I love this so much!
At the inauguration, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wore a distinctive collar adorned with cowrie shells, which are believed to offer protection from evil in African traditions.
This choice mirrors the late Justice Ginsburg’s practice of using collars to convey a message.— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) January 20, 2025 at 8:19 PM
I’m not gonna call her our Shadow President, but if that’s who she wants to be…
New on MSNBC: Vice President Harris will fly back to Los Angeles today with an all-female U.S. Air Force crew — the first time an all-female crew has operated a C-33.
Upon landing, Harris will visit a local fire station and then distribute food to community members impacted by the wildfires.— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) January 20, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Former Secretary of State has an opinion:
Hillary laughing at Trump announcing he’s renaming the Gulf Of Mexico to the Gulf of America ?? pic.twitter.com/UWypR7d8vb
— Adam (@AdamJSmithGA) January 20, 2025
BREAKING: President Joe Biden has commuted the life sentence of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents. Peltier will transition to home confinement, Biden said in a statement. https://t.co/CpCvWBlQOk
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 20, 2025
Peltier has always refused to petition for a pardon, on the grounds that he’s not apologizing for crimes he didn’t commit. He’s an old man, and he’ll get to live out his remaining time surrounded by his family and his community:
Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier will return home nearly half a century after he was imprisoned for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents. President Joe Biden commuted Peltier’s sentence Monday following decades of community-led advocacy calling his imprisonment an example of the U.S. government’s mistreatment of Native Americans.
The White House said Peltier, who is now 80 and of declining health, will transition to home confinement. The commutation is not a pardon for crimes committed, a decision some of Peltier’s advocates welcomed since he has always maintained his innocence. But the last-minute move as Biden left office angered law enforcement officers who believe he is guilty.
The National Congress of American Indians celebrated the “historic” decision in a statement saying the case “has long symbolized the systemic injustices faced by Indigenous Peoples.”…
The movement grabbed headlines in 1973 when it took over the village of Wounded Knee on Pine Ridge — the Oglala Lakota Nation’s reservation in South Dakota — leading to a 71-day standoff with federal agents.
Peltier has long admitted he was present and firing during the June 26, 1975, confrontation with FBI agents who went to Pine Ridge to serve arrest warrants amid battles over Native treaty rights and self-determination.
After being injured in a shootout, agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams were shot in the head at close range, the FBI said. AIM member Joseph Stuntz also was killed. Peltier fled to Canada but was extradited to the United States and convicted on two counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1977, despite defense claims of falsified evidence.
Two other movement members and Peltier’s co-defendants, Robert Robideau and Dino Butler, were acquitted in the killings…
Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Emery Nelson said Peltier remained incarcerated Monday at USP Coleman, a high-security prison in Florida. Peltier’s lawyer said his release date was tentatively set for Feb. 18.
The commutation Monday follows decades of lobbying and protests by Native American leaders and others who maintain Peltier was wrongfully convicted. Amnesty International has long considered him a political prisoner. Advocates for his release included Archbishop Desmond Tutu, civil rights icon Coretta Scott King, actor and director Robert Redford, and musicians Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte and Jackson Browne…
Biden issued a record number of individual pardons and commutations. He announced Friday that he was commuting the sentences of almost 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, and he issued a broad pardon to his son Hunter, who was prosecuted for gun and tax crimes.
Outgoing Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet member, posted on X that the commutation ″signifies a measure of justice that has long evaded so many Native Americans for so many decades.”
“I am grateful that Leonard can now go home to his family,” she added. “I applaud President Biden for this action and understanding what this means to Indian Country.”
Politico is piously disturbed that President Biden didn’t pardon enough people… “Left off Biden’s list of pardons: Jack Smith”:
… Trump has frequently mused about seeking revenge on prosecutors like special counsel Jack Smith, who led the two federal criminal cases against Trump, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the New York hush money case that ended in Trump’s conviction. Trump has amplified calls for Smith to be thrown in prison and even said he should be “thrown out of the country.” Trump has similarly said “there is a case to be made” that Bragg should be “prosecuted.”
Neither was named by Biden on Monday as the recipient of a pardon, even as the outgoing president moved to protect other prominent officials who have sparked Trump’s ire.
Also left empty-handed were the judges who oversaw Trump’s numerous criminal and civil proceedings. Trump has railed against many of those judges and suggested they should be punished. For instance, he has derided Justice Juan Merchan, the New York trial judge who presided over the hush money case, as “corrupt.” And Trump has said Justice Arthur Engoron, another New York state judge who imposed a half-billion dollar judgment on Trump for civil business fraud, should be “arrested.”
None of them had said publicly that they wanted a pardon, and it’s not clear any of them would have accepted one. But some top Democrats, like Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, had endorsed the notion of preemptively pardoning prosecutors, particularly Smith.
One reason Biden and his legal advisers may have eschewed pardons for prosecutors and judges is that they may have concluded that pardon protection was unnecessary in light of long-standing immunity principles for certain officials in the judicial system. The Supreme Court has held that prosecutors and judges have broad immunity for anything they do in their official capacities…
And Politico doesn’t mention it, but I personally suspect there’s a few Trump-enabling legal jurists who would slow-walk any such prosecutions, because some of them have to be smart enough that they don’t want to set any precedents for future not-venial not-Trump administrations. Sure, Pam Bondi doesn’t care, but some of those minions presumably remember that the Thousand-Year Reich overestimated its longevity by approximately 988 years… and the Germans had the advantage of novelty.
Speaking of pardons…
Speaker Emerita Pelosi hits Trump:
"It is shameful that the President has decided to make one of his top priorities the abandonment and betrayal of police officers who put their lives on the line to stop an attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power."— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) January 20, 2025 at 8:30 PM
This woman has more integrity in her little finger than Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg with all their billions.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) January 20, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Why I won't take a pardon and what I think about Trump being President again!
Listen in tonight 10pm ET with @abbydphillip as I share my thoughts about J6 criminals pardons! pic.twitter.com/wZ4z4tEIKH
— Pam Hemphill (@PamHemphill79) January 21, 2025
Baud
Good on Pam.
hrprogressive
If Reddit is to be believed this morning, people have experienced some fairly substantial censorship on apps like Facebook and TikTok. To the point where it’s like we’ve become Communist China overnight.
Everyone proclaiming people should just stop using those apps is missing the point.
If we’ve gotten to that point not 24 hours later, that’s a pretty ominous omen for the rest of our experience.
Hope people understand what that means.
NotMax
Wait until the EOs dubbing the Atlantic and Pacific as the East American Ocean and the West American Ocean, respectively.
//
Spanky
Ummmmmm…
Spanky
@Baud: Yeah, I suppose I should think that there may be some range of intelligence and integrity among the J6ers, but I didn’t.
I wonder if she’s alone in that.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all.
I have decided to not read much news today. After skimming over yesterday’s events (including here), my blood pressure must have shot through the roof.
So … in the interest of maintaining my health, not to mention not letting my inner redneck escape to cuss out every single Trump voter in hearing range, I decided to find other things to occupy my time before I head to work.
NotMax
Open thread datum.
As you raise your morning cup/mug/flask/hogshead of coffee, take a moment to thank the immigrant Antonio Meucci who, among many other inventions, received a U.S. Patent for the coffee filter 150 years ago.
;)
The Thin Black Duke
@Nukular Biskits: Choose your battles carefully. It’s going to be a long and exhausting four years.
Scamp Dog
@Spanky: It’s about 1%, so approximately right. Or you can think of it as an order of magnitude off, too. :)
More seriously, I hope this era ends in much less than 12 years.
catclub
Those sound like private companies to me. Governments do censorship. There are no free speech rights on some private company’s app. I also say this about the conservatives who claim they are being censored.
I don’t expect free speech rights on Fox news website, either. or the WAPO website.
sixthdoctor
I tend to doomscroll when watching TV and it occurred to me at work yesterday that it will not be a viable outlet for the next four years.
So, picked up a crochet hook and yarn on the way home from work and I’m going to learn to crochet.
So that’s where I am.
catclub
@sixthdoctor:
More swimming. No TV’s in the indoor pool area (Unlike the exercise machine room.)
Nukular Biskits
@The Thin Black Duke:
Indeed.
Right now, my battles are with my elected Republican officials who are so drunk on Trump KoolAid it’s not even funny.
It’s almost as if constituents like me who don’t align with their views either don’t exist or don’t matter to them.
MazeDancer
Free Leonard! Except we don’t have to shout or type that anymore because he is free!
So very good.
catclub
@Spanky: It took me a moment to catch that one. thanks
lowtechcyclist
In addition to the obvious, I guess when people have genital intercourse, they’ll need to have Federal agents in the room, ready to test the chromosomes in any newly fertilized eggs.
And it looks like persons whose chromosomes aren’t either XX or XY have just been defined out of existence.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
You’re an honorary black Mississippian!
lowtechcyclist
@lowtechcyclist:
The list of executive orders Trump signed on Day 1 in office – The Washington Post
A Ghost to Most
Good Morning, Gilead!
/Robin Williams voice
satby
@The Thin Black Duke: Made more long and exhausting by some commenters addicted to rage farming and hair on fire reactions.
Remember, flooding the zone with bullshit is how they keep people distracted while they stealth steal and attempt to rule. Focus on what they can actually accomplish, that will be bad enough; reacting to every performative proclamation designed to outrage libs will wear everyone out.
Betty Cracker
@catclub: I’ve agreed with that principle in the past when these private companies weren’t controlled by or controlling the U.S. government. That may be changing.
Another Scott
@Nukular Biskits: +1
I’m going to try to keep Popehat’s short thread in the front of my mind for a while.
Hang in there, everyone. It’s going to be a slog. We have to titrate our responses and keep a sufficient reserve.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I haven’t seen any difference in the way tiktok operates for me, but I pretty much see only book stuff.
If Musk winds up owning it, I’m done. I don’t care what it costs me.
H.E.Wolf
@lowtechcyclist: That executive order reminds me of this old chestnut: If you call a sheep’s tail a leg, how many legs does a sheep have?
Only a fool answers “five”.
Or, in this case: “two”. [ETA, to avoid confusion: I think the concept of “only two sexes” is both foolish, and contradicted by biology.]
We’ll get through this… by supporting one another. Kindness and community will be our strength.
JML
Read a novel yesterday and got my car fixed. (effing hell it was cold out there! good thing the auto shop was only about 4-5 blocks away, but I still had to armor up for the 10 minute walk)
Much better choice than following anything to do with the Current Occupant.
lowtechcyclist
WRT the J6 pardons, maybe the Dems could steal a page from the GOP playbook, saying something like “America is less safe today now that Trump has freed hundreds of violent criminals.”
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
It’s sad and I’m sure this is experienced by liberals/progressives in other red states but, as far as elected Republicans are concerned, I’m persona non grata.
rusty
So law enforcement is angry that that guy that spent 50 years in prison, will at 80 and ailing, spend the rest of his life in home confinement, but outright pardoning people that beat police with metal poles and tried to overthrow the government is a-ok. Got it.
Nukular Biskits
@Another Scott:
Good advice. I follow him on Bluesky.
Starfish (she/her)
@Nukular Biskits: Do any of their constituents matter to them, or do they feel that since they have political power they are entitled to do corruption and not answer to anyone?
satby
@Another Scott: Great thread, wise words. Thanks Scott.
Nukular Biskits
WRT to Trump pardoning J6 insurrectionists, I’d strongly recommend everyone with GOP US Senators and US Reps call them demanding to know if they support that action and why.
You won’t get an answer, I’m certain, but the more folks call, the more pressure it puts on them.
Spanky
Oh, by the way …
So while it’s about Trump, it’s not only about Trump.
Percysowner
@Nukular Biskits: Me too. I’m probably going to avoid the news, except what is published here,, for a long time. I made the mistake of looking at my RSS feed for news last night and then couldn’t sleep. I’ll keep sending money to Democrats and doing what work is necessary, but I can’ t take the strain of watching our democracy being assaulted by the freaking President.
Scout211
Since I avoided the news yesterday, I was surprised to hear in that X embed that the First Felon said he would rename the Gulf of Mexico ”in a very short time.”
I hope that means what it did in his first term. In his first term it meant it was a concept of a plan. Who knows in this term, though.
satby
@rusty: They’ll be angry at all of it. And there’s really good video of the J6 cops getting beaten, and very living victim cops enraged that those people were pardoned. That will matter more than something from 50 years ago. Especially if we keep harping on it.
Quinerly
I follow Kathy Peltier on FB. Leonard’s daughter. She has been posting. He was released quickly yesterday. Will be to her house today. She updated 30 mins ago.
His art is quite good. She posts his work. Feb 6 would have been 50 years since he was imprisoned.
sab
I love that photo of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s cowrie collar, but the expression on her face breaks my heart.
Manyakitty
@sab: seriously. She is all of us right now.
sab
@Quinerly: I am glad to hear that he is actually out already and has somewhere safe to go.
Quinerly
@sab:
The daughter just got out of the hospital. She was posting videos yesterday. He was definitely released somewhere before noon yesterday. Happened quickly. Now on his way to her.
Edited to add…she has been afraid it was going to be like when Clinton was in office and her hopes were dashed
Nukular Biskits
@Starfish (she/her):
Folks have perennially complained about politicians not responding but this is beyond that, imho.
This is outright contempt for citizens.
catclub
@lowtechcyclist: Withdrawal of the US from WHO.
Not good. Ebola here we come.
suzanne
@H.E.Wolf:
I have been thinking about this a lot. I read recently that upward of 60 percent of Jews in France survived the Holocaust, mainly because neighbors and communities looked out for one another. My strategy since November is to narrow my focus to protecting my people and concentrating my resources — family, friends, neighbors — and trying to remind myself that small acts matter.
catclub
Never mind the song by BB King(?).
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Elon Musk has gone from being the Henry Ford of our time to being the Henry Ford of our time.
Starfish (she/her)
@Nukular Biskits: Keep doing what you are doing. We had a Republican Senator; and we were allowed to go in small groups to talk to his staff, but he would never meet with us.
catclub
@Betty Cracker: Good point. Important point.
sab
@Quinerly: How old is she? She must have been very young when he was imprisoned.
Professor Bigfoot
Watch out for the FOP cops, y’all, because they’re now empowered to shoot you dead with no consequences to them whatsoever.
Starfish (she/her)
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Does this mean that the mandatory square dancing will be replaced by mandatory e-sports?
JML
@satby: too many cops in the US care more about whether or not they can beat or shoot whomever they want without penalty than whether right-wing rioters get punished for beating up Capitol police (they probably don’t consider them “real” cops anyways).
They should care much more about the J6 rioters getting pardons than an old man getting released to home confinement after 50 years of imprisonment, but their leadership only cares about making sure Democrats aren’t allowed an opinion about law enforcement.
Quinerly
@rusty:
I have been looking for any police unions weighing in on the J6 pardons.
Crickets.
Starfish (she/her)
@rusty: Can you imagine the morale of the capitol police?
Capitol police: *Catches tourist with drugs.* Just go put it on Trump’s desk. I am told he is fine with crime.
Evening news: Today, white powder was found in the oval office.
TBone
Oh my goodness AL, the sight of Hillary cracking up right in his face gave me new life today! Thank you! That’s an example of how to cut him down to proper size, along with E. Jean Carroll’s
broadcast loudly over the airwaves (sitting next to her female attorney on with Rachel) when she too went face to face!
Matt McIrvin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I’d say he’s the Wernher von Braun but von Braun actually was an engineer.
brendancalling
@lowtechcyclist: my kid—transgender and a dual US/CA citizen—as opted to let his US passport expire. So, more trips to Canada to visit. This fucking sucks.
Jeffro
it’s a good point
from here on out, the only people who can stop the insanity – any given piece of insanity, big or small – will be the GOP
it’s on them, and we should say so, every time
lowtechcyclist
@catclub:
According to the liner notes for “Blue Monday” from Dr. John’s Goin’ Back to New Orleans album, “Fats Domino popularized this one, but the original record was cut by Smiley Lewis.”
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: See the Ohio GOP’s response to the Ohio Supreme Court– or even to Ohio’s citizen-approved ballot measures.
They will do anything and everything to maintain their power.
Gloria DryGarden
@JML: I too am puzzled that law enforcement is more concerned about an older man who has served 50 years and may be innocent, rather than 1500 younger adults who attacked and killed or injured numerous Capitol police.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Manyakitty
@rikyrah: morning!
TBone
@catclub: nailed it.
Matt McIrvin
@Quinerly: I remember when police unions were for gun control, because they were bothered by cops getting killed by guns. Now cops generally seem to be against gun control just because they’re right-wingers who like guns–even though the ubiquity of guns and the resulting danger to officers is their justification for shooting people.
And it’s hard not to think that a perpetual war of all against all in which they have as many opportunities and excuses as possible to shoot people is actually what they *want*.
rikyrah
@Nukular Biskits:
I have decided that I will need to change my morning routine. I can no longer watch the local morning news while getting ready.
TBone
@Betty Cracker: until we seize the means of production, they remain private companies! (I’m not arguing for nationalizing, I’m half-joking.)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Regarding the “why” of Jews in France and their high rate of survival, it had more to do with the fact that France’s position after occupation was unique in that is was split into ‘occupied’ and ‘Vichy’, it generally slowed down extermination operations which didn’t start in any industrial scale until late 1941.
Furthermore, according to one piece from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum:
Good old *local* gubmint officialdom was alive and well in France, unlike in the Occupied East where Germans had an obvious much easier time rounding up Jews as a result.
moonbat
Thanks, AL, for highlighting Peltier’s commutation. I went to sleep to that good news and was happy to see it again this morning. Biden will go down in history as the best president on NA issues ever.
Nukular Biskits
@rikyrah:
For me, this isn’t about policy disagreements with my gop electeds … It’s wtf are you doing??????
JML
@Gloria DryGarden: It’s the fact that he and his allies have protested his conviction and claimed his innocence the entire time that really has these people so outraged. You’re not allowed to question law enforcement in their minds, and anything that gives any support for the idea that he might not have done it cannot be allowed.
TBone
@Another Scott: thanks for sharing that again – I found even more inspiring people in the replies too.
Spanky
@catclub:
I’m sure that was part of the “equation”. Created by travel agents.
Matt McIrvin
@TBone: It might make sense someday to nationalize social media utilities to keep them out of the hands of insane billionaires… but, of course, the government *can* be just as oppressive. Trump having direct control over Facebook would be as bad as Zuck controlling it or worse.
In this end this is a case for independent fediverse-style services. Some of the people involved in this can be every bit as toxic as Elon Musk (I just saw some discussion of the lead of Pixelfed, basically a decentralized Instagram alternative, being some kind of milkshake duck), because people are people, and because this is all adjacent to the open-source software community which is famously full of creeps… but they’re voluntarily relinquishing power so that policies aren’t being centrally set by some authority that is too irreplaceable to be accountable.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Nukular Biskits:
Of course a typical day at work for me meant using fuck like a comma about 10 minutes after I arrived.
But yeah, I made the mistake of overhearing my wife’s morning session with Totebagger Radio, and while there was nothing to object to in terms of how they reported at the top of the hour (even they can’t both-sides and work in GOP talking points in that segment), just listening to what Hair Furor did yesterday just meant the fucks started earlier than usual, so, no more of that!
And yeah, the US didn’t withdraw from the WHO during Dubya’s Reign of Error. Now, they might have pursued policies I objected to (probably regarding abortion, I have no clue) or used the organization to pursue a US-centric agenda, but at least we were in the same sandbox. By leaving, we potentially cause great damage on a planet-wide scale because we’re the USoA.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: WHY ARE THE EGGS STILL SO EXPENSIVE, MOTHERFUCKER? WHY?!?
Also, since all power now resides with Trumpublicans, we need to be on the lookout for opportunities to widen the splits that have already emerged within their coalition. One obvious place to plant the crowbar is the fissure between the broligarchy and “populist” elements. But there will be others.
Professor Bigfoot
that should be “because the ubiquity of guns and the resulting danger to officers is their justification for shooting innocent and unarmed Black people.”
Ben Cisco
I’m down to reading BJ, Bluesky, Spoutible and Reddit. Logged out of FB and probably won’t go back for a while. I’m just DONE w/nonsense.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I already had to cite my blood pressure and stress levels to forestall a discussion on the current state and fate of America. All my spoons are spoken for with preparations for major surgery this spring, and after that I’ll have to see. Hopefully when I’m ready to face the grim reality again, the Nazis currently seizing and consolidating power will be well on their way to the proper end of their journey (namely, the business end of a legally sanctioned gallows).
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: time to stick my dad’s metal FOP license plate badge on my vehicle? I keep it on my dresser so I’m reminded of the few good cops I knew. The very few.
(That’s really a nope because I don’t need any extra scrutiny or attention here in Pennsyltucky. They already threw me in prison once here.)
Quinerly
@Betty Cracker:
Cute meme out yesterday. The gist is a woman saying she has been in Walmart since 7AM yesterday. She’s waiting for Walmart to change price stickers on all the eggs.
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: yeah, and it also occurs to me that in the days when cops were for gun control, a lot more cops were actually getting shot. These days it’s not as hazardous a job but the mythos remains.
Nukular Biskits
@TBone: I always suspected you were a criminal! Lol
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: the tensions in that coalition of slime will only widen as time goes on, for which we should all be grateful
pardoning the J6 rioters, tariffs, deportations, selling out Ukraine, screwing over the Palestinians, creating a blessed ‘national crypto reserve’…all of these have the potential to set one faction against another, and none of them have anything to do with making Americans’ lives better
suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: Nursing remains significantly more dangerous than policing.
Matt McIrvin
@TBone: When I was a kid, my dad contributed to the FOP’s charity drives and got a sticker to put on his car window, and I remember my mom objecting to that. It was a bit of a sore point between them and at the time, I didn’t exactly understand why. Now I do.
stinger
I try very hard not to hear the Felon’s voice, but I do love to see Hillary laugh.
Professor Bigfoot
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Polish Christians never had any love for their Jewish neighbors, as Harry Turtledove explained to me (in the Worldwar series).
Matt McIrvin
@suzanne: Roofers and garbage collectors–those are incredibly dangerous jobs, much more dangerous than policing. Somehow they don’t get the hero rhetoric even though they’re absolutely necessary and vital to a functioning society.
TBone
@Matt McIrvin: I’m not sure who you’re saying is voluntarily relinquishing power (my comprehension is not up to speed today), I know the bootlicking billionaires are – do you mean the fediverse in general? I’m a bit overwhelmed by so much information today.
If so, goddamnit.
Quinerly
Explainer on Trump’s EOs revoking Biden’s healthcare EOs.
https://www.statnews.com/2025/01/20/trump-executive-orders-health-care-drug-pricing-aca-covid-gender-discrimination/
Matt McIrvin
@TBone: Sorry, I just meant that in a fediverse system, the power to set policies is devolved to whoever is running your instance. Not to Donald Trump. Unless he actually is running your instance (Truth Social was originally a fork of Mastodon).
A problem with the whole business is that it’s just too abstract for normal people to care about it until things get bad.
TBone
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: good eye, again.
Starfish (she/her)
@Betty Cracker: We can’t even throw eggs at them because eggs are too expensive. This is an outrage. All we have are shoes and pies because tomatoes are not in season.
TBone
@Matt McIrvin: thanks, that’s what I thought!
Layer8Problem
One has to wonder if there are any January 6th pardoned types who are pissed that he hadn’t gotten around to pardoning them the last time he had the chance four years ago. It’s possible they might not have been happy with the incarceration and the legal peril and like that. Violent sorts too.
p.a.
Way way down on today’s issues, but is there some official or semi-official organization for maps & names? I’m not talking about obvious territorial disputes like Kashmir & lines on a map, but exactly the kind of thing little lord trumpleroy is trying to do with the gulf. If Qatar publishes maps with “Qatari Gulf” instead of “Persian Gulf”, is there an entity to say “uh, no…”?
Professor Bigfoot
@Ben Cisco: That’s my list too, now.
I’ve been here a LOT more in the last few weeks because I ditched Xitter; and it’s been good for my blood pressure.
Mostly. (wink emoji)
Soprano2
My old car battery was bad, so $265 later I have a new battery in my car. The bad one came with the car, so it lasted over 5 years, which is pretty good. Between that and the new monitor I had to buy on Saturday, I feel kind of snake bitten.
Starfish (she/her)
@p.a.: Sometimes, some of the contentious stuff happens on OpenStreetMap. It is like the Wikipedia of maps. Now I am wondering if anyone is trying to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. I am going to go rename the United States.
Oh, and now that I am checking the map, this has already happened.
Matt McIrvin
@Starfish (she/her): to “Bonerland”?
Belafon
@Scout211: He already signed an order to change it, and to change Denali back to McKinney.
Professor Bigfoot
@suzanne: and far more valuable to society.
Kay
@Quinerly:
Thanks – I need details on that.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Professor Bigfoot:
I’ve been pitching the 1985 documentary ‘Shoah’ a bunch of late as I’m watching it in dribs and drabs.
I first saw it 40 years ago when it was released and the eye-opening aspect of it was, 40+ years later, it was readily apparent that all those very-rural, Poles who had lived during the Holocaust lost little-to-no-sleep over the fact Jews were exterminated in their midst.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: “God invented time to keep everything from happening at once, and right now it ain’t workin’!”
Better luck to ya!
Belafon
@Matt McIrvin:
How will they eat and pay the bills?
TBone
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I watched it on TCM for the first time last year. Grueling but necessary work. I read my Victor Frankll afterwards as an antidote.
TBone
@Professor Bigfoot: I adore a man who knows the classics!
Starfish (she/her)
@Matt McIrvin: I had to update my comment. And I am done with reality. It is only 8:00 a.m.
TBone
@Starfish (she/her): I want to marry Breakable Dancefloor.
TBone
@Starfish (she/her): TCM is punching Nazis all day.
Professor Bigfoot
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yes.
When European Jewish immigration to the US blossomed in the early 20th, they found Black people living under the exact same oppression under Jim Crow that they had fled.
This is why Black people and Jews have been friends and allies ever since- I personally feel like I owe it to Mickey Schwerner and Andy Goodman to carry that alliance forward.
I was asked, “would you hide Jews?” and my answer was “If necessary, yes, but more likely share my arsenal with you and we will fight, together.”
Kay
Is anyone here using any of the 2 dollar generic prescription drugs included in the Biden program that Trump/ Musk repealed yesterday?
p.a.
@Matt McIrvin: tRumplandia? Fourth Reich? Fundyland. Citizens United States of America.
suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: Agreed. Teaching is also surprisingly dangerous. But we don’t pay any of those people the kind of esteem (or paycheck) that they deserve.
p.a.
@Professor Bigfoot: Nazis took great interest and closely studied Jim Crow laws, and redesigned them to fit German society.
ron
why does everyone never say TIM COOK’s name when mentioning the oligarchs licking the boots? In my mind he is even worse since he is gay and is right there kissing trump’s ass, and selling out his own community. I guess billionaires are his real community.
Matt McIrvin
@Belafon: That’s always the problem. Someone has to be willing to pay for development. That’s true with Linux and Wikipedia too.
What we mostly settled on when the Internet started consolidating into big “free” services was the ad-supported model but I think we’re seeing the limits of that. Either you have to pass the hat, or there’s a subscription model with a paywall (which seems to be severely limiting), or someone with money cares enough to set up an independent foundation that doesn’t answer to them, or or or…
oldgold
Trump’s inaugural speech was filled with outrageous lies. One that really stunned me was this: ” In Los Angeles, we are watching fires still tragically burn from weeks ago without even a token of defense.”
What the Hell?
Professor Bigfoot
@p.a.: just another little piece of history Americans* would prefer to not know.
Matt McIrvin
@oldgold: The rhetoric in the right-wing bubble about the LA fires has been an amazing torrent of lies. Anything other than climate change is responsible. They’re blaming them on environmentalists, Newsom, DEI, firefighters carrying “ladies’ handbags”, every kind of outrageous bullshit you can imagine.
If you’re not in the bubble already it’s hard to even figure out what they’re referring to. It’s one of those things.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Matt McIrvin:
Let’s go to the data from a good source using decent methodology:
https://www.ishn.com/articles/112748-top-25-most-dangerous-jobs-in-the-united-states
Sure enough, roofers and garbage collectors are #s 4-5 on the list although the disparity in #/100K and the pohlice (#22) is 2-3 times.
The only thing I could find on “educators” (not broken down in any other way) was 0.4/100K which is miniscule.
These are all fatality rates.
BLS did a deep dive in 2016 on safety in education:
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2016/article/putting-violence-in-perspective.htm
UncleEbeneezer
@Quinerly: Hard disagree on this one. My ex-gf tried to get a screenplay sold about Peltier’s story in the 90’s and got to know him very well. He had a huge crush on her (she was at the time romantically involved in one of the key witnesses in the case) and gave her a portrait he painted of her…it was terrible, lol.
p.a.
Lots of posts and comments here over the years on Health Insurance, Medicare/Medicaid, drug development& pricing, various commenters’ personal med issues. Does anyone remember regular commenters who are MDs? Pretty wide range of employments here, but I don’t remember MDs. Curious.
Geminid
@p.a.: Qatari maps probably show that body of water as the “Arabian Gulf.” This seems to be the practice among Arab countries.
Recently, Istanbul-based reporter Ragip Soylu pointed out on social media that the Ottomans used to call it the “Basra Gulf.” Basra is the large Iraqi city at the gulf’s northern end; it was Sinbad the Sailor’s home port back in the day.
Soylu was promptly pelted with dozens of rotten digital tomatoes, from Persians and Arabs alike. If there’s one thing Arabs and Iranians can agree on, it’s that Turks are assholes.
Quinerly
Of interest. Ed Martin…. Pure sleaze from St. Louis has surfaced. Phyllis Schlafly protege. He has run for at least 3 offices in Missouri. Lost every time. I kinda had lost track of him after he spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally. Didn’t realize he has been so involved with the J6ers and getting them pardons. Looks like he has represented several of them.
Trump has named him interim US Attorney for DC.
Several years behind me in law school. Tied himself to the Archdiocese soon after graduation. I guess we could speculate that he is “Opus Dei.”
I’m tapping down my outrage. Don’t want to burn out. However, this is impt; and in my opinion, we need to know this….Remember his name. Ed Martin.
Soprano2
@suzanne: I’m amazed at the signs I see in doctor’s offices and at the pharmacy about not tolerating violence. Before Covid you never saw signs like that!
UncleEbeneezer
@Matt McIrvin: LA is a city. Cities are filled with Black/Brown People and silly Dems who push progressive policies. So we must have deserved the wildfires. That’s what they are saying, in a nutshell. Nothing new but gross, as always.
Matt McIrvin
@p.a.: There is the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. Of course it only has authority over use by the Federal government; they can’t change what anyone else does. So I would expect this executive order to affect things like USGS maps.
This is like a grotesque parody of changes designed to deal with insensitive place names. I see this page still has a line near the bottom having to do with the Interior Department stopping the use of names involving a slur against Native Americans.
https://www.usgs.gov/us-board-on-geographic-names
Quinerly
@UncleEbeneezer:
Check out what Kathy has posted. Perhaps he has improved. Not my taste, though.
I have trouble drawing stick figures. Try to stay in my lane and not criticize those who try. That’s how I roll re most artists and their art.
frosty
You just described my Congressional District. North of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Soprano2
@Professor Bigfoot: Boy that’s the truth. In the past week I’ve had to replace my computer monitor, the battery in my car, and spent hours on the phone with AT&T just to get my landline phone working again (with a new # because they stole our old one and gave it to another carrier). It’s exhausting! Oh, and finding out why the lab that did hubby’s bloodwork didn’t run all the blood tests that were in the queue. Turns out unless you tell them directly they only run the oldest ones, because they’re worried that they’re time-sensitive. Now that I know that I know to have the caretaker tell them to run all the tests that have been ordered every time he goes. Ggggrrrr…..
Matt McIrvin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Counts of non-fatal injuries might well put nurses higher.
Police actually do have more dangerous jobs than the average person, as you might well expect, but they’re on par with construction workers. And airplane pilots are waaay up there, but the page notes that this is dominated by small private aircraft, not commercial airline flights.
I recall hearing that during the COVID pandemic, the primary cause of death among police officers changed to COVID, but I also remember police being really theatrically disdainful of any prevention measures. Never saw a cop wearing a mask, even during the days when there was no vaccine and deaths were high in the Northeast.
Soprano2
@Kay: I don’t know, is there a list of them? I know one of my drugs costs less than a dollar when I renew it. They ask me if I want it put on the card on file, LOL.
Quinerly
@Kay:
It was the best one I have waded through.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, non-fatal injury data and analysis would provide a far more nuanced picture.
And the private plane danger is very real. I know of at least 6 people who’ve died in private plane crashes over the years.
Matt McIrvin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: It’s one of the many reasons I indulge my fannish interest in aviation by messing around with flight simulators instead of becoming a pilot.
suzanne
@Matt McIrvin:
Yes, this is the case. Nurses and other healthcare workers face fairly high rates of violence from patients. Same as educators, who can be attacked by students.
Matt McIrvin
@UncleEbeneezer: I assume the main reason they’ve been gearing up to start the big ICE raids in Chicago is that in the right-wingnutosphere, “Chicago” is a metonym for “scary Black people making crime, better get tough on them!” Of course Trump would start by hitting Chicago in some way.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: Chicago is the home town of the scariest Black people of all: Barak and Michelle Obama.
Gin & Tonic
@p.a.: Not coming up with nyms offhand, but I do recall at least a couple. And I know commenter dr. luba, whom I encounter in the Ukraine threads from time to time, is a (retired, perhaps) medical doctor.
TBone
@Quinerly: thanks for that heads up!
TBone
@p.a.: the winner
Quinerly
@Matt McIrvin:
Chicago has a Black mayor.
And Trump and the Repugs are gunning for Gov Pritzker.
They won’t pull this shit in a Red state with a Republican governor. I bet they don’t even pull it in Purple AZ.
I’m sure Albuquerque is on their list, though. Blue state. Woman governor.
Starfish (she/her)
Apparently, some news stations are respectability washing Musk’s Nazi salute by cutting away at a choice moment.
Starfish (she/her)
@Nukular Biskits: Hey, if you haven’t spoken to Mrs. B, talk to her. My mom said it is snowing down there.
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: *Elvis voice:
(Ya can’t help represent and defend people to your utmost without knowing what it’s like to sit on their side of the table.)
Soprano2
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yeah, I knew five all at once. Private planes are dangerous. I doubt you could get me on one.
Quinerly
@Starfish (she/her):
Anti Defamation League weighed in. Says was not a Nazi salute.
My eyes tell me something different.
(Walter Isaacson is disappointing. He says not a Nazi salute. Wrote that biography on Musk)
Matt McIrvin
@Quinerly: as a non-Jew I’ve always been reluctant to say the ADL has gone up its own ass, but it sure seems like they have.
Captain C
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: That plus late stage Howard Hughes on ketamine.
artem1s
She has the courage of a thousand of them. I’m glad she can live her best life out loud and proud now. Bring out the fainting couches for the craven assholes all the way up and down.
artem1s
@sixthdoctor: I picked up crochet right after the election. already finished a pair of finger-less hand warmers to wear at the keyboard when its too damn cold outside.
Gloria DryGarden
@p.a.: there was an MD who replied to a comment I made here. It was about new cancer treatments. I forget who it was, several initials. Very informative.
Gloria DryGarden
@Quinerly: 2 commenters here have said it was a nazi salute. Adam did, and I think it may have been uncle ebeneezer.