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paulkienitz

paulkienitz's Journal
paulkienitz's Journal
May 30, 2022

We have two parties: an accountable governance party, and a white people's party.

All the hypocricy and dishonesty of the GOP is, in the end, about disguising and rationalizing their racism, sexism, Christian dominionism, and other deplorable bigotries. And of these, the racism is the most important -- the biggest slice of the deplorable pie.

Why support low taxes and small government? Because it keeps property in white hands. Why do Republicans vote in favor of enriching their bosses at their own expense? Because a benefit to the bosses is a benefit to white people. Why do they refuse to accept any curbs on private armament? So that white people will be confident that they have more guns than nonwhite people. Why a war on drugs? To punish nonwhite people, and the white people who hang out with them. Why do they attack abortion? To punish independent women, especially nonwhite ones. And why do they turn a blind eye to the January 6 insurrection? Because it was an attempt to seize power for white people, and the lie about illegal or invalid votes was just a public way of saying that they don't think nonwhite votes should be counted.

Every hateful and abusive policy that the GOP has been pushing exists because it's a wedge to separate white Christian conservatives from the rest of the populace, and support the former while punishing the latter.

April 15, 2022

I bet what he really wants is a way to trade away overvalued Tesla shares without appearing to sell.

Tesla stock is immensely valuable but also extremely illiquid, because being seen to sell it off would tank its inflated price. So what he's looking for is a way to trade stock in Tesla for stock in something else that is less overvalued. This would allow him to sell back part of it and realize some gains. Otherwise, though on paper he's the richest guy in the world, he can't extract those riches as cash. If he buys Twitter in a stock swap, he can sell parts of it for actual money, which today he can't do without popping the bubble.

March 16, 2022

Fuck daylight savings, whether it changes seasonally or not.

I don't want my daylight "saved". I never asked anyone to save any daylight for me. I demand the daylight in my savings account be returned to me. And I want a clock that says what time it is in my timezone, instead of some political fiction about what time somebody else thinks I should pretend it is.

February 27, 2022

Ukraine war exposes lack of support for Trump's pro-Putin GOP wing

Source: Los Angeles Times

As wars have so often done, the Russian invasion of Ukraine — predicted for weeks, but still a shock — has quickly begun to clarify who stands where.

One result has been to highlight how little support Trump’s Russia-friendly attitudes have within his party.

...

In a rare bit of agreement, Republicans and Democrats had equally negative impressions of Russia, although Republicans were slightly less favorable than Democrats in their view of Ukraine, 66% versus 57%.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2022-02-25/ukraine-trump-and-the-politics-of-war-essential-politics



The Tucker Carlsons and other pro-Putinists aren't selling it anymore.
February 24, 2022

Putin's empire-conquering mindset is no different from that of some Bronze Age king

who glorifies his statue of a god by trying to enslave as many neighbors as possible.

February 14, 2022

This is because their entire program consists of lies and doublethink.

They cannot articulate what their opponents stand for because they never articulate their own position, they only lie about it. Endless lies about libertarian ideals or christian traditions or economic prosperity, all to deny and deflect from the actual agenda of white male supremacism.

February 9, 2022

Fusion doesn't just have to become feasible, it has to become cheap to make any difference

Even if we were able to build a fully working mature sustainable fusion plant tomorrow, the power it produced would still be substantially more expensive than that from solar cells. Fusion will probably be the dominant source of power someday for future colonies among the moons of Jupiter or the asteroid belt, but I don't think it'll make economic sense here in our lifetimes.

February 8, 2022

Cameras incentivize very strong brand attachment

because you have to invest thousands of bucks into a system that locks you in with compatibility, and switching brands is very expensive. So all the fanboy toxicity you find anywhere else gets extra intense because people really don't want to admit they picked the wrong horse, because if they do it'll cost them a big wad of cash.

This also incentivizes the companies themselves to nurture and cater to loyal fans. Companies that treat everything as disposable, like Sony, fail at earning the decades-long loyalty that can be had.

It probably doesn't help that the whole camera industry is now shrinking and financially weak and many companies are in a frail state, because the cameras themselves improved so fast that they've run out of ways to make next year's model better than last year's, so most people aren't replacing the old cameras they've got. (Mine is from 2013.) So people are worried they may have bought into a brand that not only might turn out not as good, but might not even survive. All of this anxiety can help drive additional toxicity to compensate.

So I'm not surprised that cameras are where this comes out.

February 3, 2022

been saying that for a few years now

Trump didn't just reveal what the Republican party has now become since the era of Gingrich and Dubya, he revealed what had always underlain the popularity of figures like Reagan and Nixon. He revealed why the Republican party retains power even as its ability to make any kind of policy dwindles away as everything they try fails. They used to do a good job of covering it up with policy, but the core appeal of the party has been the nationalist culture war of "real americans" vs everybody else, even back before I was born. Trump's dog whistle is the same one that they've been tooting since the days of Harding and Hoover. The crackdown on the Bonus Army 90 years ago came from the same fascist impulse that January 6th did.

January 20, 2022

everything they're for, they can't say out loud

because what they're for is privilege. White privilege, male privilege, Christian privilege, and especially privilege for the rich.

Profile Information

Gender: Male
Hometown: Bay Area, California
Member since: 2002
Number of posts: 1,374

About paulkienitz

Retired software engineer who thinks a lot about the future. https://paulkienitz.net/future/
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