It's not going to be great for the us generally, given the benefits of other countries sending their best and brightest to America, but why would Asian-Americans (and I emphasize Americans) prioritize the plight of foreigners in the country on visas?
And do you think the bordering on pathological desire progressives have to discriminate against Asian Americans in higher education may in fact present a problem, at least in terms of getting them to vote in a way you (and I for that matter!) are more likely to agree with?
The whole thing starts with a loud renunciation and express denunciation of race based affirmative action and DEI as the racist and anti American garbage it self evidently is.
Sadly he's already succeeded in mainstreaming ideas that were once relegated to a small number of marginal, crunchy weirdos, plus one former playmate of the year. It ain't good.
Yea my above comment notwithstanding you get the sense that a whisper in the ear at the right (or wrong) moment can have him tearing up the previous arrangement or getting fixated on something else crazy. Which is also similar to the worst C suite execs I've interacted with.
I think the most important thing for the average conservative voter is that their leaders are seen as being contemptuous towards the right people. Few of them read the fine print or follow up on actual outcomes. Which to be clear isn't intended to be a charitable reading, but rather a cynical one. At the end of the day most Americans of all stripes DGAF about anything beyond the superficial.
I do think reporting on some of these things would be better if more journalists had time in the private sector, seeing what things are actually like. Not because the private sector is somehow inherently better but because you deal with different kinds of people and personalities than in the upper tiers of government, prestige NGOs, and academic world. It doesn't make people like Trump any less dangerous but it may add some perspective when you see there are jackasses like this all over the place.
Yea I try not to be overly optimistic about this. Some stupid things are going to happen, it's just a question of how stupid and when.
At the same time you get the sense that some deferential ring kissing can defang Trump, at least a little. That was how I interpreted the recent interactions with Macron. While I hesitate to compare personal experience to high stakes international negotiations I have dealt with people like Trump in my 15 odd years of handling commercial contracting. You go into a room or onto a call and some blow hard chews you out for 15 minutes. You make a tactical decision to either respond in kind or to listen patiently. Most of the time the end product is well within routine parameters, in spite of all the theatrics. I have occasionally put on the scary voice and played the role myself.
I don't believe the threats are intended as idle. I just think the logistics are hard, the level of cooperation and prioritization across the country and different agencies inconsistent, and the courts unpredictable in what they will and won't allow, especially when confronted with novel actions by the executive.
Given the history of tough rhetoric and lack of follow through I'm not sure she's as dumb as you think she is. If she's been here since the 90s she has been through threatened crackdowns in the past.
But I'm also not sure how many tears people are supposed to shed over those in her situation generally. I'd rather a border crackdown plus a pathway to legal status for those long here but I also know that's a contingency that may not happen, and hasn't happened for the 25 years people have been saying something like it should happen. Ultimately she took her chances when she came to the country illegally and only has herself to blame if she ends up sent back to wherever.
DC metro isn't in nearly the disarray you hear reported from other cities but I had a not great experience last spring. Some guy smelling like weed and feces was sitting a few rows up yelling profanity and racial slurs at my 7 year old son. This was a Sunday afternoon on the way to an NHL game. Thankfully it was so garbled I don't think my son understood what was being said or that it was directed at him and the dude stayed over in his corner.
I've ridden for many years and have seen some out there stuff but it felt different having it directed at my kid. I would not have seen anything wrong with him being removed from the train and sent to a psych ward or the drunk tank or wherever he needed to go.
As I said to CJ above, maybe there's an issue with the decision to have brought charges. If the voters feel that way they have a mechanism of changing it.
I'll put my neck out and say I think in a democracy a jury is probably the only way to make a call on something like this and that call have a high degree of legitimacy.* The state made its case to a handful of randos that went through the archane meat grinder of the selection process, and the randos weren't convinced that this guy should go to jail.
*Yea there are problems with it but there are problems with everything.
I certainly don't harbor the outrage some have expressed about charges being brought at all. Maybe some outrage is justified about how and against whom these types of charges are brought but that is a matter for the voters of NY to decide. To me this was a close enough call that you shrug and say the jury did what it did, that's the system.
Disclaimer- I don't know the particulars of NY law.
In Maryland defense of a third party is arguably a lower standard than self defense. Without going into all of the details (among other things, the force has to be reasonable), the reason for that is that the analysis includes whether the accused reasonably believed that the person they were defending also had the right to use force to defend themselves, which turns to some degree on the unknowable in the moment mental state of the third party being defended. I don't believe Maryland's approach to this is unusual on the east coast, where the law has a strong basis in common law principles, even if they have technically been re-written as statutes.
If this went to a jury in Maryland you could debate the way the jury weighed the facts. However an acquittal would not be precedent setting in a strictly legal sense. Practically speaking having witnesses like Penny did come forward and say they were afraid they were going to be harmed had he not intervened would always make a prosecution like this pretty difficult.
I still think chances Biden does this are low. But if it is really on the table the only honorable stance is the one Schiff appears to be taking. No one should be asking for pardons. Any request would be an admission of unfitness for office and should be accompanied by a resignation.
Heh I too favor the magnanimous approach. And frankly the packaging of the petty approach has struck me as beyond repulsive and unlikely to lead in a constructive direction.
But, absent some near term, big changes in behavior, we need to have a real talk about what is and isn't fair for some to subsidize on behalf of others. At minimum I am not sure it is cool to DINK or even SINK up a life of leisure, no matter how much economic activity it generates, then soak up the social security from the next generation towards whom little to nothing was contributed.
That's where the US's position on this has been incoherent and bound for failure from the beginning. If we wanted to act in a truly cold, realpolitik kind of way the obvious proxy for us is our NATO ally, distasteful as Turkey has become over the last 15 years.
Instead we've played this game where we pretend there's actually a force for democracy in Syria, as opposed to, at absolute best, a force for Kurdish secession and/or broad autonomy, as if Turkey would ever tolerate it. Ultimately it's how we've ended up aiding Sunni Islamists.
What we have now in the form of a few thousand dollar deductions per child isn't really pertinent. I'm talking about something like actually having them pay more into social security and medicare. Assuming those programs or something like them are still in place after the vampires er I mean boomers finish up the bonanza that's been their lives, we'll have a situation where my kids are also supporting my childless peers. And while I love them all very much my investment* in the system is and will be more than theirs by orders of magnitude, none of which has been reflected in the deductions from my paycheck.
*Cue Marchmaine to show up and remind me of how sad my contributions have been, comparatively.
One of the non-crazy JD Vance coded ideas is (maybe much) higher taxes on the childless. Or at minimum we need to be able to acknowledge that the way entitlements are currently structured is going to lead to a big free rider problem, and talk about how to respond.
On “Asian Voters Abandoned Democrats in Droves and Might Not be Coming Back”
AKA something that does not now, has not ever, and despite the best efforts of a certain type of activist, will never exist.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/9/2024”
Please don't tell me you still believe she was raped.
On “Asian Voters Abandoned Democrats in Droves and Might Not be Coming Back”
It's not going to be great for the us generally, given the benefits of other countries sending their best and brightest to America, but why would Asian-Americans (and I emphasize Americans) prioritize the plight of foreigners in the country on visas?
And do you think the bordering on pathological desire progressives have to discriminate against Asian Americans in higher education may in fact present a problem, at least in terms of getting them to vote in a way you (and I for that matter!) are more likely to agree with?
The whole thing starts with a loud renunciation and express denunciation of race based affirmative action and DEI as the racist and anti American garbage it self evidently is.
On “Thursday Throughput: RFK Jr Edition”
Sadly he's already succeeded in mainstreaming ideas that were once relegated to a small number of marginal, crunchy weirdos, plus one former playmate of the year. It ain't good.
On “Has Trump Already Lost the Trade War?”
Yea my above comment notwithstanding you get the sense that a whisper in the ear at the right (or wrong) moment can have him tearing up the previous arrangement or getting fixated on something else crazy. Which is also similar to the worst C suite execs I've interacted with.
"
I think the most important thing for the average conservative voter is that their leaders are seen as being contemptuous towards the right people. Few of them read the fine print or follow up on actual outcomes. Which to be clear isn't intended to be a charitable reading, but rather a cynical one. At the end of the day most Americans of all stripes DGAF about anything beyond the superficial.
I do think reporting on some of these things would be better if more journalists had time in the private sector, seeing what things are actually like. Not because the private sector is somehow inherently better but because you deal with different kinds of people and personalities than in the upper tiers of government, prestige NGOs, and academic world. It doesn't make people like Trump any less dangerous but it may add some perspective when you see there are jackasses like this all over the place.
"
Yea I try not to be overly optimistic about this. Some stupid things are going to happen, it's just a question of how stupid and when.
At the same time you get the sense that some deferential ring kissing can defang Trump, at least a little. That was how I interpreted the recent interactions with Macron. While I hesitate to compare personal experience to high stakes international negotiations I have dealt with people like Trump in my 15 odd years of handling commercial contracting. You go into a room or onto a call and some blow hard chews you out for 15 minutes. You make a tactical decision to either respond in kind or to listen patiently. Most of the time the end product is well within routine parameters, in spite of all the theatrics. I have occasionally put on the scary voice and played the role myself.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/9/2024”
I don't believe the threats are intended as idle. I just think the logistics are hard, the level of cooperation and prioritization across the country and different agencies inconsistent, and the courts unpredictable in what they will and won't allow, especially when confronted with novel actions by the executive.
"
Given the history of tough rhetoric and lack of follow through I'm not sure she's as dumb as you think she is. If she's been here since the 90s she has been through threatened crackdowns in the past.
But I'm also not sure how many tears people are supposed to shed over those in her situation generally. I'd rather a border crackdown plus a pathway to legal status for those long here but I also know that's a contingency that may not happen, and hasn't happened for the 25 years people have been saying something like it should happen. Ultimately she took her chances when she came to the country illegally and only has herself to blame if she ends up sent back to wherever.
"
But do they still use rhe otpimo? The phillies? The dutchmaster?
Man I feel old.
"
DC metro isn't in nearly the disarray you hear reported from other cities but I had a not great experience last spring. Some guy smelling like weed and feces was sitting a few rows up yelling profanity and racial slurs at my 7 year old son. This was a Sunday afternoon on the way to an NHL game. Thankfully it was so garbled I don't think my son understood what was being said or that it was directed at him and the dude stayed over in his corner.
I've ridden for many years and have seen some out there stuff but it felt different having it directed at my kid. I would not have seen anything wrong with him being removed from the train and sent to a psych ward or the drunk tank or wherever he needed to go.
"
As I said to CJ above, maybe there's an issue with the decision to have brought charges. If the voters feel that way they have a mechanism of changing it.
I'll put my neck out and say I think in a democracy a jury is probably the only way to make a call on something like this and that call have a high degree of legitimacy.* The state made its case to a handful of randos that went through the archane meat grinder of the selection process, and the randos weren't convinced that this guy should go to jail.
*Yea there are problems with it but there are problems with everything.
"
I certainly don't harbor the outrage some have expressed about charges being brought at all. Maybe some outrage is justified about how and against whom these types of charges are brought but that is a matter for the voters of NY to decide. To me this was a close enough call that you shrug and say the jury did what it did, that's the system.
"
*this should really read 'what the accused reasonably believed' about the unknowable in the moment mental state of the person being defended.
"
Disclaimer- I don't know the particulars of NY law.
In Maryland defense of a third party is arguably a lower standard than self defense. Without going into all of the details (among other things, the force has to be reasonable), the reason for that is that the analysis includes whether the accused reasonably believed that the person they were defending also had the right to use force to defend themselves, which turns to some degree on the unknowable in the moment mental state of the third party being defended. I don't believe Maryland's approach to this is unusual on the east coast, where the law has a strong basis in common law principles, even if they have technically been re-written as statutes.
If this went to a jury in Maryland you could debate the way the jury weighed the facts. However an acquittal would not be precedent setting in a strictly legal sense. Practically speaking having witnesses like Penny did come forward and say they were afraid they were going to be harmed had he not intervened would always make a prosecution like this pretty difficult.
"
I think the only legitimate way to answer a question like that is an impartial jury, and the jury spoke.
"
I still think chances Biden does this are low. But if it is really on the table the only honorable stance is the one Schiff appears to be taking. No one should be asking for pardons. Any request would be an admission of unfitness for office and should be accompanied by a resignation.
On “From the New York Post: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot outside Hilton hotel in Midtown in targeted attack: cops”
Heh I too favor the magnanimous approach. And frankly the packaging of the petty approach has struck me as beyond repulsive and unlikely to lead in a constructive direction.
But, absent some near term, big changes in behavior, we need to have a real talk about what is and isn't fair for some to subsidize on behalf of others. At minimum I am not sure it is cool to DINK or even SINK up a life of leisure, no matter how much economic activity it generates, then soak up the social security from the next generation towards whom little to nothing was contributed.
"
My 7 year old plays it!
"
The imposter has been found.
On “Bashar al-Assad Flees To Moscow, Ending 50 Years of Syrian Dictatorship”
That's where the US's position on this has been incoherent and bound for failure from the beginning. If we wanted to act in a truly cold, realpolitik kind of way the obvious proxy for us is our NATO ally, distasteful as Turkey has become over the last 15 years.
Instead we've played this game where we pretend there's actually a force for democracy in Syria, as opposed to, at absolute best, a force for Kurdish secession and/or broad autonomy, as if Turkey would ever tolerate it. Ultimately it's how we've ended up aiding Sunni Islamists.
On “From the New York Post: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot outside Hilton hotel in Midtown in targeted attack: cops”
What we have now in the form of a few thousand dollar deductions per child isn't really pertinent. I'm talking about something like actually having them pay more into social security and medicare. Assuming those programs or something like them are still in place after the
vampireser I mean boomers finish up the bonanza that's been their lives, we'll have a situation where my kids are also supporting my childless peers. And while I love them all very much my investment* in the system is and will be more than theirs by orders of magnitude, none of which has been reflected in the deductions from my paycheck.*Cue Marchmaine to show up and remind me of how sad my contributions have been, comparatively.
"
One of the non-crazy JD Vance coded ideas is (maybe much) higher taxes on the childless. Or at minimum we need to be able to acknowledge that the way entitlements are currently structured is going to lead to a big free rider problem, and talk about how to respond.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/9/2024”
IIRC the bulk of the witnesses said they felt he acted to protect them from a maniac. Tough to get a conviction over that kind of support.
On “From the New York Post: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot outside Hilton hotel in Midtown in targeted attack: cops”
The high school he went to is about as hoity toity as it gets, at least in the Bmore area.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.