Project Autocracy

[romad1]

https://bsky.app/profile/ronfilipkowski.bsky.social/post/3lec7uztevk27

Really wish the bsky messages would thread. 

 

 

Ron Filipkowski

‪@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social‬

 

Wow. Musk suspended Loome

[romad1]

I understand that bsky is an echo-chamber but its not a house organ.

[mtutiger]

Rereading Vivek's screed, I find it wild that he apparently saw the movie "Whiplash" and thinks that JK Simmons was the good guy.

Elon probably thinks that too given how he treats his employees 

[Tiger337]

I have joked before that humanities courses were good for boosting my GPA...and they were!  However, in retrospect, I am also glad that I took some of them.  Philosophy courses, in particular, have been valuable to my thinking and understanding of the world.   

Edited December 28, 2024 by Tiger337

[oblong]

Too many people think of college courses as you learn “what to think” rather than “how to think”.  
 

And it’s interesting seeing this play out in a math/science vs humanities/literature/etc sandbox, wondering why the math and science need the other.  How many times has the discussion been reversed?  I think both are valuable. Obviously there is a limit to how far you can go. But there is a benefit to the brain in both disciplines. No you don’t need algebra or even pre calc to do many jobs.  Not specifically.  But your brain and mind retained a structure and thought process that can help you.  The same is true for the other side of education. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

18 hours ago, mtutiger said:

Rereading Vivek's screed, I find it wild that he apparently saw the movie "Whiplash" and thinks that JK Simmons was the good guy.

Elon probably thinks that too given how he treats his employees 

Is that puzzling to you though really? Trump and his MAGA supporters think Mr. Scrooge was a better person before the ghosts came to visit him. It's their bootstrap, cutthroat, libertarian, survival of the fittest mentality. 

[romad1]

This guy is a problem.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/politics/government/ar-AA1wCA6q

[gehringer_2]

On 12/28/2024 at 8:07 AM, oblong said:

Too many people think of college courses as you learn “what to think” rather than “how to think”.  
 

And it’s interesting seeing this play out in a math/science vs humanities/literature/etc sandbox, wondering why the math and science need the other.  How many times has the discussion been reversed?  I think both are valuable. Obviously there is a limit to how far you can go. But there is a benefit to the brain in both disciplines. No you don’t need algebra or even pre calc to do many jobs.  Not specifically.  But your brain and mind retained a structure and thought process that can help you.  The same is true for the other side of education. 

I wouldn't argue that in any number of fields, there are faculty with an ideological ax to grind, but in that respect US colleges are no worse "indoctrination" than what I've seen at a Boy Scout camp. I think the reality is that most students are pretty skeptical of that that kind of thing and the net effect may be to produce as many reactionaries to their views as adherents. The bigger problem is the control of faculty hiring by people with narrow views creating a school without intellectual breadth.

[LaceyLou]

8 hours ago, romad1 said:

This guy is a problem.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/politics/government/ar-AA1wCA6q

Not a big surprise of course, from somebody who benefited from apartheid.

[romad1]

Eggs were more expensive during covid so...

[Tigeraholic1]

Speaking of eggs, whats going on in Michigan? Is there a shortage due to the new cage free rule? I caught a blurb on my local news talking about it.

[chasfh]

On 12/28/2024 at 10:07 AM, oblong said:

Too many people think of college courses as you learn “what to think” rather than “how to think”.  
 

And it’s interesting seeing this play out in a math/science vs humanities/literature/etc sandbox, wondering why the math and science need the other.  How many times has the discussion been reversed?  I think both are valuable. Obviously there is a limit to how far you can go. But there is a benefit to the brain in both disciplines. No you don’t need algebra or even pre calc to do many jobs.  Not specifically.  But your brain and mind retained a structure and thought process that can help you.  The same is true for the other side of education. 

To the degree high school was ever about teaching students critical thinking skills, that went out the window when they ****-canned the civics courses that were fairly common during the mid-20th Century, and just about gone by the mid 70s when I got to high school.

Now they want to turn college into the same thing. They want to make college essentially business trade school. They don't want colleges and universities to teach students how to think, because they don't want people to be able to think things through. That goes against their interests. Make it harder to find humanities courses by keeping them focused on bookkeeping courses.

Preemptive reply: everyone knows who they are.

[CMRivdogs]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

To the degree high school was ever about teaching students critical thinking skills, that went out the window when they ****-canned the civics courses that were fairly common during the mid-20th Century, and just about gone by the mid 70s when I got to high school.

Now they want to turn college into the same thing. They want to make college essentially business trade school. They don't want colleges and universities to teach students how to think, because they don't want people to be able to think things through. That goes against their interests. Make it harder to find humanities courses by keeping them focused on bookkeeping courses.

Preemptive reply: everyone knows who they are.

This was a problem in the late 60's as well, even in high school. There were (probably extremely few) teachers who espoused teaching critical thinking and encouraging students to come to their own conclusions. 
The ones that did and made a difference in many of their student's life's probably had short careers.

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

Speaking of eggs, whats going on in Michigan? Is there a shortage due to the new cage free rule? I caught a blurb on my local news talking about it.

More likely bird flu. The recent reporting is mostly about it jumping into the cows (and then people) but if cows are getting it its because it's still going around in chicken flocks.

Edited December 30, 2024 by gehringer_2

[Tigeraholic1]

33 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

More likely bird flu. The recent reporting is mostly about it jumping into the cows (and then people) but if cows are getting it its because it's still going around in chicken flocks.

This is what I was seeing.

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/michigan-cage-free-egg-law/#:~:text=In 2025%2C Michigan will join,behaviors%2C ultimately prohibiting their confinement.

[CMRivdogs]

Promise them anything, but give them BS

 

[Tigeraholic1]

H1B is the type of imigration we need. I work with engineers all day at Ford. The Indian PE's run circles around their american counterparts. 

[chasfh]

9 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

Promise them anything, but give them BS

 

The tell here is that he added the racial qualifier to it. This pretty much confirms his “immigration policy’ is race-based.

[mtutiger]

20 hours ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

This is what I was seeing.

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/michigan-cage-free-egg-law/#:~:text=In 2025%2C Michigan will join,behaviors%2C ultimately prohibiting their confinement.

Egg prices are going up everywhere at the moment, not just in Michigan. They were very expensive in Texas last week.

[Tigeraholic1]

10 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

Egg prices are going up everywhere at the moment, not just in Michigan. They were very expensive in Texas last week.

Is Texas one of the other states that changed this law or is it related to bird flu? I just pulled 2 dozen eggs out of my chicken coop. they seem to like the gloomy weather for some reason.

[mtutiger]

12 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

Is Texas one of the other states that changed this law or is it related to bird flu? I just pulled 2 dozen eggs out of my chicken coop. they seem to like the gloomy weather for some reason.

It is not (source is cagefreelaws.com); given the state's political leanings (and educated from having lived there for 11 years), it would be shocking if it did. Illinois also does not have a cage free requirement and eggs are more expensive here than they were a few months ago as well.

All of this is to say that the main driver of egg prices everywhere isn't cage free eggs - it's likely bird flu.

[mtutiger]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-border-tom-homan-firm-federal-contracts-1235219657/

Quote

Advocates aren’t only concerned with Homan’s deportation plans, but also about his ties to government contractors. His consulting firm, Homeland Strategic Consulting LLC, advertises its ability to get its clients work with the federal government. The firm says on its website: “We have a proven track record of opening doors and bringing successful relationships to our clients, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of federal contracts to private companies.”

The firm also touts its “working relations with DHS [Department of Homeland Security], DOJ [Department of Justice], DOD [Department of Defense], and numerous foreign governments around the world.” Homeland Strategic Consulting was incorporated in May 2018, days after Homan announced his resignation as Trump’s acting ICE director, according to Virginia state records.

Swampy

[Tigeraholic1]

30 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

It is not (source is cagefreelaws.com); given the state's political leanings (and educated from having lived there for 11 years), it would be shocking if it did. Illinois also does not have a cage free requirement and eggs are more expensive here than they were a few months ago as well.

All of this is to say that the main driver of egg prices everywhere isn't cage free eggs - it's likely bird flu.

Michigan is getting double dipped with the new law and bird flu. I am all for better treatment of livestock. Look at the awful conditions at chinese owned Smithfield Foods Pork factory farms all over the country, awful. I refuse to buy their product and hope others boycott them as well.

https://sentientmedia.org/top-pork-producing-states/

[mtutiger]

1 minute ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

Michigan is getting double dipped with the new law and bird flu.

The price listed in the article ($5.99/12 eggs) was pretty similar to what I saw in Texas last week and what I saw at the grocery store yesterday at home....

Maybe there is some impact at the margins, but it's pretty clear that the bulk of the increase in egg prices is due to bird flu.

 

[CMRivdogs]

17 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

Michigan is getting double dipped with the new law and bird flu. I am all for better treatment of livestock. Look at the awful conditions at chinese owned Smithfield Foods Pork factory farms all over the country, awful. I refuse to buy their product and hope others boycott them as well.

https://sentientmedia.org/top-pork-producing-states/

Re: Smithfield, one of the things we agree on. Same goes here for Edward's Ham Company, a Smithfield neighbor in SE Virginia. They suffered a major fore a few years ago and ended up selling their business. As a fan of "country ham" it was a major loss.