Another Beautiful Song From Cody Fry’s Acoustic Sessions: “What If”

Music • Views: 13,993

“What If”
Written by Cody Fry, JJ Heller, David Heller
All is Life Music [ASCAP], Butter Lid Publishing [ASCAP]

Listen to “What If (Acoustic Sessions)” everywhere music is consumed: https://CodyFry.lnk.to/AcousticSessions

Directed by Dakota Diel
Produced by Ryan Byrd

Cody Fry - Vocals, Guitar
Aaron Sterling - Percussion
Nate Dugger - Bouzouki
David Rodgers - Piano
Scott Mulvahill - Bass

Recorded by Jeremy Brown
Mixed by Jared Fox
Mastered by Joe Laporta at Sterling Sound
Recorded live at South x Sea Studios, Nashville, TN
Produced by Cody Fry

WEBSITE: https://www.codyfry.com
OFFICIAL STORE: https://shop.codyfry.com
TIK TOK: https://tiktok.com/@codyfrymusic
INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/codyfry
TWITTER: @codyfry
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/codyfrymusic

Music video by Cody Fry performing What If (Acoustic Sessions). A Decca Records US release.; © 2024 Universal Music Classics, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

http://vevo.ly/SV5Mnz

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391 comments
1
Patricia Kayden  Apr 19, 2024 • 3:49:53pm

2
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 3:51:05pm

We’ll have embedded Bluesky posts soon. Code’s mostly working, I just need to clean up some small details.

3
steve_davis  Apr 19, 2024 • 3:53:48pm

Just realized Franklin had dropped on Apple TV while I was watching the latest Sugar. Woo hoo!

4
A Cranky One  Apr 19, 2024 • 3:57:16pm

Reporter Jose Pagliery says that after court ended (for real) on Friday, Trump sat in his seat “fuming” before finally getting up and leaving with a “furious” look on his face. And really, Trump should be feeling furious right about now.

And he was “fuming” while dozing….

5
🐈 Crush White Christian Nationalism 🐈  Apr 19, 2024 • 3:59:45pm

re: #3 steve_davis

Just realized Franklin had dropped on Apple TV while I was watching the latest Sugar. Woo hoo!

Franklin - Hurry Up Franklin / Franklin’s Bad Day - Ep. 2

6
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:00:08pm

re: #4 A Cranky One

He’s doing another Nazi rally tomorrow night.

7
Patricia Kayden  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:02:17pm

8
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:05:03pm

Posting this again because a lot of people said they found it helpful! Guide to ALT text: www.perkins.org/resource/how…

— Cats of Yore (@catsofyore.bsky.social) 2024-04-19T20:18:37.101Z

9
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:07:23pm

Bluesky embeds are working only on page load now. If you refresh the page you’ll see the embedded post above this one.

11
Ace Rothstein  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:08:30pm

re: #7 Patricia Kayden

Trump would steal the quarters off a dead man’s eyes.

12
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:09:53pm

Jesus. I honestly wonder if these people (and all the other MAGA apologists, like the reactionary centrists) believe they will be remembered well if everything goes south, a distinct possibility.

Have they seen the middle of the last century? Do they know how “everyday Germans” are thought of now?

— Dan Mitchell (@danmitchell.bsky.social) 2024-04-19T23:00:03.551Z

13
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:10:14pm

Groovy.

14
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:11:08pm

Bluesky embeds now work with dynamically posted comments. Refresh the page if you’re not seeing them.

15
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:12:16pm

re: #14 Charles Johnson

Way Cool. Thanks Charles.

16
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:12:52pm

If any professor, health care provider, etc tells you to use ChatGPT for research, expected course of treatment, etc, drop the class, seek a different provider. For real though. At that point in the conversation, find the exit

— the Mountain Goats (@themountaingoats.bsky.social) 2024-04-19T22:44:08.459Z

17
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:13:40pm

For the love of god, Montresor!

— Zack Davisson (@zackdavisson.com) 2024-04-19T21:45:30.088Z

18
sagehen  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:14:11pm

re: #11 Ace Rothstein

Trump would steal the quarters off a dead man’s eyes.

In the old Westerns, weren’t they silver dollars?

19
Ace Rothstein  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:15:35pm

re: #18 sagehen

In the old Westerns, weren’t they silver dollars?

They were rubles.

20
Patricia Kayden  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:16:32pm

I know it’s still early but I hope this holds.

21
dat_said  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:16:48pm

re: #14 Charles Johnson

Bluesky embeds now work with dynamically posted comments. Refresh the page if you’re not seeing them.

Doesn’t appear properly for me in spy mode. Looks sweet in regular mode

22
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:19:15pm

To embed a Bluesky post, just click the 3-dot menu on a post, and choose “Copy link to post.”

Then just paste that link into a comment and we do the rest.

P. S. Don’t use the “Embed post” option at Bluesky, I’m not supporting that yet.

23
Ace Rothstein  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:19:34pm

re: #20 Patricia Kayden

I know it’s still early but I hope this holds.

[Embedded content]

I hope it increases.

24
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:19:40pm

re: #21 dat_said

Doesn’t appear properly for me in spy mode. Looks sweet in regular mode

Right, spy mode soon.

25
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:22:37pm

Reload the spy page and it should work now.

26
Patricia Kayden  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:24:12pm

27
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:24:14pm

Gradually getting rid of the grass/sod the flippers threw down. Expanded the rear bed today to accommodate a dwarf cherry in the sunny edge, and some more shade-loving perennials behind it. Before/after, backyard. (2018/present day) I am very tired.

— Cherie Priest (@cmpriest.bsky.social) 2024-04-19T23:20:30.334Z

28
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:25:06pm

— Bodega Cats (@bodegacats.bsky.social) 2024-04-18T10:27:40.880Z

29
Nojay UK  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:26:30pm

re: #16 Charles Johnson

You could ask a hundred people the same question and get a lot of wrong answers as well as a lot of correct ones. We sort-of expect ChatGPT and other LLMs to be perfect and never wrong because it’s a computer which can never be wrong like we were promised on Star Trek.

ChatGPT can’t calculate the correct result for the date for Easter even if it can regurgitate the rules by which Easter dates are calculated. That takes intelligence, the ability to correlate those rules with a calendar and then calculate the correct answer. Even then mistakes can be made — see the missing leap year in 2000 that caught out a lot of people programming date stuff for databases and financial systems. Divisible by four? Yup, that’s the rule for a leap year, tappety-tappety-tap. Time passes, where did that extra day come from? Oops.

30
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:29:26pm

look who’s here

bsky.app

31
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:29:48pm

#wildlife #nature #birds #picnickingbirds
Picnicking Birds

— (@jeffreyw.bsky.social) 2024-04-19T23:28:48.774Z

32
JC1  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:31:12pm

re: #16 Charles Johnson

[Embedded content]

👀
I don’t get it?

33
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:31:59pm

try that again

Gradually getting rid of the grass/sod the flippers threw down. Expanded the rear bed today to accommodate a dwarf cherry in the sunny edge, and some more shade-loving perennials behind it. Before/after, backyard. (2018/present day) I am very tired.

— Cherie Priest (@cmpriest.bsky.social) 2024-04-19T23:20:30.334Z

34
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:32:54pm

re: #28 PhillyPretzel ✅

That says “Bodega Cats” but I see no cat in that photo.

35
BeenHereAwhile  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:33:05pm

This is my favorite.
(The lighting highlites)

#wildlife #nature #birds #picnickingbirds
Picnicking Birds

— (@jeffreyw.bsky.social) 2024-04-11T15:23:09.159Z

36
JC1  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:33:29pm

re: #29 Nojay UK

You could ask a hundred people the same question and get a lot of wrong answers as well as a lot of correct ones. We sort-of expect ChatGPT and other LLMs to be perfect and never wrong because it’s a computer which can never be wrong like we were promised on Star Trek.

ChatGPT can’t calculate the correct result for the date for Easter even if it can regurgitate the rules by which Easter dates are calculated. That takes intelligence, the ability to correlate those rules with a calendar and then calculate the correct answer. Even then mistakes can be made — see the missing leap year in 2000 that caught out a lot of people programming date stuff for databases and financial systems. Divisible by four? Yup, that’s the rule for a leap year, tappety-tappety-tap. Time passes, where did that extra day come from? Oops.

Or the Twitter user was just shit posting and crippled the prompt before that exchange. I just asked the question in a fresh chat and got a correct answer.

37
gocart mozart  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:34:05pm
38
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:34:47pm

re: #34 Charles Johnson

It is half a cat on the floor. The other half is in the shelves.

39
Unabogie  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:37:32pm

re: #37 gocart mozart

[Embedded content]

I didn’t have “former failed president on trial for faking business records in order to write off hush money to a porn star instead of just paying out of his pocket because even hush money has to be a grift, falls asleep while farting in a courtroom as he snoozes through jury selection” on my bingo card. Anyone else?

40
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:37:53pm

The big stretch.

— Bodega Cats (@bodegacats.bsky.social) 2024-03-31T20:07:46.697Z

41
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:40:27pm

re: #9 Charles Johnson

Bluesky embeds are working only on page load now. If you refresh the page you’ll see the embedded post above this one.

Those look beautiful, too.

42
darthstar  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:42:58pm

Mastodon

43
darthstar  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:43:35pm

re: #42 darthstar

So Elon just took that design and reversed it.

44
Unabogie  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:44:34pm

By the way, all of the trial coverage so far says that the DA has to prove that Trump falsified business records in order to hide the payments as a way to win the election, but the way I understand it, is if he wrote it off on his taxes, the felony crime could be tax evasion, not election interference. It could even be both. And my understanding is no one needs to prove the actual crimes, just that intent to commit them. And tax evasion by means of misreporting his books is already an adjudicated fact.

Can any legal folks confirm this?

45
Unabogie  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:45:24pm

re: #43 darthstar

So Elon just took that design and reversed it.

“Another masterful gambit, sir!”

46
No Malarkey!  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:46:21pm

Funny and accurate. AI Trump: What Are You Gonna Do?

47
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:48:27pm

So now we have both Mastodon and Bluesky embeds, just by pasting in a link. Groovy.

48
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:49:36pm

The regex that finds the Bluesky posts:

<?php
$blueskyURLRegex = '~\bhttps://(?:bsky\.app/profile/)?(?<handle>[^/]*)/(?:post)/(?<rkey>[^\s?#.!]*)~i';
49
Unabogie  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:52:22pm

New name for Trump:

The Fartful Codger.

50
darthstar  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:52:41pm

51
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:53:28pm

Looking at the Bluesky embed rendering code and it’s a lot like the Mastodon rendering code I rewrote a few months back; the concepts are the same. It’s a pretty simple script.

A drawback in their current code, though: if a post is in a popup dialog, like a comment preview, it won’t properly center the dialog after it’s rendered because there’s no callback or promise when it’s all finished with its business. I may have to add that.

52
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:57:12pm

We’re all trying to find out who identified those people.

— Charles Johnson (@charles.littlegreenfootballs.com) 2024-04-18T20:14:55.000Z

53
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 4:59:35pm

Wow, the bluesky rendering code is very fast. Probably because it isn’t loaded with trackers and metrics and other bullshit like Twitter’s embeds.

54
EPR-radar  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:01:01pm

re: #29 Nojay UK

You could ask a hundred people the same question and get a lot of wrong answers as well as a lot of correct ones. We sort-of expect ChatGPT and other LLMs to be perfect and never wrong because it’s a computer which can never be wrong like we were promised on Star Trek.

ChatGPT can’t calculate the correct result for the date for Easter even if it can regurgitate the rules by which Easter dates are calculated. That takes intelligence, the ability to correlate those rules with a calendar and then calculate the correct answer. Even then mistakes can be made — see the missing leap year in 2000 that caught out a lot of people programming date stuff for databases and financial systems. Divisible by four? Yup, that’s the rule for a leap year, tappety-tappety-tap. Time passes, where did that extra day come from? Oops.

2000 was a leap year, because it was a case of the double exception in the Gregorian calendar. Years divisible by 4 are leap years, except that years divisible by 100 aren’t, except that years divisible by 400 are.

Easter is much more complicated than leap years, because it is a lunar calendar thing.

55
EPR-radar  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:02:38pm

re: #50 darthstar

That’s why Republicans are so drawn to racism — they prefer judging and being judged on skin color over judging and being judged on the content of their character.

56
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:05:16pm

Trump reportedly ‘fuming’ after Judge Merchan made him sit ‘like a man addressing his dog’

GOOD! It’s about time that asshole got smacked down and I hope it stung him all over.

FINALLY SOMEONE TOLD HIM NO TO HIS FUCKING FACE!

rawstory.com

57
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:06:24pm

Oh, Olivia Nuzzi on Chris Hayes’ show.

[ click ]

signed,
not a fan

58
EPR-radar  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:06:40pm

re: #12 Charles Johnson

The most charitable interpretation of this drivel from Ms. Cross is that she’s scared shitless of the idea that there are millions of fascists in the US being coordinated by the GOP to seize power.

Unfortunately, that’s not just an idea, it is the brute fact which shatters all moderate/centrist delusions these days.

In any case, I’m not longer charitable about shit like this.

59
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:08:17pm

If you don’t know why you should cancel your Adobe subscription, here are just 4 artists that found out their style is being sold on Adobe Stock scrapped by AI without their permission.

— Ale (@alepresser.com) 2023-08-18T15:09:36.293Z

60
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:09:11pm

Except that, unlike the accusers in the Salem Witch Trials, Rufo repeatedly states in public “I’m going to do everything I can to present shit out of context to destroy the lives of people I dislike, can you believe everyone keeps just going along with me when I do that?”

— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick.bsky.social) 2024-04-19T23:54:40.592Z

It’s amazing, and not in a good way, that Rufo continues to have a strange, powerful influence over the big media, despite telling them outright that he’s an untrustworthy liar who will say anything and destroy people for political reasons.

— Charles Johnson (@charles.littlegreenfootballs.com) 2024-04-20T00:05:19.000Z

61
piratedan  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:11:21pm

re: #52 Charles Johnson

it’s hard to know who to blame exactly when we doxxed these potential jurors from their anonymity - NYT

62
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:15:43pm

I’m ecstatic (OK, maybe that’s a bit strong) to announce that Little Green Footballs now fully supports embedded Bluesky posts, in articles and comments, simply by pasting a link to the post!

Bluesky embeds rock. #atproto

— Charles Johnson (@charles.littlegreenfootballs.com) 2024-04-20T00:14:05.000Z

64
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:17:57pm

He wants to be taken on a walk, and yet he does not want to tell me where he has hidden my shoes. Curious.

— Moira Donegan (@moiradonegan.bsky.social) 2024-04-19T18:38:08.305Z

65
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:21:43pm

WIFE: I told you to call a plumber.

ME: I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING.

— Uncle Duke (@uncleduke1969.bsky.social) 2024-04-19T12:56:28.708Z

66
TedStriker  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:22:21pm

To Charles’ OP in this thread, I pass South x Sea Studios going down Ellington Pkwy every day to and from work.

67
Rightwingconspirator  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:26:37pm

re: #40 PhillyPretzel ✅

Stretch and ( it seems) how to greet favorite humans when they come home.

68
No Malarkey!  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:26:43pm

Trump takes one more shot at stopping the trial.

69
teleskiguy  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:30:37pm

Breakfast

70
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:30:50pm

re: #68 No Malarkey!

Trump takes one more shot at stopping the trial.

[Embedded content]

Friday night. Hail Mary. He’s praying. The lawyers are lawyering.

Life comes at you fast sometimes.

71
EPR-radar  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:33:41pm

re: #70 Charles Johnson

It’s way past time for Trump to be treated as the vexatious litigant he is. Every motion etc. in every case he has, civil or criminal, defendant or plaintiff, should have to be blessed by an independent minder before it can be filed in court.

Enough is fucking enough.

72
Decatur Deb  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:33:56pm

re: #70 Charles Johnson

Just the illusion of a couple billion in the bank slows it to a crawl.

73
teleskiguy  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:35:54pm

thirty minutes into THE TRUTH VS ALEX JONES and my main thought is that if jones were beaten to death that would be too merciful a punishment

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie.bsky.social) 2024-04-07T02:33:22.546953Z

74
EPR-radar  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:36:18pm

re: #72 Decatur Deb

Just the illusion of a couple billion in the bank slows it to a crawl.

It’s a perfect example of capital uber alles. How would the US system materially change if giant accumulations of wealth literally had their own agency combined with a mindless imperative to grow like The Blob?

75
Decatur Deb  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:38:51pm

re: #74 EPR-radar

It’s a perfect example of capital uber alles. How would the US system materially change if giant accumulations of wealth literally had their own agency combined with a mindless imperative to grow like The Blob?

Blobs are people.

76
Belafon  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:41:40pm

re: #68 No Malarkey!

Trump takes one more shot at stopping the trial.

[Embedded content]

“They want to find me guilty so bad they’re ignoring death threats.” - Trump

77
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:44:46pm

re: #69 teleskiguy

One of cyriak’s best.

78
retired cynic  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:46:35pm

Nearly 50 cats were rescued from a hot car. Now one is a Target model.

wapo.st (gift link)

And you won’t hate the guy who did it. He was living in their with them, after they were evicted. And the cats look good, except for the one who escaped the rescuers, was later hit by a car and nearly died.

79
teleskiguy  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:47:24pm

re: #77 Charles Johnson

This one is, I think, the best they’ve done when it comes to this factor.

Giphy

80
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:51:11pm

re: #62 Charles Johnson

Sadly for more, BlueSky again does not work on my Mac.

It worked for a while the previous month.

But since their latest updated… the website no longer finishes loading for me.

I suspect it keeps breaking my old browsers.

81
Nerdy Fish  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:51:26pm

Charles, any chance those of us who live in Spy mode can get some of that sweet sweet Bluesky embed action?

82
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:56:18pm

re: #80 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Sadly for more, BlueSky again does not work on my Mac.

It worked for a while the previous month.

But since their latest updated… the website no longer finishes loading for me.

I suspect it keeps breaking my old browsers.

It’s a real problem when the hardware is so well-made that it outlasts the company’s ability (or will) to support it.

I’ve been there with my 2009 Mac Pro.

83
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:57:37pm

re: #81 Nerdy Fish

Charles, any chance those of us who live in Spy mode can get some of that sweet sweet Bluesky embed action?

Next on the list!

84
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 19, 2024 • 5:59:17pm

So the MAGAts least favorite female singer (Taylor Swift) dropped a new album today. The title track is solid.

The Tortured Poets Department

85
Nerdy Fish  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:00:46pm

re: #83 Charles Johnson

Next on the list!

You’re the best, boss. Thanks.

86
Nojay UK  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:00:59pm

re: #82 Charles Johnson

It’s a real problem when the hardware is so well-made that it outlasts the company’s ability (or will) to support it.

I’ve been there with my 2009 Mac Pro.

My daily driver keyboard has a “Designed for Windows 95” marker on the back. I don’t think the company that made it, Olivetti, is still in the computer business.

87
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:01:13pm

re: #82 Charles Johnson

These older Intel Macs can work for a very long time. It is disappointing that Apple gave up on the idea of long term OS updates.

I know I can get Linux versions that will work on this old iMac machine.

However, I’ve already scheduled my budget to buy a new Mac, but since Apple has put off coming out with a new Mini and there are now rumors of Apple moving quickly to the M4 across their whole lineup this fall, I wonder if I should just wait until November to see what comes out.

88
Jay C  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:02:51pm

re: #68 No Malarkey!

Trump takes one more shot at stopping the trial.

[Embedded content]

Is this filing current?
The only date I can see is April 8.
So this might be old news (hard to tell with Trump’s legal shit: you really need a printed timeline sometimes).

89
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:03:55pm

.

Can Linux Save a 16 Year Old iMac?




..

90
jeffreyw  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:05:43pm

Cartoon: “You’ll know, sir. They’re painted like a giant bird of prey.” I mean… a good idea is a good idea! Enjoy!

[image or embed]

— Lar deSouza (@lartist.bsky.social) Apr 19, 2024 at 7:52 PM

91
No Malarkey!  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:07:59pm

re: #88 Jay C

Is this filing current?
The only date I can see is April 8.

Yes. The very top, which is cut off, has today’s date.

92
Jay C  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:08:21pm

re: #91 No Malarkey!

Yes. The very top, which is cut off, has today’s date.

K thx

93
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:20:50pm

re: #60 Charles Johnson

Gee what can be Rufo’s secret?

The answer is that our Corporate Controlled Conservative Press enables him every step of the way!

94
wrenchwench  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:25:38pm

Will it work in Preview?

Mastodon

It did! It did!

95
jeffreyw  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:26:00pm

Mastodon

96
wrenchwench  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:27:14pm

re: #94 wrenchwench

Will it work in Preview?

[Embedded content]

It did! It did!

And in the Master Spy!!

97
teleskiguy  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:29:27pm

I will say one thing about the Phish Sphere stuff, the audience tapes sound really good!

— Charlie Vogel, aka His Teleness The Charlie Lama (@teleskiguy.bsky.social) 2024-04-20T01:26:02.995Z

The sound system there is like nothing in the world. The speakers, to the tune of almost 5,000 of them I guess, are in the Sphere blasting sound from all around.

My Mom wants to see a Dead & Company show there, they’re playing 24 shows next month into June. I want to see Tool there.

98
jeffreyw  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:29:39pm

Mastodon

99
jaunte  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:29:46pm

@corinnabechko.bsky.social

Today I learned that there were smaller walrus ancestors and I am extremely happy to report that the researcher speaking about this did indeed refer to them as the “smallrus.”

100
jaunte  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:30:45pm

OH, THE HU-MANATEE

— Juniper Bear and the Couch Potatoes (@juniperbear.bsky.social) 2024-04-20T00:27:40.804Z

101
jaunte  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:32:23pm

Today I found out my dog understands how drawers work and can open them if she’s so inclined.

102
goddamnedfrank  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:35:04pm

Let’s see how USC’s commencement is going…
commencement.usc.edu/important-up…

— Seth Masket (@smotus.bsky.social) 2024-04-19T23:51:54.138Z

103
goddamnedfrank  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:40:29pm

re: #102 goddamnedfrank

This part is, somehow, even worse:

This year, more than ever, it is important to keep the focus on celebrating our graduates and their accomplishments, and our belief in their capacity to change the world that awaits them.

104
jeffreyw  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:43:00pm

Mastodon

105
Decatur Deb  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:44:13pm

Comet PB-12 is about as good as it’s going to get this weekend. That’s to say, it’s on the edge of naked-eye visibility. Look a bit to the W of Jupiter w/ binoculars or scopes.

theskylive.com

106
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:44:22pm

107
Belafon  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:44:33pm

re: #103 goddamnedfrank

This part is, somehow, even worse:

Unless we don’t like their views.

108
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:45:20pm

re: #102 goddamnedfrank

What’s the back story on this?

109
TedStriker  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:49:26pm

re: #108 Eclectic Cyborg

What’s the back story on this?

USC’s valedictorian has been publicly “pro-Palestinian”, so the the university brass 86ed her graduation speech (and, now, all of the guest speakers) over “security concerns”, presumably from chuds calling/posting threats.

latimes.com

110
Belafon  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:50:12pm

re: #108 Eclectic Cyborg

What’s the back story on this?

nbcnews.com

111
Jay C  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:54:27pm

re: #109 TedStriker

USC’s valedictorian has been publicly “pro-Palestinian”, so the the university brass 86ed her graduation speech (and, now, all of the guest speakers) over “security concerns”.

latimes.com

My Alma Mater - Richard Nixon was still President when I graduated, and I haven’t been back since - when it came to anything “controversial” their administration were cowardly assholes back then, and I see that’s one Old Trojan tradition they haven’t abandoned.

112
Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:56:45pm

113
DodgerFan1988  Apr 19, 2024 • 6:57:30pm


Yet, no public official would dare call her racist.

114
retired cynic  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:02:34pm

Political Warfare and Congress
My Testimony from 17 April
snyder.substack.com

115
jeffreyw  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:03:44pm

Mastodon

116
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:04:19pm

The parade of idiots continues.

117
calochortus  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:06:21pm

re: #102 goddamnedfrank

[Embedded content]

They seem to be indicating that the valedictorian is an “outside speaker.” This seems unlikely.

118
Nerdy Fish  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:08:34pm

re: #116 Eclectic Cyborg

[Embedded content]

The parade of idiots continues.

I mean, the guy got legally outfoxed by a cow. They’re not sending their best.

119
EstebanTornado1963  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:14:37pm

Bluesky embeds are working great, thanks Charles.

Fuck Twitter, X or whatever that hellscape is named now.
And Fuck Elon Musk.

— @estebantornado.bsky.social 2024-04-20T02:10:17.452Z

120
darthstar  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:18:25pm

121
Jay C  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:18:56pm

re: #116 Eclectic Cyborg

[Embedded content]

The parade of idiots continues.

“….Biden is conspiring with Wall Street bankers to screw him”

Don’t have a cow, Devin: it probably really isn’t that personal.

122
b.d.  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:19:14pm

re: #112 Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines

Alternate juror number #3

New York Yankees fan, resident, who claims that he lost a promising job due to the defendant but vows that he can be impartial. Attended his latest wedding.

123
darthstar  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:19:34pm

re: #116 Eclectic Cyborg

[Embedded content]

The parade of idiots continues.

It closed up on the week…what’s their problem?

124
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:19:49pm

Okay let me try this embed thingy:

I’m hanging out on Bluesky
‘Cause Twitter is such a pig sty
Because of an awful orange guy
Who drains his minions bone dry
And believes the laws should not apply
Leaving all of us to scream: WHY??

— Steve S (@eclecticcyborg.bsky.social) 2024-04-20T02:19:18.065Z

125
jeffreyw  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:23:06pm

I’VE SEEN ENOUGH

with roughly 50% of all possible votes in, UAW holds an insurmountable lead which would either require a massive tallying error or statistically improbable remaining vote share to flip.

Vw workers voted #UnionYes to join @UAW.

[image or embed]

— Daily Union Elections (@unionelections.bsky.social) Apr 19, 2024 at 9:01 PM

126
Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:24:48pm

127
Dangerman  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:25:49pm

Just saw “Rip Van Stinkle”

128
b.d.  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:27:42pm

re: #126 Shiplord Kirel: From behind wingnut lines

[Embedded content]

Trying to find a juror that Trump would strike but can’t.

129
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:29:25pm

And another one (yes, this is my account I’m posting btw)

The distraught woman broke into tears.
All she wanted to do was grieve her fallen son.
But because she lost her phone and couldn’t get the code, she was locked out of the room.
And mourns only from a distance.
It’s about security and the greater good.
Or so we’re led to believe.

#microfiction

— Steve S (@eclecticcyborg.bsky.social) 2024-04-20T02:27:59.310Z

130
b.d.  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:32:47pm

re: #115 jeffreyw

[Embedded content]

State of emergency declared in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Canada, due to fire at air force base; explosion is expected,

Damn, the Israelis aren’t f*cking around!

//

131
Jay C  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:33:14pm

re: #125 jeffreyw

[Embedded content]

I’m surprised that bottom figure doesn’t show 2,649 “challenged votes ballots”…

132
jeffreyw  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:36:54pm

re: #131 Jay C

I’m surprised that bottom figure doesn’t show 2,649 “challenged votes”…

The NLRB is kicking ass these days. Thanks, Joe!

133
jeffreyw  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:38:44pm

134
darthstar  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:47:35pm

135
b.d.  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:48:20pm

re: #133 jeffreyw

[Embedded content]

I turn 59 tomorrow. Nice to see that 4/20 has taken over Hitler’s birthday as a day to commemorate.

Even better to see is that this time of year being militia season has, hopefully, passed. Waco, Columbine, Oklahoma City. Glad the “news” networks quit focusing on that.

It is also Pizza Delivery Driver Appreciation Day for obvious reasons, just don’t space the tip.

136
Jay C  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:48:40pm

re: #132 jeffreyw

The NLRB is kicking ass these days. Thanks, Joe!

Yes, indeed - maybe this piece will prove prescient.

137
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 19, 2024 • 7:56:20pm

Well known debater and deconstructor of religion, Daniel Dennett, has passed away.

As usual the legacy right-wing media have a hard time:

Daniel Dennett, fiery atheist philosopher who saw human brains as ‘programmes’

He regarded everything from the ‘genius’ of JS Bach to religious ideas as the product of Darwinian evolutionary processes

The Telegraph is implying that some outside force achieved those things?

138
Charles Johnson  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:00:20pm

A Man of Few Words

— Grandma Field (@fieldexplores.bsky.social) 2024-04-15T15:19:13.425Z

139
GlutenFreeJesus  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:05:08pm

re: #87 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

One thing to consider is apple’s expected shift to AI functionality with the new M4 chips. May or may not be something you’d want to wait for.

140
Odie Hugh Manatee  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:07:36pm

re: #100 jaunte

[Embedded content]

Oh my!

141
William Lewis  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:10:29pm

From NPR:
Volkswagen workers vote yes to unionizing, igniting UAW’s push to organize the South

Workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., have voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers, setting a new trajectory for labor unions in the American South.

With 3,613 ballots counted, the final tally was 2,628 votes in favor of joining the UAW, and 985 votes against. Some 73% of workers voted in favor of unionizing.

Best news for the UAW in a long time. I wish Ed, my ex’s dad, could have seen it. He was the United Brotherhood of Carpenters #1 organizer for decades and left the south (Alabama) after WWII over racism and worker rights. He’d be thrilled to see this in Tennessee.

142
b.d.  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:11:56pm

re: #139 GlutenFreeJesus

One thing to consider is apple’s expected shift to AI functionality with the new M4 chips. May or may not be something you’d want to wait for.

From what I have seen, this far, is that AI is a glorified spellcheck. It finishes sentences and can also answer basic questions but is by no means an intelligence at all. It will make stuff up based off of what other people have typed before you.

Other than that it is great as duck.

143
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:12:41pm

re: #139 GlutenFreeJesus

One thing to consider is apple’s expected shift to AI functionality with the new M4 chips. May or may not be something you’d want to wait for.

I always take such marketing strategies as more about fluffing up some words.

The current M3 design has a unit called the “NPU” that apparently is rarely used by any software.

The M4 is unlikely to do anything other than enlarge this unit.

As the M4 uses the 3nm process, as does the M3, Apple will have to make their chips larger if they want to add more functionality. And I doubt Apple will do that because then TMSC will have to charge more per chip (as fewer chips will come from each wafer.)

“AI” is currently a buzzword in business that I hope will die off sooner rather than later.

144
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:17:14pm

re: #142 b.d.

From what I have seen, this far, is that AI is a glorified spellcheck.

Ah, but let me introduce you to Suno and Udio (which IMO is more impressive than Suno):

Trump’s Threat to Democracy

Twilight Tubas

Covfefe Whisper

I especially like the last one…

145
b.d.  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:19:08pm

re: #143 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus
“AI” is currently a buzzword in business that I hope will die off sooner rather than later.

Blockchain was a money pit, time to find a new money pit.

146
Dangerman  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:19:48pm

re: #142 b.d.

From what I have seen, this far, is that AI is a glorified spellcheck. It finishes sentences and can also answer basic questions but is by no means an intelligence at all. It will make stuff up based off of what other people have typed before you.

Other than that it is great as duck.

The functionality is a real thing.
It does do something and will be helpful.

With it’s current capabilities and limitations, it simply should be called something other than AI.

147
jaunte  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:21:35pm

re: #145 b.d.

Blockchain was a money pit, time to find a new money pit.

Simpsons - Monorail Song

148
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:26:34pm

re: #147 jaunte

IIRC, I rode the Osaka monorail once. It’s the transportation out onto the expanded land on the bay.

It was… there.

149
jaunte  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:27:58pm

@banditelli.org
Biden eats southern Republican Governors for a late dinner in his UAW win statement.

150
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:32:06pm

Stories that get conveniently left out of news discussion in the US:

Deadly West African heat wave driven by climate change, scientists say


..

Climate Change Is Crushing Taiwan’s Crop Yields | TaiwanPlus News



..

151
Belafon  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:32:13pm

Anyone need a cd with 100 fonts and 2,000 clipart images for Windows 3.1?

152
Belafon  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:33:07pm

Or a few thousand staples?

153
Dangerman  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:40:29pm

re: #152 Belafon

Or a few thousand staples?

I got a box full of rj45 cables going cheap

154
Sherlock Hound  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:41:10pm

re: #151 Belafon

The fonts might still be installable on Windows 11!

155
Sherlock Hound  Apr 19, 2024 • 8:44:37pm

re: #153 Dangerman

I got a box full of rj45 cables going cheap

We have an oversupply of those at work. I might need some new cables in my home network.
///

156
coin operated  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:00:10pm

re: #149 jaunte

@banditelli.org
Biden eats southern Republican Governors for a late dinner in his UAW win statement.

[Embedded content]

I absolutely love it when Dark Brandon throws shade on dipshit Republicans.

coin is 2 bong hits in with a 3rd on the way.

157
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:01:55pm

Climate change is, in America, mostly either denied or waved away as impractical to solve even if acknowledged.

And our elections, though not really about climate change directly, are slowly steering more and more towards this direction.

Biden’s campaign sees fit to mention climate change to try and get young people to vote. However, as I have repeated over and over, Biden also brags about record US oil production, so his message is mixed at best.

In Washington State, an upcoming ballot measure directly aims to undo a not-very-old Act meant to reduce carbon emissions:

City Inside/Out: Washington voters to decide fate of state’s landmark climate policy

..

Now whether the 2021 Climate Commitment Act (of Washington State) actually works to reduce emissions I do not know (and cap and trade schemes are now seen as mostly ineffective), but that the people who want to repeal the Act got so many signatures is telling.

Meanwhile, over in Scotland, the government is rolling back its commitment to reduce greenhouse gases by the year 2030, and the Conservative politicians are in glee over it (as an embarrassment to the SNP):

Scotland’s dropped climate target is major embarrassment for SNP, Greens, says Murdo Fraser


..

158
coin operated  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:04:09pm

coin *rarely* does hoops unless it’s the playoffs…but I’ve really enjoyed the play-in format leading up to the playoffs. Some of the best competitive basketball in the whole season.

159
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:19:57pm

As if we wouldn’t have guessed—Fucked Up Franky Graham Cracker sides with Trump!

‘Shame on you’: Franklin Graham torched online for siding with Trump in criminal case

Evangelist Franklin Graham was criticized by political experts and onlookers on Friday after he explicitly sided with Donald Trump in the former president’s ongoing criminal trial in New York.

“Pray for former President [Trump],” he wrote on social media. “His enemies want to do everything they can to destroy him, to put him in jail, or to drag out this trial to prevent him from campaigning. I’m not telling you to vote for him—I’m asking you to pray for him.”

Joe Walsh, a former GOP lawmaker who identified as a “Tea Party Republican,” called Graham out from the perspective of a fellow Christian.

“Hey [Graham]⁩, you & I are Christians. Jesus Christ is our Lord & Savior. And Donald Trump is EVERYTHING Jesus taught you & I NOT to be,” Walsh wrote on Friday. “Trump is the ANTITHESIS of how Jesus taught you & I to live. My God man, how dare you continue to support Trump. Shame on you.”

Democratic Representative Ted Lieu also chimed in.

“Dear [Graham]: Judges and prosecutors and juries are not enemies. They are Americans trying their best to apply the law,” he said. “Donald Trump is a criminal defendant. I will pray our criminal justice system treats Trump just like any other criminal defendant.”

Dr. Valerie R. Landfair, Ph.D., pointed to Trump’s civil sexual assault finding of liability.

“Judge clarifies: Trump was found to have raped E. Jean Carroll and has 91 criminal counts. [Graham], did I miss the Pray for former President [Barack Obama] - 1 wife, Christian faith, frequently attended church, familiar with scriptures and hymns,” she wrote Friday. “The Saints hate DEI!”

Conservative Army Iraq War Veteran Peter Henlein asked, “Why might Christianity be on the decline in this country?”

“Maybe it’s because some of its most prominent leaders do things like ask you to pray for a serial fraudster, $60 bible huckster, 20 year Jeffrey Epstein bestie who spent a lifetime screwing people over because he is on trial for paying hush money to p*rnstars he cheated on his wife with,” he added.

rawstory.com

160
silverdolphin  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:32:56pm

re: #142 b.d.

From what I have seen, this far, is that AI is a glorified spellcheck. It finishes sentences and can also answer basic questions but is by no means an intelligence at all. It will make stuff up based off of what other people have typed before you.

Other than that it is great as duck.

Here is what smartphones looked like before the iPhone and afterwards.

Smartphones before (left) and After (right) the introduction of the iPhone

I will not be surprised if AI looks similar before and after this years WWDC.

161
sagehen  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:34:30pm

re: #160 silverdolphin

Here is what smartphopnes looked likebefore the iPhone and afterwards.

[Embedded content]

I will not be surprised if AI looks similar before and after this years WWDC.

um… the ones on the left aren’t exactly “smartphones.”

162
goddamnedfrank  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:36:30pm

Israeli settlers embarked on a murderous rampage across the occupied West Bank over the weekend, killing at least three Palestinians and destroying property in more than a dozen villages and towns. The immediate trigger for the attacks was the disappearance on Friday, April 12 of Binyamin Ahimeir, a 14-year-old Israeli who went out shepherding that morning from the recently “legalized” Malachei HaShalom (“Angels of Peace”) outpost. By the time Israeli authorities found Ahimeir’s body the following day and declared him a terror victim, the settlers’ rampage through the surrounding Palestinian communities was already in full swing.

According to the human rights group Yesh Din, Israeli settlers attacked 11 Palestinian villages and towns on Saturday alone. They threw stones, set fire to more than 100 vehicles, damaged scores of homes and businesses, and slaughtered hundreds of livestock. In the village of Beitin, near Ramallah, settlers shot dead 17-year-old Omar Hamed. In Al-Mughayyir, slightly further north, 25-year-old Jihad Abu Aliya was killed in circumstances that are still somewhat unclear: settlers were attacking the village at the time, but the Israeli army stated that Abu Aliya was killed by their fire. Another incident captured on a security camera shows Israeli soldiers standing guard while settlers set fire to a car in the town of Deir Dibwan, also near Ramallah.

The pogroms continued into Monday, when Israeli settlers shot dead two Palestinian shepherds — Abdelrahman Bani Fadel, 30, and Mohammed Ashraf Bani Jama, 21 — on land belonging to the community of Khirbet al-Tawil, east of the town of Aqraba near Nablus. According to testimonies from villagers, a large group of settlers, some of them armed, entered privately-owned Palestinian land near the residents’ homes at around 4 p.m. with a herd of cows (settlers are increasingly choosing to herd cows over sheep and goats because they eat more and are harder to frighten). Later, more settlers arrived, some of them armed and masked. Soldiers also arrived on the scene.

Shortly thereafter, according to eyewitnesses, in broad daylight, settlers opened fire on the Palestinians, killing the two men. The IDF Spokesperson subsequently announced that the shooting had not been carried out by soldiers. The event was live streamed on the Facebook page of the adjacent Palestinian town; in the video, dozens of shots can be heard ringing out in several clusters for more than a minute.

Nidal, whose cousin, Abdelrahman, was killed yesterday and who was present at the scene, told +972: “I told the soldiers to push the settlers out and we’ll leave. Some had weapons and clubs, some were masked.” According to Nidal, one of the settlers then pepper sprayed one of the Palestinians, and a brawl ensued. “The soldiers fired in the air, and seconds later the settlers fired M16s from up close,” he said. “I’ve lived here for 35 years — there’s no law here. The settlers are above the law.”

163
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:38:32pm

Now we know why Mr. Gorn was so angry when he encountered Captain Kirk!

164
silverdolphin  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:40:16pm

re: #157 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Climate change is, in America, mostly either denied or waved away as impractical to solve even if acknowledged.

And our elections, though not really about climate change directly, are slowly steering more and more towards this direction.

Biden’s campaign sees fit to mention climate change to try and get young people to vote. However, as I have repeated over and over, Biden also brags about record US oil production, so his message is mixed at best.

In Washington State, an upcoming ballot measure directly aims to undo a not-very-old Act meant to reduce carbon emissions:

[Embedded content]

..

TL:DR- I htink the increase in oil production is temporary to prevent the Saudis from controlling the price of oil. Now that he has SA buy in to his green economic plans, I expect he will begin to tighten the noose on oil,. as he did today.
_________

I think it is mixed because Biden has used oil as lewverage to get the Saudis to consider other power economies thatn fossil fuel, this why he is pushing the India-Middle Eastern Economic Corridor we can ow produce more oil than the Saudis can so we can negate any effort they make to screw with oil prices. NOw that he has done that, he can now pivot and stop the US from even prodcing more. Thus why he stopped all those leases in Alaska today.

He will complete the full MEEC policy once the Israel-Hamas war is dealt with. He wil then spend the 2nd term reducing oil production along with Saudi production as he pushes us hard into Green Energy.

165
silverdolphin  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:42:35pm

re: #161 sagehen

um… the ones on the left aren’t exactly “smartphones.”

I guess I shpuld have put scare quotes around the word smartphone ;-) Yes there are some that were called smartphones (there is a balckberry in there) before but nothing like after.

166
William Lewis  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:47:03pm

re: #165 silverdolphin

I guess I shpuld have put scare quotes around the word smartphone ;-) Yes there are some that were called smartphones (there is a balckberry in there) before but nothing like after.

And my Razr doesn’t look too much like a iPhone, especially when only half folded to watch videos 😎

167
silverdolphin  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:48:25pm

re: #161 sagehen

um… the ones on the left aren’t exactly “smartphones.”

Here is another look - at Samsung Smartphones before and after the iPhone.
(But my point is really that I think what we call AI may well be very different after the Apple announcements. Maybe not but I am hopeful.)

Samsung Smartphones before iPhone
Samsung Phones After iPhone
168
jaunte  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:55:40pm

Nat King Cole - Nature Boy

With guitarist Oscar Moore, born in Austin, 1916.
en.wikipedia.org

169
silverdolphin  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:58:09pm

re: #166 William Lewis

And my Razr doesn’t look too much like a iPhone, especially when only half folded to watch videos 😎

OK. OK. OK. I’m going to get into details on this. My point, and I think we can agree, is that the look and idea of smartphones before the iPhone were very different tha what people expected after (thus why they copied the look).

I think it is likely that something similar in AI (ML) could happen this year. I could well be that what we thionk about this will be very different.

And I suspect a lot of it will be driven by the Neural Engine found in almost every single Apple device now. They could not introduce their AI ideas until that had happend, I suspect. But now, they can run a lot of ML models ON The Device in ways that no-one else can. You can already use your iPhone to identify walls and doors and people in front of you as you navigate a room blindfolded. There will be more.

170
William Lewis  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:58:10pm

re: #167 silverdolphin

Eh, as the meme puts it, Winter is coming…

171
Belafon  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:59:19pm

re: #167 silverdolphin

It took me a bit to get used to not having a physical keyboard. My favorite phone had a keyboard that you accessed by turning the phone sideways and sliding the screen up.

172
William Lewis  Apr 19, 2024 • 9:59:53pm

re: #169 silverdolphin

My other point is that sometimes you do give Apple _too_ much credit. Lots of failed projects in their history as well.

173
Belafon  Apr 19, 2024 • 10:00:30pm

I looked up someone, which led to a link to someone else, which led to another link, which led to this, and that is why I am sharing:

MINISTRY - New Religion (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

Because I care.

174
silverdolphin  Apr 19, 2024 • 10:03:45pm

re: #170 William Lewis

Eh, as the meme puts it, Winter is coming…

I agree. AI is way overhyped, making it seem they are intelligent. Apple did not use the term until recently. They used the more proper Machine Leaning. But the damn market place took that as meaning that Apple was not doong anything about Ai. So they started saying it .

But it will be machine learning models running on the device, without destroyingbatteryt life or causing hot laps, from the Apple chips that changes everything. If I am right.

It is already possible to use the lidar in an iPhone to determine, and say it out loud, what surrounds you in a room, with the iPhone recognizing walls, chairs, people, etc. allowing someone with bad eyesight to navigate the room. This is just a simple example that could easily become more complex if needed.

175
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 19, 2024 • 10:06:05pm

re: #162 goddamnedfrank

Religious wars meld with land wars.

I for one do not want the US to get tied up any further in Israel.

The hatred people have for each other is not solvable by me.

Or by the US military.

176
William Lewis  Apr 19, 2024 • 10:07:53pm

re: #173 Belafon

I looked up someone, which led to a link to someone else, which led to another link, which led to this, and that is why I am sharing:

[Embedded content]

Because I care.

Still cool. Thanks.

177
silverdolphin  Apr 19, 2024 • 10:09:30pm

re: #172 William Lewis

My other point is that sometimes you do give Apple _too_ much credit. Lots of failed projects in their history as well.

Absolutely. I could be wrong. I know I am usually very sanguine about Apple. Mainly because I use them as a case study of how reorganizing a company (as Jobs did when he returned) can change it forever for the better. ANd how that specific type of reorganization can be spread to other companies.

Failures are important. But I am hoping for success this year because, truthfully, if they do not get on track with ML, they will be mostly kaput for some time. Dead Money as some analyst recently said.

But they have bought 5 or more cutting edge ML (AI) companies in the last few years. They have a history of getting in early, keeping things quiet and then surprising. They lave, more than usual for Apple, hyped the coming WWDC. So I think I am not going out on a limb too far to act like a screaming fanboi ;-)

Plus, as for transparency, a tremendous amount of my net worth is tied up in Apple stock.

178
Dr Lizardo  Apr 19, 2024 • 10:16:54pm

US says a UN agency has agreed to help in distribution of aid to Gaza via sea route

— Unofficial AP News (World) Bot (@apnews-world-rss.bsky.social) 2024-04-20T03:25:30.988104+00:00

179
Targetpractice  Apr 19, 2024 • 10:40:13pm

re: #167 silverdolphin

Here is another look - at Samsung Smartphones before and after the iPhone.
(But my point is really that I think what we call AI may well be very different after the Apple announcements. Maybe not but I am hopeful.)

[Embedded content]

And what do the pre-iPhone Samsung products resemble? Blackberries, because they were the most popular phones on the market even if there were more imaginative and colorful products on offer. Or you could say they look like PDAs, which also had a massive market share because a lot of people wanted the convenience but didn’t need cellular reception because the market for “apps” was mostly limited to either whatever the manufacturer sold on physical media or whatever compatible programs you could find on various boards and shops. They’re also “touchscreen” as it was understood before ‘07, i.e. tapping several times with a stylus on a grainy screen until the CPU chose to acknowledge the gesture.

What the Gen 1 iPhone offered was “convenience,” namely it offered bright touchscreen that dispensed with the stylus and could offer whatever interface you needed on-demand rather than cluttering the phone with buttons or knobs that were largely useless outside of certain applications. It came with the App Store which was an expansion of the existing iTunes Store, giving app developers a ready market for their wares that was (at least on launch) not excessively regulated or showing favor only to developers that paid Apple to offer their goods. And the iOS it shipped with was friendly to all of this, rather than either a stripped-down version of a Windows desktop OS or yet another version of fast-aging PalmOS.

The iPhone was no more revolutionary than the Gen 1 iMac had been, it was just a massive bet on Apple’s part that dispensing with all the roadblocks and bottlenecks in other major brand’s cellphones would convince customers of those brands to make the transition. That it worked had more to do with Apple being an established brand with a track record of success rather than some newcomer offering the next “breakthrough.”

180
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 19, 2024 • 10:47:33pm

re: #20 Patricia Kayden

I know it’s still early but I hope this holds.

[Embedded content]

Good to hear positive news after getting a negative take this evening from a friend who has a cousin who works on technical aspects of campaigns — apparently for either side.

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

181
William Lewis  Apr 19, 2024 • 10:50:25pm

re: #179 Targetpractice

And what do the pre-iPhone Samsung products resemble? Blackberries, because they were the most popular phones on the market even if there were more imaginative and colorful products on offer. Or you could say they look like PDAs, which also had a massive market share because a lot of people wanted the convenience but didn’t need cellular reception because the market for “apps” was mostly limited to either whatever the manufacturer sold on physical media or whatever compatible programs you could find on various boards and shops. They’re also “touchscreen” as it was understood before ‘07, i.e. tapping several times with a stylus on a grainy screen until the CPU chose to acknowledge the gesture.

What the Gen 1 iPhone offered was “convenience,” namely it offered bright touchscreen that dispensed with the stylus and could offer whatever interface you needed on-demand rather than cluttering the phone with buttons or knobs that were largely useless outside of certain applications. It came with the App Store which was an expansion of the existing iTunes Store, giving app developers a ready market for their wares that was (at least on launch) not excessively regulated or showing favor only to developers that paid Apple to offer their goods. And the iOS it shipped with was friendly to all of this, rather than either a stripped-down version of a Windows desktop OS or yet another version of fast-aging PalmOS.

The iPhone was no more revolutionary than the Gen 1 iMac had been, it was just a massive bet on Apple’s part that dispensing with all the roadblocks and bottlenecks in other major brand’s cellphones would convince customers of those brands to make the transition. That it worked had more to do with Apple being an established brand with a track record of success rather than some newcomer offering the next “breakthrough.”

The Apple 2 & Mac themselves were similar in that there was nothing utterly new in either but they rolled all of the then current technologies into an easy to use and reasonably affordable package that outperformed their primary rivals, though the Mac did really require the LaserJet and the terrible twins of Photoshop & PageMaker to survive.

182
silverdolphin  Apr 19, 2024 • 10:54:36pm

re: #179 Targetpractice

And what do the pre-iPhone Samsung products resemble? Blackberries, because they were the most popular phones on the market even if there were more imaginative and colorful products on offer. Or you could say they look like PDAs, which also had a massive market share because a lot of people wanted the convenience but didn’t need cellular reception because the market for “apps” was mostly limited to either whatever the manufacturer sold on physical media or whatever compatible programs you could find on various boards and shops. They’re also “touchscreen” as it was understood before ‘07, i.e. tapping several times with a stylus on a grainy screen until the CPU chose to acknowledge the gesture.

What the Gen 1 iPhone offered was “convenience,” namely it offered bright touchscreen that dispensed with the stylus and could offer whatever interface you needed on-demand rather than cluttering the phone with buttons or knobs that were largely useless outside of certain applications. It came with the App Store which was an expansion of the existing iTunes Store, giving app developers a ready market for their wares that was (at least on launch) not excessively regulated or showing favor only to developers that paid Apple to offer their goods. And the iOS it shipped with was friendly to all of this, rather than either a stripped-down version of a Windows desktop OS or yet another version of fast-aging PalmOS.

The iPhone was no more revolutionary than the Gen 1 iMac had been, it was just a massive bet on Apple’s part that dispensing with all the roadblocks and bottlenecks in other major brand’s cellphones would convince customers of those brands to make the transition. That it worked had more to do with Apple being an established brand with a track record of success rather than some newcomer offering the next “breakthrough.”

I generally agree (although the App store came out later as Jobs had to be convinced to include it. A nice example of how he was often not very prescient but would be convinced by facts to change).

We can have a discussion all day about innovation (and I think that might be fun and interesting. Such as Proposed: one of the biggest creative things Apple did to provide for its success was moving to RISC chips a long, long time ago.) but my point here was that Apple has a history of defining and remaking the marketplace - the Bondi Blue iMac did that, the iPod did that, the iPhone did that, the iPad did that, the App store did that, Services did that, etc.

I think it may well happen again with ML this summer. Because really, only Apple has the technology in all its devices to run many ML models on the device without needing huge server farms. It will all depend on if they really can redefine the marketplace once again. Think of what a lot of creative., small developers could do with such ML models on an iPhone.

183
A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS  Apr 19, 2024 • 11:05:58pm

re: #180 Hecuba’s daughter

Good to hear positive news after getting a negative take this evening from a friend who has a cousin who works on technical aspects of campaigns — apparently for either side.

[Embedded content]

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184
silverdolphin  Apr 19, 2024 • 11:09:54pm

re: #180 Hecuba’s daughter

Good to hear positive news after getting a negative take this evening from a friend who has a cousin who works on technical aspects of campaigns — apparently for either side.

[Embedded content]

I feel comfortable that Biden will be doing a lot better with the Pro-Palestine side by the time elections happen. The Pro-Palestine position is much closer to what he wants (a two state solution for example) but in Oct there was no way for the American people to follow him. So the protests are a positive thing because they forced the media to actually talk about the plight of the Gazans as separate from Hamas. There has been a noticeable movement of American opinion here.

So Biden has been slowly inching to their position publically but I think he has been much more forceful wrt Bibi behind the scenes. (I think it likely Bibi was read the riot act by Biden after killing the Iranian general and that Biden helped orchestrate the “Iranian response” using his backdoor to Iran. C’mon, what sort of secret attack is known in detail 4 hours ahead of time, allowing almost all the destruction to falling shrapnel? And then Israel responds in a way that produces no casualties?) SO, I will not be surprised if he uses the Israel aid as leverage to finally get Israel to move.

The plan he has for the ME could actually invigorate Gaza, if he is successful. One thought I had is that at the moment, his plan would use Haifa as the European port to connect to India via the railroad. But what happens if there is a second port in Gaza to help? There have been some real plans put forward to accomplish this. And the US is actually building a port for humanatarian aid. Could it be expanded, giving a free Gaza a real economic boost?

Dreams but if anyone could make it happen, I think Biden could. And I do feel comfortable that he will have convinced many of those in Michigan of the benefits of his dream.

But I am a democrat so I do worry.

185
A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS  Apr 19, 2024 • 11:26:38pm

re: #184 silverdolphin

There are two serious obstacles to the two-state solution: Israeli “right-wingers” and Palestinian leaders. I’d love it if something positive happened, but I sadly don’t expect to live to see it.

186
DodgerFan1988  Apr 19, 2024 • 11:52:45pm
187
William Lewis  Apr 20, 2024 • 12:11:40am

re: #186 DodgerFan1988

The PAVN did the world a great good by first defeating the Khmer Rouge and then by kicking the ass of the PLA when they tried to punish Vietnam for that.

When in Vietnam in 2002 to adopt my son, I met a couple of men who had first been ARVN veterans and then in “reeducation” after April ‘75. But when the Chinese invaded, the communist government went to those vets and said “fight for us and, if you survive, you may go home”. They did, they fought well and sent the PLA running. The Vietnamese government kept their word.

Sounds to me like that moron earned his place in hell.

188
silverdolphin  Apr 20, 2024 • 12:15:05am

re: #185 A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS

There are two serious obstacles to the two-state solution: Israeli “right-wingers” and Palestinian leaders. I’d love it if something positive happened, but I sadly don’t expect to live to see it.

As a realist, I think you may be right. Things will likely continue to be shit for a long time. But, I do like to see if there is a positive path forward, even if it is unlikely. Because it is so easy to see a negative path.

I do not expect to live to see an ME without violence. But, then, I was not sure I would see the IRA stop bombing. Stranger things have happened. And like in the US, the only path forward is to destroy the Right in Israel. If we can do it, so can Israel.

After the Civil War, we had Reconstruction (that might have actually worked if Lincoln had lived). After WW2, we had the Marshall plan. Both remade the economics of the time. I see aspects of the same in Biden’s Middle East Economic Corridor that could remake global economies from India to Europe.

To me, the future is still hopeful. So I will continue to use my confirmation bias to take little bits and pieces here, there and … hope.

189
No Malarkey!  Apr 20, 2024 • 12:28:58am

re: #188 silverdolphin

As a realist, I think you may be right. Things will likely continue to be shit for a long time. But, I do like to see if there is a positive path forward, even if it is unlikely. Because it is so easy to see a negative path.

I do not expect to live to see an ME without violence. But, then, I was not sure I would see the IRA stop bombing. Stranger things have happened. And like in the US, the only path forward is to destroy the Right in Israel. If we can do it, so can Israel.

After the Civil War, we had Reconstruction (that might have actually worked if Lincoln had lived). After WW2, we had the Marshall plan. Both remade the economics of the time. I see aspects of the same in Biden’s Middle East Economic Corridor that could remake global economies from India to Europe.

To me, the future is still hopeful. So I will continue to use my confirmation bias to take little bits and pieces here, there and … hope.

It’s easy to focus on the negative, but a lot of good things have been happening too. Deep poverty has dropped dramatically in the 21st century, for example, and here in the US the economy is stronger than ever, even as US carbon emissions have dropped to the lowest levels in decades, and crime in the US has dropped dramatically during the Biden Administration.

190
Targetpractice  Apr 20, 2024 • 12:40:01am

re: #182 silverdolphin

I generally agree (although the App store came out later as Jobs had to be convinced to include it. A nice example of how he was often not very prescient but would be convinced by facts to change).

We can have a discussion all day about innovation (and I think that might be fun and interesting. Such as Proposed: one of the biggest creative things Apple did to provide for its success was moving to RISC chips a long, long time ago.) but my point here was that Apple has a history of defining and remaking the marketplace - the Bondi Blue iMac did that, the iPod did that, the iPhone did that, the iPad did that, the App store did that, Services did that, etc.

I think it may well happen again with ML this summer. Because really, only Apple has the technology in all its devices to run many ML models on the device without needing huge server farms. It will all depend on if they really can redefine the marketplace once again. Think of what a lot of creative., small developers could do with such ML models on an iPhone.

Yet the same general theme of these products is the one that goes back to the Apple II and original Mac: convenience. A crystallization of existing market trends into a single, one-size-fits-all product that appeals to users who want something they can just turn on and run with. You bought your kid an iMac because it was a cheap pre-built that worked right out of the box but wasn’t another “beige box” like the ones they used at school. You bought an iPod because you didn’t need to buy a separate Flash card for storage and it came with iTunes that let you organize and (eventually) download music in a safer fashion than Napster or Limewire. You got an iPhone because it had a bigger screen than other smartphones but also games and work apps that benefited from a touchscreen. The iPad was an iPhones/iPod Touch on steroids, all the same apps and more than could use an even bigger screen while also letting you exploit that new “streaming video” business. And so on and so forth, every new product aimed at making things easier and more user-friendly over the competition.

191
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 12:42:46am

Keep your fingers crossed, everyone….

House on the brink of approving Ukraine and Israel aid after months of struggle

— Unofficial AP News (World) Bot (@apnews-world-rss.bsky.social) 2024-04-20T07:27:21.619706+00:00

192
IngisKahn  Apr 20, 2024 • 12:48:31am

This aid bill is massively unpopular with the yoots. (I don’t like it much myself)

193
silverdolphin  Apr 20, 2024 • 12:54:53am

re: #191 Dr Lizardo

Keep your fingers crossed, everyone….

[Embedded content]

SO, how will it play if Biden decides to take the Israel aid and put it in his back pocket to use as leverage with Bibi? What could he make the release of the aid contingent on? Or should he just hand it over without strings? Maybe the phony strike against Iran was what Biden wanted from Bibi.

194
No Malarkey!  Apr 20, 2024 • 1:01:33am

re: #191 Dr Lizardo

Keep your fingers crossed, everyone….

[Embedded content]

Interesting question is, if the aid package passes, and the crazies privilege a motion to vacate the Chair, which seems inevitable, do the Democrats cast enough votes to keep Mike as Speaker, or do they allow the House to descend into leaderless chaos again? Unless Johnson has something else to offer the Democrats, I’m inclined to say they should allow the Republicans to fall into another pit of their own making, and hand them a shovel so they can keep digging.

195
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 20, 2024 • 1:04:43am

Doing some genealogy tonight…

Father of an aunt has always been mysterious, he disappeared without a trace. I probably found him in a WWII draft record, but after that he disappears again. Someone attached a record to him of a man by a different name - yet another case of someone who was trying to not be found?

Some people do not want to be found.

Other people may have wanted to be found but they were too poor and illiterate.

DNA matches can always be a source of surprise and confounding counterfactuals: my mother gets matches that are undoubtedly from her colonial Scottish immigrants. Some of these people are just not well documented. After the English cleared the land of the Scots of actual Scots, so many of them ended up in the colonies.

If said people were not somebodies in the Scottish clans, they just don’t have records by which to sort them out.

So many of these people are the ancestors of the white folk of the US South, and not only explain the Southern accent(s) but also the deep rooted culture of not trusting outsiders.

196
piratedan  Apr 20, 2024 • 1:07:02am

re: #192 IngisKahn

I know that the yoots are impatient with the way that the Middle East has unfolded. Yet, JB had to wait on the squishy middle to get onboard with helping the Palestinians without helping Hamas. The protests have helped get that across (plus the intransigence of those currently in charge in Israel) and while JB has been trying to work it via the margins in getting aid in, Bibi has been running the group that gave Joe the finger.

Joe was able to convince the UN to get off its ass and direct the aid/food relief in Gaza now and apparently has been working behind the scenes to keep the Iranian from going off-script (not that the yoots would understand) and also dealing with the Houthis sinking shipping. He’s already announced sanctions against the those west bank settlers who have been going rogue and how do you explain that he can’t just Green Lantern his way to a solution?

If he stays on pace and continues to apply the carrot and stick, I think he’ll get there, but it will take time and its not easy to convince someone like Bibi that jail is better than WWIII, Nuclear Bugaloo.

197
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 20, 2024 • 1:08:50am

It used to be possible to disappear rather easily in this country.

People would just pick up and move.

And they changed their name if they felt like it.

After WWII that became much more difficult, especially with Social Security records and such.

We really are living in an odd time. For a few brief decades we have had the wherewithal to track individuals their whole lives.

This is really aberrant compared to the prior 300 thousand years of modern humans.

198
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 1:16:19am

re: #194 No Malarkey!

Interesting question is, if the aid package passes, and the crazies privilege a motion to vacate the Chair, which seems inevitable, do the Democrats cast enough votes to keep Mike as Speaker, or do they allow the House to descend into leaderless chaos again? Unless Johnson has something else to offer the Democrats, I’m inclined to say they should allow the Republicans to fall into another pit of their own making, and hand them a shovel so they can keep digging.

Johnson ditches the so-called “Hastert Rule” and we might have something good to talk about.

199
No Malarkey!  Apr 20, 2024 • 1:20:27am

re: #198 Dr Lizardo

Johnson ditches the so-called “Hastert Rule” and we might have something good to talk about

Good example; if Johnson wants Democratic votes to remain Speaker, he needs to offer them something concrete in return. Though I guess it’s possible such a deal has already been made to get him to move the aid package through.

200
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 1:31:15am

re: #199 No Malarkey!

Good example; if Johnson wants Democratic votes to remain Speaker, he needs to offer them something concrete in return. Though I guess it’s possible such a deal has already been made to get him to move the aid package through.

And there’s gonna be all kinds of screaming from Empty-G and the rest of the howler monkeys over in the Freedumb Caucus, I don’t doubt that.

201
silverdolphin  Apr 20, 2024 • 1:34:25am

re: #190 Targetpractice

Yet the same general theme of these products is the one that goes back to the Apple II and original Mac: convenience. A crystallization of existing market trends into a single, one-size-fits-all product that appeals to users who want something they can just turn on and run with. You bought your kid an iMac because it was a cheap pre-built that worked right out of the box but wasn’t another “beige box” like the ones they used at school. You bought an iPod because you didn’t need to buy a separate Flash card for storage and it came with iTunes that let you organize and (eventually) download music in a safer fashion than Napster or Limewire. You got an iPhone because it had a bigger screen than other smartphones but also games and work apps that benefited from a touchscreen. The iPad was an iPhones/iPod Touch on steroids, all the same apps and more than could use an even bigger screen while also letting you exploit that new “streaming video” business. And so on and so forth, every new product aimed at making things easier and more user-friendly over the competition.

I love how you frame that. Apple has a singular focus on the customer first and then bringing in technology fo rthem. Not on giving the customer what they want but on giving them something they did not even know they needed.

Here is a clip from the first WWDC after Jobs came back. In 1997, I think he is still an advisor at this point. And it shows ALL the things Apple would be able to accomplish in the next 20 years. It starts with a technologist from the audience, upset about Jobs canning a bit of software, asking a pretty insulting and condescending question. It becomes the best 5 minute, extemporaneous explanaton of Apple.

Steve Jobs Insult Response - Highest Quality

I marvel at the ability of Jobs to calmly stop, spend several silent seconds formulating where he was going to go and then giving a speech. In that speech we see aspects of his reality distortion field. I would have stormed any barricade he asked.

But he also explains just what he is doing. Which is pretty much exactly what Targetpractice states.

202
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 20, 2024 • 1:38:16am

On young people today being concerned about Palestinians - that too is really odd, historically.

100 years ago it was unlikely that the average 20 year old American gave a second thought about the affairs overseas, unless they had an urge to travel or join the Navy.

So I looked up “Palestine” in newspapers of 1924 to see how much news that region garnered. Now I’m skipping the Jewish newspapers (which had much news about Palestine), and with the British Mandate also in the news that came up on occasion.

But oddly enough, the first paper I found was The Daily Worker (of Chicago), an obviously pro-labor and socialist outlet. They had an article in the June 9th, 1924 edition: chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

The right hand column is a discussion of…. oil. And concessions on oil the US is getting, in which is mentioned Palestine.

It is not odd that the US government was working on behalf of American companies to get oil concessions.

And this of course gets to the point: the reason the US was interested in that part of the world was oil.

Even back then.

And the youth of 1924 probably didn’t give a second thought to it.

203
piratedan  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:01:25am

re: #202 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

think that the internet does a good job of allowing more global connectivity than ever before, thru hobbies, games, music etc, so that those that want to be more aware can be.

204
silverdolphin  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:05:04am

re: #202 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

On young people today being concerned about Palestinians - that too is really odd, historically.

100 years ago it was unlikely that the average 20 year old American gave a second thought about the affairs overseas, unless they had an urge to travel or join the Navy.

So I looked up “Palestine” in newspapers of 1924 to see how much news that region garnered. Now I’m skipping the Jewish newspapers (which had much news about Palestine), and with the British Mandate also in the news that came up on occasion.

But oddly enough, the first paper I found was The Daily Worker (of Chicago), an obviously pro-labor and socialist outlet. They had an article in the June 9th, 1924 edition: chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

The right hand column is a discussion of…. oil. And concessions on oil the US is getting, in which is mentioned Palestine.

It is not odd that the US government was working on behalf of American companies to get oil concessions.

And this of course gets to the point: the reason the US was interested in that part of the world was oil.

Even back then.

And the youth of 1924 probably didn’t give a second thought to it.

Amazing to see how far back the ME was recognized for oil. But then I remember that the Ottoman Empire was divided up by the Great Powers mainly based on oil.

ANd then i realize that my hypothesis that Biden, even back in the Obama Administration, has been at the leadership of lessening the importance of ME oil by making the US the largest producer of oil in the world.We produce over 13 billion barrels of oil a day while the Saudis can only top out at about 9. We are now an oil exporting country. Ths tremendously weakens the Saudi’s hands.

Now this has also pissed off a lot of the yoots. But, it is also likely that the stick this presented was also combined with the carrots of Biden’s Middle East Economic Corridor. The Saudis know that their oil-based economy will end up on the ash heap of history sooner rather than later. Here he gives them a huge economic place at the Green economy table that will change that area of the world. Oil will be replaced by solar, hydrogen and wind power generationthat will now be exported.

They, and other oil-producing states, have bought into this.They are no longer working to leverage the US with oil boycotts, since that would have no effect. SO if my hypothesis - that Biden sort of did to the Saudis what Reagan did to the USSR (use the country’s economic might to demonstrate that the US could not beaten, whether by oil or nuclear weapons) - is now true and has succeeded, what would one expect Biden to do next?

How about dial down the oil production in the US? He has made his point (oil is doomed but Green Energy can replace that) so why futz to get even more? Now he can drop the charade, start dropping oil needs and replace then with Green Energy full speed.

Today Biden restricted oil/gas leases on 13 million acres in Alaska. I fully expect that Biden may well not approave another acre of Federal land for oil leases as long as he is President. He now no longer needs the big stick of our oil production and can speak softly about green energy.

He is giving the yoots just what they wanted. Just in time for the election! He really is a Master Politician. (Of course,Hamas likely started all this in Oct because the Saudis signed the agreement in Sept and were making plans to recognize Israels right to exist, just like Egypt had. So he has to solve that problem also. But as a Master Politician, if it canbe dealt with, he can do it.)

205
silverdolphin  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:16:33am

re: #199 No Malarkey!

Good example; if Johnson wants Democratic votes to remain Speaker, he needs to offer them something concrete in return. Though I guess it’s possible such a deal has already been made to get him to move the aid package through.

I think that there has already been a lot of backroom discussions. Biden is a master of the real art of the deal and Biden’s claim of bi-partisanship becomes true.

I think we might see the culmination of the current politcal realignment take place in this Congress. The sane WallStreet/Main Street Republicans, who are willing to pay higher taxes if they get Biden’s economy rather than return to the craziness and chaos of the Trump economy, will make common cause with the moderate, Third Wave Democrats, in order to get some things done. In fact, they already think similarly on some fiscal issues.

This means that the Speaker keeps his job for the rest of the Congress by havng support from these Dems and sane Republicans.

But I expect some of those social things that progressives want will be part of this deal to keep Johnson in charge. IN this scenaro, it is important that the dems support Johnson against the MAGAnuts because that gives the dems leverage to get what they want passed.

In true bipartisanship, it is a win-win for all those who join Biden’s deal

And the GOP fractures and in maybe 2 election cycles no longer can sustain itself as a nation party. I hope.

206
Targetpractice  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:18:52am

re: #194 No Malarkey!

Interesting question is, if the aid package passes, and the crazies privilege a motion to vacate the Chair, which seems inevitable, do the Democrats cast enough votes to keep Mike as Speaker, or do they allow the House to descend into leaderless chaos again? Unless Johnson has something else to offer the Democrats, I’m inclined to say they should allow the Republicans to fall into another pit of their own making, and hand them a shovel so they can keep digging.

Leave him in place, as he’s pretty much already a lame duck and there is no (at this time) pressing legislation beyond the aid package. Let the shit-flingers spend the next seven months screaming and banging their chests about how he’s a “puppet,” he’s a “RINO,” about how he takes orders from the “Deep State” and how they’re gonna hang him up by his gonads as soon as they win a huge majority in November.

The entertainment value alone will be worth the headaches and it’s not as if we expect to get much of anything accomplished for the rest of the year.

207
Nojay UK  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:20:17am

re: #195 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Doing some genealogy tonight…

[Clip] After the English cleared the land of the Scots of actual Scots, so many of them ended up in the colonies.

Oh dear… It was Scots landowners who instigated the Highland Clearances, not “the English”. For most people living in the Highlands the best thing they could do was get out and go farm somewhere that wasn’t a forty-five degree slope of bracken and bog-moss over loose shale rock and if the local landowner was willing to pay for a ship to take you there, so much the better.

208
No Malarkey!  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:23:57am

re: #205 silverdolphin

I think that there has already been a lot of backroom discussions. Biden is a master of the real art of the deal and Biden’s claim of bi-partisanship becomes true.

I think we might see the culmination of the current politcal realignment take place in this Congress. The sane WallStreet/Main Street Republicans, who are willing to pay higher taxes if they get Biden’s economy rather than return to the craziness and chaos of the Trump economy, will make common cause with the moderate, Third Wave Democrats, in order to get some things done. In fact, they already think similarly on some fiscal issues.

This means that the Speaker keeps his job for the rest of the Congress by havng support from these Dems and sane Republicans.

But I expect some of those social things that progressives want will be part of this deal to keep Johnson in charge. IN this scenaro, it is important that the dems support Johnson against the MAGAnuts because that gives the dems leverage to get what they want passed.

In true bipartisanship, it is a win-win for all those who join Biden’s deal

And the GOP fractures and in maybe 2 election cycles no longer can sustain itself as a nation party. I hope.

Johnson is a hard line Christian nationalist, so I have a hard time imagining him agreeing to a deal that includes “social things progressives want.” I would be happy if they could just make some bipartisan deals that don’t code left or right, like making it easier to build infrastructure such as nuclear power plants, pipelines AND transmission lines, high speed rail and multifamily housing. NIMBYs are the common enemy!

209
No Malarkey!  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:25:45am

re: #206 Targetpractice

Leave him in place, as he’s pretty much already a lame duck and there is no (at this time) pressing legislation beyond the aid package. Let the shit-flingers spend the next seven months screaming and banging their chests about how he’s a “puppet,” he’s a “RINO,” about how he takes orders from the “Deep State” and how they’re gonna hang him up by his gonads as soon as they win a huge majority in November.

The entertainment value alone will be worth the headaches and it’s not as if we expect to get much of anything accomplished for the rest of the year.

Though there is also entertainment value in watching the Republicans flail about trying and failing to elect a new Speaker. Decisions, decisions.

210
Targetpractice  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:27:58am

re: #209 No Malarkey!

Though there is also entertainment value in watching the Republicans flail about trying and failing to elect a new Speaker. Decisions, decisions.

Better to keep him there in case of a future economic/foreign/natural crisis so we can start the work on moving any bills necessary. Plus the entertainment value in watching the party flail and babble in tongues is way less than one would think. You can only hear “Black smoke, no new Speaker” so many days in a row before it blurs into background noise.

211
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:28:48am

re: #206 Targetpractice

Let the shit-flingers spend the next seven months screaming and banging their chests about how he’s a “puppet,” he’s a “RINO,” about how he takes orders from the “Deep State” and how they’re gonna hang him up by his gonads as soon as they win a huge majority in November.

Also, such preposterous chest-thumping by the MAGA contingent will serve to further demoralize Republicans as they watch their party descend into backstabbing and infighting.

Now…if (and it’s a big “if”, I concede) SCOTUS rules against Trump in his immunity claims, and we can get the D.C. Federal case started against him, that will further demoralize the GOP. If (another big “if” there) he’s found guilty in New York, then we move on to a Federal trial in fairly short order and he’s found guilty yet again, GOP support is going to crater. At that point, with possibly only mere weeks until Election Day, and with endless and breathless media coverage of Trump’s legal travails, it’s not unfair to think that the Republicans are going to be looking at an electoral fiasco come November 5th.

212
William Lewis  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:32:02am

re: #206 Targetpractice

Leave him in place, as he’s pretty much already a lame duck and there is no (at this time) pressing legislation beyond the aid package. Let the shit-flingers spend the next seven months screaming and banging their chests about how he’s a “puppet,” he’s a “RINO,” about how he takes orders from the “Deep State” and how they’re gonna hang him up by his gonads as soon as they win a huge majority in November.

The entertainment value alone will be worth the headaches and it’s not as if we expect to get much of anything accomplished for the rest of the year.

Total agreement. AND the spectacle will be more help than the chaos would be in brining out dem voters I think.

213
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:42:28am

Mastodon

214
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:44:06am

If they’re going to put her bust on Mt Rushmore they’re going to need a bigger mountain.
/

215
William Lewis  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:51:02am

Lots of new landscapes at my Instagram.

Https://www.instagram.com/wlewisiii

Check them out if you’re in the mood.

— William Lewis (@wlewisiii.bsky.social) 2024-04-20T09:50:37.978Z

216
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:51:59am

re: #207 Nojay UK

Oh dear… It was Scots landowners who instigated the Highland Clearances, not “the English”. …

So yes, the proximate cause were landlords trying to take more control over land, contra ancient clanship.

But in 1707 Scotland and England united, and that meant the lords of Scotland had allegiance to the English crown.

In the bigger picture, my take is the the modernization of the new Union required different ways of doing agriculture than the old ways.

The Highlands were prone to famine, not being a particularly good region for agriculture. So the lords of the lands had their own struggles.

So maybe you can’t blame the English crown directly, but they seemed to care little about their new subjects while pressing the lords to pay.

217
No Malarkey!  Apr 20, 2024 • 2:53:46am

re: #212 William Lewis

Total agreement. AND the spectacle will be more help than the chaos would be in brining out dem voters I think.

It will just stick in my craw to watch Democrats vote to keep that sanctimonious little prick as Speaker, so it better be worth it.

218
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:08:21am

re: #217 No Malarkey!

It will just stick in my craw to watch Democrats vote to keep that sanctimonious little prick as Speaker, so it better be worth it.

It’s a small price to pay to neuter a rising MAGA star. Jeffries will keep Johnson on a short leash, constantly reminding him that he’s there because the GOP has no better options that they would put forward if he left. Johnson won’t recover from this with the far right, and they fear (somewhat justifiably) that he could help hasten their irrelevancy.

219
William Lewis  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:12:55am

re: #217 No Malarkey!

It will just stick in my craw to watch Democrats vote to keep that sanctimonious little prick as Speaker, so it better be worth it.

What’s the old saying about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer?

220
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:13:00am

c.im

221
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:13:58am

re: #220 darthstar

c.im

Crap…I hate that instance.
Link to article: 2paragraphs.com

222
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:14:25am

re: #221 darthstar

Crap…I hate that instance.
Link to article: 2paragraphs.com

223
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:16:42am

3am…takes me three posts to get that out. MTG’s picking up on a little known new disinfo topic is a pretty good sized red flag. We know she isn’t paying attention to anything actually happening in Ukraine. She’s being handled.

224
William Lewis  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:21:19am

re: #223 darthstar

3am…takes me three posts to get that out. MTG’s picking up on a little known new disinfo topic is a pretty good sized red flag. We know she isn’t paying attention to anything actually happening in Ukraine. She’s being handled.

The problem is that so much of the FBI CounterIntel is probably compromised from Mango Moron’s time in office still.

225
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:23:51am

re: #224 William Lewis

The problem is that so much of the FBI CounterIntel is probably compromised from Mango Moron’s time in office still.

Just get some reporter to ask her a question about Transcarpathia and watch her freeze up and say, “Where?”

226
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:26:26am

227
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:27:14am

All I gotta say on this is, “Damn.”

Taylor Swift has made Spotify history with her new release “The Tortured Poets Department,” becoming the first album to exceed 200 million streams in a single day, Variety can exclusively reveal.

The feat comes less than 24 hours after its release, signaling that the numbers could stretch even higher once the final figures are tallied. Swift now has the top three most streamed albums in a single day, with previous records held by “Midnights” and “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”

Additionally, with “Poets,” Swift has become the most streamed artist in a single day in Spotify history. She previously broke her record as the most streamed artist in a single day when “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” dropped in October last year.

variety.com

228
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:27:57am

He fucked around…he found out.

Mastodon

229
Nojay UK  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:28:47am

re: #216 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

So yes, the proximate cause were landlords trying to take more control over land, contra ancient clanship.

The clan chiefs mostly lived in the Lowlands in civilised places like Edinburgh and Stirling. They didn’t give much thought to the hardscrabble life of their serf-like tenants other than to pocket the rents their agents beat out of them.

But in 1707 Scotland and England united, and that meant the lords of Scotland had allegiance to the English crown.

Oh dear, I am beginning to understand why Irish folks have a real downer on American Plastic Paddies… The crowns of Scotland and England were united back in 1609 when James VI of Scotland inherited the English crown and became James VI and First. 1707 was the Union of Parliaments, a much more complicated thing which eventually led to the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

So maybe you can’t blame the English crown directly, but they seemed to care little about their new subjects while pressing the lords to pay.

There was no “English crown” by the time of the Clearances. There was the British crown, a national institution that had been passed around a couple of foreign aristocratic families (the House of Orange and the Hanovers) and politically neutered by Parliament over the century following the Union of Crowns. There had been two major rebellions started in the Highlands in 1715 and 1745, fomented and financed by the Papish French kings to put their hand-picked puppet on the British throne and do away with all that egalitarian democratic rule. The British Parliament decided it was time to bring the region into the eighteenth century, in part by building metalled roads into the Highlands and establishing large artillery parks and fortresses at their termini. Those roads made sheep more profitable than rebellious hardscrabble farmers and the Clearances thus started.

230
Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:32:46am

Well.
Wordle 1,036 4/6

Click to Reveal

⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛
🟩🟩⬛🟨⬛
🟩🟩🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

231
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:38:00am

re: #227 Dr Lizardo

All I gotta say on this is, “Damn.”

variety.com

She’s got a future in this industry.

232
William Lewis  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:38:12am

re: #229 Nojay UK

The clan chiefs mostly lived in the Lowlands in civilised places like Edinburgh and Stirling. They didn’t give much thought to the hardscrabble life of their serf-like tenants other than to pocket the rents their agents beat out of them.

Oh dear, I am beginning to understand why Irish folks have a real downer on American Plastic Paddies… The crowns of Scotland and England were united back in 1609 when James VI of Scotland inherited the English crown and became James VI and First. 1707 was the Union of Parliaments, a much more complicated thing which eventually led to the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

There was no “English crown” by the time of the Clearances. There was the British crown, a national institution that had been passed around a couple of foreign aristocratic families (the House of Orange and the Hanovers) and politically neutered by Parliament over the century following the Union of Crowns. There had been two major rebellions started in the Highlands in 1715 and 1745, fomented and financed by the Papish French kings to put their hand-picked puppet on the British throne and do away with all that egalitarian democratic rule. The British Parliament decided it was time to bring the region into the eighteenth century, in part by building metalled roads into the Highlands and establishing large artillery parks and fortresses at their termini. Those roads made sheep more profitable than rebellious hardscrabble farmers and the Clearances thus started.

Ah, yes. The wool :)

And not too long after that, the various “romances” and Highland Regiment began the process of whitewashing the history into the stuff that most people now “know”. Like the modern “tartans” that have nothing to do with clan history as one little example.

233
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:38:52am

The guy who torched himself died. Glad his suffering is over.

234
William Lewis  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:39:25am

re: #231 darthstar

She’s got a future in this industry.

Eh, maybe. Let’s see if she get’s any hits…

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

(that enough?)

235
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:42:44am

re: #234 William Lewis

I’d like to see her to a GOTV tour — just start randomly showing up at Biden rallies and sing a quick song, remind people to register to vote. In a week his rallies will have a couple thousand extra fans hoping she appears.

236
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:53:21am

re: #231 darthstar

She’s got a future in this industry.

I think this kid is gonna be a big star!

237
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:59:48am

re: #229 Nojay UK

There was no “English crown” by the time of the Clearances.

Yes, I should have written “British crown”.

Point being, the rulers did not care about the people.

238
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 4:03:40am

Hey, look! Another kiddie fiddler who’s not a drag queen!

Jordan Roy Henderson (age 34, born 1989) is a fifth-grade teacher at Evergreen Elementary School in Pierce County and a volunteer worship pastor. He is currently on administrative leave due to allegations of molesting his female students.

Deputies arrested him at his Gig Harbor home from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) and taken to the county jail.

The PCSD stated that five girls from Evergreen Elementary School came forward, reporting assaults that occurred during school hours. Deputies are encouraging other students with similar experiences to come forward as well.

He is accused of molesting and groping students under 12 years old. One student reported the assaults to her parents in February, according to PCSD Sgt. Darren Moss Jr.

urmi.org

239
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Apr 20, 2024 • 4:21:18am

re: #230 Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅

I’ll have a birb, please.

Howdy all!

S0ErSHU5MFAwTytzcWo3cEZ2L0ZXaDMxL3BZVFVEVXBoSXIwdzNZS3EwajR6VHZoVFJVVXB6NUZJTXU2UmNKcytBRU1aU2hPR3FxK0VqQzJDSGY1cEdQRkJ5MXR0OVVHRWt3eE1kakVONk5FcmVRc2tVNjZwdFR3d0svNTNjSVE6OgyH7+fJD6ly496ywPQrus4=

240
Randall Gross  Apr 20, 2024 • 4:44:34am

Does it feel like the enshittification is accelerating?

[image or embed]

— Dave Levitan (@davelevitan.bsky.social) Apr 20, 2024 at 6:37 AM

241
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 4:46:47am
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned Senate colleagues Friday they should be prepared to stay in session through the weekend to finish work on a long-stalled package to fund the war in Ukraine, Israel and other emergency security needs.

Schumer pointed out that senators may have to stick around the Capitol to also finish work on legislation to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) warrantless surveillance program, which expires at 11:59 p.m. Friday.

“For the information of my colleagues, members should plan to be here over the weekend if necessary to work on both FISA and the supplemental,” he announced.

The Democratic leader then said the House is expected to pass the emergency foreign aid package, which has been broken into four separate bills, Saturday.

“The House is scheduled to take up the supplemental tomorrow,” he said. “It would at last deliver critical aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific and humanitarian assistance. We will see how things go in the lower chamber over the next day or so, and I hope the House gets this legislation passed without further delay.”

thehill.com

242
Nojay UK  Apr 20, 2024 • 4:57:23am

re: #237 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Yes, I should have written “British crown”.

Dinna fash yersel’, it’s no the first time some ignorant Yank has made that stupid mistake. Won’t be the last either.

Point being, the rulers did not care about the people.

By the mid-1700s the Crown had little political leverage and no power of taxation, it was all up to Parliament. The US has this weird creation myth that the oppression of George III had everything to do with the slave-owners revolt in 1776 whereas they actually rebelled against the democratically-elected British Parliament that was in charge of setting taxes and passing laws.

243
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 20, 2024 • 5:08:33am

re: #242 Nojay UK

By the mid-1700s the Crown had little political leverage and no power of taxation, it was all up to Parliament.

So I was onto something when I picked 1707 as the Union as that is when the British Parliament happened when the English and Scottish bodies united, right?

The Lairds/Lords did not really mind sending all the peasants to the colonies.

Problem for us descendants of said peasants, is that they did not have the ability to pass on their family histories. Much of the family histories just faded away, gone when the immigrants died.

The poor do not have history. The rich and powerful, the somebodies, are the ones who have history.

They write the history.

244
Dangerman  Apr 20, 2024 • 5:16:53am

re: #241 Dr Lizardo

thehill.com

Fisa is done

245
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Apr 20, 2024 • 5:17:11am

re: #199 No Malarkey!

Good example; if Johnson wants Democratic votes to remain Speaker, he needs to offer them something concrete in return. Though I guess it’s possible such a deal has already been made to get him to move the aid package through.

Except for the fact that the GOP has a very long track record of not keeping “deals” that they make to get something they want with the promise of something for the Democrats at a later point.

246
Nojay UK  Apr 20, 2024 • 5:21:20am

re: #243 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

So I was onto something when I picked 1707 as the Union as that is when the British Parliament happened when the English and Scottish bodies united, right?

Yes, and the Clearances started around 1750 or so, forty years later and after two bloody rebellions had swept out of the Highlands and threatened the democratic government of Britain on behalf of the French monarchy and the Vatican (which still had a hard-on for the rebellious Church of England).

It was part of my school education to learn such things in history class, when they happened and in which order. We the People chose our kings and queens and kicked them out when they failed to impress much as you Yanks do with your Presidents. Even after the Restoration of Charles II we kept the axe ready, just in case and the monarchs never got uppity ever again.

247
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Apr 20, 2024 • 5:26:15am

re: #229 Nojay UK

And enclosure and clearance was already a thing elsewhere in Britain (and Ireland) where the landowners, or those wealthy and organized enough to take over or buy out and enclose the local commons in order to make it “more productive”.

248
Randall Gross  Apr 20, 2024 • 5:33:43am

Well shit. Stupid Senate.

Section 702 has been prone to abuse since it began. We’ve been lied to repeatedly about it and now, rather than reforming or repealing it, the fucking government expanded it to be even worse.

[image or embed]

— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick.bsky.social) Apr 20, 2024 at 12:42 AM

249
Captain Magic  Apr 20, 2024 • 5:42:50am

Getting rated limited messages from Blue sky posts, it appears.

But if you click on the post, it comes up clean.

250
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 5:47:20am

Mexican police investigate a man as a possible serial killer after finding bones and a saw

— Unofficial AP News (World) Bot (@apnews-world-rss.bsky.social) 2024-04-20T09:27:12.008957+00:00

251
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 5:47:55am

What a contrasting night of movie viewing: Rebel Moon Part 2, and Hundreds of Beavers. Both have clear influences, yet the former is so derivative while the latter is so inspired, inventive, original, and hilarious, WITH BETTER ACTION SEQUENCES!

— Frank Conniff (@frankconniff.bsky.social) 2024-04-20T08:32:15.450Z

252
Randall Gross  Apr 20, 2024 • 5:49:11am

re: #249 Captain Magic

Getting rated limited messages from Blue sky posts, it appears.

But if you click on the post, it comes up clean.

In bluesky you can set you posts so they don’t embed, there’s a few who have done that, like an astrophotographer who takes astounding pictures.
bsky.app

253
Randall Gross  Apr 20, 2024 • 5:50:29am

This was also on NPR yesterday, a father and daughter were walking on the beach one day and noticed a fossil
bbc.com

254
jeffreyw  Apr 20, 2024 • 5:53:03am

It’s Caturday!

Good morning!

255
No Malarkey!  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:03:24am

re: #241 Dr Lizardo

thehill.com

Rand Paul has made it clear that the aid is not going to pass the Senate by unanimous consent, and he knows all the tricks to drag out the process as long as possible.

256
No Malarkey!  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:05:35am

re: #242 Nojay UK

Dinna fash yersel’, it’s no the first time some ignorant Yank has made that stupid mistake. Won’t be the last either.

By the mid-1700s the Crown had little political leverage and no power of taxation, it was all up to Parliament. The US has this weird creation myth that the oppression of George III had everything to do with the slave-owners revolt in 1776 whereas they actually rebelled against the democratically-elected British Parliament that was in charge of setting taxes and passing laws.

Britain did not have universal suffrage, even for males, in the 18th century, so it wasn’t exactly democratically elected.

257
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:05:39am

A blast from the past:

Cocaine is a helluva drug.

258
Nojay UK  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:08:42am

re: #256 No Malarkey!

Britain did not have universal suffrage, even for males, in the 18th century, so it wasn’t exactly democratically elected.

So, much like the first hundred years or so of the supposedly-democratic United States? I could stretch that to two hundred years given the Jim Crow laws and the poll tax.

259
No Malarkey!  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:09:13am

re: #245 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

Except for the fact that the GOP has a very long track record of not keeping “deals” that they make to get something they want with the promise of something for the Democrats at a later point.

If Johnson reneges on a hypothetical deal, the Democrats can quietly let the crazies know that they won’t be saving Johnson from another motion to vacate the Chair. He will literally be depending on Democratic votes to remain Speaker.

260
No Malarkey!  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:10:12am

re: #258 Nojay UK

So, much like the first hundred years or so of the supposedly-democratic United States? I could stretch that to two hundred years given the Jim Crow laws and the poll tax.

Touche.

261
A Cranky One  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:11:27am

262
🐈 Crush White Christian Nationalism 🐈  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:13:06am

When a hospital closes obstetric services because the local fascists might lock them up, women still show up needing those services.

Emergency rooms refused to treat pregnant women, leaving one to miscarry in a lobby restroom

WASHINGTON — One woman miscarried in the lobby restroom of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to check her in. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn’t offer an ultrasound. The baby later died.

Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from U.S. emergency rooms spiked in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, federal documents obtained by The Associated Press reveal.

The cases raise alarms about the state of emergency pregnancy care in the U.S., especially in states that enacted strict abortion laws and sparked confusion around the treatment doctors can provide.

“It is shocking, it’s absolutely shocking,” said Amelia Huntsberger, an OB/GYN in Oregon. “It is appalling that someone would show up to an emergency room and not receive care — this is inconceivable.”

It’s happened despite federal mandates that the women be treated.

Federal law requires emergency rooms to treat or stabilize patients who are in active labor and provide a medical transfer to another hospital if they don’t have the staff or resources to treat them. Medical facilities must comply with the law if they accept Medicare funding.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday that could weaken those protections. The Biden administration has sued Idaho over its abortion ban, even in medical emergencies, arguing it conflicts with the federal law.

“No woman should be denied the care she needs,” Jennifer Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said in a statement. “All patients, including women who are experiencing pregnancy-related emergencies, should have access to emergency medical care required under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).”

Pregnant patients have “become radioactive to emergency departments” in states with extreme abortion restrictions, said Sara Rosenbaum, a George Washington University health law and policy professor.

“They are so scared of a pregnant patient, that the emergency medicine staff won’t even look. They just want these people gone,” Rosenbaum said.

Consider what happened to a woman who was nine months pregnant and having contractions when she arrived at the Falls Community Hospital in Marlin, Texas, in July 2022, a week after the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion. The doctor on duty refused to see her.

“The physician came to the triage desk and told the patient that we did not have obstetric services or capabilities,” hospital staff told federal investigators during interviews, according to documents. “The nursing staff informed the physician that we could test her for the presence of amniotic fluid. However, the physician adamantly recommended the patient drive to a Waco hospital.”

abcnews.go.com

263
Randall Gross  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:13:28am

re: #250 Dr Lizardo

[Embedded content]

One social media site limiting another… where have I seen that. I’m sure Charles will look into it later.

264
Dangerman  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:13:53am

So they have to do everything they can to keep him out of that White House ‘cause they know Donald Trump gets in for four more years, the jig is up for them. The gloves are off. There are no holds barred here. He is going full-throttle. He’s not worried about winning another election. It’s four years of scorched earth when Donald Trump retakes the White House.”

265
Dangerman  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:19:42am
266
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:20:18am

re: #261 A Cranky One

I’m ahead of the game then!

267
A Cranky One  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:25:15am

268
No Malarkey!  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:26:53am

re: #264 Dangerman

[Embedded content]

Let us take a moment to appreciate just how surreal American politics has become. A man under indictment for over seven dozen felonies in four jurisdictions is promising “scorched earth” if elected, and he is leading in many polls over the incumbent who has restored the American economy to the highest levels of employment and rising wages it has enjoyed in decades.

269
Nerdy Fish  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:42:47am

Birdle is the Wordle.

Click to Reveal

Wordle 1,036 3/6*

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟨🟨⬛🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

270
No Malarkey!  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:45:27am

For those still using Xitter, @AnnaBower will be live posting the Trump trial for Lawfare.

Edit: Anna Bower is not on Bluesky, so the link leads nowhere.

271
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:46:18am

JFC. The plague rats are being unleashed….

New Hampshire could soon beat Florida—known for its anti-vaccine Surgeon General—when it comes to loosening vaccine requirements. A first-in-the-nation bill that’s already passed New Hampshire’s state House, sponsored only by Republican legislators, would end the requirement for parents enrolling kids in childcare to provide documentation of polio and measles vaccination. New Hampshire would be the only state in the US to have such a law, although many states allow religious exemptions to vaccine requirements.

Currently, Republicans control New Hampshire’s state House, Senate and governor’s office—but that isn’t a guarantee that the bill will be signed into law, with GOP Gov. Chris Sununu seemingly flip-flopping when it comes to disease control. Sununu did sign a bill in 2021 allowing people to use public places and services even if they did not receive the Covid-19 vaccine. But the next year, the governor vetoed a bill that would bar schools from implementing mask mandates.

motherjones.com

272
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:48:25am

re: #271 Dr Lizardo

So New Hampshire really is the place Republicans that work in Massachusetts live.

273
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:49:00am

From a high school classmate’s post on Facebook:

274
Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:51:50am

re: #257 Dr Lizardo

Carpet in bathrooms is gross. For so many reasons.

275
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:53:44am

re: #274 Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅

Carpet in bathrooms is gross. For so many reasons.

Yeah. I mean, you can practically smell the pee in that picture.

276
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 6:55:59am

re: #272 Belafon

So New Hampshire really is the place Republicans that work in Massachusetts live.

On the other hand, 49 other states can sell them iron lungs!*

*shipping and handling not included

277
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:08:50am

The man who set himself on fire died.

bbc.com

278
steve_davis  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:09:21am

re: #86 Nojay UK

My daily driver keyboard has a “Designed for Windows 95” marker on the back. I don’t think the company that made it, Olivetti, is still in the computer business.

I don’t think Olivetti’s in any business any longer, are they? They were making their typewriters in the U.S. for awhile (I want to say some place in Pennsylvania), and at the end I think they moved their typewriters to Spain, back when it was cheap to produce stuff there. But the only Olivettis one sees any more tend to be letteras. I’ve got a 33 which is what Cormac McCarthy typed all his stuff on. The 22 is the cutest little portable typewriter you could ever ask for, and does a pretty good job to my remembrance. They were the “Vietnam war correspondent” typewriter of choice because you really could slam one in a pack and head off anywhere in country.

279
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:14:31am

re: #278 steve_davis

Here is something on typewriters:
phillytypewriter.com

280
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:15:49am

Last night, just cause my brain decided to, I proved to myself that every matrix containing rational numbers is countable, i.e. ine-to-one with the counting numbers (think Cantor). And then I just realized that every real number matrix is equivalent to the real numbers.

281
A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:31:39am

Partridge.

cFJyZWg4WTh2U0MvRzlsZnVQQlQ4UjhhZllqMnBQMW94Ulp4TnhQOXJoaVEwQVYxUkV3VXBPbVRlNUZMNEVXaWtkWGgwcXNVSndyNk5DdTVvSDdwSFU5OCtIZkUwNkkxTGVRSWEyNkxxQ0Y1eXhCdmhHNmFNQlNsalFtajh4bUJ5SDBZbFlLalhYVWM1ZkpKYjdnWi9RPT06OkJ3eF/Nwj4nIKZc2L28ECQ=

282
wrenchwench  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:31:40am
Note about sharing
This post is only visible to logged-in users. It won’t be visible to people who aren’t logged in.

Bluesky popup

283
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:32:12am

Personally, I’m looking forward to Trump’s chemical imbalance coming into full display before the court.

Mastodon

Mastodon

284
sizzzzlerz  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:34:18am

re: #277 Belafon

The man who set himself on fire died.

bbc.com

And after all that, not one damn thing of value was obtained or learned. What a waste.

285
A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:35:38am

Some plants can show off without flowers.

286
wrenchwench  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:38:19am

re: #281 A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS

Partridge.

Same. Wordle 1,036 4/6*

Click to Reveal

Or similar. Mine lacks the whiff.

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

287
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:40:05am

re: #283 darthstar

Personally, I’m looking forward to Trump’s chemical imbalance coming into full display before the court.

[Embedded content]

Closer to 260. At 6’2”, 230 would be a good look. It and he are not. He’s way too low.

288
sagehen  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:40:44am

re: #229 Nojay UK

There was no “English crown” by the time of the Clearances. There was the British crown, a national institution that had been passed around a couple of foreign aristocratic families (the House of Orange and the Hanovers) and politically neutered by Parliament over the century following the Union of Crowns. There had been two major rebellions started in the Highlands in 1715 and 1745, fomented and financed by the Papish French kings to put their hand-picked puppet on the British throne and do away with all that egalitarian democratic rule.

Everything I know about that time and place is from Highlander and Outlander. What I know about Culloden is that it was a character-defining chapter for both Duncan Macleod and Jamie Fraser.

289
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:42:20am

re: #287 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

Closer to 260. At 6’2”, 230 would be a good look. It and he are not. He’s way too low.

That Weighty Waddler is closer to 360…

290
jeffreyw  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:42:44am

Mastodon

291
wrenchwench  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:45:33am

Mastodon

292
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:46:46am

re: #288 sagehen

Everything I know about that time and place is from Highlander and Outlander. What I know about Culloden is that it was a character-defining chapter for both Duncan Macleod and Jamie Fraser.

So you majored in history?

293
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:48:27am

re: #287 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

Closer to 260. At 6’2”, 230 would be a good look. It and he are not. He’s way too low.

I’m 6’2” and 250 - I don’t have nearly as much girth as he does, and if you see him in a golf shirt he’s got at least 10lbs of moobs hanging off his chest. I’d put him at 273ish…

294
wrenchwench  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:48:56am

So many ‘subtle’ 4-20 posts.

Mastodon

295
prairiefire  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:51:36am

re: #246 Nojay UK

I think it’s great the monarch still has to knock the door and be “allowed” into the House of Commons.

296
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:53:14am

LIVESTREAM —>

Mastodon

297
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:55:37am

re: #296 darthstar

LIVESTREAM —>

[Embedded content]

Jeffries just now: “Democrats have risen to the occasion, President Biden has risen to the occasion, conservative Republicans, led by Mike Johnson, have risen to the occasion…” - That’s going to go over well with Trump..

need to go drop some junk off as it’s bulk item drop off day down the street. BBL

298
wrenchwench  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:57:19am

Seen earlier on Bluesky.

Mastodon

299
Unabogie  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:57:33am

“LET’S PUT AMERICA FIRST AND SPEND MONEY ON OUR VETERANS AND POOR INSTEAD OF FUNDING UKRAINE!”

“Ok, here’s a bill to fund housing for veterans and food for the poor. And here’s another one to give free school lunches to kids. And here’s one to forgive student loans to struggling Americans. And here’s one to make healthcare available to everyone.”

“NO, I WILL NOT SUPPORT COMMUNISM!”

300
Nerdy Fish  Apr 20, 2024 • 7:59:51am

re: #299 Unabogie

“America First” does not necessarily mean “America Only”. We are perfectly capable of taking care of our own here at home, while still providing for our friends abroad who are facing perilous dangers. (Of course, you know as well as I do that “America First” is a racist dogwhistle for “only white Christian Americans matter,” but I digress.)

301
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:02:43am

She: head down at a quarter to 8.
Me: it’s a 2 minute drive I’ll leave 10 minutes early

302
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:02:43am

And yet another meltdown from the Farting Freak

Trump demands removal of Judge Merchan in meltdown before contempt hearing

Donald Trump kicked off his Saturday morning by going on an all-caps tirade aimed at Judge Juan Merchan as his attorneys prepare to defend him in a contempt hearing set for early next week over his other attacks on Truth Social.

On Monday, the former president’s trial on 34 felony counts related to paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels will proceed after a jury was sworn in on Friday.

Now facing an actual criminal trial that could lead to four years in prison if he is found guilty, the ex-president is ramping up his attacks on the judge and appears to still be furious he is going to trial.

On Saturday morning, he wrote, “THIS SCAM ‘RUSHED’ TRIAL TAKING PLACE IN A 95% DEMOCRAT AREA IS A PLANNED AND COORDINATED WITCH HUNT THAT COULD HAVE BEEN BROUGHT 8 YEARS AGO, BUT EVERYBODY PASSED. INSTEAD THEY WAITED AND BROUGHT IT RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF MY PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE WORST AND MOST INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT EVER, CROOKED JOE BIDEN. IT IS BEING PRESIDED OVER BY POSSIBLY THE MOST CONFLICTED JUDGE IN JUDICIAL HISTORY, WHO MUST BE REMOVED FROM THIS HOAX IMMEDIATELY. I DID NOTHING WRONG!”

Trump’s attack falls in line with a prediction by former prosecutor Charles Coleman Jr. who predicted on MSNBC hours earlier that the former president was going to “pop” due to the stress of his trial and his advanced age.

rawstory.com

303
darthstar  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:05:31am

Still not a bad place to empty a truck load of trash.

304
🐈 Crush White Christian Nationalism 🐈  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:06:03am

re: #300 Nerdy Fish

“America First” does not necessarily mean “America Only”. We are perfectly capable of taking care of our own here at home, while still providing for our friends abroad who are facing perilous dangers. (Of course, you know as well as I do that “America First” is a racist dogwhistle for “only white Christian Americans matter,” but I digress.)

Everything we do, we do in our best interest. These antisocial fuckups just can’t understand maintaining alliances, or containing enemies via proxy. They’re morons.

305
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:09:56am

re: #300 Nerdy Fish

“America First” does not necessarily mean “America Only”. We are perfectly capable of taking care of our own here at home, while still providing for our friends abroad who are facing perilous dangers. (Of course, you know as well as I do that “America First” is a racist dogwhistle for “only white Christian Americans matter,” but I digress.)

I think “only rich white Protestant Male Americans matter” is more accurate.

306
Dr. Matt  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:12:21am

307
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:19:21am

Memories of that Farting Preacher video.

Now waiting for a Farting Trump video!

The Original Farting Preacher aka Pastor Gas ( full version )

308
Eventual Carrion  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:23:25am

re: #239 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

I’ll have a birb, please.

Howdy all!

[Embedded content]

4/6 morning here

cytWWWUxU0ZkZnFnYmlRVTdyTU1ZZmh6dWozV2Y5LzVoekN6SzlqeHp1aXI2N2llWUhyNHVCa0cyM0M5a0hiRVFpSFM3Nkp5cllTcnpRT25hTjh1YzhRcEQ0ZFRnbU1BYXhydFNWOUlTMW0zbFQxVFlwSitDSnFBMS9uSnpKcjN1dElNMlkyYTJEYmlnbEM3ZE51ZkN3PT06OupOSafoA0FUkl5O9MTu6WQ=

309
sizzzzlerz  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:26:57am

re: #298 wrenchwench

Seen earlier on Bluesky.

[Embedded content]

Dude, that Saurian IV ganja is some righteous shit!

310
Dr. Matt  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:28:02am

re: #302 Joe Bacon ✅

Don Snoreleon is on the verge of stroking out. Amen.

311
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:33:27am

re: #310 Dr. Matt

Don Snoreleon is on the verge of stroking out. Amen.

He’s really gonna be freaking out when he has to sit there and listen to testimony against him - and he can’t respond. He can’t shout them down. He can’t bellow at them. He can’t storm out of the courtroom.

He might well have a stroke right then and there in the courthouse.

312
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:33:46am

re: #20 Patricia Kayden

I know it’s still early but I hope this holds.

Men should start witholding sexual favors until women get some sense!!!

313
Nerdy Fish  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:34:33am

re: #311 Dr Lizardo

He’s really gonna be freaking out when he has to sit there and listen to testimony against him - and he can’t respond. He can’t shout them down. He can’t bellow at them. He can’t storm out of the courtroom.

He might well have a stroke right then and there in the courthouse.

And the judge has shown no hesitation to tell his lawyers to “control your client” when he’s muttering passive-aggressively at the prosecutors and/or witnesses. He is not going to have a good time.

314
Nojay UK  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:35:27am

re: #295 prairiefire

I think it’s great the monarch still has to knock the door and be “allowed” into the House of Commons.

The monarch can knock all they want, they still can’t get in. Okay, during the state Opening of Parliament each November the monarch’s representative, Black Rod approaches the open door of the House of Commons to command the elected members to attend on the monarch in Parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords. The door is ceremonially shut in Black Rod’s face. They bang on the door three times but it remains shut before Black Rod politely requests their attendance instead of commanding it in the name of the King or Queen. The door is then opened and the members go to the upper chamber to hear the King’s Speech (the legislative schedule for the coming year proposed by the Government).

As far as I know no British monarch has ever entered the chamber of the House of Commons, even as a guest, at least not since the mid-1600s. The trial of Charles the First was held in the House IIRC.

315
Dr. Matt  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:36:08am

re: #311 Dr Lizardo

He might well have a stroke right then and there in the courthouse.

He would if this was a John Grisham novel.

316
Dr. Matt  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:37:00am

317
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:40:18am

re: #316 Dr. Matt

I prefer all Election Day food has no calories. Short, sweet and simple.

318
Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:40:22am

re: #316 Dr. Matt

Seems inefficient, use more sig figs, get more donut.

319
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:44:31am

320
Captain Ron  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:47:25am
The Ukraine vote is expected Saturday. Trump had insisted that the Ukraine aid not be a “gift,” and in Johnson’s plan nearly $10 billion, most of it to help Kyiv keep functioning, is structured as a loan. Hilariously — and possibly without Trump’s knowledge, since he may have slept through this part — in Johnson’s legislation, Ukraine’s debt can be canceled by the U.S. president. Who is Biden.

I was hoping it was written that way.

321
Captain Ron  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:47:44am

re: #319 Joe Bacon ✅

Oder in the court!

322
Nerdy Fish  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:48:36am

re: #320 Captain Ron

I was hoping it was written that way.

Mike Johnson may be a religious zealot and a fool, but he appears to have a basic working knowledge of how the sausage is made.

323
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:49:34am

re: #319 Joe Bacon ✅

“Is that Trump emanating the Holy Spirit?”

“No, just Big Mac and KFC farts.”

324
prairiefire  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:50:15am

re: #316 Dr. Matt

eve6 is great.

325
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:50:54am

Getting more rain here, again. This one’s a bit different in that it’s been thunderstorms since about 7 this morning. I do miss the occasional thunderstorm. Interestingly, I think when we had storms out in Abilene when I was a kid they were far more frequently thunderstorms than they are here in Rockwall.

326
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:52:37am

re: #323 Dr Lizardo

“Is that Trump emanating the Holy Spirit?”

Absolutely. One whiff and you’ll be yelling “JESUS KEY-RYE-ST!”

327
wrenchwench  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:53:20am

Mastodon

328
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 8:53:36am

329
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:00:14am

re: #188 silverdolphin

As a realist, I think you may be right. Things will likely continue to be shit for a long time. But, I do like to see if there is a positive path forward, even if it is unlikely. Because it is so easy to see a negative path.

I do not expect to live to see an ME without violence. But, then, I was not sure I would see the IRA stop bombing. Stranger things have happened. And like in the US, the only path forward is to destroy the Right in Israel. If we can do it, so can Israel.

After the Civil War, we had Reconstruction (that might have actually worked if Lincoln had lived). After WW2, we had the Marshall plan. Both remade the economics of the time. I see aspects of the same in Biden’s Middle East Economic Corridor that could remake global economies from India to Europe.

To me, the future is still hopeful. So I will continue to use my confirmation bias to take little bits and pieces here, there and … hope.

One difference between Israel and the United States: We don’t have larger neighbors who invaded us and tried to destroy us in living memory. Nor are we living with much wealthier neighbors who have funded those hostile to our existence. We are the largest nation in North America and the wealthiest nation on the planet.

And Reconstruction failed because the depravity of racism was so baked into our nation that even the Republican Party abandoned its soul to keep power. And the evil of that time is making a strong resurgence in our country.

330
A Cranky One  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:08:32am

331
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:10:15am

re: #330 A Cranky One

Didn’t I say that yesterday?
littlegreenfootballs.com

332
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:11:34am

re: #329 Hecuba’s daughter

And Reconstruction failed because the depravity of racism was so baked into our nation that even the Republican Party abandoned its soul to keep power. And the evil of that time is making a strong resurgence in our country.

They thought they could harness all that racist, nationalist ideology and sentiment but still somehow keep the genie stuffed in the bottle.

333
wrenchwench  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:12:58am

I’m going for a 3 mile walk.

Walk That Walk

Not spozed to rain til it’s over.

334
BeenHereAwhile  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:15:37am

re: #207 Nojay UK

Oh dear… It was Scots landowners who instigated the Highland Clearances, not “the English”. For most people living in the Highlands the best thing they could do was get out and go farm somewhere that wasn’t a forty-five degree slope of bracken and bog-moss over loose shale rock and if the local landowner was willing to pay for a ship to take you there, so much the better.

Industrialization meant sheep in the fields brought a higher return to the landowner than the farmer in the field.

335
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:15:42am

re: #329 Hecuba’s daughter

The end of Reconstruction is the first piece of evidence in why the Electoral College should have been abolished.

336
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:20:20am

re: #205 silverdolphin

I think that there has already been a lot of backroom discussions. Biden is a master of the real art of the deal and Biden’s claim of bi-partisanship becomes true.

……..
But I expect some of those social things that progressives want will be part of this deal to keep Johnson in charge. IN this scenaro, it is important that the dems support Johnson against the MAGAnuts because that gives the dems leverage to get what they want passed.

In true bipartisanship, it is a win-win for all those who join Biden’s deal

And the GOP fractures and in maybe 2 election cycles no longer can sustain itself as a nation party. I hope.

Johnson is a MAGAnut — but one with a more polite facade. He was involved in the effort to overthrow the election. We need to get immigration reform — and he personally sabotaged it. He cannot be trusted at all — but any other Republican who could win the Speakership is even less trustworthy. So keeping him in power if this package gets through is probably the safest deal that could be made.

337
sizzzzlerz  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:20:32am

re: #257 Dr Lizardo

A blast from the past:

[Embedded content]

Cocaine is a helluva drug.

Also available in Avocado Green and Harvest Gold.

338
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:20:34am

re: #207 Nojay UK

Oh dear… It was Scots landowners who instigated the Highland Clearances, not “the English”. For most people living in the Highlands the best thing they could do was get out and go farm somewhere that wasn’t a forty-five degree slope of bracken and bog-moss over loose shale rock and if the local landowner was willing to pay for a ship to take you there, so much the better.

The English wanted to “assimilate” the Scots Landlords, which meant that they had too get used to living the “Aristocratic” lifestyle.

And with prices for mutton and beef a premium due to the Napoeonic Wars, it was more profitable to raise livestock that to maintain a subsistence-level popuation.

339
dat_said  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:21:05am

1907-ft Boardwalk update: Tallest tower zoning passed

OK City apparently envious of Dubai. Will be taller than anything in NYC.

340
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:21:37am

re: #337 sizzzzlerz

Also available in Avocado Green and Harvest Gold.

Ah, beautiful Harvest Gold. Or as we used to call it back in the day, Baby Shit Yellow!

341
Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:21:42am

Good morning Lizards.

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

342
Eventual Carrion  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:22:27am

Perfect! Connections

Click to Reveal

Connections
Puzzle #314
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦

343
BeachDem  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:23:10am


Because of the asshole Republicans in the house, Barbara Lee had to miss the celebration of Carlottia Scott’s life. Barbara’s son represented her.
344
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:27:18am

re: #300 Nerdy Fish

“America First” does not necessarily mean “America Only”.

The ability to discern when one’s short-term interests are overriden by oblique and long-term interests.

345
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:28:24am

re: #339 dat_said

1907-ft Boardwalk update: Tallest tower zoning passed

OK City apparently envious of Dubai. Will be taller than anything in NYC.

I’m gonna call it the Tower of Babel especially if a tornado strikes.

“Please move to our state. Our education is underfunded, we hate women, minorities, gays, and trans, but we have a tall building.”

346
Nerdy Fish  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:29:02am

re: #345 Belafon

I’m gonna call it the Tower of Babel especially if a tornado strikes.

“Please move to our state. Our education is underfunded, we hate women, minorities, gays, and trans, but we have had a tall building.”

FTFY, after the inevitable tornado to which you alluded.

347
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:29:49am

re: #230 Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅

Well.
Wordle 1,036 4/6

[Embedded content]

Birb here

Click to Reveal

Wordle 1,036 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜🟨🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Group: 3,3,3,4
Those with 3 all had zilch in the first word; the woman with 4 had one letter in the wrong place.

348
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:32:58am

re: #239 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

I’ll have a birb, please.

Howdy all!

[Embedded content]

dHlxaXZvdDdsQ0pWOUNOMUdMMEJpTW04NklPendkc3BmMkdQTGc1K1hvMVZTejVOOXNycUJyS2pnT2RyRDgwdVF6bFlUYnM4NzZYRFJkNkRNTEYxYXc9PTo6ztNQv0STR25IYD4KY5nz9g==

349
Teukka  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:34:04am
350
Nerdy Fish  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:34:13am

re: #348 Hecuba’s daughter

[Embedded content]

Eliminating letters is often more valuable than getting letters right, especially with certain word structures. For example, there are so many words in the English language that end with -e.

351
A Cranky One  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:34:39am

re: #346 Nerdy Fish

FTFY, after the inevitable tornado to which you alluded.

I’ve been up close to a number of tornadoes. And I’ve seen what they can do to so-called tornado proof buildings. Steel I-beams twisted into pretzels.

No thanks.

352
A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:35:04am

re: #278 steve_davis

I don’t think Olivetti’s in any business any longer, are they? They were making their typewriters in the U.S. for awhile (I want to say some place in Pennsylvania), and at the end I think they moved their typewriters to Spain, back when it was cheap to produce stuff there. But the only Olivettis one sees any more tend to be letteras. I’ve got a 33 which is what Cormac McCarthy typed all his stuff on. The 22 is the cutest little portable typewriter you could ever ask for, and does a pretty good job to my remembrance. They were the “Vietnam war correspondent” typewriter of choice because you really could slam one in a pack and head off anywhere in country.

T’was an Olivetti portable (don’t remember the model) that got me through college.

353
Nerdy Fish  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:35:59am

re: #351 A Cranky One

I’ve been up close to a number of tornadoes. And I’ve seen what they can do to so-called tornado proof buildings. Steel I-beams twisted into pretzels.

No thanks.

These idiots didn’t stop to think about why most Midwest cities don’t have tall buildings. Chicago is the exception to a fairly universal rule.

354
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:36:43am
355
dat_said  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:37:33am

re: #346 Nerdy Fish

FTFY, after the inevitable tornado to which you alluded.

I realize there’s OK oil money floating around but how exactly does something like this get funded in a time of low commercial real estate occupancy? And, while mixed use, I don’t think lack of land availability in Oklahoma is driving home real estate prices up so rapidly that people will rushing to buy. Maybe the mixed use contains floors of assisted living and a small hospital in one of the neighboring towers.

356
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:38:18am

re: #353 Nerdy Fish

These idiots didn’t stop to think about why most Midwest cities don’t have tall buildings. Chicago is the exception to a fairly universal rule.

The tallest building in Dallas is half the height of the proposed building in Oklahoma City.

357
sizzzzlerz  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:38:25am

re: #345 Belafon

I’m gonna call it the Tower of Babel especially if a tornado strikes.

“Please move to our state. Our education is underfunded, we hate women, minorities, gays, and trans, but we have a tall building.”

Gawd will protect it (assuming he’s not watching the Oklahoma-Texas game)

358
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:39:49am

re: #254 jeffreyw

[Embedded content]

Good morning!

Coincidence: friend called last night. And he revealed that his late sister always said that McDonald’s had the best diet cola. So he and his neighbors did a taste test this week AND they all agreed that the statement was absolutely true.

359
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:42:33am

re: #255 No Malarkey!

Rand Paul has made it clear that the aid is not going to pass the Senate by unanimous consent, and he knows all the tricks to drag out the process as long as possible.

As McCain said back in March 2017, Paul is working for Putin.

360
jaunte  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:43:09am

@bookkaz.bsky.social

When you are sat potting on some seedlings and feel like you’re being watched… 😂🦊🌱

361
Ace Rothstein  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:44:03am

re: #293 darthstar

I’m 6’2” and 250 - I don’t have nearly as much girth as he does, and if you see him in a golf shirt he’s got at least 10lbs of moobs hanging off his chest. I’d put him at 273ish…

285 plus tax.

362
Ace Rothstein  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:45:46am

re: #311 Dr Lizardo

He might well have a stroke right then and there in the courthouse.

I support this outcome.

363
Nerdy Fish  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:45:47am

re: #361 Ace Rothstein

285 plus tax.

This is probably pretty close. I’d say he’s south of 300, but well north of 250.

364
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:46:02am

re: #358 Hecuba’s daughter

Coincidence: friend called last night. And he revealed that his late sister always said that McDonald’s had the best diet cola. So he and his neighbors did a taste test this week AND they all agreed that the statement was absolutely true.

I think someone had posted here a while back that McDonald’s puts just a little bit more syrup in the drinks than others, which I’m sure really helps as the ice melts.

365
garzooma  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:47:11am

re: #353 Nerdy Fish

These idiots didn’t stop to think about why most Midwest cities don’t have tall buildings. […]

Boston recently built up a waterfront that’s already flooding.

366
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:47:42am

re: #255 No Malarkey!

Rand Paul has made it clear that the aid is not going to pass the Senate by unanimous consent, and he knows all the tricks to drag out the process as long as possible.

Gonna have to put some extreme pressure on him, then.

367
Ace Rothstein  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:48:44am

re: #363 Nerdy Fish

This is probably pretty close. I’d say he’s south of 300, but well north of 250.

The Weight is Right! You have all underbid!

368
A Cranky One  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:49:12am

So I decided to post something on-topic.

If only I could figure out what the topic is…

;-)

369
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:51:59am
370
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:52:19am
371
jaunte  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:53:18am

re: #368 A Cranky One

It’s a “What If” thread.

372
jaunte  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:54:20am

“Sat potting” may have a different meaning in the UK.

373
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Apr 20, 2024 • 9:57:32am

re: #347 Hecuba’s daughter

We make a big deal about whiff’s but there’s a lot of information in a whiff. That’s how I went from 1 letter to solve.

374
Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire  Apr 20, 2024 • 10:00:12am

re: #364 Belafon

I think someone had posted here a while back that McDonald’s puts just a little bit more syrup in the drinks than others, which I’m sure really helps as the ice melts.

I also saw (in the same post maybe) that they also refrigerate their syrups to slow the ice melt.

375
Nojay UK  Apr 20, 2024 • 10:00:30am

re: #338 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

The English wanted to “assimilate” the Scots Landlords, which meant that they had too get used to living the “Aristocratic” lifestyle.

And with prices for mutton and beef a premium due to the Napoeonic Wars, it was more profitable to raise livestock that to maintain a subsistence-level popuation.

The Scottish landowners were all cultured people, well-educated and travelled just like their English counterparts. Melville and Menzies, Lovat and the rest weren’t hairy-arsed Heilan’men, they just owned a lot of very poor land (meaning scree hillsides and bog) in the Highlands and the rents were always in arrears. They had sold off the only cash crop decades before, the timber of the Great Caledonian Forest, mostly for charcoal making.

As for the Napoleonic Wars, they kicked off in the 1790s, thirty years after the Clearances and Cumberland the Butcher had depopulated the Highlands. The sheep were mainly raised for wool to supply the new cloth mills in northern England which were themselves created because of the agricultural enclosures and improvements that freed up a lot of labour with the additional later development of the steam engine to power the spinning jennies and looms. Without a growing market for that wool sheep would not have been a viable crop given the climactic conditions. Remember that the Highlands lie at the same latitude as Baffin Bay and the Little Ice Age was in full swing during the 1600s and 1700s. You think Rannoch Moor looks bleak today? It was a lot lot worse back then.

376
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 10:03:13am

According to the weather channel, DFW has already gotten over an inch, and we are going to be getting rain for a good portion of the day. Some places will see around 6 inches of rain by the end of the day.

377
Unabogie  Apr 20, 2024 • 10:05:23am

re: #370 Belafon

[Embedded content]

What amazes me is that this is nothing new. Trump famously had “executive time” on his schedule, in which he’d basically fuck off on the job and go back to his room to watch TV all day. The press never made a big deal about it. So wait, you’re telling me that the same guy who started work at 10:00am and quit work at 11:00am every single day might be incapable of staying alert during his trial?

This is my shocked face.

378
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 10:11:43am

re: #377 Unabogie

But, like the guy said, executive time was managed by Trump’s handlers and kept out of the view of the press. There’s none of that.

I expect Trump to do more jumping up trying to leave during the trial.

379
Decatur Deb  Apr 20, 2024 • 10:12:41am

re: #378 Belafon

But, like the guy said, executive time was managed by Trump’s handlers and kept out of the view of the press. There’s none of that.

I expect Trump to do more jumping up trying to leave during the trial.

Kindergartens and Executive Mansions should have mandatory nap time.

380
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 10:16:13am

According to my wife, there are 4/20 deals. Del Taco, if you have one, you can get 8 tacos for $4.20, Popeye’s has $4.20 menu items, and Jimmy John’s is doing a dime bag special.

381
Dr Lizardo  Apr 20, 2024 • 10:20:16am

re: #380 Belafon

382
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 20, 2024 • 10:20:24am

re: #342 Eventual Carrion

Perfect! Connections

[Embedded content]

Great! for me.

Click to Reveal

Connections
Puzzle #314
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟪🟪🟪
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩

383
Belafon  Apr 20, 2024 • 10:23:12am

Also, today is 4202024 in the US, a palindrome.

384
prairiefire  Apr 20, 2024 • 10:31:08am

re: #383 Belafon

Lucky numbers.

385
Charles Johnson  Apr 20, 2024 • 10:41:40am

Apparently the oembed endpoint is rate limited? The first day I implemented embeds at my site, users started getting rate limit errors. Seems less than ideal. #atproto

— Charles Johnson (@charles.littlegreenfootballs.com) 2024-04-20T16:26:36.970Z

386
GlutenFreeJesus  Apr 20, 2024 • 10:47:03am

re: #385 Charles Johnson

Damn. Always a catch.

387
7-y (Expectation of Great Things in Due Course)  Apr 20, 2024 • 11:13:05am

re: #367 Ace Rothstein

The Weight is Right! You have all underbid!

AND … until the last few years he only claimed 6’2” and NOW he claims 6’3”. He is my age and IF he was 6’2” he is NOW 6’ or less. I was 5’10” and now am 5’8”. It happens naturally.

388
Charles Johnson  Apr 20, 2024 • 11:19:22am

bsky.app

389
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 20, 2024 • 11:30:23am

re: #385 Charles Johnson

So does this mean we can’t do embeds anymore?

390
sagehen  Apr 20, 2024 • 11:48:19am

re: #329 Hecuba’s daughter

One difference between Israel and the United States: We don’t have larger neighbors who invaded us and tried to destroy us in living memory. Nor are we living with much wealthier neighbors who have funded those hostile to our existence. We are the largest nation in North America and the wealthiest nation on the planet.

another difference — we don’t have a whole country full of Einsteins and Oppenheimers. For such a tiny little country, they have a stunning number of Nobel Prize Winners.

391
Backwoods Sleuth  Apr 20, 2024 • 3:37:57pm

re: #207 Nojay UK

Oh dear… It was Scots landowners who instigated the Highland Clearances, not “the English”. For most people living in the Highlands the best thing they could do was get out and go farm somewhere that wasn’t a forty-five degree slope of bracken and bog-moss over loose shale rock and if the local landowner was willing to pay for a ship to take you there, so much the better.

Patrick Sellar and company, fuck his name forever.
I remember driving through the boggy heather Highlands (love that) and seeing all of the ruined remains of stone cottages, farm buildings and even churches (almost cried seeing all of that).
Sellar and the sheep farmers “won” because there was no agriculture other than sheep when I was last there about 20 years ago.
Real winners in my mind were those who were sent to Canada, US, Australia, etc., where there was a chance for a better life.

And fuck those landowners.


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