#david sachs

[contemplatingoutlander]

I am sending around "Oligarchs’ Island" again, in the immodest conviction that this little satire will have more analytic and predictive pow

TIMOTHY SNYDER: I am sending around "Oligarchs’ Island" again, in the immodest conviction that this little satire will have more analytic and predictive power than most of what you read or watch this coming year. snyder.substack.com/p/oligarchs-...

"Oligarchy is an island.  Aristotle knew that oligarchs from various countries will have more in common with one another than they will with their own people.  This is all too true of Trump and the oligarchs he brings to power in America." --Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder creates an unusual metaphor in "Oligarchs' Island," that nevertheless works. Below is the "cast."

Gilligan = Elon Musk, "the South African Putinist oligarch.... Like Gilligan, Musk bumbles with language and relationships and everything else, but has an undeniable centrality to the plot and to life on the island." 

The Skipper = David Sachs, "the South African Putinist venture capitalist.... Sachs is, of all of our characters the most devoted proponent of the Russian dream.... If anyone on Oligarchs’ Island diverges from the Putinist line, they can expect humorless discipline from Sachs." 

Thurston Howell (The Millionaire) = Peter Thiel, "the American investor with New Zealand citizenship, born in Germany and raised in South Africa.... Just as Thurston Howell was disturbed by Gilligan's frantic activity, Thiel can be displeased with Musk.... Howell refuses to work; Thiel activates others to do destructive one another." 

 Lovey Howell (The Millionaire's wife)= JD Vance--"Lovey is a subordinate character to Thurston on Gilligan's Island, just as Vance is Thiel's client.... Both Lovey and JD are vain about appearance and correspondingly bold in their cosmetic choices."

Ginger Grant = Donald Trump--"these two characters share character and career. Both are vain entertainers.... Both are sensitive to the appearance that they might not matter that much to the overall plot."  

The Professor = Vladimir Putin, "Russian dictator and in all likelihood the world's wealthiest man. Whenever the people stranded on Gilligan's Island have a problem, they turn to the Professor.... The Professor has a dark secret: he is not as competent as the others think.... Putin also has secrets.... He knows that the Russia of its own propaganda does not exist, that the oligarchs' dream is a nightmare.  He also knows that today's oligarchs are tomorrow's victims."  

 Mary Ann = Usha Vance--"Mary Ann is the forgotten character on Gilligan's Island, the one who is perhaps more than she seems.  She knows how to remain in the background, but in fact has skills that the men around her lack.... she develops plans and cultivates allies."

Here's an excerpt showing how "Oligarch's Island" works as a metaphor:

I suspect that... thinking of an Oligarchs' Island sitcom episode will accurately predict what these people will do.  Consider what is happening right now as episode 1 of season 1: Ginger (Trump) has the idea that she should make her own decisions about the members of her cabinet (cue recorded laughter).  Some Americans not involved in Russian networks such as Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley share the belief (cue recorded laughter) that they might join Ginger's cabinet (more cued laughter here, obvious misunderstanding of the Putinist logic of Oligarchs' Island).  Those two Americans maintain that Russia was wrong to invade Ukraine, and so are predictably rejected by the Russian-South African oligarchy.  The Skipper (Sachs) is on the case with a stern tweet: Ginger's appointments must be pro-Russian.  Ginger follows with her own submissive tweet, discarding Pompeo and Haley.  Ginger hopes to at least get her instructions directly from the Professor (Putin).  Ginger claims that she was able to call the Professor (cue laughter).  The Professor denies the call took place (cue more laughter).  Ginger says she asked the Professor not to escalate in Ukraine.  The next day Ukraine suffered one of the biggest drone attacks of the war.  Then the Russians blew up another dam in Ukraine. Those things happened.  The ridiculous and the criminal.

[edited]

____________________ NOTE.:The Gilligan image was modified from its original Bluesky source to emulate the typical formatting of substack's automated quotes.

[tvln]

road to salina (fr/it, lautner 70)

[brunojordanposts]

¿Se está desmoronando el proyecto Trump?

Por Alastair Croke   Exdiplomático inglés, ha sido mediador entre israelís y palestinos, miembro de MI6 británico y delegado de la UE para algunos asuntos relacionados con Oriente Medio. Cada vez es más evidente que Trump no tiene un rumbo claro; demasiadas corrientes y vientos, y él mismo, como timonel, no parece saber exactamente a dónde se dirige, ni con qué tripulación cuenta.      El…

¿Se está desmoronando el proyecto Trump?

[catmint1]

Hakuna matata. No worries. The Lion King song was an actual expression, he’d learned, the Swahili answer to every problem. It made him smile every time.

David Sachs, Safari

[violettesiren]

No Minerva was I, coming to the world

Naked, the Gods' Head surely not my father.

Not from Neptune, but from death I won

To cities of tears.

The innter flow of tears on the avenue.

Childhood, golden mirror that gave me myself

Golden, image that I tried to embrace,

Fled before the years' pebble,

Drowned and no nymphs searched the sea.

From the unreasonable to the reasoned tear.

In blood's heydey, or melancholia

I was given horns and hide, for I

Had seen the virgin huntress happy, nude.

That was my first sight: herself the world,

Geography become flesh.

I the heart. Since that sight

And the animal coming over me,

Days go by in sleep, yet, having still

One good myth, I search the night

For the turner of would-be stone to stone.

Poem by David Sachs

[sdsportsdomination]

2017 Jeremy Henwood Classic Recap

2017 Jeremy Henwood Classic Recap

I have covered an innumerable amount of sporting events but one remains my favorite. I might be biased because I have an uncle who was in the 101st (Paratrooper and Green Beret) and a cousin who was 82nd Airborne. I have always loved and supported the US Military. I have family members who are Police Officers. I have Fraternity Brothers who have served/are serving in the US Military. I have…

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[izkim]

[nicovitti-deactivated]

reflection on our teaming exercises with david sachs

I and the rest of MASD 2014 spent monday doing team-building and leadership training with david sachs, who just started a new position at the baltimore leadership program (which trains government and non-profit workers in team-building and leadership). we completed the marshmallow challenge (my team's result is reblogged from andrea below!) and a simulated survival scenario in which our helicopter crashed in the mountains of the pacific northwest during a snow storm.

I'm going to be honest, my excitement to start MASD has been mixed with quite a bit of trepidation. I graduated from wesleyan feeling pretty sick of dense, inaccessible theory and arrogant professors, impossible amounts of reading and biting competition between my classmates. I certainly needed the year-long break from school after graduation. I have no illusions about MICA's innocence and I'm sure there are plenty of egos on campus. but I do feel myself loosening up here, and it's an inspiring feeling. many of the experiences I had during our two challenges and the following discussion felt very relevant to my activist work, and I gained some helpful guidelines for the kind of work I want to be doing.

david's framework for successful teamwork involved three main elements:

foundation of trust

consensus on goals

norms of interaction

the more we discussed each of these concepts, the more I began to realize that they are the more organized cousins of ideas I've encountered over and over in activism-oriented facilitation and action trainings. establishing a foundation of trust among a group of people (potentially strangers) has been an essential yet often unsuccessful part of many activist projects I've worked on. it doesn't take too deep an analysis to acknowledge that a lack of trust between teammates can make a project unproductive and even harmful. success is also unachievable if anyone on the team is unsure of their primary target, especially if that means they're also unsure whether the goal is one they believe in. 

I think "norms of interaction" is a great way to talk about the community agreements that are part of supportive and effective groups. there are some basic ways of treating people that can make them feel safer than in any other context, allowing them to fully participate in an event or meeting and allowing the entire group to benefit from their perspective and ideas. my favorite example of this has to be, once again, bluestockings, where one norm of interaction is to ask someone's preferred gender pronoun upon meeting them. this practice is both a cause and effect of the large number of trans and gender non-conforming people who volunteer and socialize at bluestockings, and it's a big part of what allows those wonderful people to continue their important work.

I feel really energized to have such solid building blocks for teamwork and grateful to david for sharing his ideas with us! when I'm involved in a project intended to fight injustice, the energy of everyone participating is so precious. the majority of these fights happen because marginalized people push them all the way through, despite not getting paid for their work and despite the multiple other struggles they undoubtedly face every day. it feels worthwhile to consider a balanced approach that can ensure everyone feels supported while increasing the chance that change will actually happen!

though MASD 2014 did very well with the simulated challenges david presented, he did make the point that we're in our "honeymoon period" as a team, and that conflicts will undoubtedly arise. I completely agree, but I definitely plan to use all of this positive energy as fuel to get through the next few weeks and settle into my groove at MICA. we spent a little bit of time at the end discussing potential norms of interaction for our group, a conversation I am glad to know is open and ongoing.

we were also asked to think about times when individual effort is better than group effort. I liked a point byron made on the topic:

 I think anytime people are expressing themselves from the heart, individuality is inherent. For example, if a musician is transcribing a piece of music that they are feeling from their soul, collaboration may be mute or worse, destructive.

I think anytime self-expression is the goal, the artist best works alone, though they may be inspired and challenged by others. I also think there are times when one person can get a small project done faster than a group could. when a single person's perspective and skill is appropriate for the task, I see no issue with working alone. I'm reminded of this quote, posted on design action collective's facebook page: (one of my design/teamwork idols!)