Libra00

The problem is that there are also lighter elements (like astatine) that decay so fast we can’t make enough at one time to even know what it looks like. Randall Munroe of XKCD gave a google talk where he covered the problems you would have if you tried to assemble all of the elements, and the problems really maximize around the time of astatine, which he described as the element which maximizes the amount of paperwork you’d have to do. The explosion of heat and radiation from a chunk of astatine would be too large to sweep under the rug as a little woopsie, but not large enough to wipe out your whole neighborhood or city so that there would be no one left to submit paperwork to.

I have to assume he’s working backwards, because if he’d gotten to Astatine we’d know.

One does not normally win a court case by stacking the deck in your favor with a judge who agrees with you, but by being within the law. Have you tried not being wrong? I hear that helps quite a bit.

Welp, I guess she gotta go too then. The democratic program in congress at this point should be a single point:

Resist. Every. Step. Do not aid or abet fascism, do not appease or support it in any way whatsoever, and anyone who falls out of line gets the axe.

Oh, how unfortunate. Here, I have a special gift for him from me to help him through these troubled times…

No doubt. I’m just saying he can’t manage their daily shit.

Ah, that’s entirely fair.

Well yeah, he’s clearly responsible for putting idiots in power, I’m just saying he can’t manage their daily shit.

Right, no human has the capacity to imagine what it must be like to have that many responsibilities and that much shit going on, right? Also, that was Harry Truman from the fucking late 40s - I dunno if you’ve noticed, but the world has gotten considerably more complex in the last 75-odd years.

Oh yeah, I know the US government has secure comms specifically for this purpose so not using it is a clusterfuck of pretty epic proportions, no doubt.

I mean, not really? If I delegate a bunch of people who work for me to go take care of something, I expect them to take care of it and report back, not send me an exhaustive list of everything they did to accomplish it including which apps they used to discuss arrangements. Much as I hate defending Trump about anything, no president has the time or energy to keep track of what his underlings are doing to such a level of detail.

I love these people who think Musk is Trump’s puppet when it’s so clearly the other way around. Trump only cares about one thing: himself, especially his net worth, and he was riding real low on that account before so he sold his office to Musk, and if you think Musk isn’t getting his money’s worth you haven’t been paying attention. 95% of what they’re doing is just to flood the zone so you don’t notice that the oligarchs are dismantling the parts of government to render it unable to tax or regulate them. That’s what Musk is there for, and even if he’s on the outs publicly, never doubt that he will continue to get what he paid for.

There is a difference between ‘overpowering the state’ and ‘refusing to be cowed’. Columbia has a $14.1 billion dollar endowment, it can ride out a little stormy weather in the name of protecting its students.

I mean they’re not unique in that, there’s that Princeton study that came out a few years ago that shows Congress has a flat 30% chance of passing a law regardless of whether public opinion likes or hates it, but a much higher chance to pass laws when the wealthy want it.

Last I checked we are the people, you know, the ones the government is supposed to be of, by, and for?

Not even with Musk’s money. No wait, that’s not true, I’d have someone paint Musk’s face on a dummy, put it in the driver’s seat, and autopilot that shit into a landfill somewhere with as many cameras filming it as I could get on short notice.