Sunday, March 31, 2024
Sounds Bad
Better send more bombs.
Israel Created 'Kill Zones' in Gaza. Anyone Who Crosses Into Them Is ShotBasically shoot anybody that moves, call them a terrorist.
The Israeli army says 9,000 terrorists have been killed since the Gaza war began. Defense officials and soldiers, however, tell Haaretz that these are often civilians whose only crime was to cross an invisible line drawn by the IDF
Saturday, March 30, 2024
Our Poor Misguided Little Boy
Former FDIC chair Bair.
Rich boy, academic parents, MIT educated, worked at a major trading firm... Just a bit miseducated, didn't know the rules.
Amazing stuff.#SBF was financial illiterate. He thought effective altruism meant he could rip people off, that it was OK to use new investor money to pay the old… Another reason why we need early financial education - to help kids understand money ethics, hopefully preventing future SBF’s.
— Sheila Bair (@SheilaBair2013) March 29, 2024
Rich boy, academic parents, MIT educated, worked at a major trading firm... Just a bit miseducated, didn't know the rules.
Sure Why Not
Surgical
What are we doing here.
The Biden administration in recent days quietly authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel despite Washington’s concerns about an anticipated military offensive in southern Gaza that could threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians.
The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, according to Pentagon and State Department officials familiar with the matter. The 2,000-pound bombs have been linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. These officials, like some others, spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because recent authorizations have not been disclosed publicly.
Friday, March 29, 2024
The Machine, It Dead
Amazing chain of events in NJ, if it sticks.
BREAKING: Federal judge GRANTS @AndyKimNJ's preliminary injunction request to toss the county line in June primary. Order not out yet. pic.twitter.com/WQZMmv5Qke
— Daniel Han (@danieljhan_) March 29, 2024
What Are We Doing Here
Annelle Sheline, who resigned from State.
The Biden administration’s own policy states, “The legitimacy of and public support for arms transfers among the populations of both the United States and recipient nations depends on the protection of civilians from harm, and the United States distinguishes itself from other potential sources of arms transfers by elevating the importance of protecting civilians.” Yet this noble statement of policy has been directly in contradiction with the actions of the president who promulgated it.
President Joe Biden himself indirectly admits that Israel is not protecting Palestinian civilians from harm. Under pressure from some congressional Democrats, the administration issued a new policy to ensure that foreign military transfers don’t violate relevant domestic and international laws.
Yet just recently, the State Department ascertained that Israel is in compliance with international law in the conduct of the war and in providing humanitarian assistance. To say this when Israel is preventing the adequate entrance of humanitarian aid and the US is being forced to air drop food to starving Gazans, this finding makes a mockery of the administration’s claims to care about the law or about the fate of innocent Palestinians.
The Kushner-Netanyahu Middle East Peace Plan
See what the priority is.
President Joe Biden said Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries are “prepared to fully recognize Israel” during remarks at an off-camera fundraiser Thursday night, according to reporters in the room.Biden repeated calls for a “post-Gaza plan” for Israel, including “a train to a two-state solution.”The remarks reflect Biden’s increased willingness to publicly call for Israel to increase efforts to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
"I won't go into detail now. But look, I've been working with the Saudis and with all the other Arab countries, including Egypt and Jordan and Qatar. They're prepared to fully recognize Israel, fully recognize Israel for the first time,” Biden said, according to reports from journalists in the room.
A 'two-state' solution is alway a dozen or more Friedmans away. Biden still wants a victory tour, and Arab nations recognizing Israel is how he defines victory.
Prosperity Gospel For Atheists
It is a shame the the political donation side of SBF's activities won't go to court. The corruption of politics by SBF, crypto weirdos, and the EA cult (overlapping but not identical) has been brushed under the rug and quite a few of your faves should be implicated in all of that.
"Effective Altruism" has gone underground a bit now, but it's worth going through that scam/belief system. It starts out with a cult pitch aimed at people who really want to believe they're both smarter and better than everyone else: we want to do good in the world, but we want to do it SMARTER than everyone else.
They start with some very obvious basics: why do we waste so much money on [X] when it's obvious that the ROI on mosquito nets is absurdly high. Big Charity is too stupid/corrupt, and we, smart people, know better. This is not always wrong, of course!
Then it moves onto Atheist Prosperity Gospel: since WE (YOU) know better than those dumdums, the best thing you can do for the world is get as rich as possible and then spend it on smart things. They call it "earning to give."
Then they add in longtermism. AKSHUALLY, we shouldn't be worried about the problems of today - like malaria - when the real issue is the survival of the species! It's WRONG to discount the future at all. A person 10 million years from now is just as important as a person today. Perhaps even moreso!
If we don't discount the future at all, and WE (smart people) have almost perfect foresight into the problems facing the future, which include some form of armageddon - likely the activation of Skynet - then what we really need to do is hoard all of our wealth to ensure our weirdo cult survives in order to reintroduce civilization, post-apocalypse. Probably with lots of sex slaves.
As I said, they're a bit underground, now, but they'll be back!
"Effective Altruism" has gone underground a bit now, but it's worth going through that scam/belief system. It starts out with a cult pitch aimed at people who really want to believe they're both smarter and better than everyone else: we want to do good in the world, but we want to do it SMARTER than everyone else.
They start with some very obvious basics: why do we waste so much money on [X] when it's obvious that the ROI on mosquito nets is absurdly high. Big Charity is too stupid/corrupt, and we, smart people, know better. This is not always wrong, of course!
Then it moves onto Atheist Prosperity Gospel: since WE (YOU) know better than those dumdums, the best thing you can do for the world is get as rich as possible and then spend it on smart things. They call it "earning to give."
Then they add in longtermism. AKSHUALLY, we shouldn't be worried about the problems of today - like malaria - when the real issue is the survival of the species! It's WRONG to discount the future at all. A person 10 million years from now is just as important as a person today. Perhaps even moreso!
If we don't discount the future at all, and WE (smart people) have almost perfect foresight into the problems facing the future, which include some form of armageddon - likely the activation of Skynet - then what we really need to do is hoard all of our wealth to ensure our weirdo cult survives in order to reintroduce civilization, post-apocalypse. Probably with lots of sex slaves.
It ultimately all leads to eugenics (we are the big brains who need to survive) and sex slaves (to let us breed to propagate our big brain genes). Rapey Hari Seldons.
As I said, they're a bit underground, now, but they'll be back!
Thursday, March 28, 2024
But He Is The Son Of A Leading Consequentialist Moral Theorist.
Bye Sam.
Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for masterminding the $8bn fraud that led to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. He was found guilty on seven charges of wire fraud and conspiracy in November 2023.
Joe Lieberman Is Dead
I make exceptions for the young, usually, but if you make it to 80+ you got the full trip and had plenty of chances to express regrets, or not, so I feel no problem with assessing the life of people who were quite proud of themselves.
He was a bad and dishonest person who delighted in making other people suffer for petty or grotesque reasons, all while basking the glow of praise from a political press who treated him as The Last Good Man In Washington.
Embrace being bad, don't wrap it in sanctimonious smug and demand people you deserve it.
The reaction of Official Washington to someone daring to offer a primary challenge to him was extremely telling. They loved their Joe.
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Depends On The Pressure
But he's likely correct!
BREAKING: Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu says international pressure on Israel will not work
— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 27, 2024
Sky's @KamaliMelbourne has more ⬇️https://t.co/PAiZ4D1jU3
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/gnvpIkOUuH
Popularism!
Remember when that was important?
Independent voters can be anywhere on the political spectrum, though to pundits they're usually coded as the sainted centrist swing voters.
Independent voters can be anywhere on the political spectrum, though to pundits they're usually coded as the sainted centrist swing voters.
We're All Experts In Bridge Engineering Now
"We" joke that everyone in social media becomes an insta-expert on the latest breaking news subject, but I don't think it's appreciated enough that this is largely what (certain types of) journalists do! Something happens, they acquaint themselves with the issue, phone around to a few "experts," learn enough to write it up for tomorrow's paper (back when news publishing fit that schedule, anway).
You can do that well or poorly, of course, and trusted journalists at trusted news outlets should do that well! Hopefully better than Anynamebunchanumbers on Twitter, at least.
But one problem with everything being subsumed into politics news coverage is that "call the local civil engineer" quickly gets supplanted with "on one hand this seems like an accident, on the other hand some critics suggest that DEI hiring practices led to this tragedy."
Who is to say what's right? Not so different than what Anynamebunchanumbers is peddling. If unresolvable competing opinions from nonexperts (or, even worse, an expert versus a right winger as if they are equivalent) dominate the coverage of almost everything, it isn't clear what journalists offer other than "rolodex" with the same 30 assholes.
I haven't yet seen this in "respectable" outlets, but it's early!!!
You can do that well or poorly, of course, and trusted journalists at trusted news outlets should do that well! Hopefully better than Anynamebunchanumbers on Twitter, at least.
But one problem with everything being subsumed into politics news coverage is that "call the local civil engineer" quickly gets supplanted with "on one hand this seems like an accident, on the other hand some critics suggest that DEI hiring practices led to this tragedy."
Who is to say what's right? Not so different than what Anynamebunchanumbers is peddling. If unresolvable competing opinions from nonexperts (or, even worse, an expert versus a right winger as if they are equivalent) dominate the coverage of almost everything, it isn't clear what journalists offer other than "rolodex" with the same 30 assholes.
I haven't yet seen this in "respectable" outlets, but it's early!!!
;)
Need a bit more to not believe this is all kayfabe.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urged Israel to abandon military plans for a ground offensive in Rafah, the southern Gaza city where the majority of Palestinians have crowded to evade the conflict. “The number of civilian casualties is far too high and the amount of humanitarian aid is far too low,” Austin told Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Washington, stressing that the protection of civilian lives was a “moral necessity and a strategic imperative.”That would also require the US stop pretending that Israel's purpose is anything other than slaughter.
Run On It
One of my core views is that many basic "Democrat positions" are popular, have long been popular, and blurring the differences have hurt them and not been the genius MODERATE CENTRISM ELECTORAL GOLD that they pay dipshit consultants millions of dollar for.
Sure you can always point to a particularly conservative district here and there where running loud and proud on reproductive rights, for example, might not be helpful, but to a great degree the voters who are reachable are kind of dumbasses who don't actually know which party is which in the way that political junkies do. And elevating all those "I'm a Democrat, but I'm not like all those other Democrats who love killing babies" candidates election cycle after election cycle to national audiences has been a great exercise in brand tarnishing.
Obviously Dobbs has served to clarify the stakes, and hopefully results like help clarify the strategy.
Sure you can always point to a particularly conservative district here and there where running loud and proud on reproductive rights, for example, might not be helpful, but to a great degree the voters who are reachable are kind of dumbasses who don't actually know which party is which in the way that political junkies do. And elevating all those "I'm a Democrat, but I'm not like all those other Democrats who love killing babies" candidates election cycle after election cycle to national audiences has been a great exercise in brand tarnishing.
Obviously Dobbs has served to clarify the stakes, and hopefully results like help clarify the strategy.
Marilyn Lands, a Democrat who made reproductive rights a central part of her campaign, will win a special election Tuesday for an Alabama state House seat, CNN projects.
...
Lands, a licensed professional counselor who lost her 2022 bid for the Huntsville-area seat by nearly 7 points, opposes the state’s near-total ban on abortion and openly discussed the abortion she had more than 20 years ago after her fetus tested positive for a rare genetic condition.
Winning 62-38.
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
BUT
I'm sure even if this is "good" news there will be some stink bomb ready to explode in a few months.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed skeptical of efforts to limit access to mifepristone, a key medication used in more than 60 percent of U.S. abortions and first approved more than two decades ago.
2026
I first saw the Sagrada Familia in 2004 or so (a couple of times since). Back then it was much more of a construction site without a clear end in sight. I forget what the projected completion date was back then, though back then the eventual completion was much less certain, but, in any case, 2026 would have seemed like the distant future!
And here we (almost) are.
And here we (almost) are.
We Are Talking About You
As I've said many times, it's useful to see who gets to speak for themselves and who gets talked about/talked over.
This is the kind of observation/criticism that is unassailable based on journalists' own stated beliefs about their obligations, but the shitheads at the NYT will dismiss this as "activism" or whatever.
This is the kind of observation/criticism that is unassailable based on journalists' own stated beliefs about their obligations, but the shitheads at the NYT will dismiss this as "activism" or whatever.
What Are We Doing Here
To pretend that Israel is not violating international law or interfering with U.S. humanitarian aid is absurd on its face. The State Department’s position makes a mockery of U.S. law and assurances provided to Congress. pic.twitter.com/iMm1mhISD7
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 26, 2024
Monday, March 25, 2024
Oh Elmo
I Wonder how many times a journalist has eagerly referred to him as a "free speech champion" or similar.
A JUDGE ON Monday granted a motion to dismiss a lawsuit from X Corp. — the company formerly known as Twitter — against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), an anti-extremism watchdog. The group had drawn the ire of the company’s owner, Elon Musk, by sharing research that revealed how racist and hateful content had exploded on the platform since his takeover in 2022. Musk’s suit, filed in July 2023, claimed that the CCDH was responsible for an advertiser exodus from the site.
“Sometimes it is unclear what is driving a litigation, and only by reading between the lines of a complaint can one attempt to surmise a plaintiff’s true purpose,” Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in the 52-page decision. “Other times, a complaint is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose. This case represents the latter circumstance. This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech.”
The Welfare State
Depending on how you look at it: the system is unequipped to deal with guys like Trump or the system deals with guys like Trump in precisely the way it is supposed to.
Senator Kim
Applaud (almost) anyone who beats the nepo candidate.
New Jersey's first lady Tammy Murphy is ending her Senate campaign, cutting short what was shaping up to be a protracted Democratic primary against Rep. Andy Kim.Not sure how much this is "internal polling said we were fucked" and how much it is "the NJ Supreme Court is about to overrule NJ's corrupt ballot practices and then the machine might have me killed" (don't think this invalidates the lawsuit, tho).
There was probably an element of “lose the battle, win the war” here. Lurking in the background of this race was a lawsuit to end the county line, which gives party bosses their power. Kim, while trying to win the Senate race despite the built-in disadvantages, had launched the lawsuit and sought an injunction against the county line, arguing that the ballot system is “fundamentally unjust and undemocratic.” The party bosses might have figured that, if Murphy were to drop out and they all endorsed Kim (which is what appears to have happened), Kim would drop the lawsuit, and they would retain the ballot weapon for future use.
They were wrong. Kim’s adviser Anthony DeAngelo immediately told the New Jersey Globe that the congressman still supported abolishing the county line; his case received a hearing from federal district court judge Zahid Quraishi last week. “The status of our injunction remains in the hands of the judge and we remain ready to strongly advocate for the changes the Congressman and so many others have called for,” DeAngelo said.
Progress
The US didn't veto (abstained) the latest UN Security Countil resolution about Gaza.
Oh no
Have to applaud minor progress where it appears, but will anyone give an answer to the basic question of what is different now from two months ago that prompted the change? Was there some body count that was acceptable, and another that wasn't? Will anyone admit the dirty hippies were correct?The Security Council just approved a long-awaited resolution on Gaza, demanding an immediate ceasefire, and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 25, 2024
This resolution must be implemented. Failure would be unforgivable.
Oh no
#BREAKING: PM Netanyahu threatens: If the US does not veto the resolution for a ceasefire in the UN Security Council, Israel will cancel the Israeli delegation departure to Washington.
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) March 25, 2024
PM office claims: The US informed Minister Dermer that they intend to pass two separate…
Oh No Retirement
We quite possibly destroyed a critical US company, but on the other hand we got extremely rich, so who is to say if it was good or bad.
CEO Dave Calhoun will step down at the end of 2024 in part of a broad management shakeup for the embattled aerospace giant.
Chairman of the board Larry Kellner is also resigning and will leave the board at Boeing’s annual meeting in May. He has been replaced as chair by Steve Mollenkopf, who has been a Boeing director since 2020.
This Guy Must Be Hamas
Quite obviously.
Separately, human rights groups Oxfam and Human Rights Watch issued a joint report last week documenting alleged Israeli transgressions in impeding the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. They called on the Biden administration to adhere to U.S. law and suspend arms transfers on grounds that Israeli assurances that they are not contravening international law cannot be taken seriously.It isn't the important thing, of course, but months of Blinken and Jean-Pierre and Miller and McGurk just being openly full of shit and utterly contempuous of their critics has not been helpful! Iraq war era Bush administration were both less bold in their dishonesty and better at faking concern for human lives.
“There are good reasons why U.S. law prohibits arms support for governments that block life-saving aid or violate international law with U.S. weapons,” Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Given ongoing hostilities in Gaza, the Israeli government’s assurances to the Biden administration that it is meeting U.S. legal requirements are not credible.”
For now, though, Israel’s credibility problem is also that of the United States.
Sunday, March 24, 2024
But They Threatened Sanctions
The Biden administration made a lot of noise about sanctioning violent West Bank settlers and I've got a few more names (and titles) for them.
Israel reported Friday the seizure of 800 hectares (1,977 acres) of land in the occupied West Bank, which activists called the largest action of its kind in decades. Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the area in the northern Jordan Valley was declared "state lands" as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for Gaza truce talks.
I've Been Working On This For 22 Years And He Just Tweeted It Out
Chuck Toddler (!!!):
Look, let me deal with the elephant in the room. I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation because I don't know what to believe. She is now a paid contributor by NBC News. I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn't want to mess up her contract. She wants us to believe that she was speaking for the RNC when the RNC was paying for it. So she has – she has credibility issues that she still has to deal with. Is she speaking for herself or is she speaking on behalf of who's paying her? Once at the RNC she did say that,"Hey, I'm speaking for the party." I get that. That's part of the job. So what about here? I will say this. I think your interview did a good job of exposing I think many of the contradictions. And, look, there's a reason why there's a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination. So it is – , you know, that's where you begin here.
And so when NBC made the decision to give her NBC News' credibility you've got to ask yourself, "What does she bring NBC News?" And when we make deals like this, and I've been at this company a long time, you're doing it for access, access to audience. Sometimes it's access to an individual. And we can have a journalistic ethics debate about that.
I – I – I’m willing to have that debate. And if you told me we were hiring her as a technical advisor to the Republican Convention I think that would be certainly defensible. If you told me, "We're – we’re talking to her, but let's see how she does in some interviews” and maybe vet her with actual journalists inside the network, see – see if it's a two-way, what she can bring the network. So I do think, unfortunately, this interview's always going to be looked through the prism of, "Who is she speaking for," right? I think you did everything you could do. You got put into an impossible situation, booking this interview, and then all of a sudden the rug's pulled out from under you. You find out she's being paid to show up. That’s – that’s unfortunate for this program, but I am glad you did the best that you could, and that's why the three of us are on here to try to bolster that editorial independence.
Don't See How...
Already getting ready for my "ah, well, nevertheless..." post.
Experts who spoke to CNN say Attorney General Letitia James and her staff should be poised to start the complicated legal maze of seizing Trump’s assets if the former president does not secure the bonds needed to cover Engoron’s ruling as he appeals.
Assets, such as buildings, houses, cars, helicopters and his plane, are in play. The main focus could be on his bank accounts, which experts say will be easier to take hold of, and properties, which would be more difficult.
Trump has asked a state appeals court to allow him to post a smaller bond – or none at all – claiming he would face irreparable harm if he were forced to sell properties at a fire sale that can’t be undone if he ultimately wins his appeal. The court has not yet ruled.
Messaging
Are some people who annoy you on social media who are upset about Gaza more responsible for the fortunes of Democrats, or is it James Carville running to Maureen Dowd to explain how the Democrats aren't racist enough anymore?
My general position is that people without prominent microphones are less influential than these dickheads who run to journalists every chance they get to say, essentially, "Ben Shapiro is right about us," but what do I know.
The people upset about Gaza at least have some policy changes in mind. The Carville view is, basically, "left leaning people who are an important part of our coalition but who hold no meaningful positions of power need to shut the fuck up," and even if this were true I don't think there's any way to make it happen.
My general position is that people without prominent microphones are less influential than these dickheads who run to journalists every chance they get to say, essentially, "Ben Shapiro is right about us," but what do I know.
The people upset about Gaza at least have some policy changes in mind. The Carville view is, basically, "left leaning people who are an important part of our coalition but who hold no meaningful positions of power need to shut the fuck up," and even if this were true I don't think there's any way to make it happen.
What's It All About Then
I don't know why, in the year of our Gritty 2024, we still have to explain to The Democrats that all the talk about "The Border" is just a respectable way to express racism and you can't solve that by passing a "tough border law" because it won't cause all the brown people to magically disppear from the TV screens.
Also, too, crime.
Also, too, crime.
Saturday, March 23, 2024
Because He Knows He Will Still Get The Support
All kayfabe.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will conduct a ground offensive into the southern Gaza city of Rafah even without US support. The comments came after a meeting Friday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said going into Rafah would further isolate Israel around the world.
Friday, March 22, 2024
The Institutionalists
It is odd that being an "institutionalist" is seen as something praiseworthy, at least when it comes to GOP Daddy jobs like DOJ, the FBI, the military, etc. The implicit assertion is that these institutions deserve to exist outside of Democratic accountability, and that the people who run them should put the interests of the institution above other considerations.
This is obviously bad and dangerous!!!
This is obviously bad and dangerous!!!
Sending Our Love Down The Well
Sounds bad.
We are about to witness most intense famine since the second world war. It won’t be the biggest, because starvation is confined to the 2.2 million residents of the Gaza Strip.
Chaos Agents
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has filed a motion to oust Mike Johnson from the speakership, according to sources familiar with the matter, amid anger about the government funding bill.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 22, 2024
The House would have to consider it within two legislative days after she is recognized. The…
I Eat First, Second, Third, And Fourth
I suppose there are two paths for Trump: win the presidency, or grift as much money as he can while he can, and he has to place bets on both.
The Circle Of Life
Amazing stuff.
All above my pay grade.
Western firms bought hundreds of millions of dollars of titanium metal from a Russian company with deep ties to the country’s defense industry after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to a review of Russian export data.Very generally, despite a bunch of noise about sanctions crippling Russia at the beginning of the war, interest was soon lost in enforcing them. There was some idea that "The West" (the US) could cripple any country with sanctions, especially financial ones, and if that's true they (we) certainly aren't doing it!
The purchases illustrate how the West remains dependent on Russia for certain products despite pledges to break economic ties with Moscow. In the case of titanium, that dependence raises security concerns, industry and defense analysts say, as the metal is vital in the manufacturing of both commercial and military airplanes.
All above my pay grade.
If You Strike Him Down You Will Only Make Him Stronger
Amazing paragraph in this CNN piece:
My basic opinion on the "consequences for Trump" stuff is that low info voters think "if the bad Orange Man is so bad, why isn't he in jail" and the way to combat that is to put him in jail or at least take all his buildings.
While Trump’s enemies would relish his property portfolio being gutted by James, the political impact of such a humiliation would be uncertain. The resulting furor might The resulting furor might add fuel to the ex-president’s claims he is being unfairly targeted by Democratic prosecutors because of who he is. One of his closest allies, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, is already trying to foster such an impression by slamming what she claimed was a “fundamentally un-American”campaign against him. At the same time, however, the latest controversy surrounding Trump may begin to remind moderate Republican and independent voters of the daily chaos that characterized his years in office. The Biden campaign has long maintained this will inevitably shift voters the president’s way, even if there is little evidence in the polls so far of that happening.(and I'm not referring to the bad copy editing)
My basic opinion on the "consequences for Trump" stuff is that low info voters think "if the bad Orange Man is so bad, why isn't he in jail" and the way to combat that is to put him in jail or at least take all his buildings.
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Don't See How...
Is it happening???
New York state’s $454 million judgment against Donald Trump in a civil fraud lawsuit was formally registered in Westchester County just outside Manhattan, a sign that his properties in the area may be at risk of being seized if the former president fails to post an appeal bond.
New York Attorney General Letitia James registered the judgment on March 6, according to the Westchester County Clerk’s online database. The filing didn’t give a reason for the registration or identify any Trump assets, but it will allow James to more easily secure liens, should she decide to do so, on two of the real estate mogul’s most valuable properties: Trump National Golf Club Westchester and the mostly undeveloped 212-acre Seven Springs estate.
But He Was Raised By A Leading Consequentialist Moral Theorist
Nobody who went to school near Boston could be bad!
The CEO of FTX Trading, John Ray, sent a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan Wednesday to correct what he called "callously" and "demonstrably false" claims that disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried made in hopes of receiving a lighter sentence for crimes including defrauding FTX customers."Vast sums of money were stolen by Mr. Bankman-Fried, and he was rightly convicted by a jury of his peers. That things that he stole, things he converted into other things, whether they were investments in Bahamas real estate, cryptocurrencies or speculative ventures, were successfully recovered through the enormous efforts of a dedicated group of professionals (a group unfairly maligned by Mr. Bankman-Fried and his supporters) does not mean that things were not stolen. What it means is that we got some of them back. And there are plenty of things we did not get back, like the bribes to Chinese officials or the hundreds of millions of dollars he spent to buy access to or time with celebrities or politicians or investments for which he grossly overpaid having done zero diligence. The harm was vast. The remorse is nonexistent."
Stink
I went to the homepage of The New New New Republic, which is much better than The Old New Republic, but perhaps a bit worse than The New New Republic, and there's a topic missing. It's the same topic that most left-leaning people are ignoring or talking around or just pretending does not exist.
I just realized that I did miss one - there is a link to a podcast cheering Schumer on the subject.
I don't expect every individual to cover everything, but its absence on the entirety of that front page - one with (if I counted correctly) 37 articles - reflects a general desire among the left leaning commentariat to pretend it does not exist.
I just realized that I did miss one - there is a link to a podcast cheering Schumer on the subject.
That's A Lot Of Booze
I'll say what I always say when rich people mix alcohol/cars: hire a damn driver, it's much less money to you than "fast food lunch" would be to me.
Angela Chao, a shipping industry CEO and sister-in-law to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was intoxicated when she drove into a pond and died last month in Texas, according to a law enforcement report released Wednesday.What's the point of being a billionaire if you don't?
...
A toxicology test determined that Chao had a blood alcohol concentration level of 0.233 grams per 100 milliliters, above the legal limit in Texas of .08, the report says.
Shut Up And Sing
I do "love" when pundits - people who are almost always experts in nothing and who are paid to opine on everything - use this line against people.
Not gonna read it, don't care what it says.
Not gonna read it, don't care what it says.
Court Expansion
It would be nice to say that Democrats could solve some problems if not for those meddling Senators Sinema and Manchin, but the problem is not enough of the rest of them are interested in doing such "radical" things, either.
Voting harder can't fix things if the people who ask for those votes won't use the power they ask for.
Voting harder can't fix things if the people who ask for those votes won't use the power they ask for.
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Panic Mode
Get our petty thrills while we can.
Former President Donald Trump is in panic mode as the deadline approaches to secure a half-billion-dollar bond to appeal his civil fraud case in New York, according to multiple sources familiar with his thinking.
Trump’s lawyers acknowledged Monday that he was struggling to find an insurance company willing to underwrite his $454 million bond. Privately, Trump had been counting on Chubb, which underwrote his $91.6 million bond to cover the E. Jean Carroll judgment, to come through, but the insurance giant informed his attorneys in the last several days that that option was off the table.
Trump’s team has sought out wealthy supporters and weighed what assets could be sold – and fast. The presumptive GOP presidential nominee himself has become increasingly concerned about the optics the March 25 deadline could present – especially the prospect that someone whose identity has long been tied to his wealth would confront financial crisis. Trump has continued to privately lash out at the New York Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron over the matter, these sources told CNN. (James provided a 30-day grace period after Engoron ruled.)
Don't See Any Problems With This
Aside from various other obvious things wrong with this, American Jews overwhelmingly vote for Democrats, and despite numerous "Jews are really surely going to vote Republican this election" articles every four years, the numbers don't change much. 
About the same in 2020, too.
The Inside Scoop From John Barron
A third possibility, however, is to let the deadline pass, leaving it to New York Attorney General Letitia James to seize Trump’s bank accounts or buildings — including Trump Tower, from which he declared his 2016 presidential run, and which famously includes his personal penthouse.That's fascinating, Dona..., I mean, John.
...
Sources friendly with Trump say the ex-president believes he has a strong case. Among other considerations, if the decision is not overturned, “it will have a chilling effect on people who do business in New York because it could happen to anyone,” according to one insider.
“There will be severe consequences — not an insurrection. People will stop doing business in New York. No one will take the risk, and lenders are now spooked. The real estate market is already a disaster, with office buildings worth a fraction of what they were once worth, and there are metastasizing effects when a large part of the city’s budget is from real estate.”
Journalists Are Our Best Campaign Workers
I've seen plenty of jokes about how Trump is going to loot the RNC/all other available campaign funds so he won't have any money to actually run a campaign. The man is the best there ever was at getting "earned media," to the point where the cable news networks will point a camera at an empty lectern.
Why all he has to do is type "FAAAAAAART" into his phone to have 37 Haberman-penned NYT articles about how the nuances of his latest pronouncement are a subject for further discussion.
Why all he has to do is type "FAAAAAAART" into his phone to have 37 Haberman-penned NYT articles about how the nuances of his latest pronouncement are a subject for further discussion.
Constitutional Law
I wonder if there are dead ender law professors still teaching it as if it is a real thing.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Oh No Orange Man
Very bad!
If Trump doesn’t pony up the $500 million or so he needs to set aside, pending his appeal of last month’s order against him for ill-gotten gains on his properties, Judge Arthur Engoron says the judgment may be enforced, and New York Attorney General Letitia James can start seizing Trump’s properties and selling them to pay down what he owes.
Oh Elmo
Many examples in the last several years of "you could've saved hundreds of millions of dollars if only you'd listened to Atrios."
Making your rental fleet EVs, at least for customers who don't specifically request them, is a bit of a problem generally. I was given a plug-in hybrid once without any instructions at all about how to deal with the battery side, which was fine because I didn't have to, but customers mostly aren't used to dealing with electric cars.
Hertz made it worse by going all in on Tesla.
This one was a easy call: Tesla repairs/repair costs are a nightmare, and that is not what you want in a rental fleet.
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years....Even without the drop in value of the cars it bought, Hertz struggled with collision and damage repairs on an EV running about twice that associated with a comparable combustion engine vehicle, Scherr told investors on a 2023 call.
Making your rental fleet EVs, at least for customers who don't specifically request them, is a bit of a problem generally. I was given a plug-in hybrid once without any instructions at all about how to deal with the battery side, which was fine because I didn't have to, but customers mostly aren't used to dealing with electric cars.
Hertz made it worse by going all in on Tesla.
This one was a easy call: Tesla repairs/repair costs are a nightmare, and that is not what you want in a rental fleet.
Other
It's useful to occasionally make the effort of noticing who gets talked to and who gets talked about, who gets to speak for themselves and who have others speak on their behalf, who are the implied "we" and "they" in media coverage.
Sure Why Not
Perhaps it is above my pay grade to know exactly what Ukraine should be doing, but I think Lindsey Graham might be undermining his reputation as one of the Great American Statesmen by going to another country and demanding they draft more people.
KYIV — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called on Ukrainian lawmakers Monday to quickly pass a mobilization bill that would make more citizens eligible to be drafted into the military, and he sharply questioned exempting men under 27 from the fight.Seems...undiplomatic!
Oh No
Actual consequences!
Peter Navarro, an ex-White House aide to former President Donald Trump, is scheduled to turn himself in Tuesday to a federal prison in Miami, making history as the first former White House official to be imprisoned for a contempt of Congress conviction.
Monday, March 18, 2024
Oh No
Chief Justice Roberts, acting alone, has turned away Peter Navarro’s emergency request to block his having to report to federal prison tomorrow.
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) March 18, 2024
Famine
Regular reminder that Gaza is only get worse, and I don't know whether you want to think the people in charge are so stupid that they didn't understand this all along, or so evil that they didn't care.
Wriggling Out Of This One
We all know that when the State (in this case, the state of New York) comes after your money they can certainly do it. It's fun having fantasies about Trump's jet being impounded and Trump Tower being renamed to Carroll Tower, but it's really hard to actually see any of it happening!
The resistance to making rich people suffer the consequences of anything is great! Even the very few and very obviously guilty ones who have faced some have had numerous people in their social class writing pleas for leniency in all of our elite periodicals.
We will see!!!
The resistance to making rich people suffer the consequences of anything is great! Even the very few and very obviously guilty ones who have faced some have had numerous people in their social class writing pleas for leniency in all of our elite periodicals.
We will see!!!
Don't See How...
We'll see!
Former President Donald Trump has not been able to get a bond to secure the $464 million fraud judgment against him, his lawyers said in a court filing Monday.
...
Trump and his company need to post a bond for the full amount by next week in order to stop New York Attorney General Letitia James from being able to collect while he appeals. They've asked an appeals court to step in in the meantime and said Monday that they have not had any success getting a bond.
Are We Doing This Again
There's no need to give Trump the "benefit of the doubt" when he says something horrible and try to clean it up. In fact, Kurtz (I hate having to hand it to him) shows it's pretty easy to just ask him what he meant.
The Balls On These People
I admit that if I were the governor of a state, it would never occur to me to try to push my spouse into a Senate seat like Murphy is doing in New Jersey.
That is why I will never earn the big bucks.
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Inside The RFK Campaign
More observation than criticism here: there are journalists whose beat is the Kennedy campaign and because of that they keep him in the news, which of course increases his poll numbers (some at least)
"Free media" - whether journalists pay attention to you just because - is crucial to any such campaign. Who makes those decisions and why?
I know - objectivity!
Saturday, March 16, 2024
Ah, Well, Nevertheless
It doesn't even matter if it was true, really, but Israel's desire to destroy UNRWA was obvious.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's top humanitarian aid official said on Thursday he had seen no evidence from Israel to back its accusations against staff from the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), which should continue playing a "critical" role in Gaza.
Con Man Knows The Easiest Con
If he'd done this he'd be free.
Sam Bankman-Fried came up with a lot of ideas to rehabilitate his image and launch a new crypto exchange after FTX went into bankruptcy.
Bankman-Fried thought he might “Go on Tucker Carlson, come out as a republican;” “Come out against the woke agenda;” tell people the team running his bankrupt former company “has no idea how to run FTX;” tell people he’s “really glad” the bankruptcy team stepped in and “they’re great.”
Sounds Bad
Probably don't want to get this.
Experts warn that a rare but dangerous bacterial infection is spreading at a record rate in Japan, with officials struggling to identify the cause.
...
While older people are considered at greater risk, the group A strain is leading to more deaths among patients under 50, according to NIID. Of the 65 people under 50 who were diagnosed with STSS between July and December in 2023, about a third, or 21, died, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported.
Friday, March 15, 2024
This Is A Full Time Kate Middleton Conspiracy Blog Now
Not really, but I do want to explain why I find the whole thing interesting. I don't think anyone needs to care about these people or worry their beautiful minds about it, but I do think the whole saga says something minor, at least, about the people who run the world generally.
I don't mean Kate Middleton, personally, in this case, I mean the entity that is The Royals. The Firm.
They have one job, really, which is to maintain a PR facade, and they are tremendously bad at it. Sure they have to deal with the UK's poisonous press, and that makes some things complicated, but they can at least not fail at things like promoting altered photos. If you're going to do that - for whatever reason that might be deemed "necessary" - get a professional in who can actually make it undetectable.
Whatever they're covering for might be big or small, the "conspiracy" major or minor, but they should at least be able to get the little things right.
It's a cautionary tale about what happens when a society that pretends it operates on meritocracy actually operate on little else but nepotism, when the nepo babies delegate important tasks to other nepo babies because none of them can fathom that anyone else has actual useful skills. They can't even do the simplest thing: delegate to people who know what they're doing.
I don't mean Kate Middleton, personally, in this case, I mean the entity that is The Royals. The Firm.
They have one job, really, which is to maintain a PR facade, and they are tremendously bad at it. Sure they have to deal with the UK's poisonous press, and that makes some things complicated, but they can at least not fail at things like promoting altered photos. If you're going to do that - for whatever reason that might be deemed "necessary" - get a professional in who can actually make it undetectable.
Whatever they're covering for might be big or small, the "conspiracy" major or minor, but they should at least be able to get the little things right.
It's a cautionary tale about what happens when a society that pretends it operates on meritocracy actually operate on little else but nepotism, when the nepo babies delegate important tasks to other nepo babies because none of them can fathom that anyone else has actual useful skills. They can't even do the simplest thing: delegate to people who know what they're doing.
You might think that referring to The Royal Family as an element of "meritocracy" is absurd, but it is just slightly more extreme than the general belief of those at the top of the nepotistic system. Sure my Dad is a billionaire, but I worked hard!
It's one thing for the failson to inherit his father's car dealership, it's another when he hires his frat buddies to help run the thing. What happens when almost everything is like that?
New Buisness Model
Even as urban residential values have soared many places, the powers that be, for various reasons, have largely stuck to policies which are more about trying to attract jobs for suburban commuters than do basic "quality of life" stuff along with allowing more housing united construction. Maybe that type of commercial real estate just doesn't need to be there anymore, as much?
I suspect these pieces get written more because of the commercial real estate investors panicking than the actual tax hole cities are facing, but to the extent that this real:
Such steep discounts have become normal for office space across the United States as the pandemic trends of hybrid and remote work have persisted, hollowing out urban centers that were once bustling with workers. But the losses are hitting more than just commercial real estate investors. Cities are also starting to bear the brunt, as municipal budgets that rely on taxes associated with valuable commercial property are now facing shortfalls and contemplating cutbacks as lower assessments of property values reduce tax bills.Philly faces this issue, some, but it also benefits from various historical quirks leading to the "downtown" area (center city) having a sizeable residential population, which isn't the case in every city. Office-to-residential conversions aren't cheap or practical, necessarily, but you don't have to try to create a residential neighborhood where there isn't one - it's already there.
I suspect these pieces get written more because of the commercial real estate investors panicking than the actual tax hole cities are facing, but to the extent that this real:
Mr. Peskin said that San Francisco’s $14 billion budget is facing the prospect of a $1 billion shortfall over the next few years, in part because of lost commercial real estate tax revenue.San Francisco, especially, can fix this problem easily by allowing some residential units to be built.
Worldwide
Above my pay grade, but an ordering/payments system that can take down McDonald's worldwide (doesn't seem to be everywhere, but a lot of places!) if there's a glitch seems to be rather poor design.
McDonald’s restaurants around the world have been hit by an IT outage that has left staff unable to serve food.There's always McDowell's.
Customers in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Canada have all complained about not being able to order in store.
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Subpoena
Good day for all you Gaetzwatchers.
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on Thursday was served a subpoena to sit for a deposition in a civil lawsuit that involves allegations he had sex with a 17-year old-girl, sources tell ABC News, as part of a suit brought by a friend of the congressman against the young woman and others.
Gaetz was issued the subpoena, which has not been previously reported, by attorneys representing the woman who is now in her 20s and was at the center of a years-long investigation by the Justice Department into allegations that the Florida congressman had sex with her when she was a minor, sources said.
GOP Daddies
The original LEFT BLOGOSPHERE was notable not for being especially Lefty - other than on Iraq, I suppose, which coded you as a Lefty at the time - but instead for consistently arguing that blurring the differences between Republicans, instead of embracing them proudly, was ineffective loser stuff.
I don't think I've wavered much from that in all of those years.
One way that bipartisan mind virus infects DC Democrats is that it leads them to appoint and reappoint Republicans, or supposed nonpartisans (secret Republicans), to important jobs. Whatever else you can say about the left side of the Democratic coalition, they're less likely to argue that Republicans are Good, Akshually.
I don't think I've wavered much from that in all of those years.
One way that bipartisan mind virus infects DC Democrats is that it leads them to appoint and reappoint Republicans, or supposed nonpartisans (secret Republicans), to important jobs. Whatever else you can say about the left side of the Democratic coalition, they're less likely to argue that Republicans are Good, Akshually.
Musky
Another one for whom the "wriggle out of this one" joke always applies.
The SEC officials investigating Elon Musk over his handling of the Twitter takeover seem to be growing more and more impatient with his legal antics. The two sides have been locked in a dispute over Musk’s refusal to testify in the investigation.Now, in a new filing, the SEC accuses Musk of trying to “misrepresent” the regulator’s investigation. “Musk continues to distort the true scope of this investigation – his only hope for establishing that the SEC is not seeking relevant evidence,” the SEC writes in a court document.
Sandy Hook Truthers
Of course there are the people who are just grifters, but if we approach "Sandy Hook Truthers" - and similar - charitably, what has broken in their brains that has led them there? Is it just some psychotic break caused by the inability to process that this is the world they've wished for?
I'm not saying any of them should be thought of charitably, I'm just trying to understand why, exactly, of all "conspiracy theories," one would seize on that one.
I'm not saying any of them should be thought of charitably, I'm just trying to understand why, exactly, of all "conspiracy theories," one would seize on that one.
TikTok You Don't Stop
There are potential problems with whoever owns the platforms.
Whatever valid arguments there are about TikTok ownership, everyone seems to have their own slightly incoherent variation, which does not convince me that legislating it into the hands of Trump's former Treasury Secretary is necessarily the best course of action.
I don't think foreign ownership concerns about key assets, including media, are always invalid, but a moral panic about The Kids being mad at Israel in the midst of an ethnic cleansing program and incoherently and inconsistently applied China fearmongering isn't the way to approach the issue.Maybe he can bring Kushner and the Saudis into the deal. https://t.co/9Fn5L3lqsa
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) March 14, 2024
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
And They Won't Stop
Dems leaning into immigration is a mistake, especially when it's largely based on "well if we explain things carefully to our focus groups...."
Nobody Could've Predicted
Everybody thinks they can survive America's Worst Boss.
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon landed a big interview for the first episode of his new digital show “The Don Lemon Show,” which was set to start streaming Monday on the social media platform X.
But his interview subject — X owner Elon Musk — apparently wasn’t fond of it. Lemon announced Wednesday that Musk had canceled their deal to stream his show first.
Some Sanity
Seems like a pretty big victory against America's greatest governor, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
But on 11 March, a settlement between Florida education officials and civil rights attorneys challenged the state law. The settlement clarified that the law does not prohibit the discussion of LGBTQ+ people, or prevent anti-bullying rules based on sexual orientation or gender identity. It also does not disallow Gay-Straight Alliance groups in schools.Had some pissed off comments for all the people who expressed little concern about this bigotry, but I'll save those for another day.
The law also does not affect library books not being used for instruction in the classroom. But for books with incidental references to LGBTQ+ characters or same-sex couples, it was ruled in the settlement that “they are not instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity any more than a math problem asking students to add bushels of apples is instruction on apple farming”.
Previously, many LGBTQ+ and civil rights groups have pointed out the legislation is extremely vague, meaning many teachers could become cautious even mentioning they have a same-sex partner or having a rainbow sticker in their classroom, for fear of being sued by parents or losing their job.
Star Power
Nothing especially against Jesse Ventura - dude got a rail line built - but I suspect The Kids don't even know who he is.
The involvement of Mr. Rodgers — who is expected to start for the New York Jets this fall, at the height of campaign season — or of Mr. Ventura could add star power and independent zeal to Mr. Kennedy’s outsider bid.We all love Predator (1987) but...
Maybe Somebody Should Do Something
I admit I can't always keep track of all the minutiae, but "FBI seemed to be not as aggressive as they could have been in trying to find classified material" seems to have been a thing.
On Monday afternoon, CNN published an interview with a former Mar-a-Lago employee that bolsters one of the lingering possibilities surrounding Trump’s action: that he may still have documents at one of his other properties.
Our Sister Organization
That other news organziation treated Fox as one of the club, and considered criticism of them to be criticsm of them all, was long very maddening. It's much better than it used to be, but the important point is Fox isn't any worse than it used to be. People think it is, but only because a lot more video clips circulate, not because it is actually any worse.
This kind of thing isn't new, even though of course this example is.
Now if only "we" could get news organizations to remember for more than 2 hours that cops lie.
This kind of thing isn't new, even though of course this example is.
Now if only "we" could get news organizations to remember for more than 2 hours that cops lie.
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Seems Like A Problem
But as brain genius Ben Shapiro once said, they can just sell their homes and move.
In a drastic attempt to protect their beachfront homes, residents in Salisbury, Massachusetts, invested $500,000 in a sand dune to defend against encroaching tides. After being completed last week, the barrier made from 14,000 tons of sand lasted just 72 hours before it was completely washed away, according to WCVB. “We got hit with three storms—two in January, one now—at the highest astronomical tides possible,” Rick Rigoli, who oversaw the dune project, told the station. Ron Guilmette, whose tennis court was destroyed in previous storms along the beach, added that he now doesn’t know how much his property is worth or if he will stay in the area. He calls the situation on Salisbury Beach “catastrophic.” “I don’t know what the solution is,” Guilmette said. Beachfront homes in the area started being damaged by strong winds and high tides after a winter storm in December 2022 removed previous protective dunes, according to WBTS-CD.
Bye Ken
He'd already announced that he wasn't running for re-election, but now he's just getting the hell out.
I guess he was "one of the good ones," by the standard of such things.Statement from Congressman Ken Buck on his departure from Congress. pic.twitter.com/orjSzenZnv
— Rep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) March 12, 2024
Surely Reporters Won't Fall For The Next Line Of Horseshit Emanating From A Partisan Republican Investigation
Mainstream media outlets fell for obvious nonsense, as they always do.
And why did Garland appoint him? Why did he let it be released?
"Only Republicans can conduct fair investigations with appropriate vigor" - the Washington rule of investigations - is belied by every single one of them for the past 30 years.
"Only Republicans can conduct fair investigations with appropriate vigor" - the Washington rule of investigations - is belied by every single one of them for the past 30 years.
But They Will
Getting reporters to accurately explain GOP policies, even when they say them loudly and proudly, is difficult.
Republican politician: Poor people should go into a wood chipper!
Reporter: The politician touts his innovative plans for ending poverty and experts from the American Eugenics Society agree they would be very effective.
Republican politician: Poor people should go into a wood chipper!
Reporter: The politician touts his innovative plans for ending poverty and experts from the American Eugenics Society agree they would be very effective.
Probably The Right Call
Trump purging the RNC and replacing it with his lackeys is funny, but it's also likely the case that it was filled with a bunch of OTHER corrupt failsons/daughters who barely did any real work.
Ari Fleischer and Ken Mehlman were monsters, but they were good at their jobs!
Donald Trump’s newly installed leadership team at the Republican National Committee on Monday began the process of pushing out dozens of officials, according to two people close to the Trump campaign and the RNC.Watching reporters be eager to manipulated by the GOP these days is sad, in part because even though they, too, played politics on easy mode, one had to respect a certain level of competence from Bush era Repeblican operatives.
Ari Fleischer and Ken Mehlman were monsters, but they were good at their jobs!
Monday, March 11, 2024
Out Of The Blue, For No Real Reason, Here's A Profile Of Some Minor Royal You've Never Heard Of
The Firm and the UK press are amazing.
They're Just Right Wingers
Whatever one's thoughts about Israel policy specifically are, it's long been true that AIPAC is *also* right wing organization dedicated to dragging politics to the right generally.
The stakes of the challenges have been raised by the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians so far. The coalition is also highlighting AIPAC’s political track record. Nine of the top ten funders to AIPAC this year have in the past regularly given to Republican candidates and causes. In that sense, Republican mega-donors are meddling in Democratic primaries to choose favored candidates. AIPAC has also endorsed over 200 Republicans for office in 2024, including 109 congressional Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election. Democratic primary voters are not likely to look kindly on such spending, if they can be told about it.Also fuck J-Street, which supposedly existed precisely for this moment and then fucked it into the sun.
“AIPAC has exposed itself as the right-wing organization it is,” said Waleed Shahid, former spokesperson for Justice Democrats, who is not involved with the Reject AIPAC effort. “The task ahead for progressives is to raise name recognition and awareness of AIPAC to the vast majority of Democrats who have no idea who AIPAC or its financiers are.”
The news comes as J Street, the self-described pro-Israel, pro-peace PAC that spent millions as a counterweight to AIPAC in 2022, bowed out of doing the same in 2024.
What Are We Doing Here
Biden does not run Israel, but we are facilitating this and running intereference for it and we could stop.
TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he intends to press ahead with an invasion of the city of Rafah on the southern border of the Gaza Strip in defiance of United States President Joe Biden, who has warned such an offensive would be a "red line."The opening offer being "no red lines" was probably a mistake, as a bunch of stupid hippies pointed out at the time.
Microphones
A depressing thing I've come to understand over the years is that if enough people with microphones say something is true, then it effectively is. I don't mean they can create actual Truth, but the lie becomes a foundation for a whole alternative narrative based on that original lie which is impossible to refute ("Al Gore claimed he invented the internet" for the oldheads).
Also there are a lot of people with microphones who are just absolute liars, and this rarely matters to the people who empower them (journalists who quote them, for example).
Also there are a lot of people with microphones who are just absolute liars, and this rarely matters to the people who empower them (journalists who quote them, for example).
Sure Why Not
No one has to care about any of this, but the incompetence of people (I mean The Firm, not Kate herself) who have, basically, one job, is interesting!
In a post on social media, Kate said that “like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.”
...
Kensington Palace said it would not release the original unedited photograph. And while Kate’s statement provided a measure of clarification, it looked unlikely to stop the swirl of rumor that has accelerated during her absence from public duties.
And Then?
Forgetting the morality of it all, from the beginning I've been stunned by the inability of the Biden administration to game out what was happening in Gaza. As in, if this is what is happening in November, what will be happening in December? You might remember they were saying that the whole thing should be over by January, but that was two months ago. Even as of January, Gaza was basically destroyed and starvation was looming.
Anyway, good job everybody who thought that telling Biden to change course in October (FIVE MONTHS AGO) was the thing that was going to hurt his chances against the Bad Orange Man, and not Biden's failure to change course.
Something else people pretend to not understand is that it isn't critics of Israel's current actions who put the situation on the front pages every day. If this is less important than all of the other things people are supposed to care about instead, take it up with our nation's news editors and producers.
Anyway, good job everybody who thought that telling Biden to change course in October (FIVE MONTHS AGO) was the thing that was going to hurt his chances against the Bad Orange Man, and not Biden's failure to change course.
Something else people pretend to not understand is that it isn't critics of Israel's current actions who put the situation on the front pages every day. If this is less important than all of the other things people are supposed to care about instead, take it up with our nation's news editors and producers.
There's an acceptance that every other segment of the voting population needs to be convinced and cajoled into voting, that Dems need several hundred million dollars to shift 20,000 votes in Pennsylvania, that resources need to go into GOTV operations, that "why should I bother voting" is a lamentable and frustrating position, but one which campaigns have to deal with in better ways than yelling "Orange Man Bad."
The strategy for dealing with The Left (as people angry about Gaza have been coded) is to send John Fetterman out wearing an Israeli flag cape to yell at them. Pretty strange!
Sunday, March 10, 2024
Kate Middleton Truthers Assemble
Kate Middleton has been missing for a few months, supposedly recovering from a medical procedure. No photos had been released for awhile, which is odd for someone whose primary job is releasing photos.
Finally they released an official photo and people immediately had some questions about some apparent oddness in the image.
I didn't think much of it - there didn't seem to be anything that couldn't be explained by standard digital image processing - until this:
From one of the British "Royal Reporters."And now this from @AFP 👇
— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) March 10, 2024
“MANDATORY KILL-DUE TO AN EDITORIAL ISSUE THIS PHOTO NUMBER 000_34L82NW BRITAIN-ROYALS BY PRINCE OF WALES HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN FROM AFP SYSTEMS AND MAY NO LONGER BE USED IN ANY MANNER. PLEASE IMMEDIATELY REMOVE IT FROM ALL YOUR ONLINE SERVICES, STOP USING” pic.twitter.com/CXYA6cp2gQ
...for those wondering, it's the red sweater just at the wrist that's the biggest oddity:
What Are We Doing Here
Q: Have you received assurances from the Israelis that they will not fire upon Palestinians as they seek to retrieve the aid?
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) March 10, 2024
PENTAGON: "Our focus is on delivering the aid. I'm not going to speak for the Israelis." pic.twitter.com/mTaAZdxkkR
Q: Do you anticipate Hamas will try to fire on the operation [by the US military to build an aid port in Gaza]?
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) March 10, 2024
PENTAGON: "That's certainly a risk." pic.twitter.com/azRs1DF0Ml
Turn Your Lights Off
Some people didn't react well to this and, yes, sure, turn your lights off if you don't need them, but failing to do that sometimes is likely a miniscule contributor to excess use. Once lights were a sizeable portion of your electricity use, and now they aren't. Running an LED bulb for a month solid is about .3kWh, and one dryer load is about 3kWh. An incandescent bulb running for a month is about one dryer load.
Best Picture Nominees, RANKED
I didn’t see Oppenheimer, Zone of Interest, or Killers of the Flower Moon.
1) American Fiction
2) Anatomy of A Fall
3) Barbie
4) The Holdovers
5) Past Lives
6) Maestro
7) Poor Things
Saturday, March 09, 2024
Better Living Through Chemistry
I suspect it is quite common at the moment, but, given what we know about the Trump White House pill mill, I also suspect this is a bit of projection from the leading lights in the conservative movement.
Leaving The Lights On
Tl;dr: household LED lights use so little electricty they're barely worth worrying about.
Masterful Design, Sir
Amazing stuff from Elmo. The Shai-Hulud from Ed Wood's Dune.
A little backstory on the linked site: Lambert used to be the #1 Tesla Superfan and Electrek the #1 Tesla Superfan site. A million years ago, when Elon was touting his vaporware updated "Roadster," he was taking deposits and running a referral bonus: basically, refer X people and win a free Roadster. Of course, running the #1 Fan Site, it was easy for Lambert to "win" that prize.
The Roadsters never appeared, Lambert complained one too many times, and Elmo got mad and cut him off.
A little backstory on the linked site: Lambert used to be the #1 Tesla Superfan and Electrek the #1 Tesla Superfan site. A million years ago, when Elon was touting his vaporware updated "Roadster," he was taking deposits and running a referral bonus: basically, refer X people and win a free Roadster. Of course, running the #1 Fan Site, it was easy for Lambert to "win" that prize.
The Roadsters never appeared, Lambert complained one too many times, and Elmo got mad and cut him off.
Friday, March 08, 2024
There Isn't Time
They say it'll take a month or two to build a port for Gaza and, you know, people are starving
There was a time when good faith people could see this as something other than what it is, but that time passed a quite awhile ago.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — It’s not just Israeli bombs that have killed children in war-ravaged Gaza — now some are dying of hunger too.Israel is saying they will require security checks of deliveries from the sea, which means "not going to let it in."
There was a time when good faith people could see this as something other than what it is, but that time passed a quite awhile ago.
Bond, Supersedeas Bond
[Nelson Muntz laugh]
NEW YORK — Donald Trump on Friday secured a bond for more than $91 million to cover the judgment in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case while he appeals.
It Will Only Make My Opinions WORSE
Related to this, the more backlash Hochul gets over "putting young nervous guys with guns in the subway," the more it's guaranteed to last forever. She's that type.
I Am Not A Witch
I did break down and watch this. Amazing stuff.
Love the "kitchen no one had ever been in before" also.
Love the "kitchen no one had ever been in before" also.
Saving Face
A certain type of person - sadly the type of person who desires and attains power, often - definitely will let the entire world burn before admitting they made a mistake. And this isn't even admitting to a mistake in a way which would have consequences, like prosecution or resignation. I mean just an almost consequence-free "whoopsie, my bad."
Oldheads will remember I used to regulary ask why "we" were still in Iraq. Fundamentally, that was the reason. It wasn't just one person who couldn't admit to a mistake, it was the entire political-media class who couldn't. The next six months will be critical!
Oldheads will remember I used to regulary ask why "we" were still in Iraq. Fundamentally, that was the reason. It wasn't just one person who couldn't admit to a mistake, it was the entire political-media class who couldn't. The next six months will be critical!