domain:alexepstein.substack.com
SkoomaDentist
5hr ago
And NXP is definitely not even close to a tier-one fab these days; I think they've capped out in the >50nm range.
That's a bit like saying Volvo isn't even close to being a tier-one supercar manufacturer these days...
NXP has never even aimed for the high end application processor market (not that Motorola was relevant in its historical equivalent since the late 80s either). They merged with Freescale for their microcontroller and automotive IC portfolio, not in an effort to compete with Intel or similar cpu manufacturers.
DoctorMonarch
♬We're so happy that we live in 1800's Alabama 'cause it's sunny and there is no crime!♬
5hr ago
· Edited 5hr ago
Hanania doesn't appreciate that groypers appear to be huge to him because 1. They personally, viscerally hate him in particular and will actively seek him out and engage with him as a matter of trolling. 2. Among the groypers are relatively more experienced, serious trolls with VPNs/multiple accounts/those who automate some aspects of their engagement.
Fuentes' audience of Americans able to vote probably maxes out around 200,000 or so.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5hr ago
Precisely.
Whether or not that works out, Fuentes is going to have roughly zero impact on the candidate.
Hoffmeister25
American Bukelismo Enthusiast
5hr ago
If you saw that video, and thought "Ah yes, this 13 year old girl holding a knife and hatchet wrong is clearly a hardened criminal who is harassing an innocent adult male who is following her for purely altruistic reasons, like returning a wallet she dropped"
Literally nobody is claiming this.
4doorsmorewhores
5hr ago
What's her twitter username
FtttG
5hr ago
Yes, that was my takeaway from the OP as well. My question is who might Fuentes endorse instead of Vance?
Hoffmeister25
American Bukelismo Enthusiast
5hr ago
That’s reasonable but not guaranteed. Again, I’m just trying to game out different explanations, and fitting the (very scant) available evidence into different interpretations to see what appears most plausible.
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
5hr ago
I think he meant not that he runs for office but that he forces Trump to change his mind as to who to endorse
Hoffmeister25
American Bukelismo Enthusiast
5hr ago
Exculpatory of what? If he didn’t do anything wrong, there wouldn’t be anything to film.
ABigGuy4U
5hr ago
Because the AI generated image is a symbol that connects present events with two thousand years of Scottish and Celtic history. She could just as well be brandishing that axe at a Roman centurion, a Saxon warrior, or an English redcoat.
faceh
5hr ago
LOL I was trying to find that specific one, but settled for one that was kind of close.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
5hr ago
You said "'the Ten Commandments were really our best guess at moral laws but we are not really the basis for goodness.
Yeah, you didn't really read this accurately. It the "we are not really the basis for goodness."
This doesn't mean God is "subject" to 2+2=4, or that it's an "outside standard he's held to", and it's utterly nonsensical to think, even if it were a standard he were held to, that one should therefore worship 2+2=4 instead. The law that 2+2=4 isn't written anywhere, it's not even necessarily a "law" at all; it's just how reality is.
Yes, God is subject to 2+2=4 here in this example. You don't see it? It's possible for God to want something other than 2+2=4 but not be able to change it. That makes Him subject to it. It's an external power He has to work around. "Just how reality is," - That is putting limits on God. There is something outside of your concept of God that is more powerful than Him. Why not worship that thing?
greyenlightenment
investments: META/FBL, TSLA, TQQQ, TECL, MSFT ...
5hr ago
People keep making the mistake that the "real world" is more important than a small fringe of online crazies, and they keep getting proven wrong over and over and over (e.g. with woke, the alt right, gender identity on Tumblr). The arc of MAGA is long, but it bends towards Based.
It's not though. The online-right has been calling for transparency on Epstein even if it hurts Trump, and opposed the airstrikes on Iran. The offline/mainstream-right do not care much as much about either or supported the strikes. After Trump attacked Iran, his approval rating did not fall.
Then they'd split in a second, and disappear in a metaphorical puff of smoke, not wait around until the dude pulls out a phone and starts recording. Even if he was quick on the draw, all you'd see is their backs running towards the horizon.
AvocadoPanic
5hr ago
Update to this from 3 weeks ago.
Thank you all for the support and advice.
The situation got worse. After I blocked the extremist content and confronted her about the bitcoin transfers, and took her to the crisis counselor, I discovered this was actually the second scam.
The first one from May-June totaled $55k and involved intimate images. Was a romance / loverboy also with an Elon Musk impersonator.
I also discovered she had maintained contact with both scammers, complaining to them that I had taken her for an evaluation.
Telling one:
I had to say multiple times that I am not in contact with THE Elon Musk Because that would be so delusional that I should be locked up and medicated I am sorry I can now and then sneak out a message when I get in a Starbucks but that will be it
At various times in the chat logs she seems almost lucid, but at times paranoid accusing one of the scammers of working with me to destroy her.
She tells the 2nd scammer, the 1st scammer confirmed his identity by
He posted on Elon main account Sending codes on Elons main account that I would understand
Contact with both scammers continued for several weeks.
She'd complained of floaters in her vision combined with everything else I thought it'd be prudent to have our local hospital have a look at her. After they discharged her, she attempted to obtain a restraining order, against me.
Last week she left for 8 days to a "safe location", she was gone when we returned from Sunday service.
She's returned but won't discuss anything.
I've filed for divorce.
Her brother reviewed her Twitter content and said "I can't believe this is my sister's account... didn't sound like her at all." Multiple people who knew her before have expressed similar shock. I've been documenting everything per attorney's advice.
Children start public school tomorrow. Continuing weekly meetings with pastor. I've seen my own therapist once and have weekly appointments. Men's bible study group has been incredibly supportive now that I've opened up to them. Kids are doing okay, all things considered. We're maintaining routines. I'm working fully remote now to be present for them.
I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone.
ABigGuy4U
5hr ago
Trump will still have the Republican bully pulpit for the rest of his life, and who he chooses to back as a successor could be the deciding factor in the nomination contest. Regarding his children I think he will probably try to get one of them a VP slot so they can make a later go at the White House.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
5hr ago
Ah yes, of course. The guy filming forgot to upload all the exculpatory evidence that he filmed! Why didn't I think of that explanation.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
5hr ago
People keep making the mistake that the "real world" is more important than a small fringe of online crazies, and they keep getting proven wrong over and over and over (e.g. with woke, the alt right, gender identity on Tumblr).
As Sagan pointed out, they laughed at the Wright Brothers but they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. Fuentes is Bozo the Clown.
Hoffmeister25
American Bukelismo Enthusiast
5hr ago
Well yes, my theory is that either these girls were part of a group that was harassing people, or that they were picking on other kids and that the guy filming confronted them. This would explain why suddenly they seem (or are pretending to be) afraid.
KMC
5hr ago
with sabre and battleaxe
Sabres are curved and single-edged, while the depicted weapon is clearly both straight and double-edged. It looks a lot like a Roman gladius, frankly, although you could be generous and call it a seax.
Thank you for coming to my nit picks.
I know that the AI image is not real, it is operating on me at a cognitive level below logical propositions concerning real entities and events.
Of course the image is real, it's really there in front of you, really shared by you for me to see, and it really exists. Saying it's not real is like saying political cartoons aren't real: technically true but missing the point. This is depicting something real in a way that's fictional, and the more I consider it the more a political cartoon fits the description.
benmmurphy
6hr ago
isn't there a sex tape of Destiny and Fuentes. wouldn't that kill any chance of Fuentes becoming mainstream in the Republican party.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
6hr ago
Every weapon-wielding chav has to start somewhere
They usually start with people smaller than them, not twice their size.
Nope, I'm willing to bet on this. Maybe the situation is more complicated than the rightoids say, but it's definitely not what you're saying.
FtttG
6hr ago
I suppose I should have said a credible candidate seeking the Republican nomination.
Hoffmeister25
American Bukelismo Enthusiast
6hr ago
Every weapon-wielding chav has to start somewhere. She’s obviously quite young and is probably just starting to carry these as a way to look/feel tough. I’d be surprised if she’s used them on anybody yet, but that doesn’t mean we have to wait around and let her keep carrying them until she finally does use them in earnest.
Hi, Chris! I hope life is going well for you.
In general, the hiatus went well enough. The problem came last summer, when I had both parents trying to talk to me about whatever Facebook story they were incensed about that day, from both different sides, and then Trump got shot. I let myself get sucked back in. I still think it's not a productive use of my time (and I find myself thoughtlessly developing workarounds for my self-imposed limitations), but the last year has certainly been more cause for optimism than the previous four (at least in the US), as well as being a ton of fun.
The OP here, with it's Rose Tico concern trolling, just really grinds my gears. And really, I should probably just stop interacting with the OP. They routinely post stuff that hits me as so earnestly "someone is insanely wrong on the internet" that I get all riled up. And frankly, if it's not spectacularly fine trolling, then they are probably a literal child who simply lacks the experience to grasp that other sides do, in fact, exist. In which case, my own brand of scathing heat is less than helpful.
Anyway,
In fairness, a higher expectation for riots doesn't seem like an unreasonable prior just two years after the Summer of Love, even if it ended up being a false prediction.
Still, I don't think that's really a counter-example. The general response was still apoplectic rage, even if it didn't spill over into real violence, and kept itself to rhetoric and hostile personal encounters. My own mother blew up at me over it, even though she knows I'm personally pro-choice. Though that did give me an opportunity to gently explain that the reason she is a grandmother is because, as a man, I have literally no reproductive rights at all.
But in terms of the grace vs revenge scale, I don't think I've seen a single leftwinger say anything like "Look, the SC made their ruling and we have to accept that. Even Ruth said that Roe was on shaky legal ground. We should have expected this would happen, and better prepared for it. The issue has been sent back to the states, so let's focus on the state level and win as much as we can."
The reponse I've seen is more like "The Supreme Court is illegitimate, fuck the entire institution, pack the court, we literally live in The Handmaid's Tale." Along with a slew of very dishonest news stories, at least some of which look suspiciously like hospital administrators letting women die to own the cons. Alongside that was a bunch of low grade domestic terrorism, which was tacitly tolerated by the Biden administration.
I think it's a bit early to call on most of this. But I don't see any tacit acceptance, or anyone saying "fair enough, we did try to bankrupt, jail and kill you, let's call it even". Instead most of the Democrats seem to be talking about how they've been playing nice up until now, and calling for the gloves to come off in a scorched earth war to the knife.
They made a huge, grandstanding spectacle calling Abbott and Desantis cruel monsters (for exposing their own hypocrisy) and demanded they be investigated by the feds for human trafficking, kidnapping, fraud and deprivation of liberty. The feds didn't comply - is that where we want to set the bar for compromise and reconciliation?
Yep, the best examples I could think of were old. We're well down the slippery slope at this point. There are examples of Trump doing things like that, but they're all blatantly insincere and backhanded.
To be clear, I'm not saying the Republicans look particularly good under this light. A huge part of Trump's appeal is specifically that he's a Molotov cocktail thrown at norms and conventions that his supporters see as having been weaponized. He is the Devil turning round on you.
My incensed objection rather, is to the naive or trollish implication from the OP that the Democrats have clean hands.
Most lockdowns were state and local. It wasn't the Trump administration that was prosecuting gym owners - that was my Democrat governor.
I sincerely don't think he was asking for what you think he was asking for. That line came at something like the 53rd minute of a conversation, and the whole prior discussion was Trump confidently insisting that an investigation would uncover large numbers of fraudulent votes. I don't think Trump is as dumb and blunt as many, but I do think it's more likely he was referring to that, as opposed to pivoting abruptly to overt requests for obvious crimes on a recorded line in front of multiple other people. If nothing else, that theory presumes that Trump believed that he truly lost Georgia and I don't think his ego would allow that.
I hardly think the man covered himself in glory there, but there's a reason that investigation fell apart after the only prosecutor willing to push it was caught using the situation to engage in blatantly shady corruption.
And that was the "good" case. The asset valuation fraud and the 34 counts ones were, I believe, very clearly corrupt, politically motivated lawfare.
The DoJ was already weaponized. Do you remember when they were falsifying evidence to spy on the Trump campaign?
Tons of people write nasty books about Trump. And there's a thing among that cohort, where a lot of them seem to want to believe that Trump is out to get them personally, but most don't even merit a nasty Truth Social post. The Bolton investigation had been going on for years before it was shut down by the Biden admin. If anything, it looks like he was being protected by politics.
And really, it was for leaking classified documents, i.e. the exact same thing Trump had the DoJ kick down his door and riffle through his wife's underwear. Did that make you worry about the weaponization of the DoJ?
Do you have any specific reason to think Bolton is being held to an unusual standard? My memory goes fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure a few generals or other high level political types have gone down for very similar behavior to what Bolton is alleged to have done over the last few administrations.
Honestly, polarization spawns clicks and posts. Like I said in the beginning, I'm honestly pretty happy about how the country is going. I just don't feel the need to post about how I got what I voted for again. I just laugh at the meme and move on.
And I understand that the other side is going to be less than pleased with this turn of events.
Let me take a step back for a moment, and share a bit about where I'm coming from. Iirc, you and I are around the same age. I graduated high school just in time for Iraq, and that colored the hell out of my view of politics. I cut my teeth writing heated diatribes about Christian fundamentalists and neocon warmongers.
My tepid willingness to consider myself a Republican these days is mostly dependent on the fact that those factions lost, and the party was forcibly remade in a different image.
The Democrats now find themselves at an even starker crossroads. Their approval ratings are at historic lows and they are hemorrhaging voters. It's time for reevaluation and repositioning. For moderation. There have been a few gestures in that direction, but overall it looks like they're worse than doubling down. Beto is giving speeches about how the problem isn't that they support Unpopular Thing, but that they haven't been big enough assholes in their support of Unpopular Thing. And Trump has just been baiting the shit out of them, taking positions like "Crime is bad", and then watching them scramble over each other to claim the extremely bold "There is no crime and also all this crime is your fault" position.
I see videos of people who seem to think that the Ministry has fallen and Voldemort rules the land, genociding the Muggleborns... even as they feel emboldened to harass and attack federal law enforcement officers. If those people honestly think that the Biden administration was unacceptable generosity towards the outgroup, and that once they get into power it's time to be brutal and cruel...
And I do see many people openly calling for this.
On the plus side, I think/hope that the Democrats are going to spend the next 10 years in the political wilderness, and all their bloodthirst will amount to little.
But if I'm wrong, and their worse natures prevail, then yeah. I think that's potentially crossing the line where responses of a euphemistic variety go on the table.
Same reason I think we should be arming moderate rebels in the UK.
The NYT, no. The government, yes to an extent. In being less developed, it was less captured by people whose aim was power within the government over doing the government's job. I think there was more room for optimism then, regarding what could be accomplished by the hand of the state, and that a large portion of the lies we live under now came as a response to that optimism failing.
It's more general than that. One of our earliest social technologies was loyalty, because faith in an imperfect leader was better than no leader at all. But there does come a point where a terrible leader is so bad that your loyalty becomes maladaptive. The hard part is figuring out where that inflection point lies.
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