This is something:
Donald Trump doesn’t like being asked about that Qatari jet, but that might now be second on the list when it comes to questions he doesn’t want to hear.
The new frontrunner for questions the president doesn’t want to be asked might be anything regarding the “TACO trade.” And no, we aren’t talking about Taco Bell here.
TACO is the new term rolling around Wall Street, and it is used to reference Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff threats, according to CNN. TACO is short for “Trump Always Chickens Out.” Investors have coined the phrase to remind themselves not to panic when the president announces a new tariff.
Trump was asked about the term on Wednesday, and he claimed it was the first time he had heard of it. He also, clearly, did not appreciate it.
“I chicken out?” Trump said. “Oh, I’ve never heard that. You mean because I reduced China from 145% that I set down to 100 and then to another number?.
How the fuck did this moron get elected?
Today I learned something new:
It really does sound like some sort of a skit, right? “You can’t pass that civil rights law because it violates my right to be racist!”
Along with the Chapelle Show it reminded me of this treat from SNL:
It was another rainy shitty day here, go figure. It is allegedly supposed to be nicer tomorrow, so we shall see. Did spend the afternoon and got my office clean. I have a problem cleaning. I don’t know how to clean without cleaning the way I would in the army which is to take everything out of a room that isn’t bolted down or a major piece of furniture, then wash the walls, wash the windows, wash everything in the room, vacuum around all the floorboards and windowsills, sweep the floor, mop it, let it dry, then bring back items and clean them before they are allowed to cross the threshold of the room. It takes forever, but it is the only way to keep me from getting distracted by side quests.
And since this is the office, you do not even want to know the procedure to clean the monitors, speakers, tower case, and every single wire.
At any rate, the office is sparkling and smells of murphy’s oil soap and incense. I can deal with that. And yes, I do still burn incense because I like it, that’s why. Back to Bosch:Legacy.
Thanks for coming around here still and listening to us.
War for Ukraine Day 1,189: Putin Makes Demands While His Negotiators Waste Time
Scout211
About those tariffs,
Splitting Image
77 million Americans thought Trump was super-duper smart. And compared to them, he is.
New Deal democrat
Wow, this is BIG! I expect you will be able to hear the explosion in the White House from space.
“US Court of International Trade just issued decision in case against Trump tariffs filed by Liberty Justice Center and me. All “Liberation Day”/IEEPA tariffs ruled illegal, and blocked by injunction! See link for opinion.”
https://bsky.app/profile/ilyasomin.bsky.social/post/3lqbbigh6sc2w
From the Court’s Conclusion: “The court holds for the foregoing reasons that IEEPA does not authorize any of the Worldwide, Retaliatory, or Trafficking Tariff Orders.”
in other words, the Court threw out and permanently enjoined ***ALL*** of T—-p’s tariffs, finding that they exceeded the grant of power by Congress for the President to impose tariffs in case of emergency.
On Wall Street, futures have already rocketed higher by 1.5%.
E.T.A.: this case was a slam dunk, provided the Supreme Court respects its own “major questions doctrine.” We’ll find out the answer to that question soon enough.
E.T.A. 2: I see Scout211 got there sooner!
Baud
Cool. Even if the Supremes take it up, tariffs will be on hold for a year. I don’t imagine he’ll be able to get a stay.
Steve LaBonne
@Scout211: Excellent!
MagdaInBlack
Oh boy! Gonna be some truth tantrums tonight from his orangeness.
Baud
At least Trump can’t chicken out anyone. He doesn’t have the power.
Steve LaBonne
@New Deal democrat: Good for the economy, good for my mutual fund.
Suzanne
Picking a new book to read to Spawn. Leaning toward Number the Stars.
I have a box of kids’ and young adult books in the garage that I need to dig out this weekend.
Jackie
On not unexpected news:
The rest of the article is paywalled.
Professor Bigfoot
I’m assuming this question is rhetorical.
Steve LaBonne
@Jackie: Hey Bill Gates, you say you want to give it all away. Here is a great opportunity.
Steve LaBonne
@Professor Bigfoot: That’s a big word, I don’t understand. ;)
Raoul Paste
@Baud: Trump lost his TACO power. Hide the ketchup in the White House.
Sherparick
@Splitting Image: Beat me to it. I was going to “because we are obviously a nation of idiots.” 40% of the country now believes in Young Earth Creationism and all of modern science is a vast conspiracy theory.
Geminid
Trump said some things about the negotiations with Iran over their nuclear program.that got attention. He expressed confidence overall that there could be diplomatic resolution.
Then when asked about stories that, during his phone call with Netanyahu last week, he had warned the Israeli PM against a strike on Iran, Trump said he had. Then he modified that, and said he just told Netanyahu it would be “inappropriate” to strike Iran while a “strong” deal was being worked on. That sounded like a warning to me though.
Urza
I hope that reporters happy, he screw up probably hundreds of billions in stock market value when theres an attempt to prove he doesn’t back down.
Rachel Bakes
Tried to get my 14 yo his Covid booster today since he had the virus in January. He decided that now, after who knows how many vaccines in his life, that he’s going to fight me. Non-verbal kid wrestling his mom in the pharmacy. Go back some other day soon to actually get the jab but with dad along to help hold him still.
Rachel Bakes
In the growing list of corrupt, previously convicted white people to be pardoned the idiot-in-chief pardoned CT’s multiple times convicted former Governor, John Rowland. Jeeze
The Audacity of Krope
@Urza: Wall St. Is the center of all evil. So, good.
mrmoshpotato
There could be a new number one, but I guess no one has asked it in 4+ years – Is Putin particular about how you suck his ass?
mrmoshpotato
@MagdaInBlack: The orange whiny bitchass will be throwing glass ketchup bottles against the walls.
The Audacity of Krope
@mrmoshpotato: Plastic. Trump is very committed to non-renewables.
@mrmoshpotato: I don’t know, but I suspect Putin doesn’t wipe before the act and demands you constantly tell him how wonderful it is and how honored you are for the opportunity.
Jay
John,
was it the Army that taught you to mop naked?
Because that is just disturbing.
cain
@Scout211:
He’ll just get his clown congress to write up a second big beautiful bill giving him extensive powers.
UncleEbeneezer
“You can’t pass that civil rights law because it violates my right to be racist!”
American Conservatism, in a nutshell.
Danielx
Damn hell spit. Jim Irsay died of opioid overdose. Hard to work up sympathy for an NFL team owner but he tried hard and did a lot for ye olde hometown.
Although he did provide lots of local laughs when got popped back in 2014. Got pulled over at 3 am by Carmel police (pricks when I was a kid, still are). Driving Cadillac Escalade, had 23 grand in cash and a whole shitload of pharmaceuticals that were not prescribed. Out by 6 am, yet further proof (if any were required) that the justice system is different for the rich – they would still be piping daylight to ME. Still not a bad guy – anybody who acquires the original manuscript of On The Road and Jerry Garcia’s Tiger guitar is okay by me.
raven
Elon Musk Is Leaving The Trump Administration After Criticizing President’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’
Ohio Mom
@Rachel Bakes: I’ve often said that the reason bar and bar mitzvahs are scheduled for year 13 is by year 14, you can no longer reliably get a kid to go along with the whole shebang.
If it makes you feel any better, my 27 y.o. moderate support needs autie started refusing Covid boosters a while back. He still wants flu shots though, reminds me every September it’s time to schedule his, go figure.
Jay
@raven:
Yeah, he’s not. He’s still running the DOGEshit scam, this time they are just going to re-write all the “inefficient” Government computer code
AKA, steal all the US’s data to build a Skynet.
https://www.muskwatch.com/p/musk-promised-budget-cuts-he-delivered
YY_Sima Qian
Trump Administration completely divorced from the reality of global AI talent flows:
This study clearly illustrates how dependent US AI development relies upon talent that were trained in the field as undergrads in the PRC, went to the US for graduate study & stayed. Just look at the names on AI papers published by US Big Tech firms & academia.
PRC policymakers are celebrating in Zhongnanhai.
Incidentally, both University of Hong Kong & Xi’an Jiaotong University have pulled out the welcome mat for international grad students currently at Harvard but affected by the Trump ban, although probably for those in STEM fields only.
Ohio Mom
@raven: Musk accomplished all that he could — he has all our data, broken all sorts of systems — so it makes sense he’s ready to leave. Is he taking his underlings with him, I hope. Those little loose cannonyettes.
ETA: I see Jay disagrees. Time will tell.
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
I’m a little surprised their still sober after four months of heavy celebrating.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
On the bright side, Norway, Norway, the Norwegian Government is evacuating their students from the US.
I thought the Nordics were the bright, right white “immigrants”.
sentient ai from the future
that dipshit chris cillizza is whining on substack and bluesky about how someone “vandalized” his tesla by putting a “musk is a nazi” word balloon on his window.
with tape.
he is of course decrying the politicization of politics because of it.
what a world.
RSA
It was a rainy day in Baltimore and DC too (where I live and where I work). The commute has been horrific the past couple of days, what with the rain. On the plus side, pulling weeds in the backyard is much easier on a drizzly evening in comparison with other times and conditions.
I’ve just moved into a row house in a historic Baltimore neighborhood, and I’m trying to get it into shape inside and out. Myself too, come to think of it.
Gin & Tonic
@RSA: My daughter lived in a row house in a historic Baltimore neighborhood for a number of years. It was a really nice place, but ended up being kind of unsuitable for a family with two small children.
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
How old is Spawn? The kiddo still has a bookcase full of the books we used to read to him. I might have some recommendations.
Regardless of age, I’ll recommend The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. It’s fun for little kids, and fun at any age after that, like up to my current age > 70. The illustrations by Axel Scheffler are great too. I like her stories better than Dr. Seuss, and I grew up on Dr. Seuss.
RSA
@Gin & Tonic: I’m in Federal Hill, which seems to be full of young adults, but I think you’re right–I haven’t noticed many families with young kids.
Jay
@Ohio Mom:
In his whinge interview about “people burning Tesla’s” and getting blamed for everything President TACO’s admin does, he said DOGEshit’s pre-puberty Incel coders and Neo-Nazi’s are going to re-write all the US Government’s computer code, and he will lead the project.
Scout211
@raven: @Jay:
CNN is reporting that Katie Miller is leaving the Trump administration and Doge to work for Elon Musk. So there still is a direct connection from Musk to the White House through Katie Miller to her husband.
Edited for clarity
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: Spawn the Youngest is about to be six! (Hot damn.) She can read simpler books on her own, but I like to read to her, and it’s been fun with all of them to share some of the books I loved the most.
Might do some of the Bruno and Boots books next. Very silly fun — and Canadian!
Ohio Mom
@Suzanne: Elementary school literature is still my favorite. I enjoyed so much revisiting my favorites with Ohio Son.
Suzanne
@sentient ai from the future:
Cry more, motherfucker.
catclub
@New Deal democrat:
Trump will now do something even more destructive out of spite.
trollhattan
Criming crimer cries chronically.
Will noone rid us of this Donny?
Jay
@Ohio Mom:
@Scout211:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz9y4exj822o
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
Six? Great age for Julia Donaldson! In addition to The Gruffalo, there’s The Fish Who Cried Wolf, The Gruffalo’s Child, Stick-Man, and a bunch of others. You can probably check some of them out through your library.
currawong
As I said a while ago to Watergirl, this site has been a big part of my life for many years – I first arrived via links from the Daily Dish when Sullivan was comparitively saner – kept in check by his audience I suspect. So thank you for the work you and all the front page posters do to keep this going. It is always the first site I open each day.
I’m enjoying the podcasts too. I feel Ihave a much better understanding of why people possibly vote MAGA through your chats.
Princess
@Scout211: would it be wrong to speculate that Katie is following Musk out the door to be his new baby mama? It would be wrong not to.
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: THX for the pro tip! She goes to the library every week — Gruffalo looks cute!
We are fans of the Mr. Panda books, even though Mr. Panda seems a bit passive-aggressive.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Suzanne: I loved reading to my son and did it well past the time he could read by himself.
cain
@Scout211:
Perhaps Musk will soon be bringing a new kid into this world in 9 months
Marc
@Princess: I’m not ashamed to admit I just canceled that same comment.
Suzanne
@Ohio Mom: @Dorothy A. Winsor: Yeah, reading to them is always one of the best parts of my day. I was a voracious reader as a kid, and I saved some of my favorites. Some of them fell apart and I’ve had to replace! When I lived in AZ, if I left a paperback book in the car, the glue would melt and the pages fell out!
frosty
I have NEVER cleaned a room the way you described. I’ve never hired cleaners (who do a good job) who would do it that way. Probably, no matter what I offered to pay them. I’m lucky if I can hide the clutter before they come. Many times it’s “Don’t bother with that room.”
ETA: Good clip from SNL – I hadn’t seen it before. Vermont, yeah!!
Scout211
@Princess: LOL! That love triangle would be something else. I can see it now: Poor Katie Miller, torn between two Nazis.
Jay
@cain:
frosty
@Suzanne:
For YA, check out Ashfall. I loved it (as a >60 year old). For kid’s books with rhymes and great artwork there’s nothing better than Where The Goose Got Loose. Too young for your kids now, but a great one to have around.
Ohio Mom
@Suzanne: We had two Gruffalo books back in the day. Nice message about a little one taking good care of himself by outsmarting the threat.
Steve in the ATL
@Suzanne: have you read The Gulag Archipelago to the spawn yet?
Jay
https://bsky.app/profile/theserfstv.bsky.social/post/3lpx3k4zsz22l
YY_Sima Qian
Having lost face on the trade war, Trump is now doubling down on the tech war. w/ the PRC:
Like so many of the moves by the US in the tech war over the past 6 years, this is the US once again overestimating its leverage & dominance, imposing broad restrictions only after the PRC’s local alternatives have made already substantial progress. Such moves will only serve to divert revenues to these local alternatives, provide them w/ the capital to further invest in R&D to catch up, & the opportunity to develop alternative ecosystems that had been the single biggest moat for Western incumbents. Such moves will divert revenue away from said Western incumbents & inhibit their ability to invest in R&D to stay ahead of the Chinese upstarts.
Ever since Trump 45 banned Huawei from using Western electronic design automation (EDA0 vendors) for chip design, Huawei (& the PRC government) has worked hard to develop their own EDAs, as well as support the other Chinese EDA vendors. Right now, the best Chinese EDAs (including but not limited to Huawei) can support designs down to 7 nm, which further process optimizations by SMIC can achieve equivalent performance of 5 nm chips. That is how Huawei has been launching advanced chips for phones, laptops, servers & data centers w/ 7 & 6 nm process nodes. Chinese chip designers can wait a couple of years for 5/3/2 nm design capability because a lot of them are banned from accessing foundry processes employing extreme UV lithography, anyway.
This ban will really hurt players such as Xiaomi in the short term, which just launched a self-designed chip (the X-Ring O1) w/ 3 nm linewidth, fabricated by TSMC, and used on its intermediate range of devices. Presumably, Xiaomi‘s team used Siemens/Cadence/Synopsys EDAs to design the chip. They will now have to go through the painful process of shifting to domestic EDA solutions, and have their chips fabricated by SMIC, instead, & continued to use Qualcomm & MediaTek SOCs in the interim. However, unless Xiaomi‘s leadership is completely naive & obtuse, they will start to de-risk from US origin tech (& indeed any tech w/ US content) w/ the same fervor as Huawei has done for so long.
Consumer facing Chinese companies such as Xiaomi, Lenovo, Alibaba & Tencent have been quite happy to pay through the nose in licensing fees to access American tech (Qualcomm, Nvidia, Microsoft, the EDAs, etc.), because the American tech are mature, advanced, stable & supported by wide & deep ecosystems, & because they have the money to spend. USG through 3 administrations have worked hard to force them to ween themselves off their dependence on US tech.
What DC policymakers has long failed to appreciate is that the PRC’s industry (both in terms of output and value added) is that of the US & the EU combined, its industrial/technological ecosystem is by far the most complete & most diverse in the world, its demand for semiconductors constitutes 40% of the global total, & has graduated as many STEM workers as the rest of the world combined for the past decade. It has the market demand, the financial wherewithal, the technological sophistication, & most importantly the human capital (which the US seems determined to supplement by forcing out the ethnically Chinese STEM talent currently in the US), to develop a nearly independent alternative. It may take a few years, & the process will be painful & expensive, but at the end the US will have lost all leverage & created extremely strong competitors w/ huge chips (no pun intended) on their shoulders looking for pay back. Furthermore, in the age of Trump 47, the US’ European & Asian allies/partners will be far less willing to even partially align w/ the US in the tech decoupling from the PRC, at the expense of their own economic wellbeing, only to turn around & face extortion from the US.
frosty
@Danielx: I’m sorry, but the Irsay name is poison in Baltimore. We still won’t use Mayflower after the middle-of-the-night move to Indy.
Sorry Jim had his issues and died from opioid abuse, though.
Marc
@Suzanne: Along with introducing my kid to some of the stuff from my childhood (Make Way For Ducklings) we also found some cool newer ones by Maurice Sendak and William Joyce (Rolie Polie Olie, George Shrinks, and Dinosaur Bob).
Gin & Tonic
@Steve in the ATL: Yeah, it only counts if you do it in the original.
YY_Sima Qian
@New Deal democrat: Even if constrained by the courts, the Trump gang will simply pivot to the sectoral tariffs (Sections 232 & 301) that are coming. & the forced tech decoupling will sow chaos in the global technology supply chains. Still plenty of ways to tank the markets, yet.
Not to mention the continuous assault on the full faith & credit of the US.
frosty
@RSA:
I’ve just moved into a row house in a historic Baltimore neighborhood …
Which one, if you don’t mind my asking? I lived in three, if you include close-in Baltimore County. And I have friends who’ve lived in others.
ETA: I just saw your response to someone else. We have friends in Locust Point. We moved from Remington to Rodgers Forge when our kid got to be school age. It’s a pretty common move.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: To be honest, I am surprised at the way MAGA has been going after White immigrants. Perhaps beyond the racial element, there is indeed an ideological element, too. MAGA sees the Western countries not dominated by the far right to be ideological enemies, & thus people originated from such places suspect. I guess I have not heard of any Hungarians & Italians expelled, yet.
Suzanne
@Steve in the ATL: I have my grandfather’s copy. Maybe Spawn will enjoy it in, like, second grade.
rikyrah
Federal Trade Court
Unanimous
Trump’s tarriffs illegal and unconstitutional
NotMax
Exhausted and longing for a nap just from reading that.
Card carrying member of D-tripleA-P: the Dust Acts As A Preservative club. ;)
Jay
@NotMax:
Well, it does act as a dating strata, like carbon dating.
And if the wind is blowing and the windows are open, the bunnies are entertaining.
Jackie
@NotMax: Let alone, besides the cats, who’s around to applaud? That’s some MAJOR OCD.
ETA: as a cat, I’d immediately do some major shedding in distress.
Trivia Man
@Suzanne: the Bartimeus trilogy is fantastic
Trivia Man
@Steve LaBonne: oh, a rheTORical question.
Do I know what rhetorical means?
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cYsSl-twEg
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian: More tech decoupling (gift link to NYT article below):
If Trump is banning the export of the LEAP-1C engines made by CFM (JV between GE & Safran), & France complies, then this will definitely significantly delay the delivery of the domestic COMAC C919s, until the domestic CJ-1000A engine are certified. OTOH, Boeing can kiss the PRC market goodbye.
Then again, this is Trump we are talking about. The bans on export of engines to COMAC could easily be reversed in a deal where the PRC purchases some Boeing aircraft, & grant more export licenses to US firms for processed rare earth elements & rare earth magnets.
Trivia Man
@cain: probably, but tougher for them to hide from an actual on the record vote
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: Yeah, saw that news when it came out. Well, Australia currently has a center-left government.
Salty Sam
So, a few hours ago, a storm blew through Austin, wreaking all kinds of havoc. I feared that my tinyhome-on-wheels might be knocked off its foundation. Lots of social media posts about major damage around town.
I have a bookmarked page to the NOAA/NWS detailed analysis of local weather. I check it frequently, it is intended to address these kinds of situations.
I checked that page this afternoon before the storm came in. It normally is updated every 6 hours. The last update was at 1:00 am.
Can I just say FUCK ELON MUSK AND DOGE!
Thanks.
Jeffro
@Suzanne: dibs on any ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books!!
Jackie
@Salty Sam: Thankfully you’re safe, no thanks to Muskrat and FFOTUS.
Trivia Man
@Suzanne: opinions vary, but i enjoyed reading my boys the junie b jones series. Im a ducker for sassy girl characters. She is kind and loving and earnest but can be obstinate. I like the cadence of her dialogue.
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian: A good assessment (summarized by the chart at the beginning) of the landscape in the Sino-US trade/tech/Cold War, which I have posted before:
The tech war is mutually damaging. However, the PRC having a broader, deeper & complex/sophisticated techno-industrial ecosystem, should enable it to make it through the turmoils & emerge in a more advantageous position.
On the trade war, the PRC might have lopsided advantage (see chart through the link):
Trivia Man
@Ohio Mom: From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler – kids being bold and adventurous and solving a mystery in the museum.
Steve in the ATL
@Jeffro: my wife had never heard of those so I gave her a set last month!
Chetan Murthy
@Scout211: There are apparently rumors flying that Miller’s wife has cucked him for Elon, and that Miller is subtweeting Musk. The bsky account “Gwen Snyder is uncivil” has deets.
All I can say is, couldn’t happen to nicer guys. I’m rooting for mortal injuries.
scav
Snowmen at Night. Stunning illustrations and a charming lack of moralizing message.
Belafon
https://bsky.app/profile/gwensnyder.bsky.social/post/3lqbmijhvhk23
Jackie
@Chetan Murthy: Any links that we can chortle over? Anyone who could actually marry and have children with Miller – 🤢🤮 – could plausibly ditch for Muskrat!
Jackie
@Belafon: Your link requires
membershipsign in to read.Chetan Murthy
@Jackie: Sorry, I don’t have a bsky acct. I saw this over at LG&M. And ….. haha, I don’t care enough to -get- a bsky acct just to read about the stuff.
Rooting for mortal injuries.
Jay
@Jackie:
Felon Husk doesn’t marry anymore.
He pays his “brood mares” up to millions, to carry IFV implants.
Even more to move to his Baby Ranch “Compound” in Space City.
When you are bailing on Steven Miller and the White Supremacy House for that,……………………… well.
pieceofpeace
@YY_Sima Qian: Wow, thanks for this explanation.
Marc
@frosty: Of all the YA books we read to our kid (yeah, we were weird, she got a heavy dose of Harry Potter), Philip Reeve wrote my favorite Larklight:
Ohio Mom
@Trivia Man: Oh I loved that book. And since I lived in New York and visited the Met fairly often, I recognized all the drawings.
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian: Trump & gang determined to sink US higher education:
The below coming from a China Hawk:
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
Moron, it’s always either the hammer or TACO.
There is no in between.
Not you, the moron hoping for a scalpel.
AnthroBabe
“Torn between two Nazis, feeling like a fool ….”
Kayla Rudbek
@YY_Sima Qian: Hungarians are assumed on the fascist side, and a lot of Italian-Americans are right wing
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: Although generally reality based, the guy has conservative sympathies, so probably has not quite come to terms w/ the current incarnation of far right politics that is dominant. He also spent years early in his career working in China as a consultant, so has real sympathies toward the young Chinese who wants to study in the U.S.
You, of course, are right that w/ Trump it is always the hammer or TACO.
Marc
It probably seemed like a bit of a stretch back in 2017 when it came out, but Matteo Pizzolo’s Calexit comic book scenario gets closer and closer:
Chetan Murthy
@YY_Sima Qian: I had a thought: what person with real skills and experience would come to the US? Risk getting deported, maybe to a gulag hellhole, or at least detained in some ICE prison for N days before getting shipped back to your origin country, your life upended, etc ? The only people who would come, are people with nothing to lose.
It completely upends the idea of “skill-based migration” and all. These jamokes are so goddamn inept, it makes their obvious cruelty all the more maddening.
Marc
I think you know the truth. They think they can run everything with just white men (and the rich), giving them visas as necessary.
Jay
@Kayla Rudbek:
While Italy under Meloni and her party are “conservative” and populist and a little EU skeptic, they are a staunch backer of Ukraine.
YY_Sima Qian
@Chetan Murthy:
@Marc:
& clearly not even any kind of white men, but white men of the “right” political views & social/moral values.
Chetan Murthy
@YY_Sima Qian: I have a relative who was running an AI project for a major, major US university. She told me that b/c the uni didn’t pay market wages (and didn’t sponsor work visas), the only people she could hire were white men. Women, minorities, simply didn’t apply b/c the wages weren’t competitive.
Chortle.
YY_Sima Qian
@Chetan Murthy: Oh the irony.
YY_Sima Qian
Sigh, it seems the U.S. will be outside of our future for quite a while. Not a good place for my wife & daughters.
Chetan Murthy
@YY_Sima Qian: I could be very wrong about this, but …. maybe you should count yourself lucky: you have a safe place to wait out the insanity. It may not be perfect, but it’s a damn sight more -stable- than the US.
Marc
@Chetan Murthy: I worked at a university for 20 years, there is a reason for this. Basically, white guys with PhDs from rich families can afford to park themselves in a low wage university research job for a few years for the connections (plus hoping they’ll get a faculty offer), most women and minorities can’t. They’ll take a real job with decent pay, as a lot of them (from the US) have loans to pay off.
Chetan Murthy
@Marc: These are straight-up IT jobs in an AI project. Nothing academic about it.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
I really don’t mind that the US is killing Higher Ed.
T works for a Uni, a well regarded one.
The Canadian and Provincial governments seriously cut back Foreign Student enrollments last year. Lot’s of Uni layoffs and some “Uni’s” closed*.
Part of the reason for the cuts, was despite Foreign Students being a “cash cow”, in some regards, the Uni’s are publicly funded. More students, mor money.
Part of the reason, was that a bunch were just “Diploma Mills”.
So the US initial moves, resulted in an expansion of Foreign Student placements at the “real” Uni’s, and a bit of a hiring binge.
YY_Sima Qian
@Chetan Murthy: You are correct, although the PRC has its own uncertainties in the medium to long term (cough, Xi’s succession, cough). & the trade & tech war could have direct implications on my career & livelihood, as I work for a U.S. company (whose profits in China makes tempting target for PRC retaliation if they so choose), & US export controls means I as a U.S. citizen cannot work for Chinese tech companies targeted (which will soon be all of them, at this rate).
Still, I sleep much better in China than if I am living in the U.S. right now.
Marc
@Chetan Murthy: Hah, that’s odd. I will say that SU IT was mostly white guys, but that seems to be by, uh, choice. My wife works in IT at the other university which has even lower wages (since it’s public), there are a lot more older women and minorities, but not so many young ones.
Chetan Murthy
@Marc: I was surprised too.
West of the Rockies
It would be spectacular if someone could loudly play the Chicken Dance song at all Trump appearances.
Marc
@Chetan Murthy: Or, perhaps they were trying to hire people to do what my wife does, write Java and PL/SQL code to extract legacy data from the existing database systems for import into new ones (or AI). They’re hard to find, and they’re mostly older white guys.
Chetan Murthy
@Marc: Nope, this is a straight-up AI project, using LLMs and all that shit. All modern stuff, greenfield project.
Gloria DryGarden
Here’s something I just found on bluesky, about Elon, his company towns, the power and control he’s creating, the lack of legal oversight. There are so many important points in this article, and it really bears looking at. I hope some of the legal trained folks can add their 2 cents, or $50 worth.
Elon bypasses legal regulation in his tunneling, starlink and space town businesses
prostratedragon
@raven:
Herbie Hancock
Captain C
@mrmoshpotato: I’ve heard you still have to go through a 2-week quarantine first.
Marc
@Chetan Murthy: They’re trying to hire regular IT guys to implement an LLM-based project? Are they also a bit crazy? No wonder women and minorities don’t want the job, they don’t want the blame when it inevitably falls apart.
Chetan Murthy
@Marc: sorry, let me try again.
I worked in industry, so when I say “IT” I mean it in the sense of industry. This is an AI project, but could just as easily have been at Fidelity, as at this uni. They hired a bunch of folks who do AI and data science in industry, etc, etc. My relative told me that pretty much, given the pay rates, they only got nibbles from white men, no women or minorities. They pay well below market rate, and don’t sponsor visas.
I -do not- mean university IT admin folks. She initially got handed some of those folks, but ….. they were -useless- so she had to hire an entirely new team to do the work.
YY_Sima Qian
LOL:
YY_Sima Qian
LOL, on revoking the visas of Chinese students in the US:
Marc
@Chetan Murthy: OK, sorry about the misunderstanding, I also came out of the industry, the IT guys were the ones who run the servers and keep the desktops going.
So, they’re trying to hire undergraduates and preferably MS CS folks that have at least a couple of AI courses under their belts, for cheap, and wondering why all they’re getting is semi-competent white guys if they won’t do visas?
Let me edit to say that my kid graduated the year before the pandemic with a CS degree from the obvious school, one of the few women and non-international minorities. She was a decent students with good grades, good technical background (mostly computer graphics), and did not take any AI courses. There were white guys in her class who did and got offers three times anything she was. Let’s be clear, those kids didn’t know all that much.
Sally
@Suzanne: You possibly won’t see this, but I hope you will be able to read to her well into her teenage years, even just a few time a week. I read to my boys till they went to college at sixteen or so. Last book I read to the eldest was Sophie’s World. Lots of interesting conversations from that book. I really enjoyed the entire experience. They loved being read to. I think my eldest would just about have me read to him over zoom! Still!
sab
@YY_Sima Qian: Yikes but yes.
My American sister and her Chinese husband have spent their whole lives trying to create cultural ties between China and USA. I can’t believe one bad election could wipe that out, but here we are.
Sally
@Sally: When they were about six, we read Rudyard Kipling’s The Just So Stories, and The Wind in the Willows.
Gloria DryGarden
@Sally: that is exquisitely sweet.
a friend and her husband used to read books aloud to each other, for years..
sab
@Sally: Wind in the Willows.
My mom always said Dad was Toad, flitting beteen hobbies.
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: This particular atrocity happened just a wee bit NW of where I live. That area is pretty heavy MAGA, btw.
Rachel Bakes
@Suzanne: Have you been introduced to Mo Willems? His Pigeon books and Gerald and Piggie books are great fun
BellyCat
@YY_Sima Qian: All of this. The stupidity of these bozos is astounding.
Chief Oshkosh
@sentient ai from the future: Sounds like he’s inviting the balloonist to come back and finish the job with something more substantial than tape. He’s probably expecting an insurance pay-out that will allow him to upgrade to a Cybertruck.
Chief Oshkosh
@Marc: That most decidedly has not been my experience over the last 41 years.
Paul in KY
@frosty: Like ‘Modell’ in Cleveland.
dnfree
@MagdaInBlack: The most recent news I saw said the 19-year-old attacker was currently in jail related to other charges, not this incident. I’m glad they finally decided to charge a hate crime.
Nancy
@Scout211:
Thanks to you, I now have that song in my head. It is the ultimate in whiny so probably appropriate. I’ll have to invent some lyrics since I don’t know many of the original song lyrics. If I can’t end the song stuck in my head, I have to repeat it.
Torn between two nazis, feeling like a dupe, procreating with both of you is breaking all the rules. . . .