Archive for 2025

YUPPIES OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Matt Taibbi: In Highest Comedy, David Brooks, Arch-Priest of “Elites,” Calls for “Civic Uprising.”

It’s always a constitutional crisis justifying the abandonment of all norms when the establishment doesn’t get its way. Plus: “It’s genuinely touching to see Brooks, the AFLAC duck of elitism, a man who wrote an actual book on being a snob, forced to consider the question of raising mass support. Adding to the pathos is the fact that it’s mere months after this same coalition of academics, lawyers, ‘nonprofits,’ and scientists tried and failed at throwing up every legal and illegal obstacle to Trump’s election. In other words, ‘civic uprising’ flopped when the folks in whom Brooks places faith held every lever of authority. Now they’re going to lead a grassroots revolt? The irony in this is breathtaking, but you have to have lived through it to see it. . . . As for Brooks, he made news a few years ago by complaining about a $78 bill at the excellent Smoke House Barbecue at Newark Airport, neglecting to mention that 80% of his tab came from the bar.”

Flashback: How David Brooks Created Donald Trump.

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

ICYMI: THE U.S.S. ROBERT HEINLEIN: A friend writes:

The U.S.S. Robert A. Heinlein Campaign!

We want the new Secretary of the Navy – John Phelan — to name a future DDG-51 Flight III
destroyer for Robert A. Heinlein.

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It is the prerogative of the Secretary of the Navy to name Navy vessels. Navy policy is to name destroyers for deceased members of the Navy.

We want the new Secretary of the Navy – John Phelan — to name a future DDG-51 Flight III destroyer for Robert A. Heinlein.

This would happen if lots of people write asking him to name a future Arleigh
Burke-class destroyer for Heinlein.

Phelan’s address is:
The Honorable John Phelan
Secretary of the Navy
Room 4E686
Defense Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20301

More information may be found at the Campaign website.

www.USSRobertAHeinlein.com.

Good idea. Endorsed.

21ST CENTURY CAREER DECISIONS: Actors who sold AI avatars stuck in Black Mirror-esque dystopia. “For actors, selling their AI likeness seems quick and painless—and perhaps increasingly more lucrative. All they have to do is show up and make a bunch of different facial expressions in front of a green screen, then collect their checks. But Alyssa Malchiodi, a lawyer who has advocated on behalf of actors, told the AFP that ‘the clients I’ve worked with didn’t fully understand what they were agreeing to at the time,’ blindly signing contracts with ‘clauses considered abusive,’ even sometimes granting ‘worldwide, unlimited, irrevocable exploitation, with no right of withdrawal.'”

ARE YOU AN AI ALARMIST OR ACCOMODATIONIST? I’m a bit of both when it comes to education, but I think having an infinitely patient tutor for those who do want to learn could be a huge blessing.