home

Big Day for Bad Bunny: He'll Knock it Out of the Park

I may not care for football but I will be watching this afternoon to see Bad Bunny's half time show, which he'll sing in Spanish. He is probably the biggest global performer in the world right now.

Close behind is Shakira, who just began her weeklong residency in El Salvador where she had her first concert last night. Tens of thousands of her fans crossed El Salvador's borders (legally) to be able to see her in person. Every hotel room in the country is reserved and she's expected to bring many millions to the local economy. El Salvador's gang-crushing President, Nayib Bukele, said he was determined to make sure everyone was safe and thus has deployed 3,000 military and civil guards to the venue. Here's a photo of what they look like.

Bad Bunny brought $400 plus million to Puerto Rico's economy during his music residency which just ended.

At the Grammy's last week, Bad Bunny began one of his acceptance speeches with:

"Before I say thanks to G-d, I'm going to say ICE out,"... "We're not savages, we're not animals, we're not aliens – we're humans," he added from the stage after his win for best musicá urbana album.

"The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that's more powerful than hate is love, so, please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love."

Wouldn't it be wonderful if he could make it so?

The intense globalization of music and culture continues next month when k-pop super band BTS embarks on its first tour in five years. The pomp and circumstance in Seoul will be enormous. I could watch then dance for hours. But their tickets are going like wildfire all over the world:

BTS has made history in the UK after selling out London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, setting a new record for the highest seat occupancy ever achieved for a single concert at the venue.

....The group is scheduled to perform at the 62,000-seat stadium on July 6 and 7, with total attendance expected to reach about 120,000 over the two nights. Both dates sold out completely after BTS announced a fully immersive 360-degree stage, allowing audiences to view the performance from all directions.

Their new album, the first in five years, is already at the top of the charts and it hasn't been released yet:

A day after the album’s release, on March 21, BTS will hold a live comeback performance at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul. The event will be streamed live to more than 190 countries via Netflix.

Yes, they will be touring in America, and all 42 shows are already sold out. After that, it's on to Europe and Asia.

The only place where global tourism may not rise is the United States, because of Donald Trump. Foreigners don't want to spend money or time here. How embarrassing that the Vice-President got booed at the opening winter games ceremony in Milan. I wonder how many years it will take the U.S. to shake the tawdry image the world now holds of us thanks to Donald Trump.

I'll put up an open thread this afternoon.

< Minnesota and Sunday Night Open Thread
  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


  • Display: Sort:
    Trump slams the halftime show (5.00 / 1) (#20)
    by fishcamp on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 12:02:14 PM EST
    and Bad Bunny being unpatriotic.  He probably doesn't even know Puerto Ricans are US citizens.

    El presidente es un idiota. (5.00 / 1) (#23)
    by desertswine on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 03:40:33 PM EST
    Una cucaracha (5.00 / 1) (#24)
    by jondee on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 05:04:35 PM EST
    naranja y gorda.

    Parent
    con el pene (none / 0) (#25)
    by jondee on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 05:09:48 PM EST
    diminuto.

    Parent
    ¿Dónde está el embustero? (5.00 / 3) (#35)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Tue Feb 10, 2026 at 10:55:26 PM EST
    El charlatán está con su esposa, la buscadora de oro. (Ahora llega la parte en la que emprendemos un viaje, y la seguridad del aeropuerto exige ver nuestras redes sociales y nuestro comprobante de ciudadanía.)

    I think we should do an entire thread in Spanish, just to pi$$ them off.

    ;-)

    Parent

    Whew (5.00 / 2) (#30)
    by Ga6thDem on Tue Feb 10, 2026 at 02:52:10 PM EST
    the weeks keep getting worse and worse for Trump and therefore he is gonna make Americans suffer for it. Jamie Raskin said that Trump's name appears over 1,000,000 times in the unredacted Epstein files. Leads me to believe the DOJ scrubbed the files and I also wonder how many of them were just shredded never to appear anywhere.

    More thann one MILLION times???? (none / 0) (#31)
    by leap2 on Tue Feb 10, 2026 at 04:34:53 PM EST
    How can that be???

    Parent
    Im starting to like AI (none / 0) (#32)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Feb 10, 2026 at 04:46:23 PM EST
    for current events.  
    This is the response to the query

    Trump's name appears over 1,000,000 times in the unredacted Epstein


    ---

    As of early February 2026, here is the breakdown of current findings:

    "One Million Times" Claim: Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) recently alleged that Trump's name appears more than one million times in unredacted files he viewed. He noted that many of these mentions were in "redacted stuff" and characterized the high frequency as making it "ridiculous" to get through even a fraction of them.

    Official Document Counts: Major news outlets reviewing the 3 million pages released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in late January 2026 have reported much lower specific counts:

    38,000 times: A review by The New York Times found approximately 38,000 mentions in the latest tranche.

    5,300 files: Other reports indicate Trump was flagged in over 5,300 individual files within the document cache.

    1,000-1,500 times: Some earlier analyses of specific document dumps reported roughly 1,000 to 1,500 mentions.

    Nature of the Mentions: Experts and journalists note that a significant majority of these mentions are non-incriminating, often appearing in:

    News articles and public records Epstein archived.

    Innocuous contexts like flight logs (showing 7-8 trips in the 1990s) and guest lists for Mar-a-Lago.

    Unverified tips or hearsay submitted to the FBI, which the DOJ noted they were legally required to release regardless of credibility.

    Parent

    Pirro flops again.... (5.00 / 3) (#34)
    by desertswine on Tue Feb 10, 2026 at 09:31:17 PM EST
    Federal prosecutors in Washington sought and failed on Tuesday to secure an indictment against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video this fall that enraged President Trump by reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse illegal orders, four people familiar with the matter said.

    It was remarkable that the U.S. attorney's office in Washington -- led by Jeanine Pirro, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump's -- authorized prosecutors to go into a grand jury and ask for an indictment of the six members of Congress, all of whom had served in the military or the nation's spy agencies.

    But it was even more remarkable that a group of ordinary citizens sitting on the grand jury in Federal District Court in Washington forcefully rejected Mr. Trump's bid to label their expression of dissent as a criminal act warranting prosecution.

    The move to charge the lawmakers -- among them, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan -- was, by any measure, an extraordinary attempt by Trump appointees to politicize the criminal justice system even for a Justice Department that has repeatedly shattered norms of independence from the White House and followed Mr. Trump's directives to prosecute his adversaries.

    --NYT--

    Pam Bondi (5.00 / 1) (#37)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 09:51:04 AM EST
    Is getting a good beating on the Hill right now.

    Kind of fun to watch one dem after another go at it while she shuffles papers and pretends to not listen.

    Drunk takes a Brody and sues city... (5.00 / 1) (#56)
    by desertswine on Thu Feb 12, 2026 at 12:21:35 PM EST
    U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is filing a personal injury lawsuit against her hometown over a trip-and-fall incident.

    The top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia filed a $250,000 injury lawsuit against the city of Rye, New York, and ConEdison over a fall she alleges occurred in 2025, reported CBS News correspondent Scott MacFarlane.

    As a result of defendants' negligence, Ms. Pirro sustained serious personal injuries, including but not limited to bruises and contusions to the head, eye, face, and shoulder areas," the lawsuit states. "Ms. Pirro was confined to bed, required medical attention and treatment, has suffered, and continues to experience pain and suffering, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life, and economic damages."

    She has required (none / 0) (#57)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Feb 12, 2026 at 02:30:06 PM EST
    large amounts of vodka to function at all.

    Parent
    Just keep your records (none / 0) (#58)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Feb 12, 2026 at 02:33:21 PM EST
    I wish more American cans heard the booing (none / 0) (#1)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 09:20:54 AM EST

    The world heard JD Vance being booed at the Olympics. Except for viewers in the US

    Even MSN edited it out

    NBC appears to cut crowd's booing of JD Vance from Winter Olympics broadcast
    Vice-president given hostile reception by some in Milan
    US broadcast cuts out crowd's show of dissent

    No booing allowed (5.00 / 1) (#6)
    by jondee on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 12:39:49 PM EST
    Holy sh*t, seriously?

    Why not use AI to give him a golden halo, a flock of twittering blue birds, and a rainbow overhead?

    They might as well go all the way.

    Parent

    It's pretty shocking (none / 0) (#7)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 01:58:23 PM EST
    but I wonder if the decision not to broadcast it had more to do with not showing the athletes being booed which also happened at about the same time.

    They started by booing the athletes and when the beard stood up it accelerated

    Parent

    I looked for a link (none / 0) (#8)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 02:01:53 PM EST
    But all US sources are saying the athletes got cheers and only Vance got booed.

    I read another account that did not agree.  But I can't find it,

    Parent

    AI (none / 0) (#9)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 02:03:59 PM EST
    Vance Booing: When U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance were shown on the stadium's big screen, loud and sustained boos broke out.
    Athlete Reception: While there were some boos for the U.S. delegation, the team was also met with cheers from spectators.

    Parent
    Not (none / 0) (#11)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 06:13:08 PM EST
    a good look

    This came from FBook

    Parent

    My sister, (none / 0) (#2)
    by Chuck0 on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 09:34:23 AM EST
    a US citizen living in Nanjing won't come here.

    U.S. military personnel (none / 0) (#3)
    by KeysDan on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 10:47:38 AM EST
    have complained of being pressured by commanding officers to see "Melania, the Movie". Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, reports that he is swamped with complaints from service members at eight facilities worldwide who felt forced to attend the film to avoid repercussions from unit commanders.

    A Department of Defense official stated there was no formal directive requiring service members to see the film, but added that the movie was "fantastic".

    Melania, the movie, does not seem like a manly choice of Hegseth for his male warriors what with its attention on her fashion and dress fittings. Perhaps, he is now woke.   In any event, this bomb can be added to the Pentagon's ordnance.  Wonder if Bad Bunny's half-time performance will be encouraged?  

    Funny (5.00 / 2) (#4)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 11:12:56 AM EST
    You can mass buy copies of crappy books but it turns out with movie tickets someone has to show up.

    Or people notice.

    Parent

    Fantastic.. (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by jondee on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 12:26:05 PM EST
    they should make a second documentary about searching the planet to find a single film scholar or critic anywhere who unironically thinks Melania is fantastic.

    The second shooter in the Grassy Knoll would be easier to locate.

    Parent

    Helpful guide (none / 0) (#10)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 02:22:10 PM EST

    It is almost certain the flag of Puerto Rico will appear in some form on the Super Bowl stage. But its colors are worth noting. If it is shown in red, white and blue, that is the current flag of Puerto Rico and has been since 1952. If there are flags that feature light blue, that is reflective of the Puerto Rican independence movement. A black and white version of the flag has become synonymous with Puerto Rican struggle and resiliency. And if there is a flag that more closely resembles the Dominican Republic's flag, that is the flag of the Puerto Rican mountain town Lares. It was used in the Grito de Lares, the first short revolt against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico in the 19th century

    KOS

    He did not disappoint (5.00 / 1) (#12)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 08:24:41 PM EST
    the Grammy to the kid was perfect.  

    Trump said it was a slap in the face to America.

    I was thinking watching it it was more like a slap in the face to him.


    Parent

    It was a (none / 0) (#13)
    by KeysDan on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 10:44:08 PM EST
    great production with impressive art direction. A celebration and musical sharing of Puerto Rican pride.  A fun Bad Bunny half-time program with  co-artists, Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.  You need not be an aficionado of  Regaeton and Latin trap to have enjoyed it--in my case this music was all new to me.

    Trump, coaching MAGAts on what to think, proclaimed  it to be the worst ever--all in the dreaded Spanish which no one understood, although he no doubt has trouble with lyrics in English. That MAGAt half- time alternative was, apparently, about as watched as Melania the movie.

    Parent

    The suggestion that "no one" (5.00 / 2) (#17)
    by Peter G on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 10:38:38 AM EST
    in the U.S. -- or perhaps "no one" in the Super Bowl half-time audience (larger than the game-watching audience, apparently) -- understands Spanish is quite telling. Some 20% of U.S. residents speak fluent Spanish, numbering over 50 million. "No one" indeed. "No one" who matters to Tr*mp, I guess. I hope the Democrats can make effective use of this ignorant ethnic slur and insult in the coming campaign season.

    Parent
    Jennifer Lopez and Shakira (none / 0) (#19)
    by KeysDan on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 11:56:49 AM EST
    co-headlined the Super Bowel half- time show in 2020. It celebrated Latin culture and had a guest appearance of Bad Bunny. The bilingual performance involved singing parts of songs in Spanish. The show was widely praised, but at the time Trump was too busy defending himself during his first impeachment trial to bash it.

    Parent
    I think that this was the first Super Bowl... (none / 0) (#14)
    by desertswine on Sun Feb 08, 2026 at 11:03:46 PM EST
    Halftime Show that I actually enjoyed (except for the time Shakira was in it.)  I didn't understand the words but I certainly understood the music.

    Parent
    Bad Bunny's show was a lot of fun. (none / 0) (#15)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 01:42:29 AM EST
    My cousin, his wife and their son drove up Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara from Pasadena with friends and were part of a large group of activists handing "ICE OUT!" rally towels to Super Bowl attendees. An estimated 15,000 towels were given away. They spent the night in San Jose and are driving back down to Pasadena tomorrow.

    Parent
    I particularly liked the song that began with (none / 0) (#18)
    by Peter G on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 10:44:58 AM EST
    "God Bless America" (in English) followed by a rap recitation of the names of all the American nations, from the Antarctic tip of South America to Canada, including Cuba and the United States, presented roughly in geographical order.  I also appreciated the number with "pole dancers" (so to speak) who were electric utility workers, referencing the blackouts that have plagued Puerto Rico since the devastating Hurricane Maria in September 2017.

    Parent
    Yes, and (5.00 / 5) (#21)
    by KeysDan on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 12:20:36 PM EST
    a $300 million contract was granted to restore the electrical power in Puerto Rico. The grant was awarded to Whitefish Energy, a Montana-based company in business for two years with only two full-time employees.  

    What Whitefish lacked in capabilities it made up for with its association with Trump's then Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke.  Whitefish was Zinke's hometown and was a friend of Whitefish Energy. One of the company's primary investors gave $100,000 to Trump's campaign. Puerto Rico was without power for 11 months---Bad Bunny appeared to give his artistic rendering. I was looking, in vain, for some interpretive song or dance on Trump throwing paper towels at the hurricane victims.

    Zinke resigned in 2019 after an investigation by the Inspector General found that he violated ethical rules and lied to investigators.  Which almost sounds quaint for Trump 2.0.

    Parent

    The light blue flag (none / 0) (#22)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 02:23:41 PM EST
    of independence made an appearance.  I'm surprised that has not been more of a thing.

    Parent
    Color as symbolism, (5.00 / 2) (#26)
    by KeysDan on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 05:40:56 PM EST
    such Lady Gaga's light blue dress, red shoes, red nail polish, and red/ white Puerto Rico flower corsage---like the flag, independence and colonial history.  

    Parent
    Yes (none / 0) (#27)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 06:37:23 PM EST
    but he was actually waving the flag.  No interpretation needed.

    Lady Gaga is a national treasure

    Parent

    A big flag (none / 0) (#28)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 07:10:04 PM EST
    battle size.  It was cool. It was the only thing I understood besides the rhythm

    Parent
    And the (5.00 / 2) (#29)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 07:12:01 PM EST
    line workers and sparks. I got that

    Parent
    Survivors (none / 0) (#16)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Feb 09, 2026 at 08:23:53 AM EST
    Meanwhile in the rest of the world (none / 0) (#33)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Feb 10, 2026 at 06:00:17 PM EST
    In the other thread (none / 0) (#36)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 09:43:01 AM EST
    I said Republican governors would not like excluding Democrat governors.

    Governors won't hold Trump meeting after only Republicans invited

    This kind of sh!t is starting to break through.

    This is a lie (none / 0) (#46)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 04:02:59 PM EST

    The RINO Governor of the Great State of Oklahoma, in which I won all 77 Counties, three times (The only person to do so!), incorrectly stated my position on the very exclusive Governors Annual Dinner and Meeting at the White House," Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. "The invitations were sent to ALL Governors, other than two, who I feel are not worthy of being there."

    All governors were invited to dinner except CO and MD.

    That's to DINNER.
    only Republican governors were invited to the meeting.

    Parent

    Something Big Is Happening (none / 0) (#38)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 10:06:44 AM EST
    Long and long interesting thing on AI

    The AI labs made a deliberate choice. They focused on making AI great at writing code first... because building AI requires a lot of code. If AI can write that code, it can help build the next version of itself. A smarter version, which writes better code, which builds an even smarter version. Making AI great at coding was the strategy that unlocks everything else. That's why they did it first. My job started changing before yours not because they were targeting software engineers... it was just a side effect of where they chose to aim first.

    They've now done it. And they're moving on to everything else.

    The experience that tech workers have had over the past year, of watching AI go from "helpful tool" to "does my job better than I do", is the experience everyone else is about to have. Law, finance, medicine, accounting, consulting, writing, design, analysis, customer service. Not in ten years. The people building these systems say one to five years. Some say less. And given what I've seen in just the last couple of months, I think "less" is more likely.

    link

    I find this hard to believe (none / 0) (#39)
    by jmacWA on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 02:23:17 PM EST
    As an old school programmer who started coding in the early 1970s I have a hard time buying this.  But I have not kept up with AI at all, so maybe it's possible, I just have my doubts.

    Parent
    When did you (none / 0) (#40)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 02:41:32 PM EST
    stop coding?  Because of my digital work life I know a lot of programmers.  They all say the same thing.  

    It should not take long to find out.

    Parent

    I retired (none / 0) (#42)
    by jmacWA on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 03:15:58 PM EST
    5 years ago.  At that time I was coding primarily in Java, but I spent 15 years teaching and taught mostly IBM Mainframe languages including Assembly Language, COBOL and REXX.   The end of my career was spent mostly with IBM's various workflow products, teaching and consulting.

    Parent
    That's a lifetime in AI (none / 0) (#43)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 03:35:55 PM EST
    I have a Disney friend who has been working, on AI, for Google for about that same time.  He's been telling me all this

    All I can say is IMO everyone should read that.  Way moreso if you plan to be in the workforce in the next 5 years.

    If you have not followed AI you might not know how much is being invested in AI.  But it's mind boggling

    I ask how much is US companies are spending

    U.S. companies, particularly "Big Tech" firms (Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, Broadcom, and Oracle), are investing unprecedented amounts in artificial intelligence, with total annual capital expenditures (capex) for this group reaching $256 billion in 2024 and projected to surge to over $427 billion in 2025.

    2026 Projections: The "hyperscalers" are on track to increase their 2025 spending by roughly 67% to 74% in 2026, targeting up to $650 billion to $700 billion for AI infrastructure.



    Parent
    Data centers on the moon (none / 0) (#44)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 03:40:45 PM EST

    Data centers on the Moon are actively being developed for deployment in the late 2020s and early 2030s by firms like LoneStar Data Holdings to meet AI energy needs, offer secure storage, and support Artemis lunar missions. While Mars remains a long-term goal, current initiatives focus on space-based or lunar-orbit data centers to overcome terrestrial energy constraints and latency.



    Parent
    Am I dating myself by disclosing ... (none / 0) (#47)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 04:15:16 PM EST
    ... that my first programming class was in FORTRAN? In the 1970s, my high school was one of the first secondary schools in the country to introduce computer programming into the curriculum. I learned just enough to realize that I'd probably be better off doing something else. But it did teach me to respect and appreciate computer programming as a both a force for good and a potential existential threat to humankind.

    "Open the pod bay doors, HAL."

    "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

    Parent

    Like you say (none / 0) (#48)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 04:31:06 PM EST
    I learned enough to know that's not what I want to do

    I got my first CGI job in 1978.  GE Genigraphics.

    But
    I would have been a EVEN better at my career if I had learned more.  It would have expanded my horizons and my paycheck.

    No, I'm an artist I'm an artist.

    Parent

    There have been times when I've regretted ... (none / 0) (#52)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 07:39:28 PM EST
    ... not sticking with computer programming. But back in 1977-78, we were working with a mainframe IBM computer at school that took an entire first-floor room which was the size of two entire classrooms. Let's be real - that big black beast presented an imposing look to a teenager.

    Programming back then consisted of not only creating the correct keypunch cards for the program formula you wanted to run (FORTRAN being a mathematics-based language), but also making sure your cards were all in the correct order. Otherwise, your program would turn out nothing but gibberish.

    I probably looked like those guys from the 2000 Florida presidential election debacle, searching for hanging chads on the keypunch cards, when I started asking myself, "Is this really something that I want to do with my life?"

    The biological microchips inside my head - little demons that they were - soon responded accordingly:
    "F**k no! You're a baseball player - and a damn good one at that!"

    Of course, at age 17, the rather short shelf life of the average pro athlete was never a factor in my considerations. I just knew in my heart that it was my destiny to run out onto that field and to be hailed and adored as a conquering hero, all because I was a gold glove-level first baseman who also swung a mean bat.

    Now, to be sure, I was certainly a much better ballplayer than 90% of my peers in high school. That's why I earned a full-ride athletic scholarship to the University of Washington, then a Pac-10 conference member.

    But once I was on the ballfield for my very first game in college, it finally dawned on me that perhaps there was indeed such a thing as a skill-set ceiling. I struck out on three straight pitches in the top of the ninth inning with two outs and the bases loaded to end the game. We lost to San Jose State, 9-8. Some moments are indelibly etched in our memories, and this is one of mine.

    I sat alone afterward on the bench, head down and inconsolable with the thought that I had just let down everybody on my team, and trying my best not to cry. Finally, my head coach - who back then was probably just a few years younger than I am now (I'll be 65 in six days) - came over, sat next to me, lifted my chin up with his hand and turned my face toward him, and said, "That's okay. It's just one game. Put it behind you and don't worry about it. You'll get 'em tomorrow."

    He was right, of course. And his patient guidance, not just as a coach but as a mentor, allowed me to recover my self-confidence on the field. But eventually, I realized that the odds of me successfully turning pro were rather long.

    I was a member of a UW Huskies team that was destined to never finish higher than 4th place in the Pac-10 conference standings during any of the five seasons I spent in Seattle. I started to take my schoolwork far more seriously and I excelled academically. In my junior and senior years, I made the Pac-10's all-conference academic team as a student-athlete with a 3.9 overall GPA. That stands as my proudest achievement as a baseball player.

    Sometimes, we grow too soon old and too late smart - but not always. To quote the late George Washington Plunkitt (1842-1924) of New York's Tammany Hall:
    "I seen my opportunities and I took 'em."

    Aloha.

    Parent

    Fortran was (none / 0) (#55)
    by jmacWA on Thu Feb 12, 2026 at 04:48:14 AM EST
    my first language also.  But I can really date myself by saying the first machine I coded on was a Philco 2000, a vacuum tube machine.  The machine took up a good sized room, and had a whopping 32K of memory.

    Parent
    This is from that link (none / 0) (#45)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 03:44:36 PM EST
    curious what the legal folks think about this ..

    Legal work. AI can already read contracts, summarize case law, draft briefs, and do legal research at a level that rivals junior associates. The managing partner I mentioned isn't using AI because it's fun. He's using it because it's outperforming his associates on many tasks.



    Parent
    That may be literally true, but only because (none / 0) (#53)
    by Peter G on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 08:32:15 PM EST
    junior associates ("baby lawyers") are generally terrible at their jobs. Every lawyer I know who has tried out an AI product at summarizing case law and/or drafting briefs has found that the program commits egregious errors of analysis that would get the lawyer at least embarrassed, if not actually in trouble, if allowed to stand.

    Parent
    You hear similar things (none / 0) (#54)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 08:54:48 PM EST
    from people using AI all the time.  I think the interesting bit of that link is it helps explain why we are not yet seeing the huge changes predicted from AI.

    they have been teaching it to program first.  

    That was two years ago. In AI time, that is ancient history.

    The models available today are unrecognizable from what existed even six months ago. The debate about whether AI is "really getting better" or "hitting a wall" -- which has been going on for over a year -- is over. It's done. Anyone still making that argument either hasn't used the current models, has an incentive to downplay what's happening, or is evaluating based on an experience from 2024 that is no longer relevant. I don't say that to be dismissive. I say it because the gap between public perception and current reality is now enormous, and that gap is dangerous... because it's preventing people from preparing.



    Parent
    After losing a big procedural vote (none / 0) (#41)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 02:51:30 PM EST
    in the House yesterday today they are going to vote on tariffs.

    White House bracing for 'substantial' GOP mutiny on Trump tariff

    A White House insider admitted to Politico that they expect the effort to block the measure to fail spectacularly



    Pam Bondi (none / 0) (#49)
    by KeysDan on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 05:18:42 PM EST
    is an ongoing tragedy for the country.  As with her disrespectful and contemptuous demeanor to Democratic senators at a previously senate judiciary committee, so too was she miserable and unprofessional to Democrats  at today's house judiciary committee hearing.  Importantly, she showed no respect,, or even interest, in pursuing justice in the Epstein matter.

    The Democratic members were prepared for her  insults and stonewalling.  Someone should give Bondi a relevant history lesson: Nixon was pardoned, but his Attorney General went to prison.

    I think Thomas Massie (none / 0) (#50)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 05:31:04 PM EST
    brought up the fact the next attorney general can indict anyone who breaks the law.

    I guess he's to much of a republican to mention Mitchell but it would have been effective

    Parent

    Bud Cort has died (none / 0) (#51)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Feb 11, 2026 at 06:00:57 PM EST
    DHS finding (none / 0) (#59)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Feb 12, 2026 at 02:34:13 PM EST
    just failed in the Senate