Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Pithy
Saw this quote from I.F. Stone the other day, and he out-pithied me in saying something I've been trying to say:
Rich people march on Washington every day.
Speaking Of Dumbasses Who Were Musk's Marks
The Chicago project was incredibly stupid even if you believed in Musk.
Elon Musk has the green light to build a high-speed underground transportation route to Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said Thursday his Boring Company had won the bid to build a system using electric vehicles to carry passengers through tunnels and predicted it would be ready within three years. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called it the fast lane to the city's future.Emanuel's another one whose legend was built up by his fans in the press - largely because he cursed out The Left a lot - and in addition to being an asshole he's one dumb motherfucker. Another shithead firebrand loved by journalists.
Tech Journalism
Swisher has a reptuation (cultivated by her, of course) of being the "tough" tech journalist, which seems mostly to involve her showing some "tough love" to her good friends the FOUNDERS sometimes.
I understand why most people believed in the genius of Musk. It's because of people like Swisher! He was one of my weird obsessions so I know his deal, but it was her job to know he's a bullshitter!
More:
Swisher is, of course, attempting to rewrite history to reposition herself as the grand critic of tech, despite it being alarmingly obvious that she, like so many others, was completely in Elon’s corner until it was inconvenient to be there. One might ask where Swisher was when Musk disparaged a cave diver as a pedophile, sent thousands of his Twitter followers after reporter Erin Biba, when “pervasive racism” became an issue at Tesla, or when he sent an email around that told his workers to be “thick-skinned” and that underrepresented groups “don’t get a free pass on being a jerk.” Musk has successfully manipulated the media into conflating “firebrand” with “shithead,” and Swisher has up until recently given him the benefit of the doubt.
Tucker's Man
So many people go above and beyond to be assholes.
A gay man supercharges Carlson’s promotion of Florida’s odious “don’t say gay” law, which stigmatizes queer kids, teachers and parents — a brutal campaign in which Carlson at one point said teachers who don’t comply “should get beaten up.” And a gay man empowers Carlson’s crusade against trans teens and and their parents, a crusade in which Carlson stated that hospitals should expect violent threats for providing gender-affirming care.
That gay man, Justin Wells, helped promulgate the kind of hate that leads to violence. A mass shooting that happened in the same kind of nightclub at which Wells, in years past, danced the night away in Miami Beach and elsewhere, liberating himself from the world outside and surely never imagining he’d be shot dead.
Marriage
Certainly worry that the whole thing is much more fragile than it should be, but I suppose this buttresses it somewhat.
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed landmark legislation on Tuesday to mandate federal recognition for same-sex marriages, as a lame-duck Congress mustered a notable moment of bipartisanship before Democrats were to lose their unified control of Capitol Hill.Obergefell will almost certainly fall if the Supremos have the opportunity. Your moderate (lol) Chief Justice was enraged by it.
Tuesday, November 29, 2022
The Nasty Party
My uncharacteristically optimistic opinion is that the good guys win on the bigotry (against), even if they don't win by quite as much as one would like. It's hard to believe when even nonsense like "kids are shitting in litter boxes in schools" gets thrust into The Discourse, but most people can see how ridiculous that stuff is.
Endless Demands For Sister Souljah Moments
Osita:
Every cycle has an "other," and every cycle has the same group of centrists demanding Democrats somehow join in with the bashing, without specifying how, because that's whatthey "the voters" want.
For three straight elections, the institutions of the mainstream press have covered Democratic campaigns and policymaking with the expectation and implication that the right’s messaging on cultural issues would largely succeed. And for three straight elections, the anticipated general backlash against cultural progressivism has utterly failed to materialize. Standing against all available evidence—the proof, in surveys and election results, that the electorate had moved measurably left on issues like racial justice, LGBT rights, and immigration over the last decade, the clear tendency of Republican politicians, unlike their Democratic counterparts, to embrace their party’s least popular ideas, like overturning Roe—the center and the right have been locked in a cycle of mutual delusion.Your favorite centrists are always demanding that Democrats address the supposed "legitimate concerns" of voters. In this latest cycle it was "suburban moms concerned about trans athletes" or similar nonsense. And as is always the case, they go silent when you press them for details: what should they say, what policy should they support? Are you really asking them to demonize 15-year-old kids who want to play field hockey? Advocate for a national ban? Just some "feel your pain" speeches? WHAT?????
The mainstream press’s dogged insistence that most voters are alienated by the push for transgender rights in particular was belied by the right’s failure—not the first—to take electoral advantage of the issue space this cycle. Republican candidates and conservative groups spent an estimated $50 million on anti-LGBT ads, much of it dedicated to messaging on trans children specifically. They had little to show for it in campaigns across most of the country; in Michigan, where Democrats swept statewide races and secured their first trifecta in decades, state GOP chief of staff Paul Cordes lamented that gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon had seemingly pushed more ads on trans athletes “than inflation, gas prices and bread and butter issues that could have swayed independent voters.”
Every cycle has an "other," and every cycle has the same group of centrists demanding Democrats somehow join in with the bashing, without specifying how, because that's what
Ye Pepe Fuentes
The mainstream press can and does choose who to highlight, and who to ignore, who to give the benefit of the doubt to, who to paint as hero or villain. None of that is objective journalistic science, just standard choices made every day by people individually and in packs.
The NYT choices often aren't so different from the Fox news choices. The NYT buried it as much as Fox did.
A few years ago, Dapper Nazis were the trendy Style section hit, and punching Nazis was very rude indeed. And here we are today.
The NYT choices often aren't so different from the Fox news choices. The NYT buried it as much as Fox did.
A few years ago, Dapper Nazis were the trendy Style section hit, and punching Nazis was very rude indeed. And here we are today.
One Grifter Down
Scammer takes down a scammer.
There are few political operatives more in the zeitgeist than Sean McElwee, the media-savvy pollster whose firm, Data for Progress, has been at the center of a recent debate over how Democrats should run campaigns. Over the last few years, McElwee, a socialist turned pseudo-centrist, became a leading avatar of “popularism”—the belief that Democrats should focus on poll-tested issues that win elections, and avoid activist-approved messaging that turns off the median voter. He also became a Democratic celebrity in his own right: he famously hosted a regular happy hour in New York that was incessantly profiled throughout the Trump years as an exemplar of the rowdy “new left.” Along the way, McElwee created a successful political-media brand with a big online following and relationships with Democratic power brokers that elevated Data for Progress into the big leagues alongside mainstay polling firms like GSG at a remarkable speed.The "rowdy 'new left'" were young people collecting lots of money to tell old people what they wanted to hear, with happy hours. I suppose that's rowdy.
But McElwee, I am told by multiple sources familiar with the situation, is now in advanced talks to resign from Data for Progress, the think tank he co-founded in 2018, in the latest fallout from the implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried, whom Sean advised. Ten days after Election Day, on Nov. 18, McElwee’s senior leadership confronted him on a conference call, and then in an email, that effectively served as a no-confidence vote. His reports conveyed their belief that his personal ties to S.B.F., along with his proclivity for betting on elections in which Data for Progress also polled, were putting the firm’s reputation at risk, according to two people familiar with the matter. McElwee and the group’s advisory board expect him to exit at the end of the year. “We are grateful for Sean’s vision and leadership in creating Data for Progress and establishing it as a preeminent progressive organization for change in this country,” the group’s advisory board told me.
We've Got Five Years, What A Surprise
A reasonable rule of thumb is that any tech that is five years away, especially when it's been five years away for a decade, is vaporware.
As I've long said, the fantasy "driverless car" would be great, but the 99% driverless car actually sorta sucks. Having to pay attention all the time to keep your car from killing you, or dealing with a cab that gets a bit confused sometimes and adds 5 minutes to your trip, are not the optimal consumer experiences!
After years of ambitious targets and bold promises, investors are growing impatient with the pace of driverless-car development, applying pressure on an industry that had become accustomed to latitude and piles of cash from investors.The technology is certainly neato, even in its current form, but neato doesn't mean practical and certainly doesn't mean ca-ching ca-ching. People always retreat to pointing to more limited use cases, and my brothers in christ, things like a "driverless fixed route bus" are not particularly innovative and certainly not a ca-ching ca-ching business.
“Every car maker will need an autonomy strategy, just like they all need an EV strategy,” said Gene Munster, managing partner at Loup Ventures, a venture-capital firm specializing in tech research. “We are likely five years away from an inflection point, and companies that want to reap the benefits need to be aggressively investing in that tech today.”
As I've long said, the fantasy "driverless car" would be great, but the 99% driverless car actually sorta sucks. Having to pay attention all the time to keep your car from killing you, or dealing with a cab that gets a bit confused sometimes and adds 5 minutes to your trip, are not the optimal consumer experiences!
Monday, November 28, 2022
The Main Character
Since we can only have one at a time, I suppose the benefit of it being Elon is otherwise it would be Trump.
Oh, Elon
Local governments will do anything but build decent public transit.
Officials had started planning for a street-level rail connection between booming Ontario International Airport and a commuter train station 4 miles away, with an estimated cost north of $1 billion. For just $45 million, Mr. Musk’s Boring Co. offered to instead build an underground tunnel through which travelers could zip back and forth in autonomous electric vehicles.For important context: Elon's big thing is that he makes supposedly self-driving vehicles, and in Vegas he can't even make that work in a tiny tunnel. Just taxi-service-in-a-tunnel.
Dazzled by Boring’s boasts that it had revolutionized tunneling, and the cachet of working with the billionaire head of EV maker Tesla Inc., the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority dumped plans for a traditional light rail and embraced the futuristic tunnel.
When it came time to formalize the partnership and get to work, Boring itself went underground—just as it has done in Maryland, Chicago and Los Angeles. Boring didn’t submit a bid for Ontario by the January 2022 deadline.
Hot Dog Guy Dot Gif
Funny because the NYT was the lead offender on this, a fact strangely missing from this pieceNew York and its suburbs are among the safest large communities in the U.S. But amid a torrent of doomsday-style ads and headlines about rising crime, suburban swing voters helped drive a Republican rout that played a decisive role in capturing the House. https://t.co/tB9yLyKNav
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 27, 2022
Election's over, time to revisit the weird epidemic of crime coverage. How did that happen? Wasn't us!
It isn't necessarily the case that local media should embrace the role of local booster, but it's a bit odd to promote the perspective that their city is a shithole murder hell.
That's fairly normal for local broadcast news in smaller cities, but their audiences are generally suburbanites who love to hear scary tales about Them in the urban hellholes.
A bit odd from The New York Times. Just objective science, I guess, as always.
You've Been In The Pipeline
Just a human centipede of corruption and patronage.
At least ten people living in Brooklyn’s Little Pakistan neighborhood were appointed to obscure but meaningful positions within the borough’s Democratic Party organization without their knowledge in October, an investigation by THE CITY has found.
The Billionaire Problem
So many banal opinions are treated like insanity by the Very Serious People because they are found on The Left. Like, "maybe it's a problem when many individuals (or even one) have enough wealth to rival state power."
The insane opinion is, "well, they're probably all nice respectable chaps and they'll behave."
The insane opinion is, "well, they're probably all nice respectable chaps and they'll behave."
Progress
That cops can and did regularly hand out huge fines for jaywalking, especially given how horribly pedestrian lights were often timed (they could fine you for stepping off the curb at a blinking red, and the green would last 3 seconds)...
Rather, after almost 90 years, with laws dating from the 1930s, the state has finally decided to legalize jaywalking. No more tickets that, with various surcharges, could run to almost $200.(tone of this piece is annoying, but the point is made)
Which means that as of Jan. 1, we Californians will be able to jaywalk to a film audition, jaywalk to buy pot, jaywalk to meet an angel investor for a start-up, jaywalk for hot baby yoga classes, jaywalk for the benefit of paparazzi alerted earlier about where and when the jaywalking will occur, and jaywalk to any of the countless California-centric pastimes that the rest of the country finds so amusing. Or we might jaywalk across the street just to get to the other side.
Sunday, November 27, 2022
Advertise Or I Send My Flying Monkeys After You
I suppose you can keep a bit of money coming in temporarily with the method, but "stay away from the toxic brand with the lunatic CEO" is the obvious play.
Musk, meanwhile, has sought to personally call chief executives of some brands that have curbed advertising in order to berate them, according to one senior industry figure, leading others to instead reduce their spend to the bare minimum required so as to avoid further confrontation with the billionaire entrepreneur.
But They Won't Learn
"Crytpo" has a "no true Scotsman" issue, in that no matter what you point at, it's fans will tell you it isn't the real purity of essence crytpo, or whatever
That all looks pretty reprehensible, but maybe that’s the point. See, Sam Bankman-Fried was so committed to his philosophy of effective philanthropy that he was prepared to make himself appear to be the epitome of a despicable human being, and spend many years in prison, all to teach us that finance is a wasteful cesspool that needs to be reined in for the good of humanity. And, the place to start is his particular corner of the cesspool: crypto.As for Sam's boosters, they're still holding out hope that the money spigot gets turned back on.
Not Trump
Moderate Republican is now defined as "not a complete Trump boot licker." You can put on a Nazi uniform and say, "Trump sucks," and you'll be called a moderate.
Saturday, November 26, 2022
Sure, Sounds Good, Run With That
Washington Post reporters don't have to pass on gibberish "excuses" as if they were factual, but that's objectivity, baby.
Um, uh, it's a staffing issue. Sure, chief, gonna write that one down.A lot of Trump people — even ones who will defend him in let’s say questionable circumstances — are aghast at the dinner with Ye and Nick Fuentes. It also speaks to the nature that he lives in life in Florida, with little traditional vetting and staffing…
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) November 26, 2022
Only Fools And Frenchmen
I'm not obsessing about the Iraq war itself at the moment, just pondering the madness of the pundit crowds generally. Opinion isn't entirely homogeneous, but there is class solidarity, deference to hierarchies, groupthink, and of course unshakeable self-regard.
And the truth is if enough people with big microphones keep insisting 2+2=5, they win, and 2+2=5. Everyone who mattered went on teevee and said Colin Powell holding up a vial of sugar was a slam dunk case for war, and anyone who disagreed was ridiculous. We don't hear it quite as much now (though we will again!), but the inevitable doom of Social Security was just a fact for decades. All the smart people agreed!
And the truth is if enough people with big microphones keep insisting 2+2=5, they win, and 2+2=5. Everyone who mattered went on teevee and said Colin Powell holding up a vial of sugar was a slam dunk case for war, and anyone who disagreed was ridiculous. We don't hear it quite as much now (though we will again!), but the inevitable doom of Social Security was just a fact for decades. All the smart people agreed!
Conspiracy Theories
We think of the stupid masses falling for them and cons generally, but really the biggest cons are aimed at influential people. It's much more important to get Tom Friedman believing your nonsense than some random dude watching Youtube.
Get Tom Friedman to believe your nonsense and we go to war in Iraq!
"Saddam Hussein is a big threat to the United States" was the biggest conspiracy theory of all!
Not picking on Tom here, specifically, just that our elite pundits believe all kinds of nonsense precisely because they are the marks for this stuff. Because they are overcredentialed, imagine themselves to be the savviest of all people, and nobody but weirdos on the internet ever tell them they are full of shit, their bullshit detectors are actually really bad!
Iraq is the obvious example, because it was all so transparently stupid. But it's an ongoing thing!
Get Tom Friedman to believe your nonsense and we go to war in Iraq!
"Saddam Hussein is a big threat to the United States" was the biggest conspiracy theory of all!
Not picking on Tom here, specifically, just that our elite pundits believe all kinds of nonsense precisely because they are the marks for this stuff. Because they are overcredentialed, imagine themselves to be the savviest of all people, and nobody but weirdos on the internet ever tell them they are full of shit, their bullshit detectors are actually really bad!
Iraq is the obvious example, because it was all so transparently stupid. But it's an ongoing thing!
Friday, November 25, 2022
Nobody Could Have Predicted
Congrats to Tesla Autopilot/AI team on achieving a major milestone! pic.twitter.com/gQ8rI3slCX
— would you like to know how i got these SARS (@tompettyflacko) November 25, 2022
To Be Sure
In a column about the Colorado shooting, Michelle Goldberg couldn't just not throw in TO BE SURE THERE IS A LEGITIMATE DEBATE HERE.
She has been horrible ever since she spent the runup to the Iraq war hunting for commies among the Iraq war protesters.
The Trans Question
Direct line from all your favorite centrists contributing to this bigotry and the increasing threats to all LGBT people.
The inevitable answer to all the Just Asking Qweschins.
Thursday, November 24, 2022
Dangerous Narcissists
People are being mean to Lonnie on twitter, so he's gonna send his cars to kill your kids.
Tesla Inc. is making its controversial driver-assistance system available to customers previously deemed not safe enough behind the wheel to test it out.The "insurance rates" thing isn't real, though, just one of Lonnie's bits of nonsense. Business reporters are so dumb.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted that the system Tesla calls Full Self-Driving Beta is now available to anyone in North America who’s bought the option and requests it from their car screen. Until now, some paying customers have been blocked from accessing the feature known as FSD because they didn’t score high enough on metrics Tesla uses to set insurance rates.
Before Trump, There Was Palin
I'm not comparing the personalities, though they are comparable, I'm comparing the media treatment. Politico back then was basically the Sarah Palin daily. The guys that ran the place called her something like, "The Most Important Political Force In America" (sorry, it's a holiday, I'm not looking it up). Her every facebook post got the kind of attention Trump's tweets once did.
Context matters, and the context of all-Palin-all-the-time and centering the Tea Party was the country had just overwhelmingly elected an African-American guy named Barack Hussein Obama. He won Indiana!, with huge margins in the House and even 60 votes (briefly) in the Senate.
There's no level of Democratic success that can stop our political press from centering these weirdos, even as they become actual Nazis.
By Sarah.
Context matters, and the context of all-Palin-all-the-time and centering the Tea Party was the country had just overwhelmingly elected an African-American guy named Barack Hussein Obama. He won Indiana!, with huge margins in the House and even 60 votes (briefly) in the Senate.
There's no level of Democratic success that can stop our political press from centering these weirdos, even as they become actual Nazis.
By Sarah.
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Have A Seat, Michael
Interesting.
The Justice Department is seeking to question former Vice President Mike Pence as a witness in connection with its criminal investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Mysterious Synergies
Hmmm.
The ‘Blockchain Eight’ wrote a bipartisan letter in March attempting to chill the SEC’s information requests to crypto firms. FTX was one of those firms.hmmmmmmmmmmmm
...
The eight members were Reps. Emmer, Donalds, Auchincloss, Warren Davidson (R-OH), Ted Budd (R-NC), Darren Soto (D-FL), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), and Ritchie Torres (D-NY). Budd was elected this year to the U.S. Senate.
Sean McElwee, the head of Data for Progress, said that given the poll results, it’s irresponsible for progressives not to consolidate behind Torres, who he said in 2019 was, along with Tomas Ramos, “expected to run as AOC-style progressive outsider.”HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
In a previously unreported letter, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), with five self-identified progressive "policymakers, activists, journalists, pollsters and grassroots organizers," warned the CFTC that prohibiting political prediction markets could worsen "the public's understanding of our democratic process" and promote "unsafe, black market exchanges."HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
The signers included Sean McElwee, the founding executive director of progressive think tank Data for Progress; Drey Samuelson, the one-time chief of staff to former Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.); Dylan Matthews, a journalist at Vox; Joel Wertheimer, a civil rights attorney; and Ethan Winter, a senior analyst and pollster at Data for Progress.
Sean McElwee, the founding executive director of the polling outfit Data for Progress, has reportedly advised Bankman-Fried. Data for Progress received $48,000 from Protect Our Future in June. Bankman-Fried, McElwee, and data bro David Shor jointly hosted a fundraiser for Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) this spring, according to The Intercept.Prolific tweeter McElwee has gone silent, perhaps in part after receiving criticism for being the Pete Rose of pollsters, betting on races he was polling.
Heckuva A Job
This is funny, but this is not funny.
Musk is lying here, of course, there was no deal with any group, no group would have the power to make such a deal, and in any case Musk has backtracked on all of his "commitments."the owner of twitter is literally using the platform to target marginalized people for hate and violence.
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) November 23, 2022
Marks
I'm not quite sure where, precisely, EA jumps from "donate a kidney and donate money to buy mosquito nets," which, whatever the precise merits of those things, are in the spirit of what most people would understand by hearing the term, "Effective Altruism," to, "and The God Kings Of The Movement Must Be Allowed To Accumulate All the Wealth To Fight The Robot Apocalypse of 4837."
It really isn't any different than any other scam megachurch, complete with the Holy Writings from the Oxford Philosopy Professor.
All part of the scam. Awaiting the follow up New Yorker piece.
It really isn't any different than any other scam megachurch, complete with the Holy Writings from the Oxford Philosopy Professor.
Feedback and advice. Why, then, did MacAskill make these assertions? In the first few pages of the book’s introduction, MacAskill writes that it took more than a decade’s worth of full-time work to complete the manuscript, two years of which were dedicated to fact-checking its claims. And in the acknowledgments section, he lists 30 scientists and an entire research group as having been consulted on “climate change” or “climate science.”Prosperity Gospel for agnostics, indeed. Not the first time the scammed are those who imagine they are least susceptible to scams. Even now if you bring this up on social media someone is going to jump in with, "what's wrong with mosquito nets???", as if MacAskill invented them.
I wrote to all the scientists MacAskill thanked for providing “feedback and advice,” and the responses were surprising. None of the 20 scientists who responded to my email said they had advised MacAskill on the controversial climate claims above, and indeed most added, without my prompting, that they very strongly disagree with those claims.
Many of the scientists said they had no recollection of speaking or corresponding with MacAskill or any of the research assistants and contributors named in his book. The most disturbing responses came from five scientists who told me that they were almost certainly never consulted.
“There is a mistake. I do not know MacAskill,” replied one of the scientists.
All part of the scam. Awaiting the follow up New Yorker piece.
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Oh, Elon
Can get away with not paying any bills until you can't.
SAN FRANCISCO — Before Elon Musk bought Twitter last month, the company’s executives had racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel invoices that the social media service planned to pay.Tesla and SpaceX's more specialized suppliers probably had little choice but to cope with this behavior over the years, but not so with Twitter. Amazon and Oracle don't need to deal with this shit.
But once Mr. Musk took over the company, he refused to reimburse travel vendors for those bills, current and former Twitter employees said. Mr. Musk’s staff said the services were authorized by the company’s former management and not by him. His staff have since avoided the calls of the travel vendors, the people said.
Mr. Davis, the president of the Boring Company, has also directed Twitter employees to renegotiate the deals that the company has with firms such as Amazon and Oracle, which provide computing and tech services, the people said. The employees were told to suggest to those companies that Mr. Musk’s firms would not work with them in the future if they refused to renegotiate, the people said.Pay the lawyers instead, I guess.
The Violence Is The Point
I know doing the old man, "there is nothing new under the sun, this is always as it has been," schtick is annoying, and I don't mean it that way, but while people rightfully react in horror to Tucker Carlson, they didn't react in horror to, for example, Bill O'Reilly doing much of the same schtick for years.
Bill O'Reilly called Dr. George Tiller "Tiller the baby killer" for years. Dr. Tiller was assassinated on May 31, 2009.
In 2014, Barack Obama gave a very high profile pre-Super Bowl interview Bill O'Reilly.
I suppose the most charitable explanation for all of this is that violent rhetoric and actions against the reproductive rights movement were so normalized - and accepted - that it barely registered.
That very charitable explanation is not good!!!
That teams of volunteers have to show up to every Planned Parenthood to protect patients, while our DC political press corps lost their shit because someone asked Sarah Sanders to leave a restaurant...
Bill O'Reilly called Dr. George Tiller "Tiller the baby killer" for years. Dr. Tiller was assassinated on May 31, 2009.
In 2014, Barack Obama gave a very high profile pre-Super Bowl interview Bill O'Reilly.
I suppose the most charitable explanation for all of this is that violent rhetoric and actions against the reproductive rights movement were so normalized - and accepted - that it barely registered.
That very charitable explanation is not good!!!
That teams of volunteers have to show up to every Planned Parenthood to protect patients, while our DC political press corps lost their shit because someone asked Sarah Sanders to leave a restaurant...
But, Your Honor, Being Able To Hide The Crimes Was The Point
FTX bankruptcy hearing report:
Glueckstein argues that because FTX's creditors are in the crypto industry, they shouldn't be identified.
— kadhim (＾ï½°^)ノ (@kadhim) November 22, 2022
"Customers in the crypto currency space are not the typical creditor. Many customers invest in crypto currency in part to not be publicly identified."
The Best PR Money Can Buy
This New Yorker piece on Oxford Professor William MacAskill, the "Reluctant Prophet of Effective Altruism," is hilarious for a million reasons. And by hilarious I mean bullshit from start to finish. Hasn't been this much bullshit in the New Yorker since Jeffrey Goldberg was chasing Hezbollah in South America! But I wanted to pick one thing:
New Yorker, various substackers, Vox, Democratic polling firms. Tremendous con, guys, hats off to you.
MacAskill limits his personal budget to about twenty-six thousand pounds a year, and gives everything else away.If you're wondering how this weirdo has a plum position at Oxford, the answer is, "because he brought in lots of grant money." Anyway, if you know anything about how the world works, you know that MacAskill - buddies with Sam Bankman-Fried - has had to spend some time with rich people. Rich people go out to dinner and drop 500 pounds without even thinking about it. Rich people just spend money. Limiting his "personal budget to about twenty-six thousand pounds a year," even if we pretend this is true at all and not complete bullshit, requires taking a very very very very very narrow view of what "personal budget" means.
New Yorker, various substackers, Vox, Democratic polling firms. Tremendous con, guys, hats off to you.
An Anti-Woke Bank
Suckers and their money are soon separated. Fortunately increasingly the rich lunatics are the suckers.
ACAB
Never miss a chance to fuck things up.
The hero was Richard Fierro, who went to Club Q with his family to celebrate a friend’s birthday and watch the drag show, which included a performance by his 22-year-old daughter’s best friend.And then, the boys in blue arrive.
When he heard the shots, Fierro hit the floor, then saw the shooter.
“I ran across the bar, grabbed the guy from the back and pulled him down and pinned him against the stairs,” Fierro told The Washington Post on Monday.
The fight with the gunman left Mr. Fierro covered in blood, he said. When the police arrived, officers tackled him and put him in handcuffs. He said he was held in a police car for more than an hour and screamed and pleaded to be let go so that he could see what had happened to his family.
Monday, November 21, 2022
Q
I fault myself for not taking it seriously enough in the early days. I mean, sure, the 'Q' details were often hilarious (fake JFK Jr.!) but fundamentally it's a fantasy about mass murder of political opponents. A fantasy shared by many people.
The Kids Today
To clarify, I'm neither complaining about Sheeran's popularity nor complaining about my inability to comprehend it. It is how things go, you get older and many things mostly aimed at The Youngs start making less sense. Accepting this is important, and that people fail to accept this is a big reason why our very respectable journals of important thought have been stoking hatred of trans people and turning up the racism dial as high as they can for the past few years.
I grew up thinking midlife crises led to people buying sports cars and attempting to have ridiculous affairs, not stoking hatred and attempting to hasten the end of the world. Been eye opening!
I grew up thinking midlife crises led to people buying sports cars and attempting to have ridiculous affairs, not stoking hatred and attempting to hasten the end of the world. Been eye opening!
Synergy
"We" all thought it was a bit weird when propublica ran a "lab leak" story that was not exactly up to their usual standards. "We" all also thought it was a bit weird when many of the smartest boys on the internet suddenly started pushing it.
Yglesias continues to argue that SBF gave money to “good” causes. But is that true? For one thing, by SBF’s own admission, his goal in spending was to gain power to fight regulation. One favorite SBF charity is pandemic preparedness. To that end the Bankman-Frieds’ family foundation gave $5 million to ProPublica, which prepared a report on the lab-leak theory that was widely denounced as riddled with xenophobia and bad translations.The group chats must be fun, is what I'm trying to say.
Underlying the whole ethos of effective altruism is the idea that the rich know best. The people who make the most money are somehow credited with having the best long-term interest of humanity at heart.
To see what’s wrong with this thinking, you’d have to have some familiarity with human history. Alas, Bankman-Fried is militantly anti-intellectual. As he told an interviewer for Sequoia Capital’s site, “I think, if you wrote a book, you fucked up, and it should have been a six-paragraph blog post.”
Only I Can Stop The Robot Apocalypse, And Nothing Else Matters
Not picking on Dave (long twitter thread), really, but just because many people in your personal wider politics circle are on one side or the other of the Effective Altruism con does not mean you need to grapple with the nuances of the argument.
The argument is, basically, I, a 28-year-old crypto scammer, believe I am the only one who can fight the Robot Apocalypse of 4265, and this existential threat is more important than anything else, so my efforts to personally amass all the wealth of the world are unconstrained by any other considerations, moral or otherwise.
This isn't a serious philosophical argument, this is just your typical cult leader shit. That it's cult leader shit that snared a bunch of Very Rational People (by their own belief) doesn't change that.
Like all cult leader shit, there are people on both sides of the con. Some just want the money and the rapey sex, some are being conned, but just because some of your friends are involved doesn't mean you have to see it any differently!
Oxford profs and people who went to school near Boston can also be bad people! Arguably they are more likely to be! This isn't complicated.
The name is part of the con, an inbuilt defense against all criticism. What do you have against EFFECTIVE altruism? Do you think charity should be INEFFECTIVE???
Same as "popularism." You think politicians can get elected by doing UNPOPULAR things?
Same con artists, same con. The last couple of years make a lot more sense now.
I'm a bit grumpy about this because the liberal impulse to take transparently absurd and evil ideas - and the people who promote them - seriously, instead of pointing and laughing at them (or jailing them), is one of my pet peeves.
SBF sprinkled lots of money around Democratic political/media circles over the past couple of years, and some of your faves are very implicated!!!
The argument is, basically, I, a 28-year-old crypto scammer, believe I am the only one who can fight the Robot Apocalypse of 4265, and this existential threat is more important than anything else, so my efforts to personally amass all the wealth of the world are unconstrained by any other considerations, moral or otherwise.
This isn't a serious philosophical argument, this is just your typical cult leader shit. That it's cult leader shit that snared a bunch of Very Rational People (by their own belief) doesn't change that.
Like all cult leader shit, there are people on both sides of the con. Some just want the money and the rapey sex, some are being conned, but just because some of your friends are involved doesn't mean you have to see it any differently!
Oxford profs and people who went to school near Boston can also be bad people! Arguably they are more likely to be! This isn't complicated.
The name is part of the con, an inbuilt defense against all criticism. What do you have against EFFECTIVE altruism? Do you think charity should be INEFFECTIVE???
Same as "popularism." You think politicians can get elected by doing UNPOPULAR things?
Same con artists, same con. The last couple of years make a lot more sense now.
I'm a bit grumpy about this because the liberal impulse to take transparently absurd and evil ideas - and the people who promote them - seriously, instead of pointing and laughing at them (or jailing them), is one of my pet peeves.
SBF sprinkled lots of money around Democratic political/media circles over the past couple of years, and some of your faves are very implicated!!!
Sunday, November 20, 2022
Not The Moment
The rare incarceration of privileged white people should not be the moment when the commentariat discovers the unfairness of prison sentences or the horrific conditions of prison life.
The worst is people saying that because she basically stole from rich people her sentence should be lower. Who the hell do you think chain store shoplifters are stealing from?
Thousands of examples of seemingly unfair sentences to choose from. You can really pick one from local news headlines every day if this is a subject that interests you.
You can do that at any moment, people! And most of you will go back to complaining about "bail reform" or "woke prosecutors" tomorrow.Shoutout to Elizabeth Holmes whose upcoming incarceration has apparently suddenly alerted a whole army of columnists and DC pundits in the year 2022 to the fact women having babies does not cancel their jail terms
— Shiv Ramdas Traing To Rite Buk (@nameshiv) November 19, 2022
The worst is people saying that because she basically stole from rich people her sentence should be lower. Who the hell do you think chain store shoplifters are stealing from?
Thousands of examples of seemingly unfair sentences to choose from. You can really pick one from local news headlines every day if this is a subject that interests you.
The Kids Today And Their Music
My thing with Sheeran is that I am genuinely confused about why he is so popular. I don't mean in the sense that I think his music sucks and I can't believe people like his shit music. My opinion about the quality of his music is unimportant and lots of shit music is popular. I mean genuinely I don't understand it.
The general appeal of such things usually isn't so alien to me even when they don't appeal to me (at this point in my life, most very popular pop music doesn't). That Sheeran is the biggest pop star on the planet, or at least was for a time, is genuinely weird to me.
The general appeal of such things usually isn't so alien to me even when they don't appeal to me (at this point in my life, most very popular pop music doesn't). That Sheeran is the biggest pop star on the planet, or at least was for a time, is genuinely weird to me.
We Used To Be All About The Music, Man
At some point in his career - and not even that early - Saint David Broder wrote scathingly about various buckraking activities of his fellow journalists. Speaking gigs, that kind of thing. By the end, of course, he was doing it himself.
I'm sure speaking at the "Raytheon Conference For More Efficient Global Murder Machines" is less controversial than speaking at "The Lefty Do Gooder Conference For A Better Future."
The higher the speaking fee, the less controversial it is.
I'm sure speaking at the "Raytheon Conference For More Efficient Global Murder Machines" is less controversial than speaking at "The Lefty Do Gooder Conference For A Better Future."
The higher the speaking fee, the less controversial it is.
Saturday, November 19, 2022
Afternoon Thread
Alito's only going to get worse with age, as the adulation he knows he's always deserved grows and grows.
The Priesthood
Just decades of "journalism" dedicted to fluffing this corrupt institution.
Nice, except for the "had it for months and waited until after the election" which is a thing which is important to do sometimes but not other times it is so confusing. To be fair it's so carefully worded it probably took months of editing.
As the Supreme Court investigates the extraordinary leak this spring of a draft opinion of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade, a former anti-abortion leader has come forward claiming that another breach occurred in a 2014 landmark case involving contraception and religious rights.This is a "read the whole thing" one.
In a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and in interviews with The New York Times, the Rev. Rob Schenck said he was told the outcome of the 2014 case weeks before it was announced. He used that information to prepare a public relations push, records show, and he said that at the last minute he tipped off the president of Hobby Lobby, the craft store chain owned by Christian evangelicals that was the winning party in the case.
...
Mr. Schenck, who used to lead an evangelical nonprofit in Washington, said he learned about the Hobby Lobby opinion because he had worked for years to exploit the court’s permeability. He gained access through faith, through favors traded with gatekeepers and through wealthy donors to his organization, abortion opponents whom he called “stealth missionaries.”
Nice, except for the "had it for months and waited until after the election" which is a thing which is important to do sometimes but not other times it is so confusing. To be fair it's so carefully worded it probably took months of editing.
Holmes
11 years. Made the mistke of defrauding rich people.
Like many hyped things in tech - even the mostly non-fraudulent ones - an unexamined question at the time was, "even if your magic blood box worked as advertised, so what?"
Not every neato invention is a world-changing trillion dollar business. What was underlying this belief that cheaper easier blood tests was a Big Fucking Deal? We don't all need a daily basic metabolic panel, or whatever. True innovations would make some diagnostic tests (like some cancer marker screenings) cheaper/faster, but that would hardly be WORLD CHANGING and certainly wouldn't be massively profitable. Just, you know, a good innovation.
Like many hyped things in tech - even the mostly non-fraudulent ones - an unexamined question at the time was, "even if your magic blood box worked as advertised, so what?"
Not every neato invention is a world-changing trillion dollar business. What was underlying this belief that cheaper easier blood tests was a Big Fucking Deal? We don't all need a daily basic metabolic panel, or whatever. True innovations would make some diagnostic tests (like some cancer marker screenings) cheaper/faster, but that would hardly be WORLD CHANGING and certainly wouldn't be massively profitable. Just, you know, a good innovation.
Friday, November 18, 2022
Here We Are Again
Everybody in America vs. Ticketmaster was something we already did in like 1995. Gotta stake the vampires then throw them in the light of the sun.
THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT is investigating whether Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation has abused its power as the dominant force in the live music industry, The New York Times reports.
THE MOST SALIENT LINES OF CODE
The guy is more ridiculous than Trump.
Just amazing stuff.Elon Musk is also asking for up 10 screenshots of the "most salient lines of code" from Twitter engineers 2/
— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) November 18, 2022
SCOOP: Elon Musk told employees that he wanted them to fly to San Francisco for meetings so he can "better understand the tech stack."
— Erin Woo (@erinkwoo) November 18, 2022
“If possible, I would appreciate it if you could fly to SF to be present in person,” Musk wrote.https://t.co/PVo9FZB9Ms
You Know Them By Their Tweets (And Especially Their Retweets)
The other thing twitter showed us was that many members of our elite press are even worse stupid assholes than we imagined (click the picture to embiggen).
Marc Fisher, Washington Post senior editor. The letter he highlights doesn't even say anything close to how he portrays it, but even if it did, these are 20-year-olds who have been through a lot, including national journalists descending on the campus and being complete assholes.
He got a note from inside the building to delete the tweet, which he is not at all sorry for.
Horace Mann, Princeton, our finest.I deleted an earlier tweet about campus journalism at the University of Virginia because it didn't meet Washington Post social media standards. Its tone was inappropriate and snide, so it doesn't deserve to remain here.
— Marc Fisher (@mffisher) November 17, 2022
The Bird App Will Be Gone And We Will All Be Free
Twitter had two main contributions to the world (well, the US, anyway): It killed the influence of Drudge, and suddenly a bunch of immensely self-important people were confronted with hundreds of people, often deservedly, calling them shitheads every day.
By calling them shitheads, I mean often calling them shitheads backed up with good arguments. And a lot of those arguments were from people of color and other "riff raff" such as people who went to lesser schools than Harvard.
That part broke a lot of brains, and I do think a lot of the "woke backlash" in our elite periodicals comes precisely from that. A bunch of elite white people who thought they were smarter than everyone were called out for their bullshit, and they went completely insane.
Of course they could've just quit the bird app, but few managed to pull themselves away.
That started a bit with blogs, but they could mostly ignore blogs.
By calling them shitheads, I mean often calling them shitheads backed up with good arguments. And a lot of those arguments were from people of color and other "riff raff" such as people who went to lesser schools than Harvard.
That part broke a lot of brains, and I do think a lot of the "woke backlash" in our elite periodicals comes precisely from that. A bunch of elite white people who thought they were smarter than everyone were called out for their bullshit, and they went completely insane.
Of course they could've just quit the bird app, but few managed to pull themselves away.
That started a bit with blogs, but they could mostly ignore blogs.
Musk'd
Much hilarity in the Musk/Twitter saga. As I said years ago, Musk is just Nerd Trump. I thought this was a good example of the genius brain at work.
Later on Thursday, amid an apparent scramble by management to avoid losing too many workers to the ultimatum, Musk sent an email to staff attempting to clarify his position on remote work, according to text of the email obtained by CNN from a Twitter employee who asked not to be identified.Basically someone got through his thick skull for about 7 seconds that the "no work from home" thing wasn't going to fly, so he sent out a somewhat softened policy. Then his lizard brain kicked in and he "ruined" it by informing managers they'd all open themselves up for firing if they ever allowed it.
"Regarding remote work, all that is required for approval is that your manager takes responsibility for ensuring that you are making an excellent contribution," Musk said in the email, adding that workers would be expected to attend in-person meetings no less than once a month.
Twenty minutes later, Musk sent a follow up email saying: "At risk of stating the obvious, any manager who falsely claims that someone reporting to them is doing excellent work or that a given role is essential, whether remote or not, will be exited from the company."
Thursday, November 17, 2022
Alito's World
What he wants.
When a woman’s water breaks, she’s at high risk for a life-threatening infection. While Amanda and Josh’s baby – they named her Willow – was sure to die, she still had a heartbeat, and so doctors said that under Texas law, they were unable to terminate the pregnancy.
“My doctor said, ‘Well, right now we just have to wait, because we can’t induce labor, even though you’re 100% for sure going to lose your baby,’ ” Amanda said. “[The doctors] were unable to do their own jobs because of the way that the laws are written in Texas.”
End of an Era
Pelosi is not going to be Dem leader anymore, but will remain in the House. Hoyer is also stepping down from leadership.
I don't expect her replacement to be an improvement.
I don't expect her replacement to be an improvement.
Fraud Is Fraud
As David says, calls for "regulation" of what is basically fraud serve to legalize fraud, not minimize it and certainly not prosecute it.
Defund the SEC
A big chunk of the "popularism" and "anti-criminal justice reform" rhetoric/agenda has been pushed by people directly funded by and who otherwise promoted the crypto scammer of the day, with some of those people quite clearly being conduits from the crypto scammer lobby to Dems in Congress. Crypto scammer boy was a high profile Dem funder this cycle, nuking progressives in primaries to the cheers of these people.
A big crypto-bro candidate was Carrick Flynn, who was pushed by Pelosi's PAC, for mysterious reasons. Fortunately he lost to Andrea Salinas, who just won her seat in Oregon. SBF also gave a bunch of money to Vox, which promoted Carrick.
A big crypto-bro candidate was Carrick Flynn, who was pushed by Pelosi's PAC, for mysterious reasons. Fortunately he lost to Andrea Salinas, who just won her seat in Oregon. SBF also gave a bunch of money to Vox, which promoted Carrick.
There's a very long piece to be written about all the ways SBF's money corrupted this election cycle, all the corrupt people who joined in, and the influence they had, hiding behind "Effective Altruism", which was just a front for this scam. Some of your faves are involved!
Of course the problem with corrupt systems is that everyone involved is tainted, or their friends are, so best not to mention it.
Just because you call something "altruism" doesn't mean it is. "Prosperity gospel for agnostics" was what someone (sorry, forget who!) called it.
Just because you call something "altruism" doesn't mean it is. "Prosperity gospel for agnostics" was what someone (sorry, forget who!) called it.
...found it
It's a prosperity gospel for agnostics
— Milan Kovac (@solargroovy) November 12, 2022
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
The Main Characters
Sometimes it's understandable, and sometimes it's not, but it's already clear that the main characters of the next two years will be... The Republicans!
They'll Work For Ron Instead
Of course that's what we're in for. They'll repent for Trump by focusing on America's Greatest Governor, Ron DeSantis, instead.
That fucking newspaper is already on it.
BTW another thing that isn't real is the separation between news and opinion. They have the same boss.
That fucking newspaper is already on it.
While this board does not support many of their policy positions, some leading figures in the party — including former Vice President Mike Pence, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina and Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, among others — have demonstrated a commitment to the rule of law and an ability to govern.Ron DeSantis has demonstrated a commitment to the rule of law? Fucking hell.
BTW another thing that isn't real is the separation between news and opinion. They have the same boss.
Not The Press's Job
One can argue that the job of the "objective political press" isn't to work against Trump, and that isn't necessarily wrong, though it is premised on the idea that they never work for or against anyone or anything and well I think you know my opinion on that.
Whether they intended to or not (they intended to for the lolz and because they hated Clinton, they just didn't mean for him to win) they worked for him in 2016, certainly.
Whether they intended to or not (they intended to for the lolz and because they hated Clinton, they just didn't mean for him to win) they worked for him in 2016, certainly.
It's Up To Republicans And The Press
I know nothing is up to Republicans, according to our journalists who paradoxically center them in their narratives, and the press is the most important institution in a democracy, but also have no influence on anything, according to the press, but getting rid of Trump is actually easy this time if they want to.
Enough elite Republicans have to treat him not just as their less preferred option, but treat him as the guy who has done all the things he did.
And the press just has to treat them like they treat most politicians - which is not give him constant attention - not as Maggie Haberman treats him.
I know people say, oh oh, most Republicans opposed him in 2016 and still he won. And, yes, sure, but it isn't 2016 anymore.
As for the press, well, WaPo is a promising start, but Chris Cillizza and Maggie Haberman we will always have with us.
These work together, of course, if Republicans talk about him as a criminal (excuse me, alleged criminal), so will the press. More.
Not saying this will happen, I just think there are people with agency and it isn't hard if they choose to use it.
Enough elite Republicans have to treat him not just as their less preferred option, but treat him as the guy who has done all the things he did.
And the press just has to treat them like they treat most politicians - which is not give him constant attention - not as Maggie Haberman treats him.
I know people say, oh oh, most Republicans opposed him in 2016 and still he won. And, yes, sure, but it isn't 2016 anymore.
As for the press, well, WaPo is a promising start, but Chris Cillizza and Maggie Haberman we will always have with us.
These work together, of course, if Republicans talk about him as a criminal (excuse me, alleged criminal), so will the press. More.
Not saying this will happen, I just think there are people with agency and it isn't hard if they choose to use it.
Better
A big problem with political journalism has been the unwillingness to accurately describe things. This was true before Trump, but the treatment of him made it more obvious to people who probably hadn't noticed as much. If there's a video of a man fucking a chicken, it's appropriate to call him a chicken fucker, even if he's the president, or ex-president. WaPo has obviously had some style discussions. We'll see if they stick to it:
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Donald Trump, the twice-impeached former president who refused to concede defeat and inspired a failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election culminating in a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, officially declared on Tuesday night that he is running to retake the White House in 2024.The last paragraph is filled with justifying links (if you click through). Fine of course but shouldn't be unncessary.
...
And he has profoundly altered the tenor of American public life — shattering long-held standards of decorum and civility with often shocking attacks on political rivals, judges and reporters. He has frequently made racist and antisemitic remarks, mocked people with disabilities and denigrated developing countries, bragged about sexual assault and paid hush money to a porn star, praised dictators, declined to disavow extremists, inspired his supporters to resort to violence and defended white supremacists and Jan. 6 rioters.
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
The Man Show
I guess if I had to choose whether Kimmel or Carolla would become the good guy, I would've bet on Kimmel, but the divergence is still interesting!
He Might Have Broken The One Rule
Can screw a million suckers, just not the rich guys (also suckers, but rich suckers) who gave you a bunch of money.
Venture capitalists who collectively plowed billions of dollars into FTX are discussing whether to sue Sam Bankman-Fried for alleged fraud, two people familiar with the matter said.Paywall but that's the important bit.
Why Would Dr. Oz Want To Be A Senator
I suppose it's similar to the question I often ask - why don't rich people piss off to a life of idle luxury in Italy - but a lot of the things annoying rich people do actually add to their importance, power, and attention. I find that weird, but okay I can understand it. How is being the Junior Senator From Pennsylvania actually a step up in the life of Dr. Oz?
Imagine actually having to show up to work! Sure they don't have to show up to work all that much compared to some jobs, but imagine doing the Reconciliation Vote-A-Rama, or other moments when everybody kinda needs to show just in case Schumer does some tricky.
Really it just isn't that great a job, and Oz already had all the perks.
Imagine actually having to show up to work! Sure they don't have to show up to work all that much compared to some jobs, but imagine doing the Reconciliation Vote-A-Rama, or other moments when everybody kinda needs to show just in case Schumer does some tricky.
Really it just isn't that great a job, and Oz already had all the perks.
Yay They (Sorta) Won - Boo They're Still Bad At This
I suppose there are three main parts of my criticism of The Democrats:
1) They're bad at the "game" - working the press, having their message and topic of discussion dominate the daily news cycle. We can argue about how much this is important for elections, or how much this is all just entertainment for weird political junkies, but I can't see it not mattering at all.
2) They're generally conflict averse and shy about using perfectly legitimate power. We can debate precisely why this is.
Number 3 is a bit more complicated:
3) The main impulse isn't, as I think people imagine, to win with a left wing coalition that expands just enough to include the notion of "the median voter." A left to center left coalition that achieves 50.1%+. Instead it's to form the rightmost possible winning coalition given the existence of the Republican party. The center left to the center right. Those suburban "moderates" they chase every cycle and would prefer to jettison "The Left" for, if possible.
For ideological reasons, and for misplaced beliefs about electoral politics, they'd prefer to be the "unity party." Like you can imagine alternative histories under either Clinton or Obama such that a new Centrist Party of Moderate Sensible Republicans and Moderate Sensible Democrats would have emerged, in practice if not in name necessarily.
For various reasons we weren't close to those moments. But that was, I think, the dream for many Democrats (and "liberal" pundits), though not many Republicans. A bipartisan consensus forever without any of the nastiness that is politics. Let sensible people rule in peace.
Both for ideological reasons (my preferred policies) and my opinion about actual electoral politics, instead of Morning Joseph Green Room Politics, I think an enduring Left-Center Left coalition is both better and easier to maintain. I think those policies are better, and I think they are much more popular than "centrists" want you to believe (Many of these people - the pundits - are just liars, I have come to realize. Effective Mendacity.).
I think we've moved past that some. Obviously even old centrist Joey is playing a different game now. But those impulses change slowly, especially with mostly the same people in charge.
1) They're bad at the "game" - working the press, having their message and topic of discussion dominate the daily news cycle. We can argue about how much this is important for elections, or how much this is all just entertainment for weird political junkies, but I can't see it not mattering at all.
2) They're generally conflict averse and shy about using perfectly legitimate power. We can debate precisely why this is.
Number 3 is a bit more complicated:
3) The main impulse isn't, as I think people imagine, to win with a left wing coalition that expands just enough to include the notion of "the median voter." A left to center left coalition that achieves 50.1%+. Instead it's to form the rightmost possible winning coalition given the existence of the Republican party. The center left to the center right. Those suburban "moderates" they chase every cycle and would prefer to jettison "The Left" for, if possible.
For ideological reasons, and for misplaced beliefs about electoral politics, they'd prefer to be the "unity party." Like you can imagine alternative histories under either Clinton or Obama such that a new Centrist Party of Moderate Sensible Republicans and Moderate Sensible Democrats would have emerged, in practice if not in name necessarily.
For various reasons we weren't close to those moments. But that was, I think, the dream for many Democrats (and "liberal" pundits), though not many Republicans. A bipartisan consensus forever without any of the nastiness that is politics. Let sensible people rule in peace.
Both for ideological reasons (my preferred policies) and my opinion about actual electoral politics, instead of Morning Joseph Green Room Politics, I think an enduring Left-Center Left coalition is both better and easier to maintain. I think those policies are better, and I think they are much more popular than "centrists" want you to believe (Many of these people - the pundits - are just liars, I have come to realize. Effective Mendacity.).
I think we've moved past that some. Obviously even old centrist Joey is playing a different game now. But those impulses change slowly, especially with mostly the same people in charge.
The Heart of "Crypto"
Crypto weirdos are always trying to differentiate between "blockchain" and "cryptocurrency" and "exchanges" and "stablecoins" and "centralized" and "decentralized" and, yes, I suppose it matters whether it's a clip or a magazine, or whether AR stands for "assault rifle" or "Armalite" (it's assault rifle). Your nerd languages should be respected.
But the heart of guns is most of them exist for the purpose of killing humans, and the heart of crypto is The Box.
Perhaps the most inexplicable thing about the gross lack of diligence was that Bankman-Fried wasn’t shy about what he was doing. In an April interview with Bloomberg’s Matt Levine, Bankman-Fried, then worth $20 billion and “the world’s richest 29-year-old,” was asked to explain the concept of yield farming: a strategy for earning massive windfalls that Bankman-Fried had reportedly mastered at his homegrown trading firm, Alameda Research. In his answer, he chaotically described how crypto yields could be squeezed from a metaphorical black box that “does literally nothing.”
That should tell you all you need to know. If it doesn’t, consider Levine’s reply: “I think of myself as a fairly cynical person. And that was so much more cynical than how I would've described farming. You're just like, well, I'm in the Ponzi business and it's pretty good.”
Monday, November 14, 2022
The Type
Adding to this, there are many many House races (435 voting members!) and there are always going to be some surprise wins or almost wins from challengers, where the DCCC provided no support, that can lead people like me to cry foul. It's just going happen "randomly" sometimes. But watching this every election cycle, I think it's correct that these candidates are almost always "too liberal" candidates, certainly perceived as "too liberal" for their districts, who didn't start with their own obvious funding base, and often ones who beat the party's (state or DCCC) favorite in the primary.
Polls
We have his conversation every two years and it only gets worse so I can barely bother with it, but there is a good reason for the press to pay attention to polls and commission some themselves, there is an understandable one, and then there is a shitty one, and mostly they do the latter two.
The understandable one is there's an audience for it. Click click click. Can't fault them too much for feeding that demand.
The good one is it tells them which races to cover. Not much point for a national newspaper too spend time on a +27 race. That doesn't mean ignore them entirely - those places matter too! - but there are limits to what you say when the story is "most of the people of South Carolina love this asshole." Though there are still some other things! Like one segment of the population of South Carolina might not!
The bad one is political journalists themselves like nothing more than pretending to use polls (though in this cycle, they largely just seemed to ignore them even as they pretended to use them) to inform their savvy takes on What It All Means and Who Is Going To Win. And all of that is horseshit, especially as even the supposed data guys are just going for the vibes, full time. Polls let "objective observers of politics" spew their nonsense opinions, and pretend they're actually informed by anything. It's completely made up shit from prominent national reporters, who of course don't really know what's going on in Oregon's 6th district, or wherever.
Also, occasionally, just occasionally, they could talk about actual policy? Inform the voters? BORRRRRRIIIINNG.
The understandable one is there's an audience for it. Click click click. Can't fault them too much for feeding that demand.
The good one is it tells them which races to cover. Not much point for a national newspaper too spend time on a +27 race. That doesn't mean ignore them entirely - those places matter too! - but there are limits to what you say when the story is "most of the people of South Carolina love this asshole." Though there are still some other things! Like one segment of the population of South Carolina might not!
The bad one is political journalists themselves like nothing more than pretending to use polls (though in this cycle, they largely just seemed to ignore them even as they pretended to use them) to inform their savvy takes on What It All Means and Who Is Going To Win. And all of that is horseshit, especially as even the supposed data guys are just going for the vibes, full time. Polls let "objective observers of politics" spew their nonsense opinions, and pretend they're actually informed by anything. It's completely made up shit from prominent national reporters, who of course don't really know what's going on in Oregon's 6th district, or wherever.
Also, occasionally, just occasionally, they could talk about actual policy? Inform the voters? BORRRRRRIIIINNG.
I Think We Know Who Wins This Round
Just amazing stuff."Effective altruism" is not a policy, or set of policies, it's totally superficial branding (everyone claims to support effectiveness).
— Jeff Hauser (@jeffhauser) May 20, 2022
And yes, I think crypto is deeply destructive and I am 100% happy to be known for that. Your semi-bullish take on crypto is equally revealing.
Sounds Bad
Dems really need to have a couple of people who are willing to put on their Lindsey Graham game face and go apoplectic about this stuff on cable news all day every day.
Mr. Kelly said he made clear to Mr. Trump that there were serious legal and ethical issues with what he wanted. He said that despite the president’s expressed desires to have Mr. Comey and Mr. McCabe investigated by the I.R.S., he believes that he led Mr. Trump during his tenure as chief of staff to forgo trying to have such investigations conducted.Cable news and similar is a game rigged against Dems, but they still have to play it. It's bad that almost every day "we" talk about whatever Republicans want to talk about that day, and not having some people who are willing to throw absolute shit fits at appropriate times, and to carry on doing it for weeks, not days, is part of it.
After Mr. Kelly left the administration, Mr. Comey was informed in 2019 that his 2017 returns were being audited, and Mr. McCabe learned in 2021 that his 2019 returns were being audited. At the time both audits occurred, the I.R.S. was led by a Trump political appointee.
Oh No My Apes
I certainly don't know everything about the crypto world, because I long ago decided I knew enough to know I didn't have to worry my beautiful mind about it. It's basically a project to waste immense amounts of energy to make fake money (all money is mostly fake, but that you pay your taxes with it and is legal tender otherwise gives it real value), but then throw layers and layers of even more esoteric bullshit on top to pretend that the fake money has real value, in that you can convert it to real money (and to convince suckers to 'invest').
It's failed as a payment system (except to do crime and tax evasion), and it's even failing as a crime system because the Feds have basically figured out how track the money (a bit above my pay grade) when they try. That leaves the ponzi scheme.
From what I can figure out, the latest flameout basically involves just stealing customer money, leveraging that, and watching it all disappear. The warning signs should have been, "how is what is basically a way for people to trade beanie babies for baseball cards worth $20 billion." Also beanie babies and baseball cards are real, so that would've been better.
Lots of aspects (including that SBF was working fast to set himself up quite the personal PR machine, semafor included and dabbling in politics in ways transparent and not), but really every time someone figures out how to obtain ridiculous amounts of leverage it is probably going to blow up. And our elites really should recognize they have more responsibility, with more consequences than a few jokes on the internet, when they do shit like this.
It's failed as a payment system (except to do crime and tax evasion), and it's even failing as a crime system because the Feds have basically figured out how track the money (a bit above my pay grade) when they try. That leaves the ponzi scheme.
From what I can figure out, the latest flameout basically involves just stealing customer money, leveraging that, and watching it all disappear. The warning signs should have been, "how is what is basically a way for people to trade beanie babies for baseball cards worth $20 billion." Also beanie babies and baseball cards are real, so that would've been better.
Lots of aspects (including that SBF was working fast to set himself up quite the personal PR machine, semafor included and dabbling in politics in ways transparent and not), but really every time someone figures out how to obtain ridiculous amounts of leverage it is probably going to blow up. And our elites really should recognize they have more responsibility, with more consequences than a few jokes on the internet, when they do shit like this.
Tony Blair and Bill Clinton on the same stage (and SBF.) You don’t see that very often these days, eh? pic.twitter.com/Vt5pn6egHn
— Dan Keeler (@dankeeler) April 28, 2022
Sunday, November 13, 2022
DCCC
I don't know everything, but I've been hearing basically the same complaints about the DCCC forever. It's an incumbency protection racket, though some incumbents are more important than others. Fundraising is very much a priority. "Ability to fundraise" being a key thing for choosing new candidates, which means rich guys or people who know lots of rich guys. Certainly lefty candidates are not exactly welcomed. There's the Dem fetish for a former coptroopnatsec person.
None of these things are precisely wrong - all can be defensible - it's more about how much the various dials are turned. Of course it's going to focus on preserving the jobs of the members. Of course fundraising matters. Can always argue the coptroopnatsec person is more electable. Everyone loves a former coptroop!
DCCC head Maloney muscling out Mondaire Jones in his district, leading to both of them losing... Well that's sort of synthesis of all the bad impulses
None of these things are precisely wrong - all can be defensible - it's more about how much the various dials are turned. Of course it's going to focus on preserving the jobs of the members. Of course fundraising matters. Can always argue the coptroopnatsec person is more electable. Everyone loves a former coptroop!
DCCC head Maloney muscling out Mondaire Jones in his district, leading to both of them losing... Well that's sort of synthesis of all the bad impulses
Get Him, Ed
One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree. Auto safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you’re spending your time picking fights online. Fix your companies. Or Congress will. https://t.co/lE178gPRoM
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) November 13, 2022
MAGA Republicans
I didn't like this messaging at first, as initially it sounded (to me) like it was directed mostly at fringe, while preserving the myth of the Good Republican who will hopefully still be there once the fever breaks. But as it seemed to be applied more generally, I was happier with it.
I still don't like the Bidenesque "this isn't your father's Republican party" kind of stuff. But using MAGA Republicans generally seemed to work.Navin Nayak at @CAPAction: We were trying to figure out how to succinctly describe "GOP extremism" which was just a mouthful. Navin's smart research made a solid case for the phrase "MAGA Republicans." We immediately adopted this approach in all messaging.
— Ezra Levin (@ezralevin) November 12, 2022
A Triumphant Victory For The Forces Of Wokeness
I do want to restate that every political journalist had a pre-write sitting in the CMS about how, as usual, Democrats Were Out Of Touch With Real Americans, what with loving crime and having kids shit in litterboxes and treating trans people as human beings. No one really cares about democracy, why won't Joey shut about that? And then they just... couldn't run them.
Their intended narrative wasn't based on polls, just vibes. "Dems keeping the Senate" was a perfectly reasonable prediction given polling and the House is always a bit of a guess. With redistricting there was reason for pessimism, but again that's just guessing. There are never enough good polls. Again, I am not claiming a victory for full communism, but all the stuff the Right spent screeching about for the last several months, which journalists always echo, didn't work for them.
One thing I don't see remarked upon much is that despite the pretty undemocratic nature of the Senate - leaning heavily against the Democrats - they manage to keep it much of the time! Even now!
Their intended narrative wasn't based on polls, just vibes. "Dems keeping the Senate" was a perfectly reasonable prediction given polling and the House is always a bit of a guess. With redistricting there was reason for pessimism, but again that's just guessing. There are never enough good polls. Again, I am not claiming a victory for full communism, but all the stuff the Right spent screeching about for the last several months, which journalists always echo, didn't work for them.
One thing I don't see remarked upon much is that despite the pretty undemocratic nature of the Senate - leaning heavily against the Democrats - they manage to keep it much of the time! Even now!
Saturday, November 12, 2022
As I Have Been Saying All Along
One thing I try to point out is complicated outcomes usually don't have a single cause. There isn't precisely one reason Dems did better than all the highly paid politics knowers thought. I am not going to claim it is because they finally took my advice and embraced full communism.
I don't even have strong opinions on what they did right. My take is more that maybe people don't love it all that much when Republicans are assholes, and they haven't tried much else lately.
Just An Amazing Scene
I just can't stop laughing about all of this. I don't know which thing to highlight.
"Effective Altruism" was just branding for rich pricks, a philosophy of "we are actually the most moral people, because we are worried about the alien invasion of 3035 instead of real problems now."
Just absolute nonsense. I assume some money they passed around was put to good use, but just the logical manifestation of every TED talk about how rich people know better.
Just absolute nonsense. I assume some money they passed around was put to good use, but just the logical manifestation of every TED talk about how rich people know better.
Fawning Press
The crypto bro made a big splash out of political donations to Democrats, sabotaging progressives in the primary but disappearing for the general.
He ALSO threw a lot of money around the progressive media space.
Oh and then there's the Oxford philosophy professor.
I can't stop laughing and/or crying.
There are so many threads here.
Rich scammers just buying positive PR from Some Of Your Faves.
He ALSO threw a lot of money around the progressive media space.
Oh and then there's the Oxford philosophy professor.
I can't stop laughing and/or crying.
There are so many threads here.
Rich scammers just buying positive PR from Some Of Your Faves.
Morning
The complete convergence of "Musk, crypto, the worst bros in Tech and The Discourse" is coming at me too fast to process. Working on it but so much is happening!!! So many assholes!!!
Friday, November 11, 2022
Yggie's One Good Opinion
Because time passes weirdly when you get older, I had no idea Sotomayor was so old. She was just confirmed, like, yesterday (haha, no).
That you can hold this position for life doesn't mean you should.
That you can hold this position for life doesn't mean you should.
Afternoon
My computer spent like 4 hours updating and while I did have a couple of spicy posts it is probably better to hold off.
Republicans In Disarray
The Senate GOP leadership vote next week should be postponed
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 11, 2022
First we need to make sure that those who want to lead us are genuinely committed to fighting for the priorities & values of the working Americans (of every background) who gave us big wins in states like #Florida
I Suspect Elon Has Made A Big Mistake
Elon posts have never been the most popular ones here. They were a weird obession of mine to some extent. I get that. HOWEVER...
Big Money Corrupts
I don't "know" enough and I don't like to play journalist, but there is a lot more to this...
Your Honor I Did Crime, So Much Crime
Not as bad as Bill Clinton meeting the Loretta Lynch on the tarmac, but...
Maybe I missing it, but there is no 800 pt font headline on the NYT about this.
Thursday, November 10, 2022
Anxiety
Sometimes I don't check email for a couple of hours and what the fuck? People think I get a million blog-related emails but really that isn't it. Just the normal bullshit everybody gets.
What If - Hear Me Out - Democrats Are Popular?
I really do think that since 1994 the party has been apologizing for itself. Maybe I don't always make it clear enough, but "actually some of this stuff is popular and you should embrace it" is part of the basic lefty Dem critique. Maybe full communism isn't the way, but I think they are all a bit embarrassed by whatever the Republicans are snarling about on cable news that day and perhaps it's the Republicans who should be embarrassed.
Litter boxes? Just get on TV and mock that shit.
I regularly tell the tale of the ex-senator from Florida (ok it's been like 14 years so I will name him now as it wasn't even off the record- Bill Nelson) who explained that he couldn't support a minimum wage ballot initiative because if he did the Chamber of Commerce would nuke him with ads. His point wasn't that the minimum wage initiative was unpopular, it was that they'd run $10 million worth of ads calling him a pedo terrorist or whatever.
Litter boxes? Just get on TV and mock that shit.
I regularly tell the tale of the ex-senator from Florida (ok it's been like 14 years so I will name him now as it wasn't even off the record- Bill Nelson) who explained that he couldn't support a minimum wage ballot initiative because if he did the Chamber of Commerce would nuke him with ads. His point wasn't that the minimum wage initiative was unpopular, it was that they'd run $10 million worth of ads calling him a pedo terrorist or whatever.
Bullies
Repeating myself but political journalists really respect the bullies, the mean Daddies. It shapes all coverage.
The Blame Game
I suppose we all do it. This elections proves everything I believed, as I joked. But I actually want those annoying centrists to win! OK maybe not Maloney, that's just hilarious, but Clyburn - a senior Dem, not some weirdo blogger - running to the press for the pre-blame the day before the election demonstrates these guys want to lose!
Being in charge is hard. I think "assholes who run a blog" and similar care more about the outcome than many House reps.
Being in charge is hard. I think "assholes who run a blog" and similar care more about the outcome than many House reps.
Keep Fucking That Chicken
"Crime" is visible black and homeless people, and most people don't even experience those things.
Wednesday, November 09, 2022
The Median Voter Is Me
Probably not, but I actually do believe the median voter is closer to me. At least in the, "I don't always agree with that politician, but I respect someone who stands up for what they believe in" sense. Democrats apologizing for being Democrats has long been a problem.
Obviously These Results Confirm All Of My Beliefs
Joke, but I do think one of the political journalist beliefs is that Republicans are too gentlemanly to go full racist (and similar), but they always CAN and if they do the Dems are totally screwed. They love the Lee Atwater redemption arc and not for good reasons!!!
I think they are wrong about this. Republicans just appeal to their own horrible weirdos who would vote for them anyway, and the "normie" swing voters find it all a bit confusing. That 40% of the country are assholes is probably true, but it's still only 40%.
The Republican extended universe is actually quite weird. Because of the way political journalism is, it all sounds "normal" but actually these people are the weirdos! Enough people are like "what the fucking fuck" when you claim kids are shitting in litterboxes in schools because of pronouns.
I think they are wrong about this. Republicans just appeal to their own horrible weirdos who would vote for them anyway, and the "normie" swing voters find it all a bit confusing. That 40% of the country are assholes is probably true, but it's still only 40%.
The Republican extended universe is actually quite weird. Because of the way political journalism is, it all sounds "normal" but actually these people are the weirdos! Enough people are like "what the fucking fuck" when you claim kids are shitting in litterboxes in schools because of pronouns.
Senator Big Sweaty Lunk
I realized I didn't even have any predictions for yesterday. I don't mean I failed to BLOG them, I mean I just didn't have any in my head at all.
Feel a little bad for all the journalists who had to put down their drinks and re-write their pre-writes (no I don't). This was not the story they were all trying to tell!
Feel a little bad for all the journalists who had to put down their drinks and re-write their pre-writes (no I don't). This was not the story they were all trying to tell!
Tuesday, November 08, 2022
Everything Gets Worse
It doesn't, really, but the "I've seen it all before" aspect of getting old is annoying. A billion works of fiction have been written about, basically, "wow, getting old sorta sucks," and no one seems to hear it.
Big Day
I wish I had more to say. The results are important but we will not know them instantly. "If Democrats lose America will be a shitshow" is not a fact that has been communicated.
Pre-Writes
I have no idea what will happen today, but remember how Bretbug wrote a column about the major ELECTION DISAPPOINTMENT for Democrats and the NYT kept editing it?
Journalists are phoning it in by 9PM EST.
Journalists are phoning it in by 9PM EST.
Fight the Power
I think once upon a time I thought I could shape a few headlines, move a few votes. I feel pretty powerless these days. Don't know which view was more correct.
Monday, November 07, 2022
Well He Is Dumb But Not That Dumb
There's something slightly hilarious about the fact that there's going to be precisely one Republican running for president because they are all scared of Trump calling them "Crappy Cotton" or some similar nickname that cable news hosts will repeat.
Early And Often
I run the elections board in Philadelphia, and our policy is you get to vote as many times as you want!
If any conservatives still read this site they'd probably get this post on Fox News in about an hour.
If any conservatives still read this site they'd probably get this post on Fox News in about an hour.
Elon This Is Your Lawyer Never Ever Stop Posting
He is so dumb. That he conned so many politicians along the way says nothing good about them!
Sunday, November 06, 2022
You Heard It Hear First
I am dumb about some things and predictions, especially about the future, are hard, but "elon sucks" has been a lonely thing for many years.
Saturday, November 05, 2022
My Work Is Done
Sadly I can't claim much credit, but at least everyone knows what an asshole fraud Elon is now!!!
Friday, November 04, 2022
Friday Night
Maybe (maybe!) I should stop leaving you guessing about when am trolling with the videos.
This is a Stars song from 2005, which in old man terms is "new music". To me it's "one song this good is a life accomplishment." My music preferences mostly don't involve engaging with lyrics, but there are some exceptions. Having the "youth choir" do a cover of a song about randomly meeting your former one night stand in a taxi is funny!
The original:
The original:
When The Bullshit Is Too Much For Politico
There's always Axios.
Scoop: Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee will release a 1,000-page document on Friday detailing allegations of politicization of the FBI & DOJ Justice Department under the Biden administration https://t.co/PiGLDDNrtx
— Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) November 4, 2022
1,000 of the 1,050 pages are copies of letters Rs have sent to the Biden administration — including 94 copies of the same five page letter to all US attorneys. https://t.co/I0Erhs2u9n
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 4, 2022
Baby Steps
Between Doctors Oz and Phil, Oprah has some work to do.
“At the beginning of the midterm campaigns, I said it was up to citizens to vote for who would represent them. If I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for @JohnFetterman." - Oprah https://t.co/WxPNdZYq4s
— Oprah Daily (@OprahDaily) November 4, 2022
Compromising On Race
Shadi's one of the dumbest people on the planet, but he represents Brookings which gives him respectability.
GOTTA GET MORE RACIST!!!!!!!!
Never expressed is how exactly they're supposed to do this, because the "how" is of course horrific in practice.I didn't say build a cross-ideological coalition. I said to "try," in other words at least make a good faith effort not to alienate/undermine mainstream, non-denialist GOP voters and candidates. On abortion, race, and gender identity, there wasn't even the pretense of a big tent.
— Shadi Hamid (@shadihamid) November 3, 2022
GOTTA GET MORE RACIST!!!!!!!!
Objectitudinal Journalism
Thanks, Jack, for the bird app showing us they are who we think they are.
(Senior National Political Correspondent Washington Post)George Will offers a pretty devastating takedown of Biden and Harris today, but especially Harris — who, he writes, "sounds like someone giving a book report on a book she has not read." https://t.co/wjG94jRJLC
— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) November 2, 2022
Musk'd
Still waiting for a single "maybe printing Tesla releases wasn't my finest moment as a journalist" piece.
Thursday, November 03, 2022
Speaking of Violating The Rich People Rule
They aren't like us. Imagine having this scandal coming at you and think, "buh...mah money!!!"
CBS and its former president, Leslie Moonves, will pay $30.5m as part of an agreement with the New York attorney general’s office, which says the network’s executives conspired with a Los Angeles police captain to conceal sexual assault allegations against Moonves.Defund the police! (Sorry, I just lost the election).