Shutdown Teardown
Oct. 30th, 2025 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
l33tminionYeah, the White House probably does need more event space. But if Biden or Obama's approach to that problem was to bypass all process and demolish an entire wing during a government shutdown as quickly as possible so as to present it as a fait accompli? The Republican reaction to that would definitely not be calm. And it's incredibly naive to think either the ballroom will be paid for entirely by donations or that the all donations nominally for the ballroom will go to that project, given the history of how responsibly Trump-affiliated nonprofits manage their donations.
Trump is also trying to get the DOJ to pay him $230M in recompense for prosecuting him for his obvious and egregious crimes. This includes asking for actual damages for legal fees he never paid and punitive damages which the law bars paying. The decisions on all of this will be made by people who were Trump's personal lawyers, including those defending him in these specific cases. This by itself seems a wild scandal, but it's just another day in (what's left of) the Trump White House.
There's also been talk about the supposed necessity of a third Trump term, term limits be damned. Of course this is trolling, but this is an administration that governs through trolling, stupidity of the plan (as after the 2020 election) is no barrier to the existence or seriousness of the attempt. Personally, I'll bite the bullet on the (admittedly still too contingent) prediction: If Trump isn't dead or something, they'll try the straightforward plan of just running and winning the Republican primary. And in that case, I think SCOTUS would say on 1st Amendment grounds, political parties can put forward the candidates they want, however foolishly (after all, eligibility rules theoretically could be changed, no matter how much a constitutional amendment is definitely not actually happening). And if he wins, will they want to rule in a way that amounts to "the Republican can't win"? I'd guess it would come down to some combination of "whether he's 'obviously ineligible' is a non-justiciable political question", "that's the responsibility of the Electoral College", and "the mechanism is impeachment". Of course, that would also require Trump to actually win, or for one of his alternative slate of plans to actually succeed.
Trump's also ordered the military to restart nuclear weapons testing. Don't know where to begin with that. Seems insane.
Trump is also trying to get the DOJ to pay him $230M in recompense for prosecuting him for his obvious and egregious crimes. This includes asking for actual damages for legal fees he never paid and punitive damages which the law bars paying. The decisions on all of this will be made by people who were Trump's personal lawyers, including those defending him in these specific cases. This by itself seems a wild scandal, but it's just another day in (what's left of) the Trump White House.
There's also been talk about the supposed necessity of a third Trump term, term limits be damned. Of course this is trolling, but this is an administration that governs through trolling, stupidity of the plan (as after the 2020 election) is no barrier to the existence or seriousness of the attempt. Personally, I'll bite the bullet on the (admittedly still too contingent) prediction: If Trump isn't dead or something, they'll try the straightforward plan of just running and winning the Republican primary. And in that case, I think SCOTUS would say on 1st Amendment grounds, political parties can put forward the candidates they want, however foolishly (after all, eligibility rules theoretically could be changed, no matter how much a constitutional amendment is definitely not actually happening). And if he wins, will they want to rule in a way that amounts to "the Republican can't win"? I'd guess it would come down to some combination of "whether he's 'obviously ineligible' is a non-justiciable political question", "that's the responsibility of the Electoral College", and "the mechanism is impeachment". Of course, that would also require Trump to actually win, or for one of his alternative slate of plans to actually succeed.
Trump's also ordered the military to restart nuclear weapons testing. Don't know where to begin with that. Seems insane.
Nothing left but the PTSD
Oct. 30th, 2025 03:57 pmlaurionSo one of the things that didn't come up in the year I haven't been posting here is the big work stuff. Still at Harvard, hit my 5 year anniversary back in January. As a part of being here, I've picked up a huge chunk of curriculum management stuff. Definitely not in the usual domain for an
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Crossposted from The Black Horse of the Blog World. Read the full post at https://lebor.net/?p=1070.
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Crossposted from The Black Horse of the Blog World. Read the full post at https://lebor.net/?p=1070.
*achoo* I should dust more often
Oct. 30th, 2025 03:43 pmlaurionUh, looks around, it's, um, been a while. I guess with everything going on, (and with spending more time on Discord too), I haven't posted in.... *ulp* well, you can see too. I don't have to say it. Gonna see if I can post more regularly. Make this a default tab in the browser.
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Crossposted from The Black Horse of the Blog World. Read the full post at https://lebor.net/?p=1068.
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Crossposted from The Black Horse of the Blog World. Read the full post at https://lebor.net/?p=1068.
The Fairy of Ku-She by M. Lucie Chin
Oct. 30th, 2025 08:49 amjames_davis_nicoll
A fairy's efforts to recover stolen arcane tools via illicit means produce spectacular calamity.
The Fairy of Ku-She by M. Lucie Chin
Dear reader, do not make your QR code yellow and white
Oct. 30th, 2025 02:06 amvvalkyriIt won't work, and I shall be sad after making a large version of your flyer that is all about resources for furloughed feds and then I try accessing the QR and the orange one works and the yellow one (unsurprisingly) does not.
I'd offered to print a bunch on the way up to the food drive/rally, and I guess the really important part is that people can access the resource list, but the fact that the submission QR doesn't work and there's no website at all on here (nor a mention of which org it's from, but it might not be from a specific org? there are SO many different resource compilation documents going around) makes me loath to make a bunch of these if maybe she'll have a chance to get me something less pretty and more functional.
Also I had the bright idea to print an 8.5x11 one pager 'what are we on about?' as 11x17 and that seems to have created a SURPRISING amount of work, and my few minutes before bed turned into an hour.
:sigh:
I guess the good thing about having gone downstairs and done this is she'll see my message in the morning and maybe be able to get someone (it's not her design file) to fix it in time to still print them.
I keep planning to try to get a movement started to push back on how what DC called making the Streatery program permanent is really just going to kill them. And I desperately need to sleep.
I'd offered to print a bunch on the way up to the food drive/rally, and I guess the really important part is that people can access the resource list, but the fact that the submission QR doesn't work and there's no website at all on here (nor a mention of which org it's from, but it might not be from a specific org? there are SO many different resource compilation documents going around) makes me loath to make a bunch of these if maybe she'll have a chance to get me something less pretty and more functional.
Also I had the bright idea to print an 8.5x11 one pager 'what are we on about?' as 11x17 and that seems to have created a SURPRISING amount of work, and my few minutes before bed turned into an hour.
:sigh:
I guess the good thing about having gone downstairs and done this is she'll see my message in the morning and maybe be able to get someone (it's not her design file) to fix it in time to still print them.
I keep planning to try to get a movement started to push back on how what DC called making the Streatery program permanent is really just going to kill them. And I desperately need to sleep.
But my face is burning and I've got no idea what's going on with that at all. If I wake up sick I shall be very cross. Especially since I'm the one bringing the tarps.
This was supposed to do the click to embiggen but it's being weird and i really want to sleep.
Hm. this can't be a symptom of food poisoning can it? Last couple days have been a "eat the things what need eating"
Link: How to turn off AI tools
Oct. 29th, 2025 10:38 pmsoniaWhether it's the environmental destruction, the extraction of private information into the public soup of things AI might spit out, or the fake and/or wrong answers, there are a lot of reasons to turn AI off.
Consumer Reports: How to Turn Off AI Tools Like Gemini, Apple Intelligence, Copilot, and More by Thomas Germain.
Even if you've done this already, it's worth taking a look, because the people pushing AI use trickery to keep turning it on after people wisely opt out.
Consumer Reports: How to Turn Off AI Tools Like Gemini, Apple Intelligence, Copilot, and More by Thomas Germain.
Even if you've done this already, it's worth taking a look, because the people pushing AI use trickery to keep turning it on after people wisely opt out.
So, um, it's a food drive rally?
Oct. 29th, 2025 09:25 pmvvalkyriAnd in a turn of dark hilarity, with only like 2 or 3 days of work on it we have so far 3 confirmed congresscritters but we've gotten nowhere finding anyone willing to speak who works in a food bank or mutual aid, who is receiving SNAP and looking at losing it, who is a fired or furloughed fed, or who is with USDA Food Nutrition Service.
But anyway. Yeah, 3-5 in front of USDA HQ on the Mall side near Smithsonian Metro, a rally (and food drive*) and we're sending the physical stuff to probably more the food bank in Arlington and the one in Gaithersburg** and we've raised over 5k in a day or two for Capital Area Food Bank and I feel guilty that I don't have a link that has links for all three.
I have no idea what I'm doing or wearing for Halloween.
I suppose I need to spend some more time trying to track down . . . something.
My phone died while I was in the library printing and I ended up talking with a lady for like 45 min after the library closed who plans to show up tomorrow (yay!) and who was telling me about things DC did to keep people from autofalling off medicaid when she was a case worker, and who also was telling me about some guy who was curing AIDS with herbs in the 80s; I went back to explaining PEPFAR and soft power somewhere in there. I think her name was Latisa. We also saw a desperately cute tiny dog.
I need way more sleep tonight.
*and yes we know generally it's best to just give $ to food banks and food pantries but hopefully the photographers will be really into the congresscritters helping load cars? (well actually I think they each have literally like 17 min windows of available time on site.)
** Manna food bank in Gaithersburg is desperate for additional volunteers the next few days:
But anyway. Yeah, 3-5 in front of USDA HQ on the Mall side near Smithsonian Metro, a rally (and food drive*) and we're sending the physical stuff to probably more the food bank in Arlington and the one in Gaithersburg** and we've raised over 5k in a day or two for Capital Area Food Bank and I feel guilty that I don't have a link that has links for all three.
I have no idea what I'm doing or wearing for Halloween.
I suppose I need to spend some more time trying to track down . . . something.
My phone died while I was in the library printing and I ended up talking with a lady for like 45 min after the library closed who plans to show up tomorrow (yay!) and who was telling me about things DC did to keep people from autofalling off medicaid when she was a case worker, and who also was telling me about some guy who was curing AIDS with herbs in the 80s; I went back to explaining PEPFAR and soft power somewhere in there. I think her name was Latisa. We also saw a desperately cute tiny dog.
I need way more sleep tonight.
*and yes we know generally it's best to just give $ to food banks and food pantries but hopefully the photographers will be really into the congresscritters helping load cars? (well actually I think they each have literally like 17 min windows of available time on site.)
** Manna food bank in Gaithersburg is desperate for additional volunteers the next few days:
"Manna Food Center in Maryland serves a significant federal workforce population. Because of the ongoing government shutdown, they are making emergency bags for furloughed federal workers in our area.
If you are available to volunteer for any of the shifts listed below, please contact Manna's Volunteer Coordinator, Kalandra Thompson, at 240.268.2520 x2520 or kalandra@mannafood.org
Volunteers are urgently needed for the following shifts:
· Thursday 10/30 9am – 12pm – 3 openings
· Thursday 10/30 9am – 12pm (Rescued Produce shift) – 8 openings
· Friday 10/31 from 12pm – 2pm (Frozen Meat Prep shift) – 9 openings
Manna Food Center Warehouse: 9311 Gaither Road, Gaithersburg, MD 20877
Bundle of Holding: Tentacles 7
Oct. 29th, 2025 02:14 pmjames_davis_nicoll
The seventh all-new library of Sanity-shattering tabletop roleplaying ebooks inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos.
Bundle of Holding: Tentacles 7
Where I've been in the US
Oct. 29th, 2025 09:45 amgoljerpBecause I feel like it. But "been" is subjective, so let's define terms. If I've been on the ground, not in a moving vehicle, it gets a + (i.e. changed planes in Dallas Fort Worth Airport gets a +).
Slept overnight (not in a moving vehicle): z
Worked in a state (not counting telecommuting): $
state was (at the time) my primary residence: *
( list of states )
Slept overnight (not in a moving vehicle): z
Worked in a state (not counting telecommuting): $
state was (at the time) my primary residence: *
( list of states )
Touring After the Apocalypse, volume 6 by Sakae Saito
Oct. 29th, 2025 08:51 amjames_davis_nicoll
What dark purpose compels a girl and her android companion to wander post-apocalyptic Japan?
Touring After the Apocalypse, volume 6 by Sakae Saito
(no subject)
Oct. 29th, 2025 12:15 amvvalkyriI am utterly boggled that 13% of Americans get food delivered DAILY.
Atlantic article aboutThe Innovation That Threatens Restaurant Culture
I very occasionally get pizza delivered.
I don't think I've gotten anything delivered if I'm alone since early pandemic. Even during high pandemic I tended to go there to pick stuff up. And I learned early on to maybe search on grubhub or even use the menu on grubhub but actually call the restaurant. (I did that with New Big Wong the night all the restaurants shut down. Because they didn't have their whole menu up on the website. )
Atlantic article aboutThe Innovation That Threatens Restaurant Culture
In 2024, nearly three out of every four restaurant orders were not eaten in a restaurant, according to data provided to me by the National Restaurant Association, a trade group. The share of customers using delivery specifically, as opposed to picking up takeout or going to a drive-through, more than doubled from 2019 to 2024. In a recently released poll by the association, 41 percent of respondents said that delivery was “an essential part of their lifestyle.” For Millennials and Generation Z—the apex consumers of today, and of tomorrow too—it’s apparently even more essential: More than half of adults under 45 use delivery at least once a week, and 13 percent use it once a day. Five percent use it multiple times a day. But the delivery boom isn’t confined to young people or to urbanites: About one in eight Baby Boomers uses delivery once a week, and so does about one in five rural dwellers. We are a nation of order-inners. A world, really—earlier this year, DoorDash announced a deal to acquire the British delivery service Deliveroo for $3.86 billion; the new, combined company will have 50 million monthly active users, spread over more than 40 countries.
I very occasionally get pizza delivered.
I don't think I've gotten anything delivered if I'm alone since early pandemic. Even during high pandemic I tended to go there to pick stuff up. And I learned early on to maybe search on grubhub or even use the menu on grubhub but actually call the restaurant. (I did that with New Big Wong the night all the restaurants shut down. Because they didn't have their whole menu up on the website. )
Five SF Stories Featuring the Sudden Formation of New and Exciting Bodies of Water
Oct. 28th, 2025 10:09 amjames_davis_nicoll
Sorry if you're a fan of boring old dry land...
Five SF Stories Featuring the Sudden Formation of New and Exciting Bodies of Water
Days of Atonement by Walter Jon Williams
Oct. 28th, 2025 08:55 amjames_davis_nicoll
How could a man die in front of Atocha Chief of Police Loren Hawn when that man died twenty years before?
Days of Atonement by Walter Jon Williams
Puzzle game recs
Oct. 27th, 2025 09:36 pmviolsvaSo 12 Word Searches. I’m so mad about this.
I mean. Five stars. God, I’m furious. It’s so well done. I finished it on my second try, after carefully glancing at non-spoilery discussion, and I’m so angry. Oh my god.
This by the same designer is easier and does not make me want to set them on fire.
I mean. Five stars. God, I’m furious. It’s so well done. I finished it on my second try, after carefully glancing at non-spoilery discussion, and I’m so angry. Oh my god.
This by the same designer is easier and does not make me want to set them on fire.