US Soccer

Scrubs some element of the Iranian flag on social media. And in other news, a 45 year old US diplomat will be starting at left back in the World Cup game.

"The West"

We are troubled. We struggle to deter a diminished superpower like Russia from a military invasion. We can't seem to have elections without major controversies. We have a hard time playing a soccer tournament without it becoming a social-political statement. Shit...I go into a Starbucks line and witness people trying to order coffee nowadays and it seems as complex as brain surgery. Maybe something has become broken in our minds...I'm serious about this coffee thing...today a guy in front of me was trying to order four coffee drinks, finds out the Starbucks doesn't have cookies and cream something or other, so he needs to do a phone call and explain the situation to someone (presumably his wife), they have a debate/discussion before he is able to order another drink. I think we need computer assistance to keep track of these coffee choices for each and every person. Why does everyone have such complex coffee orders? "I want a light agave macadamia nut iced latte, but if they don't have macadamia nut, I'll have almond milk, but in that case, no agave...etc." Ad nauseum. The only thing worse than Starbucks are fancy ice cream shops giving out samples. People will wait in line 30 minutes these days to pay $8 for a cone of ice cream.

Happy Thanksgiving. I give thanks for the World Cup and the US of A despite all my moaning.

SF

Sigh. 

Elections Commissioner Cynthia Dai, who voted to not renew Arntz’s contract, said there was no performance-based reason for the commission’s decision. She did not dispute that San Francisco has run free, fair and functional elections for 20 years. Rather, she says, it was time to open up this position to a more diverse field; the city, she said, could not make progress on its racial equity goals without opening up its top positions.

When you start speaking and thinking in delusions, the real world consequences are soon to follow. White guy fired for being white. This is evil. 

Logging

Film: Prey

If you can get past the fact the lead actress seems like a Filipino girl from an LA suburb rather than a Comanche warrior from the 1700s, the movie gets better as it goes along. 

TV: White Lotus S2

The characters having the most fun in the show are the two whores. 

I like Mike White's generational commentary. His older characters are flawed but self aware and trying to improve themselves and perhaps even the world. His younger characters are flawed, judgmental, and totally clueless about their own nature. The middle aged folks are pack animals preying upon each other for status. For season 3, I would pitch introducing kids under the age of 10. 

Effective Altruism

So the idea was to "help" using other people's money. There's another word for this...

Scary thing here. Guy threw up the warning signals that SBF was a fraud and people in the halls of power refused to listen. They wanted to introduce this crypto money laundering scheme into the "regular" financial system. They wanted to launder this BS into 401k's, crop prices, and I'm sure mortgages and shit.

Jesus.

A Lot of Girls Going Trans...

Before committing oneself to a gender change, a person (and their parents) ought to read and explain Nietzsche's concept of ressentiment and Freud's bits about compassionate narcissists. Might be a lower cost way to help folks figure themselves out. 

And from the article, a giant red flag you might be doing something you regret is if you're flying to Miami for medical treatment. 

Twitter

I'm betting it will be fine. 

If I Were King of America

I'd just ban the entire racial classification. Pretty sure we'd all be better off.

Logging

Film: The Secrets in Their Eyes (2015)

This remake reminds of the scenes in the tv show Barry where Henry Winkler's acting class perform scenes of great movies...except it's an entire film with Nicole Kidman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Julia Roberts doing the cheap imitation.

It's remarkable how nearly every choice in this film is wrong. The filmmakers pay ode to a ton of minor meaningless details from the original and take a hacksaw to the essential parts. No-joke, this is like George Costanza doing the opposite of what a good filmmaker would do. 

This might be my #1 most-hated film of all time because of how much I like the original. It's like the defacing of a great painting. I cannot fathom why anyone involved did this...did they understand the original film? Did they watch it? It feels like a bad high school student watched the original and decided to rewrite the entire thing set in America.

I need not go on. 

Incentives

So SF will now pay you to be transgender... That's an odd one I didn't see coming but makes a certain sort of sense to a certain sort of world view.

Axis of Evil

I guess GW Bush was right. Iran's parliament votes to execute 15,000 protesters. 

Anti-Racism

Blacks and Hispanics agree with antisemitic sentiments at similar levels to alt-right white folks.

Prediction: anti-racism efforts in the long run are going to impact POC communities the worst. Riddle that one.

Logging

Book: Fire & Blood

Martin so good.

Film: The Secrets in Their Eyes (2009)

Top ten for me. 

Everything Wrong With NPR... 

In one short article about Dave Chappelle "disappointing" on SNL. 

As I said in my review, Chappelle seems to think he's above criticism; for him, race seems to trump all.

It's funny coming from NPR - a public-funded "news" organization that has been systemically obsessed with race for 3 years - to offer this critique of Chappelle. The author doesn't seem to be able to distinguish between an artist and their voice and a news organization with a "mission." Chappelle's "job" isn't to offer balanced political perspectives -- that's NPR's job! His job is to make us laugh - which he does - and yet, he also manages to make us think. 

I'm against obsessing over race as anyone - when it comes from academics, institutions, and mid-level bureaucrats when it comes to public and private policy. But if it comes from a comedian? An artist? Obsess over race all you want if you find it interesting. I have the option to not listen or turn away.

God what a world we live in. People are so freaking confused. 

Democracy Working

I vibe Republicans are looking to dump Trump. Watch the liberal pivot to "Trump wasn't as bad as DeSantis..."

Anyone Else Find It Strange

They can't seem to add up the votes for LA mayor in a timely fashion? How has this process gotten more difficult with new technology?

Gut Impression

All the crybabies leaving Twitter sounds like exactly what the service needs! I find Twitter to already be a good resource if used correctly. I doubt my experience with it will change at all.

NBA Player Radio Silence

There's only one way to interpret NBA player radio silence on Kyrie's antisemitic instagram post. The players don't actually give a flying shit about racism - only anti-black racism. Good luck building a lasting political coalition to achieve any progress with that approach...

Interesting Take From Joy Reid

People are only using the word "inflation" because they've been taught it by Republicans. 

She prefers the term: shit costs more.

Fake News

In 2017 the NYTimes made a top down decision to go negative on Facebook. 

I suppose they were just responding to their readership, but let's not pretend these folks are pursuing the truth.

Uhhhh...

"A drag queen for everyone school."

A really strange hill to die on for Democrats. 

"Disproportionately Affects" 

When I see or hear this term, I know the author is full of shit.

Guess what disproportionately affects poor people? Just about everything that involves the voluntary exchange of money.

Affirmative Action

The main argument for it presupposes that it hasn't worked. 

And the best argument for it cannot be spoken aloud.

Department of Homeland Security

Was created to prevent Islamic Terrorist attacks on the US. Now, they are manipulating social media platforms for "disinfo"? Why? We never signed up for this. Looks like all the critics of the Homeland security were right in the first place. It sounded absurd in 2002 to be concerned the US government would spy on its own citizens. In 2022, not so much.