Eclectic's Recent Activity

Eclectic replied to the thread The Flawed Logic of Defending Regressive Taxation.

There is more to life than the hedonistic present. There is saving to get out of credit card debt, paying off loans, saving to buy a home, paying for your children's...

Eclectic replied to the thread The Flawed Logic of Defending Regressive Taxation.

From the above -- "The lower two quintiles had negative average individual income tax rates in 2018 and 2019 because refundable tax credits exceeded other taxes paid" In...

Eclectic replied to the thread The Flawed Logic of Defending Regressive Taxation.

We don't have regressive taxation. We have very progressive taxation. The only question is how progressive it should be. The highest quintile of income earners pays 84% of...

Eclectic replied to the thread Alligator Alcatraz: Trump OKs DeSantis Deputizing National Guard As Immigration Judges-Speed Deports.

In many cases they will have been used to that climate in their home countries..

Eclectic replied to the thread Senate Passes Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' 51-50; Vice President Vance Casts Tie-Breaking Vote.

I imagine that there is a lot of resistance to any limitations. It would hurt the feelings of the indigent to keep them from the standard American junk food diet.

Eclectic replied to the thread Senate Passes Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' 51-50; Vice President Vance Casts Tie-Breaking Vote.

Alas, SNAP is administered by the Food and Nutrition Service of the US Department of Agriculture headed by Secretary Brooke L. Rollins. She does not appear to be one of the...

Eclectic replied to the thread Senate Passes Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' 51-50; Vice President Vance Casts Tie-Breaking Vote.

I don't understand why SNAP benefits can be used to purchase sparking water, soft drinks, cookies etc. Why are taxpayer dollars being used to subsidize CocaCola, PepsiCo,...

Eclectic replied to the thread Elon Musk just made his starkest political threat since the election.

Musk is basically wrong. The BBB doesn't significantly increase spending. It does increase defense spending by $150 billion (which I think is unnecessary) and adds some more...

Eclectic replied to the thread The ultimate reason for the fall of the American Empire.

Prior to the War of Independence, the southern colonies were dumping grounds for emptying out British jails. Thereafter, the British began transporting them to Australia. I...

Eclectic liked philosophical's post in the thread The ultimate reason for the fall of the American Empire.

The ‘ultimate’ reason, as in the fundamental cause? That is pretty easy to understand, America was founded on violence and evil ( like giving the native population smallpox,...

Eclectic replied to the thread The ultimate reason for the fall of the American Empire.

The ultimate reason for the collapse of the American Empire was 1990s triumphalism following the collapse of the USSR and the decision to sit atop the greasy pole of "Sole...

Eclectic replied to the thread A question to Trump supporters: What do you like in the big, beautiful bill?.

H.R.1 - One Big Beautiful Bill Act https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/text That is the bill as passed by the House. Chairman Graham Releases Full...

Eclectic replied to the thread The Hyperemotional Left VS. The More Rational Right.

The problem with the rational right, especially the far right, is that it uses deductive reasoning. It begins with a number of key premises (principles) and then builds up a...

Eclectic replied to the thread UK govt condemns 'death to the IDF' chants at Glastonbury.

Wouldn't Muslims consider that premature? After all, it took them from 1099 (Siege of Jerusalem) until 1291 (Siege of Acre) for them to clear Palestine of the last European...

Eclectic posted a new thread.

UK govt condemns 'death to the IDF' chants at Glastonbury

Glastonbury (United Kingdom) (AFP) – The UK government said on Sunday that the BBC had questions to answer over criticism of Israel by musicians at Glastonbury festival that...

Forum: Political Opinions & Beliefs

Eclectic replied to the thread Open Discussion: Communication and AI Technologies in the Information Age.

The life-or-death case for self-driving cars Sorry, a robot is probably a safer driver than most humans....

Eclectic replied to the thread Open Discussion: Communication and AI Technologies in the Information Age.

One of the things that the free market, capitalist system does well is to continually increase variety and complexity. This in turn generates more varied and differentiated...

Eclectic replied to the thread Open Discussion: Communication and AI Technologies in the Information Age.

I would have thought that autonomous driving would have started with easier situations, such as shuttle busses between airport terminals, parking lots, and rental car...

Eclectic replied to the thread Are the Saudis Israel's friend?.

Which countries do not recognize israel? AI Overview ... Here's a more detailed breakdown: Arab League: Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya,...

Eclectic replied to the thread Are the Saudis Israel's friend?.

Do saudi maps include israel? AI Overview No, Saudi Arabian maps typically do not include Israel. Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel's sovereignty and has not...

Eclectic replied to the thread Israel.

In general, once a new group has conquered an area and held it for a century or two, it is their land. Or are you considering that the Franks should give France back to the...

Eclectic replied to the thread Israel.

Prior to Zionist immigration from Europe beginning in the 19th century, Jews were less than a few percent of the population of Palestine. The overwhelming majority of the...

Eclectic replied to the thread Open Discussion: Communication and AI Technologies in the Information Age.

I think that regulation of AI should be on a national level, not state level. State level auto regulations have been a problem. California's upholstered furniture regulations...

Eclectic replied to the thread Open Discussion: Communication and AI Technologies in the Information Age.

Yes, I think that the economy will need to be restructured with respect to how production is incentivized and rewarded and how goods and services are distributed. Something...

Eclectic replied to the thread Open Discussion: Communication and AI Technologies in the Information Age.

I think that a lot of the hallucination problem is the result of training on a corpus scraped from the internet without really quality vetting. AI systems that are going to be...

Eclectic replied to the thread Israel.

The success of the most fundamental sects of Islam is largely a reaction to Western colonial intrusion into the Middle East, of which, the establishment of a largely European...

Eclectic replied to the thread Israel.

Since WW II, Israel has been the main source of the United States' foreign policy difficulties in the Middle East. If not for Israel, we would have been able to build on the...

Eclectic replied to the thread Open Discussion: Communication and AI Technologies in the Information Age.

Technology is impacting music, video and books differently. The music business has been most impacted by the vastly lower cost of distributing music digitally compared with...

Eclectic replied to the thread The voice of Palestine.

Many maintain dual citizenship -- US and Israel.

Eclectic replied to the thread More Seniors Are Using Drugs—Here's Why It Matters.

Besides, a lethal stroke or heart attack is a better way to go than losing your swallow reflex and drowning in your own spit -- 'aspirational pneumonia' - a common way to go in...

Eclectic replied to the thread Open Discussion: Communication and AI Technologies in the Information Age.

"Know how to farm" is interesting, because the traditional family farmer and his wife knew a lot about many thing without being educated. He knew a little about crop science,...

Eclectic replied to the thread Russia plans to teach China how to beat US/NATO weapons:UA intell..

Tanks and armored personnel carriers near the front have very short lifetimes while moving in open fields. They can only survive by hiding in forests or villages in buildings....

Eclectic replied to the thread Fed chief Powell is starting to worry about the reliability of economic data.

“The Federal Reserve…is in the position of the chaperone who has ordered the punch bowl removed just when the party was really warming up.” October 1955, Fed Chair William...

Eclectic replied to the thread The voice of Palestine.

Only the more extremist Islamist, like AlQaeda, ISIS, etc, advocate the killing of all the Jews in Israel, i.e. genocide. Most of the Islamist organizations advocate that the...

Eclectic replied to the thread Open Discussion: Communication and AI Technologies in the Information Age.

Reading, writing, and arithmetic have long been the basis of elementary education. Advances in text to speech, speech to text, and AI math will obviate the need for the...

Eclectic replied to the thread Planned Parenthood encourages 'men' to get cervical cancer screening for Men's Health Month.

Admittedly it would be simpler to say, "people who were born with a uterus and have not had a total hysterectomy should get cervical cancer screening". That would be...

Eclectic replied to the thread Dow futures fall 1,200 points Sunday as Trump tariff market collapse worsens: Live updates.

On 1/20/25 the DXY was 107.56. Today it is at 97.28. So the 6141 S&P is worth only 6141.02 * 97.28 / 107.56 = 5554 due to the shrinking dollar. So yes, no bloodbath, but...

Eclectic replied to the thread Why Trump's Bombing Raid Was A Fool's Errand.

Geopolitical and military objective reality, to the extent they can be known, do not really matter. The only thing that matters is Trumpian subjective reality.

Eclectic replied to the thread So the Democrat Nominee for Mayor.

Yet every nation that becomes involved in a serious war and has to get the most out of its economy invariably nationalizes its critical industries and puts others under...