Saturday, October 01, 2016
What'd I Miss?
Did Donald tweet any snuff porn links last night? Instructions on human taxidermy? A muffin recipe?
Friday, September 30, 2016
Strike
I can't say I know enough about this situation, but a few years ago the current administration spent millions to take the orchestra into bankruptcy because ???.
I'm sure the CW will be that the orchestra gets paid so much money. Well, the CEO gets paid a 3-4x+ what they get paid, and after several years has a bankruptcy to show for it and ???. That bankruptcy was expensive, too. They probably spent 30 bucks just mailing me legally required notices and I hadn't even been a subscriber for a couple of years. Also, too, I'm not a lawyer billing at immense rates.
Go orchestra!
I'm sure the CW will be that the orchestra gets paid so much money. Well, the CEO gets paid a 3-4x+ what they get paid, and after several years has a bankruptcy to show for it and ???. That bankruptcy was expensive, too. They probably spent 30 bucks just mailing me legally required notices and I hadn't even been a subscriber for a couple of years. Also, too, I'm not a lawyer billing at immense rates.
Go orchestra!
"At 3 AM the following morning, Republican nominee Ronald Rump tweeted that people should watch a sex tape..."
This novel is bullshit. No one could believe this stuff.
The Christie Way
New Jersey's two main cities are New York and Philadelphia. That's not a knock on New Jersey, it's just the way it is. Jersey has other things within its borders, but the big cities are in neighboring states. Any governor of that state should recognize the importance of good transport links to and from those cities. It wouldn't be too weird for Christie to be indifferent to mass transit. That's pretty common in the US, even if it's idiotic. But given bridgegate and games with the transportation funds generally, he hasn't been too concerned with the automobile links, either. Everything's a slush fund for the governor, you see. Governing isn't the job, self-promotion is. Though that didn't work out very well. Wrong again! Okay, this one makes me laugh, too.
They Know Even Less Than What They Say
Just the regular reminder that all of the people paid millions to tell us all it what means were scornful at the idea that Donald Trump could win the Republican primary, despite the polls telling us he probably would for months.
I'd say only the dirty hippie liberals understand the Republican electorate, but it's worse than that. Only dirty hippie liberals know how to read a fucking poll.
I'd say only the dirty hippie liberals understand the Republican electorate, but it's worse than that. Only dirty hippie liberals know how to read a fucking poll.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
ONE WHOLE MILE
I do think a lot of people have a distorted view of pedestrian distance, and one reason is that for a lot of people nearby walking is pretty miserable. I'm not arguing that an additional 22ish minutes each way on your commute, if that's what you're doing, is a nontrivial amount of time, but for people without mobility issues it isn't exactly a big physical burden. If the walk is nice, and you can do some errands along the way like stop in the supermarket or pick up your dry cleaning, or, hell, hit happy hour at your local, it might even be enjoyable/productive. Not all miles are created equal.
Habits also impact this view. On the various local/urban issue internet forums where people argue about this stuff, it's clear that people who drive for their commute are more likely to perceive a 3 block walk home from a parking spot to be a big burden, while people who depend on transit don't think much about it at all.
This is where people scream "but weather!" Yes, yes, some places are unbearably hot or unbearably cold for some months of the year. However, there aren't many places in the country that have "bad" weather - too hot, or too cold - more than 4 months per year, really. Less perfect weather, sure, but not so hot or cold that a 22 minute walk is unbearable given proper clothing. Hot's a bit more difficult than cold for people who are commuting, but even the hot places really are mostly fine the other 8 months.
Habits also impact this view. On the various local/urban issue internet forums where people argue about this stuff, it's clear that people who drive for their commute are more likely to perceive a 3 block walk home from a parking spot to be a big burden, while people who depend on transit don't think much about it at all.
This is where people scream "but weather!" Yes, yes, some places are unbearably hot or unbearably cold for some months of the year. However, there aren't many places in the country that have "bad" weather - too hot, or too cold - more than 4 months per year, really. Less perfect weather, sure, but not so hot or cold that a 22 minute walk is unbearable given proper clothing. Hot's a bit more difficult than cold for people who are commuting, but even the hot places really are mostly fine the other 8 months.
We Used To Do That
There's been chatter about some of the fever swamps of the internet (you know, the white supremacist types) getting their users to "manipulate" online polls. Not that I'm inclined to defend neo-Nazis (And I'm not, of course), but online polls should be manipulated. People on in the internets have been "manipulating" online polls about politics for as long as I can remember. The freepers at free republic call it "freeping" polls. The kids at Democratic Underground say to "DU this poll." Here we adopted Lou Dobbs for awhile and called it "torture Lou Dobbs" because we could get the results of his online polls, which he would announce on his show daily, to be the opposite of whatever you knew he wanted them to be. The point was to have a bit of fun while pointing out that the whole exercise was absurd.
Online polls are, of course, complete bullshit, and if "news" organizations wish to talk about them as being meaningful, as opposed to a game, which they have for a long time, then they get what they ask for. Random assholes on the internet aren't the ones making online polls newsworthy, it's elite news organizations. And, yes, in the past they definitely had an impact in how events like debates were covered. I've seen hosts say things like, "we thought this, but our online polls say..."
So, yes, online polls are bullshit. Stop pretending otherwise. And long before 4chan or even Eschaton World Industries, there was the Free Republic, "manipulating" every one of them. Weirdly news organizations only seem to care when they get results they don't like. Funny, that.
Online polls are, of course, complete bullshit, and if "news" organizations wish to talk about them as being meaningful, as opposed to a game, which they have for a long time, then they get what they ask for. Random assholes on the internet aren't the ones making online polls newsworthy, it's elite news organizations. And, yes, in the past they definitely had an impact in how events like debates were covered. I've seen hosts say things like, "we thought this, but our online polls say..."
So, yes, online polls are bullshit. Stop pretending otherwise. And long before 4chan or even Eschaton World Industries, there was the Free Republic, "manipulating" every one of them. Weirdly news organizations only seem to care when they get results they don't like. Funny, that.
But Does She Have Granite Countertops?
Go against whoever happens to be Dear Leader at the moment, and face the consequences.
Morning Thread
Here are some quick hits from Echidne. It's always been a puzzlement to me that so many people don't believe writers should be paid for their work. It *is* work to keep a blog active, day after day after day and some bloggers absolutely deserve to be remunerated for their toil. Echidne is one of those. Note the "donate" button on her blog and use it.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Smell the Freedom
TRUMP in IOWA: "Raise your hand if you're NOT a Christian conservative. I want to see that. There's a few of them. Should we keep them?"
— James Hohmann (@jameshohmann) September 28, 2016
Sad Clown
I admit I find it hard to keep up the sense of humor about things these days. We laughed a lot during the Bush years, didn't we, my fellow pony aficionados. Trump should just make me laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh. But with Bush we could sorta pretend that people voted for him because they didn't quite see him for what he was. There's no doing that with Trump. Trump is Trump. He won't win, but a lot of people... a lot of people... are going to vote for him.
Stop Whining
While conservatives/Republicans perfected the art of complaining about media bias, it is genuinely something that Both Sides do now (I am not saying Both Sides are equally full or not full of shit in their complaints). With Trump it's different, however. Normally it's the kind of thing that various surrogates do, at least publicly, not the actual candidate. Every time Trump drops his ice cream cone he whines "not fair!!!!!" Big baby.
2020
Judging whether this Penn Station proposal is any good is above my pay grade, but a 2020 completion date is, uh, not gonna happen.
Happy to be wrong! If so, I'll have my autonomous car take me to the governor so I can apologize to him personally for my wrongness.
Happy to be wrong! If so, I'll have my autonomous car take me to the governor so I can apologize to him personally for my wrongness.
Blogging is Saved!
I'll still have Xanadu to kick around.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New Jersey appeals court on Tuesday sided with the state in its plan to allow $1.15 billion of tax-exempt bonds to finance American Dream, the state's long-stalled mega-mall and entertainment complex.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
So Fragile
And who will foot the bill for the bulldozers?
And then what will I blog about?
Developer tells NJ appeals court any delay in approving funding will kill long-stalled project
This week could prove to be a make-or-break one for the long-stalled American Dream megamall in the Meadowlands, thanks to a court ruling on the developer’s controversial $1.15 billion state-assisted finance plan that could be released at any time.
And then what will I blog about?
Pennsylvania Explained!
— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) September 27, 2016
Undecided Pennsylvania voters who didn't love Hillary said they liked her more after she criticized private prisons https://t.co/qnJpFKDtEb
— Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) September 27, 2016
As Woodruff notes, it's the Kids for Cash scandal. When a judge sells kids (and, it should be noted, too many of the "wrong" type of kids. you know, the ones you can get the media to actually care about) to for profit juvenile facilities, people start to care...
That Guy
Unlike most pundits, I don't think I'm capable of knowing what most of the rest of humanity responds positively to. I do think it's important to remember that while last night probably wasn't the best Donald, it was actually the Donald that people vote for over 16 other clown car members. Meaning, he's the guy that people liked. There were definitely moments in the debate that even Republican "Very Serious People" probably thought were awful, but I thought might have actually sounded pretty good to anybody who was considering voting for him in the first place.
Donald doesn't know anything about foreign policy, or the wider world, but neither does just about anybody else who claims to who works in politics. What people on the teevee know, some of them anyway, is "foreign policy," the very narrow set of agreed upon Washington Conventional wisdom about the types of things Very Serious People are supposed to say about "foreign policy." In other words, they've memorized some arbitrary rulebook, but they've never actually tried to play the game. Or seen it played.
As for economics, once you get outside the general Republican "taxes bad regulations bad," which is nonsense that Very Serious People have agreed isn't nonsense, the economic critique from the Right, which I suppose you'd called the Right's economic populism, is genuinely gibberish. Their critiques of trade and trade deals and the Fed are complete gibberish (not that these things are above criticism, just that the criticisms from the Right usually make no sense. They aren't just wrong, they don't follow logically from one statement to the next.) Still, it sounds good to a lot of people. Your ranty drunk racist white uncle is an archetype because there are a lot of ranty drunk racist white uncles, and they all kinda sound like that.
I'd say on theater it wasn't a great night. He let That Woman get the better of him, and that's an unforgivable sin. On "substance," he gave the people what they want.
Donald doesn't know anything about foreign policy, or the wider world, but neither does just about anybody else who claims to who works in politics. What people on the teevee know, some of them anyway, is "foreign policy," the very narrow set of agreed upon Washington Conventional wisdom about the types of things Very Serious People are supposed to say about "foreign policy." In other words, they've memorized some arbitrary rulebook, but they've never actually tried to play the game. Or seen it played.
As for economics, once you get outside the general Republican "taxes bad regulations bad," which is nonsense that Very Serious People have agreed isn't nonsense, the economic critique from the Right, which I suppose you'd called the Right's economic populism, is genuinely gibberish. Their critiques of trade and trade deals and the Fed are complete gibberish (not that these things are above criticism, just that the criticisms from the Right usually make no sense. They aren't just wrong, they don't follow logically from one statement to the next.) Still, it sounds good to a lot of people. Your ranty drunk racist white uncle is an archetype because there are a lot of ranty drunk racist white uncles, and they all kinda sound like that.
I'd say on theater it wasn't a great night. He let That Woman get the better of him, and that's an unforgivable sin. On "substance," he gave the people what they want.
That Guy?
I'm not one of those people who is desperate to find Republicans I can feel good about. Team D isn't perfect, of course, but even those nice polite Republicans generally support horrible policies. I'm not going to like any of them. But, really.. that guy? You nominated that guy? You want that guy to be president?
Okay.
Okay.
Monday, September 26, 2016
Is It Really Fair For The Moderators To Ask Questions?
Given how bad they usually are at these things, I say no! But, seriously, all the talk about what is "fair" for the moderators to do really just raises the question: what the hell is the point of them? Certainly what is the point of having people who claim to be "journalists" do the job? Have Siri read the questions fed to her and cut their mics when the time is up.
But We're Special
One of my pet peeves is places where the people who live there fancy themselves to be so special/different by the virtue of their location that the rules that apply to them/their particular needs are just somehow different than for the rest of the universe. That isn't to deny that varied local culture/norms exist at all, but I've lived in a lot of places and quite often the things that people imagine make them unique/special/different are really pretty standard stuff.
Gaming The Gaming Game
Things like debates have gotten so meta. There's more talk of meta than of substance. Sure the debates are theater, and sure these days you can (though why should you have to? there's a debate to watch!) click on a candidate website which gives you some policy information, but "we've" already spent a couple of weeks talking about the expectations game, and the game to game the expectations game, and the game to game the gaming of the expectations game, all of which is about impacting the post-debate pronouncements of pundits, who are making career choices themselves with these pronouncements. CNN has approximately 87 people on stage whose job it is to argue about what we're supposed to think about the thing we watched 5 seconds ago based on arbitrary standards they cooked up 10 seconds ago. One of them should say "fuck this" and throw down the mic, but, hey, people gotta eat.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Distinctions
I don't actually get this one.
I guess saying someone "lied" a capital felony, while its close synonym "mislead" is just a misdemeanor because reasons? DC is a funny place.
You're right. I shouldn't have said that & I'm sorry that I did.He did mislead us and was wrong about it, however. https://t.co/t3V4z4RHpz
— Stephanie Cutter (@stefcutter) September 25, 2016
I guess saying someone "lied" a capital felony, while its close synonym "mislead" is just a misdemeanor because reasons? DC is a funny place.
Sunday Morning
Will the cameras pan to Ms. Flowers and then back again to Clinton every 30 seconds? How can it be a showdown if they don't?
Adding a link to Spocko's excellent discussion of what to expect on Monday evening over at Digby's place.
Monday's Debate is Not An Episode of America's Got Presidential Talent.
Adding a link to Spocko's excellent discussion of what to expect on Monday evening over at Digby's place.
Monday's Debate is Not An Episode of America's Got Presidential Talent.
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