A heartwarming Friday open thread

by liberal japonicus

I'm pretty cynical, I think by nature, but I also believe that we are bathed in it, so even if I were the most optimistic on the planet (which I am not), getting pickled in it has the expected effect. But a bit of cheer below the fold.

So I guess one of the things that makes me happy being in Asia is that young people generally have a much brighter attitude to life. I've not figured out if the K-stans referred to here are American, Western or Korean in membership (or all of the above), but I suspect that Koreans were also involved.

This also involves a lot more innocence. I'm studying Korean by listening to various Korean YouTube videos and came across this one. Write about it, or innocence or anything else that tickles your fancy.

Comments

[wj]

As a government shutdown looms (I know, "what else is new?") it appears that there is a bipartisan bill, as in co-authors from both parties, in progress to discourage them in the future.

The legislation would make life difficult for members of Congress by essentially forcing them to stay in Washington until they fund the government. While the temporary funding is in place and until regular funding is approved, they would be forced to show up to the Capitol, with attendance taken daily, including weekends. No taxpayer funds could be used for travel, except for one flight to return to Capitol Hill for work. That would apply to members of the House and Senate, and their staffs, as well as White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials.

“If you get to the end of the budget year and the appropriations work is not done, we have mandatory quorum calls in this body at noon every single day, seven days a week until we get all the appropriation work done,” Lankford proposed in a 2020 speech to colleagues. “None of us can travel. We all stay here in D.C. We want to be home. We want to be able to meet with our constituents. We want to take care of the practical needs that are there. The way to do that is get our work done here.”

What a radical concept: forcing Congress members to actually do their jobs.

[hairshirthedonist]

I was walking my dog yesterday, and a car passed by, the exact model and year of which I can't be sure of. It was something along the lines of an early 2000s Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. It's was jacked up with a high suspension and wide tires as though it was modified for off-road driving. On the roof was a completely dead, like dead for a long time, Christmas tree with lights on it - by which I mean it was lighted, as in current flowing and the bulbs producing visible light. I found joy in the absurdity of that.

[wj]

Perhaps on its way to something like this?
https://24hoursoflemons.com/

The cars in their races are generally that vintage or older. (One criteria for entry is <$500 cost, exclusive of safety equipment.) And the teams do seem to weird themes, which that might be.

[hairshirthedonist]

If our judges decide you spent over the $500 limit, they can assign negative laps to your standings. Your cheaty-ass Spec Miata will still start the race when the green drops–it just may be working Lap -629.

I want a cheaty-ass Spec Miata!

[wj]

Meanwhile, one of the bits of the Federal government which mostly get overlooked, in this case NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), has taken a big step towards improving our understanding of hurricanes when they are still out in mid-ocean.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/09/30/hurricane-sam-saildrone-video-waves/

And with the climate changes which are already in progress, it's information we urgently need.

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

A lovely meditation regarding how our sacramental book and music collections have been fucked up by the fucking agents of disruption.

https://kylechayka.substack.com/p/essay-the-digital-death-of-collecting?utm_source=pocket-newtab

I'm conservative in some ways.

I'm a hypocrite.

[russell]

I miss vinyl. It just sounds better. Go ahead, fight me.

Absent that, my wife and I keep all our music on a big NAS and stream it in-house.

Streaming services don't pay musicians well, so I don't use them. We used to subscribe to Pandora, but their recommendation algorithms weren't that great and half of what they would stream to us was stuff we weren't really interested in.

I guess I know more about what I want to hear than a machine does. Or, you know, rooms full of machines chewing away on mountains of great big data. My guesses about me are better than their guesses about me. Imagine that.

Plus, I just really like having one tiny corner of my life where I'm not being assaulted by ads all the time.

Just another data point. Another county heard from.

[wj]

I guess I know more about what I want to hear than a machine does. Or, you know, rooms full of machines chewing away on mountains of great big data. My guesses about me are better than their guesses about me. Imagine that.

Likewise me and books. I just like a wall of bookshelves. And when the mood strikes, I can just run my eye down the shelf and see what strikes a chord. Try doing that with electronic books.

[nous]

I don't do streaming services. I use Bandcamp. They actually serve the musicians, and the files you get from them are DRM free and in a variety of formats. I usually download MP3 320 to save a bit of space (lots of albums on my hard drive) and don't mind that level of fidelity at all. I don't miss vinyl. There again, I've always been more Quaker than Catholic when it comes to ritual, so...

I'm the opposite anymore, though, with my musical instruments. I'm tired of digital obsolescence for amp sims and effects. I want something that you'll be able to plug in and play without any firmware updates or anything but cables for the same caveman reason of wanting things I can squeeze and rely on to remain what I wanted to start.

[liberal japonicus]

A lovely meditation regarding how our sacramental book and music collections

I was just in a FB thread (more the fool me) and I wondered if people would develop the same kind of love for reading if they didn't have the physical book. It was pretty surprising, I don't think anyone acknowledged the possibility of it happening. 'Hey, I love books and I love my kindle'. I found it disconcerting...

[novakant]

The new Knausgaard novel is out:

https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/all/the-morning-star/

And Franzen's new novel will come next week:

https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/all/crossroads/

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

The big fat sixth and final volume of Knausgaard's My Struggle awaits my attention from a corner shelf.

[cleek]

my wife does the streaming thing - pick a song and let Pandora build a list from that (and then skip every third song). but i prefer to curate my own experience, so i still buy albums, and mostly just listen to them, streamed from our NAS.

[Nigel]

Stipulating that Manchin is a serious doofus, this is interesting.
https://slate.com/business/2021/10/manchin-reconciliation-trillions-negotiations.html

[Michael Cain]

On the Slate article, by far the biggest-ticket item on Slate's $1.5T list is climate change. Hasn't Joe said that spending anything on climate change is right out?

[nous]

Yes. It's not like everything just has to get less money to keep the spending under Manchin's limit. He and Sinema are obstructing specific, necessary things and hiding the things they are holding up behind talk about price tags. So, yeah, we could get a bunch for $1.5T, but entire priorities would be taken off the table, so the things Slate is pointing to are not actually achievable, they are just within reach if we pretend that the price tag is the sticking point, and not just a convenient dodge.

And since I mentioned Bandcamp earlier in my response about purchasing music, today (Friday Oct 1) is Bandcamp Friday again, so the platform is waiving its fees and giving your entire purchase to the artist/label for the day. You can buy files or you can (in many cases) buy vinyl and support the artist just as much as if you had bought from a record store. And when you buy the LP you get access to streaming the music on the Bandcamp platform.

[novakant]

The big fat sixth and final volume of Knausgaard's My Struggle awaits my attention from a corner shelf.

Go for it, it's messy, but a great reading experience - don't blame me later, though ...

[cleek]

ladies and gentlemen, the GOP:

Rep. Madison Cawthorn Why do we not use cryptocurrency as the new gold standard?

[wj]

Be fascinating to know what measure the one commenter is using when he claims the US dollar has lost 96% of its value. Has he not noticed how much cheaper, in nominal terms, an airplane ticket, or a computer, has gotten?

As for Cawthorn's suggestion, what a great scam oplortunity! Facilitates criminal activity, too. Win-win!

[wj]

California leads the way! (Sorry, lj.)
https://abc7news.com/california-schools-vaccine-mandate-kids-covid-vaccination-student-vaccines-gavin-newsom/11068251/

The covid vaccine (once the FDA approves it for children) will join the 10 other vaccines already required to attend school in California. Anti-vaxxers lose again. No tears here.

[wj]

Other good news -- ESA's BepiColombo is expanding our information on the Solar system's least explored planet: Mercury
https://twitter.com/bepicolombo

[CharlesWT]

Be fascinating to know what measure the one commenter is using when he claims the US dollar has lost 96% of its value.

According to the CPI Inflation Calculator today's $1.00 would be worth $0.06 in 1921. Our luck is that innovation has managed to outrun inflation. Aside from labor-intensive and highly regulated services like education and health care, just about everything is cheaper in both nominal dollars and the number of hours worked to pay for them.

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnbOKH9Oe9s

hat tip Balloon Juice

[byomtov]

According to the CPI Inflation Calculator today's $1.00 would be worth $0.06 in 1921. Our luck is that innovation has managed to outrun inflation. Aside from labor-intensive and highly regulated services like education and health care, just about everything is cheaper in both nominal dollars and the number of hours worked to pay for them.

That's a little under 3% a year, BTW.

So what?

A little inflation can actually help growth and productivity, which has a lot to do with the fact that many things are cheaper in terms of labor hours. (But not in nominal dollars, in general, with exceptions.)

That growth was not "luck."

Inflation can get out of hand, of course, but deflation is a disaster.

[wonkie]

Here is a heartwarming story: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/10/2/2054540/-Arlington-Firemen-Dig-Up-Street-For-Eleven-Hours-Straight-To-Rescue-Deaf-Senior-Dog-In-Storm-Drain

[CharlesWT]

(But not in nominal dollars, in general, with exceptions.)

There are quite a few exceptions. As a personal example, in 1983 I paid about $600 for Panasonic's most expensive microwave oven. Now a brand's most expensive unit can be less than $250.

That oven turned out to be one of my better investments. I still have it and it works as well as when it was new.

Price Changes (January 2000 to December 2020): Selected US Consumer Goods and Services, Wages

Inflation can get out of hand, of course, but deflation is a disaster.

Low deflation, like low inflation, has economic benefits.

[byomtov]

There are quite a few exceptions. As a personal example, in 1983 I paid about $600 for Panasonic's most expensive microwave oven. Now a brand's most expensive unit can be less than $250.

Pretty much only electronics. More basic things like food and housing not so much.

Low deflation, like low inflation, has economic benefits.

Pretty limited benefits, and a lot of harm. It helps fixed income recipients, which of course includes bondholders and many other lenders.

On the other hand, it discourages investment, both directly and because people tend to hoard money rather than spend.

The two situations are very far from symmetrical.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

In 1983, microwave ovens were still a "new thing", and manufacturers hadn't fully optimized the process.

In 2021, the manufacturing process is optimized, so that a new microwave can be expected to fail a year or two after the end of the warranty coverage.

Nobody makes over-engineered microwaves like the 1983 models any more, that's the 'genius' of free-market capitalism at work.

[CaseyL]

Snarkie I have a microwave that might be from that Era. Bought it used when I moved into my current house in '98. It still works just fine, though not as good as "new."

I didn't know new MW were designed to fail after a few years. I was thinking of maybe getting a newer model, but now think maybe not.

[Michael Cain]

Other parts of the MW oven, perhaps. Eg, our still-in-warranty oven had a circulating fan failure. Nobody designs a cavity magnetron to fail. There's enough toxic stuff in them that only gets out when they break.

[bobbyp]

Low deflation, like low inflation, has economic benefits.

FFS...there are damned good reasons why you don't see (any?) nation states on the gold standard these days.

[wj]

Ah, for the days when repair shops, for everything from shoes to electronics, were ubiquitous. One would think "planned obsolescence" would have encouraged them -- after all, auto shops are still around, but perhaps not.

[Michael Cain]

Ah, for the days when repair shops, for everything from shoes to electronics, were ubiquitous.

At least here, it's not too hard to find a shoe repair shop. When you look in, though, business is heavy on boots and expensive dress shoes -- the few types that are sturdy enough to be repairable. Now that I'm retired and can be kind to my knees and ankles, well-padded running shoes are simply not repairable. The heels can't be replaced if you've ground them down, the fabric uppers can't be replaced if they tear, and who's going to pay repair-shop rates to have a new insole put into a beat up shoe?

[wj]

well-padded running shoes are simply not repairable.

Careful design to make planned obsolescence work. I wonder if there would be a market for a more modular (i.e. repairable) design....

[Michael Cain]

Ah, for the days when repair shops, for everything from shoes to electronics, were ubiquitous.

Do you remember the days of electronics repair shops? We could mandate that the devices be repairable. But would anyone put up with, "Yeah, you'll have to leave your TV for three weeks while we figure out which parts to order, and do the work."

[wj]

would anyone put up with, "Yeah, you'll have to leave your TV for three weeks while we figure out which parts to order, and do the work."

Having just recently put up with having the car in the shop for a couple of weeks (while parts were ordered, among other things), I would say yes. Especially with sufficient price differential between repair and replace. Not to mention that, in a lot of cases, you can get TV shows on your laptop -- maybe not the entire selection, but a lot of it.

Note, also, that you can get 1-2 day shipping (from, for example, Amazon). So perhaps not a 3 week wait.

[liberal japonicus]

I'm assuming that it is not they are designed to break down, it is just that they are reducing the raw materials that go into the parts to its absolute minimum, which then allows things to fail.

I used to do a lot with videos (the actual VHS tapes) and purchased a lot of them for teaching and research. And when I got the older vhs tapes, they were so much heavier than the newer ones. If the same is true for microwave parts, you may find them failing more quickly. However, it's not that they are designing them to fail, they are skimping on the initial materials, so it is a structural problem rather than being guided by the manufacturers.

[nous]

Careful design to make planned obsolescence work. I wonder if there would be a market for a more modular (i.e. repairable) design

I don't think this will happen for running shoes, where the trend seems to be for recyclable, more-environmentally friendly materials. Running shoes are tricky because they have to balance durability with shock absorption. Hiking boots, however, do seem to be coming back around to advertising their durability and repairability. The old school Danner hiking boots have made a comeback among the casual hikers because they are a lifetime shoe. I've picked up a pair of La Sportiva approach shoes and Scarpa boots that can be resoled. Not quite lifetime boots, but much less likely to end up in a landfill after a handful of years. The Scarpas may lose their waterproof membrand after a while, but then theres good old fashioned sno seal to be had.

[Pro Bono]

The padding material in running shoes breaks down with use. I doubt it's possible to make them last more than about 500 miles.

When my first television stopped working, I went to the town library, got the circuit diagrams, borrowed an oscilloscope, worked out which transistor had failed, and soldered in a sufficiently similar replacement. This sort of repair is not possible any more.

When my first car wouldn't start, I opened up the carburettor, and I forget what was wrong, but I fixed it.

Repairs like this aren't possible any more, for the good reason that more and more things are computer controlled, and much more efficient as a result.

[Michael Cain]

In the bad old days, a TV signal passed through surprisingly few electronic devices on its way from source to your set. Today, it runs through many billion-transistor integrated circuits -- multiple ones just in your house.

[Tony P.]

"Repair or replace?" can be a subtle question.

"Repair" often means replacing something, e.g. a transistor, as Pro Bono describes. When my neighbors' washing machine stopped working, I helped them figure out which of its several circuit boards was faulty. (Not much sleuthing involved, mind you.) They replaced the circuit board to repair the washer. It may be that, with a lot of time and effort, I could have discovered that a particular 2-cent resistor on the board had shorted out, and replaced the resistor to repair the board. Replacement to affect repair, at a lower level -- but not at zero cost.

My sister once had a problem with her dishwasher. A few simple experiments convinced me that some computer program running in it had gone bonkers. No way I could fix that, but rebooting the system by disconnecting power to it and reconnecting after a decent interval worked a treat. That's one good thing about software, I suppose: you can (sometimes) replace faulty bits at zero cost.

I have lost track of how many cheap battery-powered devices I have repaired by simply scraping corrosion off the battery terminals. Is it worth spending 10 minutes to "repair" a $2 wall clock? The way I figure it, it's better than spending 20 minutes going to the store to buy a replacement $2 clock, but YMMV.

--TP

[hrdbearing]

ratchet bearing skfSelf aligning ball SKF Bearing has two structures: cylindrical hole and conical hole. The material of cage includes steel plate, synthetic resin, etc. The utility model is characterized in that the outer ring raceway is spherical and has automatic centering, which can compensate the errors caused by different centrality and shaft deflection, but the relative inclination of the inner and outer rings shall not exceed 2.53 degrees. The self-aligning ball bearing is a bearing equipped with round ball between the inner ring of two raceways and the outer ring with spherical raceway.

The curvature center of the outer ring raceway surface is consistent with the bearing center, so it has the same centering function as the automatic centering ball bearing. In case of deflection of shaft and shell, it can be adjusted automatically without increasing the bearing burden. Self aligning roller bearing can bear radial load and axial load in two directions. Large radial load capacity, suitable for heavy load and impact load. The inner diameter of the inner ring is a bearing with tapered hole, which can be installed directly. Or install it on the cylindrical shaft with tightening sleeve and disassembly cylinder. The cage uses steel plate stamping cage, polyamide forming cage and copper alloy car cageratchet bearing skf

[Snarki, child of Loki]

The "hrdbearing" posts are clearly spam, but far more interesting than the usual run of spam. Probably triggered by our repair comments.

Last time I had shoe repair done (*comfortable* leather dress shoes, UK mfr of long standing out of business for more than a decade) it was a hole-in-the-wall place that also did lots of saddle work. Run by an old black guy and his young helper/apprentice.

If I had a saddle, and if it needed repair, they'd get the job. They did great work.

[liberal japonicus]

Thanks Snarki, there were about 6 of them. I deleted the links in the one above and marked the other 5 as spam and blocked the IP address and the h*******ing word, so I'm hoping no one wants to make that their handle...

[wj]

Police reform is coming slowly, sometimes agonizingly slowly. But it is coming.

My town has a small force (30 officers). It is outsourced to the countty sheriff's office -- their officers (on extended assignment); our town uniforms. Generally, it's a quiet post -- mostly larceny, the occasional burglary or aggravated assault.

Then currently, we have this
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2021/10/04/contra-costa-county-sheriffs-deputys-trial-opens-with-conflicting-narratives-about-2018-killing-of-laudemer-arboleda/

Note that there have been only two fatal police shootings in the past 5 years (possibly much longer). Both involved the same officer. If justice had gone forward after the 2018 shooting, perhaps the one earlier this year could have been avoided. But at least it is finally happening.

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

A fine headline:

Pope Accused of Playing God:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pope-francis-accused-of-playing-god-at-vatican-trial?ref=home

Izzat what Pope's play at? I've always wondered.

That would be like a headline claiming Pat Robertson and numerous, murderous subhuman American Christians are accused of playing Category 5 Hurricanes with large gay death tolls.

George Burns was once accused of playing God.

Here's God himself, the punk conservative mainstream cripple (inside and out) who at least can't get it up any longer to assault the coeds when he was college boy.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/10/5/2056056/-Rep-Madison-Cawthorn-posts-clip-calling-for-holy-war-Twitter-mocks-him

As usual, Jews get used as a prop to further conservative subhuman fascism.

Why doesn't Cawthorne lay hands on himself, probably his hobby anyway, and take a long walk off a short pier while wearing diving weights to balance out his Jesus flotation complex.

I'd fight a cripple. Any day he wants to go.

Meanwhile, Biden is Brezhnev:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/esteemed-comrade-biden-soviet-school-board-federal-parents-dissent/

Please assault me unmasked at a school board meeting or any other public venue, conservatives. Tell me you know where I live.

You'll live in the morgue as a permanent address.

It's apparent Dreher yearns for some hard totalitarianism, at the very least to juke his book sales.

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

On the one hand, if they don't know how to get pregnant, they won't know how to seek an abortion.*

https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-rights-plan-to-rebrand-sex-ed-as-child-porn?ref=home

On the other hand, the kids won't be available as a rich resource for extortion by subhuman conservatives, the latter of whom will then park their ill-gotten extorted gains in South Dakota so they don't have to pay their fucking taxes.

Nevertheless, despite his hatred of porn and birth control, vermin Pence, who prefers swallowing, continues the vigorous public fluffing of the late Donald Trump*:

https://digbysblog.net/2021/10/05/the-gops-1-trump-toadie/

*They want to use ignorance as a way increasing the birth rate.

*The conservative movement ruins fun for everyone.

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

To reiterate:

They will kill all of us.

https://jabberwocking.com/too-many-conservatives-think-liberals-are-trying-to-destroy-western-civilization/

Murdering us is the final arrow they will launch from the genocidal right wing movement quiver to reach their goal of "voting integrity".

[nous]

Cawthorn straight up says that the enemies of People of Faith (a.k.a. Evangelical Christians in his reckoning, when push comes to shove) are Democrats. He's already decided that Democrats cannot be People of Faith. And the comments from Dreher and Claremont that resonate in sympathy tells us how those seed are being received by the ground where it is being planted.

[nous]

On the positive side, though, in line with the OP, my sense of the under-40s that I deal with on a regular basis is that the Culture Warriors on their end are a much smaller population and they have already lost the central ground, so if we can survive the coming generational handoff (voluntary or funerary), then there are better times to come. It's that dangerous interval before that may cause problems.

[wj]

He's already decided that Democrats cannot be People of Faith.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But isn't the technical term for someone who claims to believe, but does not, a heretic? Given that at least some Democrats (including Biden) say they are believers, how long before that term gets run out?

Who knows, maybe they will then expand (or focus) on the heretics in their own ranks. Yesterday, Senator Graham got booed and shouted down for daring to suggest that his audience think about maybe getting vaccinated. And Governor Noem (South Dakota) is upsetting the faithful because she puts the desires of businesses above ideological purity.

Who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind.

[wj]

Also, what nous said (3:43)

Realistically, the outcome of the Culture Wars is already clear. The only uncertainty is how damaging for us all the last gasp of the losers will be.

[JanieM]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But isn't the technical term for someone who claims to believe, but does not, a heretic?

Not that the usual suspects won't, like Humpty Dumpty, try to use words to mean whatever they want them to mean, and make everyone else use them that way too, but that's not what a heretic is. A heretic is someone who believes in heresy, which is, acc' to a quick Google defn, "belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian) doctrine."

Maybe the word you want is "hypocrite." If there's a more technical, on point term, I'm not remembering it. Pharisee comes to mind, but that's not quite the same.

[nous]

Assuming it’s a last gasp and not partition or lapsing into some failed state model, which remains a real concern for me. That which does not kill you sometimes leaves you much reduced.

[wj]

Other religions have heresies, too.

But for even this definition, just modify the definition of "heresy" to "...orthodox religious (especially Evangelical Christian) doctrine." (Even though a lot of what passes for evangelical theology these days has little relation to Christ's teachings.) And you're on your way.

Plus, there's a pretty good case to be made that Trumpism qualifies as a cult. And so is eligible for heresies as well.

[nous]

False believer or goat (in opposition to sheep) would be the biblical phrases from the New Testament for one who professes, but does not actually practice. Possibly also "unredeemed."

Hypocrite is slippery because it comes from the Greek word for an actor. It's a pretending of sorts. It often gets tangled up in intentionality, though, and feels less summary than these other words that are intended as binary opposition.

cf. heretic (who has been seduced by false doctrine - some overlap with false believer, but a different sense of separation) or apostate (who knew the truth but has fallen away from it), or unbeliever.

[Hartmut]

It's ironic that religious fundamentalists (at least of monotheist persuasion) accuse other of lacking faith while at the same time claiming that real atheists do not exist because those 'atheists' know the truth and just claim to not believe due to their wickedness. To my knowlegde the Bible itself does not make that claim anywhere btw.
Also, atheists often know more about the 'holy' books than the professed believers (who often just leave it to their clerics to interpret scripture for them without ever looking the stuff up themselves*).
The Quran one-ups even that by stating ad nauseam that it is G#d that makes people believe or not believe (and that G#d punishes them for not believing of course).

*conservative Catholics also strongly disapprove of laypeople reading the Bible and it used to be a heinous crime as per canonic law to do so without special dispense or even to own the book.

[liberal japonicus]

Dreher was mentioned by nous

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2021/10/the-internet-was-a-horrible-mistake

Folks may want to recalibrate any previous arguments using him.

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

More of this:

https://twitter.com/AdamParkhomenko?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1445188935387426821%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.balloon-juice.com%2F

You'll notice he's not wielding a semi-automatic threatening weapon like violent insurrectionary subhuman republican conservative movement vermin do in their go along or we'll fucking shoot you republican ads.

That could change. Soon.

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

More specifically, this:

https://twitter.com/AdamParkhomenko/status/1445608080503234560

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

The Republican Party conservative movement is a genocidal killer:

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-misinformation-health-433991ea434e12ccfdf97b5db415310d?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP&utm_campaign=SocialFlow

FOX News murderers and their fascist media siblings will tomorrow begin recommending consuming Twinkies to cure Covid-19 in their dying viewers, who can't die fast enough to save America from fascism.

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

More on the savagely violent civil war the conservative movement is preparing to fight:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/10/kamala-harris-trump-january-6/620310/

[Michael Cain]

Earlier this week the SCOTUS relisted three cases that challenge the EPA's authority to effectively regulate greenhouse gases. (Relisting means the cases will continue to be considered at the weekly conference where the Justices decide which cases to hear.) All three are an invitation for the Court to reverse its 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA when they held that not only was the EPA allowed to regulate greenhouse gases under the current Clean Air Act, they were required to regulate them.

[liberal japonicus]

related to Michael Cain's comment, I think, this

https://www.vox.com/22431044/neil-gorsuch-nihilism-supreme-court-voting-rights-lgbt-housing-obamacare-constitution

When Gorsuch has the chance to write a majority opinion, in other words, he typically shoots for the moon. His jurisprudence shows utter disregard for the norms of an institution he now belongs to, and for the work of generations to come up with a system of law that can manage a pluralistic society. It’s a revolutionary project, breathtaking in its audacity and nihilistic at its core.

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

Biden must declare martial law and arrest and execute the entire edifice of conservative insurrectionist traitors:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/06/trump-aides-capitol-attack-house-select-committee

The government has every right to kill those who threaten its and the country's existence, including global warming deniers and fascist election thieves and their sympathizers.

[hairshirthedonist]

Activist, lj?

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

AT&T = Krupp, IG Farben, and corporate slave traders in 1855

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-oneamerica-att/

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-big-business-bailed-out-nazis

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2021/10/racism-as-an-affirmative-job-credential

She won't drink a can of Coke without Thomas' pubic hair on it.

It's job security.

[liberal japonicus]

hsh?? Not able to figure out that, though I'm pretty gassed with some real life things, so not firing on all cylinders.

Been reading a lot about the court, the shadow docket etc. It's frustrating, because it seems like a lot of smaller things are coming together/being brought together so when you start complaining about it, you sound like a conspiracy theorist. I mean, you have
-Breyer refusing to retire
-increasing usage of the shadow docket
-selected cases to either inflame or throw a bone
-the unabashed use of congressional power to prevent Democrats from appointing and allowing Republicans to do so

so when you pull up something like this
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/tiger-mom-amy-chua-daughter-clerkship-brett-kavanaugh.html

And pointing out how shitty it is, it's easy for some to say 'oh, there he goes again'.

(the New Yorker with more background)
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/what-is-going-on-at-yale-law-school

I compare it with the Japanese system, where incredibly long waits followed by tendentious opinions tend to preserve the status quo. That option doesn't seem to be available in the US, so to achieve the conservative project, they have to go with this.

[hairshirthedonist]

hsh?? Not able to figure out that, though I'm pretty gassed with some real life things, so not firing on all cylinders.

Just thinking of the conservative complaints about "liberal activist judges" legislating from the bench by writing opinions after the fact to fit their preferred and predetermined rulings.

[wj]

it seems like a lot of smaller things are coming together/being brought together so when you start complaining about it, you sound like a conspiracy theorist.

I am put in mind of this: "Even a paranoid can have real enemies."

In the case of the Supreme Court, and the Federal courts generally, there's pretty solid evidence that the Heritage Foundation (and others) have, indeed, been conspiring to remake them into an ideological bastion. Which decades long effort is coming to fruition.

Love the results or hate them, that it was planning and not random chance is clear.

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

A "Bring Back Diptheria" campaign could catch on as Republicans make it a plank in their platform:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science/science-diphtheria-plague-among-children-180978572/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

The conservative movement is actively seeking out any remaining survivors to kill and eat them as a model for driving Democrats to extinction:

https://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/2021/10/05/floridas-ivory-billed-woodpecker-is-officially-extinct-but-a-few-still-hope/

First order of business is to wipe out all Democratic Party habitat:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/10/6/2056354/-Morning-Digest-Iowa-GOP-rejects-nonpartisan-maps-a-sign-gerrymanders-may-be-on-the-way

Time for terrorist woodpeckers.

[nooneithinksinmytree]

Some here wanted a border policy:

https://juanitajean.com/how-not-to-handle-the-border-problem/

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

We thank the relentless PT Barnum capitalist grift for insulting our intelligence day in and day out.

https://crookedtimber.org/2021/10/06/hierarchy-of-the-grift/

Require the presence of loaded guns in every transaction, as the republican party wishes, and this shit will stop.

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

Justice Thomas will hire him too, once the proud dick is pardoned by whatever conservative worm republicans unlawfully jam down our throats:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/10/5/2056304/-Proud-Boy-Swinney-Found-GUILTY-of-11-of-12-counts

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

I'm done. Bring on the next guy.

[hairshirthedonist]

A 51-year-old proud boy. I guess it isn't just a phase.

[wj]

At least "Proud Boy" acknowledges that they are children, rather than grown men -- at least in their behavior. Regardless of their nominal age.

[hairshirthedonist]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/10/adam-schiff-describes-january-6-from-the-house-floor

“You can’t let them see you,” a Republican member said to me. “He’s right,” another Republican member said. “I know these people, I can talk to them, I can talk my way through them. You’re in a whole different category.”

We've debated here about whether the January 6 riot can be described as an attempted coup. Even if it had a minimal chance of success in keeping Trump in office despite the results of the election, that was still the intent. So maybe a really stupid attempted coup, but still one none the less.

The quote above got me thinking, though, about what didn't have a minimal chance of happening - the kidnapping, beating, or murder of Members of Congress. And it makes me wonder what the reaction would have been if something like that had happened, particularly if a Member of Congress was actually killed. Is that what it would have taken to get some people really upset about it, people for whom the death of a member of the Capitol Police (and a lot of other stuff) isn't enough?

[Priest]

It was Slothrop in "Gravity's Rainbow" who kept in mind the notion "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you", with the "they" being generalized.

[nous]

Article about the adjunctificaton (or gigification) of the University of California system:

https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2021/10/uc-workforce-lecturers/

For students, the revolving door of lecturers upends valuable relations they’ve developed with educators who’ve inspired or mentored them in one year only to be gone completely the next.

“It’s weird to get letters of recommendation from students and places I no longer teach at,” Calderon-Zaks said. Early this year a student from UCLA asked Calderon-Zaks to write her a letter of recommendation, even though he hasn’t taught there since last spring. “We have no security to show for it and, of course, the irony is that we’re still being asked even though we’re no longer there.”

Decades of research show that the more students interact with faculty, the more they gain from their college educations.

“It’s incredibly problematic if the faculty are not there to develop these relationships,” said Kezar, the USC professor, in an interview. She co-wrote a paper on the effect faculty churn can have on student academics.

Lots to understand and think about in this article.

[liberal japonicus]

I'd love to write how things are similar yet different in Japan. Full time faculty are allowed to teach two koma (1 koma being a one year class, most classes are separated into two semesters) and we have an army of both foreign and Japanese who are full time part time. This is falling apart as the number of 18 year olds is dropping preciptiously. Legally, there are some protections for people who have been working as part time for long periods, but if it goes to court, you have to wait a long time, and if the university is sufficient bloody-minded, they can usually wait any one individual out. Union action has proved effective, but to bring a union in is sort of a nuclear option, and even if it weren't, most people coming over (majority Americans) are pretty horrified to join a union.

The one thing that is a flimsy guardrail is that the profit motive has not come front and center, though some uni will grab on to that as a reason to conduct some sort of decimation. It can be a big problem for foreigners, because tokenism allows admins to split them and they are perceived as being better remunerated, so they are an easy target.

[russell]

We've debated here about whether the January 6 riot can be described as an attempted coup.

What is the debate? What was it, if not that?

Trump lost. He and his supporters could not accept that. He and his supporters tried to prevent the lawful result of the election from being implemented.

What other name do you give that?

This bullshit will continue until we call it what it is and respond accordingly.

[byomtov]

Russell is right, of course.

I often read Bret Devereaux's blog, which I highly recommend.

Discussing the Jan 6 events, he talks about various insurrections in ancient Rome, and makes the telling point that insurrections are farcical, until they succeed.

[CharlesWT]

Allow autocorrection of your typo and go to jail.

"The post - following West Brom's heavy defeat in January - was made on a "sarcastic" Facebook group titled "Romaine Sawyers - Ballon d'Or"; a reference to the annual award to the world's best player.

Silwood, a steelworker, said he had meant to type that Sawyers should win the "buffoon d'Or".

He claimed a misspelling, of "bafoon", had autocorrected on his device to "baboon"."
Romaine Sawyers: Jail for Albion fan over Facebook racism

[hairshirthedonist]

What is the debate? What was it, if not that?

The debate was some commenters here trying to tell others how silly they were being for calling the riot an attempted coup. I was one of the so-called silly ones, so you get no argument from me.

[Pro Bono]

Allow autocorrection of your typo and go to jail

I think you meant to write "perpetrate vile racist abuse online, have your absurd claim that it was an autocorrection disbelieved, and go to jail".

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

I added Devereaux's blog to my favorites.

Thanks for the heads up.

[hairshirthedonist]

I think you meant to write "perpetrate vile racist abuse online, have your absurd claim that it was an autocorrection disbelieved, and go to jail".

Yes. And, either way, of all the things to post a link about, that's top of today's list? I dunno.

Poor, put-upon racists!

[CharlesWT]

First, they came for the racists...

[hairshirthedonist]

Most of the time, "they" are the racists.

[Girl from the North Country]

Update for all interested parties:

My September was as trying as anticipated, and to cap it all I fell and broke my ankle and foot very badly. Have now had two operations, am more or less bedbound for another month, and cursing the fates.

Like MacArthur, I will eventually return.

[wj]

have your absurd claim that it was an autocorrection disbelieved

There may be other reasons to disbelieve the claim. Not enough information in the quote to tell. (Perhaps about other behavior...?)

But the claim is not, prima facie, absurd. Pretty much everybody here has first hand experience with autocorrect "helping" by changing a word you intended to (and did successfully) type to something different. That's why I always try to remember to use "Preview" before I actually Post. (Helps with getting italics turned off, too.)

[wj]

Like MacArthur, I will eventually return.

Speed the day! (That is, way faster than MacArthur.) We miss you.

[Pro Bono]

...the claim is not, prima facie, absurd...

We disagree about that. But the defence was heard in court and rejected, so what grounds do you have for asserting its truth?

[CharlesWT]

Like MacArthur, I will eventually return.

And with the "I'll be back." force of The Terminator...

[CharlesWT]

At least for the time being, thoughtcrime and speech that flows from it aren't illegal in the US.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Silwood, a steelworker, said he had meant to type that Sawyers should win the "buffoon d'Or".

He claimed a misspelling, of "bafoon", had autocorrected on his device to "baboon"."

Clippy: "I see you're trying to do a racism. Do you need help with that?"

[Pro Bono]

At least for the time being, thoughtcrime and speech that flows from it aren't illegal in the US.

Indeed. The US has its Constitution, by which a group of revolutionaries, all male, about half of them slaveowners, has been retrospectively awarded the right to determine for all time what the country's government may and may not enact, subject to the interpretation of a group of far-right judges appointed by the country's second most popular party.

Here in England we do things differently: democratically elected governments are empowered to weigh one consideration - freedom of speech - against another - freedom from hateful abuse.

For my part, I do not regret being unfree to publish the view that a sportsman whose performance I wish to disparage resembles in some way a non-human ape.

[nooneithinkisinmytree]

GftNC:

Hang in there.

I'll commit thoughtcrimes and harsh speech against the Fates on your behalf, and if they wanna take it from there, autocorrect will not serve as sanctuary for them.

"Eventually" at our age ain't what it used to be, but screw that too.