After skimming the 28 Articles... it seems that only Dams and 'Diversionary Structures' are specifically regulated... and *only* in so far as the structures divert water to either country putting at risk downstream consumption guarantees. As long as the water flows, boundaries respected and the river remains navigable... I don't see a specific requirement for approval.
I could, however see a bureaucratic agency set up to administer the provisions of the treaty making maximalist claims, though.
Another news article is slightly more precise that the Mexican govt is indeed treating the buoys as 'diversionary structures' which would make them subject to the treaty. Honestly, my layman's reading would challenge Mexico to demonstrate how the structures divert the river into the US thereby deprecating the flow and Mexico's entitlement. I mean, I don't think they can and the objection is somewhat spurious. Unless I've skimmed over some other relevant definition of 'Diversionary Structures'.
There's also a specific carve-out for activities related to Policing... so push/shove Abbott could also invoke policing.
I'm not sure I have much of an opinion about 1000 ft of buoys on a 1,200 mile border... and if my 25yrs of living near the Shenandoah has taught me anything its that nothing you build 'in' a river stays for more than a few years or the first big flood.
My point is that I don't think an International Treaty has much bearing on this matter... and it's a little silly that the Media are using it to sort of 'compound' the wrongness. The Federal Govt's prerogative to set boarders and immigration Policy? Well, that's the only thing that matters here.
Was kinda interested in what the Mexico 'objecting' angle might be.
"Bárcena [Mexico's Interior Minister] told reporters that the Mexican government sent a diplomatic letter to the U.S. on June 26 stating the barriers are in violation of a 1944 water treaty, Reuters reported. The Associated Press reported Friday that Bárcena plans to send an inspection team to the Rio Grande to see if the barrier extends into Mexico's side of the border and if it impedes the flow of water, which would violate the treaty."
A) Impinging on Mexico's border seems reasonable.
B) Impeding the flow of water? Unless that's a term of art... no.
C) Something not mentioned?
The 1944 Treaty upon cursory inspection does indeed seem to focus solely on Water Rights and is not what we'd call a border/process treaty.
Now, as to States impinging on Federal prerogatives? That's another matter.
I think the appropriate strategy is for the YIMBY's to lead with the acknowledgement that the 'risk' associated with change is real and Team YIMBY will incorporate protections into their plans.
Else, as InMD points out, status quo has a much bigger constituency... they don't have to offer anything to win.
The 'compromise' is that you take away the veto's in exchange for backing-up people's exit strategies.
If the neighborhood becomes less desireable to you (for whatever reason) and you can exit without loss; or, hey, maybe less desirable is more desirable for someone else so you exit with some extra jingle in your pocket.
The aesthetic arguments are mostly indirect arguments against fear of financial loss.
Sidenote... I'm always a little baffled by the Yglesias war on parking; but hey, if you can YIMBY your way into insufficient parking and value goes up? Then let the town/county/state gamble that they aren't f*cking things up.
Right... you'd basically build a "stop-loss" program based upon an agreed-upon 3rd party metric for property valuation.
We do this already with various property taxes... the key would be funding and re-insuring the "stop-loss" program with YIMBY developers and backstopped by the State/Fed govts. Depends I guess on what level we're managing the stop-loss program. Hyper Local or the entire US.
Of course, like Home Hazard insurance the Stop-Loss program would have to be at replacement value (i.e. appreciated max value) not at cost.
There's plenty to work with if we're willing to tax the growth and redistribute to the losers. If the development is all good according to YIMBY dreams and property values all rise, then the tax generates revenues. If it all goes to shit as NIMBYs doomcast, then towns/counties go bankrupt and property owners are made whole as they relocate to 'replacement' level locations. Smart Development is encouraged while risks are reduced.
But I'll keep reminding all of us that wages are the box they want us pushing against; management is afraid that we'll ask for *their* compensation: Wages + productivity gains in the form of equity.
I think Pinky's point is that OpenMic should have a sidebar with, say, the last 4 weeks ready to click. Maybe replace 'Hot Posts' or Ten Second News 2.0 (which doesn't seem to do anything).
I'm holding off on Snow White until I know whether the Dwarves have proper Scottish accents or not.
It's not even policy any more... not even trying. Cringe even.
You'd think the administration would back-up, look to cut a deal on Higher Education funding reform ... then position debt reduction as the carrot that makes the reform sting less. Alas, when all the money we spend on Education is pandering to a preferred constituency, there's no way to make everyone on your team happy with actual policy.
That's why the School Debt Relief is correctly seen as a money give-away and not any sort of good 'policy' ... you can get debt relief, but it will cost you funding reform.
Ugh, the hobbit movies are so bad... just caught them again on HBO. Like every single 'creative' idea was calibrated to magnetic wrong.
But yes, I'm even less sanguine on LoTR than you guys... but of all the pre-LoTR tales, Beren/Luthien would probably be doable since its a love story, a clearly defined (smallish, but epic) adventure, and the Silmaril - in this case - truly is a macguffin. PLUS HUAN THE TALKING DOG.
We sold our (barn) kitties -- we'd give them away, but a friend gave us the tip that you *have* to charge for them or no-one will want them. So we put a nominal $20 fee and one nice young lady drove 1.5 hrs and wanted to give us extra $ (which we obvs. refused) to take home her beautiful fluffy grey kitty. We're so used to having animals proliferate around here (we spay/neuter the kitties, but sometimes...) that the idea of driving 1.5 hrs for a kitty? Preposterous. But we're glad she's thrilled with her new friend. The mama is very sweet and we're keeping one of the males... so good stock, but still... 1.5 hrs? For a kitty? Must be barren out there in the cities.
We don't play too much with the barn kitties so much as just hang with them when they feel like it... unless you count kicking the dead mice/voles they leave for us. We assume they are simply tithing a tenth share in gratitude for the incredible bounty we've given them; which is their job, as far as we're concerned... so win/win.
Agree that Beren and Luthien would be a perfect tale for cinema.
Less sure about the Noldor Saga as it's deeply tied to the creation myth and mythos and the trap would be seeing it as a plot driven adventure around 'magic' Silmarils.
I mean, it's not impossible, but the obvious direction that Hollywood would take would, I think, make you feel that they had rather missed the point.
Children of Hurin is d.a.r.k. and could be done in a way like LoTR that situates it in a larger world without attempting to build the entire world.
Would be a sort of anti-LoTR to set the stage behind LoTR and the (shadow of the) evil they faced.
Main point is that the story already has the beats it needs for a trilogy and 'all it would take' would be appreciating the style of the morality tale it tells.
For anyone with the $Bs needed to pry it away from the estate, I'm available for a reasonable consulting fee.
Kinda far fetched, but in the back of my mind, if he's with his troops it feels like a ruse de guerre where there's now a 'rogue' mercenary corps outside of Russian jurisdiction on the northern border with Ukraine and the Baltics...
Sure... depends on whether he's going alone or with his army. If alone, I don't think he 'defects' in the traditional sense, rather slips away to Africa where he attempts to doge assassins and radiation poisoning the rest of his life.
I have no idea what's happening in Russia, but usually Mercenary mutinies end with grievances aired, money exchanged, and softer targets promised.
The 'other' type of Mercenary mutiny that can yield decisive events is less a mutiny and more the treachery of switching sides. Can switch sides to the enemy you're fighting, or switch sides to a different patron which changes the power structure on the side you're on (usually for more money, softer targets or both).
The limited info we're getting makes it seem more like the former than the latter. If he was switching sides, I think we would have seen some movement by elements of the Regular Army and Political allies. Seems isolated at this point.
It looks from the outside like Prigozhin may have overplayed his hand, which makes me think he's at risk (that'd be my guess); but not impossible that a deal is struck.
The "Dilly Dilly" campaign will find it's place in future History of Ideas PhD dissertations as a successor meme to Wassup that was greeted with ironic recognition, but which failed to achieve its desired goal.
...scholars will disagree whether it was because it was trying too hard, or just doing its best.
I love a Wes Anderson cinema spectacle... but my mood killing take is that he's an A+ storyteller who tells B- stories. I'll watch for the pure excellence of the craft, but I'm rarely on the same page as he regarding life, the universe and everything.
Was just discussing w/Lady Marchmaine whether we should see it this weekend... I'll see it eventually.
Hi and welcome... in the event that you're new here and looking to participate, please help us all:
"a Nobel-prize winning virologist" You need to tell us who this is... otherwise I'll personally assume you're making it up.
"He’s got the study out there" Same thing... if you're saying a Nobel Prize winning scientist has a study provide the link.
As the official OT 'clicker of Links' I may not be able to understand it, but I'll want to look at it for context on what you're claiming. Plus someone much smarter here might be able to comment.
Table stakes at OT for commenting. Sort of pics, or it didn't happen. Thanks.
I think we're exceeding our knowledge here... the last 'investigative' information we have is that the Burisma emails (the original claim) were verified independently by the NYT.
""People familiar" with a federal investigation of Hunter Biden, it reports, "said prosecutors had examined emails" between him, his former business partner Devon Archer, "and others" regarding "Burisma and other foreign business activity." Those emails "were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop." The messages "were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation."
(-via Reason linked below)
Now, whether or not there's any actual wrong doing or crimes? I don't know, and we don't know what the FBI is doing with it either -- if there's a definitive statement, I'd be interested to see it.
IF I'm keeping up with the scorecard correctly, the Tax issues pre-date the Laptop. The Burisma emails that were the 'sketchy' part of the NYPost dump *were* validated by NYT... the Tax issues have wrapped up with a plea bargain.
Honest question, has the FBI stated that this wraps up any other issues (like unregistered Foreign Agent charges) that HB *might* be under investigation? Or are we just assuming that 'all they got' was the Tax stuff? I don't know... but I haven't seen any statement that everything related to HB is a closed book.
I'm all out of NYT reads, but this one from Reason covers the NYT verification and the broader range of 'questionable' activities for which HB might still be liable.
On “DOJ Sues Texas Over Rio Grande Border Barriers”
Very topical... you should!
"
After skimming the 28 Articles... it seems that only Dams and 'Diversionary Structures' are specifically regulated... and *only* in so far as the structures divert water to either country putting at risk downstream consumption guarantees. As long as the water flows, boundaries respected and the river remains navigable... I don't see a specific requirement for approval.
I could, however see a bureaucratic agency set up to administer the provisions of the treaty making maximalist claims, though.
Another news article is slightly more precise that the Mexican govt is indeed treating the buoys as 'diversionary structures' which would make them subject to the treaty. Honestly, my layman's reading would challenge Mexico to demonstrate how the structures divert the river into the US thereby deprecating the flow and Mexico's entitlement. I mean, I don't think they can and the objection is somewhat spurious. Unless I've skimmed over some other relevant definition of 'Diversionary Structures'.
There's also a specific carve-out for activities related to Policing... so push/shove Abbott could also invoke policing.
I'm not sure I have much of an opinion about 1000 ft of buoys on a 1,200 mile border... and if my 25yrs of living near the Shenandoah has taught me anything its that nothing you build 'in' a river stays for more than a few years or the first big flood.
My point is that I don't think an International Treaty has much bearing on this matter... and it's a little silly that the Media are using it to sort of 'compound' the wrongness. The Federal Govt's prerogative to set boarders and immigration Policy? Well, that's the only thing that matters here.
"
Was kinda interested in what the Mexico 'objecting' angle might be.
"Bárcena [Mexico's Interior Minister] told reporters that the Mexican government sent a diplomatic letter to the U.S. on June 26 stating the barriers are in violation of a 1944 water treaty, Reuters reported. The Associated Press reported Friday that Bárcena plans to send an inspection team to the Rio Grande to see if the barrier extends into Mexico's side of the border and if it impedes the flow of water, which would violate the treaty."
A) Impinging on Mexico's border seems reasonable.
B) Impeding the flow of water? Unless that's a term of art... no.
C) Something not mentioned?
The 1944 Treaty upon cursory inspection does indeed seem to focus solely on Water Rights and is not what we'd call a border/process treaty.
Now, as to States impinging on Federal prerogatives? That's another matter.
On “Open Mic for the week of 7/24/2023”
I'm not entirely sure that (rich) celebrities have relationships.
On “YIMBYs, NIMBYs, and Freddies”
I think the appropriate strategy is for the YIMBY's to lead with the acknowledgement that the 'risk' associated with change is real and Team YIMBY will incorporate protections into their plans.
Else, as InMD points out, status quo has a much bigger constituency... they don't have to offer anything to win.
"
The 'compromise' is that you take away the veto's in exchange for backing-up people's exit strategies.
If the neighborhood becomes less desireable to you (for whatever reason) and you can exit without loss; or, hey, maybe less desirable is more desirable for someone else so you exit with some extra jingle in your pocket.
The aesthetic arguments are mostly indirect arguments against fear of financial loss.
Sidenote... I'm always a little baffled by the Yglesias war on parking; but hey, if you can YIMBY your way into insufficient parking and value goes up? Then let the town/county/state gamble that they aren't f*cking things up.
"
Right... you'd basically build a "stop-loss" program based upon an agreed-upon 3rd party metric for property valuation.
We do this already with various property taxes... the key would be funding and re-insuring the "stop-loss" program with YIMBY developers and backstopped by the State/Fed govts. Depends I guess on what level we're managing the stop-loss program. Hyper Local or the entire US.
Of course, like Home Hazard insurance the Stop-Loss program would have to be at replacement value (i.e. appreciated max value) not at cost.
There's plenty to work with if we're willing to tax the growth and redistribute to the losers. If the development is all good according to YIMBY dreams and property values all rise, then the tax generates revenues. If it all goes to shit as NIMBYs doomcast, then towns/counties go bankrupt and property owners are made whole as they relocate to 'replacement' level locations. Smart Development is encouraged while risks are reduced.
Everybody gets what they want.
On “The Disturbing New Labor Trend: Skilljacking”
Nice.
But I'll keep reminding all of us that wages are the box they want us pushing against; management is afraid that we'll ask for *their* compensation: Wages + productivity gains in the form of equity.
On “Open Mic for the week of 7/17/2023”
I think Pinky's point is that OpenMic should have a sidebar with, say, the last 4 weeks ready to click. Maybe replace 'Hot Posts' or Ten Second News 2.0 (which doesn't seem to do anything).
I'm holding off on Snow White until I know whether the Dwarves have proper Scottish accents or not.
On “Biden Admin Takes Another Run At Forgiving Student Loan Debt”
It's not even policy any more... not even trying. Cringe even.
You'd think the administration would back-up, look to cut a deal on Higher Education funding reform ... then position debt reduction as the carrot that makes the reform sting less. Alas, when all the money we spend on Education is pandering to a preferred constituency, there's no way to make everyone on your team happy with actual policy.
That's why the School Debt Relief is correctly seen as a money give-away and not any sort of good 'policy' ... you can get debt relief, but it will cost you funding reform.
On “From Bloomberg: Amazon CEO Asks His Hollywood Studio to Explain Its Big Spending”
Ugh, the hobbit movies are so bad... just caught them again on HBO. Like every single 'creative' idea was calibrated to magnetic wrong.
But yes, I'm even less sanguine on LoTR than you guys... but of all the pre-LoTR tales, Beren/Luthien would probably be doable since its a love story, a clearly defined (smallish, but epic) adventure, and the Silmaril - in this case - truly is a macguffin. PLUS HUAN THE TALKING DOG.
On “Weekend Plans Post: On Cat Toys”
Wow, that is a beatles song.
We sold our (barn) kitties -- we'd give them away, but a friend gave us the tip that you *have* to charge for them or no-one will want them. So we put a nominal $20 fee and one nice young lady drove 1.5 hrs and wanted to give us extra $ (which we obvs. refused) to take home her beautiful fluffy grey kitty. We're so used to having animals proliferate around here (we spay/neuter the kitties, but sometimes...) that the idea of driving 1.5 hrs for a kitty? Preposterous. But we're glad she's thrilled with her new friend. The mama is very sweet and we're keeping one of the males... so good stock, but still... 1.5 hrs? For a kitty? Must be barren out there in the cities.
We don't play too much with the barn kitties so much as just hang with them when they feel like it... unless you count kicking the dead mice/voles they leave for us. We assume they are simply tithing a tenth share in gratitude for the incredible bounty we've given them; which is their job, as far as we're concerned... so win/win.
On “From Bloomberg: Amazon CEO Asks His Hollywood Studio to Explain Its Big Spending”
Agree that Beren and Luthien would be a perfect tale for cinema.
Less sure about the Noldor Saga as it's deeply tied to the creation myth and mythos and the trap would be seeing it as a plot driven adventure around 'magic' Silmarils.
I mean, it's not impossible, but the obvious direction that Hollywood would take would, I think, make you feel that they had rather missed the point.
"
Children of Hurin is d.a.r.k. and could be done in a way like LoTR that situates it in a larger world without attempting to build the entire world.
Would be a sort of anti-LoTR to set the stage behind LoTR and the (shadow of the) evil they faced.
Main point is that the story already has the beats it needs for a trilogy and 'all it would take' would be appreciating the style of the morality tale it tells.
For anyone with the $Bs needed to pry it away from the estate, I'm available for a reasonable consulting fee.
On “Open Mic for the week of 7/3/2023”
Tincture of Laudanum drives away the Malarkey.
On “Trouble in Russia: Developing Story, “Wagner Mutiny” and Discussion Thread”
Kinda far fetched, but in the back of my mind, if he's with his troops it feels like a ruse de guerre where there's now a 'rogue' mercenary corps outside of Russian jurisdiction on the northern border with Ukraine and the Baltics...
"
Sure... depends on whether he's going alone or with his army. If alone, I don't think he 'defects' in the traditional sense, rather slips away to Africa where he attempts to doge assassins and radiation poisoning the rest of his life.
"
I imagine windows and buildings and gravity all function roughly the same in Belarus as Russia?
Not entirely clear to me who's going where and under what conditions. Just Prigozhin? Prigozhin and the mutineers?
If Prigozhin and mutineers, then not entirely sure that Wagner repositioned on the northern border is a great outcome for Ukraine.
"
I have no idea what's happening in Russia, but usually Mercenary mutinies end with grievances aired, money exchanged, and softer targets promised.
The 'other' type of Mercenary mutiny that can yield decisive events is less a mutiny and more the treachery of switching sides. Can switch sides to the enemy you're fighting, or switch sides to a different patron which changes the power structure on the side you're on (usually for more money, softer targets or both).
The limited info we're getting makes it seem more like the former than the latter. If he was switching sides, I think we would have seen some movement by elements of the Regular Army and Political allies. Seems isolated at this point.
It looks from the outside like Prigozhin may have overplayed his hand, which makes me think he's at risk (that'd be my guess); but not impossible that a deal is struck.
On “Open Mic for the week of 6/19/2023”
Heh. Meanwhile competing scholars:
Yeeting the Most Interesting Man in the World into LITERAL space: Why consumers opted to stay thirsty.
Expanded from my original peer reviewed article:
Going from "Sharks have a week dedicated to Him" to who's this a**hole?
On “Asteroid City, In Which Wes Anderson Is Now Just Screwing With Us”
Perhaps he has finally recognized where we part ways and this is his attempt to woo me back.
Will think about it; but not going to go rushing to him ... I have standards, you know.
On “Open Mic for the week of 6/19/2023”
The "Dilly Dilly" campaign will find it's place in future History of Ideas PhD dissertations as a successor meme to Wassup that was greeted with ironic recognition, but which failed to achieve its desired goal.
...scholars will disagree whether it was because it was trying too hard, or just doing its best.
On “Asteroid City, In Which Wes Anderson Is Now Just Screwing With Us”
I love a Wes Anderson cinema spectacle... but my mood killing take is that he's an A+ storyteller who tells B- stories. I'll watch for the pure excellence of the craft, but I'm rarely on the same page as he regarding life, the universe and everything.
Was just discussing w/Lady Marchmaine whether we should see it this weekend... I'll see it eventually.
On “Mini-Throughput: Debate Me, Bro Edition”
Hi and welcome... in the event that you're new here and looking to participate, please help us all:
"a Nobel-prize winning virologist" You need to tell us who this is... otherwise I'll personally assume you're making it up.
"He’s got the study out there" Same thing... if you're saying a Nobel Prize winning scientist has a study provide the link.
As the official OT 'clicker of Links' I may not be able to understand it, but I'll want to look at it for context on what you're claiming. Plus someone much smarter here might be able to comment.
Table stakes at OT for commenting. Sort of pics, or it didn't happen. Thanks.
On “Hunter Biden Takes Plea Deal On Tax, Gun Charges”
"The original article has been falsified"
I think we're exceeding our knowledge here... the last 'investigative' information we have is that the Burisma emails (the original claim) were verified independently by the NYT.
""People familiar" with a federal investigation of Hunter Biden, it reports, "said prosecutors had examined emails" between him, his former business partner Devon Archer, "and others" regarding "Burisma and other foreign business activity." Those emails "were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop." The messages "were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation."
(-via Reason linked below)
Now, whether or not there's any actual wrong doing or crimes? I don't know, and we don't know what the FBI is doing with it either -- if there's a definitive statement, I'd be interested to see it.
IF I'm keeping up with the scorecard correctly, the Tax issues pre-date the Laptop. The Burisma emails that were the 'sketchy' part of the NYPost dump *were* validated by NYT... the Tax issues have wrapped up with a plea bargain.
Honest question, has the FBI stated that this wraps up any other issues (like unregistered Foreign Agent charges) that HB *might* be under investigation? Or are we just assuming that 'all they got' was the Tax stuff? I don't know... but I haven't seen any statement that everything related to HB is a closed book.
I'm all out of NYT reads, but this one from Reason covers the NYT verification and the broader range of 'questionable' activities for which HB might still be liable.
https://reason.com/2022/03/17/the-new-york-times-belatedly-admits-the-emails-on-hunter-bidens-abandoned-laptop-are-real-and-newsworthy/