Not sure how it is evening already. Have a video.
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Shit People
You have to be pretty fucking evil to enjoy breaking up families like this.
Morale is up, they say! So much fun.
If we can't change the policy, we can make these shit people feel like shit people that they are.
Two officials in Washington said that the shift — and the new enthusiasm that has come with it — seems to have encouraged pro-Trump political comments and banter that struck the officials as brazen or gung-ho, like remarks about their jobs becoming “fun.” Those who take less of a hard line on unauthorized immigrants feel silenced, the officials said.
Morale is up, they say! So much fun.
If we can't change the policy, we can make these shit people feel like shit people that they are.
Existential
If you're betting your taxi business on self-driving cars, time to fold.
In August, Kalanick laid out the stakes of his competition with Google to Bloomberg: “The minute it was clear to us that our friends in Mountain View were going to be getting in the ride-sharing space, we needed to make sure there is an alternative [self-driving car], because if there is not, we’re not going to have any business.”
Building their own self-driving car “is basically existential for us”, he added.
Shit People
ICE isn't the FBI, which you sort of understand (right or wrong) gets away with bigfooting state and local police. They don't necessarily have very much elite law enforcement training, which as I understand it the FBI does. Not that such training makes you a perfect human being, of course, but it at least gives you a framework to operate in (or not).
Assholes.
Assholes.
Santa Cruz police: Homeland Security misled city with ‘gang’ raids that were immigration related
Police chief says department will no longer work with Department of Homeland Security
Is This Who They Thought They Voted For?
I know President Trump is basically the same as Campaign Trump. This is no surprise to some of us, though it is a surprise to all the journalists who wrote "pivot" stories every single day after he had won the nomination and "time to be presidential" stories after the election. I just wonder if man who endlessly whines about the size of his yuge fingers on twitter is really what people thought they were getting.
There are certain personality types that seem to gravitate towards each other in a way I don't really understand. I get the narcissists can be charming but I don't get how they often seem to find each other charming. I thought they'd always want to kill each other. I get that we have a lot of whiny old white dudes who have people in their lives who put up with their particular brand of whining, but I don't know why other whiny old white dudes like them. It's weird.
Maybe the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN should have their own rally. It would be the biggest of them all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2017
There are certain personality types that seem to gravitate towards each other in a way I don't really understand. I get the narcissists can be charming but I don't get how they often seem to find each other charming. I thought they'd always want to kill each other. I get that we have a lot of whiny old white dudes who have people in their lives who put up with their particular brand of whining, but I don't know why other whiny old white dudes like them. It's weird.
Morning Thread
Which scandal will the topic of the bobble head shows this weekend. Reince trying to squash the FBI investigation into Russia? The President at Mar a Lago again this weekend? Or, maybe, Dems in disarray at their yearly meeting.
Friday, February 24, 2017
Lies and the Lying Liars
As I keep saying, I don't think safety per se is the issue. If they work, they'll be safe enough. It's tautological almost. Making them safe isn't the challenge. Making them work is.
I never believed all their "human error" bullshit. And no this isn't evidence that they won't work, it's just evidence that Uber can't be trusted. They still won't work.
...adding, someone in a position to know a bit more about this stuff than I do emailed me once to explain what it was all about. Roughly, it's this:
Everybody has an interest in keeping the con going...until it's over.
But even though Uber said it had suspended an employee riding in the Volvo, the self-driving car was, in fact, driving itself when it barreled through the red light, according to two Uber employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they signed nondisclosure agreements with the company, and internal Uber documents viewed by The New York Times. All told, the mapping programs used by Uber’s cars failed to recognize six traffic lights in the San Francisco area. “In this case, the car went through a red light,” the documents said.
I never believed all their "human error" bullshit. And no this isn't evidence that they won't work, it's just evidence that Uber can't be trusted. They still won't work.
...adding, someone in a position to know a bit more about this stuff than I do emailed me once to explain what it was all about. Roughly, it's this:
In fact, Sebastian Thrun, who founded Google’s self-driving car project and is now the chief executive of the online teaching start-up Udacity, said last year that the going rate for driverless car engineering talent was about $10 million a person.
Everybody has an interest in keeping the con going...until it's over.
SHUT UP AND ACT!!!!!!!!!
Oscar weekend, which means some celebrities will probably say mean things about Trump which will be "controversial" and make Real America OH SO MAD and they will never buy any movie tickets again, or something.
I have no idea if celebrities are capable of having a positive influence in this fashion. Some probably have a sophisticated understanding of politics and political discourse and some don't. Who cares? They have a big platform, and if they want to use it they should. Even Oscar nominee Scott Baio should be allowed to speak. And it's silly that it's a CONTROVERSY. The same people who lament that we just don't talk enough about politics will get upset when people talk about politics. Pundits with no expertise in anything get Very Mad Indeed when other people with no obvious expertise express opinions instead of listening to them.
I have no idea if celebrities are capable of having a positive influence in this fashion. Some probably have a sophisticated understanding of politics and political discourse and some don't. Who cares? They have a big platform, and if they want to use it they should. Even Oscar nominee Scott Baio should be allowed to speak. And it's silly that it's a CONTROVERSY. The same people who lament that we just don't talk enough about politics will get upset when people talk about politics. Pundits with no expertise in anything get Very Mad Indeed when other people with no obvious expertise express opinions instead of listening to them.
Escape From Paris
Trump cites "Jim," "a friend," "a pretty substantial guy," who says you can't visit Paris anymore cos it's too dangerous.
— Greg Krieg (@GregJKrieg) February 24, 2017
I'm not sure why Americans want to believe this stuff about Europe. The murder rate of Paris is about 1/5 the overall US murder rate, equivalent to the murder rate of Arlington, TX. The only real explanation is that nostalgia for a time when Europe was whiter than it is now is a helluva hallucinogenic drug.
Indeed
Most of the rest of the state just sees Philadelphia as a source of raw material for its prisoner manufacturing industry.
The city's own politicians aren't always perfect (far from it!), but the state controls many of the important things (schools) and the constitution limits what the city can do with respect to taxes.
Mayor Kenney on Thursday slammed as "racism" a Pennsylvania state senator’s suggestion that inner-city students should not be encouraged to attend college but instead steered toward vo-tech programs.
"It’s racism, and it should be called out to be racism,” he said in leveling the criticism against Sen. John Eichelberger of Blair County, which includes Altoona. "And you can see what we’re up against.”
The city's own politicians aren't always perfect (far from it!), but the state controls many of the important things (schools) and the constitution limits what the city can do with respect to taxes.
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Career
One thing I find mindbogglingly weird is the number of people who clearly see some very important jobs - mayor of a major city or governor of a major state (cough Christie cough) as simply a stepping stone to greater things. Sure life is long and we are all motivated by concerns a few months off, but I don't know how you can assume that kind of responsibility and then not too long into your run just say "ah, fuck it, who cares, where's my next job?" Especially since I would wager that a pretty good way to enhance your future career chances is to be a good and popular governor, not the most unpopular one in the history of the planet. I know failing upwards is isn't hard to do in wingnutland, but you probably shouldn't be such a failure.
Why Don't Millennials Buy Houses?
The need for credentialing has gone up, the cost of credentialing has gone way up. Students (not just law students!) enter the workforce with one mortgage and people expect them to get another right away. Easy to do if you cut back on Starbucks purchases.
But The Women Will Make Them Do The Right Thing
It's long been a part of the press narrative about powerful Republican men. Oh, yes, they're a bit harsh, but the women in their lives might soften them just a bit. It's a weird mix of things. Bizarre assumptions about gender and gender dynamics (women are "nicer" and they have soft influence on their menfolk), implicit (but not explicit) acknowledgement that the men are, in fact, assholes (they are but you don't need to contrast them to imaginary versions of women in their lives to make that case), and, of course, a perpetual Lucy/football dynamic on the issues. Maybe this time Ivanka will make him do the right thing!
I have no idea if a Dictator Ivanka would be kindler and gentler than a Dictator Trump, but nobody else does either. There's certainly no reason to believe that a)she's better/nice/smarter and b)has or will use influence successfully.
I have no idea if a Dictator Ivanka would be kindler and gentler than a Dictator Trump, but nobody else does either. There's certainly no reason to believe that a)she's better/nice/smarter and b)has or will use influence successfully.
FBI Follies
I'm not entirely surprised the FBI does this stuff, but I am surprised that no one actually thinks it's so embarrassing that they shouldn't tout it when they do.
Compassion
Alan Colmes died. Kind of a weird reminder that there was a time when Fox pretended to be "Fair and Balanced." They didn't put much effort into pretending, but they put in just enough effort that other news outlets gave them a seat at the big boy table.
I clicked through some comments to Fox's announcement of this, and one of the responses was something like "wrong politics, but obviously a very caring and compassionate man." And I realize being caring and compassionate is a weird part of conservative self-identity, part of the Real America is Great, so we are Great, so we are Compassionate. I'm not sure what conservatives even claim to be caring and compassionate about anymore, and whatever else one thinks of, say, Hannity and O'Reilly it's hard to think "they exude compassion" is really what even their most deluded fans thing.
And this is what the shit people at ICE are up to.
America is Great and Good and We are Great and Good and Jesus was Caring and so are We. Just ignore what we do.
I clicked through some comments to Fox's announcement of this, and one of the responses was something like "wrong politics, but obviously a very caring and compassionate man." And I realize being caring and compassionate is a weird part of conservative self-identity, part of the Real America is Great, so we are Great, so we are Compassionate. I'm not sure what conservatives even claim to be caring and compassionate about anymore, and whatever else one thinks of, say, Hannity and O'Reilly it's hard to think "they exude compassion" is really what even their most deluded fans thing.
And this is what the shit people at ICE are up to.
An undocumented woman in desperate need of brain surgery has been forcibly removed from a Texas hospital — and her relatives in New York fear she could lose her life, a family representative said early Thursday.
America is Great and Good and We are Great and Good and Jesus was Caring and so are We. Just ignore what we do.
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