SITREP: Since Brett caught Wednesday links, I’m pinch-hitting [cough] for him today. You may expect to see me intermittently here filling-in for afternoon slots as needed. Richmond, shit, I’m still only in Richmond. Plans to relocate to NC to be closer to the still-wonderful boyfriend are delayed because downsizing is going more slowly than expected. But you’re here for the links, so let’s get them fired up, as it were.
THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG: Ohio woman found not guilty of voting illegally because “entrapped” by bureaucrat. While the acquittal on the voting charge (state jurisdiction) is not completely unreasonable, she may still face federal consequences for voting illegally. Why is the BMV employee not being charged with something? This is probably not an isolated case for either the employee or the BMV. And, of course, the AP conjures the specter of “powerful forces” aligned against this poor, innocent, hard-working immigrant.
MAYBE THIS WILL MAKE CALIFORNIA RECONSIDER VOTER ID: MAGA Supporters Say They Will Travel To California To Illegally Vote For Spencer Pratt. Many social media posts cite California’s lack of a voter identification law as a reason they would be able to vote in the mayoral election. The seethe and cope is going to be epic. Oops, I spoke too soon. Here’s a bonus link to the LA Times whining about Pratt’s campaign not playing by their rules.
CORRUPT AND STUPID: A federal prosecutor in the office that helped handle Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case regarding his investigation into Donald Trump was charged Wednesday for allegedly illegally emailing herself a copy of the materials disguised as cake recipes. Brilliant. She left a trail. She could have (presumably) just copied them onto a thumb drive, or any of a variety of other methods of sneaking the info out of her office.
SUMMER CAMP for PANDEMIC INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX: They want a global pandemic treaty so very badly.
PEG MA TIGHT: Appalachia is blessed with huge untapped deposits of lithium in the form of the mineral pegmatite. Exploiting this resource could free us from dependence upon foreign sources, particularly China.
HIGHER ED BUBBLE FINALLY BURSTS, or to use a Sugar Free type simile, pops like a ripe zit. Who doesn’t like a tradie, after all?
CALIFORNIA STILL MANDATES DIAL-TONE SERVICE: AT&T on Wednesday filed suit against California officials seeking a court order declaring it does not have to continue offering traditional copper wire phone service to new customers as it vowed to spend $19 billion on modern telecom services. California requires the U.S. wireless carrier to spend $1 billion annually to maintain a century-old telephone network that few use, AT&T said, saying the network now serves just 3% of households in AT&T’s California territory. JHTFC. This is hugely expensive and inefficient, and you’d think that California officials would be concerned about all the electricity it takes to keep those copper landlines live. Grandma can still keep her 1962 bakelite, rotary-dial phone, though. My “landline” is actually fiber optic cable and there’s a device on the wall that creates a local (inside the house) dial tone for my RJ-11 jacks.
ANNA’S ARCHIVE ORDERED SHUTTERED: Publishers wins default judgement in civil suit against archive, but judgement uncollectible as operators remain anonymous (they didn’t appear in court). Court order also ordered domain registrars to de-register the domain; will be interesting to see if all comply as some are located outside the US.
SPACEX ROUND-UP: IPO on the heels first Starship V3 launch; originally scheduled for yesterday, now scheduled for 18:30 EDT. I will be glued to the TV at least through Max-Q.
The mandating of “land lines” is dumber than that. Old land lines would work when the power is out because the land lines used power over the copper to ring the bell and transmit the signal. The power was carried over the phone line (and was low voltage). The dial tone used to be sent as a carrier. Modern phones don’t do any of that, and need power, as they’re generally VOIP (Voice Over IP), and either need to be plugged into a wall, or be POE (Power Over Ethernet). There’s almost nothing that uses the old two wire systems anymore (outside of internal to a building, and even most of those have been phased out to VOIP), it’s all VOIP on the backend.
Similar to Tonio my fiber carries my landline. However, it’s so old that at the time NJ mandated it have a UPS.
Naturally it alarms too! I changed the battery like three times until NJ relented and let them disable it. Bonus was that the UPS only protected voice. No power meant no data. You could either rewire it (illegally) or put the UPS on a UPS…
Do not daisy chain UPS units.
The only UPS I know is a brown step van.
From my former union pres, ATT wants fiber to the node (FTN), and then wireless to the prem. Not a bad idea, as it allows them to use the main part of their system, while making the last mile (3600 feet or something) not an issue.
But my latency!
/s Esport Champion
My land line was cut twice by new neighbors and the jerks kept charging me all the time it was down. It took over a year to get them to admit they screwed up and to cancel it.
Once in a while they still send me a bill.
I laughed about this yesterday. Encrypt the pdf or zip and email. Others said the size might be questionable.
On most corporate PCs the usb port will not mount media.
I can’t use any kind of external drive with my work PC. Could probably just take pictures with a cell phone and let AI turn it back into a file.
I had a cheap hub I plugged into my work PC that tried to mount a drive of some kind. The work nanny software went ballistic. I was waiting for a nasty email from IT security.
Fortunately nothing came of it.
We do sometimes transfer loan document images via hard drives – but that’s quite the security exception and encryption process.
Fuck, print it out and run down to the copier. You have a brief case, no?
Good point! However, more data from corporate America.
1. PDFs may or may not permit printing.
2. Most printers are network and not individual. There will be a log of the printing.
Its GOV, they will be 20 years behind tech-wise.
Steve Smith mounts media.
Nice to have you back Tonio. I forgot about that launch, thanks for the reminder.
What ever happened to “ignorance of the law is no excuse?”
We’re already at the stage where judges ignore the law and coddle defendents when it fits their woke sensibilities, and there is very little that can be done about that. There’s a Thomas Sowell quote about honest ppl being afraid to go to court and criminals knowing they’ll get the kid gloves treatment.
Kiddie rapist in my neck of the woods are regularly getting three years.
Latest one messing with a high school boy got 7 months of probation.
That was tossed along with mens rea.
“Appalachia is blessed with huge untapped deposits of lithium” – a conspiracy theory explanation as to why the Biden Administration’s response to Hurricane Helene was to block aide and encourage people to abandon their property.
I sure saw the aid blocking part.
Anecdotally, my college educated dumbass just shelled out $10k for foundation repairs to a tradesman whose truck is worth more than my house. Thanks for steering me away from the trades, dad.
Same. And I had a chance to go into them a couple of times, but chose that sweet, sweet cubicle. I am a moron.
In fairness, “the trades” is pretty broad, and there’s jobs you either can’t do, or really, really won’t want to be doing in your 40s and 50s. Painting and drywall is right up there, and my dad was a painting contractor. On top of which I got a useless degree and developed no practical skills thereafter, which is entirely on me.
When I went back to school, it was to go into stationary engineering, and was starting to pay of nicely when I was badly injured.
If it’s like here his wife is a teacher providing his health insurance and he gets paid in cash.
My mom pushed me away from real work for a long time.
I which I could have that decade of lost earnings potential back.
I think many of us had college touted as the only real option to live a good life. That mindset is still in effect.
Just call him a racist already while you are staying classy, The Los Angeles Times.
His lack of lived experience is shocking.
LA is about as multicultural as the inside of my asshole.
They are 99.999% progressive culture.
Are you kidding? They have black progressive culture, lesbian progressive culture, Hispanic progressive culture…
As long as even one person has joked/threatened to vote illegally for Pratt that allows them to prebunk the narrative that the election was stolen. They will of course ignore the possibility of all the previous elections haven been stolen because virtuous progs would never cheat.
/taps the AP story in the links 🙂
Did you bother to read the linx, Tonio?
The Reagan Revolution!
I’ll be back!
But that would mean Appalachian meth heads might be able to secure lucrative mining jobs spewing pollutants into the atmosphere. When it’s offshored to China, we can indulge our smug condescension for the domestic plebs and never have to look upon the environmental destruction wrought by our planet-saving, federally-subsidized EVs.
Lear
ntocodemine?The children do yearn for it.
That is gold, Pat.
Make LA Great Again. MaLAGA? LaLa GAGA? GrLAGA MAGA?
(Lady Gaga should be involved.)
Yes, Hollywood and international fame, large population and economy, but when has *Los Angeles* actually been “great?” Outside fantasies of celebrity, was it ever? As far as I’m aware, it’s kinda always been a semi-useful shithole, only pocketing fame. (Good location.)
FUN FACT: Frogs make that “ribbet” sound, eh? Apparently, only one frog really makes that noise, and it comes from LA. Sound engineers doing their jobs got the sound and used it for every frog in films, and with Hollywood’s reach, it became the ‘generic’ sound frogs make.
Thanks, QI. And bonus thanks to Richard, remarkably kind, he, for sending me tons of QI eps to remind me where I learned that trivia bit.
I don’t know, I watched LA Confidential, that’s accurate, right?
“Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush”
^^Favorite flick, right there. Or at least my favorite ‘serious’ one. Back to the Future and Clue are in my amorphous ‘Top 3.’
Even, Neph, read the book! It is like the movie, which goes to 11, is a 100 on a scale of one to ten.
This should become the new default.
The One True Frog
That should be on a new age relaxation tape too.
Apparently, the cry of one bird of prey (Osprey?) is used as the standard SFX for all avian raptors.
Yes. And in at least 10,000 new age relaxation tapes.
Red tailed hawk.
they do this all of the time.. I laughed when an australian show had a Robinson R22 helicopter, and they dubbed in a turbine sound. No it doesn’t sound like that.
Thanks, Doc.
At least we still have the Wilhelm scream.
Yep.
Particularly jarring when subbed in for a Bald Eagle. Bald Eagle cries sound like little girls laughing.
Red-tailed hawk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33DWqRyAAUw
A bald eagle makes a much less dramatic sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEmYEQ78zS0
But the 101st Airborne calls itself “The Screaming Eagles” regardless.
Squealing tires in gravel.
In “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” the engine noise for the VW Karmann Ghia is definitely not a veedub motor.
I was there in the 90s with a Republican Mayor and Governor – still kind of a dump.
Also, those are three really shitty baseball bats.
Evan, Evan, Evan…
They only look like baseball bats.
I know they are trying to sell a product but come on…
“The best one hitters are often mistaken for regular cigarettes because they look so similar”
My entire life I have been laughing at the ones designed to “look like cigarettes”. As if anyone is going to be charged and convicted based on a picture taken from distance.
+1 gross oversimplification
It’s almost as if a division of labor maximizes productivity across the entire market as people naturally gravitate to their interests and strengths.
As if you couldn’t just access it directly by IP or a .onion address.
If only she was Somali.
‘I failed’: Woman at center of sprawling Minnesota fraud gets nearly 42-year prison sentence
She was just an innocent bystander who was bamboozled by the fast talking government officials.
Fuck her.
Yeah, the real crime was inviting scrutiny from Trump.
DOJ dropped some more indictments today. Hopefully, the recently-indicted will take note of her sentence and sing like little birds when offered a plea deal that involves testifying against others. I dream of Ilhan Omar getting perp walked, as unlikely as that is.
It’s like Donald pulled the trigger himself while baselessly targeting their vibrant neighbors.
He was just jealous of the love they have for one another in Minnesota. (Actual paraphrase of something Ilhan Omar said about ICE agents.)
You see, the love a grifter is unlike that of a square.
it’s time he shows all Angelenos that they can rely on a Republican entertainer with no political experience to head a largely progressive, multicultural metropolis.
He must pledge to not change anything, because L A is perfect just as it is.
Something tells me Mr L A Times Opinion Writer would accuse Pratt of dogwhistling the Nazis if Pratt called L A a progressive multicultural metropolis. It’s all in the inflection, I guess.
It is amazing there are people who think “political experience” is a plus.
Now do Mamdami who brags of not ever having had a job, or that dim witted cunte in Seattle whose only job was at a cushy non-profit that was arranged by her academic parents.
Hey, I know we have some IT folk here. I have a good friend who was working in cybersecurity and got laid off a couple months ago. Having zero luck getting re-hired. If you know of any openings, let me know.
It’s been tight out there. I’ve yet to get a first interview.
You can both hit me up at my handle at proton & I’ll send you our jobs site. We’re almost entirely optionally-remote at this point.
Worth taking a look.
Thanks slum! I totally forgot, I think I actually applied to a job or two with you guys when I was getting resettled here. I’ll shoot you an email.
My new boss found out I’m sort-of clandestinely working from home and just got me the Remote status my old boss promised but failed to deliver. He must have a lot of pull because the push to get back to the office has been relentless.
But I’ve been told by the radio that IT jobs on cybersecurity are plentiful and the wave of the future.
Bill Maher vs the Overton Window
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyOhf7SxVHY
He doesn’t know what it is and doesn’t want to know. Odd for a guy who made a career of political commentary.
He gave the opposite vibe on The Boondocks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-UP-hp6j4E
On second thought, he probably knows what it is, and this is just a ploy for attention.
It worked on me.
On third thought, ploys for attention are the basis of his career.
I will go to the corner now and feel shame.
Trades? Sounds rough.
Rough Trade you say?
[Narrows gaze]
It’s been a long time coming, but after a successful practice last night I reported to my concussion doctor and I’ve been cleared for full sports participation. Now if we can just get that lawsuit moving.
Congrats!
Hooray and congrats, Kevin. Good luck with the lawsuit.
Excellent news!
Do Angelenos really want to entrust their city to someone who might pick up his ball and quit on a place he professes to love, if he doesn’t get his way?
If somebody tells you to fuck off maybe you should.
My personal Gell-Mann situation:
Trump ramps up Cuba pressure as Nimitz carrier enters Caribbean Sea
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2026/05/21/trump-cuba-pressure-uss-nimitz-caribbean/90191907007/
Never mind that it’s been widely reported the ship has spent months on the voyage to its new home, is making photo-op stops in several countries, and has only one destroyer and a partial air wing with it. It never even stopped for ammunition.
“The indictment and buildup of U.S. warships in the Caribbean Sea is reminiscent of a series of escalating steps that the Trump administration took in January that culminated in a commando raid to seize President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and his wife, Cilia Flores.”
I’m sure anything is possible, but someone needs to tell these reporters about this new-fangled “Google” thing.
That will show Airbus!
Airbus, Air France Found Guilty in 2009 Plane Crash That Killed 228 People
The interesting thing was that they recovered the flight recorder well over a year plus after the crash. Long after the time the device is certified to remain functional. From memory it was part of a search conducted after public outcry.
How the NHS’s gender lunacy led to a horrific sex attack
Because if they had put her in with other women they would have been attacked by activists and probably the management, too.
Solitary it is.
Penny wise
The president and his EPA chief on Thursday postponed requirements that grocery stores and frozen foods companies buy more climate-friendly refrigeration systems beginning this year — claiming the move would cut consumer food prices.
Speaking from the Oval Office flanked by grocery industry executives, President Donald Trump asserted that pausing the Biden-era rule that supermarkets buy new refrigeration systems that don’t contain climate superpollutants would produce savings that would be passed along to consumers.
The 2023 “technology transfer” rule, Trump said, would have “forced companies to adopt specific high-cost refrigerants, massively driving up the price of transporting and storing refrigerants and various goods.” He blamed the rule for driving grocery stores out of business and promised EPA’s delay would save consumers and businesses $2.4 billion.
Millions will die just so Trump can claim to have done something.
JFC was there not one single action taken by that POS that wasn’t designed to do exactly that?