They are sending their best

by liberal japonicus

It's possible that this wouldn't piss me off at other times, but as Russell noted earlier, tis the season of rants. Still, seeing this interview with Cornelis Piet 'Pete' Hoekstra, the new US ambassador to Canada, makes me realize 1) how truly rotten this administration is and 2) how much this shit is baked into the system. Hoekstra was the ambassador to Holland in the first Trump administration, where he immediately stepped in it. (reported second hand is this now favorite question by a reporter of whether the ambassador could name a politician who had been set on fire in recent years) and this report gives some other details. Reading the interview, I got the impression of the blowhard in a restaurant that has you asking for the check and skipping your coffee and desert. And this loser is an immigrant. That he has been able to float in the right wing ecosystem makes one realize that the whole enterprise is a clogged toilet.

Comments

[wonkie]

It is astounding to me how deep the field of unethical, intellectually dishonest, amoral, sociopathic creeps is for the Republican party. And the infestation goes all up and down the ticket and includes lots and lots of media types too. I didn't know American contained so many shitty people.

[bobbyp]

We have multitudes.

[wj]

I didn't know American contained so many shitty people.

It's not that you didn't think so. It's just that you thought people like Reagan (and, before that, if you're old enough, Nixon) were the depths of shittiness. And were horrified at how many people voted for him. Today, Reagan would get read out of the GOP for being, in Trump's mind, not even close to acceptably shitty.

Standards. Overton window.

[Cheez Whiz]

I didn't know America contained so many shitty people

To be fair, Trump was very clear that personal loyalty was the first and only requirement. Look to his cabinet for the result. Also, sounds like you don't spend much time in Real America. To quote Richard Pryor from a joke about Japan bombing Pearl Harbor because the Japanese general spent a year at UCLA: "He should have gone to the Univeristy of Alabama, University of Mississippi! They got white people down there that scare white people!"

[liberal japonicus]

Here's a video about Sec of Commerce Howard Lutnick that is interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYWsonBlNaY&t=107s

Is he doing this because the best way for him to make money is through volatility? Or does he have a desire to tear down the whole system because he thinks he'll be able to stay on top no matter what happens.

From Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as “a bunch of mindless jerks who’ll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes,” with a footnote to the effect that the editors would welcome applications from anyone interested in taking over the post of robotics correspondent.

Curiously enough, an edition of the Encyclopaedia Galactica that had the good fortune to fall through a time warp from a thousand years in the future defined the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as “a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came.”

[Snarki, child of Loki]

the DOGE/MAGAt bunch as “a bunch of mindless jerks who’ll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes,”

I think we're going to need a bigger wall.

[wj]

I think we're going to need a bigger wall.

Terrible idea. Reuse! Recycle! Don't waste resources building walls.

Maybe we can get an AI to do the scheduling for using the wall we have. Even prioritize. :-)

[JanieM]

Not marked as an open thread, but since it's generally so quiet around here maybe lj won't mind if I raise another topic: that of involuntary, non-opt-outable digital surveillance by the next generation of iPhones.

It makes me glad I don't have one, although I can't imagine other phone manufacturers are going to be far behind. The linking of this article at BJ was followed by someone else mentioning the Light Phone. That sounds interesting and quite tempting, although I wonder if using it instead of a smartphone is going to become like trying to function without any telephone at all might have been a few decades ago.

[wj]

involuntary, non-opt-outable digital surveillance by the next generation of iPhones.
...
I can't imagine other phone manufacturers are going to be far behind.

I also expect that an app to disable said surveillance won't be far behind either. It will probably be held to void the warranty, but I doubt most users will be put off. I don't remember ever having occasion to use my warranty (always assuming there is one). And I doubt I'm unusual in that.

[nous]

I've been contemplating a dumbphone for a while now, but I cannot do such a thing unless I talk the university into giving me a dongle for accessing the classroom computer as part of their two-factor authentication. A dumbphone won't support the app for signing in. I cannot access any of the learning management systems on campus without access to the authentication system. And a laptop is no substitute when wifi access is sketchy. Need the smartphone to act as a hotspot.

Campus IT backbone is getting to be as thoroughly enshitified as the web and the smartphones.

Of course AI is being integrated all through the campus IT infrastructure as well. And the regents are quietly buckling to pressure from the feds to crack down on anything that might put a target on the university's back. All the DOGE crap has already savaged the campus budget to the point where adjunct instructors with less security of employment will be laid off, graduate students will lose their teaching appointments, and sections for required courses will bottleneck, driving time-to-degree up and costing students even more money in loans.

It's getting dire.

I hope the university upholds their pension obligations because at the rate things are going we may have no choice but to retire early.

In the aughts I thought that we had dodged the cyberpunk dystopia that fueled the science fiction imaginary in the '80s and '90s. Looks like it's making a comeback because the Broligarchy took it all as an aspirational template.

[liberal japonicus]

Janie, no problem!

We just had a strange incident when we went to visit my daughter. We went to a computer store and my wife mentioned something about getting a new apple watch band. When we got back to the hotel, she found she had gotten insta and facebook ads for watchbands. Usually, we speak japanese, but this time, she said it in English. We dove into the settings to make sure various apps couldn't access the mic, but it was chilling.

[JanieM]

lj -- I was with someone 5 or 6 years ago who had that experience with an iPhone. She talked about something and was getting ads about it later. It is beyond creepy.

nous -- I know cost might be prohibitive, but at least in theory, would it work to have the cheapest smartphone and plan that will perform your university functions, and a dumbphone for phone calls...?

And back to our devices listening in on us -- i just re-confirmed to my credit card company that I did not want them sharing any information about me to ANYONE. (They will still share what they say they can share legally, but that's not really good enough for me. Too bad for me.)

One of the syrupy self-serving rationales for their wish to share my info is that therefore they can serve me better. Bullshit. If there was an opt-in rather than an opt-out for this kind of thing, who would let them share anything? (I don't have time to look it up but I'm pretty sure our bought and paid for Congress gave them most of what they wanted on this topic years ago.)

Also, the opt-out of sharing is not permanent. You have to know that, you have to know the term (two years? five years? I do business with entities with both of those), and you have to remember to do it. Funny thing, they don't remind you.

[hairshirthedonist]

I was applying for a mortgage refinance a few years ago. As soon as I submitted the application to my credit union, I started getting unsolicited calls from very aggressive reps from mortgage companies I had never heard of trying to convince me I should refinance through them instead of my exceedingly wonderful (not snark!) credit union.

I came to find out that the credit bureaus (or at least one of them - don't remember for sure) publish the credit checks they get unless you formally request that they don't. That opt-out expires after a year (also with no reminder, natch).

It's such bullsh*t and only serves to facilitate financial predation. Of course the new regime wants to remove what meager consumer protections we "enjoy" ... because reasons.

[Donald]

Senate Res 224 calling for immediate aid to Gaza.

Call your senators if you can. Many have already signed.

[Hartmut]

What's the bet that it will never be allowed to come to a vote? (in particular, if it could actually get a majority)

[wj]

I'd be more optimistic if I saw even 1 Republican co-sponsor. I expect that the author made a serious effort to get that -- the public being fond of at least a veneer of bipartisanship. Since I'm not seeing any, chances are it never gets out of committee.

[GftNC]

Come on, since the thread is called they are sending their best, surely the foremost candidate at the moment is Kirsty Noem? Her definition of habeas corpus will stand for the ages...

[GftNC]

Tony Hancock was a comedian in the 50s and 60s:

Perhaps Noem has been learning her law from Tony Hancock. In an episode of his show where the comic does jury service and is elected foreman, he cries out: “Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain?”

[Michael Cain]

A couple decades ago now I was getting my MA in public policy. During one of the classes the discussion wound up in "would you give up civil rights for safety" territory. It was amazing how much most of the class would give up to avoid even small risks of terrorism. There were two of us olds in the class, with one foot still stuck in the 60s. The youngs seemed truly surprised at how angry we were with them.

[wj]

It was amazing how much most of the class would give up to avoid even small risks of terrorism. There were two of us olds in the class, with one foot still stuck in the 60s. The youngs seemed truly surprised at how angry we were with them.

I wonder to what extent that flows from their having been raised in environments where their parents went to ridiculous lengths to protect them from anything and everything. I mean, why does an 8 year old have to be escorted 2 suburban blocks to and from school?

And, on the other hand, how much stems from the next younger cohort having grown up with active shooter drills in school?

[CharlesWT]

Bring back free-range kids!

[novakant]

There were two of us olds in the class, with one foot still stuck in the 60s. The youngs seemed truly surprised at how angry we were with them.

I guess for every boomer proudly standing up for civil liberties, there was one trying to undermine it in the name of the military-industrial-security complex and the "war on terror".

[novakant]

Israel has blamed Starmer, Macron and Carney for the antisemitic killings in DC:

We must also hold to account the irresponsible leaders in the West who give backing to this hatred – whether through appeasement, double standards, or silence. French president Emmanuel Macron, British prime minister Keir Starmer, and Canadian prime minister Mark Carney have all, in different ways, emboldened the forces of terror through their failure to draw moral red lines. This cowardice has a price – and that price is paid in Jewish blood.

Wow

[Hartmut]

My first thought when reading the headline about the killings (with yet no info about the background of the perpetrator) was: a Palestinian Grynszpan ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel_Grynszpan ).
Let's see what new atrocity the Yahoo from Netanja will now justify with that incident. Maybe stopping the delivery of food to Gaza again.

To be clear: no sympathy from my side for murdering random embassy employees who have nothing to do with what happens in Gaza.

[Donald]

Ken Klippenstein printed what is apparently the manifesto of the DC murderer. I won’t link. I read part of it.

I don’t agree with the death penalty, but life in prison seems fair. Assuming the manifesto is real, this was as premeditated as it gets and we don’t need another round of antiwar terrorism, 60’s style. I am pretty law and order on this sort of thing.

I would also hold Presidents accountable for war crimes, but in the meantime, we can at least jail the retail murderers.

[Donald]

Also, of course, just as a few Western governments are finally recognizing, 18 months late, that mass murder is bad and is now clearly genocide, along comes what appears to be an antiwar terrorist to kill two people and suck away the attention and centers it on his crime.

Netanyahu has just endorsed Trump’s ethnic cleaning plan as a requirement for peace. I haven’t seen this in the NYT, not that this is a surprise. They have done some superb individual stories on specific atrocities, but they are also consistent in their whitewashing of Israel’s motives and of Biden’s record and possibly even Trump’s, though admittedly Trump’s record is so chaotic on this it is hard to categorize.

Here is a quote from the Times of Israel—

“ During his first press conference in five months, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday named the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s “revolutionary” plan to relocate Gaza’s civilians as a condition for ending the conflict, the first time he has made such a demand. He called Trump’s plan “brilliant,” and said it had the potential to change the face of the Middle East.”

[novakant]

Netanyahu has just endorsed Trump’s ethnic cleaning plan as a requirement for peace.

This will be a litmus test for the EU and the Arab countries. I don't think it's really going to happen, but if, then the West's moral standing will be completely ruined and there will be no end to the blowback.

[wj]

Sometimes, how you feel about a subject can be colored by those around you. I came across this in my local paper:

In August 2024, a few months before the presidential election, the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies Poll asked more than 4,000 voters across the state whether they would support or oppose a “path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who come forward, are up to date on their taxes, and pass a background check.”
....
80% of California registered voters who answered the poll supported a path to citizenship. This included close to 60% of polled Republicans, 75% of independents and even 56% of those who intended to vote for Trump. It also included 75% of those who earned a high school degree or less, 80% of those who earned a college degree or more, 80% of women, 78% of men, 75% of homeowners and 84% of those under 40.
...
In early May the Berkeley IGS Poll asked survey respondents again about their support for a path to citizenship.
...
we found virtually no differences from August to May. Eighty percent of registered voters this month, including close to 60% of Republicans, continued to support a path to citizenship. Somewhere between 70% and 85% of every demographic, including respondents under 40, those over 65, those of different racial groups, those in unions, those that rent their homes, those that own their homes, men, women, those in the Central Valley, Los Angeles County, the Inland Empire and even those on the far North Coast all expressed support for a path to citizenship.

Pretty obvious that, if you live in California, you're going to be surrounded by people who look at immigration rather differently that appears to be the case in the country as a whole. Even if you live in one of the deep red Congressional districts.