Pete gets it, but the media is slow to catch on. I had to change my morning viewing habits because my favorite morning show has been taken over by their corporate ownership Nexstar and showing sanewashed rancid orange peel snippets, while maybe, if they feel like it, reading VP Harris quotes. I’m hoping that I’m not the only one tuning out, since we are a fairly blue state.
Pete gets the current strategy:
Here’s the real reason Trump wants us to spend the week chasing rumors about people eating cats. pic.twitter.com/XAbYpT3Wgo
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) September 13, 2024
I’m not one to share unsubstantiated rumors (oh, who are we kidding, I’m reveling in this one) but any video of the rotting pumpkin and the barbie factory reject really ups the dial on the question of are these two bumping uglies? I mean, eeewww and I’ll spare you any of those videos. But watching racist Loomer going scorched earth on the usual suspects – MGT and Lindsay – I mean popcorn futures are going through the roof. Can Gaetz be far behind? I mean she’s playing for all the marbles right now.
Meanwhile, while FOX news cut away from trump’s pathetic rally in AZ, where he spewed hateful conspiracy after hateful conspiracy and glitched repeatedly, VP Harris filled two high stadiums in the same afternoon.
People who filled the Greensboro Coliseum to capacity…
The Rolling Stones
Bruce Springsteen
Prince
Beyoncé
Taylor Swift
Elton John
Paul McCartney…and VP Kamala Harris
pic.twitter.com/UuREPgcXwP— Ted Corcoran (RedTRaccoon) (@RedTRaccoon) September 13, 2024
Some cute pet photos here if you need to see my critters (did you see Nora’s new shoes?)
That’s it for me. What is everyone doing this Friday? I’m still trying to find my motivation, which left somewhere midweek, never to be seen again.
Open thread
Hildebrand
This afternoon, my son defends his doctoral dissertation, “Development of Erbium-doped Oxide Thin Films for Quantum Communication Platforms”, at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. The best part? It will be streamed on Zoom so we can watch. We are incredibly proud of him.
narya
I just took two “fancy” focaccia out of the oven–I used tomatoes of various colors, olives, cauliflower, arugula, chives, basil, rosemary, and caramelized onions. The herbs got a bit too brown, so I’ll add some fresh basil and chives before serving. I also made a chocolate cherry tart; here’s hoping it sets up by the end of the day.
narya
@Hildebrand: woo-hoo!!
Baud
Via reddit
(spelling mistake in original)
Mousebumples
Thanks for this, TaMara. I’m still writing postcards. Have just over 100 left of my first batch of 300… And then I need to add addresses.
Time to keep plugging away…
TBone
Going to Wilkes Barre maybe. Tailgate!
TBone
@Baud: oh dear LORT they ARE doing it!
Baud
@Hildebrand:
Sounds pretty indefensable to me. Need to dope with unobtainium.
TBone
@Hildebrand: 💙💜😍
TBone
@narya: you are a rock star! Yum!
twbrandt
@Hildebrand: Good luck to your son! Although, I haven’t the faintest idea what that thesis title means.
satby
@Hildebrand: WOW, good luck to him!
Hildebrand
@twbrandt: The best part is that he knows that there will be folks tuning in who have little understanding of quantum physics, so he is going to lead off with a short primer. He is really good at explaining very complicated science and mathematics to folks with very little training.
fancycwabs
Loomer recently has been eating Rumble (Nazi Youtube) brand dog food on her TikTok channel to show it’s safe for humans or something, and that’s likely the second most disgusting thing she’s had in her mouth this week.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Hildebrand: Very cool. How about a Zoom link? 😁
[ETA I would like to listen in. Maybe a recording?]
TBone
Comment of the Morning:
I would like to respond but I do not surface anywhere other than here. Same commenter said fewer rethugs are laughing off the latest racist attacks and I hope that is true…
It’s all the same fucking day, man (*Janis Joplin voice)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Hildebrand: Congratulations to him! That’s the end of a long hard haul.
Today, I’m killing a character. It’s the right thing to do.
satby
I’m nailing down all the rescue kitty transports today. First up William to Memphis on Sunday the 22nd, then the siblings to Akron Wednesday that week, then Bunny and I fly out Monday Oct 1 to Seattle. Again, thanks to all who stepped up to save these guys, and many thanks to zhena goglia and lowtechcyclist for helping defray some transport costs. Couldn’t possibly do this without all the help!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Dorothy A. Winsor: oooh.
JPL
@Hildebrand: That’s awesome!
Jeffro
Reporter: “sir, you’re saying that the Loomer affair was a bridge too far for you with trump?”
MAGAt: “yes…just disgusting”
Reporter: “but you’ve been following him for nearly a decade now – surely you know he’s a Nazi-loving serial philanderer?”
MAGAt: “yes, but I didn’t want the whole world to know!”
Reporter: (mouth hangs open)
JPL
@Baud: It’s possible that Margie is jealous. Since when has Margie concerned herself with overt racist acts.
Kay
I thought that’s what Pete said in the clip! “Here’s the real reason…an affair with Loomer”
I would LOVE it.
Jeffro
@fancycwabs: I feel like we should fine you or something for that mental image
THANKS!
lol
NutmegAgain
@Hildebrand: Congrats all around!
twbrandt
@Hildebrand: A rare and useful skill to have.
mrmoshpotato
Woke up thinking it was Sunday. I think Thursday Night Football replaying Sunday night’s game had something to do with that.
Either way, Nora’s shoes are great, and I have nawed on bones on the couch. (What? I don’t cook ribs to fall-off-the-bone state. 😁) Jasper knows a comfy couch.
Also, go Cubs (sorry T), go Bears, go D’Backs.
satby
TaMara, I love Nora’s new boot! Poor baby, I’m glad it’s helping her foot heal.
Picked up some duck eggs on Flashfood and deciding what to make with them now. Any suggestions?
Hildebrand
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Just in case anyone has some time this afternoon – the defense starts at 2pm Central.
Zoom Link: https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/97695513648?pwd=kMY4P42IaX42uktWzucbafUGLZS822.1
Zoom Meeting ID: 976 9551 3648 | Password: thesis
kindness
Of course Laura Loomer is jumping Trump’s bones. Just wait, the footage will come out the end of October. Let’s see if it has more impact than the ‘grab them by the ‘ comment.
mrmoshpotato
@Hildebrand: Best of luck to him.
mrmoshpotato
@narya: Appetizers and dessert is made. What’s the main course? 😁😋
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Hildebrand: thanks!
cope
We’re finally dropping out of the 90s here on the Western Slope. The final variety of peaches (O’Henry) are being picked and our 7-8 month long home interior remodel is nearing the end. Some final touch-up painting and grout work is scheduled for today though nobody has shown up yet. The final step will be the glass around the walk-in shower which is supposed to happen in the middle of next week. Then we can empty the storage container in our driveway and put the house back together. It will nice to have our routine lives back
ETA: GO LIVERPOOL! (after reading posts made while I composed this one).
Kay
I hate these people.
Kids aren’t traumatized enough because of the gun fetish on the Right, now they’re instigating bomb threats.
MattF
Getting my shots (flu and Covid) this afternoon. Continuing to play with my new fancy combo toaster oven air fryer… cooking many different types of potatos.
Suzanne
I have been soooooo eager to get back to fall flavors. I don’t like to cook a lot of hot food in summertime. And even though it’s going to get into the mid-80s today, it’s been high-50s in the morning….. so I made a pot of chili, using the Penzey’s chili con carne seasoning (even though I used turkey). It is slow cooking in the crockpot right now. Fan-freaken-tastic.
MattF
[deleted]
rikyrah
so,
I just got my negative COVID test this morning.
I got my first positive COVID test result last Thursday.
So, how did my time with COVID work out?
I got Paxlovid.
I couldn’t eat. I had no appetite. When I went into the doctor last Friday to confirm the home test, I had lost 10 pounds, just from the week before, when I had gone for a physical.
For me, it turned out to be a really bad flu.
The days weren’t so bad.
The nights, though…horrible. I was literally sitting up straight in my bed in order to get to sleep, when I could get to sleep. I was literally waiting for exhaustion to overcome me so that I could get sleep those first 3 nights. If I tried to lay down , the coughing fits were overwhelming.
So, I wanna thank Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for the Vaccine and boosters that I have been taking.
And, I want to thank AL for the COVID beat that she has done all these years. The storefront of COVID information that one can just look at old BJ posts to get…..cannot express enough appreciation for it.
I go to work, and come home.
I am masked up when around people.
Thank you Biden/Harris :)
narya
@mrmoshpotato: I’m meeting up with friends–we’re going to have a variety of meats and cheeses and spreads to go with the focaccia, thus making it “dinner” rather than an appetizer. I think it’ll be perfect in that it doesn’t require precise timing of anything, and we can just hang out–in THEIR backyard, so I don’t have to clean–and nibble and drink. I’ll post pics on bluesky after I add the fresh herbs.
wjca
If you really wanted to highlight your support for the underdog, you’d be writing “Go White Sox!”
Hey, it’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it. Or perhaps not.
narya
@Hildebrand: THAT is a superpower that will serve him well.
karen marie
@satby: Excellent!
BR
@rikyrah:
Glad you are feeling better. I will say the one mistake I made post COVID was trying to go back to a normal schedule and only later I learned that pushing oneself after COVID increases the changes of Long COVID…which is what I ended up getting. It really sucks. So I hope you can take the time to keep a light schedule for a couple months.
satby
@rikyrah: Glad you’re feeling better!
The Other Steve
This is for DougJ. Haven’t been on BJ for a while, but if you remember that time we did the whole website devoted to Mike Huckabee, it’s along those lines.
Anyway, there’s a rumor out there that Laura Loomer, Steve Miller, The Heritage Foundation and JD Vance are all planning to invoke the 25th if Trump is re-elected and replace him with Vance. Seems like if this was amplified, it would be kind of funny.
mrmoshpotato
@MattF: Baked?
fancycwabs
@Jeffro: I feel I shouldn’t have to suffer the things my brain makes me think in solitude. ;)
cope
@rikyrah: My wife and I both contracted Covid several weeks ago even though we are all vacced up and don’t really have any social life. It was horrible for both of us. I finally tested negative about a week after testing positive but my wife suffered much longer. We are still fighting fatigue and lethargy but at least we can finally sleep through the night.
rikyrah
@The Other Steve:
not the only one thinking this way:
yvette nicole brown (@YNB) posted at 8:30 AM on Fri, Sep 13, 2024:![]()
DO ![]()
!![]()
@KamalaHQ vote.org iwlllvote.com
My 6am thoughts:
JD Vance was the plan for President by the #HeritageFoundation all along.
It was NEVER about Trump.
Please realize that the Republicans are good at one thing — besides greed, racism and hatred — and it’s the long game for ultimate power.
I couldn’t figure out WHY that weirdo was SO cocky with his hatefulness.
It’s because he KNOWS HE will be President a month after a Trump inauguration.
25th Amendment, baby.
Also:
The corrupt and bought Supreme Court created immunity for VANCE, not Trump.
What Vance and Thiel and the Heritage Foundation have planned will need it.
All Trump needs is a broad pardon that will keep him out of jail. Staying out of jail was his only goal in running.
He’s already got the secrets to sell to get more money.
Y’all better realize what’s actually happening and get everybody you know to vote #HarrisWalz!
You think a Trump Presidency is bad. Take 40 years off him and add more malevolent evil.
Vance also isn’t dumb.
He’s arrogant, unscrupulous & charm-free. But he’s not dumb.
Which makes Vance WAY more dangerous.
His whole life he’s shape-shifted to fit the agenda & his goals. His look, his name…even his preferences & proclivities are mutable.
HE’s the snake.
THINK, people.
Make sure you and your friends are registered and vote like your life and the freedoms you love depend on it.
They
Let’s go!
(https://x.com/YNB/status/1834585354604814529?t=axUrvBRIyK-6YzYxGg6idw&s=03)
mrmoshpotato
@narya: Excellent.
MattF
@mrmoshpotato: Baked, french fried, baby. Also roasted veggies. Nothing complicated.
TBone
@satby: traveling mercies to you!
mrmoshpotato
@wjca:
LOL! They were eliminated from the playoffs weeks ago. And I’ll have to look up their current streak.
Hmm, only a 3-game sweep by the visiting Guardians.
Chet Murthy
MayorSecretary Pete is absolutely right! This is about “sadopopulism”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOjJtEkKMX4Oligarchs and Personalist regimes are genetically incapable of competence. So they can’t actually deliver anything for their voters. So what can they do to get votes? They can identify an Other, blame them for the voters’ problems, and gin up a lynch mob. All to distract from the fact that they can’t actually -achieve- anything for the voters. That is what TCFG is doing.
mrmoshpotato
@fancycwabs:
Hahaha! Great line.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@rikyrah: I have been mostly joking about Vance pushing Trump down a staircase but yeah, this is believable.
satby
@satby: Also big appreciation to eclare for booking a hotel room for me! My 16 hour straight round trip days are so far behind me I haven’t seen them for decades 😂
Doc Sardonic
Nah, she’s just playing with two marbles
satby
@The Other Steve: That’s probably not a rumor, but the actual plan.
eclare
Thanks for the pet photos! I hope the bootie helps Nora’s problem.
mrmoshpotato
@MattF: What about twice baked? (Why aren’t their weed emojis?)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@satby:
You rock.
eclare
@Hildebrand:
Congratulations to all!
Mr. Bemused Senior
🪴
@mrmoshpotato: close enough?
Maxim
@Hildebrand: How wonderful! Congratulations to him.
frosty
What am I doing this Friday? Driving down to Baltimore to see Springsteen at Camden Yards! Second time I’ve seen him. First was at the Roxy on Sunset Strip in 1975. IIRC I waited on the sidewalk overnight to get tickets. Then took my upstairs neighbor because I didn’t have a girlfriend. I wonder if she remembers it!
This time is because of a friend and former Jersey Girl who has seen him dozens of times and got a ticket for me.
Scout211
Happy news in my little tiny part of the world. My brand new shiny Generac whole house back-up generator has been installed and is ready to go for our next power outage. And it could be soon since we had two power outages since the Generac installation process started last month.
It’s pricy but was less than the original quote so I am happy. And now with our numerous outages, I won’t have to go, “OH SHIT!” and then wheel out the big portable and go through starting it up each time (following the instructions each time because I am not mechanical at all). My husband used to handle all of that but he can’t do it anymore so it’s on me. Now it’s on the Generac, thank goodness.
MattF
@mrmoshpotato: After baking them once for an hour, I just want to eat them with sour cream, butter, salt and pepper. Why wait?
frosty
@TBone: Great! Give her a cheer for me!
delphinium
@Hildebrand: Congrats, am sure he will do well!
Tamara-am loving Nora’s new boot-so cute!
Just got done moving the lawn and have signed up for more postcards for a house race in NY, as well as continuing to work on my other set of postcards that go out in late Oct.
delphinium
@rikyrah: Glad you are doing better!
mrmoshpotato
@frosty: Awesome! Enjoy!
Doc Sardonic
@Scout211: Congrats on the completed generator install. 2 suggestions, if you haven’t already done it, a maintenance contract is a good thing. Number 2…Test the generator regularly. Here’s to many days of having power when you need it.😁
mrmoshpotato
@MattF: No bacon bits?
CaseyL
@Hildebrand:
Congrats and well done, kid!
Enjoy the Zoom, and kvell all you want.
Gin & Tonic
It’s a perfect late summer beach day here in New England, so that’s where I am.
mrmoshpotato
@Scout211: Congrats!
M31
they don’t even need to do 25th amendment nonsense — the 2025 assholes and Vance will just put stuff in front of him and he’ll sign it, and they’ll decide all the policies
maybe if he starts getting uppity lol
MattF
@mrmoshpotato: Bbits are fine, but now I’m thinking something spicy (hot peppers?) would be good…
prostratedragon
@Hildebrand: Congratulations to him!
MattF
@rikyrah: Agree. Why do you think Thiel et. al. support Vance? It’s a small bet with a possible immense payout.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: hang in there! 🙏
mrmoshpotato
@MattF: Ooooo sliced jalapeños.
Anyway
@MattF: AirFryer baked potatoes (regular and sweet) are soooo good.
Jeffro
@frosty: have fun and be prepared, the show is ONLY 3 hours long at this point! 😁
(we saw him at Nats Park last weekend – amazing!)
Quantum Man
@rikyrah: I have had the same thoughts.
delphinium
@satby:
So glad you found homes for the kitties-safe travels.
Scout211
@Doc Sardonic: Thanks. My electrical contractor has maintenance service but I’ll look into contract.
TaMara
@Hildebrand: That is so cool! Let us know how it goes.
raven
@cope:”we are all vacced up and don’t really have any social life”
Sort of makes you wonder why even bother trying.
Baud
Via reddit, more Loomer satire.
TaMara
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I have to laugh at that because I started out killing a techbro in my latest and then realized that someone else was also going to have to die for things to work out.
And yes, it’s the right thing to do. But that’s a hefty body count for me.
(Also, I’m not over a certain death in Glass Girl, yet)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Hildebrand: Having a physics background I half understand that thesis title.
The part I don’t understand is “Quantum Communication”. I didn’t know that was a thing and I’m really curious to know what that means.
I’m speculating that it has something to do with entangled particles, which some people think enables faster than light communication, but I’m pretty sure that’s just the realm of sci-fi. The FTL part anyway.
Anyway
All the references to Laura Loomer this week and I had no idea who she was (lucky me!). I resisted looking her up but WaPo had an article on her and boy, is she a piece of work….RThug prez candidate taking her advice — low quality hires as Kay likes to say.
Anyway
@frosty: Have fun! I heard it’s all “new” songs.
Manyakitty
@Hildebrand: fantastic! All the best to him!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: not FTL, but theoretically secure.
[ETA usable for key exchange]
bluefoot
@Hildebrand: Thanks for this – I was going to ask! It sounds like a cool thesis.
Anoniminous
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Many years agoI read a book in which the characters rea!ized the author was killing them off one-by-one. They got together and de ided to kill the author.
Just saying: be careful.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Anoniminous: LOL. Scalzi’s Red Shirts is kind of about that, tho I don’t remember if they kill the author. Red shirts realize they’re always the ones to die in a landing party
trollhattan
Venezuela has hissy fit over Spain accurately describing Venezuela.
“Stolen election, schmolen election, I’m super popular, you can ask anybody.”
Manyakitty
@narya: oh great! Are we following each other over there? I’m manyakitty pretty much everywhere.
SiubhanDuinne
@Hildebrand:
I, too, don’t have a clue what your son’s topic is all about, but I believe in supporting people who are doing good stuff. So I’ll be there. Thanks for the Zoom link!
matt
@fancycwabs: probably more like the 5th most disgusting thing.
Matt McIrvin
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Quantum cryptography, perhaps? That also uses long-distance entanglement and is definitely not science fiction.
(The idea of entanglement enabling faster-than-light communication definitely is bogus, though you can see why people might think that. One way to think of it is that in all the quantum field theories that are viable, observable operators always commute at spacelike separation, specifically so you can’t do that. That means that the only way you can tell entanglement was even happening is by comparing notes by some conventional means of communication later on. At the moment, the entangled variables just look like random noise. But entangled random noise makes a dandy cryptographic key–one you can’t eavesdrop on without being found out.)
Fair Economist
@Hildebrand: Sounds like impressive work. Enjoy your family’s well-deserved day!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@TaMara: At least I’ve never killed a dog
MagdaInBlack
@rikyrah: Interesting, because I’ve been thinking all along that it’s Vance they plan to have as President, just hadn’t figured out what their plan for that was.
Manyakitty
@Scout211: looking forward to the reviews. I want a generator so bad and a few of my neighbors have Generacs.
sheila in nc
Great to see a picture of the rally in Greensboro! I WAS THERE! It was on fire!
I arrived just after 3 pm and had to walk for 15 minutes just to find the end of the line to go in. Line went snaking all over the huge area encompassing the Coliseum and the other huge buildings on the ground. Once I got on line, as we worked our way up, more and more people were arriving. It took about an hour and a half for us to get up to the security stations. All that time, volunteers with water came up and down the line — also other volunteers with clipboards, looking for people to sign up for door-knocking and phone-banking.
Crowd was FIRED UP. Biggest applause lines were for reproductive rights, public schools, and voting rights. Over and over we were exhorted by all the speakers to work hard because NC is pivotal this year even more so than in the past. Kamala was great and the crowd went wild for her!
Anyway
@Hildebrand: So cool! Good luck and congratulations to him.
Kayla Rudbek
I have good health news: HA1c back into the normal range, fasting blood sugar levels below 120, cholesterol level back to normal range, triglycerides dropped almost 500 units so almost back to normal range. So I am celebrating by getting the latest shawl pattern from Louise Robert at Biscotte Yarns and I am trying to decide which yarn combination to use for it. https://biscotteyarns.com/products/perspective-shawl-knitting-pattern-and-knitting-kits. If my imagination fails me I’ll just pull out a blue and yellow combo and add to my collection of blue and gold shawls.
Doc Sardonic
@Scout211: I only suggest the maintenance contract because they tend to remind me to have it done, that way it takes my faulty memory out of the equation. This helps eliminate a “Dammit”, and at this stage of life I need to eliminate all the “Dammits” I can.
Fair Economist
@The Other Steve: Of course they’ll replace Trump with Vance. Trump is increasingly demented, and a very loose cannon. Vance’s handlers want their payback and won’t risk it to Crazy Uncle Trump.
They’ll 25th him on the 21st.
Miki
@MattF: I have a small basket-type AF and love making these Hasselback Potatoes.
Manyakitty
@Kayla Rudbek: awesome news and that’s a beautiful shawl.
Fair Economist
@Kayla Rudbek: Congratulations! Those are good numbers; you should be proud of yourself. It’s hard to get those fixed.
Falling Diphthong
So I went to Twitter to check out the Yvette Nicole Brown stuff, and the algorithm offered me up this:
https://x.com/CalltoActivism/status/1834387610115985472
Which is extremely awesome. I’m not even a big Marvel fan, and I felt this and had to immediately watch it three times.
SiubhanDuinne
@Doc Sardonic:
I immediately saw what you did there!!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Follow-on from the morning thread about Hair Furor’s Tuscon rally attendance:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Tucson/comments/1ffdchc/trump_rally_s/
Yeah it’s Reddit but the conversation is pretty level. One person claims to have gone as a Harris supporter and states the rally was full.
Doc Sardonic
@Kayla Rudbek: Congrats and well done, here’s to your continued good health and happy knitting. That will be a beautiful shawl when it’s done.
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: They absolutely do love Vance more than Trump, and I see Vance as the real long-term threat here if Trump gets in.
But. “They’ll whack or remove him and swap in the VP” is the same thing I heard about Dick Cheney all through the early 2000s, and the same thing I heard about Kamala Harris in 2020. I guess it’s kind of come true for Harris? But only with regard to the 2024 primary election–Joe Biden is still President.
I tend to be skeptical of these speculations. The crazy/malevolent right can still get everything they want with Trump as the nominal President. He gets his fans on their side, in a way that Vance or Peter Thiel can’t on their own.
trollhattan
@Scout211: Congrats–sounds like your utility makes one “strongly recommended” if not mandatory. Would be curious how they figure out sizing on such a device.
What powers it? Guess in my corner of the globe we’d use natural gas, but then I ponder how much gas flow it takes to power a generator plus the various gas gizmos. Propane seems like the second-best option.
My office building has one sized to run the whole joint–it’s ginormous and diesel-fueled. They test every couple of months and the roar, plus giant black smoke cloud are impossible to ignore. “Can’t you guys do this on the weekend?” is a question not asked at the proper level.
becca
@Baud: Temu Melania… priceless.
Doc Sardonic
@SiubhanDuinne: And you won’t be able to unsee it…🤪
Kayla Rudbek
@Fair Economist: permanent? changes in diet (reducing my carbs drastically) and medications for diabetes, cholesterol and weight loss. Probably not as much exercise as my doctor would like but I am usually biking at least 40 miles per week.
narya
@Manyakitty: I’m following you–I’m gingerchef over there.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Doc Sardonic: ewwww
SatanicPanic
I’ve never been a fan of this “he’s distracting us” thing. No one, certainly not Trump, knows the most damaging thing that we could think about Trump. It may be his record, it may be his legal issues, it may be his creepy behavior, or any one of millions of other damaging things about him. Do we know that him looking like a crazy person talking about eating pets is the worst thing that could be in the news for him ? No. But none of us, Pete included, know that it isn’t.
And that’s the problem with this- it’s unfalsifiable. We can always say there’s something else and pat ourselves on the back that we figured him out. It’s flattering to us, but it dulls the impact of what was a devastatingly embarrassing moment for Trump.
The other is that it assumes agency. Do we really want to be arguing that Trump came out, lost his shit and started ranting about dumb crap from the internet on the internet on purpose? I don’t. That means Kamala Harris walked into his trap. I’m sorry but I know what I saw.
Geoduck
The 25th Amendment thing will only work if the Shaitgibbon agrees to go along with it; there’s a step in the process where all he has to do is write a letter to Congress saying he’s fine, bug off. The amendment was created to deal with a situation where the president is literally in a coma, not if they have dementia.
But yes, putting the Shaitgibbon in a coma is an option if they really are planning this.
Kathleen
@rikyrah: I’m glad you’re feeling better and I hope you feel all the way better soon!
I agree about the “Big Plan” involving Vance. I believe he is equally evil if not more but I don’t know if the has the charisma to keep the masses under his thrall. But maybe they have another plan for putting him in power.
Manyakitty
@narya: excellent! Making sure of the same now!
Gvg
The 25th amendment is not going to work.
The President can declare himself fit and be back in power.
then the officers can say he’s not, and this time it takes 2/3’s of both houses to say he is not and the VP gets the office. The GOP is not going to win both houses and if they did, those congresspeople wouldn’t pick Vance over Trump.
The Democrats wouldn’t pick Vance over Trump.
Now give either side a different choice and I am not sure how it would go but they will know it’s going to be Vance and he doesn’t have the support.
This is a short stupid persons idea of a clever plan. Which doesn’t rule it out as being an intention of someone but I am not going to worry about this.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Kathleen: it seems clear to me that Vance is running on pure ambition and doing his best to be a Trump mini-me. Would he keep all of Trump’s support? I cannot predict.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@SatanicPanic:
This! With you on the intentional “distraction” theory. That framework may have applied to a previous generation of Rs, but Trump is not play-acting.
RaflW
If anyone is feeling feisty/salty today (or just has a couple minutes), there’s a request going around to have people call their Senators and ask (politely, even if feisty) for a motion to censure Sen. JD Vance for his outrageous Haitian lies. The hook is the two days of bomb threats and school closures in Springfield.
Yeah, it’s quaint to try this sort of thing. But there is institutional power that can be leveraged. And if Dem Senators hear from staffers that the phones lit up over Vance and this sh*t, they may make some noise about it over the weekend back in district, to reporters, etc. A few Repub senators getting a bunch of calls on this also lets them know this issue isn’t off their constituents radars, too.
Keep Vance’s disgrace a news item.
Contact senators lookup: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
Thanks!!
Kathleen
@satby: May the winds and angels be at your back on your mission of mercy.
Trivia Man
Bait him some more! “Too bad you are married, laura is very beautiful!” He wont resist the temptation to imply he is bedding her. And his subtlety is…. Not good.
rikyrah
@Hildebrand:
Congratulations to him!!
a PhD in Molecular Engineering!
awesome
oldgold
Another Republican Senator, in addition to Lindsey, is worried about Loomer.
“Laura Loomer is a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage intended to divide Republicans,” Senator Tillis wrote. “A DNC plant couldn’t do a better job than she is doing to hurt President Trump’s chances of winning re-election. Enough.”
Sure Lurkalot
@satby: Wow, that’s amazing. Safe travels to you. Are you able to enjoy time in Seattle? It’s a lovely city.
Anoniminous
Springfield Ohio schools closed for second day in a row due to GOP spawned terrorist threats.
Scout211
@trollhattan: I’m rural (Calaveras County) so propane. No other choice here.
We’re on a PG&E “safety shut-off” section so everyone loses power if any of the wires get touched by anything. For us, that’s 317 customers. It happens fairly regularly. It’s only 317 customers but we are all very spread out so there are miles of wires.
Most homes take a 24kW size generator, the most common. But it depends on your home. Mine is a 24kW.
My propane guy said average use is 1 gallon of propane per hour.
sdhays
@Trivia Man: I don’t know…
“Laura? Laura who? Laura Ingraham PROVED that I did too win the 2020 election! I beat Obama fair and square! With the geese and the cats! Geese love me!!”
rikyrah
JD Vance
@JDVance
In Springfield, Ohio, there has been a massive rise in communicable diseases, rent prices, car insurance rates, and crime. This is what happens when you drop 20,000 people into a small community. Kamala Harris’s immigration policy aims to do this to every town in our country.
8:25 AM · Sep 13, 2024
https://x.com/JDVance/status/1834584115825226087
Aziz, light!
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I can predict that at the top of the ticket Vance would be as popular as a shart in church.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@oldgold:
Tillis’s spin that “it’s designed to divide Republicans” is bullshit.
“Oh look! That loud, crazy-ass RWNJ our party spent generations cultivating is actually the fault of DEMOCRATS!!!!’
jfc
HumboldtBlue
@Anoniminous:
Ohio Mayor Trashes Trump’s Xenophobic Migrant Conspiracy
trollhattan
@Scout211: Foothills PG&E–checks out! I’d do it too. Enjoy the new-found peace of mind.
Good thing about propane is not having to worry about the fuel going bad sitting for a long time, like gasoline or diesel.
Friends just departed rural Sutter County because their fire insurance had gone up something like 5X. My guess is we’re going to see significant depopulation of the foothills in the coming years, not everyone can handle all the added costs.
Jay C
@HumboldtBlue:
And Ohio’s Republican AG is down-pedaling the refutations
Matt McIrvin
@SatanicPanic: “X is a distraction from Y” is often an intra-left way of saying “my pet issue is better than your pet issue,” but I guess it applies to political attacks too.
A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)
I knew the 25th Amendment was Vance’s plan. I didn’t think he had anyone else’s buy-in though.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@oldgold:
Standard GOP misogynistic playbook: Always blame the woman. Trump is just as looney without her.
geg6
Going to see Hamilton with my youngest niece and my sister (her mom) tomorrow. We’re going to head up to the Oakland neighborhood in the ‘Burgh (where Pitt and CMU are located) to see my brother who is in rehab the UPMC Montefiore rehab hospital from a bad fall and, ultimately, brain surgery. We’re taking him some clothes up for him now that he’s allowed to wear them. Then we’re heading to the Cultural District downtown for dinner and ultimately the show. Trying a place my niece really likes and that I’ve never been to, the Proper Brick Oven and Tap Room.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Also too, relating to Tillis and others trying to think Loomer is some aberration or evil Democrats fault, from Driftglass:
BellyCat
@rikyrah: Same here, but no Paxlovid. The coughing was the absolute worst part! Mucinex helped immeasurably. Thank Sky Kitty I am max vaxxed and boosted or this would have been horrific.
sab
@Suzanne: Last week my husband made chili one night and I made homemade mac and cheese the next night. The next two days we combined them and that was delicious.
SatanicPanic
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: no he really is that unhinged. Harris walked him like a dog through the whole debate, it was not on purpose.
@Matt McIrvin: yeah and I get why Pete wants it to be about his record- Pete knows policy. No one can really predict how America will see the pets rant. That’s the scary thing about this era, it’s all chaos.
Geminid
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Sen. Tillis didn’t say Loomer is an actual Democratic plant, he said she might as well be considering the damage she’s doing.
Anoniminous
So angry I need to take a walk.
Fucking Republicans
rikyrah
Hillary commenting on Kamala in her new book
🥹😭🥹😭🥹😭🥺🥺
https://x.com/MadisonKittay/status/1834630240246571293?t=yhjFIWApfIhu-yOyMjRugg&s=19
HumboldtBlue
@Jay C:
Greg Sargent:
rikyrah
@Anoniminous:
Why specifically are you angry
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro: You saw Racing In The Street!
Envious!
sab
@Jay C: He is the top law enforcement guy in the state. He is supposed to protecting these people, not further traumatizing them. I am so ashamed of my state.
I think there is a civil war going on in Ohio’s Republican Party. And we are still very red. So our choice in government is between corruption (DeWine and Husted) and racist terrorism ( Yost.)
Redshift
I’m going to a fundraiser with our future present tomorrow!
(At least I’m supposed to, it was time and location TBD, and I haven’t gotten any details yet. 😬)
Frankensteinbeck
@A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno):
As others said, the 25th Amendment does not work that way. It only removes a president who doesn’t object.
Hildebrand
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Here is his abstract for his defense.
Optical quantum communication represents a new generation of information technology, with applications from quantum cryptography for secure communications to shared quantum computing resources for solving novel computational problems.
However, quantum memory is required to facilitate synchronized operations across long communication channels. Erbium (Er) is an ideal defect for such quantum memory applications: Er emits in the telecom C-band, exhibits spin coherence times in excess of a millisecond in the literature, and can be integrated into a variety of crystalline materials.
In this thesis, we initiate development of erbium-doped cerium dioxide (CeO2) thin films on silicon as a quantum memory platform, finding half-microsecond spin and optical coherence times even in un-optimized CeO2 thin films. We additionally discuss integration of CeO2 onto other substrates, and selection of other material hosts based on additional criteria such as Er optical emission rate.
Baud
@rikyrah:
She’s so awesome.
Redshift
@SatanicPanic: Yeah, I thought the same thing. It was an effective way on TV to steer the conversation toward what he wanted to talk about, but I don’t think it’s actually true. TCFG isn’t continuing to rant because it’s some secret strategy, he’s doing to because he can’t control himself.
Steve LaBonne
@sab: I wish it was a literal civil war and the factions could kill each other. But ultimately it’s the voters who deserve the blame for voting their racism and ignorance.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Apparently Trump is having a press briefing right now. Among other things, he says he invented the word caravan
Eunicecycle
@Jay C: he is also a piece of crap. Ugh I don’t know why we keep electing these people, but they have an R by their name and that’s all it takes.
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor: “It’s a Car, And a Van–Car-A-Van. People love them, believe me.”
HumboldtBlue
Tim Walz continues to show the world the canyon of differences between him and the couchfucker.
trollhattan
@Frankensteinbeck:
“Drool once if you agree, twice if you don’t. Okay, he still wants to be president, everybody.”
Redshift
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I was interested in it but somewhat mystified until recently, when I got to attend a science talk about it at Worldcon. They key points that it clarified for me are:
– our everyday secure communications (SSL/https) use public-key encryption, which is useful because the receiver just has to send a key to the sender to encrypt the message (public key), and the decryption key never leaves the receiver’s system
– it’s convenient, but it’s not as strong as schemes that do send both keys, and it’s expected quantum computing will be able to break it
– so for quantum communication, the bulk of the communications will still be what we have now (I think), but the encryption keys for stronger encryption will be sent using entangled photons
– that communication is secure because eavesdropping physically impossible, reading the message from the photons breaks (collapses?) the entanglement, so the parties know and can discard that message
scav
Don’t many of us wish to be erbium-doped about now. Would Penzey’s have any spare?
May all his substrates bring him luck and his coherence be optimal!
Also, a random WHEW! for most of Baldy Village being OK.
Redshift
@Hildebrand: That is very cool. It was also mentioned in the research talk I attended — with quantum memory, you can store an entangled photon and recreate it in the entangled state to transmit later. Mind-blowing.
HumboldtBlue
@rikyrah:
Pretty sure they were angered by what Trump and Vance are doing to Springfield and how it’s affecting the residents.
SatanicPanic
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Wut.
I know there were good arguments for deplatforming the guy but right now I say let him talk. If the average voter can’t see his obvious cognitive decline I don’t know what more we can do
Frank Wilhoit
Josh Marshall’s hunch seems right to me: Trump’s people are spreading the rumor that he is pronging Loomer so that no one figures out the worse truth, which is that she is giving campaign advice.
EntroPi
@Gin & Tonic: do you have a preferred RI beach? We’re often at Narragansett.
Matt McIrvin
@Hildebrand: So, quantum cryptography and quantum computation. That is extremely cool!
Matt McIrvin
@Frank Wilhoit: Distractions within distractions! I’m distracted from figuring out what I’m supposed to be distracted from any more.
Matt McIrvin
@Frankensteinbeck: The 25th Amendment can be used to deactivate a President who isn’t cooperative, making the VP Acting President–but only for a limited time, and if I recall correctly, after that time, a supermajority of both houses of Congress has to agree to override his objection. It’s intentionally harder to do than impeachment and conviction, because it’s not intended to be a separation-of-powers end run.
...now I try to be amused
@Gvg:
Yep. The latter clause makes it impossible to abuse the 25th Amendment. Impeachment is easier than removing the President via the 25th Amendment if he’s conscious and unwilling to go.
[Crossposted with Matt McIrvin]
sab
@Eunicecycle: The installer of our new doorbell camera just brought up that he heard from a friend of a friend of his brother about a neighbor’s dog being eaten. Complete BS at fifth hand but people are believing these lies.
My husband blew up at him. That is not helpful. We need to start thinking about how to non-confrontationally confront well-meaning idiots who spread these stories, believing they are true. This will otherwise get very ugly.
Matt McIrvin
@…now I try to be amused: I studied up on this when Trump was President and everyone was talking about removing him this way. It wasn’t going to fly unless you could get the Democrats and Republicans to cooperate on it, and they weren’t going to. Just a lot of fantasies about a Weird Trick to fix everything. There’s been a lot of that going around.
the pollyanna from hell
Repeating dehumanizing blood libel is objectively supportive of bomb threats and other violence.
Matt McIrvin
…I tend to think that putting Vance in there operates more as insurance *against* any efforts to remove Trump once he’s in again. Some people were justifiably more scared of Mike Pence than Trump, especially if they were LGBT. But most weren’t. I think a LOT of people will be more scared of Vance than Trump, because he’s a really obviously nasty character.
...now I try to be amused
@Matt McIrvin:
So did I! Great minds and all that. I carefully read the treason clause because of Trump too.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Hildebrand: Sounds amazing! You must be about to burst with pride!
dm
@Falling Diphthong: That showed up here last night, I think (a comment by Tamara, maybe?)
But a reprise is welcome.
I had to smile when I thought about this in the context of the recent “comic book movies” thread.
Hildebrand
@The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion: Indeed we are. We are watching his defense now – it is just amazing to watch his detailed presentation (though the mathematics are beyond me).
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
Where is the diesel tank for this beastly generator?
Geoduck
@Dorothy A. Winsor: He also got Harris’s last name wrong.
Paul in KY
@Hildebrand: You should be! Best luck on him nailing his Doctorate (from U. of Chicago)!
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: Sorry you got a bad dose. Yay for paxlovid. I took it when I attained the Rona. Best wishes on getting back to normal.
Msb
@Hildebrand: Hope it goes well!
Msb
@rikyrah: sorry to hear you had a rough ride and hope your recovery is complete and speedy!
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: Darth Snarly has always preferred to work in the background/darkness. Why be President when you had the power of the President already?
Paul in KY
@Gvg: I would probably pick TFG over Vance.
Hildebrand
@Msb: It has been going very well – he is now fielding questions.
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: Sorta the old strategery against assassination attempts: Make your Veep someone that the opposition would hate having as President so much more than you.
The classic example being Dan Quayle. VP Gore also fit the bill, IMO.
Matt McIrvin
@…now I try to be amused: similarly, the reason I keep trying to debunk some of the “throwing the election to the House” scenarios was that people were worrying about that Weird Trick back in 2020 and I took a close look at what the 12th Amendment actually said to figure out it wasn’t going to work (at least not reliably).
RevRick
@Kay: The bomb threats in Springfield are a foretaste of the old fascist playbook. Stir up violence or threats of violence to grab power.
sdhays
@Paul in KY: Doesn’t work so well when the most likely assassin is someone who doesn’t actually give a shit about you or your ideology (and might even agree with you!) but is angry and sad and just wants to go out knowing that people will know their name.
Matt McIrvin
@sdhays: Yeah–we like to imagine these coherent well-motivated conspiracies, but the kind of people actually inclined to do a political assassination usually don’t have a super-coherent grasp of ideology or what’s what in general. They just want to be famous and important.
Hildebrand
Congratulations, Dr. Gregory Grant!
He did an awesome job with his defense – his committee took only a very short amount of time to ‘confer’ before congratulating him.
Baud
@Hildebrand:
Yay!
Matt McIrvin
@Hildebrand: Kudos to you and to him!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Hildebrand: thanks again for the link. It was very interesting to listen in. & Congratulations!
[ETA a question for Dr. Grant: will you be trying out a sample in a quantum communication experiment?]
Darkrose
@Hildebrand: Grats to your son! I have no idea what that means, but I do know that a dissertation defense is ABFD, as Biden would say.
Darkrose
@RaflW: Thanks! I emailed Sens. Padilla and Butler.
rekoob
@Hildebrand: Although the exact wording is lost to me in the mists of time, a treasured memory at my Chicago Commencement in 1992 was noting that the PhD’s were cited for their “adding to the body of knowledge” in their respective fields. The newly-minted Dr. Grant (colloquially at Chicago, “Mr. Grant”, since we believe that an interdisciplinary graduate division means that we all have advanced degrees and that other honorifics are irrelevant), is a welcome member of our alumni!
Barney
It is literally a Boris Johnson strategy:
The dead cat strategy, also known as deadcatting, is the political strategy of deliberately making a shocking announcement to divert media attention away from problems or failures in other areas. The present name for the strategy has been associated with British former prime minister Boris Johnson’s political strategist Lynton Crosby.
While he was mayor of London, Boris Johnson wrote a column for the 3 March 2013 edition of The Telegraph in which he described the “dead cat” as a piece of Australian political strategy about what to do in a situation in which the argument is being lost and “the facts are overwhelmingly against you”.
There is one thing that is absolutely certain about throwing a dead cat on the dining room table – and I don’t mean that people will be outraged, alarmed, disgusted. That is true, but irrelevant. The key point, says my Australian friend, is that everyone will shout, “Jeez, mate, there’s a dead cat on the table!” In other words, they will be talking about the dead cat – the thing you want them to talk about – and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief.
Johnson employed the Australian Lynton Crosby as his campaign manager during the 2008 and 2012 London mayoral elections, leading to press speculation that he was the “Australian friend” in the story.
Dead cat strategy – Wikipedia
Though as far as I know, Johnson never used an actual cat. It’s Vance and Trump who decided to be literal.