Another explanation

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by liberal japonicus I’m interested in the whole possible terrorism attack against the RAF base at Fairford, and the US bug-out (it seems to be something of a specialty for the US). Here’s the Guardian and the details, as I understand them, there were 5 men in three vans who were stopped near the base, … Read more

First and Last men

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by liberal japonicus I’ve never had much time for Francis Fukuyama, I felt like his thesis about the End of History was warmed over Hegel, and I never really registered him as a Japanese-American, so this Ones and Tooze podcast was quite interesting to me. Tooze discusses how Fukuyama’s personal history influenced his intellectual development … Read more

Open Thread

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This in today from Brian Beutler:The New RadicalsDemocrats need to be the uncompromising ones now.Brian BeutlerSep 30 Over the past year and a half I’ve warned promiscuously about the dangers of “funding Donald Trump’s government.” I’ve taken to referring to bipartisan spending bills, which have passed with Democrats casting decisive votes, as “enabling” legislation. This … Read more

Huanging everyone out to dry

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by liberal japonicus Another day, another post about AI and another thing with Ezra Klein. Huang is on a tour, I see him talking with all sorts of people, hitting on the same points, which is there is nothing to worry about and nothing to see here. Huang is a pretty interesting character, his lifestory … Read more

David Brooks, now with added vocal fry!

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by liberal japonicus Perhaps I’m being overly grumpy, but with Ezra Klein forgoing the guest and giving an earnest solo performance suggests to me he is slipping into Brooks’ role. And I should add, Klein is missing something that almost everyone else does as well, which is the whole AI narrative is that these problems … Read more

病菌与钢铁 redux

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by liberal japonicus A decent discussion of the approaches to AI in China versus the US is found here, but to me, because it starts from a misguided assumption, is China and the US are playing the same game with regards to AI, they can’t see the forest for the trees. The US and China … Read more

Seaxna cynn hit is, la!

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by liberal japonicus A thread to invite Hartmut and any others to weigh in on the AfD’s electoral victory in Saxony-Anhalt. This was the Rest is Politics duo talk to German journalist Paul Ronzheimerx and I wonder what other points people might raise. The title is just to note that English speakers might be more … Read more