> 1) the average American is heavily dependent on equities in their 401k for retirement,
> 2) so the stock market has to go up
This is why I've come to despise 401k's replacing old-school pensions. Yes, pensions had their problems but with 401k's workers must fleece themselves to have any sort of retirement opportunity.
Want a shot at retirement? Now we all have to run ourselves into the ground to make number go up. It's insane.
Makes me think of notices around adult clubs I've seen such as:
"CONSENT: A clear and unambiguous agreement, expressed outwardly through mutually understandable words or actions, to engage in a particular activity. Consent can be withdrawn by either party at any point."
and
"No means No"
What I'm about to say is strongly worded and I understand not a _perfect_ analogy by any means. However, it does sum up my feelings on this issue.
If Person A makes repeated unwanted advances towards Person B, we have words to describe that. But if Person A, a company, makes repeated unwanted advances towards Person B we call that business.
Have you ever been to Portland or do you just believe Trump? There were few (not many) Trump flags in Portland during the election and I don’t recall a single person being hurt for it.
> The guy you’re replying to is not worth your time. His comment history shows that he speaks in the kind of short, reductionist tropes that evidence the fact that his prefrontal cortex has been melted by exposure to propaganda. People like this are scared of the world around them and operate on fear, which is followed by hate as a defense mechanism. I admire you for engaging, but you can’t change these unfortunate people. Just be glad you aren’t one.
Your entire comment is inappropriate for HN. People have different experiences from you. What they have seen or experienced may not be captured in “citations”. You can choose to not believe it. But when you dismiss it as propaganda, you are not being curious. And when you engage in an insulting personal attack, you’re violating the guidelines.
I think I’m past being curious about the kind of person that makes claims like it’s dangerous for a person with right-leaning political alignment to walk through Portland. What is there to be curious about at this point? We’ve all seen this kind of rhetoric and it’s simply parroted propaganda from their dear leader, as is 90% of his comment history. I respect your right to be diplomatic, but I think more people need to be realistic at this point.
As for the guidelines, this entire thread violates them. Directly from the guidelines:
>Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
> I think I’m past being curious about the kind of person that makes claims like it’s dangerous for a person with right-leaning political alignment to walk through Portland
Please, please continue to be curious. I feel you. Every day I find myself throwing in the towel on "those people". I use "us vs. them" language far more than I should. My instincts say to give up.
It's a fight that maybe I'm losing, but if we stop trying to understand then the remaining options on the table are considerably worse.
Just look at Daryl Davis'[0] success in convincing Klansmen to denounce the KKK. The man is an absolute hero and had major cojones for what he did. I truly can't fathom the guts it took for him to do that. I'm white and it would scare me.
Few people are beyond being reached. MAGA is fueled by fear (and anger). We need to dismantle the fear and redirect the anger. Fear leads to brain-rot. Anger can sometimes be justified and a powerful ally when pointed in the right direction. I have no implementation ideas that are worth discussing though.
That being said. Despite the above ramblings, I have given up on some people. And it feels bad. Disconnecting from each other can only escalate further.
All to say, I feel you and I feel your position. But please do your best to not throw in the towel, even though it is so appealing in our current climate.
It’s a bizarre tactic. The DNC plays very dirty with their own members. On the outward public stage they “take the high road” and seem to constantly neuter themselves to prove how much they care.
Democrat voters didn’t turn out this past election cycle. Even in the face of Trump. They’ve truly made their base apathetic. “Hold your nose” is a tough strategy to sell long term.
I will never forget what they did to Sanders. Maybe he would’ve lost anyways. It’s likely. But that whole take the high road thing is only messaging. Internally they function nothing like a democracy.
This pains me so. Every time I have to hear "individual contributor", "leadership", or "the brand" I die a little inside.
Please just call me an employee or engineer. As for "leadership", I am somewhat convinced that the word "management" would lead to a mid-life crisis. Such inflated egos. As for "the brand", they are my employer.
This Newspeak has benefits though. Mainly that it hides in plain sight the top-down hierarchy of power that exists. Despite that fact that some employees are on food stamps while others make millions, it _sounds_ like everyone is on on somewhat equal footing.
We already have solutions for this called trains, buses, subways, etc. Public transportation. Yes, America is huge but look at China building out high-speed rail at an incredible pace. The amount of money dumped into self-driving could have built out an impressive amount of infrastructure for public transportation.
Not to say this isn’t a worthy problem to solve or that cars have no use. They’re great for rural life. But maybe 80% of the use-case for self-driving cars is pretty much solved by trains. They’re fast, generate no traffic, are very safe, and reduce pollution in urban areas. Even electric cars produce noxious break dust.
Addendum
The “America is too big” argument drives me nuts. (1) Again, look at China. (2) The EU is decently large and connected very well by rail. (3) We’re America. We went to the frickin moon. Defeated the Nazis. Etc. We can build trains. Not to mention what a boost it would be to the economy with all the jobs a project like that would create. Sure, we wouldn’t have an Elon but that’s fine by me.
This argument never makes a lick of sense, these are entirely different problems. Trains, buses, subways, do not go to my house, and they do not go to my destination. They (sometimes) get close, and then I have to get through the last mile somehow, often a taxi or Uber. That transfer alone is annoying and it often makes sense to just take the taxi the whole way, even if it costs more, and it's a better experience than any public transit, so why not?
Maybe that setup works in China where everyone lives on top of each other in shoeboxes and you can just route a monorail through an apartment building, but I like both having my space and living adjacent to a large city. You could put a teleporter to the train station on my boulevard and I'd stand next to it while I wait for an Uber. You could build a train station a block from my house and I'd move somewhere else. I would pay multiples of any train ticket price to get into an autonomous sleeper Waymo and wake up in a city hours away in front of my hotel. You literally could not pay me to take more public transit if I have any other option, and I don't think I'm alone in that, and building more of it doesn't solve that.
America's strength here is that it's full of great places where you can live like that, take public transit everywhere, walk everywhere else, if that's what you want, with the compromises it comes with. But instead of moving to those places people say "build more public transit", which then just sounds like "I wish public transit was more accessible to me specifically" and then we're just back at taxis, or building rail to connect the front doors of everyone on earth.
It doesn't, really. China sells absolutely fucktons of cars domestically. There are also dozens of brands that most people have never even heard of and don't even get exported because domestic demand for a functional 10-15,000 electric car is so high. Every residential complex is absolutely rammed with cars, ranging from tiny runabouts to Tank 700 plus-sized SUVs.
That demand doesn't exist because everyone lives 5 minutes walk from work and loves the subway. Though millions upon millions of people do both, and subways have expanded probably 1000% or more in the last 15 years, million upon millions also want a car. In many cases they may not represent all the miles a person travels (eg subway to work but car for other trips).
High speed rail also is a replacement for many car miles driven because while a cross-country ticket is expensive, driving is still expensive in fuel and wear and takes days to boot.
There are definitely places in the US that I would like to see intercity high-speed rail specifically. Flying is convenient and frankly magical but always feels like a huge chore to do.
Even in China, flying is usually cheaper than HSR, and over twice as fast once airborne (300km/hr train vs 800km/hr plane). But getting and through airports is still more of a hassle than the trains. Even when taxis are fairly cheap, there's nothing like popping out in the city.
Though it's not quite like a cosy European station near the old town: some some stations are the better part of half a mile across (not along the platforms, across), and aren't right in the city centre so there can still be some walking involved!
On the other hand, you can have takeaway food delivered to the station ahead and receive it at your seat. And it's far more comfortable even in economy.
-->You literally could not pay me to take more public transit if I have any other option
The diversity of the world truly never ceases to amaze me. Thats a wild take. Driving is an awful experience - its expensive, its stressful, cars are uncomfortable, and the whole thing is extremely dangerous.
More over, I would argue that America is very much not a place where you can live car-free. There are very few places in the country where you can live without a car, certainly if you have a family.
That being said, building more public transit everywhere would allow more people to get out of the way of people like you who will drive no matter what.
Sure, the alternative view is just as wild to me, and I've travelled plenty both ways. It's only expensive if you don't value the advantages, and even in absolute terms it doesn't cost much more. Public transit is for me way more stressful because crowds are annoying, train and bus schedules are annoying, people are inconsiderate and you have no control over it at all. The worst part of public transit is the public; I love going to the theatre but I've mostly stopped for the same reason and got a nice setup at home instead. It's not IMAX but IMAX isn't that fun anyway with a bad audience.
Cars are clean and if they aren't, there's a rating system for that. Bus is dirty? The city will surely see to your ticket eventually.
Cars are uncomfortable? Pay another couple dollars and Uber will send you an SUV just for you if you want. Try offering a couple dollars to the people sandwiching you on either side on the subway and see if it makes you more comfortable.
I've never had a license beyond a temp, my family doesn't own a car. I agree driving is stressful, which is why I prefer to pay people who drive for a living to do it for me, so it's not about driving for driving's sake, it's about what's comfortable to use and convenient. Most public transit is neither.
While I also love trains and public transit, China is about the same physical size of the US, but has about four times the population, so it's four times denser. Definitely makes trains more appealing for them.
> We’re America. We went to the frickin moon. Defeated the Nazis. Etc. We can build trains.
Absolutely we can build trains. It's not that we're incapable. It's that it's not financially viable based on the usage it'll get.
Again, I'd love better trains in the US, but it doesn't make sense in a lot of cases in the US still due to density and current value props for individuals. If it was valuable, someone would do it.
Now, for intra-city transit, the lack of trains also drives me insane.
There are already places in the US that can financially justify Japan-tier high speed rail (specifically the northeast corridor), but Connecticut simultaneously wants high speed rail through the coastal towns and opposes the land acquisition required to get adequately straight tracks. If American politics is unable to get out of the way in such a slam-dunk case for rail, what hope is there to bring public transit and urbanism to all of the car-dependent suburbia in the rest of the country?
I'd say the success of Florida's Brightline, from Orlando to Miami, says that it's viable (or that the people in Florida are crazy), especially since it was finished in 2018 and not 1820.
> Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Matthew 24:34–35
Of course when the prediction doesn't fit, the Cirque du Soleil level mental gymnastics come out to explain how "this generation" didn't actually mean that.
Meanwhile, scientists predict solar eclipses with 100% accuracy. Among many other physical phenomena. Much of that knowledge was ascertained despite religion relentlessly persecuting those seeking out answers about our universe.
> Unlike other religions, it said a lot of things that have come true...
I can promise you that followers of every religion have made this same claim and also have a list of "proof". They don't look at each other and go "darn, that Christianity keeps getting it right somehow!".
I highly recommend checking out The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan [0]. It is a great way to improve anyone's baloney-detector kit. We all want to understand our world, but some "answers" are pure Grade-A baloney.
You're quoting one that's intentionally vague, likely a double fulfillment. Those have elements of present and future in them with recurring patterns. That genre in Hebrew literature is highly subject to interpretation where even Christians can't agree on what the specific timing of fulfillment would look like. That's often not the point either since times were symbolic for Hebrews.
Proper interpretation starts with the opening, or thesis statement. The chapter you're citing opens with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. It had Herod's support. So, it was unlikely Rome would destroy it. It's unlikely not stones would he left given its strength of construction. Yet, that's exactly what happened after they killed Jesus and in the lifetime of some present ("this generation").
Then, the topic changes partly during a private conversation. Now, we have multiple comtexts. Jesus refuses to tell them the timing. Instead, He focuses them on the behaviors of people and key circumstances to watch out for.
He says many false prophets, including fake versions of Jesus, will show up first. Watch out for those. We've since seen many claim to be the reincarnation of Jesus or warped versions of Christianity that elevate mere humans to equal or have priority over Christ and His teaching. Catholicism, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, Prosperity Gospel, Social Gospel... it keeps happening.
We will see some dramatic increase in wars, famines, and earthquakes. That's vague. In the past 100 years, we have seen the world go to war, famine in the richest nation during COVID, and scientists speculating about why earthquakes increased.
He says that's "the beginning of the birth pains." So, these happen before other things. In Hebrew and Greek styles, this also tells us Jesus is describing a process more than a specific event in time. At any point, His words might be referring to some aspect of the process or a specific event. Be careful of that if interpreting.
He says "you" will be delivered up to tribution, be hated for His name's sake, and betray and be hated by one another. This happened in the Apostle's time. It also happens today where Christianity is illegal in many countries, censored in many more, and mocked in others. The Gospel is persecuted more than any other religion. In my area, rap songs about dumping women you use for sex or murdering people in your neighborhood are played openly in stores but they ask us to quiet down about Jesus to not offend people. "Or leave."
And then the Gospel will be proclaimed to all nations "and then the end will come." There's a specific criteria where all people groups, which is what the Greek word meant back then, must hear the Gospel to cause or finish what He is saying.
Then, the rest references more details of the overall process. That generation did see the process begin with some fulfillment. He said people standing there would see Him come in glory. The next chapter or soon after is The Transfiguration where people saw Him in glory. So, that happened already.
Evangelicals want the rest to happen. We're doing our part. Of 7,000 people groups, we have gotten the Gospel to around 4,000 with 3,000 left. The Bible was translated to 2,000+ languages. Even Facebook AI team used it for mass-multi-lingual since no other book is as widely translated as the Bible (as predicted).
The one work God said was His proved to be the most inclusive and globally impactful with same positive changes, answered prayers, anf miracles happening. As before, even enemies of Christ persecuting Christians met Him and were transformed. It keeps proving out.
The general is the God of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ, commanded us to tell people about Him. He said to believe in Him alone and repent to be forgiven. Also, if we've ever done evil, we'll burn alive for our sins since they are not trivial to God. I've also seen over 100 lives transformed by faith in Christ... from fentynal addicts to people who did drive bys... while popular worldviews are doing record harm. So, we share Christ when possible because we love Him and you over all things.
Othe HN side, I currently only respond that way when it's in the article or comments. The article mentioned the sacred texts (Bible) along with Nebuchadnezzar who eventually believed in God in the book of Daniel. The article is also promoting the site while other articles there are disturbed with damage to it. Such political claims often receive counterpoints. Finally, one commenter was already discussing the Biblical aspects and I was responding to them specifically.
> Meanwhile, the left out there pointing at Obama's extrajudicial killings, Bush's whole post 9/11 fiasco, Clinton's "Superpredators" nonsense, etc. etc. and making tons of noise about how this was all going to end.
I had a whole comment written up but, meh. The noisy people are made out to be conspiracy theorists, even when someone like Chomsky brings all the receipts. People want to believe the person they voted for is the "good guy" in a superhero sort of way.
Trump is partly able to do what he does because of these extreme expansion of powers from previous presidents. This is why "but my guy good!!" is among the worst forms of reasoning for justify $bad_thing.
Sunscreen is, overall, a terrible experience. Five or six years ago I started getting into sun-protective clothing after running into issues with vitiligo. Clothing is vastly superior from every angle.
1. It’s easy to apply. Slip a sun hoodie over the head - protected.
2. Because it’s so easy to apply it always goes on when needed.
3. It’s impossible to miss spots or under-apply in certain areas. If fabric covers the skin, you’re solid.
4. This is subjective but it’s more comfortable. On a sunny 90F day with a high UV, direct sun on skin feels like sticking your hand on a hot skillet.
My fun fact for all this is that the Bedouins wear black robes in the desert heat. Not white. It’s counterintuitively cooler for the wearer [0]. Sunscreen is a great modern invention with its use cases, but humans have been wearing clothing for eons to ward off the sun for a reason. The only real downside is that you may look a bit silly when everyone else is lathered in sunscreen wearing very little clothing.
Recently I gave up on Apple Music. The clients had gotten so bad from a UX perspective that I found it frustrating to use. Especially on desktop. There is also no easy way to cache your _entire_ library to disk. Other services+clients are heaps of Electron that I'd rather avoid.
It took some effort and pain but I have a pretty solid self-hosted system now that requires no futzing around:
0. epoupon's Lightweight Music Server (LMS) [0] is an awesome, barebones Subsonic client written in C. It's really good and deserves to be more well-known.
1. wrtag [1] is a less-fully-featured beets written in Go that handles tagging.
2. amperfy [2] is an excellent Subsonic client that runs on iOS. It's configured to automatically cache anything and everything on LMS.
3. Syncthing [3] syncs music files. Needs no introduction. Rock solid.
4. Swinsian [4] a macOS music player that is very reminiscent of old iTunes, but much better. The information density is so incredibly refreshing after using Apple Music.
5. Everything talks to each other seamlessly over Tailscale [5].
All together, an entire open-source stack maintained by volunteers that easily outdoes Apple's own UX in the music department.
I've started buying cds cheap and ripping them. It's kind of incredible how much music you can stockpile legally for the same amount you're paying for a monthly sub. I have a pretty similar stack to yours and with tailscale makes it very convenient to have my own streaming platform anywhere. Plus I have many albums that simply don't exist on streaming. Downside is there are some albums that are streaming only, mostly soundtracks from Disney. I get those from Qobuz since they let you download flac.
Thrift stores are .99 to 2.99. The local library has a for sale section with a massive selection of music. Ranging from .49 on up. Ebay is good for more rare albums but there's so many shops selling them also for dirt cheap free ship, to the point where I don't even know how they profit.
I've also had amazing luck going to estate sales and just asking if I can buy them all out. The last one I paid under 10 cents a cd. People just want to get rid of their 'old tech no one uses anymore'.
Most people realistically are listening to the same music multiple times over multiple months. If you listen to a different album every day you do kinda fall outside of the norm and ya, that would probably make streaming a better choice.
Just to pile on the terrible Apple Music UI — it's so unnatural and baffling to me. One example that really takes the cake is that there is no ability to set a sleep timer in the app. After having to google it, the only way I've found is to set a timer in the Clock app and change its ringtone to be an "action" of stopping all playing audio. WHY???
Well, that's Apple and iOS for you in a nutshell. I found out about it the hard way as well. I have mixed feelings about Apple's products and design, but that may be one of the most stupid things I know of.
When I was in college, Apple gave it to students for free (or at a steep discount, maybe $2.99/mo?). The 2015 client was god awful but I honestly couldn’t complain since it was just a few bucks.
But once I graduated and the university locked me out of the .edu account. I didn’t feel it was worth keeping anymore and dropped them for Spotify or Pandora.
I really should go back to Pandora. It fits my listening style of picking a genre or era and just letting things play. Spotify artist radio works ok but I really enjoyed Pandora’s algo more.
My wife loves to build Spotify playlists though and I can’t justify paying for both.
> 2) so the stock market has to go up
This is why I've come to despise 401k's replacing old-school pensions. Yes, pensions had their problems but with 401k's workers must fleece themselves to have any sort of retirement opportunity.
Want a shot at retirement? Now we all have to run ourselves into the ground to make number go up. It's insane.