GeorgeBMac
About
- Banned
- Username
- GeorgeBMac
- Joined
- Visits
- 130
- Last Active
- Roles
- member
- Points
- 11,556
- Badges
- 1
- Posts
- 11,421
Reactions
-
How Apple's rumored 'Apple Pay Later' could prove lucrative
What is driving this is places like GS can borrow as much cash as it wants at essentially zero interest and put it to use.
-
Apple in talks with San Jose over homeless encampment on its undeveloped land
lkrupp said:
Complete gibberish. Try talking to actual, front line social workers. I have, the head of our local food pantry. First of all, they recommend that people not give any money to these souls as it would be used to buy drugs, alcohol, tobacco, weed, not food. Instead, offer them information about where to go to get food, clothing, shelter, etc. Secondly, these souls are not interested in being housed in the first place because of their mental illness. They have refused treatment and seek solitude in their condition.mrd10 said:I feel like this is a really great opportunity for Apple to use its endless wealth to truly help their neighborhood. If Apple does absolutely nothing, scorns the homeless, and forces them away, they would have a massive PR problem. This is honestly kind of a marketing gift. Spend a chunk of change (which is pennies to Apple), do something magical with that Apple swirl on top, and poof. You demonstrate all your values, put your money where your mouth is, AND directly help the lives of the people in your own back yard. It’s a win/win and would cost them nothing.
Bottom line is that the culture doesn’t have the guts to deal with the situation. Instead it just throws flowery, humanist cliches around, a little money, and lot of hand wringing about the evils of capitalism. These souls need to be handled kindly but firmly, making treatment, counseling, and responsibility mandatory, and with active monitoring. But imagine the protests and outrage if that were to be implemented. Nope, just hang the Albatross around some company’s neck as you suggest Apple DO something.Having been one of the people who worked with this population (the severely and persistently mentally ill living in the community), it's not so much that they choose to go it alone. The vast majority would love to have a nice, stable place to live and food when they are hungry. Rather, they simply can't function in organized society and, when they do get housing, they often lose it for unacceptable behavior of one sort or another.A complicating factor for them is that, without any sort of support system (friends, family, job, etc.) a minor problem quickly expands into a major breakdown.I think your social worker friends may have over simplified the situation. I suspect that they were hospital based rather than actually working in the community with these people. I found that rigid, rule based thinking very common among hospital workers.* I noticed you mentioned food pantries: They tend to be pretty rigid and rule based too -- they have to be to maintain order. But few of my patients were allowed into the food pantries or shelters. A few were, but very few.Added; For many the best option were one of the run down, dirty, smelly personal boarding homes with few rules -- except no fighting and don't bust the place up. My very first patient (as a student) was committed to a long term state hospital for the mentally ill after throwing a TV set (the old kind) at his fellow residents in the personal care home. Yeh, those places are deplorable -- but they're better than under a bridge in a snow storm.
-
Apple in talks with San Jose over homeless encampment on its undeveloped land
bloggerblog said:These are drug addicts, they’re all over where I live. They’re a nuisance, dirty, stealing, loud, and wherever they go, their area looks like a dumpster (see photos). It’s not a “homeless“ problem, it’s a drug addiction problem. If you give them any sort of help, you’ll just see more needles and more trash around them.I have been to areas where there were real homeless that are not hooked on drugs, they were clean, their area did not look like a dumpster, and they showered often. Those id like to see get help. They’re looking to get jobs and live a decent life.
It's been shown that many or most homeless have untreated mental health issues. But many with mental health issues self-medicate with street drugs.
-
Sites run by ransomware gang REvil vanish from dark web
lkrupp said:So now victims of REvil are wondering how they are going to pay the ransom to get their data back. I’d love to think the U.S. Cyber Command took them out but it was likely Putin in my uniformed opinion. There’s also speculation that REvil will pop up again under a different name. In either event NO ONE is going to talk about how this went down or who did it. It’s cloak and dagger stuff, cyber cold war shenanigans.True! We will likely never know.But these supposed independent, free-lancers (which take multiple forms -- from volunteers invading Ukraine to propaganda outlets) operate under the watchful eye, guidance and support of Putin's security forces.We should just ask Vladimir what he intends. Ultimately, he's the boss.
-
Biden Big Tech anti-competition order imminent, will call for return of net neutrality
Competition (or lack of) is tricky: Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's bad.I helped my grandson survive cyberschool through 3/4's of his 8th grade. One of the highlights was his outstanding Social Studies teacher who taught critical thinking and understanding the overall picture rather than sticking to an ideology.And, part of that was America's Industrial revolution that ran from the 1880's through to the 1920's. It was led by the likes of Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Edison, Westinghouse and so on. Each of them built a monopolistic empire that pulled America out of its lowly agricultural basis and created technologies that changed people's lives: Rockefeller, for the first time lit people's homes and enabled businesses and factories to run after dark with with his oil -- and Edison and Westinghouse improved on that with electric lighting. Vanderbilt created the behemoth that moved American people and goods through the country. Carnegie built the steel rails that Vanderbilt's trains ran on and enabled people to build bridges that crossed rivers that couldn't previously be crossed and for the skyscrapers that we see today in America's cities. And, while they were doing that they created jobs not only for Americans but for many millions of (mostly) European immigrants. And, at the same time, they propelled America to become a world class industrial empire.They built the America that we know today -- they created immeasurable American wealth and power AS WELL AS immeasurable suffering as they exploited their workers and viciously snuffed out any and all competition.All of that was done by the monopolies that they created and fought to protect and expand.So, the question on the test was:
"Were these guys "Robber Barons" or "Captains of Industry"? "... The good part was that the question could be answered either way and still be correct! They were both.(I'm wishing that Biden had sat through that class as I and my grandson did. It was eye opening)
