This is who will get replaced first, and they don’t want to see it. They’re the most important, valuable part of the company in their own mind, yet that was the one thing the AI got right, the management part. It still needed the creative mind of a human programmer to do the code properly, or think outside the box.

There were still bugs. You just learned how to deal with them or work around them.

Ban abortions, then starve the children. If wasn’t already apparent that the Republican Party is evil, this should make things much clearer.

They’ll just make a fee for having to list their fees, and make the consumer pay for it.

Because selling the notion of “trickle down” economics is extremely profitable for those at the top. It keeps stringing people along believing that if we just give more money to and ask for less from our corporate benefactors, eventually we’ll all benefit somehow by them expanding their businesses and creating more slave wage jobs.

Continuing with the real-estate discussion (I know, now I’m focusing on it ;-) ), I whole heartedly disagree. When ignoring the needs of the lower 75% of the country’s wage earners, and focusing your efforts on the upper 25%, something is glaringly, obviously wrong, and saying things like,

It doesn’t matter who they’re targeting, because they’re increasing supply.

shows a level of privilege that most people in the US cannot fathom or afford, myself included. That statement says…a lot, but I don’t want to devolve into ad hominin bs because now you’ve piqued my interest.

Honestly, and I genuinely mean this, yes, I would love to know what a climate lobbyist does.

I know tone doesn’t translate via text very well, but I can assure you I’m not desperate to have all lobbyists be inherently bad. Am I angry? Yes, but never desperate, and I’m not angry without reason. I’ve seen it directly, more than once in my lifetime, politicians and policy be influenced by the efforts of lobbyists and their money. Not just something I read in the news, heard on the radio, or saw on a website. I’ve seen funding pulled from one project to another because of lobbyists. Not because the project the funding was being pulled from wasn’t worthy, but our lobbyists weren’t as good (or willing to donate as much) as their lobbyists.

It’s a system that allows to much room for abuse, is abused every single day. Even if for something as noble as a climate lobbyist, the quote “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” I would think still rings true (religious connotations notwithstanding).

Now don’t ask me how to fix it all because I have no clue. Maybe it’s the best we have. I dunno. 😂 I just choose, like I said earlier never to trust a politician. They’re all owned in some way by the money that puts them in power.

Edit: I do want to say, I am enjoying this discussion. Thank you for making a long day at the office a little bit more interesting.

Yes I do. None of them are selling affordable single family homes.

As a matter of fact multi-family housing is leading a housing construction “boom” as of articles published 6 days ago.

Here’s a quote from MReport:

Further, almost two-thirds of the apartments build during the pandemic are clustered in just 20 high-growth metropolitan areas, which make up about 41% of the total renter population in the U.S. Therefore, for many other places, the new supply barely made a dent in the existing supply. What’s more, around 89% of the apartments completed in the last three years are high-end and, thus, target upper-middle- and high-income buyers and renters.

So they are building “multi-family homes”, but targeting, wait for it, people with lot’s of money.

So you quit lying.

Come to think of it, you’re singling out the and focusing on the real estate angle pretty hard. Why is that?

You’re joking right? https://www.statista.com/statistics/257364/top-lobbying-industries-in-the-us/

From your own source. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2023/02/oil-and-gas-industry-spent-124-4-million-on-federal-lobbying-amid-record-profits-in-2022/#:~:text=The oil and gas industry,slightly when adjusted for inflation.

And for you last point about NAR, I have doubts. I could see home builders and home buyers benefitting from zoning changes. It would drive down costs of a new home, open up more choices for home buyers, and put construction companies to work. Realtors are middle men who work off commissions. The more they can sell a house for the more commission they make. Realtors have a vested interest keeping the market balanced in their favor.

Take one look at who the biggest lobbyists in the US are. Then compare that to the most glaring issues we have in the US. I’ll wait.

But you’re supposed to pick a side and be willing to literally lay down your life for them and their cause! Ra ra, go team go. Otherwise you’re just part of the problem according to either side.

I agree with you and I’ll go a step further and say fuck all politicians in general. Today, they’re all owned in some way by the money that puts them in power. They’ll all tell you what you want to hear. They’re all experts in half truths. Never trust a politician.

Now that’s a thought. An unwitting corrupt politician honey pot.

Gonna get downvoted to hell by saying this, but I didn’t see anything about the books being banned in the linked article or the source article. As a matter of fact the school in question doubled down on keeping them. But, you could argue by pulling kids out of classes as a protest against said books being included in a curriculum is effectively trying to get them banned.

What I did read was a judge basically told some bigoted ass parents that no you can’t opt your kids out of the classes whose curriculum go against your religious “morals”. That, I don’t agree with. That is a very sharp double edged sword that could be abused in so many ways.

Which everything you just said is encompassed by one flaw that is almost impossible to fix. Our (at least in the US) profit driven mentality, and fuck you I got mine. We will cut off our nose to spite our face in the name of profit making. We will create social programs to essentially subsidize paychecks to help people who don’t make enough to survive working 2 or 3 jobs (and then complain about those very same social programs impact on our taxes) because profits. Then we’ll move these companies to other countries in the name of profits. Then we’ll allow small businesses to get squashed by larger businesses because profits. Then we will gladly allow our retirements to be inextricably tied to the profits of these very same larger companies by giving our money back to them in our 401k’s, IRAs which creates demand for … more profits.

So no, it’s not just a jobs issue. That’s just a symptom of the larger issue. Now queue the “you’re just a dirty communist/socialist” retorts.

I don’t think you quite grasp how enormously big space is.

No, that is literally solving the problem. You can’t make it clean. What exactly would we need to protect out in space or say the moon? The space whales, or moon frogs? You’re protecting nothing but the vacuum of space and some rocks.

No one give a shit about iMessage. I’ve watched my kids exclusively communicate with their friends via Snapchat and discord.

Have a buddy that will buy 24 packs of that hot garbage for parties or get togethers. Either that or Keystone light. Not really sure why I’m friends with him…

I’ve also been a subscriber for the last 4 years or so and seeing all of this is making me wonder if I’m subscribed to the same Spotify they are. I’ve had none of these issues.

Same. I’ve seen multiple people say this here and I’ve yet to experience it. Makes me wonder if the particular podcasters they’re listening to have opted in to some sort of ad revenue thing from Spotify.

Tax write off perhaps?