garethspenn.bsky.social
"Those who cannot remember George Santayana are condemned to misquote him."
612 posts
128 followers
1 following
Discussion Master
comment in response to
post
How did Georgia produce both a Raphael Warnock and an MTG? I know, I know. I took Poli Sci 1, too. He was elected statewide and she wasn't, but it's still hard for me to wrap my head around the gulf that yawns between them.
comment in response to
post
Left in the northern hemisphere, right below the Equator. I have a baseball cap showing NOAA research vessel David Starr Jordan sailing to the left and another from Tasmania showing CSIRO research vessel Franklin sailing to the right. The Coriolis Force is awesome.
comment in response to
post
…looking like one of my eighth-grade metal shop projects.
comment in response to
post
He'll abolish the National Weather Service* if a drop of rain falls on his parade.
*insofar as he hasn't already done so
comment in response to
post
Austria is known throughout the world for raking its forests.
comment in response to
post
If ICE were interested in the low-hanging fruit, they'd be raiding meat packing plants in Arkansas or farms in Florida…oh wait, those are in red states.
comment in response to
post
I would feel better about the Stephen Miller presidency if he would stop describing bats as "the children of the night."
comment in response to
post
Just because there's a perfect overlap between Trump's tariff threats and Elon's business deals, you mustn't think they had anything to do with it.
comment in response to
post
Don't tell me. He's going to make relief decisions with a Sharpie on a relief map.
comment in response to
post
Can't DoD write off the $134 million on its tax return as a campaign expense?
comment in response to
post
I live in Seattle. If you throw a rock in any direction, it will bounce off a Tesla. Recently I have seen more and more de-badged Teslas, some left bare, others with aftermarket Audi badges glued on them. The semiotics of electoral politics is worthy of a doctoral dissertation.
comment in response to
post
The only bomb shelter I ever encountered was in a house in Marin County to which I was invited for a party. The owners had given their dog a dildo for a chew toy, and the hostess had had breast implants but then had them removed again. I wonder if they are the political elites Gabbard has in mind.
comment in response to
post
There's also getting your tires slashed or your living room window stoned. I wouldn't put a bumper sticker on my car because there's MAGA everywhere, even here. Et in Arcadia ego.
comment in response to
post
"How could Hitler have started World War II without pretending that Germany had been invaded by Poland? Cut us some slack, Senator."
comment in response to
post
Homer Simpson's advice to Bart on how to succeed in life includes memorization of "It was like that when I got here."
comment in response to
post
My heart goes out to you. Sincerely.
comment in response to
post
I wouldn't mind if Lutnick stayed forever. He exudes a gleeful idiocy that rubs me raw.
comment in response to
post
It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
comment in response to
post
Of all this country's non-military wars (the War on Poverty, the War on Drugs, etc.), the War on Cancer was always the one that produced the greatest return on investment. Welcome to the War on Science.
comment in response to
post
Patty Murray is a kind of understated AOC. I'm happy she's my Senator.
comment in response to
post
DeSantis could turn that into a slogan e.g. "Looting and rioting come to Florida to die." It's clumsy, but that's stylistically consistent with his other products.
comment in response to
post
What's the legal basis for tarring and feathering political opponents? What is Johnson's thinking about riding people out of town on a rail? Ducking witches? Stoning adulterers? Inquiring minds want to know!
comment in response to
post
I'm holding out for the giant sloth. I want to see them restored to their rightful place as the dominant species in North America.
comment in response to
post
How would it have looked if German operatives had attacked their own border stations and the Gleiwitz radio transmitter in German uniforms? As a public relations event, it went over better because they wore Polish army uniforms. History not only repeats itself; it can't shut up.
comment in response to
post
Who needs the world? If it hadn't been for the world, there would have been no World War I or World War II. Would there be such a thing as a world of hurt if we did away with the world? And we can dispense with that almanac the world publishes because we have Wikipedia.
comment in response to
post
The fact that these professional alien invaders look and behave like peaceful demonstrators is just more proof, as if any more were needed, of the deviousness of the enemy. The total lack of evidence of a subversive conspiracy is the surest proof of its existence.
comment in response to
post
Hegseth is well suited for a job in the Trump administration, having honed his skills as a bullshitter at Fox.
comment in response to
post
Living-wage legislation at the local level, e.g. where I live, has made it possible for workers in low-wage jobs to meet the minimum standards of subsistence. Not having a meaningful minimum wage was always a way of subsidizing the lifestyle of the economic upper class at the expense of labor.
comment in response to
post
As an Army veteran who spent any number of nights lying on dirt or a barracks floor, I'm less concerned about sleeping accommodations for the soldiery than by what they are doing on the streets of LA. The Army owes you three square meals but not a mattress. Let's concentrate on the important stuff.
comment in response to
post
A metaphor for RFK Jr running HHS is the Book of Durrow, a masterpiece of medieval manuscript illumination. Its 17th century owner immersed it in a bucket of water, then gave the water to a sick cow. The cow wasn't cured and the book was ruined. History not only repeats itself, it can't shut up.
comment in response to
post
I've always been intrigued by the city's full name: St. George on the Virgin.
comment in response to
post
They're not "nature's" anything. They're domesticated animals, part of the human retinue.
comment in response to
post
Stephen Miller is invading LA because Godzilla had another commitment.
comment in response to
post
The Second Battle of Los Angeles is as baseless as the First (24-25 February 1942), when a jumpy AA gunner thought he saw a Japanese plane and let fly, prompting others to follow suit. There was no Japanese aircraft then, and there is no insurrection now.
comment in response to
post
The Second Battle of Los Angeles seems like an echo of the First. In February 1942, a jumpy AA gunner thought he saw a Japanese plane in the sky and let loose, and then everybody else followed suit. There was no enemy aircraft, just as there's no reason for military interference in LA's affairs now.
comment in response to
post
I'm getting a Covid booster next Monday while it's still legal.
comment in response to
post
You have to admit it was close, though. Seltzer beat Boni by a single digit — the 1 after the 9.
comment in response to
post
The Book of Durrow, a masterpiece of Irish manuscript illumination, came into the custody of a man in the 17th century who immersed it in a bucket of water and then gave the water to a sick cow to drink. It didn't cure the cow, and the book was badly damaged. Mention of RFK Jr. brought this to mind.
comment in response to
post
I flew from SFO to San Diego on PSA in 1962 for $25. That's $264.68 in today's dollars (BLS inflation calculator). I know that Trump can change the tracks of hurricanes with a Sharpie and lower the price of eggs by 400%, but I have a hard time swallowing a $2 airline ticket.
comment in response to
post
X-last keeps me regular.
comment in response to
post
I was in mid-Atlantic when the Watts riots began. The bulletins we got by shortwave radio, tacked up on the promenade deck bulletin board, made it sound as if all of LA was going up in smoke. My cabin mate was beside himself with worry about his wife and kids in LA. It turned out to be overblown.
comment in response to
post
It isn't a crossfire unless the bullets were coming from two different directions.
comment in response to
post
You don't even have to own a house. I have gotten hundreds of cold calls asking me if I want to sell a house that belongs to my daughter. I recently got two such calls within five minutes. I get all these calls and my daughter gets none. I am thinking of charging her for being her answering service.
comment in response to
post
It's time for everyone to watch the classic Forbidden planet (1956). The villain is an invisible homicidal monster created by an id-amplifier left behind on Altair IV by an extinct race called the Krell. The id-amplifier, whose real-life analog is social media, is why the Krell are extinct.
comment in response to
post
Landscaping and roofing are now federal crimes.
comment in response to
post
"Hi. I am a Kyle Rittenhouse wannabe…"
comment in response to
post
I'd like to say, on World Ocean Day, that it's still the Gulf of Mexico no matter how much Sharpie ink is used to obfuscate that fact.
comment in response to
post
I was in mid-Atlantic when the Watts riots started. My cabin mate, a UCLA professor on sabbatical, was beside himself. His family were in LA, and from the sketchy bulletins we got by shortwave and tacked on the bulletin board on promenade deck, it sounded as if the whole city had gone up in smoke.
comment in response to
post
I was in mid-Atlantic when the Watts riots started. My cabin mate, a UCLA professor on sabbatical, was beside himself. His family were in LA, and from the sketchy bulletins we got by shortwave and tacked on the bulletin board on promenade deck, it sounded as if the whole city had gone up in smoke.
comment in response to
post
Where is a Hellfire missile when you need one?