rjshae

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.

Coming to a sci-fi monster movie soon...

What I saw was a democratic party engaged in negotiating tactics over health care funding by talking up an extreme position. But what they're facing is a CEO-mentality of DJT being willing to sacrifice people for his own purposes. Remember that C. Schumer dealt with the previous such government funding vote by going along with the Republicans, for which he was heavily criticized. This time he tried a different tactic, which clearly won't work and he still gets criticized. I'm not sure what he's supposed to do about it when he has no leverage. People voted in this clown of a President; they get to live with the consequences. Like I've said before, the health care situation in the US won't be dealt with until a lot of people start dying. The unaffordability of health care is one way (and perhaps the only way) to achieve that goal here. It's a completely irrational situation.

"There is no rule of law until the Mafia needs lawyers." --Stephen Holmes

Lenny Wilkens, NBA player and coach

Future application process: (1) verify male neanderthal genome; (2) welcome to the military son.

The Starfinder: Afterlight Kickstarter has wrapped. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/epictellers/starfinder-afterlight/posts/4533285 The final stretch goal (Mechanic class) made it in under the bar.

From a mile-high perspective, the fundamental problem is that illegal immigrants are deeply embedded in the US economy, and trying to extract that component is going to have negative consequences for everybody. It would be less impactful if they focused on avoiding new illegal immigration and extraditing the newest arrivals before they become entrenched. But either way the optics won't look pretty.