Saturday, March 25, 2023
Academics
Most of my friends are, but 'normal rules shouldn't apply to me because reasons' is a bit too common.
One of the 27 FTX creditors who want to participate in the bankruptcy process without being identified is an academic who rather unfortunately started using FTX a few weeks before it collapsed and doesn’t want anyone to know of their unusual wealthhttps://t.co/TwLyIBVtas pic.twitter.com/3z0UQngRRA
— kadhim (＾ｰ^)ノ (@kadhim) March 25, 2023
Incitement
I really do hate powerful people who encourage (subtly or not so subtly) others to do violence on their behalf, whether it's politicians or media figures. That's an obvious thing to hate, of course. Encouraging violence is generally bad (including, generally, encouraging the US military to do it). But something extra gross about rich assholes doing it from the comfort of TV studios.
Friday, March 24, 2023
SNL Stars Of A Certain Era
I was thinking all the worst ones were Xers, but actually they tend to be the youngest boomers (not that the line really matters).
8 Can't Wait
No way I can really justify this feeling, but I actually do get the sense that "death is final, people get one go, and killing them is a big deal" is less understood than it was not so long ago.
Fairfax County police announced Thursday that they will fire an officer who fatally shot an unarmed Black man outside Tysons Corner Center last month in an encounter that an attorney for the man’s family described as an “execution.”That a cop being fired (and likely rehired elsewhere) is generally the biggest possible consequence...
PPP Fraud
You really had to fuck up to get busted for it.
A former Florida lawmaker pleaded guilty Tuesday to wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements in connection with Covid-19 relief fraud, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
Former Republican state Rep. Joseph Harding acquired more than $150,000 in Small Business Administration loans by lying on loan applications, the department said.
They Don't Care
With book banning going on all over the country and state universities being taken over by conservative authoritarians who are limiting fields of study and course content in various ways, people regularly ask, WHERE ARE THE FREE SPEECH WARRIORS?
Most of the free speech warriors don't care about public school kids in Florida, or state university students anywhere. It took me a long time to understand this, but most of these people really do think liberal education is a luxury that only the rich should have access to, and everyone else should go to trade school.
Most of the free speech warriors don't care about public school kids in Florida, or state university students anywhere. It took me a long time to understand this, but most of these people really do think liberal education is a luxury that only the rich should have access to, and everyone else should go to trade school.
They wouldn't say "rich" and they might even believe they just mean "top students" as of course meritocracy is real, but they mean the top <%5 of students as defined by our biased sorting hat, most of whom are, of course, rich.
The seeds of this was planted in the general war on humanities and the promotion of STEM. After blaming African-Americans for taking out bad mortgages for the financial crisis, they moved on to blaming the Great Recession on students getting "useless" degrees. The consequences of this are pretty obvious now that our tech overlords believe the chatbots are their new sentient friends.
There's no hypocrisy in Harvard philosophy grads telling everyone to "learn to code" or whatever. They mean everyone else!
Morning
[Sees tweet of Trump threatening Bragg with a baseball bat]
Don't see how Donnie Two Scoops will wriggle out of this one!
Don't see how Donnie Two Scoops will wriggle out of this one!
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Stories You Probably Won't See In The New York Times
It's forbidden to acknowledge that our objectitudinal newspapers of course have "agendas" or, if you wish, "editorial agendas," but of course they do. They can't not! The New York Times has a clear from-the-top agenda of demonizing all treatment for trans people, and trans people themselves. The questions THEY KEEP ASKING JUST ASKING QUESTIONS are answerable, but they aren't interested in hearing them.
Gotta Go
The lack of public restrooms in the US is maddening. Every now and then some city will spend $87 million on a toilet prototype, install one, and call it a day (this is a slight exaggeration, maybe). We know how to build toilets and we know how to pay people to clean them. And, sadly, toilet cleaners probably don't even cost all that much!
It isn't complicated.
It isn't complicated.
America's Worst Humans
Jon Chait.
Chait may be the most unreconstructed of all (with the exception, perhaps, of Stephens), in his argumentative mode. In one of his recent trans-panic specials, he recreates his most notorious pro-war pieces almost frame-for-frame: He expresses his sympathy with the goals of the left (peace/protecting trans children), then accuses them of undermining their allegedly shared goal with extremism and bad manners (calling Bush a liar/writing angry letters to the New York Times). And he does this on the basis of mendacious, ideologically-driven intelligence, which he takes at face value: WMDs in the former case, an activist gender clinic “whistleblower” in the other.
The Ron and Don Show
I do wish political reporters would explain why a good 50% of political news right now is about Ron and Don trading barbs, implicitly (Ron, mostly) or explicitly (Don, of course).
A Lot Of People Died
After the WMD rationale for Iraq fizzled, we rebranded the invasion as a mission to spread Freeance and Peeance. This was cynical bullshit, of course, as absolutely no one involved with that little endeavor was someone you would trust not to piss on a homeless person for laughs.
The funny thing about Bretbug Stephens is no one really cares what he writes. Unlike some other conservatives, it's mostly pointing and laughing because he's repetitive, predictable, and dumb. The man phones it in, and he has nothing to say.
His latest on how the Iraq war was Good, Akshually, does a neat trick of putting any blame for "misery" and "suffering" (the word "deaths" is not used) on the occupied, rather than the occupiers.
As I said, Bretbug doesn't make me mad, though the editor who gave him his job does, a bit, but we shouldn't take any moral lessons from people whose cruelty to their fellow Americans is never disguised, let alone what they actually think about the lives of off-white foreigners.
More broadly, any of these assholes - the ones who are at best indifferent to the plight of their fellow hu-mans - who opine on any policy whatsoever should be ignored. They don't care how it impacts people other than them, and any pretense otherwise is a lie.
The funny thing about Bretbug Stephens is no one really cares what he writes. Unlike some other conservatives, it's mostly pointing and laughing because he's repetitive, predictable, and dumb. The man phones it in, and he has nothing to say.
His latest on how the Iraq war was Good, Akshually, does a neat trick of putting any blame for "misery" and "suffering" (the word "deaths" is not used) on the occupied, rather than the occupiers.
As I said, Bretbug doesn't make me mad, though the editor who gave him his job does, a bit, but we shouldn't take any moral lessons from people whose cruelty to their fellow Americans is never disguised, let alone what they actually think about the lives of off-white foreigners.
More broadly, any of these assholes - the ones who are at best indifferent to the plight of their fellow hu-mans - who opine on any policy whatsoever should be ignored. They don't care how it impacts people other than them, and any pretense otherwise is a lie.
Unsafe At Any Speed
Even before we get to actual individual behavior (which isn't entirely independent)and whether that has somehow changed, the bigger and taller vehicles are just incompatible with pedestrians.
There was a time when I was a bit more optimistic that car dependency, and all of the various policies which necessitate it, was at least starting to trend in a better direction for various reasons. Pretty pessimistic now! Electric cars won't save us, kids.
I know "smug urbanist" has become an annoying online type, and I get that, but while I don't need to live in "Paris" or "New York" or even a major city of any kind, necessarily, I can't fathom living somewhere I can't walk or take a quick bus ride for most of my regular wants/needs.
When I was in LA recently, some old friends had a party so we went. We were staying in DTLA and their party was around Silver Lake somewhere. I actually had a car for some of the time I was there, but public transit from DTLA is actually pretty good, and it was a quick bus ride, so we took the bus.
That was seen as a very strange thing to do!
There was a time when I was a bit more optimistic that car dependency, and all of the various policies which necessitate it, was at least starting to trend in a better direction for various reasons. Pretty pessimistic now! Electric cars won't save us, kids.
I know "smug urbanist" has become an annoying online type, and I get that, but while I don't need to live in "Paris" or "New York" or even a major city of any kind, necessarily, I can't fathom living somewhere I can't walk or take a quick bus ride for most of my regular wants/needs.
When I was in LA recently, some old friends had a party so we went. We were staying in DTLA and their party was around Silver Lake somewhere. I actually had a car for some of the time I was there, but public transit from DTLA is actually pretty good, and it was a quick bus ride, so we took the bus.
That was seen as a very strange thing to do!
The Chickenshit Club
"We" don't talk enough about the mafia-like corruption at the top levels of society. You don't prosecute rich people because then you're the guy who prosecuted rich people, and suddenly the golden job opportunities that were supposed to materialize for you and your family and your friends just don't.
People often talk about "fear" - and it's in the name there, "chickenshit" - but really it's more just basic corruption. Or, more gently, basic incentives. Don't think every "chickenshit" is corrupt, but the system is.
Not talking about Trump here, as that's a special situation, though chickenshits there too.
People often talk about "fear" - and it's in the name there, "chickenshit" - but really it's more just basic corruption. Or, more gently, basic incentives. Don't think every "chickenshit" is corrupt, but the system is.
Not talking about Trump here, as that's a special situation, though chickenshits there too.
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
And In One Of The Other Crimeing Investigations
We'll see if this gets fast tracked to SCOTUS.
Former President Donald Trump’s defense attorney Evan Corcoran is scheduled to testify Friday before the grand jury investigating classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago after a new order from a federal appeals court, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.We'll see!
The US DC Circuit Court of Appeals said that Corcoran must provide additional testimony and turn over documents about the former president as part of the criminal investigation into possible mishandling of classified documents.
The source said Trump’s side is unlikely to appeal to the Supreme Court.
I Welcome Your Hatred
The CW mentioned in the post below runs concurrently with pieces about how much Trump doesn't want to be prosecuted, and it is a bit hard for both to be true.
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Nobody Could Have Predicted
People always want to believe the centrist dipshits don't know who their fellow travellers are, but they certainly do and don't care. Much like during the Iraq war!
They Killed An Immense Number Of People
Iraq war mea culpas were a thing about 12 years ago or so, and most of them were along the lines of, "wow how could my immense brain have failed me, no worries, my immense brain will never do that again, because it is so immense." Almost no reckoning with what they caused.
No one today can supply a simple reason for the invasion of Iraq that stands up to the slightest moral or factual scrutiny. Every attempt to provide a rationale for the war is patent sophistry or self-justification. This groundlessness, this inability to situate the war in anything tangible or concrete, is simply because it was based on a lie. More than a single lie, it was based on thoroughgoing hostility towards reality itself. It was based on an absurdly oversimplified ideological picture of the world. It was based on the willful ignorance and manipulation of intelligence. It was based on the fictitious and fanciful idea that Saddam was somehow connected to Osama bin Laden, a falsehood that played on the fears and anger of a wounded and humiliated nation, ready to lash out. It was based on indifference to the actual history and culture of Iraq, as if we could just easily shape another nation to our will. And, perhaps most disturbingly, it was based on the belief that projecting the image of power, of a tough and vengeful nation, was of paramount concern. The planners clearly thought about the war as it would play out on T.V.: in spectacular scenes that would impress audiences at home and abroad. “There are no good targets in Afghanistan; let's bomb Iraq,” Donald Rumsfeld remarked to Richard Clarke — There was just more to blow up.I'd be more forgiving if it wasn't the case that 20 years later, "support for the Iraq war" wasn't still an almost (not quite!) perfect indicator of whether someone is a complete asshole today.
They're Bad People
It's very rude in DC to point out that people are lying for money, because almost everyone is as it's part of their job, and it's incredibly rude to point out that policies have actual consequences like, for example, death.
I suppose the whole social system falls apart if the people within it treat those who supported, for example, wars, as the murderers they are, but that doesn't stop the rest of us.
Actions have consequences, actual people die. It isn't just some abstract debate beloved of a certain type of pundit.
I suppose the whole social system falls apart if the people within it treat those who supported, for example, wars, as the murderers they are, but that doesn't stop the rest of us.
Actions have consequences, actual people die. It isn't just some abstract debate beloved of a certain type of pundit.
Sounds Bad
Antifa rampaging.
Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama on Wednesday announced the arrest of five people after a series of bombings in the city. A task force of local police and FBI agents also seized bomb-making components, firearms, methamphetamine and white supremacist paraphernalia, including Nazi flags.
What If They Don't
The New York Times refers to it as a "looming indictment" but as far as I can tell nobody knows for sure or at least can't claim to.
Monday, March 20, 2023
Lifetime Retroactive Purge Card
My belief is that 5 votes on SCOTUS say that Republican presidents do indeed receive one of these. Everybody sure does seem excited, though!
Obvious Consequences
Shrill pro-abortion extremists were long mocked for saying this was inevitable (and what anti-abortion people actually want).
America is in a maternal health crisis. According to new CDC data released this week, the rate of maternal mortality – defined as deaths during pregnancy or within 42 days of giving birth – rose by 40% in 2021. At a rate of 33 deaths for every 100,000 live births, 1,205 women died of maternal causes that year. That rate was more than twice as high for Black women, whose maternal mortality rate was 70 deaths for every 100,000 live births. The latest federal compilation of data from reviews of maternal deaths suggests that 84% were preventable.
Wriggling Out
The theme of the day is that powerful people always wriggle out, while the rest of us suck on it.
Don't See How Donnie Two Scoops Wriggles Out Of This One
We will see!
Atlanta-area prosecutors are considering bringing racketeering and conspiracy charges in connection with Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
Investigators have a large volume of substantial evidence related to a possible conspiracy from inside and outside the state, including recordings of phone calls, emails, text messages, documents, and testimony before a special grand jury.
Elite Accountability
It is still very rude indeed to suggest that support of the Iraq war should reflect badly on anyone. In fact, the opponents are still the weirdos who tend not to be consulted even now.
The great tragedy of the Iraq war is that disgusting pig people get to remind brain geniuses like Jon Chait what they are responsible for.
Tom Friedman Already Answered This
The New York Times has a big thumbsucker on WHY DID WE INVADE IRAQ which I think could be answered better by any left wing blogger from that period. It of course leaves out the role of The New York Times in making it happen.
But, really, as much as we like to make fun of Tom Friedman, he actually was most correct when he said we invaded Iraq to tell Iraqis, and the world, to suck on America's massive cock and balls.
Tom thought that was a good thing, however.
But, really, as much as we like to make fun of Tom Friedman, he actually was most correct when he said we invaded Iraq to tell Iraqis, and the world, to suck on America's massive cock and balls.
Tom thought that was a good thing, however.
Sunday, March 19, 2023
Guys We Know What You're Doing
All the media "centrists" who love making arguments about how DeSantis is SO MUCH BETTER THAN TRUMP aren't people who have any influence over Republican primary voters and certainly not Republican primary voters who will vote for one of those dudes.
They're just trying to create a permission structure for themselves and their friends to be on Team DeSantis.
They're just trying to create a permission structure for themselves and their friends to be on Team DeSantis.
Guns... Nice
If you look at the t-shirt you'll understand why it isn't school appropriate, no matter what your views of guns fashion are.
Can you believe Hunter Kimbell was disciplined for wearing this shirt in Utah? pic.twitter.com/DKXrfMEkRc
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 18, 2023
In The Old Times
The degree to which "we" seriously debate whether Republican presidents get a lifetime retroactive Purge card is quite interesting!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)