BREAKING: A federal court has found former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio guilty of criminal contempt. pic.twitter.com/TuuYB5K3vS
— ACLU National (@ACLU) July 31, 2017
Monday, July 31, 2017
Get The Pink Undies
Caught In A Landslide
A bit weird to introduce the Mooch character and then kill him off so quickly.
Free To Be Just Like Me
One thing I learned (probably obvious, but we all have to learn even the obvious things) from internet politics is that the white middle class glibertarian view of "freedom" is basically "society should reward people who are just like me." The kind of freedom law professors at state universities dream everyone can benefit from if only government didn't exist.
When Matt writes "conservatives" he doesn't just mean Republicans.
Instead of providing generalizable guidance about the good life, what the Success Sequence does is offer up a totally ad-hoc set of rules that are plausible enough within the context of contemporary lifestyles to allow conservatives to say personal failures are the cause of poverty in society. When contemporary lifestyles change, the Success Sequence will have to be rewritten because it will sound just as absurd as the current Success Sequence would sound to Americans in the middle of the last century.
Fifty years from now, conservatives will write op-eds saying the real trick to staying out of poverty is a college degree, cohabitation, and delaying child birth to age 30. No Success Sequence will stay around if it stops describing most middle class lives or if it begins to describe too many poor lives. The goalposts will shift constantly but the conclusion will always remain the same: the poor did this to themselves and the rich should be spared from higher taxes.
When Matt writes "conservatives" he doesn't just mean Republicans.
Brand I
Javanka seem to do nothing but try to sell their brand to credulous reporters, and it's starting to occur to them that Pops (not like they helped) has turned their Brand to shit.
Ivanka and Jared find their limits in Trump's White House
Can Only Be Failed
It isn't a new point, but the apparent consequences of some political systems are blamed on the system, while the consequences of some systems are blamed on the failure of the individuals enmeshed within it.
Soon people will puzzle about the meaning of the word "capitalism" like they puzzle about the word "neoliberalism" now. We all knew what it meant, until it was a problem, and then we didn't.
Soon people will puzzle about the meaning of the word "capitalism" like they puzzle about the word "neoliberalism" now. We all knew what it meant, until it was a problem, and then we didn't.
If Only The UK Had A Strong And Stable Prime Minister
It's less obvious than here, because unlike Republicans, Tories tend to have fancy educations of the kind that make you good at pretending to be smart even if you're an idiot, but they're idiots.
It's a bit hard to negotiate when you don't even have any idea what you want...
But the divisions in the cabinet were laid bare as Liam Fox said in an interview that there was no cabinet-wide agreement on what a post-Brexit implementation period should look like, and warned that “control of our own borders” was a key driver of the leave vote.
One Whitehall source who is close to Davis said it would be helpful if other ministers let him get on with the job of negotiating with the EU, stressing that the final deal would determine what any implementation period would look like.
It's a bit hard to negotiate when you don't even have any idea what you want...
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Not How Things Work
I'm not one who thinks the Turtle or Republicans generally are likely to rebel against Trump anytime soon, but he doesn't actually get to make these decisions...
Mulvaney: No other votes until Senate votes again on health carehttps://t.co/GIPkVBWftf pic.twitter.com/wYqpOTet08
— POLITICO (@politico) July 30, 2017
What Would A Benevolent Dictator Do
Being president or controlling Congress (or both!) is complicated. We don't have a parliamentary system in which the PM mostly (with some internal consensus wrangling) controls what happens. It's complicated. Everybody gets to pass the buck. Presidents get to pretend they would like things to happen if only Congress...Democrats pretend they would like things to happen if only Blue Dogs... you get the idea.
I would actually love for an ex-president (Obama, Clinton), or an ex-presidential candidate (Clinton), to write the book, "If I were your benevolent dictator..." I'd like an honest one, of course, but even a slightly less than honest one would be interesting!
I would actually love for an ex-president (Obama, Clinton), or an ex-presidential candidate (Clinton), to write the book, "If I were your benevolent dictator..." I'd like an honest one, of course, but even a slightly less than honest one would be interesting!
Mixed Blessings
What's quite astonishing, because I thought that even the stupidest of people in the world had a clue about this, is that most of these people seem to have no idea that being president of this little country - or working for him - is actually, you know, important.
America's Worst Humans
Will Saletan.
Such a wanker.
Advice to parents: Teach your daughter to say "No" firmly and mean it. Men sense women's willingness to yield. Make clear you mean business. https://t.co/bp48ziEjYw
— Will Saletan (@saletan) July 29, 2017
I wrote that girls should be taught to assert themselves, like Maxine Waters. What happened next on Outrage Twitter won't surprise you. https://t.co/3FBNodWJkv
— Will Saletan (@saletan) July 29, 2017
Such a wanker.
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Private Prisons
Of all of the glorious ideas of neoliberalism, this was perhaps the worst.
The incentives are not good.
Flashback...
The company that has operated a private prison in Estancia for nearly three decades has announced it will close the Torrance County Detention Facility and lay off more than 200 employees unless it can find 300 state or federal inmates to fill empty beds within the next 60 days, according to a statement issued Tuesday by county officials.
“This is a big issue for us,” Torrance County Manager Belinda Garland said in a phone interview Tuesday. “It’s going to affect Torrance County in a big way.”
The incentives are not good.
Flashback...
National Humiliation
People is weird.
This the thinking that leads to pointless catastrophic wars. Let's shoot ourselves in the face just to prove our gun works.
This is what the national humiliation really is:
Isn't this risk worth running for the chance to correct a historic error -- if that's what it was? I doubt it. Suppose a second referendum was called and the result was Remain; suppose the EU said, "Great, glad to have you back." Reversing Britain's decision under these circumstances -- out of fear, to avert looming chaos -- wouldn't reconcile the country to its European future. This cringing submission would raise instinctive euro-skepticism to new extremes and divide the U.K. even more bitterly.
Gideon Rachman writes in the Financial Times that it would be a national humiliation. True. It would surpass the Suez Crisis in 1956 and the country's surrender to trade-union militancy in the 1970s -- crushing setbacks with far-reaching political consequences. If there were ever a case of "be careful what you wish for," this is it.
This the thinking that leads to pointless catastrophic wars. Let's shoot ourselves in the face just to prove our gun works.
This is what the national humiliation really is:
Every Conservative MP bar Kenneth Clarke voted in February for the triggering of Article 50. It now appears they and their leader started the countdown to Britain’s expulsion without even the vaguest plan for what we’d be aiming to achieve, let alone realistically likely to achieve. Worse, they pulled the trigger knowing very well that “Brexit” still meant different things to different members of the party and its government, and there was no reason to hope that divergent aims were ever likely to converge.
I call this criminal: irresponsible to the point of culpable recklessness towards their country’s future. The Conservative Party just thought they’d give it a whirl and all but one of them voted for the adventure.
Let Us Dream Of Better Future Just Like The Current One
I know this is a caricature, but something about the Obama years and many Democrats... I just don't get it. My role as an asshole on the internet is to agitate to make things better, to point out that things sorta suck (and, really, they do, good things happened over those 8 years, but so did bad things), and to encourage the Democrats (or whoever) to respond to that fact to try to make things better (or at least pretend they want to because that's good politics!).
There isn't one specific defining reason for the 2016 loss, especially if you limit that question to "how did Hillary Clinton fail to trip over the electoral college finish line and Donald Trump did instead." But, roughly, "four more years!" wasn't good enough to make her win inevitably against Donald fucking Trump and there are reasons for that. That's more Obama's fault that Hillary Clinton's, but even if you think Obama gave us the best possible world he could given the constraints he faced, he certainly didn't give us the best possible world we can hope for. That's Jon Chait's view (basically), but it sure as hell isn't mine.
Avocado Toast. I blame the Avocado Toast.
There isn't one specific defining reason for the 2016 loss, especially if you limit that question to "how did Hillary Clinton fail to trip over the electoral college finish line and Donald Trump did instead." But, roughly, "four more years!" wasn't good enough to make her win inevitably against Donald fucking Trump and there are reasons for that. That's more Obama's fault that Hillary Clinton's, but even if you think Obama gave us the best possible world he could given the constraints he faced, he certainly didn't give us the best possible world we can hope for. That's Jon Chait's view (basically), but it sure as hell isn't mine.
Avocado Toast. I blame the Avocado Toast.
How Much Damage
We are blessed with incompetent evil, or at least the incompetence will remain blessed until some sort of tragedy strikes. We'll be begging to bring Brownie back in to run FEMA if there's a bad hurricane.
Still they aren't all incompetent, and they have 3.5 years left...
Still they aren't all incompetent, and they have 3.5 years left...
Not So Different From Bushies, At Least The Ones They Sent To Iraq
Yes this is bad, but hiring insane incompetent stupid ideologues whose "ideology" is whatever stupid shit Rush and Hannity and Alex Jones are babbling about that day is not actually new to Trump. OK, the Alex Jones part is.
It says a great deal about the mind-set of career civil servants that the D.O.E. employee in charge of overseeing the transition set out to answer even the most offensive questions. Her attitude, like the attitude of the permanent staff, was We are meant to serve our elected masters, however odious they might be. “When the questions got leaked to the press, she was really upset,” says the former D.O.E. staffer. The only reason that the D.O.E. did not serve up the names of people who had educated themselves about climate change, and thus exposed themselves to the wrath of the new administration, was that the old administration was still in charge: “We aren’t answering these questions,” Secretary Moniz had said, simply.
After Pyle’s list of questions wound up on Bloomberg News, the Trump administration disavowed them, but a signal had been sent: We don’t want you to help us understand; we want to find out who you are and punish you. Pyle vanished from the scene. According to a former Obama official, he was replaced by a handful of young ideologues who called themselves “the Beachhead Team.” “They mainly ran around the building insulting people,” says a former Obama official. “There was a mentality that everything that government does is stupid and bad and the people are stupid and bad,” says another. They allegedly demanded to know the names and salaries of the 20 highest-paid people in the national-science labs overseen by the D.O.E. They’d eventually, according to former D.O.E. staffers, delete the contact list with the e-mail addresses of all D.O.E.-funded scientists—apparently to make it more difficult for them to communicate with one another. “These people were insane,” says the former D.O.E. staffer. “They weren’t prepared. They didn’t know what they were doing.”
“We had tried desperately to prepare them,” said Tarak Shah, chief of staff for the D.O.E.’s $6 billion basic-science program. “But that required them to show up. And bring qualified people. But they didn’t. They didn’t ask for even an introductory briefing. Like ‘What do you do?’ ” The Obama people did what they could to preserve the institution’s understanding of itself. “We were prepared for them to start wiping out documents,” said Shah. “So we prepared a public Web site to transfer the stuff onto it—if needed.”
Friday, July 28, 2017
I Guess Rinse Got Friday News Dumped
I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017
Can't Do This To Me, Baby
This novel is so dumb.
Anthony Scaramucci, the White House’s potty-mouthed new communications director, has been dumped by his beautiful blond wife because of his “naked political ambition,” multiple sources exclusively tell Page Six.
Deidre Ball, who worked as a vice president in investor relations for SkyBridge Capital, the firm he founded in 2005 and sold to ascend to the White House, has filed for divorce from “The Mooch” after three years of marriage after getting fed up with his ruthless quest to get close to President Trump, whom she despises.
Gotta Leave You All Behind And Face The Truth
Having said that, our health care system sucks for numerous reasons and a big one is private health insurance (yes other countries have it but regulate them like we regulated utilities back when we regulated utilities). My hope was a public option to make the private health insurance erode away over time. That didn't happen. Instead we have people hoping to be just a bit more poor so they qualify for Medicaid. Not quite as good.
As They Will When You Get Sick
We all do, eventually.
I'm sure some of the "talent" is rich enough to pay for their own bills out of pocket. I'm also sure they all have insurance and don't.
I'm sure some of the "talent" is rich enough to pay for their own bills out of pocket. I'm also sure they all have insurance and don't.
Mark Zuckerberg For President
I do not like these people who are critical of America's greatest man, and America's most generous giver of campaign consultant salaries.
“Here” is just a few miles from Zuckerberg’s five-house compound in Palo Alto and mere blocks from Facebook’s sprawling Menlo Park headquarters. Here, on a quiet street of modest bungalows, Nicole and her husband Victor, who also works at a Facebook cafeteria, live in a two-car garage with their children, aged nine, eight and four.
“He doesn’t have to go around the world,” said Nicole. “He should learn what’s happening in this city.”
We Will Not Let You Go
A few years back we would have all been spending our time shouting obscenities at Joe Manchin and some group of preening "moderates" on the Dem side who would be parading around garnering attention for the profoundly difficult decision they were going to make... any day... For whatever reason, that wasn't the dynamic this time. So that's good.
Yay Dems.
Yay Dems.
Mama I Don't Want To Die
I was too pessimistic about Obamacare. The Medicaid expansion - despite Roberts and the evil Republican governors - was very good. The insurance regulations that applied across the board (coverage, pre-existing conditions, etc.) were very good. The exchanges still suck - private insurance is very expensive and not so fun to have and the subsidies are not generous enough and the magic competition doesn't exist and poor people really wish they were just a bit more poor so they could get that sweet sweet medicaid - but for many people barely affordable shitty insurance is preferable to no insurance at all.
I was also too pessimistic about the politics. I though it would not be enough of an improvement overall to cover for the fact that "Obama" (Democrats) would basically own our whole health care system which still sucks. I think it is, at least in the Medicaid expansion states. The new regulations are good for everyone with employer-based insurance, good enough that they are worth fighting for.
Though the "exchanges" are still the weak link and the Trumpkins are now going to do everything they can to make that link weaker. Most of them are incompetent at evil, but Price is not.
I was also too pessimistic about the politics. I though it would not be enough of an improvement overall to cover for the fact that "Obama" (Democrats) would basically own our whole health care system which still sucks. I think it is, at least in the Medicaid expansion states. The new regulations are good for everyone with employer-based insurance, good enough that they are worth fighting for.
Though the "exchanges" are still the weak link and the Trumpkins are now going to do everything they can to make that link weaker. Most of them are incompetent at evil, but Price is not.
Turtle Tears
While some Republicans think it'll build the starving puppy's character if you throw it outside to fend for itself, and some think the starving puppy deserves to be put down for eyeing their dinner table a bit too greedily, Mitch seems to be the kind of guy who wants to kick the puppy just because.
Well The Old Bastard Did It
Calculated to get maximum MAVERICK points and hog all the credit from the lady senators, but McCain killed the bill.
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Is This Just Fantasy
Right wing media has been obsessing about this story so I don't really know what to make of it..
WASHINGTON
When a computer expert who worked for congressional Democrats was accused of stealing computers and data systems in February, members of Congress cut him loose within days, leaving Imran Awan with no supporters five months later.
Except for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
The Weston Democrat has not explained in detail why she continued to employ Awan until Tuesday when she fired him — after he was arrested on bank-fraud charges at Dulles International Airport in Virginia attempting to board a flight to Pakistan.
Fun SciFi Show That Is Actually Good!
Once upon a time there were so few things on the teevee for nerds. Now there are actually a lot! So many you get to pick and choose. So many that many of them are bad even if you are a nerd desperate for such things, because you don't need to be desperate anymore!
Anyway, if you want a fun scifi show that isn't pretentious but also doesn't think you're stupid, go for Killjoys. It's a fun genre show that isn't trying to be (pretending to be) SMART but isn't dumb, either.
Season 2 is better than season 1. I have not yet seen season 3 yet.
Anyway, if you want a fun scifi show that isn't pretentious but also doesn't think you're stupid, go for Killjoys. It's a fun genre show that isn't trying to be (pretending to be) SMART but isn't dumb, either.
Season 2 is better than season 1. I have not yet seen season 3 yet.
Maybe There Could Be A Special American Gladiator To Determine If Rinse or Jeffy Jeff Goes First
BREAKING (CNN): Sources close to Trump say that he is "done with" his Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, but hasn't decided whether to fire him
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) July 27, 2017
How About A Bus But It's Like A Taxi And Somehow We Make Money And Replace The Subway
Of course not.
No. This has been...
CAN FORD FIX NEW YORK CITY’S TRANSPORTATION CRISIS WITH A CROWDSOURCED SHUTTLE BUS?
No. This has been...
Denial
This actually probably true, and anyone fantasizing that Brexit doesn't really mean Brexit in 19 months is just in denial. Going to be chaos, but it's going to happen...
Freedom of movement will end as soon as Britain leaves the EU, the immigration minister has said, as the government prepares a survey on the benefits of migration from the bloc.
He Loves The Gay In His Heart
The media does this for every conservative bigot who isn't actually parading around in Klan robes.
When you have power over people, it doesn't much matter what's in your heart, it matters what you do (mostly) and what you say (some).
Also if you have power over people and you choose to be a bigot, that says all that needs to be said about what's in your heart.
Those familiar with Trump say his stances aren’t contradictory, but rather illustrate the consistency of his instincts to shape his views depending on the moment.
“I don’t believe Donald Trump has an personal animus toward LGBT individuals,” said Gregory T. Angelo, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, which represents gay conservatives and allies. “This smacks of politics, pure and simple.”
When you have power over people, it doesn't much matter what's in your heart, it matters what you do (mostly) and what you say (some).
Also if you have power over people and you choose to be a bigot, that says all that needs to be said about what's in your heart.
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Why I Obsess About This Stuff
It isn't going to work, but with so much money being thrown at it they will do anything to pretend it does.
Gotta get the pedestrians out of the way somehow...
A new proposal from the architecture and engineering firm Edg envisions how New York City’s infrastructure might change to accommodate that vision. It also sheds light on the temptations that might sway planners away from human-centered urban design and back toward more modernist, auto-centric practices in the age of autonomous vehicles.
Loop NYC, as the proposal is known, would create one lane in each direction dedicated to self-driving cars on the highways that outline Manhattan: the West Side Highway and F.D.R. Drive. It would also turn several major cross streets into expressways for autonomous vehicles, adding pedestrian overpasses to keep people off the streets. These self-driving superblocks would form “loops” around Manhattan, efficiently circulating autonomous vehicles throughout the city, eventually including private, shared, and public vehicles, according to John J. Meyer, a designer at Edg. These changes could result in dramatically decreased travel times, the proposal claims. According to their calculations, the trip from Grand Central Station to Battery Park and back would take just 11 minutes, compared to 40 minutes today.
Gotta get the pedestrians out of the way somehow...
All Theater
Turtle Man just plans to pass anything at all in the Senate so they can go to conference. Everything until then is theater, assuming (likely) Republican senators will play along...
Top Books By Margaret Atwood
The Blind Assassin!
Yes I am just trying to get you to click an Amazon link, but recommending stuff is really the least offensive of all of the ways I can try to keep the mostly-ad-revenue-based model going here. Apparently I'm supposed to pivot to video now? But no one wants to see that and I'm not going to run the whack-a-mole ads. So buy something.
Yes I am just trying to get you to click an Amazon link, but recommending stuff is really the least offensive of all of the ways I can try to keep the mostly-ad-revenue-based model going here. Apparently I'm supposed to pivot to video now? But no one wants to see that and I'm not going to run the whack-a-mole ads. So buy something.
You Have One Job
I mean, they might think otherwise, but I'd say the job of political reporters is to usefully explain the reality of politicians and policy/procedure to their audiences. And if they aren't very good at that...
He's Nice
A bit early to direct the minute of hate at trans people for the 2018 elections. Who will it be next week?
Hard Work
The Brexiteers are a bit like the geniuses they sent to Iraq to do things like set up a stock exchange. No idea what the real issues are or how to deal with them.
Did anybody realise that the work needed to establish a new customs IT system was unlikely to be done in time, and what that would mean?
Was everyone already aware that UK airlines like easyJet would need to set up in the EU27 and Ryanair might move its planes to EU27 countries due to the UK leaving the Open Skies Agreement?
Well, some people knew, but they’re just experts, so have been largely ignored.
John McCain Is Actually America's Greatest American
There is nothing more mavericky then having journalists praise you all day for a speech claiming you'd vote against the bill then voting for it.
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Top Books By Margaret Atwood
Everybody knows the Handmaid's Tale, but really everything she writes is great. I read most of her then for me back catalog in my late 20s, and I still remember them. So... Let's start with, Alias Grace.
Liberal Dreamboat
Beating Le Pen, like everybody does always, is good. Stop swooning for the guy.
Cutting 5 euros a month is almost a bigger dick move then throwing everybody off the system. It isn't even some highminded (if bad) reform, it's just cruelty for the sake of cruelty. Stick it to the poor.
The French president Emmanuel Macron has come under fire for cuts to housing benefits, just as his popularity has dropped in polls.
A row erupted on Monday after the government announced it was going to cut a particular type of housing benefit by five euros a month in a move affecting millions of French people – including many living below the poverty line.
Cutting 5 euros a month is almost a bigger dick move then throwing everybody off the system. It isn't even some highminded (if bad) reform, it's just cruelty for the sake of cruelty. Stick it to the poor.
Centrism Is Mr. Smith Going To Washington FOREVER
I tired of the fantasies people have of heroic politicians doing heroic things as a patriotic soundtrack swells behind them and an American flag can be seen just out of focus.
It isn't a movie.
It isn't a movie.
Everybody Gets A Lawyer
Some will be able to afford them, and some not so much.
Ivanka Trump will retain criminal defense lawyer Abbe Lowell to counsel her in the ongoing Russia probe, according to the National Law Journal.
Lowell, an attorney for the D.C.-based firm Norton Rose Fulbright, will work to provide both Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner with legal and ethical advice during the investigation.
The Word Is Senile
But close enough.
“Yes,” Reed replies. “I think — I think he’s crazy,” apparently referring to the president. “I mean, I don’t say that lightly and as a kind of a goofy guy.”
“I’m worried,” Collins replies.
Go Big
Crazy ideas finally getting mainstream.
Trump said one trillion dollars. It was bullshit. Hillary Clinton said "$275 billion over 5 years." It was not bullshit. It also did not sound yuge.
Such infrastructure spending has long been a Democratic Party priority. However, Trump managed to communicate it in a way that Hillary Clinton did not.
I’m still waiting to hear the “bold solutions” that Democrats promise. I can think of one possibility: Why not propose some version of truly universal single-payer health care?
Trump said one trillion dollars. It was bullshit. Hillary Clinton said "$275 billion over 5 years." It was not bullshit. It also did not sound yuge.
Could The Next One Be Worse?
It's certainly easy to imagine that the replacement for Jeffy Jeff would be worse in a lot of ways, but it's hard to imagine someone so skilled at being a racist Attorney General.
Trump turns on everyone except Ivanka. Why is this not obvious to everyone?
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has spoken with advisers about firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, as he continues to rage against Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from all matters related to the Russia investigation.
Trump turns on everyone except Ivanka. Why is this not obvious to everyone?
America 2017, The Novel
A rich 80 year old man with brain cancer and socialized medicine flies to DC, against the advice of doctors, to make sure young people don't have health care, to support a president who had mocked him for being a POW.
Monday, July 24, 2017
There's Always Money In The Banana Stand For "Capitalism"
Why I obsess about this stuff...
Just follow this logically about what they think their toys will require....
Proponents of self-driving cars say they'll make the world safer, but autonomous vehicles need to predict what bicyclists are going to do. Now researchers say part of the answer is to have bikes feed information to cars.
Just follow this logically about what they think their toys will require....
Flee For The Tillerson
Another one of those "hard to imagine someone worse, and yet..." things.
The press likes him because he rich so he must be great, but that's not actually how things work. We should have learned that lesson recently.
For weeks, conversations with Tillerson friends outside of Washington have left the impression that he, despite his frustrations, was determined to stay on the job at least through the end of the year. That would allow time to continue efforts to reorganize the State Department and would mean he could claim to have put in a year as America's top diplomat.
But two sources who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity over the weekend said they would not be surprised if there was a "Rexit" from Foggy Bottom sooner that that.
The press likes him because he rich so he must be great, but that's not actually how things work. We should have learned that lesson recently.
BothSides
The bothsides joke isn't that the press always finds Both Sides equally and oppositely culpable, it's that there is no Republican sin without a corresponding Deomcratic one, though the opposite isn't true. The scales are almost always weighted in one direction in all things.
Those of us with long memories remember how, at best, you would find one lonely Clinton defender against 3 or more rabid antagonists during Monica Madness (at best, as often that lonely defender was basically saying, "Well, I'm not sure we should actually have him executed..."). Remember, of course, that the public was against impeachment and Clinton was popular during this time. Or during the Iraq war, when there was a similar dynamic. Or during the Bush administration, when the Republicans/Conservatives were over represented on the Sunday shows because they ran the government, and then during the Obama administration they were over represented because they didn't.
I don't think it's the case that Trump gets good press... I mean, even that would be an effort too far... But there have been about 15 events which for a Democratic president would have inspired a return to Monica Madness (including, as keeps being hinted at, Trump's own Monica, about which I know nothing and I don't really care but who reporters keep dropping clues about), an OJ-level feeding frenzy of endless coverage from which the only conclusion allowed would be "he must be resign."
Those of us with long memories remember how, at best, you would find one lonely Clinton defender against 3 or more rabid antagonists during Monica Madness (at best, as often that lonely defender was basically saying, "Well, I'm not sure we should actually have him executed..."). Remember, of course, that the public was against impeachment and Clinton was popular during this time. Or during the Iraq war, when there was a similar dynamic. Or during the Bush administration, when the Republicans/Conservatives were over represented on the Sunday shows because they ran the government, and then during the Obama administration they were over represented because they didn't.
I don't think it's the case that Trump gets good press... I mean, even that would be an effort too far... But there have been about 15 events which for a Democratic president would have inspired a return to Monica Madness (including, as keeps being hinted at, Trump's own Monica, about which I know nothing and I don't really care but who reporters keep dropping clues about), an OJ-level feeding frenzy of endless coverage from which the only conclusion allowed would be "he must be resign."
Pseudo-Public Space Is Bad
In part because it seems like we will never, ever create more truly public spaces again, and the ones we have are likely to be eroded.
Pseudo-public spaces – large squares, parks and thoroughfares that appear to be public but are actually owned and controlled by developers and their private backers – are on the rise in London and many other British cities, as local authorities argue they cannot afford to create or maintain such spaces themselves.
Although they are seemingly accessible to members of the public and have the look and feel of public land, these sites – also known as privately owned public spaces or “Pops” – are not subject to ordinary local authority bylaws but rather governed by restrictions drawn up the landowner and usually enforced by private security companies.
Also, He's Bad?
A weird thing is how some foreign (usually European) elections capture the attention of Americans and some don't. I don't claim to know anything about the politics of most European countries. I follow British politics pretty closely, and Spanish some and French a bit. I only claim to know anything much about the first one.
Anyway, I get that Le Pen is Bad and beating Le Pen is good and everyone Bad is apparently a stand-in for Trump (Voldemort, some bad guy on Game of Thrones I think?, the Home Alone robbers), but the National Front has, you know, never won, so beating it wasn't actually that big of an accomplishment. He's young and pretty and projects the image of having some book learning, so I guess that's refreshing. Macron is also kind of bad on economic policy, like cut taxes and remove labor protections and talk about things like Tom Friedman does bad, and so...
Anyway, I get that Le Pen is Bad and beating Le Pen is good and everyone Bad is apparently a stand-in for Trump (Voldemort, some bad guy on Game of Thrones I think?, the Home Alone robbers), but the National Front has, you know, never won, so beating it wasn't actually that big of an accomplishment. He's young and pretty and projects the image of having some book learning, so I guess that's refreshing. Macron is also kind of bad on economic policy, like cut taxes and remove labor protections and talk about things like Tom Friedman does bad, and so...
French President Emmanuel Macron's popularity rating has slumped by 10 percentage points this month, according to an Ifop poll on Sunday—the biggest decline for a new president since 1995.
The poll, published in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, said 54 percent of people in France were satisfied with Macron in July, compared with 64 percent in June.
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Sadly, No
Sometimes you say things in order to make them more likely to happen, but I hope Dems don't actually believe this.
Yet everything keeps coming back to pushing a Congress that has so far been supine before the president and often hostile to dissenting constituents. “If Trump were to fire Mueller, that is to me the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu told me. “I think at that point you’re going to have large numbers of Republicans saying we need to start impeachment proceedings.”
Saturday, July 22, 2017
Weird Desires
The President isn't some abstract concept, a Sorkinian Archetype. His name is Donald Trump, and you don't want him anywhere near anything important.
Three Israelis, three Palestinians confirmed dead in #TempleMount crisis. Both sides digging in. Riots regionwide. Where's the president?
— Michael Wilner (@mawilner) July 21, 2017
Robots Are Made Of People
Made by them, anyway.
Human errors of another fashion exist, in other words. As I keep saying I don't think "eek they're unsafe!" is the issue. If they work they'll be safe enough, it's almost tautological. But I don't buy the claims that they'll eradicate accidents, and certainly not until the entire fleet is swapped out, which won't happen because they won't work. Even if the cars themselves don't hit anything, they can contribute to chaos around them.
But self-driving cars have been praised by members of both parties, who see the technology as a way to spur job creation while preventing many of the roughly 40,000 motor vehicle deaths that occur on American roads each year. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 94 percent of traffic deaths involve human error, including distracted driving and driving while intoxicated.
Human errors of another fashion exist, in other words. As I keep saying I don't think "eek they're unsafe!" is the issue. If they work they'll be safe enough, it's almost tautological. But I don't buy the claims that they'll eradicate accidents, and certainly not until the entire fleet is swapped out, which won't happen because they won't work. Even if the cars themselves don't hit anything, they can contribute to chaos around them.
Friday, July 21, 2017
We Have To Throw Money At This Bullshit To Pretend To Be In The Game
This is hilarious.
So much money in the bonfire.
One thing is clear: Building its own autonomous vehicle technology gives Lyft more leverage in negotiations with other companies. Less apparent is whether it will be worth the money Lyft spends. And even less obvious than that is when self-driving cars will actually be cheaper than Lyft’s human-based driver model. (That model has the added benefit of employing human beings, rather than cutting big checks to other companies to borrow their robot cars.)
So much money in the bonfire.
Access To Labour
Hey, Michael, people aren't widgets.
Downing Street did not deny that free movement — under which EU nationals can live and work in any other member state without a visa — would continue for some time after Brexit.
In spite of reservations among Eurosceptic ministers that a “transition deal” could become semi-permanent, Mr Gove and fellow Brexiters have concluded it is unavoidable if British companies are to avoid the disruption of the UK crashing out of the EU in 2019 without an agreement between the two sides.
Asked about a free movement extension, Mr Gove, the environment secretary, said: “As we leave the EU we will have an implementation period which will ensure we can continue to have not just access to labour but the economic stability and certainty which business requests.”
Fire Jeffy Jeff
With Trump appointees (Republican appointees generally) there's always a sense that the next one could be much, much worse, but really I'm not sure you can get worse than Jeff Session.
Nothing New
But that people even tell these anecdotes is frightening.
Ditto with Gary Cohn, who goes with the conversational flow, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who'll say when talking about Chinese currency manipulation, for instance: "But that was before you were on the world stage." Trump is all ears.
What's It All About
There seems to a bit more there to the "Russia election collusion" angle than I thought, though I'm still not entirely sure what the underlying *crime* is (yes, there are possibilities, but it's always "could be in violation of..." and, you know, that ain't gonna do it), but whatever the merits of that I was always sure that what Trump was worried about was the dirty money.
My bet is that Trump, Inc. (including Kushner) has basically been a money laundering operation for Russian money in various ways for years. Whatever Trump should be worried about, that's what he *is* worried about...
The roots of Mueller’s follow-the-money investigation lie partly in a wide-ranging money-laundering probe launched by then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara last year, according to the person.
My bet is that Trump, Inc. (including Kushner) has basically been a money laundering operation for Russian money in various ways for years. Whatever Trump should be worried about, that's what he *is* worried about...
Bye Spicey
.@PressSec resigned after vehemently objecting to appointment at 10 a.m. Friday of Anthony Scaramucci as WH Communications director, per SAO
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) July 21, 2017
Coulda done it for a high-minded reason, create some distance, but went with straight careerism instead. Even in quitting he owned himself. https://t.co/OvrDin1RvF
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) July 21, 2017
But He Had Verbal Approval
Verbal. Approval.
Musk was received with typical credulity by the tech press, and considerable consternation by various government agencies. Several spokespeople who answered the phones at relevant city, state and federal government bodies laughed upon hearing of the claim that an interstate transit project with a significant street-level footprint in four of the east coast’s largest cities could be approved verbally.
America Wasn't All That Great
And we have all kinds of horrible corruption in government, but we've managed to avoid this kind of corruption. You know, the kind that causes our various Very Serious People to refer to the heads of South American governments we don't like that week as "dictators" or "strongmen" or whatever.
And we'll never be able to avoid it again.
Some of President Trump’s lawyers are exploring ways to limit or undercut special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation, building a case against what they allege are his conflicts of interest and discussing the president’s authority to grant pardons, according to people familiar with the effort.
Trump has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe, according to one of those people. A second person said Trump’s lawyers have been discussing the president’s pardoning powers among themselves.
And we'll never be able to avoid it again.
Thursday, July 20, 2017
We Got Old
I got old, of course. "You" as in the regular readers and regular commenters were always a bit older than me. The kids today aren't always right, but pretty sure "we" weren't right very often (I was, and you were, but our generation? jesus christ we fucked things up).
Not How Any Of This Works
Sure, Elon.
Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2017
On You, On You, On You
1982 wants its political campaign back.
A member of Congress told me Democrats big 2018 slogan, which is set to be released Monday. It's: "Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages"
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_Vox) July 20, 2017
Because You Are An Ignorant, Racist Bigot
Who is trying to ruin the lives of other people because you're an ignorant, racist bigot? The intolerant left is rightly intolerant of that, but your martyr game will get you a pat on the head from Sean Hannity and an appointment to the job of Chief Bigot in the Trump administration.
WAHH MOMMY THESE PEOPLE WHO HATE AMERICA AND LIBERTY AND PUPPIES AND WANT TO GIVE ALL YOUR STUFF TO BROWN PEOPLE ARE SOOOOOOO MEEEEEEEEEEAN TO ME I JUST WANT TO MAKE CHILDREN HOMELESS BY DEPORTING THEIR PARENTS WHY DO THEY HATE LIBERTY!!!
Fuck you, shitbag.
But one of the state’s most conservative lawmakers, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R., Butler), is now saying that an “unhinged” and “crimson-faced” Philadelphia lawmaker — whom his office later identified as Democratic State Rep. Brian Sims — threw papers at him and berated him after a hearing last month on emotionally charged legislation involving “sanctuary cities.”
...
“This is just another example of blatant, liberal intolerance by the radical left who would rather support lawless, illegal aliens instead of protecting American citizens,” Metcalfe says. “We must continue to defeat the left, defeat unruly progressive mobs, and defeat all other enemies of liberty.”
WAHH MOMMY THESE PEOPLE WHO HATE AMERICA AND LIBERTY AND PUPPIES AND WANT TO GIVE ALL YOUR STUFF TO BROWN PEOPLE ARE SOOOOOOO MEEEEEEEEEEAN TO ME I JUST WANT TO MAKE CHILDREN HOMELESS BY DEPORTING THEIR PARENTS WHY DO THEY HATE LIBERTY!!!
Fuck you, shitbag.
Planet Stupid
We are ruled by the stupidest fucking people on the face of the planet.
Nothing wrong with a bit of public art, but this is some sort of weird "can't Superman fight a giant robot spider?" obsession. 350 million for some fucking bridge lights when the collapsing subway is about to collapse the city.
A lot of money in NYC real estate. Some of those landlords have to understand (maybe not!) that as the subway goes, so does their property values...
"So, literally, you’ll have bridges all across the New York City area that are choreographed — nothing like this has been done on the planet,” Cuomo told reporters in January.
Now, amid daily reports of infrastructure failures and the governor’s sliding poll numbers, the Cuomo administration will not even say how much the lighting scheme will cost — except to dispute early, internal estimates it could cost more than $350 million — or where that money will come from.
“This is definitively NOT being paid for by the MTA,” emailed Cuomo spokesman Jon Weinstein.
Nothing wrong with a bit of public art, but this is some sort of weird "can't Superman fight a giant robot spider?" obsession. 350 million for some fucking bridge lights when the collapsing subway is about to collapse the city.
A lot of money in NYC real estate. Some of those landlords have to understand (maybe not!) that as the subway goes, so does their property values...
So What Are We Going To Do About It
When one points out that black turnout in the 2016 election was lower than the 2012 election, many people respond by saying "it's the vote suppression!" Maybe it is. Certainly didn't help! And efforts aimed at voter suppression, especially but not just the suppression of black voters, are evil no matter who they benefit. I don't support trying to prevent likely Trump voters from voting, either (and, it must be said, because BOTHSIDES, there are absolutely no efforts to reduce voting/voter registration by likely Republican voters).
So, uh, what are we going to do about it? If the thing standing between loss and victory for Democrats is the fact that it is difficult (for a variety of reasons) for black people to vote, then what are the people with the big campaign bucks planning to do about it?
I'm not saying there are no efforts to fight this stuff, but ultimately on election day... and the month before election day... gotta get people registered and gotta get them to vote. And if there are hurdles, gotta find ways to get people over them. The legal/political battles before that are important, but when it's time to vote...
So, uh, what are we going to do about it? If the thing standing between loss and victory for Democrats is the fact that it is difficult (for a variety of reasons) for black people to vote, then what are the people with the big campaign bucks planning to do about it?
I'm not saying there are no efforts to fight this stuff, but ultimately on election day... and the month before election day... gotta get people registered and gotta get them to vote. And if there are hurdles, gotta find ways to get people over them. The legal/political battles before that are important, but when it's time to vote...
That's The Point
You don't have to agree with the dirtbag left to understand that's precisely their point.
Over the phone, Chait—who, by the way, does not identify as a neoliberal—explained to me that internationally, the term is used to "sharply delineate socialist versus non-socialist, or socialist versus capitalist." The way he understands it, in the United States, "the major weakness in the term 'neoliberal' is that it encompasses the majority of all sides in a political debate." In other words, it's become so broadly defined that it arguably describes both of the major political parties in America.
The Interview
Not sure I've ever said this before, but...I can't even..
...ok, fine, here it is, but your beautiful minds will never be the same..
...ok, fine, here it is, but your beautiful minds will never be the same..
Morning Thread
I feel like the past six months have been one long test of our political system and institutions. So far, I'd grade it a D+.
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Top 17/17 Books I Read in the First Half of 2017!
#1: Paul Beatty - The Sellout
All done. Guess I need to read more! That was chronological order (#1 being the first book I read in January), not order of preference...
All done. Guess I need to read more! That was chronological order (#1 being the first book I read in January), not order of preference...
What Do They Want
I've been thinking about what Republicans want from health care, aside from robbing that black man of his accomplishment. It's important to remember that in the House, especially, a lot of them are not very bright. Also, some of them don't really give a shit so whatever. I'd put the ones who care (again, aside from the Not Obama caucus) in two camps:
1) The genuine fuck the poor, they probably just deserve to die caucus. This is a nontrivial number. Maybe most!
2) The Ayn Rand Will Truly Usher In A Paradise caucus. These are true believers who think that if we just get the guvmint out of everything, we will achieve utopia.
As for 2), their utopia isn't quite like mine. They still believe rich people deserve to be rich and poor people deserve to be poor and to some extent whatchagonnadothatsthewayitoughtabe. But I think some are also dumb enough to believe that The Real Problem facing our health care system is that insurance companies can't sell policies across state lines, or some other horrific regulatory burden, and that if we just get rid of those pesky regulations everything would be great, or at least better. These people are ideologues and dumber than dirt, but they aren't as purely evil as 1).
Evil enough, though, so perhaps this taxonomy is pointless. Anyway, the rest are just lazy or not so lazy grifters.
1) The genuine fuck the poor, they probably just deserve to die caucus. This is a nontrivial number. Maybe most!
2) The Ayn Rand Will Truly Usher In A Paradise caucus. These are true believers who think that if we just get the guvmint out of everything, we will achieve utopia.
As for 2), their utopia isn't quite like mine. They still believe rich people deserve to be rich and poor people deserve to be poor and to some extent whatchagonnadothatsthewayitoughtabe. But I think some are also dumb enough to believe that The Real Problem facing our health care system is that insurance companies can't sell policies across state lines, or some other horrific regulatory burden, and that if we just get rid of those pesky regulations everything would be great, or at least better. These people are ideologues and dumber than dirt, but they aren't as purely evil as 1).
Evil enough, though, so perhaps this taxonomy is pointless. Anyway, the rest are just lazy or not so lazy grifters.
The Best Deals
Man hasn't done a thing in his life.
Bet good money Trump thought the parade was for him.
By Monday evening, when President Trump and Pence gathered a cluster of GOP senators in the Blue Room of the White House over plates of lemon ricotta agnolotti and grilled rib-eye steak, the measure was all but dead.
“The president talked about France and Bastille Day,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said in an interview Tuesday, recalling the president’s tales during dinner of parades and pomp from his recent trip to Paris.
Bet good money Trump thought the parade was for him.
He's Gotta Be Guilty Of Something
Half kidding, but it will be satisfying to see Pharma Bro locked up.
Then a letter from Mr. Shkreli came to his home, addressed to his wife.
“Your husband has stolen $1.6 million from me,” it read.
“Your pathetic excuse of a husband,” the letter added, “needs to get a real job that does not depend on fraud to succeed.”
“I hope to see you and your four children homeless,” the letter said. “I will do whatever I can to assure this. Your husband’s arrogance is infuriating, and making an enemy out of me is a mistake.”
Brexit Dreams
I'd describe the attitude of "hard Brexiteers" as thinking "we shouldn't have to pay any bill, we shouldn't have to give any EU citizens any rights, Brits in Spain should be allowed to stay, and the EU should give us everything we want because the UK buys a lot of prosecco."
Ok.
Ok.
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
I Never Even Heard Of Those Guys
I had nothing to do with it.
To begin with, the president remains only loosely attached to his own team. He referred to his Republican allies in Congress as "they," while casting himself passively as "sitting in the Oval Office ... pen in hand, waiting to sign something."
"For seven years, I've been hearing 'repeal and replace' from Congress, and I've been hearing it loud and strong," Trump told reporters at a photo op. "And then when we finally get a chance to repeal and replace, they don't take advantage of it. So, that's disappointing."
Right In The Head
As Senate health bill collapses, Trump takes credit for winning over most Republicans: "would have been 48-4. impressive by any standard"
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) July 18, 2017
Dead Again
According to my deep sources on twitter, 3 Republicans are against zombie "repeal and maybe replace with something else later" so it is dead.
OR IS IT????
OR IS IT????
Well Then
Trump WH still struggles w conference calls. V weird OH comment from unmuted caller during Iran briefing: "My inflatable doll is a lesbian."
— Jackie Alemany (@JaxAlemany) July 18, 2017
How's It Working
I don't think safety is the issue - lack of safety is more the symptom of things not working generally - but some views of Tesla's latest innovations...
I Know What's In The Crazy Drawer
THE TRILLION DOLLAR COIN!!!!
One reason it'd be hilarious if they do it is us crazy lefties were told that we were, in fact, crazy to suggest such a clearly illegal thing (it isn't) that the Federal Reserve would refuse it as a deposit (well I'm glad the Fed has the power to just make such judgments) and that it would be wrong because reasons.
And the consequence was, of course, MOOOOOAR AUSTERITY. Better poor than a hippie!
Sensing there could be resistance on Capitol Hill to raising the debt ceiling quickly, he reviewed past debt-ceiling fights. He also holds a weekly meeting with advisers about the government’s cash balance and debt issues.
One former Treasury official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive agency deliberations, said officials are now “brushing up on options in the ‘crazy drawer.’ ”
One reason it'd be hilarious if they do it is us crazy lefties were told that we were, in fact, crazy to suggest such a clearly illegal thing (it isn't) that the Federal Reserve would refuse it as a deposit (well I'm glad the Fed has the power to just make such judgments) and that it would be wrong because reasons.
And the consequence was, of course, MOOOOOAR AUSTERITY. Better poor than a hippie!
Trust, It Is Breached
Not really normal for GOP senators to talk about their leader this way.
Dead, but of course, not dead yet...
President Donald Trump's top legislative priority was dealt a potentially fatal blow Monday night as two more Republican senators announced their opposition to the party's health care overhaul.
...
Even before Lee and Moran's announcement, there were increasingly urgent signs that the GOP's 52-seat majority was too fragile to pass the bill, which would scale back Medicaid spending and Obamacare's insurance subsidies. The vote was already delayed because of McCain's surgery, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) had fumed that McConnell had committed a "breach of trust" in selling the bill to moderates.
Dead, but of course, not dead yet...
Monday, July 17, 2017
Globollocks
I actually get opposition to dual citizenship, but the problem is that in the glorious age of Tom Friedman's globalization, the people in charge forgot about the fact that globalization accompanied by severe restrictions on the movement of people (which we like to call Labor, because we are economists, but Labor is made of PEOPLE), creates some problems. While jetsetting around the world hoping to become Tom Friedman's cab driver while on student or temporary visas of some sort, people meet and have babies and fall in love or for whatever reason decide to spend their lives together, and absent dual citizenship that becomes a tricky or fraught practice. Even if green card level permission to be in a country is solid enough, which it isn't in the era of Trump and May, it doesn't necessarily give the flexibility to bring your kids to visit their grandparents in your original country, or whatever. The possibility of dual citizenship is one way to navigate the complications of life created by intercontinental flights and lack of open borders. It's going to be a problem for Dutch citizens post-Brexit...
Dutch nationals who take British citizenship to avoid having to leave the UK after Brexit will be stripped of their Netherlands passports due to existing limits on dual nationality, the Dutch prime minister has said.
Collective Action
People get mad at this stuff sometimes (specifically, people have expressed anger at me when I have expressed this stuff sometimes), but ultimately it doesn't matter much if you, individually, roll coal or bicycle everywhere. That isn't saying "there's nothing you should or could do." There is! And, you know, if lots of us do that stuff that's a good thing! But collective action problems require collective action generally. The magic of simple economics is that it shows how individual actions can lead to, under certain too simple assumption, "good" outcomes (where "good" is defined in specific ways). But the entire point of the economics of environmentalism is that individual actions, even ones tempered by some degree of altruism, aren't going to do it.
Drive less. Recycle. Put in energy efficient lightbulbs. Eat less meat. Turn your thermostats up/down in summer/winter. All good things. It'll help. But it won't be enough.
Drive less. Recycle. Put in energy efficient lightbulbs. Eat less meat. Turn your thermostats up/down in summer/winter. All good things. It'll help. But it won't be enough.
Get Well, John McCain
But maybe use your time to meditate on what it would be like to not have medical care and maybe take a few extra days off.
But questions emerged Sunday over when that might be. Mr. McCain, 80, had a craniotomy — a procedure in which doctors create an opening in the skull — on Friday to remove a blood clot above his left eye, and he is recovering at home in Arizona. A statement from his office had indicated that he would be out this week, but neurosurgeons not involved with Mr. McCain’s surgery said the recovery period for such a procedure was often longer.
“For most patients, the time to recover from a craniotomy is usually a few weeks,” said Dr. Nrupen Baxi, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
Don't You Think She Looks Tired
Linking this more for the source (the Mail) than the content.
According to one senior official close to the Prime Minister, she is 'very down at times'. A prominent Conservative who knows her well said he was shocked by her condition at a meeting in No 10 last week.
'She looked shrivelled and struggled to engage. It was upsetting,' the source said.
Sunday, July 16, 2017
Still Gotta Drive There And The Public Spaces Aren't
Nothing wrong with these "town center" things if people like them! But a shopping mall surrounded by acres of parking lot is still a shopping mall surrounded by acres of parking lot. Without walkable connectivity to the surrounding neighborhoods they're still just that. People like that! But that's what it is. Even the few people who live in some of these things still need a car for almost everything they do.
And... no more. There isn't much way to grow these things. Well, I guess you can get rid of more parking..
Of all the words used to describe commercial activity in the regional nexus that is King of Prussia, Linda Iem and Gilda Suncar might have come up with a new one: adorable.
The two women drove from their fashion-industry jobs near the King of Prussia Mall to what has become their regular lunch spot. They walked among shops, restaurants, and apartment complexes as smooth jazz drifted faintly from speakers on lampposts, wooden chairs on a lawn waited for takers, and water leaped in narrow streams from a line of fountains.
...
The Village at Valley Forge expects about 1,250 housing units to rim its shops and restaurants. Once fully occupied, they could bump up the township’s population 10 to 15 percent.
And... no more. There isn't much way to grow these things. Well, I guess you can get rid of more parking..
No Worries
What could go wrong?
Takashi Kawamura, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), told foreign media that nearly 777,000 tons of water tainted with tritium, a byproduct of the nuclear process that is notoriously difficult to filter out of water, will be dumped into the Pacific Ocean as part of a multibillion-dollar recovery effort following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. That year, an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, killing over 15,000 people and leading to a series of meltdowns at the TEPCO-owned Fukushima No. 1, or Daiichi, nuclear power plant, causing it to spew radiation that has plagued the region ever since. While much progress has been made to clean the area, the company has only just resolved the debate over what to do with the water that was used to cool the plant's damaged reactors, causing it to become tainted with tritium.
Why'd He Need A Lawyer And Why Is The "Campaign" Paying For It
Admits it's a campaign issue and also that they just aren't so super rich (we knew).
In newly filed campaign disclosure forms, President Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign committee has disclosed that it paid a $50,000 retainer to criminal defense attorney Alan S. Futerfas who represents his son Donald Trump Jr. The timing of the payment is certainly raising eyebrows. Trump claimed he found out about the controversial meeting his son held with a Kremlin-linked lawyer around the time the New York Times first reported it, but the payment to Trump Jr.’s lawyer was made eleven days before.
Morning Thread
Here's an interesting site giving tips on how one can research the history of a building in NYC. I wonder if other cities have the same sort of resources.
Saturday, July 15, 2017
Mysteries of Labor Economics
The "econ 101" view is derided but it has some legitimate applications, like to the puzzling problem of how to hire more workers...
Right in the Head
Well ok.
Speaking on a flight from Washington to Paris, Mr Trump told reporters on board Air Force One that it was vital border agents could see through the wall to be aware of oncoming dangers.
"One of the things with the wall is you need transparency. You have to be able to see through it," he said.
"So it could be a steel wall with openings, but you have to have openings because you have to see what's on the other side of the wall.
"As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don't see them. They hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It's over."
Tories Are Just Horrible People
Imagine that your boss, the Prime Minister of the UK, is a woman, and you feel like you can make casual "quips" like this in front of her.
Philip Hammond appears to have irked the prime minister by making a sexist remark in cabinet, exposing the tensions at the highest level of government.
Reports suggest that in a discussion about transport, the chancellor quipped that driving trains had now been made so easy that “even a woman” could do it.
Friday, July 14, 2017
Not Many Reasons Lawyers Quit Their Clients
They can be a bit dangerous when their pants are on fire.
Jared Kushner's lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, is “dropping out” of representing him in the Russia probe, per @Isikoff https://t.co/6tUZdCccKr
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) July 14, 2017
Gonna Swallow Everything
Might be be the end, folks.
TAMPA (CBSMiami/AP) – An expanding sinkhole in a suburb just north of Tampa has swallowed a boat, a home and partially swallowed another home.
EvenTheConservative
One thing I will never understand is liberals who are desperate for validation from prominent conservatives. Oh, you think Trump is bad, do you? Here's the fucking Nobel Prize.
EvenTheLiberal was always a cynical scam, understand by all who took part, in that "liberal" outlets like The Old New Republic weren't actually liberal, just ways to launder conservative ideas into the bipartisan mainstream. EvenTheConservative is like "ooh, David Frum, I love you!!!"
Stop it.
EvenTheLiberal was always a cynical scam, understand by all who took part, in that "liberal" outlets like The Old New Republic weren't actually liberal, just ways to launder conservative ideas into the bipartisan mainstream. EvenTheConservative is like "ooh, David Frum, I love you!!!"
Stop it.
Why I Care About Self-Driving Cars
They have ways of dealing with the pesky human driver (and probably pedestrian) problem...
Ban all the cars as far as I'm concerned, but why just human drivers? Why a special lane to the airport?
BECAUSE THEY WON'T WORK OTHERWISE
Highways may see lanes dedicated to autonomous cars. San Jose officials already are considering a driverless lane leading to the city’s airport.
City centers may “geofence” downtown areas during certain hours to ban human drivers or charge them a toll, the way that London now slaps a congestion charge on vehicles in its central district during weekday working hours.
Ban all the cars as far as I'm concerned, but why just human drivers? Why a special lane to the airport?
BECAUSE THEY WON'T WORK OTHERWISE
Failed Obamacare Replacement
Fact Check: True
Republicans Senators are working hard to get their failed ObamaCare replacement approved. I will be at my desk, pen in hand!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2017
Does The Opposite Of Anything Anyone Tells Him
Healthy.
The challenge for President Trump’s attorneys has become, at its core, managing the unmanageable — their client.
He won’t follow instructions. After one meeting in which they urged Trump to steer clear of a certain topic, he sent a tweet about that very theme before they arrived back at their office.
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Your Moment of Zen
WATCH: President Trump tells the French first lady, "You're in such good shape" pic.twitter.com/UjiSIWWzoq
— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 13, 2017
The Biggest Fucking Fuck In The History Of Fuckitude Calls For Civility
I suppose he's mad people are pointing out that he wants more children to die because they can't pay for health care.
Pointing that fact out is very uncivil, you see. Killing kids... very civil. These are the Washington Rules of Civility.
Pointing that fact out is very uncivil, you see. Killing kids... very civil. These are the Washington Rules of Civility.
Venice Is Nice
Just think of Miami as a new city of canals!
Anyway, let's remember that the one thing we can't do is leave Our Children is The National Debt. The repair bill for coastal cities, or general environmental catastrophe, is a totally cool. That is because we love our children.
Anyway, let's remember that the one thing we can't do is leave Our Children is The National Debt. The repair bill for coastal cities, or general environmental catastrophe, is a totally cool. That is because we love our children.
Who Is The Reading Terminal Market For
Awhile back I went to have lunch and do some shopping at Philly's Reading Terminal market. There was some group of earnest rural college kids there on some sort of religious group-linked trip the city, and one sitting next to me while I was chowing down on my corn dog was chatty and earnest. One question he asked me was who this place was for. It's a good question, actually, because it's a mix. It's a bit of a food court for the convention center, though it has some good food the locals go to eat, too. It's a bit of a tourist trappy Amish/Mennonite+high end specialty stall place (those things aren't the same, with the former especially not being expensive, but still a bit of a tourist attraction). And it's a place where locals - including, and maybe especially, poorer locals go to shop for cheap (and often good quality) produce/meat/fish/etc. It's a dessert topping and a floor wax!
One big exception is the Reading Terminal Market, a nationally known foodie mecca, but less famous for accepting more food stamps than nearly any other single shopping site in the state.
For generations, low-income Philadelphians in supermarket deserts such as North Philadelphia have taken the bus to shop at the Terminal, buying produce and pork chops alongside food tourists and high-waged gourmands who think of the place as a gotta-go destination for $36-a-pound artisanal cheese, specialty meats, and innumerable edibles (Beiler’s Bakery doughnuts, anyone?) of varying prices.
There's Always Money In The Banana Stand For "Capitalism"
Repeating myself, as I often do, the self-driving car threat is that we are going to spend an immense amount of public money trying to prop up a huge investment in a non-proven technology that IMHO will *never work*, not in the Jetsons sense, and I suspect not even in an "all that much better than cruise control" sense. I mean, this will be useful for some people in some circumstances, I guess, but I suspect it'll end up just being mostly more trouble than it's worth. If it alarms you out of your nap once a year, maybe awesome, but if it requires your attention regularly it'll mostly be a nuisance. Cars are a symbol of American capitalism and individuality, for reasons I don't quite understand, and therefore roads are free. Sure we don't spend enough money on them, either (well, specifically, we don't spend enough money on the right things - repair and maintenance instead of new construction), but that's because we can't spend money on anything except freedom bombs. But if we need to protect the massive investments made in this Vaporware, we'll find the money to install sensors and guidance systems and whatever the hell everywhere, because capitalism. And it still won't work.
I Used To Do That Then I Started A Blog
I guess he tweets. But still yells!
Three days after the Donald Trump Jr. email revelations broke, the White House seems stuck in purgatory, with aides still deeply unsure about who leaked the damaging information, and the president still yelling at the TV.
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
First We Force The App... Then We Force The Advertising...
I killed facebook messenger because it already took over my phone and drained my battery super fast...
The thing about phones is that the screens are tiny. All this stuff on a laptop is seriously annoying, but it quickly makes everything unusable on a tiny screen. Also, everyone who thinks up this stuff imagines a world where everyone has (close to) unlimited data,* but not everybody does and all this shit eats through your data in addition to making the apps just horrible.
*And of course, your phones are very useful when you are traveling outside the country, but every app is constantly talking to the mother ship unless you spend a lot of time trying to tell them to stop, eating through expensive data very very quickly.
After forcing Facebook users to switch to a separate Messenger app to continue chatting, the social network is about to start pushing adverts on those using the function.
The thing about phones is that the screens are tiny. All this stuff on a laptop is seriously annoying, but it quickly makes everything unusable on a tiny screen. Also, everyone who thinks up this stuff imagines a world where everyone has (close to) unlimited data,* but not everybody does and all this shit eats through your data in addition to making the apps just horrible.
*And of course, your phones are very useful when you are traveling outside the country, but every app is constantly talking to the mother ship unless you spend a lot of time trying to tell them to stop, eating through expensive data very very quickly.
The Rich
A standard thing to say about the British upper class/aristocrats is that Americans think they're refined and "nice" and polite (if conservative assholes in their politics), but they're actually crass and cruel. Donald Trumps who sometimes have a bit better education.
A viscount who offered money on Facebook for anyone to run over and kill anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller is facing jail after being convicted of sending menacing messages.
Rhodri Philipps, the 4th Viscount St Davids, wrote a message on the social media site just four days after Miller won a landmark high court challenge against the government last year:
“£5,000 for the first person to ‘accidentally’ run over this bloody troublesome first generation immigrant.”
He described Miller as a “fucking boat jumper” and added: “If this is what we should expect from immigrants, send them back to their stinking jungles.”
Kid
I don't know if this just another boomer thing but I really don't get this ratcheting up of the age at which white people are still "kids."
Fredo is 39.
Black people become adults at about age 5, of course.
One White House official went so far as to stop communicating with the president’s embattled son, although this official spoke sympathetically about his plight, casting Trump Jr. as someone who just wants to hunt, fish and run his family’s real estate business.
“The kid is an honest kid,” said one friend of Trump Jr. “The White House should’ve never let that story go out on the president’s son. . . . What he’s upset about was that it was a minor meeting and the media glare — anything that’s Russia-related, gets picked up the way roaches get caught in a roach motel.”
Fredo is 39.
Black people become adults at about age 5, of course.
The World's Greatest Collection Of Evil Backstabbing Idiots
What could go wrong?
This is from the same article as before, but it's also hilarious. One thing about human group dynamics that I don't get is how evil people manage to tolerate each other. I mean, it isn't as if they don't all know they're backstabbing assholes? "Hey, other backstabbing asshole, want to be my buddy and work with me?" How does that even make sense? I guess they all think they're supergenius Machiavellian alpha males, so they will be King of the Cucks or something. Cuck you, assholes!
Even before the latest reports, Mr. Trump’s head-spinning willingness on creating a joint cybersecurity team with Russia fueled criticism. Now people close to the president and to his legal effort are engaged in a circular firing squad, anonymously blaming one another for the decisions of the last few days.
This is from the same article as before, but it's also hilarious. One thing about human group dynamics that I don't get is how evil people manage to tolerate each other. I mean, it isn't as if they don't all know they're backstabbing assholes? "Hey, other backstabbing asshole, want to be my buddy and work with me?" How does that even make sense? I guess they all think they're supergenius Machiavellian alpha males, so they will be King of the Cucks or something. Cuck you, assholes!
Javanka
Hilraious.
While Donald Trump Jr. has been the main focus of the controversy because he set up the meeting, Mr. Kushner faces potential trouble because he currently works in the White House and neglected to mention the encounter on forms he filled out for a background check to obtain a security clearance.
The emails were discovered in recent weeks by Mr. Kushner’s legal team as it reviewed documents, and the team amended his clearance forms to disclose it, according to people briefed on the developments, who like others declined to be identified because of the sensitive political and legal issues involved.
Similarly, Mr. Manafort recently mentioned the meeting to congressional investigators looking into possible collusion, according to the people briefed on the matter.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Too Stupid To Guess
Rampant speculation among WH advisers about who leaked on Don Jr to NYT..evidence-free blame shooting in all directions...no trust in there
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) July 11, 2017
The problem with even trying to guess what's going on is that these are all the world's stupidest people. You can't try to reason through any logical scenarios because there is no logic. They have all acted against interest so many times it's hard to imagine any of them accidentally acting in their own interest, so trying to think who might benefit is a waste of time.
So Busy
JUST IN: Trump's planned 2017 state visit to UK delayed until next year due to scheduling conflict - senior U.S. official pic.twitter.com/pjW4reYdbp
— Reuters Politics (@ReutersPolitics) July 11, 2017
I mean, there's golf... and then golf... and then more golf...
Lawyering Up
One of the largely untold stories about the Monica Madness era was how relatively young (and innocent) staffers got caught up in it and had to spend money they didn't have on lawyers.
Sum of All Fears movie quote: "These days, better to appear guilty than impotent."
"This is sum of all fears stuff. It’s what we’ve all been dreading,” said one White House official who is now exploring the possibility of retaining an attorney, a step described as purely precautionary.
Sum of All Fears movie quote: "These days, better to appear guilty than impotent."
Feelings
Etched deeply into the consciousness of Americans is that public transit and stations are somehow very unsafe. Incidents happen like that happen anywhere, but, you know, not all that often in generally well-lighted areas with security cameras everywhere. They aren't, for the most part, prime crime opportunity locations. But people "feel" unsafe because the New York Subway of the late 70s and early 80s is, decades later, still seen as the epitome of Scary Places With Filled Scary Black People (I have no if the subway was particularly unsafe then, either, but it was dirty and gross and falling apart and there were some high profile incidents).
I'm not even sure what constitutes a trespassing violating, and open-container violations are just silly. Property crimes are annoying, but it's really only "crimes against people" that make a place "unsafe."
Light-rail riders concerned about their safety when using the system will soon see a boost in police presence across Phoenix, Mesa and Tempe.
...
Statistics tracked by contracted security of Valley Metro, the regional agency that coordinates the system, show a few dozen property crimes and crimes against people in the most recent fiscal quarter along the line, which has averaged about 1.4 million boardings each month this year. Crimes against persons were less than half of what they were the previous quarter.
The system, though, logged more than 2,500 incidents related to trespassing or open-container violations, including at park-and-ride locations. The nearly 30 percent increase over earlier this fiscal year reflects more thorough recording of people who are at the stations without using it for transit, according to agency security staff.
I'm not even sure what constitutes a trespassing violating, and open-container violations are just silly. Property crimes are annoying, but it's really only "crimes against people" that make a place "unsafe."