Wisdom

Salman Rushdie on what a Palestinian state would be right now. 

Had I Known That Type of Thing Was Looked Down Upon...

Diddy video. 

Women in the Workplace

This mirrors my lived experience. 

And All Of A Sudden...

The world shifts. This is a remarkable list of political changes for the Dutch government. Are they really doing all this?  

Logging

Film: United 93 

On rewatch, still an astonishing film in my opinion. Just brilliant. I'm not even sure what other films one can compare it to. Battle of Algiers?

Harrison Butker

The difference between Butker and Kaepernick is that Butker is better at his position. 

Ant on Joker

"I just laugh..." "I don't know what we supposed to do..." 

Gut Impression

The West stupidly committing suicide. We are Hamlet. Can't decide upon anything. Can't decide if China manufacturing or global warming a bigger threat. Well folks - what is it? I know what it is. But you don't. You've been lecturing on global warming for years...so much so young folks are gluing themselves to artwork and refusing to have kids...and now we say - hold up, we DON'T WANT cheap Chinese EVs. Huh? Does that mean global warming ISN'T an existential threat?

Europe roots for Ukraine like the war is a soccer match. 

Any NBA coach of the remaining 8 teams would be a better presidential candidate than Trump or Biden.

Logging

Film: Challengers

Zendaya has the swag but not the chops of a movie star. Nor does she have the legs of a professional tennis player.

Encampments

Maybe they are best understood as more affordable rage rituals.

The Sad People

What does it suggest that the folks who claim Israel is committing an intolerable genocide are unwilling to call for the one thing that would tactically end it: Hamas surrender. Or Hamas leadership resigning. In my mind it tells you everything. It means either:

1) They don't actually believe a genocide is happening and are play acting to damage Israel's reputation

2) They want Hamas to survive more than they care about this "genocide"

Maybe It's Always Been This Way

But yesterday I realized amongst young adults that it's more socially acceptable to admit you believe in conspiracy theories about 9/11 than it is to say something as banal and true as the 9/11 hijackers were religious fanatics. 

The Real Lesson...

The Kurds, Uyghurs, and Yoruba people should take away from the Palestinian example is that they just need to start ruthlessly murdering, raping, and sending rockets at their neighbors to get what they want.

Prediction

Hillary on the failures of Palestinians to get a state. 

I am coming around to the Netanyahu point of view - is there any evidence a Palestinian state would be a good thing?

Losers

It strikes me our civilian and military leadership prefer that we and our allies don't win wars. It'd be one thing if they didn't want to get involved with wars - that would be lovely. But we seem to pick the worst of both worlds - getting into wars and not winning them. Totally batshit crazy.

Russia-Ukraine

For the record, if Ukraine had invaded Russia and murdered thousands of civilians, I'd be supporting Russia in the war.

Taleb

Is so far off in his analysis of the Palestinian-Israel conflict it makes me think less of him in other domains. Here, he compares the Palestinians to early Christians.

Did I miss the part in the bible when the early Christians went around murdering and raping the Roman "occupiers?" Or the suicide bombings? Which Book in the new testament features those parts?

Oh...and the other difference...they were fighting to worship the Son of God, not to reclaim some some olive groves that were bought and/or confiscated 75 years ago when they lost a war.

Hamas Accepts Peacefire Deal from Egypt

That's a bit like the Lakers accepting an Anthony Edwards trade from Denver. 

Brilliant Tactic

Jewish students infiltrate pro-Palestinian encampment and sing Israeli national anthem. Protest within the protest. On what theoretical grounds can the protestors object?

The KKK

I bet somewhere some remnants of the KKK are observing these pro-Palestinian protests with envy and thinking to themselves, "why couldn't we get this level of institutional and international support?" 

What An Idiot

Biden calls Japan xenophobic. 

These Terrorists Need Better PR

Wow, they are bad on TV. 

So Obvious This Would Happen

UCLA vigilantes step in to take down illegal encampment. 

If authorities won't enforce common sense, individuals will. This is America.

Please, Please, Please...

I would chip in for airfare if the expelled students took up this scholarship offer to an Iranian University. 

This would be the most incredible natural experiment. My prediction: the Iranians would realize - holy shit, these students are fucking nuts. And the Americans would realize: holy shit, this country sucks.

But it would be wonderful to see. 

Dumb Ideas

We should replace all DEI training with Econ 101 training. Imagine how much better our public policy could be.

From John Cochrane. Uber gave in to pressure and allowed tips on the platform. Drivers loved it as wages went up. That brought in more drivers, led to longer wait times and base pay going down. In end average price/wage right back where they were before= equilibrium response.

California raises the minimum wage. Results are: higher fast food prices, fewer fast food workers. Increases the pace of automation, decreases the amount of fast food profits - a new equilibrium will be found and who will it benefit? Hardly anyone.