I am multitasking at work this morning. There will be links, there will be jokes in relatively poor taste, there will even be music at least half of you will hate but there will be no intro.
…fine I guess that was an intro.
¡enlaces!
The big news today is tomatoes. Some of you may mispronounce to them as tomatoes, and some of you still may even call them tomaters but they are all the same thing. There is now a tariff on tomatoes.
This is hardly the only tariffs going into effect, and El Presidenté Mujer is talking tough in the wake, but for whatever reason every site I go to wants to talk about tomatoes. Lucky for me, other produce is available that is grown locally.
If the question is why libertarians like Milei, but don’t like Chase. Its because Chase is too gay to operate a chainsaw. I suppose being likable enough to win an election is the real reason.
The Argentine economy under Milei however, is killing it. My bias is confirmed.
Lets contrast this with Cuba…
I think this is perfectly reasonable given the economic impact of AOL era Nigerian Prince scams was probably comparable. I’m not doing that kind of math.
Okay fine, I will give you a music link you will all love. Poppy is back.
The minister was quoted as saying that this year and last had been marked “by the intensified impact of the blockade, the fierce persecution of financial flows, and barriers to international transactions that have hindered payments to suppliers.”
Maybe they just need a better Five Year Plan.
They’ve been buggered since 1959. Consider this from four years ago:
At the start of 2021, the Cuban economy finds itself in very precarious conditions. Above all, Cuba continues to suffer from all the inefficiencies, red tape, and distortions of its state-dominated and overly centralized economy. In need of deep structural changes, the island’s socialist system can serve neither as an effective tool to unleash productive forces nor as a model to foster actual development.
So maybe they should have a Four Year New Economic Plan.
Wait, who is blockading Cuba?
Nobody since November 1962. But they like to bandy about terms like that for the low-information types.
If the question is why libertarians like Milei, but don’t like Chase.
Whoever that is.
The most recent lefty the Libertarian Party ran for President.
Because the guy on the left is a wannabe who hasn’t really accomplished anything, and the guy on the right won a national election and has proceeded to wipe his ass with the state and turn his nation’s economy around. Afuera!
It was my understanding that libertarians don’t like Chase because he is not a libertarian.
QUIET, YOU!
Yeah, and most of the leadership wanted Trump, who isn’t a libertarian either. Trouble is, any normal libertarian wants nothing to do with the current LP.
Grow your own tomatoes.
We keep planting too many, usually about 30 plants. This year, FINALLY, I think we bought 18 or 20. Last year I dried them in the oven and vacuum sealed them with a little olive oil and a basil leaf. Those were fantastic.
The Missus freezes them. We sorta got ahead and the freezer is still full from bygones years. I planted a few less this year, I see tomatoes on the vine now but small and green yet.
A whole lot is about to ripen for me.
Lettuce is just about done but second crop incoming. Onions are stored away. Herbs are plenty…all from a 25sqft garden
If you keep getting stories about tomatoes, shouldn’t the music be this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V0PisGe66mY
Better.
Cuba is also killing it, where ‘it’ happens to be the people that live there.
Are you saying Michael Moore lied to me?
Crazy right wing gauchos, they don’t know how good they had it.
A lack of fuel and equipment has crippled the energy grid, leading to daily blackouts in the Communist-run country of as much as 16 hours or more.
Agriculture, livestock farming, and mining have fallen 53.4% over the last five years, and manufacturing 23%, Alonso reported.
But 100% literacy and free health care!
100% literacy! Calloo Callay, my beamish boy!
***
The four-year graduation rate for Baltimore City Public Schools increased from 68.7% for the Class of 2022 to 70.6% for the Class of 202312. The rate is lower than the state average of 85.8%.
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Hip hip hooray!
***
City student passes 3 classes in four years, ranks near top half of class with 0.13 GPA
***
https://foxbaltimore.com/news/project-baltimore/city-student-passes-3-classes-in-four-years-ranks-near-top-half-of-class-with-013-gpa
[cue Pomp and Circumstance]
“Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy.”
― John Derbyshire
We should, however, drop the embargo. It’s not having much effect on their economy but they can keep blaming it for their problems.
I, for one, welcome our new Tomato Tariff. Ween people off those awful things.
With you there.🤮
Especially the flavorless year round Mexican ones.
There really is nothing like a
shorn scrotumhome-grown, vine-ripened tomato. A little salt. A little pepper^^That is the way.
….and basil. It is a felony to forget the basil.
I wouldn’t say they are flavorless, just that the flavor of all tomatos is crap.
They don’t call the nightshades deadly for no reason.
You say tomato, I say fuck you.
Tomato Kid
Well, I know how to deal with that.
What in the everloving fuck. Keep it in your pants, Nigerian men.
There is some speculation by the end of the century, Nigeria will be the most populated country in the world.
Wikipedia sez over 40% of ’em are 14 or under. That is *nuts*.
Which half of me? The front half? I can’t wait to find out what music will divide me so.
Oh. Poopy., Well, I need exposure to culture.
Need a little rock n roll.
Ngl, my front half is a fan of Poppy.
ISWYDT
I don’t care how you pronounce the word – tomatoes are gross.
I had no idea that many people hate tomatoes. Unless you all just congregate here for some reason.
Maybe all they’ve add is grocery store beefsteaks?
What can you say, we have a lot of people here with awful taste.
Hey!
You can’t take food advice from someone who has “evil” in his name. Tomatoes are obviously good. Unless…he’s saying that because he wants you to eat tomatoes….
Mad Scientist:
Wait… you’re for tomatoes?
I may have to rethink this.
I may be mad, but I’m not evil. Tomatoes are delicious.
I like ketchup, marinara, salsa, etc, but I don’t like just eating plain old tomatoes. Home grown ones are better, but still not quite my jam. I think it’s mostly the texture.
No taste in store tomatoes. They look so good but are tasteless, as are the cucumbers. On very rare occasions I’ll buy a tomato, just to put some color in a salad. Damn sure it isn’t for the taste.
I love my own home grown ‘maters and gorge on them during the harvest.
Kachumbari is a finger food often served to guests in Tanzania. It’s a like a very chunky salsa of tomatoes and onions.
https://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/kachumbari/
144 of them are gross.
A properly cleaned tomato, with all the goopy stuff removed, a dash of salt and lots of freshly cracked pepper paired with a splash of olive oil and fresh basil is sublime.
Also green olives stuffed with pimento cream cheese and a good salami hits the spot. My favorite olives have been missing for a month. Since they’re imported from Greece, I’m blaming tariffs and incompetent Greecians.
Tomatoes that have been cooked are a key ingredient in many, many important foods. But raw tomatoes are worthless to me.
That’s fair enough. Cooked tomatoes, or heavily seasoned tomatoes (such as in pico de gallo) can be good. By themselves, raw tomatoes taste like bitter cellulose pulp and have an even worse texture.
Or, this^
I grew up in a different time, don’t mess with my tomatoes, the juicy part is good too. I enjoy tomato AND V-8 juice.
They have lypocene and a lot of other nutrients.
What 4×20 says. I grew up on a garden we kept….vine ripened everything. When I left the nest I was horrified by the cost and quality of grocery store produce.
Perhaps if you have never had fresh stuff….well, ES may have a point.
I remember picking them from the plant on hot summer days and biting into the juiciest, sweetest tomatoes you can imagine…juice dripping off of my chin…the smell of the plants after brushing against them walking down the rows….
Sweet peas too. And corn. The instant you pick corn it begins to turn to starch. On corn day we would pick and shuck as fast as we couldn’t and strait into the boiling pot they would go. You cant get corn like that from a store. I imagine a majority of people today have no idea what corn really tastes like…or raw milk for that matter.
Of course those same people dont know what it is like sweating their asses off in the pea patch in summer. Maybe it is better this way.
…remembers long hours picking wild raspberries but in the winter enjoying homemade fresh bread with the jam made it all worthwhile
Bacon, lettuce and tomato sammich, even better with avocado. One of life’s simpler pleasures.
In other words, tomatoes are a subfood. Only good in the preparation of other food.
Much better than an unfood. Like eggplant.
Bunol, Spain is hoarding tomatoes. Send the military to secure the supply.
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Kachumbari really is such a simple dish that is perfectly bursting with summer flavors. Tomatoes, onions, avocado, and chili peppers come together, flavored with a light lime juice and cilantro dressing.
***
Sounds like chunky guacamole.
If we adopt Cooba’s government, we’ll have the best of both worlds. 100% literacy, unlimited free healthcare, no money for the government to spend thus shrinking the size of Leviathan. What could go wrong?
Bah, it is well known that Cuba survives thanks to that trillion dollar bill they swindled from Mr. Burns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0hTrnaa8aE
In our case, we should follow Krugman’s advice and mint some trillion-dollar coins.
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/paul-krugman-economy-debt-ceiling-crisis-solution-1-trillion-coin-2023-5
As a bonus, we’d also be militarily incapable of doing the kind of stupid shit that stuck us with Puerto Rico and Guam and allowed Cuba to turn into a communist shit hole in the first place.
…and then this appeared
Sliced tomatoes are okay cold. Don’t put fresh sliced tomato on my burger.
I wonder if Les Claypool likes tomato on his hamburger.
Green Jelly came up not Primus.
By the way, do you know the source of the “your the guy from the hamburger train…right”
Paul Rubens.
Save that tomato slice for my burger, even if it slides out, eat it first.
Fresh homegrown tomatoes with salt, pepper, and mayo on white bread are the bomb though.
Tomato sandwiches are truly underrated
How will the beltway hive mind speak their truth?
Although NPR and PBS might survive in major cities, small-town stations — the ones that rely on federal grants — could vanish. These are communities where public radio isn’t a luxury — it’s the only source for local news, educational content, even emergency alerts.
Seventy percent of CPB’s budget directly funds more than 1,500 local stations. Take that away, and many simply can’t keep their lights on.
This push isn’t random. It’s part of a decades-long conservative effort to gut public media, now supercharged by President Trump. Public broadcasting leaders call this the most serious threat they’ve ever faced.
Millions of voices crying out in pain and terror, followed by… silence.
They keep saying that they get only a small portion of their budget from the government, yet it’s catastrophic if they lose it. Which is it?
There is no place in the US where govt funded commie propaganda is the only news you lying sacks of shit.
Ummm, there’s no place where NPR is the only outlet for govt funded commie propaganda, but I’m not sure there’s any news outlet that doesn’t fit the description, unless you limit govt funded to explicit line items in the budget.
How can they reach these
kidshicks?According to what I’ve read, government funding amounts to 15% of the cost of running PBS. Why would a 15% loss in revenue almost shut the outfit down?
We’re standing at a crossroads. If this passes, hundreds of stations could go dark by fall. And once you shut down the news, you silence the truth.
But let’s be honest: this fight over public broadcasting is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re witnessing a broader assault on journalism itself. This isn’t about budgets—it’s about control.
Truth will be a thing of the past.
It will be as if Johannes Gutenberg never existed.
There is not TV or phone service in flyover country. You’re reading this from AI translated smoke signals.
One day, we pray, the government will bring us into the 21st Century.
I’m confused by the idea that silencing NPR would somehow also silence the truth. Do they think that people who tell the truth will go silent in solidarity with the liars at NPR?
They mean “truth”, not truth.
What is wrong with you anti-tomato people? Food. Of. The. Gods.
Hating tomatoes cuts out half of the really good food humans eat. I bet you hate oysters too. Let me guess, you love cilantro and avocados *gag*
Suthen, we’re pretty much on the same page. The Lady of the house enjoys the cilantro and avocados but I have to share the tomatoes. And cucumbers. She does let me have all the garden fresh kohlrabi , diced in a salad. I have to guard the pea pods though, you know how crafty some Asians are.
“ garden fresh kohlrabi ”
Yum!
Tomatoes, avocados, and pears are the three foods that can be glorious when ripe but are worthless otherwise. And two of those only have a few cultivars worth eating, but those are amazing.
No, only one of those is edible, ripe or not.
Everything is going pear shaped.
Cilantro tastes like soap with a hint of cat piss. Your hatred of avacados, however, I just don’t get.
It’s the aldehydes. Cilantro, avocado, melon rind including cucumber…lots of fruits and vegetables have a completely disgusting taste to me.
I grew up a poor boy so no food is disgusting
Food of the gods, you say? So, would that be the food of Saturn, who also ate his son?
Asking for a friend.
PO Nick, put on your raincoat, sending you some rain, maybe a little hail but no wind.
Scary
As federal authorities continue to crack down on the spread of fentanyl across the country, the Drug Enforcement Administration is warning about a surge in the use of methamphetamine, with DEA officials expressing particular concern over meth-laced pills being sold as drugs like Adderall to college-age adults.
“What we’ve seen here recently, that frightens me,” acting DEA administrator Robert Murphy told ABC News’ Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas in an exclusive interview.
Here’s an idea. You could make Adderall an over the counter dietary supplement, and pretty much eliminate the counterfeit “who knows what’s in it or how strong it is” supply.
Tomatoes have many uses. They never belong on sandwiches. (Don’t add slushiness. Ketchup is ok w mustard on a burger.)
One of my best friends in high school, a gay man, gave me a tip when we worked at Schlotzky’s: Gay men don’t add tomato to their sandwiches. It was shockingly true, at least in Eville. A sandwich, not the place for unnecessary slippery juice. I think I see what Jacob was onto. (Haven’t talked to him in forever, but he’s an award-winning math teacher at Carmel High. It’s by far the biggest in the state, over 5k, pushing 6. It’s pretty disgusting, actually. New funding and they’re adding *another* field and facilities. I think it’s indoor, and the Colts do some training there.)
Fond memories of the charter school I went to with ~250 students total. That place fuckin’ rocked and I kinda owned it. The things you can get away with, if only you’re a good (enough) student.
BLT. That is all I will say.
Something for you freaks to relax to….
Audio at the bottom.
https://peaksandnulls.net/index.php/2025/07/03/night-two-a-night-on-the-inside-passage/
Thanks for that. There are times for me when only ambient will do, and that fits the bill.
😁
And for you freakier freaks who like to listen to the city….
https://peaksandnulls.net/index.php/2025/07/05/field-recordings-vancouver-06-26-06-27-2025/
and
https://peaksandnulls.net/index.php/2025/07/08/field-recordings-vancouver-07-06-07-07-2025/