Friday, June 30, 2023
America's Worst Supreme Court Justice
Neil Gorsuch.
And of course the NYT did what they do for every Republican nominee:
He has gay friends! He didn't punch them in their faces when he found out!
Big Fucking Baby
Really driven insane by the people who want to rule harshly and capriciously, but also be treated with worshipful deference and affection.
Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision in Biden v. Nebraska blazed past a clearly insurmountable standing problem to scold the president for even trying to use the law according its own plain terms in order to offer mass debt relief in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also chastised Justice Elena Kagan for her “disturbing” suggestion, in dissent, that the majority had gone “beyond the proper role of the judiciary.” The decision boils down to the chief justice’s obvious disdain for student debt relief—which is perhaps why he interpreted Kagan’s criticism as, in his words, a “personal” affront.Whining about the proper role of the judiciary was one of Scalia's go to moves.
Trade Barriers
The "amazing" thing about today's pro-bigot ruling is that it rests on something which did not happen. No gay people asked this woman to make a website. She has never made a wedding website for anyone!
Once - late aughts, I think, maybe early last decade - I went on a group trip to rural PA with some people, including a lesbian couple. We booked rooms for a night in hotel. The couple was reasonably worried about being turned way. Reasonably doesn't mean that they expected to be, just that it was something they did have to worry about when traveling together.
A trans woman was working the front desk, so that worry turned out to be unnecessary, but, again, it was the kind of understandable worry they always had to deal with.
It isn't great!
"What about our big beautiful economy?" is not the most important thing here, at all, but public accommodation requirements do have benefits there, too.
Once - late aughts, I think, maybe early last decade - I went on a group trip to rural PA with some people, including a lesbian couple. We booked rooms for a night in hotel. The couple was reasonably worried about being turned way. Reasonably doesn't mean that they expected to be, just that it was something they did have to worry about when traveling together.
A trans woman was working the front desk, so that worry turned out to be unnecessary, but, again, it was the kind of understandable worry they always had to deal with.
It isn't great!
"What about our big beautiful economy?" is not the most important thing here, at all, but public accommodation requirements do have benefits there, too.
MAGA RFK
I will try to make this my one and only post about RFK Jr., because he gets more attention than is deserved:
If he ends up being a "spoiler" in any capacity, which I doubt, it'll be because he does an independent run and attracts the contemporary version of "Ron Paul voters". He isn't going to split the Dem "coalition".
If he ends up being a "spoiler" in any capacity, which I doubt, it'll be because he does an independent run and attracts the contemporary version of "Ron Paul voters". He isn't going to split the Dem "coalition".
(oops Ron, originally wrote Rand)
Compassionate Conservatvism
Often I think about how Paul Ryan said he cared deeply about helping poor people, and centrist dipshits spent years pretending to believe him (or actually? who knows).
You don't have to be nearly as cynical as me to know that except for the occasional thing like, "my wife got breast cancer, that seems bad, let's fund breast cancer research more," where something personally affecting a Republican makes them briefly see the light one very narrow issue, Republicans are not interested in addressing such issues.
More than that, any efforts to do so are transparently not very slick attempts to undermine any genuine efforts. On the occasions when there are actual real policies included, and not just efforts to get pundits to write up how much you care about poor people.
Anyone - pundit or politician - commenting on the latest Supremo case with some version of, "Sure I care about the goals behind affirmative action, BUT" doesn't. They're almost certainly uninterested in those goals, and they're almost certainly unaware of how "affirmative action" operates in practice in higher education.
More than that, any efforts to do so are transparently not very slick attempts to undermine any genuine efforts. On the occasions when there are actual real policies included, and not just efforts to get pundits to write up how much you care about poor people.
Anyone - pundit or politician - commenting on the latest Supremo case with some version of, "Sure I care about the goals behind affirmative action, BUT" doesn't. They're almost certainly uninterested in those goals, and they're almost certainly unaware of how "affirmative action" operates in practice in higher education.
But my general point is, if you can't imagine some pundit or politician even bothering to cross a street to save a life, then it is unlikely that their true policy preferences are much more enlightened than "feed the poor and people of color to the wood chipper."
"Culture War"
I often lament the application of that term to trivialize what are actually the most important contentious issues in politics. Still there are moments when there is, perhaps, a genuine "culture war" issue - in the way pundits like to think of it - which is politically polarizing along partisan lines but isn't ultimately all that important.
The doomed discount sub story was maybe one of those. The Left (broadly defined) saw it as billionaire hubris that didn't deserve that much international attention and certainly not an extremely expensive international rescue mission given that normal people will pass on an ambulance for fear of the bill. Also the sub almost certainly imploded and the whole thing was just a PR/ass covering exercise.
The Right saw it, somehow, as Boris Johnson presented it.
No I don't know how they were "pushing out the frontiers of human knowledge," but early on many people were claiming this was primarily a "research mission" and not a dumb joyride. As with lots of right wing stuff I wasn't even sure where that idea came from, but it was, as Cokie would've said, out there.
The doomed discount sub story was maybe one of those. The Left (broadly defined) saw it as billionaire hubris that didn't deserve that much international attention and certainly not an extremely expensive international rescue mission given that normal people will pass on an ambulance for fear of the bill. Also the sub almost certainly imploded and the whole thing was just a PR/ass covering exercise.
The Right saw it, somehow, as Boris Johnson presented it.
No I don't know how they were "pushing out the frontiers of human knowledge," but early on many people were claiming this was primarily a "research mission" and not a dumb joyride. As with lots of right wing stuff I wasn't even sure where that idea came from, but it was, as Cokie would've said, out there.
Thursday, June 29, 2023
Heat Dome
I used to have a too optimistic view of climate change. The main reason was I figure it would be fairly gradual. Not costless, but gradual enough to not be catastrophic (in a broad sense, not that I thought it would avoid all catastrophes).
I was wrong in several ways, but one was not appreciating just how closely very inhabited areas already flirt with being too hot for humans.
Anyway, sounds bad!
Affirmative Action For Rich White People
Supremos didn't end race-based affirmative action, they just mandated that version of it.
Low 'T'
Of course hormonal issues for men can be real medical issues, but I didn't realIze how much MAGA dudes are absolutely obsessed with testosterone levels - their own, that of others - until Musk's twitter started promoting all their tweets.
Our vital essences are being sapped!
Giant Mercenary Armies
All above my pay grade but their - former Blackwater, Wagner - existence seems like a bit of a problem.
Kept misremembering Blackwater as Blackrock but maybe they are the same!
Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Scoop
Not quite The Pentagon Papers.
I take the somewhat minority view that the president's health is mostly his own business, but even if I am wrong about that and this is genuinely news, it's hardly a SCOOP.Scoop: Biden has begun using a CPAP machine, per sources. The device is to treat longstanding sleep apnea, one of the people said. As Biden departed the White House this morning for Chicago, indentations from the CPAP straps could be seen on his face. Story by @jendeben and me. pic.twitter.com/U4Chkp16Pq
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 28, 2023
The Cars Are Too Damn Big
I recently had to rent a car and as is often the case these days they gave me a bigger one than I asked for. I don't even remember what kind it was. But, anyway, I couldn't see anything! Couldn't park without relying on the video screen because you can't even see the spot marking lines!
Just one of the problems, though...
Rudy!
Lock him up!
Former Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has been interviewed by federal investigators as part of the special counsel’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, multiple sources familiar with the meeting told CNN.
Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Klob
Never misses an opportunity to throw a stapler into the gears.
“I support allowing for limitations in the third trimester that do not interfere with the life or health of the women,” Klobuchar told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union,” while also reaffirming her support for codifying Roe v. Wade.If it wasn't obvious before, it should be obvious now that "life or health" exceptions to laws restricting abortion cannot be implemented without threatening the life and health of women.
The Smartest Boys On The Internet
The "lab leak" theory was promoted by the usual centrist dipshits because they believed Wokeness had taken control of the entire public health/epidemiology science community and because the people who annoy them on twitter (by telling them they are wrong, because they are) couldn't possibly be right.
We can all be confidently wrong for dumb reasons, but centrist dipshits - much more than conservatives, because conservatives usually have no idea what The Left is actually thinking about anything - are constantly confidently wrong because the hippie girl in college rejected them and she can't possibly be right about anything.
Slightly more seriously, that The Left must be wrong is a bedrock assumption of The Discourse on every subject. Opposition to the "lab leak" theory was branded Woke because people were pointing out, correctly, that promoting the idea was contributing to a right wing racist scapegoating campaign with worrying consequences for Asians and Asian-Americans, and therefore probably shouldn't be just asserted as true based on vibes.
Monday, June 26, 2023
A Bit Of A Surprise
Supremos aren't yet letting Charter Schools be one quick trick to avoiding any equal protection requirements.
Charter schools in North Carolina are tuition-free, open to attendance by all, and receive state funding for each student. They are run by private, nonprofit corporations rather than a public school district.State schools in everything but name don't have a license to do absolutely anything,
At issue in the case was whether Charter Day School in the southeastern North Carolina town of Leland, which offers a "traditional-values-based education" to students from kindergarten to Grade 8, was subject to the Constitution's equal protection provision when it enforced the skirt policy.
Won't Stop
Individuals and organizations tend not quit even once their missions have been completed. Think March of Dimes (basically won against polio) or MADD (DUI enforcement is pretty strong now). The anti-abortion freaks will never stop, either.
This is the fault pro-choice extremists who refused to compromise, of course.
Seems Bad
I'm sure the people who run the world will do something.
“Long-term projections indicate that Indian heatwaves could cross the survivability limit for a healthy human resting in the shade by 2050,” the study said. “They will impact the labor productivity, economic growth, and quality of life of around 310 - 480 million people. Estimates show a 15% decrease in outdoor working capacity during daylight hours due to extreme heat by 2050.”
Bus Wankers
I find a big divide is betwen people who would consider taking the bus and people who wouldn't (except perhaps the airport bus or other tourist-specific bus). No need to tell me about the poor or nonexistent bus service near you. Of course you won't use that unless you have to!
I mean people who are in places where "the bus" is a perfectly good way to get around (sometimes) but who never even consider taking it. People who would take a train - either in their own city or when visiting London or wherever - but who have never checked a bus schedule.
I mean people who are in places where "the bus" is a perfectly good way to get around (sometimes) but who never even consider taking it. People who would take a train - either in their own city or when visiting London or wherever - but who have never checked a bus schedule.
Especially with transit directions and real time information on google maps or other apps, the bus is often the superior way to go!In Japanese cities you have restaurants posting about taking the bus from the train station to come dine with them, in the US you have people seriously leaving like bad google reviews because there wasn't enough parking right outside the restaurant
— Hemry, Local Bartender (@BartenderHemry) June 26, 2023
That's Nice, Not Going To Read It
Might be full of important insight. Maybe the headline writer is to blame. But "what you elites don't understand about bumfuck" is a tired genre, never reciprocated in the Bumfuck Daily Herald. 
There should probably be some more discussion of why people from Bumfuck - evem ones who get all their news from respected mainstream outlets - believe things like "Minneappolis was recently burned to the ground."
Sunday, June 25, 2023
One Big Winner of the Kremlin-Wagner Clash?
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
OK not the real NYT headline but close enough.
Not everything has to be covered like this, guys.
Sounds Bad
That law schools and many law faculty provide the worst of Academia (worse than B-Schools!) isn't very surprising.
Douthat
Our dork of perpetual hectoring has a piece today which is just another in the endless series of If Conservatives Do Bad Things, That Is On You, libs.
Ross knows his audience is not conservatives. It is the notreallyliberals who wrongly believe that compared to the WWC of Real America,they are commies. The "I am more liberal than most people, BUT" types.
He occasionally lets his true freak flag fly, but mostly he likes reassuring dipshit centrists that liberalism is blame. The hippies have gone too far again! Don't blame the people who actually have power, who actually support and did whatever it is.
It is your job to convince Sean Hannity he is wrong, even when quite often Sean Hannity (for example) is just lying!
Saturday, June 24, 2023
Enemy Of My Enemy
I know Vlad is the Big Bad of this season but don't think we should cheer the promotion of next season's too much.
I Am A Russia Expert
No I have no idea what it means for the present or future when the very brutal mercenary force decides to start brutally killing their former own side.
I will suggest it isn't unambiguously good when the moderate rebels appear.
Friday, June 23, 2023
Imploded
I know nothing and I knew that was the most likely sub outcome. Why did most of the coverage pretend otherwise?
Thursday, June 22, 2023
Rollerball
Might as well enjoy the end of civilization a bit
Two of the world's most high-profile technology billionaires - Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg - have agreed to fight each other in a cage match.
Mr Musk posted a message on his social media platform Twitter that he was "up for a cage fight" with Mr Zuckerberg.It'll happen about the time "full self driving" works, of course.
Mr Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, then posted a screenshot of Mr Musk's tweet with the caption "send me location".
"The story speaks for itself," a Meta spokesperson told the BBC.
Mr Musk then replied to Mr Zuckerberg's response with: "Vegas Octagon."
Sending Our Love Down The Well
Love flipping between stories about "sweeping" homeless encapments with reports about an interntional effort costing at least tens of millions to rescue 5 people who essentially tried to jump the Grand Canyon on a moped for kicks.
You Have To Admit She Has A Point
We have a new cast of weirdos, now, but it's helpful to remember (I am old, this is what I can offer now) how much Ann Coulter was promoted by our Liberal Media, and how much the Centrist Dipshits of the time loved watching her Own The Libs.
Different times, but it's the same impulse that drives so much politics coverage.
It isn't just "false balance" and it certainly isn't "being scared of conservatives," which used to be a popular view. They just love owning the libs as much as actual conservatives do!
White Savior Nick Kristof recently had a column which was, basically, "sure you libs think you're better than the MAGAs, but remember how many of you loved Stalin!!!!" and really we are on our 3rd generation of people covering politics who were driven insane by being rejected by the "hippie" girl in their freshman English class. People who imagine they are liberal, but who are Not Those Liberals.
Different times, but it's the same impulse that drives so much politics coverage.
It isn't just "false balance" and it certainly isn't "being scared of conservatives," which used to be a popular view. They just love owning the libs as much as actual conservatives do!
White Savior Nick Kristof recently had a column which was, basically, "sure you libs think you're better than the MAGAs, but remember how many of you loved Stalin!!!!" and really we are on our 3rd generation of people covering politics who were driven insane by being rejected by the "hippie" girl in their freshman English class. People who imagine they are liberal, but who are Not Those Liberals.
Elite Supplements
I know nothing about ketone drinks/diets or most of this stuff, but my take on this kind of advice/product, generally, is that while elite professional athletes have reason to try to squeeze out a 2% performance enhancement if it's somehow available to them (in this case maybe not), even the most extreme amateur athlete really doesn't, so best to worry about other things.
I know people can be hypercompetitive, but massively changing your diet in potentially harmful, or at least likely unsustainable, ways suggests an unhealthy psychological relationship to the whole endeavor.
It's like looking for "one quick trick" to better performance, except the trick isn't quick at all, but instead requires reconfiguring your entire life.
I know people can be hypercompetitive, but massively changing your diet in potentially harmful, or at least likely unsustainable, ways suggests an unhealthy psychological relationship to the whole endeavor.
It's like looking for "one quick trick" to better performance, except the trick isn't quick at all, but instead requires reconfiguring your entire life.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
The Criminal Element
Conflating visible homelesness with crime has become completely normal, and, well, good job everybody.
“They basically were ticking along very poor, and sometime after the age of 50 something happened,” Kushel said. That something — divorce, a loved one dying, an illness, even a cutback in hours on the job — sparked a downward spiral and their lives “just blew up,” as Kushel puts it.
Kushel and her team found that nearly half of single adults living on our streets are over the age of 50. And 7% of all homeless adults, single or in families, are over 65.
And 41% of those older, single Californians had never been homeless — not one day in their lives — before the age of 50.
Mystery Of The Day
Why did Alito write his own absurd defense in the WSJ over this when any number of B-list conservative lickspittles would have happily done it for him.
More here.
More here.
Safety
I get that women have legitimate safety concerns that I, as a dude, mostly don't worry about, and I should've made that more clear in this post, but there's still quite a leap from legitimate worries about personal safety to "I am being kidnapped and taken to Juarez, because there's a sign for Juarez." And of course a bigger leap to shoot first, don't bother asking questions later. Especially when you do have that gun, just in case!
We Can Do Anything
Not surprised at what is possible, but such can do spirit is rarely applied when there are failings at high ridership transit lines. Those remain fucked for a long time (DC Metro, Boston MBTA recent examples).Based on the tremendous progress these crews made over the weekend, I can now say:
— Governor Josh Shapiro (@GovernorShapiro) June 20, 2023
We will have I-95 back open this weekend.
We have worked around the clock to get this done, and we’ve completed each phase safely and ahead of schedule.
"Everybody" drives so they identify with the problems of a random road closure 1800 miles away.
Also people have a very exaggerated sense of just how many cars a highway can carry at capacity, and therefore how many people are really directly impacted by such a failure. Carmageddons always aren't.
RFK JR
I admit I don't understand what motivates people. It's clear he doesn't believe a lot of his own bullshit.
There was a moment when a posited link between childhood vaccines and autism seemed worthy of pursuing. The issue then wasn't vaccination, it was the presence of mercury (Thimerosal) in the vaccines. RFK was vocal about that. Again, it wasn't a story about the problems of vaccination as a concept, it was a story about poor production practices by Big Pharma.
It wasn't correct but it wasn't on-its-face crazy. That debunked idea metastasized into general anti-vax hysteria, which was given a huge boost by covid.
You're 69 years old, man, why are you doing this.
There was a moment when a posited link between childhood vaccines and autism seemed worthy of pursuing. The issue then wasn't vaccination, it was the presence of mercury (Thimerosal) in the vaccines. RFK was vocal about that. Again, it wasn't a story about the problems of vaccination as a concept, it was a story about poor production practices by Big Pharma.
It wasn't correct but it wasn't on-its-face crazy. That debunked idea metastasized into general anti-vax hysteria, which was given a huge boost by covid.
You're 69 years old, man, why are you doing this.
Why Would Anyone Want To Kidnap You
One problem (there are, sadly, many) with media driven crime panics is it really warps brains. "Stranger Danger" of almost all types is always overblown, but even more so in these moments. Probably most overblown of all is the idea that randos want to kidnap "you" or your children.
While she was being driven to the casino, Copas saw a traffic sign that showed the words "Juarez, Mexico" which led her to believe the Uber driver was attempting to kidnap her and driver her to Juarez, according to the arrest affidavit.The only "stranger danger" I worry about is from lunatics who carry guns for "personal protection."
Copas then grabbed the handgun and shot the driver which caused the crash on the highway, the document stated.
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Nothing Does
I'm not saying Hunter Biden's plea was attempt to placate the Right, but I do think there are numerous people with DC brain who will be surprised, or pretend to be surprised, that instead of making it go away as an issue, it just enrages them more about whatever it is they're enraged about (honestly I have no idea, really).
This Will Satisfy Them
Really I can't believe "we" have to give a shit about the Virgin Ben 20 years later.
Solved Problems
A lot going on in this dumb article and I'm not going to waste my beautiful mind going through it step by step, but I do want to talk a little bit about what "pedestrianized areas" means as I often see a lot of confusion about it from Americans who have little experience with such things.
It definitely doesn't mean "no motorized vehicles can ever travel in that area." There isn't one model, and in some medieval-era places there walkways which aren't exactly accessible with vehicles, but generally it means that pedestrians are given priority and private cars are banned or mostly banned.
There are many ways to exclude all or some private cars. Sometimes with a big sign and camera enforcement (this can be annoying!). Sometimes just by making it obvious cars aren't welcome in various ways. Sometimes with retractable bollards that can be opened with a code or a fob (you can, for example, allow taxis and local residents, but no others, this way).
It definitely doesn't mean "no ambulances allowed" and anyone who has seen an ambulance stuck behind cars on a jammed NYC street should understand how ridiculous the idea that pedestrians are an impediment to emergency vehicles is.
You can take public streets and allocate priority to various transport modes. There are always fights about those allocations and how best to achieve them, but this isn't a complicated problem. Like many things it is a solved problem that our big brained boys, operating only on vibes from behind their windshields, assume no one has ever thought about before.
It definitely doesn't mean "no motorized vehicles can ever travel in that area." There isn't one model, and in some medieval-era places there walkways which aren't exactly accessible with vehicles, but generally it means that pedestrians are given priority and private cars are banned or mostly banned.
There are many ways to exclude all or some private cars. Sometimes with a big sign and camera enforcement (this can be annoying!). Sometimes just by making it obvious cars aren't welcome in various ways. Sometimes with retractable bollards that can be opened with a code or a fob (you can, for example, allow taxis and local residents, but no others, this way).
It definitely doesn't mean "no ambulances allowed" and anyone who has seen an ambulance stuck behind cars on a jammed NYC street should understand how ridiculous the idea that pedestrians are an impediment to emergency vehicles is.
You can take public streets and allocate priority to various transport modes. There are always fights about those allocations and how best to achieve them, but this isn't a complicated problem. Like many things it is a solved problem that our big brained boys, operating only on vibes from behind their windshields, assume no one has ever thought about before.
Oh no how will the ambulances get in? Merde! We did not think of that!
This is Buchanan Street in Glasgow. Glasgow is hardly a pedestrian paradise, overall, but like most British cities it has some pedestrianized areas. If the police need to drive a car down this, they will! It isn't complicated.
Hey there's even a van in the picture!
The Thing Which Benefits Me Is Correct
I don't have any dog in the argument over flights to National Airport, but I am laughing at how it's a pretty good example of how people pretend an argument about the distribution of resources is AKSHUALLY some sort of principled argument with a single correct answer.
A debate in Congress over adding more flights, including long-distance routes, at Reagan has divided the airline industry and pitted senators against one another in a dispute that transcends party lines. At stake is access to what the airport’s operator says is already the busiest runway in America—and the airport that many lawmakers favor for trips home dozens of weekends a year.That isn't to say there are more/less "correct" answers, but everyone's talking their personal book here.
Lines Go Straight Up
It's largely an online thing, but all the Big Boy economists are throwing a big hissy fit about this, doing their usual thing of fighting a multifront battle against a pile of straw. When "they" get in a mood like this it's like arguing with MAGAs. The misrepresentations and goalpost shiftings are endless.
The crazy idea here is, basically, that there are moments when limited price controls might make sense, such as when you have hit a capacity constraint at a transportation node like a port (this is the 'extreme' case), so all price increases are just pure profit.
The choice here is between lowering output and employment to cut inflation, or cutting profits of mostly big firms a bit to cut inflation! No surprise which one they choose!
The crazy idea here is, basically, that there are moments when limited price controls might make sense, such as when you have hit a capacity constraint at a transportation node like a port (this is the 'extreme' case), so all price increases are just pure profit.
Certainly they make much more sense than trying to clear those bottlenecks by plunging the economy into a recession.
They love to spit venom about "heterodox" economics, which is quite often pretty standard stuff (such as the above) which just doesn't fit the political line of the day. The most famous implementation of genuinely "heterodox" economics (as in, not in the Econ 101 textbook!) I can think of is when all the Big Boys decided that "growth through austerity" was a thing, something they pulled out of their asses, justifying it with one hastily thrown together empirical study which was stupid even if correct but also obtained its key result due to an Excel sheet error.
Sure it was wrong, but it felt true, so who is to say?
I mean, if someone had made that kind of error showing "increasing the minimum wage by 5 cents is good, actually," they'd now be earning minimum wage.
There are good economists, but the public face of the profession is made up of the worst dissemblers, along with an army of media chucklefucks who think they are smart because they can convincingly "speak econ." Like this:
They love to spit venom about "heterodox" economics, which is quite often pretty standard stuff (such as the above) which just doesn't fit the political line of the day. The most famous implementation of genuinely "heterodox" economics (as in, not in the Econ 101 textbook!) I can think of is when all the Big Boys decided that "growth through austerity" was a thing, something they pulled out of their asses, justifying it with one hastily thrown together empirical study which was stupid even if correct but also obtained its key result due to an Excel sheet error.
Sure it was wrong, but it felt true, so who is to say?
I mean, if someone had made that kind of error showing "increasing the minimum wage by 5 cents is good, actually," they'd now be earning minimum wage.
There are good economists, but the public face of the profession is made up of the worst dissemblers, along with an army of media chucklefucks who think they are smart because they can convincingly "speak econ." Like this:
He added, “What I remember from my economics textbooks is that if you have a surge in demand that runs up against relatively inelastic supply, what happens is that prices go up (inflation) and so do profits — that’s broadly speaking what I think is going on here and what I assume the economists whose work you’re summarizing are explaining.”When you have a vertical supply curve, positive demand shifts (like, after you turn off the world economy and then turn it on again) will lead to price increases without any additional quantity supplied. Meaning, they raise prices and increase profits, and capping those price increases would have no negative effects! Otherwise, shipping prices increase but there is no more shipping capacity!
His supposed refutation is the point!
The choice here is between lowering output and employment to cut inflation, or cutting profits of mostly big firms a bit to cut inflation! No surprise which one they choose!
Monday, June 19, 2023
I Was Told This Wasn't Happening
Even though it obviously was.
FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 for more than a yearRead the whole thing, as the kids say, and draw your own conclusions, but I'll just say that efforts to not look "political" are, in fact, political.
In the DOJ’s investigation of Jan. 6, key Justice officials also quashed an early plan for a task force focused on people in Trump’s orbit
Inside Justice, however, some have complained that the attorney general’s determination to steer clear of any claims of political motive has chilled efforts to investigate the former president. “You couldn’t use the T word,” said one former Justice official briefed on prosecutors’ discussions.
Impossible To Imagine A Better World
This whole piece is dumb, and generally amazed at how terminal car brain has led to conspiracy theories in reaction to the idea of "15-minute cities," places where many of your daily needs are within a 15-minute walk or so.
Having an American carbrained reactionary centrist write it for a British supposedly left-leaning (but also reactionary centrist) publication makes it extra funny.
It's actually pretty much normal in Europe/UK. Normal doesn't mean universal, of course, but, "being unable to walk to the shops" is generally a bit of a strange concept to anyone who isn't living in an isolated rural home.
And, contra the piece, you can make places more pedestrian/bike friendly without banning cars, and "banning cars" doesn't mean "banning ambulances" even in places where you do.
Just nonsense from someone who has never lived any other way and isn't aware that lots of people do, even in small towns. Not having to have one car per household adult is a great gift to people with less income, not "class war" against them.
Having an American carbrained reactionary centrist write it for a British supposedly left-leaning (but also reactionary centrist) publication makes it extra funny.
It's actually pretty much normal in Europe/UK. Normal doesn't mean universal, of course, but, "being unable to walk to the shops" is generally a bit of a strange concept to anyone who isn't living in an isolated rural home.
And, contra the piece, you can make places more pedestrian/bike friendly without banning cars, and "banning cars" doesn't mean "banning ambulances" even in places where you do.
Just nonsense from someone who has never lived any other way and isn't aware that lots of people do, even in small towns. Not having to have one car per household adult is a great gift to people with less income, not "class war" against them.
Woke Jen Rubin
Not a journey I would've predicted.
Understand, then, that we have our current criminal justice system because we have fetishized guns, criminalized addiction, neglected mental and emotional health, and resisted addressing social factors driving crime.Column notable for lack of any hippie punching at all.
We could do it differently. We simply don’t want to.
Hey, Ross Douthat, When Did You Stop Beating Your Wife
What the hell is wrong with these people.
Aside from being bullied by some other rich dorks as a teenager, Ross has never known any of the people he fantasizes about here.
Sunday, June 18, 2023
Yes We Can
It is pretty funny how quickly Obummer pivoted to "No We Can't."
Let's hope Brandon I95 realizes that saying that we're going to fix this highway, and then doing it, is a fun activity you can repeat elsewhere.
Just Do It
One thing a professor told me years ago that stuck with me was that of course in government (and elsewhere!) there's some corruption, but there's a big difference between overpaying for services that aren't provided and overpaying for ones they are.
If the mayor's cousin gets rich because the local gov't is overpaying 40% for the trash removal contract, that's less of a big deal as long as my trash gets picked up every Tuesday. It's a pretty big deal if you overpay and the services are still shit!
"Why does it cost $5 billion to build 3 miles of subway?" is an important question to answer - and solve - but perhaps even more important is, "why does it cost $5 billion and then it still takes 17 years?"
If the mayor's cousin gets rich because the local gov't is overpaying 40% for the trash removal contract, that's less of a big deal as long as my trash gets picked up every Tuesday. It's a pretty big deal if you overpay and the services are still shit!
"Why does it cost $5 billion to build 3 miles of subway?" is an important question to answer - and solve - but perhaps even more important is, "why does it cost $5 billion and then it still takes 17 years?"
SAN FRANCISCO IS DOOMED
It is true that the fortunes of cities can change quite fast, but I think the price of residential real estate has to drop a bit before these predictions should be taken seriously.
The real story of San Francisco is how the people who run (the government, the local richie riches) one of the wealthiest places in the country are absolutely uninterested in solving any of the problems. And, in fact, do nothing but loudly complain about their urban hellhole to anyone who will listen.
It's interesting! Thought the new DA was going to fix everything. Maybe increase the cop budget some more.
Who cares about dowtown commercial real estate prices except for the owners and their lenders.
The real story of San Francisco is how the people who run (the government, the local richie riches) one of the wealthiest places in the country are absolutely uninterested in solving any of the problems. And, in fact, do nothing but loudly complain about their urban hellhole to anyone who will listen.
It's interesting! Thought the new DA was going to fix everything. Maybe increase the cop budget some more.
Who cares about dowtown commercial real estate prices except for the owners and their lenders.
Saturday, June 17, 2023
Amazing What We Can Do
Going to be fixed "within two weeks" is a lot better than not being able to do that, but it does raise some questions about our only occasional "can do" spirit and for what it seems to get applied to.
I-95 will reopen ‘within two weeks,’ Gov. Shapiro says; Biden tours I-95 collapse site
Sounds Bad
Somebody should probably do something.
We’re only halfway through 2023 and so many climate records are being broken, some scientists are sounding the alarm, fearing it could be a sign of a planet warming much more rapidly than expected.
In a widely shared tweet, Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science, called rising ocean and air temperatures “totally bonkers.”
He added, “people who look at this stuff routinely can’t believe their eyes. Something very weird is happening.”
Election Season
Hugh Hewitt's in the WaPo objecting to Trump's indictment on the grounds that it's ELECTION INTRUSION and there are approximately 2 months out of every 24 that we are not in an election season, and max 2 out of 4 years when we aren't in a presidential election season.
Don't think Purge Rules should apply to anyone who declares their intentions to run for office, not just for current crimes but for any done recently.
I know it's Hugh Hewitt, but his editors should be ashamed (narrator: they are not ashamed).
Don't think Purge Rules should apply to anyone who declares their intentions to run for office, not just for current crimes but for any done recently.
I know it's Hugh Hewitt, but his editors should be ashamed (narrator: they are not ashamed).
Little Accidents
I doubt The Kids even know that the "blue state/red state" thing exists because those happened to be the assigned colors for the 2000 election which then stuck, though previously the networks rotated them.
Best, though, as if red had been the Dem color that year, we'd still be reading columns about the "Red (Soviet) Dems."
Somehow Red is, instead, the color of Real America.
Best, though, as if red had been the Dem color that year, we'd still be reading columns about the "Red (Soviet) Dems."
Somehow Red is, instead, the color of Real America.
Friday, June 16, 2023
My God It's Full Of Idiots
Sure there are a lot of bigots and racists and scammers, but they key feature of all of the people who pay for Twitter (who you see because their posts are promoted above all) is that they are extremely boring stupid people.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
There's No Theatre In Los Angeles
Was "joking" about this to a friend the other day, and then this happens.
In a move certain to shock Los Angeles theatergoers, the Center Theatre Group (CTG) announced Thursday that it is canceling plans for a 2023-24 season at the Mark Taper Forum, one of the most important homes for new plays in the city, if not the country, due to severe financial concerns.Of course there is some, but in a city of that size, with that much wealth, with that many people working in related endeavors, but apparently no audience....
There Was A Moment
Only way to kickstart the "defund the police" movement is to give a few DC pundits some speeding tickets, maybe presented with a bit of attitude.
The Minneapolis Police Department engaged in the systemic use of excessive force and discriminated against racial minorities in the years leading up to the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in 2020, federal authorities said Friday.
In a scathing 89-page report released following a more than two-year federal civil rights investigation, the Justice Department excoriated the Minneapolis police force as an agency that put officers and local residents at unnecessary risk and failed to act upon repeated warnings about biased behavior.
Uber, But For Lettuce
Innovation in everything is always possible, of course, but I suspect none of the people who threw money at "what if we grow lettuce, but with a computer" ever bothered to talk to anyone who knows anything about growing lettuce.
The pitch for vertical farming had all the promise of a modern venture capital dream: a new way to grow crops that would use robots and artificial intelligence to conserve water, combat food insecurity and save the environment.
But after firms poured billions of dollars into these startups, pushing valuations into the stratosphere, the industry is now facing a harsh new reality: funding is drying up, profits remain elusive, and creditors are circling.
Also, vertical farming in places with IMMENSE AMOUNTS OF LAND (and everywhere, really) is a dumb idea embraced by a) people who love anything that looks like an artist's conception of some scifi novel and b) weird people who think sticking farms in Manhattan makes sense, for reasons.
"Landed Gentry"
Nothing like going after your volunteer labor.
Everything good on the internet gets destroyed, eventually.
Everything good on the internet gets destroyed, eventually.
We'll Take It Off The Table Forever
I'm speaking more generally than about the specifics of this, but a weird belief in Washington is that compromises/legislation are in any way lasting, that they don't simply reset the baseline for the process of perpetual negotiation.
After narrowly avoiding a federal default, the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-led Senate are now on a collision course over spending that could result in a government shutdown this year and automatic spending cuts in early 2025 with severe consequences for the Pentagon and an array of domestic programs.Some details of the budget process are above my pay grade but as 3/4 of Congress would trample over children to restore any cuts to the Pentagon, I suspect it is not really the clever hostage some think.
Thursday, June 15, 2023
Sure Why Not
Makes sense, really.
The manager of a morgue at Harvard Medical School has been charged with selling body parts from donated cadavers and allowing buyers to come to the morgue to choose which parts they wanted, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.It is actually much creepier than that first paragraph makes it sound!
Getting Slammed
Anyone remember that? No I don't mean doing to much tequila in your freshman dorm, I mean the scam practice of switching people's long distance companies without their approval.
Was a big thing in the 90s, after landline local and long distance services were severed and you could pick your long distance company.
Whatever the merits of that, there weren't adequate controls on approving a switch, so of course scammers saw an opportunity.
Happened to me once. Think it was just the equivalent of getting switched from Sprint to MCI, but in getting switched no deal options were added, so suddenly m 10 cent per minute calls (or whatever they were) ended up being $1.50/minute calls. They said they'd fix the charges, then called me at 6AM a week later to tell me they wouldn't. I rarely yell but that morning I yelled.
Was a big thing in the 90s, after landline local and long distance services were severed and you could pick your long distance company.
Whatever the merits of that, there weren't adequate controls on approving a switch, so of course scammers saw an opportunity.
Happened to me once. Think it was just the equivalent of getting switched from Sprint to MCI, but in getting switched no deal options were added, so suddenly m 10 cent per minute calls (or whatever they were) ended up being $1.50/minute calls. They said they'd fix the charges, then called me at 6AM a week later to tell me they wouldn't. I rarely yell but that morning I yelled.
Anyway, *everything* seems a bit like that now - though at least then you could generally get a human on the phone to yell at - so any efforts to crackdown on various kinds of related nonsense is welcome.
Junk fees aren't precisely the same, but in the general category of companies extracting unexpected fees with little recourse.
A Very Stable Genius
Among other things, Fitton is not an attorney.
Trump time and again rejected the advice from lawyers and advisers who urged him to cooperate and instead took the advice of Tom Fitton, the head of the conservative group Judicial Watch, and a range of others who told him he could legally keep the documents and should fight the Justice Department, advisers said. Trump would often cite Fitton to others, and Fitton told some of Trump’s lawyers that Trump could keep the documents, even as they disagreed, the advisers said.
Sure Why Not
Can't believe McKinsey holds onto its rep, in part because journalists type up their press releases as if they came from an authoritative source.
“Generative artificial intelligence” is set to add up to $4.4 trillion of value to the global economy annually, according to a report from McKinsey Global Institute, in what is one of the rosier predictions about the economic effects of the rapidly evolving technology.FIVE MINUTES EARLIER:
Beyond the hype, the #metaverse is shaping up to be the biggest new growth opportunity in the coming decade. Check out our new report to learn more about the current landscape and the actions leaders should consider to capture the value: https://t.co/PcDYh1H2pV pic.twitter.com/en8VVdpEEd
— McKinsey & Company (@McKinsey) June 15, 2022
All About The Grift
A question not usually addressed is, where does this money go?
The standard "model" is corruption in US campaign finance is about politicians collecting money to get re-elected, as if getting re-elected is the only thing that motivates them. Or, slightly more broadly, the money lets them be kingmakers - I rise through the leadership ranks by supporting other House members who then repay me with their support.
Of course these operations support a much bigger range of dubious if perfectly legal salaries and expenses. Quite clearly people are finding ways to line their pockets, and that of their friends and family.
A small example Sinema using the cover of fundraising to pay for trips she wanted to take.
But really I'm sure that is a small example.
I bet it's the family business for a lot of people, and it's the kind of "corruption" that goes underreported because it's the family business for a lot of those people, too.
The standard "model" is corruption in US campaign finance is about politicians collecting money to get re-elected, as if getting re-elected is the only thing that motivates them. Or, slightly more broadly, the money lets them be kingmakers - I rise through the leadership ranks by supporting other House members who then repay me with their support.
Of course these operations support a much bigger range of dubious if perfectly legal salaries and expenses. Quite clearly people are finding ways to line their pockets, and that of their friends and family.
A small example Sinema using the cover of fundraising to pay for trips she wanted to take.
But really I'm sure that is a small example.
I bet it's the family business for a lot of people, and it's the kind of "corruption" that goes underreported because it's the family business for a lot of those people, too.
The grift has long been central to conservative politics, but it seemed a bit more arms length from the electeds themselves. And not just conservative politics.
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
Fuck It We're Doing It Live
Will the livestreamed repair of I-95 show what is easily possible if only we want to do it, or show that we can't manage to do anything at all?
Stay tuned! 24/7!
Stay tuned! 24/7!
He's One Of The Lads
He had a PBS show! New York Times editorial board member Michelle Cottle was basically his cohost!
Tucker Carlson is a right-wing extremist and conspiracy theorist. It should not be hard for news organizations to say this. Most outlets have no problem accurately characterizing other extremist media figures, such as Alex Jones. Why the different treatment for Carlson?
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 14, 2023
Where Does Meatball Ron Go For His Apology
Journalists rarely feel inclined to be honest about such things - they'd never admit to it at all, probably - but we did have about 2 years of the Ron DeSantis cheerleader squad among political journalists and while I think I know why,* I'd be curious to hear some of them be up front about it.
*Many elite journalists are or were borderline covid denialists, or became such after the vaccines arrived, and Ron stuck it to the people who annoyed them on twitter who worried about things like "teachers getting covid."
*Many elite journalists are or were borderline covid denialists, or became such after the vaccines arrived, and Ron stuck it to the people who annoyed them on twitter who worried about things like "teachers getting covid."
The Worst Deliberative Body In The World
I get the kind of courtesy which is "don't ram through a close vote because someone is at their dying spouse's side" but that's very different than letting someone engage in mass obstruction just by signaling their desire to do so.
Just absolute unwillingness to wield power, ever.Durbin tells me it would be “tempting” to UC military promotions with Tuberville missing but notes that “one of the unwritten rules of the place is you don’t take advantage of a person’s absence.”
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) June 13, 2023
Another GOP senator could also object in his place https://t.co/GHJKDBgupI
Fox NEWS Alert
Even now, other journalists pretend that "Fox News" is a thing separate from the prime time opinion shows.
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
I Tweet Myself
Would a historian who relied almost entirely on the New York Times have any sense of Donald Trump or the modern Republican party? No. Absolutely not.I have come to appreciate the difficult job of academic historians tasked with trying to decipher the past when so many contemporaneous reports are orthogonal to reality https://t.co/kP6EfFDUP0
— Atrios (@Atrios) June 11, 2023
The Third Way Of No Labels
No Labels is showing its ass a bit more than usual, but all the professional "centrist" groups are just conservative groups that know reporters will help them portray very right wing policies as "moderate centrism."
Don't See How...
a chyron for the ages pic.twitter.com/LJKWgRzEhO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 13, 2023
There Can Only Be One
I'm not sure which of them wants to be Trump's VP, which of them just sees running for president as an extended grift, and which are just praying Trump bites the dust on the gold shitter one day, but unless he does die, the only way to beat Trump is for it to be Trump versus one other person in the Republican primary.
This is an obvious observation, but what is this blog for if not a place for me to state the obvious.
This is an obvious observation, but what is this blog for if not a place for me to state the obvious.
It Was A Good Few Years, In Some Ways
Back in the closet.
Starbucks has banned Pride decorations in its stores halfway through Pride Month, the company’s workers union claimed Tuesday, in a stunning cave to far-right anti-LGBTQ fury.
Going Backwards
Surprising no one except dipshit centrists, transphobia is the stick being used to remove the taboo against bigotry against all LGBTQ people.
The speed has been quite stunning, and it is quite clear most leading Democrats have taken the advice of their dipshit boatbuying consultants to not show great leadership on the subject.
Not that bigotry against "only" trans people is okay, but the people who decided that it was, that the cause of trans rights, and the lives of trans people were acceptable sacrifices to maintain the status quo, have collaborated with the worst people in America to produce this outcome
THE DANGERS OF POST SCHEDULING
It isn't always my fault when the posts go up at the wrong time. Blogger likes to reset the time input right as you enter it and it is easy to miss...
Also causes typo proliferation, as I usually intend to do a quick edit before they go up 'later'...
What About Neal Katyal
In the UK there is something called the "cab rank rule" such that attorneys are supposed to accept any clients who can pay the going rate. I think this is pretty dumb, but what is worse is how high profile US attorneys pretend this is how they operate - in order deflect criticism from defending child slavery in civil suits for a higher hourly rate than most people earn in weeks or months - when they of course pick and choose their clients (wanting praise for some choices while rejecting the idea that others can be criticized).
One of those guys should step up for Trump.
Monday, June 12, 2023
Only Wikipedia Will Survive
Everything on the internet turns to shit eventually.
As we reported earlier in the month, Reddit, one of the most popular forums for gaming communities, is planning to make some changes under the hood that will essentially kill off every third-party app. Given the state of the official app and its heavy reliance on huge ads, it’s a deeply unpopular move, so unpopular that it has led to a protest movement that you are likely witnessing the effects of as we speak. If you load Reddit right now, chances are very good that you’re seeing a message that reads, “Sorry, we couldn’t load posts for this page.”
Usually Only From The Inside
Q: "Was that a good look for the former president to have boxes in a bathroom?"
— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) June 12, 2023
Kevin McCarthy: "I don't know. Is it a good picture to have boxes in a garage that opens up all the time? A bathroom door locks." pic.twitter.com/aEmOfz77kX
Local Problem
There were some erroneous assertions that knocking out the 95 stretch through Philly was a death blow to Northeast traffic, but through traffic mostly goes on the Jersey Turnpike. This is really a local issue (source).
Bad detour, though!
NFTs
Reasonable rule of thumb is anyone who did or pretended to take those seriously should be shunned forever.
Philly
A neighbor in NE Philly describes what it was like to wake up to the confusion just outside his door after a portion of I-95 collapsed just a few blocks from him. pic.twitter.com/PVh3VwjtEs
— Marcus Espinoza (@MarcusFOX29) June 11, 2023
Sunday, June 11, 2023
I Didn't Do It
A tanker truck fire collapsed the Northbound and possibly Southbound I-95 through Philly which will be... interesting.
Then local economy will collapse and life as we know it will cease or it will surprisingly not be such a big deal.
We will find out!
i Am Starting To Think Trump Isn't Always Honest About Things
Not sure dozens of reporters "live tweeting" Trump quotes, often without context, is the highest form of journalism, but I am just a stupid blogger.
They have been hanging on his every word for 8 years now.
At least the live tweets give the uncut version, before the sanifized versions go into the stories.
You know, stuff like translating "my jew enemies should all be hung" to "Trump was defiant."
Saturday, June 10, 2023
And Maddow
"The DOJ should use its power to threaten prosecution to drive people out of politics" is a really really bad idea!!!
MSNBC’s Maddow suggests DOJ could do quid pro quo with Trump, dropping charges if he leaves 2024 race pic.twitter.com/ELjpvDx4J7
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) June 10, 2023
Sounds Bad
Elmo's cars aren't so good!
SAN FRANCISCO — The school bus was displaying its stop sign and flashing red warning lights, a police report said, when Tillman Mitchell, 17, stepped off one afternoon in March. Then a Tesla Model Y approached on North Carolina Highway 561.
The car — allegedly in Autopilot mode — never slowed down.
Geraldo For The Win
Not really a preening centrist dipshit, but he is out with the worst idea.
As I have said consistently, President Biden should stop this tortured nonsense immediately. In exchange for former President Trump dropping out of the race for the White House, Biden should pardon him for any and all federal allegations.
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) June 9, 2023
Friday, June 09, 2023
Don't See How...
Ah, well, nevertheless.
Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, initially assigned to oversee his case:
Sources Cannon faced scrutiny for her prior role in the investigation.
Good Faith
Every single elected Republican prays every day that Trump chokes on his own vomit (or goes to prison), every journalist knows this, yet we all must pretend the kayfabe is real, that liars are operating in good faith.
FOR THE GOOD OF THE COUNTRY
I imagine that a lot of preening centrist dipshits, the type of people who imagine they are the true stewards of DC, will be putting forward all types of nonsensical ideas in the coming days.
I expect a big one will be something like, "The DOJ agrees to drop the charges if Trump agrees not to run for president."
That one is extra special because if your concern is "the DOJ interfering in politics" (a reasonable concern in general terms), what could be greater interference than using the threat of prosecution to drive people out of politics?
I am inventing something to get mad at here and will be happy to be wrong!
Don't See How Donnie Two Scoops Wriggles Out Of This One
We will find out!
Former President Donald Trump acknowledged on tape in a 2021 meeting that he had retained “secret” military information that he had not declassified, according to a transcript of the audio recording obtained by CNN.
“As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,” Trump says, according to the transcript.
Thursday, June 08, 2023
Breathe Deeply
Being anti-mask with respect to covid, whatever the merits of that, doesn't mean you have to be anti-mask with respect to a visible particle cloud.
Bullying Works
No chance Roberts does this without all the current criticism.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday stepped back from the brink of totally gutting the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act.People in power - including the High Priests of SCOTUS - are always facing pressure, mostly behind closed doors, quietly. Outside pressure is often disdained in a kind of HOW DARE YOU way as if this isn't true, as if powerful people weren't always being pressured (by other powerful people).
By a vote of 5-4, a coalition of liberal and conservative justices essentially upheld the court's 1986 decision requiring that in states where voting is racially polarized, the legislature must create the maximum number of majority-Black or near-majority-Black congressional districts, using traditional redistricting criteria.
I Blame The Left
Once climate change denialism ceases to be mainstream, the story will be that the world burned because some greenies opposed nuclear power plants.
Without getting into the debate about nuclear, the idea that greenies have the ability to do that but, oddly, nothing else, suggests this story is incomplete.
Wednesday, June 07, 2023
Gotta Get More Republican
The shitty CNN guy is stepping down but I am sure they will continue with the path the bosses want.
I don't think either "it's all about ratings (money)" or "it's all about serving an agenda (and not money, directly anyway)" are generally completely correct. It is certainly true that there are plenty of examples of rich guys being willing to lose money on ideological media projects. But at a minimum a certain kind of credibility requires pretending that the choices they make are merely driven by giving the people what they want. Crashing the audience figures doesn't help!
Sounds Bad
Bad policies are bad enough, but bad policies administered badly... Very bad!
So millions of borrowers will get a notice from a private company they’ve never interacted with, telling them to resume payments on a loan that’s been dormant for years. If every borrower used StudentAid.gov to keep up with their account, and these companies were perfectly diligent, this might go smoothly. But student loan servicers have a terrible track record; Navient was described by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2017 as having “systematically and illegally failed borrowers at every stage of repayment.” The former CFPB director who said that, Rich Cordray, now runs FSA.
The Chris Christie Decade
Every Republican running for president gets an absurd amount of press attention, but some get more attention than others relative to any polling or, really, anything to justify it.
Chris Christie left office with an approval rating I would've thought impossible for any politician not caught with a dead girl AND a live boy, simultaneously, but he's beloved by the 200 weirdos of our political press so there he is.
Chris Christie left office with an approval rating I would've thought impossible for any politician not caught with a dead girl AND a live boy, simultaneously, but he's beloved by the 200 weirdos of our political press so there he is.
The Grand Prize Is A Ticket To Henry's 100th
There was a moment when the hottest brand was "liberal humanitarian who supports humanitarian wars." It was a pretty easy grift. All you had to say was, essentially, "Genocide is bad, BUT" and then make the case why every proposal for dropping freedom bombs was AKSHUALLY the humanitarian thing to do, and those nasty lefties were actually the real racist monsters.
But then you collect your prizes and can stop bothering with the "genocide is bad" part.
Samantha Power, who wrote in her book “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide” that Henry Kissinger “had bloodied Cambodia and blackened his own reputation,” attends Kissinger’s closed press 100th birthday party at the New York Public Library. https://t.co/so2QWi0y7K
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) June 6, 2023
Reactionary Centrism
Perry Bacon Jr.
But when we have a left that is pushing America to finish the work of the 1960s and create a true multicultural democracy and a right that is banning Black intellectual ideas from public schools, it’s a huge mistake for powerful non-Republicans in society to spend so much time bashing the left. This anti-woke centrism often sounds as though people are auditioning to be today’s version of the “white moderates” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. castigated six decades ago.
Read the whole thing as the kids say. It explains well why my ire is generally directed at centrist dipshits, without whom we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years.
Kudos to Perry, btw, as critcizing The Sensibles is not conducive to career stability.Tuesday, June 06, 2023
OK Not Really
The post below is hyperbole. UK journalists are actually the worst.
On this very fine blog, journalist is usuay short for political journalist, but sadly so much news has actually been subsumed into political journalism that the distinction is fuzzy.
Gotta Get More Republican
During the Bush years, the Sunday Shows and Meet the Press especially were dominated by Republicans and conservatives (Republican lawmakers and roundtables of the host, two conservatives, and one "objective" journalist were the common format).
The MTP producer justified this by saying Republicans were in charge.
When Dems took control of everything, the guest ideology barely budged, and then the justification was that the Dems, being in control, had others ways to get their message out so it was important to provide a platform for the opposition.
And on and on....
"Deep State"
These types of conspiracy theories used to be more lefty in nature.
Extra "funny" given that while it wasn't the "FBI," people in the NY FBI office really were working to put Trump in office.
Thanks, Comey!
Don't See How Donnie Two Scoops Wriggles Out Of This One
Maggie will keep writing around it, at least!
NBC News has confirmed that part of Trump's legal team met with special counsel Jack Smith and others at Justice Department headquarters in Washington on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Three of Trump's lawyers — James Trusty, John Rowley and Lindsey Halligan — were at the Justice Department and met with the group of Justice Department officials, which included at least one other career prosecutor; the meeting did not include Attorney General Merrick Garland or Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. Trump's team was first spotted by CBS News and then was seen emerging from the building just before noon.
Monday, June 05, 2023
Death Is, Like, A Big Deal, Man
Fleshing this out a bit, I'm not saying it seems (to me) that people were less likely to cheer on cops murdering black people or vigilante justice or bombing the shit out of Those People Over There. Support for racist violence, as an example, is clearly nothing new.
It is more just a breezy dismissal, that deaths barely even matter. When Jordan Neely was killed on the subway, his death was largely abstract. The usual assholes thought he deserved it, but also his death was discussed as if it was a plot point in a story, or more fodder for an ongoing debate.
A person died!
The Moderate Chair
Haley is aiming for Sensible Centrist support.
Nikki Haley discussing trans girls in kids sports: "How are we supposed to get our girls used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker room. And then we wonder why a third of our teenage girls seriously contemplated suicide last year." pic.twitter.com/rA2lD06yVe
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) June 5, 2023
Wow The People Who Hate CNN Hate It For The Reasons Conservatives Hate It
Gotta cater to the people who hate us most.
Seamless
How do people get labeled as "free speech advocates" when they are banning books and restrictng what happens in schools and universities?
How do we shift from "censorius lefties are demanding the n-word be removed from your favorite 1920s children's book" to "ban everything with gay people in it" without missing a beat?
This isn't about "hypocrisy" which is a separate concept. It is about reporters typing up the agendas-as-claimed instead of the agendas as they obviously are.
It is about laundering bullshit through our heroic journalists who are always eager to do it.
Sunday, June 04, 2023
Free Spech Discourse
Summed up succinctly if inadvertently.
She [Noem] wants the public colleges, which collectively enroll more than 33,600 students, to enact rules fortifying free speech while also banning drag performances on their campuses and references to preferred pronouns.
You Only Get One Go
This a purely vibes-based observation, but while I don't think Americans have become more cruel, precisely, I do have a sense (maybe wrong!) that there is just less recognition that people dying is actually quite tragic. Whether it's mass shootings, cop shootings, car accidents, covid deaths, whatever, just that someone dying is actually a big deal seems to have been lost.
Yes, I said, just vibes here.
Yes, I said, just vibes here.
Gotta Get More Republican
People think this piece by longtime conservative journalist Tim Alberta about CNN is scathing, but really it just misses the point that Licht was told to "make it more right wing" and there's no way to implement that without going full Fox.
There's already a Fox and also Newsmax.
The belief that CNN (Communist News Network) was alienating Real America by being too left wing was always ridiculous, but that hasn't stopped it being a constant belief not just of right wing operatives (like Alberta, who even as he is "scathing" of the current leadership also basically agrees with its given task), but of all those political journalists who never watch either but who believe, because their friends tell them, that "Fox is a bit right wing just like CNN is a bit left wing, The Same."
But, anyway, all this talk about CNN gives the whole thing too much credit. The new bosses want a MAGA network. There are already MAGA networks. There isn't actually a left wing network. Who do you think your viewers are?
There's already a Fox and also Newsmax.
The belief that CNN (Communist News Network) was alienating Real America by being too left wing was always ridiculous, but that hasn't stopped it being a constant belief not just of right wing operatives (like Alberta, who even as he is "scathing" of the current leadership also basically agrees with its given task), but of all those political journalists who never watch either but who believe, because their friends tell them, that "Fox is a bit right wing just like CNN is a bit left wing, The Same."
But, anyway, all this talk about CNN gives the whole thing too much credit. The new bosses want a MAGA network. There are already MAGA networks. There isn't actually a left wing network. Who do you think your viewers are?
I guarantee Alberta went in this to write about how brilliant the whole idea was, but had to shift gears when faced with the shitshow and ratings drop. He believed in the mission, as he said!Feel like I'm going insane with this CNN story. Licht's "theory" of CNN was and is "my bosses John Malone and David Zaslav want it to be a right-wing network now and I am doing that, as instructed"
— big whoop (@leftafire) June 4, 2023
I felt for Licht. Having spent long stretches of the past year in conversation with him as he attempted to build “the new CNN,” I often found myself agreeing with his principles of journalism.This was supposed to be a glowing profile. The Man Who Saved CNN (from what? who knows). It just couldn't survive contact with reality.
The truth is there aren't any "lefties" - defined as not simply being Republican-skeptical, but actually presenting any sort of left wing policy perspective - on cable news with daily slots (some weekenders sometimes) except for Chris Hayes. The rest of the cable news "lefties" are Never Trumpers, normie Democrats, and journalists who actual cover what Republicans are doing at "best."
That "no one" in DC journalism seems to be aware of this unarguable fact is interesting!!! And it's basically been true, give or take, for decades!
Saturday, June 03, 2023
Just Asking Qweschins (Then Running Away)
I'm not aware of everything so of course I could've missed it, but one way for the "JUST ASKING QWESCHINS BECAUSE I AM SO CONCERNED FOR THE CHILDREN" crowd to justify themselves is to make the slightest effort to pretend to think this might not be good and well...
Friday, June 02, 2023
The Anti-Trans Alliance
Just the weirdest group of people. Glinner, Meat addict, the Harry Potter Lady, the full reporting staff of the New York Times, various Nazis...
Not Going To Read That
Who knows, maybe it's great, but David Brooks has a column on the "college admissions process" and being somewhat academia-adjacent, one thing I know is that people over about 40 generally have absolutely no idea what the "college admissions process" is unless their kids went through it recently, or even then.
Times change.
And, of course, "Only 15 schools matter, who cares what the pig people are doing" drives all coverage in our glorious periodicals.
OK, Christ, I read it and it's about how killing affirmative action is the first step to undoing the elitism (apparently bad!) about college which, apparently, cultivates "technocratic skills."
My God worse than I imagined.
He does propose that we can improve minority representation by ending "racial preferences and [!!!] preferences for the children of faculty members and alumni" and my brother in Christ how exactly are "we" going to do that last one. No one is stopping them!
"Centrist" brain "compromise." What if we do this other thing no one is going to do? I am very smart. I mean, David, why exactly is "affirmative action" necessary? You almost got there!
Times change.
And, of course, "Only 15 schools matter, who cares what the pig people are doing" drives all coverage in our glorious periodicals.
OK, Christ, I read it and it's about how killing affirmative action is the first step to undoing the elitism (apparently bad!) about college which, apparently, cultivates "technocratic skills."
My God worse than I imagined.
He does propose that we can improve minority representation by ending "racial preferences and [!!!] preferences for the children of faculty members and alumni" and my brother in Christ how exactly are "we" going to do that last one. No one is stopping them!
"Centrist" brain "compromise." What if we do this other thing no one is going to do? I am very smart. I mean, David, why exactly is "affirmative action" necessary? You almost got there!
Thursday, June 01, 2023
Impact Journalism
The New York Times takes a victory lap. Good work everybody.
A campaign against transgender rights has mobilized the Republican Party. How did that happen? Listen to today's episode of The Daily.https://t.co/hotxMVgjlg
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 1, 2023
Segregation Bill
I remember when snotty liberals - some bloggers! - tried to inform the public of Rehnquist's record and views and official DC largely closed ranks. In part, I think, keeping with the general culture of maintaining the myths of the divine priesthood. In part because in the aftermath of Bush v. Gore there was added cultural pressure to "reassure the country" or some shit like that. In part, of course, because, well, lots of people agreed with him!
The Solomon Issue
Since I am old I remember that for years John Solomon was a very respected journalist. Silly bloggers and Media Matters would criticize him only to be dismissed as cranks by his "colleagues" (lefty critics are always dismissed as cranks).
Specifically, Solomon:
Specifically, Solomon:
From May 1987 to December 2006, Solomon worked at the Associated Press, where he became the assistant bureau chief in Washington, helping to develop some of the organization's first digital products, such as its online elections offering.
In 2007, he served as The Washington Post's national investigative correspondent.
Easiest Marks In The World
Highly Paid PR Guy: Listen, Elizabeth, this is going to work out much better if the journalist doesn't think this came from me. Do you think we can convince one that somehow they came to the story themselves?
I GRABBED IT!!!
Elizabeth: Oh a friend of mine knows just the one...
Amazing people.
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