During the wee hours last night, I nodded off on the couch while watching the season finale of “The Pitt,” a medical drama starring actor Noah Wyle that is set in a Pittsburgh emergency room. It premiered on Max this year.
My falling asleep is no knock on the show — it’s pretty good. I was just really tired.
But a couple of hours later, one of the dogs’ nostril hair-singeing farts jolted me awake, and I found that our streaming service had moved on without me and was now showing the first season of “ER,” a medical drama featuring Noah Wyle that debuted in 1994.
It was like falling through a crack in the space-time continuum.
***
Last year, I did our taxes not long after being sprung from the hospital for the first time. I remember thinking, “Maybe I’ll be dead this time next year, and I won’t have to ever do our taxes again.” (Always looking for a silver lining.)
Well, the joke’s on me, but I got them filed on time again. Glad that’s out of the way. And as terrible as everything is right now, what with all The Horrors, I’m still grateful to be alive, taxes be damned. Thanks, science!
Open thread.
What Happens If Trump Defies Court Orders?
Baquist
So damn glad you are still here!
HopefullyNotcassandra
Very grateful you are still with us, too.
Gin & Tonic
We’re grateful you’re alive as well.
Joy in FL
Every time I see a post from you, I feel delight.
May you be filing taxes for decades, always without audits and with hefty refunds.
Sister Golden Bear
Very grateful you’re still here.
Raoul Paste
And we are glad as well. Best wishes
They Call Me Noni
I always enjoy your musings and hope to do so for many years.
And…. I got my first hummingbird this afternoon. They have no idea they are in a red state, they just know there’s a feeder here. So it is officially spring in my book.
Gin & Tonic
And a little vignette about life in Trump’s America. My daughter-in-law welcomed her first child the other day, in NYC. Her husband, my son, is a native-born American citizen, while my DIL is not – she is Mexican, but holds a “green card” by virtue of being married to my son. She never changed her surname after marriage, and I suspect never intended to (both of my daughters kept their birth surnames after marriage.) Yet during our visit with the baby and new parents yesterday, there was a lengthy discussion about naming – of both mother and child. In Mexico, it is the custom to have two “last” names, paternal coming first, then maternal. But they are in America, so the baby will carry the father’s last name – yet there is significant concern about what happens if they travel out of the US, then return, but mother and child have different surnames and different passports. Now my DIL may decide she needs to take on my son’s surname, but her green card doesn’t show that.
Lots of worry about something that people didn’t have to spend much time thinking about in a prior world.
Oh, they’re also going to get a Mexican passport for the baby, because “you never know.”
Gretchen
I’m grateful that you’re still with us too.
I just started watching The Pitt last night. I meant to watch one episode and go to bed, but I ended up watching three. Pretty good show.
Belafon
Much like ER, actual doctors are also rating this show very high on the accuracy of the show, both in terms of the show’s representation of the hospital and the medical diagnoses and procedures.
Amalthea1
Thank you, Science, for saving Betty and keeping her here in our swampy “paradise”. So glad you are still alive and doing better!
rikyrah
Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) posted at 6:26 AM on Sat, Apr 12, 2025:
Andrew Sullivan: “Once you grasp Trump as an elected monarch, his full rebuke to the very idea of America comes into clearer view.
He is precisely — almost uncannily — what this country was founded to oppose: an arbitrary, corrupt, mendacious, and utterly incompetent king.
We need to repeatedly expose this king’s long train of abuses and usurpations, his unilateral cutting off trade with all parts of the world, his imposition of taxes, i.e. tariffs, without our consent, his transporting people in America beyond seas to jails in dictatorships from which there is no escape or reprieve.
We need to insist that a president whose character is marked by every act which may define a tyrant be subjected once again to the Constitution.”
(https://x.com/JoshKraushaar/status/1911018061542436870?t=rvIwz2nSNut3yeYDpF53jg&s=03)
Seanly
At least you got entertained… I was just at an engineering awards luncheon that featured both Senator Risch & Representative Fulcher (this is in Boise, ID). Both talked for a little bit and took a couple of questions. OMFG, those guys are neck deep in the Trump Kool-aid.
la caterina
As a fan of your witty, snark-infused writing, BC, I’m so glad you’re here and I hope to read your posts for many years to come. We’ve got to at least outlive PAB!
rikyrah
I always wait until the last day, because, more often than not, I owe.
Yes, this year continues the pattern….
I’m glad you’re still here, BC. Always rooting for you.
trollhattan
Still dancing with gators. Great to have your divine presence, Ms. Cracker. Many more happy IRS filings to you.
I go by solar orbits but that’s just me.
rikyrah
scha·den·freu·de (@BlisterPearl) posted at 6:45 PM on Fri, Apr 11, 2025:
If I had to reregister to vote, post SAVE Act, I’d need:
a $25 copy of my birth certificate,
a $5 copy of my name change,
a $3 copy of my marriage license,
and an $89 drivers license.
OR a $165 passport.
Not only is it a poll tax, it’s also a pink tax.
(https://x.com/BlisterPearl/status/1910841652106703012?t=GyQ_zZZDHtWHNP5gZ5Ivcw&s=03)
Old School
I don’t think you need to do taxes anymore. There’s no one left at the IRS to come after you for not filing.
Glad you’re still around! Congrats on making a year!
zhena gogolia
So happy you’re alive too!
We’ll get through this somehow.
Tony Jay
Thank science indeed. Very much gladness you’re still around to grace these precincts, BC. Keep up the good living.
Tim C.
I’m glad you are still here.
rikyrah
@Gin & Tonic:
absolutely.
LifeInTheBonusRound
I love it when science saves a life, especially a life of someone like you. (I’m still doing a death watch on certain wannabe dick taters.)
FastEdD
Yes, I too am grateful for that dose of BC snark. Acid wit goes with my acid free coffee. Taxes are like going to the dentist. It hurts, but if you don’t it hurts even more.
prostratedragon
A year, my, my. Glad you’re still here and in strong spirits.
ArchTeryx
@Tony Jay: You’re here! That’s awesome, welcome back Tony Jay!
BellaPea
So glad you are still with us, Miss Betty C.! I just started radiation treatment today for my little cancer bout. It will continue until the end of the month. It’s a weird feeling dealing with being around that huge equipment, like being in a sci-fi movie. I’m sure I’m not the first person to say that.
Mr. Pea and I LOVED The Pitt. And I have to say that Noah Wyle has aged very nicely and his Dr. Robby is pretty downright sexy, if a tad grouchy.
Baud
At least you didn’t max out all your credit cards!
twbrandt
Awfully glad you’re here too, BC. I love your wit, your snark, and your tales from the swamp. Hope you are around for a good while longer.
Ben Cisco
Let me add my voice to the chorus.
Love me some BCrack!
suzanne
Thrilled that you are here to file your taxes and share your snark about Sunkist Stalin with all of us. Come sit by me, friend, now and for many years.
Jay
@Old School:
Well, they arn’t collecting the tariff’s at the Ports either.
https://newrepublic.com/post/193930/ports-not-collecting-trump-tariffs-glitch
Suzanne
@BellaPea:
#PGHaccurate
featheredsprite
@Baquist: Amen!
Professor Bigfoot
VERY MF glad you’re here, BC.
cain
I did my taxes but got annoyed that I had to pay 2k in taxes for last year and this year to deal with the homeless problem here in Portland. I’m ok giving this money but time and time again I’ve noticed that the money is not spent and the problem is not getting solved because too many purists. I’ve noticed people don’t spend time building the infrastructure first.
Ultimately, the city starts turning right ward. People’s patience runs out. It’s why you need career professionals and not one issue advocates.
Princess
@Gin & Tonic: if she takes the child out of the country, she should have a notarized letter from the other parent saying it’s okay. It’s a pain but that’s what they expect.
Jeffro
Glad you are still here and loving life, Betty! Your posts, entertaining or enraging or both, are one of the main reasons to visit BJ.
My FIL probably has a few weeks left in him before he succumbs to pancreatic cancer, and one of his main regrets is that he won’t be around to celebrate the Orange One’s eventual croaking with us (and all decent people worldwide). I assured him I’d have a second glass of bubbly, just for him of course.
Jay
@Princess:
Used to expect.
Baud
I think someone was asking about Harvard earlier. Credit where it’s due.
Warning, NYT link.
Leto
Like everyone else, so very glad you’re still with us BC.
Andrew Weissmann posted a video today on the subject of the previous two posts: When The Government Ignores The Courts
17 mins long, broken into chapters so if you want to skip to a specific section you can.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: The demands basically amount to the government running every aspect of the university. Compliance would be more of an existential threat than defiance.
Kristine
We’re damned glad you here too, BC.
I recall falling asleep during Night Gallery once or twice and waking up after one segment had transitioned to another. Took a while to shake out the cobwebs and realize the story hadn’t flipped on its ear.
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
Still, better no than yes.
I’d like to normalize standing up to Trump.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: I do give Harvard credit- Columbia did accede to insane demands and I hope their reputation will suffer accordingly.
prostratedragon
Dawn’s early light in NYC
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
Same with some law firms vs others.
Gloria DryGarden
@prostratedragon: i wonder if that would be a sidebar photo. In any case, a relief to see those words on a sign, in print…
Belafon
@Baud:
We want what Harvard is doing to be normal, which is why I think a lot of people are treating this as “They’d better” rather than “Yay, they’re standing strong.” But we need to celebrate these, wherever they’re coming from.
Melancholy Jaques
@rikyrah:
Somehow we have to convince white people that he is not the savior of their race. Or more accurately, the savior of their stupid, fucked up ideas about race.
Baud
@Melancholy Jaques:
But what if he is?
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: And what if “the white race” is not anything worth saving?
Baud
I feel like there was more hand wringing over the NSA metadata collection then there has been over Trump (so far).
Citizen Alan
@rikyrah: I will start giving the tiniest micro-fuck about what Andrew fucking Sullivan says about anything once he publicly and sincerely apologizes for the visceral hatred he has displayed towards Hillary Clinton for decades. And I honestly neither know nor care if he was just as bad towards Kamala, but I assume so given the intense misogyny he has shown towards every women he’s ever mentioned other than Margaret Thatcher.
Gloria DryGarden
@Baquist: i’m glad Betty is alive to do her taxes this year, too. yay, Betty!
i met you at the Denver meetup, and admired your crochet spiral earrings. I am imagining I could have a small crochet spiral item, perhaps as a home decoration. In any case, I didn’t get to speak with y’all as much as I wanted to.
Would you be willing to email me? You are welcome to have my email address by requesting it from Betty or the other front pagers.
Sure Lurkalot
@Gloria DryGarden:
…in neon, glowing in the darkness.
prostratedragon
@Steve LaBonne: It has with this alum, fwiw.
From the Spectator, more on the ICE detention today of Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi , who was taken at his naturalization appointment in Vermont.
Also, students and alumni of Davidson College are circulating a petition for the removal of Barnard Dean of Studies Leslie Grinage as alumna member of the Davidson board of trustees, for “Knowingly and deliberately siding with state actors at the expense of the safety and well-being of students at another institution.”
H.E.Wolf
Yep. Glad you’re still here.
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: with any luck, he’s not even the savior of his own self, in the end.
i try not to wish ill and suffering on others, but this is such a huge temptation to do so. What a test. Jeepers.
But surely the karma department won’t mind or dock me too much, for wishing equal and opposite consequences to occur.
thalarctosMaritimus
@rikyrah: Is a name change form acceptable? I was under the impression that if your current name didn’t match your name on your birth certificate (my situation), then you’d just be screwed out of voting.
I would be very, very happy to be wrong about this.
Tony Jay
@ArchTeryx:
Oh, I’m not going anywhere, just taking a bit of a step back while America as a nation comes to terms with the size and scale of the hole it’s dug itself into.
I appreciate that that might take a while.
Gloria DryGarden
@Sure Lurkalot: now we could make that into a song…with some nice dark guitar riffs, some rocking bass:
“glowing in the dark: a sign shining bright
its been a dark shadow, we’re winning the fight…
we shine in the darkness, we shine our own light”
( just brainstorming)
(we have songwriters here..)
or we could have a gleeful commiseration lunch…
Gloria DryGarden
@Tony Jay: hole
crater
chasm
canyon
rift
Westyny
@Tony Jay: Nice to see you “here.”
narya
Also glad you’re here!! I’ve learned not to be drinking anything when I read your posts.
frosty
So sorry you had to do your taxes again, but so happy you’re here to lay the snark on us.
rikyrah
@prostratedragon:
AT HIS NATURALIZATION APPOINTMENT
AT HIS NATURALIZATION APPOINTMENT
Gloria DryGarden
@Gin & Tonic: wishing safety on your family.
It is customary in all the Latin America for women to keep their name, sometimes adding husbands last name after de (of). I think they wonder that some women here change their names upon marriage.
trollhattan
@Tony Jay:
It’s a yuge, fantastic hole, a hole all the way to Gyna and biglier and betterer than Brexit. Isn’t that something? Brexit came up to me, tears in its eyes and said “Sir, you have made the best hole in all of holedom.”
prostratedragon
@Gloria DryGarden: Don’t forget
abyss.
Gloria DryGarden
@rikyrah: ive run out of swear words, but my god!
Gloria DryGarden
@trollhattan: just, um, be sort of careful using gyn-as a prefix or respelling of anything. There are women here. And, especially, in a reference to holes and openings. Umm.
p.a.
Glad you’re still here B.C.
As to Mr. A. Sullivan: you helped build it Mr. “The Libs Made Us Do It. fecker.
Ruckus
@Melancholy Jaques:
As a white old fart I agree with you. Been on this planet, in this country for over 7 1/2 decades. I served in the US military during a time of war. I started voting when I was 21(and of course the law changed just after I turned 21 to voting at 18. And no I was not angry at that, only slightly miffed that they hadn’t done it before) A person could be drafted (or join) at 18 to fight and die for their country, but vote? It was past time to change that law.
Gloria DryGarden
@prostratedragon: i did forget, thank you.
That’s exactly the word I was missing. Like that submarine movie, the abyss..
oh the deep darkness. Too wet for tears. The sound of rivets popping, deep pressures
deep breath
( can I not use a color font on bold, if it’s the last thing I do?)
prostratedragon
@rikyrah:
And furthermore (same Spectator article),
Jay
@thalarctosMaritimus:
No, you need current legal ID Passport/ Enhanced Drivers license under your current name, and no gender changes to be able to vote under the SAVE Act, as a married person, or name change person,
and no gender changes allowed.
You will also need to prove, starting with a birth certificate, and all other documents, that the name changes were “legal”.
p.a.
I hope the online comments I see come from an electorally small collection of full-time-online fascist commentrashiat and there really is considerable buyers’ regret, because the commentrashiat are absolute can’t learn/won’t learn dregs. They won’t come to terms with nuttin’.
rikyrah
@Jay:
it is a POLL TAX
Gloria DryGarden
The abyss
Jay
@Citizen Alan:
Back when Andrew Sullivan was barely out of the short pants, beanie cap and blazers they make you wear at Oxford, Maggie was his Dom, whipping him and pegging him on the regular until he realized he was gay, but only cared about the gays he could sleep with, at the time, not gay rights. She is the only woman he has never hated in his life.
mali muso
@Jay: I have taken my kiddo on several international trips sans her dad in the past few years. I always carry a letter from him indicating his approval for her to travel with me on the specified dates. It’s always been needed, reviewed carefully by the immigration officials and documented but only outside of the USA. Every time we return to the states, they don’t ask for anything more than our two passports. I hyphenated my last name, and she has my maiden name as one of her middle names so at least those passport documents “match”. Not sure if I will have the courage to take her abroad anymore for fear of any idiocy upon our return.
Jay
@rikyrah:
It’s more than that.
Gloria DryGarden
@rikyrah: it’s hard enough to Vote, having to sort through local candidates, and prepare decisions on 10-20 referenda and amendments, without having to ransack all your papers to find all those documents.
Frantic search for obscure paperwork should only be necessary during tax time. That’s hard enough.
Scout211
We are so glad you are still here, BC. And yes, thanks to science.
Since I can hardly stomach reading the news, I take a moment of joy to read any news that humiliates anyone in the Trump administration.
A few days ago we all laughed at our Education Secretary when she called AI A1. A1 Steak Sauce was a star on social media after that.
Today was JD Vance’s day:
You break, you buy it, JD.
Or maybe you shouldn’t skip your arm day next time, JD. Lift it straight up, man.
Gretchen
@Citizen Alan: Seconded. Andrew Sullivan helped us onto the path we’re on now. Imagine if people like him boosted rather than vilified Hillary Clinton, and hadn’t waged the culture war on every front (except gay rights, because he’s special). Everyone who’s helped the right take over since Reagan is now horrified at where we are.
Trump announced today that he plans to deport American citizens to El Salvador too. And his minions have called for removing judges who disagree with him. Can’t any of these judges see that they themselves could end up in prison if they don’t stop this?
rikyrah
philip lewis
@Phil_Lewis_
The Trump admin announced that it was terminating a settlement aimed at improving wastewater treatment services for Black Alabama communities harmed by raw sewage, calling the agreement an “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy”
https://x.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1911791689850646718
rikyrah
Christopher Webb
@cwebbonline
Trump’s tariffs are hitting farmers hard — in ways you might not expect. This honey farmer voted for Trump three times. Now his supplier costs have skyrocketed, he’s frozen hiring, and he’s lost $150K in revenue from government contracts.
When asked if he regrets voting for him in 2024, he said, “Perhaps I should have considered other options.”
NO SHIT!
https://x.com/cwebbonline/status/1911466664748781757
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
It’s a good thing it will be filibustered in the Senate
rikyrah
Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) posted at 4:02 PM on Mon, Apr 14, 2025:
The man who firebombed a leading 2028 Democratic presidential candidate’s home shared the same anti-Biden rhetoric on social media Trump was spreading at the time.
DOJ? Silent. Whereas if a shrub loses a leaf at a Tesla dealership, Bondi begins shrieking. https://t.co/Ks5dreNPIc
(https://x.com/SethAbramson/status/1911887823029891431?t=tk8L4w9X7Vytb9p9KzY-ig&s=03)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Glad you’re still with us, BC
Gretchen
@Jay: I was under the impression that Real ID/enhanced driver’s license isn’t enough if it doesn’t match your birth name.
Does this mean transgender people wouldn’t be able to vote at all?
Scout211
It’s a good time to remind everyone that TSA will finally, really, really, we really mean it, start enforce the REAL ID on May 7th.
Many California DMV offices have added early morning hours several days a week for REAL ID appointments through June.
Jay
@mali muso:
That would be a safe choice, unless it’s a one way trip out.
The Nazi’s have been empowered.
Conduct that in the past, would have gotten them written up, and required to take a grueling, horrifying, re-education camp1/2 hour DEIA course, online, has now become “don’t torture them in public with the taser, do it in this room, it’s soundproofed and there are no cameras”.
Jay
@Gretchen:
Yup.
rikyrah
Aaron Rupar
@atrupar
Trump has fully turned on Zelenskyy: “He’s always looking to purchase missiles. Listen, when you start a war, you gotta know you can win a war. You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.”
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1911810667281023133
trollhattan
@Gloria DryGarden: ‘Tis Trumpspeake, especially how he pronounces that big nation in East Asia, our freshest enemy.
rikyrah
@Jay:
It’s a poll tax
for women
for the poor
for those who have moved
for those, like my sister, born in Jim Crow America, in my grandmother’s house with a midwife BECAUSE MY BLACK MOTHER WAS NOT ALLOWED IN THE COUNTY WHITES-ONLY HOSPITAL
I know that there is more to hate, but, I can stay on the POLL TAX as reason enough to object to it.
Raven
@Ruckus: 17
Steve LaBonne
@rikyrah: https://www.amazon.com/Blaming-Victim-William-Ryan/dp/0394417267
rikyrah
ulia Davis
@JuliaDavisNews
The man tapped by RFK Jr to run a clinical trial looking to tie vaccines to autism has been charged with practicing medicine without a license, given autistic children a dangerous drug not approved for use in the US & improperly prescribed puberty blockers
https://x.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1911513567331057941
Julia Davis
@JuliaDavisNews
Mark Geier’s medical licenses were suspended by the 7 states where he and his son operated autism treatment centers and conducted several studies linking vaccines to autism, only to have them retracted and withdrawn from publication by scientific journals.
https://x.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1911514446184296953
Peale
@rikyrah: Yep. And you’ll need to get a passport every 10 years to be able to vote. And right now, the people who control whether or not they will issue you a passport report to Marco Rubio.
Peale
@rikyrah: Yep.
My mom had a passport at one time to take her one trip out of the country in 1991. Since she isn’t planning on going anywhere any time soon, we’ll need to get her to apply for a new passport for no reason.
The good news is that Americans are really savvy when it comes to dealing with a bureaucracy and always plan ahead. So there is no way this change is going to mean that 70 million people are going to show up 2 weeks before an election to get passports.
Poodle Mom (fka KM in NS)
Late to comment… I’m also glad you’re still here and writing. You’ve made me snort coffee on my keyboard more than once.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
Oh Betty, I’m so glad you are here! Love your bird pics and your wonderful snarky wordsmithing. Not to mention it is getting close to Butter Lamb time 😋.
CCL
@thalarctosMaritimus:
The Save act requires one to show proof of citizenship when you register to vote. In most states, once you are registered and on the voter roles, when there’s an election, you just show ID – depending of course on whatever the state deems acceptable when you show up to vote.
The impact will be on new voters registering for the first time, or anyone who moves to another state/district and needs to register.
Here’s the actual bill on the congressional website: HR 22- The SAVE act.
Jay
@rikyrah:
It’s not just a dairy substitute, it’s also a floor wax.
Here, all I need to vote is one piece of photo ID, it can be BC ID card, BC Care card, DL, passport, Employers security badge or swipe card, and if I have recently moved, any bill with my current address.
99% of the time, I get a postcard from Elections Canada, with my name, address, poll location and date on it and that’s all I need. The poll location is in an empty office, in a strip mall 150 yards from my building. We have 38 poll sites in just this riding for roughly 100,000 voters.
Last time I voted it took more time to walk to the poll and back, than vote. And I am a minority, (white) in this riding.
Shakti
I applaud all of you who finished those taxes a while ago.
I was reluctant to do it this year, honestly.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@rikyrah:
Ah, so that’s why RFK Jr said they’d find the cause of autism by September. They already found the “cause” and want to work backward to “prove” vaccines cause autism, a “disease” they wish to eradicate.
No objective, honest person ever makes guarantees like that on something they don’t know the cause of. Real, scientific investigations can take years, decades even
RileysEnabler
Joining the chorus of Betty C celebrants! Glad you’re here to do the taxes and make the best names up for any who wander into your crosshairs.
WTFGhost
Wyle is also producing The Librarians, after the limited series.
I find that especially happy-making, since people who participate in “productions” don’t have any rights to their characters, story arcs, etc., because that all goes to the *producers*. It’s like Stallone getting another Rambo movie, so I could learn what a *SICK* fuck that man is, I mean, GOD DAMN, so, it’s not a bit like Stallone getting another Rambo movie, STALLONE getting a movie is like the ruination of Wyle getting to produce characters from a caring, kind, perspective.
So I’m really glad to see a non-professional-asshole make good, and get some of that production cash and glory.
(I do *hope* that was the last movie. Seriously, Stallone? Ripping a person’s heart out is something that ancient cultures might do, either to honor the victim’s “brave heart”, or to chow down on the heart, or maybe both, and civilized nations all went “eeeeew *GROSS*” and learned better. )
Gretchen
@rikyrah: I hadn’t thought of that as the reason so many older black people were born at home with midwives, but I feel stupid now for not having thought of it.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
Just wanted to say, I didn’t mean my comment at #89 to be dismissive if that’s how it came across
Tony Jay
Yeah, the similarities between The Re-Trumpening and Brexit have occurred to me. Same mystifying drive by the electorate to punch themselves firmly in the balls when there was a much superior status-quo alternative right there that didn’t stink of vodka puke and bin meat.
Except, you know, being America it just had to be on the Highlander 2 scale of Brexit homages.
Still, I’m here for the duration.
eclare
So happy that you are still with us, Ms. Cracker! Along with your commentary, I love your photos and videos from the swamp, where both feathered and non-feathered dinosaurs gather.
As for taxes, the IRS just declared the entire state of TN a disaster zone, the East for Helene and the Middle and West for the massive wind and rain we got in early April (at least a foot here in Memphis). I have until November 3 to file. Still plan to file tomorrow but nice to know I have some wiggle room if something comes up.
Gretchen
@WTFGhost: You made a good point in the last thread, about our being in a religious war in this country. The evangelicals are convinced that whatever they want is God’s will, and so they are justified on imposing their version of God’s will on the rest of us. You can’t argue them out of it, because God.
WTFGhost
@rikyrah: I’d like a White House correspondent to ask “Mr. Trump, do you ever forget that Russia started the war against Ukraine, given how often you repeat the lie that Ukraine started it?”
He’s just stupid enough to answer “no, I never forget that!” before understanding the question.
cmorenc
@Old School:
There are situations like fulfilling the mandatory distribution requirements for IRAs where the entity hosting the IRA are required, independently of you, to send report forms to the IRS, which makes enforcing tax compliance easy, low-hanging fruit for the IRS, unlike auditing small businesses or individual where the documentation and claims for deduction /exclusion are messier and less cut-and dry.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@WTFGhost:
Rambozo the Clown
prostratedragon
@Gloria DryGarden: Good movie. Theaterworthy, for the Dolby sound.
WTFGhost
@Gloria DryGarden: It is never wrong to pray, or otherwise work, for “justice,” and to hope for it to prevail over the unjust (whom you *believe* you’ve identified). You can also always yearn, and work for, the betterment of those oppressed. No worries about karmic backlash for those wishes!
It’s pretty darn hard not to want Trump, his entire cabinet, and the entire Republican Congressional Caucus, and all top aides and advisors thereto, to come down with me/CFS that puts mine to shame. I just remind myself, no matter how much they all collectively suffered, they could still sign deportation orders, so it wouldn’t actually make anything better.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I took it as a “norms” joke. You know, “In the tradition of this venerated, historical institution”,……………..
“Have you no cane Senator?”
Baud
Five small businesses. Probably fronts.
Jay
@Baud:
Soro’s strikes again.//
Leto
@rikyrah: In my Environmental Philosophy class, we’re reading a book Environmental Philosophy in Desperate Times. Just read the section where this was mentioned, environmental racism. This topic will be covered in a later chapter, but this quote is perfect for the summary I need to write about the current chapter. Thanks.
Spanky
@Tony Jay: A rare massive understatement on your part.
Ruckus
This nation was built on and by the concept of immigration, the vast majority of us alive today only go back likely a generation or two before us in the US. I do, and I was born in the first half of the last century. My grandparents were not all born here.
Spanky
I have discovered that Gatorade makes an ok-but-not-great margarita.
Don’t judge me.
Jay
@Spanky:
What colour of Gatorade, then shall you be judged.
Spanky
@rikyrah:
Well sure! One thing we know about these buttheads is that they’re lazy as fuck.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
As much as I hate to agree with something Andrew Sullivan said, he’s absolutely right.
Spanky
@Tony Jay: The pro-Trump/pro-Brexit movements were massively helped by corporate media.
Spanky
@Jay: Green, of course!
Come on, man!
Ruckus
@Gloria DryGarden:
Well it is possible that all things considered women were not really recognized all that much even just a generation before me. If you look at factory workers during WWII, a hell of a lot of them were women. Without them we would not have won that war. I was born towards the end of the 1940s. This country supposedly recognizes ALL citizens as equals. Now I was taught that but I’m not sure everyone was. And I imagine/would bet, a lot of the male side (same side as me) do not always think that way. They should pull their heads out of their asses and accept that a citizen is not a gender controlled concept. But I’m not holding my breath….
Martin
@Ruckus: Well, it was immigration in the sense that if you came from the right country you could immigrate and if you came from the wrong country you would be enslaved and could be killed at will.
Seems like we’re not actually that far from what the nation was built on.
lowtechcyclist
@Belafon:
I agree with your last sentence, but it still was “they’d better” because if Harvard with its ginormous endowment had felt like it couldn’t stand up to Trump, who else would have the strength to stand?
Suzanne
@Peale: I shared yesterday about some of the hurdles I had when helping my mom renew her passport. Not insignificant. She has some mild cognitive impairment and would not have been able to navigate the process without my assistance. So of course, a tax that falls disproportionately on women, and the “firstborn daughters” of every age.
Princess
@rikyrah: All the equipment to make maple syrup is produced in Canada. All of it. So much for the US maple syrup industry , once those tariffs are imposed.
Tony Jay
@Spanky:
All successful revolutions deploy cadres to seize control of the newspapers and TV studios on Day One. The Oligarchic Revolution just deployed cash and bought the whole industry up a long time ago.
No one as yet has much of a clue how to go about lancing that boil.
mrmoshpotato
Watching the news. (BBC on PBS)
The orange shitstain is an absolute monster who should get the fuck out of the country.
SteveinPHX
Sure enjoying your posts. Keep it up!
GO GATORS!
The Audacity of Krope
Let’s add Stallone to the list of people who haven’t thought about Rambo past the point of “tough guy” to “tragic figure repeatedly forced toward violence.”
pieceofpeace
@Tony Jay: Good to see you!
cain
@Tony Jay: Nice to see you back here! Missed your cutting wit. :)
Baud
Ruckus
BC
It is always good to see you here.
ER was a favorite of mine because I “wanted” to be a doctor but of course desires and real life often never meet. Often they aren’t even in the same state. The Vietnam war took 3 1/2 years of my life – at the wrong time (is there ever a right time? – Saying it nicely – no – although I could insert a lot of machine shop and USN words in there… I digress) After that I went to college, taking all the classes that would get me in but life and the desire for food and shelter won out.
Now as an old fart I look back and have to say I’ve enjoyed life so far, even if it didn’t go/end up where I wanted it to do. Retiring after over 6 decades working is not at all bad. As long as shitforbrains doesn’t fuck up Social Security. That I paid into for those 6 decades. And No I’m not holding my breath – I call him shitforbrains for a reason.
cain
I should add that I’m glad youre still out there and fighting, BC.
Leto
@Baud: the comments by all of their former students… ugh.
Bill Arnold
@Baud:
Some more details:
The Promise of American Higher Education
Letter Sent to Harvard
Harvards actual response:
https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Harvard-Response-2025-04-14.pdf
NaijaGal
Betty, as others have said, I’m so glad that you are still here with us!
Read this from Will Bunch in the Philadelphia Inquirer (paywalled so I’m including a relevant excerpt):
I suspect that only the “little people” will ever be held accountable for these crimes, so I want to make sure that they understand that one day they will be held to account, even though I may not be around to see it.
NaijaGal
Oops – I posted an excerpt of a Will Bunch oped that apparently had too many links and is stuck in moderation…
The Audacity of Krope
@Bill Arnold: As is typical of right-wingers, their fight for “academic freedom” was a fight to suppress the views of others and for a full embrace of their views, no matter what factual evidence says in the matter.
WaterGirl
@NaijaGal: All better now!
BellaPea
@Suzanne: Thanks! Competence and compassion are always sexy.
cain
one of the people I know in the open source space posted this about BlueSky and it completely tracks in what was bugging me about BlueSky and why I still active on Mastodon and not really that active on BlueSky.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bluesky-i-would-have-done-differently-mark-atwood-bzgge/?trackingId=eV%2F4yK%2FVprFi2HS4lYmytQ%3D%3D
NaijaGal
@WaterGirl: Thank you WaterGirl!
NaijaGal
@cain: I understand his points and agree with some of them, but when it comes to content moderation, a target of racially motivated online hatred and abuse can find the decentralized approach somewhat lacking, as a few people on Mastodon have found.
NotoriousJRT
So grateful you are still with us! That’s my silver lining for today and going forward.
Ruckus
@NaijaGal:
I think you are right, because we the people are not looked upon all that well by some of the employees we have running our government.
And never forget they are employees, even the top shithead. We hire them by election and pay them to do a specific job. We are their employers. All of us. They are not our bosses, unless we work under them as they do their jobs. NOT ONE of them is above us in any way. They are employees of the government – our government. And yes they are also citizens but they are citizens that work for US. Some have highly powerful positions but they are still employees of the people. ALL THE PEOPLE. Now it would never work if we all tried to tell them how to do their jobs but if enough of us desire, we can fire them. Takes effort at the top of the pile – Congress – but sometimes effort is required.
YY_Sima Qian
@Bill Arnold: Good for Harvard. It starts w/ “Pro-Hamas”, then “Woke”, the “DEI”, & it’ll end w/ all liberalism & Enlightenment.
cain
Yes, I had a comment I made on his post and it did involve the idea of “safety”. Tools around safety are difficult to build and are constantly changing because the attacker finds new ways to harass.
I think you need a secondary protocol that observes patterns eg if many person blocks one person, when does it turn from a one off to a pattern of abuse. This is where machine learning can help here. (not AI) By finding patterns and then creating buckets and either let a human assess the threat or shoot first and then ask questions later.
But how we deal with safety is different based on the community – how the black community deals with safety is very different than the trans community.
We have similar issues with safety on other non-centralized technology like Matrix (https://matrix.org/) which is a chat service like discord/slack etc. I’m on the safety committee there and we had to do deal with a massive onrush of child porn attack. We found that the tools we had to manage that was lacking. Horribly.
Citizen Alan
Just got word that a close friend has been laid off by the government. Apparently because cybersecurity for the FAA is a waste of taxpayer money.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
10000% with you
Ruckus
@BellaPea:
I’m pretty sure you aren’t the first to say it and I know absolutely that you aren’t the first to think it.
Because I’ve had radiation treatments for my 2 kinds of cancer. Good times!
The only good parts of having cancer is to be told it’s gone.
NobodySpecial
@rikyrah: We need to insist that Andrew Sullivan fuck right back off to Toryland and never open his mouth again.
thalarctosMaritimus
@Jay: Oh, thank you! It’s not great, compared to the status quo, but it’s a lot better than I had catastrophized myself into thinking it was, so I appreciate your explaining it.
MagdaInBlack
@Bill Arnold: I notice the letter is also addressed to Penny Pritzker: Lead Member, Harvard Corporation.
That’s IL Gov J.B Pritzker’s sister. J.B. is not putting up with trumps bs, and looks like neither is she.
JML
Got a job offer today. Decided to take it; much as I love my university it’s time to move along. Am burned out on fundraising, am done with the toxicity in my office (and I’m not waiting to see whether my VP leaving fixes anything), am utterly uninterested in working the evening hours they decided I had to take on, and I’m sick of having to try and repair the bridges people keep burning. New job is different work but adjacent (so a new challenge but I have the applicable skills), has defined WFH (4 days in, 1 WFH) which will be nice, there’s some other lifestyle benefits, and even a slight raise.
Hard to leave after nearly 10 years (longest I’ve even been at one job), but while I’m nervous about the change, think it’s the right one.
Gvg
@Tony Jay: home produced stuff is possible now. It would be less far reaching at first, but I think it’s too late for the old control to work entirely.
problem is idiots can help them flood the zone with misinformation.
Baud
@JML:
Congrats on the new job.
Gloria DryGarden
@BellaPea: we were all that young, and beautiful, with smooth dewy skin, and no creases or wrinkles. We were. And had skin soft as velvet, soft as new spring leaves.
if you haven’t felt up the new leaves on your trees when the first spring out, you will love it. Highly recommended.
this is not balloon juice after dark, it’s just another way to receive joy in spring time. Through your fingertips.
ps, may your cancer treatment lead to remission, or to being total cancer free. Amen.
Martin
@JML: Congrats. Being nervous about a new job is pretty darn normal.
Jay
@JML:
Congrats, less stress is better.
cain
@JML: You are going to thrive! Onward and most importantly upward!!
The Audacity of Krope
@Jay: Says you. I’m beginning to wonder if I wouldn’t drop dead the moment my daily stressors end.
cain
@Citizen Alan: DOGE will handle all their cybersecurity.
Of course, if there is a breach, who cares right? It’s not like you had your own external email server or anything.
Elizabelle
@JML: Great news. I hope you find the new job rewarding.
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: My friend got pulled over by the TSA because she and her son had different last names. And she was going to India for a visit. She managed to convince them that she was coming back and was happily married and not kidnapping her son. She changed her last name after that incident. Not wanting a repeat of the episode. This way back in the mid aughts.
Parents kidnapping their own children is apparently a thing.
Citizen Dave
BC, you’re the one investment of mine that hasn’t crapped out (due to the orange pus stain), and in fact is providing returns in the form of your always excellent posts.
Tomorrow the health side show is coming within half a mile of me, as RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz are coming to Indianapolis to appear with our Gov to announce a Make America/Indiana (not sure which it is) Healthy Again program. I can’t wait.
Was thinking earlier, is there anything, anything that these tools have done since January 20 that one can point to and say, wow, that was really well thought out; or that was a novel idea; etc. ? Anything? They are the constant opposite of excellence.
The Audacity of Krope
No, but they’re certainly trying every half-baked idea and authoritarian could ever conceive of, that is to say that there is no problem that can’t be fixed with guns or leveraging money against their enemies.
frosty
It’s a fairly big thing from my understanding, usually centered around divorce and custody arguments. One parent will just take the kid and go.
Gloria DryGarden
@schrodingers_cat: sometimes the child is being kidnapped from a bad custody situation, like my friend whose grandchild was included in ritual abuse with the fathers family. Mom changed countries, changed her name.
it’s very tricky. Even with same last names, there are definitely situations where one person isn’t allowed to be with the child. In schools we’re very careful about pick up times, and who can pick up a child. On occasion it’s gotten tricky.
Ruckus
@schrodingers_cat:
Courts often give custody when the parents cannot agree or there is an obvious solution, like one parent will be in jail for 20 years. That’s what I’ve been told anyway.
Gloria DryGarden
@frosty: yes. parents up against a restraining order have been known to try.
One time at school pick up, I had to supervise the sign out and pick up alone. I was a sub, the main teacher left early for an appointment, the assistant principal promised to be there, but didn’t come. I think I got one of the moms to stand with me, and tell me she knew each parent. I think I asked her, every one, do you promise you know this person?
pick up after school is a dangerous time. Doors open. Parents and guardians everywhere. Children attempt to slip into the hall to grab a backpack or coat they forgot. Me telling them, please go with a teacher or stay in the room, we don’t know everybody.
a tad nerve-wracking
Madeleine
Joining the crowd—late as usual—I’m so glad that you’re still here . . . Even if you have had to do your taxes again! And hoping that you’ll be doing them again next year . . And the next year . . . And the next year . . . You get the idea.
schrodingers_cat
@frosty: In happier news, my gouache sets arrived today.
And in the 100 art challenge, I have done 5 with 95 more to go.
Martin
@schrodingers_cat: 80% of kidnappings are by a parent. This is why schools put in place so many of the policies that they have in terms of who can pick up, etc.
Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
In Canada, parental kidnapping in 2019 accounted for 122 cases.
Kids running away, 30,000+.
It get’s hyped in the media, like stranger danger or demonic cults.
Jay
@Martin:
In the US 2.5 % of kidnappings are by either parent.
97.5% are by ICE, CBS, HIS and other Police forces.
BellyCat
I’m told that sometimes the courts even award custody fairly.
Kayla Rudbek
science and medicine are great, fuck cancer and the haters. Glad that you’re still with us, Betty, and let me know if you want another handknit (shawl, socks, scarf, cowl, hat)
Betty
Arriving late on a busy day, but I want to add my thanks to Science for letting us keep the delightful Betty Cracker with us.
Kayla Rudbek
@Baud: I need to check and see what Notre Dame is doing; they were apparently getting investigated for DEI (which is what they deserve after getting down on their knees for the Republicans)
Sister Golden Bear
@Gretchen:
No we won’t.
Kayla Rudbek
@JML: congratulations and I hope that it goes well.
Matt McIrvin
@NobodySpecial: He’s back from voting for Republicans once again, for another round of telling us how to do liberalism correctly.
Martin
@Jay: Government isn’t accounted for as a kidnapping in the US. It’s a different terrible category. The US also doesn’t count runaways as kidnapped. Of actual kidnapped kids in the US, 80% (actually a bit more) are parents who don’t have custody rights.
This is important because kids don’t walk to school in this country any more because John Walsh freaked everyone out that their kids would be taken by strangers, when that’s really quite rare. So everyone got driven to school to protect against the largely nonexistent kidnappers, and then more kids died from the commute, or getting hit by cars than were ever kidnapped before.
We’ve got to get our shit together.
Jay
@Martin:
1999 stats show that roughly 250K children were parental abductions.
Roughly 50k were “stranger danger”,
1.5 million were runaways,
152K were ICE, CBS, HIS etc kidnappings at the border and inland.
Y’all have a big problem with both basic parenting and Nazi’s.
Gloria DryGarden
@Jay: the runaways could be from grooming, fucked up parents, drugs, addiction – the child or the parents, lack of emotional support resources…I don’t know all the reasons.
Jay
@Gloria DryGarden:
there are thousands of reason’s why kid’s r-u-n-n-o-f-t.
The numbers however shows, that out of a population of 340 million, there are bigger problems there than parental abductions and “stranger danger”.
I left home at 17, because my Dad beat and raped my Mom. Dad was a cop. I interfered. Dragged him off, pinned him against the wall. When it seemed to be done, he tried to sucker punch me in the head. Lost it. Put him in hospital for a few days. When he got back, woke up at night with him entering my room, drunk. Pulled the deer gutting knife from under my pillow, he’d leave. Multiple times.
Cashed out everything I could get my hands on, and left. Hit the road.
When my Mom finally quit, she crashed with me for 6 months.
Ruckus
@Jay:
My major family story is that my mom’s dad died from a heart attack playing tennis with her when she was 18 – and oldest in her family, and that would be 1936. Her mom died when I was 6 yrs old. Dad’s parents lived to 1968 and 1972. I had 2 sisters, both passed. Have a few cousins, one of them died, he was about 5-6 yrs younger than me. I was the youngest in my family now I’m the oldest in the extended family.
BellyCat
@Jay: Gulp… You did right by your Mom.
BellyCat
Add adversarial court process to determine custody and your good list is gooder.
evodevo
@Gretchen:
Well, that happened for a lot of white women in Eastern KY before 1955 or so…don’t know how efficient their birth reporting was then, either. Many of those families couldn’t afford to go to the hospital unless there was an emergency, and you just delivered at home. Just getting to “town” was a problem for a lot. Now I don’t know how much of a problem it will be for new voting registrants, but I guess we’ll see! Welcome to TrumpLand!