Monday, July 15, 2019
Racism..How The Fuck Does That Work?
Not sure whether too many journalists are genuinely confused if Trump is a racist or if they are just pretending to be confused, or which is better.
Perfectly Normal
The number of people who actively covered for and socialized with this guy...
"Just this morning the government became aware of a safe that contained a pile of cash, diamonds, a passport from a foreign country with a picture of the defendant under another name," Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Rossmiller told U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman.
"The passport was issued in the name of a foreign country, it was issued in the 1980s, it is expired, it shows a picture of Jeffrey Epstein, and another name," Rossmiller said, adding the passport showed Epstein's residence as Saudi Arabia.
This Is Our Emergency
The concentration camps are making clear who in the Democratic party actually sees this as a moral crisis, and who spends their Friday nights making dumb ass tweets against those who do.
Leadership hates the "professional Left" (who mostly aren't professional) more than Trump.
The crisis provided the backdrop to an ugly back-and-forth between these progressive women of color and Nancy Pelosi and her staff, which has played out mostly on Twitter and in the mind of Maureen Dowd. In a move reminiscent of the segregated South, someone in House leadership leaked a poll of only white non-college voters to “prove” that squad members, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), represent a problem in swing districts.That poll did not include just how popular Nancy Pelosi was with those same voters.
Leadership hates the "professional Left" (who mostly aren't professional) more than Trump.
New Phone Who Dis
Actually not a new phone but might need one. Don't realize how dependent you are on the damn things until they break.
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Advice On How To Win From A Loser
Claire McCaskill closing campaign ad.
The men then turn to McCaskill, with one conceding, "I don't always agree with Claire McCaskill."This has been not just the acceptable "moderate" playbook but the expected one for decades. If it works, well ok... but when it doesn't.
"But she works hard, fighting against those tariffs, doing all those town halls," the man adds. "Claire's not afraid to stand up against her own party."
"Yep," the second man chimes in, "and Claire's not one of those crazy Democrats. She works right in the middle and finds compromise."
Trump and Pelosi And The House Democrats Agree
"The Squad" should just shut up and go away.
This is unfair, of course, but Pelosi has been foaming the runway for this stuff by singling out these 4 women while letting a bunch of "centrist" white guys get away with much "worse" if "shit talking the party" is how we define "bad." So-called moderates have been running against the party forever. It's why they are called "moderates." When they tried to unseat Pelosi, the lefties stood up for her.
This is unfair, of course, but Pelosi has been foaming the runway for this stuff by singling out these 4 women while letting a bunch of "centrist" white guys get away with much "worse" if "shit talking the party" is how we define "bad." So-called moderates have been running against the party forever. It's why they are called "moderates." When they tried to unseat Pelosi, the lefties stood up for her.
Followers of Jesus
My long pet peeve is people trying to impose Christianity on Christians. I don't really know or care if, for example, Mike Pence is 100% full of shit or if he truly believes he is A Good Christian (he can also, too, be both!) But obviously his Christianity does not bear any resemblance to any kind of "caring Jesus" brand of Christianity and it isn't productive to even suggest it should.
Being an evil piece of shit or a big hypocrite doesn't make him not a Christian. If he says he's a Christian, he is one. Pointing out that he's a Bad Christian just lends credence to the idea that embracing the label somehow should make you Good. Nothing against religion or Christianity but while it doesn't necessarily make you Bad, it also obviously doesn't necessarily make you Good. "But Mr. Pence, you're a Christian, and according to Jesus you must be Good!" This just lets him continue cloaking himself in false Goodness. That nice Mr. Pence can't be Bad, he's a Christian! Not how it works.
Being an evil piece of shit or a big hypocrite doesn't make him not a Christian. If he says he's a Christian, he is one. Pointing out that he's a Bad Christian just lends credence to the idea that embracing the label somehow should make you Good. Nothing against religion or Christianity but while it doesn't necessarily make you Bad, it also obviously doesn't necessarily make you Good. "But Mr. Pence, you're a Christian, and according to Jesus you must be Good!" This just lets him continue cloaking himself in false Goodness. That nice Mr. Pence can't be Bad, he's a Christian! Not how it works.
Sunday Morning
After a long and expensive court battle The Halifax Examiner finally got the police file in the wrongful conviction case of Assoun released. It is exactly as suspected. Not only was the conviction based on trumped up evidence, but police withheld exculpatory evidence when Assoun's case came up for appeal, resulting in a further nine years imprisonment.
I guess the moral of the story is that when the justice system completely fails, as it did here, investigative reporters are our last resort. It takes time and money. Consider a contribution to the The Examiner's Legal Fund, or take out a subscription.
I guess the moral of the story is that when the justice system completely fails, as it did here, investigative reporters are our last resort. It takes time and money. Consider a contribution to the The Examiner's Legal Fund, or take out a subscription.
Saturday, July 13, 2019
This Is Our Emergency
We are operating concentration camps and treating humans (including children) who aren't even accused of any crimes (not that this would make it OK but I am not naive about our current prisons) in conditions which would cause a dog kennel to be shut down and the House leadership is currently mad at people who are pointing out that the Dems gave Trump $4 billion to open more concentration camps without any conditions.
Vote them all out.
Vote them all out.
Friday, July 12, 2019
Not One Sorry Asshole In DC
Indeed.
Lillard felt emboldened to do something as plainly ridiculous as sending out a mass “on background” email, an act inherently disdainful of real journalistic practices, because she knew no one would break the terms of engagement. Not one sorry asshole in DC would do that. Wong’s source felt comfortable throwing out a racist accusation against AOC because they knew Wong wouldn’t break their agreement and publish their name.
That, I’m afraid, is this town.
FOR ONE MILLION DOLLARS
I would've provided dumb investors with consulting services to tell them this was all dumb.
Starting around May 2016, Uber projected in public and private presentations that it would manufacture 13,000 autonomous vehicles by 2019, only to change that forecast four months later to over 75,000 units. The company also said that human safety drivers, who take over the wheel when an AV needs help, would not be required on its cars by 2020. And in 2022, the company declared, tens of thousands of fully self-driving Uber taxis would be in 13 of the largest cities.I guess I already told them for free on this dumb blog.
As it turns out, even Uber didn’t have any faith in these claims. According to the released court files, nobody at Uber vetted its AV deployment figures, which Eric Meyhofer, head of Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group, described as nothing but “hypothetical scenarios.” He added, “They are assumptions and estimates. I don’t think anything in this document would be described as accurate. It’s a set of knobs you turn to try to understand parameters that you need to try to meet.” Perhaps more damning, the Uber employee responsible for the forecasts said that while she was designing them, executives had asked her “to think about a way” to show accelerated Uber AV development.
Prototypes
I've said this before but if the light at the end of the tunnel was just around the corner for self-driving vehicles, there'd be a working too-costly-for-consumer-sales prototype. People don't want to think about it this way because they just want to think about it as a "software problem" which is in a way true, but it's just not a problem that's going to be solved with a few more lines of code. If expensive sensors+advanced mapping+current state of software+state of the art computing power haven't yet solved the problem, I really don't know what's supposed to solve the problem in another year...or another year... or another year. A few more people clicking captcha stop signs?
Making cheaper LIDAR will make them cheaper to produce, when they work. which they don't.
If they can't make it work with the expensive LIDAR, they can't make it work with the cheap one, as cost isn't a barrier to "making it work," it's just a barrier to making it a commercially viable product.
This was my favorite recent Musk (who thinks even LIDAR is unnecessary) tweet.
It's especially funny because he's been touting his will be released any day now, 3 months, 6 months tops, "advanced summons" feature which supposedly lets you press a button and have your car come find you in the parking lot. Suddenly he realizes this is actually a hard problem, not an easy one (it is! parking lots are a nightmare! how did he not realize this before...)
Making cheaper LIDAR will make them cheaper to produce, when they work. which they don't.
The vast majority of self-driving developers, however, consider the laser sensor not vestigial but a crucial element of a safe, capable system. That’s why many of those outfits have developed their own systems (like Waymo) or acquired lidar makers (like Cruise, Aurora, and Argo). It’s also why everyone who hasn’t taken such steps should welcome Luminar’s announcement Thursday that it has developed a production-ready lidar that will cost as little as $500—cheap enough to make it work not just on robotaxis, but on consumer vehicles.
If they can't make it work with the expensive LIDAR, they can't make it work with the cheap one, as cost isn't a barrier to "making it work," it's just a barrier to making it a commercially viable product.
This was my favorite recent Musk (who thinks even LIDAR is unnecessary) tweet.
Intersections with complex traffic lights & shopping mall parking lots are the two biggest software challenges. Developer branch already mostly works in these scenarios, but massive effort required to get to 99.9999% safety.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2019
It's especially funny because he's been touting his will be released any day now, 3 months, 6 months tops, "advanced summons" feature which supposedly lets you press a button and have your car come find you in the parking lot. Suddenly he realizes this is actually a hard problem, not an easy one (it is! parking lots are a nightmare! how did he not realize this before...)
Hashtag Resistance
AOC is a woman of color. Dem leadership is mad at her and her (also person of color) chief of staff for standing up for minority toddlers who have been placed in cages. She beat a white guy in a primary and represents a majority nonwhite district.
DEMOCRATIC UNITY has been postponed until next week ... https://t.co/9HYvpgR25o pic.twitter.com/yu28z0q3WW
— Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) July 12, 2019
That's Just Trump
The big myth of the Trump era will be that it was something unique, something special. The press will treat him as a special phenomenon and things will be "back to normal" when he's gone. But the truth is Bush was covered much in the same way Trump was. Republicans define the rules, and Democrats have to obey them. Are tan suits forbidden? They are if Republicans say so. Can the president be a rapist and invite Nazis to the White House? He can be if Republicans say so.
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