Eric J. Korpela @SETIEric@social.cleverlibre.org

COOL just got my first interview request as a result of this article I wrote! https://theconversation.com/an-astronomers-lament-satellite-megaconstellations-are-ruining-space-exploration-215653

(They want to interview me in like...2 hours, which is not going to happen. Hopefully they'll take me at a different time...)

Mike Johnson wanted chicken for dinner. They gave him chicken. He took the chicken and put it down the food disposal.

Now, Mike Johnson says he won't eat dinner because there is no chicken. #USPol

🔗 Speaker Mike Johnson Says House Will Not Vote on Foreign Aid Bill Because it Doesn’t Have a Border Policy —Which He Opposed Last Week
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/speaker-mike-johnson-says-house-will-not-vote-on-foreign-aid-bill-because-it-doesnt-have-a-border-policy-which-he-opposed-last-week/

Every President needs a competent Vice President in case the unthinkable happens. That's why we have one. We hope succession is never necessary.

Kamala Harris is ready to be President and I have total faith in her abilities to take over if necessary - which is the fundamental qualification of a Vice President.

Much of the focus on President Biden's age are basically thinly-disguised, racist dog whistles of "you might end up with a black woman as your President."

#politics #USpol #USpolitics

Public health is dead.

US CDC: "Americans who test positive for the coronavirus no longer need to routinely stay home from work and school for five days under new guidance planned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

“Public health has to be realistic, In making recommendations to the public today, we have to try to get the most out of what people are willing to do.”

Why be right and do your job when you can be "realistic," instead?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/cdc-plans-to-drop-five-day-covid-isolation-guidelines/ar-BB1icG15

Why won't anyone let Darwin be the one to go get breakfast anymore?

He always makes it too dramatic. Can't just get some food. Gotta be a whole "Voyage of the Bagel"

"US. worker safety officials fined Elon #Musk’s SpaceX $3,600 this month after an accident at its site in Washington state led to a “near amputation" ...

A Reuters investigation late last year found that Musk’s rocket company disregarded worker-safety regulations and standard practices at its facilities nationwide. Through interviews and government records, the news org documented at least 600 previously unreported injuries of SpaceX workers since 2014" https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/musks-spacex-fined-near-amputation-suffered-by-worker-records-show-2024-02-13/

Fact check: True

Via Zack Bornstein:

I’m no political analyst, but I feel like if a judge had ordered #Biden to pay $83 million to a woman he raped last week, we’d still be talking about it

First the Nazis burned books.

Then they burned people.

You have been warned by history, America.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/missouri-republican-candidate-torches-lgbtq-inclusive-books-viral-vide-rcna137715

A Supreme Court where three of the justices were appointed by Trump and one conspired to aid in Trump's insurrection with his wife should not be able to rule on any case involving Trump.

I used to think that people who called the court illegitimate were being dramatic, but now it's just a fact.

We were always going to have to beat Trump together.
Now it’s crystal clear.
If something ends up deservedly disqualifying Trump before Nov, great.
But we need to act like justice won’t prevail, and just like 2020, vote in undeniable numbers.
LETS.
GET.
TO.
WORK.

Now enforce it. Immediately.

FCC outlaws AI voices in robocall scams https://www.axios.com/2024/02/08/fcc-ai-robocalls-illegal

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) spends $5,000 a day on personal security, the Deseret News reports.

Jonathan Last: “Who is he protecting himself from? Not from Democrats. Romney isn’t worried that some woke Karen is going to get up in his grill. He’s worried about Republicans. He’s worried that he is not physically safe from the people who voted for him.”

“And yet Romney still caucuses as a Republican.”

No argument more offensive than "We can't let you do this thing the Constitution says because then the GOP might do something for fake reasons."

They already do whatever they can get away with for fake reasons.

They wrote a new 2nd amendment because they didn't like the real one.

Based on the argument, it appears there are 5 or more votes to allow Trump to remain on the ballot.

The fact that Justice Thomas is on this panel already undermines its legitimacy.

#law #lawfedi #SCOTUS

State trust lands just might be one of the best-kept public secrets in America.

WSU runs on timber sales extracted from stolen Yakama lands.

Texas A&M runs on oil and gas extracted from 4.2 million acres of Kiowa, Comanche and Mescalero Apache lands.

UArizona runs on oil and gas extracted from the lands of at least 10 #Indigenous nations.

NMSU runs on oil and gas extracted from lands siezed from various Apache bands during the longest war in US history.

🧵

Today I'd like to discuss the Biden administration rigging the Super Bowl in favor of a midwestern team with a racist name whose owner has given tens of thousands of dollars to Trump Republicans who deny Biden won the 2020 election https://skepchick.org/2024/02/a-word-about-the-taylor-swift-super-bowl-conspiracy-theory/

Nothing Trump says is true. Ever. He's a malignant, pathological liar.

For ex.

Via Ron Filipkowski

I thought it wasn’t an insurrection.

Trump: I think it was an insurrection caused by Nancy Pelosi.

@panamared27401

Very vexing to me this general feeling that it would be just too weird to actually take the constitutional seriously, and it's best to find some way to pretend that everything is fine and normal. This is how Trump et al get away with stuff!

We're still trying to close up the gap in digital subscriptions caused by Amazon shuttering their subscription program last year. If you are a former Amazon subscriber looking to sign back up or someone joining for the first time, your options can be found here:

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(We were unable to contact former subscribers because Amazon wouldn't tell us who they were. It made quite a mess for a lot of magazines.)