52 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

  1. Jack, thanks

    yes it does sound like October’s winds, falling swirling leaves, increasing darkness and at the end an all hallows eve funeral march with saintly skeletons on parade. 

  2. BiD, this one’s for you in regard to your comment last thread “I was afraid my ballot would get thrown out if I left any races unchecked, so I voted Repug in uncontested, local races (and there were many).  Folks are probably afraid to run Dem.…”

     

    Attribution: Partisan poll watchers by John Cole, Georgia Recorder, georgiarecorder.com

  5. WOW, last night at a Las Vegas Harris/Walz rally Barack Obama dropped a bombshell that ought to be a game changer in this campaign: He detailed how Trump’s incompetence (and lying) killed nearly a half million people:

    “When I was president, I had been talking to scientists for a while so during my last year in office, we put together a pandemic playbook for how to deal with the eventuality of a pandemic.. When Trump came in, we gave over this playbook and he threw it out. I want to be fair on this, no matter who was going to president, this was going to be a problem… But if you look at a country like Canada, their per capita death rate was 40% lower than here. So just do the math. That’s more than 400k people. People’s grandparents, people’s fathers, people’s moms who would’ve been alive if Trump had just paid attention and tried to follow the plan that we gave him. It might have been somebody in your family that could’ve been impacted. So, if somebody tells you that this doesn’t make a difference, having somebody competent who cares about you.. it does matter and at some point, it will make a difference to them”

    Video.. https://x.com/Acyn/status/1847840937990398319?t=MXvc4Q_RQ_hDsfljglPJ6A&s=19
    READ MORE…
    — PBS Newshour: Obama team left pandemic playbook for Trump administration, officials confirm
    — Vanity Fair: How Trump Gutted Obama’s Pandemic-Preparedness Systems
    — AP: Trump disbanded NSC pandemic unit that experts had praised

  6. craig,  why is it that the media never covered the story in full about trump throwing out the pandemic playbook?

    given the length of the scourge when we were all in lock down with plenty of time, nothing much to do except zoom and people (surprisingly the otherwise healthy young) were needlessly dying in every state, seems like it would have been a no-brainer.    heck, I bet they would have won the nobel  forwriting it.

  7. PatD, it was covered during the pandemic — the story that Trump White House ignored Obama’s plan made the rounds but why the hell it took Obama to bring it up in this campaign is beyond me

  8. Pumpkin Head managed to top himself last night with a rally speech as nuts as ever.

    Finally, the New York Times isn’t sane washing.

    “Former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday spewed crude and vulgar remarks at a rally in Pennsylvania that included an off-color remark about a famous golfer’s penis size and a coarse insult about Vice President Kamala Harris.

    The performance, 17 days before the election in a critical battleground state, added to the impression of the Republican nominee as increasingly unfiltered and undisciplined. It comes as some of Mr. Trump’s allies and aides worry that Mr. Trump’s temperament and crass style are alienating undecided voters.”

     

  9. this may be an explanation for why mr. little mushroom man was so fixated on arnie palmer’s genitalia and as NYT says “spewed crude and vulgar remarks” yesterday:

    Why Foul Language Occurs in Dementia and How to Respond

    Many people with Alzheimer’s disease and other kinds of dementia follow a similar path as the disease progresses, yet not everyone exhibits the same symptoms. Cognitive changes such as memory loss are a hallmark of dementia, but challenging behaviors such as foul language can also develop.
    […]
    Dementia is a condition that affects the brain, and the brain controls language. That’s why people with dementia sometimes have difficulty finding the right words, or as the disease progresses into the later stages, they may not be able to speak at all.
    Another effect of dementia can be the loss of a filter of which words are spoken. Words that otherwise would be caught before they were spoken now may be uttered freely due to the loss of inhibitions and personality changes that sometimes develop as dementia progresses. A person who would never want to hurt others before developing dementia might call someone hurtful, offensive names now.2

     

     

     

    Dementia also can trigger frustration about the many cognitive losses and the need for dependence on others for help, and that frustration can all come flowing out—sometimes through swearing and name-calling.
    […]
    Common Behavioral Triggers in Dementia

    • A change in routine
    • Overstimulating surroundings
    • An unfamiliar space
    • A lack of personal space
    • A confrontation with a loved one or stranger
    • Feeling patronized

    With these triggers, all of us may feel anxiety or frustration, but combined with the cognitive changes and loss of inhibition of dementia, the reaction may be magnified. It may help for you to consider the circumstances your loved one is facing which would leave you feeling apprehensive or frustrated.3

     

    Psychological (cognitive) triggers may also lead to foul language. Some of these potential triggers may include delusions and paranoia.

  15. Craig – WTOP kept playing that every hour all night long (bad night no sleep), I finally changed the radio to 90.9 classical music and got a couple hours sleep.  Truly sfb has cracked, a friend had a grandfather who went vulgar as his brain turned to mush.  Just like what the orange moran is doing this last week.  Will faux snooze cut him off when he tells sex “jokes”?

  17. All of the MAGAt-Russo-Republicans are feeling their grip on power slipping, and they still can’t bring themselves to tell the truth about anything.   It’s too late for them, anyway.  God may forgive them, but folks will remember.   

  18.  
    Just ran across this research article by Goldman Sachs:
     

    On average, a ChatGPT query needs nearly 10 times as much electricity to process as a Google search. In that difference lies a coming sea change in how the US, Europe, and the world at large will consume power — and how much that will cost. 
    For years, data centers displayed a remarkably stable appetite for power, even as their workloads mounted. Now, as the pace of efficiency gains in electricity use slows and the AI revolution gathers steam, Goldman Sachs Research estimates that data center power demand will grow 160% by 2030.

  19. An interesting rant:

    I am tired of hearing about Mark Zuckerberg’s “new look,” in part because I don’t care about it, and in part because I see it as yet another blatant — and successful — attempt to divert attention from the outright decay of the platforms he runs.  It doesn’t matter that Mark Zuckerberg has a gold chain,nor is it of any journalistic importance to ask him why he’s wearing it, as any questions around or articles about his new look are, by definition, a distraction from the very real and damaging things that Mark Zuckerberg does every day, like how Facebook and Instagram are intentionally manipulative and harmful platforms or how Meta, as a company, creates far more emissions than it can cover with renewable energy, or that Meta’s AI product’s only differentiating feature is that its 500 million monthly active users are helping kill our planet by generating meaningless slop

     He goes on to describe his irritation with how the media treats the “rock star” Tech billionaires and how they play along to get good stories.
    It kinda reminds me of Trump and the national media. Are information outlets and journalism in particular irreparably broken?

    Jack

  23. Are information outlets and journalism in particular irreparably broken?

    journalism alive and well, legacy corporate media irreparably broken

  24. Imagine a bunch of gop bring such cowards that they can’t even resort to treachery against him…….yet.

  26. the guy loves McDonalds, yet never saw fries put in the container before 🤔 
     

    the fry station is in sight of the counter in EVERY McDonalds

    out of touch

  29. https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-media-whistleblower-complaint-devin-nunes

    “An internal Truth Social complaint reviewed by ProPublica calls for the firing of CEO Devin Nunes, alleging he has pursued an “America Last” hiring policy, “consistently lied” and made the company vulnerable to action by regulators.”

    “The letter also accuses Nunes, a former Republican congressman, of hiring unqualified members of his inner circle and being dishonest with employees at the company, which runs the social media platform Truth Social.”
     

  30. https://fortune.com/2024/10/18/trump-media-iran-russia-china/
    “The company building Trump Media’s tech has historic links to Iran, Russia, and China”
    ”Earlier this year, two obscure companies from Northern Louisiana brokered a multimillion-dollar deal with former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social and walked away with a finders’ fee valued at $155 million.”
     

    “The companies—WorldConnect IPTV and JedTec—formed a joint venture, named WorldConnect Technologies, which served as the middleman between Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and Perception TV CDN, the company hired to build the tech infrastructure needed to power Truth Social’s foray into video streaming.”

    “Perception has a convoluted corporate structure that spans three countries and two continents. A holding company called Perception Group is listed in Ontario, Canada. It includes two subsidiaries: one in London and another in Ljubljana, Slovenia…”
    “Perception previously worked with at least two Iranian companies: the Iranian telco Baran Telecom and the IT firm Fanap…later Perception announced a joint venture with Fanap, called Perception Gulf, that aimed to sell the company’s services throughout the region, according to a press release. Fanap is part-owned by the semi-public Pasargad Bank, which the U.S. directly sanctioned in 2020 over fears money from the bank would be used to fund Iran’s nuclear program.”
    “TV channels for Russia, China, and Islamic fundamentalists”
    “A former employee told Fortune Vision247’s clients included Christian evangelist channels and adult networks, such as the popular U.K. soft porn channel Babestation.”
     
    So much to unravel. 
     
     
     
     

  31. 1) I quit mckieD’s after a $9 1/4 pounder, no cheese.  This stunt confirmed it was a wise decision.
    2) For the stunt I hope millions more join me and swear off the easy route to fast food.
    3) You can add BK because they are still in russia.
    4) I cannot think of anything more disgusting than an old delusional stinking dirty old man contaminating a restaurant, not even wearing a hat or hair net. 
    5) And, if it is still on going, the orange moran is doing a sit down “townhall”.  All tuckered out from standing around in the way for fifteen minutes.

  32. i won’t hold a stunt by one franchisee where he closed his location to the public and only served fake planted customers against the friendly, hard-working employees at my local joint

  33. I forgot number 6: no information yet about any NDA’s to prevent the children (using magat term for people under zero years old or younger than fourteen if female, and anyone younger than forty if a magat, talking to anyone about the stench, the stupidity or the creepiness of mister orange hands.

  35. BB – Mark Cuban worked a Dairy Queen near my office many years ago.   I went over at lunch to play the games set up in the empty field by DQ.  When I saw the local news, Cuban was handing a cone to someone and he had a bandage on his finger, and he was handling money and food.  Yikes!

  38. Okay for Cuban – no.  Whoever is in charge needs to say “NO”. 
     
    One of the things those doing feedings in disaster zones, more than just Red Cross, does is keep contamination to a minimum.  We may not have running water, what we do have are gloves, thermometers, sanitizer and over one hundred years of experience.  We would never allow the idiot, entourage, cult, into the safe food zone.  When in charge of feeding I have no problem stopping things from proceeding if unsafe.  That store was unsafe.
     
    and if it is not safe for most food, we have MRE’s.  I have taught thousands of people how to “cook” their MRE meals.  We have bottles, or cans (usually from breweries),  of water and personal care kits so clean hands are possible. 
     
    But, anything out of that store is considered nasty.

  43. I like the young rocker version of Layla but I also like the old man version too. It is hard to believe they are the same song.
     

  48. someone told me that guy’s hitting stats and i replied “those are good stats but greatest ever?”
     
    they were like “he’s a pitcher”. 😮 

  49. Re: “Arnold Palmer”

    Asked three times Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” about what he thought of Trump’s remarks, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., refused to answer.

    “I’ll address it, let me answer it,” Johnson said, without ever answering the question. “Don’t say it again. We don’t have to say it. I get it.”

    😆 

    From this laugh-a-minute article:
    https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-arnold-palmer-rally-comments-dde882b5841a7f5ed7ffd0f306ddf732

  50. conservative “rags” reporting trump “pulling ahead”, let’s just say it’s tied
     
    HOW IS THIS RACE TIED???

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