Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Happy Hour

Get happy.

He Bop

Gramps is shutting down.
For 39 minutes, Trump swayed, bopped — sometimes stopping to speak — as he turned the event into almost a living-room listening session of his favorite songs from his self-curated rally playlist.

He played nine tracks. He danced. He shook hands with people onstage. He pointed to the crowd. Noem stood beside him, nodding with her hands clasped. Trump stayed in place onstage, slowly moving back and forth. He was done answering questions for the night.

Pundit Update

I continue to be struck by the incredibly loud silence. Click the pictures to embiggen.








Lunch

eat

Progress

I'm not right about everything, but I have had Musk's number for years. For a long time, correctly describing him and the likelihood of any his promises being realized was akin to suggesting Saddam Hussein wasn't actually a threat to the United States.
Elon Musk expands his empire of misinformation

Allison Morrow

Analysis by Allison Morrow, CNN

...

Steve Jobs, the late Apple co-founder, was famous for his “reality distortion field” that often sold less-than-stellar products on sheer charisma. But Musk’s reality distortion field is something else entirely — hardly limited to overly optimistic timetables or pie-in-the-sky projections for Tesla’s delivery schedule. Whereas Musk might actually face some pushback from shareholders or market regulators for stretching the truth or failing to deliver on his promises, he’s free to promote conspiracy theories and far-right talking points with impunity on his own personal social media megaphone, X.

That’s where Musk and others promote racist conspiracies and false rumors about federal hurricane relief to his more than 200 million followers, even as officials are pleading for help to stop the misinformation (which former President Donald Trump is also spreading).

That is far from harmless musing on the internet.

Wink Wink

Sure, Jan.
Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have assured the United States that a counterstrike on Iran will be limited to military targets rather than oil or nuclear facilities, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
Israel has hit nothing but military targets in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. They have investigated themselves and declared it to be true.

The World's Worst Humans

Howard Jacobson

Morning

Might be a bad blogging day. Have some things to do!

Monday, October 14, 2024

Monday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy.

Notable

Notable that the NYT is publishing it.
An investigation by The New York Times found that Israeli soldiers and intelligence agents, throughout the war in Gaza, have regularly forced captured Palestinians like Mr. Shubeir to conduct life-threatening reconnaissance missions to avoid putting Israeli soldiers at risk on the battlefield.

Who Wants This

I don't understand.
The updated Copilot has new capabilities, including real-time voice interactions and the ability to interpret images and text on users’ screens. Microsoft also says it’s one of the fastest AI models on the market. But the most important innovation, according to the company, is that the chatbot will now interact with users in a “warm tone and a distinct style, providing not only information but encouragement, feedback, and advice as you navigate life’s everyday challenges.”

Clear For Many, Many Months

And what are we supposed to think of people who have been and are currently denying it? What are we supposed to think of a political project that enforces this denial on its club members?
According to senior defense officials, the Israeli government is not seeking to revive hostage talks and the political leadership is pushing for the gradual annexation of large parts of the Gaza Strip.
It isn't just Biden's actions. It's the complete corruption of everyone within the orbit.

Logistics

What makes buses go.
A Saturday evening campaign rally in Coachella by former president Donald Trump was punctuated by extreme heat, violent ideation, and reports of rallygoers stranded miles from their cars after the event ended.

The heat baked attendees at around 100F for hours on end as they waited for Trump to begin speaking, with accounts of multiple instances of heat exhaustion or heat stroke reported.

It Reminds Me Of That Time Sarah Huckabee Sanders Was Politely Asked To Leave A Restaurant

Both sides have a civility problem.

LAKE LURE, N.C. — Federal emergency response personnel on Saturday had employees operating in hard-hit Rutherford County, N.C., stop working and move to a different area because of concerns over “armed militia” threatening government workers in the region, according to an email sent to federal agencies helping with response in the state.
Maybe somebody should do something, while they still can.

What Are We Doing Here

I can buy the argument for the Liz Cheney stuff, but... 
And I am honored to have earned the Democratic nomination. I am honored to have the endorsement of people from every walk of life. You will probably find that I probably have a bigger coalition of people who couldn’t seem to be more different than each other, who have come together around my candidacy — from 200 Republicans who worked with and for both Presidents Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney; including Liz Cheney, the former congresswoman, and her father, the former vice president, Dick Cheney, who is supporting me; former members — very esteemed members, including generals, of the national security community. I have the endorsement and support of Alberto G- — Gonzales, most recently, who, of course, was attorney general.

I am sure the discussion went something like, "This is Univision, we need a Latino Republican name here" but uh.... 

Yes I take this stuff I a bit personally.  My big life's work was helping convince people that George Bush sucked, and whether or not I can really claim any credit for helping with that, "we" were very successful in what seemed like an impossible project!  "We" drove his approval rating down in to the 20s! And then...

Morning

Monday funday.

Sunday, October 13, 2024

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Sunday Evening

Tomorrow is...

The Good Republicans

I have a lot of problems with appealing to bipartisan mush, but one is that it turns Donald Trump into a powerful force that stands alone, who doesn't need the support, which he has, of the entire Republican party.

Aside from being wrong and letting Republicans off the hook, it also appeals to a lot of people who think both parties are bad!