Our new Chinese overlords, reptilians and new world order

[Dingfelder]

11 hours ago, Philip W said:

Yup, it's funny that every time an empire reached its end, everyone in it thought the collapse was impossible. Even today, no politician had ever learned anything in the history and refrain from their horrible policies. It's almost like they had no worries that American people would revolt against tyranny. When 40 million people lose their health insurance, many more lose their jobs, the salaries stagnate for 30 years... all these would become fuses to the revolution bomb. I just cannot imagine how those politicians can sleep at night, if they knew what would happened, and what already happened in the history over and over again.

I think it's because both they and their patrons never have contact with average people and many probably haven't for decades.  They live and move about in their own charmed circles.  To some of them, poor means you only make a quarter million dollars a year.

I remember the first President Bush taking one of those handshaking tours through a supermarket.  He was surprised to see the cashier scanning barcodes on items.  We had barcodes by that time for many years.  But this guy might not have shopped for his own groceries or pretty much anything else in half a century.  At a town hall meeting, he famously stumbled when someone asked  -- and then insisted again and quite clearly after Bush brushed off her query -- how *HE* had personally suffered in what was to that time the biggest recession since the Great Depression.  He could not come up with an answer.  Not even a fake one.

I remember a reporter remarking that another reporter friend of his at a major newspaper said he wanted to talk to someone blue collar about Trump, but then realized he didn't know any blue collar people .... so he wanted his friend to recommend one to him.

Whatever is going on in the real world of ordinary working citizens, the people who run it are so far removed and insulated from it that they would never know.  Everybody they know is doing very to exceptionally well, and that's what they think the world is like.

 

[Scatcat]

4 hours ago, Dingfelder said:

I think it's because both they and their patrons never have contact with average people and many probably haven't for decades.  They live and move about in their own charmed circles.  To some of them, poor means you only make a quarter million dollars a year.

I remember the first President Bush taking one of those handshaking tours through a supermarket.  He was surprised to see the cashier scanning barcodes on items.  We had barcodes by that time for many years.  But this guy might not have shopped for his own groceries or pretty much anything else in half a century.  At a town hall meeting, he famously stumbled when someone asked  -- and then insisted again and quite clearly after Bush brushed off her query -- how *HE* had personally suffered in what was to that time the biggest recession since the Great Depression.  He could not come up with an answer.  Not even a fake one.

I remember a reporter remarking that another reporter friend of his at a major newspaper said he wanted to talk to someone blue collar about Trump, but then realized he didn't know any blue collar people .... so he wanted his friend to recommend one to him.

Whatever is going on in the real world of ordinary working citizens, the people who run it are so far removed and insulated from it that they would never know.  Everybody they know is doing very to exceptionally well, and that's what they think the world is like.

 

Yes, the chasm between those that view the consequences of moving production to low income countries as a PR-hurdle, and those whose livelihood just moved half a globe away. 

[esaj]

Probably many have seen this, but if you haven't and get the chance, it's interesting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corporation_(film)

 

[Rehab1]

7 hours ago, Dingfelder said:

I remember a reporter remarking that another reporter friend of his at a major newspaper said he wanted to talk to someone blue collar about Trump, but then realized he didn't know any blue collar people .... so he wanted his friend to recommend one to him.

Hopefully the term 'Blue Collar Worker' will evolve into 'Skilled Worker' someday!

[Scatcat]

4 hours ago, Rehab1 said:

Hopefully the term 'Blue Collar Worker' will evolve into 'Skilled Worker' someday!

While I'm not blue collar myself, there are few people I respect as much as people working in production with obvious skill. The mechanic, the carpenter, the turner, the nurse, the electrician, such people fill me with awe.

[Carlos E Rodriguez]

On 6/1/2017 at 6:07 PM, steve454 said:

 

 

It's almost as if the US is letting other countries have some of the pie.  There is plenty to go around, the US has plenty, now let's spread these technologies around, and China is certainly taking a lead in technology.  And it comes back to the US and other countries and helps a greater number of people.

I agree with elevation other countries but it has to be strategically done. You can never lose the technological advantage. We need to have the science and tech edge or we will lose. Instead of us sourcing then know how, we don't want to be in the sourcing know how from them. Because then we will be the lower standard of living country. Maybe be 100 years if we are not alert. 

[Carlos E Rodriguez]

13 hours ago, Dingfelder said:

I think it's because both they and their patrons never have contact with average people and many probably haven't for decades.  They live and move about in their own charmed circles.  To some of them, poor means you only make a quarter million dollars a year.

I remember the first President Bush taking one of those handshaking tours through a supermarket.  He was surprised to see the cashier scanning barcodes on items.  We had barcodes by that time for many years.  But this guy might not have shopped for his own groceries or pretty much anything else in half a century.  At a town hall meeting, he famously stumbled when someone asked  -- and then insisted again and quite clearly after Bush brushed off her query -- how *HE* had personally suffered in what was to that time the biggest recession since the Great Depression.  He could not come up with an answer.  Not even a fake one.

I remember a reporter remarking that another reporter friend of his at a major newspaper said he wanted to talk to someone blue collar about Trump, but then realized he didn't know any blue collar people .... so he wanted his friend to recommend one to him.

Whatever is going on in the real world of ordinary working citizens, the people who run it are so far removed and insulated from it that they would never know.  Everybody they know is doing very to exceptionally well, and that's what they think the world is like.

 

You are right. I went to Baltimore for a convention and stayed at high end hotel on the waterfront. There was a social event of women. The gowns they were wearing were out of this world on the level of luxury. Not even the red carpet had a chance. And the level of jewelry and diamonds hanging from everywhere was just spectacular. This people have no clue. They don't even drive. All of them had private car drivers and never wondered to the streets. They just hopped from exclusive local to exclusive local. We have three Americas:

-working and professional level. 

-rich and political level.

-ethnically segregated level. 

 But don't tell anyone. It's a secret and don't want to make it known. 

[Carlos E Rodriguez]

5 hours ago, Rehab1 said:

Hopefully the term 'Blue Collar Worker' will evolve into 'Skilled Worker' someday!

It will never happens. That assumes we want everyone to have as much as the others. The only difference will be that nurses, engineers and technicians will be the next organize labor movement. 

[Rehab1]

3 hours ago, Scatcat said:

While I'm not blue collar myself, there are few people I respect as much as people working in production with obvious skill. The mechanic, the carpenter, the turner, the nurse, the electrician, such people fill me with awe.

I believe you missed the point of what I was alluding to. Sorry I was not clear.

All of the professionals you listed, and more, should be called skilled workers. Completely abandon the term ' Blue Collar'! I believe it undermines their true profession as most spent years honing their important unique skills!

[Scatcat]

16 minutes ago, Rehab1 said:

I believe you missed the point of what I was alluding to. Sorry I was not clear.

All of the professionals you listed, and more, should be called skilled workers. Completely abandon the term ' Blue Collar'! I believe it undermines their true profession as most spent years honing their important unique skills!

I believed you missed the point of my comment too  

While I used the term "blue collar", I referred to my respect for their skill. But you're right, the term blue collar gives the wrong impression.

[Dingfelder]

7 hours ago, Scatcat said:

While I'm not blue collar myself, there are few people I respect as much as people working in production with obvious skill. The mechanic, the carpenter, the turner, the nurse, the electrician, such people fill me with awe.

Me too.  I can't do any of that stuff.  Just not part of my background.  But some of it comes in tremendously handy and just seems like the kind of thing a person should be able to do.  And society depends on all of this stuff being done professionally at a high level every day.

I'd really like to take some carpentry courses some day, just to help me fix a few things around the house, perhaps occasionally build or install something quite modest.

I enjoy watching youtube videos in which someone starts out with anything from scraps of wood to bags of dirt and winds up with ... a house!   Now that's what I call a practical skill set!

[Marty Backe]

4 hours ago, Dingfelder said:

Me too.  I can't do any of that stuff.  Just not part of my background.  But some of it comes in tremendously handy and just seems like the kind of thing a person should be able to do.  And society depends on all of this stuff being done professionally at a high level every day.

I'd really like to take some carpentry courses some day, just to help me fix a few things around the house, perhaps occasionally build or install something quite modest.

I enjoy watching youtube videos in which someone starts out with anything from scraps of wood to bags of dirt and winds up with ... a house!   Now that's what I call a practical skill set!

Does this count, where I build a container for one of my favorite unhealthy snacks 

 

[Dingfelder]

Seriously, with me most anything counts.  I'm just not handy and tools bewilder me.  i think about the only thing I've built in my adult lifetime is a hoop house over gardening beds to keep the bugs out and provide a little shade, and in the winter to warm the soil.

I did get some carving knives, since our place is hard against a forest and wood to carve is easy to get.  But that's sculpting rather than building.  Anyway it's making things using tools.  But not like carpentry.

[Philip W]

I love small scale easy DIY projects. That's why I keep finding things to do for my EUC. My latest little gadget is a small machine connected to 4 buttons, and you can use those 4 buttons to count the cards: 1-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10s in a blackjack game. The machine will tell you the odds of busting, for both dealer and the player. After finishing the project, then from other websites I found out that counting cards with a device in a casino is a FELONY. So that little thing is now in the storage. Still happy that I've done it, like prove of concept.

[Dingfelder]

Heh still sounds like a fun project.  I used to count cards.  It's not easy and casinos are extremely intent on kicking out who they suspect might be counting cards ... and that can literally include anyone that wins.  Almost none of the employees knows how to count cards themselves, from pit boss to floor manager, so they're just wildly guessing.  I've seen them throw out a total drunk ... but not a sly fake drunk ... a guy who was making dopey bets when the odds were not in his favor.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

It's a tedious skill both to learn and practice, and a big bankroll is required to make even moderate amounts of money.  And that's in the best-case scenarios, where nobody winds up getting kicked out or beaten to death in the desert.  The latter of which I understand doesn't really happen anymore.  But all sorts of unsavory things are still possible.

[LanghamP]

I read a book, forgot the name, whereby a bunch of Asian Americans did a sophisticated form of card counting in Blackjack. The mechanics were interesting although the practice looks to be dreadfully boring.

--It required large teams and a huge bankroll.

--The best that could be expected was 1/2 of 1 percent. Such slim margins require huge amounts of money and people on this teams would just hold at small bets until the cards turned favorable.

--The casinos eventually shut them all down, every single one of them.

 

[steve454]

I learned to count cards, but it was hard to do it fast enough to be any real help.  After that I just looked at how many face cards and 10's were showing, if there were mainly low cards in that round, I would bet higher on the next round thinking that more face cards and 10's were likely to show up, and vice versa lowered my bet on the next hand when a lot of high cards showed in the previous hands.  If it was about equal amounts of high and low cards I would bet an amount between my highest and lowest bets.  Easier to do on a two dollar a hand table like the one's they had in the older downtown casinos where the locals gambled.  I even found a few quarter craps tables, man that was fun, you could play for a long time with very little money.