Category: politics

Drum and Fiddle

politics

It was hers to lose. Her lead in the polls was melting away over the past few days. Strange, since neither candidate actually changed anything, nor was there any actual news that would tip the scale. Maybe a slight dip in the job numbers? “It’s the economy, stupid.”

The stakes were high. After all, the B/T debate had a dramatic outcome. Seen from the perspective of the self-proclaimed stable genius, the subsequent candidate swap of the Democratic ticket was clearly the result of his very own remarkable debate performance.

In light of the H/T event yesterday, it seems clear that it was the gerontological issue of 46 that the cameras captured, which made his dropping out of the race inevitable. Those snippets that the Internet repeated painted a drastic picture of Joe Biden’s issues.

After the Harris announcement, the Republicans honed in on a narrative that she would be a lightweight, somebody who could not even do an interview, which logically implied that her fate in a debate would be along the lines of her future predecessor. Trump would be victorious in two debates, clearing the entire Democratic bench in two TV innings lasting a mere 3 hours in total. The best work. He actually believed that. Republicans had 9 years now to stop worrying and love Trump, so they went blindly along with that narration.

During those 90 minutes in Philadelphia, it fell on their feet.

Countless times, Harris did not answer the questions that were put in front of her.

Donald repeated dutifully, and with all his zest, the tropes that get him cheers during his rallies. Frequently, since Kamala wanted him to do so.

She played him like a fiddle. When Biden wanted to get nominated, and still had a more than ephemeral pulse, he said he should be the candidate, since he would beat Trump like a drum. Which he did. And yesterday, the man from Queens became her instrument.

Kamala did the only thing you can do if you are in a debate with DJT in 2024. And she executed a good plan very well. Sure, it is strange that who fills the 4- or 8-year king role in the country with the most nukes gets decided in an event, almost WWF-like, with commercial breaks that has nothing to do with content and which gets decided by how people enter the room and what they do in the next 5 seconds.

What a fateful handshake that was. Good to touch a man that doesn’t want to get touched. Smart.

When topics came to questions she didn’t want to dwell on, she simply diverted to talk about his event crowd or inheritance sizes. And he took the bait, every time. Exploding in inner anger, he started to direct his rambles in a predictable manner.

A behavior that she eventually turned into her future presidency when she outlined that he would be equally easy to manipulate—something that became a stronger point by her letting people come to that conclusion by themselves instead of pointing it out explicitly. People like it if they are the smart ones in a story.

But their expectations were also that he would trounce her. So everybody would see what a lightweight she “is.” Hard to see how one could read that into yesterday’s event. I am sure Fox, etc., will find a way to edit things in this way, but they haven’t been given much to work with.

Again, her triggering his anger at will was case in point to the argument she made.

Bald wieder auf dem Lidl und Aldi Parkplatz: Der Fendt 724 Vario

deutschland economy politics

10% mehr Traktoren wurden 2020 verkauft. In Deutschland allein mehr als 1000 von Fendt’s 724 Model. Des PS stärksten der beliebten 700 Reihe. Mit um die 200,000 Euro sind die zwar nicht ganz billig. aber so ist das eben. Und völlig ohne Scham werden sie dann auch zum nächsten Bauernprotest gefahren.

Der arme Bauer kriegt vom Kapitalisten Discounter kein Geld für seine Milch. Gefördert wird er zwar. Von vorne bis hinten. Aber es reicht eben noch nich: Fendt ist ja bei weitem NICHT die billigste Traktoren Marke.

Wenn Harzer mit neuen Mercedes und BMW Mittelklasse Modellen vor den Kuhställen unserer Agrarschaffenden auftauchen würden um billigere Milch einzufordern wäre das nicht auch komisch?

So sieht er natürlich aus. Das Bild oben ist ja nur ein Favorit 12S. Letztes Jahrhundert. Wie man sich einen Traktor vorstellte. Als sie auch noch auf die Strasse passten.

2 versions

media politics technology

There is this:

and that:

which one is better?

John Sullivan

media politics

Found him! The Capitol Mob was a bad scene. Really bad PR for Trumpists: A bunch of weirdos all with Trump flags, zip ties, all sorts of nonsense. But now, finally, those who think that Trump is good have finally found the culprit: John Sullivan. He was among the idiots on January 6th. And he is not a “Patriot”. Brown skinned even. For those who are willing to believe that the election was stolen it is also clear now that all thing bad were just his work. And probably lots of other ‘antifa’ people that their sleuthing and hearsay will “find”. Just as their pole watches (their spellings, not mine) found lots of evidence for voter fraud, they will find that Jan 6th was a BLM/antifa project all along. You know: No real patriot (or True Scottsman) would do the things of January 6th.

And you just need a kernel, an grain to grow a crystal of lies around it. For many people it actually will be that January 6th was the work of John Sullivan. Together with a bunch of other people, who just happen to be elusive to the cameras of ‘the media’. The next thing in the big reframing will be a term for that day, those events. A new name that has this ridiculous blame shift somehow in it. And that is catchy too. It will take the whole narrative and put it on its head. Flat earth is always there to make any other Internet created story look less ridiculous in comparison.

And lots of people will believe it. They are deeper in this kind of delusion than one would fear.

From “Obama was born in Kenya” to “Biden didn’t win”

media politics technology

The 45th President bookended his political phase with two similarly outlandish claims aimed to delegitimize the 44th and 46th President respectively.

While he jumped on the birther nonsense, he was instrumental in constructing the steal narrative that ultimately drove some looneys into congress. Through broken doors, not so much via electing them.

As of January 10 it is not exactly clear what will happen next. I was not a fan of efforts to impeach him. But then I realized that a potential impeachment on January 19th might be good thing: It gives Trump something that he can loose. It might prevent him from trying any further Hail Mary stunts during his last days in (it feels sad to write these words) office.

He no longer can start a war via Twitter. So there is that. Actually removing his Internet presence is the biggest single event that ever happened to the Internet. Others had magnitudes of more impact, of course. But launching Facebook or Youtube were gradual processes. Kneecapping this man is significant. And it is not only Twitter: Amazon stops hosting wannabe competitors. For services of a certain scale it is the end if the few very large cloud services tell you to go fish.

Switching provides isn’t that easy anyway I suppose.

Of course nonsense will not magically vanish from the Internet. Conservative people will not turn magically liberal.

Millions of people believe the story that they have been told. That Hydroxy would be the way cure for Covid, that Mexico would pay for the wall, that Clintons broken email server is the biggest problem the US faced ever.

Everybody prefers it not to up end his / her belief system. Our brains assume (falsely) that it is metabolically expensive and must be avoided at all costs. Only since a very short time can a person exist outside the direct social interaction with others. We developed while being dependent on band of our own. Presenting a consistent predictable position is helpful in creating stable social bonds.

But being stuck in a mindset, defending opinions and beliefs as if you defend your own existence is entirely stupid. In little things it is entirely random why we put the ketchup bottle not in the door of the fridge. Still two normal people can have a heated argument over it. The moment it seems that you randomly put the thing where you did your mind already and automatically has constructed a justification for it. Thoughts that make you look good, that make you feel right have magical tailwind in your mind. Strangely not unlike those that “proof” that you are a worthless POS. Later one more when you are on your own and debate with yourself.

While flipping TV channel one can come across a person that says something. In some situations it is not directly clear which party the person is affiliated with. People want to know though. You’ll be hard pressed to find a person in a US “news channel” opiniating along without also seeing a clear indication of his DEM / GOP affiliation. These days, when I see unknown congressmen or women quoted in a paper then I go to wikipedia to first check which side they are on. That is stupid.

But many people have it even more extreme. They are on the Trump Train. And they are cut off from their supply. They sit in a field somewhere. Just a week ago they were in a cozy yet noisy compartment. While they were in the checkout line, avoiding to get mad about everything they see, they could check what their guys had written. How he had created more liberal tears. No more.

I really wonder how life of some of those 80 million twitter followers is. For a while this picture

was something that I would not dare to dream off. As usual elation fades quickly. Too quickly. The orange man made us mad. By lying. By using his social media presence to bully others. To step on good ideas. To prevent things that could have saved lives. That could have made life better. DJT and his Internet presence broke things, it did not build anything to speak off. Except for a certain kind of rage in his disciples. There is a difference between the 74 million people that voted for him and the monkeys that walked on marble on Wednesday. The difference is not a hard edge though. There is no clear border between normal people trying to have the right values and those that think that HRC eats babies.

This gradient is the natural fallout from the fact that the whole right wing nonsense that started with the Tea Party is not based in any actual ideas. There is no canon. “America First” can justify basically everything. There is spirit. Just a grunt. Some feeling of injustice. Some anger. Directed at whatever & whomever. As long as the story is good.

Wednesday it appeared as if the grand children of the village people wanted to stage a quick reunion in congress. Although most of them were not exactly Friends of Dorothy. Their attire, flags, motives and agenda were all over the place. They were all equally angry and motivated. They wanted to ‘stop the steal’. But how delusional do you have to be to believe that things could be changed by their actions.

Actually their actions did change things. They sank the boat of their leader. Decisively. If they was a swamp in Washington, then they drained it in an hour. By the evening of that day it had been paved over. And those that wanted to get rid of DJT drove on it at break neck speed. It just took a couple of not well guarded doors and a bunch of amped up idiots to bring the orange phase of the American Presidency to an abrupt end. Amazing.

It is fun to imagine him fuming, trying to unsuccessfully relaunch something. Just to fail. Again and again. A downfall meme that nobody needs to create, we can build it in our head in an instant.

At this point hope that he does not cause any harm during his last 10 days. From January 21st on we then can do what would have been the best all along: Ignore him. He is an idiot with issues. And a piped piper for people that already fell for the Tea Party nonsense. Or would have were they not too young back them. Yes, they are much more numerous in 2020 then they were in 2010. And they will not go away.

Be that as it may: DJT didn’t have a good week. Lets put it that way. “All that winning”

royal gene tests

history politics technology

Royal successions are based on who is related to whom in which way. Presumably in the biological way. Since most rules for successions are not based on maternal, like for instance the much more pragmatic jewish faith, it could be interesting to back up the pedigree with actual genetic evidence. Something that could have been done since decades. Given how easy it has become it is surprising that no tabloid has gone there yet to offer proof about certain differences between the official story and the actual relationships. I wonder if there efforts on the way to protect the genetic information of people in royal families.

There are stories that latest North Korean Kim makes efforts that the output of his body remains under his control. What a strange job: Honeyboy to the dictator.

It is probably possible to go back in time as well. There are probably a couple of relics that have traces of DNA. Once Corona is in the past we have allot of PCR capacity that is sitting around. I wonder how cheap these machines will become.

money – digital

economy politics technology

China is testing a digital currency. In the US credit cards are big. They let you pay without physical money and they give people a line of credit. Charging them 15% interest rates. Yes, this is an actual business model. The other form a revenue is a 3% cut the card company gets from the transaction. There is a convoluted network of institutions involved in a credit card purchase. Enter ‘credit card payment flow diagram’ in image search and you will see. It is not that complicated. But it is also not that easy that you just use ‘visa’ or ‘master card’. Tandem Computers ran for a long time these transactions. So payments are being processed by computers. But they behave as if you still use Knuckle buster to initiate a paper trail.


The system kinda works. It is inherently unsafe and slow. Lots of people are involved. Their jobs are of the kind of a switch board operator in the early days of the telephone: A tech system that requires glue by people since it has not full matured. Those are always horrible jobs. Just ask an assembly line worker.

Since everybody carries a connected computer around you can replace physical money with digital one. You “just” need a system to do so securely and reliable. Technically entirely possible. And China is heading that way.

I bought a geiger counter board the other day. Arrived in less than a week in Europe. It was packaged really well. Documentation? A WeChat QR code. So I might as well get an account with them.

Alipay – not digital money but a replacement for credit cards – gets accepted in more and more places outside of China.

Much like we have Paypal accounts and credit cards we will have Digital Renminbi accounts. First to just get better service, a better price on a little trinket. But since it will work and will be easier than other things we will use it more and more. Out of the sudden the world will use 3 currencies, not 2. Right now people use their local currency, and they use US dollars. If they know or not. The US dollar is being used to buy lots of stuff. Like Oil etc. It is the currency that steps in when local currencies have flaws. Digital Renminbi will be a 3rd currency. Driven by ease of use and Security. Many people don’t like the dominance of Amazon. But they end up using them anyway since the experience is just better than those with other services. Same with Google. People don’t like China and how it ignores our beloved Democracy. But when you need a geiger counter board you get it from China. A working digital currency can be so much cheaper than other means of transactions. I pay 3% for credit cards and 1.3% for international wires. I’d rather keep that money. I would gladly use Chinese Money if my loss would be 0.5%. Technically charges as low as 0.01% are possible. The amount of data you need to transfer is really really tiny. Think oil tankers full of condensed water mist. One of these drops that are so so small that they can float is your transaction. The oil tanker is the Internet pipelines that people have to watch 4K TV. The software you only need to create once. Cost is in the backbone systems. Here we think water mist drops and Water bottles. A little bit of work, but not much.

Other countries will not be able to get a digital currency going. Facebook tried with Libra, and failed.

This might happen by 2030.

very much under control

media politics

Nonsense. 24/7 nonsense. Which is bad but tolerable in times when everything is humming along. In times when Government can make a difference it shows.

urban devastation week

economy politics technology

Two events obliterated urban landscapes around the globe this week. Ammonium nitrate not stored properly will become a bomb. It happened many times before. 75 years ago a single bomb devastated a Japanese town.

Not violent, and so far unnoticed by press and pundits is another change: Trump directing his “lets break things to get reactions” spiel on WeChat. (And tiktok). Outside of China WeChat is not widely understood. I have never seen or used it. Neither have I handled Fertilizer components or enriched uranium. WeChat is how people do everything in China. Banning WeChat for a Chinese person is like banning the Internet for you. Why would that change the urban landscape? Much of the building boom in DTLA is fueled by Chinese investments. Chinese money erected lots of glas towers, hoping to sell at least parts of them to Chinese citizens. An A380 can get you from the Middle Kingdom to Hollywood in great comfort and less than a day. Sunshine, stars, America. That is was something to go for. But without WeChat it suddenly is no longer interesting: What good is it, if you see Jonny Depp driving by (you never do, but it sells real estate) and you can not send your friends pictures. What good is it, if the sun is always shining, but non of your family members can reach you.

For reasons that don’t matter, I care for a specific building in Downtown LA. So I check occasionally how many listings there are in Zillow:

  • May 15 – 11 listings
  • May 29 – 14 listings
  • Jun 12 – 14 listings
  • July 11 – 20 listings
  • Aug 8 – 24 listings 

This doubling in inventory has nothing to do with the impact of 45 attempting to mess with Chinese online entities. It would take months to show up in these numbers.

Prices didn’t change much. They seem to slowly decline. But no real big changes. Yet. Since money and its value is questionable right now and going forward they might never really go down. I think that – depending on what individual situations will be going forward – there will be spikes and good deals to be had. There is certainly pressure building from the circumstances.

Banning an App seems like nothing, but it is something. People exist through their screens. It is reality for them. That is stupid. But something being stupid never has stopped people from following it, as long as it tickles enough of their fancies they will continue to go where it feels good …

Kanye Ouest

media politics

2021 a victories Trump will make his buddy Kanye ambassador to France. He likes to stick it to Macron and Kanye likes to make Kim happy. She would in turn have to be invited to all the fashion shows. Funny how the Dems declared a gay candidate un electable ‘because of the black vote’ (which in itself would warrant closer inspection) only then to loose to a pop star with psychological issues the size of Wyoming.