Thursday, January 31, 2019
Less Hassle
I don't imagine that I'd embrace Asceticism if I were filthy rich, but what I would want to do is minimize hassle in my life. Every yacht you buy, every mansion you own, every business you haven't sold off yet, every team of presidential run advisers... they all come with layers of staffs and layers of management, layers upon layers of little nuisances to bug your brain, things that no matter how many assistants, and assistants to assistants, you have, require your regular attention.
I'm sure I would do slightly more than sipping wine in Italy, but why I would want to embrace all of that nonsense is... incomprehensible. Billionaires is weird.
I'm sure I would do slightly more than sipping wine in Italy, but why I would want to embrace all of that nonsense is... incomprehensible. Billionaires is weird.
Billionaire Boy Genius
Oh, Elon.
The demand for - the demand for Model 3 is insanely high. The inhibitor is affordability. It's just like people literally don't have the money to buy the car. It's got nothing to do with desire. They just don't have enough money in their bank account. If the car can be made more affordable, the demand is extraordinary.
Gonna Do This Again
Hopefully federal workers will get back pay and another paycheck or two, but pretty sure we're gonna close it all down again.
Oh, Los Angeles
I know UCLA's campus isn't tiny, but...
UCLA students call about 11,000 Uber and Lyft rides that never leave campus every week, raising concerns about the environmental impact of unnecessary trips.
How Does This Not Get Tesla Sued Out Of Existence Etc.
And SEC fines and shareholder lawsuits given that its an earnings call. This has nothing to do with my general skepticism. These are not self-driving cars. Not even close.
Well, maybe a couple of minor problems.
Pesky traffic signals. Once we figure out those! And ten thousand other things... .
On an earnings call with investors on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made an extraordinary statement: all of Tesla’s vehicles today are capable of what he has called “full self-driving” on highways and most other controlled-access roads.
“Full self-driving capability is there,” Musk said matter-of-factly. He was referring to Tesla’s recently rolled out “Navigate on Autopilot” feature, which guides the car from “on-ramp to off-ramp” by suggesting and making lane changes, navigating highway interchanges, and proactively taking exits.
Well, maybe a couple of minor problems.
During the earnings call, Musk explained the difficulty in getting Autopilot to “99.999 percent” rate of success, citing traffic signals as particularly problematic. He added that the company would be ready to roll out “full self-driving” by the end of the year, depending on local regulatory approval
Pesky traffic signals. Once we figure out those! And ten thousand other things... .
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Good But Scary
Apple is doing what they obviously should be doing but it also highlights the fact that... Apple has a lot of power.
On Tuesday, TechCrunch reported that Facebook was quietly operating a research program that paid teens and adults to let the Silicon Valley tech giant spy on their phones and data, in an apparent violation of Apple's policies. In response, Apple revoked the developer certificate that Facebook was using to power the research apps — and in doing so, crippled Facebook's workforce.
This is because the same certificate that authenticated the research apps was also used in the key internal Facebook apps its tens of thousands of employees use every day.
The move dramatically escalates tensions between Facebook and Apple, and has left Facebook employees unable to communicate with colleagues, access internal information, and even catch company transportation.
Is Our Children Learning
Seems like it!
Even if it won't pass... even if "they" don't want it to pass... that telling voters "we're gonna give you more retirement benefits" has not been Brand Democrat shows how much "pleasing David Brooks" has been more important than "appealing to voters."
Sounds all good.
In less than a decade, mainstream Democrats in Congress have gone from entertaining Social Security cuts to almost universally endorsing the program’s expansion.
With Democrats in charge of the House for the first time since this tidal shift upended party orthodoxy, senior members of Congress are setting the stage for the legislative chamber to increase Social Security benefits, bringing a onetime liberal pipe dream a step closer to law.
Even if it won't pass... even if "they" don't want it to pass... that telling voters "we're gonna give you more retirement benefits" has not been Brand Democrat shows how much "pleasing David Brooks" has been more important than "appealing to voters."
The legislation finances a more generous benefit and cost-of-living adjustment formula, a reduction in income taxes on benefits and the closure of Social Security’s long-term funding gap by lifting the cap on income subject to payroll taxes and raising those tax rates.
Sounds all good.
Nobody Cares About The Poors
A weird thing in Dem politics has been the decades-long contradiction between "we must end welfare as we know it" and "any social program must be means-tested so that it doesn't quite reach middle class people." If welfare was unpopular because it only reached those shiftless poors, then other programs targeted at the poors aren't going to be much more popular. People who get it love the Medicaid expansion. People who earn a buck too much and have to suck on a "bronze plan" are really pissed off about it.
Popularity isn't the only measure of value, of course, but doing popular things does help you to be popular. All that free money to the poors, and only the poors, wasn't very popular in the 90s. Why do think tanks and consultants think a new version of it is going to be popular now? But almost every "nice thing" they propose is...just that.
Popularity isn't the only measure of value, of course, but doing popular things does help you to be popular. All that free money to the poors, and only the poors, wasn't very popular in the 90s. Why do think tanks and consultants think a new version of it is going to be popular now? But almost every "nice thing" they propose is...just that.
What A Lovely Little War
Only took 17 years until we surrendered!
"[T]he United States has interests."
This current process bears an unfortunate resemblance to the Paris peace talks during the Vietnam War. Then, as now, it was clear that by going to the table we were surrendering; we were just negotiating the terms of our surrender. The Taliban will offer any number of commitments, knowing that when we are gone and the Taliban is back, we will have no means of enforcing any of them.
...
President Barack Obama proved in Iraq that the United States cannot end a war by withdrawing its forces — the battle space is simply left to our adversaries. In Afghanistan, President Trump has a choice. He can follow Obama’s example and leave the country to the Taliban, or he can make clear that the United States has interests, values and allies, and will stand behind them.
"[T]he United States has interests."
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Deal And No Deal
The details are boring, but basically Parliament has said they don't want "no deal" and they have said in a binding vote they don't want "the deal" and May has said she will come back with another deal and the EU (apparently they're a part of this? like the Tories I forgot sometimes) said "this is the only deal" and... tick tick tick.
Junior Pundit Voice
Every now and then I think of some bit of "wisdom" about How Politics Works and then realize that it's probably some banal shit Luke Russert would've said as if it was handed down on the tablets to Moses even though it's the response to a development that practically every professional pundit would have (right or wrong).
And How Are Your Lives Again
I suppose survivor bias is the issue, not in terms of actual surviving, but in terms of which still have their jobs, but there's a weird contradiction between general journalistic disdain for things like "better health care" or "free college" or "universal pre-K" or "not sending people to the soylent green factory" and the fact that at least some of these people have or are likely to experience their own personal economic downturn.
Who knows what they think of all of these things individually, but in journalism you are allowed to, in fact supposed to, squawk "BUT HOW WILL YOU PAY FOR IT" any time someone offers up a nickel to a needy child in the form of government assistance, even if that plan is accompanied by an invisible-to-the-reporter plan to pay for it by raising Howard Schultz's taxes by 5 cents, but otherwise ignore such considerations. There are plenty of acceptable opinions in supposedly objective political journalism, and perhaps the most prominent one is that cutting the deficit is always good and extremely important, and that the only way to do this is by cutting socialsecurityandmedicareandwelfare.
Who knows what they think of all of these things individually, but in journalism you are allowed to, in fact supposed to, squawk "BUT HOW WILL YOU PAY FOR IT" any time someone offers up a nickel to a needy child in the form of government assistance, even if that plan is accompanied by an invisible-to-the-reporter plan to pay for it by raising Howard Schultz's taxes by 5 cents, but otherwise ignore such considerations. There are plenty of acceptable opinions in supposedly objective political journalism, and perhaps the most prominent one is that cutting the deficit is always good and extremely important, and that the only way to do this is by cutting socialsecurityandmedicareandwelfare.
Spending Money At Starbucks Is Unamerican
Feel free to use their bathrooms and just hang out without buying anything, though.
Monday, January 28, 2019
Priorities
You don't actually have to be in a position of having to make these choices...
Just pretend it's all been a horrible dream, or a glorious adventure of the imagination inside a snowglobe.
Supplies of medicine should be deemed more important than shipments of food if there is a no-deal Brexit, the health secretary has told MPs.
Matt Hancock made clear his view when answering questions at the health and social care select committee. “The thing is that medicines will be prioritised in the event of a no-deal Brexit,” the health and social care secretary said when asked by the former Labour health minister Ben Bradshaw which would be given precedence.
Bradshaw responded: “Over food? Over vital food?”
Just pretend it's all been a horrible dream, or a glorious adventure of the imagination inside a snowglobe.
Apocalypse Soon
My knowledge of how things work in Parliament is a bit below what's required to follow the minute by minute at this point, but things are looking... not good.
As far as I can understand: Too many conservatives don't like the backstop (and they're not entirely wrong). The EU isn't going to change what they're willing to agree to unless it's "harder" which while a vague term basically means appealing to the nutters more. They might agree to something "softer" but the only way to get through Parliament is to do it with Labour support, which to May is like killing children (assuming May dislikes killing children?). So that leaves...
The risk of accidentally crashing out of the EU without a deal has been described as “very high” by a key EU architect of the Brexit deal, with parliamentary backing for changes to the backstop likely to be met with a brick wall in Brussels.
Senior Conservative MPs are seeking to form a majority in a Commons vote on Tuesday calling for Theresa May to demand an alternative plan to the Irish backstop for avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland.
But on Monday, EU officials and diplomats said the amendment tabled by the Tory MP Graham Brady, and backed by Downing Street, failed to offer any clue as to what the alternative arrangement is that parliament could support.
As far as I can understand: Too many conservatives don't like the backstop (and they're not entirely wrong). The EU isn't going to change what they're willing to agree to unless it's "harder" which while a vague term basically means appealing to the nutters more. They might agree to something "softer" but the only way to get through Parliament is to do it with Labour support, which to May is like killing children (assuming May dislikes killing children?). So that leaves...
Can You At Least Say If The Stuff Will Be "Good" or "Bad"
Candidates rightly dodge extreme specifics but you gotta come up with some arrows pointing the way at least, my dude.
Asked point blank whether he would raise taxes, Schultz dodges: "I don’t want to talk in the hypothetical about what I would do if I was president." https://t.co/U3IPXhevFX
— Philip Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) January 27, 2019
It's Not AI
This is a fairly interesting report from a Waymo user who isn't a jerk skeptic like me but describes some of the problems with their safety driver manned robotaxis.
The technology is really neat! They work really well! But they aren't really AI. We don't have AI. We don't have bad AI. We just have pretty amazing computers.
Every problem you can come up with that isn't due to sensor problems (if they don't work in the rain...that's a problem) you can imagine a software fix... up to a point. You make them smarter about recognizing upside down stop signs, or you have all the stop signs programmed into the map. This probably works for a lot of things, though I think people underestimate just how many of these things there are. If it's a constant game of whack-a-mole, even if they manage to hit the mole each time, it isn't clear this ever going to be useful.
But crowded holiday shopping parking lot? That's... a tougher one. I don't think the computer brains are going to be able to handle that one soon. So, ok, you don't enter the parking lot, you drop off on the edge (in places with no sidewalks?). You get all the shopping centers (all of them?) to have dedicated pick up and drop off places.
My point is the technology is neato and it works surprisingly well. And you can always imagine how to solve this problem or that problem, with a warehouse filled with coders going at it constantly. Many of them, anyway. But the problems never end...
The technology is really neat! They work really well! But they aren't really AI. We don't have AI. We don't have bad AI. We just have pretty amazing computers.
Every problem you can come up with that isn't due to sensor problems (if they don't work in the rain...that's a problem) you can imagine a software fix... up to a point. You make them smarter about recognizing upside down stop signs, or you have all the stop signs programmed into the map. This probably works for a lot of things, though I think people underestimate just how many of these things there are. If it's a constant game of whack-a-mole, even if they manage to hit the mole each time, it isn't clear this ever going to be useful.
But crowded holiday shopping parking lot? That's... a tougher one. I don't think the computer brains are going to be able to handle that one soon. So, ok, you don't enter the parking lot, you drop off on the edge (in places with no sidewalks?). You get all the shopping centers (all of them?) to have dedicated pick up and drop off places.
My point is the technology is neato and it works surprisingly well. And you can always imagine how to solve this problem or that problem, with a warehouse filled with coders going at it constantly. Many of them, anyway. But the problems never end...
It Isn't A Trade
A maddening thing is that assumption that There Can Be No Nice Things, and if you want to add nice things over here you must take them away from over there. We're a rich damn country and we can have lots of nice things and we spend lots of money on not nice things.
No this is not an unavoidable trade-off. How about "a dollar spent on stupid fucking wars is unavailable for universal universal pre-K." Or "a dollar spent giving money to campaign donors to lock babies in cages is unavailable for universal pre-K." Nobody except crazy hippies ever writes those sentences.
The rest of the linked piece is fine, but there is just no reason that *these* are the trade-offs.
There are some unavoidable trade-offs between the young and the old: A dollar spent on Medicare is unavailable for universal pre-K.
No this is not an unavoidable trade-off. How about "a dollar spent on stupid fucking wars is unavailable for universal universal pre-K." Or "a dollar spent giving money to campaign donors to lock babies in cages is unavailable for universal pre-K." Nobody except crazy hippies ever writes those sentences.
The rest of the linked piece is fine, but there is just no reason that *these* are the trade-offs.
The Bad Coffee Man
Sure "I will cut your Social Security benefits!" is not the most rousing campaign idea, but rich guys have lots of money to spend and when there's lots of money to spend, who knows what can happen? Of course he doesn't win, or even win an electoral vote, but rich guys get lots of paid AND free media, and as we know a few votes in the wrong places...
The real point is no one involved is this stupid. Schultz is advised by resistance grifter Steve Schmidt, who isn't too stupid to understand that a rich guy independent run almost certainly, on balance, tilts things towards Trump. Schultz probably can't be that stupid either. So...
The real point is no one involved is this stupid. Schultz is advised by resistance grifter Steve Schmidt, who isn't too stupid to understand that a rich guy independent run almost certainly, on balance, tilts things towards Trump. Schultz probably can't be that stupid either. So...
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Saturday, January 26, 2019
Whispers: They All Are
Less than a year ago Roadstar.ai raised over $128 million to develop autonomous cars. Now they're looking like the Theranos of self-driving.
The Troubles
Been educating myself a bit about that time in Northern Ireland. I've mostly done this by watching a funny sitcom called Derry Girls which you can find on your local Netflix, and reading a good book called Milkman which won some award. Fiction is actually a good way to learn things. It's not history, but now that I'm old and realize The Kids Today understandably have no clue about events even 20 years ago (as I didn't when I was A Kid Then), I realize "A funny sitcom about the post-9/11 era" would probably explain it better than an 800 page nonfiction tome about the same, and not just because they would be more likely to actually see the former.
But I've also done it by reading a lot of the clueless commentary, and responses, about how Ireland/Northern Ireland are complicating Brexit. By clueless commentary I mean things like the Tory Northern Ireland secretary, whose job, you might guess, is being aware of affairs in Northern Ireland, admitting she had precisely zero understanding of the basic political divide, which even I am aware of. Northern Ireland is, as I'm sure you know, dear readers, one nontrivial part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And some of those elected officials serve in her coalition, though others do not sit in Parliament despite being elected to do so because, well, that's the kind of thing she should know.
This is getting too long for a pithy blog post, and I am still not one to explain The Troubles, but they were a massively devastating time and not just because people were blown up regularly. Civil wars are bad, and even a funny sitcom about teen girls can convey that pretty well, as can the fact that no prominent ruling politician in England, part of Great Britain, part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island, knows as much as I do about that time.
But I've also done it by reading a lot of the clueless commentary, and responses, about how Ireland/Northern Ireland are complicating Brexit. By clueless commentary I mean things like the Tory Northern Ireland secretary, whose job, you might guess, is being aware of affairs in Northern Ireland, admitting she had precisely zero understanding of the basic political divide, which even I am aware of. Northern Ireland is, as I'm sure you know, dear readers, one nontrivial part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And some of those elected officials serve in her coalition, though others do not sit in Parliament despite being elected to do so because, well, that's the kind of thing she should know.
This is getting too long for a pithy blog post, and I am still not one to explain The Troubles, but they were a massively devastating time and not just because people were blown up regularly. Civil wars are bad, and even a funny sitcom about teen girls can convey that pretty well, as can the fact that no prominent ruling politician in England, part of Great Britain, part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island, knows as much as I do about that time.
Supporting Our Defective President To Own The Libs
I suppose this type of piece does little other than entertain us, which is enough, because the mainstream press is never going to stop pretending that Trump isn't what Trump obviously is, and aside from a daily snapshot on the mental health of the population of our great nation, it really doesn't matter if his approval rating is 27% or 40%. But still good reading!
This is also true, and maybe even especially true, when Trump is obviously lying. Even before he banged his own personal left turn and began his full-tilt drive into the desert of cognitive decline, Trump was not an especially nuanced or strategic person. His mind is not what it was, and at its peak it was more of a Magic 8 Ball than a supercomputer. He can’t learn anything because he can’t listen to other people if they aren’t speaking from inside a television; he can’t remember what he hears there because he can’t really care unless it’s about him. These deficits are clear when Trump is extemporizing on furloughed workers cutting deals with the milkman or imagining cartoon coyotes piloting sedans full of duct-taped women across the Rio Grande, but they are even clearer when he tells knowing lies. The former tend to be about other people, and so tend to be both lurid and half-assed; he only really ever applies himself when the lies involve himself.
All In All All There Is Is The Wall
The nice thing about the wall issue is it was his one obsession. If it's off the table, either because Trump "wins" or because he "loses," then what else is he going to obsess about? Something yuger and scarier, probably, and that's bad.
Friday, January 25, 2019
Crazy Violent People Still Here
I never went to Comet Pizza but I did meet the owner a couple of times a million years ago. Reasonably sure it is not the hub of a global pedophile ring.
Not sure "hoaxer" is the right word. Sure some people were probably full of shit, but there were plenty of true believers. This is probably more of just symbolic target than somebody actually believe that Pizzagate thing, but it doesn't matter much.
An arsonist allegedly started a fire Thursday night at Comet Ping Pong, the Washington, D.C. pizzeria that was targeted by internet hoaxers as part of the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory.
Not sure "hoaxer" is the right word. Sure some people were probably full of shit, but there were plenty of true believers. This is probably more of just symbolic target than somebody actually believe that Pizzagate thing, but it doesn't matter much.
Measles WTF
Years I go I had some sympathy for anti-vaxxers. They were mostly people who had children with autism and they were looking for an explanation. There was a completely sensible, if not proven, theory that the vaccines had more mercury than they were supposed to, which for a time they did, and that could have been the cause. Nobody thinks it was the cause now and more than that even if it was that then the mercury problem is no longer an issue.
Now anti-vaxxers are largely "vaccines are like bad, yo" with not much reason behind it and mostly not because they actually have autistic children. I would say it used to be more a left wing thing, politically, and it became more of a right wing thing, but isn't precisely either. West Coast right wingers are weird. But, in any case, they're making their the children and the children of other people sick.
Now anti-vaxxers are largely "vaccines are like bad, yo" with not much reason behind it and mostly not because they actually have autistic children. I would say it used to be more a left wing thing, politically, and it became more of a right wing thing, but isn't precisely either. West Coast right wingers are weird. But, in any case, they're making their the children and the children of other people sick.
VANCOUVER, Wash. – Clark County Health officials say the number of confirmed measles cases has grown to 30. The county released the updated outbreak numbers Thursday morning, saying the number of suspected cases has dropped to nine.
President Deals
Amazing dealmaker, really.
BREAKING - THE DEAL: Dem source says leaders are zeroing in on...
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) January 25, 2019
- clean CR to Feb 15
- *No wall $*
- vehicle for DHS, border security conf bill
- Senate votes first
- backpay provision
No Tip
I suggested CNN was tipped off by someone because it's hardly rare for that to happen, but the right wingers have decided this is some grand conspiracy and it's false.
Things Start To Crack
I don't know quickly the airline situation will go bad, but it doesn't take too much as just a little problem in the system snowballs pretty quickly for obvious reasons.
And then...
And then...
The Stone Zone
Is being relocated.
They didn't do it the nice way.
...and someone invited CNN.
Roger Stone, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, was indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller and arrested Friday on charges of obstruction, giving false statements and witness tampering.
They didn't do it the nice way.
Breaking: The FBI has arrested Roger Stone, his lawyer tells CNN. CNN witnessed uniformed and armed law enforcement approach his house just after 6 am in Fort Lauderdale.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) January 25, 2019
Pounding on his door one agent said: ‘FBI open the door.’
...and someone invited CNN.
"FBI. Open the door.”
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 25, 2019
Watch exclusive CNN footage of the FBI arresting longtime Trump associate Roger Stone. Stone has been indicted by a grand jury on charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. https://t.co/ZQCuuxLHAG pic.twitter.com/moQwNndB91
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Kindly Old Corner Grocer Guy Doesn't Have Bills Either
I don't even know where to start with this but have at it.
what pic.twitter.com/hBtyc7IqID
— Brendan Karet 🚮 (@bad_takes) January 24, 2019
This Is War
Richie richies hate the income tax but they really hate the idea of a wealth tax (and successfully reduce the manifestations we do have - estate taxes and capital gains taxes).
Until the primary season is over everybody who reads this website is going to get mad at me when I write something that sounds positive/negative about a candidate they don't like/like. Blah blah blah I am whining but in 2016 I said barely nothing about the primary and this blog sucked and people still got mad.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will propose a new annual “wealth tax” on Americans with more than $50 million in assets, according to an economist advising her on the plan, as Democratic leaders vie for increasingly aggressive solutions to the nation’s soaring wealth inequality.
Until the primary season is over everybody who reads this website is going to get mad at me when I write something that sounds positive/negative about a candidate they don't like/like. Blah blah blah I am whining but in 2016 I said barely nothing about the primary and this blog sucked and people still got mad.
So Weird
The places with "nice weather" are where walking is weird and dangerous. Sure they have a couple of hot months per year but conventional wisdom is that people move there for the nice weather and then never go outside.
Not On Them To Save The World
I didn't mean to imply that TSA workers should "strike." I have no idea what job and financial pressures they are under. I just meant that it's going to take pain for upper middle class people for anyone in charge to give a shit, and airports are the obvious place where that could happen.
Area Man Should Shut Up
We all loved Onion Joe and Obama's wacky white sidekick, but it's over.
.@JoeBiden: "I read in New York Times today that I --- that one of my problems is if I ever run for president, I like Republicans. Bless me father for I have sinned. But…from where I come from I don't know how you get anything done." pic.twitter.com/LbV3pWQUPw
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 24, 2019
How To Deal With Bullies
Their psychology isn't actually a mystery. Stand up to them and they slink away.
Morning Thread
Maybe the Senate will surprise us all and vote for a clean bill to fund the government.
Yes, I'm dreaming.
Yes, I'm dreaming.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Shutdown
I had planned a trip for a month or so from now to DC and cancelled it because "there's small chance the shutdown will continue..." and hahaha the government is never going to open again unless the TSA staff stop showing.
The Made Man Knows How They Play
Jack Shafer has been so dumb for so long (or pretending to be).
The man who claims to fear for his family once said this:
— Jack Shafer (@jackshafer) January 23, 2019
"And I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know...So I’m warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me?”
The Worst People
New York City media stories are always a reminder that people fail upwards because they are bad people with connections.
The two reporters said they decided to leave the new Gawker after Bustle Digital Group—which bought the shuttered Gawker.com domain and its archives in a mid-2018 fire sale—refused to oust Griffith over offensive workplace comments about everything from poor people to black writers to her acquaintance’s penis size.
Atrios, Economist
I actually am in that I have a Ph.D in economics. I think touting credentials is mostly dumb so I don't do it, but Ben Stein has an undergraduate degree in economics. His post-grad degree is in law. And his late in life experience is being an actor, game show host, and Fox News professional.
His Dad, Herbert, was actually an economist.
His Dad, Herbert, was actually an economist.
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
The Morning Speech
People forget how weird the Bush years were. I know I'm a broken record on this, but after 9/11 Bush did a speech almost every day. It wasn't covered by broadcast networks but cable news covered it. It was always at a factory and there was a very expensive backdrop like 'PATRIOTS AT WORK" or some shit. I wonder who paid for that. And that was normal political coverage.
Teen Men
I try to avoid dunking on teens, even though of course black kids are adults and white kids are children, but really what a test for everyone's biases.
Us And Them
I fail, also, too, at many things I criticize, but I've been working on this one. Probably still failing! But there's an obvious flaw in "objective journalism" when they write about "other people." One reason the trips to Ohio diners to talk to Trump Supporters is so annoying is they all read like an anthropological field trip. I don't think Trump supporters should get obsessive coverage, but I also don't think they should be covered like zoo specimens. And if elite people can't even cover affluent white people as humans, they probably aren't covering non-white people especially well. This "tell" in news coverage is so frequently blaring and if you can't see this obvious case for diversity in newsrooms...
Marginal Tax Rates, How Do They Work?
It's sorta funny that conservatives are pretending to not understand because for years they've pitched tax cuts for rich people by trying to convince people that the reason that doing taxes is a pain in the ass is because of progressive taxation. You know, the flat tax will make it easy! Because the hard thing about doing your taxes is that turbotax can't calculate what you owe easily once you put in all the numbers.
Monday, January 21, 2019
Nothing To See Here
Move along.
Greenland’s enormous ice sheet is melting at such an accelerated rate that it may have reached a “tipping point,” and could become a major factor in sea-level rise around the world within two decades, scientists said in a study published on Monday.
LOL IS HE SERIOUS
Oldsters like me remember how the mainstream media treated Jesse Jackson, who actually won a lot of delegates. Progress.
Morning Thread
Gee, everyone is always talking about the weather, but nobody seems to want to do anything about it.
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Your Liberal Media
it was a what now pic.twitter.com/Rl7X9RaqVM
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) January 20, 2019
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Can you get the BBC?
I accidentally caught "The Everly Brothers: Harmonies from Heaven" on my TV, which brought tears to my eyes. If you can get Auntie Beeb, I recommend it.
Catless
I spent a couple of weeks injecting fluids and force feeding Wiley. For a few days he perked up and I thought I had rebooted him. Sadly, no.
Friday, January 18, 2019
Lock Her Up
NEW: Sen. Jeff Merkley has formally requested FBI Director Wray open a perjury investigation into Sec. of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen. @SenJeffMerkley says “new documents show Nielsen lied in sworn testimony to Congress about the administration’s family separation policy.”
— Courtney Norris (@courtneyknorris) January 18, 2019
Pelosi Is Great At Her Job And Also The Dem Leadership Is Too Old
These actually aren't contradictory opinions or even calls for Pelosi to step aside. Failure to bring young people into leadership positions is a problem throughout society today. Except maybe tech where they are all rich and like 19 years old.
Priorities
As we enter into the great and wonderful primary campaign season, it's worth remembering that people, even when they mostly agree on things, have very different priorities. And one priority ranking isn't clearly more correct than another. Candidates have different priority orders from each other and so do voters.
Almost every candidate has some bad stuff in their records. I don't think there's one correct way to evaluate those things, either!
Almost every candidate has some bad stuff in their records. I don't think there's one correct way to evaluate those things, either!
Impeach
What choice do they have?
President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.
Trump also supported a plan, set up by Cohen, to visit Russia during the presidential campaign, in order to personally meet President Vladimir Putin and jump-start the tower negotiations. “Make it happen,” the sources said Trump told Cohen.
Morning Thread
I have lost count of how may ways the current administration has attempted to obstruct justice. I bet there is a full time employee tasked with keeping track. Glad that's not me.
Thursday, January 17, 2019
MoJo
Most people had the luxury of missing most of it, so only politics obsessed weirdo bloggers and blog readers really saw it, but post-9/11 conservatives really acted like they were going to rule the known universe forever. They strutted and swaggered. Each one a hero. The invasion of Iraq goosed it up another notch. They were all warrior humanitarians from the comfort of their recliners. Democracy, Whisky, Sexy!!!
The late Bush years and then Obama took away that powerful feeling, and Trump didn't bring it back. They're still so unhappy.
The late Bush years and then Obama took away that powerful feeling, and Trump didn't bring it back. They're still so unhappy.
Grand Old Party
WOW. Hoyer confirms that a GOP lawmaker today yelled at California Democrat Tony Cardenas, "Go back to Puerto Rico!"
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) January 17, 2019
Apropos Of Nothing
Worth a read.
I was never on this particular email list (I smell too much of patchouli for such things), and unsubscribed myself from any I was on in 2016 because insiders are bad and best I didn't know that.
I was never on this particular email list (I smell too much of patchouli for such things), and unsubscribed myself from any I was on in 2016 because insiders are bad and best I didn't know that.
But Ron, I Thought You Were Busy Saving Detroit From Black People
Ron Fournier sends me an email.
My question is:
Good morning,
See the press release below from Unite America announcing a new campaign calling for a bipartisan "Unity Ticket" for president and vice president in 2020. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Ron
--
Ron Fournier
Spokesperson, Unite America
My question is:
Won't you fucking fuck right the fuck off?
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Assert
DC is wired for Republicans and reporters get very confused indeed when they aren't in charge of everything. It's why Newt became President in 1995, and Speaker of the House Bachmann (Tea Party) ran Congress from 2009-2011. Reporters always say that Democrats are just bad at the game of kicking the soccer ball that they all chase, which could be true, but I'd also think that reporters could, you know, not see their role as being manipulated by two teams like a fucking soccer ball.
But if it is a game, then Pelosi and the House Dems should be out there pulling crazy shit stunts every damn day. Also serious stuff too! Maybe combine them sometimes. Reporters gotta write about something.
But if it is a game, then Pelosi and the House Dems should be out there pulling crazy shit stunts every damn day. Also serious stuff too! Maybe combine them sometimes. Reporters gotta write about something.
The MayBot Remains
As expected, May survives the no confidence vote in the UK. What's next? I have no idea.
This kind of stuff (last minute scrambling) was "supposed" to happen last October, so that the EU would have plenty of time to blah blah blah...
March 29 is when the UK is out of the EU. Tick tick tick.
This kind of stuff (last minute scrambling) was "supposed" to happen last October, so that the EU would have plenty of time to blah blah blah...
March 29 is when the UK is out of the EU. Tick tick tick.
The People Who I Know Fly
There was some report (too lazy to look for it) about GOP lawmakers basically saying that the shutdown is going to keep going until TSA workers stage a sickout and people get inconvenienced at the airport. Basically nobody cares about poor people problems or "mere" federal workers and also the needs of actual rich people can be addressed. Airline travel is the sweet spot. It's the thing that upper income people, including media people, do. And while not everybody flies regularly, quite a lot of people do fly. So it's the activity that enough not poor people engage in that if it's disrupted the assholes who rule us might pay attention. I'm not sure there's anything else similar?
Great Moments In Local Public Policy
The primary reason that unlike every other city in the world we don't have regular street cleaning in most of the city is because "but mah parking..." People get mad that they have to move their cars and get mad at their tickets when they don't move them. People like to pretend this is a "just stop littering" thing but streets get filthy with street gunk - greasy residue and leaves - which then flows into the drain system and clogs that up and you can imagine the problems. It isn't just an aesthetic issue - though that should be enough! - it's a problem for the water system.
There are a few remnants of our street cleaning network, supposedly. Hahaha.
There are a few remnants of our street cleaning network, supposedly. Hahaha.
WHYY and PlanPhilly reporters deployed to these business corridors didn’t have much more luck spotting the city’s cleaning crews. Over the course of one week in December 2018, the reporters did not observe any street sweepers on any of the posted routes before, during, and after the posted “no parking” hours.
But even if sweepers don’t show up consistently, The Philadelphia Parking Authority’s agents do.
Between 2007 and 2017, the state parking enforcement agency issued over 148,000 tickets to drivers for failing to move their cars on days designated for street sweeping, according to PPA records. Together, these tickets amount to $8.1 million in fees and penalties, of which the agency has collected $5.5 million. Only about a quarter of all PPA revenue goes back to the city and school district.
Nice Work
Disruption!
Nothing like working both sides of a deal other people are financing!
Mr. Neumann has made millions of dollars by leasing multiple properties in which he has an ownership stake back to WeWork, one of the country’s most valuable startups. Multiple investors of the privately held company said the arrangement concerned them as a potential conflict of interest in which the CEO could benefit on rents or other terms with the company.
Nothing like working both sides of a deal other people are financing!
Dumb Stuff On The Internet
Back in the old days, "the internet" and "the real world" were still sorta different places. It was easier to compartmentalize my life, though to some degree sucky blogs bridged the worlds. Now it's all one big goofy mess.
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Primary Season!!!!
Where everybody pretends to be deeply concerned about something in candidate X's record while ignoring a similar thing in candidate Y's.
I'm human and part of the mosh pit, too. Not pretending to be above it all.
I'm human and part of the mosh pit, too. Not pretending to be above it all.
The Ringing of the Division Bell Had Begun
And May's Brexit Deal goes down. 432-202.
...Corbyn moves No Confidence vote...
...I don't really know what happens next. May's strategy, such as it was, was to force a vote at the last minute in hopes that it would pass under pressure. Didn't work. For the EU the options are short extension (they'd agree), long extension (probably not past a couple of months as new EU parliament term complicates things), or withdrawing from withdrawal (unlikely to happen but EU would probably be fine).
...Corbyn moves No Confidence vote...
...I don't really know what happens next. May's strategy, such as it was, was to force a vote at the last minute in hopes that it would pass under pressure. Didn't work. For the EU the options are short extension (they'd agree), long extension (probably not past a couple of months as new EU parliament term complicates things), or withdrawing from withdrawal (unlikely to happen but EU would probably be fine).
Your Liberal Media
If not this, then what?
We're in the territory of, like, "Man from Braunau am Inn, whose advocacy of sending all Jews to the gas chambers has been described anti-Semitic by some, is causing controversy in this local Austrian town!"
NBC News’ standards department sent an email to staffers Tuesday telling them not to directly refer to Rep. Steve King’s recent comments about white supremacy as “racist.”
“Be careful to avoid characterizing [King’s] remarks as racist,” reads the email, which two NBC News staffers shared with HuffPost. “It is ok to attribute to others as in ‘what many are calling racist’ or something like that.”
We're in the territory of, like, "Man from Braunau am Inn, whose advocacy of sending all Jews to the gas chambers has been described anti-Semitic by some, is causing controversy in this local Austrian town!"
Genuine and Sweet, Or The Closest We'll Get
Yes the humberders or however we spell them now at the White House for those poor athletes was stupid and classless (we all love fast food, we just don't serve it when we host fancy dinner parties), and he's a cheap bastard, but within the constraints that is A Man Called Trump it was almost sweet in a pathetic sort of way. I bet he truly believed he was doing a nice thing, giving the kids the happy meals they so love.
Closest I'll get to saying something nice about the guy, probably.
Closest I'll get to saying something nice about the guy, probably.
From Bean To Cup
It's a good thing we're run by mostly incompetent evil crooks.
BREAKING: HUGE win in #2020Census citizenship question case. The Court says Secretary Ross violated federal law in attempting to add a citizenship question to the #2020Census and enjoins him from adding the question. 1/x
— Brianne Gorod (@BrianneGorod) January 15, 2019
Endgame
What's fascinated me all along about Brexit (car crash fascinated) is that none of the Brexit players, except maybe the BREXIT MEANS NO DEAL EVERYBODY BECAUSE NOBODY HAS ANY DEALS lunatics (and even them), ever appeared to have tried to game this thing out. As in, I would like to get to Box [Z] (pronounced "zed" you barbarians) at the end, so I am going to try to move the situation through Boxes [T-Y] in order to get there. Maybe we have only a small probability of achieving Z, but there's a strategy. Nobody ever had any idea what was in Box [Z] let alone how to get there.
For all the trash talk of Corbyn and his failed opposition party, "let them light the fuse and then blow the whole thing up and themselves in the process while we are in the other room" was always the clear strategy, and probably the only possible one given that Corbyn, despite some reports to the contrary, was never actually Prime Minister. I don't agree with what I think is Corbyn's desired outcome (Lexit, basically), but he took the only path possible to stop May's Brexit.
And Lexit is bad in large part because I don't think it's achievable and because I'm not quite sure what it is, but if the man kills Brexit, becomes PM, and institutes a Lexit agreement, then he will have pulled off something quite impossible. It might not be so bad, though I am not entirely sure what the point of it is.
For all the trash talk of Corbyn and his failed opposition party, "let them light the fuse and then blow the whole thing up and themselves in the process while we are in the other room" was always the clear strategy, and probably the only possible one given that Corbyn, despite some reports to the contrary, was never actually Prime Minister. I don't agree with what I think is Corbyn's desired outcome (Lexit, basically), but he took the only path possible to stop May's Brexit.
And Lexit is bad in large part because I don't think it's achievable and because I'm not quite sure what it is, but if the man kills Brexit, becomes PM, and institutes a Lexit agreement, then he will have pulled off something quite impossible. It might not be so bad, though I am not entirely sure what the point of it is.
She Might Actually Lose
I'm still not sure what happens with Brexit next, but everyone seems to think The Deal is going to be shot down.
The very smart (actually most of them are as dumb as ours) British political chattering classes should be wondering why the Tories took so long?
The very smart (actually most of them are as dumb as ours) British political chattering classes should be wondering why the Tories took so long?
Monday, January 14, 2019
There Is No Try
Only do.
The guy's a dick and someone they like more wants the jobs, but credit where credit is due. If they do.
...and story already changed. Lost'em.
House Republican leaders will try to remove Representative Steve King of Iowa from the Judiciary and Agriculture Committees on Monday night as the party officials scrambled to appear tough on racism and contain damage from comments Mr. King made to The New York Times questioning why white supremacy is considered offensive.
The guy's a dick and someone they like more wants the jobs, but credit where credit is due. If they do.
...and story already changed. Lost'em.
My President
Is currently serving up some fine cold McDs in the White House and I couldn't be prouder of America right now.
DEBATE ME YOU COWARD
Getting into boring internet stuff here, but why does anybody (Ben Shapiro, his fans, um, some other people I guess, oh, and, yes, our stupid presidential primary and general election theater directors) think public debates are useful for anything other than a kind of charisma context? It isn't actually a way to resolve some sort of disagreement even in its most ideal form, let alone the strategic gaffe and zinger platform it mostly is.
Slate used to run these "email" debates between people which were reasonable because people had time to think and respond and readers had time to think about what they read. Maybe a conversation between two smart people (if they are, actually, smart people) can be useful. But the debate-as-public-gladiator-contest throwdown is weird.
TOTALLY OWNED
Slate used to run these "email" debates between people which were reasonable because people had time to think and respond and readers had time to think about what they read. Maybe a conversation between two smart people (if they are, actually, smart people) can be useful. But the debate-as-public-gladiator-contest throwdown is weird.
TOTALLY OWNED
Afternoon Thread
For the millionth time I get - not approve of, but understand - the popularity of the basic politics of Trumpism, but I will never get how people watch 25 seconds of the man and do not want to pull a Homer into the hedges out of embarrassment.
Strike
LA might be too far away from the center of the news media universe, but if not for that we'd likely be subjected to numerous glibertarian concern pieces about the poor kids of Los Angeles and how teachers were abusing them and their parents by robbing them of school days and yes, sure, the teachers have some good points, but think of the children, really?
This is the outcome nobody wanted, but it's happening anyway.Awhile back Chicago schoolkids were the most important people in the universe for a few days. None of those people gave a shit that Rahm closed all the neighborhood schools in minority neighborhoods.
More than 32,000 Los Angeles teachers and staff members are walking off the job Monday in the country's second-biggest school district. That means about 600,000 kids have no idea when they'll see their teachers again.
Weeks of heated negotiations between the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) went nowhere, leading to the city's first teachers' strike in 30 years.
Can't Prosecute Him, Can't Impeach Him
The first point is above my pay grade and I am not interested in arguing it (roughly I would say this is dumb, as I think a president shooting a child on the White House lawn should be arrested and prosecuted like everyone else, and this logically leads to other places), but we can't have a system where the first is accepted as true and the bar for the appropriate remedy of impeachment is set so high that it is never invoked unless there is a Democratic president and a Republican Congress.
Of course (well, probably) Trump isn't going to be convicted in the Senate and removed from office. Bill Clinton wasn't going to be either. That isn't the only point. Nor is it convincing David Brooks that it is the right course of action. Nor is it maximizing 2020 election chances, whatever course of action would do that. It's about saying, "this is bad, mmmkay?"*
*With Bill Clinton what they were saying was, "Democrats are not allowed to be president," which is also bad, and the rest of the country understood that and would have continued to if the Democrats hadn't been idiots.
Of course (well, probably) Trump isn't going to be convicted in the Senate and removed from office. Bill Clinton wasn't going to be either. That isn't the only point. Nor is it convincing David Brooks that it is the right course of action. Nor is it maximizing 2020 election chances, whatever course of action would do that. It's about saying, "this is bad, mmmkay?"*
*With Bill Clinton what they were saying was, "Democrats are not allowed to be president," which is also bad, and the rest of the country understood that and would have continued to if the Democrats hadn't been idiots.
Sunday, January 13, 2019
What A Strange Way to Spend Your Billions
I know I am not built like the president, but if someone would set me up for life on a modest (not TOO modest) income I would promise to never tweet again.
How Did They Do That
It is true, your honor, that the FBI has my client on tape doing the murder and confessing to the murder and bragging about the murder and re-enacting the murder and then doing another murder and then planning another murder and doing that one too. The real question is, then, how did they get these tapes?
Which would actually be a question, but...
Lindsey Graham, asked about the NYT report that FBI investigated whether Trump worked for Russians, says on Fox: “To me, it tells me a lot about the people running the FBI ... what I want to make sure is: How did the FBI do that? What kind of checks and balances are there?”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 13, 2019
Which would actually be a question, but...
Totally Normal Ones
Tuned out a bit yesterday and you can get your super expert commentary elsewhere, but I was amused by this.
and
"I haven't actually left the White House in months," Trump says. What?
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) January 13, 2019
and
PIRRO: "Are you now or have you ever worked for Russia, Mr. President?"
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) January 13, 2019
TRUMP: "I think it’s the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked... If you read the article, you’ll find they had nothing... It’s called the failing New York Times for a reason..." (then pivots to Comey)
Saturday, January 12, 2019
What's The Problem
Can't think of any.
A Chinese startup that's vying for Tesla's customers unveiled Sunday a 48-inch-wide video screen that stretches across the top of the dashboard of the Byton M-byte battery-electric vehicle.
The video screen, the size of seven iPads across, will anchor a business model that focuses as much on selling "content" as cars, CEO Carsten Breitfeld told CNBC.com. The SUV offers an optional 95-kilowatt-hour battery that can travel as far as 325 miles between charges.
And Justice For All
We all know the TV cop show setup. There's the extreme pressure from the press, the mayor, the police chief, to close cases. Jobs and careers depend on it. Cops *know* a perp - and they're dangerous - is guilty and just can't quite get the charges to stick. They cut a few corners, plant a little evidence, and the greater good is served. The thing is, when I hear stories of police corruption I never get a sense that any of these pieces are in play. There is no pressure to close cases. Careers and jobs do not depend on doing so. Harder to know, but there's no evidence the perps are known to be dangerous. Cops (#notallcops) just do this stuff because bears shit in the woods.
In May 2017, Philadelphia Narcotics Bureau supervisors Inspector Raymond Evers and Chief Inspector Anthony Boyle called staff into a police conference room in Germantown for a mandatory meeting. Evers would later describe it as a “pep talk” to "get better-quality investigations.”
But what he outlined, according to a 177-page August 2018 Internal Affairs report obtained by the Inquirer, was a scheme to flip low-level suspects into off-the-books confidential informants through a process that would evolve into falsifying paperwork, as well as hiding information from the District Attorney’s Office.
Friday, January 11, 2019
Rapists Coming Over The Border
I know it's mostly just racism. Keep the brown people out, kick the ones who are here, and any lie in service of that is fine. But I've known enough (not many, but enough given they aren't exactly my main social circle) people over the years to know that the fear of this type of thing is real. Black people riding the bus to the exurbs to steal your TVs, Mexicans crossing the border in Tijuana to rape "your" daughters in Missouri, etc. Yes it's mostly hatred but there is fear there. I really don't understand it. Fears aren't always rational, of course, but there are so many more things to be legitimately afraid of.
Genius Business
I don't actually think it's that hard to run the numbers on this kind of operation. Capital costs, labor hours, ridership/revenue. There aren't many inputs into a model here. This isn't a complicated operation. It's like a coffee shop that only sells coffee. It's pretty easy to calculate your projected costs and just how many cups of coffee at what price you need to sell to make a profit at your current rent. I can't see how things like this come close to penciling out under any basic assumptions, so they're just selling someone (executive, investor, whoever) on "DISRUPTION" or some shit.
People always come up with examples where services like this would be good (quite possibly!) and profitable (hahaha unlikely), but these are generally examples of places which don't already have transit options.
Chariot, the microtransit service owned by Ford, is going out of business. According to a companywide email obtained by the San Francisco Examiner, the on-demand bus service will cease operation February 1st. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the news to The Verge.
People always come up with examples where services like this would be good (quite possibly!) and profitable (hahaha unlikely), but these are generally examples of places which don't already have transit options.
NAFTA II ELECTRIC FENCE BOOGALOO
Has anyone told Trump that Congress needs to approve this new deal that will pay for the wall?
Thursday, January 10, 2019
We Do Not Trust Teachers, So Arm them
I think a fair observation is that teachers - ones in public unions, at least - have been demonized from all sides for about 30 years. From the Right, mostly, but Dems (especially state and local) have participated as well. So when the response to school shootings is "why don't we give these horrible untrustworthy people guns..."
TAMAQUA, Pa. (WPVI) -- School board members in Pennsylvania have voted to postpone a policy allowing teachers to carry guns in school.for now.
How Can Trump Supporters Support This??? But They Do So He Is Golden!!!
The "people who like Trump like Trump" window of analysis onto this administration has always been stupid(and it comes from liberals and neverTrumpers, too, not just journalists in diners). It both suggests that people are crazy for supporting him, and also that their support is the only thing that matters. Neither is actually true. Sure his MAGA fans are horrible crazy people, but most of the rest are just "eh, Republican better than Democrat, good enough for me" which is bad but it is bad because Republicans are bad, not because Trump is especially bad. He is, but I don't think it's crazy they think he's worse than PRESIDENT RANDOM DEMOCRAT given their worldview.
I suppose it's interesting to wonder what would pull Trump's support down from 40% to 27%, but really 40%ish of this country would support almost any Republican and 27% would support any. This is a conversation about 13% of the population.
I suppose it's interesting to wonder what would pull Trump's support down from 40% to 27%, but really 40%ish of this country would support almost any Republican and 27% would support any. This is a conversation about 13% of the population.
FREEDUM
Border restrictions affects everybody and if I lived by the border I'd be pretty mad that popping across it for a little lunch was not a feasible thing to do. EU-style free movement was never gonna happen under NAFTA, but that easy movement wasn't enshrined says a lot about its architects.
The Silly Season
All of the Democratic candidates for president will have legitimate flaws. Some of those people will have flaws I think are important, some of those people have flaws you think are important, some of these people have flaws reporters will imagine "voters" think are important.
Also there will be lots of made up stuff.
Also there will be lots of made up stuff.
BREAKING
This is more a Daily Show bit than journalism, because we shouldn't be taking these stupid things seriously in the first place.
Of course walls not made of Wolverine won't stop people from getting over, under, or through them. That doesn't make them pointless. People put up fences for a reason. But it was easy to get over the Berlin Wall if you didn't mind being shot in the process.
EXCLUSIVE: DHS test of steel prototype for border wall, Trump's preference, showed it could be sawed through.
— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) January 10, 2019
We've obtained a never-before-seen photo.
Our report, with @JuliaEAinsley. https://t.co/VfRTSt36mr
Of course walls not made of Wolverine won't stop people from getting over, under, or through them. That doesn't make them pointless. People put up fences for a reason. But it was easy to get over the Berlin Wall if you didn't mind being shot in the process.
Wednesday, January 09, 2019
Can't Escape Everything
There are some things that rich people can't realistically protect themselves from, without an absurd amount of inconvenience. Sure you don't have to live next to a superfund site, but living in a bubbled dome, solely, even if affordable, is pretty inconvenient. Gotta breathe the air the rest of us do, sometimes, unless you want to be bubble boy. Kinda hard to establish an alternative food supply system, too.
The ongoing federal government shutdown has stopped most food safety inspections, but the Food and Drug Administration is planning to resume at least some of them. To do it, the agency will have to force furloughed workers to come back without pay.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said he is trying to pinpoint the most essential inspections, while making sure that employees do not suffer too much.
Under the Sea
In Venice there's an elaborate system and, of course, apps to let you know where you can and can't easily walk every day. But that's Venice.
A Jersey Shore town is planning a 24-hour online livestream of flooding along one of its most frequently inundated streets.
Sea Isle City plans to mount a web camera on its public works building at 40th Street and Central Avenue by mid-February. The Press of Atlantic City reports the camera, which costs about $5,000, is being paid for through a grant from OceanFirst Bank to the New Jersey Coastal Coalition.
Negotiation
So how about we nationalize the means of production?
Haha. no.
Okay how about we implement the full socialist revolution with a top 70% tax rate?
Um, ok (haha stupid kids that's not really socialism).
Damn. Pops tricked us.
Haha. no.
Okay how about we implement the full socialist revolution with a top 70% tax rate?
Um, ok (haha stupid kids that's not really socialism).
Damn. Pops tricked us.
Well Then
WATCH: Trump argues that we need a border wall to stop migrants just driving right across in their "unbelievable vehicles... stronger, bigger, and faster vehicles than our police have, than ICE has" pic.twitter.com/b04eEKuL0I
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 9, 2019
Fox&Friends releases new picture from border caravan.
Max Max: Fury Road was a truly good movie, by the way. Maybe you have to like that kind of thing, a bit, but it's a lot better than that.
"Regulations"
Sure, Elon.
Anyone who knows anything about this stuff knows it's a fraud, but you shouldn't have to be a super informed consumer, even a rich one who can afford a Tesla, to not get taken in by it. There are people who genuinely think Elon's gonna flip a switch soon and they're gonna be able to pay for their Teslas by turning them into automated robotaxis. They're wrong and stupid, but it isn't their responsibility to not be.
While Elon Musk has been guiding self-driving capabilities by the end of the year, Tesla has been taking a more cautious approach.
Tesla salespeople have been warning buyers of their ‘Full Self-Driving package’ that it could be “very far away” due to regulations.
Anyone who knows anything about this stuff knows it's a fraud, but you shouldn't have to be a super informed consumer, even a rich one who can afford a Tesla, to not get taken in by it. There are people who genuinely think Elon's gonna flip a switch soon and they're gonna be able to pay for their Teslas by turning them into automated robotaxis. They're wrong and stupid, but it isn't their responsibility to not be.
There Is No Plan B
As the AP tells us it takes two to tango, and while it made no sense in that context, I suppose it does make sense in this one.
The two being the UK and the EU. I don't what happens if there is no deal and there is No No deal and there is no plan 'B.' No one seems to!
Theresa May will be obliged to present MPs with a new Brexit plan within three days if her current proposal is voted down next week, after a procedural amendment to the plan’s progress through the Commons was passed amid chaotic scenes.
The amendment to the business motion for the plan, drawn up by the Conservative former attorney general Dominic Grieve, gives May the deadline to put forward new her plans if she loses the vote, as many expect, next Tuesday.
The two being the UK and the EU. I don't what happens if there is no deal and there is No No deal and there is no plan 'B.' No one seems to!
Complaints
There are many and complicated reasons that the press is cowed by the right and responds horribly to criticisms by the left, and I certainly don't mean this is the most important part of it, but one is that they actually know the right is full of shit about the criticisms and that the left is serious. As in, the right is playing a game and the left means it. They (some) like being part of the game. Many in the political press simply see that as part of the role. When the game is give me scoops or the asshole you hate will, or give me scoops and you can get out in front of someone else reporting it more negatively, or let me run this very flattering profile of you on the off chances I get scoops later (a beat so sweet is must be sweetened by the beat sweetener), you are playing a game. Maybe it's a justifiable game, but it certainly will have an impact on how you to approach your job. If they thought the left was just playing a game, too, they'd respond better.
This is actually much worse than it probably sounds.
This is actually much worse than it probably sounds.
Tuesday, January 08, 2019
Tea And No Tea
Parliamentary maneuvering above my pay grade a bit, but Parliament has voted to make No Deal difficult, might vote to reject The Deal, leaving...well, there isn't a third option on the table so shruggy.
Theresa May has become the first British Prime Minister for 41 years to lose a vote on a finance bill after 20 Conservative MPs rebelled against the party whip and backed Yvette Cooper’s amendment, which sharply limits the government’s tax-raising powers in the event of a no deal Brexit. What does it mean for the resolution of the Brexit crisis?
Although Cooper’s amendment was billed as “preventing no deal”, as she herself freely conceded in the House, the amendment itself does no such thing. In fact, by limiting the government’s powers to raise revenue, it sharpens the rocks at the bottom of the ravine rather than pulls the country away from the cliff edge. But the amendment has two important implications. The first is that it gives Parliament an opportunity to avert a no deal exit at the eleventh hour if the need arises. The second is that, as it was billed and seen by MPs as an opportunity to demonstrate the strength of the parliamentary majority against a no deal exit it gives us a sense of the size of that majority – and its limitations.
He's The President
No I don't think networks should do this weekly, but it's a reasonable occasional request for The President even if nothing from Trump is actually reasonable because Trump. News networks that wish to responsibly give their viewers "news" and not just point the camera and turn on the mic and then have people from Both Sides yelling at each other could find many ways to bracket a short speech with responsible and educational complementary programming. I know they mostly won't do that because it's TV news, but still the idea that this is a reasonable request from The President, whoever he is, seems sound to me. Also, too, I know when President Ocasio-Ortez is refused such a consideration the excuse will be "but you libs didn't want Trump to speak" because those are the rules.
tl;dr point the camera at Trump for 8 minutes, but don't do just that.
tl;dr point the camera at Trump for 8 minutes, but don't do just that.
I Thought He'd Kick The People Who Deserved It
As I've said before, too many people love putting assholes in charge because they think the right people will get kicked. Even if you think people (your lazy coworkers, black people on the secret welfare system, whoever) deserve to be kicked, this is dumb because assholes generally don't have any good sense of who really deserves to get kicked, and probably just kick everybody but the most extreme sycophants.
The shutdown on top of the hurricane has caused Ms. Minton to rethink a lot of things.
“I voted for him, and he’s the one who’s doing this,” she said of Mr. Trump. “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”
Morning Thread
I predict a long afternoon nap for the resident in the WH. Else he may appear slightly unaware at 9:00 p.m.
Monday, January 07, 2019
Teevee
If the president wants to give a speech on the teevee the networks should show it, though they should consider their broader obligations to the public too.
BIAS
Congress could pass a $10 trillion increase in the military budget in the middle of night and it would barely show up on page A18, but if someone proposes spending 50 bucks for child care or similar it will be a big debate.
Ain't she a beautiful sight?
From bean to cup...
The Department of Transport had hoped for 150 trucks to take part in Monday’s test , but only 79 turned up, including several from the Eddie Stobart haulage company.
Sunday, January 06, 2019
I Am A Big Dum Dum
I'm not sure if is psychologically healthy, but running this dumb blog for years has taught me that I am an idiot. Sure I am RIGHT about some things, but mostly I get exposed to people smarter than me all the time and it is humbling.
I don't know how the idiots in the White House imagine they can run the country.
I don't know how the idiots in the White House imagine they can run the country.
Bow Wow Wow
Yippee yo yippee yay.
Snoop's message to furloughed employees during the government shutdown is really quite something 👀 pic.twitter.com/nxxkqF6SDt
— J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) January 6, 2019
Young
In a lot of ways our concept of "young" keeps get ratcheted up. Maybe it's because people get married/have children later. I'm not sure. I don't remember people who were 30ish being thought of as "young" when I was 30ish.
Golf Carts
All innovative ideas for urban individual transit vehicles face the problem that they have to share the road with...other things. And while something like golf carts would probably make a lot of sense, our road network is not really designed for them. E-Scooters are a bit like Segways. Neat, but do they actually fit? If I ran the world I'd ban cars, but I don't.
Saturday, January 05, 2019
Friday, January 04, 2019
Metaphors
Once upon a time a man named David Brooks wrote about a place where there were no restaurants where entrees were over $20. This was wrong, but the issue is not that it was literally wrong, it's that it was the wrong metaphor. "Hur hur david brooks I found a restaurant with a more expensive main course" wasn't the point, it was that David Brooks had no understanding of the ruralish places he was talking about. Rural places in America all have their own social hierarchies. Maybe a $20 (back then, now $30) main course isn't what most people do in those places regularly, but that isn't what most people do regularly anywhere. Even in kabumfuck there's that country club where the local richie riches eat their steak dinners. Little Mar-a-Lagos everywhere.
Everybody Who Drinks And Drives Is A Drunk Driver Sometimes
I'm sorta sympathetic to that first offense as we've built this weird society in which zoning laws require bars to have 5 times as much space for parking as people (this is just symbolic, we have built this weird society such that everybody has to drive everywhere), but there is no realistic safe amount of alcohol. By realistic I mean "amount people are going to drink" which basically means anything slightly more than one drink. So, yes, go to your party and nurse your one beer, but otherwise...
Utah just enacted the most aggressive standard for drunk driving in the country, lowering the legal blood-alcohol limit to .05 percent.
Build More Housing
I haven't been on this beat in awhile, but while building more housing in high demand places won't cure poverty, it will at least make it possible for more non poor people to live there.
Generally unless we engage on a massive social housing project - which I am all for! - new construction is not the route to providing housing for poor people and it is dumb that people think it is. All new construction is "luxury housing" according to the advertisements and granite countertops don't cost much. In expensive places it's the price of land that makes things expensive, and the only thing you can do from a policy perspective absent massive subsidies is allow people to build more and build more units on less land. This mostly means lower parking requirements and taller buildings, though taller buildings means like 6 stories not 60. Even in Philadelphia it's mostly illegal to build Philadelphia (the zoning here has improved, but not the zoning process... it's complicated). Parking makes people crazy, but those cars take up a lot of space.
Also even here in Philadelphia we get a lot of "gentrification" conversation which is mostly stupid. Yes involuntary displacement of families is bad but very little of that is actually happening and you can still buy a nice house near transit for a hundred grand. Some people can't afford that, but that's because they are poor not because housing is expensive. A hundred grand is about as low as you can get for a family sized new construction unit even if land is free.
Seattle is building more apartments than just about anywhere, and now 1 in 10 units across the city are sitting empty. Landlords have responded by lowering rents slightly and offering more perks to get tenants in the door.
Generally unless we engage on a massive social housing project - which I am all for! - new construction is not the route to providing housing for poor people and it is dumb that people think it is. All new construction is "luxury housing" according to the advertisements and granite countertops don't cost much. In expensive places it's the price of land that makes things expensive, and the only thing you can do from a policy perspective absent massive subsidies is allow people to build more and build more units on less land. This mostly means lower parking requirements and taller buildings, though taller buildings means like 6 stories not 60. Even in Philadelphia it's mostly illegal to build Philadelphia (the zoning here has improved, but not the zoning process... it's complicated). Parking makes people crazy, but those cars take up a lot of space.
Also even here in Philadelphia we get a lot of "gentrification" conversation which is mostly stupid. Yes involuntary displacement of families is bad but very little of that is actually happening and you can still buy a nice house near transit for a hundred grand. Some people can't afford that, but that's because they are poor not because housing is expensive. A hundred grand is about as low as you can get for a family sized new construction unit even if land is free.
Thursday, January 03, 2019
Going Viral
It's 2019. If there's a cool thing on the internet maybe just say "here's a cool thing on the internet" not "WOW IT WENT VIRAL" because that was always dumb.
Democracy, Whisky, Sexy
In 2004 I was in a cab with a too young to drink Ezra Klein and someone else of similar age and one of them (I forget which) looked over at the neighboring car and said something like, "check out that weird hair couple."
It was Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick.
Also Kevin Bacon is 60 years old.
It was Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick.
Also Kevin Bacon is 60 years old.
Wait What
I normally pick on Tesla for Elon's bullshit "autopilot" but this is the dashboard of the Model 3? What the fuck.
The House Minority Is Suddenly Very Important
Because these are the rules, the Sunday Shows are going to be: Trump administration people (fair), Republicans in the Senate, Republicans in the House, Democrats in the House, Republicans in the House responding to the Democrats in the House, reporter, reporter, reporter, Hugh Hewitt.
Nobody Even Asks What The Goal Is Anymore
Final q was where @ewarren had a chance to address troop withdrawal and expressed befuddlement at backlash to the Trump decision. "Those against it in the defense establishment need to explain why we're still fighting these wars -- but you do need to have a plan to withdraw."
— Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) January 3, 2019
I certainly don't think Trump does anything for the right reasons and imagine anything he accidentally does right will turn to shit, but the "oh no we can't possibly leave any of our sweet wars behind" reaction says a lot about everyone it is coming from. The "foreign policy community" has had 16 years to come up with some vaguely plausible story about what the fuck we're doing in Afghanistan (and almost 14 for Iraq) and they haven't even bothered to try because no one even asks them to anymore.
I used to joke about Iraq that we will stay there until we kill the last person who wants us to leave, then we'll leave. Joke was on me. We'll never leave! Why? The only reason I'm left with at this point is because those mortgages in NoVa aren't going to pay themselves.
Morning Thread
Today the Democrats take back the House.
I plan to watch the solemn ceremony starting at noon on CSPAN.
Actually, if past behavior is any indicator, I fully expect the losing party to throw a tantrum. Should be entertaining.
I plan to watch the solemn ceremony starting at noon on CSPAN.
Actually, if past behavior is any indicator, I fully expect the losing party to throw a tantrum. Should be entertaining.
Wednesday, January 02, 2019
Donald Drumpf Got His Head Stuck In A Toilet Again
I'm sure I've written this before. I repeat myself on this sucky blog frequently. I have a hard time finding the utility of comedy in the Trump era. I am not faulting anyone else for finding Drumpf jokes amusing! I occasionally make them myself. Back during the Bush era I found humor to be an important tool because post-9/11, especially, it was important to legitimately undercut the myth of George Bush, the Steely-Eyed Rocket Man,* the Man Who Kept Us Safe, Dubya. Those were strange times, impossible to convey to people who didn't live through it or didn't pay attention to it, and making jokey jokes about the dumbass in chief was a way to point out that actually he was a very bad president.
There isn't much to joke about with Trump. It's all just there. I worked on my joke for a year and he just tweeted it out! Jokes don't illuminate anything.
All for laughing if that's what you enjoy! I just personally don't think it's funny. Also, get off my lawn.
*With Rocket Man being one of Trump's phrases I had to go and look up where the hell George "steely-eyed rocket man" Bush came from. I had forgotten. The magic dolphin lady, Peggy Noonan. Of course.
There isn't much to joke about with Trump. It's all just there. I worked on my joke for a year and he just tweeted it out! Jokes don't illuminate anything.
All for laughing if that's what you enjoy! I just personally don't think it's funny. Also, get off my lawn.
*With Rocket Man being one of Trump's phrases I had to go and look up where the hell George "steely-eyed rocket man" Bush came from. I had forgotten. The magic dolphin lady, Peggy Noonan. Of course.
Never Tweet
Especially when you are a bad person with bad opinions.
For those unfamiliar.
Here’s my only nativist beef: Hispanic people who look and sound Mongolian and who I therefore don’t realize I could just communicate with in Spanish instead of English which they don’t speak particularly intelligibly. I’m cool with Spanish, just not being super-confused.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) January 2, 2019
For those unfamiliar.
How'd That Happen
We'll see if Disney manages to jam through another Mickey Mouse copyright extension act before Steamboat Willie drops out. If not it will be weird and jarring to watch the 20th century enter the public domain, finally.
Robert Frost’s haunting little poem, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, entered the public domain in the US on 1 January alongside thousands of works, by authors from Agatha Christie to Virginia Woolf, in an unprecedented expiration of copyrights. Unprecedented because it has been 21 years since the last major expiration in the US: the passing of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act added a further 20 years to existing copyrights, meaning that the swathe of 1922 works which passed into the public domain in 1998, after a 75-year copyright term, are only now being followed by works first published in the US in 1923.
I Didn't Do It
Really. Wasn't me. I swear.
And why?
I've long said the issue isn't safety in that if they work they'll be safe, but... they don't work yet so they aren't really safe, and given they drive noticeably differently than your typical hu-man, even if they are actually safe they probably appear to be a bit scary sometimes. Not behaving as expected can be frightening, even if ultimately the cars are excellent at not hitting people.
The slashing was one of nearly two dozen attacks on driverless vehicles over the past two years in Chandler, a city near Phoenix where Waymo started testing its vans in 2017. In ways large and small, the city has had an early look at public misgivings over the rise of artificial intelligence, with city officials hearing complaints about everything from safety to possible job losses.
Some people have pelted Waymo vans with rocks, according to police reports. Others have repeatedly tried to run the vehicles off the road. One woman screamed at one of the vans, telling it to get out of her suburban neighborhood. A man pulled up alongside a Waymo vehicle and threatened the employee riding inside with a piece of PVC pipe.
And why?
His wife, Elizabeth, 35, admitted in an interview that her husband “finds it entertaining to brake hard” in front of the self-driving vans, and that she herself “may have forced them to pull over” so she could yell at them to get out of their neighborhood. The trouble started, the couple said, when their 10-year-old son was nearly hit by one of the vehicles while he was playing in a nearby cul-de-sac.
“They said they need real-world examples, but I don’t want to be their real-world mistake,” said Mr. O’Polka, who runs his own company providing information technology to small businesses.
I've long said the issue isn't safety in that if they work they'll be safe, but... they don't work yet so they aren't really safe, and given they drive noticeably differently than your typical hu-man, even if they are actually safe they probably appear to be a bit scary sometimes. Not behaving as expected can be frightening, even if ultimately the cars are excellent at not hitting people.
Words Speak Louder Than Actions
The Morning Joseph types have a new thrill running up their legs because Mittens said some slightly not nice things about Trump in their local gossip sheet.
As with Sasse and Flake and occasionally Corker and all the Never Trumpers, the distance between Trump and him on policy is wafer thin, in part because aside from "give rich people all the money and keep the defense industry happy," he and they don't know or care much about policy. Romney's just positioning himself to be the 2020 savior, as the scrolls foretold.
The thing is, you can, as a senator, constructively oppose the worst of Trump without turning into a Democrat. Romney isn't a Democrat and he isn't even a centrist, even if the senator from Utah played one for awhile when he was governor of his home state of Massachusetts. But he doesn't have to start agreeing with Sherrod Brown on everything to oppose Trump. One senator can be a giant pain in the ass in the world's greatest deliberative body if they want to. This is true, also, too, of Democrats in the Senate, but Romney could do so and get endless praise heaped on him by Morning Joseph instead of being labeled an obstructionist.
But he'll just join the Sunday show furrowed brow club, concerned about Trump but strangely powerless to do anything about him.
As with Sasse and Flake and occasionally Corker and all the Never Trumpers, the distance between Trump and him on policy is wafer thin, in part because aside from "give rich people all the money and keep the defense industry happy," he and they don't know or care much about policy. Romney's just positioning himself to be the 2020 savior, as the scrolls foretold.
The thing is, you can, as a senator, constructively oppose the worst of Trump without turning into a Democrat. Romney isn't a Democrat and he isn't even a centrist, even if the senator from Utah played one for awhile when he was governor of his home state of Massachusetts. But he doesn't have to start agreeing with Sherrod Brown on everything to oppose Trump. One senator can be a giant pain in the ass in the world's greatest deliberative body if they want to. This is true, also, too, of Democrats in the Senate, but Romney could do so and get endless praise heaped on him by Morning Joseph instead of being labeled an obstructionist.
But he'll just join the Sunday show furrowed brow club, concerned about Trump but strangely powerless to do anything about him.
Democrats Don't Do This
Back in 2002, there was a nontrivial "McCain should run as a... Democrat!" movement. It was so dumb that even David Broder, who you would have thought this kind of thing was perfect for, basically said, "shut up you idiots, John McCain is a Republican." It was so dumb that it could not have been led by anyone other than Jon Chait, who wrote:
I'm second to no one in my belief that totebagging Democrats are overly swayed by all the bipartisan bullshit, but, no, there was no way John McCain would have been "a presumptive front-runner" in the Dem primary. I don't know why people like to pretend that every presidential primary contest isn't a nasty battle* between competing factions who, given that they are all crazy people who think they should run the world, aren't going to (and never do) play nice unless they think playing nice will get a couple more Iowa voters, and even hapless Democrats could have nuked John McCain with one television ad because John McCain had a very long history of being a Republican. A very conservative Republican who often showboated for gullible marks like Jon Chait and other wannabe tire swingers, and very occasionally did an actual mavericky thing like almost all politicians, but still a very conservative Republican.
Generally there's always a push from centrist types for Democrats to put a Republican on the ticket, and a lot of concern trolling from Republicans telling us about the one Democrat that maybe they could vote for (but won't). No one ever tells Republicans to run a "unity ticket" and Professional Democrats don't pitch editors for pieces about Who Republicans Have To Nominate If They Want To Win because that's stupid. So is the reverse, which happens all the time.
*the least nasty primary in my lifetime was in 2016, even if people being assholes on the internet made it seem otherwise.
John McCain ought to become a Democrat - and a presumptive front-runner for their party's presidential nomination in 2004.
I'm second to no one in my belief that totebagging Democrats are overly swayed by all the bipartisan bullshit, but, no, there was no way John McCain would have been "a presumptive front-runner" in the Dem primary. I don't know why people like to pretend that every presidential primary contest isn't a nasty battle* between competing factions who, given that they are all crazy people who think they should run the world, aren't going to (and never do) play nice unless they think playing nice will get a couple more Iowa voters, and even hapless Democrats could have nuked John McCain with one television ad because John McCain had a very long history of being a Republican. A very conservative Republican who often showboated for gullible marks like Jon Chait and other wannabe tire swingers, and very occasionally did an actual mavericky thing like almost all politicians, but still a very conservative Republican.
Generally there's always a push from centrist types for Democrats to put a Republican on the ticket, and a lot of concern trolling from Republicans telling us about the one Democrat that maybe they could vote for (but won't). No one ever tells Republicans to run a "unity ticket" and Professional Democrats don't pitch editors for pieces about Who Republicans Have To Nominate If They Want To Win because that's stupid. So is the reverse, which happens all the time.
*the least nasty primary in my lifetime was in 2016, even if people being assholes on the internet made it seem otherwise.
Tuesday, January 01, 2019
Oops They're Doing it Again
Primary campaign coverage is going to be as sexist, racist, ageist (both ways!), and as full of hippie-punching concern trolling from people who make money off the casino unless the little ball lands on green instead of red or black as it always is.
I feel like I'm transitioning from the outrage of youth to the knowing, "that's just how it is, kids," of old age.
I feel like I'm transitioning from the outrage of youth to the knowing, "that's just how it is, kids," of old age.
The P Tape
Lobster Club (the woke mummers) did a bit where Trump carried a giant pee tape and got arrested by the FBI pic.twitter.com/usQRQMFoQv
— Dan McQuade (@dhm) January 1, 2019
Words That Mean The Opposite Of How They Are Commonly Used
Today's edition: intersectionality. Discuss.
Renderings
Always be a bit skeptical of night drawings, with very specific lighting, and almost no visible automobiles. Especially when it's still ugly.
Not everything has to be beautiful, of course, but maybe just embrace it.
Not everything has to be beautiful, of course, but maybe just embrace it.
Bye Laura
Some good news for the end of the year.
The mirror image of conservative talk radio is not NPR, and while it's hard to describe precisely what the "liberal Laura Ingraham" would be like, whoever that person would be they would never be embraced with loving treatment elsewhere in the more respectable media.
The mirror image of conservative talk radio is not NPR, and while it's hard to describe precisely what the "liberal Laura Ingraham" would be like, whoever that person would be they would never be embraced with loving treatment elsewhere in the more respectable media.
Morning Thread
Now to get used to writing 2019 instead of 2018 on my checks.
Hecate has some good thoughts on how to handle the negative spin already being directed at Warren. It's only day one, ugh!
Hecate has some good thoughts on how to handle the negative spin already being directed at Warren. It's only day one, ugh!
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