CNN
These incidents:
1) Someone said ni hao and then ching chong.
2) Someone asked her "what language do you speak"
3) And the cop who she reported the "what language do you speak" told her that wasn't racist.
Is this person a functioning adult in our society? A person cannot handle on their own some kid coming up to them asking "what language do you speak?" A person needs to tell a cop about this?
The fragility on display here is the shocking part to me.
Lyft and Uber Drivers
There is a CA proposition about reclassifying Uber and Lyft drivers as full time employees. Why? Is California trying to dissolve these companies? Normally, I'm a pro-labor guy, but I'm sorry - being a Lyft or Uber driver is not a profession we really need to protect, is it? Isn't this just a part time job for some folks looking to make money between things? Isn't that what it ought to be?
And note: most of the Lyfts and Ubers I get rides from are in better cars than my own. What does that suggest?
Let Them Eat Cake
Quibi to shut down after spending 2 billion on content. Wrap your head around that.
Sadly (or perhaps liberating), Probably Right
“Moreover, we show that neither policy nor rates of voluntary social distancing explain a meaningful share of geographic variation. The most important predictors of which [U.S.] cities were hardest hit by the pandemic are exogenous characteristics such as population and density.”
Which explains why LA got the worst hit in California and why NYC got hit the worst in the US.
Logging
TV: Selling Sunset S.2
Brilliant time transition between S1 and S2. A great storytelling technique is to jump ahead across a good deal of time between seasons. Episode 1, instead of re-setting drama, actually spends at least 1/2-3/4 of the time allowing the audience to simply "catch up" with the characters while planting new seeds of drama to move forward.
"Prestige" tv could learn from reality tv.
I'm Pretty Sure We Could Open Elementary Schools
If we wanted to. But progressives don't want to. They love this misery.
The strongest opposition to reopening schools is in liberal counties, not counties with the highest COVID rates. Progressive teachers unions have thwarted school reopenings. They have used “sick-outs” to shut down schools that planned to reopen, and force school boards to delay school openings. Teachers unions have frequently used political pressure to get school boards to push back dates for reopening the schools.
Logging
Film: Us
Liked the beginning, but the main "story" myth is so ludicrous and nonsensical that it's a challenge to suspend disbelief and give oneself over to the film.
I now understand why despite the film making a ton of $$, I never hear anyone talk about it.
I can picture Jordan Peele in his dark moments asking "how does Chris Nolan do it?"
TV:
Selling Sunset > Good Lord Bird
There's a trend in prestige tv to use a young african american character as a pov/narrator this season - see Good Lord Bird and Fargo S. 4. But these characters are given less than zero personality and come across flat and empty. I can't help but venture to guess our present "woke" entertainment climate has our writers walking on eggshells so much they don't dare write a human being.
On the flipside, I'm captivated by the unyielding melodrama of LA female real estate agents operating in the Hollywood Hills. I'm on team Mary.
Test Scores
Falling for every group, except Asians.
And so colleges are phasing them out.
Racism -- just not the kind you think.
Some Good Reading
On Trump's masculine attitude toward getting the virus in contrast to our feminized society.
I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I'd bet on Trump surviving and his re-election prospects growing as a result of contacting the virus. a) It makes him look physically strong compared to Biden hiding in the basement b) It validates his "looser" lockdown policies if he appears to beat the virus.
If he dies, I would bet it hurts his re-election prospects.
Side note: a randomly good article about why we bend the knee to our HR overlords.
It is through ideology, Althusser asserts, that the ruling system maintains itself in power: “the ideology of the ruling class does not become the ruling ideology by the grace of God, nor even by virtue of the seizure of state power alone,” he states, “it is by the installation of the ISAs in which this ideology is realised and realises itself that it becomes the ruling ideology.”
In other words, the pigs were indistinguishable from the men who came before them.
Logging
Film: The Counselor - Director's Cut
A strange, and arguably not very good film that I could not turn off.
Highlights are the philosophical ramblings and clothing.
Lowlight is the plot makes next to zero sense. For instance, can anyone explain to me the Counselor's role in the drug deal?
Book: Four Pillars of Investing by Bill Bernstein
The most complicated and sophisticated book on investing I've read. Yet the takeaways are rather simple:
a) Use index funds
b) REITs, Value Stocks, and Bonds are all better placed in tax deferred accounts because their gains are taxed at ordinary income rates and if in taxable will get eaten away by taxes over time
c) Never hold more than 80% of your dough in stocks
d) When an asset class looks crummy is generally the time to buy
e) Lower expenses = higher returns in the long run
Reparations in California
Has anyone told Governor Newsom that California was not a slave state?
How about he begin with reparations to all the people who lost their houses in the fires due to his fire mismanagement.
Trump Has Coronavirus
Liberals are tut-tutting about this being Greek tragedy - hubris leading to chaos and eventually to the Gods intervening, thus creating downfall and a return to order.
But remember, Trump supporters see this as part of the heroes journey - the final battle, near death experience soon to be accompanied by a resurrection.