SeagullGrindstone
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User ID: 1846
SeagullGrindstone
2yr ago
Either the people are anti-racist and not doing a good enough job and should be scolded, or they are racist since they don't want to do anything real to help fight against racism.
Or anti-racism offers a false binary, and people that take it seriously like Ibrahim X. Kendi end up sincerely advocating for an unelected panel of EDI government officials to be placed above the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the federal government in the pages of the Atlantic, effectively ending electoral politics if elections don’t redress racism is coherent with anti-racism’s assertion that no person/organization/structure/action/etc. can be neutral.
Yeah, which firm?
Ah, yes, I’ll just post my CV to this forum where anonymous accounts debate whether or not there are cabals of Jews that have disproportionate power in American society.
And yes, that sort of brinksmanship can have benefits. But given Musk signed away DD, assumed responsibility for mollifying any federal regulators and agreed to sizable penalties for backing out in his offer to purchase, I’m all ears as to what you think those were for Musk. Because in this case there was no incentive for concessions from Twitter’s board.
I used to work M&A. No, waiving due diligence is the opposite of common. There are multiple SaaS providers that offer VDRs for due diligence because exceedingly rare is the transaction that exempts it.
Waiving due diligence then stating conditions within a target company pose enough of a concern you might not want to complete your transaction doesn’t work. The target can hammer you in court. Musk completed the purchase, predictably, just before the judge’s imposed deadline of heading to trial.
Twitter’s board had a responsibility to maximize shareholder value, not make blue checks happy after the sale. Musk was on the hook to (1) pay over the market share price to take Twitter private, or (2) pay Twitter a huge sum in penalties for not completing the deal. At that point, Musk had no leverage over Twitter’s board because either outcome was a win for shareholders.
SeagullGrindstone
2yr ago
Doesn’t libertarianism lead to pyramid schemes, though? It’s all voluntary. Lula Roe hasn’t violated the NAP.
Why insert the state and have it prohibit companies from basing their staffing model on having 99% of their workforce as independent contractors, the supermajority of which don’t end up taking home the equivalent of minimum wage for the amount of time they put in?
SeagullGrindstone
2yr ago
The man waived his right to due diligence, then started publicly griping about stuff a prospective buy-side would review… during due diligence. Dog that caught the car, on this one.
SeagullGrindstone
2yr ago
I don’t care one way or the other what you do or don’t care about. But you’ll need to define “the most privileged people on Earth” more broadly than the the capital-owning class to make your point, which proves mine.
Also, what evidence do you have that even a simple majority of people subjected to bizarre EDI sessions are “self-described anti-racists”? Tons of not-online normies who go to work for a paycheck work for companies who do, on the other hand, have a C-suite willing to hire “self-described anti-racists” as consultants and officers to provide a bit of a prophylactic against potential discrimination lawsuits.
Robin DiAnglo talks about why she named her book what she did because she needed a term and an explanation for why white people were getting upset when exposed to her nonsense. And she couldn’t grok that people go to work to pay their rent/mortgage and not to publicly interrogate their subconscious as it is portrayed to them by $6,000/hour grifter consultants. I’m 💯 sure the managerial/executive class at many companies does prattle on in an empty manner about EDI, but this loops right back around to the underlying class conflict EDI deprioritizes.
The Blocked and Reported pedants did an interview with someone who went through one of DiAngelo’s company’s sessions. She was a graphic designer who, for her job, made a poster for the Odyssey. It was a minimalist poster that had a ship on a white background with the familiar blue-and-while Meander pattern you find on paper coffee cups in 80s movies. DiAngelo’s consultants told her coworkers the ship was a subconscious manifestation of colonialism and the Meander was a subconscious manifestation of Nazi swastikas.
Normally, going around telling someone’s coworkers they’re a secret Nazi will land you in HR. But you’re supposed to thank an EDI consultant and not be upset if they do it?
All you’ve offered are the espoused goals of EDI consultants. But you exempt mention of their methods, which is why DiAngelo had to come up with an explanation about why she was reducing people to tears that eased her conscience while the consulting checks kept cashing. And it’s definitely a class issue when management subjects workers to this stuff as a PR move.
SeagullGrindstone
2yr ago
Well said. This, above, is how DiAngelo came up with the term “white fragility”. She, being seemingly blind to economic class, could genuinely not understand why American workers would dislike their bosses requiring them to attend meetings where they were psychoanalyzed in front of their coworkers, with the penalty for not submitting themselves to her quackery being running afoul of HR in a country where affordable health insurance in bundled with employment.
In your economics 101 textbook, certainly. But this is a significant part of why, absent import costs, European wines are cheaper than American wines at the bottom end of the price scale.
At the upper end it’s to do more with demand, so American wine growing regions have to develop an international reputation. Napa has, and places like Willamette are on their way.
I don’t know how broke you are and where you live, but if you sign up for a rewards account at Total Wine, and activate the offers they run on various categories of “winery direct” wines on their app, while buying in store, that’s about the most economical approach you can find.
The wines they label as”winery direct” are from large producers that give TW bulk discounts. And then TW runs 15-20% off retail on those wines as part of their loyalty program. Offers are things like 15% off Italian winery direct wines, or 20% off any six winery direct wines.
And then the Wine Folly website is a great free resource with info about major varietals/wines/regions.
Familiarize yourself with varietals/wines and try some food pairings. Can certainly dip your toe in with $10-16 bottles (if interested).
And, there are even some eminently-drinkable boxed wines on a budget. I’m brining Ropiteau Freres pinot noir to Thanksgiving. That’s the equivalent of four bottles for $25. Le Petit Frog makes a mightily-acceptable boxed white.
SeagullGrindstone
2yr ago
That’s exacerbated further by ordering wine at a restaurant. 200-300% markup is the norm. That $400 restaurant bottle might cost $130 retail.
My two favorite, local restaurants charge a $25-30 per bottle uncorking fee if you bring in your own. Easy enough to do the math, there.
Wine, whether corked or screw top, continues to slowly oxidize in the bottle. Kept at proper temperature the aging can alter a wine’s flavor in a desirable way. Not kept at proper temperature, it will wreck the wine.
Different wines/varietals benefit from aging differently. Some wines are generally considered best young, like a New Zealand Sauv Blanc, as people are usually looking for bright acidity when selecting one. As a rule of thumb reds benefit from longer aging more than whites. But you can age whites, too. My favorite bottle I’ve consumed was a 10-year-old white Bordeaux.
And within reds, those with higher tannin benefit from longer aging. I like to tuck Willamette Valley Pinot Noir away for five years. But, you can age California Cab Sauv, red Bordeaux, Cotes du Rhone, etc. for a decade plus.
And none of the above is to say you need to age wine after purchase. Here’s a good video looking at different vintages from the same wine:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ulhu86IIkt4
(Any wine you plan to drink within six to nine months after purchase will be just fine at room temperature in your home.)
SeagullGrindstone
2yr ago
My local Total Wine has two different bottles on offer. It’s not super common but should be able to track down a bottle if you call around.
SeagullGrindstone
2yr ago
You’re right that it is generally logarithmic.
I’m an American, and wine in the U.S. is generally more expensive than in Europe (because wine produced abroad and sold retail must be brought in by a licensed American distributor and these middle-men don’t run charities, and it is far more common that European producers have owned the land their vineyards are on since before anyone now working it was born). Just my opinion, but I find the best bang for the buck is around $35-40 if you also have a large wine fridge in which to age bottles for multiple years (the quick requirements are no UV light, store around 54-55 degrees Fahrenheit, keep away from significant vibration). Helps to have enough storage that you can cut down on the per-bottle shipping costs and lock in bulk discounts by ordering by the case (12 bottles).
SeagullGrindstone
2yr ago
Kim Crawford, Kendall Jackson, Woodbridge, etc. are 💯 marketed to different demographics than Caymus, Guigal, etc.
Emphasis added:
I think there is a certain programming in the female mind that just makes it impossible for them to clearly lay out what they actually like in a partner.
…
For example in this book the author actually puts effort into making a list of all the things she wants from a guy. She later confesses that not only are items in the list contradictory, no such human probably exists to begin with.
In defense of the opposite sex, this is not just a problem that women have. The Madonna-Whore Complex is something a non-negligible number of men have.
Free, endless streaming pornography I suspect has exacerbated things. Videos of two, flawed human beings cohabitating, compromising and working through the occasional petty disagreements are probably not popular.
There are a number of factors that impact the price of different wines. Supply and demand are definitely present, and mixed into that is conspicuous consumption, and that is separate from the wine, itself.
What real estate costs a vineyard faces factors in. (If someone still has an outstanding commercial mortgage on their vineyard in Napa, that is going to increase the price of the wine produced).
Some things do improve quality, or at least are discernable in the taste of a given wine, that also do increase cost. Two examples would be how densely planted a given vineyard is (the vintner has to weigh a higher yield versus allowing fewer vines to pull more nutrients from the soil), and how long a wine is aged before it is bottled (many wines are made from Sangiovese, but Brunello di Montalcino is aged for a minimum of two years in oak and a minimum of four years in total, and that four-to-five year lag to market impacts a producer’s bottom line). And those aforementioned oak barrels add cost, particularly if aged in new oak (versus aging in just stainless steel, concrete, etc.).
SeagullGrindstone
2yr ago
My girlfriend and I enjoy wine, and have a glass, each, at dinner nearly every night. I’d say we’re hobbyists.
I suppose I could get certain red and white varietals confused based on production method, maybe.
Red wines (made from red varietals) are fermented with the skins/stems/seeds. White wines can be made from any varietal but the fermentation happens absent the skins/stems/seeds. (If you ferment white varietals with the skins/stems/seeds you get orange wine.) Tannins are the chemical compounds imparted by including the skins/stems/seeds and they are quite noticeable (they impart a dry feeling in your mouth after consumption, and impact the flavor).
Now, if I had to blind taste test a white made from Pinot Noir grapes, or uncharitably some uncommon red varietal, there’s a chance I could confuse it for something else, but I don’t think I’d fare all that poorly.
But if the blind taste test was a red wine versus a white wine, that’s far too easy to discern.
SeagullGrindstone
2yr ago
Ah, handegg. A term invented when Brits forgot or pretended they forgot that the term football originated at posh public schools and meant a game played on foot, as opposed to on horseback.
SeagullGrindstone
2yr ago
Yes. This ☝️. Lifelong grifter, former Nikola CEO, and now-convicted felon Trevor Milton is a Utah Mormon. But what does that really tell anyone about fraud without it being placed in a broader context?
SeagullGrindstone
2yr ago
His exchange blew open due to his financial crimes…
Well, his exchange blew open because of unethical dealings that are considered crimes if an American financial institution carries them out. And while a federal probe is starting up, the WSJ has said it’s yet unclear what the charges might be, given crypto is far-less regulated and some of FTX’s legal entities were offshored. Which hints at the reality of the spergy, libertarian dream of deregulating financial markets.
Yes. Because the middle bit in between is rising interest rates, declining values for tech stocks, and Musk on the hook for a big payout for a bloated company.
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