Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come on, man.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

“But what about the lurkers?”

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

When I was faster i was always behind.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Blast Crater (Open Thread)

Blast Crater (Open Thread)

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Item from Rolling Stone:

FLORIDA GOV. RON DeSantis (R-FL) signed a bill regarding spaceflight on Thursday just one day after he announced his presidential run in a glitch-filled interview with Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces.

DeSantis signed into law CS/SB 1318 – Spaceflight Entity Liability along with 27 other bills. The law exempts “spaceflight entity from liability for injury to or death of a crew resulting from spaceflight activities under certain circumstances.” The measure also requires “a spaceflight entity to have a crew sign a specified warning statement.”

Florida is a known launching point for SpaceX aircrafts, and the new law could potentially shield Musk and other space flight companies from being sued for accidents that injure or kill crew members.

Cynics might think it’s a quid pro quo arrangement. But if DeSantis wanted to give Musk something in return for the botched campaign rollout that is commensurate with its value, he would have signed a bill empowering lawyers to seek quadruple damages for space flight-related injuries.

Also, instead of compelling Floridians to return space junk that lands in their yards, the governor might consider compelling space flight companies to reimburse citizens for any rocket parts found — and require that payment be rendered in Krugerrands equal to the weight of the space junk.

For more on the DeSantis – Musk launch debacle, please see Alexandra Petri’s review in The Post — gift link here. An excerpt:

That is to say, THE IDEAL PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCH! Peak performance! Nothing about this was bad. Objectively. I cannot think of a better way to launch any kind of campaign, short of crashing through a window wearing only a bathrobe (on fire) and immediately being swallowed by an alligator. Well, maybe you could also be suing Disney for unclear reasons.

She’s wrong about one thing — alligators don’t immediately swallow prey. They tend to drag it around in the water for a while and masticate it thoroughly before swallowing it. But other than that, Petri is spot on.

Open thread!

(Thanks to Mr. Bemused Senior in the thread downstairs for the heads up on the Petri column.)

Reader Interactions

207Comments

  1. 1.

    Kay

    It must be so embarrasing for the free speech warriors and anti woke crusaders that their hero is a just a standard issue, bitter, middle aged wingut who is aging badly.

    Corrupt too! But of course he is.

    Rupert Murdoch, but dumber and less competent.

  2. 2.

    Ohio Mom

    I didn’t know that about alligators, I learn so much from this blog.

    I guess I could goggle this, when does DeSantis’ term end and is he going to be re-elected? Does anyone keep a list of worst governors, and if so, is there anyone higher on the list?

  4. 4.

    Scout211

    Ms. Petri has all the best words. Thanks for the gifty-linky.

    Calling Wednesday night’s event “the most awkward telemeeting of your life” does not do the awkwardness justice. It was one of those calls where you both keep talking at the same time and then stopping. It was a butt dial from your mother. It was the voice broadcast equivalent of a car spontaneously bursting into flames — something with which I guess co-host Musk has some experience.

  5. 5.

    twbrandt

    Speaking of Musk, a huge leak of thousands of safety complaints to Tesla was published by a German publication. Inter alia, Tesla employees were told to respond verbally to customer complaints and not to write anything down. (Note that some of the complaints are hard to parse because they were machine translated from English to German and back to English.)

  6. 6.

    Old School

    I’m enjoying picturing the debate that went into this revision:

    2. Has actual knowledge or reasonably should have known of
    54 an extraordinarily a dangerous condition that is not inherent in
    55 on the land or in the facilities or equipment used in the
    56 spaceflight activities and the danger proximately causes injury,
    57 damage, or death to the participant or crew; or

  8. 8.

    Roger Moore

    @Ohio Mom:

    I guess I could goggle this, when does DeSantis’ term end and is he going to be re-elected?

    His term ends in 2026, and he can’t run for reelection immediately because of term limits.  That may be part of the reason he’s being so aggressive in pursuing national ambitions at the expense of his state.  He can’t realistically run for senator- both Scott and Rubio have strong enough locks on their offices that a primary challenge doesn’t make sense- and anything less would be a big step down.

  10. 10.

    Leto

    @Ohio Mom: Idk, all red state governors are giving it their best. He just happens to have an entire co-equal branch willing to do anything he says. He says jump, they’re already 10ft in the air and asking how high. But several other shithole states are right on their heels.

  12. 12.

    Scout211

    Glitch-filled announcement aside, DeSantis’ campaign says he raised $8.2M in the first 24 hours.

    So he can raise money. I think that shoots him all the way up to second place in the GOP sweepstakes. But the leader of the pack has already lapped him multiple times. LOL

  13. 13.

    Betty Cracker

    @Ohio Mom: It’ll be interesting to see what the putz does next if he washes out of the 2024 presidential primary. He’ll be termed out as gov in 2026. Marco Rubio’s seat will be up for grabs in 2028; maybe he’ll primary Lil Marco or run for POTUS again.

    @Roger Moore: There’s bad blood between DeSantis and Scott, but the timing isn’t right. I wouldn’t put it past him to primary Rubio, whom Repubs believe (rightly) is a squish.

  15. 15.

    Delk

    Pus-cow got into a Twitter fight with a 16 year old trump fan.

    “How much of the $1M DeStablishment raised yesterday will go towards your Botox?”

  16. 16.

    Shalimar

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t think Ron liked his time in the House, so I can’t see him wanting Rubio’s job.  His preferred options are national dictator or state dictator.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    @Shalimar:

    Term limits can be changed, and DeSantis has a captive legislature.

    The term limits are in the state constitution, which the state legislature can’t amend on its own.  It can propose amendments, but they have to be passed by a 60% popular vote.  I don’t think DeSantis is going to manage that one.

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    @Shalimar: Agreed, but his options will be limited if he doesn’t win the GOP nomination and (dog forbid!) presidency. He’s in his mid-40s, so he can keep running for president for the next four decades, but he needs a perch from which to stay relevant. The gubernatorial term limit is in the state constitution. I could see him being a senator in the mold of Ted Cruz — an asshole nobody likes, even in his own party — who grandstands all the time instead of working with others to pass legislation.

  21. 21.

    Ocotillo

    @Ohio Mom:

    Does anyone keep a list of worst governors, and if so, is there anyone higher on the list?

    Texas says, hold my beer.

  22. 22.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Roger Moore:

    His term ends in 2026, and he can’t run for reelection immediately because of term limits.  That may be part of the reason he’s being so aggressive in pursuing national ambitions at the expense of his state.

    That may also be why he has only weakly bashed Trump. If he loses the primary, he’s going to want a prestigious job in the Trump administration.

  23. 23.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Speaking of Musk and disasters, you’ll be shocked, shocked, to find out that DeSantis’ Twitter fiasco was due to lack of employees.

    Perhaps the most important thing to know about Spaces’ technical problems: over the past several months Musk cut the Spaces team, which once numbered as many as 100 employees, down to roughly three people. For months now, the Spaces team has been operating without most of the institutional knowledge it accumulated since Twitter added live audio conversations in 2021 to compete with then-hot Clubhouse.

  24. 24.

    trollhattan

    Failure to launch fatality count begins.

    An engineering chief at Twitter says he is leaving the company a day after the launch of Ron DeSantis’ US presidential campaign on the platform was hit with technical glitches.

    Foad Dabiri tweeted: “After almost four incredible years at Twitter, I decided to leave the nest yesterday.”

    Mr DeSantis’ entry into the race for the White House was hit by problems as a Twitter livestream malfunctioned. More than 80% of the firm’s workforce has been cut since Mr Musk bought it.

    Mr Dabiri did not specify why he had decided to leave Twitter or whether it was related to the problems with the DeSantis event on the platform. He did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment. Twitter did not provide a statement on Mr Dabiri’s exit when approached by the BBC.

    Mr Dabiri, who was the engineering lead for Twitter’s Growth organisation, said in a tweet he had “experienced two distinct eras” at the company, before and after it was acquired by the multi-billionaire last year.

    In another post, Mr Dabiri said the transition into Twitter’s “2.0” was “massive and rapid”. He added: “To say it was challenging at the outset would be an understatement.”
     

  26. 26.

    Citizen Alan

    In other, more personal, news, I just got back from Fresno and so far I love the city. I have narrowed my apartment choices down to two options. They are both close to equal in my eyes. One has a slightly larger kitchen and an attached garage. The other has a slightly smaller kitchen but one better laid out and a gas stove! It also has a larger and more functional patio. (Though, weirdly, neither has a patio that connects to the kitchen–one connects to the living room and the other two both bedrooms–which complicates my plans for an herb garden.

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    @Citizen Alan: Sounds promising! I trust you like heat. :-)

    My sole recommendation is to ascertain you’re not moving into the San Joaquin floodplain, Fresno has a history of floods in wet years.

    Good luck!

  29. 29.

    oatler

    DeSantis will flame out Mussolini-style if he relies on ‘roids and coke  to incite  Florida Man towards domestic terrorism.

  30. 30.

    Stuart Frasier

    @Citizen Alan: Gas stoves are bad for your health.  They’re worse in every way than induction at this point anyway.  Slower and less precise.  But more importantly, they spew combustion byproducts when running and slowly leak methane into the air you breathe when they’re not.

  33. 33.

    Stuart Frasier

    @trollhattan: Yeah, if the hood is present and actually installed properly.  And that doesn’t do anything for the slow leaks when it’s off.

  35. 35.

    trollhattan

    Things that make your blood boil, Chapter the Infinity.

    More than 70 California law enforcement agencies are violating state law by sharing automated license plate reader (ALPR) data with out-of-state agencies, putting out-of-state abortion seekers at risk, according to a trio of civil rights groups.

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union chapters for both Northern and Southern California sent letters to 71 agencies — including the Folsom Police Department — giving them a June 15 deadline to stop sharing license plate data with states that criminalize abortion. Through several public records requests, the EFF found that the listed law enforcement agencies shared license plate data with out-of-state agencies — sensitive information about where people live, work or seek reproductive health services and other medical care.

    “ALPRs invade people’s privacy and violate the rights of entire communities, as they often are deployed in poor and historically overpoliced areas regardless of crime rates,” EFF staff attorney Jennifer Pinsof said in a statement. “Sharing ALPR data with law enforcement in states that criminalize abortion undermines California’s extensive efforts to protect reproductive health privacy.”

    Pinsof was referring to AB 1242, a 2022 California law aimed at protecting out-of-state abortion-seekers from criminal reprisal from their home states. “Idaho, for example, has enacted a law that makes helping a pregnant minor get an abortion in another state punishable by two to five years in prison,” according to an EFF statement. “The agencies that received the demand letters have shared ALPR data with law enforcement agencies across the country, including agencies in states with abortion restrictions including Alabama, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.”

    In addition to the Folsom Police Department, law enforcement agencies on the list include ones in Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Humboldt, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Merced, Orange, Placer, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Solano, Ventura and Yolo counties. A representative for the Folsom Police Department has not responded to a Bee request for comment. [Wonder why? Folsom is a very tony Sac suburb and yes, the prison gets the name from the town.]

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article275795726.html#storylink=cpy

  38. 38.

    GoBlueInOak

    As long as the Berchtesgaden (but for Seniors) – AKA The Villages – keeps expanding and adding new bitter Fox News addicts to the voter rolls, De Santis is secure.

  39. 39.

    Brachiator

    DeSantis signed into law CS/SB 1318 – Spaceflight Entity Liability along with 27 other bills.

    The space liability crap makes me wonder about the other bills.

  40. 40.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Roger Moore: He seems like the type who will seek and get removal of the governor’s term limit if he doesn’t become President. Because if he stops being governor, he’s probably not going to be President later.

  41. 41.

    Scout211

    @Citizen Alan: Congratulations! I have family in Fresno and have always liked it. But I did spend my whole adult life until retirement in Stockton so I am familiar with and have always been very okay with living in the Central Valley.

    Welcome to California!

  42. 42.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Roger Moore:

    The term limits are in the state constitution, which the state legislature can’t amend on its own.  It can propose amendments, but they have to be passed by a 60% popular vote.  I don’t think DeSantis is going to manage that one.

    Florida seems like it’s moving toward the sort of regime where the leader wins with 99.97% of the vote.

  43. 43.

    James E Powell

    Not one member of the political press feels the least bit bad about making this asshole DeSantis a national political star.

  44. 44.

    Almost Retired

    Oh my.  Now DeSantis is dangling pardons for January 6 insurrectionists.

    Does this guy get up every morning and mutter his daily affirmation into the mirror “How can I be a bigger asshole today?”

  45. 45.

    Roger Moore

    @Betty Cracker:

    He’s in his mid-40s, so he can keep running for president for the next four decades, but he needs a perch from which to stay relevant.

    It seems to me that the chances of the candidacy actually turning into anything decline pretty quickly after the first few tries.  You can gain a national profile by running, but if you don’t turn it into a nomination fairly quickly you’re going to get loser stink all over yourself.  Joe Biden managed to get the nomination after a bunch of tries, but he had the Vice Presidency as a springboard.  Also, too, he was a Democrat, and I think the rules for Democrats are a bit different.  In any case, if Ron doesn’t get the nomination in 2024 or 2028, I think he’s very unlikely to win from 2032 on.

  46. 46.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    Frankensteinbeck:

    I am impressed by the sheer blatancy of this corruption.  Usually they try to hide it a little.

    Not anymore. Every Republican is corrupt now.

    The only way for to truly impress GOP donors and voters, nowadays, is if the Repubican is openly corrupt and can still get away with it.

    In other words, they all want to be Trump now.

  47. 47.

    trollhattan

    @Matt McIrvin: Trump is a Hitler-Mussolini fan while DeSantis seems more Putin-adjacent. I can easily see him making it a felony to criticize DeSantis or his initiatives, and handing out eight-year prison sentences to violators. Like, before the year is out.

    e.g., Do not call the Special Military Operation versus the gheys a “War.” Anybody observing a violation is encouraged to call 1-800-RAT-M-OUT. $1,000 reward for each conviction.

  48. 48.

    Shalimar

    @Roger Moore: It was only changed to 60% a few decades ago.   They tried to change it to 2/3rds last year but failed.  If Republicans really want DeSantis to stick around,  they can try to lower the threshold before an amendment on term limits.  Or they can obfuscate the language on the amendment so it sounds appealing to enough voters.  Voters have the last say, but the amendment will be on the ballot next year if DeSantis flames out in the presidential primaries and wants to continue as governor.

  49. 49.

    Roger Moore

    @Stuart Frasier:

    Gas stoves are bad for your health. They’re worse in every way than induction at this point anyway.

    Gas stoves still have one thing in their favor over induction, which is their flexibility in what kind of cookware you can use.  If you really want to keep using aluminum or glass-ceramic cookware, or if you want to be able to use a traditional wok or waffle iron, induction won’t do the job.  IMO it’s a small enough advantage that it really isn’t worth worrying about, but it is one way gas is better.

    ETA: You’ll get my induction range when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. Or if you manage to come up with something better, like an induction range that works with any metallic pot.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    Today in FAFO, Oath Keeper Jessica Watkins gets 8.5 years in prison. Excerpt from CNN:

    “I was just another idiot running around the hallway,” Watkins told the court before the sentence was handed down Friday. “But idiots are responsible, and today you are going to hold this idiot responsible…”

    “Nobody would suggest you are Stewart Rhodes, and I don’t think you are Kelly Meggs,” [Judge] Mehta told Watkins on Friday. “But your role in those events is more than that of just a foot soldier. I think you can appreciate that…”

    “Your story itself shows a great deal of courage and resilience,” Mehta said. “You have overcome a lot, and you are to be held out as someone who can actually be a role model for other people in that journey. And I say that at a time when people who are trans in our country are so often vilified and used for political purposes.”

    Kelly Meggs, the seditionist who lived in a town near me until he became a guest of the feds, got 12 years. His wife Connie was convicted of the same charges as Watkins and is due to be sentenced soon. Maybe she’ll get 8 years too. That’s a good long time to reflect upon one’s stupidity.

  51. 51.

    CaseyL

    @Roger Moore: Depends on where we are as a country by 2028, 2032.

    If the GOP ever gets unified rule, there may come a time when “competent” tyranny looks pretty good.

  52. 52.

    Scout211

    I know this is petty but The Guardian posted a Don, jr gaffe that made me laugh.  At him, not with him, to be clear. (Bold added)

     

    He was briefly silent after his gaffe on Thursday night.

    He had just said: “Once you actually put out the facts I think a different image is going to emerge,” he said. “Ron wants people to think that he’s like ‘Trump-lite’ or something like that. He’s not, either on policy grounds or personality.

    “Trump has the charisma of a mortician, and the energy that makes Jeb Bush look an Olympian.”

    After a short pause, and without correcting himself, Trump Jr continued: “The policies of a DC swamp rat because we’ve seen … the flip-flops, right?”

  53. 53.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @trollhattan: It can apply to both water heaters and furnaces/boilers. I just had an energy audit and the guy who performed it had a methane sniffer and found a leak in my water heater. It wasn’t a big enough leak to be a safety hazard and I’d already scheduled to have the water heater replaced with a hybrid electric (heat pump) water heater as it was 15 years old an on borrowed time. We replaced our gas stove with an electric induction one and I can’t say enough good things about induction cooktops. They are fantastic.

  54. 54.

    FelonyGovt

    @Citizen Alan: Welcome to California! Fresno is a lovely little town.

    ETA the new Florida law is so clearly a gift from Puddin’ Boots to his new BFF it would be embarrassing if he had any capacity for embarrassment.

  55. 55.

    BC in Illinois

    @Scout211:

    Yes! Ms. Petri has all the best words.

    Usually when Musk has a launch go this badly, somebody could get hurt, and the people nearby have to deal with smoldering debris. At least that did not happen here. It was like an experimental high-concept symphony: governor and billionaire, silent for 20 minutes, with hold music.

  56. 56.

    Another Scott

    @Roger Moore: You just need an RF Induction Cooktop.

    Which doesn’t exist, AFAIK. Probably some cost or safety issues involved.

    Let’s see… Wikipedia:

    In 2009 Panasonic developed an all-metal induction cooker that used frequencies up to 120 kHz,[28] three to five times higher than other cooktops, to work with non-ferrous metal cookware.

    As higher-frequency power electronics gets cheaper, one might expect to see these things revisited. Maybe!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  57. 57.

    patrick II

    @trollhattan:

    Viktor Orban, president of Hungary, is DeSantis’ role model — turning a democracy into a dictatorship by slowly strangling its democratic institutions and subverting its educational system but leaving a democratic carpace in place for show.

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    Rupert Murdoch, but much dumber and much less competent.

    And I don’t think at all highly of rupert. I’ll have to borrow a bucket crane to dig down deep enough to find the level of how high I think of dear old rupert. I wonder if a bucket crane can dig that deep….

  63. 63.

    Stuart Frasier

    @trollhattan: Not just poorly made stoves.

    https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.1c04707

    “We also tested potential relationships among emissions and age, purchase price, and average income levels of where the stoves were located. For the stoves in our dataset with a known manufacturing date, we found no evidence of a relationship between either the age of the stove or purchase price of the stove with methane emissions nor with NOx emissions normalized by burner energy (Figures S8 and S9; p values all >0.5).”

  66. 66.

    Another Scott

    @Hungry Joe: I was looking a year or two ago.  The reviews are crazy.  People saying they’re the best things ever!!; people saying they broke in a week and it’s impossible to get parts and service and it’s the worst thing they’ve ever experienced in their entire lives!!1

    :-/

    Dunno.

    Maybe don’t read the reviews.  ;-)

    Presumably things are better now that the pandemic and supply chain issues are winding down.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  67. 67.

    Roger Moore

    @Another Scott:

    Probably some cost or safety issues involved.

    I assume there are some issues with the frequency of the induction range and radio.  The induction range is designed to radiate at least into the pot, and it’s putting out a lot of power.  If you have even minor leakage, you could cause some serious interference on the same frequencies, so you’d want to be careful to select a band that isn’t used for anything important.

  68. 68.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Betty Cracker:

    Marco Rubio’s seat will be up for grabs in 2028; maybe he’ll primary Lil Marco or run for POTUS again. 

    When is Batboy up for reelection continuing to fuck up Florida at the national level?

  70. 70.

    Betty Cracker

    @mrmoshpotato: Next year! Maybe Charlie Crist will be ready for another go… (I keed!) Seriously, we gotta find someone to take out Navy-Hat Nosferatu. But like Trollhattan accurately and hilariously noted, our damn bench is so small someone made off with it for their Barbie Dream House

    @trollhattan: Mattson was right: a tribute band! 

  71. 71.

    trollhattan

    @Roger Moore: Hadn’t considered it but you’d need FCC certification to sell such a device, meaning shielding or filtering RFI/EMI.

    Once bought a touch dimmer to use with standard lights, and it made a.m. and shortwave unlistenable throughout the house. You never know.

  72. 72.

    Roger Moore

    @Hungry Joe:

    I got mine more than a decade ago, so I don’t know what’s current.  I got a GE Profile, but it looks like they no longer sell free-standing induction ranges, only slide-in models.  I would probably look at Samsung and LG, who generally seem to have the cost/function tradeoff that’s right for me.

  74. 74.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Betty Cracker:

    Today in FAFO, Oath Keeper Jessica Watkins gets 8.5 years in prison. 

    Kelly Meggs, the seditionist who lived in a town near me until he became a guest of the feds, got 12 years. His wife Connie was convicted of the same charges as Watkins and is due to be sentenced soon.

    🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

    Hooray for Lady Justice landing a right hook to the fucking fascist faces of Trump trash!

  77. 77.

    Hungry Joe

    @Another Scott: Exactly. We see one that looks good — and then we come across the Horror Reviews. It’s driving us mad, I tell you, MAD! We upgraded our wiring, doubled our solar panels, replaced a gas water heater with electric, will replace our gas furnace with a heat-pump furnace in the fall, and made the painful decision to ditch our magnificent 1936 Gaffers & Sattler gas range. But all the induction ranges seem to have asterisks attached. In the end we’ll probably just roll the dice.

  79. 79.

    Citizen Alan

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    I should clarify that the apartment with the electric cooktop is not induction. My choice is between a gas stove and a traditional 4-element coil top. If that matters. I’m to the point of trying to measure the rooms on the floorplans they’ve each sent me to determine which one works best with my weirdly shaped bedroom suite and whether it’s worth it to bring the treadmill I never use but can’t seem to sell (both apartments have 24-hour workout centers anyway).

  80. 80.

    Scout211

    A big sigh of relief for the doctor in Indiana who was charged with violating privacy laws and other charges after she revealed she performed an abortion on the 10 year old from Ohio. Link

    An Indianapolis doctor who publicly revealed she provided abortion services to a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim last year has been reprimanded and fined by Indiana’s medical licensing board after it determined the disclosure violated federal and state patient privacy laws.

    The board on Thursday found Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist, liable on three counts of violating patient privacy laws after Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita filed a complaintagainst the doctor in November.

    However, the board dismissed two other allegations in the complaint, determining she did not violate laws requiring physicians to immediately report suspected child abuse and keep abreast of mandatory reporting and patient privacy laws.

    Bernard will be fined $3,000 and receive a letter of reprimand, according to the board, which agreed to allow her to continue practicing medicine.

  82. 82.

    Citizen Alan

    @Jackie: Lol. They both have enclosed garages! It’s just a question of whether I want to walk straight out of my car through a door into the utility room or whether I’m okay to walk out of my garage and 20 feet across the lot to my front door just to get a slightly larger porch and a slightly more conveniently laid-out master bedroom!

  83. 83.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I’d make an excellent absolute monarch if someone appointed me to the job, but I’d be a terrible candidate for office.

    @Geminid: Murphy might be a good fit if the state is willing to consider a sane person. She has a record as a moderate, a Central FL power base, comes across as smart and personable, has a strong anti-commie immigrant story that might resonate here.

    Have you heard anything recently that makes you think she’s still interested in politics? Sometimes people just get fed up. I hope that’s not her.

  84. 84.

    Citizen Alan

    @zhena gogolia: Yep. On my trip out there earlier this week, I also got to have dinner with the guy I’m replacing. Apparently, my boss is mildly conservative, but his secretary is hard right bordering on MAGA, so I’ll have to watch out for that. My predecessor jokingly confessed that in college he was a Randian, but then, he had a moment of clarity and is now a liberal Democrat! We had a great discussion over Ethiopian food, which he’d never had but now loves.

  85. 85.

    Jackie

    @Citizen Alan: Put the treadmill on the sidewalk. It’ll stop being your PITA immediately! Why lug something along that’s bulky and you don’t use?

  87. 87.

    Citizen Alan

    @Jackie: Honestly, I only kept it out of stubbornness. I impulsively bought it on sale for $1700 during Covid because I couldn’t get to the gym I didn’t go to anyway.  And now, I can’t bring myself to sell it for less than $1000. :)

  88. 88.

    Jackie

    @Citizen Alan: Lugging groceries straight into the house would be my choice😉

    But, I’m not you, and just happy you’re getting out of MS!

    eta correct state soon to be ditched.

  90. 90.

    Citizen Alan

    @narya: It’s not even that much smaller, just a foot or so. but it makes up for it with a pantry! And the smaller kitchen may have a better layout over all. Gah! I can’t believe I’m obsessing over minute differences in apartments when (if all works out with the job) I’ll be buying a house in a year

    (They have Craftsman homes in the Tower district going for $350k!)

  91. 91.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: I haven’t heard anything about Murphy and the Senate race. I remember reports that she considered running for Governor in the last cycle. Murphy is young, and I expect she still wants a career in politics. She may look at polling to see if she has a chance against Scott next year.

  92. 92.

    MrKite

    @Betty Cracker: If you just wait until DeSantis successfully installs the dictatorship the fascists desire in Florida, a simple coup can install you as Florida’s first benevolent dictator. I’d be for it, if only because the decrees would be so well-written and fun to read.

  93. 93.

    NotMax

    @Citizen Alan

    What follows is entirely IMHO.

    So far as a kitchen is concerned, gas vs. electric really oughtn’t be much a concern for a single dude unless you’re in the habit of preparing multi-course meals regularly and/or plan on doing a lot of entertaining . I’d be looking at size and placement of refrigerator and even more at how much counter space there is and how many cabinets there are. Also whether there’s a dishwasher.

    Too, in these days of electronics, number and placement of wall outlets throughout the apartment. Also, if there is a substantial difference between them in closet space, award many extra points for the unit with more.

    Both places come equipped with washer and dryer? Both have broadband connectivity?

    Probably not coming into play but will mention scoping out what’s across the street/in the immediate neighborhood. If something like a bustling nightclub, consider traffic and noise.

    (Speaking as an old, in full agreement with Jackie above when it comes to anticipating hauling groceries.)

  94. 94.

    narya

    @Citizen Alan: Kitchen layout is everydamnthing if you like to cook. And a pantry! Damn. $350k for a Craftsman? WTAF; that’s awesome. But if you end up not being ready/able to buy in a year, you’ll be happier in an interim place that is functional for you. Also, you’re obsessing over these details because that’s way easier than obsessing over Big Things. :-)

  95. 95.

    Roger Moore

    @Citizen Alan:

    The less time you plan on spending there, the less you should stress about minor details. The only other thing you might want to think about is any difference in the environment.  Is one in a neighborhood that appeals to you more for some reason, or is it closer to amenities you’ll like to use?  In general, though, not being able to pick between two nice places you can easily afford is a good problem to have.

  96. 96.

    cain

    @Shalimar: I’m sure he’s enjoying being a totalitarian play dictator of Florida – he’s got a legislature and the judicial branch under his sway. He can sign into law whatever he want – the legislature seems to be willing to do whatever he asks.

    I’m not sure what the value prop is for the legislature other than owning the libs. I mean, the GOP is all about grifting so I’m trying to figure out what the money angle is for the florida legislature.

    In any case, it will eventually come to a head because he’s pretty much politicizing everything.

  97. 97.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: Could be interesting! Scott is a fascinating case because he’s an oddball with zero charisma who is absolutely terrible at public speaking — the worst I’ve seen of any politician, ever. He makes Ron DeSantis look like Cicero!

    Despite hating Scott’s guts, I find myself so embarrassed for him when he’s on a debate stage or delivering a speech because he’s awful. It’s a strange feeling because of course I want him to fail, but I am also a human being, so the suffering pains me, LOL! 

    Every time he runs, I’m hopeful that he’ll draw a strong opponent because I think he’s vulnerable, but no luck so far. Bill Nelson was stronger than the previous two opponents, but Nelson was so past his sell-by date, which Scott exploited ably. I don’t see any glaring deficits in Murphy that Scott could exploit, though I haven’t followed her career all that closely.

  100. 100.

    Betty Cracker

    @MrKite: Good point — a coup could be my ticket to power! ;-)

    @cain: Some statehouse grifters have secured huge paydays from DeSantis (he made it rain this year for edu-grifters in particular), but the motives for others are less clear. I am confident there’s massive corruption we don’t know about. Yet. Republicans have been in power since the 1990s.

  103. 103.

    zhena gogolia

    @Alison Rose: What is Graham babbling about? “There was a time in America when we were — ???” Is he talking about the American revolution? Or whut?

  105. 105.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: If she ran, Stephanie Murphy would probably raise decent money nationally. Her stint on the January 6 Committee put her on the Democratic map.

    One of Speaker Pelosi’s key roles was selecting members for the two Impeachment manager teams and the J6 Committee. Impeachment Managers Val Demings, Joe Neguse, Jaime Raskin, Stacy Plaskett and others got to show their stuff before a national audience. A lot of people also got to see Hakeem Jeffries in action for the first time.

    Raskin was back for the J6 Committee, where Stephanie Murphy, Pete Aguilar and Elaine Luria also got good exposure in hearings watched by a lot of Democrats.

  106. 106.

    Betty Cracker

    @Alison Rose: I got mesmerized by the video below the one with Graham, which featured a woman making nachos with approximately 15 lbs. of cheese. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that, though I object to canned cheese in general.)

  108. 108.

    Alison Rose

    @Betty Cracker: LOL at first I was so confused, I was like “why did Zelenskyy post that???” Then I realized you meant the suggested random videos FB shows.

    I too object to canned cheese. I also object to 15 pounds of any kind of cheese, being someone who can only take dairy in small amounts.

  109. 109.

    Ohio Mom

    Off topic announcement: I just came back after running errands and can report all Pride Month merch is still prominently displayed at the front of the Blue Ash, Cincinnati store.

    Looks no different than it did earlier in the week, before Target said they would move/remove the displays to protect their staff.

    Some of it is quite cute. It includes clothing and party supplies (disposable table cloths, paper plates, etc.)

    I did not see any “tuck-able” bathing suits, the bathing suits were across the aisle in a crowded jumble, had no interest in pawing through it. I already have one bathing suit and that’s all I need.

    Everyone can chill out and go back to spending too much money at Target.

  116. 116.

    Ohio Mom

    @Citizen Alan: I think it is silly to move a treadmill, it’s not like it has deep sentimental value or is irreplaceable.

    You can always get another one with the money you will be saving by not paying movers to lug it across the country.

    Give it to a thrift store (hopefully one that does pick-ups) — I see treadmills at most of my local ones — and don’t look back. Not worth the effort.

  121. 121.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Ohio Mom: no sentimental value in a treadmill??

    “Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.

    “Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

    “And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”

    “They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”

    “The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.

    “Both very busy, sir.”

    “Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it.”

  122. 122.

    Ohio Mom

    @Citizen Alan: Ohio Dad spent the last decades of his engineering career surrounded by right-wing nut jobs and they never suspected he wasn’t one of them, so it can be done.

    It wasnt easy and it was a source of continual stress, but he got the last laugh — how stupid were they, very!

  123. 123.

    db11

    @Citizen Alan: I would also pay attention to fenestration / orientation: how much natural light streams into each room and from what direction .

    If there is a significant difference between the two options in that respect, it would be enough to sway my choice.

  129. 129.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

     I wonder if Grothman can tell us what percentage of current federal judges are “white guys.” Somehow, I doubt that figure would be smaller than their percentage of the population.

    That is irrelevant to guys like Grothman. They think there are more men as federal judges because straight white men are superior, not because everyone else has been systematically discriminated against. They also think everyone else knows this, but is too ‘woke’ to admit it. So if the number of straight white men declines, its because they are unjustly being discriminated against. It would never occur to them to think that if they faced fair competition, there would be much fewer straight white men on the bench.

  130. 130.

    Chris T.

    @Jackie:

    @Citizen Alan: I’d choose the garage! Extra storage and protection from car prowlers.

    I would too. Garages are not as important in most of California as they are in places that get snow etc., but a garage-kept car stays in so much better shape, and if it’s got an entrance to/from the dwelling, you don’t have to be out in the rain. The storage space is great for stashing Costco toilet paper and other items bought in bulk. (The Spousal Unit here used to eye me suspiciously for my TP-and-paper-towel bulk buy methods, but after the great TP shortage of the Covid Years, is now a believer. 😀)

  132. 132.

    Chris T.

    @Citizen Alan:

    They both have enclosed garages!

    Ah, well, then it’s much more of a toss-up… however, old style electric coil range is terrible. On the third (gripping?) hand, ranges can be upgraded.

  133. 133.

    Scout211

    @Omnes Omnibus: Good!

    trump’s defamation of E Jean Carroll was part of his job as president

    But I had no idea that defamation was part of the job of POTUS. Huh.

  134. 134.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Scout211: The idea is that the President is alway working and is entitled to a presumption that what they say is protected.  Until, like here, it isn’t.  DOJ defended the institutional principle until it was obviously no longer viable.

  139. 139.

    Roger Moore

    @NotMax:

    Velveeta is not cheese.  It isn’t a pasteurized process cheese.  It isn’t even a pasteurized process cheese food.  All of those have legal standards defining what they’re supposed to be, and Velveeta doesn’t measure up.  It’s called “pasteurized prepared cheese product”, which has no legal standard for identity.  I’m actually surprised their macaroni products are even allowed to call themselves mac and cheese.

  140. 140.

    Another Scott

    @Roger Moore: I realized that Velveeta wasn’t cheese when I was at a Kroger’s about 30 years ago and there were about 100 bricks of it stacked up in the aisle on the floor away from the cooled dairy case.

    “Wait a minute, …, Oh!”

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  142. 142.

    eversor

    How is picking a fight with the largest, wealthiest, employer in your state, resulting in job and investment loss, which also happens to be one of, if not the most, beloved companies on the fucking planet, while giving liability cover to a guy who not only rains flaming wreckage from space onto people, but builds exploding self crashing death traps, “governing”.

    Mickey Mouse, bad.  Exploding rockets, good.

    Pushing Disney World out while covering your air space in giant booms is a hell of a thing to do when your state is a tourist state.

  143. 143.

    Chris T.

    Cheese is good. (Well, mostly.) Pasteurized processed cheese food product is … not good. Velveeta, I don’t have a word for, other than scatological.

  144. 144.

    Scout211

    @Another Scott: I realized Velveeta wasn’t cheese when I was shamed by my college roommates, all those decades ago.

    My mother didn’t know how to cook when she first married my father, so she taught herself to cook, the easy way. I had so much to unlearn. LOL.

  145. 145.

    eversor

    @Roger Moore:

    You know the dirty truth about how Philly eats their cheese steaks?  The SO was horrified to learn they just slather cheese whiz on it.

  148. 148.

    Roger Moore

    @Another Scott:

    Interestingly enough, Velveeta was able to survive without refrigeration even back in the days when it was legally classified as a pasteurized process cheese food.  I guess if it were pasteurized and then sealed in the right kind of packaging, it could survive without refrigeration, kind of like MREs.

    Basically, pasteurized process cheese is actually more or less what it sounds like.  You start with one or more kinds of cheese, then blend them together and heat them up to pasteurize them.  It’s not particularly appetizing when you describe it, but it’s more or less recognizable as cheese.  Pasteurized process cheese food is cheese that’s heated up with dairy products and an emulsifier, then cooled back down to become solid again.  It’s perfect for applications where you want something cheesy that will melt really well, since it’s basically congealed cheese sauce.

    Velveeta isn’t either of those things.  It contains some additional ingredients the FDA doesn’t allow, most notably canola oil and modified food starch.  The canola oil is probably added as a cheap alternative to including actual milk fat, and the modified food starch is there to provide body instead of more expensive milk proteins.  IOW, they’re including some cheap ingredients as cheese extenders, which is not allowed if you want to call your product pasteurized process cheese food.

  150. 150.

    Jay

    @eversor:

    Cheese Whiz in Canada is made from cheese.

    In the US it’s an oil byproduct.

    When we go south to visit T’s best friend, ( now in Arizona), we have to bring a case of Canadian Cheese Whiz every time, and the 900gram jars, not the little ones.

  151. 151.

    bbleh

    @Ohio Mom: @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: I haven’t yet figured out whether this whole Target kerfuffle is a win for the Right-Wing Noise Machine or a win for those of us who are more than fed up with the Right-Wing Noise Machine.  Like, the Crazies did their usual mix of victim-wailing and threats of violence (which we made them do, of course), and some stores somewhere (reports were in the South) moved some merch out of what they said — possibly justifiably — were concerns for the physical safety of their staff — and then the whole thing went viral, and most of the reports I saw had a kind of “Jayzus why is this happening?” flavor.  Like, what is wrong with some people?  Hardly a significant sample or an unbiased observer, but if I’m right, it feels like a bewildered form of mild backlash to the Crazies.

  152. 152.

    bbleh

    @Roger Moore: well that’s good, because “pasteurized processed cheese food” sounds extremely appetizing!

    I mean, “cheese food”?  Are there other kinds of cheeses?  (At least originally, before they become doorstops.)  What’s next “milk drink”?  (And yes, McDonalds’s “shakes.”)

    @Jay: In the US it’s an oil byproduct.  So in an emergency, you can run a Diesel engine on it!  One assumes, then, that the price is higher here.

  153. 153.

    Roger Moore

    @eversor:

    The last time I was in Philly, I went with a group of coworkers to Gino’s and Pat’s.  For those who don’t know, they’re two famous cheesesteak places* that are catty corner from each other.  We each got what sounded good to us and then traded tastes to see if we had gotten the right thing.  I was surprised to discover I liked Cheez Whiz better than provolone.

    *I’m sure snobby Philadelphians would come up with some better places to get a cheesesteak, but there seemed to be more locals than tourists there when we went.

  156. 156.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Alison Rose:

    I also object to 15 pounds of any kind of cheese

    I object to 15 pounds of any kind of cheese, and I like buying the 8oz bricks to melt on crackers or just cut a slice and chomp.

  158. 158.

    Roger Moore

    @bbleh:

    I mean, “cheese food”? Are there other kinds of cheeses?

    The idea is that a “cheese food” is a food made with cheese, rather than a cheese.  As I describe above, a pasteurized process cheese is a cheese (or a blend of cheeses) that has been blended and pasteurized.  A pasteurized process cheese food is basically a cheese sauce (made from cheese, other dairy products, and emulsifier) that’s been cooled down to become a solid again.  It sounds like some ultra-processed food that could only come from a factory, but you can actually make it in your kitchen with not terribly exotic or nasty ingredients.  It’s maybe not the healthiest food, but that’s because cheese isn’t necessarily the healthiest food.

  159. 159.

    MattF

    Story is that there was a contest in Wisconsin for a state license plate motto— favorite entry was ‘Eat Cheese Or Die’.

  162. 162.

    Jay

    @bbleh:  it’s a bit thick, clogs up the injectors and get’s thicker in cold weather, but yeah, it will burn.

    Boy’s trip, 30 years ago or more, cold, wet, by a high altitude lake, no dry wood, even in the slash pile, we couldn’t get a fire started,

    until we used the KFC bucket from the road food to start the fire. Man that thing burned bright.

  164. 164.

    narya

    @Roger Moore: Jim’s Steaks, on South Street, FTW, though it looks like they had a fire last summer and are still rebuilding. I lived about a block from there, on the little bit of Passyunk that ends at South Street, in 1986

    ETA: at home I make venison cheese steaks with camembert. Don’t tell anyone.

  165. 165.

    ColoradoGuy

    What astounds me is the Florida Legislature. The GOP has successful re-created the Soviet Communist Party, right down to the Party Line zig-zagging around completely imaginary issues, and the legislature voting in 100% lock-step with the daily whims and fantasies of the Party Leader.

    All pretense of a representative government completely gone … just an unending stage performance. What’s equally remarkable is the collapse of the opposition party, with the fortunate exception of a few cities.

  166. 166.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Hungry Joe: I got the Frigidaire one (retails for a little over $1,000) 4 burner rang with oven a little less than 2 years ago (back then it was a little under $1,000). It has worked out great. Everything else I could find on the US market with an induction cooktop was twice the price or more so I was a little worried there’d be a catch. But so far it’s been a quality appliance.

  168. 168.

    Math Guy

    I started reading the most recent comments first, working back. Wow! From cheese to failed rocket launches – who could’ve guessed?

  170. 170.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Citizen Alan: Yeah but the wiring for induction is done, though if you’re renting I guess replacing an appliance isn’t probably an option.

  171. 171.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jay: Nacho cheese Doritos will also hold a flame.  If you drop some on the ground while camping, in the fire they go.

  172. 172.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Citizen Alan: Also I wouldn’t worry too much about the health impact of gas if as I read down thread further it looks like you probably won’t be in this place that long.

  173. 173.

    eversor

    @Roger Moore:

    Not from Philly but been there a lot and those are not viewed as the best by locals (I like Delassandros personally).   But that’s a mix of there simply being so many good places for a cheese steak there it’s always going to cause an argument and the locals (like locals in most cities) being actively hostile to anything that draws tourists due to being annoyed with them.

    As someone from DC I get out.  Our native (heart attack for cheap) dish is a half smoke.  Which is a half pork half beef sausage that’s kinda hotdogish in the finishing of it.  It’s served on a bun with chili and mustard, common to ask for onions and cheese as well.  It’s exactly as tasty and gloriously unhealthy as it sounds.  All the tourists here go to Ben’s Chili Bowl for it.  Largely because the civil rights movement, riots, various presidents, various famous celeberties made it famous.  But it’s not the originator of the dish, and plenty of places can be easily argued better.  Still you get your monies worth there.

    We also have mumbo sauce here which isn’t really a thing as a huge variety of concotions people whip up and call mumbo sauce.  So plenty of people buy “DC mumbo sauce” online and then get really confused when they get here and ask for it.

  177. 177.

    Suzanne

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    That may also be why he has only weakly bashed Trump. If he loses the primary, he’s going to want a prestigious job in the Trump administration.

     

    I have also had this thought. The most common off-ramps for ex-politicians seem to be lobbying or a university presidency. He seems to not have built a strong network during his time in DC, so I don’t know how lobbying will go for him. And I can’t imagine any university anywhere having him be president. So he doesn’t seem to have great options.

  179. 179.

    Geminid

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Another reason why DeSantis only weakly bashes Trump is that if he beats Trump or Trump drops out, DeSantis will need Trump’s hard core supporters to to win the general election. I expect that is why he promises to pardon the January 6 convicts and Trump himself.

    The last promise also throws some shade. There is an assumption that Trump will in fact be convicted on serious charges and will need a pardon.

  180. 180.

    Cameron

    @Suzanne: If things don’t look so hot for his Presidential ambitions, he can get himself appointed president of one of Florida’s public universities.  Look at how he torpedoed New College.

  181. 181.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Alvin Bragg has a tape (that I assume connects Trump to the evidence or illustrates criminal intent):

    Prosecutors in former President Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal case have released to his attorneys a recording of Trump and a witness, whose identity was not disclosed, according to a document the office made public Friday.

    The document, called an automatic discovery form, describes the nature of the charges against a defendant and a broad overview of the evidence that prosecutors will present at Trump’s preliminary hearing or at trial. Trump’s attorneys and media organizations, including CBS News, had repeatedly requested that such a form be made public in the weeks since Trump’s arrest on April 4.

    Trump is the first former president in American history to face criminal charges. He has entered a not guilty plea to 34 felony counts of falsification of business records for alleged payments made as part of a “hush money” scheme.

    The document lists the dates of 34 instances between Feb. 14, 2017 and Dec. 5, 2017 when he allegedly falsified records.

    In a section devoted to electronic evidence that will be turned over, a prosecutor for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office indicated they have disclosed to the defense a “recording of a conversation between defendant and a witness.”

  183. 183.

    kalakal

    @Suzanne: I’ve been wondering about this. I don’t think the lege will change the term limits, they’re an ambitious set of weasels and want their turn as Gov. One thing that I think will hit his employment prospects is that in 2 years time a lot of the chickens from his misrule will be coming home to roost. He’s so committed to red meat for the yahoos for his presidential bit that he’s seriously screwing up FL’s economy. It won’t be obvious next year to the normies but by 2026 it will be

  185. 185.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    That may also be why he has only weakly bashed Trump.

    I don’t think so, because DeSantis is consistently bad at operating under pressure or dealing with anyone who pushes back against him.  He does a lot of running away.  His lack of people skills or enjoyment of socializing is now well established.  He hasn’t bashed Trump because he’s too weak.  There is no plan behind that weakness, it’s just who he is.  He stumbled into a high profile job where he has no opposition because his legislature loves his culture war bullshit and are happy to nuke their state to own the libs, and he made the mistake of thinking it’s always that easy.

  186. 186.

    KrackenJack

    @Hungry Joe: ​
     I scale the negative reviews based on the item in question. If you look at ice cream makers, for example, the Kitchen Aid is absolute garbage…well, maybe not. It actually requires people to follow the directions. Which they obviously can’t do. It works fine. I can easily imagine people using their aluminum cookware and being unhappy. Plus, they have a bit of a learning curve based on my experience with one in a rental.

  187. 187.

    kalakal

    As it’s an open thread there’s been a really, really big blast either a month or 21 million years ago depending on how you look at

    New Supernova

  189. 189.

    Jay

    @KrackenJack:

    316SS Saladmaster.

    Thought it was all hype.

    Avon like. Slick presentation. They do a thing where they just boil some water in a Saladmaster and a couple of “normal” pots, let it cool down and you get to taste the water.

    Okay, slick.

    We bought a basic set, and once I started cooking with them, love them, care for them like they are my babies, and my buddy Dave, autosearches the web constantly for used Saladmasters.

  190. 190.

    KrackenJack

    @Jay: ​
     I didn’t know that such a thing existed. Took me a minute to understand that it is actually no-added-water pressure cooking. Interesting concept. I like the idea of removable handles. Some of the online reviews make them sound eye-wateringly expensive, though. Maybe that’s another reason to treat them well.

  193. 193.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @UncleEbeneezer: Actually, the tape is most likely a tape that has a conversation between Trump and Michael Cohen, so probably nothing we didn’t already know.  But who knows…

  194. 194.

    Gvg

    @Citizen Alan: do you have a sports equipment store near you? We have a chain that sells used ones and new. Not sure if they are consignment or not but it’s a national chain so I would think they could relocate a good piece of equipment to where there was demand. Something like “play it again” I think

  198. 198.

    bbleh

    @Jay: ya gotta modify the engine to burn vegetable oils, but of course that was the point of the Diesel engine in the first place: it doesn’t require petroleum products.

    And oh yeah, toss a fast-food wrapper into a fire and watch the fun.  Flash-paper burns cleaner and faster, but oh boy those oils.

    Healthy stuff!

  199. 199.

    Ken

    @kalakal: The press release says “a nearby star has exploded.”  You have to love astronomers’ sense of “nearby”.

    @oatler: Probably not. Its galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 7.9, below naked-eye visibility. A supernova will sometimes outshine its parent galaxy, but I don’t think by that much.

  200. 200.

    jonas

    @Jay: ​
      My parents bought a Saladmaster set 45 years ago. Paid a fortune for it at the time, they told me. Still cooks and looks beautiful to this day. Surgical stainless steel.

  202. 202.

    El Muneco

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: The funniest part is that systematic discrimination isn’t even necessarily part of the argument. Straight white dudes are at most 25% of the population. There should not be significantly more representation for _anyone_ – particularly in a job where depth of experience is as important as for a judge – than the general population.

    They don’t see it that way, of course, because white superiority, upper body strength, make the hard decisions yadda yadda yadda, but it’s useful to acknowledge that other than their fee-fees they don’t have any legitimate arguments at all, at all.

  203. 203.

    MarkOneNoseKnows

    @trollhattan: Just because a range is gas doesn’t mean the guy who installed it knew what he was doing. Or cared.

    Some of these guys think there’s no difference between gas-rated ptfe tape and ordinary plumbing ptfe tape. Or they do know but…Not like no one’s gonna know what’s on there when it’s done…

    That’s what you got installing gas ranges.

    And some ranges can leak regardless of a quality conscientious by-the-book install.

    Finally a number of jurisdictions allow internally vented range hoods.

    Yes, it’s terrible for indoor air quality (to say nothing of grease buildup on the walls & ceiling, so easy to repaint) but external vents reduce a builder’s kitchen layout options and profits, and done cheap matches both the builders’ and buyers’ priorities. So you get all the combustion products when it’s on and all of the methane from any leaks on or off.

  204. 204.

    Ruckus

    @Ohio Mom:

    Around me here in SoCal Target is about the best between cost and availability. Now they aren’t a lot cheaper than a number of places but cheaper is cheaper.

  205. 205.

    MarkOneNoseKnows

    @Stuart Frasier: Actually installed properly, so true.

    I have never seen anything but casually joined ductwork in any vent hood once it goes out of sight behind the wall or up in a cabinet or the ceiling, let alone sealed joints. Gaps and joints and misaligned duct sections you can fit a finger between is not really venting outside.

    I also have seen more than a few that don’t actually vent to the outside. Into the attic or the wall cavity or sometimes it just dead ends in the vent hood on the other side of the fan where it never had the sheet metal opening for the duct punched out — typically it’s set up so one can go up from the hood or straight back depending on the best/nearest way to get “out” is. Hey it looks nice and moves air around, the homeowner will never know.

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