January 13, #Freedom Defenders' Day in Lithuania. #OTD in 1991 #Lithuanian people stood unarmed against Soviet tanks, defending ???? independence and freedom. We commemorate all victims and #StandWithUkraine which defends ???? and our freedom today. pic.twitter.com/uNARUupzcX
— #Lithuania ???? #StandWithUkraine ???? (@Lithuania) January 12, 2023
https://t.co/4Nuhal0mW8 pic.twitter.com/VrQUIQZCjz
— Peter Wolf (@peterawolf) January 11, 2023
For the sixth month in a row, yearly inflation is down.
It might be rising in economies around the world, but it's coming down here. And gas prices, food, and more are following.
That adds up to a break for families and proof that my plan is working.
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 12, 2023
Hmm. Weird.
GOP Congress has said it has to cut Social Security & Medicare b/c of growing deficits.
ALMOST like they're as honest as George Santos. https://t.co/v4wmmm7sAN
— Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) January 13, 2023
Another pick-me-up before the holiday (for some of us) weekend:
Smith is looking at the whole sprawling, festering vista of criminality, from seditious conspiracy, to slander and libel, to common, run-of-the-mill Trumping. https://t.co/uCnRTiSzkZ
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) January 13, 2023
Once again, Mr. Pierce saves me from having to write up my own report…
While the clamor and noise of the snipe hunt getting underway rose to a roar this week, Jack Smith, whom Merrick Garland has tasked with overseeing the investigation(s) into the former president*, went long with his subpoena power on the apparent—and entirely logical—assumption that everything about the previous presidency was, in one way or another, crooked.
The story largely was buried, but its scope is vast and encyclopedic. From the Washington Post, which did not hype this story anywhere near as much as it deserved.
The subpoena seeks any communications or information about Dominion and Smartmatic, two voting technology companies that were subjected to a barrage of false conspiracy theories floated by advisers to President Donald Trump. That request seems designed to gather what campaign officials might have been saying privately at the time Trump backers were publicly disparaging those firms in the wake of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
… In other words, Smith is looking at the whole sprawling, festering vista of criminality, from seditious conspiracy, to slander and libel, to common, run-of-the-mill Trumping. Questions abound. Did any of these entities pay to suborn perjury before various investigations, including the January 6 committee? Did the former president* treat the money that came in ostensibly to fight “election fraud” as a petty cashbox?
Small wonder that, down in Florida, El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago is birthing bovines all over the parlor (i.e., on his social media platform)…
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
NotMax
A little music for a Friday the 13th.
Baud
I want Trump in jail too, but slander and libel aren’t criminal.
Michael Bersin
Mark Alford (r), the right wingnut former newsreader who replaced Vicky Hartzler (she lost in the republican Senate primary in August) in Missouri’s 4th Congressional District, wrote a letter.
This you?
He’s a maroon.
gene108
I believe Jack Smith is doing something productive, when politicians involved in the coup attempt or people close to TFG, like Eastman, are convicted of anything.
I’m open to Smith busting one of them for unpaid parking tickets that require payment of said tickets, a $250 fine, and 40 hours of community service, because I doubt any of them will face such harsh consequences.
I’d like to be wrong.
Baud
Via Reddir
SiubhanDuinne
@OzarkHillbilly:
Good morning, Sunshine 🌞
WereBear
I wrote this post in honor of the day:
Friday the 13th is a Myth
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Making Hubble look like a lazy ass!
BlueGuitarist
@NotMax:
Thought you might appreciate this:
Fibber on the Roof, George Santos as Tevye
https://mobile.twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/1613569689984110594
mrmoshpotato
@WereBear: Do we get mythical powers for the day?
(I did click through. 😁)
Ken
I must correct Mr. Pierce. Parler is not TFG’s social media platform, although since (according to what I hear) it is a lunatic asylum full of racists and fascists, it is an easy mistake to make.
different-church-lady
@Baud: PLEASE ELIMINATE THREE. I AM NOT A CRACKPOT.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ken: I wouldn’t know how to find trump’s knock-off twitter, but Lawrence O’Donnell showed one last night, wherein The Beast wondered what Jack Smith’s real name is, and noted that he’s best friends with Andrew Weissman. Reminded me of how trump used to remind everyone that Jon Stewart’s real name was Liebowitz. Get it everybody? GET IT?
Ken
@Baud: Oh great, the creationists had just settled down to a low roar after the last unexpected astronomical discovery.
different-church-lady
Ah, yes… Friday the 13th, three years ago: I went to work and the tiny little dry hack of a cough began. I spent the day hiding it, then bought all the frozen food and toilet paper I could get my hands on, with everyone around me resolutely attempting to not freak out over the fact that we had collectively realized the entire world was about to shut down.
Two weeks later I was wearing an oxygen mask.
When you believe in things that you don’t understand…
Roger Moore
@Baud:
Is it just me, or does this sound like a NYTimesPitchbot headline?
UncleEbeneezer
@gene108: Great, then go away and stop repeating this ad nauseum.
different-church-lady
There are much easier ways of doing that.
Delk
RIP Robbie Bachman, drummer for BTO. Crummy month so far.
different-church-lady
@Roger Moore: Just add “Here’s why this is bad news for Joe Biden”
mrmoshpotato
@Roger Moore: Hahaha, it totally does sound like something stupid whining that the FTFNYT would write.
sab
@different-church-lady: If every bad behavior was criminal rather than tortious, then companies like Dominion would have no chance of compensation/restitution, and we would all have to rely on prosecutions for any sort of justice. We have seen how well that works in modern America.
UncleEbeneezer
I know Justice is moving along well because:
1.) Trump is freaking out (number one and most important indicator)
2.) GOP is trying desperately to change the subject (with the help of Russian bots, no doubt) and media is downplaying/ignoring the magnitude of Smith’s investigation which is moving to the people who helped fund 1/6 (another one of those “but why isn’t DOJ doing X?” Things that is now happening while the people who breathlessly demanded it (including many here) are now suddenly not interested anymore.)
3.) All the underpants-wetters are griping about Garland (serving as useful idiots for GOP/Russian bots)
Leto
(WaPo) Trump Organization sentenced to pay $1.6 million penalty in tax fraud case
Edit: as always, we need to adjust the law to increase penalties.
Matt McIrvin
The big media are acting like they see blood in the water and are out to get Biden on multiple fronts, so the improving approval numbers are kind of a surprise.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m sure the usual suspects are raging at Tish James for being meek, a secret Republican and /gasp/ an institutionalist!
Elizabelle
@Delk: I know. Jeff Beck, and I am very sad about Lisa Marie Presley. Only 54, and seemed like a decent person.
Steeplejack
@Ken:
[Cracking knuckles] Pierce didn’t make a typo or misidentify Trump’s social-media platform. He was being rhetorical. A parlor is the place on a dairy farm where cows are milked. Hence his reach for “birthing bovines all over the parlor.” I.e., Trump is having a cow, man.
Matt McIrvin
@Ken: Every story about an unexpected result in cosmology brings a crowd of people saying “they’re just a corrupt priesthood piling epicycles on epicycles, here’s my true and correct theory of how the universe is a box of Brillo pads,” and it all sounds extremely familiar. A steady diet of anomalies and mysteries is crucial to maintain the health of any field of science.
mrmoshpotato
Volkswagen In A Field!
Steeplejack
@Roger Moore:
Yes, but the Pitchbot would phrase it as a provocative question: “Is the James Webb space telescope finding too many early galaxies?”
Leto
@mrmoshpotato: Glad at least one of them is wearing a body cam…
Was this the sequel the original, John Cole goes for a ride, needed? I feel like it lacks… something…
OzarkHillbilly
Yesterday, I sent an email to my state rep (female, GOP, Cris Dinkins) about the new dress code for women in the state legislature. I said something along the lines that I hoped she had her hijabs. She replied that I should do some research before commenting.
Sarcasm, how does it work?
Betty Cracker
A squall line blew through here and woke me up in the middle of the night, so I streamed a truly terrible, so-bad-it’s-good horror/sci-fi film from the 1960s, Terror Beneath the Sea, on AMC. The plot involved an underwater kingdom ruled by a mad scientist who created a race of scaly amphibious humanoids to serve as his goons. But the really unbelievable part came when the human protagonist couple returned to land from SCUBA diving and walked around on the beach with their fins, weight belts and tanks on. I mean, who does that?!?
Hoodie
@Matt McIrvin: One of the media’s favorite tropes is bringing down the star, a kind of low rent Othello. They got to do that with Bush, Obama, Hillary and Trump. I do wonder if Biden kind of foils that by being a doddering old grandpa who nobody really expects much from. His approval rating seems to be mostly tied to the price of regular unleaded and what stupid, embarrassing, time-and-energy-wasting thing the GOP is currently up to. People start liking Joe more when it looks like the world is not coming to an end and the alternative is the equivalent of a guy with a shopping cart yelling at random pedestrians.
Carlo Graziani
@Baud: Technically, “too many late-type galaxies.” More then they expected have settled, low-disruption dynamical disk shapes.
For context, it’s a surprise compared to model-based expectations of this previously poorly-observed population, but those models are so full of uncertainties and fudge factors describing poorly-understood physics that this is not going to be a blockbuster discovery—certainly nothing like the shock of the 1998 discovery of cosmic acceleration (“dark enetgy”) in Type Ia supernova data. They just learned that they are fudging the galaxy formation models wrong.
narya
Incidentally, DougJ got a shoutout on the Strict Scrutiny podcast on their year-end show! The fabulous hosts were making various recommendations, and the Pitchout was one of them.
Amir Khalid
@Delk:
Time marches on. The rock’n’rollers of the 1960s and 1970s — most are in their seventies now. Sir Mick Jagger turns 80 in a few months. We who grew up then are now watching our musical heroes arrive at the winter of their lives.
OzarkHillbilly
@mrmoshpotato:
Just like a Suburu, Oh yeah, where’s the mustard?
Miss Bianca
@OzarkHillbilly: So, she’s ok with having her dress code regulated by her male peers?
I mean, Serena Joy didn’t really have much of a sense of humor, either.
BlueGuitarist
@different-church-lady:
Stevie Wonder and Jeff Beck, Superstition
https://youtu.be/_zz1RzTDzoE
OzarkHillbilly
@Miss Bianca: I replied with something along those lines but haven’t checked my email yet. I would bet she replied again as she strikes me as the type who just have to get the last word in.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: Does it beat Tentacles (1977)?
kalakal
@mrmoshpotato: Nothing compares to The Giant Claw (1957)
https://youtu.be/zoxPoQKQae0
Sure Lurkalot
Here’s some good news! Thanks, Joe.
A trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon we’ll be talking real money.
UncleEbeneezer
@Hoodie: You forgot Bill Clinton. That (along with thwarting Hillary’s chances in 2016) is the wet dream they are desperate to repeat. Of course they always handled Republicans (Reagan, Bush, W, Trump) with kid gloves. Just think about the scandals from that list and how the MSM minimized/normalized them…
WereBear
@mrmoshpotato: As always, I can sell you something I’ll define as that.🤣
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Compressed air-robics.
:)
Geminid
Fittingly for Friday the 13th, Politico Magazine has an article titled, Brian Kemp and the Electric Car: A Love Story.” The reporter describes Kemp’s inaugiral speech promise that by the end of his new term Georga would be the “electrical mobility capital of America.”
A few days before the speech, South Korean company Hanwha announced plans for a massive solar panel facility in Georgia.
Kemp is agnostic on the cause of global warming, but not on whether electric vehicles are a good business for his state to be part of.
And Evs are cool, Kemp says, advising the reporter to get behind the wheel of one “and feel the zip.” Kemp said of Ford’s F-150 Lightning: “you’re gonna have a lot of Republicans driving that truck.”
With any luck, this link won’t work:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/01/13/brian-kemp-electric-car-georgia-00077579
The Moar You Know
@Delk: lot more crummy months in store over the next few years for those who are fans of late 60s/early 70s rock music. The clock on that generation of folks is running out, and most of them did not exactly maintain healthy lifestyles.
kalakal
@Baud: A galaxy here, a galaxy there, pretty soon we’ll be talking a real universe
mrmoshpotato
@kalakal: Oh wow! That looks hilarious!
WereBear
@different-church-lady: Best Friday the 13th story. With a happy ending, I hope.
UncleEbeneezer
Writing from lovely Mérida, México. Yesterday we visited the small but fantastic Museo De Arte Popular (folk art), got the most amazing cochinita pibil tacos at the market San Benito and had cocktails on a rooftop bar overlooking the main plaza. Rooftop bars are the worst! Gorgeous view but in our experience the drinks/food are overpriced and mediocre at best. This morning we finally got the tortas de lechon negro from the vendor across our street. They were 🔥🔥🔥 and only $3!
SFBayAreaGal
@NotMax: Great song. I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1977 at a Day on the Green concert.
Hoodie
@UncleEbeneezer: Just didn’t go back that far. They did the same to Carter. GOP presidents haven’t been immune to it, it’s just that their screwups were actually real (Iran/Contra, Iraq War and economic crisis, COVID disaster, etc.) The media doesn’t care either way, but that makes it problematic because, sometimes, the media plays a positive role while, at other times, it’s just empty careerism. I wonder if anyone has done a comprehensive treatment of the role of media careerism in American politics.
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: Also, seeing a lot of rueful jokes/anecdotes about people getting Jeff Beck confused with Beck. Who is, by now, no spring chicken himself.
WereBear
@Hoodie: Hearst got his own war.
NotMax
Of two minds when it comes to self-flying commercial planes.
Not talking here about the usual autopilot while airborne.
Ken
@kalakal: There’s a sad story about The Giant Claw. The actors thought they were making a serious science-fiction movie. They didn’t know that the studio had saved money by outsourcing the special effects*. They found out at the premiere, when the audience burst into howls of laughter when the bird first appeared.
* Despite appearances, the effects were done by a legitimate animation company, not a class of second graders.
SFBayAreaGal
@Delk: Dang, I’m really starting to feel my age.
Matt McIrvin
@Hoodie: The tragedy/scandal arc didn’t really work with Obama. He got hit by the post-2008 recovery taking longer than people wanted, and by his election not eliminating racial strife forever, but he went out fairly popular, personally speaking–Hillary Clinton just became the main hate-focus (again).
OzarkHillbilly
New photography techniques reveal the Baltic’s eerie wrecks – in pictures
Really cool pics. Also, this gives me the opportunity to once again plug a favorite book of mine: Shadow Divers.
Hoodie
@Geminid: Kemp is the type of GOP pol that is particularly dangerous because he’s not stupid.
...now I try to be amused
@The Moar You Know:
Of course the ones with really unhealthy lifestyles are in the 27 Club.
I’ll be worried when Robert Fripp drops. He does maintain a healthy lifestyle.
UncleEbeneezer
@Hoodie: Was Nixon treated appropriately or did they go easy on him too? Not sure of your age, I was born in 1973 so Nixon was just before my sentience.
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: Paul McCartney found out whether they’d feed him when he was 64 quite some time ago.
kalakal
@OzarkHillbilly: Those photos are amazing. The worst ever ship sinking took place in the Baltic, the Wilhelm Gusthof in 1945. I really wouldn’t like to see photographs of that wreck
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Wilhelm_Gustloff
I’ll have to read that book as well
Matt McIrvin
@UncleEbeneezer: The mainstream media went absolutely apeshit on Nixon once it was clear that Watergate was the real deal. And they coasted on that reputation for decades of fawning access journalism.
Mike in NC
Read that the House GOP plans some tribute to Trump, perhaps a formal apology for his being impeached. After all, most of them supported the attempted coup on 1/6/2021.
Trump is also to attend some campaign event in Columbia, SC later this month. I’ve been there twice. It’s the state capital and also the closest I’ve even been to North Korea.
OzarkHillbilly
@kalakal: I’ve read of the Wilhelm Gusthof, that death toll is horrifying.
kalakal
@…now I try to be amused:
How Ginger Baker made it to 80 I’ll never know, Eric “I’ve given up heroin, I’m now on 2 bottles of brandy a day” Clapton was the abstemious one in Cream.
Hoodie
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, but Hillary represented a continuation of Obama, kind of like Al Gore did for Clinton. Bill and Barack could maintain their popularity because they no longer had power; their chosen successors took the crap instead. The media works from a script where the media always ends up being superior and their mistakes are forgotten. Look how they have memory-holed their promotion of Trump and Bush. The conservatives were always somewhat correct in their criticism of the media, but they just drew the wrong conclusions for their own nefarious partisan reasons. The media is not in the bag for anyone but themselves, which is no big surprise since there are nice perks to be had if you’re a media star. It just pays for them to kiss conservatives’ asses under normal conditions because of the nature of their bosses. They only turn on conservatives when it pays to do so, i.e., when conservatives really screw up and their bosses feel threatened and the public can’t help but notice.
gvg
@Matt McIrvin: I think it might be caused by getting a Republican house. It’s easy and safe to complain and dislike the democrats especially our leader when we have total control of the government. Get a glimpse of the crazy party driving a little bit, and complaining about the democrats suddenly doesn’t feel comfortable anymore.
The crazy party is totally full of people who are unable to shut up and do anything quietly. All of them think they need to be the center of attention. The public is going to get a show.
Seanly
Very happy to share my birthday w/ Lithunian independence!
Matt McIrvin
@Hoodie: Looking again at 538’s presidential approval chart, one thing I notice is just that the frequency of polls is way down since the midterm election. That could mean fewer fly-by-night outfits trying to influence polling averages, could also just indicate that the salience of partisan politics is lower right now, so people are reverting to default attitudes.
kalakal
@Ken: That is sad, I remember when I saw it thinking that the gap between the FX and the rest of the film was jarring, most crummy SF movies of that time were consistently crummy throughout
Matt McIrvin
@gvg: I thought Baud had said that general approval of Republicans was way up though, which would suggest that most people are just not thinking much about politics right now.
zhena gogolia
@kalakal: It looks great! I don’t know how I’ve missed it.
Steeplejack
@Seanly:
Happy birthday! 🥂
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I said no such thing.
UncleEbeneezer
@Matt McIrvin: sounds right. And I’m guessing that’s part of when the Liberal Media howling began, causing the media to go easy on Republicans ever since.
Ken
“You’re a billionaire and titled, of course you’ll be fed.”
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Maybe I was confusing you with someone else.
(The closest I can actually find is the generic Congressional ballot swinging Republican just *before* the election, which, you know, is no surprise since they did take the House, if not by much. People haven’t really been polling these things much since November.)
Matt McIrvin
@Ken: Just realized he turned 64 right around the time my daughter was born; she should have a driver’s license soon.
lashonharangue
@OzarkHillbilly: I have a few hundred dives scuba diving. So not a beginner or really experienced. I read that book and it scared me big time. No way. More dangerous than cave diving and that is crazy dangerous.
different-church-lady
@Betty Cracker:
But enough about Elon Musk…
Frankensteinbeck
@Baud:
This is hilarious as Hell to me. Three fourths of the universe is made of matter that isn’t any kind we know, most of which we can’t detect other than ‘well, something produced this huge gravity effect on galaxies’, and physicists and astronomers toddle along making theories and going “This is fine.” It’s extra hilarious because the theories work so well, and we know so much, and we understand everything about the room really well except what’s under that elephant-sized tarp.
NotMax
@Seanly
Have a felicitous day!
Delk
Yay! The Giant Claw is on tubi. Guess I know what I’m doing this weekend.
different-church-lady
@Sure Lurkalot: But but but DEFICITS ARE GOOOOOOOODDDDD!!!! (Shitlibs everywhere)
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Michael Bersin: An ULTRAMAROON!
Frankensteinbeck
@Betty Cracker:
Definitely not me. I have definitely not done that, or SCUBA dived at all, or destroyed any irreplaceable historical artifacts while diving, or violated any local laws or international treaties by touching, stealing, blowing up, or licking said artifacts. Which I would have done on the surface and not underwater, if I had done any of this, which as I just said, I definitely did not do.
different-church-lady
@Frankensteinbeck:
I can’t even understand my smartphone. So that shit?
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady: lolol
Geminid
@Geminid: And if portraying Brian Kemp as a forward thinking politician on his way to Davos wasn’t bad enough, Politico Magazine also has an article on Notorious Blue Dog Josh Gottheimer (Trigger Warning; Bipartisanship!).
The premise of the title, “The real power in Congress isn’t where Matt Gaetz thinks it is,” is speculative. But “Josh Gottheimer believes his [Problem Solvers] caucus is going to play a key role in getting important bills passed in a narrowly divided caucus.”
Such speculation aside, I found the article worthwhile for its behind-the-scenes look at the precarious process that lead to Gottheimer and Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal standing next to each other and announcing an agreement to move forward on seperate Infrastructure and BBB Bills, in November, 2021.
There is also material on Gottheimer’s relations with Joe Manchin, Hakeem Jeffries and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Gottheimer’s Problem Solvers counterpart.
This Caucus sounds a little like the Fight Club: members don’t like to talk about it, or at least, they discourage leaks to the press. Another rule is that they won’t endorse each other’s general election opponents. Thus, in the last cycle, Republican Fred Upton turned down an endorsement request from Democrat Elissa Slotkin’s opponent.
A link?
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/josh-gottheimer-congress-power-player-0007757
Oh well. I’m 0 for 2 linking today. I guess I’ll blame it on it being Friday the 13th.
geg6
@UncleEbeneezer:
Exactly right.
different-church-lady
@…now I try to be amused: This may sound odd, but I think Fripp is one of the most spiritual musicians we’ve ever seen. He taps into something deep and mysterious and inexplicable, and brings it into the world, and can be just as awed by it as any of the rest of us.
Michael Bersin
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: He’s an ignoranimus…
Ken
Lovecraftian eldritch horrors.
(There have been a few science-fiction or fantasy stories using that as a premise, with at least one making the obvious connection between 26-dimensional string theories and Yog-Sothoth.)
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
Never left the fins or tanks on but I did once forget to take the weight belt off. It was no big deal as we were on the beach (in Cozumel) and, actually, I got a good workout from it.
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
Is there also a dress code for men? Is there some directive about “modesty” or “professionalism?”
Very droll.
BigJimSlade
Not only is it a lovely Friday the 13th, but:
Link
Baud
@BigJimSlade:
🍰🎂🎁
Baud
@Brachiator:
Men are easy. Suit and tie.
geg6
@BlueGuitarist:
Don’t go over to LGM and read the one post they had about Beck. The commenters there just basically shit all over him. Pissed me off so bad that I haven’t been back since. That will probably end at some point but too many assholes there for me to do anything other than glance at the front page. I would hate to be those people, so fucking “superior” and assholish.
Baud
@Geminid:
I would join the Problem Causers caucus if I were in Congress.
zhena gogolia
@BigJimSlade: Happy Birthday to you too!
Baud
@geg6:
Nominated!
Joe Falco
@Hoodie:
Agreed. Unlike his counterpart in Florida, Kemp strikes a balance between GOP cultural and fiscal issues without appearing as a wild-eyed zealot nor pushing his brand on the national stage as a Trump alternative. In the next four years, if Georgia keeps on (EV) trucking without running off a cliff, I’d imagine he’ll be looking to test the waters for a presidential run.
jonas
@UncleEbeneezer: Aw, man! Visiting Merida is totally on my bucket list. I’ve heard so many awesome things from friends who’ve been there.
Michael Bersin
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ah, yes, the Missouri General Assembly in all its glory.
Seanly
@BigJimSlade:
Happy birthday to you & me then!
Must’ve been 2nd grade – teacher made us all fill out a calendar page for our birthday month with highlights on our own birthday. I remember being so confused when another kid had January 13th filled out.
Brachiator
@Baud:
What, no hoodies and shorts?
Baud
@Seanly:
🎁🎂🍰
kalakal
@BigJimSlade: Happy Birthday
HumboldtBlue
You guys want some rock and roll, do ya?
We get your heart on fire for GOD!!!
kalakal
@Seanly: Happy Birthday to you!
WereBear
@Ken: It is difficult not to roll in the aisles when the monster appears. Those poor actors were in a classic.
TheOtherHank
I might be able to kick the twitter habit now. I use Twitterific on iOS and as of last night it can’t connect to Twitter; it just keeps telling me I need to login and then returning to that view as soon as I try. A quick google shows that Twitter’s public API is down. Whether this is on purpose or some bug that Twitter now lacks the engineering expertise to fix, if it doesn’t come back, I’m done. I really don’t like Twitter’s iPhone app and I don’t feel like downgrading to it.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: I actually bought it, but hadn’t gotten to it. Thank you! Now loaded in my Kindle.
CaseyL
@Baud: Nobody
goes therejoins that anymore; it’s too crowded.kalakal
@HumboldtBlue: I can honestly say I have never seen anything quite like that. And I sincerely hope I never do again
Geminid
@Joe Falco: I hope Kemp does go for a Presidential run in 2028. His alternative might be challenging Senator Jon Ossoff.
Ossoff’s seat will be up in 2026, the last year of Kemp’s term as Governor.
Jay C
@Ken:
The most-famous (though supposedly apocryphal) story about The Giant Claw involved its star, Jeff Morrow. Morrow, like all the cast, had never actually seen the final product before release, and when he went to the premiere at his local moviehouse, slunk out before the closing credits, embarrassed that his neighbors would recognize him…..
Steeplejack
@BigJimSlade:
Happy birthday! 🥂
jonas
@Hoodie: Kemp strikes me as a guy who’s being very savvy right now — not openly crossing Trump, but also not openly embracing the batshit Trumpsanity in the current GOP, unlike DeSantis or Noem or Abbot. He’s not deporting asylum seekers. He’s not trashing LGTBQ folks (although he did sign one of those anti-trans sports bills) or trying to destroy the UGA.
And speaking of trashing universities, are there any New College of FL alums here who have heard about DeSantis’s latest triumph of assholery? For those who don’t know, New College is the U of FL honors college — a small, selective liberal arts school with a strong progressive tradition. DeSantis just appointed a bunch of far-right toadies to the board of trustees, including the despicable bigot Christopher Rufo, and charged them with basically dismantling the school and rebuilding it as a “Hillsdale of the South”. As someone once said, I can’t eat as much as I want to throw up at this.
UncleEbeneezer
https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-sues-city-national-bank-under-federal-fair-housing-act-2023-01-12/
Frankensteinbeck
@Ken:
I use it for that in my Supervillain books. Matter that is not in another universe as we think of it, but occupying the same space as us, we just can’t interact with it until some (super powered) process translates it into matter we can interact with. It’s how people with transformation powers gain and lose mass. They don’t, it’s just hidden. They have to eat enough to develop and maintain that mass, too.
satby
@Seanly: @BigJimSlade: Happy Birthday to youse guys!
kalakal
For those of you that prefer music that spans genres may I present the one and only The Heimatdamisch. One of the funniest bands I’ve ever seen
https://youtu.be/n_gtGfAail4
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: If they took them off, the scaly mutants would steal them!
UncleEbeneezer
@UncleEbeneezer: Note how the Garland-haters never praise this important part of his work…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: Charlie Sykes and a bunch of other never-trumpers have lately adopted the theory that trump may be down, but not out. He’s a not a sure thing, but he still has the power to destroy! in a GOP primary. No one ever counters with the example of Kemp, or Raffensberger, and I think there was another statewide GOP elected in GA? Someone, on I forget which of my too-many podcasts, did say trump can tip the race when two pro-trump candidates are tied in a GOP primary, as in PA and AZ.
I’m trying not to get too excited about trump being done, and trumpism (Orbanism with American accents) remains the greater threat, IMHO, but I keep coming back to the fact that he hasn’t done a rally since the mid-terms.
Paul in KY
@UncleEbeneezer: Glad you are having a great time!
Paul in KY
@SFBayAreaGal: Wow! I missed them in the RonnyVanZantian. Sure wish I’d got to see them live.
Paul in KY
@kalakal: Sheer meanness and he was also a good athlete back in his youth.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Trump’s rallies were dwindling in attendance last year, and becoming more and more like freak shows. Now it sounds like his handlers want a reset. I’m not sure how him talking policy in smaller gatherings will work, though.
Personally, I think Trump is a spent force, sort of like a toxic, unstable radioisotope that’s hit its half-life.
I know others don’t see it that way.
And Sykes is right that Trump still has destructive power in the GOP. My joke is that Trump couldn’t wreck the nation, so now he’s gonna wreck the Republican Party
mrmoshpotato
@Ken:
I hope they came to appreciate the b-movie they were unknowingly making.
JML
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sykes is probably right. (I disagree with Charlie Sykes about a lot of things, but he’s not an idiot)
Soprano2
@Michael Bersin: I read about that, my reaction was ‘WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY DOING?”. Talk about a dumb issue to worry about.
kalakal
@Paul in KY: I met him once. He was horrible
Paul in KY
@geg6: I’ve seen Beck play a set at Forecastle. Wasn’t much of a fan at all of him before. He impressed me with his songs and also he played about 5 instruments during the set. I think he’s a great act to see live.
Paul in KY
@HumboldtBlue: That song can certainly be sung (with a few switched words) to be very not Christiany. I want your Hot Bible!
Cartman would kill doing it!
mrmoshpotato
@Delk:
I guess I do too! Btw, tomorrow night’s Svengoolie movie is The Invisible Man. And they’ve shown The Giant Claw too.
jonas
@Geminid: I think he’s pretty spent, too. And I mean that literally. I don’t think he has enough money coming in, even with the occasional NFT grift, to mount a serious comeback campaign. He’s done absolutely nothing thus far. Nothing. Can anyone even name his campaign manager? He can’t raise money anymore and doesn’t want to pay for big rallies and such out of his own pocket. Unless he can grift it, he won’t do it.
Paul in KY
@kalakal: The girl is badass! Would like to have seen it sung in German. Thanks for the link.
Carlo Graziani
@Frankensteinbeck:
Oh, it’s much worse than that. “Dark Energy” — which is what we call the shrug-emoji effect that causes cosmic acceleration, and which we know of no other way to detect besides cosmographic-type measurements — accounts for 67%–68% of the energy content of the Universe. And it’s so weird that if it even is a thing rather than just an effect (not a given), then it’s like a relativistically negative pressure. Which is to say, a huge tension, as if the Universe were filled with rubber bands instead of gas.
But almost all (90%) of the remaining 1/3 is “Dark Matter”, which is what causes rotation curves of galaxies to be wonky, and which dominates galaxy clusters and makes the galaxies within them orbit around, but is essentially undetectable in any sort of radiation. And we also have no idea what comprises it, but at least it seems to have a more normal, matter-like equation of state.
So actually only about 5% of all the energy in the Universe corresponds to stuff that we can see with instruments. So the “tarp” actually fills almost all of the room, and we basically only understand the ashtray and a couple of pictures on the wall.
zhena gogolia
@mrmoshpotato: If it stars Jeff Morrow and Mara Corday it’s a B-movie no matter how you slice it.
Steeplejack
@Paul in KY:
I think you’re mistaking Beck for Jeff Beck, which is who geg6 was referring to. Here’s the LGM post.
mrmoshpotato
@BigJimSlade: 🥳 and a 🐟 because why not
Hoodie
@Geminid: His power now seems lie mostly in his legacy of empowering nutjobs like Gaetz, MTG, etc., by giving them an example of how to get attention. However, the decimation of Trump backed candidates in 2022 has to be making a lot of GOPers wish he was gone. Remember, dead Ronald Reagan was more valuable to the GOP than the live version. When Trump is dead, no doubt the GOP will morph him into some sort of plain-speaking warrior against political correctness and reduced-volume toilets, much like Reagan single-handedly destroyed the Soviet Union and defeated Big Government.
Kelly
Quoting the very quotable John Rodgers “a fine is a price”
Geminid
@jonas: Trump’s November 15(?) campaign announcement sort of sank without a trace. He might have hoped to clear the field, but I don’t think the Pompeos, Christies and Desantises even blinked.
Paul in KY
@kalakal: Appears he got a kick out of being horrible. I’m glad I never encountered him.
My dad met Glen Campbell once as he hung out in kitchen area of restaurant my dad worked at. This before he headed over to do his set. Said he was the friendliest guy.
geg6
@Paul in KY:
I don’t think there is another guitar player out there or who ever lived as much a virtuoso as Jeff Beck. I always wonder if I would have a different take if I’d ever had the chance to see Hendrix live. But he died before I was allowed to go to concerts, so we’ll never know. I can say that I don’t much like Hendrix’s recorded music. And don’t get me started on how shitty I think Clapton is, both as a musician and a person. He’s a serviceable guitar player but not even in the same category as Beck, Hendrix or even Jimmy Page.
Omnes Omnibus
@Paul in KY: I’ve seen the other Beck (Hansen) in concert. I wasn’t impressed.
Paul in KY
@Steeplejack: I guess I was assuming Beck, the Scientology dude from Cali. They shit all over Jeff BecK?!?! Jeezus!
mrmoshpotato
@Geminid:
Have at it, Dump! Not sure how a 40+-year wreck can be wrecked more, but I won’t try to stop the orange shitstain.
kalakal
@Kelly: The Swedes have a good system for speeding fines. They were getting pissed off with rich wankers driving recklessly and to whom the existing fines were just small change so they brought in a system whereby the fine is based on your wealth
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-10960230
BigJimSlade
@Baud: @zhena gogolia: @kalakal: @Steeplejack: @satby: Thank you!!!
@Seanly: Thanks and the same to you! Growing up, my best friend and next-door neighbor had (he’s still around, we’ve just all moved) a half-brother who’s a 1/13 guy, but 10 years older. And the next house was our other best friend who’s birthday is 1/13, but he’s one year older than me. So 3 houses in a row!
My claim to fame is that I was actually born on a Friday :-)
geg6
@Steeplejack:
Yes, Jeff Beck. I wouldn’t listen to the other Beck if he paid me to do it. I don’t patronize the works of Scientologists. I don’t listen Beck, I won’t watch a Tom Cruise or John Travolta film and Kirstie Alley passing away garnered a “good, another one gone” from me.
BigJimSlade
@mrmoshpotato: Thanks for all the fish!
I did have a can of sardines a couple days ago, but I think yours is the only fish I’ll have today :-)
Wanderer
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
True.
I think it’s funny that exotic (foreign?) beauty Mara Corday was Marilyn Joan Watts from Santa Monica, CA.
BigJimSlade
@geg6: Yeah, I think the thing with Jeff Beck is that people don’t generally care about the songs, then don’t listen closely enough to hear how freakin’ amazing the guitar playing is. If you’re not into the little details, you’ll miss most of it.
mrmoshpotato
@BigJimSlade: Sorry it had to come to this.
Geminid
@Hoodie: I think a lot of Republican officeholders like Mitch McConnell and political apparatchiks like Karl Rove knew Trump was a drag on the party even before he left office. They probably were relieved when most of his candidates wiped out last November.
These folks know their party has to put Trump in the rearview mirror, and that the sooner they do this the better. That won’t solve their other problems, but it might be a start.
Steeplejack
@Geminid:
Their “other problem” seems to be that Trumpism is outliving the original host, as evidenced by the increasingly nutty House GQP.
kalakal
Their problem is they want to demolish Trump but none of them wants to be the one that does it.
“The hand that wields the knife shall never wear the crown ”
Sucks to be them
Brachiator
@BigJimSlade:
New York Times rock critic Jon Pareles did a nice piece on “Jeff Beck’s 10 Essential Songs,” with little notes that spoke about his musicianship.
I had forgot that Beck played on Stevie Wonder’s 1972 song, “Lookin’ For Another Pure Love.”
Paul in KY
@geg6: In that comment, I was talking about Beck the one-named dude. I couldn’t conceive of people shitting all over Jeff Beck, so I assumed it must have been ‘Beck’. My bad on that.
If you want to see some great young guys with the guitar, check out the dude that fronts Wolfmother and the guy who fronts Reignwolf. Both are badass, IMO.
Geminid
@Steeplejack: They’ve got a lot of problems, and many are being exemplified by their House majority. And maybe (I’m hoping) even aggravated.
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus: Glad my set was better. Sorry about the one you saw.
Hoodie
@Geminid: The problem Trump presents is what do they do next? Before Trump, they had a problem because they had no unified message. Prior to Bush, they could still play the whole national security/fiscal conservative thing, but that blew up with Bush. Faced with that, they went with Trump for a cheap win based on racism and xenophobia. Seems to me they’ll try to hang on to some sort of Trumpless trumpism, but that will be hard to do with him still alive and kicking. I suspect the next big thing will be full metal religiosity rooted in a sexual panic similar to the immigration panic. DeSantis is working that vein already.
Paul in KY
@geg6: I think Beck (the one-named dude) is crazy for being a scientologist, but he played a fine set that time I saw him at Forecastle. His music, in general, I’m meh about.
Paul in KY
@Hoodie: Carrying the cross and wrapped in the flag. Jingoism turned up to 11.
Steeplejack
@Brachiator:
Jon Pareles, “Jeff Beck’s 10 Essential Songs” (free article).
kalakal
@Paul in KY:
Even Ritchie Blackmore* was/is always complimentary about Jeff Beck.
*Blackmore’s been a professional troll all his life, about the only people he’s not made a habit of slagging off one way or another are his old buddies Beck, Page & Clapton. He can be pretty astute as to his and their relative strengths and weaknesses as guitarists and he really rated Jeff.
BigJimSlade
@Brachiator: And he came up with the drum beat for Superstition!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstition_(song)
I’ll have to check out the Pareles article (insert thumbs up emoji).
BigJimSlade
@mrmoshpotato: I’ll have more fish next week.
...now I try to be amused
@Kelly:
One I quote at people a lot. Another John Rogers quote: “Nothing changes until rich white guys go to jail.”
...now I try to be amused
@different-church-lady:
Doesn’t sound odd to me. When Fripp speaks of Music it’s with a capital M.
Fripp fascinates me. He’s so arrogant and humble at the same time.
Kelly
I was today years old when I discovered the CRV3 battery. It looks just like the 9 volt battery I actually needed if my glasses are in my shirt pocket.
trnc
True, but it would probably help those companies with their civil suits. Which is obviously not in the SC’s purview, but, hey, if it comes out, it comes out.
BigJimSlade
@…now I try to be amused: I’m about to head off to the pool, but the shirt I have in my bag to change into is a King Crimson shirt :-)
Yes, Fripp is very interesting, like he has no humor and plenty of humor, too.
kalakal
@…now I try to be amused:
As Trading Places put it
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/10368030-931b-46eb-a3b8-c8d6d7a5d882
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
How are we already in trouble with the debt limit?! I thought they addressed that and we’d have more time!
The Moar You Know
@…now I try to be amused: he’s a phenomenal player and composer. That being said, I wouldn’t work with him for any amount of money.
Geminid
@Hoodie: One of their problems is that they have a radicalized base. I saw this happening in Virginia over the last twenty years. It used to be that Chamber of Commerce/Country Club establishment called the shots in the Virginia party, and the bible thumpers were junior partners. Then the Tea Party populists formed an alliance with the bible thumpers, and now the establishment types are laying low (they’re still around, though).
Youngkin was able to paper over the cracks, figuratively (and literally) with hundred dollar bills. But I think he’ll prove to be a one-off, and will leave the party with the same conflicts when he leaves office. He’s already looking beyond Virginia anyway.
This fall’s General Assembly elections will show if he has any real clout among Virginia voters. He should be able to get Republicans to present a united front, but so will the Democrats. And unlike the elections since 2011, this one will be contested on a neutral map, not the one drawn by Republicans after the 2010 Census.
Nationally though, I think the radicals will keep the upper hand over the more pragmatic Chamber of Commerce types. That conflict may become intense late this summer, when the problem of the debt ceiling becomes acute.
trnc
Yes, they can easily afford it, but isn’t that on top of $2 million in back taxes being repaid? Maybe the max needs to be raised, but I don’t think we can expect fines to be based on what a company can afford vs what amount they actually got away with. The question is, did the org actually make money on this?
Geminid
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: What I’ve read is that the debt ceiling problem will become acute mid- to late summer.
Another deadline is October 1. Congress has to fund government for the next fiscal year by that date. Last year they got by with continuing resolutions before passing the Omnibus spending bill a few days before Christmas. House Republicans say they won’t let that happen this time.
Captain C
@Roger Moore:
Yes, but needs moar, “How This Is Bad News for Biden and Democrats.”
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Geminid: Why didn’t we raise it when we could?!
Geminid
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Joe Manchin said he would not help pass a debt ceiling increase in the lame duck session. I thought he was bluffing, but evidently he wasn’t.
Kelly
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Why didn’t we eliminate it while we could?
“I don’t belong to an organized political party. I’m a Democrat.”
Will Rodgers another very quotable Rodgers
Torrey
@OzarkHillbilly:
So what I want to see is the Democratic women all showing up wearing man-tailored suits, maybe even three-piece, and neckties. Or maybe do creative things with the neckties, like wear them loosened and jauntily pinned, since taunting the men who have to wear neckties would be kind of fun.
...now I try to be amused
@The Moar You Know:
From what I’ve seen, there is a big difference between Fripp the session player (i.e., he’s working for you) and Fripp the leader of King Crimson (you’re working for him). As a session man he’s a perfect professional. In KC he’s a tyrant in the service of his muse.
Sure Lurkalot
@Seanly: @BigJimSlade:
Happy birthday to you and you and you (points to spouse) and me (tomorrow).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I never thought he was bluffing, and if he was, I doubt Sinema, who surely was gearing up to declare her “independence” long before she did, would have gone along with a deal. We, including those two, knew people like Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise were taking power. It isn’t just the “politics bore and confuse me” lumpenmittel who can’t, or won’t, take 1/6 seriously.
Cameron
@mrmoshpotato: This thread made me curious enough that I’ve already watched The Giant Claw today on Youtube. Which I sorta hafta do since I don’t have a TV anymore.
Cameron
@geg6: I’d rather listen to Tony McPhee than Eric Clapton any day – and for the same style of music.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Michael Bersin: An im-becile. A nincowpoop.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I got my hopes up because I remembered how, at the end of last June, Manchin said that even a pared down BBB was dead, kaput, finito. And then in July, right after the Senate passed the CHIPS+ Act, Shumer and Manchin announced agreement on a pared down BBB, rebranded as the Inflation Reduction Act.
But the lame duck session did not end with a deux ex manchina descending from the rafters to raise the debt limit, as I had hoped.
It’s all speculation now, but I think Sinema would have gone along. The contituency for playing chicken with the debt ceiling is fairly small. She seems to curry favor with corporate America, and they don’t want that fight, it seems to me.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Geminid:
Ugh! Manchin! I’d rather have him than the alternative, but this is going to be bad.
Geminid
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: It could be bad. I think it definitely will be scary. There is no certainty as to how this problem will be resolved, but one possible solution would be a break up of the Republican House majority and passage of a debt ceiling increase under a reorganized House.
People are bound to scoff at this, and I am not saying it’s likely. But the pressure on Republican House members will be intense, and that caucus could crack.
CaseyL
@Geminid:
Intense pressure from whom?
They don’t need the Chamber anymore; they’ve got all the dark money from oligarchs they need.
I can’t think of any constituency the GOP needs who will put any pressure on them to increase the debt limit; and quite a few constituencies who will put pressure on them not to.
Geminid
@CaseyL: You are looking at the Chamber of Commerce and their allies simply as donors. But they are peers and constituents that Republican Representatives talk to every time they visit their districts.
I’m using “Chamber of Commerce” here as shorthand for the whole network of bigger and smaller businessmen, and the many professionals- accountants, lawyers, real estate brokers and agents, construction contractors of all types, insurance agents etc.- with economic and social ties to the leading businessmen. They all network, they almost all vote and they influence other voters.
These folks have long been a mainstay of the Republican party, and not every Republican is going to throw them over to win support from the relatively fickle billionaires. And anyway, I am not talking about the whole caucus being pressured but the 15 to 40 members who have to win reelection from purple and lìght red districts. They’re the ones who will feel the pressure, not so much the other ones in safe red districts.
The Club for Growth can give a lot of money, but can they deliver voters? I guess you might answer that question in the affirmative, but I think you have to believe in a very reductionist view, that there are smart Democrats (like us!) but everybody else are malleable, low information rubes. I know many people like to believe this, but it does not conform to my my experience so I do not.
UncleEbeneezer
@jonas: It’s awesome! Beautiful, multi-colored city with tons of colonial architecture, and parks with incredible street food. People are so friendly too.