Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said on Monday that “agents of the government of India” had carried out the assassination of a Sikh community leader in British Columbia in June, an explosive allegation that is likely to further sour relations between the two nations.No deep thoughts otherwise as it is above my pay grade.
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Seems Like A Big Deal
Monday, September 18, 2023
How Things Change
That the political press long participated in a scam on behalf of the Family Values party reminds us nothing much has changed there, at least.
Your Liberal Media
Hunter Biden sued the Internal Revenue Service on Monday, saying that investigators for the agency violated his privacy rights by disclosing details to Congress and the public about his taxes and the investigation into his conduct.
What isn't above my pay grade is knowing that if this had been Beavis or Butthead Trump, it would have taken about 5 minutes for conservative media to turn the entire thing into a story about abuses that Hunter is claiming, with the rest of the media dutifully following along.
Decades And Decades Of Books
I'm old enough that those "new" books I read when I was 21 are not very new at all now. Quite old in fact! Giving her a book released in 1993 is equivalent to giving me a book (then) written in 1963.
Agatha Christie was still publishing. Kurt Vonnegut released Cat's Cradle. Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.
And then I started to think about books and authors that were a Big Deal but probably she's never even heard of. Or maybe! How would I know?
Anyway, no real point here, and these are hardly novel observations, just contemplating how culture appears and fades and how the The Kids Today can't be aware of most of it. I imagine some of those great books were more timely than timeless, likely not landing particularly well today. 1993? Trainspotting. The Shipping News. The Night Manager.
If You're A Star They Let You Do It
"AI"
I think it's losing - by giving it too much credibility - to get into arguments about why it isn't in any sense "artificial intelligence." But it isn't! Everyone knows it isn't!
The computer from Star Trek: The Original Series was really fucking cool, but I don't remember anyone calling it "artificial intelligence." Had to get to Commander Data for that!
Peter Baker For The Defense
PETER BAKER:Neat trick there, replacing "letting Trump spew what he wants" with "challenged by a tough, independent interview."
Well, this is a huge challenge for American journalism, of course, right? It cannot be that a person can run for president of the United States, be a front-runner of his party, and possibly win without ever being challenged by a tough, independent interview. And that's, I think, an important part of our system. Now, it's obviously a challenge for us because he is just going to spout out one thing after another, and fact-checking him in real time is a real hard thing. But what we've done here is edit it and make sure people understand he’s – what's real and what's not.
I did actually read the transcript (the things I do for you) and evidence of "being challenged" is pretty thin! Take the abortion section:
FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:So you have Roe v. Wade, for 52 years, people including Democrats wanted it to go back to states so the states could make the right. Roe v. Wade – I did something that nobody thought was possible, and Roe v. Wade was terminated, was put back to the states. Now, people, pro-lifers, have the right to negotiate for the first time. They had no rights at all, because the radical people on this are really the Democrats that say, after five months, six months, seven months, eight months, nine months, and even after birth you're allowed to terminate the baby –KRISTEN WELKER:Mr. President, Democrats aren't saying that. I just have to, Democrats are not saying that. Does it bother you though that women say their lives are being put at risk? Do you feel you bear any responsibility, because as you say, you are responsible for having Roe v. Wade overturned.FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:What's going to happen, this is an issue that's been going on for a long time. And it's a very polarizing issue. Because of what's been done, and because of the fact we brought it back to the states, we're going to have people come together on this issue. They're going to determine the time, because nobody wants to see five, six, seven, eight, nine months. Nobody wants to see abortions when you have a baby in the womb. I said, with Hillary Clinton when we had the debate, I made a statement, "Rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, you're allowed to do that, and you shouldn't be allowed to do that."KRISTEN WELKER:Again, no one is arguing for that –FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:Again, listen, look –KRISTEN WELKER:That's not a part of anyone's argument, Mr. President.FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:Look, the Democrats are able to kill the baby after birth.KRISTEN WELKER:Let me talk to you –FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:Nobody wants that.KRISTEN WELKER:Democrats don't want that either.FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:So we're going to come together –KRISTEN WELKER:But let’s – I want to – I want to know what you want. I want to know what you're going to do if you’re –FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:We are going to come together –KRISTEN WELKER:Would you sign federal legislation that would ban abortion at 15 weeks?FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:No, no. Let me just tell you what I'd do. I'm going to come together with all groups, and we're going to have something that's acceptable. Right now, to my way of thinking, the Democrats are the radicals, because after four and five and six months. But you have to say this, after birth. You have New York State and other places that passed legislation where you're allowed to kill the baby after birth.
Four times he says Democrats support (and there are laws to the effect) that you can "kill the baby after birth."
Amusingly (especially if you read the rest), he sounds like decades of centrist dipshists talking about their Grand Compromise on abortion.
We’re going to agree – no – we're going to agree to a number of weeks or months or however you want to define it. And both sides are going to come together and both sides – both sides, and this is a big statement, both sides will come together. And for the first time in 52 years, you'll have an issue that we can put behind us.
Putting boring lady parts issues behind us, the dream of the centrist dipshit!
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Sure Why Not
JUST IN: Former Attorney General Ed Meese submits court declaration calling prosecution of Trump and ex-DOJ official Jeff Clark 'a major affront to
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) September 17, 2023
federal supremacy never before seen in the history of our country.' Doc: https://t.co/y4X1CimxTW
Journalism
This is a joke, right?
— Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) September 17, 2023
You pre-recorded an interview with multiple lies, then -- instead of not airing them or at least fact-checking in a real time -- ran that interview for millions on national TV, followed by a online fact check to be read by 1/100th of that? https://t.co/BcYRY3LyCM
Full Employment For Friends And Family
Scaling
The scoop comes from Walter Isaacson's new biography of the tech magnate, simply titled "Elon Musk." Per its chapter on the launch of the driver assistance tech, Musk would learn firsthand that a curve on Interstate 405 caused Autopilot, thrown off by the road's faded lane lines, to steer into and "almost hit" oncoming traffic.Whenever this happened, Musk would "furiously" storm into the Tesla office and proceed to chew out his engineers."Do something to program this right," he repeatedly demanded, as quoted in the biography.
Paid to have all the lanes repainted. Amazing stuff.
Clearly, nothing was getting through to Musk. It was only his chief of staff Sam Teller that was able to appease his CEO's complaints. He came up with a simple solution: getting the lane lines repainted on that pesky curve — which of course, didn't actually address the underlying problem.