101 Comments

OT: Per Crooks and Liars, apparently one of the who helped polish Kyle Rittenhouse prior to trial has a sadz about their role in helping him get away with murder. He is even pulling out the "if I knew then what I know now" card.

Expand full comment

He still would've done the same d*mn thing

Expand full comment

Maybe OT, but maybe not: I'm in California's East Bay, easy walking distance from the Bay. And it's hailing. Right now.

Expand full comment

Yikes! it's clear in this part of the East Bay. Crazy microclimates here.

Expand full comment

old joke: What's worse than raining cats and dogs? Hailing taxicabs!

Expand full comment

...[A]nd we hail (splat) hail (splat) right on {something or other, dodging banhammer}.

Where is Spike Jones when we need him?

Expand full comment

Twenty minutes later; hail has stopped and {big shining light in sky, what's that called?} is now detectable. Go figure.

Expand full comment

BUT BUT CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT REAL!!!

Expand full comment

Exxon? That you?

Expand full comment

Are you saying that it's literally never hailed anywhere in the world at all at any point in human history before?!

Stupid libs, my god.

Expand full comment

I thought it never rained in California! I was warned! And hail is just frozen rain that angels formed into tiny rabbit tails.

Expand full comment

It pours, man, it pours.

Expand full comment

No, that's Southern California where it never rains.

I think.

Expand full comment

Well, it's confusing. Says "southern" at the beginning, but the chorus damns the whole state.

Expand full comment

The guy who wrote it was a Limey, so he may not have had any idea how big California is.

Expand full comment

OR IT IS REAL BUT IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME, AND IF THERE'S GLOBAL WARMING WHY DOES IT STILL SNOW????

Expand full comment

Seeing hail here at noon on Jane Goodall's birthday is, or used to be, unusual.

Expand full comment

Darn it - too smart for my stupit lib brain.

Expand full comment

OT. How man people really died from Covid? LawyersGunsMoney blog reports on an Economist study.

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/04/the-true-covid-death-toll

Shorter: between 18.5 million and 35.2 million people got dead.

Still short of the 1918 pandemic, with upwards of 50 million dead. Possibly same number of people dead from the Bubonic Plague, which claimed about 50% of Europe's 14th century population. Now, the Toba volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago killed enough of us to create a (theoretical) genetic bottleneck, from which we somehow bounced back.

Expand full comment

"a (theoretical) genetic bottleneck, from which we somehow bounced back."

We come from a long line of avid fuckers.

Expand full comment

"I hear there are Neanderthals up north. I get tingly all inside just thinking about it."

Expand full comment

“I fucked two friends, and then they fucked two friends…”

Expand full comment

And pretty soon we had a whole scene!

Expand full comment

There's been so little effort to quantify the human cost of COVID, I can't imagine it's unintentional.

About a year ago I read a long (for them) story on CNN's website, about the upheaval in the US labor market. In maybe the third to last paragraph, the article cited Department of Labor estimates that between 16 million and 24 million Americans had left the labor market since the onset of COVID, including 7 million more than usual over such a timespan taking early Social Security. Perhaps 10 million unable to work due to Long COVID. Others not working because they realized the second income actually cost the household more money than it brought in, on net.

No wonder the political class has no interest in lengthy, public, discussion of the topic.

Expand full comment

Damn.

"Oh, Sarah, it's just a little rat bite. You'll live! Everybody's making a big, huge thing about nothing!"

Expand full comment

It's important to remember that back then people would have been noticeably shorter than they are today. Also, scientists speculate that 74,000 years ago predates the invention of the snorkel, which might also have assisted survival from deep flows of lava.

Expand full comment

OT I just needed a break from the WCK thread.

I fucking HATE this timeline.

Expand full comment

It's all coming from the same place

White supremacy

Remember when Jared tried to kill all the people in the blue states by refusing to send PPP or vaccines because "they're OURS" (a direct quote of his) and also he's too stupid to know that airborne viruses can & do cross state lines ... and because of White privilege and White resentment he still ended up in the White House, unqualified, with a security clearance his Confederate FIL overrode the intelligence agencies recommendations to give him , with an additional treason bonus of $2B, well ...

Well ... he's Bibi Netanyahu's godson. (If you by some chance didn't remember.)

It's all connected.

Expand full comment

Judge Loose Cannon gonna get appealed and lose and get removed from the case. She gonna lose her jerb. She gona lose her jerb.

Expand full comment

She would deserve it. I’m impatient to see people getting what they deserve.

Expand full comment

She 100% deserves it and deserves the wrath that the 11th Circuit Appeals Court will send her way . . . Again

Expand full comment

OT Judge Cannon is over her head

"Judge Cannon denies Trump's motion to dismiss the Mar-a-Lago classified docs case on Presidential Records Act grounds "

"Judge Cannon also declines Special Counsel's request that she make clear her position on jury instructions, rebuking it as "unprecedented and unjust""

https://x.com/hugolowell/status/1775960315055755589?s=20

Expand full comment

Leonard Leo at the wheel

Expand full comment

Someone's at the wheel. Is it Cannon herself or someone else? Hard to say since she was manifestly unqualified from the get-go.

Expand full comment

As Bobby Kennedy said "Never trust a man with two first names. Especially not when those two first names are basically the same."

Expand full comment

I wonder how his nephew John John felt about that

Expand full comment

Lead Balloon alert.

Expand full comment

I'd ask what she's playing at, but I suspect she doesn't know either.

Expand full comment

she doesn't want to tell Smith how much in the bag for Trump she really is.

she wants to save Trump.

Expand full comment

The poor dear. Bless her heart, she's doing the best she can.

Expand full comment

She's now pushed Smith into a corner. He has to try to get her removed from the case, or the case moved, or something. Because if the trial starts with her absurd, non-legal and non-lawful jury instructions shenanigans, I understand it can't be used on appeal; something like that.

Expand full comment

what I read is once a jury is empaneled, Smith won't be able to retry the case because double jeopardy sets in.

that's why he wanted Cannon to tell him how much she was going to lick Trump's taint before the trial started

Expand full comment

That is correct. That is the reason for the threat of mandamus which clearly pissed her off -- but WTF? What else he is supposed to do. She's a goner and expect the 11th Circuit to brutalize her .... AGAIN

Expand full comment

They need to brutalize her off the case entirely this time.

Expand full comment

I think it is a given. She is NOT impartial.

Expand full comment

Well yeah, that's been obvious from the beginning, but she's still on the case.

Expand full comment

Yeah, OK; that's what I'd read. I just didn't recall it as clearly as you did. Thanks!

Expand full comment

It’s almost like there’s a reason you don’t appoint unqualified heritage foundation water boys into positions of power, even if they’re nakedly unapologetically partisan

Legal things can be hard. Sometimes you need to have someone who has even the basic idea what to do

Expand full comment

Is Trump going to start raging at her now? That would be fun.

Expand full comment

OT today I was going to have a super nice, long, and quiet day since my husband is working over time and kiddo has after school book club.

So of course my coffee order was jacked this morning (I only get coffee once a week) and now my neighbor is having a pool dug...today... 7 feet from my livingroom window.

Today sucks.

Its loud.

Only upshot is I convinced the workers to dump some dirt is a whole in my yard thats been there since we moved in.

Expand full comment

I got to run errands and took off this afternoon, yet husband's here and being weird (and is now doing the embarrassing thing where he "works out" while blasting Phish and dancing in our breezeway where God and everyone can see him.

I just want to eat my pad Thai, have some wine and listen to this podcast!

Expand full comment

Clever!

It's awful when you go through Dunks drive-thru and when you take a sip after you've already gotten back on the road, it's full of sugar, and there's no other Dunks for miles and you're late for work.

Wait, sorry, I just hijacked your post. I'm sending you a huge hug.

Expand full comment

I've done the Dunks thing. Oh, GAWD!

Expand full comment

Also too the difference between a really fresh and yummy ice coffee and one that you know has been sitting around :(

Expand full comment

Kinda a similar situation, only starbucks and real milk instead of oat and caramel instead of mocha.

Expand full comment

soooooo disappointing!

Expand full comment

The presidential band "No Labels" has broken up on account of it sucked.

Expand full comment

No coincidence that they're falling apart without Lieberman.

Expand full comment

no point for No Labels since RFK Jr. is being supported by the same donors

Expand full comment

I’m sure this is only after “put Joe Lieberman in glasses and carefully puppet him through a weekend of slapstick 80’s hijinks” was scratched through.

Expand full comment

I hope Dems really hammer the topic of climate change during the heat, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes of this summer.

Maybe a few more voters will make the connection before the November elections...

Expand full comment

I hope so. It's getting harder and harder to pretend all this is just normal and fine.

Expand full comment

It's neither, so I don' bother pretending.

But we've overcome worse enemies than this in the past and we'll overcome them again!

Expand full comment

Have you looked around at the electorate lately? Millions of dumbshits who can't be bothered and would rather ride the conspiracy train and believe dictators.

Expand full comment

I don't see "giving up" as an option.

Expand full comment

I gave up on them years ago and they show little sign of changing besides getting worse. Can't make someone change no matter how hard we try. They have to want it for themselves.

I will never stop telling the truth and fighting for what's right.

Expand full comment

Esp. the impact of climate change on food price$.

Expand full comment

Which is controlled by corporate america and Biden has nothing to do with that or gas and egg prices. The masses are fairly stupid and refuse to educate themselves. Throw in conspiracies and there you have it.

Expand full comment

True, But that doesn't excuse us from the necessity of belaboring the point LOUDLY and repeatedly.

Expand full comment

OT Tinnitus suuuuuuuuucks. Mine is crazy loud today.

Expand full comment

Ugh...my right ear is in perpetual ring.

Expand full comment

It's awful. I can't hear when there's even a little bit of noise, like running water, or talking children.

Expand full comment

I’ve had it ever since my mildly misspent youth at heavy metal shows. The result is that I lose sibilant sounds in noisy environments. Someone could be sitting next to me and they wouldn’t be as loud as the background noise, and I can hear the sound of their voice but not understand some words properly.

Expand full comment

[makes note if I ever want to assassinate you to use a snake.]

Expand full comment

Mine is more like I "hear" my visual cortex. I can still discern audio signals at low volume and had a good hearing test, but filtering the sensation of noise from the world and noise from my brain is difficult.

Expand full comment

SEHA (sad ears hear alike)

Expand full comment

Dark rooms and music.

Expand full comment

Have someone try to travel from Raleigh to Charlotte without "Climate Control", and then ask about the climate...

Expand full comment

I live in one of those places!

Expand full comment

I used to. Moved as soon as I could to Chicago.

Freaking snowed yesterday.

The local heat sinks (great lakes) aren't ocean sized, but they do affect the weather!

Expand full comment

GIVE 'EM HELL, KAMALA!!!

Expand full comment

Step one to fighting climate change: Understand that if you need AC 24/7, something is wrong.

Expand full comment

Or the constant roller coaster. Last week we had the heat on in the morning and the air conditioning on at night. Yesterday a tornado touched down with hail and its in the 40s today.

Expand full comment

Midwest?

Expand full comment

yes

Expand full comment

You ever pour syrup and watch as the syrup pile at the bottom of the pour flips back and forth at the base of the syrup stream?

That's the midwest.

Expand full comment

We're going to need to relocate a whole bunch of Americans then.

Or convince them to dramatically renovate their houses.

Expand full comment

I'm noticing the house thing. My house is 102 years old. It was built to hold in heat. It was not built to handle deluge rainfalls, either. We had to retrofit the insulation, so the house could make use of efficient heating. I've also replaced the windows, including the one at the top of the stairs which wasn't intended to be opened. Putting a fan in that window, now that it opens, whooshes hot air right up the stairs, and opening a downstairs window, creates a very effective airflow.

Most houses built in the past 40-50 years are pretty hard to ventilate properly. They were built on the assumption of central heating and air, and in the thinking that fans and windows were obsolete for ventilaton.

Expand full comment

I've lived in Greece, lots of windows for ventilation, tile floors, shade. It can be tolerable, but even then AC is very nice.

Oh, and bugs, lots and lots of bugs.

Expand full comment

I'm a big folding screen guy.

AC can be very nice, no question. I'd rather not have to rely on it, however. Certainly not for bare survivability. As heat waves become more intense, widespread and of longer duration; without adequate overnight cooling; this is becoming a life and death issue for billions of people on Earth.

Expand full comment

If we really do reach the point where humans can't live that close to the equator we have really really big problems.

I know people don't like the idea of geo-engineering, but we are going to have to try something.

(although there was very interesting news about increasing carbon capture in agriculture recently!)

Expand full comment

Living in Minneapolis, we only have Central Air because the house came with it. It took me a couple of years to realize the thing didn't work. I did replace it when we replaced the furnace. Yet, we only use it fewer than 10 days a year, and only in the evening hours.

It does get hot here, but not that hot. The humidity is the worst part of it. So we'll run that thing from late afternoon until it gets good and dark, to take water out of the air; and then open up the windows. I prefer open windows and fans, including ceiling fans, myself.

But then, I don't live in Phoenix. Or in the humid South.

Expand full comment

I could live without AC on many hot days, but the two human looking furnaces I live with start wilting and complaining the second the temp gets upwards of 75. On the other hand, they are totes comfy when I am layering on my third sweater.

Expand full comment

When it gets hot, there's only so nekkid one can get. But I have a lot of sweaters.

Expand full comment

The worst effects of climate change we're seeing here are higher overnight lows. Particularly in winter, but also in summer. And much higher dew points, which we notice more in the summer. The growing season is about a month longer than it was when I was a kid, and we're seeing new species of trees and animals moving northward. Pines are mostly out of this area, replaced by hardwoods once considered not hardy enough to thrive here. We're seeing opossums all over, which I'd never seen here before the past decade.

So air conditioning may become more necessary here, too.

Expand full comment

Yeah, the problem is you live in the south s/

Expand full comment

Hey, we turn ours off for a couple of weeks in January, OK?

Expand full comment

We had ours off for almost the whole month of December!

Expand full comment

That's the most vocal block supporting the fossil fuel industry.

Expand full comment

I live here I know

Expand full comment

Then you have a perfect opportunity to remind the south of their depende....

not a troll.

Damn.

Expand full comment