jbbeal.bsky.social
Dad and software engineer. Live in southern CA; like running and beer
213 posts
193 followers
268 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
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They *want* Armageddon. They believe that the time for the war to end all wars has passed, and if they make it happen, Jesus will have to come.
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Something I think about: if an immigrant from a country with a history of gang violence and corruption commits a crime in our country, aren't we better off housing them in our own prisons than sending them home? (I don't know the answer, but it makes me wonder if deportation is ever the right answer
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Yeah. This is the sort of example we had about the scientific method where the teacher was basically, "look how cute we humans were in the Dark Ages. Aren't we glad we have science? Now let's dissect a frog!"
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I've moved multiple times and across several state borders -- never once had to get permission from a government. That seems like the natural state of affairs.
Immigration law is just government red tape
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Whether it's by improving turnout or flipping voters, I think the main thing I'm trying to get across is that I am trying not to think about what the DNC can do better for 2026, I'm trying to think about what I can do better.
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If we can't reach them, our country is doomed, and we can't just wait for the DNC to pull out some magic trick. Lots of people talk about wanting to get money out of politics, but they don't think about what has to replace it: Work
"We the People" need to stand up
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I did say, "I'm not sure". I definitely did not say that the democrats were perfect. I just find myself thinking a lot more about the 77MM people who voted for Trump than about the DNC. How do we reach them?
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I'm not sure how I feel about blaming the "Democratic Party" for anything. Voters made the mess by voting again for Trump and removing any power the democrats actually have. The people made the problem; the people have to fix it
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Peaceful and quiet are not the same words
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Seems like if they had known about these actions when they first picked him up, we'd have heard about that, right? Or that they'd want to have the trial and conviction of what sounds like a significant human trafficking conspiracy?
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We need more than two political parties. However, voting for a third party in our current electoral system is futile.
Get open primaries first, and then third party and independent candidates can compete on a level playing field.
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Step One would be to start treating the "employer paid" portion of insurance premiums as part of employee compensation. If you opt out of your employer's insurance, you should get the full value of the premium back, not just the "employee portion"
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Decoupling insurance and employment would make creating new businesses simpler, put more power in the hands of consumers, and open huge opportunities for disruptive businesses in the healthcare marketplace.
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Not meant to take anything away from this, but what's there to investigate? How many of his executive orders have been declared unconstitutional *so far*? Clearly violating the presidential path is grounds for impeachment
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An underappreciated lesson from the COVID lockdowns is that many of the people most upset by them were those being told to stay home and get free money.
The vast majority of people want to work and contribute to society.
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The Government is not a business nor is it an individual. A balanced budget does not have to be the goal.
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Smart phones allow communication with family, looking for jobs, applying for jobs, using money without carrying cash, accessing information (including job training, interview prep, directions to nearest shelter, how to access government assistance). Critical tools
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I have an iPhone. If I lose my job and go on the street, do I need to trade in my iPhone for an android to make you happy? What's your point?
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For those of us who work for a living, imagine that your boss calls you into a meeting and asks you to explain actions your team took the week prior.
What happens if your answer is, "oh. I didn't know we did that."
Not necessarily a firing offense, but you'd better be damn sure it doesn't repeat
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Rand Paul is talking sense. Where has he been?
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A very non-zero percentage of the adoption of AI is group think. Some people are loudly and confidently proclaiming that companies without an AI strategy are doomed to fail, and therefore, in order to keep boards and investors at bay, CEOs are announcing AI strategies.
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Jesus said that the first great commandment was to love God, but also repeatedly asserted that the way to show our love for God was to love our neighbor. Claiming to follow the first great commandment while ignoring the second is hypocrisy, and this is the sin Christ criticized above all
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And in closing: "it just has to be seen as that way"...
Make Orwell Fiction Again indeed.
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"Incredible array of wonderful deals"... This sort of hyperbolic fact free assertion needs to be called out. Witkoff just spewed out a stream of positive adjectives that can't even be called lies because there weren't enough factual claims to check in his stream of ass-kissing consciousness
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Simple and true
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What ethical reason could there possibly be for any foreign government to donate a plane — made by Boeing in America — to POTUS? POTUS already has Airforce One. The only rational reason for the gift is for personal use, hence illegal.
Impeach the felon
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How are the largest and fastest growing companies all American and how do we have the most billionaire of any other country if trade imbalances meant anything?
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One of many bonkers things to me about the whole "we need tariffs because of trade imbalance" arguments is that the trade imbalance can only exist if we have money. We buy more stuff from other countries because we have more money with which to buy stuff. This isn't even a bad thing.
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This is also true.
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It's what I love about running
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If we are buying foreign goods instead of domestic goods today, it's likely because the foreign goods are cheaper. Even if the tariffs cause a full replacement of all foreign goods with domestics, we will be paying more than we are paying today.
The people always pay.
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Dude. I can't run a 5k at that pace