Tech has been far worse, at least in my experience.

Until recently, government surveillance was at least predictable and consistent. Obviously I was against it, but seemed to have at least some voice and didn’t expect any personal harm. Of course with the recent sharp turn right, we can see how naive that is, how “the slippery slope” is not a fallacy

Meanwhile tech has formed entire businesses out of extracting and exploiting private information, including collecting it for the government to workaround due process, scaling out surveillance networks that government has no budget for, and generally going around limits desired by voters . They have actively pursued whatever avenue they can get away with, causing direct harm to us all

When the biggest abuses of privacy are committed by tech, but bought by government, which do you blame?

“Contractor”. Among the many problems with privatized prisons, This guy is going to discover his employer will disown him, ice will claim “not us”, and he will not be held above the law with a presidential pardon

I’m happy musk is out of politics, perhaps he learned some lesson. It’s possible. Then again I’d never stoop to find out what toxic filth he spews on Twitter, so whatever. He’s lost at least some of his stage.

But yeah I worry more about Tesla becoming a “robotics” company. I do have one of their vehicles that I want to continue to be supported for its lifetime.

…. And I find teslas are still by far the most compelling EV available in the US. I know I’ll get all sorts of grief for saying this, but there’s nothing else available in the US at their feature, price, and dare I say, quality? Maybe that would be different if we allowed a competitive market, or had legacy companies who want to survive, but that’s reality. Maybe it will be different in a few years if Rivian makes it to the big leagues with the R2, or if Lucid survives, or Slate is able to make a splash.

As the only compelling American manufacturer of EVs,we can’t afford for them to lose focus trying to invent humanoid robotics.

…. This used to be one of the benefits of incorporating. Let Tesla focus on cars. If you want to try humanoid robots, that should be a different corporation Insulating Tesla from that attempt

Think of it like Kodak with digital cameras. Even knowing the market is being disrupted, even having the technology, there is never a short term reason for self disruption. If the company can’t consider the longer term while a market is being disrupted, they will not survive. Of course selling a couple thousand EVs is not going to earn back the cost of entirely new factories and supply chains after two years. Duh. Of course it’s easier to sell hundreds of thousands of legacy vehicles built in legacy factories that are already paid for using supply chains that already exist. But one of those approaches is on a decline to the grave while the other is a paradigm shift for the entire global industry

Doesn’t help the US is so anti-competitive, so protectionist, so many policies favoring excessively large inefficient vehicles. By the time we emerge from this smog of political chaos, legacy American car companies will no longer be able to survive independently nor compete globally.

But the car companies certainly lay deserve a lot of blame- across the entire car market preferring to sell fewer more expensive vehicles, rather than more vehicle that are more affordable.

FWIW, my local shop claim they can handle state Inspection, brakes, tires, and suspension work on my Tesla. The most likely to wear items are also more generic.

Of course an accident or some other breakdown is an entirely different story

Laws like human rights, right of due process, right to not be attacked by unidentified masked thugs, right to not be attacked with unjustified force …. It’s clear who is committing the more serious crimes here: the end does not justify the means

Last time I tried that, they limited me to two 6 packs of beer. Mother-fucker, I’m not drinking this all tonight, but I like this brewery and won’t be back for a year or more.

Do they still do that?

The goal is lack of a profit motive, means they are less likely to exploit the human weakness. They’ll sell you your vice but not try to push more

Doubt it. We just don’t know how’s he’s enriching himself with that yet.

State governments have direct control over their states public university system, including how much they charge

The numbers can be pretty crazy - but yeah it’s a complex hellscape of excessive prices combined with student aid designed to extract the most from every student.

My state is covering tuition at its public universities for people below a certain income. After federal subsidies. But you still need to cover room and board. Meanwhile the list price is higher than the Ivy League school I went to many years ago.

But the school my youngest really wanted, has huge subsidies almost half the cost, yet wanted us to come up with $50k/year.

But there’s also a cultural thing where college became almost expected, regardless of what you wanted to do in life. If you only look at it as a financial investment there are many scenarios where it will never pay off or the desired job is too low an income to pay it off. Of course people complain about poor choices in spending when the real problem is thinking of college merely as a financial investment. But college is a good thing if it helps people learn and think, regardless whether there is a direct payoff

nationalizing an industry.

Not even. Every state has a public university system. Many of which used to be free. It’s as simple as investing enough that they be free to state residents again.

Let the private universities continue as they want. Some people will use them but they’ll need to compete against free

Why the eff is my state not on that list? At least my city is, but how is my state not standing up for human rights?

While I hate being cold to peoples suffering, didn’t most of them vote for the face eating leopard party. They asked for their corporate overlords personal profit to be protected from their lungs, their environment, any consideration. They asked for billionaires to be above the law.

They are clearly being wronged here, there should be heavy fines, shutdowns and even jail time but my empathy is in short supply

It’s clearly a conflict of interest, by definition.

Maybe you could argue it wasn’t a quid pro quo or a bribe since there is no proof, but it’s awfully suspicious

Wow, I can’t believe how many women in Joshua Tree were attacked by four pit bulls on that one day in January

It’s sort of a plus … obviously not in your scenario …. I believe pitbull breeds tend to be one of the protective and loyal breeds, and they do have a very strong bite. I have no worries about my pit bull with my kids but if you frighten her around them you’ll see her instantly change from a cuddle bug to on guard against hell and its minions

Unfortunately they’re sometimes loyal and protective to people who don’t deserve them

I also feel like I need to add that many breeds of dog are very loyal and protective. In the same situation a German shepherd is equally dangerous. Even little dogs are likely to come after you for attacking their human although obviously they can’t do as much damage. I feel like your situation was a general dog issue: many/most dogs are protective and loyal. You really can’t attack their human without them helping (and yes it doesn’t matter who started it or if he was a dick, to the dog you were attacking his human

Same experience here, dogs of all sizes, shapes, breeds. The only dogs that ever bit me for real were mini poodles, two of them.

Well technically I suppose my pitbull - I stuck my fingers in her mouth to pull out whatever she had picked up off the street to eat, but one time she didn’t see and accidentally bit down a bit. She immediately released and was mortified she may have hurt me

Yea. I’ve been tempted to this many times over the years. I’ve always had one dog at a time because that works for me, but I know they’ve suffered from lack of companionship when I’m not around. Getting a buddy would likely make my dog’s life better.

In particular my last dog never really adjusted to our family. Way too high energy level, way more need for attention than we were able to give. I specifically considered getting him a buddy but couldn’t risk one buddy’s life as the last ditch effort to save another. We did end up having to rehome that dog but at least didn’t affect another

Pit bull breeds are commonly available as rescues and they tend to become very attached to their family, very affectionate. They can be extremely smart and loyal. Also they look cool, somewhat distinct from the everyday golden retriever ilk. I trust my pitbull with my kids more than any other dog I’ve owned.

Personally I find them the right size: big enough to play rough or to cuddle without worrying about squishing them, small enough to be easy to feed and clean up after

They also seem like a great physical level for family life. They can have intense play but endurance is not their strong point. It’s not like they need to run all day