Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Internet Down
Wouldn't be much of a problem as a hotspot is good enough for most purposes, except for some reason I live in a weird cellular black hole where the data service is not great despite being great very nearby!
Seems like one of those "hopefully we'll be able to make a service call soon..." things.
Seems like one of those "hopefully we'll be able to make a service call soon..." things.
Alberto Gonzales Erasure
We should have a deep dive into why every political journalist in DC did their best to pretend Bush's US Attorney scandal didn't happen.
Such moves would be potentially catastrophic for the credibility of American law enforcement, scholars and former Justice Department leaders from both parties say. “If he ordered an improper prosecution, I would expect any respectable U.S. Attorney to say no,” says Michael McConnell, a former U.S. appellate judge appointed by President George W. Bush. “If the President fired the U.S. Attorney, it would be an enormous firestorm.” McConnell, now a Stanford law professor, says the dismissal could have a cascading effect similar to the Saturday Night Massacre, when President Richard Nixon ordered top DOJ officials to remove the special counsel investigating Watergate. Presidents have the constitutional right to fire U.S. Attorneys, and typically replace their predecessors’ appointees upon taking office. But discharging one specifically for refusing a President’s order would be all but unprecedented.
But I Won't Do That
I still remain a bit flummoxed by the fact that so much punditry has the theme of What Biden Needs To Do To Win The Election, acknowledging that politics is about getting people who are on the fence (either about whether or who) to vote for you, yet foreign policy - normally understand to be an important presidential issue, probably more than it should be - is met with little more than "bad orange man, suck it."
I'm not sure the Fetterman approach to politics, which currently is "vote for Biden, you Hamas supporting scum," is helpful! I mean, you can argue it doesn't matter, but I suspect it does! If your argument is it shouldn't matter, that people would be crazy to not vote or to vote for the bad orange man, well then we get to shut down the Biden campaign and go to brunch, because he's already won.
I've also noticed a "Hastert rule" creeping in to Dem punditry: if something isn't important to the majority of potential Democratic voters than it shouldn't be important to any of them. You can apply these rules to your social media beefs but I don't think they're persuasive!
I'm not sure the Fetterman approach to politics, which currently is "vote for Biden, you Hamas supporting scum," is helpful! I mean, you can argue it doesn't matter, but I suspect it does! If your argument is it shouldn't matter, that people would be crazy to not vote or to vote for the bad orange man, well then we get to shut down the Biden campaign and go to brunch, because he's already won.
A Small Bit Of Good News
Credit where credit is due to a couple of Republicans.
Transgender youth in Kansas will continue to have access to gender transition surgery and hormone therapy after the Republican-controlled Legislature failed to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a ban on the care. The House on Monday voted 82-43 to override the veto, two votes short of what was necessary, after the Senate approved it 27-13 earlier in the day.
TOPEKA, Kan. -- A proposed ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors in Kansas died Monday when two Republicans switched their votes and prevented the Republican-controlled Legislature from overriding the Democratic governor's veto of the measure.
Lock Him Up!
Or maybe a $15 fine, whatever.
...the ruling says the Judge would like to do a bigger fine, because Trump has money, but the law won't let him, so jail is his only other option.
A judge on Tuesday held Donald Trump in contempt for violating the gag order in his New York criminal hush money case.(okay it's a $9000 fine)
...the ruling says the Judge would like to do a bigger fine, because Trump has money, but the law won't let him, so jail is his only other option.
The Next 3-4 Years Are Critical
Longtime readers remember widespread self-driving cars adoption was just around the corner and self-driving trucks were the "easy" problem.
I mean, to put it simply, truck drivers don't make that much money these days, and any self-driving operation will still need significant behind-the-scenes support. It's not very clear that replacing drivers is really a big cost saver!
Of course automation has long replaced/complemented lower wage workers, but it's generally of the "big machine/big computer replaces hundreds of workers" variety not of the "big machine/big computer replaces one worker" variety.
The self-driving semi, outfitted with 25 laser, radar and camera sensors, is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks.The technology isn't fanciful anymore - I acknowledge that - but I still suspect the economic case is much less than its boosters claim.
Within three or four years, Aurora and its competitors expect to put thousands self-driving trucks on America’s public freeways. The goal is for the trucks, which can run nearly around the clock without breaks, to speed the flow of goods, accelerating delivery times.
I mean, to put it simply, truck drivers don't make that much money these days, and any self-driving operation will still need significant behind-the-scenes support. It's not very clear that replacing drivers is really a big cost saver!
Of course automation has long replaced/complemented lower wage workers, but it's generally of the "big machine/big computer replaces hundreds of workers" variety not of the "big machine/big computer replaces one worker" variety.
And like everything else, unless applications and production of the big machinecomputer scale, it won't be cheap!
Monday, April 29, 2024
The Rules-Based International Order
They were the ones who kept boasting about how that was their thing.
'We've been really clear about the ICC investigation, we don't support it, we we don't believe that they have the jurisdiction,' White House @PressSec Karine Jean-Pierre after reports Israeli officials fear the Hague-based court could soon issue arrest warrants over Gaza war
— Danny Kemp (@dannyctkemp) April 29, 2024
Eager Marks
I've been watching this evolve.
"But Hamas did other bad things, so it was okay to make up this stuff" is not actually a good justification.
More than 50 tenured journalism professors from top universities have signed a letter calling on the New York Times to address questions about a major investigative report that described a “pattern of gender-based violence” in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.There's a lot going on with this, but the claimed use of mass rape as weapon of war was and is used as a justification for what Israel has done. The New York Times loves nothing more than publishing bullshit in service of killing thousands.
"But Hamas did other bad things, so it was okay to make up this stuff" is not actually a good justification.
Sue
Go for it, but are there more than 10 lawyers in America?
Lawyers for Hunter Biden plan to sue Fox News “imminently,” according to a letter sent to the network and obtained by NBC News.
...
Biden has hired attorney Mark Geragos and his firm to represent him in the Fox litigation efforts. The letter is the second outreach to Fox this month. An earlier letter was hand-delivered to Fox’s counsel two weeks ago, and the network asked for more time to respond, according to a source familiar with Biden’s legal efforts. The network has not yet responded to the letter sent April 23, which included a Friday evening, April 26, deadline to respond, according to Geragos. The letter is signed by Tina Glandian, a partner at Geragos & Geragos working on the case.
Poor Pete
Supreme Grace doesn't extend below the top.
The Supreme Court on Monday for a second time shot down a request from former Trump adviser Peter Navarro to avoid further prison time over his contempt of Congress conviction.
AI Uses
It's funny how "AI could plan your trip for you" is one of the examples of its revolutionary possibilities. "Disrupting travel agents" is a funny business fantasy, in that even if it catches on, it's hardly a lucrative business. More than that, it's the perfect example of something where the benefit of some human involvement is obvious to anyone but these freaks.
The dream persists!
2006:
They want the computers to deal with the weirdest tasks that they are obviously the least suited for.
Quite sure all "AI travel solutions" are going to be Mechanical Turks, just human assembled travel itineraries that match a query. Part of this is about the machine "brain," but it's mostly about trying to commoditize things which resist it. Things like locations and hotels are highly differentiated, as are preferences for such things. Fake AI isn't going to do anything existing algorithms can't.
Fancy Bus
"It's a bus, not like those other buses where you might encounter a poor."
It is true that buses aren't the most comfortable way to travel, but they aren't worse than airplanes (back of the plane, anyway). I know some weirdos like driving, but put me on a bus.
Blade, the helicopter charter company, was founded 10 years ago as a way for commuters going between New York and the Hamptons to avoid vehicle traffic.Jokes aside, it's good. Buses are Good, Akshually and if that's what it takes... There are other cheaper bus services.
This May it is introducing a new service, the Hamptons Streamliner, that, starting at $195 a ticket, will take passengers to destinations on eastern Long Island aboard … a bus.
It is true that buses aren't the most comfortable way to travel, but they aren't worse than airplanes (back of the plane, anyway). I know some weirdos like driving, but put me on a bus.
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Shorter Me
If you think the pro-Palestine movement has some unsavory elements, wait until you learn something about some of the prominent people in the anti-Palestine movement (joke: everybody knows these famous and powerful people and all the reasons they are bad, they just don't care).
Puppy Killing
The real story with Noem's puppy killing is that she and everyone around her - including everyone involved with the production of the book - thought this was a good anecdote to share.
One bizarre thing which became apparent as the MAGAs took over the conservative movement is that none of these people are capable of even pretending to be nice people. That John Boehner got drunk with journalists and told them great stories doesn't excuse his policies or their coverage of them, but it at least explains how he rose in politics and maintained good coverage. Being a friendly enough shithead can get you a long way!
The MAGAs, however, are all absolutely repellent people who seem to have no understanding that not everybody is like that. I know I shouldn't hand it to him for anything, but the one exception to this is probably Matt Gaetz. No I am not saying he is good, but he is capable of faking being a normal human for 5 seconds.
One bizarre thing which became apparent as the MAGAs took over the conservative movement is that none of these people are capable of even pretending to be nice people. That John Boehner got drunk with journalists and told them great stories doesn't excuse his policies or their coverage of them, but it at least explains how he rose in politics and maintained good coverage. Being a friendly enough shithead can get you a long way!
The MAGAs, however, are all absolutely repellent people who seem to have no understanding that not everybody is like that. I know I shouldn't hand it to him for anything, but the one exception to this is probably Matt Gaetz. No I am not saying he is good, but he is capable of faking being a normal human for 5 seconds.
They hate you, but they all fucking hate each other too, because how could they not?
Are We The Baddies
Anyway, whether or not people in Gaza should be slaughtered in an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing and collective punishment has little to do with whether or not some campus protesters annoy you, a person 800 miles away from them.
"I think the cause could be just, but the people fighting for it have made me oppose it" is never true, but this is the toddler-level take our big brain pundits give us daily.
Before the Iraq war, there were certainly many more pieces criticizing Iraq war protesters, and the anti-war movement generally, than pieces written voicing their concerns, in our elite newspapers. "The Iraq war would be stopped if only the antiwar movement were different, but sadly they have not convinced me - a person mad at some random signs he saw highlighted on the conservative websites Anti-Idiotarian Rotweiler Dot Com and Confederate Yankee Dot Com" was silly then and its equivalent is silly now.
Back then, "same side as Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, John Bolton, David Frum, and Norman Podhoretz" - public figures with long horrific records - should've been a more important consideration than getting mad about a "no blood for oil" sign, but that's because people like making up excuses rather than acknowledging that they've joined up with the baddies.
Back then, "same side as Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, John Bolton, David Frum, and Norman Podhoretz" - public figures with long horrific records - should've been a more important consideration than getting mad about a "no blood for oil" sign, but that's because people like making up excuses rather than acknowledging that they've joined up with the baddies.
Some real abuser behavior, too. If only you'd behave according to revolving rules, I wouldn't be such a horrible person.
Space
One of my idiosyncratic opinions is that windshield brain and car-centric culture have led to people having absolutely no sense of geographic size and distance. The reliance on GPS for driving directions probably doesn't help.
For example, when people who live in a big city get panicked texts from their relatives every time there's some crime on the news, as if it must happening right there. Or, more relevant to now, when everybody "knew" that in 2020 American cities had been completely taken over by BLM protests when they were maybe happening in a few block range somewhere.
Everyone writing about how a campus protest encampment, which is probably taking up 1/3 of a football field, if that, has COMPLETELY DISRUPTED CAMPUS, is either a fool or a liar. It's one corner of what are mostly very large campuses.
Even urban campus Columbia is quite large. Indiana University is absolutely humongous. Almost every American campus that makes the news is pretty sprawling.
"Fool or liar" is always a tough one, of course, but either disqualifies you from being a pundit worthy of anything but mockery.
For example, when people who live in a big city get panicked texts from their relatives every time there's some crime on the news, as if it must happening right there. Or, more relevant to now, when everybody "knew" that in 2020 American cities had been completely taken over by BLM protests when they were maybe happening in a few block range somewhere.
Everyone writing about how a campus protest encampment, which is probably taking up 1/3 of a football field, if that, has COMPLETELY DISRUPTED CAMPUS, is either a fool or a liar. It's one corner of what are mostly very large campuses.
Even urban campus Columbia is quite large. Indiana University is absolutely humongous. Almost every American campus that makes the news is pretty sprawling.
"Fool or liar" is always a tough one, of course, but either disqualifies you from being a pundit worthy of anything but mockery.
Saturday, April 27, 2024
How Are We Doing
A joint submission from four bureaus - Democracy Human Rights&Labor; Population, Refugees & Migration; Global Criminal Justice & International Organization Affairs – raised "serious concern over non-compliance" w/international humanitarian law in Israel's conduct of the Gaza war.
— Hümeyra Pamuk (@humeyra_pamuk) April 27, 2024
These included repeatedly striking protected sites and civilian infrastructure; "unconscionably high levels of civilian harm to military advantage"; taking little action to investigate violations or to hold to account those responsible for significant civilian harm and "killing…
— Hümeyra Pamuk (@humeyra_pamuk) April 27, 2024
Unlearning
I'm sure my worst takes were when I first started my blog. Not so much the most wrong ones - I'm still capable of being quite wrong - but the most embarrassing ones. Despite having some controversial-for-the-times opinions like "The Iraq war seems like a bad idea," I still felt influenced and constrained by conventional wisdom. I had yet to unlearn a lot of the things one learns while spending years thinking, for example, The Economist magazine has some special insight about the world.
Unlearning is a lot harder than learning. The things we need to unlearn are often things we'd deny believing, but somehow we still do, as they've burrowed into our consciousness like some "fact" we were told when we were 5 and are almost incapable of disbelieving.
Unlearning is a lot harder than learning. The things we need to unlearn are often things we'd deny believing, but somehow we still do, as they've burrowed into our consciousness like some "fact" we were told when we were 5 and are almost incapable of disbelieving.
Friday, April 26, 2024
Speaking of Sanctions
Ah, well, nevertheless.
The Biden administration has determined that three military battalions with the Israel Defense Forces committed "gross human rights violations" against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank but will remain eligible for U.S. military aid regardless because of steps Israel says it's taking to address the problem, ABC News has learned.I see:
Between the lines: Israel expressed grave concern during the talks that a State Department determination that the Netzah Yehuda battalion committed human rights violations in the West Bank that were not dealt with by the IDF would increase the likelihood the International Criminal Court would issue arrest warrants Israeli soldiers and officers, the Israeli official said.Can't be any consequences, or there could be consequences!
Prematurely Shrill
Regularly I see people who, back in the day, were prone to tut-tutting me (or people "like me" - this isn't personal), now being as shrill about the Republicans or a certain media outlet - the one run by several generations of failsons - as I ever was.
I'm not mad. Just observing.
I'm not mad. Just observing.
The University President Group Chat
Don't have enough precise details so I won't share the institutions, but friends have been telling me that their universities have been doing these last minute rule changes without notifications or consultaton, also.
“To invoke a reference to an ad hoc committee that might have existed half a century ago and attempt to use it to justify the on-the-fly creation of a new policy today, is utterly unprincipled,” Sanders said in an email. “If a university lawyer was involved in concocting this rationalization, then no one should trust their integrity or judgment.”
In an email to faculty, Whitten confirmed the university changed the policy Wednesday night after becoming aware of the Thursday protest to “balance free speech and safety in the context of similar protests occurring nationally.” She wrote that the policy was posted online the morning of the protest.
...
According to an emailed statement from IUPD, police detained 33 protesters and took them to the Monroe County Jail. The IDS observed that at least one was an IU faculty member — Germanic Studies professor Benjamin Robinson. At least one student protester — Christopher Handwerger — was arrested for criminal trespass and received a trespass warning from IUPD banning him from IU property for a year. Handwerger told the IDS he is a first-semester senior, meaning he needs this coming fall semester to graduate.
Purity Of Intentions
It is reasonable to ask why the much-touted sanctions, when the war started, don't seem to have hurt Russia much.
It was all very noble at the beginning, but we're talking about real money here, lads.
Maybe I am diagonising the problem incorrectly, but we were promised that all the sanctions would effectively cripple Russia and what happened to that?
The UK has been accused of “helping Russia pay for its war on Ukraine” by continuing to import record amounts of refined oil from countries processing Kremlin fossil fuels.I get that things aren't entirely simple, but there was a great enthusiasm for sanctions at the beginning - everyone was very proud at the sacrifice, even some rich interests were being targeted - and that enthusiasm, along with (presumably) strong enforcement, faded fairly quickly.
Government data analysed by the environmental news site Desmog shows that imports of refined oil from India, China and Turkey amounted to £2.2bn in 2023, the same record value as the previous year, up from £434.2m in 2021.
It was all very noble at the beginning, but we're talking about real money here, lads.
Maybe I am diagonising the problem incorrectly, but we were promised that all the sanctions would effectively cripple Russia and what happened to that?
So It's Bladder Cancer Then
Doesn't sound like Charles is doing well.
Overall, however, the British press have observed what seems like a remarkable silence on the matter of Charles’ health and funeral planning.These "very strict rules and laws" are applied to protect the powerful, and not other times, as anyone who has picked up a British newspaper knows.
This is not, as one journalist told The Daily Beast, just out of respect for or collusion with the palace, but rather due to very strict rules and laws in the U.K. governing medical privacy and the publishing of personal information. “Even if you had it copper-bottomed that he had bladder cancer, you couldn’t run it,” the journalist said.
"Security Concerns"
That's the reason USC is giving for cancelling the graduation ceremony, when everyone fully understands (but won't necessarily tell you), that they have to say that because they'll be sued into oblivion, given California state law, if they admit the real reason.
We all remember when these costs were necessary.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
How It's Done
As millions of people - including some respectable ones - have told Jake, this is outside of Columbia and the guy is just a NYC kook fixture, but he won't correct or delete. They're conducting Radio Rwanda against peaceful protesters, including plenty of Jewish students.
Only multiple senators, the Speaker of the House, and the head of the ADL, and John Podhoretz up in Josh's mentions, have called for the Guard to be sent in to do a little pacification, but apparently this is "wishcasting."
Everyone calling for the Guard to be called in is just saying, wink wink, shoot the protesters. There's no reason the police can't do anything - including shooting the protesters - all by themselves. It's just sending a message that they should be shot. Everyone understands this, especially the people pretending not to.
Only multiple senators, the Speaker of the House, and the head of the ADL, and John Podhoretz up in Josh's mentions, have called for the Guard to be sent in to do a little pacification, but apparently this is "wishcasting."
Everyone calling for the Guard to be called in is just saying, wink wink, shoot the protesters. There's no reason the police can't do anything - including shooting the protesters - all by themselves. It's just sending a message that they should be shot. Everyone understands this, especially the people pretending not to.
And how should you treat people who call for the murder of peaceful protesters? And how should you treat people who are not bothered by those people? The same.
Don't See How...
We'll see!
A federal judge has denied former President Donald Trump's request for a new trial in the civil suit brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll, who was awarded an $83.3 million judgment by a jury that found Trump liable for defamation in January.
The judge also denied a request to strike the damages in the case, which Trump had called "entirely out of proportion" with Carroll's reputational injury.
"Mr. Trump's argument is entirely without merit both as a matter of law and as a matter of fact," U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in an 18-page decision Thursday.
Law Talk
I have lost all interest in deciphering the sacred songs of the Supreme Court oral arguments. Take it as given that several of them are corrupt hacks. It should be established at this point. Spend your efforts mocking the people who pretend not to understand this stuff.
Handling The Media
This is British tabloid blackmail shit.
In Sulzberger’s view, according to two people familiar with his private comments on the subject, only an interview with a paper like the Times can verify that the 81-year-old Biden is still fit to hold the presidency. Beyond that, he has voiced concerns that Biden doing so few expansive interviews with experienced reporters could set a dangerous precedent for future administrations, according to a third person familiar with the publisher’s thinking. Sulzberger himself was part of a group from the Times that sat down with Trump, who gave the paper several interviews despite his rantings about its coverage. If Trump could do it, Sulzberger believes, so can Biden.I've seen journalists defend it and that says a lot about what business they think they're in.
“All these Biden people think that the problem is Peter Baker or whatever reporter they’re mad at that day,” one Times journalist said. “It’s A.G. He’s the one who is pissed [that] Biden hasn’t done any interviews and quietly encourages all the tough reporting on his age.”
America's Mayor
Oh no.
An Arizona grand jury has indicted 18 allies of Donald Trump for their efforts to subvert the 2020 election — including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Boris Epshteyn.Imagine trying to explain Rudy-9/11 worship to The Kids Today.
The Academic Calendar
As every university administrator knows, the semester is ending (most places), students will be going home soon, and as is almost always the case with student activities, you can just wait them out for a few weeks and move on. Not doing so is quite the choice!
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Joe Biden Might Have The Chance To Do The Funniest Thing Possible
I have no idea what the conservative Supremos are really plotting with Trump's immunity case, but there are fascinating possibilities.
Good Enough For Investors
Elon's big new idea is that a fleet of Teslas can be used as distributed computing power in their idle time and yah whatever buddy.
The dumbasses who buy stocks love it though!
Zone of Interest
A lot is incredibly stupid and offense in the McWhorter piece (as always) , but wow is he dumb.
Listen to the ambient sounds - no not those.
The Good Guys
I know the bad orange man is bad, but since October, people with actual influence have been mostly yelling at people for objecting to the slaughter in Gaza instead of using their platforms to actually shift the administration. Don't argue that no one has any influence; Biden is a creature of DC and listens to these people.
I know they generally believed the following:
I said, at the start, that in any major conflict it doesn't much matter who is right or wrong, the goal needs to be de-escalation. That isn't always an easy goal to achieve, but it should be the ultimate goal! The kill the brutes crowd got their way, as they always do, and they're still yelling about college kids.
As I said, my list is very long or very short now, depending on how you look at it, because a bunch of powerful people had the easiest test in the world and they will keep failing it rather than admit error.
I know they generally believed the following:
The Palestinians have it coming for what Hamas did, and you certainly have to allow Israel some collective punishment, as a treat. All Palestinians have genocide in their hearts, they deserve it anyway.
It will all be wrapped up by January or so, and we can gloat about how it was all worth it.
For a couple of months we get to yell at hippies, which is our favorite thing to do. What fun we're going to have!The more wrong they turn out to have been, the more they completely fucked it into the sun, the more they'll keep doubling down. I am not kidding when I say that "proving the hippies fucking wrong" is a primary interest for these people, though "killing subhuman Arab people" is a bonus treat for some of them.
I said, at the start, that in any major conflict it doesn't much matter who is right or wrong, the goal needs to be de-escalation. That isn't always an easy goal to achieve, but it should be the ultimate goal! The kill the brutes crowd got their way, as they always do, and they're still yelling about college kids.
As I said, my list is very long or very short now, depending on how you look at it, because a bunch of powerful people had the easiest test in the world and they will keep failing it rather than admit error.
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Some Stories Do Have Happy Endings
Good for them.
TALLAHASSEE — Some of the 49 migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration are now able to work legally in the United States and have temporary protections from deportation because they are considered victims of a potential crime, their attorney says.
The migrants are eligible for protection because they applied for a special kind of visa meant for crime victims who are helping law enforcement investigate suspected criminal activity. They applied for what are known as U visas last year after they said they had been tricked into taking charter flights from San Antonio, Texas to the Massachusetts island with false promises of jobs and other aid, said Rachel Self, an attorney for the migrants.
The migrant flight program was designed to remove “unauthorized aliens” from Florida. But critics, including immigration advocacy groups, have pointed out that the migrants had legal status in the United States as asylum seekers and that they were found in Texas, not Florida.
The Pig People Can't Possibly Be Correct
I probably return to the Iraq war as a reference point a bit too much, but in my defense the same fucking people who promoted that now/still control most of the microphones.
The brief genre of "Iraq war mea culpa" was telling because, for the most part, they were thumbsucking exercises expressing, "How could I, a Harvard grad with a big brain, have been wrong, and those pig people, the protesters, have been right? Here are 27,000 words about why they are, AKSHUALLY, the stupid ones, and I will learn nothing from this."
For years I regularly asked why "we" were still in Iraq. There were several reasons, of course, but a big one was that no one influential was capable of admitting that the pig people were correct. The next 6 months are critical, and those hippies will be proved fucking wrong at least!
There really is no limit to the number of deaths some of these people will endorse in order to prove the fucking hippies wrong. I know that sounds ridiculous, and it is, but you have read their columns. I'm not far off here!
So many articles were written after the war started about how those stupid fucking hippies - the antiwar movement - were wrong and shameful and stupid and ridiculous and borderline treasonous and juvenile and naive and blah blah blah.
The brief genre of "Iraq war mea culpa" was telling because, for the most part, they were thumbsucking exercises expressing, "How could I, a Harvard grad with a big brain, have been wrong, and those pig people, the protesters, have been right? Here are 27,000 words about why they are, AKSHUALLY, the stupid ones, and I will learn nothing from this."
For years I regularly asked why "we" were still in Iraq. There were several reasons, of course, but a big one was that no one influential was capable of admitting that the pig people were correct. The next 6 months are critical, and those hippies will be proved fucking wrong at least!
There really is no limit to the number of deaths some of these people will endorse in order to prove the fucking hippies wrong. I know that sounds ridiculous, and it is, but you have read their columns. I'm not far off here!
So many articles were written after the war started about how those stupid fucking hippies - the antiwar movement - were wrong and shameful and stupid and ridiculous and borderline treasonous and juvenile and naive and blah blah blah.
George Packer, editor of "The Fight is for Democracy," a collection of essays about America and its role in the world after Sept. 11, would like to see progressives put pressure on the administration to do more for the people of Iraq, rather than less. But Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says, "I see little evidence of any such liberal alternative that is serious and constructive for the people of Iraq, unfortunately." Liberals who care about the welfare of Iraqis, he says, must "start to distinguish between their dislike of Bush and their recognition that the mission must succeed. That would be a big start, and the crucial one.""Hatred of Bush and the opportunism of Democratic politicians has created a tactical alliance between mainstream Democrats and the fringe," says Packer, who writes about his own six-week trip to Iraq in a forthcoming New Yorker article. "It's disappointing to see both presidential candidates and leading members of Congress really fail to see the importance of what's going on in Iraq right now. You can object to no bid contracts, you can object to cronyism and waste as I do, without undermining the basic understanding that we are committed to this and we have an enormous obligation to the Iraqis. I don't see why you have to choose between disliking Halliburton and supporting the Iraqis in their efforts to create a decent society."
My guy - these "progressives" had no power! Your guys won! What the fuck are they supposed to do - you wont even let them write articles in the New Yorker! You own the microphones! They just write stupid blog posts and put some slogans on signs!
I'm Voting For Mr. Target
Think before putting "a little less evil than the other guys" in easy to process chart form.Something not clear in this already incredible self-own of a chart is that "Target" isn't even "the goal we need to hit to prevent climate catastrophe." Target is just "What Biden pledged to hit back in 2021." It's less aggressive than what the EU or the UK say they're targeting. https://t.co/xULAsZGDBc
— austin walker (@austin_walker) April 22, 2024
Such Competence
I know I've asserted many times that the obsessive focus on elite universities is ridiculous, and it is, but this stuff fits in with my favorite more general theme - elite mendacity and incompetence.
Columbia University, the epicenter of pro-Palestinian protests at US college campuses in recent days, says all classes at its main campus will be hybrid — technology permitting — until the spring semester ends.It's the behavior of the people in charge that matters, not that of the students. It's the latter that other powerful people (New York Times editors and pundits) obsess about, because they are mad at their own children for hating them.
“Safety is our highest priority as we strive to support our students’ learning and all the required academic operations,” the university said in an announcement Monday night.
Somebody's Rich Daddy Threatened To Sue
Can't swing the bat too hard at these universities or you might take out somebody who matters.
University administrators, just the top talent.“My email regarding the protest at Grove and Prospect was mistaken and I apologize for the suggestion that the protesters might turn violent,” Lewis wrote to the News in the late afternoon. “I was repeating speculation I had overheard and I should not have done so.”
— Yale Daily News (@yaledailynews) April 22, 2024
Monday, April 22, 2024
Everyone Is Either Churchill or Chamberlain
You don't have to think much of Churchill (you probably shouldn't) to get that agreeing to put a budget up to vote does not merit any comparison with being the WWII wartime PM of the UK.
Shunning
It is Good, Akshually to shun people who are bigots, who believe in a hierarchy of people that rejects the humanity of most people. And good to shun those who don't see the need for this.
Yes you probably have to be civil to your asshole brother-in-law. That isn't what I'm talking about.
Covers a lot of our prominent journalists and Thinkfluencers, who are bigots themselves or find no problem tolerating it (in fact, consider the intolerance of bigots more troubling than the bigots).
Oh No Elmo
He's desperately trying to loot Tesla before it implodes, and it's pretty likely he'll succeed.
Also, this is genius business brain.
But even by Tesla standards, this year has been unruly. Its stock has slid more than 40% amid slumping sales, confusing product decisions and more price cuts. Its once-dominant position in China’s EV market is under assault. A visit with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an anticipated investment announcement was called off at the last minute. All the while, the board has tried to revive a $56 billion payout to Musk that a judge voided in January, on the grounds that directors had acted as “supine servants” to the CEO.Even a pretty negative article about Tesla has this:
On Tuesday, Tesla is expected to report a 40% plunge in operating profit and its first revenue decline in four years. Musk has ordered up the company’s biggest layoffs ever and staked its future on a next-generation, self-driving vehicle concept called the robotaxi. People familiar with his directives, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations, are unsettled by the changes the CEO wants to push through.
The idea of creating an autonomous taxi service has been kicking around Tesla for at least eight years, but the company has yet to stand up much of the infrastructure it would need, nor has it secured regulatory approval to test such cars on public roads. For the moment, Musk has put off plans for a $25,000, mass-market vehicle that many Tesla investors — and some insiders — are pushing for and believe is crucial to the carmaker’s future.Ah, yes, that idea has just been "kicking around."
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the company should have robotaxis on the roads in 2020.And (2019):
Elon Musk has made quite an important claim about Tesla vehicles today; the CEO said that Tesla’s vehicles are now ‘appreciating assets’ due to their self-driving capability.One more grand stock pump before it falls apart, though I've thought that before!
Also, this is genius business brain.
The actual number of people ushered out may exceed 20,000, according to people familiar with the company’s planning. Musk’s reasoning, according to one person with direct knowledge of his edicts, was that Tesla should reduce headcount by 20% because its vehicle deliveries dropped by that amount from the fourth quarter to the first quarter.I think this is claiming it's "learning" now instead of just reacting, which is what Tesla fanboys believed for years.
Cameras placed around the company’s cars are taking in video and using this footage to dictate how the vehicle drives, instead of relying on software code. Ashok Elluswamy, a director of Tesla’s Autopilot program, wrote on X last month that this should lead to “unprecedented progress.”
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Amazing Stuff
Probably everyone will forget about it tomorrow.
BASH: So you voted yes on the foreign aid package. Do you have confidence that, at this point, given that it is still possible that Marjorie Taylor Greene will push to vacate, to kick him out of the speaker's chair, that he can survive?
REP. TONY GONZALES (R-TX): He will survive.
Look, the House is a rough and rowdy place, but Mike Johnson is going to be just fine. I served 20 years in the military. It's my absolute honor to be in Congress, but I serve with some real scumbags.
Look, Matt Gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with them at drug parties. Bob Good endorsed my opponent, a known neo-Nazi. These people used to walk around with white hoods at night. Now they're walking around with white hoods in the daytime.
Incompetent
Being academia-adjacent, I'm often struck by how incompetent administrators can be (#notalladministrators). Sometimes what seems like incompetence is just them doing their actual job, but that job isn't what you think it is, should be, or what they claim it is (implicitly or explicitly). However, often they're incompetent at carrying out their actual mission!
Whatever "problem" the Columbia president thinks she is trying to solve, she isn't solving it!
Whatever "problem" the Columbia president thinks she is trying to solve, she isn't solving it!
The Future Of The Democratic Party
An African-American cop who pretended to be a "police reformer" but obviously wasn't was the perfect guy to "stick it to the lefties." Suddenly the winner of a 5-away primary (!) in New York City (!!) was obviously what Middle America (centrist dipshit pundit bros) desperately wanted.
NYC - Mayoral Vote:
— Polling USA (@USA_Polling) April 21, 2024
Someone Else: 65%
Adams: 16%
Unsure: 19%
Manhattan Institute / April 11, 2024 / n=700 pic.twitter.com/gIwh6g5PBM
I actually don't think the political appeal of "centrism," as defined by DC political journalists, is always incorrect, but trying to make Adams the standard-bearer of that was hilarious.It's probably foolish to think a NYC mayor will successfully translate into being a national political figure, but I still think Eric Adams would be in my top 5 for "who will be the next Democratic presidential nominee after Joe Biden?".
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) January 3, 2022
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Racist Grifters Down
It isn't understood widely enough that when some rich asshole gives an important university some money they'll probably take it. It's basically renting the brand.
Oxford University this week shut down an academic institute run by one of Elon Musk’s favorite philosophers. The Future of Humanity Institute, dedicated to the long-termism movement and other Silicon Valley-endorsed ideas such as effective altruism, closed this week after 19 years of operation. Musk had donated £1m to the FIH in 2015 through a sister organization to research the threat of artificial intelligence. He had also boosted the ideas of its leader for nearly a decade on X, formerly Twitter.This is all just code for "the money ran out and the university might have let us stay if any of us could do any real work."
The closure of Bostrom’s center is a further blow to the effective altruism and longtermism movements that the philosopher has spent decades championing, which in recent years have become mired in scandals related to racism, sexual harassment and financial fraud. Bostrom himself issued an apology last year after a decades-old email surfaced in which he claimed “Blacks are more stupid than whites” and used the N-word.
“Eventually a pressure to conform began bearing down (we were administratively housed within the faculty of philosophy, even though the majority of our research team by this time were non-philosophers), and there was a death by bureaucracy.”
But They Were Such Good Friends
Oh well.
The observation immediately went viral, provoking an irate denial from Trump’s campaign and reigniting the former president’s antipathy towards Haberman, who has been reporting on him for years. The resentment lasted the entire week, the sources add. It did not help Trump’s denial that he continued to doze off while seated in the Manhattan courtroom throughout the rest of the week. “Trump appears to have fallen asleep in court again,” Haberman wrote on Friday. “His eyes were closed for extended periods and his head dropped down twice.”Guess she'll be in the camps with the rest of us.
In recent conversations with Republican associates, Trump has repeatedly torn into Haberman and her CNN appearances, attacked her journalistic credentials, and bizarrely insisted that she was wrong about him falling asleep. Despite his dozing being widely reported, the former president has laid much of the blame for the detail going viral at Haberman’s feet. He was even observed glaring at her on Monday as he exited the courtroom following her CNN appearance.
And Those Determinations?
Israel has been a very good boy indeed.
WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said he has made "determinations" regarding accusations that Israel violated a set of U.S. laws that prohibit providing military assistance to individuals or security force units that commit gross violations of human rights.
...
"And that's exactly what we've done. And I think it's fair to say that you'll see results very soon. I made determinations. You can expect to see them in the days ahead," Blinken said. He did not elaborate.
Friday, April 19, 2024
Oh No Elmo
More trouble in White Paradise.
Tesla is recalling all 3,878 Cybertrucks that it has shipped to date, due to a problem where the accelerator pedal can get stuck, putting drivers at risk of a crash, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Exceptions
It was extremist nonsense to suggest that health/life exceptions, as envisioned by all the centrist dipshits, were unworkable in practice. Treating pregnant women (or even "pre-pregnant" women) without fear of running into the law is basically impossible in these states.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One woman miscarried in the restroom lobby of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to admit her. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn’t offer an ultrasound. The baby later died.And that's treating them at all, not just for pregnancy-related issues.
Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from U.S. emergency rooms spiked in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, federal documents obtained by The Associated Press reveal.
Dipshit Centrism
This is the standard dipshit centrist response to anything they don't think you should care about, though "why don't you care about this thing I just learned about and have never mentioned before" coming from someone who styles themselves as (retired) Tenured Radical is a bit much.
I know the "sly" implication is students - even Jewish ones! - must be motivated by antisemitism, because nothing else could explain it, but you can easily flip this around. Why care about the 10/7 attacks when (spins wheel of tragedies) Tigray (spelled correctly) is happening!!!
Why are people concerned about this thing that is on the front pages of the newspaper every day, that the administration gives multiple press conference about every day, that we spend billions of dollars to support? Why aren't they protesting this other thing I don't care about either???
Potter isn't actually this dumb, so she's pretending to be, as many do, thinking you are stupid enough to be fooled by their pretending to be stupid. I don't know why a prominent (retired) academic thinks it's clever to be stupid, but we all have our kinks.
Learning From Our Mistakes
The "bomb Iran" crowd has been fairly quiet recently, but they're always waiting for their moment. The Kids won't rememember but in the late aughts it was very pressing.
8. Consider the opportunity cost. The problem with dumb war isn't that it's war. The problem is that it costs you the military, economic, and political resources to fight a smart war. Everything Bush wrongly attributed to Iraq turns out to be true of Iran. But we can't confront Iran with the force it probably requires, because we wasted our resources in Iraq. Americans, having been suckered in Iraq, won't accept evidence of Iran's nuclear program. Countries that might have supported us in a strike on Iran won't do so now, since we led them astray. Our coffers have been emptied to pay for the Iraq occupation. Our troops are physically and spiritually exhausted. In the name of strength, Bush has made us weak.
Is That Good
How is the Kushner-Netanyahu-Biden-McGurk peace plan going?
Why are the Iranians so emotional? Is it because they have some strange inscrutable notion of honor?
It might be the case that this retaliation was mostly for show, as Iran's largely was. A choregraphed little dance.
It says a lot about the people who run the world that this actually makes sense to all of them. Oh we have to pretend to try to blow some shit up! I guess people with power all do have inscrutable notions of honor.
Israel has attacked Iran, US official tells CNNI am really hung up on Israeli officials running to the NYT and explaining that they didn't understand that bombing the Iranian embassy in Syria would make Iran mad.
Why are the Iranians so emotional? Is it because they have some strange inscrutable notion of honor?
It might be the case that this retaliation was mostly for show, as Iran's largely was. A choregraphed little dance.
It says a lot about the people who run the world that this actually makes sense to all of them. Oh we have to pretend to try to blow some shit up! I guess people with power all do have inscrutable notions of honor.
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Just Buy A Porsche Or Whatever
Why is it that all these prominent weirdos are hitting midlife and deciding to burn the world down instead of just becoming an annoying Updike character?
22 Years Of This Shit
This shit blog, but also this shit. It was boring when Bernie Goldberg wrote his incoherent book, it was boring when Bari Weiss did it, and it's still so damn boring!
There was a time when I would've ENGAGED THE CONVERSATION but, dear readers, anyone who treats MAN CLAIMS MEDIA OUTLET IS LIBERAL as important just gets added to the ignore/point and laugh list.
It's a very very long list.
(I don't mean Scott - linked - for making the effort I can't bring myself to).
There was a time when I would've ENGAGED THE CONVERSATION but, dear readers, anyone who treats MAN CLAIMS MEDIA OUTLET IS LIBERAL as important just gets added to the ignore/point and laugh list.
It's a very very long list.
(I don't mean Scott - linked - for making the effort I can't bring myself to).
All The Private Details Fit To Print
Journalists have been publishing incredibly detailed descriptions of prospective Trump jurors - making them easily identifiable - for reasons they haven't bothered to explain.
Is that a normal mafia trial thing to do?
The Rare Reporter Who Would Notice
Tapper sucks in lots of ways but he won't always play along with the GOP script of the day. That shouldn't be notable.
What Can Biden DOOOOOOOOO
Something.
A special State Department panel recommended months ago that Secretary of State Antony Blinken disqualify multiple Israeli military and police units from receiving U.S. aid after reviewing allegations that they committed serious human rights abuses.But Blinken has failed to act on the proposal in the face of growing international criticism of the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza, according to current and former State Department officials.
NYT Will Print Anything
Didn't think killing your dudes would make you mad.
Why are you being so unreasonble about this?
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY TO US ALL
A few of you, at least, have been here since near the beginning.
Paypal or Patreon, your choice.
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It has become a odd way of life, a bit of a Hotel California, but on the whole not so bad!
Thank you for your support! To 22 MORE YEARS. I will be 74.
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Foreign Interests
Not defending Putin support, but it should also inspire a more general consideration of the various ways ($$$) many different foreign interests have a bit of influence in DC.
I really am not thinking of Israel.
My somewhat unevidenced opinion is that members of Congress are personally much more corrupt than they used to be, aside from the obvious perpetual corruption of the security state.
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
FUNDRAISER DAY 6
1 day to go until the 22nd blogiversary!
Thanks to all!
Paypal or Patreon, your choice.
Paypal:
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Paypal or Patreon, your choice.
Paypal:
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Options
This is a CNN headline.
We did not see a "no easy option for Iran" equivalent.
The nice thing about the supposed rules-based order, about war crimes laws, is you don't really have to take sides to apply the framework. Once you reject the framework, all you are doing is taking sides.
To be fair, we should remember that Iran stole the WMDs from Iraq.
Time Is Funny
The incoming university class of '28 were born in 2006 or so, meaning they were 10 when Trump was elected.
My made up rule of thumb is that anything that happens before about age 9 is The Before Time for people, little different in concept to things that happened 20 years earlier.
The Foreign Policy Big Brains
To a great degree it is still George Bush's world. A charitable view of Tom Friedman's "suck on this" comment was that he was merely describing the attitude, not endorsing it. Either way, the idea that showing the world our big swinging dick should have a higher priority than peace has not gone away.
If you know absolutely nothing about any particular looming conflict, asking for more restraint than the government and commentariat demand is almost always the right call.
You might rememeber that the one unambiguously correct thing Trump did, the day he became president, was bombing Syria.
Monday, April 15, 2024
Sure Why Not
The kind of thing that could be mentioned in every single story, or not, depending on the demands of objectivity.
No Nuance
It is always acceptable to say we aren't killing the baddies hard enough, but otherwise.
I regularly write and delete posts about Ukraine because the simple point - lefties argued Western interests would be less than pure and any genuine commitment would inevitably wane because it always does - makes people mad.Any time anyone criticises the foreign policy consensus, no matter how badly they have fucked it, the response is just "you just love The Baddies you do". Are we not tired of this? Have we not had enough of this childishness?
— Tom Hatfield (@WordMercenary) April 14, 2024
Thoughts and Prayers
For Thomas.
WASHINGTON — Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was not present at the court for oral arguments on Monday, with the court giving no reason for his absence.
Oh No Elmo
Could the Tesla doom spiral finally be here?!?!
Tesla announced to Gigafactory Texas employees that it will shorten Cybertruck production shift amid rumors that it is preparing a round of layoffs.Tesla exists as a real company that makes things but also as a meme stock that is 10X overvalued at a miminum.
We received several reports today from Tesla employees hearing rumors of an important round of layoffs happening this week at the company.
What's It All About Then
Not really criticizing here, but there's something about this formulation which makes it sound somehow trivial.
The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, has charged Mr. Trump with 34 felonies, accusing him of falsifying documents to conceal a sex scandal involving a porn star.Further down, the article says, more clarifyingly:
Mr. Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and, if convicted, could face up to four years in prison.
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Will It Happen?
Actually having to show up to be a criminal defendant in a trial seems to be the biggest consequence our guy has ever faced. Still expect some sort of Supreme Intervention.
But What If Trump Violates His Gag Order
Similar question.
President Biden told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a call on Saturday that the U.S. won't support any Israeli counterattack against Iran, a senior White House official told Axios.
Saturday, April 13, 2024
Don't See How...
Always does seem to wriggle out of whatever it is, but having to appear at a criminal trial (if indeed he does!) is something!
Former President Donald Trump’s appearance in a New York courthouse Monday for jury selection in his criminal hush money trial will kick off a weekslong juggling act between the courtroom and the campaign trail during a crucial period for his general election bid.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is required to be present in court the entire time – every weekday, except Wednesday – with the schedule set by the court. Trump’s team is working around the limitations to keep him interacting with voters and donors.
Odd Fantasies
When Uber came along it was a neato new technology and you can see how it "disrupted" existing taxi markets, many of which were poorly regulated and provided less than ideal service in their areas. Still it's quite amazing that people believed that there was any possible way to get the cost-per-mile down low enough - even with robotaxis (an Uber fantasy for awhile) - to make it live up to the growth/valuation hype.
Low margin business + an app does not equal EVERYONE GETS RICH but somehow...
Low margin business + an app does not equal EVERYONE GETS RICH but somehow...
Same with delivery services. No matter how much you can lower costs, there's still a limit to how much people are going to pay for it.
Also funny that we still call so many of these things "tech" companies.
The Silence of the Free Speech Warriors
Still amazing that they think college students behaving badly (granting for the sake of discussion that occasionally they do - the point being, so what even if they do?) is more important than this type of thing.
I mean, I get it, they think people who own the microphones should be allowed to speak and everyone else should shut the fuck up - that's Free Speech, Baby! - but after years of this they still expect everyone to pretend there is some higher principle involved.
I mean, I get it, they think people who own the microphones should be allowed to speak and everyone else should shut the fuck up - that's Free Speech, Baby! - but after years of this they still expect everyone to pretend there is some higher principle involved.
Free speech:
Friday, April 12, 2024
Amenities
Regularly one of our illustrious pundit bros wonders why more people don't move to lower cost places, especially now that working from home is at least more of an option. There are lots of reasons that don't involve "access to the hipster coffee shop," and one is the precarious nature of certain necessary non-hipster coffee shop amenities, like health care services.
Independent Investigation
Just mocking Uncle Joe, really.
However, it said there was no intentional harm. “Those who approved the strike were convinced that they were targeting armed Hamas operatives and not WCK employees,” said the IDF.Have some self-respect, MAN.
The investigation into Col Mandel and his colleagues was led by retired Maj Gen Yoav Har-Even, president and CEO of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, sparking claims of bias.
The IDF is one of Rafael’s biggest buyers. The company, which sells nearly half of its arms to Israeli clients, makes the ‘Spike missiles’ which are reported to have been used to kill the aid workers.
Favism
Fell down a minor internet wormhole on this one.
Although favism, a blood disorder that can cause a violent reaction to fava beans, lurks throughout Italy, many Romans look forward to May, when the legumes are in season.While there seem to be some other minor dietary triggers for people with the genetic disorder, in practice it appears it's basically fava beans.
Your Job Is To Win
Back in 2000, I rolled my eyes at all the Nader voters. I wasn't not a Nader sympathizer, at all! But no matter what we think of those people, the question facing the Gore campaign was: is there anything we can do to win them over without hurting ourselves more elsewhere?
This is just standard campaign stuff. I don't even have an answer to the question. But the question facing the campaign was not, "Are the potential Nader voters a bunch of stupid shitheads?" The question was, "What do we have to do win?"
Maybe the belief was "there's nothing we can do to get those stupid shitheads to vote for us." I have no idea! But the answer was not "fuck those stupid shitheads because they are supposed to vote for us" any more than that's the right attitude when courting Suburban Swing Voters, or an imagined bloc of "Haley voters," or any other set of voters.
Maybe the imagined Lefties-mad-about-Gaza-or-whatever are unreachable! If so, then from the campaign's perspective, fuck those stupid shitheads, they won't vote for us anyway!
Otherwise, it seems prudent to apply basic politics applied to every other voting group which is, at a minimum, convincing people that their concerns matter.
This is just standard campaign stuff. I don't even have an answer to the question. But the question facing the campaign was not, "Are the potential Nader voters a bunch of stupid shitheads?" The question was, "What do we have to do win?"
Maybe the belief was "there's nothing we can do to get those stupid shitheads to vote for us." I have no idea! But the answer was not "fuck those stupid shitheads because they are supposed to vote for us" any more than that's the right attitude when courting Suburban Swing Voters, or an imagined bloc of "Haley voters," or any other set of voters.
Maybe the imagined Lefties-mad-about-Gaza-or-whatever are unreachable! If so, then from the campaign's perspective, fuck those stupid shitheads, they won't vote for us anyway!
Otherwise, it seems prudent to apply basic politics applied to every other voting group which is, at a minimum, convincing people that their concerns matter.
Most politics is, actually, directed at stupid shitheads, which I think Professional Democrats should understand.
The bad orange man is indeed bad, but the daily sociopathy from the various spokespeople in the White House and State is not helpful!
Slowly Then All At Once
I suppose even pessimists might have underestimated Israel's response and the US's support for it, but all this has been predictable for months.
A promised surge in aid into Gaza that Benjamin Netanyahu promised Joe Biden a week ago has so far failed to materialise, aid workers say, as the US aid chief confirmed that famine is beginning to take hold in parts of the besieged coastal strip.I posted this 6 weeks ago. An eternity ago.
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Bye Nordberg
Something I haven't seen anyone comment on yet, after OJ's death, is that after the OJ trial was done, cable news kept trying... and trying... to create another "OJ." It was the template for the Lewinsky coverage - not simply a news story, or an important news story, but complete saturation coverage everywhere. That was the successful one. Some other stories failed to launch, though you could see them trying.
Mommy He Hit Me Back
I have no idea what Iran will do, but this is a clear case of "Israel started it."
Mr Biden warned that Iran is threatening to launch a "significant attack" after Israel struck the Iranian consulate in Syria 10 days ago.And started for the clear purpose of dragging the US into it.
COUNTDOWN TO 22ND BLOGIVERSARY FUNDRAISER
Well that is a significant chunk of my life! "What are you going to do after the election (of 2004)" they asked. April 17 is the magic day!
Thanks to all who support the site! It is what it is and if you get some enjoyment out of it consider giving me some of your frappuccino money. My only pitch is: just in case you didn't notice, the internet ad market completely collapsed and that is why everyone is behind paywalls now. I don't like paywalls - not faulting those who have them - so I ask nicely instead!
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The Republican Position On Abortion
It is very confusing to (some) political reporters.
Republicans in Arizona halted an effort by Democrats on Wednesday to repeal an 1864 law banning almost all abortions, which the state supreme court this week ruled could go into effect.Not faulting this piece, but "Republicans (including Trump) will pretend to soften their views of abortion while thwarting any attempt to soften the law" is the strategy that every single person who pays attention to politics fully understands but some reporters will pretend not to!
...
Some Republicans in the state had, surprisingly, come out against the court’s decision. “This decision cannot stand,” Matt Gress, a Republican state representative, said. “I categorically reject rolling back the clock to a time when slavery was still legal and we could lock up women and doctors because of an abortion.”
Gress had tried to bring forth a bill to repeal the ban but then voted with other Republicans to move to recess.
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