Saturday, August 24, 2019
No Method In The Madness
One might be tempted to see bucking trade orthodoxies and reconsidering our various relationships with China as good things. They probably are good things!
But Trump has no idea what he's doing and even if he accidentally settled on smart policies he'd forget about them and do something differently the next day.
But Trump has no idea what he's doing and even if he accidentally settled on smart policies he'd forget about them and do something differently the next day.
Friday, August 23, 2019
Our Ivy League Betters
One really doesn't know where to start with my local hero, Amy Wax, as one could start with any sentence, but how about:
Even if you ignore (because they all ignore) various forms and manifestations of colonialism and empire... There were two recent wars which mostly involved the peaceful and orderly people of Europe slaughtering each other. The UK (anglosphere!) alone lost 800,000 people in the first one and 450,000 in the second one. Some other countries lost a few more.
And the question is: Why are successful, peaceful, orderly, prosperous, technologically advanced, democratically sound countries so rare and so few, and why do they clump up in one tiny corner of the globe, namely Europe, the Anglosphere?There's too much wrong with even this one little sentence such that even the least important ones... (is Europe the Anglosphere, or is the Anglospehre a tiny corner of the globe spanning [checks globe] almost the full range of time zones? what is she talking about)
Even if you ignore (because they all ignore) various forms and manifestations of colonialism and empire... There were two recent wars which mostly involved the peaceful and orderly people of Europe slaughtering each other. The UK (anglosphere!) alone lost 800,000 people in the first one and 450,000 in the second one. Some other countries lost a few more.
Wow Sounds Bad
Pelosi, without mentioning the I-word, denounces Trump for making hotel profits while president: "That's wrong. That's in violation of the Constitution of the United States. We will not let that happen."
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) August 23, 2019
Looking forward to the stopping!!!
So They're Nazis
This is... the Nazis.
Must do everything possible to make sure they stay in power! What could go wrong.
Right-wing agitator Mike Cernovich said he knows of young staffers in the White House who are fans of Bronze Age Pervert’s Twitter account — where the author posts photos of buff, shirtless men and promotes far-right positions on the culture war — though he does not know if they have read the book.What's funny (not haha funny) is most of these guys would be offended if you called them Nazis because Hitler was a liberal.
The 200-page book mixes Nietzschean philosophy with critiques of contemporary Western society, denigrating homosexuality, Judiasm, Islam, feminism and much else along the way. “Inside every noble Greek was an unquenchable lust for power,” is one fairly typical statement. “Modern world not bad just because modern,” is another, displaying the author’s habit of lapsing into broken English by dropping articles. The book claims that the leaders of the European Union have “tiny moleman eyes.” Many of its passages are profane and unprintable.
Must do everything possible to make sure they stay in power! What could go wrong.
Though We Die La Resistance...Well...
Does its best to stay dead.
I mean read the whole thing but, basically, hahah oversight, suckers. Just keep doing crimes!
I mean read the whole thing but, basically, hahah oversight, suckers. Just keep doing crimes!
Thursday, August 22, 2019
When There's Nothing Left To Burn
Friday happy hour throwback.
...apparently it is Thursday. Nobody tells me anything.
...apparently it is Thursday. Nobody tells me anything.
Duh
I don't want to go to the airport on peak travel day either.
These kinds of hassles aren't easily quantifiable because they're mostly uncertainty. If you know it's gonna take 10 hours at the border you can plan (and charge) for that but chaos is chaos. Stay away!
Britain has been warned by the German government that its food producers might stop delivering to the UK rather than risk their goods getting caught up in bottlenecks at ports in a no-deal Brexit, BuzzFeed News can reveal.If it costs a lot more money in time and hassle they might not bother. It isn't complicated.
It is understood the warning was issued in recent meetings between officials from the country's agriculture ministry and the British Foreign Office.
According to a diplomatic source, German officials expressed their frustration at how the Brexit negotiations had gone and said that food businesses in Germany "expected" huge delays at the borders. They said that despite the industry's efforts to prepare, the delays, coupled with any rise in tariffs, could persuade food producers to focus on other markets.
These kinds of hassles aren't easily quantifiable because they're mostly uncertainty. If you know it's gonna take 10 hours at the border you can plan (and charge) for that but chaos is chaos. Stay away!
But 100% Of Trump Supporters Who Say They Still Support Trump Still Support Trump
The bizarre coverage of the electorate in the age of Trump - and all reporters are quite aware of this criticism and they do it anyway - is that the only voters who matter are the people who support Trump. Weirdly if you focus on them, it seems like Trump has 100% support! It's like going into a room full of people (some random diner filled with old white people) who mostly likely Trump, and then only interviewing the ones who say they like Trump! Haha I kid. It isn't like that. That's what they do!
Trump has never been popular. At best he's been about as popular as B. Barry Bamz overall, though squinting at polls tells me he's been a bit less popular generally, but Obummer was always treated as a fairly unpopular president - with his critics dominating the narrative - and Trump has been treated as a popular one.
Again, reporters know this. While they are not as smart as they think they are - congrats on your expensive SAT test prep course, we are all very impressed with your accomplishments at age 16 - they are not too stupid to be aware that this is what they have been doing.
Trump at 36% won't be enough to change this. When Bush hit low poll numbers they started writing "comeback kid" stories before there was any evidence of a comeback.
"Trump's low approval provides a unique challenge for Democrats" will be a NYT headline soon. And the sad thing is, Democrats will believe it.
Trump has never been popular. At best he's been about as popular as B. Barry Bamz overall, though squinting at polls tells me he's been a bit less popular generally, but Obummer was always treated as a fairly unpopular president - with his critics dominating the narrative - and Trump has been treated as a popular one.
Again, reporters know this. While they are not as smart as they think they are - congrats on your expensive SAT test prep course, we are all very impressed with your accomplishments at age 16 - they are not too stupid to be aware that this is what they have been doing.
Trump at 36% won't be enough to change this. When Bush hit low poll numbers they started writing "comeback kid" stories before there was any evidence of a comeback.
Just 36% of Americans approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president; 62% disapprove.
The numbers may be ugly for a first-term president facing reelection in 14 months, but they are remarkably consistent. Trump’s approval rating has never dipped below 32% or risen above 42% in AP-NORC polls since he took office. By comparison, President Barack Obama’s approval never dropped below 40% in polling by Gallup.
"Trump's low approval provides a unique challenge for Democrats" will be a NYT headline soon. And the sad thing is, Democrats will believe it.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Someone's Gotta Lead
A fair question - one I have raised here on this dumb blog myself I think - is why all those newspaper editorial boards which called on Clinton to resign haven't called on Trump to resign. Sure they aren't all the same people but there is institutional continuity at these places.
Somebody always has to jump first on these things, however, and asking editorial boards to do so (which they should!) is asking for the mythical referees to make the call so the Democrats don't have to. If Democrats started calling on Trump to resign, or leadership allowed impeachment proceedings to be a real thing, they might start. Not sure why it should work the other way. Politics is political, and politicians gotta do their jobs.
Somebody always has to jump first on these things, however, and asking editorial boards to do so (which they should!) is asking for the mythical referees to make the call so the Democrats don't have to. If Democrats started calling on Trump to resign, or leadership allowed impeachment proceedings to be a real thing, they might start. Not sure why it should work the other way. Politics is political, and politicians gotta do their jobs.
And Why Would It Be Easier This Time
Joe Biden says if elected president tomorrow, the first thing he’d do is send an immigration bill to Congress. "I think we’d get it passed this time,” he says. “We came close last time. People are realizing how lopsided we are in dealing with this."
— Matt Viser (@mviser) August 21, 2019
The only way Biden's repeated assertion that the the very fine people in the GOP will work with him when they wouldn't work with his Best Friend, Barack Obama, makes sense is if he believes they wouldn't work with Obama because reasons (I think you know what those reasons are). I don't that's true, but thinking it's true says a lot about Onion Joe, and none of it good.
Don't Make Me Root For Walmart
But reasonably personal home solar (which this is not but Tesla is otherwise involved in) is a "good" thing, installing it on existing homes is not quite as straightforward as some (including Tesla) like to make it sound, and having a high profile company (allegedly) screw it up this badly is, well, bad.
In its complaint, filed in New York late Tuesday, Walmart contends Tesla breached its contract to design, install, maintain and operate solar-power systems on the roofs of its stores. Aside from the fires — complete with photographic evidence — Walmart accuses Tesla of a pattern of negligence, obfuscation and, as in the instance with the plumbing tool being used to tighten electrical connectors, sheer incompetence. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. However, in letters from its lawyer, included as exhibits, Tesla blamed Walmart for “breaches of contract, deliberate delay, and bad faith,” effectively blocking the inspection process for the solar installations and unnecessarily forcing the entire fleet shut down for months because of a handful of “thermal events.”
An unusual feature of Walmart’s complaint is that the “substantive allegations” section begins not with the fires or even the installation of the offending panels but an important chapter of Tesla’s own corporate history, namely the 2016 acquisition of SolarCity Corp. Walmart pulls no punches, characterizing the deal as a bailout of a struggling related party. This section reads like a dramatic prologue aimed at establishing the narrative that Tesla’s energy business was built on shoddy foundations, setting off a chain of unfortunate events that ultimately sparked those fires and put that plumbing tool in that inspector’s hand.
What If We Made A Mistake
One can have different views about how the press should treat Trump, and "the press" isn't and shouldn't be monolithic in any case, but one knows that "the press," as defined by certain elite supposedly nonpartisan "objective" outlets, currently treats Trump differently than they even treat the people who are merely running for the Democratic nomination.
No they never seem to ask that question.
No they never seem to ask that question.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
The Indignities Of Air Travel
I'm sure I've brought this up before (but no I am not complaining about a recent personal experience), but it is a mystery that rich people haven't solved this one. Yes the real rich fly private planes now, and of course first and business don't crush you like cattle class does and otherwise provides better service, but better legroom doesn't solve the other inconveniences of air travel, from the horrors of some (not all) airports, and the difficulties of getting to and from them, to cancelled flights, etc.
Sure I'd rather be at the front of the plane (don't think I've had an upgrade since like 2002), but the overall experience is still bad.
Sure I'd rather be at the front of the plane (don't think I've had an upgrade since like 2002), but the overall experience is still bad.
The War On Cars
There's aren't that many cities in the US where significant banning of cars would be an easy endeavor, but there are plenty of places where reclaiming *some* streets from them would be trivial and cause little harm except "but my free on street parking."
If you visit old parts of European cities that didn't get bombed to bits, there are streets that are largely not compatible with automobile traffic. Cars aren't even always banned in these places, but nobody wants to drive down them unless they absolutely have to (or made a wrong turn). They're small, windy, dominated by pedestrians, have no on street parking, and just aren't useful places to drive. Sometimes cars are banned, or bollard systems exist to only allow local and otherwise authorized vehicles, but taking some streets away from cars doesn't even require banning them, just making them a bit more hostile to them.
US cities doesn't have many places like this, so it would require a conscious decision to make them car unfriendly. And who knows maybe I am dumb and this is a bad idea and even I don't think it's a good idea everywhere, but it's also a pretty easily reversible decision some places. Give it a try!
If you visit old parts of European cities that didn't get bombed to bits, there are streets that are largely not compatible with automobile traffic. Cars aren't even always banned in these places, but nobody wants to drive down them unless they absolutely have to (or made a wrong turn). They're small, windy, dominated by pedestrians, have no on street parking, and just aren't useful places to drive. Sometimes cars are banned, or bollard systems exist to only allow local and otherwise authorized vehicles, but taking some streets away from cars doesn't even require banning them, just making them a bit more hostile to them.
US cities doesn't have many places like this, so it would require a conscious decision to make them car unfriendly. And who knows maybe I am dumb and this is a bad idea and even I don't think it's a good idea everywhere, but it's also a pretty easily reversible decision some places. Give it a try!
It's Pat
There are really no views that right wingers can have that make them toxic to your liberal media, including PBS.
How To Beat Trump
I actually try (and often fail) not to play campaign manager and tell people how to win. We all have opinions and this blog needs content but certainly my criticisms aren't going to influence anyone. I do often fail, of course, and I'm not trying to pretend otherwise. Still as is true for every other wannabe pundit it is best to focus on what appeals to *MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE* and unlike most wannabe and actual pundits not pretend that what appeals to me happens to be the secret sauce to winning.
Monday, August 19, 2019
Just In Time
It's all above my - and most people's - pay grade, but it has hard to imagine how the Brexit-related logistics problems get solved. It doesn't matter too much if fresh plums don't show up in the supermarket, but there aren't big stockpiles of nonperishable items, or places to store them, either. London's not the only place in the UK, of course, but thinking about the problem of feeding 8 million people per day and how you can possibly get around a major disruption of that....
They Never Should Have Talked To Him
Halperin was a disgrace before he was actually a disgraced, and it's a problem that so many professional Democrats just see him as one of the gang.
A Little Bit Of Bread And No Cheese
Everything is wonderful.
The UK will face a three-month meltdown at its ports, a hard Irish border and shortages of food and medicine if it leaves the EU without a deal, according to government documents on Operation Yellowhammer.
The documents predict severe extended delays to medicine supplies and shortages of some fresh foods combined with price rises as a likely scenario if the UK leaves without a withdrawal agreement, which is due to happen on 31 October.
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Gonna Give Mitch All Your Lunch Money
Then brag about it.
Biden at a Cape Cod fundraiser tonight: “There’s an awful lot of really good Republicans out there. I get in trouble for saying that with Democrats, but...every time we ever got in trouble with our administration, remember who got sent up to Capitol Hill to fix it? Me.”
— Matt Viser (@mviser) August 18, 2019
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