Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

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

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

It’s a doggy dog world.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

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

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

The choice is between normal and crazy.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Bill ‘Ever Lower’ Barr Bobs to the Top of the Media Tank, Again

Open Thread: Bill ‘Ever Lower’ Barr Bobs to the Top of the Media Tank, Again

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Bill Barr is an old hand at excusing (and implementing) Republican misconduct, and he’s very good at his job. Were he called upon to justify — to, perhaps, a postmortal tribunal called by the stern Catholic God he very publicly professes — he would no doubt use Thursday’s clips to argue that he was always on the ‘Right’ side of the law, at least nominally. Yet here is how the NYPost perceived his presentation:

… Barr appeared on Fox News and was asked by host Neil Cavuto whether judges handling the 77-year-old former president’s four criminal cases should weigh the upcoming primary elections when scheduling Trump’s trial dates.

Barr insisted that while some accommodations may be appropriate, it would be better for the country to have the cases resolved before voters head to the polls in November 2024…

[Let’s get this efficiently swept under the rug(s), so we can start mournfully accusing the Democrats of ‘bringing up settled cases’… ]

Barr dismissed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump over alleged hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels as “obviously a political hit job” and a “joke” that may not even make it to trial.

He also criticized the most recent indictment against the former president out of Georgia — where Trump faces 13 felony counts related to his alleged efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results — as “too sweeping, much too broad” and “excessive.”

Barr argued that it is unlikely to be tried before the 2024 presidential election and that it makes it “look like people are piling on and being excessive to Trump and feeds the narrative that he’s being victimized.” …

[Hurting women and / or people of color — why is that even illegal? Now, if involved white men or paperwork, it would be serious.

Oops…]

Barr, however, called special counsel Jack Smith’s two federal cases against Trump, related to his alleged mishandling of national security documents and “knowingly false” claims made by the former president in an attempt to stay in power after the 2020 election, “responsible cases” that will make it to trial sooner than the other cases…

“I don’t know of any attorney general who could walk away from it,” he said of the classified documents case. “He’s not being prosecuted for having the documents, he’s being prosecuted for obstruction — two egregious instances are alleged. So I think that’s a very simple case and that should be tried. If the judge is anywhere competent, that can be concluded before the summer.”

Barr added that he believes Trump “crossed the line” after the 2020 election and that his alleged efforts to impanel fake electors in conjunction with demanding that then-Vice President Mike Pence not certify former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory “was a calculated and deceitful plan.”

“I think the chances are that he will be convicted on some counts,” Barr said.

However, the former attorney general doesn’t see Trump serving any time behind bars.

“I don’t think that that translates into jail time,” Barr told Cavuto, explaining that “a very substantial penalty would serve the public interest” but that putting Trump in jail “has too many collateral bad impacts on the country.”

“There’s ways of having custody without putting him in, you know, in federal facilities. You can have home detention and other things,” Barr said of the most likely result of a Trump conviction…

[Put a better security perimeter around Mar-A-Lago and Bedminster, let the poor old man live out his days surrounded by the people who still love him!]

*Such* a reasonable fellow, our Mr. Barr…

Gasp! Not moral turpitude!

Reader Interactions

125Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    You don’t get immunity for 2 years to run an election by saying I’m a candidate

    I’m screwed.

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    I’m pretty sure this was foreordained: Trump to release taped interview with Tucker Carlson, skipping GOP debate

    Former president Donald Trump intends to skip the first Republican presidential primary debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday and instead plans to post a prerecorded interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that will be released that night, according to a person briefed on the matter.

    Trump advisers said the interview had already been recorded. It is not yet clear where the interview will appear. Carlson has started a show on X, formerly called Twitter, but Trump sees the platform as a rival to Truth Social, which he helped create.

    I would say it’s the parable of the scorpion and the frog, except it’s more like the scorpion and the other scorpion, with the heir to the frozen dinner fortune smirking in the background somehow.

    Also,

    Trump’s team has also been in negotiations with officials in Georgia about scheduling his surrender after the former president and 18 of his allies were criminally charged in connection with efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 win in the state. Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D), who led that investigation, has said those charged have until noon on Friday to turn themselves in, meaning Trump’s surrender could take place on the day of the Milwaukee debate, according to a person close to the former president.

    I can totally see him doing that, just as a ‘don’t fuck with me’ message to Fox.

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    Tricky question, for now on hold until the dust settles.

    AI-Created Art Isn’t Copyrightable, Judge Says in Ruling That Could Give Hollywood Studios Pause

    A federal judge on Friday upheld a finding from the U.S. Copyright Office that a piece of art created by AI is not open to protection.
    [snip]
    The opinion stressed, “Human authorship is a bedrock requirement.” Source

  4. 4.

    jonas

    I’m old enough to remember when Republican pundits were deeply concerned that all the persistent email and Benghazi investigations into Hillary Clinton might seem to be “piling on” and that it would just “feed into a narrative of her being victimized.” Deeply concerned.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    Crap. Linky fail. Fix.

    Tricky question, for now on hold until the dust settles.

    AI-Created Art Isn’t Copyrightable, Judge Says in Ruling That Could Give Hollywood Studios Pause

    A federal judge on Friday upheld a finding from the U.S. Copyright Office that a piece of art created by AI is not open to protection.
    [snip]
    The opinion stressed, “Human authorship is a bedrock requirement.” Source</a

  6. 6.

    RepubAnon

    @jonas:

    I’m old enough to remember when Republican pundits were deeply concerned that all the persistent email and Benghazi investigations into Hillary Clinton might seem to be “piling on” and that it would just “feed into a narrative of her being victimized.” Deeply concerned.

     

    Shouldn’t that have a (/snark) tag?

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @dmsilev: just googled and trump has 3.9M followers on his own knock-off social network

    Barack Obama has over 131M on Xitter

  8. 8.

    HumboldtBlue

    I’m just glad I shredded my own reputation so badly it can never be repaired, and I am forced to live the life of Ronin, the wanderer who sells my skill with the blade to survive.

    Ordered a quality set of three knives last week. They arrived, and it wasn’t 10 seconds until I got the second knife from the box that I had sliced my thumb. Dull knives are at their most dangerous in allowing you to forget what it’s like to work with an actual sharp blade.

    It is wonderful to work with a quality knife, however, despite me having the blade skill of a mole rat.

  11. 11.

    Tony Jay

    He also criticized the most recent indictment against the former president out of Georgia — where Trump faces 13 felony counts related to his alleged efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results — as “too sweeping, much too broad” and “excessive.”

    Oh, you mean the RICO charges that allege a wider conspiracy involving not just Trump, but large numbers of allies and enablers from his swirling pub toilet of an Administration?

    I wonder why Trump’s former Attorney General might get the hissies over that particular case.

    Ha! No. No, I don’t.

  15. 15.

    jonas

    I’m noticing a certain pattern regarding the race of the charging DA and whether Barr feels the indictments are legit or not.

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    Maui update (excerpts).

    Today, three of th[e] fires remain active with crews monitoring for flare ups and hotspots. The death toll from the Lahaina fire has risen to 114, with the identity of six victims publicly released by police since the investigation began. An estimated 78% of the burn area has been searched.
    .
    Lahaina fire: 90% contained, 2,168 acres burned. MFD and US Army Reserve were onsite.

    Olinda fire: 85% contained, 1,081 acres burned. State DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife is monitoring. A drone with infrared capabilities was deployed overnight to look for hot spots at the Upcountry fires.

    Kula fire: 85% contained, 202 acres burned. Three Maui Fire Department and two DOFAW crews were onsite at last report.

    Pulehu / Kihei fire (initially reported 8/8): Remains 100% contained. There are no active threats at this time.

  19. 19.

    Anne Laurie

    @HumboldtBlue: Ordered a quality set of three knives last week. They arrived, and it wasn’t 10 seconds until I got the second knife from the box that I had sliced my thumb. Dull knives are at their most dangerous in allowing you to forget what it’s like to work with an actual sharp blade.

    Affirmed.  The Spousal Unit just informed me that we can’t get rid of the never-sharpened 25-year-old steak knives for which I finally bought replacements.  He was trying to read and cut his dinner at the same time, dropped the knife, and stabbed his leg badly enough he had to stop & get a bandaid.

    (Before the obvious questions:  We’ve been together for 40 years now, largely because we very early stopped trying to modify each other’s bone-deep habits, such as reading while eating.)

  21. 21.

    Tony Jay

    @eclare:

    I have my alarm set.

    I missed most of the group stages because we were on holiday and big chunks of the knock-out portion because I was back at work. Not missing the Final. No way, no how.

    It’s an odd sensation feeling confident about an English team in a major final. Weird. I think it’s down to the lack of gonads. Can’t balls it all up without… you know…

  24. 24.

    Tony Jay

    @eclare:

    Bed! Now! Imbibe a light opiate and half a bottle of Aquavit. Sleep the sleep of the nomadic street urchin.

    You’ll thank me later. 👍

  25. 25.

    BeautifulPlumage

    The post’s title reminds me of the expression “cream rises and shit floats”.

  26. 26.

    eclare

    @Tony Jay:

    I didn’t know nomadic street urchins were known for their sleeping prowess!  I think I’d rather sleep the sleep of my lightly snoring dog.

  30. 30.

    MattF

    I suspect we’re going to hear regularly from Bill, like it or not. But that one we haven’t heard from lately… what’s his name.. Pompom?… Pompadoro?… something like that…

  31. 31.

    Tony Jay

    @eclare:

    We’ll, it’s not so much ‘sleep’ as ‘a wary state of semi-consciousness sufficient to maintain basic physiological processes’, but the point is you’re not awake.

    Mañana, as the runners-up say.

  32. 32.

    Ken

    Michael McDonald: Someone wants his reputation back. Let’s not give it to him

    Really? I’d think it would be better to make sure everyone knows his reputation — the real one, not the one he’s trying to push, like some seventh-grader trying to get his classmates to use the nickname he picked.

  33. 33.

    Jay

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I have five diamond stones, two diamond hones, (foldable diamond files, double sided), 3 different water stones, 2 oil stones and two tubes of diamond paste.

    I love sharp.

  35. 35.

    Ken

    [Put a better security perimeter around Mar-A-Lago and Bedminster, let the poor old man live out his days surrounded by the people who still love him!]

    So total solitary confinement?

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    Bill Barr repulses me.  He was the most lawless Attorney General we have ever had, and he is remaking himself as a hero and a statesman.  Excuse me while I go puke,

  40. 40.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Ken:

    [Put a better security perimeter around Mar-A-Lago and Bedminster, let the poor old man live out his days surrounded by the people who still love him!]

    So total solitary confinement?

    Build a wall and make Trump pay for it.

  41. 41.

    Alison Rose

    Am I reading too much into the fact that Barr was dismissive and critical of the cases brought by Black people but saw value in the two brought by the white guy?

    I suppose it’s just a coinkydink that he happens to view them this way.

  43. 43.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Alison Rose:Am I reading too much into the fact that Barr was dismissive and critical of the cases brought by Black people but saw value in the two brought by the white guy?

    You could be reading between those lines to a point only expressable by some cubic function of infinity and it would not be too much.

  48. 48.

    Ken

    @Alison Rose: I was wondering if it was a personal culpability thing. He resigned in December 2020, right?  So the falsified business records in the New York case, and the fake electors scheme in the Georgia case, were both done while he was Attorney General. The insurrection and stolen documents were after he left, though not much after.

  52. 52.

    bbleh

    @WaterGirl: whoa, even John Mitchell? That’s some stiff competition…!

    Barr is selling the excuses for Republicans who don’t like Trump and all his vulgar rabble-rousing nevertheless to vote for him.  There’s a real danger here that a significant percentage (and remember, in elections today “significant” often is single digits) of otherwise loyal lifelong Republicans are just not willing to vote for the guy, and that could be the difference between a Republican administration (tax cuts!! and also massive crony capitalism) and a Democratic one (NOT tax cuts!! and probably more money for the people one does not want at one’s club)

    And of course, carrying this water publicly repairs his relationship with Beltway Republicans and bothsiders and with the Republican donor class, and those are the important people in his world.

  53. 53.

    sdhays

    @Tony Jay: No one ever seems to press this bag of shit on why he slunk off a few weeks before Biden took office. He KNEW this shit was going down, and he simply didn’t have confidence that it would succeed. But he wasn’t totally sure that it wouldn’t succeed, so he just quietly resigned to watch and wait.

    Fucking bag of treasonous shit.

  55. 55.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Omnes Omnibus: FWIW I have a old fraternity brother named Steve Miller who was a Dem staffer on the I ran Contra hearing staff.  He is now a research librarian in Indiana.

    Impressive life. The next Indiana Jones

    Eta: One of my favorite lead protagonists eschewed her inherent witchcraft to be an historian of alchemy. I’m reading the opening like “Conferences? Tenure?” Wow, she’s already fabulous.

    A Discovery of Witches

  56. 56.

    geg6

    So…I just found out that my sister bought me a Kindle for my 25th anniversary of working at my University.  As she said, it will give me hours of fun when I retire (which she is certain is soon but I’m not so sure).  My question is would it?  I can’t imagine reading a book on it since I love real, live books.  The smell, the look, the feel…I just revel in that stuff.  But can I do anything else on it?  And hard pass if your recommendation is video games.  I despise video games.

    ETA:  At the least, I will need one more year to make it a total of 35 years in higher ed.  Never imagined that when I started in adult basic education at the local community college.

  57. 57.

    BigJimSlade

    @Jay: I just have one of those things with coarse and fine v-shaped slots you pull a knife through (and a sharpening rod) – I’m too lazy for the stones.

  61. 61.

    Timill

    @geg6: You can carry your Entire Library in your pocket…

    I wondered too, and these days I read only ebooks. For a start, they remember where you got to (even after months), so I don’t have to.

    Also: which Kindle model?

  62. 62.

    Alison Rose

    @geg6: A Kindle is just for reading, though you can also get magazines and such on it. I am a paper-book devotee, but since I am also poor as shit, I’ve had to curtail my book buying, so getting ebooks from Libby onto my Kindle has been a Godsend. Plus, there are nice features to reading digitally, like being able to highlight passages you like, search the text for certain words or phrases, etc. Plus if you’re on vacation or something, you can have a shit ton of books at your fingertips without having to lug them all in a duffel bag or something.

  64. 64.

    geg6

    @Timill:

    I have an entire collection of Van Gogh book markers.  I know where I stopped.  And I know I will not be reading books on it.  I am a Luddite when it comes to books.  Not gonna happen.

  66. 66.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @geg6: ​

    My question is would it? I can’t imagine reading a book on it since I love real, live books.

    You will love being able to carry dozens of books everywhere you go and buy and begin reading a new one at a moment’s notice even more. If it’s an e-ink style kindle, you can also read in the dark without eye strain.

  69. 69.

    bbleh

    @geg6: you gotta get used to reading a Kindle rather than a book.  It’s smaller and denser, you “turn the page” much more often, and although the display is VERY good, it’s not exactly the same.  Give it a little while, make the effort, and then see if all the other advantages are worth it.

    And I second @Alison Rose:  re library access.  You can get books from ALL OVER THE PLACE just by requesting them, and with a lot more luck-of-the-draw than by going to the actual library.  That for me has made a HUGE difference

    Also very good for travel btw.  You can take a whole shelf of books with you.

  70. 70.

    karen marie

    @HumboldtBlue: I almost always cut myself by “testing” the blade after I have them professionally sharpened.  I love my knife guy.  Having sharp knives is wonderful!

  72. 72.

    CaseyL

    Well, crap.
    Ron Cephas Jones, who is best known for his role as William Hill (Randall’s biological father) on This is Us, has died.
    I didn’t know he had a history of pulmonary disease – he had a double lung transplant 2 years ago – but that is what killed him.
    Terrific actor. Shoulda been more famous.

    RIP.​​

  74. 74.

    CarolPW

    @geg6: ​
     You can read in bed (my favorite thing). You can read in bed lying on either side without arranging yourself to get the light on your book. You can fall asleep without having to wake up later and get up to turn the fucking light off. Print books are for day reading. Kindle books are for bedtime reading.

  75. 75.

    geg6

    @bbleh:

    I have access to my University’s library and can get any book I want within a day, if my campus’ library doesn’t have it.  We have 24 campuses.  It’s an amazing collection when you put them all together.

  76. 76.

    NotMax

    @geg6

    Portability is a super plus. So is not being tied to your local library’s business hours, as well as not having to venture there during bad weather.

    It is possible to kind of, sort of peruse the internet on it too via a built-in bespoke browser. Emphasis on kind of, sort of.

  77. 77.

    Alison Rose

    @geg6: If someone buys it for you as a gift, it would be nice to at least give it a try, rather than stubbornly insisting you’ll hate it. I doubt you want to read so many magazines as to make it worth it just for that.

  78. 78.

    sab

    @geg6: I resisted e-books for years until I got both a Nook and a kindle for Christmas from two different relatives. Now that is the only way I read books, even though I love physical books.

    I can read in bed at night without turning a lamp on. I can always find my place in multiple books. I can look stuff up on the internet as I read (maps, travel pictures, foreign word translations.) I don’t have to worry about where to house a bunch of new books in my crowded small house. I can carry 100s of books with me in one tiny volume.

    The two main drawbacks is it’s difficult to share books with others, and I find it awkward to look back through a book I am reading.

  79. 79.

    CarolPW

    @geg6: I wanted Bujold’s Penric books, only available digitally. That’s when I gave in, and I do not regret it.

  80. 80.

    The Pale Scot

    @Tony Jay:

    Aquavit, “Whale Juice”.

    Friend brought a bottle back from Norway, another friend and I, both high mass professional drinkers at the time, knocked it back and I swear the walls were rippling. Must of had some of that urine from mushroom imbibing Finnish reindeer that the shamans use.

  81. 81.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    Oh, one additional thing. Once you become accustomed to it, suggest checking out cases for your model on Amazon. Hundreds of styles to chose from, almost all of which incorporate a kickstand of some sort allowing you to easily prop it up on the table or desk top, plus affording protection for the screen when shut.

  82. 82.

    mvr

    @geg6: ​
     I’ve had several over the years. Used them lots during certain times (got a big one to read the paper and PDFs but it is now obsolete so I have a little one). The e-ink is better than a laptop for reading. But these days I only use it sporadically. Still worth having.

    I love books too. So much that one of the 3 main reasons I don’t retire (my 33rd year in Higher ed starts Tuesday) is that I would have to find room in my house for the books in my office. The Kindle helps with that problem as there are books I want to read that I don’t have space for.

    Gave one to my spouse years ago. Took her a while to take to it but she reads it a lot these days.

  83. 83.

    patrick II

    @geg6: ​
     
    Kindle has its advantages as some have noted above. I will add that any book can be set to a large text size for us older folks. And when it is nice for wading in bed. you can read with the room lights off and it turns itself off after boat five minutes when you fall asleep.

  85. 85.

    CaseyL

    @sab: ​
     

    I still love printed books, but have to admit, as I (and my eyes) get older, I find reading ebooks easier.

    Thus far, I’ve only done e-reading on my laptop. A tiny screen would drive me nuts. But being able to read in bed without maneuvering to catch the lamplight sounds very good to me, so maybe I should check out some reading tablets…

  88. 88.

    StringOnAStick

    @Jay: Can you recommend a diamond hone for kitchen use , and another one for garden tool use?  Thanks in advance.

  89. 89.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, … ArsTechnica.com:

    In a terse update posted on the social media network Telegram Saturday, the Russian space corporation Roscosmos said that an “emergency situation” had occurred on board its Luna 25 spacecraft.

    The 1.2-ton lunar lander entered orbit around the Moon three days ago, and since that time Russian engineers have been sending commands for small engine burns to correct the spacecraft’s orbit. Roscosmos sent another of these commands on Saturday to put Luna 25 into a “pre-landing orbit,” ahead of a landing that had been due to occur as soon as Monday.

    However, during the maneuver at 14:10 Moscow time (11:10 UTC) on Saturday a problem occurred, which did not allow the operation to be carried out successfully. “The management team is currently analyzing the situation,” concluded the short statement from Roscosmos.

    Since that time rumors have been running rampant on Russian social media channels, with the presumption that the spacecraft has probably been lost. Russian space reporter Anatoly Zak said it seems possible that Roscosmos has lost communication with Luna 25, but will continue its efforts to try to contact the spacecraft.

    Russia’s efforts to reestablish communication with Luna 25 will be complicated by the country’s lack of a deep space communications network. Satellite tracker Scott Tilley noted that the country’s ability to communicate with Luna 25 will be limited to when the Moon is visible over Russia. There are relatively few of these opportunities in the days ahead.

    […]

    Who knew that being able to communicate with complex equipment when something goes wrong is important??

    Winging it doesn’t work with spacecraft…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  90. 90.

    The Pale Scot

    @geg6:

    The one thing I can say about eBooks is that  tablet or laptop is easier on the arms, shoulders and neck if I’m reading for more than 4 hours. Good furniture is just too fucking expensive, I’ve got other things to blow a G on.

    I guess that I should say that arthritis and herniated disks play a role in my opinion

  91. 91.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    You said “media tank” and my mind translated it to “toilet tank”. He would be one to shit in the tank and leave it for the next person to flush.

    Same diff…

  92. 92.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @CaseyL:

    The cheapest type of kindles, the e-ink style that do nothing but let you read black and white books, have a special type of screen that lights up enough to read but causes basically no visual/radiation stress.  As a migraine sufferer, this is a miraculous blessiNg for me.

  93. 93.

    Timill

    @The Pale Scot: For that matter, books like “British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1603–1714: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates” (1026 pages in paper) weigh no more than a short novel in ebook…

    And that’s book 1 of a series of 4…

  94. 94.

    frosty

    @geg6: ​My wife gave me a Kindle last Christmas. I too like paper books, but it has come in extremely handy while traveling. It hasn’t taken much effort to get used to it either.

    My main gripe is that a lot of the books I want to read aren’t in the library eBook listings. However, helpful hint for you: As a PA resident you have free access to the Carnegie Library and Philadelphia Free Library eBooks. We pay $50 a year for the Baltimore County Library, too. I think Orange County Florida has a reasonable out-of-state fee as well.

  95. 95.

    The Pale Scot

    @Timill:

    “British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1603–1714: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates”

    Cthulhu that sounds interesting!

     

  96. 96.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @geg6: I no longer read on a kindle but I had a 2nd gen one. I too loved bookstores and libraries and the smell of books from my childhood. But I loved my kindle dedicated to just reading books with no other distractions.  You may learn to love it!

  97. 97.

    realbtl

    I like big heavy long books and found that when I hit about 70 ebooks to be a life (or at least neck and shoulder) saver.

  98. 98.

    kalakal

    @geg6:

    The biggest thing I missed from the university was not having access to electronic resources such as Springer, EBSCO, Interstat, and espescially Lexis-Nexis. It hurt more as I was the e-resources manager. I love physical books but these days tend to use the kindle app on my phone. The really big plus is travelling, half my luggage used to be books, now I take a kindle and 1 book – just in case

  99. 99.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @geg6: Kindle Unlimited and various free Kindle books (I subscribe to email newsletters to find them) are enough incentive to use the Kindle for me. It’s also nice to have a device other than my phone to read them on (particularly when traveling).

  100. 100.

    Jay

    @StringOnAStick:

    so for kitchen use, a 250/500 block hone with a rubber base. You can quickly establish a blade angle for your cutting needs, then the 500 puts a fine sharp blade on it.

    For garden use, a folding hone, (like a butterfly knife), 100/250.

    Ideally  a full diamond strata, not the dot matrix style.

    Lee Valley is a good source, or any other specialty wood working shop.

  101. 101.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @geg6: I’m an old but I love the ability to track characters and being able to easily find a “thread” I may have missed. I totally understand the book appeal…

    My nephew bought me an Alexa device one Xmas and after a month, I disabled it and it still sits in a cabinet. Not sure why I didn’t crush it with a hammer. So I’m simpatico with tech gifts not desired.

  102. 102.

    TS

    @Baud:

    It would seem so – I think you have been campaigning ever since I first caught site of BJ – not that I could vote for you – unless you would prefer to be PM of Australia – don’t have to be born there for that job.

  103. 103.

    Wapiti

    @Ken: I thought that when a cop or prosecutor knew about a crime and did nothing, that was a crime itself, called misprisonment.

    It would be good if they could tie Barr to that.

  105. 105.

    TS

    @geg6:

    I fell in love with my kindle when I discovered how easy they are to read in bed – opposed to trying to get the pages of a  paper book to stay in the right place. I do 100% of my reading on the kindle – its a breeze having 100s of books easily available & when I’m short of funds I re-read my favourites.

    It’s also a great help in downsizing – we donated 40 boxes of books to a local charity book sale when we retired & moved to a smaller place. Did keep one bookcase full of favourites – most of which relate to old hobbies/research & not available in digital form.

  106. 106.

    Scout211

    Governor Newsom has declare a State of Emergency as Hurricane Hilary is about to hit SoCal.

    Stay safe, SoCal jackals.

    CNN   The storm has sped up and is moving faster than expected, now moving at 17 mph, and is currently located 640 miles southeast of San Diego. Hilary is expected to continue to weaken as it moves north-northwestward through cooler waters toward Southern California.

    Residents in the Southwest are bracing for “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding” as the system is expected to pummel the region as a rare tropical storm, with the harshest impacts expected on Sunday into Monday.

    Flooding rain from the storm will start to arrive well in advance of Hilary’s core of stronger winds. Those winds could arrive as soon as Sunday morning, along with more prolific and dangerous rainfall, according to the National Hurricane Center.

  107. 107.

    Shalimar

    @Alison Rose: Not that I don’t think Barr is racist as hell.  He is.  But the other similarity between Bragg and Willis is they’re state prosecutors rather than federal.  Barr is a big proponent of an imperial presidency, so he doesn’t believe states should have any authority over dear leader.  I might be wrong, but I think he would still insult the 2 state cases even if a Jack Smith were bringing them.

  108. 108.

    wjca

    @Another Scott:

    Russia’s efforts to reestablish communication with Luna 25 will be complicated by the country’s lack of a deep space communications network.

    It’s inconvenient when the rest of the world just doesn’t like you enough to build a shared facility.  Probably by problematic for China’s space ambitions, too.

  110. 110.

    Feathers

    @frosty: I was going to replace my Kindle, but unfortunately my library switched from Overdrive to Hoopla, which doesn’t support Kindle. Boo. I just use the app on my phone and iPad.

    If you are in Massachusetts, everyone can sign up online for an electronic media library card from the Boston Public Library. They seem to have all the content. I thought the Minuteman Library had a great ebook selection, but Boston’s is much larger. I particularly like mystery novels and they have a lot of the older ones, especially by women, that indie presses have brought back into print. Vera Caspary, Dorothy B Hughes, Craig Rice, and others I’m not remembering.

    @Scout211: I’ve been following a Hurricane Hilary tweets list on BlueSky. Answered questions for a guy who didn’t seem to know what to do.

    It’s scary. People are posting pictures of “all set for the hurricane,” but their patio furniture is just under an unscreened porch. Nothing to stop it from blowing away. Saw a canal lined with boardwalk and slips for boats. Boat in the narrow slip and plastic kayaks in a stack alongside the walkway.

    We really need to bring back civil defense like we had in the Cold War. Then the purpose of it was to take the edge off the nuclear war lessons. Now it would be the school shooter training. Sure, people will forget, but the point is knowing that there is a right thing to do, and having it click when you hear it again.

  114. 114.

    rikyrah

    Barr DOES NOT deserve to have his reputation rehabilitated. In fact, we need apologies from those in The Village who vouched for Barr when he was nominated for Attorney General😠😠😠

  117. 117.

    Onan Soumy

    Billy the Pigg is a perfect prig
    Whose dad wrote dirty books
    (And hired Epstein to tutor teens,
    But that you should overlook).

    He jiggled the scales in Reagan’s arms sales,
    And got Poppa Bush off the hook,
    Then went lips-to-rump for Donald Trump,
    ‘Cuz he loves him a dirty crook.

    But he went pooh-pooh on the Jan 6. coup,
    And the media’s been rooked:
    ‘Cuz if he seems contrite and has seen the light…
    He’s just tryin’ to sell a book.

  118. 118.

    Ruckus

    @Tony Jay:

    They ALL tied their reputations to the drunk acting dumbass at the end of the bar. You know the dumbass that acts drunk when he thinks there is a shot in his soda and the entire bar gets the biggest kick out of watching him make an even bigger ass out of himself. The real pity is that every body else in the bar knows that there’s no alcohol in his drink and that the bartender gives him free sodas because it increases liquor sales 37%

  119. 119.

    Ruckus

    @Jay:

    I once spent, with another employee, 90 days polishing the mold for a clear plastic cover for one of those we sell everything stores stereo system, which at the time likely cost something like $75. You start out with files to take away the machine marks, then polishing stones to get rid of all the file marks, then diamond stones to get rid of those marks then diamond polish to create a mirror finish. It was about 14 x 28 x 6 inches deep. It is possible that one job made me somewhat insane. And I think I’ve only partially recovered after 40 yrs.

  121. 121.

    Tehanu

    let the poor old man live out his days surrounded by the people who still love him

    Objection, no evidence whatsoever that anyone has ever loved His Fraudulency. Or could.​

  123. 123.

    No One You Know

    @geg6: I loathe Kindle on my Android. Using it feels too much like work. I hate reading online for the same reason: too easy to skip lines,   make errors of various kinds.

    I don’t need all my books with me at once. I’m aware that I’m one missed tap away from pulling myself out into another Internet black hole and losing either focus or suspension of disbelief.

    Finally, I like touch and feel. The sheer pleasure of a well- designed book carries with it a whiff of Gutenberg and the modern topics condensed into a simple cartridge that isn’t friendly to emails, marketing messages, and other interruptions. While looking at where my mind has been, and how I’ve fed it over the years, it’s a comfort; this is the comfort of home, as much as the cat.

    And in an age where libraries or the ability to destroy them is possible–  I have been able to rebuild something that I love. Cicero said a room without books lacked a soul. I agree.

    The only library I have that I don’t use often is Kindle. Professional reading is more affordable and disposable.

    I don’t have to have a solution that works for “everybody.” I need a physical library and I devoted my life to creating one, even when money was in short supply.  Fie on all these lectures about “why you have to use Kindle.”

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