator Marco Rubio that Florida would be exempt from his department's plans for offshore drilling. Now, maybe there's valid argument about the importance of Florida's coastline to its tourism industry, but once the valid-argument camel has its nose inside the oil-drilling tent, are other states going to refrain from putting theirs forth?
Not the best of days to be a drool-besotted Squirrel-Hair devotee.

Yes, I know, consumer confidence is at an all-time high, and more than 100 companies have announced bonuses or pay raises, but the rejoinder to that is that the current economic uplift is the result of good advice from sane people squeaking through, not a consistent top-down vision.

22 comments:

  1. How nice that FTEs some places are getting bonuses this year. When the workplace has morphed into as many as 40% of us being 1099ers. I foresee the corps continuing to imvest I'm AI and robotics with their new tax windfalls, not human capital. This land is our land?

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  2. And currently over half (52%) of Americans are not invested in the market, including retirement funds. This land was made for them and theirs..,

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  3. Well, then those in that 52 percent might want to invest.

    Re: corporations investing in AI over human capital: There's going to be work for those who know how to develop the AI.

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  4. Really? Who knew? There is already work for those who know how to develop AI. It's in a place called Silicon Valley.

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  5. IN Gov. Holcomb said I his State of the State address that getting people educated for the kinds of jobs that are going to be the norm is his administration’s main focus.
    Low-skill stuff is not going to prosper 21st century Americans.

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  6. Really? What percenage do you predict will prosper?

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  7. What's the state doing getting involved in education? You continually trash American higher education here anyway. These jobs require zero knowledge of the humanities anyhow. The worst thing about college today is not multicultiralism but the money to be made with particular degrees.

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  8. That may be the stupidest thing I’ve read anywhere in the last ten years.
    Allow me to explain, point by point:
    1.) I’m actually not real keen on the state getting directly involved in this. I would imagine it means secondary support for training initiatives and helping make high school kids aware of career opportunities.

    2.) Yes, I continually trash higher education. It’s a sewer of perversity, indoctrination, identity politics and hatred of the Western heritage. That said, there are still good departments (generally STEM) in some schools. Also lots of vocation-oriented schools.

    3.) Perhaps a lot of the jobs themselves, strictly speaking, don’t require humanities knowledge, but you and I know that knowledge is required to be a fully educated human being and an engaged citizen. Which takes us back to point one. In today’s sewers, you won’t learn the humanities.

    4.) You could not be more wrong about multiculturalism. It is the base poison from which we get Latina studies, queer theory, white-privilege studies and all the rest of it.

    5.) You yourself say this society is in danger of not being able to provide people with decent livings. What the hell is your gripe with degrees that do exactly that?

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  9. I mean the emphasis on the money to be made with particular degrees. Live MBA or die!

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  10. And Uncle Donnie the genius delegator (in your mind) is the bombastic and crass embodiment of the bullying of big bucks.

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  11. Based on projected income the humanities are crap. Few view them S anything but a bore and burden.

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  12. Few students view the humanities as anything other than a bore or a burden. They and their parents want job skills and the big bucks. They are the real cattle.

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  13. I really don’t get you. Tou’re On record as saying you’re concerned that lucrative work is dwindling in our society. A number of people share your concern. What approach would you have them take?

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  14. You woulda seen serious and near unanimous uprising from the back to nature crowd here in FL not just the mavens of tourism which many view as a pain and a depredation anyhow.

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  15. Florida is a textbook case of monied interests always getting their way. And that's wrecked Paradise.

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  16. It's not my gripe about the humanities, it's yours. I am saying that our society has become so materialistic that this outweighs any damage that could ever be done by multicultiralism. And your calling me stupid or the things I say the stupidest things you've heard in decades moves me how much? None.

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  17. You're the one all hung up on queers too my man.

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  18. I didn’t call you stupid. I called your comment stupid.

    You say our society has become dismayingly materialistic. I happen to agree.

    How do you think that came about, and, more importantly, do you have any thoughts on how to address it?

    How am I “all hung up on queers”?

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  19. I haven't a clue how to address an overly shallow and materialistic society. What ones weren't are fast becoming so. It's an inside job and it ain't easy to stop being greedy. We're also bombarded with the consumerist message everywhere but in our sleep. If I said zen you'd take me to task.

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  20. We can go live collectively, usually celibately in monastic communities to avoid materialism but that's never been less appealing than now. Each individual must tackle the shackles of materialism until their dying breath.

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  21. You’re exactly right. See? Not everything you say is stupid.

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  22. Somehow I feel that as a back-handed complement.

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