…the saying goes [DOT 2/11/25]

from them lips...

…to…some ears…that…according to the glossy brochure with the onionskin doorstop of appendices bursting at the gills with plenty enough boilerplate & fine print to make a tax code sit up & take pointers…work like santa…but for not burning in hell for however much longer eternity proves to be than however long the mortal coil has to suffer the subject of that objective statement that might consider it rendered in the accusative…although to be…charitable…in a christian sense…you’d-know-if-he’d-been-tango-ed probably doesn’t know his dative from his genitive…& would probably call that his generative anyway…because in addition to being a terrible person…in that as in a great many other things…it would be my honest & sincere belief that he is both poorly informed & in addition an absolute & utter moron entirely in his own right…indeed that would be about the sum total of all that would be his…by that or any other right…if all were…in point of fact…right with the world

Why it’s a good time for your company to sell your pension on.ft.com/438brfs | opinion

Financial Times (@financialtimes.com) 2025-11-02T05:41:15.264001Z

…but

London becomes ‘quant’ powerhouse as traders rake in revenues on.ft.com/4okApRe

Financial Times (@financialtimes.com) 2025-11-02T05:28:10.805907Z

Private capital zombie firms will pile up in next decade, says EQT chief on.ft.com/47qYsXq

Financial Times (@financialtimes.com) 2025-11-02T05:14:42.501509Z

…we still wake up with what’s left in the other one, I’m afraid

i had no idea carlson was holding his podcast in a closed down cracker barrel

hammancheez (@hammancheez.bsky.social) 2025-11-01T01:51:21.749Z

…sigh

The Heritage Foundation president just did the dril "issuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the terror group ISIL. you do not, under any circumstances, 'gotta hand it to them'" bit about Nick Fuentes

Drew Harwell (@drewharwell.com) 2025-10-31T20:44:32.054Z

…deeper sigh

You don’t Gotta Hand It to Heritage Foundation staffers but it is a moderate relief that there is, apparently, a bottom of the barrel for some people.

“The Heritage Foundation is facing a staff rebellion over its president, Kevin Roberts, expressing support of Tucker Carlson following his softball interview with…Nick Fuentes.” 10/31/25 … 1/ newrepublic.com/post/202569/…

Jenny Cohn (@jennycohn.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T22:36:19.039Z

…*adjusts* coffee

US CONSUMERS UNDER STRAIN: 68% NOW LIVE PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK — UP FROM ~60% TWO YEARS AGO. NEARLY 1 IN 4 STRUGGLE TO PAY BILLS, AND 46% WHO ONCE FELT FINANCIALLY SECURE SAY THEY’VE LOST THAT STABILITY IN THE PAST YEAR!

FinTwitter (@fintwitter.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T02:49:53.871922+00:00

…hmm

While trade, tariffs, and critical minerals dominated Trump’s agenda, tucked into several of the new agreements were deals on defense investment, cooperation, and production. FP’s @iyengarish.bsky.social and @jchaltiwanger.bsky.social take a look.

Foreign Policy (@foreignpolicy.com) 2025-11-01T01:30:08.585Z

…hmmmmm

80% of air traffic controllers absent at New York facilities.The system is at breaking point.

Mark Chadbourn (@chadbourn.bsky.social) 2025-11-01T01:57:33.661Z

…eh

www.nytimes.com/interactive/…

Rachel Maddow (@maddow.msnbc.com) 2025-11-01T17:15:11.845Z

…depends on what you can stand, I guess

Elon Musk’s Grokipedia is a major own goal on.ft.com/3JorWxn | opinion

Financial Times (@financialtimes.com) 2025-11-02T05:11:15.280248Z

…some might say

A prominent immigration expert tore into tech billionaire Elon Musk on Friday for pushing a blatant falsehood that U.S. social assistance benefits are designed to attract illegal immigrants into the country.

Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2025-11-01T01:30:08Z

…that sort of thing

Curious about what sort of strike got us involved in the Vietnam War. …

…needs…more

…irish?

Donald Trump has been saying"I can do it, no one can stop me" so often, you'd think at least ONE major media org would be panicking as much as they do when a [wealthy] blonde woman goes missing for more than a week.They've spent more time shitting up an NYC mayoral candidate

Kevin Wardrop (@kevinwardrop.nitemayr.com) 2025-11-01T13:31:33.295Z

…maybe…price of coffee these days & all

More than 47 million Americans — including one in five children — don’t have reliable, affordable access to nutritious food. And as the cost of living skyrockets, more families are depending on SNAP benefits, or food stamps, to put food on the table.

Barack Obama (@barackobama.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T18:49:58.773Z

…I oughta switch to…whatever this guy’s having?

We all need to channel this Chicago man’s utter contempt

Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T20:13:13.014Z

…been a long week

…I could use that kind of pep in my step…edison park guy, I mean…before you start to gag any worse about any of…that…I’d make an attempt at a gag about that being more pep than edison chen…but…that would have…still-only-maybe…been funny when that guy was actively in a lot of stuff in the active sort of way that required at least looking…in…fighting trim…in the lean, mean…but-in-this-case-not-so-green…sense…whereas…these days…there’s a whole wikipedia page just about the parts of the unhealthy amount of stuff there is to know about him that relate to a specific scandal involving a specific tranche of photos…something something…book by its cover…something…appearances….something…deceiving…something-something-s

…but…it’d still be funnier than what went down when echo park tried to have a good time about a thing at least a couple of people hereabouts who you wouldn’t think would be inclined that way would still be fully-canadian in their support of saying they didn’t fucking deserve

Dodgers Fans In Echo Park Celebrate Another World Series Victory@shoton35mm.bsky.social

L.A. TACO (@lataco.bsky.social) 2025-11-02T05:21:18.828Z

people are getting actually for real Sports Mad at each other on the timeline we have MADE IT made it

Micah (@rincewind.run) 2025-11-02T04:58:49.128Z

…but…that’s supposed to be the point of SportsMad™, isn’t it?

bluesky has the juice get over here, sports twitter

Micah (@rincewind.run) 2025-11-02T03:49:52.131Z

…everyone gets to go to war but also be home in time for tea

LAPD Disperses Dodger Fans in Echo Park with HorsesBy @shoton35mm.bsky.social

L.A. TACO (@lataco.bsky.social) 2025-11-02T06:14:43.671Z

…& when you do it right nobody actually gets hurt in anything but their pride

British police said 10 people have been hospitalized, nine with life-threatening injuries, following a mass stabbing attack on a London-bound train Saturday evening, and that counter-terrorism police are supporting the investigation. n.pr/49yyTqb

NPR (@npr.org) 2025-11-02T06:54:52.968944Z

…treating the low stakes like they couldn’t be higher…lets you get it out…for some folks, anyway…for some I know it works better to go dance in a place so loud you can’t hear yourself think much less have a conversation with anyone so you’re in a seething throng of people but also more alone than you are when you’re on your own in a quiet room…but…we *all* have a lot of shit that might be said to be piling on the pressure like we live under more than the usual complement of atmospheres just now…even the godless heathens who don’t have a team & were in the library when that shit happened

“I was watching the baseball game” Interesting. I was contemplating solutions to the great global challenges of the 21st century. But your game sounds nice too 🤷‍♂️

pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” (@pixelatedboat.bsky.social) 2025-11-02T05:47:45.485Z

…& there are a finite number of ways that a pressurized system will self-adjust to find its equilibrium

we’ve gotta excommunicate Drake

Corey Atad (@coreyatad.com) 2025-11-02T05:05:17.058Z

…but

Hello welcome to bluesky. We have every kind of anti-government radical left of center, and also, baseball

…like making moonshine

if the Dodgers win in Toronto I hope they’re ready to feel the wrath of Canadians (saying “good game” to them on the street)

…you gotta keep an eye on that still

…or you get

…no…not a cheeky bit of bonus hunnam…get your mind out the gutter…this is about an ivy league perspective…because doesn’t it have to be?

…it…wasn’t just millwall fans…& it doesn’t make a nice little heart-warmer with deadpool deadass nice-ing it up all over it the way the wrexham thing did…or the brothers green & the stuff about wimbledon…in the AFC rather than wombles way…& as a result of which…while it’s ok…or…as I was but recently reminded…was until recently ok…until it stopped being okay…for a bond villain to own the team with the “emirates” stadium…silent possessive apostrophe at the end possibly but plausibly-deniably implied

So Mr. Walter, owner of Guggenheim, in fact owns a big stake in the private prisons and has partnered with Palantir who created ICE surveillance. mrcheckpoint.com/is-the-dodge…Pretty depressing information.

Hmmmbuzz (@hmmmbuzz.bsky.social) 2025-10-30T21:20:50.954Z

…until spectre invaded just that bit *too* much of u-proxiesRus-kraine & some assholes who already owned teams nobody likes picked it up for a steal

The wonderful old-Twitter experience of a global group chat during a live event or breaking news is a thing you can't do on Threads bc of its trash algorithms and you can't do on X bc it's a Nazi propaganda weapon, but it's really happening on Bsky now and I hope more holdouts start to discover that

Rob Sheridan (@rob-sheridan.com) 2025-11-02T04:28:29.567Z

…so here’s some free, unsolicited advice from a sports heathen who might have observed a time or two that people who are fine with it when it makes sure nobody spoils match day…or god forbid…gets you famous like hillsborough…in a non-trivial number of cases…would not be if it happened to someone who’d superglued themselves to the pavement outside the department of agriculture

Apart from everything else, we were robbed of the high comedy of Trump refusing to invite the jays to the White House rather than partying with a team where every member voted for him

C.A. Pinkham (@eyepatchguy.bsky.social) 2025-11-02T04:29:43.481Z

…correlation is not causation…but…strong correlation between that stuff & what tripped up BLM…or occupy…as “movements”…& any fandom will tell you…the ones that fuck it up are the fair-weather fans that are mostly johnny-come-lately dickheads in the “only singing/when you’re winning” vein

…& are the main reason the other side can really

Say Drake… 😂

…put the mustard on it

…when they get to fill those terraces with “you’re not singing…you’re not singing…you’rrrrreee….NOT-SINGING-A-NY-MORE…you’re not sin-g-ing a ny more”

As a Dodgers fan, I literally feel like Sarah Connor at the end of the first Terminator. That’s how good the Blue Jays were. Like we won but I’m so traumatized I’m going to lose custody of my son because I trained him to shoot weapons in Nicaragua and I’ll end up in a max cell at Pescadero

Chris Cantwell (@ifyoucantwell.bsky.social) 2025-11-02T04:57:32.783Z

…who are all in it for all the wrong fucking reasons that are also why the money is ruining the game

Right but I think he converted (in the laziest way possible) because he thought it would give him social positioning not out of faith or just convenience (like when marrying a Catholic partner). He’s a Thiel acolyte and Thiel is Catholic for example. But he’s an evangelical in Catholic vestments

…oh…for god’s sake…it’s sunday…& even people who go to church start on the wine before lunch on sundays…how early is too early…really…under the circumstances…if maybe you & church broke up a while back because you were both interested in other people…for…ummm…instance…or example

…one of those, anyway

something under discussed is the fact that white house renovations are currently being spearheaded by someone with famously bad interior design taste

derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T18:29:30.029Z

…lotta things under-discussed if anyone might happen to make the mistake of discussing that with me, I guess…but…I will give it to that guy…that isn’t-*that*-guy…the topic comes up with noticeable frequency but all the same…he’s not fucking wrong about that

On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.

Andrew Mueller (@andrewmueller.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T17:57:48.756Z

…& what’s all the shit about calling it “statuary grade” marble?

"go to TikTok. See for yourself."

derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T04:25:00.773Z

…look…I don’t know enough about masonry to tell you if you bang two different kinds of rocks together which one of them the other one will break…but…if I go to a guy who knows about stone & say I’m looking for a chunk of rock that might have a statue in it I could bring out if I treat it *just* right & don’t fuck it up in the process…& he points at a piece of marble

this is blood libel gutter racism of the kind that you only encounter if you or your staff are spending a lot of time in online spaces that are avowedly white supremacist

elias isquith (@eliasisquith.blog) 2025-10-31T14:10:47.474Z

…if I also say to the same guy…hey, so I’ve got this bathroom suite it’d be fully awesome if I could clad in gloss-finish white marble you won’t see water on until you put your weight on it…which if at all possible will have a grain that helps the fluorescent lighting, really…eliminate any sense of the edges of anything until you might lose all sense of depth perception…if maybe you were someone I wanted to impress by getting them to break a hip after I invite them for a sleepover…got anything good for that?

15 million Americans are going to lose their health care.

Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) 2025-10-31T22:04:44.572Z

…& he points at the same hunk of marble & uses the other hand to gesture at some monstrous band-saw arrangement?

This is Bad (source: https://network.fintechtakes.com/library/3d38ce6b-a988-4be6-b447-b0eaa3bcc2b5)

…if I’m serious about my statues I’m finding a new stone guy…even I know you want different stuff hewn out of the place they found it for those two purposes…even if…unlike the guy posting the bathroom images like they’re a brag…you work with the stone in the sort of go-with-the-grain ways that gets said about wood…& then maybe even doing it the way he did it doesn’t actually look as fucking awful as it does…I dunno…but it’s like someone made a special effort to do it the worst possible way…& I can’t hear his use of “statuary” like it means anything other than “& I spent extra to have this look particularly like the shittest implementation possible of my at best mediocre design vision”…& even if it did…what would that be…”fuck a michelangelo, this is what you can get out of marble in the hands of a real genius at this stuff”?

…not, like…”my name is michael caine” or anything

…I mean…that way lies…well…madness…dunnit?

…anyway

Ah yes, "We the Democrats" is definitely what a Republican official in a Republican administration meant when she said "your government is failing you…we have failed you"

Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T14:32:02.178Z

…much as the trolled-by-reality bit shows no signs of relenting…it’s pretty clear you just can’t get the staff these days

The group chat pings around school drop-off and dismissal time. “All quiet at [Elementary School X],” one message says, or “smooth sailing at [Middle School Y].” Neighbors are on heightened alert because a federal government helicopter has been doing laps over our communities…

Molly Jong-Fast (@mollyjongfast.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T14:15:09.159Z

I gotta be real, I did not suspect we would reach "roving mobs of white folks chanting "shame" at ICE" within 9 months, and it really feels like a sign of how much more horrifying it must be on the ground than those of us not there can even imagine.

Bree (@mostlybree.kitrocha.com) 2025-10-31T21:35:58.661Z

…that request means I don’t have an easy way to embed the video…which might be a blessing of sorts…but the accompanying text from the part that doesn’t so much like that sort of sharing reads

From an Evanston resident filming an arrest at Oakton/Asbury ~an hour ago:

“He was being very violent with her, I said ‘You got to stop that,’ and he said, ‘Step back or I’ll fucking shoot you.‘ I step back, and then I continue to record, at which point he turned around and pointed a gun at me.”

…so…weird for me to feel like me & the pope might agree about enough to get along…hand to god

why would he come for online trads like this

…but…strange times make for strange bedfellows…& who knows how they’d swing if that’s the foxhole they were in when the stars are spangled & the rockets glare red while the bell that tolls tolled for thee?

Saying this was considered so beyond-the-pale overtly racist it made Enoch Powell a pariah in the woke cancel culture of 1960s Britain.

Andy Craig (@andycraig.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T21:08:49.661Z

…now…my lawyers tell me that this is not the way in which this distinction is seen to be drawn by your actual judges…but…they judge actual harms…so…they can go hang not-the-five-he-wanted-’em-to for a second while I get the next bit somewhat ill-advisedly off my chest…in a way I’m mostly comfortable doing now because of the extreme unlikeliness of there ever being an occasion upon which I might find myself with the other two elements required to lead me into temptation by offering me the means & opportunity to inflict a bit of the ol’ bodily harm on babyface (beardo-edition)…so it shouldn’t really bother anyone as much as that guy already bothers me without it being a good enough reason to put his ass in court…if I freely admit to having the motive down about six ways from…as irony would have it…sunday…& as far as I can tell probably won’t run out of fuel for that pyre of righteous indignation for more than the proverbial month of sundays…so…in such a pedantically-hypothetical-to-really-make-a-point-about-that-part-being-as-true-as-this-part sense…said very-much-said-&-not-done-outside-anyone’s-imagination-so-un-bunch-them-panties-&-put-the-big-boy-pants-back-on-before-you-get-that-candy-ass-lit-up-by-some-pansies-I-know…bodily harm…grievous or otherwise…you’re specifically-your-god-damn-ed fucking-right that would be aggravated…aggravated is very much the mot fucking juste, mon brave

…no

Just enter your name and birthday to create a new account, then start earning points! Simply type each thought or feeling you have, or remember having, and any associated events or circumstances, into the myData field and tap the Scrape button. More unique data means more points, and better coupons!

more mr. nice guy (@juniorhoncho.bsky.social) 2025-10-30T23:01:01.695Z

…really

The new hot job in AI: forward-deployed engineers on.ft.com/4hY4rIt

Financial Times (@financialtimes.com) 2025-11-02T05:50:45.144175Z

…if you’re hard of hearing I can tell you where to put that

anyone who boosts AI has to explain to me why this is worth it

Salomé Viljoen (@salome.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T01:31:03.137Z

…*before* you put it in your pipe & fucking smoke it, too

Premium newsletter: Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft need $2 Trillion in AI revenue by 2030 or they've wasted their capex. The massive cost of building data centers and constant decay in value of expensive-to-run GPUs may make AI profits impossible to achieve.www.wheresyoured.at/big-tech-2tr/

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-10-31T17:24:11.334Z

…but

Despite sinking $605 billion+ in capex into AI since 2023, big tech refuses to share their revenues, instead choosing to commit another $400bn next year. Based on my analysis, they have four years to make $2 Trillion in *NEW* revenue to make the capex worth it.www.wheresyoured.at/big-tech-2tr/

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-10-31T17:24:11.335Z

The AI bubble has a dirty secret – the depreciation of GPUs. The cost of GPUs is spread across years of earnings, eating away at net income – a huge problem when big tech's AI revenues (as reported already) are, in many cases, lower than depreciation itself.www.wheresyoured.at/big-tech-2tr…

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-10-31T17:24:11.336Z

The other GPU problem is that NVIDIA is on a yearly upgrade cycle, meaning that the revenue potential of a GPU declines constantly, meaning that the revenue potential of these chips is under constant price pressure. They lose both value *and* potential over time.www.wheresyoured.at/big-tech-2tr…

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-10-31T17:24:11.337Z

GPUs cost money to run even when they're sitting idle, and the up-front cost to build a data center to put them in immediately puts any hyperscaler in a massive revenue hole to fill for a GPU that will become less valuable every single year. It's a disaster.wheresyoured.at/big-tech-2tr…

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-10-31T17:24:11.338Z

The latest generation of NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs also, according to The Information, have a negative 100% gross margin, in part because they take so much time and money to install, losing Oracle $100m on them in three months. Oracle may never make a profit renting them.wheresyoured.at/big-tech-2tr…

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-10-31T17:24:11.339Z

Based on GPu depreciation, debt and capex, I estimate big tech must make $2 for every $1 of capex. They also have a time limit, because in four years many of their GPUs will be end-of-life – and likely lead to billions in impairment charges when they're sold off.www.wheresyoured.at/big-tech-2tr…

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-10-31T17:24:11.340Z

The AI bubble is also a debt bubble. Meta, Google, Oracle, Amazon and Microsoft have added hundreds of billions of dollars of debt and leases to finance AI, all without providing proof of real revenue potential.This is no longer coming out of free cash flow.www.wheresyoured.at/big-tech-2tr…

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-10-31T17:24:11.341Z

Microsoft needs $344 billion+ in new AI revenue by 2030, and also has a new problem: their 27% share of OpenAI means they have to take billions of dollars in losses every quarter until OpenAI becomes profitable.Microsoft stopped reporting AI revenue in January.www.wheresyoured.at/big-tech-2tr…

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-10-31T17:24:11.342Z

Google is in a similar position, needing $294bn+ in new AI revenue by 2030, and the number increases every single quarter they decide to pile in more capex. Google has made it clear they intend to burn more money, and we need to start asking why they're doing so.www.wheresyoured.at/big-tech-2tr…

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-10-31T17:24:11.343Z

Meta needs $234.7bn+ in AI revenue by 2030, and doesn't appear to have any AI revenue right now. Mark Zuckerberg is burning so much money, and doesn't have a strategy other than "burn more." It's one of the most insane things I've seen in corporate history.www.wheresyoured.at/big-tech-2tr…

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-10-31T17:24:11.344Z

Amazon needs $338 billion+ in AI revenue by 2030. Instead of telling us why they're spending $116bn on capex this year, Amazon instead said they're planning to spend even more than that in 2026. They do not disclose AI revenue. It's insane.www.wheresyoured.at/big-tech-2tr…

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-10-31T17:24:11.345Z

While I've said big tech needs $2Tr+ in AI revenue by 2030, the reality is that it's likely much more with depreciation, the cost of running these services, and the fact they've all ramped up future capex. It's one of the most egregious wastes of money in history.www.wheresyoured.at/big-tech-2tr…

Ed Zitron (@edzitron.com) 2025-10-31T17:24:11.346Z

…like the man says

I can’t stress this enough: you cannot understand politics without reading this paragraph about why there’s no such thing as a 1/3rd pound hamburger

Next door in Silicon Valley (@nextdoorsv.bsky.social) 2025-10-30T02:26:26.350Z

…still…how many pictures-worth-a-thousand-words-&-not-one-of-’em-fit-for-family-consumption does it fucking take?

Lmao literally having a “we’re rich” party while they cut SNAP is like cartoon level evil it’s like the villain in a Dr. Seuss book

…sigh

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess…”

Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social) 2025-11-01T03:09:33.796Z

…do I look like some kind of fucking womble to you, chief?

…no offense to uncle bulgaria, tobermory or the rest of the tribe…I mean…if it’s a “you & whose army?” situation you’re in…you could do a damn sight worse

…still…where were we?

…oh, right…don’t get it twisted

…so…until you get done with feeling like the only dance we do is stuck in the middle [of] [1984] with you…to this bit

…what with all the…how can I put this?

Remember when Grok was only something Heinlein readers knew about and oh.
I get it now.

…it’s fun when words that mean things get used by people who know what they mean to make them maybe mean new things

“There was much new to grok”: an analysis of word coinage in science fiction literature

…but…like…when fuckwits just use words for what they used to mean so that part stands in for the parts of what they’re using it to mean that they know wouldn’t get a pass if they didn’t have the cover…that fucking sucks…just like they do…so…maybe this doesn’t seem like much to you even if you don’t get as mad as me when these shit-eating-ass-brained homunculi drop names out of their mouths that ought to induce a thunderbolt to earth their ass for the last bright, fiery time…but…it really could be worse, you know…they could have read dahlgren

Dahlgren. Samuel R. Delany’s epic dream-like science fiction novel of shifting realities. [r/WeirdLit]

…IYKYK

…if you can bear to stick with it & don’t have too much trouble with the curve…a ride

…so…fuck reality…if you can’t be a womble…try reading dahlgren…either it’ll make you feel better…or you’ll feel better when you stop trying…so…basically you can’ t lose

…pssst @farscythe

…or…I dunno…there’s probably an audiobook of the man who was thursday…that way you’d even still be able to get enough housework done not to get caught slipping if jesus comes back & we all need to look like we’ve been busy

…speaking of which…maybe it’s that I’m slipping & it’s just new to me…but…pretty sure it’s new enough I’m not the only one it might be distracting today?

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20 Comments

  1. Women have it better. From Maureen Dowd’s (!) column in the New York Times:

    “It’s young men who are not making connections with friends, mentors or mates,” said Scott Galloway, the podcaster and New York University professor [oh no] whose new book is “Notes on Being a Man,” a memoir/aspirational code for masculinity for young men.

    “When a woman doesn’t have a romantic relationship, she pours that energy into her work and her friends,” he said. “When a man doesn’t have a romantic relationship, he pours that energy into porn and conspiracy theories. It’s the guy that comes off the tracks and goes down a rabbit hole,” sometimes, in extreme cases, leading to mental illness and violence.

    Porn and conspiracy theories. Mental illness and violence. Thank God I got out of the dating scene 40 years ago and am not currently a single 20-something incel in 2025.

        • …if memory serves…theatre work didn’t have to do any harm “with the ladies”…even if… especially if…don’t really know…but…backstage is…ummm…not known for being the place the most attention is paid to…&…endless rehearsals…performances…wrap parties…proverbial things leading to equally-proverbial other things…not unheard of

          …&…I think the guys I know who “took dance” in some capacity…& took it seriously…did at least as well if not better that way than the ones on sports teams

          …can’t speak for the post-andrew-tate internet-poisoned crop but my guess is the more things change the more they stay the same when it comes to the things it might actually be worth doing for at-least-the-possibility-of-love

          …&…I dunno as I believe “any girl, ever” has uttered anything along the lines of…say…jamie lee curtis in a fish called wanda while cleese tries to think desperately of things that might sound like still-russian if you say it with the accent…but with tell-me-what-the-raging-asshole-mysoginist-wanker-thinks for the that-really-does-it-for-me ingredient

          …& if they did I would, I think, probably question the choices of anyone I knew who was thinking about dating them

          …but…unless a bunch of them have been lying to me for a lot of years for reasons that would elude me…quite a few ladies are fond of a bit of dance…one or two quite like the theater thing, too

          …really not sure why I’m still typing?

          …but it’s sunday…if I can’t reply to a reply to a partially-rhetorical question on a sunday…then, pray, when can a person even do that sort of thing?

          …it’s health & safety gone mad, is what it is…they’ve been saying it for years…& here it’s finally happened…so…that’s a turn up for the books?

    • I dunno. I’m the old guy at school. Not one of my classmates is within my dating range, but I can talk to them and I do. Male or female. I get being socially awkard aka shy. I was when I was kid. Not as much as a teen, but I got all weird (love bombing and other creepy desperate behavior) which didn’t help.

      • That’s the thing: it’s an age thing. I kind of know that you are younger than I am, but also old enough to have been socialized before the age of social media and the smart phone.

        • …I recall being vaguely that age…or recall being that age…vaguely…& I don’t think most of the people I spent time with particularly knew the term code-switching…& I guess I wonder

          …the kids/teens/young people I know are pretty cool for the most part…none of the lads seem like they’d fall for that slippery slope bullshit, for instance…but people I know who teach are…while not saying “it’s all of them”…pretty horrified but what they’re hearing from the kids they teach

          …like…not even in a “came to school thinking he could go all andrew tate & that’s hard to deal with without losing your job if you stick to all the things you’re supposed to” stuff…of which there’s maybe some but not perhaps as much as you’d think…directed at teachers

          …but the baseline for what the girls have to put up with has been pretty dismal one way or the other for…maybe sort of always…& that side of the thing backsliding as far as it reportedly has leaves me wondering if I just get the “for people’s parents” version of the ones I know & some of them need sitting down & straightening out about how massively they’d be fucking up going that way…which…not everyone would listen to from their parents…or a teacher

          …but one of those generally tends to think that if the kid’s going off the rails that’s because the other one dropped that ball…&…there’s a way some kids respond to parents getting divorced where they try to play one off against the other that has parallels to the way some will seed antipathy between the two to provide cover…but it’s also pretty possible to take the kid less seriously than maybe you should if you assume that’s all it is & take the word of the adult over the dependent minor

          …&…you *won’t believe* what the daily mail can make out of that sort of thing?

  2. That Edison Park guy who’s calling the ICE agents, “you pricks” is so familiar to me as a type that there’s a very good chance we’re related. Edison Park is a neighborhood that a lot Italians moved to when they built the UIC campus and displaced them. My parents retired to Edison Park. I know that area like the back of my hand.

  3. It’s a fucking bubble. No different than the optical bubble that killed Nortel. The analysts were predicting 40% fucking growth over 20 years (and our idiot senior leaders went with it.) Who sustains 40% growth?

    The only difference is that most of those fuckers have the cash on hand to survive a crash of their stock. Nortel didn’t because in part John fucking Roth was too much of a control freak/engineer greedy motherfucker to authorize a sale of Nortel stock at the peak price (when it was 2/3 of the TSX index) and lost the fraction of control. The amount of money the company would have gained would have kept the idiot place alive till 4G came out instead, but what the fuck do I know?

  4. soooo…how long can federal employees go without pay before they stop coming to work?
    coz..after a full month i would assume all of them have actually missed a pay day now….im sure some of them can eat a month and ride it out on savings whilst not being too worried yet….but im equally sure others are already at the point of having an existential crisis

    theres gotta be a point where the whole thing just stops working right?

    • The last long shutdown basically ended when air traffic controllers gave up and called in sick in large amounts.
      To be clear – it’s because ATC is needed for us peasants and the fancy people with private planes. Ohh nooooo the elites are impacted, too! Time to call the politicians and tell them to figure it the fuck out.

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