The Daily's 8/18/17

Word of the Day: Bye Bye Bannon

Steve Bannon Out At The White House

The Daily's 8/17/17

Word of the Day: Pershing

After Charlottesville, how do we cover an immoral president? (video)

This is fairly typical of media sentiment today: hysterical, exaggerating, uncharitable. Bit by bit we are creeping towards a massive violent explosion.

Van Driver Hits Pedestrians in Barcelona, Killing at Least 12 in Terror Attack

I wonder if this was motivated by Islam? The world isn't big enough for the both of us. They need to be broken, humiliated, destroyed completely. We don't have the stomach for it. So now we will live with this scum's violent outbursts everyday.

Why Climate Change Isn’t Our Biggest Environmental Problem, and Why Technology Won’t Save Us

Taibbi: Fire Steve Bannon

I agree with the author that Bannon is the only half-smart guy in the White House. But I stand with him because he is the only person in either party that wouldn't sell me out for a nickel. Taibbi correctly realizes that without Bannon, Trump is truly doomed.

The Daily's 8/16/17

Word of the Day: If we evolved form apes why are there still apes.

Study: Higher minimum wages bring automation and job losses

Surprising photos show what life is like for North Korea’s elite

Vice’s documentary on Charlottesville is really worth watching

KunstlerCast 293 — Hate Is the New Sex, featuring John Michael Greer

Steve Bannon, Unrepentant

"Crush these guys". Bannon on racists.

The Daily's 8/15/17

Word of the Day: Some very fine people on both sides.

New Ocarina of Time Glitch Shakes Up Speedrunning Community

The language, the community, the peer review. Speedrunning feel like science. It's endlessly fascinating to me.

Everything That’s Inside Your iPhone

An interesting look about what is in our smartphone. Apparently this mine in South America is several hundreds of years old and could have up to 40 million people die from mining in it.

The Confederate-era statue issue is just beginning

I don't feel great about moving and destroying statues and monuments. Well, I guess I can never work or show my face in society again.

GENERATION WEALTH

Current Affairs reviews a photo essay about conspicuous consumption in America.

How to Go to the Movies as Many Times as You Want for $10

This is incredible if true. I would love to go to more movies but it's just too expensive.

The Daily's 8/14/17

Word of the Day:

A great video trashing our retro-future

Plague: Why Scientists Can’t Agree on Whether It’s Unhealthy to Be Overweight

Solar freakin' roadways. 

Eight Confederate leaders are honored with sculptures in the halls of Congress.

Fire Steve Bannon

Without Bannon the White House is truly doomed. He isn't a racist. Hopefully the National Review will be as effective at stopping Bannon as they were Trump.

The Daily's 8/13/17

Word of the Day: If You're Not Outraged, You're Not Paying Attention.

Charlottesville Roundup:

Condemn the White Supremacists, Mr. President
The Truth About Women and White Supremacy
The Alt-Right’s Chickens Come Home to Roost
What We Saw at Charlottesville (Pics)

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/450433/alt-rights-chickens-come-home-roost


The Senate map is trouble for Democrats in 2018

The map looks terrible. But, I'm not sure I even support Democratic wins anymore.

Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism

One study suggests East German women had twice as many orgasms! 

James Rickards Warns "War Is Almost Inevitable"

Rickards is a pretty smart guy.... 

Rumor: H.R McMaster is a drunk and tom-catting around with somebody in the WH.

Derrick Jensen Resistance Radio w/ Meghan Murphy - August 13, 2017

I agree with Derrick Jensen on almost every issue. His voice is so valuable. But in this discussion about porn and sex dolls, I think he has lost the plot. No doubt some women are exploited and harmed seriously by porn but as it has become increasingly professionalized the arguments from agency and libertarianism are very strong. And women themselves are big consumers of porn.

The Daily's 8/12/17

Word of The Day: Talos

1) One dead as car mows down anti-fascists at white nationalist rally: Driver 'intentionally' accelerates into crowd and leaves 19 hurt after riot cops use tear gas to break up violent clashes in Charlottesville

Battle lines are being drawn. This gathering storm of rage and discontent will boil over into open conflict. What the sides will eventually be are opaque to me at this point. 

2) Elon Musk says his startup’s AI is the first to beat e-sports’ best gamers

It was just 1v1's. But still... I wonder what will happened to multiplayer games when godlike bots become unbeatable and undetectable. This is likely not far off.

James Damore follow-up: Why Google was wrong: Did James Damore really deserve to be fired for what he wrote?

I respect Peter Singer. He agrees the firing of Damore was problematic. Perhaps on of the best write-ups of the issue I have read.

3) A Panel Featuring Omarosa at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention Was a "Hot Mess

I hope video of this shows up somewhere. I am not familiar with Omarosa, but I have a little more respect for her now. 

4) Signs of Distress

Testify! 

Recommended Long-read: Is the World Slouching Toward a Grave Systemic Crisis?

America's climate change refugees putting their faith in Donald Trump (Video)

I don't really understand the rural resistance to climate change. ISIS seawall 4lfy.

5) Who Will Put an End to Donald Trump’s Warmongering?

New Yorker calling for 25th amendment solution to remove Trump from office.

6) The Mystery of S., the Man with an Impossible Memory

A more nuanced story of a man with "perfect recall". 

 

The Daily's 8/11/17

Word of the Day: Locked and Loaded

1) Taibbi: Is LIBOR, Benchmark for Trillions of Dollars in Transactions, a Lie?

For the privilege of being able to live in a house or pay for the basic essentials of life Americans are daily bleed by the finical system. This new LIBOR scandal exposes one way it is done. The old LIBOR flare-up was about how the calculation on how much interest you paid on was illegally manipulated to extract maximum misery on borrowers and to finance the debauched lifestyle of our sociopaths banking and fiance clique.  

Turns out, this LIBOR number doesn't actually measure anything that actually takes place in real life anymore ("not being alive anymore", being a future common theme in banking and finance; institutions and individuals). It is estimated that 350 trillion dollars in debt is conjured according to this corrupt and fantastical number and it has no clear successor. 

 2 ) Breitbart's war on McMaster bites Bannon

Some more palace intrigue. I remain steadfast the Bannon is the only guy I have confidence in around Trump. Raising taxes on the rich would be a great start to restoring trust among our people, but it is probably impossible in non-emergency mode (coming soon to a theater near you).

3) The mystery and intrigue of Matt Drudge's Twitter feed

Disturbed people are sometimes great but never well. I <3 Matt Drudge.

4) We’re Drinking So Much It’s Now a 'Public Health Crisis' 

More and more we feel the need to take the edge off.

5) Al Gore thinks our political system can save the climate. His daughter isn’t so sure.

Vox publishes such lovely pieces. I had some very conflicted emotions reading about Karenna Gore. On one hand, she is perhaps the most privileged person to have ever been born (privilege checked). She doesn't seem to think that the climate crisis is so bad as to bring three more children into this doomed way of living. She seems to drift from charmed place to prestigious gig effortlessly, and has time to make long and expensive asides in her life purely for pleasure. But she makes the same basic criticism of late-capitalism's failure to deliver unambiguous gains to human happiness that I do.

Tesla Deathwatch: Tesla Boosts Bond Sale to $1.8 Billion for Model 3

I don't like Elon Musk. I don't like Tesla. I don't like their vision of the future. The whole thing is an epic scam. I have my dancing shoes ready for their funeral. 

6) 5 things Trump did this week while you weren't looking

The CW is that Trump has been historically cucked. I basically agree with that, it's legislation or nothing. This stuff is so small-ball. Sure, it will make the world marginally more poisoned, genetically cleansed, and financially perilous but these are small administrative changes, easily reversed.

7) Skinny Women Who Eat Cheeseburgers in Magazines

Well, without the bread....

8) Sundar Pichai Should Resign as Google’s C.E.O.

I second the motion.

The Daily's 8/10/17

Word of the Day: According to 2010 BLS data, the following jobs contain 1 percent or less female workers: boilermakers, brick masonry, stonemasonry, septic tank servicing, sewer pipe cleaners and trash collectors.

1) Google fires Memo guy for annoying feminists with the TRUTH! (Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5_B140QsPg

There is word of a protest against google on Aug. 19. I will do my best to attend.

2) Chinese paper says China should stay neutral if North Korea attacks first http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-china-idUSKBN1AO011

One really wonders what it would mean for China to attempt to "stop", the U.S. from attacking.

3) Political Peroxide: Blonde privilege. https://www.thecut.com/2017/08/politics-of-blonde-hair-from-persephone-to-ivanka-trump.html

Lots of fun trivia about the history of blondeness. And a little elite anti-white bigotry to boot.

4) Seltzer's Popularity Bubbles Up In The U.S. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/10/542663727/seltzer-s-popularity-bubbles-up-in-the-u-s

This stuff is is great for me when I try (and fail) to kick a very dangerous and gross soda habit.

5) Are Index Funds Evil?
A growing chorus of experts argue that they’re strangling the economy—and must be stopped.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/are-index-funds-evil/534183/

This argument is beyond absurd. TL:DR: Portfolio managers with highly diverse holdings (index funds) will encourage all the companies in their ownership not compete and prices will rise. I am skeptical for several reasons. First of all, prices haven't risen that much. Second, the maelstrom of interests that companies are sensitive to is so wild and intense that this bizarre bank-shot of an idea would never gain any traction. 

The Daily's 8/9/17

Word of the Day: FUCK DANIELLE BROWN: VP OF ORWELLIAN HORSE-SHIT!

 

1) Google Fires Man For Telling The Truth! (Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sMFQtVRN1Q

TJ Kirk has a good summary of this scandal that has lately consumed us all.

2) The Internet Reacts To Valve’s New Game Announcement http://kotaku.com/the-internet-reacts-to-valve-s-new-game-announcement-1797680516

Why? Nobody cares about this. A DOTA card game? I get it, video games are hard. But this really sucks.

QUICK HIT: Paul Manfort home raided for Russia probe.

I'm not ready to make an official prediction on the "Trump-Russia, Russia-Trump", thing. However, I think it's becoming clear that Trump's team, or perhaps even Trump himself did something that was technically illegal, even clearly wrong to Washington insiders and elites. But any person outside that bubble will just interpret said wrongdoing as incomplete paperwork, the inability to navigate an incomprehensible and parasitic bureaucracy. It will remind the forgotten-man of every time he has been burned by a useless official and their damnable lists.

3) Donald Trump’s Nuclear-War Threat  http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/donald-trumps-nuclear-war-threat

One really wonders what is really going on in the minds of the men with these god-like weapons.

4)  Google’s War Over the Sexes https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/opinion/google-women-memo.html

Ross Douthat is becoming a must read for me. However, he seemed a little too willing to accept James Damore as a necessary human sacrifice.

 

The Daily's 8/8/17

Word of the Day: Fire, Fury....and Frankly: Power

Follow Up: Google Diversity Manifesto Author Fired https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-fired-anti-diversity-engineer-prove-case-google-211417076.html

The punishment for un-right thinking is swift and severe. I would like to point out the manifesto makes repeated claims that the author is in favor of diversity and inclusion: ad nauseum.

Perhaps a new champion will rise... 

The only take I didn't find horribly annoying:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/the-most-common-error-in-coverage-of-the-google-memo/536181/ 

The Cubist Revolution: Minecraft For All
http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/08/08/538580856/the-cubist-revolution-minecraft-for-all

I think this is great. When I was in school videos games were seen as bad, and as a waste of time. It is tragic some of our citizens are deprived of glorious video games.

Minecraft is also the apotheosis of right-thinking: all the people and animals are intentionally genderless and raceless human-like entities. I see big subsides incoming.

Ezra Klein Show (Podcast): http://podbay.fm/show/1081584611/e/1502208300?autostart=1

Ezra Klein and Senator Micheal Bennet talk about the sociopathic era in Congress.

Government Scientists Leak Sobering Climate Report https://www.wunderground.com/news/climate-report-scientists-trump

Humans are smart enough to understand climate change, but not smart enough to form an intelligent response. We will endure the worst, whatever that is.

Funny: Trump re-tweets a fake pro-Trump account. 
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/08/trump-falls-for-his-own-propaganda-machine

RISE OF THE ROBOT BARONS: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/08/rise-of-the-robot-barons

Universal Basic Income. Universal. Basic. Income.

Short animated video about technology from the good people at The Post Carbon Institute:

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-08-08/hello-humanity-its-me-technology-we-need-to-talk/

The few people who get it made an awesome cartoon!

How America Lost Its Mind 
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/how-america-lost-its-mind/534231/

Decent long-read about how crazy we are.

The Daily's 8/7/17

1) The Government’s Bad Diet Advice https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/21/opinion/when-the-government-tells-you-what-to-eat.html

Government nutrition policy has killed millions. One would think the push to right this obvious wrong would be desperate, all encompassing, and not cease until the problem is solved. But it's all, ya know, whatever.

Obesity and the cluster of diseases associated with it is the plague of our time. The lethality and misery caused by it make the last public health emergency: AIDS, look like swimming pools in comparison.

2)  How 'Cheating' Gamers Fueled Steve Bannon's Rise to Power http://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/news/how-cheating-gamers-fueled-steve-bannons-rise-to-power-w496340

Steve Bannon is the only person around Trump that I trust. If Bannon ever leased the White house the administration will -truly- be adrift. That he has this background in video game gold farming is highly amusing. His documentary films, despite overuse of comical stock footage, offer a great window into his mind. And we are both share a generational view of history presented in the books from Neil Howe and William Strauss.

3)  TEACHING CLIMATE CHANGE https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/08/teaching-climate-change

The more awkward problem is that climate change is real but there is no collective action solution to it. The human race must simply endure it's worst effects.

4) Reporting on Climate Change Is Harmful if You're Not Offering Solutions https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bjm9q3/reporting-on-climate-change-is-harmful-if-youre-not-offering-solutions

Universal Basic Income is the card we have to play in the hope of a "comprehensive model". Also not amused with claiming that not eating animals is some kind of solution for climate change.

5) Avoiding the Trap of Immigration Porn 
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/07/opinion/immigration-porn-photography-deportation.html

A good way to avoid being ruthlessly exploited by dastardly photo journalists is to well...not break into the country. We cannot take care of our own. As we face the crises of our time: population overshoot, climate change, resource depletion we must have a crystal clear message that the border is closed and American citizens are our only moral priority. You must secure your own mask before assisting others.

I am well aware the violence and damage U.S. foreign policy has done to Central America and Mexico via the drug war. It is certainly a moral crime. But, this lifeboat is sinking already and open borders will send it to the depths.

Cheap foreign labor has been terrible for this Country. "We do the jobs Americans won't", is euphemism for: this wouldn't be economical without human slavery. These workers are treated terribly, paid slave wages, little access to the criminal justice system and broad swaths of our society -do not want them here-. It was a terrible policy from the start.

In other news: The president had a tweet storm today. I guess he is upset at Senator Richard Blumenthal. He accuses the senator that his heroism in the Vietnam war was a lie. It reminds me of his tiff with John Mccain. I think Trump might have insecurity over his own lack of martial bravery

I haven't delved into the story to see if there is much validity to the presidents claims, I sorta doubt it.

The Daily's 8/6/17

1) Living With Violence: A Conversation with Gavin de Becker (Podcast). https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/living-with-violence

My heartthrob, Sam Harris's, new podcast episode. A useful conversation on violence. Perhaps the information within could save your life.

Fascinating speculation about the increase in men willing to do violence in the military. The guest posits that 50% of the men in the Civil War were not actually willing to fight on the battle field, however in the modern Afghan an Iraqi military conflicts the number of men killing to kill is up around 90%. 

Come for the conversation on violence. Stay for the: "political correctness is a bullshit scam." 

 2) Derrick Jensen Resistance Radio w/ Alice Friedemann  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftb-fZQ-CrU

I am convinced we are going to be horribly disappointed with the ability of of industrial civilization to transition off of fossil fuels. These guys get it. It is imperative to reduce the number of unwanted children being born, and be realistic about the diminished industrial output that wanted children will receive.  

Hearing that the world needs more humans to boost economic growth and pay for unfunded pensions makes my blood boil.

 3) Exclusive: Here's The Full 10-Page Anti-Diversity Screed Circulating Internally at Google [Updated]  http://gizmodo.com/exclusive-heres-the-full-10-page-anti-diversity-screed-1797564320

I feel like I have to comment on this document floating around. An engineer at Google had the audacity to question some of the correct-thinking around gender and race. The stuff was pretty tame. Common sense and agreeable stuff I find hard to find much fault with. I'm surprised the whole sector at Google, where this document leaked out from, wasn't sealed and disintegrated by autonomous drones. The response from the "Vice President of Diversity, Integrity & Governance", was hilarious. Cushy job, if you can get it.

4) This tiny Sierra Valley town voted to pull out of CalPERS. Now city retirees are seeing their pensions slashed. http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-loyalton-calpers-pension-problems-20170806-htmlstory.html

The only policy that will provide broad-based support to our people as we confront the challenges of our time is a Universal Basic Income. But, the truth is there is already a Basic Income for many millions of Americans that is unjustifiably generous and socially ruinous. Pensions all over this country are: 1) Massively underfunded. 2) Based on expectations of irresponsible returns from the stock market. 3) Generally not available to young people. Although class warfare against the super rich is more....rational? The class warfare we see, and I experience, is between those former middle class people who are being replaced, bit by bit, by poverty.   

The current pension regime must be destroyed and replaced by a universal system. Otherwise, it will be destroyed and be replaced by nothing.

 5) 'BY WOMEN, FOR WOMEN' Vegan cafe charges male customers 18 percent ‘man tax’ and seats women first in bid to address gender pay gap https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4176712/men-tax-pay-more-melbourne-cafe/

We will privilege-check our way to a better tomorrow! 

6) 9 questions about the Democratic Socialists of America you were too embarrassed to ask. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/5/15930786/dsa-socialists-convention-national

The real question is: Who will embrace a Universal Basic Income? In the public sphere, it's all that matters. Socialism, like feminism, is indeed having a moment. Unfortunately, they are virtually completely content free. UBI is a hard, real, thing you can get behind and for. It is an actual vision for the future, socialism is not.

7) Welcome the Boneyard, a desert tomb for US military aircraft https://www.cnet.com/news/the-boneyard-thousands-of-aircraft-in-a-desolate-desert-awaiting-their-fate/

We got enough money for this...

8) The Land of the Large Adult Son http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-land-of-the-large-adult-son

I have yet to encounter this "large adult son", meme. I find it quite amusing.

The Daily's 8/5/17

1) The Foot Soldier of Birmingham (Podcast) http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/14-the-foot-soldier-of-birmingham

Malcolm Gladwell delivers a nuanced and entertaining take on a famous Civil Rights statue. Sometimes heroes are people just standing around. Sometimes villains are, well....people just standing around. 

2) NO FUTURE IN QUEENS: Attending the “Theorizing the Web” conference…   https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/08/no-future-in-queens

Current Affairs is a great new magazine. All the writing I have read is grounded, insightful and actually laugh out loud funny. Especially this Amber A'Lee Frost.

3) Losing It in the Anti-Dieting Age.  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/magazine/weight-watchers-oprah-losing-it-in-the-anti-dieting-age.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fmagazine

Wow, I loved this piece. A short corporate history of the Weight Watchers company paired with the authors personal weight loss and diet struggles. Taffy Brodesser-Anker dances around an argument I think we need more of: maybe losing weight is impossible. Or at the very least we have no idea what we are doing.