Sorry, I didn’t have a JPG of this year’s 4/20 themed logo.
It’s the Big Day in our little hamlet. My students have been pregaming since Thursday and it’s the last big blowout before finals. It’s always around now but there’s a particular resonance about it falling on 4/20. The local university is upset that we’re using Hot Dog Day at our café and even more upset that we’ve tied it to (legal here) weed. Hey, be glad we didn’t mention Hitler, OK? In any case, our regular cook, a fellow named l0B0T had to go out of town, so the kitchen will be run by Tomb Raider and yours truly. Our special today is the Hot Dog Breakfast Burrito and we promise no veins.
A particularly interesting set of birthdays today, whoever planned this had to be smoking something. I mean, really, a collection that includes a quintessential Frenchman who set the pattern for their battle performance; why the Armenians hate (((us))); the spiritual head of the Democratic Progressive Caucus; the inspiration for OSHA; the greatest Spanish artist not named Picasso; a guy who always had good vibes; one more reason to hate Nixon; one more reason to wish that the Enterprise had gotten destroyed; someone who should have been the symbol for Team Red; and (along with her sister) one of my childhood celebrity crushes. And, fittingly, one more- the girl I call Second Daughter, our very own Riven.
Let’s get linking before I have to start cooking links.
“OK, cool, we’ll catch you on your way out.”
This is why we have woodchippers.
What China’s politicians and ours have in common.
Long-form but a great read. And infuriating.
“We’ll pass some new laws to ignore.”
One more reason that I will never join the Libertarian Party.
Jaki Byard may be my personal favorite among pianists, as much as I adore Tatum, Peterson, Tyner, Ra… and Fatha Hines is Fatha Hines. Put ’em together and you have Old Guy Music heaven.
Hey now — at least he didn’t get an eel in his head and betray Starfleet. And they fobbed him off onto Excelsior eventually.
I know this probably makes me a comedy weirdo or something — but I enjoy his movies more than an other comedian of that era. The American Jackie Chan, similar “Everyman” character (I mean even in stuff like Supercop, Jackie’s inherently relatable… he has the same natural likability even when playing a doofus millionaire or whatnot).
Not a partaker of the 4/20 scene — so all you stoners enjoy your day. I may make actual hot dogs for lunch though.
Not weird.
He had many illegitimate children.
So over it. And it’s unavoidable in recent years.
Happy Birthday Riven!
I would have thought OMWC would have created a Wikipedia page for her.
+1
dittoes
Argh… I was mentally guessing the Gabors. Damn it.
Woot! Happy birthday, Riven! Sorry I pissed you off yesterday by not liking rap.
+1! Wishing you a CHEERFUL birthday! 😁
Are you saying they’ll cash them outside? How ’bout that….
She’s a multimillionaire now.
“we can be sued.”
Better hope no students ever misremember what happened during that last office visit either.
It certainly does raise the question of when the rest of the country might free itself from The Imperial District, yeah.
Interesting thought experiment — if Wilson strokes out earlier or something such that we actually stay out of WW1 (barring selling arms to both sides probably), Europe grinds to a ceasefire treaty as they exhaust themselves, Soviet Russia still happens (collapsing the Eastern Front is what keeps Germany going in the Western and opens up non-British blockade possibilities through Russia for food stocks…). Versailles doesn’t happen… Schicklegruber birthday boy less likely to be able to seize power (though the Communist / Anti-Communist Fascist war is almost certainly still going to happen in 1920s German politics)… long and the short of it.. would WW2 still happen, and would we be so easily sucked in?
Japan’s still going to do what Japan’s going to do. SIGINT is still going to very much be a thing. So we probably still have Vinson and the Navy Acts, the Sino-Japanese War still likely happens, we embargo Japan and they start looking for a Near East empire. Europe is still exhausted and unlikely to defend their colonies there… So we probably still get a Pacific War at least… would that be enough to lock in the DoD bureaucrats and then the IC controlling them through “Everything’s a threat, give us more money!” growth until they’re too big to control?
As I think it through typing… probably, dammit. Depressingly unavoidable even if we aren’t locked into 5-Eyes or anything in a Cold War environment… we’re still going to be all Monroe Doctrine happy, we’re still going to have the CCP most likely and the SE Asia stuff. (Well, we’d hopefully stay out of ‘Nam because we wouldn’t be allied with the French to get messed up in it… but not really a hundred percent).
So ends today’s morning ramble as if I were participating in Hot Dog Day apparently.. (“Like dude… what if we never joined WW1 maaaan?”) Sorry if I bored anyone.
Part of what makes WWI interesting was the stronger public feelings toward Ireland and Germany and less so to England prior to our declaration of war. Worst aspect of all from WWI – the fucking Espionage Act.
Alt-history is fun to play.
One difference in the US not getting into WWI is that WWII likely still happens in Europe, only its more Soviet Union v. Europe. The Soviets still invade to their west (because that was always in the cards) , only this time Germany isn’t fighting France and the rest of Europe. Sort of NATO, only in the ‘30s. Japan at that point is more of a natural ally of the USSR – it gets the Pacific colonies of their common enemies, etc. Basically, if the US doesn’t stick into WWI, Germany changes sides in WWII, which might lead to some very different outcomes.
Well, WWII doesn’t necessarily happen if the Germans don’t unleash the Lenin-pox on Russia. Maybe the Mensheviks retain control?
That was going to happen regardless. I think they shipped Lenin to Russia before the Americans showed up in France.
Ten days after the U.S. declaration of war. So they knew the western front was going to become a problem and they unleashed him to help destroy the eastern front.
I think the plan to send him to Russia predated that, but I really don’t know for sure. That kind of internal destabilization of opposing countries predated sending Lenin to Russia. Regardless, the Germans were trying to shut down their Eastern front long before the Americans formally declared.
As long as we’re playing counterfactuals: Czarist police pick Lenin up as he arrives and puts a bullet into his head before he gets to the customs house.
That’d be an interesting scenario in that Stalin’s decimation of the military leadership (and mucking with the factories) was only offset by the crucible of the German invasion making the Soviets focus on what mattered (and Lend-Lease getting them through the interim while they threw bodies at the Wehrmacht…)
If Stalin invaded Poland in 1939? He might get away with it (you wouldn’t have the build-up that let UK and France know things were coming). If he tried anything after that, yeah … it would be war.
Honestly though — I don’t really see Stalin doing it without Germany causing trouble for the Western Allies first. And if he did and got a pseudo-NATO force up against him (including the Czechs who’d still be their own country, are right next to Poland… then working with the French who actually had good tanks and wouldn’t be demoralized by the lightning strike to Paris?)… I think he’d get his butt handed to him. And if the Western Allies had the sense to not invade Russia, I think it would stay there. If they were dumb enough to invade — then yeah, you could rally the USSR around a Great Patriotic War again and almost certainly the Western Allies would overextend. I just think given the likely politics they’d be happy enough restoring Poland and telling Stalin to fuck off. Shrug.
Would he have invaded Finland?
I expect that depends on if he invades Poland first. If he doesn’t? Yeah — I think he would with much the same results (or worse since the Western Allies might aid the Finns more). If he invades Poland but the West lets him do so while arming up / Quasi-War? Again, much the same result.
If he’s dumb enough to do it while fighting a hot war on the Polish front with the Western Allies? Definitely worse.
I’d like to see this as a standalone post, even if just a jumping off point for comments. 😉
Picked up curry ketchup for the first time. I like it. I’m going to use it next time for omelette rice. Call it Axis Victory.
Yup… academia only, and regulation only — but you know “workplace regulations/”civil rights lawyers” will do their damndest to spread it and that it will be one of the magical regulations that can’t be reworked by following administrations.
Yay.
In a better world — this crap would get all the thought crime “harassment / discrimination” laws thrown out on First Amendment grounds. This is pretty obviously a violation of freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and freedom of religion… “You must celebrate whatever I say whenever I say it… think what I want, bigot!” But it really is just a reduction of prior “Think what I want bigot!” laws that were more subtle about it.
Am wondering how our gracious host deals with this totalitarian shit, seemingly immersed in it as xe is.
My college town is full of dopey shit too but it’s easy for me to avoid & thankfully my employer is not terribly interested in pushing it either.
It’ll be promptly canceled if someone not friendly to it gets into office, it’s already been done (by Trump) actually. This is more a return to a prior status quo than anything, at least for the sexual assault stuff and I’d think the pronoun stuff could be thrown in the bin just as easily too.
Greed? Corruption? Thai lady-boys?
Oh… banning social media apps… Ok, so THIS story just got 400 percent less interesting…
If you have not watched Safety Last, here you go: https://youtu.be/SksDoHMM2Mo?si=na47HzIpKXr8HATN
Lloyd’s films drew bigger box office receipts than either Chaplin or Keaton. He wasn’t as funny as either of them, and his films were somewhat formulaic (small town dude makes it big in the big city), but he worked extremely hard.
Also, part of his hand had been blown off during a publicity stunt some time before he filmed Safety Last
Another Lloyd film I recommend is Never Weaken.
I like Number, Please? And whichever one where he walks a turkey on a leash.
Some of them — (as mentioned, he was good at Everyman characters and that’s a good formula for one given the move to urban areas at the time). But For Heaven’s Sake certainly flipped that script, Dr. Jack isn’t precisely that (okay small town-ish Doctor… but blooming Doctor, not average rube). And Why Worry? was another goofball millionaire.
I’d particularly recommend For Heaven’s Sake actually….
Hmm… will read after getting through the other links.
Yeah, I think I saw an article on Twitchy yesterday citing some X user: “CA Legislature — cracking down on retail theft! Also CA Legislature — Closing 9 more prisons!” or somesuch. All talk, not going to have real impact.
Of for fucking fuck’s sake. There’s the OMB… What fucking “racial antagonism” assholes? What fucking “religious antagonism”? Cite your fucking sources.
Thinking she’s a corrupt shitweasel is not racist. Thinking that Muslim countries that declare we’re the Great Satan perhaps deserve greater immigration scrutiny is not “religious antagonism”. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, writer.
My pronouns are who/what/which.
You’re a witch???
“If you’re a young lady — my pronouns are sand/wich”
I weigh much more than a duck
But could you be carried by a pair of African swallows with a bit of creeper?
Mrs Who, Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Which …
Oo I need to reread that.
Mine are Professor and Sir.
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 04/20:
*25/25 words (+2 bonus words)
🎯 Perfect accuracy
I played https://squaredle.com 04/20:
*42/42 words (+3 bonus words)
🎯 Perfect accuracy
(Just curious – how do you update your bonus word count after you’ve found all the “official” words? I know I’ll never get as many as SOME people here, but just in case I ever get the urge to keep trying…)
Typically, I don’t — with the exception that when you share scores you get an extra hint on the bonus word of the day so I might pick that one up if I didn’t. But I play for accuracy and less for bonus words (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it… it isn’t just that I royally suck compared to Sean or anything… no sirree bob!)
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 04/20:
*25/25 words (+3 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 25% by accuracy
I played https://squaredle.com 04/20:
*42/42 words (+5 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 5% by accuracy
🔥 Solve streak: 337
I played https://squaredle.com 04/15 (Weekly Subscriber Puzzle):
114/114 words (+39 bonus words)
📖 In the top 3% by bonus words
Damn… I keep forgetting about that one. Guess I’ll go do it before I go back to New Vegas today.
Kind of funny that if the F in top right were one lower you could Glibfit…. 😉
Damned British-isms in whatever dictionary they use. Sure “loos” is there… but “Boop” isn’t? Needs more internet cat videos!
I played https://squaredle.com 04/15 (Weekly Subscriber Puzzle):
*114/114 words (+17 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 10% by accuracy
Not fantastic… but was able to get through without hints, so I’ll take it.
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 04/20:
25/25 words (+8 bonus words)
📖 In the top 6% by bonus words
I played https://squaredle.com 04/20:
42/42 words (+14 bonus words)
📖 In the top 6% by bonus words
🔥 Solve streak: 267
#WhenTaken #53 (20.04.2024)
I scored 771/1000 🎉
1️⃣ 📍 458 miles – 🗓️ 12 yrs – ⚡ 157 / 200
2️⃣ 📍 476 miles – 🗓️ 6 yrs – ⚡ 170 / 200
3️⃣ 📍 4 miles – 🗓️ 5 yrs – ⚡ 195 / 200
4️⃣ 📍 1260 miles – 🗓️ 4 yrs – ⚡ 146 / 200
5️⃣ 📍 5672 miles – 🗓️ 0 yrs – ⚡ 103 / 200
https://whentaken.com
should have broken 800 for the first time but the screwed up the last location.
Don’t you people even work??
*rolls up sleeves*
Interesting one today.
Not on Saturday… I’m one of those laptop class people.
And I tend to do these shortly after I get up (between 3:30 to 4AM Pacific time) — so I actually spare y’all the results until the morning links are up for an hour usually… but I’ve done them way before.
We get it at 6am so there’s that.
I played https://squaredle.com 04/20:
42/42 words (+12 bonus words)
📖 In the top 12% by bonus words
I played https://squaredle.com 04/20:
42/42 words (+7 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 40% by accuracy
🔥 Solve streak: 234
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 04/20:
25/25 words (+8 bonus words)
📖 In the top 6% by bonus words
someone who should have been the symbol for Team Red
Unfortunately, I found a couple of headless chickens yesterday, courtesy of a hawk. Wife and I put up a bird net on the chicken run, and within 2 hours I had to cut a chicken off of the net because it got hopelessly tangled.
OTOH, the 6yo loves Mike the headless chicken and wants me to make one of our chickens headless like him. I’ll have to mention his birthday to her.
Oh, sorry.
A local woman was attacked by a hawk in her backyard. Now she uses an umbrella while outside.
Damned crime in Atlanta is getting so bad even the NBA teams are harassing folks…
“[T]he most pressing issue which is Israel’s genocide” is an official position of the Party? Wow.
Should we be happy that at least this time around they might be able to recognize the Middle East? (As opposed to oh… Aleppo?)
But yeah — the complete dismissive phrasing of “Sure Hamas killed 200 people and took some hostages” as opposed to “Gee… Hamas raped and ravaged as many civilians as they could and have repeatedly said they would do it again and rejected any ceasefire proposals” makes it clear who they’ve decided are the Bad Guys(tm).
I knew she was awful. This adds a new dimension to it.
LP convention Memorial Day will decide if Ms. McArdle and her friends will go or stay. Outcome will decide if LP lives or dies. The majority of libertarians don’t seem to care which it is.
“Israel was created after a non-binding U.N. resolution in 1947. Prior to the modern day creation of Israel, that land was inhabited by Muslims and Christians.”
Weird. I thought there were Jews there before 1947. The things I learn . . . .
IMpossible! No one was alive then.
/early Eddie Izzard
Everyone thinks that the Romans deported every single Jew from the Land of Israel after A.D. 136, but I’m pretty sure that Jews inhabited the land continuously from that time to the present, and that “Palestinian” was once synonymous with “Jew”.
It wasn’t a whole lot of Jews, but they were there.
“People called Palestinians, they go the house”?!
Also, the only reason that Muslims are there is because they engaged in military conquest.
So…if modern Israel manages to maintain control of the land for a thousand years or so, I assume that those who are screaming “genocide” right now will change their minds about t he situation.
“Palestinian” in Biblical times was pronounced “Philistine”, I believe.
And the Arabic word for Palestine is Filastin, as Arabic does not have the letter P.
One of my Arabic teachers was from Gaza. He said the joke there is that Filastin is a combo of the Arabic words for bankrupt (filas) and mud (tin).
In a similar way, the Arabic word for lieutenant (mulazim) sounds exactly like the words that mean not necessary (mu lazim).
She left out “largely” or “primarily” but, yes, Jews have been there since the days of the pharaohs.
That is so typically young American – ignorant to the bone about history. Bet if you asked about Sykes and Picot you would get a blank look in response.
*blank look*
I had to look it up. I didn’t recognize the names, but I was aware that the winners of the Great War split up the Ottoman Empire, and that Britain got Palestine.
If you’re going to talk about the Middle East post WWI, right up to present day – that’s where you start. It’s also fair to talk about that region under the Ottomans – and it wasn’t called Palestine then. The British Foreign Office, chock full of classically educated men, naturally rehabilitated the Roman name for the place.
Happy birthday, Riven!
https://youtu.be/iyAaSo5Dewk?si=gexgQQ-NXA-Koz9I
Happy Birthday, young lady!
https://youtu.be/qQPm5wqMScE
(Maybe a little too young for my go-to birthday link. But still.)
“North Carolina High School Student Suspended Over Use Of “Illegal Alien””
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/north-carolina-high-school-student-suspended-over-use-illegal-alien
Best learn your place before you wreck yourself (presumably) white boy.
Or he can play that funky music till he dies.
AP headline: Trump forced to listen silently to people insulting him as he trades a cocoon of adulation for court
I’m Jill Colvin, the author of the above, was double-clicking her mouse while she typed that and the rest of the article.
***
It’s been a dramatic departure for the former president and presumptive 2024 GOP nominee, who is accustomed to spending his days in a cocoon of cheering crowds and constant adulation. Now a criminal defendant, Trump will instead spend the next several weeks subjected to strict rules that strip him of control over everything from what he is permitted to say to the temperature of the room.
…
“He’s the object of derision. It’s his nightmare. He can’t control the script. He can’t control the cinematography. He can’t control what’s being said about him. And the outcome could go in a direction he really doesn’t want,” said Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer and critic.
***
I’m convinced these people would lock Trump in the stocks and pelt him with rotten vegetables if they could.
link
lock Trump in the stocks and pelt him with rotten vegetables
That crowd.
I can only imagine how they’d react if people spoke that way about Obama.
Oh, they’d happily do a lot more than pelt him with foodstuffs if they thought they could get away with it.
Interesting how the Somali community showed up in MN. I always wondered why they would chose such a contrasting place to their homeland.
They can only make the TC a better place. I expect however that there will be intramural conflicts with Cambodians of St Paul, the VN of Mpls and the black Americans of both cities. There’s only so much graft to go around.
The white folks migrated to the suburbs over time. The Metro area does however holds the rest of the state hostage blue.
Same in NY. The NYC area and the rest of the state might as well be two different states – they have nothing in common.
Aren’t hot dogs racist or transphobic or something?
“Hot” could trigger those worried about climate change, “dog” could be offensive to Muslims.
And “pigs in a blanket” is even worse.
Change the name to “bun sausage”.
Sausage is definitely transphobic.
Edible mush cylinders?
Hot dog or a bun?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3328981/Zoolander-2-fire-critics-deem-Benedict-Cumberbatch-s-character-transphobic.html
OFFS!
TMITE
Is there still such a thing as a Libertarian Party?
Are you saying we now have… A Mythical Libertarian Party?
There will be sort of a (G)libertarian party on the third Sunday of Sep.
The local university is upset
I hope they have plenty of crying towels.
To the ends of the earth
In a 26-page filing ahead of a pre-scheduled hearing on Monday, James expressed concern about whether Knight Specialty Insurance Company could secure the $175 million bond. She also argued that the collateral put up by the former president should be under the full control of the company.
One of James’ concerns about KSIC is that the insurer “is not authorized to write business in New York and thus not regulated by the state’s insurance department.” She added that the company “had never before written a surety bond in New York or in the prior two years in any other jurisdiction, and has a total policyholder surplus of just $138 million.”
——-
The new filing comes after James filed a notice earlier this month seeking more information about the former president’s bond. In that filing, she asked that Trump’s lawyers or the insurance company “file a motion to justify the surety bond” or provide additional information about the collateral put up by Trump within 10 days.
She seems to be taking all this rather personally.
McArdle is a piece of shit and her one sided history is still white washed. What’s the pre-1948 Jewish populations of various Arab countries? What’s the historic Christian population of Lebanon and others? Yeah, get back to me about ethnic and religious cleansing.
Happy birthday Riven! I got here late, but it’s better than posting at 10:58 CST like I normally do!
Rip Mandissa.
https://youtu.be/eB0RS_Ai1gQ
Saving America from the Robber Barons
This week’s victory at Volkswagen makes history as the UAW’s first successful organizing campaign at a foreign car company in the South. After the election at Volkswagen, the UAW is pressing deeper into the South next month for another unionization vote at Mercedes-Benz’s factory in Alabama.
Conquering the South is just a warm-up for the big event for the UAW: Organizing Tesla.
Tesla has never held a union vote at any of its US facilities. The electric car company has long been an organizing target for the UAW, but aggressive anti-union culture and rhetoric from CEO Elon Musk have stymied efforts up until now.
The UAW’s previous push at Tesla fizzled out by 2019 as a federal criminal investigation stole union leaders’ attention, sent two previous UAW presidents to prison, and dented the public’s trust in the union. The UAW has since undergone a government-led reform and Fain became the union’s first democratically elected president in March 2023.
With the government as a not-so-silent partner, how can they lose?
Jeezus H. As if the 1099’s for eBay sellers wasn’t bad enough. Hold my beer
https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/shared/BOI_Small_Compliance_Guide.v1.1-FINAL.pdf
Huh, I thought OMWC didn’t like McCoy Tyner?
I successfully logged into an email account I haven’t used in 14 years. Yay me. In retrospect, I should have turned off the lights, put on a hoodie, typed really fast, and said “I’m in” when it was finished.
In other news:
***
ACatholic bishop in Michigan weighed in on the discrepancy between President Biden’s policies and his professed Catholic faith earlier this month, suggesting “forgiveness” for the president’s “stupidity.”
Bishop Robert Gruss of the Diocese of Saginaw mentioned Biden during “Forgiveness as the Heart of Christianity,” a lecture given on Apr. 5 at the Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption.
…
“I don’t have any anger towards the president. I feel sorry for him. I’m not angry at him, he’s just stupid,” Gruss said.
The comment provoked renewed laughter from the audience, though the bishop remained serious.
“It’s not stupidity in the derogatory way, it’s stupidity in the sense of […] he doesn’t understand the Catholic faith.”
***
link
You need a partner for peak hacking, it is known.
I’d like a budget reset back to 2000 with adjustments for inflation and population growth
fedgov budget in 2000: $2.03 trillion
US population in 2000: 284 million
per capita fedgov spending: $7,147
adjusting for inflation, we $12,963 per capita
US population 2024 = 341 million
After adjustments, the fedgov budget should be: $4.4 trillion
That was about the revenue in 2023. Interesting. However, the budget that year was 6.1 trillion, and spending this year will exceed that.
So spending should be cut by $1.7 trillion or a 28% across the board budget cut.
[removes green accountant eye shade]
“‘Crazy plane lady’ Tiffany Gomas teases new X fans with her views on transgender athletes after setting internet ablaze with bikini beer pic”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13330421/Tiffany-Gomas-X-transgender-athletes.html
Way better looking than some of the women in that stupid calendar.
The Johnson/Weld fiasco completely turned me off the Libertarian Party for good. I changed my voter reg to independent after that. It wasn’t the Aleppo thing, it was the endorsement of Hillary right before the election that did it. Also, a political party that has been in existence a long as I have and has not managed to get a single fucking person elected to a House seat is not there to do anything but raise funds. The small “l” libertarians are best suited in the Team Elephant party for now, with overtures towards the Donkeys to try and move their Overton window away from leftist insanity. Any small incremental gains are better than an active rush away from Liberty,
I recently registered for team red in Flory Duh.
Come to the dark side…
Choose the greater of two evils…
We have snacks…
♫ Flory, Flory, hallelu-duh, the derp goes marching on…
The Mises Caucus seemed a major improvement. Until Dave Smith went too far on the whole Gaza thing. Is Israel perfect? No. All countries are assholes. Almost all borders are the result of conflict.