Home » Open thread 11/4/2024

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Open thread 11/4/2024 — 31 Comments

  1. My border collies tilt their heads when I’m giving them instructions for performing a task. I speak in a certain tone of voice that indicates that I’m giving instructions and they respond accordingly. They’re trying very hard to understand what you’re saying and what you want. They’re very task-oriented. They have — and must have, for the work they do with sheep — advanced problem solving capabilities. You send them out to fetch a flock of sheep to you and they might go behind a hill to do it — out of your line of sight, beyond your ability to issue commands, where they have to think and make their own decisions as to what they must do to control a flighty group of sheep.

    I was out just yesterday with my border collie, training with her on sheep. Specifically I was teaching her to “walk up” on the sheep without spooking them, a necessary skill for driving a flock from point A to point B. I would speak with her in my certain tone of voice and she would tilt her head. Then we would perform a task. At first of course she doesn’t quite get it. So we do it over and over — herding, then talking/communicating. Gradually she comes to understand what I’m telling her: first she learns the meaning of individual words, then she learns the meaning of entire sentences. Head-tilting during our “conversations” until she “gets it.”

    At the end of yesterday’s training session she was starting to get it. She will get it eventually, sooner rather than later. Then she’ll perfect her skills.

    Truly amazing dogs.

  2. Nice.

    https://archive.md/hYnPu

    Milei Vows Purge of ‘Traitors’ After Argentina’s UN Vote on Cuba

    Libertarian president has already fired his foreign minister
    ‘Woke’ diplomats ‘in love’ with bureaucracy now in his sights

    See how easy this is?

  3. Sabine went way out of her lane last week when she examined whether the US is a democracy or not. First she finds textbook definitions of democracy and republics, and of course notes that the US doesn’t fit such rigid definitions. She then goes on to criticize the US 2 party system and notes how the multi-party systems of the UK and Germany lead to more “proportional” representation; which she thinks is good. She also totally misses the point of the Electoral College and thinks it devalues the vote of the individual. And then wonders why a 200+ year old system hasn’t been changed. Funny how a European totally misses the point of our country being a set of united states and how the system is designed to protect the smaller states from being overwhelmed by the larger states, and how it also tires to protect the 49% from the dictatorship of the 51%. Many of the comments rightfully took her to task.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVqjH6MaqRY&t=573s

  4. Sabine’s confusion doesn’t surprise me. I’d say continental Europe has always struggled to “get” products of the English Enlightenment, like the U.S. Constitution.

  5. The EU would do well to adopt the US federal approach, lest it, like perhaps us, begins to fly apart.

  6. @physicsguy:She then goes on to criticize the US 2 party system and notes how the multi-party systems of the UK and Germany lead to more “proportional” representation

    The two-party system has a lot, I think, wrong with it, but in terms of proportional representation it just pushes the coalitions down one level: Congress has essentially two parties, but each party is made up of coalitions, and one of those coalitions has a majority. In the proportional representation systems one party rarely has a majority, so it forms a coalition with other parties, and then they have a majority.

    The problem with being really smart is that sometimes a really smart person thinks something is obvious when they’ve only just started looking at it.

    https://xkcd.com/793/

    You’re trying to predict behavior of (complicated system)? Just model it as (simple object) and then add some secondary terms to account for (complications I just thought of). Easy, right? So why does (your field) need a whole journal, anyway?

    Sabine might benefit from an acquaintance with Gilbert Chesterton and his gate, if she’d be willing to listen to him:

    There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”

    Erecting a gate takes time and work and is not done willy-nilly by crazy or stupid people, so it’s worth understanding why something is the way it is before deciding it’s obviously dumb and isn’t needed.

  7. @Kate:The EU would do well to adopt the US federal approach

    Given that the EU nations are fully sovereign, and can leave, and some are nuclear-armed, I’d say they’re more “Federal” than we are in a lot of ways. What they’re not is responsive to what the people generally might want, and again they are ahead of us there, though we’re not far behind.

  8. EU nations can leave, but there would be huge financial costs for doing so. In practice, Brussels is working hard to make every European place “perfect” in the eyes of bureaucrats in Brussels.

  9. EU nations can leave, but there would be huge financial costs for doing so.
    ==
    Who enumerated that for you?
    ==
    The big problem with leaving is that you have to quietly prepare to replace the currency. That’s messy and could generate a severe recession. Other aspects of departure will generate small welfare losses.

  10. Darn! And here I was thinking I was getting better at linking to articles.

    Here is the original, but I assume few have a Bloomberg subscription:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-04/milei-vows-purge-of-traitors-after-argentina-s-un-vote-on-cuba?embedded-checkout=true

    Here’s another attempt at the Archive edition:

    https://archive.md/hYnPu

    And if that doesn’t help here’s more of the gist:

    President Javier Milei is promising to conduct a deep purge of Argentina’s diplomatic ranks after the nation voted to condemn the US embargo on Cuba at the United Nations.
    “Every person involved in that decision, I’m ready to fire them all,” Milei said Monday in a televised interview.

    The routine vote cost Diana Mondino her job as foreign minister last week because it flew in the face of the global alignments with the US and Israel that Milei had laid out during last year’s election campaign, he explained.

    “The unforgivable error that Minister Mondino committed the other day cost her the job in 30 minutes,” Milei said.

    His criticism of the foreign ministry didn’t stop there. Some diplomats are “in love with the bureaucracy” and living as parasites, he said. “That’s the woke agenda within the 2030 pact,” he added, referring to a broad set of sustainability goals adopted by the UN a decade ago.

    Those quotes cover pretty much the whole thing.

  11. Sabine in the final analysis doesn’t seem to be that smart, has the proportional selection system, really worked out that well in Germany, I’m talking recently not only in the bad old days, checks and balances seems something alien to her,

    norways seems to doing a similar thing supporting the
    arms embargo against Israel, the only European power,

    now who’s directive was Mondino following if it wasnt Mileis

    Cuba seems to really collapsing into the special period era, even with plenty of
    Venezuelan crude,

  12. Neither “archive.md” link is working for me, but thanks for the excerpt! Can we clone Milei?

  13. IrishOtter: Part of me would love to live with a Border Collie. The other part of me knows that I am too old and lazy to have one.

    I would bore the heck out of it.

    I have managed to find lazy dogs, which works well with me. I don’t drive them nuts, and they aren’t champing at the bit to work. I had a lab who was rejected by a hunter who had adopted her. He said she didn’t have the temperament to be a hunting dog. And she really did not. She had the shortest attention span her entire life. And although a pretty destructive puppy, she was pretty lazy. It was so entertaining. I loved her so much.

    My current dogs love nothing more than sleeping. except maybe food. Though the one dog loves chasing squirrels. I think that is third on the list. My husband says I am ruining them.

  14. @Kate:
    Got news for you. The US is coming apart. The Left Coast is in the Pacific, Walzland should be Canadian, New England is socialist, and the Deep South (including TX and OK)is and has been rising for a generation now, and will make a great nation by itself. Which leaves the center, e.g. Nebraska and Kansas, who are being suborned by Leftists.See Omaha.

  15. Quincy Jones has died.
    91.
    An immense talent.
    A very talented trumpeter in his own rite, his talent for composition and production spanned genres and media.
    Has anyone been responsible for more music sales in the past century?

  16. News too late? Not IMHO, since many people like to vote on Tuesday.

    Ousted CBS reporter drops ‘sickening’ Hunter Biden bombshell on eve of election as laptop-gate returns to haunt Kamala Harris

    Catherine Herridge described the broadcaster’s investigation into the laptop as a ‘missed opportunity for CBS News’, suggesting the broadcaster failed to properly report her findings.

    Herridge said she told company executives the laptop contained material about ‘a million dollar retainer from a Chinese energy firm’ along with Hunter’s business texts and emails in early October 2020.

    But later that month, during a 60 Minutes interview with then-President Trump, correspondent Lesley Stahl said the laptop ‘couldn’t be verified’, according to Herridge. ‘As I watched the broadcast, I felt sick,’ she wrote.

    It comes after two IRS whistleblowers sat down with Herridge for an interview and told her they were banned from investigating Joe Biden amid the government’s probe into his son.

    Now, Herridge is suggesting that CBS failed to properly report on what she found on the laptop.

    Fuking #MeTOO women—and women who wait 40 years to report groping and/or rape. Well, sometimes real Whistleblowers take a few years to show up…here’s the Herridge link:

    How Hunter Biden Laptop Got The CBS News Treatment

  17. Re: Sabine / Criticism of US system

    I would remind Europhiles that the US has had a continuous government system longer than any major European nation.

    San Marino and Monaco are exceptions but not major.

  18. Cicero,
    Did you know the naval weapons depot at the Bangor sub base is three miles long? I wonder how many warheads they have there.

  19. I would remind Europhiles that the US has had a continuous government system longer than any major European nation.
    ==
    Not longer than Britain.
    ==
    We’ve been suffering from escalating institutional dysfunction for ninety years, so I wouldn’t be blowing the old horn about our system.

  20. Time fer another Twofer:

    1) Feeling a little ‘On Edge’? Techno Fog offers a little consolation:

    Election 2024: The Day Before

    ..the Democrats are wrecked with worry.

    We have documented the polling trends for the last couple of months. The movement from September 10, 2024 to the present day, November 1, has Republicans feeling confident. Victory isn’t guaranteed, but it’s safe to say that leadership is cautiously optimistic.

    For what it’s worth, here’s Karoline Leavitt (Trump’s Press Secretary) discussing their internal polling: “Our internal polls have President Trump leading in every single key battleground state.

    You expect a campaign to say that – but that doesn’t mean she’s wrong. In fact, early voting results indicate motivated Republicans and suggest potential problems with Democrat turnout. There’s an enthusiasm gap.

    If even half of Trump’s Admin ‘n Staff are a sharp as Karoline Leavitt is – then I will gladly eat my words about Trump lacking Basic Leadership Ability! Just noticed her yesterday—and she leaves Left-wing reporters speechless…speechless as in afraid to say anything else lest she shreds that before it fully leaves their mouths!!!

    2) Donald Trump hunting for the support of 200K Americans eligible to vote in Israel

    A one-time Democrat living in Israel says he proudly cast his ballot for former President Trump in a swing state — and says he is far from alone.

    “I have been a lifelong Democrat. But that changed in October of last year. Sadly, I feel like the Democratic Party is not the same as it was even five years ago,” said Netanel Worthy, 37, who mailed his vote for Trump in the battleground state of Arizona in September. “I changed my party registration to Republican about six months ago. I know many that are following suit.”

    His vote highlights a state that appears to be solidly behind Donald Trump — the Jewish State.

  21. The Gramscian march to insanity continues apace. The wacky school, Fairhaven College, attached to my alma mater is holding a forum entitled “Let Us Vote!”
    Youth Voting Rights in the USA and Globally in support of lowering the voting age in the US to 16.

    Fairhaven was the alternative college of the day– someplace for the hippies/communists to hang out. Apparently it hasn’t changed in the last 55 years.

  22. Janet Parshall comments, “who says this isn’t a spiritual battle”. I certainly agree.

    Social media forums like Reddit’s WitchesVsPatriarchy reveal the efforts of some witches to cast spells against Trump, such as the popular “freezer spell,” where his name is frozen in water to block his influence. However, several practitioners claim their spells aren’t making an impact, with some saying that Trump seems to have a spiritual “shield” that is somehow protecting him from their magic.

    It May Be A Little Late For A Halloween Story, But Witches Are Struggling To Hex Trump
    https://timesofamerica.news/it-may-be-a-little-late-for-a-halloween-story-but-witches-are-struggling-to-hex-trump/

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