April 16, 2024

Who doesn't have to be at their trial this week?

Raise your hand if your schedule is clear of any court appearances and especially any criminal trials.

January 16, 2024

I encountered what I suspect was a dark money operative

I was out shopping on 6th Ave in Chelsea and some guy was asking if people were NYC Democrats with a signature board. I asked him what issue was his candidate for. He said it was to get a set of 'delegates' to the convention. I asked 'delegates for whom?". And he said 'Marianne Williamson'. I was pissed off, that smells like some kind of dark money highjinx to me.

December 6, 2023

The New Yorker Drops Andy Borowitz's Satire Column Amid Cutbacks

Source: Variety

Humorist and writer Andy Borowitz has gotten the axe from the New Yorker after 25 years of writing for the magazine, as part of a larger wave of cost-cutting and layoffs at parent Condé Nast.

Borowitz announced that the New Yorker was dropping his long-running Borowitz Report satire features because of “its financial difficulties.”

In a post on Facebook, Borowitz wrote, “IF I MAY BE SERIOUS: Because of its financial difficulties, The New Yorker has been forced to cut costs. As a result, it has decided to stop publishing The Borowitz Report. I want to thank my colleagues at The New Yorker who have made writing for it such an honor for the past 25 years. And I want to thank you, my readers, for your incredible enthusiasm and support. You’re the reason I do what I do, and when I figure out what I want to do next, you’ll be the first to know. Love, Andy.”

The New Yorker confirmed it has ended its deal with Borowitz. In a statement, a spokesperson for the publication said, “Andy Borowitz has been making us laugh for decades with his many and varied contributions to the New Yorker and we are immensely grateful for that. For years, we’ve had the pleasure and privilege of publishing the Borowitz Report, which has helped our readers — and all of us — find levity in particularly dark times. We know that Andy will keep cracking us up in new and surprising ways for a long time to come.”



Read more: https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/new-yorker-drops-andy-borowitz-cutbacks-1235824249/

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I knew of him from the excerpts posted here, maybe that is why conde-nasty is struggling? Or is it the bad Hearst family karma?

April 21, 2023

Melt the Guns by the band XTC

The thread about one of the mass killing guns being auctioned off to highest bidder, made me think of this song.

Melt the Guns by XTC

[Verse 1]
Programmes of violence
As entertainment
Brings the disease into your room
We know the germ
Which is man-made in metal
Is really the key to your own tomb

[Pre-Chorus]
Prevention is better than cure
Bad apples affecting the pure
You'll gather your senses, I'm sure
Then agree to
[Chorus]
Melt the guns
Melt the guns
Melt the guns and never more to fire them
Melt the guns
Melt the guns
Melt the guns and never more desire them
Melt the guns (you wanna)
Melt the guns
Melt the guns and never more to fire them
Melt the guns
Melt the guns
Melt the guns and never more desire them

[Verse 2]
Children will want them
Mothers supply them
As long as your killers are heroes
And all the media
Will fiddle while Rome burns
Acting like modern-time Neroes

[Pre-Chorus]
Prevention is better than cure
Bad apples affecting the pure
You'll gather your senses, I'm sure
Then agree to
You might also like
Leisure
XTC
All of a Sudden (It’s Too Late)
XTC
Dear God
XTC
[Chorus]
Melt the guns
Melt the guns
Melt the guns and never more to fire them
Melt the guns
Melt the guns
Melt the guns and never more desire them
Melt the guns (you want to)
Melt the guns
Melt the guns and never more to fire them
Melt the guns (woo!)
Melt the guns
Melt the guns and never more desire them

[Bridge]
I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm
I'm speaking to the Justice League of America
The U.S. of A., hey you, yes you, yes you in particular
When it comes to the judgement day
And you're standing at the gates in your weaponry
You dead go down on one knee
Clasp your hands in prayer, start quoting me
'Cos we say...
We say...

Our father
We've managed to contain the epidemic in one place, now
Let's hope they shoot themselves instead of others
Help to civilize the race now
We've trapped the cause of the plague
In the land of the free and the home of the brave
And if you listen quietly
You can hear them shootin' from grave to grave
And if you listen quite quietly
You can even hear them shooting from grave to grave
If you listen quite quietly
You can even hear them shooting from grave to grave
From grave to grave, you do
Ever listen to 'em shooting from grave to grave
From grave to grave, from grave to grave
You should melt the guns
[Chorus]
Melt the guns
Melt the guns
Melt the guns and never more to fire them
Melt the guns
Melt the guns (you wanna)
Melt the guns and never more desire them
Melt the guns (woo!)
Melt the guns
Melt the guns and never more to fire them
Melt the guns
Melt the guns (you wanna)
Melt the guns and never more desire them

[Outro]
Melt the guns
Melt the guns now
Melt the guns
Oh, melt the guns now
Melt the guns
Melt the guns now
Melt the guns
Melt the guns now
Melt, melt, melt, melt, melt...
Melt the guns, nevermore, melt the guns...
Melt the guns down...
Melt the guns, take the guns down, down, down
Right down
You wanna melt the guns, you wanna melt the guns on down
Melt them, melt them, melt them, melt them down
Take the guns and melt them down
Take the guns and melt them down
Take the guns and melt them down, now

November 8, 2022

Hopeful post about #BlueTsunami2022 hashtag today

This post was the most hopeful I've seen. They early voting numbers are also hopeful, but until we can seen exit polls this evening this hope will have to do. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/8/2134518/--BlueTsunami2022-Treading-on-Twitter

February 8, 2022

The scientific-screw-up-that-helped-covid-kill

Wow, I just finished reading how the mistake of cutting off airborne transmission at 5 microns misinformed COVID response leading to the flawed 3-6 feet social distancing rules based on that error. Equal part gender bias and academic rigidity as the idea was proposed in early 2020 by a female environmental researcher. After the WHO scoffed at the idea she decided to track down the 5 micron dogma. During her quest she had to find an out of print book from the 1950s to find the source researcher and then follow all his research and the ones after him in both directions in time to where the mistake became dogma. A lot of this detective work was by a grad student whose own research was on hiatus. Final hero was a researcher at a Hong Kong university, who had implemented air disinfection into the school's ventilation and showed the very reduced spread in that environment.

https://www.wired.com/story/the-teeny-tiny-scientific-screwup-that-helped-covid-kill/

Linsey Marr, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech and an expert in how viruses behave in the air is who the story was about. I only found other stories about her before I decided this story hadn't been posted yet.

I guess it might need to get cross-posted, but I'm still a newbie at posting.