Wednesday, July 05, 2017
Wankers And Fuckers
Well then.
All the while Mrs May will aim to push Brexit legislation through the House of Commons when she has a working majority of only 13 and is vulnerable to rebellions by pro-European Conservatives pushing her towards a softer version of Brexit and disarming her threat to walk away with no deal.
The poison is already running around the system. “We can work with half the Labour party and crush the fuckers,” says one Conservative MP, referring to his Eurosceptic colleagues. A leading pro-Brexit MP says he would not tolerate threats from the “wankers” on his party’s pro-European wing.
This Is A Problem
We have a too powerful executive which means that the executive matters, and while I didn't like the idea that during some of the Bush years Cheney was (to some degree, not entirely) the "real executive" or at least operated as a surrogate one, it did mean there was a second person by the phone in case George choked on a pretzel or something (oh, wait, that happened). I don't know who number two is in this administration when Donald wanders off. Yes, technically it's Pence, but it isn't clear that it actually is Pence...Probably it's a bunch of scheming backstabbing idiots who think being president means coming up with the best memes to do Twitter owns.
Disruption
It's a vision of the future straight from 1964. Pity everybody who has to work there.
Wow. A theater.
Other people is weird.
The entire project shows off Apple’s obsession with details. The custom windows were made in Germany and are considered the world’s largest panels of curved glass. One pair of glass doors is 92 feet high. The finish on the underground concrete garage, said David Brandt, Cupertino’s city manager, is so shiny it is almost like glass.
“Mind-blowing, mind-blowing, mind-blowing,” the mayor, Savita Vaidhyanathan, said about her visit to the site. “I saw the underground 1,000-seat theater and the carbon-fiber roof. The roof was made in Dubai, and it was transported and assembled here. I love that it’s here and that I can brag about it.”
Wow. A theater.
Other people is weird.
Sometimes Jersey Gets It Right
Though not quite right enough to make me stop my one issue mayoral campaign of closing the bridges to Jersey on weekends.
Tuesday, July 04, 2017
Rails, Crossed
It's difficult to communicate how big the Crossrail (Elizabeth Line) project is if you aren't familiar with London, but the important point is that it's a massive project which essentially duplicates (not precisely, but essentially) existing service to expand capacity/speed. A train about every 4 minutes.
As the New York Subway falls apart, something to keep in mind...
As the New York Subway falls apart, something to keep in mind...
First Department Stores, Now BABIES
Millennials are killing everything!!!
I'm sure the reasons for this are complicated and as with many things it is wrong to think monocausally, but I am not yet *that* old and when I graduated college (from a not particularly elite state school) it was perfectly reasonable, economically, for everyone I knew to: get married in a couple of years, buy a house, have a kid, and pay for all of these things, probably with a little help from your family, but not "buy a condo in Manhattan" help, just a little a bit around the edges. People didn't dream of or expect riches for the most part, but those things were perceived to be within reasonable reach.
Now the millennials spend all of their money on slices of vegetables on toast, so it's their own fault, really.
In 2016, the fertility rate in the United States was the lowest it has ever been.
There were 62 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, down 1 percent from 2015. There were 3,941,109 babies born in 2016.
I'm sure the reasons for this are complicated and as with many things it is wrong to think monocausally, but I am not yet *that* old and when I graduated college (from a not particularly elite state school) it was perfectly reasonable, economically, for everyone I knew to: get married in a couple of years, buy a house, have a kid, and pay for all of these things, probably with a little help from your family, but not "buy a condo in Manhattan" help, just a little a bit around the edges. People didn't dream of or expect riches for the most part, but those things were perceived to be within reasonable reach.
Now the millennials spend all of their money on slices of vegetables on toast, so it's their own fault, really.
So Much Winning
So much innovation these days. I dunno, an app? with likes and stuff? Uber, but for politics? Some shit with texting?
2018 is solved.
Think of WTF as equal parts platform and movement. Its new website will put political topics up for a vote — and the most resonant ideas will form the basis of the organization’s orthodoxy. To start, the group will query supporters on two campaigns: Whether or not they believe engineering degrees should be free to all Americans, and if they oppose lawmakers who don’t call for Trump’s immediate impeachment.
Participants can submit their own proposals for platform planks — and if they win enough support, primarily through likes and retweets on Twitter, they’ll become part of WTF’s political DNA, too. Meanwhile, WTF plans to raise money in a bid to turn its most popular policy positions into billboard ads that will appear near airports serving Washington, D.C., ensuring that “members of Congress see it,” Pincus said.
2018 is solved.
Monday, July 03, 2017
Also He Loves Women So Much He Married Three Of Them
All these "can't be a misogynist because..." arguments are stupid. Trump is also, too, a misanthropist, it is true! He hates everybody not named Donald Trump! But he always has an extra special problem with the women who cross him and it comes out in explicitly misogynistic ways.
A Conversation
Leftists: Democrats suck.
Democrats: Even when we had a supermajority, we just didn't have enough votes to not suck.
Leftists: Yes that's what I said.
Democrats: Even when we had a supermajority, we just didn't have enough votes to not suck.
Leftists: Yes that's what I said.
More Important Than The Beach
You might remember that Chris Christie decided not to spend that black man's federal money on a rail tunnel and spent some of it on cocaine and bingo parlors or something instead and then he sorta got back on board with the whole tunnel idea.
Oh well.
The article says the funding isn't necessarily dead, but...
A lot of transit nerds were sorta happy that the previous tunnel project died because they thought it was flawed (it was!). I suppose only cynics like me were saying "yah, but, that money is probably never coming back..."
TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday professed "confidence" that the proposed Gateway Tunnel under the Hudson River will proceed without delays, even though President Trump's most recent budget eliminated a crucial source of funding for it.
"I had a very good conversation last week with (U.S. Transportation) Secretary (Elaine) Chao, said Christie, speaking to reporters at the groundbreaking of renovations at Newark's Liberty International Airport on Tuesday.
"I absolutely believe that we will be partnering with the federal government and the state of New York to build a Gateway Tunnel and that there won't be any delays of our current time frame."
Oh well.
BREAKING: The USDOT has pulled out of the group leading the $23.9 billion Gateway Program https://t.co/aDTIdhXRL6
— Paul Berger (@pdberger) July 3, 2017
The article says the funding isn't necessarily dead, but...
A lot of transit nerds were sorta happy that the previous tunnel project died because they thought it was flawed (it was!). I suppose only cynics like me were saying "yah, but, that money is probably never coming back..."
Did They Believe This Or Was It Just Messina's Election Messaging
The mystery is whether people in the UK ever believed they could get whatever they wanted out of Brexit.
One-sided benefits of membership and none of the costs all because Italy would be desperate to sell prosecco to the UK. That was the line they were running with (and even if Italy was that desperate to sell them prosecco, 26 other countries have a veto...).
Theresa May’s government has changed its tune on Brexit, striking a more sober and realistic tone weeks after her disastrous election. Gone is the bluster that had prompted European Union allies to chide the U.K. for wanting to have its cake and eat it, too.
One-sided benefits of membership and none of the costs all because Italy would be desperate to sell prosecco to the UK. That was the line they were running with (and even if Italy was that desperate to sell them prosecco, 26 other countries have a veto...).
DGAF
Gotta respect it, really.
BERKELEY TOWNSHIP -- People hoping to visit Island Beach State Park this holiday weekend were not allowed in because of the state government shutdown Gov. Chris Christie ordered amid the state budget standoff in Trenton.
...
And here are exclusive aerial photos by NJ Advance Media showing Christie surrounded by wife, Mary Pat Christie, and others.
...
At that news conference, Christie was asked if he got any sun Sunday.
"I didn't," he said. "I didn't get any sun today."
When later told of the photo, Brian Murray, the governor's spokesman, said: "Yes, the governor was on the beach briefly today talking to his wife and family before heading into the office."
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