Prelude to the Apocalypse

[Sima Tuna]

You're suggesting policies that have never been implemented with success in human history.

If memory serves in the aftermath of World War II Truman put hard-and-fast price caps on various goods to ensure that companies couldn't use postwar inflation as cover to raise prices even further, as they've been explicitly doing post-Covid. The top federal tax rate under Eisenhower was 90 percent, essentially a wealth cap. Stuff like this can and has been done, though decades of conservatives branding nearly any attempt by the government to improve the lives of its citizens (y'know, the reason government is supposed to exist) as the looming return of the USSR makes it considerably more difficult these days.

Yeah, this is a point that should be brought out even more. Governments do have the power to improve the economy if they want. It takes a great amount of effort, some integrity and a little luck, but governments can improve the lives of their citizens and consequently bring about more prosperous eras.

Look at our current situation now. What are the biggest needs? I'll list a few here:

-Affordable Housing
-Living Wages
-Infrastructure reform/rebuild
-Drug Rehab/Homeless Reintegration

Now can government improve these? Of course they can. Government could assemble its own (additional) engineer/construction corps drawn from the general population (creating more jobs,) whose job it would be to construct low income housing, repair roads and rebuild infrastructure (rail lines, train tracks, roads) which have been allowed to fall into disrepair. Homelessness is not an easy problem, but it can also be tackled. if affordable housing and more jobs are made available, and there is a path for the homeless from the streets to a home with living wage, then that right there will do a lot to bring out of homelessness anyone who is currently homeless and not addicted to drugs. For the drug addicts, the path is much harder but progress could be made with increased effort to crack down on dealers/suppliers while expanding services for addicts.

But let's say that increased taxes on the super-rich and economic benefits from improved infrastructure wouldn't offset the costs of the government setting up new job corps and building low-income housing. Where else could they get money? Well, where the fuck do they get the billions and trillions of dollars when they bail out banks? If nothing else, governments could print large amounts of money in the short term specifically and only for paying the costs of creating jobs directly and rebuilding infrastructure. I do believe that this initial payout, while expensive, would eventually pay off in dividends. Each person you bring off the streets becomes a taxpayer. Improved infrastructure makes cities more attractive for large corporations to sink money into. More employed people develop skills which they can use in other, non-government jobs. The value proposition of the whole country is raised. In my opinion, of course.

These measures have been tried in the past and they have been successful in the past. There are ways to combat the problems facing us today. I just do not think there are any politicians currently in power with the interest in doing so.

[To Far Away Times]

The RNC Klansmeet is currently underway. Ron DeFacist and Nikki (please don't let them know I'm Indian and my real name is Nimrata) Haley are licking Trump's boot.

[Air Master Burst]

Why wouldn't they? Having a spine means probably getting run out of the party, and you certainly can't expect any of these people to get real jobs at this point.

It's not even hypocritical once you realize that shameless political simpery IS their bootstraps.

[Arino]

Global IT Outage will be the new Covid I predict.

[orange808]

Looks like a Russian attack to me.

We'll see what comes out after the investigation. Large firms with ubiquitous software are rarely truthful and the initial reports on the situation don't mean a thing. It needs to be investigated thoroughly. Hopefully, the EU can get a proper inquiry underway.

I don't believe software companies when they say everything is fine. Needs to be investigated.

[Arino]

Looks like a Russian attack to me.

Ikr. Couldn't be more obvious.

[EmperorIng]

It's great ammo to people who keep on saying that cloud storage is an unmitigated good and always a boon for productivity!
Like my work trying to tell everyone that Windows 11 AI integration will make everything so much more productive... because... uh, it will make work emails easier to produce! Great, more useless shit!

[Sima Tuna]

On the plus side, you can delegate daily status reports to an AI that spits out randomized BS to keep your managers appeased while you do actual work.

The only cure for bullshit is more bullshit.

[Arino]

Any Shmup games so far entirely developed by an AI?

[orange808]

Any Shmup games so far entirely developed by an AI?

Coding? No.

Context size is a bottleneck. Beyond the physical limitations of the hardware, rope scaling degrades performance. Models need to be trained for large context and that's difficult to do. Even the good ones out there (that require an expensive rig) aren't good enough.

Model devs need massive resources to train large context models. On the user side, you would need enterprise grade Nvidia hardware servers to run the model. Large context Command-R brings an "expensive" consumer RTX 4090 to its knees. Truthfully, no single 24GB consumer card can handle anything that's genuinely good today. You need a server with multiple expensive enterprise ML cards--or you could try chaining 3090's. No matter what, it's expensive--and it's still not good enough.

We need better hardware to both train and deploy future local models that will be capable of managing a full stack. AFAIK, we don't have the tech to train or use models that can handle a full project.

I would never write code on anything that isn't locally hosted, so I have no idea how well enterprise solutions perform right now, but I doubt it's much better than my local coding assistant. A consistent style and documentation can help a ML model work on modules with an agnostic approach to other parts of the source, but that's always tricky. That's already something we all strive for. We all try, but we also make mistakes. I seriously doubt ML can handle the task. Designing a good library of thread safe workers and helpers that won't accidentally blow something apart later isn't as easy as it sounded back at university.

I also question the idea of software houses trusting their source code on OpenAI, Facebook, Google, or Microsoft servers in the future. Good enterprise solutions will probably be proprietary and locked down to one firm.

For video games, there's even more trouble: the frame rate issue. If my ML is busy trying to compartmentalize everything, it's going to miss opportunities for optimization. Will it make frame rate?

So, what are we going to get from ML right now? Scripting might be an option. I suppose we could train a model to perform scripting. But, how good would that be?

The other issue is the US declaring that ML generated materials are not eligible for copyright and trademark protection. Even if you use ML for assistance, you can't tell a soul.

[orange808]

When another gun started firing into a crowd, the secret service was there to protect Donald Trump, but they weren't there in Philadelphia to prevent the gunfire. They also didn't protect the casualty at Trump's speech.

Only the rich have private security to save them from guns in America.

[To Far Away Times]

It’s Joever.

[Sima Tuna]

Harris has no chance. She's not exactly the snapshot of a popular vice-president.

[BIL]

[BulletMagnet]

Harris has no chance. She's not exactly the snapshot of a popular vice-president.

Even disregarding the "...versus Trump" dynamic, which remains nowhere near as central to the narrative as it needs to be, one could do worse.

[Sima Tuna]

Harris has no chance. She's not exactly the snapshot of a popular vice-president.

Even disregarding the "...versus Trump" dynamic, which remains nowhere near as central to the narrative as it needs to be, one could do worse.

The open borders issue is gonna screw Harris hard.

[orange808]

The open borders issue is gonna screw Harris hard.

Yep. I hope she didn't say defund the police.

You can't throw around coded phrases that suggest you want open borders and no police force.

That's called Afghanistan and Pakistan.

If I remember correctly, this election will be decided by about ~45,000 voters in a few swing states. Does no police and open borders poll well with those swing voters?

This election is about a few thousand people in a select few areas. Do the Democrats in charge know that? Because, I have doubts about their grasp on reality.

[Sima Tuna]

You can't throw around coded phrases that suggest you want open borders and no police force.

That's called Afghanistan and Pakistan.

If I remember correctly, this election will be decided by about ~45,000 voters in a few swing states. Does no police and open borders poll well with those swing voters?

I don't think open borders and no police play well with anyone

Spoiler

except freshman college students taking philosophy 101 courses.

I personally experienced the "no police" part where I live during the BLM rioting prior to Covid. Police did exist but they were all huddled together fighting off firebombs at the Town Hall every night. Everyone remembers the CHAZ and CHOP zones, right? That wasn't even "no" police, just "a lot less" policing/police busy elsewhere. For a couple years in my area, there were no traffic cops (I think there might have been one for the entire county). The result now is everybody drives crazy and is high off road rage/substances less wholesome.

I've seen what it looks like when a city tries to defund the police. You don't want to live in a place like that. Nobody does. It's frankly an unsafe environment. When you step out your door and are offered drugs before you can reach your car, do you feel good about where you live? Will you vote for those policies to continue?

Harris is a weak candidate. People need a "hope and change" Obama-kinda candidate right now. Somebody who offers them something to believe in.

[ExitPlanetDust]

For a couple years in my area, there were no traffic cops (I think there might have been one for the entire county). The result now is everybody drives crazy and is high off road rage/substances less wholesome.

I've seen what it looks like when a city tries to defund the police. You don't want to live in a place like that. Nobody does. It's frankly an unsafe environment. When you step out your door and are offered drugs before you can reach your car, do you feel good about where you live?

Bro where do you live? Mega-City One?

[Air Master Burst]

For a couple years in my area, there were no traffic cops (I think there might have been one for the entire county). The result now is everybody drives crazy and is high off road rage/substances less wholesome.

I've seen what it looks like when a city tries to defund the police. You don't want to live in a place like that. Nobody does. It's frankly an unsafe environment. When you step out your door and are offered drugs before you can reach your car, do you feel good about where you live?

Bro where do you live? Mega-City One?

Right? I was out in Minneapolis during the protests (right by where they did the people's work by burning the police precinct down), and it was pretty crazy, but the only ones making anyone feel unsafe were the cops.

ETA: If I'm gonna be hassled just for going outside, I'm taking drug dealer trying to make a sale over the fucking cops all day every day.

Also, it would be hilarious if suddenly Harris got a rep as soft on crime after years and years of Copmala memes.

[Sima Tuna]

For a couple years in my area, there were no traffic cops (I think there might have been one for the entire county). The result now is everybody drives crazy and is high off road rage/substances less wholesome.

I've seen what it looks like when a city tries to defund the police. You don't want to live in a place like that. Nobody does. It's frankly an unsafe environment. When you step out your door and are offered drugs before you can reach your car, do you feel good about where you live?

Bro where do you live? Mega-City One?

Yes.

I will probably edit this comment later to remove the self-dox. Just wanted to clarify.

[Hoagtech]

For a couple years in my area, there were no traffic cops (I think there might have been one for the entire county). The result now is everybody drives crazy and is high off road rage/substances less wholesome.

I've seen what it looks like when a city tries to defund the police. You don't want to live in a place like that. Nobody does. It's frankly an unsafe environment. When you step out your door and are offered drugs before you can reach your car, do you feel good about where you live?

Bro where do you live? Mega-City One?

https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... crime+rate

Yes.

I will probably edit this comment later to remove the self-dox. Just wanted to clarify.

I can vouch for that. I live in Bellingham and travel to Portland frequently.

Its so fucked up by liberal policy. Highest overdoses, No crime repercussion. Loosest Sanctuary policies.

Its the only place I know of where I had to dodge garbage and tents on I-5 Freeway! They were just spilling out. The whole city is a big woke overdosed dumpster fire.

But who knows? Maybe if you vote with your hearts instead of your minds, You may be able to live off of government handouts to pay for career as a "lifestyle artist"

I mean its pretty clear these Corporations are not paying enough taxes is the problem right? Its not like they could choose not do business in America like the Majority of Fortune 500 companies already do and leave us with ZERO fucking taxes, jobs, and taxes from jobs..

Lets let them leave and do business at lower bottom line where SLAVE LABOR EXISTS TODAY! : India (8 million), China (3.86 million), Pakistan (3.19 million), North Korea (2.64 million), Nigeria (1.39 million), Indonesia (1.22 million), Democratic Republic of the Congo (1 million), Russia (794,000) and the Philippines (784,000)

Don't you even think about incentivizing them with tax cuts and closer location to their user base. That would make way too much sense!

Laborer in Turkey goes "home" to his family


Aren't I just a clever virtue hogging Democrat?

Bad rich people! Bad!

[Sima Tuna]

When I took my drive test, I had to swerve around a dude who was asleep on the side of the road. IN the road.

My neighbor just around the corner runs a chop shop and frequently bicycles through the neighborhood high as a kite, singing at the top of his lungs. He regularly chops cars and dumps 'em near my property. His homeless friends dump there cars too.

One night, around 3 AM, a crazy meth fiend was blasting music right on the edge of my property, after first picking up his bike and throwing it into the middle of the street.

An older relative was offered drugs when stepping out of her car in front of her house.

There are parts of the city you don't go to after dark. But even in the day, you'll find massive homeless encampments everywhere and people high off meth all over the place.

I was driving a little while ago back from a store, and I saw a car parked with its door wide open and what looked like a person half out of the driver's seat. I drove by because I wanted to make sure there was no car accident and they weren't in distress.... It was a young lady who was crouched against her car, leaning into the driver's side, with her door wide open in a narrow street, and she was clearly high off her ass on something. Completely zoned out.

All the stores near me have multiple security guards now and you have to run a gauntlet of security guards, managers and gates to get out of the store after you enter. This is because shoplifting and violence are so bad here now. The stores are all armored up.

Downtown Portland is unsafe at night. So is any part of the city that connects to 82nd. 82nd has always been prostitution and general crazy shit land. Probably a decade ago, I remember some dude slamming the shit out of the side of the bus I was in (after verbally abusing his girlfriend, who was in the bus.) Lot of random shit you see if you take the bus. I don't even want to think about taking the bus nowadays. Point is, crazy places have gotten worse than they were, and they weren't great before.

Went downtown during the day to visit the Chinese scholar's garden we have there. Massive army of homeless around the sides of the building. Standing out in the middle of the road, clearly high, waving their arms around and eyeing up people/cars. Makes you feel safe, dunnit. That scholar's garden installed huge iron bars around the premises. Can't imagine why.

I can keep going. I'm not even talking about local headlines kinda shit. Stabbings and shootings are depressingly common here. Homeless dudes getting into knife fights all the time, or meth heads trying to grab cash for the next fix.

Traffic cops didn't exist here for the longest time. That's why everyone speeds and is super aggressive on the roads now. Half 'em are likely on meth too, or fentanyl. Road rage is off the charts. I've seen it myself. Some dude turning left when he had a red in front of a line of cars, and flipping them all off. Almost caused a pile-up.

We had 100+ days of rioting downtown during the BLM stuff. Cops were all huddled up around the town hall and couldn't do shit. They were trying not to get burned out of the building every night when the firebombs were being thrown.

I don't think the city ever recovered from those BLM riots, because that was the start of "defund the police," which in practical terms meant legalizing meth and fentanyl use. Decriminalizing traffic crimes too.

That drug you can take when you're ODing on fentanyl? They hand that stuff out like candy because there are dudes constantly ODing here.

If you ever want to see the poster child for why tolerant lawmaking doesn't work, come check us out. The weather is beautiful (when we're not under a heat dome,) but we have some of the most corrupt and worthless leaders you'll ever encounter. The city is STILL covered in trash and will probably always be covered in trash.

[To Far Away Times]

I live in PDX and part of my daily commute took me right by the famous courthouse that got burned. Felt totally safe around that area though. I went to one of the BLM rallies in front of the courthouse and got a hotdog from a street vendor. The worst thing that happened was the indigestion afterwards.

[ExitPlanetDust]

Bro where do you live? Mega-City One?

Yes.

I will probably edit this comment later to remove the self-dox. Just wanted to clarify.

Haha you didn’t have to post a location. I was just ribbing you.
I have friends there and yes, it’s genuine chaos.

Being a fellow PNWer my observation has been that the issue stems from continued half-measures from elected officials. Everyone wants to solve property crime and homelessness, but no one wants the value of their house to decrease. So we end up with zombies like Seattle’s current mayor. The cost of living is so high that the police can’t afford to live in the city they patrol. So there’s a resentment toward the citizens. Their unions protect their shitty behavior, hence the defund the police movement (which is a horrible name and not an accurate description of what I believe people actually want). This leads to further resentment and retaliation in the form of cutting overtime and staffing, leaving the city even more vulnerable than it has to be. It’s a recipe for disaster and it is affecting all of the west coast.

Oh and then there’s the tech companies that we bent over backwards to accommodate who threaten to relocate to conservative states as soon as anyone asks them to start upholding their end of the bargain and maybe, you know, pay some taxes *gasp. Well not the whole company, mind you. The show runners are more than happy to stay here with their mountain views and overpriced organic venues. They’ll just relocate everyone else to Texas. Actually, I think Texas is too expensive for them now. I’m not sure what the new cheap in-office paradise is now.

Anyway, this cycle of stupid will continue until the voters figure out what they actually want. Do the NIMBYs actually want to fix anything, or are they going to flip full on conservative and start voting for republicans? Funnily enough, either decision is going to lower their precious property value. Where we go from here depends entirely on their hubris.

[Air Master Burst]

If you ever want to see the poster child for why tolerant lawmaking doesn't work, come check us out. The weather is beautiful (when we're not under a heat dome,) but we have some of the most corrupt and worthless leaders you'll ever encounter. The city is STILL covered in trash and will probably always be covered in trash.

Meanwhile in Minnesota, the new state government controlled by democrats just signed a bunch of crazy left-wing marxist shit into law last year and they're still looking at a pretty hefty budget surplus for this year. The twin cities has some homeless people but not to nearly the scale like you've described here. I think they're building tiny homes for them.

[orange808]

If you ever want to see the poster child for why tolerant lawmaking doesn't work, come check us out. The weather is beautiful (when we're not under a heat dome,) but we have some of the most corrupt and worthless leaders you'll ever encounter. The city is STILL covered in trash and will probably always be covered in trash.

Meanwhile in Minnesota, the new state government controlled by democrats just signed a bunch of crazy left-wing marxist shit into law last year and they're still looking at a pretty hefty budget surplus for this year. The twin cities has some homeless people but not to nearly the scale like you've described here. I think they're building tiny homes for them.

Well, in my early teens, two homeless fucks tried to attack me and probably rape me in downtown Minneapolis. Good thing I can think and move on my feet. Hardly paradise.

I imagine the small homeless population there (compared to the coasts) is related to the deadly bitter cold of Minnesota winters. I recall the jet stream would regularly bump north over Anchorage before it plunged south to the Twin Cities--bringing frigid polar temperatures (lower than Alaska) along with it.

Minnesota has been a consistent blue state for decades. The embarrassment and guilt of frozen corpses lying in the street probably motivates normally heartless assholes to do something about the homeless. Well, some of them...

I'm sure Hoagy would prefer it if he could go to sleep and have them all dead in the morning.

[Sima Tuna]

Being a fellow PNWer my observation has been that the issue stems from continued half-measures from elected officials. Everyone wants to solve property crime and homelessness, but no one wants the value of their house to decrease. So we end up with zombies like Seattle’s current mayor. The cost of living is so high that the police can’t afford to live in the city they patrol. So there’s a resentment toward the citizens. Their unions protect their shitty behavior, hence the defund the police movement (which is a horrible name and not an accurate description of what I believe people actually want). This leads to further resentment and retaliation in the form of cutting overtime and staffing, leaving the city even more vulnerable than it has to be. It’s a recipe for disaster and it is affecting all of the west coast.

Oh and then there’s the tech companies that we bent over backwards to accommodate who threaten to relocate to conservative states as soon as anyone asks them to start upholding their end of the bargain and maybe, you know, pay some taxes *gasp. Well not the whole company, mind you. The show runners are more than happy to stay here with their mountain views and overpriced organic venues. They’ll just relocate everyone else to Texas. Actually, I think Texas is too expensive for them now. I’m not sure what the new cheap in-office paradise is now.

Anyway, this cycle of stupid will continue until the voters figure out what they actually want. Do the NIMBYs actually want to fix anything, or are they going to flip full on conservative and start voting for republicans? Funnily enough, either decision is going to lower their precious property value. Where we go from here depends entirely on their hubris.

None of the corrupt fucks in power gives a single damn, is the problem. They have endless funding for shitty public art projects that do nothing except make the street corners and parks look ugly. But housing for the homeless? Rehab programs? Cracking down on drug dealers? Enforcing traffic laws? Shit, that costs money! We can't spend money on that! Let's pass another arts tax instead. I don't know if it's still the case, but the courts in OR used to be notoriously corrupt. I haven't kept up with if that's changed or not.

And yeah, most people who work here (in the city) can't afford to live here. Rental prices are insane. Developers build more housing units, but none of the units being built are units a working poor person (to say nothing of the homeless) could afford rent on. Only the semi-affluent can afford them. The homeless won't go anywhere else because we're about the most temperate climate area in the continental US. The city's solution to the homeless problem seems to be to do nothing, pass out a few anti-OD medications and hope things get better. It won't.

So expect massive tent cities to remain the standard until something changes. Which it won't. The city is basically a failed experiment at this point. I might sound like a doomer but my family members are more down on this place than I am, tbh. If a few of the right sort (who genuinely care and have some balls) could get into office, maybe we could slowly address some of these points. Who knows. Part of the problem is the homeless crisis is partially an issue thrust onto us by the rest of the country. So it isn't just "our" homeless crisis. It's the entire nation's homeless crisis that all those other states refuse to deal with too. They buy their homeless people bus tickets to more temperate climate cities and that "solves" their homeless problem. Shit rolls downhill and now we're all in the shit. Nobody wants to pick up a shovel because they don't want to get any shit on their clothes.

[ExitPlanetDust]

None of the corrupt fucks in power gives a single damn, is the problem. They have endless funding for shitty public art projects that do nothing except make the street corners and parks look ugly. But housing for the homeless? Rehab programs? Cracking down on drug dealers? Enforcing traffic laws? Shit, that costs money! We can't spend money on that! Let's pass another arts tax instead. I don't know if it's still the case, but the courts in OR used to be notoriously corrupt. I haven't kept up with if that's changed or not.

And yeah, most people who work here (in the city) can't afford to live here. Rental prices are insane. Developers build more housing units, but none of the units being built are units a working poor person (to say nothing of the homeless) could afford rent on. Only the semi-affluent can afford them. The homeless won't go anywhere else because we're about the most temperate climate area in the continental US. The city's solution to the homeless problem seems to be to do nothing, pass out a few anti-OD medications and hope things get better. It won't.

So expect massive tent cities to remain the standard until something changes. Which it won't. The city is basically a failed experiment at this point. I might sound like a doomer but my family members are more down on this place than I am, tbh. If a few of the right sort (who genuinely care and have some balls) could get into office, maybe we could slowly address some of these points. Who knows. Part of the problem is the homeless crisis is partially an issue thrust onto us by the rest of the country. So it isn't just "our" homeless crisis. It's the entire nation's homeless crisis that all those other states refuse to deal with too. They buy their homeless people bus tickets to more temperate climate cities and that "solves" their homeless problem. Shit rolls downhill and now we're all in the shit. Nobody wants to pick up a shovel because they don't want to get any shit on their clothes.

Yep, it’s a problem that has to be solved in the primaries. In Seattle we had a couple of candidates with solid plans to work toward helping people get off the street. But the voters said they wanted more of the same. They wanted to keep sweeping the tent cities around with a diet version of the same leadership. Everyone says they want to help, as long as it isn’t next to their neighborhood. Everyone says they want affordable housing, but their neighborhood is an exception. No, this neighborhood is historical and we can’t have multi zoning. But yeah, let’s open a new park and declare a new special day or something.

And yeah I know I also sound bitter. I’m really not. I love this city and region. For all its issues, I still feel far safer here than I did in any conservative communities. I’ve lived in parts of the country where the line is so blurred between local politics and religion that the two are the same, toxic tendrils intertwined. I caution anyone to reconsider a move eastward for a big house and perceived less government meddling. There’s a hidden cost, and they usually won’t realize it until it’s too late.

I totally feel your bus comment. Friends and relatives from cities who are doing this love to dunk on blue cities while referencing this in conversation. Yeah, maybe they should sort out their power grid problems instead of spending millions on bus and plane tickets to ship these poor souls around for a couple of laughs. Fucking disgusting behavior.

[Hoagtech]

" In Seattle we had a couple of candidates with solid plans to work toward helping people get off the street"

Would you mind elaborating on these candidates? So far I've seen most WA cities defeated by trendy topics.

What better timing than when my ballot shows up?



Lets discuss local for a hot second..