Video: Four Million Suns in a Black Hole over New York

Science • Views: 13,357

This is a video on the scale of Black Holes in the Universe. I’ve been making it for four months now so I’m really happy to finally get it out to everyone, I hope you enjoy it! Black Holes are fascinating and there’s so much to say about them, from atoms to neutron stars, gravitational lensing, supermassive black holes, quasars, the secrets of the Universe even time travel. So I couldn’t cover quite everything here, which means there will definitely be more on them in the future. It’s also an area where we’re still learning a lot so it’s quite possible the largest black hole crown will go to another black hole soon, even bigger than the one in TON618.

Quick corrections and points to note:
I messed up one of the lines towards the end, I said TON618 has more mass than the entire Milky Way but I meant to say more mass than all the stars in the Milky Way. The Milky Way has a lot of hidden matter called dark matter which makes the galaxy incredibly heavy, a lot heavier than the stars.

Also the physicists out there might not be super happy with my description of gravity reaching out and grabbing things, technically it bends spacetime but I do try to balance how technical I am so everyone can appreciate it.

A few people have said Phoenix A is bigger than TON618 but as of February 2024 I think TON618 still has the crown, PhoenixA has been measured indirectly by a couple of different methods, one bigger than TON618 and one smaller. TON618 has been measured directly so is the more reliable black hole king… for now.

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Otherwise, as I said at the end, thank you so much everyone for all the kind comments, I just hit 100k subscribers two days ago with 5 videos on my channel, I couldn’t have gotten here without your support. I’ve had so many touching comments about how much the videos have meant to people and that really motivates me to keep trying to make this channel as different and special as I can make it.
I’ve got lots of plans for 2024 and will be making videos more regularly so thank you for being here, for believing in me, in the channel and I’m already looking forward to the next video.

Cheers,
Epic

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291 comments
1
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Mar 19, 2024 • 8:31:47pm

re: #158 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt’n 😷 Trips

It’s the Corinthian column which makes it all so real….

2
BeenHereAwhile  Mar 19, 2024 • 8:43:53pm

When star.fusion hits silicon, it’s time to get the eff out of Dodge.

3
So Cal Greek Hippie  Mar 19, 2024 • 8:58:09pm

2024: Ventura Harbor, California

4
austin_blue  Mar 19, 2024 • 8:58:16pm

re: #2 BeenHereAwhile

When star.fusion hits silicon, it’s time to get the eff out of Dodge.

This is all Beowulf Shaeffer investigating a Neutron Star, and Louis Wu investigating the Ringworld, innit?

5
austin_blue  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:01:29pm

re: #4 austin_blue

This is all Beowulf Shaeffer investigating a Neutron Star, and Louis Wu investigating the Ringworld, innit?

Fucking Pierson’s Puppeteers.

6
Joe Bacon ✅  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:02:37pm

Wow—the History of Waffles!

A History of Waffles - Communion Wafers to Eggo

7
William Lewis  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:03:50pm

Larry’s stuff without Jerry was so much better. Heresy to some I’m sure but Jerry let his freak flag fly just a bit too much for me in the end. Even Horny Heinlein wasn’t as annoying.

8
Belafon  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:12:37pm

re: #7 William Lewis

Larry’s stuff without Jerry was so much better. Heresy to some I’m sure but Jerry let his freak flag fly just a bit too much for me in the end. Even Horny Heinlein wasn’t as annoying.

The only name I understood was the one last name you supplied.

9
austin_blue  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:13:10pm

re: #7 William Lewis

Larry’s stuff without Jerry was so much better. Heresy to some I’m sure but Jerry let his freak flag fly just a bit too much for me in the end. Even Horny Heinlein wasn’t as annoying.

Pournelle was a fascist. Niven’s stuff pre-Jerry was brilliant.

They did a couple of good books together, but then it went pthpthpth.

Larry never recovered from his relationship with Pournelle. He never wrote another really good story.

10
Belafon  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:17:10pm

re: #9 austin_blue

Pournelle was a fascist. Niven’s stuff pre-Jerry was brilliant.

They did a couple of good books together, but then it went pthpthpth.

Larry never recovered from his relationship with Pournelle. He never wrote another really good story.

Now I understand.

11
austin_blue  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:17:37pm

re: #8 Belafon

The only name I understood was the one last name you supplied.

Ringworld? Larry Niven? The Known Universe?

You need to make a Library run.

12
William Lewis  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:20:19pm

re: #9 austin_blue

Pournelle was a fascist. Niven’s stuff pre-Jerry was brilliant.

They did a couple of good books together, but then it went pthpthpth.

Larry never recovered from his relationship with Pournelle. He never wrote another really good story.

All the collaborations seem to be what hurt more than anything. Not only Jerry though that rat fucker was the worst.

13
Belafon  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:24:13pm

re: #11 austin_blue

Ringworld? Larry Niven? The Known Universe?

You need to make a Library run.

I thought Larry implied Niven, but I wasn’t entirely sure. It was Jerry I was totally confused on. I haven’t read any Niven, but I know the name. I don’t know the other guy at all.

14
piratedan  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:26:36pm

re: #12 William Lewis

I’ve always wondered if Niven just kind of hit a wall when it came to writing characters to fit into his scientific speculation of science fiction scenarios, then got coupled with Pournelle, who took the old self-sufficient man ethos coupled with the military tropism and away they went.

I enjoyed the Tales of Known Space books, the Pournelle stuff less so, not to say that Space Opera doesn’t have its place, but its done better by Ringo, Weber and Huff.

15
austin_blue  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:28:33pm

I’m out.

Adios, amigos, sweet scaly dreams.

Oh, and the status of Texas SB 4 (We can be the Feds on our Border!!!) is in limbo again.

Or isn’t. Or is.

Or isn’t. Apparently the 5th Circuit is taking it up tomorrow morning in an Emergency Zoom Call?!?!

What a Judicial System we’ve got!

Chaos.

16
William Lewis  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:36:49pm

re: #13 Belafon

I thought Larry implied Niven, but I wasn’t entirely sure. It was Jerry I was totally confused on. I haven’t read any Niven, but I know the name. I don’t know the other guy at all.

Larry Niven’s early work is fantastic and still worth seeking out. The seriously high quality of it lead to being willing to put up with the earlier “blockbuster” books with Jerry Pournelle and I devoured them when young. I missed the most of the evil then but even in 1977 14 year old me knew there was something seriously sick about Lucifer’s Hammer. Footfall cured me of them.

Then there was “Fallen Angels” a purely evil bit of anti-environmentalism pro-fascism propaganda garbage that was headlined by the two of them.

17
silverdolphin  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:46:16pm

re: #14 piratedan

I’ve always wondered if Niven just kind of hit a wall when it came to writing characters to fit into his scientific speculation of science fiction scenarios, then got coupled with Pournelle, who took the old self-sufficient man ethos coupled with the military tropism and away they went.

I enjoyed the Tales of Known Space books, the Pournelle stuff less so, not to say that Space Opera doesn’t have its place, but its done better by Ringo, Weber and Huff.

Both Niven and Pournelle were pretty conservative to begin with – pro-Vietnam War. I think both saw their works hurt by their relationshipo with Reagan and Gingrich. They both became involved with conservative politics and, for Niven particularly, never really produced anything great after 1980. Like Orson Scott Card (and more recently JK Rowling), they let their political views overshadow and influence their work too much.

Science Fiction is not really fallow ground for paleoconservatism. Fantasy works better there.

18
mmmirele  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:50:25pm

OK, I tried to see if El País had translated this into English for their English version, but no. I’m providing the link, but it’s in Spanish. Most of this is familiar territory for USAians, but apparently it’s not in Mexico. The translation provided here is my rough, not word for word translation:

De sectas secretas a protestas en la calle: la ultraderecha mexicana contra la mujer

From secret sects to protests in the streets: the Mexican ultraright against women

EL PAÍS accede a decenas de documentos internos de El Yunque que explican la doctrina de la secta ultraconservadora. Grupos de influencia y de acción, infiltrados en partidos políticos y organizaciones civiles se unen en una estrategia para imponer una agenda contra el aborto, el matrimonio homosexual y la lucha por los derechos LGBT

EL PAÍS has received dozens of internal documents of a group called El Yunque that explain the beliefs of the ultraconservative sect. Influence and action groups have infiltrated political parties and civic organizations and are united in a strategy to impose an agenda against abortion, same sex marriage and the fight for LGBTQ rights.

elpais.com

The article is about El Yunque, a group that started in 1953. Some of their activists held positions in the Vicente Fox Quesada government of 2000-2006. But mostly they’ve been in the shadows. One of their activities is to start up those fake pregnancy centers. This part was so wearisome for me to read because MAI GHOD, we’ve had to deal with this fakery for decades.

Anyway, the article is basically the appearance of right-wing nutbars in a country where abortion is now decriminalized as of 2023, and depending on the state, is legally available. These guys want to bring back the old laws. It’s important right now because the Mexico general election for president (and Congress, and thousands of local positions) is on Sunday, June 2, 2024. The candidates are Claudia Sheinbaum, former mayor of Mexico City, representing Morena (AMLO’s party) and Xóchitl Gálvez, who is representing a party I’m not familiar with (Strength and Heart for Mexico coalition). It’s not clear to me who the ultra right is supporting, given that the two major candidates are both women.

Anyway, if you want to slog through the Spanish, this article is yet another example of a poisonous USAian export to Mexico. You know, kind of like sovereign citizen nuttery, which has been transmogrified into “Freemen on the Land” nonsense in Canada, the UK and Australia.

19
Patricia Kayden  Mar 19, 2024 • 9:58:52pm

20
mmmirele  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:09:36pm

Oh yeah, speaking of work…

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

21
piratedan  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:10:00pm

re: #17 silverdolphin

Both Niven and Pournelle were pretty conservative to begin with – pro-Vietnam War. I think both saw their works hurt by their relationshipo with Reagan and Gingrich. They both became involved with conservative politics and, for Niven particularly, never really produced anything great after 1980. Like Orson Scott Card (and more recently JK Rowling), they let their political views overshadow and influence their work too much.

Science Fiction is not really fallow ground for paleoconservatism. Fantasy works better there.

I think it depends on the writer, while I completely disagree with John Ringo on damn near everything, he writes a compelling story. You can even put Scalzi’s Old Man War in the plucky humanity against the universe setting that many of these Space Opera settings thrive in, some work some don’t.

I agree that when the writer goes into the story with an agenda that almost always fails, because the story is what matters, if the story is engaging just about everything else can be forgiven. I fully believe that Niven and Pournelle just kind of disregarded that in their collaborations.

23
BeenHereAwhile  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:19:55pm

re: #4 austin_blue

This is all Beowulf Shaeffer investigating a Neutron Star, and Louis Wu investigating the Ringworld, innit?

It’s from an Analog Science Fiction/Fact cover story about emergency evacuation from a star system about to go nova.
I don’t remember the title or author, but during Stanley Schmidt’s editorship .
I have the volume somewhere in my years of collection of Analog SF.
As the star’s fusion works its way up to silicon the group knows they have approximately 24 hours to leave the system & travel several hundred light years before the supernova explosion.

24
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:25:22pm

re: #17 silverdolphin

Science Fiction is not really fallow ground for paleoconservatism. Fantasy works better there.

The genre umbrella is speculative fiction, which covers anything that is not about a real world.

The issue for paleoconservatism is that its very nature is atavism. It’s always about preserving old power structures, old ways of thinking.

Speculative fiction is about imagining a different world.

Which means a speculative world is not this world, but paleoconservatism by its definition wants to push an older version of the real world.

However, audiences since at least the 1960s have wanted speculative worlds that are either 1) in the future, or 2) utopian.

Even a masterpiece like LOTR, with its deeply Catholic ideologies woven into the fabric of the story, can’t really be appreciated by paleoconservatives, because Tolkien was definitely anti-fascist. His idealism in LOTR is purely religious, Illuvatar working his will in the world through his subordinates (e.g. the Valar.)

One might think since many paleoconservatives are Catholic that they could appreciate the difference, but they confuse Tolkien with their own desires, because paleos believe it is their version of the world which God wants, while Tolkien illustrated that the creatures really are just along for the ride and one does what one can with the time they have and don’t try to make the world in their image.

Paleoconservatives want the Ring of Power, the very thing Tolkien was warning.

Anyway, I don’t know if science fiction has much left in it as a genre. Anything today seems like a rerun of past ideas.

Creative authors can continue to make speculative worlds but I don’t know of a contemporary creator (novelist or scriptwriter) who is really breaking new ground.

25
Belafon  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:34:58pm

Sometimes I think this place must have been what it was like being in some Greek court where the people there debate how the motion of the planets can be explained by the four elements.

26
William Lewis  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:34:59pm

re: #24 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Anyway, I don’t know if science fiction has much left in it as a genre. Anything today seems like a rerun of past ideas.

Creative authors can continue to make speculative worlds but I don’t know of a contemporary creator (novelist or scriptwriter) who is really breaking new ground.

Eh, SFF has always gone in cycles like this. It was in a period like this right before Cyberpunk blew thinks open again. No clue what will come but something will. It always does.

27
piratedan  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:36:19pm

re: #24 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

I think it depends on where you look, I’ve done my best to expand the horizons of who I read by including POC, authors not from North America, LGBTQ writers who break the bonds of gender, what we consider societal norms in the western world. Of those voices the one I’ve liked the most is Becky Chambers. I’ve also enjoyed Martha Wells’ Murderbot series… and Wesley Chu’s the Lives of Tao series….

28
Joe Bacon ✅  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:37:49pm

I just realized that tomorrow will mark 4 years that I’ve been teleworking full time from home. Remember when the order came down from the Regional Office that I was to telework full time because of my medical condition as the plague was in full swing. So I packed up my laptop and accessories stopped at Target to get a connector cable to use my TV as a second monitor, came home set up the system and did a download to start teleworking.

The only time I left my apartment during the rest of March 2020 was to do my laundry or go out for an hour long walk masked because the gyms were closed. Temple services were on line. I had constant memories of Grandma Bacon telling me what the Spanish Flu was like in 1918-1919 DC when the government used eminent domain to seize warehouses as temporary morgues.

And it only made me despise Shithead Trump more because he totally fucked up the response…

29
silverdolphin  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:42:47pm

re: #21 piratedan

I think it depends on the writer, while I completely disagree with John Ringo on damn near everything, he writes a compelling story. You can even put Scalzi’s Old Man War in the plucky humanity against the universe setting that many of these Space Opera settings thrive in, some work some don’t.

I agree that when the writer goes into the story with an agenda that almost always fails, because the story is what matters, if the story is engaging just about everything else can be forgiven. I fully believe that Niven and Pournelle just kind of disregarded that in their collaborations.

I always liked David Brin’s way of phrasing it - fantasy is about restoring the old order, nothing really changes. A new king, a new elite but no real difference in the end. Aragorn may be better than Sauron but still no libraries for the masses.

Science Fiction is about dealing with change, realizing we can fix the mistakes of our parents. Even dystopisa usually act as cautionary tales for change.

Many conservatives writing a novel often veer more into fantasy than science fiction, when they let their political views get out too freely. They do not really eant massive change.

30
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n 😷 Trips  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:44:48pm
31
William Lewis  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:47:50pm

re: #29 silverdolphin

I always liked David Brin’s way of phrasing it - fantasy is about restoring the old order, nothing really changes. A new king, a new elite but no real difference in the end. Aragorn may be better than Sauron but still no libraries for the masses.

Science Fiction is about dealing with change, realizing we can fix the mistakes of our parents. Even dystopisa usually act as cautionary tales for change.

Many conservatives writing a novel often veer more into fantasy than science fiction, when they let their political views get out too freely. They do not really eant massive change.

It can be quite interesting, sometimes, to read books that are SF disguised by fantasy tropes 😉 Lois McMaster Bujold, Steven Brust & John M. Ford (RIP, miss you Mike) for example.

32
silverdolphin  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:49:28pm

re: #24 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Anyway, I don’t know if science fiction has much left in it as a genre. Anything today seems like a rerun of past ideas.

Creative authors can continue to make speculative worlds but I don’t know of a contemporary creator (novelist or scriptwriter) who is really breaking new ground.

Maybe. But pretty much the same thing was said in the early 60s. The New Worlds and Dangerous Visions came out. Similarly, the early 80s were kinds atgnant until Gibson and ogthers gave use cyperpunk. I think we are simply in a down time as cyperpunk, steampunk and the other punks finish up.

We just need to get through this period and regain some hope for the future. Right now, it looks like we will never learn from our mistakes, taking away a lot of the reasons to write science fiction (speculative or not) ;-)

The Expanse series is an example of how there is still great writing, even today.

33
silverdolphin  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:50:49pm

re: #26 William Lewis

Eh, SFF has always gone in cycles like this. It was in a period like this right before Cyberpunk blew thinks open again. No clue what will come but something will. It always does.

Yep and before that, it was the explosion of New Worlds and Dangerous Visions in the 60s that revitalized science fiction.

34
piratedan  Mar 19, 2024 • 10:55:50pm

re: #31 William Lewis

It can be quite interesting, sometimes, to read books that are SF disguised by fantasy tropes 😉 Lois McMaster Bujold, Steven Brust & John M. Ford (RIP, miss you Mike) for example.

Gotta say that I absolutely adore Bujold, her world building in both the Vorkosigan Saga and the Five Gods books are exemplary…. I didn’t enjoy the Sharing Knife books as much, but I can still admit that they were better than average.

35
William Lewis  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:00:25pm

re: #34 piratedan

Gotta say that I absolutely adore Bujold, her world building in both the Vorkosigan Saga and the Five Gods books are exemplary…. I didn’t enjoy the Sharing Knife books as much, but I can still admit that they were better than average.

I would actually agree that the knife books are not as good but this is a case where not as good are still better than most ever get 😎

36
silverdolphin  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:07:30pm

re: #31 William Lewis

It can be quite interesting, sometimes, to read books that are SF disguised by fantasy tropes 😉 Lois McMaster Bujold, Steven Brust & John M. Ford (RIP, miss you Mike) for example.

And the flip side of Bujold’s series - Poul Anderson’s Flandry series. The whole goal of Flandry is to maintain the old, corrupt order that keeps is life very pleasant. But all these SF space opera tropes intercede, causing complications. The stories show the collision of SF and fantasy as Flandry knows the empire must fall, he can recognize who will be running things after, and all he wants is to slow the fall a few more years.

37
silverdolphin  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:09:18pm

re: #35 William Lewis

I would actually agree that the knife books are not as good but this is a case where not as good are still better than most ever get 😎

Bujold is one of the great writers. Yet her name never seems to come up in many discussions. I’d love to see some movies from her books.

38
piratedan  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:14:55pm

re: #37 silverdolphin

The hurdle is the same one that eluded the Lee Child books, finding a competent actor of stature to be Reacher. How do you find a really great Miles?

39
William Lewis  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:14:56pm

re: #36 silverdolphin

And the flip side of Bujold’s series - Poul Anderson’s Flandry series. The whole goal of Flandry is to maintain the old, corrupt order that keeps is life very pleasant. But all these SF space opera tropes intercede, causing complications. The stories show the collision of SF and fantasy as Flandry knows the empire must fall, he can recognize who will be running things after, and all he wants is to slow the fall a few more years.

I’d say she was more flipping Flandry since she was much later but yeah, the Empire of Barrayar is pretty much the opposite of it with all sorts of delicious socio-political ruminations of civil rights, reproductive freedom and the intersection/interconnection of technology and liberty. And able to have interesting ruminations on sexuality without being a creeper like old man Heinlein turned into.

40
William Lewis  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:15:37pm

re: #38 piratedan

The hurdle is the same one that eluded the Lee Child books, finding a competent actor of stature to be Reacher. How do you find a really great Miles?

The little man from Game of Thrones?

41
piratedan  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:18:58pm

re: #40 William Lewis

sure, but isn’t Dinklage getting up there in years? Perhaps you can just find an actor of smaller stature (about 4’8” to 5’)… I guess it depends on where you decide the entry point for the series should be… Barrayar? or The Warrior’s Apprentice?

42
A Cranky One  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:23:21pm

43
gwangung  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:29:23pm

re: #41 piratedan

sure, but isn’t Dinklage getting up there in years? Perhaps you can just find an actor of smaller stature (about 4’8” to 5’)… I guess it depends on where you decide the entry point for the series should be… Barrayar? or The Warrior’s Apprentice?

He’s 54, almost the age where Miles dies in Bujold’s chronology….

44
piratedan  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:40:23pm

re: #43 gwangung

He’s a terrific actor, so perhaps if you did Cryoburn or Lord Vorpatril’s Alliance first… although the latter is really a vehicle for Ivan…

Still, the storytelling and the actual agency that the characters own, I.e. the whole actions have consequences, that leads to the threads being so rich and robust. I really enjoy that wisdom is earned by the characters.

45
mmmirele  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:43:23pm

re: #23 BeenHereAwhile

It’s from an Analog Science Fiction/Fact cover story about emergency evacuation from a star system about to go nova.
I don’t remember the title or author, but during Stanley Schmidt’s editorship .
I have the volume somewhere in my years of collection of Analog SF.
As the star’s fusion works its way up to silicon the group knows they have approximately 24 hours to leave the system & travel several hundred light years before the supernova explosion.

Well, just to be clear, it’s unlikely that a star destined to be a supernova would have planets around it, much less life. That’s because those stars are huge and live fast. There’s not enough time for a system of planets to aggregate and cool down before the parent star explodes. Betelgeuse, for example, is considered to be less than 10 million years old. At 10 million years old, our solar system was still a star gathering power surrounded by a disk of matter still accreting into rocks, asteroids, comets, moons and planets. I remember how disappointed I was when I learned this as a kid, because it rather undermined the premise of a couple of books I was reading as life, much less a civilization, would have never developed in a system with a red or blue giant star heading towards supernova.

It’s theorized that in the early universe, after reionization started, that collapsing clouds of neutral hydrogen formed the first stars. These stars were massive (thousands of times the Sun’s mass) and they went supernova within hundreds of thousands of years, not even millions of years. Or they collapsed directly into black holes (not sure about the physics in the early universe and I am not an expert). These early stars provided the heavier metals (as in “heavier than helium”) that, over generations of stars, would provide the materials out of which the Earth would be made out of, 9 billion years after the Big Bang.

I wonder what that early universe was like. You could now see stars, but they were enormous, they didn’t last very long and they were exploding quickly. Oh, and the universe was much smaller than it is now. It must have been mind-blowing.

46
William Lewis  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:43:53pm

re: #43 gwangung

He’s 54, almost the age where Miles dies in Bujold’s chronology….

I didn’t watch the show so didn’t realize he was that old. Just the only really good actor I could think of who was physically similar to the description of Miles.

47
gwangung  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:51:10pm

re: #44 piratedan

He’s a terrific actor, so perhaps if you did Cryoburn or Lord Vorpatril’s Alliance first… although the latter is really a vehicle for Ivan…

Still, the storytelling and the actual agency that the characters own, I.e. the whole actions have consequences, that leads to the threads being so rich and robust. I really enjoy that wisdom is earned by the characters.

The gravitas he now carries makes him appropriate for those two books and Gentleman Jole, but those are the three books where he’s a supporting character.

The early books are action adventure, and form the building blocks for the middle blocks, where you get that wisdom won (i.e., Miles grows up)(and falls in love and…). And that’s kind of a young man’s role….

48
silverdolphin  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:52:06pm

re: #38 piratedan

The hurdle is the same one that eluded the Lee Child books, finding a competent actor of stature to be Reacher. How do you find a really great Miles?

Yep. No Tom Cruise or Mark Wahlberg please.

49
William Lewis  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:55:58pm

re: #47 gwangung

The gravitas he now carries makes him appropriate for those two books and Gentleman Jole, but those are the three books where he’s a supporting character.

The early books are action adventure, and form the building blocks for the middle blocks, where you get that wisdom won (i.e., Miles grows up)(and falls in love and…). And that’s kind of a young man’s role….

Very true. If I won a big lotto …

Animation. Only real way to solve issues like the Quaddies too. From one of the GOOD studios.

Start with The Warrior’s Apprentice. Each book as a season of a minimum of 10 45 minute episodes.

Sigh. Now that’s a reason to waste $2 on a ticket tomorrow 🤣

50
piratedan  Mar 19, 2024 • 11:59:45pm

re: #49 William Lewis

Very true. If I won a big lotto …

Animation. Only real way to solve issues like the Quaddies too. From one of the GOOD studios.

Start with The Warrior’s Apprentice. Each book as a season of a minimum of 10 45 minute episodes.

Sigh. Now that’s a reason to waste $2 on a ticket tomorrow 🤣

about the only actor/entertainer that comes to mind right now would be comedian Brad Williams who is 4’4”. You could maybe go as tall as 5’3” or so, but again, a lot of those early stories has Miles at the 18 thru 26 range.

51
silverdolphin  Mar 20, 2024 • 12:08:48am

re: #23 BeenHereAwhile

It’s from an Analog Science Fiction/Fact cover story about emergency evacuation from a star system about to go nova.
I don’t remember the title or author, but during Stanley Schmidt’s editorship .
I have the volume somewhere in my years of collection of Analog SF.
As the star’s fusion works its way up to silicon the group knows they have approximately 24 hours to leave the system & travel several hundred light years before the supernova explosion.

Sounded so familiar. It is a Poul Anderson story from 1967 called Day of Burning. It featured another one of his characters David Falkyn, who I beleive came from the next civilization after Flandry’s.

52
silverdolphin  Mar 20, 2024 • 12:11:24am

re: #50 piratedan

about the only actor/entertainer that comes to mind right now would be comedian Brad Williams who is 4’4”. You could maybe go as tall as 5’3” or so, but again, a lot of those early stories has Miles at the 18 thru 26 range.

I guess one culd use forced perspective as they did in LOTR but it still looks weird.

53
silverdolphin  Mar 20, 2024 • 12:14:11am

re: #50 piratedan

about the only actor/entertainer that comes to mind right now would be comedian Brad Williams who is 4’4”. You could maybe go as tall as 5’3” or so, but again, a lot of those early stories has Miles at the 18 thru 26 range.

Daniel Radcliffe might just make it at 5’5”. Maybe Elliot Page? He kinda has the look.

54
piratedan  Mar 20, 2024 • 12:18:46am

re: #52 silverdolphin

Agree, the stories are there, graphic design of characters is doable, voice acting casting could be done with people who’ve read the stories and understand the characters.

55
silverdolphin  Mar 20, 2024 • 12:47:29am

re: #54 piratedan

Agree, the stories are there, graphic design of characters is doable, voice acting casting could be done with people who’ve read the stories and understand the characters.

I’m just an old fart and I want live actors ;-) Maybe we should all write Apple TV+. They seem to be trying to make tent pole series. (ALthough we shall see what happens with the third season of Foundation since they slashed the budget.)

56
Targetpractice  Mar 20, 2024 • 2:04:34am

re: #19 Patricia Kayden

[Embedded content]

The pundits love to gush over how Trump is not a “normal politician” and they are certainly right in one way: Any self-respecting politician accused of even a fraction of what Trump stands (credibly) accused of would have hung it up ages ago. The sexual assault rulings alone would have been the Kiss of Death. But yet he keeps puttering along, which is probably the most damning indictment of the idea that the process is about selecting those best-suited for the job and the most powerful endorsement that it is simply a popularity contest.

57
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 2:07:27am

re: #56 Targetpractice

He managed to successfully sell himself as the anti-politician and ultimate outsider (which he still does to an extent): this makes him immune from his gaffes, as he appeals to those who are fed up with politicians and politics as usual.

58
William Lewis  Mar 20, 2024 • 2:07:49am

re: #53 silverdolphin

Daniel Radcliffe might just make it at 5’5”. Maybe Elliot Page? He kinda has the look.

I could see Daniel doing it and he’s good enough to pull it off.

59
Targetpractice  Mar 20, 2024 • 2:15:33am

re: #57 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

He managed to successfully sell himself as the anti-politician and ultimate outsider (which he still does to an extent): this makes him immune from his gaffes, as he appeals to those who are fed up with politicians and politics as usual.

Only issue with that is the “outsider” argument is supposed to mean you’re “better” than the guys who make politics a career. And one of the stereotypes about the political class is they’re all corrupt horndogs who are chasing tail when they’re not taking bribes. Anybody else remember the screaming fits over allegations that the Clinton admin “sold” nuclear secrets to the Chinese?

60
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 2:25:19am

re: #59 Targetpractice

He is a salesman who is trying to sell an image to American voters, many of whom still buy it.

61
silverdolphin  Mar 20, 2024 • 2:32:30am

re: #58 William Lewis

I could see Daniel doing it and he’s good enough to pull it off.

He has had quite a varied and challenging career after Potter (his turn as Weird Al was uncanny). I’d love to see him as an SF hero, one not dependent on brawn. He still looks young at 34.

Bring us Tyrion in a space opera!!

Now who will play Ekaterin Vorsoisson?

62
Targetpractice  Mar 20, 2024 • 2:36:46am

re: #60 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

He is a salesman who is trying to sell an image to American voters, many of whom still buy it.

But that’s true about pretty much every politician, they have to sell themselves to the voting public at a local, state or national level in order to succeed at the polls. All the “outsider” label really does is lower the bar for men like Trump and allow them to run without the sort of scrutiny and judgment that a John Edwards or Al Franken would be subjected to.

63
William Lewis  Mar 20, 2024 • 2:39:56am

re: #61 silverdolphin

He has had quite a varied and challenging career after Potter (his turn as Weird Al was uncanny). I’d love to see him as an SF hero, one not dependent on brawn. He still looks young at 34.

Bring us Tyrion in a space opera!!

Now who will play Ekaterin Vorsoisson?

How about Emma Stone?

Oh and get Molly Ringwald as Cordelia Naismith…

64
William Lewis  Mar 20, 2024 • 2:45:33am

Little early for “drive time music” but this is what I like to listen to this time of the night 😎

Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

65
Patricia Kayden  Mar 20, 2024 • 2:47:10am

re: #22 No Malarkey!

I’ll be visiting Senegal and Gambia in November for a tour. Based on videos I’ve seen, I thought Gambia was religiously conservative but socially liberal. I guess not. This news is absolutely horrific. Genital mutilation should be banned everywhere. It’s my understanding that nothing in the Islamic religion even requires such a barbaric act.

66
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 20, 2024 • 3:02:39am

You have got to be kidding! 3/6

WXowdWttS1NaekNlU3p3WlM0N1VRWHVXYldnQW1XL2NtZEFlczBhYVBiSW14YlBHZGkwalIzcXo0a0k1STBLK1I0QXRKMHRrT1BiS3piV0FiV25zL3FZZUsxRmhIT0V2MUtTOHlDdWt3NmlTQnU5bUNvd3ZEUVFEaXVFR212RDRMdFcyeGVqMHRWTEh0ODltVDc5SFk5eFNxOC9GVFlxNWZuSDB4aTN4UkRGekt2bjBadnVmNHJCLzJxRDBETnM0Ojonr/DPjOxG4kmYSoXodTkl

67
Patricia Kayden  Mar 20, 2024 • 3:16:51am

68
Nerdy Fish  Mar 20, 2024 • 3:27:50am

re: #66 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

You have got to be kidding! 3/6

[Embedded content]

Well, you’ve already beat me, I’m on guess 4 now, I only have 3 letters, and I’ve been staring at it for almost half an hour. I literally don’t have words anymore.

69
Patricia Kayden  Mar 20, 2024 • 3:28:55am

70
Nerdy Fish  Mar 20, 2024 • 3:31:43am

GOD, that was stupid. My brain physically hurts.

Click to Reveal

Wordle 1,005 4/6*

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟨🟨⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

71
Patricia Kayden  Mar 20, 2024 • 3:33:24am

72
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 20, 2024 • 3:35:23am

re: #68 Nerdy Fish

Well, you’ve already beat me, I’m on guess 4 now, I only have 3 letters, and I’ve been staring at it for almost half an hour. I literally don’t have words anymore.

Want a hint?

NFZqYjFvczlZb3lhUWt5dWFlc1dzQmFLclJRN1BvTnVnd2hlY3ZZQThUMD06OoAn4HeuUY2GTTZmfU186iU=

73
William Lewis  Mar 20, 2024 • 3:43:22am

Excuse me, my taxi’s here. I’ll be back yesterday.

74
Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 3:43:31am

re: #66 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

You have got to be kidding! 3/6

Really? Third time.
Wordle 1005 5/6

Click to Reveal

⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛🟩⬛
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

75
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 3:53:01am

re: #56 Targetpractice

The pundits love to gush over how Trump is not a “normal politician” and they are certainly right in one way: Any self-respecting politician accused of even a fraction of what Trump stands (credibly) accused of would have hung it up ages ago. The sexual assault rulings alone would have been the Kiss of Death. But yet he keeps puttering along, which is probably the most damning indictment of the idea that the process is about selecting those best-suited for the job and the most powerful endorsement that it is simply a popularity contest.

He’s in love with the revenue (grifting) stream.

And there’s the long odds hope he can self pardon

76
Targetpractice  Mar 20, 2024 • 3:56:53am

re: #71 Patricia Kayden

[Embedded content]

An unspoken dividend of Trump’s legal problems is that the longer they continue, the narrower his list of options to contest the election results are going to be. Unlike 2020 where he had the (effectively) unlimited resources of the federal government and a cadre of suicidal lawyers ready to launch challenges in every state, this go-around he’s a private citizen whose bank account is way tighter and the list of lawyers ready to kamikaze their careers on baseless election challenges is not as…”distinguished” as it was four years ago. He’s gonna seriously regret his takeover of the RNC later this year when the constant drain on their resources to cover his “legal fees” leaves their well drier than a Popeye’s biscuit when he begs them to “fight” for him in swing state courts.

And if that doesn’t give you hope, remember that it’s still March, we still got a whole ‘nother 7 months for his lawyers to bleed him white.

77
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:04:52am

re: #71 Patricia Kayden

very optimistic to rule out a stock market crash

and there will be at least sporadic violence from the unhinged, armed and marginalized people he has been riling up for years, even decades now

78
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:12:26am

re: #77 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

very optimistic to rule out a stock market crash

and there will be at least sporadic violence from the unhinged, armed and marginalized people he has been riling up for years, even decades now

And that will be put down swiftly and without mercy. Trump’s supporters are cowards - they see a few of their compatriots get blown away, and the rest will run as fast their fat asses will allow them to (with freshly-filled tighty-whities, I might add) and retreat to their keyboards to anonymously write up bombastic - and fatuous - complaints.

79
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:16:12am

re: #78 Dr Lizardo

And that will be put down swiftly and without mercy. Trump’s supporters are cowards - they see a few of their compatriots get blown away, and the rest will run as fast their fat asses will allow them to (with freshly-filled tighty-whities, I might add) and retreat to their keyboards to anonymously write up bombastic - and fatuous - complaints.

Let them go join the other “hostages of January 6th”…

80
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:16:17am

re: #77 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

81
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:18:52am

re: #63 William Lewis

How about Emma Stone?

Oh and get Molly Ringwald as Cordelia Naismith…

Cordelia and Aral might be hard to cast since while they are supporting characters in most of the series their appearances have great impact. Plus they are both essentially elemental forces in that society, especially Cordelia. So you’d need an actor and actress who both have gravitas and chemistry with each other.

Something more recent I can recommend are two novels by Arkady Martine. _A Memory Called Empire_ and _A Desolation Called Peace_.

82
Patricia Kayden  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:29:21am

re: #77 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

We already saw their violence on January 6th. I assume law enforcement isn’t going to be as restrained with them this time around. Ashlie Babbitt (or whatever the hell her name is) will have plenty of company.

83
Patricia Kayden  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:32:06am

re: #76 Targetpractice

Very well said. Trump has no self control so I don’t see him doing anything but self sabotaging his own campaign. His “bloodbath” comment has put his supporters on the defense. He’s certainly not expanding his base.

84
Randall Gross  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:35:40am

bsky.app

85
Randall Gross  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:46:53am

That contentious cease fire resolution passed in Sacramento:

Dozen arrests, chambers cleared during Sacramento City Council discussion of Gaza cease-fire resolution
cbsnews.com

86
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:50:43am

re: #82 Patricia Kayden

We already saw their violence on January 6th. I assume law enforcement isn’t going to be as restrained with them this time around. Ashlie Babbitt (or whatever the hell her name is) will have plenty of company.

We cannot afford to just let them walk away again peaceably.

87
Patricia Kayden  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:51:24am

re: #85 Randall Gross

re: #84 Randall Gross

Good!!

88
Eventual Carrion  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:53:59am

A surprising 2/6 for the morning

Click to Reveal

Wordle 1,005 2/6

🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

89
Randall Gross  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:54:31am

Katie Porter walks back & regrets her choice of the word “rigged’ in reference to the ad spending against her.
nbcnews.com

90
lawhawk  Mar 20, 2024 • 4:56:11am

Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun

91
Randall Gross  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:01:11am

re: #89 Randall Gross

Katie Porter walks back & regrets her choice of the word “rigged’ in reference to the ad spending against her.
nbcnews.com

She meant the word in the traditional electoral sense rather than the Trumpian sense. e.g. many elections are “rigged” by big dark money advertising spends.

92
Patricia Kayden  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:06:43am

93
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:07:33am

re: #82 Patricia Kayden

We already saw their violence on January 6th. I assume law enforcement isn’t going to be as restrained with them this time around. Ashlie Babbitt (or whatever the hell her name is) will have plenty of company.

And may they all be tormented in hell together.

94
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:08:37am

re: #88 Eventual Carrion

A surprising 2/6 for the morning

[Embedded content]

How the hell did you do that???

95
lawhawk  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:16:04am
96
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:16:16am

re: #71 Patricia Kayden

[Embedded content]

97
Randall Gross  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:18:52am

It’s Gallup, but I find it relevant that countries with good social safety nets for all (young and old) are doing much better in happiness ranking that us, where just the olds are happy.
npr.org

98
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:23:49am

so in yesterday’s Florida R primary, DeSantis, who’s not running finished third (3.7%) behind Haley, who’s not running (13.9)

in case you forgot, DeSantis is Governor of Florida

stick a fork in his political future

99
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:23:57am

TL;DR. Are Finns still the happiest?

100
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:24:34am

re: #98 Dangerman

so in yesterday’s Florida R primary, DeSantis, who’s not running finished third (3.7%) behind Haley, who’s not running (13.9)

in case you forgot, DeSantis is Governor of Florida

stick a fork in his political future

Woke is where DeSantis goes to die

101
lawhawk  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:26:24am

re: #100 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Disney is where DeSantis went to die.

102
Randall Gross  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:27:58am

re: #99 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

TL;DR. Are Finns still the happiest?

Yes, of course they are.

103
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:31:28am

re: #102 Randall Gross

Yes, of course they are.

In almost every country I hyve visited in Europe I had a sense of “I could happily live here if I could get established”. But never Finland.

I even have a close expat buddy who relocated there, and I enjoy visiting and would happily own a cabin out on an island in a lake to go stay for a couple of weeks a year but I could never, ever picture myself living there.

104
Randall Gross  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:36:35am

re: #103 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

In almost every country I hyve visited in Europe I had a sense of “I could happily live here if I could get established”. But never Finland.

I even have a close expat buddy who relocated there, and I enjoy visiting and would happily own a cabin out on an island in a lake to go stay for a couple of weeks a year but I could never, ever picture myself living there.

It’s a strange place - highly innovative (back in the 90’s you could buy a soda from a vending machine with your phone,) but also highly protective of consumers and their privacy (Finland has the strongest consumer data protection on laws on the books anywhere.)

addendum: When I was younger I could have lived there and loved it easily, but now that I’m old it’s decidedly too cold, and for the same reason I left Squarebanks, I would have to leave there — I mean the whole country is North of Hudson bay’s latitude.

105
7-y (Expectation of Great Things in Due Course)  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:39:50am

re:

106
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:40:48am

nice to see today’s electoral-vote.com parrot what i wrote yesterday about tfg’s financial position

of course, as usual, they’ve said it much better in the third part of this section

basically:
- he’s got no credit - no one will loan him money and definitely not based on commercial real estate as collateral
- any ‘shady’ source fronting the $ is gonna be unmasked in a second
- he could fire sale or let NYS fire sale for him
- but with all the likely mortgages and loans, there wont be much cash left to apply toward a bond

i believe the legal term i read here yesterday is “he’s fooked”

107
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:42:47am

re: #101 lawhawk

Disney is where DeSantis went to die…

and got stomped by Goofy, Dopey, Sleepy and a mouse

108
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:44:29am

re: #104 Randall Gross

It’s a strange place - highly innovative (back in the 90’s you could buy a soda from a vending machine with your phone,) but also highly protective of consumers and their privacy (Finland has the strongest consumer data protection on laws on the books anywhere.)

The society and culture have a lot going for them, and that is what I like about visiting there along with the nature, but it is mostly the extremes of light and dark that I could not endure.

The temperatures I could probably put up with, having grown up in the Midwest, but Moscow in the winter was bad enough and that is further south than even Southern Finland. Right now I live right abouve 50° N and I struggle through the otherwise mild winters.

And the alcohol. I have little use for it to begin with, but alcoholic excess is just a social and cultural norm there that I don’t enjoy at all. I hate hangovers, Finns just plan them in as part of their weekly schedule.

109
Randall Gross  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:52:47am

re: #108 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

The society and culture have a lot going for them, and that is what I like about visiting there along with the nature, but it is mostly the extremes of light and dark that I could not endure.

The temperatures I could probably put up with, having grown up in the Midwest, but Moscow in the winter was bad enough and that is further south than even Southern Finland. Right now I live right abouve 50° N and I struggle through the otherwise mild winters.

And the alcohol. I have little use for it to begin with, but alcoholic excess is just a cultural norm there that I don’t enjoy at all.

All my friends were alcoholic was one of the other reasons I left Fairbanks.

110
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:55:38am

I live in a wine-making region of a nation famous for beer brewing, but the last time I had any alcohol was for purely medicinal purposes (a shot of rum in my coffee when I had a cold last week)

111
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 5:57:02am
Washington Post: “Yet again, we saw more Republican primary voters voting against Trump than Democratic ones voting against Biden.”

“About 1 in 5 voters voted against Trump in Florida, Illinois and Ohio. And about one-quarter voted against him in Kansas.”

“By contrast, Biden ceded closer to 1 out of 10 votes in Illinois, Kansas and Ohio.”

pitchbot: “Why Trump drawing more protest votes than Biden shows why Biden should be concerned”

112
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:05:11am

re: #111 Dangerman

113
Belafon  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:05:23am

re: #73 William Lewis

[Embedded content]

Excuse me, my taxi’s here. I’ll be back yesterday.

Where’s that at?

114
GlutenFreeJesus  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:06:22am

re: #112 Dangerman

But how many of them will vote for Biden. And will it be enough?

115
steve_davis  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:11:03am

Watching some WSJ video about Trump’s financial history, and it’s shocking to me how much like a normal human being he sounds in the early 1990’s. I think one potentially effective method of using this for the Biden folks would be to just do a kind of time lapse of Trump over the years, starting from that time when he sounded normal, and then coming forward to now when he literally sounds at rallies like he’s doing his impersonation of a flaming queen.

116
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:14:23am

re: #106 Dangerman

Next Monday, the most powerful person in the United States will not be Joe Biden, but Judge Arthur Engoron.

Judge Arthur Engoron’s courtroom, Monday, 25 March 2024:

Where is the Money, Lebowski?

117
Eventual Carrion  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:15:33am

re: #73 William Lewis

[Embedded content]

Excuse me, my taxi’s here. I’ll be back yesterday.

118
lawhawk  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:15:52am

re: #115 steve_davis

Doubt it. Trump could turn around and spin all of his extremism as just an act, when he’s intent on doing all the things he claims, and surrounds himself with those who’d enable and expand on his extremism.

What gets lost on those 80s-90s-00s Trump clips is that his business was already highly leveraged and he moved away from funding/financing his office/residential towers out of his own funds, and put the onus on others to build. He moved away from owning buildings to slapping his name on buildings in management deals because he had low cash flows compared to other real estate businesses.

119
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:18:24am

re: #112 Dangerman

If that holds in the November election, that 20% of GOP voters will either stay home or possibly vote for a different candidate, Trump is screwed. He simply cannot afford to lose such a significant percentage of the Republican Party’s voters.

Hell, even if 15% of GOP voters say, “Fuck this guy” and stay home, Trump will go down in flames.

120
darthstar  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:20:14am

re: #119 Dr Lizardo

If that holds in the November election, that 20% of GOP voters will either stay home or possibly vote for a different candidate, Trump is screwed. He simply cannot afford to lose such a significant percentage of the Republican Party’s voters.

Hell, even if 15% of GOP voters say, “Fuck this guy” and stay home, Trump will go down in flames.

If they stay home that helps flip a few house and Senate races blue. If they show up and vote for the obstructionists then we put up with a few more years of bullshit.

121
No Malarkey!  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:23:02am

Tim Scott is getting a lot of ridicule for this clip. I don’t know what he said afterwards, but a utopian America is a GOP nightmare. Imagine an America in which women have reproductive freedom, parents have the freedom to get their trans children the medical care they need, and those children aren’t stigmatized by the government, we have an orderly immigration system that is generous and humane to refugees and the people who come here and provide labor we need but Americans won’t do, all Americans are lifted out of poverty and have affordable childcare, medical care, education and housing, private ownership of weapons of war are banned and gun ownership is regulated so that criminals and the mentally ill don’t have easy access to them, clean energy replaces fossil fuels so that we have a net zero carbon emission economy, all workers have the opportunity to join a union and collectively bargain with employers, all citizens can easily and conveniently vote and have a fair chance at electing the representatives of their choice, and dark money cannot buy politicians and political parties. That is everything the GOP has been working against for decades.

122
Belafon  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:24:25am

re: #114 GlutenFreeJesus

But how many of them will vote for Biden. And will it be enough?

Let’s start from this: Biden won in 2020, with very little of that vote. If they vote like last time, Biden wins. If they don’t vote, Biden wins. If any percentage votes for Biden, Biden wins.

123
Targetpractice  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:24:47am

re: #119 Dr Lizardo

If that holds in the November election, that 20% of GOP voters will either stay home or possibly vote for a different candidate, Trump is screwed. He simply cannot afford to lose such a significant percentage of the Republican Party’s voters.

Hell, even if 15% of GOP voters say, “Fuck this guy” and stay home, Trump will go down in flames.

I’ve a very strong suspicion that, much like the polling across the pond, a lot polling here assumes that all those who are answering either “Don’t Know” or “Uncommitted” will break for Trump on Election Day. Because I find it really doubtful he can lose 15%+ of the GQP vote in November and expect to make up enough of that in “Independent” votes to break even.

124
GlutenFreeJesus  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:28:08am

re: #122 Belafon

Let’s start from this: Biden won in 2020, with very little of that vote. If they vote like last time, Biden wins. If they don’t vote, Biden wins. If any percentage votes for Biden, Biden wins.

I still believe Trump is going to ignore the popular vote and concentrate only on the EC to try and squeeze out a win by the thinnest of margins.

Meywird gere being try.

125
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:30:45am

re: #123 Targetpractice

I’ve a very strong suspicion that, much like the polling across the pond, a lot polling here assumes that all those who are answering either “Don’t Know” or “Uncommitted” will break for Trump on Election Day. Because I find it really doubtful he can lose 15%+ of the GQP vote in November and expect to make up enough of that in “Independent” votes to break even.

He can’t. If he ends up losing appx. 15% of the GOP voters, not only is he done, but that could possibly hit downballot races as well. The whole thing could end up as a total fiasco for the Republicans.

Of course, it’s not even April, the party conventions haven’t happened yet and most Americans aren’t even really paying attention to politics yet - it’s just us political junkies who are closely following things.

126
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:31:34am

re: #124 GlutenFreeJesus

I still believe Trump is going to ignore the popular vote and concentrate only on the EC to try and squeeze out a win by the thinnest of margins.

Meywird gere being try.

Something to be aware of, as that is a viable strategy…after all, it worked for him in 2016.

127
Nerdy Fish  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:32:45am

re: #124 GlutenFreeJesus

I still believe Trump is going to ignore the popular vote and concentrate only on the EC to try and squeeze out a win by the thinnest of margins.

He will certainly try, but if this margin holds - where ~5% of Republican voters vote for Biden, and another ~10% just stay home - his road to an EC victory, already shaky at best, is completely out of reach.

128
Randall Gross  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:32:48am

Some things definitely survived our recent frost.

129
PhillyPretzel ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:35:02am

re: #126 Dr Lizardo

Yes it did. But right now he has quite a few other things going against him including fraud cases. He also has a R party that is fractured and cannot agree on budget resolutions.

130
Mattand  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:36:44am

re: #112 Dangerman

I hope those numbers pay off in November, but I’m not holding my breath. I keep thinking about that Jordan Klepper remote from a few weeks back where he interviewed all those “principled” Halley supporters, before she threw in the towel.

They were all bitching about what a disaster Trump was, and then almost to a person, said they’d vote for Trump if he turned out to be the nominee.

These are Republicans we’re talking about. People who notoriously close ranks regardless of how shitty their candidate is, and who are also now on record as openly pushing for a dictatorship.

Not holding my breath on Republicans not showing up or, God forbid, vote country over party.

131
Joe Bacon ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:38:31am

ONLY 86 billion?

Researchers say Christian leaders will embezzle an estimated $86 billion in 2024

The “ecclesiastical crime” will jump to approximately $390 billion by 2050

Yep the road to Ea$y Money is getting $aved and going into the Mini$try!

In 2024, Christian leaders around the world will embezzle an estimated $86 billion from their followers.

That “ecclesiastical crime” will jump to approximately $390 billion by 2050, according to researchers Dr. Gina Zurlo, Dr. Todd Johnson, and Peter Crossing at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, part of the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

The numbers are tucked away in a larger report about global Christianity published in the January issue of the International Bulletin of Mission Research.

The Christian ministry watchdog group Trinity Foundation summarized the problem this way:

Ecclesiastical crimes take on many forms such as skimming from an offering plate, restricted donation fraud (diverting mission donations to a personal expense account), and international cash smuggling.

Televangelists have transferred funds across international borders on private jets and failed to report these transactions resulting in “bulk cash smuggling.”

We know these sorts of shenanigans occur because, frequently, Christian leaders are arrested for financial crimes. It’s incredibly hard, however, to pinpoint exactly how much crime occurs under the veil of Christianity. That can be blamed on everything from the fact that churches don’t have to file financial reports with the IRS, to the fact that they often blame crime on everything but religion, to the fact that they may not want to go public about being duped. In many ways, it’s like tracking sales in a black market; the very nature of how they operate—out of public sight—makes it hard to quantify.

friendlyatheist.com

132
Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:38:34am

re: #128 Randall Gross

Redbud (yes?) are prolific and fecund trees. They are extremely hardy.

133
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:41:56am

re: #129 PhillyPretzel ✅

Yes it did. But right now he has quite a few other things going against him including fraud cases. He also has a R party that is fractured and cannot agree on budget resolutions.

Who knows? Maybe, one day in the far-off future, long after all of us are gone, Trump will be fondly remembered as the man who (inadvertently) single-handedly destroyed the GOP and in so doing, fatally fractured the forces of evil seeking to take over the United States for their own malevolent ends.

134
jeffreyw  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:43:24am

Good morning!

135
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:43:35am

re: #131 Joe Bacon ✅

Researchers say Christian leaders will embezzle an estimated $86 billion in 2024

All of them collectively, or just like, one guy?

136
GlutenFreeJesus  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:44:22am

Nobody won mega millions last night. Darn. How many tickets is Trump going to buy. :))))))

137
Eventual Carrion  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:46:25am

re: #94 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

How the hell did you do that???

Lucky guess. Had the first letter.

138
PhillyPretzel ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:46:47am

re: #136 GlutenFreeJesus

Too many.

139
Joe Bacon ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:49:53am

Larry Kudlow Asks Kevin O’Leary To Loan Trump $464M

O’Leary, “I GOT MINE, FUCK HIM!”

You know it’s bad when Trump has Fox personalities trying to pressure guests into loaning the Orange Bandito the money he desperately needs to protect his properties.

I mean, here’s Larry Kudlow personally asking Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary to loan Trump the $464 million bond he’ll need to appeal the New York civil fraud case, “in order to protect America’s name, think of it that way.”

O’Leary never answers that one, instead says the Supreme Court needs to intervene.

crooksandliars.com

140
lawhawk  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:51:56am

re: #139 Joe Bacon ✅

NYS Court of Appeals is final arbiter of NY law. They’re not going to give Trump a break on paying the bond/putting up money to cover the appeal. He can appeal, but the winners of the cases against him - AG James (aka NYS) can start process to seize assets in the interim.

141
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:53:49am

re: #139 Joe Bacon ✅

You know it’s bad when Trump has Fox personalities trying to pressure guests into loaning the Orange Bandito the money he desperately needs to protect his properties.

LOL the Marquis de Fraud is indeed getting desperate.

You love to see it.

142
Mattand  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:54:17am

re: #140 lawhawk

NYS Court of Appeals is final arbiter of NY law. They’re not going to give Trump a break on paying the bond/putting up money to cover the appeal. He can appeal, but the winners of the cases against him - AG James (aka NYS) can start process to seize assets in the interim.

I’ve never looked so forward to a Monday in my entire life.

143
Mattand  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:55:27am

re: #141 Dr Lizardo

LOL the Marquis de Fraud is indeed getting desperate.

You love to see it.

Consider this description stolen for future use, by someone who looks like me.

144
A Cranky One  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:55:38am

145
Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines  Mar 20, 2024 • 6:59:12am

146
PhillyPretzel ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:00:15am

re: #145 Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines

lol. Thanks I needed a good laugh.

147
BeenHereAwhile  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:00:54am

re: #51 silverdolphin

Sounded so familiar. It is a Poul Anderson story from 1967 called Day of Burning. It featured another one of his characters David Falkyn, who I beleive came from the next civilization after Flandry’s.

I like to think that I would remember if Poul Anderson was the author.
Now I gotta go and see if i can find this particular volume, if only to see who is the author.

148
Nojay UK  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:01:22am

‘Tis the season… Varadkar is out as Irish Taioseach after a referendum he supported to change the rather medieval Irish Constitution’s wording regarding gender roles in society (thanks, Church of Rome!) went down in flames. His resignation probably won’t lead to an immediate general election but the clock is ticking.

In the UK it’s time for Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons with PM Sunak having received some better-than-expected economic news regarding inflation (still high, less than predicted). He goes before the Backstabbing Committee aka the 1922 Gang later this afternoon, which should be fun (but not for him).

My guess is that he’s going to think about it, talk to his supporters (if he can find any), toss a coin over the weekend and come back on Monday to announce the prorogation of Parliament and set the date for the next General Election sometime in late May. It will be on a Thursday.

149
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:01:34am

For those interested, here’s a list of Trump properties that could end up being seized if he doesn’t cough up that dough…..

Newsweek reviewed a document from the attorney general’s office that lists properties owned by Trump that had “fraudulent” and “misleading” values and could end up seized:

-Trump Park Avenue, New York, N.Y.
-Trump Tower, New York, N.Y.
-40 Wall Street, New York, N.Y.
-Seven Springs, Westchester County, N.Y.
-Trump International Hotel and Tower, Las Vegas, Nevada
-Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida
-Trump National Golf Club Westchester, Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.
-Trump National Golf Club Charlotte, Mooresville, North Carolina
-Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck, Colts Neck, New Jersey
-Trump National Golf Club, Washington, D.C., Sterling, Virginia
-Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley, Hopewell Junction, N.Y.
-Trump National Golf Club Jupiter, Jupiter, Florida
-Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles, Rancho Palos Verdes, California
-Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia, Pine Hill, New Jersey
-Trump International Golf Links Scotland (Aberdeen)
-Trump International Golf Links Scotland (Turnberry)

newsweek.com

150
Targetpractice  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:04:17am

re: #139 Joe Bacon ✅

Larry Kudlow Asks Kevin O’Leary To Loan Trump $464M

O’Leary, “I GOT MINE, FUCK HIM!”

You know it’s bad when Trump has Fox personalities trying to pressure guests into loaning the Orange Bandito the money he desperately needs to protect his properties.

I mean, here’s Larry Kudlow personally asking Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary to loan Trump the $464 million bond he’ll need to appeal the New York civil fraud case, “in order to protect America’s name, think of it that way.”

O’Leary never answers that one, instead says the Supreme Court needs to intervene.

crooksandliars.com

Yeah, I can’t imagine why a man who got convicted for being a fraud who lies about the value of everything he owns to secure favorable loans would suddenly find it impossible to get a loan with property as collateral.

151
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:04:40am

re: #123 Targetpractice

I’ve a very strong suspicion that, much like the polling across the pond, a lot polling here assumes that all those who are answering either “Don’t Know” or “Uncommitted” will break for Trump on Election Day. Because I find it really doubtful he can lose 15%+ of the GQP vote in November and expect to make up enough of that in “Independent” votes to break even.

Right now, fwiw, polling and exit polling do not match up

152
Mattand  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:05:16am

re: #149 Dr Lizardo

For those interested, here’s a list of Trump properties that could end up being seized if he doesn’t cough up that dough…..

newsweek.com

I had no idea Trump had a golf club in Pine Hill. That’s like 30 minutes SE from me.

If the Great Strippening does happen next week, I have to admit, I do worry about all the people who may be put out of work because of it. Collateral damage is always bad; these folks are just trying to make a living.

153
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:05:49am

re: #125 Dr Lizardo

He can’t. If he ends up losing appx. 15% of the GOP voters, not only is he done, but that could possibly hit downballot races as well. The whole thing could end up as a total fiasco for the Republicans.

Of course, it’s not even April, the party conventions haven’t happened yet and most Americans aren’t even really paying attention to politics yet - it’s just us political junkies who are closely following things.

Political junkies?

I come here for the pineapple on pizza flame wars

154
darthstar  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:07:19am

re: #153 Dangerman

Political junkies?

I come here for the pineapple on pizza flame wars

I wish people would just admit that pineapple on pizza tastes good.

155
Mattand  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:07:25am

re: #153 Dangerman

Political junkies?

I come here for the pineapple on pizza flame wars

*eyes pizza ordering app on Dangerman’s phone suspiciously*

156
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:10:22am

re: #140 lawhawk

NYS Court of Appeals is final arbiter of NY law. They’re not going to give Trump a break on paying the bond/putting up money to cover the appeal. He can appeal, but the winners of the cases against him - AG James (aka NYS) can start process to seize assets in the interim.

An important reminder

The bond is not a requirement

If he can’t afford one he’s just a schlub like the rest of us

No special treatment is warranted

157
lawhawk  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:10:48am

re: #152 Mattand

I had no idea Trump had a golf club in Pine Hill. That’s like 30 minutes SE from me.

If the Great Strippening does happen next week, I have to admit, I do worry about all the people who may be put out of work because of it. Collateral damage is always bad; these folks are just trying to make a living.

Selling the properties should not result in job losses (at least right away), and there’s a court monitor involved in the process as well. Once sold, concessionaires and vendors might change, affecting jobs.

None of that should stop these seizures though. I expect Trump to try and claim that this would cause overwhelming job losses, but that’s just a BS claim.

158
Joe Bacon ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:10:52am

re: #141 Dr Lizardo

LOL the Marquis de Fraud is indeed getting desperate.

You love to see it.

“Marquis deFraud!”

Damn I love that!

159
Florida Panhandler  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:12:54am

re: #84 Randall Gross

[Embedded content]

bsky.app

Sounds like some judicial types got really nervous about the real world ramifications of their academic overstep translating quickly into real world concentration camps by an eager Texas fascist state.

160
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:13:30am

re: #154 darthstar

I wish people would just admit that pineapple on pizza tastes good.

I wish people would just vote for my guy…. //

161
Targetpractice  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:15:20am

re: #152 Mattand

I had no idea Trump had a golf club in Pine Hill. That’s like 30 minutes SE from me.

If the Great Strippening does happen next week, I have to admit, I do worry about all the people who may be put out of work because of it. Collateral damage is always bad; these folks are just trying to make a living.

If there was anything resembling a human soul in the hollow center of one Donald J Trump, he might have tried to convince the appellate court that such hardship towards his employees warranted putting a stay on the ruling for the duration of the appeals process.

But instead, he chose to whine to the court that it was wrong that he be treated like any other random schmuck begging the court for a freebie, so there’s a good chance they decide to let his ass swing.

162
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:17:54am

re: #152 Mattand

I had no idea Trump had a golf club in Pine Hill. That’s like 30 minutes SE from me.

If the Great Strippening does happen next week, I have to admit, I do worry about all the people who may be put out of work because of it. Collateral damage is always bad; these folks are just trying to make a living.

Yeah, the people who work at those places could well find themselves on the unemployment line and no doubt about it, that’s gonna suck. Like you said, they’re just trying to make a living - we all gotta keep a roof over our heads and the fridge full.

163
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:18:43am

re: #155 Mattand

*eyes pizza ordering app on Dangerman’s phone suspiciously*

Around here I gotta make a phone call
And pick it up
I am the app

164
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:21:30am

re: #163 Dangerman

Around here I gotta make a phone call
And pick it up
I am the app

There’s an app for a pizza place I go to (and it’s not that far away, so delivery is fast) but I don’t like cluttering my phone with apps, so I just use their website to order.

165
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:24:18am

re: #75 Dangerman

He’s in love with the revenue (grifting) stream.

And there’s the long odds hope he can self pardon

Link

When you pan out even further it becomes clear: Trump is scarcely running a presidential campaign. He might become president in spite of this, but his efforts are overwhelmingly fixed on evading justice or mooting judgments he’s already lost by any means necessary. He’d ideally like to prevail in these efforts before the election, but the task will become much easier if he’s able to win or steal the presidency despite the legal peril.”

166
Mattand  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:25:03am

re: #154 darthstar

I wish people would just admit that pineapple on pizza tastes good.

167
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:25:49am

re: #164 Dr Lizardo

There’s an app for a pizza place I go to (and it’s not that far away, so delivery is fast) but I don’t like cluttering my phone with apps, so I just use their website to order.

Our guys only take orders by phone

168
Joe Bacon ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:27:26am

Comer Pyle is still at it.

169
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:27:45am

170
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:29:23am

re: #165 Dangerman

Rando

I realized this the other day - it’s been said a lot “he’s running to stay out of jail” but he’s not even really *running*. There’s no real concerted effort being made to win over voters or even motivate his base. All of the GOP election infrastructure is being raided to support his legal troubles - we knew this would happen, but it’s shocking to watch because it means effectively that there IS no concerted GOP campaign arm in the middle of an actual election year.

We really still are not appreciating how extraordinary the collapse of the party is.

171
Mattand  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:29:49am

re: #167 Dangerman

Our guys only take orders by phone

I’ve actually been rethinking using apps to order from smaller mom-and-pop places. There’s two I use pretty regularly but I’m not sure how much of a cut the app companies are taking from the restaurants.

We almost never do delivery. Partly because we’re cheap, partly because it seems like DoorDash, et. al., are highly exploitative of their workers.

172
darthstar  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:30:18am

Well, I just had an adventure…

I went to the kitchen to make coffee for me and the missus - butt nekkid as one should - and there’s a fly buzzing around the kitchen. Now it had buzzed me before bed and I thought to shoot it out of the air but it was a bit dark at bed time so I left the loaded bug-a-salt with a live load in the chamber on the counter (safety on…I’m not stupid). So when it buzzed me this morning I just had to grab the gun, flip the safety, and wait for the fly to settle down.

Well, I’m standing there in proper assault stance and the cat decides she is better off on the floor further away from me, and the damn fly lands on the top of the little orange barrel. WTF? I shake it off and watch it for another few seconds before it settles again at the side of Eartha’s water fountain and I was able to take it out with one shot.

Sorry…no nekkid selfies with the trophy, but it wasn’t a small fly.

173
Joe Bacon ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:31:37am

LIVE FROM PRISON: James Comer’s Latest Star Witness Or Whatever

Today they’ll get that smoking gun! The House Oversight Committee and Kentucky leg-humper James Comer, its chairman, are having a hearing, and it’s gonna be great.

They have TONY BOBULINSKI, the guy Hunter Biden says is an absolutely incompetent hanger-on who’s just bitter Hunter would never do business with him.

They’ve got Jason Galanis, Comer’s new star witness who is in prison for some stuff. (He’s different from the star witness who just got indicted for feeding Russian disinfo to the FBI.) He will be testifying from prison, because that’s cool.

They don’t have Hunter, because he was like fuck off.

They don’t have Hunter’s business partner Devon Archer.

Oh, but Democrats have:

Democrats, meanwhile, will trot out a familiar figure to try to pull their argument about a GOP clown show together: LEV PARNAS, the former RUDY GIULIANI associate who worked with Giuliani to dig up dirt on Biden ahead of the 2020 election and later did prison time on frud and campaign finance charges.

“Parnas is coming to say all of it was a pure fabrication from the beginning and … given they were running on empty, they just decided to go with conspiracy theories and what turned out to be Russian propaganda,” Raskin said.

Fun!

If you like watching James Comer staple his dick to the wall, have we got a livestream for you! Enjoy!

wonkette.com

174
Mattand  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:33:24am

re: #172 darthstar

Well, I just had an adventure…

I went to the kitchen to make coffee for me and the missus - butt nekkid as one should - and there’s a fly buzzing around the kitchen. Now it had buzzed me before bed and I thought to shoot it out of the air but it was a bit dark at bed time so I left the loaded bug-a-salt with a live load in the chamber on the counter (safety on…I’m not stupid). So when it buzzed me this morning I just had to grab the gun, flip the safety, and wait for the fly to settle down.

Well, I’m standing there in proper assault stance and the cat decides she is better off on the floor further away from me, and the damn fly lands on the top of the little orange barrel. WTF? I shake it off and watch it for another few seconds before it settles again at the side of Eartha’s water fountain and I was able to take it out with one shot.

Sorry…no nekkid selfies with the trophy, but it wasn’t a small fly.

Man, these episode recaps of Naked and Afraid just keep getting weirder and weirder.

175
Randall Gross  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:33:48am

re: #147 BeenHereAwhile

I like to think that I would remember if Poul Anderson was the author.
Now I gotta go and see if i can find this particular volume, if only to see who is the author.

amazon.com

176
No Malarkey!  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:36:09am

re: #152 Mattand

I had no idea Trump had a golf club in Pine Hill. That’s like 30 minutes SE from me.

If the Great Strippening does happen next week, I have to admit, I do worry about all the people who may be put out of work because of it. Collateral damage is always bad; these folks are just trying to make a living.

This is a good time for it to happen though, as tight as the labor market is.

177
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:36:36am

re: #124 GlutenFreeJesus

I still believe Trump is going to ignore the popular vote and concentrate only on the EC to try and squeeze out a win by the thinnest of margins.

Meywird gere being try.

Or get enough votes disqualified to throw the race to the House delegations. The popular vote is already more of a lost cause than it was the last two times around.

178
Randall Gross  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:37:53am

re: #159 Florida Panhandler

Sounds like some judicial types got really nervous about the real world ramifications of their academic overstep translating quickly into real world concentration camps by an eager Texas fascist state.

Yeah, it will get ugly if Abbott is allowed to go there.

179
Dangerman  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:40:03am

re: #173 Joe Bacon ✅

LIVE FROM PRISON: James Comer’s Latest Star Witness Or Whatever

Today they’ll get that smoking gun! The House Oversight Committee and Kentucky leg-humper James Comer, its chairman, are having a hearing, and it’s gonna be great.

They have TONY BOBULINSKI, the guy Hunter Biden says is an absolutely incompetent hanger-on who’s just bitter Hunter would never do business with him.

They’ve got Jason Galanis, Comer’s new star witness who is in prison for some stuff. (He’s different from the star witness who just got indicted for feeding Russian disinfo to the FBI.) He will be testifying from prison, because that’s cool.

They don’t have Hunter, because he was like fuck off.

They don’t have Hunter’s business partner Devon Archer.

Oh, but Democrats have:

Democrats, meanwhile, will trot out a familiar figure to try to pull their argument about a GOP clown show together: LEV PARNAS, the former RUDY GIULIANI associate who worked with Giuliani to dig up dirt on Biden ahead of the 2020 election and later did prison time on frud and campaign finance charges.

“Parnas is coming to say all of it was a pure fabrication from the beginning and … given they were running on empty, they just decided to go with conspiracy theories and what turned out to be Russian propaganda,” Raskin said.

Fun!

If you like watching James Comer staple his dick to the wall, have we got a livestream for you! Enjoy!

wonkette.com

Comer will probably get up and leave

180
darthstar  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:40:56am

re: #174 Mattand

Man, these episode recaps of Naked and Afraid just keep getting weirder and weirder.

I warn’t skeered!

181
Targetpractice  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:42:17am

re: #173 Joe Bacon ✅

Remember when the Dems were calling witnesses like diplomats with distinguished records and Army colonels with a chest full of medals to come in and explain at length how crooked and wrong Trump’s efforts had been to bend Zelensky’s arm to get a Biden “investigation” started before the election?

And here the Repubs are, calling two guys who everybody that knows them consider losers and con-artists to explain that Biden was getting rich off loan repayments amounting to what in political corruption circles is referred to as “chicken scratch.”

182
darthstar  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:42:21am

re: #179 Dangerman

Comer will probably get up and leave

He rarely has the stomach for one of his entire hearings. Pass the gavel to the squirrel on meth from Ohio and go take a couple of Ambien in his office.

183
BeenHereAwhile  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:49:07am

re: #147 BeenHereAwhile

I like to think that I would remember if Poul Anderson was the author.
Now I gotta go and see if i can find this particular volume, if only to see who is the author.

Transit of Betelgeuse, Robert R. Chase.
Analog SF, May 1990.

“She was looking down at me, speaking urgently.
I shook my head to let her know I could not hear her , that I was deaf from resuscitation shock.
She took a breath , and said one word so carefully I could see it on her lips.
Silicon.”

184
Belafon  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:57:09am

re: #140 lawhawk

NYS Court of Appeals is final arbiter of NY law. They’re not going to give Trump a break on paying the bond/putting up money to cover the appeal. He can appeal, but the winners of the cases against him - AG James (aka NYS) can start process to seize assets in the interim.

Imagine the chaos if the Supreme Court decided they could step in on that one.

185
sizzzzlerz  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:57:37am

re: #172 darthstar

Well, I just had an adventure…

Meh. I still prefer to read Hemingway’s writings on hunting big game.

186
Targetpractice  Mar 20, 2024 • 7:59:38am

re: #185 sizzzzlerz

Meh. I still prefer to read Hemingway’s writings on hunting big game.

“There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.”

187
Joe Bacon ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:01:10am

Comer Pyle thinks it’s always a good stroke of luck when one of your key witnesses is testifying from prison, where he was put for lying about the thing he’s testifying about.

188
sizzzzlerz  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:01:29am

re: #186 Targetpractice

“There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.”

The most dangerous game!

189
Decatur Deb  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:01:31am

re: #185 sizzzzlerz

Meh. I still prefer to read Hemingway’s writings on hunting big game.

There are only three sports: flyfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.’

190
Eventual Carrion  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:05:05am

Great! Connections

Click to Reveal

Connections
Puzzle #283
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪

191
lawhawk  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:05:23am

re: #189 Decatur Deb

Running of the bulls/bullfighting.

192
Decatur Deb  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:08:09am

re: #191 lawhawk

Running of the bulls/bullfighting.

Let Darth fight what he feels comfortable fighting.

193
sizzzzlerz  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:10:09am

re: #192 Decatur Deb

Let Darth fight what he feels comfortable fighting.

Tho’ nekkid bullfighting might make for a better spectacle.

194
Eventual Carrion  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:11:53am

re: #193 sizzzzlerz

Tho’ nekkid bullfighting might make for a better spectacle.

“Senor,” the waiter explains, “the bull does not always lose.”

195
Decatur Deb  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:14:16am

re: #193 sizzzzlerz

Tho’ nekkid bullfighting might make for a better spectacle.

Knossos Style.

196
sizzzzlerz  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:16:59am

re: #195 Decatur Deb

Knossos Style.

[Embedded content]

You know what they say, “Go Greek, or go home!”

197
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:19:16am

re: #98 Dangerman

so in yesterday’s Florida R primary, DeSantis, who’s not running finished third (3.7%) behind Haley, who’s not running (13.9)

in case you forgot, DeSantis is Governor of Florida

stick a fork in his political future

Please make it so!

198
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:21:44am

re: #107 Dangerman

and got stomped by Goofy, Dopey, Sleepy and a mouse

All is which pretty well defines DeSadist.

199
Decatur Deb  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:22:57am

re: #196 sizzzzlerz

You know what they say, “Go Greek, or go home!”

You have to be a Cretan to do anything that dangerous.

200
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:23:44am

re: #189 Decatur Deb

There are only three sports: flyfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.’

There is only one true sport: darts. Because you can play it with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in your phizz. The rest are a waste of time. Even billiards is too much as it requires you to relinquish hold of your drink for the time it takes to make a shot.

201
Patricia Kayden  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:27:10am

re: #154 darthstar

It’s delicious!!

202
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:42:15am

re: #66 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

You have got to be kidding! 3/6

[Embedded content]

3 here too.

Click to Reveal

Wordle 1,005 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Group: 2,3,3,5
Took 20 or so minutes to get from 2 to 3. The 2 came from someone who has same start word as me and the 2 was her standard word when the first line has nothing.

Also Solid! Connections

Connections
Puzzle #283
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟪🟦
🟦🟪🟦🟦
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪

203
Eclectic Cyborg  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:43:53am

Hahahahahaha.

Complete and TOTAL shitshow.

205
Joe Bacon ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:48:06am

re: #203 Eclectic Cyborg

Hey everyone! See the House Republicans clerk and Committee Republicans play Hide & Seek!

206
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:49:27am

re: #119 Dr Lizardo

If that holds in the November election, that 20% of GOP voters will either stay home or possibly vote for a different candidate, Trump is screwed. He simply cannot afford to lose such a significant percentage of the Republican Party’s voters.

Hell, even if 15% of GOP voters say, “Fuck this guy” and stay home, Trump will go down in flames.

The real question is how many of that 15% opt out of voting at all and thus Trump at the top of the ballot is equally destructive to the entire GOP ticket. If that number is high it’s potentially a game changer for offices other than POTUS.

207
Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:50:30am

re: #204 Dr. Matt

But the orange asshole will still run in his bigly stock market.

208
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:52:20am

re: #207 Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅

But the orange asshole will still run in his bigly stock market.

It is going up becuse the polls are in his favor, remember?

209
Scottish Dragon  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:58:14am

re: #9 austin_blue

Pournelle was a fascist. Niven’s stuff pre-Jerry was brilliant.

They did a couple of good books together, but then it went pthpthpth.

Larry never recovered from his relationship with Pournelle. He never wrote another really good story.

Lucifer’s Hammer was pretty good, but that was almost 50 years ago.

210
Teukka  Mar 20, 2024 • 8:58:20am

So, Al Jazz Investigative Unit apparently has a denialist/minimization piece Re: 2023-10-07 out, 1 hr long.
⚠️CW/TW: Sexual Violence ⚠️

Click to Reveal

[Copypasted from trusted person who saw it]
At 47:25 or so, they platform a Hamas spokesman who says that “not [sic] one case” of rape occurred.
Beyond platforming the perpetrator of the sexual violence (a representative of them) with no response/pushback to their total denial (which is verifiably untrue), and then immediately after when they show Israeli videos openly attacking those speakers/evidence, additionally the part on sexual violence has quite a lot of sexual violence whataboutery, spends an extensive amount of time attacking one NYT author, even though that author isn’t the source of the sexual violence testimonies, and attacking that author has been one of the primary ways that October 7th sexual violence denialists have attacked the sexual violence testimonies in general.


And people wonder why I don’t think MEE, MEMO, or al Jazz are reliablie sources at all…

211
sizzzzlerz  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:03:19am

re: #209 Scottish Dragon

Lucifer’s Hammer was pretty good, but that was almost 50 years ago.

I really liked The Mote in God’s Eye. It had a very unique perspective on alien life.

212
Scottish Dragon  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:06:39am

Tried watching Poor Things the other night. Went in with no prior knowledge.

Did anyone else get the vibe that this was really creepy soft core porn with a protagonist who has the mind of a 10 year old? My spouse heartily loathed the movie and we quit about 40 minutes in, apparently before she starts working at a brothel.

I’m not sure what sort of feminist message was supposed to be stated, but it sure felt like a lot of male gaze at Emma Stone’s boobs.

213
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:07:44am
If Donald Trump were “truly unable” to secure an appeal bond in his $464 million business fraud case, he should have pledged his real estate to the courts, the New York attorney general’s office said in a court filing Wednesday.

Instead, Trump claimed it was “impossible” for him to get a bond, but did not provide any hard evidence for this, the AG’s office told a New York appeals court.

“Defendants supply no documentary evidence that demonstrates precisely what real property they offered,” to potential insurers, the AG’s office wrote.

Nor did they report “on what terms that property was offered, or precisely why” bond insurers “were unwilling to accept the assets.”

The office made that argument as it asked the court to reject Trump’s request to stop his massive fraud judgment from coming due.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

cnbc.com

Yeah, no shit…don’t take Donnie’s word for it. But this might be the one time he’s actually telling the truth, as everything points to nearly all of his properties being utterly useless as collateral because they’re heavily mortgaged or being used as collateral for other loans already.

And IIRC, he also has something to the tune of over $400 million in outstanding loans that are all coming due in the not-too-distant future. If those payments aren’t made, I reckon all of his creditors are going to start calling in their loans right then and there and then we’d see a failure cascade across his entire portfolio.

214
Rightwingconspirator  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:12:17am

re: #211 sizzzzlerz

I really liked The Mote in God’s Eye. It had a very unique perspective on alien life.

One of my top 3 ever in scifi.

215
jeffreyw  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:12:56am

Mastodon

216
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:14:11am

re: #188 sizzzzlerz

The most dangerous game!

We’re fools to make war on our brothers in arms.

217
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:16:55am

re: #212 Scottish Dragon

Tried watching Poor Things the other night. Went in with no prior knowledge…

I get that impression as well. Think I’ll give it a pass

218
Targetpractice  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:17:31am

re: #213 Dr Lizardo

cnbc.com

Yeah, no shit…don’t take Donnie’s word for it. But this might be the one time he’s actually telling the truth, as everything points to nearly all of his properties being utterly useless as collateral because they’re heavily mortgaged or being used as collateral for other loans already.

And IIRC, he also has something to the tune of over $400 million in outstanding loans that are all coming due in the not-too-distant future. If those payments aren’t made, I reckon all of his creditors are going to start calling in their loans right then and there and then we’d see a failure cascade across his entire portfolio.

My cynical streak is starting to whisper in my ear that the appellate court is gonna be like every other that we’ve seen so far and pull the rug out from under us by granting the stay if only for the flimsiest of reasons. After which the same legal voices telling us that he’s totally fucked will (once again) roll out the copium to tell us that there’s no way he can win on appeal and the delay will just make the taste all the sweeter later.

219
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:18:15am

re: #218 Targetpractice

My cynical streak is starting to whisper in my ear that the appellate court is gonna be like every other that we’ve seen so far and pull the rug out from under us by granting the stay if only for the flimsiest of reasons. After which the same legal voices telling us that he’s totally fucked will (once again) roll out the copium to tell us that there’s no way he can win on appeal and the delay will just make the taste all the sweeter later.

But if they delay it long enough, well…I really don’t wanna think about that.

220
jaunte  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:18:24am

Clay Higgins has a diamonds fantasy.

221
sizzzzlerz  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:19:52am

re: #213 Dr Lizardo

cnbc.com

Yeah, no shit…don’t take Donnie’s word for it. But this might be the one time he’s actually telling the truth, as everything points to nearly all of his properties being utterly useless as collateral because they’re heavily mortgaged or being used as collateral for other loans already.

And IIRC, he also has something to the tune of over $400 million in outstanding loans that are all coming due in the not-too-distant future. If those payments aren’t made, I reckon all of his creditors are going to start calling in their loans right then and there and then we’d see a failure cascade across his entire portfolio.

Not believe Honest Don? Why, that”s like not believing Stan, the used car salesman, with the white shoes and belt, checkered pants, and loud tie when he tells you that that ‘72 Ford Fiesta is a real creampuff, lovingly driven to church on Sundays by Aunt Sally for 30 years.

It might be true, but I wouldn’t bet my money on it.

222
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:20:02am

Alien: Romulus teaser just dropped.

Alien: Romulus | Teaser Trailer

223
jaunte  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:20:05am

Someone unknown in Africa was bribed by China, therefore, Biden Family!

224
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:20:29am

re: #214 Rightwingconspirator

One of my top 3 ever in scifi.

I reread Mote more times than Lucifer’s Hammer or Footfall which I think I only read once each.

Lucifer’s Hammer unfortunately has that urban refuge antagonist group that happens to be mainly minority, and then one of the authors made them cannibal* on top of that. It’s very cringe, even for the time period when it was written.

* - Said cannibalism being done in part in order to bind people to the group as a fairly effective social control method. And a large group like theirs would be foraging for anything to eat in that area and climate. You see something a bit like this going on in _The Road_ as well, but without the blatant ethnic connection being added in.

225
jaunte  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:20:45am

Clay Higgins (paraphrase) Diamonds are untraceable, so we have no idea how bribed the Bidens are.

226
Jay C  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:23:01am

Listening to Lev Parnas’ testimony- basically calling out Trump and Giuliani as deliberate liars.
Not that this is really “news”….

227
PhillyPretzel ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:23:22am

re: #225 jaunte

I hate to say this but most diamonds on the market have laser inscribed numbers on the girdle.

228
Targetpractice  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:24:10am

re: #222 Dr Lizardo

Alien: Romulus teaser just dropped.

[Embedded content]

Had to go to YT to check the comments because this is one of those projects that’s been lousy with fake trailers in recent months.

Much like the Fallout series, I classify myself as “cautiously optimistic.”

229
gocart mozart  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:24:58am
230
Oblongatis  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:25:37am

re: #14 piratedan

I enjoyed a lot of Niven when I was younger. Reread Ringworld a few years back and concluded it was better as a fond memory from my teen years.

I thought the best books produced by the Niven/Pournelle team were:
The Legacy of Heorot was a unique science fiction monster story. Even got the monster as a point of view character once in a while.
Mote in Gods Eye was a discovery of a new race that has been trapped within their planetary system for hundreds of thousands of years. The race experiences repeated collapse of civilization and rebuilding again from nothing. Yes nothing, all the resources of the entire star system were depleted long ago. They have to go from fire as an energy source directly to fusion.

231
GlutenFreeJesus  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:26:40am

re: #124 GlutenFreeJesus

Not sure what that last sentabcecwas supposed to be. 😂😂

232
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:27:36am

re: #228 Targetpractice

Had to go to YT to check the comments because this is one of those projects that’s been lousy with fake trailers in recent months.

Much like the Fallout series, I classify myself as “cautiously optimistic.”

Same here. Looks like a throwback to the horror elements of the 1979 original.

233
sizzzzlerz  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:28:28am

re: #227 PhillyPretzel ✅

I hate to say this but most diamonds on the market have laser inscribed numbers on the girdle.

What’s the purpose. ID? Tying them to their source? Certification? Seems like it would be easy enough to polish them off and etch in new numbers. Sounds like its a DeBeers security kabuki dance.

234
gocart mozart  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:28:30am
235
Jay C  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:29:53am

re: #229 gocart mozart

[Embedded content]

And, most amazingly, they televise all this in an open hearing.
I wonder how the RWNJ media will spin this?

ADD: we LOVE Jamie Raskin: he’s ripping the GOPers a new one over falling for this shit, and trying to hoke up an “impeachment” case….

236
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:29:57am

re: #213 Dr Lizardo

“Defendants supply no documentary evidence that demonstrates precisely what real property they offered,” to potential insurers, the AG’s office wrote.

Nor did they report “on what terms that property was offered, or precisely why” bond insurers “were unwilling to accept the assets.”

The office made that argument as it asked the court to reject Trump’s request to stop his massive fraud judgment from coming due.

This is them all but saying that Donnie is tapped out and nobody is will to step forth to cover him.

237
Teukka  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:30:38am

re: #235 Jay C

And, most amazingly, they televise all this in an open hearing.
I wonder how the RWNJ media will spin this?

In a death spiral? /S

238
PhillyPretzel ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:31:15am

re: #233 sizzzzlerz

It could be that DeBeers wants to keep track of the legally mined diamonds so that the “blood” diamonds cannot find a market.

239
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:31:51am

re: #227 PhillyPretzel ✅

I hate to say this but most diamonds on the market have laser inscribed numbers on the girdle.

nanolabeling has become a thing with precious stones.

along with a blockchain provenance record that makes it hard to fake or switch

240
sizzzzlerz  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:31:55am

re: #235 Jay C

And, most amazingly, they televise all this in an open hearing.
I wonder how the RWNJ media will spin this?

Comer and Co. just really aren’t very bright, are they?

241
PhillyPretzel ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:32:25am

re: #239 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

True.

242
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:32:49am

re: #230 Oblongatis

I enjoyed a lot of Niven when I was younger. Reread Ringworld a few years back and concluded it was better as a fond memory from my teen years.

I thought the best books produced by the Niven/Pournelle team were:
The Legacy of Heorot was a unique science fiction monster story. Even got the monster as a point of view character once in a while.
Mote in Gods Eye was a discovery of a new race that has been trapped within their planetary system for hundreds of thousands of years. The race experiences repeated collapse of civilization and rebuilding again from nothing. Yes nothing, all the resources of the entire star system were depleted long ago. They have to go from fire as an energy source directly to fusion.

[Spoiler]
IIRC, the Moties civ would mostly collapse but not quite all of it. So either a bit on the planet or one of the orbital locations would “survive” to be the seed for reestablishing the civilization. Thus the expressed fear of the Motie ambassador at the end that a war with the humans would result in one of two things:
1. The Moties “win”, expand out of their system and then essentially convert some of all of the galaxy into a place where their cycles happen on a galactic scale. And they’d exterminate any other race they met in the process.

2. The Humans “win” and the Motie civilization gets thoroughly squashed to the point there is no technologically advanced “seed” to rebuild from. Leaving any Motie survivors (if any) in a position where regaining a technological civilization is probably impossible. And Motie psychology is such that they would fight to the end and not surrender.

243
lawhawk  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:33:21am

re: #235 Jay C

And, most amazingly, they televise all this in an open hearing.
I wonder how the RWNJ media will spin this?

A convicted felon says this - he’ll say anything to smear Trump.

Except…. he was convicted for schemes relating to Trump’s campaign financing.

justice.gov.

244
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:33:59am

re: #236 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

This is them all but saying that Donnie is tapped out and nobody is will to step forth to cover him.

Yep and let’s recall that there’s a special monitor at the Trump Org, looking up the company’s financial butthole with a mini Mag-Lite. If some $500 million suddenly magically appears out of nowhere, yeah….there’s gonna be some serious questions about that money’s provenance.

245
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:34:25am

re: #235 Jay C

And, most amazingly, they televise all this in an open hearing.
I wonder how the RWNJ media will spin this?

ignore it. concentrate on the LGBTQ threat to school sports

246
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:34:38am

re: #240 sizzzzlerz

Comer and Co. just really aren’t very bright, are they?

They know that Fox will edit the footage to show just what they want to show.

247
Targetpractice  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:35:17am

re: #235 Jay C

And, most amazingly, they televise all this in an open hearing.
I wonder how the RWNJ media will spin this?

They planned this whole shitshow with expectation that Hunter was going to be there so they could watch him squirm in front of the cameras. But with the closed-door deposition in the rear window, they had nothing to threaten him with, so he left them hanging and the Dems the perfect opportunity to geld them on live TV.

I expect that spin to eventually be the same as its always been: That the hearing was actually wildly helpful to the impeachment effort because the GQP witnesses said things that don’t match with what Hunter said so this obviously means the fishing expedition must continue.

248
Joe Bacon ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:40:26am

Remember in my senior year in high school hell I got into Vonnegut. Got my hands on everything I could find that he wrote. His books just really got me thru the end of that hellhole.

Science Fiction for me as a kid was Irwin Allen and Star Trek. I knew Allen’s 60’s shows were more Science Fantasy than Star Trek but I couldn’t help it. Loved them for the cheese. I liked the first two seasons of the original Trek but the third season under Fred Frieberger devolved into Irwin Allen camp.

Did get into Ellison a bit but he got too raw in some stuff. Actually talked to Harlan one time and helped him untangle a mess with an idiot at Medicare. He was very grateful and he wasn’t short-tempered at all.

249
jaunte  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:41:05am

re: #240 sizzzzlerz

Comer and Co. just really aren’t very bright, are they?

But they all look as serious as a monkey with an itch.

250
silverdolphin  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:41:23am

re: #147 BeenHereAwhile

I like to think that I would remember if Poul Anderson was the author.
Now I gotta go and see if i can find this particular volume, if only to see who is the author.

Poul Anderson Supernova (Day of Burning)

It was in the Jan 1967 Analog called Supernova. It was published as Day of Burning in several collections. Here is a synopsis:

Besides humans, alien civilizations are also subject to the dangers of supernovae in works like the 1967 short story “Day of Burning” by Poul Anderson, where humans try to evacuate a planet inhabited by a pre-spacefaring society threatened by a supernova,

The facts seem to line up with your recollection. If you find something else, let me know.

251
Dave In Austin  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:41:32am

re: #220 jaunte

Clay Higgins has a diamonds fantasy.

Sadistic son of a bitch is what he is.

252
sizzzzlerz  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:41:51am

re: #230 Oblongatis

I enjoyed a lot of Niven when I was younger. Reread Ringworld a few years back and concluded it was better as a fond memory from my teen years.

Interesting take on Ringworld. I loved it when I first read it back in high school and thought it was one of the best sci-fi books ever written. After 30 or 40 years, I, too, read it again and I found it boring. All the traipsing around got to be pretty dull. I still like the concept of the Ring but the story line just doesn’t match up with it now.

253
Scottish Dragon  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:48:12am

re: #248 Joe Bacon ✅

Remember in my senior year in high school hell I got into Vonnegut. Got my hands on everything I could find that he wrote. His books just really got me thru the end of that hellhole.

Science Fiction for me as a kid was Irwin Allen and Star Trek. I knew Allen’s 60’s shows were more Science Fantasy than Star Trek but I couldn’t help it. Loved them for the cheese. I liked the first two seasons of the original Trek but the third season under Fred Frieberger devolved into Irwin Allen camp.

Did get into Ellison a bit but he got too raw in some stuff. Actually talked to Harlan one time and helped him untangle a mess with an idiot at Medicare. He was very grateful and he wasn’t short-tempered at all.

Ellison could be an uber asshole and he could also be genuinely helpful from what I’ve heard.

254
DodgerFan1988  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:50:22am


You can take Elon Musk out of Apartheid South Africa, but you can’t take Apartheid SA out of Musk.

255
Dr. Matt  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:51:17am

re: #234 gocart mozart

[Embedded content]

And sadly, the maga/GQP voters and foxnews won’t care. They will continue to carry the water of the Grand Old Russian Party.

256
William Lewis  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:55:05am

re: #209 Scottish Dragon

Lucifer’s Hammer was pretty good, but that was almost 50 years ago.

It was a seriously evil book. It got hit with the suck hammer repeatedly.

257
sizzzzlerz  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:56:40am

re: #255 Dr. Matt

And sadly, the maga/GQP voters and foxnews foxnews will whitewash it and, as a result, the maga/GQP won’t care. They will continue to carry the water of the Grand Old Russian Party.

FTFY

258
Eclectic Cyborg  Mar 20, 2024 • 9:56:55am

re: #244 Dr Lizardo

Yep and let’s recall that there’s a special monitor at the Trump Org, looking up the company’s financial butthole with a mini Mag-Lite. If some $500 million suddenly magically appears out of nowhere, yeah….there’s gonna be some serious questions about that money’s provenance.

(Note: Not a real tweet)

259
Belafon  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:01:24am

re: #233 sizzzzlerz

What’s the purpose. ID? Tying them to their source? Certification? Seems like it would be easy enough to polish them off and etch in new numbers. Sounds like its a DeBeers security kabuki dance.

Making a diamond light up properly requires pretty exacting cuts to the diamond. Polishing the numbers off so that they aren’t visible to someone with a magnifying glass would change their shape, and therefore how the light travels through the diamond.

260
Decatur Deb  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:04:57am

re: #254 DodgerFan1988

[Embedded content]

You can take Elon Musk out of Apartheid South Africa, but you can’t take Apartheid SA out of Musk.

You might think Musk would show a little compadraje to his fellow immigrants.

261
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:06:09am

re: #260 Decatur Deb

You might think Musk would show a little compadraje to his fellow immigrants.

I forgot about the Child of Apartheid aspect of Elonious Mutt Skunk but it goes a long way to explaining his attitudes.

262
Belafon  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:08:40am

re: #260 Decatur Deb

You might think Musk would show a little compadraje to his fellow immigrants.

We see something similar in white Latino immigrants.

263
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:12:58am

re: #212 Scottish Dragon

Tried watching Poor Things the other night. Went in with no prior knowledge.

Did anyone else get the vibe that this was really creepy soft core porn with a protagonist who has the mind of a 10 year old? My spouse heartily loathed the movie and we quit about 40 minutes in, apparently before she starts working at a brothel.

I’m not sure what sort of feminist message was supposed to be stated, but it sure felt like a lot of male gaze at Emma Stone’s boobs.

Warning!! Spoilers below!!

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

264
Decatur Deb  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:13:22am

re: #262 Belafon

We see something similar in white Latino immigrants.

Musn’t assume that all immigrants are good people, per se. Here are some that came to their adopted country to destroy it:

Musk
The Murdochs
The Cruzes
Melania

others?

265
wrenchwench  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:14:47am

re: #264 Decatur Deb

Musn’t assume that all immigrants are good people, per se. Here are some that came to their adopted country to destroy it:

Musk
The Murdochs
The Cruzes
Melania

others?

How about a net worth cap on immigrants?

266
Belafon  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:16:28am

re: #265 wrenchwench

How about a net worth cap on immigrants?

Exactly. We want your tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to be free, not your rich few yearning to buy the country.

Edited, didn’t get it quite right.

267
Decatur Deb  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:17:02am

re: #265 wrenchwench

How about a net worth cap on immigrants?

It’s right there on the statue for a reason:

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

268
7-y (Expectation of Great Things in Due Course)  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:20:31am

re: #261 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I forgot about the Child of Apartheid aspect of Elonious Mutt Skunk but it goes a long way to explaining his attitudes.

It’s not just South Africans. Guys from the USA South anywhere near my age of 76 were taught a version of history, biology, and civics unlike what we learned. They rarely get over it but sometimes manage to put a veneer on over it.

269
jaunte  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:21:05am

re: #264 Decatur Deb

Musk
The Murdochs
The Cruzes
Melania

Wretched refuse.

Sorry, they qualify.

270
silverdolphin  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:21:18am

re: #63 William Lewis

How about Emma Stone?

Oh and get Molly Ringwald as Cordelia Naismith…

Great choices. Emma can do just about anything

271
gocart mozart  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:22:17am
272
Eclectic Cyborg  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:22:58am

I’m going to skip “Poor Things”. Nothing against Emma Stone, it’s just not my type of movie.

273
jaunte  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:24:13am

re: #271 gocart mozart

The standout impression of the hearing so far is the ability of Democrats and Republicans to sit in the same room and simultaneously occupy two separate realities that don’t impinge on one another.

274
gocart mozart  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:25:00am
275
JC1  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:26:40am

re: #262 Belafon

We see something similar in white Latino immigrants.

Or Cubans vs other Latinos.

276
wrenchwench  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:26:49am

Rabbit. Wordle 1,005 5/6*

Click to Reveal

⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟩⬜🟨⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

277
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:27:21am

re: #240 sizzzzlerz

Comer and Co. just really aren’t very bright, are they?

Don’t have to be bright. They are trying to “Benghazi” Biden.

278
sizzzzlerz  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:28:44am

re: #267 Decatur Deb

It’s right there on the statue for a reason:

That’s so 19th century, dochaknow.

Today, it would be

Fuck, y’all.
I got mine.

279
Joe Bacon ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:33:30am

re: #277 Hecuba’s daughter

Don’t have to be bright. They are trying to “Benghazi” Biden.

With an assist from FAUX, OANN, SNOOZEMAX, Gateway Pundit, Hate Radio, Jesus TV and the Republican Bullshit Machine cranked up to 11 so the New York Times both sides this GOP bullshit.

280
sizzzzlerz  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:34:35am

re: #259 Belafon

Making a diamond light up properly requires pretty exacting cuts to the diamond. Polishing the numbers off so that they aren’t visible to someone with a magnifying glass would change their shape, and therefore how the light travels through the diamond.

As I’m sure we’re all aware, the international diamond business is filled with open and honest business men and women who would never, ever stoop to something so heinous as trying to obfuscate a diamond’s provenance. I was merely speculating.

281
Randall Gross  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:39:05am

re: #222 Dr Lizardo

It looks like they are going back to the core business of scaring the bejeezus out of everyone. I nearly cracked ribs jumping at some of the “jump scare” scenes in the original.

282
jeffreyw  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:40:35am

bsky.app

283
Joe Bacon ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:41:00am

Trump now losing his ssshhhaaavvviiinnnggg cream and lashing out at General Milley

rawstory.com

284
Joe Bacon ✅  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:42:59am

Another crook begging for Trump to get back in so he can be pardoned…

Jason Galanis Sentenced In Manhattan Federal Court For Multiple Securities Fraud Schemes

justice.gov

285
Dr Lizardo  Mar 20, 2024 • 10:46:24am

re: #283 Joe Bacon ✅

Trump now losing his ssshhhaaavvviiinnnggg cream and lashing out at General Milley

rawstory.com

The financial walls are closing in on the Marquis de Fraud and he’s lashing out at everyone now.

If he doesn’t come up that half-billion by Monday, the whole world’s gonna see that under all his braggadocio, he’s really a broke-ass chump who’s been pretending to be one of the mega-rich for who knows how long.

He’ll be revealed as the ultimate poser - the king of the bullshit artists. And that revelation is Trump’s worst nightmare.

286
Axolotl  Mar 20, 2024 • 1:05:43pm

re: #209 Scottish Dragon

Lucifer’s Hammer was pretty good, but that was almost 50 years ago.

Lucifer’s Hammer was really enjoyable back in the day. If I recall, the religiuos fundamentalists tried to take over after the comet strike but were beaten back by the scientists.

287
piratedan  Mar 20, 2024 • 1:25:32pm

re: #61 silverdolphin

gotta go with Emma Stone :-)

There’s a helluva a range and character arc involved, so you need not just a pretty face.

288
BeenHereAwhile  Mar 20, 2024 • 2:25:33pm

re: #250 silverdolphin

[Embedded content]

It was in the Jan 1967 Analog called Supernova. It was published as Day of Burning in several collections. Here is a synopsis:

The facts seem to line up with your recollection. If you find something else, let me know.

I probably have that 1967 Analog.

See #183 in this thread:

Transit of Betelgeuse, Robert R. Chase.
Analog SF, May 1990.

“She was looking down at me, speaking urgently.
I shook my head to let her know I could not hear her , that I was deaf from resuscitation shock.
She took a breath , and said one word so carefully I could see it on her lips.
Silicon.”

(Not exactly a romantic moment. As you well know, when your star starts fusing silicon, it’s time to get the eff out of Dodge)

289
BeenHereAwhile  Mar 20, 2024 • 2:28:52pm

re: #253 Scottish Dragon

Ellison could be an uber asshole and he could also be genuinely helpful from what I’ve heard.

Recommend “The Glass Teat.”

en.m.wikipedia.org

290
BeenHereAwhile  Mar 20, 2024 • 2:35:45pm

re: #264 Decatur Deb

Musn’t assume that all immigrants are good people, per se. Here are some that came to their adopted country to destroy it:

Musk
The Murdochs
The Cruzes
Melania

others?

No different than how White Christians treat their fellow White Christians.

291
austin_blue  Mar 20, 2024 • 3:16:01pm

re: #289 BeenHereAwhile

Recommend “The Glass Teat.”

en.m.wikipedia.org

Harlan didn’t suffer fools gladly. He didn’t suffer them at all. He just blistered them until their skin sloughed off.

But, he loved talking and encouraging young, smart writers.


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