Author Archives: John Lusk

Conservative/liberal generational change ain’t what you think

https://syzito.xyz/@selzero/111199101308233391:

Because older generations tend to be more conservative than younger generations, it looks like people get more conservative with age.

This is, thankfully, untrue.

People get more progressive with age.

It’s just that previous generations get a little left behind. The jump between generations is bigger than the progress that happens within people, giving the illusion that older people become more conservative.

Some good news for once. 😊

https://brilliant.org/lesson/the-overton-paradox/

#politics #demography

Democrats refuse to help Republicans out of House speaker mess

Vote for clowns, get a circus. And, to be clear, when I say “clowns”, I mean “Republicans”.

«There are no serious discussions taking place on a coalition speaker picked with bipartisan votes, according to senior lawmakers and aides in both parties.

“No Republican has come to leadership to have a serious conversation of substance,” said a senior Democratic aide. “This is on Republicans to come to the Democrats to try to find a compromise.”»

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democrats-refuse-help-republicans-house-speaker-mess-rcna120242

Test post for The Fediverse

19th-century tweet:

«Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.»

Short and sweet, because he didn’t think anybody would care enough to write it down, but… brevity is the soul of wit.

North Carolina’s cautionary tale for purple states

This is what happens when Dems/liberals pay attention only to the Presidential election and not state-level stuff:

«The legislature also handed the current Republican chief justice of the state Supreme Court, Paul Newby, greater power to determine which judges hear lawsuits challenging state laws. So, a Republican chief justice can steer Republican lawmakers to Republican-friendly and/or Republican-appointed judges to hear a challenge to laws passed by a Republican legislature.»

https://www.publicnotice.co/p/north-carolina-gop-power-grab-roy-cooper

Ars Technica: CD-indexing cue files are the core of a serious Linux remote code exploit

«Libcue is typically a rather quiet project, maintained largely by Ilya Lipnitskiy alone. It illustrates, yet again, the vast amounts of technological infrastructure underpinned by tiny, unpaid projects.»

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/10/one-click-remote-code-exploit-in-cd-cue-files-affects-most-gnome-based-linux-distros/

(As I read it, this is NOT remote code execution, just corruption (and crash).)

POLITICO: Kevin McCarthy’s Downfall Is the Culmination of the Tea Party

Politico interviews a political scientist:

«Ward: So if the conflict is essentially about tactics and the real energies behind the far right are cultural, why do people like Gaetz still lean so heavily on the language of fiscal conservatism?

….

Skocpol: It sells with the Washington press corps. Why anybody believes this is beyond me. Did you see what Donald Trump did when he was office? Did you see what Republicans did when they controlled the entire Congress? They don’t cut anything, except taxes.

….

Ward: So what does all this mean for the future of the Republican Party? ….

Skocpol: Well, everything depends on whether Donald Trump is reelected president, and I don’t think that’s impossible. I really don’t. ….

Ward: Based on the traditional tea party playbook, though, what do you think the endgame here is for the far-right faction in the House?

Skocpol: …. I don’t think we know how this is going to come out. If you’ve got people in power who are backed by a large number of voters who are angry, fearful, limited in the information they get about what’s going on and thinking that it would be better to blow America up than to save it — I think you’re in uncharted territory. We are in uncharted territory.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/10/05/mcarthy-tea-party-theda-skocpol-00120009

How Dodgy Spare Parts Got Into Jet Engines, Leaving Airlines Scrambling – WSJ

This is the nature of Business, which usually shows up in a military context (but not here): stretch things to the breaking point in the name of efficiency. Use the smallest number of people possible, shave corners as much as possible, deliver with the least possible cost. Do just enough to achieve the goal. Any attempt by (govt) oversight bodies to regulate for safety or basic fairness is labelled “govt interference” and decried as costing jobs (as they shave as many jobs as possible). This is the same mentality that says the jobs of companies is solely to benefit shareholders.

Eventually, the system is stretched so thin that any perturbation breaks it.

«The disruption is adding pressure to an already stretched maintenance and repair supply chain. Overhaul firms, battling with staffing and spare-part shortages, are struggling to supply sufficient capacity to keep pace with the recovery in air travel after the pandemic.»

https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/dodgy-jet-parts-ge-boeing-plane-engines-a3fcbcfd?st=sl4mpdkmqxg1w1e&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink (gift link)

(Don’t get me wrong, I love capitalism (and democracy), but capitalism needs regulation.)

US appeals court blocks venture capital fund’s grant program for Black women | Reuters

Well….

«A federal appeals court on Saturday blocked a venture capital fund from moving forward with a program that awards funding to businesses run by Black women in a case by the anti-affirmative action activist behind the successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to race-conscious college admissions policies.

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 2-1 vote granted a request by Edward Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights to temporarily block Fearless Fund from considering applications for grants only from businesses led by Black women.»

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-appeals-court-blocks-venture-capital-funds-grant-program-black-women-2023-09-30/