sickamore
1yr ago
how reliable is max blumenthal? seems like hes always writing about “51 days in gaza” but wasnt actually there, etc.
do the citations substantiate his piece? sorry, have read his stuff before and am less trusting
sickamore
1yr ago
totally forgot about this, but now remember it so clearly. did not seem like a big issue at this time for this idea, perhaps because Chase was hesitant and it took the entire episode to get to this ending? Because it’s just a kiss? Because the requester has the profile of a typical “victim” (young underaged girl)?”
sickamore
1yr ago
not a secret the nice-but-unimportant ambassadorships go to politically favored people (donors mostly, but not required).
See this list of current US ambassadors, and compare which ones have type column of "Career" (career diplomats, rising up through the Foreign Service usually), and which ones are "other" (usually cushier locales, usually countries US already has good relations with, does not require an experienced foreign service careerist to head because there is no work or work is handled fine by others).
For example, Ted Kennedy's widow is the ambassador to Austria, while JFK's daughter Caroline Kennedy is the ambassador to Australia (previously to Japan as well). Both of these would be politically favored IMO, and campaigned for Obama/Biden.
Donor example would be Denise Bauer, current ambassador to France (and Monaco). Previously Ambassador to Belgium. Donated 4.3 million to Obama, and other money to Democrats in general. I'm surprised it only takes 4.3 million TBH? But probably is fun to hang out in Paris and send your kids to American School of Paris there.
Compare with the resume of the current ambassador to China (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Nicholas_Burns)
sickamore
1yr ago
IDF making a lot of progress with minimal casualties https://x.com/yossi_melman/status/1721779627251695752?s=20
IDF arrived to the center of Gaza city. Both sides are surprised in a kind of mirror image. Hamas from how relatively Hamas defense lines were penetrated snd collapsed IDF because the advance was relatively fast and not too many casualties, which are in Gaza around 30.
(likely conservative estimate) map of IDF presence / progress: https://x.com/War_Mapper/status/1721646940780191941?s=20
sickamore
1yr ago
Today, whether its harvard business school or Cornell or Columbia, the biggest growth clubs are the small businese investment clubs.
everyone with MBAs, who dont wanna do big corps, seem to wanna buy a cashflowing mom and pop business. opportunities might have been arb’d away
sickamore
1yr ago
best advice is to study cyclicality.
FB at 92 was a great buy.
oil stocks at negative oil price in 2020 was a great buy. uranium even now is a good buy. maybe even silver stocks?
i dont think you’d make as much, on a 5 year time horizon, if you out all into QQQ or google or something
sickamore
1yr ago
well he hangs with other winners of capitalism.
compared to a group of Caesars, being a normal person is bad.
comparison is the thief of joy. i assume this contributed to his psyche. It definitely would to mine!
live your life, dont compare with others. ignorance truly is bliss
sickamore
1yr ago
so you are saying if some jews go to yeshiva it doesn’t change rankings?
so to make eastern kentucky uni the best, it requires ALL the best jews and jewish faculty to go there?
sickamore
1yr ago
good point. In the same vein, I remember the “even some animals are gay, so being gay is natural and fine” argument.
even as a kid I remember reading about how wild ducks rape, their their vaginas become more “anti-rape” and male penises also evolved to overcome that and can still rape.
I remember saying “oh so since animals rape, rape is natural and fine?” and of course it was kind if a shut-down argument, no real retort there. Need to bring it back!
sickamore
1yr ago
huh. thats a good argument, thank you for replying. It does make me think.
though idk if i can use this as an argument in a SF party, but at least personally this makes a lot of sense.
Basically, we need to accept trans cuz conditioning is really strong to remain in your born-with gender (or is it sex?). So if it’s so strong that you are convinced you are born in the right body, despite internal claimed incongruities, then….
yeah it makes sense to me
for ex. I did theatre, and even the straights were bicurious and kinda convinced that “don’t knock it until you try it”. but mostly everyone was in straight relationships.
the few that were convinced to try, man or woman, all honestly remained straight and date/married straight partners. Looking back, I honestly think their even experimenting was some pressure, but mostly result of so called “gay propaganda”.
sickamore
1yr ago
what school is the Eisman clan going to, now?
Are they having enough kids, and willing to spend enough money, that their influence can be applied to another school?
Why isn't yeshiva university considered a top school then, when it's mostly Jewish? Is it because they get the third tier, orthodox Jews, and not the first tier IQ ashkanazi secular Jews?
sickamore
1yr ago
interesting idea re: time frame / right side of issues.
I felt freer to argue before 2017, but I was also much younger and people around me did not usually seem to have strong opinions
sickamore
1yr ago
A man attracted to other men cannot become a straight man, but he can become a straight woman. Do the people articulating this view not notice that this is at least a difficult pair of propositions to adhere to?
"A man, who is born attracted to men, should be allowed to date/see/marry/sex with men" and "a man who is* born in the wrong body and should be able to transition to a women" don't seem contradictory to me, thought I do admit that they do seem in conflict.
Isn't the explanation: "both are innate, and should be allowed"? They are both a quality/innateness you're "born with" and cannot change.
If you can change your mind on these things, then they aren't innate.
Thus why detransitioners (and people who "decide" not to be gay anymore?) are seen as such traitors?
sickamore
1yr ago
Interesting, reminds me of the show Insecure, where in a story arc the second-main character (bestfriend of main character, BW, also a lawyer herself) visits her parents and discovers they cannot retire, or something like that. But then other BW friend (accountant) helps them out.
I wonder how many Northern Irish guys marry American black women. And then how many of them visit TheMotte. You are a unicorn I imagine haha
sickamore
1yr ago
thanks for sharing.
Do you think this is a class thing? i.e. the BW that go to college and get white collar jobs vs BW who never leave their community? I assume BM date outside their race at higher % for higher income etc as well.
Now that I write it out, I think probably most people in all races have some positive correlation between higher income and higher multicultural rates in today’s america
sickamore
1yr ago
“become more orthodox” -> does this mean Jewish population goes up or down? I assume Orthodox Jews have more kids, but I assume way less than the super Orthodox ones in Brooklyn?
sickamore
1yr ago
Great. Can't wait for 2025.
Add social media, LLM, AI deepfakes... Love this. /s
sickamore
1yr ago
Stanford wasn't internationally prestigious until what, 1960s or 70s? It wasn't obviously a competitor to the Ivies until DoD investments and silicon valley started taking shape in that time, no?
sickamore
1yr ago
i got the sense that majority of endowment growth is through investments, like how David Swensen ran the Yale endowment, or how much money Stanford makes from VC funds.
This is also true of public pensions, like CALPERS, or Ontario teachers union, or any of these big money funds that need to grow (though VC usually is not like, 50% of their investments).
Coupled with how well Griffin's Citadel grows the pile, it makes sense to invest in them (if harvard does invest in citadel funds - im not sure)
sickamore
1yr ago
US troops are being hit in Iraq, Syria, etc by Iranian-backed groups, so it's not just Israel. Though the US isn't exactly doing a lot here to respond.
sickamore
1yr ago
Anti-BDS laws are definitely evidence that they do exert policy power. But perhaps just not overwhelming. And definitely not today, when Dems are in charge, it seems.
But still, two carrier groups to that area, more munitions to Israel, etc. the US has her own interests in the ME (that are already being targeted and hit by Iranian-backed militias), so there's that reason too.
what about the Rafah crossing with Egypt? its not like israel surrounds Gaza
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