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Every presidential administration wants to fix America’s ‘crumbling infrastructure’ until they discover the business interests profiting from disrepair.

— It Is Happening Again. By Erik Baker at n + 1

The thing I find most suspicious/fishy/smelly about the current hype surrounding Stable Diffusion, ChatGPT, and other AI applications is that it is almost exactly six months since the bottom dropped out of the cryptocurrency scam bubble…. To me it looks very much as if the usual hucksters and grifters are now chasing the sweet VC/private equity money….

— Charles Stross, Place your bets

Jamelle Bouie: The Founders Were More Creative Than You Think

The Supreme Court’s originalism “rests on a cramped view of the framers of the Constitution and their ability to think and reason. In the hands of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and other conservatives on the Supreme Court, the founding fathers are small-minded and provincial, unable to think beyond the narrowest possible interpretation of the words they wrote.”

Belief that the Earth is flat, not round, is having a moment.

The return of Flat Earth, the grandfather of conspiracy theories

It’s the uber conspiracy theory, and a new book goes inside the culture of Flat Earthers.

Diana Gitig at Ars Technica:

The underlying premise behind conspiracy theories is that “They” are hiding the truth for shady, nefarious purposes. But you—because you are so perspicacious, smart, special, or have access to privileged information—can see things as they really are. “They” can be the government, Russia, China, aliens, Democrats, Republicans, the CIA, the FBI, Big Ag, Big Pharma, Big Tech, and/or obviously, more often than not, the Jews. (Jewish Flat Earthers do not have it easy.) These entities actually have hidden the truth at times, which makes it that much tougher to argue with conspiracy theorists.

It bothers me slightly that the fundamental core of my political and economic beliefs soundslike a conspiracy theory when I speak it out loud: The world is run for the benefit of billionaires and centimillionaires. To the ruling class, the rest of us are simply livestock or prey.

I’m calling out the writer of this article on a careless error—a dangerous one in the current political climate: “the Jews” have never hidden the truth about anything.

Showerthought: Why don't the supporting characters in “The Office” just find other jobs?

Why don’t they just go work elsewhere, where they don’t have to put up Michael Scott? Most of them could easily find other jobs. Why do they stay?

Habit is a big part of it. Every day that you do the same thing it becomes harder to do something different the next day.

Beyond that, everybody has individual reasons.

Pam stays in the Scranton reception desk for the same reason she doesn’t dump Roy. She has low self-confidence. She doesn’t think she can do any better.

Jim is in love with Pam, and stays where she is. He also likes thinking he’s superior to everybody else he’s working with—Michael and Dwight first and foremost—while starting to fear he’s no different than they are. And for Jim, Dunder-Mifflin is easy money.

Easy money is the lure for Stanley, too. He just doesn’t give a shit about office politics.

Dwight and Angela get off on their perceived power, and Dwight of course has a massive bro-crush on Michael Scott.

Kelly is oblivious, and in love with Ryan.

Ryan sees the office as a necessary stepping stone to a bigger future.

Meredith is a drunk.

Toby, like Pam, doesn’t think he can do any better. In Toby’s case, he may be right.

Left as exercises for the reader: Kevin, Phyllis, Creed, Oscar, Darryl, and the later-seasons characters.