Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

So many bastards, so little time.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

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

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

No one could have predicted…

Let me file that under fuck it.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

How stupid are these people?

Hot air and ill-informed banter

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Riveting

Riveting

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This post is in: 

The video is 13 minutes – which seems like forever these days – but I couldn’t stop watching.

I hope there are a lot of elections deniers people quaking in their boots after seeing this.

You’re really missing something if you don’t watch the whole thing.  He takes her actions apart, piece by piece and he lays it all out.  We all live for the day when a judge says these things to Donald Trump.

But in the meantime, this was riveting.

 

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

309Comments

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Anastasia Bennett, 22, quickly grew tired of the insults and was ready to leave,” the Post reported. “Bennett was undecided before attending the rally with her aunt, who supports Harris. But after hearing Trump speak, she said she planned to vote for Harris.”

     

    “It was the insults and just being an hour late,” she told the newspaper.

  4. 4.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    NHL hockey season begins in about a half hour in Germany. Sabres vs. Devils.  Go Sabres!  Go Hockey!

  5. 5.

    Eural Joiner

    If she allowed Lindell to use her security card to illegally hack the voting data…shouldn’t he be facing charges as well?

  8. 8.

    Jeffg166

    I watched this elsewhere plus the other clips of her laughing and being told by her lawyer to cool it.

    She is the ultimate self entitled Karen. Anything she does or says is true. No one has authority over her. Laws are for little people.

    One of her arguments for not going to prison is she sleeps on a mattress with magnets for her health and they don’t have those in prison.

  11. 11.

    Ukai

    She probably thinks Trump will pardon her if he becomes President again. How precious that she thinks he gives a shit about anyone who’s of no use to him.

  12. 12.

    Mike in Oly

    Saw this video last night. The judge did a master class in taking her apart. It was so good I watched it twice. More of this please.

  14. 14.

    Danielx

    @Jeffg166:

    One suspects she expects somebody (Daddy Donald perhaps) to get her ass out of the slam in a day or three. She’s a martyr for Trump after all.

  15. 15.

    jonas

    @Jeffg166:She is the ultimate self entitled Karen. Anything she does or says is true. No one has authority over her. Laws are for little people.

    I’m sure she also assumes Trump will pardon her immediately upon assuming office next January. That’s probably not going to work out too well 1. because Trump’s chances are not looking great at the moment and 2. he doesn’t give a shit about people like her.

  17. 17.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Old Dan and Little Ann:

    Grew up a Sabres fan, but have been a Capitals fan for far longer. Go hockey!

    For the record, Next is Kyle Clark’s half hour show on 9News, after all the other anchors refused to work with him. We used to call him Denver’s Tucker Carlson. YMMV.

  18. 18.

    call_me_ishmael

    That video, though. Judge was pissed.

    Judge: Did I forget anything?
    Clerk: Count 6 was missed
    Judge: Oh Yeah, an extra 18 months consecutive for that. Anything else?
    Lawyer: We have some concerns…
    Judge: I’ve already denied them. Go away
    Lawyer: ??
    Judge: Fine, you’ve got 28 days to file. I’ll look at it then. Take her away.

  19. 19.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Baud: Assmouth does not make a better impression on closer acquaintance. That’s why his campaign kept him under wraps the last couple of weeks of the 2016 campaign, so idiot voters could focus on emailz instead of how repulsive he is. That got him the late breakers. I think we can get them this time.

  20. 20.

    Matt McIrvin

    If Trump wins, he’s springing her immediately. Not out of any sense of reciprocal loyalty but to piss us off.

  23. 23.

    Eolirin

    @Baud: …. I’m not going to begrudge a vote for our side, but “Dude made me wait and I didn’t like his show” is an insane method for determining who to support for president.

    I can’t even.

  24. 24.

    Bulgakov

    Judge Matthew Barrett, a graduate of the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law, has far more integrity than any of the Ivy League Federalist Society attorneys serving on the US Supreme Court.

  25. 25.

    SatanicPanic

    I really like how the judge calls her privileged and compares her to previous people sitting in her seat.

  26. 26.

    BR

    @Eolirin: ​

    How people make voting decisions is pretty crazy. But it’s for this reason that I am hoping that the Harris campaign goes out with an August-type rally and event blitz.

  27. 27.

    Harrison Wesley

    @Jeffg166: There’s nothing weird about that.  J. D. Vance appears to believe that mattresses have a magnetic attraction.  Or something.

  29. 29.

    Chief Oshkosh

    The judge did a good job here, including noting some mitigation that he took into account in not giving her the maximum sentencing possible (which I think across charges could’ve ended up at 20+ years).

    Among his several great statements, the one that hit home to me is how well he described her privilege, words to the effect of “You are the epitome of privileged, and you’ve pissed it all away.” And this was placed in the context of defendants who come before him who are drug addicts or who are poverty-stricken or who are otherwise destitute, who he is willing to cut some slack because they are in such dire straits

    ETA: SatanicPanic at 25 says it better using fewer words.

  31. 31.

    Ken

    @Danielx: Methinks Ms Peters has not grasped the reality of her position.

    I’m trying to remember, there was some woman who was caught saying “you won’t arrest me for this, I’m white”. That’s probably a big part of Peters’ mindset.

    Of course “needs a magnetic mattress” also play a role, similar to that of the old trope “thinks he’s Napoleon”.

  32. 32.

    Jackie

    I fell in love with that judge as he her deliberately and methodically shamed Peters from start to finish!

  33. 33.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Eolirin: Idealistic conceptions of how democracy works can’t survive much acquaintance with actual voters. But as Churchill said, democracy is the least worst form of government.

  34. 34.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Eolirin:

    That’s both the beauty and the curse of our system: You can vote for or against any candidate or issue for any reason, regardless of how well-informed or stupid … or for no reason at all. 🤷‍♀️

  36. 36.

    TBone

    @Bulgakov: every time I compare and contrast, I weep…

    Also, the full video statement is my new bedtime story.  I will drift off listening to these dulcet tones tonight 😆

  37. 37.

    Bill Arnold

    Propublica, committing a serious act of Journalism:
    Heritage Foundation Staffers Flood Federal Agencies With Thousands of Information Requests – The conservative think tank’s requests are clogging the pipeline at federal agencies in an apparent attempt to find employees a potential Trump administration would want to purge. (Sharon Lerner and Andy Kroll, Oct. 1, 2024)
    Snippets:

    Among 744 requests that Aamot, Jankowski and Howell submitted to the Department of the Interior over the past year are 161 that seek civil servants’ emails and texts as well as Slack and Microsoft Teams messages that contained terms including “climate change”; “DEI,” or diversity, equity and inclusion; and “GOTV,” an acronym for get out the vote. Many of these FOIAs request the messages of individual employees by name.
    …
    “Sometimes they come in at a rate of one a second,” said the worker, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The worker said they now spend a third of their work time processing requests from Heritage, including some that seek communications that mention the terms “Biden” and “mental” or “Alzheimer’s” or “dementia” or “defecate” or “poop.”
    …
    The records requests are far reaching, seeking “full calendar exports” for hundreds of government employees. One FOIA submitted by Aamot sought the complete browser history for Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, “whether exported from Chrome, Safari, Windows Explorer, Mozilla.”
    …
    Several of the Heritage Foundation’s requests focus on gender, asking for materials federal agencies presented to employees or contractors “mentioning ‘DEI’, ‘Transgender’, ‘Equity’, or ‘Pronouns.’”

  39. 39.

    TBone

    Has anyone here ever had to give liquid Flagyl (metronidazole) to a cat? Vet said twice a day for 5 days and tonight will be Noah the Love Cat’s last dose.  But he is still having bloody diarrhea today (the first blood I’ve seen since he started the med regimen) and it looks worse than ever.  How long should it take for normal stools to happen after he finishes his meds tonight?  He’s had diarrhea since last Saturday, that’s a long time.  Everything else about him is normal, eating, drinking, loving, sleeping, loving some more…

  40. 40.

    coin operated

    I love that she was remanded immediately. Didn’t give her another second to spread her lies.

  42. 42.

    Omnes Omnibus

    God help me, I just engaged with a “Dems need to earn my vote” person on Bluesky.

  43. 43.

    Jackie

    @Ken:

    I’m trying to remember, there was some woman who was caught saying “you won’t arrest me for this, I’m white”.

    The well-off realtor from Texas? when she was identified as a J6 insurrectionist. She got arrested, then said because she was white-privileged, she wouldn’t be jailed. She was.

  44. 44.

    pika

    @TBone: I would contact your vet before weekend close. I have in the past been faithful with waiting until meds are done, and that was a mistake

  47. 47.

    cain

    @Baud:

    So, at last they actually interviewed a Harris supporter – but only at a Trump rally. They didn’t talk to the aunt though which would have been truly that hey interviewed a Harris supporter. :D

  48. 48.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Matt McIrvin: He’s not springing her out of anything. He forgot all about her months ago. I expect her to be angrily defiant for several months, then after it finally occurs to her just what she’s done to her life, a suicide risk.

  50. 50.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ukai:

    She probably thinks Trump will pardon her if he becomes President again. How precious that she thinks he gives a shit about anyone who’s of no use to him.

    I think he probably will. It’s not out of any concern for her. The pardons he did were always designed to piss off anyone he didn’t like to the maximum possible degree, and to help people who might help him. Roger Stone. Joe Arpaio.

  51. 51.

    cain

    @Bill Arnold:

    I’m a PROUD monthly subscriber to ProPublica.

    Hell, they don’t even send me mailings – love it. They just expect me to go to the website. I can get behind that.

  52. 52.

    Dave

    @Jackie: I had the uh pleasure of interacting with that one on Twitter immediately after Jan 6th back when I was foolish enough to have an account. Basically something along the lines of “hey dumbass I’d consider getting a lawyer and shutting up”.  If I recall she responded by laughing it off.

    Unfortunately I believe she did receive just a slap on the wrist but the entitled delusion of these people like were having a fun afternoon LARPing revolution is breathtaking.

  54. 54.

    Captain C

    @Omnes Omnibus: “If they don’t burn every WalMart for me, allow me to take credit even though I was sitting on my ass in my mom’s basement the whole time, and then take the soliciting of arson charges for me, I won’t vote Democrat!”  — trust fund tankie on BlueSky, probably

    “When are you going to find a job and your own place?  You have a college degree!”  — their mother, wanting her basement back

  59. 59.

    TBone

    @BR: I took that normie cue from my hubby while deciding that Liz is good for us right now.  I was on Team Liz (because of her J6 participation), but wavering, until hubby made me realize normies will lap this up with a spoon.

  62. 62.

    Dave

    @Bill Arnold: Just one of those stupid scams that I can’t be bothered to find out if there is tiny bit of truth to that has been taken massively out of context.  Magnets are part of the woo medicine set.

  65. 65.

    bluefoot

    I wish the news report had started with “Tina Peters is a liar who some people consider a hero” rather than “Tina Peters is a hero to people who believe her lies.” Put the emphasis on liar so that’s the first thing people hear.  Maybe it’s a small thing, but framing always helps.

    That judge was great.  Actually taking law and government and responsibility seriously, unlike the majority of SCOTUS.

    And hockey! Yay!

  66. 66.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Dave: Its amazing how many woo medicine folks, even those that were previously kind of liberal, ended up in QAnon and on the Trump train. It blows my mind.

  67. 67.

    BR

    Wow every paragraph of this story is worse than the previous:

    Trump Made Crass Jokes About Death of Rally Attendee in Leaked Recording

    Donald Trump was reportedly caught on tape turning the grieving widow of a man who died at one of his rallies into a source of amusement for his uber-wealthy dinner guests.

    The recording, obtained by The Guardian, apparently comes from a private meal Trump held Aug. 10 in Aspen, Colorado. In it, the Republican presidential nominee reportedly recalled a meeting with the wife of Corey Comperatore, the man who was killed by shots fired at Trump by Thomas Crooks at a Pennsylvania rally in July.

    “So they’re going to get millions of dollars but the woman, the wife, this beautiful woman, I handed her the check—we handed her the check—and she said, ‘This is so nice, and I appreciate it, but I’d much rather have my husband.’ Now I know some of the women in this room wouldn’t say the same,” Trump reportedly said. “At least four couples here would have been thrilled, actually.”

    The dinner, which Trump reportedly flew in for in on a private jet once owned by disgraced financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, was held at the $38 million home of art collectors and investors John and Amy Phelan, with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), gambling mogul Steve Wynn, and billionaire Thomas Peterffy also in attendance. There were about 100 attendees at the event, which required couples to pony up $500,000 to serve on the host committee or at least $25,000 to attend at all.

    Those who cut checks included Warren G. Lichtenstein, executive chairman of Steel Partners; former hedge fund manager Duke Buchan, who served as ambassador to Spain in Trump’s presidency; Houston billionaires Mindy and Jeff Hildebrand; Drew McKnight, a billionaire donor to the failed No Labels effort; and Andrew McKenna.

    thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-made-crass-jokes-about-death-of-corey-comparatore-in-leaked-recording…

  70. 70.

    Doc Sardonic

    @TBone: Have done that on multiple occasions, usually things tighten back up to at least soft serve consistency within a few days. Haven’t had to do it in a while, but I would suggest updating your vet because they may need to try something else. It is a difficult med to give to cats because it is very bitter and you can’t really disguise the bitterness, and they are finely tuned to detect bitterness. My vet has a note on all my cats charts that’s says No Metronidazole.

  71. 71.

    Josie

    @TBone: ​
     While I probably disagree with many of her positions politically, I have to give Liz credit for courage. I believe she is putting herself in danger by what she is doing. The speech was actually really inspiring.

  76. 76.

    Steve LaBonne

    @TBone: More than anything we need Republicans who are not paid up members of the Trump cult to feel they have “permission” to vote for Harris.

  80. 80.

    Anoniminous

    @Bill Arnold: ​

    Bed magnets work if Mars is conjunct with Mercury in your natal chart giving mental sharpness, decisiveness, enthusiasm, manual dexterity, focused mind and piercing intellect. Otherwise a person has to sacrifice a lamb to Jehovah and spill the blood on the horns of the altar to get the benefits. But care is needed. If the sacrificer sees an eagle flying from the south to the north – and we all know what THAT means! – the person will need a goat, not a lamb.

  82. 82.

    FastEdD

    I’m elated at the Harris/Walz campaign strategeries. Avoiding legacy media because they will only turn around and bite you is brilliant. They need you more than you need them! OTOH, what they are doing now is simply How To Win An Election 101. Never say you are ahead, always say you are slightly behind to battle complacency. Tack to the “center” and build your coalition closer to Election Day. I’m not offended by this in the least. Every winning campaign does this. It is what they teach at Camp Wellstone to organizers. I am thrilled that we know exactly what we’re doing and that we’re gonna win this!

  83. 83.

    TBone

    @pika: 💜 thank you, I will be certain do that.  Having youse guys to hold hands with through the rough patches gives me life!

    I’m just waiting for the guy doing maintenance on our furnace to leave.

  92. 92.

    Quiltingfool

    I watched the video with the judge, and, wow.  If a judge talked to me like that, I would need fresh underpants.  And I would know that I would be checking in at the gray bar hotel.

    OT:  Did the weekly shopping at Walmart this am.  I had heard that folks were buying up toilet paper because of the dock strikes, which tells me we have lots of people who have no clue what is made HERE, or some screeching internet goob told them all is lost, buy butt paper.  Anyway, we have lots of stupid people here, because there was no toilet paper at Walmart!  I chuckled at thinking how much tp these people have now, for no reason.

    Then again, if having extra toilet paper makes them feel secure, who I am to judge?

  94. 94.

    Dave

    @Quiltingfool: It’s relatively harmless since it’s durable good so just means they won’t have to buy TP again anytime soon. Fox and the right wing media complex is probably incredibly disappointed though.

  95. 95.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Steve LaBonne: It’s sometimes called “crank magnetism” which is confusing given that this particular one is literally about magnetism.

    I think what it really is is that these sort of esoteric beliefs and conspiracy beliefs come from an emotional need to be in on the big secret of how the world really works, which has to be something that powerful elites are hiding from you, but you’re one of the clever few who know. The need to believe that is primary and the actual content is secondary.

    But once people go all in, once they commit to being in the esoteric club, all of the crap comes pouring in behind it. You started out believing in your supplement pills and you end up at weather machines, lizard people and the flat Earth.

    C. S. Lewis thought the decline of conventional religion was responsible–claimed something like “when you stop believing in God you start believing, not in nothing, but in anything“. But I’ve seen no evidence that he was right; I think this stuff is equally likely to be religious or non-religious in a conventional sense.

  98. 98.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Dave: Absolutely. That story was a Fox News two-fer: a) Unions BAD and b) INFLATION on Biden’s Watch!!!!!

    Those hosts are probably taking more breaks than usual to blot away their tears.

  99. 99.

    Dave

    @Matt McIrvin: Lewis wasn’t exactly unbiased on that particular subject; the closest I could give him is that an old skill doctrinal sort of religion might at best limit the possibility space for some people.

  100. 100.

    Bill Arnold

    @Dave:

    Magnets are part of the woo medicine set.

    Well, sure. You made me look (google scholar, keywords magnetic mattress sleep pain). There are some low-quality (to my eye) studies, results mixed, a slight bias towards some analgesic effects, that may be the result of p-hacking and/or cherry picking.
    Shrug. At least the static magnetic fields used are real. And I don’t begrudge people who find relief through placebo effects; minds can/do have real effects on bodies.

  102. 102.

    Al Rennick

    Jackals, here’s the deal.

    We have to follow the advice of Tim Walz:

    “We’ll sleep when/after we’re dead”

    Sound the alarm, you all need to be working much harder to get Kamala and Tim across the finish line!

    During a segment with anchor John Berman, Enten was asked about the polls show on whether Americans “think the country is on the right track or the wrong track?”

    “Yeah, if we look at whether voters believe we’re on the right track or the wrong track, I think that this sort of gets at a problem for Kamala Harris’s campaign. Just 28% of Americans think the U.S. is on the right track,” replied Enten. “And I want you to put that into perspective, right? When does the average when the incumbent party loses the election, look at that: It’s just 25%. That looks a heck of a lot like that 28%, right, that currently think the country is on the right track.”

    “When the White House party wins, i.e. Kamala Harris’s party, the Democrats, 42% on average think that the country is on the right track. This 25% looks a lot more like this 28%. It doesn’t look anything like this 42%,” he continued. “This to me is a bad sign for Kamala Harris’s campaign. The bottom line is it looks a lot more like a loser than it does like a winner when it comes to the country being on the right track.”

    “Can an incumbent party win with numbers like this?” followed up Berman.

    “Yeah, so if we look historically speaking, right, and we say, okay, say the U.S. is on the right track, the incumbent party when they win. Today, again, it’s just 28%. Look throughout history, right. — ’96, ’88, ’04,  ’12, ’84 — in all of these instances, in all these instances, far more than 28% thought that the country was on the right track,” answered Enten. “Thirty-nine was the lowest back in 1996. We got upwards of 47% in ’84, of course that was a blowout, right, for Ronald Reagan. So there is no historical precedent for the White House party winning another term in the White House when the country, when just 28% of the country thinks that we’re on the right track. John, simply put, it would be historically unprecedented.”

    h/t mediaite.com/tv/cnns-harry-enten-sounds-the-alarm-for-kamala-harris-her-campaign-looks-more-like-a-l…

  103. 103.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Bill Arnold: The lack of any plausible physical mechanism suggests that claims of a positive effect should at least be considered extraordinary.

  104. 104.

    TBone

    @Bill Arnold: I’m sure you’re aware that Tina Karen Peters tried to use the lack of magnet mattress availability in prison as a reason why she should remain on the outside of the prison she’s residing in today.  Boo hoo, Tina Karen!

    Just wanted to say that out loud.

  105. 105.

    Dave

    @Bill Arnold: I’ve done a few fairly anodyne things that really don’t have the support since I’ve hit middle age. Figure I’ll keep it cheap and harmless as an outlet while ensuring it doesn’t metastasize into idiocy I don’t begrudge people their placebos or rituals.

    And the body is incredibly complex sometimes people will find a benefit from something that is essentially BS and sometimes that’s for incidental reasons.

    Could be as simple as suddenly paying attention a bedtime routine things like that or hey you are accidently drinking enough water because of “X” now.

  106. 106.

    Eolirin

    @Matt McIrvin: It’s sad that people don’t just stop at the first half of “be in on the big secret of how the world really works, which has to be something that powerful elites are hiding from you”, because then they could just get really into science or if they want a deeper understanding of the human condition specifically, one of the empirically based meditation traditions.

    It’s the second half that makes everything go wrong. Without the grievance and need for all of the bad things to be someone’s fault, you’re just left with curiosity.

  108. 108.

    TBone

    @Al Rennick: while that may be true, I’m still not giving that fucking guy’s opinion much weight.  I agree with the LFG to work part, but …

    Harry Joe Enten (born March 1, 1988)[1][2] is an American journalist known for his former role as a senior political writer and analyst for the website FiveThirtyEight[3] and his current job as a senior writer and analyst for CNN Politics.

  110. 110.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Eolirin: Yeah. I mean, that’s why *I* ended up studying science.

    Of course, it can be a bit disappointing in the end. If you study physics believing you’ll discover the Ultimate Reason that everything is the way it is, you’ll eventually find that you’re no closer than when you started–you just learn some broad regularities in how the world behaves on a microscopic level, which can be used to provide a common description of many events. That’s a lot, but you still run out of answers to “why?” questions pretty quickly.

  111. 111.

    Bill Arnold

    @dmsilev:

    Well, I know how magnets work, and that’s not how magnets work.

    LOL. Was wondering if you would speak up.
    It is how placebo effects work, though.
    She clearly believes everything that she thinks, a mental style(flaw) which often boosts such effects.

  112. 112.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Matt McIrvin: CS Lewis was comprehensively full of shit about everything. Belief, in gods or anything else, without requiring evidence (indeed generally accompanied by a contempt for evidence) is at minimum poor intellectual hygiene. And fanatical belief is dangerous in the ways we see all around us these days.

  113. 113.

    Eolirin

    @Matt McIrvin: There are some plausible mechanisms for magnets affecting the nervous system, just not for that kind of set up, or at best, very very weak effects, likely to be swamped by placebos.

  114. 114.

    Geminid

    @TBone: I have no problem with Vice President Harris and her campaign team inviting Liz Cheney to speak at that Wisconsin rally yesterday, and I think the critics are making a mountain out of a mole hill.

    But I try to look at the bright side: at least they’re confident enough to worry about winning the wrong way!

  115. 115.

    Eolirin

    @Steve LaBonne: This is excessively reductive. I have a belief that humans should be kind to one another, and I can construct some good arguments for why it’s a good idea, but it’s also fundamentally unprovable, and there’s no evidence that can be found to support it as a central tenant of life.

    There are limits to skepticism.

  116. 116.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Eolirin: I would call that a value rather than a belief. (I try to be kind as a fundamental part of what it means to be a good person, not because I have a theory about the effects.) As a Unitarian Universalist I put considerable weight on that distinction because UUs share values (like that one) but not beliefs. We speak of UU as “love beyond belief”.

  118. 118.

    Chris

    @Steve LaBonne:

    @Eolirin: Idealistic conceptions of how democracy works can’t survive much acquaintance with actual voters. But as Churchill said, democracy is the least worst form of government.

    My support for democracy comes down to two things.  One, anybody who isn’t allowed to vote isn’t going to have his needs met by the system.  Look at how we treat prisoners, one of the only demographics for whom you actually can justify taking their vote away.  Two, any flaw you can find in the average voter under universal suffrage is also going to crop up in the average voter no matter how much and under what criteria you restrict the franchise. The plain fact is that there are a lot of dumb fucking people at all levels of the human race, there’s no reliable way to profile them, and there probably never will be.

  119. 119.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Al Rennick:

    Notice how the most recent reference is ’12.  This is an especially dipshit take, because it leaves out the context of why these numbers are like this.  The thing that make so many people not like the direction of the country is the existence of Trump.

  120. 120.

    wjca

    @Matt McIrvin: The lack of any plausible physical mechanism suggests that claims of a positive effect should at least be considered extraordinary.

    Two words: placebo effect.

  122. 122.

    Chris

    @Dave:

    Unfortunately I believe she did receive just a slap on the wrist but the entitled delusion of these people like were having a fun afternoon LARPing revolution is breathtaking.

    Arguably the whole point of fascism is to be a revolutionary LARP.

    Hey, you guys, let’s throw a revolution.  Just like the commies.  But, y’know, a revolution that doesn’t pit us against the rich, the nobles, the courts, the cops, the army, or anybody with actual power.  A revolution in which the Evil Elites we overthrow will be… the poor and the discriminated against.

    It’s a lot safer that way.

  126. 126.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Frankensteinbeck: The concern-trollish commenters who come here infrequently to post “all y’all suck” stuff have really been coming out of the woodwork over the past couple of days. Either this is just an election-home-stretch push or we got linked from somewhere.

  127. 127.

    Quiltingfool

    @bluefoot: Yep, I agree!  The only thing that *could* be bad about toilet paper, is kids decorating the neighborhood trees with toilet paper.

    Do kids do that anymore?  It was a big thing when I was in high school (in the 70’s, you know, the Dark Ages!).  Now, though, everyone has cameras, so easier to get caught, I guess.

  128. 128.

    jonas

    @Matt McIrvin: I think that was G.K. Chesterton. But in any case, I think it has less to do with the decline of religion and more to do with the growing complexity of the world around us. It’s really hard these days for most people to really grasp how our highly technological, increasingly complex world works and it’s a lot easier to latch on to esoteric conspiracies about stuff that mystifies or frustrates you than it is to educate oneself on history, economics, or computer science.

  129. 129.

    TBone

    The vet said to collect another stool sample and bring it in for a fecal smear test.  They will also give me a probiotic and hydration kit.  I don’t have to drag poor kitty Noah with me, just me and poop this time.  Thank goodness, that poor chonk has been tortured enough this week with vet trip and yucky tasting antibiotic meds twice daily!  She told me not to worry about the blood when I reminded her he’s had sarcoma.  So I’m not gonna worry.

  131. 131.

    Matt McIrvin

    @jonas: The mode of thought goes back to the dawn of history, though, there were people peddling this shit in ancient Rome. Lucian of Samosata and the Epicureans got their kicks from poking at them.

  133. 133.

    Ken

    @Bill Arnold: Re magnets, does anyone know anything more than this?

    Offhand I’d guess a lack of thorazine in her diet.

    The laws in some states require reasonable accommodation for prisoners with health problems, so she might get something. Based on the usual compassion and legal compliance of the prison industry, probably they’ll assign her a steel-frame bed, give her a bar magnet, and show her how to magnetize the frame to whatever degree she requires.

  134. 134.

    TBone

    @Doc Sardonic: he was back to soft serve consistency for a bit and now it’s kind of mixed.  I’m glad they’ll do further testing and give me the probiotics/hydration kit!  I don’t ever want to give him metronidazole ever again!  He drools like Turner’s Hooch 😭 and used claws on me yesterday for the very first time ever.

    Vet was very reassuring during phone call just now, I feel better.  They’ll do further testing any time I drop in over the weekend with another stool sample 😊

    THANK YOU and huge thanks to Pika as well for urging me not to wait but to call today!

  136. 136.

    Soprano2

    @BR: That’s the whole point, normies think politicians should get along and work together for the benefit of everyone, so when they see that happening they feel positive about it. Contrast that with TCFG’s attitude that Republicans who don’t kiss his feet need to pay a price for it. Normies don’t like that.

  137. 137.

    bluefoot

    @Quiltingfool: ​
      Kids do still do that! I was on a walk a couple of weeks ago and tree in my neighborhood had been toilet papered. I was a little surprised that it still happens. And I am wondering why this particular house.

  138. 138.

    Matt McIrvin

    @jonas: Ah, geez, you’re right, it was Chesterton. Lewis might have quoted him at some point.

    And that reminds me that Chesterton was really, really bothered by the way the Jews in his neighborhood kept acting as if they were regular English-type people.

  151. 151.

    Kristine

    @Dave:

     

    Unfortunately I believe she did receive just a slap on the wrist but the entitled delusion of these people like were having a fun afternoon LARPing revolution is breathtaking.

    I called it “performance sedition” at the time, and too many apparently got away with it. Hoping they all get their time in the barrel eventually—is there a statute of limitations for charges like those?

  154. 154.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: The troll infestation I saw on this blog after the Biden/Trump debate seemed organized. I am now convinced that there is a secretive group trying to instill pessimism among Democrats like those here. I call them the Gloominati.

  156. 156.

    TBone

    Marge is thirsting after attention again:

    Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.

    She xitted out a map and some howling.  When is she gonna be outed as The Pipe Bomber?  C’mon, FBI!

    crooksandliars.com/2024/10/marge-goes-full-batsht-they-can-control-0

    Molly Jong Fast slapped her, as you’ll see at the link.  But I need to see more than that after witnessing Judge Barrett take on MAGA yesterday!

  157. 157.

    Jackie

    @Al Rennick: Today looks like a good day to avoid political media.

    Apparently today is “democrats are wringing their hands because the election is too close for comfort and HARRIS isn’t DOING MSM interviews day!”😱

    Michael Steele was on MSNBC a bit ago shaming Democrats the only way Steele can do it: Dry humor eye rolling, mixed with gentle chiding and chuckling. The MSNBC host even had to laugh at herself as she acknowledged she was having a The Sky is Falling moment.

    Steele just looked at her and finished with “that’s what democrats do.”

    He’s not wrong.

  159. 159.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Geminid: They also managed to raise the acrimony levels of the discussion.  Maybe a second order effect, but one that still reverberates.

  162. 162.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Got both an email and a text from CA Secretary of State’s office notifying me that my ballot has been mailed, and to check with my county elections office if I don’t receive within a week. What a difference when your government officials want you to vote.

  166. 166.

    Ramalama

    Anybody else think it’s odd that a county clerk such as our new Jailbird could fly on private jets (one of the first things the judge said, comparing her to other defendants in his court room)?

    Maybe she’s independently wealthy and working a non-glamorous job?

    Or she’s working her job and some Trump MAGA Q nut flew her on their private jet?

    Also gratifying to hear the judge say to her twice, “You are a charlatan.” In case the first time he said it, it evaporated.

  170. 170.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Ted Cruz has been pushing anti-trans ads non-stop in Texas. Trans folks there are worried about the long-term consequences even if he loses — if nothing else seeing ad after ad after ad demonizing you.

    Meanwhile, Texas officials continue their efforts to erase trans people:

    Last month, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) announced it would stop processing gender marker changes on driver’s licenses for transgender people who amend their birth certificates. The department also stated it would no longer process name changes if they accompanied gender marker updates and would disregard court orders updating transgender individuals’ legal gender. Now, a new email from the Texas DPS reveals that these policies will not only apply to new gender marker changes but could also be used to revoke previous name and gender marker changes for transgender people who already have a valid driver’s license with updated information.

    Out here in California, a fourth college forfeited a match rather than play San Jose State University women’s volleyball because one of the players is a trans woman, Blaire Fleming — with Utah’s governor voicing support. The poor player is also being targeted by her teammate and former roommate, who’s now part of lawsuit to force the NCAA to ban trans athletes. Roommate had no idea that Fleming was trans, until Fleming was forcibly outed. Fleming originally played in South Carolina but was forced to transfer to California after the state threatened and then later enacted a ban on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

  179. 179.

    dww44

    @TBone: If my experience a few years back with Flagyl is any indication, I’d say you should stop giving it to him.  I was in hospital with a severe attack of diverticulitis and the young hospitalist put me on it.  I got skyrocketing and uncontrollable high BP from it, spouse had to tell him that it was killing me (terrific headaches, extremely high bp) and I needed to be given something else.  I was only on it for one day and it took me 2 years to get my BP under control.

  183. 183.

    JoyceH

    One thing that always gobsmacks me about stories like this is the bone-headed actions the perps take that turn out to be illegal. Here’s a paper-signing desk-dweller who apparently believes that you just have to take the cover off a computer or something and the evidence will be Right There, plainly visible and easily comprehensible. And of course that gullibility makes them perfect targets for grifters with a handful of impressive sounding computerish buzzwords. Maybe she’ll take some classes in prison. Do they offer “how not to be a chump 101”?

  185. 185.

    Ramalama

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Roommate had no idea that Fleming was trans,

    Right? Someone in her close Soviet airspace (term coined by Annie Lamott) didn’t even know / couldn’t tell herself.

    Until the authoritah outed her.

    What is a woman from general day to day stuff but outward appearance and possibly some verbal cues that ladies of all births generally make in order to remain alive or employed.

    Nobody asks me for my birth certificate when visiting the Ladies’ room at Costco. Nobody asked for my birth certificate when opening a bank account.

    Unless I need to visit my doctor, my female CISgender is never discussed. I would really hate that if I had to keep justifying my existence like that

     

    PS sorry for preaching to the choir. I need a cold compress for my forehead.

  186. 186.

    Doc Sardonic

    @TBone: Metronidazole is a pain to give cats, but vets use it as a first line drug for diarrhea because it hits three different things that can cause diarrhea in cats. The med is really good at killing Clostridium family bacteria, protozoans, and it reduces intestinal inflammation. My personal preference is to have the vet use the injectable form of it as a loading dose then use some other things for the rest because it is such a nasty pill to give.

  187. 187.

    Chris

    @TBone:

    Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.

    You’ve got to love people who, on the one hand, think the government can control the weather and it’s ridiculous to say it can’t be done, but on the other hand, say that it’s ridiculous to believe that human activity affects the climate, and/or that it’s ridiculous to believe human activity could possibly do anything to correct this.

  188. 188.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Ramalama: Having to justify your existence every day is a big part of the hobbling society subjects marginalized people to. As a multiply privileged person I can barely imagine how exhausting and debilitating it must be over time.

  189. 189.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Chris:

    You’ve got to love people who, on the one hand, think the government can control the weather and it’s ridiculous to say it can’t be done, but on the other hand, say that it’s ridiculous to believe that human activity affects the climate, and/or that it’s ridiculous to believe human activity could possibly do anything to correct this.

    You really expect logical coherency out of folks like that?

  190. 190.

    Ruckus

    Just listened to the judge. I’m not sure that he gave the maximum sentence possible but it seemed he would be thrilled to have been able to give her a longer one.

  193. 193.

    TBone

    @Doc Sardonic: thank you!  The prescription is a liquid suspension and tonight is his very last dose.  I hesitate to skip any dosing because I read that it must be built up to a certain level to achieve that desired effect. (Like any other antibiotic, finish the prescription). The vet didn’t mention discontinuing, and Noah is acting normally in every other way.  Vet will do further stool testing tomorrow.

    Thank you for that reassuring info 😊

  194. 194.

    Ironcity

    @jonas: Was it Azimov or Clark who said any sufficiently advanced technology is the functional equivalent of magic?  every time I am told  that the kids who have grown up with video games and computers and the internet know all this technology I sometimes can barely hold my laughter.  In general, these people know about as much about the physics and chemistry of semiconductor chips and the software to program them as my dog.  And he is pretty smart and if he had opposable thumbs he could do just as well with the video game controls.

  196. 196.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: ​
     

    He’s not springing her out of anything. He forgot all about her months ago. I expect her to be angrily defiant for several months, then after it finally occurs to her just what she’s done to her life, a suicide risk.

    That sounds about right to me. I bet that until the moment they put her in a cell after they hauled her away in handcuffs and did whatever processing they need to do with a new prisoner, I bet until that moment she didn’t believe any of this was real, that she’d never face any consequences over this.

    And even now it’ll probably take a few days for her to realize it’s real, and at least until after the election to realize it’s not temporary, that the cavalry isn’t coming to rescue her.

    After that, when it hits her for real that she’s got to live through nine years in prison in order to return to the outside world, well, that’ll be an interesting moment for her. But she’s earned that moment; that’s her FO.

  198. 198.

    Doc Sardonic

    Seems the judge was making an attempt to drop the courthouse on her, but to also attempt to make sure she doesn’t get a reduction of sentence on appeal.

  199. 199.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Steve LaBonne:

    Having to justify your existence every day is a big part of the hobbling society subjects marginalized people to. As a multiply privileged person I can barely imagine how exhausting and debilitating it must be over time.

    My former therapist said all of her LGBTQ+ patients had some degree of CPSTD from living in a hostile society. There’s also a reason LGBTQ+ people have much higher rates of smoking and drinking than the overall population

    Can’t speak for other minority groups, but I’m sure that debilitating exhaustion is likely true for them as well.

  200. 200.

    Ruckus

    @jonas:

    2. he doesn’t give a shit about people like her.

    SFB gives a shit about himself. NO ONE ELSE.

    And the thing is that it is a real shit, fills his diaper regularly.

  201. 201.

    Torrey

    @TBone:

     

    PSA the movie ‘The Times of Harvey Milk” is on TCM tonight at 8pm Eastern, followed by another great political movie.

    en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_of_Harvey_Milk

    Re-upping this, Don’t miss the incredible performance by Denis O’Hare as John Briggs. It’s a small part, but O’Hare manages to convey the seething, repressed hatred that inhabits the character. I actually felt nervous watching the performance.

  206. 206.

    Doc Sardonic

    @TBone: Definitely give the last dose, it helps them, just wish they could find a way to mitigate the bitterness, also a good set of welding sleeves and a poncho are very helpful when you have to give Flagyl to cats. I’ve only seen one other drug for cats so far that generates that much drool but it is an appetite stimulant.

  207. 207.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    DETROIT (AP) — Biden helped end the dockers strike by saying reopening the ports to help Hurricane Helene victims would be patriotic.

    Someone should award Biden the Medal of Freedom​

  211. 211.

    Timill

    @Ironcity: Clarke:

    • When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
    • The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
    • Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

    And the corollary to 3: any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.

    Wiki article

  215. 215.

    scav

    That is one clueless woman.  Adamantine against the merest glimmer of reflection.  Mildly amused though that her first pass was threatening all with the wrath of her personal sugar-daddy God, but immediately switched to the real powerhouse of authority, her personal need for a magnetic princess mattresses and pillow set.

  217. 217.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Omnes Omnibus: I think 2016 was the last cycle BRINKS TRUCKS guy was here, and, yeah, Trump won that year, but that wasn’t exactly a credit to him given that he spent the whole Republican primary season touting basically every one of the non-Trump candidates of the week in succession, and saying we were in the tank for Trump when we said Trump was going to crush them.

    Then Trump crushed them, and when his penultimate hero Ted Cruz had finally been absolutely positively disposed of, he flipped to all-out MAGA. A truly pusillanimous performance.

  220. 220.

    TBone

    @Torrey: I hope I can sleep after watching, but listening to Judge Barrett tear Tina Karen Peters a new one again should be sufficiently calming 😊

  222. 222.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Nettoyeur:

    There are ways to get so tired you can sleep without magnets.

    Eleven days – 264 hours and 25 minutes, actually – is the longest that anyone has ever been able to stay awake at one stretch.  She’ll sleep eventually.

  223. 223.

    Ruckus

    @TBone:

    @pika:

    Good advice. All animals are not alike. Some prescriptions are just wrong for some animals, be they humans, dogs, cats…..

    Good medications work for more people but there are always limits to what any one medication can do. An example is, well me. I get headaches/migraines and there is one prescription med that works really good for me. There are others but this one works and has zero side effects – for me.

  224. 224.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @lowtechcyclist: She has 100% earned this and absolutely needs to be in jail, but I have a family member who went full Q-Anon. If she had the opportunity, I could see her doing something like this while absolutely believing she was justified. Trump has destroyed so many people’s lives. They let him, but it all starts with him and rightwing media. I’ve said it before. If I was a believer, I’d KNOW he was the Anti-Christ.

    I expect she has some normie family that are horrified by all this. I feel for them.

  227. 227.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Least surprising thing ever…. Musk Donated $50M To Anti-Trans Ads In 2022; Now His Pac Is Partnering With TPUSA

    A Reuters investigation revealed that Elon Musk began contributing to far-right causes earlier than previously believed. In 2022, Reuters uncovered $50 million in donations to a far-right PAC called Citizens for Sanity, which has ties to former Trump aide Stephen Miller. These donations make Musk “one of the biggest donors to conservative causes,” according to Reuters. A review of ads released by this group shows that many focused on anti-trans topics in races that ultimately proved successful for Republican candidates. Shortly after the Reuters investigation was published, Musk’s own PAC announced a partnership with anti-trans campaigner Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action, a 501(c)(4) offshoot of Turning Point USA.

    Citizens for Sanity’s heavy focus on anti-trans advertising is evident on its Rumble and YouTube pages, where it posted several ads that ran in 2022 and 2023. These include one titled “Game Over,” which targets transgender women in sports by depicting a hypothetical race between a transgender athlete and cisgender girls. Another ad targets Raphael Warnock, accusing him of believing that “girls can become boys by injecting them with testosterone, cutting off their breasts, and sexually changing their genitals.” The group also produced radio ads, such as one titled “War On Children,” which claims that LGBTQ+ inclusive education and transgender acceptance in schools constitute a “war on innocence.”

  228. 228.

    Mrstealyourcostcosample

    @TBone: yeah, Fox News has done “even the liberal ___ is against / for issue X” for decades to get normies in the boat.

    Fine with the shoe being on the other foot

  229. 229.

    Frankensteinbeck

    This topic has come up before, but if anyone here knows how a plain old iron magnet works, I will be deeply impressed.  I’m at “mysterious quantum math says that iron’s unpaired electrons are Special.”  That math is a big black box.

    So I actually have great respect for anyone who realizes we are surrounded by things we as individuals don’t understand and take for granted.  Magic.

  230. 230.

    Jackie

    @Chris: MTG is correct! Don’t forget when TCFG was head of the government, he single-handedly altered the course of a hurricane with a Sharpie!

  232. 232.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Quiltingfool: ​
     

    OT: Did the weekly shopping at Walmart this am. I had heard that folks were buying up toilet paper because of the dock strikes, which tells me we have lots of people who have no clue what is made HERE, or some screeching internet goob told them all is lost, buy butt paper. Anyway, we have lots of stupid people here, because there was no toilet paper at Walmart! I chuckled at thinking how much tp these people have now, for no reason.

    Then again, if having extra toilet paper makes them feel secure, who I am to judge?

    We were at the Wal-Mart in Prince Frederick, MD this morning. Normally, one side of an aisle, top and bottom shelves, is totally filled with TP. It was almost empty this morning.

    Within a week, the vast majority of normies will have completely forgotten about the strike. Except for those who brought a full shopping cart load of TP home with them this week, and are still figuring out where they’ve got room to stash it all.

    I figure people just remembered that the last time we had serious shortages, back in 2020, the TP shortage was paramount in people’s minds. So when they heard the dockworkers were going on strike and there would be shortages, they assumed that meant TP shortages, and didn’t even stop to realize that TP was made here in America, from wood pulp from American trees, before buying as much TP as they could pile onto a shopping cart.

  235. 235.

    Ruckus

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I’m worried about shitforbrains but not to the degree that I was 6-12 months ago. His brain is aging out – rapidly. His own fans go to his events and a lot of them now get up and walk out after he starts talking because he’s gone downhill very quickly – maybe not at the speed of light but rather rapidly. Age, stupid and anger will do that. Aging out, for those of you not all that close to it, or not having seen it in relatives, etc, accelerates as time passes. People with normal personalities usually go a bit slower because they aren’t pushing the envelope. People that think everyone else adores them go rapidly because they see/hear the doubts and try twice as hard to show they aren’t, and that never works and normally makes things worse. Then there are the class I call shitforbrains. They are those that think they are the greatest human to ever live and that everyone else owes attention and everything else to because they are the greatest human to ever live. Hence why I call HIM shitforbrains. He thinks he is the world’s greatest human and who proves the exact opposite every second of his existence.

  236. 236.

    Piety, keep me strong

    @trollhattan: ​ You’re gonna have to get used to a lower grade of toilet paper inside, and limited quantities of even that. Use it judiciously, or wipe your ass with your hand, your choice.​

  237. 237.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Transphobia is the #1 reason Musk bought Twitter.  First thing he did was unban Babylon Bee and brag about it.  He’s a disgusting bigot driven to obsession and insanity because the women in his life refuse to worship him.

  238. 238.

    Old School

    @lowtechcyclist:

    We were at the Wal-Mart in Prince Frederick, MD this morning. Normally, one side of an aisle, top and bottom shelves, is totally filled with TP. It was almost empty this morning.

    I went to the grocery store and while there were products on the shelves, there were signs saying customers were limited to six packages of paper products.  Cases of water were limited to eight per customer.

  239. 239.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @zhena gogolia:

    Wildly off topic, and I hope you’re still around:

    In the class I’m teaching Monday, I need to mention a concert pianist named Anna Sherest. Her husband is Dmitri Sherest. Both are Ukrainian. The name Sharest doesn’t look Ukrainian (or any kind of Slavic) to me, and I’ve been mentally giving it a French pronunciation (shar AY), but now I’m wondering if you might know a more authentic pronunciation.

    Not a big deal, but I like to be accurate. Grateful for any thoughts on this!

  242. 242.

    Matt McIrvin

    @lowtechcyclist: There are people who claim they never sleep. They do sleep, just small amounts and they may not actually realize they’ve done it afterward.

  243. 243.

    zhena gogolia

    @SiubhanDuinne: I don’t know that name. I tried googling her in Cyrillic and didn’t get anything. G&T would be a better bet. But I guess I’d just pronounce it the way it looks. Ukrainian tends to pronounce all the consonants.

    ETA: I see it’s Shelest, not Sherest. There’s someone named Shelestyuk online, and that does sound Ukrainian, so maybe the pianist shortened it. I’d pronounce it the way it looks.

  245. 245.

    dmsilev

    @Frankensteinbeck: I do, actually. A PhD in physics, specializing in magnetism, have worked in the field ever since.

    “Because Quantum” really is the best short answer. The very slightly longer answer is that because quantum, sometimes electrons on adjacent atoms in a crystal prefer (have lower energy) to have their spins all pointing in the same direction. That’s a ferromagnet, like iron. Other times, they prefer to have spins pointing opposite their neighbors, so you get a checkerboard type pattern; that’s called an anti-ferromagnet. They’re less common; the only element which is antiferromagnetic is chromium, but a bunch of alloys and such show that behavior. That “checkerboard” pattern only works, by the way, for atoms arranged in a square or cubic lattice. Consider a triangular lattice and try to figure out which direction the spins should point to satisfy the “points opposite to their neighbors” constraint. You’ll very quickly get frustrated, and in fact “frustration” is the technical term.

    If you want to ask *why* Because Quantum, I’m going to have to start talking about the Pauli exclusion principle and exchange interactions, and it’s going to get technical fast.

  247. 247.

    Chris

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Musk went full Trumper, and bought and ruined one of the biggest media companies in the world, simply so that he could act out his resentment at his child turning out to be transgender and escaping his control.

    And Trump ran for president and turned into a raging dictator-wannabe because he was furious at Obama for laughing at him in front of the whole national media.

    And Vance turned into his most loyal sycophant to satisfy a likelong pathology of embarrassment for his relatively humble origins and resentment for his Ivy League peers who didn’t share it.

  248. 248.

    Ruckus

    @Bill Arnold:

    Life sure can be a bitch can’t it?

    A magnetic mattress? What the hell?

    OK I looked this up and yes they do exist. Now as almost no human alive is magnetic and unless you put some sort of magnetic material in your mouth and swallow it what the hell is the point? Or is this just that some people will buy or believe anything.

  252. 252.

    Citizen Alan

    @Frankensteinbeck:  My take on the “how do magnets work” issue has always been: No, we don’t know how magnets work. You know how I can tell? Because we don’t have flying cars, fusion reactors, and faster-than-light travel. But we know more than we used to and we learn more every day. Which is why science is better than religion/superstition, because a continual quest for greater understanding is superior to just shrugging and saying “God made it that way, so why worry about it.”

  253. 253.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @WaterGirl: It’s even more disgusting…Trump tells his cult that “he took a bullet” for them and here’s a guy who literally lost his life at one of his rallies and Trump’s got nothing but pathetic jokes.

    Trump could treat Mr. Comperatore the same as Ashley Babbit but the difference is both he and Mr. Comperatore were both shot at the same event and only one can be the hero of the cause. So down the memory hole goes Mr. Comperatore, the real person whose life was on the line for the country was Trump, not the dead guy.

    Seriously fucking sick.

  254. 254.

    jonas

    @Matt McIrvin: Yeah, Chesterton has not aged well in a lot of ways, whether it’s his casual antisemitism or his less-than-airtight Christian apologetics (albeit couched in clever writing, which fools a lot of people), which can be summed up mostly as “non-religious people think they’re happy, but trust me, they’re not.” Ok, then.

    He was a fairly strident anti-fascist, though, so he had that going for him.

  255. 255.

    Ruckus

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    Some people need an answer to questions that should be obvious.

    Like, is shitforbrains (djt) human? I mean given humanity reality the answer should be no, but humanity and that the world takes all kinds, the answer is yes. And it’s the same answer to mattress mama.

  256. 256.

    Ken

    @JoyceH: Here’s a paper-signing desk-dweller who apparently believes that you just have to take the cover off a computer or something and the evidence will be Right There

    Yet it was funny when Zoolander did it.

  257. 257.

    Ruckus

    @dmsilev:

    Yes but you are a human being.

    The woman in this story seemingly may not be, but thinks (such as her thinking actually exists – which is very poorly) that she is.

  261. 261.

    Ken

    @Ironcity: [my dog] is pretty smart and if he had opposable thumbs he could do just as well with the video game controls.

    You don’t need thumbs. Even a fungus can control a robot.

    (Personally I feel this is something we should be more worried about. The goldfish were bad enough.)

  262. 262.

    Ken

    @lowtechcyclist: Eleven days – 264 hours and 25 minutes, actually – is the longest that anyone has ever been able to stay awake at one stretch.

    That has all the hallmarks of a world record the Guinness Book removed because of all the people dying as they tried to better it.

  263. 263.

    Chris

    @jonas:

    The extent to which conservative antifascism existed in these days makes me drool with envy sometimes.  It was not by any means universal or even the rule, but it was real nonetheless, and in some places like the U.K, strong enough to win out.  That LGM post this morning about the Battle of Cable Street included a reference to how Mosley’s popularity dropped once it became clear how closely he was associating himself with Hitler, and I’m reading that and thinking… imagine a world in which Trump’s popularity sank because he was too close to Putin.

    (Of course, part of the reason for that distinction is that the system was even more racist back then.  Conservatives and fascists could afford to take their differences with each other more seriously in a world where the supremacy of white Christian men that they both believed in was far less seriously challenged by politics).

  264. 264.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Finally got our PA ballots! Got them out of the mailbox about 3:40. It’s now 4:00 pm. They’re filled out and sealed. The dropboxes around the county don’t open till Oct 14, but the box at the county courthouse is open now, so we’re going to take a little drive. Our vote will be complete by 5:00.

    Also have 30 more postcards to put in the mail for Winning The House.

  266. 266.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @TBone: Did you by any chance ever hear of the Trolley Stoppers? Local a cappella quartet, friends of ours, they had a solid local fan base (unfortunately due to health issues, they are no longer performing).

    They had a song called “Media Pennsylvania” that included that tagline.

  267. 267.

    Ruckus

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Some people seem to need to know or at least have an excuse for everything. Breathing, eating, sleeping, etc, etc.

    I was a mental health counselor a seemingly lifetime ago and this was one of the things that a segment of humanity seems to have. They actually have zero or at least relatively close to zero concept of reality and if not in every aspect of their life at least a majority of it. So they will/can believe some really asinine stuff. And there almost always will be someone who can and will sell it to them.

  271. 271.

    TBone

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:  alas I haven’t heard of that group but the ‘Everybody’s Hometown” tagline has been the Borough’s slogan for a long time.  I left the area in 2015 so maybe before that group got started?  Are they in the official Hometown Video?

  272. 272.

    Jeffro

    After the Fed’s long-overdue rate cut and today’s jobs report, it feels like we’ve turned a corner with our snooze media.  They can’t deny it any longer: this is a GOOD economy!

  273. 273.

    Maxim

    @dmsilev:

    If you want to ask *why* Because Quantum, I’m going to have to start talking about the Pauli exclusion principle and exchange interactions, and it’s going to get technical fast.

    I would love it if you did. Not that I would understand your answer, but I like hurting my brain that way.

  276. 276.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @TBone: I didn’t know there was an official hometown video, but I doubt they’re in it. I think they have been around before 2015, because here’s a video from 11 years ago. One of their favorites.

    (The channel belongs to George, their bass singer and song composer / arranger, the guy on the right.) If you search “Trolley Stoppers” on that YouTube channel you’ll find a bunch more. But alas, not the Media song.

  278. 278.

    Baud

    @Jeffro:

    We’ve probably turned a corner because the media has realized Harris is going to win and they want to spend the next month looking credible.

  279. 279.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @zhena gogolia:

    Woops, I just realised I got the name wrong. You’re quite right, Shelest, not Sherest. And I’ll bet they did shorten/anglicize Shelestyuk. That’s all I needed. Very much appreciate you.

  280. 280.

    Old School

    @Jeffro:

    They can’t deny it any longer: this is a GOOD economy!

    …

    The Biden-Harris recession is over and the Trump-Vance recovery has begun.
    — New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) October 4, 2024

  284. 284.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Baud:

    We’ve probably turned a corner because the media has realized Harris is going to win and they want to spend the next month looking credible.

    I fear you grant credit where none is due.

  286. 286.

    TBone

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: that’s very lovely! 😻 Did you see the Facebook video I found with their protest song above?  Ha ha!  ✊

    I think I was confused about the “official video” – I think I was remembering a DelCo video with all the towns and their names/signs featured (can’t now find it).

  290. 290.

    dr. luba

    @zhena gogolia: If you go to the Ridni site, you’ll se that Щелест/Shelest is ranked #475 in how common a surname it is, and there are 6800 Ukrainians with that surname.

    It dates back to at least kozak times There have been many notable people with this name, including scientists and Soviet officials. Petro Shelest was the first secretary of the communist party of Soviet Ukraine from 1963-1972.

  292. 292.

    J. Arthur Crank

    Excuse me, I think I will need some time alone after seeing that.    I loved the ending:  “I just denied that.”

  294. 294.

    zhena gogolia

    @dr. luba: I used the wrong first letter in Cyrillic, because I was back-forming from the “Sh.”

    ETA: Actually, I’m seeing it as Шелест, not Щелест

  295. 295.

    Ruckus

    @Dave:

    For some the reality is that whatever works for them (and isn’t harmful!) is OK.

    As I state above I was a mental health counselor (4 yrs) a long time ago and some people really do live in a different world. Normalcy is just not in their play book. And normalcy has a wide range in the world of humanity, and yet they still play, or try to play by different rules. They don’t fit in, like trying to fit the square peg in the round hole. But find them a square hole and bingo, they fit in. I call it growing up. And yet some never get there and never fit in anywhere.

  297. 297.

    justsomeguy05

    @Ukai:   “when”.  She assumes that he will win by a landslide.  In addition to thinking that he cares about her.  In a word “delusional”.

  299. 299.

    piratedan

    I would say that this is EXACTLY what a Dildo of Consequences looks like, when administered legally.

  300. 300.

    Captain C

    @Old School:

    The Biden-Harris recession is over and the Trump-Vance recovery has begun.

    Pitchbot, June 2025:  Just because Harris won the Presidency and her policies are causing the economy to sustainably boom, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give full credit to Trump and Vance for this economy.

    Who am I kidding, that would be a front paged op-ed piece.

  301. 301.

    opiejeanne

    @Bill Arnold: 20 years ago my youngest kid briefly worked for a company that put magnets in everything, from beds to walking shoes. It’s just expensive woo, and their marketing system was just shy of being a pyramid scheme. She was office staff, knew it was woo, and when they gave her a pair of sneakers she gave them to me and we fished the magnets out. They were ok shoes, but not as good as similar Clarks or Skechers Slip Ins, and certaintly not worth the hideous price at the time.

  304. 304.

    Chris

    @Captain C:

    Who am I kidding, that would be a front paged op-ed piece.

    One of today’s op-ed pieces: “The Democrats Have A Corruption Problem.  They Can’t Just Ignore It.”

    Imagine printing this in the age of Trump.

    “The North Has A Violent Insurrection Problem.  They Can’t Just Ignore It.” – NYT the day after the New York draft riots, probably.  (Ah, who am I kidding.  They’d be cheering for the rioters).

  306. 306.

    dmsilev

    @Maxim: Sorry for the delay in response; busy afternoon….

    The basic idea of the Pauli exclusion principle is that for particles like electrons, you can’t have two particles in the same state, where “state” includes both the position and the spin. This actually underlies the structure of the periodic table, that as you add more electrons to an atom, they don’t all just sit in the lowest-energy orbital but instead have a bunch of layers (“shells”) and different configurations within each shell.  One of the implications of this is that there’s an energy associated with having electrons in the same state (both position and spin) on two adjacent atoms which is called an exchange interaction. Depending on the exact details of the particular atoms, this interaction can either be negative or positive. Negative means that spins are favored to line up (lower energy is better), and positive means that anti-aligned is favored. This gives ferro- and anti-ferromagnetism respectively.

    A lot of materials have little or no exchange interactions; these are essentially non-magnetic materials. There are also other mechanisms for getting magnetism, but exchange tends to be the strongest, so for ordinary room temperature magnets it’s going to be the main driver.

  307. 307.

    artem1s

    @Al Rennick: 

    Just 28% of Americans think the U.S. is on the right track,”

    I was part of that poll. I answered we’re on the wrong track because of MAGAts and SCOTUS, not because of Biden or Harris. That’s a easy push poll question that can be distorted in a number of ways, including that voters are sick of chaos, hatred and believe the MSM and journalist framing bothsides as equals is bullshit and we’re going to vote for Harris in a landslide.

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