Hmm … the distribution is interesting regionally. Austin was a given, but San Antonio is apparently not on the list, while Kerrville, Dripping Springs and Lockhart are. These are small cities deep in the heart of red country.

Crazy, given the company name!

One of the first things drilled into me in journalism was “Smith thinks” should be recast to “Smith said he thinks.”

The C-suite is likely well aware of limitations, but shareholders like to hear about the hot new thing.

The thing is, the idea isn’t wrong. Automating complex tasks is a bitch, but the repetitive tasks that turn any job into a grind are prime candidates. The larger issue is instead of letting employees spend more time doing fulfilling activities because of increased efficiency, companies tend to do layoffs.

I was going to snarkily say that we’re officially halfway to a recession, but without knowing how this tariff bullshit plays out, it’s anyone’s guess.

Truly the art of the deal: Make megadonors be unable to maintain profit margins.

Per BLS, the $50 target is equivalent to $26.39 in January 2020 dollars. Setting aside the horror of 89% inflation in just 25 years, markets have this nasty propensity for self-regulating in oversupply situations.

Not to mention, anything more we pump will head overseas, as U.S. refineries are not set to handle the grade of crude we produce.

Anyone with passing knowledge of the oil and gas industries, such as the quoted anonymous oil executives (yes, plural), knows how absurd all of this is. Sure, everyone wants cheaper fuel prices to toddle their truck nuts around, but you know what’s even easier? Buying a vehicle with better fuel economy in the first place.

I’ve never found you insensitive or rude. No reason to worry.

I’d not say I’m living my best life.

I’m coming from the perspective of both neoliberalism and neoconservatism having failed me. I don’t really care who’s talking at this point unless they have solutions on offer.

The funnier things are twofold:

• I’m not typing this on my phone. I hate phones for anything beyond making calls.

• You can use a really nice kitchen knife to kill someone. You can also prepare dinner. The hardware is not the important thing; the usage is.

I’ve been homeless for 18 months. I have hospital bills I’m simply ignoring.

You know what happens? You stop wanting work. I’m not going back to subsistence wages after usurious housing and utility costs that meant while I was making my boss ten times my salary, I couldn’t afford a car, and then I couldn’t afford housing.

Show me a job that fairly compensates me and isn’t a bunch of bullshit where it’s unlikely the job even exists, and I’ll re-engage. Until then? “Missing work” is not a concern. I never had kids, so my decisions affect no one else.

That’s why they want everyone having kids! It’s not about a larger labour force (we’ll outsource that, anyway); it’s not about having more conscripts for the armed forces; it’s simply about making people feel trapped. And if you think that’s a life, you do you.

I do not. And I refuse to play this game any longer.

Throwing this on Frum is an odd take. I don’t agree with his policies, but a free press means an exchange of ideas. And in this piece, we see reasoned discourse, not some sort of batshit set of plans (but who needs that when you have Project 2025?).

Saying that a concept (or set of concepts) has no value because of who is saying it is an interesting intellectual choice. We all fuck up; we all change over the years. My dad, for example, was a die-hard Reagan supporter, and he didn’t drink, let alone use cocaine. Now, in his 80s, he won’t touch any GOP candidate, voting straight Dem regardless.

If my dad can realise in his golden years that the message is more important than the messenger, it’s not a stretch to think others can as well.

In Factorio, you have both belts with zero power consumption and the ability to fit a mountain of coal in your pockets to rush it over to the boilers, alongside burner inserters. Midgame, if you’re not leveling the grid with accumulators, you’re going to have a bad time. Solar can kickstart mining, but little else unless at massive scale – and by the time you’ve got the sulfuric acid for uranium mining, you’ve not been using coal for quite some time.

Past civilizations show us rebuilding generally takes centuries (Germany did not suffer complete collapse in the '40s – think more Rome, Egypt and China), and they didn’t have power grids and datacenters to worry about. Whatever descendants remain will be trying to do this in the hottest climate humans have experienced, which complicates matters.

I’m not seeing anything reputable that suggests we aren’t on track for at least 3.5C above preindustrial, given feedback loops we’re already seeing. The horses are out, and we’re arguing about the finer engineering points of barn doors.

Paying bills is for the poors.

The people who are too comfortable pulled the ladders up behind them.

Oh, yeah. Living in a van and shitting in a bucket is the height of luxury.

How fucking stupid do you have to be to blame your woes on those less fortunate?

Yep, my life is shit because the androgynous bagger at HEB has tattoos and a septum piercing. Has nothing to do with government policies, nor corporate greed.

That’s ultimately the question. We can get rid of Trump at some point (and by “we,” I mean the Grim Reaper most likely, the way things are going), but how do you deprogram the decades of misinformation that installed him in the first and second place?

I’m not an academic – though that’s apparently of about as much use as being a journalist these days – so I’m not really qualified to answer that. I suspect it would take MAGA hats having their lives become completely unaffordable to effect any demonstrable change. Ignoring the Constitution clearly isn’t having enough of an impact.

I realise you’re legally obligated as a Canadian to be polite aboot this …

He’s won. Trump done fucked up.

Now, the question is to what extent?

He’s caught the car. Let’s see what he does with it.