Althouse: At the Saturday Night Café...

April 8, 2023

At the Saturday Night Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

29 comments:

Original Mike said...: Minnesota leading Quinnipiac 2-1 in the 2nd period of the National Championship. Good game.

Quinnipiac vs Michigan Thursday night was a whale of a hockey game.; 4/8/23, 8:07 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Gedankenexperiment: If you are on a road with two lanes going in your direction of travel, and you are approaching a red stoplight where each of the two lanes already has one car waiting. What lane will you go into? You want to choose to stop behind the car that will be the most likely to quickly accelerate after the light turns green, what lane should you go into? One lane has a black seventh gen GTI, and the other has a white Model 3 with a chrome license plate frame where the shape of the license plate frame is a stylistically jagged around the perimeter, sorta like those tribal tattoos that weirdos have around their arms (no offense intended re the many Althouse readers with these tattoos).

In general, a GTI driver probably tends to be someone that chose a GTI because they don’t want a dilly dally car. That’s the point of a GTI, it’s a driver’s car. But lots of Tesla owners are dilly dally drivers even though the car could be quick. Does the totally lame tribal pattern license plate frame indicate that we’re dealing w/ one of the Tesla owners that don’t dilly dally? A dilly dally Tesla owner is probably not going through the process of screwing on a chrome license plate frame that is considered cool in flyover-America (no offense intended re the parts of the greatest country on earth that happen (coincidence?) to be removed from the parts of the country that make US the greatest country re other countries (FTR the xenophobia and insular-ism that is popular in Red Pill America is stuff that is the default in the world, it’s what makes countries NOT-GREAT (that’s a throwback to when Althouse was experimenting w/ typing stuff in all caps, it was terrible when she did it, and it was still terrible when I just did it, IMHO)).

This exact situation did happen to me. And I assumed that the Model 3 owner was a DD (i.e. double douche = prick and jerk), i.e. a Tesla owner and a lame brain. The license plate frame seemed like concrete evidence re earning a second D. So I’d assume this DD was gonna floor it and hustle.

But, I was wrong. The GTI got away much faster when the light turned green. I sat behind the Tesla wondering about the plight re humanity.

Maybe there’s such a thing as a triple D, I think I was fooled by one of them.

IDK.

P.S. I was in an old Porsche worth at the very least nine hundred (though to many so-called car enthusiasts it may be mistaken for a vintage Porsche that could be wroth between a hundred or two, not to mention that the vast majority of the population probably think the car looks like an old Poorsh which seems like a squished VW bug, these folks probably assume it’s worth whatever they make a year, plus or minus fifty percent.) Anywho, I throw this in a as a data point. For science, it’s wroth noting that I often drive cars that influence drivers around me. Maybe that happened here. IDK.; 4/8/23, 8:48 PM
Original Mike said...: Q. ties it up, 2-2 with 2 to play!; 4/8/23, 9:22 PM
Original Mike said...: WOW. What a finish!

Sorry, gophers (hee hee hee).; 4/8/23, 9:49 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Insider: "Uber's CEO became an undercover boss in a used Tesla and was surprised by how rude some riders can be"

Khosrowshahi said he would try to keep customers happy by offering them charging cables and making Spotify playlists featuring artists including Taylor Swift and The National.

Five Uber drivers recently interviewed by Insider said they frequently encountered rudeness, no tips, late arrivals, and requests for stops at drive-thrus or convenience stores.

#CanConfirm both.

I don't mind pax talking on the phone, I do mind, however, when they start munching away on something they bring in without notice.; 4/9/23, 12:13 AM
Gospace said...: This is related to an earlier post- and what I posted on Facebook about it:
***
"A trove of leaked Pentagon documents reveals how deeply Russia’s security and intelligence services have been penetrated by the United States..."
A today's headline. True or not true? Are they actual real documents? If real- What's the motivation for leaking? Is it actually misinformation to get the Russian security services to conduct a mole hunt for a non-existent mole to disrupt their activities? Or- is a leak from someone in the intelligence services who is a Soviet sympathizer to cue the Russians in that they have a security problem?
The spy game is wonderfully convoluted. TBH- I'm not going to read anything deeper then headlines about this- because nothing the MSM can be trusted. Nor can anything from the government. AS per a previous post- after just two centuries of being a high trust society- government has destroyed that ideal is less then 2 years. With, of course, DemoncRATs in charge. Great job!
***

Think about it. Do you actually know if the leak is a real leak? Who does it help if it's real? Who does it help if it's fake?

Oh, my previous post I referred to? It's a meme= with a peasant lady (from her dress style) pointing out to the uniformed commie with a tommy gun- "That one is sharing info from unapproved sources!" Unapproved sources- the ones that have been far more correct than the approved sources like Fauci and the NIH and CDC for the last few years. And Karens did call for reprobates like me to be imprisoned because I refuesed to receive a vaccine that wasn't. Switerland now recommend the covid vaccine for- NOBODY. Doctors who prescribe it can now be held accountable for any bad effects. That from Robert Malone's substack:
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/news-from-the-front-lines

And in another post today- is Mifepristone really safe and effective? Effective, apparently. Rerequires a warped definition of safe to be called safe. But then- numerous other commenters called that out.

The really odd thing about pro and anti-abortion advocates who post about it on my Facebook pages. They are, all of them, female. I don't post about the subjecct in general. I'm not a supporter- but if a woman is raped and get's pregnant- the decision should be between her and God, not her and the state. For a woman who fails to practice birth control- well, too bad, so sad. Wait 8 months? Sorry, shouldn't be able to have one. Where's the divifing line?Liberal white women and DemoncRATs say there isn't one.It's all or nothing. Any attempt at a compromise where "I don't like it, but, we can allow it if..." with any tme restriction at all is not tolerable. And to the women on my Facebook feed who are anti-abortion, there is also no compromiwse. The justices who found a right to abortion in the Constitution were wrong. And created an absolute no compromise group of people on both sides. The middle will never have their way on it. And the middle is- the vast majority.

Also wrong? The judges who find that mentally ill men must be allowed to play on women's sports teams and must be treated as women because equality demands it. Reality, on the other hand, doesn't. Neither does equa;ity for that matter. Again- liberal white women seem to be onboard with this absurdity. Why? Are they also suffering from mass mental illness?; 4/9/23, 2:22 AM
Rockeye said...: It's quiet. Too quiet.; 4/9/23, 3:48 AM
wendybar said...: This trans movement is getting dangerous. They are becoming domestic terrorists right in front of all of us, yet the left defends this.

https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2023/04/08/riley-gaines-says-to-imagine-if-the-roles-were-reversed-and-an-lgbtq-person-was-held-for-ransom/; 4/9/23, 4:36 AM
Humperdink said...: In the wake of Riley Gaines being assaulted, barricaded, and held for ransom at San Francisco State, the VP of Student Affairs Jamillah Moore responds:

" ..These encounters have sometimes led to discord, anger, confrontation, and fear. We must meet this moment and unite with a shared value of learning. Thank you to our students who participated peacefully in Thursday evening’s event. It took tremendous bravery to stand in a challenging space. I am proud of the moments where we listened and asked insightful questions. I am also proud of the moments when our students demonstrated the value of free speech and the right to protest peacefully."

https://www.independentsentinel.com/clown-worlds-latest-san-francisco-state-responds-to-attack-of-riley-gaines/; 4/9/23, 5:34 AM
Humperdink said...: In the spring of 1970, I was a freshman at Penn State. Viet Nam war protesting was accelerating at an accelerating rate. War protestors at PSU decided the time was right to take over the administration building Old Main, which they did. The governor called in the state police, who amassed at the Beaver Stadium that night. My buddies and I went up to the stadium and counted 300 state police vehicles rolling in, 4 policemen to a car. They were all in riot gear. We talked to few of them pleasantly through the fence. We were not on the side of the miscreants.

The next day, blue school buses pulled up to Old Main. The protest ended in rapid fashion. One by one the protestors were hauled out. That ended that.

What a difference 50 years makes. Our recent governor Tom Wolf (D-Fraud) marched arm-in-arm with BLM protestors, all the while enforcing his lockdown for us peons.; 4/9/23, 5:57 AM
wendybar said...: THIS is what dividing the country looks like. Meanwhile he is holding political prisoners in the DC gulag for doing less....I can't hate the left more than I do, and I say that every single day lately.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2023/04/08/biden-invites-expelled-tennessee-democrats-to-the-white-house-n2621707; 4/9/23, 6:15 AM
wendybar said...: Say what you will, but Democrats don't give a SHIT about gun control, when they refuse to acknowledge the Tranny murderer, and the kids they murdered. They are more upset that Democrats who aren't following the rules THEY set got canned. They can fuck themselves. This is the most embarrassing administration in my lifetime, and Obama was the most divisive. He did fundamentally change America in the hell hole they Democrats are ramming down our throats.
https://therightscoop.com/kamala-harris-plans-sudden-visit-to-nashville-but-its-not-why-youd-think/; 4/9/23, 6:26 AM
Josephbleau said...: Regarding the expulsion of the Tennessee insurrectionist / free speechists, there is no longer any civility. At long last there is only raw political power. Do what you will, your opponent will do worse, and there it is.

There is now no right or wrong in politics, only power. The indictments and double standard justice, censorship and culture wars, abortion, sex change, global warming, are just noise, it means nothing. Only a pathway to power.; 4/9/23, 6:35 AM
Scott Patton said...: squabble=playing scrabble with young pigeons.; 4/9/23, 7:31 AM
MadTownGuy said...: From one of those NYT emails that I get from having a trial subscription some years ago...

"Good morning. Tipping norms haven’t kept up with delivery apps and changes in how people buy food

No protocol

For delivery drivers, every shift is a game of gig economy roulette: Will customers tip? And if they do, how much? The answers determine their livelihoods.

“It’s like gambling,” Brantley Bush, an Uber Eats driver, told my colleague Kellen Browning, a technology reporter.

Kellen rode along with drivers in wealthy Los Angeles neighborhoods, pulling up to gated estates to deliver food to millionaires. Tips varied widely. Bush once received a $130 tip from Doc Rivers, the former Los Angeles Clippers coach. Some customers tipped nothing.

There is no collective understanding of what we owe delivery drivers in tips. While established etiquette governs tipping in restaurants, a clear protocol is lacking for apps. This confusion is one reason for the wide variation in the tips delivery drivers receive. Let me explain."

...continued, following...; 4/9/23, 7:36 AM
MadTownGuy said...: "Undertipping on apps

Tipping for food service used to be straightforward. We added around 20 percent to restaurant bills, dropped spare change in tip jars and had cash on hand for pizza deliveries and takeout.

Tipping has not only been entrenched in American life but also formalized as part of the economy. The U.S. is unusual among developed countries in allowing tipped workers to make below the minimum wage, sometimes as low as $2.13 an hour.

Delivery apps upended these norms in two ways.

First, apps have changed the timing of a tip. Delivery services like Uber Eats and DoorDash ask people to tip when they order, unraveling the logic that a tip is compensation for good service. Customers now aren’t sure what they are paying workers for or how much they should give.

Second, apps have transformed what was once an in-person exchange into a digital transaction. This depersonalizes the tip and can discourage generous tipping. While diners in restaurants can see the work of servers, apps obscure the work of delivery drivers. Customers may not meet the driver at all, given the option of no-contact delivery.

“Drivers wonder why people aren’t tipping more,” Kellen told me. “They’ve realized most people aren’t thinking about the human element that goes into delivering their food.”

The possibility of overtipping
In the absence of clear norms for tipping on apps, many customers are picking the path of least resistance: the app’s suggested tip.

This behavior gives power to technology companies to determine the gratuity. The size and placement of a tip button on an app can influence a customer’s selection or make it harder to opt out of a tip. If no tip screen appears, customers are less likely to seek it out. This exposes workers to wage fluctuation.

These design choices don’t just affect workers; they’re also upending the customers’ experience. Digital payment platforms are prompting customers to tip in places where tipping didn’t previously exist, like supermarkets, mechanics’ garages and dog kennels. Now, many wonder: Should they tip for snacks at a convenience store? Is it rude to select “No tip” when buying groceries? No one seems to know, and new tipping guides offer directives.

Brian X. Chen, a Times tech columnist, has described these design choices as coercive. He wrote that these types of tips may be investigated as part of the government’s crackdown on “junk fees,” extra costs that businesses profit from while adding little to no value.

“Tipping has gotten out of control, and people are getting really frustrated,” Brian told me. “It’s a source of confusion that ultimately affects everyone, workers and customers alike.”

The bolded text in the next to last paragraph confuses me. How is a tip to the employee a business "junk fee" if it goes to the employee, not the business, and why would the government get involved in cracking down on something that, presumably, the business itself gains no profit? Gotta have something for all those new hires at the IRS to do, I guess.; 4/9/23, 7:36 AM
jaydub said...: Hey Spazz. I assume you wrecked that stolen Porsche. Did your daddy find out? Bainbridge is not a big enough a place for you to be pulling that kine of shit without him knowing. Don't get grounded. There are some guys at school who need your lunch money.; 4/9/23, 7:42 AM
mongo said...: Gospace said, "...AS per a previous post- after just two centuries of being a high trust society- government has destroyed that ideal is less then 2 years."

I don't agree. I date the erosion of trust back to around the time of LBJ, and continuing to the present day. I will say that it is one of those things that seems to happen first slowly then all at once.; 4/9/23, 7:51 AM
tim in vermont said...: Lol, Wisconsin.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/election-bribery-or-gotv-pac-allegedly-pays-people-vote-progressive; 4/9/23, 7:58 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "... a vintage Porsche that could be wroth between a hundred or two..."

What's it like when you're waxing wroth?; 4/9/23, 8:18 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Groucho answers my question."; 4/9/23, 8:21 AM
MadTownGuy said...: More about the IRS:

"IRS pledges more audits of wealthy, better customer service

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS released details Thursday on how it plans to use an infusion of $80 billion for improved operations, pledging to invest in new technology, hire more customer service representatives and expand its ability to audit high-wealth taxpayers.

While some Republicans have suggested without evidence that the money from the Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill would help create a mob of armed auditors to harass middle-class taxpayers, new IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said it will not include spending for new agents with guns.

The agency’s newly released strategic operating plan lays out the specifics of how the IRS will allocate the $80 billion, through fiscal year 2031, that was approved in that legislation.

Some improvements have been long expected, such as bringing more paper-based systems online and answering taxpayers’ phone calls promptly. Others are more ambitious: continuing to explore ways to create a government-operated electronic free-file tax return system, for example.

No hiring boost is foreseen for the criminal investigation unit, which represents 3% of the agency’s workforce and employed roughly 2,077 special agents as of the 2022 budget year, according to the IRS’ annual report. Those are the agents who may be armed.

There are “no plans to increase” that division, Werfel said during a call with reporters. “That will stay at its current rate.”

Since President Joe Biden signed the measure, known as the “ the Inflation Reduction Act, ” in August, some Republicans have claimed the IRS would use the new money to hire an army of 87,000 tax agents with weapons.

That claim comes from a plan the Treasury Department proposed in 2021 to bring on that many IRS employees over the next decade if it got the money. At least 50,000 IRS employees are expected to retire over the next five years.

The strategic plan does not include final numbers on long-term hiring.

During the call with reporters, Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the plan “is heavily driven by the fact that we need to make technology investments that will improve productivity, which will mean that over time the number of employees and the mix of employees at the IRS will change.”

More at the link.; 4/9/23, 11:59 AM
wendybar said...: DC_Draino
@DC_Draino
·
Apr 7
They banned a sitting US President from social media

Subpoenaed & arrested thousands of his supporters

Raided his home with the FBI

And then indicted & arrested him after he announced his ‘24 run

Don’t listen to these hypocrites pretending to care about “fascism” in Tennessee; 4/9/23, 1:35 PM
walter said...: "Digital payment platforms are prompting customers to tip in places where tipping didn’t previously exist, like supermarkets, mechanics’ garages and dog kennels"
--
There's also begging for donations to whatever charity a supermarket wants to support.
You're not against __, are you?; 4/9/23, 1:38 PM
wendybar said...: Oli London
@OliLondonTV
Kamala Harris in Nashville ⬇️⬇️

•She didn’t meet the families of the victims of the shooting.

•She didn’t attend their funerals.

•She barely made reference to them in her speech.

• She didn’t visit the local community

Her whole trip to Nashville was all about showing support to the 3 democrat lawmakers who were expelled from the Tennessee House for organising an insurrection.; 4/9/23, 1:39 PM
Narr said...: "I often drive cars that influence drivers around me."

There's that nut! Pull over! Pull over!; 4/9/23, 1:45 PM
wendybar said...: "I'd grown up fearing the lynch mobs of the Ku Klux Klan; as an adult, I was starting to wonder if I'd been afraid of the wrong white people all along. My worst fears had come to pass not in Georgia but in Washington, D.C., where I was being pursued not by bigots in white robes but by left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony." - Justice Clarence Thomas, excerpt from his book, "My Grandfather's Son"; 4/9/23, 1:45 PM
Sprezzatura said...: “in Washington, D.C., where I was being pursued not by bigots in white robes but by left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony." “

Right, if you can’t implement sexual abuse against a black lady that works for you, then blah blah blah……..and pity party re flying private and getting gifts and money for my wife……I got it so bad cause of the left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony.”

In 100 years he will be 100% considered a massive POS. That’s if he’s lucky and we continue to have a lot of dummies in this country, such that there are a few holdouts that will make getting to 100% tricky. Even considering our country’s population of holdout dummies, he could still get to 100% POS status in fifty years. He’s that awful. The only reason some people “like” him today is because he’s a tool. Crow pays dough toward him and his wife and gives him gifts because he’s a tool. If he wasn’t on the SCOTUS Crow would have nothing to do w/ him. As we know because before he was on the SCOTUS, Crow had nothing to do with him.

A sexual predator and a grifter that used his power to entrench the elite and add to the burdens of normal people. The opposite of a role model for America.; 4/9/23, 6:57 PM
wendybar said...: Sprezzatura said...

Right, if you can’t implement sexual abuse against a black lady that works for you, then blah blah blah

Asking people out for dates and flirting are NOT SEXUAL ABUSE, it MAY be sexual harassment, but people like you spewing lies doesn't help.; 4/10/23, 4:20 AM