sailingbythelee

It's true that it is pretty hard to maintain a job while living in a tent.

I work with homeless people. It is obviously true that many have mental health and addiction issues. It is also true that many could work if they had to. And, it is true that there are often alternatives to living in an encampment. The homeless shelters tend to empty out in the summer and lots of people move into the encampments, because why not? They can spread out more, have their own space, they don't have to get up at a certain time, and in some encampments in parks the view is pretty darn nice. Also, someone comes around to bring you food and water and takes away your garbage. Lots of people donate camping supplies, too. This means that the encampments are larger than they need to be if the available shelter spaces were used to maximum capacity.

So, Ford is partly correct. The encampments do not need to be as large as they are. He is also correct that some of the million people on welfare could work. Unfortunately, it is hard to sort those who really need help from those that are just lazy, which means that the truly needy continue to suffer.

At the same time, the government needs to get back in the business of building affordable housing and providing gainful employment for people with very low skills and motivation who can't hack it in the private sector. In the old days, those people would have provided farm labour or manual road/rail/canal building, but all of that is now mechanized. So, instead, we let them rot on welfare while they get weaker, sicker, and more depressed. We really need to get back to requiring some form of work from those receiving public welfare. It doesn't have to be hard labour, but is has to be something other than sitting around doing nothing and getting depressed.

Samsung and LG are both South Korean.

Is JD Vance required to wear the same outfit as Trump, except with a shorter, less girthy tie?

I think it depends entirely on the integrity of the cremator. I have a good friend who does pet cremations. He cremated one of my pets and told me that he had a hell of a hard time getting the bag of ashes into the box I gave him. I laughed and asked him why he didn't just pour some out so the bag would fit more easily. Who would know? Who would care if there were a few grams missing? Especially if the reason was that the client-provided box was too small. But he was genuinely shocked and said he would never do that.

Not really. The term "content creator" is corporate speak. Google's ad-based business model has a binary classification: content and ads. It's not an inaccurate term, but using it implicitly endorses the corporation's binary world view.

Yes, good point.

Sure, but there was a very long debate about the implications of Brexit with both sides getting a comprehensive airing. I'm not defending Boris. Boris is an asshole and a corrupt, clownish demagogue, but the Conservative Party is more than just Boris. The people of the UK voted for Brexit in a refendum and kept the Conservatives in power for 14 years, including twice AFTER the Brexit referendum. Heck, the 2019 election was practically a second referendum on Brexit and the Conservatives got their largest landslide victory since Thatcher was PM. Boris may be an asshole, but the people of the UK have to own Brexit.

Is Tusk similar to Boris? I mean, obviously Boris presided over Brexit which was a real fuck-up. Then again, was Brexit really Boris's fault? What with the referendum, democracy and all that good stuff. It seems to me that the people of the UK made their own bed in that regard.

That dude has a good sense of humor. He seems like a good leader.

When I say "clever", I dont necessarily mean it was a good move toward their long-term goals. I mean that it was ingenious and skillfully executed, requiring the coordination of many parts, and displaying deft trade craft.

Frankly, arguing whether "ethno-fascist Zionists" or "Muslim fundamentalists" are worse is kind of pointless. Neither is high on the list of things I support.

Most Israelis are not "ethno-fascist Zionists" any more than most Gazans or Lebanese, or even Iranians, are Muslim fundamentalist theocrats. All of those populations are caught in bad situations that were set in motion decades ago. On balance, if forced to choose a side to support, I would support Israel, like most other Westerners. At least they have a functioning democracy and largely adhere to Western values. The Israeli religious right wing is extremely problematic, of course, but it looks to me like they are headed for defeat in the next election. We can't say the same about Hezbollah or the Iranian theocracy or any of Iran's other proxies.

The bottom line is: FUCK ALL RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM. Doesn't matter whether it is Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or Hindu. They all suck.

Well sure. Modern war is all about adaptation. Exploding pagers were never going to be a knock-out blow, just a clever psy-op. One among many, I'm sure.

Good point. I should have qualified what I said by saying that the Israeli operation may have the effects I listed. But, as you say, it might backfire and have the opposite of the intended effect. I guess that is always a risk with these types of operations.