M Gessen spot-on in this interview, having lived under Putinism and worse, and having fled Russia under some duress. Just accurately calling it as plainly and lucidly as words allow, and wow:
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Christ, what an asshole.
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Nimbly?
If other Countries are allowed to use Tariffs against us, and we’re not allowed to counter them, quickly and nimbly, with Tariffs against them, our Country doesn’t have, even a small chance, of Economic survival.
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I’d say the problem with (historical) fascist design isn’t that it’s poorly done, but that it’s authoritarian in its aesthetics (and in its goals, of course). It’s quite powerful (which is why it still shows up in science fiction design, not just because it’s evoking historical fascism). The AI aesthetics of MAGA isn’t even functional as kitsch.
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“Get even with people. If they screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard. I really believe it.”
– 
, many occasions.
And by “screw”, means “refuse to give me everything I want”
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Nothing shows strength more than whining about something.
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Apologies for not finding a better sub to put this one in as it isn’t directly ‘goddamn trump’, yet still nicely reflects on the whole anti-science conspiracy-theory idiocracy era @#$!!
Lousiana House Passes Legislation to Fight Weather-Controlling ‘Chemtrails’
Chemtrails are a long-debunked conspiracy theory but that hasn’t stopped lawmakers from latching onto it.
By Vanessa Taylor Published June 3, 2025
Tinfoil hats are back out amongst Louisiana legislators. Last week, lawmakers in the House passed a bill to ban “chemtrails” in the state. What are those, exactly? Oh, you know. The white lines left behind by aircraft that conspiracists insist are chemicals released by the government or other agencies for potentially nefarious purposes.
People’s primary concern with chemtrails used to center around using chemicals to control people. Lately, though, conspiracists have honed in on chemtrails as part of a plot to control the weather. Louisiana’s Senate Bill 46 aims to solve that by prohibiting the intentional dispersement of chemicals for the “express purpose of modifying weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight.” …
(at least they left the value of Pi alone …for now)
((also kinda ‘ironic’ that with trump’s fox"news" lackeys running everything, including the FAA, that that doesn’t tamp down the right-wing fear of the government doing evil conspiracy things; especially now that they might actually be trying to do evil conspiracy things @#$!!))
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OMFG
I swear, I’ve been thinking more and more often that with so many people believing and acting on absolute BS, including more and more politicians and other kinds of leaders, the world is simply spinning out of control, and into chaos. I know I should fight back, but I also wish for some place to just get away from it all.
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“COVID-19 vaccines are effective in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection and related complications in pregnant women,” the authors of the meta-analysis conclude. “Unvaccinated pregnant women are more likely to experience hypertensive disorders and caesarean sections, and their neonates are more likely to be admitted to a neonatal unit.”
That seems pretty clear. But Makary dismisses all of that data with a single short sentence: “There’s no randomized control trial, that’s the gold standard.”
This is, unsurprisingly, bullshit. But it is a way to dismiss any facts that are inconvenient, and I guarantee it will be repeated ad nauseum by the idiots Il Douche has running every scientific and medical administration in the government. We are seriously fucked, folks.
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Pet peeve of mine. I love this scene and is extremely funny, but what we call chai, they call massala chai, which means (paraphrasing) “spiced chai”. Is the classical process of “elision” in which a longer compound gets shortened either by removing or joining words.
Also, makes more sense for english, in which “tea” is not only used for the infusion of tea leaves but any (many? don’t know if there are exceptions) drinkable infusion. And “spiced tea” may mean something different in english 
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whoever wrote the headline lost the opportunity to write “gold standard science” is already wearing tin 
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Coffee 
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Coffee is brewed, not infused. Though I have to say the difference is too subtle for me to fully understand.
PS: (I’m guessing here I could put a joke that in the US the coffee is neither brewed nor infused, but disgraced… but I kinda like american brewed cofee )
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