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#1221 Re: The Garden » US Politics Thread » 354 weeks ago
Trump either has to do something so stupid his people won't support him (unlikely), have the economy tank (not impossible), or some moderate separates themselves on the democratic side (unlikely given the power of the squad).
There is no chance a socialist can beat him and socialists have shown they won't show up to support a moderate. Right now changing that might be their best hope.
Well, unless a 3rd party candidate, like John Kasich, pulls a Ross Perot and 'takes away' Republican votes from Trump, splitting them and the Dem not named takes it. Honestly, I'd be ok if Kasich or someone somewhat reasonably moderate won it. Over some wackjob 'Vote for me, Everythings free!' candidate with no courage or conviction, just saying anthing to get elected (Booker, Harris, Castro)
In hindsight, kindof ashame that Starbucks owner got booed & derailed when announcing he'd run independent (A heckler yelled 'You conceited asshole, a 3rd party means a win for Trump' or something) I also think he might've been wrong on that accusation. But, would probably be worth listening to his plans, we had 20 candidates onstage bantering about everything free with little business experience save Yang.
#1222 Re: The Garden » US Politics Thread » 354 weeks ago
I think attacking Biden isn't much of a strategy, and people might be underestimating where Biden as VP stands amongst African Americans. And knocking Obama's record sure as heck isn't gonna be a net gain of Democratic votes. My prediction is over time it dwindles down to Biden, Warren, and Bernie. Kinda like 92 general with Bush & Clinton, with wacky H Ross Perot over to the side. Depends on if Biden holds up over time & seems in good mental health as well as what/how many votes Bernie takes. Otherwise I say Warren takes it.
Didn't watch much, but Yang has a good approach of offering something new & different. Could hang on a bit, maybe like a small niche version on Ron Paul in 2004 before he had a bigger impact in 2008 I think..
#1223 Re: The Garden » How to deal with... » 354 weeks ago
My cat died. I had a chihuahua, and cat. Taco died about 2 years ago, he progresed slower, aged, went blind the final 6 months, then about 30 days out took a turn for the worse.
Cat was worse, in a way. Happened a bit more sudden, but I'm kicking myself hard for not seeing the signs. She was 100% at 16/17 this year, even thru the spring. Then maybe wouldn't jump around as much, slowed down a tad, but I felt it was age. She started peeing tho, outside the box. Part of me was afraid to face consequences of a vet ($500-1000 treatment decision) and part of me hoped it was just a thing or curable. I tried giving her food meant for UTI (urinary tract infection which can cause peeing outside the box due to pain). Seemed like the right thing to do and she was ok with it for weeks, fuck this is hard.
Anyway last week she declined more noticably, and I called for an appointment Monday. The last 48 hours did not go well, as she became a bit lethargic. I mean Monday she was walking and slowly going up & down steps.
Anyway it just sucks. It's difficult losing pets, and there's never a right answer to things I suppose. I just look back & kick myself for not noticing and making the wrong decisions. I really wanted another 6 months or year with her. I actually sorta became a bit of a cat guy. Initially I got a cat to keep Taco company, and he was always #1 she was 2nd in command. She was good about it, they fought on occasion, swatting each other but always playing. The last year & a half she finally got 'her time', and we became buds. I'd look forward to coming home, seeing her, sharing fish or something. Now she's gone. Miss you Kat-kat 
#1224 Re: The Garden » US Politics Thread » 354 weeks ago
The format was terrible. I watched a bit online, they really tried to trim the responses down to like 30 seconds, it was just like 'Whuut?' then onto the next person.
Some of the non-heavyweights seemed to do pretty well tho. John Delaney made a good name for himself imho. CNN wrote him as a 'winner'. Amy Klobuchar needed to knock some punches around, just came up lame. Beto was another snoozefest. Again, wasn't a fan of the Q&A requesting quick responses. Wasn't sure if that was planned or mentioned at the beginning, but in the time I watched (30ish minutes off & on and in the background) thats what happened.
I noticed a few distance themselves from liberal policies (free college, abolish private healthcare), so that was a noticable shift.
#1225 Re: The Garden » US Politics Thread » 354 weeks ago
PaSnow wrote:mitchejw wrote:I had an epiphany...if Biden wins the primary, it will have basically picked John Kerry and will lose the election by a narrow margin.
After seeing Mueller I think we need to come to terms that around 70-72ish sboo ould be a pretty firm cutoff for high office. I think Liz Warrens close but handles herself well. Biden is def not the same. I dont think he wins it anyway. Its Harris or Warren, book it.
I heard Harris might go moderate in an effort to seperate herself feom the pack. Will be interesting to keep an eye on in the next debate. FTR there shouldnt be 20 candidates again, drop it down to 10.
How can Harris go Moderate now after going far left. You must be true to who you are. A change now would come off as phony, right??
I may have misremembered this part, maybe it was Klobuchar they spoke of, becoming a more outspoken & proud moderate. We'll see, will be interesting to follow tomorrow night, but otherwise yeah it may have been Klobuchar they spoke about.
Not backtacking, wasn't really my opinion or prediction either.
#1226 Re: The Garden » US Politics Thread » 354 weeks ago
[ These questions aren't about McDonald's or automation or how quickly they kick in...
I goto McDs occasionally for breakfast. They've had a kiosk for at least a year or two. There's still cashiers tho, for some reason it doesn't accept cash, only CC (Although thats probably due to the cash machine/change breaking or needing refill etc too often, or theft), and there's still staff cooking, drive thru etc.
Its the same thing as self checkout in Supermarket, people cried the end of the world & that goes back to maybe even the 90s, but generally around 2000/early 2000s when it became commonplace.
#1227 Re: The Garden » US Politics Thread » 354 weeks ago
Thats when UBI becomes a thing. Essentially $10k-$20K a year for food, housing etc via tax to the companies who automate. Those who work will pay for luxuries like cars & travel. Not saying its ideal, I heard it said tho, and I believe in about 20 years or so we may be there.
#1228 Re: The Garden » US Politics Thread » 354 weeks ago
PaSnow wrote:Randall Flagg wrote:Tilab has already started advocating for a $20 minimum wage. It’s a horrible idea because if you’re not worth $15 an hour now, your job is one of the first to be automated. Realistically, McDonalds could be entirely automated with existing technology. They’ve already replaced cashiers with iPads.
I’m not against raising the minimum wage, but minimum wage was never meant to provide a livable wage for adults with families. No one wants to tell people if you’re too poor to provide for yourself, you shouldn’t be having children. No one wants to acknowledge that admitting millions of economic migrants isn’t helping them when all low skilled jobs are automated over the next 10 years.
You can’t walk into any modern warehouse without seeing completely automated systems. Customer Service is being replaced with automation. The entire trucking and rail industry could be automated tomorrow if their union and lobbies didn’t have friends in congress.
Bernie Sanders can’t even afford to pay his staff $15 an hour. Yet somehow he’s a voice on implementing this nationwide?
The McDonalds argument always cracks me up. A company Wawa has been entirely automated for 10 years and they are thriving, and hiring. Staff just got better reassigned. Instead of some rando asking what you want on your hoagie, you type it into the kiosk. Obvi the sandwiches are made to order, and employees not robots make them, so they're better staffed. And people still pay cash or buy other things like chips & soda, so there's still cashiers. It's not become a vending machine.
It's kinda like a 7-11, only better. Stores probably average about 6-10 employees on a decent shift, larger stores closer to 20-30 at a time. No fear.
I agree having kids while 19 & in poverty is not going to help people, and probably need better PSA's about the downside to early/teen pregnancy as a whole.
Customer Service they've been talking about getting rid of since the early 2000s, problem is Americans want someone to yell at (believe me, I spent too many years in the industry. It fucked with my head). It'll never goto India and never be fully robotic. If anything, it's making it worse for CS reps because the easy calls "Hi I'd like to pay my bill" are now handled by automation, leaving only the angry nimrods who haven't paid their bill for 4 months yet are now shutoff are still getting thru to humans, leaving them to deal with the shit.
Most $15/hr plans are 5-7 year trajectories, not overnight. We let too much time lapse in the early 2000s without raising it until Obama finally raised it for the first time since I think the 90s.
WaWa is so overrated. But do they all make $15 an hour? WaWa is a convenience store. It’s the easiest thing in the world to automate. I’m aware state regulations require ID checks for booze and smokes, but we have biometric readers at customs to skip the line. I’d wager that tech could be leveraged to get people out of WaWa faster too.
Thats cause u live on the left side of the state, Sheetz country.
I dont think stores could go fully automated, ppl could just run out without paying. Myb 20 years from now but no time soon
I dont think they make 15 but my point was towards fears of McDs kiosks.
#1229 Re: The Garden » US Politics Thread » 354 weeks ago
I've only stopped at WaWas to get gas.
I don't think that's really comparable to mcD's. I'm not sure about franchise fees either.
They're actually not franchise. I believe they're not even a corporation, just family owned & well run.
Far better than McDs. Grab a hoagie or Sourdough next time. Italian Sourdough melt is so so good.
#1230 Re: The Garden » US Politics Thread » 354 weeks ago
Tilab has already started advocating for a $20 minimum wage. It’s a horrible idea because if you’re not worth $15 an hour now, your job is one of the first to be automated. Realistically, McDonalds could be entirely automated with existing technology. They’ve already replaced cashiers with iPads.
I’m not against raising the minimum wage, but minimum wage was never meant to provide a livable wage for adults with families. No one wants to tell people if you’re too poor to provide for yourself, you shouldn’t be having children. No one wants to acknowledge that admitting millions of economic migrants isn’t helping them when all low skilled jobs are automated over the next 10 years.
You can’t walk into any modern warehouse without seeing completely automated systems. Customer Service is being replaced with automation. The entire trucking and rail industry could be automated tomorrow if their union and lobbies didn’t have friends in congress.
Bernie Sanders can’t even afford to pay his staff $15 an hour. Yet somehow he’s a voice on implementing this nationwide?
The McDonalds argument always cracks me up. A company Wawa has been entirely automated for 10 years and they are thriving, and hiring. Staff just got better reassigned. Instead of some rando asking what you want on your hoagie, you type it into the kiosk. Obvi the sandwiches are made to order, and employees not robots make them, so they're better staffed. And people still pay cash or buy other things like chips & soda, so there's still cashiers. It's not become a vending machine.
It's kinda like a 7-11, only better. Stores probably average about 6-10 employees on a decent shift, larger stores closer to 20-30 at a time. No fear.
I agree having kids while 19 & in poverty is not going to help people, and probably need better PSA's about the downside to early/teen pregnancy as a whole.
Customer Service they've been talking about getting rid of since the early 2000s, problem is Americans want someone to yell at (believe me, I spent too many years in the industry. It fucked with my head). It'll never goto India and never be fully robotic. If anything, it's making it worse for CS reps because the easy calls "Hi I'd like to pay my bill" are now handled by automation, leaving only the angry nimrods who haven't paid their bill for 4 months yet are now shutoff are still getting thru to humans, leaving them to deal with the shit.
Most $15/hr plans are 5-7 year trajectories, not overnight. We let too much time lapse in the early 2000s without raising it until Obama finally raised it for the first time since I think the 90s.
