…ok…so the long version involves a bunch of other people’s business it wouldn’t be mine to be talking up all over some obscure corner of the web…but…short version…I suddenly have a distinct shortage of time in my immediate future for a number of things…to the point that if anyone feels like volunteering to knock up a DOT tues/thurs/sun this week the option is basically going begging…I will be…well the short version is I won’t be the one readmitted to the hospital after a recent stay that involved pneumonia…or their other half who’s supposed to be packed up & ready to be out of a house they’ve lived in about as long as I’ve lived shortly after christmas…but I’m at least a few decades shy of being their age…& they don’t find my company intolerable…so what I’m up to for the next week is basically whatever they just most recently said needs my attention…& not in a fashion that lends itself to playing cut & paste with the news while I get on with things that allow for that sort of multitasking approach to the morning

…so…there’s that…there’s…stuff I literally don’t have time for because something else gets to make a prior claim on that…but…sure can be hard not to think that if more people had more time for bernie sanders…the world might be at least a little less fucked up

…& then there’s things I…you know…got no time for

President-elect Donald Trump’s recent “Meet the Press” interview has triggered concerns among allies and critics about his level of awareness of the details of the sprawling investigation into the Capitol attack that has produced hundreds of convictions in the nearly four years since Jan. 6.

Trump is weeks away from being sworn in, a day he has said that he’ll “most likely” begin immediately pardoning Jan. 6 defendants. “I’ll be looking at J6 early on, maybe the first nine minutes,” Trump told Time magazine. “We’re going to look at each individual case, and we’re going to do it very quickly, and it’s going to start in the first hour that I get into office. And a vast majority of them should not be in jail.”

…but then when it comes to the schrödinger’s cat routine you have to account for when you talk about whether or not the man knows something or means something or even understands what he even said about something…we’re all out of time…by & large we aren’t better at it…& the aggregate effect continues to reinforce the overwhelming nature of the stupidy on display

Interviews with Trump allies, supporters of Jan. 6 defendants, online sleuths who have aided the FBI investigation, and law enforcement officials reveal an unusual level of agreement: Trump’s recent comments made clear to them that Trump hasn’t kept up to speed on the Jan. 6 docket. More than 1,500 defendants have been charged and 1,100 convicted in the sprawling Capitol breach probe, with more than 600 being sentenced to prison. Defendants were arrested, convicted and sentenced all throughout 2024, but the cases received diminishing coverage.

Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker that he’ll be “acting very quickly” on Jan. 6 pardons, saying there might be “exceptions” if Jan. 6 defendants were “radical” or “crazy.” He also appeared to mistakenly believe that most or all Jan. 6 defendants were being held in the jail in Washington, when in fact only a handful of defendants are still being held pretrial and those who have been convicted are now housed in federal prisons across the country. One law enforcement official said the interview made “absolutely” clear that Trump wasn’t read in on the details of Jan. 6 cases.

…you can tell me he’s a real president…I understand the ways you can parse that sentence such that russell & searle & quine & kripke & ever other analytic bugger from frege through to wittgenstein would even agree that it’s a true statement…but you can’t make me not see a man with severe cognitive impairment & a run of checkmarks down the traditional list for things that make you an attractive prospect to those looking for instances of leverage that can be exploited to manipulate them in ways he openly broadcasts that he is explicitly all about

…but then he keeps talking that shit about tariffs & people believed him for as long as he pretended he could magically make prices go down when he knew all along he couldn’t do that shit…& possibly even that going through with all his bullshit would be dumber than brexit in terms of the fiscal equilibrium…& they don’t seem to have bucked the yoke now he’s said those will probably go up…& some other shit might not go the way he said…but…that’s probably not as important

Trump Promised No Wars and Lower Prices. Now He’s Walking That Back [Vanity Fair]

…this is how you play the messiah on tv…they fix it in post

Another person with direct knowledge of the Trump transition team’s planning said that instead of sweeping pardons for most of the participants, their understanding is that a few defendants were being selected who would be “very worthy of a pardon,” but that the process would then continue for a few weeks and months to vet the remainder. Another source familiar with the discussion said that they expect Trump to go big and broad with pardons, but that there were no indications he’d gotten into the details at all yet. The Trump transition team had no comment.

Ed Martin, a conservative activist whom Trump recently named as chief of staff at the Office of Management and Budget, has broadly been involved in discussions about Jan. 6 pardons, one Trump ally said. Martin was on the board of the Patriot Freedom Project, an organization that supports Jan. 6 defendants and their families, and which has hosted fundraisers at Trump’s properties. Martin was also at the Capitol on Jan. 6, although there’s no evidence he entered an area that had been restricted, and he’s spread conspiracy theories — including one about a man he’s referred to as “Mr. Coffee” in the aftermath of the attack. Martin, who stood behind Trump during a fundraiser for Jan. 6 defendants last year, did not respond to a request for comment.

…how much stock do you put in grandstanding to the peanut gallery from a man who thinks geopolitics boils down to nice-democracy-you-got-there-be-a-shame-if-something-happened-to-it-like-it-all-burned-down-in-a-fire-did-I-mention-if-that-happens-I-make-a-lot-of-money?

Bill Shipley, an attorney who has represented numerous Jan. 6 clients, said Trump was going to have to “go wide” on pardons “to live up to campaign and post-election statements,” and said he was “optimistic” about the pardon process, even though he’d seen no indication a formal process had been set up yet.

“It seems to me that the scope of the pardons or commutations that will be forthcoming after Jan. 20 is going to be quite wide,” Shipley said. “I’ve seen no information yet suggesting the mechanism by which those pardons will be processed has been decided upon.”

…guess it depends who you are & what you’re invested in

Another line that prompted worries even among some of Trump’s fiercest allies was when he pointed to outdated conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 attack, invoking the name of Ray Epps, a Trump supporter who was falsely accused of being a federal informant after one of Trump’s former White House speechwriters spread that conspiracy theory online.

Epps was the 16th person whose photo was added to the FBI’s Capitol violence website in the early days of the chaotic investigation and was quickly identified and then removed from the site. That sparked conspiracy theories that Epps was a federal informant, based on the premise that Epps was accidentally added to the list and then removed. (Many of the conspiracy theories emerged from the crowd on Jan. 6 itself, with members of the mob accusing their fellow Trump supporters of being either undercover federal agents or members of the left-wing group antifa that has engaged in violent protests.)

“What ever happened to Ray Epps? Now, I don’t know anything about Ray Epps, but it was sort of strange the way he was talking,” Trump said in the interview. “Where is he? What happened to him?”

…there is no brief brief enough I buy he truly commands it…which reminds me

Ex-FBI informant agrees to plead guilty to lying about Bidens’ Ukraine ties [Guardian]

…something, something, truth, something…can’t tie its shoelaces or whatever…shocking what a difference it makes to some things if you look at the full arc…but I guess that’s just not practical for you to expect the people who need to to do…because you inevitably can’t tell those people shit about shit…because they know better than everyone & would rather stifle a conversation than not appoint themselves the arbiter of who should say what or what the shit people say means…it’s why stuff like abstract arguments about whether it even makes sense to talk about the theory of mind we mostly run with as being in any sense plausible got to be recreational reading for me…the hard part isn’t being able to figure out that lots of what gets said…& lots of stuff that happens because that’s the way we say that goes…is…bullshit…in all but a vanishingly small number of cases it is essentially a trivial exercise with the shit any of us say…& if you’re willing to push the boat out the way some of that crowd were…you can take the output of a mind…say one that’s not as young as it once was…& is largely composed of muscle memory that burnishes the collection of chips on its shoulder while presenting a totally different appearance to the world than the one they see in the mirror…steep it in grievance that the world hasn’t paid out like it owed him & instead he’s had to unconvincingly front like it has…which was hard work before the “fix it in post” days…you can make a cogent argument that in terms of a mind to which to tie an identity of a thinking being who could be reasonably said to be a personality that persists over time…there’s not even a there, there

…or…you could join in with the fashion of the times

…but…whatever your chosen flavor of peer pressure

Trump also said there “might be some people from antifa” in the Jan. 6 crowd “because those people seem to be in good shape.” Numerous Jan. 6 participants who had been falsely identified as being anti-fascist protesters have, after their arrest, been revealed to have been Trump supporters, although one “anti-establishment” activist is currently serving a six-year prison sentence after prosecutors argued he came to “foment anarchy.”

…there’s good people on both sides…wierdly that part is even true…the problem is what you mean by it…& it doesn’t take breaking the thing down into russell’s calculus to derive what’s being said…the “good people” who are against him are the ones that stay home & don’t do shit…the “good people” that are for him…they go out & get rowdy & intimidate the ones who don’t like him into not saying he can’t do the brazen shit he plans on doing…but the bad ones…on his side…they aren’t the really bad ones…not really…because they help him…which is good…if anyone was too bad to get to be included in the “good people” on his side well then they must be bad people & bad people aren’t on his side…even when they are…so much so that you’d have to be…uhh…cognitively impaired…to call them “antifa”…or just be working on the assumption that your audience is, I suppose

…there’s probably a paper in that, if someone had a few years & could soak up the student debt..quantifying the deleterious effect on the overall cognitive fitness of the united states of allowing this guy to take his clownshow on the road…two times…stretched over a full decade

Trump also said video evidence was being hidden from the public. “You have a lot of cameras. They don’t want to release the tapes. They don’t want to release the tapes,” Trump said. In fact, the Justice Department has regularly released evidentiary videos from Jan. 6 cases following requests made by a media coalition, and a Republican-led committee has published thousands of hours of CCTV footage from Jan. 6 on the conservative video-sharing website Rumble.

…& the irony is…the asshole actually watches thousands of hours of tv…if anyone had any interest in him understanding any of that shit they could have montaged the crap out of it until even he got the fucking picture…but it’s a maybe-dead-cat-bounce whether he knows he’s lying or thinks that’s a real accusation & not nearer to the prompt engineering approach people use with chatbots

One online sleuth said Trump’s comments were “a rehash of the oldest internet conspiracies,” but joked that they did agree with Trump that House Republicans should publish more Jan. 6 footage, since some of the most critical video has never been uploaded.

Another sleuth said there didn’t seem to be much internal consistency in Trump’s arguments.

“He’s incensed that people who didn’t enter the Capitol got arrested. But he also wants to know whatever happened to Epps. And he’s promised to pardon everyone who was arrested. Like Epps, who was charged and sentenced and didn’t enter the Capitol. But whatever happened to Epps?” they said. “It’s just like arrrgh.”

Trump is vowing to pardon Jan. 6 rioters. Allies and critics alike say he needs a refresher. [NBC]

…but…imagine trying that backwards…in high heels…you’d have to moderate your language for a start

Sit yourself down and let out a big sigh of relief: thanks to the tireless work of the Florida police force, everyone in the US can now feel a little bit safer. On Tuesday, Florida’s Lakeland police department charged Briana Boston, a 42-year-old mother of three, with threats to conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism.

What did Boston do, exactly? She was rude to a customer service representative. Boston had reportedly just had a medical claim denied by her health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and allegedly said to the person on the phone: “Delay, deny, depose. You people are next.” This appears to have been a reference to the words written on ammunition discovered at the scene of the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson.

Boston has apologized for what she said and reportedly told police she didn’t mean anything by it. And there’s no reason, with the information we have now, to think otherwise. Referencing a high-profile assassination was obviously extremely poor judgment on her part. However, to any reasonable person, this whole thing sounds like a woman lashing out at a corporation rather than a credible death threat against an individual. Boston has never had any criminal charges or convictions, according to her attorney. She also told police that she doesn’t own any guns, and if the police found any in her house they haven’t shared this information yet.

If Boston’s home is later found to have a bunch of disguises, a 3D-printed gun and a manifesto, I will, of course, eat my words and any hats that are available. As it stands, charging Boston with threats to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism seems a hell of a lot like overreach – as does the fact that the judge has set her bond at $100,000. The charge is a second-degree felony, which could be punished by up to 15 years in prison if she is convicted.

The good news here, however, is that the police seem to be interested in taking vague threats seriously now. So, if that’s the case, I’d like to cordially invite them to come over to my house and take a look at some of the correspondence I get sent. Like every woman who has the temerity to express an opinion on the internet, I regularly get sent death and rape threats. I regularly get people harassing me with language that is a lot more explicit than “delay, deny, depose”. I normally just ignore all this because it’s best not to feed the trolls, and I know the police won’t do anything. But at one point, when I got an extremely unsettling object sent to my home address, I went to the police. What did they do? Yep, you’ve guessed it: absolutely nothing.

My experience with the police is extremely common. Forget online harassment – police don’t even take it seriously when a woman is being physically stalked or abused. You can find endless stories – from all over the world – about the police ignoring or minimizing violence against women. There’s the case of California woman Pamela Motley, for example, who received violent threats from her ex-husband, Paul Motley. Police made no attempt to arrest him and even “told Pamela that she should not be too worried because ‘These guys only follow through 1% of the time.'” Paul then shot Pamela in the face, paralyzing her.
[…]
The police’s newfound zest for taking threats seriously hasn’t gone unnoticed online. As soon as Boston’s story went public, social media was full of viral stories from women about how the police had ignored harassment because – crime hadn’t been committed”. The double standards are stark. I’d bet pretty much everything I have that if, instead of threatening a health insurance company, Ms Boston had gone to the police and told them that she was being stalked by an abusive ex-boyfriend, they’d have shrugged their shoulders and told her there was nothing they could do until she had actual proof her life was in imminent danger.

The seemingly disproportionate response to the 42-year-old mother’s outburst appears to be an attempt by law enforcement and the legal system to make an example of Boston. “I do find that the bond of $100,000 is appropriate considering the status of our country at this point,” the judge in Boston’s case said. It’s clear that, as resentment towards health insurance companies in the US reaches a boiling point, the judge and the police want to send a message. Mission accomplished, they’ve sent one! The message being: we care far more about the protection of wealthy CEOs than everyday violence against women.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/14/police-arrest-briana-boston

…good thing she didn’t say the court found in favor of the person who said they broke some laws…going rate for that is like $15million if it was a guy who assaulted a woman but still got to be president

The settlement, which was publicly filed in the Southern District of Florida Miami Division on Saturday, states that ABC will make a $15 million contribution to a “Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff” and pay $1 million in Trump’s attorney fees.

As part of the agreement, the defendants were also instructed to issue a statement of “regret” in an editor’s note for a March 10 segment of Stephanopoulos’ “This Week” program, in which the anchor made false statements that Trump had been found civilly liable for the rape of writer E. Jean Carroll.

ABC News to pay Trump $15 million in defamation suit settlement [WaPo]

…I mean…I don’t know exactly how you’d quantify it…but if truth was a three dimensional coordinate at (0,0,0)…that statement is less of a deviation than…most of the shit he says…never mind less of a stretch than it takes to get from pissed off lady says I hope you fucking die your company deserves it to I’m coming down your office with a suppressed sidearm & a manifesto looking to go viral

…maybe…if you tend to overlook your own moments of imprecision in speech because you only have eyes for faults in others, say…you’d call that an unforced error…& say something sage about it not being necessary to go beyond saying things that are so true they can’t bite you that way…after all…people already picked their sides

Here’s a shocker: One of the unnoticed themes of the recent election was depolarization. The electoral chasms between groups of voters shrank compared with four years earlier.

This was true across several axes and is mostly attributable to traditional Democratic constituencies moving to the right. If these trends endure, they promise a new political era.

…math be crazy, yo

Donald Trump’s gains among minority voters have already been the subject of much coverage. According to AP VoteCast, the share of Black voters supporting Trump increased from 8 percent in 2020 to 16 percent in 2024. Trump’s fraction of the Latino vote rose from 35 percent to 43 percent. The relative stability of the White vote, though, has attracted less attention. Fifty-five percent of White voters backed Trump in 2020, and just one percentage point more did so in 2024. This combination of minority voters shifting rightward and White voters staying put resulted in the lowest level of racially polarized voting in a generation. The Black-White gap in Trump support declined from 47 percentage points in 2020 to 40 points in 2024. The Latino-White gap fell from 20 points to 13 points.
[…]
Racial depolarization may have gotten the headlines, but the near-disappearance of age as an electoral divide was even more dramatic. The share of the youngest voters (ages 18 to 29) supporting Trump grew from 36 percent to 47 percent over the past four years. In contrast, Trump registered no improvement at all with the oldest voters (ages 65 or older), of whom 51 percent backed him in both elections. The gap between the youngest and the oldest voters’ choices therefore plummeted from 15 percentage points in 2020 to four points in 2024.

…language, too

Another facet of depolarization in the election was geographic. Trump’s fraction of the vote in the most densely populated areas (such as those comprising New York City) spiked by up to 10 percentage points. On the other hand, his vote share in counties of low or moderate density went up only incrementally, by about two points. Accordingly, after decades of divergence, urban and rural areas edged closer to each other politically.

[…]Notably, most of the Democrats who voted for Trump had a lower income and less education than other members of the party’s coalition. Members higher in socioeconomic status didn’t move toward Trump at all. The media diets of young voters might also be responsible. Young voters are the age cohort that’s least likely to get news from print publications, television and radio. In turn, lower news attentiveness was linked to higher support for Trump in the election.

…I mean anyone who can define depolarisation in a way that means increased support for the incoming approach & argue that’s a good thing

But put aside what depolarization might mean for the parties. For our democracy writ large, its consequences are mostly positive. A less polarized electorate is one less vulnerable to microtargeting with distinct messages for different communities. It’s one more apt to move uniformly in response to conditions domestically and abroad. It’s one that dampens politicians’ incentive to suppress or dilute any group’s votes. And it’s one that may foster a less bitter, more constructive kind of politics. Concern about the short term, then, shouldn’t occlude a ray of hope for the long run. If the new electoral landscape lasts, it could eventually be a boon for the country.

Surprise! America is less polarized than it used to be. [WaPo]

…well…then you gotta imagine anything is possible

Musk has joined Trump’s calls with world leaders like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, weighed in on Trump’s Cabinet choices and accompanied him on his first foreign trip since the election. Musk has also attended almost every event on Trump’s social calendar, including bobbing his head as the president-elect’s supporters break out in his signature “YMCA” dance, and eating McDonald’s on Trump’s private plane.

The self-described “first buddy” cemented his pivotal perch in Trump’s orbit after throwing his financial largesse behind Trump’s political comeback. Musk was the largest donor in the 2024 cycle, pouring at least $227 million into efforts to help Trump and other Republicans.

…only…when you look at that math

“He’s a special guy,” Trump said. “He’s a super genius. We have to protect our geniuses.”

Since election night, Musk has spent the majority of his time with Trump. Days after the election, Kai Trump granted Musk “uncle status” as he and his son “X” posed with her on a golf course at Mar-a-Lago.

…& some other math

Trump rarely shares the spotlight. But at the America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-a-Lago last month, he politely clapped from his table as Musk addressed the crowd.

“It’s not going to be business as usual,” said Musk from a white lectern with gold details. “It’s going to be a revolution!”

Argentine President Javier Milei also attended the gala, becoming the first foreign leader to have a face-to-face audience with Trump after the election. In addition to praising Trump’s victory as a sign that “the forces of heaven [were] on our side,” the libertarian economist, who has been embraced by far-right leaders, paid respects to Musk, saying that he was saving “humanity” with his overhaul of the social network X.

Musk — whose companies Tesla and SpaceX have broad exposure to foreign markets — has joined many of Trump’s meetings with heads of state. There was the call with Zelensky where the Ukrainian president said that the call was possible because of Musk’s Starlink technology, which has provided internet on Ukraine battlefields. And Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also said he spoke with Trump while the president-elect was having dinner with Musk and the tech mogul’s child.

…that looks similar

Shortly after Musk and Trump returned to the United States, they met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a Trump supporter and standard-bearer of a resurgent right wing movement across the continent.

“The future has begun!” Orban tweeted, along with photos of himself shaking Trump’s hand and greeting Musk, who was holding his son X on his shoulders. Musk replied that they shared a “interesting discussion.”

“It’s almost like Musk has become vice president,” said John Bolton, a former Trump national security adviser, during a CNN interview. “The rubber meets the road at noon on the 20th of January … at that point, people will have to make a judgment of whether there’s undue influence or anything else.

Though Musk’s precise role in Trump’s second presidency remains unclear, the businessman has a relationship with this incoming White House that is unlike any other in modern history. Musk on Friday responded to reports of other tech billionaires courting Trump with internet-speak for laughter, “lmao.”

Musk has joined Trump’s calls with world leaders, weighed in on Cabinet choices and been a regular part of the Trump family since the election. [WaPo]

…well…let’s just say the result doesn’t look the same

Georgian presidents are picked by a college of electors composed of MPs and representatives of local government. Of 225 electors present, 224 voted for Kavelashvili, who was the only candidate nominated.

The Black Sea nation has been in turmoil since the governing Georgian Dream party claimed victory in contested parliamentary elections in October.

Its decision last month to delay EU membership talks ignited a fresh wave of mass rallies.

The opposition has denounced Saturday’s election as “illegitimate” and said the sitting president, Salome Zourabichvili, remains the country’s sole legitimate leader.

…weird, huh?

Thousands of pro-EU demonstrators filled the streets of the capital Tbilisi on Friday, before gathering outside parliament for the 16th consecutive day.

A former diplomat, Zourabishvili is a hugely popular figure among protesters, who view her as a beacon of Georgia’s European aspirations.

“What will happen in parliament tomorrow is a parody. It will be an event entirely devoid of legitimacy, unconstitutional and illegitimate,” Zourabishvili told a press conference on Friday.

Opposition groups accuse Georgian Dream of rigging the 26 October parliamentary vote, backsliding on democracy and moving Tbilisi closer to Russia – all at the expense of the Caucasus nation’s constitutionally mandated efforts to join the EU.

Kavelashvili, 53 – the sole candidate for the largely ceremonial post – is known for his vehement anti-west diatribes and opposition to LGBTQ rights.

Georgian Dream scrapped direct presidential elections in 2017.

…bret stephens will probably be along in a minute to explain how it’s smart for donnie to trade georgia to vlad so he can look good about syria before he gives the ukrainians the under-the-bus two-step

With Zourabishvili refusing to leave office, opposition lawmakers boycotting parliament and protests showing no signs of abating, Kavelashvili’s presidency is likely to be undermined from the onset.

One author of Georgia’s constitution, Vakhtang Khmaladze, has argued that all decisions by the new parliament are void.

…can you even imagine?

Earlier this week, Macron called the Georgian Dream founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili – the tycoon widely considered to be Georgia’s real power broker.

His decision to call Ivanishvili – rather than the prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze – is indicative of the west’s hesitancy to recognise the legitimacy of Georgian Dream’s new government.

Washington has also imposed fresh sanctions on Georgian officials, barring visas for about 20 people accused of “undermining democracy in Georgia”, including ministers and parliamentarians.

Constitutional crisis deepens as opposition says election of former footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili is ‘illegitimate’ [Guardian]

…turns out…you don’t have to

Mystery Drone Sightings Keep Happening in New Jersey. Here’s What We Know (and Don’t Know) [AP]

…or…possibly…you don’t care to

The New Jersey Drone Mystery May Not Actually Be That Mysterious [Wired]

…because…like always…your conviction about how superior your judgement is to everyone & anyone else’s remains

Joint Staff Addresses Drones Over New Jersey Military Installations [defense.gov]

…immune to the way that looks to literally everyone else…even the ones who genuinely feel too sorry for your sorry ass to tell you when it’s hanging out…again

Here’s what you shouldn’t do about those unidentified drones over New Jersey: Shoot them [NBC]

…here’s a thought

Luigi Mangione is the median American voter [Guardian]

…if you still don’t get this?

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20180727-mansplaining-explained-in-one-chart

…do everyone…even yourself…a solid…& resist your instincts

What is the difference between ‘mansplaining’ and a man simply explaining something? [r/NoStupidQuestions]

…failing that…do at least try to notice when don’t nobody got time for that routine…it’s embarassing for all of us when you don’t

Trump’s executive action strategy: Go ahead, sue me [WaPo]

…I dunno…maybe it’s generational or some shit…but if it is…how come the generation of idiot men that the math says swayed the thing in the favor of the orange man across a skin-tone spectrum you’d expect white supremacy in the form of minority rule by untrammelled wealth in high density…would…struggle for traction with…expanded in younger ranks…but hey…they’re smart guys…they’re making out like bandits in the crypto game & they always do their own research…those guys…how come they think putting the kind of doddery old fart they make a living scamming in charge of the show is the smart® play…I mean other than the part where they think they have a non-parasitic relationship with society…obviously…few people fancy themselves the villain in their own movie…& fewer would enjoy the rashomon director’s cut extended edition…but…I know real math people can get behind imaginary numbers & all…I even sort of understand why when you multiply a negative number by a negative number you don’t get a bigger negative number…but I still can’t make it line up so there’s not a gap in the working

…it took…over a decade…in which the tory party alone went through a profligate number of ministers…prime & assorted other cabinet types…for a process that still hasn’t concluded to the point of compensation being in the possession of the people it was more expedient…politically & in the full legal process prosecuted by the state sense…to criminalise than it was at any point to address a (discoverable & for much of it documented) software glitch in something provided by a government contractor

…& arguably you can boil that down to in the end japanese social ettiquette enforces heirarchical norms to the detriment of the ability to address problems long after they are known about & the UK government would rather prosecute some of its more public-spirited citizens than have to deal with headlines about a political spat with the japanese

…it’d be a gross oversimplification on so many levels as to be potentially dizzying to anyone with a serious understanding of any of the principal players in that mix…but you could still say it…& it would be true for a broader definition of that term than could survive being applied to the bulk of what, variously, musk, farage, some-other-old-bore-who-thinks-they-know-better-than-everyone regurgitate in such volume like so many vultures nursing a nest full of midwich cuckoos

…& if multiplying is the wrong operation to describe taking a whole conglomeration of agglomerated negatives that post huge numbers & are quite clearly of the “negative” persuasion when they combine & metastasize…that’s as maybe…but…they do seem to be multiplying in a way that is producing something of an exponential expansion in the overall quantity of negative…even though WaPo can still get that to come out “mostly positive”…probably like mostly dead

…eh…I’ll be back with some tunes at some point, I expect…no promises it won’t all be rap…but…we’ll see

…don’t rush me?