Phil Landmeier @shuttersparks@qoto.org

@kathimmel Listening to him and his band got me interested in jazz back in the 60s. (I play piano)

@tofugolem Moral values? Bahahaha. Wut?

@mattsheffield Seems like a lawsuit is in order. But Fox has been sued many times over things like this and they always escape by arguing that Fox Entertainment provides entertainment and parody. Fox News is just the name of the program.

Problem is their viewers don't know this.

@knittingknots2 I dunno, man. If he keeps this up he's going to give fascists a bad name.

Seems to me the tone of major media reporting of Democrats is changing. I suspect they've come to the conclusion that their orange-haired favorite is not going to win, no matter what they say or do. They don't want to get caught supporting a candidate that gets trounced because it damages their credibility.

@LMac1970 @peterdutoit Yes, the French are good this way. Much of Europe is. Much more practical and realistic than the USA. If it's clear that it must be done, then do it now. Now.

@Amgine @CelloMomOnCars Residential rooftop solar is the way. But it will be a long time coming because the utility megacorps have more power over Congress than we do.

Yes, yes, it will be a long hard road and the utility companies will have to drastically change their operating model. I get it. I "feel" for them. Their whole world will be turned upside down and I understand they they're fighting it. But it must be done, and since it must be done the longer we fool around the worse it will go.

@HopelessDemigod @suzannealdrich Exactly. Somewhere in the 1990s, the FCC forgot that the airwaves, "spectrum", belongs to us, the citizens. It cannot be sold to Google or Verizon. It's not theirs to sell. But I guess people didn't pay attention or didn't understand.

Someday I hope we have a sensible Supreme Court and someone brings a lawsuit that crashes the whole charade. It's public property and you can use it if it benefits all citizens, you behave yourself, AND you perform public service. Verizon performs no public service for their PRIVILEGE to use OUR spectrum.

@billjurgensen Exactly. This attitude is clear from the private letters between the founders that we have as they discussed all this. The attitude was basically, well if they're stupid enough to do this then they deserve the government they get. The founders assumed rational politicians and rational voters. They had no knowledge of mass manipulation tactics. Those weren't developed until the early 20th century. Nor was mass manipulation possible or imaginable to the founders, who lived when horseback was the fastest form of communication.

They never imagined a world where I, for example, can post something on the Internet that millions of people across the whole country could see instantly if they wanted to.

@HopelessDemigod Ah, I see you know. The embarrassing thing is that Clinton signed off on it. It's the only serious beef I have with him. I suspect he didn't realize what the consequences would be, just like Reagan didn't realize the consequences of his policies. Either way, I'd still punch him in the mouth for it.

@HopelessDemigod That's not good -- at all. Medium wave AM broadcast radio might be old-tech, but it's vital for national security, vital for the government to be able to communicate with the entire population in case of a REAL emergency.

It's simple and always works. It's long range at night so one clear channel station can be picked up by anyone with an AM radio out to 1,000 miles. Every car has an AM radio. In a pinch with no electricity, any electronics hobbyist can make a crystal radio and pick up AM broadcast.

Low-tech has an infinite advantage in a dire emergency. It's infinite because other forms of communication all require technology that can't be cobbled together out of junk in the basement. AM radio can be.

@courtcan @GayDeceiver Neither have I. RAH wrote about it in his autobiographical tell-all book, to be published after his death.

@courtcan @GayDeceiver Poddy, yes, great book. You know the publisher made him change the end of the book. In the original ending, she dies. Heinlein was never happy about that.

@compoundchem Wow. Thanks for posting that. It's rare to run into a post focused on a personal niche interest. (I'm a rum aficionado.)