among the pantheon of the stupidest ideas to ever durably plague humanity few can outshine the marxist labor theory of value. it lingers among us like some sort of economic herpes, unremovable, always waiting for some sort of compromised or suppressed immune system in which it can flourish into sores.
one might even argue that this is WHY marxists are so keen to remove all actual comprehension from education and society - it’s precisely to suppress the ability to see this claptrap for what it is and to enable them to erect the regimes of preferencing that place “party over talent” that render trying to behave in high-trust meritocratic fashion ineffective.
If today’s ‘leadership’ in California had been running that state 60 years ago it would have as much vitality now as Romania or Poland in 1975.
California is still economically important despite its worthless leadership class. It was once very well run.
I bucked all advice from my friends (and resisted my conservative bias) and decided to fully trust the Times journalists.
As they left my home they asked that I not talk to any other outlets and I insisted then and repeatedly over the following weeks that I would keep my word and only share this story with them.
But then the weeks dragged on. They kept coming back to us saying the editors needed more. I needed to go on the record (okay). We need more screenshots (okay). I met every bench mark they set, eager to provide more sources or evidence as needed.
After the story went up I began to ask them … wait, where are the stories from the other women? Where are their accusations of sexual assault? Why am I the focus? Why are there 11 paragraphs dedicated to detailing my work history (more than has been published about Graham’s by far)?
Why does it say “nobody could corroborate” when I offered them sources that COULD corroborate?
Why did they include an out of context quote from a friend joking “do not call Graham” after I called off my wedding? (Because she knew I would never).
Where were the screenshots they’d said they would use? Or the mention that I’d supported local democrats and that most of my family (and husband) are liberal?
The editors said it was too much, they explained.
The Times also failed to include any mention that I DID confide in multiple friends through the years that Graham had been abusive — long before he was running for office. Those friends confirm they told the Times so.
It dawned on me that this really was a set up all along. The journalists I trusted who convinced me to share a story I never wanted to tell methodically delayed and twisted this into a gift to the Platner campaign. Violating the trust of his victims. Shattering the trust I placed in them with the most vulnerable story of my life.
And at the end of my call with them I reluctantly accepted their insistence that this was still a powerful story and that I had done a brave thing. And I thanked them for all the hard work they had put into it.
Still fawning after all these years.
All-Time Not in the Hall of Fame Team. C Thurman Munson 1B Mark McGwire 2B Lou Whitaker 3B Pete Rose SS Alex Rodriguez OF Shoeless Joe Jackson OF Barry Bonds OF Manny Ramirez DH Albert Belle SP Roger Clemens SP Carl Mays SP Eddie Cicotte SP Curt Schilling SP Tommy John
Hey @GavinNewsom can you explain why California could count ballots faster in 1890 than they can today? And how is this remotely acceptable for any state in the 21st century? Thanks.
Is this the AI apocalypse causing this? Or the deportation apocalypse? Or maybe it’s the tariff apocalypse? Or the oil price apocalypse?
I’m losing track of all the economic catastrophes happening at once.
Can’t wait for Matt Damon to play Graham Platner in a future coming-of-age Netflix film about a spoiled rich kid who acts out as a teenager and is shipped off to an $80K a year boarding school only to get expelled after one semester for sexually assaulting a student then he joins the Marines as a fuck you to his parents and while enlisted he frequently posts on Reddit about how soldiers should bang hookers in Thailand then gets wasted in Croatia and gets a Nazi tattoo before deciding to move back to DC and bartend at Tune Inn where he meets a Blackwater executive who hires him to “work security” in Afghanistan which he does for a year before moving home to Maine to sell oysters to his mom and run for the U.S. Senate.
Give it the Oscar already.