Phantom_Engineer

u/Phantom_Engineer@lemmy.world
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A couple old folk songs about trains are "People Get Ready" and "Railroad Bill"

There's also Bob Dylan, "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" and The Band, "Just Another Whistle Stop."

on Go on... · c/microblogmemes · 4 pts · 105d

"US Male" by Elvis Presley. At least some of his other bad songs are funny. This one just sucks.

I've seen some of the videos online. Some degree mills will let you CLEP (and adjacent services) your way to a degree in General Studies (or Liberal Studies, or Multidisciplinary Studies, or whatever). A lot of the time, it's a degree in nothing in particular from a school nobody's heard of. It's not particularly useful, but better than nothing.

You get what you pay for. I'm not sure who is cheating who: the students, who think they've found a way to beat the system, or the schools, who make a quick buck in exchange for a degree of dubious value.

on Just vibing · c/science_memes · 8 pts · 189d

Imagine an old-timey saw with a lumberjack on each side, pulling it back and forth across the tree. The saw just goes back and forth, but effective work gets done.

His record is meh. The economy has been doing alright, and he has made at least some progress on climate change. He did get a much-needed infrastructure bill passed through Congress. He also did follow through on the withdraw from Afghanistan, and Republican attempts to stir up scandal have been largely for naught, mainly focusing on Hunter instead of him.

Now for the bad: the signs of mental decline are hard to ignore, and his insistence on running for a second term puts the country at risk of a second Trump term. Fair or not, the honorable thing to do would have been to put the country first and step aside so that the Democrats could have had a proper primary and let some fresh blood in. If Trump is elected, and polls suggest he might, Biden's legacy will be ruined.

His "human rights based" foreign policy is a joke, with his term marked by support for brutal wars in Gaza and Yemen and the return of the Taliban to rule in Afghanistan. (Though, to be fair, I agree with his decision to withdraw.) I do think his administration is likely responsible for the Nordstream bombing as well. While it could be argued that the bombing was justified due to the Ukraine war, it undermines the idea of a "rules-based" order that the West is supposedly fighting for.

Most recently, his party's attempt to reform immigration has stalled in Congress, Ukraine aid is at a deadlock, and the possibility of war with Iran hangs on the horizon. All of this remains to be resolved.

I live in a pretty solid red state, so I might vote third party, but if was a more competitive state I would probably vote to reelect Biden. Unfortunately, I think the best case scenario is that Biden is reelected and either dies or resigns to make way for President Harris. Not ideal, this.

Thing is, industrial revolution bleeds into colonialism. Sure, there was colonialism before industrialization, and colonialism would look very different in a time before nation-states as we know them today, but those resources will have to come from somewhere.

Metallurgy is always where they get you on these things. You can bring stuff like division of labor, assembly lines, and replaceable parts back in time pretty easily, but good luck getting aluminum for your bicycles in any kind of quantity. Not sure how well a bronze bicycle would work, but I bet it could be done.

In an ideal state, the corporations would be subservient to the state, which would represent the will of the people and the good of the nation. In practical terms, this would be worker protections and environmental protection among other things.

As is, our (US) government is weak and subservient to the corporations and the rich, who use it as a tool to maintain their position. While free enterprise is essential to a free society and a planned economy is doomed to inefficiency, business owners must be good stewards of the nation's resources and the state should be unafraid to remove them as necessary. (Health care being a good example of an industry where this should be done).

On top of that, there should be a floor on how poor you can be and a ceiling on how rich. Oh shit, does this make ME the TANKIE?

No, because I don't laud the Assad regime. Whew, that was close.

I mean, me too thanks.

Not saying it's true, but would overthrowing Putin be such a bad thing? The replacement might not be any better, but if it ends the war it would probably be a net good.