The Gospel according to Benw.
“And the Lord looked out among her people. And saw that gender was a spectrum, and it was good. And that some boys did like other boys and some girls did like other girls; and it was good; and that some did not like either at all, and it was good. And some boys did themselves dress as girl, and the opposite was also true, and it was good. And that some did not wish to remain themselves with the gender they were assigned at birth based on outward signifiers of their sex, and it was good. And the Lord raised herself a great land called NYC, in which she spoke, ‘cometh to this land and fuck around, and ye shall find out.’”
~Benw
Full marks for this, Benw! Respect.
Totally unrelated, but it made me so happy that this one is too good to share, too!
Trump hatchet man, Robert Costello’s testimony before the NY grand jury went over like a lead balloon.
Michael Cohen wasn’t even called back to refute his allegations.
Trump will be indicted.
— Jack E. Smith ⚖️ (@7Veritas4) March 20, 2023
Just as I was pressing publish on this post, one of our lurkers, Jobeth, sent me the link to this quiz (Politico, I know)
Who said it: Ron DeSantis or Donald Trump?
Or, as I like to think of them, Satan and the other Satan.
Open thread.
Baud
I’m not sure how anyone knows how grand jury testimony went.
I like the Gospel according to Benw.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I stole your Gospel according to Benw title!
To answer your question, I think they know the Trump guy’s testimony bombed because they didn’t call Michael Cohen as a rebuttal witness.
Yesterday they arranged for Michael Cohen to be there today as a rebuttal witness; then they didn’t call him. They felt they didn’t need him. Cause and effect, I believe.
Eunicecycle
MSNBC carried Costello’s comments after his testimony, and I had to change the channel. He seemed so smug, at least he thought it went well. I am glad to hear he might be wrong about that. I’m not a big Cohen fan but I do believe him about the Stormy payoff. Of course Trump was behind it.
WaterGirl
@Eunicecycle: I will have to go look for that.
feebog
Heard that Cohen may be called back on Wednesday. Costello didn’t offer much in his brief appearance before the press after this Grand Jury testimony. Based on his comments, I think this was likely a nothingburger.
WaterGirl
On the quiz, I got 10 right out of 15.
I have never listened to DeSantis speak for longer than 10 seconds, so I just answered based on whether I thought something was way too out there, even for DeSantis.
I was wrong about that 5 times out of 15. They are equally awful, and I go back and forth about who is more dangerous to our country. Kind of like deciding whether you’d prefer the world to end with a meteor or a nuclear bomb.
Baud
Heh. Worst Odd Couple remake ever.
prostratedragon
How Costello seems to think it went (MSNBC video)
robmassing
I went into the poll with the mistaken assumption that DeSantis, while as much a fascist as Trump, is more sophisticated in his speech.
different-church-lady
I’m seeing this @7Veritas4 Twitter person quoted far to often for me to feel smug about anything.
WaterGirl
@robmassing: Yes, that was the other factor I used to decide between them. Surprising that DeSatan is just as bad. You might have thought that would be impossible!
WaterGirl
@different-church-lady: Not sure what you mean by that.
Manyakitty
@different-church-lady: it is supposed to be a parody account, so 🤷♀️
Lacuna Synecdoche
WaterGirl @ Top:
I always think of them as Satan and DeSatan.
Shalimar
@robmassing: There are comparisons showing DeSantis has intentionally altered his mannerisms over the last couple years to copy Trump as much as possible. It wouldn’t surprise me to find he has done the same thing with his very limited public speeches.
eclare
@Shalimar: DeSatan has definitely adopted TFG’s accordion hands. It’s striking.
Matt McIrvin
@WaterGirl: To first order I’d say DeSantis is more dangerous because he polls better against Biden. But that may be because he’s an unknown quantity to most people and they’re thinking of him as “generic Republican”.
trollhattan
@eclare: ”Momma’s got a squeezebox…”
WaterGirl
@prostratedragon: Wow. It’s one thing for Michael Cohen to release him from attorney client privilege, but this guy is going after Michael Cohen as if Cohen cheated on the guy with his wife.
I wouldn’t trust this guy to walk my dog. I hope that guy and his law firm never get another client, ever.
WaterGirl
@Lacuna Synecdoche: I had the same thought when I posted it, after reading what I had written!
WaterGirl
@prostratedragon: He seems to have misrepresented the situation, too, indicating that he’s not there to help Trump. Trump asked for this fellow to be heard by the grand jury, which you would never know from what this guy said to the press.
leeleeFL
Since this is an open thread, can I ask what the hive-mind thinks of Windows 11? Should I move up, or stick with 10? I hate changes if not necessary. Thanks in advance.
Baud
@leeleeFL:
It’s not necessary. If you hate change, don’t do it.
Shalimar
@WaterGirl: Cohen says he doesn’t remember ever signing anything waiving attorney-client privilege but also says Costello was never his attorney. So if Costello can’t produce this waiver, it appears he is lying on both those statements
edit: And the waiver would have to be in writing. A lawyer wouldn’t get a phone call claiming privilege has been waived and accept it like Costello says he did. Always get documentation for the file.
Mallard Filmore
I hope this gets in before the thread dies …
YouTube:
link: https://youtu.be/kT0HJkr1jj4
title: “Science Proves There are More than Two Human Sexes”
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ9YAFYIBOU
title: “Trans athletes in women’s sports: Is this fair?”
Origuy
Here’s some good news from Niger, where SOS Blinken was just visiting.
Baud
@Origuy:
👍
WaterGirl
Ken B
Shouldn’t that be Fat Satan and Half-Pint Satan?
leeleeFL
@Baud: Thanks, Baud!
eclare
@Ken B: How about Sassy Boots Satan?
Shalimar
@WaterGirl: I had forgotten that Lanny Davis is Cohen’s lawyer. Is there some secret asshole club with a rule that all these horrible people are only allowed to hire other members?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Shalimar: I can never remember: Was it Davis or Blumenthal whose exile Obama made a condition of HRC being SoS ?
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Pretty sure it was Lanny Davis, but I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong.
WaterGirl
@Ken B: I prefer Satan and high-pitched Satan.
I heard a few words from DeSantis today and it’s so bad that I turned it right off. No man with a voice that whiny will ever be elected president.
(Please let that be so.)
Shalimar
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That was Blumenthal, who got deep into birtherism after the primaries. Davis actually supported Obama during the general election campaign.
Brachiator
I have not been around the Inter Tubes today, so am catching up with all the news. I see that Rupert Murdoch is feeling frisky.
WaterGirl
@Shalimar: Hard to believe I got that wrong. //
NotMax
Beelzebuds.
//
Ken B
@WaterGirl: Both High-Pitch and Sassy Boots work for me.
I just bought a 42 oz bottle of (unpopped) popcorn, so I’m set for the week, at least
Lincoln apparently had a high pitched voice, I remember reading a historian opining that he could never be elected nowadays, between his voice and his appearance.
Shalimar
@WaterGirl: I may be misremembering when the break with Blumenthal happened. i am not positive enough to bet on it.
West of the Rockies
@Shalimar:
Copying Trump won’t work unless he returns fire directly at Trump using Trumpian insults. Otherwise, I believe that eventually the rubes will regard DePinhead as weak and low-energy. That worked so well for Jeb!
NotMax
@Ken B
So did Teddy Roosevelt, from whom there’s actual recordings.
trollhattan
@leeleeFL: I needed a new PC and opted for Win 11, figuring support will continue longer than for 10.
But I’m keeping my Win 10 laptop on that OS. Oh, just remembered MS said my ICU is too old for Win 11, so I’m stuck with it regardless.
Other than “we moved stuff around” I see no functional advantage to Win 11. Just hope software and hardware makers continue to ensure their products work on both.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: hahahahaha
This is Microsoft!
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: I like high-pitched Satan! (The characterization, not the odious, adenoidal-voiced, boring, baggy-suit-wearing meat sack.)
Since it’s the first day of spring by some reckonings, a thought: Floridians greet spring in a way that is different from most of America. Where y’all see a respite from weather-related hardships and associated annoyances, we see the looming season of suck, i.e., hot, suffocating, hurricane-heavy summer.
But the hideous Trump era introduced a nuance to this longstanding pattern: now Floridians who aren’t assholes can look forward to the departure of Trump and his grotesque entourage from the state in the same way Capistrano anticipates the return of the swallows.
He’ll be heading your way soon, New Jersey! Sucks to be you! 😂
trollhattan
@WaterGirl: But, Hillary was shrill!
DeSantis has the charm of two-week old gas station sushi.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: That much?
trollhattan
@WaterGirl: I see perpetual license Office circling the drain before our eyes. They want that sweet Adobe subscription cash, by gawd.
Origuy
I’m getting the BSOD every few days on my Windows 10 laptop, so I’m thinking about installing WIndows 11. I don’t know if it will make any improvement, though, or if I’ll just be trading one set of problems for another. I’m usually a fairly aggressive updater, however.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl: I’ll stipulate the sushi display is kept atop the twirling hot dog oven thingie.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Glad you will soon be rid of regular Satan. You’ve had him long enough.
I think high-pitched works especially well because you don’t need to be a political, inside baseball person or know about the white boots thing, or anything else, in order to understand it.
You just have to have heard his voice once – about 5 words is all it takes!
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: It’s really hard to know which to hate more: Microsoft or Adobe.
With your stipulation, I’ll agree on the DeSatan charm.
Sure Lurkalot
“The online far right and militia movement are both fundamentally more excited about and likely to harangue people outside drag shows than to organize for Donald Trump right now.”
Thread about pro Trump protest in NYC. More press than protestors. Sad!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Sure Lurkalot: trump called for the NYPD to stand back from his supporters’ protest, and today the NYPD brass told him to fuck off
TaMara
This is fun…
Sure Lurkalot
For some reason, I turned on the oh so far left MSNBC only to see Michael Steele and Mona Charen. FFS, it’s unwatchable. Got good company on this opinion (Driftglass and Blue Gal).
p.a.
tRump is a moron, but it’s wrong to assume the same because of any other Rethug pols’ speech patterns; remember the level of their target audience, and the “newspeak-ish” aspect of just using signifiers without needing a recognizable grammatical structure. gibberish “9/11!”, gibberish “lieberal”, gibberish “woke” etc.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I should have gotten more work done today.
@TaMara: Ha!
Shalimar
@Sure Lurkalot: Michael Steele is on these shows to trash Republicans he once worked with and knows personally. His actual politics rarely get into it. I have no clue about Charen, who I lost track of after her horrible column 30 years ago. Apparently she is mainly noteworthy now for thinking adultery with porn stars is a bad thing.
prostratedragon
@WaterGirl: Some of the lawtalkers think he actually put his foot in it, which it seemed to me. He could get asked things.
trollhattan
@TaMara: All the wins! 😂
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
trump: “I will pay the legal fees for anyone who protests for me in New York when I am arrested”The kicker, and I am not making this up:“I mean it this time“that little glimmer of self-awareness, a confession, but the rubes and the marks still think he gives a fuckalso, he goes straight for the Q crowd, “where we go 1 we go all”ETA: I fell for a joke
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
See, that’s the essential Trump that I think DeSantis will have a tough time mimicking.
ETA: Ok, now I’m wondering if that’s real or a parody.
Betty
@WaterGirl: Cohen came on later and disputed everything Costello said. Claims there was no attorney-client relationship and he has no recollection of ever waiving anything.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: oh, dammit. It’s a parody. It’s hard to tell
Shalimar
@Baud: The letterhead says “President Doofy J. Trump” under Save America. It’s a parody.
mvr
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Satire, I think. But honest satire.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Baud:
That takes talent, though. Rond is sorely lacking.
Another Scott
@Origuy: I would suspect hardware, not software.
Is it a Dell?
Is it outside its warranty?
(Ask me why I’m asking these questions…)
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
BellyCat
Exceptional explainer. Thank you! (Great link to share again in the next Planet Eddy post.)
schrodingers_cat
@Origuy: How old is your laptop? Dell might be able to fix it if it is not too old.
Jeffro
I know the MAGAts just don’t (and won’t, ever) get it, but…there are a LOT of long, well-supported, meticulously documented knives out for ol’ trumpov.
Their sad little white nationalist fantasy land restoration bubble is about to pop Pop POP and it’s just going to be glorious.
Meanwhile, my personal niche is to make all the trump enablers (both those in my personal orbit and anyone who happens to stray across my Twitter feed) flinch for at least a second at all the damage they’ve caused. Bunch of fucking head-in-the-sand ostriches (with apologies to ostriches!)
BellyCat
Why not both?
trollhattan
@BellyCat: Battle for the worstest. Apple looks on, from stage left.
cain
FYI – it seems like flipboard is also jumping into the mastodon bandwagon!
https://about.flipboard.com/inside-flipboard/flipboard-mastodon-federated/
ETA – maybe you might like the flipboard integration with mastodon instead of going straight mastodon.
Geminid
It sounds like Costello is a red herring, dropped into the proceedings at the last minute for purposes of spin. The Trump camp will claim that Costello blew Cohen’s testimony to pieces, but the thuggish Bragg and his Trump-hating grand jury ignored his testimony. Of course that isn’t true, but Trump’s people will tell their credulous listeners that this is further proof that Trump is being railroaded
karen marie
@prostratedragon: For someone who’s not Individual-1’s attorney, Costello is awfully invested in proving that his former client is a liar. I went and looked up what Cohen was convicted of in 2018 (he actually pled guilty) and it wasn’t “lying to Congress,” as Costello says in that video.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@WaterGirl:
You can run Windows without Photoshop, but you can’t run Photoshop without Windows*.
Therefore, you should hate Microsoft more.
———
* Or something that emulates Windows libraries, like WINE. And even then … well, good luck.
Suzanne
@WaterGirl:
Yeah, I struggle with this, too. I think it’s really important to differentiate between what I want to be true and what I genuinely think to be true. Especially about matters of judgment, it can be difficult.
As we saw with the Iraq War, in which a whole bunch of shitty people convinced themselves to invade the wrong country! At least I never fucked up that bad.
Sure Lurkalot
@Shalimar: They both were appalled that the silencing of a sex worker might be the 1st indictment. It might taint public opinion about more serious crimes wink wink.
The fucker has been a crime scene since he was 10. At this point, I don’t care if he is indicted for cheating at golf. His supporters will be outraged at the drop of a MAGA hat.
artem1s
@trollhattan:
I thought Office 365 already was a yearly subscription. In any case Affinity has stepped up is a great replacement for Adobe creative suite. desktop, one time purchase. Very inexpensive compared to pre-subscription CS6 prices. I can’t wait for Affinity to put out a PDF editor that will replace Acrobat Pro. Once that happens I never have to use another Adobe product again.
FelonyGovt
Late to the thread as usual but I took great delight in these letters to the editor in today’s LA Times explaining why the writers were moving TO California FROM Florida. Guess why!
UncleEbeneezer
@Matt McIrvin: There are some issues that GOP overreach really hasn’t gone over well with voters. On every one of those issues DeSantis has taken the most extremely unpopular position possible. His war on Wokeness, fucking with public schools, and criminalization of abortion are not going to play well to the Independent and Swing voters he would need to beat Biden. And he has zero charisma and if he somehow beats Trump for the nomination I don’t think Trump is capable of doing anything but telling his MAGA base to not support DeSantis out of spite. Maybe the potential of a pardon for Federal crimes would be enough to motivate him, but given that it’s Trump, I wouldn’t count on it.
trollhattan
@artem1s: Guessing most folks, and companies are on Office 365 subscriptions. What MS does not mention is one can still buy three(?) Office versions on a cash-and-carry basis.
Doubt this will last much longer.
UncleEbeneezer
@FelonyGovt: Anyone have a gift link for his article?
Sister Golden Bear
@BellyCat: SciShow has years worth of a great explainers on a wide variety of science topics, as well as related channels on psychology, animals, ecology, and more. It’s one of my favorite shows to have on in the background while reading BJ After Dark.
Manyakitty
@Sure Lurkalot: I tried to watch Rachel and she and her random talking head were shrieking about trump. I noped out almost immediately.
Matt McIrvin
@Shalimar: Charen has become another never-Trumper Republican, if I recall correctly.
karen marie
@Geminid: Why would the prosecutor throw in a red herring intended to make their case look bad? It’s a grand jury. The target doesn’t get to put on witnesses.
JoyceH
@Ken B:
Nah. Lincoln was a guy, and his voice can’t have been worse than Trump’s whiny sing-song.
BTW, the other day we were introduced to yet another Trump aide, female type, and sure enough — young and pretty. It’s so irksome to me that if you’re a man, you can look like Steve Bannon and get a job in Trumpworld, but if you’re a woman, you’d better look like Hope Hicks.
different-church-lady
@Shalimar: It’s not secret.
different-church-lady
@Brachiator: “Gosh Mr. Murdoch, a billion dollars isn’t old!”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@different-church-lady: LOL. WOuldn’t you love to be the proverbial fly on the wall when his various offspring scream about how there’d BETTER BE A PRE-NUP!!
Scout211
@trollhattan: I used to buy a one-time MS Office purchase for my Mac. But this always became an issue:
Twice I had to repurchase it at full price when it would stop updating. The cost over time was really not a savings over the 365 subscription, especially now that Mr. Scout and I can both use the same 365 subscription over all of our computers and devices. The 1-person Office suite could only be used on my Mac (after Office for iOS started requiring 365).
So for us, 365 is a much better deal. (One subscription, 6 devices).
ETA: corrected text, added text
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@karen marie: Its nice to lock in an opposing witness on the record and to see how a jury reacts.
Also too Dump is an idiot to preview any defense
kalakal
@artem1s: I wish Affinity would put out a video editor. I don’t use Premier Pro ( except at work ) but the non-apple alternatives Vegas, Resolve etc are pricey
different-church-lady
If you’re not sharing docs with others, then LibreOffice just freakin’ rocks.
It does indeed open and save to standard MS Office file formats. However, I’ve heard the more granular compatibility can spotty. But if you’re just using it for yourself, it’s almost too good to be true.
kalakal
@Ken B:
So did Otto von Bismarck, mind you he never had to stand for election
mvr
@karen marie:
Preview of trial testimony and can be used to impeach testimony at trial if he deviates. It was under oath.
kalakal
@different-church-lady: I love Libre Office
BellyCat
@artem1s: Thanks for Affinity tip. Was not aware of them.
Adobe professional user for decades here. Thousands and thousands of dollars handed to them for upgrade after upgrade for my company. I finally drew the line when they went to the even more rapacious subscription model. Of course, operating system upgrades eventually rendered all permanent Adobe licenses non-working. Simultaneously, my needs became infrequent BUT SO MUCH WORK NOW INACCESSIBLE.
Subscription “might” make more sense to some if one could choose a plan based on number of times used. Like a calling card. No monthly penalty when not used, and less resentment when actually needed to simply open old files or fart around a couple times a year.
Here’s an idea to unite both sides of the polity: Federal law requiring software to work for X years after purchase date, on current OS released, requiring free updates in that timeframe. This would mirror current policy requiring car parts to be available for a period of time after purchase of the vehicle.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This is real, I think. Who the fuck knows anymore?
BellyCat
@Sister Golden Bear: I’m going to dig for more, for sure. You must be able to multitask better than me, because the pace of that presentation required my FULL attention! LOL
Geminid
@karen marie: I could ot say because I do not know the circumstances behind Costello’s testimony. My understanding is that Mr. Bragg let Trump’s attorneys know that Trump liable to be indicted, and had better present evidence of innocence if they had it. Perhaps they pressed Bragg to hear Costello first, claiming that he could impeach Cohen’s testimony. It was Bragg’s decision, but their initiative.
Another Scott
@different-church-lady: Indeed. I find Impress so much easier to work with than PPT (it doesn’t get in my way and always want to format things in ways that I have to change). Draw is almost a 2D CAD package and very handy – much more accurate and flexible than trying to make diagrams in PPT.
LibreOffice is just an amazing bit of software.
But importing complicated MS Office things into it, especially PPTx into Impress can require some manual repair, so sharing with MS users can be problematic. (Of course, moving between Mac Office and Win Office can have issues as well…)
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@karen marie: But I repeat myself.
Splitting Image
@BellyCat:
If you have a lot of old files which you need to keep available for future use, Virtualbox and VMWare are your very best friends. Most Adobe products will work just fine in a virtual machine (I’ve had Premiere Pro and Encore crash on me), and you can install the old Mac versions on a modern PC and vice versa.
Adobe has worn out its welcome with me too, but it’s good to have CS3 or CS5 around for when you need it. They also tend to work lightning-quick in a modern virtualized PC without all of that bloat they’ve added over the years.
FelonyGovt
@UncleEbeneezer: Sorry, try this
Sure Lurkalot
@Matt McIrvin: Talk me down but the never trumpers are not our friends. They do not believe in what we seek. I’m tiring of being shoved supposedly ex Republicans as somehow entitled to be more expert because they were once…wrong? Horribly wrong?
.
different-church-lady
@Splitting Image:
I would think you’d need a version so old it wouldn’t attempt to “phone home” upon install?
prostratedragon
@karen marie: Oh dearie me, I wonder whether such a habit of prevarication can be confined to unsworn situations like news statements.
prostratedragon
@different-church-lady: 😄!!
Darkrose
Wow, that was some amazing baseball! Just watched Japan edge out Mexico in the bottom of the 9th–some great pitching on both sides, with an Ohtani double to start the comback in the 9th. Screw Olbermann; the WBC is great!
Splitting Image
@different-church-lady:
The last I heard, Adobe’s registration server was still active, so if you have a legit copy, you can install it on a Windows 7 or XP VM and it will work like a normal install, even if it does contact the server to activate. As said above, the way they are eliminating the lifetime licenses is by allowing new versions of Windows to make the old programs obsolete. Installing an old operating system in a VM gets around that.
This also works for old versions of Microsoft Office. Bioware games work like champs in VMware too.
FelonyGovt
@Darkrose: That was a great baseball game.
BellyCat
@Splitting Image: Great tip! Never thought about running an old OS within a modern OS. I’ve got the whole CS5 suite collecting dust.
Eolirin
@Origuy: Frequent BSODs are usually going to be caused either by a hardware or driver problem, with the exception of bad updates.
@trollhattan: I’d take current MS over every single one of their competitors by a mile. 2000s MS is more of a contest.
Eolirin
@Lacuna Synecdoche: Photoshop runs on Mac just fine.
Eolirin
@BellyCat: PSD files at least can be opened by a number of other cheaper programs, some of which are free. I’m betting most if not all of the other adobe file formats can similarly be opened by other programs, I’m just not as familiar with them.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@Eolirin: photoshop runs BETTER on macs. most adobe programs do.
i use cs4 on a win 10 lenovo laptop. no problems here. clearly i shouldn’t upgrade.
TriassicSands
@leeleeFL:
As always, MS made changes that weren’t necessary, but require figuring out where things are now. The biggest reason to upgrade to 11 is the support period. Windows 10, unless MS has changed it, gets support until October 14, 2025. Windows 11 should be supported until sometime in 2031 or 2032. I haven’t seen a final date yet.
At this point my OS needs are quite simple and there is not advantage for me, that I’ve found, for 11 over 10. If you’re buying a new computer it makes sense to go with 11. All computers that run 10 won’t necessarily run 11, which is typical of new releases. So, if you’re not ready to buy a new computer, then you may as well stick with 10 and get a new computer before the support ends in 2025.
The fact that support ends doesn’t mean the OS won’t work, it just means there probably won’t be further security updates, which will make your computer less safe.
leeleeFL
@TriassicSands: Thank you! I am not f;uent in geek-speak, but all that made sense. Food for thought.
Jimmiraybob
I have to disagree. In this update of the passion play Trump is Jesus and DeSantis is Judas. I’m surprised that the Donald hasn’t started calling him Judas to cement his cult’s loyalty.