Erik Haugen @ech@qoto.org

@largo @randahl I suspect if they spent more than 2% GDP on defense they wouldn't even need to federalize to get independence from US. I think one thing we've learned in the last couple years is Europe can easily keep Russia in check if they get their act together.

No need to maintain this dependence on the US. US electorate increasingly seems to also not want them to do this. win win.

@mok0 @randahl Or any cult in the US. Wouldn't it be great if a coalition of sane European countries could protect themselves without US' help?

I think they can easily do it if they have the political will. Why look to the US to foot the bill here? Poland is properly motivated, of course; wouldn't Germany like to see Poland remain strong and independent of Russia? Maybe they should, you know, do a bit more about that to help them?

Same with the Houthis: their Suez-route blockade actually helps US industry. Why is the US taking the lead? One reason, perhaps, is to burnish our credentials as the world's police. But US electorate seems to more and more not want that role: does Europe want us to have that role? China?

I mean, don't get me wrong, I believe these are righteous causes, I'm just not sure why we're the ones paying for them while Europe continues to spend <2% GDP on defense.

You want to stop fascism? <2% maybe isn't the way to do that.

@textualdeviance @DrOinFLA That doesn't seem relevant. You have the same problem with the same solutions in private school.

@argv_minus_one @enobacon "40 minutes of biking per day isn't going to do much good for your health if you spend the rest of the day in a chair." I'm pretty sure this is totally false.

I mean, I think I agree with everything else you're saying here, don't get me wrong.

@baldur OK but what do you mean by "financial advice"? Like, the bulk of the "investment advisor" industry is absolutely clobbered by simple computer programs, and this has been true for many years, long before LLMs. (wealthfront is an example of this, there are others).

I mean, your point remains, I'm just saying.

With that said, though, I think there are some industries on the cusp of being seriously disrupted, labor-wise. For example, I'm a computer programmer, and while LLMs are nowhere near being able to do my job I could see myself getting several times more productive as the fussy parts of my job are automated. This either means a lot more software or a lot fewer programmers. (Probably both)

@EugeneTeplitsky @webology Yeah, it seems useful for filling in boilerplate or recalling idioms, which seems like it could make us quite a bit more productive. But anything interesting it writes is going to need a fine-tooth comb, for sure.

I wonder where this 4–5x thing comes from? It's like 1000x faster for things it *can* do, which isn't much.

@GreenSkyOverMe @mattjhodgkinson WWF jumped the shark long ago. Just look at the .wwf file format, lies about nuclear power, etc, etc. Worthless trash.

@PJ_Evans @NorbertAir @CindyWeinstein of course not, but he has the same problems OP outlines. (As a practical matter none of this really matters much, I think.)

@rbreich It's "letting you keep your money" vs. "take someone else's money and give it to not to the poorest but to ... people who went to college". Indeed, funny.

I don't know; I think almost everything anyone wants to do in politics, even things I disagree with, make a lot more sense than what Biden is doing here. It's hard to find a coherent reason for this other than a sop to the base.

(I know, I know, income is considered, but still.)

Student loans should absolutely be dischargeable in bankruptcy, though; that would have been a good change to help in this area, righting a huge wrong, instead of this nonsense.

@dangillmor "The law that has prohibited abortions in Texas since Roe v. Wade was overturned now explicitly allows doctors to treat ectopic pregnancies." ~nobody wants to ban treatment of ectopic pregnancies.

@flamingofire@freeatlantis.com @freemo oh is this the vaccine thing

@freemo Having had experience in large organizations, it feels like you have a lot of confidence that certain things happen when they just don't. In engineering, we have tons of low-level company-wide procedures that I wouldn't imagine Sundar knows anything about, for example. You think someone like that reviews everything we do? I can tell you they do not.

In this particular example, I can see some mid-managers moving around between his companies and copying processes. I can easily see this kind of low-level detail, especially one you wanted to keep quiet, from being discussed in meetings with more sr. management. Probably happens all the time.

I do have a bias toward not assuming someone is racist without decent evidence, I guess; like I said #rorschachtest

What's the other mountain? I just claimed it was a mountain of trash with some evidence, do you have any other exceptions in mind? (you said earlier to someone else you weren't interested in this argument, so understood if you'd rather not.)

@freemo @mk @davidhmccoy @lowqualityfacts Oh so that's it? ok, well, I addressed that already; I guess agree to disagree #rorschachtest

@freemo @mk @davidhmccoy @lowqualityfacts if they show he clearly knew and allowed the policy to continue (i.e. before the point where he "circled the wagons" that I mentioned in my other post) I'd love to see it.

I'm sort of under the impression that most of the evidence that Trump is a racist is kinda reaching: "he said something bad about someone" or "someone said he said something but he denies it, no witnesses" or "a guy working for him did something racist". You know, garbage. Similarly for Biden, he pushed for draconian drug policies for example, which had an (obvious to you and me) terrible outcome, but of course a lot of people pushed for those with the best of intentions.

So if I'm wrong I'd love to hear it...

@freemo @mk @davidhmccoy @lowqualityfacts "Thats not what I said..." I meant to ask for whatever this refers to: "he clearly knew as it came up in the civil rights documents from the urban league."

@freemo @mk @davidhmccoy @lowqualityfacts ah; "This **implies** he knew it" I disagree. I mean maybe, we'll probably never know. (No conspiracy; I personally never tell Sundar Pichai what I do, for example, and I can honestly tell you I am not a part of any conspiracy to keep him in the dark. Seriously: why all the conspiracy talk? It's weird.)

"publicly leaked before the lawsuite as people were pretty pissed at Trump" – I believe you but don't see the relevance to deciding e.g. whether we think Trump is the sort of person who would have initiated or approved this policy, for example. I suspect he had no idea, and when word of the lawsuit came up and/or leaked details about codes he circled the wagons (rather than apologize/etc as would have been ideal) and was more than happy to reach the settlement. Or, maybe it was his idea because he wanted only whites in his properties. Who knows.

@freemo @mk @davidhmccoy @lowqualityfacts ooh, interesting – can you point me to that documentation that shows he clearly knew? thanks!

@freemo @mk @davidhmccoy @lowqualityfacts "upper management"? Do we think Trump knew about the codes before the lawsuit? (I'd be *extremely* surprised to find out he did, I suspect he had almost nothing to do with the day-to-day.)

@freemo @mk @davidhmccoy @lowqualityfacts Or, I don't know – I thought that is what this lawsuit had been about. Did Trump do something obviously bad, or was he just captain of the ship when something happened? You see my point?

@freemo @mk @davidhmccoy @lowqualityfacts No conspiracy; just salesmen/etc being jerks, unwittingly or not.