Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

“Alexa, change the president.”

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Decision time: keep arguing about the last election, or try to win the next one?

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Let me file that under fuck it.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

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News You Can Use Open Thread

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Ah, British society. So sophisticated:

News You Can Use Open Thread 1

Never fear, Daily Star: I wouldn’t touch one with yours.

Working on a post about Labour’s big policy announcement from Monday, but I get so overwhelmed by the idiocy of it I keep stopping. Basically, they are going all in on AI. Sometimes I think I should just retreat into the woods, you know?

Whilst that’s brewing, here’s an open thread.

 

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  1. 1.

    Chat Noir

    Which star from “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” died? I loved the British version of that show. Comedy Central had a New Year’s Day marathon of it back in 2000 and I spent the day watching it.

  3. 3.

    Steve LaBonne

    I’m pretty depressed that in one of the very few countries where an allegedly social democratic party has recently done well in an election (I know, not all that well) and taken power, it’s busy shitting the bed. Looking for economic growth high enough to fill the coffers while refusing to even think about working towards rejoining the single market is a circle that can’t be squared, and Trump is about to increase the degree of difficulty markedly.

  4. 4.

    @mistermix.bsky.social

    My newish MacBook Pro just prompted me that it’s ready for Apple Intelligence and wanted me to install something.  Well, I’m not ready.  Hard pass.

  6. 6.

    MattF

    @@mistermix.bsky.social: Yeah, I got that notice on my iPad. Ed Zitron is a good source for the AI skeptic.

    ETA: About halfway down Zitron’s Never Forgive Them post (search for ‘direct example’) is a genuinely scary report of installing Win11 on a cheap laptop.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    Artificial intelligence will be “mainlined into the veins” of the nation, ministers have announced,

    I for one welcome our new nanobot overlords.

  11. 11.

    Steve LaBonne

    My midrange Samsung phone isn’t eligible for “Galaxy AI”. I’m so broken up, not.

  13. 13.

    TBone

    Pam Bondi hearing.  Just another fascist in a skirt.  I’m pre-mourning our DOJ. This liar lawyer will usher in grievous error era.

    BUT watching Padilla, Hirono, et al. is fun.  They’ve been hitting her where it counts, repeatedly.

    I wish I’d met her in an alley when she was here in PA.

  16. 16.

    Chris

    @Steve LaBonne:

    In complete fairness, there’s a pretty big obstacle to Britain rejoining the EU that isn’t any British politician’s fault: we don’t want them back.  I don’t believe for a second that the lesson of “Brexit was a mistake” has actually sunk in; if we let them in, it’d take all of six months before a majority of them was once again wailing that things are worse than ever, the Eurocrats In Brussels are making them that way, and oh God Boris Johnson would never have stood for this!  Meanwhile, the EU has enough internal problems right now without reintroducing the thunderclap headache that is the United Kingdom.

    Still, the entire Brexit saga was indeed a pretty big case in point of the phenomenon where the far right scores a win, and the entire political spectrum just decides that it would be dirty pool to try to take it away from them.

  18. 18.

    sab

    @Rose Judson: I am a retired accountant. I used to have a lot of things on my computer, but after almost forty years I am back to green ledger paper for everything.

    I am tired oc computer fuckups. I am tired of the old stuff being inaccessible because of computer updates and new better computers. I am tired of spending thousands of dollars for new capabilities I don’t need or want.

    Last computer update my printer is now doing everything front and back but it can’t manage it and always jams. The computer is overriding the printer setting. Things worked fine before the update. So I have to print one page at a time, and it takes forever.

  19. 19.

    TBone

    @sab: I don’t even use my printer anymore, for anything except scanning digital images.  If I need a hard copy print job I go to my local library and they do a fabulous job, cheap.  I will never buy another ink cartridge.

    I hope someday you don’t have to futz around with printing either.

  20. 20.

    Shalimar

    @TBone: The sad thing is, as horrible and corrupt as Bondi is and will be, she’s still like a junior high version of Bill Barr

    edit: sad as in the vast majority of people do not realize how evil Barr was

  21. 21.

    Captain C

    @Shalimar:

    vast majority of people do not realize how evil Barr was

    Between his Iran Contra coverups, and his copious assistance to TCFG’s criminal activities, Barr has as much to do with the destruction of democracy in the US as Moscow Mitch.

  22. 22.

    TBone

    @Shalimar: I’m not sure stupid and immature is any better.  She’s an ambitious, greedy bimbo & there is prolly kompromat out the wazoo on her in a dossier somewhere across the pond.

    She herself mentioned the fact that she has no security clearance more than a few times.

  23. 23.

    azlib

    Does anyone believe that the AI marketing hype has gotten way ahead of the current technical reality? Tulips anyone?

  24. 24.

    Spanky

    For those of us who don’t mind petty, I’m hoping this comes to pass in spades:

    Monday (Inauguration Day) doesn’t look pleasant. As of now, highs only look like they will make the mid-20s to low 30s, and a gusty wind may hold wind chills in the teens. Confidence: Medium

  28. 28.

    Shalimar

    @azlib: AI doesn’t actually do anything I need done, and I don’t see where it will in the foreseeable future.  And that’s totally setting aside the letting it learn human behavior from Twitter and Facebook problem.  I admit I don’t see why anyone cares about AI at this point.

  29. 29.

    sab

    @Spanky: Around here in Ohio that qualifies as normal pleasant winter. I would be hoping for low teens, but Bidens and Obamas and Bushes will also be there.

    It is weird to think of an inauguration without Carter.

  30. 30.

    lowtechcyclist

    Night before last, I was Googling stuff about the night sky because Mars was about to go behind the Moon, from our POV.  Google’s AI told me it was a good night for viewing the sky because it was a new moon, so stargazers wouldn’t have to work around its light.  It was a full moon

    ETA: If AI can’t get basic stuff like that right, I’d hate to have to trust it for anything more complex.

    Also, it seems that AI burns a shitload of power, to the extent that they’ve been at least trying to reopen shuttered power plants just to be able to power it.  So in addition to everything else, AI is going to help hasten global warming.

  31. 31.

    sab

    @Shalimar: I have commented repeatedly that we tried AI scanning for tax returns years ago, and the results were hilarious, and very time consuming to fix.

  32. 32.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @azlib:

    Tulips anyone?

    Tulips with too many fingers.

    Tech CEOs and VCs have gotten completely addicted to the next shiny thing that will supposedly power hyper growth, and absolutely lost any touch with what customers actually want and need.

  34. 34.

    dr. luba

    @TBone: Laserjet.  I have an HP, and use refilled cartridges (2 for $36 on Amazon).  They last me at least a year, and that includes the magnum opus that is my 4 page annual letter (~300 copies).  So good value.

  35. 35.

    evodevo

    @Rose Judson: ​
      Me too. I dread having to switch to Win11 if I have to get a new computer. I hate having to learn everything all over again, and deal with a new set of glitches.

  36. 36.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Chat Noir:

     

    @Chat Noir: Tony Slattery.  Great show; go to show for my spouse and I to decompress after work.  Also where I first saw the genius and power of Steve Carrell and Stephen Colbert (improve rap song about downhill skiing).

  37. 37.

    sab

    @evodevo: I remember Microsoft forced us into going out and buying new computers for Windows 10 back in March 2020 when Covid first hit and everything was shut down. I had been dragging my heels about updating before then.

    I suppose I will be buying a new computer next year for Windows 11 when avian flu takes off.

  38. 38.

    sab

    @dr. luba: I now have an Epson and its ink is cheap and longlasting. I refill it about annually at most. My HP was a money hog. Every 200 pages it needed a new cartrisge.

  40. 40.

    LeftCoastYankee

    @TBone:

     Possibly, but more likely taking out a goal which is unachievable, and was only put in place to placate RWNJ, who were sad AI didn’t amplify their latest “nonsense of the week” causes

    Musk’s comments show he doesn’t understand how the tech works and/or is lying for the love of his fanboys.

  41. 41.

    Heidi Mom

    @sab: Only one Obama will be there.  Michelle suffered through the first one, and apparently said “never again.”

  42. 42.

    Trollhattan

    @sab:

    My Epson ecotank died of death late last year and despite my going Youtube and cleaning the nozzles and replacing some other bits, it was not coming back to life.

    Looked at color laser; specifically an HP Laserjet Pro with individual cartridges for CYMK. Same price, same capabilities (I scan and copy as much as I print) and no clogging ink. Almost pulled the trigger then read reviews: it comes with shipping cartridges that soon deplete and must be replaced with retail versions. Those are a hundred bucks each, meaning my new $350 printer will be costing me $400 within the first couple months. Nope.

    So I replaced the Epson with another Epson, with a new self-assignment to print CYMK color patches weekly to keep ink from sitting unused. Also to monitor the ink dump container and make sure it never fills completely. Not so bad, turns out the old Epson started life January 2018.

  48. 48.

    rikyrah

    @Shalimar:

    Including his cheerleaders in the MSM, who pretended that he was a “normal Republican”. They were desperate for one, to continue the ignoring of the horrors of the first Orange Menace term. Wanted Barr to give them cover….to continue the gaslighting of the nightmare that we knew existed all the while they pretended it didn’t.😡😡😡

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