The story isn’t about a sudden change of heart or some grand ideological pivot. It’s simpler—and, in a way, more predictable. Trump’s always seen the world as a series of deals. When those deals shift, so does his loyalty. These days, the Gulf states are doing a lot more business with Trump than Israel is. Saudi money is flowing into his family’s ventures. His golf courses are hosting Saudi-backed tournaments. The Saudis and Emiratis know exactly what kind of game he’s playing, because they play it too.
Trump’s new skepticism of Israel isn’t some fluke. It’s what happens when politics starts to look more like business—and the biggest spenders are coming from the Gulf, not Jerusalem.
Slowly working my way through Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the last installment of the TR reboot -- I picked it up for five bucks a while back and finally had a bit of time to play it. It has its issues around story & lack of novelty and lack of action (at some point I stopped bothering with all the weapon upgrades, because there hasn't been enough fighting to need more than the basics), but the scenery is pretty and the challenge tombs are good.
That used to be true, but the machine is sputtering pretty hard in the era of social media. Especially with Democratic Party approval numbers south of 40%, a promising Dem politician nowadays will probably have better personal success if they visibly buck the establishment and trumpet it on the socials rather than toeing the line.
My wife and I are both animal lovers, but she came into the relationship preferring dogs and I’ve always been more of a cat person. When we bought our first house and figured we would be settled there a while (over three decades ago), we got a cat and a dog from the shelter.
Since then we’ve had about 10 other cats (multiples at a time, largely due to the cat distribution system) and no other dogs — the main issue for us was mainly that dogs have to be walked, even when it’s 10 below outside, and my wife left those freezing walks to me to take on. Also our dog was quite protective with us and hostile to other dogs, which caused us a decent amount of hassle.
Dogs are fine but cats are (mostly) easy. And we’ve been lucky to have a lot of very friendly lap cats. We did have one foisted on us who terrorized the kids and the other cats, but we were able to pass her along to a cat-free family after a few months, where she was a lot happier.
I normally try to ignore this sort of sparring but I’m quite curious about what part David thinks is made up about the MV story. We discussed it here at the time - there was obviously disagreement on how to feel about it but not on what happened.
"the Democrats will be right on the basic principle but woefully wrong on the politics."
It's a dilemma -- the basic principle (due process for everyone, even if all signs point to their being rotten) is not necessarily popular, so there's an eagerness to find a straightforward and sympathetic story of an injustice. But it sounds like this one wasn't so straightforward, and a few folks got too far out over their skis.
Yeah it’s not well defined enough for me to even worry about - I just continue to be amazed and a little worried at the progress. Right now is a great stage where it’s making our lives at work easier but hasnt gotten to the point where the humans are being fired - though there’s definitely a lot of pushback on new hires or even backfills while we’re learning just how much productivity we’re getting from these tools.
I think definitionally doxxing can only happen to someone once, right? After that there’s nothing new to reveal. Redox is a thing in chemistry but not so much in anonymity management.
Doesn’t sound like either side takes the hit for him: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2025/04/14/who-cody-balmer-harrisburg-pa-arson-shapiro/83079845007/#
It's been so long since I played that I had to google them -- and yes, I hated that battle. I believe I got a lot of exploring done in the rest of the map while avoiding them.
Re the main post, I could tell while I was playing that there was more to the game than I was getting to, but there's something deep within me that stops me from ever looking at a guide. Reading your posts does make me kind of want to fire it back up though.
I don’t plan to wait until 7/1 - now seems like a good opportunity to get out of the pool for a bit with minimal injury, while they figure out how toxic the contaminant is.
I think of it more as that the republicans are the “child” party and the democrats are the “adolescent” party. There aren’t enough adults around to make up their own party but their influence with the kids on either side waxes and wanes. Unfortunately right now it seems to be in a wane cycle on both sides.
Hollow Knight is great. It was one of the first non-console games I had played in a long time and one of the first I got from Steam, and the fact that it was cheap and not in shrinkwrap made me assume it was going to be a trivial thing, but it was quite deep. And definitely difficult, at least for an average gamer like me -- I did defeat what I assume was the "final boss" but there were other battles available that I knew I had no chance at.
I struggle sometimes with these game genre definitions though -- to me, a "metroidvania" suggests not just the features you mentioned but also a 2-D platformer, i.e. something like original or super Metroid (I never played the "vania" part of the term). I would never have considered any of the Arkham games to be metroidvanias, though they may have some metroidvania-like elements. But I understand my own definition is not the only valid one -- I've sometimes found that out the hard way by buying a game listed in that category that totally did not feel like an MV to me.
I wonder if the market is pricing in the probability of a suit like this eventually succeeding (and Trump actually following the order). Well, I guess the assumption is that it is -- likely not a high probability and some damage would already be done regardless.
I was going to do that too, but I have a decent amount of unrealized gains and was worried about the tax impact… then just put off doing any actual research or decision-making. Still a few years away from retirement so hopefully by some miracle it all rights itself soon.
It would be if it was like a movie theater, but it's more like a computer room (24 monitors, people use headphones) and the job is more like monitoring SAT test takers for cheating.
Fair enough. I haven't checked but offhand I would guess that basketball is high-scoring enough that ties are much less frequent, so it makes sense that that sport would be able to get away with OTs to the death. Re baseball, I totally get the argument from tradition, but at the end of the day it's a business, and one that has to adapt when market conditions change. If it doesn't, then there's eventually not much of an MLB organization left to be preserved.
As a longtime Dodgers fan, I'm eager to see if they've figured out how to break the sport. Might need to move to randomized rule changes every year right at the beginning of the season, make it so unpredictable that teams can't just hoard all the talent because they won't know who's a "good" player in any given ruleset. 2026: misère!
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 5/12/2025”
Why Trump Has Turned Against Israel
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Death Roads Tournament”
Slowly working my way through Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the last installment of the TR reboot -- I picked it up for five bucks a while back and finally had a bit of time to play it. It has its issues around story & lack of novelty and lack of action (at some point I stopped bothering with all the weapon upgrades, because there hasn't been enough fighting to need more than the basics), but the scenery is pretty and the challenge tombs are good.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 5/12/2025”
That used to be true, but the machine is sputtering pretty hard in the era of social media. Especially with Democratic Party approval numbers south of 40%, a promising Dem politician nowadays will probably have better personal success if they visibly buck the establishment and trumpet it on the socials rather than toeing the line.
On “Cats Are The Best: An Annotated List”
That first cat was the only one we got where the intention to get a cat was the first step of the process.
"
My wife and I are both animal lovers, but she came into the relationship preferring dogs and I’ve always been more of a cat person. When we bought our first house and figured we would be settled there a while (over three decades ago), we got a cat and a dog from the shelter.
Since then we’ve had about 10 other cats (multiples at a time, largely due to the cat distribution system) and no other dogs — the main issue for us was mainly that dogs have to be walked, even when it’s 10 below outside, and my wife left those freezing walks to me to take on. Also our dog was quite protective with us and hostile to other dogs, which caused us a decent amount of hassle.
Dogs are fine but cats are (mostly) easy. And we’ve been lucky to have a lot of very friendly lap cats. We did have one foisted on us who terrorized the kids and the other cats, but we were able to pass her along to a cat-free family after a few months, where she was a lot happier.
On “The Lawless Lying Duplicitous Bastards of Abrego Garcia”
I normally try to ignore this sort of sparring but I’m quite curious about what part David thinks is made up about the MV story. We discussed it here at the time - there was obviously disagreement on how to feel about it but not on what happened.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/14/2025”
"the Democrats will be right on the basic principle but woefully wrong on the politics."
It's a dilemma -- the basic principle (due process for everyone, even if all signs point to their being rotten) is not necessarily popular, so there's an eagerness to find a straightforward and sympathetic story of an injustice. But it sounds like this one wasn't so straightforward, and a few folks got too far out over their skis.
On “From Marginal Revolution: o3 and AGI, is April 16th AGI day?”
Yeah it’s not well defined enough for me to even worry about - I just continue to be amazed and a little worried at the progress. Right now is a great stage where it’s making our lives at work easier but hasnt gotten to the point where the humans are being fired - though there’s definitely a lot of pushback on new hires or even backfills while we’re learning just how much productivity we’re getting from these tools.
"
Artificial General Snarkiness. But what model were you using?
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/14/2025”
I think definitionally doxxing can only happen to someone once, right? After that there’s nothing new to reveal. Redox is a thing in chemistry but not so much in anonymity management.
On “Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s Residence Attacked, Suspect Arrested”
Doesn’t sound like either side takes the hit for him: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2025/04/14/who-cody-balmer-harrisburg-pa-arson-shapiro/83079845007/#
On “The Emergency Ordinary Times Facelift”
Let me add my voice to the choir -- thanks much Will for carving out a chunk of your vacation for us!
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Hollow Knight”
It's been so long since I played that I had to google them -- and yes, I hated that battle. I believe I got a lot of exploring done in the rest of the map while avoiding them.
Re the main post, I could tell while I was playing that there was more to the game than I was getting to, but there's something deep within me that stops me from ever looking at a guide. Reading your posts does make me kind of want to fire it back up though.
On “What To Expect When You’re Expecting a Trade War”
I don’t plan to wait until 7/1 - now seems like a good opportunity to get out of the pool for a bit with minimal injury, while they figure out how toxic the contaminant is.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/7/2025”
I think of it more as that the republicans are the “child” party and the democrats are the “adolescent” party. There aren’t enough adults around to make up their own party but their influence with the kids on either side waxes and wanes. Unfortunately right now it seems to be in a wane cycle on both sides.
On “Saturday Morning Gaming: Metroidvanias”
Hollow Knight is great. It was one of the first non-console games I had played in a long time and one of the first I got from Steam, and the fact that it was cheap and not in shrinkwrap made me assume it was going to be a trivial thing, but it was quite deep. And definitely difficult, at least for an average gamer like me -- I did defeat what I assume was the "final boss" but there were other battles available that I knew I had no chance at.
I struggle sometimes with these game genre definitions though -- to me, a "metroidvania" suggests not just the features you mentioned but also a 2-D platformer, i.e. something like original or super Metroid (I never played the "vania" part of the term). I would never have considered any of the Arkham games to be metroidvanias, though they may have some metroidvania-like elements. But I understand my own definition is not the only valid one -- I've sometimes found that out the hard way by buying a game listed in that category that totally did not feel like an MV to me.
On “Tariffs Making China Great Again”
I wonder if the market is pricing in the probability of a suit like this eventually succeeding (and Trump actually following the order). Well, I guess the assumption is that it is -- likely not a high probability and some damage would already be done regardless.
"
Oh wait, that's for the February tariffs -- probably too early for the most recent ones, right? Standing requires ability to show harm?
"
I just read about this one: https://reason.com/volokh/2025/04/04/ncla-files-lawsuit-challenging-trumps-ieepa-tariffs-against-china/
On “Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25”
Conor Sen on Twitter, tongue in cheek: "I was promised an oligarchy that cared about shareholders above all else! Where are the oligarchs??"
"
I was going to do that too, but I have a decent amount of unrealized gains and was worried about the tax impact… then just put off doing any actual research or decision-making. Still a few years away from retirement so hopefully by some miracle it all rights itself soon.
On “Weekend Plans Post: Pantherine Vandals”
It would be if it was like a movie theater, but it's more like a computer room (24 monitors, people use headphones) and the job is more like monitoring SAT test takers for cheating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_on_Film_and_Tape_Archive#/media/File:Theatre_on_Film_and_Tape.jpg
"
Apparently there are some practical (i.e. money-related) reasons: https://playbill.com/article/why-you-cant-stream-broadway-shows
On “Opening Day at the Church of Baseball”
Fair enough. I haven't checked but offhand I would guess that basketball is high-scoring enough that ties are much less frequent, so it makes sense that that sport would be able to get away with OTs to the death. Re baseball, I totally get the argument from tradition, but at the end of the day it's a business, and one that has to adapt when market conditions change. If it doesn't, then there's eventually not much of an MLB organization left to be preserved.
"
As a longtime Dodgers fan, I'm eager to see if they've figured out how to break the sport. Might need to move to randomized rule changes every year right at the beginning of the season, make it so unpredictable that teams can't just hoard all the talent because they won't know who's a "good" player in any given ruleset. 2026: misère!
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.