TheVat

No system, except possibly anarchy, is immune to populist demagogues. Of course, Spain had three years of anarcho-syndicalism...and then they got 36 years of Franco. So...never mind.

Thursday sounds about right. Keeping this in the humor track....so, about this: Trump’s suit states that Littlejohn’s disclosures to the news organizations “caused reputational and financial harm to Plaintiffs and adversely impacted President Trump’s support among voters in the 2020 presidential election.” Um, I thought Turnp WON 2020. That's what he has insisted for five years. If he actually won, then where's the adverse impact? 😉

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/30/eggs-hats-unfettered-political-ambition-what-we-learned-melania-trump-documentary

And then they came for... AP NewsJournalist Don Lemon has been arrested after he covered a...Journalist Don Lemon and three other people have been arrested in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church.This is another serious breach of the Constitution. Going after a journalist who is simply present at an event to provide coverage. Banana Republic stuff.

I was not clear on "they." Not individuals, I mean we have rogue agencies, which are sent outside the established constitutional and statutory guardrails of their original mandate and mission. Like all rogues, they wear the mantle of some singleminded principle, like "national security! Stop the invasion!" Essentially it's a rogue administration which is then subverting particular agencies. And it's easier to start with ones whose original mission is easily perverted and its members poorly trained and vetted.

This seems the heart of the matter. We are seeing enforcers who are allowed to go rogue, not accountable to local/state authorities or established protocols. As long as the MAGA admin can keep the heat to a slow simmer, the frog never jumps out of the pot and so gets boiled eventually. A major problem for authoritarians in the US is the partial autonomy of the states. Which can, among other rights, sue the federal government when they overstep.

Be still my heart! Racetrack clip at the end, with Hoof Hearted, made my inner Bart Simpson laugh. (For those unfamiliar, Bart would prank Moe the bartender by calling up and asking for a patron with a name that would cause Moe embarrassment when he shouted it across the room)

I think the optimal backup would be a paper copy that is printed in some special way (like those special vertical security threads that react to UV light, in US bills of larger denomination) by a government office and is impossible to counterfeit. If there were a glitch or hack of the digital ID, this would be insurance. You wouldn't normally carry it around, but keep it on a secure location for such an emergency. It wouid be better insurance than something printed at home.

Emily has been reading about calls for the US Homeland Security Secretary to step aside. Democratic students at Yale weighed in... Yale Demos: Kristi Noem eon, it's irksome delay. It didn't go well, however, when Hollywood actors tried to rally support... On hot lover, star come drab as a fool, aloof as a bar - Democrats revolt. Oh no!

Is that Bhatia you mean? Wasn't aware he had a J, so maybe you refer to someone else? Physics Explained has, for me, just the right dose of math. Then there's Don Lincoln's FermiLab channel which is a little more advanced. Don was a member of the science forum I used to admin, until he just got too busy with his videos and books and umpteen other things. His forum persona was very similar to Swanson's.

We find our 2700 K lamps relaxing in the evening. It decreases the melatonin suppression that comes with bluer light, provided that screens are also set to night mode. The lower kelvins also mimic natural evening light, like sunsets and fires, so that helps the circadian rhythms.

Good channel, with clear explanations addressing some fairly counterintuitive concepts in science. I like the interviews with the public, where Derek shows common misunderstandings. LOL. Sometimes one forgets how much...orange there was ca. 1970.

Your numbers show differences of connectivity, but not stereochemistry.

Dear sociopathic fascist moron, I'm too worn out by discussing yesterday's tragedy in Minneapolis (at another forum) to go into detail on this but what the AF are your ICE goons doing there?

My post refers to some general categories, in answer to the OP question. I'm not going to flood the page with architectural videos or the Waldstein sonata or all the John Oliver clips. Life is short.

It's unfortunate that he seems like one of those children like Damian in "The Omen." He's liable to push you off a balcony while you're changing a lightbulb. I've noticed the Dutch are fairly immigrant friendly. If I could handle hot weather and bring my extended family, you would be calling me "neighbor."

Mostly music I'm trying to convert to a piano arrangement, or piano pieces I foolishly think I might be able to learn. ( A lot of such "watching," the video portion is unnecessary for me. I just go to YT because it's free and no signup required.) Also, home renovation/repair instruction videos, or bits about structural engineering and architecture. Occasionally will watch a news clip (where video footage matters enough) or a John Oliver clip - his show goes up on YT a week or so after its HBO release. Minnie Driver clips are okay, provided they don't remind me of that dreadful puddle of treacle she was in with David Duchovny's dead wife's transplanted heart. She's adorable but... just no. And of course the usual porn involving albino gorillas and St Bernards on unicycles. (Just checking to see if anyone is still awake after the first two paragraphs)

Given the frequency of Turnip's saber rattling, I would also suggest the alternate spelling: Bored of Peace. Dear Mr. Mucilini, So now you are erasing the 4th Amendment? Are you aiming for a Constitution that fits on a single sheet, one side? Or maybe a Post-It note? AP NewsImmigrants often don't open the door to ICE, but that may...It has become common knowledge in immigrant communities across the U.S. to not open the door for federal immigration agents unless they show a warrant signed by a judge.

LOL. Brilliant. And how amazing that the 47th is able to always wrap himself in the glory of others. I guess that's the magic that happens when you courageously overcome bone spurs. I'm hoping the Mark Carney virus is highly contagious.

I wondered if you were thinking in that context. I find it hard to read the current military mood. While it's true that Turnip has gotten some support from the rank and file, there's also been some alienation over some of his talk about fighting NATO, and over recent actions violating Geneva convention. (I've heard Air Force guys around here refer to him as Pres. Bone Spurs, so the level of respect is not all it could be) All soldiers do take an oath to defend the Constitution, so there's a question there as to how far they can watch it get crumpled up.

Not sure our right to arm bears will help us. 25A, maybe. Pens are mightier than the peashooters the 2A allows us. Also, what @exchemist said - SCROTUS hasn't herded all its cats in single file behind Mucilini yet.

I had noticed (as per the article in The Conversation) that conspiracy theorists like to believe that they're somehow superior to experts, that they are privy to special knowledge due to an unusual degree of insight and intuition. Thinking of that well-known American narcissist who is always telling his followers how his "gut" is amazing and he prefers to listen to that over, y'know, a buncha pencil-necked eggheads. The 7 second zero G theory is perfect for the MAGAnids who like to both hate "elites" and really be part of one.

Better safe than sorry. When out, I will be carrying pitons and climbing rope with me that day, so I can secure myself to the ground if needed. Hopefully that patch of ground won't detach itself in seven seconds. Backup: fire extinguisher to whip out and provide downward thrust if needed. I'm still working on hurricane ties, shear transfer ties and angle iron struts for the house and soft encasement for glassware and ceramics. Still undecided on the old chimney - would it help the anchoring or just wreak more destruction as it resettles? Don't get me started on the litter boxes and commodes - I can only handle so much. (Cling wrap right before the event, maybe?) Also, and please don't mock me with your stifling scientific orthodoxy, but there are many mule deer in the wild area next to our block. If they happen to be leaping when the grav cuts out....I mean, those guys could get pretty far up there in seven seconds on leg thrust....will the G resume full strength right away or slowly turn on like with a dimmer switch? If the former, they will come down on us like 150-250 pound meat bombs. I know some might find this laughable, but they laughed at Fermi and Einstein and that guy with the bongo drums right up until they climbed into the Enola Gay and destroyed Bankok. Or Korea. Or wherever it was - it was someplace where people wore bathrobes all day.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/us-military-trump-greenland/685677/?gift=43H6YzEv1tnFbOn4MRsWYla2FHXUNgrTIgaQRWVp2do&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share (excerpts) The United States is a global superpower, and its military trains for war in every domain. During my years as a military educator, I saw American officers wrestle with any number of scenarios designed to challenge their thinking and force them to adapt to surprises. One case we never considered, however, was how to betray and attack our own allies. We did not ask what to do if the president becomes a threatening megalomaniac who tells one of our oldest friends, Norway, that because the Nobel Committee in Oslo refuses to give him a trophy, he no longer feels “an obligation to think purely of Peace” and can instead turn his mind toward planning to wage war against NATO. As my colleague Anne Applebaum wrote today, Donald Trump’s threatening message to the Norwegian prime minister should, in any responsible democracy, force the rest of the U.S. political system to act to control him. The president is talking about an invasion that would require “citizens of a treaty ally,” as she put it, “to become American against their will,” all because he “now genuinely lives in a different reality.” And yet neither Congress nor the sycophants in the White House seem willing to stop him. The U.S. military is obligated by law, and by every tradition of American decency, to refuse to follow illegal orders. But what about orders that may not be illegal but are clearly immoral and illogical? The president, for example, can order the Pentagon to plan for an invasion of Greenland; such an order would be little more than a direction to organize one more war game. (The military, as it sometimes does during war games, might not even use real place names, but rather use maps that look a lot like the North Atlantic as it organizes an invasion of “Verdegrun” or something.) But after years of experience with American military officers, I believe that even these hypothetical instructions will sound utterly perverse to men and women who have served with the Danes and other NATO allies. Denmark not only was our ally during the world wars of the 20th century, but also, as my colleague Isaac Stanley-Becker has written, joined our fight against the Taliban after 9/11 and suffered significant casualties for a small nation. Their soldiers bled and died on the same battlefields as Americans...