what ultimately is the status of the Francis Scott Key Bridge reconstruction funding?

“Donald Trump, alleged leader of…populist Republicans, scuttled a spending bill primarily to shield the richest man in the world’s investments in China and the profits of UnitedHealth Group, owners of the second-largest pharmacy benefit manager.” @ddayen.bsky.social prospect.org/politics/202...

break ‘em up.

that’s a problem.

i mean, you might think very old dudes understand that the sliver of living we have left is much less important than the world we cede to our children. but i guess my back aches. i'd like some mashed potatoes.

do we have no one in government who understands the stakes of government are much larger than their own careers and personal lives?

it seems like ceding Donbas without much of a fight. we think Musk's behavior and intercession here was reprehensible, dangerous. he broke important norms and put effective governance at risk. but they stop being norms when others cease to enforce them. why on Earth wouldn't Musk pull this again?

so Musk interceded as a chaos monkey (as @pkrugman.bsky.social put it), but the end result is he + Republicans have a deal they'd prefer to the original, that we disprefer? we spent the last 24 hrs mocking thr incompetence. we're the sensible ones. but if chaos outplays us that seems, well, wrong.

"your subscription will renew" is such a nice way of saying "we will take your money".

none. my interlocutor wants to reserve the right to become a billionaire so that he could do so. i love bullet trains! i'd support the project. but i want a democratic state and collaborative social capital behind it.

it'd really suck if your family had planned a trip — maybe bought plane tickets, prepaid a hotel room — to one of America's national parks over the break.

[new draft post] Wreckresentative democracy drafts.interfluidity.com/2024/12/20/w...

that's why we have a state and a financial system, to deploy substantial portion's of society's capital behind socially worthwhile projects. you participate and collaborate to help get it done. you don't get to just be dictator, even if the outcomes you want to dictate are ones you think virtuous.

you can live quite nicely. when you want to deploy social resources at a serious scale, you need to collaborate with other people’s. that should not be a unilateral, individual choice.

$100M would be a more than sufficient wealth cap.

i wonder if Trump has so internalized the idea that money is the game of life’s ultimate scorecard that he just can’t defy Elon, a man two orders of magnitude greater than he is.

setting tips in envelopes outside seems to be asking for trouble. i’m paranoid when i leave a cash tip in a little billfold on an outdoor table.

it’s a slippery slope, though. if you come up to the bar to order your drink, get it handed to you, then walk off to rejoin your friends at some table, how is that different from ordering a sandwich at the counter?

do you (or, if you are like me, did you when you were younger) tip at bars?