Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

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

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Bark louder, little dog.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 260 Comments

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So, I’m setting up a new PC, and I’m kinda proud of myself because, instead of waiting until the old one shit the bed and deploying a new one in a panic as usual, I’m going about this deliberately. Or at least, that was the plan. Figured I’d take my time and get rid of a decade-plus of accumulated crap that I’ve been dragging from computer to computer. But then I said, “Ah, fuck it” and selected the TRANSFER ALL YOUR SHIT option from my offsite backup thingy. Maybe next time.

Meanwhile, this lady went out to sea on an ice floe — by accident — and was retrieved:

Seems like a merciful way to go out. Probably won’t be any ice left by the time I’m ready.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

260Comments

  1. 1.

    Major Major Major Major

    Well I am preparing the apartment for our four-week absence! Working at the SF office for a week, then a vacation in Tokyo and Taipei, then SF office again. My delightful cousin will be cat/house sitting. Still, this sort of thing is always mega stressful for me. My todo list is like twenty-two items ?

  4. 4.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I’m unexpectedly replacing my PC too. The video card failed and when Mr DAW tried to replace it, something shorted. I realized I don’t have some of my writing files in dropbox. I get antsy when I don’t write. The new one should be ready on Monday.

  5. 5.

    Luthe

    As someone whose body occasionally decides it’s freezing to death despite all evidence to the contrary, I can tell you the shivering involved is deeply unpleasant. Like, whole body convulsions shivering. Honest-to-god teeth chattering, body forcing spurts of hot blood from your core to your extremities (and you still feel cold) shivering. It is being desperate for warmth but afraid to move because that might make you colder. It is not going gentle into that good night.

    /ray of sunshine

  6. 6.

    WhatsMyNym

    Who knew that ice floated.

    In other news, logs on beaches float as well – that’s how they got there.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MobiusKlein: You San Franciscans are awfully polite. If you were going to NYC for a visit they’d say, “NYC is a mess. Fuck you.”

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Adam L Silverman: Unfortunately,

    the gator was in poor health and reportedly had old gunshot wounds on its body, First Coast News reported. It was ultimately euthanized.

  16. 16.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Another Scott: We read that in middle school. That and “The Most Dangerous Game” are the only stories I remember.

    ETA: Mr DAW just did our taxes. We owe the Feds bigly. We’re getting money back from Iowa but owe about the same amount to Illinois.

  19. 19.

    MobiusKlein

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Could be 160 years and I’d still never be a local.

    There is a strain of that in SF too, usually directed at the .com folks, tech bros, banksters, or whatever the latest wave of visitors that ended up staying does for a living. Those select random from (beatniks / hippies / gays / bankers / artists / hipsters / techies) ruined SF!

  21. 21.

    lamh36

    Got me my first ever MacBook bout 3 weeks ago…and I’m loving just having a new computer…but also learning the tricks for Mac…that I’m no familiar. I’m still trying to figure stuff out that I was used to doing w/my PC

  23. 23.

    dm

    So, the Reich Wing has James O’Keefe, and that other clown. The left, on the other hand, has James Hart Stern: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2019/03/01/how-black-man-outsmarted-neo-nazi-group-became-their-new-leader/?utm_term=.02216b17de88&wpisrc=al_trending_now__alert-national&wpmk=1

    Without notifying his followers or even his inner circle, the longtime president of a legacy neo-Nazi group signed over its control to a black civil rights activist from California. Now, James Hart Stern, a 54-year-old with a history of infiltrating white supremacist groups, is the new leader of the National Socialist Movement.

    Stern’s first move as president was to address a pending lawsuit against the group by asking a Virginia judge to find it guilty of conspiring to commit violence at the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. Next, he plans to transform the hate group’s website into a space for Holocaust history lessons.

  24. 24.

    Suzanne

    It snowed last week. It was 80 degrees yesterday.
    Blah.

    I am considering moving to Chicago. It looks like a good mix of architecture, good food, and I can afford to live near public transit, so I can have the walking lifestyle that I miss.

  25. 25.

    lamh36

    Alright…I tried the Whole Food/Amazon Prime grocery home delivery service for the first time today.

    Whole Foods is hella expensive…but with all the Mardi Gras stuff happening this weekend, I just disn’t feel like going to the store and have to tackle with all them darn people.

    So I’ve got prime and it’s free 2 hour delivery (you can select the time) so I figured let me try this out.

    Walmart delivers here too, but I missed the window for today.

    I might try the Walmart delivery next time.

  27. 27.

    lamh36

    @lamh36: Amazon Prime/Whole Food grocery delivery, track the order from prep to delivery.

    they send text telling you the order has been prepped…and the order has been picked up …and the order is on it’s way.

    It also does map tracking like Amazon package delivery does!

  28. 28.

    lamh36

    @lamh36: final results from my Whole Foods/Amazon Prime home delivery grocery order.

    It was delivered early in the designated delivery window.

    I ordered 13 items, but 4 were “undeliverable” and I didn’t ask for replacements to be found, cause it’s Whole Foods…who knows if I’ll like any replacement…bleh. All items were in good condition and temperature was maintained

    I got a message saying: “

    Unfortunately, your order has been partially delivered. Some of the items in your order were undeliverable.

    As a courtesy, we will refund your full order. You will receive an email containing the details of your refund within 3-5 business days.”

    Don’t know if that is a new policy or because it was my first time using the system, but if true, I got $48 worth of groceries for free…so I’m good…LOL

  29. 29.

    Mike in NC

    Today’s Washington Post has an op-ed attributed to VP Mike Dense (I seriously doubt he wrote it — or even read it), urging Congress to fund Fat Bastard’s ridiculous “Space Force”. The comments are brutal, suggesting the whole point of this Trumpian boondoggle is to declare a national emergency because there are caravans of illegal space aliens coming our way. Bad hombres from Mars, indeed!

  31. 31.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Another Scott: The guy kneeling behind him is the wildlife biologist they called out to help get the gator out of the ditch, who did the measurements including weight, and who made it clear in the article he wasn’t going to get too close until/unless the gator was secured.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Another Scott: Until someone walks in with a hamberder, he gets a whiff, decides it’s time to eat, and wanders off looking for the snack bar.

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @dm:

    “Say what you want about me,” Stern said. “But I’ve done this twice now.”

  40. 40.

    germy

    CPAC doesn’t allow guns, but it allows immigrants. It’s almost as if the GOP knows that one of those is inherently dangerous and the other is not.

    — The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) March 1, 2019

  41. 41.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Daniel Dale is live blogging Trump at CPAC. Trump has been speaking for at least 90 minutes. Dale says it’s the weirdest Trump speech he’s heard yet, and he’s heard a lot of Trump speeches.

  42. 42.

    germy

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Trump said Democrats want us all to take trains to Hawaii.

    I suppose that’s a reference to the Green New Deal, and its promise to end all air travel forever.

  43. 43.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy: sounds like he’s putting on a very stable show, and judging from Dale’s twitter feed, he’s been going for almost two hours?

    Daniel Dale @ ddale8
    1h1 hour ag
    -Trump mocks Jeff Sessions’s accent, as he has been reported to do in private, saying, “I’m gonna recuse mahhhself.”
    -There was a bit of a not-totally-pleased gasp at CPAC when Trump did this, in my subjective opinion. Trump has denied Woodward’s reporting that he has called Sessions a “dumb southerner.”

    -Trump says “TiVo” is “better than television”: “Television is practically useless without TiVo.”

    but he’s very busy with documents
    he also did several minutes on the size of his inauguration crowd, and he has a new nickname for “shifty little Adam Schiff”

  44. 44.

    bemused

    @Another Scott:

    Hard to believe that he could get much more unhinged than he already is but there is no bottom to this guy. Thought I heard on msnbc he was coming up on blathering for two hours. Really?

  46. 46.

    trollhattan

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Is that frealz? Holy crapola, something else to watch for–a gator that can eat your Kia.

    OTOH I’d like to see a python try and tackle that big boy.

  49. 49.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Daniel Dale @ ddale8
    Trump says he is about to conclude. He is mocking people from previous administrations who criticize him on North Korea. “These guys died,” he says, referring to them doing poorly in the negotiations.
    Trump is talking about Otto Warmbier. He calls his parents “incredible.” He says he’s in a “horrible position” because he has to negotiate but he loves Otto and his parents. “A delicate balance.”

    those poor people

  50. 50.

    Another Scott

    @bemused: Really. He’s building up to Castro-like lengths (7:10:00). Slowly.

    He’s still going, after saying he was almost done.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  51. 51.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I never cease to be amazed by the national treasure that is Daniel Dale, and he’s not even American. I don’t know how he doesn’t succumb to brain rot or alcohol poisoning with all the live tweeting of Dump’s bullshit.

  53. 53.

    Another Scott

    LOLGOP:

    LOLGOP @LOLGOP

    A federal judge said Trump’s secretary of labor carried out a coverup to help a billionaire child rapist who happens to be Trump’s friend. Hope he covers that in his speech.

    11:11 AM – 2 Mar 2019

    There’s still time!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m not a twitterbug, don’t use it except to find articles others highlight via it and so am wholly ignorant of all twitter traditions.

  55. 55.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Daniel Dale @ ddale8
    Trump invites CPAC attendees to his 4th of July festivities in Washington. He says he wants to bring “millions of people into the city,” people who love America, “those are the people we want.”

    Conspiracy theory that I don’t think is so crazy: They’re going to bus in MAGAts and Rubes to build a crowd so he can stop pouting about the inauguration and claim he invented the Fourth of July

    @mrmoshpotato: maybe knowing he can escape gives him a certain zen that the rest of us can’t reach as we watch our republic die of clairol-for-men-induced dementia. And racism

  58. 58.

    NotMax

    @bemused

    From Chicago:

    Give ’em the old flim flam flummox
    Fool and fracture ’em
    How can they hear the truth above the roar?
    Throw ’em a fake and a finagle
    They’ll never know you’re just a bagel
    Razzle dazzle ’em
    And they’ll beg you for more

    Give ’em the old double whammy
    Daze and dizzy ’em
    Back since the days of old Methuselah
    Everyone loves the big bambooz-a-lah
    […]
    Long as you keep ’em way off balance
    How can they spot you got no talents?

  65. 65.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Daniel Dale @ ddale8
    Oh man. I was just watching dozens of people walk out of the room as they sensed Trump was a minute or two from concluding…then Trump said that he’s been watching the doors and not one person has left.

    he saw the people walking out the door, and it spooked him, so he just said it didn’t happen

    @trollhattan: Sweaty MAGAts
    Aquanet fading in the summer heat
    Hydrated by Mountain Dew

  67. 67.

    trollhattan

    These Trump Admin mutherfvckers have whatever comprises the inverse of shame. Was each selected by the US Chamber of Commerce? Behold.

    Fears over chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-fed beef are “myths”, according to the US ambassador to the UK.

    In the Daily Telegraph, Woody Johnson urged the UK to embrace US farming methods after Washington published its objectives for a UK-US trade deal.

    EU rules currently limit US exports of certain food products, including chicken and beef – but Mr Johnson wants that to change in the UK after Brexit.

    Downing Street has repeatedly denied it will accept lower food standards.

    A No 10 spokeswoman said: “We have always been very clear that we will not lower our food standards as part of a future trading agreement.”

    Mr Johnson, however, described warnings over US farming practices as “inflammatory and misleading” smears from “people with their own protectionist agenda”.

    He also said the EU’s “Museum of Agriculture” approach was not sustainable, adding: “American farmers are making a vital contribution to the rest of the world. Their efforts deserve to be recognised.

  68. 68.

    bemused

    @NotMax:

    Someone on twitter wrote that CPAC audience kind of gasped when he mocked Jeff Sessions’ accent. I would normally find it hard to believe that anything would shock his supporters but perhaps the gaspers have similar accents and didn’t find it amusing.

  70. 70.

    Baud

    @bemused: If Trump goes too far and loses a significant portion of his die-hard supporters, it’s over for them. That’s his kryptonite in their eyes.

  71. 71.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    He knows more than the generals, and he fired Mattis and Kelly

    Daniel Dale @ ddale8
    Trump says that nobody in Hollywood could play US generals, “These guys are like perfect people.” He says he met a general named “Raisin Kane.” He said he was incredulous but that yes, the guy said, his name is Raisin “like the fruit.” ??? someone help me with this one

    This should probably be Raisin Cane. I have no idea. This speech is bonkers.

    Wesley Morgan @ wesleysmorgan
    It’s Brig. Gen. J. Daniel Caine, who indeed goes by the nickname Raisin

    ETA: @WaterGirl: well, a broken clock, et cetera. TiVo is pretty awesome
    He’s also right that Mitt Romney walks like a penguin. I don’t know why it’s right, but it is.

  75. 75.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @bemused: he despises his own supporters– remember “We love the poorly educated!”– and sometimes he lets that slip through. I think he was bragging about how rich he and his friend are again. But he’s still the one who reinforces and, in their eyes, legitimizes their racism. They are joined in hatred.

  76. 76.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    niel Dale @ ddale8
    One thing I wanted to check before tweeting: after months of criticizing previous presidents for giving money to North Korea, Trump says he will get other countries to give money to North Korea “if it all works out”: “Maybe not us. But I’m going to get other countries to give.”

    Mexico will pay for the beachfront condos. My experience in the Korean climate comes from old reruns of MASH, and I gather it’s either brutally hot, or freezing cold with howling blizzards. And there’s lots of sagebrush

  79. 79.

    Another Scott

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Robert McCartney of the WaPo and WAMU said on the radio recently that if Donnie were thinking about giving a speech or otherwise politicizing the 4th that there would (roughly) be massive protests. I agree. People aren’t going to stand for him attempting to turn the 4th in DC into some sort of Nuremberg Rally.

    NIxon tried it in 1970 – it didn’t go well.

    […]

    Indeed, the organizers struggled to book relevant talent for what was basically a pro-war rally. When people criticized the event for booking too many “fossils and dinosaurs” as entertainment, the organizers attempted to entice more relevant acts like comedian Dick Gregory and the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary. Both declined the offer.

    “If the celebration was strictly entertainment, completely free of social and political implications, I would be the first to join you,” Gregory wrote in a letter to Hope. “But a celebration in our nation’s capital on the Fourth of July cannot possibly be a politically neutral event. Even my participation would tend to give a political image to such an event, as I have appeared in Washington, D.C. many times before, on the same site you will be using, promoting the cause of peace, civil rights and human dignity.”

    The event’s partisan slant that Gregory accurately perceived was evidenced by its attendees, who were overwhelmingly white and middle-aged. In the Baltimore Sun, one reporter quipped, “There were fewer black faces than one might have expected in Alaska.”

    [image]

    As the crowd gathered near the Lincoln Memorial for the event’s morning religious service, protesters behind them started a “smoke-in,” lighting up joints that were red, white and blue and waving Viet Cong flags.

    “As the service went on, a few hundred radicals, some completely nude, waded waist deep into the reflecting pool and launched into antiwar chants,” Kruse writes. While some “Honor America Day” attendees were simply annoyed, others were invigorated by a chance to confront their political enemies. “They ought to be clubbed,” one man said as the police held the protesters away from the event. “I hope they break a few necks,” a woman opined.

    That evening, an estimated 350,000 people gathered near the Washington Monument for the evening’s entertainment, hosted by Hope. Despite the fact that the police released tear gas on the protesters that then blew into the main crowd—creating “a mad stampede of weeping hippies and Middle Americans,” one reporter wrote—the event organizers declared it a success. But many other observers thought it only served to highlight the country’s political divisions.

    […]

    If he does try to go ahead with something like that, I hope that everyone invited to participate remembers the lessons of those days. And that they refuse to legitimate his narcissism.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  80. 80.

    germy

    His free-form speeches lately remind me of the last scenes in Bob Fosse’s movie about Lenny Bruce.

  81. 81.

    MattF

    @lamh36: One useful feature is Quick Look. You select some file, say, a pdf or a text file, and press the space key– you get to see the contents of the file. Very convenient. Note that this is a feature of the Finder so you have to be in the Finder for it to work.

  82. 82.

    trollhattan

    @Another Scott:
    Has he tried pairing it with his Really Big military parade? I’d pay to watch a mobile missile launcher mowing down a bunch of MAGATs.

  84. 84.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @OzarkHillbilly: One of may favorite “Overheard in New York”s:

    A tourist mom with three teens in tow halts in the middle of the block, causing two suits and several other people to crash into them.

    Suit #1: For the love of God, move, you idiots! There are people walking behind you!

    Tourist mom: You don’t have to be so rude!

    Suit #2: He’s rude? You clearly see this is a busy sidewalk, and yet you stop dead in the middle and block all traffic!

    Tourist mom: He didn’t have to say it so rude — we are not from around here!

    Suit #1: And does that somehow excuse your being idiots and stopping in the middle of a busy street?

    Tourist mom: At least we are not so rude in Tennessee!

    Suit #2: That explains the idiocy, but it still isn’t an excuse.

    Tourist mom: That was unnecessary!

    Suit #1: Perhaps, but it’s true.

    Suit #2: Here, maybe this is more polite: Welcome to New York. Slow walking idiots prone to stopping for no reason stay to the fucking right of busy sidewalks, and don’t get in the way of the non-mentally impaired locals. Now fuck off.

    –50th & 6th

  89. 89.

    Adam L Silverman

    @WaterGirl: Please see Anne Laurie on the mezzanine level to collect your MAGA hat, Q-Anon commemorative coin, and a coffee table book of McNaughton paintings and Garrison cartoons.

  91. 91.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @debbie: I write by hand, but I have a full draft of my current novel and I need access to the right version, which I’m not sure I have. Also I had a short story rejected and I can see a good way to revise it, but I don’t have that file either. I’m taking a little vacation and reading.

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s USAF Brigadier General Caine. He’s the Deputy Commanding General of Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve. His call sign is likely Raising or Raisin’ as in Raising Caine. I emailed Dale the link to his bio.

  98. 98.

    normal liberal

    @Suzanne:
    Since all I know is that you’re in Arizona, I have to ask – was that walking lifestyle lived in a northern city? Chicago veers from nineties and really high humidity in the summer to our new polar vortex regimen in winter, where the temperatures swing from 50s to 10 below zero as the high. The potholes are epic.
    Spring and fall are nice, mostly. I love it, but the weather often sucks.

  101. 101.

    WaterGirl

    @NotMax: Hmm, I was guessing that they have Tivo on his presidential tv and that’s how he gets his “shows”. In the olden days, that’s how some people referred to their daytime soaps, but I’m sure for Trump it’s FOX.

    I’m sure he wouldn’t know how to program it or set up a season pass, but he might be able to push a couple of buttons and then squeal with delight when he sees “Hannity”. Or whatever his show is called.

    Trump loves Tivo = Trump loves his FOX shows. Just a guess.

  104. 104.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @WaterGirl:

    The rule is that no one touches the remote except for Trump and his technical support staff. He mutes the 60-inch screen in the dining room during meetings, but keeps an eye on the headline ticker. He has a state-of-the-art “Super TiVo” that records cable news which he checks every day to make sure he hasn‘t missed anything. His aides monitor Fox & Friends in the mornings “in much the way commodities traders might keep tabs on market futures to predict the direction of their day.”

  105. 105.

    normal liberal

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Add in a bog or two and you’ve got it. Ages ago I had a job interview in DC in mid-July. I turned down the offer and went back to Philadelphia.

  114. 114.

    frosty fred

    @normal liberal: I grew up 20 miles southeast of DC, and every time I go back in the summer I wonder how I survived. (Also went to grad school in east Texas; my advisor couldn’t understand why I wasn’t interested in applying for a job that was opening up in Galveston. ETA: to be fair, he was from Louisiana.)

  116. 116.

    Ruckus

    @lamh36:
    I was on windows when it was just dos and have even been a unix administrator, had lynix and getting use to apple was…. strange. However I’ve been on long enough that it seems completely normal now. And my boss asks me occasionally how to do stuff on his windows computer and I have to completely switch gears to do that. But I like apple better. It’s gotten a bit too latest craze for me but at least it’s consistent and it works for the most part. Apple does have it’s own way though and you have to understand that and even somewhat embrace it. When you do it really is pretty logical and thought out though. Can’t imagine it’s for everyone.

  117. 117.

    Mike in NC

    The only American city I’ve been to with summertime heat and humidity worse than DC is New Orleans. Stepped off the plane and it felt like getting hit in the face with a soaking wet towel.

  118. 118.

    WaterGirl

    @MattF: I know, I just thought lamh might not know what it was.

    edit: or she might know what it was, but might not know what it’s called.

  119. 119.

    B.B.A.

    Judging from today’s CPAC speech, it’s going to be a looooong year, 10 months and 18 days.

    Also, I’ve been to National Harbor and it’s such a weird place.

  120. 120.

    MattF

    @Mike in NC: On the other hand, NO is the place where a lizard can nonchalantly walk into your hotel room. I wouldn’t expect that to happen in DC.

  122. 122.

    Ruckus

    @NotMax:
    Who plugged in that VCR?
    He can’t bend over to do that and we know he’d figure out a way to electrocute himself if he tried. Hell he probably doesn’t even know that things plug in.

  126. 126.

    FlyingToaster

    @WaterGirl: Trump’s Tivo is set to record FoxNews, FoxBusiness, CNN, and NBC. The first two for his daily issues and talking points, and the second two for him to bitch about.

    No sign of ABC, CBS, Comedy Central, MSNBC, CNBC, TMC, AMC, HBO, ShowTime, PBS, or anything a normal 70 year old might watch. Also doesn’t get his news off of his desktop computer via social media, like every retiree I’m in touch with.

    This fucking asshole…

  127. 127.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @FlyingToaster: I read he was surprised by Cohen’s testimony, and someone speculated that’s because FOX didn’t spend time predicting the content. The pretended it was no big deal. So watching only FOX can bite him in the ample butt.

  128. 128.

    B.B.A.

    @JR: Nominative determinism – you’d expect that someone named Woody Johnson would be a dick.

  129. 129.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Sister Golden Bear: My daughter used to work in the Viacom building in Times Square. She’s a beautiful, charming, polite and well-mannered young lady (completely unlike her Dad, but that’s another story) who could come Travis Bickle-style unhinged when getting out of the subway station and those fucking idiot tourists from Tennessee or wherever the fuck they come from get to the top of the stairs and just *stop* and gawk. Outta the way, moron, I’m tryna get to work!

  130. 130.

    Haroldo

    @NotMax:

    Pyongyang does have some weird architecture, that’s fer sure.

    So….the fi ain’t too hi, but as best I can tell there’s a lot of pastel colored concrete and very few cars and trucks on the roads. I didn’t go all the way to the end, but did I miss the Ryugyong Hotel? (I couldn’t see it.)

  133. 133.

    dopey-o

    WaterGirl:

    what’s a finder?

    As someone who works on a pc that dual-boots Windows 7 and Macintosh, i advise you to purchase “Macs for Dummies”. It is almost as good as a dog for improving your quality of life.

  135. 135.

    Ruckus

    @Sister Golden Bear:
    I got over my fear of hell after I finished 6 weeks on a navy destroyer in the Caribbean in the summer which couldn’t make enough fresh water for showers. It was high pressure steam powered and we had equipment in the boiler room that had to be dealt with twice a day. Hell may be hotter but only a degree or two.
    So not unlike DC in the summer.

  138. 138.

    NotMax

    @Haroldo

    Yup. someone once referred to the colorful exteriors of the buildings as representing a “candy-colored illusion.” Been quite a while since watched the video, but believe the on-again, off-again hotel is in there somewhere (or may be further down on the page linked).

    One oddity is certainly the atom-shaped science complex.

  140. 140.

    Ninedragonspot

    @Major Major Major Major: Have fun in Taipei! Make sure to get some stinky tofu. Be sure to stop by the Red House plaza. If you’re interested in Chinese or Taiwanese opera there, let me know – I can probably hook you up.

  141. 141.

    Ruckus

    @MattF:
    Not sure I should say anything here. I worked in electronics in the navy, lots of all those electric things floating around and I never thought about stuff leaking out if not plugged in. If that’s true what do we do about all the outlets that don’t have stuff plugged in? Are they leaking and then trying to steal all our secrets or life juices? It can’t be a commie plot or shit for brains wouldn’t be in bank accounts with them. Would he?

  142. 142.

    Haroldo

    @NotMax:

    The atomic complex is my favorite, I think.

    The candy-colored illusion looks to be straight out of Sim City.

    Thanks for providing this.

    @Major Major Major Major:

    (I’m struck by how this much this seems to be a psychedelic version of northern Taiwan, tho’ completely devoid of human beings.)

  144. 144.

    Ruckus

    @Gin & Tonic:
    On board ship we used to yell “Make A Hole!” if you were in a hurry. Every once in a while someone would ask, “Do you think you are a hole? Cause I sure do!”

  146. 146.

    FlyingToaster

    @germy: Oh, FFS. There’s already free speech. He’s trying to give Nazi’s the freedom from the consequences of hate speech. I predict this won’t outlast a court challenge.

  147. 147.

    NotMax

    @Ruckus

    Trivia: After electricity was first installed in the White House,

    President [Benjamin] and Mrs. Harrison refused to operate the switches because they feared being shocked and left the operation of the electric lights to the domestic staff. Source

  150. 150.

    John Revolta

    @MattF: @Ruckus: James Thurber had an aunt who thought that electricity would leak out of the open sockets in their house in Columbus. Not sure if it was the same aunt who used to warn them not to drive the car without any gasoline in it (It “fried the valves”, or something).

  151. 151.

    MattF

    @germy: I guess that if you can sign an order giving freedom of speech, you can later sign another order taking it away.

  156. 156.

    CarolDuhart2

    2013 Lapatop. Works fine so far, but its used, and I’m wondering if it’s time to think of finally buying a new one. What would be improvements over a 2013 model, and is it worth the price?

    https://balloon-juice.com/2019/03/02/saturday-afternoon-open-thread-27/#comment-7212291: Isn’t there already a mass celebration planned for the Fourth? I can’t imagine even trying for anything else on that day. Even if there was nothing planned, The Fourth of July in Washington would be I think a thing, and there would be thousands just taking in the sights.

    But he needs something that’s focused on him. Nobody really cares about him to celebrate the manliness that is DJT. So he wants an event; Hopefully this will be just as much of a bust as the military parade. He has no one and no time to plan anything substantial, the parking would be horrendous for any extra MAGATS that could come, and everything is booked years in advance.

    He’s still smarting from the Inauguration and probably will for the rest of his life. Nobody went to his, (the smallest in history), and nobody wants to go to the White House. The Veterans Day Parade fell completely through, so he hopes that the Fourth will finally give him the big ego boost he wants-even if he has to borrow the usual Fourth Crowds to do it.

  157. 157.

    FlyingToaster

    Great. Now the microwave has decided to emit an ominous hum when not running.

    The last time it did this, the door switch needed replacing; this time the hum is louder, so I think it’s time for a new one. Blech.

    Clearly the warranty is out on my house.

  159. 159.

    lamh36

    @debbie: oh..you already know I got the Idris-signal already…lol

    One last chance to see Spiderverse in the theatres this week I believe.

    I have it on digital, but I’m thinking bout going to see it one more time at theatre…I think I can use my AMC Alist

    Oh and also too, Captain Marvel comes out next week. I’m def gonna be seeing that.

  161. 161.

    Brachiator

    @CarolDuhart2:

    2013 Lapatop. Works fine so far, but its used, and I’m wondering if it’s time to think of finally buying a new one. What would be improvements over a 2013 model, and is it worth the price?

    You might take a look at the discussion and reviews at the Wirecutter.

  162. 162.

    TomatoQueen

    @trollhattan: June 29 through July 5th, in my experience, separate the sheep from the goats. There’s usually an air inversion, some overcast days, and the 3rd and 4th in particular are in the high 90s, sometimes to 101 in the Virginia-side fireworks viewing areas. Town is full of school and family visitors who’ve never been here before, and are welcome to go the fuck home at any time. The National Symphony plays at one end, and we rubes sit at the Lincoln Memorial steps at the other end. Fireworks are by an Italian family firm out of New Castle & usually are superb. In short, it’s hot, it’s crowded, it’s filthy dirty, it’s America.

  164. 164.

    lamh36

    @Mike in NC: yup…and our humidity stays almost all year round…even in winter (which we haven’t had any real cold days almost this entire season so far…) there a “mist”, but spring and of course summer humidity…ain’t no joke!

  165. 165.

    debbie

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Jesus, I remember those assholes! The city would be filled with them every summer when the smart people had left for the beach.

  168. 168.

    trollhattan

    @TomatoQueen:

    it’s hot, it’s crowded, it’s filthy dirty, it’s America

    Can’t begin to tell you how very much I want this tshirt.

  169. 169.

    NotMax

    @Flying Toaster

    Door switch is a common point of failure. If you do go looking for a new one, there are still plenty of brands and models without that feature, ones where you open the door the old fashioned way by pulling on it.

    @CarolDuhart2

    These days, don’t even give a second glance at a laptop which doesn’t come with an SSD (solid state drive). If the 2013 one is chugging along, you’ve got time to window shop at leisure.

  171. 171.

    Renie

    I can’t take these idiot trump people anymore. Had one today when getting my haircut who claimed that NYS is now going to let babies be aborted after they are born. WTF. I tried to make her realize that is scientifically impossible but she wasn’t budging. When will this nightmare end.

  172. 172.

    Martin

    @Gin & Tonic: I tell my kids that just because you fucked up doesn’t mean you get to inconvenience everyone else with your remedy. If you accidentally got in the left turn lane, don’t refuse to turn left when the light turns until you can find an opening to go straight – you turn left, pull over, and figure out how to get back where you need to go. You inconvenience yourself, not the 30 people unfortunate to have gotten behind you when you did something dumb. That applies to waking in congested areas, to grocery store lines, and everything inbetween.

    My kids won’t let me push the cart in the grocery store because if you’re inconsiderate enough to stop your cart dead in the middle of the aisle as you compare nutritional labels on the shampoo, then I am going to crash into your cart deliberately and apologize at the top of my lungs that I didn’t realize this grocery store was for your exclusive use and could you please direct me to a grocery store where I too am allowed to travel down the aisles?

    They have also witnessed my also at the top of my lungs apologizing to a smoker “I’m sorry, is my fresh air bothering you because I could try and take it somewhere else” and then aggressively waving my arms in the air to push it away from the person. Thankfully its become exceedingly rare here in SoCal.

    I don’t know why so many people are shocked to learn that I grew up in NYC. This is some serious artisinal NYC asshole behavior here on my part.

  177. 177.

    lamh36

    Wait, So Bernie held a rally in Flatbush…and the intro bad was a white Reggae Band…

    That is sooo Bernie, it might just be too peak Bernie…

  178. 178.

    Ruckus

    @CarolDuhart2:
    A lot depends on the laptop and how it’s equipped. A friend just replaced his 2011 mac book pro that died with one a couple steps down the food chain and it is faster and better than the old one. A new one can/should be faster and have more memory and faster/bigger storage but if your current is more than adequate then it’s just money. If it’s an apple then one not all that old holds a fair amount of it’s value for a few years but here we are talking 6 yrs, a bit on the long side for resale value.
    My computer buying guide is to buy the most computer you can realistically afford, it will be faster and be suitable longer than the lesser models and you will appreciate it. That said I once purchased a full computer in a tiny box, an Asus netbook, it cost $200 and did everything I needed it for. That was 11 or so years ago and it still works, slowly.

  179. 179.

    trollhattan

    To the surprise of approximately nobody, the DA will not charge the cops who shot Stephon Clark. Who was armed with a phone.

    It will be an interesting week in California’s capital.

  184. 184.

    debbie

    @Ruckus:

    Do you have an opinion on refurbished laptops? No way will I be able to afford a new one when my 2012 (gasp!) Mackbook Pro bites the dust.

  185. 185.

    Martin

    @lamh36: I have been telling people for years that Harris was the one to watch. Nothing against the other candidates, but we know what we’re doing here.

  187. 187.

    Ruckus

    @FlyingToaster:
    Just moved and had to buy a microwave. Long story, ended up with an LG from BestBuy, and it is noticeably the best I’ve ever used. And microwaves and I go back into the mid 80s. Have no history with the thing, had it for a week but as long as it doesn’t catch fire in the next 6 months I’d buy another.

  188. 188.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Ruckus: If I do get another one ( no problem so far) it would of course be an improvement over what I have now-and it would have to be a substantial improvement, take all the peripherals I have now and have more usb ports so it can take a usb cd/dvd disk drive, an external hard drive, and other things (such as usb speakers), and be backwards/forwards compatible with Win7, W10, and whatever comes after Windows 10.

    I just want to have something so I can retire this one and not wait until this one dies and I have to then scramble for a replacement-which often inconveniently happens when I don’t really have the money for it.

  190. 190.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Adam L Silverman: every summer, I start reminding my spouse that I can telework from anywhere in the Continental US with a high-speed internet connection.

  191. 191.

    Martin

    @lamh36: I don’t know, going on The View at the start of Women’s history month so he could shit on Hillary was up there.

  193. 193.

    lamh36

    @JamilSmith
    15m15 minutes ago
    More Jamil Smith Retweeted Marcos Breton
    Stephon Clark was fatally shot by Sacramento police last March 18, who fired 20 bullets at him in the dark. He was hit eight times total, and six times in the back. Not one of the bullets struck him in the front of his body. He was unarmed at the time of the shooting. Yet, legal.

    https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/1101958709226422279

    Sigh

    @MarcosBreton
    Follow Follow @MarcosBreton
    More
    Sacramento Police did not break the law by killing #StephonClark, Sac DA Anne Marie Schubert said. Cops will not be prosecuted
    https://twitter.com/MarcosBreton/status/1101952307263037441

  194. 194.

    Ruckus

    @Renie:
    Minds are a terrible thing to waste with trumpshit.
    Oh and by the way trumpshit smells and is caustic far worse than bullshit. It can’t be used for fertilizer, it destroys things like brain cells on contact and releases bigotry and stupidity at a higher rate than any other substance including opiates.

  196. 196.

    CarolDuhart2

    @lamh36: This is why Black Lives Matter work so hard for prosecutor reform. But I would go even further than electing more compassionate prosecutors.
    Given the often incestuous relationships between local prosecutors and the police, I would want a state court that specialized in police prosecutions. Again we have a system where the fox gets judged by other foxes.. Like elections, we rely on a system that is self-policing by the people who need to be policed, and it does not work.
    My heart breaks for his family and the justice they didn’t get. It’s an Otto Warmbler situation without even the pretext of a trial-even a show trial.

  198. 198.

    JPL

    @Martin: I like Harris and was surprised when a friend from CA didn’t. He thinks she’s a political hack. I’m pleased to know that is not the consensus in the state. BTW He’s a dem and will vote for her.

  199. 199.

    Ruckus

    @debbie:
    I know that Apple sells ones that they buy back from people buying new ones. They don’t buy back too many years old so they do give a pretty good amount and they do charge a fair amount for them. They seem to be OK, I have a friend who bought a big mac desktop a number of years ago and it still works fine. That’s the sum total of my experience other than having been in an Apple store in the last 30 days.

  200. 200.

    Another Scott

    @CarolDuhart2: As others have said, it depends.

    I just bought a couple of used mid-2012 13″ MacBook Pros. I’m going to upgrade them to 16 GB of RAM and SSDs and they’ll be very fast for the stuff I’ll be doing on them. But I wouldn’t want to use them for lots of calculations or compiling or gaming – they’re not good for that.

    I also wouldn’t want to use them if I had to do regular backups of huge datafiles – they don’t have Thunderbolt or USB 3.x interfaces. Similarly with old PC laptops.

    Some PC laptops can be upgraded to 16 GB, some max out at 8.

    An upgrade of the hard disk to a SSD is pretty easy to do on your own, and makes a huge difference in speed, but is time consuming (transferring the stuff to the new disk takes a while). Many local computer shops will do it for you for not too much money.

    I just ordered a new Lenovo L390 for work. It was about $1450 very well equipped. A broadly similar Dell (but with half the RAM and an older CPU) would have been about 50% more.

    Hope this helps a little. Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  202. 202.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Luciamia: <

    >New SNL tonight. Will Ben Stiller be in the opening, ya think?

    Yes – if they don’t choose to do a frantic rewrite based on Dump’s CPAC rantings today.

  204. 204.

    laura

    No charges to be filed against Sacramento police officers in the Stephon Clark case.
    This is terrible and not unexpected news.

  206. 206.

    Another Scott

    @Ruckus: The 13″ MBPs I got were from MacofAllTrades. They’ve been around a long time and the machines I bought were as described.

    Not as cheap as eBay, but it’s nice having less of a worry about clicking “Buy”.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  207. 207.

    Ruckus

    @CarolDuhart2:
    and I have to then scramble for a replacement-which often always inconveniently happens when I don’t really have the money for it.
    Fixed that for you.
    In my world it is ALWAYS the most inconvenient time to need something when the old one fails.
    3 yrs ago, my van, which was running fine decided that it no longer wanted to do that. It needed either a new motor or a major teardown/rebuild. And it just wasn’t worth it. @lamh36: You’ll be delighted to know that the old, white, cargo van is no longer. It’s now a real honest to goodness car for me!

  209. 209.

    FlyingToaster

    @John Revolta: @Ruckus: Well, this time, both door switches have failed.

    When one failed, the (soft) ominous hum was the fan.

    When two fail, the (loud) ominous hum is both the fan and the magneto.

    You test by placing a cup of cold water in, closing the door, and counting to 30. If the water warms up, the magneto is on.

    Since the light and turntable are acting normally, the middle switch is still good, but I just ordered all three and will replace them Thursday am (assuming everything shows up Wednesday as planned).

    So far this 2019, I replaced the motor for the dryer, and now will be replacing the microwave door switches. Professionals are replacing the roof. Any bets on what fails next?

  211. 211.

    Mike in NC

    Here is the title of the latest column by George F. Will: “Democrats are having an awful week — and Schultz is having a good one”

    He’s really pimping for this corrupt coffee billionaire — in case anybody thought Will was suddenly no longer an asshole. Schultz is the guy who thinks the country can’t afford a social safety net (just like George Will).

  212. 212.

    Ivan Ivanovich Renko

    @Ruckus: I got a Dell Windoze box for my new job when I joined in April last year… and finally Windoze 10 pissed me off enough (along with that crappy little Dell laptop) that I went Apple.

    Got a MacBook Pro 15″ and I am SO happy. It’s by far the most expensive computer I’ve ever purchased (the previous winner was a Mac back in 1989) but so far it’s worth every nickel.

  214. 214.

    A Ghost To Most

    I’m still using my original Surface Pro from 2013. The little bugger refuses to die.

  215. 215.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:
    Real quick scan, the prices look in the ball park with apple’s prices for refurbs. As long as the unit wasn’t in too bad of shape originally and is checked out a less used one will be cheaper than new. But not by much if they’ve done all that work. I’ve normally bought new because between original and replacement there is enough time to gain a lot of improvement. But that rate of improvement seems to be slowing down, Moores law is coming to it’s downfall, things can’t get smaller and smaller and faster and faster for ever, there are physical limits. And humans aren’t anywhere near smart enough to change that. Yet.

  216. 216.

    Raven

    @Ruckus: My new work MacBook Pro has the c-usb and it really sucks that you have to buy a hundred fucking connectors to use shit.

  218. 218.

    Another Scott

    @Raven: No. Fingers crossed!

    We’ve got several MBPs here at home, going back to a black MacBook. Never had any hardware problems with them. J has a 2011 27″ iMac at work that just started having hardware issues (not bad for an 8 year old all-in-one!). (It “white screen”s during bootup, like it can’t find the boot disk, and it won’t boot from an external drive either. It might be as simple as the CMOS battery, but one has to disassemble the whole thing to get to it.) She’s just replaced it with a new 27” i7 iMac (just below the iMac Pro).

    It’s kind of amazing the good luck we’ve had with Apple computers. My work Dell laptop, on the other hand, is all of 3.5 years old and has a bad motherboard. :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  219. 219.

    MattF

    @Mike in NC: There’s apparently some sort of fatal attraction between George Fucking Will and billionaires. Will has learned nothing from recent events.

  220. 220.

    Ruckus

    @debbie:
    Anything that old could be easily replaced and be faster and have higher def. But it will cost you and time is the thing that you mostly will save. If time is not an issue then scan away. Technology doesn’t actually die, it is replaced, sometimes even by better/faster stuff. I work in manufacturing, have for decades (among a couple of other careers) and the new stuff out there is mostly (vast) improvements on things that have been out there for a while. A major tool mfg has three machines from one source. 25 yrs ago I had the same model as their oldest. It worked better than the specs said it could. This mfg has one half that age and another that is new as of last year. All three machines have the same capability except for one thing. The oldest takes 8 times longer to do the same job as the newest. The middle one takes 4 times longer than the newest. The process is the same, the time isn’t even a contest.
    It is all in the controls-the computers that control the machines.

  221. 221.

    Another Scott

    @Ruckus: Apple’s laptops are usually good machines. But I think they made a big mistake after the mid-2012 models when they stopped using sockets for RAM. What they ship with is what you get, and most of them ship with only 8 GB of RAM. And it’s even worse when they decided to solder-in the SSDs. Spending a premium on an Apple laptop is hard to justify when they do things like that. (To me anyway.) Now, if you’re able to get a good fraction of the premium back by selling it used, well, that’s another thing to consider (if you like buying new every 3-4 years).

    I wouldn’t want to lug this mid-2012 13″ MBP around all the time – it’s around 5 pounds – but it’s great for working while sitting in a recliner. But there are all kinds out there – I knew a guy who lugged around a 17″ MBP. He was a bit strange… ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  222. 222.

    Steeplejack

    @debbie:

    Woot has good deals on refurbished (and new) computers, including Macs. They are a subsidiary of Amazon. You can just go to the site to look around, or you can sign up to get daily e-mail flyers. I have bought a couple of computers and a couple of cameras from them (in addition to other stuff), and the refurbed ones were indistinguishable from new.

    I’m writing this on a puny Lenovo X130e (model originally released in 2012) that I bought as a refurb from Woot in about 2014. I goosed it up to 8 GB of RAM, and it’s fine. I think the main factors in subjective “computer speed” these days are your Internet connection speed and your amount of RAM. (That’s presuming you’re doing the usual mix of e-mail, Internet browsing and streaming.)

    Current Woot laptop deals here.

  223. 223.

    Ruckus

    @Ivan Ivanovich Renko:
    Most expensive system I’ve ever purchased was back in the 80s I bought a piece of software and a Unix box to run it on. $35,000. It was crap, and I ended up getting my money back but the software was the big problem. The circuit boards were made by a guy I knew from my hobby, didn’t even know at the time that he was the manufacturing foreman for the computer company. It really, really can be a small world.
    But when I bought my first Mac I compared prices for comparable windows and mac boxes and found out that yes, you could buy a windows box for a lot less but in a direct comparison, or as close as you could get, the price differences were almost non existent.

  225. 225.

    Bill Arnold

    @germy:

    JUST IN: Trump says he’ll sign executive order for free speech on college campuses

    Seriously? People in all fringes of political space will have a lot of fun gaming that. Wonder if he will try to write in a religious exemption, which would be constitutionally problematic. Much of mainstream US “conservative” thought is “dangerous and ridiculous”.

    “We reject oppressive speech codes, censorship, political correctness and every other attempt by the hard left to stop people from challenging ridiculous and dangerous ideas. These ideas are dangerous,”

  226. 226.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Another Scott:

    to lug this mid-2012 13″ MBP around all the time – it’s around 5 pounds

    Ah, fond (not really) memories of running through ORD to make a too-short connection carrying a suitcase and a Compaq Portable. Yes, the “sewing machine” PC. You felt every one of the 28 pounds.

  227. 227.

    Brachiator

    @Bill Arnold:

    “We reject oppressive speech codes, censorship, political correctness and every other attempt by the hard left to stop people from challenging ridiculous and dangerous ideas. These ideas are dangerous,”

    Shorter Trump: we need speech I like to suppress speech I don’t like.

  228. 228.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:
    Last job I traveled a lot and I had to cart around a 17in Sony. That was fun. And the computer wasn’t as good.
    Now there will always be windows box – mac comparisons and detractors from both sides but I really see that soldered in chips not to be an issue. As long as the cost dif is reasonable. Apple’s cost dif is not unreasonable, it could be less but they do offer far more than enough options and price ranges. And soldering in makes for a thiner/lighter unit, not in itself a bad thing. Also possibly a more robust unit as well. And given that most people don’t work on their computers it really isn’t a big issue. I’m far more worried about how the thing works and how often do I have to repair it in the first place.

  229. 229.

    Another Scott

    @Gin & Tonic: :-)

    A guy I know online talks somewhat fondly about the Osborne 1 that he had.

    I never had to lug it around, but in grad school we had a few HP Integral PCs . UNIX, and a screen and a printer and a new fangled 3.5″ floppy drive. And “portable”!!

    Indeed, we’re spoiled by how much lighter portable computers are now. But we’re a lot older now too! ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  230. 230.

    Steeplejack

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Ah, memories. I had one of those Compaq suitcase computers. “Portable” only in the loosest sense of the word. Although it’s all relative, right? I did a ton of dBASE/​FoxBase programming on that thing.

  231. 231.

    Ruckus

    @Raven:
    My buddy that just bought his new laptop has the same complaints. He’s got everything wired to his laptop and had to purchase all new adaptors to get everything working. First world problems, how many windows lap boxes have all the old connectors and interfaces? Old was slow, new is much better, to go along with the new computer.
    And yeah I just bought a new amp because my 20 yr old one died and an actual big screen to see stuff on, which means next computer I can save a bundle on getting the big screen but I also had to buy new cables and adaptors. The world moves on, us old farts got to keep up. Or at least attempt.

  233. 233.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:
    Some of that is that Apple is not trying to build the one great box that can be changed in thousands of ways and will maybe be everyone’s perfect computer. They work on building something decent and hoping that they have enough models to satisfy demand. I was a windows guy for a couple of decades because the manufacturing software I needed only ran on windows. Then I worked a job that was an IBM shop, and I mean that in the worst way. A few yrs later microsoft wanted 20 bucks to tell me how to remove a free program that they wrote – silverlight that Netflix downloaded for free so that I could download it once again from Netflix for free. Told them where they could put their entire company and if it wouldn’t fit I had tools to make it so and a bulldozer to drive it home. Have been a happy apple user ever since. A much better computing experience IMO.

  235. 235.

    Sab

    @Steeplejack: We always called the Compaqs “luggables.” When I cleaned out my 94 year old dad’s house I found two of them. They were state of the art, complete with hardcards. And he still had all the software in a little box next to them.

  237. 237.

    SenyorDave

    @Sister Golden Bear: This wasn’t a 30 something guy out with his buddies who catcalled a 15 year old girl. This was a 17 year old. You know, a teenager who is prone to making bad decisions. If he dies he loses his life over a bad decision, and she will get a lengthy prison term. Anybody applauding this is a sociopath.

  238. 238.

    normal liberal

    @John Revolta:
    I remember once walking past the Mies apartment buildings on Lake Shore Drive and realizing that the see-all-the-way-through first floor had been boarded up on the lake side; large blocks of ice had formed on the edge of the street and seemed massed to attack all that glass wall. Very dramatic, but unfortunately long before cellphone cameras.
    I wondered what good the plywood could possibly do, other than reassuring the residents. Seemed like a job for some flamethrowers.

  240. 240.

    Anotherlurker

    @Renie: I unfriended someone recently, because she spews idiot fringe conspiracy theories. She was all over the planned parenthood lies, the AOC lies (AOC looking to eliminate air travel), The Nancy Pelosi as dictator and evil witch, the crypto currency scams, etc. etc. When I commented on a creationist meme she shared (Remember: The Titanic was built by professionals, The Ark was built by amateurs), she came back at me with “How do you know, were you there?” I didn’t even bother to start to explain the total lack of historical evidence supporting the Bible or the meat of the Mythiscyst school of Jesus thought.
    The very sad part is that she is very intelligent, she just finished he Nurse Practioner’s Degree.
    She has lived in Destin, Fla. (Panhandle) for 15 years and dated redneck men. I guess stupid is contagious.

  242. 242.

    Kathleen

    @mrmoshpotato: All the American media who complain how harrrrrrrddddd it is to cover Trump for reasons. They just can’t figure out how! Maybe Dale could hold a class or something.

  243. 243.

    TerryC

    @Steeplejack:

    Ah, memories. I had one of those Compaq suitcase computers. “Portable” only in the loosest sense of the word. Although it’s all relative, right? I did a ton of dBASE/​FoxBase programming on that thing.

    I have one of those Compaqs dry-walled into a turn of the millennium time capsule in the walls of my old 1870s farm house.

  244. 244.

    Another Scott

    Sara Danner Dukic – A Timeline you might be interested in:

    1970s & 1980s: wave of Russian criminals arrive in New York and begin interfacing with established American organized crime networks (La Cosa Nostra/The Five Families aka Bonanno, Genovese, Colombo, Lucchese, Gambino) (source)

    1977: KGB reportedly opens file on Donald Trump (source).

    1979: Construction begins on Trump Tower. Trump purchases overpriced concrete from mafia bosses Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno and Paul Castellano of the Genovese and Gambino crime families (respectively). (source)

    […]

    Autumn, 1986: Trump meets Soviet ambassador Yuri Dubinin. And per Trump’s own account in Art of the Deal, “One thing led to another, and now I’m talking about building a large luxury hotel, across the street from the Kremlin, in partnership with the Soviet government.” (source)

    […]

    April 16, 2013: Preet Bharara, then US attorney for SDNY, announces charges against massive Russian organized crime ring operating out of Trump Tower. (source)

    […]

    December 2016: Jared Kushner instructs Michael Flynn to sabotage US foreign policy. (source)

    December 1 or 2, 2016: Kushner tries to set up secret back channel with Russians using Russians’ secure facilities. (source)

    December 1, 2016: Jared Kushner and Michael Flynn meet with Sergei Kislyak at Trump Tower (source)

    […]

    Dunno how solid it all is, but it’s convenient to have it all in one place.

    Grr…

    (via LOLGOP)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  245. 245.

    Sab

    @Amir Khalid: They did have cases and handles. So anyone with determination could move them. Hey I was a 95 lb woman and I hauled mine all sorts of places.

    ETA: It was harder on men then, because they weren’t used to hauling “portable” sewing machines around.

  247. 247.

    Kathleen

    @CarolDuhart2: You sound pretty tech savvy but if you need help or advice you might contact ProTechs on Central Parkway. They are professional, knowledgeable and very affordable. For me a good computer tech is as important as good mechanic or doctor. Here’s a link to their web site. Their reviews are usually excellent.

    https://www.laptopprotechs.com/

  248. 248.

    Brachiator

    @Anotherlurker:

    I unfriended someone recently, because she spews idiot fringe conspiracy theories. She was all over the planned parenthood lies, the AOC lies (AOC looking to eliminate air travel), The Nancy Pelosi as dictator and evil witch, the crypto currency scams, etc. etc.

    Trump, Fox News and the usual gang of idiots have been coming up with snappy one liners which mis-characterize Democratic Party candidates’ positions. The Democrats have plenty of time to counter this. Of course the stupid will actually believe this stuff, but other right wingers will simply use it to try to get the Democrats to waste time with clarification.

  249. 249.

    Sab

    @Sab: Also, an annoyed household cat wanting to be fed couldn’t knock your computer on the floor and smash it. In those days it took a determined rottweiler to break a computer.

  250. 250.

    Miss Bianca

    @lamh36: I was going to go see Spider-Verse in the theater tonight, but I am stuck on top of a mountain in a blizzard. I could have seen it last night, but noooo…I had to try to rescue a lost wolf-dog that did *not* want to be rescued. At least, not by me.

    Rats.

  251. 251.

    Jay

    @SenyorDave:

    Why would a young woman, walking with her young frmale friends, feel threated in the dark, by a group of late male teens, one of whom “catcalled” her, another of whom threw a bottle at her group?

  252. 252.

    TS (the original)

    @germy:

    Trump says he’ll sign executive order for free speech on college campuses

    Free speech at trump’s MAGA rallies would be a great idea.

  253. 253.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @lamh36: typical Wilmer

    Back in 2016 he held a rally at a African American community center in South Carolina. He hired a jazz band to entertain the crowd….. a white jazz band.

  256. 256.

    B.B.A.

    @SenyorDave: It’s justifiable grounds for homicide, in my book. The California Penal Code may not agree, but that’s their problem.

  257. 257.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @SenyorDave: Why cheer? Given the omnipresent street sexual harassment that I and other women experiment just being outside in public in San Francisco, there was sense that finally one of those assholes got what he deserved.*

    Yes, the actual details are far more messier and far more tragic.

    OTOH, I’ve been sexually harassed multiple times on that very same block, and I can’t tell you how many times, “Hey baby, a gimme smile,” progresses to, “Why won’t you smile,” to “Gimme a fucking smile, bitch,” to “Fuck you, you fucking bitch.” So there’s probably a bit more to the story, especially given one of the catcaller’s friend threw a bottle at her friends.

    *Yes, this is one reason women are pissed off these days, and no, men truly don’t understand how pervasive, how aggressive and how scary street harassment is. Trust me on that, it was one of the more eye-opening experiences when I began living as a woman.

  258. 258.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Also, I’d note that it wasn’t just the guy who got stabbed who was sexually harassing her, it was “the man and his group of friends.” Without knowing the details, I can’t say for certain it was a case of self-defense, but that seems within the realm of possibility.

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