271–280 of 307 posts
The whole escape was likely coordinated by Ghosn's wife who it seems passed the Jeff Bezos test. Commenting on what he looked for in a wife, Bezos once said in an interview "The number one criterion was that I wanted a woman who could get me out of a Third World prison"
> passed the Jeff Bezos test. In modern day parlance this is known as "Ride or Die."
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This was a neat piece, wow, especially considering it was published more than 20 years ago. Quite prescient when the author writes: “If Jeff Bezos's vision comes true, here's how you'll shop in 2020: The vast bulk of store-bought goods - food staples, paper products, cleaning supplies, and the like - you will order electronically. Some physical storefronts will survive, but they'll have to offer at least one of two t…
Prior to COVID-19, 86% of retail in 2020 was still brick and mortar.
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I wonder if MacKenzie Tuttle passed the test.
No. Saudi Prince MBS played her like a fiddle. She walked right into his plan of humiliating her husband. After all he has achieved, she should have overlooked his affair. Just like Hillary. If Jeff got arrested in a third world country on made up rape charges, she would have just accepted the charges and let him rot.
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The privatization of the military is one of the most corrupt and corrosive things our country has done in a while. I flew F-18s for the Navy and did a ground tour in Iraq with Special Forces. Look at the pay grades in 2020.[1] E3-E6 are making about $25-40k in salary. With some hazard pay and Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) and Subsistence (BAS), depending on where you live (if not in the barracks) maybe you are ma…
The Afghanistan Papers [0] was a bit unnoticed by many people. It is well worth a read, especially during this time. There are many, many very interesting things in there, but I want to highlight one: General Flynn's 'Lesson's Learned' Interview, 11/10/2015. Keep that date in your head.[1] That the interview is public at all is amazing . It is a very good overview of the man and the issues that the US dealt with in A…
Just skimming over [2], I see... wtf is Jill Stein doing at this dinner?! Yea, that Jill Stein! How odd.
Oh, and I get why but the WaPo links are paywalled and I am not a subscriber - FYI to others.
you know the plausible conspiracy theory that FANG etc companies for the past 15 years have been deploying an anti-competitive strategy of soaking up tech talent into excessively compensated jobs and putting them to work on vaporware BS projects that get canned after 3-5 years? even though GoogaAppaFaceSoftZon waste billions of dollars keeping tech nerds on the hamster wheel, that is still cheaper than the risk of ha…
It will be interesting to follow if they have enough money to fight the extradition in court. The international press loves to make Japanese criminal courts sound like a 12th century madhouse at every opportunity.
I haven't read a great deal about them in the papers, but what I have read is that they have a frighteningly high conviction rate - meaning that either - the police are really good at finding the perpetrators of crimes - the state are really careful about only taking cases to trial they are extremely confident they can win - ... or that simply being tried in court sufficient for convince everyone judges and/or juries…
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It's still bribery in a developed country, there just might be some effort made for plausible deniability. It's partly why kids are told "networking" is so important in developed countries. Because when they grow up, it's a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" world.
I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of corruption—skimming money, creating unnecessary "jobs" for friends, family, or co-conspirators, kickbacks, that kind of thing—in the US, it's just that most of it doesn't reach the "retail" level, if you will, and mostly occurs within and between bureaucracies both public and private, without directly affecting ordinary people outside those organizations. So it might be quite diffic…
I'm thinking of the guy working at the garbage dump who lets you drop off commercial trash if you slip him $20; the small business owner firing his office manager to he can hire his wife instead; the guys on 3rd shift at the industrial paint shop getting their friend's cars painted for $50, etc.
Corruption like this is all around. It just doesn't rise to the level of anyone not directly affected being concerned about it.
Can't read the article, but IIRC the elder Taylor's wife is from Lebanon and he spent a lot of time there, even though he is from the Boston area and has a home here. Can't believe his lawyers didn't recommend he go to Lebanon sooner, considering the amount of information made public about this case. Japan and U.S. have extradition treaties, and they must have been aware of the risk.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The privatization of the military is one of the most corrupt and corrosive things our country has done in a while. I flew F-18s for the Navy and did a ground tour in Iraq with Special Forces. Look at the pay grades in 2020.[1] E3-E6 are making about $25-40k in salary. With some hazard pay and Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) and Subsistence (BAS), depending on where you live (if not in the barracks) maybe you are ma…
The Afghanistan Papers [0] was a bit unnoticed by many people. It is well worth a read, especially during this time. There are many, many very interesting things in there, but I want to highlight one: General Flynn's 'Lesson's Learned' Interview, 11/10/2015. Keep that date in your head.[1] That the interview is public at all is amazing . It is a very good overview of the man and the issues that the US dealt with in A…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of corruption—skimming money, creating unnecessary "jobs" for friends, family, or co-conspirators, kickbacks, that kind of thing—in the US, it's just that most of it doesn't reach the "retail" level, if you will, and mostly occurs within and between bureaucracies both public and private, without directly affecting ordinary people outside those organizations. So it might be quite diffic…
I think you just don't see it. I'm thinking of the guy working at the garbage dump who lets you drop off commercial trash if you slip him $20; the small business owner firing his office manager to he can hire his wife instead; the guys on 3rd shift at the industrial paint shop getting their friend's cars painted for $50, etc. Corruption like this is all around. It just doesn't rise to the level of anyone not directly…