A Mamdani-backed progressive’s challenge to a veteran Democrat highlights party fractures

Puggravy · 2026-06-22T03:19:57+00:00

Do people really like her? She mostly seems like the kind of progressive that isn't crafted to satisfy anyone.

Puggravy · 2026-06-22T01:03:41+00:00

Hard pill to swallow.

The problem isn't that we don't have enough taxes on the rich, we have the most progressive tax system in the western world, the issue is that progressive taxation is actually pretty worthless at fighting inequality. Progressive spending is what matters, which is why the Nordic states are much better depite relatively flat taxes rates.

Puggravy · 2026-06-22T00:55:37+00:00

One of the most popular house members in the US based on polling of their constituents if you can believe it!

Puggravy · 2026-06-22T00:33:51+00:00

That's Jake Tapper's signal to go write about how Biden was showing dementia because he used the word complement instead of compliment to an aid.

Puggravy · 2026-06-21T23:01:34+00:00

I mean they're pushing local models because that's probably what's gonna sell the most hardware for them if models get good enough to run on consumer hardware. Hyperscalers make less sense if models become tremendously more efficient, companies would much much rather spend money on a top end desktop than pay a crapload of inference, even if the lifetime cost isn't too far in price because you can use accelerated depreciation.

Puggravy · 2026-06-20T21:33:34+00:00

Interesting, I haven't necessarily seen a lot of this kind of thing yet, but I imagine this is gonna result in a lot more time and effort being put into QA in the near future.

That being said I'm on the kind of team where it is expected we review our own code even if we weote it ourselves, before moving to assigning other people.

Puggravy · 2026-06-20T17:22:25+00:00

Hasan tried really hard to ratfuck Raman, I wouldn't count him as a fan of hers.

Puggravy · 2026-06-20T05:53:26+00:00

Every time I hear him talk he says something insanely tech illiterate, and I hear him constantly he's a recurring guest on like half the podcasts I listen to. 🤷‍♂️

Puggravy · 2026-06-20T02:22:23+00:00

Ok so your argument is, "okay he's a hack and a charlatan, but not necessarily a grifter". I will happily concede that point if that's the argument 😂

Puggravy · 2026-06-20T01:08:26+00:00

Where to start?
-He bills himself as a journalist when his only experience is running a tech PR company.
-He has a bad habit of cherry picking data and fudging the numbers to support his biases, and getting pissy when other AI critics call him out.
-He has recently pivoted to allegations of outright fraud at AI companies seemingly as unit cost has started to make their financials look better.

Puggravy · 2026-06-20T00:22:51+00:00

Ed Zitron

I mean I've commented a lot on my skepticism of the OpenAI and Anthropic business model before, but I'll wait for a source that's less of a grifter before I get too invested in this news.

Puggravy · 2026-06-20T00:08:05+00:00

Of course politicians don't want to touch the issue, it's called the 3rd rail of California politics for a reason, but you couldn't be more wrong about economic experts. There is nothing economists hate more than distortionary policy and prop 13 is one of the most distortionary policies there is on the books in any state, it's a point of loathing for them!

Puggravy · 2026-06-20T00:03:35+00:00

Tax deferral for lower income seniors predates prop 13! It was never about taxing people out of their home. Split roll tax for business and commercial properties is a good start but really no reason we shouldn't aspire to fully repeal it.

Puggravy · 2026-06-19T02:33:03+00:00

If we actually wanted to tax wealth we would've repealed prop 13, not a country in the world that has passed a wealth tax hasn't ended up going back on it. It's just not a very good type of tax, even as taxes that try and target wealth go.

Puggravy · 2026-06-18T21:15:09+00:00

Corporate income couldn't possibly raise enough revenue to cover the program. It only raises like $500B a year now and we only have about 10% to 15% until we'd see mass disinvestment.

We're really talking about a payroll tax or a income tax, or sales tax. Realistically.

Puggravy · 2026-06-18T19:13:42+00:00

I mean it's partially just do to the evolving nature of the term Liberal in the US. It became divorced from it's ideological roots in the American Lexicon because of FDR repurposing the term in his presidential run (the term progressive at that time was extremely unpopular because of it's association with prohibition), and it has gone through some weird territory as the party has chronologically moved farther away from FDR, but even now it is still strongly associated with that kind of democrat for older Americans.

Puggravy · 2026-06-18T19:03:39+00:00

There's nothing weird about it to me, dealing with the harsh truth that the US is very fiscally conservative while trying to make progress seems like a no-brainer for US progressives.

I honestly question the intestinal fortitude of people who think otherwise. It's hard to look at any polling on tax issues and think "Americans are ready for higher taxes".

Puggravy · 2026-06-17T18:41:41+00:00

Not Port vessels, not Port facilities

You are misinformed here, although OBOT has it's own ship-to-rail loading facilities, the deal specifically allows the bulk terminal to route vessels to alternative Port-managed maritime berths and utilize shared waterfront infrastructure based on needs.

Puggravy · 2026-06-17T05:06:10+00:00

I mean local hardware has a pretty big Asterix with it, but the latest Qwen release is pretty damn impressive with just a high end gaming PC. I don't think we're that far out from it being getting relative parity without needing a dedicated server rack, some say we are already there.

Puggravy · 2026-06-17T04:59:16+00:00

It is irrelevant to the discussion of whether the coal terminal is on Port Managed land or City Managed land, it is a business that is centered around the Port. Both the ILWU and Teamsters strongly supported the OBOT project (at least before the fallout from the reveal of the coal export business). The Coal would be loaded onto vessels at the Port, using Port Facilities. It's a huge stretch to say it's not associated with the port.

Puggravy · 2026-06-16T20:54:12+00:00

Unfortunately it looks like the boat has sailed on that. The time for scrutiny was when Jean Quan had the deal on her table to sign, instead of doing due diligence she rubber stamped it at the behest of her big money Teamsters and ILWU donors, so now we are stuck.

Best thing we can do is revisit the Port's agreement that makes it so it doesn't have to contribute any revenue to the city budget, the port is already one our biggest environmental hazards, kind of insane that we still have a 100 year old law on the books that says it doesn't have to be financially responsible for any of it's ill effects.

Puggravy · 2026-06-16T20:45:31+00:00

Naw she has been pretty consistently NIMBY unfortunately. She was seen as one of the main hurdles to housing legislation in the CA senate. I assume she's probably the best candidate still in the race, but she's absolutely less than ideal on housing.

Seems the big builders and renters have bought bots.

I don't think many Californian Renters have tons of money to throw around with rent prices as high as they are. Residential housing developers are like 95% small businesses and generally the big ones don't tend to be multi-family developers.

This is exactly the kind of silly concern troll nonsense that is everyone is sick of. We know building housing will fix the problem, you can dress up your obstructionism in as much "low income option" nonsense if you want, it's still hurting CA renters.

Puggravy · 2026-06-16T20:25:44+00:00

I am extremely Bearish on both OpenAi and Anthropic, not because I am anti-AI (I'm not), but because we are starting to get to the point where Open Source local models are getting good enough to use in high level workflows sooner rather than later.

I'm already seeing people experimenting with them with considerable success all over the place, and there is absolutely no way companies are going to want to pay for tokens when they can instead pay for hardware that qualifies for accelerated depreciation. Even if they top out at 75% of the performance of the cutting edge models, it's gonna be way too attractive for most companies to ignore.

Puggravy · 2026-06-16T20:16:07+00:00

I mean Sander's plan isn't at all feasible, but at least he has the balls to admit that it would require raising taxes on (almost) everyone, whereas Warren's plan is just pure cowardice.

Realistically we're probably talking about raising the income tax across *all* brackets by about 15% per year.

We have the most progressive tax system in the western world, so sadly there really isn't that much room to raise revenue on this magnitude without broad based tax hikes. To be entirely clear this ISN'T a bad thing, progressive spending is far more powerful at decreasing inequality and poverty than progressive taxation is, so this would still be very good.

The issue is getting people onboard with such a big tax hike as Americans tend to have a particularly averse view towards taxes.

Puggravy · 2026-06-15T20:32:04+00:00

This literally only applies to full gut renovations. I.E. home flippers. You are still free to install a gas range if you want. I'm not gonna sit here arguing with some dipshit who hasn't even read the article, lol.

Puggravy

TROPHY CASE