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wow, pretty far out. as the WaPo reporters said, lots of smoke, no fire. the interesting thing was how little these republican (!) politicians cared about their colleaguesâ alleged queerness personally. the fear was if these politicians got security clearance and they really were queer, the KGB could find out and blackmail them; which the article says happened to a cryptographer and I forget the second oneâs job, but point being it had happened at least twice prior to this alleged conspiracy.
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Interesting how much confusion and inefficiency was when the 9/11 attacks occurred.
Something I found surprising - they mostly didnât know where the hijacked planes were and couldnât readily track them. They turned off their transponders and more or less blended in with all the other commercial air traffic. And most of our radar was looking out for inbound aircraft, what radar they had watching the flights inside the borders wasnât really very good.
I would not have thought civilian jet airliners could basically fly stealth missions through our cities. Just assumed they wouldâve known exactly where they were, but didnât know what they were doing. But no, apparently for a lot of the time, they didnât even know where they were.
There was also a lot of confusion about who was in charge of response, and after the first plane was hijacked, then when people started trying to mention others, there was some pushback like âyeah, weâre already dealing with the hijackingâ and âcanât put your call through, theyâre in an emergency meeting about a hijacking, no interruptions!â so it took even longer for them to get info about the later ones.
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Also on the podcast, Douglas Rushkoff, author of the new book Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, describes his experience talking to some very rich people about the âevent.â
This fun segment was all too brief, but Rushkoff mentions Jeffrey Epstein Richard Dawkins, John Brokman, Peter Thiel, etc. He casually mentions that being a billionaire tends to neurologically damage empathy centers,
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How Airlines Quietly Became Banks:
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Before I watch, does it mention Howard Hughes?
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No!
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LOL, I just thought that TWA wouldâve had some weird set-up like that. Thanks! Now Iâll watch it.
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I think a lot of companies in various industries do this. Please correct me if Iâm wrong, but General Motors has GMAC, a mortgage company, and GE did something in this vein to avoid taxes. Iâve heard the term âfinancializationâ used for such things.
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Yeah. You see rewards programs and extended warranties and co-branded credit card offers and affiliate offers absolutely everywhere now - so that partâs not a surprise. However, seeing how much it actually dwarfs the companiesâ legitimate business, that was kinda mind-blowing to me.
Itâs like the video game model these days, only in real-life stuff. Only $20 for the base game, but then you can buy custom skins and in-game currency and chances to earn extra XP and get even cooler skins - and when you look at these companiesâ reports, the actual game sales would be an abysmal tiny fraction of their overall revenue. Or even absolutely none at all in some cases. They make billions from the add-ons, so they can just make the game free to play.
Itâs weird to think of basic logistical things like airlines operating that way though. They havenât quite gone to the âfree-to-flyâ model yet, but it appears they could and still be profitable!
To me, thatâs kinda mind-blowing.
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Or like how movie theaters make a profit off of the concessions.
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Even FDR was in awe/fear of Endicott Peabody. This paragraph alone makes me respect Acheson even more.
When he was sent off to boarding school at Groton â that bastion of elitism where the Auchinclosses and the Harrimans rubbed elbows under the schoolâs domineering rector, Endicott Peabody â Acheson rebelled, graduating at the bottom of his class. As a senior, he published in the Grotonian âThe Snob in America,â a thinly veiled assault on the Groton style. âThe essence of democracy is belief in the common people,â he wrote, âand the essence of snobbery is contempt of them.â When Peabody in exasperation told Achesonâs mother that he could not make a âGroton boyâ out of her son, Mrs. Acheson replied, âDr. Peabody, I didnât send Dean here to have you make a âGroton boyâ out of him. I sent him here to be educated. . . . I will leave him here as long as you think you can succeed, though you give me considerable doubt.â Achesonâs confident and condescending manner derived not from blue blood but from an iron-willed and supremely self-assured mother.
Addendum: Now I wanna find out more about his mom!
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Gotta keep the kids busy so they arenât underfoot when the hunting &/or gathering is going on!
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It shows how our patriarchal view of art is so ingrained that this is a surprise. This activity looks a lot like kindergarten and first grade projects like hands in cement to document a childâs growth. That families would create art together, seems so obvious and natural except that we have turned art into commerce and prestige, instead of the pleasure of creating.
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Yah, the bitching about the Black Little Mermaid might not be so bad if the folks bitching knew the mental & emotional problems (possible pedophile, repressed gay man, et al) HCA had.
My daughter and I read both the original Grimmâs Fairy Tales (or one of the many versions of the original stories they collected), the Hans Christian Anderson Stories, and other folk tales compiled from other cultures (a book a friend recommended but which I canât remember now).
UPDATE: The book of feminist folk tales is Tatterhood.
HCA stories are hands down the worst. They are just so Christian, so male, so saccharine. I HATE the OG Little Mermaid story with a passion. I do like Disneyâs songs, animation, etc. I think what they did with the story is well done within their world.
HOWEVER, if you really want to see how an interpretation of The Little Mermaid is done, I high recommend PONYO.
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I have an old collection of HCAâs stories, illustrated by Arthur Szyk. Thereâs one story thatâs just beautiful, âThe Elder-Tree Motherâ.
This is the book; I remember the story that illustration came from, there was a girl that was a toughie in it, I believe. Sheâs the one on the reindeer. Or maybe sheâs the one standing, with the dagger in her belt.
Natch, I canât find my copy, lol!
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