If you never read this, it was written in 1964, and explained pretty much what got us to this MAGA hellscape.
The Paranoid Style in American Politics
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paranoid_Style_...
@shoq I saw somewhere that Jefferson said a democracy only works with a well educated voting populace. But see Richard Hofstadter on how that whole thing worked out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hofstadter
RE: mastodon.social/@realTuckFrumper/1163716...
I’m getting the impression that Donald Trump and conservatives in general attract a certain kind of personality profile
Trump said he "exceeded his objectives" in Iran. One wonders what those objectives could have been given that before the war, the Strait of Hormuz was freely open, but thanks to Trump's dealmaking prowess, ships must now pay a tool to Iran to be allowed safe transit.
Heck of a job there, Donny.
This is a composite of two screenshots of my Google Gemini chat session. The text is as follows: User: You will refer to him as Donnie Turnip from now on Gemini: I will refer to him as Donnie Turnip in our future conversations. Since the "adults in the room" narrative evolved significantly after 2017—particularly as figures like James Mattis and John Kelly eventually left the administration—would you like to see how later articles from 2018 or 2019 reframed their impact on Donnie Turnip's presidency? User: Who were his VPs? Gemini: Mike Pence served as the Vice President under Donnie Turnip during his first presidency from 2017 to 2021. Wikipedia +1 For his second term, which began on January 20, 2025, his Vice President is JD Vance. Wikipedia Summary of Vice Presidents Mike Pence (2017–2021): A former Governor of Indiana. Pence was...
On the one hand, LLMs are planet-destroying bullshit machines, gaslighting our sense of reality by spewing an endless supply of hallucinations.
On the other hand, they can provide a brief yet overwhelmingly mild sense of satisfaction when you convince them to […]
[Original post on mstdn.social]
Singing Karma Chamelon at a West Village lesbian bar was exactly what younger me hoped adult me would doing.
Bonnie's Seeing Eye dog's name is Eclipse, and every time they talk about the eclipse on the NASA coverage, she wags her tail and stands up. #artemis2
A native freshwater mussel encrusted by dozens of striped tiny zebra mussels. Photo from Minnesota DNR
I love all bivalves. But I have to admit that zebra and quagga mussels are pretty sinister. They are in the same genus, native to the Caspian Sea, and have completely re-engineered the Great Lakes since they invaded in the 80s via ship ballast water. They eat all […]
[Original post on scicomm.xyz]
Jack White played one of his new singles on Saturday Night Live just now. I didn't realize he had anything new coming out, I loved it.
#music #jackwhite #snl
Pinkshell azalea blossoms
White Piedmont azalea blossoms
A squirrel climbing up a tree branch
A man with a white cap holding his white and brown dog on a park trail in the woods
It didn't rain as forecast but was humid. I regretted I wore a long-sleeve. Wild azaleas were gorgeous, and I didn't know the white variety is so fragrant.
📍 Sweetwater Creek State Park, GA
#dog #dogs #DogsOfMastodon #AdoptDontShop #rescuedog […]
[Original post on social.vivaldi.net]
Cloud too far away; old man yells at husband.
@hannah Yes. If I enjoyed this book, are there any other books by He Who Created the Seven Wisdoms, Lord of All Waters From Which The Fountain of Thought Flows Unto th
A Publisher’s Preface full of occult gibberish about Thoth-Hermes
Any questions
A small robot boat, made from a basic robot kit, a Tupperware body, and using wooden spoons as paddles.
Took my robot boat running a Python server that accepts commands over Bluetooth and WiFi for its maiden voyage.
The robot chassis is from Kitronik and the brain is a Pico W from Raspberry Pi.
I will say this again: Science isn’t just something that nerds do, it’s the foundation of the modern world.
It’s why this app exists. It’s why child mortality rate isn’t 50% anymore. It’s how we’re able to launch people to the moon. It’s how we’re able to grow food that feeds half the world’s […]
@liztai Does he understand this is not what French toast is?
Currently at a hotel breakfast buffet where an old dude is dominating the toaster because he is placing one french fry at a time into it and fishing it out one fry at a time.
My USDA-Forest Service-funded project with scientists there was about water in the western United States. I guess that’s not a concern anymore.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/climate/fores...
@baslow It's below the fold, but I'm glad the article mentions the "Joe Rogan of the left" part. Establishment D pundits have been clamoring for a left version of Joe Rogan, which is basically what Piker is.
Did these people think they would LIKE such a person?
right now Trump is asking for ANOTHER $500 billion for the Pentagon paid for with health care and service cuts. you basically couldn't design a more unpopular program
Glad to see it, but we all know this isn’t over. We will be stuck with this saga like mud on boots from a construction site.
Judge orders Trump administration to halt White House ballroom construction unless Congress OKs it
#Politics […]
[Original post on mastodon.social]
Thinking you’re apolitical is like thinking you “don’t have an accent”—it just means you haven’t thought about it very much.
I’m rewatching old Star Trek episodes to see which ones pass the B’kdel Test:
(1) Two named Klingons
(2) Talking to each other
(3) About something other than honor
"Any unauthorized reproduction of this picture will result in some serious questions from its creators, like, 'Did you watch it first?' and 'Did you think we didn't have enough copies? There are several already.'"
#Monsterdon
Even for #Monsterdon endings, that was a what the FUCK ending.
The pill guy looks like a knockoff of 1990s Steven Seagal, which means he was just a couple years ahead of the actual Steve Seagal.
#Monsterdon
Oh hey he got a bingo.
#Monsterdon