Usually, I try to do a decent job on Links, lots of birthday jokes and bios (often the same), music, snark, anecdotes, whatever. However, I have several close friends all here for a visit, not to mention the usual cast of WebDom, Spud, and NPR Lady. So this time, my Links will descend to the quality level of the shmattas cranked out by the others. Tomorrow’s a s well. Next week, it will be the normal Old Man quality Links.
Hey, you can’t have everything.
A bare few birthdays, though, cannot pass without mention. First, the favorite poet of both mine and Warty’s; the Friendly Angel; the ur-electric guitarist; a woman who became a meme; and a guy who is rock’s Wayne Newton.
Links:
Seems like research I ought to be doing.
SP used to say, “Once you can fake sincerity, you got it made!”
Note, of course, that he is anti-2A, but demands his own retinue of armed guards. Here’s an idea: pay for it yourself, you freeloading rich fuck.
Music from birthday boy and it’s amazing:
Mornin’, Old Man.
“Seems like research I ought to be doing”
I dunno, seems like this would be something Q would probe.
I’d certainly put my feelers out for that
Show some sensitivity!
You guys, always groping for a pun.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) was among the Democrats who rejected Alito’s reasoning, writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, “What a surprise, guy who is supposed to enforce checks and balances thinks checks shouldn’t apply to him.”
Isn’t she among the people who think Biden should just be allowed to ignore any SCOTUS decisions he doesn’t like?
A Democrat? Yes.
And also ignore that Congress didn’t pass a law for him to faithfully execute – just rule by decree!
That’s just their opinion man.
Don’t we all want to ignore the rules we don’t like?
If you are a member of Congress, you can just write an exemption for yourself into the bill.
There are already checks. Justices don’t just walk in and claim a chair–they have to be nominated by the Executive branch and confirmed by the Legislative branch.
The grandkid must be reaching hair sniffing age.
He could let Commander handle that.
Biden is giving old people a bad reputation.
Think about this. Would you want your Grandpa to be president? Ross Perot talked about the crazy aunt living in the attic. That’s what we have, only it’s the White House. Biden needs to go back to Delaware and stay. There’s a reason that Alzheimer’s patients are kept sheltered.
My dad is 87 and in much better cognitive health than Biden. There is no way my dad should be president.
Good morning!
Morning Tundra. Back to normal weather but no rain in the 10 day forecast. Some are hogging all the rain as we suffer from the driest spring/summer in my memory.
Bee checking today, hopefully we’ll see some production, the drought has not been helpful.
Wooo weee did we have rain last night – torrential thunderstorm. I was out setting up road closures for downed trees.
It’s been crazy hot here in VA all week – brief downpour last night but I hope yard dries out enough for me to mow some more tonight (after 7) before it rains again. Gone for 3 weeks and my yard looks like ass. Battery mower is good for weekly maintenance but not great when you need to bring a mess under control. Esp since I’m out of town most of next week too.
We set records in June, but pretty dry in July.
So normal, really.
Never change Japan!
Man who spent $20K to transform himself into border collie steps out for first-ever walk in public
He’s looking for a job at the White House. If Commander doesn’t learn to behave himself there may be a vacancy.
“Please let me know your request for the video you would like to see in the comments!”
I’d like to see a video of his interaction with a fire hydrant.
The Japanese are lovely people…but I think them bombs did something to their brains. 😳
I suppose it could have been worse. I was afraid he’d done something radical and surgical.
Me too!
He should get his money back – that’s not a border collie.
(I know, I know, ‘The Post’ – they even quote the guy “I became a rough (sic) collie…” – you don’t need the ‘sic’, you clowns, because that _is_ a rough collie costume).
I don’t recall ever hearing the term “rough collie” before. Is that the Lassie-style breed of collie?
It’s not “rough” like that manatee who mortally…ummm…injured his brother, is it?
Long haired collies are called rough collies. Lassie was a rough collie, for example.
^^^
The full-coat ‘rough’ as opposed to the ‘smooth’ variety.
https://www.101dogbreeds.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Smooth-Coat-Collie.jpg
Oh, cute!
Oh, lordy! I remember that episode – or at least snippets of his bit in it – from the days when my oldest sister was a hardcore Don’t-Call-Me-A-Trekkie Trekker! ::shudders:: Now she’s immersed up to her eyeballs in the Society for Creative Anachronism. Her motto is “Any time but the present.”
That episode creeped out teenaged Patzer.
You are not alone.
Thank you. I could not make the connection.
AOC attempting to match wits with Alito. What a world.
LOL never change, The Hill.
NYT suddenly realizes what Musk has here with SpaceX
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/07/28/business/starlink.html
https://archive.fo/zPAnr
He who controls the Spice controls the universe.
“who has sprawling business interests and murky politics ”
Translation: he’s not a lockstep, knee-jerk prog so he must be stopped.
Or government controlled like Boeing.
“Seems like research I ought to be doing.”
Silicone Saturday on topic!
https://archive.is/nUaHy
Tundra’s gal is #1.
I’ll gladly accept #2.
P.S. Some of those women really will have back problems.
?Alito says Congress has ‘no authority’ to regulate Supreme Court”
Congress has the authority to pack the court, which they probably will. What then?
Oh yeah, forgot about that.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-wagner-yevgeny-prigozhin-africa-ukraine-putin-mutiny-rcna96815
This is getting interesting.
OFFS now do China.
Yes, yes, of course. If you say it’s true, it must be. I’m now completely convinced that the rest of the article will be factual.
WTF SF?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12351089/San-Franciscos-Democrat-district-attorney-DROPS-charges-against-man-woman-arrested-following-carjacking-stunning-crash-flight-steps.html
The city of SF is the walking dead. There’s no coming back at this point.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Paging Penthouse Forum…
https://www.thesun.co.uk/dear-deidre/23183867/girlfriend-wants-to-bring-other-women-love-life/
Tres to the white courtesy phone please.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/real-life/i-love-flaunting-curves-tight-29742097
When I was younger, “curves” on a woman meant something different than it apparently means today.
Glad I couldn’t see it, 44HH and all
Like so?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045810/mediaviewer/rm1186734848
Speaking of MM, when the subject of another of her films came up the other day, it infected me with this earworm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdUTaBlCfsI
Now it usually just means one large curve
In spacetime.
Lol
The blue hair is a major red flag.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/real-life/i-caught-ex-boyfriend-cheating-30582224
That’s the wrong side of the hot/crazy matrix.
That’s nothing but red flags.
Mostly for herpes.
😂😂
I’m shocked she’s not in a stable relationship.
Well, well, well…
https://www.dw.com/en/burning-ship-off-dutch-coast-has-more-e-cars-than-thought/a-66375203
Lemme guess… just like wildfires here, it wipes out years’ worth of green Indulgences.
I’m not sure if it’s that bad but all those toxic metals going into the ocean can’t be good.
This is cool. Time lapse of yesterday’s monsoon in Tucson. Can’t seem to link directly, but you can figure it out:
https://tucson.com/search/?sd=desc&l=25&s=start_time&f=html&t=article%2Cvideo%2Cyoutube%2Ccollection&app=editorial&nsa=eedition&q=Time+lapse
Super cool. I love a good time-lapse video.
That initial microburst was fantastic.
I thought outdoor water was illegal in Arizona.
Collecting it is illegal (probably).
That was great. How long did the rain actually last?
In the wake of the new reports, the Senate Judiciary Committee last week voted along party lines to advance a Supreme Court ethics reform bill, though the legislation faces slim odds of passage.
Something something glass houses.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/07/the-week-in-pictures-hunter-or-hunted-edition.php
LOL
https://www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-22-at-6.14.42-PM.png
Stand by for a coded message
A mass shooting near a community event in Seattle Friday night left five people injured, two of whom were in critical condition, police said.
“We know that there’s dozens and dozens of rounds that were fired,” Seattle Police Department Chief Adrian Diaz told a news conference, adding that investigators were still working to establish whether “anybody was targeted.”
“We have five victims. Two are in critical condition. Three appear to be stable,” he said. He added, that they were taken to a nearby medical center and one victim was treated and discharged.
All of them were in their 20s, he said. A separate post on the department’s website said four of the victims were male and one was female.
Purely random, I’m sure.
a community event .
Pray, tell, what event?
Why, a prayer meeting, I’m sure!
He added that police in the city had recovered the highest number of guns in 15 years.
“The gun violence issues that we have in our city, we’ve seen it rise and sometimes slow down at times, but right now we’ve really got to get guns off our streets,” he said.
There were 65 incidents involving shootings or reports of shots being fired in Seattle last month, compared to 60 the previous year, according to police department data.
“Where do you think you are? Chicago?
Do better, guns.
Diplomacy
The United States has announced $345 million in military aid for Taiwan, in what is the Biden administration’s first major package drawing on America’s own stockpiles to help Taiwan counter China.
The White House said Friday the package would include defense, education and training for the Taiwanese. Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, or MANPADS, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
U.S. lawmakers have been pressuring the Pentagon and White House to speed weapons to Taiwan. The goals are to help it counter China and to deter China from considering attacking, by providing Taipei enough weaponry that it would make the price of invasion too high.
Don’t worry, the grownups are in charge.
The package is in addition to nearly $19 billion in military sales of F-16s and other major weapons systems that the U.S. has approved for Taiwan. Delivery of those weapons has been hampered by supply chain issues that started during the COVID-19 pandemic and have been exacerbated by the global defense industrial base pressures created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The difference is that this aid is part of a presidential authority approved by Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles — so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales. This gets weapons delivered faster than providing funding for new weapons.
The Pentagon has used a similar authority to get billions of dollars worth of munitions to Ukraine.
Our best. Our brightest.
Good to know since I’ll be traversing this route at least twice…
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/kansas-troopers-waged-war-motorists-bogus-stops-interrogations-judge
It’s been twenty years since I’ve used that route. They were shitheads back then too.
And the Colorado cops weren’t any better.
There must be something about 70. I trust (hope) your route doesn’t take you into the turf of the Preble County (OH) “DEA,” just waiting for out-of-state plates to cross the state line from Richmond, IN. Whatever you do, don’t change lanes without signaling.
I guess my white male privilege looms large.
I’ve driven I-70 in Ohio and Kansas without a problem from the cops.
I got pulled over in a rental minivan driving back from CO a few years back…May have been moving a little much in my lane but that was the call – no issues though.
We were on a one-year anniversary trip in a rented car and got pulled over (in Missouri). Out of state license plates on a (different) out-of-state driver’s license (hubby, because he hadn’t gotten a Missouri one yet). That caused us no end of grief, in part because we brought in our “big-city lawyer” to a small-ish town to fight it, and they gave him a hard time. Lesson learned: Get a local lawyer.
The judge’s money shot
“As wars go, this one is relatively easy; it’s simple and cheap, and for motorists, it’s not a fair fight,” wrote Vratil. “The war is basically a question of numbers: stop enough cars and you’re bound to discover drugs. And what’s the harm if a few constitutional rights are trampled along the way?”
Bafflement and dismay; NPR ladies hardest hit
It’s a dystopian scene: asylum seekers, staying in a shelter and under a bridge, delivering pricey meals throughout New York.
A few days later, the police sweep the camp. For several hours the men say they are driven around the city on a bus and taken to two different shelters where they are turned away.
Eventually, the bus drops them off in Brooklyn again. The men walk back to the highway overpass and to the camp where they find many of their belongings are now missing. One man reports his immigration papers, cellphone, and clothing all gone.
You’re not gonna fucking believe this. There seem to be some inefficiencies in the process.
You’d think spraying hundred dollar bills out of a helicopter wouldn’t be that difficult.
Saw something convenient that I’ve never seen before – a sign on a building with the wifi password facing the parking lot – and thought “hey, that’s a good idea”.
Maybe it’s super common – I’ve just never seen it before. Sitting in the little 1-room public library in a small town while my youngest does his Saturday-morning thing at a nearby airport. It didn’t open till 10 so I hung out in the gravel lot awhile, and saw the sign in the window facing the lot when I pulled up. Obviously so folks can sit in their cars or on the porch and connect if they want it. Anyway, somebody had a good idea.
Little old lady librarian is the only other person in here. She stepped out to see if her grandson was working across the road and let me know she’d left her gun on the counter. So we’re both strapped.
If you make that town any more attractive it won’t stay small.
Seconded.
NYPD officers briefly stop by the campsite to notify residents that they will be returning in the coming days with members of a non-profit that intends to help find them adequate shelter. Brooklyn, New York, U.S., on Wednesday, July 19, 2023.
All those “non profit” parasites have comfy beds to sleep in. Will they be inviting those starving homeless immigrants to come stay with them until they get on their feet?
“Jessica Marie Hann, born Jason Michael Hann, was sentenced to death in 2014 for murdering her 10 week old daughter Montana and her two month old son Jason in 2001 and 1999.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12351683/Transgender-double-murderer-killed-babies-receive-taxpayer-funded-BREAST-IMPLANTS.html
It’s 2023.
The important thing is he became she. Lou Reed hardest hit.
“I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it,” Alito told the Journal. “No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period.”
I read the Constitution. Article I, Section 8 does give the Congress power over lower courts but not the Supreme Court (“To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;”), though later the document states Congress does have control over jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. From Article III:
In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.
Also, compensation for judges is not mentioned in the Constitution beyond that a judge’s compensation may not be lowered during a judge’s term, so Congress could by law lower pay for new Federal judges. Finally, Congress has power of impeachment for federal judges.
So, I’ll rate Alito’s claim as mostly true.
Old Guy Music is good.
Um… I don’t know what that means, but, danke schoen?
I didn’t take it as a compliment.
I was hedging my bets.
I’m just going to assume MikeS is the actual author of Geddy Lee’s birthday blurb. For shame OMWC. For shame.
“This right wing conspiracy theory about eating bugs is about as racist as you think
“I will not eat the bugs” became a meme on 4chan and emerged in conservative talk shows and political speech. But why has it gained traction? In this week’s Code Switch, Gene Demby and NPR reporter Huo Jingnan dive into the sprawling conspiracy theory behind it. Proponents of the theory lean on the anti-semitic trope that “global elites” have a plot to control the masses — in this case under the guise of climate change solutions — by forcing them to eat bugs.”
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/18/1188237695/this-right-wing-conspiracy-theory-about-eating-bugs-is-about-as-racist-as-you-th
Your tax dollars at work.
Someone on the twitters expertly superimposed all of NPRs fawning articles on the virtues of eating bugs against this piece.
Don’t they mean “white supremacist” and not “racist” anyway?
Well. Today is my last day alone in my apt. Family comes up tomorrow. I’ve rented a U-Haul and we’re gonna take my bed apart and get whatever else we can in there.
Tomorrow should be my move-out day. I’ll pack what I can today and tomorrow. I’m suspecting I’ll come back and make a second trip, probably out of nostalgia and sadness but also to make sure I didn’t forget anything.
I need to put all my clothes together now. Luckily I’m no horse. Moving back in with my parents isn’t what’s weirding me out. Rather, leaving what (once) I worked hard to attain. Then, on my own, I predictably reverted to my old ways.
A week in detox did me good. All on my own and not even a thought of drinking anything. So that’s good. But the reality/joke that I am George Costanza (with a healthy shake of Kramer) is further illustrated.
This too, shall pass. Onward. Upward. Always.
Remember to check fridge, oven, medicine cabinet, closet shelves, and if applicable, DW and cubbies.
And behind doors, especially the main entrance. Left behind an umbrella in an off-campus apartment by failing to do this lo these many years ago.
Senatorial decorum
When Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) saw a group of Senate pages lying on the floor of the Capitol Rotunda and taking pictures Wednesday night, he called them “pieces of s—” and told them to “get the f— up” off the floor, according to a transcript of the remarks obtained by The Hill.
Van Orden, a freshman congressman, told the pages “Wake the f‑‑‑ up you little s‑‑‑‑. … What the f‑‑‑ are you all doing? Get the f‑‑‑ out of here. You are defiling the space you [pieces of s‑‑‑],” according to the transcript written by a page. Punchbowl News first reported the incident.
——-
In a brief interview with POLITICO Thursday night, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) gave his own praise to the pages.
“Only talking about that person, we only diminish the greatness of these young people. They’re phenomenal people and come here and make a big sacrifice,” Booker said. “They’re smart, they’re dedicated, they believe in this country in its highest ideals, and we should be elevating them.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) posted to Twitter, “My message to the Senate Pages: This is one of the most amazing experiences you’ll ever have. Take it in. Learn a lot. And of course, have fun.”
Finally, something of substance.
Van Orden sounds like a pick. Maybe the pages were wrong but that’s not how you talk to them.
Why is this a Team thing? Oh, that right because everything is fucking politics. I’m going to go bang my head on a wall for a while now.
“Cops no longer arrest hookers. The NYPD started focusing on johns a few years ago after a prostitute tragically jumped to her death during a police pursuit. In April 2021, then-Manhattan DA Cy Vance announced his office would stop prosecuting sex workers, and other borough prosecutors soon followed suit.”
https://nypost.com/2023/07/29/nyc-neighborhood-overrun-by-broad-daylight-brothels/
I swear NYC and SF are competing to out stupid each other.
So, another sign that the 70s are back. We’ll know for sure when the hookers are plying their trade in Times Sq. instead of some dumpy neighborhood in Queens.
PS. I doubt they’re prosecuting johns now, either.
Oh, I bet they’d be happy to prosecute certain johns.
We are a week and a half in, and Buzz has gone from standoffish and defensive to affectionate and playful.
She started sleeping on my bed about 5 days ago, and for the past three nights she’s slept ON ME. She purrs and purrs when she’s getting petted, and sometimes purrs just because.
Every morning I open the vertical blinds on the sliding glass doors so that she can watch the birds and squirrels. Buzz really wants to chase a squirrel—well, in her imagination anyway.
I got her a cardboard scratcher so that she can enjoy the sensation of resistance on her claws even though she’s wearing soft claw tips. I sprinkled the cardboard with catnip—it’s official: Buzz is a nip fiend! She then runs around and climbs on furniture for a while. Silly girl.