With what money // What's Good: Jun. 30, 2023

Bad politicians, cool computers, and a vacation.

Jul 01, 2023

Hello, good evening, happy Friday. I mean it’s not that good. Our Supreme Court is ruining the country and I will probably be indebted until I die as a result. Might even die with a bunch of debt assessed against my estate. Super cool. Glad we’ve got that whole tyrannical minority thing going on, seems very healthy for our country.

Still, we get to watch Barbie soon and I have a lot of beer for Tuesday. Important to focus on the small victories.

Lies and blasphemy

You might think this sort of thing would result in professional consequences:

Long before the Supreme Court took up one of the last remaining cases it will decide this session—the 303 Creative v. Elenis case, concerning a Colorado web designer named Lorie Smith who refuses to make websites for same-sex weddings and seeks an exemption from anti-discrimination laws—there was a couple named Stewart and Mike. According to court filings from the plaintiff, Stewart contacted Smith in September 2016 about his wedding to Mike “early next year.” He wrote that they “would love some design work done for our invites, placenames etc. We might also stretch to a website.” Stewart included his phone number, email address, and the URL of his own website—he was a designer too, the site showed.
This week, I decided to call Stewart and ask him about his inquiry.
The Supreme Court is expected to deliver its opinion in a case in which Stewart plays a minor role, a case that could be, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor stated by way of a question at oral argument in December, “the first time in the Court’s history … [that] a commercial business open to the public, serving the public, that it could refuse to serve a customer based on race, sex, religion, or sexual orientation.” (Update: On Friday, the court ruled 6-3 in the web designer’s favor.) It took just a few minutes to reach him. I assumed at least some reporters over the years had contacted him about his website inquiry to 303 Creative—his contact information wasn’t redacted in the filing. But my call, he said, was “the very first time I’ve heard of it.”

Alas, likely nothing will come of it. You can just submit made up facts to our highest court now and as long as it results in conservative outcomes they will be like, “what is standing, I have never heard of that, come on in let’s rewrite some laws for you.”

Trust erosion

Yeah I dunno this feels like a problem:

Pinal County’s elections director abruptly resigned this week after facing harsh criticism from the county GOP. Her scathing resignation letter led many to compare her departure to those of other elections directors across the country who are facing harassment and resigning in droves as GOP leaders and residents confront them with false accusations about elections. But the circumstances here are far different.
There have been real problems in Pinal County’s elections, and Geraldine Roll was under the microscope to fix them fast.
The scrutiny Roll faced from the supervisors and the public since she took the position in December – especially, of late, from Republicans in the county who say they are concerned about election integrity – put immense pressure on Roll as she tried to quickly fix problems, develop new procedures, and hire a new team. At the same time, there were signs of growing tension with county supervisors.

If I were trying to run a democracy I would just want to avoid this kind of situation.

Free the machine

Actually this is extremely cool:

For more than two decades, the biggest retro computing story in recent memory sat like a sleeper cell in a Massachusetts barn. The barn was in danger of collapse. It could no longer protect the fleet of identical devices hiding inside.
A story like this doesn’t need the flash of a keynote or a high-profile marketing campaign. It really just needs someone to notice.
And the reason anyone did notice was because this barn could no longer support the roughly 2,200 machines that hid on its second floor. These computers, with a weight equivalent to roughly 11 full-size vehicles, were basically new, other than the fact that they had sat unopened and unused for nearly four decades, roughly half that time inside this barn. Every box was “new old stock,” essentially a manufactured time capsule, waiting to be found by somebody.

I love old technology. I love this.

Prepare to be terrified

Seriously, you have been warned:

He wasn’t a dreadful singer, not shrieky or terribly off-pitch. He kept a tune. He was enthusiastic. Had it not been 5:17 in the morning when I first heard his voice blast from his lungs through the floorboards and into my slumbering ears, I may not have minded. “My upstairs neighbor has a catchy sound,” I may have said. Boisterous but catchy. And he strums a competent guitar.
But after three pre-dawn reveilles, I asked Rhonda in the leasing office about the protocol for taming such bursts of creativity. I should say that I am nothing if not a burster myself, though my artistic exploits are silent ones. I embrace the process, in myself and others. Apartment dwelling, though, imposes limits. Rhonda said she would reel him in.

The woke anti-corruption agenda

Somehow I am not convinced that cultural Marxism is the problem:

Ron DeSantis’ first speech as a presidential contender was a dark and broody recitation of the forces he blames for ruining the country. Standing in front of a two-story American flag on a stage in Iowa, he rattled them off: “cultural Marxism,” “woke ideology,” Hunter Biden and, finally, corporate America.
“There was a little business that you may have heard of in Florida,” he said, “named Disney. People told me, ‘Listen, the media’s coming after you, the left — but if Disney weighs in, they’re the 800-pound gorilla. You better watch out, they’re going to steamroll you.’ Well, here I stand. I’m not backing down one inch,” he said to whoops and scattered applause.

Oops! All intergenerational warfare

Best laid plans:

When I booked a short spring-break vacation, I thought of this trip as a chance for my 80-year-old mom to bond with my sons, who are 15, 17, and 21. I envisioned trading New Jersey's gloomy, gray skies for South Florida's warmth and enjoying relaxing beach days and casual, but nice, dinners together.
Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way. Everyone had a different vision for this vacation, and spending lots of time together in a new setting proved to be a surefire way to get on each other's nerves. Here's how things went awry and why I'll never take this show on the road again.