Re: Tariffs

I don't think America can sustain ourselves by simply being a consumer market and living on financial products, ie stock growth.

We need industries. We need to build. The past 25 years we've been carving up every industry but tech. 

So will the tariffs work? Probably not, but no one else has any other ideas so tariffs is what we're doing.

Start Reading The Chinese Perspective

Because we'll be soon living under it whether we want to or not. 

The added benefit is this guy is more rational than 80% of American commentary on the Ukraine war.

What Subject Am I Studying?

Core texts: The Crying Game, Silence of the Lambs, and Ace Ventura Pet Detective.

Logging

TV: 21 Jump Street 2 part pilot 

In it, Johnny Depp didn't love high school, joins the drama club, solves a drug case, and a high school girl develops a crush on him... More elements of the 2-part pilot show up in the film than I would've guessed. But where the film places emphasis is significantly different. The film is a 2-hander and the tone satirical and humorous. The show has humor, some of which is unintentional and of the era. I remember shows like Miami Vice and MacGyver each had similar tonal elements - a strange mix of seriousness, humor (some intentional and some not), and a surprisingly big nod to social messaging (for those who object to wokeness...might want to consider whether it's providing a message or the content one objects to). 

In the end, the message here is listen to your parents and cops.

TV: Adolescence - end "season" which is just 4 episodes...

Another 99% on rotten tomatoes viewing experience. The pitch on this should be - an episode of Law and Order SVU strung out over 4 episodes shot in long, continuous takes. As one might expect this yields both positives and negatives. I find it impossible to believe audiences are impressed by "oners" anymore, but who knows...on occasion this show finds memorable small moments with characters by its formal choice - I'm thinking of the father and the psychologist, in particular. So at times you can appreciate this effort. But in the end, the "mystery" lacks even the psychological truth of a Law and Order SVU. The depiction of the family and community in relationship to the crime is so implausible as to defy reality. If one is offended by how thin the 21 Jump Street pilot depicts of black criminality, one should be equally (if not more) offended by the depth in which Adolescence "explains" white working class criminality - by essentially not explaining it - and suggesting a 13 year old from a decent family would simply knife to death a fellow schoolgirl simply because he was an incel without any prior red light warning signals. Utterly absurd. 

Why Trump Is President

Listen and learn how Democrats couldn't even implement their own policy to expand broadband access.

7 More Bil

If you wonder why we have/need Doge, look no further than CA high speed rail. An absolute heist from the taxpayer to do-nothing bureaucrats and their construction firm patrons. What a joke.

Logging

Film: Den of Thieves 2: Pantera

I enjoy Gerard Butler in this role traipsing around Europe hanging with Serbian jewel heisters. The heist parts are well filmed, but I'm afraid Ice Cube's son weighs down the production. I remembered quite liking the original, so I re-watched the trailer and was like - oh yeah, there were a ton more memorable, chaotic characters in that one. I wonder if this is a sustainable filmmaking model where a filmmaker just basically says: I'm making a batshit crazy Heat rip off and then I'm making a sequel that's a batshit crazy version of Ronin. Maybe it is.

 

Democrats

Opt to die on this hill of trans shit while the costs mount - losing abortion rights, tax breaks for billionaires, continuation of a dysfunctional medical system, out of control housing costs, neutered educational systems, and betrayal of allies round the globe. But you can be accepted at lame social events with other Democrats. Good job folks.

They are electing JD Vance for 8 years with this shit.

Schools

Remember when public schools argued the most fervently for keeping closed during COVID? In hindsight, isn't this totally upside down? You would think schools would've been their own biggest advocates? Shouldn't the schools have been arguing for their central importance to children, families, and the society at large? Instead, they tacitly argued they were the LEAST important institutions in the country.

Their Strategy is Death

"I'm not sure what Hamas's strategy is?" 

Come on people, we regard these folks as rational actors at our peril. They yearn for death and would like to take Israelis with them. It's not complex.

Democrats

I agree if Democrats embraced policies that would prevent medical bankruptcies, providing affordable housing, and raising the minimum wage they could (and should) win. (I don't agree with the minimum wage thing because I actually studied economics, but I can see how it could be politically popular). Problem is, this is fantasy land. Because Democrats controlled congress and the Presidency for four years and did none of the above. And...Democrats controlled California for the past 25 years and did none of the above. So the truth is, either a) Democrats don't actually care about those things or b) Democrats don't know how to deliver government policy. Or both.

So when the Dems who had political power during these times - I'm looking at you AOC, Gavin Newsom, etc - now want us to believe they are shifting and refocusing priorities - sorry, no one buys it. You had your chance. You chose hypocritical COVID lockdowns, high speed rail boondogles, the woke and trans agenda, the green new deal, and forgiving student loans. Everyone was here for it and saw it. 

Okay...

Macaes "I said here on October 9 2023 that if we did not all made our best to pressure authorities in the West, 100,000 or more children would be killed by Israel in Gaza. Today I don’t know anyone who doubts this has already happened."

Strange framing. Never did it occur to him from 2007 to 2023 that Hamas could've been "pressured" to not commit mass murder?

Other strange phenomenon with Taleb and Macaes - their obsession with "debunking" the "propaganda" of Hamas committing mass rapes on October 7th. I'm not a forensic expert on the subject but it would seems to me similar to focusing on how the Nazi guards actually weren't always as bad in the concentration camps as depicted in movies or some official accounts. It's like...okay. And...? So? Perhaps some reports of mass rapes were exaggerated in the aftermath of October 7th just like after every earthquake the numbers of dead are misreported. How does that materially change anything that happened on October 7th. 

It is just such a strange, strange mindset that doesn't grasp the impossibility of dealing with a group of people who elect Hamas to do their bidding. 

The Back Nine

Bought a nice new ski jacket and realized given how I commit to things, it might well be the last one I ever buy.

Logging

Film: Black Bag

Soderbergh and Koepp doing a stylish spy flick with 97% rotten tomatoes? Seems like a home run. But it wasn't for me. Why? Some indecipherable dialog masks what felt to me like an entirely joyless enterprise. I'm all for melancholy, but this felt like a movie about miserable people for miserable people. A few strong plot twists were impressive. I wasn't bored. But never did my pulse raise, never did I feel much emotionally, and never did I laugh or even chuckle. If I want misanthropy, I prefer something like Fincher's The Killer which takes it all the way...

TV: White Lotus s3e5

I wonder if Jason Isaacs ever questioned Mike White and was like - are you sure you need me to be distracted during dinner and leave to make a phone call again? Could I try something else? In case it wasn't obvious, this is my least favorite season so far although Walt Goggins-and Sam Rockwell surprise visit was enjoyable.