t wasn’t really a good run. Wages didn’t keep up with inflation. Even though wages are higher, the buying power with those wages is less.

Generally averages, in my opinion, are not a good measure.

Here is the median:

Employed full time: Median usual weekly real earnings: Wage and salary workers: 16 years and over https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

Edit: Maybe this is even better:

Real Median Personal Income in the United States (MEPAINUSA672N) https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N

I second that. How about we tax Bezos and Musk et al. into "just" millionaire status and then fucking have parties without these Bezo-trucks.

Yeah! Something like this. But with other states involved to reduce risk, normalize costs.

Obama won in a landslide. The democrats owned both houses.

People at the time really thought Obama would be on the the side of the people- not the rich. I mean, come on, he was our first black president; you would have thought he would at least be on the side of the blacks.

If he had been, then Bernie wouldn't have been such a sensation. If he had been, and Hillary was like, "Obama and the DNC has anointed me his successor, and I will continue to do all the great things he has done," Bernie wouldn't have existed. Bernie was the message that Obama had actually failed. Flint was real.

Anyway. If Trump has one Lieberman senator stopping him from getting some signature item, you can bet that their meeting isn't going to end with that signature item being scuttled, it's going to be that Lieberman would be afraid he'll lose everything.

Trump is extreme, but Obama could have made the final push. Same with our black torture rendition site.

For me, seeing Obama is cringe. I wonder if that viewpoint is radical. I mean, Obama is a saint when compared to Trump, but...

Perhaps I am unjustified.

Yeah.

I also think he could have closed Guantanamo.

And I even think he could have bailed out the people that lost their houses and not the people that owned (banks, through predatory loans) the houses.

I still think he should have nationalized the banks that failed and renamed them to "Bank A" and "Bank B." But no, no consequences for the rich under Obama just like everyone else.

Crazy huh.

As far as the first part of your response: Hmm, that's interesting.

As far as the, "Bruh, do you not remember.."

Yes, I remember how Obamacare was passed.

Do you you remember how it seemed like a public option should pass- it had a ton of support- people were rallying behind it.

And then DroopyDog Senator Lieberman had that touted "meeting with Obama" and the public option was scuttled.

From the moment that happened, I thought, "Lieberman's the fall guy. The democrats don't want the public option, and Obama isn't any different from everyone else before him." (think Flint, think Guantanamo, think Bank bailouts, think Bank Bailouts again). If Obama had wanted it, he could have done it. I mean, look at Trump. He didn't.

At the time I was furious with Lieberman and Obama- now, just Obama.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-dec-15-la-naw-health-senate16-2009dec16-story.html

I'm looking for a public-option health care in Hawaii. Haven't found yet. Do you have a link? If I find I'll post a link

Maybe the real problem is the AI slop, which is really just humans being lazy.

In my immediate neighborhood there are two pastry bakeries. One has lines of people summoned by the TikTok/Instagram, who take videos of themselves eating. The other is known to locals, but never self promotes.

You can imagine, that the non-promoting one has amazing pastries. The best I've ever had. The TikTok one does have a trendy fancy interior, made for videos.

People want to be seen at a pastry place. That fake pastry place wants to be seen as an awesome bakery, even though really, without the marketing they are below average. Some guy wants to be seen as writing pop music, even though he can't. Another wants to draw, even though I won't spend the thousands of hours required.

Art is really about understanding the effort. Human effort.

Somehow, I can just imagine having AI slop music, and AI slop movies, and AI slop everything.

If a movie house is going to be Steve Jobs Pixar, they are going to hire the best real artists and the best real writers, and do something that means something to be human. They aren't interested in slop.

If a movie house is going to be just for profit, are they going to even pay for the generative AI to do a few more iterations. I think they will keep it at slop.

Anyhow, a bit too much babble. Must sleep.

I always thought that it is because, after a period, in theory, you would take a slightly longer pause when speaking. Like the break between the last sentence and this sentence in your head.

median vs mean

Is the script basis written by the original author, is it corporate?

What does it say that for a good 30 seconds I thought, "maybe it is the way to go, -could it hurt?" Is this reality now?!