Thursday, February 29, 2024
Don't Mention The War
Can make some arguments about what Biden can and can't control - Congress, the Courts - but American foreign policy is almost entirely his. Maybe if the goal is to beat the bad orange man, people should focus on the things they can change.
It doesn't matter if I talk about it, or other annoying lefties, it's not going to go away.
It doesn't matter if I talk about it, or other annoying lefties, it's not going to go away.
These children are not suffering from drought or crop failure or some other natural disaster. Their hunger is a man-made catastrophe. The Israeli government has slowed and even prevented food aid from entering the besieged Gaza Strip.
Trapped With A Chatbot
It'll change everything!
In fact, at some point Google and OpenAI will have to face that the actual best uses for chatbots (summarizing chunks of text and some easy programming tasks, so far?) diverges from what many enthusiasts want the chatbots to be (computer demi-gods). If Gemini won’t tell you that Hitler is worse than Elon Musk, is it a failure of the chatbot that needs to be fixed, a failure of the user for prompting it to the wrong purpose, or a failure of the chatbot’s owners for trying to have their cake and eat it too? Is it a precise creative tool, a well-sourced search engine, an accurate encyclopedia, a magical scrying ball, a silly parlor trick? Google and OpenAI and their peers and boosters have marketed A.I. chatbots as all of the above--do-anything miracle tools--but these models manifestly can’t do “anything,” as John Herrman writes at Intelligencer:The best defense the AI firms have — our products aren’t as good as we’ve implied, they reproduce and exaggerate problems that exist in the real world, they might be irresolvably strange as a concept, and no matter how we configure them, we’re going to be making unilateral and arbitrary decisions about how they should represent the world — is one that they can’t really articulate, not that it would matter much if they could. Image generators are profoundly strange pieces of software that synthesize averaged-out content from troves of existing media at the behest of users who want and expect countless different things. They’re marketed as software that can produce photos and illustrations — as both documentary and creative tools — when, really, they’re doing something less than that.
Just Playing The Hits
The meaning of the word "liberal" changes with time and with who is saying it, but "[then] lefties are aligned with Saddam Hussein and [now] Hamas" isn't just a Bannon thing.
Fellas, Is It Legal To Shoot Dozens Of People If You Claim To Be Scared
Quite likely!
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The man accused of firing the first shots at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally told authorities he felt threatened, while a second man said he pulled the trigger because someone was shooting at him, according to court documents.What a country!
Experts say that even though the shooting left one bystander dead and roughly two dozen people injured, 23-year-old Lyndell Mays and 18-year-old Dominic Miller might have good cases for self-defense through the state’s “stand your ground” law.
“Collateral damage under Missouri law is excused if you’re actually engaged in lawful self-defense and there’s other folks injured,” he said.
Probably The Biggest NYT "Scandal" In My Lifetime
Normally when there's a big Grey Lady Whoopsie it inspires a lot of Discourse. Other journalists used to love to talk about. There's a lot of quiet now.
The fear among Times staffers who have been critical of the paper’s Gaza coverage is that Schwartz will become a scapegoat for what is a much deeper failure. She may harbor animosity toward Palestinians, lack the experience with investigative journalism, and feel conflicting pressures between being a supporter of Israel’s war effort and a Times reporter, but Schwartz did not commission herself and her nephew to report one of the most consequential stories of the war. Senior leadership at the New York Times did.
...
The question has never been whether individual acts of sexual assault may have occurred on October 7. Rape is not uncommon in war, and there were also several hundred civilians who poured into Israel from Gaza that day in a “second wave,” contributing to and participating in the mayhem and violence. The central issue is whether the New York Times presented solid evidence to support its claim that there were newly reported details “establishing that the attacks against women were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence on Oct. 7” — a claim stated in the headline that Hamas deliberately deployed sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Starvation
I would like to be wrong about lots of things, but there is current no plan to deal with starvation in Gaza, something which happens slowly then (almost) all it once.
Biden's people are still out there doing the smol bean act, oh we just can't tell a SOVEREIGN NATION what to do (they say this), and, aside from the absurdity of that, reality catches up to your press flunky's attempts to manipulate the headlines eventually.
I knew where this was headed in October, back when people thought it was wrong to yell at Biden because of the Bad Orange Man and, well, now it's almost March and have we solved this problem? Was there a moment when we could've nudged this thing in a different direction? Maybe back when they were ludicrously claiming this would all be done by January and even that sounded horrific?
Other sources are putting the death toll above 100. The IDF is claiming this was justified because starving people attempted to get aid in a less than orderly fashion.
Smol bean Biden is considering food air drops, instead of forcing Israel to let the trucks in, which has the advantage of being disorderly.
Biden's people are still out there doing the smol bean act, oh we just can't tell a SOVEREIGN NATION what to do (they say this), and, aside from the absurdity of that, reality catches up to your press flunky's attempts to manipulate the headlines eventually.
I knew where this was headed in October, back when people thought it was wrong to yell at Biden because of the Bad Orange Man and, well, now it's almost March and have we solved this problem? Was there a moment when we could've nudged this thing in a different direction? Maybe back when they were ludicrously claiming this would all be done by January and even that sounded horrific?
I'm sure they were all Hamas.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed or wounded after Israeli troops opened fire on hundreds waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City, as the besieged enclave faces an unprecedented hunger crisis.
Smol bean Biden is considering food air drops, instead of forcing Israel to let the trucks in, which has the advantage of being disorderly.
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
2 Forward, 3 Back
Ha-Ha
NEW YORK -- NY appellate judge rejects Donald Trump’s request to pause $454 million civil fraud penalty, halts some other sanctions.Ruh-Roh
The US supreme court will decide if Donald Trump can be prosecuted on election interference charges, indicating it will move quickly in the immunity case.Not so quickly it won't be delayed until after the election, which is the point.
Broke Orange Man
We'll see if "rich guy rules" apply.
Donald J. Trump offered a New York appeals court on Wednesday a bond of only $100 million to pause the more than $450 million penalty he faces in his civil fraud case, a clear sign that the former president lacks the money to cover the full amount.
How Did George W. Bush Become So Unpopular
We had fun here, back in the day, as W's approval numbers dropped into the 20s. The 20s! Amazing! How did that happen to Commander Codpiece?
That's a rhetorical question. I'm not looking for answer. The basic truth is he was never especially popular aside from the extended post 9-11 bounce. The Kerry campaign was pretty shitty, and Kerry still almost won, despite the continued media adulation of W. and the absolutely insane media coverage of Kerry (who did not deserve that, even if the campaign was shitty).
W.'s falling popularity was largely unacknowledged. David "dines on quayle with Karl Rove" Broder was writing Comeback Kid pieces as W. hit the Keyes Constant of Republican (un)popularity.
An entire generation of the political press hitched their wagons to W.'s fortune, and, especially with the added 9-11 effect, really embraced the idea that "we" (they and W.) were all in it together.
"Liberal" pundits wrote books like this:
What Are You Saying, Tom
What does is it mean if the purpose is simply to reduce the population? What do we call that?
So the whole Israel-Gaza operation is starting to look to more and more people like a human meat grinder whose only goal is to reduce the population so that Israel can control it more easily.
New Musk Crime About To Drop
He always comes out with some nonsense when some bad news is coming.
Feb 28 (Reuters) - Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab will aim to ship its Roadster electric sports car next year, the electric vehicle maker's CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday.He took deposits for this. In 2017.
"Tonight, we radically increased the design goals for the new Tesla Roadster," Musk said in a post on X, adding that Roadster's production design will be completed and unveiled by the end of this year.
Tesla had announced the Roadster, a battery-powered four-seater, at the end of 2017, which was originally set to be launched in 2020.
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Bye Apple Car
Ah well.
The fantasy will live on, somehow.
Meanwhile, other reports suggested that the car, which was rumored to remain under the $100,000 threshold, wouldn’t come with the advanced self-driving capabilities the company initially hoped. Shifting its resources to AI might make sense for Apple, as it’s reportedly spending millions of dollars a day on training an AI model of its own, called Ajax. Apple CEO Tim Cook also recently confirmed that Apple is launching generative AI features “later this year,” while rumors indicate the company is testing AI updates for Spotlight and Xcode.Sure spend it on "AI" instead, whatever.
Even though Apple may have abandoned the self-driving electric vehicle dream, Sony and Honda are still working to open preorders for their Afeela electric cars with autonomous features in North America next year ahead of a rollout in 2026.
The fantasy will live on, somehow.
The decision to ultimately wind down the project is a bombshell for the company, ending a multibillion-dollar effort that would have vaulted Apple into a whole new industry. The tech giant started working on a car around 2014, setting its sights on a fully autonomous electric vehicle with a limousine-like interior and voice-guided navigation."Siri, take me to Dave&Busters" is the unattainable dream.
I Get Why He Thinks That
"Rich people don't actually have to pay for anything" is pretty common!
Donald Trump is arguing that he shouldn’t have to post the massive bond in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him … because he’s simply too rich.
..
“Having argued to the jury that President Trump has great financial resources, Plaintiff is in no position to contradict herself now and contend that she requires the protection of a bond during the brief period while post-trial motions are pending,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
Covid Long Term
Anecdotes are not data, but a 40-year-old friend-of-a-friend who was previously healthy just entered into heart failure.
From 2020 to 2022, a quarter of a million more Americans over 35 years old succumbed to cardiovascular disease than predicted based on historical trends, according to Bloomberg analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2023, age-adjusted stroke mortality was almost 5% above pre-pandemic levels, according to preliminary data, while rates from deaths related to hypertensive heart disease, rhythm abnormalities, blood clots, diabetes and kidney failure were 15-28% higher. Covid had a muted impact on other common causes of death such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, the data show.
“The cardiometabolic aftereffects of SARS-CoV-2 have been profound, persistent, and peculiar — really peculiar,” said cardiologist Susan Cheng, director of public health research at Cedars-Sinai’s Smidt Heart Institute in Los Angeles.
I Will Defeat Your Arguments With Facts And Logic
This is in response to Musk tweeting this:(And immigration courts are only part of the Border apparatus. The Biden administration also used Title 42 expulsions more than the Trump administration.)https://t.co/HzMMYUCANphttps://t.co/Cy9ccK3Grk pic.twitter.com/7rGRXW2BSi
— Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) February 26, 2024
The obvious conclusion is "there is nothing you can do about immigration that will stop them from talking nonsense" but our Smart Technocrats are going to keep going with "no Biden really hates immigrants even more than you do!"
Why do we keep stepping on rakes after dumping a bunch of rakes into the field? Truly a mystery.
Sounds Bad
The chickenshit club has to start going after rich guys more.
Despite a decade of dreaming, Elon Musk has only built one tiny Hyperloop tunnel in Las Vegas — and the people who built it say it's filled with dangerous chemical sludge.
As Bloomberg reports, the Boring Company's scarce output — which thus far amounts only to driving Teslas around a few miles of neon-lit tunnel underneath Sin City as they ferry convention attendees at no more than 40 miles per hour — has also come with a massive buildup of waste, the consistency of a milkshake, that's said to burn the skin of anyone who comes in contact with it.
...
The state OSHA opened its own investigation into the outrageous safety hazards said to be present in the Boring Company tunnels, and as Bloomberg learned from documents it accessed via a Freedom of Information Act request, some workers were scarred permanently from their accelerant burns.
Monday, February 26, 2024
Seems Bad
We will go to any lengths for anything with a "national security" justification, but one rich racist has apparently flummoxed people.
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter on Saturday to SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk demanding that U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan get access to SpaceX’s Starshield, a satellite communication network designed specifically for the military.We've put Droney on the job for less.
She'll Be Missed
Mag Habs writes a tearful (exaggeration) farewell piece to Ronna McDaniel in today's NYT, a final farewell to an excellent source.
It occurred to me that I had (until I checked) no idea who the head of the DNC was.
There isn't one reason for this, but it is an issue that the Republican Cinematic Universe is so large, with so many characters and so many spinoffs.
One reason - relevant for Mag Habs - is they play the corrosive access journalism game very well.
But, generally, the Republicans are portrayed as the protagonists even when mostly out of power.
This isn't directly related, but I regularly think of how during the Bush Years, Meet the Press justified its Republican/conservative heavy guest roster by saying that they were in charge so that made sense. Then, when Obama took power, they justified the same by arguing that administration in power had plenty of ways to get their message out, so it made sense for them to provide a platform for the minority party.
It occurred to me that I had (until I checked) no idea who the head of the DNC was.
There isn't one reason for this, but it is an issue that the Republican Cinematic Universe is so large, with so many characters and so many spinoffs.
One reason - relevant for Mag Habs - is they play the corrosive access journalism game very well.
But, generally, the Republicans are portrayed as the protagonists even when mostly out of power.
This isn't directly related, but I regularly think of how during the Bush Years, Meet the Press justified its Republican/conservative heavy guest roster by saying that they were in charge so that made sense. Then, when Obama took power, they justified the same by arguing that administration in power had plenty of ways to get their message out, so it made sense for them to provide a platform for the minority party.
The Smartest Boys On The Internet
Since our tech lords blessed us with the AI singularity, guys like Nate have been obsessed with it giving the "wrong" answer, mostly because they think whenever it's "wrong" due to excessive wokeness.
I am dumb and I understand that these things have neither reasoning nor moral capacity, they are just mimics with algorithms, and those algorithms likely include nudging thing machine against spitting out clear to questions like "is X worse than Y" because it isn't capable of doing that.
To put it simply so that maybe these weirdos can understand: if it can pretend to draw clear conclusions about "Is Musk better or worse than Hitler" it will have to do the same for "Is Joe Biden better or worse than Donald Trump" unless they just code "Hitler is worse than everybody" into the algorithm.
I'm wrong. The won't understand the point. They can spend a lifetime getting mad about their chatbot wrongly ranking people. They can move onto sports stars, finding it concerning every time it doesn't clearly pick the white guy.
They're spending hours trying to prove the AI is TOO WOKE and getting mad about it. Some poor guy at google gets a message from Elon Musk every time he's not happy with the degree of racism.
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Sure Why Not
Stop me before I crime again.
Steve Kramer, a veteran political consultant working for a rival candidate, acknowledged Sunday that he commissioned the robocall impersonating President Joe Biden with artificial intelligence, confirming an NBC News report that he was behind the call.No idea precisely what existing laws would apply, but that's an invitation to find them!
...
Kramer said more enforcement is necessary to stop people like him from doing what he did.
Authorities in New Hampshire are investigating the robocall for potentially violating state laws against voter suppression. A multi-state task force of state attorneys generals focused on robocalls is looking to crack down on the people involved in the Biden robocall in order to set an early example as the technology becomes more widespread. And the Federal Commissions Commission sped up plans to criminalize AI robocalls in response to the Biden robocall.
Age
I don't even care what's in this article, it's just "funny" that older millennials are now in their 40s and they're still discussed as some weird new arrival on the planet.
I suppose it's extra weird from the perspective of an Xer - we basically didn't exist, then we were "slackers" for about 3 years, and then just boring adults at age 25.
Victory Tour
A lot of things wrong with Biden's response to Gaza (for the kids, this is what we called "understatement"), but one is their absolute inability to game out where this is going. Whatever else they thought in mid-October, that this would somehow all wrap up and then there would be a "next day" in a politically convenient time frame was part of it.
Orange man is bad, I know, which is why more of you people should've been receptive to criticism over 4 months ago. Tick tick tick.
Orange man is bad, I know, which is why more of you people should've been receptive to criticism over 4 months ago. Tick tick tick.
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Black Like Me
Amazing stuff.
“A lot of people said that’s why the Black people liked me, because they had been hurt so badly and discriminated against. And they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against … Maybe there’s something to it,” he said, right after talking about the charges.
He also cited his mug shot in Georgia — taken last summer after he was charged for trying to overturn the state’s election results — as a reason that Black voters would gravitate toward him in November. Trump said he now saw Black Americans wearing mug shots on their T-shirts.
“When I did the mug shot in Atlanta, that mug shot is number one,” Trump said. He added that the Black population “embraced it more than anyone else.”
He also said: “I’m being indicted for you, the Black population.”
Mulligan
I see Republicans have decided on "reporters won't remember our decades-long support for fetal personhood bills" as their response to the Alabama IVF ruling and are they wrong? Not understanding, or pretending not to understand, all of these things have been at the center of abortion coverage my whole life.
I'm not surprised Republicans are running from this. While the real hardcore anti-abortion people have been gunning for IVF, plenty of politicians boast about their IVF kids.
This isn't as simple as "my abortions are good, yours are bad" hypocrisy. They hide those. They are proud of their fertility treatment children, even if they are convinced they did in the right way, unlike you.
I'm not surprised Republicans are running from this. While the real hardcore anti-abortion people have been gunning for IVF, plenty of politicians boast about their IVF kids.
This isn't as simple as "my abortions are good, yours are bad" hypocrisy. They hide those. They are proud of their fertility treatment children, even if they are convinced they did in the right way, unlike you.
Friday, February 23, 2024
Dog Ran Over By Car That It Just Caught
Of course banning IVF or curtailing its practice in ways that make it impossible to do is the logical implication of all the fetal personhood stuff they've been pushing for years, but...
NEW: In response to AL Supreme Court IVF ruling, a Feb 23 NRSC memo “encourages Republican Senate candidates to clearly and concisely reject efforts by the government to restrict IVF.” pic.twitter.com/GKxM1ebpLl
— Audrey Fahlberg (@AudreyFahlberg) February 23, 2024
I Was Skeptical
But apparently those retail theft rings are real, if not quite what we were supposed to think.
A complaint alleges Michelle Mack of Bonsall was the ringleader of an organized national crime ring that stole nearly $8 million worth of makeup and other goods from stores, including hundreds of Ulta Cosmetics stores across the U.S., and re-sold them on her online Amazon storefront.You have to watch the video, but tl;dw: her class and complexion are at odds with the ongoing narrative.
And Why Did She Think That
If you were a very well-informed voter - listened to NPR, read the New York Times, contemplated the deep thoughts of our illustrious dipshist centrist columnists - you would have understandably believed that banning abortion would not ban lifesaving care.
When Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, the two had argued fiercely about what a near-total abortion ban would mean for women in the state — with Norris-De La Cruz fearing a loss of personal freedoms, and Lloyd welcoming new protections for babies who couldn’t speak up for themselves.
Initially, Lloyd said, she thought the Texas abortion law would only affect people who decided they didn’t want to be pregnant — never imagining it could prevent women from accessing lifesaving care. Now, she said, she has completely changed her mind about abortion bans.
“I didn’t realize how far it had gone,” she said. “But it has happened to my life now, with my daughter."
“Her life has been in danger and affected by someone who was too afraid to help.”
Folks
The New York Times has a miraculous ability to find longtime professional conservative activists while somehow forgetting to tell you that.
"Activist" is often a word used to disparage people journalists think you should look at suspiciously, as if they are blinded by ideology, unlike the pure random people they found somehow who just have normal people feelings about stuff.
The people who subscribe to the NYT are liberalish. The people who run it are not, and Dash is quite clearly much worse than Pinch was.
Natalie Brumfield, 41, cried as she read about the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that embryos in test tubes should be considered children. A mother of seven, including two babies conceived through in vitro fertilization, Ms. Brumfield felt that one of her cherished beliefs as a Christian had been affirmed: Life, she said, begins when embryos form.That's their lede paragraph for the story, about a woman who has made it effectively impossible for people in Alabama to do what she did (whether or not she's smart enough to understand that).
"Activist" is often a word used to disparage people journalists think you should look at suspiciously, as if they are blinded by ideology, unlike the pure random people they found somehow who just have normal people feelings about stuff.
The people who subscribe to the NYT are liberalish. The people who run it are not, and Dash is quite clearly much worse than Pinch was.
Thursday, February 22, 2024
Ah, Well, Nevertheless
The accusations, even if completely true, didn't justify neutering the only functioning system of aid delivery at this time, but that the Israeli government keeps doing the "trust us, bro" move, and our guys say, "of course," is not inspiring.
A US intelligence assessment of Israel’s claims that UN aid agency staff members participated in the Hamas attack on 7 October said some of the accusations were credible, though could not be independently verified, while also casting doubt on claims of wider links to militant groups.It's a big employer, that some employees might be involved shouldn't have even been especially notable. I mean, not a good thing, but if they worked for Pizza Hut it wouldn't necessarily mean Pizza Hut needed to be droned into oblivion.
The assault precipitated a full-scale invasion by Israel of Gaza that has killed upwards of 30,000 Palestinians. Earlier this year, Israel accused 12 employees of the United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency (UNRWA) of participating in the 7 October attacks alongside Hamas. It also said 10% of all UNRWA workers were affiliated with Hamas.
Things Are Forever On The Internet
People who have written for Vice are on social media saying they think the site might get ripped down today (or soon). We've had a 20 year experiment in the internet being the archive and I don't think the results are very good!
I'm old enough to remember the pre-internet days. Your tiny local newspaper had its own archive, the local public libraries had one - some combination of print and microfilm/fiche - as did your state university library. Any decent library (such as a university) had an incredibly large microfilm/fiche archive of magazines of the 20th century.
If you wanted to find Life Magazine, March, 1953, or Sport Illustrated, February, 1983, you probably could fairly easily. Those things probably still persist. I'm not sure Vice.com 2012 will.
I'm just giving examples. The point being there were multiple physical copies of everything. Nothing lasts forever - historians are always recreating the unknowable past from an imperfect archive - but it seemed like everything would persist.
Seems Bad
My rough understanding is if you're an older adult (like me!) your childhood vaccinations might not be as effective as you'd like.
Because of the extreme contagiousness of measles and its potentially serious health consequences, in the case of a school outbreak, the CDC recommends that “unvaccinated children, including those who have a medical or other exemption to vaccination, must be excluded from school through 21 days after their most recent exposure.”
But maybe not in Florida. Bucking those guidelines, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo issued a statement on Tuesday announcing, the state’s Department of Health, “is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance” because of the “burden on families and the educational cost of healthy children missing school” and the “high immunity rate in the community.”
Defense
So much liberalish is discourse is highlighting and refuting conservative (and mainstream media) bullshit. I'm guilty of that myself! "We" can all take some blame and promise to do better, but it isn't helped that our electeds rarely go on the offense on a sustained basis.
One response you get to points like this is "oh we don't want to be like the Right." I'm not advocating that Dick Durbin (or whoever) should go out there every day with the bullshit gun. Just, you know, swing at the easy at ones and keepswinging.
I know there are legitimate asymmetries (believe me, I know) in how mainstream outlets cover things, but if you want something to be news you still have to make news.
One response you get to points like this is "oh we don't want to be like the Right." I'm not advocating that Dick Durbin (or whoever) should go out there every day with the bullshit gun. Just, you know, swing at the easy at ones and keepswinging.
I know there are legitimate asymmetries (believe me, I know) in how mainstream outlets cover things, but if you want something to be news you still have to make news.
No Don't Do This
Probably some in the administration believe in it on the merits, but also I'm sure the political people believe they can say "see, we did something about the border!" Fox will still run 3 year old video of scary "caravans" and Republican governors will still pull their stunts.
This is what we sophisticated advanced politics knowers call a "trial balloon" so the time to yell is now.
The White House is considering executive action to restrict migrants’ ability to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border if they crossed illegally – a maneuver reminiscent of controversial action from the Donald Trump era and is sure to invite fierce backlash from immigration advocates and progressives.The "anger" about immigration is not related to anything real. Even more than with crime, it is about people reacting to the teevee.
This is what we sophisticated advanced politics knowers call a "trial balloon" so the time to yell is now.
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Hunter's Hog
Weird
The one day there actually should be a Hunter Biden story on the NYT homepage: bupkus.
— Dan Froomkin (PressWatchers.org) (@froomkin) February 21, 2024
IVF
As I've said, it is a weird dividing line because IVF is very popular with the prolife crowd, even if in secret, because they want their babies.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham health system has paused in vitro fertilization procedures following an Alabama Supreme Court decision due to fear of criminal prosecution and lawsuits, a spokeswoman said.A righteous sin, basically.
Nothing Will Satisfy Them
I know satisfying Pirro isn't the point but, the people who get upset about immigration issues take their cues from people like Pirro. There is no action the Biden administration can take to "beat" Republicans on the issue.
... The Democrats!
Amazing stuff.
SKDK, the Washington, D.C. public relations firm with close ties to President Joe Biden’s White House, has been running communications for the 10/7 Project, a consortium of five Jewish organizations founded last year to promote “continued US support for Israel and counter misinformation about the Israel/Hamas war.” Over the past several months, that work has largely consisted of sharing daily memos to journalists pointing out what the group sees as flaws in coverage, such as what it sees as under-coverage of Hamas’ sexual assaults of Israeli hostages taken on 10/7 and failures to acknowledge the US government’s assessment that Hamas had a military presence at the Al-Shifa hospital.This is basically Anita Dunn's firm.
But it also has been keeping tabs on reporters that it felt were reporting and tweeting unfairly about Israel, and putting pressure on major national news organizations to punish or remove these reporters from the beat. In particular, the group has singled out the Washington Post and its foreign correspondent Louisa Loveluck, who has covered the war in Gaza with an emphasis on Palestinian civilians impacted by the violence.
Seems Bad
Probably some journalists should reevaluate some thinigs from the past few years.
LAS VEGAS — A former FBI informant who allegedly fed the bureau false information about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign said that some of the information he spread came from “officials associated with Russian intelligence,” prosecutors said in a filing Tuesday.
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Ukraine Cynicism
The whole thing is above my pay grade and I really claim no insight whatsoever. I do, however, have insight into the way left-coded skepticism is always swept away any time there's a war to be fought. I'd say a brief description of lefty skepticism - which in no way required thinking Putin is not the bad guy here, this is not a Russia Is Good Akshually, thing - was something like:
1) The US and Europe will dive in with a lot of jingoism at first, perhaps too aggressively threatening WWIII (the latter did not happen)
2) Some of the bigger psychopaths in the Blob will welcome a war of attrition that keeps Russia bogged down, whatever its impact on Ukraine
3) Barring an unlikely Ukraine "victory" or someone putting a bullet in Putin's brain, eventually the US and Europe would tire of the various costs (obvious and less obvious ones, the less obvious ones including some horrifyingly corrupt shit).
4) Ultimately some sort of peace will be achieved which will involve Ukraine giving up territory. The "conspiracy theory" version of this is that something much like this inevitable was on the table in the beginning, but was scuttled by UK and US Blob psychos.
1) The US and Europe will dive in with a lot of jingoism at first, perhaps too aggressively threatening WWIII (the latter did not happen)
2) Some of the bigger psychopaths in the Blob will welcome a war of attrition that keeps Russia bogged down, whatever its impact on Ukraine
3) Barring an unlikely Ukraine "victory" or someone putting a bullet in Putin's brain, eventually the US and Europe would tire of the various costs (obvious and less obvious ones, the less obvious ones including some horrifyingly corrupt shit).
4) Ultimately some sort of peace will be achieved which will involve Ukraine giving up territory. The "conspiracy theory" version of this is that something much like this inevitable was on the table in the beginning, but was scuttled by UK and US Blob psychos.
WWIII didn't happen and the "conspiracy theory" is not necessarily true, but the rest of it basically is, even though I don't think the implications of that are especially clear.
The righteousness of a cause should not obscure the reality.
It Was All A Terrible Mistake
"It should be illegal to call me a shithead, especially on the internet," is about the most important plank of elite agenda. Second to "give me all the money."
WHAT CAN BIDEN DOOOOOO
Really tired of hearing that from people.
ISTANBUL—The Biden administration is preparing to send bombs and other weapons to Israel that would add to its military arsenal even as the U.S. pushes for a cease-fire in the war in Gaza, according to current and former U.S. officials.
The proposed arms delivery includes roughly a thousand each of MK-82 bombs, KMU-572 Joint Direct Attack Munitions that add precision guidance to bombs, and FMU-139 bomb fuses, the officials said. The arms are estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars. The proposed delivery is still being reviewed internally by the administration, a U.S. official said, and the details of the proposal could change before the Biden administration notifies congressional committee leaders who would need to approve the transfer.
Monday, February 19, 2024
Imperfect
It is very strange to want computers to make very imperfect outputs and, unlike text, cleaning up video after the fact isn't even really feasible.
This is a problem that dramatically limits how much one can rely on generative AI, and it's one that compounds severely with the complexity of what you're asking it to do. Words can be copy-pasted and edited, and citations can be checked. Images, however, are much tougher to edit, and videos are an entirely different beast, especially if you're generating lifelike humans or animals. While Sora is interesting and potentially quite scary to filmmakers, it's important to consider some practical questions, like "how can someone actually make something useful out of this?" and "how do I get this model to do the same thing every time without fail?" While an error in a 30-second-long clip might be something you might miss, once you see one of these strange visual hallucinations it's impossible to ignore them. The assumption is that audiences are stupid, and ignorant, and "just won't care," and I firmly disagree — I think regular people will find this stuff deeply offensive.Not an expert on video/image editing, but I suspect editing out the 6th finger is a lot more work than it's worth. And, sure, these things will always get better, but some things need to be better than pretty good to be useful.
Well That Was All A Big Mistake
There are a lot of little things that lead me to say this, some linked together and some disparate, but I do think the years 2001-2020 were in many ways a period of a great experiment in letting the riffraff have access to the microphones, and the powers that be have decided that was a tremendous mistake.
"Riffraff" includes a lot of things - people who didn't go to Ivies, minorities and marginalized people, even just "random people on the internet with little nepotism involved."
Not the whole story, but this bit in the Harvard Crimson is some of it.
"Riffraff" includes a lot of things - people who didn't go to Ivies, minorities and marginalized people, even just "random people on the internet with little nepotism involved."
Not the whole story, but this bit in the Harvard Crimson is some of it.
One popular hypothesis: The reporters flock to Harvard to work through their personal struggles with generational overachievement. There’s no “crisis in higher education”; there’s just a crisis of New York Times writers with daddy issues and anxiety over what the end of legacy admissions could mean for their children’s college prospects.And the general anti-anti-racism backlash is, contary to what everyone wants to pretend, an elite project.
Let's Spend Weeks Talking About The Fact That Our Candidate Is A Drooling Vegetable
Biden can't de-age himself, the time to push him to drop out (if you were so inclined) was a year ago, and if you think he needs to change course on something, perhaps stick to the things that he can change.
Not sure why that Pod Save America guy (sorry, can never remember which is which) and Ezra Klein are pushing this now. I don't think everyone is required to be an unpaid spokesperson for the re-elect Joe Biden (or elect unnamed Democrat) campaign, but when things are framed as "just trying to help," then they should perhaps be helpful.
Basically, the issue is: if there is a problem with no non-insane solution to it (Biden drops out, and Harris is not anointed the candidate, which is their push), why prominently highlight the issue under the guise of being helpful? People can spout off about anything they want to, of course.
Not sure why that Pod Save America guy (sorry, can never remember which is which) and Ezra Klein are pushing this now. I don't think everyone is required to be an unpaid spokesperson for the re-elect Joe Biden (or elect unnamed Democrat) campaign, but when things are framed as "just trying to help," then they should perhaps be helpful.
Basically, the issue is: if there is a problem with no non-insane solution to it (Biden drops out, and Harris is not anointed the candidate, which is their push), why prominently highlight the issue under the guise of being helpful? People can spout off about anything they want to, of course.
This all just talking around the big shit in the middle of the living room, which most of them don't want to talk about.
The unstated thing here is no one "serious" in Dem circles thinks Harris should be the candidate (I am not endorsing this view, just explaining).
But Someone Once Politely Asked Sarah Sanders To Leave A Restaurant
Not a member of the "David French liberal fan club" but I'll give him credit for addressing an incredibly undercovered - and certainly ignored by political reporters - story.
Amid the constant drumbeat of sensational news stories — the scandals, the legal rulings, the wild political gambits — it’s sometimes easy to overlook the deeper trends that are shaping American life. For example, are you aware how much the constant threat of violence, principally from MAGA sources, is now warping American politics? If you wonder why so few people in red America seem to stand up directly against the MAGA movement, are you aware of the price they might pay if they did?Of course, he has the obligatory THE LEFT IS VIOLENT TOO paragraph, so fuck that guy, forever and always, but still.
Sunday, February 18, 2024
Repeating Myself
As I have written many times, I get the appeal of Trumpism and even get the appeal of it being delivered by a somewhat buffoonish messenger, but after all these years, I cannot get the appeal of the man himself.
Sneaker Con
Admit I didn’t have Trump going to Philly to try to market gold sneakers on my bingo card.
The man needs money.
Saturday, February 17, 2024
Come For Your Leaders
A weird phenomenon is how we have a whole industry of people giving advice to The Democrats (me included at times!) about How To Win, which involves the correct combination of actions and messaging, yet there are certain groups of voters who mostly get told "orange man bad so just vote."
Maybe those voters - online lefties, young people, Arab-Americans, people generally opposed to military violence - are as ridiculous and annoying as Joe and Eileen Bailey, but it's understood that Joe and Eileen need to be catered to, not yelled at, because that's politics.
Also Joe and Eileen aren't real.
...The Democrats!!!
This specific issue aside, I have been increasingly disturbed what seems to me (am I right? can't say!) to be a general decline in horror at death. The indifference seems to be ratcheting up since the post-9/11 era. The wars, school shootings, police violence, Covid... people seem to have forgotten that you get one go and it's kind of a big deal to take that away.NY Gov Hochul last night on local opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza:
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) February 16, 2024
“If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I'm sorry my friends, there would be no Canada the next day.
“That’s a natural reaction. You have a right to defend yourself and to make sure it never happens again.” pic.twitter.com/UCHUBmU6ka
I certainly am not going to say our reaction to 9/11 was good, but even in the Freedom Fries era almost everyone pretended to think that civilian casualties were bad, that we were there to get the "bad guys" and spread freeance. "Turn the region into glass" was mostly just coming from online headbangers, not top Democratic politicians.
Friday, February 16, 2024
Don't See How Donnie Two...
I stopped doing the joke because there has been run of him not entirely wriggling out of things. And yet..
Engoron Day
Are we all hitting reload on America's fine news sites to see how much he destroys Trump Inc.?
The Daddy Party
Some Democrats (such as Schumer) get very excited any time they get a chance to be The Daddy Party.
I do not think turning the 2024 election into a contest over who is crueler to asylum seekers is helpful. Savvy pundits will helpfully explain they don't really mean it, that of course the Republicans would be crueler, but what are voters hearing that supposed to think?
Thursday, February 15, 2024
The Last Half Mile
This Xitter thread by Jarett Walker is about weather, but the real issue is about walking.
I've read a billion pieces about how the challenge for public transit is "the last half mile" and that's a 10 minute walk. It is not a challenge.Every time I point out that efficient public transit relies on people walking to a stop, someone asks how I factor in the weather. And yet the data always show us that people do walk to public transit in all kinds of climates, from Edmonton to Singapore. 1/
— Jarrett Walker (@humantransit) February 15, 2024
Lessons
As I said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump’s rejection of the border legislation “a gift” for Democrats and said they plan to “constantly over the next year” remind voters that it was Republicans who torpedoed the deal. And he says the strategy has already paid dividends, with Democrat Tom Suozzi, who campaigned on tougher border enforcement, winning a special election this week in New York, flipping a House seat away from Republicans.
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Area Man Relatively Consistent
"Don't fight Republicans on their on turf" has long been my message. The unacknoweldged truth is that "undecided" voters mostly have pudding for brains, and you don't appeal to them by blurring the distinctions which are already blurred in their brains.
I'm Guilty Too
It is the case that so much of liberal/Dem discourse is about dunking on the Right, rather than setting out our own agenda.
Back in the blog era, there was some hope that we would provide some space for D politicians to do this.
That happened, at times. Apparently I saved Social Security once! But the dynamic requires politicians setting the agenda, instead of reacting.
Back in the blog era, there was some hope that we would provide some space for D politicians to do this.
That happened, at times. Apparently I saved Social Security once! But the dynamic requires politicians setting the agenda, instead of reacting.
Seems... Fishy?
The thing that jumped out at me in this is the massive drop in the LA County (measured) population - about 400K in two years - and I dunno I'm a bit skeptical about that. You'd expect that kind of population loss to have an effect on home prices, but even with rising rates they have not come down.
Not defending the pride of LA, which I don't care about, but suspect it's just a bit of noisy data which you'd expect.
Not defending the pride of LA, which I don't care about, but suspect it's just a bit of noisy data which you'd expect.
Limited Liability
There should be people in jail, and I don't mean the taggers.
An abandoned high-rise tower in downtown Los Angeles has become a magnet for graffiti artists and parachuting stunts, leaving city officials furious.You can leave a half-built building in the middle of a major city and there's little recourse.
“I guarantee you tragedy will take place there if that place is not boarded up quickly,” Bass told NBC Los Angeles. “New fences will be put up, but it’ll take a few days. The owner should reimburse the city for every dime.”Good luck with that.
This Is Excellent News For John McCain
Suozzi won by quite a bit. Did he win by successfully owning the immigration issue, or did he win in spite of it?
I have no idea. I do think immigration is almost always one of those "cable news bubble" issues, and that various biases in coverage lead to "everyone" thinking that whatever Republicans are pretending to be mad about that day is the central campaign issue.
Could be wrong!
I have no idea. I do think immigration is almost always one of those "cable news bubble" issues, and that various biases in coverage lead to "everyone" thinking that whatever Republicans are pretending to be mad about that day is the central campaign issue.
Could be wrong!
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Afternoon
Nobody likes my taste in music, but I always have this minor fantasy of boosting a relative unknown to stardom. If anyone deserves it, it is Dilettante!
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Doubt It's The First (It Certainly Isn't)
Darwin award stuff for the guy who died, but the problem is these are on the road with you.
“The first time it happened, I was like, ‘Is that normal?’” recalled Rossiter, who described the five-mile drive on the outskirts of Denver as “uncomfortable.” “And he was like, ‘Yeah, that happens every now and then.’”
Hours later, on the way home, the Tesla Model 3 barreled into a tree and exploded in flames, killing von Ohain, a Tesla employee and devoted fan of CEO Elon Musk. Rossiter, who survived the crash, told emergency responders that von Ohain was using an “auto-drive feature on the Tesla” that “just ran straight off the road,” according to a 911 dispatch recording obtained by The Washington Post. In a recent interview, Rossiter said he believes that von Ohain was using Full Self-Driving, which — if true — would make his death the first known fatality involving Tesla’s most advanced driver-assistance technology.
Always The Worst
Norm's a decent guy who should know better. There was never a good Lindsey, he just attached himself to Saint McCain like a rancid barnacle and was a constant source for journalists.
Not that I'd be surprised if they had him on video having sex with goats, just saying it isn't necessary.Some day we will find out what turned Lindsey. It will not be pretty. https://t.co/vcYuy9iYGz
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) February 13, 2024
Seems Bad
The catastrophic scenario I look at regularly. Is it likely? No idea.
A crucial system of ocean currents may already be on course to collapse, according to a new report, with alarming implications for sea level rise and global weather — leading temperatures to plunge dramatically in some regions and rise in others.This basically is the Gulf Stream stopping or reversing.
Placing "Kick Me" Signs On Our Backs
Senators keep taking to twitter to complain that wallet inspectors have stolen their wallets, yet again, while lumping Israel aid (including barring UNRWA funding) in with Ukraine aid to prevent a lot of the people (me!) who might give a shit from actually giving a shit.
Can't even set up a clean good guy/bad guy battle.
My regular reminder that the people in power are the ones with power (including control of the microphones) and they don't use it very well.
Can't even set up a clean good guy/bad guy battle.
My regular reminder that the people in power are the ones with power (including control of the microphones) and they don't use it very well.
Suozzi Special
Special election for what was Santos's seat. It's being entirely fought over immigration - who hates immigrants more - and if Suozzi loses I guarantee they will learn the wrong lessons (gotta turn the racism dial up even higher!).
The only way to "win" the immigration issue is to reframe the entire conversation. There is no bill/law which will make it go away, as people in suburban Long Island are not reacting to anything real.
These are people who "won't go into NYC anymore" but actually haven't in 20 years.
They'll learn the wrong lessons if he wins, too.
The only way to "win" the immigration issue is to reframe the entire conversation. There is no bill/law which will make it go away, as people in suburban Long Island are not reacting to anything real.
These are people who "won't go into NYC anymore" but actually haven't in 20 years.
They'll learn the wrong lessons if he wins, too.
Monday, February 12, 2024
COME ON, MAN
Biden's people went from thinking there would be a victory tour, with Biden and BiBi holding hands while celebrating the hostage release, to thinking it would sort itself out by January... or the end of January... and, well, it isn't sorting itself out. There is no "day after."
Maybe if Joe Scarborough tells him he needs to change course.
Maybe if Joe Scarborough tells him he needs to change course.
Premises
I'm long past knowing what the current state of the economics profession is like, but I think back regularly when I was a graduate student and one of the hot topics was the link between income inequality and growth. Basically, can we tell stories about how a country's income distribution might impact its growth rate?
But the sometimes unstated premise was that income inequality was GOOD for growth (thus justified). You could make a career out of those papers, not ones suggesting the opposite, despite there not being any obvious reason for it to be true. There's no obvious ECON101 type argument here, you have to stretch a bit.
But the sometimes unstated premise was that income inequality was GOOD for growth (thus justified). You could make a career out of those papers, not ones suggesting the opposite, despite there not being any obvious reason for it to be true. There's no obvious ECON101 type argument here, you have to stretch a bit.
Tearing It All Down
Nesrine Malik:
Once that authority is gone, the system is rocked from within. The mainstream political consensus on Israel and Palestine long held that Israel’s actions ought to be staunchly supported, and that the plight of Palestinians is either paralysingly complex or – at worst – the fault of their own terrorists. That consensus is now being challenged, not only by faceless protesters, but from within the bastions of liberal media. In recent weeks, both CNN and the New York Times have been reportedly riven with internal discord after some employees deemed their coverage too credulous and sympathetic to Israel’s actions.
Gaza has become the expression of a legitimacy crisis for an Anglo-American political class who preside over already fragile systems that deliver less and less to their populations, and whose main offering is that the alternative is worse. Things may look stable, but underneath lurk managed discontents about costs of living, diminished social mobility and the ravages wreaked by rightwing governments to which centrists provide no real answer.
Double Down
Today's banal observation about human psychology is that people will keep doubling down until they have bet not just their own fortune, but the entire world's, to avoid admitting the slightest error.
Not all people, of course, but those who crave power and influence are a type.
Not all people, of course, but those who crave power and influence are a type.
Sunday, February 11, 2024
Taking Another Big Bong Hit
I think we have, at least, passed the stage where journalists printed this shit without qualification.
I think!
Wibbly Wobbly
I'm mildly fascinated with the boring subject of how our perception of time changes we age. Pop culture (music, tv, movies) provides easy marking points for our memories of things.
I probably became aware of The Beatles when I was about 14-15. I don't mean that was when I first heard their music, or first knew they were a Big Deal, but aware in the sense of having some understanding of them as a culture phenomenon. This was both due to me getting older and due to something of a "Beatles revival" around then. Up until that point I knew them more as the early Ed Sullivan Show/boy band stuff.
Anyway, none of that is important, I'm just putting down my marker. That would be 1986-1987. The point I'm getting to is that their first Ed Sullivan show appearances were in 1964, TWENTY TWO YEARS before 1986, and to me, then, that was a million years ago. Is 2002 a million years ago to The Kids (15-year-olds) today? Was that, in part, because those were dispatches from a black and white world? Because things had changed so much?
I have no idea.
I probably became aware of The Beatles when I was about 14-15. I don't mean that was when I first heard their music, or first knew they were a Big Deal, but aware in the sense of having some understanding of them as a culture phenomenon. This was both due to me getting older and due to something of a "Beatles revival" around then. Up until that point I knew them more as the early Ed Sullivan Show/boy band stuff.
Anyway, none of that is important, I'm just putting down my marker. That would be 1986-1987. The point I'm getting to is that their first Ed Sullivan show appearances were in 1964, TWENTY TWO YEARS before 1986, and to me, then, that was a million years ago. Is 2002 a million years ago to The Kids (15-year-olds) today? Was that, in part, because those were dispatches from a black and white world? Because things had changed so much?
I have no idea.
Horny On Main For Trump
As a longtime critic of many of our finest news institutions, I am glad that (once again, it happens every 4 years or so and then the Men in Black mind wipers show up) people are coming around to the understanding that the New York Times is, top to bottom, a dumpster fire of a publication.
However it is not that way because they are "scared of the Right" or "cowed by conservative critics" or anything like that. It is that way because that is what the people who run it want it to be.
You will not "get them to do better" or "learn their lessons" by making your careful arguments. They don't fucking care. They are the New York Times, and you are a disgusting pig person.
However it is not that way because they are "scared of the Right" or "cowed by conservative critics" or anything like that. It is that way because that is what the people who run it want it to be.
You will not "get them to do better" or "learn their lessons" by making your careful arguments. They don't fucking care. They are the New York Times, and you are a disgusting pig person.
This is not an opinion piece:
Saturday, February 10, 2024
Elmo's World
Fuzzing responsibility and liability is a major part of the business plan.
An Edina man who initially denied killing a small-town doctor in a hit-and-run as she walked her dogs near Lake Mille Lacs last fall said in a follow-up interview with investigators that "he doesn't remember" hitting the woman with his Tesla, but if he did, would have been driving on autopilot and checking emails, according to newly filed court records.
Afternoon
On the lighter side I enjoyed watching Slow Horses, so watch that if you need a new story.
What Are You For
The supposed point of J-Street - though watching how it evolved from the beginning to now I wasn't surprised at all - was to delicately give Democrats (and others) some cover if they moved a bit "left" on Israel-related issues, to provide cover against attacks from AIPAC and others, to make sure AIPAC wasn't the only "Jewish group" on speed dial for reporters.
And when the moment came they showed their real purpose was not to battle "the Right," but instead to foreclose anything further left. A common tale in DC.
And when the moment came they showed their real purpose was not to battle "the Right," but instead to foreclose anything further left. A common tale in DC.
Edmondson said she understood that J Street has historically moved with caution to maintain its ability to lobby Washington officials, but argued that now would have been the time for the organization to take a clear stand: “We’ve spent 15 years building this political power to rival AIPAC. And now, all of a sudden, when that power could be wielded during a literal genocide, it’s like, ‘Oh, we actually can’t do any of the things we’ve been saying all these years that we can.’”
Your favorite orgs and outlets in DC quite often serve this purpose. Even the liberal New Republic (back in the day), even the liberal J-Street...
Going To Wake Up Tomorrow And Do The Same Thing
4 months ago did a single person in the Biden administration really believe anything different?
In a closed-door meeting with Arab American leaders in Michigan this week, one of President Biden’s top foreign policy aides acknowledged mistakes in the administration’s response to the war in Gaza, saying he did not have “any confidence” that Israel’s government was willing to take “meaningful steps” toward Palestinian statehood.Lol the angel of death, Power, herself.
Mr. Finer and several other senior Biden administration officials, including Samantha Power, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, traveled to Dearborn on Thursday for a series of meetings, including the one in which Mr. Finer’s comments were recorded.This has been the 4D chess excuse for everything, that they just have to hug BiBi tighter you fools, you imbeciles.
Mr. Finer also said the Biden administration should have been faster to publicly condemn statements made by some Israeli officials that, in his words, compared “residents of Gaza to animals.” He said officials had not done so because they were trying to work with the Israeli government.
“Out of a desire to sort of focus on solving the problem and not engaging in a rhetorical back-and-forth with people who, in many cases, I think we all find somewhat abhorrent, we did not sufficiently indicate that we totally rejected and disagreed with those sorts of sentiments,” Mr. Finer said.
“It did not in any way address the loss of Palestinian life during the course of the first 100 days of the conflict,” Mr. Finer said. “There is no excuse for that. It should not have happened. I believe it will not happen again. But we know that there was a lot of damage done.”You gotta believe!
And the punchline:
The Michiganders who attended the Thursday meetings with Biden administration officials described them as intense and said they were disappointed that the delegation from Washington had not committed to policy changes.
For example, administration officials declined to say whether they had advised or would advise the president to call for a cease-fire, which attendees asked for.
Friday, February 09, 2024
Sure Why Not
Normal stuff.
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz was stopped by airport security in Dallas when it was discovered he had a Taser.
As he was headed to his flight, an agent with the Transportation Security Administration stopped Gaetz and made him throw away the weapon, according to the outlet Punchbowl News, which first reported the incident.
Nobody Who Is One Of The Lads Could Be Bad
Campos:
So why did Merrick Garland do this incredibly stupid and reckless thing? Let me give you the inside scoop here, having spent the last 38 years or so hanging around the vestibule of the Elite Lawyer Club, which I myself would never join for Marxist (Groucho) reasons. Because Robert Hur was Executive Editor of the Stanford Law Review, and clerked for the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and was a partner at Gibson Dunn, and somebody with that kind of impeccable legal pedigree wouldn’t ever be a partisan hack, because if he was that would call into question the impeccable judgment of the other Elite Lawyers who anointed appointed him to those exalted offices, where Objective Legal Analysis always wins out over Partisan Political Considerations, because only the Very Best People get those kinds of jobs, because . . .
And What Did You Do In The Winter Of 2024
Most people came up short (including me), of course, and plenty I will never be friendly terms with again (few complaints about that, probably, not saying I will be missed).
Palestinians in Rafah, the packed city on Gaza’s southern border, were terrified Friday of an impending Israeli ground assault — which the United States and aid groups have warned risks “disaster.”The point is to drive people into Egypt and if they don't or can't go, well...
More than half of the enclave's 2.3 million people have sought shelter in Rafah, crowding tents in refugee camps stalked by growing hunger, disease and more recently fear that there will be nowhere to escape if troops enter the city.
No worries, by a year from now "no one" will be talking about it. Amazing how well that can work.
Except For Sending All The Money
Not the most important thing, of course, but I really get tired of the bullshit.
The US has warned Israel that staging a military offensive into Gaza's southern city of Rafah without proper planning would be a "disaster".You can believe the people in State/White House are the dumbest motherfuckers are alive, or you can believe they've been bullshitting for months to support the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. I dunno which to prefer.
The White House said it would not support plans for any major operations in Rafah without due consideration for the refugees there.
Can't Defend People Who Won't Do The Minimum To Defend Themselves
Not that I imagine that when I wake up every day and start posting that I am defending our democracy, or something, but it's hard to even imagine lifting a finger when we've hit about a dozen episodes of "appointing GOP Daddies to important jobs with predictable tragic consequences" with no signs of it every stopping!
It isn't simply that GOP Daddies are the only people qualified for important law enforcement roles, it's the idea that only GOP Daddies have the GRAVITAS and NONPARTISAN EVENHANDEDNESS to do these things despite decades of [looks around].
Years ago, back when there was some sense that blogs had powers (and we did, a tiny bit), the right wing noise machine went into action against a D senator, and right in the middle of the conference call set up to discuss how (legitimately and justifiably!) to defend him, he went on CNN to apologize and beg forgiveness (close enough, anyway, this is from memory). Buddy, my mighty blog can't help you if you won't stand up for yourself.
The basic defense of Garland's appointment is that he's a DOJ institutionalist, and I don't know why people think that's any kind of defense. Hoover was an FBI institutionalist. No I am not saying Garland is like Hoover, I'm saying that devotion to an institution like that is not, actually, a welcome quality, especially when it's very understood that the DOJ (and FBI) are filled with corrupt Republican stooges.
Years ago, back when there was some sense that blogs had powers (and we did, a tiny bit), the right wing noise machine went into action against a D senator, and right in the middle of the conference call set up to discuss how (legitimately and justifiably!) to defend him, he went on CNN to apologize and beg forgiveness (close enough, anyway, this is from memory). Buddy, my mighty blog can't help you if you won't stand up for yourself.
The basic defense of Garland's appointment is that he's a DOJ institutionalist, and I don't know why people think that's any kind of defense. Hoover was an FBI institutionalist. No I am not saying Garland is like Hoover, I'm saying that devotion to an institution like that is not, actually, a welcome quality, especially when it's very understood that the DOJ (and FBI) are filled with corrupt Republican stooges.
Thursday, February 08, 2024
Life Cycle
No rules about these things, but you're almost guaranteeing your kid is going to have to deal with something pretty traumatic at a not very old age.
Seems Bad
We had a decent run, I suppose.
Global warming surpassed 1.5 degrees Celsius over the past 12 months for the first time on record, new data shows, breaching a critical threshold that, if it continues, will push the limits of life on Earth to adapt.
I Imagine The Supremos Were Totally Inconsistent And Full Of It Again Today
I know I'm a bad blogger, but I don't think there's much point in following along with this stuff. The outcome matters, but the corrupt process is irrelevant.
One view is that they don't even bother to try to maintain the pretence of consistency anymore. The other is that the conservatives have long been completely full of shit, but this was more succesfully obscured by a phalanx of Court reporters who saw their jobs much as the Royal Reporters in the UK see theirs.
Wow, another clever one, Scalia! How is your brain so fucking big? This is EN PEE ARRR.
One view is that they don't even bother to try to maintain the pretence of consistency anymore. The other is that the conservatives have long been completely full of shit, but this was more succesfully obscured by a phalanx of Court reporters who saw their jobs much as the Royal Reporters in the UK see theirs.
Wow, another clever one, Scalia! How is your brain so fucking big? This is EN PEE ARRR.
Vigilante
I gave up some "fights," such as getting D politicians and other reporters to stop treating Fox as a legitimate new organization.
Dem leaders - electeds and others - just won't engage in these kinds of arguments, so it's impossible for some guy with a website to contribute anything to it.
It is impossible to imagine the liberal mirror version of this - in part because there is no liberal media mirror version of Fox - but something like this would lead to a hissy fit led by conservatives, elected Rs, and then mainstream reporters until people were fired.
It is impossible to imagine the liberal mirror version of this - in part because there is no liberal media mirror version of Fox - but something like this would lead to a hissy fit led by conservatives, elected Rs, and then mainstream reporters until people were fired.
Sounds Promising
Good news!
Scientists and engineers near the English city of Oxford have set a nuclear fusion energy record, they announced Thursday, bringing the clean, futuristic power source another step closer to reality.Ah, well, nevertheless.
Using the Joint European Torus (JET) — a huge, donut-shaped machine known as a tokamak — the scientists sustained a record 69 megajoules of fusion energy for five seconds, using just 0.2 milligrams of fuel.
And myriad challenges remain. Khan points out that the team used more energy to carry out the experiment than it generated, for example.(maybe I should't be so cynical)
That Asshole Wallet Inspector Stole My Wallet Again - The Bastard!
A frustrating thing is that it is generally The Left (however defined, whatever the flaws otherwise) that is clear-eyed about what Republicans are and how they operate.
I didn't like Bill Clinton's "triangulation" but "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right" was more sensible than trying to embrace bipartisanship in the age of Trump.GRAHAM: says he is a no on starting on the Ukraine/Israel pkg until he gets a guarantee of votes on border amendments.
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) February 7, 2024
Thus, confirming the impossible paradox of now.
GOP is blocking Border + Ukraine together - and now poised (next vote) to block them apart.
Wednesday, February 07, 2024
Those Are People
I'm not even a particularly "emo" kinda person, but the willingness to chuck out any concern for the effects of policy on the most precarious people, based on likely incorrect (or even correct!) notions of political expediency, upsets me quite a bit!
We all have our own lines, or at least I hope we do!
One of my firm belief is that our politics would be greatly improved by shutting off cable news in Congressional offices. This was obvious to me 20 years or so ago when I first paid a visit to some of those offices. Things like "the border crisis" are a crisis because they are on teevee, not because of anything real, and while I don't think my personal politics are universally popular, I don't think allowing yourself to be led around by the worst people in the world (conservatives, shitty political journalists, and the democratic mercenary consultant class) is the smart play, either.
We all have our own lines, or at least I hope we do!
One of my firm belief is that our politics would be greatly improved by shutting off cable news in Congressional offices. This was obvious to me 20 years or so ago when I first paid a visit to some of those offices. Things like "the border crisis" are a crisis because they are on teevee, not because of anything real, and while I don't think my personal politics are universally popular, I don't think allowing yourself to be led around by the worst people in the world (conservatives, shitty political journalists, and the democratic mercenary consultant class) is the smart play, either.
Sure
Met with @IsraeliPM Netanyahu in Jerusalem to discuss the latest efforts to secure release of all hostages and ensure events of October 7 are never repeated. I stressed the importance of protecting civilians in Gaza and ensuring more humanitarian aid gets to people in need. pic.twitter.com/EQsKUijoL0
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) February 7, 2024
Easy Stuff
As I said a few weeks ago when San Diego has some flooding, Philly has problems with clogged gutters simply because they won't do comprehensive street cleaning. Enraging me doubly, the main reason they won't is because people don't want to move their cars. Basements and more flood because of the parking people.
Some things are complicated and expensive and some things aren't.
Some things are complicated and expensive and some things aren't.
“The reality [is] that you simply can’t rehabilitate everything under the ground … for climate change, you simply can’t,” Chester said. “So a reasonable strategy seems to be to attenuate, reduce the amount of water that’s putting pressure on those systems.” In other words, if the pipes can’t all be swapped out for jumbo-size warming-proof behemoths, try to limit the amount of water that gets to the pipes. One way to do that is with green infrastructure.Replacing all the sewer pipes is expensive, but trying to divert some of the water in other ways isn't. There are limits to the effectiveness of this - or anything - but with flooding, things are fine right up until they aren't, and moving that line out just a bit can prevent a lot of damage.
“There is growing interest in the U.S. and around the world in nature-based solutions, including green stormwater infrastructure,” McPhillips said. She has documented the increasing use of things like green rooftops, curbside “swales” where plants and soil can collect water, and larger retention areas—all designed essentially to soak up some of the intense rainstorm’s output and then release it slowly, such that the existing drainage systems don’t get overwhelmed.
L After L
At least we can laugh at this.
House Republicans failed to pass articles of impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, scuttling an effort that was widely seen as an opportunity to deliver on a key promise to GOP base voters.
The vote was stuck in a tie for several minutes as leaders scrambled, but in the end, four Republicans voted against the measure and the final vote was 214 to 216.
Pivot
At some point Dems switched from arguing this was a necessary deal to get Ukraine money to arguing that the immigration provisions were good in and of themselves, and began championing them.
Again, there is a big difference between "we tried to get a deal on things by giving them stuff they wanted in exchange for stuff we wanted" and "we gave the Republicans their dream wish list which was good, akshually."
Dems are out there arguing that this bill would have "fixed the border." It's madness.
Chris Murphy:
What is the crisis? What is the chaos? What is it fixing? Either in reality or in the political problem of Fox News screeching about it every day?
Again, there is a big difference between "we tried to get a deal on things by giving them stuff they wanted in exchange for stuff we wanted" and "we gave the Republicans their dream wish list which was good, akshually."
Dems are out there arguing that this bill would have "fixed the border." It's madness.
Chris Murphy:
Congress now has a decision: do you want immigration to just be a perpetual political cudgel, or do you want to solve the problem?It's madness to thinks this would "fix the border," and it's certainly madness to think this "fix" would stop conservatives from screeching about it.
This week, every Senator gets to vote. Support a compromise, bipartisan bill to fix the border
What will Republicans do? Fix the border or keep the chaos to please Trump?
We have a chance to pass a bipartisan bill to fund Ukraine the fix the border and we should do our job.
Nobody had more optimism than me that Republicans would do the right thing and vote for our bipartisan bill to fix the border and fund Ukraine.
Republicans pretended they wanted to fix the border. They don't.
Republicans said they wanted a bipartisan border fix and we got one
Trump told them to oppose the bipartisan border bill to keep the chaos at the border [...]
What is the crisis? What is the chaos? What is it fixing? Either in reality or in the political problem of Fox News screeching about it every day?
Fixing The "Border Crisis"
I'm glad we've now succeeded in pivoting the election narrative to Trump's issue so that he can now make the case that only he can work with Congress to do what is "necessary."
Please clap.
Gonna get normie libs holding "fix the border" rallies.
Please clap.
Yah, Senator, you've given all 13 of these people a lot to think about.
"Our message should be that the he only way to solve this pressing problem, the most important problem, is to elect Donald Trump. I am a smart political consultant, here is where to send my check."If you are a moderate Republican who cares about foreign policy or border issues, you are moderate, but you are likely no longer a Republican. You might not know it, but these people have abandoned you.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) February 6, 2024
Gonna get normie libs holding "fix the border" rallies.
Tuesday, February 06, 2024
It's February 6, Bitches
How's this working out (from early December).
I'm tired of being asked WHAT CAN BIDEN DOOOOOO because it's a bad faith question every time. I'm not obligated to pretend that people are operating in good faith when they aren't.
If people want to to proudly pull their pants down and display their asses and demand applause they can do that, but I'm not obligated to applaud.
Officials from the Biden administration have marked the start of 2024 as the target date for ending Israel’s massive military campaign against terror group Hamas.Of course it was clear then that Gaza would be flattened and the starvation/medical system failure stage would be with us.
I'm tired of being asked WHAT CAN BIDEN DOOOOOO because it's a bad faith question every time. I'm not obligated to pretend that people are operating in good faith when they aren't.
If people want to to proudly pull their pants down and display their asses and demand applause they can do that, but I'm not obligated to applaud.
Toby Keith Is Dead
Remember him for when he was most famous, riding the post 9-11 bloodlust, racism, and Dixie Chicks hate.
(he would project this at concerts)
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