Our biggest challenge? Lack of imagination.

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user 37518 said:
He did work for the UN in this topic, so he is not pseudo-scientific. Besides that, If you ask me, he is one of the greatest thinkers of the 21st century. You may not fully agree with him, but he is. He is much more than a psychologist, he is a philosopher, a scientist, a good theologian, a free thinker and of course, a great public speaker.

I wouldn't judge someone just for their academic qualifications, many forum members here, even the veterans, do not have a degree and they are extremely knowledgeable.

Again, you're commiting a logical fallacy, this time it is the "argument from authority". The scientific method is not about any one person, and working for the UN in itself has no baring on the merit of his output.

The only relevant factor is wrt the methodology used - is it based on rigorous science, is the person an expert in the relevant field (this is not about academic qualificaitons per se, and quite a bit of fraud is commited by people with official credentials)?

Your admiration for the man sounds borderline cult-ish. Substitute Peterson with Karl Marx or Barack Obama in your above posted adulation and reflect on how you would react if someone told it to you. WRT to the merits of someones thoughts your argument is completely irrelevant and largely circular in reasoning.

Please don't take this personally.
 
living sounds said:
And climate change has massive effects right now, for instance many of the migrants arriving at the US southern border are there because of it.

What? were are you getting this information from? I would like to know, I am from Mexico and can tell you that the migrants that go to the US (specially illegal ones)  are from the most empoverished classes, they have few if any academic qualifications, they live in rural communities, they leave their family behind and basically have nothing left to loose, this is why Americans think Mexicans are only good at gardening, construction, cleaning and similar jobs, because those are the ones going over there.

I am going to say something controversial now, I don't agree with Donald Trump when he said that mexicans are criminals and rapists, however, I do agree with him when he said that "Mexico is not sending their best", and I don't mean that they are bad people, on the contrary they are honest hard working people, but the fact is that the academically or skill qualified people are here in the country or working elsewhere in the world, perhaps even in the US but legally so you don't hear much about them.

A lot of migrants in the south US border also come from central and south america, same situation, they  are very empoverished and have no other alternative.

I don't think climate change is the motivator that makes them cross the border.
 
living sounds said:
Your admiration for the man sounds borderline cult-ish. Substitute Peterson with Karl Marx or Barack Obama in your above posted adulation and reflect on how you would react if someone told it to you. WRT to the merits of someones thoughts your argument is completely irrelevant and largely circular in reasoning.

Please don't take this personally.

I don't take it personally, on the contrary, you are very civilized, polite and eloquent, you are in fact right, I admire him a lot, borderline cult-ish in fact like you mention. In my opinion he will pass into history as one of the greates philosophers of the 21st century, I even imagine future universities teaching his theories to college students. In a world that thinks that  quacks like Steve Jobs was a genious just because he envisioned great products and they love their phones, or those who think Bill Gates is some kind of prophet in every matter ranging from COVID, economy and climate, or anyone who gives a crappy TEDx talk is an expert, I think that more serious thinkers, people like Jordan Peterson are desperately needed.
 
user 37518 said:
What? were are you getting this information from? I would like to know, I am from Mexico and can tell you that the migrants that go to the US (specially illegal ones)  are from the most empoverished classes, they have few if any academic qualifications, they live in rural communities, they leave their family behind and basically have nothing left to loose, this is why Americans think Mexicans are only good at gardening, construction, cleaning and similar jobs, because those are the ones going over there.

I am going to say something controversial now, I don't agree with Donald Trump when he said that mexicans are criminals and rapists, however, I do agree with him when he said that "Mexico is not sending their best", and I don't mean that they are bad people, on the contrary they are honest hard working people, but the fact is that the academically or skill qualified people are here in the country or working elsewhere in the world, perhaps even in the US but legally so you don't hear much about them.

A lot of migrants in the south US border also come from central and south america, same situation, they  are very empoverished and have no other alternative.

I don't think climate change is the motivator that makes them cross the border.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/23/magazine/climate-migration.html

https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/how-climate-change-is-fuelling-the-us-border-crisis

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/24/us/border-climate-change-covid/index.html

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/how-climate-change-is-driving-emigration-from-central-america

https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep05972?seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents
 
user 37518 said:
Finally ! thank you!
I have advocated for nuclear power for years right here...
He did work for the UN on this topic, so he is not pseudo-scientific. Besides that, If you ask me, he is one of the greatest thinkers of the 21st century. You may not fully agree with him, but he is. He is much more than a psychologist, he is a philosopher, a scientist, a good theologian, a free thinker and of course, a great public speaker.

I wouldn't judge someone just for their academic qualifications, many forum members here, even the veterans, do not have a degree and they are extremely knowledgeable.
Lets talk about physics and things, not people.... that seems to cause us to veer off topic...

JR
 
living sounds said:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/23/magazine/climate-migration.html

https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/how-climate-change-is-fuelling-the-us-border-crisis

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/24/us/border-climate-change-covid/index.html

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/how-climate-change-is-driving-emigration-from-central-america

https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep05972?seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents

I read most of the articles you posted, they are special isolated cases, mostly about central american countries, people living in remote isolated areas, I can understand that climate change has something to do with those people. But saying that climate change has massive effects on immigration problems is a bit of an overstatement, poverty, education, malnutrition, lack of opportunities, social unrest, delinquency, that is what causes the majority of illegal immigration to the US.

I live in the capital city of Mexico and things are relatively calm over here, aside from the usual crime typical of any enourmous city, but the northern states and some northwest states of the country are Cartel Land, there are many stories about small towns that are now ghost towns because the inhabitants had to leave due to Cartel racketeering and violence, Many small towns have created their own "Self defense police or militia" which patrols and fights cartels in their town, however the goverment is constantly suppresing those groups for being illegal hahaha, so I guess cartels are not illegal?  My own cousin, who used to live in one of those states was shot and killed on the street infront of his brother and his mother because he refused to pay the cartel a "protection fee" for his business, he was 30 years old.

Cartels are no longer hiding, they don't even care, they have the logo of their cartel printed on their trucks (https://i1.wp.com/elblogdelnarco.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/VIDEO-Camiones-monstruo-y-vehiculos-blindados-el-infame-desfile-del-CJNG-en-Michoacan.png?w=435&ssl=1), they wear uniforms and bullet proof vests with the cartel logo embroided in them, they have armored cars and heavy artillery, they have merchandising, they have a facebook page, they have an internet blog (https://elblogdelnarco.com/) were they upload pictures and videos of how they fight against the army, with cartel news, and gruesome videos were they show how they kill other cartel rivals or their own cartel betrayers, both men and female, if lucky they will only execute them by gun fire, but usually by first dismembering them alive with a machete, limb by limb, and then decapitating them after they get a confession out of them or a statement said by the victim himself warning rival cartels of what happens when they mess with them, I've seen those videos, there are no clean cuts, they require continuous blows to break bone, or cut the neck, the victims beg the executioner to please kill them but they dont, the agony and screams usually lasts as long as 10-15 minutes. Its the most savage thing I've seen in my entire life, not even the mid west terrorist execution videos display such brutality.

Cartel leaders openly threaten the president if he dares to talk bad about them, have you heard of mexican cartels lately? probably not, that is because the previous presidents were fighting against them, the new president just turns a blind eye so its not big news anymore. They will arrest some cartel high ranking commander or whatever, they will give a press conference, parade him around, and then release him a few years afterwards without the people knowing. Recently, the most important General, General Cienfuegos, the secretary of defense I think of the previous goverment was arrested by the US and they planned to get him to court for narcotraffic, the mexican goverment somehow convinced the US to extradite him back to Mexico so he could be trialed here, the mexican chancelour said in a press conference "It would suicide not to punish Cienfuegos for his crimes", 2 months later all charges were dropped, and who knows where he is now, my best guess is that he knows a lot of secrets of very important people.

In Germany it might be different, but in many places of the world, making the earth greener is not "Our Biggest Challenge" or "lack of imagination" like the thread title suggests.
 
user 37518 said:
I don't take it personally, on the contrary, you are very civilized, polite and eloquent, you are in fact right, I admire him a lot, borderline cult-ish in fact like you mention. In my opinion he will pass into history as one of the greates philosophers of the 21st century, I even imagine future universities teaching his theories to college students. In a world that thinks that  quacks like Steve Jobs was a genious just because he envisioned great products and they love their phones, or those who think Bill Gates is some kind of prophet in every matter ranging from COVID, economy and climate, or anyone who gives a crappy TEDx talk is an expert, I think that more serious thinkers, people like Jordan Peterson are desperately needed.

While I was never personally a fan of Apple (though I am now using Iphones exclusively for the security and functionality aspects) nor Steve Jobs, I don't think there is much question that he was a marketing genius. But in terms of policy in general or the topic at hand (climate change / restoring of ecosystems) I see inserting his name into the discussion as a non sequitor.

Bill Gates looks like he is listening mostly to the scientists, which is good, but doesn't make  him a "prophet".

Serious thinkers do exist, but they are also all fallable human beings, too. They often suffer from the aforementioned expert intelligence trap problem imagining themselves to be of superior wisdom in fields they no little about.

It's easy to confuse actual expertise with expertise in self-promotion. Peterson falls into the latter category, IMHO. Especially if they are charismatic and reinforce your previously held beliefs.

Actual experts often have humble and modest personalities and simply enjoy doing what they are good at.

Steve Jobs and Apple get a lot of credit (recognition as well as monetary compensation) for products based on taxpayer-funded research. If anyone is interested, there's a good book about it: "The Entrepreneurial State".
 
living sounds said:
While I was never personally a fan of Apple (though I am now using Iphones exclusively for the security and functionality aspects) nor Steve Jobs, I don't think there is much question that he was a marketing genius. But in terms of policy in general or the topic at hand (climate change / restoring of ecosystems) I see inserting his name into the discussion as a non sequitor.

The problem is that most people don't see him as a marketing genious, they see him as the greatest modern inventor and thinker even when he didn't invent anything, most people do not know who Steve Wozniak is. Plus, they treasure Job's wisdom when everyone that met him said that he was a shitty human being.

living sounds said:
Bill Gates looks like he is listening mostly to the scientists, which is good, but doesn't make  him a "prophet".

Well, the press sure treats him like  a prophet. Just like the common ridiculous trend that "The Simpsons" predicted everything.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/362782
https://www.pcma.org/bill-gates-7-predictions-post-pandemic-world/
https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/bill-gates-predicted-pandemic-heres-when-he-thinks-it-will-end-what-it-means-for-your-business.html
https://interestingengineering.com/bill-gates-predicts-the-next-major-threats-humanity-will-face
 
Of course there are many reasons for defunction and migration in Latin America. But climate change is already one of them and its impact will only more severe, unfortunately.

The crime and violence is horrific and pretty unimaginable to me.

Ending the "War on Drugs" and tightening gun control in the United States would be steps in the right direction, I don't think Latin American countries can sort out this big of a problem by themselves.

 
user 37518 said:

Yes, it's kind of funny. He was only repeating what the scientists who work in these fields have told him. But he has a much bigger megaphone, as long as he is doing just that I'm all for it.
 
living sounds said:
Of course there are many reasons for defunction and migration in Latin America. But climate change is already one of them and its impact will only more severe, unfortunately.

The crime and violence is horrific and pretty unimaginable to me.

Ending the "War on Drugs" and tightening gun control in the United States would be steps in the right direction, I don't think Latin American countries can sort out this big of a problem by themselves.

To be fair I haven't experienced myself the horrors of such violence, I've never been robbed or anything, thankfuly, but I am well aware that it is there.

Mexico is one of the biggest nodes for drug trafficking, not only for the US but also Europe, Mexican cartels traffic drugs, they usually don't make them. Their biggest customers are not here, but our friends from the North.

Regarding gun control, that should be enforced https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/arming-mexican-cartels-inside-story-of-a-texas-gun-smuggling-ring-866836/ , but I dont think that is the end of the story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal

Mexico is an extremely rich contry, it is the 15th largest economy in the world, just one place below Australia regarding GDP, and above many of the world's most developed countries like the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Denmark, etc... the problem? corruption, crime, drugs and bad goverment.
 
user 37518 said:
I read most of the articles you posted, they are special isolated cases, mostly about central american countries, people living in remote isolated areas, I can understand that climate change has something to do with those people. But saying that climate change has massive effects on immigration problems is a bit of an overstatement, poverty, education, malnutrition, lack of opportunities, social unrest, delinquency, that is what causes the majority of illegal immigration to the US.
The elephant in the room is that the vast majority of these economic immigrants do not qualify for amnesty and they know it. The old game was to allow themselves to get captured and given a court date for an asylum hearing, years in the future.... they rarely win, but even more rarely don't show up. The recent crush has so overloaded the system that they are not even appointing dates, just cutting them loose (without even covid tests).  Perhaps search "Cloward-Piven" strategy from the 60s to promote socialism by overloading government systems. I won't do your homework for you.
I live in the capital city of Mexico and things are relatively calm over here, aside from the usual crime typical of any enourmous city,
In the course of my business travel in Mexico (last century) I visited Mexico City, Monterrey, and other well behaved areas. While poverty was visible at one resort where we held a larger dealer seminar that was surrounded by fences topped by barbed wire to keep the locals out. 
but the northern states and some northwest states of the country are Cartel Land, there are many stories about small towns that are now ghost towns because the inhabitants had to leave due to Cartel racketeering and violence, Many small towns have created their own "Self defense police or militia" which patrols and fights cartels in their town, however the goverment is constantly suppresing those groups for being illegal hahaha, so I guess cartels are not illegal?  My own cousin, who used to live in one of those states was shot and killed on the street infront of his brother and his mother because he refused to pay the cartel a "protection fee" for his business, he was 30 years old.

Cartels are no longer hiding, they don't even care, they have the logo of their cartel printed on their trucks (https://i1.wp.com/elblogdelnarco.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/VIDEO-Camiones-monstruo-y-vehiculos-blindados-el-infame-desfile-del-CJNG-en-Michoacan.png?w=435&ssl=1), they wear uniforms and bullet proof vests with the cartel logo embroided in them, they have armored cars and heavy artillery, they have merchandising, they have a facebook page, they have an internet blog (https://elblogdelnarco.com/) were they upload pictures and videos of how they fight against the army, with cartel news, and gruesome videos were they show how they kill other cartel rivals or their own cartel betrayers, both men and female, if lucky they will only execute them by gun fire, but usually by first dismembering them alive with a machete, limb by limb, and then decapitating them after they get a confession out of them or a statement said by the victim himself warning rival cartels of what happens when they mess with them, I've seen those videos, there are no clean cuts, they require continuous blows to break bone, or cut the neck, the victims beg the executioner to please kill them but they dont, the agony and screams usually lasts as long as 10-15 minutes. Its the most savage thing I've seen in my entire life, not even the mid west terrorist execution videos display such brutality.

Cartel leaders openly threaten the president if he dares to talk bad about them, have you heard of mexican cartels lately? probably not, that is because the previous presidents were fighting against them, the new president just turns a blind eye so its not big news anymore. They will arrest some cartel high ranking commander or whatever, they will give a press conference, parade him around, and then release him a few years afterwards without the people knowing. Recently, the most important General, General Cienfuegos, the secretary of defense I think of the previous goverment was arrested by the US and they planned to get him to court for narcotraffic, the mexican goverment somehow convinced the US to extradite him back to Mexico so he could be trialed here, the mexican chancelour said in a press conference "It would suicide not to punish Cienfuegos for his crimes", 2 months later all charges were dropped, and who knows where he is now, my best guess is that he knows a lot of secrets of very important people.
I have been paying attention to the situation in Mexico for years.... The elephant in that room is that US drug users fund all that business.. Recently China has introduced fentanyl to the cartels to replace the pot trade that has diminished since legalization.

Now another huge revenue source is human trafficking. The cartels charge significant funds and put wristbands on the children to identify who has paid, which coyote group. I have heard large estimates of how much money they make every day with the border open.
In Germany it might be different, but in many places of the world, making the earth greener is not "Our Biggest Challenge" or "lack of imagination" like the thread title suggests.
Politics is about working the fears of the population to maintain political power.

Germany has already made a number of major policy changes to "save the planet" including shuttering nuclear power plants, ironically needing to burn coal when the sun don't shine and wind don't blow...

Speaking about unreliability of wind and sun power, Warren Buffett has offered to build a few $B worth of backup NG power plants for TX... He plans to store 30 days worth of NG, JIC... This is either very smart or silly, I am not sure which but I haven't sold my Berkshire stock yet, because he is generally pretty smart.

JR
 
JohnRoberts said:
The elephant in the room is that the vast majority of these economic immigrants do not qualify for amnesty and they know it. The old game was to allow themselves to get captured and given a court date for an asylum hearing, years in the future.... they rarely win, but even more rarely don't show up. The recent crush has so overloaded the system that they are not even appointing dates, just cutting them loose (without even covid tests).  Perhaps search "Cloward-Piven" strategy from the 60s to promote socialism by overloading government systems. I won't do your homework for you.

This is a big issue, I understand the US position to reduce illegal immigration, and I accept it, however there is a double standard in the US because people will deliberately hire illegals for many reasons. Several friends of mine have migrated legally to Canada recently with their wives and children, they have legal jobs and everything, this is in fact due to a program Canada has promoting immigration to their country, but what my friends tell me is that in Canada its practically impossible to get a job being an illegal "Its not like the US" were the exact words they used. In fact, I've heard of many people working in the US who crossed illegally or even only with a tourist VISA, US employers wont care about green cards or whatever. So I don't think building more walls is going to stop it if there are people inside paying them. Perhaps if the US adopted Canada's position or if they passed legislation for harsher sanctions or prison time for those who hire illegals, illegal immigration would stop. But IMHO, they need those immigrants so they are turning a blind eye.

The mexican goverment wont move a finger either unless the US really pressures like when Trump threatened to add taxes for import goods unless Mexico's south border got protected, the goverment instantly sent the National Guard to the southern border. Its not that Mexico can't protect the border, its that they don't want to, all the money that Mexicans living in the US send back to Mexico called "remesas" are essentially part of the national GDP. I just read that remesas hit a record last year, around 46,000 million dollars being sent back to Mexico from the US, which acounts for 3.8% of Mexico's national GDP last year...

In the course of my business travel in Mexico (last century) I visited Mexico City, Monterrey, and other well behaved areas. While poverty was visible at one resort where we held a larger dealer seminar that was surrounded by fences topped by barbed wire to keep the locals out.

This is very common, as the cities expand, they will buy large pieces of land in poor areas and create upper class neighborhoods, in fact small cities, it is quite a shock because in an instant you are in a rich neighborhood, then you drive 4 or 5 blocks and you are suddenly in an extremely poor one.

I noticed something similar whilst living in the US, near the University everything was peachy, but if you drove like 6 blocks west of where we lived, things would change dramatically, we were strongly advised not to go there.

My room mates and I used to live in an apartment, they were living there before I arrived to the states, my roommates warned me about the 2 guys living in the apartment below, my friends refered to them as "the homeless" and told me they were very rude, to be honest the only couple of times I interacted with them they just said to me "Hola Amigo", they weren't homeless obviously beacuse they lived in an apartment, but they were these nasty, dirty individuals, they looked like hobos, they obviously didn't have a job, they were extreme hoarders, you couldn't see anything through their windows because of all the sh*t they had stacked up to the ceeling, you couldn't get 6 feet near their door which they left open all day because the smell was unbearable.

Apparently they used to recieve some support from the goverment but eventually they got evicted, the landlord told us that the apartment was a mess, he had to replace everything, floors, walls, etc.., he took them to court.

I have been paying attention to the situation in Mexico for years.... The elephant in that room is that US drug users fund all that business.. Recently China has introduced fentanyl to the cartels to replace the pot trade that has diminished since legalization.

I didn't become aware of fentanyl until Prince died, I didn't even know what it was, but yes, fentanyl, cocaine and meth are the main sources of revenue for the Cartels, marihuana not that much, it was spare change for them.

If you ask me, the only solution to this drug mess is to legalize all drugs both in the US and Mexico, if I am not mistaken, Portugal did that experiment and drug overdose cases didn't arise by any significant amount. But I am afraid that will not happen, there is just too much money involved for both countries.

Now another huge revenue source is human trafficking. The cartels charge significant funds and put wristbands on the children to identify who has paid, which coyote group. I have heard large estimates of how much money they make every day with the border open. Politics is about working the fears of the population to maintain political power.

The guys helping migrants cross the border are usually refered to as "polleros" (it means something like chickeners, perhaps it has something to do with how chickens are transported all crowded in small boxes on the back of a truck), some of them work for the cartels, some of them work independently. What I do know is that cartels will sometimes intercept migrants coming from central and south america on their way to the US and they will offer them 2 options: either they work for the cartel for a salary, or they get shot where they stand. Long ago it was big news when something like 60 Salvadorian migrants who refused to work for the cartel were executed in cold blood.

Germany has already made a number of major policy changes to "save the planet" including shuttering nuclear power plants, ironically needing to burn coal when the sun don't shine and wind don't blow...

That is exactly what I heard, it was a mess if you ask me.

Speaking about unreliability of wind and sun power, Warren Buffett has offered to build a few $B worth of backup NG power plants for TX... He plans to store 30 days worth of NG, JIC... This is either very smart or silly, I am not sure which but I haven't sold my Berkshire stock yet, because he is generally pretty smart.

JR

Well if you are going NG why not go nuclear? its just beating a dead horse, I believe its because the world is afraid of the word "nuclear", so they avoid it as much as they can, but eventually, they will realize that all these wind and solar energies are just a band-aid for them to feel good about the enviroment, it might work for small communities in certain areas but it is not a big scale solution. I'm not saying get rid of solar and wind, I am saying that the solution is nuclear.

A lot of houses have solar panels and they reduce their power consumption dramatically, but we are talking about a house and most are not completely independent from the power grid, when other factors come into play like factories, buildings, etc.. solar panels are worthless. I've visited NYC and Las Vegas, they are basically huge christmass trees, I watched NYC from the top of the Empire State at night, the amount of lights are astronomical, wihtout counting AC, and all that jazz, try powering that with wind and solar, good luck!

Warren Buffet is indeed very smart and down to earth, he is the only one (at least for what I know) extremely rich guy who is not a greedy, ruthless and a bad MF (Bill Gates might be another one lately but at the begining of his career he was a POS) I believe he still lives in a very modest house he bought years before he was rich, he is also been married to the same woman for decades. He seems to enjoy playing the investment/revenue game more than money itself. Trivia of the day: Mouser Electronics belongs to a conglomerate owned by Warren Buffet.

We have our own rich asshole, you might have heard of him, he is called Carlos Slim, one of the richest men on earth. I remember around 15 years ago when he basically had a monopoly on all telecommunications here, I was reading an interview of him in a magazine, and the reported asked "Why is the internet service so slow and expensive here in Mexico whilst in the rest of the world its cheap and faster?" he shamelesly replied: "Because if I make it cheaper and faster, people will start using Skype more and stop using their cellphones and landlines", yeah a real POS.

Fortunately, things have changed since then, there are a lot more companies in the game and we now have more affordable fees.
 
user 37518 said:
This is a big issue, I understand the US position to reduce illegal immigration, and I accept it, however there is a double standard in the US because people will deliberately hire illegals for many reasons. Several friends of mine have migrated legally to Canada recently with their wives and children, they have legal jobs and everything, this is in fact due to a program Canada has promoting immigration to their country, but what my friends tell me is that in Canada its practically impossible to get a job being an illegal "Its not like the US" were the exact words they used. In fact, I've heard of many people working in the US who crossed illegally or even only with a tourist VISA, US employers wont care about green cards or whatever. So I don't think building more walls is going to stop it if there are people inside paying them. Perhaps if the US adopted Canada's position or if they passed legislation for harsher sanctions or prison time for those who hire illegals, illegal immigration would stop. But IMHO, they need those immigrants so they are turning a blind eye.
Not what I would call a double standard but major conflict(s) of interest between powerful interest groups with different agendas.

I have watched multiple administrations fail to reform immigration while several have tried over the decades.

In a simple "follow the money" who profits from the perpetual stalemate? There is a pretty long list, getting longer every day (now the drug cartels are also profiting).

It is illegal to hire undocumented economic migrants, but obviously this is not rigorously enforced. The catch 22 about immigration law is that the executive branch routinely ignores the law and selectively enforces laws. The current border "challenge" is a prime example of that.

Of course its more complicated than that, and don't expect to get a straight answer from media. It is silly to even talk about immigration reform while tolerating an open southern border. 
The mexican goverment wont move a finger either unless the US really pressures like when Trump threatened to add taxes for import goods unless Mexico's south border got protected, the goverment instantly sent the National Guard to the southern border. Its not that Mexico can't protect the border, its that they don't want to, all the money that Mexicans living in the US send back to Mexico called "remesas" are essentially part of the national GDP. I just read that remesas hit a record last year, around 46,000 million dollars being sent back to Mexico from the US, which acounts for 3.8% of Mexico's national GDP last year...
Only half joking President Biden will reduce illegal (economic) immigration by killing the economy...
This is very common, as the cities expand, they will buy large pieces of land in poor areas and create upper class neighborhoods, in fact small cities, it is quite a shock because in an instant you are in a rich neighborhood, then you drive 4 or 5 blocks and you are suddenly in an extremely poor one.

I noticed something similar whilst living in the US, near the University everything was peachy, but if you drove like 6 blocks west of where we lived, things would change dramatically, we were strongly advised not to go there.
I saw lots of poverty while being transported to that resort in central Mexico.

I have lived in cities, and out in the boonies, while I now live on the road, that goes out to the boonies. 
My room mates and I used to live in an apartment, they were living there before I arrived to the states, my roommates warned me about the 2 guys living in the apartment below, my friends refered to them as "the homeless" and told me they were very rude, to be honest the only couple of times I interacted with them they just said to me "Hola Amigo", they weren't homeless obviously beacuse they lived in an apartment, but they were these nasty, dirty individuals, they looked like hobos, they obviously didn't have a job, they were extreme hoarders, you couldn't see anything through their windows because of all the sh*t they had stacked up to the ceeling, you couldn't get 6 feet near their door which they left open all day because the smell was unbearable.

Apparently they used to recieve some support from the goverment but eventually they got evicted, the landlord told us that the apartment was a mess, he had to replace everything, floors, walls, etc.., he took them to court.

I didn't become aware of fentanyl until Prince died, I didn't even know what it was, but yes, fentanyl, cocaine and meth are the main sources of revenue for the Cartels, marihuana not that much, it was spare change for them.

If you ask me, the only solution to this drug mess is to legalize all drugs both in the US and Mexico, if I am not mistaken, Portugal did that experiment and drug overdose cases didn't arise by any significant amount. But I am afraid that will not happen, there is just too much money involved for both countries.
That approach has had mixed results in other countries. The legalization of pot has caused illegal drug organizations to pivot to other illegal merchandise. The priority IMO is reducing the number of overdose deaths, and making narcan (an opiate blocker?) more widely available, seemed to help. Many people get hooked on opiate painkillers, then when they can't buy more prescription drugs they use whatever illegal meds they can get. This is arguably a failure of the medical community to underestimate opiate addiction and mismanaging painkillers.
The guys helping migrants cross the border are usually refered to as "polleros" (it means something like chickeners, perhaps it has something to do with how chickens are transported all crowded in small boxes on the back of a truck), some of them work for the cartels, some of them work independently. What I do know is that cartels will sometimes intercept migrants coming from central and south america on their way to the US and they will offer them 2 options: either they work for the cartel for a salary, or they get shot where they stand. Long ago it was big news when something like 60 Salvadorian migrants who refused to work for the cartel were executed in cold blood.

That is exactly what I heard, it was a mess if you ask me.

Well if you are going NG why not go nuclear? its just beating a dead horse, I believe its because the world is afraid of the word "nuclear", so they avoid it as much as they can, but eventually, they will realize that all these wind and solar energies are just a band-aid for them to feel good about the enviroment, it might work for small communities in certain areas but it is not a big scale solution. I'm not saying get rid of solar and wind, I am saying that the solution is nuclear.
news media is biased toward presenting everything in the worst light possible. Nuclear accidents are rich full of ugly storys to scare the public...

I won't second guess Warren Buffett, but I do buy his stock. I suspect his preference for NG is because it can be started up, and shut down quickly and painlessly. Nuclear is too expensive to use JIC.
A lot of houses have solar panels and they reduce their power consumption dramatically, but we are talking about a house and most are not completely independent from the power grid, when other factors come into play like factories, buildings, etc.. solar panels are worthless. I've visited NYC and Las Vegas, they are basically huge christmass trees, I watched NYC from the top of the Empire State at night, the amount of lights are astronomical, wihtout counting AC, and all that jazz, try powering that with wind and solar, good luck!

Warren Buffet is indeed very smart and down to earth, he is the only one (at least for what I know) extremely rich guy who is not a greedy, ruthless and a bad MF (Bill Gates might be another one lately but at the begining of his career he was a POS) I believe he still lives in a very modest house he bought years before he was rich, he is also been married to the same woman for decades. He seems to enjoy playing the investment/revenue game more than money itself. Trivia of the day: Mouser Electronics belongs to a conglomerate owned by Warren Buffet.
The most instructive lesson from Buffett and Gates is that they don't trust the government to use their own massive wealth for good, but set up their own private charities. I think Buffett has pledges a lot of his wealth to Gate's charity, as have other uber wealthy individuals.
We have our own rich asshole, you might have heard of him, he is called Carlos Slim, one of the richest men on earth. I remember around 15 years ago when he basically had a monopoly on all telecommunications here, I was reading an interview of him in a magazine, and the reported asked "Why is the internet service so slow and expensive here in Mexico whilst in the rest of the world its cheap and faster?" he shamelesly replied: "Because if I make it cheaper and faster, people will start using Skype more and stop using their cellphones and landlines", yeah a real POS.
Carlos Slim is well known to US investors... His billions did not prevent him from catching Covid, but may have bought him good care.
Fortunately, things have changed since then, there are a lot more companies in the game and we now have more affordable fees.

A good question is always how much money do you need... Carlos is reportedly a philanthropist and his foundation is dealing with AstraZeneca to supply covid vaccine to South America. I don't know if that will get him into heaven, but better than not helping SA.


JR
 
user 37518 said:
That is exactly what I heard, it was a mess if you ask me.

It just isn't true.

Here's a graphic of the energy mix in Germany from 2011 (when the Fukushima disaster happened) to 2020:

strommix-entwicklung-deutschland-10-jahre.jpg


As you can see wind, solar, bio and hydro have gained steadily, while brown coal, black coal and uranium (nuclear) have lost percentages. Natural gas has seen an increase, but overall renewables have gained very significantly vs. fossil fuels.
 
living sounds said:
It just isn't true.

Here's a graphic of the energy mix in Germany from 2011 (when the Fukushima disaster happened) to 2020:

strommix-entwicklung-deutschland-10-jahre.jpg


As you can see wind, solar, bio and hydro have gained steadily, while brown coal, black coal and uranium (nuclear) have lost percentages. Natural gas has seen an increase, but overall renewables have gained very significantly vs. fossil fuels.

Do you have a chart which says how much money they saved_?
 
user 37518 said:
Do you have a chart which says how much money they saved_?

There are calculations regarding the cost of climate change to the world economy now and in the future. But I don't think one should put a price on measures that help ensuring humanities continued existence...
 
living sounds said:
There are calculations regarding the cost of climate change to the world economy now and in the future. But I don't think one should put a price on measures that help ensuring humanities continued existence...

Exactly my point, you know whats cheap, clean and can satisfy all of humanities continued existence? nuclear, not wind or solar. Look, nuclear will be the end solution, its just a matter of how long we continue to deny it. We can feel ok and spend more by the fact that we are using renewables, but again, its not the solution, economy also plays a role, again, nuclear is the way to go.
 
We have discussed nuclear extensively before. Marketing had promoted nuclear as 'fast, cheap and clean'. -- Well, when factoring in all costs and all side effects, then nuclear has turned out to be not as 'clean'  by far as had been promised and it is most likely also not that 'cheap' after all, at least when factoring in all side effects and long-term costs. However, nuclear is FAST energy and a LOT of it NOW -- and therefore not so easy to do without for some.
 
living sounds said:
There are calculations regarding the cost of climate change to the world economy now and in the future. But I don't think one should put a price on measures that help ensuring humanities continued existence...
I have not seen a definitive proof that climate change is actually an existential threat... while that fear mongering seems to resonate with young people.

I heard cost estimates of the reduction to world GDP if we do nothing about climate change and it was low single digit maybe out a century from now... While the reduced economic growth from making energy more expensive now will dramatically reduce the standard of living for most people here and now (already is).

Higher energy costs will hurt poor people far more than wealthy.

This "existential threat" is promoted using a fast thinking/slow thinking trick... The global temperature is rising, which is an undeniable fact which leads people to accept the conflated (but unsubstantiated) associated claim that climate change is a man made world ending threat, without ever investigating that claim rigorously ("slowly"). We can do a lot to mitigate a few degree change spread out over a century. I can't even begin to imagine the technology we will have available to us a century from today.

JR

PS: I understand the green new deal has been reframed as "infrastructure" spending.
 

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