Video: Trump Throws Tantrum on Day 1 After Judge Prohibits Him From Attending SCOTUS Arguments

Law • Views: 15,756

I don’t post the rantings of a cantaloupe very much at LGF any more, but I have to admit to a teensy bit of schadenfreude now. He spews venom and anger as usual but he looks exhausted, with huge purple under-eye baggage, and reportedly nodded off more than once in the courtroom.

NBC News Political Correspondent Vaughn Hillyard and New York Times Investigative Report Susanne Craig, and former Senator Claire McCaskill join Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House with reaction to Donald Trump’s comments after concluding Day 1 of his trial in the hush money case.

Jump to bottom

357 comments
1
Dave In Austin  Apr 15, 2024 • 4:50:26pm

Mastodon

2
Patricia Kayden  Apr 15, 2024 • 4:52:50pm

3
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 15, 2024 • 4:59:46pm

4
Charles Johnson  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:00:42pm

Nice. We’re running at full speed again.

5
Charles Johnson  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:01:37pm

Clicking a user icon is still slow, though. Need to look into that one.

6
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:03:41pm

re: #1 Dave In Austin

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

7
Dangerman  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:05:50pm

re: #63 silverdolphin

The Supreme Court effectively abolishes the right to mass protest in three US states

Because of the crazy 5th District, anyone organizing any protest in Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi is responsible personally for any crime committed. And the Court let that stand.

This goes directly against the Court’s own precedents. Time used to be that the Court woul knock down ANY district court that went outside its purview and made up new law. Not now.

On this and the follow ups
Certainly ianal
This is not in any way final
From a smart rando I sort of follow:

It is worth clicking on the link and reading the Vox article.

The decision not to hear the case and let the lower court ruling stand is actually at odds with numerous previous SCOTUS rulings on these matters (including one as recently as last year).

It is worth noting that not taking the case doesn’t establish any precedent on the underlying issue of protest organizer liability. This simply allows the lawsuit against McKesson to move forward. If, in the end, the court finds for the plaintiff, doubtless the decision will be appealed again - and if that happens, hopefully this court will overturn it and uphold their own 2023 precedent.

8
nines09  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:06:00pm

Talk of Abuelita took me to….. an hour to remember her name….This is a bit older, and I think it’s well made and a good song.

Camila Cabello - Havana ft. Young Thug

nite nite

9
darthstar  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:06:53pm

Jen Psaki just made a good point. The DOJ system worked today. Trump went to court, there were motions, denials, and the beginning of jury selection. After three long years it happened, and it went smoothly.

10
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:08:31pm

11
Charles Johnson  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:09:36pm

Pretty funny for Trump to try to use his son Barron to paint himself as a victim.

More attention than Barron’s gotten in years, I’d bet.

12
EPR-radar  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:09:42pm

re: #9 darthstar

Jen Psaki just made a good point. The DOJ system worked today. Trump went to court, there were motions, denials, and the beginning of jury selection. After three long years it happened, and it went smoothly.

One small correction. Today’s case is New York State, not a Federal case. Everything at the Federal level remains delayed and/or otherwise fucked up.

13
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:12:47pm

re: #4 Charles

Nice. We’re running at full speed again.

Star Trek Picard - “Engage!”

14
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:13:51pm

I can imagine this in tomorrow’s Times Op-Ed page

“Trump falling asleep at the trial shows how he cam put himself in a deep analytical state to help make decisions as President!”

15
DodgerFan1988  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:17:11pm
16
Eventual Carrion  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:19:02pm

#SleepyDon tag is picking up on Counter Social.

17
No Malarkey!  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:20:46pm

Rarely in his lifetime has Trump been told no like this. I love to see it.

18
darthstar  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:23:45pm

re: #15 DodgerFan1988

That was worth the click to read the whole thing. Fuck that piece of shit.

19
Charles Johnson  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:25:23pm

he protec
but he also attac

Kitten being dramatic 😸 | Kitten attack | Cat Attack | vicious predator!!!

20
BeachDem  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:31:16pm

This Dove ad/campaign against AI is truly heartwarming.

The Code | A Dove Film | Dove Self-Esteem Project

21
goddamnedfrank  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:35:01pm

re: #94 Romantic Heretic

Flynn is why I decided Heinlein’s idea of ‘public service for the franchise’ would fail.

There’s no real defence against greedy idiots.

Heinlein’s problem was he didn’t really understand what public service was, and conflated it with military enlistment, which is wholly and intentionally apart from civilian life.

Instead, just make people try to live only off what they make from a retail or food service job for a year before they can vote and watch how quickly shit changes.

22
Charles Johnson  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:41:00pm

CATCH AND KILL

How the billionaire class quashes the negative stories.

23
EPR-radar  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:45:56pm

re: #22 Charles

See also Peter Thiel bankrupting Gawker.

24
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:49:00pm

One of the PBS YouTube channels, the one on climate change I believe, recently posted a video that was refreshingly honest.

It made a simple point: we cannot consume our way out of climate change.

That is, if you think we can just buy more of stuff Z instead of stuff W and that is what we have to do - that will not work.

It’s not a popular message.

It’s not one that any national-level politician will embrace.

Biden will not say it.

Trump doesn’t care.

None of the next generation of Democratic Party or GOP prominent names will say it.

It strikes at the heart of Americanism .

25
Egregious Philbin  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:49:10pm

26
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:52:01pm

re: #25 Egregious Philbin

“I’m gonna find him a pillow he can’t refuse.”

27
Unabogie  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:52:46pm

FAKE NEWS! I WAS WIDE AWAKE DURING MY DREAMS!

28
teleskiguy  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:56:15pm

What kills me is that if this shitgibbon hadn’t decided to run for president in the early summer of 2015 he probably would have avoided all this scrutiny and indictments. Instead he’s a Hitler in the making.

We can defeat him. We will defeat him.

29
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:56:25pm

And this is why the Tesla layoffs need to be more towards the top of our news stories.

What Americans do not want to hear is that you do not have a right to an automobile.

Back when my immigrant grandfather was coming of age, back at the turn of the last century (yeah, I know, a long time ago) the automobile was a novelty. He farmed with horses.

Automobiles were a toy of the wealthy.

Much like Tesla has been.

As I’ve noted many times, I am not a near term doomer or a pro-doomer. I am long-term doomer.

The unravelling will take many decades.

Americans do not want a President to come onto the TV and say to them: you are not going to be able to afford to drive your own automobile.

Just ask Jimmy Carter how well a message like that goes down.

In a hundred years I expect the personal automobile to be owned only by the well off.

In two hundred years I expect the personal automobile to be owned by one the most well off.

30
Decatur Deb  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:59:18pm

You do not have a right to a horse.

In the 1890s New York was drowning in horse shit. They couldn’t shovel it into the rivers fast enough.

31
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 15, 2024 • 5:59:42pm

Trump Campaign Insists Mid-Trial Snooze Never Happened

“This is 100% Fake News coming from ‘journalists’ who weren’t even in the court room,” the Trump campaign falsely claimed in a statement following the day’s proceedings.

The Trump campaign furiously denied suggestions that he had fallen asleep during the first day of his historic criminal trial—calling the suggestion “fake news” while claiming falsely that the reporters who noted his sleepy courtroom demeanor weren’t even in the same room when it happened.

“This is 100% Fake News coming from ‘journalists’ who weren’t even in the court room,” the Trump campaign said in a statement Monday shortly after proceedings concluded.

The recess didn’t appear to give Trump much of a pop, either—upon returning to the Manhattan courtroom, a Daily Beast reporter spotted Trump sitting with his arms crossed and his eyes closed after apparently dozing off a second time.

thedailybeast.com

32
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:00:15pm

re: #30 Decatur Deb

Yeah, in America the only thing to which one appears to have a right is a gun.

33
jaunte  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:02:17pm

re: #30 Decatur Deb

With cars our horseshit flew away downwind. Probably not a great thing for our perception of how dirty internal combustion was.

34
Decatur Deb  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:05:08pm

re: #32 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Yeah, in America the only thing to which one appears to have a right is a gun.

The prize bennie for NYU professors at the Greenwich Village campus was an apartment in Washington Mews, a block off Washington Square. When Henry James was writing about it, the Mews apartments were stables.

35
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:07:20pm

Tulips.

I like tulips.

Unfortunately they are only an annual here in far southwestern corner of the US. The lack of freezing temps makes the plant not grow the bulbs and a tulip plant will not do well.

Anyway, tulip-mania is part of our general collective knowledge of an economic silliness of the past.

So I wonder… if in 600 years, whoever is still around on this continent, people will remember how the time between the end of WWII and say 2050 went, with so much effort wasted on so little return, of so much wealth frivolously tossed away, of mania in markets over flash-in-the-pan fads.

36
steve_davis  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:09:00pm

Finally finished all the assessment stuff for this generative AI gig. “We estimate this should take in total 4 hours….” More than 10 hours of note-taking, poring over various examples later, I come out the other side. Well, not to worry.

37
Jay C  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:13:54pm

re: #34 Decatur Deb

The prize bennie for NYU professors at the Greenwich Village campus was an apartment in Washington Mews, a block off Washington Square. When Henry James was writing about it, the Mews apartments were stables.

Where we used to live, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, there were still a couple of (un-redeveloped) blocks that had been built as “stable blocks” back in the late 19th-C to serve as equine lodging for the affluent family mansions which were built lining Fifth and Madison Avenues. The mansions are long gone, replaced by high-rises and office buildings, but some of the old stables are still there: one can always tell by the oversized doors on the street level.

38
teleskiguy  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:15:29pm

It’s snowing again. Calling for a foot or more up in the mountains. Bring it.

39
Decatur Deb  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:18:06pm

re: #37 Jay C

Around 1960 I had a girlfriend who was horsey, so we rented nags at what was probably the last of NYC’s livery stables on W79 or so. Went across the West Side with taxis scraping my stirrups for a circle of Central Park. The nag was in charge.

40
teleskiguy  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:19:00pm

re: #30 Decatur Deb

Between the German and Soviet militaries during WWII there were six million horses deployed for military purposes.

41
Decatur Deb  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:20:38pm

re: #40 teleskiguy

Between the German and Soviet militaries during WWII there were six million horses deployed for military purposes.

Yup. When you’re trapped in Stalingrad you can’t eat an artillery tractor.

42
Jay C  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:23:11pm

re: #39 Decatur Deb

Can’t link right now, but (surprisingly) TIL there are two stables still in operation in Manhattan, West 38th St., and West 52nd.
And the nags are likely still in charge.

43
silverdolphin  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:24:35pm

Well, it looks like the Ohio and Alabama SoS are falling in line, saying that the ONLY way forward for Biden on the ballot is the legislative exemption. No provisionals. And the state will make the obviously poltiical decsion not to.

Looks like the only path forward is the Supremes. They should use the same logic from the Trump case - the state cannot decide who is on the ballot. And especially since these administrative deadlines were ignored all the time by exemptions, they obviously are not critical, this is obviously political. The Court should make an easy call here.

Except this Calvinball Court could somehow use this to stop medicine abortions with the Comstock Act.

44
Decatur Deb  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:25:10pm

re: #42 Jay C

Can’t link right now, but (surprisingly) TIL there are two stables still in operation in Manhattan, West 38th St., and West 52nd.

Cool. The carriage horses in Central Park have to bed down somewhere, but I heard they had cheaper digs on Long Island.

45
teleskiguy  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:28:28pm

re: #38 teleskiguy

I was literally skiing in a t-shirt yesterday, looking at a powder day tomorrow. Gotta love springtime in the Rockies!

46
Dave In Austin  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:30:25pm

This thread has a series of videos of the pair in the box yesterday morning. She laid her 1 egg sometime yesterday. Maybe another tomorrow. When they lay, it’s every other day.

Mastodon

47
Dave In Austin  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:32:02pm

Mastodon

48
goddamnedfrank  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:32:13pm

This is kind of wild. One of Musk’s attorney’s in Texas, John Bash, is trying to bamboozle the court into letting Musk’s other lawyer, Alex Spiro, off the hook for illegally signing a pleading without either being admitted to practice law in Texas or applying for a pro hac vice waiver. Bash is attempting to assert that he is now signing the previous motion retroactively and since he’s admitted to the Texas Bar everything is extremely cool and normal now, just super cool, thank you your Honor no need to delve further into things, how are you?

bsky.app

49
sagehen  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:32:59pm

re: #39 Decatur Deb

Around 1960 I had a girlfriend who was horsey, so we rented nags at what was probably the last of NYC’s livery stables on W79 or so. Went across the West Side with taxis scraping my stirrups for a circle of Central Park. The nag was in charge.

They closed in the late 80’s. I moved here in the mid-80’s, always meant to rent a horse and ride in the park, but I was too slow and missed my chance.

50
sagehen  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:34:10pm

re: #42 Jay C

Can’t link right now, but (surprisingly) TIL there are two stables still in operation in Manhattan, West 38th St., and West 52nd.
And the nags are likely still in charge.

The one on 52nd is for the horse-drawn carriages, you can’t rent them to go riding.

The one on 38th is for NYPD. They use horses for crowd control partly for the height, and partly because most people will attack a cop before they’ll hurt a horse.

51
A Cranky One  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:36:17pm

52
darthstar  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:40:14pm

Petrale Sole with lemon, capers, and white wine.

53
BeenHereAwhile  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:41:19pm

re: #8 nines09

Talk of Abuelita took me to….. an hour to remember her name….This is a bit older, and I think it’s well made and a good song.

[Embedded content]

nite nite

Did I see a chancleta brandished in the intro?

54
jaunte  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:41:24pm

re: #48 goddamnedfrank

Pursuant to the doctrine of takesius backsius and the Kingsius X ception.

55
jaunte  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:42:02pm

re: #51 A Cranky One

Truish life horrors.

56
A Cranky One  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:43:47pm

57
🐈 Crush White Christian Nationalism 🐈  Apr 15, 2024 • 6:49:18pm

The Fallout show’s Wasteland looks so good in part because it’s real: Some of it was shot in the same desert as Mad Max: Fury Road

The Vault sets for Amazon’s Fallout show were built in a New York soundstage, but when Lucy steps into the Wasteland, the actors and crew ventured outdoors to shoot some of the scenes on location in a genuine ghost town and coastal desert.

Ironically, the desert in question is nowhere near Southern California. The joke about Hollywood pretending the whole world looks like LA wouldn’t have applied to Fallout, which is actually set in the remains of California, but instead of using the state’s real geography, the production spent multiple days filming in the Namib Desert on the coast of Southern Africa.

Specifically, several scenes were shot in and around Kolmanskop, a former diamond mining town that was abandoned in the middle of the last century. One of the locations they used, according to Maximus actor Aaron Moten via a set of production notes provided by Amazon, was “a bombed diamond mine that is now a hyenas’ den.”

pcgamer.com

58
Romantic Heretic  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:08:15pm

re: #57 🐈 Crush White Christian Nationalism 🐈

Soon as I saw that pic I knew that spot, and I thought of this.

A tiny angry squeaking Frog 🐸 | Super Cute Animals - BBC

59
goddamnedfrank  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:18:48pm

bsky.app

60
goddamnedfrank  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:22:05pm

👀

bsky.app

61
JC1  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:27:15pm

re: #44 Decatur Deb

Cool. The carriage horses in Central Park have to bed down somewhere, but I heard they had cheaper digs on Long Island.

Cops in NYC still use horses, don’t they?

62
darthstar  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:28:18pm

Efile complete! California paid in full…(21k) Feds got 20% of what I owe them as I have to wait for July for my transition bonus which will just about cover the other 80k.

Looking forward to next year where I just have income and deductions and no inheritance tax to fuck me up the ass.

63
gwangung  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:29:08pm

re: #60 goddamnedfrank

Looks like they got it in under the wire…

iapps.courts.state.ny.us

64
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:31:19pm

Do Ruby and Shaye have to sue Screwdy again?

65
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:32:19pm

66
darthstar  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:39:13pm

re: #65 Joe Bacon ✅

Sue him again, Ruby. No grease this time.

67
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:46:53pm

re: #66 darthstar

Sue him again, Ruby. No grease this time.

Is there any point, though? He obviously can’t afford to pay the first judgement. Not like having a second one will change that.

68
Dangerman  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:47:28pm

re: #11 Charles

Pretty funny for Trump to try to use his son Barron to paint himself as a victim.

More attention than Barron’s gotten in years, I’d bet.

But wait, there’s more lies

69
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:50:58pm

Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) will soon begin charging new users “a small fee” for posting content and liking, replying, and bookmarking tweets, according to Elon Musk.

X Daily News, a feed that posts X updates, today noticed that text strings on the website have been updated to mention a small annual fee that new users will need to pay in order to access the social network.

Musk said in response that the fee for new users is “the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots.”

The fee has previously been tested in New Zealand and the Philippines, and Musk says that it is applicable only to those who are new to Twitter. When a new user signs up, the user will need to pay the fee, or wait for three months to be able to engage on the network. The updated language on the Twitter site:

New accounts are required to pay a small annual fee before you’re able to post, like, bookmark, and reply. This is to reduce spam and create a better experience for everyone. You can still follow accounts and browse X for free.
The text does not mention being able to post for free after three months, but Musk confirmed that “write actions” would be free after that time period.

It is unclear how the policy will stop spam accounts and bots, as spammers will be able to pay the fee or simply create multiple accounts and wait to be able to post. Regular users, meanwhile, could be discouraged from using X due to the extra step and the fact that other social networks are free.

The fee appears to be around $1, as it costs $1.75 NZD in New Zealand. The pay-for-access policy has not yet been implemented outside of New Zealand and the Philippines.

Musk said that fake accounts also use up “the available namespace” limiting the “good handles.” X has freed up over a million usernames so far, and will “free up tens of millions in the coming weeks.”

macrumors.com

70
The GOP is a Terrorist Organization  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:52:37pm

This fucking guy!

71
Rightwingconspirator  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:53:12pm

Yikes. We just had to do 60 feet of sewer from the house to the city sewer pipe hookup. Fair enough, 65-year-old clay pipe gave it up with the help of ash tree roots from a house across the street and down one. Needless to say, that’s an expensive job. Interestingly the new pipe goes into the old pipe. Saves a ton of trench digging $$.

72
jaunte  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:53:16pm

@greene.haus

A shame that Cotton’s Arkansas sits just across a state line from the Fifth Circuit — because otherwise, I’d say he should have any vehicular violence in his state made his responsibility in court.

73
Belafon  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:54:23pm

I really kind of miss the days when people just sat down together and signed things. We’re trying to get my son an apartment near the University of Oklahoma for next year since they’ve brought in so many freshmen that almost all of those who are currently there can’t find on-campus housing. We found one, but the person who owns it wants us to put in a Zillow application. So, do we put it under his name or mine? It would kind of seem important to put it under his name since he will be the one staying there, but I will be paying for it. The application asks for income to prove it can be paid for, but he’s never had a job.

Just give me a contract to sign and I’ll give you money.

74
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n 😷 Trips  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:54:52pm
75
Belafon  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:54:54pm

re: #70 The GOP is a Terrorist Organization

This fucking guy!

[Embedded content]

So, Tom, you’re saying we can run over Nazis?

76
darthstar  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:56:05pm

re: #67 Eclectic Cyborg

Is there any point, though? He obviously can’t afford to pay the first judgement. Not like having a second one will change that.

Yes. At some point he will have to ask for counsel as he can’t afford it himself and he’ll be told that doesn’t work for civil litigation.

77
teleskiguy  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:58:05pm

re: #61 JC1

Cops still use horses in Austin, TX. On very busy nights on 6th Street.

78
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:58:23pm

re: #70 The GOP is a Terrorist Organization

This fucking guy!

[Embedded content]

Do not forget that the Screw York Times allowed Cotton to spread his vile shit on their Op-Ed page.

79
piratedan  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:59:38pm

re: #70 The GOP is a Terrorist Organization

if only the Capitol Police had done so in clearing the Capitol on J6.

80
Dangerman  Apr 15, 2024 • 7:59:57pm

re: #69 Joe Bacon ✅

Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) will soon begin charging new users “a small fee” for posting content and liking, replying, and bookmarking tweets, according to Elon Musk.

X Daily News, a feed that posts X updates, today noticed that text strings on the website have been updated to mention a small annual fee that new users will need to pay in order to access the social network.

Musk said in response that the fee for new users is “the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots.”

The fee has previously been tested in New Zealand and the Philippines, and Musk says that it is applicable only to those who are new to Twitter. When a new user signs up, the user will need to pay the fee, or wait for three months to be able to engage on the network. The updated language on the Twitter site:

New accounts are required to pay a small annual fee before you’re able to post, like, bookmark, and reply. This is to reduce spam and create a better experience for everyone. You can still follow accounts and browse X for free.
The text does not mention being able to post for free after three months, but Musk confirmed that “write actions” would be free after that time period.

It is unclear how the policy will stop spam accounts and bots, as spammers will be able to pay the fee or simply create multiple accounts and wait to be able to post. Regular users, meanwhile, could be discouraged from using X due to the extra step and the fact that other social networks are free.

The fee appears to be around $1, as it costs $1.75 NZD in New Zealand. The pay-for-access policy has not yet been implemented outside of New Zealand and the Philippines.

Musk said that fake accounts also use up “the available namespace” limiting the “good handles.” X has freed up over a million usernames so far, and will “free up tens of millions in the coming weeks.”

macrumors.com

Give me your credit card
I won’t take a lot

This time

81
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:02:39pm

re: #80 Dangerman

Which is why if I have to I make screenshots from non-Shitter sites.

82
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n 😷 Trips  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:06:24pm
83
silverdolphin  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:06:52pm

State district judge recommends overturning Melissa Lucio’s death sentence

She came within 2 days of being executed.Looks like reason has finally prevailed.

84
jaunte  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:07:35pm

re: #82 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt’n 😷 Trips

The edit doesn’t make it any better.

85
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n 😷 Trips  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:08:55pm
86
cat-tikvah  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:09:42pm

re: #70 The GOP is a Terrorist Organization

This fucking guy!

[Embedded content]

When is the NYT featuring Cotton’s op-ed on killing protesters going to be published? Can you just shoot them or do you have to run them over?
///

87
jaunte  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:17:06pm

@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social
In a late night filing, Knight Specialty Insurance attempts to justify its Trump bond.

iapps.courts.state.ny.us

88
jaunte  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:18:33pm

@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social

imo Knight is not making a strong argument. CPLR 2502 has specific statutory language about the issuers being qualified to execute the surety bond in state. The excess lines provision Knight relies on deals with insurers doing business outside the state. And the argument fail to reconcile the two.

They do use the word ‘overwhelming’ to describe their argument.

89
Dr Lizardo  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:24:33pm

re: #88 jaunte

@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social

They do use the word ‘overwhelming’ to describe their argument.

“I MEAN, COME ON! WE USED THE WORD ‘OVERWHELMING’! ISN’T THAT ENOUGH?!”

90
teleskiguy  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:25:27pm

re: #82 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt’n 😷 Trips

Tom Cotton wants to hurt, maim, and kill his “opponents.” Simple as that. He’s that twisted.

91
Vicious Babushka  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:26:43pm

Yeah blocking the runways at Sea-Tac is gonna “Free Free Palestine”

Mastodon

92
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:27:31pm

re: #7 Dangerman

On this and the follow ups
Certainly ianal
This is not in any way final
From a smart rando I sort of follow:

Isn’t this similar to SCOTUS allowing the Texas bounty law to take effect a year before they overturned Roe vs Wade? Seems like they are telegraphing what they are going to be doing.

93
Vicious Babushka  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:29:20pm

re: #70 The GOP is a Terrorist Organization

This fucking guy!

[Embedded content]

I would like to see some actual Palestinians run over some actual Hamas fighters, but that’s not what Mr. Cotton was talking about.

94
jaunte  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:31:03pm

@toobigtofail.bsky.social

Ok, so having read these filings (admittedly on my phone in bed, not the perfect circumstance) or appears that Knight skipped a crucial step and violated NY Insurance law. There’s a link missing in the chain between Knight thinking it can write this bond, and writing it: they didn’t use a broker.

95
Vicious Babushka  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:31:33pm

Mastodon

96
goddamnedfrank  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:31:35pm

re: #63 gwangung

Looks like they got it in under the wire…

iapps.courts.state.ny.us

Thanks. So they really are going for the idea that they aren’t bound by NY law because they’re an excess line? Seems like they’re conflating two very different situations. Excess lines exist for clients who face such disproportionate risks that finding coverage from in State companies is difficult. Think major construction and civil engineering firms, companies whose shit can go wrong in a BIG way. They exist to cover the liability of the client against any future facing liability where the plaintiff isn’t known yet, and therefore cannot object to the terms of the insurance policy.

So … an appeal bond is obviously a completely different thing. The idea that the State of NY, as the Appellee whose interests are actually being insured here, needs to allow this absolutely deficient dog-shit to count is simply insane. “Fuck that noise” is the only rational response. The Appeals Court really needs to get its shit together because this weird vacillating space where everyone (yes, including me) is talking about a goddamned reduced amount bond is NOT helping.

97
Dangerman  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:31:36pm

re: #88 jaunte

@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social

They do use the word ‘overwhelming’ to describe their argument.

There was a deadline
He wasn’t gonna make it
This dicking around is just to draw it out

98
Captain Ron  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:31:38pm
99
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:34:45pm

Coming soon to a news clip near you: even more disinformation:

Generative AI in Premiere Pro powered by Adobe Firefly | Adobe Video



..

100
gwangung  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:34:46pm

re: #96 goddamnedfrank

Thanks. So they really are going for the idea that they aren’t bound by NY law because they’re an excess line? Seems like they’re conflating two very different situations. Excess lines exist for clients who face such disproportionate risks that finding coverage from in State companies is difficult. Think major construction and civil engineering firms, companies whose shit can go wrong in a BIG way. They exist to cover the liability of the client against any future facing liability where the plaintiff isn’t known yet, and therefore cannot object to the terms of the insurance policy.

So … an appeal bond is obviously a completely different thing. The idea that the State of NY, as the Appellee whose interests are actually being insured here, needs to allow this absolutely deficient dog-shit to count is simply insane. “Fuck that noise” is the only rational response. The Appeals Court really needs to get its shit together because this weird vacillating space where everyone (yes, including me) is talking about a goddamned reduced amount bond is NOT helping.

Not sure they really care, since their aim is to draw it out as long as they can…

101
JC1  Apr 15, 2024 • 8:39:13pm

re: #74 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt’n 😷 Trips

[Embedded content]

That can’t be real can it? Who’s going to give Elon their credit card number? Might as well give it to Trump.

102
Belafon  Apr 15, 2024 • 9:04:36pm

re: #98 Captain Ron

What would a country like China do if we basically prove we can shoot down anything they throw at us?

Answer: Bribe Republicans.

103
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 15, 2024 • 9:09:12pm

re: #68 Dangerman

But wait, there’s more lies

[Embedded content]

Curious. The Jeff Pearlman page has been deleted. So maybe the claim that Trump did not attend the graduations of his other children was not accurate? Or could not be verified?

104
Belafon  Apr 15, 2024 • 9:10:23pm
105
retired cynic  Apr 15, 2024 • 9:32:45pm

@costasamaras.bsky.social
One thing about the US power system that folks don’t know is that before the Biden Admin there wasn’t much grid battery storage. Now, battery installations have been growing like wildflowers. This year we will have about 16 Hoover Dams worth of total capacity! 16!

106
retired cynic  Apr 15, 2024 • 9:36:09pm

This as the image that goes with #105

107
Belafon  Apr 15, 2024 • 9:39:32pm

re: #106 retired cynic

This as the image that goes with #105

[Embedded content]

That is a nice looking exponential curve. So is that Gigawatt-hours? So our battery capacity would be the equivalent of running the Hoover Dam for 16 hours?

108
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 15, 2024 • 9:40:07pm

re: #104 Belafon

So they want to pass an Israel aid package and figure out Ukraine later?

Seems likely to fail in the Senate, no?

109
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 15, 2024 • 9:43:19pm

re: #108 Eclectic Cyborg

So they want to pass an Israel aid package and figure out Ukraine later?

Seems likely to fail in the Senate, no?

They will sever the package, voting Yes on Israel and NO on Ukraine.

110
Belafon  Apr 15, 2024 • 9:49:27pm

re: #109 Joe Bacon ✅

They will sever the package, voting Yes on Israel and NO on Ukraine.

Democrats should demand the Ukraine vote first. Do they actually think Democrats will be politically hurt if the Israeli aid isn’t passed?

111
mmmirele  Apr 15, 2024 • 9:53:11pm

re: #58 Romantic Heretic

Soon as I saw that pic I knew that spot, and I thought of this.

[Embedded content]

Video

I started playing this and Sakura-chan stopped whatever she was doing to fix a gimlet eye on me. She didn’t like the squeaking.

112
piratedan  Apr 15, 2024 • 9:54:59pm

re: #108 Eclectic Cyborg

I’ve made it a point to never underestimate the ability of the GOP to fuck things up.

You could see them only include weapons for Israel and no humanitarian aid for Gaza (because they’re pricks) . You could see them tie aid to Ukraine along with some piece of shit like tax breaks for the rich. Taiwan aid would be contingent on immigration restrictions… you know, the usual GOP bullshit, no votes for anything on its own merits unless there’s something that hurts someone else.

113
JC1  Apr 15, 2024 • 10:04:52pm

re: #109 Joe Bacon ✅

They will sever the package, voting Yes on Israel and NO on Ukraine.

Not going to happen unless the Democrats vote to sink it. There will be plenty of GOP votes for Ukraine.

114
JC1  Apr 15, 2024 • 10:06:56pm

Got it in 2.

Click to Reveal

Wordle 1,032 2/6

🟩⬛🟩🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

115
A Cranky One  Apr 15, 2024 • 10:17:18pm

116
William Lewis  Apr 15, 2024 • 10:17:37pm

re: #113 JC1

Not going to happen unless the Democrats vote to sink it. There will be plenty of GOP votes for Ukraine.

It’ll depend on what poison pill Johnson tries to attach to the bill. If he manages to get something too vile …

117
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 15, 2024 • 10:17:56pm

Proof the Udio is the end of music as we have known it:

udio.com

..

It’s been trending on Udio.

This is the future.

118
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 15, 2024 • 10:26:57pm

re: #113 JC1

Not going to happen unless the Democrats vote to sink it. There will be plenty of GOP votes for Ukraine.

Johnson will put a poison pill on the Ukraine aid bill such as a national abortion ban.

119
DodgerFan1988  Apr 15, 2024 • 11:14:46pm
120
No Malarkey!  Apr 16, 2024 • 1:01:51am

re: #115 A Cranky One

[Embedded content]

That would be a Tokyo.

121
No Malarkey!  Apr 16, 2024 • 1:09:25am

Americans can no longer organize a protest in Louisiana, Mississippi or Texas without running the risk of being held liable if anyone, including counterprotestors, injures another. Just another example of the MAGA assault on our constitutional rights.

122
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 16, 2024 • 1:27:54am

Sigh… I’ve used fragrance-free and dye-free laundry detergents for decades.

For the longest time I used Tide’s fragrance free detergent… and then they discontinued the powder. Amazon has a seller who will sell a box for $77.

So I found some All fragrance-free at Walmart… but now that is no longer made, though Amazon has some for $22/box. Target wants $100/box.

So I looked for Arm & Hammer and their fragrance free powder is supposedly discontinued though Amazon warehouse still is selling off their stock for $15/box.

It’s all a move by detergent companies to sell liquids only. The liquid versions require buying a container more often…. hence more sales and thus more profit.

And the liquid versions are heavier, meaning more costly to truck. And thus more fuel consumption, more CO2, etc.

I used to make a large box of Tide powder last me for years.

Our society is not able to truly deal with living more reasonably. The drive for ever more profits is dooming us.

There are some off brand fragrance free powder detergents. They get mixed reviews. Common complaint is that they don’t dissolve very well.

The nice thing about the Tide formula is how easily it dissolved even in cold water.

I guess I should have known that our society was doomed when “pods” were introduced and then stores had to lock them up behind glass cases so people wouldn’t walk off with them… or swallow them.

123
William Lewis  Apr 16, 2024 • 1:38:19am

re: #121 No Malarkey!

Americans can no longer organize a protest in Louisiana, Mississippi or Texas without running the risk of being held liable if anyone, including counterprotestors, injures another. Just another example of the MAGA assault on our constitutional rights.

Sounds to me like a weapon to be used against MAGAts as well though.

124
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Apr 16, 2024 • 1:44:45am

re: #121 No Malarkey!

Americans can no longer organize a protest in Louisiana, Mississippi or Texas without running the risk of being held liable if anyone, including counterprotestors, injures another. Just another example of the MAGA assault on our constitutional rights.

America is now Tianamen Square

125
No Malarkey!  Apr 16, 2024 • 1:45:10am

re: #123 William Lewis

Sounds to me like a weapon to be used against MAGAts as well though.

One of the ironies of the MAGA movement is that if they succeed in establishing a fascist dictatorship, they will be stripped of their constitutional rights as well.

126
William Lewis  Apr 16, 2024 • 1:52:01am

re: #125 No Malarkey!

One of the ironies of the MAGA movement is that if they succeed in establishing a fascist dictatorship, they will be stripped of their constitutional rights as well.

I enjoy telling some the truly nutty gun nutz how little their firearms would really mean in the event of a true tyranny. Few of them get it. It would take much more before they be a real threat.

127
No Malarkey!  Apr 16, 2024 • 2:02:35am

Some fun facts for people who support independent or third party candidates: In 59 US presidential elections, independent candidates have won exactly twice; George Washington, in the first two presidential elections. No third party candidate has ever won a US presidential election, or even come close to doing so. The reasons are obvious: the overwhelming majority of members of the two major parties will vote for their party’s nominee, making it virtually impossible for an independent or third party candidate to win a majority of electoral votes. It would take someone universally admired by the nation, such as Father of His Country George Washington, to rise above the political parties’ nominees to win a presidential election, and no such person currently exists. Interestingly, since the Democratic Party was established in the 1820s, Democrats have won 23 presidential elections, and Republicans have also won 23 presidential elections.*

*This is because in 1864 Abraham Lincoln ran on the National Union ticket with a Democrat, Andrew Johnson, instead of running as a Republican.

128
No Malarkey!  Apr 16, 2024 • 2:05:40am

re: #126 William Lewis

I enjoy telling some the truly nutty gun nutz how little their firearms would really mean in the event of a true tyranny. Few of them get it. It would take much more before they be a real threat.

Trying to outgun the US government is a good way to end up dead, as a few hundred thousand Confederates found out.

129
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Apr 16, 2024 • 2:19:34am

re: #128 No Malarkey!

Trying to outgun the US government is a good way to end up dead, as a few hundred thousand Confederates found out.

It gave them an identity and a mythology that endures to this day…

130
Targetpractice  Apr 16, 2024 • 2:21:12am

re: #128 No Malarkey!

Trying to outgun the US government is a good way to end up dead, as a few hundred thousand Confederates found out.

The nutters have spent decades convincing each other that the cops and even the soldiers are all on their side or enough of them are that when they rise up in “revolution” they’ll have a ready-made army ready to march with them on D.C. to “take back” the country. And if you’re wondering about the ones who won’t join them, they’re all supposed to just step aside and allow the army to march on unopposed.

131
No Malarkey!  Apr 16, 2024 • 2:24:30am

re: #130 Targetpractice

The nutters have spent decades convincing each other that the cops and even the soldiers are all on their side or enough of them are that when they rise up in “revolution” they’ll have a ready-made army ready to march with them on D.C. to “take back” the country. And if you’re wondering about the ones who won’t join them, they’re all supposed to just step aside and all the army to march on unopposed.

Yep, they were outraged that the Capitol Police didn’t side with them on January 6.

132
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 16, 2024 • 2:37:13am

.


Derrotado Corazón (Bolero)





..

133
Patricia Kayden  Apr 16, 2024 • 2:58:24am

134
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Apr 16, 2024 • 2:59:43am

Baby Jesus omelette coming up!

135
Patricia Kayden  Apr 16, 2024 • 3:12:47am

re: #121 No Malarkey!

Instead, in its most recent opinion in this case, the Fifth Circuit concluded that Claiborne’s “three separate theories that might justify” holding a protest leader liable are a non-exhaustive list, and that the MAGA-infused court is allowed to create new exceptions to the First Amendment. It then ruled that the First Amendment does not apply “where a defendant creates unreasonably dangerous conditions, and where his creation of those conditions causes a plaintiff to sustain injuries.”

So how can MAGAts argue that Trump isn’t responsible for the deaths and violence on January 6th given this ruling? Or is this ruling only targeting BLM protesters?

SCOTUS is actively taking away our civil rights. It’s scary to see this happening.

136
Patricia Kayden  Apr 16, 2024 • 3:20:47am

re: #104 Belafon

No, Ukraine doesn’t need to stand on its own. It’s outrageous that Republicans are openly supporting Putin’s war crimes in Ukraine by not supporting Ukrainians in their effort to fight Russia. Democrats need to ensure that Ukraine and Israel are not separated. Republicans only have a one-vote advantage. Use that against them.

137
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Apr 16, 2024 • 3:22:23am

re: #122 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Sigh… I’ve used fragrance-free and dye-free laundry detergents for decades.

For the longest time I used Tide’s fragrance free detergent… and then they discontinued the powder. Amazon has a seller who will sell a box for $77.

So I found some All fragrance-free at Walmart… but now that is no longer made, though Amazon has some for $22/box. Target wants $100/box.

So I looked for Arm & Hammer and their fragrance free powder is supposedly discontinued though Amazon warehouse still is selling off their stock for $15/box.

It’s all a move by detergent companies to sell liquids only. The liquid versions require buying a container more often…. hence more sales and thus more profit.

And the liquid versions are heavier, meaning more costly to truck. And thus more fuel consumption, more CO2, etc.

I used to make a large box of Tide powder last me for years.

Our society is not able to truly deal with living more reasonably. The drive for ever more profits is dooming us.

There are some off brand fragrance free powder detergents. They get mixed reviews. Common complaint is that they don’t dissolve very well.

The nice thing about the Tide formula is how easily it dissolved even in cold water.

I guess I should have known that our society was doomed when “pods” were introduced and then stores had to lock them up behind glass cases so people wouldn’t walk off with them… or swallow them.

I use laundry strips from a company called Tru Earth. They have a fragrance-free strip. I much prefer them to using liquid or powders for being very compact and I even carry a few with travel luggage in case I need to do a load of laundry on the road.

138
Shropshire Slasher  Apr 16, 2024 • 3:33:55am

A little toe tapping ditty for Tuesday’s drive time music, I hope you listen and enjoy!

Luke Combs - When It Rains It Pours

139
Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 3:40:13am

Fun.
Wordle 1,032 5/6

Click to Reveal

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

140
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 3:49:40am

re: #136 Patricia Kayden

No, Ukraine doesn’t need to stand on its own. It’s outrageous that Republicans are openly supporting Putin’s war crimes in Ukraine by not supporting Ukrainians in their effort to fight Russia. Democrats need to ensure that Ukraine and Israel are not separated. Republicans only have a one-vote advantage. Use that against them.

If only there were four or five Republicans with the backbone to tell Johnson - and the rest of the GOP - “Either you bring Ukraine funding to the floor, a clean bill, or we flip independent and caucus with the Democrats. You have 10 minutes to decide.”

Political blackmail? Sure, absolutely. But sometimes….you gotta play dirty.

141
darthstar  Apr 16, 2024 • 3:57:17am

re: #134 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Jesus omelette coming up!

[Embedded content]

I ordered Alabama Chicken & Waffles the other morning and forgot to take a pic. (Waffles with two eggs over easy)

142
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:01:55am

I’ll take a bit of luck today. Second guess helped and I picked the correct letter for the birb. Luck all around. 3/6

TWZyeWVTdHYydEsvclA0cmZSSzZra2Z1Q241dTBseFd6YS9qY0NkWFRMM29uNmkxN1Y0a1IwU0ZJWkNXS29Db21PQ3o5ODQzam9LeE9zaWp1d01RSmNwblNmYTFxeUVYaVBDM1M4eXQ4SWlzalZ4aGlMYkUzbERFblZkYSs1K3o6OnYgLgJzj0AavY1x5Yy3fEM=

143
Shropshire Slasher  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:03:30am

Lol.

Gen Z — this is the last straw.

The generation, born between 1997 and 2012, continues to be obsessed with the latest viral beauty secret, the “anti-wrinkle straw,” which many claim can turn back the clock.

Instead of drinking through a vertical straw, they slurp through a hook-like apparatus meant to keep the lips from pursing less, thereby supposedly creating fewer wrinkles.

However, experts say there isn’t enough data to prove the method works.

nypost.com

144
darthstar  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:04:45am

Well, fuck.
Wordle 1,032 4/6

⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

145
Nerdy Fish  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:05:14am

That was definitely a word that was used.

Click to Reveal

Wordle 1,032 3/6*

🟩⬛🟩⬛⬛
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

146
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:08:42am

re: #143 Shropshire Slasher

Anyone remember these?

Krazy Straw Toy Commercial

I had one of those when I was a kid.

147
darthstar  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:08:49am

re: #145 Nerdy Fish

Feeling naughty on that second guess?

148
steve_davis  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:22:50am

one of those very strange experiences where I was up in the night for an hour or so, and then was rewarded with two very intense dreams, one of which involved all of my family, including my mom and dad, having a kind of reunion in the hallway of what one part of my brain confidently told me was a post office but the other part of my brain confidently designed to be no such thing. At some point towards the end of the dream, my father actually cried with joy, which delighted me because the only time my father ever wept to my knowledge, for an entire two seconds, was when I returned home as my mother lay dying. And of course, the two of them are long gone from this world.

Then, after rousing just long enough to think “Okay, that was odd and interesting,” I went into a second dream in which I was at a table with three or four women, all dressed in what I think was sort of garden club attire (the “in the room the women come and go” sort of attire), and from each of them, I was picking up large mugs or possibly bowls, and drinking from them, and I was able to see into the drinks all the way down to a kind of granular level where I could connect the drinks with the women in a very intensely personal kind of communion. There was more, but this is obviously a very deeply sexually analogous dream, so anything more that I reveal would likely say things about my own sex life that I’d rather not reveal to several hundred of my closest friends :-)

149
Patricia Kayden  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:26:16am

re: #84 jaunte

I don’t understand how the second tweet is less homicidal. Someone should ask him how he can support the J6 insurrectionists and yet be upset with these protesters.

150
Nerdy Fish  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:29:53am

re: #149 Patricia Kayden

I don’t understand how the second tweet is less homicidal. Someone should ask him how he can support the J6 insurrectionists and yet be upset with these protesters.

By saying “to get them out of the way,” he can make the argument that he is implying that they should not be killed. “It’s time to put an end to this nonsense” is still a blatantly homicidal phrasing, but the whole tweet as worded is probably just enough to get him out of any trouble for making threats. Also, the fact that it’s not a true threat (i.e. specifically directed at someone and intended to cause imminent lawless action).

151
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:30:02am

re: #122 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Sigh… I’ve used fragrance-free and dye-free laundry detergents for decades.

For the longest time I used Tide’s fragrance free detergent… and then they discontinued the powder. Amazon has a seller who will sell a box for $77.
…

fwiw, we make our own laundry detergent powder. been doing it for a long time. ridiculously cheap and works just fine. there are recipes all over the net

recipe:

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

for the dishwasher:

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

we do kitchen sink dish soap and tooth powder as well

for us it was the plastic and the waste that was the driver of it all.
now its all recyclable cardboard

the money savings and convenience are a plus

152
darthstar  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:46:38am

153
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:54:47am

Test

bsky.app

154
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:55:18am

test

Pournelle also has the rural white protagonists use mustard gas against the “urban” (you know what that’s code for) refugees from the cities approvingly. A very evil novel that reflects what the GOP would love for the world to come to.

[image or embed]

— William Lewis (@wlewisiii.bsky.social) Apr 15, 2024 at 11:40 PM

155
Patricia Kayden  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:56:45am

re: #150 Nerdy Fish

I think we’re way past the point of giving these insurrectionists the benefit of the doubt. Believe what they say.

156
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 4:59:07am

I was testing to see if bsky.com post code that allows you to nest skeets would translate to embeds here as well, but it does not.

bsky.app

157
Nerdy Fish  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:02:43am

re: #156 Randall Gross

I was testing to see if bsky.com post code that allows you to next skeets would translate to embeds here as well, but it does not.

[Embedded content]

bsky.app

Charles will need to implement that LGF-side in order to make plain links work. That will probably involve some modification to handle whatever their embed code does.

158
Nerdy Fish  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:03:55am

re: #155 Patricia Kayden

I think we’re way past the point of giving these insurrectionists the benefit of the doubt. Believe what they say.

I have long since lost faith in our legal system to do anything about any of these stochastic terrorists. The fact that Chaya Raichik still gets to run around free and inspire bomb threats directed at whomever displeases her on any given day is proof positive of that.

159
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:19:10am

yet again tfg will not release his taxes

it seems his ‘audit’ is lasting longer than his marriages

of course he was found guilty of tax fraud in New York State and owes 450+ million dollars in fines.

that he is still hiding his taxes likely means that there is other fraud contained in there that he doesn’t want everyone else to know about.

160
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:19:49am

So, I wonder if the Nodfather will doze off today in court?

161
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:23:41am

re: #160 Dr Lizardo

So, I wonder if the Nodfather will doze off today in court?

i also saw “Nod Corleone” yesterday

coulda been here

162
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:24:17am

re: #161 Dangerman

i also saw “Nod Corleone” yesterday

coulda been here

I saw “Don Snoreleone” making the rounds.

163
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:26:49am

164
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:28:20am

re: #162 Dr Lizardo

I saw “Don Snoreleone” making the rounds.

i’m sticking with #sleepydon for the win
Link

165
Markm1960  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:32:12am

re: #150 Nerdy Fish

By saying “to get them out of the way,” he can make the argument that he is implying that they should not be killed. “It’s time to put an end to this nonsense” is still a blatantly homicidal phrasing, but the whole tweet as worded is probably just enough to get him out of any trouble for making threats. Also, the fact that it’s not a true threat (i.e. specifically directed at someone and intended to cause imminent lawless action).

Will no one rid us of these meddlesome protestors?

There’s the actual words said and then there’s how those words are heard. The right wing has been priming the anger pump for years. He can claim that he used an innocent phrase and didn’t explicitly call for violence, but he did, he knows it and by will privately celebrate when it happens.

166
Belafon  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:36:27am
An 81-year-old Ohio man has been charged in the fatal shooting of an Uber driver he believed was working with a scammer, according to officials who said the victim was sent to the home by the same scammer.

William Brock told investigators he shot Loletha Hall, 61, outside his home March 25 because he thought she was working with a man who called him pretending to be an officer at the local court, Lt. Kristopher Shultz of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office said.

The scammer told the old guy that he had to give someone arriving $12,000 to get his relative released, and then called an Uber driver to go pick up a package.

nbcnews.com

167
lawhawk  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:42:42am

re: #10 Joe Bacon ✅

Rudy lost his appeals to have the judgment against him reduced. The judge excoriated him and basically said that he had no case on appeal.

And yet, he’s intent on getting sued by Freeman and Moss again to deal with his incessant defamatory content.

This is how MAGA dies - by having their moral bankruptcy joined by financial bankruptcy.

168
lawhawk  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:48:50am

This should go up for a vote. Best nickname for Trump after yesterday’s snoozefest (which if it happened to Biden at any time anywhere, would be 24/7 news about how Biden is incapable of being President and should get removed under the 25th Amendment.

Yet, here’s Trump dozing off at least two separate occasions on day one of his criminal trial - one time in such a deep stupor/sleep that his lawyers tried passing him notes and it took him several minutes to realize that notes were passed.

Don Snoreleone
Sleepy Don
Drowsy Trump
Nod Corleone
Sleepy Con
Tired Trump

169
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:49:03am

There’s some pretty skilled statecraft going on right now, and it’s getting very little attention from most media outlets.

And then, just as importantly, Israeli Cabinet minister Benny Gantz announced yesterday that there would be no “imminent” response to Iran’s attack. This has Biden’s fingerprints all over it; …

In short, it appears that the Biden administration’s diplomacy has managed to de-escalate a situation that could easily have spun out of control..

170
lawhawk  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:50:14am

re: #168 lawhawk

Dozo the Clown (Jimmy Kimmel)

171
lawhawk  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:52:45am

re: #169 Dangerman

The media has quite lost its mind after Trump lost. They don’t get their daily dose of crazy from Trump, his social media feed, or public pronouncements that change US policy.

Instead, we get the whole business is normal and government does work, including statecraft behind closed doors, and with little/no fanfare, along with backchannel negotiations to reduce the chances for an all out war across the Middle East.

Biden wont get credit for it, but he should.

Know what this also does - it helps stabilize oil prices, which get goosed every time there’s the mere thought of conflict in the Middle East, or Putin needs to raise cash to cover its genocidal war against Ukraine.

172
jeffreyw  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:54:25am

Big Assed Lasagna

Good morning!

173
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:54:36am

re: #157 Nerdy Fish

Charles will need to implement that LGF-side in order to make plain links work. That will probably involve some modification to handle whatever their embed code does.

I don’t think we will see plain links anytime soon, but with the embed feature he should be able to get a better embed quicker now that they’ve enabled BSKY side.

174
No Malarkey!  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:55:59am

SCOTUS today will hear a case to decide if hundreds of J6 defendants, including Trump were properly charged for some of the counts against them or not.

175
Nerdy Fish  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:57:42am

re: #169 Dangerman

There’s some pretty skilled statecraft going on right now, and it’s getting very little attention from most media outlets.

And then, just as importantly, Israeli Cabinet minister Benny Gantz announced yesterday that there would be no “imminent” response to Iran’s attack. This has Biden’s fingerprints all over it; …

In short, it appears that the Biden administration’s diplomacy has managed to de-escalate a situation that could easily have spun out of control..

To be fair, Israel has no need to retaliate against Iran. They proved their point, which is, “You can throw all the hardware at us that you want, you still can’t touch us.” Retaliating against Iran for that attack would be painting themselves as aggressors - which, to be fair, Bibi definitely is.

176
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 5:57:55am

re: #174 No Malarkey!

SCOTUS today will hear a case to decide if hundreds of J6 defendants, including Trump were properly charged for some of the counts against them or not.

I hope and suspect that the court will find that it covers interruption of national vote certifications, but with all the crazy rulings we’ve been getting…

177
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:00:23am

Would be nice: “I’m Joe Biden. I’m not going to spend one second in a courtroom this year or any year. My opponent will be in a courtroom 4 days a week for months on end defending himself in four criminal trials.”

Clearly the dems are going to have Biden, Harris, Obama, Clinton, plus an army of surrogates that include Whitmer, Newsom, Fetterman, Kelly, Warnock, Ossoff, etc out there

Republicans have? GWB ain’t hitting the campaign trail for him, nor will Cheney. Don’t expect Pence or Quayle either. When the best campaign surrogate you might get is Glenn Youngkin, …

178
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:01:04am

re: #170 lawhawk

Dozo the Clown (Jimmy Kimmel)

New winner. (I’m fickle)

179
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:01:43am

re: #178 Dangerman

New winner. (I’m fickle)

Donald Slump

180
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:05:07am

re: #179 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Donald Slump

Don’t make me have to choose!

181
lawhawk  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:11:39am

You know, I’m sure others have noted this, but when someone goes on trial in a criminal case, you usually see the defendant’s family in the courtroom, whether it’s the spouse, or his siblings or children, to provide support.

None of that was present on day 1 of Trump’s criminal case (or on nearly all of his prior appearances in court). They are letting Trump hang out to dry, which is particularly telling. They are not even trying to show support for the leader of their crime family.

Even mobsters had family in court to provide support.

182
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:15:59am

re: #139 Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅

Fun.
Wordle 1,032 5/6

[Embedded content]

5 here too

Click to Reveal

Wordle 1,032 5/6

🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Group: 4,4,4,5

183
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:16:13am

The accounting firm that was first hired to audit Donald Trump’s social media company quit just months after it was appointed, the Financial Times reports.

Wanna guess why?

Only months in?
Auditors never do this

184
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:20:36am

Be aware: Rufo now after the head of NPR
npr.org

185
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:22:09am

re: #183 Dangerman

The accounting firm that was first hired to audit Donald Trump’s social media company quit just months after it was appointed, the Financial Times reports.

Wanna guess why?

Only months in?
Auditors never do this

There’s something sleazy going on and they don’t want get called on the carpet for it? Basically washing their hands of the whole affair, and saying, “Hey man, don’t look at us…we already quit!”

186
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:23:53am

re: #181 lawhawk

You know, I’m sure others have noted this, but when someone goes on trial in a criminal case, you usually see the defendant’s family in the courtroom, whether it’s the spouse, or his siblings or children, to provide support.

One cannot expect to see his wife show up in court. Dunno what is guiding the actions ofing. his older offspringles

187
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:26:39am

Also for awareness, a good article portraying the Bradley bro network behind the funding of several full-metal MAGA groups.
theguardian.com

188
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:29:00am

Trump’s shown up just now for day two. He’s making noises in front of the press before he enters the courtroom.

189
lawhawk  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:32:41am

re: #186 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

His latest wife barely shows up for any other events, let alone when her husband is on trial.

Tells a lot about their familial relationship.

190
lawhawk  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:37:38am
191
lawhawk  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:40:50am

Johnson’s run at speaker will not last the year. It’ll be counted in terms of Scaramuccis, though they may just sit on the motion rather than making it a privileged and giving it priority.

The extremists want to throw the House in to chaos and don’t want to do the people’s business. They want to obstruct and sabotage functioning government, all while wrecking foreign policy for President Biden, including providing aid and support to both Israel and Ukraine.

192
Targetpractice  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:42:10am

re: #191 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

Johnson’s run at speaker will not last the year. It’ll be counted in terms of Scaramuccis, though they may just sit on the motion rather than making it a privileged and giving it priority.

The extremists want to throw the House in to chaos and don’t want to do the people’s business. They want to obstruct and sabotage functioning government, all while wrecking foreign policy for President Biden, including providing aid and support to both Israel and Ukraine.

Well, he did last longer than a head of lettuce, so I suppose that’s an accomplishment.

//

193
darthstar  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:50:50am

Market’s are open. DIVE! DIVE!

194
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:52:31am

re: #193 darthstar

That is a lovely sight. Now the rest of his “enterprises” have to follow suit.

195
b.d.  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:53:47am

re: #193 darthstar

Market’s are open. DIVE! DIVE!

[Embedded content]

The only people still buying DJT stock are the people planning on short selling it later.

//

196
lawhawk  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:54:18am

re: #193 darthstar

How low will it go… how low will it go.

197
b.d.  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:55:17am

re: #196 lawhawk

How low will it go… how low will it go.

Trump should watch his stock ticker in the courtroom, that will keep him awake.

198
jeffreyw  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:55:31am

We have a crew out today to change out the power pole. We will be without mains power for a spell but the generator should pull us through ok. I hope the DSL internet makes it without a problem. Fingers crossed.

199
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:55:47am

Senator Tom Cotton has a zest for the murder of U.S. citizens—see his op-ed calling for summary execution of protesters against police brutality—and he is a leader within our nation’s fascist party, so this should perhaps not be such a surprise, but it should always be a shock.

— A.R. Moxon (@juliusgoat.bsky.social) Apr 16, 2024 at 5:32 AM
200
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:58:14am

re: #193 darthstar

Market’s are open. DIVE! DIVE!

[Embedded content]

Needs the Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea music!

VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA by Neil Norman and his Cosmic Orchestra in Stereo

201
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 6:59:01am

re: #193 darthstar

Market’s are open. DIVE! DIVE!

submarine diving alarm sound effect

202
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:00:33am

re: #199 Randall Gross

[Embedded content]

Last night friends — all of whom hate Trump and will be voting for Biden — expressed similar sentiments. In one case, a friend of theirs almost missed a plane because the protesters were interfering with access to the airport.

203
Targetpractice  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:01:11am

re: #193 darthstar

Market’s are open. DIVE! DIVE!

[Embedded content]

ALARM!

Das Boot - Alarm!

204
JC1  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:01:30am

re: #104 Belafon

[Embedded content]

He corrected his tweet later, clarifying that he meant that the Ukraine BILL would stand alone, not that Ukraine would stand alone. Big difference.

205
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:02:43am

re: #204 JC1

He corrected his tweet later, clarifying that he meant that the Ukraine BILL would stand alone, not that Ukraine would stand alone. Big difference.

That’s why you should always proofread your postings before you send them out.

206
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:03:14am

re: #193 darthstar

re: #200 Joe Bacon ✅

re: #203 Targetpractice

ahem. You forgot “The Hunt for Red October”

207
sizzzzlerz  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:04:05am

You magnificent bastards!

Click to Reveal

Wordle 1,032 5/6

⬛🟨⬛🟨⬛
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

208
JC1  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:05:28am

re: #175 Nerdy Fish

To be fair, Israel has no need to retaliate against Iran. They proved their point, which is, “You can throw all the hardware at us that you want, you still can’t touch us.” Retaliating against Iran for that attack would be painting themselves as aggressors - which, to be fair, Bibi definitely is.

Iran’s attack was mostly for show. If they really wanted to hurt Israel (and deal with the blowback that would follow) they could do so.

209
TarHellion  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:08:20am

re: #206 PhillyPretzel ✅

That’s one of those movies that if I run across, I have to stop and watch for a bit.

210
nines09  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:21:47am

So today is episode 2 of “As The Worm Turns”?
I wonder what Wormy will demand today.

211
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:23:06am

re: #149 Patricia Kayden

I don’t understand how the second tweet is less homicidal. Someone should ask him how he can support the J6 insurrectionists and yet be upset with these protesters.

Almost everything conservatives say are just derivations of “people are not equal and should not have equal rights.”

This is just the newest rendering, now that they feel bold about directly intervening in civil liberties: protest is for the elect.

212
CleverToad  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:25:50am

Hello everyone!
Home from the 11-day/just short of 2500-mile road trip from CO to central TX, so I have secure internet and can sign in again for more than a fast check for lizard news. Good trip, great hospitality, glad we went.
Highlights:
— Watched the eclipse in my sister’s backyard in Bedford with about 25 friends and family, with enough breaks in the clouds to see the diamond ring coming and going. One cloud obscured about a minute of the peak but we had at least three minutes of totality. Some of the assembled cousins were taking pictures of themselves dappled with crescent-shaped shadows under the one suitable tree in the yard.
— Family and friend gatherings on both sides, got to see about fifty people I haven’t been in the same room with for way too many years — more than a decade in some cases, some I’d never had a chance to meet, with some adorable little ones to liven up the party.
— Wildflowers! Texas bluebonnets and paintbrush in vivid bloom, we got there in season for once
— Dalas in Lindsborg Kansas, a fun little tourist town that leans heavily into their Swedish roots with many painted horse statues. Dinosaurs in Hays Kansas at the Sternberg Museum, a great stop for fossil fans.

Lowlights:
— Driving in DFW and Austin. We stuck to interstates this trip, will wander a different time. Survived, not without a few close shaves. Need to check with CDOT to find out when they’re going to repave I-70 in Eastern Colorado — it’s in ghastly shape from the border to Burlington with a few more bad stretches beyond.
— Trump signs — not as many as expected. Only a few on the side of the interstates, at least one still Trump/Pence leftover. Not as many bumper stickers as we thought we’d see, though I’m sure they’ll kick up as November nears. Only one Trump 2024 flag — in my sister-in-law’s front yard with a gadsden flag on the same pole, I’m sad to say. (We managed to avoid any political discussions there, relieved to say.)

Glad we went. Happy we survived. Need to unpack this morning and start the laundry dance. And catch up on my politics addiction in this interesting week.

213
jeffreyw  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:26:15am

The electric co crews just killed the power, gen has kicked in. Still have internet. They are getting ready to drop the transformer and the incoming power lines. So far so good.

214
Shropshire Slasher  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:34:11am

re: #213 jeffreyw

Linemen always get us turned on.

215
jeffreyw  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:39:10am

bsky.app

216
BeenHereAwhile  Apr 16, 2024 • 7:53:09am

re: #185 Dr Lizardo

There’s something sleazy going on and they don’t want get called on the carpet for it? Basically washing their hands of the whole affair, and saying, “Hey man, don’t look at us…we already quit!”

And if they’re called to testify - it will be as a witness for the prosecution.

217
Eventual Carrion  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:03:54am

re: #139 Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅

Fun.
Wordle 1,032 5/6

[Embedded content]

4/6 here

Click to Reveal

Wordle 1,032 4/6

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

218
BeachDem  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:06:40am

I’m sure the Nodfather would just love to see this guy on the jury///

A Hell’s Kitchen resident said he immigrated from Mexico in 2017 — coincidentally Donald Trump’s first year in office as president. The prospective juror said he reads the New York Times and HuffPost and watches MSNBC, and can serve impartially.

219
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:07:14am

Members of self-proclaimed anti-government group ‘God’s Misfits’ held in killings of Kansas women

The title almost says it all…

yahoo.com

220
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:11:24am

New York Justice Juan Merchan made it clear that Donald Trump would be arrested and imprisoned if he did not show up for a court hearing next week.

Merchan’s warning came after Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked that his client be allowed to skip a hearing next Wednesday on possible gag order violations in his hush money trial. The order prevents Trump from talking about witnesses, court staff or their families.

“Blanche says that the campaign has taken pains to schedule events on Wednesdays and asks Merchan if Trump be excused from any hearings that take place on Wednesdays, when the jury is in recess,” Tyler McBrien reported during Monday’s proceedings. “Merchan says he will take this into consideration.”

The attorney also said Trump should not have to attend his trial at all.

“You don’t think we should be here at all right now?” Merchan fired back. “I have accommodated you enough.”

rawstory.com

221
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:12:44am

As with the Marjorie Taylor Greene statement yesterday, there’s really no mystery to Tom Cotton’s statements today.

Cotton’s statement is a logical extension on the post-9/11 claim that protest is supporting the terrorists, but also an extension of how we already justify abuses of power by our military and police forces: if you’re near or in community with a dangerous person you are dangerous enough for pre-emptive action.

You know…the thing argued to justify disappearing and torturing people, where that’s to Abu Gharib or Chicago PD’s suburban black site.

Eco says that each fascism will arrive speaking in the tropes of it’s host culture, and what we’re watching is exactly that: a series of experiments in hooking together American mythology and fascist objectives to disenfranchise and freely harm the groups they want to stigmatize (both domestically and internationally). Over and over we’re seeing versions “actually, I get to hurt these people, because there’s a higher meaning to Americaness and that meaning empowers me and depersons them.”

In this we see three potent inflection points in the American myth being used over and over: one, the invocation of America as exclusive moral victory over Nazism in WW2; two, the right to assign collective guilt and deliver collective punishment as a consequence of September 11th; three, the deliberately-unequally-applied notion that protest is violence and protesters have collective guilt if they are of stigmatized categories.

(A fourth more universal trope being deployed is spiritual and sexual danger to children posed exclusively by stigmatized groups)

These are variants of “people are not equal” that you can gets libs to along with if you pitch them right because they’re baked into American-ness—and that has succeeded, with anti-terror legislation still being renewed and a general acceptance of the militarization of cops; with the indifference and self-victimization with which the public views the consequences of the Afghan and Iraqi wars; and the constant tone-policing of protest, such that tone invalidates the point, with no corresponding invalidation of the actions or statements of people with actual power.

This succession is at the point that fascists are now within the Overton Window; they are openly making fascist arguments, but it’s impolite to call them fascists. Crypto-fascist policy that creates castes—beyond the existing accepted caste distinction of “immigrant laborer” and “overseas visa worker”— is being experimented with in the form of laws that allow broad interpretation of culpability by traditionally reactionary institutions.

American fascism isn’t confident enough to generate explicit Nuremburg-law equivalents (and I’d argue there’s an American Strasserism that doesn’t want racist prejudice encoded in law, just constant policing of leftists) because that contradicts the pleasant mythology of American greatness, but through euphemism they’re working on an equivalent set of distinctions. One of the bigger successes of cryptofascists is expanding the definition of terrorism, and another is the expansion of the license to detain or kill on the basis of more and more amorphous definitions of “threat.”

Tom Cotton is squaring the circles of US fascist positions: people are not equal, protesters of American policy are a threat and thus an inferior kind, and thus can and should be harmed by better kinds of people.

222
Nerdy Fish  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:16:33am

Later, lizards.

223
Markm1960  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:18:31am

re: #185 Dr Lizardo

There’s something sleazy going on and they don’t want get called on the carpet for it? Basically washing their hands of the whole affair, and saying, “Hey man, don’t look at us…we already quit!”

There are different levels of work that a public accounting firm does and each one has a different level of assurance regarding the presentation of the financial statements, compilation is the lowest level of assurance, that’s basically taking the clients numbers and formatting them into financials with no further review. Audit is the highest level of assurance. Bring a publicly traded company these guys have to have audits. Shady stuff does get through audits, note Enron for example, but mostly audits are pretty good.

A huge component of auditing is testing internal controls to make sure that controls are in place to minimize error and to prevent fraud and chicanery. I’m guessing that the internal controls are weak and not fixable or in such a shambles that the auditor could only offer an adverse opinion letter. Rather than have that occur they probably met with mgmt to try and solve the issue then decided to withdraw from the engagement. An audit letter that does not attest to full assurance is harmful to the audited entity.

During my time in public accounting we had one adverse opinion letter attached to reviewed, not audited, financials. The client withdrew from the engagement. This is very very rare.

224
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:21:58am

re: #220 Joe Bacon ✅

How wonderful would be if an immigrant named Juan ends up being the guy who puts Trump in jail?

225
No Malarkey!  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:23:48am

re: #224 Eclectic Cyborg

How wonderful would be if an immigrant named Juan ends up being the guy who puts Trump in jail?

Trump is going to demand his lawyers use a preemptory challenge to remove him if they can’t excuse him for cause.

226
danarchy  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:26:39am

re: #225 No Malarkey!

Trump is going to demand his lawyers use a preemptory challenge to remove him if they can’t excuse him for cause.

I think this was a reference to the judge…

227
DodgerFan1988  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:29:39am
228
No Malarkey!  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:30:23am

Trump is going to sleep through his trial.

229
No Malarkey!  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:31:53am

re: #226 danarchy

I think this was a reference to the judge…

My bad; sometime this morning I think I read about a juror who immigrated from Mexico.

230
Decatur Deb  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:32:15am

Warn Charles: If someone is at the door with an Igloo cooler, DON’T LET THEM IN.

Brain Scans Of Jazz Musicians Could Unlock The Mystery Of Creative Flow
inverse.com

231
Vicious Babushka  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:34:48am

This is what “Global Intifada” looks like.

Mastodon

232
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:36:39am

re: #231 Vicious Babushka

This is from KYW1060/Audacy:
audacy.com
The picture is of 30th Street Station.

233
KGxvi  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:38:11am

re: #29 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

And this is why the Tesla layoffs need to be more towards the top of our news stories.

What Americans do not want to hear is that you do not have a right to an automobile.

Back when my immigrant grandfather was coming of age, back at the turn of the last century (yeah, I know, a long time ago) the automobile was a novelty. He farmed with horses.

Automobiles were a toy of the wealthy.

Much like Tesla has been.

As I’ve noted many times, I am not a near term doomer or a pro-doomer. I am long-term doomer.

The unravelling will take many decades.

Americans do not want a President to come onto the TV and say to them: you are not going to be able to afford to drive your own automobile.

Just ask Jimmy Carter how well a message like that goes down.

In a hundred years I expect the personal automobile to be owned only by the well off.

In two hundred years I expect the personal automobile to be owned by one the most well off.

There’s no right to own an automobile but there is a right to move freely about the country and cars have allowed more people to exercise that right than any other technology. I don’t think cars become the toys of the wealthy unless and until some technology replaces them.

Also, adjusting for inflation, the cost of owning a car hasn’t really changed that much over the decades. A 1965 Mustang (base model) cost $2427 new, adjusted for inflation that’s $23,271; a 2022 Mustang (base model) cost $27,470. As long as that remains the case, people aren’t going to be priced out of cars.

234
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:40:41am

So I’ve been messing around on Udio. The music quality is okay, but the autogenerated lyrics are trash.

The tool will not mimic the sound of an actual artist but uses substitute phrases to try and come up with something in the same vein.

235
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:41:39am

re: #227 DodgerFan1988

Why would an last-century anti-communist demagogue be upset by collaboration with a capitalist kleptocracy? Particularly one that was operating entirely in bad faith?

When McCarthy was alive people there were oligarchs doing all the same shit.
Current day anti-communist demagogues are pro-Russia.

This is seriously the worst trope, entirely missing the point of why anything that’s happening is happening.

The minute a KGB agent became a capitalist everything he did was supported by a vast swath of Cold Warriors because it was never about the abuses of power of the Soviet system, and always about the dim possibility of something different than capitalism coming into being.

You know, the exact same shit that happened with China.

236
JC1  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:43:03am

re: #234 Eclectic Cyborg

So I’ve been messing around on Udio. The music quality is okay, but the autogenerated lyrics are trash.

The tool will not mimic the sound of an actual artist but uses substitute phrases to try and come up with something in the same vein.

I have more success with generating lyrics with GPT4. I haven’t tried Udio yet. I have messed around with suno and have been impressed.

237
wrenchwench  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:46:35am

re: #233 KGxvi

There’s no right to own an automobile but there is a right to move freely about the country and cars have allowed more people to exercise that right than any other technology. I don’t think cars become the toys of the wealthy unless and until some technology replaces them.

Also, adjusting for inflation, the cost of owning a car hasn’t really changed that much over the decades. A 1965 Mustang (base model) cost $2427 new, adjusted for inflation that’s $23,271; a 2022 Mustang (base model) cost $27,470. As long as that remains the case, people aren’t going to be priced out of cars.

Wealthy people drive cars. The non-wealthy live in them.

238
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:49:20am

re: #185 Dr Lizardo

There’s something sleazy going on and they don’t want get called on the carpet for it? Basically washing their hands of the whole affair, and saying, “Hey man, don’t look at us…we already quit!”

after doing client acceptance procedures, knowing full well who they were gonna deal with

add to that quickly bolting instead of letting the engagement expire (likely annually), yeah, gotta be a lot of obvious sleaze

239
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:54:40am

re: #189 lawhawk

His latest wife barely shows up for any other events, let alone when her husband is on trial.

Tells a lot about their familial relationship.

remember what the underlying charge/cause of this case is

she’s not gonna stand by her man

240
darthstar  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:56:09am

re: #239 Dangerman

remember what the underlying charge/cause of this case is

she’s not gonna stand by her man

You can bet she’ll be there for the sentencing.

241
A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:56:17am

re: #122 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

There are some off brand fragrance free powder detergents. They get mixed reviews. Common complaint is that they don’t dissolve very well.

The nice thing about the Tide formula is how easily it dissolved even in cold water.

I guess I should have known that our society was doomed when “pods” were introduced and then stores had to lock them up behind glass cases so people wouldn’t walk off with them… or swallow them.

Measure out your detergent the night before you do laundry and put it in hot water. It should be ready for use the next day.

(I can also make a box last years. When my last one was running out, I noticed that it wasn’t available locally and bought two large boxes online. They may last longer than I will. If not… I’ll cross that non-rainbow bridge when I come to it.

(Tide is furiously advertising Tide pods over liquid detergent around here. Way to add to the waste load, guys.)

242
danarchy  Apr 16, 2024 • 8:59:13am

I don’t understand this dichotomy in the way people feel about AI. It seams like people get freaked when AI starts doing things that are in the domain of “creatives” but when it does things in any other field it is awesome. I was listening to a podcast where they did one story about how AI was able to predict and synthesize a number of antibiotics in about 9 hours that would have taken human scientists billions of man hours and everyone was like neato, cool! Ten minutes later they were doing a story about suno and the guests were all freaked that it would replace artists and it was soulless blah blah. If it is too soulless there is always going to be a place for artists and real artists will find a way to use the new tool to do amazing things or different things that the AI can’t do.

AI democratizes things like art and music and makes it available to everyone. I used ChatGPT and Suno to make a birthday song for my mom. Aside from playing the trombone for a couple years in elementary school I am pretty musically illiterate. But it isn’t like I was going to commission an artist to write my mom a song if Suno wasn’t available.

P.S. I have always hated that term “creatives” An engineer who finds a novel solution to shrink a circuit while improving performance and reducing energy consumption is far more creative than someone who puts together yet another bubble gum pop song.

243
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:00:04am

re: #223 Markm1960

… This is very very rare.

244
A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:00:59am

re: #145 Nerdy Fish

That was definitely a word that was used.

[Embedded content]

Could be worse.

R0gzQU5SbzczdTNMWnRHcmttTDhDbkNzdjNOMVl4OGZYWFJXbnRYOGhqUWVMdm9wUXRmZitTVnRZYzhQenF0OUgrSVlXVXUvTUl6YVdyN3FFTVdnY3JQRXRWT1ZCd2VQT3FEdFlqemNjY0tlSE8xb2Uvb3hLeklyNTlUdHJvM1UrTXZxUFNmRi9mTmVJM1BGYlZ6VFZaVUZTakYvK0FxZ0hsV2hBcENIYWw0PTo6Mxv/SofWPfvqQQ60XpQTtg==

245
jeffreyw  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:01:10am

..and we’re done. Power off for less than 1-1/2 hours.

I’m giving these guys an A+

246
Vicious Babushka  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:03:13am

Ugh.

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

247
🐈 Crush White Christian Nationalism 🐈  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:03:41am

re: #242 danarchy

I don’t understand this dichotomy in the way people feel about AI. It seams like people get freaked when AI starts doing things that are in the domain of “creatives” but when it does things in any other field it is awesome. I was listening to a podcast where they did one story about how AI was able to predict and synthesize a number of antibiotics in about 9 hours that would have taken human scientists billions of man hours and everyone was like neato, cool! Ten minutes later they were doing a story about suno and the guests were all freaked that it would replace artists and it was soulless blah blah. If it is too soulless there is always going to be a place for artists and real artists will find a way to use the new tool to do amazing things or different things that the AI can’t do.

AI democratizes things like art and music and makes it available to everyone. I used ChatGPT and Suno to make a birthday song for my mom. Aside from playing the trombone for a couple years in elementary school I am pretty musically illiterate. But it isn’t like I was going to commission an artist to write my mom a song if Suno wasn’t available.

P.S. I have always hated that term “creatives” An engineer who finds a novel solution to shrink a circuit while improving performance and reducing energy consumption is far more creative than someone who puts together yet another bubble gum pop song.

People dreamed of AI doing the menial tasks, freeing people for more creative work. AI creating art looks like it’s freeing us up to work in the mines.

248
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:04:10am

re: #245 jeffreyw

..and we’re done. Power off for less than 1-1/2 hours.

[Embedded content]

I’m giving these guys an A+

i thought they’d be taller

249
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:04:35am

re: #247 🐈 Crush White Christian Nationalism 🐈

People dreamed of AI doing the menial tasks, freeing people for more creative work. AI creating art looks like it’s freeing us up to work in the mines.

+1

250
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:04:50am

re: #242 danarchy

I don’t understand this dichotomy in the way people feel about AI. It seams like people get freaked when AI starts doing things that are in the domain of “creatives” but when it does things in any other field it is awesome. I was listening to a podcast where they did one story about how AI was able to predict and synthesize a number of antibiotics in about 9 hours that would have taken human scientists billions of man hours and everyone was like neato, cool! Ten minutes later they were doing a story about suno and the guests were all freaked that it would replace artists and it was soulless blah blah. If it is too soulless there is always going to be a place for artists and real artists will find a way to use the new tool to do amazing things or different things that the AI can’t do.

AI democratizes things like art and music and makes it available to everyone. I used ChatGPT and Suno to make a birthday song for my mom. Aside from playing the trombone for a couple years in elementary school I am pretty musically illiterate. But it isn’t like I was going to commission an artist to write my mom a song if Suno wasn’t available.

P.S. I have always hated that term “creatives” An engineer who finds a novel solution to shrink a circuit while improving performance and reducing energy consumption is far more creative than someone who puts together yet another bubble gum pop song.

Hey! Don’t be dissin’ bubble gum!!!! /////

Sweet - The Six Teens - Promo Clip (OFFICIAL)

251
A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:07:10am

Daily dose of South Pacific:

252
Axolotl  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:08:30am

re: #130 Targetpractice

The nutters have spent decades convincing each other that the cops and even the soldiers are all on their side or enough of them are that when they rise up in “revolution” they’ll have a ready-made army ready to march with them on D.C. to “take back” the country. And if you’re wondering about the ones who won’t join them, they’re all supposed to just step aside and allow the army to march on unopposed.

As a veteran it’s my opinion that the soldiers will follow the Constitution.

253
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:15:00am

re: #242 danarchy

AI democratizes things like art and music and makes it available to everyone.

If you can only build an art AI by scraping the work of artists uncompensated, that’s not democratization.

“Democritization” of art is a shoddy concept because everyone is already free to make art, but if we engage with the idea as it’s being thrown out there then what’s being argued is less “art is now democratic” and more “I have a right to purchase a service that generates images from scraped data but be treated in that pursuit as the same as any other person creating images.”

I mean, in a Duchamp’s-urinal way it’s technically true that someone using an AI system is doing art, but that you’re borrowing a giant plagiarism-collage machine to get what you want does beg some question about how much an artist you are if you want to create something but not put in time or effort.

As someone who writes a great deal, uncompensated, I find it interesting to look at LLM outputs being sold as compositions, fiction or nonfiction, because they do possess an uncanny quality of flatness regardless of what task you set them to. All creativity has some element of derivation to it—in writing you’re channeling the writers you find inspiring, but also the language of the people you’re around—but using a giant spreadsheet to hammer out a sentence that is the mathematical mean of pertinent sentences does not create a distinctive voice. In a gnat-fucking technicality way, you’ve authored something using an LLM, but the work that creates distinctiveness, and thus perspective, and thus “art,” is absent.

It’s like arguing that microwaving frozen food democratizes fine cuisine.

254
wrenchwench  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:16:34am

re: #245 jeffreyw

..and we’re done. Power off for less than 1-1/2 hours.

[Embedded content]

I’m giving these guys an A+

Did you give them some photos?

255
jaunte  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:20:50am

@susanrinkunas.com

let me get this straight: Alliance Defending Freedom is arguing in the mifepristone case that federal law (Comstock) trumps state law, but they’re saying in the Idaho case that state law trumps federal law (EMTALA). Sounds like Calvinball for abortion

256
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:21:42am

257
jeffreyw  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:22:46am

re: #254 wrenchwench

Did you give them some photos?

They were taking their own, but it was a once in 35 year thing for me. They do it every day.

258
Vicious Babushka  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:28:44am

This is how you beat the nazis.

Mastodon

259
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:29:21am

re: #247 🐈 Crush White Christian Nationalism 🐈

People dreamed of AI doing the menial tasks, freeing people for more creative work. AI creating art looks like it’s freeing us up to work in the mines.

exactly.. It is not being applied for the overall good of society, it is being employed to cut expenses and increase profits

260
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:30:23am

re: #258 Vicious Babushka

Yes. That is how you do it. :)

261
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:30:26am

OOPS!

As the Gap Band says, “Say OOPS out side yo’ head, Say OOPS out side yo’ head!”

262
wrenchwench  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:30:44am

I have seen a reference to Don Snorealone as being the MOST anti-woke ever. What I haven’t seen is anyone reaching back for that out-of-favor My Pillow guy. Don looks in need of a pillow, now more than ever.

263
BeachDem  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:32:24am

NBC News
Live updates and latest news coverage on Trump’s hush money case

Washington Post
Trump hush money trial live updates: Jury selection continues

The New York Times
Takeaways From Day 1 of Trump’s Criminal Hush Money Trial

USA Today
Trump’s hush money trial is underway. MAGA doesn’t care. Does anyone?

Lawrence Tribe sums it up nicely. LISTEN UP, MEDIA HEADLINE WRITERS!!

Saying Trump is on trial for paying hush money to a porn star is like saying John Wilkes Booth was tried for sneaking up behind Lincoln in Ford’s Theater.

264
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:33:18am

re: #262 wrenchwench

I have seen a reference to Don Snorealone as being the MOST anti-woke ever. What I haven’t seen is anyone reaching back for that out-of-favor My Pillow guy. Don looks in need of a pillow, now more than ever.

265
Jay C  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:34:02am

re: #249 Dangerman

re: #247 🐈 Crush White Christian Nationalism 🐈

People dreamed of AI doing the menial tasks, freeing people for more creative work. AI creating art looks like it’s freeing us up to work in the mines.

Or, to quote from something I saw online last week:

“I expected AI to do the dishes and laundry so I could spend more time creating art: not for it to create art so I could spend more time on the laundry and dishes”

266
wrenchwench  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:34:48am

re: #264 Dr Lizardo

[Embedded content]

I think his mother used to say ‘hush’ when she was laying him down to sleep.

267
Eventual Carrion  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:37:14am

re: #228 No Malarkey!

Trump is going to sleep through his trial.

[Embedded content]

They need to give him a happy meal toy or something to keep him interested.

268
Jay C  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:37:48am

re: #261 Joe Bacon ✅

OOPS!

[Embedded content]

And does anyone REALLY think this mistake was *accidental*?

(as vs. just another time-killer)?

269
Targetpractice  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:37:48am

re: #242 danarchy

I don’t understand this dichotomy in the way people feel about AI. It seams like people get freaked when AI starts doing things that are in the domain of “creatives” but when it does things in any other field it is awesome. I was listening to a podcast where they did one story about how AI was able to predict and synthesize a number of antibiotics in about 9 hours that would have taken human scientists billions of man hours and everyone was like neato, cool! Ten minutes later they were doing a story about suno and the guests were all freaked that it would replace artists and it was soulless blah blah. If it is too soulless there is always going to be a place for artists and real artists will find a way to use the new tool to do amazing things or different things that the AI can’t do.

AI democratizes things like art and music and makes it available to everyone. I used ChatGPT and Suno to make a birthday song for my mom. Aside from playing the trombone for a couple years in elementary school I am pretty musically illiterate. But it isn’t like I was going to commission an artist to write my mom a song if Suno wasn’t available.

P.S. I have always hated that term “creatives” An engineer who finds a novel solution to shrink a circuit while improving performance and reducing energy consumption is far more creative than someone who puts together yet another bubble gum pop song.

So long as it’s at a price, then it’s effectively a form of plagiarism. If the AI can create “art” in a vacuum, then there’s an argument that it is an original creation. But if the AI simply mines existing material in order to slap together a finished product based upon a supplied set of parameters, then it’s little different than someone who traces an image and then sells it as “theirs” because they changed the paint scheme or composed their “new” music by changing a few of the lyrics.

270
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:37:54am

re: #266 wrenchwench

I think his mother used to say ‘hush’ when she was laying him down to sleep.

Trump’s probably bored out of his empty little skull. And he can’t shitpost on his personal blog, and he can’t yell at the judge.

271
JC1  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:38:11am

Anyone here have a Truth social account?

I’m curious about the current mood of true believer DJT share holders. Stock is down another 12% today.

272
b.d.  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:39:28am

re: #271 JC1

Anyone here have a Truth social account?

I’m curious about the current mood of true believer DJT share holders. Stock is down another 12% today.

The good news is that if your stock goes down 12% every day then you are losing less money every day. :)

273
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:39:32am

re: #264 Dr Lizardo

[Embedded content]

We know Don Snoreleone wouldn’t be sleeping with a teddy bear.

He’d be sleeping with a sack of cash!

274
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:39:38am

re: #268 Jay C

And does anyone REALLY think this mistake was *accidental*?

(as vs. just another time-killer)?

At one point does NYS say “fuck you, you had your chance. Judgment to be executed immediately.”?

275
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:40:03am

A very simple representation of how AI doesn’t democratize art is that every owner of an art AI and LLMs functions as an intercessor between your prompts and the machine’s ability to generate an image…and they’re doing that because this is a product they’re trying to sell for commercial application and there are controversies that could cost them start-up money.

The machine makes what you want to the extent it’s owners allow you to do so…with infinite potential for future interventions since all the processing is happening on their servers.

You are not empowered to express what you want, but what is acceptable within the parameters allowed by the system’s owners. And this is future-predicting, but as AI generators get normalized, constraints are going to increase because the kind of capital-holders that would want to adopt these systems on a commercial scale will not give up on intellectual property. And make no mistake, most AI peddlers are presenting themselves not to individual consumers but as industry-level automation: the brass ring isn’t to help everyone make what they want, but to be landlords and middlemen in the high-market-value pop culture.

The action of these machines is scraping the commonwealth of the internet—all the people who happily write and draw and model who have put stuff out there—and presenting it to massive capital-holders as something they can harness to create private wealth. Which jabs at the basic idea of “democratization” in a different tender spot, because on one hand their product is built on stolen labor, but on the other the core value proposition they’re making to their intended consumer base is cheaper but still exclusive production of copyrighted material.

What’s being proposed is creative feudalism: if you’re just normal internet person making stuff your work for tips or ad revenue, the industry has now just decided that your work is only valuable as base matter for a privately-owned image-homogenization scheme. The labor of art on the internet is no longer something you can choose to be free or choose to place a value on, the larger system of disproptionately-powerful media actors get to copy your work, value it cheaply as merely part of a dredge of data, and use it to generate their own value.

276
Targetpractice  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:40:06am

re: #263 BeachDem

NBC News
Live updates and latest news coverage on Trump’s hush money case

Washington Post
Trump hush money trial live updates: Jury selection continues

The New York Times
Takeaways From Day 1 of Trump’s Criminal Hush Money Trial

USA Today
Trump’s hush money trial is underway. MAGA doesn’t care. Does anyone?

Lawrence Tribe sums it up nicely. LISTEN UP, MEDIA HEADLINE WRITERS!!

Saying Trump is on trial for paying hush money to a porn star is like saying John Wilkes Booth was tried for sneaking up behind Lincoln in Ford’s Theater.

The same media that totally lost their shit over allegations that social media sites “suppressed” stories about Hunter Biden’s dick pics are trying to argue that paying a porn actress and a gossip rag to bury a story isn’t something worth getting worked up over.

277
jeffreyw  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:41:01am

re: #263 BeachDem

NBC News
Live updates and latest news coverage on Trump’s hush money case

Washington Post
Trump hush money trial live updates: Jury selection continues

The New York Times
Takeaways From Day 1 of Trump’s Criminal Hush Money Trial

USA Today
Trump’s hush money trial is underway. MAGA doesn’t care. Does anyone?

Lawrence Tribe sums it up nicely. LISTEN UP, MEDIA HEADLINE WRITERS!!

Saying Trump is on trial for paying hush money to a porn star is like saying John Wilkes Booth was tried for sneaking up behind Lincoln in Ford’s Theater.

I’d have gone with “failing to buy a ticket for the play”.

278
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:41:12am

re: #274 Eclectic Cyborg

At one point does NYS say “fuck you, you had your chance. Judgment to be executed immediately.”?

That’s what I’m wondering too. It’s time for the great state of New York to tell Donnie, “Sorry bub, but you screwed the pooch. Time to pony up.”

279
danarchy  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:41:39am

re: #253 The Ghost of a Flea

If you can only build an art AI by scraping the work of artists uncompensated, that’s not democratization.

If you can only build an AI that makes pharmaceutical discoveries by scraping the work of scientists and researchers uncompensated is that shoddy? It is called learning and if the AI is making derivative works based on things it has learned and not just copying things then to me it is no different than a person being inspired by music they hear. Now if it is just copying that is a different story.

280
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:43:07am

re: #276 Targetpractice

The same media that totally lost their shit over allegations that social media sites “suppressed” stories about Hunter Biden’s dick pics are trying to argue that paying a porn actress and a gossip rag to bury a story isn’t something worth getting worked up over.

Just remember how the CCCP DROOLED over Bill Clinton’s Foot Long Hot Dog…

281
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:47:26am

Did AI actually “discover” antibiotics that proved to be useful? Or did it just generate genetic codes that have yet to be tested and may be of little benefit or even have serious side effects?

282
BeachDem  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:49:01am

re: #267 Eventual Carrion

They need to give him a happy meal toy or something to keep him interested.

Or

283
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:49:04am

re: #272 b.d.

The good news is that if your stock goes down 12% every day then you are losing less money every day. :)

right.
it’ll never be completely worthless

284
wrenchwench  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:49:10am

Birbie. Wordle 1,032 3/6*

Click to Reveal

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

285
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:50:14am

re: #283 Dangerman

right.
it’ll never be completely worthless

Yeah—a real live Zeno’s Paradox!

286
Florida Panhandler  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:51:30am

re: #283 Dangerman

With “Trump Tv” streaming starting on that sewer dump of a site the astronomical cost of streaming servers will drive this garbage stock into the ground even faster.

287
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:51:57am

re: #276 Targetpractice

The same media that totally lost their shit over allegations that social media sites “suppressed” stories about Hunter Biden’s dick pics are trying to argue that paying a porn actress and a gossip rag to bury a story isn’t something worth getting worked up over.

maybe it isnt

until you add “with the specific intention to influence the election for president”

288
BeachDem  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:56:06am

re: #287 Dangerman

maybe it isnt

until you add “with the specific intention to influence the election for president”

To quote a certain Dangerman

+1

289
Targetpractice  Apr 16, 2024 • 9:59:04am

re: #287 Dangerman

maybe it isnt

until you add “with the specific intention to influence the election for president”

Yet that’s exactly why the Beltway press got so upset over the laptop story being “suppressed” by social media, the assertion that it had been (whether on the “orders” of the Biden campaign or otherwise) a deliberate attempt to influence the election by preventing voters from learning something that could be damaging to Joe’s campaign.

290
darthstar  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:01:01am

Mastodon

291
jaunte  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:01:15am

Michael Tae Sweeney @mtsw.bsky.social

feel like the lightly scheduled mornings from Trump’s presidency make a lot more sense now. Dude was sleeping on the job after being up at 3AM tweeting at the TV.

Grandpa has good days and bad days…

292
darthstar  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:02:39am

Sleeper-cam!

293
b.d.  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:06:03am

re: #291 jaunte

Michael Tae Sweeney @mtsw.bsky.social

[Embedded content]

The only thing that keeps Trump’s attention is the sound of his own voice, he can’t function in a world where he has to listen and not be the noise in the room.

294
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:06:21am

re: #289 Targetpractice

Yet that’s exactly why the Beltway press got so upset over the laptop story being “suppressed” by social media, the assertion that it had been (whether on the “orders” of the Biden campaign or otherwise) a deliberate attempt to influence the election by preventing voters from learning something that could be damaging to Joe’s campaign.

right
it’s gotta be galling when there’s not enough coverage of stories you want out there.

as far as we know, ‘social media’ did not unite, conspire or coordinate to do this (or anything).

actively paying to suppress them is another matter.

295
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:08:17am

re: #293 b.d.

The only thing that keeps Trump’s attention is the sound of his own voice, he can’t function in a world where he has to listen and not be the noise in the room.

especially about things he does not understand.

he’s gotta be fuming that he cant speak or act out

296
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:08:24am

re: #279 danarchy

If you can only build an AI that makes pharmaceutical discoveries by scraping the work of scientists and researchers uncompensated is that shoddy? It is called learning and if the AI is making derivative works based on things it has learned and not just copying things then to me it is no different than a person being inspired by music they hear. Now if it is just copying that is a different story.

There’s a reason art is called art and science is called science.

Science is defined by derivation, iteration, and cross-referencing. That’s the basis of the scientific method: almost-fractal inquiry into existing ideas while consciously documenting innovation versus derivation while providing explanations for those choices.

In science, endless permutation on a constrained data-set is valuable as a form of automation, but the things generated will then have to be evaluated for real-life applicability because even within a constrained set of rules like organic chemistry or protein folding, not ever thing that’s technically possible is possible to make in vitro, and what’s possible to make in vitro may have complications that keep it from application in vivo.

Art is self-expression.

Lots of art is derivative, but derivation is consciously chosen by the artist and thus derivation itself is a kind of self-expression. Lots of people iterate on Goya’s “Saturn devours his child” and are still making art. Fanfiction writers make art. Generally derivation in art is only considered “bad” when it’s concealed—artists using tracing to copy another artist’s work while presenting it as original, a thing that crops up in comics—or when it can be argued that the finished work doesn’t transform the original enough…and that’s always a debate: look at the criticisms of Roy Lichtenstein.

AI is heavily doing the first: it copies whether or not it’s prompted to copy because it has no capacity to do technique, only spreadsheet of correlations between prompts and a bank of labelled images that can be used to generate a response to the prompt.

Art is also a mix of technical skill and implicit understanding, techne and metis, such that part of art is the making itself. A sizable chunk of abstract art is artists performing technical perfection discarding the expectation of representation; another major chunk of art is expressionist, with technique and representation being de-prioritized to convey feeling. Art constantly changes and expands via a warp and weft of technical qualification balanced against intuition and want.

AI has no technique beyond technique as a series of labels within it’s database, it literally cannot have a style of it’s own. A prompter’s ability to innovate is constrained by the labelling system that allows the generator to function. The two cannot create something technically new, only iterate on what is.

But more deeply…no, current AIs are not learning, they have no consciousness, they have no imagination, and they don’t even have fidelity. That last one is particularly notable in current generative AI: the thing doesn’t understand what it’s painting, only the relationship between the tagged images in it’s database and the keywords used by the prompter. Lack of fidelity is what creates “AI hallucinations”: it loses track of where it is in the spreadsheet and can’t correct itself because it doesn’t know it’s drawing a hand and a hand has five fingers. Advances in fidelity between generator-AI generations is largely a product of refining the spreadsheet by using more tags, which is done by low-paid workers in various developing-world countries.

297
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:08:59am

re: #293 b.d.

The only thing that keeps Trump’s attention is the sound of his own voice, he can’t function in a world where he has to listen and not be the noise in the room.

That’s why he’s so damn bored. He’s not really the center of attention, despite being the defendant in his own trial, and the talking is all being done by the attorneys and the judge.

He’s gotta be hating every minute of this. 😄

298
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:11:17am

Smartmatic and MAGA Network OAN Settle Election Defamation Case

The far-right network was initially sued by the voting software firm for pushing baseless conspiracies that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Donald Trump.

Voting software firm Smartmatic and pro-Trump conspiracy network One America News have reached a confidential settlement in the defamation lawsuit accusing OAN of peddling lies about the 2020 presidential election.

The dismissal of the complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia on Tuesday.

thedailybeast.com

299
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:13:25am

“I defer my art creation to an automated system that can only function through multiple layers of invisible labor—first the artists scraped and then the technicians that create the labels that allow my prompts to generate everything” is a great deal of removal from the act of creation, and I think that does effect how people view the end-product above and beyond the creepy photocopy-of-photocopy end product.

“I sidestepped the labor process of creating self-expression through outsourcing to a machine that depends on others to generate the possible range of self-expression” is not a good argument that you’re making art. It’s more like you’re buying art through a very convoluted mechanism where the process of creation is so opaque that ownership can be overlapped with creation.

300
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:14:15am

Trump Media & Technology Group Corp hits a new low

no, not that kind

$22.82

that’s -14.24 on the day

301
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:15:33am

re: #300 Dangerman

I will be happy when it is down to 2¢.

302
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:16:08am

re: #300 Dangerman

Trump Media & Technology Group Corp hits a new low

no, not that kind

$22.82

that’s -14.24 on the day

What was the IPO price? I forgot.

303
Jay C  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:17:12am

re: #285 Joe Bacon ✅

Yeah—a real live Zeno’s Paradox!

True: Zeno’s Short Position: it’s profits all the way down…..

However, the schadenfreude is tempered a bit by the knowledge that TFG will still be able to make a shit-ton of money if/when he bails out of his stock, even at minimal market value.

304
JC1  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:18:12am

re: #296 The Ghost of a Flea

There’s a reason art is called art and science is called science.

Science is defined by derivation, iteration, and cross-referencing. That’s the basis of the scientific method: almost-fractal inquiry into existing ideas.

In science, endless permutation on a constrained data-set is valuable as a form of automation, but the things generated will then have to be evaluated for real-life applicability because even within a constrained set of rules like organic chemistry or protein folding, not ever thing that’s technically possible is possible to make in vitro, and what’s possible to make in vitro may have complications that keep it from application in vivo.

Art is self-expression.

Lots of art is derivative, but derivation is consciously chosen by the artist and thus derivation itself is a kind of self-expression. Lots of people iterate on Goya’s “Saturn devours his child” and are still making art. Generally derivation in art is only considered “bad” when it’s concealed—artists using tracing to copy another artist’s work while presenting it as original, a thing that crops up in comics—or when it can be argued that the finished work doesn’t transform the original enough…and that’s always a debate: look at the criticisms of Roy Lichtenstein.

AI is heavily doing the first: it copies whether or not it’s prompted to copy because it has no capacity to do technique, only spreadsheet of correlations between prompts and a bank of labelled images that can be used to generate a response to the prompt.

Art is also a mix of technical skill and implicit understanding, techne and metis, such that part of art is the making itself. A sizable chunk of abstract art is artists performing technical perfection discarding the expectation of representation; another major chunk of art is expressionist, with technique and representation being de-prioritized to convey feeling. Art constantly changes and expands via a warp and weft of technical qualification balanced against intuition and want.

AI has no technique beyond technique as a series of labels within it’s database, it literally cannot have a style of it’s own. A prompter’s ability to innovate is constrained by the labelling system that allows the generator to function. The two cannot create something technically new, only iterate on what is.

But more deeply…no, current AIs are not learning, they have no consciousness, they have no imagination, and they don’t even have fidelity. That last one is particularly notable in current generative AI: the thing doesn’t understand what it’s painting, only the relationship between the tagged images in it’s database and the keywords used by the prompter. Lack of fidelity is what creates “AI hallucinations”: it loses track of where it is in the spreadsheet and can’t correct itself because it doesn’t know it’s drawing a hand and a hand has five fingers. Advances in fidelity between generator-AI generations is largely a product of refining the spreadsheet by using more tags, which is done by low-paid workers in various developing-world countries.

If art was self expression we wouldn’t have art schools and classes.
Human artists learn by studying other artists.

Music is just math. Popular music is as derivative as anything suno can make.

305
lawhawk  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:19:54am

Or, he’s dozing off because he thinks that this will somehow benefit him before a jury who can’t convict because he’s not competent to have done these crimes (done years prior), and shouldn’t be forced to go to prison because he’s just a frail old man.

Don’t think for a second that he wouldn’t try this line if it keeps him out of prison, even though it hurts his vanity and ego (though putting one over on prosecutors is something that he would do).

306
jaunte  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:21:29am

Mastodon

“He can’t stay awake if he isn’t allowed to talk.”

307
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:21:48am

re: #305 lawhawk

A frail old man who can also somehow handle the pressure of a U.S. Presidential campaign?

308
lawhawk  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:23:03am

re: #307 Eclectic Cyborg

A frail old man who can also somehow handle the pressure of a U.S. Presidential campaign?

Trumpingers Paradox.

309
wrenchwench  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:23:20am

re: #304 JC1

If art was self expression we wouldn’t have art schools and classes.
Human artists learn by studying other artists.

Music is just math. Popular music is as derivative as anything suno can make.

So only ‘outsider art’ is art? (Those who never took a class) Everything you do is derivative, if you’re going to slice it that way. Your parents taught you how to talk. Is that not your native language?

310
sizzzzlerz  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:25:34am

re: #291 jaunte

Michael Tae Sweeney @mtsw.bsky.social
Grandpa has good days and bad days…

The important thing was that I had an onion tied to my belt at the time.

311
wrenchwench  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:28:04am

Excerpt from today’s Moms Demand Action email:

AND…we’ve got the 1-month countdown to the 2024 NRA Convention which will take place in Dallas, Texas this year. In addition to rallying in opposition on Saturday, May 18th, the Dallas local group is also hosting a blood drive, because we’ve recently learned that treating gun violence victims requires more than 1k units/blood per week, and we’ll be highlighting the NRA’s role as they continue to rake in profits (even as their ship is sinking) while our communities suffer.

1,000 units of blood per week for gun victims.

312
DodgerFan1988  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:28:57am
313
steve_davis  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:31:07am

re: #296 The Ghost of a Flea

There’s a reason art is called art and science is called science.

Science is defined by derivation, iteration, and cross-referencing. That’s the basis of the scientific method: almost-fractal inquiry into existing ideas while consciously documenting innovation versus derivation while providing explanations for those choices.

In science, endless permutation on a constrained data-set is valuable as a form of automation, but the things generated will then have to be evaluated for real-life applicability because even within a constrained set of rules like organic chemistry or protein folding, not ever thing that’s technically possible is possible to make in vitro, and what’s possible to make in vitro may have complications that keep it from application in vivo.

Art is self-expression.

Lots of art is derivative, but derivation is consciously chosen by the artist and thus derivation itself is a kind of self-expression. Lots of people iterate on Goya’s “Saturn devours his child” and are still making art. Fanfiction writers make art. Generally derivation in art is only considered “bad” when it’s concealed—artists using tracing to copy another artist’s work while presenting it as original, a thing that crops up in comics—or when it can be argued that the finished work doesn’t transform the original enough…and that’s always a debate: look at the criticisms of Roy Lichtenstein.

AI is heavily doing the first: it copies whether or not it’s prompted to copy because it has no capacity to do technique, only spreadsheet of correlations between prompts and a bank of labelled images that can be used to generate a response to the prompt.

Art is also a mix of technical skill and implicit understanding, techne and metis, such that part of art is the making itself. A sizable chunk of abstract art is artists performing technical perfection discarding the expectation of representation; another major chunk of art is expressionist, with technique and representation being de-prioritized to convey feeling. Art constantly changes and expands via a warp and weft of technical qualification balanced against intuition and want.

AI has no technique beyond technique as a series of labels within it’s database, it literally cannot have a style of it’s own. A prompter’s ability to innovate is constrained by the labelling system that allows the generator to function. The two cannot create something technically new, only iterate on what is.

But more deeply…no, current AIs are not learning, they have no consciousness, they have no imagination, and they don’t even have fidelity. That last one is particularly notable in current generative AI: the thing doesn’t understand what it’s painting, only the relationship between the tagged images in it’s database and the keywords used by the prompter. Lack of fidelity is what creates “AI hallucinations”: it loses track of where it is in the spreadsheet and can’t correct itself because it doesn’t know it’s drawing a hand and a hand has five fingers. Advances in fidelity between generator-AI generations is largely a product of refining the spreadsheet by using more tags, which is done by low-paid workers in various developing-world countries.

a hand doesn’t have five fingers. Just goes to show that we hallucinate a lot of the time as well :-) Actually, that’s one of the things I’ve been trained on for this new gig. One issue that it’s easy to get trapped by is that AI responses can sound extremely convincing. They don’t think that things MAY be true, they’re quite certain about stuff. So for instance, in one AI response to a question there was a confident statement about Spielberg having debuted a movie in the 60’s. I did have to google to be certain, and indeed he did not debut with his first movie until 1974 (which I believe without looking was the underrated but excellent movie in which Dennis Weaver has to keep himself from being killed by a homicidal truck driver). But AI sounds absolutely certain about all of this stuff.

314
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:31:33am

re: #297 Dr Lizardo

That’s why he’s so damn bored. He’s not really the center of attention, despite being the defendant in his own trial, and the talking is all being done by the attorneys and the judge.

He’s gotta be hating every minute of this. 😄

One might argue this is the first time we’ve gotten him into a place where he is the *actual* center of everyones attention

315
jaunte  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:32:56am

re: #313 steve_davis

AI sounds absolutely certain about all of this stuff.

The I part is a lie.

316
Dr Lizardo  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:33:03am

re: #314 Dangerman

One might argue this is the first time we’ve gotten him into a place where he is the *actual* center of everyones attention

Sure, but not in the way Trump’s used to.

317
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:35:24am

re: #300 Dangerman

Trump Media & Technology Group Corp hits a new low

no, not that kind

$22.82

that’s -14.24 on the day

And we hit -15 less than 20 minutes later

318
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:36:17am

re: #304 JC1

If art was self expression we wouldn’t have art schools and classes.
Human artists learn by studying other artists.

Anyone can make art, they just can’t make art that is agreed-upon as “good” by their surrounding culture. History is full of people that made bad art relative to their aesthetic norms that are now viewed as legitimate, even inspired.

It’s literally in the middle of the post you’re responding to that derivation is an aspect of art. But if we’re really going to get into it: no, art schools throughout history haven’t existed to train people to make art, but to make art that is culturally and commercially acceptable within their context.

(Added: acceptable in technique and subject matter and motifs within representation. Look at how the Judgement of Paris collided with the Impressionist not just on how they made paintings, but that their paintings were of the wrong things.)

Music is just math.

And? Do all musicians have to know math to create music? If not, then this is technically correct but entirely irrelevant to the argument.

Popular music is as derivative as anything suno can make.

Popular music is derivative because it’s a commercial product and there’s an intention to that derivation, not because it’s not art. As I observed before, lots of art is derivative by choice, and in the current age a major source of derivation is the attempt to anticipate market demand. Three hundred years ago Haydn was sampling his own symphonies to meet the needs of his patron, an ouroborous of derivation, but what he composed was still expressive.

If pop music is bad, or not art, because it’s unoriginal…an often-made argument that I personally don’t subscribe to…then AI is far deeper in the realm of unoriginal since it’s product cannot exist without material to derive from, while even shitty pop music required a musician to sit down and lay some tracks. But I feel that’s missing the point, as while AI can be technically described as using derivation because it scrapes, but it is distinct from the derivation of human artists because the latter can be conscious of the process, can assign meaning to it.

If you wanted to argue that an image generator creates art…I’d perversely propose that this is valid…if you attribute the artist effort and intention to the artists scraped and the labelers, because it is in those labor steps that the relationship between meaning and image are created. The prompter is just selecting off a menu of motifs and significances already set into place by the former two.

Prompters are like Haydn’s patrons, clapping their hands and getting a new symphony to own.

319
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:37:22am

re: #303 Jay C

True: Zeno’s Short Position: it’s profits all the way down…..

However, the schadenfreude is tempered a bit by the knowledge that TFG will still be able to make a shit-ton of money if/when he bails out of his stock, even at minimal market value.

Maybe just enough to pay off NYS

320
No Malarkey!  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:37:46am

re: #297 Dr Lizardo

That’s why he’s so damn bored. He’s not really the center of attention, despite being the defendant in his own trial, and the talking is all being done by the attorneys and the judge.

He’s gotta be hating every minute of this. 😄

And he is going to be forced to sit there, four days a week, for about two months, which will be a form of punishment anyway.

321
sizzzzlerz  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:38:22am

re: #312 DodgerFan1988

[Embedded content]

And when some MAGAt blasts through a protest line in his Ram dualie he’s behind paymets on and while rolling coal, Cotton will disavow any connection to his words and say the MAGAt was either a lone wolf or was an Antifa/BLM/Woke false flag.

322
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:38:26am

re: #316 Dr Lizardo

Sure, but not in the way Trump’s used to.

What must be especially galling for him is that he has to be silent during all the courtroom processes; the only exception would be if he takes the stand to testify, which is highly unlikely. Otherwise he must remain mum.

However did he manage during his Presidency when he attended a meeting of other world leaders? He couldn’t just blurt out whatever he was thinking at the moment?

323
wrenchwench  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:41:09am

re: #322 Hecuba’s daughter

[…]

He couldn’t just blurt out whatever he was thinking at the moment?

Do we know he didn’t? I’d assume he did.

324
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:41:33am

PowerPoint ‘accidentally sent to Dem lawmakers’ reveals Arizona GOP strategy to ‘dilute votes’

Arizona Republicans, including far-right U.S. Senate hopeful Kari Lake, have been in damage-control mode following a recent ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court — which upheld a draconian 1864 law that makes abortion illegal in almost all cases.

Lake, who still identifies as “pro-life,” came out against the decision even though she applauded the 1864 law in the past. And former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey criticized the Arizona Supreme Court ruling as well.

With Arizona having evolved into a crucial swing state, Republicans fear that the ruling could hurt not only Lake, but also, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump — who lost Arizona to President Joe Biden in 2020.

A new report from AZ Family/CBS 5 political editor Dennis Welch reveals the scope of the Arizona Republican Party’s effort to gain control of the abortion narrative in the state.

According to Welch, an abortion-related PowerPoint strategy for Arizona Republicans was accidentally sent to Democrats serving in the Arizona State Legislature. And the strategy details Republican efforts to undermine an abortion-rights ballot initiative.

Welch reports, “The Republican outline includes two phases, with the first offering a ballot referral that constitutionally protects abortion restrictions that are already on the books. But unlike the citizens’ initiative, the GOP’s phase one proposal ‘does not create a right to abortion.’ The second phase, titled ‘SEND VOTERS TWO OTHER OPTIONS THAT CONFLICT WITH (Arizona for Abortion Access) INITATIVE,’ would send a 15-week and a 6-week abortion ban to the ballot.”

Republican House Speaker Ben Toma confirmed the PowerPoint “presents ideas drafted for internal discussion and consideration within the caucus.”

alternet.org

325
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:44:23am

I would be master of the obvious & chime in to explain that all AI is really Artificial AI, but everyone here is smart ‘nuff to already know that, however Ghost speaks a highly salient truth.

I will say that AI’s can compete in the world of art only when they become true AI’s, otherwise they are just another way to mine other people’s content the cheapest way possible.

326
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:45:55am

Those missing rays….

NASA’s Fermi Mission Sees No Gamma Rays from Nearby Supernova

327
JC1  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:46:58am

re: #309 wrenchwench

So only ‘outsider art’ is art? (Those who never took a class) Everything you do is derivative, if you’re going to slice it that way. Your parents taught you how to talk. Is that not your native language?

I’m saying the opposite. I was responding to the other poster. Art is in the view of the beholder. I think that Gen AI created art is also art.

328
jaunte  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:47:46am

re: #320 No Malarkey!

And he is going to be forced to sit there, four days a week, for about two months, which will be a form of punishment anyway.

I think enduring the pressure of this enforced detention will cause him to blow up at some point, which might force some marginal supporters to admit he is too disordered to elect.

329
Joe Bacon ✅  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:49:31am

330
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:49:42am

re: #322 Hecuba’s daughter

What must be especially galling for him is that he has to be silent during all the courtroom processes; the only exception would be if he takes the stand to testify, which is highly unlikely. Otherwise he must remain mum.

However did he manage during his Presidency when he attended a meeting of other world leaders? He couldn’t just blurt out whatever he was thinking at the moment?

Assumes facts not in evidence

331
wrenchwench  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:50:09am

re: #327 JC1

I’m saying the opposite. I was responding to the other poster. Art is in the view of the beholder. I think that Gen AI created art is also art.

So it’s all derivative? Machines derive, and people derive, and arrive at the same place?

332
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:51:19am

re: #324 Joe Bacon ✅

PowerPoint ‘accidentally sent to Dem lawmakers’ reveals Arizona GOP strategy to ‘dilute votes’

Arizona Republicans, including far-right U.S. Senate hopeful Kari Lake, have been in damage-control mode following a recent ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court — which upheld a draconian 1864 law that makes abortion illegal in almost all cases.

Lake, who still identifies as “pro-life,” came out against the decision even though she applauded the 1864 law in the past. And former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey criticized the Arizona Supreme Court ruling as well.

With Arizona having evolved into a crucial swing state, Republicans fear that the ruling could hurt not only Lake, but also, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump — who lost Arizona to President Joe Biden in 2020.

A new report from AZ Family/CBS 5 political editor Dennis Welch reveals the scope of the Arizona Republican Party’s effort to gain control of the abortion narrative in the state.

According to Welch, an abortion-related PowerPoint strategy for Arizona Republicans was accidentally sent to Democrats serving in the Arizona State Legislature. And the strategy details Republican efforts to undermine an abortion-rights ballot initiative.

Welch reports, “The Republican outline includes two phases, with the first offering a ballot referral that constitutionally protects abortion restrictions that are already on the books. But unlike the citizens’ initiative, the GOP’s phase one proposal ‘does not create a right to abortion.’ The second phase, titled ‘SEND VOTERS TWO OTHER OPTIONS THAT CONFLICT WITH (Arizona for Abortion Access) INITATIVE,’ would send a 15-week and a 6-week abortion ban to the ballot.”

Republican House Speaker Ben Toma confirmed the PowerPoint “presents ideas drafted for internal discussion and consideration within the caucus.”

alternet.org

Even 15 weeks is a red herring

333
danarchy  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:53:27am

re: #296 The Ghost of a Flea

There’s a reason art is called art and science is called science.

Science is defined by derivation, iteration, and cross-referencing. That’s the basis of the scientific method: almost-fractal inquiry into existing ideas while consciously documenting innovation versus derivation while providing explanations for those choices.

I got news for you, most art is derivative, iterative and repetitive. True innovation in art is just as rare as true innovation in science.

Art is just science expressed differently anyway. A little math, some sociology and psychology, maybe even a little neurology.

334
JC1  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:54:13am

re: #331 wrenchwench

So it’s all derivative? Machines derive, and people derive, and arrive at the same place?

That’s one way of looking at it.
People are just meat machines.

335
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:54:45am

re: #327 JC1

I’m saying the opposite. I was responding to the other poster. Art is in the view of the beholder. I think that Gen AI created art is also art.

I don’t think anyone is going to be able to stop you from calling it art if you want to, but that’s not the point. Stolen, copied, plagiarized art is art too I guess, but you have to ask is it worthwhile art? (I mean if you think so I have some monkey NFT’s I’d like to sell you.)

e.g. this recent Fogerty song is so Fogerty that an AI could have created it, but I will personally only call it Art when Fogerty does it. (For the record I’m not a huge Fogerty fan, maybe it’s from all those years listening to “Proud Mary” at every social occcasion.)

John Fogerty - Mystic Highway (Official Music Video)

336
Eventual Carrion  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:55:24am

re: #315 jaunte

The I part is a lie.

AC maybe? Artificial Copycat

337
🐈 Crush White Christian Nationalism 🐈  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:56:21am

re: #334 JC1

That’s one way of looking at it.
People are just meat machines.

People are conscious meat machines. So far, silicon machines are not. That’s a large difference.

338
jaunte  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:56:30am

re: #331 wrenchwench

I think the point Ghost made about who owns and operates the program is probably the most salient. If artists can privately purchase and operate the system that scrapes and recombines, they might be creating collages, but it appears that AI ‘art’ is something no artist will be able to operate for themselves. It may be a stalking horse for some other purpose, as ‘ride-sharing’ was used to eliminate taxi companies and make way for the ever-imminent robot taxi.

339
JC1  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:56:30am

re: #335 Randall Gross

I don’t think anyone is going to be able to stop you from calling it art if you want to, but that’s not the point. Stolen, copied, plagiarized art is art too I guess, but you have to ask is it worthwhile art? (I mean if you think so I have some monkey NFT’s I’d like to sell you.)

e.g. this recent Fogerty song is so Fogerty that an AI could have created it, but I will personally only call it Art when Fogerty does it. (For the record I’m not a huge Fogerty fan, maybe it’s from all those years listening to “Proud Mary” at every social occcasion.)

[Embedded content]

Gen AI created art is not stolen or copied; it’s derivative. You’re thinking of copies, photos, or forgeries.

340
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 10:56:33am

re: #327 JC1

I’m saying the opposite. I was responding to the other poster. Art is in the view of the beholder. I think that Gen AI created art is also art.

Does one have to know how and why something was fashioned -the motivation and the method- in order to determine whether it is “art” or alternatively, “construction”?

341
danarchy  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:01:14am

re: #338 jaunte

I think the point Ghost made about who owns and operates the program is probably the most salient. If artists can privately purchase and operate the system that scrapes and recombines, they might be creating collages, but it appears that AI ‘art’ is something no artist will be able to operate for themselves. It may be a stalking horse for some other purpose, as ‘ride-sharing’ was used to eliminate taxi companies and make way for the ever-imminent robot taxi.

You can run your own in house ai and train it on your own dataset and give it your own constraints(or not). You can run a LLM on a relatively high end consumer pc with a high end gpu.

342
🐈 Crush White Christian Nationalism 🐈  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:02:33am

re: #341 danarchy

You can run your own in house ai and train it on your own dataset and give it your own constraints(or not). You can run a LLM on a relatively high end consumer pc with a high end gpu.

Not like capitalists can. Your computing power is trivial compared to even a small corporation.

343
wrenchwench  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:03:02am

re: #335 Randall Gross

I don’t think anyone is going to be able to stop you from calling it art if you want to, but that’s not the point. Stolen, copied, plagiarized art is art too I guess, but you have to ask is it worthwhile art? (I mean if you think so I have some monkey NFT’s I’d like to sell you.)

e.g. this recent Fogerty song is so Fogerty that an AI could have created it, but I will personally only call it Art when Fogerty does it. (For the record I’m not a huge Fogerty fan, maybe it’s from all those years listening to “Proud Mary” at every social occcasion.)

[Embedded content]

Fogerty won a lawsuit saying that sounding like himself was not plagiarizing.

344
🐈 Crush White Christian Nationalism 🐈  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:03:15am

…

345
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:03:56am

re: #202 Hecuba’s daughter

Last night friends — all of whom hate Trump and will be voting for Biden — expressed similar sentiments. In one case, a friend of theirs almost missed a plane because the protesters were interfering with access to the airport.

It’s not ok to try to run down protestors, and blocking access has always been a big feature of civil protest, all the way back to Ghandi
en.wikipedia.org

346
JC1  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:04:20am

re: #340 Dangerman

Does one have to know how and why something was fashioned -the motivation and the method- in order to determine whether it is “art” or alternatively, “construction”?

I mean, I find the whole art world stupid, so I’m not the best person to discuss this. I’d rather have an OLED frame cycling through various pictures or painting than having the actual Mona Lisa (monetary value aside). I appreciate Da Vinci’s genius, and that his technique was ahead of its time, and that there’s only 1 original. But I can be just as easily awed by some AI generated scene.

347
goddamnedfrank  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:05:19am

re: #327 JC1

I’m saying the opposite. I was responding to the other poster. Art is in the view of the beholder. I think that Gen AI created art is also art.

It isn’t, it’s absolute dog shit with even less redeeming value since it can’t fertilize anything and can only degrade the environment to which it is added.

Art is the unique product of a sentient mind because art requires intent to create. A beholder can react to anything, that doesn’t make the thing reacted to “art” anymore than fucking a RealDoll transforms the doll into a paramour, and it’s frankly disgusting to see people treat this open degradation of the uniquely human elements of our culture as anything resembling progress.

348
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:05:47am

re: #339 JC1

Gen AI created art is not stolen or copied; it’s derivative. You’re thinking of copies, photos, or forgeries.

No, I absolutely am not, please don’t think you can read my mind.

349
danarchy  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:06:32am

re: #345 Randall Gross

It’s not ok to try to run down protestors, and blocking access has always been a big feature of civil protest, all the way back to Ghandi
en.wikipedia.org

Yeah, sorry, if you block major arteries in big cities you shouldn’t be run down, but you should absolutely be arrested, charged with reckless endangerment and thrown in a cell for 10 years. Just my opinion, you are free to have your own.

350
🐈 Crush White Christian Nationalism 🐈  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:07:14am

re: #346 JC1

I mean, I find the whole art world stupid, so I’m not the best person to discuss this. I’d rather have an OLED frame cycling through various pictures or painting than having the actual Mona Lisa (monetary value aside). I appreciate Da Vinci’s genius, and that his technique was ahead of its time, and that there’s only 1 original. But I can be just as easily awed by some AI generated scene.

I find Leonardo’s work pretty meh compared to what’s hanging in Madrid.

351
Dangerman  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:08:01am

re: #346 JC1

I mean, I find the whole art world stupid, so I’m not the best person to discuss this. I’d rather have an OLED frame cycling through various pictures or painting than having the actual Mona Lisa (monetary value aside). I appreciate Da Vinci’s genius, and that his technique was ahead of its time, and that there’s only 1 original. But I can be just as easily awed by some AI generated scene.

is an all white canvas art?
A lot of people and dollars said so

352
Decatur Deb  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:08:53am

re: #351 Dangerman

is an all white canvas art?
A lot of people and dollars said so

Now their money is tied up in Truth Social stock.

353
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:10:05am

re: #312 DodgerFan1988

And of course Cotton thinks that anyone who dares to criticize Israel is “Pro-Hamas”. 🙄

354
Randall Gross  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:10:21am

re: #349 danarchy

Yeah, sorry, if you block major arteries in big cities you shouldn’t be run down, but you should absolutely be arrested, charged with reckless endangerment and thrown in a cell for 10 years. Just my opinion, you are free to have your own.

I disagree with your opinion and JFC, 10 years? What’s wrong with you?
e.g.
There are people all over the South who would have loved to send MLK to jail for ten years for the inconveniences that his marches caused.

355
Decatur Deb  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:20:40am

Getting arrested and put in jail is the point of civil disobedience. MLKs Letter from a Birmingham Snack Bar wouldn’t work. On the other hand, if the purpose of the demonstration is to gather support from the Well-Meaning Middle, then you don’t direct its impact against the Well-Meaning Middle.

356
darthstar  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:25:40am

re: #317 Dangerman

And we hit -15 less than 20 minutes later

In a perfect world it will be hovering around 0.14/share when Trump’s eligible to cash out.

357
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 16, 2024 • 11:39:49am

re: #333 danarchy

I got news for you, most art is derivative, iterative and repetitive. True innovation in art is just as rare as true innovation in science.

You’re performatively informing me of something I’ve been consistently talking about throughout this thread. I’m also not arguing that derivation is antithetical to art so…okay?

Derivation is load bearing in science: to do the scientific method you generate novel proposals and test them against accepted proposals, literally generating an argument from evidence that an existing proposition is true, false, or true with qualifications.

In art, derivation is a choice. If you look at ancient art, a great deal of it is explicitly derivative because the art has a cultural function that dictates it’s technique, composition, and subject matter. Most art isn’t “innovative” because it operates with cultural boundaries, whether that’s pharaonic priests wanted every coffin text on a wall to be uniform for spiritual reasons or every ad agency wanting Art Noveau ads and packaging because that’s the de rigeur in consumption trends. Even personal art is often derivative because people are captive within the aesthetics of their culture, and thus only know how to express themselves within acceptable forms.

It is all nonetheless art.

What makes AI art different is that derivation is not a choice, is not even a cultural imposition, but a load-bearing component of how the device generates anything. It’s literally a spreadsheet of correlated features guided by millions of labeling tags on billions of images: the work of expression has been done before the prompter ever inputs anything, and what is outputted can only fall within what is made possible by the curators of that giant spreadsheet.

What’s created is technically art, but when people call it “not art” they’re trying to express something more ephemeral about how the work of creation is largely done by third parties whose labor is obscured by the owners of the generative AI, and the output can only exist because of that obscured labor because the prompter cannot communicate without that prior work.

I repeat myself, but if AI output is art then the artists are the scraped and the labelers, not even the company that built the thing, the machine itself or the people that decided the prompts. And if we accept that definition of “art,” then AI art is a bad art and rip-off not because it’s derivative but because it relies on stolen material and labor exploitation. That it’s mostly being used to mass-produce already-bad commercial art just compounds that it’s not a constructive force, and that’s also effecting how people respond.

Somewhere in here, generative AI might be tolerable if it weren’t so intertwined with landlordism and ownership. It’s the herald of a new, stupider from of capitalism where automation makes new kinds of work precarious. Everyone building these things is waggling their asses in front of giant companies promising that these systems will replace commercial artists and writers, so the rise of AI is tied to rentier capitalism at it’s heart: these are devices made by people that don’t want to pay or employ people to do art. The art and text their machine makes reflects their lack of respect for the skillset in it’s limitations, much like how the disruption economy of material products has created shittier products.


This article has been archived.
Comments are closed.

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!

Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled.

Donate with
PayPal Cash.app
Recent PagesClick to refresh
Gateway Pundit, Sued by Election Workers, Declares BankruptcyA onetime favorite, now just pathetic figure around these parts, Jim Hoft aka SMOTI ("Stupidest Man On The Internet"), has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in response to the defamation lawsuits filed against him to the same election workers that ...
Khal Wimpo (free internal organs upon request!)
26 minutes ago
Views: 30 • Comments: 0 • Rating: 0
Texas County at Center of Border Fight Is Overwhelmed by Migrant Deaths EAGLE PASS, Tex. - The undertaker lighted a cigarette and held it between his latex-gloved fingers as he stood over the bloated body bag lying in the bed of his battered pickup truck. The woman had been fished out ...
Cheechako
2 weeks ago
Views: 349 • Comments: 0 • Rating: 1