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Tuesday, January 31, 2023
America's Worst Newspaper
Still the fucking newspaper.
This is pretty obviously—and yet not obviously enough—a plain old-fashioned newspaper crusade. Month after month, story after story, the Times is pouring its attention and resources into the message that there is something seriously concerning about the way young people who identify as trans are receiving care. Like the premise that the Clintons had to have been guilty of something serious, or that Saddam Hussein must have had a weapons program worth invading Iraq over, the notion that trans youth present a looming problem is demonstrated to the reader by the sheer volume of coverage. If it’s not a problem, why else would it be in the paper?Tom has written an important piece - read the whole thing, as the kids say.
(Oops had accidentally appended that sentence to the last post. This one is Tom)
America's Worst Editorial Board
The Washington Post Editorial Board.
The half measures, “more training,” banning chokeholds for the 900th time, approach isn’t changing the basic calculus of policing. Police killings aren’t even the primary criteria: They’ve always been the tip of the iceberg of abuse, harassment, over-policing, over-sentencing, and racial discrimination—all of which remains largely unchanged since 2014. A broader architecture of oppression The Post editorial board, despite their hand-wringing, routinely supports. In October they joined a moral panic over fare evasion, calling for “an enforcement campaign” to “send an overdue message to Metro riders: The rules are there to be followed,” and heavily hinting the D.C. city council should re-criminalize turnstile jumping. This is the way the game of phony Liberal Concern is played. The Washington Post twice opposes a social solution that would meaningfully reduce police interactions (free fares on D.C. transit), supports a policy shift that would massively increase those police interactions (police fare enforcement) then feigns concern about the inevitable result of over policing: violent interactions stemming from police interactions.
So all that’s left is vague claims about changing “culture.” Not a new demand, but one that is uniquely unfalsifiable so it’ll be here to stay. The one concrete item politicians, high status pundits, and the Post are rallying around, the major liberal reform that remains elusive—Qualified Immunity—is just another way to look busy and buy time. Getting rid of it would be a net win, but it would do little to change the basic problem of police power. As Purnell notes in her piece, “Those who care about justice must absolutely challenge qualified immunity, as long as they understand that the protections that cops receive through the law is not the basis for their violence. Cops brutalized and killed people before they had immunity. The job necessitates it, which is why abolitionists have fought to reduce and eliminate police funding, encounters with cops, and the underlying reasons why cops have jobs in the first place.”
Lies and the Lying Liars
Lock'em up!
New York’s attorney general said she will seek sanctions against former President Donald Trump, his three oldest children and their lawyers for making “demonstrably false” denials in response to the state’s $250 million fraud suit.
Attorney General Letitia James said Tuesday in a letter to the court that the Trumps’ formal answer to the state’s suit was peppered with denials of basic facts, including some that the Trumps had previously stated themselves under oath.
Novel
That fucking newspaper can do good work when it sees journalism as "accurately conveying what is happening" instead of whatever the fuck it is the political desk does.
Police officers unleashed a barrage of commands that were confusing, conflicting and sometimes even impossible to obey, a Times analysis of footage from Tyre Nichols’s fatal traffic stop found. When Mr. Nichols could not comply — and even when he managed to — the officers responded with escalating force.A political reporter would have included statements from the president of a cop union, the president of Taser Inc., Lindsey Graham (why not? he'll give a quote for anything), and Steve Bannon.
8 Can't Wait
I've been told that if only police offers had fancy degree they would be Good, because people with fancy degrees are always good. Bouie:
Another:
The absence of legal and, especially, democratic accountability is, or should be, an existential problem for any police reform agenda. Without a strategy to curb or break the cartel power of police departments — meaning their ability to undermine, neuter and subvert all attempts to regulate and control their actions and personnel — there is no practical way to achieve meaningful and lasting reform, if that is your goal. Indeed, anything resembling a root-and-branch transformation of American policing will only ever occur after the public is able to exercise real control over the institution itself.Very good fancy degree holder, prime candidate for your local police department:
Which Sundance Movies Could Follow ‘CODA’ to the Oscars? Put a little differently, the only reforms that can take hold in the absence of direct democratic accountability — where the public itself can shape the rules that govern policing and police officers — are those that don’t actually alter the status quo of police culture and police institutions. There is a reason, after all, that most police departments issue body cameras to their officers without serious pushback; the footage is theirs to control, in the main, and withhold from the public, should they desire to do so.
Another:
Elite Failure
I suppose I have a few running themes on this very fine blog, into which I plug various stories of the day. One is the imperviousness of elites - including the elite chattering class - to any kind of accountability.
Crypto was always obviously a big con, and an "industry" which greatly expanded its influence peddling over the past couple of years. The set of victims of the con is interesting. Rich people got hurt, but also rich people greatly benefitted, so who is to say if it was good or bad? Generally rich people probably didn't get hurt *enough* for it to "matter" in the way that these things only matter if they hurt rich people.
Also plenty of not rich people, but nobody cares about them.
Having senators and ex-presidents and elite pundits bless this con and the con artists, and face absolutely no hits to their reputations over it, is a pretty good example of the problems of our accountability-free era.
With SBF in particular, there was also a big obviously illegal straw donor program to his favorite crypto-loving candidates and members of Congress, and I'd bet that one will just disappear. You can look up the donations yourselves and draw your own conclusions.
Crypto was always obviously a big con, and an "industry" which greatly expanded its influence peddling over the past couple of years. The set of victims of the con is interesting. Rich people got hurt, but also rich people greatly benefitted, so who is to say if it was good or bad? Generally rich people probably didn't get hurt *enough* for it to "matter" in the way that these things only matter if they hurt rich people.
Also plenty of not rich people, but nobody cares about them.
Having senators and ex-presidents and elite pundits bless this con and the con artists, and face absolutely no hits to their reputations over it, is a pretty good example of the problems of our accountability-free era.
With SBF in particular, there was also a big obviously illegal straw donor program to his favorite crypto-loving candidates and members of Congress, and I'd bet that one will just disappear. You can look up the donations yourselves and draw your own conclusions.
Monday, January 30, 2023
SBF Is The Real Thing
All the smartest boys on the internet went to bat for this guy. Some were on the take, some just easy marks.\
FTX once enjoyed a near-mythical status in the media, with splashy cover stories and gushing news articles lauding the crypto powerhouse and Bankman-Fried, its youthful leader. Such coverage rarely emerges organically, and FTX hired an army of public relations firms to burnish its image.
Among them was M Group, a New York-based public relations powerhouse known for its Rolodex of elite journalists. Others under the employ of FTX included TSD Communications and Full Court Press Communications.
The creditor list includes Rational 360, a public relations firm led in part by former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart. Emails obtained by Matt Stoller, the director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project, show that Rational 360 pressured activists and political influencers to speak out in favor of a bill that would move crypto regulatory authority to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. While the Securities and Exchange Commission handles many enforcement actions against crypto firms, the CFTC is seen as more friendly to crypto interests and has fewer disclosure requirements.
Marks
Reader JC sent this in - the kind of thing I was half remembering with this post.
The Perfect Mark How a Massachusetts psychotherapist fell for a Nigerian e-mail scam
Don't See The Problem
Often I wonder what a lot of people who go into politics - broadly defined, including punditry - actually do it for, especially people who style themselves anywhere from the center leftwards. To keep the paychecks coming is of course one reason. It's a job that pays the bills and there's no reason to think of it in any other way. There's a very corrupt version of that, and more a basic "it's a job" version.
But I think many people don't see it that way. They imagine that are part of a cause, but that cause is defending the status quo, no matter how horrific it is. Really the status quo does a pretty good job of defending itself, and if that's your life cause... well, it's a pretty weird one!
But I think many people don't see it that way. They imagine that are part of a cause, but that cause is defending the status quo, no matter how horrific it is. Really the status quo does a pretty good job of defending itself, and if that's your life cause... well, it's a pretty weird one!
Seems Bad
Paul Pelosi’s attacker calls in to a local Fox News affiliate to apologize for not getting “more of them.”
— Benjamin Dixon (@BenjaminPDixon) January 30, 2023
Conservatives are domestic terrorists pic.twitter.com/cEhXdXE3LK
Let Us Do Something, While We Have The Chance
Lock him up!
The Manhattan district attorney’s office on Monday will begin presenting evidence to a grand jury about Donald J. Trump’s role in paying hush money to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign, laying the groundwork for potential criminal charges against the former president in the coming months, according to people with knowledge of the matter.If I were a betting man, well, ...
The grand jury was recently impaneled, and witness testimony will soon begin, a clear signal that the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, is nearing a decision about whether to charge Mr. Trump.
Iggles
photo from Broad and Locust tonight, go birds pic.twitter.com/TN6fyfJ6E7
— Michael Whitney (@michaelwhitney) January 30, 2023
Nobody Knows This But
One benefit of Trump (straining, here) was that he made me realize just how many people - including a substantial number of our elite commentators - are just like Trump. Sure Trump has no filter, just pure nonstop ID screaming it out all day every day, but that others have a slightly better filter doesn't make them fundamentally different.
Inability to accept fault or criticsm, belief that every thought is a profound one never before imagined by anyone else, fundamental inability to empathize with any person or situation outside their small experience (which they believe to be expansive), the unwavering embrace of certain class and achivement markers (some of Trump's are sillier - wow Golden Globes Winner of 1983 - but not fundamentally different), etc.
People should be talking about this more and more!!!
Inability to accept fault or criticsm, belief that every thought is a profound one never before imagined by anyone else, fundamental inability to empathize with any person or situation outside their small experience (which they believe to be expansive), the unwavering embrace of certain class and achivement markers (some of Trump's are sillier - wow Golden Globes Winner of 1983 - but not fundamentally different), etc.
People should be talking about this more and more!!!
It Was Perfect Journalism
The NYT and its reporters never say anything else. That kind of personality disorder isn't just a Trump thing.
How coordinated was the effort in that New York field office to pump up the ultimate nothingburger about Clinton’s emails while poo-pooing the very real evidence of Russian interference on Trump’s behalf, and who were the agents behind it? What was the role, if any, of McGonigal and his international web of intrigue? Was the now-tainted McGonigal a source who told the New York Times that fateful October that Russia was not trying to help Trump win the election — before the U.S. intelligence community determined the exact opposite? If not McGonigal, just who was intentionally misleading America’s most influential news org, and why?A man came up to the New York Times editor, weeping, "your journalism is so brilliant!"
As a veteran journalist, I find the Times’ role in this fiasco — although likely an unwitting one — deeply disturbing. To be sure, the 2016 FBI leaks weren’t the first time a major news organization has been burned by anonymous law enforcement sources, and regrettably it probably won’t be the last. Media critics have been talking for years about the Times’ flawed coverage, and how its near certainty that Clinton would win and a desire to show its aggressiveness toward a future president seems to have skewed its coverage.
Sunday, January 29, 2023
FIRE
I don't know how much this is a Tesla-specific problem, and how much it is a lithium battery quality control problem generally, but it's a problem!
O
fficials said no injuries were reported but that around 6000 gallons of water were used to extinguish the flames. Two fire engines, a water tender, and a ladder truck were used to help put out the fire.
Remember When They All Pretended To Care About People Being Murdered By Cops
I suppose they are again, now, briefly. Perry Bacon:
Most of those master strategists are more interested in fighting The Left than Republicans, which is why they kept placing what they claimed to be a fatal slogan front and center every day.
I guess also a few coptroop candidates who ran ads like, "I WILL NEVER DEFUND THE POLICE, UNLIKE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY WHO WANTS TO DEFUND POLICE, SO PLEASE VOTE FOR ME, A DEMOCRAT, NOT LIKE DEFUND DEMOCRATS."
All of that will sound familiar if you lived in the United States in the months after George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police. The idea that the United States needed a fundamental rethinking of policing became mainstream. Then-candidate Joe Biden suggested that federal funding to police departments should be tied to them maintaining some “standards of decency and honorableness.” Then-candidate Kamala D. Harris questioned additional spending on policing. Former president Barack Obama called for the country to “reimagine” policing.I think Perry leaves out "cable news Democrats" and associated influential pundits, the ones who regularly project their bigotries and malevolence on the population at large. The only people consistently repeating "defund" and similar in the year of our Gritty, 2022, were "Democratic strategists" (nonsense chyron title) who went on teevee every day talking about how Democrats needed to distance themselves from the evil Left who had taken over the party with their absurd unpopular demands.
That public conversation has largely disappeared. What happened? Many Republican officials were uncomfortable with the Floyd protests, which were a mass of young, left-leaning people demanding major changes to American society and attacking the police, who are disproportionately White, male and conservative. So Republicans started casting the protests as simply rioting. And in red states, they passed laws limiting the ability of Democratic-controlled cities to change their policing practices.
Most of those master strategists are more interested in fighting The Left than Republicans, which is why they kept placing what they claimed to be a fatal slogan front and center every day.
I guess also a few coptroop candidates who ran ads like, "I WILL NEVER DEFUND THE POLICE, UNLIKE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY WHO WANTS TO DEFUND POLICE, SO PLEASE VOTE FOR ME, A DEMOCRAT, NOT LIKE DEFUND DEMOCRATS."
Marks
Increasingly I realize there's a lot of truth to the idea that supposedly smart and educated people are actually the easiest marks for all sorts of cons. They suffer from all the normal human frailities combined with an oversized sense of their own genius ("supposedly smart" people have some marker - like a degree or position - certifying them as "smart" which they may or may not be, especially outside some narrow expertise). They couldn't possibly fall for a con, could they?
Used be a stories of, like, a physics professor falling for a Nigerian scam email (remember those)? And now I get it.
All of this country's geniuses fell for this one, one of the most catastrophic conspiracy theories in history. Of all the "mea culpas" certainly none of them said, "maybe I am just a fucking dumbass."
Used be a stories of, like, a physics professor falling for a Nigerian scam email (remember those)? And now I get it.
All of this country's geniuses fell for this one, one of the most catastrophic conspiracy theories in history. Of all the "mea culpas" certainly none of them said, "maybe I am just a fucking dumbass."
Saturday, January 28, 2023
There Are No Commitments, Only Bargains
Lock him up!
Disgraced crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried has made “recent attempts” to contact prospective witnesses in his criminal case, federal prosecutors said Friday in a letter to the judge that sought new conditions of his release.
...
“It has recently come to the Government’s attention that the defendant has been in direct communication with the current General Counsel of FTX US who may be a witness at trial, and who is represented by counsel.”
The outreach was made through Signal, prosecutors said, and by email that said, “I would really love to reconnect and see if there’s a way for us to have a constructive relationship, use each other as resources when possible, or at least vet things with each other.”
Nothing Worse Than Bad PR
I imagine most of us have witnessed how institutions of various kinds are willing to go to great lengths to hide almost any malfeasance, preferring to overlook it, then cover it up if necessary, rather than confront it and experience the consequences.
Just what is an "institutionalist" for?
Just what is an "institutionalist" for?
8 Can't Wait
Remember the high profile criminal justice reform campaign that "appeared" purely to undercut the actual criminal justice reform movements. All the centrist pundits lectured people about how this was the way to go, the DATA (lol) showed it was so successful, and only ridiculous people with unreasonable expectations would ask for anything else.
And then they all shut up about it because - I know this will shock you - none of them actually cared about criminal justice reform. They all moved on to fretting about high crime in San Francisco and the crime loving DA there who needed to be recalled to save Walgreen's precious essence.
Let's check out where we are now.
Anyone who knew anything accurately pointed out the purpose of this sudden initiative, and were of course mocked and scorned.
Increasingly I hate everybody.
And then they all shut up about it because - I know this will shock you - none of them actually cared about criminal justice reform. They all moved on to fretting about high crime in San Francisco and the crime loving DA there who needed to be recalled to save Walgreen's precious essence.
Let's check out where we are now.
Increasingly I hate everybody.
Normal Island
The Telegraph is not a tabloid, by the way.
Shouldn't neglect to point out that the "sex frolicking" alleged (and for which a settlement was paid) is rape.
Ghislaine's brothers "believe" this photo proves this tub was "too small for any sort of sex frolicking."
I'll let you all discuss that. No flirting.Print edition is complete with a floor-plan with accurate dimensions of the bathtub and all pic.twitter.com/Stifa5IFd0
— ZeeTrot (@zeetrot) January 28, 2023
Friday, January 27, 2023
FUNDRAISING DAY FINAL FINAL FINAL FINAL
Thanks to all! Begging bowl goes away until baby needs a new pair of shoes!
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I Am Ethical, By Definition
A consequence of almost everybody treating these weird evil fuckers as divine prophets.
The Supreme Court did not disclose its longstanding financial ties with former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff even as it touted him as an expert who independently validated its investigation into who leaked the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.Also it's Michael Fucking Chertoff, enough said.
Defund the FBI
A smarter person than me should write a piece about how conservatives effortless switch from extreme to extreme on certain positions and "no one" even bothers to notice. Like cop worship to "lock up all the FBI agents" or a patriotism that is constantly interrupted by various calls for secession (and worship of those behind the last great secession).
We just went from "liberals are authoritarians because a publisher isn't currently reprinting a Dr. Seuss book that they had never read" to "book bans in several states." Somehow all of these endless contradictory positions are, in the moment, the position of patriotic True Americans, just ask the New York Times.
We just went from "liberals are authoritarians because a publisher isn't currently reprinting a Dr. Seuss book that they had never read" to "book bans in several states." Somehow all of these endless contradictory positions are, in the moment, the position of patriotic True Americans, just ask the New York Times.
Garbled Echo
How does the echo get garbled? 
Quite often it's when Peter Baker and friends do their best to garble it.
Garbled Echo
Amazing how many garbled echoes get originated by that fucking newspaper.
...since the embed is clipping the image:Hell of a way to run a correction. https://t.co/N8qwZjClUP pic.twitter.com/MCTx7Xlltz
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) January 26, 2023
WINTER FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVAGANZA DAY FINAL
Thanks to all, will let me eat fancy crustaceans for a few more months!
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Defund The Police
There was a moment when Leading Professional Democrats pretended to care about criminal justice reform. And, you know, there's a a dynamic that can work with all this stuff. "Sure those defund people are crazy, but they have a point which the grownups should address sensibly."
And then, despite all the polling in 2020, convinced themselves that any electoral losses (even the ones that didn't happen!) weren't the failure of management of hundreds of million of campaign dollars - a nontrivial amount contributed because of the popularity of BLM - but instead were because CastroChavez69 wouldn't stop tweeting "defund the police" and they switched to trying to out-Cop the Republicans.
Short-sighted, as this stuff is going to keep happening. It keeps happening. Constantly.
The 2020 polling shows immense support for what I will call the anti-police movement, which is absolutely amazing given everything that was going on. Do clap popular clap things clap doesn't include that, for some reason.
Support declined, somewhat, once political leaders started running scared, but that's what leadership does. You can lead either way! Your choice.
And then, despite all the polling in 2020, convinced themselves that any electoral losses (even the ones that didn't happen!) weren't the failure of management of hundreds of million of campaign dollars - a nontrivial amount contributed because of the popularity of BLM - but instead were because CastroChavez69 wouldn't stop tweeting "defund the police" and they switched to trying to out-Cop the Republicans.
Short-sighted, as this stuff is going to keep happening. It keeps happening. Constantly.
The 2020 polling shows immense support for what I will call the anti-police movement, which is absolutely amazing given everything that was going on. Do clap popular clap things clap doesn't include that, for some reason.
Support declined, somewhat, once political leaders started running scared, but that's what leadership does. You can lead either way! Your choice.
Thursday, January 26, 2023
What Actually Happened Here
I honestly can't even begin to guess how they were so negligent, but it does follow a pattern of "people who take the big(ger) bucks to be in charges don't actually think it comes with any added responsibility."
Trumpbook
My basic view of big platform moderation of all kinds is that any one decision (even a big one!) can't be judged too much in isolation, but instead as a pattern of practice. There is no good way to moderate any of these things at scale, and certainly not perfect one. If I were trying to build one of these things from the ground up, I'd probably approach it differently than any of them, though of course my fantasy system eschews any concerns about revenue, which of course they won't eschew.
To me the big issue with Trump (and many on the Right), is that despite all their whining, it is certainly known that the platforms had their own special rules for them, and even violating those more relaxed rules rarely lead to any sanctioning or warning of any kind.
Lots of arguments can be made about these things, but one obviously flawed one is "Trump gets to say what he wants on Facebook, and you don't," especially if they aren't even honest enough to make that explicit.
To me the big issue with Trump (and many on the Right), is that despite all their whining, it is certainly known that the platforms had their own special rules for them, and even violating those more relaxed rules rarely lead to any sanctioning or warning of any kind.
Lots of arguments can be made about these things, but one obviously flawed one is "Trump gets to say what he wants on Facebook, and you don't," especially if they aren't even honest enough to make that explicit.
WINTER FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVAGANZA DAY 6
A bit more and I'm gonna get invited to Davos, baby!
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Going To Have To Shut The Emanuel Family Down Until We Can Figure Out What's Going On
Weirdo Zeke is pushing his 2014 piece about how the olds (75+) should just DIE already. I put his 75th on my calendar so I can check to see if he offs himself by then.
Somehow I suspect he'll be an outlier. You, however, are due for the compost pile. Aside from many other reasons it's horrific, a reason to get medical interventions isn't simply to take extreme lifesaving measures, or to screen for them, it's to reduce the discomfort and misery of illness/age. Unless we're all supposed to off ourselves, which if he does I will take him more seriously.1. Not everyone can be an outlier. By the time we reach 75, creativity, originality, & productivity are beginning to wane for the majority of us. There are exceptions to the rule, but too many ‘American immortals’ assume that they’ll be the anomaly. https://t.co/jhHgijvK7Y
— Zeke Emanuel (@ZekeEmanuel) January 24, 2023
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
Doing Stuff
Long read from dday which I am admittedly still working through (truth is, computer screens are not the best for long reads!). I'll just add that the Prospect has been pushing the heretical line that the executive branch of the federal government is actualy empowered to do things, even liberal things, something which many people find jarring and objectionable!
Just A Dumbass With A Blog
I used to be a brasher young man, now I am not as brash not as young man. Lacking that confidence, it's difficult to find that sweet spot which is both "I have something interesting to say" and "I do not actually think every thought that comes into my head is fascinating and new, something that has never occurred to my audience before."
A better way to be, but somewhat harder to be a blogger!
A better way to be, but somewhat harder to be a blogger!
They Can "Hear" You
It's true of just about anything written by relatively privileged people for outlets with an expected audience of other privileged people about more marginal groups, but I think it's especially obvious that the numerous anti-trans pieces written in our prestige publications are written as if the writer is unaware that trans people - and people who support them - also have access to the internet.
The implied "we" and "you" (sometimes more than implied) are exclusionary. I'm just asking questions, but I'm certainly not listening to people who might have some insight to the answers. The important thing is the feelings of people like "me" ("us"), certainly not their existence.
I am sure I have been guilty of this too, at times. It's an individual problem, but also a structural one. Some people are handed big checks to write about "the other," while "the other" are rarely granted permission to write about themselves.
This is about the BBC specifically, but consider the options. On the rare occasion a trans person is invited, they have to "debate" someone who wants to make their existence illegal. Or choose not to participate and validate the sham.
Trans people are having our very existence debated and we are not even part of the conversation. The BBC has a policy that requires a gender critical person to be present in any debate about trans issues but not a requirement for a trans person.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) January 24, 2023
In Our Own Base Killing Our Own D00ds
Maybe the vaccine issue is a good way to understand "the culture war." It's an issue that people have chosen sides on in part out of some sort of sense of group identity. How precisely that started and continued, instead of Team MAGA continuing to praise Dear Leader's amazing vaccine, the best vaccine, is a bit complicated, but at some point it became part of mainstream conservative identity, even though most of their leaders probably took extra vax shots, if anything.
But how I just presented that is misleading. As with many Two Sides things in politics, one is a completely sensible view grounded in known information, and the other is just filled with gibberish conspiracy theories. The most you can say about Team Vax is their support for mandates might have hardened a bit due to the way it played out in politics.
That is to say, group identification might lead people to have stronger views on certain issues than they might have otherwise had - supporting vax mandates to Own the Cons - but that doesn't mean Both Sides are equally deranged by partisan loyalty, and it certainly doesn't mean the the issue of vaccinations is unimportant.
Sigh, the culture war again, nodded a cynical and jaded journalist, as the body count of women unable to get appropriate medical care climbed.
But how I just presented that is misleading. As with many Two Sides things in politics, one is a completely sensible view grounded in known information, and the other is just filled with gibberish conspiracy theories. The most you can say about Team Vax is their support for mandates might have hardened a bit due to the way it played out in politics.
That is to say, group identification might lead people to have stronger views on certain issues than they might have otherwise had - supporting vax mandates to Own the Cons - but that doesn't mean Both Sides are equally deranged by partisan loyalty, and it certainly doesn't mean the the issue of vaccinations is unimportant.
Sigh, the culture war again, nodded a cynical and jaded journalist, as the body count of women unable to get appropriate medical care climbed.
The Culture War
Putting things under "the culture war" label dismisses them as trivial. And, sure, there are elements of "the culture war" that are silly - getting mad because M&Ms aren't as sexy as they used to be - but the underlying issues are generally the most important and most complicated issues that politics has to address.
And there are real victims of what journalists like to portray as mere distractions for the rubes.
By no means is any of this trivial or unimportant. Florida is the third-most-populous state. To launch a war on vaccines or use state power to harass transgender students is to make life difficult, even dangerous, for thousands of people.
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
The Real Story
Not just a corrupt, but Russian agent infiltrated NYC FBI obvious went all out to swing the 2016 election, aided by America's Greatest Man, James Comey, for whatever reason, and since covered up by various investigations.
Others know the details better than I do, but the contours have been pretty clear for awhile even as the new details pop up.
Others include high profile journalists, who aren't talking.
Others know the details better than I do, but the contours have been pretty clear for awhile even as the new details pop up.
Others include high profile journalists, who aren't talking.
Mueller Is Coming
I don't have any strong opinions on the guy, really, but I am always extremely wary when people - Republicans, always Republicans - are set up as the heroic presidents of the Council of Celestial Hall Monitors, the referees who will right all of our wrongs without the actual politicians having to do anything.
Though whether or not he was, McGonigal was certainly in an interesting position!!!
When the C.I.A. noticed in late 2010 that its spies were disappearing, suspicion did not immediately turn to Mr. Lee, according to current and former officials. But as fears of a mole grew, the government set up a secret task force of C.I.A. officers and F.B.I. agents. A veteran F.B.I. counterintelligence agent, Charles McGonigal, was assigned to run it, former American law enforcement officials said.Lee plead guilty. I have no idea whether he was guilty, but even that NYT article contains quite a lot of expressed doubts.
As the disappearances continued, analysts concluded that Mr. Lee, even though he had been out of the C.I.A. for years, had known the identities of many of the those who had been killed or imprisoned. He showed all the indicators on a government matrix used to identify potential espionage threats, one former official recalled.
Though whether or not he was, McGonigal was certainly in an interesting position!!!
Also, quite obviously, the kinds of people praised for being "institutionalists" (this is a compliment, for some reason) think their jobs are to protect the institutions!
Corrupted
We don't have all the information yet - and I won't be the one to tell the story - but there was a mysterious somewhat unexplained force in The Discourse over the past few years. A bunch of influential people taking positions that were a bit puzzling, or emphasizing issues or candidates that were seemingly a bit out of character. People with direct and indirect lines to candidates and members of Congress.
People who seemed relatively nice and well-intentioned, by the standards of these things at least, becoming complete assholes. I'm seen it enough to get when people are riding just a bit too high. Goes to the melon, a bit, especially if you're on the younger side.
That force was Sam Bankman-Fried, his money, and the associated Effective Altruism cult. Prosperity gospel for agnostics, and yet another reformulation of the usual rich guy eugenics agenda, packaged for NPR listeners.
Lots of people tainted by it, most of them just tweeting through it. A few have gone silent.
People who seemed relatively nice and well-intentioned, by the standards of these things at least, becoming complete assholes. I'm seen it enough to get when people are riding just a bit too high. Goes to the melon, a bit, especially if you're on the younger side.
That force was Sam Bankman-Fried, his money, and the associated Effective Altruism cult. Prosperity gospel for agnostics, and yet another reformulation of the usual rich guy eugenics agenda, packaged for NPR listeners.
Lots of people tainted by it, most of them just tweeting through it. A few have gone silent.
Crypto victims are real people, and while smart guys like me always laughed at the whole thing, when elite validators - even good liberal ones! - are pushing crypto onto people you can't fault the people who believe them.
The big regulatory issue was pushing to put crypto under the toothless CFTC instead of the sometimes awake SEC. Many of your faves, somewhat surprisingly, suddenly decided that was an important issue!
The broader social agenda was Elysium up there, Children of Men down here.
Stenography for Liars
This issue is a different beast, but generally there is a huge problem with the political journalism and weird journalistic "ethics" (professional norms are always called "ethics" but usually have little to do with being ethical) surrounding anonymous sources.
I mean, basically, when Sarah Sanders would say one thing at the lectern and tell Maggie something else anonymously, the bigger story, usually, was "Sarah Sanders is a big fucking liar," but because of the NORMS, we could never be told that.
Isn't too difficult to hack that system, to create a whole posse of political journalists who are basically corrupted by the fact that you've agreed to be an anonymous source and therefore they can't ever point out the contradictions between your public pronouncements and reality.
And they will defend you to a death if a comedian makes a perfectly legitimate joke about you.
I mean, basically, when Sarah Sanders would say one thing at the lectern and tell Maggie something else anonymously, the bigger story, usually, was "Sarah Sanders is a big fucking liar," but because of the NORMS, we could never be told that.
Isn't too difficult to hack that system, to create a whole posse of political journalists who are basically corrupted by the fact that you've agreed to be an anonymous source and therefore they can't ever point out the contradictions between your public pronouncements and reality.
And they will defend you to a death if a comedian makes a perfectly legitimate joke about you.
JOURNALISTIC ETHICS
Don't think you need to protect sources who lied to you generally - although journalists *never* follow that one even though they claim otherwise - but surely not "lied to by foreign agent."
Yes, NYT editors should revisit the sourcing of that story, and let the public know if a Russian operative was their main source. The public -- and historians -- deserve to know. @nycscribe https://t.co/Oq6GPvSJo7
— Dan Froomkin/PressWatchers.org (@froomkin) January 23, 2023
Monday, January 23, 2023
The Wingnut Extended Universe
Years ago a fairly prominent public conservative was basically turned into an UNPERSON for a few years (I think she managed to crawl back in eventually) to the conservative movement because she took a heretical position on some issue of major importance.
Ah, Atrios, what issue was that?
Glad you asked. She wrote a piece about how ADD (now ADHD) was REAL, actually.
Wow, Atrios, how was that heresy?
Honestly, I don't even remember precisely why! I mean, I do remember "ADD IS A BIG MYTH" being a thing for conservatives. I can sorta guess why that was, and if I cared I'm sure there are enough remnants on the big old internet that I could figure it out, but I don't actually remember.
Of course ADD was real to this person only because she had a kid who was diagnosed with it. There is rarely any other reason conservatives acknowledge any possible struggle that others face.
The Wingnut Extended Universe has long been a thing. Part of their mythology includes these weird little beliefs (ADD IS A LIBERAL PLOT!) that party allegiance requires adherence to. But 30 movies and several TV show later, that mythology is really really complicated! I'm very online and I can't keep up.
Ah, Atrios, what issue was that?
Glad you asked. She wrote a piece about how ADD (now ADHD) was REAL, actually.
Wow, Atrios, how was that heresy?
Honestly, I don't even remember precisely why! I mean, I do remember "ADD IS A BIG MYTH" being a thing for conservatives. I can sorta guess why that was, and if I cared I'm sure there are enough remnants on the big old internet that I could figure it out, but I don't actually remember.
Of course ADD was real to this person only because she had a kid who was diagnosed with it. There is rarely any other reason conservatives acknowledge any possible struggle that others face.
The Wingnut Extended Universe has long been a thing. Part of their mythology includes these weird little beliefs (ADD IS A LIBERAL PLOT!) that party allegiance requires adherence to. But 30 movies and several TV show later, that mythology is really really complicated! I'm very online and I can't keep up.
Wow Something Rotten In The New York FBI Office
Just a total shocker that only every journalist knows but won't explain.
...ahaha a direct connection.
Federal prosecutors say the former head of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York office laundered money, violated sanctions against Russia while working with a Russian oligarch and while still at the FBI took hundreds of thousands of dollars from a foreign national and former foreign intelligence official.With two hands tied behind my back, I could not solve this mystery!
...ahaha a direct connection.
So to be clear, McGonigal was running the FBI's Trump-Russia probe at the moment this story -- at the most critical moment of the 2016 -- was leaked to the New York Times https://t.co/K4FfJW5pz6
— Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) January 23, 2023
The Messaging, It Is Bad
I think the main way Professional Democrats are bad at messaging is that they are generally unwilling or unable to take the lead, so everything ends up being reactive. Conservatives talking immigration? We'll respond to that. Inflation? We'll respond to that.
When there's an obvious opening - some conservative steps on a giant rake somewhere - they come out for a day and then hand the ball to the press thinking they're supposed to run with it. Whether they should or shouldn't run with it is a question, but they won't do it on their own.
The way something "bubbles" up is so that journalists won't shut up about anything else, temporarily, is complicated, and changes over time. Once upon a time Matt Drudge Ruled Their World and it was as simple as Drudge headline at 2, on CNN by 4.
That's no longer the case, but the decline of Drudge left a big hole and it was filled by... the rest of the grifter wingnutosphere. Lost opportunity.
Anyway, there was a moment, as I said, when a different path was possible. Oh well.
When there's an obvious opening - some conservative steps on a giant rake somewhere - they come out for a day and then hand the ball to the press thinking they're supposed to run with it. Whether they should or shouldn't run with it is a question, but they won't do it on their own.
The way something "bubbles" up is so that journalists won't shut up about anything else, temporarily, is complicated, and changes over time. Once upon a time Matt Drudge Ruled Their World and it was as simple as Drudge headline at 2, on CNN by 4.
That's no longer the case, but the decline of Drudge left a big hole and it was filled by... the rest of the grifter wingnutosphere. Lost opportunity.
Anyway, there was a moment, as I said, when a different path was possible. Oh well.
Zients
Not especially optimistic about Biden's new CoS.
Over to former Rep. Brad Miller:
Over to former Rep. Brad Miller:
I’d feel better if anyone in Washington learned from their mistakes, but instead everyone is determined to prove the next time that their strategy should have worked the last time. https://t.co/hCvVvgMMhv
— Brad Miller (@BMillRep) January 23, 2023
WINTER FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVAGANZA DAY 3
I lament the wasted opportunity of the LEFTY INTERNET, and the diversion of any possible promise into mostly useless endeavors, not because I feel entitled to all the money, and certainly not because in the Year of Our Gritty 2023 I think THE ESCHATON BLOG is the way to change the world, but because there was a time when I saw the powers that be actively trying to stamp it out and then rebuild it with useless replacements.
There are many actors and many ways this happened - not one smoke-filled room filled with people who said DESTROY THE BLOGS - but Professional Democrats hate any messaging they don't control, even as they are frequently awful at messaging.
So now we talk about whatever Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk want us to talk about every day.
A bit hard to stomach for those of us who remember them as "The Virgin Ben" and "The guy in a diaper in a dumpster," respectively, but somehow those guys are more palatable than the lunatics who opposed the Iraq war.
But, who knows, maybe THE BLOG ERA will return!!! Thanks to all!
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There are many actors and many ways this happened - not one smoke-filled room filled with people who said DESTROY THE BLOGS - but Professional Democrats hate any messaging they don't control, even as they are frequently awful at messaging.
So now we talk about whatever Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk want us to talk about every day.
A bit hard to stomach for those of us who remember them as "The Virgin Ben" and "The guy in a diaper in a dumpster," respectively, but somehow those guys are more palatable than the lunatics who opposed the Iraq war.
But, who knows, maybe THE BLOG ERA will return!!! Thanks to all!
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No Way to Prevent This, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens
Of course the ease of getting guns is a lot of it, but it's also the fucking "gun culture" that has infected everything so much so that mass shooters are borderline treated as heroic.
I know that defending that idea - that mass shooters are treated as borderline heroic - is a bit complicated. It isn't *always* the case, and it isn't entirely straightforward, but it's a bit like how the worst racists somehow get transmuted into "champions of free speech." 1st amendment absolutism and 2nd amendment absolutism aren't so different. Whatever one thinks of the appropriate government role in either of these things, we've gone from championing the ideals to championing the dickheads who absolutely abuse it.
Even if one supports legal open carry, the guy walking into Wal-Mart toting several guns is a fucking asshole, not a hero. That you can doesn't mean you should. The cultural impulses that turn fucking Milo Yiannopoulos into a free speech hero for harassing trans students (a job now taken over by The Atlantic and The New York Times) provide the foundation for treating people who shoot up schools as heroes, too.
Related: a light really went off in my brain when someone made the should-be-obvious point that it's "interesting" that the big Freedom of Speech case we all learn is Skokie. The 20th-21st centuries are filled with examples of censored speech and curtailed assembly, so why do we focus on the biggest assholes of all and hold up their case as the pinnacle example of our enlightened approach to free speech?
We're so brave and wonderful for letting the Nazis march [scene cuts to cops absolutely beating the crap out of basically any other protesters].
I know that defending that idea - that mass shooters are treated as borderline heroic - is a bit complicated. It isn't *always* the case, and it isn't entirely straightforward, but it's a bit like how the worst racists somehow get transmuted into "champions of free speech." 1st amendment absolutism and 2nd amendment absolutism aren't so different. Whatever one thinks of the appropriate government role in either of these things, we've gone from championing the ideals to championing the dickheads who absolutely abuse it.
Even if one supports legal open carry, the guy walking into Wal-Mart toting several guns is a fucking asshole, not a hero. That you can doesn't mean you should. The cultural impulses that turn fucking Milo Yiannopoulos into a free speech hero for harassing trans students (a job now taken over by The Atlantic and The New York Times) provide the foundation for treating people who shoot up schools as heroes, too.
Related: a light really went off in my brain when someone made the should-be-obvious point that it's "interesting" that the big Freedom of Speech case we all learn is Skokie. The 20th-21st centuries are filled with examples of censored speech and curtailed assembly, so why do we focus on the biggest assholes of all and hold up their case as the pinnacle example of our enlightened approach to free speech?
We're so brave and wonderful for letting the Nazis march [scene cuts to cops absolutely beating the crap out of basically any other protesters].
Sunday, January 22, 2023
Enough Vagueblogging
My very online, very political, readers, if you live in any of these states, have you heard of any of these "publications"?
WINTER FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVAGANZA DAY 2
I'm sure I could've been smarter about making this a "business," but I don't really want to run a business and everything on the internet is a bit grifty. Even things like "redoing the blog format to trick the SEO" just seem grifty, and a big headache. Also I wasn't going to pivot to video.
Thanks to all! Escalade and Tahoe will be enrolling in Liberty U. this Fall, thanks to you!
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For every dollar you donate you get one newly minted EschaCoin which I truly promise will only go up and value and also it is backed fully by real dollars and this makes absolutely no sense but it is the last few years of the "crypto" business. Good job Tony and Bill, you guys never miss your shots.
*You do not, in fact, get any EschaCoins.
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For every dollar you donate you get one newly minted EschaCoin which I truly promise will only go up and value and also it is backed fully by real dollars and this makes absolutely no sense but it is the last few years of the "crypto" business. Good job Tony and Bill, you guys never miss your shots.
*You do not, in fact, get any EschaCoins.
Reputation Laundering
There are a lot of victims of FTX and other crypto scams, I have not seen a single individual or entity who participated in it express regret in any other terms other than mild lament over a failure of their big brains.
Oh no, I got something wrong! My pedigreed big brain should not have failed me (me!!!) like that! Oh well, on to the next thing.
Compared with crypto users in the U.S. or Europe, African traders usually invest much smaller amounts and are more likely to use their tokens to preserve savings, pay for day-to-day purchases and send money across borders, according to Kim Grauer, head of research at Chainalysis, a New York-based blockchain analysis firm. In sub-Saharan Africa, 80% of all crypto transfers are for amounts under $1,000, compared with 71% in North America, according to Chainalysis.
“Most of the people we meet with in Africa are not using extra funds, they’re putting their livelihoods on the line to put food on the table,” said Ray Youssef, chief executive of Paxful, a Delaware-based peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace popular in Africa. “And now [those who invested with FTX] will most likely never see their funds again.”
Saturday, January 21, 2023
The Right Wing Grift
Needless to say this very fine blog has never made that kind of money. I don't expect to, of course, but it has long been a bit frustrating seeing how much money sloshes around the griftersphere on The Right.In his video, Steven Crowder insists that this is a "slave contract" — "There's no need to be enslaved like this!"
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) January 19, 2023
Then the Daily Wire revealed this "slave contract" was for $50 mil over four years, four weeks off a year, and Crowder never working Fridays. Not a bad deal!
The money that does slosh around on The Left - much much less - tends not to trickle down. Funny, really. And no I'm not talking about me, personally, just the wider leftysphere. There are some grifters sucking up the big donor money, and the hilarious thing is you've probably never even heard of them or their websites! Some big failures keep getting rewarded!
There was an alternative timeline in which support materialized for left wing online media. A better timeline? Who knows! But what money there was went to various failsons and donors' pets and you've never heard of any of them!
There was a brief window of opportunity, but instead the Right took over the internet. Even though Drudge's influence waned, journalists still talk about whatever conservatives want to talk about on any given day.
Sad!!!
That said, my fundraising goal this week is FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS (joke).
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Begging bowl out for a week as is the custom.
Thanks to all, much appreciated!!! My daughter, Escalade, and my son, Tahoe, need the college money!*
*not really
Remember MOOCs?
There was a brief period when all the big brains on the internet were convinced that UNIVERSITIES WERE DOOMED because online courses-in-a-box would inevitably replace them (well, not schools near Boston, but OTHER universities).
Then they just stopped talking about them, as they do when any dumb prediction blows up in their faces.
Of relatively non-important issues (unlike, you know, WAR), I think MOOCs and self-driving cars had the highest wrongness/(smug confidence) ratios from the usual set you get the smug confidence from.
The denomniator is always huge, so that numerator has to be off the charts!!!
(The fad died out before covid, but covid taught university administrators that distance learning was actually very labor intensive and they couldn't just replace the university with an app and expect students to be happy).
Then they just stopped talking about them, as they do when any dumb prediction blows up in their faces.
Of relatively non-important issues (unlike, you know, WAR), I think MOOCs and self-driving cars had the highest wrongness/(smug confidence) ratios from the usual set you get the smug confidence from.
The denomniator is always huge, so that numerator has to be off the charts!!!
(The fad died out before covid, but covid taught university administrators that distance learning was actually very labor intensive and they couldn't just replace the university with an app and expect students to be happy).
WINTER FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVAGANZA DAY 1
Quarterly begging bowl time.
With Lonnie killing Twitter and the latest round of media layoffs stamping out any remnants of The Professional Blogosphere, perhaps very fine blogs like this one will become fashionable again!!!
Seriously, bring back the blog era. That was when the internet was Good, before Facebook and Google ate all the ad money and Twitter ate all (most) of the comments sections.
I have the cursed gift of long memory to offer, to remind us that the people who are horrible now have long been horrible (see post below).
With Lonnie killing Twitter and the latest round of media layoffs stamping out any remnants of The Professional Blogosphere, perhaps very fine blogs like this one will become fashionable again!!!
Seriously, bring back the blog era. That was when the internet was Good, before Facebook and Google ate all the ad money and Twitter ate all (most) of the comments sections.
I have the cursed gift of long memory to offer, to remind us that the people who are horrible now have long been horrible (see post below).
Your favorite streaming service probably sucks now, so give me that money instead!
Thanks to all, much appreciated!!! My daughter, Escalade, and my son, Tahoe, need the college money!*
*not really
Never Forget
Jonathan Alter has a dumb piece in the NYT which is, basically, while Biden did NOTHING WRONG with classified documents, HOW COULD HE HAVE BEEN SO STUPID WHEN HE KNOWS PEOPLE LIKE ME WILL WRITE ABOUT NOTHING ELSE?
Almost there, my guy.
Alter's a reminder of just how bad the early aughts were in terms of the Discourse. Even before 9/11, but certainly after. He qualified as a "liberal" pundit (there were no liberals, only "centrists"). And he gave us the gift of torture.
First out of the gate.
Almost there, my guy.
Alter's a reminder of just how bad the early aughts were in terms of the Discourse. Even before 9/11, but certainly after. He qualified as a "liberal" pundit (there were no liberals, only "centrists"). And he gave us the gift of torture.
First out of the gate.
In this autumn of anger, even a liberal can find his thoughts turning to... torture. OK, not cattle prods or rubber hoses, at least not here in the United States, but something to jump-start the stalled investigation of the greatest crime in American history. Right now, four key hijacking suspects aren't talking at all.
Couldn't we at least subject them to psychological torture, like tapes of dying rabbits or high-decibel rap? (The military has done that in Panama and elsewhere.) How about truth serum, administered with a mandatory IV? Or deportation to Saudi Arabia, land of beheadings? (As the frustrated FBI has been threatening.) Some people still argue that we needn't rethink any of our old assumptions about law enforcement, but they're hopelessly "Sept. 10"--living in a country that no longer exists.
Friday, January 20, 2023
The Answer Is No
"Lol, fuck you, no" should be the administration response to everything.
The Justice Department is signaling that it has the right to not cooperate with Hill Republicans’ requests to peek into their ongoing investigations, a top official wrote in a letter obtained by POLITICO.This isn't even a close one.
Talk To The Hand
The high priests are, by definition, ethical, as in if they do it then it's ethical.
Different rules for you, my friends.
Different rules for you, my friends.
I Hate Everybody
I have the luxury of not having to pretend that people who Are Just Asking Questions are not obvious bigots, and I also have the luxury of not having to give the benefit of the doubt to their friendly peers in the media.Those who promote bigotry against trans people in sports are responsible for normalizing the whole fascist anti-trans agenda. https://t.co/D84pExCYrI
— SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN 🦬 🗽🤘🏽 (@sivavaid) January 20, 2023
A club which eagerly embraces so many bigots is a rotten club!
Frivolous Lawsuits
About time.
Jan 19 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday ordered former U.S. President Donald Trump and his attorneys to pay more than $937,000 in sanctions for suing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over claims the 2016 presidential election was rigged.
The Priesthood
The Supremos and the clique of "Supreme Court Reporters" have spent decades turning the whole gang into an untouchable caste. I mean, Nina Totenberg wouldn't tell us one of them was a child rapist even if she walked in on it happening.
The conservative moment went as far as naming and doxxing individual liberal clerks, and then when "everyone" realized Alito was the likely leaker, they ran a sham investigation exempting themselves.
Powerful people should be held to higher, not lower, standards, and while it isn't surprising that's inverted *in practice*, it is maybe somewhat surprising that it is so entrenched that it's somewhat contrarian to make this point.
The conservative moment went as far as naming and doxxing individual liberal clerks, and then when "everyone" realized Alito was the likely leaker, they ran a sham investigation exempting themselves.
Powerful people should be held to higher, not lower, standards, and while it isn't surprising that's inverted *in practice*, it is maybe somewhat surprising that it is so entrenched that it's somewhat contrarian to make this point.
Thursday, January 19, 2023
Schlapped
We all gotta eat, but Schlapp has had a long lucrative career as a conservative grifter (being a conservative grifter, unlike being a very fine and dedicated earnest left wing blogger, pays very well indeed). At some moment along the way he could've looked at the money in his bank and said, well, there's quite a lot in there, and it seems I'm on the other side of the great arc of life, so perhaps I should figure out if there's a better way to be than this.
Many people make shitty choices because of precarity. That's capitalism, baby. But rich assholes don't actually have to spend their lives trying to make things worse for everybody else.
Does He Know How To Count
I think a bit too much was made about "Pelosi the vote counter" but seems like Kev is flirting with (good) disaster with this one!No more proxy voting. Effective immediately, Members of Congress have to show up to work if they want their vote to count.
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) January 19, 2023
Rules Of The Sky
Rules don't just directly benefit consumers. They also make genuine competition (to the extent that it's possible in our poorly structured airline industry) possible. If all the other airlines are pushing out bullshit schedules, United has to as well.
(I have no idea if UA is even trying to be a 'good citizen' generally, but the point is valid either way).The CEO of United Airlines accused his rivals of committing fraud by selling tickets on flights they know they can't service. This statement by an airline CEO about the industry's problems is so much harsher than anything Pete Buttigieg has said or done. https://t.co/dW7SAt6Ji8 pic.twitter.com/cXUSn2o9l0
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) January 19, 2023
WHERE ARE YOUR FREE SPEECH GODS NOW
That all the "free speech warriors" were 100% full of shit is not news to me or to the very fine readers of this very fine blog. *I* never expected any of them to leap to the defense of teachers being banned from mentioning the existence of black people.
Still lots of people pretended to take them seriously, or maybe even did genuinely, and maybe they could reflect on that.
I am not serious, those people are all just garbage liars too.
Still lots of people pretended to take them seriously, or maybe even did genuinely, and maybe they could reflect on that.
I am not serious, those people are all just garbage liars too.
Preening Self-Important Assholes Desperate To Be The Main Character
WHPC is just filled with freaks.
And that's even before we get to Covid Kayleigh.
They want it to be an exciting event, but that's dumb. The press sec makes some announcements, they ask for some clarifications, she provides it if she can, everybody goes home early. BOOOORRIIIIING.
Frustration among White House reporters with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is reaching a boiling point.Sarah Sanders sure was fun! Lied at the lectern, and then told them different lies in private to make them feel special.
That is according to conversations I had on Wednesday with more than a half-dozen White House reporters who painted a picture of a White House press corps that has grown exasperated with Jean-Pierre and does not believe she is well equipped to handle their inquiries. The reporters, who asked not to be identified in order to speak freely, pointed to Jean-Pierre's insistence on sticking to talking points and an episode last week where a key assertion she made from the podium ultimately did not hold up.
And that's even before we get to Covid Kayleigh.
They want it to be an exciting event, but that's dumb. The press sec makes some announcements, they ask for some clarifications, she provides it if she can, everybody goes home early. BOOOORRIIIIING.
The Stationary Object Problem
This whole thing is hilarious.
It's actually kind of a familiar, reminding me of being a young nerd with an annoying computer (they were all much more annoying once, even if they are still frequently annoying now) convinced that whatever glitch I as dealing with could be solved.
Except my annoying computer wasn't a two ton vehicle traveling at 45MPH.
We parked at the spot where he hit the police S.U.V. four years earlier. There was nothing special about the road here: no strange lines, no confusing lane shift, no merge. Just a single lane of traffic running along a row of parked cars. Why the Tesla failed at that moment was a mystery.Key is a Tesla fanman convinced the next version will surely do it.
Eventually, Key told F.S.D. to take us back to the cafe. As we started our left turn, though, the steering wheel spasmed and the brake pedal juddered. Key muttered a nervous, “OK. … ”
After another moment, the car pulled halfway across the road and stopped. A line of cars was bearing down on our broadside. Key hesitated a second but then quickly took over and completed the turn. “It probably could have then accelerated, but I wasn’t willing to cut it that close,” he said. If he was wrong, of course, there was a good chance that he would have had his second A.I.-caused accident on the same one-mile stretch of road.
It's actually kind of a familiar, reminding me of being a young nerd with an annoying computer (they were all much more annoying once, even if they are still frequently annoying now) convinced that whatever glitch I as dealing with could be solved.
Except my annoying computer wasn't a two ton vehicle traveling at 45MPH.
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Slurp Juice
Never forget that Sam Bankman-Fried is the real thing, and without him, Biden would likely not be president.
Instead, the lot of 101 NFTs sold for $24.4 million, smashing records for Bored Apes. What newly minted patron of the digital arts snagged this for eight figures? Sotheby’s wouldn’t comment on the buyer apart from saying that among those heavily involved in the bidding were legacy art collectors.
...
Increasingly, it looks as though the buyer was not a traditional art collector or even a human person that other Ape owners could welcome to a club. The blockchain is an opaque-at-best space, but in the months following the purchase, some close observers have settled on the idea that the buyer of the Apes at Sotheby’s was FTX, the crypto exchange that recently crashed and burned, resulting in an inquiry into the possible market machinations of its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, who is currently charged with crimes related to the overnight disappearance of billions of his investors’ funds in the fall. (Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty and, in a statement, said he “did not steal funds.”)
Buying Influence
Vox, The Intercept, Propublica, Semafor and many more we don't know about!
Chump change to someone with a few fake billion, and I don't think the full extent of his influence buying is known! Though it's the kind of thing no one is going to be in too much of a hurry to reveal. Or investigate, mostly.
Fortunately all of these big brain media people are too clever to be manipulated or (scoffing) be influenced by money!!!
The news start-up Semafor began operating late last year with big ambitions backed by deep-pocketed investors. But the company soon found itself in a pickle: How to handle its biggest outside investment, roughly $10 million, from Sam Bankman-Fried after his crypto company collapsed and he was accused of fraud by the federal government.If I'm reading the article correctly, that's $10 out of $25 million.
Chump change to someone with a few fake billion, and I don't think the full extent of his influence buying is known! Though it's the kind of thing no one is going to be in too much of a hurry to reveal. Or investigate, mostly.
Fortunately all of these big brain media people are too clever to be manipulated or (scoffing) be influenced by money!!!
Every Action's An Act Of Creation
Funny.
Twitter might have had a reputation as a left-leaning workforce, but there had always been a faction that disapproved of its progressive ideals. On Slack, some of these workers had formed a channel called #i-dissent, where they asked questions like why deadnaming a trans colleague was considered “bad.” When Musk announced he was buying the company, one of the more active i-dissenters was thrilled. “Elon’s my new boss and I’m stoked!” he wrote on LinkedIn. “I decided to send him a slack message. I figured you miss 100% of the shots you don’t make 😅 🚀 🌕”
This employee was cut during the first round of layoffs. Soon, all the prominent members of the #i-dissent Slack channel would be gone. The channel itself was archived, while bigger social channels like #social-watercooler were abandoned.
Progressive Policy Concern Trolls
There are people whose role in DC is to pretend to support progressive goals, but always thwart them. No matter what progressive policy is on the table - and it takes years to get anything to the table, usually - they'll be there to tell you there's a better way. When that better way is on the table, they'll be there to tell you about a different better way.
Sometimes they just switch back and forth!
For years I couldn't keep track of whether taxing carbon or cap and trade was the Actual Adult Climate Policy. That one spun around too fast to ever be clear.
Their solutions are always more serious, more adult. The reformers are always silly and childish. The PPCTs are always sure they have Science And Evidence on their side, except when they don't, which is when they claim they have polls on their side. When they don't even have polls on their side, they claim some important demographic - elderly Hispanic voters! (n=27 in poll sample) - is on their side.
A very bad thing in DC is the cultural norm of treating paid liars as if they are good faith operators, Just Asking Questions and Debating In The Marketplace Of Ideas.
Their solutions are always more serious, more adult. The reformers are always silly and childish. The PPCTs are always sure they have Science And Evidence on their side, except when they don't, which is when they claim they have polls on their side. When they don't even have polls on their side, they claim some important demographic - elderly Hispanic voters! (n=27 in poll sample) - is on their side.
A very bad thing in DC is the cultural norm of treating paid liars as if they are good faith operators, Just Asking Questions and Debating In The Marketplace Of Ideas.
Everyone Knows Elon
Now like I've known him for years. That this video was bullshit was obvious at the time.
Jan 17 (Reuters) - A 2016 video that Tesla (TSLA.O) used to promote its self-driving technology was staged to show capabilities like stopping at a red light and accelerating at a green light that the system did not have, according to testimony by a senior engineer.
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Negotiating With Terrorists
Glad Biden's learned some lessons from his old boss's gross mistakes.
Biden's view: Pay the bills, no discussion.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 17, 2023
“We’re not going to do any negotiations. And it should be, again, done without conditions,” says @PressSec.
Schumer/Jeffries: “default forced by extreme MAGA Rs could plunge the country into a deep recession”https://t.co/0Xl5AWwmEv
NCAA
Learned a new term from this - No Coupon At All - entities which take out massive loans and then fail to even make the first payment.
The bill for Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter is coming due, with the billionaire facing unpalatable options on the company’s enormous debt pile, ranging from bankruptcy proceedings to another costly sale of Tesla shares.
Three people close to the entrepreneur’s buyout of Twitter said the first instalment of interest payments related to $13bn of debt he used to fund the takeover could be due as soon as the end of January. That debt means the company must pay about $1.5bn in annual interest payments.
Freedom Fighter
Seems like a problem.
I'll give the guy (perhaps undeserved) the benefit of the doubt and say he wasn't actually trying to kill a 10-year-old girl, but the gun nuts seem strangely unaware of the dangers of stray bullets.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A failed Republican candidate who authorities said was angry over his defeat and made baseless claims the election last November was “rigged” against him was arrested in connection with a series of drive-by shootings targeting the homes of Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico’s largest city.
I'll give the guy (perhaps undeserved) the benefit of the doubt and say he wasn't actually trying to kill a 10-year-old girl, but the gun nuts seem strangely unaware of the dangers of stray bullets.
No one was injured in the shootings but in one case three bullets passed through the bedroom of a state senator’s 10-year-old daughter.
That's in a thread discussing (among other things) how Albuquerque has become a crime-ridden hellhole. I haven't been to Albuquerque in 35 years so I'm curious if there's *any* truth to this? Lots of "oh I used to go there but now it's too scary" from our Alpha-Americans.I disagree. Everyone in the NM government who helped overthrow Trump are the active treasonists who must be placed in Guantanamo Bay Cuba for natural life. Once they are gone I can work on rebuilding Albuquerque.
— Solomon Pena for NM (@SolomonPena2022) December 28, 2022
The New York State Democratic Party
Not a local, so I don't have any particular insight, but it's clear that it's absolutely the worst of organized politics. A giant patronage operation for friends and family, full employment for failsons of the connected, a career club and contracting club for the special lads and lasses. All feeding off the necessary corrupt funding from rich interests to keep the whole thing going.
That is what it is, but the House Minority Leader did not have to step into it, too.
The organized party is not "all elected Democrats" as we are seeing, but you can see where control has been.
That is what it is, but the House Minority Leader did not have to step into it, too.
The organized party is not "all elected Democrats" as we are seeing, but you can see where control has been.
Worst of all, not even being any good at winning elections because it doesn't matter all that much.Politicians use churches to push themselves but this was so crass and blatant. Hochul barely even talked about MLK before switching to promoting Lasalle nomination and twisting MLK’s words to justify a moderate who literally thought racial bias in jury selection was totally fine pic.twitter.com/OVHM86c27D
— Jeremy Kaplan (@BKSunset) January 16, 2023
Trial Of The Century
Not really, but could be fun!!!
The trial is likely to provide insights into Musk's management style, given the witness list includes some of Tesla's current and former top executives and board members, including luminaries such as Larry Ellison, Oracle co-founder, as well as James Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Monday, January 16, 2023
Slipping
I was never stupid enough to think that going backwards was impossible. Certainly in my lifetime progress on plenty of things has been mixed, a couple steps forward here, a step back there. Still it's quite clear that "we" (in this usage, "we" is "the country" so I think it is ok) are backsliding on racial issues rather quickly.
Not at all surprising are the "white moderates" who are performing their expected role, encouraging the retrogression as best they can while maintaining deniability.
Lost opportunity. What a bummer. The next Guccifer should bring us the slack chats of the smartest boys in the room from 2020. Now that would be enlightening!
Not at all surprising are the "white moderates" who are performing their expected role, encouraging the retrogression as best they can while maintaining deniability.
Lost opportunity. What a bummer. The next Guccifer should bring us the slack chats of the smartest boys in the room from 2020. Now that would be enlightening!
The World Is Made Of Smoke So I Stink
Impossible to explain to The Kids Today - or even remember, quite - what it was like before the mid-aughts. Workplace and other public smoking regulations kicked in earlier, but really it wasn't until restaurant/bar smoking was mostly banned that people realized that it didn't have to be like it was, that a night out didn't have to mean smelling of smoke.
Relearning the joys of wool sweaters when you suddenly you don't have to dry cleaning them frequently or, really, at all.
Just an amazing aspect of the past to pretend to miss, even if it's just to Own The Libs.
Relearning the joys of wool sweaters when you suddenly you don't have to dry cleaning them frequently or, really, at all.
Just an amazing aspect of the past to pretend to miss, even if it's just to Own The Libs.
Forever Covid
The cause of low vaccine booster uptake mostly isn't the anti-vaxxers, it's the media and political class's decision that Covid was over and it wasn't anything to worry about anymore.
"Get your boosters" and "Covid is over" are contradictory messages, and while all the Nates and Davids and Noahs will say they were vaccine supporters, that message was buried in the general "everyone who still worries about Covid is a bizarre freak" messaging that dominated.
"Get your boosters" and "Covid is over" are contradictory messages, and while all the Nates and Davids and Noahs will say they were vaccine supporters, that message was buried in the general "everyone who still worries about Covid is a bizarre freak" messaging that dominated.
Sunday, January 15, 2023
Debt Ceiling
The point is all the possible solutions (playing with bond sales, minting the coin, pointing to the constitution, just saying "the law says I gotta spend, so I gotta spend").
For some reason there's a big nerd argument about which is "more serious" and really who gives a shit. YOUR MINT THE COIN SOLUTION IS RIDICULOUS, MY POINT AT THE CONSTITUTION SOLUTION IS NOT!!!
It misses the point. "The debt ceiling" problem is a fake problem, it is the ridiculous thing, all solutions to it are more "serious."
The mint the coin solution is actually less ridiculous than the alternative Dean is proposing - I think Dean agrees - but as it's hidden behind some complicated sounding finance wonkery it SOUNDS less ridiculous. This explains the seriousness with which crypto is treated, as well.
For some reason there's a big nerd argument about which is "more serious" and really who gives a shit. YOUR MINT THE COIN SOLUTION IS RIDICULOUS, MY POINT AT THE CONSTITUTION SOLUTION IS NOT!!!
It misses the point. "The debt ceiling" problem is a fake problem, it is the ridiculous thing, all solutions to it are more "serious."
The mint the coin solution is actually less ridiculous than the alternative Dean is proposing - I think Dean agrees - but as it's hidden behind some complicated sounding finance wonkery it SOUNDS less ridiculous. This explains the seriousness with which crypto is treated, as well.