Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No one could have predicted…

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

People are complicated. Love is not.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Second rate reporter says what?

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Programming Notes

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Programming Notes

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The conference starts May 30th, apparently. Those of you in a position to know: Good idea, or not?

Meanwhile, in the marketing department…

Apart from holding on to hope where we can find it, what’s on the agenda for the day?

Reader Interactions

194Comments

  5. 5.

    satby

    @Baud: it’s another one of those weird days when only you and I can access Balloon Juice / everyone is sleeping?

    OTOH, if I was the only survivor of the apocalypse, then I would be living in a Trump-free world, and that would be awesome.

  7. 7.

    different-church-lady

    A TV reporter just directly told Trump he is “remarkably stupid”. BREAKTHROUGH!

  10. 10.

    raven

    Al you have to do is click on the damn link.

    Each year, Recode’s founders, Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, host the most prestigious event in tech and media — Code Conference. The invitation-only Code Conference was created to bring together a global community of the biggest names in the business, executive leaders and startups with bright futures for networking and in-depth conversations about the current and future impact of digital technology.

    Over the span of three days, Code 2016 featured 30 industry luminaries, including Elon Musk, Sheryl Sandberg, Bill and Melinda Gates, Jeff Bezos and many more. Guest speakers offered fresh insights and perspectives on topics ranging from humans habitation on Mars to cognitive computing, tech and politics, and the coming product wars. More than 650 C-suite executives attended, and 550 companies took part. Check out our full event coverage here, including onstage interviews.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    @satby: According to Dictionary dot com, the word of the day is imprimatur.

    ETA:. Never mind. That was yesterday’s word

  21. 21.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: I have to get ready for work in an hour, so I’m going to miss all the good conversations. Just like I miss all the late night ones because I usually fall asleep.
    God, I have a boring life.

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    Obscure music for a laid back weekend morn.

    The 60s were … eclectic.

    (Can’t remember if linked this before. Apologies if it’s a recent repeat.)

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    For anyone who is still reading the Vichy Fuck the Fucking New York Times: did you happen to see this? And I frequently like Timothy Egan.

    Who Will Save the Republic?

    843 words. Not two of them are “Democratic Party” or even “Democrats.” It’s like we are being excised out of current events and history, in the paper of record. People telling us Democrats are feckless and have no power? Mr. Egan is writing for them. For him we do not even exist.

    I realize that Mr. Egan’s point is that it will take Republicans to step up to hold Trump accountable. But could he not spare one small sentence fragment, that they would be joining the Democrats in doing so?

    The stuff that makes it past the FTFNYTImes editors makes me think — that this is not a mistake.

    Thus, it falls to a half-dozen or so Republicans to heed the words of a man whose statue they pass every day in the Capitol. “Even if you’re on the right track,” said Will Rogers, Oklahoma’s gift to American gab, “you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

    As it is, they’re getting run over. Things that never happened before now happen with such regularity that the numbing and the dumbing down can make a rational human inert. Trump is a tutorial in Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s observation about “defining deviancy down.”

    ….But the truth will out. The journalism of the past few days — those labeled Enemies of the People by Trump now doing the people’s work, as envisioned by the founders — has been extraordinary.

    [Lil pat on the Times’ own back there. But, um, Mr. Egan, has another group of people been saying this too? For months? And they’re also Enemies of the People? Hello?]

    Although: major points for this:

    The Irish Undertaker, Paul Ryan, is a lost cause — and increasingly looks like a bystander to the multiple-car wreck happening before him. The Senate leader, Mitch McConnell — whose wife, don’t forget, is in Trump’s cabinet — is also sitting this one out.

  28. 28.

    gene108

    What the fuck are MAUs? I did the google and I got Martial Arts University.

    Been too long a week to decipher Twitter jibberish.

  30. 30.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: And when you do, the FTFNYTimes will write about you, without ever mentioning “Balloon Juice.”

  31. 31.

    satby

    @Elizabelle: yeah, I saw that. But, in all honesty, the FNYT decided years ago that their target audience was the NPR crowd, so he’s pointing out to them their own team’s failures. I’m ok with any source they seem creditable pointing out their failures to them.

  32. 32.

    liberal

    With a couple of exceptions, that roster of speakers is replete with loathsome wealthy bullshit artists.

  37. 37.

    Elizabelle

    Kara Swisher gave Hillary a really lovely write-up. I’ve have always liked both women. FWIW, Swisher’s career included the Washington DC City Paper, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, in that order. She’s a solid reporter. Walt Mossberg was longtime tech columnist of the WSJ.

    Let’s not bury the lede: Hillary Rodham Clinton is coming to the 2017 Code conference and it is likely to be an epic interview.

    Fake news? Check! Email problems? Check! FBI controversy? Check! Russian hackers? Check! The impact of tech on jobs? Check! The state of our very divided union? Double check!!

    There’s no bigger story right now than our fractured political landscape, including for the tech and media sector. And there’s no better person to talk about that than someone who has spent 40 years in public service, including as First Lady, U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of State and the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016. She also writes books and is working on another right now, due out in September.

    The first woman to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party, the Chicago-born Clinton is well known as a longtime advocate on gender equality issues, including her famous declaration in Beijing in 1995: “Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.” So, we’ll talk about diversity too.

    Like I said: Epic.

    Hmmm. Hillary book due out in September.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    @liberal:

    With a couple of exceptions,

    Nice.

    I gather it’s a Venture Capital event. Wasn’t this the big event that they attended in Silicon Valley.

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    @liberal: Hoocoodanode a conference for wealthy tech execs would stock its keynote speaker roster with rich douchebags? Still, I’m glad Hillz is going. Like it or not, that audience is influential.

  40. 40.

    NobodySpecial

    Looks suspiciously like Davos for Techies. Uninteresting beyond any tells about what they’re going to try and foist on people in the name of their ‘superiority’.

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    @liberal: Dean Baquet. Gag. But also Kamala Harris. So that’s good. And Cecile Richards.

    You have to apply to be invited! And it’s being held in Rancho Palos Verdes, the Terranea Resort, gorgeous spot. Maybe they can all go and throw stuff at the sign for Trump’s golf course on the way in or out. It’s only four miles away; same stretch of coast.

  44. 44.

    Betty Cracker

    Wish me luck, friends — I’m trying a new hollandaise sauce recipe this morning. It’s supposedly “foolproof.” We’ll see about that!

  50. 50.

    jacy

    In week two of insomnia hell, where I sleep three hours a day, usually between 9 AM and Noon. This is not working for me. And today there’ll be no sleep, because It’s Nicky’s birthday party, wherein I take four 12-year-olds go-carting, then for cake and ice cream, then on to the 3:00 showing of Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Which I might sleep through. But that’s okay, because my daughter is driving up tomorrow morning to take us all to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 again. Good thing I loved the first one.

  52. 52.

    Raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: I don’t think I’ve ever ran into anyone who ever heard of it. I got the vinyl in Seattle right before we shipped and it was one of probably 10 records we had in my squad. Someone had a portable hi-fi thing and we’d spark and listen over and over and over. . .

  53. 53.

    jacy

    @Betty Cracker:

    If it’s not foolproof, hit me up — I do have a foolproof hollandaise recipe via Paul Prudhomme. I make it all the time. Have to have strong wrists, though, because it takes a fuckton of whisking.

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    @Quinerly: Yes! I am sick of people harshing it too, and some here live to do that.

    Let us be optimistic today. Please.

  59. 59.

    NotMax

    @Betty Cracker

    Luck. Low and slow wins the race.

    Chef John’s version: One bowl Hollandaise..

    Have an embarrassingly simple and easy ‘cheat’ recipe for mock Hollandaise somewhere on the cookbook shelf. Passes the blindfolded taste test admirably.

  61. 61.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Raven:

    I don’t think I’ve ever ran into anyone who ever heard of it.

    Heh. It’s been so long I might be conflating it with something else, (i was only 10 in ’68 after all) but it sure sounds familiar and I even think I remember the album art from my oldest Sis’ collection. She had very broad tastes in music.

  62. 62.

    jacy

    @Raven:

    I’ll admit I haven’t tried that one. I do make his meat pies, not often, because it takes FOREVER.

    Alton Brown did a show about making the perfect hollandaise, which I think was pretty thorough. This Easter my daughter called me up to ask how to make it because she was going to cook asparagus. I started to explain it to her and she said, “Forget it, we’ll have green beans.” My kids would drink hollandaise if I would let them though…..

  65. 65.

    Raven

    @jacy: I do it with bigger birds, the gravy is insane, how and sweet. I say that as we hit 12 days of the draconian South Beach Phase 1! Not a carb for almost 2 weeks.

  66. 66.

    Quinerly

    @Elizabelle:
    I have to be optimistic. We really have no alternative. My mind can’t comprehend the alternative. I am accepting that it will take time. There is a lot going on behind the scenes. The entire system just can’t and will not fail us.

  67. 67.

    NotMax

    @satby

    Must admit that arthritis precludes extended hand whisking so I start out the traditional way and then switch to using the whisk attachment for the immersion blender on lowest speed setting.

  68. 68.

    bystander

    @Baud:

    @raven: I hope it works out better than Frye Festival.

    A survey of Dwight’s best work? Great idea!

  72. 72.

    Gvg

    @Quinerly: you know, that story’s point that Trump doesn’t long term plans, “if he sees something shiny, he wants it”, and risky business decisions, in the context of Russia and mobs, is just as disturbing as the idea do Russia controlling him. It causes me to worry even more.

  73. 73.

    efgoldman

    @satby:

    if I was the only survivor of the apocalypse, then I would be living in a Trump-free world

    Sooner than you think. Barely a blip in cosmic time.

  74. 74.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Exoplanet Puzzle Cracked by Jazz Musicians:

    There’s more than one way to appreciate the results. While Tamayo was working on his simulations, he was approached by Matt Russo, a fellow postdoc and jazz guitarist who thought the TRAPPIST-1 resonances looked familiar from music theory. Now, coordinated with the release of Tamayo’s paper, Russo, Tamayo and the musician Andrew Santaguida have teamed up to translate the system’s intricate arrangement of passing worlds into a musical composition.

    The seventh planet, h, orbits about once every three weeks. Sped up some 200 million times and expressed in sound waves, that frequency is a C note. From there, the known ratios between planets determine every other planet’s signature note. Together the notes form a major ninth chord. “It’s really remarkable that it worked out like that,” Russo said. “Even with a different pattern of resonances, you wouldn’t get a chord that sounds as good.”

    On top of that, the team added drumbeats for whenever an inner planet overtakes an outer neighbor — moments that correspond to close gravitational interactions among the planets. Compared to human percussion, Russo said, “It’s a super-creative drummer. It’s doing something that nobody else would think of.”

    Jazz musicians really are a little…. different.

  76. 76.

    NotMax

    @satby

    Dunno if you saw it when mentioned a couple of days ago but if you’re in the mood for an amusing and gentle comedic diversion you well might like The 101-Year-Old Man Who Skipped Out on the Bill and Disappeared on Netflix.

  77. 77.

    ThresherK

    @NotMax: All this mentioning of Hollandaise makes me interested in trying it.

    Lifehacker (&c) stuff gets linked to here sometimes. Here’s a no-blender Hollandaise they suggest.

    (Also, even though both our moms have since long passed, Spousal ThresherK’s favorite is Eggs Benedict, and her birthday is coming up…)

  78. 78.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Morning all. I shut down my browser wrong last night an am reconstructing all the pinned tabs. Losing the others was something of a relief, tbh.

    The kitties are okay with their new litter, although they knocked a plant off its table for the first time. TBF, it was in a new place.

  80. 80.

    magurakurin

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: my god, that is amazing. In the dictionary under “righteous anger,” you find that video. He is completely right though. These people are fucking evil.

    and completely unrelated….does anyone else think it is insane that the new Iphone is going to cost $1099? I mean, WTF,over?

  82. 82.

    efgoldman

    @magurakurin:

    anyone else think it is insane that the new Iphone is going to cost $1099?

    I am sure it’s a status thing.
    Hell, any phone over $100 (maybe not even) is a status thing

  84. 84.

    Immanentize

    @efgoldman: I had to check when I read this comment who was the author? It could have been Ozark, but it is absolutely classic you. I am still chuckling.

  85. 85.

    efgoldman

    @Baud:

    I guess I can cross it off my list then.

    Why? Your campaign can pay for it. It’s almost legal and everything.

  90. 90.

    Daniel McLaughlin

    @efgoldman: I guess so. I just don’t see how people justify it. Cheap android phones seem to be just fine. If you have that kind of money, bless your heart, I suppose.

  91. 91.

    Immanentize

    @magurakurin: It is time for you to go Android. I did and I am very happy, although it took a few weeks to wrestle the apple tentacles off my life.

  93. 93.

    JMG

    No Hollandaise tonight, but we are making navarin for a dinner party. French lamb stew with new spring vegetables, carrots, new potatoes, turnips, green beans and peas. It’s exceptionally yum. Also strawberry-basil margaritas for cocktails. Two other couples (it’s a joint birthday party as Alice and two other women share birthdays with two days of each other) are bringing salad and dessert, so that’s a surprise.

  94. 94.

    efgoldman

    @Baud:

    Like my campaign can raise $1099.

    Pretend you’re a “rich” fat slob who dresses badly, eats worse, and gold-plates everything including the turds in your punch bowl. Then get some actual rich fat slob to buy it and lease it back to the campaign for $1/year. By the time you’ve actually paid off the lease, the next one will hit the market.

  95. 95.

    magurakurin

    @Immanentize: put my self in moderation by writing the wrong name. doh. I have an android phone. I did own a mac computer back in 1993. It was okay, I guess. Never got another one though. I never had an Iphone or Ipad. I have had android tablets and phones for a while now. It is hard for me to see much difference. When people hand me an Iphone or an Ipad, I have trouble finding the on switch or doing much of anything. I suppose it is just as simple and easy, but it certainly isn’t “intuitive.” None of the machines are. Walking is intuitive, using tech is something you learn. I can’t be bothered to learn how to use Apple products.

  97. 97.

    NeenerNeener

    @Quinerly: I’m really warming to the idea of the NY RICO case being Trump’s downfall if it includes total asset forfeiture. The sell off of the Trump empire piece by piece as his kids can only stand by and watch would be karmic justice.

  100. 100.

    magurakurin

    @OzarkHillbilly: he stayed really calm, actually, and totally on point. It was a masterful performance. He should be in Congress instead of that viper MacArthur.

  101. 101.

    ruemara

    I’m just up because my body is inbetween east coast and west coast time now. But I’m glad to be in my own space.

  102. 102.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    I crush hard on both, but my money is on Kendzior. She doesn’t go breathless on speculation like Mensch.

  104. 104.

    Oldgold

    At this point, I understand why the GOP has not abandoned Trump.

    Sound politics would dictate that the GOP should now put some meaningful distance between themselves and Trump. Despite this, the GOP continues to walk in lock step with Trump. Their silence the last few days has been remarkable.

    This miscalculstion presents opportunity and danger. The opportunity is a nationalized wave election in ’18. The danger is Madison’s experiment is permanently compromised before we get to November of ’18.

  105. 105.

    magurakurin

    @ruemara:

    But I’m glad to be in my own space.

    I got back on Tuesday from a two week trip to Italy. Had to go to work an hour after I got home. Passed out that night from tiredness and woke up in a fright. It took me nearly two minutes to figure out I was in my room. I felt really, really happy when I did realize I was safe in my own bed though. Jet lag is a weird thing.

  107. 107.

    Immanentize

    @efgoldman: thanks for asking. At one level it is friggin brutal. On another we have adapted to the new cycles of chemo and stomach issues etc. Most important and the best thing so far is that they finally got on top of Ms Imm’s pain. Someone was commenting about what a difference that makes. It really does. Humans are so adaptable/resilliant even to weird extremes. .

  108. 108.

    Quinerly

    @Gvg:
    I see your point…..BUT. My hope is that his sloppiness brings him down. The powers that be are digging deep. As my Southern daddy would say, “even a blind squirrel finds an acorn.” Trump has had his hands in so much shit and has been lucky too long. He has disregarded all rules and norms. Somebody will find something that brings him down. I’m convinced of that. Now my worries all turn to Pence and Ryan.

  109. 109.

    Baud

    @Daniel McLaughlin:

    damn, I wish Baud had won.

    Unlike Trump, I would have embarrassed this country in a completely non-hateful way.

    @efgoldman: I don’t think that’ll fly politically unless I can distract people by demonizing other people.

  110. 110.

    debbie

    @Elizabelle:

    He’s talking about now, at this moment. Do you actually think Mitch McConnell or Paul Ryan would let any of their members even entertain the thought of working with Democrats? I have a better chance of winning the lottery without buying a ticket.

  112. 112.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    Unlike Trump, I would have embarrassed this country in a completely non-hateful way.

    Ah, Gerald Ford then (without the pardoning). I still remember Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford showing the country how to vote. Can’t find it on youtube unfortunately.

  113. 113.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    There were a lot of people out there, hundreds, who know what happened here. We’re 10 months into the investigation. It’s not like the initial phases. Even if they cut this down today and shut it down, the truth will come out eventually and it’s going to be ugly.

    Philip Mudd,
    Ex-deputy director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center and the FBI’s National Security Branch

    It’s like Watergate. Within 6 months FBI insiders knew the extent of the break-in and the cover-up. It took awhile, and Nixon did everything he could to obstruct the investigation, but eventually all conspirators were rolled up..

    Today, there are well connected people like Mudd who know the extent of the treason. Trump is doing everything he can to obstruct the investigation, but eventually all the conspirators will be rolled up.

  115. 115.

    Immanentize

    @magurakurin: In 1993? Hmm. I had a Compaq 286. I remember the sales rep telling us,”That’s more computer than you will ever need.”

  117. 117.

    debbie

    @Immanentize:

    I missed earlier posts about this and send hope-filled thoughts your way. I thank Who- or Whatever for the advances in pain management!

  118. 118.

    JMG

    My opinion is that Trump’s vulnerability is his past business activity, not his campaign. Oh, there’s no doubt in my mind said campaign colluded with Russia, but I don’t think he knew about it. That opinion is based on walking a mile in whatever Putin wears on his feet. I’d never let Trump in on any conspiracy. He has the worst possible trait in any conspirator, the inability to keep his yap shut. The investigation has set him off because it’s a deadly blow to his ego. The idea he didn’t win the election all by himself (as if anyone ever has) is intolerable to him.

  119. 119.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @zhena gogolia:

    Yeah – it occurred to me that it was articulate, powerful and plain – it distilled every feature of the pre-existing condition fear that people have into a very easy to digest moment.

  120. 120.

    Elizabelle

    @JMG: That sounds reasonable. Past business activity. Which is why we never see his tax returns.

    @Immanentize: Best to you and Mrs. Imm.

    And thinking of dear greennotGreen, and hoping she and her family are having one of the good days. That she’s able to watch SNL tonight (or listen to it), if she’s up to it.

  121. 121.

    Applejinx

    Code is good at some things. It’s where Elon Musk revealed some of his wildest notions, like ‘maybe we really are just all in a computer program right now’. Code is good at being really friendly and enticing out your fondest dreams and fantasies.

    Code is going to be very friendly to Hillary Clinton. I would even say that I’d trust anything revealed during such a presentation more than I trust the usual PR-website-type stuff (which is not very much). Think of it this way: people here have been faulting Bernie’s lack of follow-through on his grand generalized notions since day one, but if he was at Code they would be fishing out what he THOUGHT would happen, probably quite effectively.

    They don’t give a shit about Bernie: he is not an Elon Musk kind of person. He doesn’t do his own work, he’s a banner for others to wave and I’m cool with that (note I didn’t vote for him for President, and back when I did it was in his capacity as leftish pressure on the Democratic Party). Well, Hillary Clinton does do her own work. Nancy Pelosi can say in a response to a question “We’re capitalists, that’s just the way it is” and did, but Hillary at Code WILL reveal whether there’s a larger plan to all that, and whether it makes sense.

    That’s because the Code people question their techie visionary celebrities like sycophants, in front of a pantingly sympathetic audience… I don’t think there’s any chance of Hil’s audience being as sympathetic as they were for Elon Musk, but the audience absolutely will be wealthy capitalist techies panting for a vision of a technocratic future and they will be hanging on her words. I’m convinced that will get her to open up, and people like me will end up with a more believable picture of what the Democrats intend. It could work.

    For the record, I really like Elon Musk, and though I think some of his notions about reality are wacky (we’re really not in a computer program as we understand them), I’m still on Team Elon partly due to how he opened up at Code. So this is an opportunity.

    Also, I like hollandaise ;)

  122. 122.

    Quinerly

    No Hollandaise for me. I have tackled it before but it has become one of those treats I just prefer to eat out. I’m doing Mother’s Day weekend at my mom’s NC beach place…second one without her. Had a friend transport this old 1890’s armoire (now with shelves!, originally was her childhood closet in the 1920’s, hasn’t been used in 60 years) from a barn at the house I grew up in. Mixed my own chalk paint, started the work on it before we moved it…”distressing” it and hitting the edges and areas around the old hinges with my sander to expose the pine. Did some gray/blue undertones with a milky white top coat. Decided to forego those wax finishes and went with Minwax Polyacrylic Clear Matte as the top coat (two coats, seems to add depth). Love it so much that I’m doing the same thing to a giant round coffee table that was last painted by my dad and me many years ago. Normally don’t like painted furniture but it goes with the beach theme with the vintage white wicker….which I realize now needs to be sprayed to spruce it up. Projects create projects. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms! Oh….and I’m meeting commentator ju ju, her sister, and her mom for dinner in Morehead City. How cool is that?

  123. 123.

    Proudgradofcatladyacademy

    @efgoldman:

    Word. There’s a simple rule for buying tech here, What does this item need to do and can it be done with a cheaper, or even better, used model? My cheap 45.00 zte shit phone gets the job done for texting, checking bank account at grocery store and actually talking to people. My 5.00 garage sale find dorm size microwave found last week heats coffee just fine and the 30 year old food processor I inherited last year creates perfectly smooth hummus. Most overpriced tech like Apple are boutique status symbols and a lot of people pay for the status and features they don’t really use.

    I appreciate them though for supporting the research that will eventually trickle down to my shit cheaper tech.

    Also, if you need apple level security for your phone or make your living streaming Twitch gaming videos you should spend more on your tech. Or it if it makes you happy and you can afford it because God knows happiness can be an elusive thing these days.

  124. 124.

    GregB

    The most amazing thing Trump has said this past week, beyond the criminal threatening.

    Trump: “Putin asked me to meet in the oval office” (with the top spy of Russia who is embroiled in the scandal that has already taken down multiple members of my administration).

    Trump: “What was I going to say, no?”

  125. 125.

    magurakurin

    @Immanentize: yeah, I bought when I went back to school to actually finish a degree. I think it had a 40 MB hard drive. It did the job. But Windows boxes were cheaper down the road and I switched after that machine.

  128. 128.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Applejinx:

    Also, I like hollandaise ;)

    Just so long as you’re talking about the sauce and not that other BernieBro, Jonathan Hollandaise Bechamel or whatever he was.

  130. 130.

    Quinerly

    @JMG:
    Exactly what I think at @118. He’s going down. It’s just going to take time. I’m more convinced than ever.

  131. 131.

    Lapassionara

    I am embarrassed to admit this to you jackals, but each morning I get an email from FTFNYT. I usually scan the headlines, but do not click.

    This AM’s had a op Ed from Erick son of Erick, warning Dems that impeachment is a fantasy wish. I know, I know, the NYT is garbage. Paying this guy for his opinion is just further proof.

  133. 133.

    Applejinx

    @Gin & Tonic: I forgot about that dude. I can’t keep track of who’s the Boris Badenovs among us. I chimed in this time because I think Code is very interesting in what it can do. As far as luring out the dreams of technocrats, it’s really good. That’s why I’m so interested… nothing else had me interested in what Hillary Clinton thinks, but this, this is interesting. And they wouldn’t be interviewing Nancy Pelosi, because it’s not about whether you’re saying ‘yes, I am a capitalist technocrat’. They want the people who are providing the marching orders for the technocrats. And yeah, they’re all incredibly rich, and they’re all given total knob-jobs… but it will still bring out interesting statements. It’s all vision all the time with these guys, and they’re not there to provide counterpoint.

  134. 134.

    schrodingers_cat

    No hollaindase for me thanks. I had it at some fancy dinner I went with my PhD advisor, I think it was SWE or something like that and I got violently sick. Hillz looks lovely and well rested. I bet she would let you have the second ice-cream scoop.

  135. 135.

    GregB

    President Needy Child has been spotted on video at the RNC saying he will travel America campaigning for the house, senate members for 2018.

    Hug them closely Dear Leader, hug them and squeeze them and smother them with love.

  139. 139.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    @Cheryl Rofer: This is me on a daily basis: open horrible article on Tump (I’ll read later), then another, and another, repeat, repeat…at bedtime “Aw fuck it” (close browser.) File under: Self Care in the 45 Regime

  140. 140.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: Are you still here? I have a great Hollandaise method — foolproof. And when it comes to eggs and heat, I am often foolish, so I know what I’m talking about: You need a stick blender.

    In a mixing cup —

    3 or 4 egg yolks (depending on egg size) — save those whites for other things like meringue
    2-3 tsp lemon juice to taste (i usually put a tsp per yolk of large eggs)
    pinch of cayenne

    On the stove, melt a stick of butter until bubbly but not burning

    Slowly pour hot butter into egg mixture while you run the stick blender. Done.

    ETA the hot butter cooks the eggs which is why you must blend during the process….

  141. 141.

    schrodingers_cat

    @OzarkHillbilly: Can I ask your professional opinion? I want to put up some shelving in a bathroom alcove. I have never attempted anything of this sort. So my skills are rudimentary, do you have any advice about what off the shelf wooden shelving system to use, that is fool proof. Thanks.

  142. 142.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Proudgradofcatladyacademy: m

    As an average consumer of tech for business and personal use (word processing, internet access, accounting and data/music storage), Insimply want to turn something on and have it work. I feel like a huge part of the security problem is catering to tech dorks in terms of providing ubiquitous customizable systems. Rather than simply providing something that turns on and works, they provide machines and software which can be modified down to their operating systems and which are constantly being updated at their root – and this is where the real vulnerability lies.

    I’ve got a Surface laptop/tablet combo on a Windows operating system. It is cumbersome and clunky in terms of the bloatware – far inferior to a similarly priced Mac product, which simply works as marketed.

    Customization is unnecessary to the casual user, and saturates the market.

  144. 144.

    kindness

    One thing I’ve really appreciated when I heard the recent interviews and statements from Obama & Clinton is the measured reasoned statements. Gramatically correct. Adult. I know the nature of our tribal opposition won’t see it that way. It really has become more troglodity if you know what I mean. It isn’t about reason or ideas. It’s about dominating and (thinking you are) humiliating dirty liberals. Now I don’t feel humiliated. Hard to feel small when someone is grunting and whining, making no sense. But their base sees it that way. We live in completely different spaces but share the same geography.

  145. 145.

    greennotGreen

    Niece here, hope everyone’s weekend has been less eventful than ours!

    gnG has taken a turn for the worse and is no longer aware of what is going on around her. She does still recognize my mother, but that’s the only person she has identified. This morning she keeps trying to get out of bed to pee (she has been using a bedpan since yesterday but thinks we are stopping her from getting up just to be mean). Last night her cognitive functions really went down to the point that she was speaking gibberish for hours and would not calm down despite having Ativan, dilaudid, and morphine on board. For quite some time, she was simply counting, but would get stuck around 51 for awhile. At one point, she broke 100!
    Two nights ago, gnG woke up and kept exclaiming “zut alors!” My mother was extremely perplexed, because she is the one that took French, gnG only took German. Hopefully things calm down soon, for everyone’s sake.

  146. 146.

    Baud

    @Lapassionara:

    This AM’s had a op Ed from Erick son of Erick, warning Dems that impeachment is a fantasy wish.

    Why do people who aren’t us feel like they are entitled to give us advice?

    I know, I know, the NYT is garbage. Paying this guy for his opinion is just further proof.

    Yes, they are. But I don’t think they or any other paper pays people for op/eds.

  151. 151.

    Quinerly

    @greennotGreen:
    I’m not good about expressing certain stuff in written words. Your family has been in my thoughts for days. I search the threads in the AM for a mention. I’m so sorry that anyone has to go through this. Hugs and love.

  156. 156.

    Betty Cracker

    @greennotGreen: So sorry to hear about her turn for the worse. I hope things improve today and that you get to enjoy some more quality time together. Know that we’re all pulling for you, and thank you so much for keeping us informed.

  157. 157.

    Immanentize

    @greennotGreen: Thank you for the update. I am hoping for peace for all. I must admit, the Zoot Alors! cracked me up. I hope that GnG is experiencing amazing things. And I thank you personally for keeping us in the room with her.

  158. 158.

    Taylor

    If Code is worth anything at all, its first, second and third items of business will be a discussion of how to deal with the concept of work in a world where automation is rapidly replacing white collar as well as blue collar workers.

    Another thing to talk about is the future of political news dissemination, where campaigns can bypass the political media and infiltrate political propaganda into people’s social circles by influencing sources that they consider trustworthy, based on their social media profiles. Who needs the balkanization of Fox News any more?

    I hope that Hillary will want to talk about things like this, rather than wasting time feeding the wretched media the opportunity to paint her as a sore loser.

  164. 164.

    Another Scott

    @jacy: Insomnia’s horrible.

    I’m sure you’ve tried all kinds of things, and have lots of constraints in your daily life. But on the off-chance that it may help…

    One thing that would knock me out no matter what the time of day was making a stack of plate-sized pancakes and eating as much as my stomach would hold. I usually ended up asleep before I got through 3/4 of them.

    The folklore these days is that artificial light after sunset is bad, also too. Especially light with lots of blue in the spectrum. Keep your lights low after 9 PM if you can.

    Good luck! And enjoy GotG2!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  166. 166.

    Betty Cracker

    @Lapassionara: I canceled my NYT subscription but still read Krugman and other articles I see linked if they look interesting. Nothing that self-righteous toad Erickson has to say interests me, but he’s probably right that there will be no impeachment, at least as long as Republicans control both chambers. And that sure as hell doesn’t reflect well on Erickson’s party.

  167. 167.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @greennotGreen:

    That must be incredibly difficult for her, and for all of you. I hope she’s able to reach a point of calm and comfort today. Thank you again for keeping us updated. Love to gnG and the entire family.

  168. 168.

    MomSense

    @greennotGreen:

    Thanks so much for the update. My grandma would all of a sudden yell hells bells and I figured she may have been having some pain so we increased her morphine and then the yelling stopped and she could go back to her gibberish. Thank you for taking such good care of our friend. I know this is tough for you. Sometimes music helps and I found reading books to my grandma helped. Sing songy reading voices can be soothing. GnG might enjoy this especially since she is still remembering mom. hugs and love to all of you today.

  170. 170.

    Another Scott

    @jacy: Scratch the pancakes then. ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who doesn’t think pancakes and Hollandaise should be a thing…)

  171. 171.

    HeleninEire

    @greennotGreen: Some advice sent with love. When my brother was in his last days he did the gibberish thing, literally 24 hours a day, so both asleep and awake. Liquid Pr0zak worked beautifully to calm him. (Hope this gets past WP)

    Peace to you and your family.

  172. 172.

    workworkwork

    @satby: I got up at 3 due to my ‘smart’ smoke alarm. It swore on its sainted mother’s grave that there was smoke in the living room.

    There wasn’t.

    I mean, I really looked.

  173. 173.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @schrodingers_cat: There are so many different types and uses, it would be best if you picked out something that I could opine on. In so far as installation, most are fairly easy. Familiarity with a tape measure and a level are a big help. Depending on the weight of items to be shelved, the location of the studs can be mandatory. If you have drywall, lightly tapping on the wall with your hammer will locate the studs easily- hollow sound = no stud, solid sound = stud. There should be one on each side of a corner, but it isn’t always so. If you have a plaster and lath wall, knowledge of standard construction techniques, sometimes ancient techniques, is your only guide and not a certain one It will come down to a hammer and nail, which can leave a wall looking like a woodpecker had been at it. If it is masonry wall….

    May I suggest a different location? ;-)

  177. 177.

    greennotGreen

    @MomSense: Thank you, we have classical music (her favorite) playing constantly!

    Her only thoughts that were coherent today came when my mother mentioned that Trump had to be impeached. Even on her deathbed, she’s thinking about politics!

  178. 178.

    SFAW

    @JMG:

    My opinion is that Trump’s vulnerability is his past business activity, not his campaign.

    “Past business activity” is why we got 9/11.

    The SEC investigation of W — or actually, one of the companies he “ran”, I think it was Harken Oil, perhaps — was ramping up in August and September, 2001, and it was not looking like it was going to shower W in glory, so to speak. Interesting how that investigation went away.

    No, I don’t really believe that was why 9/11 happened. That’s Alex-Jones-level nutzoid stuff. But it’s fun to bring up say to Truthers and RWNJs in general.

    But I don’t have much problem believing Shitgibbon/Bannon would try a “wag the dog” event/scenario if things got a little too close for Shitgibbon’s taste.

  180. 180.

    Aleta

    greennotGreen, niece and sister:
    Thank you for wtiting. Light and love and peace prayers going out to you.

  181. 181.

    MomSense

    @greennotGreen:

    Yes! This is the way of the jackals! Cursing our foes to our last! Sending hugs to all of you.

    My dad is awake! He is sitting up and remembers our talking before his surgery. He is dizzy and really tired but slowly improving. Thank you to everyone for all the support. He asked for MSNBC on his tiny tv in ICU so he could see his Joy.

  182. 182.

    Elizabelle

    @greennotGreen: Classical is good, and I think you all talking about good times of the past; family memories and good stuff, would be marvelous. Talking of loved ones, with you and no longer here. We have no idea how much our loved ones can hear, but very likely that green’s powerful intellect is still churning in the background.

    Don’t imagine green will be back with another sentient period, at this point, but I remember my dad telling me stories he’d not ever mentioned before, about his youth. I kick myself for not having a tape recorder at hand (now we all have smartphones), because he was telling me these incredibly interesting stories in the middle of the night, and I was tired and they just vanished, with him.

  183. 183.

    Elizabelle

    @greennotGreen: That’s so interesting. It’s the brain shutting down, but all those interesting bits that make green herself. Searching and trying to make the connections.

    It’s a solemn privilege to be present for the passing of another. And it always stays with you.

  185. 185.

    schrodingers_cat

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks! I have used the spirit level while using mostly experimental setups as an undergrad and in grad school, and to hang pictures on the wall. I do have a stud finder, a big level and a Black and Decker power drill. I want the shelves to be U shaped, function is a linen closet that can also accommodate a laundry sorter. It is a dry wall construction, I think.

  189. 189.

    ruemara

    @greennotGreen: Sending love and peace to gnG and to you. Of course impeachment would make her lucid. Such is the way of warriors, wanting to defeat all enemies before they rest.

  193. 193.

    AnotherBruce

    @greennotGreen: I can relate, I went through some of the same experiences when my mother (recently) passed away. All you can do is comfort her as best you can and tell her you love her. This brings a dignity to a situation that is very painful. I send my love to you for what you are doing, because it’s really hard to do.

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