Your space to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about!
Off-Topic Open Thread: Week of 4/3
Photo courtesy of Washington Capitals
Your space to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about!
Fresh ice! Thanks to gfcapsfan for putting the idea in my head to go petition our benevolent overlords for a new page.
https://www.japersrink.com/off-topic-open-thread-2/
Still can’t believe CNN let Putin’s Puppet spew his nonsense on their network. Didn’t they learn anything from Faux News?
They learned he’s ratings gold?
In other news trigger my schadenfreude, George Santos has been indicted by federal prosecutors.
Per NY Times,
Mr. Santos was charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.
And the R’s will remain silent, because otherwise involves losing one of their slim majority in the House.
Yeah, McCarthy is “blah, blah innocent until proven guilty”, but he needs every single vote to do anything.
Also, I heard speculation on a podcast that Santos is going to cling to his seat as long as possible because it’s a possible bargaining chip if he takes a plea bargain.
I would be absolutely shocked if McCarthy acted this way had Santos been a Dem. The hypocrisy is at unprecedented levels with this GOP.
“making materially false statements to the House of Representatives”
So they’re going to charge everybody in Congress now?
I’d assume not every member of Congress lies on their financial disclosure form… But I believe members of Congress have pretty big leeway on lying given the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution.
Per Nicholas Weaver on Mastodon:
Gotta love Fed prosecutor rubble bouncing:
Santos is only accused of defrauding two donors… Which turns into 5 wire fraud counts and 3 money laundering counts.
Defrauding unemployment becomes 3 counts: 1 count of theft and 2 counts of wire fraud for 2 of the payments.
And two counts for lying on his house financial disclosure form.
I wonder if we could get a fresh thread dated in May that we can find easily on the front page? Don’t know if it’s quiet in here because people don’t realize the thread is current, or because the Caps’ season is over.
Probably both. We could probably poke Becca on the hellsite or maybe post on one of the Stanley Cup recaps to get her attention.
Would be nice.
Good idea. I pop back in but not everyday.
E. Jean Carroll wins $5 million from Trump.
Totally not nearly enough, but I don’t believe the money is the issue. At least not completely.
Haven’t been following it closely, but it seems like the defense strategy backfired. Unlike a criminal trial, where the burden of proof is on the prosecution and the prosecutor needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt something happened, a civil trial is based on the preponderance of evidence, so the jurors just have to determine which side they believe.
The fact that the defense didn’t actually mount a defense seems like it wouldn’t work well with a jury.
Also, man, the former president apparently mistook a picture of E. Jean Carroll for one of his second wife…
So Tucker Carlson is ready to fight with Fox to get out of his “”pay or play” agreement….
Hmmm.. Does Fox think it’s worth paying his contract to keep him off the air until January 2025?
https://www.axios.com/2023/05/07/fox-news-tucker-carlson
Amazon reports my Songs of the South DVD has arrived!
It’s set in a post-slavery, Reconstruction Era south.
A white boy who has a loving friendship with an old black man who teaches him important lessons from his knowledge.
Haven’t seen it since childhood. Reviews bash the stigma- the overall take is the negative associations come from the same people who don’t want to acknowledge some aspects of the history of the country, vs allegations of racism, idealistic depiction of slavery etc.
Very interested to watch as an adult in the new era of book burning in America. Only vague recollections from having seen it as a small child.
I wonder how Songs of the South escaped the Disney dungeon; an unauthorized copy that’s going to get the Mouse’s lawyers sprung on them?
I don’t think it should be banned to never see the light of day. I liked how Warner Brothers treated their problematic older material with a warning / disavowal up-front, while still making it available for critique and viewing.
I did ride Splash Mountain a few times which I think is based on Song of the South and it was a fun ride, but they are re-branding it to a Princess and Frog ride instead.
It was not possible to find when I looked maybe 5 years ago.
But it’s easy to find now. At least for now. No need to take a chance on strange regions either.
I think Disney must be unofficially fine with people seeing it.
Can be taken at face value but there is a lot to think about.
Making the black music Disney white friendly, at what age would a child be able to watch the cartoons and not have nightmares, why are all the white moms and dads separated due to marital problems… and that’s not even getting into the story
Shall we take a pool on how long before Andrey Kovalev dies from falling out a window or down a flight of stairs?
Hundred of pounds of pasta dumped in a forest in NJ.
Cue all the bad puns!
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/04/us/new-jersey-pasta-dump.html?unlocked_article_code=mnOt9FZcX9mHUrrwj-IgRU4oncGxmkKC_hR4HCs0CdrDfPMaiR46M643d7s-3ItgEIJvLqhhxGYksZZ1wMZ530gYowyH4FRqfhiDztQV5pNIQNPXTVbTPiEG2sMGd48o6qgQN1Ez1KVto5fS3JOwaCh1mY1hgqhZNKnnHwg9rJX-bnpOIoq6C6C247aVFD9YXHyFXxre3BFk1QICGE19zFATixm-cw-CxGtb8LmVgkl5OC70Utg3hxmPG9gMXA8qb7254uX7_xIrOIRmoBT7MmTuxH5Hdya1to06iGNG4YyDvi88CbriRyiJcFR4zx3D6Yu-lKde9Qi3rc8&smid=url-share
In honor of Tomi dePaola…
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/648058/strega-nona-tomi-depaola-book-facts
Scary but not entirely surprising news. The next few years are going to be brutal once the El Nino kicks into high gear.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/05/world/ocean-surface-temperature-heat-record-climate-intl/index.html
In honor of the writer strike I asked AI to write an original scene for Friends where Phoebe brings home a chicken she wants to keep. I think the big streaming players like this strike as a way to push out some of the smaller players who don’t have large libraries, war chests, and don’t have Netflix’s ability to work with international studios and resources to minimize impact. Consolidation might be good for us too. How many little streaming apps are we supposed to buy?
[The scene opens with Phoebe walking into Monica and Chandler’s apartment carrying a chicken.]
Phoebe: Hey guys, look what I found on the street!
Monica: [shocked] Phoebe, is that a chicken?
Phoebe: [excitedly] Yes! And I’ve decided to adopt her.
Chandler: [sarcastically] Of course you have.
Monica: [concerned] Phoebe, you can’t just bring a chicken home. We don’t have a yard or a coop.
Phoebe: [determined] I know, but we can raise her in here. We’ll make it work!
Chandler: [skeptical] How exactly are we going to do that?
Phoebe: [thinking] Hmm, well we could make her a little nest in the corner and use some old towels for bedding. And we can feed her all the scraps from our meals.
Monica: [still unsure] I don’t know, Phoebe. Chickens are a lot of work. And what about the noise and the smell?
Phoebe: [reassuringly] Don’t worry, she’s a quiet chicken. And I’ll take care of all the cleaning and maintenance.
Chandler: [smirking] Oh great, so we’re going to have a chicken living in our apartment now. This is going to be fun.
Monica: [resigned] Alright, fine. But if this doesn’t work out, she’s not staying here permanently.
Phoebe: [grinning] Don’t worry, Mon. You’ll love having a feathered friend around.
[The scene ends with Phoebe setting up a makeshift nest for the chicken as Chandler and Monica exchange skeptical glances.]
I was on Twitter for the last strike, so it absolutely sucks, but I understand why the writers are doing it. Even in the unprecedented boom years of streaming, when companies were pouring money into television, writers saw their earnings go down because of poor streaming residuals and smaller rooms for shorter periods of time.
The days of 22 episode shows seems to be over and it’s hard to make a living with mini-writer rooms for much shorter times with no back-end residuals to tide them over.
They also want protections added where AI cannot access their scripts as background data (like AI is generating art using existing art as reference while providing no compensation and without permission), they will not be asked to rewrite scripts generated by AI, pretty much fighting to keep AI out however they can.
If you give AI a book and tell it to write two seasons of shows from it, giving it input about what general aspects should be in each episode, how season 1 should end, etc…I suspect the results would be pretty decent. But today, you’d still need someone to review and rewrite aspects and probably still put in a fair amount of work.
I told the AI I didn’t think Phoebe would say “maintenance”. It agreed mentioning aspects of her personality that would back this up and suggested “stuff” was probably a better word to use and also it thanked me for pointing it out.
They’ll be bringing reality tv back again.
I would like to see a show during the strike that is written by AI under the banner of experimental exploration. It would probably win awards and notoriety, novelty viewership would be high, lawsuits would be filed..
It would bring a lot of thoughts, issues, and debates to the forefront by its existence no matter the actual quality of the show.
Yeah, I’d expect you could get the AI to write the barebones of a script, but it’d require a ton of work by a human to get it into even decent shape; might as well just pay the human to do the entire thing and you might get something special.
Just as you had to collaborate with the AI to fix word choices, writers still have a lot of on the ground work. Listening to the Good Place podcast, one of the writers from the room is at the production, tweaking lines and re-working parts when they don’t work and otherwise helping with the episode. Doing mini-rooms and then letting the writers go before shooting lowers cost, but also both limits the experience writers will have going forward (the young writers will become the next showrunners) and makes the product worse.
ChatGPT is amazing at what it does, but it feels a bit like self-driving cars where the initial 50-80% is amazing, but it’s very hard to refine it to the point where it can completely take over for a human. I was supposed to be able to nap in my car while it drives me to my destination by now!
Very true in many ways yes.
And maybe all that is just part of our show:
Maybe each episode chronicles the making of a stand-alone short film.
Tack “the making of” each show on the front of each, where the work is done, problems highlighted, like an HGTV remodel or a Project Runway design challenge where you see the sausage-making. Maybe there’s a timer where the collaboration/show must be completed. Then work with the actors to iron out wrinkles as best you can on set. Then the latter part of the episode – maybe 8-12 minutes,- is the actual edited produced “show” within the episode. The end of the hour is a judging/retrospective and comments on ways to improve for next time.
By season 3 I think the shows would be pretty slick, and the audience and developers would have become more sophisticated in the process.
I agree you probably won’t be able to watch Season 3 while your car drives you to grandma’s house 🙂
Maybe a “Whose Line” type of improv show. Like “Compose a ditty about a trillion dollar platinum coin” and compare how a human does vs. the AI. Although, would that count as writing?
I think however it’s implemented it will raise questions and be interesting even if it doesn’t work well, people will be curious
I was reading about the First Republic Bank failure, and it doesn’t surprise me, although they might have been a bit in the extreme. While interest rates were zero and mortgages were under 3%, I couldn’t help but wonder what happens when rates go up. Of course, I don’t know that anyone thought the Fed would raise rates by 5%, and they’re apparently going to raise them more. .
I know of at least one client who has one of those really large interest only mortgages.
Rising rate environment is supposedly better for banks lending. Deposit rates don’t go up nearly as fast as loan rates, so the spread on loan vs. deposit interest rates should go higher. If their loans are floating rate (which I believe a lot of business loans are), then they should also reset higher.
Due to some really bad mismanagement by Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic, they bought a lot of longer term fixed rate treasuries and mortgages when interest rates were much lower, so they’re underwater on a lot of those assets. (When interest rates go up, the the market price for existing bonds go down, because why buy a crap bond at 1.5% when you get a new one for 5%?) Normally, this is survivable because the bank will still get paid back at par, they just lose out on higher income; it’s only if they’re forced to sell those underwater bonds at a loss that things get bad…
And then the deposits started leaving, because they were spooked. And then they’re screwed.
I lucked out when I bought a house in 2020, so my mortgage rate is sub 2.5%. Some poor investor out there is taking an absolute bath on my mortgage. I wonder if there’s some way to get the market price on that mortgage, because it has to be worth like 60 cents on the dollar, but if I tried to prepay early, it’d be close to par.
I also moved whatever I could out of my bank account (big bank, paying me sub 1% interest), and stuck it in some money market / I-bonds and treasuries.
Fed raised them one last time by 25 basis and I’m guessing they’ll hold here for awhile.
They most definitely won’t cut unless the entire economy goes off a cliff.
So, businesses have to stop hiring even tho they think right now they need people, because they kind of do but never mind. Then people will feel lucky to stay locked safely in their underpaying teaching gigs that don’t let you work remote and we can all buy cars and houses again but they won’t be off in the mountains overlooking the moose, but instead close to the downtown offices they have to commute to every day, this the plan?
You are catching on. Plus, we need a recession now since an election is coming up with Dems having a chance to win.
RIP Gordon LIghtfoot
https://variety.com/2023/music/obituaries-people-news/gordon-lightfoot-dead-edmund-fitzgerald-folk-singer-1235600585/
More teenage memories going by.
I randomly sang Sundown at karaoke just within the last couple of months (we were told to sing two songs on a slow night so it was random throw in). I got dancers and it wasn’t really a dance floor-y place, so people still responded to it.
I prefer this cover but it was sort of a flash in the pan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNKDmrANWVU
It is getting harder and harder to find this page. May have to give up coming to it until someone has time to make these pages easier to find. Or maybe I need to learn something about the site that I have missed?
Oh never mind. I see there are categories in the lower right which can take you here. Duh.
Unless you’ve seen differently. you have to go into a thread and then you can see the categories. Seems like they way someone would prefer it
Ah, good point. Still easier than what I was doing before
Could always bookmark it, but yeah, it’s a bit harder to navigate once we fell off the front page.
Still haven’t figured out the profile thing, but we’re not prime time yet.
Jerry Springer has died. Unfortunately, his contribution to TV has not.
Was just about to post that. I remember when it was Jerry and Maury Povich who were holding down the trashy day-time talk shows.
Is there an obvious successor program or has it splintered into a bunch of different reality TV shows?
I don’t think there is a single successor with his sort of success anymore. The viewership has been splintered into a few talk shows and a lot of “reality” TV which doesn’t even appear to be very “real” anymore.
Pretty sure that’s the Republican party.
Ain’t that America…
You have a kid where a paternity test may reveal uncomfortable truths, why go on tv to find out the results? I guess if you’re going to get a court ordered test anyway, might as well cash in on the “whole country” knowing your personal history?
Did they have somebody hanging out at family court with a checkbook and contracts to sign?
I see Disney continues to be one step ahead of DeSantis. What is funny is that DeSantis can’t back down now and the longer he stays in this fight, the worse it will be for him. Major political miscalculation for him, in my opinion, as potential donators flee from him.
I don’t have a feel for Desantis or really understand him at all at this point. Going after Disney may be all well and good if his motivation is simply scoring cheap political points in right-wing circles. “Owning the libtards” or however they put it.
But going after Disney – who has infinitely deeper pockets than he does and can field a team of lawyers far better than he can – let alone the fact that people LIKE Disney – just seems dumb.
The best thing for him now is to try and quietly let it go so he can go try to pick on someone more his own size.
Trump won with moderates because they didn’t like Hillary. Desantis is going to alienate moderates because he comes across like a bully and a dick.
There is no such thing as a Republican moderate. DeSantis might have had a lane at some point, but that’s gone.
Besides, unless Trump is in prison or dies, he’s the nominee. And possibly even if he’s in prison (which won’t happen, regardless of what he might be convicted of).
They’ve tried to let him “win” to end the stupidity – for instance suggested neither side should highlight the changes the departing board made. That way he won by changing the board/leadership, while actually Disney had made them powerless.
What choice do they have to end it other than to sue? He’s gone OCD over the Magic Kingdom, he’s not interested in off ramps.
He can take over control more the way he wants if Florida takes on their billion dollar debt. Is that the win he seeks? Where is Elon when you need him to make a whimsical high-visibility purchase? Disney World is less than an hour from Cape Canaveral.
Then they’d also be free to leave, maybe to Tennessee where they don’t have the same daily rains they tend to get in Florida. Texas would give them huge bargain deals to get them, but Texas leadership is getting pretty radical itself. The governor might very well give penniless asylum seekers with only the clothes on their backs tickets to the park. (Not to give DeSantis any ideas)
Taking on the most well-known place and largest employer of your state is certainly a choice. I wonder if DeSantis is going to end up like Jeb; someone built up a lot by the media as an obvious powerhouse candidate because he checks a lot of boxes, but is just going to flame out because normal people don’t like him.
Wow, my calendar for May is not even done and I think I’m going to be on the ice either playing or officiating in all but 11 days (though that number will almost certainly be less – one of my team’s hasn’t posted a schedule yet).
Hope everyone here is doing well!
All I can say is, “Wow.”
I’m trying to encourage my daughter (age 13) to start reffing when she turns 14 (min. age for work permit in Maryland). She doesn’t play hockey, but she figure skates, so she’d need to learn how the game flows and such, but it’d be such a better part time job than anything else out there that she could do.
My son played soccer, and he refereed for a couple of years in his teens. Was mostly assigned to the beginners (like five years old). Don’t know what hockey refs get paid, but he was getting something like $15/game to start, and that was more than fifteen years ago. Maybe more. Good money for teens.
Oopsies!
Just heard on WTOP that the Orioles and MASN owe the Nationals about 100 million dollars.
https://www.wmar2news.com/local/orioles-lose-lawsuit-against-nationals-over-masn-television-rights-fees
Uh, like, wow.
That’s not new. Just the latest court update. Reading the details, cash is still not on its way.
They’re celebrating “National Penguin Day” on the Today Show, and it’s driving me nuts. (Disclaimer that at least I’m only listening to the show, but maybe it would be better if I actually had video.)
Big cable news… news. Tucker Carlson is out at Fox. Apparently, fired without a farewell show, so… uh, I wonder what happened.
My take is that he created a lot of notable trackable dissent. He left the biggest paper trail. And, this included a strong distaste for papa Trump.
How do you move forward as Fox within Trump’s good graces and that guy?
And it sends the message to keep any dissent to yourself or unrecorded so it can’t be used against the reich. In a lawsuit for instance.
WOOT!
Appropriate that his final words were also a lie
I was wondering if there would be any fallout…I guess he was the biggest cheerleader for the “Big Lie” and gave his bosses 787 million reasons to can his ass.
Folks, I wouldn’t get too excited. His eventual replacement could be worse. And he’ll still be out there, somewhere, making trouble.
Can’t imagine a worse person.
Carlson is still out there, but his platform is likely to be smaller.
Maybe. Or maybe he will just become ineffectual like Bill O’Reilly. What I find interesting is it is really quiet from him so I suspect he had to sign an NDA which is pretty amusing to me.
I guess the My Pillow guy is losing sleep over his election fraud data…
My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell ordered to follow through with $5 million payment to expert who debunked his false election data
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/20/politics/mike-lindell-2020-election/index.html
I am not sure I will ever understand the mentality of SpaceX. While I appreciate the acceptance of failure as a step in improving the system overall, having people cheer their heads off after a massive launch failure is just down right weird. Subdued applause seems more appropriate to me.
The goal of the launch was to clear the launch tower, so having it go up that high (even if it exploded afterwards) is a success in their book.
But yeah, it does feel a bit weird to celebrate your rocket exploding in a spectacular explosion when that wasn’t the intention…
Ars Technica’s Eric Berger has a good write-up of the launch and why Space X views it as a success. They just have a faster cadence and are willing (and able) to tolerate things blowing up and learning from them.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/04/so-what-was-that-was-starships-launch-a-failure-or-a-success/
I haven’t bought a gun recently, but seems like people are getting more instruction regarding the improper use of a gun in their Miranda rights than they do when they go out and purchase it
I went to a gun range for a shooting session one time; completely new to handling a firearm. We had to sit through a 30-45 minute session with a test about how to handle a gun before we were allowed on the firing range.
Never point the gun at something you don’t intend to shoot.
Always treat a gun as loaded.
Never put your finger on the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.
It’s flabbergasting to me that most states don’t require any sort of license, permit, or training to own a weapon.
The waving around thing is commonly underappreciated yes.
But these people also don’t seem to know the basic fact that it’s a very rare circumstance where you get away with discharging your weapon at someone and don’t face charges.
Maybe they could cite cases where burglars sue people who shoot them – and win.
There are those 3 horrifying cases all happening within a couple of days.
16 year old kid goes to the wrong address to pick up his siblings and gets shot in the head.
College kids take the wrong driveway and try to back up and get shot; college woman dies.
High school cheerleader gets in the wrong car after practice, tries to leave and gets shot.
People craft this narrative in this head about how dangerous the world is and how they need this weapon to protect themselves. Then they overreact in fear or anger when confronted with something and tragedy happens.
You missed the pregnant woman who was shot at a Walgreen’s. Granted, the Walgreen’s employee thought she was shoplifting, but why didn’t he call the police?
A Pregnant Woman Was Shot By A Walgreens Employee After He Confronted Her About Shoplifting. He Said It Was Self-Defense.
https://news.yahoo.com/pregnant-woman-shot-walgreens-employee-184618259.html
I am willing to bet good money that all of those shooters watch too much right-wing TV. Right-wing TV is all about generating fear to maintain their support base and they have to keep ratcheting up the fear-mongering because it wears off over time.
Per WaPo about the guy who shot the 16 year old kid:
One eye on Fox, one eye on his cameras and one finger on the trigger, just waiting, smh
Fascinating that even 70 years after WWII, quality ball-bearings are difficult to get. This is one item that was a critical restriction during WWII production and apparently still is today.
Huh, my math is failing. It has been 80 years since WWII.
Bummer. Dominion took a pay cut in order to allow Faux News to save some face. Dominion was going to win that case. They may not have been awarded the $1.6 Billion they wanted but I REALLY wanted to watch Faux News squirm. Now they can give a little apology and then pretend like it never happened.
Reading and listening to a lot of the MSNBC analysis. One point was cash in hand vs jury nullification, appeals, etc.
Taking half the money is fine, it’s still a big win and far more than Dominion was worth.
Letting FOX weasel out on the “apology” sucks.
Meanwhile, enter Smartmatic.
I like to think that Fox at least learned a painful lesson – and I stress that I “like” to think that. I don’t think that leopards really change their spots.
Suing a “news” outlet for defamation is a tough lift, since First Amendment protections are among the strongest in the courts. Proving actual malice is difficult and even if they found in favor, proving damages that high is also a challenge since their actual loss in business was pretty low if I remember correctly.
I also was hoping they’d squirm or at least force Tucker or some other person to read an apology on the air, but I understand why a company would settle for a ton of money and not really fight for the principle of the matter.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/esg/fox-defamation-suits-expose-board-of-directors-to-fresh-risks
Fox Defamation Suits Expose Board of Directors to Fresh Risks
Question — does the Fox settlement with Dominion have any implications for derivative lawsuits? Or for the lawsuit by Smartmatic?
Based on what I heard from the Serious Trouble podcast (the expert is Ken White, a former AUSA attorney)
I’m sure the shareholder lawsuit will include the settlement as proof that the management wasn’t properly looking out for the company’s bottom line when they aired all those false statements. (Funny enough, I think Fox News was worried about losing audience share to nuttier outlets, which is why they aired all those false statements. So they were looking out for the bottom line, just did it wrong). Whether or not they prevail is a matter of what claims they bring forth and various shareholder rules, but as Matt Levine likes to say “Everything is securities fraud.”
I’m sure for Smartmatic, they’ll fight very hard to get this admitted into evidence and go through everything Fox said and disclosed to see if they can get a similar outcome. They are different though (Fox said different things about Smartmatic vs. Dominion) and it may be difficult to get the same amount of damages / settlement because Smartmatic only has machines in LA County.
Fox won’t admit to wrongdoing in the Dominion settlement because it would open them up to liability in all these other suits, but it’s such a large settlement that maybe it can be brought into the Smartmatic one.
Just because it would be hard to stop people from sharing proprietary or other privileged or private documents electronically doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try.
It was 30 years ago when they taught scanners, printers and scanner software to recognize and refuse to print currency. They obsoleted all pre-existing scanners – made them incompatible with operating systems moving fwd.
Maybe an industry standard header or footer indicating ownership, maybe your machine needs to be registered with the owner of the content, Word, Excel, chrome, bing, twitter, whatever, all the maintream players refuse to show or transmit if your machine isn’t registered with the owner.
Just spitballing something I’d think smarter people would have done something about by now. A little whiteout defeats the tech, but I don’t think Chelsea Manning is going to white out 100,000 pages, maybe just some key ones. And some idiot can’t just blindly send a bunch of junk just to show he can vs having a point or position.
People need to know if you expose our friends and they suffer consequences, you aren’t getting a mulligan
https://www.politifact.com/article/2023/apr/13/why-doesnt-the-supreme-court-have-a-formal-code-of/
Why doesn’t the Supreme Court have a formal code of ethics?
Politifact story
All I can say is OMG! Or as they say “en Francais”, Mon Dieu!
I’d go for f**king shit.
That’s an appropriate reaction, too. A slight bit of corruption, n’est pa?
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-real-estate-scotus?fbclid=IwAR2WBU3o_k3e7AG9GQzSB4cz6gCOaUF02vd4Ze3N_gTXFePmv6d3l2Oku-g
In 1969, Abe Fortas was forced out for such a relationship (or relationships). Today? There will be crickets.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/cautionary-tale-abe-fortas
They’re saying the failure to disclose is a federal crime, but so what? That still won’t get him off the court.
The Thomas’s are such a weird couple to me – bi-racial couple that is thick as thieves in with people that don’t shy from embracing racism as a political platform. Just utterly despicable disgusting people.
They do seem to have odd priorities.
This week seems to be National Software Glitch Week.
On Tuesday, I had trouble posting on certain Word Press sites. The “Post” button was not visible. It turns out people commenting from Apple products could comment but people commenting from PC products could not. It was also an issue commenting from Samsung Android phones.
On Wednesday evening (yesterday as of this writing), people couldn’t reply to Twitter posts if they were on a desktop computer as Elon Musk has pushed out code (via Git) that caused that to happen. Things were reverted back to normal around 10:00 pm or thereabouts.
Yay! NPR is leaving Twitter.
People still posted links to NPR articles on the subject so Twitter users got to learn the news.
But good for NPR. They should NOT be treated like the Russian or Chinese state media.
It’s a day that ends in Y (why?), so another mass shooting.
I remember reading somewhere that there is on average (I think) a little over one mass-shootings per day, depending on how you define it. I think the only the times it makes the front page is when white suburban people are involved – especially if they’re children. Otherwise it is a daily epidemic, much like the opioid epidemic.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64377360
Well, the “white” thing isn’t always true. When the crime is a hate crime targeting people of color, it seems to make headlines. e.g. – Buffalo grocery store, churches, etc
I think I heard them say so far this year, more mass shootings than days. I forget how many victims it takes to define a mass shooting. It’s fewer than we think.
I think the most common definition is four or more people shot (not including the shooter).
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/
They’re my go to for information about gun violence in the US. BB, the definition you give is the one they use.
Extended family and also friends who’ve never had much association with guns have been mulling getting guns recently. I ask them questions about why, what they’d get, how they’d use/keep it. Answer boils down to “just in case”, for security, with all the shootings in the news.
I’ve done a decent amount of competitive shooting. I am so concerned about an accident with a weapon in my house – even without a safe or lock, the the murderers have nothing to fear within my walls, it would take quite a while to bring everything together and have it ready to go.
Washington Post has a feature story about the SIG Sauer P320 and how it’s likely there’s a design defect that allows it to fire accidentally more often than other similar weapons.
It’s a standard issue firearm for a lot of police forces as well as the military; although the military version has a external safety which when engaged should prevent it from firing.
But yeah, my wife expressly forbids me from owning a gun here and honestly now that I have kids… yeah, makes a lot of sense.
Any inkling I ever had to shoot was exhausted in my army days. Yeah, I had fun then, but handling any of that stuff now as a civilian – especially one over 20 years removed that kind of thing – just feels wrong. And I am someone that KNOWS what I’m doing (or knew, at least) with automatic military-grade weapons. I just think it’s batshit crazy what ordinary untrained soldier of fortune wannabees can easily get there hands on here. It’s like a mash-up of the so-called “old West” and Somalia – and not a modern technological society.
The more my older bro talks about guns based on news/media saturation, the more gross it feels to invite him to the new state of the art shooting range near my house. I think I’ll wait until he actually goes thru with purchasing a gun. Then go there and practice safety and handling with him – vs slightly acclimating him to something I’d prefer he decide on his own to proceed with first.
Good morning-ish, no OTOT for the current week yet?
Ugh. I hate that estimated taxes are always due at the same time as annual taxes and then you have to pay estimated taxes again in just a couple of months.
It does seem cruel to make them both due April 15th (or 18th). But I guess that’s the point, right?
Just for fun, tried to check in on JapersRink.com and guess what? it redirects here to the dot org. Looks like they’ve got their domain name back. Woohoo!
Funny. I did the same thing this morning.
Great minds, right?
Now all we need is a new OT thread for a new week. 🙂
Taxes – Done!
Niedermeyer – Done!
Marmalard – Done!
(I know it’s a slight misquote, but you know what I mean)
I was getting the impression from social media that I was really late to the party on a latest pop-culture event. And that’s maybe the only party I try not to be late for. It’s talk/jokes about gay beer and bud light. People are also calling to “ban” Anheiser Busch… So I googled it today.
Short of it (you may already know) is there’s a trans woman associated with Bud Light. Saw one video and it was of her thanking them for sending her a 6 pack of Bud Light with her face designed into it, I don’t even know if they actually sent it or the level of association, but references and literally “brew-haha” are starting to pop up a lot.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/opinion/deaths-life-expectancy-guns-children.html?unlocked_article_code=Ws98XjAtGf7LV-muO2gyX1z5WzU9pbGl1lC22YCsDJoWuBTVYg_OelYT8NCS1dEYRw5awSpv9eO1OO_HbArhNh708j7dG6CBA_6Rc9mOpbNTsBUtqGdgMcCvRILeUlHGFokAEMJ6rKBF9PJCoGDcAHccImkx_YEi08ZG8oI6-4KNElNTkZl1Qd8CsfeEp2R2-QX74vsAbEB63U96NwdexLt1Lxw0uwiRwAV3X241fphNGCn6ORlMzlH5nmWAz4N30CmQ_MO863WCnjOD9IcomZ2VZA4-_ryQmpog4sJXvwa3vP3LhSUC0b5FDhCsGgxAsa2d3bNxAO7wjTGli6bCMKh3xiKdL1MUroqXx_hW&smid=url-share&fbclid=IwAR3B-ClpovPZ4EcGL7zmTbVnxGiEyS3ymetWd3ocSbod_69dL1G0ruMP52Q
Wow.
It’s not deaths of despair, it’s deaths of children. NYT opinion column. (It’s nice to be able to insert a link again)
I wasn’t able to see where the link was until I rolled over it with a mouse. The title is “It’s not the deaths of despair, it’s the deaths of children.”
Wow. https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow
Shocking! Not.
Clarence Thomas – one of the most corrupt Supreme Court justices ever. And his wife is unspeakable.
Good morning, and Happy Matzah! ????
So what do folks think about the brouhaha about the women’s b’ball trash talking double standard?
Personally I’m all for it. Let them own their power and strength. Men trash talk all the time. Clark herself is known for her trash talk. And I hate that one star player Reese gets criticism while the other star player Clark got credit for it in earlier rounds.
Also given that LSU was the underdog it makes sense that they, including Reese, had a chip on their shoulder. Especially with all of the medianattention focused on Iowa phenom Clark.
The one thing I disagree with however, no matter how kindly meant by the First Lady, is her decision to invite both teams to the White House. Should be the winners only. That’s the way it works. LSU was the better team in the Finals.
Personally, I never liked trash talk no matter who does it but since it is a thing that has been accepted by those who cover and watch sports, I do agree that the double standard is outlandish and I am glad they are getting called out on it.
I like to listen to MSNBC part of the day. I can’t handle all Trump, all the time. Shut. Up.
Needless to say, I’m on music today.
Yes, I can’t go to news sites these days. It is just too much coverage for what, at this point, is actually very little.
Trump indictment, Pence not appealing the call for his testimony are good for America. Publishing concern about backlash feeds reason to be concerned about backlash.
I’d like to see more balanced wins than what’s happening right now.
I don’t click on or listen to anything that has words coming out of Trump, Cruz, or MTG’s mouth. If news is driven by clicks I want to do my part in defining what is unimportant noise.
Examining the new NATO footprint today, I’d never noticed that little piece of isolated Russian territory between Lithuania and Poland. Kaliningrad.
It’s a very interesting place in 2023.
Was German until USSR took over after WW2. The only ice free Russian port on the Baltic Sea.
Named the “Best city in Russia” in various magazines in 2012, 2013, and 2014, it’s been a magnet for internal Russian migration since the fall of the soviet union. Western leaning citizens, they could get special passes to go shopping in Poland until this past year.
NATO-member Lithuania banned Russian goods passing thru its territory to supply them last year, like coal for instance, which angered Putin.
Very coincidentally Lithuania is hosting a NATO summit in July.
Fun fact — it used to be known as Koenigburg and was the ancestral home of Walter Koenig, the actor who played Chekov on Star Trek. (Koenigsburg was the family’s original surname when they migrated to America.
(We can’t “like” things yet it seems)
I would’ve liked to have that place on my radar when I visited the general area a couple of years ago. Seems unlikely to be advisable for a US citizen to see the sights anytime soon now
Refs are letting UConn murder SDSU. Just call it fair.
I’ll be rooting for Janet Protasiewicz to win her election for judge in the Wisconsin election tomorrow. Maybe she can bring more fairness as Wisconsin is so badly gerrymandered in favor of Republicans. (Yes, rooting for the woman whose last name means “son of Protas”.
I also found out there was a dissident journalist in Belarus who shares her last name but is spelled in Cyrillic and transliterated as Protasevich; i.e. Roman Protasevich. The government in Belarus went through extraordinary lengths to stop him.\
Who Is Roman Protasevich, the Captive Journalist in Belarus? – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Protasevich did win her election. Dan Kelly, her opponent, refuses to concede. Says he would concede to a “worthy” opponent but doesn’t consider her worthy.
Ok I’ll start. Time for new coach (Halpern) Kuzy and Mantha traded. Cap space alone makes it worth it.
test
More test?
Can you actually create an account here?
Test again??
Not yet. It is a work in progress.
Oh, ok. Thx!
Good morning.
I can’t believe 60 Minutes gave MTG a speaking platform. Have they not learned anything from 2016?
That’s a rhetorical question, right?
Good morning everyone.
Went to the game yesterday and man was there for too many Ranger fans. And annoying ones. Legit made me hope they get bounced in the first round.
I’m always a fan of the Rangers getting bounced. Hate them and the Pens the most. Besides we use to live in NJ so I’m rooting (mildly) for the Devils.
Ha. I grew up in New Jersey, pre-hockey.
I’d rec yiu but I can’t log in. Says I’m a guest. We use to live in Millburn , close to Maplewood and South Orange.
Knowing the Rangers, they’ll advance to the third round and then get dumped. That’s their typical modus operandus, except when they are one of the really low seeds.