Monday, March 25, 2019
Sunday, March 24, 2019
What Would Make You Vote For A Republican?
I brought this up previously in this context of Roy Moore, who actually lost! My mostly serious point was that if you're a Republican it of course makes sense for you to vote for Roy Moore. Roy Moore is a bad guy and we don't want to reward/promote bad guys, but individual senators mostly don't have all that much power and if you really think the Senate should be run by Republicans, then voting for the guy who is going to put Mitch in charge of things makes a lot of sense.
Governors and presidents are a bit different. They do have a lot of individual power and more ways to implement idiosyncratic policies that don't precisely align them with the prevailing party ethos. Voting for a truly awful person, even one that shares your party affiliation, is likely to have awful consequences. But, also, too voting for a Republican, especially given the current crop of Republicans, is likely to have awful consequences!
So just how bad would a Democrat have to be for you to vote for the Republican for governor? For president?
We mock the "27%ers" but can we really blame them? Sure we can blame them for being Republicans, but over and above that?
Governors and presidents are a bit different. They do have a lot of individual power and more ways to implement idiosyncratic policies that don't precisely align them with the prevailing party ethos. Voting for a truly awful person, even one that shares your party affiliation, is likely to have awful consequences. But, also, too voting for a Republican, especially given the current crop of Republicans, is likely to have awful consequences!
So just how bad would a Democrat have to be for you to vote for the Republican for governor? For president?
We mock the "27%ers" but can we really blame them? Sure we can blame them for being Republicans, but over and above that?
The Dream Deferred
Oh well.
I still think there's a nontrivial chance this never opens. Probably will! But...
In a picture posted Monday, the caption says “Follow us for exclusive updates on all things American Dream. Coming Fall 2019!”
In other posts that include pictures from inside the 3 million square foot complex, three different Instagram users asked when it will open, and the response from the American Dream Instagram account was “fall 2019.”
American Dream’s newly-hired Public Relations Director, Dana McHugh, declined to comment on whether the Instagram account is official. An email address and phone number associated with the account match those of a former public relations agent working on behalf of the development. When asked about the contact information, McHugh said that agent is no longer with the company.
I still think there's a nontrivial chance this never opens. Probably will! But...
Sure, Jan
Are flying cars ready for takeoff? New Morgan Stanley Research estimates a $1.5 trillion market by 2040.
— Morgan Stanley (@MorganStanley) February 20, 2019
And when there's too much congestion in the air we can run our flying cars through a tunnel.
Majority Majority
Roughly speaking there's no majority in Parliament for any Brexit deal that the EU would take that can also have the support of a majority of Tories (and/or the support of May). In other words you could get support for a "soft Brexit" with some combination of Labour/Tory votes, but that isn't going to be on the table because it lacks support from the majority of the majority.
And it's March 25 and all of this was going to have been sorted by last October.
And it's March 25 and all of this was going to have been sorted by last October.
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Saturday Almost Lunch
Quality of life here in the urban hellhole is largely determined by the sets of things that are within 5, 10, 15, and 20 minute walks. Some things don't need to be that close, and some things are much more useful if they are. The new 5 minute walk supermarket is +1.
Republican Daddies And The Impartial Referees Won't Save Us
When the Dems are powerless I get throwing their hopes at such people "doing the right thing" (oh whatever happened to that Lindsey Graham???), but now they have power. Not limitless power. But they have the power to issue subpoenas and get tax returns. "The Mueller report is coming!!!" has been their excuse and for awhile "but we need to see what's in the Mueller report!!!" will be their excuse and then they will be out of excuses because they are the only ones who might possibly do the right thing.
Theresa May's Not Going To Remove Herself
Certainly no sympathy for the World's Worst Prime Minister, but imagining the sight of a bunch of idiot manboys (I mean just look at the picture) asking her to resign gets me close.
The idiot manboys have power too, and none of them have demonstrated that they're any more competent than May. If they want her out they can have a vote.
The idiot manboys have power too, and none of them have demonstrated that they're any more competent than May. If they want her out they can have a vote.
Morning Thread
From what I can see, lots of chatter, but no substance on the Mueller Report. Which leaves us in the same holding pattern.
Friday, March 22, 2019
The End Of The Trump Presidency
I guess the Dems can stop saying they're waiting for the Mueller report.
Foxy
There's certainly no reason to go on Fox News unless you're going to treat it as hostile, but I agree people who want to be on the side of good should not be granting any legitimacy to it at all.
There was no golden age when Fox was good, or even much better than now, but the explicit support of white nationalism at a time when we have an explicitly white nationalist president and an administration populated with them, makes it not just bad but dangerous. Very dangerous.
It’s not interested in legitimate journalism as much as it’s interested in promulgating right-wing nationalism, and this raison d’etre means that attempts to puncture the bubble are self-defeating. The narrow goal of a liberal, or a credible reporter, who appears on the network may be to present an alternative, factual viewpoint, but within the Fox ecosystem they can only function as foils, cast to lend the network credibility it doesn’t deserve. Journalists who try to break through walls of the Fox News echo chamber can only end up reinforcing them.
There was no golden age when Fox was good, or even much better than now, but the explicit support of white nationalism at a time when we have an explicitly white nationalist president and an administration populated with them, makes it not just bad but dangerous. Very dangerous.
DOT People Who Know What They're Talking About
Actually that's giving them more credit than necessary. They just have eyes.
Tesla fans are super brain geniuses compared to the Boring/Loop fans, but there have been numerous press reports about Musk's Journey To The Center of the Earth which have skipped over this simple fact (most, in fact, I had to research a lot to make sure it was true): Musk's super exciting Boring company, thus far, has done nothing but dig a tunnel with an off the shelf used tunneling machine from China. So many press reports made it sound as if it was some sort of exciting new invention. No. It's a machine they bought.
“It’s a car in a very small tunnel,” Michael McLaughlin, Virginia’s chief of rail transportation, told members of the Commonwealth Transportation Board’s public transit subcommittee on Wednesday.
...
The officials from Virginia who met with company leaders and took a drive through the tunnel in January say nothing they saw would lead them to change their approach to transit in the near term.
“I think there’s a lot of show going on here,” said Scott Kasprowicz, a Commonwealth Transportation Board member who made the trip with McLaughlin and public transit chief Jennifer Mitchell.
“I don’t mean to suggest that they don’t have a serious plan in mind, but I don’t consider the steps they’ve taken to date to be substantive. They’ve purchased a used boring machine. They’ve put a bore in the neighborhood where they developed the SpaceX product, and they’ve taken a Model 3 and put guidewheels on it and they’re running it through the tunnel at 60 miles per hour.
Tesla fans are super brain geniuses compared to the Boring/Loop fans, but there have been numerous press reports about Musk's Journey To The Center of the Earth which have skipped over this simple fact (most, in fact, I had to research a lot to make sure it was true): Musk's super exciting Boring company, thus far, has done nothing but dig a tunnel with an off the shelf used tunneling machine from China. So many press reports made it sound as if it was some sort of exciting new invention. No. It's a machine they bought.
No You're Stupid
I alternate between being glad other countries are as dumb as ours or being horrified. Either way, recent years have shown that elites in the UK - and the Tories especially - are so so stupid. And in the UK the Tories are supposed to be the smart ones, because they've all been to Eton and Oxbridge, while at least a few members of Labour are graduates of lowly places like Durham.
Where Do They Go From Here
I've never really known what the major players in Brexit want. What would they decide, if any of them were actually the decider? What does May want? What do the supposed hardcore Brexiteers want? What do the Labour MPs (or TIG) whose position on the whole thing seems depend on how they can be the most mad at Corbyn on that particular day want?
Presumably May's deal will go down in flames for the 3rd time and then April 12 will be the new crash out date...unless? I have no idea.
Presumably May's deal will go down in flames for the 3rd time and then April 12 will be the new crash out date...unless? I have no idea.
Running A Message Board Is Hard
No this is not a criticism of you, dear readers, but it is actually true, and it's hard in ways that people who have never done it do not understand but since the dawn of online communications it is something that people rediscover over and over again.
Someone, though I forget who, on the twitter box made this point recently, that after pretending for a decade that it wasn't a message board, Facebook is finally realizing that it is one and it comes with all of the troubles that running a message board comes with that some of us have understood forever. Twitter, too, though not in precisely the same way.
That's separate from facebook's "hand over all your data and private messages to anyone who waves a fiver under Zuck's nose" issues, but it is one of their issues.
Someone, though I forget who, on the twitter box made this point recently, that after pretending for a decade that it wasn't a message board, Facebook is finally realizing that it is one and it comes with all of the troubles that running a message board comes with that some of us have understood forever. Twitter, too, though not in precisely the same way.
That's separate from facebook's "hand over all your data and private messages to anyone who waves a fiver under Zuck's nose" issues, but it is one of their issues.
Morons and Cowards
Indeed.
The first lesson is the importance and rarity of sound, realistic judgment on foreign policy — above all in the use of military force. Washington Post columnist Max Boot is right that a big majority of the political class and population at large supported the Iraq War, but the implication is the opposite of what he claims. Far from being a difficult decision that was understandable at the time, this support betrays only that the American political class is suffused with morons and cowards.
LEAVE JOHN MCCAIN ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE
In about 5 years John McCain's name recognition will be down to Jake Tapper and the visitors to his John McCain shrine.
Exaggeration, of course, but nobody but reporters (very objective ones) thinks what Donald Trump says about John McCain matters to anyone.
Exaggeration, of course, but nobody but reporters (very objective ones) thinks what Donald Trump says about John McCain matters to anyone.
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