merc @ merc @sh.itjust.works

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Joined

2 yr. ago

That's the problem. Someone shouldn't have to find a random YouTuber to get basic answers.

I really wish independent journalism existed so you could find out basic facts like "how often does the FBI normally arrest judges?" "Has a judge ever been arrested for obstruction of justice?" "Do they never get arrested inside a courthouse?"

I'm sure Judges sometimes commit crimes, just like everyone else. Are they normally given special deference and not arrested? Do they only get arrested for serious charges, and normally they get special dispensation because of their judge status?

Arresting judges does sound alarming, but without context it's impossible to know just how norm-breaking it is.

For example, if a judge is pulled over and found to be driving drunk, I most definitely would want that judge arrested and charged. Not arresting and charging a judge in that situation sounds like institutional corruption. I wouldn't be surprised if it happens, but I don't know because these journalists aren't doing their damn jobs.

Don't get me wrong, in this case I'm pretty convinced that the Trump people are overstepping their bounds. It seems like a pattern of attacking the judiciary. And, this isn't the judges being arrested for driving drunk or accepting bribes. This is judges being arrested for things related to immigration. Immigration, in particular, is something that the Trump administration is doing completely unlawfully.

But, how can we have any kind of informed dialogue when the standard of reporting is: "One side said 'It's outrageous they arrested a judge', the other side said 'the administration won't accept judges breaking the law.' The judge may have been a democrat."

I've never thought Trump was smart. He sounds stupid when he talks. He doesn't seem to have a grasp of even basic things. But, now I'm thinking that somehow as stupid as he sounds, he's actually even dumber. Like, he's fooling people like me into thinking he has an IQ of 80 when it's more like 60. In a way that's impressive.

I wouldn't use the word "tunnel-visioned". That implies focused on something and ignoring the things nearby.

I think it's more accurate to say "ignorant". Many, probably most Americans just have no clue about most things outside the USA. You've travelled abroad, most Americans have not. The US is such an insular society that people can get away with saying things like "Canadians hate their healthcare" and people actually believe them.

And fundamentally how would they fix their current issue? They could distance from elon but that would be a slow burn

They can't distance from Elon because his supposed genius is a key factor in why they're so absurdly overvalued. If they dump him, they immediately get viewed as a car company. Car companies have P/E ratios of about 7, if they're well run like Toyota. That would mean they'd lose 95% of their value.

If they don't distance from Elon, then they have to deal with his personal brand constantly tarnishing their corporate brand. Somehow they have to convince themselves that people will get over Elon fast enough to get their sales back up. Even if he "gets out of politics", whatever that means, I don't see that happening. He has burned all his bridges, and there's no going back.

Also, it's absolutely ridiculous that they would have a high valuation because of self-driving cars. Tesla is the company in absolutely last place when it comes to developing self-driving car technology. They don't even use LIDAR, so they can be fooled by a Bugs Bunny / Roadrunner trick.

Waymo is probably in first place in self-driving tech. They have actually been running a taxi service for years using self-driving cars. Cruise was probably in second place before they were shut down and absorbed into GM. So, you could maybe say GM is in second place. Zoox, Pony.ai, Motional, etc. are also all doing well. Tesla is probably dead last, and their very public failures are dragging the industry down. The fact that they called their tech "full self-driving" and that it was so bad prompted all the other companies to rename what they were doing so they weren't associated with Tesla.

Eventually someone's going to make a killing shorting Tesla. The only problem is that markets can remain irrational longer than most people can remain solvent. Who knows when this might finally end.

It may let malicious people feign stupidity, but that doesn't mean you have to just forgive them.

I don't remember what did it for me, I switched a while ago. But, I do clearly remember one time when I had the kind of moulded earphones that go really deep in your ear, and I caught the cable on something, and they got yanked out of my ears. That was pretty painful.

Why are you so deep in your own bubble that you don't believe that someone could simply prefer wireless? If that's the case, you should get out more, meet more people, expand your horizons.

I think anybody who wasn't malicious would be very careful about this process. They would know that a mistake was possible and that they should triple-check everything they were doing. So, it's more that the stupidity is the evidence for the malice. That, and the fact that there wasn't a massive apology and attempt to correct the mistake when these news stories started coming out.

Ooh, BUUURN! BUUUUUUUUUURN!!!

Is it? Hitchens' razor says that you've provided no evidence for your turtle-like stack of razors, so your claim can be dismissed without evidence.

I've never lost one in at least a decade of using them. But, I don't use the kind that just balance on the edge of your ear.

Wireless means you plug it in occasionally, maybe once a week.

If you don't value the convenience of wireless headphones, that's great for you. For a lot of people, the cable is a real pain in the ass. It gets tangled up when it's off. It gets caught up on things when it's on, etc.

If you're listening to podcasts or music, latency doesn't really matter.

Hanlon's Razor is basically a special case of Occam's Razor.

Making a mistake or doing something stupid is easy. Conspiring to do something malicious is not as easy. The simpler explanation is generally that something is a mistake rather than an elaborate conspiracy. So, Occam's Razor says that the simplest explanation (a mistake) is probably the right one.

Yeah, Occam's razor.

Martinez-Gomez works full-time assisting immigrants in court for a non-profit

This is quite the Hanlon's Razor situation.

There have been a number of US citizens who have received these emails, all of them do some kind of work related to immigration. It's pretty clear that whoever sent out these emails just collected every email related to immigration work, and sent out a mass email. That satisfies Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

But! The fact that they're doing this without even a passing effort at accuracy, with no concern about getting it wrong, shows how it's motivated by malice too. It's the ICE version of a reckless homicide, they're doing something they have to know would normally get them fired if not charged. But, they don't care because the current racist administration is going to revel in the pain.

So, it's a weird situation where Hanlon's Razor is both right and wrong.

Yeah, it's a risk. But, there's also a risk of getting your wired earbuds cord caught on something. I've had that happen and it yanked the phone off the table and sent it crashing to the floor. I've also had the buds get yanked out of my ears multiple times.

If I lived somewhere where winters were mild, I might still use wired headphones. When you only have to worry about a t-shirt or something managing the cord isn't too bad. But, when you have to manage a hat, scarf, coat, etc. there are just too many things to get in the way of the cord.

You know what's easier than a cable? No cable.

I'll give you sound quality, but the whole reason that wireless earbuds took off is the hassle of wires.

I assume that bunkers protect you from a chain reaction, but that at some point the explosion is big enough that a chain reaction is exactly what you get.

This definitely seems like it would have been big enough to cause a chain reaction (and/or big enough to show that a chain reaction happened). If so, I wonder what fraction of bunkers exploded. I'm glad we live in an age of civilian satellites, so it's probably just a matter of time before we get to see the damage for ourselves.