Monday, February 28, 2022
How Did Nobody Notice Before
"Funny"Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN General Assembly asking which country “voted for Russia [a newly formed country] to be admitted to the UN” after the breakup of the Soviet Union
— Pete (@NYBackpacker) February 28, 2022
No one in the Assembly raises their hands
Incredible moment in the UN. #UnitedNations #UN pic.twitter.com/5sDsh4BJo7
No Fly Zone
Important.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) February 28, 2022
White House @PressSec explains why the United States is not imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine and holds firm in saying that "a military conflict with Russia" is "not something the president wants to do." pic.twitter.com/qbUNaSsHR1
Sounds Bad
“The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, a co-chair of working group 2 of the IPCC. “Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.”What might save us, me and you, is if we love our children, too.
Freedom Day
The people still writing endless think pieces about the tyranny of lockdowns in a country that basically never had lockdowns had their brains sizzled the most by the experience, because they couldn't just shut the fuck up and accept "this month we wear masks into stores, and maybe next month we won't have to." People who get enraged by the idea that any rule actually applies to them were unable to understand the benefits of just following some simple ones instead of turning every minor inconvenience into some Noble Political Cause.
Most people are just trying to muddle through, not get sick (and a life of medical debt), and take care of their kids. "wear a mask to the store" is a nice simple rule which is both beneficial and takes the psychic cost of fraught decision making away. Tells people what the correct thing to do is so they don't have to fret over every decision.
No I am not arguing we are A NATION OF SHEEP WHO JUST WANT TO BE TOLD WHAT TO DO. But, as with manners and etiquette generally, it is often much easier to know what is expected of you, even if those expectations seem silly.
Maybe the sight of a room packed with maskless elderly people with numerous comorbidities will be inspiring. I suspect it will, if anything, be stressful for people who are just trying to muddle through.
Maximum Belligerence
Being concerned about how to deal with the mad man with nuclear weapons is not motivated by a concern for that mad man.
Being concerned about the impact of sanctions, both on the people and the mood of the mad man with the nuclear weapons, is not motivated by a concern for that mad man.
None of these concerns are motivated by sympathy for the mad man or his invasion.
De-escalation is a desirable goal, largely separate from any concept of who is right and who is wrong, and the sad thing is that our politicians* are largely just like us, in that they're getting amped up on war fever and twitter memes. We all want to crush the guy who deserves to be crushed, but getting through this with minimal loss of life should be the priority, not indulging righteous rage.
I am dumb and am not in charge of anything, and it is rare that I have any influence on the world at all, but the voices suggesting that anything other than maximum humiliation of Putin and "regime change" is unacceptable are growing louder. Hey, maybe they are right, but maybe they are catastrophically wrong!
*It seems the Biden people are pretty good! Some Dems are not, and Republicans switching from "Putin is good" to "Putin is history's greatest monster" is not actually helpful! Many UK politicians are far dumber and crueler than our own. Hard to believe, but very true.
Sunday, February 27, 2022
Two Minutes To Midnight
I suspect in 999/1000 versions of the timeline, we did not survive the Cuban missile crisis.
Afternoon Thread
What Are We Mad About Today
Saturday, February 26, 2022
A Uniquely Skilled Candidate
Now at least they mostly blame "THE SQUAD." Back in the aughts they'd run against the whole party. And, I dunno man, "The Democrats Are Filled With A Bunch Of Extremist Weirdos But I Am Not Like That - Vote Democrat!" is probably a much more damaging national message than whatever it is they're blaming The Left for.
But, sure, listen to Claire "not one of those crazy Democrats" McCaskill about how to win elections. Democrats suck, vote Democrat! Yah, sure, run with that in about 50 House districts.
Better Hope There Isn't Another Wave
The CDC has joined the smartest boys on the internet in decreeing that people who wear masks are paranoid lunatics (they did not do this precisely, of course), so we can expect another couple of hundred think pieces about crazy mask wearers harshing my buzz at the Applebees, even though polls show support for indoor mask wearing mandates.This is genius propaganda. Where’d the red go? 🔴 https://t.co/XXCzSuBK8Q
— Micah Arsham, MS, L.Ac. (@micah_arsham) February 25, 2022
As I've long said, it's one thing to be opposed to mandates (reasonable depending on the case level), and quite another to be egging people on to rip theirs off. The people who take a little extra caution have their personal reasons, and worst case scenario they're helping to reduce spread just a little bit and no one is stopping you from going to Applebees.
Still 1900 people dying per day. That in itself doesn't imply the need for restrictions, but it does make the "pretend everything is totally normal and no one has a reason for personal caution" a bit, well, odd!
Also the "America has been destroyed by [nonexistent] lockdowns" people aren't going to stop for reasons which should be self-evident (there are no lockdowns!!!).
Chuck Todd Will Be All Over This
It was always an interesting comparison to the way lefty conferences - Yearly Kos/Netroots Nation for one, but others - were covered and largely not covered. Much less coverage, except for major politicians speaking, and not the kind of wall-to-wall CPAC commentary that happens every year. And also most of the additional coverage was nutpicking, looking for someone with an inappropriate sign or some comment about "US imperialism" to fit into the narrative of LEFTIES HATE AMERICAS. Publish article.After hosting Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nick Fuentes condemns the media for comparing Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler, "as if that isn't a good thing."
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 26, 2022
"Some guy with a sign" can get every reporter demanding every Democrat to denounce him, but CPAC is just there, every year, doing it's thing, and LOL isn't it cute.
Friday, February 25, 2022
They Did It
Specifically, it looks as if moderate and conservative Democrats are doing everything they can to obscure the fact that, under their leadership and following their agenda, the Democratic Party has run aground and can’t get back on course. They sense a blowout in November and would rather play the blame game than do anything concrete to regain the ground they’ve helped lose. Their refusal to either pass popular economic legislation or fight the cultural battles of the moment have left them with only one option: find a scapegoat.In which case, those moderate and conservative Democrats (and their allies) would do well to look into a mirror. No one forced them to derail the president’s agenda, to bog the party down in petty infighting or to take a hands-off and defensive approach to the Republican Party. They sowed their seeds; now it’s time for them to reap the results.
Sounds Good To Me
Everybody's An Expert
"We've" used sanctions against various countries with pretty catastrophic results without achieving the outcomes we desired. Easy to push the "sanctions" button and ignore the consequences when it's Iran for various not so nice reasons.
Again, I have no idea, and don't claim to, but maximum belligerence, even of the non-military kind, always sounds appealing but the costs and consequences are not obvious and not necessarily helpful!
Obligatory bad faith reading repellent: I am all for maximum belligerence against the Putin regime! Just, you know, it's complicated! Political pressure on Biden is going to come from all directions and the answers are not simple (I do not have them).
But We Won't Do...
The UK has stopped accepting visa applications from Ukrainians stuck in the country, meaning there is no safe and legal route for them to seek asylum in Britain unless they have British relatives.
Jingo All The Way
Probably difficult to put them on planes to Russia at the moment, so we might have to intern them just for a little while.When Fox *News* thinks they’re owning me but the comments section agrees with me. Looks like they miscalculated America. We don’t root for Russia. You bet wrong. https://t.co/rBmSaLPEja
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) February 25, 2022
Thursday, February 24, 2022
America's Mayor!
We Will Do Anything For Ukraine
I'm not even criticizing here, just observing. Interdependence is a problem and all "interventions" have costs. Countries generally aren't willing to bear them unless certain connected interests stand to benefit. I don't have answers about what "we" should do, but I have some awareness of the limits of generosity. The options are constrained by this.Diplomats tell us following sanctions are tricky:
— Matina Stevis-Gridneff (@MatinaStevis) February 24, 2022
- ITA, AUS, DE concerned abt broad banking-sector sanctions
- ITA resistant to sanctions that include railways
- ITA wants carve-out for luxury goods
- BEL wants carve-out for diamonds
+ broad reluctance to sanction energy sector
Europe specifically will have modest willingness to accept refugees and treat them well, though that will vary by country. That is the easiest intervention of all.
Schiavo Politics
My (of course correct) view at the time was while people might have had rather mixed views on Michael Schiavo's decisions, they had clearer views on whether Tom DeLay (and Congress) should be involving himself in those decisions. At some point "that could be me and mine" is an obvious realization, and none of us really want that kind of intereference in our lives.
This is much more broadly applicable.
Trans Genocide
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is calling on “licensed professionals” and “members of the general public” to report the parents of transgender minors to state authorities if it appears the minors are receiving gender-affirming medical care.The media friendly ones are more coy, but one of the benefits of public social media is you don't have to look very deeply to see who their friends are. A cult of eliminationists.The directive was part of a letter Abbott, a Republican, sent Tuesday to the Department of Family and Protective Services, calling on it to “conduct a prompt and thorough investigation” of any reported instances of minors undergoing “elective procedures for gender transitioning.”
Abbott’s letter follows an opinion released Monday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which stated that allowing minors to receive transition care such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery is child abuse under state law.
Genital inspections for children and camps for everyone is what they want, because they are perverted Nazi freaks. The trans issue specifically is important to them largely as a channel for their authoritarian fantasies.
This is exactly what every prominent TERF advocate wants, and fuck all the centrists with their "oh we have to acknowledge they might have a point about BATHROOMS and AMATEUR SPORTS" or whatever absolute nonsense they are on about. Just a bunch of stupid, nasty people who will cry about commentary like this much more than they will cry about the kids and parents facing a monstrous regime.
Oh I just wrote obsessively about my concerns about parents abusing their children, I didn't mean the state should do anything about that! Shut the fuck up.
Some replies are sure it can't be that bad.
— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) February 23, 2022
Read the letter. It's a crime to not report gender transitioning if you have "reasonable cause to believe" it happened. Duty's on you to look out for it.
And how do you think the state will "investigate" for "genital mutilation"? pic.twitter.com/gBcJLS1F5i
War
I was skeptical it would happen like this because the extended Blob universe was out there not just warning about war but demanding one, as they do, along with Zelenskyy asking them to STFU. Rather wary of the people who never stop advocating for glorious humanitarian missions that require only the generous application of bombs and Defense budget allocations, especially when they are offering no other solutions.
Should've trusted the more sober communications coming from the White House-adjacent people.
All largely above my pay grade, as I keep saying.
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Don't See How Donnie Two Scoops Can Wriggle Out Of This One
The two prosecutors leading the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into former President Donald J. Trump and his business practices abruptly resigned on Wednesday amid a monthlong pause in their presentation of evidence to a grand jury, according to people with knowledge of the matter, throwing the future of the high-stakes inquiry into serious doubt.
What? Some People Don't Pay Taxes?!!?!?!?
Opportunities
And many of Scott’s specific proposals straddle the line between stupid and evil pretty effectively. He wants to impose a 12-year limit on all federal employment (with “exceptions” for national-security purposes). Think about the immense cost and inefficiency of that kind of required turnover in the federal workforce, whose numbers, by the way, would be reduced by 25 percent in five years according to another pledge in the agenda. Guess that would somewhat mitigate the massive cost and disruptions associated with Scott’s demands to “move most Government agencies out of Washington and into the real world” and “sell offall non-essential government assets, buildings, and land.” The IRS would receive an even more draconian 50 percent cut in funding and workforce, which might make it a bit tough to impose the new minimum income tax Scott wants to impose on the majority of Americans who now have no net tax liability.I certainly have my criticisms of political journalists, but on something like this it really is on the Democrats to scream about/mock incessantly instead of hoping the Referees explain it to their readers.
Gadgetbahn
Virgin Hyperloop has laid off almost half its staff as the company switches its focus from transporting passengers to shifting freight. Cuts totaling 111 jobs were confirmed by Virgin Hyperloop to The Financial Times, which spoke to former employees at the company. They described the scale of the redundancies as “definitely not expected.”
Cower
A bunch of mostly wealthy white guys who work in various capacities in politics basically agree with conservatives on these issues, so Democrats just run away. Republicans succeed by firing up their voters and Democrats depress theirs by not taking their supposed own side in the argument (and failing to stand up for "us" after promising they will NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR YOOOOOOOOOUUUU).new national @CBSNews poll on teaching race + Black history in schools. (& more than 80 percent oppose book bans) https://t.co/FCADN865xr pic.twitter.com/nBpxv2mtwq
— Rachel Cohen (@rmc031) February 23, 2022
Putin's Head
When a major conflict like Ukraine breaks out, journalists always ask themselves: “Where should I station myself?” Kyiv? Moscow? Munich? Washington? In this case, my answer is none of these. The only place to be for understanding this war is inside Russian President Vladimir Putin’s head.The genre of WHAT PUTIN WANTS is mostly inane, but Friedman does actually take the controversial position that he can be a Baddie and also be responding somewhat understandably, if not nicely, to provocations (once you get through the first few dumb paragraphs).
One doesn't have to agree with it - and really all of this is above my pay grade - but "Bad Guy Of The Week is an irrational genocidal madman" is usually the summary of punditry about whoever Bad Guy Of The Week is, and most other commentary gets stomped on as Stalinist Sympathizing or whatever.
At least we have The Mustache Of Understanding.
Sadly, his Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Resolution takes another hit.
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Meet Them Half Way
Don't See How Donnie Two Scoops Wriggles Out Of This One
WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday brought a formal end to former President Donald Trump's request to block the release of White House records sought by the Democratic-led congressional panel investigating last year's deadly attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
Long Covid
A pivotal study that looked at health records of more than 153,000 U.S. veterans published this month in Nature Medicine found that their risk of cardiovascular disease of all types increased substantially in the year following infection, even when they had mild cases. The population studied was mostly White and male, but the patterns held even when the researchers analyzed women and people of color separately. When experts factor in the heart damage probably suffered by people who put off medical care, more sedentary lifestyles and eating changes, not to mention the stress of the pandemic, they estimate there may be millions of new onset cardiac cases related to the virus, plus a worsening of disease for many already affected.
Maximum Belligerence
The Left: War is bad, we shouldn't have one, more than that it's quite obvious that the US and the UK aren't really going to enter into a war, so hopefully we can solve this best we can with minimal deaths.
The Center: NOBODY WANTS WAR, but THE TREASONOUS LEFT is SAPPING OUR PRECIOUS BODILY FLUIDS BECAUSE THEY LOVE PUTIN AND MISS STALIN
The Right: Can Putin be our president?
Monday, February 21, 2022
Wow How Could This Be
INTERSTING: By 22-points, people OPPOSE the GOP's ban on teaching critical race theory
— Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) February 21, 2022
Support: 35%
Oppose: 57%
Among White People
Support: 42%
Oppose: 53% pic.twitter.com/D5RgERSAOw
Why Can't "We" Just COMPROMISE on Abortion???
Just take all the unpleasant things off the table for all eternity!
Just a little restriction, as a treat, and the anti-abortion people will declare victory and go home!
Just fucking idiots.
Constitutional Right To Say The Hard 'R' Without Criticism
No one ever says what they're talking about because they never want to acknowledge that "Culture War" stuff involves real people and things they themselves profess to care about. It isn't just Old Man Biden getting on stage and saying, "young [black] men should pull up their pants!!!" like some mayo Bill Cosby.Like, if we’re really on the verge of total abyss, maybe Democrats need to offer some serious concessions on culture war issues that are fueling these conflicts in return for institutional reforms? Hoping Republicans take responsibility just because doesn’t seem too wise.
— Jordan Weissmann (@JHWeissmann) February 21, 2022
I suggest locking up a bunch of reporters, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. Worth a try, no?
This Blog Sponsored By Raytheon
Sunday, February 20, 2022
Liz II Has Covid
The Living Are Dead And The Dead Are All Living
Our Causes Are Not The Same
"We agree with the cause, just not all the solutions and certainly not the message" has been replaced by "FUCK THOSE FUCKING FUCKS THEY'RE RUINING OUR ELECTION CHANCES FUCK THEM LET'S GIVE MORE MONEY TO UNACCOUNTABLE COPS AND GET MORE RACIST."
The belief that it is more important to cater to few hundred right wing lunatics engaged in organized school board take over attempts than to the huge mass mobilization movement is, well, interesting!
The belief that left wing activists are nonvoters is a common and very interesting one! But, really, it's just "fuck these people their cooties aren't worth it." There's a companion notion that activists are "young" and young people don't vote, but "young"* people turnout was high in the last two elections ( also for Obama and certainly important!) and I don't know how old people think elementary school parents are, but that you remember your mom being "old" when you were in elementary school does not mean that moms are actually old.
...Popularism! Yes Noah is just one of Twitter's dumbest personalities, but lots of dumb twitter personalities have fans in high places.
*Increasingly "young" is just some vague notion like "gluten."
Saturday, February 19, 2022
Culture War
A major problem with "culture war" stuff is that most of it actually incredibly important, even if some of it isn't important to members of our media and sometimes its importance is obscured by the absurdity of The Discourse. Just like every other issue covered by our absurd political journalists. Some issues are marked as "culture war" as a way to dismiss them as trivial. Racism, culture war! Abortion, culture war! Condoms, culture war!All 3 Republicans running for Michigan Attorney General just stated that they oppose the ruling in Griswold v Connecticut which outlawed prosecuting married couples for using contraception.
— Dana Nessel (@dananessel) February 19, 2022
You read that right.
Terrifying.
Stupid People Who Think Everybody Else Is Stupider
Friday, February 18, 2022
Holocaust Minimization
That was often absurd and mostly a tool used to club the anti-war left, rather than stemming from any actual concern about anti-Semitism, but I still do/did agree that ridiculosly facile comparisons to Nazis and Nazi Germany are a condemnable form of Holocaust minimization (which is just Holocaust denial), even if not everybody who makes them is evil.
You know, don't do that, it's wrong.
But the rules have changed, of course.
Mysteries
The Majesty Of The Law
Their kids have to get clerk jobs, after all!
Maybe Not The Russian Bear, Maybe The Swedes
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Appeasement
I am trying not to think harshly of the Spanish. They have suffered a grievous blow, and it was crazy to go ahead with an election a mere three days after the Madrid massacre. Nonetheless, here is what seems to have happened:That's BoBo Brooks. Of course what happened in Spain then is more complicated than that, and American pundits centering their own delusions is always hilariously maddening, but basically anything other than whacking the hornet's nest with baseball bats constantly was "appeasement" because these people are murderous idiots.The Spanish government was conducting policies in Afghanistan and Iraq that Al Qaeda found objectionable. A group linked to Al Qaeda murdered 200 Spaniards, claiming that the bombing was punishment for those policies. Some significant percentage of the Spanish electorate was mobilized after the massacre to shift the course of the campaign, throw out the old government and replace it with one whose policies are more to Al Qaeda's liking.
No more sophisticated than "Freedom Fries."
Don't See How Donny Two Scoops Can Wriggle Out Of This One
A New York judge ruled Thursday that former President Donald Trump and two of his adult children must comply with subpoenas seeking to question them under oath and obtain other evidence for a civil investigation of the Trump Organization.
A Better World Is Possible
Disruption
People die every day, but a lot more are dying every day now.
Election Year
Can't do politics in a politics year! Might be political!
Brain Dials
The excitement people get when there's a bit of war in the air is not hard to see!!!
And generally, lots of people like the idea of lots of other people being slaughtered.
Thursday is New Jobless Day
I'm often a pessimist and you should take my predictions (rarely made) accordingly, but I'll bet the big boys are going to get the recession they're demanding.
Good policy kept things afloat, made us see that better things are possible, and that cannot stand.
Thursday Morning
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Sure Why Not
VOLKSWAGEN CEO HERBERT DIESS PREDICTS IN 25 YEARS ALL CARS TO DRIVE AUTONOMOUSLY, "PROBABLY NO ACCIDENTS"
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) February 16, 2022
Why Do Some People Worry About Getting Covid
This is part of "getting back to normal": earlier in the pandemic, most insurers waived copays/deductibles for COVID-19 care, but not any more.
— Adam W Gaffney (@awgaffney) February 16, 2022
Average out-of-pocket cost for privately-insured is now ~$4000 a hospitalization.https://t.co/1IYO6AZvsE pic.twitter.com/rFgupbxcTL
Yes I Am Just A Propagandist
Thank you for believing my lies!
Ioffe's so dumb she accidentally tells the truth. She knows what's best!
I can understand their frustration. But getting invaded would probably be worse.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) February 16, 2022
Defund The Democrats
Democrats were already feeling anxious about the 2022 midterms. Losing the governor’s race in Virginia in 2021—Glenn Youngkin’s shocking victory over former Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe—turned nervousness into something more like panic. That won’t hurt, either. Digital practitioners are expert at writing panic into their scripts. “Every two years, the money spent is more than the two years before that, and it just keeps on going that way,” said Oxman. “It’s an amazing business model. It’s why so many people want to get into it.”By that, Oxman meant consultants, not candidates, flocking into the business. It’s hard to think of other enterprises with the same levels of money washing through them and such slack regulation.
Few party regulars care to talk about the flimsy to nonexistent ethics that guide their fundraising. How did Sara Gideon end up with nearly $15 million left at the end of her Senate campaign in Maine? Did she just overshoot the mark? Or did her campaign know they couldn’t spend all that cash but kept seeking it anyway? Would her donors have kept contributing if they knew their money was going to sit indefinitely in a dormant campaign account?
War On Drivers
When I am your benevolent dictator, I will, in fact, ban cars, but I also think that almost all "friendly to pedestrian and cyclists and safety improving" measures ever proposed that tend to lead to red-faced rage at community meetings are, actually, improvements for drivers, too, they just don't realize it.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced a new initiative to reduce traffic fatalities, so naturally Laura Ingraham/Fox News is calling it a “war on driving.”
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) February 16, 2022
We really would have never seen mandatory seatbelts if these folks were running the show then. pic.twitter.com/TZGLG0Tx8y
I Feel Your Pain
AUDIENCE QUESTION: Yes. How has the national debt personally affected each of your lives? And if it hasn’t, how can you honestly find a cure for the economic problems of the common people if you have no experience in what’s ailing them?It's a hilarious question, really, what happens when relatively informed voters have their brains absolutely sizzled by mainstream political coverage.
Clinton (you can click the link to read the answer) understood correctly that it was a question about personal economic difficulties, and not actually THE DEBT, but at that moment in time, especially, voters were all trained to believe that all their problems were caused by government spending too much of YOUR money on THOSE people and this led to THE DEBT which was ruining all of our lives.
The number one thing any president had to do was FIX THE DEBT and also not raise taxes.
You can read this article (about a different debate) for a taste of it, and how, as always, THE DEMCORATIC POLITICIAN is the one responsible, even after 12 years of Republican rule, and how it is THE CENTRAL ISSUE facing the candidates (especially the Democrat).
The broader point is that focus groups, especially ones assembled by manipulators like Frank Luntz, involve people trying to please the teacher by reciting back the smart things they "know," and those things come from snippets of Morning Joseph. Then it was the debt and deficit (economy), now it's inflation (economy) and masks (Covid and general support for Covid sucks) and the wokes (Democrats are doing things for THOSE PEOPLE but not me, because what are they doing? Not a lot of building back better.).
Political coverage almost always incorretly diagnoses the problem, providing a flawed narrative which people, when asked, repeat back.
Tick, Tick, Boom
That's really what "back to normal" is about, and, well, normal was bad.
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
Ain't She A Beautiful Sight
Screaming Hysterics
And it doesn't matter how many millions they kill, and at what cost, because they'll be back on Morning Edition with the same nonsense in a few weeks.
A Story In Two Tweets
Putin has big weekend plans in Ukraine: 1) he's going to cut power and heat, knock out Ukrainian navy and air force, kill general staff and hit them with cyber attack; 2) then install pro-Russian president and 3) resort to full-scale military invasion if Ukraine doesn't give in
— Melinda Haring (@melindaharing) February 11, 2022
The cunning plan was to level Ukraine's economy by panicking people with the threat of war. Good job, Melinda, and every other US Blob ghoul, obviously paid stooges of Putin!We’ve been so focused on Russian troops and tanks that we missed Moscow’s strategy: strangle Ukraine’s economy and sap the resolve of its people. https://t.co/UThcjdfHs1
— Melinda Haring (@melindaharing) February 15, 2022
This Is How The Political Big Brains Justify Everything
Bonus "the smart people in charge know what they're doing, dumbass!"
Monday, February 14, 2022
Ouroboros
IMPORTANT UPDATE from @JoshNBCNews : Walkback from Kyiv: Zelenskyy’s spokesman says when he said on Facebook that “we are told that February 16 will be the day of the attack,” Zelenskyy was merely referring to media reports. Told by the media, not by US, Russia, NATO etc… https://t.co/qCDnXeXZCZ
— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) February 14, 2022
Sounds Bad
The American West’s megadrought deepened so much last year that it is now the driest in at least 1,200 years and is a worst-case climate change scenario playing out live, a new study finds.
Blob Always Wants War
One of the many Atlantic Council ghouls:
Nevertheless, the point still stands.Putin has big weekend plans in Ukraine: 1) he's going to cut power and heat, knock out Ukrainian navy and air force, kill general staff and hit them with cyber attack; 2) then install pro-Russian president and 3) resort to full-scale military invasion if Ukraine doesn't give in
— Melinda Haring (@melindaharing) February 11, 2022
Obama Was Bad
Many analysts believe racism explains almost everything, and Obama himself mused after 2016, “Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.” But that misses how the Obama administration’s economic policy failed all working people. It took seven years from the 2008 crash for them to get back to their pre-crisis income level—that is, to where they were during Bush’s Gilded Age.Sure you can blame some things on Republicans later, but right out of the gate Obama was determined to make the poor and middle class suffer for the sins of the rich, and he succeeded.White working-class voters turned against the Democrats in 2010 and again in 2014, though in 2012 some were persuaded to vote for Obama against Mitt Romney, the very embodiment of corporate America. But Democrats didn’t just have a white working-class problem, they had a working-class problem. Democrats faced a pullback from their predominantly working-class base of Black, Hispanics, millennials, and unmarried women—the bloc I labeled the “Rising American Electorate” in my analysis of shifts in public opinion.
DC brain always says the solution is to chase the votes of the boat owners in Northern Virginia, though they don't put it that way. For some reason Terry "The Perfect Democrat for Boat Owners in Northern Virginia" Mac's loss was somehow the fault of the wokes, or whatever.
You're Making My Opinions WORSE
When all the imaginary restrictions are gone, David, it'll still be the case that nobody will swipe right.I can't wait until my state ends the restriction that has been forcing me to isolate for the last two years and causing all these other problems pic.twitter.com/l3SuZoP1Y7
— wsbgnl (@wsbgnl) February 14, 2022
Our Time
I find it "funny" realizing that the "geezer rock" of my younger days often was being performed by people of an age I certainly don't think of as being quite geezers now!
Very roughly the peak popularity of the performers from last night was 20+ years ago (give or take a few years). Similar to having Elton John perform in 1997, when he was 49.
Snoop Dogg is 50, yo. (Artists have longevity beyond their peak popularity, and my point is not to disparage any of them).
Dissolve The People And Elect Another
I rarely invoke issue poll numbers except as a way of making snarky comments on the coverage by people who selectively take them seriously. The main reason is I think it isn't 1994 anymore, people really are sorted into parties pretty cleanly, and they look to the leadership of those parties (or conservative media figures, who lead the Republicans) for their cues about what to think about those issues. If there is an issue we identify with the center left which doesn't have the vast majority of self-identified Democrats on its side, it's because the Dems aren't providing clear leadership on that issue.
Or similarly, if the Bad Orange Man was for it, Democrats would be against it! Simpler when Republicans are in charge, the 'leadership' can be imagined.
Having the vast majority of Democrats doesn't get you to a majority, but almost!
Sunday, February 13, 2022
"Last Vestiges"
A notable poll number that may be capturing the last vestiges of the pro mask sentiment but maybe also shows that the online discourse is not totally connected to the larger discourse pic.twitter.com/H6yfp4s9Vm
— Sam Stein (@samstein) February 13, 2022
Defund The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Haha, no. (not knowing anything about Canadian law enforcement, I have no idea if the relevant agency is the Mounties or the Yaksmen.)
Other Countries Are Big, Too
One observation I will make about the belligerent war loving crowd is they generally have absolutely no sense that other places are big and have lots of people in them. I'm not sure if this is a peculiarly American thing, though it might be to some extent given the way our built environment tends to obscure distance and any sense of place.
Even the "little" countries are actually, you know, quite big! Belgium is the size of Maryland! The big countries are genuinely big!
Anyway, Ukraine has a 1200 mile land border with Russia. Take what you want from that observation.
Saturday, February 12, 2022
The Nerds Won
But the 80s were a fucked up time. And, AKSHUALLY, the nerd who gets the girl is a rapist. The nerds aren't really better than the jocks, or even especially smart, they just think they deserve to have what they think the jocks have. They do their own "panty raid" as if this is something they should be entitled to do. They aren't really any more tolerant, they just are forced to be by circumstances. It isn't clear that the jocks are all that bad, really, just your basic jerks. We don't see any of them commit rape, at least!
Probably what regularly reminds me of this is whenever there's some online NERDRAGE about their favorite comic book movie not getting the respect it deserves, or if another person of color is cast in Star Wars. But other things too.
(typos fixed, hopefully, never post and run)
Two Years On
I'm not representative of anything, but my life is different now in part because I developed new habits during covid that wouldn't suddenly snap back if covid disappeared tomorrow. I go out to eat less (but I still do!) I go to events like concerts less often (but I still do!). I do a lot more "fun outdoor activities like hiking" than I did before. A bit of that is Omicron-related, but some of it really is just that if Covid had a personal silver lining, it's that it forced me to find some different things to keep me busy.
Expecting everything to snap back instantly, especially but not solely when the daily death toll is this high, is actually crazy thinking. You're 20 now, you can't keep hanging around the high school, loser.
The Economist For Meatheads
Normal Stuff
This is not some obscure blogger, it’s PBS’ defense correspondent pic.twitter.com/tCeVTz422b
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) February 12, 2022
Liars
The lies largely weren't even there to sell the ongoing military project, they were there because "punching hippies" was at least 60% of the point of it.
Dealing with bullshit like that is mentally taxing!
*Yes it's absurd that "some guy with a blog" is on the list of people with a public platform opposed to such an endeavor, as it was absurd that Janeane Garofalo was the most prominent war critic allowed on cable news.
Friday, February 11, 2022
Oh Elon
The N-word and other racist slurs were hurled daily at Black workers at Tesla’s California plant, delivered not just by fellow employees but also by managers and supervisors.So says California’s civil rights agency in a lawsuit filed against the electric-vehicle maker in Alameda County Superior Court on Thursday on behalf of thousands of Black workers after a decade of complaints and a 32-month investigation.
Refund The GOP
Republican political strategy: we've got uhhhh Obama Phones, Biden Crack Pipe, Critical Racism Indoctrination, Marxist Immigrant Murder Invasion, Mask Torture
— steven monacelli (@stevanzetti) February 11, 2022
Democratic political strategy: We need a strong Republican party folks
If You Aren't Attacking You're Defending
Crouch
Big Brained Economists
I'm always amazed that the absolutely biggest brains in economics, particularly macroeconomics, instantly revert back to things I used to teach in hour one of what was, basically, a one day 'Macroeconmics For Wannabee Bankers' training course. And if you bring up stuff you would teach in hour 2 and beyond they talk about it as if it's Marxism or some other crazy radical 'nonsense.'
The knock on undergraduate economics has always been that it's a bit too simplistic and people get some wrong ideas from that, The defense of that is, well, sure, but it's a starting place and of course you get a more complex picture later on.Economists always tell me "Eli, stop criticizing undergrad neoclassical econ we know its way more complicated than that" and yet Its stunning how often I see crucial policy debates being discussed by top, super-powerful economists with precisely the ec-101 graphs and assumptions! https://t.co/dSfkTtiS3k
— Eli Cook (@Eli_B_Cook) February 11, 2022
Jason Furman's been throwing up his "Econ 101" slides as if they're an argument against stuff you'd teach in "Econ 202."
What's a big brained economist for when they're all claiming a smart kid with 3 weeks of economics under her belt possesses the pinnacle of knowledge?
*In economics, "debates" usually means people at the top of the elite status ladder using their positions to try to stomp all over everybody who disagrees. It's funny! Especially funny when they're like, turn to page 37 of my Principles Of Macroeconomics (undergraduate) textbook! QED!
Thursday, February 10, 2022
The Best People
A top deputy overseeing election issues for Virginia’s new Republican attorney general resigned Thursday after The Washington Post questioned the office about Facebook posts she had made praising Jan. 6, 2021, rioters and falsely claiming Donald Trump won the 2020 election.
Wait For The Details... In October
It’s hard to trust the press when you don’t know what they’re hiding, why they’re hiding it, or who they’re protecting by doing so.
Sensible Opinion
Royal Rumblings
Have The Celestial Hall Monitors Arrived Yet
The Irrational Fear of Covid
A thousand more articles in the Atlantic or NYT telling people how stupid they are for being concerned are not going to change this.
My personal attitudes are not universal, and unlike these freaks I dont expect them to be, but I also don't think I've been an especially cautious person throughout all of this. Not claiming to be everyman, but I don't think I'm an outlier either.
I went to a concert recently, despite Covid. I chose not to go to another similar event recently, because of Covid. As mask mandates, and more importantly any cultural imperative to wear masks, fade, I'll be slightly less likely to do such things, at least until cases drop a bit more.
I'm not "paranoid." I don't worry about dying or even long Covid much. Basically I don't want to get the nasty disease some of my vaxxed and boosted friends have had recently, and life is filled with fun things to do that don't require being in room filled with open mouthed strangers. I can do those things instead.
tl;dr For a lot of people, the mild measures are what have allowed them to do "normal things." I guess you can just keep calling them all crazy, but it won't help.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
Wednesday, February 09, 2022
Watching The World Burn
But then you see the machinations of our various rich guy villains - Erik Prince, Peter Thiel, Kochs - and, well, yah, maybe that's just it.
Trifecta
Stryker said he still thinks the goal -- at least from a political standpoint -- is to move away from talking about the pandemic as much as Democrats are.I really don't know what side universe these people are living in where Democrats do nothing but talk about the pandemic and impose restrictions on people."If Democrats can stop talking about COVID every day, treat it like the long-term problem it is and start talking about more immediate concerns of voters" like the high cost of living, "the better they will do in the midterms," he said.
Folks, We Cut Child Poverty By 40%
Okay We Did What The Smartest Boys On The Internet Told Us To
Since the restrictions barely exist anywhere, these big announcements are going to be followed by "um, nothing's much changed?"
But this is the latest "THIS IS WHAT THE DEMOCRATS HAVE TO DO" coming from the always wrong people, so who will be to blame when Biden's polls don't SURGE?
Suspect it's going to be The Left, folks.
Only Drooling A Bit
And Then It All Went Wrong
This was dumb for many reasons. One being that having an unenforceable two tier rule system just created social friction, and of coure made life extra hell for store workers. Another being that anti-vaxxers weren't going to obey the rules anyway, and when delta arrived it just supported the idea that the vaccines don't work as cases boomed again.
Also just it's the worst goodgirlsandboys elementary school liberal model of social behavior - if you get vaccinated, you get to take off your mask as a treat like the other good girls and boys!
When a bunch of prominent people suddenly start saying the same dumb thing, you know the talking points went out.
So tired of being lectured by these assholes.
Hopefully omicron passes and covid fades into the sunset. We're all goldfish. But covid focus groups are like economy ones. People say inane things like "whoa, really worried about the deficit" because that's what they heard on NPR but what they mean is "I'm broke." People say "really tired of all this covid bullshit like masks" and that's not really what they're tired of.
Tuesday, February 08, 2022
Sensible Centrism Can Never Be Failed
Occasionally they only get 96% of what they want, and at least have some point, but really usually it's all of it.
Are We The Baddies?
Really Bad Ideas
Fortunately a bit of outcry caused a backtrack.
Aside from some other obvious things, there's no way the system could've kept up with verifying millions of people as the deadline approached.
Sometimes I Keep My Mouf Shut
Hot Dog Guy Dot Gif
Is Vaccine Immunity Waning?This one is important, because it had been very much established by then that vaccine efficacy was waning, and other countries were pushing their booster programs.It may not really be waning much — which means universal booster shots may do little good.
The argument for booster shots can be similar. Most younger and middle-aged adults who have received two Covid vaccine shots remain highly protected from severe illness (as these charts show). But the vaccines do seem to wane enough to make people more susceptible to a mild infection they could pass on to a vulnerable person. All Americans age 18 and up are now eligible for booster shots if their most recent shot was at least six month ago.Translated: younger people might want to get one to stop killing granny, though otherwise it doesn't matter, but I've spent a year telling people to not worry about killing granny, so lol whatever....
When discussion of boosters started a few months ago, I was somewhat skeptical, because the evidence of their benefit for most individuals was thin. Their communal value now seems clear, though. I recently got a booster shot, mostly because I will be spending time with older relatives in the coming weeks. The case for booster shots among people over 65 is even stronger.
What explains the American booster shortfall? I think there are two main answers, both related to problems with the American health system.STILL TRYING TO FIND THE GUY WHO DID THIS!!!...
First, medical care in the U.S. is notoriously fragmented. There is neither a centralized record system, as in Taiwan, nor a universal insurance system, as in Canada and Scandinavia, to remind people to get another shot. Many Americans also do not have a regular contact point for their health care.
...
The second problem is one that has also bedeviled other aspects of U.S. Covid response: Government health officials, as well as some experts, struggle to communicate effectively with the hundreds of millions of us who are not experts.
They speak in the language of academia, without recognizing how it confuses people. Rather than clearly explaining the big picture, they emphasize small amounts of uncertainty that are important to scientific research but can be counterproductive during a global emergency. They are cautious to the point of hampering public health.
These fucking people.
Even if you aren't interested in my "David Leonhardt has a lot to answer for!" anger, it's absolutely hilarious that he leaves out the ROLE OF THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT AND MEDIA in all of this. Not a mention, anywhere.
To make myself clear: both those exaggerating the efficacy of vaccines, even once it was known that it faded (Leonhardt and the centrist Covid Is Over movement), and those enagaged in vaccine denial (conservative movement/media) have responsibility for the lack of interest in boosters!
Monday, February 07, 2022
Fictional Pulp
Somehow so many creatives who start there go from "haha, isn't it interesting to how you react to my violence/racism/other taboo breaking" to "why won't people keep applauding when I do racisms???? (or violence or sexism, or whatever)" And you realize their point was not "this racism is fucked up and you are fucked up" but instead "isn't it great you all enjoy the racism just like I do!!!"
The Dumbest Guy On The Internet
If one cares to follow, he just keeps doubling and tripling down, and making clear that he thinks the issue is the Tarantino n-word scene, and that if wise heads prevailed and left that on the cutting room floor today we'd be putting out the hammer and sickle flag (everything that is bad is communism).I’m watching pulp fiction right now and wondering, 28 years later, if you could make this movie today
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 7, 2022
A million reasons this is immensely dumb. I could waste all day on this! A simple one, however, is it's very well understood that movie "censorship," broadly defined, has long been under the thumb of the MPAA. Not state censorship, precisely, but close enough that it's practically indistinguishable.
And, roughly speaking, for decades the MPAA blessed unlimited violence and some kinds of nudity and sex (but definitely not others). "Definitely not others" included depictions of non-straight relationships. Pushing a movie from PG to PG-13 or PG-13 to R or R to (financial death sentence) NC-17 greatly impacts its marketability.
In this context, I don't think Tarantino being able to do a cameo in his own movie saying the 'N word' repeatedly is especially important. Also the MPAA did and would still let it slide with an 'R' rating, so whatever forces might prevent that scene from going through are not heavy-handed control, but people saying, "maybe don't do that."
That's just movies, of course. The "no gay characters on TV" effective rule was rarely, though occasionally, breached.
REPUBLICANS ARE ATTACKING OUR CHILDREN
There are a million examples, but this is the kind of thing that would have Republicans on the teevee blowing gaskets for a month. They would have been aided by the general conservative propaganda machine and your favorite newspapers which absolutely love to be used by it, but the starting place is a bunch of Democrats blowing their gaskets publicly.
RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s campaign lashed out at a high school student as well as Democrat Ralph Northam on Twitter this weekend, tweeting out the teen’s name and photo after the boy shared a news story about part of the Executive Mansion where enslaved workers once lived.More generally, use and support the available messaging outlets you have. I'm not going to claim this is BLOGS LIKE THIS ONE now, but it once was, and the Professional Democrat response was mostly to raise a bunch of money from donors, spend an absurd amount of money on "websites they could control" while enriching the usual middlemen, and then letting it all fade away.
Maybe Somebody Else Should Do Something
Wow look how bad he was! Surely this time someone, um, someone? will do something!!!
Sunday, February 06, 2022
20 Years Of It Is Not Entirely Healthy!
Blogging is one of the most ridiculous media jobs ever invented but one good thing about it was that you got very used to people yelling at you, so you didn’t have to turn into some weird fascist wailing about a “free speech” apocalypse every time someone said you suck
— Hamilton Nolan (@hamiltonnolan) February 6, 2022
Sunday Afternoon Random Thought
But if you can whittle that number down from several tens of millions to a more manageable number, better to figure out how to put them on the payroll instead of having the people on the payroll spend most of their time complaining about them.
The Editorial Voice
Back in the early days of blogging there was this common completely pompous thundering tone, with random weirdos (like me) lecturing the world about What Must Be Done and all that. It was hilarious silly, especially looking back, but I don't think it occurred to me until now that people were just copying that tone and pose from newspaper editorial boards.
Who were/are also just a bunch of random weirdos who decided they can lecture everybody else, pompously.
Theranos
Saturday, February 05, 2022
Random Thought For The Day
My point is, while most people are fairly well sorted into the two parties at this point, the remaining weirdos aren't necessarily completely irrational. Just a different priority mix.
Probably the best way to appeal to them, as block, is actually just vibes.