I'm Pretty Sure This Is True

Iran was close to making a nuke. Which is why many folks against the bombings and war take their position. They secretly want Iran to have a nuke to fulfill their own dark imaginings. 

250

One way liberals could demonstrate they love America would be to apolitically celebrate her 250th birthday, but apparently that is too much to ask. 

Mountain Lion

Roams Santa Monica. 

AI - The Economy

When you outsource to AI, the money spent on it goes into investment. When you spend the money on human workers, it goes into consumption. I prefer a world with good restaurants, buildings, parks, etc. that can be used by human beings, than a world of dirt and shit with really high account balances on computer screens and bitcoin.

Hmmmm....

IRGC Navy carries out attack without IRGC coordination. Maybe there is a way to ally with elements within the IRGC to fight other elements of the IRGC. Just thinking out loud here.

Logging

Novel: Smonk by Tom Franklin

This a sick, disgusting novel written by a sick, disgusting man, and I quite liked it.

TV: Devil in Disguise

Proof the serial killer drama never gets old...if they won't make another season on Mindhunter, this will need to do. But one strange storytelling element - what's with the flashbacks to the victims? How is this going to pay off or come together? Will it? I'm very worried it won't. It reminds me of something I read once that all Wes Anderson films should be more Wes Anderson, but all non-Wes Anderson films should be less Wes Anderson. In the same way, all procedurals should be more procedural, that is to say, I never met a procedural that was too much procedural. 

Nothing More Depressing

Than getting auto birthday wishes from my insurance company, employer, and google. Please stop. I'm begging you guys. Leave me alone. I value the space in my inbox too much.

This Is...Something

Rep. Thomas Massie is vacationing with Marjorie Taylor Greene in Costa Rica.

Bezos is Wrong

The lower 50% should pay taxes so they can bitch and moan and feel prideful about being a fucking taxpayer. And I'm not joking here. 

Would You?

Use AI to help you decorate your room or choose an outfit? I wouldn't.

I wouldn't even use it to help me draft a fantasy sports team. 

If Someone Said...

...here's my fill-in-the-blank (script, book, essay) and AI helped me write it. Does that make you want to read it more or less? 

Has Anyone...

...ever been having a good time and thought to themself - you what would make this better? ChatGPT. 

AI

If you're tempted to us AI to write something, that's a strong indicator not to write the thing.

WWTLD

What would Tywin Lannister do if he were a NATO strategist? I imagine soon he might start writing letters to Russian elites and offering them the world if they are the ones to stick a knife into Putin...  

I Was Gonna Say

A lot of trees all over the world are older than the countries they are in.  I say bring on the AI, it's smarter than most of these idiots out there.

Imagine Being...

Someone who would actually hold up a Karen Bass sign in public. That is a rare species of human that needs to be captured and studied.  

Bad Vibes

Let's be honest, would anyone be totally surprised if Sam Altman had bodies buried beneath one of his houses? 

All These Cameras Are Bad, But...

Every now again they capture something worthwhile: brawl at kindergarten graduation. 

The Homeless in LA

Are overwhelmingly not from LA. We attract them via policy and weather. We can fix one, not the other.

Just A Sense

Ferrari releases a 600K electric car to mockery. 

My basic sense is that new companies built around electric vehicles are at a significant advantage in this arena - Tesla, Rivian, etc. Older companies like Toyota, Ferrari, etc., will do better in certain niches - for instance, I think Toyota hybrids are a smart compromise. However, down the road, infrastructure could become an issue. Interesting to see what will become of BMW because they are trying to do both gas and electric on the same platforms. 

UPDATE: Former Ferrari chairman, "at least the Chinese won't copy that car."

Imagine

If an Obama supporter were murdered in their house. 

The Left are everything they accused the right of being: domestic terrorists.

Logging

Film: Gone with the Wind

First half terrific. Second half, less so.  

Film: The Spy Who Loved Me

James Bond films are for the moments and the set pieces. The stories are secondary. Driving the car out of the water onto the beach, the ski jump off the cliff to the British flag parachute, Jaws killing the shark - chef's kiss moments.

One of the reasons Bond is such a sustainable character is that the man is patriotic. Screenwriting lesson.

Also, Roger Moore most underrated Bond.

Pratt Summer

When I hear critics of Pratt's homeless plans, etc., they all center around: it's more complicated than he makes it sound, he won't be able to fix it, etc. So the argument seems to be: homelessness is too complicated to fix. Alright fine. Then step out of the way. Admit what's the case: you and your ideology cannot fix the problem. So why are you even here? Why are you involved in politics?  If your politics is that nothing can be fixed, then go away and let others cook. 

Random Ideas

Maybe AI will make 20-hour-a-week jobs where people can earn 80k to live and spend the rest of their time competing in a winner-take-all type business environment on their passion projects. 

Went to a neighborhood park in Studio City the other day, surrounded by single-family homes with two baseball fields, workout equipment, tennis courts, and got to thinking - why isn't 50% of LA just like this? Seriously, every block or two in residential areas should have little parks with a baseball hoop, maybe a pool, a few have baseball diamonds, some playground structures. Maybe all houses in this area pay like an HOA-park fee or something for maintenance? Homeowners work with police, etc., to keep homeless from taking over. Maybe a secret is that they don't have public bathrooms? I mean, this would save on backyards for people - they wouldn't need one! Kids just walk right over to the park and just play with whoever is around. 

The Bills Are Coming Due

For COVID, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Entitlements. 

Not lying, the grocery store tried to charge me $32 yesterday for a bag of cherries imported from somewhere.

Novel Writing Capacity

I'm fascinated by how much money is being invested into AI to write novels and essays - billions and billions plus all the ongoing energy costs. The irony, of course, is: what is the total amount of money the globe spends on novels? Or essays? It's gotta be less than we're spending on the AI to write them. Someone explain this. 

The other thing - why would anyone need an AI novel? Are there people out there who've read every novel they want to and are like - come on, please hurry up, we need an infinite number more? Or is all this to write one great novel?

Logging

Film: Girls Trip

I'm a big fan of trip movies in general, just not this one. Why do the girls urinate like it is a fire hose? Who set up this stunt?

Reunions

Been to a high school and college in the past couple years. The point of the reunion is to feel the anticipation beforehand and reflect afterwards with friends on all the funny details. The reunion itself is secondary. 

Aliens and Israel

Wonderful tools in the modern age, where there is too much information out there. Once the subject becomes one or the other, you can safely ignore anything the person says, for you are highly unlikely to glean any useful information. 

Good Lord

Devastating and a bit funny AI political ad. I didn't think about this before - but AI will come first for the cheese-dick quality stuff - so think corporate videos, political ads, pharmaceutical products, infomercials.

Real movies a long way off, IMO. 

Logging

Film: Anchorman

Like a talented baseball team with the wrong lineup. Movie doesn't work. Maybe actually kinda sucks. Fell asleep each night I tried to watch it. 

Inevitable

The same commentators who view China's rise and the US decline as inevitable also see the Iran war as a catastrophic US defeat. I say pick a lane: inevitable decline or decline by poor foreign policy. But it can't be both...

Taiwan

For those who claim Taiwan has always been a part of China...when was the last time this was true? Here is a hint: 1895. Meaning, not a single person alive in the world today can remember such a time.

Before that, it was part of China from like 1660. So for roughly 200 years. It's almost NOT been part of China for longer than it has been part of China.

Logging

Film: Crime 101

Temu Heat 

Chugging Along

Richard Hanania says closing the Straits of Hormuz was supposed to be a doomsday scenario, but things are just chugging along. 

I'm not a geography or geopolitical expert, but in the long run, closing the Straits will hurt Iran's leverage the most, I imagine. Why? Because once they act on the threat, the rest of the world will counteract with contingency planning. So if I were KSA or UAE, I'd invest in major oil pipelines to the Med or Red Sea - essentially expanding what I already have.

If I were in Asia, I'd start buying gas from the US or Canada. Or invest in renewables. And so on. Iran crashes their own leverage in the long run.

The Real Crime

Most people with negative feelings toward insurance companies are just too dumb to understand how and why they function. 

2026 America

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni settle their suit. Neither gets any money, but the lawyers combined got $60 million dollars. 

I would like to point out that the film itself probably didn't make any money, much less 60 million. So in total, everyone except the lawyers lost a great deal of time and money. Very odd indeed.

Thugs

Iran is attacking anyone who goes by the Straits - South Korea, UAE. Not sure why they think this hurts the US. Seems to me, it would push the right kind of folks toward us. 

JP Morgan

I wonder if AI will become a better storytelling device than a storyteller. Because this guy who used AI to come up with a bogus legal claim about being sexually harassed by his hot female co-worker, is quite a funny story in and of itself. Not the story he told by the way, which was obvious BS from the get-go, but the actual real version...