Cody Johnston Goes to Wisconsin to Ask: Is Democracy in Wisconsin in Peril?

Politics • Views: 10,091

YouTube

Hi. In today’s episode, we look at how former Wisconsin state Governor Scott Walker and the GOP have hijacked the state’s democracy through gerrymandering, and how the upcoming election for a Wisconsin state Supreme Court Justice could have national ramifications. Boring, dire ramifications.

Executive Producer - Katy Stoll
Directed by Will Gordh
Written by Alex Schmidt and David Christopher Bell
Edited by John Conway
Produced by Jonathan Harris
Associate Producer - Quincy Tucker
Post-Production Supervisor - John Conway
Researcher - Marco Siler-Gonzales
Graphics by Clint DeNisco
Head Writer - David Christopher Bell

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
04:15 - The GOP Wants This Stuff to Be Boring
14:27 - The Koch Brothers Buying Stuff Up
21:46 - Robin Vos: The Wormtongue Reboot
34:18 - Wisconsin’s Democracy aka Folksy Fascism and The State Supreme Court

Sources:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JDgD3sJMSdG0pPM9vSLQMrY03bWPA_Qqv-8Jhm_oLvM/edit

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181 comments
1
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:18:24pm

Of course Democracy in WI is in peril, because WI Republicans are not relegated to an impotent minority.

2
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:21:10pm
3
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:23:19pm

re: #2 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

Thoughts and prayers from public officials don’t do anyone else any good either.

I’ve always interpreted “thought and prayers” from Republicans as “Go away, you dirty, poor peasants. How dare you assume I give a single solitary shit about your dead kids.”

4
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:31:02pm
5
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:34:06pm

re: #3 EPR-radar

Thoughts and prayers from public officials don’t do anyone else any good either.

I’ve always interpreted “thought and prayers” from Republicans as “Go away, you dirty, poor peasants. How dare you assume I give a single solitary shit about your dead kids.”

“useless thoughts and prayers while children suffer”
Not quite what I had in mind, but 1 and 4 will do.

6
Joe Bacon  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:36:06pm
7
Patricia Kayden  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:43:42pm

Mastodon

8
So Cal Greek Hippie  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:44:41pm

Picacho Peak, Arizona

9
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:47:54pm

Huge science-fiction supercomputer.

10
Captain Ron  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:48:57pm
11
Backwoods_Sleuth  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:50:59pm
12
Thanos  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:51:34pm

Dragging up from the thread downstairs:

re: #157 Hecuba’s daughter

30 years ago, my impression was that glibertarians were reliably pro choice. When and why did they suddenly morph into anti-choice handmaid supporting religious fanatics?

It wasn’t sudden, it took this turn back in 2006 when Ron Paul & followers were just envisioning “storming the Iowa caucus” with the help of Stormfront & the then-called Paleolibertarians were taking over the RW noise machine. The wild west libertarians were consumed by the wafting perfume of fascism and the budding “new” alt right philosophies drifting in from the Euro fascists (look back to Charles’s parting with the right,) & did not notice that they were being consumed by the Paleo pact with the Religious Right. The Rhino hunt commenced urged on by the likes of Pat Toomey, Rush Limbaugh, etc. The rest is history, and here we are in dangerous times.

13
PhillyPretzel  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:51:36pm

re: #11 Backwoods_Sleuth

Yay.

14
teleskiguy  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:53:06pm

She turns into a sputtering incoherent piece of rage at the stupidest shit.

15
ckkatz  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:53:12pm
16
The Ghost of a Flea  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:54:46pm

re: #10 Captain Ron

Well, yeah.

The important thing is that you have flair that demonstrates you’re one of the heroes that support summarily killing on the basis of whether or not they’re “normal” or not.

Bad violence can only occur because good violence—good old fashion caste with bloody borders and clear rules of who can hurt whom—has been stymied.

You can’t beat your kids and not get criticism.
You can’t hurt weirdos in the street.
You can’t run a sundown town.
You can’t do highly personal war crimes, just large diffuse war crimes.

17
Joe Bacon  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:55:57pm

I ask for the return of Hydrox cookies and what shows up at Ralphs?

Took a lot of will power to say NO!

18
Barefoot Grin  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:58:37pm

I’m sorry I can’t remember the exact names and such, but I remember reading a passage from Mencius where Mencius was asked if it was allowable to execute a ruler. Mencius asked for the specific ruler and upon hearing the name said something like, ‘I have heard that X was a scoundrel and a villain; a scoundrel and a villain is a criminal and he was executed; no king was executed.’ This later was called the rectification of names: if you are a ruler you must behave as a [Confucian—i.e. benevolent] ruler; if you don’t, you lose the right to be called a ruler and your fate is up for grabs.

I don’t think Trump should be executed, of course, but I think this is more in line with how we should treat crooked Presidents than some Office of Legal Counsel memo, especially after out of office. He’s given too much deference even now.

19
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:58:42pm
20
The Ghost of a Flea  Mar 29, 2023 • 4:59:44pm

All problems are failures to acknowledge that some people are entitled to do harm, that punishment by your betters is the right order of the world. Problems caused by those “betters” acting on this impulse, believing they are entitled to harm, are actually the fault of the injured parties.

Same principle applies to violence and sex

21
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:00:51pm

re: #18 Barefoot Grin

Similar to the recent reply to the “another tolerant leftist” smirk; tolerance is a social contract, and if you violate it, you no longer deserve tolerance in return.

22
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:05:21pm

Spider-man standing with a camel in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Does it know what a camel is?

Camel drinking water

If Midjourney were a person, they’d need full-time supervision.

23
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:05:49pm

re: #17 Joe Bacon

I ask for the return of Hydrox cookies and what shows up at Ralphs?

[Embedded content]

Took a lot of will power to say NO!

I would have said yes.

24
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:06:51pm

re: #17 Joe Bacon

Just say ‘one a day.’

25
The Ghost of a Flea  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:11:17pm

re: #22 Crush White Nationalism

That first “camel” has three dinosaur feet and a hand.

It’s fucking with me, but not as much as whatever’s happening to the nose of the very last camel. Like some mushrooms or Georgia Okeefe orchids got into the mix.

26
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:13:10pm

re: #25 The Ghost of a Flea

That first “camel” has three dinosaur feet and a hand.

It’s fucking with me, but not as much as whatever’s happening to the nose of the very last camel. Like some mushrooms or Georgia Okeefe orchids got into the mix.

That last one’s name is Gruffalump, and he’ll be featured in my first line of NFTs.

27
Unabogie  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:15:04pm

re: #19 jaunte

I’d say the biggest reason these people are elected is that right-wing voters just aren’t informed about who they are voting for and who they are voting against. I don’t think most of his voters would say poor kids should starve, but if you tell them what their guy said, they would call you a liar.

28
Nerdy Fish  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:15:54pm

re: #27 Unabogie

I’d say the biggest reason these people are elected is that right-wing voters just aren’t informed about who they are voting for and who they are voting against. I don’t think most of his voters would say poor kids should starve, but if you tell them what their guy said, they would call you a liar.

Nah, it’s a cult. They may express disgust at what “their guy” said, but they’ll say, “But nobody’s perfect, and at least he’s against abortion.”

29
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:18:15pm

re: #22 Crush White Nationalism

There may be some Fleetwood Mac DNA mixed into that camel.

30
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:21:36pm

re: #28 Nerdy Fish

Nah, it’s a cult. They may express disgust at what “their guy” said, but they’ll say, “But nobody’s perfect, and at least he’s against abortion.”

Dark Falcon used to give seminars here on cultish “always vote Republican” thinking.

31
Belafon  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:22:15pm

re: #15 ckkatz

[Embedded content]

Musk is trying to back it into being Truth Social, and we’re still hanging on as if it isn’t.

32
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:26:37pm

re: #29 jaunte

There may be some Fleetwood Mac DNA mixed into that camel.

[Embedded content]

I told Midjourney to recolor that image using pastel colors. It failed at that task, but it generated album covers, having been fed one.

33
Captain Ron  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:28:38pm
34
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:30:18pm

re: #32 Crush White Nationalism

I enjoyed the DALL-E package design studies.

aiweirdness.com

35
Charles Johnson  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:30:42pm

re: #30 EPR-radar

Inadvertent seminars.

36
gocart mozart  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:30:44pm
37
The Pie Overlord!  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:34:07pm

re: #5 Crush White Nationalism

“useless thoughts and prayers while children suffer”
Not quite what I had in mind, but 1 and 4 will do.

[Embedded content]

They look like perfect little angel children until you look closely at their devil paws.

38
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:35:12pm

re: #15 ckkatz

A few days ago my Twitter “For You” was full of RW agitators who I muted; today it consists of those who espouse views I support. Who knows what is happening with Twitter but I would be delighted if somehow it survived and reverted to the mess it was under Jack. That would spare me having to learn mastodon.

39
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:35:24pm

“Hands like a first year life drawing class.”

40
William Lewis  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:35:32pm
41
The Ghost of a Flea  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:36:02pm

re: #31 Belafon

Musk is trying to back it into being Truth Social, and we’re still hanging on as if it isn’t.

Really, what he’s currently proposing makes Twitter an ad server with a social media platform attached. Twitter’s UI and systems are primarily for putting paid-for content in front of eyeballs; every Twitter person is now an unpaid AM radio announcer who makes people sit through the ads, and paid-Twitter content is the ads.

At the same time, all of this is further contextualized by Musk’s personal vision of what constitutes “truth,” so any information you see is filtered not for propriety to maintain civil discourse, but to match the preferences of the sole owner. His finger is very much on the scale of who is penalized for what for how long, and that works in a feedback loop with pay-to-be-seen in ways that turn Twitter into a reactionary-grifter reality tunnel.

If the sin of the algorithm is too-customized loops of engagement and curation, then the sin of new Twitter is that Musk is now the frame around your experience of the larger system.

You can have a community if you can tolerate all these negatives, but the system’s built such that you community will be parasited by the larger system.

42
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:37:47pm

re: #37 The Pie Overlord!

They look like perfect little angel children until you look closely at their devil paws.

This is the new version that improves hands. It clearly needs work.

43
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:39:34pm

It is very good at album covers.

44
darthstar  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:40:50pm

Here’s someone to follow on Mastodon. Always posts something nice.

Mastodon

45
darthstar  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:42:03pm

re: #43 Crush White Nationalism

It is very good at album covers.

[Embedded content]

That’s all we need…beatnik meercats.

46
teleskiguy  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:42:23pm

Mastodon

When the bit pulls tight
The grip is sewn into the reins
Can’t breathe it out
You’ll just breathe it back again

You mental-pack your chambers full
For no reason you can name
A boil-in-bag blood supply
You know it’s murder on the veins

Don’t you feel it now?

Viva viva viva life and limb
Viva viva viva threatening

Hey, we want our violence doubled
(No, but really in a loving way)
Hey, we want our violence doubled
(No, but really want it right away)

The national temper
You know it’s written on your face
Etched and scratched and mirrored back
Don’t you know it’s all the rage

Don’t you feel it now?

47
Patricia Kayden  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:42:25pm
48
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:43:22pm

re: #27 Unabogie

I’d say the biggest reason these people are elected is that right-wing voters just aren’t informed about who they are voting for and who they are voting against. I don’t think most of his voters would say poor kids should starve, but if you tell them what their guy said, they would call you a liar.

I disagree — most GOP voters don’t care if poor kids starve, especially if they think those who are poor are of the wrong ethnic group.

49
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:44:11pm

re: #43 Crush White Nationalism

It is very good at album covers.

[Embedded content]

The 4th one for the reissue of “Who Are You”?

50
Patricia Kayden  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:44:36pm

51
Joe Bacon  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:45:23pm

Remember when Maureen Dowd called Trump the Dove Candidate?

Trump planning for military invasion of Mexico to attack cartels if re-elected

Former President Donald Trump is asking his advisers for a plan to launch a military invasion of Mexico to attack drug cartels if re-elected in 2024, Rolling Stone reported on Wednesday.

rollingstone.com

“Trump lieutenants have briefed him on several options that include unilateral military strikes and troop deployments on a sovereign U.S. partner and neighbor, the sources say. One such proposal that Trump has been briefed on this year is an October white paper from the Center for Renewing America, an increasingly influential think tank staffed largely by Trumpist wonks, MAGA loyalists, and veterans of his administration,” reported Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley. “The policy paper — titled ‘It’s Time to Wage War on Transnational Drug Cartels’ — outlines possible justifications and procedures for the next Republican commander-in-chief to ‘formally’ declare ‘war against the cartels,’ in response to ‘the mounting bodies of dead Americans from fentanyl poisonings.’”

The magazine acknowledges that this would be an invasion of a sovereign country, writing that the U.S. should “conduct specific military operations to destroy the cartels and enlist the Mexican government in joint operations to target cartel-networked infrastructure, including affiliated factions and enablers with direct action.” However, it brushed off the legal concerns, saying that “It is vital that Mexico not be led to believe that they have veto power to prevent the US from taking the actions necessary to secure its borders and people.”

This idea is not new. In 2019, Trump considered designating the drug cartels as terrorist organizations, a move that could have opened the door to military action against them, but administration officials decided against it. More recently, some Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) have called for the cartels to be bombed.

52
Charles Johnson  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:46:08pm

re: #38 Hecuba’s daughter

A few days ago my Twitter “For You” was full of RW agitators who I muted; today it consists of those who espouse views I support. Who knows what is happening with Twitter but I would be delighted if somehow it survived and reverted to the mess it was under Jack. That would spare me having to learn mastodon.

I dunno. I wish I could hope for that, but it seems to me that Musk is going to get even worse.

Twitter is dying | TechCrunch

53
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:46:35pm
54
Patricia Kayden  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:46:45pm

55
teleskiguy  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:47:35pm

re: #52 Charles Johnson

Read that article this morning before work. Sobering, accurate, sad.

56
Nerdy Fish  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:48:12pm

re: #51 Joe Bacon

Ah, because there’s nothing like a good war to get the Republican base’s erections going.

57
teleskiguy  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:49:06pm

re: #53 jaunte

Ah, yes! This glorious internet video thing that I posted to my (first) burner Twitter account.

58
darthstar  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:50:46pm

Okay - I tried one…but I think I broke it.
pixray - “meercat grateful dead”

59
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:50:57pm

re: #48 Hecuba’s daughter

I disagree — most GOP voters don’t care if poor kids starve, especially if they think those who are poor are of the wrong ethnic group.

This. Education and outreach is predicated on the assumption that the people you’re trying to convince share your values (at least to some degree) and can be convinced to change their ways if it is shown what they are doing isn’t going to get them what they want.

Unfortunately, far too many Republican voters share no relevant values with anyone who believes in liberal democracy. Though most still deny it, their vision of the future is that of The Party in 1984 (a boot stamping a human face, forever) and they firmly intend to be the wearers of those boots.

The only peaceful way out of this mess is to grow the D base by making everyone that can see reason aware of the GOP menace.

60
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:51:20pm

re: #197 Crush White Nationalism

“Jimmy Carter building a house”

[Embedded content]

I like #2.

61
Joe Bacon  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:52:57pm

“If I can say one thing from a Christian standpoint, we know that in reading the Bible, when society goes after and kills its innocent children, and destroys them like through gender surgery, there is a Satanic perspective on that. So I mean, it’s Satan going after the children.”

Minnesota GOP Sen. claims abortion leads to domestic violence and ‘Satan is going after’ trans kids

Minnestota State Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen, in a recent interview, suggested abortion and pornography are the reasons for domestic abuse, and asserted trans children are influenced by Satan, Heartland Signal reports.

Heartland Signal shared a clip of the “The Pastor’s Study” interview, tweeting, “MN State Sen. Gruenhagen (R) says gender-affirming care is “Satan going after the children.” In the same interview, he blames domestic violence on pornography and abortion: “Women need to understand that [it] sends a certain message to men. It objectifies them.”

alternet.org

62
teleskiguy  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:54:18pm

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

63
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:56:06pm

re: #58 darthstar

Okay - I tried one…but I think I broke it.
pixray - “meercat grateful dead”

[Embedded content]

I’ll be in the medical tent. This is not good acid.

64
Joe Bacon  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:56:41pm

‘$1.3 million Marsha’: Twitter shoots down Tennessee’s NRA-funded Blackburn’s ‘prayer’ for Nashville victims

Sen. Marsha Blackburn said Wednesday she is “heartbroken” over the Nashville school shooting that resulted in the deaths of six people, although the lawmaker’s campaign received $1.3 million from the National Rifle Association (NRA).

On Wednesday Blackburn tweeted, “My heart is broken over the unspeakable evil that occurred Monday at The Covenant School in Nashville, and my family and I are grieving along with those who lost loved ones. Now is a time for our community to come together in prayer and lift one another up.”

According to Politico, California Governor Gavin Newsom responded to Blackburn’s tweet, saying, “You received $1,306,130 in donations from the NRA. You voted against the most recent bipartisan gun package in June. If you’re so ‘ready to assist’ — start by doing your job and passing commonsense gun laws that will help prevent tragedies like the one today.”

alternet.org

65
The Ghost of a Flea  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:58:08pm

re: #58 darthstar

The prompt “Grateful Dead” creates swirly rainbows and that’s just the most boring possible parsing of that prompt into visuals.

That’s what I get from AI generated visuals in general, they’re boring except for when they’re uncanny but not in a way that’s challenging or seems to communicate something.

It reminds me when when fantasy novels would all have a house style so there was a same-y-ness, but then someone would do a distinct cover design and there would a dozen imitators soon after.

I mean, on some profound level they’re just collages, and mediocre art is often a borrowing of bits to create a collage-like new piece, and that’s why it has that feel.

66
Unabogie  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:58:43pm

re: #48 Hecuba’s daughter

I disagree — most GOP voters don’t care if poor kids starve, especially if they think those who are poor are of the wrong ethnic group.

The counterargument is that on several occasions they have polled the public on Republican proposals and a huge percentage of people refused to accept them as real.

67
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 5:59:05pm

I had the AI imagine Cthulu to try to drive it mad. The hat was entirely its idea.

68
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:00:03pm

re: #65 The Ghost of a Flea

The hands, and the house framing in the Jimmy Carter pictures show that the AI doesn’t understand the underlying bones it’s putting surfaces on.

69
Joe Bacon  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:00:20pm

Here’s some free advice for Christians: If you ever get the opportunity to visit a public school, hijacking the lunch room in order to win some converts is a horrible idea. (And not just because everyone is rightfully jittery these days about strangers doing anything disruptive during the school day.)

On Monday, 20-year-old Ryan Foley walked into Millard South High School in Omaha, Nebraska, ostensibly to pick up some transcripts. That’s not an unusual request, so it’s not surprising that the school allowed the former student into the building.

Before he left, though, he stopped by the cafeteria, where students were eating lunch, and yelled at them about Jesus. (In Nebraska. As if those kids haven’t been inundated with that message all their lives.)

open.substack.com

Foley wasn’t arrested on Monday. It’s unclear if he’ll face any consequences for what he did or if any future district policies will ban him from ever visiting his former school again.

That said, Foley has a habit of screaming about his religion in places where he’s not wanted. Earlier this year, he made some news when another video of him evangelizing at a gym went viral. He annoyed everyone there, too.

He also has admitted to watch transgender and gay porn and (in now-deleted videos) “darker and darker” stuff that eventually led to him acting on his homosexual desires. I don’t actually give a damn about his viewing habits or his sex life, but in the event that he’s ever speaking at a church in the future, I’m sure he’d appreciate an audience member standing up and disrupting his sermon with those interesting bits of information.

70
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:01:05pm

re: #66 Unabogie

The counterargument is that on several occasions they have polled the public on Republican proposals and a huge percentage of people refused to accept them as real.

That’s the fault of the US political media more than any other single entity. The only job for most in the US political media is laundering Republican bullshit to give it that “both sides” seal of approval.

71
Romantic Heretic  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:01:10pm

re: #47 Patricia Kayden

I’m wondering why they included the ‘A well regulated militia’ part.

Since they pay no attention to it.

72
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:02:24pm

re: #58 darthstar

Okay - I tried one…but I think I broke it.
pixray - “meercat grateful dead”

[Embedded content]

73
Romantic Heretic  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:02:55pm

re: #51 Joe Bacon

Didn’t Tom Clancy base a whole novel around that idea?

And didn’t even a wingnut like Clancy realize it was an awful idea?

74
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:03:46pm

re: #65 The Ghost of a Flea

The prompt “Grateful Dead” creates swirly rainbows and that’s just the most boring possible parsing of that prompt into visuals.

That’s what I get from AI generated visuals in general, they’re boring except for when they’re uncanny but not in a way that’s challenging or seems to communicate something.

It reminds me when when fantasy novels would all have a house style so there was a same-y-ness, but then someone would do a distinct cover design and there would a dozen imitators soon after.

I mean, on some profound level they’re just collages, and mediocre art is often a borrowing of bits to create a collage-like new piece, and that’s why it has that feel.

Which is exactly what I figured an AI would be good at. Collecting a bunch of bits, slewing them around in different patterns (according to a few rules) and then vomiting the results back out fairly rapidly compared to having a number of human artists work on a set of concept items. From there a human eye (the beholder) could select one or two as having some promise and they would be used. (Or made the input for another cycle by the AI - which I expect would quickly go stagnant since the input variety would become sort of ingrown.)

75
The Ghost of a Flea  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:04:28pm

re: #68 jaunte

Yeah, I noticed that the “houses” were just wood bits oriented in space. One, it looked like he was building a tiny labyrinth.

It’s the equivalent of ChatGPT having no understanding of truth, just saying whatever it’s prompted to say as though it were true: fluent bullshit, form without underlying meaning.

Most of these machines are still trained by people, basically in sweatshops. I always kind of wonder if, on top of the sampling pool, the results are also skewed by the way workers are induced to clump things under tags to create the spreadsheet.

76
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:04:46pm

re: #71 Romantic Heretic

I’m wondering why they included the ‘A well regulated militia’ part.

Since they pay no attention to it.

It’s pretty easy to reason that out — the founders wanted something ambiguous in the second amendment so that each state could do as they please with a right to keep and bear arms. Thus the militia clause.

Had the founders intended a Heller-style individual RKBA, there would be no militia clause in the second amendment. Thus all of Scalia’s argle-bargle in that ruling is just lies.

Edited to add: Ah, the question is why is the NRA repeating the militia clause, not why the founders put it in there. Mindless repetition of a sacred text is the answer for the NRA.

77
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:04:56pm

re: #72 Crush White Nationalism

Meercat Punk Hellraiser #4

78
Belafon  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:05:35pm

re: #71 Romantic Heretic

I’m wondering why they included the ‘A well regulated militia’ part.

Since they pay no attention to it.

Because they cut and pasted it.

79
Joe Bacon  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:06:50pm

re: #73 Romantic Heretic

Didn’t Tom Clancy base a whole novel around that idea?

And didn’t even a wingnut like Clancy realize it was an awful idea?

He sure did and it’s “Against All Enemies”

en.wikipedia.org

80
Patricia Kayden  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:07:00pm
81
teleskiguy  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:08:17pm

re: #167 teleskiguy

This map of political (county) boundaries of Colorado has always bothered me. Namely the county of, well, most of my life, and two that border it. From W to E in clockwise motion I’m talking about Garfield, Eagle, and Pitkin Counties. They all meet at a corner on the map, you can find it in the upper left quadrant of the map. Now, that upside down ‘T’ is fucking ridiculous when it comes to local government. All three counties have to have some kind of government presence in this section of a single river valley.

In his lifetime John Wesley Powell envisioned a map that divided the land by *drainage* instead of the way we always did it back east by just cutting up every political land division into squares.

He was a visionary. And we didn’t listen to him.

82
Romantic Heretic  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:10:08pm

re: #76 EPR-radar

The American Faith™ is as bloodthirsty as that of the Aztecs.

83
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:11:25pm

re: #74 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

Which is exactly what I figured an AI would be good at. Collecting a bunch of bits, slewing them around in different patterns (according to a few rules) and then vomiting the results back out fairly rapidly compared to having a number of human artists work on a set of concept items. From there a human eye (the beholder) could select one or two as having some promise and they would be used. (Or made the input for another cycle by the AI - which I expect would quickly go stagnant since the input variety would become sort of ingrown.)

I’m not seeing a lot of improvement when running an image through for variations.

#4 from the Meercats above. I do like the new #4s crest.

84
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:11:39pm

re: #79 Joe Bacon

He sure did and it’s “Against All Enemies”

en.wikipedia.org

or _Clear and Present Danger_ though the military intervention there is being done on the sly. And doing it without the oversight is pretty much what sets Ryan off since I don’t see Clancy doing much to say that militarily attacking the drug cartels was a bad thing.

85
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:12:26pm

re: #72 Crush White Nationalism

Try “Bloody American Flag Aztec Temple Made Of Rifles”

86
The Ghost of a Flea  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:13:47pm

re: #69 Joe Bacon

See, I think we can see the algorithm to this behavior after so many examples:

They (a special, good person) cannot have done (thing that makes them feel bad/thing that caused them problems) without (malefic external influence). The only appropriate response is to identify and destroy (malefic external influence) as well as (inferior, bad people) that don’t view it as the problem. To further affirm that one is (a special, good person) one must then exhort others (less special, more suspectible to corruption) in ways that specifically discounts their ability to discern and choose.

The alternative is that they’re not special and good, and that’s impossible.

87
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:16:15pm

A Ghost of a Flea

88
Romantic Heretic  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:16:49pm

re: #86 The Ghost of a Flea

In short they are ‘heroes’ and everyone else is ‘villains’.

The sort of Manichaean worldview that emotionally stunted people ascribe to.

89
teleskiguy  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:17:50pm

On this day last year there was no snow on the *whole* valley floor where I live. Today there is still snow on the shaded parts of north-facing spots of my house, and it’s feet deep on the north-facing hills and mountains around town. Big winter. Lots of snow.

90
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:18:30pm

re: #86 The Ghost of a Flea

91
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:18:41pm

re: #85 jaunte

Try “Bloody American Flag Aztec Temple Made Of Rifles”

“Bloody” is banned. So is “Nazi” btw.

I tried the rest, but it didn’t do very well.

92
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:19:50pm

re: #91 Crush White Nationalism

Lego-Brutalist Architecture

93
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:21:19pm

Romantic Heretic

94
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:22:42pm

re: #93 Crush White Nationalism

Romantic Heretic

[Embedded content]

Doing romance novel covers now?

95
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:24:37pm

re: #91 Crush White Nationalism

I wonder what happens if the prompts are more specific, e.g., something like “Zardoz Temple of The Gun”.

96
ckkatz  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:25:27pm

Downed Ukrainian drones have been found within 100 miles of Moscow.

97
The Ghost of a Flea  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:25:33pm

re: #88 Romantic Heretic

I’d say it’s hubris rather than stuntedness.

The decision that there is an inherent rigid system, but also you are the enforcer of the system and exempt from the system because you are the enforcer, this comes from a base assumption: that they are different kind of person than all others.

That prideful axiom stunts you; there’s no reason to change or grow or humble yourself to receive insight if your basic theory is that something—whether it’s a born trait or group membership or a magic ritual—makes you exceptional

We can watch this algorithm fail again and again, historically, in entirely different forms. A lot of what we’re living with politically is the fallout of people who believed they couldn’t fail (because exceptionality) absolutely shitting on the dance floor…a lot of the “no, we’re not turning into corncobs” rhetoric being thrown around would be funny, if there wasn’t a century of death camps built on the premise of “No, we didn’t fuck this up, we were made to be corncobs!”

98
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:25:37pm

re: #94 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

Doing romance novel covers now?

GOP Delenda Est

99
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:25:42pm

How about some animal attacks? Meercats ripped my rippedness!

100
BlueSpotinAL  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:25:54pm

A pun so bad, I have to hide it.

ckV1K0VTbHJRbUlNWXdUYUo0a1MyNnhBMW9kbW9SYXhPdmM3TEhFYzZZWXJ4alhoM3NmOXUzY3cvNVdGcmwvNXFHSXkxeUNBZ29RcjN4RTRpQTFLQUNuakhCdzdMKzY0WVNZWFc5ZHNCQjFoN2d0U0taVjNqRUhncC82c3BYVnJwV3BVM0dZYzhBQXplRktSbTJ0czVKc3VPME41TnpKb1dlTlhmS3BXYjh0d25FcnpsZ3d6b1VuVXFXaUlnT3pQSUxzUHRQN2NwK1Q0RlFCemFFWlhpZz09Ojq2vXlY7OYiLWlyTjnCHaIx

101
ckkatz  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:26:51pm

Btw, cool artwork!

Fascinating to see how far some things have advanced.

ETA - Err, except maybe the killer meercats…

102
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:27:34pm

re: #95 EPR-radar

I wonder what happens if the prompts are more specific, e.g., something like “Zardoz Temple of The Gun”.

103
Grunthos the Flatulent  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:27:43pm

Tomorrow’s Wordle - a Luscious Leroy burger and a pint of Tuatara IPA, the lunch of champions.

Click to Reveal

Wordle 649 4/6

🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨
🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

SibData: 3,4,4,5

104
The Ghost of a Flea  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:28:57pm

re: #90 jaunte

Look, if you get mad at God’s Friend Steve for fucking your wife, that’s just the same as being made at God.

God said so.

…through Steve.

105
The Ghost of a Flea  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:29:40pm

re: #102 Crush White Nationalism

Poseurs

106
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:30:12pm

re: #92 jaunte

Lego-Brutalist Architecture

LEGO brutalist temple

107
teleskiguy  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:30:20pm

Grand Valley, western slope, Colorado.

108
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:33:58pm

re: #104 The Ghost of a Flea

Look, if you get mad at God’s Friend Steve for fucking your wife, that’s just the same as being made at God.

God said so.

…through Steve.

God’s friend Steve. He looks OK to me.

109
Joe Bacon  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:34:19pm

Of course the New York Times pushes this poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal

A new poll shows Americans care more about money and less about religion and patriotism than they did a quarter century ago, and a New York Times columnist calls the decline in the extent to which Americans care about traditional values “startling.”

According to the findings of the newly released Wall Street Journal poll, 43 percent of respondents cited money as very important, a 12 percentage point jump from 1998.

Patriotism has tumbled from being a top priority among 70 percent of respondent to 38 percent today, and religion has fallen almost as much as a top priority, from 62 percent in 1998 to 39 percent today.

rawstory.com

Looks like Randy Newman was correctly predicting this 40 years ago!

Randy Newman - It’s Money That Matters (Official Video)

110
Moe Avattar  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:34:21pm

re: #83 Crush White Nationalism

Here we come
walkin’ down the street
We get the funniest looks from
everyone we meet

Hey hey we’re the Meercats!

111
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:35:29pm

re: #108 Crush White Nationalism

He should get that gray growth on his shoulder looked at.

112
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:35:38pm

re: #157 Hecuba’s daughter

30 years ago, my impression was that glibertarians were reliably pro choice. When and why did they suddenly morph into anti-choice handmaid supporting religious fanatics?

The monarchist wing of their party (The Mises Caucus) has taken the party over.

The foundational thinkers of libertarianism never viewed women as equal. This view of libertarianism is called “right-libertarianism” (to distinguish themselves from right-wing).

It arose in the mid-XX Century and is the dominant strain in the Libertarian Party today.

Their foundational thinkers include:

Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), founder of the Austrian School of economic theory, advisor to fascist Engelbert Dollfus (Austrian Chancellor), claimant to the throne of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. Fled Austria for the USA in 1940 as he was Jewish (despite our antisemitic laws, the Rockefeller Foundation provided him and his family sponsorship to get him in the country to advance right-libertarianism here).

Fredrich Hayek (student of Von Mises) (1899-1992), WW1 veteran of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, coined the term “classical liberal” to obscure “libertarian,” convinced Winston Churchill to return to the gold standard creating a ten-year deflationary cycle in the United Kingdom, family became British subjects after the Austrian Anschluss with Nazi Germany, moved to the USA to promote right-libertarianism, published the book “Road to Serfdom” arguing against liberal democracy and government control of markets, helped build the Chicago School of libertarian economists, sometimes advisor to British Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, anti-immigrant, racist, claimed British democracy was actually the road to unfreedom because it interfered with capital markets, argued President Jimmy Carter’s response to the Iran Hostage Crisis was weak and Iran should be bombed into the Stone Age if they didn’t immediately respond to US demands.

Ayn Rand you know about.

James Buchanan (the economist, not the president), WW2 naval officer, believed white men from the South were discriminated against, went to graduate school on the sweet socialist GI Bill at the University of Chicago where he was converted to libertarian free-market economics, taught libertarian economics in various southern universities until he retired, promoted “public choice theory” (all political problems are really economic problems), supported segregation, opposed democracy, supported the coup in Chile installing Pinochet and his libertarian dictatorship.

Murray Rothbard (1926-1995), founder of anarcho-capitalism, argued all government services were a “monopoly of the state” and should be abolished, attacked fractional-reserve banking as fraud, opposed all military intervention even to prevent genocide, opposed economic sanctions as a violation of capitalist goals, called for an alliance with paleo-conservatives and defended David Duke’s positions on slavery and segregation along with his positions on subjugating women and stripping their rights, established the Von Mises institute in Birmingham and allied it with the League of the South (they share the same building and many of the same board members today), argued public schools debase education by providing equal opportunities for minorities women and the poor.

113
ckkatz  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:35:58pm

re: #103 Grunthos the Flatulent

Tomorrow’s Wordle - a Luscious Leroy burger and a pint of Tuatara IPA, the lunch of champions.

[Embedded content]

I admit to actually googling “Leroy Burger”. I was kind of thrown by the location, though. Port Hope, Michigan?

114
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:38:02pm

Canineclastic flow

115
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:40:41pm

re: #111 jaunte

He should get that gray growth on his shoulder looked at.

It’s incredible how well this thing does considering that it obviously does not understand anatomy at all.

116
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:41:40pm

re: #112 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

Rothbard is a real freak, even for a libertarian nut job. Here are some choice bits from Wikipedia:

In the Ethics of Liberty, Rothbard explores issues regarding children’s rights in terms of self-ownership and contract. These include support for a woman’s right to abortion, condemnation of parents showing aggression towards children and opposition to the state forcing parents to care for children. He also holds children have the right to run away from parents and seek new guardians as soon as they are able to choose to do so. He argued that parents have the right to put a child out for adoption or sell the rights to the child in a voluntary contract in what Rothbard suggests will be a “flourishing free market in children”. He believes that selling children as consumer goods in accord with market forces—while “superficially monstrous”—will benefit “everyone” involved in the market: “the natural parents, the children, and the foster parents purchasing”.

In Rothbard’s view of parenthood, “the parent should not have a legal obligation to feed, clothe, or educate his children, since such obligations would entail positive acts coerced upon the parent and depriving the parent of his rights”. Thus, Rothbard stated that parents should have the legal right to let any infant die by starvation and should be free to engage in other forms of child neglect. However, according to Rothbard, “the purely free society will have a flourishing free market in children”. In a fully libertarian society, he wrote, “the existence of a free baby market will bring such ‘neglect’ down to a minimum”.

Economist Gene Callahan of Cardiff University, formerly a scholar at the Rothbard-affiliated Mises Institute, wrote that Rothbard allowed “the logical elegance of his legal theory” to “trump any arguments based on the moral reprehensibility of a parent idly watching her six-month-old child slowly starve to death in its crib”.

Not that there’s any logical elegance to this monstrous drivel, of course.

117
ckkatz  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:42:12pm

re: #113 ckkatz

I admit to actually googling “Leroy Burger”. I was kind of thrown by the location, though. Port Hope, Michigan?

Oops, apparently there’s a Leroy Bar in Wellington, New Zealand. And some dude named Leroy Burger who lives in Oklahoma.

118
Joe Bacon  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:45:13pm

re: #116 EPR-radar

Rothbard is a real freak, even for a libertarian nut job. Here are some choice bits from Wikipedia:

Not that there’s any logical elegance to this monstrous drivel, of course.

Just a reminder when I was an undergrad at Pitt in the mid 70s the Economics Department was split between Rothbard’s Anarcho-Capitalists and Milton Friedman’s Monetarists. The faculty would continually have arguments between these two flawed theories.

119
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:46:26pm

re: #116 EPR-radar

Not only was Rothbard a moral monster, he was also a grade-A nitwit. Just look at this shit:

Rothbard was an advocate and practitioner of the Austrian School tradition of his teacher Ludwig von Mises. Like Mises, Rothbard rejected the application of the scientific method to economics and dismissed econometrics, empirical and statistical analysis and other tools of mainstream social science as outside the field (economic history might use those tools, but not Economics proper). He instead embraced praxeology, the strictly a priori methodology of Mises. Praxeology conceives of economic laws as akin to geometric or mathematical axioms: fixed, unchanging, objective and discernible through logical reasoning.

120
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:47:01pm

re: #118 Joe Bacon

Just a reminder when I was an undergrad at Pitt in the mid 70s the Economics Department was split between Rothbard’s Anarcho-Capitalists and Milton Friedman’s Monetarists. The faculty would continually have arguments between these two flawed theories.

Christ, what a shit show that must have been.

121
teleskiguy  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:47:18pm

Giphy

122
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:48:05pm

re: #115 Crush White Nationalism

It’s incredible how well this thing does considering that it obviously does not understand anatomy at all.

It’s visual bullshit — superficially looks OK, but experts can spot the flaws easily enough (and, like human bullshitters, occasionally it gets lucky).

123
teleskiguy  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:49:18pm

The GOP base is utterly hypnotized by fascistic power, they are hopeless to persuade.

124
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:50:42pm

re: #121 teleskiguy

Everyone with at least one functioning brain cell knows that DeSantis can’t beat Trump in the 2024 GOP primary if that is contested.

So the inevitable conclusion is that a significant fraction of the GOP donor base and establishment really is that fucking stupid.

125
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:53:58pm

re: #122 EPR-radar

It’s visual bullshit — superficially looks OK, but experts can spot the flaws easily enough (and, like human bullshitters, occasionally it gets lucky).

With a human picking and choosing the output and an artist cleaning up the art, usable art can be produced at low cost and high speed compared to traditional methods.

126
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:55:12pm

re: #123 teleskiguy

The GOP base is utterly hypnotized by fascistic power, they are hopeless to persuade.

Here’s how Trump can lose the 2024 GOP presidential nomination — a worse piece of shit than him comes along and takes the Pig People away from him, just like he did to Jeb! et al. in 2016.

Fortunately for us all, DeSantis is not that piece of shit (although he’s still a piece of shit, of course).

127
The Ghost of a Flea  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:55:33pm

re: #87 Crush White Nationalism

I favor #1.

128
teleskiguy  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:57:26pm

re: #126 EPR-radar

The “Pig People.” You’ve alluded to these folks. The Rush Limbaugh dittoheads and such. Maybe fully a third of all voting aged adults in the United States. We’re talking *millions* of dumb fuckin’ fuckers.

129
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 6:59:50pm

re: #127 The Ghost of a Flea

I favor #1.

#1 is the nicest-looking one, but I can almost hear #4 say “Boo!”

130
Dangerman  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:04:16pm

re: #18 Barefoot Grin

I’m sorry I can’t remember the exact names and such, but I remember reading a passage from Mencius where Mencius was asked if it was allowable to execute a ruler. Mencius asked for the specific ruler and upon hearing the name said something like, ‘I have heard that X was a scoundrel and a villain; a scoundrel and a villain is a criminal and he was executed; no king was executed.’ This later was called the rectification of names: if you are a ruler you must behave as a [Confucian—i.e. benevolent] ruler; if you don’t, you lose the right to be called a ruler and your fate is up for grabs.

I don’t think Trump should be executed, of course, but I think this is more in line with how we should treat crooked Presidents than some Office of Legal Counsel memo, especially after out of office. He’s given too much deference even now.

E jean carrol …nothing to do with being prez

Ny bragg case, ditto…he wasn’t president
Ny civil fraud case, ditto
Georgia etc al, arguably not presidential powers duties or actions.

Their argument in essence is because he was once president (and I still don’t know how thhat happened) he should be immune from prosecution investigation, for anything ever, no matter how unrelated.

131
teleskiguy  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:04:54pm

I can assure you this is a real George Carlin quote.

132
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:06:04pm

re: #128 teleskiguy

The “Pig People.” You’ve alluded to these folks. The Rush Limbaugh dittoheads and such. Maybe fully a third of all voting aged adults in the United States. We’re talking *millions* of dumb fuckin’ fuckers.

If it were just stupidity, we wouldn’t be in so much trouble. Instead, it’s a deadly combination of dim-witted malice by the base and a steady stream of GOP propaganda intended to make the base ever stupider and more vicious. Now stupid, vicious clowns are running for office as such and winning in some cases (Trump, Boebert, MTG etc.)

I’m honestly surprised at how depraved the wingnut reaction was (and still is) to the covid pandemic.

133
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:08:01pm

re: #130 Dangerman

E jean carrol …nothing to do with being prez

Ny bragg case, ditto…he wasn’t president
Ny civil fraud case, ditto
Georgia etc al, arguably not presidential powers duties or actions.

Their argument in essence is because he was once president (and I still don’t know how thhat happened) he should be immune from prosecution investigation, for anything ever, no matter how unrelated.

That “argument” is just a cover story. Their real position is the naked assertion of fascist power — Trump is one of us, therefore he isn’t a criminal, unlike all you criminal liberals.

134
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:11:59pm

re: #128 teleskiguy

The “Pig People.” You’ve alluded to these folks. The Rush Limbaugh dittoheads and such. Maybe fully a third of all voting aged adults in the United States. We’re talking *millions* of dumb fuckin’ fuckers.

“pig people”

135
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:12:44pm

re: #132 EPR-radar

If it were just stupidity, we wouldn’t be in so much trouble. Instead, it’s a deadly combination of dim-witted malice by the base and a steady stream of GOP propaganda intended to make the base ever stupider and more vicious. Now stupid, vicious clowns are running for office as such and winning in some cases (Trump, Boebert, MTG etc.)

I’m honestly surprised at how depraved the wingnut reaction was (and still is) to the covid pandemic.

My surprise (well, not-so-surprise) was watching educated people* react to common sense precautions against a communicable disease as something worthy of armed resistance due to being minorly inconvenienced. Or simply told to avoid public gatherings and places like bars for a period of time. Years and years of purposefully sowed distrust of professionals, government, and especially the political party that represents **THOSE PEOPLE** coming home to roost.

* - College degrees in fields like computer science and engineering. Which means they are capable of logical analysis, working out consequences of actions, and can read for comprehension and research something if they need to.

136
teleskiguy  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:13:37pm

re: #132 EPR-radar

I’m honestly surprised at how depraved the wingnut reaction was (and still is) to the covid pandemic.

“Fuck them eggheads with their PPE and vaccines! I got natural immunity!”

I’m not too surprised, TBH. I saw it on social media throughout 2020-21 (Peak Pandemic). Conservative FB folk in my feed were quick to distrust any gov’t action. Some violated the law at the time (masks, closings of public spaces), but were never prosecuted. To this day they brag about their lack of vaccination. Fucked up. But predictable as you and I know… ☹️

137
Nerdy Fish  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:16:30pm

re: #135 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

Years and years of purposefully sowed distrust of professionals, government, and especially the political party that represents **THOSE PEOPLE** coming home to roost.

Again: It’s a cult. The leaders have very carefully calibrated their marks to accept anything fed to them through specific channels, using a selection of outrage sources designed to provoke predictable emotional responses. The election of Barack Obama woke them up to the realization that they were in danger of losing the culture war, so they are now cashing in all their chips, activating all of their brainless drones, in an attempt to do as much damage as possible. They may go down, but they’re going down swinging, dammit.

138
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:23:13pm

re: #137 Nerdy Fish

a cult in red baseball caps

139
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:23:47pm

re: #137 Nerdy Fish

Again: It’s a cult. The leaders have very carefully calibrated their marks to accept anything fed to them through specific channels, using a selection of outrage sources designed to provoke predictable emotional responses. The election of Barack Obama woke them up to the realization that they were in danger of losing the culture war, so they are now cashing in all their chips, activating all of their brainless drones, in an attempt to do as much damage as possible. They may go down, but they’re going down swinging, dammit.

I think I might soon be asking a few delicate questions among my one group of friends. No idea at this stage what their active religious involvement is*. But I am curious at this point what they are hearing within their family and social groups regarding the various social and political issues. I am pretty sure, from the conversations, what their personal views are. But not sure what the views are in the broader groups; e.g. are there in-group conversations going on with the hierarchies and congregations? And things potentially go from there.

* - Pretty much all of them raised Catholic. Their wives are Catholic as well I think, though there might be an exception as well.

140
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:24:12pm
141
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:24:18pm
142
ckkatz  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:26:54pm

They certainly did dump that claim extremely quickly. Which tells me it wasn’t that important to them.

I wonder what else they claim they stand for, that they will casually and easily discard.

143
Captain Ron  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:32:12pm

The rain is ending, were at 185% of seasonal norm. Temperatures will be going up above 60 finally. Spring might be springing.

144
Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:33:07pm

Tried out this AI thingamajig.
Shiplord Kirel, Warlord

145
calochortus  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:35:52pm

re: #143 Captain Ron

The rain is ending, were at 185% of seasonal norm. Temperatures will be going up above 60 finally. Spring might be springing.

[Embedded content]

Congratulations. They’re saying we’ll be lucky to get much above 60° in the next 10 days. Today was around 50° which is nearly 20° below normal. Also, we broke 50” of rain at our house today. (Average is between 21” and 22”.)

146
ckkatz  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:36:56pm
147
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:37:11pm

The science edutainer Physics Girl is doing very poorly. Her Patreon that was once for access to her videos was repurposed to support her while she’s ill some time ago because she can’t produce the videos in her current condition.

Dianna (small health update)
Hey everyone. Dianna started to crash late last week and she’s still in the thick of it, so I wasn’t able to film anything this week. Hoping to get to check up on her soon. Right now there’s no real health updates other than that. I think Kyle might be starting to hire some help soon.

Her office is officially closed down and the company has entered it’s new era. It was sad to see it all go. I know she loved that space a long with our new “explain to my editor” series.

148
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:41:32pm

re: #144 Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie

Tried out this AI thingamajig.
Shiplord Kirel, Warlord

[Embedded content]

Stable Diffusion? Same in Midjourney:

149
calochortus  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:42:10pm

In other news, San Mateo County libraries are going to start stocking free period products to help end period poverty. Yay! There are a lot of wealthy people here, but there are also a lot of poor people and everything is expensive, so there might not be money left over for period stuff. The kick-off will have a “go with the flow” theme.

150
ckkatz  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:45:38pm
151
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:47:38pm
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices will be required to disclose more of their activities, including some free trips, air travel and other types of gifts, according to rules adopted earlier this month.

Under the new rules, justices and other federal judges must report travel by private jet, as well as stays at commercial properties, such as hotels, resorts or hunting lodges.

The move comes as members of Congress have called for the justices, who have long faced less stringent reporting requirements, to be held to ethics standards similar to those for the executive and legislative branches.

“To the extent this becomes a model for further activity for the Judicial Conference to clean up the Supreme Court mess, I think that’s significant,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat of Rhode Island who sits on the Judiciary Committee’s panel that oversees federal courts.

Some advocates pushing for greater transparency on the court cautioned that the rules would be hard to enforce and that it would be nearly impossible to know whether a justice had failed to disclose a trip, flight or other perk.

“The problem with any sort of transparency rule within the judiciary is the question of enforcement, the question of accountability,” said Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, an organization critical of the court’s transparency.

Justices Must Disclose Travel and Gifts Under New Rules (DNYUZ)

152
Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:49:31pm

After retired cynic posted the photo of the beautiful V-16 Cadillac last night, I decided to look for one. Sure enough, Hemmings Motor News has one for sale, a 1930 V-16 All-Weather Phaeton #4380. It is priced at $276,000. Original price, according to the accompanying history, was $6750, which was a fortune in 1930.

154
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:51:16pm

re: #128 teleskiguy

The “Pig People.” You’ve alluded to these folks. The Rush Limbaugh dittoheads and such. Maybe fully a third of all voting aged adults in the United States. We’re talking *millions* of dumb fuckin’ fuckers.

At least 74 million Americans.

155
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:52:45pm

re: #152 Shiplord Kirel: Fan of Big Bird, Bert, and Ernie

If you’re on the fence, you should definitely buy that.

156
Captain Ron  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:54:17pm

re: #151 Crush White Nationalism

Justices Must Disclose Travel and Gifts Under New Rules (DNYUZ)

What about all those millions Ginny Thomas was scamming?

157
wrenchwench  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:56:35pm

re: #144

would look good in

re: #152

Totally out of place, but good nonetheless.

158
ckkatz  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:56:51pm

*snork*

159
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 7:59:54pm

re: #158 ckkatz

So much respect for his audience.

160
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:00:14pm

re: #143 Captain Ron

We’re at 2x average precip on my little hill. San Diego County is very three dimensional and the little hills inland get more rain than down at the airport on the bay (where I believe NWS has the official “San Diego” gauge.)

And we’re still cold. Way too cold, far below normal.

But as your forecast shows, by the second week of April we’ll warm up.

Indeed, we’re going to warm up so much it’ll feel like summer.

161
ckkatz  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:00:32pm

True

162
calochortus  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:01:32pm

Since I’m “enjoying” some sort of virus (thanks grandkids!) I think I’m going to lie down on the couch and fall asleep to Nature and/or Nova on PBS.

Don’t worry, I’ve disinfected my laptop so I won’t pass it to any of you.

163
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:02:13pm
164
ckkatz  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:05:14pm

re: #159 jaunte

So much respect for his audience.

But he has a high regard for himself.

What a den of narcissistic sociopaths. And libertarians. But I repeat myself.

165
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:05:47pm

re: #163 jaunte

Little Boxes (weeds theme song)

166
wrenchwench  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:07:48pm

re: #163 jaunte

[Embedded content]

I grew up in a development of a couple hundred houses that used three different floor plans, and then flipped those over for a total of 6 very similar floor plans.

167
EPR-radar  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:09:53pm

re: #158 ckkatz

It’s funny that Sacks is admitting to being a bullshitter and not even realizing it.

168
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:10:58pm

re: #166 wrenchwench

Me too! Our next door neighbor was our mirror image plan.

169
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:11:46pm

re: #156 Captain Ron

What about all those millions Ginny Thomas was scamming?

She’s fine. You can’t mess with Ginny. She’s above the law.

170
danarchy  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:11:50pm

re: #140 jaunte

Why would he flip when he is already more than half way through his 5 month sentence? I imagine with all those good behavior rules he must be due to be released soon.

171
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:12:14pm

re: #166 wrenchwench

We kids did have the neighboring Buffalo Bayou nooks and crannies to hang around in.

172
jaunte  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:13:26pm

re: #170 danarchy

I have no special insights on him.

173
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:14:42pm

As expected, I got little love in the NightCafe submission for “Mythical Creature Portraits”:

nightcafe score for 28 March 2023

Even though:
1) my image was one of the few that actually qualifies as a “portrait”, and
2) no creature is more mythical than Satan.

As I fully expected, the winners are not even as good as those which I downvoted.

The winner was a “hippogriff” which tells me the age of the typical NightCafe user. Without Harry Potter movies almost no one would know what a hippogriff is.

174
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:15:16pm

re: #173 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

That’s the lowest score I’ve gotten. Even my throw-away submissions get more than that.

175
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:16:45pm

re: #173 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

As expected, I got little love in the NightCafe submission for “Mythical Creature Portraits”:

[Embedded content]

Even though:
1) my image was one of the few that actually qualifies as a “portrait”, and
2) no creature is more mythical than Satan.

As I fully expected, the winners are not even as good as those which I downvoted.

The winner was a “hippogriff” which tells me the age of the typical NightCafe user. Without Harry Potter movies almost no one would know what a hippogriff is.

I don’t know what a hippogriff is.

176
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:17:14pm

re: #174 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

That’s the lowest score I’ve gotten. Even my throw-away submissions get more than that.

Do it for you, not for them.

177
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:18:52pm

43. Fuck cancer.

178
wrenchwench  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:20:11pm

re: #171 jaunte

We kids did have the neighboring Buffalo Bayou nooks and crannies to hang around in.

I had the oil field on the other side of the concrete drainage under a road. I called it the Time Tunnel. I caught a snake once in the oil field, and I found a hummingbird’s nest with an egg in it.

179
wrenchwench  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:22:59pm

re: #178 wrenchwench

The oil field is now a municipal golf course.

180
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Mar 29, 2023 • 8:28:58pm

re: #69 Joe Bacon

Here’s some free advice for Christians: If you ever get the opportunity to visit a public school, hijacking the lunch room in order to win some converts is a horrible idea. (And not just because everyone is rightfully jittery these days about strangers doing anything disruptive during the school day.)

On Monday, 20-year-old Ryan Foley walked into Millard South High School in Omaha, Nebraska, ostensibly to pick up some transcripts. That’s not an unusual request, so it’s not surprising that the school allowed the former student into the building.

Before he left, though, he stopped by the cafeteria, where students were eating lunch, and yelled at them about Jesus. (In Nebraska. As if those kids haven’t been inundated with that message all their lives.)

open.substack.com

Foley wasn’t arrested on Monday. It’s unclear if he’ll face any consequences for what he did or if any future district policies will ban him from ever visiting his former school again.

That said, Foley has a habit of screaming about his religion in places where he’s not wanted. Earlier this year, he made some news when another video of him evangelizing at a gym went viral. He annoyed everyone there, too.

He also has admitted to watch transgender and gay porn and (in now-deleted videos) “darker and darker” stuff that eventually led to him acting on his homosexual desires. I don’t actually give a damn about his viewing habits or his sex life, but in the event that he’s ever speaking at a church in the future, I’m sure he’d appreciate an audience member standing up and disrupting his sermon with those interesting bits of information.

I imagine atheist state senator Megan Hunt will weigh in on this, since her children go to Millard and Millard is in her district.

181
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Mar 29, 2023 • 9:25:09pm

[moved by me]


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