the replacement files: 179-T9
every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end
The theme for this tisatsar is replacement.
The initial plan was for the theme to be disagreement. But, that theme was too unpleasant to write it out in full. So, we replaced it with replacement. Now we shall see which theme wins out.
and now, the Tisatsar’s News.
First in War, First in Peace, Last in the American League: Major League Baseball continues its long-running attack on the two-league system.
With the Designated Hitter now being endemic in both leagues, this was the logical next step. At this rate, the Newslettr would not be surprised to see the current leagues replaced by an Eastern Conference and Western Conference by the end of the decade.
A New Leader: the saga of replacing Boris Johnson has come to an end. Liz Truss won the secret ballot of Conservative Party members, and was formally named PM by the Queen this1 Tuesday.
No New Constitution: a proposed new constitution in Chile was rejected in a nationwide referendum this Sunday. the Newslettr has not found an official English-language translation, but machine translation of the Wikisource version should suffice.
The constitution was largely described as excessive, extremely leftist, and nigh-contradictory. It presumably would have been the first national constitution with a right to “protection and promotion of data security”.
Two beginning, one ending: we bid farewell2 to Real Life magazine. Perhaps there will be a “best of” retrospective here in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, two eminant personalities in the NFT space are starting newsletters. One, Molly White, is at her own domain. The other, Carly Reilly, is here on Substack, and gets an interstitial.
Water Shortages Considered Harmful: The city of Jackson, MS suffered a complete failure of its water system for around a week. The reasons3 include …
no, no. cut4.
If the news is so unpleasant, why do we even read it?
To change what will happen next.
To prepare for what will happen next.
Out of a misguided expectation that it might get less unpleasant.
Masochism and self-loathing.
Schadenfreude and revenge.
Because not reading it is even worse.
… to hopefully learn something from others’ mistakes
Joe Biden gave a speech on September 1. I didn’t watch, but I read the press clippings.5
Why do dynasties fall? Over the course of generations, they evolve from long-term thinking to short-term thinking. Then, they cease to think at all, and they are swallowed up by other forces.
There is a sense that the Democrats are branding themselves as the anti-fascist6 party to win the election this November. And, as part of their efforts to be as anti-fascist as possible, they are working to make the Republican Party (their opponent at the ballot box) appear as fascist as possible.
And the best way to make the Republicans appear fascist is to encourage them to be more fascist.
For the goal of “preventing fascism”, this is completely backwards7. But for the goal of “winning the next8 election”, it will probably work out fine.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the Western Alliance is attempting to shut off the energy flow in order to win the war on9 Russia.
According to CNN (September 2):
The West's biggest economies on Friday agreed to impose a price cap on Russian oil in an attempt to reduce Moscow's ability to fund its war in Ukraine without further stoking global inflation.
Finance ministers from the G7 group of countries — the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom — said they would ban the provision of "services which enable maritime transportation of Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products globally" above the price cap. That could block insurance cover or finance for oil shipments.
Meanwhile, Russia is also trying to shut off the energy flow. According to CNN (September 2):
Russia won't immediately resume exports of natural gas to Europe through its Nord Stream 1 pipeline, worsening a shortage that threatens to tip the continent into an energy crisis this winter.
On Friday, Russian state energy giant Gazprom said it would not resume flows through the pipeline on Saturday as planned because it had detected an oil leak at its Portovaya compressor station. The pipeline has been shut since Wednesday for maintenance.
It didn't give a timeline of when exports might resume.
There is a tension between “reporting” and “advocacy”. Very roughly, to accurately report on an issue, one must give up hope of changing the outcome.
On the situation of energy supplies in Europe, the Newslettr has thoroughly given up on advocacy.
And there is no point in reporting on things before they happen. So we await the news.
an issue with a once-per-tisatsar Newslettr is that phrases such as “on Tuesday” are somewhat vague.
apparently the magazine was funded by Snapchat, and cut in their recent budget cuts
a hot take, relegated to the footnotes. There is a lot of talk about “environmental racism” being responsible for the situation. I am quite skeptical, but one thing that is certain is that DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) efforts haven’t done a damn thing to prevent this type of thing from happening.
Also, people are saying “it’s because of climate change”. The nigh-religious belief that any adverse weather impact event is “because of climate change” is … not based in fact, and we won’t engage with those statements as if it were.
There are a variety of unpleasant news stories we are cutting. They include:
drama in the chess world
the US→China “chip ban”
the demolition of the Supertech Towers in Noida, India
the still-vague student loan repayment changes
flooding in Pakistan
another tisatsar of media nonsense involving Trump and secret documents
the whole Kiwifarms business
Burning Man 2022
Perhaps they will be addressed next tisatsar.
I am sticking with the take of “historians will condemn Biden for the speech in 100 years, but it will probably be effective at the short-term goal of winning votes in November”.
Not to be confused with Antifa, a mythical organization that conducts street protests which occasionally degrade into violence. The organization is “mythical” in the sense that there is no Antifa International which controls the group; it is a collection of disparate people using the name.
Perhaps this should be called the “Casanova Frankenstein” strategic doctrine.
If you imagine the Democrats as wanting to be in power over the next 50 years, this is not nearly as fine.
This is more like “the war on Drugs” than “the war in Afghanistan”. For a variety of reasons, most of which rhyme with “muclear keapons”, there is no war in Russia. The war is only in the hearts and minds of our fearless leaders. The situation in Ukraine is Russia’s war, not the west’s.