"Further, Netroots is not a place for splashy shows and pompous theatrics, like a Turning Point USA concert."
Part of this is because of Murc's Law. Democrats would not be allowed to have bawdy events because only Democrats are subject to accountability for public and private behavior. Note that this also explains the different tenors of the major party conventions. Note that the Democrats have to be inclusive, celebrating all of America. Meanwhile the Republican convention is now full-throated sadopopulism...not even the "wink wink nudge nudge" Lee Atwater style of the past.
Furthermore, Republican thinktanks, media outlets and legislative chop shops are funded with millionaire and billionaire pocket change. There is no incentive for such people to fund Democratic NGOs because Democratic policy is actually redistributive and therefore goes against their prime directive of hoarding as much wealth as possible.
What has always bothered me is that in an ostensibly decent country populated by caring people, we should win in a blowout. TFG's two wins were crushing not because a slug like him was elected, it was because I thought I knew my countrymen, and it turned out I didn't at all.
Unfortunately this is baked into the DNA of America and exploited by very, very wealthy and terrible people. A lot of bigots have outsized power because the United States is designed to mollify a slaver planter class, so that is inherited from that legacy.
It's gratifying to see the backlash about AI. I very firmly told my boss that I had no interest or intention of using any kind of AI in any aspect of my job, even though she reminded me that all the interns with whom I work are all using it. My response: "Well, guess who's going to be checking their work to make sure it's accurate and not complete bullshit? THIS GUY."
Don't get me wrong. I'm sure there's a time and a place for using AI, but if there's not a backcheck mechanism in place, then it's basically lazy plagiarism.
i work tech support for lawyers; they have to be REALLY CAREFUL that when they ask the law LLM tool to clean things up or draft something, it doesn’t statistically combine a bunch of heavily weighted related terms into citations that don’t exist and clauses that violate laws.
"AI," the devious branding that it is, works when you are dealing with pattern matching. This is why in places like Africa, "AI" is being used as a force multiplier for research in finding patterns, instead of a money printer used to subsume creative labor. So it's pretty good at summarizing as long as you have it properly sandboxed.
Also if you're dealing with discrete possibility sets for the patterns, like, say...software development, it definitely can do that and apply solutions. That's why a lot of software devs LOVE AI...they seem to be the main ones that love it. There's a big BUT there though...the devs have to have the actual development chops to properly debug the software.
I've given up trying to educate the masses on the fact that there isn't actually any "intelligence" in what is currently being labelled "AI". It is literally nothing that wasn't possible 20 years ago, except for the fact that the scale has changed.
My boss is a tech guy, but he's also really cool. He loves AI, and I love putting the AI suggested projects into the rational analysis matrix set to "annihilate".
AI will never tell you "that's the dumbest idea that I've ever seen, log off and go take a walk outside".
I once said that out loud in an office I'd worked at for all of three days. "That is the dumbest idea I've ever heard".
Was quite proud of myself for that one ... because it was in fact, an abjectly stupid idea. Being old and confident in your experience is incredibly freeing.
I later apologized in private. Because the utterer wasn't stupid, just their idea was.
It has to keep blowing smoke up your ass so you're induced to keep using it. I had to use a slopbucket under orders one day and it definitely was giving me the people-pleasing behavior.
OT: The Bush Administration’s Justice Department may have played a key role in the unprecedented and “secret” plea deal offered to Jeffrey Epstein in 2007, according to an report from the Miami Herald.
"However, after gathering evidence and “interviewing two dozen tearful girls and their parents” over the course of 11 months, he was then “stonewalled by state prosecutors and attacked in the media,” and later, “ostracized by federal prosecutors, who took over the case in early 2007,” the Herald’s report reads."
One of the few close friends I had when I lived in Houston in the mid-1970s was Tiger Wilson (she didn't use Anne because of Heart), who died at 59 in 2006. She was the finest living stained glass artist (her slave Claire proudly wore the stained glass and chain bra to concerts), a great guitarist, a substance abuse counselor, and the rider of a self-built trike. Her memory will always be a blessing. Yes to Dykes on Trikes!
HuffPost: "AgSec Brook Rollins, also too: “Under the last administration with the massive movement under the open borders policy, the cartels, etc., border security, that’s when [screwworm] began to make its way back up toward America, hitting Mexico in early 2023, moving its way up through Mexico in 2024,” Rollins said.
The screwworm monitoring program was abruptly terminated in March 2025, after Rollins took over. So, too, were 5,300 other grants and programs killed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, when the Elon Musk-led bureau gutted the United States Agency for International Development. At the time, Musk called USAID a “crazy waste of money” and “a radical-left political psy op.”"
The asshole knows better, but he knows he has a rightwing media human centipede to tap into and protect him. Expect this to cascade through news article comments from here on out.
You'd think that someone like Biden with his dementia and limited mental capacity and inability to read or sign anything without Autopen assistance wouldn't be able to singlehandedly orchestrate an invasion of flesh-eating worms while also *checks notes* allowing an army of immigrants to flood into the country, getting everybody hooked on fentanyl, and forcing everybody to get gay married. And that's just on a normal Tuesday.
Livid backlash as MAGA officials blame Biden for screwworm: 'Did he build a time machine?'
"Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) sparked widespread mockery Monday after both appeared on Newsmax to blame former President Joe Biden for the screwworm emergency now threatening Texas cattle — despite the Trump administration's own cuts to the very monitoring programs designed to stop the parasite."
Come on, WSJ. It is possible that some people aren't into hyper-consumerism. She may be in the 1% but her career may not be that long and some are just raised to be conservative with their finances. I have the audio on in the background. Aliyah Boston sounds like a lovely young woman.
<This WNBA Player Just Got a $1.5 Million Raise. Here’s Why She Still Drives a Buick.>
how many people is she supporting to one degree or another? how close to “one bad step off the back foot and this all goes to hell” does she play? athletes have a shelf life, lest we forget
Black pro basketball player must be spending it on designer clothes, jewelry, and a mansion with flash cars. Good for the ladies for making more money as the league grows in popularity but $1.5M before taxes doesn't go as far as it used to. She's like 25 or something, maybe she has 10 more years to play.
On the Child-Rapist-in-Chief’s melt-down on Meet the Press...
"And with that, Preznit Fuckwit throws his microphone to the ground, gets up, and waddles away.
‘Thank you, darling.’ what a condescending, misogynistic asshole. shut the fuck up, piggy.
All Kristen Welker did was ask Donny for evidence to back up his claims — but apparently, that was a bridge too far for the colicky piss-baby who lives inside a fact-free bubble, and throws a shit-fit any time some peasant dares challenge one of his fever-swamp hallucinations."
Well this is a Nice Times. We’ll never get to do the reforms we need in order to work ourselves back to having basic things, let alone nice things until we’ve Nuremberg trialed these greasy oligarchs and assorted grifters and Nazis.
Not to be overly critical, but as a retired critic *who was there at the beginning, man,* 20 years ago was 10 years too late to democratize the Internet and make it into something good. By 2006, the Net had been captured and monetized. People took it for granted and were complacent.
A related thought that has bothered me lately: websites--like this one--are considered passé these days. All the action's on TikTok, Instagram, BlueSky, etc. People rightly complain about zillionaire-owned Facebook and others, but...𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙮𝙨. How else can you reach people who aren't right in front of you?
The Net was going to be captured and monetized as soon as it went to a GUI. I hate to sound snobbish, but when the masses came in and the barrier to entry was lower it was ruint, IMO.
They had to make it all bright sparkle n shiny for the masses.
I don't think the current version of Daily Kos even covers Netroots Nation anymore.
A delightfully uncivil clip about Sleepy Don https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xsKOYs_WWSI
"Further, Netroots is not a place for splashy shows and pompous theatrics, like a Turning Point USA concert."
Part of this is because of Murc's Law. Democrats would not be allowed to have bawdy events because only Democrats are subject to accountability for public and private behavior. Note that this also explains the different tenors of the major party conventions. Note that the Democrats have to be inclusive, celebrating all of America. Meanwhile the Republican convention is now full-throated sadopopulism...not even the "wink wink nudge nudge" Lee Atwater style of the past.
Furthermore, Republican thinktanks, media outlets and legislative chop shops are funded with millionaire and billionaire pocket change. There is no incentive for such people to fund Democratic NGOs because Democratic policy is actually redistributive and therefore goes against their prime directive of hoarding as much wealth as possible.
OT:
Budgie is watching Portugal vs. Croatia.
It is apparently a repeat of a game from months ago.
What has always bothered me is that in an ostensibly decent country populated by caring people, we should win in a blowout. TFG's two wins were crushing not because a slug like him was elected, it was because I thought I knew my countrymen, and it turned out I didn't at all.
Unfortunately this is baked into the DNA of America and exploited by very, very wealthy and terrible people. A lot of bigots have outsized power because the United States is designed to mollify a slaver planter class, so that is inherited from that legacy.
It's gratifying to see the backlash about AI. I very firmly told my boss that I had no interest or intention of using any kind of AI in any aspect of my job, even though she reminded me that all the interns with whom I work are all using it. My response: "Well, guess who's going to be checking their work to make sure it's accurate and not complete bullshit? THIS GUY."
Don't get me wrong. I'm sure there's a time and a place for using AI, but if there's not a backcheck mechanism in place, then it's basically lazy plagiarism.
i work tech support for lawyers; they have to be REALLY CAREFUL that when they ask the law LLM tool to clean things up or draft something, it doesn’t statistically combine a bunch of heavily weighted related terms into citations that don’t exist and clauses that violate laws.
fun!
"AI," the devious branding that it is, works when you are dealing with pattern matching. This is why in places like Africa, "AI" is being used as a force multiplier for research in finding patterns, instead of a money printer used to subsume creative labor. So it's pretty good at summarizing as long as you have it properly sandboxed.
Also if you're dealing with discrete possibility sets for the patterns, like, say...software development, it definitely can do that and apply solutions. That's why a lot of software devs LOVE AI...they seem to be the main ones that love it. There's a big BUT there though...the devs have to have the actual development chops to properly debug the software.
I've given up trying to educate the masses on the fact that there isn't actually any "intelligence" in what is currently being labelled "AI". It is literally nothing that wasn't possible 20 years ago, except for the fact that the scale has changed.
You have nailed, EQ. There's a time and use case for AI. Not all jobs and not all work. And I'm a tech kind of person.
It's good for two types of work:
Quick summaries that outline main points
Deep dives into data-heavy lifting like genetic sequences in the GB to TB neighborhood.
It sucks at anything in the midzone
My boss is a tech guy, but he's also really cool. He loves AI, and I love putting the AI suggested projects into the rational analysis matrix set to "annihilate".
AI will never tell you "that's the dumbest idea that I've ever seen, log off and go take a walk outside".
I once said that out loud in an office I'd worked at for all of three days. "That is the dumbest idea I've ever heard".
Was quite proud of myself for that one ... because it was in fact, an abjectly stupid idea. Being old and confident in your experience is incredibly freeing.
I later apologized in private. Because the utterer wasn't stupid, just their idea was.
It has to keep blowing smoke up your ass so you're induced to keep using it. I had to use a slopbucket under orders one day and it definitely was giving me the people-pleasing behavior.
dale carnegie makes me itch; anyone or thing that acts like that makes me edgy since i figure i’m being taken for a ride or set up somehow
OT: The Bush Administration’s Justice Department may have played a key role in the unprecedented and “secret” plea deal offered to Jeffrey Epstein in 2007, according to an report from the Miami Herald.
𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗺 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗽 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗝𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗿𝗲𝘆 𝗘𝗽𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article315967185.html?giftCode=171a111e460cf9c3e0be730ec794a0e6ac5d97ddedfe45ac36d6ebf5d4462eba
Thank goodness for them they're Republicans, else some accountability might happen for that!
It's Florida, man.
wheeeeeeee!
No shit.
Is Jeb in the Epstein files?
He put the "clap" in Please Clap.
Ew.
"However, after gathering evidence and “interviewing two dozen tearful girls and their parents” over the course of 11 months, he was then “stonewalled by state prosecutors and attacked in the media,” and later, “ostracized by federal prosecutors, who took over the case in early 2007,” the Herald’s report reads."
https://www.rawstory.com/jeffrey-epstein-2677009054/
Wood Chipper Time
Dykes on Trikes is a missed opportunity
Ha. I shouted that out at an improv show once. Only time I've seen the performers break down in person.
One of the few close friends I had when I lived in Houston in the mid-1970s was Tiger Wilson (she didn't use Anne because of Heart), who died at 59 in 2006. She was the finest living stained glass artist (her slave Claire proudly wore the stained glass and chain bra to concerts), a great guitarist, a substance abuse counselor, and the rider of a self-built trike. Her memory will always be a blessing. Yes to Dykes on Trikes!
OT: The screwworm came to 'Murika as a result of Joe Biden's open border policies!
Aaron Rupar
@atrupar.com
Sen. Roger Marshall on screwworm: "This is another thing we can thank Joe Biden for"
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mnrujq2bpr24
HuffPost: "AgSec Brook Rollins, also too: “Under the last administration with the massive movement under the open borders policy, the cartels, etc., border security, that’s when [screwworm] began to make its way back up toward America, hitting Mexico in early 2023, moving its way up through Mexico in 2024,” Rollins said.
The screwworm monitoring program was abruptly terminated in March 2025, after Rollins took over. So, too, were 5,300 other grants and programs killed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, when the Elon Musk-led bureau gutted the United States Agency for International Development. At the time, Musk called USAID a “crazy waste of money” and “a radical-left political psy op.”"
The asshole knows better, but he knows he has a rightwing media human centipede to tap into and protect him. Expect this to cascade through news article comments from here on out.
You'd think that someone like Biden with his dementia and limited mental capacity and inability to read or sign anything without Autopen assistance wouldn't be able to singlehandedly orchestrate an invasion of flesh-eating worms while also *checks notes* allowing an army of immigrants to flood into the country, getting everybody hooked on fentanyl, and forcing everybody to get gay married. And that's just on a normal Tuesday.
"The millions of immigrants brought the screwworm with them!" "It was on their pets! (or pants)" "It was on their skin!"
I've seen actual screwworms. There's no missing it.
Did Joe Biden put Elon Musk, DOGE, and RFK Jr in charge of our nation’s defneses against disease? Oh, that was Trump.
Biden Derangment Syndrome
Joe Biden allowed illegal Mexican screw worms to flood over BORDER! Trump will only allow white Afrikaaner screw worms in!
Livid backlash as MAGA officials blame Biden for screwworm: 'Did he build a time machine?'
"Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) sparked widespread mockery Monday after both appeared on Newsmax to blame former President Joe Biden for the screwworm emergency now threatening Texas cattle — despite the Trump administration's own cuts to the very monitoring programs designed to stop the parasite."
https://www.rawstory.com/maga-blames-biden-screwworm/
Obama finally catches a break.
These sorry motherfuckers.
Dirty goddamned racists.
The screwworms probably fell out of Ken Paxton's fucking diseased fucking ass.
Really, Tapper should just pick up those checks at this point . . .
NEEDZ MOAR BALLROOM
It really, explicitly, is not something we can blame Joe Biden for.
Also the fact that I dropped a fried egg on the floor this morning while making our breakfast.
OH, fuck off with that noise. Prick.
"BUILD THE DOME!"
The way I see it, the only way the UFC WH event could be worth it is if that huge arch is actually a mind flayer . . .
I'm rooting for tofu dreg!
Counterpoint: presumes brains not in evidence.
Come on, WSJ. It is possible that some people aren't into hyper-consumerism. She may be in the 1% but her career may not be that long and some are just raised to be conservative with their finances. I have the audio on in the background. Aliyah Boston sounds like a lovely young woman.
<This WNBA Player Just Got a $1.5 Million Raise. Here’s Why She Still Drives a Buick.>
https://www.wsj.com/video/this-wnba-player-just-got-a-15-million-raise-heres-why-she-still-drives-a-buick/F5241B21-F221-48C8-A78F-940EB57F7463?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
how many people is she supporting to one degree or another? how close to “one bad step off the back foot and this all goes to hell” does she play? athletes have a shelf life, lest we forget
She sounds friggin' practical to me!
Now tell us about all the people around her who are contractually entitled to a cut.
It's disgusting that people just can't fathom that some of us aren't remotly interested in being fucking rich. We are satisfied with enough.
Black pro basketball player must be spending it on designer clothes, jewelry, and a mansion with flash cars. Good for the ladies for making more money as the league grows in popularity but $1.5M before taxes doesn't go as far as it used to. She's like 25 or something, maybe she has 10 more years to play.
What Kristen Welker can learn from Laura Trump about interviewing her father-in-law.
By Bari Weiss
OT: Piggy's going to take his ballroom and go home! *stamp!* *flounce!*
𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸𝘆 𝗽𝗶𝘀𝘀-𝗯𝗮𝗯𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝗹𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻, 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀
𝘉𝘰𝘰 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘰𝘰, 𝘋𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘺.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-201083472
I'm not sure what the hay-bales and tractor were in aid of. Unless Welker was going to quizz Stinky on his destruction of American agriculture.
It was from the WI farmers event the day before that he attended.
And they didn't tar and feather him???
They sucked that dick. They loved him. Couldn't get enough.
Jonestown 2.0
That can't come too fucking quickly, IMO.
Look at how strong and vital he is. A true Alpha Man Tuff Guy. He doesn't look a day over 60. /s
He walks like a half-stomped roach
Staggering and bent over like a shrimp.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I used the term "diseased sasquatch." XD XD XD XD
On the Child-Rapist-in-Chief’s melt-down on Meet the Press...
"And with that, Preznit Fuckwit throws his microphone to the ground, gets up, and waddles away.
‘Thank you, darling.’ what a condescending, misogynistic asshole. shut the fuck up, piggy.
All Kristen Welker did was ask Donny for evidence to back up his claims — but apparently, that was a bridge too far for the colicky piss-baby who lives inside a fact-free bubble, and throws a shit-fit any time some peasant dares challenge one of his fever-swamp hallucinations."
The only possible response to that ‘Thank you, darling’ is 'Fuck off, rapist.'
Well this is a Nice Times. We’ll never get to do the reforms we need in order to work ourselves back to having basic things, let alone nice things until we’ve Nuremberg trialed these greasy oligarchs and assorted grifters and Nazis.
And then Reconstruct the MAGAts.
Not to be overly critical, but as a retired critic *who was there at the beginning, man,* 20 years ago was 10 years too late to democratize the Internet and make it into something good. By 2006, the Net had been captured and monetized. People took it for granted and were complacent.
A related thought that has bothered me lately: websites--like this one--are considered passé these days. All the action's on TikTok, Instagram, BlueSky, etc. People rightly complain about zillionaire-owned Facebook and others, but...𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙮𝙨. How else can you reach people who aren't right in front of you?
"People took it for granted and were complacent."
There's a LOT of that going around.
The Net was going to be captured and monetized as soon as it went to a GUI. I hate to sound snobbish, but when the masses came in and the barrier to entry was lower it was ruint, IMO.
They had to make it all bright sparkle n shiny for the masses.
Did you know Alan One?
Master Control Program is online.
I can’t say that name rings a bell, but 30 years of chronic overstimulation is a lot.
I am disappointed Jasmine Crockett is leaving congress. I hope she has solid plans to stay active.
She (her staff) just texted me to ask for support for Harry Dunn for Congress.
I could see her going the Pete Buttigieg route and staying in the limelight just enough to keep her name out there. She's a fighter with ambition.