It’s the darkest time of the year, here in the Northern Hemisphere, as we hang suspended between an underappreciated Democratic presidency and an increasingly chaotic Republican national takeover. Small wonder the sky is perceived as full of brooding portents!
FBI, FAA, DHS and DoD reps told reporters this weekend that they got 5,000+ tips about drones. Fewer than 100 were actionable. And of those almost all mapped onto approach/exit routes for planes from airports.
People are panicking. Officials in power amplifying the panic are idiots/making it worse.— Nicholas Slayton (@nslayton.bsky.social) December 16, 2024 at 12:19 PM
Situation: There are 65 unknown drones in the sky
"Ridiculous! I need to go investigate this myself! Better send my drone!"
Situation: There are 66 unknown drones in the sky— SwiftOnSecurity (@swiftonsecurity.com) December 14, 2024 at 8:05 PM
I wrote about The Drone Issue and the classic American pastime of driving yourself insane and posting about it because you are uneasy or just bored. defector.com/its-time-for…
— David_j_roth (@davidjroth.bsky.social) December 16, 2024 at 11:16 AM
The inestimable Dave Roth, at Defector, explains “It’s Time For A Little Recreational Mental Illness In New Jersey”:
… Whatever these sightings actually are, and they seem mostly to be people mistaking airplanes or stars for some scarier other thing TBD, they also feel symptomatic of this broader moment’s and this particular milieu’s combination of generalized unease and all-devouring boredom. “One thing we know is that humans, when they see something in the sky, they’re really bad at telling how far away it is,” the communications director of the flight tracker Flightradar24 told NJ.com. “Our depth perception is awful, particularly at night.” Another thing we know is that humans, when primed to believe that Something Is Going On Up There but also just in general, will get weird and stay weird about stuff more or less for yuks. Whether this is people acting out some wish to see the unease they feel inside reflected by a world that otherwise doesn’t acknowledge them or just indulging in the classic suburban pastime of noticing something and then calling the police and/or doing some weird online posting about it, it all comes out more or less the same—people with garages giving themselves a few cheeky nibbles of schizophrenia, as a treat…
The response to this has been decently telling, without ever actually telling anyone anything new or useful. State and federal agencies have fielded and investigated reports of drone sightings for nearly a month—the first sightings in New Jersey were reported on November 18—and have found nothing of note. This has done nothing to stop people from wandering out into their yards and taking and posting (and posting, and posting) sub-Nightengaleian photos and video of the night sky. “Can you explain this?” these concerned citizens say, thrusting the absolute shittiest photo you’ve ever seen towards…well, just thrusting it outwards, mostly. At an unlucky neighbor, maybe, but more likely just at anyone scrolling past on some platform or other, and more generally in the direction of The Media, or The Government…
… Newly elected New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim went on a ride along with local law enforcement and a NJ.com reporter in rural Hunterdon County last week. “It’s my responsibility to show the people of New Jersey that we’re being responsive,” Kim said. “They have every right to know.” Local police told Kim that they routinely see 10 or so drones per shift, although “unfortunately, by the time we get there, they’re already gone.” Kim himself reported seeing some stuff—”these definitely don’t seem like the ones from Best Buy”—and promised to “stay on top of this and try to run this down.”
Another New Jersey elected official, Rep. Scott Van Drew, took a different approach. Van Drew, who styles himself like an unusually unethical restaurateur and represents what is by wide acclaim the most deranged part of the state, went on Fox News on Wednesday to tell viewers concerned about the drones what they wanted to hear, which is that they were absolutely right to be concerned about those drones. “Iran launched a mothership probably about a month ago that contains these drones,” Van Drew told Fox host Harris Faulkner, not a little gleefully. “That mothership, I’m going to tell you the deal, it’s off the East Coast of the United States of America. They’ve launched drones.” When challenged, Van Drew put a video on YouTube reiterating his assertions. “We know there is an Iranian drone ship that went missing from its port,” he said. “And the timing of the disappearance is circumstantially consistent with the beginning of the appearance of these drones.” (“There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States,” a Pentagon spokesperson said last Thursday, “and there’s no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States.”)
You can see, in these representatives’ respective responses to this little flare-up of recreational mental illness, two divergent but not quite competing visions of government. Kim goes out of his way to show that he takes these concerns seriously and allows that there may be something there before promising to do his level best to find out what it is; Van Drew goes on TV and talks the wildest shit he can, and then goes on YouTube, puts on a somber face, says “fear has no place in responsible leadership,” and keeps right on talking it. I probably don’t need to tell you which political party either elected official belongs to, but it seems both more salient and more worrying that it is nearly impossible to imagine a way in which those two approaches to public service could be brought together in collaboration, to this problem or really any other. That doesn’t preclude some sort of action in response—and frankly we are long overdue for a federal law making it legal for law enforcement officers to fire their guns at passing airplanes if they believe it’s appropriate to do so—but it also doesn’t augur well for any kind of solution…
Every sf reader of a certain age remembers C.M. Kornbluth’s 1950 “Silly Season“, a short story where multiple summers of weird lights in the sky turn out to be the precursor to an actual alien invasion. I’m not sure such an invasion wouldn’t be welcome, right about now.
A lot of people are mistaking perfectly routine predatory flights by the Jersey Devil for drones.
— BeijingPalmer (@beijingpalmer.bsky.social) December 16, 2024 at 1:34 PM
huh i wonder why overnight air traffic might be heavier in the last couple weeks before christmas
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) December 16, 2024 at 12:31 PM
Reminder: Social media Sharing is caring!
When you see drones performing synchronized maneuvers over a stadium, keep in mind:
1) they took off in the immediate vicinity and have neither the speed nor the endurance to fly anywhere else
2) they aren't carrying any weapons, which are too heavy
3) nobody's trying to disrupt their communications— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) December 16, 2024 at 9:16 PM
4) if there was serious wind or bad weather, they'd have to call the whole thing off.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) December 16, 2024 at 9:16 PM
Quick update Bluesky: ever wonder why there are no sharp images of these “drones” when many people have good cameras? ????
— Adam Kinzinger (@adamkinzinger.bsky.social) December 15, 2024 at 6:11 PM
Don’t bother trying to inform the MAGAts, though…
Warning: deep state drones may closely resemble your neighbor Wayne in a MAGA hat
— Domestic Enemy Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) December 17, 2024 at 12:52 AM
Holidays – Winter Wren – Krakow and Christmas Markets
Suzanne
It’s staggering how much better people’s lives would be if they could just get hobbies beyond consumption. Develop skills, interests, talents.
Gin & Tonic
@Suzanne: That takes effort, and commitment.
sentient ai from the future
it’s the NextDoor-ification of public spaces.
sells widgets, i guess.
Professor Bigfoot
I’m continually gobsmacked at the profound stupidity of too much of the American public.
I have to call it stupidity, because the only other explanation involves Confederates.
Baud
?
I’m going to try to only take daytime flights.
sentient ai from the future
@Professor Bigfoot: did you know there’s no dictionary definition for “gullible”?
Kay
Affluenza. They’re bored and creating a problem.
A month ago they were afraid of Haitian refugees – the refugees are still here but the toddlers wandered off to get spooked by a new fear.
Next it might be “there are monsters under my bed”
Suzanne
@Gin & Tonic: Effort and commitment can be really fun and rewarding!
I know, I know.
I blame workism and the grinder mindset for some of this. There’s a lot of people in my profession — mostly men — who basically sacrificed everything for the career ladder for a lifetime. Have crappy relationships with their families, didn’t stay fit, put a lot of stress on themselves for a long time. There’s a large swath of them who are now at, or are getting to, retirement age…. and they don’t want to go.
RandomMonster
In any ‘normal’ year I would just find this hysteria pathetic and funny. In 2024 I’m just crying, “Make it fucking stop.”
Elizabelle
LOL re last item. Is MTG threatening mass murder? Go to it, if you’ve got the “freedumb” types in your sights.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Suzanne: When my sister’s kids were young and complained about being bored, my BIL used to snarl “Get a job.” That’s what I want to say to half the internet.
Kristine
sentient ai from the future: Over the last couple of months I’ve received multiple invitations to join the neighborhood Next Door group. Coincidence? I think not
(I’ve unsubscribed from notifications. I’ll see if that ends them.)
Suzanne
@Dorothy A. Winsor: My version has always been, “Read a book”, but I’m an uppity coastal elitist, or something?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Wait. What? I had to go back and read the long quote in the post to find the idea that law enforcement shooting at planes was a good idea. This country has lost its collective mind.
sentient ai from the future
@Kay: notably, fear keeps the rabble glued to a particular information channel, which means they don’t notice what is being elided on that channel in particular.
it does occur to me that the “drones” thing is a goddamn hand-lettered invitation to the birdsarentreal folks.
Gin & Tonic
Speaking of effort and commitment, Ukraine says they have assassinated a russian general, in moscow. I’m impressed.
sentient ai from the future
@Kristine: BRRRAINSSSS
Gin & Tonic
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Satire.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Gin & Tonic: God, I hope so! I can’t tell any more.
twbrandt
H. G. Welles and Orson Welles (are they related?) would be proud.
Kay
@sentient ai from the future:
NY Times ” many report monster in their closet when they turn out the light”
Democrats will have to craft monster messaging that “feels their pain” while gently suggesting monsters aren’t real – the messaging will fail.
Quinerly
I now live in a dark sky community. No street lights; all electric underground. The dark sky is actually enforced with neighbors either going to their neighbors or sending in addresses to HOA compliance officer. Any outside lighting has to shine down…and there are some other rules about outside lighting. Duration on, bulbs…..
I am good with it. An example, imo, of HOA compliance being used for “good” and “not evil.” You obviously agree to covenants when you buy. I wanted a dark sky community. Mostly, I haven’t heard of any real complaints about compliance….usually violators are new to the community and just didn’t understand or really didn’t think about their outside lights. There are some complaints from night time drivers about not being able to see road signs. Not sure how to solve that other than just listening to a navigation app.
I love my dark skies. Pretty amazing for sitting out and just watching the sky in pure darkness. I never really have had that experience much until traveling and moving out West. I have several of those constellation apps and am learning so much. Plus, seeing meteor showers, shooting stars…..and that weird Star Link.
Pitch black, no light pollution….sound of coyotes and the water from my fountain in the koi pond. I am even getting used to the little sounds coming from my perennial and rose beds…scratching and such. I just don’t want to know the details of exactly what critter. (I have mentioned my rat and mouse phobia. I saw “Willard” It made an impression. Do love my snakes, though. Especially my many “Yard Bullies.)
Would love if anyone could recommend a beginner type telescope. I was researching them about a year ago and got terribly confused and overwhelmed.
Another one in the column……”Boy, when my life changed, it really changed.”
jimmiraybob
Wowser. Anybody looking for a new band name should consider Orbs of Energy.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: I agree, I don’t have time to worry about what’s in the sky because I’m too busy working, going to Jazzercise, checking on my bar, trying to remember what phones calls I need to make, and taking care of my husband. I fall asleep on the couch while watching the local 10 o’clock news. I can’t imagine looking for something like this to worry about. My theory is that since TCFG was elected they’ve lost their rage “hits”, so they had to make one up. The idea that these are Iranian drones that Joe Biden is “allowing” to fly in our airspace fills the bill nicely.
Gretchen
MD governor Hogan posted a video of “drones “ he saw in his back yard. It was the constellation Orion.
Stephanie Ruhle had a NJ mayor on who said he’s been in contact with federal authorities and they told him that they weren’t seeing anything unusual. He concluded that they were lying to him. No interviews with federal officials. You’re not helping, Steph.
Kay
Eric Adams is blaming his failed, corrupt government on migrants. He can’t switch parties fast enough. Go. Join MAGA.
sentient ai from the future
@Quinerly: the celestron line has generally been a set of serviceable entry-level telescopes that are slightly to well above the level of hot garbage.
i would recommend getting involved in an astronomy or astrophotography group, and if you live in a dark sky community there is absolutely going to be one there already. secondhand telescopes, and assistance with the telescope you’re going to want to build if you catch the bug, will be freely available there.
WereBear
It’s simple and should apply to everyone.
Call out and determinedly oppose the attempted Russian takeover of our nation, or you’re one of the traitors.
Where is the Opposition? I’ve been patient since 2016 and seeing results but STILL not fixing the whack-a-mole problems. And currently they seem determined that pretending everything is fine will keep the children quiet.
Soprano2
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I think that was snark from the author, I don’t think they’re seriously suggesting that would be a good idea.
lowtechcyclist
@sentient ai from the future:
Well played!
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I still think right wing media is stirring this up to distract from Trump’s terrible cabinet picks.
WereBear
@Professor Bigfoot: Confederate stupidity is to stupidity as brandy is to watered wine
Soprano2
@Kay: ROFLMAO!! That was funny, Kay, and oh so true. Why do we have to indulge every crazy obsession these people have?
artem1s
Let’s face it the real reason Harris lost is because the country has reached the Terri Schiavo and Elian Gonzalez threshold of boredom. They voted for chaos and hyperventilation.
twbrandt
@Quinerly: I’ve never heard of a dark sky community. That’s pretty cool.
danielx
@jimmiraybob:
I’m still wondering why somebody hasn’t named a band Black Velvet Elvis.
sentient ai from the future
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: yes. you gotta fill broadcast time somehow, and the more time spent on manufactured nonsense, the less time spent on the parade of horribles being nominated for the highest administrative positions in the land, that will absolutely make everything worse if confirmed.
bread and circuses. hold the bread.
TBone
I like this lady’s account almost enough to resurface on social media. Almost.
https://bsky.app/profile/fancysplace.bsky.social/post/3ldi3plyc7k2d
https://bsky.app/profile/fancysplace.bsky.social/post/3ldi4ait2mk26
Quinerly
@Gin & Tonic:
Wow! Do you have a link? Any more info?
*********
“Morning Joe” (I will make no fucking apologies to anyone for listening) had a really good segment on 100’s and 100’s of North Korean troops in Ukraine being mowed down. Meat grinder kinda stuff. I probably wouldn’t know that if I hadn’t tuned in since I am on the move. Also, good segment on this abusive freak who was court martialed and has been escorting Hegseth around on Capitol Hill. Hegseth’s poor judgment continues to shine brightly. I am looking forward to these hearings. Going to arrange my next trip around being home for Hegseth and Gabbard’s questioning by the Dems.
Matt McIrvin
What this reminds me of is 2004. George W. Bush had just won reelection, everyone on my side of the aisle was just completely dejected. An old friend of mine announced on LiveJournal that “America has terminal cancer” and I was trying to tell him that it wasn’t that bad. Well, maybe I was wrong, maybe America did have terminal cancer after all. Anyway.
Remember what the right-wing media did, like, days after Bush was reelected? They pivoted to the “War On Christmas”! Liberals were going to destroy Christmas by saying “Happy Holidays”!! I remember 2004 as the year that bullshit really exploded. They’d just won everything they wished for, and they had to go find a new thing to be terrified about because they couldn’t keep doing what they did otherwise.
Spanky
Marge sure knows how to construct a sentence.
Kay
@Soprano2:
I don’t know how people like Kim do it. I would so be a one termer –
“I’m not talking about this anymore. Go find something worthwhile to do. You may call me when you have a real problem but it has to be one government can fix”
WereBear
Cultists become very weak-minded, frightened and bored, paranoid and full of fear energy.
Extra stress hormones have them “see” patterns and portents because their world makes no soothing sense. They can’t plan or anticipate.
My last remaining hope is that Trump won’t last and the squabbles over the new guru will be epic. He made sure he would have no real successor. So there’s going to be a lot of hysteria.
They voted for it and were trained to expect nothing. Not working out that way this time. They have lost what few anchors they had when their behavior screwed themselves too.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Adams is angling for a Trump pardon and will probably get one. Blago 2.0, and if he’s lucky, he won’t even have to do time.
TBone
@Quinerly: I used to live in an “accidentally” dark sky location and miss it frequently. One new neighbor here turned on an LED spotlight and never turned it off again for three freakin’ years. It’s finally off (I guess they finally feel safe here). It blazed directly at us the whole time, ugh! Very grateful it’s finally not an issue. There are good reasons we didn’t say anything about it. Boy howdy did I want to complain though. All’s well that ends well.
WereBear
@danielx: Agreed
lowtechcyclist
I think Wes Moore’s office needs to send out a satirical press release where he pledges to keep Marylanders safe from the constellation Orion.
ETA: “But we can’t do anything about Scorpio or Ursa Major, you’re on your own there.”
TBone
@Spanky: whar Jewish Space lasers?
She is so punchable.
Trivia Man
I referenced Silly Season in the last conversation here, with the point i took from the story. The fake invasions were intentionally done by the aliens so they could elicit WOLF WOLF WOLF from us. It was a brilliant tactic to lull us into a state of skepticism.
catclub
If you are bored it is because YOU ARE BORING!
Get a life.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
Trump’s actual economic agenda is now ordinary far Right Republican – privatize, crony contracts, deregulate – policy that benefits only wealthy people. Comparing him to Bush would be a smart move and its the truth. They’re even back to ginning up a war with Iran.
Trivia Man
The app Blue Sky gets traction and THEN “someone” gets everyone looking at the sky? Great marketing!
gene108
@Quinerly:
I honestly think Trump & Co. are a bunch of insecure men who can’t stand the fact being a macho prick does not get rewarded and will more likely get you in trouble.
Gin & Tonic
@Quinerly:
Here you go.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: I’d thought that that was part of Van Drew’s (R – Dumbfuckistan) statement, but it appears to be the author’s own brainfart.
Shooting department-issued guns at airplanes is just going to result in more bullets randomly falling from the sky. These, no doubt, will be considered proof that the aliens are armed and dangerous..
ETA: Maybe my snark meter is broken this morning. G&T says that that comment from the author was satire.
jimmiraybob
@danielx:
I Googled “Black Velvet Elvis” and there’s apparently a duo going by that name in Portland, OR.
TBone
The first time I introduced my 4 y.o. nephew to Silly String in a can, he was afraid of it, the poor bugger. Went over like a lead balloon! Thankfully, I know how to make paper airplanes and also had balsa wood rubber band fliers on hand!
Trivia Man
My favorite recent UAP was the mysterious orb with a cross on the bottom. It was a weight on the telephone wires to keep them from swaying. Immobile, easy to go stand directly under it, and likely there for years.
Professor Bigfoot
@sentient ai from the future: That still involves Confederates.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
He’s such a coward. With each failure he blames migrants louder. Reprehensible person.
The NYPD caused slightly more than one crash A DAY last year recklessly speeding around the city. He has them marauding around that place like a criminal gang.
catclub
Haha, reading covenants before you buy. Do you also write End user agreements for software?
Matt McIrvin
@Quinerly: That’s lovely. I think a lot of cranky things people believe about science happen because they’re estranged from nature. We get strange things like flat-earthers telling you to trust the evidence of your own senses, and then saying things that are easily debunked by looking up, that clearly indicate that they don’t look at the sky or they don’t want you to.
In another thread I mentioned my daughter being amazed by the view of the brightest winter constellations from a not-very-dark area near the Potomac River that was just *less* light-polluted and obstructed than what she was used to. I can only imagine how she’d react to an actually dark sky out in the country in which you can see thousands of stars.
Dorothy A. Winsor
MTG is such a ridiculous person. She’s in a position to actually do things, and this is how she chooses to spend her time. She might as well be on the Junior High Student Council.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: John Linnell of TMBG made a crack about it on stage on Sunday: “Well, now we know the constellation Orion is a government cover-up! Better get RFK on it!”
sentient ai from the future
i will say this about the “drone invasion”
people are looking up from their smartphones, at least.
TBone
@Matt McIrvin: I had some friends try to tell me at my cabin that the Milky Way was just a cloud. So I made them come out the next night to see the same “cloud” in the exact same location. I miss that sky.
Trivia Man
@sentient ai from the future: Wrong! I know because I looked it up! Dont ask me why i looked it up, I just did.
It took me about 10 minutes to find a dictionary and smugly display that page to my cousin. I thought he was literally going to pee his pants as he doubled over in laughter.
TBone
@sentient ai from the future: good eye
Kay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m kind of glad Nancy Mace has officially joined the clown caucus though. People like Bill Mahr demanded we take her seriously but she’s SUCH a pathological liar the media marketing effort failed.
No bigger suckers than the ultra savvy
catclub
…crony contracts.
Policy that only benefits wealthy people with the right connections to the top guy.
At that point it isn’t really policy but favoritism.
lowtechcyclist
@catclub:
Hear the voices in my head,
I swear to God it sounds like they’re snoring
But if you’re bored, then you’re boring
The agony and the irony, they’re killing me
Harvey Danger, “Flagpole Sitta”
Betty Cracker
This detail from the latest school shooting made me feel ill:
I remember what my kid was like in 2nd grade. Heck, I remember what I was like at that age. A 2nd grader is just a baby. A country that won’t act to stop its babies being murdered in school or witnessing murders in classrooms is fucking EVIL.
sentient ai from the future
@Matt McIrvin: for a number of years now i’ve wanted to do the eratosthenes earth-circumference-measurement experiment with the kiddo.
i think this should be a BJ jackal collective project, now that i think of it. everyone doing the experiment on the days in question together and sharing their pictures and data. how cool would that be?
Professor Bigfoot
@TBone: Welp, apparently I offended them so greatly that I was pre-blocked.
Alas.
Matt McIrvin
@sentient ai from the future: The problem is that they’re *not* looking up from the smartphones. They’re getting the panic from the smartphones! If they spent more time looking up they’d be able to recognize what they saw.
Spanky
@Quinerly:
Not an easy thing to do, since it really requires an understanding of how well you know – and want to know – the sky.
Optics aside for the moment, the key is finding a mount that fits your knowledge and goals. The ritziest mounts will use gps to find out where they are and where they’re pointed, but at a price that’s probably beyond where you want to start. Keep learning your way around the sky, and your mount requirements will simplify.
Rather than go on at (great) length about it, I recommend you go to the Santa Fe Stargazer’s meeting. Looks like the next one is tomorrow! Yeah, and you’re not home. But I’d recommend talking to the local folks about it, and see what they have. It definitely helps to see scopes up close and personal, because one that looks perfect online might turn out to be too heavy or awkward to manage when you just want to spend 5 minutes checking something out.
And since you’re on the road, check google for local astronomy clubs in the places your traveling to. They pop up in even the smallest hamlets, especially out west under dark skies at altitude.
ryk
@Quinerly: I’ve been looking at this one. https://www.highpointscientific.com/celestron-nexstar-8se-computerized-telescope-bundle-11069
sentient ai from the future
@Matt McIrvin: thats_the_joke.gif
Kay
@catclub:
His last few interviews have been attempts to portray himself as a normal Republican. I think its a mistake on his part – people voted for him because they thought he was different and would solve all their personal problems with Maverick Magic. Democrats should pounce on it. Drop the Extreme MAGA Republicans stuff. Its no longer true. Donald Trump is now the elder statesman of the GOP. He’s the establishment.
Trivia Man
@Quinerly: we went to Canada last year and i was excited for dark skies. We stayed near the Prince of Wales, one of the most picturesque hotels in the world, and i eagerly waited to see the milky way. Apparently, the dark skies ate only outside of town. Maybe they were carefully pointed down, had lower brightness, or other features. But i had to walk a half mile to find a place without lights pointed at me. Hotels, restaurants, bars… every direction i looked. Cold and windy, i didn’t last long enough to let my eyes accustomize.
Another Scott
Maybe we’ll soon see 3 wise men/kings from the East*? Bringing presents?
Eh, they’re probably on their way to Trump Tower to see Uday and Qusay.
* – Some brimstone baritone anti-cyclone
Rolling stone preacher from the East
He says, dethrone the dictaphone
Hit it in its funny bone, that’s where they expect it least
Best wishes,
Scott.
Suzanne
@catclub:
On a project I worked on — an expansion of a behavioral health hospital that had been in that location and operating for over 40 years — we were held up for months by a woman who had bought a condo sight unseen across the street the year before. She didn’t even bother to Google Earth to find out that the view from her balcony was overlooking the loading dock before purchasing. She opposed the project at every public comment session we held. It got approved anyway, though the multiple public comment cycles added months to the schedule.
On the day concrete was poured for the first floor, she ran onto the job site screaming.
artem1s
find a local astronomy club. they will be happy to help you figure it out and may have members who want to upgrade and sell their old equipment.
Matt McIrvin
@TBone: Oh, I’d have been terrified of Silly String at that age. As a kid I had a lot of what are now called “sensory issues”–I could be easily overwhelmed by something like that and had a profoundly strong startle reflex. Jokes on TV about messy accidents, like the chef falling down the stairs with a stack of cakes on Sesame Street, made me cry. I’d probably have been diagnosed as mildly autistic by modern criteria and that was part of it. A lot of those things just faded as I got older.
Kay
NYTimes has “after Trump victory, Republicans trust the election system again”
Magical thinking. They also think the economy is good now. I admit I’m stumped on how to message to a US public that has decided they prefer to live in a fantasy world of their own making. They can create a problem and then make it disappear. There is no “policy” that reaches this.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Quinerly
@catclub:
No. I don’t write them.
But as an attorney who mostly dealt with contracts and promissory notes, I think anyone would be a GD fool to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in a house in a neighborhood and not read the covenants. I have little patience with people who complain about obvious HOA rules. I actually chose where I now live based on some of the rules. And, I pay $55 a month for amenities like the pool, sports areas that I don’t even use. I like that my $55 a month also goes for miles and miles of community owned trails, open space, houses built on large lots, dark sky, community maintained gardens and dog parks.
And, I, as an individual home owner (old beach property) and as an attorney (for a client), have sued HOAs and won both times. I also represented a small HOA years ago that never got sued. I like to think I have seen a little of both sides. No expert, though.
If you don’t want to be in a HOA, don’t buy in a HOA. Pretty simple. Even more simple… .know the rules going in. Don’t buy and think you can change them.
Professor Bigfoot
@Betty Cracker: We keep trying; but there’s more evil in this country than we’re really willing to admit or address.
Authoritarianism in this country presents as simple white supremacy, and so the authoritarians don’t even realize they’re authoritarians.
They think they’re “patriots.”
Trivia Man
@sentient ai from the future: Excellent! And todays time pieces are plenty accurate for precision. Bonus: standardized time zones!
Quinerly
@sentient ai from the future:
Toxic app. ND is toxic. Pure and simple.
Matt McIrvin
@Trivia Man: When I was in Singapore, which is about one degree north of the equator, I wanted to get a look at some of the Southern Hemisphere stars I can’t see from home. But you basically can’t see the stars at all from most of Singapore–of course, it’s a huge city full of light.
One night we did the Singapore Zoo’s “Night Safari,” a safari ride-through attraction that, as the name implies, happens in the middle of the night so you can see nocturnal animals doing their thing in their native habitats. That was pretty cool, but I also did my best to try to look at the sky. The Night Safari takes place in a wooded area in the middle of the island that is away from the highest population concentrations… but when I got a break in the trees, I still couldn’t see a lot.
I could see the very brightest stars, though, and with the help of a star-map app I was able to spot Canopus and Achernar, two of the brightest stars in the southern sky at that time of year, and definitely not visible from here.
Spanky
@sentient ai from the future: I think we’re a little short on hand-dug wells these days.
Trivia Man
@Spanky: check out the club web page and might find someone you already know is a member.
sentient ai from the future
@Professor Bigfoot:
authoritarianism is the weed that grows in the spaces where critical thinking is not actively cultivated.
Quinerly
@sentient ai from the future:
Thank you!!! Excellent ideas. Much appreciated.
Baud
@Kay:
If Blue sky information is accurate, apparently there are some labor unions who now love billionaires.
Kay
I went to Republican Lady book club last night and the MAGAS are really feeling empowered. The novel was about a Native American family and they were all proudly saying they can call them Indians again, although the author is Native American and she uses Native American in her author bio and in interviews.
So Trump has given them permission to be thoughtless and cruel towards others. Victory!
I gotta get out of that book club.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: Yup.
This is why I’m rather bemusedly “stepping back” and observing.
Of course, I have to ONCE AGAIN note that it’s WHITE PEOPLE who are doing this- not really anyone else (although they are collecting more of the “wanna be white ‘minorities'”).
Almost all of America’s problems can be traced to the beliefs and entitlement of one demographic.
“May you live in interesting times” has become a lot more apropos, hasn’t it?
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: That happened in 2016-2017. There was a noticeable stock rally right after Trump won (not when he entered office, when he was elected) and I think it was nothing more than Republican stock traders feeling happy.
And of course Republicans believe to this day that Trump fixed Obama’s dumpster-fire economy. There was nothing that changed when he came in that you can see in any economic indicator. But they were now allowed to believe in the good numbers that they had previously insisted were fake. It was like the Blue Fairy turning Pinocchio into a real boy.
Kay
@Baud:
Teamsters or another one?
Quinerly
@twbrandt:
I love it.
Grew up in rural NC. Plus spent a lot of time in coastal NC. Then 40 years in a noisy inner city.
I am glad I changed it up in 2022. No regrets about city living. No regrets about my move either. I’m pretty adaptable. And places like people fit periods of our lives. That’s always been my philosophy.
Professor Bigfoot
@sentient ai from the future: Perhaps… but that doesn’t keep it from presenting in this country as plain old white supremacy and the majority of white people vote FOR it.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
H.E.Wolf
@Another Scott:
Greetings from Asbury Park (okay, a little outside the city limits). I see what you did there, re: choosing a song title. :)
Baud
@Kay: I’m under the impression that Indians isn’t considered offensive. Or at least American Indian.
Nelle
My husband, a pilot and flight instructor, just left to fly, but at least it is daytime. I loved flying at night in a small plane, up there beyond the lights and a good view of the stars. Not so much now.
My son is certified to fly a drone in restricted air spaces (for his job in video communications for the city). He jumped through the hoops and growing up with a pilot father, he understands the demands for safety. This is pure craziness.
Once someone playing with a drone began to track me, very low level, while on a walk (this was in New Zealand). That was unpleasant.
sentient ai from the future
@Spanky: you can do it with a stick mounted upright. it’s not the original experiment, but a close relative.
there are variants that use two sticks but the basic idea is the same, you are measuring shadow length of a known object and comparing it at two times of the year, when the sun is closest and farthest away.
see also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xq__mxAgTw
Baud
@Kay:
I think longshoremen.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
We could never solve voter fraud because voter fraud was a fake problem. Republicans passed voter ID laws in 25 states and the voter fraud hysteria INCREASED. Because it never had any connection to reality.
E.
I don’t understand why Iran puts lights on all their attack drones.
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: wtf
I don’t do any social media after being banned from fascistbook in 2020 and have no idea how or why that would happen.to you. And your experience merely reinforces my desire to stay away from it all.
I do like the memes and videos there, that’s my addiction and I am “read only.”
Gah!
wenchacha
@Dorothy A. Winsor: For too many of them, shitposting is their job.
Spanky
@sentient ai from the future: Now you tell me. I’m about 15 feet down but it’s all sand.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: Exactly.
How the hell do we fight that?
The majority of white Americans have decided to believe in and enforce a fantasy world where they are rational to be afraid of everyone and everything that isn’t a straight white Christian American, and I don’t know how we undo this.
Baud
@TBone:
Blue sky has block lists you can subscribe to. PB might have gotten him placed on one of those.
Quinerly
@danielx:
I just spent a lovely afternoon in Patagonia, AZ at “The Velvet Elvis.” The pics just can’t do it justice. Great place. Wonderful people.
https://www.velvetelvislamision.com/
I didn’t order the $65 pizza. I did have a Negra Modelo with a lime at the gorgeous wooden bar. And, I gazed at the black velvet Elvi (plural) and the lonely black velvet John Wayne on the wall and contemplated the meaning of life.
Kay
@Baud:
Too bad. Trumps last labor secretary was Scalia’s son. He gutted every labor reg he could find.
I was relieved labor voters mostly stuck with Dems ( at their usual rate). Biden was very, very good for labor. I love their movement, I have a family generational connection to it, so I was pleased they stuck with us.
sentient ai from the future
@Matt McIrvin: yeah, i am hoping the large-cap growth rally doesnt crash before the 1st, when my gains are on next year’s taxes.
i am overweight on equities and particularly a S&P500 index fund, and need to rebalance before things start getting genuinely volatile.
Quinerly
@TBone:
Heart emoji
Kay
@E.:
Lol
Quinerly
@gene108:
Nailed it.
Professor Bigfoot
@TBone: I admit when I first flew into the Sky (and it’s really a pretty nice place) I took up every MAGA blocking starter pack that I could find… and it’s entirely possible I blocked some of the good guys in error.
But the thermonuclear nature of the block function there is actually a wonderful thing– when you block one of the vile sonsabitches he is GONE, never to be seen or heard from again… but unfortunately like when you’re tossing nukes, the blast radius can be a bit large. 😉
A Small Price To Pay!😂
TBone
@Matt McIrvin: my nephew also grew out of that type of sensory issue. BUT when he was only 3 y.o., my brother had given him a child size four wheel dune buggy type contraption and he used to race around in the yard at top speed (looked like 35 mph!) doing roundy rounds around the house in a blur! That’s when I was certain we were related, hahahaha and also why the fear of Silly String came as a surprise. I couldn’t believe how fast his little kiddy go car could GO! He was fearless, just like his AunTBone!
wenchacha
@Baud: I think it varies. Maybe Native Americans, The People, indigenous groups are okay with calling themselves Indians, but in my very limited experience, it is not a preferred term.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Interests!
I’m sitting in on a Zoom seminar that’s run by an old friend in Helsinki. Two presentations centered on “Ancient Labor”. First one is “Child Labor in Roman Egypt”. Not sure what the second presentation will be but in both cases, I’m sure I’ll be glad I wasn’t a child of the lower classes in Roman society. Duh.
Baud
@Kay:
I think I saw Loomis say Trump’s Labor pick wasn’t actually the worst possible, unlike his other picks. I doubt that means anything when it comes to policy.
Not that it matters much. Trump’s share of the labor vote wasn’t harmed by his first term.
pluky
@Suzanne: Know (or rather knew. I retired as soon as the bank balance read “freedom!!”) the type.
a) whole identity is defined by occupation
b) absolutely no clue what else they might do
c) any attempt at discussing (a) or (b) is countered by “maybe after the next bonus cycle”.
Quinerly
@Gin & Tonic:
Thanks!
Have you ever added extra lime and Peychaud’s to your nym? If you did you would be an old school “Saint Charles.”
https://www.food.com/recipe/the-saint-charles-503962
Betty Cracker
@Quinerly: That’s true for me too, different places fit different times. I fled the swamp the day I graduated from high school, and if you’d told me then that I would voluntarily return decades later, I’d have said, “No fucking way!” Lived in a variety of places in between, including city centers and small towns, and all of those experiences were good in their own way. No regrets.
sentient ai from the future
@Kay: the partner of a friend is a labor lawyer and was telling me last year how their community kind of didnt know how to handle getting literally everything on their wish list under OHJB because of the historical hostility of both parties to labor.
welp.
TBone
@Baud: thank you
Nelle
@Matt McIrvin: My daughter, at age 2, argued with a book that mentioned the night sky being black. “It’s orange, it’s orange,” she said, pointing out the window at the Chicago sky.
Quinerly
@Trivia Man:
Ohhhh. So disappointing.
Quinerly
@artem1s:Excellent idea. Thank you.
Chris
@Betty Cracker:
In hindsight, gun control was pretty much the canary in the coal mine. We’ve had a massive problem for decades and we simply can’t do anything about it because that would make Republicans upset. Which nowadays is literally the entire government.
Daoud bin Daoud
@sentient ai from the future:
My entire experience of NextDoor is of my white neighbors complaining about our non-white neighbors. What now? Will bored whites start complaining about the space aliens bringing down the property values?
lowtechcyclist
@Quinerly:
This. Our HOA is having problems with a couple that moved in last year but apparently spends most of their time abroad. So they wanted to turn part of the house into an apartment where they’d stay when in country, but rent out the rest of the house. We noticed it when they advertised it online, as one does these days.
Nice idea, but our covenants say that if you’re going to rent, you have to rent the entire property as a unit, no subdividing. They initialed the place on the contract where it said they read the rules, so they should have read the rules.
Harrison Wesley
@E.: I think they only do it for the holidays.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Daoud bin Daoud:
We refer to ND as “The Cesspool” because it lives down to its reputation on a daily basis.
Our Registered Neighborhood Orgs (RNOs), at least the ones that are active, typically use social media, in part, to communicate to residents. It’s always telling to see which RNOs use Facebook/Instagram as their primary (if imperfect) means of communicating to residents and which ones use just NextDoor.
Chris
@Kay:
See also, the border, where thirty years of more walls, more recruitment for the border patrol, more funding for the border patrol, more military cosplay toys for the border patrol, and more deportations… has resulted in an ever-increasing terror that THE BORDER IS TOTALLY OPEN OMG YOU GUYS WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO.
Omnes Omnibus
@Professor Bigfoot: Oddly enough, so am I.
Matt McIrvin
@TBone: Oh, I rode my Big Wheel like a demon, too. These things are selective.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
I apparently haven’t been offensive enough yet.
Quinerly
@Suzanne:
There is already fall out from all these people who bought houses on line during Covid Times. Met a couple out near me who bought their house on line. Didn’t see it in person until after closing.
She’s an estate planning atty.
She’s bitching that “it’s just not right.” Not what she thought it would be.
Now has spent $150,000 on redoing the kitchen and a bath. Not counting appliances. She changed them out first. Still wasn’t pleased.
I had hoped to be friends with them before she told me this. I really like him. He’s a retired iron worker. Disability. Nice guy. Significantly younger than she is. He visibly rolls his eyes when she tells the kitchen story and he says, “looked exactly like the videos.”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Well the things I’m learning:
“Pawning” children in Roman society: basically selling a child into slavery to pay off debts.
Chris
@lowtechcyclist:
Wow.
Professor Bigfoot
@pluky: deep in the heart of the pandemic, I realized that I would rather be poor than ever put up with or have to be polite to one of those dumb sons of bitches ever again.
And right now, I am having the time of my life!
frosty
@TBone: We are definitely not in a dark sky community but had a similar situation. Met Ed installed new streetlights and angled the one in front of our house so it lit up the porch like daylight and shined into the second floor bedroom.
I sent the Borough manager an email, figuring nothing would be done. A month or so later Public Works came out and installed a shield that blocked all the stray light – dark porch again!
I sent him a thank you email. Probably the only one he’s ever gotten because he sent me a reply that he appreciated it.
Professor Bigfoot
@Betty Cracker: I ran away from Tennessee as quickly as I could get there, ultimately landing in Ohio.
And now Tennessee has moved to Ohio too. Oy.
Professor Bigfoot
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Man, don’t be giving these Republicans any ideas!
Matt McIrvin
@Elizabelle: Not exactly, I think, but there are going to be a lot of incidents of people shooting at planes near airports.
Suzanne
@Quinerly: People are dumb. On that same project, a guy who bought his house a block down the road from the psychiatric hospital two years prior — before he had children — decided to oppose the expansion project. His rationale? He didn’t want “psychiatric individuals” within sight of his children. I will note that the hospital did not allow patients to leave the campus while they were admitted, so they were never in sight.
I’m tired, y’all. I bet he also thinks that we should have more psych hospitals to warehouse all those people. Just…. not near his house. Even though he bought the house down the street from….. a psych hospital.
Kayla Rudbek
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m blocked as well, although I’m not sure if I had blocked them due to my use of block lists.
Quinerly
@Betty Cracker:
I tend to do it with people too. Mostly, because I think I have kept changing myself. I have very little in common with people I grew up with now. And so on.. close law school friends because of that shared experience. Then most went off in different directions. My St. Louis neighborhood friends are all still sitting in the same bars and listening to the same live music Sat and Sundays. I’m now hiking around Saguaro cactus and dipping into odd cowboy bars, drinking a Hamms, talking to a local who is a stranger, and then leaving.
I always have said if I ever got married once, I would end up out Liz Tayloring Liz. The men in my life have always fit various periods of my life. I like 3 year relationships. Then move on.
Kay
@sentient ai from the future:
It was amazing. “Card check” was always their unfulfilled dream because centrist and Right leaning Dems always blocked it in legislation.
Biden basically put in card check by rule. Amazing. I posted it here and the only person who recognized what had happened was Steve – the Balloon Juice management side labor lawyer.
Kathleen
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Waiting for Marjorie Taylor Green to shoot a hurricane.
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: One tactic is to funnel entrants into the country to a smaller and smaller number of places so that the crush causes disruptive incidents, and then that is the “border crisis”. (Not just in the US–I recall one of these flaring up in Ceuta and Mellila and getting all over the TV news one of the times I was in Spain.)
Kathleen
@Soprano2: Yet.
TBone
@frosty: that’s a lovely, happy ending! The reason we didn’t complain was that hubby’s Black BFF bought a house (very urban area) a few years ago and his whypipo neighbors immediately started sending him threatening and harassing notes about all kinds of stuff including his security light. My new (formerly lit up) neighbor is Black, female, and lives next door to the Rumpers here, so we decided that keeping quiet and suffering through a 24 hr. spotlight was the way to go. She feels safe here now, finally. We have achieved darkness (except for the Christmas lights exception).
Miss Bianca
@twbrandt: The two towns in my county made up the first internationally-recognized dark sky community in Colorado. The two towns adopted the local Dark Skies group guidelines for outdoor lighting.
I’m out in the county. The county, which can’t even be bothered to pass building codes, let alone dark sky lighting guidelines, is another matter. Fortunately, we’re still so sparsely populated as a county that we get spectacular night sky viewing regardless.
Quinerly
@lowtechcyclist:
There are certain rules for certain reasons. A two unit dwelling in your neighborhood would probably affect property values. They need another neighborhood with duplex dwellings.
In my neighborhood you can have a studio casita on site. They are mostly separate dwellings but the lots are big….over 2 acres. Most are with houses owned by artists or musicians (little recording studios or where they teach music)
Kay
@Chris:
Right. The media bullying goes along with it too. “People are CONCERNED about the monsters in the closet! Are you such an elitist you’ll tell them they’re making shit up?!”
Its the US electorate portrayed as small, spoiled, fragile children. Fuck that. They should grow up. I refuse to pretend I’m ALSO four years old to make them all snuggly and comfy.
Old Man Shadow
Ah, yes, Congressman Green… what could possibly go wrong with a bunch of MAGA idiots shooting at lights in the sky?
TBone
@Matt McIrvin: ha! Are we related too? Hahaha! We used to make ramps to get airborne! And wheelies competition was a thing. My Big Wheel took a lickin’!
Quinerly
@Baud:
I have been meaning to chat with you about that. There are many here who can mentor you.
Kathleen
@lowtechcyclist: My dad who was on the radio for several decades told a story about a DJ at an LA radio station in the 50’s or 60’s who announced on that air that “An amoeba is loose”! This created total panic and resulted in a complaint to the FCC. I don’t recall if the station was reprimanded or its license suspended.
When I recall this story I always think of WKRP’s Johnny Fever being fired from an LA station for saying “booger” on the air.
Scout211
That would be just ridiculous because everyone knows all you need is a Sharpie.
Gin & Tonic
Holy shit, there’s actually video.
Quinerly
Great thread. I can’t keep up. Will bookmark and come back later.
Thanks to all for all the telescope and astrology club suggestions. Hope to thank you personally on another thread.
I gotta get on with my day. Air and Space Museum. Missile Museum. JoJo walking. And food.
Tucson is very foodie. Have a great day!
catclub
@sentient ai from the future:
rebalance to international (ex-US) funds. They have been lagging for years.
ETA: I need to do that even more than already.
TBone
@Scout211: lol!
Quinerly
@Gin & Tonic:
Wow!!!!!
Kay
@Baud:
My middle son has become active in the Ohio Democrats thru the IBEW. He enjoys it – he’s in it for the reason I was always in it – he likes and is loyal to his fellow activists.
They asked him to run for city council in Toledo. He is actually a quiet person and serious, although he’s a giant blonde friendly man so people think he’s an extrovert and invincible and unserious. Anyway, he asked and I told him the truth – that its not about him they just want a candidate in every race so he should only do it if he wants to donate all that time. Its self sacrificing. For the Party. I think he was flattered when they asked and was a little hurt when I told him the truth. But it is the truth.
Quiltingfool
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Oh, I learned to never say “I’m bored” to my mother. Upon hearing those words, she’d perk up and say, “I’ve got something for you to do!” and it would be a super fun task like polishing silverware or ironing pillowcases (yes, I am old, we had silverware and we ironed things).
I always found something to do. My problem now is I’d rather do my fun stuff instead of doing necessary stuff.
Quiltingfool
@Gin & Tonic: I am always impressed with Ukrainians. Brave, smart people.
Scout211
Speaking of the media attention on “Squirrel!” news stories, did you see that yesterday Alexander Smirnov agreed to plead guilty to federal charges?
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Did they think the President was the person keeping them from saying “Indian”? This is what I don’t understand about these kinds of statements.
Again, all this happened in 2016. I think it was here that somebody reported a MAGA type proudly telling them they’d “have to watch what they say” when Trump came in. Or what? What will happen if we don’t watch what we say? Are you gonna rat us out to the federal thought police? Did you think we were doing that to you before?
TBone
@Another Scott: that made me smile!
I have too much Dictaphone experience, obvs.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Kay:
Good on him for his IBEW work, I’ve noted you referencing it before.
As for running for City Council, if Toledo is anything like Denver, he’ll give up his entire life to do it. I’m amazed at the amount of work that goes into running for an office like that, I know two here personally, one I voted for and one that I voted against; it’s unfortunate that the latter won as he ousted the incumbent who was a real Latina progressive in the mold of AOC and Crockett. He’s a developer shill who benefited from $800K in dark money from one developer. I know the entitled, white libertarians in trench coats here would love him.
Watching them run up close and personal informed me it’s nuts to do it.
Kristine
@Scout211: I am guessing there’s no chance of a pardon from TFG because Smirnov failed in his mission to smear the Bidens.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It just makes me think of Iggy Pop now. I’m bored! I’m the CHAIRMAN of the bored!
Baud
@Kay:
He might even win!
Matt McIrvin
@TBone: je suis marxiste, tendance Big Wheel
TBone
@Matt McIrvin: someone posted this here yesterday and it’s great! Sorry I can’t remember nym to credit.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-tfH1nty62U
Kathleen
@Omnes Omnibus: Are you talking about blusky? I could have sworn I saw/followed you there. Then again it could have been Xeet.
UncleEbeneezer
@Omnes Omnibus: Me three! I’m sure I’m on some block lists and bet you both are too.
Kathleen
@Professor Bigfoot: Which has really pissed Ohio off because it wants to be TexaFlora when it grows up.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kathleen: Yes, I am on BlueSky. And I either blocked or was blocked by the person TBone was linking to. So, apparently, have others.
Starfish (she/her)
@Suzanne: What do people do when someone like that enters the construction project?
cmorenc
@Quinerly:
Let me suggest an excellent website devoted to amateur astronomy & equipment, the deliberately ironically named: “Cloudy Nights” – free to join, and it’s run and moderated by volunteer members of the astronomical community from the US and around the world, and you can get excellent advice by posting to the forums there. In particular, the members can help you choose appropriate equipment to get started, and avoid mistakenly buying shoddy “beginner” scopes that will produce more frustration than enlightenment, and quickly wind up in a closet rather than being used for a lifetime.
One of the core rules is “no politics or nonastronomical “hot topics”, enforced by the volunteer moderators (disclaimer: I am one of them). This is actually one of the few places on the internet where RWers and progressives can get along just fine, because the site is entirely about mutual support of shared common passion for the night sky and astonomical observing and equipment.
Kathleen
@Scout211: Right! She could draw an assault rifle with a sharpie
Omnes Omnibus
@UncleEbeneezer: I only used one block list when thys first started appearing. One for MAGAs. Since then I reconsidered and am artisanally curating my blocks. I am guessing that whoever TBone was linking isn’t a MAGA so it was either an artisanal block or they blocked me off a list or artisanally.
Starfish (she/her)
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I was able to figure out which city council member you were talking about immediately even though I have paid no attention to your elections. There has been A LOT of this type of thing. It usually involves a candidate who recently moved to the community and is getting funding from elsewhere.
Trivia Man
@Suzanne: my frat house had a few neighbors that often complained about noise and traffic. On weekends. On fraternity row. At a major university started in the 1850s. None of the frats were that old but decades in the same spot.
Quiltingfool
@Kay: Funny thing, Democrats didn’t scream election fraud; instead we now fully realize that half of the voters are either stupid or mean or both. That is both horrifying and sad.
I’m not sure how to fix that. Or if it can be fixed. We know what they are, that’s for sure.
Suzanne
@Starfish (she/her): It was a fenced site, she was informed to leave. She started screaming about how she was “gonna call the police!”, as if they were going to shut down the job site.
So the superintendent called the police, telling them that she was breaking and entering, and she freaked out and finally left.
There go two miscreants
Sounds like a missed opportunity! /Jimmy Hoffa
Trivia Man
@Quinerly: one caveat – a new and enthusiastic (or malicious or either a personal vendetta) board member can change the enforcement literally overnight.
Solution: LEARN the rules better than they do and push back as you can. Second solution: run for the board yourself.
Kathleen
@Omnes Omnibus: Hmmmm. Now I am experiencing social media FOMO. I realize I’m a Social Media Z Lister but gee, I can’t even get blocked like other cool people.
Ruviana
@Omnes Omnibus: it was the Balloon Juice commenter block list!
Quiltingfool
@Kay: People always had permission to be thoughtless and cruel. However, they got dinged for that behavior.
What they don’t realize is that Trump can get away with that behavior, but they can’t. They can be shunned.
Trivia Man
@TBone: main reason for my BJ and reddit habits: curated memes and bite sized news items. Saves me time and i can dig into the interesting bits
Omnes Omnibus
@Trivia Man: “Cut the horseshit, son. I’ve got their disciplinary files right here. Who dropped a whole truckload of fizzies into the varsity swim meet? Who delivered the medical school cadavers to the alumni dinner? Every Halloween, the trees are filled with underwear. Every spring, the toilets explode.”
Dillweed
@Quinerly: Would reccomend starting with a decent pair of binoculars. You get a much larger field of view. Telescopes are better for looking at planets. Binocs are better for looking at stars and constellations.
Elizabelle
@There go two miscreants: You made me laugh. Well done.
Scout211
You make an excellent point.
Trivia Man
@sentient ai from the future: any suggestions on broad rebalancing strategy? I am 2-5 years from retirement.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruviana: Now, that is a brilliant idea. I wonder what would happen if I blocked myself?
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay:
Well… they’re not wrong…
Geminid
@Chris: When it comes to gun control, Democrats have gotten real things done at the state level. Virginia six substantial gun control measures in 2020 when Democrats finally managed to control both legislative houses and the Governorship.
Connecticutt banned assault weapons after the Sandie Hook murders. Democrats in California have created a very good firearms regulation system, I think.*
These needed laws are still in effect, notwithstanding a common misconception that the Supreme Court has made it impossible to regulate fireams. They have majority support as well. I see this as a political opportunity for Democrats.
This is an ongoing battle, and there are gun safety organizations and Democratic politicians fighting it. That’s despite others throwing in the towel because nothing seems possible now at the federal level.
* That’s the direction I want to Virginia to go when we have a “trifecta” again (which I believe will be the case after next fall’s election). I’ll add that my two gun-owning friends would have no problem if Virginia adopted California’s level of firearms regulation. We’ve talked about it.
That would by no means solve the entire problem, but it eould be an important step in a practical sense.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Starfish (she/her):
In this case, it wasn’t a newcomer. He’d run for CC twice before and lost each time. He won this time because of the money influx (sheesh, I’m sounding like Katie Porter here), the changing demographics (entitled white, professionals born/bred in white suburbia newcomers who didn’t like the firebrand Latina policy wonk who kept reminding them of their racial tone deafness across a spectrum of policy issues affecting longtime residents) and a redrawn district that split up her main constiuencies into 3 parts.
The dark money was the real troubling issue tho–was a massive loophole. Ten of us filed a complaint with the City during the campaign and we started digging. Everybody “knew” where the money originated, the issue was the things done with the money like flyers, mailers, advertising, was all directed out of state in terms of who was hired. That made it virtually impossible to trace without subpoena power, thus, we had to drop the complaint.
Matt McIrvin
@Quiltingfool:
Judging from the complaints I heard from their Facebook friends, some did. This was probably inevitable. It wasn’t that mainstream though.
I mentioned 2004–I think that Trump got a lot of his “stop the steal” rhetoric from conspiracy-theorizing that was happening on the Internet left back then.
Matt McIrvin
@Dillweed: I’ve had some amateur interest in astronomy my whole life but never got around to buying a telescope, aside from a rotten Toys R Us one I had as a kid. My main instrument is a pair of binoculars that are literal World War II surplus–I inherited them from my grandfather, though I think he got them after the war since they’re Navy Bureau of Aeronautics and he was Army, in the infantry in Europe. They’re great for looking at comets.
Sure Lurkalot
@sentient ai from the future: Same on not being comfortable with the level of equities in my portfolio so I’ve done some movement away and plan on a bit more after the new year. I’m retired and don’t have years to make up losses and between trump and our plutocrats, we’re likely due for some rocky road (not the ice cream).
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid:
Overview of CA gun laws:
https://oag.ca.gov/ogvp/overview-firearm-law
These all seem reasonable. You read them and go “what’s the big deal?” And then you see them described as “some of the strictest laws in the US” and realize just how far we’ve strayed on a fundamental public safety issue.
Quinerly
@TBone:
How about Grundig reel to reel experience? Those small tapes?
First firm I worked for straight out of law school had those with into perpetuity maintenance and repair, I think. All old men firm. I was the only chick…DEI before there was DEI. Next youngest atty was 60. I was 25. Those guys were holding onto those machines until the parts weren’t made anymore. Old school workers’ comp defense firm (we were captive for Anheuser Busch working hard to deny that keg washer whose arm got ripped off any settlement funds. And that was back when AB allowed workers to drink product on the job)
I still remember having to rubber band the tapes, then rubber band to the file. Secretaries would cry if they dropped and the tapes unwound. The old men always hired from “Miss Hickey’s. Delicate flowers trained to take short hand.
And this was the mid 1980’s, big city, large firm.
Fun times at “The Division.” (The building for the hearings….Administrative law judges for the claims. A true all boys club…..)
Suzanne
@Trivia Man: There’s a similar thing that happened in Tempe, right next to the university. There was a strip mall with a grocery store right on a very visible and prominent corner (Mill Avenue and University), and the grocery store closed and sat vacant for some years. If you don’t know the area, Mill is where there’s a ton of restaurants, bars, stores, public events and festivals, etc. Many of the neighborhoods around it are full of students.
Finally, there was some interesting partnership project between the University to build a senior-living facility on that site. People in their 60s and up could live on campus, go to classes, use the library…. very cool idea. Very popular. High demand.
Within a year, some of the residents were complaining about the noise from a bar with live music across the street that had been there and operating for years. They were successful in forcing the bar to close.
Jeffro
@danielx: there was a band called Velvet Elvis, back in the very late 80s!
I saw them open up for Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. =)
Elizabelle
@Geminid: I think we will be able to keep the fluoride in our drinking water, too.
You could not pay me to move to a red state. My sympathies to those stuck in one.
catclub
@Professor Bigfoot: also lazy and misinformed.
Jeffro
That’s what gives them a sense of fulfillment in their lives? That they can now go back to using ‘Indian’?
Whew what a weight they have been carrying all these years, not being able to say ‘Indian’! I can’t imagine the stress of having to live like that.
lowtechcyclist
@sentient ai from the future:
Yeah, similarly here. My Federal TSP had been >90% in the S&P index fund, and I’m moving a chunk into the G fund every week or so, evening out the local fluctuations. I’ve got it <70% now.
That imbalance hadn’t bothered me before; I figured money I didn’t need to touch in the next >3 years should be where it can grow with the economy. I’m way less sure about that now, of course.
Baud
@Jeffro:
I hope we’ll start to see an explosion in people saying Happy Holidays. Hit them where it hurts.
catclub
@Trivia Man: international (ex-US) index funds.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Do you think all those exciting 100% tariffs he loves so much are going to quietly disappear down the memory hole after a couple of billionaires have a chat with him?
Suzanne
Tried to edit previous comment….. the bar/venue ultimately didn’t have to close, but they had to stop having music events for a long while a the legal case progressed. And — at their cost — they have to install a bunch of sound control measures.
Takes a stack of huevos to move across the street from a place with live music and then sue to stop live music.
Just another reason I think neighborhood comment generally produces shitty government.
p.a.
😂That’s been a bugaboo since the 50s, right? Not much you can expect from a political movement where the majority think the earth is 6k years old… 🤪
Buckley was a piece of shit, but when he took the lead in running out the most whacko of the movement’s whackos, he actually might have actually delayed its ascendance. There was no Fox then, however. Maybe that’s all it took.
lowtechcyclist
@wenchacha:
And the main thing is, those nice sweet (/s) book group ladies are taking Trump’s win as license to be assholes. It’s that simple.
John S.
@Geminid:
Absolutely. But I would like to see Democrats pick one big issue and do what Republicans did with abortion.
It might take decades to pack the courts, get the laws changed and finally see some progress, but it would be worth it.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: I think one of the great disappointments for MAGA types during the first Trump term was that we had these cultural explosions like #MeToo and the George Floyd protests–they thought electing Trump was just going to make all the woke people shut up, somehow, but it made them louder instead.
Well, the mainstream media outlets are rolling over harder this time and Elon Musk turned Twitter into a right-wing network so maybe they figure, this time for sure.
Some of my friends think we’re heading into a totalitarian regime like Nazi Germany or something like the Argentine Dirty War, there are going to be mass roundups and disappearances of dissidents and it’s going to be physically dangerous to not be publicly MAGA. And I guess that’s kind of what these “we can say Indian now!” folks are hoping, because nobody was stopping them from saying “Indian” before, they were just fretting about social disapproval and maybe they think the hammer is going to come down on that. Say “Native American” in a smug tone of voice, go to jail!
Well, I can’t say they’re wrong yet. But it’d take a lot of effort to accomplish that and, yeah, I’m not sure “effort” is really Trump’s thing.
John S.
@Matt McIrvin:
Yes. They own Trump, and there’s no way they are going to allow him to do anything to jeopardize their interests.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin:
This is very true.
I wonder if it will dawn on them, ever, there’s no law that anybody has to be your friend, or be nice to you, or not think you’re an asshole.
Old School
@Professor Bigfoot: @Omnes Omnibus: @Kayla Rudbek:
For those people who can’t see the Bluesky links from TBone:
The first is a political cartoon that can be found here.
The second is a meme that says “Everyone hates CEOs? Release the distraction drones.”
UncleEbeneezer
@Omnes Omnibus: I use block lists as a reference, going through the names one by one just to make sure there’s nobody that I do like to read on them, which there usually are. I think I may have used a Crypto/Scammer block list and just used the whole thing in one block, but usually I don’t trust the people who compile them so I’d rather do it user by user. It really only takes a few minutes to do the latter even with a fairly large list. Last time I checked I was on a “Vote Blue, No Matter Who/Pro-Genocide” block list, which I’m not mad at all about. I have zero interest in engaging with people who think sometimes maybe it’s okay to not vote and let Republicans win. As well as anyone who throws around “Pro-Genocide” at anyone who dares to criticize Progressives, protesters, NGO’s and Academics for painting a misleading at best, dishonest/antisemitic at worst, cartoonishly-simplified picture of the most complicated conflict in modern history. Fine, block me.
Matt McIrvin
@Elizabelle: The thing about drinking water fluoridation is, for most people, it probably wouldn’t have that big an effect if it went away. I brush my teeth with fluoride toothpaste every day and I get regular fluoride treatments at the dentist. Probably the biggest change in dental care from when I was a cavity-ridden kid was that those professional fluoride treatments got much more effective.
But the people who will be affected, who don’t have those backstops, are likely to be poor children. So, as usual, it’s the bottom end of the income distribution that gets shit on so everyone else can satisfy their conspiracy theory vibes.
Jeffro
@Geminid: I just Googled CA’s regulations regarding firearms and it’s impressive!
<<California has many gun regulations, including:
Firearm Safety Certificate (FSC)
To purchase a firearm, you must be at least 18 years old and pass a written test to obtain an FSC. You must present the FSC to the licensed dealer when you purchase the firearm.
Background checks
California requires a background check for all gun purchases and transfers, including private sales and gun shows.
Age restrictions
You must be at least 21 years old to purchase a handgun and at least 18 years old to purchase a long gun.
Concealed Carry Weapons License (CCW)
To carry a concealed handgun, you must be at least 18 years old, a California resident, and pass a background check. You must also complete an approved firearms safety course.
Open carry
Openly carrying a loaded or unloaded firearm in public is generally prohibited. However, the sheriff or chief of police in a county with a population under 200,000 may issue licenses to carry a loaded handgun.
Magazine size
California prohibits the sale, possession, transfer, or creation of “large-capacity magazines”.
Assault weapons
California’s assault weapon ban includes semi-automatic, center-fire rifles and shotguns with a detachable magazine.
Reporting mental health
California has laws requiring the reporting of involuntary inpatient and outpatient treatment for those with serious mental illness.
Secure storage
*firearms stored on a property where there are children present must be kept in a secure locatio
ETA: I see Comrade Scott got there first with a link, my bad!
tam1MI
The behavior of elected Dems is certainly reminiscent of 2004. Just complete and utter capitulation.
UncleEbeneezer
You can just say “porn” (laughing emoji <- are we allowed to do this?)
Jeffro
You too?
I do love that every time a TV ad says ‘happy holidays’ or there’s a sign up in a store that says ‘happy holidays’, some MAGAt is just barely able to make it through the day.
I may have to start celebrating winter solstice or ‘Yule’ or whatever it’s called. Just because.
Jeffg166
It’s 54° at the moment in Philadelphia. I just cleaned the kitchen. The ground is thawed. I have more foxgloves and poppy seedlings to transplant. That’s next on the list.
Matt McIrvin
@tam1MI: Well, and then over the following years, the Iraq occupation started to really go south, Bush fucked up Hurricane Katrina and tried to privatize Social Security and the economy tanked, and there WAS a reaction. Question is just whether we still have that in us and whether there will be procedural barriers to it mattering at all.
Jeffro
@Matt McIrvin: what’s going to be EPIC is when the billionaires try to talk trumpov out of the tariffs, and he insists that he’s right to go ahead with them.
“It’s Magic Money, Elon! It comes out of nowhere, at no cost to Americans, and it makes us strong. Stronnnnnng!”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kay: Jesus Christ. Why do they feel a need to refer to Native Americans as Indians? Why is this even a desire?
lowtechcyclist
@Quinerly:
We’ve got 1/3 acre lots, which aren’t too bad, but they’d have to do some serious paving to have unrelated families sharing a lot – our roads are narrow, and even when someone parks with just 2 wheels on the road, only one car can get by at a time, so having the cars overflow onto the street is right out.
And it would definitely change the character of the neighborhood if people were paving a big chunk of their front yards. (Very few of the houses here have garages, and the ones that do generally use them in lieu of a basement.)
Steve LaBonne
@Jeffro: Felix Dies Natalis Solis Invicti!
p.a.
@Suzanne: When I was still dealing with my tRumpist type relatives, they would look shocked when I told them I didn’t give a fuck what they did or said in their own homes, they were free to inflict the 17th century on each other and good riddance, but they had no right to bring it into the public sphere, where every citizen has the same right to be left the fuck alone. That their concerns about what “liberals” thought they should do to each other was bullshit, and I personally approved of their march to irrelevance.
But, as many (Fred Clark comes to mind) point out, their concept of “freedom” means “unless my bigotries are enforced, I’m not free.” Lincoln’s comment on the Slave Power, basically. EFG ’em.
Citizen Alan
There is a somewhat obscure George r
Romero film from the seventies called The Crazies. The premise is about everyone in a small town gradually turning into psycho killers because of a chemical accidentally added to the local water supply. It ends with a pan shot to a nearby major city, which is downstream from the town, and is obviously the next place that will be affected. For the past ten years, I have felt like i’ve been trapped in that movie.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s the old “Did they change what you’re allowed to say again? They change it EVERY TWO WEEKS!” [mentions a cultural change that gradually happened about 30 years ago]
TBone
@Old School: thanks!
Omnes Omnibus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Because it’s not PC/woke/culturally sensitive/etc.
Matt McIrvin
@Citizen Alan: I have a friend who is a “forever masker” and posts a lot of alarming stuff all the time about Long COVID. One of the things he thinks is happening is that human behavior is becoming more hostile and feral because of subtle Long COVID brain damage that has affected almost everybody. That we’re basically in a subtle, slow-motion zombie apocalypse, and we’re all the zombies.
But that doesn’t explain 2016, which was before COVID.
lowtechcyclist
@There go two miscreants:
You win the thread.
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: that good attitude will get you far.
Trivia Man
@Matt McIrvin: personally i am still skeptical of Ohio in 2004. I may be a nutter but when the owner of the vote counting machine company says, months in advance, “I guarantee he will carry Ohio” then i think careful scrutiny i. I think that was the election where official absentee ballots MAILED BY THE STATE were rejected because “the paper was an incorrect weight”.
Citizen Alan
@Dorothy A. Winsor: no seventh grader, serving on a junior high student counsel at any middle school in this country would be allowed to act like that cretin without her parents being called in for a disciplinary conference. Or possibly a mental health referral. What shitty parents MTG must have had!
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: I think that Covid’s enforced isolation may have caused more societal damage than the lingering after effects of the disease itself. My unsupported opinion.
The Audacity of Krope
That Marjorie Taylor Greene lady, she seems a bit unwell. Do we have a number for her caretaker?
Trivia Man
@Matt McIrvin: lead poisoning, the reprise
Good evidence that environmental lead exposure lowered intelligence and increased violence for decades,
TBone
@Quinerly: yep! Ole Boyz it was and is in too many respects! I got on board after the horror tapes you describe, thankfully. But I witnessed some seriously weird shit over the years from those ole boyz.
At the first law office that hired me, one of the partners had a signed photo of Richard Nixon prominently and proudly displayed. Luckily, I worked for a different partner who kept his desk piled four feet high with paper at all times and never gave me much actual work to do at first, just sat me down at a PC and said “learn how to use that.”
Matt McIrvin
…Anyway. I remember what it was like to live in a red area during the 1980s, when Reaganism had a strong popular majority. I actually don’t feel the weight of the kind of universal social derangement that I felt then, when I knew that most of the people I knew thought I was literally insane just for supporting Mondale.
But part of that is that I don’t live in a deep red neighborhood any more, just a weakly-blue one in a very blue state.
Geminid
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: One of two California laws that stand out to me is the requirement of a permit-to-purchase. This permit requires a background check similar to the one requred nationally for fireams purchases. There is a also a requirement for completion of a course in proper handling of firearms including shooting.
These two additional hoops are not that onerous but I think they have a practical effect. At least, when Missouri did away with its permit-to-purchase requirement earlier this century there ensued a substantial increase in firearms deaths and injuries.
Another important feature of California’s gun laws is the requirement that each individual firearm be registered upon purchase. Any gun in any person’s possession is a violation unless it is the exact gun registered to that person.
California’s State Police have a unit that does nothing but track down firearms registered to owners who are now ineligible because of felony convictions. I once read a New York Times article about them. It sounded like a lot of routine, boring work for the most part, but the unit made a big hit on occasion. They once searched the house of a convicted embezzler and found 20 firearms. He had reinvented himself as a an illegal firearms distributor.
Captain C
@Kay:
After which they go to their cocktail weenie parties where they make fun of the lowly plebes with the people they’re supposed to be covering critically.
Matt McIrvin
@Omnes Omnibus: A major contributing factor to the George Floyd protests was definitely that it happened deep in the COVID shock and a huge number of people were either unemployed or stuck at home when they would have otherwise been commuting to work every day. And they probably had a need for some kind of mass social contact.
I remember it led to all this bellyaching about how hypocritical liberals were, for telling everyone to stay the fuck home and then turning out for the protests. Well, maybe, but that’s pretty rich coming from you all.
Suzanne
@p.a.:
Yeah. Agreed.
I have been thinking of it more in the “Three Worlds” framework, ever since I saw that getting discussed a lot on some of the social conservative blogs I lurk at. If you’re not familiar, the idea is that, sometime around 2014, right-wing evangelicals believe that society changed thusly:
But it’s not just about religious belief. It’s not even primarily about religious belief; religion is just one aspect of that culture, and white patriarchy is all rolled up in that. It’s that they realized that, sometime around 2014, there was a critical mass of people who don’t like their culture and they are pissed.
Why so-called Christians expect entrance into “elite domains of society” is something I’ll let someone else explain to me.
Trivia Man
@catclub: that’s on my list of options! Thanks!
Professor Bigfoot
@Old School: Oh, THANK YOU!
(also, am so glad I had not taken that sip of coffee before I saw it; my keyboard appreciates that too)
p.a.
He’s not much of a history buff for sure.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: I just think it’s hilarious that they think that titanic change happened in 2014, when people were saying exactly the same thing about “The Sixties” when I was a child.
Professor Bigfoot
@tam1MI: I’m not disagreeing with you, but I wonder why people are able to process “Dems” as a general descriptor but not ever “white people?”
Obviously you mean SOME Dems (and too damn many) and people can understand this, but don’t speak of whiteness that way!
Trivia Man
@UncleEbeneezer: i realize the wider internet is 80% cute cats or pornography, but i fo have other interests. My personal motto is “tell me something i don’t know”. I am pathologically curious.
p.a.
@Suzanne: I can see that. And that’s the paradox; the more strident they get “we’re the good ones, and we’ll legislate our goodness”, the more they alienate everyone.
Not to go all (who was the anti-Christian-all-the-time?) poster, but for large groups of the monotheist religions, the very existence of alternate sources of thought, information, is an existential threat. If there’s no sources of contradiction, there’s no threat to absolute truth. First bookburning, then people burning.
ETA eversore?
Professor Bigfoot
@Matt McIrvin: If Black Lives actually Mattered, that wouldn’t have been their response.
It had a lot more to do with a whole lot of Black people watching video of a white cop slowly murdering an unarmed Black man on camera like it was *nothing.*
People SHOULD have been in the streets for that… if Black Lies actually MATTERED.
Soprano2
This is his main attraction to a lot of people, that he will change society and allow them to go back to the way things were when they were young, because that’s what they’re comfortable with. They want to be able to say any insulting slur they want and not have anyone call them out about it.
TBone
Testament to the power of silly – PSA – the foreign film Life is Beautiful is on TCM at 10pm EST tonight.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_Beautiful
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: But how does Trump even affect that? They could have acted like bigoted assholes at any time! It’s just that some people wouldn’t like it! Trump isn’t going to make anyone like it.
Maybe they just want Trumpist control of the media? But they watch Fox News all the time anyway, and Fox News is going to keep pushing the same outrages at them regardless.
Steve LaBonne
@Matt McIrvin: They think Trump WILL make us like it, or else.
NotMax
@Soprano2
“Remember when we could wish the building super a Merry Spicmas?”
//
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: the “Release the distraction drones!” meme is a photo of Dark Brandon on the drones hotline batphone hahahaha!
Chris
@There go two miscreants:
Yeah, then you’d have a relationship you could build on.
Chris Johnson
@Suzanne: I use this as a litmus test to whether someone’s in the conservative silo. There’s a guy who panicked when I said I might let it be publically known that I’d made connections with my local Episcopalian church. The panic revealed that he normally was real cagey about his beliefs, but believed that I would be in danger for such an admission.
Sure Lurkalot
@Quiltingfool:
Voter fraud of a different kind, voters who lie to themselves so they are that much easier to be lied to.
Witness the concern about children, so they support banning books and bathroom use, but don’t think about motherless children when a woman dies from lack of medical care or kids drilled from kindergarten on to hide in closets and under desks from one of the 400 million guns that “mysteriously” ends up in the wrong hands.
Their amygdalas are always ripe for outrage, their buttons itching to be pushed.
WereBear
@Chris Johnson: Wait, being an Episcopalian is a problem?
I haven’t been keeping up.
NotMax
@https://balloon-juice.com/2024/12/17/tuesday-morning-open-thread-this-is-our-new-silly-season/#comment-9465224“>TBone
♫ Obligatory?
;)
NotMax
Dangnabbit Fix.
@TBone
♫ Obligatory?
;)
Suzanne
@Chris Johnson: The persecution complex is real. I have a friend from graduate school who said that Christians were discriminated against and she cited ancient Romans feeding Christians to lions as a pertinent example.
WereBear
@Suzanne: I read The Myth of Martyrdom.
In essence, it was marketing material.
Harrison Wesley
@Trivia Man: My personal motto is “I live to disappoint.” It has never betrayed me.
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
It mystifies me as well. Especially since the apostle Paul says that’s exactly what they shouldn’t expect:
Either we Christians believe we have something better than what the world has to offer, or we don’t. If the former, why would we care what the world thinks of us? And if the latter, what’s the point in believing?
AFAICT, it’s just a tribal thing for most of them, and they want their tribe to have earthly power and to be able to tell other people how to live their lives.
And ‘Negative World’ is a real thing on account of their being assholes like that.
Chris
@Suzanne:
To the extent that there’s truth to that, it’s that even people like me, who were raised Christian and remain at the very least culturally Christian, pretty much can’t hear the word “Christian” as a self-descriptor anymore without mentally translating it as “goose-stepping moron who should try reading books instead of burning them.” And most of the time we’re right.
And it’s not even really Christianity or Christians that we have a negative view of when we do this. It’s people who have aggressively tried to patent the word “Christian” to cover up every shitty thing about themselves.
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: The thing is, that happens all the time. Some incidents inspire major public unrest, others don’t.
So Black lives matter only in this very provisional and conditional sense. And whether people turn out is going to depend on other factors.
And so it’s always been. I’m as guilty of this as anyone.
AM in NC
@Betty Cracker: Yep. We need to label Republican voters and electeds as EVIL on this issue alone. This isn’t a policy difference; it’s a MORALITY difference.
Whatever you think you are voting for when you vote for Republicans, you are also voting for guns to be the leading cause of death for our kids. YOU, REPUBLICAN VOTER, vote for people who prevent any regulations on anyone owning any firearm for any reason – and that means we are the ONLY nation not at literal war with this mass gun death problem.
School shootings are preventable. Every other nation on Earth prevents them. YOU choose to allow them because you choose to vote for Republicans. Period.
I don’t care what other reasons you have for voting Republican. THIS – terrorism and mass murder in our schools, and movie theaters, and parades, and concerts, and churches – is a result of YOUR VOTES. YOU own this. It’s morally reprehensible and EVIL. Now what are you going to do about that choice?
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: My reaction is still, “2014? 2014? What the heck happened in 2014? That’s practically current events! I’ve been hearing this bellyaching about the decline of Christianity all my life! I distinctly remember people going on about this in the 1970s!”
Well, one thing that happened in 2014 was that there was a major round of BLM activity over police killing Black people. Ferguson, Missouri, right?
Harrison Wesley
@Suzanne: Yeah, but nobody ever says anything about the lions. Christians hogging the limelight, as usual.
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
As I recall, though, the moral of the story is that these protests didn’t lead to spikes in Covid the way a lot of superspreader events did. Which wasn’t all that surprising, since the kind of people who protest for BLM tend to be the kind of people who believe in masking.
lowtechcyclist
@Chris:
Reminds me of one of the SNL Weekend Updates from the 1970s where the next Teamsters president is dedicating a new Teamsters HQ building, and supposedly says “Jimmy Hoffa will always be a cornerstone of our organization.”
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: Well, and also, Covid turned out to not actually spread very effectively outdoors, especially in sunny warm weather–something that was not obvious at the time.
Soprano2
@Scout211: I think this story got almost no coverage. It should be a big story; the guy whose story Republicans bought hook, line and sinker to say the Bidens were corrupt just made it up! If we had a decently functioning press that hadn’t already pivoted to being TCFG 24/7 this would be a big story.
Soprano2
@Matt McIrvin: No, what they want is to be able to say whatever slur they want and not have anyone call them out about it.
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
Where, o where are the nubile young blonde white women of yesteryear mysteriously disappearing off cruise ships? Fox milked that for years, IIRC.
//
WereBear
@Soprano2: Because the truth doesn’t matter to them.
That’s not the business they are in.
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: Among other things, when people make a big deal about describing themselves as “Christian” they’re almost certainly the type who regard most Christians as not actually Christian.
lowtechcyclist
@Chris:
Also, these protests took place outdoors rather than in an enclosed space, and that made a huge difference right there. It doesn’t take much air movement to dissipate whatever particles are floating around.
AM in NC
@Chris: Yep,I went to a BLM protest in Chapel Hill, and every single person there was masked.
NotMax
@Soprano2
Semi-old news. He was found guilty and sentenced just recently, Which hasn’t stopped the odious muckmuncher Chuck Grassley from continuing to cite his totally, completely, beyond a shadow of a doubt false statements.
cain
@Matt McIrvin:
The younger generation is more feral because they didn’t get the socializing part at a critical age and so now they are less empathetic, more aggressive, and immature. Especially the boys thanks to Covid keeping kids out of school.
Geminid
@Jeffro: California also requires a background check for purchasing ammunition.
We don’t have that in Virginia, but a friend told me about his experience once when he was buying some shotgun shells. Jack was waiting in line at Dick’s Sporting Goods when there was a delay up front where a man was buying a handgun After the clerk at the firearms counter ran his name through the background check system she told him to wait, she might be able to give him a better deal but had to check the stockroom to verify.
He got his better deal all right. She hadn’t been gone miuch more than a minute when two Charlottesville cops came in and arrested him. The clerk had seen the man was a prohibited purchasor so she punched in an alert. Then she fed him a hopeful story that held him long enough for the cops to catch him in the act.
cain
@Omnes Omnibus:
You made my point better than I did. 100% this.
Citizen Alan
@Kay: Same here. Dad was a Teamster. Mom was in Telecommunications Works of America. I attribute that more than anything else as the reason why my sister and I were the first people in our extended family and the only members of our generation (out of 12 cousins born within the same decade) who went to college.
NotMax
@Citizen Alan
Mississippi,, right? Did any intermarry?
/rhetorical question ;)
Kelly
@Quinerly: I second the good binoculars recommendation. I’ve had a pair of 7×50 Nikons for 30 years. A comfy lounge chair so I can lean way back is good. Also they’re nice for wildlife.
bluefoot
@Daoud bin Daoud: Yep. It’s why I don’t get on NextDoor. I do not need to see every damned day the racism directed at me even when I’m in my own house.
about drones: Where is BillinGlendaleCA when one needs to take photos of the sky?
Citizen Alan
@Matt McIrvin: Hell, it doesn’t explain 2010. Not unless Covid was actually caused by Obama being black.
WereBear
@Citizen Alan: I suspect President Obama rocked their world as much as pResident tRump kicked ours.
Citizen Alan
@NotMax: Not as far as I now. Dad was born to literal sharecroppers in 1932, the second-youngest of six children who all lived in a tiny 2-BR house. I never had the chance (or balls) to talk to my mom, let alone any of my aunts, about what contraceptive options they made use of in the 1960s and 1970s when my sister, me, and all our cousins were born, but I do know none of those aunts had more than 2 kids.
Matt McIrvin
@cain: Based on what I’ve seen of today’s youth, I’m not convinced they are. I was subjected to continuing physical and psychological bullying in school on a scale that absolutely horrifies my kid–she insists that none of that would be tolerated today.
It’s adults that worry me. It seems like aggressive behavior on the road exploded with the Covid shutdowns, and it shows up in accident stats.
TBone
@NotMax: haha yes!
catclub
@WereBear:
There was a time when ‘The Episcopal Church’ was also known as ‘The Republican Party at Prayer’
Those times are past.
catclub
Corporation== Citizen
Lacuna Synecdoche
SwiftOnSecurity via Anne Laurie @ Top:
I guess I’m a little late to the party, and maybe no one will see this, but I feel a song coming on:
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@cmorenc: I concur, Cloudy Nights is an excellent website for astro advice.
Captain C
@Jeffro: And then he sues the Dow Jones average for going down after he tanks the economy with his idiocies.