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3·11 hours agoVideo is here: https://files.catbox.moe/1l4r23.mp4
8·2 days agoPop Culture Happy Hour did an episode on this not long ago. Their picks:
- Thunderstruck by AC/DC
- Feeling Good by Nina Simone
- Dreams by The Cranberries
- All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix (with the comment “Vietnam needs a new soundtrack.”)
But also, starting every trailer with the isolated piano key F6 (the same note as car horns and digital alarm clocks, specifically chosen to slap your brain to attention).
18·3 days agoThe Instant Smear Campaign Against Border Patrol Shooting Victim Alex Pretti
- David Gilbert - Politics
- Jan 24, 2026 7:37 PM
Within minutes of the shooting, the Trump administration and right-wing influencers began disparaging the man shot by a federal immigration officer on Saturday in Minneapolis.
Within minutes of Alex Pretti being shot and killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, the Trump administration, backed by right-wing influencers, launched a smear campaign against the victim, labeling him a “terrorist” and a “lunatic.”
Pretti, 37, was killed during a confrontation with multiple federal immigration agents. Pretti was an American citizen and a registered nurse who worked in the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a colleague who spoke to the Guardian. Video from a bystander shows Pretti was attempting to help a woman who had been pepper sprayed by an immigration agent when officers tackled him.
Pretti’s killing comes 17 days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross shot Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three. Good was also 37 at the time of her death.
Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said during a press conference on Saturday that information about what had led up to Pretti’s fatal confrontation was limited, but at a separate press conference, Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol commander overseeing federal operations in Minneapolis, claimed to have a full assessment of what had taken place.
Bovino claimed Pretti had approached officers with a 9mm handgun, resisted disarmament, and was shot in what he described as a clear act of self-defense. He claimed the man had two loaded magazines and lacked identification, and alleged that Pretti intended to “massacre law enforcement,” while the Border Patrol agent who killed Pretti, he said, had extensive training.
The Department of Homeland Security reiterated Bovino’s claims in a post on X that has been viewed over 17 million times at the time of publication, and the narrative was carried unquestioningly by right-wing outlets, like the Post Millenial, which published a story headlined: “Armed agitator Alex Pretti appeared to want ‘maximum damage’ and to ‘massacre’ law enforcement when shot by BP in Minnesota.”
Key portions of these claims are contradicted by publicly available evidence. Multiple videos shared on social media in the moments after the shooting show no indication that Pretti’s gun was visible when he was approached by the officers. Analyses by The New York Times and Bellingcat found that Pretti was clearly holding a phone, not a gun, when the federal officers approached him and forced him to the ground.
On Truth Social, President Donald Trump weighed in to blame Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. “The Mayor and the Governor are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric,” Trump wrote in a post that included an image of a gun DHS claimed Pretti was carrying at the time he was killed.
Vice President JD Vance backed up Trump’s criticism of local leadership, sharing a screenshot of the president’s Truth Social post and writing on X: “When I visited Minnesota, what the ICE agents wanted more than anything was to work with local law enforcement so that situations on the ground didn’t get out of hand. The local leadership in Minnesota has so far refused to answer those requests.”
Also posting on X, defense secretary Pete Hegseth added to the criticism of Frey and Walz, as well as denigrating the victim: “Shame on the leadership of Minnesota — and the lunatics in the street. ICE > MN.”
Walz, in a press conference, referred to the federal narrative as “nonsense.” “Minnesota’s justice system will have the last word” on Pretti’s killing, Walz said, adding, “the federal government cannot be trusted with this investigation.” Most Popular
Trump’s homeland security adviser, Stephen Miller, went further in a pair of posts, labelling Pretti an “assassin” and a “terrorist.”
The Trump administration’s smear campaign against the victim was quickly repeated by supporters on social media. Nick Sortor, one of a group of right-wing influencers camped out in Minneapolis to cover ICE’s campaign there, falsely referred to Pretti as an “illegal alien” and added that he “was armed with a gun and attempted to PULL IT on agents as he was being apprehended.” Pretti was a US citizen and born in Illinois, according to family members, who had no criminal record. Sortor’s claims are contradicted by video evidence. Quoting a video of the shooting, Jack Posobiec, a right-wing influencer with close ties to the White House, wrote on X: “It is most certainly illegal to disrupt federal law enforcement operations and doing so while armed is not only unlawful, it is a good way to get shot.”
Minneapolis police chief O’Hara clarified in a press conference that he believed Pretti was “a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.”
Despite the Trump administration’s talking points, not everyone on the right was on board. While right-wing podcaster Tim Pool labeled Pretti “a radicalized leftist” in a post on X without providing any evidence, he also disagreed with Bovino’s claim about killing multiple law enforcement officers: “There’s no reason to think he was trying to massacre LEOs,” Pool wrote, referring to law enforcement officers.
Dave Smith, a comedian who endorsed Trump in 2024, went further, suggesting in an X post that immigration agents’ killing of a second US citizen in the space of just over two weeks could be a tipping point for Trump’s supporters.
“I’m an immigration restrictionist. I believe that we have the right to remove any and all people who entered our country illegally,” Smith wrote. “Also, ICE is out of fucking control. A bunch of pussies, drunk on power going around intentionally escalating violent interactions and intimidating US citizens.”
6·3 days ago
District work periods are times when members of Congress return to their home states to engage with constituents and address local issues. These periods allow lawmakers to connect with their communities and discuss legislative priorities.
Connecting with constituents, eh? Florida constituents, at Sundance in Park City, Utah?
The country is straight up on the brink right now. Glad this guy isn’t missing the chance to hobnob with celebrities and rich donors.
I keep my starter in the fridge. It’s gone 9 months between feedings. After that long it usually takes 2 rounds of feedings to get going again, but she’s always come back, bubbling and lively as ever, going on 8 years now or so.
2·5 days agoThere is nothing invisible about this ass.
That would be the bologna in your slacks.
1·6 days agoOK, so that’s why they posted this twice. Thanks for the heads up; changing it to the other one.
On the one hand: pronoun jokes, ugh.
On the other hand: it’s freakin’ HE-MAN; you can’t not make pronoun jokes about that.
So I’m genuinely torn here.
I think it might be the design choice to make the pronoun typeface so big that’s rubbing me wrong. It’s overselling the joke for the people who a) don’t get subtlety, and b) are extra likely to laugh loudly at this joke specifically. These are not people I often call friends.
It’s ultimately a good joke, though. I think it would land a lot better if the pronoun text were smaller (sort of like you’d see in real life), or better yet, some kind of cute beefcake-styled sticker on an otherwise normal name placard (punctuated an isolated triangle ding! in the soundtrack). But… would that be prominent enough to notice the joke for people watching on tiny phone screens?
…
What am I doing with my life?
1·6 days agoJon has spent his entire career being exceptional at being a clown and communicating.
It’s not unreasonable for people to presume that a smart person who is good at communicating might make a great leader. But I think the role calls for more different skills that others have spent a lifetime specifically crafting (as opposed to performing stand-up and doing for television for decades).
He’s doing what he wants to do within the constraints offered to him. Do you think he wants to be working for Paramount? He had that show on Apple for a few years before butting heads on iPhone manufacturing practices, then he got pulled back into David & Larry Ellison’s world.
From what I recall, Fathom got its start by doing live streams of all kinds of events, not just the met opera.
If they’ve moved into traditional digital media delivery (either downloadable or physically delivered), that rules. That’s all the assurance I need.
It still seems like a big get for Fathom, though. With all the consolidation going on, I figure studios would be salivating to get their hooks into Laika if it weren’t all run on private Nike money.
Maybe it is possible for a production company to be run for the love of the game.
3·8 days ago“For a developing teenage brain, it’s going to be training that brain for impulsive behavior,” Aaron Ping said. “Dopamine reward schedules, it has a really harmful effect on the developing mind.”
Aaron Ping feels that effect is what led Avery to seek out the hallucinogenic drug MDMA on Snapchat in late 2024, leading to his overdose death. He was 16.
Do digital social platforms create addictive conditions that lead to adverse psychological effects in kids (and everyone)? Yes, absolutely.
Is that what made this guy’s kid want to buy sketchy ecstasy online? I doubt it.
David Burke, the Laika’s Chief Marketing and Operations Officer, said, “’Wildwood’ is a testament to Laika walking its own path.” He added, “For ‘Wildwood,’ we’re taking a more customized approach to how we bring the film to audiences, matching partners to the specific needs and ambitions of the project. Partnering with Fathom’s Denver-based team brings national perspective and operational strength to the U.S. release, while working with FilmNation internationally positions the film with scale, reach, and deep expertise in global markets. It’s a strategy built specifically for ‘Wildwood,’ preserving Laika’s independence while aligning with world-class collaborators to support the film’s ambition.”
Going with Fathom seems like a peculiar choice. I associate them with theatrical live streams and low-low distribution re-releases.
My immediate question is about the quality of the picture we’re going to get. I don’t associate streaming with high bitrate anything, but I suppose that’s what the Coraline and ParaNorman re-releases were meant to test out.
I just hope it sees a wide release.
One of the best cinema experiences I’ve had in the last few years was going to a 10:30 am screening of The Brutalist, with an intermission and a head-up on how many ads and trailers were being shoved in before the show started.
John Carter didn’t deserve the hate it got. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but it got done dirty.
7·11 days agoThe numbers change on this, but Cory Doctorow’s quote about the internet turning into 5 websites all sharing screenshots of the other 4 is becoming more true every day.
21·11 days agoWell I’m so glad you asked!!
You’re looking at one in the screenshot. Firefox does this, as does Chrome and some other browsers as well.
A bookmark keyword is a tiny bit of text that you can configure your browser to treat differently when you use it in the location bar.
Typically, whatever you type into the browser location bar will either treat that text like a website you’re trying to go to (like “apnews.com” or “ www.wikipedia.org ”) or text that gets sent to a search engine (like “tasty dinner ideas” or “best white socks”). However, if the text you enter starts with a bookmark keyword you’ve set up, the browser will insert the rest of the text you entered into a website address in a specified place.
This is typically useful to speed up searching on specific websites.
So if you want to search Wikipedia for “particle physics”, you can go to the Wikipedia website and enter “particle physics” into the search box and click the search button. That would send you to a page with search results of the text you entered. If you look at the location bar, you should see a URL that looks like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=particle+physicsWhat we notice here is that the text you entered, “particle physics” is right there in the URL.
To turn this into a bookmark keyword, you create a bookmark to this search results page, then replace your search term with the characters “%s”, so the bookmark URL would look like so:
Then, in the “keyword” box, you can enter whatever text you want to use for this shortcut. For Wikipedia, I like using just the letter ‘w’. (You don’t need quotes around it.) Save the bookmark, and that’s it.
Now, whenever you want to search Wikipedia, all you have to do is type “w particle physics” or “w forest fires” or “w whatever” into the location bar and the browser will take you directly to the search page with those results.
You can do this with basically any website with search functionality: search engines, retail stores, news, IMDb, reference resources, whatever.
This feature also can be used for going to detail pages directly if you have a specific reference number.
So let’s say you’re at work and you have a trouble ticketing system that shows details of ongoing issues. The URL for ticket number q-rt-654321 might look like this:
https://troubletickets.mycompanyfoo.biz/ticket/q-rt-654321/viewSo if you had the ticket number handy (like from an email chain), you could create a bookmark keyword to go directly to the ticket detail page:
https://troubletickets.mycompanyfoo.biz/ticket/%s/view…and use the keyword “tt” for trouble ticket.
Now you can just type “tt q-rt-654321” into the location bar and go right to the detail page (presuming the ticket number is accurate).
And that’s it.
Somebody at work showed me keyword shortcuts ages ago and I have tons of them now.
7·11 days agoI hope that someone eventually points out that the reason this doctor has never been sued was probably because she worked in the VA with vets who were terrified of suing the VA and losing their benefits.
Here’s the text of the website, so you can avoid the UX disaster that they decided to hide the content behind: