Linking Up

Last century Rupert Murdoch filled the skies with satellites he dubbed the Clarke Ring (in honor of Arthur C. Clarke) and all kinds of sci-fi conspiracy theories erupted. This time we’re being enmeshed in Musk’s matrix mash-up. No need for tall tales now combining his brain chip project with 2-billion-dollar taxpayer-paid plans to enhance his space network.

Musk has inside track to take over contract to fix air traffic communications system

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Author: patd

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

59 thoughts on “Linking Up”


  1. Some federal employees wrote “very rude” replies to the DOGE email that demanded they list five accomplishments, the White House declined to explain why President Trump has a huge bruise on his right hand, and beloved American restaurant chain Hooters is preparing to file for bankruptcy.
    #Colbert #Comedy #Monologue

  2. So much for Trump’s lies he’ll balance the budget. His House bill passed last night raises the debt ceiling $4 trillion to pay for tax cuts for the rich. And it’s own language shows no deficit reduction.

  6. So far I have not seen one post about how the former republican party/magat party has spent decades calling the Democratic Party/liberal “commie scum” and “socialists” and it turns out they are. Just another example of magat projecting what they are on others. A facists/socialist/communist tactic.

  8. Well, Maddow did as Olbermann requested, too bad her staff paid the price but that’s the biz they’re in

  9. They’re trying to piss maddow off so she’ll quit and they won’t have to pay her the money on her contract. Notice they didn’t fire Maddow. She knows this and so will just go ahead with her show until they fire her and then they’ll have to pay her
    She’s smart and also she saw how Olberman became rich enough to live next to Central Park without having a real job.
    And besides…..Olbermann was right, she and the others SHOULD yell about it. They know the ship is sinking and that they’re all on borrowed time.

  11. A couple of weeks back Cord Cutters, a YouTube channel, talked about the news that Comcast was looking to dump off MSNBC, CNBC and one of the Spanish language channels. Those were put into a separate company for handling the demise. What is obvious to some, moving from Dem/liberal to center right republican/magat, was causing viewers to disappear, was not seen by the management. Just as CNN became a joke, so had MSNBC.

    For several years I kept cable just to watch MSNBC. Finally, the shift right/far right was too much, I could only take so many minutes a week of Joe and Mika, I gave up. For over a year I tried to get rid of cable, until finally last year I got out. On YouTube MSNBC pops segments so if there is something I want to see I can. Cable television is going down so maybe the MSNBC channel will be put on some over the air next to QVC.


  12. The flies on the Whitehouse walls are witnessing some things never before seen in United States history. It does not bode well. Song creation and video by Don Caron. Vocal performance by Mikael Vanhanen
    Executive Producers Don Caron and Jerry Pender

  14. Sturg, if you’re viewing on your phone it might not allow viewing some embedded video. I had to change a setting on mine to do that. Shouldn’t be a problem on a desktop.

  15. show us the money

    Tonight on The Daily Show, Trump claims Doge is saving billions daily, but the numbers don’t add up—Wall Street Journal estimates the real savings at just $2.5 million. Meanwhile, the government struggles to cut spending, exposing Trump’s failure to identify real waste and fraud| The Daily Show on Comedy Central

  16. alert to all you seniors and disabled on social security, Medicare or Medicaid: be prepared for ellen’s next “what did you do last week” memo demanding a response or face termination. termination in this case is literal. equivalent euphemisms are “being offed, neutralized, starved and dying a slow death.”

  17. Trump’s “big beautiful” deficit-busting deal:
    Spending cuts: $2 trillion
    Tax cuts for the rich, spending increases: $4.8 trillion
    Deficit increase: $2.8 trillion

  18. The tax rate combined with tax cuts for the wealthy never should have happened. It should be at 60% for over $250K. Stealing from Social Security made it possible to cover the deficit those cuts caused, but now that SS income is only covering the outgo, this is no longer true. Congress doesn’t want to pay back those stolen funds so now they want to cut SS and Medicaid.

  20. Gotta laugh at Republicans once again trying to hide the ball on Medicaid cuts. Sure, the word itself wasn’t in last night’s budget resolution, but it directs the committee overseeing Medicaid to cut more than 800 billion dollars.

  21. I loved Joy Reid’s original MSNBC weekend morning shows. I watched her coverage the Saturday morning of the shocking Charlottesville riots and about fell off my exercise bike while texting Mr. Ivy you won’t believe what is happening. After she moved up to weeknights, the tone changed and the schedule became less convenient for me to keep up daily. Still, I admire her greatly and will miss her. I read she got a buyout which may give her a big smile as she walks gracefully out the door to better things. 

  25. WAPO style freedom of the oppressed
    Bezos directs Washington Post opinion pages to promote ‘personal liberties and free markets’ | Washington Post | The Guardian

    […]

    Bezos’s decision to inject more regular and weighty conservative theming will also see the departure of opinions editor David Shipley, although it was immediately unclear if he was fired for resisting Bezos’s direction, or chose to resign.

    Shipley, who joined the Washington Post in 2022 as editorial page editor, was among the leading voices of protest when Bezos blocked the Post’s editorial board from publishing an endorsement for Kamala Harris, Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent, before last November’s presidential election.

    But he defended the Post’s decision in January not to publish a satirical cartoon by Pulitzer prize-winner Ann Telnaes that depicted Bezos and other billionaire media company owners kneeling at the feet of a giant figure of Trump, offering bags of money.

    Telnaes resigned, one of a growing number of departures of senior Post employees during a tumultuous time for the newspaper. It lost 250,000 subscribers after Bezos blocked the Harris endorsement, and a slew of star writers joined rival publications.

    “Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force,” Shipley said at the time, adding that he had spoken with Telnaes and asked her to reconsider leaving.

    “My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and had already scheduled another column – this one a satire – for publication.”

    In his message on Wednesday, Bezos emphasized that he’s “for America, and proud to be so” and that he offered “David Shipley, whom I greatly admire, the opportunity to lead this new chapter.

    “I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t ‘hell yes,’ then it had to be ‘no.’ After careful consideration, David decided to step away. This is a significant shift, it won’t be easy, and it will require 100% commitment – I respect his decision,” he wrote, adding that the paper is now “searching for a new opinion editor to own this new direction”.

    Bezos also shared the letter to staff directly on his X page.

    In the aftermath of Bezos’s email, Jeff Stein, an economics reporter for the Washington Post, spoke out about the billionaire’s edict.

    “Massive encroachment by Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section – makes clear dissenting views will not be published,” he wrote on X and Bluesky.

    “I still have not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side, but if Bezos tries interfering with the news side I will be quitting immediately and letting you know.”

    More details soon …

  27. MSNBC’s problem.
    This head line on Bloomberg.

    A Billion People Are Watching Podcasts on YouTube Every Month

    And that is just one platform out there. Opinion writers/broadcasters are a dime a dozen or even cheaper. It was the limited access of legacy cable and over the air broadcast that made media stars. The bad thing is that very few offered any original intelligent ideas. But then in a mass media market those things don’t sell. MSNBC’s problem is they were marketing to a smart educated audience and that audience is easily bored. With podcasting they can just move on. MSNBC is the Sears of traditional media, they can’t adjust to changing times.
    Jack

  28. Bronc, Peacock streamer has a live channels link. NBC could just add MSNBC to that line up to increase viewers. Now Sling costs $45 a month to get the channel while Peacock is only $10.

  31. Today is geezer in the way in Annapolis day. Roads with old people driving the white line at twenty miles per hour. Old people blocking aisles in the stores. Old people just out. It may be the weather, sort of sunny and warm. It may be some Social Security checks arrived, I think mine used to come at the end of the month, now it comes the first week of the month.

    So I made it into my self happiness day. Don’t worry, be happy. Happiness is cake. I stopped into the French bakery and bought a cake. Mmm Cake! Had it decorated with “Life is Good”. The label said to let it warm up for three to four hours. Twenty minutes max. Cake then a nice cup of fresh brewed coffee. Pet the cat. Drink coffee and be calm.

  32. Yes, big boycott this Friday, and there are rotating boycotts of chain/big box/online stores, which I don’t understand. Why not just not unless you absolutely need something and have nowhere else to get it.

    Like, today, after being without a water filter for weeks, I went to WalMart because no place else has them near here. It was that or Amazon, so I made a choice.

    More protests to come, and hope the military will not follow the orders of deranged megalomaniacs, since their oath is to the US Constitution.

    On that note, would it be bad if my daily call to my Senators/Rep included a smattering of Russian?
    And then like, change to English: Oh, are you not that far along in your internship to Putin that you’ve picked up Russian language? My bad.”

  34. The Lincoln Project had a marvelous idea! Since Repugz are afraid to hold town halls (since they are stabbing their constituents in the back), DEMS should hold town halls in red areas!

  37. Yeah, Craig. Bobby Brainworms said there were 16 outbreaks last year, but this year we only have two outbreaks. FFS, it’s only February, Bobby.

  41. Dems should set up an opposition shadow govt

    not that they’re capable of thinking that big, still have their thumbs up their asses

  43. hey, let’s pretend there’s going to be a 2028 presidential election and figure out who our nominee is

    Nobody else is bothering to

    it sure as shit is not Kamala

    and please don’t say Amy Klobuchar

  44. to those who donate to political campaigns pay attention who is not leading at all, and never give them any more money

    which apparently is everybody except AOC and Bernie &ers

  47. agree, if only he was better looking and more charismatic

    yes to he fair he is speaking out along with very few others

  48. Alex was good on Showtime’s The Circus when teamed up with John Heilemann and Mark McKinnon. I wish they’d bring that show back on a better network.

  51. Andy needs to make himself known and quick

    announce an exploratory committee please Mr. Beshear

    I 100% support Cuban declaring his candidacy tomorrow by the way, Mr. C

  53. Mark Cuban said he ran it by his family before, and it was a no.
    Also, lots of stuff went on for many years with sexual harassment when he ran the Mavs. He allowed a toxic workplace for over a decade, so what kind of leader would he be? (Yeah, I know there’s a grapist in the WH & SA seems to be a prerequisite right now, and Cuban was never accused of anything…but it wasn’t like an isolated thing at the Mavs organization.)
    Funny story (sort of), my company’s old HR Manager went to work in HE for the Mavs. He had to go back to work because he got his young girlfriend preggers and his wife divorced him. He was someone you did not want to be alone with. Anyway, the creep joined the Mavs as HR just as a big sexual harassment suit was brought.
    Not sure all of his employees would give him a glowing review, either. A lot to consider.
    I think he would be a great Secretary of Commerce, but POTUS is a stretch.

    I love Pete Buttigieg, Jon Ossoff, and we need someone with fire like AOC or Jasmine Crockett.
    Will there be a 2028, though?

    Dream scenario: Elon ODs (like, tonight); Adolf has one cheeseberder too many and plays his last game of golf on our dime on the Ides of March; a sinkhole opens up at the funeral and swallows the family, JD, and his entire cabinet, and the rest of the Russian assets in Congress; Florida flips two seats blue in April; Dems pick a new SOTH and she is sworn in as President. Yes, she…because Hakeem Jeffries has been a major disappointment. As luck would have it, AOC turned 35 last October. I’ve not been a huge fan in the past, but she has shown her leadership and tenacity, as has Jasmine Crockett. OK, sweet dreams.

  55. French work culture

    “…there is usually a comité d’entreprise, made up of voted-in employees, who must be consulted for all major decisions and are there to speak on behalf of the employees. Some members of the comité d’entreprise will be part of the union, giving them extra leverage.
    So, for example, if you are planning on changing accounting programs, like moving from Quickbooks to SAP, you actually need the approval of the comité d’entreprise, as this is a decision that impacts the employee.”

    Can you imagine having this much input?

    All the French had to do was cut off their heads that one time, and then do full work stoppage once in awhile to remind them who is in charge. We can do it with boycotts and a general strike, since money is everything now.

  56. we need declared candidates as soon as possible to reinforce the idea that we might still live in a democracy, spread the word

    they don’t even need to be viable per se

    They will also distract the fuck out of dipshit

    put me in charge. I’ll get this country back goddamnit

    or put someone in charge with a clue, goddamnit

    good post btw BiD, i fully support that scenario

  57. Mott Romney your 2028 Dem PotUs nominee

    let’s go Mitt, who’s going to stop you? the party that can’t establish its own leader?

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