Danny Deck

A couple of interesting things on this topic in the last week or so: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/magazine/ny-public-schools-black-students-segregation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ClE.cxxx.16Z3qz-t7Ika&smid=url-share https://www.theringer.com/podcasts/plain-english-with-derek-thompson/2026/09/18/the-truth-about-mississippis-education-miracle

At some point I would expect them to take the lesson of the sunk cost fallacy. They would have been way better off accepting the Partition in 1947 and never taking up arms against Israel. It might have been a raw deal, but nothing that has happened subsequently has improved their position. In fact they immediately made their position significantly worse by declaring war. Maybe the current gambit of sacrificing thousands of Palestinians in the hopes of turning the rest of the world sufficiently against Israel will work out, but I see no reason to bet on it or to believe the hoped for end justified the means.

I don't even know what my hot take would be about his best songs would be. I do know that the ones I've been listening to a ton lately are: Isis Cold Irons Bound (live from 2011) Early Roman Kings I'm thinking about adding Up To Me to the rotation, but I'm not sure which version I like best.

"The other accused shooter, Marquise Tolbert, was also initially charged with murder and assault in the case and was found not guilty. However, he pleaded guilty to an unlawful possession of a firearm charge." So did they get scared they'd lose on this guy's case too and so had him plead to a lesser charge to be sure he faced some punishment?

I think he's talking about these: https://lapublicpress.org/2025/03/los-angeles-tiny-homes-problems-investigation-homelessness/

As I said, they were given good but incomplete advice.

Given how the DSA is mostly made up of college graduates who make less than 60K a year, I'm not sure that's exactly right. It seems to me it's mostly they're mad they were told to go to college and it would solve all your problems, and they're mad it didn't. So they want to blow up a system that gave them good, but incomplete advice.

90% of Utah votes by mail and Republicans have held all statewide offices and both houses of the legislature for 25 years.

https://www.270towin.com/news/2025/07/28/2024-election-every-state-allocated-electoral-votes-like-maine-nebraska_1754.html

Crypto can serve a purpose. The two best use cases as I understand it are if you happen to be wealthy in a country with a volatile currency, it would make sense to hold your wealth in crypto that's pegged to the USD. It can also be much easier to send money across borders, which can be nefarious, but also has many valid uses. In the US it seems like it's useful to buy drugs and other illegal items and to gamble, but not much else.

Gorsuch's dissent is interesting to me. He seems to believe that the children born to illegal immigrants who are domiciled in the US are citizens, but dissented because he believes that children born to people in the US on temporary visas should not be citizens. This seems like a reasonable interpretation that does cut out birth tourism, but does not address the vast majority of cases that the ban was intended to address.

https://www.imightbewrong.org/p/you-have-missed-the-deadline-to-become "So: If not to persuade, then what is the point of this activism? We’re forced to speculate. And since I’m forced…here goes: This has nothing to do with Palestine. Some people find their identity by crusading against “the enemy”, whoever that may be. People like that rally around the fashionable cause of the moment, which today is Palestine. Yesterday, the cause was police abolition, before that it was climate change, those causes have been largely abandoned despite very little having changed because affecting change is not the goal — affirming one’s identity is the goal. Performative activism is not a means to an end; it is the end, and that’s why the maker of the video felt that harassing a guy until he left a public event was — by itself — a victory."

https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/06/supreme-court-strikes-down-trumps-order-ending-birthright-citizenship/ The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship – the guarantee of citizenship to virtually everyone born in the United States. In a decision by Chief Justice John Roberts, in Trump v. Barbara, the justices agreed with the challengers, as well as all of the lower courts around the country that have considered the issue, that Trump’s order cannot be reconciled with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which confers citizenship on anyone “born … in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Writing for the majority, Roberts emphasized that the “children born of parents unlawfully or temporarily present in the United States” “satisfy both elements of the Citizenship Clause.” “Under the Constitution,” he concluded, “they are citizens at birth.”

I'm not sure how much can be drawn from this. Dominion was purchased by someone who based on a surface level search probably has significantly less interest in pursuing Lindell. Lindell is already not paying a number of judgments against him, so even if they saw this through, it would only be a symbolic victory more than likely. They already got both the symbolic and monetary victory from Fox. The suit was dismissed following a confidential settlement. The only thing we know about the settlement is that both sides will pay their own attorney fees. I would say that is somewhat in favor of Lindell, but I don't think it portends some huge revelations are in the offing about all of this. Again, it seems the simplest explanation is that the new owner doesn't feel nearly as aggrieved about what was said about Dominion in 2020 and wants to move on and not have the company's new name associated with Dominion (but I'm sure does want to maintain the contracts).

As mentioned in the books thread, I'm reading Empire of Liberty right now. I did not realize how early on county fairs were introduced in the US. I think they are a fun piece of Americana and it's good to celebrate them as part of the 250th. I do wish this was part of America250 rather than Freedom 250.

NFL declines to hold a supplemental draft for Sorsby. Sorsby's attorney says they'll look at their options under the CBA and through the NFLPA. Letter is pretty definitive.

But like, left wing accelerationism exists. I think fundamentally they're mad at the world and want to see its destruction and whatever ideology you want to ascribe to them is layered on top of that fundamental motivation. They're Marlon Brando in The Wild One: "Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?" "Whaddaya got?"

Here's the points from the MOU. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-16/read-the-14-point-draft-memorandum-between-the-us-and-iran?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4MTY1NjY2MywiZXhwIjoxNzgyMjYxNDYzLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUR1FUVkRUOTZPU0cwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiI4M0Q4RjJERjFDQzA0MDFFQTlBNjg1RjY3N0FGQURERiJ9.Bq9TVRVNXZu1ep06Y3KiLnhlcb9SQ_ZKska1ZbY8yVM&leadSource=uverify wall

I agree, it appears to me that someone who was a member of the chat leaked it. That's very different from breaking the encryption. It would depend on who broke the encryption. If it were a private party I suspect they would announce it because it would be quite the calling card for their skills. If it were the government, they would most likely have to reveal it during a criminal case because how they came into possession of the messages would an issue in the case. Although I admit I'm no Criminal Procedure expert.

I care that's why I asked. You made an assertion you apparently don't have evidence for. Do you now agree there is no evidence encryption was broken?

What's your evidence that encryption was broken?

I really liked Freedom's Forge. I didn't know he had another book out, I'll have to look into it.

With the 250th just around the corner, and the news that Gordon Wood died, I'm finally diving into his book "Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815." It is very well written so far. It is part of the Oxford History of the United States series. It is the 4th book in the series that I've read. The other three, The Glorious Cause (Revolution), Battle Cry of Freedom (Civil War) and The Republic For Which It Stands (Reconstruction/Gilded Age) are all uniformly excellent as well. Anyone else have any early US history reading on deck around the 4th?

I agree that all property destruction and rioting is bad, and should be punished. In general I agree with you that there is tremendous merit in broken windows policing. My point was more about how people can live in wholly different realities thanks to algorithms. I haven't actually spoken to my friend who shared the video of the guys helping the sanitation workers, but it would be interesting to know what videos she saw of violence during the celebrations. This morning on the way to work I was listening to a podcast where one host was a born and raised Knicks fan and while they acknowledged some violence, they said it seemed to them most people were on good behavior. NYC is a big place that presumably had celebrations happening everywhere. People's experience of those celebrations probably varied widely even if they were taking part in them. Once you only know of them from social media that limited viewpoint can ironically become even more limited.

Sorsby declared for the supplemental NFL draft ending the circus for CFB at least. Curious if anyone will take the chance.