Tuesday, July 04, 2023
"Thought Leaders"
Many of them didn't require money from SBF/FTX to shill for him, or at least that's what they have claimed!
Movie Theaters
There's a lot more that can be said about why the movie industry is the way it is, but really "'everybody' has a 50 inch+ very good quality TV with reasonable sound in their living room" explains a lot of it.
Watching movies pre-HD, or even pre-Blu Ray quality, at home was not in any way a substitute for watching them on the big screen. And now it is!
I'm not saying it's a perfect substitute, and certainly movie chains could improve the experience in various ways, but, back in the day, waiting for the movie to come to the 19" wasn't a great option.
There are other things going on, including dumb movie executives. I'm not saying it's the only explanation (here at this very fine blog we rarely endorse monocausal explanations for things), but it's a big one!
Watching movies pre-HD, or even pre-Blu Ray quality, at home was not in any way a substitute for watching them on the big screen. And now it is!
I'm not saying it's a perfect substitute, and certainly movie chains could improve the experience in various ways, but, back in the day, waiting for the movie to come to the 19" wasn't a great option.
There are other things going on, including dumb movie executives. I'm not saying it's the only explanation (here at this very fine blog we rarely endorse monocausal explanations for things), but it's a big one!
Are There Any Non Criminals Around
Lots complete scumbags in the DC "foreign policy" scene, but few worse than Elliott Abrams!
President Joe Biden announced Monday his intention to nominate a former appointee under former President Donald Trump with a controversial past in Latin America to the bipartisan United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.Also he's 75! Won't any of these people just fucking retire to Italy!
Monday, July 03, 2023
Free Speech
The whole campus "free speech" thing is about who has power, specifically it's about The Right having power and The Left shutting the fuck up.
I don't believe there's a single professional participant in The Discourse on this subject who isn't aware of this, so the ones who pretend not to understand it are just liars.
Lots of liars in The Discourse!
I don't believe there's a single professional participant in The Discourse on this subject who isn't aware of this, so the ones who pretend not to understand it are just liars.
Lots of liars in The Discourse!
Good For Something
Not the country's greatest Democrat, but credit where credit is due.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has vetoed a ban on gender-affirming care for most minors in the state, the latest Democratic governor to push back on a GOP-led legislature’s efforts to restrict transgender youth’s access to such treatments.Makes him better than most of the dipshist centrists!
What's Going On In France?
I have no idea, really, but it's a good moment to make the point that unless you follow another country's politics/current events pretty closely, you are unlikely to have a good sense of the big picture let alone the subtleties.
Like you wouldn't really understand the US protests of 2020 very well if you only read the BBC coverage of it - and I don't even mean that as a criticism of the BBC - and they're a lot "closer" in many ways to the US than US or other English language outlets are to France.
I'm not saying there's no value in trying to follow these things, just that it's incredibly difficult to have a sense of the politics of other countries.
Like you wouldn't really understand the US protests of 2020 very well if you only read the BBC coverage of it - and I don't even mean that as a criticism of the BBC - and they're a lot "closer" in many ways to the US than US or other English language outlets are to France.
I'm not saying there's no value in trying to follow these things, just that it's incredibly difficult to have a sense of the politics of other countries.
You kinda need a crazy wall (or a dumb blog) to try to follow US politics, and that's true for other countries as well.
Sounds Bad
There was a time when avoiding this was likely neither especially complicated nor especially expensive (small early changes and investments, paying off like compound interest), and likely could have be done even compensating some of the existing stakeholders in absurd ways. We somehow went from electric cars to electric Hummers (and similar) and I don't think that's going to save us, either.
SINGAPORE, June 30 (Reuters) - The target of keeping long-term global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) is moving out of reach, climate experts say, with nations failing to set more ambitious goals despite months of record-breaking heat on land and sea.
SEPTA Paper Transfers
Back in the day, the local transit authority had a paper transfer system. You paid your bus fare with a token or cash, and then an extra dollar if you wanted to transfer to another bus. Making people pay for transfers like this is dumb, generally, but that's not the point here.
I forget precisely how the transfer papers were printed, so apologies if I get this slightly wrong, but not only did the driver have to give you the transfer paper, they had to punch it a couple of times to define its parameters in order to ensure it was a "legitimate transfer." An example of an illegitimate transfer they were trying to prevent would be taking a northbound bus, popping into a store, then using the transfer to complete a round trip on the same bus going south.
Transfers were a buck, over a base fare of $1.75-$2.50, depending on when (IIRC), so they were hardly an incredible savings anyway.
My point is there was an elaborate system requiring bus driver time and thought which was there to prevent regular riders from saving a tiny bit of money, adding delay and inconvenience to the entire system.
With the introduction of various smart card/contactless schemes in transit systems over the past couple of decades, such things have diminished, but I want to highlight the thinking behind it which was, basically: we will sacrifice simplicity and convenience and bus travel time, reducing the appeal of the system and likely *overall revenue long term*, to ensure that none of our scum passengers saves 75 cents individually.
I forget precisely how the transfer papers were printed, so apologies if I get this slightly wrong, but not only did the driver have to give you the transfer paper, they had to punch it a couple of times to define its parameters in order to ensure it was a "legitimate transfer." An example of an illegitimate transfer they were trying to prevent would be taking a northbound bus, popping into a store, then using the transfer to complete a round trip on the same bus going south.
Transfers were a buck, over a base fare of $1.75-$2.50, depending on when (IIRC), so they were hardly an incredible savings anyway.
My point is there was an elaborate system requiring bus driver time and thought which was there to prevent regular riders from saving a tiny bit of money, adding delay and inconvenience to the entire system.
With the introduction of various smart card/contactless schemes in transit systems over the past couple of decades, such things have diminished, but I want to highlight the thinking behind it which was, basically: we will sacrifice simplicity and convenience and bus travel time, reducing the appeal of the system and likely *overall revenue long term*, to ensure that none of our scum passengers saves 75 cents individually.
This isn't a post about my local transit system, really, though such things are/were incredibly common in transit systems especially. That kind of approach to things is common everywhere.
Sunday, July 02, 2023
WATB
I am hung up on Roberts getting his feefees hurt over Kagan saying the Court was overreaching. like it was nothing but a personal slight.
Conservatives have been making this complaint for 40 years! Whatever the merits of their complaint, I don't remember any liberal justices crying about how mean it was.
Not The Celestial Hall Monitors
The Supremo have had decades of totebagger PR, elevating them to high priests. Dems have aided this too, preferring often to fight both electoral and policy battles using the court (the former to motivate voters, the latter to send things to the Referees rather than take positions themselves).
As Bouie (and Kagan) make clear, it is time to claw back the idea that they somehow float above the constitution rather than being established by it. It is absurd that the least democratic institution (they aren't elected, they have transparency and ethics problems) has come out on top somehow.
Thanks, Nina.
Rahmbo
As Twitter enters its "singing Daisy" phase of existence, I am reminded of when Rahm Emanuel announced a plan to team up with Musk to build an express train from the airport to downtown Chicago.
The amazing thing is this was an incredibly stupid project even if you believed Musk could deliver (and no he couldn't deliver at anything close to the costs he promised except with his frequent "don't pay any bills method" but even then). And you know me, I like spending stupid money almost any rail project, but Chicago already has a rail line to the airport.
Express airport lines sound great to people who would only consider riding a train to the airport and almost nowhere else. Nice in places that have a bounty of rail already!
Lots of reasons to hate Rahm, but we shouldn't overlook what a fucking idiot he is.
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