#Hurricane #Melissa leaves trail of destruction across #Cuba, #Haiti and #Jamaica. www.npr.org/2025/10/29/n…
— ZenArchie (@zenarchie.bsky.social) October 30, 2025 at 2:47 AM
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Higher prices, less help and a government shutdown hang over health insurance markets as shoppers start looking for coverage this week.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) October 29, 2025 at 1:00 PM
I am not sure what they hope t achieve by lying about this. People are already learning what their new premiums and out of pocket expenses are going to be and it is not 13 dollars.
— Stephen Nuñez (@socio-steve.bsky.social) October 29, 2025 at 4:14 PM
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These people have civilian jobs. It's one thing to mobilize them for an emergency or a legitimate war, another thing to send them to American cities to stand around and mill about. You're messing with people's careers to further a hostile and idiotic agenda.
— Brandon Friedman (@brandonfriedman.bsky.social) October 29, 2025 at 9:11 PM
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interesting to see that the supermarket publications have had significantly more courage to speak plainly than the prestige press this time around
— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 29, 2025 at 1:03 PM
(Rex Huppke, author of that op-ed, has been consistently good at dinging the Trump maladministration.)
===
And there are still people working to make the world better!
Alabama State University President Dr. Quinton T. Ross Jr. said the donation is "the largest single donation in its 158-year history."
— USA TODAY (@usatoday.com) October 29, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has made a monumental donation to another historically Black college or university (HBCU), which the school is touting as a “defining moment.”
In a social media post on Monday, Oct. 27, Alabama State University President Dr. Quinton T. Ross Jr. confirmed that Scott, the former wife of billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos, gifted the school $38 million.
Scott’s donation is the latest in her philanthropic efforts to Black institutions and programs. This month, she donated $63 million to Morgan State University in Baltimore and $38 million to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne.
Another one of Scott’s recent donations includes $40 million to the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, part of the Washington-based National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Action Fund said in a press release on Oct. 15 that Scott’s $40 million donation comes after another $20 million investment made just four years ago.
The Action Fund’s efforts include the preservation of historically Black sites such as churches and hotels, as well as raising money for HBCUs…
Scott, who has an estimated net worth of $33.9 billion, also made Forbes’ 2025 list of the 400 richest people in the United States, ranking No. 28.
In 2020 alone, she donated millions to several other HBCUs, including Hampton University, Howard University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Tuskegee University, and Xavier University of Louisiana.
On The Road – 🐾BillinGlendaleCA – Seven Lakes.
WTFGhost
My tortured path through near-sanity continues for another day. Alert my fan club.
(I don’t have a press secretary, so, I’m never disappointed when my press secretary doesn’t inform my fan club.)
Seriously. It’s a bad day when you need THC to make more intelligent decisions.
Baud
I would consider MacKenzie Scott for 2028. Just saying.
Baud
Peace of mind for pregnant jackals.
WTFGhost
@Baud: There’s something just wrong about him using phrasing like “sufficient proof,” or “meaningful evidence” or “statistical outlier,” like he has any idea of what he’s talking about.
No wonder Trump likes him so much.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Baud: Well if HE says it then it must be true. But in this case he’s probably right, grudgingly.
JoyceH
@Baud: RFK needs to get that info express to Ken Paxton – the Texas idiot sued Tylenol for “hiding” the alleged Tylenol-autism link.
Suzanne
Donating to colleges and universities, what a coastal elitist. Not a real working person.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Baud: I don’t know about her as a candidate but she’s certainly living proof that Jeff Bezos is far from infallible because he traded waaaay down when it comes to wives.
Deputinize America
@Suzanne:
A real Champion of the White Working Man would have donated that to a glibertarian think tank that would advocate crushing unions, eliminate minimum wages, slashing top tier taxes and slashing worker pay in order to unleash the creative dynamism in the minds of the Creators of Great Wealth as God, Jean Calvin and Ayn Rand intended.
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne: Making MAJOR donations to HBCUs specifically is pretty damned amazing.
Shalimar
I am happy she is using her $33.9 billion for good causes, and depressed as hell there are 27 assholes richer than her who are probably donating huge amounts to prop up Republican white supremacy.
satby
Mackenzie Scott is a beautiful person, inside and out. She’s well rid of her ex.
Pure speculation, but I wonder if her refusal to get the kinds of plastic surgery the current Mrs. Bezos has had (on his dime) is part of why they split. They started out looking kind of similar, now Lauren Sanchez looks like an inflatable sex doll with very bad taste.
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot: She’s incredible and I have nothing but praise for her.
I was being sarcastic. It’s gonna be That Kind Of Day.
WTFGhost
@Professor Bigfoot: Just had this weird realization while I got my THC up to proper levels. Trump probably thinks they’re HBCUs because they discriminated against white students.
Let’s be honest: even given the source, we all know it’s true.
WTFGhost
I’d be glad to share my 9lb Hammer concentrate, but you normal folks probably have jobs and families and friends ;-). (9lb Hammer is an indica, and has a good mellowing effect, reducing the need for, but not necessarily the expression of, sarcasm.)
Still, I can smugly say I’m unaffected by all the hubbub about Mackenzie Scott, by virtue of having too little brain to know who the eff she is, pardon my French Ms. Scott.
In point of fact, the vague memory, and the allusions here, restore me to being pretty sure who Mackenzie Scott is, and “pretty sure” usually has to be good enough.
satby
Rex Huppke started at the Chicago Tribune, he’s pretty consistently good in his columns. Used to follow him at the bird place.
Betty Cracker
@satby: Sanchez really does look like an inflatable. It’s bizarre that people pay lots of money to turn themselves into objects, but here we are.
Ramalama
I hope the news of Mackenzie Scott’s donations adds little scorch marks to Bezos’ psyche. Or scrote. I’d take either.
Ben Cisco
Good morning!
Mackenzie Scott is being celebrated today – That donation is SIGNIFICANT.
I didn’t attend an HCBU (until enrolling in one for my currently-aborted graduate studies), but several generations of my family have, including ASU.
Geo Wilcox
@JoyceH: No let Paxton embarrass the hell out of himself. Again.
mappy!
Apropos… Frances Perkins
Dorothy A. Winsor
The Supreme Court refused to halt an order staying the deployment of the National Guard in Chicago. Law Dork says, “Although it is not a ruling, it is, by implication, a pretty clear statement that there is not a majority of the court ready and willing to side with Trump on this issue at this time.” So good news for the morning
satby
@Betty Cracker: an inflatable with wardrobe by Fredrick’s of Hollywood. Kind of what a guy with arrested development dreams of as a plaything. When you look at Bezos’ own physical transformation it makes sense.
We’re ruled by old people who think they’re 18 and still in their prime; with an 18 y o’s sense of history and perspective.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t have the plastic-surgery-or-injectables urge, personally, but I do think we are deeply affected by beauty standards amongst our peers. And she was a Talking Head for a while, which is a profession with A Definite Look. So I can understand the impulse. I figure we’re all doing the best we can. If we had more examples of older women in the public eye with a range of aesthetics, perhaps we would all have reduced pressure on ourselves.
WTFGhost
@Ramalama: I wouldn’t think of wishing any ill upon him… if he matches the donation. Otherwise, wish as you, uh, wish.
Betty
It’s a crying shame that people have to have David Anderson levels of expertise to figure out what health insurance would be best for them to buy. Fix the system, people!
Betty Cracker
@satby: True. All of the tech oligarchs have that same pathetic disorder. Zuckerberg with his jiu-jitsu and dumb necklaces. Musk spending countless dollars on his face and personal trainers to transform himself from a 3 to a 4. Peter Thiel’s vampiric exploits. Each a walking argument for a punitive wealth tax.
lowtechcyclist
@WTFGhost:
Your third word there is problematic, of course, but I bet that if anyone asked him a question about HBCUs using the acronym, he’d have no idea what it meant, and if the questioner reminded him of what they were and asked him to name one, I bet he wouldn’t be able to.
satby
We were talking about this just yesterday: Are Chicago and the Great Lakes a Climate Haven?
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Betty
@Suzanne: British actresses are much better at allowing their natural aging to show. A great example is Emma Thompson’s role in “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” where she strips down and displays her imperfect middle-aged body and learns to appreciate it.
satby
And far stricter regulations on business, including on executive compensation and stocks.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: I lack that urge too, though I can understand the rationale for an occasional nip and tuck in a society that is obsessed with youth and discounts older women especially. I get that. But Sanchez and all the people — male and female — who shell out for Mar-a-Lago Face? They are in a class by themselves, having voluntarily made themselves freakish.
lowtechcyclist
@WTFGhost:
I’d just like him to turn the Washington Post into a real newspaper.
Eyeroller
@Betty Cracker: Celebrity women are all starting to look indistinguishable from one another. The hollowed-out cheeks from buccal fat removal looks terrible, the pinched eyes seem soulless, but what really creeps me out personally are the puffy lips. Blowup-dolls indeed.
Deputinize America
Been thinking a lot about the demise of the ethos of the white working class and the concurrent diminishment of country music. It went from “I’m drunk because my woman left me after I punched my boss in the face and told the sheriff to kiss my ass” to “I rely on Jesus and America and my truck, and I want to take longer shifts without overtime because I love the company and my job so much”.
Youd think there’d be some sense of self worth, but none is in evidence.
gene108
Shamelessly lying worked great for Trump in 2024, RFK, Jr. for decades probably, and Oz on his T.V., where there was no way for a large scale reality check about if what they’re lying about was true.
This doesn’t work when people are paying more for groceries, receiving massive rate increases on their health insurance, and are worried about getting laid off, or are laid off, and not being able to find another job quickly.
When all they have is a hammer, the only thing they can do is beat people over the head until moral improves.
They Call Me Noni
@Betty Cracker: And they mostly all look the same. They’ve had their defining features obliterated.
trnc
Anyone here from Vermont – WTF is wrong with Peter Welch?
I have one messaging rule – DON’T THANK REPUBLICANS FOR GRANDSTANDING FIXES TO SHIT THEY BROKE! There is literally no reason to thank Josh Hawley for a performative fix to SNAP after he voted for the stupid bill that cut food assistance and health care.
(And which he voted for AFTER writing op-eds saying those cuts shouldn’t be made).
A lot of people aren’t going to understand that $6/day is a lot for people who need those benefits, so I wouldn’t highlight that number.
Finally, while Trump does indeed have the congressional majority’s balls in a vice, it’s not supposed to work that way. Maybe he was trying to troll, but he talked about Trump’s authority to convene congress (JFC) so earnestly, I’m not sure he understands.
AAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!! Any mention of Trump should be “The president repeatedly lies, and we don’t trust him or the majority leaders who say “Give us what we want now and we’ll work out the details later.”
FUUUUUCCKKKKK!
PS I think it’s time for all democrats to lose the single person example of what will happen. It’s not effective anymore because we’re literally bombarded with stuff about individuals every day through social media. Just skip to the fact that this will affect millions of people.
LAC
Thank you, AL, for highlighting this story about mackenzie Scott. I continue to be impressed by her generosity and philosophy on giving.
Chief Oshkosh
Wow, for some reason I thought that the judge’s order to not tear gas bomb children tricker or treaters was a hyperbolic example. I didn’t know that those assholes actually tear gassed a children’s parade.
How was this not the lead-off story for every news program for days and days?
Suzanne
@Betty: Europe, in general, is better at women aging in public. I think of Isabella Rossellini, Helen Mirren, many others.
@Betty Cracker: Mar-a-Lago face is indeed gross. But it doesn’t seem more extreme to me than the L.A. look of the 80s and 90s, which was had less partisan connotation.
Deep plane facelifts are becoming increasingly popular, which are plastic surgery for those who don’t want to look like they’ve had plastic surgery. But I think they cost more than regular facelifts, of course! It is all a ploy to get our money, like everything else. Beauty as scarce resource.
trnc
How many examples do you need of republicans lying their asses off about shit with zero consequences?
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne: I think she’s awesome, too. She’s well rid of that asshole.
trnc
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
@Baud:
No. Check the story. He’s making the same claim that he always has while saying he can’t actually show us the evidence.
randy khan
I want to say that “stand around and mill about” is a 100% accurate description of nearly every single group of National Guard troops I have seen in D.C. (I have seen a few walking from point A to point B as well, but certainly none of them doing anything useful.)
Suzanne
@trnc:
Word.
And thank you for bringing up something that has long irritated me: how some Dems — almost always white dudes, of course — seem to be fooled into thinking that Hawley can be an erstwhile ally, that he’s for support and dignity of poor and working people. How much more evidence does one need that Josh Hawley is a piece of shit and should be regarded as such?!
ETA: I know why they do it. But this is another example of the “my friends across the aisle” culture that makes me twitchy.
Professor Bigfoot
The same reason his wandering aimlessly, saluting the Japanese flag, and shitting himself in front of the Japanese PM aren’t.
Chief Oshkosh
@Professor Bigfoot: Agreed. Here’s hoping for Mo’ Betta’ (to borrow a title phrase from one of my fav HBCU grads) from some of the other billionaires.
She has shown the way.
tobie
Good morning, BJ. After about 6 weeks without rain, it poured in the mid-Atlantic. There will be lots of leaves to kick on my way to work on Friday, which is one of the small joys of the fall.
Belafon
In this environment, philanthropy by our billionaires is an ego stroking project and is further proof that we need to tax them down to millionaires as well. If Scott really wanted to make a difference, she would be buying some newspapers and other media outlets.
TS
I think it is insane that so few people have so much wealth – so some donate to great causes – but this is what government is meant to support. If they taxed the wealthy as opposed to giving them more, their would be many more funds that would be distributed by the people rather than by one wealthy person.
Booger
@Professor Bigfoot: So having a superfluous asshole removed is on the approved surgery list?
Geminid
@tobie: This rain is very welcome. We were getting forest fire-risk territory. And I have some transplanting to do, but I’ve held off because the ground was so dry.
AxelFoley
@Betty:
When you say strips down, how much are we talking?
For research purposes, you understand.
Salty Sam
From Ricky Gervais’s “AfterLife”, “it may be an addiction…”
youtu.be/cP1EkSvI1fo?si=g_foA8h2WlG6e3IH
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Whenever I read a summary of these legal rulings, I have to parse it so carefully to get through all the layers of negation (they refused to halt a stay) and figure out whether it’s good or bad. So thanks for adding the clarification!
Eyeroller
@Belafon: It’s often been noted that one of the problems with the left is that our few billionaires are interested in “causes” and not influence, but on the large scale one can’t really do much with the former without acquiring enough influence to gain power and change minds.
The Gates Foundation has been able to put enough money into a particular cause to make some headway, but there are countless causes and some, such as climate change, cannot be addressed by billionaires but require coordinated government action.
tobie
@Geminid: Fall planting yields spring bounty! What a great thing to do.
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
This. I have a beautiful friend who is a flight attendant. Despite progress in the field, looks still matter. She recently had her neck done and it’s very subtle. She won’t do her face though. Says that’s a step too far for her as she fears she might end up with Mar-a-Lago face.
Dave
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: The only credit I give Bezo’s for this is that his new wife is at least a reasonable age for him. Didn’t start dating a 22 year old.
The smallest of praise but it’s very clear that Scott was entirely too good for him and he probably knows that at some level. Doesn’t seem quite as delusional as say Musk or Thiel which is also incredibly faint praise.
Kosh III
As a graduate of an HBCU; Tenn State Univ (BA-History) This is superb.
Chief Oshkosh
@trnc: It may well be that Welch is expressing what many of his constituents have expressed to him.
The Chieftess got home from bookclub last night pissed off at her fellow clubbers, all liberal Democrats, because they were mewling and moaning about how the Democrats just need to stop the pain and sign off on whatever the Republicans are demanding so that SNAP benefits won’t be cut off and so that ACA premiums will be kept at current levels and so that… You get the picture.
These are supposedly well-informed, intelligent people and they are completely clueless as to what actually is happening. They’ve obviously been conditioned by the media to think that somehow everything goes back to normal if the Democrats just give in to the Republicans.
So, it may be that this is the reality that Welch has to deal with. Hell, it sadly may be he true perspective. I don’t know. But it does tell me that we need to constantly be telling our electeds what WE think and what WE want.
narya
IIUC, Scott’s desire to leave Jeffie started/was given a boost when she went to an event w/ Epstein and saw the trafficked young women. And I wouldn’t be surprised if she DOES start supporting independent media.
narya
@Betty: Jamie Lee Curtis also too.
Dave
@Betty Cracker: It’s some sort of weird wealth signifier that I don’t get. Hardly the first time in history the upper crust has settled on and actively harmful to themselves way to signal they aren’t the little people.
Sad, the bending to social pressure at that level is insane to me it’s not, but not exactly unprecedented. I mean get it if they had access to super soldier serum or something but it’s just aesthetic butchery instead.
Annoys the hell out of me that of all the public billionaires crap Zucks MMA thing strikes me as the healthiest and least weird.
prostratedragon
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Perhaps she expected more of him than money.
trnc
Yes, we understand why they do it, but we also understand why they should stop – mainly because they aren’t actually our friends. When was the last time a republican in congress said nice things about a democrat unless that democrat was literally toadying for them?
AM in NC
@Betty Cracker: That meme that (I think ) AL referenced in one of her posts “We are all 12″ is just 100% applicable to these douche-bros as well as GOP supporters generally.
Want a blow-up doll as your perfect romantic partner? Of course you do, you’re 12”
Think those steroid muscles make you more of a real man? Yep, 12.
Soprano2
@satby: It’s a story as old as time, people get into their 40’s and realize they aren’t youthful anymore. People who can often spend a lot of money and effort trying to recapture youth, especially women. How old is the story about the Fountain of Youth? I think it’s sad how some women ruin their looks with more and more plastic surgery, desperately chasing a specific “look” when they were already quite attractive. ICE Barbie, for example.
I can’t judge people too harshly – I’m 64, and people still guess my age as late 40’s-early 50’s. One friend told me last week that another woman we graduated with who she talked to was talking about how I looked the same as I did in high school! (I don’t, but I have to admit I haven’t changed that much. Most of my changes are on the inside of my body.)
Eyeroller
@narya: I don’t know about Bezos but that is reportedly why Melinda Gates left Bill. Bill Gates hung out with Epstein for a long time and he wouldn’t stop when she demanded it, so she left.
I don’t think that everybody who associated with Epstein was taking advantage of young women. Epstein cultivated scientists and technologists intentionally. But at best it’s not a good look and at worst, well…
geg6
@Dave:
You’re right about the wealthy historically being willing to harm themselves for purely aesthetic and signaling reasons. Think of the French royal court in the 18th century wearing the white makeup containing lead.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Matt McIrvin: I have the same issue. It’s all like a double (triple?) negative.
I’m glad you said that. I was afraid my aged brain was showing.
BretH
Couldn’t help myself and googled “Lauren Sanchez plastic surgery” and a surgeon was saying “there are definite improvements in her jawline” and thought “that’s the problem right there”.
tobie
My partner is having knee replacement surgery this winter. I remember there was a discussion here about some medication you could take in advance of the surgery to reduce the pain. Does anyone have a clue what this was
ETA: We’re meeting with the surgeon in a few weeks, so I wanted to ask him about this.
trnc
@Chief Oshkosh:
You may very well be right, but that’s another reason we shouldn’t continue to feed the misinformation loop and should start calling republicans out for what they are actually doing.
Gretchen
@Chief Oshkosh: After that the judge said Bovino had to come in every day and report to her and get a body camera by Friday but an appeals judge overruled her
AM in NC
@narya: I think that was Melinda Gates.
Eyeroller
@Chief Oshkosh: (Rhetorical question) where do these bleeding-heart liberals get the idea that ACA premiums will stay the same if the Dems fold? That’s explicitly the point of contention. Do these people read the FTFNYT?
I’m going to bet they’re on employer-sponsored healthcare or perhaps Medicare.
I understand the concern about SNAP recipients but the Republicans will just hold SNAP over our heads forever and then they can pass a bill that basically eliminates it anyway.
Suzanne
@AM in NC: The Unified Theory of Everyone Is Twelve is one of the more accurate things I’ve read in a while.
To be fair, I dye my hair. I think it makes me look better. Probably because I’m twelve.
narya
@Eyeroller: Aaaaand I confused the two. It was Gates, not Bezos, who was at the party (though I suppose Bezos might have been wooed as well).
Soprano2
@Suzanne: Hawley is a huge liar, too. When he ran for Attorney General in MO he had these commercials with ladders where he claimed he wouldn’t use the job as a ladder to another political office, he’d be our Attorney General for all 4 years of his term! By two years in he was running for the Senate. He lies and says he lives in Ozark, but he and his family live in NVa.
He has a relative who lives in Ozark whose address he evidently uses.Nothing he says should be trusted. That was wrong, what I’ve actually heard is that he claims to be building a house in Ozark, but evidently it’s never been finished and they haven’t actually lived there.Kosh III
More Winning!
GM laid off 700 at a Spring Hill(aka Saturn) Tn battery factory.
Soprano2
@Professor Bigfoot: It’s crazy, isn’t it? They used every little slip-up Biden made to run yet another “Biden too old” story, but they ignore all of the obvious signs that FFOTUS is definitely declining.
Belafon
@narya: Helen Hunt in The Sessions.
Ben Cisco
@randy khan: What’s worse (for them): they are being held JUST SHORT of the allotted time for deployment-related payments, and are away from their regular jobs in the meantime. They are also getting screwed.
Soprano2
@Chief Oshkosh: I hope she told them that there is no need for SNAP to be cut off because they actually have funds to pay the benefits but are refusing to.
Suzanne
@Soprano2: Josh Hawley is a spineless piece of shit with no moral core. Again, it’s will-to-power all the way down. The fact that some Dems get fooled (and, again, it seems to be the white dudes! I wonder why!) is frustrating. I know he makes mouth noises about being for the working class, but actual, you know, evidence should indicate his genuine level of give-a-shit.
It’s not just the other side who needs a smack with a clue-by-four.
satby
High tech, low touch medicine
satby
@Gretchen: I didn’t see that. Do you remember who reported it?
Edit: nevermind, found a reference at Law Dork. Disappointing.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: I say that a lot, that inside we’re all still about 10-12 years old.
I highlight my hair even though I don’t need to because I don’t have gray hairs. I like the way it looks. Sometimes I’m tempted to cut it all off, because I get tired of having to blow dry it for it to look good, but I haven’t done it yet.
ETA – not to imply that you have to color your hair if it’s gray, but I hear that a lot. I notice more and more older women going “natural” with their hair color, and think it’s a good trend. Mine is natural dark blonde, though.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Gretchen: This is from a blue sky post from someone who was an inspector for the FBI:
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Same here, a ways east and north of you. Unless it’s wet or really cold or unless I’m doing something that really requires shoes, I tend to be barefoot while doing stuff in the yard, so it’s been hard to miss just how dry the ground has been underfoot.
And it’s not a downpour, it’s the sort of rain that has a chance to soak in rather than run off. Very much needed – the past four months or so have been very dry.
marklar
I’m wondering if Dr. Oz came up with his $13 calculation by using 340,000,000 in the denominator (i.e., the US population), in which he could be technically correct if referring to the “Average American”, as opposed to the Mean increase for people using the marketplaces.
This still seems too low, but perhaps the mean increase (with total population in the denominator) is $13/month. He could then claim he “misspoke”, and $13 a month isn’t all that much anyways.
Dave
@Ben Cisco: Classic and a total dick move. Though with extended BS they should be over the thirty days required for full benefits.
Though I would be wholly unsurprised if they are doing the 29 day orders than starting a new set a day or two later to prevent.
Which in addition to being a dick move violates the spirit of that rule and crushes morale.
satby
@Suzanne: @Soprano2: normal, small improvements for vanity or health’s sake are great. Even big improvements, like breast reductions or enlargements or losing significant weight on a GLP-1, despite the idea that it’s cheating (no, it’s not). But repeatedly going under the knife for almost cartoonist reconstruction is just sad, no matter how much money you have to waste on it.
p.a.
The corollary: All of life is Junior Highschool.😱
Chief Oshkosh
@Soprano2: She hammered them with it, but she has no confidence that they internalized even that obvious set of facts and actions.
Soprano2
@lowtechcyclist: You must be getting the rain that passed through here Wednesday and Thursday. We got almost 2″ at my house. We were extremely dry – we got .19″ in August (no, that’s not a typo) and 2.63″ in September. Before the rain the last two days we’d had 1.55″ in October. This is extremely unusual for this area.
RevRick
@Deputinize America: Boy, are you ever wrong about Calvin. He asserted that care for the poor was a matter of justice, not charity, that it was the responsibility of government to do so, and that the rich who hoarded their wealth and refused to share their abundance with the poor were not only guilty of theft, but also potentially, murder!
JeanneT
@satby: I think the Great Lakes region probably IS a climate haven. We have water, we have trees and decent areable acres for growing a good assortment of grains, legumes, veggies and fruits. A good region for self-sufficiency if needed.
But that sure doesn’t mean unaffected by climate change. I have hopes that the big lakes will keep moderating the temperatures for Michigan, but changes are already here: longer hotter summers and falls with less rain. But then again this fall is the first year non-meteorologists have started talking about big possible dumps of lake effect rain as arctic air sweeps down over the warm autumn water. I guess that will help keep the lakes filled up, but it doesn’t seem to be a moderation of weather!
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I think it’s inherent in the subject matter–the statement is summarizing a whole fight between contending sides in which this incident is the latest phase, so everything is the reversal of another thing.
Ben Cisco
@Dave: We’ve seen what this bunch is about – if I had to make a WAG about which strategery they are using, I’m gonna go with the MOST ASSHOLISH ONE.
satby
@JeanneT: I agree, in the last few years the climate change really has been pronounced, especially due to the wild gyrations of the jet stream. The article made a point about flooding becoming a bigger risk. And another about the effects of smoke from Canadian wildfires, which in my memory was much more rare than it is now.
Dave
@Ben Cisco: Oh I agree I’d actually be surprised if they didn’t play fuck fuck games.
Dave
@satby: Live in Central New York which is pretty in the Great Lakes zone and yeah climate has notably changes in the last five years.
You can even get people to acknowledge that until it snows then it’s sufficient reason rationale for people to reset the hey “none of the seasons are the same as they used to be”.
jonas
@JeanneT: That’s the big concern here in upstate NY as well — more precipitation coming in downpours of rain rather than winter snow. Lots of towns and municipalities are having to completely re-do their drainage systems, many of which were designed for rain levels 100 years ago and local flooding recently has been pretty devastating.
Belafon
Picture of a guy with “MAGA for Mamdani” hat and shirt:
bsky.app/profile/toobigtofail.bsky.social/post/3m4emotsrds2c
Kristine
@satby: I recall hearing a few years ago that Great Lakes area governments at state and local levels were meeting in order to plan for climate migration. This area may be facing issues, but it will remain livable longer than the Southwest and some coastal areas.
JeanneT
@satby: Ugh, yes – there was a week or so this summer I didn’t get outside much due to the smoke. And I just remembered the big ice storm that hit the northern lower peninsula – that may have been one of those climate exacerbated rain events. I would put my money on more ice storms down your way in the future, too.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
@mappy!: I don’t know if this thread is still active or if you’ll see this, but thank you for sharing this essay.
geg6
@Soprano2:
I am proud to say that I was the trendsetter among my sisters and friends with the natural gray. I have never colored my hair but started thinking about it a bit as I started graying because the back of my head had a straight line across the back where it looked kinda like I’d purposely had an ombré coloring done. My hair is very short (at most, on top about an inch and a half long and almost shaved on sides and back) and it was a very obvious line. But I decided to let it just go and do as it it wished. For years my sisters and friends advised me to start dyeing it. All except my younger sister, who went white, naturally, in her 20s. For years I extolled the virtues of natural color and some of them started to go from the bottle blonde they used to cover the gray to natural. They are all natural now except my oldest sister, who absolutely refuses to give up the dye. I like to think I started that mini revolution.
JeanneT
@jonas: I’m glad the towns are preparing. In my city we recently finished upgrading our storm sewer system – but I don’t know if they engineered extra capacity; we were just way behind on coping with pre-climate change storms. I hope the city engineers were quietly thinking ahead.
Almost Retired
@satby: Fun fact/claim to fame? I went to High School with the guy Lauren Sanchez left for Bezos. Good riddance.
prostratedragon
@Suzanne:
I watch a lot of vintage movies and tv; it’s a lost art here, not something nonexistent, even though it was never universally practiced.
Ramalama
@WTFGhost:
It was more a wish that ex-wife’s good press would / will goad him into upping the ante. The anti. The auntie.
Geminid
@tobie: One of many things I’ve learned from horticulturist Andre Viette’s Saturday morning garden show* is that fall is the best time to transplant. He notes that roots continue to grow until the ground gets cold, which nowadays isn’t until December.
In this case, I have periwinkle and spiderwort to spread at the cottage where I live. I also want to bring some small magnolias and hollies that have sprung up at the place where I do maintenance, and transplant them here. I’ll grab them tomorrow now that the ground is not bone-dry.
* In the Garden With Andre Viette is broadcast by Harrisonburg radio station WSVA AM550 and is carried by other Mid-Atlantic radio stations.
Viette is a third-generation horticulturist. His grandfather came over from Switzterland, and his father and uncle ran Viette Nurseries which still operates on Long Island. After Andre Viette graduated from Cornell he set up a nursery in Fishersville, which is 5 miles west of Staunton, Virginia.
Suzanne
@Soprano2: My mom is totally natural gray. Has never dyed her hair. I have dyed my hair since high school, not always realistic colors. So I have fun with it. It’s not about fooling anyone for me.
Ramalama
@satby: Musing about the climate scientist in that article being related to Chicago DJ Steve Dahl.
prostratedragon
@Chief Oshkosh:
Brings this brief from Chicago public tv to mind:
What Is Tear Gas, And Why Is It Used on Civilians But Banned in Combat?
Gin & Tonic
Great story from the Twitters: reporter at The Times (London) e-mails Bill DeBlasio to get some spicy quotes about Zohran Mamdani, and in fact gets some, and runs a story accordingly. During his exchange with Bill, the reporter somehow neglects to confirm whether he’s e-mailing with former NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio or some random wine broker from Long Island named Bill DeBlasio. Turns out it was Bill the wine broker, who seems to have a good sense of humor and never said “are you sure you’re talking with the right guy?”
I’m reminded of the old SNL character played by Jon Lovitz who’d yell “ACTING!!” This is “JOURNALISM!!”
gene108
@Suzanne:
There are very few states that are actually very liberal. I live in NJ. I think one reason NJ mostly votes for Democrats is the Republicans have tied themselves to southern conservative fundamentalist Christians, which is culturally not cool here given the large numbers of Catholics and Jews.
There are many states that are rabidly right-wing.
I don’t know how to change this.
Edit: Since the Dems believe in good government, states run by Democrats end up creating programs that strengthen the social safety net like family leave insurance for child birth or caring for a sick relative, mandatory short term disability, a less onerous unemployment insurance system and more larger payments. These things do have a tax attached, but man it’s nice to have when needed.
Geminid
@BretH: Speaking of jaw lines, Marco Rubio’s sure doesn’t look it used to.
Soprano2
@Geminid: I listen to “You Bet Your Garden” on our public radio station on Sunday at noon. He’s an organic gardening expert who lives in PA. I’ve learned a lot from listening to him, even though I don’t plant that much. Kind of like how I listened to “Car Talk” even though I can’t repair a car to save my life.
YY_Sima Qian
So, the terms of Sino-US “Trade Truce 5.0” is out (gift link to NYT article below):
Summary of the terms of the “deal” from PRC MOFCOM:
The terms have essentially been reset back to before the US escalations on export controls in Sept. & the PRC retaliations, but w/ PRC promises to crack down harder on fentanyl precursors in exchange for a 10% reduction in the meme tariff Trump imposed ostensibly for fentanyl, & purchases of US commodities that the PRC had planned to purchase prior to “Liberation Day”. Both sides delayed their respective major escalations in the tech. war for a year. Unstated but what Trump hinted at, Nvidia’s B30A GPUs (w/ degraded performance relative to the flagship B300s, but significantly better than anything Chinese vendors can currently supply) will be approved for export to the PRC, which is causing conniption among China Hawks across the political spectrum.
The implications of the new tariff rates “on the ground”:
After the latest “deal”, the effective weighted avg. tariff for imports from the PRC is probably ~ 28% (including those from the Trump 45 term), only somewhat higher than that on SE Asia & Japan/South Korea, only the PRC did not have to make humiliating concessions (real or pretend) to get there. It would also upend all of the “friend shoring” efforts of Trump 45 & Biden administrations to diversity the global supply chain away from the PRC (not that such efforts accomplished anything more than making the global supply chains longer, more opaque & more brittle, & enmesh SE Asian countries deeper into the PRC-centric supply chain ecosystem).
The delay in expanding US export controls to majority owned subsidiaries will prove especially awkward for the EU:
USG previewed the expansion of the Entity List to the Dutch government, which would have made Nexperia (as wholly owned subsidiary of PRC company WingTech, which is already on the US Entity List) unviable. USG made eliminating the Chinese control over Nexperia the condition for keeping it off the Entity List. The Dutch government chose to take the extraordinary measure utilizing war time emergency powers to seize Nexperia from WingTech, prompting the PRC to ban export of Nexperia chips packaged in its Chinese plants, now threatening to induce a shock to the global automotive (& other industries) supply chain on par with/ COVID:
The moral? Never try to curry favor w/ Trump by targeting 3rd parties, Trump will always hang you out to try to face the retaliation alone, while he cuts another deal w/ the 3rd party.
Where does that leave Nexperia? Nexperia China has already declared independence from Nexperia Global. Nexperia China‘s packaging facility no longer has access to wafers produced by Nexperia Global‘s fabs in the Netherlands & Germany, but 50% of Nexperia‘s wafer production is located in the PRC, which is continuing to supply Nexperia China‘s packaging operation, while WingTech has built a 12″ fab in Shanghai that can more than make up for the supply from the older 6″ & 8″ fabs in Europe. The 12 mo. delay in implementation of expansion to the US Entity List may allow time for a divorce between Nexperia China & Nexperia Global, but Nexperia Global will be stuck w/ obsolescent fabs, lost access to the huge & highly lucrative PRC market. Most Nexperia‘s R&D has remained in Europe, but WingTech has always had access to its IPs & designs, as its owner, & Nexperia‘s products are mature commodity chips that is not challenging for Chinese designers to take over.
prostratedragon
WaPo lets a little journalism through:
[ the driver said, disregarding the fact that small children would instantly know he was drunk as a skunk.]
satby
@Ramalama: good catch. Though she could be a distant relative of Roald Dahl too 🙂 (or neither).
tobie
@Geminid: I have one of Viette’s book and like it a lot. It’s written for the mid-Atlantic in particular. I didn’t know he had a garden show but will look into this. You’re a professional gardener. I’m a rank amateur and a lousy one at that! My big project at the moment is to try to mow enough of a field to scatter a perennial seed mix. I’ve actually had modest success with this field and the wild bergamot, milkweed, spiderwort, and mountain mint have given the weeds a run for their money but it would be nice to add a few more colors.
satby
@JeanneT: when I lived in rural MI, one ice storm took out the power for a week! Fortunately, no food was lost because it could go outside on the porch, but no heat or water other than what I schlepped in was challenging. Many of my neighbors decamped to hotels that had generators.
Glidwrith
@Soprano2: I like my silver, it’s proof of life!
prostratedragon
@Gretchen:
Bovino leaving court. The video was posted later that day by DHS.
SW
Nice to see that not every rich person is a morally reprehensible parasite.
Bupalos
Mackenzie Scott Is simply one of the most admirable people in the world. I’ve seriously considered having a little icon wall like Eastern Europeans do with saints. If I do, she’ll be one of them. People who can overcome the corruptions of power and stay human are the models we need. She’d be grouped with Biden.
Omnes Omnibus
@Glidwrith: Humble brag here: I did not get any noticeable gray until I was nearly fifty. I was starting to root for it because people would soon start thinking I was dyeing it.
rodwell
@tobie: I had knee replacement surgery four years ago. There was no medication prior to the surgery for pain. My surgeon had to go to Physical Therapy (PT) prior to the surgery for an evaluation and to learn exercises to strengthen the knee prior to surgery.
The pain medication in pre op and afterward work pretty well. Especially before post-surgery PT. Also icing the knee for a few weeks post-surgery was extremely helpful.
Chief Oshkosh
@trnc: Eh, sort of the point of my last paragraph. ;)
Chief Oshkosh
@Eyeroller: Yep, as I noted, they were clueless about reality. Since they’re not stupid (everyone one of them is a career professional with at least one advanced degree), and strongly support Democratic candidates and initiatives, it was upsetting to my wife that they seem to be so pig-ignorant about politics.
Chief Oshkosh
@Gretchen:
Let me guess: the appeals court judge is a Trumper…
tobie
@rodwell: Thanks so much for these valuable tips. I’m glad that the combo of icing and medication made the first weeks after the surgery bearable. I hear that PT is key. Will ask my partner to find out about exercises now before the surgery.
Kristine
@satby: @JeanneT: NE Illinois here. Wondering what the coming winter will bring given that over the last two, I needed to use the snow thrower maybe twice? Most of the moisture fell as rain.
I live in the strip along the lake that was bumped up to USDA Zone 6a a few years ago. In 2012, we were 5b. This app lets you track the changes in your area.
prostratedragon
Omnes Omnibus
@Chief Oshkosh:
Here is a local article about it.
Suzanne
@gene108:
Yeah, agree. Like, people who are socially conservative are more deeply that than they are economically liberal. Like, why are wealthier people now supporting Democrats? Why are people lower on the income scale now supporting Republicans? (I bet both of these categories are deeply bifurcated by race and sex.)
Deputinize America
@prostratedragon: Why is it that I want to see video of him dropped by an NRA anti-tyranny freedom projectile?
Deputinize America
@RevRick:
You may have some good qualities, but your heroes actually suck.
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian: An astute hot take of the quick Xi-Trump meeting:
Omnes Omnibus
@Deputinize America:
Any possibility that there is a difference between Calvin and Calvinists?
rodwell
@tobie: Yes, PT is just as important as the surgery. If the PT is not taken seriously, knee replacement will not successful. I also exercise my knees. I do a stationary bicycle and light weightlifting on the knee. (Doctor approved). This really does eliminate any pain. I am not on any pain med except for an occasion Tylenol.
Miss Bianca
@Suzanne: Whereas, I dyed my hair, decided to let go grey just before COVID hit, then had to live with it for almost two years until I was doing a show and decided to dye it again – only to discover that in the interim I had apparently become allergic to hair dye!
So I lived with it again till I decided I just couldn’t stand it any longer and went with a henna dye that I can apparently live with.
(Note: henna dyes are a lot less messy to deal with than they used to be. However, the color doesn’t seem to be as vivid as I remember.)
Why do I do it? Sheer vanity. Actors are prone to it.
RevRick
@Omnes Omnibus: He seems to be blind to the origins of progressivism in the West, and specifically here in the United States.
WTFGhost
@lowtechcyclist: Alas, yes. I hoped “I’m a billionaire backing it,” would be enough for independence but apparently, Bezos is fine going fasci. It’s not that he wants to hurt anyone, it’s just, he doesn’t want to be the nail that sticks up so it gets hammered down. That’s how fascism prospers – there are enough scary people pushing it, and enough “nice” people not wanting to rock the boat too much.
@TS: Well, they’re cutting trillions out of food and health benefits, to pay about a third of the cost of the tax cuts they extended, and, of course, they yelp about a wealth tax, but idle money isn’t good for the economy – keep it low enough, you just keep the portfolio having a healthy turnover rate.
But we’re the kind of people who want to work together for a nice society, not just build out little castles for ourselves, screw everyone else.
arrieve
@mappy!: I learned very little about Frances Perkins in history classes–just that she was the first woman Cabinet Secretary. I never knew that she had witnessed the Triangle Fire, or the effect that it had on her (she said later that that was the day the New Deal was born) until I taught my adult ESL class about the fire. They loved Frances Perkins, and wanted to know more about her. For our field trip we visited the site of the Triangle Fire (the building is still there, now part of NYU), but also buildings where Frances had lived and worked. They took a million pictures and many wrote their final papers about her.
Suzanne
@Miss Bianca: “Sheer vanity” is a perfectly good reason. Spawn the Youngest was born shortly before Covid, and I had a ton of hair shedding after she was born. Then went all those months without a proper haircut. As my hair grew back in, I had this very noticeable line where the hair above it was thick, and the hair below it looked thin and scraggly. It bothered me immensely. Vitamins, hair serums, etc. Drove me crazy until I had my hair cut above that line.
Miss Bianca
@arrieve: that is so cool.
dnfree
@Suzanne: I see older women now with blue or pink or purple hair (or streaks) and I smile and say “Go for it!” to myself.
dnfree
@Deputinize America: Most heroes have flaws, and many villains have positive traits.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So many bottles of Jack Daniels a day does everyone think the Border Patrol Tough guy drinks; three, four?
He has that Kegseth stench about him.
Deputinize America
@Omnes Omnibus:
To me, Calvin is one of the main villains in Western thought.
Suzanne
@arrieve: Fun fact: in any space with a legal occupancy of or over 50, doors are required to open outward. Due directly to the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Thus endeth the nerdy building code lesson.
prostratedragon
@Deputinize America: Real over-the-top, isn’t he?
Btw, you might be surrounded by Calvinists around here.
RevRick
@Deputinize America: Thank you for the slap in the face. It warms my heart.
dnfree
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m 79 and most of my hair is still medium brown. People ask me sometimes if I dye it, and I reply “If you were going to dye your hair, is this the color you would choose?”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@trnc: Trump is a zombie now and will do whatever the last person he talk to told him to do. That’s why the Dems want to talk to him and that’s why Trump’s court is so desperate to stop that.
The Trump’s court is terrified Trump might shoot his entire cabinet and then claim presidential immunity because some went Bene Gessurit on him.
RevRick
p.a.
NDD at bonddadblog:
Sorry world, but bring it on. It’s the only fucking thing that can penetrate the bigotry coalition. Or are they so far gone that what woke the shits up in 2008 won’t next year.😱
Deputinize America
@RevRick:
LOL – Quit making the Christianist fantasy of cheap grace to power and “the sacrifice of nothing” something which is aspirational or good.
Hint to that fairytale dipshit living in the clouds – having your boy get his ass kicked on Friday and rest up on Saturday only to come back to a banger of a Sunday isn’t a real sacrifice, especially since it wasn’t for any purpose that you couldn’t have simply declared.
Sacrifice is forever.
Captain C
@Suzanne:
Monica Bellucci, too.
Soprano2
@satby: Ice storm *shudder*! We had a huge one here in 2007 *shudder*. We live in the city, and we were without power for 12 or 13 days. I borrowed a generator from my boss after a few days, it made things a little more bearable. Before that, I had to go down in the basement first thing after getting home from work and bail the ice cold water out of our sump pit with a bucket. That was not fun. We had a switch box put on our house after that where we could plug in a generator to run stuff in the house. I’m sure that means it’ll never happen again, but it was worth it!
p.a.
@RevRick: Just another case of “X hasn’t failed, X has never really been tried.”
Over the course of time, how much of the followers’ crimes rest at the prime generator’s door? But philosophy is waaayyy above my pay grade.
jonas
Another way of saying Trump doesn’t bring up any uncomfortable human rights issues. Not that it matters — the US lost any moral authority it had in that department a long time ago anyway.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kosh III: TSU BSEE ‘81 here ✊🏾
p.a.
@Deputinize America: n.b. some of the emphasis on the crucifixion was the “humbling”, not the soon (and for believers in his divinity) inevitable resurrection. It’s weird to a non-believer like me, and kind of “classical” of the Greco-Roman kind. Like it’s supposed to be a big deal that a high-ranking being allowed itself to be “dishonored” for us?
Achilles: waaahhhh, I’m dishonored! I demand my girlfriend back!
ArchTeryx
WTFGhost is my spirit animal these days. (And FFS no cracks about cultural appropriation. FrostFire and I make these jokes all the time). I am lost in a sea of lies, not just from what remains of our government, but in my personal life. Just… trying to rebuild a circle of friends in the social media age means walking right into Mos Eisley unarmed, and not knowing WTF to expect.
Some kid catfished me yesterday, HHS keeps edging ever closer to an outright Aktion T4 against me and everyone I love, I have almost no friends left thanks to one malignant asshole, and I’m about ready to just give up.
leeleeFL
@Baud: What a piece of shit! His Parents must feel so ashamed of his BS!
Miss Bianca
@p.a.: I do think it is worth a repeat noting of the fact that not all “great men” are great people – *but* – a lot of great teachings get perverted over time. I would take a hard-core Calvinist of the persuasion Rev Rick talks about over our modern breed of fundamentalists any day of the week, and twice on Sundays (just like the Puritans would have made me do!)
Because at least your former-day fundamentalist revered education, funded public schools, and had some adherence to that quaint old notion of “commonwealth.” Whatever their manifold sins and wickednesses were.
RevRick
@Deputinize America: Well, you have made a strawman argument about nothing I believe, but you do you.
leeleeFL
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: And married way up the first time! She’s amazing!
Anybody know if MacKenzie Scott still gets any ducats from Amazon’s coffers? Just wondering!?
dnfree
I have a “news” question, probably too late for this thread. I have seen several people claim that Trump “defecated” or “shit himself” in front of the Japanese. Is this true or false or how would it be verified?
leeleeFL
@mappy!: FIRST WOMAN IN THE CABINET! She is a personal idol! I wish my middle name was because of if her, I’d have used it from the beginning of time!
Old School
@Deputinize America:
I agree. Gandalf is overrated.
Steve in the ATL
@Suzanne: I tell people that every time I see them trying to pull a door to go out! Life when raised by an architect….
prostratedragon
Suzanne
@Steve in the ATL: And the door must be equipped with a panic device!
And that is to say nothing of ADA requirements for door hardware, which ban any hardware that requires “pinching, grasping, or twisting of the wrist”.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And that only took Trump 9 years to get back to where he was in 2016.
Is this more of that subtle Asian sarcasm I’ve been hearing so much about Qian? lol
Miss Bianca
@Steve in the ATL:
@Suzanne: I was Today Years Old before I finally made that connection!
As I like to say when our patrons are struggling with the door: “Push – the *other* pull!”
arrieve
@Suzanne:
Yes! Another thing I’d never really thought about. I demonstrated it to the students with our classroom door. “Why do you think it opens this way and not the other way?”
Suzanne
@arrieve: Another fun fact….. if you have an outswinging door, it cannot swing into 50% or more of the required width of the corridor. Which is why you will often see doors like that set back in a little alcove.
Okay, now I’m really done.
TONYG
“These people have civilian jobs. It’s one thing to mobilize them for an emergency or a legitimate war, another thing to send them to American cities to stand around and mill about.” That’s right. Social contracts exist (although they are not written down), and society depends upon them at least as much as it depends upon laws. The social contract for a person joining the National Guard has, until now, been something like “One weekend a month, but limited-time deployments in the event of a disaster or an actual war”. Using National Guard troops in long-term deployments as glorified rent-a-cops backing up ICE thugs violates that social contract. The logical consequence will be fewer re-enlistments, and fewer enlistments in the first place. Actions have consequences.
ArchTeryx
@Suzanne: Yep. And for an extremely simple reason: It makes the doors resistant to crush blockage. Fires move with lightning speed and people are going to be panicking trying to get out. As soon as a crush develops around a door that opens inward, that door is useless as an escape route. And everyone in the crush dies.
See: The Station fire, 2003.
But with doors that open outward, with panic bars, the first panicking people that hit the door opens it toward the outside, creating an instant escape route from the fire. Further many emergency doors have their own inbuilt alarms, sometimes connected to building fire alarms, so just opening the door starts the fire department on their way.
Combining that with making chaining up emergency exits illegal, you’ve saved countless lives in low-rise, crowded-event building fires
If you’re attending any big public event, always know where your fire exits are. Might save your life too.
p.a.
@Suzanne: I was working about 5 miles away the night of the Station Nightclub fire. Driving home about 3am on I 95, emergency vehicles in both directions, I thought there was some sort of major vehicle accident nearby, multiple cars busses etc.
TONYG
@TONYG: One of the characteristics of Trump’s personality since he was a pampered little boy is that he treats other people as objects to be used. The way that he treats rank-and-file military personnel is part of that pattern.
ArchTeryx
@p.a.: There’s a huge story behind the emergency response to the Station fire, and it will absolutely make you cry. I’ve heard recorded radio comms of first responders initially pulling up to the site of the fire. They had a rapidly advancing fire, panicking people everywhere, a crush at the front door, and only the water they brought along in their engines. No hydrants, and no time to call out water tankers. They sent in interior attack teams to try and battle the fire long enough to get people out. It was no use. They were almost immediately recalled because the roof was about to collapse.
Some firefighters never recovered from what they saw that night.
prostratedragon
@Suzanne: Triangle might have extended the use of outward-opening doors, but in Chicago the 1903 Iroquois Theater fire got it done. They also adopted the panic bar opener around here after that one. The local MLS team is the Chicago Fire.
Suzanne
@ArchTeryx: The Station actually had outswinging doors. It was crowded over its legal occupancy and its other exits were hard to find, so they had too many people trampling each other at the main exit. A similar thing happened at the hajj a few years back, and a bunch of people died, and there wasn’t a door at all. Once someone falls down, often that starts a chain reaction and pileups happen.
But yes. I am always keenly aware of the exits.
ETA: They also did a pyrotechnic effect in a combustible building. FFS.
Steve in the ATL
@Suzanne: and it regulates the allowable amount of pressure needed to push the door open! Why yes I have dealt with ADA cases before, and not just ones involving emotional support chihuahuas.
Steve in the ATL
@Miss Bianca: I mostly notice it when I’m in a commercial establishment and the doors open in. Fire code, people!
WTFGhost
@dnfree: Yes, but I do feel a bit strange looking at a woman who seems to have gotten into a fight with a multi-flavor cotton-candy machine, and lost.
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: You think a slob like that drinks Jack? Evan Williams, baby, but only when it’s on sale, so he can buy it by the case.
@Deputinize America: Hee hee. As trickster, I’d say “western thinkers are more to blame for the sad state of western thought!” but: what is it about Calvin that bugs you? If you’re not in the mood to share, that’s fine, but I like to have a sense of why the difference.
ArchTeryx
@Suzanne: Yeah, it had outward opening doors, but as you said, it was badly overcrowded, no sprinkers to slow fires, and the walls and ceiling were lined with extremely flammable acoustic foam made from hydrocarbons. And yes, Great White set off outdoor pyrotechnics right against the flammable polyurethane foam. Who greenlit that is still argued to this day.
It took approximately 90 seconds to go from “first flames visible” to “unsurvivable situation.” Most of the survivors were the ones that made it out in the first 1-2 minutes. By the time the Great White lead singer noticed the fire and went, “Whoa. That’s not good,” nearly 60 freaking seconds had elapsed. Almost everyone that didn’t get out in that first 1-2 minutes died, many at the crush at the main door. The main entrance was grossly misdesigned for mass evacuation. Firefighters were even spraying the crush with water to try and hold back the fire. It was no use. Except for a couple survivors at the bottom, everyone in the crush at the front suffocated or burned to death.
YY_Sima Qian
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Xi also played to Trump’s ego by congratulating the latter’s “peacemaking” efforts, specifically Gaza, & that the “Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation” (Xi’s favorite slogan) is perfectly compatible w/ “Making America Great Again”.
Suzanne
@Steve in the ATL:
Only applies in spaces with occupancy of 50 or more (for most occupancies), and it can be inswinging if it’s a convenience/access door. If they make up the required exiting width elsewhere, an inswinging condition is allowed.
Steve in the ATL
@prostratedragon: I blame Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. And the godawful Paperlace song (no link–you’re welcome!) “The Night Chicago Died”
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne: Back when I was a traveling businessman, I occasionally got an “accessible” room (it was what was available).
I noticed the door opens outward, and that it was in an alcove but wondered why.
Now I know. Thank you. I LOVE learning new stuff.
prostratedragon
@jonas: We had more last year than we have this year. Listen to Trip, who in the event picked up that flag.
Steve in the ATL
@Suzanne: you think I would patronize places so unpopular that they hold fewer then 50 people? Please!
Steve in the ATL
On a related note, we just had a fire drill at my office! Evacuation was successful. Further bulletins as events warrant.
Suzanne
@ArchTeryx: So part of my architectural study — a very depressing part — involved studying disasters in buildings. All these diagrams of where bodies were found, errors in process discovered later, etc.
As a result, when I am in a place and a fire alarm goes off….. I get the fuck out. That moment. Too many tragedies have happened because people wait. Modern buildings are much, much safer than even forty years ago, but they are all designed around getting people out in an orderly fashion. Not waiting around until a fire is confirmed and then everyone panicking.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: They get the geography of Chicago so wrong. One out of many lyrical and musical crimes perpetrated by the everyone associated with that song.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: I’ve been to some clubs that small. They would have failed any and all health and safety inspections.
Suzanne
Oh, and BTW….. I often hear normies ask a question like, “Why don’t they take [old building here] and turn it into [something cool]?”. Great question. Usually, the stricter fire code stuff is a big part of why those conversions are infeasible. Like, there simply aren’t enough exit stairs or they’re too small, or they can’t sprinkler it, or the floors are too low/close together.
Old School
From The Hill:
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: the 70’s have a lot to answer for
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Like this?
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: The rule applies to every space. So a small private office or small conference room can have the door swing in, as can a small classroom. A lecture hall has to have the door swing out.
And then there’s quantity of exits, separation of exits, distance to exits, width of exits…… exit access and exit discharge. Did you think a hallway, a corridor, and a passageway were the same thing?! Like a normal person? Oh friend.
Eunicecycle
@Kristine: that was really informative, thanks! We in my area of NE Ohio are also now 6a but very close to 6b.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: I monitored ADA compliance for polling places for the State of Wisconsin.
ETA: I was talking about dingy, dive bar, basement punk clubs. Rules? Ha!
Deputinize America
@Steve in the ATL:
The East Side of Chicago is THE GODDAMNED LAKE!!!
I will also add that if the city boy was born and raised in South Detroit, he’s a Canuck from Windsor.
coin operated
Trump keeps taking the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.
I want to see how he does on a CCAT. Had to pass one to get my current job, and it was a challenge.
prostratedragon
@Steve in the ATL: The city has quite a history with fire. And yes, Mrs. O’Leary and her cow probably had nothing to do with the 1871 fire, which was one of several major fires in the Great Lakes area those couple of days.
Geminid
Politico reports that New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich has endorsed Michigan state Senator Mallory McMorrow in the primary race to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters. The two other main contenders are U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and former Detroit health commissioner Abdul El-Sayed.
Michigan is one of three midwestern states with primary contests to replace retiring Democratic Senators, the others being Illinois and Minnesota.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
I was being sarcastic.
I AM CORRECT FOR ONCE?
How the hell did that happen?
prostratedragon
@coin operated:
Mike Luckovich
Omnes Omnibus
@prostratedragon: PESHTIGO!!!!
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: exactly! And there was fallout from this song: in the late 80’s/early 90’s Athens rockers the Violets released a song called “Billy, Don’t be a Homo”, which detracted from the catalog that included the gem “I Hate the Grateful Dead”
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Dude, I see code and ADA violations all over the place. Even in nice buildings!
I used to go to a doctor who was in a larger medical office building, on the second floor. They had this nice interior stairway with an aluminum handrail. And they didn’t wrap the handrail back or to the floor at the end. So someone in a wheelchair might steer themselves right into the end of it. To say nothing of a dude smashing his balls right into it.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: IIRC the Replacements insisted that doors swing inward or they wouldn’t play the club.
I may not RC. Or may have just fabricated that entirely.
zhena gogolia
@Suzanne: Ouch!
You are like my husband. He notices code violations everywhere he goes.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: Ever since I had that job, I see violations everywhere too.
Steve in the ATL
@Deputinize America: it’s funny how often that line gets mentioned here!
@prostratedragon: IIRC, and this time I’m not just making things up, blaming her for it was an intentional slur on the Irish.
rikyrah
ABC News
@ABC
NEW: Critics are questioning whether the Trump administration and contractors involved in razing the White House’s East Wing adhered to federal health and safety standards. abcnews.link/vP9vwkd
x.com/ABC/status/1983923126229504314
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: I doubt The ‘Mats knew which way the doors opened.
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: So, was the Peshtigo fire really caused by meteor debris?
Asking for a friend.
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid: Dude, I am not that old.
rikyrah
Justin Baragona
@justinbaragona.bsky.social
Follow
Trey Sherman, who worked on the now-canceled CBS Evening News Plus, also posted this TikTok clip explaining that every producer of color on the show was laid off — and every white producer was relocated to another role in the company.
tiktok.com/@treymous/vi...
bsky.app/profile/justinbaragona.bsky.social/post/3m4f5i2s7qs2v
Suzanne
@zhena gogolia: It’s terrible going anywhere with me. “That ramp is too steep, that sticks out too far, that counter is too high, that threshold isn’t right.” On and on.
I keep meaning to write an ADA post. I even outlined it and just haven’t gotten to it. I will, I will, I will.
rikyrah
Michael Scherer
@michaelscherer
NEW: Stephen Miller, Marco Rubio, Kristi Noem, and others have taken over military homes that until recently housed senior officers.
x.com/michaelscherer/status/1983877316792012884
Steve in the ATL
@rikyrah:
Good lord our national media is awful!
@Geminid: it was set intentionally by the people of Wisconsin who are always desperately and pathetically trying to compete with Chicago
Kristine
@Eunicecycle: You’re welcome. I used to have another link that showed the change in zones over the whole state of Illinois over the last 30 or so years. You can watch the warmer zones expand…
The current USDA site may be usable, but it’s displaying the “radical left Dems responsible for the shutdown” banner, so hell with them.
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: Neither is my friend. But family legend has it that his great grand-uncle was responsible.
arrieve
@rikyrah:
I’m going to take a wild guess that the answer is “no.” Just saw this on BlueSky (after starting my learning journey on AI thanks to Carlo)
Favorite comment: Even AI won’t accept that our current reality is this stupid.
rikyrah
Gary Chambers
@GaryChambersJr
The Governor of Louisiana Jeff Landry went to LSU tonight and challenged the Board to find a spot for a Charlie Kirk statue.
This same weekend, he got involved in firing LSU’s football coach.
He also called a special session to change election dates in case the Supreme Court weakens the Voting Rights Act—so he can cut Black congressional representation.
He’s found time for everything except making life better for Louisianans.
We’re ranked 50th in the nation—and this is what he’s focused on.
Jeff makes it clear who he is for and who he is against.
x.com/GaryChambersJr/status/1983015464117690699
Eunicecycle
@Kristine: yes I’m glad they haven’t messed with the accurate information yet. I suppose they’ll get around to destroying it eventually.
Steve in the ATL
@rikyrah: no doubt done over strenuous objections from their employment counsel, and hopefully HR too. There will be settlements. I may have to switch sides to be a plaintiff’s employment lawyer!
Steve in the ATL
@rikyrah: and to think how we all complained about John Bel Edwards….
mappy!
This is notable. It’s unlikely Taco would think of doing this on his own, too much introspection needed. Which might suggest someone or ones, part of the inner circle, has flagged behavior of concern. So now they have a benchmark they’re measuring against?
pieceofpeace
@YY_Sima Qian:
Thanks for this.
JeanneT
@Kristine: When I first started gardening in Grand Rapids (1990), we were zone 5. We were apparently reassigned to 6a some years ago!
coin operated
@mappy!: They’re tracking his decline. The MRI thing should be bigger news though. I’m willing to bet his head scans have more dark spots than a Dalmatian.
Omnes Omnibus
@coin operated: I would say black lab.
prostratedragon
Treats for Everybody! And the post produced a redletter comment; almost no one tags That Guy:
@Steve in the ATL: Oh, I’d bet on it. That was still ok in the 1870s.
Eyeroller
@p.a.: Crucifixion was definitely a “dishonorable” method of execution for the Romans, not the least reason being that it was basically death by slow suffocation due to a stress position. It was used for common criminals; for upper-class Roman citizens it probably would have required stripping of citizenship/rights first (I haven’t looked that much into the history).
“Honorable” executions involved being run through with a sword.
Steve in the ATL
@Deputinize America: on a related note, perhaps our West Coast friends would share their thoughts on Kim Wilde singing about “East California” in her seminal 80’s smash, “Kids in America“
RevRick
@Suzanne: Yes, retrofitting old buildings is prohibitively expensive and difficult.
As a side note, MrsRev and I did a River cruise up the Danube, and invariably in the center square of the old cities we visited there was a monument dedicated to the victims of plague, war, and fire.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Isn’t she German?
frosty
@Suzanne: I learned that during a field trip by the local fire chief for Fire Safety Merit Badge. He pointed out how the doors opened outward and he also pointed out where the store had blocked some exits with boxes. Then had a little talk with them.
Professor Bigfoot
Every profession has its own terms of art, but… really?? :^D
ArchTeryx
@Suzanne: Take a good look at Grenfell, or if you REALLY want a truly depressing and horrifying story, the Joelma disaster absolutely fits the bill. High rise building with *one single* staircase and no fire suppression or fire doors. Once that stairwell filled with smoke, it was over for most people still there. The Brazilian fire brigade had no equipment capable of reaching people, fighting a fire that massive, or even getting all the way up the stairs without running out of SCBA air.
Your course of action is absolutely the smartest. If I hear a fire alarm, I GTFO. I work on the 14th floor of a high rise. I’m not waiting. Grab my jacket if I got one, and run for my life. Fire is far faster than most anyone would ever guess. Smoke is faster still, and it’s usually the smoke that kills.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: not to my knowledge. Per wiki:
Wilde was born as Kim Smith in the West London suburb of Chiswick, the eldest child of 1950s rock and roller Marty Wilde (birth name Reginald Smith) and Joyce Baker, who had been a member of the singing and dancing group the Vernons Girls. She attended Oakfield Preparatory School, in the Southeast London area of Dulwich.[citation needed] When she was nine, the family moved to Hertfordshire, where she was educated at Tewin and later Presdales School.[5] In 1980, at age 20, she completed a foundation course at St Albans College of Art & Design. As Kim Wilde, she was signed to RAK Records by Mickie Most.[6]
prostratedragon
@Omnes Omnibus: The worst. Even jumping into the Lake almost wasn’t enough.
Wapiti
@Suzanne: After reading your earlier comments, I went for a walk and a coffee. I noticed that the coffee shop was posted as limited to 49 person occupancy. I looked at the doors – they opened out, but had no crash bar. Guess I learned at least one thing for today. Thanks!
ArchTeryx
@Omnes Omnibus: The Peshtigo Firestorm is one of the most horrifying fires out of the 19th century, which was FULL of horrifying fires. Jumping into lakes and rivers doesn’t work very well if the air temperature hits 1500+ degrees. What hit Peshtigo wasn’t a wildfire. It was an open-air blast furnace. And they had almost zero warning it was coming until it was almost upon them.
lowtechcyclist
@Deputinize America:
OK, so if the cost is temporary, it’s not a sacrifice. If, say, I* try to rescue someone from ICE, and I get sentenced to five years in prison as a result, I didn’t sacrifice anything? Ho-kay.
*More likely someone else rather than me. I’m not that brave.
prostratedragon
@ArchTeryx: Similar thing happened at the Cook County building around 20 years ago. People in a stairwell as it filled with smoke couldn’t get back in through locked doors. Offices on a floor near them would have been adequate shelter. Of 12 people, 6 survived; lost an old friend.
Kirklin
@Gretchen: I thought it was just the daily reporting that was overturned. Wasn’t the bodycam requirement left in place?
ArchTeryx
@prostratedragon: I’m really sorry to hear that. It hurts like few other things when disasters get someone you know and care about. And that was a disaster, no matter what its scale.
prostratedragon
@Kirklin: From a report I saw, you are correct.
ArchTeryx
@prostratedragon: For a lot of people, it wasn’t enough. You can’t breathe 1500 degree air even if your body is somewhat protected by the water.
Ohio Mom
@Suzanne: I did an oral report for my HS economics class* on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.
I was stunned to learn the building is still standing (guess the structure itself was fireproof; the fire was only on the uppermost floors), in the Village, across the street from Washington Square Park. It’s now owned by NYU, they own just about everything (maybe everything) surrounding the park.
* My NYC HS economics class’s curriculum was very New York: the first half of the semester focused on the history of banking, the second on the labor movement. Never did I hear “supply and demand,” “opportunity cost,” or anything like that.
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot:
There’s also “smoke partition” and “partition resistant to the passage of smoke”. “Refuge area” and “area of refuge”. Not the same thing.
planetjanet
@Deputinize America:
This is a very hateful comment. You may need to go outside, breathe some fresh air and let yourself back in. There is no intellect in your remarks, just hate.
prostratedragon
@ArchTeryx: Thank you. Yes, it was pretty rough. And there were circumstances that prolonged the anger phase for many of us. Fire officials resigned. All these years later the building is still being retrofitted with something or other, like a persistent itch.
lowtechcyclist
@p.a.:
I think the real culprit is the fourth dimension. Any movement that lasts long enough will ultimately be in the hands of people with little understanding of or emotional connection to its founders’ message. One can hardly blame the founders for that.
And the alternatives to such corruption are for the movement to quickly die out, or for the founder to not bother at all. But there will always be people who are going to try to change the world for the better. So what’cha gonna do?
trollhattan
The Emperor has spoken.
Suzanne
@Ohio Mom:
Minor quibble: no building is fireproof. We classify them by the number of hours the structure and roof are rated to last (up to three hours for large buildings). But the interior can burn much faster than that, even if noncombustible. Which is why….. fire alarm goes off? GTFO.
I have had to evacuate down stairs due to fire in an hotel and it is a shitshow. Kids crying, people with disabilities struggle on the stairs, people panic. So: just GTFO, in a calm and orderly fashion.
WTFGhost
@p.a.: Well, most of the gospels, as I recall them (and remember, I’m brain damaged), Jesus predicted the miracle of the resurrection, and that was the main point. It was, as I recall, Paul, who decided Jesus was the divine sacrifice to wash away our sins.
Now, for me, the idea of “follow me, and you don’t even have to fear death!” is a powerful message, and the beatdown, crucifixion, and resurrection is enough to show “see, I told you you don’t even have to fear death!”
The concept of The Redemption, where Jesus became guilty of my sins, and suffered grave punishment for them, and through his sacrifice, I am cleansed… that doesn’t really make sense to me. I can’t have faith in that. But “WTFGhost, do what’s right, and you can walk forward into death’s maw and be courageous (if not unafraid),” that’s cool.
I can believe in heaven, if we loved each other enough, and lost all the stupid human tricks of our physical bodies and wonko brains, we’d be in a kind of heaven.
I mean, seriously, when I was in college, I already had some aphasia, and I started giving women backrubs, which was a way of saying “Hi, I’m very warmly affectionate, I’m not trying to get into your pants, and I’d like to communicate to you how much I’d like you to just feel good, using touch, which is far more expressive than speech.”
Well, imagine if we all felt that way. You wanted to feel a nice, sensual, experience, someone was willing to give you a backrub, no reciprocation needed, and no ulterior motives. That would be a kind of heaven, right?
C.S. Lewis posited that Hell would simply be people too stuck up in suspicion and nastiness and selfishness, that they just can’t get this whole “heaven” thing means more than just getting suckers to give you backrubs. I can deal with that; that would be lonely, and there aren’t many hells worse than loneliness, let me tell you!
UncleEbeneezer
@Professor Bigfoot: Two of my fave black comedians (JL Cauvin and Rod Morrow) were joking that to both of them this feels like a move she did specifically to taunt Bezos, lol. I confess, my petty side has thought about doing something similar like making a donation in the name of a conservative relative to the DNC, Planned Parenthood, various voting rights groups etc.
Ohio Mom
On another note, the chaos in my corner of the world is that Ohio MIL is down to a pair of very part time aides, after another two quit yesterday. She’s abusive and, as I’ve long suspected, a racist, now that her filters are all gone, she’s letting it rip. I don’t blame any of them for quitting,!they don’t get paid enough.
Ohio BIL, in St. Louis, is in charge (long, classic story of family dysfunction). I just called and screamed a message, She needs to be moved out of independent living, she can’t be left alone for more than a few hours at a time and there is just about no one left to work with her (she’s on her second agency). What is happening is neglect, does he want me to call Senior Services?
Which I may have just committed myself to doing in a few days if nothing changes. I have never liked my MIL but no human deserves to be stuck in bed all day, in a dirty diaper and no way to feed themselves. My god, that sounds awful when it’s typed out.
Note ti self: don’t live to 94 and complete frailty.
scav
@Suzanne: Yeah, fireproof has all the protective oomph as deerproof in gardening. An expression of aspirational intent at best.
Kirklin
@Suzanne: egress vs exit.
eta deleted unnecessary “how I know that confusion point”
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
I live in a federal program seniors apt complex and there are a lot of ladies living here with gray hair (I also have very light gray color to the little hair I have left… ) Most of them just live with the hair they have, without a lot of fancy styling or effort. And it’s even easier for the men, especially the ones that don’t have to do much of anything for whatever is left on their heads.
Ohio Mom
@Suzanne: I learned something.
Castor Canadensis
@JeanneT:
It seems that chlorophyll effectiveness is temperature-sensitive, so you need to move entirely different crops into newly-warm areas. I promise to blog and link it here when I have a moment.
rikyrah
@Suzanne:
Not me. I know he’s a piece of shyt and always will be
cain
@Deputinize America:
Isn’t there some kind of huge resurgence of country music among Gen Z? I suppose if you want to rebel this is the genre.
WTFGhost
@Suzanne: Gads, I remember a Disney film that scared the crap out of me, about how poisonous gasses could knock you out, if you didn’t do the right thing in a fire. (Don’t open a hot door; stay close to the floor; get out before your lungs are damaged, though they didn’t spell out “lung damage” for a kid’s film.)
(If anyone can validate this memory, I’d kinda appreciate it. It’s so… weird to remember Donald Duck and other Disney characters risking death to show us kids how to survive a fire.)
I must say, I was a TA in grad school, teaching a class, and there was a fire in the restroom, and I was proud that I came back into the classroom, “Okay, everyone, fire alarm, walk, don’t run! We’re not in any danger yet, but we need to evacuate until we get the all clear!” And if my traumatic memories of Donald Duck getting killed by smoke inhalation were what caused me to be so locked down and calm, maybe it was worth the trauma.
Damn. I really am stoned, now. That’s a good thing, but it does tend to make me babble, because stoned people babble, did you ever notice that, that stoned people babble a bit, because… never mind.
rikyrah
@JeanneT:
So, what will this mean for states that will be Climate refugee states. I’m looking at Ohio, and those towns in Northern Ohio on the Great Lakes.
Suzanne
@Ohio Mom: The WTC towers were rated to three hours, but the impact of the planes knocked a lot of the spray-applied fireproofing off. And the fire was across multiple floors. If people had started exiting immediately, it is likely that many more people would have survived.
rikyrah
@gene108:
Dr. OZ talking bullshyt about $13 , when people have
IN THEIR HANDS THE BILLS WITH THE ASTRONOMICAL JUMPS IN PREMIUMS…
the lies don’t work.
arrieve
@ArchTeryx:
This. One of the things I was shocked by in researching the Triangle Fire for my class was that it lasted less than half an hour.
As OhioMom points out, the building is still there. (A memorial was added to the facade in 2023.) There is a remembrance ceremony there every year, led by the FDNY, that is incredibly moving. They ring a bell 146 times, once for each of the victims. They also raise the ladder on a fire truck up to the sixth floor while a band plays. (The fire trucks sent to the fire in 1911 were useless because the ladders only went to the sixth floor, but the fire was on the eighth and ninth floors. There was one fire escape but it collapsed, killing everyone on it.)
There is also an art project called CHALK, that I’ve participated in. Every year, volunteers go to the buildings in New York (mainly the Lower East Side) where the women who worked at the factory had lived and write a remembrance in chalk on the sidewalk outside.
StringOnAStick
@tobie: I don’t know about in advance of surgery, but the most recent case I know of was a friend that had a pain med pump that she had control of, and it lasted about a 5 days after surgery, which gets you past the worst of the acute post surgical pain. It was basically a catheter to keep the nerve block going and had a pre-set amount of drug in it, I suppose to make you husband your drug resources by not getting too crazy with it, otherwise you’d run out too soon. That first week is just plain hard though; I did it twice and without this new pain med pump innovation, and mine was just 6 years ago at a very prominent clinic in Vail. CO.
Second piece of advice: they will start you on PT the day after surgery, and DO THE PT if you want all this effort and discomfort you are going through to, you know, ACTUALLY WORK. I know someone 15 years younger than me who had both knees replaced, failed to do any PT and now 5 years later is in just as much pain as before because he just would not suck it up and do what he was told to do. The first few weeks after surgery are the golden window for getting the best result you can get, so you just have to suck it up and deal with it and work through it. It’s the opposite of fun, but it gave me my active life back.
schrodingers_cat
@Ohio Mom: As someone with a not so wonderful MIL I empathize and sympathize. She was absolutely impossible for the first month when she was here last year.
prostratedragon
@Kirklin:
This article describes the appellate ruling. Bodycam requirement is still in place.
Old School
@WTFGhost:
Donald’s Fire Survival Plan (Walt Disney Productions – 1966
Edit: 1984 Version.
chemiclord
@RevRick:
Sure, John Calvin said those things. He also basically crafted an entire strain of religious thought to shield himself from his own vices and sins while serving in his station.
Castor Canadensis
@Suzanne:
In Canada, I often see older building with an external fire escape, or a brand-new wing with extra stairs. Recycling buildings visibly works well with the Universities and Colleges in Toronto
Kirklin
@WTFGhost:
Donald’s Fire Safety Plan — 1966, remade with live and voice-over in 1984
beat by @Old School:
Suzanne
@arrieve:
This is still true, BTW. Buildings that have the highest occupied floor that is 75 feet or higher above the street are considered high-rises and have to have a bunch of additional fire safety features because they can’t be reached from the truck ladder…. Most notably, pressurized fire stairs so that smoke doesn’t get into the stairway. (As noted above, this is another regulation written in blood.) 75 feet is six stories in most buildings. We also now put standpipes for firefighters in the stairways so that the firefighters can hook the hose up to it directly, rather than the truck itself.
Chief Oshkosh
@Captain C: Catherine Denueve
RevRick
@lowtechcyclist: The real culprit is the ideology of imperialism which has an incredible power to morph over time, is taught to us with our mother’s milk, and eventually captures all institutions. Including those born out of resistance to it.
It dresses itself up as just being the way things are and is often transmitted by child rearing practices. It teaches us to be divided along race, class and gender.
prostratedragon
@WTFGhost, @Old School:
I had Donald Duck’s Safety Book in the mid-50s, part of the Little Golden Books series. Frankly don’t remember much except that I liked to read it and Mommy said it was good sense even though it was Donald Duck.
Deputinize America
@cain:
My late millennial daughter is seriously into the great older forms of it and adores the inherent theme of rebellion against order and convention.
Old School
satby
@Old School: good. As long as the whiny babies of the administration don’t go running to get it appealed.
Which they’ll try.
Ohio Mom
@Suzanne: Rhat explains all the apartment buildings that come in at five or six stories.
Deputinize America
@planetjanet: An eternal, all powerful being should be able to handle a bit of criticism about Its priorities and assignments of values to scale, unless the entire moral system It promulgates is utterly worthless.
p.a.
Dick van Dyke “Learn not to burn.”
youtu.be/KptoA5wB0zc?si=H1btIgTKwPTy9wnd
tobie
@StringOnAStick: Thanks so much for this. My husband (unlike me) is an absolute sweetheart but he will do anything to avoid pain. I will need to convince him that however awful the pain is, it will come back with a vengeance if he doesn’t do PT. Glad to hear you have complete mobility and can be active as a result of the surgery. That’s great news to hear.
Martin
So on the exchanges there are two cost increases. If you’re below 400% of poverty the subsidy and % of your income you are expected to pay in premiums are going up, but the baseline policy cost isn’t. So if you had a $1000/month policy and you earned $30K and were expected to pay 3% on, then your expected out of pocket for premiums would be $900/yr, and the rest would have been covered by the subsidy. That may now be a $1000/month policy and you’re expected to pay 6% on, so your out of pocket cost for the premiums will double. The policy didn’t go up, and maybe this is where they get the $13 from – maybe it’s going up to $1013 which you’re paying 6% against and they’re eliding over the fact that the subsidies are being slashed.
The other increase is for people over 400% poverty level, who at the low end of that range (below 600%, I think it is) the temporary subsidy support enacted in 2021 is going away, but at the same time they’re getting a large policy cost increase of about 15%. So their $1000/mo policy is going to $1150 and there are no subsidies. Of course, $1000/mo is by no means the floor on policies on the exchange, particularly if you have a large family.
From the data I’ve seen the median ACA policy holder earns only slightly less than the median American, so there’s going to be a lot of people on there above that 400% who are definitely seeing more than a $13 increase in the base premium cost and so even that elision above doesn’t hold.
trollhattan
@Suzanne:
Think I’ve mentioned this previously that in our metroplex, the cap is 70 feet, above which steel framing is one of many added requirements.
Bunches of the 5-story infill apartments have been added downtown the last decade or so, nearly all wood-frame.
Suzanne
@Ohio Mom: Yeah, it sure does. High-rise residential is a rarity except in the densest cities, because the buildings are expensive and residential rents are lower than commercial.
Suzanne
@trollhattan:
Yup. Pretty much in every city. Also tons of five-over-ones, because five stories is the maximum in most jurisdictions that can be built in wood.
randy khan
@Ben Cisco:
This comes as no surprise. And probably they aren’t surprised, either.
prostratedragon
@Old School:
Wayback version of USDA plan to continue SNAP in a shutdown, archived Sept. 30. This has been removed from the USDA site in favor of lying propaganda about the Democrats causing the interruption. Hat tip Ariella Elm.
WTFGhost
@Deputinize America: Yes, but you weren’t criticizing Yahweh/Jehovah/God, you were sticking the shiv into RevRick, in my opinion. I agree: if God can’t handle criticism, if God isn’t ultimately about love and justice, we’re all effed up the expletive deleted, and the wazoo, to boot.
But people who care, and who try to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, they deserve to be appreciated for who they are. Religion can be a powerful force for good. I know it’s often a big force for bad, too, but… it can be really good, and really important.
So, like, I’m a shaman. While I don’t ask you to respect me *as* a shaman, if you piss on shamanism, to me, you’re being mean. You can be polite and accept it means something to me, and you don’t get it, but, hey, you’ll accept that it’s important to me, so you can respect that much about it. Maybe you think I’m a fool, but you can trust that if I’m that big a fool, I’ll figure it out if I’m a truth seeker.
It’s possible to do that much, without respecting me, or shamanism, or the spirit world, etc., just by recognizing that we might all be seeking the truth, in our own ways, using our own tools.
RevRick
@chemiclord: Two central tenets of the Reformed Church:
1). The Church reformed and always reforming;
2). Since God is sovereign no human came claim sovereignty over others in matters of conscience, “ neither prince, nor priest, nor thrall.”
Calvin spun out an elaborate theology in his Institutes, to which he added an elaborate preface explaining that he definitely insisted that he wasn’t in favor of the overthrow of tyrannical regimes, a clear case of objecting too much. A century later, English Puritans said, “yeah, right!” because they understood the implications of Calvin’s theology and overthrew Charles 1.
As for whatever sins and flaws you had in mind about Calvin, we are all a mass of them. He was, after all, a man of his time.
Old School
@prostratedragon:
But I’m assured this fund doesn’t exist.
RaflW
re: DR OZ
Baud
@Baud:
Scott/Eilish 2028!
trollhattan
@RaflW:
That’s what, 2x crudités trays from Whole Foods?
How hard can that be? Thanks “doc.”
Pauline
@tobie: I will also add that the family members that I knew that had knee replacements but didn’t do the PT as required both ended up with a weird knock-kneed posture and walk.
My mom was very diligent with her PT and didn’t have that issue. Mom actually had three replacements- she had her knees done separately and then had to replace the first one when she wore it out (it was a fairly new surgery when she had the first one done, so the implants had improved since then).
StringOnAStick
@mappy!: The benchmark they are measuring against are all the prior times he’s taken this test, just like for normies who are showing dementia signs. AOC tweeted, asking him if he drew the clock face, which is part of the test and a really strong time series indication of increased dementia issues.
Martin
I’m wondering if Democrats are going to have to take an exceedingly hardline tactic when they return to power to get long-term remedies to all of this. The only way I can see putting real defenses against some of this stuff is for some constitutional amendments but the GOP won’t sign onto those if they believe they’re the only ones willing to break those rules. Why ban something that Democrats aren’t aggressive enough to do themselves? That’s what Prop 50 is about – demonstrating that Democrats will cross that line if needed. So I suspect Democrats might need to introduce a constitutional amendment and then immediately and egregiously do the thing that the amendment is designed to stop. Otherwise, why would GOP states sign onto legislation to prevent bullshit national guard deployment if they know it’ll never be deployed against them?
RevRick
@WTFGhost: The whole substitutionary atonement theology, is garbage. Your intuition that God was angry at us and punished us by killing his son is utter nonsense is accurate. Jesus became incarnate to help us get with the program. And what was that program?
Well, as Orthodox theologians put it, “God became human so that humans could become divine.” Or as 2nd century St. Iraeneus phrased it, “The glory of God is a human who is fully human and fully alive.”
trollhattan
@Pauline:
For some reason I know more folks with hip replacements, than knees. Those who were diligent about conditioning pre-surgery bounced back surprisingly quickly.
As to how one does that while tolerating a painful joint I have zero knowledge, presumably low-impact things like the elliptical, plus stretching and strength of the affected muscle groups.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: Oh, really?//
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: Asbestos, baby!
Ruckus
@StringOnAStick:
For some people they let a lot of things go by, to avoid the one thing they don’t want – surgery. Because it takes time to recover from it. HOWEVER – the vast majority of the time if you don’t do the surgery and the proper recovery efforts, it will only get worse. I use the VA and so I’ve met a lot of doctors, some of whom I’ve seen once. I’ve met a couple that I filed complaints against, never to see them again. And I did that because they both treated their patients as something like pure junk. Or worse. One of those I’m amazed that he made it through the entire day, still able to speak and on rather rare occasion I’m amazed that some aren’t laying out in the grass bleeding from a lot of punches and kicks in sensitive parts of the body. I’ve had one who was rated pompous, arrogant jackass by a majority of patients. Likely within his first hour. He lasted one day. We paid a lot, some far more than a lot for the existence and use of the VA. And thankfully the vast majority of the staff is great. Or better.
StringOnAStick
@tobie: Just to show you how great a result you can get, I’m skiing better than I ever have now that my knees aren’t a sea of pain! I can do 12 mile hikes, garden as I want, etc. The one thing that tends to not get mentioned is that if you are a gardener, your days of kneeling on your knees are not going to return if you want the prosthesis to last. They replace the surface of the joint, but usually they glue a metal guide to the inside of your kneecap to avoid wear from the metal joint surface, and that still has feelings plus can be damaged Some systems replace the entire kneecap if it has too much arthritis on the articulating side, but that’s a bigger surgery. I’ve learned to garden by sitting on a foam kneeling pad and turning to the side.
HopefullyNotCassandra
@mappy!: thank you Francis Perkins!
Lyrebird
Turns out that in hospital settings at least, it tends to reduce how much total pain med is needed, because knowing you can instantly do it is better than having a completely unknown wait time.
Castor Canadensis
Off-topic: Elbows up: A practical program for Canadian sovereignty
policyalternatives.ca/news-research/elbows-up-a-practical-program-for-canadian-sovereignty/?utm_sour…
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
The biggest thing is to follow doctor’s orders. Because on occasion that can be somewhat unpleasant, at least til the better shows up. Which can take time and effort but often works fine.
The other side, why some avoid surgery at all costs, I believe is because not all doctors are great, or even good. And if you have insurance or use say the VA, you very often don’t get to choose.
You can complain though and if done reasonably and only when necessary this often counts, especially if most patients do complain.
WTFGhost
@Lyrebird: (gentle smirk) there’s also a well established BDSM principle that, if you know you can stop the pain, any time you want, you can endure a heck of a lot more than you think. No particular recommendation for BDSM activities… just, it’s something you learn along the way.
So the idea that “if it gets too bad, I hit the button,” gives people that sense of power over their pain, much like saying to a loving partner “Okay, that’s enough, time to stop the scene!” Obviously, it only works when the pain medication is properly dosed.
Dear lord, had a friend who had a 30 lb growth removed, and they didn’t set her pain med pump to the right dose for that huge a surgical intervention, and, the dull witted care givers kept saying “push the button!” without checking the chart. Mind you: the first time, second time, sure they should have said push the button. The third time, someone should have checked the chart, and the pain pump device, and contacted the surgeon to check the post-op pain meds, since the patient got the right amount, and was still complaining a lot.
When you’re a nurse or other caregiver in a situation like that you can’t let your impatience with patients keep you from following your training and your human instincts.
Still: yes, properly calibrated, they put people in control, which is extremely important when deciding how much pain you can handle. Few people want to be high as a kite, most people want a pain they can ignore, mostly.
Amy!
Saw a picture of Bovino in uniform yesterday. I immediately did an image search for Sad Sack, the World War II ummm hero. Separated at birth? Fell through a time machine? But it can’t be the latter, because for all his mournful looks and bad luck, Sad Sack was never an evil person.
Paul in KY
@WTFGhost: Any day with some killer THC is a good day.
Paul in KY
@WTFGhost: Would not bet you on that one.
Paul in KY
@geg6: In fairness to those simpering toadies, they didn’t know that lead was harmful back then.
They might have done it anyway, though.
Paul in KY
@rodwell: PT is the absolute key when you have a knee replacement or major surgery on the knee.
Paul in KY
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: At least 1.
Paul in KY
@p.a.: If you had to choose your method of being executed, crucifixion would be a very bad choice. Probably better than being burned or staked out for the ants, though.
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus: Or cared.
Paul in KY
@Eyeroller: Or decapitation. Probably by sword.
Paul in KY
@ArchTeryx: Think that kind of situation is what wiped out all the marine reptiles when the asteroid hit. Once the pyroclastic storm cloud had come over the water, the temperature was raised and no oxygen available, so the poor things suffocated/burned from having to come up for air.
Paul in KY
@Ohio Mom: We paid mom & dad’s caretakers $20.00 hour cash.