America's Worst Way

The Third Way.

Vibe Coding

I am sure that AI tools are genuinely useful for coding.  I needed about 12 lines of code to replace a widget on this site that broke for some reason, and it took me 90 seconds and two prompts with one of the tools (forget which). I couldn't have done it myself.

But the problems of setting things loose without careful oversight, and the snowballing that can happen when nobody actually looks too carefully at what it is doing as it iterates, are obvious. 

Amazon’s ecommerce business has summoned a large group of engineers to a meeting on Tuesday for a “deep dive” into a spate of outages, including incidents tied to the use of AI coding tools.

The online retail giant said there had been a “trend of incidents” in recent months, characterised by a “high blast radius” and “Gen-AI assisted changes” among other factors, according to a briefing note for the meeting seen by the FT.

Surprise

Daniel Pipes will keep going until he finds a country that will greet us as liberators.

 

Iran is almost 4 times the size of California, is very mountainous, and has 90 million people. Even in the best possible "and then the people rose up!" fantasy, violent civil war follows (that would be fine with Pipes, probably, but that's not what he conveys here).

I think my general of theory of "American suburban brain has eroded any concept of place and distance" contributes to this. There could be a major riot half a mile from my house in Philadelphia and I likely would have no idea. If the people rise up and take Lancaster (80 miles away) it would mean nothing to me.

True

You don't have to hand it to her, of course, but Lindsey (like many who seek powerful positions in government) is basically a cowardly serial killer.

Also applies to that person whose brand is "genocide is bad" but who seems to like genocide, actually.

Morning

 TACO Tuesday

Happy Hour

Get happy

For what, we ask, is life without a touch of Poetry in it?

Unlikely

I suspect it will be easier to pry Trump out of office than Miller, but we can hope!

Most personnel don't matter all that much, but Miller, sadly, does. 

Endgame

I'd like to propose that Iran agrees to not building nukes, and in exchange we give them Lindsey Graham to bring to justice.

And I'd Gladly Stand Up

These fucking people.

Oh No Is Biden Trump Very Disappointed In Israel

This is bullshit, of course. I am sure Israel has done everything with the US's blessing.

Israel's strikes on 30 Iranian fuel depots Saturday went far beyond what the U.S. expected when Israel notified it in advance, sparking the first significant disagreement between the allies since the war began eight days ago, according to a U.S. official, Israeli official and a source with knowledge.

It's mildly notable, if not very important, that they think that message should be out there.

The only way it might be slightly true is that Mr. Deals and the gang do have a problem with basic cause and effect, because they are idiots who understand nothing. I am sure it never occurred to them hat blowing up a bunch of oil assets might cause a toxic hell rain. Or lead to an oil price spike.

Not that I think they care about the toxic hell rain and its consequences, precisely, but the optics aren't great!

Line Go Down

I've said from the beginning of Trump II that I root for stock market crashes. It's one of the few things that causes him to change course (not always for the better). As stock prices partially reflect expectations (right or wrong), it's also a line that can go down and then go back up again without causing/reflecting too much long-term damage.

Morning

Magical Monday.

Seems Bad

We regularly have various local water near-emergencies which never quite come to pass. Maybe this will be the one!

Don't Invite The Vampire In

The complex relationships that diaspora communities have with countries they have fled are above my pay grade, but "don't ask Donald Trump to liberate your country" is a pretty good rule of thumb.

Pressure

Repeating myself, as I do occasionally, but members of Congress receive constant pressure from bad people who write big checks, along with the general constant hum of the malign groupthink of DC professional Dems (foreign policy wing, especially). I don’t think yelling at them on my blog achieves all that much, but nor should you worry that my criticisms are going to swing elections the wrong way.

And quite often I think they are wrong both on policy and politics. Other people will see them supporting Donald Trump's catastrophic slaughter whether or not I point it out.

I didn’t make Jack Reed say that shit on CNN. If they don't want anyone to know about it, they can stop saying it. Maybe even stop doing it!

And Now

Several prominent Democrats went with "well this isn't good but we probably have no choice but to give our Troops more money now" last week and I am wondering is anything will dissuade them.

Nobody forced that out of them, either. They were eager to say it.

Even including this:

SIDNER: Will you vote to authorize this war?

REED: I will vote to invoke the War Powers Act, which would give the president 30 days to terminate the operation, except for activities defending the state of Israel, which is critical to our reliance and alliance on Israel.

Israel is a partner (senior or junior, you can argue) in this! This is their "defense" strategy!

Morning

Sunday funday

How Are Things In Venezuela

The usual suspects have been agitating for "regime change" in Venezuela for years. Now that it's happened, have any of them followed up? Checked in to see if Venezuela has achieved greater freeance and peeance? Or anything?

My broader point is that all of the "humanitarian interventionists," who always have a little list of "bad guys" who need to go, but not these other bad guys for some reason (they fund the think tank, usually), push for these things to happen. Then, when they do, they just stop caring.

Sure Why Not

Maybe it stops as soon as everybody agrees Trump WINS and Iran LOSES because they are LOSERS.