I’m tired and don’t feel well, and not adjusting well to grey skies and shitty weather, so I think I am just going to go watch television.
As a bonus, I am having some sort of driver error that I can not figure out so my computer is acting like a piece of shit and I don’t have the energy to attend to it right now.
I am so tired of hearing about Trump. Just so tired.
rk
It might be a weird thing to say, but I feel like I’m in an abusive relationship with Trump. Every single day for the last decade he’s in the news saying and doing awful things. There’s no way to get away from him. Just vile stuff every day!
Van Buren
So say we all.
Gvg
Yep. Sick of him.
I picked the first blackberry of the season tonight. Mostly just flowers, but some branches had bloomed early and are in fruit. We didn’t really get a winter this year. No frosts. That is unusual even here. Spring garden festival is this weekend. I expect to enjoy it. To get through dreary winter days I always read garden catalogs and make lists even if I don’t buy that much. Order some seeds, John. Maybe plant some asparagus.
satby
@Van Buren: was coming here to say the same thing. But eventually, maybe even before November, we’ll hear about him less and less. Looking forward to that day.
zhena gogolia
@rk: Yeah.
I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY 100% OF THE COUNTRY DOESN’T FEEL THE SAME WAY !!!
trollhattan
@Van Buren: It’s not five o’clock but I’ll drink to that, anyway.
So say we all.
satby
@rk: not weird. We are. The entire country has PTSD from it.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
It does feel like the Twilight Zone, but I’ve come to accept it.
Also, that people hate us.
Cacti
I can’t help but think from time to time, what if the country was already mortally wounded on J6, and we’ve just been limping along waiting for the coup de grace ever since.
Lacuna Synecdoche
So, Kate Middleton has cancer.
I wasn’t one of the people who was obsessed about her the past few weeks. Or theorized about her marriage. Or indulged in gossip about her. Or mocked her. Or took joy in her speculated faults.
Is it bad that now I’m feeling schadenfreude at all the people who are suddenly ashamed of of their own schadenfreude?
Betty
You all need a pep talk from Mr. Optimistic, namely Joe Biden.
Baud
@Betty:
Who’s that?
Lacuna Synecdoche
@rk:
I don’t think it’s weird. Trump is the bad dad who gives all his kids PTSD, and, for the past nine years, his presidency and media presence has been triggering childhood PTSD in everyone who has it.
zhena gogolia
@Lacuna Synecdoche: The problem is, they’re not ashamed.
zhena gogolia
@Lacuna Synecdoche: I don’t even have childhood PTSD, but I feel as if I finally have the abusive father I never had. And didn’t want. WOULD HE PLEASE JUST GO AWAY AND NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN
Lacuna Synecdoche
zhena gogolia:
Maybe not.
I was referencing the people quoted and described in the WaPo article I linked above:
They obsessed over Kate. Now they’re hit with a sobering truth.
Phylllis
As a USC Gamecock fan, I am now the biggest Yale Bulldog fan in the world.
JPL
OT For those wondering about their NCAA bracket, Yale beat Auburn.
JPL
@Phylllis: beat me to it.
How does that happen?
sstarr
If you are tired of hearing about Trump, could I interest you in some think pieces about Kate Middleton? No? Sorry, that’s all we’ve got.
Baud
@JPL:
I am conflicted.
Phylllis
@JPL: I dunno, but it was great to watch. Now if CofC can knock off Alabama, I will be in hog heaven.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
Hi, Conflicted. I’m Nukular Biskits!
<rimshot>
WaterGirl
@Cacti:
Chetan Murthy
@satby: 100% agree. We had a little respite right after Biden was inaugurated, but by the 2021 gubernatorials that was gone and the looming threat of a TFG resurgence was upon us. And it’s been like that ever since. I wonder to myself when was the last time our country had a period of “just politics”, and not “creeping fascism” ? Maybe in the 1990s? B/c Bush’s time was a horrorshow. Obama’s was the same with the damn Tea(bagger) Party and all. 2000 just turned the knob up on division in our country, it feels like.
Maybe I’m misremembering the 1990s.
P.S. And then there’s the overhang of COVID. I’m still not going to restaurants and bars. Every place with other people feels like a bit of a danger zone. I feel like you can’t count on other people to do the civicly responsible thing.
kalakal
@rk: Not weird at all. The last few years has been like an endless succession of false summits
On the plus side every day means that piece of shit owes another $90,000 and that is a cheery thought to greet the dawn
Nukular Biskits
@Cole:
Stupid question, but are you going to commute between WV & AZ on a semiperiodic basis?
And, yes, I should have been paying attention in class.
Ohio Mom
Ah Cole, you have what I call “car lag.” It’s a little known cousin to jet lag but just as debilitating.
ColoradoGuy
The US media profits from the PTSD. Unlike OJ Simpson and the Kardashians, T**** comes with a generous dose of horror-movie existential dread. It’s as if Charles Manson became not just a worldwide celebrity, but a popular politician that millions admired because of what he did.
One of the things that sets US media apart is the “If it bleeds it leads” ethos, combining horror with entertainment. T**** excels in that environment, increasing the horror each time. That’s basically his brand … horror and disgust.
Chetan Murthy
@ColoradoGuy: just as the US population has bifurcated into MAGAts and us libs, with very little center, It feels Like outcomes in the future have also bifurcatedinto Ones where the fascists win, And ones where they are soundly defeated. With not much in the middle. It’s hard to plan for the future.
NotMax
Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams.
;)
Yutsano
@Chetan Murthy: “Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.”
We need to do the work. Then when we have Biden re-elected, an all blue Congress, and maybe even a Supreme Court seat coming open, then we can relax some.
zhena gogolia
@Lacuna Synecdoche: Oh, I thought you were referring to BJ commenters.
Chetan Murthy
@Yutsano:
I don’t dispute this. What I feel, though, is that the downside of failure is enormous. It’s a yawning chasm. So you feel you have to prepare for it, too. If the downside were a modest worsening of conditions, then it wouldn’t be so awful. But as things stand, it feels like it’s not irrational to stock up on AR-15s and ammo. And parts for making IEDs. [to be clear, I’ve shot a long gun twice in my life: 1981 and 2001(ish), and have handled no other munitions.]
It’s a profoundly unsettling situation for someone whose identity is tied-up with living in civilization, contemplating its end.
frosty
@Chetan Murthy: Ever since 2000 every presidential election has been more critical than the previous one. I started canvassing in 2004 because I couldn’t sit back and let that happen without trying to do something about it. I’ve been knocking on doors ever since, and usually on the off-years too.
I’m tired and I want this to go away so I can just relax and vote like I used to. And maybe only read and fret about politics for just three hours a day.
Almost Retired
@Chetan Murthy: I take your point but I disagree that we’ve bifurcated into MAGA vs libs with very little in the middle. The MAGA crowd are extremists. Our Coalition of the Sane occupies most of the rest of the ideological spectrum from Centrists to Progressives.
Chief Oshkosh
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!
We’re living the death spiral of the foul, rank face of Falstaff.
Revel in it.
Kelly
I feel like the abusive relationship is with the entire MAGA movement. Trump is just the MAGA avatar
Chetan Murthy
@Yutsano: A different way of putting it. A few posts back, people were musing about “what if a billionaire were to donate most of their fortune to defeating TFG ?” And the idea was that the billionaire would keep back only enough $$ and a house, to live in security, and send the rest to defeat TFG. What a nice dream!
But what billionaire would do such a *daft* thing? B/c they’d be giving up *protection*, *insurance*, *safety* for what? The *chance* of defeating TFG ? it’s not at all certain, even if a billionaire were to give over their fortune. And yet that $billion is a shit-ton of security.
This is what I mean: the *bifurcation* and polarization of *outcomes* makes it difficult to think in a civilized manner about our actions and plans.
zhena gogolia
ISIS is claiming responsibility.
Chetan Murthy
@frosty:
I’m in awe of your bravery in doing this. I cannot imagine doing so in any precinct where it would matter. I’d be worried all the time about violence. All. The. Time.
Odie Hugh Manatee
“Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone…” Bill Withers
Are you saying that WV isn’t all sunshine and happiness? ;)
Call it car lag.
Urza
There has to be some sort of economic indicator of lost productivity due to one side or the other getting sick of the current politicians.
Harrison Wesley
@zhena gogolia: That makes sense. ISIS was behind the attack on the memorial ceremony (for Soleimani?) in Iran that killed an awful lot of people.
dmsilev
@Kelly:
Same here. Trump is a symptom of the underlying rot. Even the Republican Party of the Bush II or Gingrich eras, as bad as they were, wouldn’t have nominated someone like him.
frosty
@Chetan Murthy: They don’t send us to those precincts. We knock on the doors of registered Democrats. Last time around in 2022 I was asking if they had plans to vote. More than one said “Oh, hell yeah!”
It’s not dangerous; it’s just a miserable job for an introvert.
ETA: All precincts matter. Even my overwhelmingly red one. Still gotta turn out the Dems that are here. … which sort of contradicts my first sentence. Whatevs.
Chetan Murthy
@Almost Retired: I want to believe you. Hell, I *do* believe you, in the sense that, sure, MAGAts are all nutters. But that doesn’t change that they seem to have nearly half the population on their side. Sure, that includes “independents” who vote for MAGA. But as A.R.Moxon said, nobody care why they do it: they can be “sane” and all, but if they vote for MAGA, they’re MAGAts.
Thing is, if they were only 27% of the population and couldn’t enact their preferred outcome, absolutely I wouldn’t be troubled. I wouldn’t think about them every day, worry about them, fear them, literally every day. But they *can* enact their outcome, and they can do it despite our best efforts. [I’m not gonna be Pollyanna here, just not gonna do it] So yes, the outcomes, like the population, are bifurcated.
StringOnAStick
@Lacuna Synecdoche: My therapist told me that when tRump got elected, a bunch of her patients who had had narcissistic parents or partners and worked through that with her, were suddenly needing to be back in therapy again. Hell, that while mess is why i was I seeing her. This nation has PTSD from Covid, and it coincides with PTSD due to the tRump years as POTUS.
Matt McIrvin
I’m in this whole thread of people fretting about the election over on Mastodon. I’m the optimistic sounding guy there.
They seem to see only two possibilities–Trump wins, or civil war. They all agree that the Republicans are going to go insane with mass violence if they don’t win. Some are discussing how they’re going to die for their country.
I just need to tune out sometimes. I’m an increasingly old guy, I’ve never been good at violence. I’m probably not going to be an active part of your freedom fighter insurgency.
Hoodie
@dmsilev: They are actually that bad, they just got more desperate. Trump is who they had to turn to after W imploded. They held their noses and pushed him because they still wanted their tax cuts and he was the only vehicle to get them. I suspect that now they think they don’t need him and he’s more of liability than an asset, but they’re trying to figure out how to get rid of him without alienating most of his supporters.
Leto
@zhena gogolia: We had a thread yesterday where someone said they weren’t concerned about Afghanistan because they weren’t a terror threat any more. Anyone who says that isn’t someone to be taken seriously about anything. They’re still a terrorist haven and will be as long as the Taliban are in control. But, that’s not our concern anymore.
Chetan Murthy
@frosty: Back when I still thought of myself as a potato (“white on the inside, brown on the outside”), I visited my mom in Texas (where I grew up). At the time I was an avid biker, and lifted weights too. My mom suggested I could rent a bike from a local bike store and go for a ride. I thought about it, and … *nopes*. No way I was gonna ride on the side of a road where some good-ol’-boy could sideswipe me into a ditch and leave me to die. No way. I stuck to driving to the local health club.
I could imagine doorknocking in an overwhelmingly blue precinct. Nowhere else. And yeah, I’m an introvert, too: the one good thing about COVID was that my depression went away, b/c I stopped interacting with humans face-to-face.
Jay
@Harrison Wesley:
Also the suicide bombing and attack on the evacuation from Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah. That thread is dumb. You can be worried about violence if Trump loses, but not civil war, at least not one we wouldn’t win hands down.
Wouldn’t be surprised if righties were trying to discourage people from voting blue.
Chetan Murthy
@Matt McIrvin: I read your comment and thought: this sounds like Barbara F. Walter’s _How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them_. Excellent book. When I read it, I thought to myself: “that’s the good scenario, not the bad one!” If it’s just a spasm of violence from MAGAts, then that’s a great outcome! B/c we’ll have the military to put that down.
oldgold
Trump thinks Putin is a genius and that his intelligence services are better than ours.
“On March 19, Vladimir Putin dismissed warnings from U.S. diplomats that there was an imminent risk of a terrorist attack at a crowded venue in Moscow. The Russian
president called the warnings “outright blackmail” by the West and an attempt to “intimidate and destabilize our society.”
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Nah, I think they’re mostly sincere anarcho-leftist sort of folks, genuinely sick of Trump like us but very suspicious of institutions.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
No one should waste mental energy worrying about what happens if Trump loses.
Van Buren
Wondering if anyone in academia has thoughts on this story: My son is in his 3rd year of a Chemistry Ph.D program. His roommate is in his 4th year. Roommate’s advisor has decided to suddenly leave the field. University seems to be telling everyone in the lab,( a total of 4 grad students) tough shit, that’s life, you have to start over with new professor and line of research. Seems a little harsh, and if word gets around, of convincing prospective students to go elsewhere.
Does this sound like business as usual, or does this sound effed up?
Chetan Murthy
@oldgold: I’ve read that in many parts of RU they’ve sent all their firefighters, their municipal engineers, off to the front. Sure, they haven’t sent their local armed Rosgvardia and OMON troops, but those were never any good at actually *fighting* an armed force: they were there for crowd suppression and executions.
Mainland Russia is vulnerable.
Jay
@Leto:
the Afghan Taliban are at war with ISIL-K.
the Pakistani Taliban provide the ISIL-K with shelter.
The Afghan Taliban/Iran border incidents are probably about heroin smuggling.
Would the Afghan Taliban provide shelter to a “more moderate” Islamic Terrorist Group, probably, if there was one.
IS however , is the global franchise. Al Qaeda is gone.
Eolirin
@oldgold: Source?
Chetan Murthy
@Van Buren: This sounds fucked–up, and I’m pretty surprised that the roomie’s department hasn’t proactively planned-out how to deal with the situation. That’s dereliction.
Ohio Mom
@zhena gogolia: There are parts of my brain where information and feelings about Russia are stored, and other parts where information and feelings about ISIS are stored but the synapses between those two areas have never had to fire up before. Now I am forced to learn something new, why ISIS doesn’t like Russia.
Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
6th day of the Russian invasion and occupation of ruZZia’s Belogrod Oblast.
Suzanne
@frosty: I gave up in-person canvassing after 2016. Mr. Suzanne and I went to a house, one week before the election, where a registered Dem apparently lived. Instead, the man who opened the door, as soon as we said we were from the local Dem party, threatened to shoot us and yelled anti-Semitic shit as we ran TF away.
I might get back to it, but I am scared of crazy people.
Ohio Mom
@Ohio Mom: I just went off to google why ISIS attacked Russia and saw in the WSJ that we knew ISIS was planning the attack and we warned Moscow.
Now my ignorance has expanded to include the question, “What was in it for us, to warn Russia?” That seems a friendly gesture to a country we aren’t happy with. Seems to contradict the sentiment, “Let’s freeze Russian assets.”
I think I may quit this research project before I get any further behind. Maybe I’ll ask Adam later.
Chetan Murthy
@Ohio Mom: I harbor no kind thought for RU. But I can guess that perhaps we’ve learned our lesson from our previous meddling with ungovernable militias in the Middle East? And decided that it’s better to see them diminished than empowered ? Even at the cost of handing RU a little win. Just speculation, that’s all.
smith
@Ohio Mom: “What was in it for us, to warn Russia?”
If nothing else, perhaps to remind them that our intelligence services are better than theirs? Also, because we’re seriously opposed to terrorist attacks against civilians regardless of where they are.
Baud
@Ohio Mom:
If we said nothing and it came out that we knew, how would you feel about that?
trollhattan
IMO it’s a boss move showing our intel is better than their intel (remember the US being nearly alone predicting Russia is sure as shit invading Ukraine?) and if Russia had found it actionable and stopped this attack, we still “win” which, of course, they did not and have many dead to show for their thick-headedness.
Compare and contrast with Bibi having received intel from Egypt and HIS OWN FUCKING MILITARY that Hamas was preparing an attack.
Jay
@Ohio Mom:
A major core of ISIL’s early fighters in Syria and Iraq were Chechens.
ruZZia and Syria’s method for tackling ISIL, (who often fought alongside Free Syria forces, in an enemy of my enemy sort of thing) and the Free Syria and other Insurgent groups was to flatten everything, bounce the rubble and execute anybody who didn’t quickly switch sides.
ISIL was pretty successful against Syria, but got hammered by the combo of Syria, Russia, Iran and the Turncoats, to the point that most of their families and supporters surrendered to Iraqi, Kurdish and US troops.
Then you have Wagner, now renamed the Afrikka Corps, using the same tactics in much of the Sahel and Africa against the various IS factions there and everybody else.
Miss Bianca
@Matt McIrvin: I honestly expect to win and I honestly expect that 99 percent of the MAGAts aren’t going to do anything more violent than complain (loudly, if not violently).
The other 1 percent? I dunno. They make decide to “take up arms”, but I dunno. Learning that postJ-6, “actions have consequences, bitchez” seems to have had the desired effect on most of them.
ETA: Seriously, get away from whatever site it is where you’re seeing this kind of stuff. It’s not healthy, really it’s not.
Van Buren
@Chetan Murthy: Yeah, this can’t be the only grad school prof who unexpectedly bolts. Son says there are 2 international students who are thrown in limbo…and he says thousands of $ of equipment and chemicals are going to be disposed of. Seems a shame.
dmsilev
@Van Buren:
There probably isn’t another faculty member at that university with the same specializations as the roommate’s advisor.
However, when I’ve been involved with or witnessed similar situations, what usually happens is that the students find a new advisor and they do some sort of half thesis project with that new advisor and then use whatever they had from the original project as the other half, with some cobbled-together theme joining the two. It’s not ideal, but it’s certainly far better than writing off a few years of work and starting fresh on a whole new thesis project.
frosty
@Chetan Murthy: The overwhelmingly blue precincts are the poorest part of town, which are the ones you’d call dangerous. Last time I specifically asked to be sent to the suburbs.
Plus, they’re easier. In the ‘burbs, you’re not at the door, looking at doorbells that aren’t labeled well, trying to figure out which one is the voter you’re looking for. Who has probably moved, since it’s the poor part of town and people on the edge change jobs and location a lot.
That’s our base!!
schrodingers_cat
@Chetan Murthy: I have GOTV in NH. The Live Free or Die state. When you are doing GOTV you are basically just telling known D voters where their polling place is. I was paired with another woman. It was cold but not particularly dangerous.
Brachiator
I totally understand this sentiment, but reject it. I have never felt like I have been in any kind of relationship with Trump, metaphorical or otherwise. He has been a blot on the political landscape, and I am more than ready for him to go away.
I hate what he has done to this country. I hate that so many people see him as their avatar. I hate that the Republican Party defer to him and have kept him politically viable.
CaseyL
So sorry the change in weather has you down. Driving across the country may take more than one day to recover from, so give yourself through the weekend to emerge from the dreary mood.
As for TFG? I am so wistful for the days when all I knew about him were his marital misadventures, and Spy Magazine calling him a fat-fingered vulgarian.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Same here. I did not watch the news until Dems took back the House in 2018. I want as little to do with him as possible. Was never a fan of Bush II but the Orange Error is another level.
Jay
Kayla Rudbek
@Van Buren: if the professor was leaving for a different university, the standard procedure is that their graduate students would transfer to that university. I’m not sure what happens if the professor leaves academia altogether.
David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch
speaking of civil war, Nebraska vs Texas A&M at 10:30 pm Eastern
Baud
Via Reddit, Donald Trump’s America
frosty
@Suzanne: Nobody’s threatened me yet. But yeah, that’s definitely a worry.
One weird one, I knock on a door asking for a college-age female. Old guy answers, says it’s his daughter, she’s away at school. Asks why I’m there. I tell him I’m canvassing registered Democrats. From the look on his face, I guess she never told her dad. Oops, and yes I felt a little bad about that one.
Baud
@Jay:
Yass is the new Thiel.
Brachiator
@Ohio Mom:
Seems to me that it is very smart to get the word out that we oppose Putin, but bear no ill will towards the Russian people.
David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch
@Suzanne:
could have been worse, at least you didn’t say you were a Jehovah’s Witness
Kayla Rudbek
And to our crotchety host, life could be much worse. At least you’re not having to watch continuing legal education videos on artificial intelligence and government contracting tonight. At least I can manage to do some simple embroidery work while I’m watching my iPad, although the stand that I’m using to hold the hoop is a bit temperamental.
Brachiator
@Jay:
No conflict of interest here. Nope. Don’t go looking for one.
Jay
@Baud:
how can Yass be the New Thiel when the Old Thiel is still there?
RSA
I don’t mean to sound like an asshole, but I’ve gotten the impression that you’re a thoughtful person, and if you’ve seriously thought about making IEDs, you should talk to a professional therapist at the next possible opportunity. I’m hoping this is just hyperbole. Best wishes.
Baud
@Jay:
The blood infusions didn’t work?
TKH
@Van Buren: Retired Chem Prof here. This sounds seriously fucked up to me. I was Grad Chair for about 15 years in our department and Dept Chair for six, so I had some exposure to this kind of stuff.
If the Graduate Chair is no help, the students should talk to their thesis committee members. Get faculty they trust on board in figuring out a solution.
Another Scott
@dmsilev: +1
There are ways to make this work, and profs leaving isn’t all that unusual. The students should be talking to the department head and division head and on up if they aren’t getting assistance in making a sensible transition.
Just being thrown to the wolves is not a sensible policy – they need to make this right.
Good luck Van Buren’s son and Van Buren’s son’s roommate!
Cheers,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
Just looked at JC’s post again, and “tired and don’t feel well” pretty much sums up how I am feeling. Wonder if it’s pollen, John? You’ve just been in Arizona and I bet spring is fairly sprung in WV!
I’m pretty sure it’s juniper pollen that’s got me down. Stuffy/runny nose, scratchy throat, itchy eyes…now, it could be COVID, but we’ve gotten a shit-ton of snow moisture, coupled with suddenly spring-y temperatures, and my other friends with allergies are telling me they are showing the same symptoms.
Chetan Murthy
@RSA: Oh, it’s hyperbole. That’s why I added the postscript. My point is that I still think about it, and if TFG wins and I’m still in this country, there’s every chance I’ll be *doing* it. I mean, it is what it is.
Citizen Dave
@NotMax: will see this and raise a Velvet Underground (15 minutes of Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams): https://youtu.be/xDNPHPJTbpM?si=ANQD9foUd-Ljqh9g
RSA
@Chetan Murthy: Take care.
rk
@zhena gogolia:
That’s the worst part. Why does everyone not see what I’m seeing? There’s nothing hidden about his awfulness, nothing deceptive and that means that people are attracted towards the vileness. That’s the part which is most difficult to take.
Brachiator
@ColoradoGuy:
The US media are rank amateurs compared with that of a number of countries, especially the UK press, which has recently stepped in its own crap over their Kate Middleton coverage.
Jay
@Baud:
Yep, the transfusions don’t work. Marianne Williamson’s theory didn’t work, that’s why she switched to crystals and a Presidential Run.
CarolPW
@Van Buren: Sounds effed up. My PhD was in agricultural and environmental chemistry, so chemistry adjacent and half my classes were with straight chemistry students. Had a couple of chemistry profs on my dissertation committee. If my major professor had left that far into my research, another faculty member in my department or on my committee would have adopted me and let me continue on the research path I was pursuing.
I also taught in two different university graduate programs, and almost all of us would (and did) adopt abandoned students. I was proud to walk two to get their hoods. All of that (studying and teaching) was in land grant universities which I think are not so asshole as many.
Brachiator
@Chetan Murthy:
You don’t need billionaires to defeat Trump. You just need more idiots to pull their heads out of their asses and do the right thing.
RSA
Speaking as a former STEM professor, I’ll have to say this sounds like not an uncommon occurrence. Here’s what should happen in a flexible department:
It would be reasonable for a departing professor to stay on until his or her students graduate (i.e. as an adjunct but still a member of the graduate faculty, able to chair a Ph.D. committee). If that’s not possible, almost all professors have colleagues in the department whose expertise overlaps with their own. The departing professor should be able to transfer students to those colleagues, ideally with the support of the department chair and above. If the departing professor has grants that support the students, the department could fight to retain those grants. (Funding agencies generally put funding toward institutions rather than individuals, and colleagues could take up the responsibility. It’s not an easy argument to make, but maybe.)
Students should expect to adjust their topics, but not to start from scratch.
NotMax
@Brachiator
Old anecdote about local TV news.
Station manager calling the news producer on the carpet.
Manager: “About that fire at the orphanage story. The flames shown on channel 8 were twice as high as in the coverage we aired.”
Producer: “Maybe so, but the nuns in our piece were crying.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Chetan Murthy:
I am not going to tell anyone what they should or should not do if Trump wins in November, but I will say that whatever one chooses to do one should do offline and without telling people about it.
stinger
@Ohio Mom:
You’ve gotten a number of good responses. When I read this question, my immediate thought was: Because Biden is in charge. A man who understands that the best outcomes result from being decent. To everybody, even enemies. A terrorist attack usually means civilian deaths. Biden isn’t going to sit on his hands when he can help prevent that.
ETA: And it gives us a stronger hand in negotiations. Again, Biden knows this.
I was proud when I read that we had tried to warn Russia.
Miki
Today was a bad day in so many ways. Cancer sucks, especially when it takes family and friends.
But not in all ways.
Minor reminder of the good things in life, e.g., Chick Corea and Bella Fleck
NotMax
FYI.
Ohio Mom
@stinger: Just got back to this thread and I do appreciate the responses to my questions. I especially like the angle that we are rubbing it in Russia’s face that our intelligence is better than theirs (unless for some reason, they knew and didn’t do anything).
BellyCat
Ding, ding, ding!
Betty
@stinger: According to retired diplomat, Michael McFaul, duty to warn is considered standard procedure in international intelligence circles. He said the unusual thing was that they published the warning. That raised a question about why.
BellyCat
Yes and yes.
Happens OFTEN.
Many Ph.D. Students follow their advisor to their new institution. Ain’t fair, but such is academia.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
Very droll.
ETA. I would pay good money if news stations would stop sending reporters out to get slapped around by the wind and rain during hurricane coverage.
Matt McIrvin
@Miss Bianca: I’ve had this persistent congestion and irritation for several days that doesn’t get any better or worse. Doesn’t feel like an infection–it’s not progressing like one. I bet it’s the juniper pollen. It hits me every year.
I actually went in for a physical today and my doctor immediately noticed it. Looked up my nose: “You’re pretty blocked up on this side.”
New Deal democrat
@StringOnAStick: Sibling Unit’s therapist said the same thing. After the 2016 election, everyone with PTSD had to come back in.
Part of learning to cope with trauma is always to have a “Plan B.” In my case, that means if TFG wins the 2024 election, I will cross off as many items as possible from the bucket list as quickly as possible.
BTW, TFG will be the GOP nominee in every election year until he dies, regardless of the outcome this year. So be ready for it.
stinger
@Ohio Mom:
That was my third thought!
mrmoshpotato
Same here, blogfather. Hope you get a good rest tonight.
Matt McIrvin
@Chetan Murthy: When I have the paranoid “better get a gun!!!” thoughts I ask myself: in a worst case scenario, what the hell would I actually do with that gun? And I have no good answer, any more than some Bundy Militia type or a guy who fantasizes about shooting home invaders would. Probably not anything that would actually make me or my loved ones safer, most likely the reverse. Maybe the skills are worth developing but eh, I suspect that if Shit Got Real my main utility would lie elsewhere.
BellyCat
Ditto. When that fucker got elected, I said, “He’s either going to break or strengthen democracy.”
I’m feeling increasingly confident about the latter and the results in Roevember. Go Uncle Joe and Sister Kamala!
Quadrillipede
Listening to Dub Specialist on a bus in Taizhong, on the way to some kind of Science Museum trip my wife organized for my son. 10am, and it’s already nearing 30⁰C… 🥵
Quadrillipede
@Lacuna Synecdoche: Metadenfreude?
mrmoshpotato
@rk:
It is not a weird thing to say. You are SPOT ON! And thank you for saying it.
Quadrillipede
@Matt McIrvin: FWIW, I think it’s either Biden wins or civil war (but I am just a Canuck so 🤷♂️…)
Quiltingfool
Was over at LGM this morning and heard the best country song – “Brenda Put Your Bra On.” https://youtu.be/3GBcMbYP2ng?si=Ay713V4LWwxS7RoH
A commenter posted this in a post about Trump’s many troubles. I was intrigued by the title so just had to listen to it! OMG! It’s a hoot!
“Brenda, put your bra on, there’s trouble next door
Grab a pack of cigarettes and meet me on the porch
Marvin baby momma bout to catch him with a whore
Brenda put your bra on, (bra on, bra on)”
Best trailer park theme song EVER!
Jay
@Matt McIrvin:
Take several first aid courses, build a major trauma kit, learn how to clean and stitch wounds, deal with shock, apply a CAT3 Tourniquet.
satby
@Ohio Mom: To prevent them from claiming Ukraine did it, or at least warn Putin if he tried the US had intelligence to prove otherwise (and very likely so did other counties).
satby
@Brachiator: Also a good point. And Putin ignored the warning. Which didn’t work out well for Bibi’s long term political future either.
Ksmiami
@rk: that’s my maxim. There are no good Republicans.
smith
@satby: Bush the Lesser ignored the warning too, but it didn’t do his long term political prospects any harm, unfortunately.
Jackie
@stinger:
I couldn’t have said that any better. President Biden did what he could to hopefully save innocent lives. That Putin ignored or didn’t care – is between him and his Maker.
Quadrillipede
Every cloud has a silver lining.
satby
@Jackie: Agree, the most salient point of all is that Biden is a decent human being and a truly humane leader.
Jackie
@Quiltingfool: Oh LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!
Kinda Dixie Chicks attitude-like! Thanks for sharing!!!😂
wjca
Awkwardly for them, the only remotely plausible path to accomplish that involves him dying. Preferably of natural causes (although that won’t help with the big fraction of his cultists who are conspiracy theory enthusiasts). But any other route, so long as it can’t be traced back to them, might suffice.
wjca
If they expected Putin to ignore the warning, publishing it would tend to undercut him with whatever supporters he has. Simply for being too dumb to take preventative measures.
NotMax
@Quiltingfool
Reminded, in a very roundabout way, of Moms Mabley, Hide the Whiskey.
:)
Jackie
Aljazeera reporting death toll up to 60+ and 145+ injured.
Another Scott
Feel better, JC.
We were talking about Apple recently. I just came across this – NotebookCheck.net:
There might be a non-fatal error and compatibility issues if you run Windows 3.1 on DR-DOS. You sure you want to do that? – MS, our other favorite monopolist…
IOW, we’ve seen this play before.
(See the original for embedded links.)
Cheers,
Scott.
sdhays
@Quadrillipede: Taiwan is an awesome place! Jealous of you!
Glidwrith
@Chetan Murthy: Very late to the thread, but you mention the population is bifurcated, that if only 27% were MAGAts you would be less worried.
74 million people voted for SFB, which translates as 22% of a population of 330 million.
That was before J6, before a lot of Covid deaths, up close and personal to the survivors, before Roe fell, before SFB was convicted of rape, massive fraud and 91 felony indictments and he’s about to lose chunks of his real estate.
We’re going to beat his miserable orange hide into shoe leather.
karen marie
You kids ready for some heavy space weather?
As if there weren’t enough things to worry about.
My prediction, the coronal mass ejection that will take out the electric grid and shut down everything will happen in October or November.
Citizen Alan
@rk: I stand by my belief that I truly do not hate Trump nearly as much as I do his supporters. The fact that an utterly repulsive sack of excrement like him could actually become President a second time is not nearly as sickening to me as the fact that I am sharing a country with 75 million or so demon-people who will ecstatically cheer his victory … or possibly go on a domestic terrorism spree if he loses.
Citizen Alan
@Lacuna Synecdoche: I was never obsessed with her. In fact, TBH, before the last week or so, I would not have recognized Kate Middleton by name as being “that woman who married that Prince who wasn’t Prince Harry and then was mean to that woman who married Prince Harry.” The whole Royal family to me is basically “Posh Kardashians” at this point. I think it’s sad when anyone gets cancer, even the people who in moments of anger I’ve wished it on. But if the people who handle PR for the Royal family did not want to put up with a week of salacious conspiracy-theorizing, they probably should not have gone with the utterly pointless and baffling decision to put out a digitally altered picture of her and then botch it so badly that everyone figured out immediately that it was fake.
karen marie
@Matt McIrvin: You’re following the wrong accounts!
Citizen Alan
@Chetan Murthy:
The 1990s was the era of Newt Gingrich, and even then, I thought saw encroaching fascism in the GOP when the bastard literally sent out a memo to the House Republicans advising them on how to literally demonize Democrats.
Quadrillipede
@sdhays: It really is! Great Asian food, culture and history with none of the autarchy of the mainland. Plus, I am considered 家人 (a member of family) here as well! 🇹🇼
Citizen Alan
@trollhattan:
I stand by my belief that Bibi knew that Hamas was going to do something and he actively let it go ahead so that he could use it for political advantage (which he totally fucking has), but he grossly underestimated the scope of what they were planning.
Which, btw, is EXACTLY what I think happened before 9/11 when that motherfucker George Bush told that guy “okay, you’ve covered your ass, now get out of here.”
I know there’s an old saying: Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity. But when the consequences of stupidity continually redound to the benefit of the supposedly stupid people, malice suddenly seems much more probable.
Citizen Alan
@RSA: I have, for the last few years, been caught between my desire to seek out therapy and my fear of telling the wrong therapist that I genuinely worry about ending up in an internment camp. Less so now that I’m in California, because if the worst happened, I think I can load a suitcase into the SUV and make it to the Canadian border in 16 hours. But if I was still in Mississippi? Where I was literally afraid to put a Hillary 2016 sticker on my car? I would be sick with fear at the thought of Trump winning again if I lived in any red state.
Citizen Alan
@Matt McIrvin: There have been moments when I’ve thought about getting a gun. Most recently in the early summer of 2020 when their wasn’t a vaccine in sight yet, but there were MAGA freaks picking fights with people who wore masks in public. But I always come back to my near certainty that if I owned a gun, I would be vastly more likely to use it on myself than on anyone else. I can think of at least four occasions in my life when, if I’d had a gun in the house, I would have died at my own hand.
Citizen Alan
@smith: I firmly believe that after the initial shock of 9/11 wore off, every Republican in Washington locked their office doors and popped champagne because they knew that Bush would cruise to reelection and that they’d be able to spend the next several years demonizing Democrats as unpatriotic if they didn’t roll over and give the GOP whatever they wanted.
Quadrillipede
@Citizen Alan: I suppose it’s possible for someone to be malicious and stupid (and orange) at the same time…
Jay
@Citizen Alan:
Sorry that you have at times, had to deal with suicidal ideation.
Many of us, at many times, have.
Jay
@Citizen Alan:
if you ever need to talk or vent, we are here.
Chris Johnson
@Baud: Civil war talk always traces back to Russia. It’s really their most fundamental weapon to use against the United States. Any time I hear about some collection of people online being really upset and despairing because they fear either Trump will win (or, I dunno, just get crowned King by the Supreme Court or something else really irrational?) or a vengeful and inexplicably powerful right wing will kill everyone in a civil war (them and what army?)…
…that’s when I figure some community is the direct target of a fuckload of Russian propaganda, because they’ve been made to echo the target message.
When it’s youtubers or incredibly consistent blog posters I figure those ones are the foot soldiers and are working pretty directly with their Russian masters, in exchange for money. Typically the youtubers do in fact have budgets which we’re supposed to assume come from YouTube success.
artem1s
@Van Buren:
I work in grants administration at a research university. the situation you described sounds only f’d up in the sense they are telling the students they have to start all over again. They’ve got to have more than on person on faculty in the department to have a PhD program – a lot of departments have cross over Grad and PhD students from BioChem at my university – so they are working in multiple departments. the real question they should be asking is who got the departing faculty member’s funding for his pay and projects. It just doesn’t go away. And the university has a compliance problem if they don’t use it the way they’ve told the sponsor it was going to be used.
SteveinPHX
@Van Buren:
This is kind of late to the thread because my son is in Detroit on travel, doing some work as part of his doctoral program at ASU here. I copied your query & emailed it for a reaction:
“If they have any publications or promising research I would tell them to reach out to other professors at other universities and be like “hey would you be interested in letting me research under you?”, if they’re promising students they should be snapped up.
Most cases I’ve heard this happen they are able to finish out the PhD under another faculty but if the university isn’t very large that might be difficult.”
Paul in KY
@trollhattan: Was a mensch thing to do, IMO. Assuming the ISIS losers would kill a bunch of civilians, you are hopefully trying to save some kids from being killed.
Paul in KY
@RSA: Agree. I have a bunch of weapons, but thinking about IEDs & ensuring you have the stuff to make em is a bit much.
OK, see it was hyperbole.
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus: Usually considered a cry for “Won’t someone please stop me!” when you yakk about it online.
Paul in KY
@Citizen Alan: Batshit McChimpy and Darth Snarly & their Likud Israel allies wanted a big reason to go in and PNAC the Mideast (Iraq mostly).
IMO, they all should have hanged for that.