Saturday, December 31, 2022
The Year In Tech
A thing I don't think is appreciated enough is that most of what we call "tech" really isn't. Everything requires people programming the computers now. "Silicon Valley rich guys throwing money at it" doesn't make it tech. "Uber, but for buses" and all those things aren't really "tech" in the year of our Gritty, 2022. Ponzi schemes aren't "tech." Putting hamburgers on the blockchain doesn't make it "tech."
Maybe no precise definition, but "tech" in this sense does seem to entail some level of innovation beyond, "a new product idea, but with smartphones."
Maybe no precise definition, but "tech" in this sense does seem to entail some level of innovation beyond, "a new product idea, but with smartphones."
The Benedict Option
Pope Benedict died. I remember when he became pope he was a bit controversial (they all are, of course, to someone, but a bit more controversial than that) and the "word" was that oh no big deal he's sick he'll die soon anyway so don't worry about it. Then he resigned for reasons never quite clearly explained in 2013 (yes everyone can tell you why, but not *really* why) and lived to be 95.
Friday, December 30, 2022
The Main Characters
Precisely why is complicated, but it is the case that Republicans/conservatives are always The Main Characters of the story of politics as told by political journalists. One example of this is how they all flocked to cover the annual CPAC conference year after year, documenting activities and gossip of even extremely minor characters in the conservative world. Though of course this helped to promote these people, helping to make the conservative movement a Grifter's Paradise for years.
Like we know what Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro have for lunch every day, but not, um, I dunno, there's no precise equivalent on The Left for the reasons in the paragraph above, but I don't know what David Dayen usually eats.
Like we know what Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro have for lunch every day, but not, um, I dunno, there's no precise equivalent on The Left for the reasons in the paragraph above, but I don't know what David Dayen usually eats.
Or Hear Me Out
He just stole all the money.
Before his FTX cryptocurrency empire collapsed, many of Sam Bankman-Fried’s public statements indicated that he made decisions “as though he had no risk aversion,” according to Victor Haghani, the founder and chief investment officer of Elm Partners Management and a co-founder of the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund.This is the "effective altruism (his deeply held personal beliefs) led him to make these bets because the future is just so gosh darn important" argument, which was always ridiculous but should've been erased after it became clear he (allegedly) STOLE ALL THE MONEY.
Oh No Someone Tried To Put Politics Into My Politics
Always the most hilarious "criticism," though one which political reporters love to take seriously.
Text from an insider in NY politics: “The so called progressives have now completely politicized the selection of chief judge.” https://t.co/GUkPRnbOVv
— Gerson Borrero (@GersonBorrero) December 30, 2022
Oh, Elon
Twitter offices in disarray.
At Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, where the company has missed rent payments, Mr. Musk has done the same, consolidating workers onto two floors and closing four. He also canceled janitorial services this month, after those workers went on strike for better wages.
That has left the office in disarray. With people packed into more confined spaces, the smell of leftover takeout food and body odor has lingered on the floors, according to four current and former employees. Bathrooms have grown dirty, these people said. And because janitorial services have largely been ended, some workers have resorted to bringing their own rolls of toilet paper from home.
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Use It Or Lose It
Scalia's "Major Questions" doctrine is just another "Democrat laws we don't like aren't real" argument, but there is a tendency to leave clear statutory authority on the table while looking to Congress to pass "no we really mean it enforce this law clearly in this specific way because you won't do it with the general authority we passed."
Decades of the executive branch just not acting like it for various reasons. It isn't wrong to hope that Democratic administrations change that. "Don't make things worse faster" is not enough!
Decades of the executive branch just not acting like it for various reasons. It isn't wrong to hope that Democratic administrations change that. "Don't make things worse faster" is not enough!
I Suspect He Doesn't Always Tell The Truth
Of course if he is being dishonest it's the kind of thing the SEC should get upset about but lol they are out of the habit of doing anything like every other regulatory agency.
The Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, has said he will not sell any more of the electric car company’s stock for about two years.I suppose he could just be putting up increasing amounts of it as collateral.
I'm So Old
I can (barely) remember when if your flights got cancelled they'd rebook you on another airline, or bus the whole planeload to a hotel for the night. The point with the latter isn't just *the cost* - though of course it's that - it's that they took care of it for you. Just another layer of worry for everyone all the time now.
I'm old but it wasn't *that long ago*. A better world is possible!
I'm old but it wasn't *that long ago*. A better world is possible!
It Doesn't Have To Be This Way
I don't even really want to pick on Paul here, but the DOT does have lots of unused authority and some people complaining know that! I don't expect Elaine Chao to do anything good, but I do expect her Dem successor to go into office learning what good he can do!
A thing about the internet is plenty of people on it (like me!) can actually rattle off all the former useless Secs of Transportation.
The gang at TAP have been doing the good work of letting us know all the things that the executive branch can, AKSHUALLY, do.
Also if we want to embrace Buttigieg branded technocratic liberalism, we should put some actual technocrats who know the laws in these positions and not, you know, Pete. Could do something with the job other than cable news hits, my guy.It's so weird that people who don't like Pete Buttigieg have suddenly decided that secretary of transportation is a position with limitless power, such that even the president's authority pales in comparison. I mean...really? Quick, name three prior secretaries of transportation.
— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) December 29, 2022
A thing about the internet is plenty of people on it (like me!) can actually rattle off all the former useless Secs of Transportation.
The gang at TAP have been doing the good work of letting us know all the things that the executive branch can, AKSHUALLY, do.
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Can't Wave Away The Problems
For various reasons I'm a bit of a skeptic on the whole "electric car" thing. Skeptical that replacing the country's fleet of gas vehicles in under 15 years (or so) is realistic. The battery fireballs are one reason. The problem with urban charging stations - difficult to have enough in places where significant numbers of people don't have off street parking - is another. The reality of cobalt mining is yet another.
The charging station problem especially seems to be one where the answer is, "oh, we'll figure it out," and I'm not sure they will!!! Tesla Superchargers optimistically get your battery to 80% in 15 minutes, which makes the "gas station" model for charging not yet realistic.
The self-driving "it will go charge itself" model obviously isn't happening.
Maybe there are solutions, but they are not problems that will simply solve themselves.
The charging station problem especially seems to be one where the answer is, "oh, we'll figure it out," and I'm not sure they will!!! Tesla Superchargers optimistically get your battery to 80% in 15 minutes, which makes the "gas station" model for charging not yet realistic.
The self-driving "it will go charge itself" model obviously isn't happening.
Maybe there are solutions, but they are not problems that will simply solve themselves.
Can't Reform This
During natural disasters, "looting" is quite often "people getting what they need to survive from closed stores."
Do we save people from dying or do we stop people from taking some diapers from a closed CVS? Not a tough choice, apparently!Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said the department has had to divert resources away from recovery missions because the crime that is occurring cannot be ignored. https://t.co/NYb2wI2TJT
— 7 News WKBW (@WKBW) December 27, 2022
Innocent Me
I used to be a bit more optimistic that "improving airline service" would happen because relatively wealthy people fly, both for personal reasons and for business. Sure some of the indignities of cattle class can be bypassed (such as with the "special" security lines), but 1st class doesn't fly if the rest of the plane doesn't fly.
But now all the people who really matter fly private planes. Even first class is for losers.
But now all the people who really matter fly private planes. Even first class is for losers.
Haven't We Been Here Before
Pete's going to keep writing sternly worded letters while doing 17 cable news hits per day.
(CNN) — With millions of travelers expected to rush airports over the Labor Day holiday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is telling major airlines that this summer's thousands of flight cancellations are not acceptable.
Sure, Whatever
I do get the impression that the Supremos have finally defeated the armies of public Legal Scholars And Journalists who would eagerly jump to explain why the latest decision AKSHUALLY fit perfectly into some longstanding legal "doctrine" that you could only understand if you were as brilliant as Scalia.
For years, the prominent journalists covering the Court were as embedded as Barbara Starr was with the Pentagon. Should make them pay for their own PR.
For years, the prominent journalists covering the Court were as embedded as Barbara Starr was with the Pentagon. Should make them pay for their own PR.
Lithium Fires
That the government didn't shut down Tesla's "autopilot" years ago (hello, Mayor Pete, could you interrupt your not doing anything about the airlines to doing something about this) is a testament to how "doing absolutely nothing with the legal power available" is the default position of Dems, but aside from that, the lithium battery fires aren't just a Tesla problem. A punctured battery is likely to cause a fireball that no amount of water can put out.
Tuesday, December 27, 2022
All I Want For Christmas Is $TSLAQ
OK just a little late for Xmas, but Elon deserves it for those stupid fucking tunnels.
Innovation!
Capitalism's working great.
for each one to individually call scheduling to tell them where they are. Their phone lines are swamped and I’ve seen screenshots of crew on hold for 23+ hours trying to get through to scheduling.
— Ben (@JustAnother_Ben) December 27, 2022
Good Job, Everybody
I know this is mostly on the anti-vaxxers, but the move to take the "public" out of "public health" was not limited to them.
A rapidly growing measles outbreak in Columbus, Ohio — largely involving unvaccinated children — is fueling concerns among health officials that more parent resistance to routine childhood immunizations will intensify a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases.
Most of the 81 children infected so far are old enough to get the shots, but their parents chose not to do so, officials said, resulting in the country’s largest outbreak of the highly infectious pathogen this year.
Sounds Bad
I was informed by a guy at Vox whose salary was paid by money from SBF that all of this was just "profound failures of judgment."
So many Effective Altruism marks. And why not? It paid their bills!!!Prosecutors have alleged, and two of SBF's closest associates have admitted, that much of Alameda's money was stolen from the FTX crypto exchange.
— kadhim (＾ï½°^)ノ (@kadhim) December 27, 2022
In turn, Alameda extended huge sums to SBF personally. Here's one 'promissory note' for $316mn: https://t.co/bO1gJMHly6 pic.twitter.com/qAo222KtpQ
Monday, December 26, 2022
Tell Them A Brown Person Did It
Any suspicion that it was "that kind of terrorism" would put the country on high alert.
Four electricity substations in the Tacoma, Washington, area were attacked Sunday, affecting thousands of customers, authorities said.
Bad Boys
Both NYC and LA have absolutely immense police budgets. After being in LA for a bit I will point to one strange difference - in NYC there are like 47 cops on every corner in "busy" areas, and in LA they're invisible (I'm staying in DTLA).
Might be best they're invisible, but where does that money go?
Might be best they're invisible, but where does that money go?
People Are Made Of People
I really don't understand how so many people are completely unencumbered by the slightest impulse to be decent. I don't just mean the asshole governor who is doing it, I mean the people who are cheering it on and the reporters who can only see it as "savvy."
Children, too. All just NPCs in the politics game to reporters, and ways of Owning the Libs to Republicans.
Children, too. All just NPCs in the politics game to reporters, and ways of Owning the Libs to Republicans.
Blogger Ate My Posts
That hasn't happened in awhile. I scheduled two BRILLIANT posts so I could sleep in and poof they vanished.
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Saturday, December 24, 2022
Qwhite Nice
People rot in Rikers because they don't have $600, and then some people get out on "TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS" bail without paying a cent.
Lost His Mojo
Elon used to be a little bit good at the con game, but recently he went for the "guy dressed up as a robot dancing." Guy lost it awhile ago.
Nobody Wants To Live In This Shithole
I don't think it's pointed out enough that for decades the people who ran US cities in various capacity often thought residents were a nuisance, those who were Left Behind, people who were only still there because they couldn't afford to go anywhere else. Cities were for workers, for commuters, and all policy was aimed at Attracting Jerbs and suburban cultural visitors.
So many times I'd look up where an important Philly person lived (electeds and similar), and it'd be an address in the suburban fringes of the city, just within the city lines.
Nothing wrong with living in those places, it was just that it was clear they were in the city because of their careers, didn't really want to be there, and didn't believe anyone else did either.
There's already a place for suburban office parks, and they have better access and parking.
So many times I'd look up where an important Philly person lived (electeds and similar), and it'd be an address in the suburban fringes of the city, just within the city lines.
Nothing wrong with living in those places, it was just that it was clear they were in the city because of their careers, didn't really want to be there, and didn't believe anyone else did either.
There's already a place for suburban office parks, and they have better access and parking.
It sounds obvious, but a host of U.S. urban policies suggest many elected officials still have not gotten the message. Why aren’t strollers allowed on all New York City buses? Why do transit schedules and routes prioritize rush-hour downtown commuters? Why do schools start before sunrise? Why do city streets remain so dangerous for children? Why are benches for older people so few and far between? Why does zoning forbid small units to accommodate households that don’t resemble typical nuclear families?Linked piece is New York specific and not quite as I would write it, but generally quality of life for residents instead of visitors should be more of a priority.
Friday, December 23, 2022
Afternoon Thread
Been busy with various obligations this week and also on WEST COAST TIME which absolutely sucks, but trying to keep this thing going.
The Blue People Movie
OK I did go watch Avatar 2. At that famous LA theater, no less, with all the features.
I suspect I am ageing out of such things so I am not a superfan, but James Cameron is very very good at this type of thing and most people doing movies with a lot of effects aren't (to what extent that is just skill and effort and to what extent it's budget and studio granted freedom is fair to debate, I suppose, but the result is the same).
All movie effects are very pretty now because that part isn't especially hard, but seeing them used by someone who clearly put a lot of effort into doing it right makes you realize that they're mostly just updated versions of matte painting backgrounds and often not very well integrated.
I suspect I am ageing out of such things so I am not a superfan, but James Cameron is very very good at this type of thing and most people doing movies with a lot of effects aren't (to what extent that is just skill and effort and to what extent it's budget and studio granted freedom is fair to debate, I suppose, but the result is the same).
All movie effects are very pretty now because that part isn't especially hard, but seeing them used by someone who clearly put a lot of effort into doing it right makes you realize that they're mostly just updated versions of matte painting backgrounds and often not very well integrated.
He's A Very Dumb Guy
Elon Musk keeps showing up in Twitter "Spaces" (a conference call type feature) where someone manages to ask him an actual question and he sounds like an idiot and completely loses his shit.
Decade+ of every single promminent reporter not managing to do this or notice he's a fucking idiot. Weird!!!
Decade+ of every single promminent reporter not managing to do this or notice he's a fucking idiot. Weird!!!
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS
The answer to this seems to be the "$250 million" is bullshit. Sam and his parents are theoretically on the hook if he runs, but they can't pay what they don't have. They just signed the paper pinky swearing.
Thursday, December 22, 2022
Corruption
Corruption is a systemic thing. Individuals can be corrupt, of course, but that doesn't matter all that much. It's the corruption that is so widespread that no one can talk about it without implicating their friends and colleagues (or themselves), where speaking up will only result in you being squashed.
Everybody went very silent on Sean McElwee, a man who had a puff pieces written about him every other month and was for a couple of years The Official Voice Of The Left (because he was, while On The Left, a Very Serious Person who was Very Pragmatic unlike the rest of the smelly lefties).
Don't wait for any public reflection from those who promoted him. One possibly very corrupt guy, but he has lots of friends!
Everybody went very silent on Sean McElwee, a man who had a puff pieces written about him every other month and was for a couple of years The Official Voice Of The Left (because he was, while On The Left, a Very Serious Person who was Very Pragmatic unlike the rest of the smelly lefties).
Don't wait for any public reflection from those who promoted him. One possibly very corrupt guy, but he has lots of friends!
Popularism!
Two years of the past Discourse - and many decisions - explained.
McElwee had easy access to the White House and the press. And he made sure they had access to him. He kept an open Slack channel at DFP that became a rolling conversation between McElwee, Biden administration officials and some well-known reporters — a kind of JournoList for the early 2020s.
Time For Some Game Theory
SBF did not play the optimal Prisoner's Dilemma strategy.
FTX co-founder and former CTO Gary Wang and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison have pled guilty to charges related to their roles in fraud that contributed to the collapse of FTX, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Wednesday night.In the early post-Bankruptcy days he was trying to not-so-subtly pin it all on her, but she was smarter and ran to the Feds!
Both Wang and Ellison are cooperating with Justice Department's investigation, Williams said.
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
How The World Works
I don't really understand, to be honest.
Meanwhile, the new management at SBF’s old company told creditors at a procedural bankruptcy hearing on Tuesday that they have now located and identified over $1.2 billion in cash assets. The new management team led by bankruptcy specialist John Ray has been working to retrieve hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from hundreds of different bank accounts.
Do The Kids Not Even Know Who Dinesh D'Souza Is
Really can't believe they were (maybe) this dumb.
NEWS: Ethan Winter, a political analyst @DataProgress, has resigned from the organization, people familiar with the move tell me.
— Brian Schwartz (@schwartzbCNBC) December 21, 2022
He was asked to resign after these seemingly bizarre campaign contributions came to light.
Per reports,@SeanMcElwee is also out at the organization https://t.co/qBApffOSWL
Elites
There's resistance in the commentariat any time legal jeopardy gets near one of their own because, well, "that could be me" after all. Or one of mine. Or just someone I identify with.
Everybody in DC is somebody's "Safeway buddy."
The Urban EV Problem
There is no good solution to this problem, which advocates have been waving away, and the "solutions" - which will not actually solve the problem - are bad!
It’s the most predictable thing in urban land use but electric car advocacy is very rapidly going to become a powerful opponent of infill housing and safe streets because they need a shit-ton of parking spots with vehicle chargers to achieve their dream of electric sprawl.
— (((Matthew Lewis))) progressive federalism SOS (@mateosfo) December 21, 2022
And There It Is
It's always the ones you most suspect.
How does this happen? Total mystery.
Inside of a decade, McElwee had gone from being an intern at a libertarian think tank to being heralded as an avatar of a rising generation of millennial leftists, eventually advising both the White House and a billionaire his age. The past few dizzying years culminated in an even more dizzying month when his relationship with Bankman-Fried suddenly became a liability and, in an echo of the criminal charges against the disgraced billionaire, he was fired by the organization he founded for allegedly pressuring an employee into being a straw donor for Democratic causes.The influence of a group of people who were, quite obviously, completely corrupt, on The Discourse and on politicians over the past couple of years was very large!
How does this happen? Total mystery.
As the midterms ticked closer, McElwee’s employees were growing uneasy. Data for Progress had been at the left vanguard of politics, but as his star rose, the firm was pulled into the mainstream, working for the Democratic Party’s congressional-campaign arms. Its founder was increasingly vocal about what he saw as the excesses of the kind of progressive politics the firm was formed to support.A clique of Smartest Boys in the Room were on the take in various ways (not necessarily illegal, and not necessarily corrupt-by-DC-standards, but certainly corrupt) and they all echoed this "excess of progressive politics" nonsense.
Lock'Em Up
These types of "laws" tend not to come with any type of enforcement penalties because, well, who would disobey them?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS failed to pursue mandatory audits of Donald Trump on a timely basis during his presidency, a congressional panel found on Tuesday, raising questions about statements by the former president and leading members of his administration who claimed he could not release his tax filings because of the ongoing reviews.Still have to figure out how to deal with "the corruption of the entire executive branch" which isn't supposed to happen. All these agencies have a bit too much independence, in my opinion, the point of which is to prevent various types of corruption and too much governance by whim. If that's all trivial to bypass anyway...
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
$TSLAQ
For awhile there was a twitter community betting/rooting for Tesla to go bankrupt. They were basicallly right but Elon managed one more con to keep it going and then he mastered turning Tesla into a ridiculous hype/meme stock.
One doesn't have to have my especially negative views of the man to observe that even after going down down down, Tesla is still absurdly overvalued.
Line goes down!
Mitchmentum
Reporters (in this case Blake Hounshell, one of the ex-Politico gang who took over the NYT's political reporting) are such marks.
Daniels parrots back banal nonsense political reporter believes (or claims to), political reporter calls it "intriguing."
Oh No The House Republicans Might Force Joe Biden To Release His Tax Returns
That fucking newspaper.
Line Goes Down
Watching Tesla stock drop has moved from one of my little joys to the national pastime.
Increasingly convinced "Musk buying twitter" really is my monkey's paw wish that everyone would understand what a dumb asshole Musk is coming true.
Increasingly convinced "Musk buying twitter" really is my monkey's paw wish that everyone would understand what a dumb asshole Musk is coming true.
Lock'em Up!
I am a bad blogger for not following the minutiae of the 1/6 committee, but I suppose I've just decided not to worry my beautiful mind about investigations and process. Always happy to be wrong, but the record of holding DC elites accountable for anything, anything at all, is not very good!
Just ask Michael Beschloss, 2007 version!
This is progress, as we had decades of Presidential Historians and DC pundits telling us that Ford was the bravest, noblest man for sacrificing his re-election to pardon that crook so The Nation Could Move Forward or whatever nonsense they peddled. Suggesting otherwise marked you as crazy a crazy person as much as opposing the Iraq war did.Today shows that a mistake was made in pardoning Nixon and sparing him prosecution and possibly jail. Had Nixon had to face more dire consequences than exile, it would have presented an important admonition to later Presidents that they could not break the law without suffering.
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) December 19, 2022
Just ask Michael Beschloss, 2007 version!
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: Gerald Ford pardoning Nixon, I think, was courageous, and in retrospect, wise. And one of the things that I think is actually quite lovely is that Gerald Ford said, before he died, that one of the things that emotionally meant the most to him was getting the Profile In Courage Award, because it made him feel that, despite the fact that he had gone through all that flack and people denouncing him, saying, “Did you make a secret deal with Nixon to get the presidency in exchange for a pardon?” he felt that in the end, he had been vindicated. And one thing that’s sort of pointed about history is that oftentimes people are not with honor in their time. And the nice thing with Ford is that he lived to see it. And Alan and I, I think you were not on the Committee, we were not here then.
Monday, December 19, 2022
Because He Paid Them
Money to Vox, Semafor, ProPublica, The Intercept, numerous journalism-adjacent people (regular sources), and probably many things we don't know. Weird to leave that out!
The biggest question prompted by this apology tour is: why did so many apparently serious media outfits let him get away with it?Sure basic "rich people worship" is part of it, but certainly helps when that rich person is known for sprinkling money around to your friends!!!
He's Just A Really Dumb Guy
Sure Elon might be motivated by "information theory" or whatever but it's like if Trump heard something about "information theory" and then acted on it.
Was Elon always this dumb? I dunno. He was certainly never the SUPERGENIUS of his myth. He's a rich guy who hasn't done "the reading" in decades, but assumes he knows it all and assumes everyone else knows nothing.
You can see how all these "tech" (really "money") guys talk on social media and in quotes to the press. They know the bumper sticker versions of pop science concepts and think it makes them Nobel candidates. It's enough to impress journalists, usually!
Was Elon always this dumb? I dunno. He was certainly never the SUPERGENIUS of his myth. He's a rich guy who hasn't done "the reading" in decades, but assumes he knows it all and assumes everyone else knows nothing.
You can see how all these "tech" (really "money") guys talk on social media and in quotes to the press. They know the bumper sticker versions of pop science concepts and think it makes them Nobel candidates. It's enough to impress journalists, usually!
Oppo Research
Seems like the DNC insider guy who ran against him should've picked up on this stuff during the campaign!!!
But a New York Times review of public documents and court filings from the United States and Brazil, as well as various attempts to verify claims that Mr. Santos, 34, made on the campaign trail, calls into question key parts of the résumé that he sold to voters.New York Dems are just useless. Campaign spent $3 million +. SKDKnickerbocker got some cash at least. Hilary Rosen needed a new boat.
Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, the marquee Wall Street firms on Mr. Santos’s campaign biography, told The Times they had no record of his ever working there. Officials at Baruch College, which Mr. Santos has said he graduated from in 2010, could find no record of anyone matching his name and date of birth graduating that year.
As this message & Newsday state, I'll be a moderate voice with clear priorities to deliver results for the people of #NY03, unlike my extremist opponent. I'll fight for tax cuts for families, funding for law enforcement, tougher gun laws, & ensuring that abortion is safe & legal. pic.twitter.com/bLZOQJwIVb
— Robert Zimmerman for Congress (@ZimmermanforNY) November 3, 2022
The Only Good Tech Weirdo
Myspace Tom sold to Murdoch for half a billion and then left the internet behind and traveled the world, as rich weirdos should.
Depends who you get to run it ! 🤔
— Tom Anderson (@myspacetom) December 19, 2022
Sunday, December 18, 2022
I Hate West Coast Time
To avoid insanity I eventually started keeping myself on some sort of schedule on this very fine blog. Being 3 hours earlier than East Coast time means I always feel like I'm late, as in "7 AM, already very late for work."
Sammy, Have You Ever Been In An American Prison?
Not sure it will be better, but I have no idea.
Dec 17 (Reuters) - Former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to appear in court in the Bahamas on Monday to reverse his decision to contest extradition to the United States, where he faces fraud charges, a person familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
The Main Character For The Holidays
Not much news other than Lonnie's shenanigans and I am doing my best not to contribute to the man's narcissism.
Still useful to remember how we got here (this is about Musk, but really it's about all elite journalism).
Still useful to remember how we got here (this is about Musk, but really it's about all elite journalism).
He’s obviously a visionary. I prefer dealing with him to others because he gives you genuine answers. He will call you back.By *you* Swisher means *her*. The man's a visionary, and he calls her back. Perhaps because he calls her back.
Saturday, December 17, 2022
Real People Are Impacted
DeSantis's stunt trying to prosecute people for voting should be enough to horrify his DC reporter fan club, but all that matters to them is whether or not it's savvy.It should be said that with each performative stunt, Gov DeSantis puts his own personal political agenda ahead of the well-being of people living in his own state.
— Brandon Richards (@BrandonRichards) December 17, 2022
Real people are harmed, and that’s not what people should come to expect from their elected officials much less Gov https://t.co/rASGTmZOBH
AVATAR
I actually never saw the first one. Missed in the theaters for whatever reason, and then watched about 20 minutes on DVD and was completely bored.
Use this thread to discuss your own exciting Avatar experiences, or anything else.
Use this thread to discuss your own exciting Avatar experiences, or anything else.
Berserker
It shouldn't take an idiot manchild like Musk to provide a warning about the perils of allowing individuals to accumulate that much wealth, but he is making it slightly harder to give him the usual worshipful media coverage.
That fucking newspaper is still trying hard, though.
Friday, December 16, 2022
Mods! Mods!
Not that I think what Musk is doing is Good, but I admit I'm laughing at the kind of haughty pleading from journalists.
“We are concerned about news reports that journalists who have covered recent developments involving Twitter and its owner, Elon Musk, have had their accounts on the platform suspended. If confirmed as retaliation for their work, this would be a serious violation of journalists’ right to report the news without fear of reprisal.”
A spokesman for the New York Times called the suspensions “questionable and unfortunate” in a statement Thursday night.
“Neither The Times nor Ryan have received any explanation about why this occurred,” said Charlie Stadtlander. “We hope that all of the journalists’ accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action.”
What If They Work But They're Really Annoying
I think Sam was the first person who really made this crystal clear, that even if autonomous cars sorta "work" they'll be unpleasant and people won't really want to use them and they'll be annoying to passengers and other vehicles.
U.S. automotive safety officials have opened a formal probe into the autonomous driving system used by General Motors' self-driving vehicle unit Cruise.These aren't really "incidents" so much as "baked into how they function." This is how they make them "safe!"
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has received complaints about the self-driving vehicles – retrofitted Chevrolet Bolt EVs – engaging in "inappropriately hard braking" or becoming "immobilized while operating," according to a filing.
Officials said although the two types of incidents appear to be separate from one another, they each result in the Cruise vehicles becoming unexpected roadway obstacles.
What Happened To You, Man, You Changed Since My Last Puff Piece
Everyone discovering "my" Elon has been funny!
Thursday, December 15, 2022
Cooties
It's too simple to say things are "getting better" or "getting worse" in various areas, but it is definitely the case that a kind and level of bigotry that would have made people not just CANCELLED but radioactive does not seem to anymore!
Profound Failures In Judgment
Still amazed at all the cult members suggesting the guy who was paying their bills was just a victim of some philosophical errors and bad judgment. He took something that was nothing but fraud to beign with (crypto) and then just stole all the money! It was all fraud!
There were no financial statements at FTX; invoicing was done through QuickBooks and Slack messages, a shockingly crude process for a multibillion-dollar company. Executives had access to customer assets through special “back doors” and private keys, which they used to acquire funds and separately make hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate and other purchases. “Insiders,” per Ray’s testimony, were able to receive loans and payments of over $1 billion. In the hearing, Ray said that on one loan, Bankman-Fried signed as the issuer and the recipient. All of this is right out of what I imagine would be a Fisher-Price “My First Fraud” manual.Really the entire thing was:
1) Get rich VC guys who high on their own farts and whatever else to give him money
2) Use money to fund a massive PR effort to get people writing nice things about him. Use the word "philosophical" and "altruism" a lot. Focus on Harvard inbreds, they're the best marks.
3) Use money to get politicians to turn "being a crook" into "not being a crook" (got pretty close here!), with the help of the journalists in 2)
4) Fill a box with fake money, and have people give you real money for it
5) Steal the real money
"Accuses"
I haven't watch this, but there are two possbilities.
1) The UK press just makes up everything
2) The Firm was planting a bunch of negative stories.
(Why not both, also, of course)
The funny thing is the UK tabs desperately want to to run "Harry and Meghan are liars" stories, so they're going with the "actually, we're a bunch of liars" implicitly, hoping their readers won't notice and, more importantly, that their supposedly more respectable colleagues won't point this out.
The UK press is like Maggie Haberman (supposedly respectable) tweeting out links to the New York Post all day every day. There is no divide between the tabs and the broadsheets.
1) The UK press just makes up everything
2) The Firm was planting a bunch of negative stories.
(Why not both, also, of course)
The funny thing is the UK tabs desperately want to to run "Harry and Meghan are liars" stories, so they're going with the "actually, we're a bunch of liars" implicitly, hoping their readers won't notice and, more importantly, that their supposedly more respectable colleagues won't point this out.
The UK press is like Maggie Haberman (supposedly respectable) tweeting out links to the New York Post all day every day. There is no divide between the tabs and the broadsheets.
Surely No One Could Be That Monstrous
The general problem of, "you can't tell people just how horrible Republican policies are because they won't believe you."
But here’s where it gets interesting: A huge majority of voters [in Tennessee], 75%, want abortion to be legal in cases of rape and incest. That’s not surprising, we see numbers like that in most states. But here’s the thing: Less than 20% of the people in Tennessee know that the state’s abortion ban has no exceptions.
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Free PR For The World's Con Men
I keep going back to this bit in the New Yorker about Effective Altruism's Captain of the Sea Organization, SBF pal, beneficiary, and humble monk, William MacAskill, in the New Yorker.
MacAskill limits his personal budget to about twenty-six thousand pounds a year, and gives everything else away.The piece includes some criticsm, but fronts with credulous fluffing, including the title.
The Reluctant Prophet of Effective AltruismSure he's reluctant.
Last year, the Centre for Effective Altruism bought Wytham Abbey, a palatial estate near Oxford, built in 1480.Easy to limit you "personal budget" to little if everything is paid for!!!
Integritude
"Crypto" as a political thing has been largely conservative, but of course smart operators know that for various reasons you have to spread the money around. Plenty of your faves took the cash and while it is certainly not correct to see Crypto fraud as a Dem thing - even with SBF's high profile association with the party (whatever else he was doing) - one reason to spread the money around is it corrupts everyone.
Mind The Very Large Gap
Amazing scenes.
Wearing a baseball cap with FTX’s logo, Mr. Bankman walked onstage to help announce the winners of two $500,000 checks. Behind the scenes, he played the role of FTX diplomat, introducing his son to the head of a Florida nonprofit organization that was helping adults in the area set up bank accounts linked to the crypto exchange’s platform. Two months later, Mr. Bankman-Fried promoted the partnership in testimony to Congress, where he was pushing crypto-friendly legislation.Oh no. Gossip. The greatest consequence imaginable to that fucking paper (this is a bit unfair, but is that really worth mentioning?). Mind the Gap? Don't remember that one. Ah.
The couple’s careers have been upended. Ms. Fried, 71, resigned last month as chairwoman of the board of a political donor network, Mind the Gap, which she had helped start to support Democratic campaigns and causes. Mr. Bankman, 67, has postponed a Stanford class he had been scheduled to teach in the winter, and he’s recruited a white-collar criminal defense lawyer to represent him. The family faces huge legal bills, and they have become the subject of gossip on Stanford’s campus.
A secretive group led by Stanford University academics has unleashed millions of dollars in political spending from Silicon Valley and is now convincing some of its biggest donors to spend millions more to back Democrats in 2020.Sure at first pass "electing Democrats" is good but that article doesn't even mention Sam, so some other things were a bit "stealth" and money buys broad influence even if it's not precisely targeted.
Mind the Gap, a network formed less than two years ago, has been quietly routing millions of dollars to Democratic candidates and groups across the country in the 2018 and 2020 election cycles, emerging as a new power center in the Silicon Valley political scene. It’s just that so far, it has avoided public detection.
But Painter said, “These campaign contributions from SBF and PAC money raised by members of his family of course bought an enormous amount of influence in Washington.”
Too Big To Fail
It's a bankrupt (so to speak) argument in any case - bits of the system might be too big to fail but the people can always be imprisoned - but I don't think Crypto is and there's no reason to prop up a Ponzi scheme!!!
The Chickenshit Club
Not quite as chickenshit as usual.
We’re not used to seeing regulators and law enforcement move with this level of determination. For decades in America, over multiple presidents of both parties, we have witnessed a two-tiered justice system, where kids caught with dime bags of marijuana receive harsher punishment than those whose actions wipe out people’s life savings and nearly crash the economy. The rapid SBF arrest at least begins to reverse this lack of accountability for corporate crime, although the crimes in question were so comically obvious that it may be a one-time deal.
Things Everybody Knows
I know I've long been a Muskologist. Not because I care about the man, but because his Tesla and related transportation nonsense hit my other obsessions. Now he's hitting my other various major obsessions regarding the role of the press in misinforming the country, along with their class- and ideology-based contempt against dirty fucking hippies.
People discovering what I "knew" about Elon for years, and then still lashing out at people about criticism. You had one job Kara, and it supposedly wasn't to be Elon's unpaid (?) PR person!
People discovering what I "knew" about Elon for years, and then still lashing out at people about criticism. You had one job Kara, and it supposedly wasn't to be Elon's unpaid (?) PR person!
FIVE HOURS EARLIER (or so) ELON'S GOT A PLAN!!!This is exactly right from @zamosta. Elon spins persistently mendacious and easily disprovable narratives for this slavish stans. It’s not only pathological, it’s bizarre. https://t.co/B8lZnZ9lfO
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) December 13, 2022
The problem is you see, my critics, who are all dads, or something.So tomorrow on @pivotpod, I posit a theory about why Musk has become so performative with his right-wing dog whistle tweets on Fauci, libs, wokeness, as well as his pushing out the Twitter Files as if he were Woodward & Bernstein: Maybe he’s building a new kind of media company.
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) December 13, 2022
YOU'RE THE STAN!!! YOU WERE ALWAYS THE STAN!!!Lord, spare me the tiresome absolute certainty self righteous dudes who love to dad lecture. It was just a theoretical rumination and I have noted here many times more than anyone the lunacy and hate going on. https://t.co/ctt1jgRBU9
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) December 13, 2022
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Nice Framing
Elon is "cutting costs" the same away a shoplifter is "cutting costs" but that doesn't get covered in precisely that way.
Musk Shakes Up Twitter’s Legal Team as He Looks to Cut More Costs
To cut costs, Twitter has not paid rent for its San Francisco headquarters or any of its global offices for weeks, three people close to the company said. Twitter has also refused to pay a $197,725 bill for private charter flights made the week of Mr. Musk’s takeover, according to a copy of a lawsuit filed in New Hampshire District Court and obtained by The New York Times.
Twitter’s leaders have also discussed the consequences of denying severance payments to thousands of people who have been laid off since the takeover, two people familiar with the talks said. And Mr. Musk has threatened employees with lawsuits if they talk to the media and “act in a manner contrary to the company’s interest,” according to an internal email sent last Friday.
Nice Work
An absolutely hilarious chapter in The Days Of The Early Blogosphere was when DC people were aghast at the idea that BLOGGERS might have UNDISCLOSED CONFLICTS OF INTEREST. Rich coming from a town where nobody doesn't.
Nobody Who Went To Yale Could Be Bad
I am rather hung up on the degree to which elites do not think other elites can be bad, or at least believe that, well, sure, elites are bad, but imagine what garbage people everyone who doesn't have a Harvard degree must be!
Yglesias:
Yglesias:
Dylan Matthews:
SBF was an inexperienced 25-year-old hedge fund founder who wound up, unsurprisingly, hurting millions of people due to his profound failures of judgment when that hedge fund grew into something enormous — failures that can be laid in part at the feet of EA.A failure in judgment is when I buy the cheap brand of toilet paper! HE'S A FUCKING CROOK!!!
That fucking newspaper:New FTX head John Ray III is asked to compare FTX to Enron. “[Enron crimes] were highly orchestrated financial machinations by highly sophisticated people to keep transactions off balance sheets. This (FTX)... isn't sophisticated whatsoever, this is just plain old embezzlement."
— Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) December 13, 2022
No it’s not.—————
— Emanuel Derman (@EmanuelDerman) December 13, 2022
“It’s like a Greek tragedy,” said John Donohue, a colleague who has attended Sunday dinners at the Bankman-Fried home. “The story of flying too close to the sun, and having your wings singed.”https://t.co/xzobPPMsLB
Longtermism
These Hari Seldon motherfuckers couldn't even predict their patron being arrested within 5 years, not sure I trust them on the robot apocalypse of 4087!
SBF FACES 8 COUNTS:
— kadhim (＾ï½°^)ノ (@kadhim) December 13, 2022
1- Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud on Customers
2- Wire Fraud on Cust
3- CtC Wire Fraud on Lenders
4- Wire Fraud on Ls
5- CtC Commodities Fraud
6- CtC Securities Fraud
7- CtC Money Laundering
8- Conspiracy to violate Campaign Fin Lawshttps://t.co/eVsN6WBrXF
The Context Is People Are Full of Shit
Vagueblogging a little bit here, I am regularly enraged by people who I respect treating people with a documented history of being bad faith actors as, well, good faith actors.
There's always context, and quite often the context is many people in DC have DC brain which means they are paid liars who will say anything to advance their cause!
There's always context, and quite often the context is many people in DC have DC brain which means they are paid liars who will say anything to advance their cause!
The Committee To Save The World
The SBF/EA thing is really inspiring people to let it all out.
There's nothing there, it's not even good bong hit philosophy! It's all nonsense!!!!!!!! This sort of vulgar utilitarianism is dumb for reasons people have pointed out for decades!!!!! Do some charity, in an effective way if possible!!! These are not new ideas!!! Nor is Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth!!! We should worry about nothing except the robot apocalypse in 4087 is new, perhaps, but that's really stupid!!!
Like me, Bankman-Fried (“SBF” to aficionados) grew up in a college town surrounded by left-leaning intellectuals, including both of his parents. So did his business partner and Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, the child of MIT professors. Like me, they were both drawn to utilitarian philosophy at a young age. Like me, they seemed fascinated by what their privileged position on this planet would enable them to do to help others, and embraced the effective altruism movement as a result. And the choices they made because of this latter deliberation would prove disastrous.You are not special, and they. are. con. artists. and. you. were. conned.
There's nothing there, it's not even good bong hit philosophy! It's all nonsense!!!!!!!! This sort of vulgar utilitarianism is dumb for reasons people have pointed out for decades!!!!! Do some charity, in an effective way if possible!!! These are not new ideas!!! Nor is Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth!!! We should worry about nothing except the robot apocalypse in 4087 is new, perhaps, but that's really stupid!!!
First To The Deal
Suspect that as our friend Sam was doing his best to "subtly" pin all the blame on her, Caroline ran to the Feds as fast as possible.
Monday, December 12, 2022
Shortermism!
USA Damian Williams: Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the U.S. Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY. We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) December 12, 2022
The Most Effective Altruism Of All
If it is too hard to embiggen, #4 is $1 billion in loans and payments to insiders. Not including your favorite It Boy pollsters, presumably.New FTX boss John Ray in prepared congressional testimony points to 5 initial findings that indicate where FTX customer money went:https://t.co/PgIAH2Ehmi pic.twitter.com/1az74pdJ9J
— kadhim (＾ï½°^)ノ (@kadhim) December 12, 2022
Who Is The Audience For That
I don't even ask this to be mean, I'm genuinely asking. Regularly when I click on the NYT page there are these "Gail Stephens and Bret Stephens" dialogues and who is it that reads these?
Wonder What This Is About
Was "amusing" that all the right wingers simultaneously discovered a new cause, Paul Whelan, a man they'd never heard of until a week ago, while getting enraged about another American being released.
Oh, Elon
Elon went on a stage at a David Chappelle concert and everyone shouted boo-ums.Ad traffic at #Twitter.
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) December 12, 2022
(via @DoubleLJSquared) @scottlincicome @WSJ https://t.co/zPGT6U0Quk pic.twitter.com/IZCrL03zC6
Are There Any Rich Guys In Nice Suits?
Wouldn't be prudent.
WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Splits between U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors are delaying the conclusion of a long-running criminal investigation into the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, four people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.Oh no my apes.
Binance's defense attorneys at U.S. law firm Gibson Dunn have held meetings in recent months with Justice Department officials, the four people said. Among Binance's arguments: A criminal prosecution would wreak havoc on a crypto market already in a prolonged downturn. The discussions included potential plea deals, according to three of the sources.We call ponzi schemes an "industry" now.
Where Are Your Gods Now
I've communicated with autonomous driving and space people - both online in and in real life - and they all had a kind of reverence for Musk. I don't think they were dumb people - space engineers! - but they had reverence for the guy with the money who funded their activities. They couldn't just be grateful that some rich guy was throwing money at them, they had to buy into the idea that was a brilliant visionary.
To some degree it makes the "who is the scammer, who is being scammed" question, or "who is or isn't a true cult believer" question kind of irrelevant. It's a bit "you are who you pretend to be" and a bit just that it's human nature to buy into whatever you're participating in, and when someone's throwing hundreds of millions of dollars around, who doesn't want to participate?
To some degree it makes the "who is the scammer, who is being scammed" question, or "who is or isn't a true cult believer" question kind of irrelevant. It's a bit "you are who you pretend to be" and a bit just that it's human nature to buy into whatever you're participating in, and when someone's throwing hundreds of millions of dollars around, who doesn't want to participate?
Bong Hits For Plutus
The last couple of years of the Democratic-leaning discourse make a lot more sense once you understand a segment of liberal journalists, pollsters, and strategists had joined a cult as dumb as any other., even with its own ridiculous boy-prophet cult leader.
It doesn’t matter if they were believers, they were enjoying the status and money the high priests of cults enjoy.
Is "cult" an unfair word? Ask a cult member.
I can't believe how dumb this shit is, 14-year-olds would be embarrassed.
Money, it's a hell of a drug.
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Elite Impunity
An point to obvious to make, but All Of These Problems are caused by white guys in nice suits knowing they will never be prosecuted for anything, not poor people shoplifting some baby formula or whatever.
One of those "hippie bullshit" things which is 100% true.
One of those "hippie bullshit" things which is 100% true.
Oh, Elon
Yet another example of the problems of the national press not bothering to learn anything about the people they cover. His racism, mistreatment of employees, and lack of honesty are not new, except to them, and since they missed it the first time they will refuse to admit their error.
Journalists cover this stuff, but political reporters, as with the NYT's latest about Elon's iconoclastic politics that defy categorization, only write about what they see in their belly buttons.
Saturday, December 10, 2022
The Benevolent Genius Of Rich Men
There is little reason to assume they are either benevolent or geniuses, so that a regular staple of US media is the sycophantic interview or portrayal of them says much about how such media figures perceive their roles. It certainly isn't "speaking truth to power"."
Friday, December 09, 2022
Red Line!
That nice (And very corrupt) Larry Hogan canceled it first thing, so, progress!
Just six months after taking office in 2015, the Republican governor hit the brakes on the 14-mile-long east-west light-rail line, declaring it a boondoggle and returning $900 million in guaranteed funding to the federal government. State funds earmarked for the project were spent on roads instead, mostly in rural and suburban areas, as well as on the Purple Line in the suburbs of Washington, DC.
Now his Democratic successor, Governor-elect Wes Moore, says that one of his top transit priorities in office will be bringing the Red Line proposal back from the dead — and building it while he’s in office.
On Troll Feeding
You can't always ignore them, but one has to figure out how to confront them without feeding their endless appetite for attention.
Starve them of attention and they whither and die, but it's difficult to get everyone to do that.
Starve them of attention and they whither and die, but it's difficult to get everyone to do that.
Lock'em Up!
The disparities of how rich people and their fancy lawyers are treated versus someone who is 5 minutes late for a probation meeting...
Prosecutors have urged a federal judge to hold Donald Trump’s office in contempt of court for failing to fully comply with a May subpoena to return all classified documents in his possession, according to people familiar with the matter — a sign of how contentious the private talks have become over whether the former president still holds any secret papers.
Thursday, December 08, 2022
Maybe They'll Own Tesla and Twitter
Such fun.
Dec 7 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk's bankers are considering providing the Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Officer with new margin loans backed by the U.S. automaker's stock to replace some of the high interest debt on his Twitter deal, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
But What About The White Guy
Can't take the Republican out of the Republican.
His concerns for Whelan, unsurprisingly, are a recent development.So a basketball star is released, we can celebrate, but what about Paul Whelan? An American unjustly detained for years. May not be high profile but he is innocent.
— Adam Kinzinger #fella (@AdamKinzinger) December 8, 2022
This is a dangerous road.
The Flu Is, Like, Bad
One thing that became apparent during Covid is most people have no idea what the flu is like, and it's because "we" basically call every illness worse than a mild cold 'the flu' or even 'stomach flu' (which has nothing to do with influenza).
Whatever the precise merits of the comparison between the two, people arguing that "Covid is no big deal, it's just like the flu" weren't making the point they thought they were making.
It can really suck and people do die from it, some seasons in fairly large numbers, and "get your flu vaccine" was a public health plea, not just a suggestion for individual health improvement.
Whatever the precise merits of the comparison between the two, people arguing that "Covid is no big deal, it's just like the flu" weren't making the point they thought they were making.
It can really suck and people do die from it, some seasons in fairly large numbers, and "get your flu vaccine" was a public health plea, not just a suggestion for individual health improvement.
This flu season’s ferocious start has given way to record-shattering levels of transmission — and massive strains on the American health system.And somehow we went from, "a silver lining of Covid is 'we' all now know that we should wear masks if we are sick and stay home if possible" to "lol weirdo shut-in mask wearing freaks." I believe that last one was actually in a CDC press release once.
In the week ending November 26, more than 34,000 positive flu tests were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from labs around the US, as shown in the orange line on the chart below. That’s more positive flu tests than have been reported in any single week during any flu season on record, going back as far as 1997.
Rise Of The Nutters
Of course Trump winning in 2016 was a big shock to people, and the 2020 "win" that didn't quit feel like one because of everything didn't quite seem like enough of a repudiation, but there are obvious limits to the appeal of Trumpists outside of the places Republicans will inevitably win.
Declining
I suppose a simple story of the last 3 bubbles is the first one was a bet on stupid companies but it at least left a bunch of useful internet infrastructure and related technology in its wake, the second was a bet on stupid financial derivatives but left a bunch of houses in its wake, the 3rd was a bet on reinventing the bus with a bus, "uber, but for" for everything, and then finally on magic beans.
I guess maybe there are a bunch of cheap used graphics cards now.
Hopefully the bust of the 3rd one isn't as consequential as that of the 2nd, at least, but we really need to consider once again whether our system of allocating capital efficiently - capitalism - does what it is supposed to be.
I guess maybe there are a bunch of cheap used graphics cards now.
Hopefully the bust of the 3rd one isn't as consequential as that of the 2nd, at least, but we really need to consider once again whether our system of allocating capital efficiently - capitalism - does what it is supposed to be.
Wednesday, December 07, 2022
Winning Hand
A problem with Democrats is they too often (they are better than they used to be, generally) don't believe the positions associated with them are popular. For many such issues I think they do often have the popular stance (abortion), and for some of the ones where they might be on shakier ground, I think the Republicans look like total fucking weirdos obsessing about them.There should be a lesson in there somewhere about not kow-towing to folks who demonized BLM and deploy “wokeness” as a pejorative. Maybe they should have to play defense sometimes.
— Joel D. Anderson (@byjoelanderson) December 7, 2022
Maybe Americans aren't super supportive of trans student being able to play high school sports, for example, but aside from the weirdos I doubt they care all that much. Hell I'd even find it a bit off-putting if a Senate candidate spent a lot of time talking about some of my own pet issues, things I actually care about it. "Mr. Warnock, please shut the hell up about curb cuts."
Also, generally, offense is always better than defense, no matter what the substance of the issue is.
People accepted for years that while gun control was pretty popular, too much of the intensity was on the other side. As in, you try to take away their guns and they'll vote you out. But the weirdo stuff conservatives obsess about these days (Disney is woke!) has extremely low intensity except among their base. Maybe I agree Disney that is too woke but God shut up about it!!!
What's Wrong With Being Sexy?
Conned many of your faves!Such cynicism in the replies! No, not a bunch of people linked to corruption scandals.
— Paul Mainwood (@PaulMainwood) December 7, 2022
It's the Centre for Effective Altruism. The EA group dedicated to spending money in the most effective way to do good.
In this case, by buying themselves a stately home.https://t.co/nLiSvph3iP
Sure Why Not
Strange times.
Twenty-five people have been arrested in raids across Germany on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government.
German reports say the group of far-right and ex-military figures planned to storm the parliament building, the Reichstag, and seize power.
A minor aristocrat described as Prince Heinrich XIII, 71, is alleged to have been central to their plans.
The Former Guy
It has taken longer than I expected - even I was not cynical enough about elite Republican response to 1/6 - but I still think Trump is fading from the scene. Presidential primaries are weird and if he really runs anything can happen when there are 8 ghouls running, but his act is getting pretty old, even for the faithful.
Trumpism is not dead, of course.
Trumpism is not dead, of course.
The Constitution Is Bad Now
It is kinda bad, but conservatives can go from worshipping the thing (their imagined version) and carrying around little pocket copies to deciding it's the worst thing ever overnight.
I wrote the line about the pocket copies before finding this with the google.
Sure he's doing the "let's pretend Trump didn't say what he said" but they'll soon be saying the constitution is just garbage if Trump keeps it up.
I wrote the line about the pocket copies before finding this with the google.
Victory
Congrats to Senator Warnock!
See a lot of sentiments like, "oh we won but how could we not have won by more!!!" And I don't know why Dems think it doesn't count if they don't win by 10 points.
As I've said many times, I'd vote for just about anyone for senator with a D after their name, choosing between an awful D and a generic R. It's not great that people who are Republicans feel the same way, but that's because it's not great that people are Republicans! But they are.
I don't think I'd vote for the lefty equivalent of Walker for governor - I'd probably just sit it out - but governors have real power and real responsibilities. The junior senator from Georgia? Vote for Chuck and the job's mostly done.
Two D senators from Georgia is a pretty big deal, really.
See a lot of sentiments like, "oh we won but how could we not have won by more!!!" And I don't know why Dems think it doesn't count if they don't win by 10 points.
As I've said many times, I'd vote for just about anyone for senator with a D after their name, choosing between an awful D and a generic R. It's not great that people who are Republicans feel the same way, but that's because it's not great that people are Republicans! But they are.
I don't think I'd vote for the lefty equivalent of Walker for governor - I'd probably just sit it out - but governors have real power and real responsibilities. The junior senator from Georgia? Vote for Chuck and the job's mostly done.
Two D senators from Georgia is a pretty big deal, really.
Tuesday, December 06, 2022
Forward Motion
Better than doing nothing!
Special counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed local officials in Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin — three states that were central to former president Donald Trump’s failed plan to stay in power following the 2020 election — for any and all communications with Trump, his campaign and a long list of aides and allies.
Assholes
The Supremos with their asskissers in "legal journalism" managed to make themselves into legends, somehow above it all. Alito's just a dumbass "Fox News Uncle."
Everybody with a reasonable understanding of how these conservatives operate knows that this case will come down 6-3 on the side of Smith and bigotry. There’s no drama here. Conservatives accepted Smith and ADF’s framing of the case as one about message discrimination before they even got into the courtroom. The question, as always these days, is not what the conservatives will do, but how far they’ll go. There are tons of businesses that would like to discriminate against people based on their race, gender, or sexual orientation. Conservatives can effectively revert public accommodations laws back to the Jim Crow era simply by giving those business owners a way to argue that denial of services is really about free speech.
Walker
Obviously there are more people deserving of my sympathy - he does not seem like a great guy! - but he's also obviously not quite all there and it is a bit sad. Could never really bring myself to pile on.
Oh, Elon
One of his games is to try to get ahead of any bad news. This is why he mentioned his brain thing the other day.
Dec 5 (Reuters) - Elon Musk’s Neuralink, a medical device company, is under federal investigation for potential animal-welfare violations amid internal staff complaints that its animal testing is being rushed, causing needless suffering and deaths, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and sources familiar with the investigation and company operations.
Monday, December 05, 2022
TERF
Regrets, I have a few.
Trying to claim that there is zero risk of overly aggressive treatment in the gender dysphoria space is not just going to be tenable; read about any other area of the American health care system. https://t.co/VLLqpTMkwf
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) December 4, 2022
Trump Jesus
Every DC political reporter maintained the fiction that every young conservative was a virgin.
Sunday, December 04, 2022
Sunday Morning
Sunday Funday.
I hate that Lonnie is the Main Character after years of trying to tell you.
I hate that Lonnie is the Main Character after years of trying to tell you.
Saturday, December 03, 2022
A Lot To Lose
Billionaires really don't have to worry about a few million so it is bizarre that they do. Not worrying about money is why I want to be "rich"!
There's A Fine Line Between Clever And Stupid
Too much fucking perspective.
Liz Truss took a "Spinal Tap approach" to government, with the volume turned up to 11, her former chief speechwriter has told the BBC.
What Are We Going To Talk About Today, Brain
Same thing we talk about every day, Pinky, whatever conservatives want us to talk about.
It's been a problem ever since I've been doing this, and I actually don't know how to fix it. Obscure 3rd rate villains in the Wingnut Cinematic Universe shouldn't always be able to drive the conversation, but somehow they do.
It's been a problem ever since I've been doing this, and I actually don't know how to fix it. Obscure 3rd rate villains in the Wingnut Cinematic Universe shouldn't always be able to drive the conversation, but somehow they do.
Friday, December 02, 2022
Gambling On A Post Senate Career
A big problem with the standard view of political corruption among federal electeds is that it mostly involves campaign contributions. You know, the lobbyists for Industry X steer $50,000 into your senate re-elect committee and you do their bidding. This actually doesn't make any sense at all, and it's maddening that "we" all pretend to take this seriously year after year.
The reason powerful electeds dance when they say dance is so that they, their families, and their staffs all have lucrative careers to fall back on.
No one looks at this comprehensively that I'm aware of, but quite often you see the random name of a Senate failson working in some rather strange job they have no particular qualifications for and everything makes a bit more sense.
Theo's got a good career ahead of him after Groton, is what I'm saying, assuming this bet works out.
The reason powerful electeds dance when they say dance is so that they, their families, and their staffs all have lucrative careers to fall back on.
No one looks at this comprehensively that I'm aware of, but quite often you see the random name of a Senate failson working in some rather strange job they have no particular qualifications for and everything makes a bit more sense.
Theo's got a good career ahead of him after Groton, is what I'm saying, assuming this bet works out.
On Tuesday, Politico reported that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) former director of the division of market oversight, Dorothy DeWitt, had just joined Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-NY) office as chief counsel for finance. Before DeWitt’s two-year stint at the CFTC, for about a year, she worked as the vice president and general counsel for the cryptocurrency company Coinbase’s business and lines division.DeWitt's revolving door career is apparent, of course.
During the peak of abortion politics in the summer, the Prospect reported how Gillibrand, a recently anointed “crypto hero,” unveiled the industry-friendly Responsible Financial Innovation Act with Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY). The bill included a study of whether to allow people to purchase crypto assets for their retirement accounts. Eventually, Gillibrand would co-sponsor Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and John Boozman’s (R-AR) Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA), the most likely crypto bill to pass, which would designate oversight powers for “digital commodities” to the CFTC, as opposed to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Throughout the development of a crypto regulatory framework, the New York senator has consistently functioned as a moderating force.
Corrupt Judge, Corrupt Ruling
Fixed now, but don't forget her name.
The appeals court ruling throwing out the special master process that had been put in place for the Mar-a-Lago search was a major rebuke of former President Donald Trump’s arguments for why the materials seized from his home should be subject to outside review.
The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals made clear Thursday that it did not approve of a federal judge getting involved in the first place after Trump originally sued over the search.
The Justice Department has not been able to use in its criminal probe the bulk of the hundreds of documents it obtained in the search while the special master – senior Judge Raymond Dearie, of Brooklyn’s federal court – does his review. He was appointed by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee in Florida who was instructed by the appeals court Thursday to dismiss the case.
Tucker's Other Man
They snipped out Ye's anti-semitism to elevate him as a hero of the conservative revolution.
One can see that a couple of different ways.
One can see that a couple of different ways.
Thursday, December 01, 2022
36 Reasons This Is Excellent News For Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
Bye Chris.
CNN executives were expected to inform staffers about layoffs at the network Thursday morning, according to these people. CNN correspondents Alison Kosik, Martin Savidge, Alex Field, Mary Ann Fox and Chris Cillizza are among the staffers who have been let go, according to two people familiar with the matter. A CNN spokesperson declined to comment.
In The Old Times
Lock him up!
It is now clear that what happened at the FTX crypto exchange and the hedge fund Alameda Research involved a variety of conscious and intentional fraud intended to steal money from both users and investors. That’s why a recent New York Times interview was widely derided for seeming to frame FTX’s collapse as the result of mismanagement rather than malfeasance. A Wall Street Journal article bemoaned the loss of charitable donations from FTX, arguably propping up Bankman-Fried’s strategic philanthropic pose. Vox co-founder Matthew Yglesias, court chronicler of the neoliberal status quo, seemed to whitewash his own entanglements by crediting Bankman-Fried’s money with helping Democrats in the 2020 elections – sidestepping the likelihood that the money was effectively embezzled.SBF is going for the "it all just got a little bit out of hand, I didn't mean any harm, and everything would have been fine if you'd just given me a chance to make it right, also it was all Caroline's fault" but none of that changes the core issue above.
Perhaps most perniciously, many outlets have described what happened to FTX as a “bank run” or a “run on deposits,” while Bankman-Fried has repeatedly insisted the company was simply overleveraged and disorganized. Both of these attempts to frame the fallout obfuscate the core issue: the misuse of customer funds.
In reality, the funds were sent to the intimately linked trading firm Alameda Research, where they were, it seems, simply gambled away. This is, in the simplest terms, theft at a nearly unprecedented scale. While the total losses have yet to be quantified, up to one million customers could be impacted, according to a bankruptcy document.Saying "my next horse was going to win and then I would have paid everyone back" - even if true! - doesn't make it not numerous crimes.