Sunday, April 30, 2023
The Stone of Destiny
An old historically significant stone is cool, giving it some Poundland Tolkien name is hilarious.
Meanwhile On Normal Island
Prominent politicians and other outspoken monarchy enthusiasts should film themselves doing this.
Members of the public watching the coronation on television, online and in parks and pubs will be invited to swear aloud their allegiance to the monarch in a “chorus of millions of voices” to be known as the Homage of the People.Our pledge of allegiance is dumb, but at least pledging fealty to a symbolic piece of cloth isn't quite so creepy.
People around the UK and abroad will be invited to say the words “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to your majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God”, in a declaration that replaces the traditional homage of peers.
Saturday, April 29, 2023
Corrupt Systems
Can't quantify it, but really I think federal level corruption is so much worse than it used to be. I think practices that would shock "normal" people are absolutely normal, but since "everybody" is doing it, there's no way to even cover it for journalism.
We can start with how net worths just seem to bloom from the moment someone enters Congress, but that's certainly only the starting place.
We can start with how net worths just seem to bloom from the moment someone enters Congress, but that's certainly only the starting place.
No Labels
A thing to note about the way journalists treat all the various fake "centrist" groups is that they are something that DEMOCRATS are supposed to respond to, even though they're just conservative astroturf groups.
No one says, why won't Republicans respond to the very serious and very reasonable policy proposals from No Labels??? They're always something Democrats are supposed to include in the coalition, somehow.
No one says, why won't Republicans respond to the very serious and very reasonable policy proposals from No Labels??? They're always something Democrats are supposed to include in the coalition, somehow.
Apperance of Impropriety
This is, of course, actual "impropriety," but, you know, I have higher ethical standards as a fucking BLOGGER (must have been all those ethics panels), than these people.
That they think, for a second, that this is might be okay, let alone do it.
Remember we've had 20+ years of sycophantic stories about how John Roberts is an INSTITUTIONALIST who cares deeply about the reputation and standing Supreme Court (this is a garbage concept, anyway, but let's run with it) while none of these journalists bothered to notice his wife was, at a minimum, trading on his position to get them both rich.
Not a man who cares deeply about the reputation and standing of the Supreme Court!
How much ethics should we have? The answer is NONE, NONE ETHICS, say all nine.
Two years after John Roberts' confirmation as the Supreme Court's chief justice in 2005, his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, made a pivot. After a long and distinguished career as a lawyer, she refashioned herself as a legal recruiter, a matchmaker who pairs job-hunting lawyers up with corporations and firms.Insane stuff.
Roberts told a friend that the change was motivated by a desire to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest, given that her husband was now the highest-ranking judge in the country. "There are many paths to the good life," she said. "There are so many things to do if you're open to change and opportunity."
And life was indeed good for the Robertses, at least for the years 2007 to 2014. During that eight-year stretch, according to internal records from her employer, Jane Roberts generated a whopping $10.3 million in commissions, paid out by corporations and law firms for placing high-dollar lawyers with them.
That they think, for a second, that this is might be okay, let alone do it.
Remember we've had 20+ years of sycophantic stories about how John Roberts is an INSTITUTIONALIST who cares deeply about the reputation and standing Supreme Court (this is a garbage concept, anyway, but let's run with it) while none of these journalists bothered to notice his wife was, at a minimum, trading on his position to get them both rich.
Not a man who cares deeply about the reputation and standing of the Supreme Court!
How much ethics should we have? The answer is NONE, NONE ETHICS, say all nine.
Friday, April 28, 2023
Nine Crooks
No other way to interpret this.
All nine justices, in a rare step, on Tuesday released a joint statement reaffirming their voluntary adherence to a general code of conduct but rebutting proposals for independent oversight, mandatory compliance with ethics rules and greater transparency in cases of recusal.
Bubbles
It's long been fashionable to deride "the internet" for supposedly segregating people into isolated bubbles of ideological like-minded people. I dunno what internet these people read, as the one I have read for decades is largely people who disagree with each other yelling at each other.
Also, it's always The Left that is somehow in its bubble, unaware of what's going on with conservatives, even though "what's going on with conservatives" is most of the discourse on- and off-line. I don't think conservatives (or centrist dipshits) ever bother to listen to what anybody but straw-leftist and straw-POC have to say about anything. Jon Chait explains the transes, that kind of thing.
My skepticism is obvious here. I think "the internet" actually exposes people to a diversity of views, if not always in the best light. This is just a complaint from people who believe their carefully curated op-ed pages provided the precisely desirably range of opinion that a sophisticated citizen should be provided with.
I started this post intended to make another point, but I'll just leave it there...
Also, it's always The Left that is somehow in its bubble, unaware of what's going on with conservatives, even though "what's going on with conservatives" is most of the discourse on- and off-line. I don't think conservatives (or centrist dipshits) ever bother to listen to what anybody but straw-leftist and straw-POC have to say about anything. Jon Chait explains the transes, that kind of thing.
My skepticism is obvious here. I think "the internet" actually exposes people to a diversity of views, if not always in the best light. This is just a complaint from people who believe their carefully curated op-ed pages provided the precisely desirably range of opinion that a sophisticated citizen should be provided with.
I started this post intended to make another point, but I'll just leave it there...
It's The Tight Labor Market, Stupid
If the rate has been coming down significantly (and it has), and the Fed is still upset, I suspect what "they" are upset about isn't inflation.
Sickos
Interesting to see if the campaign finance part of this saga (yes, On Both Sides, Salame was the Republican) is pursued.
There's absolutely no reason to believe their polling was any good, both in how it was collected and how the data was presented. Certainly I don't see much reason to trust the guy who was running a secret side operation with a prominent Republican using the same polling system!
No one will learn any lessons, because no one is ever wrong. People know more than they're saying because it would reflect badly on them to admit what was going on.
I see how the good people in "DC" get squashed and the shit people rise up constantly. It is rather depressing!
The F.B.I. carried out a search on Thursday morning at the Potomac, Md., home of Ryan Salame, a former FTX executive who was a major campaign contributor to Republican political candidates, two people with knowledge of the matter said.It's tough to know how much the big liberal politics brains knew as they were doing Sam's bidding, or how much money went into their bank accounts. McElwee and Data for Progress were *very* influential, both directly and their polling absolutely dominated press coverage of Dark Brandon's various plans (and helped to derail much).
There's absolutely no reason to believe their polling was any good, both in how it was collected and how the data was presented. Certainly I don't see much reason to trust the guy who was running a secret side operation with a prominent Republican using the same polling system!
No one will learn any lessons, because no one is ever wrong. People know more than they're saying because it would reflect badly on them to admit what was going on.
I see how the good people in "DC" get squashed and the shit people rise up constantly. It is rather depressing!
Thursday, April 27, 2023
RIP Jerry Springer
Met him once during his "think I'm gonna run for governor in 2006" phase. Toured the state, talking to people, and realized they just could not get over Jerry Springer the Guy On TV, and didn't do it.
The Protagonists
I contribute to this problem, too, but it's quite amazing that with a Dem in the White House and controlling the Senate (and when they also controlled the House), the central figures of almost every political story are the Republicans.
Plenty of those stories are valid news stories, of course. Republicans are doing stuff (like attacking trans people with the power of the state). But Democrats are doing stuff, too, and that doesn't get nearly as much coverage.
And on top of the legitimate "doing stuff" focus, there's the obsessive coverage of B- C- and D-list conservative figures, the side plots of random minor House Republicans, daily updates on who does and doesn't support Trump, etc.
I'm looking at the front of of the New Republic now, and it's filled with pieces on The Republican Soap Opera (along with other things).
I'm not picking on TNR specifically, and I contribute to this, too, as I said. Some of it is worth covering, but it's just like this all the time. It's always The Republican Story.
Plenty of those stories are valid news stories, of course. Republicans are doing stuff (like attacking trans people with the power of the state). But Democrats are doing stuff, too, and that doesn't get nearly as much coverage.
And on top of the legitimate "doing stuff" focus, there's the obsessive coverage of B- C- and D-list conservative figures, the side plots of random minor House Republicans, daily updates on who does and doesn't support Trump, etc.
I'm looking at the front of of the New Republic now, and it's filled with pieces on The Republican Soap Opera (along with other things).
I'm not picking on TNR specifically, and I contribute to this, too, as I said. Some of it is worth covering, but it's just like this all the time. It's always The Republican Story.
Sure Why Not
Nothing is real.
A California judge has tentatively ordered Elon Musk to be interviewed under oath about whether he made certain statements regarding the capabilities of Tesla’s Autopilot features after the company questioned the authenticity of the remarks, claiming Musk is a “target for deep fakes”.
At least the judge was not amused.
At least the judge was not amused.
Judge Evette Pennypacker tentatively ordered a limited, three-hour deposition where Musk could be asked whether he actually made the statements on the recordings, and called Tesla’s arguments “deeply troubling”.
“Their position is that because Mr Musk is famous and might be more of a target for deep fakes, his public statements are immune,” Pennypacker wrote, adding that such arguments would allow Musk and other famous people “to avoid taking ownership of what they did actually say and do”.
Perpetual Grift
Just restating that people whose brand is "progressive, but smarter and more practical than all the other progressives who are dumb and silly and impractical and inflexible purists and..." always exist to ensure genuine victories are small, and then take credit for them all. Their role is to take the resources which would go to promote genuine progress, kneecaping the possibilities while enriching themselves.
People in DC are constantly having their noses stolen (many willingly, I know).
People in DC are constantly having their noses stolen (many willingly, I know).
They Don't Believe In Anything They Claim To Believe In
I see especially older pundit types continuing to try to trap Republicans/conservatives with things like, "oh I THOUGHT YOU BELIEVED IN SMALL GOVERNMENT???" Or, "oh I THOUGHT YOU BELIEVED IN FREEDOM???" Or, "LOOK HOW MUCH DONALD TRUMP INCREASED THE DEFICIT!!!"
Buddy, they don't care, they never cared, this was all a con you bought into more than you should have and most (again, especially older, but not just) journalists still do.
God-fearing, freedom-loving, family values, law-n-order, small government, state's rights, local control, low tax (except on rich people), blah blah blah. Pick any of it and it was always bullshit and most of the people spouting it always knew it was bullshit.
This stuff should be aimed at journalists who pretended to believe them, and continue to pretend to believe them not as some hypocrisy gotcha.
The willing marks are a bigger problem than the cons.
Conservatives switched from freaking out about a couple of children's books going out print, or having the N-words excised, to BANNING BOOKS AND CLOSING LIBRARIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY, and few journalists ever skipped a beat in covering this.
Buddy, they don't care, they never cared, this was all a con you bought into more than you should have and most (again, especially older, but not just) journalists still do.
God-fearing, freedom-loving, family values, law-n-order, small government, state's rights, local control, low tax (except on rich people), blah blah blah. Pick any of it and it was always bullshit and most of the people spouting it always knew it was bullshit.
This stuff should be aimed at journalists who pretended to believe them, and continue to pretend to believe them not as some hypocrisy gotcha.
The willing marks are a bigger problem than the cons.
Conservatives switched from freaking out about a couple of children's books going out print, or having the N-words excised, to BANNING BOOKS AND CLOSING LIBRARIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY, and few journalists ever skipped a beat in covering this.
Agendas
I get more and more cynical over time because I used to think that "we" were having some good faith discussions about aspects of journalism, but after having about the 13th round of the "objectivity" (for example) discussion, I realize the prominent journalists who feel free to speak up about this stuff are, basically, liars, and the rest (largely POC journalists, though not just) know they will blow up their careers if they do.
There's obviously an agenda when the crime rates of a couple of cities are given extreme national coverage, even though those cities do not actually have very highly ranked crime rates. Especially when they lose interest once the progressive DA gets chucked out (and lose interest when the progressive DAs get voted in).
That's just an example, but there's no point in having good faith conversations with bad faith actors, and there's especially no point when those bad faith actors hold themselves up as vital to Democracy.
When I say "conversation" I don't imagine anyone's actually listening to *me*, or should, just that the same critiques get brought out again and again, and the same dishonest deflections get thrown out in response again and again.
And, no, liberals, it isn't because they "fear" criticism from the Right. That's the comfy blanket version. Oh they're doing the best they can, they're just under so much pressure from Sean Hannity!
Bullshit. The Times (for example) does whatever the fuck it wants to do.
There's obviously an agenda when the crime rates of a couple of cities are given extreme national coverage, even though those cities do not actually have very highly ranked crime rates. Especially when they lose interest once the progressive DA gets chucked out (and lose interest when the progressive DAs get voted in).
That's just an example, but there's no point in having good faith conversations with bad faith actors, and there's especially no point when those bad faith actors hold themselves up as vital to Democracy.
When I say "conversation" I don't imagine anyone's actually listening to *me*, or should, just that the same critiques get brought out again and again, and the same dishonest deflections get thrown out in response again and again.
And, no, liberals, it isn't because they "fear" criticism from the Right. That's the comfy blanket version. Oh they're doing the best they can, they're just under so much pressure from Sean Hannity!
Bullshit. The Times (for example) does whatever the fuck it wants to do.
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
San Francisco
Amazing stuff.
Guy's been going aroud bear spraying homeless people, then cried victim."The district attorney and the police now have reason to believe that Mr. Carmignani was involved in eight separate acts of violence," Kleigh Hathaway, defense lawyer for Carmignani’s alleged attacker, said Wednesday.
— The San Francisco Standard (@sfstandard) April 26, 2023
"In all of them, the victims are not housed, the victims are… pic.twitter.com/MQWjGlzcOJ
Where Did All The Bad Takes Come From
It's hard to describe it precisely, but there was a proliferation of bad takes and similar starting some time in 2021 and, since I am dumb, it didn't really occur to me that "some asshole billionaire is throwing lots of money around." That was, of course, what was happening.
Amazing stuff.
Read the whole thing, as the kids say. If you ever were wondering things like, "why is Gillibrand suddenly a big Crypto supporter," or, "What the fuck is this about?"
Data for Progress was, for a time, extremely influential, and while perhaps not the worst of the genre, was very aggressive about positioning itself as the progressive space organization in order to clip the agenda of actual progressives. The message "other progressives are dumb, we are smart progressives, also let me introduce you to some obscenely rich people" always resonates.
Amazing stuff.
Being part of the EA crew was also an effective way for Sean to pad his bank account — helping forge a connection with Sam Bankman‐Fried, the crypto billionaire, who was famously into the philosophy. Data for Progress did some polling for Guarding Against Pandemics, the organization run by Sam’s brother Gabe, but Sean had more to offer — separately — as a private consultant. He knew a lot of people in Washington. He could make introductions, and he could evangelize the hell out of Guarding Against Pandemics. “I’ve been paid a couple of times for my ability to bring things up at happy hours,” Sean once told me about his work for Gabe.
Read the whole thing, as the kids say. If you ever were wondering things like, "why is Gillibrand suddenly a big Crypto supporter," or, "What the fuck is this about?"
Data for Progress was, for a time, extremely influential, and while perhaps not the worst of the genre, was very aggressive about positioning itself as the progressive space organization in order to clip the agenda of actual progressives. The message "other progressives are dumb, we are smart progressives, also let me introduce you to some obscenely rich people" always resonates.
“I was on a call today with all these stupid f---ing progressives,” McKenzie said.New version of the grift that always exists in Democratic politics.
The call she had been on had been about a recent deal to lower prescription drug prices. It was a big achievement, but the progressives had compromised more than they wanted, and McKenzie — who had worked on Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign — had come to think of them as whiners.
“You just got a big f---ing win on prescription drugs, f---ing act like it,” McKenzie said. “It’s so stupid. No one ever wants to do a f---ing victory lap.”
There would be no victory lap for Terry McAuliffe on this night. The polls in Virginia had just closed, and it would be hours before anyone knew that Youngkin was going to win, or by how much (2 percentage points). Data for Progress missed on the polling, like pretty much everyone else.
But even before that picture came into focus, Sean’s staff were talking about what Democrats needed to do in the future. To achieve progressive things, they needed to at least appear to be moderate. If the fence-sitters thought the Democrats were a bunch of socialists, they would vote Republican.
Our Glorious Justices
Leading conservatives (including elected Republicans) spent years demonizing the judiciary for making rulings they didn't like. The response of Dems, largely, was "Our Institutions Are Good," not "Fuck you, Newt Gingrich."
Too many of them are more concerned with what people will think of the federal judiciary rather than what the federal judiciary is doing.
The people must not lose faith in our decrepit, rotting, corrupt institutions! Please, sir, Mr Roberts, hide your corruption better!
It's a bit like being more concerned with war crimes being revealed than the war crimes themselves, something we all remember from the glorious Bush era, especially.
Too many of them are more concerned with what people will think of the federal judiciary rather than what the federal judiciary is doing.
The people must not lose faith in our decrepit, rotting, corrupt institutions! Please, sir, Mr Roberts, hide your corruption better!
It's a bit like being more concerned with war crimes being revealed than the war crimes themselves, something we all remember from the glorious Bush era, especially.
Why Would He
Not picking on Norm here, but you can't rely on the "good chaps" theory of governing when we have a government and press filled with very bad chaps.
A consequence of journalists digging their heels on the "objectivity" thing to justify their anti-trans crusade is they can't even say that corruption is bad. Make an absurd argument, embrace the absurd consequences.
The right response is, "if you won't show up to testify to a co-equal branch, then we are under no obligation to listen to you, either," but that won't happen.
HAVE SOME SHAME, SIR ain't gonna do it. They aren't good chaps.
A consequence of journalists digging their heels on the "objectivity" thing to justify their anti-trans crusade is they can't even say that corruption is bad. Make an absurd argument, embrace the absurd consequences.
Generally, I think the corruption rot is spreading everywhere in government. It is not a new thing, of course, but things that would at least once raise eyebrows barely do anymore, and when "everybody" (or everybody has friends who are, at least) is corrupt then no one has standing to say anything.Let's be more specific: the Chief Justice, the head of the federal judiciary, the moral center of the Supreme Court, is stonewalling the biggest crisis in legitimacy of the Court in modern history. Covering up rank corruption from multiple justices He should resign in disgrace. https://t.co/mJL4OBmuE2
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) April 26, 2023
The right response is, "if you won't show up to testify to a co-equal branch, then we are under no obligation to listen to you, either," but that won't happen.
HAVE SOME SHAME, SIR ain't gonna do it. They aren't good chaps.
There Are No Good Conservatives
There's a horrible piece in The American Prospect about Tucker Carlson which I assume happened because a failson and faildaughter have some influential friends there (failsons and faildaughters everywhere, nepotism makes the world go round).
Anyway, you never have to hand it to conservatives because whatever they make the occasional nice noises about, they will forget or push down the priority list the instant it actually matters.
I hate the term "faux populist" because I hate the term "populist," a term equally applied to "more of certain kinds of racism (but some racism is good, it's confusing!)" and "Medicare for All." Somehow "populist" is different than "popularism," the difference being "things centrists don't like" and "things centrists like."
Oddly the term "demagoguge" seems to have fallen out of common usage, but it's a very old American type and falling for one is on the level of being convinced your nose has just been stolen.
Tucker wasn't even a slightly subtle demagogue! He did the nightly White Power Hour! No need to check the races of the authors of the piece.
Anyway, you never have to hand it to conservatives because whatever they make the occasional nice noises about, they will forget or push down the priority list the instant it actually matters.
I hate the term "faux populist" because I hate the term "populist," a term equally applied to "more of certain kinds of racism (but some racism is good, it's confusing!)" and "Medicare for All." Somehow "populist" is different than "popularism," the difference being "things centrists don't like" and "things centrists like."
Oddly the term "demagoguge" seems to have fallen out of common usage, but it's a very old American type and falling for one is on the level of being convinced your nose has just been stolen.
Tucker wasn't even a slightly subtle demagogue! He did the nightly White Power Hour! No need to check the races of the authors of the piece.
And Scene
BYD is probably the actual tech leader on this stuff and they're throwing in the towel.
Lots of issues, but the basic one is that the gap between "works well 99% of the time" and "works well 100% of the time" is the gap between "really annoying" and "useful" and there's no way to bridge that gap.
Congrats to all the very smart people (the world's easiest marks) for not seeing this 10 years ago.
SHANGHAI — Fully autonomous driving is “basically impossible” and the technology would be better applied to manufacturing, according to Chinese battery and electric car company BYDThey got all the way to "wow, that's really neato" but they'll never get to "that's genuinely useful" and certainly not "this is profitable."
Lots of issues, but the basic one is that the gap between "works well 99% of the time" and "works well 100% of the time" is the gap between "really annoying" and "useful" and there's no way to bridge that gap.
Congrats to all the very smart people (the world's easiest marks) for not seeing this 10 years ago.
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Saint Tucker
I try not to put too much emphasis on the ongoing soap opera of the Wingnutosphere, but I can't ignore it completely. I suspect this minor rebellion against Fox will fade pretty quickly.
Sure Why Not
If you were in a position of power right now, would you imagine there could be any negative consequences for what you did? Even a media response which wasn't half in your favor?
Assholes
"When we do what they did it's good because we are good" is a too common view from professionals in left-leaning circles.
Rice famously cleansed her West Wing office with burning sage after Biden’s team moved in in the weeks following the January 6 Capitol riot. The office’s previous occupant was Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s controversial immigration czar behind four years of wildly xenophobic policies like the ill-fated Muslim ban and separating migrant parents from their children at the border. But migrant advocates might have hoped for a more significant improvement on the Trump White House: “She was one of the most anti-immigrant folks in the administration,” said immigrant rights activist Erika Andiola of Rice.
The criticism isn’t unfounded. Rather than undo Miller’s work, Rice has assiduously doubled down on some of Trump’s most impactful anti-immigrant policies, most notably the administration’s support for Title 42—the shambolic policy Donald Trump used to expel migrants as public health threats during the pandemic.
Oh, Elon
There is a problem with rich people having toys that blow up instead of just cartoon ape pictures. They love to fuck around and let everybody else find out.
Now, residents and researchers are scrambling to assess the impact of the explosion on local communities, their health, habitat and wildlife including endangered species. Of primary concern is the large amount of sand- and ash-like particulate matter and heavier debris kicked up by the launch. The particulate emissions spread far beyond the expected debris field.As a result of the explosion, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded the company’s Starship Super Heavy launch program pending results of a “mishap investigation,” part of standard practice, according to an email from the agency sent to CNBC after the launch. No injuries or public property damage had yet been reported to the agency as of Friday.
Of course rockets blowing up sometimes is inevitable, but that is why certain precautions are taken.
I am not going to pretend to be a sudden expert rocket scientist, but I have paid attention on and off over the years to Elon's "Starship" and he has made a lot of questionable choices!
Starship is the big "go to Mars" fantasy one, not the Falcons which do seem to miraculously work well.
Moral Panics
A problem with convincing people of imaginary threats is that they can never actually be vanquished. No anti-trans legislation will satiate them, and it will keep getting worse.
The Atlantic, the New York Times, and people like Jon Chait, Jesse Singal, Emily Bazelon and some others are very much responsible for what is happening . There are limits to what The Right can do without the blessing and excusing by The Sensible Center, especially as those people are the self-appointed champions against extremism (On Both Sides). They get more mad at criticisms of the Right they deem inappropriate (CANCEL CULTURE!!!!) than what the Right is doing, and they control most of the microphones.
Quick jumps from their rhetoric, to vigilante violence, to state violence, to worse.
JUST ASKING QWESCHINS!!!!!!!
Ethical By Definition
The word "ethics" gets misapplied a lot, frequently referring to professional "norms" which may be valuable but aren't really about "ethics" in the way normal people understand the word. But "don't obviously be dishonest and corrupt" is one of those ethical standards that shouldn't need to be printed clearly in large font in the employee handbook of federal judges and SCOTUS justices.
And not just Gorsuch, but also the Greenberg Traurig CEO just saying YOLO.
He and his wife closed on the house a month later, paying $1.825 million, according to a deed in the county’s record system. Gorsuch, who held a 20 percent stake, reported making between $250,001 and $500,000 from the sale on his federal disclosure forms."Avoiding even the appearance of impropriety" used to be a reasonable thing to ask of high level people, particularly in public office, for reasons I shouldn't have to explain. Now it's 'lol lmao fuck you I'm a Justice that means I'm ethical you shitheads.'
Gorsuch did not disclose the identity of the purchaser. That box was left blank.
Since then, Greenberg Traurig has been involved in at least 22 cases before or presented to the court, according to a POLITICO review of the court’s docket.
Just a big coincidence.
For nearly two years beginning in 2015, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch sought a buyer for a 40-acre tract of property he co-owned in rural Granby, Colorado.Nine days after he was confirmed by the Senate for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, the then-circuit court judge got one: The chief executive of Greenberg Traurig, one of the nation’s biggest law firms with a robust practice before the high court. Gorsuch owned the property with two other individuals.
This is as bad as it looks, but even if it isn't, it's hard to grasp the sense of entitlement that would lead to these people doing things that look this bad.Just putting money in the pocket of a judge who rules on their cases, and the judge is willing to obscure the transaction. Straight up pay-to-play corruption.
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) April 25, 2023
And not just Gorsuch, but also the Greenberg Traurig CEO just saying YOLO.
Monday, April 24, 2023
Tucker Is A Bad Man
His press did become less than glowing, eventually, but it still hardly reflected just what a piece of shit he is.
Impact Journalism
Amazing stuff.
The anti-trans obsession at The Times, which has largely been a serious of articles about the possible "dangers" of minors transitioning, has obviously been there to have an impact. One piece is a story, several is a crusade. Someone thinks this is bad and is going to keep publishing evidence-free JAQing off pieces until they have an impact!
Well, they've had their impact. Own it.
This is good, and if it really was a cause-and-effect thing that's good too, which is why I'm not trying to single this NYT reporter out. I simply want to note that you didn't see anyone at NYT say "Red State #7 has banned gender-affirming care. Last week, we reported it's bad." pic.twitter.com/BZ1AY82RrR
— Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) April 24, 2023
I've had conversations with journalists about this and they just sort of freeze up when you point it out.Here are two passages from publisher A.G. Sulzberger's recent state-of-the-paper address. In the first he brags about NYT journalism prompting govt action. He only brings up its equally impactful anti-trans journalism to say everyone speaking out about it is endangering reporters pic.twitter.com/FBUAcKaPcU
— Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) April 24, 2023
The anti-trans obsession at The Times, which has largely been a serious of articles about the possible "dangers" of minors transitioning, has obviously been there to have an impact. One piece is a story, several is a crusade. Someone thinks this is bad and is going to keep publishing evidence-free JAQing off pieces until they have an impact!
Well, they've had their impact. Own it.
How Does That Work
I'm sure a very nice book with obvious conclusions could be written about which laws are just ignored and which ones are enforced mercilessly.
But regulators never acted, despite a law Congress passed in 2010 — after the 2008 financial crisis — instructing the government to prohibit “excessive” compensation for executives who took big risks. Now, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March is driving renewed scrutiny of executive pay — of the failure of U.S. authorities to act over the past decade, and also the increasing uncertainty that Congress will approve new legislation to overhaul CEO pay incentives.Probably Congress should've been more specific, right? Oh...
Former SVB chief executive Greg Becker made roughly $34.6 million selling his bank’s stock in the past five years, according to the financial research firm VerityData, including $2.3 million just days before the bank imploded on his watch. Insiders at Signature sold more than $100 million of stock from 2020 through 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Dodd-Frank Act, signed into law in July 2010, gave federal banking regulators nine months to release new rules on executive pay.
Won't Be Missed
Every time there's some not merely bad but monstrous policy you can trace it back to Rice.
President Joe Biden’s domestic policy adviser, Susan Rice, is stepping down from her post next month, multiple current and former senior administration officials told NBC News.Not good for the workplace!
Conversations with current and former White House officials suggest that little has changed in the intervening years. Rice regularly excoriates her colleagues, creating an “abusive and dehumanizing environment” according to one source, who spoke to The American Prospect on the condition of anonymity. The vitriol of the Rice-controlled workplace is something of an open secret, with previous reports filed about Department of Health and Human Services staff being yelled at in meeting after meeting.
Great Moments In Capitalism
Nothing new, really, but there is a problem when they run out of things to loot so they just starting looting themselves.
Bed Bath & Beyond on Sunday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after it failed in several last-ditch efforts to raise enough money to keep the company alive.How did this happen?
Would you believe that Bed and Bath has spent more than $11.7 billion to buy back almost three quarters of its own stock? At an average cost about 15 times the stock’s current price? And that only a couple of months ago, when it was already in desperate financial shape, it kept buying back its shares? (For no rational reason, as far as I can tell.)A billionish in... 2021.
Sunday, April 23, 2023
Formative Years
No deep thoughts but we so have a mini-generation that went through high school with pictures of The President, Donald Trump, on the walls of their classrooms.
Musk'd
Out for a bit and only have time for a drive by, but I do get some continued satisfaction in everbody realizing he is a big dumb racist asshole. Sadly few will wonder how he got through their normally petfect bullshit censors.
His latest move (one of them) is to adjust the twitter algorithm so that the collection of racists, transphobes, suburban boomer shutins, and crypto scammers who subscribe all get promoted to the top of any twitter thread.
Even the ones who aren't actively malevolent are just "reply guys" who post lots of emojis and decade-old internet jokes.
Nobody wants to see that shit.
Saturday, April 22, 2023
Spring Fundraiser Day 6!
I hate that the "old" link-based internet is gone, mostly behind apps and paywalls. I don't fault people for doing subscriptions - everyone's gotta eat - but it's a shame they have to. I'm in no way claiming it would be more lucrative for me if I did so - I suspect not! - but I'm glad I haven't felt like it was necessary to do so.
Thanks to you, dear readers!
Great Replacement
I know it isn't as if Tucker gets *great* press treatment these days, but nonetheless if you consider how "someone who stood on a stage with someone who said something respectful about Farrakhan once" gets treated if they are On The Left...
Owning The Libs
Alito and Thomas have nasty views, generally, but it's also pretty clear every opinion they write is also about lashing out at their imagined enemies, as told to them by the people in their TV Box, the Fox News hosts.
I'm sure some right wingers have had some reasonable criticisms of left wing rulings (though we've had a Republican dominated Supreme Court forever), but those judges at least put the work in to contort those rulings to have some consistency (precedent, their own previous opinions, etc.).
The standing issue alone on this one is just conservative judges saying, "LMAO LOL FUCK YOU LIBS."
I'm sure some right wingers have had some reasonable criticisms of left wing rulings (though we've had a Republican dominated Supreme Court forever), but those judges at least put the work in to contort those rulings to have some consistency (precedent, their own previous opinions, etc.).
The standing issue alone on this one is just conservative judges saying, "LMAO LOL FUCK YOU LIBS."
Friday, April 21, 2023
Tell The Truth And They'll Think It's Hell
Not every Dem has to be out there doing this, but more should be!
What a creep. Kevin McCarthy wants to invade school locker rooms and inspect the genitals of our kids. Hell no. https://t.co/oS4tDWo7yO
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) April 20, 2023
A Very Stable Genius
Musk is a good symbol of an era (perhaps it is all eras, but I know this one) of geniuses being put in charge, doing everything the "right" way, having it blow up in their faces, and never reconsidering the basic premise (that they are geniuses).
A lot of the Iraq war "mea culpas" by our glorious pundits expressed little regret for the damage done, but merely some minor concern that their own big brains had, temporarily and in a very trivial way, momentarily led them astray, something which would surely never be repeated. Also, the hippies were still wrong, somehow.
I suppose it takes a certain kind of person to speak with such confidence about a large array subjects they know little about (I know I punditize on this blog, too, but I really work to not do it that way), and their belief in their own inerrancy should not be surprising.
Plenty of people, including the ones he fired, could have explained that while Twitter's practices were imperfect, there were generally reasons why they did things the way they did, and every little part interacted with other parts in complicated ways. Pulling out Jenga pieces was going to cause some problems.
A lot of the Iraq war "mea culpas" by our glorious pundits expressed little regret for the damage done, but merely some minor concern that their own big brains had, temporarily and in a very trivial way, momentarily led them astray, something which would surely never be repeated. Also, the hippies were still wrong, somehow.
I suppose it takes a certain kind of person to speak with such confidence about a large array subjects they know little about (I know I punditize on this blog, too, but I really work to not do it that way), and their belief in their own inerrancy should not be surprising.
Plenty of people, including the ones he fired, could have explained that while Twitter's practices were imperfect, there were generally reasons why they did things the way they did, and every little part interacted with other parts in complicated ways. Pulling out Jenga pieces was going to cause some problems.
BUT WHAT CAN THEY DOOOOO, ATRIOS?
I don't have all the answers, but the relative silence on what state legislatures are doing to gay and trans rights, in various ways, is growing louder. The Dems have a lot of chess pieces to use and it doesn't all fall on Joe Biden personally, but some of them should be out their more forcefully providing leadership and some sort of rhetorical counterpoint.
Gotta show up to the fight, sometimes, even if it's only to call your opponents assholes.
Gotta show up to the fight, sometimes, even if it's only to call your opponents assholes.
Kitchen Table
A regular thing that happens is leading Democrats attempt to pivot away from what they consider to be "culture war" issues or "The Republicans are corrupt bastards chained to Trump" issues because they think voters want to talk about "kitchen table issues." There are many problems with this, but one is, mostly, they aren't offering anything. This involves touting Biden's job record, bragging they've brought inflation down, and saying, basically, "message: we care about kitchen table issues."
Mostly it's away to avoid talking about doing anything, not an agenda for doing something, even an aspirational one.
And lacking an agreeable Congress, the "culture war issues" (these are all very important, not actually debates about whether candy coated chocolate mascots should be hot or not), are largely where the executive has power. Both actual power and the "bully pulpit."
Mostly it's away to avoid talking about doing anything, not an agenda for doing something, even an aspirational one.
And lacking an agreeable Congress, the "culture war issues" (these are all very important, not actually debates about whether candy coated chocolate mascots should be hot or not), are largely where the executive has power. Both actual power and the "bully pulpit."
Thursday, April 20, 2023
Bye Asshole
🚨BREAKING 🚨
— Phil Williams (@NC5PhilWilliams) April 20, 2023
Six hours after we first confronted Republican Rep. Scotty Campbell, he has now RESIGNED! https://t.co/IHJkyWuYAR
No Labels
The degree to which this "organization" gets attention from journalists raises lots of questions they will never answer.
How Many Pillows Did He Sell
Wondering if he has enough to pay.
MyPillow founder and prominent election denier Mike Lindell made a bold offer ahead of a “cyber symposium” he held in August 2021 in South Dakota: He claimed he had data showing Chinese interference and said he would pay $5 million to anyone who could prove the material was not from the previous year’s U.S. election.
He called the challenge “Prove Mike Wrong.”
On Wednesday, a private arbitration panel ruled that someone did.
The panel said Robert Zeidman, a computer forensics expert and 63-year-old Trump voter from Nevada, was entitled to the $5 million payout.
SPRING FUNDRAISER DAY THE FOURTH
Surely letting you know that Elon Musk was a big dumb racist asshole long before everybody knew it is worth some reward!
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How Do These Things Keep Happening
Some people get bonus points no matter what.
When it blew up, all the SpaceX people started enthusiastically clapping as if it was supposed to happen (it was not supposed to happen).
By "these things" I don't mean rockets blowing up. That happens. I mean everything getting fucked because a certain set of incompetent manbabies get applause no matter what they do.As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 20, 2023
Top Tweet Of All Time
How do you get this rich and have the most extreme case of poster's disease ever known to man?
I spend way too much time online - it's my job, also! - but really there are other things I like to do. If I had lots of money I would certainly fill more of my hours with other things!Musk: I think if anyone would know about aliens on Earth, it would probably be me. And I've seen no evidence of aliens. I would immediately tweet it out in a split second, that would probably be top tweet of all time, found one guys, jackpot. Eight billion likes, pic.twitter.com/tq8QsvrVBS
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 19, 2023
Fox Journalism
Leaving aside the dishonesty and propaganda, an interesting thing to ponder is, exactly what "journalism" does the supposed news side of Fox do?
After TWENTY ONE YEARS of this fine blog, I sometimes struggle to rehash the same arguments over and over as they are never responded to. I don't mean that *I* should be responded to. I am just a dumb blogger. But I am not the only one making them.
One point I've made repeatedly is that much of what is called "journalism" barely is, and in fact it is often the highest paid/highest status part of journalism.
Actual journalism - investigative, muckraking - is often treated as suspect, in part because it's almost by definition left wing. Uncovering the rot at the top is pretty left wing!
A good example of this is that amazing story the New York Times did on the Trump family tax fraud, involving his judge sister. Did you ever hear about that again? Did it get incorporated into The Narrative? Or just a fart in the wind.
In the category of Habermanesque political journalism, at least Haberman actually does the work! Her "scoops" mostly don't matter, but she still has material to file. Fox doesn't even do that much!
What exactly is the vital news we get from Fox News?
After TWENTY ONE YEARS of this fine blog, I sometimes struggle to rehash the same arguments over and over as they are never responded to. I don't mean that *I* should be responded to. I am just a dumb blogger. But I am not the only one making them.
One point I've made repeatedly is that much of what is called "journalism" barely is, and in fact it is often the highest paid/highest status part of journalism.
Actual journalism - investigative, muckraking - is often treated as suspect, in part because it's almost by definition left wing. Uncovering the rot at the top is pretty left wing!
A good example of this is that amazing story the New York Times did on the Trump family tax fraud, involving his judge sister. Did you ever hear about that again? Did it get incorporated into The Narrative? Or just a fart in the wind.
In the category of Habermanesque political journalism, at least Haberman actually does the work! Her "scoops" mostly don't matter, but she still has material to file. Fox doesn't even do that much!
What exactly is the vital news we get from Fox News?
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
But I Was Reliably Informed
That this wouldn't happen by the people paid tons of money to explain it all to you.
People forget how fast things changed. How fast they can change, and not only for the better.
The Florida Board of Education has voted to expand restrictions on classroom instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity.We all know what this means in practice. Gay people will be disappeared again.
"This amendment prohibits classroom instruction to students in pre-kindergarten through Grade 3 on sexual orientation or gender identity. For Grades 4 through 12, instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity is prohibited unless such instruction is either expressly required by state academic standards ... or is part of a reproductive health course or health lesson for which a student’s parent has the option to have his or her student not attend," according to the amendment.
People forget how fast things changed. How fast they can change, and not only for the better.
The Journalist Primary
Chris Christie ended his term in office (New Jersey Governor) with an approval rating below 15%. This is an amazing accomplishment! I don't even know how you can do that!
That hasn't stopped him getting top tier coverage from journalists ever since.
You can say that "getting journalists to pay attention to you" is just part of "doing politics good," but not everyone who is less popular than dog shit manages to do that and I doubt it's really because Chris Christie is super good at that part of politics!
Maybe some journalists, who love responding to good faith criticisms and questions, could discuss this further.
That hasn't stopped him getting top tier coverage from journalists ever since.
You can say that "getting journalists to pay attention to you" is just part of "doing politics good," but not everyone who is less popular than dog shit manages to do that and I doubt it's really because Chris Christie is super good at that part of politics!
Maybe some journalists, who love responding to good faith criticisms and questions, could discuss this further.
What Is Happening
One thing that slowly changed over my lifetime is that knocking on a stranger's door has become increasingly taboo. Impolite, at least. It isn't that I remember a time of a non-stop parade of strangers knocking on the door, but it was a perfectly normal thing when it happened. Someone walking up the driveway wasn't threatening. Certainly pulling into a someone's drive to make a "u-turn" was standard practice.
Of course it's obscene that anyone is inspired to pull out a gun and start shooting over these things, but how did "someone at my door or in my driveway" start being seen as intrusive behavior at all?
I mean, people shouldn't be pulling out guns and shooting at every perceived threat, but how did these things start being seen as perceived threats?
Of course it's obscene that anyone is inspired to pull out a gun and start shooting over these things, but how did "someone at my door or in my driveway" start being seen as intrusive behavior at all?
I mean, people shouldn't be pulling out guns and shooting at every perceived threat, but how did these things start being seen as perceived threats?
Spring Fundraiser Day 3!!!
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I pick on Cillizza, but he's still making more money from his dog shit takes than I am with my less shit takes!
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I pick on Cillizza, but he's still making more money from his dog shit takes than I am with my less shit takes!
Just Ignoring Facts
A big issue with Fox - what allowed their influence to be bigger than their precise reach - is every other "serious" journalist pretending that there is some meaningful distinction between "news" and "opinion" on the network, which there has never been. Top journalists ignored all of this until the Dominion stuff made it undeniable, and they'll promptly start ignoring it again. Media Matters has been documenting it daily for years, and they are all very experienced at pretending Fox is something it isn't.
It's their argument that what they do is just like what Fox does, not mine, but if they insist I will embrace the implications of that.
It's their argument that what they do is just like what Fox does, not mine, but if they insist I will embrace the implications of that.
Dominion
Now that they have settled with Fox, all the journalists can go back to pretending that Fox is their sister news organization.
One reason - there are many, dear readers - I am incredibly cynical about mainstream journalism is it's rather obvious why they let people in "the club" and it quite often has little to do with quality of journalism, even aspirational quality.
Fox aside, "the club" shouldn't put celebrity news readers and opinion blatherers at the top. People justifiably complain about the New York Times (especially) stealing their work without credit constantly.
Actual journalism isn't what too many people at the top respect, it's money and power, even in their own industry.
Is this a bit too unfair? It's an industry dedicated to transparency of others (supposedly) that doesn't allow for any public introspection in its own ranks. So it falls to asshole bloggers like me to make these points.
Chris Cillizza was an important guy until he wasn't (CNN fired him).
While posting this I searched for him and it seems he has a book out! I had no idea, because none of his former friends bothered to promote it. Weird they always promote each other! (Probably they did, some, but I never saw it!)
One reason - there are many, dear readers - I am incredibly cynical about mainstream journalism is it's rather obvious why they let people in "the club" and it quite often has little to do with quality of journalism, even aspirational quality.
Fox aside, "the club" shouldn't put celebrity news readers and opinion blatherers at the top. People justifiably complain about the New York Times (especially) stealing their work without credit constantly.
Actual journalism isn't what too many people at the top respect, it's money and power, even in their own industry.
Is this a bit too unfair? It's an industry dedicated to transparency of others (supposedly) that doesn't allow for any public introspection in its own ranks. So it falls to asshole bloggers like me to make these points.
Chris Cillizza was an important guy until he wasn't (CNN fired him).
While posting this I searched for him and it seems he has a book out! I had no idea, because none of his former friends bothered to promote it. Weird they always promote each other! (Probably they did, some, but I never saw it!)
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Everything Is Projection
One can overuse that, some, but it isn't so weird that we largely understand people as minor variations of ourselves, even if we aren't conscious of that. I'm not especially obsessed with grooming teenagers because I'm not interested in teenagers!
Sure Why Not
I know there was no golden age and Rules and Norms are whatever we are pretending they are today, but there was a time when politicians targeting a specific employer (large or small) because they pissed you off would be portrayed as off the charts bad.
The other thing about our dog shit pundits is that they love watching other people be kicked. Something I learned watching academia, in which a nontrivial proportion of seemingly otherwise reasonable people really loved the idea of getting a new president/provost who was an asskicker. They believed lots of other people needed to have their asses kicked, so this would be good!
You, my dear readers, because you are not dog shit pundits, understand the problems with this.
What do we call people who love authoritarian leaders who use the massive power of the state to punish their enemies?
While there were, roughly, national waves, Covid moved through different areas of the US at different times, and whenever Florida had a bit of a lull we got news pieces about how Meatball Ron was defying the critics. Pundits hated being told to clean up their dog shit, or wear their masks, so they loved it.
You, my dear readers, because you are not dog shit pundits, understand the problems with this.
What do we call people who love authoritarian leaders who use the massive power of the state to punish their enemies?
While there were, roughly, national waves, Covid moved through different areas of the US at different times, and whenever Florida had a bit of a lull we got news pieces about how Meatball Ron was defying the critics. Pundits hated being told to clean up their dog shit, or wear their masks, so they loved it.
Got Him
Shaq managing to avoid being served in an FTX lawsuit has been a funny side plot.
After months of attempting to serve Shaquille O’Neal in a lawsuit against celebrities who endorsed the now-bankrupt FTX crypto platform, lawyers for a group of FTX investors said they finally succeeded on Sunday.
“Plaintiffs in the billion $ FTX class action case just served @SHAQ outside his house,” the Moskowitz Law Firm tweeted. “His home video cameras recorded our service and we made it very clear that he is not to destroy or erase any of these security tapes, because they must be preserved for our lawsuit.”
UPDATE: Plaintiffs in the billion $ FTX class action case just served @SHAQ outside his house. His home video cameras recorded our service and we made it very clear that he is not to destroy or erase any of these security tapes, because they must be preserved for our lawsuit.
— The Moskowitz Law Firm (@moskowitzesq) April 17, 2023
Spring Fundraiser Day 2!!!
Don't have much of a pitch, as after all this time, what you see is what you get! My takes are a bit less dog shit than some!
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The Thing About Maria Bartiromo
Well not the only thing, but *a* thing about Maria Bartiromo is she's on the Board of Trustees of New York University.
Cruelty
There are some dog shit people in the White House, too.
In 2021, as images of children sleeping under foil blankets in overflow centers dominated the news, Susan E. Rice, the White House’s head of domestic policy, told staff members she was frustrated with the situation, according to five people who worked with her. Ms. Rice vented in a note she scribbled on a memo detailing the position of advocates, who believed a pandemic-era border closure was compelling parents to send unaccompanied children, sometimes called U.C.s."Generosity."
“This is BS,” Ms. Rice wrote, according to a copy of the memo reviewed by The Times. “What is leading to ‘voluntary’ separation is our generosity to UCs!”
Monday, April 17, 2023
Speaking Of Bigoted Dog Shit Pundits
Jon's the kind of guy would blame Dem election losses in Georgia on an overeager DEI employee in Florida, but never consider his own prominent role in rationalizing the worst people and the worst politics.
Sequel worse than the original!
You have a pretty prominent platform and you use it to lecture "liberals" about what they should "hope for"? Who the fuck cares! None of are going to vote for the guy anyway! Are we supposed to say nice things? Donate to his campaign? Get in board his attacks on trans people (yes, this is Chait, so that one)? What???
Sequel worse than the original!
All Of My Friends Were Enamored By The Guy Who Handed Out Million Dollar Bills To Us
And "we" are the smartest, and bestest, and most wonderful, and most kind people on the planet, so if WEEEE were fooled, ANYONE would have been?
McargleBargle ends her column on SBF with this:
Earlier in the piece:
It really was precisely Megan's peer/friend group who were providing SBF with his DC PR.
It wasn't "the rest of us" you twit.
McargleBargle ends her column on SBF with this:
But the story of FTX should also trigger some deep soul-searching among the rest of us. In a better world, people would not behave so irresponsibly — but nor would it be possible for someone this stupid to accumulate the kind of money and political influence that accrued to Bankman-Fried."That accrued to." How did that happen, Megs? Just walking along, accruing stuff from the easiest marks on the planet - our glorious pundits.
Earlier in the piece:
So was Bankman-Fried dumb or dishonest? A report from the FTX bankruptcy proceeding suggests that we might have to embrace the healing power of “both.”Indeed Megan, I must embrace the healing power of "both" every time I read one of your columns.
It really was precisely Megan's peer/friend group who were providing SBF with his DC PR.
It wasn't "the rest of us" you twit.
Too Much Credit
A lot of these "centrists" are tremendous bigots. They just use electoral calculations (completely made up ones) to justify it.
Centrists of a certain type seem to have become convinced that supporting trans rights is a liability for Democrats. They are working in a long tradition of sacrificing queer lives on the altar of so-called moderation. This is wrong and cruel.
— Lydia Polgreen (@lpolgreen) April 14, 2023
BLOGIVERSARY FUNDRAISER
The blog is now old enough to buy beer.
And that's how I kick off the SPRING FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVAGANZA! Not many paywall free places, but we do our best to keep alive the old (very old) internet here at atrios dot blogspot dot com.
Skip a couple overpriced coffees and throw it my way if you can!
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And that's how I kick off the SPRING FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVAGANZA! Not many paywall free places, but we do our best to keep alive the old (very old) internet here at atrios dot blogspot dot com.
Skip a couple overpriced coffees and throw it my way if you can!
Paypal:
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Become a Patron!
Thanks to all!
Dog Shit Pundits
The origin story for a lot of the current Discourse is a bunch of dipshit centrists being enraged that they were asked to wear masks in a pandemic.
That is how many of them became DeSantis-curious. They didn't care how many people his policies killled, or even that he's basically into vax denialism.
That, college students not thinking they are cool, and trans people and other "inferiors" calling them shitheads on twitter boiled all their brains.
That is how many of them became DeSantis-curious. They didn't care how many people his policies killled, or even that he's basically into vax denialism.
That, college students not thinking they are cool, and trans people and other "inferiors" calling them shitheads on twitter boiled all their brains.
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Dog Shit Politics
I regularly think about how once upon a time no one cleaned up after their dog shit. More than that, suggestions to implement laws requiring it were met with a lot of scorn.
People would rather live in a world of dog shit than have someone ask them to clean it up.
Pro-Choice America
I am not right about everything but I have long said that abortion polling obscures actual support for abortion rights. The third middle option - some form of "do you favor some restrictions" always offers respondents the "reasonable" answer.
Rape/health exceptions are always assumed by people answering these polls, as they can't even imagine monstrous policies that wouldn't include them.
They couldn't before, anyway.
They're Bad People, Brent
A conceit of the elite chattering classes is that none of them could be, you know, BAD.
Bad people are uneducated products of bad breeding - you know, THOSE people.
Nobody who went to Yale could be bad.
Saturday, April 15, 2023
Agency
Mere weeks away from the Republicans who pretend they hate Trump saying if only liberals hadn't been so mean to Meatball Ron...
How Did We Get Here
In part because conservatives spent decades screaming about "liberal justices" and "legislating from the bench" as "liberal" law professors wrote regular mash notes to Scalia.
Friday, April 14, 2023
Pretending Not To Understand Things
The problem with DiFi isn't that she is old or that she is temporarily ill, it is that she has dementia and even her supporters don't know if she can return to DC.
Illegitimate
I will keep repeating that there is some judicial order that would not be seen as legitimate, so they had better figure out where that line is and prepare.
Patriot Games
Nothing wrong with a bit of patriotism, but people who identify strongly as such generally hate the country with passion, loving instead an imagined nonexistent idea of the country, generally dominated by white supremacy. But, sure, WaPo, patriotic. Lead with that.
He’s from a patriotic family — and allegedly leaked U.S. secrets
...
“Jack is on his way home today, tech school complete, ready to start his career in the Air National Guard!” said the post, dated June 3, 2021. It was accompanied by a photograph of a patriotic-themed balloon tied to a mailbox and emblazoned, “Welcome home!”Wait for it.
Patriotic zeal appeared common around Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira, 21, who had followed in the footsteps of numerous family members to join the military. Teixeira, slim and boyish in photographs taken in his blue dress uniform, had been assigned to manage and troubleshoot computers and communications systems for the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base, according to the Air Force.
Teixeira, who used online handles that include “jackthedripper” and “excalibureffect,” posted the images to Discord, a chat platform popular with gamers, people familiar with the case said. Some Discord members showed The Washington Post video of Teixeira shouting racist and antisemitic slurs before firing a rifle. Like some others interviewed for this story, they spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
This "patriotism" is common the US (McVeigh and various movements) but it isn't "patriotism" in the way that normal people define the word, and is rather an odd choice to run with! "Patriot Movement" capital letters.
Just Tweet Through It
I don't imagine a golden age of anything ever, but I still think that, increasingly, politicians and similar understand they can just ride out the storm until the attention passes and then journalists will just stop mentioning whatever it was. "Resigning in disgrace" barely exists anymore.
Now we're more likely to get endless nuanced pieces of whether some blatant corruption is TECHNICALLY illegal or, barring that, whether highlighting the misdeeds the country's aristocracy is bad because it would make the proles lose faith in these glorious people and institutions (crooks and crooked).
Now we're more likely to get endless nuanced pieces of whether some blatant corruption is TECHNICALLY illegal or, barring that, whether highlighting the misdeeds the country's aristocracy is bad because it would make the proles lose faith in these glorious people and institutions (crooks and crooked).
Thursday, April 13, 2023
WE MUST CONFIRM THE JUDGES
The importance of judges has been the Dem election guilt line forever, and they have not had such a great record following through! Schumer has been doing much better, especially considering the closeness of the Senate, but if it isn't more important than Feinstein's personal saga...
It's An Important Job
I'm certainly not going to argue against the idea that sexism can and does play a role in everything, but arguing that, basically, since some people, 14 years ago, didn't ask Kennedy to resign, it's unfair to ask Feinstein to resign no matter what the consequences, misses the mark a bit especially given what those consequences are.
The character arcs and life stories of our faves are not really the critical things at the moment.
The character arcs and life stories of our faves are not really the critical things at the moment.
Bags Of Cash On The Desk
I used to say - corrctly enough - that while the US was much more corrupt than everyone pretends, at the federal level at least, it mostly didn't have simple cash-for-favors corruption. Not so sure anymore!
Stranger Danger
I said at the time that there was a pretty good chance this wasn't random violence, not because I knew anything but because stranger danger murders of this type aren't actually that common.
Mission Local is informed that the San Francisco Police Department early this morning made an arrest in the April 4 killing of tech executive Bob Lee, following an operation undertaken outside the city’s borders. The alleged killer also works in tech and is a man Lee purportedly knew.Relevant because when the Bay Area tech idiot aren't demanding the government give them billions of dollars, they're freaking out about "crime" (visible homeless people).
We are told that police today were dispatched to Emeryville with a warrant to arrest a man named Nima Momeni. The name and Emeryville address SFPD officers traveled to correspond with this man, the owner of a company called Expand IT.
Seems Bad
20 years ago it was obvious we'd go from "global warming isn't real->global warming is real but isn't caused by people->global warming is real but the costs of doing anything is too high->it's too late to do anything about it" though it wasn't obvious just how fast.
Rainfall increased in intensity during the evening hours, with rainfall rates in excess of 3 to 4 inches per hour at times. Data from Weather Underground, which crowdsources weather data, indicated a number of totals eclipsing two feet near Fort Lauderdale International Airport. As of 11 p.m. Eastern time, area totals ranged from just under 20 inches to a whopping 25.46 in the Shady Banks part of Fort Lauderdale.
Valentine's Day Plans
I shouldn't be a US senator. There are various reasons I wouldn't be particularly good at it, and one is that I'd probably get pretty sick of feeling obligated to drop everything and take care of something important on a regular basis. Sometimes that just means "doing a cable news hit" and sometimes that means "postponing your vacation plans for something important when barbarians storm the castle."
I'm not saying I think all 100 senators - in fact, quite obviously they don't - feel that sense of obligation. But *I* would and also I wouldn't be very good at meeting it happily.
Anyway, it's an important job and if you can't meet the obligations you should let someone else do it.
I'm not saying I think all 100 senators - in fact, quite obviously they don't - feel that sense of obligation. But *I* would and also I wouldn't be very good at meeting it happily.
Anyway, it's an important job and if you can't meet the obligations you should let someone else do it.
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
My Salary Isn't Going To Pay Itself
What the hell.
Three people who have visited with the senator in recent weeks or been briefed on her status say her diagnosis appears to have taken a heavy toll on her. Other confidants, including two who have seen or spoken with the senator, underscored that they are still hopeful she could serve out the nearly two years that remain in her term. But neither of those people, who addressed the sensitive matter on condition of anonymity, indicated they were confident she would be able to do so from Washington.
Indeed, aides and confidants are currently offering up no firm timeframe for her return to a chamber where Democrats are sorely missing her vote. And Feinstein’s own spokesman Adam Russell said that there was no update on her expected date to return to Washington, though at least one associate to the senator said she’s “making good progress in her recovery.”
Conservatives Want Pregnant Women To Die
This was the kind of statement that used to send all the dipshit centrists to the fainting couches, as they wrote about "abortion extremists" and did not mean the anti-choice movement, but the people fighting them.
A certain kind of pundit never listens to the people who know what they are talking about. People who disagree with dipshit centrists are emotional and irrational, not the infallible Vulcans they imagine themselves to be.
Is it clear, yet, that conservatives just want pregnant women to die?
A certain kind of pundit never listens to the people who know what they are talking about. People who disagree with dipshit centrists are emotional and irrational, not the infallible Vulcans they imagine themselves to be.
Is it clear, yet, that conservatives just want pregnant women to die?
Sounds Bad
Wonder what it is.
Federal investigators are asking witnesses whether former President Donald J. Trump showed off to aides and visitors a map he took with him when he left office that contains sensitive intelligence information, four people with knowledge of the matter said.
What's The Problem
The problem is the reporter has no idea what the problem is, just another day in political journalism.
This story, which opens with that anecdote showing Yoo’s close personal relationship with *Harlan Crow,* is written by the same reporter who quoted John Yoo four days ago as a detached observer defending Thomas and Crow’s relationship.
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) April 12, 2023
Does it revisit that defense? It does not.
Everyone Gets A Bonus
Good job, everyone.
Elon on this BBC interview says that being under constant strain and attack has been rough and emotionally hurtful.
— Jason Goldman (@goldman) April 12, 2023
Really validating to get this kind of feedback.
Elder Abuse
I think we all understood that continuing to put Bruce Willis in a series of bad films when he didn't know where he was half the time was not an especially nice thing to do, and the people doing the same thing for Diane Feinstein aren't being particularly nice to her, either.
There are more important things than their careers.
There are more important things than their careers.
Dianne Feinstein has missed 58 Senate votes in the last month because of illness/being 89 years old. Biden can't confirm any federal judges without all Dems present on the Judiciary Committee. She's given no indication of a return date.
— Julia Claire (@ohJuliatweets) April 10, 2023
Tuesday, April 11, 2023
How Is This Supposed To Work
They are individually bad policies, but you don't need too many examples like this to understand why open carry and "stand your ground" are utterly incompatible.
Puzzle Solution
It mostly isn't voters that push Dems to the center, it's numerous other pressures. You know, "insurer demands for a slower policy rollout."
That kind of thing.
Why do they have so much power? People never really explain that one. It mostly isn't "campaign contributions" which is the usually false explanation given.
Why do they have so much power? People never really explain that one. It mostly isn't "campaign contributions" which is the usually false explanation given.
Pour Concrete In The Public Pool
Not nearly as troubling as an Oberlin undergrad criticizing the cafeteria offerings, but almost.
Llano County officials must offer library books they’d removed, judge ordersThey are considering shutting it instead.
(Apologies end of post was truncated initially for some reason)
Is Pop Political Science... Wrong?
There have been three Democratic presidents in my (adult) lifetime. All three ran in the primaries as the "moderate" candidate, zagged left to win the election, and then governed more to the center (Biden, surprisingly, stayed to the left more than the other guys).
This is not what savvy political commentators tells us is supposed to happen, even as they're watching it happen! You fake being a lefty to win the primary, and then go to the center to win the election!
Very strange.
This is not what savvy political commentators tells us is supposed to happen, even as they're watching it happen! You fake being a lefty to win the primary, and then go to the center to win the election!
Very strange.
Monday, April 10, 2023
Everybody's On The Payroll
As we have discovered, every conservative you've ever heard of is, in one way or another, on the payroll of the Nazi memorabilia collector.
Income for liberals is probably a better use of liberal donor money than free food for conservatives.
Reasonable Conservatives
A mystery to me is why so many liberals are desperate for there to be good conservatives, and often became very angry if you inform them that their favorite good conservative it not, in fact, good.
Back in the dawn of the blogging era, I pissed off a lot of "liberals" because I did not think that their favorite glibertarian, Glenn Reynolds, was actually a "good conservative" (in their telling he was a secret liberal).
People used to get mad about criticisms of skull-measurer Andrew Sullivan, too. The latest Good Conservative is David French. The man is not good!
Back in the dawn of the blogging era, I pissed off a lot of "liberals" because I did not think that their favorite glibertarian, Glenn Reynolds, was actually a "good conservative" (in their telling he was a secret liberal).
People used to get mad about criticisms of skull-measurer Andrew Sullivan, too. The latest Good Conservative is David French. The man is not good!
The New Normal
Pregnancy isn't necessarily something people choose, but I wouldn't advise choosing it in these states.
She had intended to deliver the fetus in a hospital, a doctor by her side. When her water broke the night before — at least six weeks ahead of when a fetus could survive on its own — she drove straight to the emergency room, where she said the doctor explained that she was experiencing pre-viability preterm prelabor rupture of the membranes (PPROM), which occurs in less than 1 percent of pregnancies. The condition can cause significant complications, including infection and hemorrhage, that can threaten the health or life of the mother, according to multiple studies.
At the hospital in Coral Springs, Fla., Cook received antibiotics, records show. Then she was sent home to wait.
Easy Marks
I've seen people dunk on this for various reasons. My take is that Bruce, who seems to be a decent guy as former Republicans go (maybe about the only one I'd say that about), isn't making the point he should be making. His point is "this is smart and The Left should do this more." What it says to me is that DC careerist ghouls are easily corrupted by free drinks and polite niceties.Sure, half the attendees were nonideological interns looking for a free drink and some food--in DC that's how they survive. But in the process they became friends with conservatives, maybe picked up some right-wing ideology and useful career contacts, and then joined the team.
— Bruce Bartlett (@BruceBartlett) April 9, 2023
For two decades I've heard liberal lawyer-types explains that Federalist Society events are nice social events in which Left and Right often debate and this is good and healthy.
And then they'd take to the opinion pages to defend one of these weirdo fascist freaks when they were nominated for judgeships.
You were the marks, guys! You were the marks all along! Either that or you were in on the con!
Stupid, stupid assholes. Not ones we vote for, but ones who put themselves in positions of power and abuse the shit out of it for some fucking free canapes and mid-priced booze.
Conservatives are corrupt, but they aren't this stupid! Don't think some bipartisan happy hours are going to make them less evil!
Just Vote
A little social compact I imagine should exist is that when powerful people implore normal people to put in time and money to donate, work, and vote in elections, they should actually do something with the power they are given.
I wrote "something." I don't expect them to fully implement the Atrios Agenda. I just really hate the buck passing Democrats do. The "Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee is just a smol bean with no power, someone else should do something" type stuff.
I wrote "something." I don't expect them to fully implement the Atrios Agenda. I just really hate the buck passing Democrats do. The "Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee is just a smol bean with no power, someone else should do something" type stuff.
Sunday, April 09, 2023
A Man Who Moves Across A Space And Then Disappears
Until I hit middle age - along with my peers - I never realized how much malevolent insanity is driven by people having complete breakdowns over the fact that they aren't the main characters anymore.
Saturday, April 08, 2023
Surprised Face 😐
Nobody could have predicted.
W
hen Republican megadonor Harlan Crow isn’t lavishing Justice Clarence Thomas with free trips on his private plane and yacht (in possible violation of Supreme Court ethics rules), he lives a quiet life in Dallas among his historical collections. These collections include Hitler artifacts—two of his paintings of European cityscapes, a signed copy of Mein Kampf, and assorted Nazi memorabilia—plus a garden full of statues of the 20th century’s worst despots.Don't see you complaining that Indiana Jones collects Nazi artifacts, too, Atrios!!!
3 Branches
At some point "we have 3 separate, equal branches" became "The lifetime appointed God Kings of the judiciary can do anything they want, suck it" (thanks, Nina Totenberg), and while I don't claim to be a fancy Constitutional Scholar like Ann Coulter (media outlets used to call her that), judicial review is the bit of our system with the least constitutional justification.
Some jockeying over power between the branches is normal. The Bush administration constantly declared bits of laws unconstitutional, for example, without consulting the courts.
"We're just going to pretend you didn't say that" is perfectly valid. There is some crossed line at which that would be obvious to most people (Texas judge declares Laura Loomer is president now), so as with most things "we're" just arguing about where that line is.
There's a bit of a problem one branch decides "separation of powers" means "this branch, we have all the power."
Some jockeying over power between the branches is normal. The Bush administration constantly declared bits of laws unconstitutional, for example, without consulting the courts.
"We're just going to pretend you didn't say that" is perfectly valid. There is some crossed line at which that would be obvious to most people (Texas judge declares Laura Loomer is president now), so as with most things "we're" just arguing about where that line is.
There's a bit of a problem one branch decides "separation of powers" means "this branch, we have all the power."
Friday, April 07, 2023
Elon Musk Is A Big Dumb Racist Asshole
Good everyone knows that now, but really there are never any rewards for being "prematurely correct."
What Is Money, Daddy
Was chatting with a woman who does various education initiatives for family learning, and she said that, increasingly, children don't really know what money is. I don't mean that in the sense that they don't appreciate the cost of things, I mean that they have little exposure to bills and coins and therefore don't really grasp the concept of money.
Parents don't pay for stuff in the supermarket by counting out bits of colored paper, they just tap with a card. The bills and coins fit in with age appropriate learning like counting back in the dark ages (5 years ago). And slightly older kids don't even pay for things themselves they once would have - like school lunches - it's also just tapping a card or some other similar method.
Anyway, interesting!
Parents don't pay for stuff in the supermarket by counting out bits of colored paper, they just tap with a card. The bills and coins fit in with age appropriate learning like counting back in the dark ages (5 years ago). And slightly older kids don't even pay for things themselves they once would have - like school lunches - it's also just tapping a card or some other similar method.
Anyway, interesting!
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