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Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

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Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#131

Post by benreesman »

benreesman wrote: post #127
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> any time someone proposes limiting campaign finance or any other mechanism by which wealth becomes law some unfounded assertion gets made about how it will have unintended consequences Saying "directly or indirectly bribing" encompasses all democratic interaction. I indirectly bribe my electeds with votes when they do what I want. You need to be more precise than that language to make a point. More pointedly, your…

I appreciate that the phrasing “directly or indirectly” is a far cry from a reasonable draft of a bill. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act was better thought out by a long way. I was being informal given this is HN. We all know the moments in time when the public got knee-capped: Brooksley Born was highly on task preventing 2008 via her completely legitimate powers via the CFTC before Summers and Greenspan popped a c…

This is the status quo. The fifth unit in Thiel’s Stanford startup lectures was titled “Competition is for losers”.

There’s a reason these assholes are building compounds in rural New Zealand.

https://youtu.be/zI7hbEuopLI?si=iyZwEcScazFmMJzZ

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#132

Post by benreesman »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #126
benreesman wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the sunset of dissolution everything takes on the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine. Society worked just fine without IO/PO striping, it worked just fine without K Street as an institution. I don’t make this case because I take any joy in what will happen to Marie Antoinette. It’s my aim to persuade the investor class to cut a deal before it gets ugly.

> Society worked just fine without IO/PO striping, it worked just fine without K Street as an institution It worked fine without anyone in tech, too. Or crypto. Agree on K Street. But Trump's 2024 campaign is praxis in disintermediating K Street. We need more precision. > I don’t make this case because I take any joy in what will happen to Marie Antoinette. It’s my aim to persuade the investor class to cut a deal bef…

Arrogant? You guys think you’re immune from consequences. You think everyone smart and relentless enough to represent any challenge is either already bought or easily sidelined.

There are more of us than you think who walked straight out no education and no connections and trivially operated at comparable levels to privileged and credentialed peers.

But the values are different: when you combine a street kid’s skepticism of our magistrates and noblemen with the first hand experience of seeing how utterly bankrupt the whole artifice is you get implacable enemies with extreme tolerance for adversity who play for keeps in a way no one can who ever benefitted from the system.

Underestimate us all you like.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#133

Post by wyldfire »

emmelaich wrote: post #33
wyldfire wrote: post #7

> “My career has been destroyed by multiple administrators at NCSU who united together and completely ignored the EthicsPoint System and its promises to employees,” Brain wrote. Well, lesson learned. Take your ethical concerns to the public/press instead. The retaliation would be just as swift as it is with The Process. Or: abandon ship and leave the system to consume itself.

> lesson learned I get your (good) point but it could be better put considering he's dead.

This is a lesson that everyone at this university just learned. Maybe it's even a lesson for other workplaces with similar reporting programs too.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#134

Post by magic_smoke_ee »

I consulted at a Stanford biomedical department that openly used age discrimination to displace older full-time employees. They also were biased in hiring researchers and staff who tended to be of the same ethnicity and characteristics as PIs, and they abused part-time workers for years to deny them benefits, organization-wide.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#135

Post by yieldcrv »

coldtea wrote: post #123
yieldcrv wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that this highly improbable outcome involves two separate coalitions of countries invading yours from both sides, “read the room” is a safe bet for all parties to make, including last minute flights to Argentina

If only I had used this outcome only as a highly understood example, as opposed to as the exact sitution that will befall the person I responded to... oh, wait!

That’s cool but it’s something I think about a lot

Like how some well known companies are implicated because of government contracts with that short lived regime in the 1930s

and its like thats not really a deterrent because you don't really know what a government will do, and accountability requires a multi coalition invasion, losing, and subsequent leaking of state records

the threshold for that to occur is so high, like for one, that government has to actually lose, and the one everyone is mad at typically doesn't

makes more sense to contract with all parties in all countries and just collect the checks

I think that specific example is a perfect choice to undermine the specific lesson you were aiming for

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#136

Post by JumpCrisscross »

benreesman wrote: post #132
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Society worked just fine without IO/PO striping, it worked just fine without K Street as an institution It worked fine without anyone in tech, too. Or crypto. Agree on K Street. But Trump's 2024 campaign is praxis in disintermediating K Street. We need more precision. > I don’t make this case because I take any joy in what will happen to Marie Antoinette. It’s my aim to persuade the investor class to cut a deal bef…

Arrogant? You guys think you’re immune from consequences. You think everyone smart and relentless enough to represent any challenge is either already bought or easily sidelined. There are more of us than you think who walked straight out no education and no connections and trivially operated at comparable levels to privileged and credentialed peers. But the values are different: when you combine a street kid’s skepti…

> think you’re immune from consequences

I’m saying they can get away and get their resources out faster than before, and even before they were mostly fine.

> you get implacable enemies with extreme tolerance for adversity who play for keeps in a way no one can who ever benefitted from the system

These are never the beneficiaries in revolution. Ever. That doesn’t stop revolution. Folks say “fuck you” when enough is enough. But again, it’s not rebirth—it’s bowing out of the civilisation game. The “revolutions” we romanticise preserved preëxisting power structures.

To the extent America stands on the precipice of revolution, it’s in the molds of Cæsar and Augustus.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#137

Post by JumpCrisscross »

benreesman wrote: post #129
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Society worked just fine without IO/PO striping, it worked just fine without K Street as an institution It worked fine without anyone in tech, too. Or crypto. Agree on K Street. But Trump's 2024 campaign is praxis in disintermediating K Street. We need more precision. > I don’t make this case because I take any joy in what will happen to Marie Antoinette. It’s my aim to persuade the investor class to cut a deal bef…

I didn’t mean that I was personally going to broker some compromise. I meant that in my small way I’m part of a larger conversation. There are a lot of people bright enough to have been at the top of their field who for one reason or another are opposed to the status quo. I’m just one of a lot of people who are every bit as sophisticated as anyone on Jane’s Prop desk and yet still under its boot.

> a lot of people bright enough to have been at the top of their field who for one reason or another are opposed to the status quo

Sure. They should do more. My point is “watch out, you’ll wind up headless” is more self soothing than a threat. If America flips over, the billionaires will be fine. Maybe a couple unlucky or stupid millionaires will lose their coin or lives. Most will, at worst, preserve their wealth; more likely, they’ll get more wealthy and powerful.

> Jane’s Prop desk and yet still under its boot

Nobody at Jane Street is wealthy enough to be politically relevant outside its founders. (Unless they’re trading from a very small town, and you’re in it.)

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#138

Post by riku_iki »

coldtea wrote: post #125
riku_iki wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That answer didn't hold up well at the Nuremberg trials. that's just winners were punishing losers. In alternative reality, those who dropped nukes were facing trial in Nuremberg.

> that's just winners were punishing losers Whether it's winners punishing losers, or e.g. the FBI/FDA/DEA/IRS/whatever punishing some company exexutives and employees, the potential for this to be a bad defense remains constant.

when it is winners vs losers, your line of defense is irrelevant, since winners decide rules of the game. We can partially tell the same that FBI/FDA/DEA/IRS punishes regular Joe much more harshly, compared to CEOs which almost never goes to jail unless he stole from other rich/in power.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#139

Post by benreesman »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #137
benreesman wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t mean that I was personally going to broker some compromise. I meant that in my small way I’m part of a larger conversation. There are a lot of people bright enough to have been at the top of their field who for one reason or another are opposed to the status quo. I’m just one of a lot of people who are every bit as sophisticated as anyone on Jane’s Prop desk and yet still under its boot.

> a lot of people bright enough to have been at the top of their field who for one reason or another are opposed to the status quo Sure. They should do more. My point is “watch out, you’ll wind up headless” is more self soothing than a threat. If America flips over, the billionaires will be fine. Maybe a couple unlucky or stupid millionaires will lose their coin or lives. Most will, at worst, preserve their wealth; m…

I admire your candor and persistence but I think I’m just wired a bit differently.

I agree that the present oligarch class is every bit as powerful in relative terms as any before them. They also have the advantage of modern technology: ubiquitous domestic surveillance and militarized police are clearly not designed to prevent petty crime.

And the last thing I want to see is chaos and bloodshed. But I do want working people to regain some level of bargaining power, and with an elite as insular and vulgar as this one, that probably means a credible threat at least in abstract.

Extreme military power has failed against motivated populations almost without exception in all asymmetrical scenarios this century: it is not a foregone conclusion that oppression lacks an upper bound.

The end state on the current trend lines would be a catastrophic failure of our civilization.

I’m not yet prepared to accept that as inevitable.

Re: Marshall Brain died hours after alleging retaliation at NC State

#140

Post by benreesman »

benreesman wrote: post #139
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a lot of people bright enough to have been at the top of their field who for one reason or another are opposed to the status quo Sure. They should do more. My point is “watch out, you’ll wind up headless” is more self soothing than a threat. If America flips over, the billionaires will be fine. Maybe a couple unlucky or stupid millionaires will lose their coin or lives. Most will, at worst, preserve their wealth; m…

I admire your candor and persistence but I think I’m just wired a bit differently. I agree that the present oligarch class is every bit as powerful in relative terms as any before them. They also have the advantage of modern technology: ubiquitous domestic surveillance and militarized police are clearly not designed to prevent petty crime. And the last thing I want to see is chaos and bloodshed. But I do want working…

You remind me a bit of one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met. A poker player turned VC called Zach.

Brilliant guy, but cynical in a way that I never saw as his best self. He did well for himself and then kind of stopped worrying about the larger world.

But earlier, when he was younger, he constantly advised me to do things by a code more robust than self-enrichment.

I love and admire the guy, but I miss him trying to make the world better.

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