Been getting a lot of people asking about LA geography concerned that the images they see means the entire county is on fire. That's understandable.
But LA is a big place. So, to give an idea of scale it's time to cart this out again. It's a map of LA with other cities superimposed on it.— Stephen Blackmoore (@stephenblackmoore.com) January 9, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Ok. This one is a good complement so you can see the neighborhoods and surrounding cities.
— CeCe Falls (@cecef.bsky.social) January 9, 2025 at 10:00 PM
We’ve been watching the Watch Duty team do absolutely *unbelievable* technical work all week (they’re members of our Fast Forward open source program), handling a surge of millions of people trying to see where the fires are in real time. There are still people who do such good on the internet.
— Anil Dash (@anildash.com) January 9, 2025 at 7:08 PM
This is also a good time to remind everyone, update your pets microchip information. We found pets after fires and were unable to reunite them with owners because information was out of date
— Coast Fella (@coastfella.bsky.social) January 9, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Most succinct fact-check I've read of how LA Fire Dept's budget wasn't recently cut — in fact, the opposite — from @politico.com. But that misinformation spread anyway. www.politico.com/news/2025/01…
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali.bsky.social) January 9, 2025 at 7:59 AM
I have found great uplift by dwelling on the model of decency, compassion and love of country Jimmy Carter provided us, but can I also say: It was uplifting to see all the surviving presidents give the felon the cold shoulder and Obama, generously, taking one for the team.
— Steven Beschloss (@stevenbeschloss.bsky.social) January 9, 2025 at 9:25 PM
raven
Baud
@raven:
Sounds like a party for the New Black Panthers will be allowed as well.
Ben Cisco
@raven: Wow.
Ben Cisco
@Baud: “Don’t you believe it…”
different-church-lady
Hey, at least it’s sentencing day.
Jackie
@different-church-lady:
1/10 is now the official holiday of FFOTUS. Or FCFOTUS (C = Convicted)
More joyous dancing ahead! :D
NotMax
Never imagined I might be dusting off a quote from Nikita Khrushchev, of all people, as being quite so timely now. This is from 1956, slightly altered by me as indicated by the very few words in brackets.
Marmot
@NotMax: About Stalin, I take it?
Edit: What is going on? My comments always fail on the first try—or even on the second if I try to add more text.
NotMax
@Marmot
Yuppers.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I saw Obama talking to Trump yesterday and thought he was much kinder than I am. Maybe he knew he’d be next to Trump and that’s why Michele didn’t come.
NotMax
Repeating (last time, I promise) for the early crowd. FYI.
How to delete your Facebook account.
A multi-step procedure. Take special notice:
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Worse — according to the traditional seating patterns for these kinds of events, she herself would have been next to TCF.
suzanne
I’m sitting here, idly wondering how we’re going to rebuild LA after we deport all the construction workers.
suzanne
@SiubhanDuinne: I would certainly not blame Michelle for coming down with a cold accidentally-on-purpose.
Jackie
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That was my immediate thought. But, then I realized Michelle has too much respect for Jimmy and the Carter family to deliberately shun the memorial service for such pettiness?
Scout211
Related to a thread from yesterday:
. . .
satby
Blue Sky is already infested with the outrage trolls that weren’t getting the engagement on x any longer, and they were working hard yesterday to pump up the anger at Obama (and by extension the Democratic party) for the sin of behaving well at a funeral to the person next to you, however odious you might consider him.
Gonna be a long four years.
jonas
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Probably managed to get Trump to change his position on at least three different policies by flattering his ego and telling him how everyone would absolutely adore him if he did X. Being the last person to talk to him before he makes a decision about something is key.
Matt McIrvin
@suzanne: For the most part they’re not actually going to be deported; they’re going to be warehoused in “temporary” concentration camps from which a forced-labor pool can be extracted.
(Yes, that’s illegal, and when it happens I’m going to scream about it.)
Baud
@satby:
Yeah, I started being active on Blue sky after the election and in the short time since my feed has deteriorated in quality.
I can’t imagine what Twitter was like.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Like I’ve been saying: Bluesky is not going to save us.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
Has anyone suggested it would?
suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: Possible.
We’re also going to have a spike in prices in building materials. Trumpflation, man.
bjacques
@NotMax: (after Trump’s funeral)
I VEHEMENTLY DENOUNCE TRUMP!
satby
@Baud: Now that the co-president has bigger fish to fry, xitter has gotten more normal and blocking works again; presumably because the people running it don’t have Co-Pres. Musk interfering. My history there was primarily responding to positive things and happy animal rescue stories, so that’s mostly what I see. Besides the people I actually follow.
different-church-lady
@Baud: No one’s said it, but a lot of people are acting like it.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
I’ve never felt so personally attacked … 😉
Scout211
I hope a skilled lip reader figures out what was actually said. Or maybe someone will do a bad lip reading video.
In the video that I saw, Obama never made eye contact with Trump and he only responded to what Trump said to him. Trump was typical Trump, as if he was “above all this.” But Melania’s expression made me laugh. In response to something that Trump said to Obama, her face was quite animated with a “you are disgusting” look.
Spanky
@Scout211:
I thought that was her resting Melania face.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Climate expert Katharine Hayhoe made an interesting series of posts recently comparing stats she’s collected about her engagement across different social media.
Short version: for her, Bluesky is by far the best. She says Facebook’s algorithm has effectively softbanned her for talking about climate science, deemphasizing her posts so she gets very little engagement of any kind there. On Twitter, it’s overwhelmingly negative trolling crap and the dominance of that has increased since Musk took over. But she expects that to gradually increase on Bluesky as it becomes more popular.
Her complaint about Mastodon is particularly interesting, and as much as I love the scene on Mastodon, it 100% encapsulates a big problem with the platform–because it’s been positioned as the social network for people who want to do social networking in a very particular “right” way, it’s full of people who are theoretically sympathetic but act like the communication HOA:
jonas
@suzanne: Was just talking to my folks (who live in SoCal, but not near any of the fires) about this last night. The cleanup and rebuilding effort is going to be absolutely enormous. Anyone who can swing a hammer and climb a ladder is going to be in high demand. Wouldn’t put it past Trump to go through with mass deportations anyway just to fuck with CA. But of course that’s also going to completely hamstring rebuilding after the hurricanes last year in FL, GA, and NC as well. So he’ll probably grant red states waivers and let CA hang.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
People are always looking for saviours. If not blue sky, it’ll be something or someone else.
satby
The thing is, all the moves to allow hate speech on social media will run afoul of laws in the EU (for instance) and are unlikely to be relaxed there. So it’s very deliberately targeted to disrupt US politics. As is the attempt to force sale of TikTok.
Leto
Accompanying raven’s article, from The Guardian: Extremism in US military is ‘sleeping danger’ says author of Pentagon report
New Year’s Day attacks by US service members highlight threat, says Bishop Garrison who led DoD investigation
Here’s the report they issued: Report on Countering Extremist Activity Within the Department of Defense
Basically this is the same report that was issued back in 2010~ish, saying the same thing, with the same outcome: conservatives howled, DoD backed off.
TBone
@jonas: Fetterman has entered the chat…
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Not that I have a lot of experience to base this on, but that rings true to me.
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
Been saying it for years — social media is neither.
suzanne
@jonas: Absolutely. And the impact will be nationwide, probably international. After Hurricane Harvey, drywall was ludicrously expensive and difficult to get everywhere in the country for over a year. So we are all going to feel it.
satby
@Matt McIrvin: I got on and abandoned mastodon in about 50 minutes, because I didn’t like the interface and wasn’t at all interested in tweaking in to suit me (I’m a plug & play person). My decision was reinforced (and still is whenever I mention mastodon) by the scads of males (and it’s always guy nyms) who want to explain to me “it’s not that hard, you just have to yadayadayada”.
I never said it was hard or that I didn’t understand how to customize it, I said I didn’t want to because that wasn’t of value to me. It’s been pretty consistent that in a male dominated anything a female, no matter what level of expertise she has, will have to endure a great deal of mansplaining of things she knows. Sometimes at a higher lever than the ‘splainers. Mastodon will always be niche because of that.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: In the end my attitude about social media platforms (which I broadly define to include everything from 1990s Usenet and mailing lists to this blog) is “everything dies, baby, that’s a fact.” I’ve been doing this for literally 30+ years, going from Usenet to LiveJournal to blog comments and Dreamwidth to Google+, Twitter and Facebook and Mastodon and I’m too old to believe that you won’t have to keep moving–there is no one weird trick.
Commercial enshittification, which is the focus of attention right now because it’s working hand in hand with political corruption, is one way they can rot and die but it’s not the only way. Often it’s just the effects of scale and the perversity of human nature. The most pleasant places for me tend to be platforms that seem kind of dead from a general-public perspective, and that limits how famous I can get, but I don’t really want to be famous; as far as I can tell it kind of sucks.
On Mastodon they’re deeply concerned that the fact that Bluesky is commercial means that it’s gonna rot from commercial concerns, and, yes, it probably will at some point. But that doesn’t necessarily make it worse than anything else. Mastodon’s sort of old open-source-software-geek “pester people to do everything the right way; barriers to entry as intelligence test; making stuff easy is inviting the devil in” attitude is making it less attractive now.
Matt McIrvin
@NotMax: This blog is social media.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Already got one, thanks. :-)
satby
@NotMax: You do know this place qualifies as social media, right?
TBone
Reposting this outrageous situation. Breast cancer surgery interrupted by phone call from UHC insurance company looking to deny inpatient care.
https://crooksandliars.com/2025/01/uhc-pulls-surgeon-out-or-question-cancer
p.a.
Thanks for saving me the trouble of trying it out!👍🏻
TBone
@suzanne: I remember that.
lowtechcyclist
@Leto:
Has DoD already backed off, or is this just a prediction?
Also, we need, as much if not more, a similar report on our nation’s police forces. Since they are already free to act directly, in their official capacities, in ways that take the side of the RW extremists or opposing protesters from the left side of the spectrum.
NotMax
Howling, driving thunderstorm has rolled in.
Fingers crossed it clears up sometime during the day Had planned to make the monthly trip to town yesterday but couldn’t work up the requisite energy to do so. By the time a nap helped a wee bit it was way too late in the afternoon (no longer drive at night if I can help it).
TBone
@satby: can confirm!
H.E.Wolf
“But maybe everything that dies Someday comes back.”
Bleak; and hopeful. The two sides of the Springsteen coin. (I love that you quoted him!)
Matt McIrvin
@satby: I got into Mastodon for a very specific reason: about a decade ago I was having a swell time chatting mostly about math and science-related topics on the late Google+, and when Google+ was dying, a bunch of math geeks there set up a mathematics-themed Mastodon instance, mathstodon.xyz, as a refuge.
I didn’t go for it then, but I knew about it, was getting increasingly frustrated with the other social-media options available at the time, and around the time of the Twitter exodus I finally made the jump. The coolest thing about it for me was the support for posting mathematics notation with TeX markup (which, depending on how you do it, may or may not be readable outside that instance, yadda yadda it’s complicated).
And… somehow I gained a little following; now I have 600+ followers there–apparently people like what I post.
But at this point, I’m not sure I’d recommend it to people who are just dissatisfied with Twitter or whatever and want a new blogging home. I’d say you should go there if there’s a special-interest instance that you’ve heard about that looks like it has a good vibe; otherwise, it’s not necessarily an attractive option; the main advantage over just jumping on Bluesky is some theoretical satisfaction of Doing It The Right Way according to someone’s manifesto.
I never really liked the Twitter-style microblogging format with super-short character limits, and since Mastodon, like Bluesky, is based on that, I was initially reluctant, but when mathstodon.xyz upped its character limit to 1729, that made it a lot more attractive. (But, inevitably, there are purists on Mastodon who argue that instances like that are Doing It Wrong, because insisting people are Doing It Wrong is what people do on Mastodon.)
Baud
@satby:
I like the Mastodon interface, but I haven’t posted there.
@Matt McIrvin:
Agree. Nothing is perfect, and IMHO there’s no status to be gained by preferring a particular tech or social media site.
Matt McIrvin
@H.E.Wolf: Note, also, how the protagonist of that song is trying to make it come back: by “doing a favor” for mobbed-up casino guys in Atlantic City. Heck, maybe it was even Donald Trump specifically. We all make compromises.
Chris
People are telling me Anita Bryant’s dead.
I’m not quite young, but I’m young enough that I only really have two things I associate her with:
One: that joke from Airplane.
Two: that pie in the face moment that ensured her survival into the age of Internet and meme culture.
Obviously, I’m aware of a couple more things about her. I know she used to be a singer, I know she used to be hot shit long before my time, and I know she used that celebrity to try and spread homophobia, presumably like some sort of Boomer J. K. Rowling. But because of that last one, I’m very much determined not to learn any more about her. People like that deserve to be known only for the most ridiculous and embarrassing moments in their life, and I will continue to know her for that.
Shoot. I sure hope somebody pies J. K. Rowling in the face some day.
TBone
What time does Sentencing Day start, for those of us who plan to celebrate?
TBone
@Chris: there is an awesome meme of her getting pie the hard way!
Also seen yesterday: meme is map of
Gulf Of How Does This Lower Grocery Prices
NotMax
@TBone
In theory at 10 a.m. Eastern.
raven
Just back from the dog park where Artie experienced her first snow!!!
Baud
@raven:
Nice. How are her paws?
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Thus proving my point!
TBone
@NotMax: thanks, just found live updates link for 9:30 early birds gets the worm
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/live-blog/trump-sentencing-judge-juan-merchan-live-updates-rcna186199
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
RandomMonster
The correct way of reporting this would be to say that they are breaking their campaign promise to end the war in 24 hours. Also, it neglects to mention that Trump’s aim is to force Ukraine to give Russia everything it wants.
oldgold
The US economy added 256,000 jobs in December as unemployment fell to 4.1%.
Going to be tough for Trump to declare an “economic emergency “ based on these numbers.
raven
@Baud: Not bad, we didn’t stay too long and only one other knucklehead came!
Baud
@RandomMonster:
Only Democrats break promises. Republicans exercise leadership and flexibility when dealing with difficult situations.
Matt McIrvin
@p.a.: Also seen in the perpetual conundrum “I just don’t understand why everyone doesn’t delete Windows and Mac OS from their computers and use Linux instead. If you can’t see why it’s superior, and take the simple steps required to do that, you shouldn’t be allowed to use a computer…”
(followed by twelve pages of instructions for how to seek out all the drivers for the hardware in your laptop)
satby
@Matt McIrvin: And, not directed at you personally, but that entire comment vibe you detail is why I noped out in under an hour. Tedious^10.
Baud
@oldgold:
It’ll be just as easy as when Michael Scott declared bankruptcy on The Office.
Chris
@oldgold:
I don’t know, we clearly believed that we’ve been in a recession for the last four years with no evidence whatsoever and all the evidence pointing the other way.
His fans have already proclaimed that the economy’s perfect now and the media’s rushed to agree, so it might be a difficult lift to get them all reversing course, but I’m confident they could do it if they really wanted to.
TBone
@oldgold: he will base it on his own, imaginary reasons (maybe he’ll have his rich asshole donors tank the stock market).
TBone
@Baud: lol
Scout211
This is so upsetting.
Also too, why are the news reports continually showing residents who refused to evacuate and painting them as “heroes” for using their garden hoses to “save” their property?
NotMax
@Chris
American eggceptionalism!
//
RandomMonster
@Baud: Also, coercing a nation to capitulate takes time.
satby
About 15 minutes until the sentencing hearing for the convict starts.
Kay
In 2022 Denmark accused Russia of creating a fake letter from Greenland to a US Senator stating that Greenland was seeking independence from Denmark. The Senator was Tom Cotton.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/denmark-accuses-china-russia-iran-espionage-threat-2022-01-13/
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, this.
Status seeking is an epidemic.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
I guess that’s where one would find some Ramanujan fans…
p.a
What are the sentencing guidelines?
tobie
@raven: The name of the employee is George Raymond Haynie, III and he is a shop manager for the College of Engineering. His wife runs an organization for pregnant women in crisis with the German name “Schatzkind.” It seems to offer help to women to carry to term in exchange for indoctrination.
Kay
“It is highly likely that Russian influence agents wanted to create a conflict between Greenland, Denmark and the US”
Chris
@NotMax:
I guess the yoke’s on us.
suzanne
@Scout211:
Rugged individualism being the highest social good, of course. (That’s snark.)
I will also note that we have — and have had for a long time — the building technology to construct noncombustible building envelopes and fire separation walls. This is much more common in commercial construction than in residential. But it’s expensive. Building code improvements always are.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Not really – it means I haven’t been looking for one for the past 54 years. So I’ve been not looking for one a hell of a lot longer than I was looking for one, by any definition of looking.
Kay
@Scout211:
Media want to pretend that with the right combination of mayors and governors and fireman and funding, climate change – driven catastrophes will stop happening. Because its scary.
They’re going to stand there watching an 100 mile an hour fire storm and yell that someone should stop it.
TBone
Comer and Woodward teamed up for Comer’s new book out today:
All The President’s Money
Barnes & Noble overview:
tobie
@Kay: Someone posted on BJ yesterday that the melting of the ice in Greenland would open new shipping routes, enabling passage through the arctic to connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The routes would be controlled by Russia and Canada. This makes the talk about turning Canada into the 51st state all the more relevant. I’d bet good money the plan was hatched by Musk and Putin to control the world. A-holes.
Kristine
@Baud: @different-church-lady:
I’m not looking for an online savior. Just wanted to get away from the muskrat.
TBone
NBC:
The prosecution team has entered the courtroom, including their paralegals, who were witnesses at the trial. The team is led by prosecutors Joshua Steinglass and Susan Hoffinger.
District Attorney Bragg is not yet at the courtroom, nor is his leadership team. But, Steve Wu, the office’s chief of appeals has arrived.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/live-blog/trump-sentencing-judge-juan-merchan-live-updates-rcna186199
Scout211
Bary Blitt’s New Yorker coverof the upcoming inauguration.
That’s gotta hurt, if Trump’s media protection squad lets him see it.
TBone
@Scout211: hahahahaha!
lowtechcyclist
@TBone:
I’m just seeing Comer’s name on the cover.
Lord knows I thought Bob Woodward had jumped the shark a long time ago, but his involvement in this book would take it to new levels.
sab
@suzanne: My understanding is that the most difficult parts of settling the west were done by Mormons, who are about as far from individualists as you can get.
lowtechcyclist
@Scout211:
Brilliant!
sixthdoctor
Speaking of crooks:
Former WWE boss Vince McMahon has settled charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission related to his failure to disclose to the pro wrestling company’s board settlement agreements with two women on behalf of himself and the WWE, the SEC announced Friday.
McMahon agreed to pay a $400,000 civil penalty and reimburse the WWE $1.33 million after consenting to an order finding that he violated the Securities Exchange Act, the SEC said.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/10/former-wwe-boss-vince-mcmahon-resolves-sec-charges-over-undisclosed-settlements.html
raven
@tobie: I don’t know that this is common knowledge locally, thanks
H.E.Wolf
@Matt McIrvin:
Jersey songwriter, Jersey themes. :)
I’ve been listening closely to Springsteen lyrics since 1978, when my college roommate introduced me to the first 4 albums.
Neither of us had a record player at the time. We used to reserve one of the tiny soundproof rooms in the Music Dept. library, and play “Darkness on the Edge of Town” start to finish, liner notes and lyrics at hand. (We were having a bleak year.)
One of my abiding sorrows is that Springsteen doesn’t write for my vocal range!
Kay
@tobie:
That’s what Danes believe. They think this is orchestrated by the far Right to benefit Russia. Denmark and Canada have to be sidelined, along with anti -Putin Europe so the newly far Right and Putin- compromised US is in total control. Hence the objections from France and Germany.
We’ll see though. It rests on the assumption that the indigenous Greenlanders are stupid rubes who don’t know the value of the land they have inhabitated for the last 5000 years, which might be a bad assumption but would be perfectly in keeping with the US Right. It also rests on the assumption they want to be second class Americans instead of first class Danes and EU members.
Denmark offers a lot of benefits to their citizens – huge Danish shipping and pharma industries, high quality of life, squeaky clean government, universal health care and higher education and of course the EU.
If you were an indigenous person would you choose Denmark or the US? Greenlanders have been entering into treaties with Denmark (and Norway) since 1300.
New Deal democrat
FWIW, Joe Biden gets one last good economic gift, as in December 255,000 jobs were added, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%. Good job, Mr. President!
In a < sigh > related note, I have just joined “Friends of the BLS,” which among other things will get updates on anything important happening in that vital statistical Bureau – like their civil service status being changed to political hacks, meaning the numbers could no longer be trusted.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: A while back, the Canadian science-fiction author Cory Doctorow made a series of Mastodon posts about why he was sticking with Mastodon and refusing to go anywhere else, and it was all this sort of thing… but an interesting specific point he made was that he liked that on Mastodon, they made it very easy for you to jump ship from one instance to another if the one you were on became toxic, and nobody else did that.
And that’s great, but it only addresses the problem of top-down trouble coming from the instance you’re on, not, you know, all of Mastodon dying.
Right now, it’s actually not dying. But it’s not growing like Bluesky and my impression is that there has been a modest exodus to Bluesky, and this has led to a lot of “Bluesky is evil” sturm und drang.
I dunno. I bridged my feed to Bluesky so that people can actually follow me there ( https://bsky.app/profile/mattmcirvin.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy ), though they’ll miss a lot of the conversations I didn’t originate because they involve other accounts that are not bridged. I’m tempted to start a real account there and not just the bridge, but I suspect that would lead to me abandoning Mastodon and there’s actually a lot of great stuff still going on there.
Just the fact that the wonderful https://sauropods.win/@futurebird posts there keeps me on to some extent (she’s also on Tumblr).
Matt McIrvin
(speaking of which, Tumblr is weirdly still around and hanging in there)
tobie
@raven: Dukes of Hazard is no longer limited to the south, I guess. Sad to see this neo-Nazi comes from Jersey, but I’m even sadder to see the way in which “academic freedom” is being abused to protect out-and-out racists.
Kay
@tobie:
Americans always talk about the Danish welfare state, but the Danish private sector drives that. A 40% tax rate doesn’t collect much unless your citizens are getting paid. Sometimes we allow them Legos – so cute with their toys. But there’s only 6 million people in Denmark and they have two very profitable domestic industries – pharma and shipping. That welfare state is built on real, tangible, created wealth.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@New Deal democrat:
I saw a commercial one evening this week. PSA about vaccinations for people over 65, specifically Covid. I paused it at the end to see the fine print of who was behind it:
Department of Health and Human Services.
I’m guessing that’ll be one of the first “wasteful” things cuts under the incoming regime.
satby
Danish legislators react to the convict’s statement on Greenland (xitter link)
Matt McIrvin
@H.E.Wolf: I think one of the reasons I’m still a superfan of They Might Be Giants is that my voice is functionally similar to that of either core member of They Might Be Giants, so singing along is super easy.
(kind of like what whatever wag said, that music critics like Elvis Costello because music critics look like Elvis Costello.)
tobie
@Kay: All Greenlanders need to do is look at the standard of living of indigenous peoples in Alaska. It’s awful.
I’m sure Putin is thinking about what this means for Russia but I also think Musk has a hand. It’s amazing to me how many of the super-rich techbros are into eugenics. They truly believe they should be masters of the universe, and a federation of oligarchs controlling all the planet’s resources fits their ideology to a tee.
Gin & Tonic
@tobie: So an employer can police what employees do when they’re off the clock?
schrodingers_cat
OT question about London: so I checked the weather for the coming week and the highs are going to be in high forties and lows in the low 40s.
So should I take my fall jacket or my winter parka?
schrodingers_cat
Double comment deleted
tobie
@Kay: I bet the Danes don’t skrimp on education either. When you’re a small nation, you need an educated workforce to generate revenue.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: What would you wear in that weather in MA?
Matt McIrvin
@tobie: There’s been a perennial stream of interest among science-fiction-fan/futurist-geek types, and also among very rich people, of achieving some technological means of immortality, and that’s always been kind of a gateway to crackpot eugenics, as well as all manner of health crankery.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s shorts and a t-shirt weather in MA.
tobie
@Gin & Tonic: It’s a complicated question and one every university has to deal with right now given the social media activity of just about everyone. Obviously the question would be whether the employee’s political activities affect his work. I think the point of the petition I linked to is that Haynie is a state employee.
satby
Adam Klasfeld @klasfeldreports.bsky.social 1m
Justice Merchan responds to Trump’s tirade against the justice system with a simple, “Thank you, Mr. Trump.” He then begins his sentencing remarks.
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: In it Comer claims Woodward told him everyone in Washington knew Biden was corrupt. Woodward isn’t talking.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Fall jacket, my winter 🥶 parka is for serious cold weather from LLBean. I have used it for winter hiking in the Adirondacks.
It’s the cold damp weather that worries me a bit
There is no rain predicted when I am there, though.
Gin & Tonic
@tobie: IANAL, but I think, given the 1st and 10th Amendments, being a State employee makes it unambiguous that he can associate with whoever he wants when he’s not working.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: Lots of employment terms allow for discharge if a person’s behavior cause damage to the employer’s reputation or public image.
Omnes Omnibus
@TBone: Why would that part of the book be the one part that is true?
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: I think you answered your own question.
ETA: Layering!
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m glad Mastodon exists and I hope it doesn’t die off. That said, people complaining excessively about other people’s personal choices gets kind of lame. No one is entitled to a successful service or technology.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
If I were the judge, I’d be considering two options:
Remand for five years at Sing Sing and let the Feds figure out how to square that circle;
Or five years in Sing Sing, sentence suspended, defendant to surrender to the New York State Department of Corrections on January 21, 2028 or 24 hours after the swearing-in of his replacement as President, whichever comes first.
Ruviana
@TBone: This book intrigued me so I went to Amazon to check it out. It’s published on “Broadside Ebooks” which doesn’t sound like a major publisher. On the other hand the FNYT published Clinton Cash from I think Regnery so I guess keep an eye on what drops there.
satby
Adam Klasfeld
@klasfeldreports.bsky.social
Judge Merchan says he must “respect and follow” the protections of the office of the President. But those powers “do not have the power to erase a jury verdict.”
Calling it the “only lawful sentence,” Judge Merchan pronounces a sentence of unconditional discharge.
TBone
@Omnes Omnibus: you really think I think any of this is true? Hahahaha!!! That comment stems from my original remark about Woodward “teaming up” which was a snark. “Saved it up for the book.”
Context matters.
Leto
@lowtechcyclist: per the article, they’ve already backed off. Sorry, at my dentist and dealing with shit WiFi and cell service.
schrodingers_cat
What’s the tipping culture in England
Baud
frosty
@TBone: You think that’s what Fetterman is up to? I’d feel better if so; then he hasn’t just gone nuts deciding Dr Oz is OK and he’s obeying in advance. I don’t know what to make of the guy right now.
Eunicecycle
I am not a content creator so I’ve never cared if I have a lot of followers, either on X or now on BlueSky. I vet everyone I follow, as well as anyone who follows me who wants me to follow back. Lately I’ve blocked so many accounts that are just looking for engagement for sexual content or for GoFundMe. It’s time consuming and I’ve decided I am following enough people to get the content I want.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: You’ve probably seen the version of the ancient American Chopper meme in which the two guys are arguing about Scandinavian “socialism”, which shifts between lauding Sweden as a corporate-friendly mixed economy and condemning it with “NO THAT’S SOCIALISM” as rhetorical convenience demands… well, the mirror image of that happens on the left too. Capitalism must be destroyed, only it’s never clear whether they’re really talking about all capitalism or the kind of unrestrained neo-Gilded-Age monster we’re dealing with now. I sometimes think the legacy of the Cold War is still deeply distorting American thinking on this subject across the spectrum.
frosty
@Matt McIrvin: What, you missed MySpace??
Otherwise, good comment. I see we’re writing on a “social media” that time has passed by. Fine with me.
TBone
@frosty: I don’t normally prognosticate, I just found it funny that people immediately gave Obama the benefit of the doubt in that funeral situation. I’m in wait and see mode on Fettermanchimena.
Omnes Omnibus
@TBone: Read my comment again.
sixthdoctor
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
Or five years in Sing Sing, sentence suspended, defendant to surrender to the New York State Department of Corrections on January 21, 2028 or 24 hours after the swearing-in of his replacement as President, whichever comes first.
I know this didn’t happen, but I nearly spit out my coffee when I read this, so I take heart that in a many-worlds theory of the universe this happened.
Matt McIrvin
@frosty: Ha ha! I actually did have a MySpace account but never really used it–I got it literally so I could test the MySpace client on the T-Mobile Sidekick (remember that? I was working on it for a little while, one of the coolest jobs I ever had).
TBone
Whelp, our next President is no longer out on bail.
Chief Oshkosh
@Scout211: Couple of observations that may un-upset you a little bit (and note, my niece, her SO, SO’s mom, and pets all evacuated a couple of days ago, have lost everything, so I’m sensitive to the situation)
The scooper planes are great for their intended purpose – scooping up water and dumping it on or near fires. However, this is of limited usefulness for this specific fire (and it’s an open question in the ‘industry’ whether water drops from fixed-wing craft should continue at all; they’re relatively ineffective compared to retardant drops). In this specific fire, the scoopers are nearly useless. They’re basically conducting operations to meet their numbers for negotiating next year’s contract. Sorry if that sounds cynical, but they’re all commercial operators and that’s how the contracts are awarded.
The nature of some fire edges are that even garden hoses can be effective tools in extinguishing burning bits that float in on the winds and lodge against a house. This saves the house. If not extinguished and the house catches, it’s game over for that house, but much worse, it greatly increases the probability of the whole neighborhood going up in flames. I’m not advocating this as a good tactic, but it does work. I grew up in a rural setting where we had nearly-annual prairie fires, and this was what most people did as there weren’t a lot of other resources. There MAY be places at the edges of these fires where that’s the case. Of course, I don’t know as I’m not on the ground.
But yes, the drone operator is an idiot and needs to have his equipment and license taken away. And yes, it’s likely that Mr. Garden Hose is an idiot, but maybe not
ETA: I know CalFire itself is not a commercial operator and does have its own equipment and personnel. However, they and other governmental entities contract for additional resources.
Kay
@tobie:
My son is a US educated engineer in Denmark and he thinks their high school and higher ed is inferior to the US, that they in fact DON’T value education to the extent that the more educated public in the US do. Their daughter will go to college in the US. He thinks Danes are complacent about it and sort of deluded about what a high standard would even be.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@frosty:
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/1/9/2296085/-The-Fetterman-Conundrum
Written by a “high profile Dem donor” about his meetings with Lamb and Fetterman during the primary.
Miss Bianca
@Chris: I primarily remember her from orange juice commercials back in the 70s. Whatever she was famous for before that and her anti-gay crusades? No clue.
NotMax
As a convicted felon, does he lose the right to vote in Florida?
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin: It’s gonna rot from social media concerns. As long as (a) there’s human beings involved and (b) it’s not carefully moderated, it will wind up a cesspool.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: Hasn’t that always been the case, that the education system in the US can be one of the best in the world in certain places. The problem is that the system varies so much by location.
TBone
Legend Carol Burnett skewering Anita Bryant:
https://youtu.be/Js-yJ48C6Po
Kay
@tobie:
Americans trash their education system too much. I think that’s 100% due to the Right. Its much better than we give it credit for, in terms of international comparisons.
narya
@H.E.Wolf: “Darkness” was, for the longest time, my absolute favorite. “Wrecking Ball” ended up sharing that top slot, though. One of my regrets in life is that I couldn’t figure out how to get to the Main Point in Bryn Mawr in the 1970s (I lived about two hours north, but was in high school). But the local Allentown radio station (WSAN) played him, a lot; they also played all kinds of albums straight through when they were first released.
Professor Bigfoot
@Gin & Tonic: Do Nazis fail the “tolerance as a social contract” test?
Should an employer be forced to keep a neo-Nazi on his payroll?
(Of course he should! Nazis have rights too!/s
Edited to add: just think about any Black, Jewish, or female engineering students that have to work with this Nazi— what about them?
different-church-lady
@oldgold:
Just lying outright doesn’t seem to be that tough for him.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, by location and because of racism and income inequality, but I know you know those factors. Just adding :)
Matt McIrvin
@different-church-lady: The decentralized model means that on Mastodon, moderation is effectively per-instance. So it all depends on who’s running yours. And instances can entirely block other ones that have gone bad, and things like some neo-Nazi running his own instance for his own bullshit (which he could totally do, and many have).
Trump’s toy social network Truth Social was originally running on a fork of the Mastodon code, though regular Mastodon didn’t generally federate with it. But I think they migrated to something else.
laura
@schrodingers_cat: My advice- and feel free to take it leave it, head over to Harrods and see what’s on offer for a Spring Coat. I’d be on the lookout for a lightweight fabric, but lined with a lovely silky printed interior lining, but I’m prone to garments that are plain brown wrapper on the outside and surprisingly party-time on the inside.
Have a wonderful trip- take your time going, but hurry back.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca:
IIRC she was a Miss America pageant person with a minor gospel music career before being a bigot made her really famous.
TBone
@NotMax: gah, will any of the repercussions normally attached to being a convicted felon apply is my question. At least we have the stigma to point to over and over…the verdict was unanimous.
Miss Bianca
@tobie: I keep thinking about what Jay said the other day – that anyone who thinks the “new Northwest Passage” is going to be navigable by anything much larger than a kayak is dangerously delusional. (I’m paraphrasing, obvs.)
Chief Oshkosh
@Chris: You and NotMax are adding centuries to your times in Purgatory. Just a friendly reminder from Opus Dei…
/s
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: My “in certain places” was carrying a lot of weight.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: The thing I always wonder about is people blaming bad American politics, or people just not understanding how the system works, on the education system–we used to have civics class, but we don’t any more!
But people don’t fucking pay attention. I mean, Trump’s original core voters include a lot of people who are so old that they DID have civics class and it doesn’t seem to have helped.
Hell, I’m so old that I did, in junior high school! I remember it involving a lot of patriotic boosterism about how the fucked-up properties of our system are actually features rather than bugs.
tobie
@Miss Bianca: Yeah, I’m assuming this is a crackpot idea. Doesn’t mean these a-holes aren’t convinced they can overpower nature.
Ruviana
@Miss Bianca: She was a Miss America I think.
Jackie
@NotMax:
This was being discussed on MSNBC. Short answer YES.
But, there was general agreement that DeSantis would find/create a workaround for FCFOTUS… I hope The Felon gets busted for illegally voting in ‘26 because DeStupid dropped the ball – purposely or inadvertently.
TBone
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: it was his time being our PA Lieutenant Governor that I based my opinion on. Gay pride flags hung from the balcony of his office, along with weed flags, he attended Pride parades wearing the flag as a cape, etc. He stuck it to MAGA on the regular.
I hope the stroke hasn’t affected his brain and personality. But I have no idea if he’s serious now.
frosty
Change the key! I sing Atlantic City an octave below Bruce. My abiding sorrow is that so many of my favorites need more than one guitar. And harmonica. Oh, and you need a bit of talent to play them, too!
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruviana: Wikipedia says second runner up.
tobie
@Kay: Interesting perspective. I wasn’t dumping on public schools in the US per se. It was more about war on education from the right (abolish the Dept of Ed, ban books in school libraries, etc.). It’s hard not to be worried about what a Republican Congress will do to schools.
Scout211
@Chief Oshkosh: Thank you for the information about the Scooper.
To clarify, I didn’t call the garden hose guy an idiot. He may or may not be. My concern is the media making those garden hose guys into heroes and giving people the idea that they can save their homes that way. We had a big fire in my county in 2015 (10 years later that fire is not considered a big fire, but it was at the time) and the few people who died were the ones who stayed back trying to save their homes.
Ruviana
H.E.Wolf
@narya:
At first I had a hard time understanding the words of the songs, unless the written version was in front of me. Then I acquired a housemate from the same part of New Jersey, and my ear became attuned to the mumbling.
Same roommate *insisted* we all go to a Springsteen concert at the Bahston Gahden. Glad I agreed, even though the venue seemed huge to me. It was right before the band made the leap to mega-stadiums, so I was lucky in retrospect.
My cousin, who was a fan long before I was, used to get his concert tickets at Elsie’s in Harvard Square. I have no idea how that worked, but apparently it was a thing. :)
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: You’re from New England? You should take shorts and flip flops for temps in the 40s.
Seriously I’d call that Fall weather, not Winter. I hold off on the parka until it’s in the low 30s.
Ramalama
@Chris:
If people are glitter-bombing Dan Savage, surely there’s some glitter or pie in Rowling’s future.
tam1MI
@schrodingers_cat: I would take the winter parka, but then I don’t handle cold well so 40 degrees is my “put on the winter coat” breakover point.
Alternatively, you could take the fall jacket and layer up underneath it.
Another Scott
@satby: Thanks for the tweets.
I assume Merchan’s choice of the word “lawful” (as opposed to “just”) was deliberate.
He was a credit to the court and to New York. He did his job given all the constraints he was under. It’s infuriating that we cannot say the same about the SCOTUS majority in these circumstances.
Fight for 15!!
Thanks again.
Best wishes,
Scott.
NotMax
@narya
Jeeze, haven’t thought about the Main Point for eons.
;)
Matt McIrvin
@TBone: Well, that sketch was a masterclass in getting shit in under the radar.
Matt McIrvin
@H.E.Wolf:
…huh. All I ever got there was reuben sandwiches. I remember the rumor that when Ted Kennedy got caught cheating it was because someone saw him there during an exam he was taking, though if that was the case, I think it was at their previous location from the one I knew.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: As I was saying earlier, there’s a tendency in progressive politics to frame virtue in entirely negative, ascetic terms: boycotts and avoidance, minimizing your consumption, not crossing the picket line, deleting your account. And all those are valid ways to exercise your personal politics, but there’s ideally more to it than that, and at some point you’re going to have to be forced to balance goals and harms. The endpoint of emphasizing only avoiding bad actions is to avoid any action at all.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
You are on point today.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: That’s how we get hermits.
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin: Not that they’re at all wrong, but progressives believe that humans suck, and therefore all human activity is harmful.
I actually agree with them on that. But they’re not very realistic about the solution, which appears to be in their mind, “Get rid of humans.”
narya
He grew up across the state (and a little south) from me, so I likely have a similar accent. ;-) It really comes out when I’m around my family.
RevRick
@different-church-lady: A strategy of retreat is doomed to failure unless your name is Fabius or you’re the Russian general willing to scorch earth all the way back to Moscow in the face of Napoleon or Hitler.
different-church-lady
@RevRick: I’m not saying retreat. I’m saying, “The latest social media toy is not going to be better than the old social media toy.” I’m saying better social media is not going to solve anything, because social media is the problem.
narya
@NotMax: There are bootleg concerts out there from the Main Point –possibly even released on nugster or whatever as well? He also used to drive into Philly, sleep in his car, then drop into the radio station where Ed Schiaky was on the air. And WMMR had a fake clip of “Promised Land” (“I get up in the morning/use deodorant spray”) that I still hear in my head. I’m glad my eventual first concert was in Philadelphia.
Omnes Omnibus
@different-church-lady: And you consistently say this on a blog.
kalakal
@schrodingers_cat:
There isn’t one. Tip in restaraunts/hotel porters and that’s about it.
Regarding the clothing I’d take the fall jacket. You can always layer up.
It will be a bit colder if you head out to Salisbury Plain to see Stonehenge so I’d definitely pack an extra layer for that
lou
@Kay:
Except we don’t have an American school system, just a hodge-podge quilt of local systems. Sigh.
different-church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s my drum and I’m going to beat it.
kalakal
@frosty:
A Looper is your friend
Miss Bianca
@different-church-lady: @Matt McIrvin:
Progressives and Puritans are starting to sound alike…
Ruckus
@suzanne:
Very rational thinking.
So many American families have history of immigrants from other countries. My grandparents, at least one on each side were immigrants. Now that was over 100 yrs ago but still, unless your bloodline is 100% American Indian you have immigrants somewhere in your family tree. (And may still) This is a country that unless you are one of those Indians (and not usually from India) your background extremely likely has immigrants in it. At least one of my grandparents was an immigrant. Many people I grew up with/around were immigrants. Many of them came looking for a better life, and many found one. My ex was first generation American. This in many ways should be a revered story. They came, they built, they prospered. And that doesn’t mean they got filthy rich it means they lived, built homes, lives, businesses, farms, hell, a country. (Now if they had been better to the people here before them…..)
Ruckus
@Baud:
Twitter wasn’t bad until it grew a lot and became profitable. You know, money does that to some people. And to any/every thing/one around them.
Ruckus
@jonas:
He certainly can be that much of an ass, but he’s also aging out and having just a touch of crap in his life. I of course wouldn’t put anything shitty past him, the throne in his mind sits higher than any other human on the planet, unfortunately for him every time he sits down his brain gets no oxygen (location of where he keeps his breathing intake port…..)
Fair Economist
@different-church-lady:
Social media isn’t the problem – algorithmic media is, where you see only what the owner of the platform wants you to see. Twitter, Facebook, and the like are all algorithmic media. Algorithmic media pushes ragebait, for engagement, and represses all facts the owner doesn’t like (for example, Facebook softbans all discussions of climate change; Xitter massively pushes conservative political content).
Bluesky and Mastodon are both genuinely *social* media – you see what your friends post and like, or (for Bluesky) feeds *you* choose to see. I think this will make a big difference. Certainly I’ve found Mastodon is massively different – I don’t follow ragebaiters, and I don’t see ragebait. On Twitter it got shoved down my throat anyway.
UncleEbeneezer
Hey all, since many of you generously asked, here is our GoFundMe. No pressure but if you can spread the word that would be amazing!
Sister Golden Bear
@suzanne:
To the MAGAts that’s a feature, not a bug.
Citizen Alan
@TBone: Wow! I have never seen that before! I adore Carol Burnett, but I never recalled her taking such an aggressive political stance on her show. Of course, this sketch probably aired when I was 7 or 8 so I might have gone right over my head.
Citizen Alan
@Kay: The Right turned against public education as soon as the ink was dry on Brown v. Board of Ed. (which, frankly, I think this SCOTUS will overturn as soon as a test case comes before them). At one point, IIRC, Mississippi had the highest number of private schools per capita, and 99% of them were shitty little Baptist madrassas populated by white yokels whose parents didn’t want them going to schools alongside black children.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Kay: And at the same time many people who live in climate disaster likely areas (which is now pretty much everywhere) don’t want to listen when they are told things like grass lawns, and wasting water is going to cause problems. Then there’s the elephant in the room no one talks about, corporations that pay local and state politicians to allow things like water bottling plans in places that don’t have enough water, and allowing developers to build houses in places with no water source/too many people already using the available resources. Some days I swear humanity is to stupid as a species to survive..
Finally there are the people who don’t want to pay taxes but scream the loudest when there is a flood/fire/drought the “someone” needs to help them and fix it…
Matt McIrvin
@different-church-lady: A lot of what you see me say here is the outcome of a 35-year argument with my inner Schopenhauer. My wife describes my darker musings as expressing the belief in the scoring system on The Good Place in which every mortal human turns out to have been damned for being on the negative side of the ledger.