hydroacetylene
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User ID: 128
hydroacetylene
4hr ago
Jane Austen was not a victorian writer, and he's Finnish anyways.
I don't know that she's a popular part of the American curriculum, either- Shakespeare makes a strong showing in the better programs, and everyone reads Huck Finn(The American novel). The shorter works(Where the Red Fern Grows, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird...) are pretty common. Younger grades have modern literature written almost specifically to be read in English class. In high school, I remember a bit of Steinbeck, more Dickens than I would have preferred, but perhaps a quarter of the curriculum being Shakespeare.
hydroacetylene
4hr ago
English is essentially anchored by Shakespeare and the King James bible, and for specifically American English also Twain. Not by Jane Austen, particularly- while she definitely 'counts' as a literary great, Pride and Prejudice in not an anchorwork for English as a literary tongue the way that Shakespeare's first folio is, nor the the King James bible.
hydroacetylene
5hr ago
The only Islamic group to defeat the US was the Taliban; they may simply be taking inspiration from Mullah Omar in picking a reclusive leader with severe war injuries.
hydroacetylene
5hr ago
Or we're simply more sensitive to even trivial risks. We could make planes open carry friendly, and it would be fine.
hydroacetylene
10hr ago
I mean the latter two, yes. Bride people seems easy enough to parse, especially with context. I will admit to probably needing to look up valetudinarian, but we have dictionaries in our pockets.
hydroacetylene
18hr ago
You should be able to read a book from ~1800 without needing a translation. Literally, it’s not that different.
hydroacetylene
1d ago
Well, the poorest of the poor don't tend to join the army very often- the working class and middle classes dominate enlistment. These people might be on CHIP or something but they're not getting huge welfare assistance, nor do they need it. The military is attractive out of economic necessity to the recently shotgun married and that's about it, and they're also mostly already in the army.
hydroacetylene
1d ago
The gulf states turned their oil money into everything they want, without needing to kill tens of thousands of their own people from time to time. They have high human development, high incomes, and did that without needing to abandon their way of life/traditional culture.
Not bad for petrostates with average IQ in the 70's- the most comparable countries are shitholes in sub saharan Africa. Has Nigeria transmuted its oil money into anything good?
Iran produces better tech than the gulf Arabs, I'm willing to believe that- but unlike the gulf Arabs it doesn't keep the water on in its own capital city. Iran's government ignores huge chunks of its responsibilities.
hydroacetylene
1d ago
There are shitlibs, resistancelibs, and blue tribe tribalist tards in Texas. Probably very few in Johnson county, but immigration jails aren't built in downtown Dallas.
hydroacetylene
1d ago
Indeed, these people didn't identify as Antifa- IIRC, they identified as members of the john brown gun club, one of several groups that people refer to when they say 'antifa'.
hydroacetylene
1d ago
AAQC’d
I have had conversations with illegals which certainly rhymed- their salaries are quite low by Texas standards, but they still make in a day what a good job paid them in a week in Oaxaca. Even when their employers treated them badly they considered it worth it; they regularly worked six twelves and asked for more hours, and few of their jobs were pleasant and fun. But Mexico- or for that matter honduras- are simply not as bad as India. I don’t say that as a value judgement, $1/day labor isn’t really a thing there. And as northern Mexico has industrialized there have been far fewer migrants from there; being a factory worker in Monterrey isn’t as good as being a factory worker in Dallas, but it beats being a ditch digger or roofer in Dallas.
Overall there’s a neglect of the ‘what’s the alternative’ problem. Like yes working in a sweatshop sucks, but subsistence farmers try it and then beg the places to expand so they can get their friends and family on. The world is not naturally ‘nice’ and plenty of people can improve their lot by quite a lot with it still sucking.
I’m not trying to make some grand point. Yes there are grand points to be made, but for most people migrating or working in sweatshops or whatever, it’s not a grand point, it’s an individual one.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
Marco Rubio will be in his sixties after an eight year Vance presidency, and he's already been waiting a while. Americans like to complain about how old their politicians are and he likely knows this, plus he's almost certainly more popular among the broader public than Vance. He doesn't have a lot of reason to take that deal.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
Disadvantaged Americans aren't as desperate as disadvantaged Russians, nor are they fit for military service. You could force the probation roster into the Army without too much fuss from other people, probably, but the US army wouldn't be exactly thrilled to have them.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
Saudi Arabia has a few insane vanity projects and a poor human rights record, but it manages to accomplish both its religious and human development goals. That's a hard problem to solve.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
They trade oil for a high standard of living, and Dubai banks the oil money locally.
Now, to be clear, Iran is in some ways morally superior to these countries- at least the locals do actual work instead of abusing indentured servants, for example, and the gulf states don't have stellar human rights records either. But let's not sugarcoat the Iranian regime; they're fucking retards whose sine qua non is being enemies of America, who have seemingly failed at both their good governance and their religious goals. The same cannot be said for the gulf states.
Literally, the gulf states are the bull case for monarchy. You know what most Arabs do when they discover an ocean of oil? Have a civil war and let the winner squander the money on terrorism, with no benefit to the people. Saudi citizens might be lazy fucks, but they don't do that. Saudi Arabia is a developed country with a high standard of living, that's managed to avoid sanctions. Same for Qatar, Kuwait, etc. Iran hasn't had a civil war recently, but you know what they spend their oil money on? 'Cause it ain't good governance. They're out of running water in the capital. That's very unlikely in Riyadh despite supplying water to it being a harder problem. The Gulf Monarchies are basically achieving both their human and religious goals, even if they don't get all their foreign policy goals and have poor human rights records. Yes, they cheated by using oil money, but this is not a foolproof loophole- just ask Nigeria, Venezuela, Libya, Iraq, etc. Does the median petrostate benefit the people at all? I guess Russia's oil money enables a military machine that provides economic stimulus.
For avoiding the petrostate trap, hats off to the gulf Arabs. This is actually a hard problem and they solved it.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
I can’t speak for the others, but Lina Hildalgo is also crashing and burning, although she blames ‘mental health problems’ rather than racism and sexism.
Talarico is not a moderate; but he is a conventional seeming white guy… until you hear him talk(which during the primary, he didn’t do very much of). He won the primary due to black-Hispanic tensions and mismanaged elections in Crockett’s strongest county. This doesn’t make him a particularly strong general election candidate although he seems like it superficially.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
Those prisons are already built. Building new prisons could easily cost much much more than operating current ones.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
Probably no higher than the percentage of Republicans who won't.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
She lost her primary. She was then appointed VP because she was nonthreatening and stumbled into a big girl presidential run.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
The dem primaries for the midterms have, so far, pushed towards conventional wisdom white male candidates. Not the same thing as moderates, but not diversity hires or people who can't string a sentence together.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
25A section four has never been invoked, and I'm skeptical that Vance has the personal political machine to be the first. Diadochos style taking the throne by assassination feels plausible but is probably no more likely, but everyone would agree it would be legitimate.
I think that's the thing getting left out. Legitimacy. It matters. And the US has an assumption that removing a president for incompetence/incapacity is illegitimate. Why would Vance want to be an illegitimate successor taking ownership of a very difficult situation?
hydroacetylene
2d ago
Newsom has a profound liability in needing to run against his record as chief exec of a state renowned for mismanagement, however. I agree that the GOP could screw the pooch enough to lose to him, but he's not a particularly strong candidate.
hydroacetylene
3d ago
One of Trump's favorite pastors, Robert Jeffress, is affiliated with the southern Baptist convention. His First Baptist Dallas church has satellite campuses, has a theological convergence little different from nearby and well known megachurches, and he is the son of the previous lead pastor. This is a megachurch, and so are tons of other SBC churches.
hydroacetylene
3d ago
Trump got his way in LA and Chicago. He lost in Minneapolis. Yes there were all sorts of protestors in these places but it was all page five stories and professional activists getting arrested.
Neither these scenarios, nor the use of firearms to stop hijackings, will happen. Airplane security is pointless.
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