Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

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

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Republicans in disarray!

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread: Every Experience At Second Hand

Late Night Open Thread: Every Experience At Second Hand

by | 94 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Late Night Open Thread: Every Experience At Second Hand


It’s hardly surprising that someone raised by English outpost-of-Empire parents in apartheid South Africa should be anti-Semitic, but this ‘just asking questions’ pose has the deliberate unconcern of a middle schooler trying to shock his social-studies teacher… and thrill his fellow wannabe-sophisticates.

There was an earlier tweet, in response to a demand from some of his high-profile followers to reinstate Alex Jones:


Let’s assume Musk felt something when his firstborn died; he just couldn’t identify the impulse, so he borrowed the experience — the emotions — of someone who did.

The Musk Biography: Everything stolen from someone else, rebranded without attribution.

(Alex Jones is not coming back to Twitter, because his fanbase is just as toxic as Musk’s, and narcissists don’t share.)

Note: I owe some commentor a hat tip for the top image, which did not include attribution by Pawel Kuczynski (thanks Cameron!)

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    Major Major Major Major

    This fucking guy.

    I’ve been using twitter a fair bit less lately. Seems more rage-inducing, probably because it’s the inescapable Elon Musk show 24/7 over there. The actual policy changes he’s made have been minor, it’s his perpetual main character status that’s really made the site worse.

    I’m enjoying mastodon a lot more now that a lot of people are on my instance though!

  2. 2.

    Old School

    Alexander S. Vindman
    @AVindman
    ·
    7h
    I’ll put my reputation up against yours any day. I’ve spent my entire adult life in service to my country. Upheld my oath to protect & defend this nation at great personal cost. You’ve demonstrated yourself to be a purveyor of hate and division. Let history be the judge.

    Tesla stock is plummeting, Twitter is on the verge of insolvency, SpaceX succeeded in spite of you. You have a chance to salvage your legacy. Try this as your touchstone. Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless-Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. LeaDeRSHIP. #Armyvalues

  4. 4.

    FelonyGovt

    Alexander Vindman is a hero of mine and Elmu’s racism and anti-Semitism are obvious and disgusting. I hope Musk loses everything.

  5. 5.

    piratedan

    starting to buy into the idea that as soon as the people on the left find a tool that allows us to communicate and commiserate and start to employ its effectiveness, the right makes it their mission in life to fucking destroy it.  The Free Press…. representative government, the fairness doctrine, dark money out of politics all victims to the need of the right to tilt the playing field

    Twitter was far from perfect, but it had tools that allowed you to connect to others with common interest, to inform and educate and to block the haters and help police the most egregious abusers and purveyors of hate speech and misninformation.  So much for that, now we have to hope to build it someplace else.  Plus there were dog and cat videos.

  6. 6.

    Anoniminous

    The consensus in the Tech World is the Twitter infrastructure is running on fumes.  There’s not enough people left with the Know-How to keep the place running.  Twitter is one Mickey Mouse cartoon upload away from a Cease and Desist Order from the Disney Corporation and there’s no one left at Twitter who can respond.

  8. 8.

    Alison Rose

    Yeah, this is my shocked face that Muskrat is an antisemite. He probably thinks we should like him since he’s rich.

    Also, the only thing I would believe that he felt when the baby died was “Damn, one less person to idolize me”.

  9. 9.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Anoniminous:

    The consensus in the Tech World is the Twitter infrastructure is running on fumes

    Not in my corner. It’s pretty unsurprising that the main offering we all see every day is working fine. Back office infrastructure is what’s going to suffer, including the advertiser portal which I did read broke. I guessed it would be the first to go tbh. But as far as collecting and displaying tweets I think they’re good enough for now, or at least we won’t see many extended outages.

  10. 10.

    SectionH

    Long ago I got sick of Twitter management filters, so I went looking and found this:   filter:follows -filter replies. It’s not perfect, but so far in the shitshow, it’s mostly holding.  I still don’t get ads and still see a lot of the usual suspects. I’ve always had to prompt myself to see some more ppl/places I like. Because it was never perfect.  But I sure as fuck wouldn’t have seen them on the 16 hr old shit the Mgmt wanted feed me with every other post being an ad.

    There are/were so many really interesting things on Twitter. Archaeology, USGS, Volcanoes, Oceanography, Not just Thorobreds, ffs Horses, the Mongol Derby. And then of course CATS and DOGS.  How many fucking servers do I have cope with now? Mastodon let me register, but yeah. not waiting list for something.  Password issue?
    Sorry, venting.

  11. 11.

    Llelldorin

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Speaking as an SRE (not, thank heavens, at Twitter), software that hardly anyone is developing is usually weirdly stable, at least in the short term. In the long term there are three threats:

    (1) If no-one’s doing capacity management eventually they’ll sink under traffic. (We’re actually making that less likely by collectively departing the platform.)
    (2) If no-one’s responding to DMCA claims they’ll get smashed by the legal system.
    (3) If Musk forces the remaining SWEs to try to launch something, hilarity will ensue.

    Until then, though, the basic serving system is likely to stay pretty solid.

  15. 15.

    JAFD

    Good morning !
    Well, the renovations to my apartment are 99% finished, and am moving back in today (before my friends whose basement I’ve been occupying kick me into the street ;-) ). Hurrah!
    Anyway, my new kitchen has a glass-top electric stove – seeking advice from fellow jackals on how best to use and clean it. Thanks muchly.
    Hope you all had a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.

  16. 16.

    HumboldtBlue

    My dad went to the hospital today. He may not come back out. 90, copd, now pneumonia.

    And as he has said repeatedly in the last 10 months, “I’m just tired.”

    If you sing, sing a song, hell, if you don’t sing, sing anyway.

    My dad and I sang a lot of songs together.

  20. 20.

    mrmoshpotato

    @JAFD: Hooray on being able to move back into your newly renovated apartment!

    Anyway, my new kitchen has a glass-top electric stove – seeking advice from fellow jackals on how best to use and clean it.

    Did your landlord tell you it’s electric?  I ask because if it’s induction, you might need new cookware.

  23. 23.

    Steeplejack

    @JAFD:

    I had a glass-top electric stove in my previous apartment and loved it—much more than I thought I would when I first encountered it. Heated up quickly and maintained temp. Also provided extra counter space when not in use.

    My big suggestion is Bar Keeper’s Friend for deep cleaning when necessary.

  24. 24.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @JAFD: use vinegar with a soft cloth/sponge. Obviously its easier if you wipe the stove before stuff dries but beyond that if you let gunk accumulate on the stove(even small amounts), it makes it more likely to crack when you heat the element.

  27. 27.

    SFBayAreaGal

    @HumboldtBlue:  I’m sorry to hear about your dad. Three songs came to mind for me to sing, Holly Holy, This is Your Song, Beautiful Noise.

    I hope you can sing a few more songs with your dad. Lots of hugs.

  29. 29.

    CaseyL

    @HumboldtBlue: Oh,  no, so sorry to hear this.  But 90 is a good age to reach, and you have some lovely memories.  I will sing something for your Dad – but softly, because my cat freaks out when I sing.

  30. 30.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @piratedan:  I am sticking with Twitter until it goes down. I refuse to cede Twitter to the RW. They’ve already taken talk/news radio. They’ve pretty much taken teevee – MSNBC is not the LW equivalent to FOX and there’s no LW equivalent to OAN, Newsmax and other RW stations. Mastodon/CounterSocial etc will take a while to catch up to Twitter. Elon’s an idiot unless he’s gotten paid by the Saudis/Qataris/Chinese/Russians/Malaysians to buy Twitter  destroy it.

  36. 36.

    lurker

    @HumboldtBlue:

    am humming a little … am so good at being out of tune that I can play an official youtube video out of tune, so there you go …

    i do find that jeremiah was a bullfrog can be a good break from pretty much any set of tunes …

     

    more than a few years ago, I recall my grandfather turning ninety and passing away a few weeks later. Much as I did not want to see him go, it probably was time for him.  We never want to hear this, but if your dad feels like it is his time, you can do a final kind gesture by reassuring him that if it is his time, he can go.  Not because you want him to, but because it is the best thing for him.

     

    I am sorry for you current pain and the longer term loss you will feel, but hope you can take some comfort from time to time in memories and perhaps hearing or singing tunes you two enjoyed.

  37. 37.

    Jay

    @JAFD:

    most of the ceramic/glass top cleaners, (fine grit abrasives) are fine for minor issues and regular cleaning.

    for burned on stuff, ( potato over boil, etc) a key go to for me was a safety razor blade. Scraped off major stuff, (carefully) quickly, allowing the cleaner/polish to do it’s job.

    You can get ones with a plastic holder, ( store the blade safely, allow an okay grip when deployed) that take up a 1″ space in your cutlery drawer.

    As others have noted, if the cooktop is induction, you will need ferrite pots and pans, as it’s not heat that conducts to the pan, but instead magnetic resonance that agitates the metals in the pan to create heat.

  39. 39.

    lurker

    @Jay: always wondered how that would work with food with a high iron content … would you need to worry about the cookware in that case…

    ; – )

  41. 41.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @GoBlueInOak: I am as shocked as Captain Rennault to learn that Elmo thinks that advertisers have an obligation to give him money regardless of his behavior. They expect to get better sales as a return on their advertising dollars, and Twitter under Elmo does not look likely to provide that.

  43. 43.

    TriassicSands

    Looking at the video of voters waiting in line to vote in Georgia made me angry. There is no excuse for that. I used to love to vote in person, when I was younger, but Washington State wisely moved to all mail-in voting, which is a much better approach.

    Especially in the case of older voters, mail-in voting should be universal. Add to that list people with disabilities, jobs they can’t take time away from, and let’s face it everyone else. It makes no sense to have in-person voting anymore. If people vote in the privacy of their homes, they can’t be intimidated by the violent Republican pinheads who seek to discourage voting. There should be national standards for voting that ensure that everyone who wants to vote can do so without interference of any kind. Of course, our ancient, increasingly harmful Constitution knows better. Blech!

  44. 44.

    frosty

    @HumboldtBlue: And as he has said repeatedly in the last 10 months, “I’m just tired.”

    My mom, at 89: “I don’t want to be here any more.”

    Us kids: “But Mom, this continuing care place is a really good place for you.”

    Mom: “I mean Planet Earth”

    She passed away a couple weeks later. My best wishes for you and your dad.

  45. 45.

    frosty

    @Steeplejack: Bar Keeper’s Friend is awesome. It polishes the sink and can almost get the grout on our countertop tile back to white. I expect it’s the oxyacylic acid*, which is a kind of bleach.

    * Hope I got that right, not gonna look it up.

  49. 49.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I don’t sing (that alone could kill people) but I do play guitar, so I played “Love is all around” by The Troggs.

    My best wishes to your Dad, you and your family.

  51. 51.

    Shalimar

    @GoBlueInOak: Good God.  They pay these a-holes millions of dollars a year, the least they could do is have the balls to stop advertising on Twitter and have a secretary ignore Elon’s calls.

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Best wishes for your dad.

    It’s never easy when it’s parents. It’s never easy when it’s any family.

    Take care of yourself and your family and best wishes for you as well.

  56. 56.

    lowtechcyclist

    @HumboldtBlue: ​

    If you sing, sing a song, hell, if you don’t sing, sing anyway.
    My dad and I sang a lot of songs together.

    My prayers for a recovery, if his body can recover to a place where life is still worth living. And if not, my prayers for a peaceful passing. And may the memory of all those songs sustain you.
    @SFBayAreaGal: ​

    Holly Holy

    Call the sun in the dead of night and the sun gonna rise in the sky

    That’s been one of my favorites for practically forever.

  58. 58.

    Annamal

    @Llelldorin: one expansion of point two, the automatic detection systems appear to be failing on more than just copyright. Videos of the Christchurch mosque massacre were in circulation for at least half a day on twitter and at least one response to a report identified it as content that did not need to be removed. if twitter becomes known for porn and snuff videos, it might be removed from the app stores.

  59. 59.

    raven

    @HumboldtBlue: I sorry to read this. When my father-in-law was in his final hours we played many of his favorite big band tunes at his bedside. He too loved to sing and loved his church choir. Come to think of it singing was one of my mom’s favorite things. Her church choir toured Europe and she got to sing in the Vatican. She also was a  Sweet Adeline.

  60. 60.

    JR

    @frosty: close; oxalic acid named for the wood sorrel oxalis.

    Not a bleach either, but an organic acid, abrasive, and chelator (binds up metals). Works in many ways like vinegar, just better in every respect.

  61. 61.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @gwangung:

    His main goal was to take Twitter away from the left. That he might just do.

    But he wanted to take it whole.  Not merely deny the Left access, force the Left to put up with bigotry on their major communications system.

    And that he’s not getting.  He has only been able to gnaw around the edges of allowing bigotry, he’s losing the people he wanted to turn into captive victims, and he’s burning his prize and his wealth to the ground in the process.

  64. 64.

    Lady WereBear

    Additionally, I have gotten more engagement on Mastodon in the last couple of weeks than I have that same amount of time on Twitter. And I just started. I find it a more mature kind of audience, so when I share something interesting… it doesn’t land with a thud. Someone is likely to catch my gambit and throw it back.

    It also depends on what one wants from social media. I want cool stuff on my feed AND conversation, and I could never get that going on Twitter.

  73. 73.

    cmorenc

    @JAFD:

    Anyway, my new kitchen has a glass-top electric stove – seeking advice from fellow jackals on how best to use and clean it.

    We’ve had a glass-top electric stove for 17 years.

    Anything spilling over from cooking, including even the water boil-over from a cooking pot of pasta, will tend to leave obvious dirty-looking smudges, which if on a burner surface itself, will tend to bake on (and be more difficult to clean) if not cleaned off before next use.

    FORTUNATELY, cleaning is easy – use a very mildly abrasive detergent, such as “Soft Scrub”, which is readily available at most grocery stores, use of which will not scratch the glass surface.  Usually, then wiping the soft-scrub covered burner surface with paper towels is sufficient, but for stubborn residue you can also use (with caution) very mildly abrasive pads such as you might wipe a pan with to remove food residue that isn’t firmly stuck or baked on, but I would stronglly recommend against using any more aggressive sort of abrasive such as steel wool – those can potentially scratch the glass surface.

    IMPORTANT if you have a cabinet directly above the stove – refrain from storing anything that might crack the glass if it fell onto the stovetop.  We inadvertently shattered our original glasstop surface when we accidentally fumbled taking a glass measuring cup out of a cabinet above it, and it’s not cheap ($500++) to replace the glass cooking surface.  That above-stove cabinet is a great choice for plastic or other items too lightweight or soft to cause harm if they accidentally fell onto the stovetop.

  75. 75.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: While owning the libz is a major aspect I actually think there’s more to it than that. The right craves *legitimacy*–they want to believe that their view is the majority one that dominates in important forums that are taken seriously. They basically control political discourse on Sunday morning TV chat shows, but that’s a dying forum. Their views are dominant in the papers but they’re not utterly unopposed, and that irritates them.

    But they weren’t really dominant on Twitter, and major political and media figures use Twitter, while the right-wing imitation Twitters were not just not taken seriously but actively considered poisonous and deprecated. So they have to take over Twitter and poison that.

    I think the real endpoint for Twitter is that it will become known as a Nazi/bigot forum like Gab, and Apple and Google will deplatform it. It might take a couple of years. At that point they’ll go on to trying to conquer something else, because Twitter will no longer be conveying legitimacy.

  76. 76.

    Cameron

    The cartoon in the OP is by Pawel Kuczynski, whose work I love and who I follow via Facebook (yes, i’m that old).  Got some of his merch and hope to get some more as presents if finances allow.

  77. 77.

    AM in NC

    @HumboldtBlue:  Sending strength and love your way and to your dad.  My mom died of cancer a few months ago now, and she knew when she was ready to go.  Didn’t make it easier to lose her, though.  But it was what she wanted, not to suffer much, and I take some comfort in that.

    Not to insert myself, but if you have time, just don’t leave anything unexpressed to him.

    So sorry you are having to go through this.

  79. 79.

    Westyny

    @HumboldtBlue: sending warm and musical thoughts to you, your dad and your family.  My dad was ready to “let nature take its course” after his third heart attack at 95 last fall.  I find some comfort in that even as I miss him.

  80. 80.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Westyny: My grandmothers both got old enough to feel like they were done. One of them actually died in a terrible way–wouldn’t give up her driver’s license, killed in a car accident. But the other one chose hospice care when she got cancer at 96, and I’m glad she was able to have that control over the process.

  81. 81.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The right craves *legitimacy*–they want to believe that their view is the majority one

    Oh, yes.  Part of what makes them right wing is their belief that they are the definition of normal.  It’s everywhere in their discourse.  It’s a tenet of racism.  Society really has left them behind, and they are barraged culturally with evidence that the Other is normal now.  See their freak outs about Gamer Gate and the new Star Wars, for example.

  82. 82.

    Ken

    @Llelldorin: If no-one’s responding to DMCA claims they’ll get smashed by the legal system.

    I was thinking GDPR, but also expect the legal system will be their biggest trouble. Unless, as you say, they try to roll out new features.

  84. 84.

    J R in WV

    @HumboldtBlue: ​
     

    Sorry to learn about your dad. My dad died of COPD caused by his “successful” chemo damaging his lungs several years before, on election day in 2004. He was very ready to go by then. Was proud to have made it to 80+, very nearly 81 years, with leukemia…

    I got to sit with him, to hold his hand most all day, for several weeks before, which was a blessing for me. My job with the state of WV was great about a ton of family leave for his last couple of years. My co-workers were also great about picking up the slack I abandoned, so greatful for them too. And Wife fed the critters while I was in TX with dad~! And his Hospice was great too, led by a Pakistani Muslim doctor !!

    Take care of yourself, we all know it will be hard, it always is when close family is ill.

  85. 85.

    No One You Know

    @HumboldtBlue: My heart goes out to you. That’s a hard place to wait for an outcome. I’d gladly sing backup if it would help. Here’s to the outcome, whatever it may be.

  86. 86.

    evodevo

    @TriassicSands: “If people vote in the privacy of their homes, they can’t be intimidated by the violent Republican pinheads who seek to discourage voting.”

    And THAT, right there, is the major reason the wingers go nuts over mail-in ballots…their main obstacle is that the military votes that way.  Just as soon as they find a work-around for that, mail-in voting will be banned…

  89. 89.

    Ixnay

    @JAFD: I use a gas top, but one tool used often is a metal simmer mat for sauces etc. One side says this side down only on glass top stoves. Might be handy. Happy New kitchen.

  91. 91.

    Ixnay

    @JAFD: I use a gas top, but one tool used often is a metal simmer mat for sauces etc. One side says this side down only on glass top stoves. Might be handy. Happy New kitchen.

  92. 92.

    Randal Sexton

    @Llelldorin: Yeah it could be that the basic systems will continue working for a while.  My last job (at a tiny company) involved maintaining a bunch of web services, and there were outages every few months or so, and I was always amazed at the arcane causes of some of these problems.  One almost-funny one was a system that was writing to a logfile the equivalent of “All systems running normally boss!”, Until the log file caused the disk to have less than 10% left.  THEN the system started FLOODING the log file with messages that said “OH NOS THIS DISK IS FILLING UP!! BETTER DO SOMETHIN”.   which would completely fill the disk then it would stop responding (to anything, including telling it to gracefully shut down.   Unique/Arcane stuff like this happened every 3 months or so.   I imagine that. twtr may have some time bombs ticking away like this.  Another favorite category was when vendors did a scheduled downtime/maintenance of a system to upgrade , then changed a basic configuration of that system because they did not understand how to translate the configuration to their upgrade, then nothing would work.   Endless fun.

Comments are closed.