adinfinitum.bsky.social
Asymptotically stable
86 posts
99 followers
81 following
Discussion Master
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Musk is doing to the US federal government what he did to Twitter: killing the value proposition. But in this case, there's no alternate platform for consumer protection or air traffic control.
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Part of it may just be in the editing:
freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/if-paul-kr...
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I just use "Revolution, Inc." in those situations. Job title could be something like "Event Specialist" (thanks Badiou).
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I'd never seen the guy speak at length until this interview. He was slow of tongue, and his delivery of potential sound bites was as badly cadenced as last-debate-Biden. Take a look at the other side - the Dems need a pointman from Sales, not Legal.
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Level 1 'common sense': insufficiently critical, missing variables, potentially hazardous, and political gold.
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Vance's formula is (i) qualify with something like "I love other party .... have friends.. " (ii) trash said party. "I've got nothing against Mr. Smith, but he is a weak, drunken degenerate who needs to be brought in line".
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"Saving his country" resembles a Sovietism like "showing sufficient enthusiasm for the State". It's an intentional ambiguation designed to give him a wide interpretative berth.
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Maybe trump can rename it 'Gulf of No Red Tide' - should clear the problem right up. Might need to ban media access to the area.
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Trump's people follow the Orban model - you don't need to steal elections if you make the right promises (keepable or no) and promise to punish certain 'elites'. Of course, you're not going to punish the 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 elites (billionaire plutocrats); so you can leverage 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 resources for message control.
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The big news of the day was inflation ticking up. Trump is also 'frustrated' by the immigration arrest numbers; unapprised of the logistical difficulties of deporting 11 million people. Even to MAGAns, these EO stunts will look like tactics to deflect attention from his substantive promises.
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Trump talked about his the other day in a FOX interview. I came away with the impression that he wants to do away with CFPB becuase 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘚𝘦𝘯. 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯, who he called 'Pocahontas' (in the spirit of 2020). I've seen no further justification for this determined rejection of transparency.
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Are these new RWBians aware they're going to lose their universal health care?
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Milan Kundera said at some point he stopped fearing death so much, and I think after enough time living, a degree of DGAF develops. Combine that with senility, you get toxic disregard for established limits. Haley may have been right about testing candidates 70+, if not by law then convention.
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Wonder what the basis is for the objection to the McAfee interviews? Could be using AR's egotism against him to jettison the contract. Maybe he's shown insufficient focus and leadership. Or maybe he's been a little too honest here-and-there about the decision-making.
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This is the dumbest thing Trump's people have done yet. They're destroying the value proposition for the US Government; looking to de/underfund the programs that give the most bang-for-the-buck, in this case medical research.
Yet somehow, they'll find a way to increase military spending.
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There are economic multipliers attached to cuts like these, too. Along with the buyouts, agency reductions, maybe at some point you're talking about negatively impacting GDP. Regardless, there will be hardship for a lot of administrators as well as recipients.
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The NYT headline was unintentionally funny: "Early Crypto Traders Had Speedy Profit on Trump Coin as Others Suffered Losses", because this isn't exactly a unique event. You can trade out "Trump Coin" for about any other 'coin' and you've got a schematic description.
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I don't get why lack of transparency is suddenly in vogue, or why the populace doesn't prioritize the right to not get screwed. Like no one likes the banks, the cable companies, or phone scammers. Was the CPB actually unpopular? Maybe it's the vibe "everyone's a sucker but me", who knows?
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But maybe midnighte is (above the law).
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These policies weren't for no reason. The main thing to watch during this no-diversity push is recruitment numbers. The economy has more-or-less full employment, and if there's one thing the 21st century has taught us, it's that Republican presidents can get you killed/mained in far-off places.
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This whole "billionaires shaping public context" reality we're in seems fraught with possible hazards. Polio comes to mind.
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The GOP can use reconciliation for the fiscal bills. The Democratic senators can't filibuster the the next round of tax cuts that will drive inflation up, force the fed to react, and ultimately cause a recession.
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Simple: raise the minimum age for Social Security and Medicare to 80. Back to work, Boomer! If that doesn't get it, prison labor (cheap, too).
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Doesn't the 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢 argument consist of (a) you're never going to sway the MAGAns away, and they're defensive, (b) independents find the guy to be entertaining? I think the Dems are better off assailing his surrogates/accomplices, trying to steer the discussion back to unpopular GOP policies.
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"Doesn't have a mandate" - unfortunately, unlike the Democrats, usually when the GOP has control of all three branches, they act on their (wrongheaded) principles, at least regarding fiscal/tax policy. The Dems get locked into internal battles, or stopped cold by Manchin/Synema types.
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One of Trump's defining traits is his aversion to accountability. It's particularly surprising that his fellow rightists indulge this, because the tradcon framework is built on the concept that a man exhbits responsibility as patriarch/provider. Trump should be a textbook cautionary tale.
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You got any proof of that statement, "DEI was driving people away"?
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Eh, he'll do the same thing all of them do: ask for more money for the bloated M-I complex. The anti-DEI thing will just make it harder to recruit, unless his boss manages to tank the economy and drive unemployment up again.
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Reporter : is it ok to allow ICE to enter churches to round up immigrants?
Vance: it's ok to enter churches to arrest violent criminals.
Me: those aren't exactly the same thing.
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My bad: Bagels*
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"God is still on the throne" doesn't mean much to us in the agnostic contingent. Sounds like something Clarence Thomas would say. I'd prefer just "this sucks, but will get better"; that at least 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 turn out to be true.
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Eggs, now coffee. Maybe Trump can find a way to jack up the price of Bagles and Oatmeal, so we'll be thinking about him every morning.
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Time to put down that game controller, close your sportsbook and crypto apps, and get out there and pick some lettuce. Maybe set up a hotline for their mothers to call in, "the great basement labor raid of '24".
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Thanks for your service, Bill. I'm sure that was a demanding and challenging 96 hours. That had to be tough finding out that the government wasn't spending $2 trillion a year on DEI parties, and you guys might have to cut defense spending or something.
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Sure, Jordan+crew will probably still thrash around and try and find another Benghazi to waste time on, but imo the Dems need to remove distractions and let this term play out as a test for Trumponomics.
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I really like the political calculus, pardoning Fauci and the J6 committee. Biden is taking away options, putting more pressure on Republicans to actually lead instead of investigate.
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That's why we're going to see a fake "mass" deportation. They're going to round up a few thousand immigrants with criminal records, the rightist media praising the strength of God-Emperor Trump. No way there's going to be a significant crackdown on agricultural workers, since we all need food.
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John Rawls wrote that the purpose of a constitution was to enumerate and enshrine essential liberties and rights, and specified what some of these should be (freedom of speech/conscience/association and political freedoms), and separated them from legislative priorities (e.g. redistributive laws).
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Technically speaking, this is not so much a lie as a wild and unfalsifiable claim. There is a tendency by fact-checkers and journalists to categorize odd historical claims, wrong predictions, or opinions as falsehoods. This helps Trump apologists who claim interpretative license was taken.
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I read a good LinkedIn post last week (can't find link) with a lawyer who quit representing Meta over Zuckerberg's announcement. His decision was to stay on FB but not buy anything from their advertisers. That last part should be a thing. "I'm just here for the free beer" and such.
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Meta has 72,000 employees and massive infrastructure. Probably the thing keeping a lot of people there (despite Zuckerberg) is how easy it is to upload photos, and maintain contacts. That type of capacity would be expensive to replicate, and it would be difficult to get people to move.
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Hey, old-dog-new-tricks: dude's gotten a grip on the use of tautology at age 53. If he wanted to say something 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘧𝘶𝘭, maybe "less babies, W for the enviroment, L for capitalism".
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100-200 agents aren't going to meaningfully reduce the number of undocumented immigrants, even in just one city. 'Amplify' is exactly right: they're going to round up some criminals, with the rightist media trying to sell the low-hanging fruit as the whole tree. Dog-and-Pony show.
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Vance used the same strategy in a FOX interview: he described the growing economy, with decreasing inflation and full employment, as a disaster. Why Johnson wasn't asked about those details, and allowed this non-answer, is beyond me. No one with sense believes 2019 price levels will return.
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Whining about "four years", but it's the answer to a test question: "How long is too long to figure out Trump is using you?". Also, if dude is pardoned he may be able to legally own a firearm again. #badidea Insurrectionists should settle into their lives as 2nd-class citizens.
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It's certainly not the environment that's negatively impacted by declining fertility - it's mainly a problem for 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮. As an example, the red states, in need of another generation of low-wage workers, quickly pass anti-choice laws. There's handwringing in the market-connected media, too.
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Thank Zeus that JFK had those aspirational leaders on group chat during the Cuban MIssile Crisis. Cause when things get serious, that's the time for spitballin', gladhandling industrialists, and emoji-tossin'.
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I mean, this is a glimpse of the next four years. The GOP has converted politics into entertainment, so instead of action there will be targeted trolling only. When you lose on policy and win on vibes, you make the latter your priority.
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Maybe Trump has a max-deplorability threshold? With this and the H-1B stance bait-and-switch, Trump is putting the whip-hand to MAGA. He's closing ranks with the tech illuminati, and keeping the 𝘩𝘰𝘪 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘪 in order and in-line. Their fault for believing him.
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Yeah, I agree, and it's very sad that a collapse is the only way to get rid of MAGA-style populism (though some other type of populism might be in order).
Ideological dealignment has left a lot of voters up for grabs, and the rightist media is winning the war on self-interest voting.