Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Joe Biden can go out like FDR, not by dying in office, but by crushing the fascists.

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

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Come on, man.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

The problem people have with Biden’s age is the color of the VPs skin.

The willow is too close to the house.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

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

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

The lights are all blinking red.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Let me file that under fuck it.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

You are here: Home / Economics / Grifters Gonna Grift / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Never A Dull Moment Break

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Never A Dull Moment Break

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(I’m not a birder, but even I can identify blue jays: They’re the ones yelling Thief! Thief!… because, according to folklore, that’s what they are.)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Never A <del>Dull Moment</del> Break 1

I (also) approve this message / tactic:

There’s layers to this story…

Reader Interactions

138Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    The town in this picture is Montpelier, Vermont, which voted 88% for Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

    Corporate sellouts.

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The IRS is launching an effort to pursue 1,600 millionaires who owe hundreds of millions of dollars in past due taxes.

    Jackbooted thugs! Stealing all those poor people’s hard earned moneys!

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “It is easier to get a fentanyl tablet and cheaper to get a fentanyl tablet delivered to your home than it is to order a piece of pizza.”

    Speaking only for a friend of mine, that is certainly true.

  7. 7.

    p.a.

    “It is easier to get a fentanyl tablet and cheaper to get a fentanyl tablet delivered to your home than it is to order a piece of pizza.”

     

    Senator outs himself as a no-tipper.

  8. 8.

    Ramalama

    I’m loving the variety of features/tweets/topics on this thread. +1 for a town photo anywhere in Vermont.

  9. 9.

    Kay

    The “I can’t… order… pizza” incompetent is like the guy who doesn’t know how to call ahead to a motel. They’re failing at ordinary adult chores. We don’t have time to help them all.

  10. 10.

    Kay

    Merlin is amazing. Terrific thing. Now if someone would make a really good plant identifier we’d be all set for outside identifying trips.

  12. 12.

    Scout211

    Another well-known pair of insurrectionists were sentenced yesterday.

    A Tennessee man dubbed “zip-tie guy” on social media was sentenced Friday to nearly five years in prison in connection with the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

    U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced Eric Munchel of Nashville to 57 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, the Justice Department said in a news release. Munchel, 32, was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.

    . . .

    Munchel’s mother was also sentenced Friday, to 30 months in prison.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    once again, this town probably has been insanely woke since like 1824 and every church is flying an LGBT flag,

    About a month ago I finally got a “Gay Ally” sticker for my truck (in fact I bought 3 of them figuring they would get ripped off the truck) (so far the first one remains on it). Last week I was driving thru Sullivan when I spotted a gay flag on the sign of the St. John & St. James Episcopal Church. Surprised the fuck out of me. Even if it is an Episcopalian church, this is still Sullivan. Just want to give them a small shout out.

  15. 15.

    peter

    @Kay: There is an app called Seek which uses the data from iNaturalist for identification purposes. It’s very good, and since the iNaturalist data is constantly improving, the app will improve along with it. It correctly identifies most of the tree and bush species in our neighborhood.

  17. 17.

    Anne Laurie

    @Frankensteinbeck: I know a Birder who talks to other Birders, and they love these bird identifying apps.

    Oh, absolutely, I keep meaning to install one myself!  It’s just that even this ex-Bronx kid can identify three basic bird calls: blue jays, mourning doves (I learned that my freshman year in Michigan, after wondering why so many owls were calling during daylight), and English sparrows (who go choip! choip! with a Bud Abbott accent).

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: ​They’re failing at ordinary adult chores.

    That’s what wives are for. Don’t tell my wife I said that.

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    Merlin’s sound ID is amazing! I tried several bird call ID apps before Cornell launched that function with Merlin (which began with photo and/or user description input ID). All the sound ID apps I tried before sucked, so I was skeptical when Merlin added sound ID to their app. Then I turned it on and saw it accurately identify half a dozen birds in 30 seconds. It can tell a Fish Crow from an American Crow. Sorcery! ;-)

    @Kay: My husband is the flora person in our family, and he has a plant ID app that he seems pretty happy with. I’ll ask him what it’s called!

  20. 20.

    Scout211

    @peter: There is an app called Seek which uses the data from iNaturalist for identification purposes

    I love iNaturalist.  What a wealth of information and I love that you can search in so many different ways, especially by locale.  I have it bookmarked for my county.  Having an app that uses the iNaturalist database sounds promising.

  21. 21.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    New England seems to be a unique case when it comes to which party rural States support. Vermont is blue but NH and Maine aren’t completely Republican. In fact I’m half convinced NH would be solidly blue except for their determination not to be exactly like those Vermonters. And also the Massholes.

  22. 22.

    Suzanne

    LMAO. Showing a picture of Montpelier reminds me of the time Trump said, “I was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris”, and it turned out 75% of Pittsburgh voters went for HRC.

  25. 25.

    Betty Cracker

    The MyPillow conspiracy theorist has been freaking out during depositions for a Dominion lawsuit, according to The Daily Beast:

    Footage of one deposition shows Lindell melt down when he’s shown a customer complaint describing a MyPillow product as “lumpy.”

    “No, they’re not lumpy pillows … when you say lumpy pillows, now you’re an asshole! You got that? You’re an asshole is what you are!” Lindell bellows, repeating the insult when he’s prompted by his attorney to stop.

    “Lumpy pillows? Kiss my ass. Put that in your book,” he said. After promising he was “done” with his tirade, he couldn’t resist adding, “Obviously you don’t have a MyPillow, too. You don’t, do you?”

    One thing I give Trump lots of credit for: he inspired many terrible and dumb rich people to self-immolate! They’ve bankrupted themselves and squandered unearned reputations in his service.

  27. 27.

    bbleh

    Musk, TIFG, Ernesto Cruz, Tucky Carlson, Mr. MyPillow … how did we end up in the Age of Man-Children?  I mean, was it this bad before and I just didn’t notice?  Or were their wives or bosses or whatever kinda keeping them in check?  What a colossal embarrassment.

    Also, while I’m feeling grouchy, I’m getting REEELY tired of articles (hello CNN) and blog posts with breathless Hot Takes on the Hidden Meanings gleaned from the subtabs of the Latest Poll Results (meaning within the last 12 hours or so).  It’s NOT true that “you can prove anything with statistics,” but it sure as hell is true that if you are particularly discriminating in your cherry-picking you can usually find some statistically insignificant results from a tiny subpopulation that supports your preferred narrative.

  28. 28.

    Skepticat

    @Kay: Now if someone would make a really good plant identifier we’d be all set for outside identifying trips.

    Try Plant Net and/or Seek.

  29. 29.

    Gin & Tonic

    Musk also gave Isaacson confidential text messages he had received from Ukraine’s Deputy PM, without asking for consent or even notifying him that he’d done so. The Deputy PM first learned of this when being interviewed by the FT’s Chris Miller.

  31. 31.

    Layer8Problem

    We stayed in Montpelier last month for a few days.  It’s a lovely town with good people.  It was seriously hammered by the flooding earlier this year and they’re rebuilding.  If anybody’s going up to look at autumn leaves consider stopping in and helping out local businesses.

  35. 35.

    Starfish

    @Anne Laurie: What’s really cool about Merlin is that it will identify the birds by their calls, so even if you can’t see them, you can know what bird is making the sounds.

    Edit: I see Betty got there first.

  40. 40.

    hells littlest angel

    The Merlin app is fantastic. Thanks to it, I now know most of my neighborhood birds.

     

    And Senator Marshall is right: it’s really hard to find a pizzeria that will deliver a slice.

  41. 41.

    Kelly

    @Kay: Google Lens image search is useful for plant id. Often returns several candidates that I can pick the right one. Most reliable for flowers.

  42. 42.

    mrmoshpotato

    The agency’s leader says a boost in federal funds and help from AI tools offer new means of targeting wealthy people who “cut corners.”

    Oh noes!  Some people are gonna be losing 2 houses!

  43. 43.

    hells littlest angel

    @Kay:Now if someone would make a really good plant identifier we’d be all set for outside identifying trips.

     

    PlantNet is pretty good. Not 100% reliable, but good.

  46. 46.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Betty Cracker:

    “No, they’re not lumpy pillows … when you say lumpy pillows, now you’re an asshole! You got that? You’re an asshole is what you are!” Lindell bellows, repeating the insult when he’s prompted by his attorney to stop. 

    “Lumpy pillows? Kiss my ass. Put that in your book,”

    BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

    Completely normal reaction from a grownup if you ask me. 😏

    The only thing missing is him yelling out, “You know who has lumpy pillows?  YOUR MOM!”

  52. 52.

    Jeffro

    I think that dating coach guy Stedman is on to something – J6 should be a national holiday!  Just not quite the way he thinks.

    I can already think of 5-6 new traditions that would go along with this holiday…

  53. 53.

    Steeplejack

    @Scout211:

    I was delighted to see that. I had been wondering about zip-tie guy and had seen nothing about him at all. I worried that he was one who managed to cleanly disappear.

  55. 55.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: Worse than guns, they are coming with calculators!

    As Terry Pratchett said in Going Postal, it’s the warfare of clerks, and it harries the enemy through many columns and files with a patience that is first boring, then terrifying.

  56. 56.

    Kristine

    @Kay: The Seek app is pretty good. It’s an offshoot of the iNaturalist app.

    It’s dodgy for things like asters–there are so many and a number of them look alike–but overall it’s been pretty good.

  57. 57.

    Kristine

    I love the Merlin app. I especially like the new Sound Recordings feature. I can stand out on the deck in the morning and id all the birds.

    And I see @peter: already mentioned the Seek app.

  59. 59.

    schrodingers_cat

    My town in Western Mass  has a lot of farmland. There are at least 3 working farms at walking distance from my home.  HRC and then Biden got over 70 percent of the vote here.  The outer ring around Boston is purple, rest of the state is pretty blue

    And it has been this way for a long time. It was an abolitionist stronghold during the era of the Underground railroad.

  60. 60.

    gene108

    1. Sen. Marshall isn’t wrong. No one delivers pizza by the slice. In many parts of the country, they don’t even sell pizza by the slice.

    2. Vivek’s just pandering to the lowest common denominator of white bigotry. It’s pathetic. Sadly, it’s been somewhat effective for him.

    ETA: I had a procedure where I could be awake, but was given a fentanyl drip for sedation. Surgeon had the afternoon free so he went at it for a couple of hours. I felt like the warm glow of a sunrise. One of the most amazing feelings I’ve ever had.

  61. 61.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    I assume Lumpy Pillows would be too obscure for the rotating tag.

    But it would make a nice change from Green Balloons as a safe word.

  62. 62.

    schrodingers_cat

    @gene108: Indian Damien is utterly amoral. He is the beloved of Modi supporters on Indian Twitter. They love his performative bigotry.

    *Indian Twitter (this is Twitter with handles that are in India

    Most Indian Americans with the exceptions of the devout RSS and Modi supporters find him cringe and despicable.

  64. 64.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl: In less than 24 hours, I have seen 3 different reports of the mom’s sentence: 47 months, 36 months, and now 30 months.

    Here’s the DOJ news release:

    Maybe the other reports tacked on the supervised release.

    Lisa Marie Eisenhart, 59, of Woodstock, Georgia, was sentenced by Judge Lamberth to 30 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.

    Munchel and Eisenhart were both convicted of conspiracy to commit obstruction and obstruction of an official proceeding, both felonies, as well as entering and remaining in a gallery of Congress, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building on April 19, 2023, following a stipulated bench trial before Judge Lamberth.

  65. 65.

    gene108

    @schrodingers_cat:

    My mom follows women online in India who have cooking videos. One lady she follows had her sister interviewed by a media outfit, because they’re somehow related to him. They’re families are from the same ancestral village in Palghat.

    He is getting media attention in India. Kamala got some media attention in India, too.

  66. 66.

    Ken

    In criminal sentencing aspirational terms, it’s hard to top the 11,196 years in prison that crypto-scammer Faruk Fatih Özer and his brother and sister were just given by a Turkish court, for stealing about $2 billion in customer funds.

    Link here (warning, it’s coindesk, which has a very ad-forward cookie policy and no way to turn them off).

  67. 67.

    schrodingers_cat

    Speaking of Indian politicians, I come from a non-Congress family, especially post Indira Gandhi’s semi-dictatorial emergency. But since last year’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, where Rahul Gandhi walked the length of India from TN to Kashmir, he has won me over.

    Check this video out and you will get a glimpse of what I am saying.

    Rahul Gandhi with Kunal Vijaykar who hosts a popular YouTube show Khane me kya hai? (What’s for dinner). Vijaykar and Gandhi hang out one evening sampling delicacies that Delhi has to offer.

  69. 69.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @gene108: I felt like the warm glow of a sunrise. One of the most amazing feelings I’ve ever had.

    My first shot of morphine was like that. I’d had emergency surgery w/o anesthetic and when they stuck that needle in my ass I felt a warm golden wave wash over me. It didn’t kill the pain, but it became a beautiful pain, glorious even.

  70. 70.

    Another Scott

    @OzarkHillbilly: Who orders “a piece of pizza” for delivery??  These people are trying really hard to break our brains.

    And Kay’s right about the nimrod who cried and cried and didn’t call a hotel to try to get a room.  The last time I walked into a hotel to try to get an unreserved room was about 35 years ago (and it worked fine because it was in the suburbs and about 3 in the afternoon).  I don’t pine for those days, and tell all my followers about it looking for clicks, and think that things work the same way 35 years later.

    Hey, nimrod, there are these things called “smart phones” which have things called “web browsers” which let you do things like visit “hotel web sites” or “hotel price search engines” that let you find rooms available.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  71. 71.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @mrmoshpotato:

    help from AI tools

    Okay, yeah.  AI tools would be helpful for an understaffed IRS to pick out the most likely targets to investigate.  I think AI tools are wildly overhyped, but this sounds like an area they could be helpful.

    I wouldn’t want to depend on them if the IRS wasn’t understaffed.  They’ll have prejudices and blind spots that start to show if you use them for everybody.  When you’re drowning in too many possibilities to check, definitely useful.

  72. 72.

    Another Scott

    @hells littlest angel: It’s tough to find a corner store that will deliver penny candy, also too.

    I guess we have to vote for theh GQP, otherwise things will just get worser and worser.

    [ sigh ]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @Another Scott:

    He’s an amateur. I can plan trips now between and around really localized weather events. I can go west ahead of a snowstorm and beat it again coming back east with a smartphone and an hourly weather prediction. You can get a halfway point in either distance or time and a motel that is there. They’re just miserable people who like to complain and won’t help themselves to all these great tools.

  74. 74.

    moonbat

    Glad to see that the modest trim to the monies going to rebuild the IRS that Kevin McCarthy was so proud of is not stopping them from doing the right thing and going after these guys who commonly cheat (excuse me, cut corners!) on their taxes.

    You want to balance the budget and shrink the deficit, Repugs? Just make all these millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share.

  76. 76.

    Subsole

    @Baud:

    Like I said. Lazy.

    I mean, what else do you call it?? They get paid to inform people. That is their job. They accepted a contractual obligation to do so. And they can’t even bother to inform themselves. No, the folks they are supposed to inform have to come along and provide the context (which, to reiterate, the article was ostensibly written to provide) in community notes.

    Just sloppy, slapdash thinking. Abject dereliction.

    These media assholes got their idea of small-town America from a Hallmark romance special. And instead of acknowledging that reality is very different, or at least more nuanced, they try to cram us all into their ridiculous narrative cobbled together in some Hollywood writer’s room.

  80. 80.

    Cameron

    And here I thought the Lumpy Pillows was a ’60s nostalgia band.  They need to go after this crazy bozo for copyright infringement.

  84. 84.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m so old I remember when Republicans used to campaign on “we don’t need to raise taxes, we’ll just get the revenue by pursuing all the tax cheats”.

    I’m not quite sure when that became “tax cheats, we’re on your side and we’ll fire all the auditors to help you.”

    I guess about the same time as they abandoned “we’ll balance the budget”

  92. 92.

    MazeDancer

    Walter gonna have to cash in all his Morning Joe/CNN/60 Minutes chips to survive his hubris-filled, foolish mistake of choosing a crazy, untalented, not likable, racist, traitorous transphobe for a subject.

  93. 93.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Gin & Tonic:

    After my quad tendon repair on my right leg in early 2021 (tore my left one on a dive trip just before Christmas 2022), I was in the recovery room and felt a huge wave of pain starting.  I have a high tolerance, but this was unreal, and I was strident about needing something because I was panicking. Nurse finally came over, looked at the doc and they both nodded (I guess my BP/pulse was showing legit panic), and she gets the tiniest hypo of fentanyl and sticks it in my ringer bag – instant relief, and I felt like a million bucks. At that moment, I said “Oh. Now I get it.”

    They laughed, but told my wife that I shouldn’t be allowed to sign any contracts, make big decisions or take work calls for 48-72 hours.

  96. 96.

    Ben Cisco

    Weird random thought: I haven’t encountered ONE mosquito since returning to Alabama in 2018. Not one. Not even at Mama Cisco’s (where I am currently wrapping up a week-long vacation/82nd birthday celebration). Place used to be lousy with them.

    Not that I have a problem with that AT ALL. Just seems a little strange.

  99. 99.

    narya

    Add me to the list of people who discovered the wonders of opioids (in my case, after fibroid embolization surgery). The weird thing is that it doesn’t make the pain go away at all–it just makes you not care. Once they finally gave me some ibuprofen the pain stopped, which made me happier than the opioids. Like the rest of you, I did suddenly learn why opioids are so addictive.

  100. 100.

    trollhattan

    Your ammo is going to cost more, guess it’s time to stock up.

    California lawmakers will send a state excise tax on guns and ammunition to Gov. Gavin Newsom after years of failed attempts by Democratic legislators. The Senate voted 27-9 on Thursday to approve Assembly Bill 28, which would require manufacturers, vendors and dealers to pay an 11% tax on guns and ammunition to fund violence prevention efforts.

    The bill passed with exactly the two-thirds threshold needed for approval of a tax. Gun and ammunition-sellers would pay the new state tax on top of the 10 to 11% federal excise tax they already pay to fund wildlife conservation efforts. Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, D-Woodland Hills, authored the bill after former Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, failed multiple times to get excise tax bills through the Legislature. Prior to Levine’s attempts, at least three other lawmakers had pushed similar taxes on guns and ammunition since 2013.

    Gabriel’s bill was the first of its kind to pass out of the Assembly. When the assemblyman first put the bill forward, there were questions about whether it was “in the realm of possibility,” he said after the Senate vote. “I introduced this bill at the very beginning of session,” Gabriel said. “A few weeks later, we have mass shootings in Half Moon Bay and in Monterey Park and in all these places.” “Frankly, I think part of the reason the bill passed is the public is demanding this of us,” he added. “They are demanding that we have more solutions that will do more to protect their kids, to protect their communities.”

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article279066169.html#storylink=cpy

    A friendly reminder why we need supermajoritites to get anything done.

  102. 102.

    Betty Cracker

    @Ben Cisco: For the past two summers, I’ve noticed there seem to be fewer mosquitos at my place. I’m not complaining either — I’ve saved a ton on DEET! But I hope it’s not a sign some ecological tipping point has been reached that portends mass species die-offs and eventual doom, ya know?

  108. 108.

    Betty

    @OzarkHillbilly: On her very last days dying from lung cancer, my mom consented to take oxycontin. Afterwards she told my brother, “Oh, now I understand how people become drug addicts.”

  110. 110.

    Ben Cisco

    @rikyrah: Also, the rubes will be more than happy to send their money to him. Kinda like the TV preachers scamming their way to Granny’s Social Security checks.

    Come to think of it, it’s EXACTLY like that.

  111. 111.

    Alison Rose

    The death toll has gone over 1,000 in Morocco. Just heartbreaking. I haven’t seen any info about local orgs to donate to, but NYT does have this:

    Doctors Without Borders said it was sending teams to Morocco to provide support. Avril Benoît, the organization’s executive director in the United States, said that while the group does not have an established presence in Morocco, it was in touch with local authorities. “Our response will depend on the needs that are assessed on site,” she said in a statement.

    So anyone who has a few bucks, that might be a place to start. I’d assume WCK will be on site soon, too, though haven’t seen anything yet.

  113. 113.

    Subsole

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    It never changed. “Tax cheats” was code for black single mothers, or immigrants that took our jerbs and then laid around sponging off our taxes.

     

    Think of tax cheats as a variant spelling of welfare queens or anchor babies, and you’ll have the gist of it.

  118. 118.

    Salty Sam .

    @tobie:   I linked to this shameless piece of fan fiction by Walter Isaacson yesterday. The obsequiousness on display is nauseating.

    From 2021.  That piece hasn’t aged well…

  119. 119.

    Ken

    @rikyrah: New reports that there basically is no “Trump 2024” campaign on the ground in Iowa. No surprise.

    I agree that the “campaign” donations are being diverted to his legal bills (and I so hope fake Jack E. Smith is right about wire fraud), but I have to ask, does he need to campaign?

    I’ll still expecting a dozen state Republican parties will find that they never updated their 2020 rules, and are still obligated to give Trump all their delegates without bothering with a primary.

  121. 121.

    Salty Sam .

    @Betty Cracker: For the past two summers, I’ve noticed there seem to be fewer mosquitos at my place. I’m not complaining…

    Here in Texas, we still get them (BAD) in the spring, fall and winter, but summer has become too hot and dry for them.  I won’t complain  about lack of mosquitoes, but I could deal with their presence better than this damnable heat.  This summer broke us- Salty Spouse declared we will not be here next summer.  I was born and raised here, lived most of my life here, and I agree.  We’re leaving.

  122. 122.

    Citizen Alan

    @Steeplejack: I don’t know if I am disappointed or relieved to find out that he was not, in fact, some highly trained paramilitary domestic terrorist who went there to take hostages and/or assassinate democrats but simply some ignorant yokel who picked up the zip ties on-site.

  125. 125.

    Citizen Alan

    @rikyrah: It would be both hilarious and horrifying if shitgibbon can win the republican primary without spending a penny on campaigning simply because he is cult has such absolute control over the party.

  128. 128.

    Wanderer

    Merlin sound ID is really fun.  I often realize there are more types of birds around than I realize.  I’ve also used it with the grandkids to help them learn some frequently heard bird calls.

  129. 129.

    Lyrebird

    @OzarkHillbilly: Maybe pizza places are fewer and farther between where you live.

    In these parts, I can think of at least five within 5 mi where you can just call ’em up if you don’t want to deal with the crappy online ordering page.

  131. 131.

    JaneE

    Someone needs to tell Ramaswamy that children frequently go with their parents when the parents are deported.  Regardless of their US citizenship.

  133. 133.

    JCNZ

    @p.a.:

    “Senator outs himself as a no-tipper.” Hehe.

    Yet another reason why there should some way of thumbs-upping on this site..

  134. 134.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS): “It is easier to get a fentanyl tablet and cheaper to get a fentanyl tablet delivered to your home than it is to order a piece of pizza.” (?)

    Well, right, you don’t get delivery for a single slice of pizza, you animal.

  135. 135.

    Bill Arnold

    @peter:
    Yeah, the iNaturalist data has been the subject of at least 4 annual machine learning visual classification competitions. It is a difficult dataset, with a very large number of classes (many thousands of species), often with a small number of photos for a class; good side is that the community-sourced labels are quite accurate.
    iNaturalist itself uses it, but good to hear that specialized ID programs are taking advantage of it too.

    iNaturalist Competition Datasets (2017,2018,2019,2021)
    The iNaturalist Species Classification and Detection Dataset (2018, pdf)

  136. 136.

    JR

    @Kay: I found PictureThis to work pretty well. It won’t nail things like all the different varieties of Aster, but it gets the big things right.

  138. 138.

    KCSteve

    72 year resident of Kansas,  I got to call foul.  Tommy Tuberville  is famous  for being the dumbest Senator in office.  I say it’s just because he has a better media operation than are very own Roger Marshall.  Keep it up Roger…you’re beginning to get the recognition you deserve.

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