smeg

Only due to Senate rules that they regularly like to blow up, but in this situation have decided that Senate rules are suddenly sacrosanct. Normally, they can only use reconciliation on a budget item once per year, per Senate rules, and they used that to pass One Beautiful Bill. They could nuke the rule and then do it as often as they like, but now they’re suddenly institutionalists?

Recently started We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It feels quite apt in the current moment.

With sharpie

I just finished The Man in the Rubber Mask by Robert Llewelyn. Nothing I would recommend to non-fans of Red Dwarf, but it’s pleasantly readable

Now I’m reading Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. It’s amusing, has decent world building, but it reads like it was written by or for someone with ADHD - scenes are so short and jump around, it’s kind of frustrating.

As someone who has spent most of their life in the US South, evangelicalism has a dominionist pervasive quality that shuns cosmopolitan pluralism. More or less, as an ideology, it tries to take over all aspects of life, and does not respect a world where others are allowed to live their lives differently or free. Be wary, France.

The city is propped up largely by business conventions, at this point. Businesses don’t mind swallowing stupidly high costs, especially for sales+marketing teams who always get blank checks, which artificially inflates the price of visiting for absolutely all other audiences. So, nobody else is going.

I’ve heard that musicians hate performing in Vegas now because so much of the audience are not real fans - but instead business travelers with comp tickets. Dead audiences who don’t care.

Unfortunately, I had my first trip to Vegas last year for work. And again in June. And now again in September. Because I’m there for work with work engagements, I don’t get to explore the more interesting things outside the city and strip. And having no interest in gambling, stupid-level drinking, loud noisy music, or flashy shit everywhere, I’ve come to really hate going there.

What is that in a real scientific measurement?

Maybe the top investors and other wealthy assholes shouldn’t have backed Trump. I think some were duped by the few who were set to gain from this insanity. The economy deserves the consequences of the policies it chose.

It’s like when Karen starts shouting to the cashier that they’re fired. Just ignore Karen and keep doing the job.

Cue North Korean sabre rattling because an enemy military is performing drills outside their door. And the world talks about how we need to solve “dangerous North Korea”. The cycle repeats every year.

The Netherlands’ current plan ends in 2050, but it has shown extremely robust and adequate to the task, so far. I expect the next iteration to keep up the standard.

It’s something that only a rich economy with a strong notion of government responsibility can accomplish.

I would be more worried about Shanghai and the US coast line.

Currently Reading: The Man in the Rubber Mask by Robert Llewelyn

Recently finished: Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway