Yes, it's a peace anthem for a certain liberal of a certain age and social stripe; the surprising thing to me, at least, wasn't that he was that sort of liberal, but that he was that sort of age and social stripe.
I'd have put him as more of a Woody Guthrie guy -- but how would I know?
Sure, I reckon there are more than only three options for most things; I'd prefer more vectors of pressure for policy discussions that merely us or them.
Seems to me it's now just part of the silly polarization cycle... Team Blue feels like Team Red is scoring points on Urban Blue Hubs... so Team Blue *must* defend the system as-is lest Team Red score a point somewhere. It's the weirdest thing.
I mean, both sides do it, but that's just exhibit #4,583,221 why we need out of this duopoly.
Heh, so at least we can agree that these systems need improvement that will cost money and are part of the mental health crisis. That's the common agreement that we should start from.
Fixing? Sure that's hard, but it's better to say we have all of these problems and we should begin to address them than to tell people they are being silly and participating in a Moral Panic (tm).
Yes to both. This is one of those weird things that should be a simple point of agreement: Public Transit Services should be better than they currently are. We don't need to defend the slow deterioration of the Metro - both materially and experientially - as some sort of hidden benefit that we just need to dig a little deeper to appreciate. It's worse, we all know it... if we're pro-Transit and/or pro-Services, then acknowledging the decline should be part of the story for making it better.
It's not Thunderdome down below, but that's not the bar that good services and public safety needs to stay under to be considered well run.
Hoping to reset my work circadian rhythm after two consecutive weeks of a Weds holiday obliterating any meaningful activity.
Also, Halleluah is kinda lewd and get's played in really inappropriate settings. It's a classic overwrought boomer song that has a good melody if you ignore the lyrics. Sorry.
As a reminder... this is the NDA case where his misdemeanors for improperly recording the (legal) business transaction routed through Cohen were 'elevated' to felonies on the theory that they were done with the intent to commit a felony. That felony (Fed Election finance laws? Tax Fraud? NY Election laws? ) was never proved, nor was it even charged... and the last time it (FECA) was prosecuted against John Edwards who literally had campaign donors stroke $1M in checks while his Campaign manager claimed the child was his -- no one bought that it was a campaign finance violation and he was acquitted.
So, rather than prove a felony that isn't (likely) a felony, Bragg used the idea of a *possible* felony to elevate the charges. I understand that the law is not linear with it's logical requirements; but in an ordinary state of affairs, the improper recording of the transaction would be a misdemeanor that could be elevated to a felony upon conviction of the felony.
Further 'complicating' matters, Bragg didn't assert any specific felony *had* been committed:
"If you’re looking for the clearest statement of Bragg’s legal theory, you can find it in a November 2023 court filing opposing Trump’s motion to dismiss the case, along with Merchan’s ruling on that motion. Notably, in that ruling, Merchan clarified that § 175.10 “does not require that the ‘other crime’ actually be committed”—“all that is required is that defendant … acted with a conscious aim and objective to commit another crime.”
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/charting-the-legal-theory-behind-people-v.-trump
Lastly, IMO the 'proof' that this was a show trial purely for election consumption was the constant use of 34 felonies; why? Because in ordinary public discourse people are concerned about the illegal act itself: we don't say a murderer was convicted of the 10 other things that went along with the murder conviction. It's the murder that people make the judgement on, not illegal firearm possession or transporting violations. And, in this case it literally wasn't 'Hush Money' but improper recording of payments through Cohen -- through 34 paper trail infractions. Here's a good NPR summary of the '34 felonies':
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/30/g-s1-1848/trump-hush-money-trial-34-counts
Pretending to 'revisit' the judgement in light of SCOTUS ruling was actually a fig-leaf for Merchan/Bragg to bail on the the project with a semblance of dignity by preserving the conviction and hoping it goes away.
I've chronicled my travails trying to get Comcast to bridge the last 1/4 mile from my house (TLDR: they won't)... so I got a 'grey market' Tmobile unlimited wifi service... then Tmob wen't legit and I got that for 50% less... then I finally got Starlink and I must say that Starlink is really fast with low latency: 30ms / 200 mbs.
for rural folks, wifi/starlink is the way to go... invest there.
(Plus, close all Broadband loophole that allows them to self-report 'full coverage' and refuse to connect people like me).
Sure, we're living through a sort of congressional torpor that has multi-faceted causes. I don't think the H1B issue will break us out of that... it'll just be forgotten with the next thing.
But, Europe's nosedive isn't from populism, it is from the liberal apparatus that was unable to form a coherent position on immigration at all. Populism in Europe is a response to the nosedive; maybe not a good response, but a response nonetheless.
The US is cruising on the empire's global reserve currency... our challenge is not to blow it.
I went back to Last Epoch after giving POE 2 some serious play-time. It's just not fun.
My son who also pushed through stopped playing too. We talked about what they've lost from POE1 and our working theory is that the Dev team is playing the game 'backwards'. That is, they start with the assumption that we're at end-game maps and project backwards to a game that they didn't build. Another way to put it is this: if you make the *journey* to your endgame build a dick-punch... then there *has* to be fun pay-offs along the way. You have to *enjoy* playing a build that has no end-game synergy while fighting bosses that are overly tuned and don't drop rewarding loot. What made POE1 work is that the end-game progression became increasingly impossible so that people who like being punched in the nether regions could get that rush... while normal people could push a ceiling and see if the build they had was worth 'investing' in further... or just start another concept on an alt. The journey from concept to end-game was fun at each stage of power growth... and end-game provided a sort of endless ladder you could climb or just farm for materials for your next build. Win-Win.
What they are *really* missing is that all ARPGs are first Pimp My Build games which are augmented by Loot... and if you can't get to your build with an experience that makes you want to log-in to get to your end-game build... then you potentially have very serious issues that you won't see until after the initial adrenaline rush of new-game-itis.
Some of this is fixable with spreadsheet adjustments; but, some of the bigger issues require tossing parts of The Vision (TM) into the bin. I've started to develop a loathing for the lead Game Designer that I haven't felt in 25-yrs since back in the early MMO days.
Increase the floor, have companies bid on slots... and then let the H1B recipient change jobs/industries whenever they want.
Basically it changes the system/incentives from finding workers for fewer $ who have fewer options to companies/industries bidding on expanding the talent pool without any guaranty that they will directly benefit. The visa itself can have a ramping 1-, 2-, 3-year term contingent upon employment. It becomes a high-skilled worker immigration application process that employers fund. Heck, if the need is great enough, the auction for slots could fund job training programs!
The problem with laws that set-up systems is that the systems become the thing that governs what they do, not the laws which specified intent. Plus... add sclerotic oversite and updating, and pretty quickly you have a 'system' that has incentives that the constituents then lobby *not* to change so as to exploit the growing inefficiencies.
Sometime in January 2025... 'Yes Your Holiness, I was deeply moved by your teachings and my conscience moved me to act as far as my Interns would permit.'
Carefully calculated to apply no general principal nor satisfy any particular good nor mollify any constituency at all. The Biden Presidency in a nutshell.
This is my second Christmas with the new company... and the best thing ever is that our FY ends Jan 31.
So after 20+ years of trying to close EOY deals with CIO's in Switzerland and approvers approving between bumpers of eggnog at random times... I find that I have none of my bosses asking about that deal that I'm trying to close next month.
And I have absolutely no questions for Legal... So, Merry Christmas.
[somehow my boss still scheduled a 1:1 on Monday... but I refuse to believe it's real]
That's what's funny about the 'cite' dodge... the Election Loss is a cite. We're the audience and he didn't do this well is a cite. MattY and hundreds of people publicly commenting on Biden's diminished ability to drive his agenda is a cite.
You can link a White House 'rollup" of an OMB report to me and I'll read it!
But the question is whether there are things that the President does that can't be done by the OMB and Sr. Administration officials.
...and, making sure that the IRA is delivering and *everyone knows its delivering* is something the President does so that his party wins elections and keeps delivering.
... it also means handling scrutiny about whether the summary on a webpage is accurate and not just a thing put on a website by Sr. Administration officials.
Clearly this is how things work at the highest level.
However, the way that the Biden Administration lost control of the narrative and lost control of things like the Inflation Reduction Act Infrastructure Spending Bill had negative effects. First, it's not clear that we are getting a good ROI on the actual Infrastructure Investments and Second, if we are, or to whatever extent we are, the lack of oversight and ownership by Biden and his Admin is the sort of thing the President typically does.
So, I think it's fair to say that the American Public isn't really sure (i'm not sure the Govt. is sure) whether the IRA is spending it's $1T remit to any particular benefit other than contractors. That's a big Biden failure that I think is likely directly attributable to his decline and inability to own, manage and communicate his signature legislation. Presidents are still important to make sure that things get done and people are held (somewhat) accountable for consuming contracting $$$$$$ without delivering. The more $ the more important it is to own and manage.
Eh, I think the lessons learned from post-modernism is that owning the language is actually part of the political power game.
I think you know that, but we know that too... what's newish is that what used to be an academic power move (successfully) transitioned into politics and now is being challenged in ways it wasn't before.
The Left successfully stole a march for about two decades on the language/power axis... but I don't think it will be as uncontested moving forward.
We might not enjoy how it plays out ... but I don't think anyone will believe the 'nothing is happening here' story going forward.
We shouldn't have cried Gorilla as early as we did.
Trump's lost a step, is too old for office and shouldn't be President... but my hunch is that slipping as much as Biden will be more noticable for the 1) absence of Trump from the big stage, or 2) Trump won't GAF and it'll be like the Biden Debate every day until, 3) He gets knifed in the back Pardoned and feted as the best President Ever as he Golfs his way to Valhalla.
Yeah, well, that's my supposition anyway... not that Biden had completely lost it, but that he [Obama] knew he'd passed from aging to aged. I think the steeper decline happened post election.
The 2020 election was sooo weird with Covid and the organized Tuesday consolidation where the young folk all dropped out... not out of conviction, but, well, not sure really.
On “Open Mic for the week of 1/6/2025”
Awww, the poppy mop-top boys were ok.
[sorry, best I can do, Mike]
"
Yes, it's a peace anthem for a certain liberal of a certain age and social stripe; the surprising thing to me, at least, wasn't that he was that sort of liberal, but that he was that sort of age and social stripe.
I'd have put him as more of a Woody Guthrie guy -- but how would I know?
"
Take that victory lap...
"
Yes, it's impressive calling 230 for Harris. It's the 308 you called for JEB! that we're less impressed with.
"
If Kamala had only had the courage... oh, never mind, we changed the 1887 ECA with the ECRA in 2022. Good for us anyway.
On “Re-Open the Asylums: A New Take”
Sure, I reckon there are more than only three options for most things; I'd prefer more vectors of pressure for policy discussions that merely us or them.
On “Justin Trudeau Resigns As Liberal Leader and Prime Minster of Canada”
The US should make a cash offer to the Board: Two States, Two Territories, and one Free City.
On “Re-Open the Asylums: A New Take”
Seems to me it's now just part of the silly polarization cycle... Team Blue feels like Team Red is scoring points on Urban Blue Hubs... so Team Blue *must* defend the system as-is lest Team Red score a point somewhere. It's the weirdest thing.
I mean, both sides do it, but that's just exhibit #4,583,221 why we need out of this duopoly.
"
Heh, so at least we can agree that these systems need improvement that will cost money and are part of the mental health crisis. That's the common agreement that we should start from.
Fixing? Sure that's hard, but it's better to say we have all of these problems and we should begin to address them than to tell people they are being silly and participating in a Moral Panic (tm).
"
Yes to both. This is one of those weird things that should be a simple point of agreement: Public Transit Services should be better than they currently are. We don't need to defend the slow deterioration of the Metro - both materially and experientially - as some sort of hidden benefit that we just need to dig a little deeper to appreciate. It's worse, we all know it... if we're pro-Transit and/or pro-Services, then acknowledging the decline should be part of the story for making it better.
It's not Thunderdome down below, but that's not the bar that good services and public safety needs to stay under to be considered well run.
On “Weekend Plans Post: Leonard Cohen”
Hoping to reset my work circadian rhythm after two consecutive weeks of a Weds holiday obliterating any meaningful activity.
Also, Halleluah is kinda lewd and get's played in really inappropriate settings. It's a classic overwrought boomer song that has a good melody if you ignore the lyrics. Sorry.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/30/2024”
As a reminder... this is the NDA case where his misdemeanors for improperly recording the (legal) business transaction routed through Cohen were 'elevated' to felonies on the theory that they were done with the intent to commit a felony. That felony (Fed Election finance laws? Tax Fraud? NY Election laws? ) was never proved, nor was it even charged... and the last time it (FECA) was prosecuted against John Edwards who literally had campaign donors stroke $1M in checks while his Campaign manager claimed the child was his -- no one bought that it was a campaign finance violation and he was acquitted.
So, rather than prove a felony that isn't (likely) a felony, Bragg used the idea of a *possible* felony to elevate the charges. I understand that the law is not linear with it's logical requirements; but in an ordinary state of affairs, the improper recording of the transaction would be a misdemeanor that could be elevated to a felony upon conviction of the felony.
Further 'complicating' matters, Bragg didn't assert any specific felony *had* been committed:
"If you’re looking for the clearest statement of Bragg’s legal theory, you can find it in a November 2023 court filing opposing Trump’s motion to dismiss the case, along with Merchan’s ruling on that motion. Notably, in that ruling, Merchan clarified that § 175.10 “does not require that the ‘other crime’ actually be committed”—“all that is required is that defendant … acted with a conscious aim and objective to commit another crime.”
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/charting-the-legal-theory-behind-people-v.-trump
Lastly, IMO the 'proof' that this was a show trial purely for election consumption was the constant use of 34 felonies; why? Because in ordinary public discourse people are concerned about the illegal act itself: we don't say a murderer was convicted of the 10 other things that went along with the murder conviction. It's the murder that people make the judgement on, not illegal firearm possession or transporting violations. And, in this case it literally wasn't 'Hush Money' but improper recording of payments through Cohen -- through 34 paper trail infractions. Here's a good NPR summary of the '34 felonies':
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/30/g-s1-1848/trump-hush-money-trial-34-counts
Pretending to 'revisit' the judgement in light of SCOTUS ruling was actually a fig-leaf for Merchan/Bragg to bail on the the project with a semblance of dignity by preserving the conviction and hoping it goes away.
This is not a hill to die on.
"
I've chronicled my travails trying to get Comcast to bridge the last 1/4 mile from my house (TLDR: they won't)... so I got a 'grey market' Tmobile unlimited wifi service... then Tmob wen't legit and I got that for 50% less... then I finally got Starlink and I must say that Starlink is really fast with low latency: 30ms / 200 mbs.
for rural folks, wifi/starlink is the way to go... invest there.
(Plus, close all Broadband loophole that allows them to self-report 'full coverage' and refuse to connect people like me).
On “Joe Biden Agrees that Some People *DO* Deserve the Death Penalty”
The tension comes from the fact that 'Intersectionality' is a power theory and not a justice theory.
You keep thinking it's the other, and it's not.
On “The Immigration Thing”
Sure, we're living through a sort of congressional torpor that has multi-faceted causes. I don't think the H1B issue will break us out of that... it'll just be forgotten with the next thing.
But, Europe's nosedive isn't from populism, it is from the liberal apparatus that was unable to form a coherent position on immigration at all. Populism in Europe is a response to the nosedive; maybe not a good response, but a response nonetheless.
The US is cruising on the empire's global reserve currency... our challenge is not to blow it.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Hades II First Impressions”
I went back to Last Epoch after giving POE 2 some serious play-time. It's just not fun.
My son who also pushed through stopped playing too. We talked about what they've lost from POE1 and our working theory is that the Dev team is playing the game 'backwards'. That is, they start with the assumption that we're at end-game maps and project backwards to a game that they didn't build. Another way to put it is this: if you make the *journey* to your endgame build a dick-punch... then there *has* to be fun pay-offs along the way. You have to *enjoy* playing a build that has no end-game synergy while fighting bosses that are overly tuned and don't drop rewarding loot. What made POE1 work is that the end-game progression became increasingly impossible so that people who like being punched in the nether regions could get that rush... while normal people could push a ceiling and see if the build they had was worth 'investing' in further... or just start another concept on an alt. The journey from concept to end-game was fun at each stage of power growth... and end-game provided a sort of endless ladder you could climb or just farm for materials for your next build. Win-Win.
What they are *really* missing is that all ARPGs are first Pimp My Build games which are augmented by Loot... and if you can't get to your build with an experience that makes you want to log-in to get to your end-game build... then you potentially have very serious issues that you won't see until after the initial adrenaline rush of new-game-itis.
Some of this is fixable with spreadsheet adjustments; but, some of the bigger issues require tossing parts of The Vision (TM) into the bin. I've started to develop a loathing for the lead Game Designer that I haven't felt in 25-yrs since back in the early MMO days.
On “The Immigration Thing”
Increase the floor, have companies bid on slots... and then let the H1B recipient change jobs/industries whenever they want.
Basically it changes the system/incentives from finding workers for fewer $ who have fewer options to companies/industries bidding on expanding the talent pool without any guaranty that they will directly benefit. The visa itself can have a ramping 1-, 2-, 3-year term contingent upon employment. It becomes a high-skilled worker immigration application process that employers fund. Heck, if the need is great enough, the auction for slots could fund job training programs!
The problem with laws that set-up systems is that the systems become the thing that governs what they do, not the laws which specified intent. Plus... add sclerotic oversite and updating, and pretty quickly you have a 'system' that has incentives that the constituents then lobby *not* to change so as to exploit the growing inefficiencies.
On “Joe Biden Agrees that Some People *DO* Deserve the Death Penalty”
Sometime in January 2025... 'Yes Your Holiness, I was deeply moved by your teachings and my conscience moved me to act as far as my Interns would permit.'
Carefully calculated to apply no general principal nor satisfy any particular good nor mollify any constituency at all. The Biden Presidency in a nutshell.
On “Weekend Plans Post: The Ghost Town”
This is my second Christmas with the new company... and the best thing ever is that our FY ends Jan 31.
So after 20+ years of trying to close EOY deals with CIO's in Switzerland and approvers approving between bumpers of eggnog at random times... I find that I have none of my bosses asking about that deal that I'm trying to close next month.
And I have absolutely no questions for Legal... So, Merry Christmas.
[somehow my boss still scheduled a 1:1 on Monday... but I refuse to believe it's real]
On “From The Wall Street Journal: How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden in Charge”
Is Biden an effective communicator anymore?
That's what's funny about the 'cite' dodge... the Election Loss is a cite. We're the audience and he didn't do this well is a cite. MattY and hundreds of people publicly commenting on Biden's diminished ability to drive his agenda is a cite.
C'mon man.
"
I think it's a good example.
You can link a White House 'rollup" of an OMB report to me and I'll read it!
But the question is whether there are things that the President does that can't be done by the OMB and Sr. Administration officials.
...and, making sure that the IRA is delivering and *everyone knows its delivering* is something the President does so that his party wins elections and keeps delivering.
... it also means handling scrutiny about whether the summary on a webpage is accurate and not just a thing put on a website by Sr. Administration officials.
"
Clearly this is how things work at the highest level.
However, the way that the Biden Administration lost control of the narrative and lost control of things like the
Inflation Reduction ActInfrastructure Spending Bill had negative effects. First, it's not clear that we are getting a good ROI on the actual Infrastructure Investments and Second, if we are, or to whatever extent we are, the lack of oversight and ownership by Biden and his Admin is the sort of thing the President typically does.So, I think it's fair to say that the American Public isn't really sure (i'm not sure the Govt. is sure) whether the IRA is spending it's $1T remit to any particular benefit other than contractors. That's a big Biden failure that I think is likely directly attributable to his decline and inability to own, manage and communicate his signature legislation. Presidents are still important to make sure that things get done and people are held (somewhat) accountable for consuming contracting $$$$$$ without delivering. The more $ the more important it is to own and manage.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/16/2024”
Eh, I think the lessons learned from post-modernism is that owning the language is actually part of the political power game.
I think you know that, but we know that too... what's newish is that what used to be an academic power move (successfully) transitioned into politics and now is being challenged in ways it wasn't before.
The Left successfully stole a march for about two decades on the language/power axis... but I don't think it will be as uncontested moving forward.
We might not enjoy how it plays out ... but I don't think anyone will believe the 'nothing is happening here' story going forward.
On “From The Wall Street Journal: How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden in Charge”
We shouldn't have cried Gorilla as early as we did.
Trump's lost a step, is too old for office and shouldn't be President... but my hunch is that slipping as much as Biden will be more noticable for the 1) absence of Trump from the big stage, or 2) Trump won't GAF and it'll be like the Biden Debate every day until, 3)
He gets knifed in the backPardoned and feted as the best President Ever as he Golfs his way to Valhalla."
Yeah, well, that's my supposition anyway... not that Biden had completely lost it, but that he [Obama] knew he'd passed from aging to aged. I think the steeper decline happened post election.
The 2020 election was sooo weird with Covid and the organized Tuesday consolidation where the young folk all dropped out... not out of conviction, but, well, not sure really.