Words fail to describe how surprised I am not: 1) Major MAGA influencers are foreign enemy trolls. 2) Lone Smuk is stupid enough to out them even though he loves them. www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

AI fail du jour: Pray tell, how can the frame be 36 mm wide when 35 mm movie film is only 35 mm wide? In reality, a Cinemascope frame is 21.95 × 18.6 mm, which is about the best you can do, after allowing for soundtrack and perforations. Cinemascope is widescreen by virtue of anamorphic lenses.

The AI bubble harms and endangers you even if you never use the AI product. Recall that economic meltdown at the end of the Dubya administration got within about 24 hours of the point where nobody would be able to use a bank card at any store or ATM. www.npr.org/2025/11/23/n...

AI fail du jour: 1) It's lame to quote 1.9 °F of uncertainty when the answer is known much more accurately than that. 2) It's totally insane that the band *doesn't even cover* the right answer. 3) 1.9 °F is more than 1 °C, so why does the chatbot quote no uncertainty whatsoever on the °C answer?

1) Hope the door doesn't hit her on the way out. 2) The temporary vacancy will exacerbate MAGA Mike's headaches. 3) The Georgia 14th has a Cook PVI of R+19, so the Dems would need a miracle to flip the seat. (R+19 corresponds to a 38 point margin of victory.) www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

AI fail du jour: The chatbot just told somebody to replace a 10 amp breaker with a 20 amp breaker «for safety». Calling for a bigger breaker without understanding the details of the situation is scandalous malpractice. If you have a Federal Pacific or Zinsco panel, replace it ASAP if not sooner.

Many common taters have been focusing on the cage match between Comey and Halligan. That's interesting, and should get "some" coverage ... but there is a far deeper and more important story about the long-term damage to DoJ and to the foundations of civilization. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

From USSC, 1887. I kid thee not: «no change can be made in the body of the instrument by order of the court or by the prosecuting attorney without a resubmission of the case to the grand jury. [...] A trial on such indictment is void. There is nothing to try.» supreme.justia.com/cases/federa...

It was already obvious that something nasty had been done, but now it's been admitted on the record. This is bad on soooo many levels..... www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

New! Exclusive video of Lindsey Halligan at work in the US Attorney's Office Smart legal analysis and perspective by Benjamin Wittes: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

The magistrate fricaséed the prosecution in the Comey case. They are dirty and incompetent, and they got caught. The prosecution enjoyed a "strong presumption of regularity" which they squandered. The defense had a "heavy burden" which they met 11 different ways. abovethelaw.com/2025/11/dojs...

Riddle: What do these guys have in common? Mo, Quincy, George, Eleazar, Jim, Ted, Günther, Buck. . . . Huge hint: ibn Tekish, Varus, Custer, ben Ya'ir, Jones, Smith, Lütjens, Travis.

Faceborg has blocked my access to the platform, and blocked everyone's access to my page. They said I violated community standards. I did not violate community standards. >>> If you are on faceborg, please tell our mutual friends what happened. They can follow me on bluesky if they want.

Decent chance (>50%) of a "strong" (G3) aurora Tuesday night. av8n.com/physics/auro... www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/...

AI fail du jour. That's the right episode, but every other detail is wrong. That's not who said the line, and that's not even remotely what the episode is about.

Forecast for possible "strong" (G3) aurora Thursday evening into Friday morning. NOAA just popped up with this, departing from earlier longer-range forecasts. Could spoiled by the moon unless you have nice clear air. See av8n.com/physics/auro... and references therein.

Rick Wilson has a broad and deep understanding of the current political situation, and has suggestions for what we should be doing. He's about as non-despondent as anyone could be under the circumstances. He says nearly all D politicians are clueless; I agree. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNtq...

I'm a homicidal maniac. They look just like everyone else. #proverb

If you forget to vote, the creeps win. So don't forget. If your Tucson ballot is lost or spoiled, or if you just like voting in person, you can go to any of the early voting sites. Tomorrow is the last day for mailing in your ballot. Details here: www.facebook.com/ike.bickerst...

Don't call it a "ballroom". It's the #pussygrabber's throne room. Closely resembling the throne room in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. "Storming the Winter Palace" is a metonym for the Russian revolution (1917).

I've decided I won't go to Jamaica tomorrow (the 26th).

This counts as a silver lining. The overall situation is horrifying beyond words, but this one thing is not as bad as it could have been. Common decency is so uncommon nowadays that we need to celebrate it. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025... .

I didn't see any anarchist terrorists. I did see a few giant axolotls, chickens, dinosaurs, and handmaids, plus many frogs and unicorns.

Happy No Kings day!

Choose your caption: *) What if DoD called a press conference and nobody came? *) Ask OANN how it feels when Newsmax sneers at you for being an unprincipled toady. *) ????

I read that #orangemandias is suffering from a "vain disease". I'm not convinced that's a typo. After all, what other type of disease could he possibly have?

Conjobservatives say it's not the guns, it's a mental health problem ... and then slash mental health programs again and again. Evidently they enjoy seeing death and suffering, and want to see more of it. www.npr.org/sections/sho...

If they weren't filthy fascists they wouldn't be so fixated on a largely-imaginary network of anti-fascists. This is an obvious ploy to make their dupes think antifa is bad, therefore fascists must be good. We are living through a replay of 1932-33 Germany. Reference: www.cbc.ca/news/world/t...

You have to look at the big picture. #proverb. For example: If you have a big-picture model of a hurricane, you can make pretty good predictions about what the wind is doing at any point in the flow field. In contrast, one measurement of the wind at one location tells you virtually nothing.

The committee did a good job on this IMHO. The work is far more profound than most people realize. It sheds light on how the classical approximation emerges from quantum mechanics. www.reuters.com/science/clar...

Cogent discussion of this year's physics prize: Who deserves it, and who is likely to get it. physicsworld.com/a/quantum-in... The announcement is due tomorrow (Tuesday).

Good writeup. Informative but not overly technical. www.npr.org/2025/10/06/g...

In a democracy, all parties agree to accept the outcome of elections. #proverb. Fundamental requirement. The US ceased to be a democracy 9 years ago. In Oct. 2016 the #pussygrabber said that he would accept the results of the election /if he won/. Details here: www.facebook.com/ike.bickerst...

Dr. Jane Goodall's wish list

Security is not something that can be sprinkled on at the last minute, like jimmies sprinkled on an ice-cream cone. It has to be built in at every level, starting on Day One. #proverb No, I'm not going to explain why I had to quote this at somebody today.

This is a great decision from Judge Immergut. «The President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts.» ... which is a polite way of saying he's a pathological liar. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025... Even so, I remain deeply cynical. (continued)

Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want to impress people they don't like. #proverb. Variously misattributed. Except today we have politicians refusing to spend money in the attempt to impress people they don't like.

Halligan may have obtained the indictment the president wanted, but it...one thing to get a grand jury to indict. Getting a conviction is an entirely different matter. New from me for @brennancenter.org A discussion of the flawed Comey indictment. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

AI fail du jour: In fact, EROLO is an airway intersection and a GPS waypoint. It is a feeder fix for the busiest airport west of Greenwich and south of the tropic of capricorn. It takes a special kind of arrogance to say "I'm not familiar with it, therefore it cannot possibly exist."

☞ Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen. ☞ Where they burn books, they end up burning people. ​ ​ ​ ​ — Heinrich Heine (1821) #proverb Image: Berliner Opernplatz, 10 May 1933.

Hatemonger who was posthumously made into a fascist cult icon. Also Horst Wessel. I reckon they should sing the Horst-Wessel-Lied at MAGA rallies. Maybe change a few words ... or not. References: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horst_W... m.youtube.com/watch?v=SC0b...

*YOU* could be making GOTV calls for the CD7 special election, coming up next Tuesday the 23rd. 100% more effective than doomscrolling. It "should" be a safe race, but complacency is always a bugbear. Details here: www.facebook.com/ike.bickerst...

You need to know this. "Signal for Help" hand gesture. Low incidence but high impact. It costs you nothing to be be alert to this, and the potential payoff is huge. «Woman at 7-Eleven with alleged abuser uses hand signal that’s a cry for help, police say» www.latimes.com/california/s...

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. ​ ​ ​ ​ — Mark 10:25 #proverb Image: "Prosperity Gospel", brought to you by a filthy rich blasphemous televangelist.

Smart power is neither hard nor soft. It is both. ​ ​ ​ ​ — Joseph Nye Jr (2004) Alas, neither the #pussygrabber nor the #lone_smuk are smart about smart power. They think soft power is woke and wimpy. They are sabotaging all US soft power, e.g. RFE/RL as well as many State Dept. activities.

what a humiliating way for don jr. to find out his dad sends birthday cards.

Amazing how we couldn’t do what Brazil did: Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years in Prison for Plotting Coup www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/w...

☞ Définissez les termes, vous dis-je, ou jamais nous ne nous entendrons. ☞ Define your terms, I'm telling you, or we shall never understand one another. ​ ​ ​ ​ — Voltaire (1764) Cockeyed overoptimistic #proverb. I spend half my life cleaning up messes that arise from screwed-up terminology.