the writers aren't even trying anymore www.theguardian.com/environment/…
— John Fraley (@johndavidfraley.bsky.social) March 5, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Nope, not photoshopped, according to the Guardian:
… Mervyn Sequeira, an Ontario photographer, was out with his family on a recent morning when they spotted a bald eagle descending towards a frozen lake.
Sensing a looming attack on unsuspecting prey, Sequeira scanned the landscape and saw a Canada goose, alone and vulnerable.
For the next 20 minutes, lens trained on the battle, Sequeira watched what he expected would be a lopsided fight with a grim coda.
Through bursts of his shutter, however, he captured a defiant goose fending off death.
“I’ve seen bald eagles take a lot of things, from ducks to muskrats. But this is the first time I’ve seen a bald eagle go in for something as big as a goose,” he said.
Despite multiple attacks by the eagle, the goose remained unbowed. The raptor, defeated, flew off…
Crockett: Any of us who have ever dated have been hoodwinked a time or two. We’ve sat there and thought he was going to be so great for us because he sold us on all the things and then we realized… they ain’t shit. That’s where we are.
It's fucking crazy that we have expert communication assassins like crockett and meanwhile trump is trotting out his failed parking garage lawyer to say well veterans simply don't deserve jobs and the press just doesn't care
— Hemry, Local Bartender (@bartenderhemry.bsky.social) March 5, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Sorry by doesn't care I meant they like trump and want him to rule us as a king
— Hemry, Local Bartender (@bartenderhemry.bsky.social) March 5, 2025 at 2:22 AM
I can't believe when I started the TRUMP TAKE EGG push people were like "uh what are you gonna do when egg prices go back to normal and everything's fine" instead of realizing that shit like this was gonna happen instead:
First Trump take egg, now Trump take stock
— Vituperative Erb (@vituperativeerb.bsky.social) March 4, 2025 at 4:25 PM
'trump crash plane' and 'trump take egg' aren't the messages themselves, they're the strategy. the messages are the repetition of the images
— BeijingPalmer (@beijingpalmer.bsky.social) March 4, 2025 at 2:49 PM
I spent the last two years warning that the Supreme Court was teeing up an unprecedented dismantling of corporate oversight and consumer protection during Trump 2.0 and got plenty of arched eyebrows from cocksure tutscolds
— Karl Bode (@karlbode.com) March 5, 2025 at 3:32 PM
and 5 years ago if you stated that Elon Musk was an unremarkable piece of shit cosplaying as a supergenius engineer most tech journalists would treat you like a toddler who'd just taken a giant dookie on the wedding dance floor
— Karl Bode (@karlbode.com) March 5, 2025 at 3:35 PM
i honestly believe donald trump is the least complicated man on earth and the press corps just refuses to accept that he is super fucking dumb and a liar or at least won’t say it out loud
he’s a dumb cruel bitch and not at all interesting. boring guy— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) March 5, 2025 at 8:44 PM
you should like donald trump. you should give donald trump your money. people that don’t like donald trump should be murdered. that’s it. that’s the sum total of his entire schema of the universe.
he’s an incredibly uninteresting man. i’d have more fun talking to valerie solanas or the unabomber.— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) March 5, 2025 at 8:50 PM
On The Road – Auntie Anne – Southeast Asia – Angkor Wat, Cambodia 2 of 3
Suzanne
Oh look, a metaphor!
I told Mr. Suzanne yesterday, “I hate Donald Fucking Trump so much…. I want to fart in his mouth.” My loathing is giving me life today.
Scamp Dog
I knew the Trump administration was going to be worse than I expected, in ways I didn’t expect, and somehow, it’s even worse than that. Ugh.
Baud
Crockett is funny.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Seeing Bald Eagles never gets old:
https://flic.kr/p/2qAegrD
That being said, one of the more apt characterizations of their behavior is:
“Bald Eagles are basically vultures, just with better PR”.
Go to a place like Juneau Alaska and watch them and you’ll then understand that quip.
Even relatively “tame” geese like the tons we have here don’t tolerate your shit…while making sure you’re aware of their shit everywhere. ;)
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Crockett fucking nailed it.
lowtechcyclist
Maybe the Dems could put stuff like this on billboards?
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I like her style. She makes a great point too, though it’s difficult to do in real life, especially if you’re really pissed off, which those of us who saw this shit coming understandably are.
Betty Cracker
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I see eagles from home sometimes, and it’s always a thrill, but the best place to spot them is the town dump. Vultures with better PR is right!
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Agree. We’re basically here because people decided we weren’t credible and chose not to believe us. It makes it hard to care.
Princess
Crockett is creating a permission structure for people to back away from supporting Trump.
catclub
what hoodwinked? Trump said he will get revenge for all his grudges, and then he goes and does that with the US government. people do not pay attention.
lowtechcyclist
@Princess:
This.
zhena gogolia
@lowtechcyclist: Yes. She doesn’t really believe they were “hoodwinked.” It’s called persuasive rhetoric.
WereBear
I think no one has really admitted the extent of how the people who were neglected or terrified or forced to be submissive in their childhoods create stunted and compliant people.
WIth the first W Administration, he undercut everyone’s public school education and wouldn’t let us fix it. Some states lets anyone withdraw their child for homeschooling with zero oversight or education standards. Red states have been fighting our efforts to pull them out of their economic swamps, because they get to have their prejudices supported on Fox. And reality never hit… them.
But yes, they will learn a lesson, but they can wind up on the unstable and unpredictable edge from the incredible amount of cognitive dissonance. We’re talking Truman Show levels of delusion. For years. While serving as professionals in our society.
Madness on the line. Call’s coming from inside the house.
lowtechcyclist
In other news, now that Elon (or whoever) has fired a whole bunch of NIH researchers and made life hell for those still there, NIH is warning them not to be suckered in by foreign recruiters.
Geez, I wonder how they could have avoided this alleged threat? It’s a real head-scratcher, innit?
Reminds me: there’s a Doonesbury for this. :-)
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’ve been wiping my mind of anything to do with Trump, so it took me until this morning to hear about the transgender mouse claim. Sigh. Transgenic, Donny. Not the same thing. Genetically altered to be more like humans so they can serve as test animals.
WereBear
@zhena gogolia: I’ve been starting with, “You’ve been lied to.”
Deep down… they know they were being bratty. And they loved it!
Let them live with that, not us.
WereBear
Also, they are launching the newest MAGA hat which says:
TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING
geg6
Jasmine Crockett is a fucking awesome assassin. I couldn’t love a politician more.
RandomMonster
Greedy, dumb, and murderous, but at least it’s a philosophy.
eclare
@lowtechcyclist:
I was going to say, Crockett is brilliant.
Baud
@WereBear:
Smart. Positivity sells.
Glory b
@lowtechcyclist: What, you mean it isn’t terrible messaging after all???
Jeffro
one of our local taco places is doing a two-for-one breakfast taco special
the ads literally say, “trump take egg…Brazos give egg”
LOL
this whole thing might come crashing down around MAGA’s ears faster than anyone thinks
danielx
Waking up every morning and thinking: what fresh hell will be inflicted on us today?
Jeffro
btw not that it isn’t pretty common knowledge, but “not an art thief”s comments about trumpov
echo Jamelle Bouie’s (yesterday’s “trump’s target is bigger than we thought“) almost to a tee
eclare
@danielx:
Same here. As always, I refer to the saying “the difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.” There is no limit to his stupidity, along with cruelty.
catclub
I would correct that to retribution campaign against his perceived opponents and especially against those he holds grudges against. The people are just collateral damage.
sentient ai from the future
@Jeffro: also, wasn’t it Annie liebowitz who said “you don’t know anyone as stupid as [shitbird]. You just don’t.”
That’s from memory.
Also, appreciated the valerie Solanas name check.
lowtechcyclist
@Glory b:
I don’t think I’ve ever said anything remotely critical of Crockett’s messaging.
TBone
Bringing up from downstairs and I hadn’t even seen Teh Goose! yet
TBone says, while spitting out a tooth
Son, you have no idea what yer fucking with, do ya.
p.a.
Measles on the march! I’ve told my idiot MAGAt relatives: you want to go back to 1910, no uppity Blahs, women, workers? It’s NOT an à la carte deal! Parasite money boyz and religious nutjobs give us the full experience. Poisoned environment, economic instability, cop/private coordinated violence against the usual targets…
Dumb fucks.
YY_Sima Qian
We should not underestimate the very difficult position Europe is in:
The FT piece that touched off the comment (gift link below):
Meanwhile, tariffs will not be the only source of inflation, sellers will take advantage of hike prices on products procured before they come into effect:
TBone
@TBone: ah! Vocabulary!
Scamp Dog
@sentient ai from the future: I thought it was Fran, not Annie.
artem1s
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
when I saw that video my first thought was that bird’s either very young and hasn’t ever seen a goose before or they’re starving to death and desperate because they can’t find any roadkill.
oldgold
According to Reuters the Short-Fingered Vulgarian now wants to send the 240,00 Ukrainians harboring here back home.
p.a.
@YY_Sima Qian: I hope Europe pulls it off. We’ll see if/when defense spending starts impinging on those countries with actual social support networks what the response is. It will certainly be something Putin will try to manipulate.
Hungary, Romania (tRump giving P a helping hand there) Slovenia/Slovakia, can’t remember which. (Sorry Slovenes/Slovaks.)
Betty Cracker
Gavin Newsom threw trans athletes under the bus in podcast with MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk: (Politico)
When Kirk questioned why Newsom enforces trans equality laws signed by former gov Jerry Brown, Newsom compared himself to anti-gay Republicans who respect marriage equality as the law of the land, even though they personally disagree with it.
Newsom is a wildly ambitious guy who wants to be president. I guess he thinks this will help?
TBone
Hazardous weather outlook for The Valley in the mountains. Batten down the hatches! We had really cool lightning last night and some booms
Geo Wilcox
The eagle is in line to get bird flu if he or she catches and eats water fowl. I watched a sad video of an eagle nest cam where the parents confronted their dead chicks. They died from eating water fowl their parents got for them.
TBone
@Betty Cracker: so. fucking. thirsty.
rebelsdad
Good morning!
Jasmine Crockett is a national treasure. I’m so proud to call her my fellow Texan. Has anyone else seen where she asked the mayors if they’d found any immigrants with 34 felony convictions? Pure gold.
The guy in line behind me at Wawa this morning said, “I can’t believe gas shot up 60 cents a gallon since yesterday!!!!” And all I said was, “tariffs”. He sadly agreed.
New job is going great. Got a car again, it’s 19 years old but only has 88k miles. My uncle took pretty good care of it. Now to move out from my dad’s- I love him but my uncle’s maganess is getting on my nerves. He keeps asking me what I think about the “Gulf of America.” I always change the subject but I decided that the next time he brings it up I’m gonna say “I don’t like that name and since names don’t mean anything anymore I’m calling it the Gulf of Texas” just to piss him off. I met up with a lady and her two roommates last night to see the room she’s renting. They seem cool and the place is nice and right in my budget so I think I’m gonna go for it. Plus my commute would go from an hour to about 15 minutes. Plus they have two dogs and the husky took to me immediately.
TBone
@Geo Wilcox:
Where I live next to The Mighty Susquehanna, water fowl and all that emanates therefrom are a proliferate fact of life every day.
TBone
@rebelsdad: ‘WaWa’ means GOOSE in indigenous!
Go, go, go! If it’s meant to be which it sounds like it is, I mean.
FLY!
ETA My former home is where the original WaWa dairy farm and all subsequent things WaWa originated.
YY_Sima Qian
@p.a.: The European MIC suffers from similar kind of pathologies as the US MIC: inefficient, overpriced, slow moving, lacking competition. At least the European arms procurement processes are not quite as broken as the US’, but still inefficient & slow.
Hoodie
We did a road/ferry trip through central BC last summer. One of the places we stayed was next to a river meadow. One afternoon we watched as a pair of ospreys worked away at catching fish, only to be attacked by a bald eagle who stole their catch. A little internet research revealed that this is common behavior and one reason why Franklin did not want the bald eagle to be the national symbol. What a symbol for America these days. Figures that wingnuts idolize a bird that looks great but basically is a thief.
Betty Cracker
@rebelsdad: Good to hear that things are going well for you!
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Weird. Dems in Congress were almost unanimously on the other side. Hard to believe this will help him.
Baud
@rebelsdad:
Perfect.
Jeffro
@catclub: if you’ll read the article later, you’ll see that it notes that he holds a grudge against…the American people. They’re not just collateral damage.
Many of us voted against him; not enough MAGAts turned out/loved him in 2020; almost all of us support the rule of law, which has been in his way from Day 1 (of his life, not his first term)
Jeffro
@oldgold: deporting Ukrainians?
I don’t want a single one of them sent back, but I cannot imagine a much more clarifying moment for our country.
This is how he gets down to the Crazification Factor-level of support
rebelsdad
@danielx: I get that feeling of dread. So the second thought in my head is always “what fresh hell can I throw back at them today?”
Just heard someone at work describe a student’s parent as a wicked Karen and that made my day :)
Betty Cracker
@Baud: My guess is Newsom and other Dems who’ve thrown trans people under the bus believe the party got way ahead of voters on the issue. I’m not sure they’re wrong about that, either, but there are ways to address it that don’t involve jettisoning an incredibly vulnerable group that needs protection more than ever. I like Tim Walz’s mind your own GD business approach better.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rebelsdad: A short commute is worth a lot.
TBone
@Jeffro: i freakin’ love that!
TBone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Tiedrich gave that bungling fuckup the treatment yesterday. It is glorious.
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian: Meanwhile, the PRC is not messing around w/ attempting to capture commanding leads in technologies of the future, in the same way as it captured commanding leads in many of the leading technologies of today (solar, wind, EVs, batteries, 5G, etc.):
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: Stonekettle was an early predictor of that phenom.
sentient ai from the future
@Baud: he’s always been a slimeball, contrary to what his fan club says. His rise to power as mayor of sf is instructive.
rebelsdad
@TBone: my first job in Jersey many years ago was at Wawa and I remember them telling us that! It’s one of the few companies I am a diehard fan of.
TBone
@Betty Cracker: we sight the elusive Golden Eagle here sometimes. As well as many Baldies. And Osprey. I have binoculars at the ready at all times.
WereBear
@artem1s: Those beaks can land like a bullet. The whole goose behind it.
A Ghost to Most
You can’t educate the willfully ignorant. It’s like water off a duck.
rebelsdad
@Betty Cracker: I haven’t seen any eagles yet, but there’s a flock of egrets at work and I had lunch with them on Tuesday!
Another Scott
I have a vague recollection of a freelance (?) story at FTFNYT years ago. (Here it is, archive.is version, from 2013) The guy got a new Tesla and said he wanted to drive it from DC to Boston in the winter and see its maximum range. He was going to try out the Supercharger network along the way. As I recall, he kept driving it after the car said to stop to charge up and had some fairly negative things to say about the range, the charger network, etc.
Naturally, Melon came out with both barrels saying that the car’s telemetry was saying the car was fine, the writer was stupid and doing it wrong, he had an agenda and was a bad person, and all the rest.
Not knowing much of anything about Melon’s management style, I thought that maybe he had a point. But I also, in the back of my mind, thought that it was really, really weird for him to be the public point-guy on going after some review writer. And attempting to shout down critics is rarely a good strategy (Streisand Effect and more).
Little did I know…
tl;dr – People don’t change unless they are forced to. Melon is a bully and punches down. It’s what he does.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
sentient ai from the future
@Betty Cracker: the fundamental bet is that the number of transphobes is greater than the number of trans equality voters.
The problem is that taking a position like this necessarily pushes the numbers in a particular direction, the morally reprehensible direction.
WereBear
@rebelsdad: The wheel of fortune has turned! Best wishes on this new environment.
The husky will give you plenty of exercise if you want.
Betty Cracker
@sentient ai from the future: Don’t know much about the guy. I cheered him on when he issued marriage licenses back in the day, and I thought he was a loyal and able surrogate for Biden and Harris. But he radiates ambition like a Ben Franklin stove radiates heat. People like that make me nervous because I wonder if there’s any principle they won’t yeet to gain power. Unfortunately, our political system tends to reward that personality type.
TBone
@rebelsdad: we’re FINALLY getting one here in this godforsaken Sheetz hinterland! It’s been under construction for two freakin’ years already! I detest Sheetz. Too loud, too bright, waaaay too many yokels.
Glory b
@lowtechcyclist: No, I meant Democratic messaging as a whole.
I’m sure you’ve heard the statement “Democrats are SO BAD at messaging, if they were better, they would get (fill in the blank with the group de jour) votes.”
eclare
@sentient ai from the future:
I think it was Fran Lebowitz, the writer. Annie is a famous photographer.
dhd
In French, it’s not even an eagle, it’s a … “pygargue”, which is surely one of the ugliest words in that or any other language: https://www.quebec.ca/agriculture-environnement-et-ressources-naturelles/faune/animaux-sauvages-quebec/fiches-especes-fauniques/pygargue-tete-blanche
Yes, they are fond of carrion.
snoey
@Betty Cracker: Maga values: if you’re on our team we fight for you, period.
You can’t convince somebody that you’ll fight for them when you won’t stand up for your own
gene108
I think Trump’s boring unimaginative existence is appealing to people, along with the spite, racism, and misogyny.
A lot of folks become resentful when meeting or seeing someone who is more knowledgeable than them.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
That is so fucking STUPID.
If he wants to duck the issue, the way to do it is just ask, “isn’t this an issue for the NCAA and the high school sports conferences to deal with? Why is anybody making a Federal case out of this? Why should government be involved in this at all?”
kalakal
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
And Swans are basically supersized Geese, just with better PR.
Geese don’t back down to anything except swans
TBone
My original IRL Lithuanian/Polish Jewish last name means birdlike. Adopted last name very different.
🎶
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snrO4G8ed5I
Tik tok, muthaphuckas!
I am now devising ways to use “cocksure tutscolds” every day.
terraformer
@danielx: again, I think you mean.
We’ve been through this before – every. fcking. day. some new horror. And we all knew that going in, but a subset of our populace just loved that sh!t, I guess
zhena gogolia
@danielx: Yes, the first waking moments of every day are now horrible torture.
But Biden was old and had a speech impediment, so here we are.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
That makes sense, but I think California law is involved here in that it requires trans girls to be allowed to play, so he can’t say that. Happy to be corrected.
WereBear
@gene108: I think the tingly feeling of hanging with an “attractive” warlord who is so MANLY & POWERFUL has an effect on the weak-minded.
Especially if they are socialized to be kiss-asses, and some resist that path far more than others.
japa21
@gene108:
Very well said.
Ohio Mom
@Scamp Dog: Yes, Fran, not Annie.
Though they are both very smart Jewish women with penetrating social critiques.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
I know approximately zilch about California state law. I have enough trouble keeping up with Maryland.
Fair Economist
The bald eagle pair Jackie and Shadow, who have what is thought to be the highest altitude bald eagle nest in the world, are currently raising a recently hatched pair of chicks on camera. There are live cams and updates here; you can search up videos which people have captured of feedings, which are quite cute. There’s some drama right now as the parents are trying to protect the chicks from a snowstorm.
TBone
@Ohio Mom: 💋
Womens History Month points!
TCM Star of the Month is Stanwyck, the Ball of Fire. Broke every rule she could before The Code was enforced. And some after.
tobie
@Betty Cracker: Zooming out from the issue of Newsom and why he would be enjoying a moment of bonhomie with Charlie Kirk on his podcast, I have to say that it’s a sign that America has slipped into an era of decadence and decline that high school sports would be the hot button national issue. Who the fuck cares are about junior varsity wrestling in Idaho except a handful of teen athletes and their parents?
TBone
@tobie: oh, Pennsylvania does. Way too much! Every local newscast reports.
Fair Economist
Republicans say “Veterans don’t deserve jobs”, but it’s Democrats who get attacked for bad messaging. It ain’t the messaging, it’s the media bias.
rebelsdad
@tobie: eggs are $14 apiece and professional workers can’t even afford their own place to live, but sure let’s worry about who’s doing what in East Bumblefuck, Kansas.
Americans have stopped being a serious people. I hate it here.
Ohio Mom
@lowtechcyclist: Exactly. Sports is full of rules. They have so many rules they are picayune about, they have to have referees (or umps, same difference), involved in every event to make sure everyone single rule is adhered to properly.
I’m not a sports person, I don’t know which cabals come up with the rules but I’ve been thinking this for a while, dump the trans issues in their lap. If different sports come up with different approaches, that’s okay. Wrestling has weight categories, baseball doesn’t, there are probably scads more example I have no idea about, not being a sports person.
If I was a sports person, I might be pissed that the gods of whatever sport I follow have been usurped by RWNJs.
Fair Economist
@YY_Sima Qian:
That’s mostly flim-flam; current “AI” is the LLM scam, quantum computing still isn’t close to making a computer after 15 years and many billions; and hydrogen energy will never work because of thermodynamics. Biomanufacturing is still a fantasy, although it’s a reasonable speculative research field. That leave 6G which, yeah, that could work. But overall not an impressive selection.
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
And very hard to know what to do or say.
tobie
@rebelsdad: I know…it hurts like hell to see how effective propaganda is that you have half the nation enraged about fake issues (trans athletes, undocumented immigrants committing violent crimes) that anyone with an ounce of sense would realize is nothing more than the scapegoating of vulnerable populations. Congress is wasting time legislating things that are statistically meaningless. Meanwhile we have a measles outbreak because parents aren’t vaccinating their kids and the issue doesn’t even get a shrug.
Melancholy Jaques
@Betty Cracker:
With respect, I don’t think it’s accurate to say that we got way ahead of voters when we weren’t the ones who made trans rights an issue in the campaign.
Belafon
@Jeffro: Similarly, the way you can tell if Trump is lying or telling the truth is whether the lie or the truth benefits him.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker:
If by “help” you mean “lose the presidential primary votes of any democratic person with character”, then sure! :-)
catclub
The prospect of death at the hands of russians may concentrate the mind.
WaterGirl
@rebelsdad:
They even have a dog, seems tailor made for you! Happy to see things turning around for you.
WereBear
@TBone: She stood out in many ways. Incredible performances.
Double Indemnity is one of my favorites, and it’s been too long…
eclare
@Fair Economist:
Oh no not again!
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: We’ve talked about “giving people a off ramp” before on this blog. It’s not always a popular idea. I know that I am not one of the people who suited to doing it; the temptation yell “What the fuck were you thinking, you asshole!” is too near the surface. But we do need people who can do it.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Suzanne
@sentient ai from the future:
There’s probably also a squishy middle, too. People who don’t really care about trans people at work or in much of public life, maybe think the issue is a bit weird but they aren’t actively hateful….. but also get so freakin’ wrapped up about sports specifically that the idea of trans people playing sports bothers them. You know the type: they usually peaked in high school.
Newsom is calculating. I am sure he thinks he is on the broader side of public opinion.
rikyrah
@lowtechcyclist:
That entire exchange was disgusting 🤬
Omnes Omnibus
Dog defamation.
rikyrah
@TBone:
Love her 😍
Almost Retired
@lowtechcyclist: California law allows athletes to compete on teams consistent with their gender identity. And somehow our cities are not in flames and our girls locker rooms are not overrun with men waiving their penises around in the shower.
But there are a couple of bills pending to reverse this. Let’s see what our super majority Democratic legislature does.
I really dislike that volleyball player Trump had at his speech. She was allegedly injured by a spike administered by a transgender athlete. I heard her on Megyn Kelly and elsewhere. She is reveling in her bigoted wingnut celebrity.
No woman has ever been injured in Vollleball before this, so it’s clearly a national tragedy that can only be fixed by transferring further national assets to billionaires.
eclare
Gorgeous photo today, WaterGirl. Do you remember if that is a sunrise or sunset?
Nettoyeur
@YY_Sima Qian: Now do the Russian MIC. Even the jacked Ukrainian MIC has produced millionaire ministers with Italian villas. It’s the nature of the biz. The customer buys missiles, tanks etc, blows them up, and comes back for more. Best business plan ever.
Betty Cracker
@Melancholy Jaques: Agree that it was Repubs who made trans rights an issue in the first place, and it sure as hell wasn’t to protect women and girls. It’s because they identified it as a wedge issue that could benefit them politically.
I don’t know for a fact that Dems are ahead of non-MAGA voters on trans issues, but my impression is it’s possible we are, especially as it relates to women/girls’ sports and gender-affirming care for minors. I think when reasonable people research those issues, they’ll see that #1 is largely a nothingburger that leagues and conferences are handling just fine and #2 is a personal medical decision best left to families and doctors.
But most people don’t bother to look into it themselves from unbiased sources; they just swallow whatever swill the media pumps out, and on trans issues, and outlets like the NYT did incalculable damage.
Gretchen
@WereBear: Good point. I think the prevalence of evangelical Christianity in the US is a contributor – people are raised to need hierarchy – kids obey parents, wives obey husbands, families obey pastors, everyone obeys political authority. So they idea that people in charge don’t know what they’re doing or are actively cheating doesn’t compute and they want to quickly get back to knowing who to obey.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, don’t ask me to do it, but I understand why it’s important.
Belafon
@Omnes Omnibus: Think of it this way: You’re not forgiving them for being an idiot, you’re just trying to find a way to fix things, and in America, right now, that requires a supermajority.
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: It’s called ‘helping people save face’, and it’s something FFOTUS doesn’t understand at all! If you want to persuade people you can’t just hammer on them for being wrong, you have to give them a way to own up to it without feeling humiliated.
stinger
@Omnes Omnibus: A lot of people, such as my liberal sister, think that the point of political discussion is to force the other person to their knees through the mighty power of your argument and get them to say, “I was Wrong and you are Right.”
People hate to be wrong, and hate worse to have to acknowledge it, especially in front of their opponent. An “off-ramp” is a great way to think about it. JCole didn’t switch his positions overnight.
ETA: Or what Soprano2 said while I was typing.
catclub
Well, outside of cigarettes. Customer is addicted.
Omnes Omnibus
@Belafon:
I understand the need. I am just not the man for the job. A man’s got to know his limitations.
eclare
@Soprano2:
Yes, and Jasmine Crockett did that very well. “You were hoodwinked.” Like others have said, not something I could do, I would scream “what did you think would happen you stupid fuck?” but we need people who can.
Eunicecycle
Stock market is down 500 points. I expect Trump to back off tariffs any minute!
schrodingers_cat
Trump is burning America’s foreign policy successes of the last 80 years to hell. The prestige press is still carrying his water. What gives? Are they on the take from Russia too
Context: Trending on Twitter right now: He plans to deport Ukrainians that came here following the Russian invasion.
UncleEbeneezer
@Glory b:
And the media, is so afraid of accusations of Liberal Media!!1! that they signal-boost these assholes to prove just how objective and not-liberal they themselves are. It’s an ugly, dangerous circular cycle that results in shit like last July, and actively kneecaps Dems to help Republicans/Musk/Putin. Constantly looking to find ways that Dems fail and harshly criticize them for it, isn’t the flex that people think it is.
WereBear
I think of responding the way Rep. Crockett did — offering sympathy for being a “fool for love” — is a bridge that some people are eager to take.
They thought they’d be sitting nearer the cool kids table, since so many lunch tables would be taken out of the cafeteria. And now they are getting beat up and their lunch money stolen, just like every other schnook.
They are temporary allies, and they still make me feel like they have an essential mind-blindness the likes of which I can’t imagine, but I guess there’s something to be said for a common enemy.
YY_Sima Qian
@Fair Economist: “AI” is all about LLM chatbots in the US, not the case in the PRC. The focus is & has been in applications in smart manufacturing, automation, robotics, drones (the so called “low altitude” economy), & of course military applications. This is not Project Gateway building massive data centers to chase AGI/ASI.
“Hydrogen energy” in the PRC is about producing “green hydrogen” from the nearly free electricity provided by the massive solar/wind farms, stored & transported in the form of ammonia. This is already being deployed at scale, & the new funding will supersize that deployment (as the PRC has done for solar, wind & batteries), & find new use cases. This is not just hydrogen fuel cells.
Quantum computing is poor translation. The official document refers to quantum technology, which includes communications, cryptography, remote sensing, in addition to computing. The PRC has already deployed quantum communications (satellite & fiber based) in the field.
Bio-manufacturing may be fantasy today, but so was fully autonomous EVs & LLMs.
The most impactful applications for 6G, just like 5G today, will likely be in industrial settings to further enhance automated factories run by AI & robots (where transmission speed & latency are critical), not faster upload/download of consumers.
Dismissing PRC industrial policy is how the ROW woke up to find the PRC dominating so many leading & emerging technologies. If you re-read Western MSM articles from 15 years ago, they overwhelmingly declared the PRC’s investments into EVs to be a colossal waste of resources.
eclare
@Eunicecycle:
And the NYSE has been open for all of thirty minutes.
YY_Sima Qian
@catclub: One hopes.
TBone
I am thoroughly enjoying the witty repartee and wisdom and energy in this movie!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling_Lady
TBone
@rikyrah: she’s on TCM all morning! And they’re going all in all month!
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Persuasion works on someone you are close to. Its a slow process. You work on the areas you are in agreement first. Do not approach this as a debate club interaction. Its like deprogramming someone from a cult.
stinger
@WereBear:
Another great analogy!
TBone
@YY_Sima Qian: one of my very favorite movie lines uttered in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Marilyn. The context matters.
Betty Cracker
@Almost Retired: Payton McNabb, and yes, she’s latched onto her so-called martyrdom in a really repulsive way. I wish I didn’t know who she was, but I caught a clip of her earlier today whining on Fox News because Democrats didn’t cheer for her during Trump’s dumb speech.
She claims she has all kinds of permanent medical problems because she was concussed by a spiked volleyball. Maybe she was, but the way she’s behaving makes me suspect it’s mostly a clout-chasing scam. Also can’t help but notice the people who are meeping the loudest about her don’t have a problem with boys and men getting concussions from playing football.
Soprano2
@WereBear: I probably heard this somewhere else, but the other day I thought “FFOTUS is a weak person’s idea of what a strong person is”. That’s one reason so many people think he’s “strong”.
Eunicecycle
@eclare: Trump will cave further on tariffs (what is the point of a one month pause for cars?) and it will be up 500 points. If you planned market manipulation it would look like this.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: And, as it happens, I am not close to any MAGAs. Like I said, I am not the person for the job. I also am not suited to being the next outside linebacker for the Packers.
YY_Sima Qian
@Nettoyeur: The worry here is not that the Europeans cannot defeat the Russian military threat. The worry is that European countries will now be so focused on rearmament that defense spending crowds out spending on social welfare & public goods, which will only further boost the far right parties that are universally Euro-skeptics. Having them seize power will be an existential threat to the EU, too.
The danger is that, in the rush to respond to one set of external threats (Putin & Trump), they succumb to another set of internal threats (generally the more dangerous kind).
Europe has no choice but to rearm, & seek strategic independence from the US, but there are clear downsides & dangers to building “warfare states”.
Fortunately, most European countries are no strangers to heavy handed state intervention, industrial policy, & even nationalization. There is a higher chance that they can strike the delicate balance, compared to the US.
TBone
@WereBear: she’s so damn good in everything! Drama, comedy, “women’s tearjerkers” melodramas, crime gangsta moll, Westerns, you name it. A favorite is The Lady Eve, with young Henry Fonda (SO hot!), one of many. Ball of Fire with Gary Cooper is also amazing!
WereBear
Exactly. Thinking and reason didn’t get them into it and won’t get them out.
Steven Hassan got out of the Moonies after being hit by a car and abandoned for dead. Ten days in the hospital (not a comfy place as we all know) and he had come to functional senses enough to start over.
But offering a good excuse that they can agree with us on… it’s worthy trying. It’s magical, it’s caring, it’s humane, it’s at least polite.
Heaven knows nothing WE did made a dent! ANY impression we make on them that survived the last election has to be with Thor’s Hammer kind of help.
Psychology usually works :)
Melancholy Jaques
@Omnes Omnibus:
Don’t we first have to convince them to want to get off?
Or do we have to wait for another financial collapse & hope the timing of it is right?
Professor Bigfoot
@Betty Cracker: I know it feels tiresome, but this is precisely what I mean when I say hey’ll shake hands over our dead bodies and move on.
It’s a white dude thing.
If two out of three white men are intentional Trumpers, are we irrational to suspect some of the same leanings among that other third?
Gavin Newsome and Charlie Kirk, shaking hands…
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
A lot of women and girls get concussions in soccer from headers.
Bupalos
@lowtechcyclist: She really is talented, and brings a populist vibe we need to incorporate more.
Belafon
@YY_Sima Qian:
Which is true if you think that Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are the only “AI” players in the country. They’re not. The MIC here isn’t doing LLMs.
Gretchen
@sentient ai from the future: It was Fran Lebowitz who said “you don’t know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.”
eclare
@Eunicecycle:
Yep.
Geminid .
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chaired by Susan DelBene (WA) has put out its first “Frontline” list, and Politico posted an article about it. The list names 26 Democrats thought to be at risk in the 2026 midterms.
That includes 13 Democrats who just won in districts Trump carried. Only 3 Republicans– Don Bacon (NE), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) and Mike Lawler– won districts Harris carried. I will note the districts Trump won (in some cases with 50% or less).
The Frontline list included 5 California Reps: George Whitesides, David Min, Derek Tran, Adam Gray (Trump-50), and Josh Harder (T-49).
There are 4 New Yorkers: John Mannion, Tom Suozzi, Laura Gillen, Josh Riley and John Mannion.
All three Nevada Democrats are on the list: Dana Titus, Steve Horsford and Susie Lee (T-49.5).
Two Ohio Reps made the Frontline list: Emilia Sykes and Marcy Kaptur (T+3%); also, Frank Mrvan in neighboring Indiana and Kristin McDonald Rivet (T-50) in Michigan.
The list includes Rio Grande Valley Texans Vicente Gonzalez (T+2%) and Henry Cuellar (T+3%). (Cuellar is under indictment, so there could be a fiercely contested special election coming up in TX28).
Two Portland area Democrats are listed: Oregon Rep. Janelle Bynum and Washington Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (T-50).
Also on the Frontline list: Jahanna Hayes ( CT), Eugene Vindman (VA), Nellie Pou (NJ, T-50), Gabe Vasquez (NM, T-50), Jared Golden (ME, T+4%), Don Davis (NC, T+4%?).
Three of last year’s Frontliners– Angie Craig (MN, Eric Sorenson (IL) and Nikki Budzinski (IL-WaterGirl) were left off this year’s list “after handily dispatching their opponents” last November.
Belafon
@Melancholy Jaques: You can’t convince them to want to get off. They didn’t become MAGA through a logical process, and they won’t come off that way.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Neither am I. But I do know some Modi Bhakts.
Professor Bigfoot
@Omnes Omnibus: You are more kind than I, for my immediate thought is “fuck you you stupid motherfucker!” which I KNOW is inappropriate for making inroads.
So I fully agree, we need people who can do that.
WereBear
@TBone: In Baby Face it’s implied she slept her way to the top. She really knows how to imply.
Old School
@eclare:
Today’s photo is a sunrise.
Sunrise from Spring Mountain in the Napa Valley, 2006.
Omnes Omnibus
@Professor Bigfoot: I am from the Upper Midwest. The place where saying “I’m not sure that is a good idea” frequently means “If you do that, you will certainly be killed and probably take a bunch of people with you.”
catclub
Probably. Somebody put it that the US voter will always go for the GOP if they are not terrified of their financial situation. So look at 2000, 2016, 2024 and I have to agree.
There is this:
https://thereformedbroker.com/2016/12/13/every-unified-republican-government-ever-has-led-to-a-financial-crash/
catclub
@Professor Bigfoot:
I am there with you.
For me it is “fuck you you stupid motherfucker. You were too lazy to bother voting.”
Betty Cracker
@eclare: Good point. Lots of sports are dangerous!
Belafon
@Omnes Omnibus: Growing up, my mom had a short temper. Us kids learned early on that phrasing things so that it was our fault she screwed up was the best way to defuse things.
Gretchen
@Ohio Mom: That’s the thing: the sport authorities already have procedures for their own sports and levels of competition. There’s no reason for legislators to get involved. The only reason they’re talking about it is to rile people up and distract from what they don’t want to talk about.
My Kansas Senator Marshall ran away from a town hall last weekend when a guy asked about veterans getting fired from their federal jobs. Marshall accused him of being a paid actor. Guy said if he was an actor he’d be better looking.
Marshall’s next Facebook post was about “protecting” women in sports. Last check there were 4 trans kids playing sports in Kansas. There are hundreds of federal workers whose jobs are in danger, and he doesn’t want to talk about that. Look over there!
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: I believe he thinks we can be a colossus by ourselves, and that’s what he wants. He thinks he can dictate to other countries how they should be through his will alone. He’s already done incalculable damage to our relations with the rest of the world, and it’s going to keep getting worse. He doesn’t want us to help or ally with other countries; he wants all of them to bow down to his mightiness in order to get anything from us.
Barbara
@Another Scott: It was a NYT reporter. He drove around a NYC parking garage looking for a charger, driving past it multiple times before he ran out of power. And then went on a reporting rampage about EVs. Not defending Musk, but having driven an EV for 12 years, including very long distance jaunts (DC to Boston is a piece of cake — you should try DC to Baie St. Paul Quebec, Fort Myers, Florida or Santa Fe, New Mexico) we find it annoying that people are so “overdetermined” to hate EVs. No one is making you drive one!
We have done all of that long distance driving and have never, not once, run out of power. We did come close in Worthington, MN, and I once called my husband as I was tracking his trip to Albany, NY to tell him to cool it because he was cutting it too close.
Most of us are inclined to have a “Luddite” reaction over changes to “old” things that we really value, but truly, EVs are like the SAME THING just a lot simpler — and without a sufficiently built-out infrastructure.
schrodingers_cat
@Soprano2: He and his administration are spouting Russian talking points. Not the behavior of a colossus but that of a head of a client state of Russia.
hueyplong
I like Stanwyck movies as well, but nobody is perfect. I’ve read she was a John Wayne-style Republican who was on the McCarthy side of the Hollywood witch hunts in the ’50s.
Reason no. 2383 why it’s not always best to dig into the personal lives of ballplayers and actors.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Jeffro:
Some media people have been saying exactly that for years, well before the Orange Fart Cloud’s first term.
But since that’s too, well whatever, the corporate media won’t touch it. The day I hear somebody on a mainstream Totebagger Radio program like Morning Edition use that language, and hear it repeated which means the editorial poobahs are okay with it, will be the day I give them money again.
Of course should that ever happen, it really will mean The End Times Are Nigh.
YY_Sima Qian
@Belafon: The fund announced by the PRC government is not intended for the Chinese MIC, either.
Microsoft & Google (& OpenAI) are part of the US MIC now, though.
ArchTeryx
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Frankly the vultures need better PR agents. Ask any rehabber what having a vulture around is like: They’re friendly, curious, smarter than you’d think, affectionate to those they trust, and love fresh meat. I know a rehabber with a Yellow-Headed vulture and he’s an absolute sweetheart. They’re the friendly janitors cleaning up the messes nobody else will.
Bald Eagles are (with a few exceptions) psychotic terrors. They are Not Fun for rehabbers to deal with. At all. One trying to take on a Canada Goose is just one more example of how stupid these eagles can be. Dumb as a bag of hammers and just as aggressive as the mob wielding them.
There’s a reason Ben Franklin wanted any bird besides Bald Eagles to be our national symbol, but nope, looks won out over reality, and that’s the way it’s been in this country ever since.
Belafon
@YY_Sima Qian: Not where I’m sitting.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@ArchTeryx:
This might be one of the coolest posts I’ve ever seen here, and as a nascent bird fan, inspires a bunch of questions.
Geminid .
@Omnes Omnibus: Your comment reminded me that Virginia State Senator Aaron Rouse played safety for the Packers, and now he’s running for Lieutenant Governor. Rouse also played football for Virginia Tech, and that could help his cause among Tech grads. Those Hokies are a tight bunch.
I plan to vote for Rouse in the primary because 1) he’s 41 years old and I think he has a bright future in Virginia politics and 2) he’s from Virginia Beach, and Tidewater has the second largest pool of Virginia voters after Northern Virginia.
I’ll probably vote for whomever among the Attorney General candidates is from NoVa. Former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger is from the Richmond area, which has the third largest pool of Virginia voters. I don’t think geographical ticket balance matters in Virginia like it used to, but I am a traditionalist in this respect.
Anyway, this year’s Virginia races will get a lot of attention, and I am interested to see how Aaron Rouse performs on a bigger stage. It’s a low-risk proposition for Rouse because he’ll retain his seat as Senator. They are elected in the off years, while all 100 House of Delegates seats are up this year.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
OT – After weeks of me having to send documents to a central office printer as opposed to a smaller one at a station next to my office door, the stupid thing decided to start working by printing stale jobs out of the blue.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Betty Cracker:
Last year, a lurker made the comment that Newsom would murder his own grandmother to become president.
Newsom has fans in here not surpisingly but I sure as hell ain’t one of em. He’s simply another polished, technocratic pro-business pol who is an example of the type of Dem who represent cosmopolitan business liberalism, ie., he embodies the Dems “gentrification problem”, that’s been a losing electoral stragety in 2016 and again last year. I dread the 2028 primary season because he’ll be in it.
I will (and have) given him props for standing behind Biden (I don’t care what his motivations might have been, he did) and his immediate actions during the recent wild fires showed somebody who could rise to the moment. But as s_c has said earlier this week, it’s waaay to early to start on the 2028 presidential campaign, let’s win back the House first.
YY_Sima Qian
The PRC sees an opening in the Transatlantic break:
MAGA is making the “Wolf Warriors” look sane & reasonable, & rehabilitating even the worst of the latter as diplomatics. After Lu’s turn as Ambassador to France, I was sure his career would end in disgrace.
Then again, it is likely that people like Lu are cynical operators. He was playing a role then, he is playing a different role, now.
ArchTeryx
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I’m curious what sort of questions you might have? I minored in ornithology a long time ago, started my failed science career doing field surveys of birds, and also worked as a volunteer rehabber for a while. Plus grew up in a household with a falconer father. I’ve been around birds of prey my whole life.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: And Jasmine Crockett comes off as very genuine when she does it. She’s not going through the motions, or else she is a very good actor! :-)
It’s very compelling and we need that from everyone who can pull that off. It’s definitely not for everyone, but I do think it’s key.
There’s no judgement, no shame, just we’ve all been there and we know not to stick with that loser.
arrieve
@oldgold:
I was enjoying the morning–coffee, peanut butter on toast, fruit–and thought, Let me just skim through the comments. I should know better.
I only have one Ukrainian student in my adult ESL class this semester. I asked her how she was doing on Saturday, the day after the WH shitshow, and she was terrified. Now this crap?
I also found out on Saturday that I may not have a job after this semester. The program (which is almost 40 years old) is funded in five-year cycles, and we have two years left in the current cycle. BUT although it’s a NY state program, the money originates with the Feds. We have cash in hand until the end of the fiscal year and then we have to see if we’re getting any more.
I earn very little money, so that’s not an issue for me. But leaving the hundreds of students in the lurch? I am sick.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Trigger warning, please.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@WaterGirl:
Yup. Not everybody can be Barney Frank if we want to harken back to his blunt, bold style back in the day.
But it wouldn’t suck if we had a few more naturals like he was or like Crockett today in front of microphones teeing off on the other party.
sixthdoctor
Rep. Al Green censured; 10 Democrats joined. Looking for the list of turncoat assholes but haven’t found them.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-votes-censure-rep-al-green-disrupting-trumps-speech-congress-rcna195020
Edited: Here they are.
Matt McIrvin
@Princess: Watched the video and that’s totally it.
I’ve seen plenty of people going “Hoodwinked, what the hell, you all knew what you were getting.” But many of them really didn’t. It’s hard for someone with a lot of engagement with politics to even understand how uninformed other people can be. And that’s who Crockett is talking to here. She gets it.
Sure Lurkalot
@Belafon:
My father was the short tempered one and I wish the my siblings and I had learned your techniques.
I do think passive observations like “you were lied to” can be effective. “He lied to you” is too obvious a dig at their hero. “You were lied to” feeds their victim fetish. You can think but not say “he’s been a liar all his life, you fucking fool.”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@ArchTeryx:
Actually, based on what you said in that comment, I’m thinking that ‘psychotic terror’ won out over everything else.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@ArchTeryx:
I live in an exurban area outside of Louisville, and have a pretty decent allocation of species – buzzards in tall trees along a long driveway (gross, lots of poop and flapping when I’m walking the dog out), chickadees, wrens, cardinals, the occasional oriole, cowbirds, tons of woodpeckers, owls, bluejays, the occasional bluebird, doves, the occasional mockingbird, hummingbirds, and probably some others I can’t quite place. I know that there are red shouldered hawks next door and some crows closeby that occasionally visit, not to mention wild turkeys.
Do you have recommendation on feeder density (to reduce conflict), and feeder replacement to reduce incidents of disease? And how do I facilitate a more active crow presence?
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@sixthdoctor:
Hopefully he made a motion like he was jerking it as they voted.
Craig
@lowtechcyclist: billionaires own the billboards
TBone
@Belafon: 🎯 I’m a huge believer in second chance. Not a third will be given though, if you drive past that off ramp.
ArchTeryx
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Heh. I accidentiallied into an even better metaphor than originally thought between TCFG and Trudeau. There’s a reason most falconers will not fly Bald Eagles. Golden Eagles? That’s fine, they’re pretty chill. A few extremely lucky ones even fly the Bald Eagles’ Very Big Brother, the Stellar’s Sea Eagle, the heaviest and one of the largest eagles on the planet.
But Bald Eagles? Forget it.
TBone
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: remove all feeders. God feeds all his little birds (and big ones too).
Shiny and pretty things attract crows and ravens.
WaterGirl
@eclare: Sunrise!
Geminid .
@YY_Sima Qian: Turkish journalist Ragip Soylu posted a screenshot of this Wall Street Journal title:
I’m not sure this development reveals a lack of clarity on the administration’s part so much as coordination with Russia.
Whatever the reason, the US could forestall this project with more positive engagement with the new Syrian government. Instead, Trump’s team of mobsters is inviting them to hedge their bets.
Soprano2
@UncleEbeneezer: Yep, you should listen to “The New Abnormal” podcast. The first 20 minutes is the hosts opining on ‘how Democrats failed us this week”. The black lesbian host HATES Hakeem Jeffries and is constantly saying he should resign for someone who will fight Republicans. It’s so discouraging that they concentrate on what they think is the bad stuff rather than the good stuff.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
I’m sure ArchTeryx can provide detailed info but an observation from me:
Birds are very geographically oriented to a degree most people don’t realize. When we were back in Central Misery, we lived right along the Osage River about 1/2 mile up from where it dumped into the Missouri River.
It meant we got certain birds. Bald Eagles in the winter loved the place. But we were also a massive destination for Baltimore Orioles (and the occasional Orchard Oriole). It’s because of our riverine geography.
I could go 6 miles away as the crow flies from our place to that of a former co-worker. He lived in rolling hills with plenty of trees but no significant waterways or even streams. He never saw orioles but what did he get massive numbers of? Tanagers. If we saw one in a season at our place, we’d be amazed. Go to his place? They were everywhere not unlike orioles at our place.
My point here is that people can attempt to “feed for a species” all they want but it’s amazing how the micro-geographic preferences of many species means they’ll never show up.
ArchTeryx
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: To keep feeders from spreading disease, clean them out periodically. Get rid of all remaining food (a good time to clean them is after the birds empty them). Old birdseed can grow mold and mildew and bird lungs are like Ferrari engines – very efficient and powerful but very delicate. Once a month during peak season (like winter) give the feeder a quick wash, and once a year (or when necessary) take it out and wash it top to bottom with soap and water.
Crows tend to feed on the ground and will eat ANYTHING. Best way to get more crows is to make friends with them. If crows land in your yard, toss the flock out some treats – suet, peanut butter, little bits of fresh meat are big hits. High protein items. The crows will quickly figure out, like kids during Halloween, this house is a Treat Dispenser and will start showing up regularly, hoping for treatos.
They’ll even leave you presents in return as a thank-you. Crows are freaking awesome.
ArchTeryx
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: To be fair, crows (as with most corvids) are VERY wide-ranging. A lot of smaller birds are attracted to very specific habitats, and that’s why you see that sort of geographic partitioning. Crows don’t partition like that. They will hunt and forage anywhere and everywhere within their range, and their range is huge.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: My first laugh out loud of the day. thanks for that.
sixthdoctor
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I’m sure he has too much dignity for that but I’d love it if the House had an Alan Grayson type (in attitude, not in policy) to do that. I expect nothing from Republicans but these turncoat Democrats and Newsom can go suck on a couch cushion from a Vance/Justin Tucker party.
Just Another Lurker
Is the RSS feed broken for anyone else? I haven’t had a BJ post show up in my reader since last Wednesday.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: Two of my customers were demonstrating the wrong way to do it last night, mostly by yelling at each other about their political views.
WaterGirl
@Just Another Lurker: Welcome to commenting!
Sorry to hear the reason, though.
My RSS feed is working fine. I use Feedly for the feed, and the app on my Mac is called Leaf.
WTFGhost
Re: “Spell it out for the simple folks,” not *only* does Trump want “peace” by cramming an economic extortion deal down Ukraine’s throat, now, he’s trying to see if Ukrainian opposition could seize power in snap elections after the fighting, to see if he can get “peace” that way. He thinks if he does this, “they” must give him the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Nobel committee might actually be able to award *itself* the prize for peace if they say “NO prize for YOU!” and he decides to *screw* them, by funding the Ukraine war to the hilt, leading to Russian aggressors to withdrawing in fear for their lives.
ArchTeryx
@Omnes Omnibus: I am too… except I am from Chicago. And as much as New York City folks like to season their conversations with various profanities, they have got nothing on folks from Chi-Town.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: Yes, the problem is young people getting concussions in sports, not that a transgender girl spiked a volleyball and it hit another girl in the head.
rebelsdad
@WaterGirl: I voted for Dole in my first presidential election and then W in 2000. By 2004 I was an independent and by 2008 I was a diehard Democrat. So yeah, people can definitely change.
Soprano2
@Eunicecycle: I think eventually there will be so many carve outs that the tariffs will be mostly meaningless except as a signaling exercise.
Harrison Wesley
Not big on eagles. Pigeons are more my thing. Fat, stupid and shit on everything.
TBone
The only way to stop Bird Flu is to STOP getting birds to congregate in your yard or wherever by FEEDING THEM.
GAH!
Sorry about the yelling. Death has a way of making me yell. Josey Wales of the Nicked Ear is sorely missed every damn day.
eclare
@Old School:
Thank you!
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid .: Yep, read the article. I am sure Bibi trying to make off w/ a piece of Syrian territory is part of the motivation, too. The new Syrian government will surely look to other regional & great powers.
BTW, the PRC government has special interest in Syria, because there has been a group of militant Uyghurs fighting in Syria at Idlib for years, under the flag of the Turkistan Islamic Party, aligned w/ the HTS. They were composed of Uyghur emigrés who fled the PRC in the late ’00s & early ’10s to Türkiye, supposed w/ the help of Turkish intelligence, which then funneled the fighting age males to Syria to participate in the civil war there. They have reportedly been some of the more dedicated fighters, & they aim to eventually return to Xinjiang to wage a war of independence.
TIP is designated as a terrorist organization by the UN, the EU, the UK, Japan, & interestingly Türkiye. The US, too, until Mike Pompeo removed the designation in the final days of the Trump 45 term.
The Syrian branch of the TIP reportedly dissolved w/ the fall of the al-Assad regime, & its members integrated into the new Syrian military. The PRC has an intense interest that these members do not get back to the PRC or attack PRC interests or Chinese nationals in the ME, & that the new Syrian government does not facilitate such movements or activities. Betraying the former members of TIP’s Syrian branch is probably too much to ask of al-Sharaa.
eclare
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
Hahaha…getting flashbacks to Office Space.
hueyplong
@Soprano2: Republicans are new to the concept of caring about concussions. They’ll be shocked to know that this is not the first concussion suffered during a sporting event.
Doc Sardonic
Posted this in Rose’s post but maybe better here.
Craig
@Betty Cracker: He’s wrong. He’s a Democrat from San Francisco.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: It could kind of be both, actually. I do truly think FFOTUS wants leaders of other countries to bow down to him, especially the democratically elected ones, because he thinks they’re weaker than he is.
cmorenc
One of the commenters quoted in the above the fold section said a conversation with the unabomber would be more interesting than with Trump. In another online forum I participate in, another member spoke of a ragged-looking guy he ran into in a town park in montana who he got into a conversation with- guy said he was a former math professor and they had an interesting conversation about various things until finally the guy wore him out going off on increasingly strange tangents about anarchy, and he took his leave. It was only a few years later that he realized the guy he had been chatting with was the unabomber.
Craig
@Hoodie: mark.smith.photography on Instagram has amazing shots of raptors fishing. Pelicans are always trying to steal from osprey.
Matt McIrvin
@rebelsdad: When I was a little, little kid and the Watergate scandal was playing out, I wondered why people were picking on Richard Nixon–I knew he was the President and I had somehow internalized that the President was inherently a good guy. My parents certainly didn’t think so. (But I did find out later that this was essentially Nixon’s own thought process.)
And then in 1976, at age 8, I supported Gerald Ford for what I think was the same reason. I had vague positive vibes about him just because he was the incumbent President. Those feelings worked in the other direction after Carter got in, though, and by 1980 I was a committed Democrat.
Years later, whenever Family Ties had a flashback showing baby Alex P. Keaton mysteriously drawn to a portrait of Richard Nixon, I got jokes about it.
Craig
@Betty Cracker: plus, trying to triangulate with Charlie Kirk.?? That’s just dumb.
Scout211
Speaking of the “simple folk,” do they think all veterans are stupid?
My husband got a nice email from our current VA Secretary, Doug Collins this morning explaining that there are so many rumors out there that warn of reduced services in the VA system. Newsletter from Collins He’s here to tell all of us EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!
I feel so much better now, don’t you?
Craig
@sentient ai from the future: All I needed to know was he was Willie Brown’s flunkey on the Board of Sups.
Matt McIrvin
@cmorenc: The Unabomber at least had a lot of fully-formed ideas, if not correct or productive ones. After he was caught I recall a whole little fandom of sometimes mainstream writers who lamented that his choice of violent methods meant that his worries about technology and society weren’t being taken seriously. But of course nobody would have paid attention to him at all if he hadn’t become a terrorist.
tam1MI
“But ma’am, we need a majority”.
– Adlai Stevenson
Geminid .
@YY_Sima Qian: Ragip Soylu posted a relevant item yesterday:
Waltz and Kiliç had a lot to talk about.
Turkish Foreign Miniister Hakan Fidan met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week, but as Soylu noted Rubio is not a White House official. That meeting doesn’t count anyway because Rubio doesn’t count. Trump is running his foreign policy out of the White House; Rubio’s just there to take the fall when the White House’s policies blow up in Trump’s face.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: Seth Moulton, the rep from the district down the road from mine, did something similar a little while back, which makes me suspicious of him as a voice of the resistance.
Dave
@Betty Cracker: Entirely too many people when they think of tran athletes leap to a fantasy that does something like Mike Tyson on his prime changes his name to Michele Tyson, grows his hair, and maybe gets breast implants then procedes to murder their way through women’s boxing.
Well yes that incredibly unlikely scenario probably shouldn’t be allowed and wouldn’t given my understanding of how these various associations operate but they don’t get that they are being encouraged to imagine that versus like five already vulnerable kids in Illinois who are usually just average athletes.
And it works because instead of the abstraction of oligarchy and all the other crap people are encouraged to imagine a personal situation.
TBone
@Scout211: jfc
Baud
@Scout211:
Most veterans trust Republicans until it’s too late, then they keep on trusting Republicans because what’s done is done.
TBone
@cmorenc: wow. Some memories can be so chilling. I’ve had a few resurface lately (nothing like that though) where, upon closer inspection, I realize in hindsight that motive red flags that I’d initially missed had been waving in my face, practically on fire.
rebelsdad
@Baud: my dad was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam and is on 100% VA disability. My uncle was a peacetime Marine who for some reason also has 100% disability. They both support Trump although my dad is lukewarm about it at best. I really pray that they don’t get screwed over because I’m an only child and tbh I don’t have either the financial nor physical or emotional capacity to be my father’s sole support. Especially with him being a 75yo alcoholic with COPD and beginning stages of dementia.
Dave
@schrodingers_cat: Honestly not sure if it’s that, the bosses are willing to do so to keep control of the masses, they are so absolutely locked into a conventional narrative that they are simply constitutionally incapable of reporting on anything outside that frame, or some mix of all those examples
Geminid .
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: The Red Hot Poker Plant is known to attract Orioles. They like the nectar. The plant comes from Africa, but Orioles won’t turn their beaks up at a non-native plant.
Geminid .
@Matt McIrvin: Rep. Moulton spoke up very forcefully about last Friday’s Zelensky meeting.
Craig
@TBone: I watched Ladies of Leisure last night. She’s fantastic. She was 23 with a killer flapper accent.
Craig
@WereBear: That and The Big Valley. That’s the first place I saw here and she was awesome as the badass matriarch of a huge ranching family. When I got a little older and saw her in Double Indemnity it was a shock, an ultimately pleasant shock.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid .: Yes, and I do appreciate that. Like his transit advocacy too. But I guess he tries to play moderate on cultural stuff.
Geminid .
@p.a.: I think it’s Slovakia– not Slovenia– siding against Ukraine, along with Hungary. Romania has been solidly on Ukraine’s side.
TBone
@Craig: I saw that too, for the first time last night!
TBone
@WereBear: I watched it again last night. Those eyes she had in that…alive, yet very dead.
I just watched The Woman In Red and now I’m watching His Brother’s Wife. Rowr, Robert Taylor when very young, no wonder she married him IRL!
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@TBone: Learn something every day. I’d never heard of Wawa (at least to remember it – it may have been mentioned in BJ before) until today. Googled it, and there seem to be no plans to expand to CA
Matt McIrvin
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): When we visit my folks for Thanksgiving we usually fly into BWI and drive a rental car into Virginia. I mostly know Wawa from those small road trips through Waldorf, Maryland.
Just Another Lurker
@WaterGirl: Thanks! I think I commented once or twice before, about 15 years ago. I like to keep abreast of things but if I let myself comment on everything that caught my interest I’d never do anything else.
I was a faithful Google Reader user, so I still use The Old Reader. I tried removing and adding the RSS feed back in, but I’m getting an authentication error. Not that you all don’t have enough to do, but if and when you talk to the site builder you might want to mention that.
I’ll look into Leaf. As long as it can consume and output clean OPML I’m happy. Thanks!
WTFGhost
@TBone: Wawa makes good, made to order hoagies in Philly; I’m proud of the shared association
Darkrose
@Betty Cracker: I am absolutely livid.
Gavin’s ambition has never been a secret, but the one thing that helped me hold my nose and vote for him was that he seemed to genuinely care about LQBT+ rights. Turns out that like all of his alleged principles, he’s willing to throw us all the way under the bus if he thinks it’ll help his chances at the big job.
Meanwhile, my UC campus is looking at massive budget cuts because Gavin’s state budget reduces support for the system even more. But hey, he has time to host bigots on a podcast! Managing the 5th largest economy must not be a full-time job.
Darkrose
Mmmhmm.
These women are so annoying. Just admit that you’re mad because you’re not that good and you peaked in college–looking at you, Riley “Fifth Place” Gaines. The biggest problem in women’s college sports is that for most athletes, there’s nowhere to go afterwards, and even in sports where there is a professional path, like basketball, women get a fraction of the compensation men do. The whole reason Brittney Griner was in Russia was because the WBNA doesn’t pay that well; even the top stars play overseas in the off-season to supplement their income. Can you imagine if LeBron or Steph had to do that?
SteverinoCT
@Hoodie:
This is mistaken, or at least misunderstood: Franklin wrote this in a letter to his daughter, and in full context he was pulling her leg, extolling the turkey in preference to the bald eagle. He was a funny guy. Just to set the record straight, not to defend the eagle’s behavior.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@ArchTeryx: yes, vultures are very cool! Along with their great personalities, they can eat and remove many toxins from the environment when they eat carrion. Altogether great citizens.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: sounds like it got unpaused somehow 😁
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Craig: glad I’m not a fish! Mark Smith has amazing pics@
Gloria DryGarden
@WereBear:
This can go both ways. During the 2016 campaign for T 1.0, we had big discussions amongst mostly women who’d grown up with abuse and/or malignant narcissism. In general, we were triggered, appalled, but also pissed.
There’s learned submission, and people-pleasing as a trauma response, with big undercurrents of terror. But there’s also the crazy-making of being forced into silence, being gaslit, keeping secrets, to pretend it’s all nice and fine. When the truth comes to awareness, denial cracks open. once that happens, So much rage becomes available as jet fuel.
For me, being made to pretend it was all fine, was to live a huge lie, impossible to uphold. One develops an eye for a lie. And lies piss me off into a state of incandescence.
Also, there is huge push back, and many social consequences for people who see past denial, within certain groups. It’s not easy.
I love Jasmin Crockett giving folks a way to save face, by saying they were hoodwinked. And some people truly believed the bs, didn’t see through it, and talk about “truths”. It’s a long reach.
Gloria DryGarden
@eclare: the smarter you get, the more you know you don’t know.
It’s a big difference.
Admitting one is not omniscient seems to play poorly in pr Spin campaigns. Not sure what the fix is.
WaterGirl
@tam1MI: Nicely done!
Ebony
Fuck giving people an off ramp for voting for Trump in 2024. It is often said that when a mark gets scammed, the mark is corrupt himself. Also, I have a cousin who was severely disabled due to Covid and a good friend of my parents who died of Covid. That friend was one of the best people I have ever known, dead due to Trump’s incompance. I bet many of those 2024 Trump voters thought Covid is just the flu.
I’m very irritated how grace seems to be parceled out on this blog. Also many of those very same people calling to give Trump voters an off ramp tar all people who work in STEM industries as tech bros. Full disclosure I work in the tech industry I’m a cloud engineer. I use to work in the admin field, even though I have a degree in foreign affairs. Other people even other women looked down me. No professional woman wanted to be seen as a admin. I got into programming and went to a data science boot camp, I found I was good at programming. I got a job as a software engineer and cloud engineer. I finally had a sense of purpose and satisfaction I hadn’t had since I graduated college. Apparently, according to many of the people here, I am supposed to throw all that away, because all tech is evil, which is an odd thing to think since this is a blog and blogs depend on technology.