↓
 
Home » Open thread 7/24/24

Open thread 7/24/24

The New Neo Posted on by

This is the sort of thing that reminds me how very very happy I am that I learned English as a native speaker.

Comments

Open thread 7/24/24 — 34 Comments

  1. The (Surprising) Truth About Military Service

    Americans love the military. So why are so few of them signing up?

    In 2022, the military estimated that among youths age 17-24, 77 percent would be disqualified from military service, with some of the most common reasons being drug use, medical conditions, or being overweight. Forty-four percent were disqualified for two or more such causes.

    Opening shows Tailgating (great jump method 🙂 )

  2. Swat Police bodycamera footage released by Sen. Grassley, discussing assassin (while standing on roof next to his corpse) and police snipers who had earlier id’d the assassin. There was a sniper team inside the 2nd floor window adjacent to the assassin’s position at the time this video was taken: https://youtu.be/-GSu7zfg9u0?si=D2uEXZSZKX1EGzco

  4. Perfect Karmi: MHGA — Kamala Hauk Tuah 2024! Imagine the happy endings that can be unburdened by what has been! Spit on that thang!

  5. This video on proper pronunciation reminds me of a conversation I had with a student. I was a native New Englander, albeit with family connections to the Southwest, teaching in Texas. “Mr. X, there are classes you can take to take care of your speech defect.”

    I suppressed a laugh, and informed the student that what I had wasn’t a speech defect, but a New England accent. (definitely not Eastern Mass, but not standard American, either.)

    The student said this after class, when he was the only student in the room, which to me implied that he wasn’t doing this to disrespect me, but out of genuine concern.

  6. Here’s another look at it sdferr  😉 – Is Kamala Harris so good that Republicans are having to resort to name calling, ‘racism and sexism‘ because they are unable to debate the issues with her?! 🙂

    Attorney General Letitia James thinks so:

    She said Republicans were ‘running scared’ at the prospect of facing Harris at the election, and ‘have nothing else other than racism and sexism’ … ‘When you have nothing else, unfortunately, you just appeal to the racist among us, the white nationalists among us … ‘The reality is, is that Kamala Harris, Vice President Harris, is qualified. And, oftentimes, she’s underestimated, but she’s an overachiever.

    From the same link (coming up) – I know a lot of MAGA Republicans dislike Kevin McCarthy, but I thought it was a mistake to dump him. Anyway, here’s what he is warning – Kevin McCarthy rips Republicans for ‘totally stupid and dumb’ attacks on Kamala Harris and reveals huge reason they should not call for Joe Biden to resign:

    Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy has warned Donald Trump and other Republicans not to make ‘stupid and dumb’ personal attacks on Kamala Harris.

    Attacks by Republicans on Harris began almost as soon as Biden abandoned his reelection bid, calling her a ‘DEI hire’ among other insults.

    McCarthy warned his colleagues this was a grave mistake that would only help Harris by driving moderates and independents away from the party.

    McCarthy also rubbished calls by fellow Republicans for Biden to step down as president, which would automatically elevate Harris to the top job.

    ‘That would be an advantage for Kamala. Air Force One is very powerful when it lands somewhere,’ he said.

    ‘And you know what? Something will happen between now and the election. A hurricane or something else. And she’ll be able to present herself as a leader. Or maybe there’s some foreign policy.

    Maybe it is best to give Kamala enough rope – make that – don’t get in Kamala’s way and let her destroy herself…

  7. How about the contra-positive, clueless?:
    Is Kamala Harris Donald Trump so good that Republicans Democrats are having to resort to name calling (Rapist!, Felon!), with their reverse ‘racism and sexism‘ because they are unable to debate the issues with her him?!

  12. Chat GPT looks like it’s already extremely capable.

    Bought an old Japanese scroll with two large cursive characters on it on Ebey, because it spoke to me, but my knowledge of Chinese–acquired many decades ago–never did extend to the much more difficult cursive styles and, moreover, you can write the same character any number of different ways in cursive styles, given “artistic license.”

    So, I tried an image search program to see if I could find the same two characters with a translation, but with no luck.

    Then, I looked around the web to see if there were any programs which could translate Japanese cursive script into English, and found none that seemed capable of doing what I wanted them to do.

    Finally, on the off chance, I input an image of the two cursive characters into Chat GPT and it instantly–and I believe correctly–translated the two cursive characters into English.

  13. Neo: Being a devotee of ballet, you may have already seen this. Are any of the dog’s moves even semi legit, e.g. moving to the far side of the room and rushing back (and even kneeling with foreheads meeting)? Border collies have always amazed me. I’ve heard they’re the most intelligent breed going.
    https://x.com/i/status/1815137302722547827

  14. Kate, some time ago I think you mentioned how one can read X-posts, without having an X account. Could you please repeat that info?

  15. Its not sexist its sadly how she rose to power she has no other accomplishments to her name the dem media seems to returning the favor

    16 years ago there was another candidate of integrity honor and we know how the dems and larry flynt and joe mcguinness so spare me the vapors about propriety

    The problem is she loves this country and kamala despises it there lies the rub and soviet tools like obama and biden and raskin

  18. A list of boycotters of PM Netanyahu’s upcoming Joint Congressional Session Address this day:
    0. VP Kamala Harris, 1. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), 2. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), 3. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), 4. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), 5. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), 6. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), 7. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), 8. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), 9. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), 10. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), 11. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), 12. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), 13. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), 14. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), 15. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), 16. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), 17. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), 18. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), 19. Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), 20. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), 21. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), 22. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), 23. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), 24. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), 25. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), 26. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), 27. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), 28. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), 29. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), 30. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), 31. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), 32. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), 33. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), 34. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), 35. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), 36. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), 37. Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), 38. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), 39. Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), 40. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), 41. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), 42. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.), 43. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), 44. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), 45. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), 46. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), 47. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.)

    Bibi has the best enemies somehow.

  19. Mccarthy let this charlatan jill on policy circles enabled this j6 fraud flounced off in the middle of term because he had failed in his key responsabilities they let them steL all but four seats it makes one wonder what is the point of him

  20. Interesting that Ukraine is seeking China to mediate talks with Russia to at minimum create a cease fire. On the face of it, one could assume Ukraine thinks China would have more leverage to force Russia to accept terms less severe than what Russia has announced before the Swiss “peace summit”.

    This could be a dangerous move by Ukraine. After Orban’s visit to Ukraine and Russia to attempt to open dialogue, the EU has responded quite critically. One could say that the EU/NATO forces do not want an end to the conflict based on their reaction to Orban’s initiative.

    Included in the discussion in China, Chinese FM indicated China would be interested in purchasing more Ukraine agricultural products. Could this be seen by the EU as a movement away from that trading bloc?

    As to Trump’s statement about forcing negotiations between Ukraine and Russia– Trump has said the stick of withdrawing Ukraine aid would be coupled with sending more weapons/support to Ukraine if Russia balked at a settlement.

    Zelensky has said there needs to be a mediator between talks. Could this be because the Ukraine Rada passed a law in 2022 making it illegal for Ukraine/Zelensky to negotiate with Putin/Russia?

    BEIJING/KYIV, July 24 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s top diplomat told China’s foreign minister at talks in the southern city of Guangzhou on Wednesday that Kyiv was open to talks with Russia if Moscow was prepared to negotiate in good faith, something he said he saw no evidence of for now.
    Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is the highest ranking Ukrainian official to travel to China since Russia’s February 2022 invasion and held talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi for more than three hours, a Ukrainian source in the delegation said.

    “Kuleba restated .. that (Kyiv) is ready to engage the Russian side in the negotiation process at a certain stage, when Russia is ready to negotiate in good faith, but emphasized that no such readiness is currently observed on the Russian side,” his ministry said in a statement.
    Russian troops have been inching forward in eastern Ukraine in the 29-month-old invasion ahead of a U.S. election in November that could see the return to the White House of Donald Trump, who has threatened to cut vital aid flows to Ukraine.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraines-top-diplomat-meets-chinas-wang-yi-talks-guangzhou-2024-07-24/

  22. So how does all those Ds boycotting the address play to the already concerned Jewish supporters of the party? Maybe nothing. Like most committed Democrats, they will continue voting and sending money as the antisemitic party plans their extermination.

  23. Jeez…DEMs & REPs!? Here’s one that almost put me to sleep in less than 30 seconds of reading.

    DEMs’ media: Kamala was never “Border Czar” – hence she could’ve NEVER failed at being Border Czar.

    BREITBART: Desperate Media Seek to Erase Kamala Harris Failed ‘Border Czar’ Role.

    I couldn’t find anything that said she was made “Border Czar” by Biden in that article, but it was boring for me to read…

    Was Kamala Harris ever given the title “Border Czar” by Biden – OR – was it The Trump campaign and Republicans?!

    March 24, 2021: “Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis” – Axios.

    July 24, 2024: “The Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the “border czar” title — which she never actually had.” – Axios.

  24. Dax, I don’t know how to read X posts without an account. I signed up for an account, using a Gmail address that doesn’t contain my real name. I never post or reply to anyone, but I can read anything that isn’t set to “private.”

    What I learned how to do is to read Fox News articles that require an email sign-up. Just tell your phone or browser to display the “Reader” version. That might work on other sites that only want a free sign-up as well, I suppose.

  25. Gringo, I grew up in Arizona. When I first heard Barbara Walters on TV news, I thought she had a speech defect. It took me a while to learn that it was a regional accent.

  26. Karmi, two wrongs don’t make a right, but Harris’s past sexual antics should rather take the wind out of attacks on Trump for his more youthful behavior. No saints visible in the 2024 presidential race.

  27. Some investigation details coming out are bizarre.
    U.S. Rep Eli Crane (R-Tucson) is a former SEAL team sniper.
    He was on scene in Butler, PA, shortly after the assassination attempt.
    As he points out with several examples, a lot of the official story doesn’t add up.

  28. Axios “pounced” on Republicans for calling Kamala “border czar”. Then had to issue a correction admitting that they had called Kamala “border czar”.

    You are looking more and more like a troll every day karmi.

  29. Whether she was named “czar” is immaterial to the fact that Biden publicly tasked her with working to fix the border mess. Neither he nor Harris ever intended to do anything to fix the mess, of course.

  30. This is the sort of thing that reminds me how very very happy I am that I learned English as a native speaker.

    –neo

    French has more sounds not in English than English has which are not in French. And there are tricky rules, like the -ed business, for how words are pronounced.

    Still, I’d prefer to be learning French as an English speaker rather than the other way around. French has its messiness in sounds and meaning, but nothing like English.

  31. That video was quite useful. Being brief and focused also helped. I had hoped the presenter might have spared a thought for examples like ‘blessèd’ as well, but one can’t have everything and that is admittedly a somewhat specialized usage.

  33. Kate, thank you for your reply. I did see some info when I searched, about using 3rd party apps to do this, but it seemed like a lot of trouble.

    Thank you for the tip about using Reader to read Fox News. It has also worked for me when the Washington Times used to only let me read a certain number of articles; with Reader I could keep reading new articles. 🙂

  34. @ Phillip > “I had hoped the presenter might have spared a thought for examples like ‘blessèd’ as well, but one can’t have everything and that is admittedly a somewhat specialized usage.”

    That word would be covered under the “final s” rule as simply “bless’d,” which is how most of us pronounce it today.

    My supposition is that we have retained /id/ pronunciations for certain words like ‘blessèd’ because of the continuing impact of the King James Bible and the old hymns (and poems) that need the extra syllable to scan properly.

    If I remember correctly, ALL simple past tense words were formerly pronounced with the last syllable as /id/.
    English speakers are notorious for eventually eliding sounds if they can possibly get away with it.

    I wasn’t able to find any support online for my thesis, but maybe someone else has additional information, or a refutation.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

↑