If you’re looking for more proof that bad ideas never die, Mark Ames — currently writing for PandoDaily, but I don’t think that’ll last — is covering the other alternative-politics convention this weekend:
Homophobia, racism and the Kochs: San Francisco’s tech-libertarian “Reboot” conference is a cesspool
Starting [Friday], San Francisco plays host to the Reboot 2014 conference. According to the event’s blurb:Reboot 2014 will bring together technical talent and policy advocates to turn ideas into deliverables for liberty.
The word “liberty” is the giveaway, of course. With “Reboot,” libertarianism is making its Big Pitch to Silicon Valley. The event features the movement’s superstar scion, Rand Paul, as keynote speaker; alongside Nick Gillespie, the leather-jacketed editor of Reason.com, the online edition of Reason magazine, the longest-running and most successful libertarian media outlet, backed by the infamous Koch Brothers. In fact, the entire event is sponsored by the Kochs.
Under the weird banner of “conservatarianism,” other key speakers include prominent republicans like Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the House Republican Conference, and Andy Barkett, CTO of the Republican National Committee…
At first glance it makes no sense to front a rabidly anti-gay candidate like McMorris Rodgers to sell the Kochs’ and the Paul family’s scrubland libertarianism to a Bay Area audience full of hip disruptors and “anarchist” practitioners of bohemia grooming fads.
But that’s because what Silicon Valley folks think of when they hear the word “libertarianism” actually has very little connection to what the libertarian movement actually stands for, and has stood for since the 1970s…
***********
Apart from reviewing the sordid history of the various “I Got Mine, Fck You” movements converging under the Libertarianism rock umbrella, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
The Moar You Know
I lived in SF from 1992-2000. Hands down, by far the most conservative and segregated place I’ve ever lived.
It’s not 1968 there and hasn’t been for a very, very long time.
Baud
That has to be a rotating tag line.
Baud
Rand Paul: It’s time to hit Ctrl-Alt-Del on the Obama administration!
jl
@The Moar You Know: I live there now, and while I think that is an overstatement, there is some truth to it. If you are in the fashionable high income high tech developing sections, or the low income SE, or Western Addition, a lot of truth. Out in the avenues and more regular neighborhoods, less truth.
Anyway, heard a news clip of Rand Paul at the convention warning that it is important to keep the government and big bad regulation out of the internets. Yeah, boy, that government would sure mess it up if it got its death grip on the libertarian free market paradise of the internet.
Edit: true Rand Paul quote from the clip “we can make jobs out of nothing.” NOTHING! Something from nothing, that is what the Silicon Valley geniuses can do! That sounds like a good deal. I’m turning glibconstechervatarian right now.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
That phrase “deliverables for liberty” is a perfect example of Pointy-Haired Boss talk. That by itself should warn any rational person not to take Reboot 2014* seriously.
*Who came up with this conference title, the Cartoon Network?
Heliopause
Soliciting opinions: a new neighbor couple are having screaming arguments with one another. Sometimes there are loud crashes which I believe are doors slamming. Once they briefly disturbed my sleep at about 2 AM. At what point, do you call the cops on the situation? What set of particular circumstances would lead you to do that?
Baud
Reboot 2014: Where freedom is beta tested!
dmsilev
Newsmax: “Sen. Ron Johnson: Obama Is ‘President Nero’”. I’m not even sure what that’s supposed to mean. I guess Obama is “fiddling” (golfing?) while Rome burns. Rome is, I dunno, the border or the Middle East or the fighting in Ukraine or something.
Jewish Steel
@Heliopause: The odd shouting match can be ignored. Since it’s a regular thing, I’d call the next time it happens. Your neighbors are obligated not to wake you up in the middle of the night with their troubles.
Baud
In Rand Paul’s America, freedom will never be outsourced!
dmsilev
@Baud: Will the next version of freedom use crowd-source funding? Or will it be ad-supported?
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Have money, will be taken seriously.
Baud
@dmsilev:
Ad-supported, unless you pay $1.99 for the Pro version.
Liberty: There’s an app for that.
Bobby B.
First thing that struck me was that Silicon Valley was one of the possible “states” proposed by that rich popinjay. No connection, right?
Geeno
@dmsilev: Sen. Ron Johnson: “Obama Is ‘President Ne{g}ro”. Clearer now?
ruemara
@The Moar You Know: No shit. And those who think that’s hyperbole, try being female, minority and not from Stanford, UCB, UCSF and go job hunting at such a free range paradise. It’s not fun.
Baud
@ruemara:
So not a pure meritocracy?
@Geeno:
Perfect.
Baud
Since I don’t like to leave the boat, anyone care to explain what the hell this means?
Karen in GA
Open thread = daily (so far) blogwhore.
Iggy resents his leash.
shelley
Is that Jeb in that video? (Didn’t feel like clicking onit)
Karen in GA
@Baud: Well, to me, libertarianism in general has always meant “what we would get if we gave four-year-olds the vote.” Not sure why they felt a need to distinguish between Silicon Valley’s definition and whatever the 70s definition was — did it somehow make sense in the 70s?
Baud
@Karen in GA:
Did anything make sense in the 70s?
Glocksman
@Baud:
IMHO, the modern libertarian movement pays lip service to the the cause of individual liberty while pushing hard on the cause of corporate ‘liberty’.
I know several ‘libertarians’ who support the party based solely on drug legalization.
Never mind the absolute disaster that implementing the rest of the libertarian agenda would lead to.
When I point this out, I’m told that I have no idea what I’m talking about.
Violet
@Heliopause: Apartment or house? If apartment, call the management. If house then see if it continues to happen. Call the police if you feel your life or someone else’s life is in danger. If other neighbors are around, check with them to see if they’re also being disturbed. Strength in numbers and all. Could you talk to the new neighbors?
jeffreyw
Mmm… your dog wants steak
Baud
@Glocksman:
I think libertarians treat corporate liberty as an extension of individual liberty. They believed in Hobby Lobby before there was a Hobby Lobby.
ruemara
@Glocksman: They love to believe that everyone who painstakingly explains facts to them are all mental midgets compared to their greatness. Facts be damned, they’re [entrepreneurs, programmers, etc.] and make MONEY, that proves things! Tiresome on economic policy too.
debbie
There’s so much competition.I don’t know that the world can pull itself back from the brink of this kind of deliverables for stupidity:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/rebel-leader-malaysia-plane-filled-with-already-dead-bodies
geg6
The stuffed zucchini is now in the oven, rice pilaf bubbling on the stove, cucumber and tomato salad awaiting dressing and the Pinot noir uncorked. I added onions to the zucchini recipe and shallot and tomatoes to the pilaf. Can’t wait for it to be done!
Karen in GA
@Baud: Good point.
gbear
Little Green Footballs just posted a thread going after Glenn Greenwald for attacking Elizabeth Warren. I know a lot of people here can’t stand LGF, but this just may be one entertaining thread to watch.
Other than that, I got nuthin. The cat just used the litter box and I had to light a couple of vanilla candles to counter the ‘fragrance’. I’ve been putting off mowing the grass today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe a scooter ride this evening instead…
jl
@The Moar You Know:
took me a while to find a good link,. SF Bay Area is a paradoxical area. Among highest levels of income and wealth inequality in the US. SF in particular has one of the highest rates of growth in wealth inequality.
But it is also one of the places with the highest levels of economic mobility.
In fact the some of the commie areas of the country, like SF, Seattle, NYC have higher rates of economic mobility than the free market paradises that Rand Paul has in mind, presumably KY (until that damn Dem governor Bashear wrecked it with an ACA exchange).
The Equality of Opportunity Project
http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/
I have no idea what kind of society SF Bay Area will end up with, having one of the highest rates of income and wealth inequality, one of the highest increases in inequality, and one of the highest rates of economic mobility.
On other had, you could live in some southern areas where income and wealth inequality is just as high as SF, and widening almost as fast, but very low economic mobility.
Edit: I think major city with levels of income and wealth inequality and also highest rates of growth in inequality, but very low economic mobility, is Atlanta, but not sure.
shelley
@jeffreyw:
Mine just had a tasty snack of leftover lamb.
Karen in GA
@debbie: Looks like a certain top pro-Russia rebel commander is a Sherlock fan.
Mike E
And in NC, a new kind of leadership.
debbie
@Karen in GA:
There’s a Monty Python bit in there somewhere, too.
ranchandsyrup
Cleaned out the car-hole, donated a bunch o’ stuff, and went to the dump. The middle-aged weekend trifecta. The city built a new park/rec center that has a nice dog park with training features. So I watched my 3 y.o. crawl on and through those for a spell. Wife wasn’t there obvs. Nice little Saturday. Gonna have some Mexican food and prep for a kayak trip tomorrow.
ruemara
@gbear: Why bother? GG has his particular focus-personal liberty-and if you’re not adamantly siding with him, you’re part of the problem. It should not be a surprised that he’d go after whoever the next Democratic darling is, because democrats are the problem. They are insufficiently liberaltarian. Republicans however, well, I guess they’re just invisible.
Gin & Tonic
@Karen in GA: He’s not pro-Russian, he is an actual Russian, by passport, and a veteran of the Russian GRU (military intelligence.) All of the top leaders of the DNR (“Donetsk People’s Republic) are Russian citizens, with most of them living until fairly recently in Moscow. I know some like to call them “separatists” or “federalists,” but they are foreign mercenaries in Ukraine.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@ruemara:
It’s the Bolshevik method: Don’t ally with the Menshiviks in the middle, destroy them. Polarize, than go after the conservatives.
rikyrah
Kay’s comment about local newspapers had me think of this
……………………………………………
More reasons not to trust the traffic cameras
July 20, 2014
If you drive in Chicago at all, the Tribune’s investigation (chicagotribune.com/news/local/redlights/) into the city’s wildly unreliable red light cameras ought to make you blow a gasket.
Thousands of drivers have been ticketed in error under highly questionable circumstances that neither the city nor the private vendor that operated the cameras has explained.
Reporters David Kidwell and Alex Richards analyzed more than 4 million tickets issued since 2007. They found a series of dramatic spikes in the number of drivers cited by robotic cameras at intersections all over the city.
Cameras that typically generated a ticket or two a day suddenly snared dozens of drivers daily for days or weeks, then abruptly dropped to their previous levels.
………………………….
The spikes weren’t isolated or rare, nor should they have been hard to detect. The vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., was required by the city to monitor for such anomalies every day. But Redflex apparently never reported any spikes, and the city’s woefully cursory oversight never picked up on it, either. City officials say they learned about the problems from the Tribune.
And not because they wanted to. It took six months and thousands of dollars in legal fees for the Tribune to wrest those public records from the city under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. (See Editor Gerould Kern’s note here.) Even worse: The city spent your tax dollars fighting our request.
With the records finally in hand, the Tribune charted the daily ticket counts for each camera. That data revealed some patterns that can only be described as suspicious.
In the days before or after a spike — or both — cameras frequently recorded no violations at all. That could mean the camera was broken, though as one expert pointed out, “these things do not repair themselves.” The city has no records of what went on during those dark periods. There’s no log indicating that a malfunction was detected and repaired, nothing to explain why a camera would go into hyperdrive once it went back online — or why, days later, it would stop.
Those events went on for years, all over the city.
Redflex — fired last year after acknowledging it likely paid $2 million in bribes to land the city’s contract — wouldn’t answer reporters’ questions.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-red-light-cameras-chicago-edit-0720-20140720,0,1609114.story
rikyrah
Just finished watching The Lego Movie.
eh.
Don’t see why folks were raving about it.
Karen in GA
@Gin & Tonic: I was just referencing the AP article on TM, which Debbie quoted in her comment.
ruemara
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): This presumes there’s really an end goal in mind. This is an ego crusade, legitimized.
Villago Delenda Est
Slaughter, without the slightest mercy, everyone at this conference.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@ruemara:
There’s definitely ego involved, but it’s about promoting the libertarian cause. The pure libertarian cause, which puts the individual at the center of the universe.
Mike in NC
@Mike E: We had a Kay Hagan volunteer knock on our door this morning to hand out brochures for her and other Dem candidates. I got roped into doing the same thing a couple of weeks ago by an organization called “Forward NC”.
This being a beach town, it was a real chore trying to find street numbers on houses, as some people living in mobile homes don’t even have mailboxes. I got tasked with trying to locate 60 voters.
At any rate, Thom Tillis is the scum of the earth.
Elmo
@Heliopause:
When the police show up and shoot their dogs, how will that make you feel?
Never call the police unless you truly believe that the situation will be improved by a screaming asshole with a gun.
ruemara
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): So they’re all about 8 months old, but with guns and cash.
Mike in NC
@Villago Delenda Est: Reboot 2014: reboot it with a drone strike.
Villago Delenda Est
@ruemara: GG’s problem is that HIS personal liberty is of paramount importance. The personal liberty of women, African Americans, Latinos, etc, is of no interest to him. At all.
Gin & Tonic
@Karen in GA: I understand. I just want to make sure people are clear about the dramatis personae
ruemara
@Villago Delenda Est: I’m sure somewhere he has a black female friend with latino roots.
Karen in GA
@Gin & Tonic: Makes perfect sense.
Baud
BTW, this hasn’t gotten enough positive play in the blogs, from what I’ve seen.
Anoniminous
@dmsilev:
They dropped a “g.”
@Geeno:
dammit
tybee
@Elmo:
if they keep me up at night, the police are welcome to shoot them. and their dogs.
srv
@jl: The old rich understood the social contract. The new kids feels no such obligations.
But the new kids aren’t really the rich ones. It’s the international crowd wealth that is driving high-end real estate and the self-actualized coach bus migrants that are too stupid to realize they, figuratlively, missed the bus.
I love to tell a googler they’re the new middle class.
Iowa Old Lady
@Baud: I saw that the other day. Thank goodness. We’re talking civil rights here.
Pogonip
@Elmo: Elmo! Did you place all the kittens?
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Is he ordering me to be gay?
gene108
@Baud:
1979 was a great year for me. One of the best of my life.
I turned five that June. I’d pretty much mastered all the stuff “little kids” struggle with, when they are 2 and 3 years old. Had some great teachers at my daycare. Mrs. Apple, at St. Luke’s daycare, in Ann Arbor was awesome.
Really had a blast. A lot of things started making sense for me.
Though, alas, riding a bicycle without training wheels was another year off.
different-church-lady
@gbear: It has become obvious that when faced with the artificial choice between a shit-stirring expat “journalist” and the most progressive Senator we’ve had in ages, an unfortunate number of “liberals” are going to go with former.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Think of it as being ordered to be fabulous.
different-church-lady
@Baud:
Golden Age of comedy.
Other than that and a small handful of musicians, literally everything else sucked.
Heliopause
@Violet:
I live in a house next to a six-plex apartment, they are in the apartment closest to me. Today they were going at it in the middle of the day, the female especially sounded extremely agitated, though I’ve never heard any sounds that I could identify as physical violence.
That apartment has had quite a bit turnover through the years and there have only been a couple of people that I really ever had a minimal rapport with, so I haven’t talked to these people at all and I really don’t want to now after hearing all that anger. I guess my question is this; obviously you call the cops for physical violence, but short of that, what else? Does anybody else worry about somebody causing further problems because you called the cops on them? I have my own ideas about how I’m going to proceed with this situation, I’m just curious about how others react to stuff like this.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: A tall order. I haven’t come close to “fabulous” in quite some time.
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
If ye are of little faith, then thee be gay.
Think I got that right.
gene108
@rikyrah:
Maybe it’s a guy movie?
My nephew loooooves it. My niece is with you on the ‘meh’, not something I’d watch 20 times.
Frozen, on the other hand, has the opposite reaction from them, with my niece obsessed with it and my nephew sort of ‘meh’.
Anoniminous
Technologically speaking, GOP got its butt kicked in 2012. Google “GOP technological gap” and you’ll find 1.45 million (roughly) hits. In 2012 they sunk a ton o’ bucks into grifters and bullshit artists and got what grifters and bullshit artists produce: a system that didn’t work. Over the last two years, somebody, somewhere, figured out that if you want a system that works you gotta hire people with technical expertise. I’ll bet, this Reboot is a way to build a database of technical people the GOP can use as a call-through list.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
I don’t see why Democrats supporting Isreal is news but Republicans supporting Israel is not. I wonder when GG’s people will stick a microphone in Rand Paul’s face and ask him the same questions. Maybe at Reboot 2014.
SiubhanDuinne
@gbear:
Here, maybe this will help.
lamh36
gbear
@SiubhanDuinne: I really enjoyed that. Halley is mewh…
BillinGlendaleCA
@gene108: Oddly enough, I happen to be scanning some slides take by me in 1979 in London. I was a bit older than 5.
Suffern ACE
Boyhood wasn’t worth the 12 year wait. I was underwhelmed. It is a gimmick film that no one will see again after it leaves theaters unless one of the actors dies and a retrospective is required.
Elmo
@Pogonip:
None of them, actually. They’re doing fine here. One didn’t make it – ferals often have failure to thrive issues, and her kidneys shut down while she was weaning. But the others are feisty and adorable, and almost unbelievably sweet and affectionate. I had no idea cats could be like this!
lamh36
@Suffern ACE: I was wondering about that film. It’s been getting “rave” reviews, but IDK still wasn’t interested in seeing it.
The “gimmick” behind it though seemed interesting
gbear
@different-church-lady: The Ramones. New York Dolls. All but the last of Richard and Linda Thompson’s albums. I was a fan of Badfinger’s 70’s albums but things went to hell for them by the middle of the decade and two of the members hung themselves (at different times), so it wasn’t such a good decade for them.
lamh36
SiubhanDuinne
@Karen in GA:
Iggy is a hoot.
The Iggy Dialogues need to be a book at some point.
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36:
That was a horrible thing. Just awful. So good, I’m glad the cop has been relieved of his badge and weapon, but Jeez O Pete, it should never have come to that in the first place. Sometimes I despair.
jl
@Anoniminous:
” Over the last two years, somebody, somewhere, figured out that if you want a system that works you gotta hire people with technical expertise. ”
Not sure lesson has been learned. Rand sez that the magick of free market intertubes technology produces something from nothing, heard him say that on the news today. Sounded very convinced of himself.
Randy P
@lamh36: I didn’t think it was so bad. It was kind of fascinating to watch the actual characters age, knowing the aging was real.
I’m really curious now about the “7n-up” series.
Karen in GA
@SiubhanDuinne: Thank you! It’s fun to write, even if it were just for me and the hubby.
And I really do hope my pup thinks to himself, “I’m a happy Iggy.”
Eric U.
@Heliopause: when I was in college, the neighbors would call the cops if they heard anything at all from our house. It was pretty obnoxious, the way the cops did it was if there was a second call, they had to arrest someone. AFAIK, none of my roomates ever thought about retribution even though the neighbors richly deserved some. There wasn’t a sound level limit like a lot of places, you could just complain
Pogonip
@Elmo: Sounds like a happily ever after story to me!
smith
@Randy P: I love the 7 Up series. It’s a much longer time span than in Boyhood, and you really get a feel for what development over a lifetime means. If you get the series, though, I’d advise you watch each episode maybe a month apart. Since they are produced every 7 years, the background facts get reintroduced in each episode, and that can seem awfully repetitive if you see them in quick succession.
burnspbesq
@gbear:
This may be the crossing of a line that Greenie can’t un-cross. Fucking with Senator Warren is going to permanently piss off approximately 102 percent of self-identified progressive women.
burnspbesq
Final of the world championship in men’s lacrosse faces off at the top of the hour. USAFuckYeah vs. Eebil Canuckistan.
lamh36
Not a big Tom Cruise fan, but still watching Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, cause IT.IS.F*&KIN.AWESOME! http://youtu.be/sC2ohvY3qEA
Also too, Tom Cruise really is a fantastic looking on-screen runner. http://youtu.be/NJdMDvjfyQ0
Um wow, so someone did some “math” and apparently Tom Cruise has some sort of extended running scene in like 75% of his movies, this montage doesn’t even cover the last MI or this past Edge of Tomorrow (I saw that and I think he did have a running scene)…lol
http://youtu.be/zv2bAqk9PLw
SiubhanDuinne
@Randy P:
I just ordered the complete DVD set a couple of days ago. Goes through age 56 I believe. It’s really a fascinating concept. I remember seeing the first one or two (age 7 and 14) decades ago on PBS, but haven’t tried to keep up. Should be interesting. I hope I live long enough to see them at 63, and 70, and…..
burnspbesq
@lamh36:
The Germans know where the natural gas that heats their homes comes from, and it sure as shit isn’t Malaysia.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: From downstream:
SiubhanDuinne
@smith:
You addressed that to RandyP, not me, but as I’m going to be marathoning on 7 Up sometime soon I appreciate the heads-up.
That said, I read a lot of series mysteries, so I’m used to a fair amount of repetitive exposition. My style is to just take a weekend and binge-watch, which is what I’ll probably do with 7 Up.
lamh36
Wait, wait, someone named it “Tom Cruising”…bwhahahaha.
Tom Cruising
lamh36
@burnspbesq: I understand that, but it should make one less inclined to be all “outraged” on Germany’s behalf when it comes to other things.
Karen in GA
@SiubhanDuinne: I’ve always meant to watch that somehow, but it’s always slipped my mind. A quick Google search reveals that it’s on Netflix, so I have no excuse now. Added to my list.
raven
@Karen in GA: Watch Muscle Shoals
SiubhanDuinne
@Anoniminous:
Two words:
Or.
Ca.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Sounds worthwhile. Even though you knew as much as or more than the tour leader, it sounds as though you enjoyed yourself and got some value from doing the tour.
Glad the weather ended up cooperating, and glad the tour guide was flexible enough to accommodate the group’s preferences instead of sticking rigidly to script.
trollhattan
@burnspbesq:
This interview with the German foreign minister was helpful.
http://m.spiegel.de/international/world/a-981761.html
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Admittedly, the 2012 Republicans completely mastered bus technology.
gene108
@Anoniminous:
You make a good point about ulterior motives for a right-wing funded tech conference.
As much as we mock the GOP for being stupid, on average, there are some evil geniuses in their ranks. They jumped on the CU decision and flooded state and local races with third party ads, targeting incumbent state legislatures, who usually did not have to do that much fundraising and come up with counter ads.
They caught the Democrats flat footed and flipped a lot of state houses, in the process.
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan: Twice as much about the CIA issue as MH17.
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic: Yup, and in an interview for domestic consumption, too. They’re going to have to spike the spying stuff for now, no matter the ruffled feathers, and deal with Russia and their “rebels.”
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@raven:
The doc that ran on PBS this spring? If so, I’ll second that.
Karen in GA
@raven: I shall.
raven
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Yea, great music history.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: I forgot t mention the Canadian transplant. We went from downtown to Inman Park and she asked to be dropped at the Marta station, car sick.
J R in WV
@Elmo:
Being personally acquainted with a could of law enforcement officers, and have been pulled over recently by a couple of very pleasent professional LEOs, your comment is a perfect example of prejudice and bigotry.
You use the bad behavior of some law enforcement officers to accuse all police, troopers, deputies of being screaming assholes.
No one who saw the video of the University Police LT pepper spraying seated, peaceful protestors in their faces can doubt that there are asshole police officers! But the bad apples don’t prove that the whole barrel is full of rot. Perhaps except in New Orleans? Well, I expect there are honest and hard working police officers there too, actually, even if the proportion may be less than desirable.
Sorry if your dog got shot! I loves dogs! But even that doesn’t prove that ALL officers are bad.
opiejeanne
I was in Las Vegas for the All Star Game with a bunch of baseball friends. I arrived on Sunday and was told that I had just missed meeting Matt Welch. He was heading home after something called Freedom Fest. My baseball friends were laughing about the narrowly missed cataclysm.
We did not talk politics at this baseball meetup, other than the politics of ESPN, the snubbing of various players, the neglect of recently deceased players including Tony Gwinn.
Yatsuno
@opiejeanne: Are you watching the game right now? WOW!
Anoniminous
@jl:
Rand is an idiot.
@SiubhanDuinne:
I don’t know what that means.
@gene108:
Thank you.
What killed us in 2010 was voters – especially the 18 – 29 demographic – not voting. The turnout was a little under 42%, means it was a base election. The GOP base was hot and eager to vote and did while the Democratic Party base wasn’t and didn’t. The money the GOP poured in certainly helped them to motivate their base but if it helped to broaden their base … well, I haven’t seen any evidence of it.
opiejeanne
@Yatsuno: Yes!
opiejeanne
@Yatsuno: Yes! And we watched last night’s marathon.
Davis X. Machina
@Anoniminous: Orca was the Romney campaign’s vaunted voter-tracker database machine that was going to be a game changer. They couldn’t get it to work, and it crashed on Election Day.
Cervantes
I believe it was Thomas Jefferson himself who said, “A list of deliverables for liberty is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth.”
James E. Powell
@Anoniminous:
What killed us in 2010 was voters – especially the 18 – 29 demographic – not voting. The turnout was a little under 42%, means it was a base election.
What killed us in 2010 was that the stimulus was too small, way too small, and the economy was still pretty bad. The Democrats did not appear to be doing anything about it.
Also too, the Republicans really rallied their troops around opposition to Obamacare which opposition was and is the only way for them to say “Stop this [insert racist epithet]!” on the news.
Cervantes
@efgoldman:
The computers you’re all using got their start in the 1970s, as did e-mail.
As did microwave ovens.
As did the EPA — and Earth Day.
The voting age was lowered to 18 — and our invasion of Vietnam was finally ended.
Salvador Allende brought justice and joy to ordinary Chileans (until we had him killed for it).
Hal Ashby made Harold and Maude.
We finally got rid of Richard Nixon after thirty years (talk about your long national nightmares).
Not too shabby for a decade that gets no respect.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
You covered the important stuff.
PIGL
@Villago Delenda Est: I don’t want to slaughter the people who were there. I want to slaughter those who organised and paid for it. Them and everyone who reports to them, and all the immediate family of the forgoing. I am sorry for the odd nephew who will be unjustly spiked upon a wall, but he should have chosen his uncles more carefully.
uriel
@different-church-lady:
But oh! What musicians! From O’Sullivans “All By My Self,” to the Douglas masterpiece “Kung-Fu Fighting”; the sublime “Muskrat Love” to the inspired genius of “Me and You and a Dog Named Boo.” And let’s not forget the timeless classics like “Seasons in the Sun,” “Escape (The Pina Colada Song),” “The Night Chicago Died’,” or pretty much all of the Barry Manilow oeuvre!
Ahh yes- it was the best of times, it was the even-best-est-er of times. Musically-wise. Much better than anything that has happened since. Or so I’ve been told some on this very blog….
uriel
(Sorry ’bout the typo’s up there, BTW. LOL. AIIC, BTW. FWIW. YMMV. AFSCME)
Mike G
@smith:
This. There’s a lot of reminiscing in each one. You could really just watch the latest (56 up) by itself. But if you want a more comprehensive look, I’d recommend watching 7 and 14, then 28up then 56 up. You’ll see all the highlights.
Kyle
@srv:
I think a lot of the glibertarianism is pretty shallow among the young techies. They’ve had a very fortunate start to their careers. They’ll soon enough understand they’re just corporate livestock like the rest of us, albeit well-treated (for now), when layoffs or career setbacks hit them.
Racer_X
@dmsilev: Relax he just forgot a “g”…
different-church-lady
@uriel: It was a golden era of crappy music, yes. That’s why I said “handful of musicians”. Stevie Wonder was doing his best work, funk was being invented, and Elvis Costello cut his first records, as did the Talking Heads. The good was very good, but it was about .0001% of the overall.
uriel
@different-church-lady: I can agree with that summation. Heck, I can even throw in some of the early heavy metal and punk/goth stuff. I can just recall too many of the “who’s music was best music” threads here where posters insisted – INSISTED- that the 70’s were the best years the art of music had ever seen. And my response was always, “you mean the 1670’s? The 1870’s? 370 BC? ‘Cause it sure wasn’t the 70’s I lived through…”
Just a personal pet peeve…. I mean, heck, I am at this moment listening to “The Ballad of Dwight Fry,” and I can’t complain at all…
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@ruemara: The last thing they’d want to hear on economics is that low taxes are causing a lot of cash to be veering around looking to be invested and therefore, from a historical basis, it’s easier for them to pull down relatively easy investment money than just about anyone anywhere else except if you’re looting a kleptocracy’s treasury.
After crash one nothing has been “learned” because taxes are still too low so you have “web 2.0” companies getting bought for amazing sums that bring in no revenue, like Tumblr when it was bought. Now I will say this, Facebook figured out how to bring in the dosh, nice combination of no morals and right place/right time.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@different-church-lady: Some good classical music recordings were made for LP behind the Iron Curtain in the 1970s.
I still wish I had that Hungarian recording of the Bach Sonaten und Partiten. Like you died and went to heaven.
Tim in SF
@The Moar You Know: @The Moar You Know:
False.
Tim in SF
@The Moar You Know: @The Moar You Know:
I guess you haven’t lived here, then.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@rikyrah: I will never understand the mass attack of idiocy that caused elected officials and DOTs to jump on these red light camera CONTRACTS. You can buy your own fucking red light cameras and have the PD run the program, you stupid motherfuckers!! And how incredibly problematic is this to have a private company issuing civil citations?! What the actual fuck!
But, hell, I grew up in one of the last states where the seat belt law is a secondary because “liberty”. I mean, I see the argument but I’m starting to understand this whole “compelling state interest” issue. But, ya know, universal health care, secondary seatbelt law, I’ll take it.
Cervantes
@uriel: Gilbert O’Sullivan was responsible for “Alone Again (Naturally).” It was Eric Carmen who did “All By Myself.”
One can be forgiven for wondering if those songs were cause or effect.
rikyrah
RIP Mr. Garner
pseudonymous in nc
I’d like to see what the Danish organisers of the original Reboot conference (which is on hiatus, but was always a pretty good event) think about the glibertarians appropriating their name.
The Moar You Know
One more try.
@Tim in SF: I have lived there. Briefly. I was the first member of my family born outside Alabama. I stand by my statement.
SF never had to take legal steps to disenfranchise voters because by the early 90s poor and minorities had either been driven into the streets or out of the city by a system of property ownership and rent control that has resulted in the closest thing to feudalism seen in this nation. So much easier, non-embarrassing, and of course completely legal to do it that way.
I love SF and I’m glad I lived there, but it has deep and systemic problems that cannot be brushed away by saying that some other guys are worse. Particularly when those other guys aren’t any worse, just using different means to arrive at the same result.
Dog On Porch
“..libertarianism” actually has very little connection to what the libertarian movement actually stands for, and has stood for since the 1970s…”.
What it stands for today is what it has always stood for: an incoherent hodge-podge of wishful thinking, the “fiction is truth” pipe dreams of utopians. They, in turn, are pawns of those like the Koch’s who play them for the suckers they are. Scratch beneath the surface, and you’ll most of those suckers have a mean streak a mile deep, too.
Dog On Porch
@The Moar You Know: @The Moar You Know: @The Moar You Know: Location, location, location. And the economy. The Haight district was hippie Mecca in the ’60’s because rents in that part of town were cheap, and victorians could house a lot of people. God knows what those victorians are going for nowadays.
The last time I checked out real estate prices in San Francisco was a few years ago. I stopped reading after seeing that condominiums were commanding $600,000 out by the Great Highway.
phrase
@The Moar You Know:
Actually, in statewide elections, SF usually stands out as the most liberal county in CA. This has been confirmed by various studies.
Dog On Porch
@phrase: Anyone that considers San Francisco either segregated or conservative must have been raised in Sodom and Gomorrah.