Lunch

eat

The Cause Is Good, But The Supporters Are Bad

I'm generally too dumb to be full of shit. I don't mean I'm a beacon of pure honesty, that I'd never pull a Bart Simpson "I didn't do it," but there's a level of dishonesty that requires deliberate intent and calculation. It requires strategizing. I just can't do it.

I'm thinking of all the pundits and similar who consider the career values of Taking A Position. Like, is it good for my career to pretend to be a Bernie Sanders supporter when it seems he's going to win? Should I reinvent myself as a centrist now that the Cillizza chair is empty at CNN? That kind of thing.

The frequent easy play - and I can't believe anyone ever falls for it - is to pretend to support/oppose something but then be dissuaded by irrelevant details.

Back in the day it was "The Iraq war is probably a bad idea, but some of the people who oppose it are also bad, so maybe it is good, really?"

The war was a horrendous crime even if someone had a dumb sign at a protest.

Lock Him Up!

Only prudent thing to do.

A federal judge will consider the Department of Justice's request to have former Trump adviser Steve Bannon begin his four-month prison term in connection with his contempt of Congress conviction.

Seems Bad

Time to honor that guy with a speech to Congress!

The US-based famine early warning system network (Fews Net) said it was “possible, if not likely” that famine began in northern Gaza in April. Two UN organisations said more than 1 million people were “expected to face death and starvation” by mid-July.

Morning

Thursday time.

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy.

The Baileys Strike Again

They live on Long Island, haven't been to New York City in 15 years, but they are still really mad about congestion pricing. Also, despite the fact that they AREN'T EVEN REAL, apparently Chuck Schumer listened to them and put the pressure on.

Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, abruptly “postponed indefinitely” New York City’s controversial, first-in-the-nation congestion pricing plan on Wednesday, with sources citing concerns about the cost of living and economic recovery as well as implications for vulnerable Democrats in competitive US House races later this year.

The Small Life

Nothing against a decent steak, but I am often struck by people with means who are so self-limited.

Before the jury was seated Tuesday, Adam Fee, one of Bob Menendez’s attorneys, argued that prosecutors were unfairly attempting to paint the May 2019 dinner as something malign – as co-conspirators plotting their crimes. According to Fee, the senator was a regular at the steakhouse, going there 250 nights out of the year.

Where's The Outrage From His Peers

I've seen journalists raise a bigger fuss defending Bari Weiss from the vile trolls on the internet than they have about Trump plotting to keep their colleague locked up.

(none, I have seen precisely none)

Lunch

Shop while you eat! (Ad, I get a commission).

Shovel Ready Projects

One of the excuses that Obungler and the gang made for the catastrophic choice to not support more stimulus funding after the crash was that there weren't "shovel ready projects." My retort at the time - perfectly correct - was that you had almost limitless opportunity for digging holes and filling them up again, and replacing the pipes inbetween those two steps.

The breaks have highlighted the decaying infrastructure criss-crossing Atlanta and many other major American cities.

“What we have found, in digging and digging and digging and looking at pipes, we are repairing pipes from 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, and our infrastructure is crumbling,” Atlanta Chief Operating Officer LaChandra Burks said at a Monday afternoon city council meeting.

Of course even if there weren't "shovel ready projects" just pointing the money bazooka at bank accounts would have worked reasonably well, too, as we have recently discovered, but those smart guys knew best.

Russians In Our Facebook

I remember that right after 10/7 a lot of people were claiming there was an elaborate "pro-Hamas" (or pro-Palestinian, depending) bot operation going on and I was never quite sure who was supposed to be organizing that.

Israel organized and paid for an influence campaign last year targeting U.S. lawmakers and the American public with pro-Israel messaging, as it aimed to foster support for its actions in the war with Gaza, according to officials involved in the effort and documents related to the operation.

Well we'd better send more weapons, like they asked.

They Let You Put Anything In The Paper Now

Bret put his assistant to work today to provide a bunch of reasons Europe Is Bad. I thought this, in particular, was pretty hilarious:

Think of any leading-edge industry — artificial intelligence, microchips, software, robotics, genomics — and ask yourself (with a few honorable exceptions), where’s the European Microsoft, Nvidia or OpenAI?

There are only a few honorable exceptions to my point that Europe doesn't have any leading tech firms. Amazing stuff, Bret and editors. I'd bet Bret submitted it without the parenthetical, his editor came up with a few examples like, I dunno, maybe Spotify or that Ozempic making company, so Bret stuck it in there.  Nonetheless his point still stands!

But this the point he is really concerned about: too many Muslims.

Europe has an additional challenge: a relatively high Muslim birthrate, along with the prospect of long-term Muslim migration. Under a “medium migration” scenario estimated by Pew, by 2050 Britain will be nearly 17 percent Muslim, France 17.4 percent and Sweden 20.5 percent. Those wondering about the ascendence of far-right European parties, who are heavily favored to sweep this week’s elections in the E.U. Parliament and who are often sympathetic to Vladimir Putin, know this is a factor. And they need to be honest that the values of depressingly notable segments of these Muslim populations are fundamentally at odds with European traditions of moral tolerance and political liberalism.

Muslims, who I do not support, hate moral tolerance and political liberalism, which, as an American conservative, I also do not support.

The "intolerant Muslim" of the imagination is basically the American conservative party but brown and with a different prayer schedule (of the imagination, to be clear).

Morning

Ah, well, nevertheless.

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

get happy

My Chatbot Is Bigger Than Your Chatbot

These guys are gonna spend all their money on dueling Clippies.

Elon Musk ordered thousands of Nvidia-made AI chips destined for Tesla to be diverted to his social media company X, according to emails from the chipmaker obtained by CNBC. The move has the potential to delay Tesla’s acquisition of $500 million worth of processors by months, the outlet reports.

...

Musk’s AI startup, xAI, is racing against OpenAI, Google, and others to produce useful applications for generative AI and their underlying large language models. Last month, the company announced a $6 billion funding round on the promise of advanced products and the infrastructure to support them.

Explained It Perfectly

Great stuff.

And whose fault is it that the that deal, the ceasefire for hostages has not been consummated? Is it Hamas or Israel or both?

Biden: Hamas. Hamas could end this tomorrow. Hamas could say (unintelligible) and done period. And, but, and the last offer Israel made was very generous in terms of who they'd be willing to release, what they'd give in return, et cetera. Bibi is under enormous pressure on the hostages, on the hostages, and so he's prepared to do about anything to get the hostages back.

 

...

Some in Israel have suggested that Netanyahu is prolonging the war for his own political self-preservation. Do you believe that?

Biden: I'm not going to comment on that. There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion. And I would cite tha as—before the war began, the blowback he was getting from the Israeli military for wanting to change the constitu—change the court. And so it's an internal domestic debate that seems to have no consequence. And whether he would change his position or not, it's hard to say, but it has not been helpful.

What are we doing here.

Lunch

eat