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It’s October! Forum
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24 responses to “It’s October! Forum”
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NYT article about John Roberts’ (formerly) quiet summer home in Maine.
I think the term “kayak-tivists” is the most Maine thing ever.
It does raise an interesting point: are protests aimed at private residences counterproductive insofar as they further insulate the justices from the public they serve?
I’m fine with making them uncomfortable–their decisions are making people’s lives awful (see: allowing third-country deportations to continue, etc.). But if even the threat of threats causes them to become further insulated and detached from the public, will they ever manage to get their collective heads out of…the dark?
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I was part of a political focus group on Monday evening. Ten men ages ranging from maybe 30 to 70 (I’m 67). South Florida in Ft. Lauderdale area, probably the most liberal part of Florida. Two staunch Republicans, one an old dude who probably watches Newsmax for his info, the other a little less of a cheerleader, the sort of guy who says he doesn’t loke how Trump acts but he thinks we need him because he is a tough guy. Of the other 8, my guess was five Democrats, three independents. All eight strongly disliked Trump and are planning to vote for Democrats in November, although two sound like they may end up not voting. First question from moderator was what is biggest issue, pretty much everyone said affordability except me. I said Trump and his buddies are all incompetent and that has repercussions for present and future. But I was in a very different situation from everyone there, I’m retired and very comfortable with no realistic chance of outliving our money. I hope that this is somewhat representative of the mood in the country these people are very angry. They do all blame both parties, just they blame Trump more. Overall pretty enjoyable, I was my usual opinionated self, talked more than anyone else. Hour and 45 minutes, $225 cash for my time.
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Affordability was the top issue by a mile. I am going to guess that most of the people who frequent this forum are well off. It has been about 20 years since I worried about general affordability, and more than 10 since I realized that we would never run out of money and most likely wouldn’t even have to touch our nest egg (I retired at 59 with a small pension, my wife taught for 30 years in a very well paying school district and has a very substantial pension). I wouldn’t say that people here live in a bubble, but sometimes it is hard for me to put myself in someones shoes who is 35, married with two kids and living paycheck to paycheck. Of the six people in the group who I believe were under 40 I think four were living paycheck to paycheck. One of the Republicans mentioned that Trump was presiding over record stock markets and one of the four immediately said “who the fuck cares”. I pointed out that 90% of the stock is owned by 10% of the population.
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I am going to guess that most of the people who frequent this forum are well off
FWIW, I don’t think that’s true. There have been commenters for whom money is not an issue, and there have been commenters that were concerned about the price of a cup of coffee, and everything in between. I’ve never noticed any correlation between income and quality of participation.
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Understood; I don’t doubt that affordability is the primary concern for most people. Quite understandable. (I’m 57 and decently well-off, too.) My comment was just relating to your choice of incompetence. It also wasn’t clear to me if you chose incompetence as the most effective Trump criticism in a sort-of public forum? If so, that’s also understandable. My choice just reflects my actual biggest issue with the Trump admin.
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On the other hand, Eisenhower is said to have noted that the only move he regretted as President was nominating Earl Warren to the Supreme Court. Regretting nominations who subsequently disagree with you seems to have a long history.
(The more interesting thing on Warren is that one source I encountered claimed that Warren to the Supremes was the quid for the Ike nomination pro quo.)
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There’s an article in the NYT about the Supreme Court’s summer vacation vanished in a slew of Trump emergency cases (41 so far -by far a record number) and John Roberts whines they really, really are in need a break from each other.
I believe “flood the zone” tactics have been applied to the SC. The SC is unaccustomed to being effed- around with in general, so what happens may be interesting.
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Looks like the bond market is having conniptions.
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“Fears that US deficit is unsustainable…”
Fears? The only thing worse than selling off US securities is the likelihood that the selloff will show that the deficit is unsustainable. 🙁
We may be entering a new golden age where the standard of wealth is being able to defend 40 acres of land and possession of seed potatoes.
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Meanwhile, the governor of the Bank of England opines of the AI investment surge “You could see some correction of asset prices at some point.”
“Everybody is currently priced to be a winner (but if) you look back at the past, not everybody is a winner”.
Or in other words, at some point, some people are going to lose their shirts.
Therefore, beware.
The problem is, a US index share tracker funds by their nature currently include a sizable percentage of AI related stocks.-
Not to fear. Google’s launched the first testbed for data centers in SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
I never bought the notion of gigantic satellites crammed full of GPUs. The notion is ridiculous on so many levels, it’s hard to begin explaining why. I figured something more similar to Xtarlink. Constellations of satellites with a few chips and huge radiators, in constant communication with each other and ground stations using microwaves.
But note the Googlesat carries all of four (4) chips and:
The chips will run a version of the company’s Gemma AI model for 15 minutes at a time due to heat management constraints, using the open weight model to answer simple queries.
Ok, so they’re testing the thermodynamics of the sat. Fine. But how long does it take for the chips to cool down? Five minutes? 60? The piece does not say.
Also, the irony here is remarkable:
“The sun puts out almost all of the power in our solar system. All of the other power sources that humanity has tapped into are just a tiny fraction of a percent,” said Travis Beals, senior director and lead of Project Suncatcher. “So in some sense, this project is about tapping into the best way to use solar power to run AI compute.”
My non-expert lay opinion is that orbital solar arrays in Clarke orbit could gather far more sunlight and transmit it back. And if the AI bubble goes poof and leaves lots of useless or underutilized or idle hardware behind, these arrays could still beam down electricity for other use (there are other uses for electricity, right? I seem to have heard of many). Rather than a satellite with chips.
Of course, launching solar arrays that high up (aprox. 35,000 kilometers above the surface) costs a lot of money. And Clarke orbit is already where comsats, which generate billions in profits every year, already live. there’s lots of room up there, but not infinite room.
Let’s end with some levity:
When a chip malfunctions in a terrestrial data center, or something goes on the fritz, a technician can walk in and fix it. That’s harder when the data center is circling hundreds of miles above Earth.
You think?
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To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Taco so-called administration is perfectly fine discriminating people based on disabilities.
Next they’ll claim a wheelchair ramp, braille on elevator buttons, or other accommodations common in businesses open to the public, constitute discrimination against the able bodied.
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Indeed, that is the typical pattern for this process. The more interesting thing to me is that the trigger word in the ruling is “integration.” It wouldn’t surprise me at all to discover that the administration’s real objection is that black and brown disabled people are getting stuff because of the policy. And I wouldn’t be much surprised by states having the same motive.
(Oops! 🙁 I guess I needed to include a Critical Race theory trigger warning. My bad.)
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