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Discussion: Bring Out Your Dead! The celebrity death thread....

Holy ****, Steve Albini! RIP to the fuckign man! Apart from Big Black being a massive influence on me, he produced some of the best albums of my early twenties, when he was in his late twenties. I followed his funny and sometimes poignant posts on Twitter and immediately followed him again on Bluesky when I moved over there. His political views, his musical knowledge... Heck I didn't know him and I'm gonna miss him. 7 years older than me. Jesus.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/may/08/steve-albini-us-alt-rock-musician-and-producer-dies-aged-61

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Discussion: The Rose Garden and White House happenings: Listening to voters’ concerns

drummerboy said:

GoSlugs said:

mtierney said:

What happened on university campuses across the country by undereducated “students” - the generation of kids who were denied high school normalcy and proms and  graduations, and attended classes in a vacuum on Zoom — and who revealed themselves to be  as dumb as rocks in understanding the history of the USA and any other country for that matter.

Your posts here clearly demonstrate that it is you who in undereducated, not the students. You literally spend your days posting factual distortions, misunderstandings and out right lies.

yeah, that comment by mt reveals so much. 

She blames a few months of Zoom classes for an "undereducated" generation of students. She's repeated this talking point many times already.

mt, please tell us how they're dumb as rocks regarding history? What do they get wrong that apparently you think that you get right?

Why do you hate these kids so much? They're protesting the deaths of 10's of thousands of innocent civilians that the US is complicit in. Don't they deserve some credit for that? Even if you don't approve of very tactic?

Why do you think there are "outside agitators"? The right always blames protests they don't agree with on outside actors? But has there ever been any proof of their allegations? I think "never" is the right answer there.

Can you do some independent thinking here? Use some compassion and empathy instead of mindlessly repeating talking points?

there are a couple of things we can stipulate to. First, that Oct 7 was an atrocity worthy of outrage and strict condemnation. Second, there is no doubt a segment of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that is anti-semitic (no doubt there is also a segment of pro-Israel supporters who are anti-semitic as well. Unfortunately there's a lot of anti-semitism in this country all around).

but the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, mostly women and children and the resulting humanitarian crisis is its own atrocity. The vast majority of people protesting just want the mass killings and maiming to stop.

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Discussion: RFK Jr. For President?

Jaytee said:

nan said:

He must be doing better in the polls.  They have the sharp knives out.  

have you ever been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia?

Mental health professionals no longer use the term paranoid schizophrenia.  It's also not a good response to nan's points even if you disagree with her.

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Discussion: Inconsequential Chat

Rock on!!

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Discussion: Pope Francis, Catholics, and Christians in the news worldwide

mtierney said:

Gee whiz, Ridski, even this Luddite knows how to enlarge a story, with just two fingers!

you know, some of us use a PC and not a phone. and enlarging something that's already fuzzy just gives you big fuzzy. it's very hard to read. Like  3 Likes

Discussion: What does Putin want (and whatabout it)

DaveSchmidt said:

tjohn said:

Now I feel like we have been overly hard on Germany for the invasions that opened two world wars.

It’s impossible to read Tuchman without rooting for Germany against the existential threat it felt it faced.

To be fair, Germany was in a difficult position with a revanchist France on one side and an ever-expanding Russian Empire on the other.

Germany certainly made poor choices in 1914.  As Tuchman notes, one of the most fascinating "what ifs" of the 20th Century is this:

What if Germany had defended against France without invading any countries and had, instead, focused on Russia?

Russia would have been knocked out of the war and would have lost a good deal of the Russian Empire.  Nazi Germany would not have come to pass.  We wouldn't recognize the world of today if in this alternative history.

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Discussion: The Rose Garden and White House happenings: Listening to voters’ concerns

mtierney said:

With my $300 a month  xfinity package, I probably have that channel, I don’t know, but I will look. I called the provider recently to see how I might trim the $$$$, but I found that if I switched to a less expensive (not by much) package, I would lose the channels I enjoy the most! I do read the Jerusalem paper, available via the Drudge Report.

As far as law suits go, I hope NYC sues the universities for the costs of police services, etc — the neglect and/or incompetence on the part of schools to protect their students,  staff, and campuses should not wind up a burden on the tax paying public. Of course, I say this with my rose-colored glasses atop my nose —  and a cat on my lap!

$300 is hefty. I have so many bills with the cat rescue that I look for cuts everywhere. That said, I hate to admit I skimp on subscriptions and can't read NYTs articles. I splurge on my National Geographics and a bit on my cable package but I'm not as high as yours.

I accidentally ran across I 24. I'm cutting down on my cable news consumption, which was a bit over the top, and replacing it with quite a bit of PBS. Actually, the only place I participate in political discussion is MOL and I had to take a break from a couple of threads. I still believe that Town Halls should have topics open for civil and courteous discussions to bring opposing parties together. We have to start listening to each other.

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Discussion: Inconsequential Chat

Jaytee said:

cat on a cold slate roof.

Perfect response for this Tennessee Williams fan.

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Discussion: Inconsequential Chat

Makes sense - if it runs from, say, midday on Saturday through to midday on Sunday.

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Discussion: What does Putin want (and whatabout it)

The Sakwa quote is about how Russia rejects the concept of democracy and national self-determination. That is the reason for hostility to, and in some cases active undermining of, democracy among former Soviet republics and satellite countries.

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