Notices by Nicholas Sarwark (nsarwark@universeodon.com), page 2

Stop killing people.

Stop taxing food.

Stop prohibiting housing.

#Libertarian

There are people who I know who have supported Tulsi Gabbard in the past.

I would urge them to read Timothy Snyder's article before supporting Tulsi Gabbard in the future.

https://snyder.substack.com/p/tulsi-gabbard-holds-the-knife

https://www.the-reframe.com/they-know-exactly-what-theyre-doing/

“The only people taking this as "gospel" have been members of the media unwilling to ask the tough questions and AI founders that don't know what the fuck they're talking about (or that intend to mislead). Generative AI's products have effectively been trapped in amber for over a year. There have been no meaningful, industry-defining products, because, as economist Daron Acemoglu said back in May, "more powerful" models do not unlock new features, or really change the experience, nor what you can build with transformer-based models. Or, put another way, a slightly better white elephant is still a white elephant. ”

https://www.wheresyoured.at/godot-isnt-making-it/

“Anyway, there’s something Abe did during The Failed War to Preserve Slavery, which was celebrated in his day as one of the greatest things any president has ever done with their power, and which is still celebrated in those terms today.

He issued a presidential proclamation—Proclamation 95, which emancipated all the enslaved people within the states that were (in the interests of their supremacy) fighting to destroy the union. Proclamation 95 was a tactical document in many ways, designed more to destabilize the traitors’ ability to wage war than to end the institution of human slavery. It was designed to weaken the opposing armies, and to give Abe and the armies he commanded space to win the literal fight before them—the thing that was immediate and urgent.”

https://www.the-reframe.com/a-foolish-proposal/

“It’s very important,” said Taylor, the 73-year-old conference organizer who speaks with a difficult-to-place patrician accent. “These people can lose their jobs. Their girlfriends could jilt them. I mean, that's the kind of society we live in."

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/confronting-hate/inside-the-influential-white-supremacist-conference-that-calls-tennessee-home-away-from-home

Games have shaped our world in myriad ways and Kelly Clancy's “Playing With Reality” makes the history and future of game theory fascinating.

Definitely worth picking up a copy.

https://open.substack.com/pub/nsarwark/p/playing-with-reality-how-games-have?r=15fsdm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

“John Tower went down for these same kinds of issues,” Blumenthal said. “I don’t think it’s a partisan issue.”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/pete-hegseths-secret-history

“The goal of right-wing politics, aka “conservatism,” is a society defined by authority and hierarchy, full stop. There is no particular inherent policy content to this, as it has taken on a remarkable elasticity of forms across history.”

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-11-27-dr-strangekennedy-jfk-jr/

“Another early adopter (July 1951) was a similarly ultra-right publication from Virginia entitled The Individualist. “Every individual has inalienable rights that all just persons must respect,” says the editor of the white supremacist periodical devoted to the idea that Jews are Communists who pose an existential threat to the nation.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/sethcotlar/p/those-funny-fluoride-fighters-were?r=15fsdm&selection=76f3b270-eb72-405a-8f3e-2c53adf50384&utm_campaign=post-share-selection&utm_medium=web

“But don’t those countries have more security in the form of better welfare states? To a degree, but it’s not the security to live at an American standard of living. The UK jobseekers’ allowance (unemployment insurance) is £70-90 a week (or $89-114). That’s it. A little under £5,000 a year. Most Americans I’ve mentioned this to find that preposterously low, but that’s only because they’re viewing it in the context of American wages.

In contrast, the US left has long held $15/hr (or $31,000/yr full time) to be the bare minimum and, increasingly, through both legislation and a good labour market, wages are catching up to that. On average, that’s what the barista mentioned earlier earns, and many service workers are able to claim $18-20/ HR, or around $40,000 annually.

In many countries this is what doctors earn. In the UK, the salary for an NHS Junior Doctor is £32,000 ($40,000).”

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/a-disease-of-affluence/

@fu thank you for catching it, edited.

“The Democratic Party will undoubtedly debate how it should present itself going forward. That is what we expect of losing parties. There will be arguments about what policies it should or should not abandon and what rhetorical concessions to make. But I am not writing as a Democratic functionary, and in the spirit of the Adamses I want to reach above and beyond party interest to say plainly that I still believe in the open society, in the principles of pluralism, freedom, and mutual toleration. Even when they prove unpopular and unpersuasive, I believe in them still.”

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/now-is-not-the-time-for-moral-flexibility-the-example-of-john-quincy-adams/

People move to places where they can pursue their own happiness.

Some people want to pursue happiness through procreation.

They move to where other people share their pursuit and they can be more successful in achieving their goals.

Freedom of migration is a human right.

#thisIBelieve

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-08-16/japan-miracle-town-birth-rate-depopulation-crisis

@fu they have not become a person yet.

With wealth taxes in the news, a 1976 short story by a beloved children's author is relevant again and makes a nice Saturday morning read.

https://open.substack.com/pub/nsarwark/p/on-pomperipossa?r=15fsdm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

“It's the idea that women are people, that Black people are people, that sick and disabled people are people, that people in poverty are people, that foreigners are people, that all people are people, that being a person is not a matter of being able to afford it or earn it, and that everyone has earned life already.”

https://www.the-reframe.com/fighting-in-the-dark/

@nroming @pluralistic

I second that recommendation.

The work starts now.

When Ross Ulbricht is given clemency, I will celebrate that mercy shown to a victim of the racist war on drugs.

There will be no celebration for a man who wants to add the death penalty to the racist war on drugs.

Those who chose the latter to get the former should meditate.

It's my first election as neither a candidate, party official, nor paid campaign consultant. Who I'm voting for and who I'm betting on in the 2024 election.

https://open.substack.com/pub/nsarwark/p/on-election-day-2024?r=15fsdm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

#Libertarian