Here is a new way to get upset about stuff that I invented, and some thoughts on contextualizing things that are otherwise hard to comprehend. defector.com/a-dumb-new-w…
— David_j_roth (@davidjroth.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 3:53 PM
It is impossible to reduce this lovely piece to a ‘nut graf’ or three, but I know we jackals all love a good rant — Dave Roth, at Defector:
At some level, reading some sort of purpose over or onto the ongoing vandalism of the American state is doing a favor to the vandals. Picture a parent holding a screaming toddler on a crowded bus, looking that toddler in the eye, and calmly asking that yowling little booger to explain himself. A tantrum is a tantrum, and it is the nature of things like that to be both unreasonable and unreasoning; in this case, the noisy and furious protagonist of the tantrum is, depending upon your perspective, either the single worst and dumbest member of one generation or the single richest person on earth.
None of this is what you want, but it also just is what it is: incomplete and unreasonable people demonstrating the limits of their capacity to self-regulate in a way that makes everything worse for everyone else, without really offering the tantrum-author much beyond the satisfaction of turning all that un-understood inner chaos outward. You can’t give a child melting down like that what they want, because they do not know what that is. And so thinking about it at all means that you are already thinking about it more than the person thrashing around at the center of it.
There are some identifiable things at work, here, but identifying and understanding them only really does so much. It is true that the ongoing degradation and dismantling of the administrative state is grounded in and done in service to a number of stale, stupid, extremely well-entrenched political delusions—that the public sector and everyone working within it is inherently inferior to the more ambitious and adventurous members of the private sector, that any money spent on the public good is wasteful by definition and fraudulent as a matter of course, that all public endeavors are somehow fake or at any rate not as real as the profit-driven work done by corporations or the hardy pioneers in the drop-shipping or shitcoin spaces. It is also true, in a more specific sense, that it is fueled by Trump’s signature combination of abstraction and omnidirectional spite, which dictates that everything that does not personally benefit him is not just useless but an intentional and intolerable insult. But there’s only so much to do with any of that knowledge. Yes, absolutely, this is a lopsided snowball of elite idiocy idly rolled downhill from on high, but the fact that it is all so shoddy and stupid and careless does nothing to mitigate the fact that it has arrived some time later as an annihilating avalanche for everyone living below.
If there is anything to find at the bottom of all this, it’s a bet that none of this actually matters. Certainly none of it matters to the people overseeing the vandalism, who are finally and solely interested in themselves. The gamble, which is endlessly and compulsively escalated, double-or-nothing, is that none of this matters in a way that will get them in trouble. The idle sadism of it all is real, but what interests them most is the pursuit of getting away with it, and the proof of their suspicion that they really can do whatever they want. Certainly that is much more urgent and interesting to them than, say, funding cancer research or international food aid or whatever. It is the only aspect of any of this that is not abstract to them…
SiubhanDuinne
Oooh, how long have we had the “DOGESHIT” tag? This is first time I’ve noticed it. I like.
Eolirin
The logical conclusion there is very disturbing, since our systems seem like they’re going to let them get away with it, for the most part.
The only remaining limits on people behaving like that will then have to come from very difficult to contemplate directions
Because at the end of the day they do need to be stopped. Our survival, not just as country but as a species, depends on it.
different-church-lady
“Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
Dangerman
Some Amazon Computer is going to record for posterity that all I bought was Springsteen stuff.
Boss move.
ETA: As opposed to a Trump being a movement. Flush twice.
Gretchen
I just listened to Al Franken interview Michael Lewis about his book, Who is Government? It sounds fascinating. He got several writers to choose a government worker and interview them about their work. One guy studied coal mine collapse and set standards for making them more stable. Turns out the guy’s dad was an engineering prof at Princeton who studied why Gothic cathedrals were stable. He was a rebel who went into blue collar work and coal mining, and it wasn’t until Lewis interviewed him that he saw a parallel between his own and his dad’s work.
Another guy worked for the Coast Guard for 30 years, studying how things drift. Lewis said Americans are particularly good at falling off boats, and this guy’s work makes it possible to find people if the Coast Guard doesn’t get word of an accident for a few hours, giving them to ability to know where to look. I think DOGE fired this guy.
Another was trying to get a registry of rare treatments for things like amoebic encephalitis so doctors would have an idea of what to try. She hasn’t been fired yet but is laying low hoping she won’t be.
AM in NC
The part that resonated most with me was the insistence that we absolutely cannot “go back to 2015”. Each and every one of these fuckers needs to be “truth and reconciled” into a tiny cell, at best.
No more “looking forward not back”. These predators need to pay and serve as a clear example to others who may have similar evil dreams.
And we need to get serious about curbing the power of wealth to influence absolutely everything.
Betty
OT: Very sad news that Joe Biden has a very aggressive form of prostate cancer that has already spread to the bone. So unfair when the good guys get this blow while the bad guys roll on.
MazeDancer
We interrup this fine thread to scream “Not Joe”.
Mr. Biden has an aggressive form of prostate canver. It is in his bones.
Steve LaBonne
This is what an empire in terminal decline looks like.
Steve LaBonne
@MazeDancer: Such awful news. I was so hoping he could enjoy a few years of well-earned peaceful retirement.
Elizabelle
@MazeDancer: heartbreaking. Write more letters, now.
Dan B
@MazeDancer: The cancer is aggressive but responds to hormones. This is one bright spot.
JoyceH
What I think happens is that much of the government, the permanent civil service part, actually works so well and so seamlessly that they become invisible and people come to believe that they don’t need that any more.
Why do we need food safety laws? Why do we need mine safety inspectors or building inspectors or fire inspectors? Sadly, it’s going to take a series of catastrophes for people to remember, oh yeah, THAT’S why we had those government workers.
Old proverb says, “Before I tear down a wall, I find out why it was built in the first place.” Too many people ignore that, and learn better by bitter experience.
Betty
As announced by Maze Dancer, some very sad news that Joe Biden has a very aggressive form of prostate cancer that has already spread to the bone. So unfair when the good guys get this blow while the bad guys roll on.
Elizabelle
@Gretchen: sounds well worth a listen. And the government, at every level, is filled with public servants, scientists, and curious people.
All at the mercy of DOGE, which knows the value of nothing.
Baud
@JoyceH:
Agreed. Taking things for granted.
Steve LaBonne
@JoyceH: Shit, half our population couldn’t even remember in 2024 what happened from 2017-2020. Goldfish voters.
Gretchen
@JoyceH: They say that every workplace safety law is written in blood. I hope we don’t have to re-learn why each of these standards is in place.
Elizabelle
@Dan B: all the more reason to go for a cancer moonshot.
As opposed to grifting one’s way to the moon.
Please let Joe Biden survive The Felon, and live to see his Downfall.
Ohio Mom
@MazeDancer: Not good, very sorry to hear this.
When I first heard Biden was diagnosed with prostrate cancer, I thought, “There’s cancer and there’s cancer, let’s not jump to any conclusions, lots of cancers are very treatable.”
But metastasized cancer is almost always something you treat with the goal of prolonging life, not curing it. And that adjective, “aggressive,” shudder.
Now I will send a few moments considering that if Joe had won and was elected, we’d soon be swearing in our first woman president. Sigh…
trollhattan
What Vlad doing now?
Ksmiami06
@Steve LaBonne: I hate this timeline
Raoul Paste
@MazeDancer: God help him. If anyone deserved accolades and an enjoyable retirement, it is he.
Baud
@Raoul Paste:
100%
Gin & Tonic
Romanian election results are in and look good.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Hopefully more silver linings to the Trump effect.
Baud
Most of the Biden threads in my reddit bubble are full of decent people.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: That’s nice to hear.
New Deal democrat
Much as I would love to 100% hate the DOGE bros, at least one of them already contributed incalculably to our ability to know history:
https://www.rdworldonline.com/how-a-doge-engineer-and-former-spacex-intern-used-ai-to-decode-some-of-historys-oldest-sealed-scrolls/
“Before he joined the White House’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), 23-year-old engineer and former SpaceX software intern Luke Farritor was already making waves in digital archaeology. In 2023, he helped lead the Grand Prize-winning team in the Vesuvius Challenge—netting a portion of a $700,000 payout—by using state-of-the-art “autosegmentation” algorithms to virtually unroll a fragile Herculaneum scroll without physically cracking its carbonized layers.”
We will probably be able to read this entire carbonized ancient library because of the contribution of this kid.
Jay
@trollhattan:
The Estonians tried to intercept a sanctioned ruZZian Ghost Tanker the other day, in Estonian waters.
ruZZia sent out a fully armed SU-35 into Estonian airspace to “protect” the illegal ship.
So this is just revenge.
MazeDancer
@Ohio Mom: Have to admit I thought fleetingly of Kamala, too.
My knowledge of prostrate cancer is zero. But wondering why it wouldn’t have been caught sooner. He gets good care.
Maybe now Beto, Jake, and the Pod Bros will stop with the lying.
Baud
@New Deal democrat:
Unlike crypto, AI technology will actually have legitimate productive uses.
Aziz, light!
My former co-workers in U.S. Forest Service research all expect to lose their jobs this year. A large part of our work concerns mitigation of the effects of climate change — finding ways to adapt to the damage it will do to our forests, wildlife, ecosystems, and critically, the water supply to cities and farms throughout the West. Our counterparts elsewhere in the USDA look at what will happen to agriculture on a broader scale.
Well, we can’t allow any more of that waste and fraud, now can we?
Aziz, light!
@Baud: Enriching the owners by putting workers out of work being one of them.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Gretchen: I think DOGE fired the mine safety guy too, along with all of the “non-essential” air traffic control electricians. Boy, those electricians sure were not important, no?
Baud
@Aziz, light!:
A lot of technologies have done that.
Another Scott
@AM in NC: Agreed, but given the way things are now, the only way we can hold people accountable is by having enough of a majority to do so. The MAGA folks have shown that they will fight anything that stands in the way of ever increasing power for themselves. That means for us – winning elections.
Everything else follows from that. Appointing sensible US Attorneys, appointing sensible judges, writing and enacting sensible legislation, and changing the zeitgeist to show the normies and the weakly attached that there is a better way.
If we cannot win enough elections to have large enough majorities, then we’re going to be flailing around while the monsters continue to break and steal everything they can.
If that means voting for quasi-right-wing Democrats to win enough seats to have enough of a majority, then I’m fine with that. Even thought I know that we have a clear path for faster progress if we would only take it…
“Just win baby” – N. Pelosi.
There is the alternative, of course, of taking to the streets and things that can follow from that. But that usually involves a lot of death and destruction and progress being (at best) stalled for decades or longer. I’d like to avoid that path, myself, by working on the “win elections” one first.
My $0.02.
Best wishes,
Scott.
SiubhanDuinne
Please. It’s PROSTATE, not PROSTRATE. Thank you.
</pedant>
Jay
The Audacity of Krope
@SiubhanDuinne: Prostrate being the position Putin demands Trump assume when they meet in private.
Baud
@The Audacity of Krope:
Putin doesn’t even have to demand. They have a mature relationship.
Betty Cracker
@New Deal democrat: That’s nice. Still, fuck that guy.
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: I think of it like a standing order…erm, for lying. Trump knows his role.
Jay
bbleh
Certainly none of it matters to the people overseeing the vandalism, who are finally and solely interested in themselves … what interests them most is the pursuit of getting away with it, and the proof of their suspicion that they really can do whatever they want.
I think this is certainly true, although the latter more of the Orange Guy and Elmo and not necessarily of many of the hangers-on, whose real interest seems to be grabbing as much of value for themselves as they can.
But just as importantly imo, I think it explains a LOT of the Orange Guy’s political attraction for a large chunk of Americans. They want to be able to get away with anything too, and the fact that he seems to be doing this makes him admirable to them and worthy of their support. They identify with the guy. And similarly, their political behavior amounts to little more than a tantrum.
We are, for the moment, ruled by cranky children.
Jay
https://www.muskwatch.com/p/musk-promised-budget-cuts-he-delivered
Felon Husk has all your data and he’s turned it over to Palantir.
No One of Consequence
For your consideration, a new rotating tagline submission:
“America, your ass is showing…”
I am so old that used to be an embarrassing thing. Which kind of already contains the bare ass sentiment right there in the description.
Too meta? Too old? I’m not Boomer, I’m Xgen! Pretty long in the tooth Xgen, but still.
If I don’t try to make myself laugh, I’ll surely pick up crying.
-NOoC
Baud
According to Reddit, someone convinced Trump not to be a demon with respect to Joe. Who knows if it’ll last, but it’s one less thing to worry about for now.
AM in NC
@Another Scott: Exactly. We need to win, and win again, and win again until we can clear out the rot.
Because I do not want violent revolution.
Jay
@Baud:
It’s not yet the Witching Hour when DJTdiot rants in all caps on UnTruth Social.
JPL
@Baud: WaterGirl should have a contest on how many hours trump can go without bashing Biden. The prize is a donation to the politician of your choice. 29 hours would be my guess.
The Audacity of Krope
Who needs Trump when we got Tapper?
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Hmm, I don’t know ways of convincing a demon, other than the Lord commanding him to go into the swine, and the swine then throw themselves over a cliff. Good times.
Josie
@Betty Cracker:
I agree. Being able to read those scrolls is nice, but the damage he and the others have done to our country is more important (to me).
The Audacity of Krope
Facilitating indulgence seems to work.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: That remains to be seen.
Machine learning, broadly construed (often characterized as “AI”)? Yes, that can be useful. (I’d be something of a hypocrite if I didn’t think so.)
Generative AI, LLMs, AI image generation? Well, the language translation technology that LLMs emerged from, where the output is supposed to stay semantically close to a target text, is very useful. The other uses it’s been put to seem mostly destructive so far. I’m actually not as concerned about the power/environmental aspects, though that is particularly bad for the art machines, as with their ability to create and launder bullshit. Often the problem is not what they CAN do so much as what human beings BELIEVE they can do, and the difference between those two things.
These systems need some check against reality that they currently don’t have and that many of the people who use them don’t want them to have.
Jay
@JPL:
It’s about 4 1/2 hours until rant time in DC. Ditto for the Florida swamp.
I don’t think he’s going to make 29 hours.
JoyceH
@Another Scott:
Don’t discount taking to the streets, and don’t assume that it will involve death and destruction. Most of the dictators of the later half of the 20th century were overthrown by peaceful protest. Russia is an ungodly mess right now, but let’s never forget that after Reagan spent trillions and the US rattled sabers, the Soviet Union was overthrown by the unarmed citizens of Moscow.
And our own peaceful protests are also having impact, agonizingly slow though it may be. The Supreme Court has certainly got the message that NOTHING this administration is doing is popular or even slightly acceptable, and even a few Republicans in Congress are starting to catch on. And Elon sure isn’t prancing around with chainsaws lately.
All of that awareness helps, it’s moving things in the right direction. Bukele is able to be ‘the world’s most popular dictator’, because the things he was going really DID have public support. The public supported his concentration/slave labor camp because gangs and crime really WERE out of control, unlike the myths the Trump administration is trying to make us believe here. Well, the other day, there was a demonstration against the Trump human shipments to El Salvador. There’s been plenty of those, but wait – this one was in EL SALVADOR. At BUKELE’S HOUSE. I’m sure he’s starting to wish he’d never had anything to do with the Trump administration and I’m sure other autocrats where they’re trying to line up more places to send the folks they round up are looking at the international outrage and thinking, better keep away from this mess.
JPL
@Jay: His handlers are getting him ready for the Putin conversation and want him to remain calm. That’s why I think tomorrow night.
You’ll probably right. “as bad as I feel for Joe, remember the damage he has done to our great country. djt
Spanky
Take good news where you can find it, in this case CNN:
Princess
@New Deal democrat: see, that just makes me even angrier with Farritor. He made a genuine contribution and is clearly bright enough to have done many more positive actions. And he threw it all away for a mess of pottage, working for Doge.
zhena gogolia
@JoyceH: Reagan and the saber-rattling had an impact.
Jackie
@Raoul Paste: Amen
Jay
@JoyceH:
Gretchen
@Princess: And could very well end up spending years in prison if anyone decides to enforce the laws against entering government systems you don’t have clearance for and exporting government information to places that aren’t vetted for that.
Jay
@Gretchen:
C’mon, it’s not like he gave away military secrets on a Discord chat.
Elizabelle
Mordant thought, but I hope disclosure of Biden’s diagnosis kills sales of Jake Fucking Tapper’s book dead.
How much do the cool kids want to be seen dancing on a grave now? They were disgusting before, but this might bring a lot of them up short.
Ohio Mom
@MazeDancer: An aggressive cancer moves fast. There may not have been anything to catch at Biden’s physical before the one that caught it. Some cancers are just speedy, metaphorically going from 0 to 100 mph in seconds.
Meanwhile, the type of breast cancer I had can take over10 years to grow big enough to be seen in a mammogram or felt through a manual exam. That’s why I said, There are cancers and there are cancers. It’s very complex condition.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle: I think you’re being optimistic. It will boost his sales.
Elizabelle
@Spanky: Wunderbar.
I did not read any of the “oh noes! Romania might go authoritarian!” articles because thought there was a chance voters were watching the Trump $hit $how and thinking “no thank you. We did that before.”
Elizabelle
@No One of Consequence:
works for me. Could be your a$$ is showing, too.
I do not take any pride in the imbeciles’ voting for Trump, especially once they had already seen him in action. Or for those who voted for Biden but could not show up for Kamala. Fuck ’em.
Geminid
@Spanky: Here’s some more good news, in an article by Axios’s Barak Ravid titled, “Israeli Cabinet approves resuming immediate humanitarian aid to Gaza”.”
https://www.axios.com/2025/05/18/gaza-humanitarian-aid-israel
Still no ceasefire though.
Jay
@Elizabelle:
The Romanian Government came down hard on a bunch of the election manipulation from last time.
There will probably be greater repercussions after the election settles.
Another Scott
@JoyceH: Good points. Thanks.
I was sloppy.
Yes, indeed, mass protests have a noble history, even here in the USA.
I was thinking more in terms of January 6, and Black Wall Street, and Haymarket, and similar things. Monsters can whip up protests, valid protests can be hijacked, etc., etc.
We need to fight to win elections against the monsters, and be aware of the dangers if we don’t.
Thanks again.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jackie
@Jay:
I’m hoping Springsteen’s latest FU challenge and FFOTUS’s enragement(s) at the Supremes will occupy him for another night.
Plus, if Johnson’s House vote tonight fails again…
Fingers crossed 🤞🏻🤞🏻
Jay
@Geminid:
Take it with lots of salt.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Aziz, light!: anything that does not personally benefit this president and his cronies is on the chopping block
Elizabelle
@Jay: Good to know. Unlike in our Beacon of Democracy.
Make me an offer! Everything is for sale.
Bupalos
@Ohio Mom: I wish I could help myself because the last thing we need to do is this… but…. For Harris’s sake and our future women and minority candidates, in the interest of not having us draw bad lessons from a loss:
if Joe could have won then Kamala would have won. She was more popular, elevated our chances, and ran a better campaign than Joe was physically capable of. Women win elections at a higher rate than men, and ethnic minorities since they started getting nominated for president have vastly outperformed whites relative to their percentage of the population by a huge factor. The marginal difference between 2020 and 2024 for Trump was provided overwhelmingly by non-white voters. Harris had almost the exact same performance with whites that Biden did.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@No One of Consequence: I very much second that entire comment
Jackie
@Spanky:
YAY!!! Another loss for FFOTUS! Canada, Australia, Romania 3, FFOTUS 0 :-D
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Elizabelle: isn’t this whole focus on President Biden odd? These reporters forced him out of the race.
Focus on the man causing the mess right now. For goodness sake, fourth estate do your job while you still can!
Jay
Hot Take.
Elizabelle
@HopefullyNotcassandra: Most of the Fourth Estate is careerist morons. They are PR for the wealthy and the deluded. Cheap infotainment.
Geminid
@Jay: Like I said on an earlier thread, we’ll know tomorrow whether or not this happens.
Elizabelle
@Jackie: Not to mention, we got a Pope in Francis’s image. An American, yet, who is quite different from his own MAGAt brother.
He knows what he is up against.
Princess
@Elizabelle: That was my first thought so come sit here by me.
LeftCoastYankee
The idea that trying to understand the rage nonsense immediately made me think of one of the bloggers at Emptywheel who is analyzing Curtis Yarvin’s “philosophy”.
I suppose it’s worth having a textual explanation to refer to for historical purposes, but in the moment it feels like giving legitimacy to sycophantic evil nonsense as serious thoughts.
Elizabelle
@Princess: Thank you. Bringing my
teaadult beverage. A bracing martini with a twist would be good.prostratedragon
@SiubhanDuinne:
Aaaaaaa-mennn🎶
Elizabelle
Holding Mexico and all the sailors and crew on the Cuauhtémoc in my heart today. And all the first responders.
Tragic. I hate to see destruction of beauty, and the injuries and loss of life. Hope they can repair the ship in time for next year.
We are, sadly, celebrating our 250th with a Moron at the helm of our own ship of state. Cuauhtémoc had planned to participate.
Jackie
@Elizabelle: Oh, yes!
Canada, Australia, Pope Leo XIV, Romania 4, FFOTUS 0
:-D
Spanky
@Elizabelle: That wasn’t even a close fit. Inexplicable that they would run under that bridge
A thought: They read the height above water as meters when it was in feet.
Jay
@Spanky:
Ship was going backwards, in the current.
Seems so far like a power failure and a loss of helm.
Elizabelle
@Spanky: The tall ship never intended to pass under the Brooklyn Bridge. It was heading the other way, its path was out toward the Statue of Liberty and eventually Long Island and the Atlantic.
It lost power, and the East River current carried the ship’s back (its stern) into the bridge.
Makes me wonder how quickly a ship of that size can deploy an anchor. It is not a tanker; seems to be a relatively light craft, for its size. Who knows?
Anyway, tragic. And I am sorry the young cadets do not get their international cruise.
Spanky
@Elizabelle: @Jay: Thanks for the explanation.
Raoul Paste
I want to note that Jimmy Carter was diagnosed with cancer, and lived to be…100? 99? I forget. And yes, different cancers have different prognoses.
Still…
We were saving the very last available episode of Ted Lasso to console us after some horrible future event perpetrated by you-know-who, but I think we will watch it tonight. I am quite sad.
Sister Golden Bear
Mixed news from Portugal’s election today. The ruling center-right Democratic Alliance won the election, with about a third of the vote, but fell short of majority. Backstory: Snap election was called after the center-left Socialists accused the PM of corruption.
Fortunately, the PM has refused to make any deals with Chega, but that means he’ll have to piecemeal together a majority support, and a coalition with a smaller pro-business parties won’t provide enough votes.
But as someone considering moving to Portugal, Chega’s rise is definitely concerning.
MazeDancer
@Ohio Mom: Yes, thanks for explanation. Let’s hope Mr.Biden’s can be “managed” for many years to come.
Elizabelle
@Sister Golden Bear: What might save you (and Portugal) is that the oldest voters remember living in a dictatorship. And will have told their children and grandchildren about that. None of this fantasy stuff.
rikyrah
@MazeDancer:
🙏🏽🙏🏽😪😪😪
Jay
@Elizabelle:
People think that just dropping an anchor does the job.
The anchor needs to be dropped, and then “bedded”, (dug into the bottom).
On a 26 ft sailboat, with seriously oversized anchors, 70 feet of heavy chain, prepped and ready for dropping the anchor, 5 minutes.
And it all depends on the bottom. Certain anchor patterns work better for sand and silt, others, gravel, others, rocks and rock ledges.
Back when I had a boat, T and I went out to the Gulf Islands. Plan A failed. No wind, T got violently sea sick, so Plan B, Shelter Harbour, (Wreck Beach) for the night. Woke up in the morning to find that all the log booms had surrounded us. Worked our way out, had wind, learned that T sleeping on the boat overnight really helped with her sea sickness, made it to Porlier Pass, in time for the tide change, made it to Crab Bay.
Went to set anchor in Crab Bay, but the Zodiac was not snugged up. When towing a skiff or inflatable, you let enough “halter” out to about 2 wave forms. so it doesn’t get swamped.
So the tow rope wrapped around the prop shaft when I reversed to bed the anchor. Problem. T apologized. (her job).
So, she stripped naked, put a knife in her mouth like an Olde Time Pirate, and dove overboard to cut the prop and propshaft free.
Clam Bay in May.
She lasted about 15 seconds in the water. F’n cold.
Got her back aboard, wrapped her in towels, blankets and fleece and a hot cup of “blueberry tea”. (amaretto and Earl Grey).
Lashed a knife to the boat hook and cut the towrope free while staying dry.
God, I love that woman so much.
Jackie
Breaking GOOD news per MSNBC:
NJ Transit ends strike that shut down NJ trains for the weekend, per the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainsmen. They reached a deal and will return to work Monday and trains will be running on their regular schedules.
Gin & Tonic
@Jay: Hope she is doing well.
Sister Golden Bear
@Elizabelle: Things happened extremely fast for a ship, especially a sailing ship, which seemingly suffered an engine failure and consequently loss of helm. She wasn’t a supertanker but still weighed 1,800 tons.
The tide had just turned, and a fast current was heading up the East River as a 10 mph wind set in—which meant even though the sails were still furled, they still caught enough wind to contribute to the backwards motion.
Dropping anchor immediately still probably wouldn’t have prevented bridge collision because it’s weight of the anchor chain lying on the bottom that provides the holding power, rather than the anchor flukes digging in, so it usually requires a fair bit behind the water.
prostratedragon
@Elizabelle:
More on ARM Cuauhtémoc, its specifications and history.
They Call Me Noni
@Jay: you damn well better!
Jay
@Gin & Tonic:
Well, she gave up on being a Pirate and became an Administrator instead.
Elizabelle
@prostratedragon: Thank you. Know you were interested, and distressed, about the accident last night.
Gin & Tonic
@Jay: I was talking about the recent health issues. But you don’t need to answer.
Elizabelle
@Sister Golden Bear: Everything working against them. So sad.
When I saw the video, I thought they might have chosen dusk especially because the ship’s lights were so festive at that hour. And cooler and easier for those who turned out to cheer the ship on its departure.
Time and tide.
Timill
@Jay: not like a Proper Modern Pirate then…
Jay
@Sister Golden Bear:
The anchor works as an anchor.
The chain asks as “scope”.
Slow curve up to the boat, so the “pull” from the boat/ship is horizontal not vertical which keeps the anchor from breaking out.
That’s why you can set an anchor, and it will (given right anchor, enough scope) and it will hold a 10 ton boat in place, but when you pull forward over the anchor, you can lift it with just muscle power or a small winch.
I
/
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——-
———-
——————
————————–
Jay
Okay, the graphic didn’t work at all.
Elizabelle
@Jay: Yeah. Dropping an anchor is not like flipping a switch.
And T has many talents! May you have years of sailing ahead of you, if you still get out there.
Jay
@Elizabelle:
Lost the boat, lost lot’s of stuff. Sucks to be poor.
Still have the memories.
Jay
@Gin & Tonic:
Thank you, we are both doing well.
Sister Golden Bear
@Jay: Yeah, assuming from the videos I’ve seen, the crash probably took less than 20 seconds and the ship moved less than its entire length—probably a lot less.
So even if they’d managed to drop anchor immediately, they still would’ve been pretty vertical on the anchor.
FWIW, here’s a maritime expert’s analysis, I’ve just started watching it, but his other analyses have been well-informed.
Other MJS
“This is another part of the bet, and the principle upon which this whole hideous gamble is leveraged: that any expense, when committed to something as abstract as the common good, will seem preposterous and wasteful in a way that it won’t when it’s dedicated to one deserving individual.”
prostratedragon
@Elizabelle: Something about ships grabs me. Audacious but, if one is at all aware, humbling at the same time.
prostratedragon
I have been remiss:
Jay
Norman Maclean, “A River Runs Through It”.
When I was a kid. my parents always knew how to find me when I wandered off.
Find the water.
Took by ex-bro out and BFF Steve out one day in a Force 4. No biggie. I had rigged the boat that all sail handling could be done from the cockpit, built a new custom fiber carbon rudder, (weather helm), new carbon fiber tiller.
8 foot waves, smooth sailing. Up down. Meanwhile a trawler was struggling west on our same path, 450 hp, making half our speed, with waves breaking over the flying bridge.
Fight Mother Nature with BFI, or go along, get along.
That’s what I loved about sailing, go with the wind, go with the current, she tells you what to do.
catclub
See also John Roberts and the Voting Rights Act demolition.
That was intentional blindness, since RBG was showing them all the ways it was still needed and they ignored those.
Jay
Radley Balko
@radleybalko.bsky.social
· 3h
It isn’t even the lying. It’s that this an unnecessary, easily disproven lie in the service of an insane obsession from a delusional old man. It’s a demonstration that the head of the FBI will do anything for Trump, no matter how degrading.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
· 9h
The Director of the FBI is openly lying to the American public about Canada being a major source of fentanyl.
In the first three months of 2025, a grand total of 1.35 lbs of fentanyl was seized by border officials at our border with Canada — 0.06% of total seizures.
Jay
BTW, CCA boats have keels and rudders based on “learned” experience.
Post CCA (1976) have rudders and keels based on “science”. NACA from WWII.
So, Coanda II once I fixed her up, ($2600 for 26′ boat when I bought her) had a NACA keel, all lead instead of iron, and an NACA elliptical rudder of carbon fiber. Had some money then.
No weather helm. Top speed went from 8 knots, to 14 knots.
Hell of a boat. Got banned from PHRF raceing, locally. They did not like that I could beat their teams, single handed.
She did me well. Got me though a year and a half of being unhoused.
sab
We will suffer for a generation at least for what these adolescent twerps at DOGE are doing to our government. Nobody with any sense will sign on to do a government job knowing they might be fired at the next election. Any most government workers are highly competent people in their fields who are willing to get less money for public service plus job security.
Jay
@sab:
No more job security. Yup.
sab
@sab: I really hope there is some way to criminally punish these twerps. Ignorance is no excuse in criminal law, and I really doubt they are as ignorant as they profess to be.
Some of the national security laws they are breaking have long sentences.
Jackie
What I’m hearing, is that if Walmart raises prices, that gives other retailers “permission” to raise their prices. Walmart is generally known for the lowest prices for middle/low income families.
Once Walmart prices start going up, normies who casually watch the news, and see prices climbing, are going to start demanding to know why. FFOTUS promised voters who primarily shop at Walmart that prices would go down immediately starting Jan 21.
Bessent has to be sweating bullets knowing FFOTUS isn’t going to be happy with his confession acknowledging higher prices are on their way.
Jay
@Jackie:
Bessent has billions of dollars to coast on.
Jay
Bessent has $521 million dollars at least.
He won’t be hurting.
Eyeroller
@Raoul Paste: Jimmy Carter had wildy metastatic melanoma and was one of the rare complete responders to Keytruda (immunotherapy drug) i.e. it cured him. Usually, if it works, it just provides a long period of remission.
Aggressive cancers in general very frequenly metastasize before the primary tumor gets all that large. In the case of prostate cancer, the bones are often the first site and often even relatively slow-growing prostate cancers get there eventually. If Joe’s cancer is hormone-sensitive it likely can be managed for quite a while with side effects that probably aren’t too severe at his age.
Jackie
@Jay: That won’t keep him out of FFOTUS’s doghouse.
Jay
@Jackie:
Empty shelves will have more impact than prices.
Jackie
@Jay: Both are true. Empty shelves = higher prices when the shelves temporarily have products after being empty.
Jay
@Jackie:
It’s a 188 wheel underbus, when it happens.
The US’s God Emperor is never at fault.
Jackie
@Jay: LOL
Jay
@Jackie:
I hold that the price thing is BS.
I don’t track gas prices or egg prices, or look that closely at a grocery bill.
I really only noticed when my favorite coffee went from $15 to $21,
Then I bought 9 bags of beans when it went to $8.99.
Jackie
@Jay:
As a senior living on a fixed income, I notice EVERY price change. I’m happy you don’t have that concern, but many people do.
Jay
@Jackie:
We buy rock cod, when I don’t catch it or flounder, (sole). Cheap.
Salads right now are lime trees and dandelions.
About half our food is forage.
Can’t forage for coffee.
T’s birthday was not the traditional lobster, but duneginess crab I waded out for.
Jackie
@Jay: You really don’t get what seniors on a fixed income are facing with rising prices. People in their 70’s, 80’s don’t generally have the capability to forage.
I’m a coffee addict, too, but other than stocking up on a few extra cans of Kirkland coffee, my budget doesn’t allow stocking up on other things. Even if I had a freezer other than the one attached to my refrigerator, I don’t have the financial luxury to stock up. Your flippant response to seniors facing prices going up beyond their monthly means…
I’m at a loss for words.
Jackie
@Jackie: And not just seniors. ANYONE on a fixed income will struggle trying to eat AND pay essential monthly bills like rent, utilities.
sab
@Jackie: Jay is Canadian. He doesn’t much care about our costs of living. He just doesn’t want us to invade. His people would kick our peoples’ ass, but a lot of people would die in the process.
Jackie
@sab: Maybe so, but his flippancy towards humans struggling with the upcoming COL hurts.
Kayla Rudbek
@New Deal democrat: and I would bet at least a month’s salary that his girlfriend or someone else did the work for him, as none of the other DOGE members seem to have any expertise, and birds of a feather flock together.
Kayla Rudbek
@zhena gogolia: rewriting the instruction manual of the universe to allow even Lucifer Morningstar to repent and come back to the side of good is about the only thing that I can think of (Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series), or Oliver Cromwell saying “I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you might be mistaken?”
Kayla Rudbek
@Jackie: at this rate, we will have the entire solar system voting against Trump by the end of the year (as I said over on Bluesky)
Kayla Rudbek
@sab: if they are brought to trial, it will be as adults https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-117-federal-juvenile-delinquency-code
pluky
@MazeDancer: As a prostate cancer survivor, my first thought was how did his annual physicals for the last few decades not include PSA level screening.
pluky
@Spanky: They had no intention of going under the bridge. Lost power, and the flood tide pushed them up river into it.