Getting ready to go over and kiss the ring of my own father.
Archives for 2024
Repub Venality Open Thread: When Dear Leader Summons, Repubs Hasten to Obey
Did he pat you on the head and give you a treat? https://t.co/XtCpIgOnbe
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) June 13, 2024
Trump sent a violent mob into the Capitol to try to overthrow the government. Now he’s been invited into the Capitol by the Speaker of the House to get support from Republicans to try it again.
— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) June 13, 2024
MSNBC shows us how a chyron is done. pic.twitter.com/SaWRTAttFW
— Janice Hough (@leftcoastbabe) June 13, 2024
For all the “triumphant returns” and “Trumps flexes” and all the rest I don’t think anyone beside @atrupar really captured it. This was Pyongyang in the Rotunda. The maniacal clapping in unison, MTG almost breaking down in tears cuz Trump smiled at her. Total North Korea vibe.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 14, 2024
… [I]t was some mix of surprising and revealing how little of the first round of press coverage noted the very Pyongyang-on-Capitol Hill vibe of these events, right down to the set piece press opportunities with grown men and women from the Senate manically clapping like seals as Trump walks into the room, interviews where they express their hopes that Trump will come and lead them again. Our friend Aaron Rupar really seemed to have his eyes open for this, and he captured it in this video.
here's a supercut of Republicans kissing Trump's ass after meeting with him today. big Dear Leader energy. pic.twitter.com/UjZbeGdCp5
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 14, 2024
Repub Venality Open Thread: When Dear Leader Summons, Repubs Hasten to ObeyPost + Comments (61)
Sunday Morning Open Thread: The Final Frontier
I made this Pride flag using only NASA images and our team thought it would be cool to share on social (I work on the NASA heliophysics communications team), but it's getting all sorts of hate on the bird app and Fbook. Thought y'all might be more appreciative of it here. ☺️🏳️🌈💖
— Rachel Lense is Professionally Curious (@rachellense.bsky.social) Jun 13, 2024 at 10:19 PM
(H/t Narya)
We’re back, baby!
Our Voyager 1 spacecraft is conducting normal science operations for the first time since November 2023. All four instruments – which study plasma waves, magnetic fields, and particles – are returning usable science data.https://t.co/3FGBOANXGl pic.twitter.com/QqgsCmup7D
— NASA (@NASA) June 14, 2024
Per The Register (think I owe someone a hat tip for this link), “Voyager 1 makes stellar comeback to science operations”:
NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is back in action and conducting normal science operations for the first time since the veteran probe began spouting gibberish at the end of 2023.
All four of the spacecraft’s remaining operational instruments are now returning usable data to Earth, according to NASA.
Some additional work is needed to tidy up the effects of the issue. Engineers need to resynchronize the timekeeping software of Voyager 1’s three onboard computers to ensure that commands are executed at the correct times. Maintenance will also be performed on the digital tape recorder, which records some data from the plasma instrument for a six-monthly downlink to Earth.
As the 50th anniversary of Voyager 1’s launch rapidly approaches, and with the probe now 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, restoring functionality is quite an engineering feat…
Sunday Morning Open Thread: The Final FrontierPost + Comments (156)
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Greetings from Northern California
From master gardener / photographer Scout211:
Here are some random garden pics taken around our property today (5/20/2024). All were taken with an iPhone 13.
At top: Oleanders thrive here in the dry climate. We have many of them and they show nice colors most the year and brighten up the dry, dead grasses around here. They also require very little water, which is nice.
Some cactus flowers. I never remember their individual names, I just enjoy the flowers this time of year. The first one comes with a complimentary bee.
Most of the apricots have been eaten by birds or blown off in the wind. But here are a few today that I picked after snapping this photo.
Anyone up for salad? Here’s your pick of greens. Please ignore the weeds, I don’t have any idea how they got there. Someone should pull them.
The garlic plants are blooming and they do so for most of the year. For a dry climate, they take very little water on a drip line and show some color most of the year.
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What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Greetings from Northern CaliforniaPost + Comments (19)
Saturday Night Rude Speculation Open Thread: Elon’s Very Private ‘Likes’
elon: let’s allow porn
software engineer: um ok?
elon: *walking back into the room 5 minutes later* hey can everyone see likes?
— slate (@PleaseBeGneiss) June 12, 2024
That’s because you don’t like the kind of stuff Elon likes. https://t.co/HEQF0bYYMT
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) June 12, 2024
Of course this doesn’t matter to those of you who don’t read twitter (it doesn’t matter to me, because that’s not how *I* read twitter), but even The Incredible Shrinking Elon should’ve been able to figure out what kind of speculation this development would set off…
… That means what users like on the platform will be hidden by default, which is already an option for X’s Premium subscribers. Following the publication of this story, X owner Elon Musk reshared a screenshot of it, saying it’s “important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so!”
A few weeks ago, X’s director of engineering, Haofei Wang, said the upcoming change is meant to protect users’ public image — because “many people feel discouraged” to like “edgy” content. The Likes tab on user profiles will be gone. Users will still be able to see who liked their posts and the like count for all posts, but they will not see the people who liked someone else’s post, according to X senior software engineer Enrique Barragan…
Late last year, Musk told the platform’s engineers that he wanted to get rid of the tweet action buttons altogether and instead place a stronger emphasis on post views (also called “impressions”). Musk’s goal was to remove the section that contained the like and repost buttons entirely because Musk believed likes weren’t important, a source told me at the time.
“Social media in general is shifting away from like counts, so this makes sense,” the source said. “Part of me thinks [Musk] just wants to disassociate from Twitter more and more.”
To quote another (since deleted) tweet: “Elon is hiding likes because he assumes everyone is like him and wants to like Nazi shit without people seeing it. His first thought is always, how can I help my people, who love Nazi shit.”
Of course, the Nazi sex pest owner of this place just nuked the ability to see likes so you could size people up. https://t.co/LF73ASZ4Gm
— Clean Observer (@Hammbear2024) June 12, 2024
VoteVets Is Not Giving Up
VoteVets is pounding the anti-Trump message every single day … and we can learn something from that.
NEVER AGAIN should Donald Trump be trusted with national security clearance.
NEVER AGAIN should Trump be in command of our Armed Forces.
NEVER AGAIN should anyone who serves our country in uniform have to salute a walking, talking NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT! pic.twitter.com/t8AjJzvTkO
— VoteVets (@votevets) April 30, 2024
Open thread.
For Real?!
Look out, Florida, here we come!
🚨 🚨
BREAKING
Thanks to one of the most Herculean grassroots advocacy efforts I’ve ever seen, along w incredible support from so many to ensure filing fees were paid, there IS a QUALIFIED/VERIFIED Democratic candidate for EVERY state house and senate district in Florida
— David Pepper (@DavidPepper) June 14, 2024
As the saying goes, hell hath no fury like Democrats who have been subjected to corruption and abuse of power for close to 10 years!
More of this, please.
Open thread.