The skies are rather flat this week.
Yes, you do have that alignment of Jupiter retrograde with the Earth and Venus, and yes that is potentially interesting since it can mean either infidelity discovered or doing something adorkable reminds your partner why they fell in love with you in the first place. And yes, Saturn retrograde moving back into Capricorn means Capricorns will have plenty of food for their martyr complex until September.
But other than that, the skies are flipping identical to last week’s
Other than the moon being in Capricorn of course. A good week for insight, inspiration and psychonautical exploration.
Fortunately, you can always count on the cards to have something fresh to say. And this week’s are pretty good. Unless you’re an Aquarius.
Leo: Ace of Coins – Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy, speedy intelligence, gold
Virgo: 6 of Swords reversed – Declaration, confession, publicity
Libra: 3 of Swords reversed – Mental alienation, error, loss, distraction, disorder, confusion
Scorpio: 4 of Coins – The surety of possessions, cleaving to that which one has, gift, legacy, inheritance
Sagittarius: Queen of Swords – Widowhood, female sadness and embarrassment, absence, sterility, mourning, privation, separation
Capricorn: 3 of Coins reversed – Mediocrity, puerility, pettiness, weakness
Aquarius: Strength reversed – Despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord, disgrace
Pisces: 7 of Swords reversed – Good advice, counsel, instruction, slander, babbling
Aries: Four of Wands – country life, haven of refuge, repose, concord, harmony, prosperity, peace
Taurus: King of Cups – Fair man, man of business, law, or divinity, responsible, equity, art and science, including those who profess science, law and art, creative intelligence.
Gemini: Ace of Cups reversed – House of the false heart, mutation, instability, revolution
Cancer: 4 of Cups – Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary vexations
I feel all turned upside down.
I flipped your monitor while you were out of the room.
Also feels turned upside-down
Capricorn:. Mediocrity and weakness. The cards know me well.
country life, haven of refuge, repose, concord, harmony, prosperity, peace
So this is my one good week this year?
Buy a lottery ticket.
How refreshing it is to have an entirely positive week for a change.
Whenever I look at the IFLA posts, it seems to always suck for Libras.
Not Adahn – do you hate Libras?
Sagittarius: Queen of Swords – Widowhood, female sadness and embarrassment, absence, sterility, mourning, privation, separation
Sounds legit.
[Looks at another week of Sagittarius getting the business end of the blaster] Oh bother…
It was fun while it lasted
Leo: Ace of Coins – Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy, speedy intelligence, gold
I’ll take it.
Can we trade?
Maybe I’m a Leo.
“I’ll take it.”
Pretty much what I thought.
Virgo: 6 of Swords reversed – Declaration, confession, publicity
Methinks my first day of work in 4 months is going to suck bigly.
Despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord, disgrace
Seems a bit contradictory. But I wonder if this is why I can’t seem to learn to get up earlier to do yard work in the middle of summer in the mid-Atlantic. Waiting for Fall. The only thing I like about summer is thunderstorms.
Virgo: 6 of Swords reversed – Declaration, confession, publicity
I said something stupid 30 years ago. When it goes viral, I apologize to anyone who was offended.
I said something stupid 30 years ago.
And your wife has never let you forget it.
He spoiled it all.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0f48fpoSEPU
“Cancer: 4 of Cups – Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary vexations”
Yeah, with my horoscope. Make with the good predictions ffs.
Steak & sidearms: https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/KimaKUJMRT2eWHqkwOz6YA.9f5NSEwmetPUuP_jVF4Hps
Strips for lunch.
You eat lunch naked?
Maybe a William S. Burroughs fan.
Damn your nimble fingers!
William Burroughs does. And does it again
Simultaneity strikes
I leave my socks on.
Hawt.
Sean is actually Elliott Spitzer!
So, status quo then?
Gemini: Ace of Cups reversed – House of the false heart, mutation, instability, revolution
I eagerly await my new superpowers.
Libra: 3 of Swords reversed – Mental alienation, error, loss, distraction, disorder, confusion
It’s no wonder people who believe in this crap are all insane. I can’t imagine reading that and then trying to go about my day thinking it’s in any way accurate.
Also, Good afternoon Glibertariat!
You just othered Not Adahn.
Do I get a cookie?
You get a third-party cookie.
But I wanted pie! What kind of glibertarian paradise is this!!?!??
Here you go
The Black British Militia is Total Cringe
“The back of racism is capitalism.”
I’m thinking these groups are all just marxists using skin pigment to divide and conquer.
“ Libra: 3 of Swords reversed – Mental alienation, error, loss, distraction, disorder, confusion”
At least I have Capricorn to make me feel better.
Based on that, I checked to see if Biden was a Libra, but no he’s a Scorpio.
…unless he forgot when his birth date was. *ponders*
Down goes the NHL…
Matt Dumba of the Minnesota Wild became the first player to kneel for the U.S. national anthem in the National Hockey League (NHL) on Saturday night before the Chicago Blackhawks faced the Edmonton Oilers in Alberta, Canada.
Dumba, who is Canadian, was invited onto the ice for a special ceremony, walking down a red carpet and delivering a speech about racial justice. He knelt for “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but stood for “O, Canada,” the Canadian anthem.
The scoreboard flashed a slogan with a hashtag: “We Skate for Black Lives.”
“During this pandemic, something unexpected, but long overdue, occurred,” Dumba said, during his speech. “The world woke up to the existence of systematic [sic] racism and how deeply rooted it is within our society.”
He added: “Racism is everywhere, and we need to fight against it.”
Fucking dumb, man.
Dumb and Dumba.
I cannot believe that a majority actually supports this nonsense. I have to believe there is a silent majority that is going to say “fuck you” loudly in November. The only reason I have doubts is that for a lot of people covid panic is overtaking everything else, but if the left wins at the polls they’re going to take it as a mandate for all of this bullshit.
I don’t think they do. I really believe it’s just a minority running around screaming at normal people with bullhorns. I always thought that they were all too busy to go slap the shit out of these assholes because they were all at work. Now, I guess we’ll see.
There’s a reason they call them the silent majority.
That didn’t take long.
“Racism is everywhere”
Except Canada, apparently.
The NBA was the opposite. One Magic player stood for the anthem.
The player lopped the “ss” off the end of his surname.
Drugs probably fell out his ass, but I had to say it.
STEVE SMITH say “Come Cascadia! STEVE SMITH keep you safe! By keep safe, mean…”
https://nypost.com/2020/08/02/washington-teen-found-alive-in-woods-after-missing-for-8-days/
He was practicing social distancing.
Er, she.
Stevens pass is a pretty narrow valley. If you walk any direction down hill you’re going to find the road, REALLY QUICK or railroad tracks or the river. They’re all about a stones throw apart. My running theory on this one is she was doped up out of mind. Probably hunting and eating mushrooms.
“Excellent! We told you fur was bad!” /PETA response
https://nypost.com/2020/08/02/scientists-study-covid-19-outbreaks-among-minks-in-europe/
https://mobile.twitter.com/ArtValley818/status/1289982755820863488
More white supremacists supporting Trump.
“white”-hispanic.
Honey Harvest is coming! Sep 20!
We’ll be doing the Honey Festival soon, mark your calendars Pot luck, family friendly, guests welcome. Bring a couple folding chairs if you have them, mark ’em on the bottom, some of us buy our chairs from Walmart.
We start early but nothing really happens before 10 AM, folks start showing up around 11. Eat at noon. Some people start drifting away around 2 or so but we’ll be working much later so don’t hurry off.
A lot of people won’t be wearing masks including me, your discretion. If you see any other Glibs be sure to let them know, the more the better. Hope to see y’all.
amusing
https://www.foxnews.com/world/north-korean-defector-shocked-by-kindness-racial-diversity-of-u-s
***
He said he was walking in the morning and a man jogging by said “hi” and he started realizing that “everyone actually said ‘hi’ on the street” and that it was part of American culture.
“So there are Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans … So many people made up one community,” he said. “I was just so surprised by the diversity.”
And the landscape of America was stunning to Kim as well, who said visiting the Grand Canyon felt like going to Mars and he was amazed at how big Texas was. He added that he was surprised there wasn’t any public transportation in California and he noted the “subways in New York City are really bad and stink.”
***
I larfed at the subway part.
Yikes. I hope he has a bodyguard.
I have a puppy on a leash in the house because otherwise it battles the back door wanting to be let in, and I’m worried if I let it roam free the kitten will end up clawing one of its dumb pug eyes. Nowhere is open on a Sunday to check if it’s chipped, and I’m not seeing any lost dog posts on Facebook or Nextdoor.
finished the koran last week – a neat tidbit
18:23-24
***
23 And never say of anything, “Indeed, I will do that tomorrow,”
24 Except [when adding], “If Allah wills.” And remember your Lord when you forget [it] and say, “Perhaps my Lord will guide me to what is nearer than this to right conduct.”
***
Inshallah means if allah wills. It’s a common expression in Arabic. A more accurate translation might be: maybe tomorrow, but probably not. Kind of like mañana in Spanish.
wiki sez:
***
In the Spanish and Portuguese languages the expressions ojalá (Spanish) and oxalá (Portuguese) come from the Arabic expression ʾin shāʾa llāh.[6]
Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian
In Bulgarian, “daĭ Bože /Дай Боже, Български, Serbo-Croatian, “ako Bog da/ако Бог да” is a South Slav expression calqued from Arabic. Owing to Ottoman rule over the Balkans, it is used extensively in Bulgaria and in the ex-Yugoslav countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, and Montenegro even sometimes used by non Muslims.
***
No shit, Shirley?
(CNN)Dr. Deborah Birx on Sunday said the US is in a new phase in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the deadly virus is more widespread than when it first took hold in the US earlier this year.
“What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It’s into the rural as equal urban areas,” Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
Birx stressed that Americans need to follow health recommendations, including wearing a mask and practicing social distancing.
“To everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus,” Birx said. “If you’re in multi-generational households, and there’s an outbreak in your rural area or in your city, you need to really consider wearing a mask at home, assuming that you’re positive, if you have individuals in your households with comorbidities.”
“This epidemic right now is different and it’s more widespread and it’s both rural and urban,” she added.
What were you expecting, you dimwit?
Now give us some hard facts on contagiousness and lethality. Do some followup on the lab rat populations on ships and in prisons.
complaint dept
I did the new Army marksmanship test last week. It was in the simulator, not live fire. We only could get one of the “rifles” to work, so it took a long time for all of us to shoot. The civilian employees who know all the ins and outs weren’t there, so we got a manual and did our best to figure it out. It’s not too different from the old test. The main thing is there is no command to reload and you have to fire 11 rounds from a standing position. I got 26 out 40, so meets standard.
We have brand new M4s complete with full auto instead of 3 round burst. I guess what was old is now new again. The rationale for the simulator is that it’s supposed to save the cost of using real ammo. I don’t know much it costs annually to staff and equip a simulator, but it’s probably more than the cost of 500 rounds per soldier in a 400 man company for marksmanship practice.
If it were up to me, there would be quarterly ranges using reduced size targets at 25 m actual distance. Is that the best possible marksmanship training? No, but it’s better than nothing and what’s being done now in many cases.
A trillion dollars for the F35 and a pittance for rifle marksmanship? That ain’t right.
If ammo cost is really the issue, then make a steel case equivalent of 5.56 domestically and adjust the rifle tolerances so they can handle it.
It was in the simulator, not live fire.
What fucking good is that?
The rationale for the simulator is that it’s supposed to save the cost of using real ammo.
Sure, but then you don’t get experience firing a real gun.
It’s better to correct bad habits in the simulator than waste time fixing them on the range, although in my opinion, everybody who graduates basic training knows enough that they do not need to go back to the simulator. My unit will have a real range in a few months. Most units have them annually.
There are many cases where if just one person was in charge, you’d get something decent, but when a committee is in charge, you get this weird compromise that has the worst parts of every plan and none of the best parts.
Breathe
Relax
Aim
Slack, take up, one each
Squeeze
My old reserve unit had a simulator in the basement.
The idea behind is that if you train some of your staff for it, you can send a squad go practice there pretty much anytime you want instead of having them stand around.
And in the long run, I have no doubts that it costs less than organizing a day at the range for all the guys. Just the logistics of it : buses, bus drivers, ammo, food, cleanup afterwards, etc.
Of course if you’re already on the base that’s a different thing.
It’s not perfect, Shouldn’t replace field training, but it’s way better than only being able to afford it once a year.
And TBH I don’t recall it being that different than using a real gun.
Marksmanship is all about hand eye coordination and fine motor skills, which go to hell when adrenaline is flowing. Poor marksmanship in combat has been a problem for a long time. “Don’t fire til you see the whites of their eyes.”
***
Union Army records for the Civil War indicate that its troops fired about 1,000 rifle shots for each Confederate hit, causing General Burnside to lament his recruits: “Out of ten soldiers who are perfect in drill and the manual of arms, only one knows the purpose of the sights on his gun or can hit the broad side of a barn.”[22][23][24] The generals attributed this to the use of volley tactics, devised for earlier, less accurate smoothbore muskets.[25][26]
***
I’m not hysterical, you’re hysterical!
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn on Sunday likened President Donald Trump to Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, warning that Trump would resist leaving office.
The South Carolina lawmaker and No. 3 House Democrat said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump has taken up “strong-arm tactics.” Trump ignited an uproar last week after he floated the idea of delaying the November election, which he lacks the authority to do.
“I don’t think he plans to leave the White House,” Clyburn said of Trump. “He doesn’t plan to have fair and unfettered elections. I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue to hold on to office.”
Clyburn made the historical comparison to Mussolini after drawing attention for comments he made in a PBS interview released Friday comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler.
On Sunday, Clyburn said Trump was more akin to Mussolini and that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is Hitler.” Mussolini’s rule as Italian dictator lasted for two decades until he was deposed as Italy faced catastrophic defeat in World War II.
I’m sure he laid out his reasons for making this claim in a thoughtful and orderly fashion. Provided hard evidence of the plot to lay claim to the White House in perpetuity.
“Showed his work” as the kids like to say.
which he lacks the authority to do.
Trump thinks out loud and word-vomits sometimes. I thought this was common knowledge by now.
I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue to hold on to office.
And the rest of the government that barely tolerates him now is just going to go along with that…
Leo: Ace of Coins – Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy, speedy intelligence, gold
?!?!?!!?!
I call bullshit.
I want my money back.
Gemini: Ace of Cups reversed – House of the false heart, mutation, instability, revolution
DJT45: fake news!!!
Scorpio: 4 of Coins – The surety of possessions, cleaving to that which one has, gift, legacy, inheritance
JRB46: I’ll take it!
Ironic
Despite fears that the coronavirus pandemic will worsen, Victor Gibson said he’s not planning to take advantage of Michigan’s expanded vote-by-mail system when he casts his ballot in November.
The retired teacher from Detroit just isn’t sure he can trust it. Many Black Americans share similar concerns and are planning to vote in person on Election Day, even as mail-in voting expands to more states as a safety precaution during the pandemic.
For many, historical skepticism of a system that tried to keep Black people from the polls and worries that a mailed ballot won’t get counted outweigh the prospect of long lines and health dangers from a virus that’s disproportionately affected communities of color. Ironically, suspicion of mail-in voting aligns with the views of President Donald Trump, whom many Black voters want out of office.
——-
Decades of disenfranchisement are at the heart of the uneasy choice facing Black voters, one of the Democratic Party’s most important voting groups. Widespread problems with mail-in ballots during this year’s primary elections have added to the skepticism at a time when making Black voices heard has taken on new urgency during a national reckoning over racial injustice.
——-
Mistrust by Black voters runs deep and is tightly bound within the nation’s dark past of slavery and institutional racism.
Black people endured poll taxes, tossed ballots, even lynchings by whites intent on keeping them from voting. Over the decades, that led to a deep suspicion of simply handing off a ballot to the post office. Black people were the demographic least likely to cast votes by mail in 2018, with only 11% using that method, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By comparison, 24% of whites and 27% of Latinos reported voting by mail that year.
“For Black folks, voting is almost like a social pride because of the way they were denied in the past,” said Ben Barber, a researcher and writer for the Institute for Southern Studies in Durham, North Carolina.
Okay. I don’t see a problem.