For the life of me, I can't figure out why your rant about Biden needed to start with a bit about Netflix but you’ve triggered a memory and I can't stop myself. I have to tell my Netflix story.
I got my first Netflix account in 1999. Had some friends who worked there. Loved the shiny disks. Couldn't watch them fast enough. There were so many great movies in that period.
Around 14 years ago, they called me up out of the blue and asked if I wanted to work there. I said not really but they said “Just come and talk to us.” Netflix was just down the road from where I lived in Los Gatos, so I went to see them.
The Netflix office was the most beautiful office I have ever seen. It was like walking into Steven Speilberg’s guest parlour. Larger-than-life movie posters on the walls. Lush armchairs. Enormous coffee table books on the tables. It was just gorgeous.
In Silicon Valley, interviews for senior jobs tend to last two full days and they assigned me the loveliest HR person to help me through it and she coached me on what everyone was going to ask me and how to answer if I wanted the job. Netflix is famous for having - let’s say - a very distinctive HR culture and you have to read the book and understand it to get in. They tell you, “If you’re the kind of person who comes in everyday and does a great job, we’ll say ‘thank you very much’ and send you on your way. We only want superstars here.” A lot of people hate it. I loved it.
Anyway. They offered me the job at the same time as I was offered the job as Employee #2 at a brand-new start-up building communities for cancer patients. It didn't even have an office yet. The Netflix pay was double and offered a shit-ton of stock but I am a romantic and took the start-up job.
I called the Lovely HR lady and told her that I was taking the other job but she asked if I would come talk to their Chief Product Officer first. I said it won't do any good but, sure.
The CPO was English. Lovely man. He said, “They told me you were coming and that you were important but they didn’t tell me why you were here.” I explained and he asked if he might change my mind. When I said “No”, he said “Well, we have half an hour. Seems a shame to waste it. What do you want to talk about?” “We could talk about your product. I have some ideas!”
I told him the average rating of a forty-something man and a teenage girl makes a nonsense of ratings and recommendations and you need separate user accounts for family members.
Anyway, we had a lovely chat and he wished me well and I went to join my start-up.
Over the next few years, the Netflix hiring manager would call me up and take me out to dinner. “You know our stock price is 3x what it was last year?”, he asked. A couple of years more: “You know our stock price is 16x now?"
Anyway, so that’s why I am not rich. I still work for the same start-up building communities for cancer patients and I am still Employee #2. And I just cancelled my Netflix account on Friday. It's crap now. They don't make good movies any more.
Well. My rant starting with Netflix got you telling your story about Netflix Ragged. So that’s something. So you still work for that company even though you’re back in Britain?
While I am here, Biden was my candidate in the 2004 Democratic primaries. I still think he would’ve beaten Bush. Kerry was a twat.
When Trump won the 2016 primary, my family members all put their hands in the middle and swore that if Trump wins the Presidency, after 25 years in the USA, we are going home. And here we are. Home.
I haven’t followed US politics very closely since I've been back but, embarrassing as he is, I don’t get the impression that Biden is as bad as you make out. A lot of those articles you shared told lies, for example. Still, it’s ridiculous that the Democrats stuck with him. Our best hope is that the Dems will have someone waiting in the wings at the convention.
Here’s a prediction!
They’ll make Michelle Obama Vice President “just in case” and Biden will bow out after a polite few months in 2025. It’s good that they keep electing family members over there. Ivanka Trump next.
I think it’s more than ridiculous they’ve kept Biden (so far). It seems like they just want someone they can push around maybe. But I also think it projects weakness. I don’t anyone genuinely thinks Biden is ‘leading’. I never liked Kerry either.
Matt Yglesias is about the only American political commentator that I still read occasionally. He seems to think Biden has the usual getting-old, forgetting-words thing. Of course people make fun of him — I do too — but I think he still has most of his marbles.
Four more years would be ridiculous though. I don't know how they agreed to it. It wouldn't surprise me if he suddenly "gets ill'' just before the dem conference.
Yes. Thats what I expect too. But I think the timing will be such that it is magically ‘too late’ for any form of primary election-that’s why, like the Pope, the candidate will ‘emerge’ from back room dealing.
I think it's significant that in all the new governments have created since 1776, they've only copied the presidential system once in Liberia. All the others are parliamentary.
Yes. That is interesting. Perhaps that’s because the people forming those new governments wanted to keep a large amount of the power for themselves. In other places of course the President becomes more of a figurehead Head of State. Which seems like a ‘third way’. But I’m not pretending I know much about how this all works!
LOL. I've not paid it in 10 years and just shred the letters. I think one guy came to bother me once and I told him to fuck off LOL. He did not looked pleased.
It seems a ridiculous way to fund it to me. I finally lost faith after the Oct 7 reporting tbh. Now I think if it’s as good as they keep telling us, it should go full subscription. Not necessarily overnight. I don’t want to wreck it. There is value there. But certainly over maybe five years or so. It won’t happen though. They will never give up their ‘free’ money. It’s a shame. Genuinely home, over the years, to some of the finest ever programming.
Ha ha I’d like to see your version of Newsnight Vulkan.
The issue for me is the BBC claims endlessly it is a ‘competitive marketplace’ when it comes to salaries. But refuses to be in any kind of marketplace when it comes to funding.
What a shame Azhar Ali isn't US born. We could send him over to replace Joe Biden. Why do I mention him? Because I see a lot of similarity between the (now cancelled) support by the Labour Party for Ali, when it was beyond doubt to almost anyone who isn't a vegetable in a coma that he was a lost cause, and the support of the Democrats for a person judged too senile to stand trial, but apparently OK to be POTUS. The Left are very good at calling out the trivial lies and inadequacies of others (like Boris Johnson and the Partygate nonsense), but then tie convoluted knots of sophistry to justify a situation that is completely beyond the pale.
Very good point Jeremy. I genuinely believe Starmer wants to eradicate anti-semitism from the Labour Party. But I think it is impossible, because its voter base is made up of more and more people from cultures which are simply just antisemitic. I think he knows he can’t square that circle and just wants to hide/deny it now. And tragically the British public seem to have become very anti-Jew. Witness the weekly ‘protests’. I haven’t got a lot of time for Starmer but on this I think he is sincere. If powerless.
You are probably right, but he was caught by a "Cummings" attack, where enough is released to get Starmer wriggling on the hook, and the candidate issuing a grovelling apology, then after a day release another example of appalling behaviour. Starmer now looks an idiot. It worked so well against Boris that we shall clearly see more of it.
Moral: don't defend the indefensible.
While on the subject of conspiracy theories, this one Ali talked about has to be one of the daftest. Does anyone think Netanyahu phoned up Hamas and begged them to attack Israel so he could kill Palestinians in Gaza? Ridiculous. However, did Hamas attack Israel to disrupt the developing relationship between Israel and more "moderate" Arab states, even though it knew that the Israelis would kill thousands of its people as a result? Of course it did. Ali accuses Netanyahu of the very crime Hamas committed.
Yes Jeremy. I agree with all of this. This can only get worse for Starmer - unless the media stop reporting it. Which could well happen. The anti semite problem in the Labour party is clearly more than a few bad apples. It’s an absolute cancer. And your point about the conspiracy is well made.
I do enjoy your pieces, LSO - highly entertaining in a depressing sort of way. It just amazes me that out of 340m people, the main candidates for US President are an aggressive old boor and a senile old dodger. They have better people, of course, but the murky world of politics repels those we really need - those with high intellect, integrity, vision, courage and competence. As Andrew Breitbart said: ‘politics is downstream of culture’, which makes US culture (and ours) quite unwell. Things will get worse before they get better.
Thanks! I agree Richard . I don’t think anyone wants this rematch. The Republicans need a candidate who can persuade disgruntled Democrat voters who think the ideology has gone too far. Just as in the UK the right needs to stop thinking their salvation likes in entrenchment, and instead finds a way to appeal to young voters who (correctly) feel they have been let down by the current duopoly.
I LOVE the Greta Thunberg sketch 👍🏻 Comes a point where it's all going so badly downhill that, if you can emotionally detach from the outcome, there's a sort of fascination in watching the apocalypse happen in real time.
This is brilliant. There has to be a one off satire show using the US as dementia patient analogy. The pokes at the woke using that vehicle are terrific. Thanks
My major concern is that Biden can not be making any decisions for the USA. If he is not making any decisions, who IS making the decisions, and what does this say for ‘democracy’.
It’s exactly the point Rivah. When no one is seen to be making the decisions then no one can be held to account. Clearly what we think of democracy and what our elites think is democracy are no longer the same thing. And those definitions are only set to diverge even further as time goes on.
Two things one should always remember about Joe Biden;
1) He is the absolute epitomy of the disgusting self serving DC swamp ghoul everyone hates. Ramming him into office after the popularist claimed he'd "drain the swamp" was a huge deep state flex.
2) He's also cheap. Imagine selling out the largest empire in history for a measly $10 million here and there.
Great piece again, LSO, i think the Democrats will wait to DJT is selected for the Republicans, with no alternatives available and then Biden will announce he’s decided not to stand after all.
Thanks P. Yes. Timing is everything and that’s the perfect time to strike. As long as it’s too late to vote in a candidate on their own side. They won’t want anyone choosing but themselves.
I saw this Accipiter. It’s just madness. And so divisive. I’m no conspiracy theorist but I can’t help imagining a world where they are doing this to create the ‘right wing backlash’ they so clearly need to justify ever more draconian laws. I’m not about to demonise these people. That’s a trap I think. But they clearly should not be here. And we have no idea who they are. And yet we are importing them into our cities. As ever the elites are dumping a problem on the poorest, and then vilifying them a ‘racist’ or intolerant when they complain about it.
Hey Lee! OMG the micro aggressions! It was actually Tory MP who brought that up on Newsnight I think, and then they all ran with it. They will talk about anything if it means they can avoiding engaging with the real issues. Total distraction tactics.
Nope. Not for a while. Love the Bee and support Spiked. Definitely the Good Guys.
I especially liked the 'power behind the commode' and the ';transfer of power pillow'. Sounds like you have some merchandising slogans there.
Sadly, politics started out as a choice between the least worst options and has gone downhill ever since.
Thanks Jim!
For the life of me, I can't figure out why your rant about Biden needed to start with a bit about Netflix but you’ve triggered a memory and I can't stop myself. I have to tell my Netflix story.
I got my first Netflix account in 1999. Had some friends who worked there. Loved the shiny disks. Couldn't watch them fast enough. There were so many great movies in that period.
Around 14 years ago, they called me up out of the blue and asked if I wanted to work there. I said not really but they said “Just come and talk to us.” Netflix was just down the road from where I lived in Los Gatos, so I went to see them.
The Netflix office was the most beautiful office I have ever seen. It was like walking into Steven Speilberg’s guest parlour. Larger-than-life movie posters on the walls. Lush armchairs. Enormous coffee table books on the tables. It was just gorgeous.
In Silicon Valley, interviews for senior jobs tend to last two full days and they assigned me the loveliest HR person to help me through it and she coached me on what everyone was going to ask me and how to answer if I wanted the job. Netflix is famous for having - let’s say - a very distinctive HR culture and you have to read the book and understand it to get in. They tell you, “If you’re the kind of person who comes in everyday and does a great job, we’ll say ‘thank you very much’ and send you on your way. We only want superstars here.” A lot of people hate it. I loved it.
Anyway. They offered me the job at the same time as I was offered the job as Employee #2 at a brand-new start-up building communities for cancer patients. It didn't even have an office yet. The Netflix pay was double and offered a shit-ton of stock but I am a romantic and took the start-up job.
I called the Lovely HR lady and told her that I was taking the other job but she asked if I would come talk to their Chief Product Officer first. I said it won't do any good but, sure.
The CPO was English. Lovely man. He said, “They told me you were coming and that you were important but they didn’t tell me why you were here.” I explained and he asked if he might change my mind. When I said “No”, he said “Well, we have half an hour. Seems a shame to waste it. What do you want to talk about?” “We could talk about your product. I have some ideas!”
I told him the average rating of a forty-something man and a teenage girl makes a nonsense of ratings and recommendations and you need separate user accounts for family members.
Anyway, we had a lovely chat and he wished me well and I went to join my start-up.
Over the next few years, the Netflix hiring manager would call me up and take me out to dinner. “You know our stock price is 3x what it was last year?”, he asked. A couple of years more: “You know our stock price is 16x now?"
Anyway, so that’s why I am not rich. I still work for the same start-up building communities for cancer patients and I am still Employee #2. And I just cancelled my Netflix account on Friday. It's crap now. They don't make good movies any more.
Well. My rant starting with Netflix got you telling your story about Netflix Ragged. So that’s something. So you still work for that company even though you’re back in Britain?
That’s right. The founders quit. I was CEO for a while but I am back to being Employee #2.
Impressive. People don’t seem to stick with those tech companies for very long. Not that I know much about that world.
That's my problem, right there. I care too much. I averaged about 8 years per company.
While I am here, Biden was my candidate in the 2004 Democratic primaries. I still think he would’ve beaten Bush. Kerry was a twat.
When Trump won the 2016 primary, my family members all put their hands in the middle and swore that if Trump wins the Presidency, after 25 years in the USA, we are going home. And here we are. Home.
I haven’t followed US politics very closely since I've been back but, embarrassing as he is, I don’t get the impression that Biden is as bad as you make out. A lot of those articles you shared told lies, for example. Still, it’s ridiculous that the Democrats stuck with him. Our best hope is that the Dems will have someone waiting in the wings at the convention.
Here’s a prediction!
They’ll make Michelle Obama Vice President “just in case” and Biden will bow out after a polite few months in 2025. It’s good that they keep electing family members over there. Ivanka Trump next.
I think it’s more than ridiculous they’ve kept Biden (so far). It seems like they just want someone they can push around maybe. But I also think it projects weakness. I don’t anyone genuinely thinks Biden is ‘leading’. I never liked Kerry either.
Matt Yglesias is about the only American political commentator that I still read occasionally. He seems to think Biden has the usual getting-old, forgetting-words thing. Of course people make fun of him — I do too — but I think he still has most of his marbles.
Four more years would be ridiculous though. I don't know how they agreed to it. It wouldn't surprise me if he suddenly "gets ill'' just before the dem conference.
Yes. Thats what I expect too. But I think the timing will be such that it is magically ‘too late’ for any form of primary election-that’s why, like the Pope, the candidate will ‘emerge’ from back room dealing.
It's a crazy job really. They should replace it with what we have.
There seems merit in both systems. But the people in charge seem intent on making the worst of both of them.
I think it's significant that in all the new governments have created since 1776, they've only copied the presidential system once in Liberia. All the others are parliamentary.
Yes. That is interesting. Perhaps that’s because the people forming those new governments wanted to keep a large amount of the power for themselves. In other places of course the President becomes more of a figurehead Head of State. Which seems like a ‘third way’. But I’m not pretending I know much about how this all works!
Put your hand up if you're a Brit who doesn't pay the BBC tax........oh, oh. What's this? My hand is going up lol.
Watch out Vulkan! Detector Van incoming!
LOL. I've not paid it in 10 years and just shred the letters. I think one guy came to bother me once and I told him to fuck off LOL. He did not looked pleased.
It seems a ridiculous way to fund it to me. I finally lost faith after the Oct 7 reporting tbh. Now I think if it’s as good as they keep telling us, it should go full subscription. Not necessarily overnight. I don’t want to wreck it. There is value there. But certainly over maybe five years or so. It won’t happen though. They will never give up their ‘free’ money. It’s a shame. Genuinely home, over the years, to some of the finest ever programming.
I just can’t stand the thought of paying for peoples wages like Gary Lineker who just doesn’t deserve it.
None of these “celebs” or broadcasters do.
They could sack the lot. I’d read off an autoque for £50,000 a year. What a bargain compared to what some of these others get.
Ha ha I’d like to see your version of Newsnight Vulkan.
The issue for me is the BBC claims endlessly it is a ‘competitive marketplace’ when it comes to salaries. But refuses to be in any kind of marketplace when it comes to funding.
What a shame Azhar Ali isn't US born. We could send him over to replace Joe Biden. Why do I mention him? Because I see a lot of similarity between the (now cancelled) support by the Labour Party for Ali, when it was beyond doubt to almost anyone who isn't a vegetable in a coma that he was a lost cause, and the support of the Democrats for a person judged too senile to stand trial, but apparently OK to be POTUS. The Left are very good at calling out the trivial lies and inadequacies of others (like Boris Johnson and the Partygate nonsense), but then tie convoluted knots of sophistry to justify a situation that is completely beyond the pale.
Very good point Jeremy. I genuinely believe Starmer wants to eradicate anti-semitism from the Labour Party. But I think it is impossible, because its voter base is made up of more and more people from cultures which are simply just antisemitic. I think he knows he can’t square that circle and just wants to hide/deny it now. And tragically the British public seem to have become very anti-Jew. Witness the weekly ‘protests’. I haven’t got a lot of time for Starmer but on this I think he is sincere. If powerless.
You are probably right, but he was caught by a "Cummings" attack, where enough is released to get Starmer wriggling on the hook, and the candidate issuing a grovelling apology, then after a day release another example of appalling behaviour. Starmer now looks an idiot. It worked so well against Boris that we shall clearly see more of it.
Moral: don't defend the indefensible.
While on the subject of conspiracy theories, this one Ali talked about has to be one of the daftest. Does anyone think Netanyahu phoned up Hamas and begged them to attack Israel so he could kill Palestinians in Gaza? Ridiculous. However, did Hamas attack Israel to disrupt the developing relationship between Israel and more "moderate" Arab states, even though it knew that the Israelis would kill thousands of its people as a result? Of course it did. Ali accuses Netanyahu of the very crime Hamas committed.
Yes Jeremy. I agree with all of this. This can only get worse for Starmer - unless the media stop reporting it. Which could well happen. The anti semite problem in the Labour party is clearly more than a few bad apples. It’s an absolute cancer. And your point about the conspiracy is well made.
I do enjoy your pieces, LSO - highly entertaining in a depressing sort of way. It just amazes me that out of 340m people, the main candidates for US President are an aggressive old boor and a senile old dodger. They have better people, of course, but the murky world of politics repels those we really need - those with high intellect, integrity, vision, courage and competence. As Andrew Breitbart said: ‘politics is downstream of culture’, which makes US culture (and ours) quite unwell. Things will get worse before they get better.
Thanks! I agree Richard . I don’t think anyone wants this rematch. The Republicans need a candidate who can persuade disgruntled Democrat voters who think the ideology has gone too far. Just as in the UK the right needs to stop thinking their salvation likes in entrenchment, and instead finds a way to appeal to young voters who (correctly) feel they have been let down by the current duopoly.
I LOVE the Greta Thunberg sketch 👍🏻 Comes a point where it's all going so badly downhill that, if you can emotionally detach from the outcome, there's a sort of fascination in watching the apocalypse happen in real time.
Thanks Bettina. But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that!
This is brilliant. There has to be a one off satire show using the US as dementia patient analogy. The pokes at the woke using that vehicle are terrific. Thanks
Thanks Martin!
My major concern is that Biden can not be making any decisions for the USA. If he is not making any decisions, who IS making the decisions, and what does this say for ‘democracy’.
It’s exactly the point Rivah. When no one is seen to be making the decisions then no one can be held to account. Clearly what we think of democracy and what our elites think is democracy are no longer the same thing. And those definitions are only set to diverge even further as time goes on.
Superbly written. Sad that it’s all true.
Thanks Christian. Yes. You’re right. No one is coming out of this well. It is sad.
Tim Dillon’s most recent episode has a long bit about Michelle Obama running for president, highly recommend
I’ll check it out. Thanks Nate.
Two things one should always remember about Joe Biden;
1) He is the absolute epitomy of the disgusting self serving DC swamp ghoul everyone hates. Ramming him into office after the popularist claimed he'd "drain the swamp" was a huge deep state flex.
2) He's also cheap. Imagine selling out the largest empire in history for a measly $10 million here and there.
Great piece again, LSO, i think the Democrats will wait to DJT is selected for the Republicans, with no alternatives available and then Biden will announce he’s decided not to stand after all.
Thanks P. Yes. Timing is everything and that’s the perfect time to strike. As long as it’s too late to vote in a candidate on their own side. They won’t want anyone choosing but themselves.
I am tempted by that bet at 11:1. If I collect it would be at least some compensation for not seeing DJT back in the White House.
I know Bill. I’m blasé in the article but I kind of wish I’d put on £50 at 16-1!
Big Mike at 16-1: a steal!
🤣
I saw this Accipiter. It’s just madness. And so divisive. I’m no conspiracy theorist but I can’t help imagining a world where they are doing this to create the ‘right wing backlash’ they so clearly need to justify ever more draconian laws. I’m not about to demonise these people. That’s a trap I think. But they clearly should not be here. And we have no idea who they are. And yet we are importing them into our cities. As ever the elites are dumping a problem on the poorest, and then vilifying them a ‘racist’ or intolerant when they complain about it.
Hey Lee! OMG the micro aggressions! It was actually Tory MP who brought that up on Newsnight I think, and then they all ran with it. They will talk about anything if it means they can avoiding engaging with the real issues. Total distraction tactics.