The Chinese Love/Admire Trump

This has been my experience with the Chinese as well.

Irony are the liberals admire/fear the Chinese, so I wonder how they take this data.

BART

Violent crime increased 69% over last decade.

The crazy is getting way out of control.

'They'bies

I wonder what these parents will do when their children announce to them - as one of mine has - that he is a cat.

Why The News Sucks

According to Elana Ferrante.

I believe click bait capitalists discovered we pass along news of panic very fast for evolutionary purposes -- there's a fucking lion over there! And so what within us is a survival instinct is now manipulated by internet folks - Google, Facebook, news outlets and their click attraction departments to get our eyeballs. This has reached a fever pitch with Trump because whatever Trump does seems to incite an absolute panic as if WW3 has broken out.

Sadly, I believe this is creating a new reality. But what's really happening is that all these "smart" people have lost control over their own mental states. This is what you get with excellent sheep.

Clearly

"I'm not an expect on geo-politics," but she nevertheless thinks Israel is "occupying" Palestine.

Playing dumb works fine when waitressing. Not so good when speaking as a potential member of the House of Representatives.

The trend toward dumping moderate Democrats is a bad one for everyone.

Funny

Kavanaugh caught feeding the homeless.

Kavanaugh

Is being criticized for buying season tickets on credit cards for a group of friends and borrowing money to do a house remodel?

This is going to ingratiate him to all other red blooded Americans. Look - the guy is smart - he's racking up reward points by buying a big ticket item on his card, getting his buddies to reimburse him. That's what I want in a Supreme Court Justice!

This guy is gonna get confirmed, easy. Opposition is dumb at this point. What did Democrats think would happen if they lost the White House? They knew this was coming. If they want to win elections, they need to start recruiting other independents and on-the-fence Republicans by appealing to their policy preferences instead of calling them backwards racists. I'm sorry, but the Democrats have no one but themselves to blame for losing to Trump. They cared more about being snarky and dismissive toward Republicans and virtue signaling than protecting policies and law they proclaim to care about.

Thought

Is there a scenario where LeBron and the Lakers never get out of the first round of the playoffs for like 2-3 years? Say GSW and Houston are 1-2 for the next 2 years after which either the T-Wolves, Pelicans OKC, Utah, Portland, or Denver supplant one or both. LeBron could be facing a finals dry spell for the rest of his career and go out like Kobe. Just saying, it could happen.

UPDATE:

I'm enjoying thinking about one of the "other" West teams taking a leap. T-Wolves might be able to just with the right coach. Pelicans, I think, have found their big two, and just need to put smart pieces into place before Davis bails. OKC needs to shed Melo and just keep up the super-athletic, long identity, and I think they could luck into a finals appearance if the chips fell right for them. Utah feels like Gordon Hayward away from being able to beat Houston. Portland needs Zach Collins to become Porzingas like next year. Denver...I don't know...but they have talent. Is there a 2004 Pistons version of that team? No true star, but just a really deep starting 5.

Logging

TV: Cobra Kai

What the hell can I say, I freaking like the show. A lot.

Logging

Film: Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Confusing, non-sensical, all over the place and I'm still glad I saw it in the theater. One day the New Bev will play this with The Counselor and it'll play great together.

I Fear This Is True

On late capitalism.

Could you expound on that, because this is a foundational problem and I want to make sure the reader knows exactly what you mean when you say “embedded growth hypotheses” are turning us into “scoundrels and liars.”  

Eric Weinstein:  Sure. Let's say, for example, that I have a growing law firm in which there are five associates at any given time supporting every partner, and those associates hope to become partners so that they can hire five associates in turn. That formula of hierarchical labor works well while the law firm is growing, but as soon as the law firm hits steady state, each partner can really only have one associate, who must wait many years before becoming partner for that partner to retire. That economic model doesn't work, because the long hours and decreased pay that one is willing to accept at an entry-level position is predicated on taking over a higher-lever position in short order. That's repeated with professors and their graduate students. It's often repeated in military hierarchies. It takes place just about everywhere, and when exponential growth ran out, each of these institutions had to find some way of either owning up to a new business model or continuing the old one with smoke mirrors and the cannibalization of someone else's source of income.

I've seen this everywhere since I started working.

A Decent Soccer Article By An American

How strange, a good defense of Neymar.

Neymar’s trickery deserves absolution, because it is the very source of his greatness. A mind that’s always thinking of how to deceive a defender is also always thinking about how to deceive a referee. Cunning is his stock and trade. In this way, the “adolescent” description fits. He is like the teen who finds an artful and improbable excuse; he is Ferris Bueller racing home.

I've seen Neymar a number of times and am not convinced of his greatness. But his antics do not bother me much.

Our Spies

A brilliant article dissecting Russian and Putin.

Our spies may be doing a decent job of making us physically safe, but they seem to be doing a rather horrible job of educating Americans on the threats we face. Maybe it is the fault of politicians, not spies. I'm not sure. But we were blind to Islamo-fascism and blind to Russia's plans until it was rather late.

Woops

White millenial men becoming Republicans. Gee, I wonder why.

Oh yeah, and this: #Walk Away.

I'm back and forth on Walk Away. I agree with everything he says, but I like to walk toward things, no away from them.