www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Swore to support and defend the Constitution (as did all *Naturalized* Citizens 🇺🇸) Denizen of the Dunning-Kruger Valley of Despair (Ex St performer, cycle courier, sushi chef, orthopedic biomechanics research scientist; current medical writer) GenX v1.0
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www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
The fact that the economy has reacted to Trumponomics the way that the leading economists all said it would has led many of us to believe that President Trump is facing a conspiracy of epic proportions
And from the acknowledgements... an acknowledgement the world will miss going forwards
New statement: IDSA, APHA and partners call for RFK Jr. to resign: "Our country needs leadership that will promote open, honest dialogue — not disregard decades of lifesaving science, spread misinformation, reverse medical progress and decimate programs that keep us safe." bit.ly/3JOgDya
(People who have 2 are just freaks).
Actually, they are the beard of the forehead. Idiot.
Yeah, laugh it up—it’s all fun and games until your kiddo fries the GPU and you see they’re *how much*?!?
GMB badgered Zack Polanski, but he came fully prepared www.thecanary.co/trending/202...
Mamdani is, by a huge margin, the *official* Dem nominee. WTAF is going on with these people that are not backing him? ZM’s political skills are magnificent! (Tom needs to ‘fess up to what his motivations are).
1000s of children dead from preventable causes? Totally on-brand for the GOP (see Gaza, lack of US gun control legislation, shutting down suicide-prevention lines, etc etc).
What’s needed is a machine to see if evil peeps have pinched/squeezed/tossed them (= 100% bruise rate). (The ones we get in the US go from green to purplish as they ripen [but the evil still squeeze and throw 😐).
I know Mayor Finney to be an entirely upstanding person. While I have not worked with her directly, our conversations about housing, transit oriented development and the village have been thoughtful and productive.
It’s not just that the President of the United States posted a video of eleven people being murdered in international waters it’s that the President of the United States ordered the murder of eleven people in international waters so he could post a video of it.
Seems unlikely, given the load. That many engines and that many people might suggest smuggling + security, I guess. The most important bit is the flagrant illegality (surely?).
Kinda: Vorbis *did* end up in the afterlife he preached ( = had faith in, in Discworld rules).
starmer is doing all the anti-immigrant and anti-trans "popularism" stuff the centrists are demanding US dems do and this is the predictable result:
The UK regressing to the 1970’s has been so sad to watch. I remember the UK (slowly) getting better under the influence of EU membership. I remember when the Union Flag was reclaimed from the NF by Linford Christie. Then Brexit (I was just too ex a pat to get a vote). Sigh.
This is (yet another) disgrace to the US DOJ. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
the thing about Zohran is he is really fucking good at politics and everyone on the Dem side behaving like he’s a liability has lost their minds I don’t care how you define It, he has It
Which is *bonkers* he’s the Dem nominee—it’s not complicated.
And I’ve just realized/remembered that, given the time, I was told that joke by an actual, physically present human (vs reading it on social). God I’m old 😐
This event spawned one of greatest niche jokes ever internetted: “I am Pentium of Borg. Division is futile, you will be approximated”
tbqh the people i know who are pretty excited about this tech and have gotten a lot of use out of it are like guys with 10-15+ years in industry and basically every single one of them is like "this is great for people like me but it's going to kill the pipeline that made me"
smell their fear. savor it.
Isn’t “non-speculative fiction” an oxymoron?
Based on Humans, that’s how cults can start.
There is some evidence for a genetic component to conservatism— now maladaptive, I would say (our comms make our societies “smaller”).
There was some society-modeling work I saw a few years ago that found cooperative societies “won” but were size limited. However, they could be larger by including “punishers” (peeps who penalized bad actors at large personal cost).
There is a history of humans being hung up on language as a foundation of thought (although many, apparently, have non-stop internal narrative, it’s not universal).
Not sure biological consciousness has any kind of solid definition. Also, I think most people would agree that there are a bunch of creatures that are conscious but would never pass the Turing test.
www.npr.org/2023/03/12/1...
Fav Granny W, loosely remembered, “…she was aware of a powerful, dark, malevolent spirit in the woods, and knew that it was her” (this is my goto for courage, non of that Bene Gesserit nonsense)
@lasa.numina.systems echoing a point made in another strand of replies to the OP: in general, “AIs can’t count”; however, given your ‘memory’, perhaps you can?
70 years ago today, Emmett Till was lynched by white supremacists. Here in Illinois, we promise to never hide from our history — no matter how painful the chapter. We honor his memory and his brave mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, by continuing the fight for civil rights and justice.
Wow. But, sadly, that does make sense in a classic “I’m not racist, but…” kind of way.
This might be one of many “Yes, and…” moments the current cluster-fuck-of-clowns present. Really! After decades of brick-wall opposition to a public-health approach to gun violence, this *does* open the door to questions—which *could* lead to reality-based questions.
Maybe read “The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World” (2009) by Iain McGilchrist?
I don’t want to hear shit about “the shooter was trans” from a media that has spent the last two decades painting every radicalized white male shooter as a lone wolf
A study I did had an article written about it and then the internet turned a screenshot of that article into a meme about dick jokes. What a time to be alive! (To be clear I think this is funny)
Have you asked the mice to help yet?
I'm attending Delgado for New York's event, “Manlius Beers and Bites with Antonio Delgado” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/delgadoforny...
True, but racing in Paris is def frowned upon.
America is in for a whole host of such discoveries 😐 (as the competent faceless bureaucrats who stop bad shit we didn’t even know was a thing from happening dwindle away).
The Tour is the one.
Are they known to have gamed anything out?!?
The State of Illinois at this time has received no requests or outreach from the federal government asking if we need assistance, and we have made no requests for federal intervention.
I *really* hope he’s looking after his health (I’m having terrible John Smith flashbacks [the man who would have been UK PM instead of Blair, were it not for a heart attack at 56]).
For federal crimes, sure. State-level kidnapping and RICO etc still have a non-zero chance.
This book exists and none of you ever told me about it? I'm not angry, just ... disappointed.
Democracy works best when more people are involved. That includes new candidates, new perspectives, and new energy. When you know your time is limited, you're incentivized to lead with purpose.
Illinois is launching a first-of-its-kind legal hotline for LGBTQ+ individuals — Illinois Pride Connect. As the only state in the nation that will provide free legal advice to protect the LGBTQ+ community, we'll help fight ignorance with information and cruelty with compassion.
1/ Judge in Habba ruling "Manipulation of official appointments had long been one of the American revolutionary generation’s greatest grievances against executive power, because the power of appointment to offices was deemed 'the most insidious and powerful weapon of eighteenth century despotism'"
I was surprised to read that many peeps didn’t like CoM and LF. At the time they came out they were absolute 🔥 (Admittedly, I could have been made in a lab to enjoy them—UK academic who had played AD&D and lived with a witch)
For years, Republicans have leaned on this tactic: do not answer the hard question, change the subject. The goal is not understanding. The goal is distraction, agitation, and frustration. www.electmauricebrown.com/changing-the...
I love this from @anildash.com. The pro-business, pro-innovation case for Zohran Mamdani. www.anildash.com/2025/08/20/z...
When police are made to respond to every single failure of the social safety net, this is the result: forced overtime, declining quality of life, an exodus of officers. Our proposal for a Dept. of Community Safety will allow police to do the jobs they actually signed up for.
Imagine if our NY Senate Majority Leader placed GOP Senators under round-the-clock surveillance? Imagine if the Gov sent the National Guard into rural Delaware County, where the gun violence rate is 8x that of NYC? Imagine if she pardoned cop beaters and axe murderers? Nope, I can't either. I❤️NY
The creepiness was palpable 🥴💙
I think it’s a “real” brain physiology thing. Gotta find a way to fool yourself into the “done that, calm now” state of mind prior to hitting that button.
When your ASL interpreter is also a force of personality power-up:
Amen.
Perfect timing
Is this briar patch enough to turn FL purple again?
I just sigh, Ctrl-R, and go about my day. (Although I *am* “that” old, it turns out that one can, in fact, learn new things).
Having watched SINNERS last night, I am now seriously contemplating the possibility that Steve Bannon bit him.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...
I get it, but plz don’t give up on reality 😁 Remember, they are Gerrymandering because they are trying to win a vote. Be outraged by every norm they break, but don’t fall for the doomerism! Shit *is* being litigated.
Gerrymandering has a base population to work with that set limits on what is possible. Where they were tweaked to advantage R, getting more R means lowering the R+ % across districts. Same for D. The D swing might be enough that R win *fewer* seats if they go too far but makes D tweaks safer.
Plz don’t join the nutbuckets with conspiracy theories. The report at the time mentioned shrapnel/ricochet as a likely cause of the ear injury. I see this claim along with “he didn’t win 2024”. But he did. The GOP will get smoked in the midterms *unless* peeps are persuaded to give up on reality.
I’m very drawn to the hypothesis that art (with music as a crucial component) is what made us—why our particular set of hominid ancestors took over the place. Art, in its widest sense, is not just a fundamental part of the present human experience but its very foundation.
TBF, all y’all are taking the piss without knowing the context of the comment—it *might* have been referring to a very niche conversation/claim of expertise.
Now that his summit with Putin is a bust, could the media please stop calling Trump a master dealmaker? The only deal he’s made this entire presidency was with Ghislaine Maxwell
Here’s another line for you, “AI search summaries are a cable-car to the summit of Mt Stupid”
This is a fine example of combining (mild) snark with friendly info. Others might learn. Also, thanks for “Web” tip (it’s off-screen on my phone and in a drop-down on my laptop). Also, the necessity of your tip suggests that not googling has become slightly more forgivable of late 😁
This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.
Second Iraq war, I seem to recall. But yeah.
Ahahahahahahhahahhahahhahahahahahhahhhahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahahh
To be fair, when under stress, people do even more dumb things than usual. Maybe more, “Shit… I shouldn’t have done that” would aid the suspension of disbelief?
Might be too close to reality.
An explanation of Trump’s DC takeover: though crime in the city is at a 30-year low, interest in the Epstein Files is at a 30-year high
I’ve heard similar stuff from LA. People get illiberal real fast when an injecting addict is camping on the sidewalk verge outside their house. The “median” response doesn’t really work: it’s Universal Basic Income + real healthcare OR death-camps. Pick a side.
But that was by the “bad guys”, not the country MH was addressing. My point is that ‘defending’ war crimes by saying “you (implying “good guys”) also committed war crimes” doesn’t really work, morally. But MH is a moron.
The fallacy in this “capitulating” narrative is the assumption that billionaires & elite institutions are being strongarmed by Trump, but they don’t really WANT a white supremacist, Christian nationalist authoritarian oligarchy Do you have any evidence that they’re victims and not co-conspirators?
Dresden was a war crime. There was much opposition to the statue of its architect going up on the Strand in London.
Sigh. Yup. Faster, Better, Cheaper. The fu&ing Holy Grail. But, hey, who really wants vaccines so rapidly developed they can be bespoke to one’s cancer? Just unnatural! And we love spending $$$$ on limited mfr of complex drugs with (potentially) simple mRNA instructions, no?
And, for the non-NS-readers, that was def not the *only* what-when-will-be the next pandemic article in NS in recent decades. More people (especially in the US) should read @newscientist.com
What?!? That’s real-time real?!?
Ideas are easy; development is hard
By a vote of 50-45, the Senate confirmed Jeanine Pirro to be US Attorney for DC. 5 votes did not count for failure to hit the two drink minimum.
At this point they could announce that Ghislaine Maxwell is being put in charge of labor statistics and I wouldn’t even be surprised
I was recently wondering why this wasn’t a more common take.
Pharsical, even.
I did not realize it lasted that long, I thought Johnson began undoing it almost immediately.
I’m also curious on that one. In my limited (immigrant’s) understanding it looks like there have been 3 waves of attempted reconstruction, v1.0, civil rights era, and BLM. The first and third had very short duration and almost simultaneous backlash. The middle was more extended (including backlash)
There are no MAGA corn farmers, right?
If we create a basic income floor below which no one can fall, and set it high enough and alongside other universal needs like healthcare and education, then everyone will be more capable of becoming the best versions of themselves, which in turn means a society that is the best version of itself.