That's the state's insurance, which will eventually have to be bailed out by the federal government, if not not after the hurricane double tap. The reason people are on that insurance is because other insurers have either left the state or jacked up their rates, in no small part because of climate change.
In a functioning market, insurance is unaffected by global warming. Various costs will go up but they’ll all be passed on to their customers.
I'm not sure how to interpret this statement in a way that makes it possibly true. Consider Florida, just as an example. There, because of the possibility of hurricanes, you have to have a few different insurances if you want to be sure your house is covered (and if you have a mortgage, you'll have to have them). Take one of those types of insurance, flood: how much flood insurance costs you depends on the likelihood of a flood. If the likelihood of a flood that causes significant damage is 1 in 200 years, the cost of insuring your house will be one number, and if it's 1 in 50, it'll be about 4 times that number. Global warming makes floods much more likely, which makes the cost of flood insurance much higher, or it makes deductibles higher (most likely both). Then you have to throw in wind insurance and whatever else you need in Florida to cover hurricanes and fire (because it's oddly dry there despite raining everyday) and sink holes and alligators eating your house, all of which (including the alligators, because of the flooding) is made more likely by climate change, which means all those insurance premiums go up. You might be able to reduce this by cracking down on lawsuits (lol... good luck) and fraud, but you're still looking at huge price increases due to increased likelihood of disaster.
Israel's military is completely dependent on the U.S., as in fact is much of its economy. There is perhaps no other country in the world on which the U.S. could exert more influence. If Israel is starving civilians while bombing tent cities, hospitals, and schools, the U.S. has said it's OK for them to do so.
Hell, we just sent troops to Israel. We're saying, "Keep doing what you're doing," no matter what Harris is saying in a desperate attempt to gain a few votes in Michigan.
The "something, something" is snark, right? I mean, it's October 14, 2024. We're more than a year in. Better late than never, sure, but I don't get the snark.
I am betting that Seasonal Clickfarm Worker is an Xer or older. That video is basically a not particularly well-executed attempt at TikTok humor and aesthetics, which is not meant to, and probably won't, appeal to anyone over 35.
Put it this way: if you or at least two men in your immediate social circle is not currently sporting a Gilded Age/1970s porn mustache, you're probably not the intended audience.
Let's lay out a hierarchy of ethno-states from least bad to worst:
1. Effective ethno-states (think Saudi Arabia or many other states with heavily majority Arab populations; Northern Ireland). These don't have legally segregated ethnicities, but there is often clear economic and social/cultural segregation.
2. True ethnocracies. There are only a handful of these (excluding countries with state religions, so e.g., places where citizenship requires you to be Muslim, but not of a specific ethnicity), with Malaysia and Israel the most prominent, though there are some that are heavily trending that way (e.g., Azerbaijan), if they're not already there.
3. Apartheid ethnocracies. Pretty much everyone in 2 will already be in 3 if they aren't already. This involves not only the division of citizens (and non-citizens) into classes with different civil/political and economic liberties, but in every case, the violent enforcement of the class hierarchy. This would again be Israel and maybe Malaysia, with other countries moving in this direction.
4. Apartheid ethnocracies currently committing genocide. That is Israel.
Add to that the fact that Israel is the only country currently falling in 2-4 that is receiving significant economic and military aid from the U.S. (we provide a bunch of countries in 1, or at least approaching it, with aid), and you should see why anti-Zionism is not necessarily antisemitic (I don't want to say it never is; I see enough among anti-Zionists to know why that's not the case). It should also tell you something about Zionism as currently constituted, which Lee in particular makes apparent, but that's another conversation.
I suspect when we stop depending on oil, so that it stops being of any real importance economically or strategically, the funding for that country will dry up. We like to think that we're there for religious reasons, or in support of democracy, or whatever, but Empire always Empires.
I don't think the right of return requires that the people be scattered. What required the people to be scattered was the creation of, and continued behavior of, the state of Israel.
Would Israel be the same country, in that it would be an ethno-supremacist state? No. But the return of refugees and their families doesn't mean that the people who have, either as colonists or refugees themselves, settled the land since 1948 have to leave, or that they will have to be second class citizens, as even the non-Jewish citizens of Israel are today.
One could easily say that Israel's refusal to grant the right of return contradicts any statement that they want peace. Both sides in this conflict have points upon which they will not compromise, and here we are.
Is Coates to blame for this? As far as I can tell, CBS just got a lot of backlash, and is doing CYA. I've seen nothing from Coates suggesting he complained.
I'm actually really excited to see Coates doing this on mainstream media, and getting questioned like this. Not only do I think he responds well, but as a darling of mainstream liberals, he's one of the few people who can actually get mainstream media to air the pro-Palestinian perspective.
I don't think she is talking about partisan politics at all, Canadian or American. It's sad that the spectacle of American partisan politics has become so consuming that a lot of people can't see any political discourse, however melodramatic (and man is that tweet over the top), except through that lens. It's all the sadder given how limited the American partisan political discourse is.
It would be very bad if being an Austinite, or New Yorker, or even an American or an Iranian or a Bhutanean defined us so completely that everyone to whom such a label could be applied was exactly the same. Fortunately...
I mean, putting aside people who've never even lived here, no. If you're here, or if you were once here, and you want to think of yourself as an Austinite, no one should be able to tell you you aren't.
This has actually become a non-hypothetical situation, here and back in my hometown in Tennessee, two places that have grown a great deal over the last few decades (Austin from about 450k at the turn of the century to a million now; my hometown from about 13k in 1990 to about 85k now). In both cases, a lot of older residents, or even some newer ones, blame changes in the city on people who aren't really Austinites, or Frankliners (Franklinites? Franklinoganders?), and in particular, "Californians." This creates some really ugly political and social dynamics, especially in my much smaller hometown.
A similar dynamic plays out in Fante's novel Wait Until Spring, Bandini. Svevo and Maria are Italian immigrants trying to scrape by in Colorado in the late 1930s. Svevo has thoroughly embraced America, to such an extent that he tries to distance himself from other Italian immigrants (even looking down on his Maria), while Maria, his wife, still thinks of herself as Italian (not Italian-American).
I think this is a pretty common split in immigrant attitudes (though it's obviously a continuum, not just the two poles), and in a way the Australians and I are all immigrants in Texas.
Back before the pandemic, I used to go to lunch once every week or two at a kinda bourgie taco spot about a 10 minute walk from my work. I'd met a couple of Australian women who were also regulars who were usually there when I'd stop in, so we had gotten in the habit of eating our delicious (and, in hindsight, pretty cheap given the price of fancy tacos now) tacos at a table together and chatting. They had, when I first met them, been in the Austin for 10 years, and i had been here for about 15 (from Tennessee, via Kentucky). One of our first conversations, to which we frequently returned over the next few years, was whether we were Austinites. I said I'm wasn't, and they, from literally the other side of the planet, swore that having been here for 10 years, they were. They believed they were Austinites because they'd thoroughly embraced Austin as home, and I believed I wasn't an Austinite because despite having been here longer, I had not. I still think we were both right.
On “Open Mic for the week of 10/14/2024”
That's the state's insurance, which will eventually have to be bailed out by the federal government, if not not after the hurricane double tap. The reason people are on that insurance is because other insurers have either left the state or jacked up their rates, in no small part because of climate change.
"
I mean, buying a home in Florida is a bad decision for a lot of reasons.
"
In a functioning market, insurance is unaffected by global warming. Various costs will go up but they’ll all be passed on to their customers.
I'm not sure how to interpret this statement in a way that makes it possibly true. Consider Florida, just as an example. There, because of the possibility of hurricanes, you have to have a few different insurances if you want to be sure your house is covered (and if you have a mortgage, you'll have to have them). Take one of those types of insurance, flood: how much flood insurance costs you depends on the likelihood of a flood. If the likelihood of a flood that causes significant damage is 1 in 200 years, the cost of insuring your house will be one number, and if it's 1 in 50, it'll be about 4 times that number. Global warming makes floods much more likely, which makes the cost of flood insurance much higher, or it makes deductibles higher (most likely both). Then you have to throw in wind insurance and whatever else you need in Florida to cover hurricanes and fire (because it's oddly dry there despite raining everyday) and sink holes and alligators eating your house, all of which (including the alligators, because of the flooding) is made more likely by climate change, which means all those insurance premiums go up. You might be able to reduce this by cracking down on lawsuits (lol... good luck) and fraud, but you're still looking at huge price increases due to increased likelihood of disaster.
"
Israel's military is completely dependent on the U.S., as in fact is much of its economy. There is perhaps no other country in the world on which the U.S. could exert more influence. If Israel is starving civilians while bombing tent cities, hospitals, and schools, the U.S. has said it's OK for them to do so.
Hell, we just sent troops to Israel. We're saying, "Keep doing what you're doing," no matter what Harris is saying in a desperate attempt to gain a few votes in Michigan.
"
The "something, something" is snark, right? I mean, it's October 14, 2024. We're more than a year in. Better late than never, sure, but I don't get the snark.
On “Open Mic for the week of 10/7/2024”
The quality of the acting seems about par for the course for political ads, which isn't a compliment.
"
Just gonna leave this here: https://x.com/UNGeneva/status/1844650926289666493?t=mS6YPnsRn-bSJTBN14zSbA&s=19
"
Basically, you must have a close friend who looks like this:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFa76uWg/
"
This was not obvious?
"
I am betting that Seasonal Clickfarm Worker is an Xer or older. That video is basically a not particularly well-executed attempt at TikTok humor and aesthetics, which is not meant to, and probably won't, appeal to anyone over 35.
Put it this way: if you or at least two men in your immediate social circle is not currently sporting a Gilded Age/1970s porn mustache, you're probably not the intended audience.
"
Let's lay out a hierarchy of ethno-states from least bad to worst:
1. Effective ethno-states (think Saudi Arabia or many other states with heavily majority Arab populations; Northern Ireland). These don't have legally segregated ethnicities, but there is often clear economic and social/cultural segregation.
2. True ethnocracies. There are only a handful of these (excluding countries with state religions, so e.g., places where citizenship requires you to be Muslim, but not of a specific ethnicity), with Malaysia and Israel the most prominent, though there are some that are heavily trending that way (e.g., Azerbaijan), if they're not already there.
3. Apartheid ethnocracies. Pretty much everyone in 2 will already be in 3 if they aren't already. This involves not only the division of citizens (and non-citizens) into classes with different civil/political and economic liberties, but in every case, the violent enforcement of the class hierarchy. This would again be Israel and maybe Malaysia, with other countries moving in this direction.
4. Apartheid ethnocracies currently committing genocide. That is Israel.
Add to that the fact that Israel is the only country currently falling in 2-4 that is receiving significant economic and military aid from the U.S. (we provide a bunch of countries in 1, or at least approaching it, with aid), and you should see why anti-Zionism is not necessarily antisemitic (I don't want to say it never is; I see enough among anti-Zionists to know why that's not the case). It should also tell you something about Zionism as currently constituted, which Lee in particular makes apparent, but that's another conversation.
"
I suspect when we stop depending on oil, so that it stops being of any real importance economically or strategically, the funding for that country will dry up. We like to think that we're there for religious reasons, or in support of democracy, or whatever, but Empire always Empires.
"
I don't think the right of return requires that the people be scattered. What required the people to be scattered was the creation of, and continued behavior of, the state of Israel.
Would Israel be the same country, in that it would be an ethno-supremacist state? No. But the return of refugees and their families doesn't mean that the people who have, either as colonists or refugees themselves, settled the land since 1948 have to leave, or that they will have to be second class citizens, as even the non-Jewish citizens of Israel are today.
"
One could easily say that Israel's refusal to grant the right of return contradicts any statement that they want peace. Both sides in this conflict have points upon which they will not compromise, and here we are.
"
A really good answer. The entire interview is worth watching.
"
Is Coates to blame for this? As far as I can tell, CBS just got a lot of backlash, and is doing CYA. I've seen nothing from Coates suggesting he complained.
I'm actually really excited to see Coates doing this on mainstream media, and getting questioned like this. Not only do I think he responds well, but as a darling of mainstream liberals, he's one of the few people who can actually get mainstream media to air the pro-Palestinian perspective.
On “Open Mic for the week of 9/30/2024”
I don't think she is talking about partisan politics at all, Canadian or American. It's sad that the spectacle of American partisan politics has become so consuming that a lot of people can't see any political discourse, however melodramatic (and man is that tweet over the top), except through that lens. It's all the sadder given how limited the American partisan political discourse is.
"
She's in Canada.
"
It would be very bad if being an Austinite, or New Yorker, or even an American or an Iranian or a Bhutanean defined us so completely that everyone to whom such a label could be applied was exactly the same. Fortunately...
"
I mean, putting aside people who've never even lived here, no. If you're here, or if you were once here, and you want to think of yourself as an Austinite, no one should be able to tell you you aren't.
This has actually become a non-hypothetical situation, here and back in my hometown in Tennessee, two places that have grown a great deal over the last few decades (Austin from about 450k at the turn of the century to a million now; my hometown from about 13k in 1990 to about 85k now). In both cases, a lot of older residents, or even some newer ones, blame changes in the city on people who aren't really Austinites, or Frankliners (Franklinites? Franklinoganders?), and in particular, "Californians." This creates some really ugly political and social dynamics, especially in my much smaller hometown.
"
A similar dynamic plays out in Fante's novel Wait Until Spring, Bandini. Svevo and Maria are Italian immigrants trying to scrape by in Colorado in the late 1930s. Svevo has thoroughly embraced America, to such an extent that he tries to distance himself from other Italian immigrants (even looking down on his Maria), while Maria, his wife, still thinks of herself as Italian (not Italian-American).
I think this is a pretty common split in immigrant attitudes (though it's obviously a continuum, not just the two poles), and in a way the Australians and I are all immigrants in Texas.
"
Back before the pandemic, I used to go to lunch once every week or two at a kinda bourgie taco spot about a 10 minute walk from my work. I'd met a couple of Australian women who were also regulars who were usually there when I'd stop in, so we had gotten in the habit of eating our delicious (and, in hindsight, pretty cheap given the price of fancy tacos now) tacos at a table together and chatting. They had, when I first met them, been in the Austin for 10 years, and i had been here for about 15 (from Tennessee, via Kentucky). One of our first conversations, to which we frequently returned over the next few years, was whether we were Austinites. I said I'm wasn't, and they, from literally the other side of the planet, swore that having been here for 10 years, they were. They believed they were Austinites because they'd thoroughly embraced Austin as home, and I believed I wasn't an Austinite because despite having been here longer, I had not. I still think we were both right.
"
You forgot the bolo tie.
I'm trying so hard not to look like a Texan that I'm currently wearing an Oregon t-shirt. (technically Clear Lake).
"
I choose never to be one. I mean, I've lived her just over half my life, but please, no.
"
I mean, at least he didn't call me a Texan.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.