There’s only one thing that matters: ratings

Donald J. Trump

It’s way easier to believe those formations were trees than it is to accept that something cut them down. (natural tree stumps are rarely flat on the top)

This chart is misleading. It just shows “discretionary” spending which leaves out Medicare Social Security, and Medicaid. (We spend considerably more on those programs than the entire military)

In 2003 I could have made a living selling subscriptions to 5-GB cloud storage that was tightly integrated into Windows.

I understand why Windows is trying to capture you into it’s cloud ecosystem. Just saying that between M$, Apple, and Google you can do some robust backups, basically for free. And if you’re worried about privacy, just encrypt.

The rhetoric surrounding the Palestine ethnic cleansing is crazy. You have to be so careful to use the right language, and not say “Jew” when you mean “Zionist”, or never to confuse either for “Israeli”.

The Zionists use this linguistic minefield for their advantage. From 1947, the Zionist apologist has wielded antisemitism for a sword and the Shoah for a shield. Western guilt over the Shoah is the mouth from which all Israeli support flows. And if you feel bad about it; you’re probably not an antisemite.

This policy wouldn’t be effective against real antisemites, but it’s not for them after all.

Ah yes, the me too movement went too far. I mean it’s nice and all to bring attention to the fact that 1 in 3 women get SA’d, while only 3/100 perpetrators see prison. But tragically, in all the confusion, some millionaire celebrities faced consequences, perhaps even unfairly.

unlimited access to porn? who could imagine?

You’re stretching the definition of “voluntary” far enough to embarrass a libertarian.

A better question is can a dating app be good?

Around 2010, every tech bro that’s creaming shorts over AI today was trying to figure out how to make money behind the fact that everyone had smartphones. But it turned out, that smartphones can’t solve every problem.

Dating I would argue, is just one of those things tech made worse. Never mind how often the damn thing fails, think about the conditions where it would function well. A dystopian world where everything is shallow and operating on incel-math.

And how could it be otherwise? Dating apps are just math people trying to solve for love. This is the plot to a comedy movie, not a business plan.

This is an odd test case. Not only is the defendant unsympathetic, the circumstances seem to be exactly what section 702 was intended for.

Whatever information was obtained through FISA (if it was), wasn’t used as evidence against this guy. So they can’t even prove that the Nazi was subject to a FISA search, much less that it harmed him.

Are you going to have to deal with a full-screen ad when you’re trying to open File Explorer eventually?

I was literally reading this sentence when the whole page grayed out and a window asking me to subscribe popped up.

Say, what do you call someone who openly works for the fascist cause?

What if the great filter is just when civilizations learn to live sustainably at home? Perhaps the assumption of infinite population growth, resource consumption, and expansion is flawed.

That’s my optimistic thought for the day.

Is there any evidence of American rat-fuckery in the Bolivian coup attempt?

Article: Johnson plots to use the House to free Bannon

Text: The House is going to file an amicus brief.

Fuck you Salon.

There is a concept in post-modern philosophy called “hauntology”. This theory posits that late-capitalist societies loose their ability to imagine different social orders; and cannot imagine the future except as high-tech versions of the current social order. To fill the void of novelty, the culture industry must constantly recycle and repackage old culture.

Anyway, this isn’t a new phenomena, just a technology enabling us to resurrect live people instead of just fictional characters.

I read this article and I’d advise against it. All the author does is write about a bunch of facts that are all obviously true, without tying them together or saying anything interesting.

1. cognitive tests work
2. both candidates have declined to have cognitive tests
3. debates are mentally taxing
4. candidates are going to have to perform live.
5. the audience will judge the performance
6. the moderators will affect this.

Mind blown right?

Cable news’ job is to sell advertising. Nelson is the judge of how well their doing.

This is what’s so frustrating about neolibs like Jon. They think a call to honor, or perhaps some light regulation can reform capitalism. And even sillier, they imagine that a responsible cable news would somehow lead to an informed electorate.

This is an old schtick for Stuart. Fox News is crazy and CNN is stupid. Both sides, you guys. Please don’t look at the incentive structure behind the curtain.