Well if you want to feel better, the last 24 hours have been profoundly bad and humiliating for the Trump admin and probably a very good example of political gravity still being very much a thing.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) May 17, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Everyone hates the term political capital, but it's pretty clear that Trump has used all of his.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) May 17, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Most people missed this? I did.
Too much going on. I know. But MAGA sure didn't.— LOLGOP (@thefarce.org) May 17, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Maybe ACB is more of a cynic than I thought?….
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s remarks in court on Thursday have sparked MAGA backlash online, with some saying President Donald Trump made a “huge mistake” appointing her to the bench.
The nation’s highest court was hearing arguments about whether lower courts have the authority to block Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship, which ensures that children born in the U.S. are citizens regardless of their parents’ status.
During the hearing, Justice Coney Barrett questioned the solicitor general over the Trump administration’s approach to complying with court rulings.
Coney Barrett, who was nominated by Trump in 2020, has emerged as a more centrist judge than expected in certain Supreme Court cases and has been criticized by Trump supporters for voting against her conservative colleagues in the past…
Once again, online MAGA proponents have called Justice Amy Coney Barrett as “a radical liberal,” saying she was disloyal to Trump.
Justices, who are given a life appointment, typically are seen as either conservative or liberal depending on which president nominated them. Barrett has more often than not voted along conservative lines, including for the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, but has sided with the Court’s three liberal justices in opposing the majority’s decision to allow the administration to continue deporting alleged gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
On Thursday, during oral arguments over birthright citizenship, Barrett asked Solicitor General D. John Sauer whether the Trump administration “wanted to reserve its right to maybe not follow a Second Circuit precedent, say, in New York, because you might disagree with the opinion?”
Solicitor General Sauer said the “general practice” is to “respect those precedents,” but “there are circumstances when it is not a categorical practice.” Barrett then asked if he meant he believes that is the “general practice” of only the Trump administration or the federal government.
Sauer replied that he understands it to be the “long-standing practice of the Department of Justice.”
“Really?” responded Barrett…
The court will hand down its ruling in the birthright citizenship case later this year. Meanwhile, several of Trump’s other executive orders are facing legal challenges and making their way through the court. Barrett’s decisions have become a key swing vote in some of these cases and she could continue wielding that power.
… Or maybe the smarter Dominionists have decided Trump is a sunk cost?
Nukular Biskits
Good evenin’, y’all!
ETA: I definitely want more of this kind of “winning”!
Jeffro
I love how “huge mistake” = “SHE CHOSE THIS DUMB ‘RULE OF LAW’ THING OVER ORANGE EMPEROR!!1!”
sort of related: I had to listen to a Beltway-type give a commencement address this week that was ‘both sides’ par excellence. It took everything I had to keep from standing up and going, “DUDE…stop lecturing each party in absentia and pick one principle, ANY principle of American law/government/society, and do a fact-based analysis as to which side is really off the rails here”
H.E.Wolf
I machete’d my way through the jungle of pop-up ads in the “Newsweek” article excerpted above, and couldn’t find where the solicitor general said that the current administration would obey the Supreme Court.
I’d love for it to be true, though – in spite of my lack of reading comprehension!
They Call Me Noni
@Nukular Biskits: Amy Coney Barrett knows how to deal with toddlers. She probably gave him some kind of “look” too!
MagdaInBlack
@H.E.Wolf: It’s in the second article, from ” The Farce.” He just barely chokes out an agreement, but he does.
Nukular Biskits
@They Call Me Noni:
I have my issues with Barrett, to be sure. But I’ll take this as a win.
Scout211
@H.E.Wolf: Here it is in more detail.
alquitti
Baby steps but better than nothing. Had Roberts refused to administer the oath of office – as he should have done after Trump tried to overturn an election – I would have been impressed.
Bulgakov
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
… Or maybe the smarter Dominionists have decided Trump is a sunk cost?
Jackie
I listened to the arguments live Thurs. You couldn’t see facial expressions, but boy howdy, you could sure hear the tones of voices. Even though Alito sided with FFOTUS, he had his skeptical moments with Sauer.
Chetan Murthy
I don’t believe that this is Repubs in Disarray. Instead, I think this is the Seditious Six reasserting their dominance over Trump. That is to say, “The Guardian Council is supreme, not President Ahmadinejad”. SCOTUS gave Trump all sortsof hints as to how to proceed on this “let’s pound on immigrants” and he took none of them; this is SCOTUS telling him more harshly to get with the system.
I look forward to disarray: it would be when Trump decides to go scorched-earth on the Seditious Six, and would probably include bombing/assassination attempts.
Jackie
@Chetan Murthy:
They wouldn’t need to reassert their dominance had they not declared the president is above the law while in office!😡
Jeffro
@Jackie: does Alito think that Sauer (or anyone) had a better argument?
or is reality starting to sink in with ol’ Sam?
Chetan Murthy
@Jackie: True dat. There’s a joke I read over at LG&M years ago:
I don’t think the Seditious Six actually care about or understand the rule of law anymore. If they did, they wouldn’t routinely blow up longstanding precedents, for instance. They think only in terms of power — as Leonard Leo raised ’em up to think. So it’s not surprising that they’re having this little tussle with Trump.
frosty
May I just say, AL, that’s it great to read that post title! Next, I’m happy to see your posts again. Now I’m off to read it … and see if my fellow jackals have anything [ * ] to add.
* Insert adjective of your choice.
Jackie
@Jeffro: No way! I think Alito’s questioning stemmed from Sauer’s weak sauce arguments. More like “come on man, you can do better – can’t you?”
prostratedragon
Never give up.
frosty
I couldn’t find it either, while desperately searching!
@MagdaInBlack: I should have read all the comments before I responded!
Gvg
If the court issues an opinion that the President can overturn the plain meaning of a constitutional amendment like birthright citizenship without another constitutional amendment, I would have to ignore them. That would be a crisis.
In almost all real cases the court stands supreme. I didn’t used to visualize a kook as President. Some of the court decisions have been IMO almost as stupid as Trump. Not slicing small points of law by experts, but ignorant of subject matter and bringing ideology into areas that aren’t even in the best interests of that philosophy. Some of them want what they want and are bad people who think they must be good. They are not wise and they don’t check with area experts.
Miss Bianca
I’m sure others have observed this before, but ain’t it funny that it’s *her* getting the grief, and not, say, Roberts or Gorsuch or Boof. We wonders what the difference could be, yes, we wonders…
Baud
@Miss Bianca:
You’re not wrong, but on substance, it’s also true that she has been the “best” of the bad 6.
SpaceUnit
What’s the court gonna do if the administration doesn’t follow through? Stamp their widdle feets? We have zero enforcement mechanisms right now.
Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
I agree with your take, “Respect my Authority” was their ruling, but not just for the White Supremacist Court, but all Courts.
TONYG
I guess that ACB is already getting death threats. That’s how the thugs in the Trump cult roll.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: You’re not wrong either. Certainly did not have “Amy Coney Barrett,
Justice WarriorBest of a Bad Lot” on my 2025 bingo card.//trollhattan
@Jackie:
That or “I told them not to hire this guy but did they listen?”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Chetan Murthy:
Disarray will only occur when the Orange Fart Cloud croaks.
Doc Sardonic
I see an almost infinitesimal possibility that maybe(maybe is doing a moderately heavy lift here) that Justice Barrett could be Mango Mussolini’s Justice Souter.
Ben Cisco
@Chetan Murthy: Agreed; I’d love to think that some semblance of fealty to the rule at law was in play here, but I cannot.
For now, I’ll take it.
Jackie
@Miss Bianca:
She has adopted children and the other two don’t? //
p.a.
Oh come on. Maybe she’s just getting pizza!😉
Miss Bianca
@Jackie: Sadly, no! I believe Roberts does as well. :)
Jackie
@p.a.:
Lots and LOTS of pizza 😁
Jackie
@Miss Bianca: I was being snarky – hence the “//“
Roberts wasn’t anointed by FFOTUS. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh were and they aren’t getting the MAGA hate Barrett is.
Hence my adoption snark, because it couldn’t be her missing cajones!
zhena gogolia
@Baud: She didn’t go to an Ivy, did she?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Notre Dame for law school.
Nukular Biskits
Since this is an open thread, I’ll throw this out there:
Was using the pressure washer to wash the car then clean the driveway, getting irritated about having to manage the garden hose, the high pressure hose and the electrical cord (my pressure washer is electric). The thought occurred to me that I’d pay good money for someone to invent a hoseless/cordless pressure washer.
Any takers?
zhena gogolia
@Baud: That’s no Ivy!
ETA: I’m embarrassed to have a degree from one of them. At least it isn’t a law degree.
TONYG
@p.a.: I wish that Trump supporters would send me some pizza. Preferably with beer!
Chetan Murthy
where would the water come from ?
Karen
I just read an article on Yahoo! news that Trump is now saying that the Supreme Court’s order is “illegal.” What happens next?
West of the Rockies
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished…
Nukular Biskits
@Chetan Murthy:
ACME dehydrated water?
ETA: Couldn’t resist: Looney Tunes – Dehydrated Boulder
zhena gogolia
@Karen: He backs down like a PAB.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Don’t be embarrassed. Lots of good people went Ivyies too.
RevRick
Off topic about the Supreme Court, but in the realm of Republicans in somewhat disarray, the UCC Environmental Justice Ministry sponsored its first national webinar on climate change legislation. The webinar featured journalist, Dana Nuccitelli, who shared with us the ins and outs of the Republican Reconciliation Bill. He presented a chart of what the Inflation Reduction Act aimed to achieve and how thoroughly the bill that has come out of the House Ways and Means Committee guts the various provisions. We then had a conversation about what tactical action we need to take. I shared with our group a letter to the editor I had submitted to the Morning Call, which should be published soon.
After the webinar was completed, our group offered their ideas about how we should proceed. One young woman, who attends West Chester University, shared her Gen Z perspective.
Basically, she has grown up hearing the dire warnings and have seen how hard it’s been to make even marginal progress. She told us that many of her friends are both paralyzed by despair and resigned to the bleak future they know is coming. Citing as an example, she told of her love of vacations on North Carolina’s Outer Banks and how she expects that that love will be stolen.
If you have a GOP Representative or Senator, please write a letter to the editor about the way the current Reconciliation bill poses a threat to our children’s future.
Timill
@Karen: Trump gets relocated to El Salvador?
H.E.Wolf
@MagdaInBlack:
@Scout211:
My thanks to you both! Much appreciated. I knew it had to be right there, and I was just missing it.
RevRick
@Baud: Like, perhaps, maybe, Yale Divinity School?
Jay
@Nukular Biskits:
A Kohler electric pressure washer requires a 30psi feed at a rate of 5 GPM. So that would require a huge tank with a pre-pump feed, so yeah, you need a water hose.
The two biggest issues with cordless, is it takes a ton of torque and power to get the pump to work. The second is electricity and water. You need a GFI to prevent electrocution,, so you would have to have a ground stake and a cable to drag around.
Jackie
@Karen:
Could you provide a link to that article, please?
Chetan Murthy
@Jackie: maybe this: yahoo.com/news/trump-endorses-idea-supreme-court-215112478.html
Jay
@TONYG:
They don’t prepay for it. It’s basically a racist Ding,Dong,Ditch, with death threats attached.
Nukular Biskits
@RevRick:
I would … but the local mullet wrapper, the Sun Herald, no longer does LTEs.
Plus, I can’t tell you the number of phone calls I made, emails I sent and social media posts in which I’ve directly tagged the members of my congressional delegation. They. Simply. Do. Not. Care.
Nukular Biskits
@Jay @Chetan Murthy:
I thought the absurdity of my “idea” would have been a dead give-away. Poe’s Law?
Still … a cordless/hoseless pressure washer would be nice … LOL.
Chetan Murthy
@Nukular Biskits: I remember when the Canadian lege elections were happening, and we learned that their populations go between 26k and 132k. Our Congressional district populations are between 545k and 990k. So …. way bigger population per district. Which only naturally means they care less what individual constituents think. And with Citizens United, The Money Power is always going to override. Sigh.
Chetan Murthy
@Nukular Biskits: oh ha. Nicely done.
TS
@Nukular Biskits:
I have issues with all of trump’s nominees, they lied about what they would do at SCOTUS and now see themselves as paragons of virtue – the tiger has turned on them, whatever did they expect after giving him supreme power.
TONYG
@Jay: Ha. OK, in that case I don’t want any pizza! (I’m actually surprised that a pizza place would go through the expense of a delivery without payment up front. Seems dumb to me.)
Chetan Murthy
@TONYG: In this day and age, with ubiquitous credit cards and internet, one would think so, wouldn’t one? It has been at least a decade since the last time I paid for a delivery at my door. But apparently some people still do ….
Nukular Biskits
@Chetan Murthy:
For me, this is exemplified by the refusal of so many congressional Republicans to hold town hall meetings or otherwise engage with constituents in any kind of real public forum where they (the congress member) can’t control the attendance, the narrative and the message.
They truly believe they’re not accountable.
MagdaInBlack
@TONYG: Call me naive too, cause I don’t know a single food place, pizza or other, that will deliver without payment when you place the order.
Jackie
@Chetan Murthy: Thanks! I guess I read something about that… a suggestion that Garcia and others deported illegally to El Salvador without Due Process should be returned and released in the Supreme Justices’ neighborhoods… and FFOTUS retweeted…
Here’s a snippet from your link:
@Karen: Is this the article you were questioning?
Chetan Murthy
@MagdaInBlack: You made me look *grin*: media.dominos.com/safe_food_delivery/
The Pizza Pedestal allows for you to complete cash transactions, or in certain circumstances, sign your credit card receipt, while the delivery expert maintains a safe distance.
2a. After your order arrives, place cash or your signed receipt in the open pedestal and your delivery expert will wait until you safely step back. You will then be provided with change if needed and your transaction will be completed.
Jackie
@MagdaInBlack:
Ditto my experience.
different-church-lady
I’m cynical enough to believe supremos are just like journalists: most of the time they’re perfectly willing to go along with all kinds of awful shit, but the moment you attack one of their own kind they circle the wagons.
MagdaInBlack
@Chetan Murthy: Ya but….. that would negate the anonymity of these pizza deliveries. Just sayin’ =-)
I’m not sure I’ve ever had Domino’s.
Jackie
@Chetan Murthy: In my neck of the woods, Domino’s requires payment before delivery. The only other option is going there and paying by card/cash before they’ll place that box of pizza in your hand.
Jay
@TONYG:
It’s a security thing. If they have your Credit Card or Debit on file, that’s an opportunity for a minimum wage/surviving off tips employee or Manager.
Pretty much every fast food place has an online order system, where you order a meal but don’t pay for it until you pick it up or Door Dash delivers it.
Chetan Murthy
@MagdaInBlack: I haven’t had Domino’s since the 80s (in grad school). But I would expect that when you order, you tell them your order, name, and delivery address. They take the pizza there, and since you can pay with cash, that means you didn’t have to provide a credit card #. So it’s anonymous right up to the when the driver presents the pizza at the doorstep, right?
Hence, anonymous from the POV of the person ordering these pizzas to judges’ houses.
different-church-lady
@Karen: That’s like arguing with God about whether you’re dead.
Chetan Murthy
@Jackie: I also have no recent experience with “payment upon delivery of food”. But that link goes right to a Domino’s website, so one presumes that there are areas of the country where that’s how it works.
NotMax
@comrade scotts agenda of rage
“Landru, help us!”
//
Jeffro
As always…it depends.
What court higher than the Supreme Court is trumpov appealing to?
(ask, snooze media, ASK)
And he lost 7-2 right? So it wasn’t even close in this day and age.
Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
The policy is usually up to the franchise owner. In area’s where there is a lot of “pranking” or ripoffs, prepay would be an option, sort of. Here, they use your phone number, see your history, and that is good enough to “trust” you.
NotMax
@Chetan Murthy
“Place your payment in the slot provided in the Tritan.”
;)
Jeffro
@Karen:
@Jackie:
so the correct question to the president* is, “if the Supreme Court is telling you ‘no, you can’t do this’…then other than ranting about it on (mis)Truth (un)Social, what are you planning to do?”
I don’t think he has the stones to defy them completely on this. He would rather slowly break our republic than outright call for defying SCOTUS. He knows his support in the GOP is hanging by a thread.
Nukular Biskits
@different-church-lady:
That’s probably true of a lot of humans … we tend to be very tribal.
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
Can’t remember if it was you that that recommended it, but the “I Bought TWO Hilariously Terrible Foam Cars” video was indeed hilarious.
Kayla Rudbek
@Nukular Biskits: I don’t just have issues with her, I have the full National Geographic subscription (I realized today that if Mr. Rudbek’s family hadn’t moved out of New Orleans, my siblings-in-law could have crossed paths with her. God, at least I was spared having her as a family member by marriage. Although I think my mother-in-law would have the good taste and judgment to not get along with her).
As it is, she was studying with the law school professors who were writing articles for the student newspaper about working women being selfish and bad mothers, bad Catholics, etc that I was reading as an undergraduate physics major. So she should not be surprised by the MAGA cult turning on her at all, and I would be the first to chime in with them and tell Mrs. Barrett to get back to the kitchen like they’ve been telling her to do for over three decades now.
Note: Some of my fellow physics students in my year were also sexist, but the professors and the physics department as a whole weren’t sexist (they actually had a good number of women professors in the physics department). But when the physics department is demonstrating less sexism than the law school, you know that the law school has a massive problem.
Omnes Omnibus
@alquitti: What effect do you think that would have had?
Another Scott
@Jay: Just after I finished school, in the late ’80s, I worked for a while for a small company that owned a bunch of Dominoes franchises. One of my jobs was to sort through returned checks. One stack of them was kinda shocking. Every one had different handwriting, some of them weren’t filled out right (signature didn’t match the name on the check), just obvious fraud. (It looked to me like someone’s shipment of new checks was stolen.). I was surprised that so much of it was so blatant, and that the delivery people for the stores took them.
But then I realized, it’s not their job to figure out if the check is good. Their job is to get the pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less (back when that was the guarantee – or it’s free).
I assume that it’s similar today. The delivery person wants to hand off the delivery and have the Stripe box (or whatever) go Ding and spit out the slip. If there’s something fishy about the payment, we’ll, that’s someone else’s job.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jackie
Getting back to FFOTUS and the Supremes decision…
I so admire and respect Joyce Vance! :-)
bbleh
I gotta say, even if some DOJ lawyer said “ok, yeah, I guess if we have to we’ll kinda sorta obey a SCOTUS ruling but jeez!,” it doesn’t really matter. The Orange Guy could say “no we won’t,” Bondi will agree vociferously and fire the lawyer who said they would, and MAGA world will cheer. And we’ll be right back where we were
And I would LOVE to agree with Joyce Vance, but [Catherine Zeta-Jones in Red 2] I don’t.
Kayla Rudbek
@Baud: and as I was saying to Nukular Biscuits, I am a Notre Dame alumna from around her time frame, so I was reading her law professors spouting off in the Observer (student newspaper) about how working women were selfish/bad mothers/bad Catholics for daring to work while having children when I was in undergrad, over three decades ago. I have absolutely no sympathy for Mrs. Barrett whatsoever.
The physics department was less sexist than those bastards were, and when you manage to be more sexist than your average physicist, you need to sit down and reflect on where your entire life has gone wrong.
Kayla Rudbek
@Nukular Biskits: cordless/battery powered might be doable, but how are you going to get the water into it?
different-church-lady
@bbleh: If the supreme court upholds the rule of law but nobody enforces it, what have we got?
Kayla Rudbek
@Nukular Biskits: I have a can of dehydrated water somewhere in this house…
Chetan Murthy
@Nukular Biskits: That is some HI-larious shit: youtube.com/watch?v=hJgGkRDyekU
Nukular Biskits
@Kayla Rudbek:
Star Trek transporter technology.
Jay
Chetan Murthy
@Jackie: I have to ask: everywhere I read that it was a 7-2 decision. But I don’t see anywhere in the decision itself, the names of the justices who voted for it, nor any 7-2 (I searched for “7” and for “Roberts”). Certainly Rapenaugh wrote a concurrence, and Alito/Thomas wrote a dissent. But the other 3 of the Seditious Six didn’t make their positions known, it would seem. For sure, at least one of them concurred with the decision (since 3 Dems + Kav + one more == 5) but that’s all we know.
Or so it would seem. Am I missing something?
Gretchen
@Jay: How do they send it without prepaying for it? What pizza place sends free pizza?
Jay
@Gretchen:
It’s not “free”, not paying for a delivery pizza is both fraud and theft. And yes, Police will show up.
The other aspect, is that you will wind up on a “list” that small businesses share these days, so, stiff the pizza guy at your own peril.
Another Scott
@Chetan Murthy: The link is in Jackie’s blockquote. I’ve downloaded it but not read it. The starting decision is “per curiam”, but Alito has his own.
HTH!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Gretchen
@Jay: That’s what I mean. It seems like it would be pretty easy to trace the sender through their phone number. But it seems stupid for pizza places that serve high government officials not to require credit card numbers.
Jackie
@Jay: I got “Page not found” with your link. I believe DOGE is 💯 responsible, but I wanted to forward that link to a few skeptics.
Chetan Murthy
My understanding is that with VOIP tech, you can spoof basically any ph# you want when you place a call. Apparently scammers use this to appear to be calling from, y’know, official agencies.
Jay
@Jackie:
mesoscalenews.com/p/tornado-warnings-delayed-because
Chetan Murthy
@Another Scott: right, I downloaded the PDF from supremecourt.gov and searched it.
Jackie
@Jay: THANK YOU! Forwarded to family/friends in TN and FL.
Another Scott
@Chetan Murthy: 2 dissented, so per curiam means the other 7 had the majority for the court decision.
IANAL.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jay
@Gretchen:
The order is basically a pizza, a phone number, a name and a delivery address.
The only check they do is if the phone number is to a non-payer and if the delivery address is in their “free delivery” area.
Gino’s has the best pizza, but we are 1km outside their delivery area.
Chetan Murthy
@Another Scott: That would be an obvious reading. Another would be that others dissented, but didn’t feel the urge to advertise that fact. I’m not saying that that happened, only that it isn’t obvious what did happen.
Jay
edition.cnn.com/2025/02/04/us/ice-impersonators-on-the-rise-arrests-made-as-authorities-issue-nation…
Kristine
@H.E.Wolf:
Try “Reader View” assuming it’s available in your browser . In Safari, it’s under View/Show Reader. It removes all ads.
Some online magazines have figured this out and have either set things so that only part of the article can be read or blocked access entirely. But it works for most sites.
trollhattan
What’s the tariff on Mexico Navy ships? “All your masts are belong to us.”
RaflW
@RevRick: Given that at least 27 have died in just two days of tornadoes here at the near-end of a long ass tornado season (even as a kid in Tulsa in the 70s, we had a tornado there in December!), and 30,000 acres of MN went up in smoke in 3 days this week in high wind/incredibly dry weather, and on and on, the crisis is about our kids futures and us right now.
Jackie
More at the guest link: wapo.st/3YS8Kwx
Another Scott
@Chetan Murthy: It’s a decision by the court as a whole (per curiam), and 2 dissented. I don’t know why they didn’t put their names on it, but only 2 dissented. It’s not unreasonable to simplify it for the masses as 7:2.
It looks like Alito’s dissent is the usual low quality pack of lies we’ve come to expect.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jay
@Jackie:
Facts would be nice. Mayor Ras Baraka was invited in, later asked to leave, so he left, then was arrested outside the Concentration Camp.
NotMax
@Nukular Biskits
Guilty as charged.
:)
Omnes Omnibus
@Chetan Murthy: No, you are overthinking it. Calling it 7-2 when it is a per curium decision with two people dissenting is the right way to go.
Jay
@Jackie:
One pundit pointed out that Dems should start making lists of Rethugs and charges and make them public, now.
Kayla Rudbek
I don’t know if Suzanne is around, but when I saw this article on CNN, I thought of how she’s said that the dudebros and Republicans hate the injected weight loss medications and regard them as cheating; the meds appear to work better for women than for men (one of the few instances I can recall of this) cnn.com/2025/05/16/health/glp-1-weight-loss-medications-women-men
Matt McIrvin
@Jackie: I’ve expected them to attempt to either arrest or shoot the entire Democratic contingent of Congress since Trump got in.
Jackie
@Matt McIrvin:
You and me both :-(
Elizabelle
@Another Scott: Fraudlito.
prostratedragon
@Jackie:
Think that would turn out to be a massed chorus.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@Matt McIrvin: well, when pervert hoover brings in six thousand troops and a bunch of tanks to DC for his birthday, it would be an opportune time for him to dissolve the senate and the house and put the bag on the congress and the senators.
sab
@Nukular Biskits: Eco has one already.
prostratedragon
ARM Cuauhtémoc at its previous stop in Jamaica
NYMag updates on Mexican ship accident
View of crash from Brooklyn shore
Elizabelle
There have been two deaths on the Mexican tall vessel that hit the Brooklyn Bridge tonight. Training vessel for cadets, 277 aboard on a goodwill tour. Next stop would have been Iceland.
So sad for Mexico and all those involved or who witnessed. Two other sailors are in critical condition; 19 injuries overall. Beautiful ship on an otherwise beautiful night.
From the FTF NY Times:
The NY Post also has a lot of stories, and they are not behind a paywall.
Jay
Elizabelle
@prostratedragon:
And that crash is the back of the ship. Who knows what happened as it was being piloted away from its berth; it was meant to head away from the Brooklyn Bridge. Have heard of a loss of power before the allision (we learned that term with the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse).
Jay
@Elizabelle:
It was reversing into the bridge under power.
WTF?
If you have ever helmed a sailing ship or sailboat, because of the hull shape and rudder position, it’s really tricky, more so for larger vessels at low speed, (suction effect). It’s not at all like going forward.
When I first got my sailboat, somebody called the Coast Guard on me. In an open area of water, I was practicing maneuvering the boat in reverse and stopping. Somebody thought I was in distress.
Elizabelle
@Jay: A NYPD source told NY Mag (?) the ship had lost power and it was the East River current that carried it under the bridge. So sad. I hate to see beautiful things wrecked, and the loss of life and injuries. Seeing that big Mexican flag on a goodwill tour. So disheartening.
Yay to you for being a good sailor. Have never learned, and would like to.
Cheers to that person who tried to get you rescued. Better to be safe than taking on water.
Jay
@Elizabelle:
Well, it was a PITA having the Coast Guard come alongside and board. They weren’t in a RIB or Boston Whaler, they were in a cutter, 50x larger than my sailboat.
And they didn’t “panpan” me ( call on VHF 16) which is common curtesy.
Then there was the conversation. When I explained what I was doing, their attitude was “nobody does that”.
Oh well.
They left, I kept practicing.
Elizabelle
@Jay: Maybe you were their training mission.
Jay
@Elizabelle:
They have been cut back to one station, Point Grey. 4 “boats”, Part time. I cutter, 2 RIB’s, one Boston Whaler. They had much better things to do.
I appreciate that they came, but a “panpan” call, well they could have done other things.
sab
@Elizabelle: No you don’t want to do that.
When I was a child in Florida (middle of three kids) my dad took up sailing as a family hobby. My brother and dad loved it. Everyone else hated it.
Going out on a boat and being yelled at for a few hours every weekend. The yelling was necessary but unpleasant because basically the wind is in charge and the captain has to get everyone doing the right thing immediately. And our inexperienced crew didn’t always know the right thing to do.
Eventually Mom rebelled, because she didn’t like being yelled at. My brother still likes to sail. The rest of us don’t.
sab
@Jay: Was that US Coast Guard or Canadian?
My husband was US Coast Guard Reserve years ago. He can barely swim, and knows nothing about sailing. He was ET. But the guys out in boats were career, not reserve, and highly competent
ETA Highly competent about ships, boats and sailing. Husband was competent about ET, just not about watercraft.
Geminid
New Jersey will hold primary elections June 10. The New Jersey Globe reported on a recent Emerson College poll that shows Rep. Mikie Sherrill pulling of a crowded field running for Governor with 28%. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and Rep. Josh Gottheimer were tied at 11%.
Sherrill is a former Navy helicopter pilot and attorney, and was one of the 40 Democrats who flipped Republican seats in 2018. Another one, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, is Virginia’s Democratic candidate for Governor.
Geminid
Israeli Kan News reporter Roi Kais posted a picture taken at the Vatican with this caption:
It looks like a nice, sunny day in Rome.
prostratedragon
Synergy represented in music [Monteverdi]
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@bbleh: I think Trump may try to disobey the court but…the deterrent may be on the underlings that have to carry out those orders. They’ve been operating in a gray area where DOJ has been telling them what they’re doing is legal until the courts say otherwise and the courts just definitely said otherwise.
And sure, this administration won’t press charges but they can probably imagine a future one that might. Sure POTUS has immunity but nobody else does so they’re facing legal consequences at some point in the future which may give a lot of them second thoughts.
prostratedragon
NOAA cuts fallout:
Not to worry though, DOGE boys are on it!
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
Tru dat, but in the case of journalists and the courts, it kinda negates the purpose of both institutions.
Baud
@prostratedragon:
Stop politicizing the tragedy by holding Republicans responsible for their actions.
Jackie
GOOOO BRUCE!!!