Trump administration fires all members of HIV/AIDS advisory council

 BillG wrote: 
my apologies 

 pigtail wrote: 
What do you have against the rich?

 Steely_D wrote: 
I am not lazy.  I work my ass off for the same wages I made 10 years ago.  I keep my home up and work hard to ensure that it doesn't fall into disrepair and remains an asset. Remember the French after Napolean invaded?  I believe we are headed in the same direction.  It's inevitable.  Rome, France...on and on throughout history.  We need an uprising.  It will happen but I will probably be too damn old to join in.....BILL.....some MUSE please!!! 

CHINA TELLS TRUMP 'THIS IS NOT HOW A U.S. PRESIDENT SHOULD BEHAVE' AFTER NORTH KOREA TWEET

 aflanigan wrote: 
Yeah, I think Crawford's reference to Pirsig's work was intentional but check out this quote from an NYT review of "Shopcraft":

This is not “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” Part 2. Mr. Crawford isn’t particularly interested in the nonrational mind. “I want to avoid the kind of mysticism that gets attached to ‘craftsmanship,’ ” he writes, “while doing justice to the very real satisfactions it offers.”


This New Yorker review talks about both works and the alienation Americans feel in modern society:

 kcar wrote: 
Thanks, just picked up the kindle version.

 kcar wrote: 
Hmmm. The subtitle of the book is, "An inquiry into the value of work". Motorcycle depicted on the cover page.  

Methinks this guy has read another book that is a cult favorite.  

 kcar wrote: 
I wasn't linking the status and corruption. I've just frequently seen "oh they have corruption problems and have had them for years" as an excuse for why nothing has been fixed. But they are citizens and deserve the same protections as other citizens. DC is just a handy example - we would never let a disaster go unfixed there as we have in PR. And as you note, many steps have been taken to make fixes in the corruptions problems there. 

 islander wrote: 
I agree, and I've tried to convey the pleasure/benefit/perspective of working with the hands to my offspring. I'm very much a technical person whose motivation to study science was based at least in part on wanting to better understand the devices and machines that I so enjoyed taking apart. And understanding the thinking behind the machines I would encounter in my life (automobiles, dishwashing machines in the restaurant, etc.). Crafting things from raw materials is indeed rewarding, and is another seed worth cultivating.

Children often have seeds of curiosity in their brains, but they need to be cultivated and watered to flower. So rants about how the younger generation is missing out should acknowledge that perhaps, their elders (baby boomers) haven't tried very hard to grow those seeds.

 islander wrote: 
It's always interesting to hear the histories of RPers. You get a much better sense of the people and how/why their opinions took shape. 

"It sounds (and feels) a bit old fashioned, but I do think we have lost something as we have moved into this phase where we produce a lot less. I'm fortunate to have this opportunity, and fortunate to have access to people who will pay a premium for the products we produce. I think part of our angst is tied to the amorphous nature of what we do now. It's also harder to own work and take pride in output that isn't clearly defined."


You might be interested in a book that was big a few years back, "Shopcraft As Soulcraft." The author gave up a position as president of a think tank (whose primary mission IIRC was to deny the existence of global warming) and opened a motorcycle repair shop. He's written a coupla other books since that might appeal to you. 

 islander wrote: 

I'm a bit lost when it comes to your linking territory status with corruption. I can't say much to Puerto Rico's troubled state, but Washington DC has struggled with interference from the federal government accompanied by insufficient funding from the feds. The federal government was not eager to let DC become a fully functioning municipality but it also didn't do enough to help it prosper as a city necessarily dependent on the federal government. 

From what I can tell, DC was not ready when Home Rule arrived in 1973. It tried to create a city government out of whole cloth without sufficient personnel experience or effective guidance from the federal government. Leaders such as Marion Barry tried to bootstrap the economy through boosting the local government payrolls and creating a middle class but they didn't do enough to counter white flight, the decline of businesses and growing sclerotic corruption of the government. The DC government didn't have enough power or tax base to turn the city around, and the federal government never had a consistent desire to sufficiently pitch in.

As a longtime DC resident, the first time I noticed the federal government actively stepping in and trying to change the direction of the DC's local government was the creation of District of Columbia Financial Control Board in 1995, which Congress created to take the funding of a patronage system from Mayor Barry and effectively drive him from office. Until that point, Congress seemed indifferent to the fact that it was not using its oversized influence on DC's business and politics in a beneficial way. 

The DC government today is far from being an efficient or transparent organization but it's vastly improved. From what I can tell, PR is in disastrous shape—was so before Irma—and got there for quite different reasons than the ones that brought DC to a bad state. My very amateur guess is Puerto Rico is so far away from the federal government in miles, culture and institutionalized means of control that it's fairly easy for Congress to ignore PR until things fall apart. 

The federal government's response to Irma's effect on PR was atrocious and uncoordinated. It didn't help that infrastructure down there had fallen apart in many places but I think you have to pin most of the blame on the federal response under Trump. 

 Steely_D wrote: 
I've never been afraid of work. After restaurant time, I got started as a machinist before getting an engineering degree. Over the years I did more desk work, and paper work and eventually became executive management. I still never shied away from a mop bucket or my turn cleaning the fridge/microwave.  In the last year I took over a business that makes things. Small custom things that take a lot of engineering and thought and planning, but also a lot of artistry and hands on detailing.  I've been surprised how rewarding it has been, and how much pride I have in what I produce.  

It sounds (and feels) a bit old fashioned, but I do think we have lost something as we have moved into this phase where we produce a lot less. I'm fortunate to have this opportunity, and fortunate to have access to people who will pay a premium for the products we produce. I think part of our angst is tied to the amorphous nature of what we do now. It's also harder to own work and take pride in output that isn't clearly defined.

 pigtail wrote: 




Sadly you may be right though I think we are still a ways away from that. I am thinking in our children's lifetime.

 pigtail wrote: 
I think it's just the most thoughtless way. It's so very easy to be critical, to rise up in anger, without a replacement solution that's better. (e.g. ACA)

Sitting now in the Old Folks' Perch I can talk at length about kids these days and their music is just noise and in my day it was different. But some of that is true. We see a shift in American culture towards nihilism because we've watched TV push us towards the idea that worthless things have meaning, when they don't.

In a culture where physical work, or functional creativity, or humanistic gestures are the real things of value - our TV has, because of the lowest common denominator "we need eyeballs" effect, told us that kids are smarter than their parents and shiny things are worth having and your breath smells and various political lies. (For the purpose of this rant, the Internet is now tantamount to TV with people's eyes glued to this screen whenever there's a gap in their existence.)

So it seems right to many Americans to put a vulgar, ineloquent, reality-show star in the highest office in the land. Because they're comfortable with the idea. Where the hell does that come from except the distorted reality that folks have shoved into their brains from the big blue teat from the moment their parents are too disinterested to play with them.

In other parts of the world, work and sweat and difficulties are part of life. Here, "normal" life, the life that folks want, is lazy and soft (Princesses and DJs as a career choice?) and - ultimately - defenseless once someone stronger decides they want what you have. And so millions of soft, lazy Americans are now losing - but doing nothing about it but sitting in chairs playing more video games and watching Star Wars and complaining on Reddit.

So, can they generate a thoughtful revolution through organization and voting and culture shift? No. So the best that any of us can imagine is violent, angry, destructive revolution. A temper tantrum seems to be their only eloquence.

 islander wrote: 
I think both parties are failing miserably right now.  Though I do agree with your assessment.  Something has to change radically to undermine the corruption, collusion and basic lack of respect to the taxpayers.  We have no power and when the rapidly growing underclass gets fed up enough, it will fuel a revolution.  We are long overdue for it in this country.  Things have gotten worse since the 50's and each hit to the working class (Which believe it or not is MOST of us.  Middle class is a fantasy reserved for the now upperclass.) pushes us close to the ultimate revolution and chaos in the streets.  It's the only way to revamp this whole nightmare and make the government work for us again.

Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, so the people there are citizens of the US. They pay taxes and should have the same standards of protection and support as the rest of the country.

That they have problems with corruption shouldn't diminish this - in fact it should heighten our awareness and we should be stepping up to address both problems.

Washington D.C. is also a territory, and I think we could probably demonstrate some issues with corruption there as well. We wouldn't tolerate this lack of response there, so why do we accept in Puerto Rico. This isn't about Trump specifically, but is an outgrowth of the attitude that government does no good. If you really believe that the government has no good purpose, then you aren't likely to help demonstrate the benefits of government while you are in power.  One party in particular seems to echo this line often, and it is the party that is failing right now.

 BillG wrote: 
Sorry.

In general, I'm pretty impressed with the relative civility of the dialogue in this topic. Pretty rare these days — particularly in regard to this particular individual.

However, phrases such as "WTF is wrong with you" and "pompous sanctimonious holier than thou lips" — when directed at fellow posters — are very, very close to the "no personal attacks" line. 

One helpful reminder: "but he/she/they started it" is not a valid defense here. 

Thanks.

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