I checked out a James Bond novel a few years ago. There was so much casual racism and sexism thrown about that I had to quit after about 30 pages. (And I LIKE a lot of old noir detective novels and films, most of which have some issues.)
I checked out a James Bond novel a few years ago. There was so much casual racism and sexism thrown about that I had to quit after about 30 pages. (And I LIKE a lot of old noir detective novels and films, most of which have some issues.)
Sure. Post Civil Rights Act, Southern govts destroyed public pools and parks, because they'd rather do without than share with African Americans. That mindset is still very much alive. EG, No health insurance at all is preferable to universal insurance that's also available to The Undeserving.
Writedowns enabled further price declines and ever lower prices helped spur a host of bandwidth intensive applications. The market found balance about 4 years post bubble. But investors lost almost everything, and fiber networks are still a very competitive, low margin business.
I was a market analyst at a niche consultancy during the networks bubble. The scale of spending and the opulence of offices and events were nuts Demand was soaring but network rates were falling 70% annually, a pace no business plan could survive. Cue bankruptcy court and massive writedowns.
Damn! When I heard that the Trump Cabal was reviewing the Smithsonian for "ideological bias" I joked that they'd fault the African American History museum for not showing the good side of slavery, and the Holocaust museum for not being all about the heroic US liberation of the camps. RIP satire.
One country's death by starvation is another man's test. I'm betting he'll be graded on a curve.
Frankly, I would kind of prefer if it the economy went to hell in a hurry. I mean, we know that's where we're going under the Trump cabal, and it might be better if it were blindingly obvious by the 2026 elections.
Thanks for the confirmation. I'm sure there are lots of useful niche applications in different industries, which will be developed by companies that really know their users. But that sounds like a classic VAR model, and that's never going to scale fast enough to cover the massive AI capex.
And desegregation of the military caused Southern politicians and voters to begin to secede from the Democratic party. At this point, they're gleefully twisting the knife. It's hard to overstate how deeply many of the Trump cabal's policies are fueled by nothing but petty vindictiveness.
I hope every country in the world shuts off any access to the US that they can. Given the power of money in US politics, a key to ending this authoritarian takeover is for the billionaire class to discover that Trump & Co are VERY bad for business, and their interests are aligned with us mortals
AI is a good tool for creating multiple choice tests. It's much better at quickly generating plausible but incorrect multiple choice answers than almost any human. (Really)
So he's roughly as qualified as the heads of the EPA and Education Dept. and the DOJ's Civil Rights Divisions (etc). Cue furrowed brow headlines like, "nominee with views outside the mainstream", and "he may have some good ideas" editorials. And he'll be confirmed on a simple party line vote.
Many years ago, when I was a tech consultant, I had a client whose business plan had flopped and they had to "repurpose" a satellite. Since then, I've seen so many vendors of "solutions," looking for problems to fix. However, few (if any) were as capital intensive as AI.
Sure. And HHS doesn't require knowledge of health or medicine, homeland security no knowledge of security or disaster prevention, and EPA no desire to protect the environment. Arsonists as fire marshals.
Nous sommes tous Sandwich Man.
"Solutions" in search of actual problems, over and over. Many ultimately proved useful, on a more modest scale, after investors lost a bundle. Is this any different?
Isn't that the point?
Nobody wants this! I worked as a tech market analyst for 2 decades. So much hype, so many bubbles driven by vendors, PR firms, investors seeking yield, and service providers' FOMO. Actual user needs didn't really merit consideration.
Good! No foreign head of state should treat this shit show as remotely normal. And nobody with any common sense would believe that Trump and the current Republicans ever negotiate in good faith. Why travel to the US just to be humiliated and to give Trump a photo op?
He's a flawed messenger, but he's right, and I'm glad he's been so vocal. Similarly, I'm grateful to the team at @thebulwark.com for their courage. I'm way to their left, but they, too, understand that all of our first goal must be to defend democracy in the US. Argue (much) later. Fight now!
I think they're hanging out with the 4th estate (current company excepted).
So is their subscriber base.
The phrase "virtue-signaling" was created by cynics and assholes to imply that any sort of altruistic behavior must be covering up some base underlying motive. And, perhaps, to convince themselves that everyone's as big an asshole as they are.
And, the game is rigged. The most cautious Dem will be forced repeatedly to take an specific positions on the postings of random students and activists. Conversely, Reps can just lie "I never heard of Project 2025," and be done with it.
Nice - thanks for passing it on.
Authoritarians don't need to censor the media. Most will censor themselves in order to stay in business. They also don't need to shut down all dissent. Putin tolerated critical articles written for the intelligentsia (like Bluesky?) for years, because they couldn't stir a mass audience.
The "4th estate" isn't in the business of being a check on power. They're in *business*. If a would be authoritarian proves he's willing to abuse his power to block mergers, suspend licenses, to launch nuisance lawsuits, and to destroy careers, most will fall into line.
Post-crash, a lot of the attention was on frauds and con artists in the industry. But what really struck me was how many seasoned, senior execs were true believers, who held onto nearly all their stock, and rode it all the way down to zero.
Hah! I recall discovering that GX financial statements included swaps they did with other network operators (e.g. Dynegy, El Paso). Fiber swaps are common in the industry, these days. But these were for lit services, on routes GX already served, priced millions above market rates.
Smell bullshit and you can be sure one of these corrupt assholes is involved.
Because 60 years of relentless right wing haranguing and more recent threats of lawsuits have left mainstream media shit scared of Republicans. And NOBODY is scared of Chuck Schumer's Democrats.
The narrative of "progress" is central to the Smithsonian history museums. But you can't tell that story without explaining"progress from what?" And, of course, the story isn't over, and there's no guarantee of a happy end.
And. As former Pres of my school's college Democrats, there really was no parallel on the leftish. Active members went on to policy and non profits, not politics.
Yes! I've been reading Rick Perlstein's Before the Storm, about the events leading to the Goldwater campaign in 1962. One fact that stood out was how central the role of Young Republicans (and YAF) was. Today's young right has been 60 years in the making.
Ps: texted that at a stoplight between work and kid errands. Please read "vagrants" in "quotes". And yes, I find it awkward, too. But that's a little thing. I expect that it's a hell of a lot more awkward for the guy next to me trying to wash and brush his teeth in a VERY busy public toilet.
It's DC. We get a better grade of vagrant. Seriously, you might encounter vagrants because Union Station has public toilets, which are in short supply in most cities. And Republicans have a tendency to try outlawing things that make them feel uncomfortable.
Next he'll attack the Holocaust museum for not focusing solely on the heroic story of American liberators.
Saw Krugmans piece, I'll check out DeLong. Also, a bubble doesn't deflate all at once. The networks bust began in 2001, Global Crossing and WorldCom collapsed in 02, Enron hit the fan in 03, and Lucent limped along until it was acquired in 06.
I fully expect the Trump Organization to deploy a horde of jackbooted and masked ICE thugs to monitor "election integrity" in heavily Democratic (pronounced "ethnic") precincts.
It'll work great once we replace human voters with models of voters.
The other lesson from that bubble -- I was truly startled by how many experienced senior execs at these companies were true believers. Of course, I've been learning a lot about people's ability for self deception, these days.
Haven't a clue. I worked in telecom (consultant) during the networks bubble, and my colleagues and I were all certain it was a bubble. However, it was never clear when it would burst, what would precipitate it, or how fast or far it would fall.
And, too willing to cede on fundamental points of democracy! At this point, I'd vote for a Bulwark style Republican over a Shumer style Democrat (and I'm way left of Senate Dems). Someone who will fight the bastards every step of the way.
Yes. The ban on voting by former felons is a holdover from the Jim Crow era in some southern states. It was an easy way to disenfranchise a lot of African American men, who could be convicted of a felony for just breathing while Black.
Yeah, well, Tesla's been a freak show for years, hasn't it? As near as I can tell, there's never been a rational basis for their market cap -- just post facto rationalizations.
Most pathetic president ever. What an utter embarrassment. Saying ‘thank you’ to Trump is high on Zelensky, other leaders’ agendas www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Thanks! We're getting there! Too bad that his data doesn't extend to the railroad bubble that burst in 1873...
Republicans, famously, are "good for business," so I'm sure he knows what he's doing.
As in the early 2000s, all of the stars are losing money, and the only companies making a profit from AI are their vendors and consultants. And, unless I'm reading this wrong, Nvidia's current PE ratio looks to be similar to that of Lucent at the peak of the telecom bubble.
There's nothing "surprising" about it. Investors seeking outsized returns latch onto a new business with compelling "we'll change the world and capture all the value" story.
Are any AI companies actually making money? Sure, their hardware and data center providers, and consultants are doing well, but what happens when investors shut off the money pump? This all feels very 2002.
Perhaps CA can send some national guard troops to protect the people of New Orleans and Shreveport.
He looks so like the head of the college Republicans at my school in TX in the 80s. I guess types don't change that much. But in my day, his authority didn't extend beyond the boundaries of his club.
I lived in Germany in the early 90s. Needed a new suit for work. I could have it in any style, as long as it was double breasted with Grace Jones shoulder pads and triple pleated pants. I went for the conservative grey, instead of "moutard" (yellow) or "aubergine" (purple).
If only liberals had been nice to him, and girls had dated him.
Yeah. And Global Crossing, Qwest, WorldCom, Enron, Lucent, Nortel once all had astronomical valuations too, on account of how they would change the world and capture all the value of those changes.
Since when has Tyler Cowen been part of "the left?"
The ratios on his posts are something. But I suppose they're all from lefty elitists on bluesky, and easily ignored.
"Teenagers in Washington DC say the federal police takeover makes them feel unsafe"... Which is the point, of course -- to make everyone in DC (aside from a few administration allies) feel insecure. www.npr.org/2025/08/16/n...
I prefer to get my history from Tony Little. media.npr.org/assets/img/2...
As a former WaPo subscriber, I long ago learned that "Editorial Board Opinion" meant "just some namby-pamby paint-by-numbers bullshit everyone ignores." But it does take on a different meaning in these Difficult Times.
Yeah, but as I understand it, those theories aren't allowed anymore, so you might have to find an alternate explanation.
Their goal is power. Actual governance just interferes with the accumulation of greater power.
I know, right?! (You must be in the tech world...)
Man I loved Gartner's hype cycles and their "magic quadrants" BS. I occasionally suggested that our tech research firm launch a "magic pentagram" because, well, magic and pentagram, and "ours goes to 5". But we couldn't keep a straight face while saying it.
Carrying a gun without a license -- while Black? The 2nd amendment only goes so far! When the Black Panthers tried carrying arms in California in the 60s, the Reagan-led CA govt passed the Mulford Act, prohibiting the carrying of loaded guns.
Sweet Lord - they evaluated over 900 emails between Miller and the Bannon era Breitbart?! How much time did he spend searching for racist chum?
I'm so sick of people and organizations being willfully stupid and pretending that any of this shit is remotely normal.
You make a good point!
Somehow, I feel less safe than I did before our streets were militarized. This is some bullshit!
Many many years ago, I bought an autographed Lynda Barry sketch for my wife's birthday. She even personalized the mailer she sent it in. Lynda Barry is the funk queen.
Also, the assertion that slavery "is better than being killed" is debatable, since the Spanish worked most of their slaves on Hispaniola to death. But hey, it's all relative.
Even by the standards of "the culture and people of the time", Columbus' treatment of the Taino was viewed as being appalling. According to multiple contemporary accounts, he was brutal, even to his own crew.
"Burpo" is a wonderful name for a clown.
Fraternity hazing?
What will Trump do when corporate earnings and the stock and bond markets start to contradict the sunny reports from his BLS? Replace the CEOs and bankers?
The shit about conservative speakers getting "shouted down" gets on my nerves. It's not that they're "conservative". They're professional shit stirrers, trying to stir up controversy and arguing in bad faith. I'd be pissed too if my organization legitimized these assholes.
Live free and die?
But only Republicans seem able to change public opinion in favor of their programs, and have been doing so since the early 80s, at least. Dems, for the most part, take public opinion as a given, and adjust their sails accordingly.
Except that the headlines are smaller, because the madness has become so commonplace as to be unremarkable.
Only thing off seems to be Wall Street. The stock market is still in that Wile E Coyote state of hovering in the air before plunging into the canyon.
Kids doing wheelies at L'enfant?! Were they lost? Why the hell would any "youths" be in that land of brutalist office buildings, snarled traffic and disoriented tourists? En route to the Hirshhorn, perhaps?
Nice day for them to be out for a walk, at least. And, I suppose it's a good day for dealing drugs anyplace else.
And the core problem for the US is that those competent policymakers are more loyal to Trump than to the US. Being basically competent doesn't mean they're decent humans, and they'll happily wreck the economy for an attaboy from their Dear Leader.
That's an interesting chart, and tip (for now, I fear). But, like any discussion of left and right in the US, the axis is skewed -- the "hyper-partisan" publications on the right are FAR more extreme than those on the left. BTW, I didn't see ProPublica in the chart. Did I just overlook it?
Perhaps it was one of the teams of German nihilists that roam DC streets at night.
That's fucking repulsive, and they are filth. There's no other way to describe it, no charitable interpretation I can think of.
Gain Fox news viewers? That's the whole point of the Washington Times. If you try to be all things to all people you'll end up being nothing to anybody. Even if you have Marc with a c Thiessen.
And what do they call this act? The Meritocrats!
As I understand it, RFK Deux knows someone whose uncle seems to have had a bad reaction to the vaccine, so he's just being cautious.
It doesn't really work as well without the blocky characters and red LED display.
This is both vital and appalling.
Yes! There's no profit in taking the high road or setting a good example to shame Republicans into doing the right thing. Shamelessness is THE key feature of the modern Republican party.
Why should they give a shit about the judgement of "history"? For one, it's famously written by the winners, and they're betting that they're on the winning side. For another, they'll be like, dead.
We've been living in a "majority minority" area for 20 years. Some of our kids K-12 to schools were less than 10% white. My wife teaches in such a high school. Not once have any of us felt threatened. It's a really interesting neighborhood -- so many unique experiences and perspectives!
Nothing is more sacrosanct to most conceptions of life in America than the principle that "housing values must always rise".
I can foresee 6-12 months from now, BLS will issue nothing but good economic reports, while corporations post poor earnings reports, and lenders report rising delinquency rates. And then Trump will lean on corporate CEOs to "do something" to improve those results.
Just wait till they go after the institutional antisemitism at Yeshiva and Brandeis...
It's a one off. By the time the Q3 and Q4 reports are issued, mainstream news will have anodyne "(noun) voice doubts" headlines over articles nobody reads.
How did this jackass ever beat Sherrod Brown?