Tuesday, February 28, 2023
So Much Straw
Wonder what details will emerge about the campaign finance stuff.
Bankman-Fried, FTX's founder, pleaded not guilty to eight criminal charges filed against him in December. Prosecutors say he stole billions in FTX customer funds to plug losses at Alameda. He has acknowledged inadequate risk management, but says he did not steal funds.
Singh, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States by violating campaign finance laws.
Now It's Time
Simon was a semi-regular Fox guest for a time. Not all the time, but still.
Yah I get bitter about stuff like this because people are out there making millions for their brilliant advice, like "go on Fox News, run ads on Fox News," and part of having a reputation for being able to give valuable "brilliant advice" is assuring people that others who disagree with you are fucking idiots who should not be listened to.
My view on Fox has long been that if you're going to appear on Fox News it should be your first and last appearance, in that they'll never invite you back. Absolutely anything else only serves to legitimize them and deligitmize everyone who says, ah, uh, maybe you shouldn't do that.
"Any more."It's time for all of us to have THE conversation about Fox.
— Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) February 28, 2023
There is a Republican political organization PRETENDING to be a news organization operating here in Washington and key states across the country.
The country, Dems, cannot look away any more. Things have to change. https://t.co/ElubeJPoTJ
Yah I get bitter about stuff like this because people are out there making millions for their brilliant advice, like "go on Fox News, run ads on Fox News," and part of having a reputation for being able to give valuable "brilliant advice" is assuring people that others who disagree with you are fucking idiots who should not be listened to.
My view on Fox has long been that if you're going to appear on Fox News it should be your first and last appearance, in that they'll never invite you back. Absolutely anything else only serves to legitimize them and deligitmize everyone who says, ah, uh, maybe you shouldn't do that.
One Million Robotaxis
Musk's defense on this one is probably something like, "You fucked up! You trusted me!" Can't say he'd be totally wrong about that.
Shareholders have alleged in the proposed class action lawsuit that Tesla defrauded them over four years with false and misleading statements that concealed how its technologies – suspected as a possible cause of multiple fatal crashes – “created a serious risk of accident and injury”. The case was filed Monday in a San Francisco federal court.From 2014:
Full Self-Driving. So, over time, we think Full Self-Driving will become the most important source of profitability for Tesla. It’s — actually, if you run the numbers on robotaxis, it’s kind of nutty — it’s nutty good from a financial standpoint. And I think we are completely confident at this point that it will be achieved. And my personal guess is that we’ll achieve Full Self-Driving this year, yes, with data safety level significantly greater than present.I think here he means as a technology, not as a consumer product, but one point I've been making for years is that if self-driving cars could really work, you'd have the $10 million prototype with the onboard supercomputer and 57 redundant mobile connects and a suite of sensors (or whatever). From that they could figure out how to transform the basic tech into a consumer product. That never happened.
Can We Make The AI Do Racial Slurs
I was cooking something from an online recipe yesterday, and I read the comments (which are always hilarious). One of the comments was something like, "This recipe had way too much lemon in it, I will be searching for a more balanced recipe." And, you know, if that's your problem with the recipe, you don't need to find another recipe. You just need to use a bit less lemon zest.
A chatbot with more racism isn't actually a difficult problem, once you have the chatbot of course.
(I find the chatbot hype to almost as dumb as the NFT hype, but I can always be wrong with these things)
Tesla chief Elon Musk has reportedly approached AI experts in recent weeks to form a team for building a chatbot like ChatGPT’s OpenAI.These techbros are all stupid and insane, and they really believe if they don't have a non-woke chatbot, our future AI overlords will require us to not use the 'hard R' or something.
The multibillionaire also criticized OpenAI for the safeguards the startup put in place preventing ChatGPT from producing offensive text, calling the chatbot an example of “training AI to be woke”.
(I find the chatbot hype to almost as dumb as the NFT hype, but I can always be wrong with these things)
Handing Over The Ads To Jared
The NYT buries that little nugget in a tiny paragraph way down in its coverage. Obviously all the Fox behavior is bad for an organization pretending to be a news organization under any reasonable definition of what that is, but that seems to be a headline ethical breach done by Uncle Rupert himself. Don't say it too loudly.
A thing I cannot fathom is what drives all these ageing rich guys, including Rupert (91!), of course, but also guys like Sean Hannity who seem to be genuinely concerned about The Ratings.
Many TV personalities have a weird addiction to being on TV, that goes beyond merely "being important and famous." Probably someone has written something interesting about it. I don't understand it but I accept that, once they lose their jobs, they wander aimlessly around the Hamptons, unsure of what to do with themselves.
But Hannity isn't going to lose his job or even take a noticeable hit to his income if his ratings get cut in half. And as much as he spends his life being on TV, what the hell does he need more money for anyway? I don't mean "need" as in "need in order to pay his mortgage and eat" I mean "need" as in continue his lifestyle, in every way, as it currently is, until he departs this little planet!
A thing I cannot fathom is what drives all these ageing rich guys, including Rupert (91!), of course, but also guys like Sean Hannity who seem to be genuinely concerned about The Ratings.
Many TV personalities have a weird addiction to being on TV, that goes beyond merely "being important and famous." Probably someone has written something interesting about it. I don't understand it but I accept that, once they lose their jobs, they wander aimlessly around the Hamptons, unsure of what to do with themselves.
But Hannity isn't going to lose his job or even take a noticeable hit to his income if his ratings get cut in half. And as much as he spends his life being on TV, what the hell does he need more money for anyway? I don't mean "need" as in "need in order to pay his mortgage and eat" I mean "need" as in continue his lifestyle, in every way, as it currently is, until he departs this little planet!
Foxy
One regular criticism of journalism you find on this very fine blog is that elite journalists tend to stand united in defense around the absolute worst of their profession. It isn't entirely clear to me why this is. The factors that determine club membership in any such club are often a bit complicated.
I don't expect any modification of the way other journalists treat Fox, or the way, in their objective analysis, Democrats have no choice but to go beg them for good coverage on a daily basis.
There's Oliver Darcy, but I'm not confident his lead will be followed!
I don't expect any modification of the way other journalists treat Fox, or the way, in their objective analysis, Democrats have no choice but to go beg them for good coverage on a daily basis.
There's Oliver Darcy, but I'm not confident his lead will be followed!
Monday, February 27, 2023
Seems Bad
Still won't be enough to keep Dems away from Fox.
Because they're hostile!
Probably that comment will annoy some people, but part of my grand mission for twenty years has been telling Dems to not go on Fox, or, if they must, treat them as hostile.Rupert Murdoch gave Trump son-in-law/aide Jared Kushner access to "Fox confidential information about Biden's ads," apparently showing them to him before they were public. pic.twitter.com/NqOsIw1yJe
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) February 27, 2023
Because they're hostile!
Life With Elmo
I am in no way surprised that Elon is as horrible as I have long known he was. I am slightly (not very) surprised he has made it so obvious.
Elsewhere At That Fucking Newspaper
Joe Lieberman's more of a liberal than Linker. Such a grift, such a malign force.
tl;dr Ron DeSantis, who I do not support, is not so bad, but if he wins, it will be because my fellow liberals exaggerated how bad he was, and this would be bad, because of this list of bad things, which aren't really so bad, so stop saying that, also don't you like him more than Trump?
More from Paul if you really need more.Crazy Hippies Control Everything
Rich guys thinking their guys aren't the ones who basically control politics is the same as Tom Friedman imagining the political agenda of 2011 wasn't esentially his political agenda.
If our politics is fucked (and it is!), go yell at the Chamber and the Koch empire and every other rich ghoul or local muckity muck who has an outsized influence on policy.
Sure it's one Bernie Bro city commissioner who controls it all!!! Powerful people - the rich ones and the ones with the biggest microphohes - pretending they're Akshually the powerless ones is a maddening feature of the present.
If our politics is fucked (and it is!), go yell at the Chamber and the Koch empire and every other rich ghoul or local muckity muck who has an outsized influence on policy.
Sure it's one Bernie Bro city commissioner who controls it all!!! Powerful people - the rich ones and the ones with the biggest microphohes - pretending they're Akshually the powerless ones is a maddening feature of the present.
Who Do You Think Runs San Francisco?
Like take this line:
One city supervisor is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (whose nationwide membership would fail to fill the larger Big 10 stadiums).One of 11.
Whole thing is a rich guy whine with no solutions except complaining that voters have been tricked by what he calls "machine politics" and then expectsing you to not understand who funds and benefits from the machine. Oh and some other rich guy is mad about taxes.
The hippies and commies and radical weirdos are not in charge of any part of San Francisco. The tech bros are.
The man bought a knighthood. He's the partner of a company deep into crypto. Probably he'll be writing monthly for the NYT.
Maybe make him Co-Lord of San Francisco with Elon Musk.
Kara Swisher, who never met a rich techbro she wouldn't promote, loves it and can't wait for the solutions!
My Abortions Are God Approved Holy Ones
Decades of trying to explain to people that there is no way you can ban the abortion of your imagination (the bad abortion is the slut who just doesn't feel like raising kids) without making appropriate health care for women, except (some) connected ones, impossible.
The former shouldn't be banned either, and is also appropriate health care, but even for those who want to make that distinction, the point is that there is no way to do it.
The former shouldn't be banned either, and is also appropriate health care, but even for those who want to make that distinction, the point is that there is no way to do it.
Sunday, February 26, 2023
Oh, Elon
Feel bad for the ones in the US on visas.
Feb 26 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's Twitter Inc laid off dozens of employees on Saturday in what is at least the eighth round of job cuts since Musk took over the social network in late October, the Information reported.
Dangerous Truths
Related to this is that while most won't come right out and say it, elite opinion basically is that "race science"/bell curve stuff is "correct." What "correct" means is that there are "racial" differences in average intelligence, that basic socioeconomic outcome differences can be more than a little bit explained by that fact, and that "affirmative action" efforts are not addressing historical and current discrimination but are instead providing bonus points that violate the natural order of meritocracy.
And despite this being the elite consensus view, they all think they are brave truthtelling contrarians (even though most are too cowardly to go the full Dilbert Guy).
And despite this being the elite consensus view, they all think they are brave truthtelling contrarians (even though most are too cowardly to go the full Dilbert Guy).
Going Backwards
The racist things that would've led to politicians being CANCELLED (general condemnation by elite media and similar, something they have the power to do when they choose, and distancing from their colleagues) 10 years ago - hardly a utopian time, either - mostly wouldn't today.
Railing about "cancel culture" was always just wanting the return of permission slips to be racist and horrible in other ways without any consequences.
Sure the Dilbert guy managed to cross the line, but shows just how far that line has moved.
Good job, everybody.
Railing about "cancel culture" was always just wanting the return of permission slips to be racist and horrible in other ways without any consequences.
Sure the Dilbert guy managed to cross the line, but shows just how far that line has moved.
Good job, everybody.
Saturday, February 25, 2023
Giving Up
All the things you think are bad about journalism are actually GOOD, you see.In some sense, both sides are right, both sides are wrong and, in the bifurcated politics of this American moment, none of the arguments much matter.
— Jonathan Weisman (@jonathanweisman) February 23, 2023
Friday, February 24, 2023
And In The End
As I've said plenty of times, I don't even think of myself as a particularly empathetic/sympathetic person, but the way so many people seem to be indifferent to other people dying makes me think I'm a saint.
Moral Authority
"Don't invade Iraq because it sets a really bad precedent" was perhaps not the most important issue at the time but it was an issue!
The most important issue was, of course, "the hippie girl who wouldn't sleep with Jon Chait could never be right."
Oracles
A weird thing I encounter sometimes is people pointing out that some liberal figure (NOAM CHOMSKY!) disagrees with me and I dunno I didn't sign up for that.
Not picking on Chomsky, just objecting to the idea that I'm supposed to agree with every radom leftist authority figure.
Not picking on Chomsky, just objecting to the idea that I'm supposed to agree with every radom leftist authority figure.
Infamy
My guy here has great timing.
it will surprise no one to learn that brooks signed the letter lecturing his nyt colleagues about being journalists and “not activists.” it appears he was so busy “pursuing facts” he forgot that doing the bidding of elizabeth koch’s pr firm is most certainly activism of a kind. https://t.co/DTyCcT8QZe
— mike casca (@cascamike) February 24, 2023
Thursday, February 23, 2023
Once In Every Lifetime
Admit I was a bit surprised most of you didn't recognize Neil.
If you guys don't remember mildly countercultre 80s Britcoms, who will?
If you guys don't remember mildly countercultre 80s Britcoms, who will?
Everything Is Corrupt
I "obsess" about SBF because there were a lot of things that didn't make any sense to me until it was revealed that half of "liberal" DC was on his payroll, one way or another.
Pretty Sure I Know Who This Is
(the political consultant, not CC-1)
"woke shit for transactional purposes" lol.
So many scammers over the past couple of years!!!
How did Senator Gillibrand make what look liked a hostage video promoting crypto-friendly legislation? So many questions!!!
But I can't say!uh oh CC-1 pic.twitter.com/IftQuKZvaW
— Spreek (@spreekaway) February 23, 2023
"woke shit for transactional purposes" lol.
So many scammers over the past couple of years!!!
How did Senator Gillibrand make what look liked a hostage video promoting crypto-friendly legislation? So many questions!!!
Who Do You Think Pete Buttigieg Talks To All Day
I admit I don't like Pete so I'll be up front and use him as an example, but really this could be about any of them. About the only way even Democrats get criticism "from the left" is from people yelling at them on social media and similar. There is little criticism "from the left" on anything in our great liberal media. Pete's calendar isn't filled up with meetings with the local Marxists.
Pete - and the rest of them - are pressured all day every day from the men in nice suits. From "industry." Getting a bit from the other direction should be encouraged.
Pete - and the rest of them - are pressured all day every day from the men in nice suits. From "industry." Getting a bit from the other direction should be encouraged.
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Sure Why Not
I know this kind of thing is just for attention, but still imagine if AOC said, "people moving from Red States should not be able to vote for 5 years!"
There would shitshow led by your favorite New York Times journalists that wouldn't end for about 5 years.
Just where the facts lead, objective journalism, Trans Nazis run the country.
There would shitshow led by your favorite New York Times journalists that wouldn't end for about 5 years.
Just where the facts lead, objective journalism, Trans Nazis run the country.
A Thing That Happened
I'm reading (well, listening to) a recent novel in which covid *exists* but is not central. I'll tell you which one when I've finished with it.
Not done yet, but I suspect covid specifically will never be mentioned, and nor is its existence necessary for the plot. But there are many (but not too many) references to things which only those of us who lived in the time would understand, and in 50 years will be fodder for dissertations. "COVID REFERENCES IN THE NOVEL [X] BY... ] kind of thing.
Any work of fiction that exists in some actual present has this, of course, but Covid Time seems to be weirdly cryptic and inscrutable. It won't even make sense in 10 years.
Not done yet, but I suspect covid specifically will never be mentioned, and nor is its existence necessary for the plot. But there are many (but not too many) references to things which only those of us who lived in the time would understand, and in 50 years will be fodder for dissertations. "COVID REFERENCES IN THE NOVEL [X] BY... ] kind of thing.
Any work of fiction that exists in some actual present has this, of course, but Covid Time seems to be weirdly cryptic and inscrutable. It won't even make sense in 10 years.
Toilet Guns
I don't think it's hard to understand how leaving your gun in the toilet is a common thing (it is!). That's not a defense, it's just another reason why widespread carrying of firearms, especially in schools, is ridiculous.
The superintendent of a Texas school district resigned after a third-grade student found his gun unattended in a school bathroom.
OBJECTITUDE
"We" go through this debate about JOURNALISTICAL OBJECTIVINIDITITY every couple of years and it's always the same and it's always dumb. I think it's a sucker's game to rehash it every time because the journalists who think militant defense of the status quo and general maintenance of existing power hierarchies is OBJECTIVITY aren't so dumb as to believe it.
They are just doing a power play, saying "HAHA FUCK YOU," not engaging in a debate. You're being a sucker if you play the game.
They aren't naïve babes. They know how their choice of stories, choices of sources, emphasis and positioning are in no way "objective" as they want you to believe. You don't have to explain it to them that putting 37 stories on the front page "questioning" trans medical care, emphasizing conservative talking points, going to anti-trans activist bigots for quotes, never actually talking to trans people or their families, and burying the actual mainstream medical consensus, is not really objectivity.
They know this! They're not as stupid as they pretend to be! They're just lying.
It is just, "haha fuck you," as I said.
They are just doing a power play, saying "HAHA FUCK YOU," not engaging in a debate. You're being a sucker if you play the game.
They aren't naïve babes. They know how their choice of stories, choices of sources, emphasis and positioning are in no way "objective" as they want you to believe. You don't have to explain it to them that putting 37 stories on the front page "questioning" trans medical care, emphasizing conservative talking points, going to anti-trans activist bigots for quotes, never actually talking to trans people or their families, and burying the actual mainstream medical consensus, is not really objectivity.
They know this! They're not as stupid as they pretend to be! They're just lying.
It is just, "haha fuck you," as I said.
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Ah The 1990s, More Enlightened Times
Someone with a locked twitter account brought this one to my attention.
Not as you might suspect from some syndicated wingnut in some 3rd-tier city paper. Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board. 1990.
Think about it.
Think about it.
You Know What You Did Last 2009
The "ACORN sting" and the role of the New York Times in promoting it was a big thing! The public editor groveled in apology to conservatives for not covering the story enough!!!
Then later grudingly admitted liberals had a point about the videos being doctored, but, nonetheless, shutup hippies!!!
Two public editor pieces! It was a big thing! Sure he wasn't really dressed as a ridculous pimp as the videos portrayed, but still he SAID he was a pimp so it's totally the same thing! QED!
The paper of record is the most unreliable narrator we have. Can't accurately cover the present or its own past.
Then later grudingly admitted liberals had a point about the videos being doctored, but, nonetheless, shutup hippies!!!
Two public editor pieces! It was a big thing! Sure he wasn't really dressed as a ridculous pimp as the videos portrayed, but still he SAID he was a pimp so it's totally the same thing! QED!
The paper of record is the most unreliable narrator we have. Can't accurately cover the present or its own past.
Just Blame Everything On Trump
O'Keefe had his peak success and prominence way back in the early Obama administration when every political reporter couldn't wait to jam on the TWEET and PUBLISH buttons without actually bothering look any deeper.BREAKING: O'Keefe has been ousted by PV's board. He had risen to prominence during Trump era as Trump and his followers embraced his controversial tactics. Project Veritas is under federal investigation by SDNY for purchasing Ashley Biden's stolen diary.https://t.co/HCRHHbOiIF
— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) February 20, 2023
Sure, Trump era.
Political reporters, what are they for.
Monday, February 20, 2023
The Forced Pregnancy Teen Babies Are Going To Be Arriving
Almost complete lack of mainstream awareness of the upheaval that is happening at the moment.
Our Sister Organization
I would like some reporters to explain honestly why they have treated Fox like a peer organization - in the same club, doing a similar job - for so many years.
I don't think journalists are very honest about this stuff, so I don't expect any of them to do so!
Nor do I expect anything to change, even now! No explanations will be forthcoming.
I don't think journalists are very honest about this stuff, so I don't expect any of them to do so!
Nor do I expect anything to change, even now! No explanations will be forthcoming.
How Is That Site Real
I quit facebook for years and then not so long ago returned, mostly because there are still some useful things that make use of facebook as their main interface, so lacking an account was frequently a nuisance.
Copying Elon seems pretty dumb, both generally and in the specifics here, but I can't get over how bad the Facebook UI has become. I think I left before the last major overhaul and just doing the basic things like "make a post" or "read the posts I have written" or "maybe see posts by my friends" is a challenge.
This isn't "wah I am getting older things are confusing now" which I admit I can experience sometimes. Just, what the fuck is facebook?
Copying Elon seems pretty dumb, both generally and in the specifics here, but I can't get over how bad the Facebook UI has become. I think I left before the last major overhaul and just doing the basic things like "make a post" or "read the posts I have written" or "maybe see posts by my friends" is a challenge.
This isn't "wah I am getting older things are confusing now" which I admit I can experience sometimes. Just, what the fuck is facebook?
Sunday, February 19, 2023
"Woke" is like "Gluten" It Just Means Anything Bad
Vought budget —>
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) February 19, 2023
NASA = woke, must be cut
HUD = woke, must be cut
Economic Development Administration = “hyperwoke,” must be cut
VA = “replete with woke ideology”
The word woke is used 77 times in his 104-page document pic.twitter.com/AqQDZsl2bJ
RIP Richard Belzer
Saw him hanging out in an Apple Store once. Been a million years since I have seen any but I remember his standup being good before he became Munch.
Saturday, February 18, 2023
The Real Thing
Only way to stop the robot apocalypse of 4084 is to do a bit of witness tampering.
A federal judge said Thursday that there may be “probable cause” to believe that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried engaged in attempted witness tampering and other activities that could land him in jail.
There “may very well be probable cause to believe that he has committed or attempted to commit a federal felony while on release, namely witness tampering or attempted witness tampering,” Judge Lewis Kaplan said at Bankman-Fried’s bail hearing in New York.
What About The Children
A big red flag on any issue is when the worst most heartless people in the world - the ones you know would run over somebody's else child to increase the chance of young Fabian getting into the right school - use concern for kids as an excuse for their various evil activities.
Similar to that movement when they pivoted from "Saddam is going to kill us all" to "we must bring peeance and freenace to the Iraqi people." Imagine being an adult and believing those warmongering ghouls who rarely met a Democracy they didn't want to topple were motivated by humanitarian concerns!
People who are obviously bad 364 days per year don't get to turnaround on day 365 and say, "what about the children???"
Similar to that movement when they pivoted from "Saddam is going to kill us all" to "we must bring peeance and freenace to the Iraqi people." Imagine being an adult and believing those warmongering ghouls who rarely met a Democracy they didn't want to topple were motivated by humanitarian concerns!
People who are obviously bad 364 days per year don't get to turnaround on day 365 and say, "what about the children???"
Chait's Gonna Chait
Jon reminded me of this.
My explanation doesn't make it any better, but puts the absolutely dribbling lunacy in context.
These were the smart guys, the hippies were the dumb ones.
I was very very skeptical that Russia was about to invade (got that one wrong!) in part because a bunch of Blob adjacent lunatics were running around saying their usual lunatic things (the other part was invading Ukraine seemed insane!) I now trust Biden's foreign policy guys more than I have ever trusted such people!
When Putin's invasion didn't happen precisely when predicted, some of them actually did run with "OH MY GOD HE TRICKED US INTO THINKING HE WAS GOING TO INVADE! THERE IS NO GREATER EVIL!"
And yes the invasion happened. I was wrong! But the through line is these people are never wrong, no matter what insane reasoning they have to come up with to justify it.
Saddam Hussein endured more than a decade of sanctions rather than give up a weapons of mass destruction program that turned out to be nonexistent. If sanctions weren’t enough to make him surrender his imaginary weapons, I think we can safely say they wouldn’t have been enough to make him surrender a prized, oil-rich conquest.With the passage of time I think this requires a bit of an explainer. When there were no WMD, some of them fell back on "SADDAM TRICKED US INTO THINKING HE HAD WMD HIS EVIL PERFIDY WAS EVEN WORSE THAN WE IMAGINED" and this is "the silly sanctions were not strong enough to make him stop tricking us into thinking he had WMD, because if he did we would have totes stopped the sanctions."
My explanation doesn't make it any better, but puts the absolutely dribbling lunacy in context.
These were the smart guys, the hippies were the dumb ones.
I was very very skeptical that Russia was about to invade (got that one wrong!) in part because a bunch of Blob adjacent lunatics were running around saying their usual lunatic things (the other part was invading Ukraine seemed insane!) I now trust Biden's foreign policy guys more than I have ever trusted such people!
When Putin's invasion didn't happen precisely when predicted, some of them actually did run with "OH MY GOD HE TRICKED US INTO THINKING HE WAS GOING TO INVADE! THERE IS NO GREATER EVIL!"
And yes the invasion happened. I was wrong! But the through line is these people are never wrong, no matter what insane reasoning they have to come up with to justify it.
All Views
When the Tom Cotton "send in the guard to kill all the black people" op-ed blew up at the New York Times, you got the usual dumb defenses, many of which were premised on the notion that the editorial page editor is not a real job requiring the exercise of editorial judgment, but instead a person that just hits "publish" on everything that flows into their inbox.
In reality, everything put in the opinion pages of the Times is blessed as quality work (as determined by the editorial page editor) and deserving of a hearing (as determined by the editorial page editor). That's what s/he ges paid for and that's what subscribers pay for!
The same people would defend this, of course, for the same reasons.
In reality, everything put in the opinion pages of the Times is blessed as quality work (as determined by the editorial page editor) and deserving of a hearing (as determined by the editorial page editor). That's what s/he ges paid for and that's what subscribers pay for!
The same people would defend this, of course, for the same reasons.
Arguably it's news when an important person (president, key senator, though not a self-appointed Chief Clown like Buckley) says something, but they don't have to be given additional space for advocacy.In 1986, the New York Times published an op-ed by William F. Buckley Jnr. that called for people with AIDS to be tattooed on their arms and buttocks.
— Mic Wright (@brokenbottleboy) February 17, 2023
That's in my lifetime. https://t.co/ES2wHm3ASc pic.twitter.com/iMEEqlf5nM
Friday, February 17, 2023
Oh, Elon
It's this story.This is…completely false. We stand by our reporting. pic.twitter.com/SBaYdoi3Ao
— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) February 17, 2023
Now I Know How Jon Chait Fell For The Iraq War Propaganda
Amazing stuff.
SOURCE (laughing): yeah and this one kid….he uh identifies as an attack helicopter and the gender clinic made him drink helicopter fuel and he was spinning around going “whirrrrr”
— mattie rose (@Lubchansky) February 17, 2023
CHAIT: interesting….
The Dumbest Fucking People Alive
This is The Atlantic, not the NYT, but the share a lot of the same pathologies (and both have good things!). 
Anyone who knows anything about US politics knows that most "independents" aren't. They're fairly reliable party voters who don't like to identify as such because, in part, of decades of rhetoric telling them that being 'partisan' is somehow bad and that only 'independents' are the true Great Thinkers who are unmarred by ideology or blind allegiance.
More than that, dumb pundits always want to slot 'independents' into the position of "Washington Consensus Centrist Moderate" which is, hilariously, the absolutely most dominant ideology of our press and electeds (fading a bit, but certainly was). It has completely dominated for decade, yet these people pretend it represents a constituency without representation when in fact it's an ideology without a constituency outside of DC.
True 'independents' are either Too Right or Too Left (quite often the latter, though such people do not exist to pundits, or should not, and do not merit consideration), or have a hodgepodge of beliefs that do not match up with the parties but are not in anyway "centrism" as defined.
Also:
Sinema is the DC dream of the "centrist" - basically a corrupt devotee of the status quo and the continued money spigot for all the right people, including think tankers and magazine writers who receive Koch money - who is socially 'progressive' in mostly performative ways that seem nice but don't require anything of anybody.relevant https://t.co/DFSsmyeewk
— Ricardo Gutiérrez (@icaito) February 16, 2023
America's Finest New Source
As always.
“Quentin” is a 14-year-old assigned female at birth who now identifies as male against the wishes of his parents. His transition was supported by one of his unmarried teachers, who is not a virgin. He stole his parents’ car and drove to the hospital, where a doctor immediately began performing top surgery on him. Afterward, driving home drunk from the hospital, Quentin became suicidally depressed, and he wonders now, homeless and ridden with gonorrhea, if transitioning was a mistake.Read the whole thing, as the kids say.
We just made Quentin up, and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean stories like his aren’t potentially happening everywhere, constantly. Good journalism is about finding those stories, even when they don’t exist. It’s about asking the tough questions and ignoring the answers you don’t like, then offering misleading evidence in service of preordained editorial conclusions. In our case, endangering trans people is the lodestar that shapes our coverage. Frankly, if our work isn’t putting trans people further at risk of trauma and violence, we consider it a failure.
We stand behind our recent obsessed-seeming torrent of articles and essays on trans people, which we believe faithfully depicts their lived experiences as weird and gross. We remain dedicated to finding the angles that best frame the basic rights of the gender-nonconforming as up for debate, and we will use these same angles over and over again in hopes that this repetition makes them suffer. As journalists, it is our obligation to entertain any and all pseudoscience that gives bigotry an intellectual veneer. We must be diligent in laundering our vitriol through the posture of journalistic inquiry, and we must be allowed to fixate on the genitals.
Can't Respect You If You Don't Respect Yourselves
I'd have more respect for journalistic wagon circling and the high regard they have for themselves and their profession if they didn't include some of the worst institutions and people in their circle.
This latest filing shows the extent to which the network knew it was pushing false claims to its viewers in the aftermath of the 2020 election by suggesting that Dominion’s machines were involved in voter fraud. Totalling 192 pages, the lawyers for Dominion lay out a seemingly endless list of facts and evidence that show how — from producers to on-air personalities to executives to Rupert Murdoch himself — “literally dozens of people with editorial responsibility” at Fox acted with, in Dominion’s view, “actual malice.”I've seen the contempt "they" have for lesser publications and left-leaning ones (Advocates! Activists!) while happily embracing a purely partisan propaganda outfit.
Read this whole thread...Is it really the job of the other media to defend an operation that uses their press card as cover for blatantly lying in the service of one party propaganda?
— Schooley (@Rschooley) February 17, 2023
Can't Teach Things Unless Everyone Agrees With Them
McWhorter gives the game away here. He thinks teaching is about indoctrination, because that is what it is to him. He thinks if an essay is assigned, the only purpose is to tell the students it is Correct, not as a foundation for a discussion or an exercise in critical reading for various pedagogical purposes. Conservatives who bang on about the humanities have no understanding of the humanities.
Either that or he's a fucking idiot.
One reason the New York Times sucks is it's filled with absolute idiots convinced they are geniuses.
Panchito
The most charitable thing you can say about these guys as they actually work 13 minutes per day and therefore don't even *know* what DeSantis is doing in Florida.
Thursday, February 16, 2023
And Speaking Of Questions Not Being Asked
A weird lack of curiosity about just what is going on with Jared and the Saudis.
Oh, Elon
The "recall" is an OTA software update which... well I'm curious what it will actually do.
Tesla is recalling 362,758 vehicles equipped with the company's experimental driver-assistance software, which is marketed as Full Self-Driving Beta or FSD Beta, in the US, according to a recall notice out Thursday.Doubt the update will make it better!
The FSD Beta system may cause crashes by allowing the affected vehicles to: "act unsafe around intersections, such as traveling straight through an intersection while in a turn-only lane, entering a stop sign-controlled intersection without coming to a complete stop, or proceeding into an intersection during a steady yellow traffic signal without due caution," according to the notice on the website of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Isn't Anyone Curious
Personally I can get a bit drawn to conspiracy theories not because of the answers, which are often bullshit, but because of the questions. Or more specifically, that others who should be asking the questions aren't. The questions can be bullshit, too, in that sometimes they have actually been asked and answered. But sometimes not!
Like there is a remarkable lack of curiosity about Epstein's client list! Not that going on cable TV and speculating about who might be a pedo would be productive, but doesn't really seem like anyone tried very hard to figure it out!
Not an Epsteinologist. Maybe I missed some stuff.
Still one of the great tweets!
Like there is a remarkable lack of curiosity about Epstein's client list! Not that going on cable TV and speculating about who might be a pedo would be productive, but doesn't really seem like anyone tried very hard to figure it out!
Not an Epsteinologist. Maybe I missed some stuff.
Still one of the great tweets!
"Everybody" "knows" things. That doesn't mean they really know, but...This Epstein case is horrific and the young women deserve justice. It is quite likely that some of our faves are implicated but we must follow the facts and let the chips fall where they may - whether on Republicans or Democrats. #WeSaidEnough #MeToo https://t.co/2mvskwQwW1
— Christine Pelosi (@sfpelosi) July 7, 2019
Upper Class Inbreeding
Snobbery at the top is nothing new, of course, but several generations into the post-war "meritocracy" experiments and we have inherited wealth combined with elite credentialing leading to an ever-expanding class of over-promoted failchildren who are sure that they are better than you.
And they take to the pages of the New York Times to make sure you are aware of that.
And they take to the pages of the New York Times to make sure you are aware of that.
He Had Clients, They Were Rich, And There Aren't That Many Rich People
Conspiracy theories can fill the void when no one seems to be asking any questions, but you barely need any conspiracy theories about Pedo Island. It was what it was.
Former JPMorgan Chase & Co executive Jes Staley engaged in a discussion of Disney princesses with Jeffrey Epstein in July 2010, according to several emails cited in a lawsuit filed against the bank by the US Virgin Islands.
“That was fun,” Staley allegedly wrote. “Say hi to Snow White.”
“[W]hat character would you like next?” Epstein allegedly responded.
“Beauty and the Beast.”
somewhere a lawyer is looking at a message saying "please tell me that's not a code word for coke", and squeezing his finger back and forth to try and get the cursor in place to delete "not". https://t.co/FyzEezX1vR
— Dan Davies (@dsquareddigest) February 16, 2023
Clubhouse
I know I lean toward "technology skeptic" but the "enthusiasm" greeting the AI stuff is hilarious and people are going to waste so much money on it because it's the type of thing nerds think will change the world.
Looks neato at first and then you realize it actually isn't that neato at all. There's no business application here other than "increasingly annoying and useless customer service chatbots." Clippy for everything.
Looks neato at first and then you realize it actually isn't that neato at all. There's no business application here other than "increasingly annoying and useless customer service chatbots." Clippy for everything.
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
I Had Never Heard That Joke!
Weird how everyone in DC had!
This paragraph is pretty hilarious:
There used to be a joke I’d hear around Washington, that everyone in town with an ounce of ambition was, in some way or another, on the payroll of Sam Bankman-Fried. And if you hadn’t figured out how to get on the gravy train, well, that was on you. Like all good jokes, there was more than a kernel of truth to all of it: I’ve covered the S.B.F. political machine as closely as anyone over the last few years, and I still encounter new names of lobbyists who were secretly on Sam’s retainer, of data savants who found a way into D.C.’s greatest donor-fueled growth industry, and amazingly, nonprofits that were moving millions of FTX-connected dollars without a scintilla of public knowledge.There were lots of things about 2020-2022 or so that didn't make any fucking sense until this started coming out. Many of your faves are very implicated! Some, it seems, bought a new a boat!
This paragraph is pretty hilarious:
An argument I frequently hear from S.B.F. allies and political aides is that none of this is terribly unusual: Every special interest, be it Big Pharma or ethanol or pandemic-prevention, involves a labyrinth of dark-money groups, super PACs, think tanks and corporations that make political donations, curry favor, punish enemies and exploit every inch of the nonprofit tax code in order to twist arms in Washington. And many lobbyists get paid big salaries with the expectation that they use some of that salary to cut checks and build relationships with legislators—so why are people carping on S.B.F.’s aides for doing the same?Especially hilarious as it was in the effective NYT style guide to refer to EPI as "labor backed" and I bet you have no idea about all this money sloshing around DC funding your journalist's favorite sources!!! And sometimes the journalists!!!
Elmo Lies
I'd bet Tesla doesn't follow through on this but grabs the cash anyway with no clawback.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Electric car giant Tesla will, for the first time, make some of its charging stations available to all U.S. electric vehicles by the end of next year, under a new plan announced Wednesday by the White House.Details aren't 100% clear but "sure you can access our network if you buy a proprietary adapter that doesn't exist" is one possible dodge. Just not doing it (an Elmo special) is another!
The plan will make at least 7,500 chargers from Tesla's Supercharger and Destination Charger network available to non-Tesla EVs by the end of 2024, the White House said.
"Jobs"
It took a long time for me to understand that a lot of the stock narratives about what motivates members of Congress is mostly not how it is portrayed. Do we really think most members of Congress these days care about "jobs for their districts" in the simple way it's presented? Or do they care about "massive opportunities for their broader circle to put their fingers in the pie and extract some filling?
The article doesn't even really support the "jobs" headline if you squint just right."
But the Pentagon last year made a startling announcement: Eight of the 10 Freedom-class littoral combat ships now based in Jacksonville and another based in San Diego would be retired, even though they averaged only four years old and had been built to last 25 years."Jobs" is the excuse, as it's often the excuse, but lol.
The decision came after the ships, built in Wisconsin by Fincantieri Marinette Marine in partnership with Lockheed Martin, suffered a series of humiliating breakdowns, including repeated engine failures and technical shortcomings in an anti-submarine system intended to counter China’s growing naval capacity.
Then the lobbying started.
A consortium of players with economic ties to the ships — led by a trade association whose members had just secured contracts worth up to $3 billion to do repairs and supply work on them — mobilized to pressure Congress to block the plan, with phone calls, emails and visits to Washington to press lawmakers to intervene.
But
Michelle Goldberg spent the runup to the Iraq war writing pieces for Salon about how the anti-war movement had been hijacked by ANSWER because a dodgy commie group adding its name to parade permits was the really important thing at the time.
She's still focused on the really important things.
I am more acquainted with higher education than most and I have never even heard of either Macalester or Hamline.
Of course college administrators don't always handle things perfectly (who does?) but all of the elite college discourse neglects to acknowledge that residential colleges are, in fact, residential colleges, and they have a larger set of issues to deal with than narrow misinterpreted concepts of "FREE SPEECH" or "ACADEMIC FREEDOM." There are many things to balance and it's difficult!
She's still focused on the really important things.
Some readers might object to dwelling on one instance of misguided sensitivity at one small college when the country is in the midst of a nationwide frenzy of right-wing book bans, public school speech restrictions, and wild attempts to curtail drag performances. ButCan just leave off after the "but." Actually the whole column could have been jettisoned after this:
Ultimately, Macalester handled the student complaints better than Hamline did. No one was fired, and after being closed for a few days, “Taravat” reopened. But the administration’s response was still distinctly apologetic, demonstrating the anxious philistinism that can result when bureaucratic cowardice meets maximalist ideas about safety.It doesn't even matter what this is about. There were complaints, nervous college administrators who are not "liberal" but are instead "ass coverers" paused for an investigation, then everything went on as planned.
I am more acquainted with higher education than most and I have never even heard of either Macalester or Hamline.
Of course college administrators don't always handle things perfectly (who does?) but all of the elite college discourse neglects to acknowledge that residential colleges are, in fact, residential colleges, and they have a larger set of issues to deal with than narrow misinterpreted concepts of "FREE SPEECH" or "ACADEMIC FREEDOM." There are many things to balance and it's difficult!
A big thing they have to worry about is bad PR (on all sides) and lawsuits! But even a more charitable view of their concerns involves trying to manage a community and stop it from boiling over.
Ridiculous 19-year-olds (I am not even saying they are ridiculous here, I just don't even care enough to argue) are not representative of THE LEFT, college administrators anywhere are not representative of THE LEFT, and what happens at small colleges you have never heard of - especially when, by her own admission, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENED AT THIS ONE - are not representative of anything at all.
She was hired to write these pieces, because hectoring The Left supposedly from within is what her brand is, so she will keep writing them.
Ridiculous 19-year-olds (I am not even saying they are ridiculous here, I just don't even care enough to argue) are not representative of THE LEFT, college administrators anywhere are not representative of THE LEFT, and what happens at small colleges you have never heard of - especially when, by her own admission, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENED AT THIS ONE - are not representative of anything at all.
She was hired to write these pieces, because hectoring The Left supposedly from within is what her brand is, so she will keep writing them.
Oh, Elon
My "monkey's paw" fate from wishing everyone knew Elon was a dumb lying asshole continues.
In the wake of those losses — the Eagles to the Kansas City Chiefs, and Musk to the president of the United States — Twitter’s CEO flew his private jet back to the Bay Area on Sunday night to demand answers from his team.The lying part:
Within a day, the consequences of that meeting would reverberate around the world, as Twitter users opened the app to find that Musk’s posts overwhelmed their ranked timeline. This was no accident, Platformer can confirm: after Musk threatened to fire his remaining engineers, they built a system designed to ensure that Musk — and Musk alone — benefits from previously unheard-of promotion of his tweets to the entire user base.
“Obviously Twitter cannot simply be some extension of me because then anyone who doesn’t agree with me will be put off,” he said. “So Twitter must be, as a platform, as neutral as possible. That doesn’t mean I am completely neutral. That would be untruthful, I am not neutral. No person is.”
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
The Path Of Life
Roseanne has always been a bit, uh, interesting, but still wouldn't have expected her to go full MAGA later in life.
I don't think everyone gets more conservative with age, but I do think there's a certain crankyness that comes with it that can be very complementary to the impulses.
I don't think everyone gets more conservative with age, but I do think there's a certain crankyness that comes with it that can be very complementary to the impulses.
Blob'd
Everybody "knows" why but nobody ever really explains why (I am not saying they actually know).
This situation cries out for congressional scrutiny, and Senate Democrats are trying to provide it. But they’re facing an unexpected obstacle: The Biden administration, they say, has been resistant to provide them with the documents they need to carry out that investigation.
That opacity has been “unacceptable,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told me in an emailed statement. Wyden faced years of stonewalling while examining the Trump administration and Kushner’s dealings with the Saudis, but now that he’s Finance Committee chair and Joe Biden is president, he says things haven’t gotten much better.
Donald The Dove
Think it's rather obvious Trump thinks his biggest mistake was listening to anyone who told him "no" during his presidency.
Specifically, Trump has talked about bringing back death by firing squad, by hanging, and, according to two of the sources, possibly even by guillotine. He has also, sources say, discussed group executions. Trump has floated these ideas while discussing planned campaign rhetoric and policy desires, as well as his disdain for President Biden’s approach to crime.Though every other Republican agrees.
Sam's Still A Naughty Boy
SBF has been using a VPN, says it's for, uh, the football.
Of course it could be true, could also be one of those "here's my clever plan which isn't actually clever" things.
Of course it could be true, could also be one of those "here's my clever plan which isn't actually clever" things.
MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I suppose being an extreme narcissist must make you generally miserable.
For many of us, Twitter’s “For You” is full of tweets and replies to tweets from Elon Musk. Not everyone is getting the Musk-first feed, but on Monday afternoon, more than a few people noticed something was different.
Several of us here at The Verge are seeing more Musk replies than usual, and I personally counted five at the very top of my feed, with many more sprinkled in between tweets from other users. The same is true for some accounts that don’t even follow Musk.
How My Apes Doing
Nothing in particular inspiring this post - except maybe the Spotify person - but it's just stunning how absolute madness manages to take over and not enough people of prominence say, "uh, wait, no."
NFTs weren't just some weird thing internet nerds were into, they had all THE BIG BRANDS joining in.
How does this kind of madness get so much money behind it. The stupidest fucking idea since Elon's Tesla tunnels! A very good example of how if something has enough money behind it (or appears to) everybody in a position to say, "this is nuts," just... doesn't.
Apes all gone.
NFTs weren't just some weird thing internet nerds were into, they had all THE BIG BRANDS joining in.
How does this kind of madness get so much money behind it. The stupidest fucking idea since Elon's Tesla tunnels! A very good example of how if something has enough money behind it (or appears to) everybody in a position to say, "this is nuts," just... doesn't.
Apes all gone.
Monday, February 13, 2023
Great Innovations In Retirement Benefits
You only get them if you're working!
“We want to strengthen Social Security by ending a lot of those government checks to people staying at home rather than going to work,” Scalise said, endorsing work requirements for benefits.
Not Messing That One Up Anymore
The problem for years was that much of the Democratic Industrial Complex - including Obummer - really wanted to cut Social Security. I never understood why they thought "we need to cut your benefits otherwise they will" was a convincing argument! Nor was "if we cut your benefits then they won't try to cut them more!" Being the "party that won't do that" is key easy Dem branding that they were wishy-washy about for decades
I Want My Monkey Show
I realize I don't actually know anything about Spotify's revenues, but the whole "let's spend absurd amounts of money on rich famous people to do podcasts while paying nothing for the musicians that are the real business" concept seems like it could have only come from someone who owned a bunch of NFTs.
Ostroff’s biggest editorial bet, however, was on Hollywood talent, and on a podcast industry that has increasingly centered on packages created by talent agencies.The former executive had focused on signing big name celebrity talent, courting A-Listers and making overtures to non-podcasting celebs like Kerry Washington, Gigi Hadid, Bill Maher, and Jennifer Aniston.I recognize that Evil Corp isn't going to do anything to undermine it's fundamental "pay nothing per song to stream them" business model, but doing things like "paying those same artists money for things like exclusive live tracks" or similar would seem to be a smarter move than their podcast strategy.
She appeared to deliver on the promise: Spotify signed deals with the Obamas, Kim Kardashian, and Prince Harry and Megan Markle. But others at the company saw her as inexperienced in audio, and focused on big names over quality content. People familiar with Spotify’s numbers said Michelle Obama, TikTok star Addison Rae, and Kardashian’s podcasts were initially successful, but churned users quickly after the first few episodes, rather than developing loyal audiences. A Spotify source disputed this claim, saying that the shows were “successful series in terms of audience size, advertising, and ongoing listenership.” Ostroff, the owner of several NFTs, was also intent on creating an expensive Bored Apes Yacht Club podcast.
What Do You Get A Man Who Has Everything
I don't have a completely dim view of human nature, but it's fair to say that the ultra-rich are for various reasons not quite like the rest of us! Both in terms of the type of person who manages to become ultra-rich, and what being ultra-rich does to your brain after decades of it (lacking any material worries, the way it warps all of your relationships with other hu-mans).
The answer is: what they can't have.
Not being hyperbolic about the "wanting slaves" part in the post below.
Epstein's Pedo Island certainly didn't lack regular clientele, though for reasons we'll never know the full details!
The answer is: what they can't have.
Not being hyperbolic about the "wanting slaves" part in the post below.
Epstein's Pedo Island certainly didn't lack regular clientele, though for reasons we'll never know the full details!
The Future Is Leisure
Certainly not the first person to make this point, but the optimistic futurism of the past has been replaced by dystopian predictions. Once we were promised that exciting new technologies would free us from the need to work. The great problem of the future was how to deal with all of our leisure time when we have 12 hour work weeks!
Now the same promised technologies are portrayed as destroying most jobs and impoverishing the bulk of the population.
I don't think either of these was ever precisely right, but they do say a lot about how optimism has been replaced by pessimism. Once techno-pessimists were branded as ridiculous "Luddities" and now it's the technology promoters themselves who seem to eagerly anticipate this dystopic future. Skynet will be a disaster, let's hasten the activation of skynet!
I know the reason. All the rich Silicon Valley guys want slaves, basically, both robots and humans. And they can't wait!
Now the same promised technologies are portrayed as destroying most jobs and impoverishing the bulk of the population.
I don't think either of these was ever precisely right, but they do say a lot about how optimism has been replaced by pessimism. Once techno-pessimists were branded as ridiculous "Luddities" and now it's the technology promoters themselves who seem to eagerly anticipate this dystopic future. Skynet will be a disaster, let's hasten the activation of skynet!
I know the reason. All the rich Silicon Valley guys want slaves, basically, both robots and humans. And they can't wait!
Sunday, February 12, 2023
Sounds Bad
Kushner aside, it was quite telling how Official Washington (the general "foreign policy" think tank crowd and the various journalists/columnists who are extensions of that) went from "MBS IS THE SAVIOR" to "OH MY GOD HE CUT OUR FRIEND UP WITH A BONE SAW" to "MBS IS GOOD AGAIN, WE AGREE."
"The Blob" is not homogeneous, of course, and the Biden portion of The Blob seems pretty good by the standards of these things, but the general DC ghouls had a pretty good "show their asses" moment.
"The Blob" is not homogeneous, of course, and the Biden portion of The Blob seems pretty good by the standards of these things, but the general DC ghouls had a pretty good "show their asses" moment.
Saturday, February 11, 2023
Ils Sont Arrivés
I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 11, 2023
What The Fuck Is Wrong With You People
Enjoying my Slacker Saturday, so no deep thoughts, but the Free Speech Warriors coming out as DeSantis fans is quite the thing!
The only thing that stopped them from all being out and proud Dittoheads was Limbaugh not having a degree from a school near Boston.
The only thing that stopped them from all being out and proud Dittoheads was Limbaugh not having a degree from a school near Boston.
PROJECT TRUTH
The Kids won't remember, but for a couple of years, even after everyone knew O'Keefe deceptively doctored videos, every political journalist was salivating with anticipation every time Drudge revealed that James O'Keefe was going to REVEAL ANOTHER (heavily deceptively doctored) video.
They'll never get any better.
They'll never get any better.
Friday, February 10, 2023
Roger Ailes Stole My Wallet Every Day For 10 Years
Hate linking to Axios, but Pool Boy Jim documenting how he spent years desperately trying to please Roger Ailes before finally realizing there's just no pleasing some people!!!
The number of elite journalists who are completely unaware, or want us to believe they're unaware, that they are the easiest marks on the planet is quite amazing.
The story centers on Roger Ailes getting mad about Dylan Byers, the guy who has a buzzer on his desk that goes off every time there's a billionare who needs someone to defend them! God I these fucking idiots.
The story centers on Roger Ailes getting mad about Dylan Byers, the guy who has a buzzer on his desk that goes off every time there's a billionare who needs someone to defend them! God I these fucking idiots.
Subtweeting
Not a criticism, but Bouie certainly news his own fucking newspaper is leading the charge.
The denial of dignity to one segment of the political community, then, threatens the dignity of all. This was true for Douglass and his time — it inspired his support for women’s suffrage and his opposition to the Chinese Exclusion Act — and it is true for us and ours as well. To deny equal respect and dignity to any part of the citizenry is to place the entire country on the road to tiered citizenship and limited rights, to liberty for some and hierarchy for the rest.
Put plainly, the attack on the dignity of transgender Americans is an attack on the dignity of all Americans. And like the battles for abortion rights and bodily autonomy, the stakes of the fight for the rights and dignity of transgender people are high for all of us. There is no world in which their freedom is suppressed and yours is sustained.
Always Covering
As I've said in other contexts, journalists not pointing out the clear intentions and clear undisputable consequences of Republican policies is a problem. Letting pharmacists not fill any prescriptions that might harm a fetus - which, to be clear, is any prescription - is not the same as letting them refuse "to fill prescriptions for abortion pills."
To me it's all necessary health care, but allowing them to both make this distinction (abortion and health care are different) then bulldoze the distinction (anything that could harm a fetus is abortion) is just complete malpractice.
All this was the obvious consequence of overturning Roe, which a bunch of centrist wankers pretended wasn't the case for years, and journalists are still doing it by pretending it isn't even happening!
Overturn Roe and the anti-abortion movement will just fade away, they said!
People with a mission (and lucrative grift) never stop, and that mission was never what you/they pretended it was.
To me it's all necessary health care, but allowing them to both make this distinction (abortion and health care are different) then bulldoze the distinction (anything that could harm a fetus is abortion) is just complete malpractice.
All this was the obvious consequence of overturning Roe, which a bunch of centrist wankers pretended wasn't the case for years, and journalists are still doing it by pretending it isn't even happening!
Overturn Roe and the anti-abortion movement will just fade away, they said!
People with a mission (and lucrative grift) never stop, and that mission was never what you/they pretended it was.
Journalisming Is Hard
Texas is suing for the right to deny women *any* medication that a pharmacist says causes abortion - including pills for arthritis and ulcers.
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) February 9, 2023
I wrote about this yesterday: The guidance they're suing over has nothing to do with abortion medication. https://t.co/O8C9nqu9uX.
12 Monkeys
Sounds bad.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said on Thursday it is investigating Elon Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink over the potentially illegal movement of hazardous pathogens.
A Department of Transportation spokesperson told Reuters about the probe after the Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an animal-welfare advocacy group, wrote to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg earlier on Thursday to alert it of records it obtained on the matter.
PCRM said it obtained emails and other documents that suggest unsafe packaging and movement of implants removed from the brains of monkeys. These implants may have carried infectious diseases in violation of federal law, PCRM said.
Thursday, February 09, 2023
Mad King Musk II
Funny.
On Tuesday, Musk gathered a group of engineers and advisors into a room at Twitter’s headquarters looking for answers. Why are his engagement numbers tanking?
“This is ridiculous,” he said, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the meeting. “I have more than 100 million followers, and I’m only getting tens of thousands of impressions.”
One of the company’s two remaining principal engineers offered a possible explanation for Musk’s declining reach: just under a year after the Tesla CEO made his surprise offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion, public interest in his antics is waning.
Employees showed Musk internal data regarding engagement with his account, along with a Google Trends chart. Last April, they told him, Musk was at “peak” popularity in search rankings, indicated by a score of “100.” Today, he’s at a score of nine. Engineers had previously investigated whether Musk’s reach had somehow been artificially restricted, but found no evidence that the algorithm was biased against him.
Musk did not take the news well.
“You’re fired, you’re fired,” Musk told the engineer. (Platformer is withholding the engineer’s name in light of the harassment Musk has directed at former Twitter employees.)
Sources
Returning to this, once again, but will the New York Times and other outlets ever come clean about the fact that they were conduits for the "foreign interference" they spent years blaming on social media bots?
Seems Like A Problem
A lot of issues here!
WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - SpaceX has taken steps to prevent Ukraine's military from using the company's Starlink satellite internet service for controlling drones in the region during the country's war with Russia, SpaceX's president said Wednesday.
I Can't Believe We're Losing To These Guys
We're not, but really the point is that a lot of this stuff really isn't popular and I suspect cable news brain is a big reason why Dems don't see that is *obvious*. "Both sides" coverage, slanted towards Republicans, with Joe Scarborough Democrats providing much of "one side" on in every congressional office all day every day.
Twitter isn't real life, but nor is the New York Times or CNN. Everybody has their little information bubbles.
Values Voters
That was quite an amazing bit of branding, parroted on NPR daily for year. "Values Voters" were Republicans who hate gay people and abortion, and we had to respect their deeply held beliefs. People who were "pro-gay rights" or "anti-war" had no values whatsoever!
Trump and the latest Falwell scandal did help to destroy the dominance of that rhetoric, which lasted for years. Had quite a good run!
Trump and the latest Falwell scandal did help to destroy the dominance of that rhetoric, which lasted for years. Had quite a good run!
Use It Because You Will Lose It
This is a general point and not a criticism - Biden's doing pretty good! - but in various ways our absurd system makes it difficult for government to actually do anything. That we are arguably in "election season" 2.5 years out of every 4 makes it even harder!
Govern like they're about to drag you out of office, because time does fly.
Govern like they're about to drag you out of office, because time does fly.
Wednesday, February 08, 2023
Always Working The Refs
Lost in the mists of time, but a TV producer (I think CNN?) admitted late in the Bush administration that the Bush White House would call them every time they had someone mildly anti-war or left-leaning on. They wouldn't threaten them, precisely, just, "oh, yes, I see you had that person on, interesting, interesting." Constantly.
They're always working it.
They're always working it.
In interviews with former Twitter personnel, onetime Trump administration officials, and other people familiar with the matter, each source recalled what could be described as a “hotline,” “tipline,” or large Twitter “database” of moderation and removal requests that was frequently pinged by the offices of powerful Democrats and Republicans alike.Same shit, different medium.
The voluminous requests often came from high-ranking political appointees working in different departments, offices, and agencies in the Trump administration. But during both the Trump and Biden presidencies, these types of moderation requests or demands were routinely sent to Twitter by the staff of influential GOP lawmakers — ones with names like Kevin McCarthy and Elise Stefanik.
Oftentimes, requests would demand Twitter stop “shadowbanning” certain conservative accounts, or that the company reinstate banned or suspended right-wing personas. Other times, offices of senior Trump administration officials would send emails seeking to remove tweets that they believed to be “hate speech” or death threats aimed at their principals. And over the years, the knowledgeable sources say, staffers for Republican officials would regularly flag to Twitter content that they believed violated the app’s terms of service or other policies, including on spreading “misinformation” or “disinformation.”
Actually Joe Biden Wants To Destroy Social Security By BANKRUPTING IT
One reason Democrats have difficulties be being believed about what Republicans want is that whenever they accurately just repeat what Republicans have said, journalists like Jon Karl and Glenn Kessler will run interference for them.Last year, Rick Scott literally proposed a plan that would sunset Social Security pic.twitter.com/ZFTtdFWnHx
— Lis Power (@LisPower1) February 8, 2023
Last year, Rick Scott literally proposed a plan that would sunset Social Security pic.twitter.com/ZFTtdFWnHx
— Lis Power (@LisPower1) February 8, 2023
Droll
A good editor would have put these final two paragraphs near the top with the added comments, "none of which happened."
In the second part of his Master Plan, Musk said he wanted to expand the EV product line to address all major segments and develop self-driving capability that is 10 times safer than human driving....just realized they edited it since I scheduled this post, here is what it reads now:
The plan also said Tesla would create solar roofs tied to battery storage and enable cars to earn owners money when not in use.
In 2016, Musk unveiled his "Master Plan, Part Deux," a four-point plan which includes expanding its electric vehicle lineup to all major segments and achieving "true self-driving." Its Semi heavy duty electric trucks has started "pilot production" last year, while its Cybertruck pickup trucks have been pushed back to 2023.
As part of that 2016 plan, Musk said Tesla drivers would be able to sleep, read or do anything else enroute to their destination and make money by renting out their autonomous vehicles when they are not in use. But Musk said in October last year its cars are not ready to have no one behind the wheel, after missing his targets to achieve self-driving capability.
Decorum
I actually think enforced decorum is bad in politics (just look at how the Senate operates) and, while there are limits, some heckling is perfectly fine!
Still we won't be gifted with a hundred think pieces about how their behavior at the SOTU indicates the presence of a fatal rot at the heart of the conservative movement, the way we would (about The Left) if AOC yelled "BULLSHIT" at a Republican president.
Still we won't be gifted with a hundred think pieces about how their behavior at the SOTU indicates the presence of a fatal rot at the heart of the conservative movement, the way we would (about The Left) if AOC yelled "BULLSHIT" at a Republican president.
Why Are Precisely None Of The "Free Speech Warriors" Concerned With Ron DeSantis
I have various theories but it comes down to two:
A lot of them are just fascists of the "free speech for me not for thee, shut up and go into the camp, hippie" kind.
The rest think education is basically a waste for most people. Most kids from Florida and places not near Boston or in certain neighborhoods in NYC are just destined for organ harvesting, anyway. Anything even adjacent to a humanities education, and certainly reading fiction, is just a grand waste of time for those commoners. And even if I don't agree with him ENTIRELY, DeSantis is just trying to deal with Legitimate Concerns about wokeness.
Two different boots, same great taste, as they are stomping on your face!
A lot of them are just fascists of the "free speech for me not for thee, shut up and go into the camp, hippie" kind.
The rest think education is basically a waste for most people. Most kids from Florida and places not near Boston or in certain neighborhoods in NYC are just destined for organ harvesting, anyway. Anything even adjacent to a humanities education, and certainly reading fiction, is just a grand waste of time for those commoners. And even if I don't agree with him ENTIRELY, DeSantis is just trying to deal with Legitimate Concerns about wokeness.
Two different boots, same great taste, as they are stomping on your face!
The War On Straw Will Be Won
The column is actually dumber and more offensive than the headline - sure cops are more likely to kill black people, but have you considered that the black people are poor? - but of course no one argues that police brutality is "always about race."
There's a lot of bad empirical work which is basically "if you control for income (often badly) in this dumb regression a lot of the effect of race seems to disappear!" Very generally you can see the problem of doing this for something like "police killing black people during traffic stops" as the police don't have your tax returns, they just know you're black.
Reviewing every piece of criminology and policy empirical work is beyond the scope of this very fine blog, but I'll just submit that advanced math and stats doesn't feature prominently in their training. Economists do this work, too, but they don't know anything about criminology, and their models often beg the question to some degree ("beg the question" used correctly here, pedants)! It's easy to find one study that proves your fucking point, especially if you are unable to evaluate it. So, you know, always a problem.
Doesn't take a genius to understand that brutal cops will brutalize (and kill) people they think are less likely to "matter" - to the press, to people who can hire lawyers - and that isn't just minorities, of course, but...
Tuesday, February 07, 2023
How Rude
It wouldn't be fair for senators to convey the actual impacts of Sam Alito's policies.
Whatever its partisan composition, Congress should have an institutional interest in ensuring that the Supreme Court not act as a super-legislature. But even if Kevin McCarthy’s House is unwilling to serve as a meaningful check on the court, there are things that the Senate can do — starting with holding hearings designed to shed light on the on-the-ground impact of the court’s cases, including Dobbs and Bruen, the case about gun regulations. Illustrating the danger of the court’s reasoning in Bruen, a federal appeals court just last week declared unconstitutional a federal law that disarms individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders.It wouldn't be fair to have women talk about how doctors wouldn't remove their dead fetuses! Probably Republicans would throw hissy fits and no network would cover it.
Every Day Something New And Stupid
I really don't know the solution to this problem, but part of the reason "we" talk about whatever conservatives want to talk about on any given day is that, most of the time, it's so supid that "we" can't resist pointing out how stupid it is.
Their latest obsession is that the chatbot won't say racial slurs even to save the world.
Their latest obsession is that the chatbot won't say racial slurs even to save the world.
It's maybe just a little bit too stupid for it to actually be a presidential debate question, though that's only because Chris Cillizza is unlikely to be one of the questioners."Mr. President, a deadly meteor is headed towards the earth and the only way to stop it is to use the N-word. Would you use the N-word?"
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) February 7, 2023
-opening question from the first 2024 presidential debate
Still At It
Undermining racial justice movements is just what normie dems want, so this is good stuff.
An outlandish guerrilla militant who drove a silver Hearse to Denver-area Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 was secretly a federal informant with a sex crime conviction, a new podcast reveals.
The informant, Mickey Windecker, pushed an activist to buy a gun for him, resulting in the activist’s guilty plea on weapons charges. Other Denver-area activists accuse Windecker of inflaming otherwise-peaceful demonstrations, encouraging people to break windows, and leading marches directly into police traps. Windecker’s informant status was first reported this week on the podcast Alphabet Boys, which explores Windecker’s case and FBI involvement in the Colorado protests.
Things I Am Obligated To Have An Opinion About
I am a jerk with a blog so that is, presumably, "everything," but really some things I don't have much of an opinion about. Or, at least, not one there's much of a point expressing. Certainly things for which expressing an opinion has no utility!
I reject the idea that everyone vaguely left of center - even random social media users - have to act and speak (type) as if their every word should be in service of the goal of electing Democrats, but also I observe that the notion is very selectively applied by people who embrace it.
"Activists" with policy agendas and must weigh everything carefully, while New York Times pundits with megaphones can just speak their pure thoughts unconcerned with the consequences!
They're free to do it, of course, but writing a bunch of pieces about how "the presumed Democratic nominee is too old for the job" will neither dissuade him nor help his re-election.
Again, my point is about how people with tangential associations with the Democratic party (if it all) are required to have extreme message discipline, while cable news "Democrats" are just going wild every day with this stuff.
I reject the idea that everyone vaguely left of center - even random social media users - have to act and speak (type) as if their every word should be in service of the goal of electing Democrats, but also I observe that the notion is very selectively applied by people who embrace it.
"Activists" with policy agendas and must weigh everything carefully, while New York Times pundits with megaphones can just speak their pure thoughts unconcerned with the consequences!
They're free to do it, of course, but writing a bunch of pieces about how "the presumed Democratic nominee is too old for the job" will neither dissuade him nor help his re-election.
Again, my point is about how people with tangential associations with the Democratic party (if it all) are required to have extreme message discipline, while cable news "Democrats" are just going wild every day with this stuff.
Monday, February 06, 2023
Seems Bad
Sure reporters will have microphones in every Republican's face demanding a response to this.
Found Out
Always the ones you most expect.
BALTIMORE — A neo-Nazi leader recently released from prison has been arrested again and accused of plotting an attack on the Maryland power grid with a woman he met while incarcerated.
Brandon Russell, 27, and Sarah Clendaniel, 34, are expected to make their first appearance Monday in Baltimore and Florida federal courts on a charge of conspiring to destroy an energy facility, which carries up to 20 years in prison.
"Direction"
This is not Bob Loblaw's lawblog so I might off here but this sounds like it's aimed at straw donors.
Certainly some of your faves are going to be returning some money.
WILMINGTON, Del., Feb. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- FTX Trading Ltd. (d.b.a. FTX.com), and its affiliated debtors (together, the "FTX Debtors"), today announced the FTX Debtors are sending confidential messages to political figures, political action funds, and other recipients of contributions or other payments that were made by or at the direction of the FTX Debtors, Samuel Bankman-Fried or other officers or principals of the FTX Debtors (collectively, the "FTX Contributors"). These recipients are requested to return such funds to the FTX Debtors by February 28, 2023.Some of your faves might be implicated!!!
Certainly some of your faves are going to be returning some money.
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