Swamp Yankee
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Investment showdown -- beyond the Roth, SDP, & TSP
Swamp Yankee replied to Swizzle's topic in Squadron Bar
Interesting turn of events. Of course, GS, AMC, and BB have unviable business strategies and will ultimately die. But this is so fun to watch. My boring index funds and stock options have served me well for the long term, especially since 2011. -
Investment showdown -- beyond the Roth, SDP, & TSP
Swamp Yankee replied to Swizzle's topic in Squadron Bar
So let’s see if the likes of Tulsi and the Fox crowd are as adamant about Big Finance control as they are about Big Tech. Yes, I suppose you could try to differentiate based on 1A definitions but money-as-speech was supported with regard to campaign contributions. -
Wow - this (revived) thread really brings me back. My biggest UPT stressor/shame was being the first stud in the class to get a standup...and then getting sat down. The scenario led to an ejection in the Tweet. All was going well until the end when I was told I was landing in trees. I forgot to position my arms in front of my face. “Lieutenant, your eyes and neck are ripped out”. Extra embarrassing since I went to Benning a couple years prior and had jump wings on my name tag. But the key point: I never forgot that again!!
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I can attest to the low 93-96 washout rate as a Laughlin 94-01 class member. We lost maybe 4 with one guy going to Rucker. Another was a legitimate candidate for the funny farm (I was just an ROTC yahoo but how did he get through the AF Academy?) That said, I don’t remember anyone else who should have washed. I ended up right in the middle. Did great in Tweets and middling in -38s. Probably would have ranked higher with T-1s. Regardless, as a -130 guard guy it worked out fine.
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A lot of interesting discussion here. Too much to respond to at lunch hour. Regarding ethics; my realpolitik opinion is that it is impossible to completely rein in the problems. In a similar sense to campaign finance reform, realistically you can try to contain certain aspects. On climate change; I understand to some extent the concern about indoctrination (really education) However, having a science background and more importantly access to people knowledgeable on the subject, I can’t ignore the issue. The problem is the speed of change. So, yes, there are natural climate cycles but they’re generally measured in millennia, not decades or centuries. (The little ice age being an exception) Even the Navy is developing an Arctic open water strategy. Ultimately, the education piece will likely be viewed as similar to evolution vs creationism. We and China own a significant portion of the issue. While it’s great that sub Saharan countries are ratifying, they aren’t substantial contributors. Good point on the media. I have a very similar perspective. Also, it’s definitely gotten worse the past four years. Fox was always strongly on the right, but they really doubled down with Trump except for a brief period very recently. CNN was slightly left but shifted significantly into an anti-Trump channel. Fox and CNN are equally partisan opposites at this point. Both were business rather than ideologically driven. Grab the audiences that will watch the longest. I’ve also shifted left on some social issues as I’ve lead and managed people from a wider range of backgrounds. There’s a great quote from Dean Kamen, the guy who developed the Segway and other more important, but less well-known technical innovations: “Democrats want to control what you do with your wallet and Republicans want to control what you do in the bedroom” That sums it up well.
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Here’s a few I support: Executive order coordinating a government-wide Covid-19 response - The pandemic is a rather significant problem. Having additional effort applied rather than wishing the problem away is prudent. Executive order mandating ethics pledge for government appointees - Simply reverts back to a pre-Trump requirement Executive order promoting Covid-19 safety in domestic and international travel -Wearing masks as much as possible on airplanes seems reasonable to me Executive order expanding access to Covid-19 treatments - COVID is a problem with older folks. That’s essentially what this is about. Yes, Biden’s pace of EO’s is faster than Trump, who put forth 55 in his first year.
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Currently, the only 230 modifications that might address conservatives’ current concerns about private sector content control are those by Hawley (Ending Support for Internet Censorship Act) and Gozar (Stop Censorship Act) Both are highly troubling. Hawley’s in particular calls for companies content moderation teams to be declared politically neutral by a bipartisan commission. This is Soviet-style propaganda control that is completely orthogonal to the Constitution. I’m also tired of the “social platform as utility argument”. If you really want this, then be prepared for government subsidies since taking this approach restricts the ability of these platforms to manage their businesses. Don’t like how the current platforms are controlling content? Get private investors to support your development of an alternative. Plenty of conservatives with such means.
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That is exactly how creative capitalism works.
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I agree with much of the above. However, I remain an eternal optimIst regarding innovation and disruption. None of these platforms will exist forever. The digital landscape is littered with the corpses of former online and hardware giants: MySpace, Vine, Wii, Blackberry, to name a few. The distant past includes Netscape, AOL, even Digital Equip and Wang. Trying to implement policies to control such things is probably a fools errand.
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I agree with a number of Biden’s EOs but this one was a big mistake. Deportations are a critical part of managing immigration.
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What are some possible solutions? At the end of the day I’d rather have companies make their own business decisions rather than the government.
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I have listened to a few of Shapiro's podcasts (working from home provides some flexibility). Sorry, he sticks to right wing talking points 99% of the time. The only "criticism" I've heard was from this summer, indicating that Trump occasionally gets in his own way with his communications style, but then it was right back to slamming the left. Clearly, Shapiro, like Weisteins and even Rogan to an extent, rarely, if ever, criticize the right. In fact, the main talking point is that it was really the democrats who sparked the Jan 6th riots because they were just too tough and mean to Trump. That is completely ridiculous. The fact is that a very large number of Trump supporters were duped and incited by his rhetoric, resulting in an attempt to interrupt the political process. Full stop. The right demands that the left see both sides, which the left in fact does way better than the right. It is not even close.
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Perhaps. But the evangelicals have a gigantic influence in conservative politics. They carry at least as much weight as conventional media outlets
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Good points. Ah yes, reflective belts. I still have a couple in old helmet bags. There’s a hilarious Reddit thread “Why is the USAF so obsessed with reflective belts?” One of my favorites: “I find it useful in identifying douche bags from a safe distance. If the sun is up, and you see someone running around or in an office wearing one, there is a very high probability that the individual is a jerk. Bonus points if they are holding a Big Blue coffee cup and spend free time yapping at people at the ecp about proper wear of line badges.”
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Most of the people I spoke with definitely saw Trump as a major incendiary figure. However, their major point was that this stuff has been a problem since they were born. I do agree that Republicans may get more of the blame than they’ve earned (although not completely beyond the realm of reason). And democrats can sometime get a pass. And that some POC take advantage so as to avoid some responsibility. However, those are universals that all sides do; human nature. The point here is that there are real problems that should be acted on rather than ignored, denied, orrationalized away.
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At the end of the day, I see Biden’s election as a reset to politics as usual, warts and all. Given the debacle of the past four years, that’s probably okay. If a better outsider candidate can get traction; Tulsi, Jocko(!), Crenshaw (despite the fact that SEALS annoy me) then we can try again. Two aspects pushed me away from Trump this time: 1) His unpresidential behavior, which is important - In contrast, Reagan’s ability to communicate in a mature, articulate way was key to his success and facilitated the recovery of both the economy and our national pride. Initially I gave Trump the benefit of the doubt in just being unpolished. That wasn’t the case; he said whatever he thought would appeal to his base no matter how vile, racist, or incendiary. 2) Many of the numbers he claimed just weren’t correct. Job growth the last 3 yrs of Obama was slightly better than the first three years of Trump (pre-pandemic) per BLS stats. The trajectory of major market indices was essentially consistent from 2011 until the start of the pandemic. Thus, Trump did not rescue us from the ‘terrible Obama economy’. Crime has been steadily decreasing for decades. Trump did not dramatically affect it one way or the other.
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Basically, I took the article as “Biden goes to church a lot and supports some Catholic causes and doctrine.” Obviously abortion is a huge, major outlier. In all though, it is a typical Presidential exaggeration of leading a faith based life. For goodness sake, Trump in some inexplicable way became the darling of the evangelical right, despite cavorting with porn actresses, grabbing genitalia, and previously being indifferent at best to abortion. Not saying any of it is right but unfortunately this is a common tactic used to build up conventional faith bonafides.
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True. Trump is 74 (and obese) so not really better. I think that says alot about how both parties operate these days. They’re both ~20 yrs older than the mean age at inauguration. In addition, MCConnell is 78 and Pelosi is 80. How did we end up here? I’m sure we can all agree that some relative youth is needed in our political leadership.
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In principal, I support Voter ID 100% with the points expressed above. However, it is irksome that legislatures (usually Republican) trying to pass such laws can’t help themselves from also closing or curtailing DMV hours in areas with higher minority populations. Gee, somehow there’s always a coincidental budget issue.
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Good discussion here. BLM is a problematic organization. The Marxist connections and the bizarre statement about the eliminating the nuclear family are confounding. HOWEVER, I’ve taken the opportunity to sit down with (actual, real) black people and get their perspective. I’d strongly recommend doing the same in order to challenge your thinking. Some don’t perceive any racism but the vast majority do. It can be uncomfortable as it initially comes off as “all white people are bad” but after some reflection that wasn’t the case. After years of having grievances dismissed or having to deal with always-hostile reactions from the “I’m the least racist person I know” “I have a black friend” or the “yeah there’s maybe some racism, BUT...” crowds you get pissed off - such that opening a pressure relief valve is dramatic. Also, some folks use the problematic aspects of the BLM organization to discredit any and all complaints from the black community. That’s Fox News, Newsmax, and talk radio SOP. All of whom, by the way, are part of the mainstream media. They celebrated/defended Trump as much as MSNBC and CNN attacked/discredited him. So, overall Trump coverage was balanced, although bimodal.
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Very true.
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It was well-lit and clean for a parking garage. Of course, in the Air Guard the worst I had to deal with was passing out in the old Balboa Yacht Club in Panama.
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Interesting article on Affirmative Action in higher education. It can be a lazy way of dealing with a very real problem of inequality. Jordan Peterson talks about equality of opportunity vs equality of outcome. The former is more important than the latter. In fact, equality of outcome is irrelevant, since people make choices as individuals. However, creating true equality of opportunity is really hard work. Municipalities need to carefully examine the resources available to young students and try to level the playing field through careful investment and accountability. That's often too hard so they just throw money at the school system and call it good. By the end of secondary education, those from disadvantaged backgrounds are substantially behind academically. Trying to correct the situation through favorable admissions can backfire. It's often just too late to address the problem. However, favoritism in college admissions also includes athletes and legacies. Legacies = "My granddad went to BC, my dad went to BC and I'm going to BC" This often provides more of an advantage than affirmative action. The only places where legacy status doesn't help are hardcore schools like MIT. At D1 schools, the academic averages for athletes as a whole are often lower than the overall student body. You have to confront all favorability factors, not just one.
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I agree. Meritocracy should be the overarching criterion. As we all know, however, when it comes to complex roles requiring leadership, intelligence, relationship-building, relationship-leveraging, knowledge, experience, and "street sense" you can't always identify a singular "best candidate". Different people bring different combinations of attributes. In his autobiography Colin Powell writes about the "charm school" he had to attend as a new one-star. The instructor said there were so many good candidates that everyone in the class could be killed and their replacements would be equally qualified. So given that, slackline's comment about adding flavor makes sense. It can also be helpful in getting voter support.
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That's a reasonable point...he may have started out that way. The IDW-podcast left is much more willing to self-examine. That imbalance is a problem because political discussion is rapidly moving to the podcast world. It would be great if folks like Crowder, Shapiro, and Peterson truly cast a critical eye on the right. But that rarely, if ever, happens. I may be wrong on that; feel free to share examples to the contrary. While they are fond of saying (correctly) that you can't ignore the 70+ million that voted for Trump, there are legitimate reasons Biden won the electoral college and received 80+ million votes. Georgia went blue. Texas was closer than expected. Those reasons should be discussed, not dismissed.
