rjshae

Not just that, he drove across the US to do it. Plus he has a wife and children. The only (bizarre) conspiracy that occurs to me is he's a Taliban sleeper agent who was activated to get Trump to react the way he did, forcing Afgan refugees to return home and face revenge. But that's too MAGA/Q-anon-think. Maybe he has family members in Afghanistan who weren't extracted, and faced retaliation for his actions? Or perhaps he's just triggered by military deployments into cities. *shrug*

That type of logic almost comes straight out of Mein Kampf. But Trump is a master of massive overreaction, using the best available pretext to justify his policies. I'm not even clear this is terrorism, since the National Guard is normally armed. I.e. not civilians. He is the President who deployed the military to the streets of Washington D.C., turning them into easy targets of opportunity for foreign actors.

That type of logic almost comes straight out of Mein Kampf. But Trump is a master of massive overreaction, using the best available pretext to justify his policies. I'm not even clear this is terrorism, since the National Guard is normally armed. I.e. not civilians. He is the President who deployed the military to the streets of Washington D.C., turning them into easy targets of opportunity for foreign actors.

My Sis has been dealing with chronic pain (CRPS) for a while now. Recently she had a spinal cord stimulator surgically implanted, and the results have been exceptional. As long as she keeps it charged up, she is nearly free of pain. It's had a most wonderful effect. Science rocks.

The tariffs are a major gamble because it is all but impossible to determine what the long-term impacts will be. The economy is too complex to predict that accurately. But it's clearly not a robust approach to improving the economy; that comes from factors like better education and sound investments, not from trying to wreck every other nation's economy. A better approach would have been to be selective in tariff application, only applying them for nascent industries that need time to mature. But now that they are in place, they are much more difficult to remove because other nations have applied counter-tariffs. I fear that, in the future, the tariffs will prove to be a major handicap for American competitiveness. Extracting illegal immigration from the economy is always going to be difficult, and is bound to have a negative impact on the economy. He would have been better served to focus on border security; letting current immigrants become assimilated and grow economically. Overall, his policies are inflationary and damaging to the economy. Any possible benefits of tariffs will take years to express themselves, and removing immigrants will continue to have a negative effect (except perhaps for government costs). In the meantime, the country is in for more pain over the next few years.

Long term that makes no sense, at least for military recruitment. This administration is strangely obsessed by DEI. Idiots run in packs, I suppose.

Haven't we seen this movie before? Putin will decline the peace deal; Trump will rant and rage.

I see the Comey/James indictments got tossed for the stupidest possible reason. Par for the course, I suppose. Reputable prosecutors probably want nothing to do with Trump's revenge dish, for all kinds of good reasons. 'Send a message to the rest': Board recommends disbarment for Trump attorney Jeffrey Clark

At one time that would have been laughable. But in these interesting times, it almost seems plausible. Make America Greene Again...

The "rational mode" she's been assuming of late made me wonder if she was planning to run for a different office. Perhaps the Senate or governor? But the first seems unlikely since the current office holders are in place until 2027, and Kemp seems pretty safe for the moment. She does seem like an ambitious woman, so I wouldn't be surprised to see her in D.C. again at some point. Meanwhile she can run point on the Jewish space laser conspiracies.

Today in stupid: Without evidence, CDC changes messaging on vaccines and autism Hmm, it seems like they need a rebrand to go along with their turn to superstition. Committee for Delusional Communication? Center for Demented Cruft?

Plus Fallout. Funny thing about The Wheel of Time is that the reviews/ratings improved every season, but that wasn't enough to keep it going. I thought from the start that the concept was hopelessly ambitious. Word has it that Jordan planned this as a trilogy, then dragged it out for 14 volumes. It was badly in need of significant trimming.

Turns out a subset of documents will be released within a month, but not anything related to an ongoing investigation, documents/images that reveal victims, and certain other particularly gross materials. The first, of course, is what many people actually want to see. So... maybe we'll see a few interesting details, but nothing too incriminating. Will any of this stuff actually make it to trial during this administration? I remain skeptical. But whatever.

Note that the released documents will be redacted over the privacy concerns of the victims... supposedly. Even if DJT signs the bill, the documents will then (conveniently) need to be reviewed (slowly?) by the DOJ. Who knows how long that will take? We may never get the full truth, at least not for a few decades.

UC Berkeley scientists hail breakthrough in decoding whale communication The intelligence of marine mammals continues to surprise.

We went to watch Bugonia, but weren't quite satisfied with the story. I suppose you could call it an unusual character study. There were a couple of unexpected plot twists, but in the end I wasn't sure what message it was trying to communicate (other than maybe humans don't deserve to survive). I suppose if you liked Poor Things then you may enjoy this. But I preferred Emma Stone in Cruella.

After getting off the plane in Sydney, the man waits to go through Australian customs. "Do you have anything to declare?" asks the Australian customs officer. "No" replies the British man. "Do you have a criminal record?" "I'm sorry, I didn't know that was still a requirement."

Yes, the public already knows he's a sleezy philanderer, yet they elected him anyway. The only possible additional harm is an association with the underage sex activity. He already gets heavily criticized, so I'm not sure that's the concern. I do think he's worried this might cost him his base (and thus his Congressional power).

My initial thought was that a full release might hamper any cases brought to trial. But with DJT in charge, any such trials will likely be for purely political purposes; only producing evidence that harms his opposition. A full release at this point may be the only fair outcome. Let the (creepy) chips fall where they may.

Blue Origin pulls off the booster landing technique.

I'm reminded of a quote from The Longest Day: "There it is, he's at it again! Have you ever heard such a racket in all your life?"

Spanish, perhaps so. The others? Maybe if they are comparable to ASL communicators: ~1 million? Then that would include Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, Korean, and Russian. Some day maybe AI can be tasked with that.

Ever heard of CPAN? Speeches to Congress can go out to the nation. She was clearly speaking in both languages intentionally, and wasn't translating for the benefit of either audience.

Here's a contrast in requirements: White House told to bring back sign-language interpreters even though Trump dislikes ‘sharing a platform,’ judge rules Arizona's first Chicana representative has been sworn in. She's going to code-switch. Okay, apart from the legal specifics, why is the White House required to provide ASL interpreters but a Chicana representative speaking to Congress in spanish is not required to provide a translator? This seems inconsistent, if not rude.