Knives Out For Lutnick

The Nvidia story it is the story itself, but also the timing of the reporting and the motives of the people informing it. I'm not going to engage in grand speculation about all of that, but one strand is that people are not fond of Lutnick.

Lutnick Pushed to Weaken Chip Rules That Overlap With His Family Business

The commerce secretary has been writing new rules that would affect Southeast Asian data centers, some of which are clients of his former firm.

Smuggling Operation

I don’t know if there is much point to technology export controls to China, but given that we have them, this is a big deal.

A Chinese company with ties to Alice Huang procured NVIDIA AI chips banned in the country, which were then installed at a Shanghai AI facility that also has ties to Alice Huang, according to Bloomberg. The publication says the documents it has reviewed for its report shows explicit evidence that there's a network of Chinese companies, which have managed to get their hands on NVIDIA chips that weren't supposed to be sold in China, with Huang at the center.

And even if you don't care about the export controls themselves, when some companies are free to break the law and others aren't, it isn't exactly a fair system.

Everything with this administration is just Matryoshka dolls of corruption.
 

Related: there is a cross-partisan clique of  "China Hawks" who seem to be pretty quiet (maybe I have missed!), when they should be apoplectic. Weird.

Morning

Sunday funday

Saturday Evening

Let the eagle soar

Afternoon

Seems Donald is in his oxygen chamber getting child blood transfusions or whatever it is he does when he disappears.

He Admit It

I really thought suggestions that they were doing middle of the day Friday major upgrades couldn't possibly be true but lol.

Q: You were trying to make upgrades at 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon. Why? Why not do it at say midnight on Saturday when there are fewer planes lined up to take off? DUFFY: There will be a reevaluation of when we do this work

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 14 November 2026 at 11:20

(it is possible this didn't even happen but who knows if Duffy knows anything)

Bonus

For wavering senators who are tired of ogre tantrums.

Fetterman suggests he will leave the Democratic Party if Van Hollen is elected majority leader

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 14 November 2026 at 10:34

Too Many Magic Beans

As far as I can tell they aren't being forthcoming about what happened, just repeating phrases like "outdated systems" in hopes reporters will repeat it?

It seems like Mullin said something closer to the truth out loud, that new technology rammed too much data through the old system.

The new technology being Duffy's "AI," which probably isn't really "AI" as is commonly undertstood these days, and might even be good (no idea) if implemented by people who weren't fucking idiots.

Just guessing here.

Morning

Slacker Saturday.

Beyond All Recognition

Worrying.

The FAA “doesn’t know yet what is going on; it is affecting different facilities in different ways,” an airline source told CNN. “Ten minutes ago, they were on a crisis call and there was still no clear answer as to a cause.”

Breaking News From Flavor Flav

(True)

Ground stop will be “multiple hours” This has been Flavor Flav from the Atlanta Airport. And now to Chuck D from JFK.

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— FLAVOR FLAV ⏰ (@flavorflav.bsky.social) 13 November 2026 at 16:27

Afternoon

Busy with some things.

Team Van Hollen

I have been trying to think of a way to express this succinctly and I think it is: Between Chris and Chuck, only one of them worries that the Dems won a bit too big this year (both House and Senate), and I don't mean because the newbies might vote Chuck out.

Jeffries would also be much happier with a smaller majority.

Someone Broke Computer

I am stupid about these things, but there is something very wrong if Microsoft breaks somethng and computers globally stop being able to do basic things.

In the old times, you company's email server might have broken, but not All (ok a lot) Email Everywhere.

That was by design.

Can't route everything through one leaky tunnel.

Happy Hour

Get happy

The Hardest Thing He Ever Did

In no way will I hand to Pete here - he doesn’t get a trophy for not doing the wrong thing - but I will hand it to whoever managed to get him to go against every impulse he had.

Hegseth awards medal to soldier who reprimanded him and aides at Arlington Cemetery

I thought that guy's career was fucked. And it still might be, when no one is looking, if Pete is still in charge for awhile.

Travel Day

Might or might not be much posting 

We Forgot The Caravans

A little late, sir. You start with them right after Labor Day.

Mr. PRESIDENT, TEAR DOWN THIS BALLROOM

Demolition day should be a national celebration.

I hope everyone takes a good hard look at this picture. Trump’s under-construction ballroom is now bigger than the rest of the White House. Much bigger. The contrast says everything you need to know about this President and his priorities.

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— James E. Clyburn (@repjamesclyburn.bsky.social) 12 November 2026 at 00:15

Really the first test of "are you willing to do anything."

Symbolic, somewhat, but the tendency accept the current state of affairs as the new baseline is strong.

We can argue about what compromises Dems should make in dealing with Trump, but recognize that many Dems are not as interested in, say, cutting the ridiculous ICE budget as they should be.

If the next president is a Dem and they have a trifecta, there won't be any excuses . A willigness to rip Trump remnants from everything shouldn't be controversial.

Bye Bye

I admit I haven't been following the details of all of this very closely, but Jensen Huang just resigned from everything.