Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

This really is a full service blog.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Let me file that under fuck it.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

This fight is for everything.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Wednesday Night Open Thread

Wednesday Night Open Thread

by | 211 Comments

This post is in: 

Just an absolutely gorgeous day today. Got a bit too much sun, even thought I was only outside from ten to one. Have to be more careful tomorrow.

I bought a piece of cod yesterday and thought I would cook it and it didn’t smell bad when I washed it, but as it cooked it really started to release an unpleasantly overbearing fishy odor and I just said “fuck that” and threw it out and took the garbage out to the bin. Better safe than sorry. Not to mention I’m too fat to die from something I ate, that’s just a cheap quip for my mate’s at the service, I wanna go out with something more legendary. And dignified.

***

These fucking wankers:

It was supposed to be a routine appearance, a visit from the commander in chief to rally the troops, boost morale and celebrate the Army’s 250th-birthday week, which culminates with a Washington, D.C., parade slated for Saturday.

Instead, what unfolded Tuesday at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, bore little resemblance to the customary visit from a president and defense secretary. There, President Donald Trump unleashed a speech laced with partisan invective, goading jeers from a crowd of soldiers positioned behind his podium — blurring the long-standing and sacrosanct line between the military and partisan politics.
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As Trump viciously attacked his perceived political foes, he whipped up boos from the gathered troops directed at California leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom — amid the president’s controversial move to deploy the National Guard and Marines against protesters in Los Angeles — as well as former President Joe Biden and the press. The soldiers roared with laughter and applauded Trump’s diatribe in a shocking and rare public display of troops taking part in naked political partisanship.

It’s obviously disgusting and tacky and low rent, but it is also low-key terrifying.

***

I was talking to Mistermix on the phone today because we are setting up the recording of a new podcast for the Personality Crisis podcast, and I was talking about all the birds making a racket because I was on the back porch in the shade. At any rate, apparently Mrs. Mistermix likes birds a deal and used the Cornell bird app, Merlin, because it can do an ok job identifying birds by sound. So I immediately downloaded it and in ten minutes of recording from my back porch around 4:45 pm, the following birds were heard:

Cedar Waxwing
Chimney Swift
Song Sparrow
American Robin
House Finch
House Sparrow
Downy Woodpecker
Red-Winged Blackbird
European Starling
Mourning Dove
Carolina Wren
Norhtern House Wren
Northern Mocking Bird
Tufted Titmouse
Red-shouldered hawk
Northern Cardinal
American Goldfinch

That’s a lot. I am gonna go out around 7:30 and see what shows up.

***

Brian Wilson died tonight at the age of 82. Regardless your opinion about the Beach Boys in general, and some of it I love and some of it I feel I am just over that genre for this lifetime, but Pet Sounds is still simply amazing:

There are a lot of artists like that for me- I know everyone loved him, and I had a lot of fun singing his very singable songs while hammered and young, but I could go the rest of my life without ever hearing another Jimmy Buffet song. Not that I dislike it or even loathe it, because I don’t. Just because I am over it. Maybe it is too intrinsically tied to a period of my life I am not longer in touch with nor want to be, or am moving away from, whatever, I’m just over it.

It’s funny to me that all those years of the Dead and classic rock and Little Feat and Grunge and Funk, these days theone type of music that I am most drawn to is hip-hop. I am not sure the specific genre because I have nobody to ask and no peers and my lily white ass isn’t tight with the non-existent black community in WV, so all I have is what I reads on the intertrons and hear in interviews, but I guess I am drawn to alternative hip/hop, neo-soul, with jazz funk infusion. Or something. I like the bigness of the sound on their albums, meaning everything is just right and each sample or whatever is at exactly the right place. Stuff like Kendrick Lamar, Tyler the Creator, Doechii, Biggie, MBDTF, etc.

To me it’s the most experimental sounds and styles and genre blending, and the lyrics are better than the sad stuff coming out of rock and country. Their stories sound real and lived and not just made up shit. Like Tyler the Creator, openly talking about his struggle with his sexuality while just making absolute fucking bangers that sound really good and really hit me in all the right places. Those bass drops and bodacious horns and thumping drums and every time it gets too intense he will throw a beat switch that makes you gasp.

At an rate, I am pretty sure I am the only bearded old man on a tractor in West Virginia rocking out to Igor. Weird where the road takes you

***

I finished Andor, and I can report that it was just the perfect series. There are so few perfect shows like Andor, and it had such a heavy lift given we all know lore, and it just fucking nailed it. I felt that way after watching Chernobyl. Just the pleasure of the story and the magnificent pageantry of that set design and special effects, all those brilliant performances and perfect musical score. Just knowing that you have watched something really special. It’s always a letdown after a show like that, trying to find a new series.

I’ve settled on the Acolyte, which is by no means Andor, and it isn’t trying to be and that is ok. It’s just a fun little show doing what it does in a time of Star Wars lore and canon that they can’t do any damage and can in fact fill in and reinforce other canon. So that is what I am off to do.

After I listen to the birds.

Reader Interactions

211Comments

  1. 1.

    Danielx

    Well, you did say not to have Migos turned up if you get pulled over by the cops….

  2. 2.

    lamh47

    Hi BJ!  Update on my mom and her knee replacement surgery.  Mom’s surgery went well. She in recovery now and she’s awake but nauseous! Thx you all for the prayers and good thoughts!

    I was watching my phone all day. This is also the week we lost my sister 2 years ago after she had major surgery as well! So I was stressed!

    My sister actually died on my mom’s birthday! Which is Friday!

  3. 3.

    Elizabelle

    Great post, John.  Good to see you blogging here more.

    I never hear that many birds.  Lucky you.

  4. 4.

    Danielx

    Although if you get a chance to see Tedeschi Trucks Band, don’t miss it. At some point something musically transcendent will happen.

    Going to see Goose tomorrow night.

  5. 5.

    Elizabelle

    More from that Military.com story John linked:

    For this story, Military.com reached out to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office as well as the Army and the 82nd Airborne Division directly with a series of questions that ranged from the optics of the event to social media posts showing the sale of Trump campaign merchandise on the base, to the apparent violation of Pentagon policies on political activity in uniform.

    Internal 82nd Airborne Division communications reviewed by Military.com reveal a tightly orchestrated effort to curate the optics of Trump’s recent visit, including handpicking soldiers for the audience based on political leanings and physical appearance. The troops ultimately selected to be behind Trump and visible to the cameras were almost exclusively male.

    One unit-level message bluntly said “no fat soldiers.”

    “If soldiers have political views that are in opposition to the current administration and they don’t want to be in the audience then they need to speak with their leadership and get swapped out,” another note to troops said.

    Service officials declined to comment when asked about the extent to which troops were screened, whether soldiers displaying partisan cheers on television — a violation of long-standing Pentagon rules — would be disciplined or if soldiers who objected to participating in the event, citing disagreements with the administration, would be disciplined or admonished in any way.

    “This has been a bad week for the Army for anyone who cares about us being a neutral institution,” one commander at Fort Bragg told Military.com on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. “This was shameful. I don’t expect anything to come out of it, but I hope maybe we can learn from it long term.”

  7. 7.

    HinTN

    I really still like early Buffett. The insightful, multi-layered lyrics and the simple instrumentation. The songwriting skills didn’t disappear but I never became a Parrot Head. Changes in Latitudes was about it for me.

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    You guys really need to read that whole Military.com article, and it has some great links.  No paywall.

    And the sheer tackiness of The Felon’s DOD’s behavior:

    Adding to the spectacle, a pop-up shop operated by 365 Campaign, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based retailer that sells pro-Trump and other conservative-coded memorabilia, was set up on-site with campaign-style merchandise on Army property. Soldiers were seen purchasing clothing and tchotchkes, including “Make America Great Again” chain necklaces to faux credit cards labeled “White Privilege Card: Trumps Everything.”

    Permitting the sale of overtly partisan merchandise on an Army base likely runs afoul of numerous Defense Department regulations aimed at preserving the military’s long-standing commitment to political neutrality. The Army has historically gone to great lengths to avoid even the appearance of partisanship.

    [DOD spokesweasel Sean] Parnell did not respond to follow-up questions about the sale of MAGA campaign gear directly to troops but Col. Mary Ricks, a spokesperson for Fort Bragg, said that “the vendor’s presence is under review to determine how it was permitted and to prevent similar occurrences in the future” in a statement provided after this story was first published.

  12. 12.

    Currants

    Oh YEAH! I love Merlin! It works everywhere (ie in Sweden for example).  And love those birds. I hear most of them here, except for the Cedar waxwings and the red shouldered hawk—I have the wrong habitat for them.

    Have a Baltimore Oriole in the neighborhood too.  Haven’t figured out where the nest is (a few years ago I had two on opposite sides of my yard), but one (or more) keep visiting the oranges I put out after I saw them raiding hummingbird feeder. What a brilliant bit of cheer in the morning!

  13. 13.

    martha

    @lamh47: Oh I’m so glad her surgery is finished. I know so many people who’ve had knee replacements recently and their outcomes have been excellent. So sending you and your mom good wishes and best of luck for her smooth recovery.

  14. 14.

    Elizabelle

    @zhena gogolia:  You should read the article.  It is comprehensive.

    Another tidbit:

    Trump is far from the first president to use the troops as a backdrop for a speech that had political notes. But experts say this speech crossed a line and showed the military’s ethics can be vulnerable.

    “What I think is so remarkable about Bragg is that it’s really a breakdown on the military side,” Risa Brooks, an expert of civil-military relations at Marquette University, told Military.com.

    “It shows it’s possible — that the military’s professional ethics could fail,” she said.

    In 2022, Biden received criticism for delivering a speech outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia that aimed to warn the public about the authoritarian impulses of then-former President Trump and his supporters.

    He was flanked by two Marines in dress uniform.

    Republicans and reporters immediately jumped on Biden, slamming him for politicizing the military.

    ….  Retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, best known for serving as the task force commander that coordinated military relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina, called the speech “inappropriate.”

    “I never witnessed that s..t like this in 37 years in uniform,” Honore wrote on social media Tuesday.

  15. 15.

    JoyceH

    @Elizabelle:

    [DOD spokesweasel Sean] Parnell did not respond to follow-up questions about the sale of MAGA campaign gear directly to troops but Col. Mary Ricks, a spokesperson for Fort Bragg, said that “the vendor’s presence is under review to determine how it was permitted and to prevent similar occurrences in the future” in a statement provided after this story was first published.

    Maybe that’s just the sort of thing that happens when you turn DOD over to a Fox ranter.

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    @lamh47:  Marvelous news about your mom’s knee surgery.  And may her recovery and physical therapy go well.

    I remember the shock of losing your sister.  Somehow it seems longer than two years ago, but it may still feel like a very few months to you.  All best wishes to you and your family.

  17. 17.

    Elizabelle

    The tweet from a CNN reporter decrying Bad, Bad Biden.

    Whatever you think of this speech the military is supposed to be apolitical. Positioning Marines in uniform behind President Biden for a political speech flies in the face of that. It’s wrong when Democrats do it. It’s wrong when Republicans do it.

    It was Brianna Keilar.  I was wondering if it would be Jake Tapper, and thus Military.com reporters Konstantin Toropin and Steve Beynon were serving up a chef’s kiss.

  18. 18.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    cole, if you’re down with animation, you should check out the filoni stuff. rebels is a surprisingly good show that bleeds into the mandalorian and an interesting counterpoint to andor.

  20. 20.

    Tom Levenson

    @Currants: not much going on where I am (on Cape Ann, north of Boston). Just an American ronin and a yellow warbler for now.

     

    ETA: a northern cardinal a gray catbird and a song sparrow just entered the chat!

  21. 21.

    Craig

    Really disliked The Acolyte. It just drove me crazy, why are Jedi always so dumb. I did really love The Bad Batch. Animated multi season animated show about a squad of rogue Clone Troopers. Starts slow and then gets really tight. Andor is the best there is. There are episodes that are just stunning.

  22. 22.

    Suzanne

    I saw a tweet that made me laugh.

    The thing about Gavin Newsom is that he really hates Republicans and I really like that.

    Some of these motherfuckers do not hate republicans enough ( ahem Bernie), and what will always endear me to a politician is being clear eyed about who the enemy is.

    Not saying he has my 2028 vote but it’s nice to have someone publicly visible on our side who is a real hater.

    LMAO. This actually really resonates with me. I don’t think much of Newsom…. but he does just visibly loathe these people and that is appealing.
    Not saying it’s a winning strategy by any means, but it feels nice. LOL.

  23. 23.

    Elizabelle

    The full Russel Honore tweet.  He did not mince words, and the reporters edited him.

    Damn @POTUS 

    Speech At #FortBragg was inappropriate, criticizing previous administration, and Generals while speaking to troops , I never witnessed that S..t like this in 37 years in Uniform .

  24. 24.

    lowtechcyclist

    Since this is an open thread, here’s a nerd joke that my wife shared with me:

    A Möbius strip walks into a bar, weeping uncontrollably.

    “What’s the matter?” asks the bartender.

    The Möbius strip sobs, “where do I begin?”

  25. 25.

    Suzanne

    @lamh47: Ooooh, so glad it went well for her!

    If she’s anything like SuzMom, she wants to go home right away. If you can, get her to chill in the hospital for a bit.

  26. 26.

    Ohio Mom

    @lamh47: Great News! Thanks for the update.

    Don’t think there’s any need for Mom to be nauseous though, there are drugs for that. Ask for them.

  28. 28.

    cmorenc

    @john cole:

    i cannot share your newfound liking of hip-hop.  I love the blues, especially the original raw delta blues, but to my ear, hip-hop is what you get when you strip all the musicality out of the blues and try to do the lyrics while on a potent dose of amphetamines and fill the lyrics with jive-talk.

  29. 29.

    TheOtherHank

    Somebody I follow on Bluesky (SK Winnicki) is a bird scientist at THE Ohio State. They started doing a thing where one lets Merlin record for 10 minutes and then post the results on Bluesky with the hashtag #TenMinMerlin. I’ve been doing it daily since mid-March. It’s pretty cool to see who the regulars are and who’s just passing through.

    My sister who is an avid birder has observed that Northern Mockingbirds definitely fuck with Merlin’s bird recognition.

  31. 31.

    Steve Holmes

    I do have on recommend on buying fish. If the fish you’re buying isn’t local, like cod in WV, or most Salmon in NC, buy it frozen.  If you get it at a grocery store they probably received it frozen and thawed it.  Ask the clerk if they still have it frozen and buy those filets, then thaw it yourself we your ready. I’ve given up on some things, like mussels, the bags are all dated and it takes a week or more before the show up at the grocery store or seafood shop case here in Durham, NC.  We have a couple of local French restaurants that have a more constant supply.

  32. 32.

    Jeffro

    agreed on ANDOR, Cole – I haven’t loved anything Star Wars this much since Rogue One, which was the only thing I loved since the original trilogy

    (all the prequels and post-quels and other dreck were a good object lesson for me, though: just because some entity wants to beat a story/”intellectual property” to death doesn’t mean I have to join in)

    ANDOR + Rogue One + Original Trilogy aaaaaaand we’re done!

  33. 33.

    patrick II

    I am not sure about posting this because I am not particularly refined in my musical tastes. If you like hip hop, you may want to sample some K-pop.  I don’t like much of K-pop, which lives down to its reputation of being manufactured music, but some bands, particularly BlackPink and their song Pink Venom is excellent.  Also, BlackPink’s member Jennie’s rap Like Jennie and her duet with Dochi “ExtraL”. xx

    Sorry to you purists.

  34. 34.

    zhena gogolia

    I keep fantasizing that he just disappears and takes all of them with him.

    Is that magical thinking? Whatever it is, it’s very persistent in my brain.

  36. 36.

    BarcaChicago

    Love that you’re using Merlin! Over the past couple years, I’ve gone completely middle-aged Bird Nerd with the help of that app and all of the Cornell University bird resources. I’m especially into identifying them by sound, adding more birds to my memorized list, and growing my understanding of what the many types of calls are communicating. It’s like a whole secret world right in front of us out there. I’m kind of obsessed…

  37. 37.

    MagdaInBlack

    @patrick II: Not a purist here. I don’t mind hip-hop, etc. I recognize all music isn’t for me. But it makes some folks happy and that’s what music is for, right?

    My generations music did not speak to my parents, either. It wasn’t supposed to.

  38. 38.

    raven

    My sis lives in Hawthorne and my brother and all my nieces went to Hawthorne High. The Beach Boys Monument is across the 405 from my sis’s crib.

  39. 39.

    Interesting Name Goes Here

    @Suzanne: It’s been so amusing watching people on BlueSky detonate their craniums trying to talk out of both sides of their mouth regarding Newsom.  Once again, the hero they got is not the hero they wanted.

  40. 40.

    mrmoshpotato

    I bought a piece of cod yesterday and thought I would cook it and it didn’t smell bad when I washed it, but as it cooked it really started to release an unpleasantly overbearing fishy odor and I just said “fuck that” and threw it out and took the garbage out to the bin.

    That’s a bummer.

  41. 41.

    Jeffro

    Back on politics: I was racking my brain a bit while driving around today, pondering the same two questions I’ve pondered for a decade now:

    One: what will it take to get people to wake up and realize that trumpov & Co are the opposite of everything that was/is/could be great about this country?

    Two: just how much medical assistance am I going to need the day after he croaks?

  42. 42.

    Interesting Name Goes Here

    @Jeffro:

    One: what will it take to get people to wake up and realize that trumpov & Co are the opposite of everything that was/is/could be great about this country?

    At this point, I fear whatever it’s going to take is going to be bloody and it’s going to have to happen to them directly, because they won’t listen to compassion or reason or even basic decency.

  43. 43.

    SteverinoCT

    Now that I work from home, and my deck is complete, I spend my commute time in the morning sitting out and drinking my coffee. The birds go through ten pounds of seed in about two days, but I can get by with three because most is spilled on the ground by the starlings digging for the mealworms. I hear this beautiful call; Cornell says it’s a Carolina Wren, but because is sparrow-sized and colored, it’s hard to pick out, and I was thrilled when I finally saw one: they have a white eyebrow. And now just to rub it in, the bastards abandon the feeder and roam the yard, getting within a few feet of the deck and once onto the rail right in front of me. I have mostly similar birds to you. Cornell has a Feeder Cam online that is cool to run on a side monitor while working.

  46. 46.

    UncleEbeneezer

    The notion that hip-hop/rap are somehow less musical than other genres is a racist framing that has been around since the early years and really needs to die.  White People said the same damn thing about Blues and Jazz and everything else Black People have created too.  I can’t stand traditional Irish music.  But I would never say it was less musical than other genres, it’s just not my thing.

  49. 49.

    MagdaInBlack

    @patrick II: K-pop? I have listened some on YouTube, and since my coworkers are young women who could be my granddaughters, I get educated there too. I see the appeal, just not something that I’m likely to pick out to listen to.

    I can find something I like in almost any musical genre. Except death metal.

  50. 50.

    Trollhattan

    Know what’s creepy as fuck? The ice cream truck comes down your street playing the overture from Swan Lake. Big Lon Cheney vibes.

    “I bid you, velcome.”

  51. 51.

    satby

    I saved a fledgling that was in the street today. He was trying to flutter back over the curb of the median, but it was too high, I assume he was in a nest in one of the trees. I pulled a U turn, pulled over, and at first thought one of the cars behind me had nailed him, but he wasn’t hurt, just frightened. Mom and dad birds were dive bombing me as I picked him up and carried him over to a yard with bushes. Pretty sure he was a grackle, which isn’t my favorite bird by a long shot, but he was safe and his parents can feed him.

  53. 53.

    Bill Arnold

    I’ve been playing with Merlin for the past month.
    When a bird is re-heard, that bird name in the list is re-highlighed in beige.
    One major thing learned is that my iPhone’s microphone is better than my ears. Sigh.
    Also, have learned a bunch of bird songs/contact calls.

  54. 54.

    NaijaGal

    @lamh47: ​
     
    Glad to hear that it went well! Hope she’s getting physical therapy – had a friend who went through a knee replacement and thought the physical therapy was worse than the surgery but definitely worth it for regaining full range of motion (flexion).

  57. 57.

    Steve in the ATL

    Their stories sound real and lived and not just made up shit.
    …
    while just making absolute fucking bangers

    That was how I felt about NWA when I first heard Str8 Outta Compton. At my private, 96% white college named after a confederate general.

    The stories were raw and real, and the music kicked ass too. Of course that only lasted as long as Ice Cube was writing the rhymes; no one else in the group had much skill at it. Of course very few people can write as well as Cube. Maybe Betty Cracker!

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    @chemiclord:  No, this was toned down.  It is hardly the opposite.

    I realize you are snarking, but this article was way more hard hitting than you’d get from the Vichy Times or Bezos Post.

  59. 59.

    ema

    I recently filmed a joint naval forces (Navy, Marines, Coast Guard) reenlistment and promotions ceremony at Ground Zero. Every higher up administering the oath emphasized the oath was to the *Constitution*, not a person, party, etc. So, what happened at Fort Bragg does not make any sense to me.

    Do these soldiers and their commanders not have any pride or professionalism? It is one thing to follow a legal order and attend an official visit and stand at attention. It is a complete breakdown to act the way it is reported that they did. How is it so easy to unravel order and discipline, and throw away all the training? I don’t understand that.

  60. 60.

    tobie

    @Elizabelle: I know I don’t need to remind BJers of Republican hypocrisy but I am still stunned that Republicans cried that Biden was politicizing the miliary when he delivered a speech on democracy at Constitution Hall, where two marine honor guards were posted, and they just shrug when Trump uses the military for deeply partisan purposes.The MSM joined the chorus in condemning Biden for the setting, thus obscuring the content of his speech. Democracy cannot survive with a media so cowed by, or devoted to, one party.

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/04/politics/home-front-biden-marines-philadelphia-speech-reaction

  61. 61.

    TheOtherHank

    My favorite Merlin mis-call lately was a Northern Parula. According to Cornell’s range map for the bird they have a hard-stop western boundary about where the great plains start. I live about 10 miles south of San Francisco. I’m pretty sure Merlin got that one wrong by a couple thousand miles.

  62. 62.

    JoyceH

    Ha! Rand Paul and his family have been disinvited from the White House picnic. Every member of the House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, are invited, but not Rand Paul. He’s speaking publicly about “immaturity” and “petty vindictiveness”. What a bone headed move in the part of the White House.

  64. 64.

    BretH

    if anyone wants to take birding into another dimension I highly recommend checking out the work of Jon Young and Dan Gardoqui. They are experts in bird language – not necessarily identifying birds by their song (although they are completely fluent in that) but more in identifying what the birds are saying to us, if we’re really tuned in. They can say with confidence that a snake is trying to rob a nest, or that a coyote is running through a thicket just by hearing how the birds are calling. Jon Young has written a book about this called What the Robin Knows.

    Some YouTube links:

    Dan Gardoqui

    Jon Young

  68. 68.

    satby

    Former ABC reporter Terry Moran is now on Substack. His first post is titled “Independence Day” Go give him a like or a follow, and show there’s an audience that’s fed up with media that penalizes the truth.

  70. 70.

    TheOtherHank

    I think most of us are old enough to remember when Body Count’s album Cop Killer came out and the absolute freakout about it. All the pearl clutching about it kept calling “Gangsta Rap” and bemoaning the state of the nation.

    I didn’t hear any of their music until the around 2003 or 4. It’s really good, but it’s not Rap, it’s amazing guitar-based rock.

  73. 73.

    Craig

    @UncleEbeneezer: for real. If someone can’t hear the musicality in hip hop production I’m sorry for them. Hell, the early stuff is sampled straight from old blues and funk records, blending it into a collage style that created whole new shapes and sounds. Hank Shocklee and The Bomb Squad changed a whole chunk of hip hop with Public Enemy. People have been writing dissertations at MIT Media Lab and NYU for decades. Not your thing? Sure. Not Musical? Get outta here.

  76. 76.

    Craig

    @patrick II: I got introduced to Black Pink at work. Loved them immediately. I initially noticed them from having a similar name to Pinkish Black, a darkwave synth duo.

  77. 77.

    zhena gogolia

    Something’s different this time. People are calling me up and e-mailing me and asking where the protest is. And I don’t even go to protests normally!

  80. 80.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Put together my sign for Saturday—the California state flag reimagined as a version of the Gadsden Flag.

    Don’t tread on us. Don’t bait the bear.

    So Florida’s AG wants to send THEIR state guard to OUR state over our governor’s objections….
    Don’t bait the bear.

    1/

    [image or embed]

    — Sister Golden Bear (@sistergoldenbear.bsky.social) June 11, 2025 at 6:16 P

    I was inspired by a meme I saw online (not my illustration of the grizzly), but tweaked the original to match our flag. Would’ve loved to have added a snake wearing a MAGA hat, but don’t have the drawing skills to do so.

  84. 84.

    Grover Gardner

    Fish.  The bane of my existence.  I LOVE fresh seafood but what you get in the stores is mostly just vile.  Fresh fish does not SMELL!  I bought some packaged rockfish two nights ago but I kept the receipt, and sure enough, when I got home and opened it, the most disgusting smell emerged.  Back it went.  Drove to a gourmet food store and bought some there, “fresh off the ice!” the guy said, but even that was a tad smelly but acceptable.

    For twenty-plus years I narrated the Inspector Montalbano series set in Sicily.  Montalbano heads to his favorite trattoria every day for lunch and orders mullet or sardines fresh off the boat.  In one episode he’s coerced into attending a wedding where fish is served as the main course.  As soon as the plate is set down in front of him, he’s disgusted by the rotting odor and pushes the food away.

    I’ve taken to buying flash-frozen slabs of salmon and cod, even though it’s often much more than we need, simply because it doesn’t stink.

    What I don’t understand is that we’re 2 hours from the coast but everything comes from China and spends weeks in transit.  Lest you think you’ll get fresh seafood on the Oregon coast, think again.  It’s the same two-week old thawed crap the stores sell.

  88. 88.

    Harrison Wesley

    Got message from the manager of my community supported agriculture program that she sent to all of us shareholders. Advised us that there would be no distribution tomorrow for the first time in 24 years. Seems the distribution center encountered ‘circumstances beyond its control.’  You don’t suppose the center and the local small farms it works with here in Florida could have encountered… labor problems?

  91. 91.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    I Have Become a low-key bird nerd over the years. My grandfather loved Birds and he had a little parakeet that he named Bird. I just downloaded that app so I’ll play around with it tomorrow. My neighborhood is ripe with morning doves, Cardinals, and blue jays. I see the occasional yellow finch. I wish I could see more Orioles in my area in Western New York but they rarely appear anywhere. I do like the common grackle also. They’re always messing around in my front yard.

  93. 93.

    Suzanne

    As for hip-hop….big fan. I was a 90s kid and so much of the hip-hop of that era is “the soundtrack”, of course. Tupac, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop.

  94. 94.

    Redshift

    @TheOtherHank:

    My sister who is an avid birder has observed that Northern Mockingbirds definitely fuck with Merlin’s bird recognition.

    Interesting. I was noticing the opposite just the other day – Merlin could tell it was a mockingbird even though I could recognize what bird it was imitating.

  96. 96.

    chemiclord

    @Baud: Thank God.  Now if progressives can keep their eyes on the fucking prize until the election, some good things might actually happen… at least for about a year before Mamdani makes the critical error of only increasing congestion pricing by 5%, and a necessary piece of his coalition walks away because anything less than 7% simply isn’t going to be enough.

  97. 97.

    Baud

    @chemiclord:

    He still has to actually win the primary and then the general before he can even think about being in a position to fail his supporters.

  98. 98.

    patrick II

    @Craig:

    I found them because I thought I would try K-pop and looked up the K-pop videos with the most views on YouTube.  It was BlackPink with 2.7 billion views, which blew my mind. They have seven songs with over a billion views, and each individual has a song with over 1 billion views. They headlined at Coachella a couple of years ago, were Time’s entertainer of the year in 2022, and received an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) from King Charles.

    They are very well known worldwide but are just now catching on in the U.S.

  99. 99.

    Craig

    @cmorenc: I didn’t agree with that in your case, you clearly said you just listen to the blues. But I would hope that 43 years after Arika Bambaata’s Planet Rock, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s The Message lit off a whole new genre that tells the same damn stories old bluesmen told, you might figure out that musicality is in the ear of the beholder. Hip Hop is The Blues drained of all musicality is an ignorant take.

  100. 100.

    Harrison Wesley

    Has anyone seen Mountainhead? I read a very brief review,and it sounds interesting.

  101. 101.

    kissel

    Merlin is my favorite app, I use it all the time. It does a great job identifying birds by sound, and also has a description section to identify them. Glad you are using it!

  104. 104.

    Redshift

    @zhena gogolia:

    Something’s different this time. People are calling me up and e-mailing me and asking where the protest is. And I don’t even go to protests normally!

    Awesome! I wonder if they have the same feeling I had earlier this year, and also back in 2017, where I really wanted, no, needed to do something.

  105. 105.

    NeenerNeener

    @Harrison Wesley: Yes. It will scare the crap out of you because it’s tech bro billionaires talking about their plans to take over the world because they own the software that’s embedded in all our military equipment and financial systems.

    Character “Venis” I think is supposed to be Musk, but instead of going to Mars he wants to move his consciousness onto computers. I don’t remember who was supposed to be Thiel, Yarvin or Zuckerberg.

  108. 108.

    Interesting Name Goes Here

    @Baud: Given the general behavior of that particular base, I’ll be generous and give it until the next debate before they bounce.

  109. 109.

    Redshift

    One of the things I love about Merlin is learning songs from common birds that I never knew were theirs because they never sing them when they’re out in the open. Robins especially, but cardinals also have a bunch of other songs besides the chip-chip-chip I always knew.

  111. 111.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Kayla Rudbek: It’s like being sued by Sauron and Sauron’s evil twin

    BTW, Disney and Universal going after one of the smaller AI companies is entirely intentional. It’s a consistent strategy they’ve used over the decades—go after a smaller player to get a court decision in their favor to establish precedent, then use that decision to go after bigger players.

  112. 112.

    RevRick

    @MagdaInBlack: The music of my parent’s’ generation has been almost completely memory-holed, as if it never existed. I remember listening to big band and crooners that my mom tuned into on the local am station as a child, but by the early 60s that music was basically banished from the airwaves, replaced by stations playing rock n roll. And then in college fm overwhelmed am.
    Classic rock is sustained by nostalgic Boomers, who seem constantly surprised that the rock stars of yore are now dropping like flies.

  113. 113.

    Interesting Name Goes Here

    @Sister Golden Bear: Perhaps, but said smaller company basically ignored a letter from Disney’s legal department and then introduced a bunch of new products to steal more IP.

    They basically stripped naked, covered themselves in chicken fat and grease, then stepped right up to a hungry crocodile and demanded oral sex.

    Consequences can be a mother.

  117. 117.

    coin operated

    I’ve downloaded the Merlin app for use when we get to the Oregon Coast this summer.

    Happy news. Mrs Coin and I went on our 1st date 10 years ago today. We met online and the last line of my profile read “Deal breaker…you must be comfortable on a motorcycle…your own or the back of mine!” First date was a ride on the bike and dinner (in that order. She was offered a choice and chose the bike first) and we’ve been riding together ever since.

  118. 118.

    Sister Golden Bear

    The largest trans survey ever confirms that trans healthcare saves lives. Period.

    1. The US Transgender Survey has finally been released, and the results are stunning.
    – <1% of people are less satisfied after HRT.
    – The most common reason for detransition, pausing transition, or stopping transition is transphobia.

    The latest from S. Baum.

    Subscribe to support our journalism.

    [image or embed]

    — Erin Reed (@erininthemorning.com) June 11, 2025 at 3:11 PM

    tl;dr

    Over 84,000 trans, nonbinary and gender nonconforming people aged 18 and up responded to the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey…

    …its findings reaffirmed what many academics, health care providers and trans people already know: gender-affirming care saves and improves lives, but transphobia often dissuades people from pursuing or continuing it when they need it most.

  119. 119.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Interesting Name Goes Here:

    Rule #1: NEVER fuck with The Mouse.

    Midjourney is so incredibly hosed. It’s like the Roadrunner cartoons when Wiley E. Coyote has run off the cliff and hanging in midair before realizing he’s about to fall thousands of feet. However, unlike Wiley E., Midjourney won’t be springing back. Disney doesn’t want damages, they want blood, and probably Midjourney’s utter annihilation.

  120. 120.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    @Jeffro:  how do you get past the part where they leave the droids back on yavin IV in rogue one bc fanservice

    andor is sublime.

    rogue one, not so much.

  122. 122.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Sister Golden Bear: The largest trans survey ever confirms that trans healthcare saves lives. Period.

    In other news, water is wet and Generalissimo Franco is still dead.

    [ I thought about saying just “duh.” ]

    P.S., I hope you know what I mean is ” how hard is this to understand???”

  124. 124.

    Craig

    @RevRick: my dad was a singer in a small Big Band, so I grew up on that stuff. He taught me about arranging by listening to Nelson Riddle’s great bands, so punchy. That led me to Bop, which was mind expanding while listening to recycled Classic Rock that I still love, Black Flag and The Birthday Party explosive Punk, then Metal and Hip Hop. But it all started musically for me listening to Big Band music with my dad and him taking me to see Fantasia when I was 10.

  129. 129.

    Marc

    @Harrison Wesley:  My wife and I tried watching it, we got about 20 minutes in before we turned it off.  We’ve both spent enough time with techbros that we have no desire to watch a movie about the jerks.

  131. 131.

    They Call Me Noni

    @kissel: I just downloaded the app this evening and spent about 30 minutes figuring it out.  I can’t wait to go out in the morning when they’re all waking up and greeting each other.  We are surrounded by woods.

  132. 132.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    @Baud: it’s not a question of being a fan of cuomo or not. let aside the fact that the man is vile and allowed the IDC to prevent the passage of any progressive legislation, he’d be as compromised as mayor cop is the minute he won gracie mansion.

  137. 137.

    Marc

    @Sister Golden Bear: BTW, Disney and Universal going after one of the smaller AI companies is entirely intentional.

    We have a ringside seat in our household, Disney is very worried about what AI is going to do to their business and is desperately trying to find a way to a) figure out how to generate content cheap. b) figure out how to generate content cheap (that really is their priority), and c) monetize the tens of thousands of hours of IP they have in-house.  Every indication is that they really have no idea how to deal with any of this.

  140. 140.

    StringOnAStick

    @HopefullyNotcassandra: My knee replacements were the hardest thing I’ve ever done medically and also the best thing.  If you’re is recent, just know that if you stay active and keep working, you will continue to improve your range of motion even 18 months later.  It was 2 years before I never ever thought about my knees anymore, but that was moire habit from just how painful the arthritis was before I did the surgeries, and I’m not going to lie, it’s a long hard recovery and PT process.  Stick to it. It gets better.

  141. 141.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    @Baud: keep in mind we have ranked choice. it’s how we got mayor cop in the first place.

  143. 143.

    RevRick

    Having grown up in close proximity to NYC, I don’t recall ever having a rancid piece of fish. No restaurant or supermarket would risk the reputational repercussions of trying to offer bad fish, because no customer would tolerate it. When we lived out near Pittsburgh, we only bought frozen fish, but then we were broke and couldn’t afford anything else.

  144. 144.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Craig: After the two hour meeting today about competent failure reporting is it even possible to make a drama about Silicon Valley?  “Oh, dear, my BOM has an incorrect part number” that will have them on the edge of their seats.

  145. 145.

    They Call Me Noni

    @kissel: I let it record for 10 minutes and got 18 different birds.  Last year I bought binoculars for my g-granddaughter (almost 4) and I think this app is really going to enhance our outdoor time.  We love watching all the birds, critters and bugs.  Once day we watched a spider building a web for half an hour.  She was just fascinated.

  147. 147.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: He is DSA. Many Jewish Ds don’t much like him. Plus all the notorious online BS was robbed type people are heavily promoting him. The only thing I know about him is that he is Mira Nair’s son.

  149. 149.

    Lyrebird

    @schrodingers_cat:

    @Baud:

    Cuomo is a loathsome individual, though not in Trump’s league for horribleness.

    I do not expect to be pals with top pols.  I  don’t need them to be cool or cute, and I might have reservations about Mamdani, but he has John Liu’s endorsement, and I like how Mamdani is proud of his immigrant background.

    my less than two cents’ worth from a bit outside the City.

  150. 150.

    RevRick

    @Craig: Since I developed tinnitus over a decade ago, I no longer appreciate listening to music with lyrics. Singing it, yeah, but that’s from the muscle memory of 70 some years of church music and having a hymnal with the words.

    I have reverted to my dad’s music tastes of classical music and MRSRev and I have a subscription to the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. Aside from occasional listening to stuff on the car radio, I can go for days without listening to music.

  153. 153.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: Best estimates are that there’s around 1.6 million trans people in the U.S. But your point stands.

    FWIW, we have internal documents from anti-trans groups back in the mid-2010s that after losing the fight over same-sex marriage equality they were explicitly targeting trans people because we’re such a small group. Their plan to use us as a stalking horse before going after LGBTQ+ rights in general—as they’re doing now and dialing up their efforts to up to overturn marriage equality and decriminalize gay sex.

  154. 154.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Interesting Name Goes Here:

    They be fucked.

    As was said of the Reavers in Firefly: “they’ll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing — and if we’re very, very lucky, they’ll do it in that order.” Except that the Reavers were warm and cuddly compared to Universal’s and Disney’s lawyers.

  155. 155.

    Melancholy Jaques

    When you finish Andor, you’ve got to go right to Rogue One. I kept going all the way to the end of A New Hope, but I only recommend that for people who really like Star Wars.

    When you watch A New Hope close in time to the more recent Star Wars shows or movies, you can see how cheesy that first one was.

  156. 156.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Sister Golden Bear: rooting for Disney grates on my nerves (I think back to Jack Valenti, the MPAA, Creative Commons, etc.).

    However in this case I will grit my teeth and hope for their success.

  158. 158.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Heh, if only Australia is so lucky, the US offering a way out of this absolute turd of a deal (for Australia, anyway):

    Pentagon launches review of Aukus nuclear submarine deal ​

    Ending the pact would be a blow to security alliance with Australia and UK

    Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington Published YESTERDAY Updated 02:29

    It was always puzzling to me why the Albanese government felt compelled to close this convoluted deal initiated by the previous Scott Morrison government, but we’ll see if he takes advantage of the escape hatch.

    It seems the Trump Administration (or maybe just Elbridge Colby) wants to leverage the AUKUS deal to coerce Australia to increase defense spending to 3.5% of GDP, &/or formally commit to using the nuclear attack submarines delivered as part of the AUKUS deal offensively against the PRC in any Sino-US war over Taiwan. I imagine both would be political non-starters for the Australian public, though the usual suspects (cough, ASPI, cough) are urging the Australian government to accede to US demands, lest Australia be abandoned by the US.

    Colby has always been a skeptic of the deal, he wants any SSNs produced by the US to go to the USN, where there will be no question of their availability in a Sino-US great power war scenario. He probably wouldn’t mind seeing the deal collapse.

  159. 159.

    frosty

    @lamh47: Ms F had double knee replacement surgery a few years ago and we are hiking in National Parks now, which we couldn’t do before. Like everyone says, DO THE PT! Other advice you might not hear, she should take a painkiller an hour before the PT session so she can do everything she’s asked to do.

    It’s life-changing, I’m glad she can get it done.

  160. 160.

    CapnMubbers

    @TheOtherHank:  Birds do wander out of their territory; birders post sightings on rare bird sites and flock to the location to view it/add to their life list. My sister photographed a Northen Parula at Cactus Springs outside Las Vegas NV on June 2, 2020.

  161. 161.

    WTFGhost

    @Suzanne: It is important to point out to folks that there isn’t a middle ground here. Either Democrats are evil destroyers of democracy, or, Republicans are for lying about them.

    “Either people in *your* children’s schools are demanding mixed sex athletics, or, the Republicans are lying to you.
    “Either Los Angeles is a city that barely escaped total destruction, or Republicans are lying to you.
    “Either dumping water on the wrong side of a mountain range, does, or doesn’t, help your firefighting ability. If water doesn’t flow uphill, Trump lied to you.
    “And let’s be honest – don’t you feel just a wee bit insulted that they tell you such stupid lies, and expect you to swallow them, and repeat them?”

  162. 162.

    TONYG

    “The soldiers roared with laughter and applauded Trump’s diatribe in a shocking and rare public display of troops taking part in naked political partisanship.”   Yes, that was repulsive.  Like all of my “thoughts” this is not an original one, but this kind of thing might be blowback from the decision, more than a half-century ago, to replace an army of mostly-draftees with an all-volunteer army.  This change in 1973, which occurred a few months after the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, personally benefitted my teenage self, but it might have had a toxic long-term effect on the U.S. military.   In an all-volunteer army, who are the volunteers?  Probably a higher percentage of fascist white-supremacists than had been the case in the mostly-draftee army.  Maybe a high percentage of Trump cult members in the contemporary armed forces.

  164. 164.

    prostratedragon

    Alleged Craig’s List DC ad for
    seat fillers and extras to provide their time for space maximization and attendance perception for an event taking place in Washington DC on June 14.

    Those engaged to be paid $1000 in crypto, by an entity called FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT LLC.

  166. 166.

    Jackie

    @Elizabelle:

    I am liking Pope Leo.  Am sure he and Pope Francis had a few conversations about The Felon.

    Do we know if the Pope’s Chicago address/speech will be covered live? I gather it’s happening simultaneously during the very un-American parade. I’d rather give Pope Leo media clicks if possible.

    Other than that, I’m spending the day studiously watching baseball and trying to celebrate MY birthday with my family. Not giving FFOTUS one second of my attention.

  167. 167.

    Ramona

    @Grover Gardner: Oh my God! I listen to you ALL THE TIME! Both Inspector Montalbano and the Andy the lawyer from Paterson NJ dog pun titled series. You are a wonderful narrator!

  168. 168.

    prostratedragon

    @TONYG:

    That does seem a concern. But with an event like this, selection biases could also be a factor, per the quotation [my emphasis] by Elizabelle@5 above:

    Internal 82nd Airborne Division communications reviewed by Military.com reveal a tightly orchestrated effort to curate the optics of Trump’s recent visit, including handpicking soldiers for the audience based on political leanings and physical appearance. The troops ultimately selected to be behind Trump and visible to the cameras were almost exclusively male.

  171. 171.

    Jackie

    This is all I could capture on this WSJ article. Does anyone have further info?

    President Trump on Wednesday hailed the result of the latest trade talks with China as a great victory, but the best we can say is that it’s a truce that tilts in China’s direction.
    Details are few, but the countries appear to be resetting their trade relationship to where it was a few months ago before a tit-for-tat escalation.

    https://www.wsj.com/opinion/china-trade-talks-donald-trump-tariffs-f730f437?reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

  172. 172.

    Elizabelle

    @TONYG:  It’s also “other people’s kids” fighting for the US of A.  Not the shared sacrifice the draft brought.

  173. 173.

    PatD

    It would be an embarrassment if Cuomo were to win the mayoral election given his moral, ethical, and political failings. Expect the NY media to go all in helping the Cuomo campaign by going after Mamdani. The same people that pushed Adams are now behind Cuomo.

  174. 174.

    Elizabelle

    @Jackie:  Try archive.today.  (Shows up as archive.ph)

    Copy the WSJ URL into the space provided at the bottom of archive’s site, and it will pull up a saved image (if one exists, and given the topic, it probably does).

    I shall try it now.

    ETA:  No saved image yet, but someone will save it soon.  Try back in a few hours.

  175. 175.

    YY_Sima Qian

    I do have to respect the PRC’s diplomatic game, since it got through the “Wolf Warrior” phase:

    Development Reimagined™ @DevReimagined

    Massive news today from Beijing: China just announced zero-tariff treatment for all African countries with diplomatic ties. This is not just symbolic. It’s a structural shift in Africa–China trade relations. Let’s unpack why it matters and how we got here.

    For years, Africa’s trade with China has faced a bottleneck: tariff preferences were limited to LDCs. This excluded over 20 African countries, many with competitive exports, creating distortions in Africa’s largest trade partnership. And China isn’t alone, most partners like the EU and BRICS also focus on LDCs. The US includes some MICs via AGOA, but even that is applied selectively, often as both carrot and stick.

    At DR, we’ve consistently flagged this in our research. Our 2021 analysis showed that expanding tariff access to all African countries under AfCFTA could reshape the continent’s export dynamics. Infographic: Is China’s new 100% duty-free trade pledge for African LDCs a big deal?

    In 2023, we published a detailed review of trade facilitation under FOCAC. Our position? Equal access to China’s market is not charity, it’s necessary for mutual economic transformation. Policy Brief: FOCAC 8 At 1 – What Has Changed in Africa-China Trade so far?

    We also convened dialogues with African Union representatives, Chinese officials, and trade economists. Key message: African experiences with AGOA, EPA, and BRICS must inform China’s own preferential trade frameworks. Event: Dialogue on Boosting & Diversifying Africa’s Exports to China

    This isn’t just about tariffs. It’s about correcting power asymmetries in global trade policy. Our comparative analysis of G7 vs BRICS agricultural alliances made it clear: African agency + more balanced, win-win trade terms equals stronger development outcomes. https://developmentreimagined.com/comparing-africas-agricultural-trade-alliances-brics-vs-g7/

    And let’s not forget the AU’s G20 seat, a platform we highlighted in 2023 as critical for rebalancing trade norms, including with China.

    Today’s announcement validates years of quiet policy work by African negotiators, the African Union and analysts across the continent. Now the real work begins: implementation, awareness for African exporters, and tracking utilization rates.

    Its however worth noting that tariff elimination alone isn’t enough, exporters still face barriers like language, logistics, and e-commerce costs. That’s why we created Africa Reimagined, a dedicated DR workstream supporting African brands to thrive in China.

  177. 177.

    Marc

    @They Call Me Noni:  I started using Merlin during the pandemic, when I’d sit out in front of the house with nowhere to go.  I’ve always been a bird lover (and eventually a pilot), but suddenly I could identify the random little birds that were all over my front yard.

    In late bird news, it turns out the bald eagle I saw a few weeks back was one of a pair that nested a block away from my house, in a tree in the middle of freakin’ Oakland.  The one thing I’ve noticed is that the crows have learned to leave them alone.

  178. 178.

    Jacel

    @Trollhattan: I remember in 1970, while staying at an Osaka, Japan youth hostel with my high school orchestra, the facility had a shoe horn in the form of a golf club. When the handle was pulled out for use, a music box in the head played that creepy Swan Lake theme. Since shoes weren’t to be worn inside the hostel, that shoe horn was in nearly constant use through the day by people arriving and leaving. The hostel staff must have been proud of that musical golf club shoe horn, because the music box was constantly wound up, ready to play.

  181. 181.

    PJ

    Brian was one of the greatest composers of the 20th Century, and he created some of the most beautiful music of all time.  RIP.

  184. 184.

    Jackie

    This made me laugh!

    Politico surveyed 50 GOP lawmakers and only seven said they planned to attend President Trump’s military parade in Washington, D.C., this weekend.

    Hair washing, manicures… family priorities. SEVEN??? Does this number encompass both Houses?  LOL!!

  186. 186.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Jackie: Here is a WSJ article that summarizes the terms of the “handshake deal”, of which there is no text (gift link below):

    China Puts Six-Month Limit on Its Ease of Rare-Earth Export Licenses
    Tentative deal reached in London gives Beijing leverage in trade talks
    By Lingling Wei, Brian Schwartz and Gavin Bade

    Updated June 11, 2025 at 5:10 pm ET
    Key Points

    • China limits easing of rare-earth export licenses for U.S. manufacturers to six months.

    • The U.S. will relax restrictions on sales to China of jet engines, related parts and ethane.

    • China agreed to approve rare-earth license applications for U.S. companies right away.
      …

    It seems the US suppliers of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools have also quietly resumed access to & support for Chinese customers. There may be other undisclosed “understandings”.

    Much like the 5/12 “deescalation” to reset to pre-“Liberation Day” wrt tariffs, this new “handshake deal” is an attempt to reset back to 5/12, before the escalation on export controls implemented by the Trump Administration. This is a pause to give the two sides the space to negotiate a larger deal, which is to buys both sides the time to de-risk from each other (semiconductors/aerospace engines for the PRC, a whole host of critical inputs for the US).

    The challenge for the US is that, for the past 2 decades the PRC has invested huge sums to develop domestic alternatives in every area of vulnerability (particularly to US restrictions), accelerated over the past 8 years as the tech. war continued to escalate, & indeed has made substantial progress in most fronts. The US has barely gotten started, despite all of the government warnings & think tank studies about PRC dependence across the past 4 administrations. The PRC is also just starting to play its major cards in terms of weaponizing supply chain interdependencies, & has been pursuing a strategy to keep the other countries dependent on PRC supply. The US, across the past 3 administrations, has already played out most of its cards in weaponizing supply chain independence, & has done everything possible to try to completely & permanently shut off PRC access to the every expanding set of export controlled tech (instead of leveraging such access for concessions), but w/ only mixed success.

  189. 189.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Jackie: I posted this comment yesterday:

    Justin Wolfers @JustinWolfers

    The US & Chinese trade negotiators have negotiated a handshake agreement to seek signoff to agree that a previously-agreed agreement is still their agreed upon agreement. (That agreement is not an agreement but a framework for seeking future agreements.)

  191. 191.

    Jay

    @Marc:

    We call them Flickers here.

    They are a key part of the ecosystem. The sap holes they drill in the bark in the spring are also used by migrating butterflies, humming birds, emerging from hibernation Bumblebees, and year round by ants.

    Their nest cavities, excavated in rotten logs, have a very long life, utilized by dozens of other species, from bats to owls, over decades.

  192. 192.

    Marc

    @Jay: Thanks!  All I see are these little black/white birds with red caps and bellies, carefully drilling lines of holes in the birch trees in our front yard.  I need to look more carefully.  We do, however, have hummingbirds (Anna’s) nesting every year, they seem happy to stick with the flowers.

  193. 193.

    prostratedragon

    Twenty-odd years ago, slouching toward DC:

    Here’s a video of Stephen Miller in high school screaming that he’s “sick and tired of being told to pick up my trash, when we have plenty of janitors who are paid to do it for us.”

    This is the sociopath shaping our immigration policy and so much more.

  194. 194.

    Marc

    @prostratedragon: Sometimes I get depressed about how I was never much able to figure out how to deal with other people from about 6th grade on.  Now, though, there are moments of relief as I realize that, no matter how much of a misanthrope I may have become, I’ll never be as fucked up as someone like Stephen Miller.

  198. 198.

    Jay

    @sab:

    Yes, and no.

    Woodpeckers drill though the bark into the cadmium layer, hunting insect larvae for food.

    Northern Flickers drill though the bark  for the sap flow like Quebecois sugar maple tappers.

  200. 200.

    Matt McIrvin

    @prostratedragon: I knew a lot of guys in college who were like him. They’d get drunk and trash the bathrooms in their own dorm because they thought it was funny to leave that mess for the cleaning staff.

  203. 203.

    lou

    @Grover Gardner: ​
     
    Re: Fish. My first visit to a tiny fishing village on Spain’s Costa del Sol was a revelation. I fell in love with fresh grilled anchovies and sardines and tiny clams. At the time I lived in Florida and then wondered, why don’t we ever have markets and small restaurants where you can get stuff right off the boat? You could in the Keys, but not South Florida.

  205. 205.

    Nancy

    @Baud:

    Thank you. I don’t support the hierarchy of the catholic church. I like it when a pope and bishop act like they’ve read the Sermon on the Mount.

  206. 206.

    Nancy

    @cmorenc: I think the jive part of your statement tipped the scales into a racist statement for me. Not speaking for others.

    I love Albert King and Delta Bluesmen too.

    I don’t like the sense that you were being jumped on in comments but free speech reigns here.

  207. 207.

    Nancy

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Thanks for your clarification. As a young kid, very long ago, I remember my father and uncle mocking a rock and roll song they saw/heard on Ed Sullivan and immediately deciding I had to like the song they mocked.

  208. 208.

    Ruckus

    @HinTN:

    So much has advanced in medicine in the lifetimes of many still here, like me for example, that it seems like a completely different concept than it was in our lifetimes. What is known, what can be done, medications that work in amazing ways, etc, etc. An example would be that I had a tremor starting when I was very young and not long ago, after 4 days of taking one medicine, my tremor was gone. And has remained gone. Just one way that medicine has changed dramatically in the lifetimes of old farts still breathing. Joint replacements that work well, operations that weren’t even dreamed about, medications that do things that even the designers of them didn’t know/think of. And a lot of people don’t even know about many of these advancements.

  209. 209.

    Ruckus

    @Interesting Name Goes Here:

    As a person that lives in CA, with Newsom as my governor, I have to say that he’s pretty good. In this day and age, with communications far better than what we had within my lifetime, such as what we are doing here. Many politicians are seemingly trying to satisfy everyone and as that is impossible, I have to say that he is pretty good leading a state with nearly 40 million people living here. We live in a far different world than it was in the lifetimes of many of us, like me for example. Take shitforbrains. (PLEASE!) I have zero concept of what republican leaders want, other than power. Do they want to go backasswards a couple centuries? Is it about money? Is it about pompous arrogance? All of the above? More? This world has changed more in the lifetime of old farts still alive than it did in many centuries prior. Most of us on this blog have never met and never will but we can discuss most anything, and that is a huge change in my lifetime. So much has changed in the lifetimes of those alive today, medicine, communications, electronics, vehicles, cell phones, I haven’t had a landline for over a couple decades now, does anyone else other than businesses? And if so, why? My car is nearly a decade old and it is still so much better than any car I’ve owned before it that it amazes me, and I manufactured production tools and finished metal products in machine shops for about 60 years. This world has changed more in the lifetimes of people alive today than in much of its entire prior history. And yes, we are still humans – at least most of us are. Do some think it was better decades/centuries ago? Seems like it. They are wrong. It is far better than in the lifetimes of many still here. Part of their problem is that it is noticeable when they push for power, and not in decades but in the moment. We as humans really need to work to live among millions/billions of other humans, without needing to be the top of a pile, the makeup of which I will leave to you. Because other than a massive war, we HAVE TO LEARN TO LIVE, in much larger/differing groups of humans. And a massive war now will gain no one anything positive, because there might/likely will be no one left standing. I wish I had some concept of understanding as to why some seem to need to be so pompous, arrogant and stupid. Maybe it’s just what they are.

  210. 210.

    dnfree

    @RevRick: When Sirius/XM was new, my dad was still alive and there was a Forties station on 4 (there is still one further up the dial now, but it comes and goes).  When I’d take my dad somewhere, I’d put that station on and he loved it.  I still play it when I’m in a nostalgic mood, because that’s the music of my childhood, on 78 RPM recordings.

  211. 211.

    Ruckus

    @RevRick:

    As an old fart I can say that I’ve seen/known my fair share of humans no longer with us. I was the youngest in my family, I’m now the oldest in the extended family – and at least one of them has passed. We were all born in SoCal and as far as I know there are only 2 of us living in CA any longer. I haven’t seen most of them in a few years, we just live that far apart, a lot of miles or states.

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