Randal Vegter

“the principal task is to roll back the president’s effort to create and consolidate a personalist dictatorship.” I thought this had to be the Democrats’ principal goal in 2020, but they completely took their eye off it. I don’t have a lot of faith here.

Well, it was an attempt to solve the root issue of not being able to afford things. Price freezing without lowering the barrier to build is a recipe for shortages. Hopefully it didn’t fail!

Oh! Grosse Pointe is one of my favorites. Definitely watching this now.

PS Covid and Floyd I do give our leaders partial credit. Might have been differently received 25 years earlier.

An interesting theory I’ve heard was 9/11 —> Iraq —> 2008 financial crisis —-> COVID and George Floyd = 25 years unrelenting of our leaders aren’t that competent, so what else you got? Like if we just had a chance to catch our breaths, but then Trump is his own crisis.

Agree on the political dangers. And there are big problems to solve that might not be solvable regarding accuracy.

I agree with the core point: LLMs are not intelligence. But LLMs are also not just chat bots. I know people building interesting products combing their own expertise, automation, and using LLMs to compile large amounts of data.

And guitar is a perfect song

Fair.

I went into Nope thinking Peele could be our next Spielberg. Ten seconds in I was thinking he had the talent but absolutely zero interest. Bold film.

As I’ve been watching the trailers, I keep thinking about how Gunn dealt with his gross tweets scandal and the world turning against him. Admitted wrong, said what he learned, became better. Contrast that with Whedon and Louis CK failing similar situations. I want to see the Superman by >that< guy.

Can’t wait. We need it badly, for all the reasons you say.

Your flag flyin' over the courthouse
Means certain things are set in stone.
Who we are, what we'll do, and what we won't’

It's gonna be a long walk home"

This Independence Day, I’ll let the great American philosopher Bruce Springsteen speak for me:

“My father said ‘Son, we're lucky in this town,
It's a beautiful place to be born.
It just wraps its arms around you,
Nobody crowds you and nobody goes it alone.
(1/2)

I saw the logic in containment. I see the logic in regime change (basically calling a spade a spade that we’ve been at war-ish for decades). My fear is this kind of sort of dragged into war flailingly by our own incoherence.

I also think that Dems will be broadly against this war. By tribal logic, that means Rs must be for it.

Just rewatched that clip. It’s so clever.

Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark, and Hamlet is taking out the trash.

Stay thy hand, fair prince. Who said anything about fair? [unveils machine gun]

To be or not to be? Not to be.

I’m doomed

This is very smart. Great flip on the “she cares about they/them” ad.

Much appreciated. The “what can we do” question is omnipresent in my mind.

Also, I’m a big fan of bulwark. Good to see you as part of the gang.

Booker, too. Feels like maybe hopefully possibly some momentum is building?

I think this is ultimately good news. If the US is not going to be on Ukraine’s side, better to stay out.

The woman basically said she’s facing death threats.

A more charitable interpretation is that what she didn’t say, but shows by her actions, is that she’s scared NOT to buck her party in action (though she did vote for Trump’s second impeachment and opposed Hegseth). I’d like to think I’d get my family out and stick to my guns, but I’m sympathetic.

I think it’s hard to appreciate how little most people pay attention to the news.
And then how much people try to rationalize that things aren’t as bad as they seem.

I also think it did a lot for the piece that administration confirmed the veracity before publication. So much of the post-truth fight is over getting to determine what claims to count as real. That was off the table at the word go.

So did Marco once upon a time. The guy had verve. He called Trump mean names and claimed to stand on principle. Then it all fell apart, his soul collapsed, and he embraced the bear hug.

Keep thinking of this

“You have no control over what moderate means” is a good point. I think the better position is to stand behind the essential point that a broad coalition agrees with, which in this case I think means an orderly rule of law, instead of chaotic rule by Trump’s whims.