OPEN THREAD: Ring out the weekend.
Archive for 2024
April 7, 2024
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Musk outlines plans to increase Starship launch rate and performance.
USING IMMIGRATION TO HOLD WAGES DOWN:
That chart was a good chart. Biden's immigration surge is making sure it doesn't happen again, though. And our lowest-wage workers had a lot more catching up to do … https://t.co/vhaQKCnEnt
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) April 6, 2024
VITAMIN D UPDATE: Scientists Shed New Light on the Anti-Aging Effect of Vitamin D.
BE PREPARED FOR SPRING: VIKING Garden Hose Nozzle, Heavy Duty Nozzle with 8 Spray Patterns. #CommissionEarned
THE SAM BANKMAN-FRIED, ALVY SINGER CONNECTION REVEALED! Lawyer’s Argument: SBF Suffers From Anhedonia:
- His mother’s letter: Barbara Fried flagged her son’s social awkwardness, which she framed as putting his life at risk, per Business Insider. “I genuinely fear for Sam’s life in the typical prison environment. Sam’s outward presentation, his inability to read or respond appropriately to many social cues, and his touching but naive belief in the power of facts and reason to resolve disputes, put him in extreme danger.”
- His father echoed that: Joseph Bankman wrote the prison setting “would put Sam in an environment where his responses to social cues will sometimes be seen as odd, inappropriate, and disrespectful; when that happens, he will be in significant physical danger. Nothing can justify putting him at that risk.”
- His lawyers’ argument: They say a lesser sentence is appropriate because FTX’s customers will end up getting their money back during bankruptcy proceedings (in part because of savvy investments Bankman-Fried made in the AI company Anthropic). “That recommendation is grotesque,” they wrote, noting “victims are poised to recover—were always poised to recover—a hundred cents on the dollar.”
- His lawyers’ argument II: The Wall Street Journal notes they also bristled at the prosecution’s depiction of Bankman-Fried as a high-roller with a “lavish penthouse lifestyle in the Bahamas.” They said his goals were altruistic, not self-serving, and that material possessions don’t motivate him. “Those who know Sam are sensitive to the tragic fact that nothing in life brings him real happiness. Sam suffers from anhedonia, a severe condition characterized by a near-complete absence of enjoyment, motivation, and interest. He has been that way since childhood.”
Yes, I get SBF and the earlier, funnier Woody Allen confused all the time, myself:
Until it was finished, ”Annie Hall” was hush-hush. Nobody knew where the shooting was going on in New York or even what the name of the movie was. Mr. Allen didn’t know the name either. He and Mr. Brickman considered 100 possibilities. Right up until the end, the favored title was ”Anhedonia.” But hardly anyone knew what the word meant, so it was jettisoned.
”Anhedonia is a psychological state where nothing gives a person pleasure,” he explained. “The word hedonism is in it. We diagnosed that as Alvy’s problem; nothing gives him any pleasure.”
SBF may or may not be impacted by anhedonia, but does he suffer from the crippling effects of anatidaephobia?
(H/T: The Ricochet “Glop” podcast.)
SCIENCE, UNSETTLED: We were very wrong about birds.
MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO DETROIT: San Francisco Bill Would Let People Sue Grocery Stores for Closing Too Quickly.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is considering a remarkable policy that would allow people to sue grocery stores that close too quickly.
Earlier this week, Supervisors Dean Preston and Aaron Peskin introduced an ordinance that, if passed, would require grocery stores to provide six months’ written notice to the city before closing down.
Supermarket operators would also have to make “good faith” efforts to ensure the continued availability of groceries at their shuttered location, either through finding a successor store, helping residents form a grocery co-op, or any other plan they might work out by meeting with city and neighborhood residents.
Lest one thinks this is some heavy-handed City Hall intervention, the ordinance makes clear that owners still retain the ultimate power to close their store. It also creates a number of exemptions to the six-month notice requirement. If a store is closing because of a natural disaster or business circumstances that aren’t “reasonably foreseeable,” it doesn’t have to provide the full six months’ notice.
Still, should stores close without providing the proper notice, persons affected by the closure would be entitled to sue the closed store for damages.
San Francisco’s city government apparently can’t stop their city’s doom spiral, so why not extort those supermarkets closing up as a result of it? I’m sure that won’t accelerate the city’s descent at all.
GOODER AND HARDER, CA: Why gas prices in California ‘have gone ballistic.’
Gas prices have been on the rise nationwide, but for California drivers, they’ve skyrocketed in a short amount of time.
The Golden State’s average at the pump surged by $0.23 to $5.27 per gallon on Friday from a week ago, according to AAA data. Meanwhile, the nationwide average sat at $3.54 per gallon on Friday, up $0.04 during the same period.
Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at OPIS, points to refinery challenges as the main culprit for California’s surging prices, including an important Phillips 66 refiner in the Bay Area halting gasoline production in favor of renewable diesel.
“Throw in regularly scheduled maintenance that will occur at two critical refineries in May and the normal penchant for speculative buying in global markets in the second quarter, and you have wholesale prices that have gone ballistic,” he said.
Kloza calculates gasoline in San Francisco, less taxes and other costs, is at a premium of almost $60 per barrel more than current crude levels.
On Friday West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) futures topped $86 per barrel while Brent (BZ=F), the international benchmark price, settled above $91 per barrel.
Flashback: Aren’t California’s High Gas Prices What The Left Have Wanted?
It’s as if “Elitist environmentalists hate the working class” or something.
IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Of Course the New York Earthquake Was Due to Climate Change. What Else Could It Be?
PRINTING “YUMMY!” ON THE TIDE PODS WAS A BIT MUCH: Procter & Gamble recalls 8.2 million laundry products for defective packaging.
FOUR YEARS AGO TODAY: Five Civil Rights Americans Lost to the COVID-19 Panic.
BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Star of sitcom Black-ish claims Trump will put black people ‘in camps’ if he’s re-elected and says ‘this motherf***** is Hitler.’
I’m so old, I can remember back in 2012 when a sitting vice president and his party’s operatives with bylines said the same thing about genteel milquetoast Mitt Romney.
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS PROCEEDING APACE HAS JUMPED TO LUDICROUS SPEED: Wait, The Biden Administration Is Going to Label Jewish Goods Now? Sounds Pretty Hitlerian.
So, does anyone have a history book in the Biden White House? Because this policy is a public relations nightmare. The Biden administration and the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are beyond strained due to the Gaza War. The Biden White House wants the war to end since it’s causing domestic issues, namely that scores of young voters and Muslim Americans are giving the president and the Democrats grief over their support for Israel. Jerusalem is going to continue its ground war against Hamas in the region—Biden can choke on it.
Israel has offered numerous ceasefire agreements since the last failed humanitarian pause; Hamas has rejected all of them. Then, this White House gets huffy that Israel doesn’t stop their offensive operations against the genocidal terror group that’s dominated the Gaza Strip for over 20 years. Democrats on the Hill are now mulling cutting off new arms to Israel or at least applying conditions for new aid. That’s bad, but what’s even worse is this plan to label Jewish goods that come from the West Bank. Will they have yellow stars on the packages? It’s a Hitlerian throwback and a move that should cause an uproar (via Financial Times)[.]
Exit question:
… How many more uncommitted votes before Jews are asked to wear a yellow star? https://t.co/odFArSAiC1
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) April 5, 2024
Who on earth could have seen this coming from President John Gill?
UPDATE: “We won’t support you:” Inside Biden’s ultimatum to Bibi.
Curious how Biden appears to hate Netanyahu as much as the last Democrat in the White House!
MORE:
For those shopping for Passover, be prepared for these stickers which appeared on Israeli products at our local Safeway. Activists have added warnings that these products are "contaminated with apartheid & Zionism." pic.twitter.com/cuc8qBBTj7
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) April 4, 2024
I guess star-shaped yellow stickers might have been considered too gauche for those spreading their antisemitic-fueled socialism nationally.
ALL HAIL PRESIDENT PETER LEMON MOODRING!
Biden was raised in the Puerto Rican, Greek, Irish, Catholic, Jewish, Italian, Polish, Palestinian, Persian, and Black communities of Delaware. Incredible! pic.twitter.com/O5rX3TYuZi
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 7, 2024
Classical reference in headline:
JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Why Truman’s 1948 upset is no template for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, according to the expert who wrote the book on polling failure.
Harry S. Truman’s stunning, come-from-behind victory in the 1948 presidential election has encouraged frissons of optimism for long-shot candidates ever since. Walter Mondale invoked the 1948 election in his race against President Ronald Reagan in 1984, insisting the polls signaling his overwhelming defeat weren’t picking up the popular support flowing to his candidacy. Mondale lost in a 49-state landslide. In 1996, Bob Dole channeled Truman’s pugnacity of 1948, declaring, “I’m going to win whether you like it or not.” The closing hours of Dole’s race against President Bill Clinton included a campaign stop at Truman’s hometown in Independence, Missouri. Dole lost by 8.5 percentage points.
President Joe Biden’s uncertain campaign for reelection this year has invited comparisons to Truman’s come-from-behind victory in 1948. A recent assessment in Politico, for example, said the blueprint Truman followed in his aggressive and strenuous campaign in 1948 offers Biden a playbook for victory. Even the leading newspaper in France, Le Monde, has invoked the 1948 template as a way of understanding this year’s U.S. presidential election.
While broad and superficial similarities may be detected between 2024 and 1948, the two cases are in fact quite dissimilar, especially in the conventional wisdom that pre-election polls generate and reinforce.
* * * * * * *
In 2020, several prominent national polls, including those conducted for CNN and jointly for NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, anticipated Biden’s winning by 10 points or more. Biden carried the popular vote by 4.5 points in what, overall, was the poorest polling performance in a presidential election since 1980.
As of Apr. 4, the RealClearPolitics polling average showed Trump with less than a percentage point lead in a two-way race against Biden–scarcely a margin to inspire 1948-style overconfidence.
Another notable difference lies in the sense of vigor projected by the Democratic candidates. Truman was 64 years old in 1948 and pursued a grueling campaign of a kind that is difficult to imagine the 81-year-old Biden even remotely contemplating. Truman logged thousands of miles by train in an arduous, cross-country whistlestop campaign, or what biographer David McCullough called “a fast-rolling political roadshow.”
“I know I can take it,” Truman said of the rigors of the campaign, adding in jest: “I’m only afraid I’ll kill some of my staff.”
Meanwhile, Dewey ran an above-the-fray campaign, a model Trump would never embrace. Dewey, unlike Trump, sought to minimize controversy and avoided specific policy pronouncements, once telling an aide “When you’re leading, don’t talk.”
Biden doesn’t have the energy and the good health sufficient for a repeat of Truman’s last-minute whistlestop campaign, but the entire Democratic apparatus are dedicated to repeating one aspect of it:
IN THE MAIL: Mudslingers: A True Story of Aerial Firefighting. #CommissionEarned