Completely non-political thread. Well, maybe.

I recently bought a very expensive bottle of scotch to celebrate the completion of construction on my new house. It's really expensive. A lot.

A friend asked, is a $400 bottle of booze really worth it?

A thread about worth.

1/8
This has something to do with economics. So it may be political, I don't know.

I have to tell a story about it. I'll start here.

I play piano. Not so much recently, but I used to be pretty good. I played all the time, until I discovered guitars are more portable.

2/8
About 45 years ago, I went into a music store, and they had a full Steinway grand there, on sale for $25,000. That was 45 years ago. It'd likely be over $100,000 today.

Now, at the time, I made about $4 / hour. I owned a piano I'd bought for the price of hauling it away.

3/8
I'd played baby grands that (at the time) cost $3000 (they'd be a lot more now). I wondered to myself: Yeah, Steinways have a good reputation, like they were dipped in gold or something, but is a Steinway really worth $25,000?

4/8
Forty-five years go, $25,000 would buy you about five family cars.

so--Seriously? 25,000 for a piano?

I sat down at the Steinway and played a few notes. I gasped. Then I played a few songs.

I'd never before touched an instrument like that.

5/8
All I had to do was sort of think about what I wanted to hear, and gently caress the keys, and the Steinway did it for me. It was amazing.

I don't know if a Steinway is "worth" that much. I do know I have never before or since had an experience quite like that.

6/8
A thing is worth what people will pay for it.

The same is true of expensive liquor. Is it "worth" that much? It's hard to say. But nothing else gives quite the same experience, and things are worth what buyers are willing to pay.

7/8
You might not like scotch. You may not like to play piano, or even to listen to one. That just means you're not the target market.

Where this gets possibly political is the simple realization: things are worth what someone is willing to pay.

I'll leave it there.

8/8

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More from @dcpetterson

7 Feb
You're pretending @POTUS will make money from this. You're demanding President Biden "donate every cent to charity" for a book he didn't write, one that was contracted two years before his inauguration.

That's ridiculous, @waltshaub. Do better! Apologize and sit the fuck down.
And your question--"Would anyone be publishing this book if he wasn't the president's son?"--obviously yes. The contract was signed in 2019, long before Joe Biden became president. So shove your insane innuendo up whatever orifice of yours your head is in.
And what the fuck do you mean to imply by saying Joe "supports" the publication of this book? Are you hinting at some kind of dark influence? Spell out your insane conspiracy theory, you cowardly muckweasel.
Read 6 tweets
7 Feb
I think it is significant to consider how Speaker Pelosi reacted after the 1/6 Insurrection.

We know the insurrectionists targeted her specifically. Had they found her, we know they would have assassinated her. That's not even a question.

1/5
But after the event, Speaker Pelosi didn't make a point of the the danger to herself. She repeatedly told the story of her staff, cowering in terror under a table in a conference room as the insurrectionists battered on the locked door.

2/5
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3/5
Read 6 tweets
7 Feb
If Trump or his lawyers admit he lost the election, that's a confession his Jan 6 speech was a lie, and he was intentionally inciting insurrection.

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.... arguing this way perpetuates the Big Lie that Trump told on Jan 6 (actually, that he insisted upon every day starting Nov 3). This argument is a continuation of the incitement to insurrection for which Trump was impeached in the first place.
Read 4 tweets
5 Feb
For anyone doubting Joe Biden's strength and commitment, consider his courage in nominating a Black/South Asian woman as VP with fascism on the rise. She wasn't a safe choice, but she was clearly the right choice.

Biden kicks ass.

1/3
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No, Biden is a streetfighter. Don't let his politeness and humanity fool you. He will accept no bullshit, and he knows failure is not an option.

2/3
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The times have found the right leader for this moment.

3/3
Read 4 tweets
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That Summers disagrees merely means economics is not physics.
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Read 6 tweets
29 Jan
NYT reporter Luke Broadwater has released a Jan 4 memo alleged to have been sent from Trump-toady specially-appointed Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller to the Secretary of the Army regarding the DC National Guard.

1/13
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Miller is responding to that request.

2/13
According to this memo, Miller forbids the Army from approving a number of things, without Miller's own "personal authorization."

Here are the things DCNG is forbidden, unless Miller said otherwise:

3/13
Read 13 tweets

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