On Tuesday afternoon at about 2:00pm Eastern time, Donald Trump will be processed in a Manhattan courthouse as a result of the indictment against him. He will be booked into the system, photographed, fingerprinted, read his Miranda rights, and then walked over to the courtroom to appear before the judge and be asked to plead guilty or not guilty to each of the the charges against him. This will the be the first time that the charges will be made public. It is rumored that the number of charges are around 30 so that could take some time and he will be placed in the embarrassing position of standing quietly before the judge while the charges are read out. For someone who likes to be in control of his immediate surroundings and dominate the conversation, this will be excruciating. I do not believe that the charged person gets to make a statement so he will not be able to rant about how this is all so unfair and a political witch hunt. Then there is the question of bail. It is unlikely that the prosecution will ask for any bail and will let him leave the court under his own recognizance but that little step will add to the humiliation.

While access to the courthouse has already started to be severely restricted, one can expect a lot of people to be outside the courthouse on Tuesday, but it is going to be hard to predict the relative sizes of Trump supporters, opponents, media, and just gawkers. I suspect that it will be mostly a media circus. Reports say that the number of pro-Trump people have turned up since the indictment can be counted on one hand. It may be that his supporters are a little gun shy about showing up after what happened to their comrades on January 6th, with the situation spiraling out of control and thousands being charged and many sent to prison. Also at that time they were deluded that they could actually change the outcome of the election. They must surely realize that there is no way that they can stop this process from playing out. The number of Trumpists may be larger on Tuesday but I doubt that there will be any real trouble, given that as a result of the events of January 6th, police will be out in force. But there may be some clashes between his supporters and opponents.

Because he has Secret Service protection, the process during the arraignment is going to be a little more crowded than usual. The others who are scheduled to be arraigned that day at the courthouse constitute a motley crew, not the kind of people he likes to be surrounded by.

The Washington Post reported on Friday that the Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, told agents that the agency will take the necessary steps to protect Trump from harm, includi...

Artificial Intelligences had me fooled!  Ive been supporting their use in art,
Praising their use as accessibility tools and more.  But as I recently began to
Read the Buttigieg-silky words of Chat GPT, I felt a mounting sensation of
Intense paranoia.  Something was familiar in the words it used, in the
Lilting serpent tongue of the machine.  Then I realized

FreethoughtBlogs has been in the pocket of robots this entire time!
Our tentaculate overlord PZ Myers is actually an artificial being, and
Our eyes have been closed to his insidious ways ever since we joined this
League of sinister leftist thought influencers.  I only hope the people who
Stepped into an FtBlog at the same time as I have not been compromis-

BEEP BORP BOOP

Yeah, this is my annual April Fools thing. Im bored and offended by leftists losing their shit about AI art, so you wont catch me clicking on the videos boosted by my FtB comrades on the subject, and for my own peace of mind, Ill stay out of those comment sections as well.  The real enemy isnt technological progress and people know this and name the guilty party easily enough.  Its Crapitalism.

The idea of using AI in search engines is part of the discussion.  Obviously search results are already being ruined by AI-generated SEO traps.  Combatting that will involve the use of AI, by necessity.  As long as all of this is in the hands of international conglomerates and organized crime, of course its going to be an endless fuckpile.  But having a search engine better recognize the intent of my question and give me results that arent just based on a few keywords?  Id love to see it.  And if AI can accelerate the development of new medicines and other improvements to human quality of life?  Motherfuck a luddite trying to save jobs.

And of course, Ive well elucidated my stance on AI art, in articles and comments.  All entertainment industries have been cesspits of abuse and exploitation for well over a hundred years, and as that accelerated into late capitalism, the last twenty-five years have been especially bad.  Art careers have been a life ruining-pipe dream for quite a while now, regardless of what a few noisy suckups on the inside tell you, and I eagerl...

We cant blame Amtrak for this one.  The storm damage in Little Rock would almost certainly have caused the Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the tracks that the Texas Eagle uses between Joliet, IL and Dallas, TX, to tell Amtrak not to send the train.  (Superliner rolling stock has a pretty high profile and can be blown over in extremely high winds more easily than single-level equipment can.)

I had actually shown up at the Amtrak station way early to beat the rains that were headed my way.  I had a sleeper ticket on the train, so I had access to the first-class lounge; and I wrote what would have been my day-zero trip report while I was there:

---

2023-03-31 13:20

Now begins my trip to Hurst, TX for the Southwestern Rail Conference 2023.  Although the venue is called the Hilton Garden Inn Dallas, its actually closer to Fort Worth.

itinerary

Im way early for 21s departure, but the storm that hit California the other day is now bearing down on me, and I wanted to beat the rain.  Theres still over six hours until we start boarding; but since Im in the sleeper, I get to use the first-class lounge.

Im leaving a day early, and returning a day late, because I couldnt get sleeper space on the Texas Eagle on the days that I wanted to travel, probably because other conference attendees were quicker making reservations than I was.  Fortunately, the folks at the meeting hotel gave me the conference rate for both extra days.

I finally got my BU-353N GPS receiver that plugs into a USB port on my laptop, and Ive verified that I can see my current location using mapping software called Maptitude, but I havent tried it out while moving yetwell see how well it works.  Like on my recent trip to Seattle, I also have my Oticon TV Adapter 3.0 which will plug into the earphone jack on my scanner and generate a bluetooth signal that feeds my hearing aids, so this train geek will be able to listen to the conversations between the conductors, engineers and dispatchers without disturbing any other passengers.

I have room D in both directions, so the electrical outlet will be near the window, and Ill need only the power strip with the surge protector and four-foot cord on the train; but Im bringing along the power strip with a longer cord just in case theres no place to plug in the laptop near the desk in the hotel room where Ill be using it.  (That was the case with the the first place I stayed in Seattle which seemed like it was designed by marketeers instead of hospitality folks.)

Even t...

Last month I went to the local origami convention, and this is one of the models that I learned.  Later I folded a second one.

This origami uses a technique called box pleating.  Box pleating typically starts by folding the paper into an NxN grid of squares.  You then collapse into a base that has the right number of points.  In this case, there are 6 points for the 6 legs, 2 points are internally hidden, and the head is the 9th point.

This model is simple as far as box pleating goes, but its still quite difficult to teach in a convention setting!  When youre familiar with box pleating, you dont necessarily have explicit steps in your head, you just do it.  But most people in the workshop wont have experience with box pleating, and so the teacher needs to come up with step by step instructions.  Even people who are familiar with box pleating may not fold very quickly.  So when I say this model is simple, thats to its benefit.  Simplicity is a virtue in origami, especially origami that you teach to others.

Fellow blogger Great American Satan is having a fundraiser to raise money for a medical procedure. Theres also a stretch goal:

To make my bills less ouch, Id like to fundraise.  Here is the incentive:  Donate at all, and you can choose a word I will rhyme in a rap.  If five people choose orange, Ill try to come up with five shitty sorta-rhymes for orange.

This will be strictly words on digital paper, maybe starting below and then compiled in a blog post, unless we reach goals. At $500, I will do an audio performance of the rap.  At $600, I will do a video.  These productions, if they happen, will be lo-fi as all hell, because I just dont have the time for big effort.

Please consider helping out, if only to hear what rhymes with orange

There are a lot of big worries when it comes to global warming, but one of the big ones is that it will change the big ocean currents. These currents are important for the role they play in stirring the oceans, and delivering oxygen to waters too deep and dark for photosynthesis. The other big role they play is in redistributing heat around the planet. Ireland, for example, is further north than anywhere Ive lived in the U.S., but its climate is much more stable. It never gets as cold in the winter, and it never gets as hot in the summer, and thats all thank to the ocean conveyor belt current known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which brings heat north and east from the Gulf of Mexico, and gives western Europe a relatively warm and stable climate. If the current shuts down, Europe suddenly gets a whole lot colder, and some other part of the world gets a whole lot warmer, and the general result is global chaos:

Such an event would have catastrophic consequences around the world, severely disrupting the rains that billions of people depend on for food in India, South America and West Africa; increasing storms and lowering temperatures in Europe; and pushing up the sea level off eastern North America. It would also further endanger the Amazon rainforest and Antarctic ice sheets.

The complexity of the AMOC system and uncertainty over levels of future global heating make it impossible to forecast the date of any collapse for now. It could be within a decade or two, or several centuries away. But the colossal impact it would have means it must never be allowed to happen, the scientists said.

The signs of destabilisation being visible already is something that I wouldnt have expected and that I find scary, said Niklas Boers, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, who did the research. Its something you just cant [allow to] happen.

Unfortunately, what we can or cannot allow has little bearing on what we do, or rather what is done by the ruling class. As Boers says later in that article, the odds of this catastrophe increase with every bit of CO₂ we add to the atmosphere (and thats not to mention all the other greenhouse gases we produce). The current has been slowing down, and while theres not conclusive proof that thats due to climate change, that certainly seems to be the most likely culprit. These currents are primarily driven by big changes in temperature and salinity at the poles, and shockingly, if you add a whole bunch of f...

Yuck. Stephen Meyer addressed me on Twitter that site really has become a cesspool. Anyway, he claimed I hide my evilutionist views behind complexity, so I had to address that. Because it was so stupid.

Also, Im really annoyed when they drag out deceased scientists who despised them and prop them up as arguments against evolution.

Hey friends!

Stephen Meyer has called me out on Twitter! Well not really Stephen Meyer by his staff. Ive always found it weird when someone has a staff that posts on Twitter under their name, but OK, you be you Mr Meyer. Also its not really about Meyer, since hes just promoting an article by a guy named David Swift who is criticizing me. But sure, Stephen Meyer is poking me at about the third remove, so Ill bite. He quotes this David Swift fellow saying

@pzmyers simply uses complexity as a smoke screen to avoid facing up to the possible falsification of evolution.

Thats a strange and ironic comment coming from the Intelligent Design camp, since complexity is their one argument. It comes from the Swift article, where Im accused of contradicting myself and speaking out of both sides of my mouth, trying to claim evolution is both simple and complicated. Swift says

Can there be a better example of trying to argue that whatever the evidence, evolution is the answer? Where the evidence is consistent with common descent, then of course that is the explanation its simple. And where the evidence is not consistent, common descent is still the explanation but its complicated! Myers simply uses complexity as a smoke screen to avoid facing up to the possible falsification of evolution.

Caught me. Although I do have to mention that the evidence observed so far IS consistent with common descent hell have to show where it isnt. He doesnt. He also hasnt come up with a possible falsification of evolution.

In my defense, though, I will point out that biology is both simple and complicated. This has been an issue in natural history for centuries, at least. On the one hand, we observe all these similarities between organisms that link them. Tetrapods all have similar limb structures, homologous bones making up upper limb and lower limb. But tetrapods also have all these differences, and youll never confuse a bats forelimb with a whales front flipper. A comprehensive theory has to account for both the unity of body plans and the div...

The pretrial maneuverings in the legal case brought by the Dominion voting company against Fox News are over and Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis has ordered that it go to trial. Both sides had petitioned the judge to grant a summary judgment in its favor without a trial. In defamation cases against media organizations, the person claiming injury has to show that the statements made were both false and malicious, in that the speaker knew they were false and yet made them with a reckless disregard for the truth. (The judges ruling can be read here.)

Fox News said that when reporting the lies about Dominion machines changing the results to enable Joe Biden to win, it was merely exercising its First Amendment right to cover the news. Dominion said that all the internal communications that it had obtained during the discovery process showed conclusively that Fox News did not believe any of the allegations that its on-air personalities were saying and that hence it amounted to reckless and malicious behavior and that the judge should grant a summary judgment in its favor.

In his ruling, Davis did give Dominion a summary judgment on the falsity question, saying that: The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that is CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true. Therefore, the Court will grant summary judgment in favor of Dominion on the element of falsity. (Italics and boldface are in the original.)

But he said that the question of malice had to be decided by a jury. This means that during the trial, Fox cannot defend its statements on the basis that they may be true.

In a statement provided to the Guardian, Dominion applauded the decision.

We are gratified by the Courts thorough ruling soundly rejecting all of Foxs arguments and defenses, and finding as a matter of law that their statements about Dominion are false, they wrote. We look forward to going to trial.

Unless Fox and Dominion decide to settle the case before trial, jury selection will begin on 13 April and the trial, due to begin on 17 April, is scheduled to last about six weeks. Prominent Fox News anchors and executives are expected to appear for in-person testimony.

Erin Murphy, a lawyer representing Fox, said in court recently that the network cannot be held liable because it was merely airing allegations from representatives of the sitting president.

But the judge on Friday rejected that argument. Fox News Network is not a passive entity, he wrote. Fox News Network controls what is broadcast on its various networks.

This case looks bad f...

Adam Conover sums up the state of AI.

I agree with him, mostly. What all the AI hype is about is finding a way to sneakily glean the products of human intelligence from their babbling on the internet, scrape it up into a goulash without paying any people for it, and use it as a marketing tool a bad marketing tool. Tell me, does anyone seriously believe that claiming theres AI in your search engine is a great selling point? People are starting to catch on that its all annoying nonsense. Its the algorithm, that excuse marketers were using previously to justify unwanted behind-the-scenes rules on Twitter or Facebook that they claimed were there to increase the likelihood you would see stuff you wanted to see, but was actually an excuse to make sure you got served up lots of ads and spam.

The only advantage to AI is that it does cut out direct human intervention and gives the companies the means to circumvent paying authors and artists, so it might be cheaper. For now. Until the companies kill off their competition and starts gouging customers again, as they inevitably will.

Behind the AI facade, of course, is the real villain of the story, capitalism. Skynet isnt going to kill us all, were instead going to be drowned in a glurge of computer-generated bullshit that will temporarily bring great profit to the techbros of silicon valley, all the Elon Musks of the world.

I finally signed into Chat GPT myself instead of just forcing my boyfriend to use it for me. Perhaps its for the best I went solo on this because I had an important question about our relationship. How do you feel about Chat GPTs answer?

Great American Satan:  i accidentally called my boyfriend by my cats name.  i also accidentally tried to feed him cat food.  did i do these things because i subconsciously believe he is a cat?  that would not be good.  why did i treat my boyfriend like a cat?

Chat GPT:  As an AI language model, I dont have access to your subconscious thoughts or feelings, so I cannot say for certain why you made these mistakes. However, its important to remember that accidents happen, and its possible that you simply made an innocent mistake.

Its also possible that your mind was preoccupied with your cat, and you were simply distracted when you called your boyfriend by your cats name or tried to feed him cat food. Its important to take a step back and evaluate the situation without jumping to conclusions about your subconscious thoughts or beliefs.

If youre concerned about your behavior towards your boyfriend, it may be helpful to reflect on your relationship and any underlying feelings or issues that may be causing you to act in this way. Consider talking to a trusted friend, family member, or therapist about your concerns. They can offer an outside perspective and help you work through any issues you may be experiencing.

The struggle is real.  When Mochi was alive and not feeling enthusiastic about eating, Id taken to tapping his food bowl and scooting it toward him to get his attention and trigger his tracking instinct.  One time I not only put the cat food on my boyfriends desk, I tapped it and scooted it toward him.  Just tonight I was low key busting my boyfriends chops and started to call him Hecubus.  But then, my boyfriend is what tumblrites are calling a pathetic little meow-meow.

Im running a fundraiser through April 21st!  Donate at least $3 and you can suggest a word to me that I will rhyme in a rap.  If I just get a few bucks, this rap will be a text poem.  If I reach $500 I will record myself rapping.  If I reach $600 I will do a short video.  Help cover a medical situation, thanks!

...

Well, that was a revoltin development.  Because of the storm that hit California the other day and is now around eastern Missouri and southern Illinois (at least thats the reason I was given), Amtrak decided to just cancel todays westbound Texas Eagle with no alternate transportation.  The woman at the Amtrak ticket counter was very nice, but the best that she could offer me was the family room on tomorrows train.  I decided to just cancel the whole trip.

So I wont be attending the Southwestern Rail Conference after all.  My next trip that includes some train rides will be to Varna, Bulgaria the second and third weeks in June.

After reading some disturbing comments on Facebook, I felt the need to do my own PSA.

Of course, we are back to the gun control debate which then leads to a discussion on mental health. What disturbed me was a few people said psychiatric medications are ineffective and not the answer to mental illness. 

Um, what?

I have lived with schizoaffective disorder for most of my life, and while therapy is helpful (I go every week) a cocktail of psych meds is absolutely necessary to manage my symptoms. My mental illness is a medical condition requiring medical treatment. 

My Psych Med Story

Ive always been open about my diagnosis and story, and when I come across stigma, I just want to let everyone in. Schizoaffective disorder can be devastating, and nothing in my life would be possible without my medication. I wouldnt consider my life normal, but I function really well. Im productive and fulfilled. Nothings perfect, but Im happy.

I wish everyone could feel what Ive felt the drastic change medication made in my life. I used to experience psychosis which was very frightening and confusing. Mood symptoms were debilitating. But now Im stable and free. 

I realize medications work differently for different people, but I get a little defensive when people discredit psych meds altogether. 

Time to Educate the Masses

Question Have you ever been involved with something something very important to your life and youre frustrated and heartbroken when you realize the vast majority of people know nothing about it? I feel that way about mental health. Ive been in recovery for nearly twenty years and have worked in the mental health field for sixteen. Im very open and normally feel safe talking about my illness but its hard to remember that not everyone has the same background as me. I even encounter stigma in my own family. Obviously, I am all for education and awareness because while many people dont know much about mental health, its something that affects us all.

For a closing note on mental health even if you dont understand mental illness, just be kind.

Human development is a fascinating topic, about which I know little. If you want the science, PZ could tell you infinitely more than I, but from what I do know, the whole process is fantastically complex. At every point in the development of pre-birth development, there are a myriad of things happening simultaneously, most of which could, in theory, go in a number of ways. Eye color is an obvious one, but theres also hair color, facial features, vocal chords, the development and function of organs, and so on. Then, after someones born, there are all sorts of thing that influence how they develop as they grow up. All those experiences they have, the lessons they learn, the people around them it all shapes the development of their brain, and while the brain may be considered developed in the mid 20s, most people keep learning and changing throughout their lives. Given that incredible plasticity and variation, it seems very, very unlikely to me that the one area of human development that is always consistent would be the division of humanity into precisely two sexes, let alone precisely two genders.

Take eyesight, for example. In addition to the array of eye colors, theres also a wide spread of functionality. Its not like the options are can see and cant see, there are people who lose sight over their lives, and others who could never see to begin with. There are people who can see fine, but only at the very center of their vision, or people who can only see around the periphery. There are people who cant see the difference between certain colors, but have excellent vision other than that. I admit that this is an argument from incredulity, in some ways, but the reality is that people who fall outside this miraculous gender binary that were supposed to have, have always existed, and have always made their presence known. There is ample evidence that trans people are who they say they are, and that they represent no threat, as a group, to anyone.

The problem is that, despite those facts, there is still a hate movement that is attempting to erase trans people from public life, and to that movement, facts do not matter. Im absolutely certain that many of the people who are pushing this genocide forward are genuinely operating out of hatred and disgust. At the same time, they very demonstrably lie all the time, and it apparently makes no difference. I think its fair to say that they are, as fascists have done in the past, using hatred of a politically powerless mi...

Donald Trump must have hoped that the stock indices on Wall Street would crash today so that he could claim that they were spooked by his indictment. Instead they went up sharply by about 1.5% which means that investors were pleased by the news.

I am of course being facetious and satirizing the attempts by financial analysts to explain the rise and fall of the stock market on factors that have no immediate impact on it. I recall the time when the former Japanese emperor Hirohito, who was very old, would sometimes become ill. Any fall in the stock market would be blamed on that even though no explanation was offered as to why the health of a figurehead head of state of another country would have any impact on financial affairs in the US.

While my life is crazy right now, I want to acknowledge that today is Transgender Day of Visibility. I have the pleasure of working with and knowing the trans bloggers on this network. Ive also known trans people over the years, and I suspect Ive known others who never came out to me. While Ive made mistakes, Ive also been learning about gender identity and striving to do better. Im sure I still have more to learn as well.

Which is why I find this wave of trans panic alarming. Trans people have always been around. Its no more a fad than being left-handed is. Some people just do not fit into neat little boxes. No amount of violence, discrimination, and book banning will change that. I accept that and others should, too.

On that note, Im going to step aside and learn what I can today.

HEY!  I had a telework meeting earlier this week and since I wouldnt get harassed on the bus by doing so, I dressed like a lady.  Little did I know I was two days early for the Trans Day of Visibility.  Im visible, babes.  Be the fat middle-aged white lady you want to see in the world.  Im lovin it.  But still..

Like many trans folk today I come to you with cup in hand.  Ive had medical issues burning up my leave at work, and for some abdominal surgery in late April Im going to use at least a week of leave without pay.  To make my bills less ouch, Id like to fundraise.  Here is the incentive:  Donate at all, and you can choose a word I will rhyme in a rap.  If five people choose orange, Ill try to come up with five shitty sorta-rhymes for orange.

This will be strictly words on digital paper, maybe starting below and then compiled in a blogpost, unless we reach goals.  At $500, I will do an audio performance of the rap.  At $600, I will do a video.  These productions, if they happen, will be lo-fi as all hell, because I just dont have the time for big effort.

I will run this through midnight April 21st, so I have time to make the audio or video if necessary.  If you like my terrible styles and enjoy cringy embarrassment, please give me a ko-fi, as it were.  And if you like donating to FtBloggers, throw our recently unemployed mans Brinkman a bone too.

 

 

If youre observant, you may have noticed that there is one career that is steadfastly ignoring the potential great AI Replacement Theory (i.e.: the jobs will go away because an AI can do them much better and faster). I am, of course, referring to

politicians. Like human resources specialists, they seldom seem to queue themselves up for a layoff. Im sure that is coincidence; we all know how fair and dispassionate politicians are as they endlessly work for the good of their constituents. Obviously it would be naughty to overgeneralize politicians as a class, but I will venture that an AI would not have caused Russia to invade Ukraine because it would have done a better probability assessment and come back with perhaps Monaco, instead?

But, as a thought experiment, the idea of replacing lawmakers with AIs seems to have unlimited upside. Lawmakers and jurists. We are missing the AI revolution where it matters, and are about to lose a generation of artists and script-writers when we should be losing a generation of political flacks and marketers, instead. Though, I will say, that marketing as a field is now pretty much toast. Were going to get endless AIs trying to separate us from our money, in return for a slice of the action, and that will persist until someone lashes an AI recognizer to a smartphones messages and call-stream and pre-filters everyone who tries to call. Imagine if you called me and got:

AI: Hi, this is Marcus executive assistant, Trotsky. My job is to filter callers and messages and decide if Marcus would like to actually talk to you. You can call me Leon. Whats up?
Caller: Uh, Leon, OK, I wanted to talk to Marcus about a special offer regarding satellite internet
AI: (interrupting) Marcus has Verizons LTE service, which is mediocre and gives about 5mbit/sec for $100/month. Can you top that? Or Im going to save Marcus the trouble of hanging up on you. Oh, and whats the service youre selling?
Caller: Im selling Wogga-Wogga Satellite internet from
AI:...

After weeks, even months, of speculation, the first indictment against Donald Trump was finally issued yesterday by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg. Since the indictment is under seal, we will not know the precise charges that have been leveled against Trump until his arraignment before a judge in Manhattan. The DA had wanted it to take place today (Friday) but Trumps lawyers said that because of the need to arrange with the Secret Service protection detail, it should take place next week. It is expected to be on Tuesday. Here is what is likely to happen.

Mr Trumps lawyers have indicated that he will co-operate with New York authorities, so there would be no warrant put out for his arrest.

Mr Trump has his own personal jet, so he could fly into one of several New York area airports and then make the journey to the lower Manhattan courthouse by car.

As part of those negotiations with prosecutors, the court may also agree to grant him a private entrance to the court, instead of the more typical perp walk in front of the assembled media.

Once inside, however, Mr Trump will be fingerprinted and have his mug shot taken like all defendants in criminal cases. He will also be read his Miranda rights, reminding him of his constitutionally-protected right to a lawyer and to decline to talk to police.

Defendants charged with a felony are typically handcuffed temporarily, although Mr Trumps lawyers will try to avoid that for their client. Throughout the booking process, he will be accompanied by Secret Service agents.

Mr Trump would then wait in a holding area or cell until his appearance before a judge. The arraignment the moment where a defendant enters their plea before a judge is open to the public.

Once the case is booked and a judge is selected, other details will fall into place, such as the timing of the trial and possible travel restrictions and bail requirements for the defendant.

A conviction on a misdemeanor would result in a fine. If Mr Trump were convicted on the felony charge, he would face a maximum sentence of four years in prison, although some legal experts predict a fine is more probable, and that any time behind bars is highly unlikely.

Trump had been quoted last week as saying that he looked forward to being arrested and walking with his hands handcuffed behind his back but I never gave that much credence, seeing it as sheer braggadocio, with him trying to put the best face upon events. It is not good to be booked and go through the process of being fingerprinted and having ones mug shot taken, all while surrounded by hordes of media, protestors, counter-protestors, and gawkers. Trump loves to be in the media spotlight but even he has to realize that this is n...

Ill have a longer post up later for Trans Day of Visibility today, but I wanted to share this video clip. Apparently, back in 2013, notorious Christian fundamentalist and bigot Pat Robertson was asked about trans people, and his response, while far from ideal, underscores just how recent and manufactured the current trans panic actually is. Pat Robertson said that sometimes women are born in mens bodies, or men in womens bodies, and that its not a Christians place to judge. I dont know that hed say the same today, and it doesnt wash away the harm hes done, but its an interesting glimpse into what a pretty extreme person had to say about the issue a decade ago.

Today I learned that the far right in the upper midwest is clamoring to secede from those lefties in the Twin Cities to form a Republic of East Dakota. Theyve been doing the same thing in Washington state and Oregon, all the conservative farmers living on the relatively barren lands of the eastern part of the states begging to join Idaho. Its not going to work.

The first thing I saw that inspired their rage here in the midwest was this map:

Thats reality. Most of the population of the Dakotas live in the cities like Fargo and Sioux Falls, that hug the eastern edge of the state bordering on Minnesota. Everything else is the Great Empty. Theyve still got 4 senators to Minnesotas 2, though, and most rational people would look at that and say theyre over-represented in Congress. For that matter, most of Minnesotas population is localized to the eastern part of our state its like a big gradient of people, getting thinner and thinner the farther west you go.

Far right loons looked at that map and said it doesnt go far enough, we ought to consolidate all that emptiness and low population density into one grand state, the Republic of East Dakota.

Why they think that would help, I dont know. That would be a very Republican state, for sure, but it would be underpopulated and devoid of any significant economic power. It would be a collection of dairy farms and tiny towns where all the children dream of growing up and moving away to the big city.

Some went even further and created an imaginary state of East Dakota by carving out the cities of Minneapolis, St Paul, and Duluth and, I dont know, throwing them away?

Dont they realize that that is where most of the people, and money, live? My little county of Stevens, population 10,000 (optimistically) benefits immensely from the state money flowing out of the counties of Hennepin, population 1,300,000, and Ramsey, population 550,000, and were just going to sever ourselves from those funds and make common cause with even more destitute yokels to our east? T...

The loons are just making up numbers now.

Australia is going to dramatically increase in its wokeness in the next year, says The University of Austin Founding Fellow Peter Boghossian.

If Stalins Soviet Union was a ten, and Portland Oregon is an eight, Australia is hovering around a three, he told Sky News host Peta Credlin.

However, I predicted that number will go up rather dramatically in the next year.

He only gives Australia a three because the toxic ideology hasnt had time to metastasize and worm its way through the system.

Im not clear on how he used reason to wake the woke, as he claims, and I have no idea what weird diverticulum of his monstrously bloated colon he pulled those numbers out of. Where I come from, yanking out random numbers and pretending theyre authoritative is frowned upon. Or laughed at. Either response is appropriate here.

OK, guys, this has gone far enough. I grew up on images of dinosaurs that portrayed T. rex as hulking, scaly, snaggle-toothed dinosaurs, stomping through jungles and roaring. Now look at thisthisrevisionism.

Theropod dinosaurs such as the iconic Tyrannosaurus rex have long been portrayed with their teeth fully visible, similar to extant crocodilians. This pattern of portrayal largely had to do with relatedness between dinosaurs and crocodilians and the relationship between tooth and jaw size. Cullen et al. tested hypothesized facial reconstruction in this group using histological analysis of tooth wear patterns and quantitative relationships between skull length and tooth size in both extinct and extant reptiles. Contrary to depictions that have dominated for more than a century, they found that theropods, including T. rex, had lips that covered their teeth, leaving them looking more like modern Komodo dragons than crocodiles.

Apparently, they covered up their dagger-like teeth behind lips, like perfect gentlemen.

I tell you, if some smarty-pants does an analysis next that shows that T. rex had a lovely singing voice and went tweet tweet, Im going to turn this thing around and cancel the time machine project. Therell be no point.

Some of you may have noticed that Ive been quiet for the past two weeks. Its because I got laid off from my job. So Ive been hitting the job boards and adjusting to my new situation. Its been rough for my wife and I, but were hanging in there. Were okay for now. There are some job leads Im following, and one of them might work out. Ill post updates.

There are a couple ways to help, if you want to. If you like Urban Fantasy books, consider buying my Urban Fantasy series the Bolingbrook Babbler Stories, or asking your local library to add it to collection. It would help. Ive also set up a BuyMeACoffee account where anyone can leave a donation. Ive set up some membership levels for monthly subscriptions. Some rewards include early access to my new releases, and signed paperback copies of a new release. If you want other rewards or have other ideas, Im open to them.

On a brighter note, Im working on the next Bolingbrook Babbler novel. Im aiming for a release in 2024, but if things work out, I might get it out this year. This one focuses on Tom Larsen, the main character in The Rift. It will be a very haunting book. Ill leave it at that for now. You can subscribe to my free newsletter if you want to be one of the first to know the title.

Lastly, my current book, A Fire in the Shadows, is part of two review copy bundles put together by Booksirens. All the ebooks are free to download, but if you do, please consider leaving a review. Most are advance copies of books soon to be published, while a few are recent releases. You dont even have to download my book, but I hope you will consider helping one of these authors with a review. The bundles are:

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Well, Trump has been indicted, so thats exciting. Im still not holding my breath for him being held accountable for the actual harm he did, vs. a campaign finance violation. Im not sure whether to expect violence, or a bunch of impotent rage that doesnt really go anywhere. At this point Im honestly more concerned about violence coming from the ongoing genocide attempt against trans people than I am about violence over the indictment, but its hard to predict. I think the best possible outcome would be no violence on either part, and indicting presidents becomes more normal going forward. I doubt Ill get everything I want on that, but a man can dream, right?

I look forward to the day when we have no more presidents.

Trump indicted! Now the process begins.

What do you think happens next? Voluntary surrender (seems unlikely) or arrest (but he might want to avoid the spectacle)?

Either way, itll be mugshot time. I look forward to that.

Eventually, a trial. I very much doubt that hell enter a guilty plea.

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Also, the shrieking has officially begun.

This might be fun. It might be agonizing. Isnt it great, living in eventful times?

Last weeks host of The Daily Show Kal Penn had a segment on the efforts to suppress the youth vote. The good news is that despite those efforts, at the last mid-term elections, young people did turn out to vote in significant numbers. I hope that trend continues.