Speaking of believing the virus is a scam: Central Copenhagen was utterly packed to the gills last night. People in the streets. Crammed into restaurants and bars. No fucking masks anywhere in these establishments. Thoroughly, depressingly disappointing.
Danes are very damn good about following official decrees. Mask compliance in public transportation is 100%. Inside department and grocery stores 100%. But anything that isn’t specifically written down? WOOOO!!!
Given what’s happening in basically all the rest of Europe, it’s simply astounding that Danes continue to act like that could never happen here. Or maybe they’ve simply handed over all thinking to Lord Mette. In that case, please, Lord Mette, stop this madness.
Denmark in a fucking nutshell. I mean, the compliance to these decrees is deeply impressive. As is the level of trust Danes have in their government. But such a robotic response is also maddening!
The flip side of getting such levels of trust and compliance is a profound lack of interest in critical inquiry. I guess you can’t have everything, and all other things being equal, in a pandemic, I guess I’ll take it over many of the alternatives but...
Bought a book in Danish from Saxo.com. They're just a retailer. No vertically integrated hardware. So OF COURSE the ebook format is simply ePub, which you own and can use everywhere, and OF COURSE the audiobook format is MP3, which you can own an use everywhere 😍
Then I learned that the reigning monopolist, Amazon, doesn't even fucking support ePub on the Kindle. Because why would you allow an open format when you squat on the gates of all book content in the US.
Vertical integration is utterly toxic when its combined with a dominant market position. It's how choice is locked up, and the key is held for ransom. Regulators used to know this. Studios couldn't own cinemas. Car makers couldn't own repair shops. Yet somehow we forgot!
Now let's see how well that "haunt his dreams" part is actually going to hold up. Or if if it all just goes back into the freezer like 2008. A trail of squandered hope and missing change brought us here in the first place.
That's what's so difficult about this. Even with this win, which is good, it's extremely difficult to be optimistic for the American prospect. The problems are so enormous, the trajectory has barely bent, and the final destination is still a fucking abyss.
Rewind to 2008. The caliber of the candidate. The legitimate hope. The clean mandate of power across the board. The state of the union. All the cards were better then! The hand that's about to be played is worse in all regards, thus are not the odds so much longer?
Following this doctors appointment, I needed an X-ray. Again, referral was in the system. Open choice of 6 facilities to get it done. Booked next-day appointment. In’and’out in 14 fucking minutes. No paperwork, no copay, just healthcare.
This isn’t a perfect system. But it is so fucking superior to what passes for a healthcare system in the US that it is blowing my mind. AND I LIVED HERE FOR THE FIRST 25 YEARS OF MY LIFE. You don’t truly appreciate how rotten the US system is until you try a working alternative.
And this is me, Rich Person With The Best Cadillac Plan + Concierge Service, doing the contrast with simply the standard level of care available to every permanent resident of Denmark. Contrast to anything approximate to average to average and it’s truly abysmal.
The Rogan interview with Greenwald is an excellent antidote to the I CAN’T COMPREHEND HOW PEOPLE COULD THINK THIS WAY reactions that we are flush with right now. Highly recommend it.
But if you can’t be bothered to listen to people you’ve developed a fixed mental image of, feel free to dismiss* the recommendation with: a) Rogan has had guests I don’t like, b) Glenn spoke on Tucker Carlson, c) Something-something Russia, d) Something-something dudebro.
(* No need to echo these stock dismissals in this thread. Trust me, they’re not novel 😄).
Spelunking git blame on Basecamp 1 is a treat. I found the "initial" commit from when we jumped from CVS to SVN! Also, that's a 16-year span of commits. On an app that's still serving tens of thousands of users, making millions in revenue ❤️
There's something incredibly beautiful about the rise of both podcasts and newsletters in an age dominated by the walled gardens of big tech. Two basic forms of distribution that rely not on proprietary platforms, but on free and open standards, devoid of corporate lock-in ❤️
Two flourishing ecosystems that have successfully resisted the full captured by large corporate interests – regardless of the many assaults and attempts! – and which enable a legion of smaller and midsized businesses to thrive in support. This is the best of the internet!
This is the sparkle of a free market. The wide range of choice in clients and services. Independent creators and supporting companies alike able to literally run their own show. But it's not a given, in fact its a bit of an aberration, that we must continue to fight for.