Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Offsets
In the year of our Gritty, 2023, reporters still pretend to believe Republicans when they pretend to care about reducing the deficit.
Great Moral Crimes
Related to this, cops and prosecutors who would knowingly incarcerate an innocent person by, for example, suppressing exonerating evidence, are committing a moral crime on the level of murder.
Whatever proceduralism or legalism they hide behind, this basic truth should be emphasized. Great evil is being done by these people.
Oh No, Steve, How Could Have Done This
Really fed up with all the good liberals who are shocked, shocked, that their Good Republican Steve Schmidt is working for the obvious right wing ratfucking operation of Dean Phillips.
These Lincoln Project grifters were always just grifting and I tried to tell you to stop promoting them.
Allies of convenience are one thing (if not necessarily advised), but you suckers thought he was your friend.
I'm fine with someone challenging Biden in the primary and generally don't think people should get mad about that, but there's a difference between challenging him to win the presidency and challenging him to bring down the Democratic ticket.
These Lincoln Project grifters were always just grifting and I tried to tell you to stop promoting them.
Allies of convenience are one thing (if not necessarily advised), but you suckers thought he was your friend.
I'm fine with someone challenging Biden in the primary and generally don't think people should get mad about that, but there's a difference between challenging him to win the presidency and challenging him to bring down the Democratic ticket.
Checking In On The Son Of A Leading Consequentialist Moral Theorist.
The Verge has good coverage of SBF's testimony
There was more. Had Bankman-Fried referred to FTX as safe in numerous public statements? He couldn’t recall. Did he remember tweeting that the acceptable number of issues when it comes to a client’s money is zero? He couldn’t recall. Had he tweeted that lying to customers broke “sacred rules of conduct” everyone knows to follow? He couldn’t recall. Did he remember that he supported regulation only as long as it protected consumers? He couldn’t recall.
Every single question was followed by evidence of Bankman-Fried publicly using the precise language Sassoon had offered. Several journalists were in the courthouse — some even in the courtroom — as their articles about Bankman-Fried were read aloud. It was obvious to everyone in the courtroom what was going on. Bankman-Fried stuck to his “do not recalls” anyway.
Why Start Now
When Trump was president, if you watched Trump, The Live Show, you had the full uncut Trump. If you just read the NYT reports or watched later clips, his act was always cleaned up. Any gibberish quotes were paraphrased, with, quite often, the journalist telling you what they thought he meant, not what he plainly said, without making the interpretation role clear.
"Gaffes" are normally VERY EXCITING except when they aren't.
"Gaffes" are normally VERY EXCITING except when they aren't.
Hot Pursuit
Cops use every rule imposed on them to justify not doing anything. You, dear reader, are much smarter than the WaPo editorial (or much smarter than they are pretending to be). I'm sure you realize how stupid this is.
They didn't need to chase her vehicle, they just needed to go to it. But they don't want to work and they want to blame civilian oversight for not wanting to do anything.
Copaganda is so easy when the clever people who run the discourse are fucking idiots.
Opinion As carjackings spike, police need to be able to chase vehicles againThe policy of course does not say the police cannot go to where the tracking device says your car is. It says (effectively) they shouldn't be flying though the streets at 120mph with the sirens blaring just to get a stolen car. Do not pursue does not mean do not pursue a lead in a criminal case.
Ms. Traub handed over her belongings. The gunman ran to her car and sped away. She called 911, and D.C. police arrived swiftly. Ms. Traub had an Apple device in her 2008 Honda SUV that enabled her to track it. She sat on her front stoop with her laptop and three D.C. police officers looking over her shoulder as she watched the carjacker’s location around the city. “Aren’t you going to go get him?” Ms. Traub asked. “We can’t pursue," she recalls an officer saying.
...
The police have not yet caught Ms. Traub’s carjacker, as is often the case. She blames D.C.’s “no chase” policy for police. The District had effectively banned police chases earlier this year, as part of a national trend in recent years to prevent often fatal pursuit-related crashes. But D.C’s ban went too far. As violent crime in the city surged, the D.C. Council passed emergency legislation this summer to adopt a slightly more permissive standard for police pursuits. The new policy, which was in place the night Ms. Traub was carjacked, permits police to chase when there is an “imminent threat” to others, there is a low likelihood of anyone else getting hurt and police can apprehend quickly. Yet if this policy rules out pursuing the perpetrator in Ms. Traub’s case (either by car or by helicopter), it and those like it in other cities are still too restrictive.
They didn't need to chase her vehicle, they just needed to go to it. But they don't want to work and they want to blame civilian oversight for not wanting to do anything.
Copaganda is so easy when the clever people who run the discourse are fucking idiots.
Monday, October 30, 2023
Grand Old Police Blotter
Constantly:
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (KFGO) – Ray Holmberg, who was North Dakota’s – and one of the country’s – longest-serving state senators until he resigned last spring, has been indicted on federal charges of travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual activity and receipt of child pornography. He was arrested Monday morning in Grand Forks.
...
A federal grand jury charged Holmberg with two counts. The indictment against him claims Holmberg traveled to the Czech Republic for the purpose of engaging in sex with a minor, and that he knowingly received child pornography. Court records show Holmberg’s offenses took place between June of 2011 and November 2016.
Good Luck With That
Wonder what he thought his actions would lead to.
Washington — A physical altercation broke out during a hearing on Monday in the case of Vitali GossJankowski, a defendant convicted of several charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, resulting in toppled tables and multiple federal agents subduing the defendant on the ground.
Freedom Fighters
A funny thing is that our boy Jake was 8 when Red Dawn was released.
Wolverines!
One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist, of course.
8 Can't Wait
Remember that? Sprang up in 2020, a project of "Campaign Zero," explicitly and obviously designed to be the "respectable" insider police reform organization. Bought off some people to get them to shut up and got all the centrist dipshits to praise them as Sensible.
Anyway, never trust groups like this, no matter what the issue is. The pitch is that by having insider buy-in, being inside the tent, they can be much more effective than outside agitators. If your campaign manages to get a big media splash and praise from Matthew Yglesias, you're almost certainly there solely to marginalize people who actually want things to change.
In some ways the Professional Democrats (and Biden) handled the events of 2020 well, but they were also working hard to shove it back into the bottle as fast as possible.
Anyway, never trust groups like this, no matter what the issue is. The pitch is that by having insider buy-in, being inside the tent, they can be much more effective than outside agitators. If your campaign manages to get a big media splash and praise from Matthew Yglesias, you're almost certainly there solely to marginalize people who actually want things to change.
In some ways the Professional Democrats (and Biden) handled the events of 2020 well, but they were also working hard to shove it back into the bottle as fast as possible.
"The Latest" from Campaign Zero is this May 2022 blog post from "Donna Brazile," which is just a link to another publication (very Eschaton-y, but still).
This post isn't really about 8 Can't Wait.
This post isn't really about 8 Can't Wait.
Sunday, October 29, 2023
Well Okay Then
Today:
But, when it came to the subject of the war itself, and why Biden has staked so much on helping Ukraine fight it, Sullivan struck an unusually impassioned note. “As a child of the eighties and ‘Rocky’ and ‘Red Dawn,’ I believe in freedom fighters and I believe in righteous causes, and I believe the Ukrainians have one,” he said. “There are very few conflicts that I have seen—maybe none—in the post-Cold War era . . . where there’s such a clear good guy and bad guy. And we’re on the side of the good guy, and we have to do a lot for that person.”"Box Turtle" Ben Domenech, about 36 hours before getting fired for plagiariasm.
During the discussions about the launch of this new blog, the good folks at washingtonpost.com spent far too much time in sessions with markers and whiteboard, trying to settle on a name for the column. The suggestions were all over the map - but one suggestion provided a reminder of the sociopolitical divide in this country. "What about 'Red Dawn'?" said one helpful editor.
"Well, only if you want to make people think it was a gun blog," I said, to puzzled faces.
"Red Dawn? You must know it - the greatest pro-gun movie ever? I mean, they actually show the jackbooted communist thugs prying the guns from cold dead hands."
Any red-blooded American conservative, even those who hold a dim view of Patrick Swayze's acting "talent," knows a Red Dawn reference. For all the talk of left wing cultural political correctness, the right has such things, too (DO shop at Wal-Mart, DON'T buy gas from Citgo). But in the progressive halls of the mainstream media, such things prompt little or no recognition. For the MSM, Dan Rather is just another TV anchor, France is just another country and Red Dawn is just another cheesy throwaway Sunday afternoon movie.
The Same Assholes
In my 20s I would roll my eyes at the geezers (people my age now) who wouldn't shut the fuck up about the Vietnam War, and who would just relate everything back to what seemed like various grudges and arguments from back then. That's ancient history, man, I thought.
Of course it wasn't, then, that long ago, as the Iraq war wasn't, now, that long ago.
The details changed, but the dynamic is much the same. The hawks got everything they wanted, it all blew up tremendously, they blamed the peaceniks and the women and McGovern and "the gays" and "the blacks" for everything going wrong with the fortunes of their little political projects, and 20-30 years later the same group of horrible people still controlled most of the microphones .
Those assholes, who were young in 1968, were hiring a new generation of assholes, who were young in 2002. And now those assholes (and me) are still around! And they still control most of the microphones! Not all, though.
At least it's a bit easier to dig up and share their sociopathic nonsense from 2003. For The Kids. To amuse them, at least.
Of course it wasn't, then, that long ago, as the Iraq war wasn't, now, that long ago.
The details changed, but the dynamic is much the same. The hawks got everything they wanted, it all blew up tremendously, they blamed the peaceniks and the women and McGovern and "the gays" and "the blacks" for everything going wrong with the fortunes of their little political projects, and 20-30 years later the same group of horrible people still controlled most of the microphones .
Those assholes, who were young in 1968, were hiring a new generation of assholes, who were young in 2002. And now those assholes (and me) are still around! And they still control most of the microphones! Not all, though.
At least it's a bit easier to dig up and share their sociopathic nonsense from 2003. For The Kids. To amuse them, at least.
The Death Of Henry Kissinger
Not yet, sorry, but, when it happens, just about everybody important will pretend not to have any idea why the man is widely hated. More than that, many of them will be very enraged (performatively and genuinely) that he is, in fact, widely hated.
The people with the microphones tend to get enraged when people come to conclusions - certain ones, anyway - "all by themselves."
It's always interesting when the happens.
This post isn't really about Kissinger.
The people with the microphones tend to get enraged when people come to conclusions - certain ones, anyway - "all by themselves."
It's always interesting when the happens.
This post isn't really about Kissinger.
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Mortality
Getting older has given me a new appreciation for it. Not just my increasingly impending (hopefully not soon!) death, but just the general fact that we get one go and that it is indeed a big moral crime to snuff someone else's out or rob a portion of it by, say, wrongly incarcerating them.
Along with that, I've come to realize how not very seriously our society takes life generally.
There isn't much concern for locking up innocent people. In fact, it is considered to be "soft on crime" to exonerate them! Letting the real killer go is fine as long as we got someone who looks the part.
Getting "tough" with murderers is mostly about getting tough with people "we" don't like, the murderers of the imagination. The actual murderer - and victim - is secondary. Cops killing people is fine, usually, because they probably deserved it anyway, depending on how they looked.
It's basically legal to murder someone with your car, and traffic fatalities generally don't seem to matter much.
Along with that, I've come to realize how not very seriously our society takes life generally.
There isn't much concern for locking up innocent people. In fact, it is considered to be "soft on crime" to exonerate them! Letting the real killer go is fine as long as we got someone who looks the part.
Getting "tough" with murderers is mostly about getting tough with people "we" don't like, the murderers of the imagination. The actual murderer - and victim - is secondary. Cops killing people is fine, usually, because they probably deserved it anyway, depending on how they looked.
It's basically legal to murder someone with your car, and traffic fatalities generally don't seem to matter much.
We all love a good war.
Odd state of affairs.
Powerless
One of the more ridiculous ideas that was promoted during the Obama years was that the president was JUST SO POWERLESS OVER everything. This was a haha-laugh-at-the-ridiculous-lefties thing. Oh they think Obama can just TELL MAX BAUCUS WHAT TO DO? Oh, what idiots, they think Obama can just GIVE A SPEECH and MAKE THINGS HAPPEN??? Executive power? Never EVEN HEARD OF HER! Harharhaharharhar.
The president does not have inifinite power, but I suspect doing things like promising billions in military and other aid are expressions of that extremely limited power. Also, not promising such things.
The president does not have inifinite power, but I suspect doing things like promising billions in military and other aid are expressions of that extremely limited power. Also, not promising such things.
Friday, October 27, 2023
Choose Your Fighters
The thing is, they largely choose themselves, and rarely live up to the responsbilities they claim.
Larry Summers - Big Brain Genius
A maddening thing is how most of the powerful people (and I don't mean dumb celebs) who backed all this stuff will be allowed to forget it.
This morning, my colleagues Julian Scoffield and Henry Burke have a piece out in The American Prospect about Larry Summers and the ever growing but little known ties he has to an array of shady financial companies. The latest development is that Digital Currency Group (DCG), a firm that Summers advised for years, and its subsidiary Genesis Global Trading now face prosecution from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the New York Attorney General for fraud. Oh, and the Department of Justice has been investigating since earlier this year. It’s getting hard to keep track!
Summers worked at DCG in an advisory role starting in 2016, but when he left remains a mystery. He was listed on the DCG website until at least November of 2022, but when Protos wrote a piece about his departure (citing our earlier work), Summers’ spokesperson said that he had left several months prior. Whatever the case, Larry Summers got out of Dodge with all deliberate speed.
L O L
I know I have dim views of Tesla for a lot of reasons, but "everybody" knows that repairing them is very expensive (cost and time/difficulty) and this was an absolutely insane idea.
Tesla has been slashing prices to spark sales as it finds itself wrestling with softening demand and more competition. And repair costs are about double what the company spends on gas car fixes, Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr told Bloomberg.
Part of the problem is linked to Hertz’s plans to rent EVs to ridehail drivers. Of the 100,000 Tesla acquired by Hertz, half were to be allocated to Uber drivers as part of a deal with the ridehail company. And drivers said they loved the Teslas! But Uber drivers also tend to drive their vehicles into the ground. This higher rate of utilization can lead to a lot of damage — certainly more than Hertz was anticipating.
Those Are Words In A Particular Order Intended To Convey Meaning
We are retaliating and increasing resources "amid fears of a widening war."
Is the retaliation and resource increase a cause of or response to those fears? Does the person who wrote that sentence know?
How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?'
That was traitor Kerry's line, but it is much more broadly applicable to a class of people who would happily let millions die rather than admit error. Cause millions to die rather than admit error, or even admit that those deaths are an error
How many schools did we paint cities did we level in Iraq for just the reason? My old line was we'll keep killing people in Iraq until they want us to stay - until they like us - and then we'll go.
An important thing to note that these are their jobs, not mine, and I don't claim to be a supergenius. I am also not spending hundreds of billions moving the Risk pieces around the map and operating a global panopticon.
I'm not faulting our involvement in Ukraine - though there, too, details matter, and the pressure to get on board makes people ignore those - but it's important to remember that it was the culmination of 30-year post-Soviet policy that was supposed to ensure things like that did not happen. They fucked that one into the sun, also, too. Though what people say policies are for and what they are for are not always the same.
Vlad's a bastard, he did it, but Vlad didn't emerge suddenly on February 24, 2022.
An important thing to note that these are their jobs, not mine, and I don't claim to be a supergenius. I am also not spending hundreds of billions moving the Risk pieces around the map and operating a global panopticon.
I'm not faulting our involvement in Ukraine - though there, too, details matter, and the pressure to get on board makes people ignore those - but it's important to remember that it was the culmination of 30-year post-Soviet policy that was supposed to ensure things like that did not happen. They fucked that one into the sun, also, too. Though what people say policies are for and what they are for are not always the same.
Vlad's a bastard, he did it, but Vlad didn't emerge suddenly on February 24, 2022.
Thursday, October 26, 2023
Freedum
Parts of Maine are on lockdown because one murderous asshole with a giant gun is on a rampage.
Imperial Administrators
We spend a lot of money implementing the agendas of people who do it because they tell you it's necessary, for example, to stop a massive war in the Middle East. The few critics - few because careers are not made by going against the agenda - are sidelined and dismissed. Then when the entire plan blows everything up = including a lot of people - they try to shove their boasts down the memory hole.
Sorry I forgot that Elmo made it impossible to read twitter if you aren't logged in anymore. I wouldn't be so mad about this if not for the little attempt to disappear it. Nothing else going on, Jake?
Sorry I forgot that Elmo made it impossible to read twitter if you aren't logged in anymore. I wouldn't be so mad about this if not for the little attempt to disappear it. Nothing else going on, Jake?
Fucking It Into The Sun
Here's a thread about how Biden ghoul Jake Sullivan wrote a hilariously timed piece for Foreign Policy. They couldn't pull back the print edition, but let him take out the hilarious parts for the online edition, hoping that no one would notice.
Christ what an asshole.
What Tom Friedman, his moustaches pulsing with wisdom, is saying here is, basically, "what the fuck did you would think would happen when you adopted the Kushner-Netanyahu Peace Plan?"
Christ what an asshole.
What Tom Friedman, his moustaches pulsing with wisdom, is saying here is, basically, "what the fuck did you would think would happen when you adopted the Kushner-Netanyahu Peace Plan?"
On top of all of this, the United States appeared to be getting close to forging a deal for Saudi Arabia to normalize diplomatic and commercial relations with Israel — which would have been the crowning achievement of Netanyahu’s effort to prove that Israel could have normal relations with Arab and Muslim states and not have to give one inch to the Palestinians.
What's Good For Milo Minderbinder Is Good For America
The Professional Democrats are back in charge, baby.
The White House has been quietly urging lawmakers in both parties to sell the war efforts abroad as a potential economic boom at home.Won't this cause inflation? (/snark)
Aides have been distributing talking points to Democrats and Republicans who have been supportive of continued efforts to fund Ukraine’s resistance to make the case that doing so is good for American jobs, according to five White House aides and lawmakers familiar with the effort and granted anonymity to speak freely.
We've Tried Nothing And We're All Out Of Ideas
I guess thoughts and prayers are still available.
At least 22 killed in Maine shootings
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
Sounds Bad
Do Tesla next.
All the realistic sensors and programming in the world aren't going to respond appropriately to many of the cues we take for granted while driving. Things like hand waves, brief eye contact, a quick high beam flash, or, tragically, in this case, "person screaming while being dragged." And the "safer than humans" driving makes them slow, annoying, and, while not necessarily hazards to other cars, nuisances to them.
In the Order of Suspension, the California DMV said that the Cruise vehicle initially came to a hard stop and ran over the pedestrian. After coming to a complete stop, it then attempted to do a “pullover maneuver while the pedestrian was underneath the vehicle.” The car crawled along at 7 mph for about 20 feet, then came to a final stop. The pedestrian remained under the car the whole time.The best-case scenario for the safety (not the only consideration, but certainly an important one) of these vehicles is that they are safer drivers than humans in lots of ways, but will still fuckup in ways humans would be very unlikely to.
The day after the incident, DMV representatives met with Cruise to “discuss the incident.” During that meeting, Cruise only showed footage up to the first complete stop, according to the Order of Suspension. No one at Cruise told the officers or showed any footage of the subsequent pullover maneuver and dragging. The DMV only learned of that from “another government agency.” When DMV asked for footage of that part of the incident, Cruise provided it.
All the realistic sensors and programming in the world aren't going to respond appropriately to many of the cues we take for granted while driving. Things like hand waves, brief eye contact, a quick high beam flash, or, tragically, in this case, "person screaming while being dragged." And the "safer than humans" driving makes them slow, annoying, and, while not necessarily hazards to other cars, nuisances to them.
I Think "We've" Done This A Few Times, Lads
What in any recent experience suggests there's ever a "plan" - any plan - for after the invasion.
But about two weeks after Hamas’s devastating attacks, there remain many unresolved questions over Israel’s exit strategy and postwar goals. The US has directly raised its concerns with Israel, according to sources close to the process. The lack of an exit plan is one factor in the delays to the Gaza ground operation that has long been threatened by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.We are not Israel, but Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya... what was the fucking plan? There's never any plan, because there can't be.
“There is no plan for the ‘day after’. The [Israeli] system hasn’t decided yet,” said one person familiar with Israeli thinking. “The Americans went crazy when they realised there was no plan.”
Still Some Good Tweets
One idea being floated is Mike Johnson as Speaker with Lauren Boebert as Assistant Speaker to give Johnson a hand.
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) October 25, 2023
Fall Fundraising Day 3!
People have been incredibly generous over the years - and I live a perfectly nice life - but while once I could imagine pivoting to a new path in life (not video!), that rather long gap in my linkedin (I think I have an account?), combined with a rather long public record, isn't going to make me the ideal hire for most jobs.
Can't help but be a bit nervous at times. Anyway, appreciate all the support that lets me keep doing this and hopefully retire eventually! Paypal or Patreon, your choice.
Paypal:
Or Patreon.
Can't help but be a bit nervous at times. Anyway, appreciate all the support that lets me keep doing this and hopefully retire eventually! Paypal or Patreon, your choice.
Paypal:
Or Patreon.
Can't Even Follow The Plot For A Few Paragraphs
"Democracy" as we understand it can't be reduced to just "people who win the elections get to do what they want," but the idea of people being able to vote was the key rhetorical frame of this supposed zeal for spreading Democracy.
Over 15 years later can we stop pretending that the Bushies were trying to spread Democracy? Fucking hell.
Charitably, the writer is being ironic here. Good chance it's true! But readers shouldn't have to be that clever to get that the writer is winking at them, especially when it's in the Washigton Post where most of the "foreign policy" opinion ghouls *do* believe the freeance and peeance shit.
President George W. Bush had pushed for Palestinian elections, in part as an outgrowth of his administration’s ideological zeal for spreading democracy in the Middle East through whatever means necessary. As Hamas’s victory became clear, Bush said the vote reflected Palestinians’ disenchantment with their prevailing leadership, who had been elected a decade prior in the wake of the signing of the Oslo accords. |Their zeal for Democracy is the same as the MAGA zeal for Democracy - it's good when we like the results, otherwise it's illegitimate.
“There was a peaceful process as people went to the polls, and that’s positive,” Bush told reporters. “But what’s also positive is that it’s a wake-up call to the leadership. Obviously people were not happy with the status quo. The people are demanding honest government. The people want services.”
Within the Bush administration, there was anguish. A recognized terrorist organization that was refusing to disarm its armed wing or revise elements of its charter that sought the destruction of the state of Israel had secured democratic legitimacy. “Everyone blamed everyone else,” an official with the Department of Defense told Vanity Fair in 2008. “We sat there in the Pentagon and said, ‘Who the f--- recommended this?’ ”
As it turned out, Hamas never ended up steering the Palestinian democratic experiment. Western powers temporarily turned off the tap of aid to the Palestinian Authority; Israel clamped down on the Gaza Strip and detained dozens of Hamas officials, including elected legislators. The schism between Abbas and Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza exploded in a bloody set of battles that saw Hamas violently wrest full control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, allegedly after the Bush administration tried to foment an anti-Hamas putsch in the territory.
Over 15 years later can we stop pretending that the Bushies were trying to spread Democracy? Fucking hell.
Charitably, the writer is being ironic here. Good chance it's true! But readers shouldn't have to be that clever to get that the writer is winking at them, especially when it's in the Washigton Post where most of the "foreign policy" opinion ghouls *do* believe the freeance and peeance shit.
The Filibuster Is What Makes The Senate Great
House Republicans are making clear what happens when you empower a few preening assholes to disrupt things - not just empower them, but elevate them as the greatest of us - but no lessons will be learned from this.
Speaking of preening assholes.
Speaking of preening assholes.
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Are We The Baddies
One would expect a few more Republican House members would wonder how they willingly joined a club filled with the biggest assholes on the planet and what that says about their life choices, but... nah.
Plenty of easy/dumb ways through this, but they also require them all agreeing to not be assholes for one day and that's unpossible!
Plenty of easy/dumb ways through this, but they also require them all agreeing to not be assholes for one day and that's unpossible!
Immunity
Too many easy deals.
Former President Donald Trump's final chief of staff in the White House, Mark Meadows, has spoken with special counsel Jack Smith's team at least three times this year, including once before a federal grand jury, which came only after Smith granted Meadows immunity to testify under oath, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The sources said Meadows informed Smith's team that he repeatedly told Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election that the allegations of significant voting fraud coming to them were baseless, a striking break from Trump's prolific rhetoric regarding the election.
...
ABC News has identified several assertions in the book that appear to be contradicted by what Meadows allegedly told investigators behind closed doors.
According to Meadows' book, the election was "stolen" and "rigged" with help from "allies in the liberal media," who ignored "actual evidence of fraud, right there in plain sight for anyone to access and analyze."
America's Worst Humans
Melissa DeRosa.
Extra context:
😂 pic.twitter.com/yuRcj8YQdA
— Choire (@Choire) October 23, 2023
Oh No Elmo
Don't see how Tesla wriggles...
Federal prosecutors have expanded investigations into Tesla beyond the electric vehicle maker's partially automated driving systems, and they have issued subpoenas for information instead of simply requesting it, the company disclosed Monday.
In a quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla said the Department of Justice is looking into “personal benefits, related parties, vehicle range and personnel decisions,” without giving details.
IT'S EMMER
I know my job is to be an Advanced Politics Knower, but I don't know anything about the guy who just won the caucus vote for Speaker and now has to win the full House vote (that Scalise and Jordan could not win).
...adding that I was about to research it then I figured I'd wait and see if he returns to obscurity shortly.
...adding that I was about to research it then I figured I'd wait and see if he returns to obscurity shortly.
Fall Fundraising Day 3 2
I used to read those Jeffrey Golberg New Yorker piece when I needed a giggle. For a certain set of people, the post-9/11 era was the greatest time of their lives and they'd love to have it back.
Paypal or Patreon, your choice.
Paypal:
Or Patreon.
Paypal or Patreon, your choice.
Paypal:
Or Patreon.
Sure Why Not
Playing the old hits to get our budget increases.
SAN YSIDRO, Calif. (KGTV) - Although Monday marked a typical day at the U.S.-Mexico border fence in San Ysidro, there are new concerns about who is coming across the border.Reminds me of my favorite terrorist fan fiction from Jeffrey Goldberg in the New Yorker.
ABC News confirmed U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in San Diego sent an intelligence notice alerting that "Hamas and Hezbollah militants may potentially be encountered at the Southwest border."
A decaying iron bridge, the International Friendship Bridge, connects Foz do Iguaçu to its Paraguayan sister city, Ciudad del Este, the City of the East. Ciudad del Este is at the heart of the zone known as the Triple Frontier, the point where Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina meet, which has served for nearly thirty years as a hospitable base of operations for smugglers, counterfeiters, and tax dodgers. The Triple Frontier has earned its reputation as one of the most lawless places in the world. Now, it is believed, the Frontier is also the center of Middle Eastern terrorism in South America.
Don't See How...
You know the rest.
Ellis is the fourth of 19 defendants to plead guilty in this case. Her agreement comes less than a week after two others, Sidney Powell and Ken Chesebro, negotiated deals just hours before going to trial.
— Tamar Hallerman (@TamarHallerman) October 24, 2023
What's It All About Then
After 9/11, protesting the Afghanistan invasion (though some did!) was insanity barely worth acknowledging. WE were "hit" so OF COURSE we have THE RIGHT to respond.
And, well, ok, sure, even this peacenik can see that a military response to a mass murder of that scale shouldn't be off the table.
But to what end? What actually did we hope to achieve? What could it achieve? And at what cost (money, lives - "theirs" and "ours")?
Memory imperfect, but it didn't take too long to realize nobody had any answers at all to those questions. "Get Bin Laden and the bad guys," I guess, which morphed into "don't allow a safe haven for terrorist training camps." And (even leaving aside that little Iraq thing) we spent years bombing and droning (thanks, Obama) "terrorist training camps" all over the place which is quite obviously stupid (worse than stupid). Guy whose job is justifying his salary and finding targets kept finding them!
Anyway, if you punch me I suppose I have a "right" to punch back, whatever that means. Maybe I even have the "right" to level your entire block. But to what end?
De-escalation should always be the goal, and that has little to do with who is right and who is wrong, ultimately.
And, well, ok, sure, even this peacenik can see that a military response to a mass murder of that scale shouldn't be off the table.
But to what end? What actually did we hope to achieve? What could it achieve? And at what cost (money, lives - "theirs" and "ours")?
Memory imperfect, but it didn't take too long to realize nobody had any answers at all to those questions. "Get Bin Laden and the bad guys," I guess, which morphed into "don't allow a safe haven for terrorist training camps." And (even leaving aside that little Iraq thing) we spent years bombing and droning (thanks, Obama) "terrorist training camps" all over the place which is quite obviously stupid (worse than stupid). Guy whose job is justifying his salary and finding targets kept finding them!
Anyway, if you punch me I suppose I have a "right" to punch back, whatever that means. Maybe I even have the "right" to level your entire block. But to what end?
De-escalation should always be the goal, and that has little to do with who is right and who is wrong, ultimately.
Monday, October 23, 2023
One Corrupt Asshole
A bit curious why the NYT decided to publish this now, but it's always good to have a little reminder of of this scandal.
Not my good sources! They wouldn't do that! Not the ones who made my career! Not MC Rove!
Sometime in 2005, Bush advisers began compiling a list of prosecutors they thought weren’t doing enough to help Republicans electorally. Mr. Christie made the list. Learning of his potential ouster, he promptly started an investigation into Robert Menendez, who was running for his first full term in the Senate. From 1994 to 2003, Mr. Menendez had made $300,000 by leasing a house to a community group. Yet it was not until Mr. Menendez was in a close Senate race and Mr. Christie was facing dismissal that the contract demanded urgent investigation. Mr. Bush’s staff seemed to discover a newfound appreciation for Christie, and he kept his job.The US Attorney scandal which was, basically, the Bushies deciding prosecutors should be making life difficult for Democrats and firing the ones who weren't, was an incredible abuse of power that most political reporters, at least initially, denied was happening. They ran interference!
Near the end of the second Bush term, Mr. Christie seemed to have concluded that he was exempt from the ethical standards he once held others to. He lavishly overspent on hotel rooms, handed out dubious legal oversight contracts (as much as $52 million to a former U.S. attorney general, John Ashcroft) and made questionable loans ($46,000 to Michele Brown, a subordinate who doubled as a political adviser). He hired a friend’s son “over objections,” reported The Star-Ledger, “from nearly every assistant U.S. attorney who interviewed him.”
By the time he left office in 2008, it should have been clear to anyone who had closely followed his record that Mr. Christie was not the unblemished crusader against corruption that he made himself out to be. But that didn’t stop him from defeating the incumbent governor, Jon Corzine, a Democrat, the following year. As governor, Mr. Christie went viral for fighting teachers, vetoed a bill to ban gestation crates for pigs, pardoned gun traffickers, flirted with Tea Party extremists and canceled a Hudson River train tunnel project after lying about its cost.
Not my good sources! They wouldn't do that! Not the ones who made my career! Not MC Rove!
Great Game
Many things are above my pay grade, but my take on the view of the ghouls of the Blob, beyond the simple fact that many of them (including some of your faves!)are funded by the worst regimes in the world, directly or indirectly, is that some people matter, and they are people, and some people don't, and therefore they aren't really people.
You don't have to have a particularly strong view of any given development or conflict to see that's obviously true.
Not just with "foreign policy" and The Blob I suppose.
That's the true "rules-based order" simple-minded pundits and politicians like to babble about. Those are the rules.
You don't have to have a particularly strong view of any given development or conflict to see that's obviously true.
Not just with "foreign policy" and The Blob I suppose.
Why Does The Biden Economy Suck?
Specifically, why do people think it sucks?
Lots of discussion about this. Is it BAD MEDIA COVERAGE (always)? Is it INFLATION and the big jump in prices of basic stuff (sure)? Is it that everything sucks and people have finally realized it (probably a bit)?
Anyway, as is usually the case with such things, I don't think there's one true cause. But I suspect lack of cheap/easy credit, and the many consequences of that (including high mortgage rates locking people into whatever their current housing situation is), plays a big role.
Not much Biden can do about that, however.
ESCHATON FALL FUNDRAISER DAY 1
Never feels like the right time, but I suppose we've moved from "it's weird to ask for money on the internet" to "every website is behind a paywall now." This website is not behind a paywall and I can't envision it ever being so, but certainly if you spend some time here and paywalls on other websites encourage you to click the payment link, consider doing so here as well! Or if your crypto investments just paid off!
Paypal or Patreon, your choice.
Paypal:
Or Patreon.
Paypal or Patreon, your choice.
Paypal:
Or Patreon.
The Ghouls In The Blob Fucked It Into The Sun Again
With hindsight, the Kushner-Netanyahu Middle East Peace Plan was perhaps not such a wise path to follow.
The past week saw the destruction of yet another dream palace: the Biden administration’s effort to reinforce a U.S.-dominated Middle East security architecture through closer defense pacts with the region’s various repressive governments. The point man for this has been the White House’s top Middle East policy hand, Brett McGurk, who has served in senior policy positions in every administration since George W. Bush’s, including as a legal advisor for the U.S occupation of Iraq.
The Biden doctrine presumed that the Palestinians could be shunted aside and offered some crumbs to keep them quiet.
Unlike Bush’s post-9/11 Middle East “freedom agenda,” which, despite its strategic flaws and disastrous and deadly consequences, at least had a genuine policy component of human rights and democracy promotion, President Joe Biden’s doctrine for the Middle East, as outlined by McGurk in a February speech, shows vanishingly little concern for how the people of the region are ruled. Its brief mention of a “values” component is so perfunctory as to be insulting.
In stark contrast to his campaign promises to prioritize human rights, as president, Biden has drawn the United States even closer to Middle East authoritarians. While at first holding the Trump administration-brokered Abraham Accords at arm’s length, the Biden administration soon embraced them in the misguided belief that stitching together arms deals with abusive governments and calling it “peace” was a good way to advance Americans’ security and prosperity.
Milei
I won't claim to have a deep understanding of Argentine politics, but what has stood out to me for months are all the Anglo media stories discussing the inevitability of Milei. American reporters do love when far right candidates win everywhere.
I mean, consider the headline of the article about how... the other guy won!
I mean, consider the headline of the article about how... the other guy won!
Far-Right Candidate Heads to Runoff in Argentina Election Javier Milei, a far-right libertarian, performed worse than polls predicted and will face Sergio Massa, Argentina’s economy minister, next month.Poor reporter had stay up late re-doing the whole pre-write, originally the story of Milei's triumphant victory (whole story is still about him).
Sunday, October 22, 2023
Seems Like A Lot Of Work
I do have new appreciation for people who do things like make films (I have not seen) when they are 80 years old. Or 65, for that matter.
James Cameron (now 69) is plotting 3 more Avatar movies which will keep him a little bit busy until 2031.
I didn't love Avatar 2 (enjoyed the experience, wouldn't watch it again, not excited to see the sequels), but those films clearly are an immense amount of work. For me it functioned largely as a reminder of what absolute dogshit most effects-heavy films are, just very little attention detail. With not even that much more money - and some talent - you can make them look amazing.
Anyway, my general point is that these people are driven by something I can't even imagine. If you've ever been near a set, you've seen that making a film is boring. Just an immense amount of downtime for everyone involved, waiting for stuff happen. I'd find it excruciating. And that's just the set!
James Cameron (now 69) is plotting 3 more Avatar movies which will keep him a little bit busy until 2031.
I didn't love Avatar 2 (enjoyed the experience, wouldn't watch it again, not excited to see the sequels), but those films clearly are an immense amount of work. For me it functioned largely as a reminder of what absolute dogshit most effects-heavy films are, just very little attention detail. With not even that much more money - and some talent - you can make them look amazing.
Anyway, my general point is that these people are driven by something I can't even imagine. If you've ever been near a set, you've seen that making a film is boring. Just an immense amount of downtime for everyone involved, waiting for stuff happen. I'd find it excruciating. And that's just the set!
The Cars Are Too Damn Big
Bouie:
The last time I rented a car I got much larger one than I wanted - common as rental places always seem to be out of the smaller one you requested - and the height and the blind spots made me feel somehow not of the street, but above it. Its overlord, not its guest.
If you are unlucky enough to be hit by a midsize sedan going 25 miles per hour, the point of impact will most likely be your legs, causing you to flip onto the trunk. If you are unlucky enough to be hit by a Chevrolet Silverado — one of the most popular truck models in the United States — the point of impact for an adult will most likely be the torso, as the tall hood plows directly into your center of mass. A child would be crushed outright.Car Brain (roughly, the belief that everything that potentially impedes your progress - including other cars - is an illegitimate presence and legitimate target) is a powerful force and all of these things work to reinforce it. There isn't one cause; they are all complementary.
In addition to the kinds of vehicles on the road, there’s the fact that many roads are not safe to walk on, with few sidewalks or anything to create a barrier between pedestrians and vehicles. When coupled with an increase in speeding and a decrease in traffic enforcement, it is a recipe for greater pedestrian deaths.
The last time I rented a car I got much larger one than I wanted - common as rental places always seem to be out of the smaller one you requested - and the height and the blind spots made me feel somehow not of the street, but above it. Its overlord, not its guest.
"Oh we know you can't see anything you need to see by looking out the windows or even at the mirrors, so we'll put this helpful video screen in a completely inappropriate spot for you to look at instead."
Saturday, October 21, 2023
Threats
Sarah Sanders being politely asked to leave a restaurant got much more play, because of the important truth it revealed about the INTOLERANT LEFT.
Gonna Fray
We all understand that the Dem coalition is a messy one and current events are not going to aid in maintaining its cohesion.
And What Did They Think Was Going To Happen Next
Step 1) Install Trump as dictator, step 2) martial law, step 3) ??? .
That's the part I'm missing. What did these guys hope to happen? Did they think through the next steps? Has anyone asked them?
That's the part I'm missing. What did these guys hope to happen? Did they think through the next steps? Has anyone asked them?
Bro
Progress.
The plea deal is another blow to Trump and a major victory for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who charged Trump and 18 others in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. It comes one day after former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell also pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.It is kind of amazing that these guys just thought... what if we just end the Democracy? And tried to make it happen.
Chesebro pleaded guilty to one felony – conspiracy to commit filing false documents. Fulton County prosecutors recommended that he serve 5 years of probation and pay $5,000 in restitution, and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee imposed that sentence at Friday’s hearing.
Friday, October 20, 2023
Did Somebody Have A Bad Take Today
My "job" is easy but its curse is that I feel tremendous anxiety when I have a bad blogging day (that is every day! shut up, asshole)
Elder Care
We have a largely unaddressed problem that older people lose some capacity for good judgment. Rich asshole, who cares, but it's a problem for not rich not assholes.
Thursday, October 19, 2023
Whoopsie Doodle
But it's so beautiful (as rendered on an Atari 2600).
On yesterday's call with investors, Musk said he wanted to "temper expectations" and said that Tesla "dug our own grave with the Cybertruck."
Who Cares
Does the name "Kennedy" just demand attention from a certain generation of people? Every wannabe presidential candidate - even prominent politicians - thrive mostly on media attention, and if they don't get it they disappear. There was never any reason to not ignore this guy, and certainly every reason to do so now!
Of course I'm giving attention to the attention-givers, but such is The Discourse.
Of course I'm giving attention to the attention-givers, but such is The Discourse.
The Baddies
In our Topsy-Turvy discourse, Iraq war opponents were turned into the Real Racists for supposedly objecting to the idea that Iraqis yearn to be free, and here we're supposed to support any actions aimed at Palestinians (it is Yggie who is eliding the distinction between Hamas and Palestinians, not me) or be bigots, as decreed by those bigots.
An Oral History Of Sidney Powell
Probably I just didn't pay enough attention - perhaps it's all known - but I'm mildly curious how Powell, and some others, ended up here.
Former Donald Trump attorney Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case, one day before her trial was set to start. Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of six years probation. Powell will also be required to testify at future trials and write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia.
Serial Killers Among Us
I hate that "we" even have to pay attention to the numerous C-List grifters, but they are dangerous.
And what's the difference between Walsh and The Atlantic and the New York Times? Nothing, really. All are running genocidal campaigns against trans people. Walsh is only slightly more open about it.
And what's the difference between Walsh and The Atlantic and the New York Times? Nothing, really. All are running genocidal campaigns against trans people. Walsh is only slightly more open about it.
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Vibes
Immigration and crime are very similar, in that people care a lot about them when media and the politicians are telling them to, and not so much otherwise (at least given current rates of violent crime, generally).
I think that's even more true with immigration than it used to be. They had to ratchet up the rhetoric. No longer is it simply "people unlike you will be living in your suburb." It's all about invading hordes and drug gangs. Have to trumpet those scary caravans that dominate the news in September every even year.
The recent "crime wave" was mostly visible homelessness in a few major cities where some rich assholes live.
I think that's even more true with immigration than it used to be. They had to ratchet up the rhetoric. No longer is it simply "people unlike you will be living in your suburb." It's all about invading hordes and drug gangs. Have to trumpet those scary caravans that dominate the news in September every even year.
The recent "crime wave" was mostly visible homelessness in a few major cities where some rich assholes live.
Lunch
Shop while you eat! (this is an ad link, I get a commission, the lawyers say I have to make that clear).
SOP
I can't find it now, but a few days ago there was a tweet from a reporter who described how a Republican member said something. Then, when the recording was off, he said almost the opposite!
The member was not named, and this was just passed along as an anecdote suggesting Gym had more problems getting votes than public reports suggested (the recording off version was a quote something along the lines of he is fucked), but what an indictment of the whole game: reporters functioning mostly as mouthpieces for various factions even when they know fully well the public comments are just PR.
This reporter didn’t quite do that, but it is such standard practice. Sarah Sanders' whole thing was saying one thing to the assembled journalists publicly then running to Maggie to give her the anonymous scoops, which contradicted the public assertions.
Political journalism as practiced is just an entirely corrupt enterprise.
Not Going To Read That
Life's too short to read Bretbug, but Biden must have done something truly monstrous?
Bret's a pretty good example of something I keep hitting on. Forget his intelligence (limited), and his politics (bad), do you think that, on any issue, Bret cares about other human beings? Do you think he is someone to turn to when the question involves how we can make life better for anyone who isn't Bret and maybe his closest people? If he ever adopts the language of giving-a-shit-about-other-people do you imagine this is anything but absurd playacting? That he isn't just laughing at the readers he imagines believes him? Message: Bret cares!
Not even picking on Bret here. True of so many of them!
We're The Goddamn MotherFucking US Of A
The general issue is why, if we have been growing the pie higher for decades, the prospect of the state doing things the state should be doing - healthcare, education, childcare, eldercare, basic infrastructure, retirement - other than funding the glorious Socialist Republic of the Pentagon, is still considered to be largely unpossible.
Not directed at Biden, precisely, but the discourse of decades of things we supposedly can't afford.
Scott Pelley: Are the wars in Israel and Ukraine more than the United States can take on at the same time?Yes but what else?
President Biden: No. We're the United States of America for God's sake, the most powerful nation in the history-- not in the world, in the history of the world. The history of the world. We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense.
Not directed at Biden, precisely, but the discourse of decades of things we supposedly can't afford.
Imprisoning people for the crime of being homeless, despite it being cheaper just to house them, that's always affordable, too.
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
Surely Your Next Statement Will Be True
Reminded of how, during the peak of Iraq, the Bushies and various military sources would just lie constantly and journalists would just go back the next day for more.
Fog of War
The term itself is most often the deployed "fog," as it is intended to suggest that obvious truths are unknown or unknowable.
The Worst Press In The World
Americans think of the UK press as BBC World Service or that one interview segment they saw which was awesome, but it's mostly like this:
Richard Madeley asks British Palestinian MP Layla Moran if she or her family knew about Hamas's attack before it happened #GMB pic.twitter.com/guUptvdlGk
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) October 17, 2023
This Degenerate Isn't Going To Accuse Himself
Brian expands:
That’s why I’ve encouraged House Democrats to invite the abuse victims Jordan abandoned (and then lied about) to the visitors’ gallery during the speaker vote—they can sit next to the police officers who were injured on January 6, 2021—to accentuate the fact that the overwhelming majority of Republicans will be knowingly voting for a bad guy. Jordan won’t be a liability to his party automatically; Democrats, using opposition tactics that fix media attention onto the controversy, have to make him one, or the press will get bored and move on.Maybe it's moot now! Maybe Gym has been vanquished! We will see!
A big Democratic push to frame Jordan’s nomination like that would, if he wins anyhow, set the right tone for the beginning of his speakership—aswirl in questions about his corruption, his phony morals, his abuses of power. It would also offset the temptation within the political press to reward Jordan with what we in the industry call “beat sweeteners.” And beat sweeteners happen to be the subject of this week’s episode of Decoding the News. We recorded this on Friday, before Jordan had made a race of it, but the insights apply as much to him as to anyone who manages to become speaker through all this dysfunction. A rough transcript is below for those of you who can’t watch or don’t enjoy video media.
You Have To Explain What A Bunch Of Demented Evil Freaks They Are
One problem with the Dem messaging strategy, generally, is that they expect people to figure things out all by themselves, or that journalists will do the explaining for them. I don't know if this kind of "stunt" is right way to do it, but I do know that most of the country has no idea about Gym Jordan's behavior when he was at OSU, and the only way to ensure that "old news" is covered is to somehow make it "new news."
And, no, I'm not just contemplating cynical partisan strategery here. Gym is very bad guy! People should know that!!!
And, no, I'm not just contemplating cynical partisan strategery here. Gym is very bad guy! People should know that!!!
Modest Credit Where Credit Is Due File
A rare somewhat good editorial board piece in the WaPo.
Finally, there is the issue of where philanthropic focus should fall. Mr. Bankman-Fried was a supporter of the “longtermist” movement within the effective-altruism community. This group argues that existential risks to future humans — things such as superintelligent AI, pathogenic threat or nuclear catastrophe — are more important to counter than near-term risks such as global poverty or climate change. According to the numbers, longtermists say, it’s more valuable to prevent the loss of millions of lives in the future than to save one life today, so giving should be radically reoriented to counter the long-term threats they identify — with an undue sense of certainty — instead of helping people alive now. This is an arid conception of giving that flatters the fascinations of its adherents while excusing them from facing suffering in the here and now.Thought the piece goes on to link approvingly to some Effective Altruism forum posts, who haven't adjusted their fascinations one bit, but are instead just mad their rich patron was a con man and the money is gone.
In a way the "undue sense of certainty" isn't even the issue. If you don't discount the future, then conceptually you're just ranking equivalent infinities arbitrarily. This isn't just a math point, it's an area where grasping the math makes you understand the concept. The undue certainty just accentuates the silliness of the whole project.
A billion humans alive from now until the year infinity sums up to the same number as 10 humans alive from now until the year infinity. As does 10 billion humans living in misery versus luxury. Only have to keep one of their beloved shrimp alive in perpetuity (shrimp welfare is an odd obsession of theirs).
An infinity of answers to the question "how do we maximize future welfare."
An infinity of answers to the question "how do we maximize future welfare."
The problem, as defined, is gibberish, with the only implied priority being eliminating extinction events. They imagine this is what they are doing, but I don't think our boy Sam (or any of these ridiculous weirdos) has any specific expertise in extinction event management.
Graduated From "Moderate" to "Mainstream"
I know what these word mean: they are assigned to Republicans who give one set of quotes to reporters for publication but who then "off the record" talk shit about Gaetz and Trump. I wish reporters would explain what they mean!
Jordan Inches Closer to Speakership, but Republican Holdouts Remain The Ohio Republican won over several mainstream members of his party who had initially withheld their support, but was still short of the votes needed to win the gavel.
Invited Guests
When there's an opportunity for such things, Dems always invite "FIRST RESPONDER HERO" and Republicans invite "WOMAN WHO SAYS HUNTER BIDEN DID WITCHCRAFT ON HER" and we should at least think about which type of stunt casting is more effective.
We know which shiny things political journalists love, at least.Dems should invite them to sit in the gallery for the speaker vote if Republicans coalesce around him. https://t.co/do5R7VpzVv
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) October 11, 2023
Monday, October 16, 2023
March Madness
5 months seems like a long time from now, but then suddenly it will be here and it's going to be exciting!!!
The judge added that the trial date set for early March won’t change: “This trial will not yield to the election cycle, and we will not revisit the trial date.”Don't know how Donnie Two Scoops is going to wriggle out of that one! Almost serious this time!
There's Always Money In The Banana Stand (For War)
Just a given.
America can certainly afford to stand with Israel and to support Israel's military needs and we also can and must support Ukraine in its struggle against Russia.Not even debating the merits of such expenditures, just highlighting the "certainly" here. Amazing what we can afford when we want to!
With A Spoon
I assume (hope) the judge has thought carefully about what to do when he violates it (in 5 minutes).
Federal judge Tanya Chutkan has imposed a limited gag order against Donald Trump in the 2020 election subversion case.
Chutkan’s order prevents posting or reposting attacks against the special counsel, his staff, court staff or personnel, and statements against potential witnesses or expert testimony. The judge declined to impose restrictions on criticizing the government in general, including the justice department and Biden administration. She also will allow statements alleging the case is politically motivated.
Why Are All My Friends So Horrible
The way the Speaker election is supposed to work is that the Republican conference votes on the nominee, with the understanding that in the full House vote they all get behind the winner and put them over the line for Speaker. Things don't HAVE to work that way, of course, but this is a genuine Republicans In Disarray Moment due to the fact that they're all assholes.
Why have the Democrats done this?
One senior Republican House member who is part of the opposition to Jordan told CNN that there he believes there are roughly 40 “no” votes, and that he has personally spoken to 20 members who are willing to go to the floor and block Jordan’s path if the Ohio Republican forces a roll-call vote on Tuesday.The majority of the majority voted for Scalise, and then enough members said they wouldn't back him for the full House vote so he dropped out. Then Gym got the *majority of the majority* vote and a bunch of members won't back him, either.
“The approximately 20 I’ve talked to know we must be prepared,” the member said. “We cannot let the small group dictate to the whole group. They want a minority of the majority to dictate and as a red-blooded American I refuse to be a victim.”
Why have the Democrats done this?
How Does This Happen
Deference to rich people - buy the media, buy law enforcement, by regulatory agencies - is going to be the nation's undoing.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, a Tesla employee and a tech industry researcher jointly filed a whistleblower complaint to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, expressing concerns that Elon Musk’s car company may have violated the law repeatedly, affecting shareholders, employees and customers.Or for some other reasons!
The complaint contained a number of allegations about Tesla’s financials and its business practices, including that it improperly categorized repairs for years and that it had poor control over internal systems used for capturing business data that ultimately rolls up to financial and other company disclosures to shareholders.
In January 2022, the SEC assigned one person to look at one part of the complaint related to accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers’ work for Tesla, then closed that ticket a few months later, according to records reviewed by CNBC.
Good Luck, Louisiana!
There have long been some obvious divides between states with conservative and liberal governance - not that the notional 'liberal' ones are always perfect or especially liberal - but it seems that divergence is going to continue widening.
Sunday, October 15, 2023
Brain Dials Askew
One thing I learned 20 years ago was a large number of people are basically serial killers by proxy, and a disproportionate number of those people are in positions of power.
They won't do the deed themselves, but they love it when it is done in their name.
They won't do the deed themselves, but they love it when it is done in their name.
The Kids Today
One "fascinating" thing about this is how many of the "old fogies" got that way by their 30s. It's mostly not Andy Rooney-esque kvetching about the difficulties of navigating a changing world, but instead a bunch of people who never grew up who are mad that they aren't cool.
Seems Bad
Greatest country in the world.
By the end of the month, two Alabama hospitals will stop delivering babies. A third will follow suit a few weeks later.
That will leave two counties — Shelby and Monroe — without any birthing hospitals, and strip a predominantly Black neighborhood in Birmingham of a sought-after maternity unit.
...
People in Monroe County, meanwhile, could face drives between 35 to 100 miles to a labor and delivery department.
Saturday, October 14, 2023
AI Creep
Basic pattern recognition technology is now being called "AI" and I dunno when all the newspaper style guides switched that up.
Navel-Gazing Cranks
Indeed.
But here is what many professional commentators have chosen to spend their time and energy drawing our attention to instead: The annoying things that young people are saying and doing. Many people who hold prestigious and well-paid media jobs, and who control an influential megaphone at a time when that is of incredible importance, squander their time and ours with wheedling complaints about bullshit. Bret Stephens spends his column grinding familiar axes about campus protests and local DSA rallies; Pamela Paul complains about how stuff is being debated on campus at Stanford; Ross Douthat takes this opportunity to unleash some zingers against “woke-speak” among student groups about decolonization; even Michelle Goldberg, who is supposed to represent the left, focuses her column on… campus protests and local DSA rallies and how the angry kids on the left are not protesting in the proper way. These are the voices that dominate the opinion section of the most influential news organization in the English-speaking world. You will never find a more pathetic failure to rise to the occasion than this collection of navel-gazing cranks, the journalistic equivalent of suburbanites complaining about the annoying smell of smoke ruining their weekend dinner party as the city burns down around them.
Possible Speaker Gym
It is funny that in the absence of any actual Republican moderates, the press (some of them) has moved to demanding the Democrats play the role of moderate Republicans.
House Republicans on Friday elected Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio) as their new speaker-designate, yet he faces the same daunting mathematical conundrum that bedeviled the brief attempt of Majority Leader Steve Scalise (La.) to claim the gavel."This asshole being unable to get the other assholes to vote for him" is not a "mathematical conundrum."
Friday, October 13, 2023
Ageing
I don't have any problem looking at myself in the mirror, but I do find it quite jarring to see my generation, and especially people I remember (not Fred, he's older) being "young" - like 20 when I was 27 - approaching or entering middle age.
Because We Are The Good Ones
Excuse my minor obsessions - you mostly have for years! - but aside from being a useful propaganda tool - that WE (the rich white Yale graduates) aren't just the smart ones, but the good ones, the ethical ones, is deeply believed.
Sure some of their classmates are less than perfect, but compared to the pig people who went to Michigan State or, god forbid, an HBCU, they are all saints.
And, yes, this is all skull measuring-adjacent, at best.
Hatching Another Cunning Plan
I'm sure they will come up with something more evil than the last one.
Wisconsin Republicans signaled on Thursday that they were retreating from their threats to impeach a recently seated liberal State Supreme Court justice, Janet Protasiewicz, before the newly left-leaning court could throw out the gerrymandered legislative maps that have cemented the G.O.P.’s hold on power in the state.
Power And Decency
I'm sure it didn't originate there, but a neat trick in the post-9/11 era was all of biggest ghouls in America convincing themselves that they were the brave humanitarians, and opponents to war were The Real Racists Who Love Fascist Tyranny. Similarly, that the slogans and signs of random protesters were of greater importance than the leading politicians of the most powerful nations in the world.
On one hand we have a guy with a sign with a rude slogan, on the other hand we have Lindsey Graham saying "we" are in a "religious war." I know Lindsey is wrong, but the guy with the intemperate sign left me no choice but to embrace him. This is on you, guy with a sign.
Inverting the realities of power is a trick of fascists, embraced by dipshit centrists. And what do we conclude from that?
On one hand we have a guy with a sign with a rude slogan, on the other hand we have Lindsey Graham saying "we" are in a "religious war." I know Lindsey is wrong, but the guy with the intemperate sign left me no choice but to embrace him. This is on you, guy with a sign.
Inverting the realities of power is a trick of fascists, embraced by dipshit centrists. And what do we conclude from that?
Similarly, the biggest threats to Freeze Peach are college students complaining about the cafeteria banh mi and people calling me, a person with a million followers and a column in a major newspaper, a shithead on twitter, and not, you know, people with actual power (state or otherwise) to control the microphones and dole out consequences for deviations.
I joke that I hate everybody these days, and while that's not quite true, the degree to which The Discourse is populated by indecent people who imagine they are decent, who think we should like them, repulses me.
I joke that I hate everybody these days, and while that's not quite true, the degree to which The Discourse is populated by indecent people who imagine they are decent, who think we should like them, repulses me.
I'll give Dick Cheney this much (no you don't have to hand it to him): he didn't expect us to like him.
Morning
Some days there's a massive river of bullshit and I admit I don't have the energy to wade through it.
Thursday, October 12, 2023
Like Us
I regularly think about the scene in the film version of Catch-22, when Cathcart and Korn are offering to send Yossarian home.
We will issue orders sending you back to the States and there's one thing you have to do for us in return.
What would that be?
Like us.
Like you?
Like us.
You'll be surprised how easy it is once you begin.
Brain Worms
There was always some pushback against my repeated reference to Trump's brain worms. It is true that they've been chomping a bit more slowly than I expected, but younger Trump, whatever his flaws, had it together in ways older Trump didn't. And the worms are still chomping.
Sounds Bad
Probably is!
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors have rewritten their indictment against U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife to charge them with conspiring to have him act as an agent of Egypt and Egyptian officials.
The superseding indictment, filed in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, accuses Menendez of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people to register with the U.S. government if they are acting as “an agent of a foreign principal.” As a member of Congress, Menendez was prohibited from being an agent of a foreign government, even if he did register as one.
License To Do Anything
Just like any other messianic cult leader. Think of all the big brains he duped!
Objectivism for even bigger dorks!
Sassoon also asked Ellison about Bankman-Fried’s philosophy on rules. According to Ellison, “He said that he was a utilitarian and he believed that the ways that people try to justify rules like ‘don’t lie’ ‘don’t steal’, under utilitarianism didn’t work.”As Michael Lewis said, his whole life was wrapped up in Effective Altruism, a very sophisticated philosophy that told him he could do whatever the fuck he wanted to do.
Objectivism for even bigger dorks!
Big Brained Boys
I won't claim "smart" people are easier to con (and by "smart" I mean people whose self-conception is that they are smart), but I suspect that once you hook them they stop wriggling and let you reel them in. Can't fool me, I'm a big brained boy! No way I can be conned!
I probably relate too much back to the Iraq war era - we all have our formative experiences- but it is why most of the Iraq war mea culpas were not really apologies to all the dead people, but instead reflections on how I, a big brain, could have possibly been fooled? How did my big brain let me down? Almost unthinkable.
The most hilarious one was Will Saletan's. His big regret was not that he helped unleash mass death, but that in letting himself be fooled, he had unwittingly contributed to the current crisis facing us: our unwillingness to go to war with Iran.
I probably relate too much back to the Iraq war era - we all have our formative experiences- but it is why most of the Iraq war mea culpas were not really apologies to all the dead people, but instead reflections on how I, a big brain, could have possibly been fooled? How did my big brain let me down? Almost unthinkable.
The most hilarious one was Will Saletan's. His big regret was not that he helped unleash mass death, but that in letting himself be fooled, he had unwittingly contributed to the current crisis facing us: our unwillingness to go to war with Iran.
Consider the opportunity cost. The problem with dumb war isn't that it's war. The problem is that it costs you the military, economic, and political resources to fight a smart war. Everything Bush wrongly attributed to Iraq turns out to be true of Iran. But we can't confront Iran with the force it probably requires, because we wasted our resources in Iraq. Americans, having been suckered in Iraq, won't accept evidence of Iran's nuclear program. Countries that might have supported us in a strike on Iran won't do so now, since we led them astray. Our coffers have been emptied to pay for the Iraq occupation. Our troops are physically and spiritually exhausted. In the name of strength, Bush has made us weak.For reasons (made up or not) I can't even remember at the moment, the Usual Suspects were talking up scary Iran, just like they did with scary Iraq, except without 9/11 to boost them. Big Brain Boy Will was eager to get conned once again!
"Americans," having been suckered in Iraq, are now stupid, unlike Will, who is incapable of learning.
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
All In
I remember when the internet became a thing and Microsoft went from Bill Gates dismissing it to deciding that (essentially) Internet Explorer now WAS the operating system.
Then, when tablets came out, Microsfoft decided no one would use a normal PC anyore and designed Windows 8 around the idea that everyone would use a tablet.
Now we have the stupid "AI" and Microsoft is sticking it in everything.
I dunno, I just don't think smart clippy needs to be in everything.
Some of this is just rebranding everything a computer does as AI, which is also extremely stupid, but while the clever chatbots might have their uses, I suspect not so many!
Then, when tablets came out, Microsfoft decided no one would use a normal PC anyore and designed Windows 8 around the idea that everyone would use a tablet.
Now we have the stupid "AI" and Microsoft is sticking it in everything.
I dunno, I just don't think smart clippy needs to be in everything.
Some of this is just rebranding everything a computer does as AI, which is also extremely stupid, but while the clever chatbots might have their uses, I suspect not so many!
How My Apes Doing
Neato, but not necessarily useful and certianly no real business case!
For months, Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Discord Inc. have run an invitation-only chat for heavy users of Bard, Google’s artificial intelligence-powered chatbot. Google product managers, designers and engineers are using the forum to openly debate the AI tool's effectiveness and utility, with some questioning whether the enormous resources going into development are worth it.
“My rule of thumb is not to trust LLM output unless I can independently verify it,” Dominik Rabiej, a senior product manager for Bard, wrote in the Discord chat in July, referring to large language models — the AI systems trained on massive amounts of text that form the building blocks of chatbots like Bard and OpenAI Inc.’s ChatGPT. “Would love to get it to a point that you can, but it isn’t there yet.”
“The biggest challenge I’m still thinking of: what are LLMs truly useful for, in terms of helpfulness?” said Googler Cathy Pearl, a user experience lead for Bard, in August. “Like really making a difference. TBD!”
Okay Another
Well MOST of the money might be there, so no harm, no foul, really!
Late in the book, you talk about trying to find where the lost billions of FTX customer deposits, before concluding that most of it wasn’t actually lost in the first place: “Where did all that money go? The answer? Nowhere. It was still there.” Can you explain this to me? If we are now at $8.6 billion in customer deposits lost, Mr. John Ray [who was brought in as FTX CEO after its collapse] has actually collected, as he claims, $7.3 billion of liquid assets. And he has not sold a lot of the VC [venture capital] portfolios. I’ve interviewed a couple traders who actually think they might get 100 cents on the dollar. I think this is a really interesting thing that has not gotten enough attention: how much of the money is still there.The bestest boy might've only ripped off a billion bucks! ONLY A BILLION!
Ruh-Roh
His best hope is that Michael Lewis is writing a book about him.
Washington — Embattled New York Rep. George Santos was indicted on new federal charges on Tuesday in a superseding indictment — including conspiracy, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and credit card fraud — just days after his former campaign treasurer pleaded guilty and admitted to much of the conduct, according to court documents.
Okay One More
What an incredible view of our system of justice.
But Judge Kaplan explicitly advised prospective jurors the opposite of your advice. “You are to look at no newspapers, listen to no press accounts, do no internet research,” he said.
It’s a funny thing about the American criminal justice system, that they like people not to know very much. Historically, it wasn't always that way. There was once a sense that you should have a judgment by your peers who were kind of knowledgeable about the context and the situation.Quibble with elements of it, sure, but I think we all understand the reasons behind limiting a jury's exposure to things!
I'm sure Lewis has written a critique of this at length elsewhere, and it isn't just something he discovered when his special little boy got in trouble!
The Bestest Little Boy
This Michael Lewis interiew in Time is just an amazing thing. I could pick like 20 things but I'll only do a couple:
Lewis: I’d love for the jury to read the book. Mark Cohen [Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer] said this to me: “You get up, you tell one story, and they tell the other story, and the question is which story the jury believes.” I’m in a privileged position to tell a fuller story, without leaving out any of the nasty details. If I were a juror, I would rather hear my story than either defense or prosecution.No one needs to know anything except for what I, Great Man, Great Journalist, observed.
I'm just going to tell you the story as I see it, and then leave you the discretion that then you lynch him, acquit him, or don't know what to think of him. I don't want the jury thinking I left anything else they needed to know.
You don’t mention the infamous Vox interview, in which Bankman-Fried says “f-ck regulators” and seemed to admit that his caring about ethics was at least partially an act.Maybe they were performing for the easily fooled journalist?
First, I was there, so that was weird. He was zonked out. But if you think he wasn’t an Effective Altruist, or that he didn’t care about that, you’re out of your mind. His whole life was wrapped up in that. I sat through endless meetings with these people; endless discussions with his Effective Altruist colleagues.