oblong

2 minutes ago, romad1 said:

[insert meme from "Red Dawn" where the two Cuban airborne officers are talking to the mayor and they turn to each other  sarcastically and say "these people are fortunate to have such a shepherd as this"]

Superfly!  Ron O Neal.

Not sure what happened but my FB feed the last 2 days has been a barrage of right wing pushes.  Popular accounts so they aren’t new. But new to me. It’s very obvious something was triggered. I’ve never seen tbese before. 

If a variation of that word ever gets used around me I will confront then get violent if I don’t like the answer. 

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

This is surely part of it, but I think there's even more than that. How many times have we seen Republicans respond to a Trump atrocity with condemnation in the early aftermath, only to quickly shift gears and pledge their support instead? They already hated the same people going into their initial criticism before abandoning that, which itself tacitly admitting they were wrong.

I think they might be getting drastic threats coupled with big payoffs, the latter of which ensures they are in on the crime, so they can't flip or they'll experience the former, which doesn't necessarily have to be a mortal threat, maybe more of a criminal prosecutorial threat, the threat of prison, meaning not country club jail.

Threats + payoffs = mobster ****.

I don’t think it’s threats or blackmail.  They realized “ok, he’s not going anywhere. We need his voters”.  Deep down they want him gone but the only ones who ever say it are those retiring.  There’s always going to be ass kissing for the president. Any president.  The tech bros and captains or industry support the peoole in charge. Regardless of policies.  Part of it is ego and personal wealth and the other part is they are often in charge of companies that are public and employ thousands. They can’t let their personal politics interfere.  Their responsibility is to shareholders and employees. Ethically and legally.  

29 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I think it's worth asking—I don't mean rhetorically questioning, but seriously asking for the purpose of answers—why he is being allowed to get away with all this. What are the mechanisms at work that is keeping what is literally the entire rest of the world, particularly here at home, at bay?

Because he hates the right people. That enabled the loonies like Mike Johnson to tolerate it. If the evil lesbians and liberals can’t stand the guy then it’s all good.  The other reason is people like Ted Cruz and Rubio and Graham can never admit they were wrong after they flipped once already to be pro trump. They would rather destroy the country than admit we were right about him.  We have one more chance, if we are allowed to, to save this country in about 9 1/2 months.  

 

His VP and cabinet like this. It keeps us distracted so they all can do the other stuff. 
 

nothing is ever going to happen to him Or them. 

Yeah I call ChatGPT “Chad”.  Just a thing we do 

I’m using Chad to help me make French onion soup along with smoking a Chuck roast for sliders.  If it turns out ok then I will get some oven safe bowls to make it perfect. It’s especially useful when it’s a sustained process and you need a quick answer.  Last week I made tortilla soup and needed a quick “packets of taco seasoning vs bulk measurement” conversion. Or if you don’t have a certain spice or ingredient and what would be a good substitute. Online recipes are a mess to sort thru.  The options it presents are great. Traditional vs steakhouse vs quick… and offering guidance during the caramelizing process. 

1 hour ago, casimir said:

This reminds me of a yard campaign sign I saw.  To paraphrase, it said “In this house we stand for virtue and dignity and righteousness and humility and civility and servitude and faith….”   And it was for the orange asshole.  I mean, come on, seriously?  WTF.

There’s a corner lot house we run by with a nice pool and on their fence around the pool they have a sign listing all the things they proudly do, which are things nobody ever told them they could no longer do. (Like say Merry Christmas). 

Sky’s? 

52 minutes ago, antrat said:

I just can't believe that even a lot of his voters wanted this madness. Every ****ing day something awful happening. Dementia Don ranting on Truth Social at three in the morning.

They don’t want it for themselves. But the #1 requirement to be a trump voter is lack of empathy. So who cares if others are hurt. They’ll be fine.  They won’t lose their farms or businesses over tariffs. The Chinese will pay for it. 

I could see cases where he gets the DoD to seize ballots and once that happens…. All bets are off. We will have elections like Russia does.  There will be a declared winner but the accuracy will be in doubt. 

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

I’m with you on zero credit card debt. I’ve practically never carried any, training myself to avoid it by carrying Amex charge cards instead of interest-charging credit cards, and going without instead of going into debt. It’s been good training for managing my spending during retirement.

I have only one credit card, a high-quality Chase bank card, and again, I pay it off every month like a charge card and pay zero interest. I use the card for (1) convenience; (2) points (cash value of 1% of spend); (3) benefits like automatic warranty extensions; (4) protections in situations like travel and car rentals mishaps; and (5) running interference against dodgy vendors trying to screw me out of refunds, and I did so just this week against the streamer Britbox, which offers zero human contact on their side.

I don’t know how much longer Chase and the majors are going to provide these advantages, since the more powerful and concentrated industries become the less customer service they feel compelled to offer, but I’m going to take advantage of them while I can.

I would advise anyone to read the benefits guide that comes out with their credit cards at least annually and get familiar with what they are and when to leverage them.

I have a lot of friends and peers who retired recently so it’s a common topic. I have a few more years but I recognize time flies.  I’ve started making changes. One friend told me “you don’t realize how much you piss away when you are working”. He meant it as “it’s easier than you think”.  The hardest part will be keeping my wife still. Today’s a good example.  It’s cold. Nothing going on. It’s ok to just be home all day. But she has this restless need to “be productive” which I counter with “yeah but that usually means spending money”.    I once suggested we watch a show but she couldn’t wrap her head around doing something like that in the afternoon.  Like we are being lazy.  We worked all week.  It’s ok.  

The rollout of the SLS for Artemis II to launch pad 39B

You could with a 10% penalty. 

He has a limited shelf life.  They all do.  Why give up one of his great years?

If we are being honest, how good do you think he'll be in 2029 and 2030?

1 hour ago, romad1 said:

Speaking of Virginia, the Gadsden license plate has to go.   Just noticed in the parking lot that one of my buddies from grad school has one.   I'm much less likely to call him now.  I like that it tells you who is a knucklehead but I also don't like them flying their freak flag so conspicuously.   

They've really thwarted the meaning, right?

Sam Seaborn had one in his office on The West Wing.

5 hours ago, StrangeBird said:

If I recall correctly, some sort of statement regarding improper use of AI was incorporated into our university’s academic honesty policy. But other than that, it’s up to each instructor to decide how much to allow AI in the classroom, or whether to allow it at all. My school’s president has encouraged us to try to find ways to use AI in the classroom.

Many of my colleagues, including at other schools, are very anti-AI and completely ban it. I see its value and usefulness, so I’ve tried to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI for student work. It’s an ongoing process.

Last semester, I tried an assignment requiring students to engage in a philosophical dialogue with ChatGPT, using a specially designed prompt. Overall, the dialogues weren’t as interesting as I’d hoped, but maybe it’s something I will try again in the future.

I'm not an educator but it seems to me like the right path is to figure out your approach.  It's not going anywhere.  

2 hours ago, guy incognito said:

You really don’t want to know what I hope happens to certain people.

 

I bet every person who issued a threat has a cross or Bible version in their  social media bios. 

A kick.