But I do hope that a quote from Casino applies here ... and that "guys ..never are given [access] to anything that valuable again".

12/12

While they contemplate jail and hopefully never see another "productive" job offer ever again, I hope they wonder if it's worth it for the insignificantly small to no cost savings they achieved. Was that fleeting nothingness worth their souls?

Maybe for MAGA dudes?

11/

This is why I chose the opening QT; because it shows Hannah Arendt's banality of evil so sharply.

These were young, stupid, enthusiastic MAGA dudes, who didn't care about the law or what made sense, and are going to be the fall guys. And that is well deserved.

10/

It's not that the DOGE "staff" are being deposed. It's that they look like clownish simpletons, & it paints the entire DOGE exercise as coming out of a clown car.

This is bad for the far-right, as they want MORE of DOGE like cutting.

But it won't happen if there is consequences for stupidity.

9/

No, this is Rufo doing reverse duty. If someone on the left commits an infraction, they should be fired.

But if someone on the right/far-right slips up, there should be NO consequences at all. Because this is actually what he (and his cohorts) are mad at.

8/

Moving back to the present day, it's rich for someone who hasn't done anything productive to claim that anyone else is or isn't doing this.

But, more to the point -- it isn't about whether the "kids" at DOGE were productive at all. Because, they weren't - their work was about destruction.

7/

Faculty has left, students are trying to leave, and even building changes have gone amok. Rufo and his board tried to move student housing, but the new digs were not up to snuff and the plan for the existing residence was called into question. Again, nothing productive here.

6/

Rufo did manage to get DeSantis to listen to him & try to turn one of Florida's top colleges into a "conservative education institution", modelled on Hillsdale.

Unfortunately, this has been a disaster. Rufo isn't much of an admin, & largely the plan seems to have been "fire who we don't like".

5/

So, first, let's talk about Rufo's projection that *HE* is "productive". While he's excellent and stirring up fake outrage and "collecting scalps" on the left, his main product is to generate backlash and to destroy and get people fired.

I don't count this as "productive" in any way.

4/

Jeremy Konyndyk on X: "The DOGE kids are getting deposed because there were useful idiots who ignored the law." / X The DOGE kids are getting deposed because there were useful idiots who ignored the law.

Link to original post:
(not sure how I got the thumbnail to stay in the first post in this thread, but want the full URL here so...)
3/

x.com/JeremyKonynd...

[QT cont..]
christopherrufo: The DOGE kids are getting deposed because the Left knows how to impose costs. The ACLU harassed me for years, ran up my legal bills, because of my work eliminating woke with DeSantis. They have a whole playbook for punishing productive right-wing people.

2/

Jeremy Konyndyk on X: "The DOGE kids are getting deposed because there were useful idiots who ignored the law." / X The DOGE kids are getting deposed because there were useful idiots who ignored the law.

So, the "DOGE kids" are getting deposed, and the far-right are mad about it. Our bud Rufo is mad, as is evidenced in this quote tweet:

JeremyKonyndyk The DOGE kids are getting deposed because there were useful idiots who ignored the law.
QT christopherrufo: The DOGE kids are getting deposed[..]
1/

I'm actually going to write something right away, but there is so much to catch up on!

So, I took an unexpected break from socials, nothing important happened during the month and a half I haven't been paying attention, right?

(facepalm)

In the end, Benz is like most of the right/far-right nowadays; just cheerleading whoever will seem to help them make a single point in a discussion, not actually trying to have a coherent approach or strategy, forget morals or ethics.

5/5

Meaghan Mobbs on X: "If you spend more tweets highlighting this than you do Roskomnadzor - the Russian federal executive agency responsible for monitoring, controlling and censoring Russian mass media - maybe you should meditate on that. https://t.co/74ONSDRMwh" / X If you spend more tweets highlighting this than you do Roskomnadzor - the Russian federal executive agency responsible for monitoring, controlling and censoring Russian mass media - maybe you should meditate on that. https://t.co/74ONSDRMwh

And of course he seems to forget THIS hilarity, where Russia fined Google *more money then is currently on Earth*, because that's what his heroes do.

4/
x.com/mobbs_mental...

Now, Mike loves to complain about *censorship*, but doesn't want anyone to even moderate anything -- all firehose, all the time. He just wants there to be a huge din of noise cancelling out honest reporting and hard work.

3/

Link to original post:

x.com/MikeBenzCybe...
2/

So, we have this take from Benz...
@MikeBenzCyber: Putin didn’t impose $140 million of fines on X to impose censorship on Americans. If you’re more authoritarian than Putin, maybe you should meditate on that.

[QT of a critique of the US travel admission policy]
1/

So, it seems in the run up to the Holiday season, I've myeself scarce.

I've got some bits to post and things to go over, so I'll get at least partially caught up.

Not on my radar: Heritage Foundation coming apart at the seams. It's a good development, but weird in the way it happened.

It seems picking incompetent people to do things that require all the i's to be dotted and the t's to be crossed isn't such a brilliant move after all; but they can't ever admit their wrong, and will whine on about something else instead.

7/7

The cherry on top is not to acknowledge that she messed up and was wrong, but it is being mad that they aren't supporting her and calling it right, and are thus "hanging her out to dry".

Everything is a political sports game to these people.

6/

She didn't do that; she made up her own process as she went along, and it was found out.
We have rules and procedures in court for a reason, but if it suits them, they think they can do whatever they want.

Now they are mad that making it up instead of following the rules has consequences.

5/

[Ed. note: Why are they all such windbags?]

Okay, lots to consider here, and most of it is amusing.

First, nothing was *done* to Halligan at all -- it is what *she did* that is under scrutiny.
There is a way the Grand Jury works, and what she should have done was get the FULL GJ to revote.

4/

Hans Mahncke on X: "What they’re doing to Lindsey Halligan is absolutely despicable. There were three indictments, two were approved, so she set aside the one that wasn’t, got the foreperson’s signature, and moved forward. That’s it. And yet they’re all acting like she committed some kind of" / X What they’re doing to Lindsey Halligan is absolutely despicable. There were three indictments, two were approved, so she set aside the one that wasn’t, got the foreperson’s signature, and moved forward. That’s it. And yet they’re all acting like she committed some kind of

[..cont]
And by the way, where are the people who should be standing with her right now instead of leaving her out to dry?

===
Link do original post:

x.com/HansMahncke/...
3/

[..cont]
And yet they’re all acting like she committed some kind of monstrous offense, which is exactly what happens to any Trump appointee who actually tries to carry out the mandate they were elected to deliver instead of playing it safe, mouthing platitudes, and accomplishing nothing.
[cont..]
2/

Ah, what's some court fraud among friends...
HansMahncke: What they’re doing to Lindsey Halligan is absolutely despicable. There were three indictments, two were approved, so she set aside the one that wasn’t, got the foreperson’s signature, and moved forward. That’s it.

[cont...]
1/

Sacks should be ashamed to amplify such bad takes; but if he had shame, he wouldn't be where he is now, right?

6/6

Except that CEOs and tech leaders have been talking all about them not needing "juniors" anymore, as AI can fulfill that role.

And it's not like Sacks isn't aware of this; he's definitely adjacent to the Silicon Valley tech bros that champion this; it's the same crypto positive dudes too.

5/

So, the technology that does best in knowledge industries hasn't "disrupted" things like blue collar work? I'm super surprised.

This isn't a serious study, it's something for AI boosters to use to say "see, AI isn't replacing humans".

4/