skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Felix Jumper
Girawolf Jumper
Canis Jumper
Random, mostly unrelated events, ranging from scientific brilliance to wretched squalor.
Search This Blog
Labels - You should use these!
About Me
- Jumper
- In the Infosphere, United States
- Artist, Director, Actor, Writer, Scientist. Once upon a time: Petroleum Exploration & Development, Forensic Parts Failure Analysis, Iron Making, Metal Heat Treating, Highway Department, Transformer Materials Research, Didgeridoo Player
Email the Author
Please email me if you like. String together girawolf, the at symbol, and append yahoo dot com.
The older posts are viewed by clicking on the older portions of the archives, below, and / or "older posts" at the bottom of each page.
The older posts are viewed by clicking on the older portions of the archives, below, and / or "older posts" at the bottom of each page.
Weather Links
I worked hard to round up these loops.
Lots of superior info fast.
Big U.S.
North Atlantic
Gulf of Mexico
Gulf Plus Carribbean
Pacific
Lots of superior info fast.
Big U.S.
North Atlantic
Gulf of Mexico
Gulf Plus Carribbean
Pacific
Politics
Open Source etc.
Amusements
Science, Computing, Etc.
Reality Carnival - Clifford Pickover's indispensible site
C-Net - Download.com
Science Daily
Pandora Internet Radio - you won't regret it.
Obscured Clarity
Ron's Primitive Skills
Arctic Economics
STOAT
C-Net - Download.com
Science Daily
Pandora Internet Radio - you won't regret it.
Obscured Clarity
Ron's Primitive Skills
Arctic Economics
STOAT
Felix Jumper
Girawolf Jumper
Canis Jumper
My dentist said he needed a hand like this...
3,526 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 2401 – 2600 of 3526 Newer› Newest»NP, On the Media re-ran it's interview of Carl when he retired. It includes the tributes from Obama and Colbert. It's ~16 minutes.
https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm
Just heard: Not only are babies under 1 year allowed on the senate floor during a floor vote, they also don't have to comply with the dress code. What a relief.
The Senate seems to have enough women members to avert mistreating Sen. Duckworth.
Looking at the politics, the Cook Political Report expects Republicans to have a decent chance of keeping both houses of Congress, though it's hard to tell how abortion, guns, and several other issues will play out. It increasingly looks as though Republican voters will view the Mueller investigation as a witch hunt, as per Hannity. Evangelicals seem to love Trump more than ever. But the Evangelical world seems to be shrinking faster than the Arctic sea ice. Until lately, they were the only segment of American christianity that seemed to be growing (I lack info on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). So there's a significant possibility of more Republican-everything at least through 2020, which likely as not ensures a conservative Supreme Court for decades to come.
Looking with some fascination at David Reich's "Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past." I'm sure it will be obsolete within ten years, just as earlier, sometimes heroic, attempts failed to reconstruct past human migrations from genetic information obtained from present-day humans. But this time around, most of what's known will likely remain part of an ever more complex picture of what our ancestors and near relatives did.
Indeed, Evangelical approval of Trump has steadily increased. Currently 75%; overall approval rating on the same poll is 42%, which isn't enough to ensure an easy time for a 2020 Democratic nominee, who will face the great Republican flying slime machine. Trump gets credit for being his own man, no matter how incompetent. I fear there'll be some foreign affairs/military disaster.
https://www.prri.org/spotlight/white-evangelical-support-for-donald-trump-at-all-time-high/
Joel's back. He's got an article on the Yellowstone SuperVolcano.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/04/20/the-yellowstone-supervolcano-is-a-disaster-waiting-to-happen/
He's been back for a bit, collaborated on the Stephen Hawking obituary and did a story on drinking among the young (it's declining).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/stephen-hawking-physicist-who-came-to-symbolize-the-power-of-the-human-mind-dies-at-76/2018/03/14/d4298e14-273a-11e8-874b-d517e912f125_story.html
Weird news of the day. The Trump administration has decided (against expert advice) that it's essential to keep coal and nuclear plants running to maintain electric power security. So Trump may use the Defense Production Act to order some to remain in use. It's the same law that enabled Truman to nationalize the steel industry. Source: Bloomberg.
I saw the Hawking one, but figured the by-line was because he did a refresh for one they had on hand.
Quite likely.
Joel's Yellowstone article mentions the Long Valley caldera in California.
Once we camped at Mammoth Lakes for a couple of days, and went wading at Hot Creek. The creek is very cold snow melt from Mammoth Mountain, but there are also periodic burps of hot water from the hot spring, and they swirl around together before mixing, so the water you’re standing in changes from hot to cold every few seconds. Meanwhile the ground is shaking, sounding like drumbeats. Quite an experience.
The other neat thing in that area is the obsidian scattered around a few of the volcanic sites a short distance north of there. You can understand how the Aztecs were able to use that as knives to cut out the hearts of the captured Spaniards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Creek_(Mono_County,_California)
I suspect the main thing for electric power security these days is to keep foreign hackers out of the systems. And other critical systems, too.
Reading about overcoming what is presented as racial bias at Starbucks. It seems the solution is to and treat everyone exactly the same. That's fine in one sense, but it also means ignoring who the customers are.
They were reported to the police 2 minutes after they arrived. That's disturbing. Unless they had real cause (stalking one of the baristas, etc.) that was gross racial profiling. It's not unusual. Walking while black, asking for directions while black. That's not right.
I do hope Starbucks has a clear policy on WHEN to call the police and when not to. 80% of people who are at Starbucks have phones, TBH. Let them call if trouble begins, right? They won't wait for the baristas to call if there's gunfire or such.
So that's that. Most stores are very reluctant to call the police in general because police cars outside are bad for business.
I've been fluctuating between news binges and deep rest. For the week before Michael Cohen was raided, the silence was almost unbearable, wasn't it. Especially with the relentless snow here. That winter never seemed to end (below average temps), but now we've finally in a thaw snap instead of snow snap. I've been walking the dog more now it's not icy or snowy.
Quite a few years ago, Long Valley caldera seemed at high risk for eruption, so there was a lot of monitoring and preparation to evacuate. It calmed down. I recall a case of fatal poisoning from volcanic gasses in the area.
Shasta, among others, has the potential for nastiness.
Since Michael Cohen was arrested, it's been nonstop news. I remain impressed that Trump retains a kind of personal magnetism that doesn't have much precedent in the US. The Economist's profile of Republicans under Trump this week seems pretty shrewd. It's about feelings, not policy, not really about getting much done. I increasingly admire Senator Doug Jones of Alabama for having run a positive campaign of promoting things his state needs, like education, and not carrying on about the self-evidently sorry excuse for a man that was his opponent. I wonder if he ever mentioned hookworms, which are making a comeback.
I expect North Korea and Iran to end badly. To judge from stories at Foreign Policy, Iranian leaders seem to think US forces in Syria and Iraq are stretched thin on the ground, and can be forced out. Not impressed by air power. The regional conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia is not looking good, nor is Trump's apparent determination to ditch the nuclear deal. I haven't watched Fox to see what Trump's expectations are of North Korea. He seems to be expecting to be treated like General MacArthur at Yokohama (my group stayed at MacArthur's hotel, or rather a vast new wing attached to the historic building).
I guess that in both cases, bombs will fall and Trump's followers will praise him for standing up to the nasty foreigners.
You're in an area that likely is highly pro-Trump. Have you heard anybody in the last 3 weeks support Trump-- offline and in person, that is?
I was in Japan two of the last three weeks with a group of mostly Japanese Americans from mostly Portland. We stayed at the (huge new wing) of the hotel where MacArthur had stayed for a few nights in Yokohama after the surrender and visited Okinawa and Nagasaki (a lovely city. The visit was mainly about the Dutch trading outpost of Deshima and a Pacific Northwesterner, one Raynald MacDonald, who had made a mission of becoming the first North American teacher of English in Japan, before westerners were allowed. His goofy but successful campaign enabled the government to have fluent translators on hand when the American "black ships" showed up at Yokohama. He and his best student at Deshima have an elegant little memorial.
Locally, I do not volunteer political opinions, though it's time to say nice things about Sen. Bill Nelson, an aging leftover from a period of civil, relatively enlightened Florida politicians. If this were a normal political year, he'd be crushed by a Republican. He got re-elected six years ago more or less by Republican failure.
I should be finding polite ways to mention that Trump is neglecting or actively rejecting actions necessary to prepare the US for the future, and is wasting time and resources by obsessing over non-problems.
I don't read Scarborough, but did today.
Gotta get and read Jo Nesbo's Macbeth, and get a print of Berenice Abbot 's WPA photo of my mother's Manhattan street from the NY Public Library.
A little light weekend reading:
If only some Americans had gotten these jobs, then posted pro-American comments instead!
"Troll farm takes aim at American audiences in new web campaign":
https://globalvoices.org/2018/04/21/troll-farm-takes-aim-at-american-audiences-in-new-web-campaign/?google_editors_picks=true
"Herbalife prepared a 'secret dossier' on Bill Ackman as it geared up for fight with activist":
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/20/herbalife-prepared-a-secret-dossier-on-bill-ackman.html?__source=google%7Ceditorspicks%7C&par=google&google_editors_picks=true
"[Ackman] saw Herbalife as a target that offered him the potential to reap rewards for his investors while appearing to be a crusader for the downtrodden." IOW, how dare a whistleblower and his allies benefit while unmasking a pyramid scheme? Owe, the humanity!™
Protests in Nicaragua are looking very serious, but an informal report indicates it's mostly in Managua, with things at the beaches being calm. Looks like time for Daniel Ortega to finally quit politics. Some 28 dead.
Has Hastings learned any sign language commands yet? "Deaf Dog Learns Sign Language, Other New Tricks":
https://patch.com/wisconsin/green-bay/deaf-dog-learns-sign-language-other-new-tricks?google_editors_picks=true
I don't know about canine sign language, but my dogs watch me carefully for indications about what I might have in mind, in addition to listening for what I say and how I say it. So they respond to pointing and some other gestures. Verbally, there are phrases/words they respond to, and other speech they ignore or only respond to the tone. This is not structured like the elephant and mahout sharing a language of twenty-odd words.
I read somewhere dogs use one part of the brain to interpret your words, and another to interpret the tone.
NRA had record fundraising post-Stoneman Douglas, $2.4 million in March. Contributions to gun control groups were insignificant by comparison.
Looks like Kalashnikovs will fairly soon be manufactured in Pompano Beach.
Sitting waiting on car service, the dealership had ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ playing on their speakers. The line “Watergate does not bother me.” struck me (not for the first time). It isn’t new that folks are blind to threats to Democracy when their team is doing the threatening.
We haven't had any posts for a couple of days. It would be interesting to correlate frequency of posts with events out in the world.
Jim, sometimes I just want to hide under the covers, or at least escape to the solace of my work.
BTW, I wondered whether you and Pacifica aware of the search for the Golden State serial killer. Sure hope they arrested the right suspect, although I don't know whether his identification via the DNA of blood relatives is now legal, or will result in his case being thrown out.
I had no awareness of the Golden State Killer, even back then (CA resident thru 1968 and 1979+). I don't watch TV news, so how would I find out and become worried?
An interesting dog story
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/28/opinion/sunday/the-most-unpopular-dog-in-germany.html
Jim, I heard of the Golden State serial killer here in the East when Patton Oswalt's wife died, and her labors researching the crimes (and working on a book on the topic) was discussed.
Hastings was following sign commands within hours of getting him, NP, at least "STAY!" He wanted to visit me while I was on le throne blanc. He learned what, a dozen commands in 4 days?
He even picked up on yes/no when I slipped and forgot he hadn't been trained like Wilbrodog yet; responded perfectly. It was a little creepy, I admit, but I suppose Wilbrodog trained me well on dog ASL.
Wilbrodog knew and could follow complete sentences in ASL after some tutoring.
I have a system for teaching prepositions using a hula hoop, teaching yes/no, Which commands, where, etc. Mainly invented in response to Wilbrodog's eagerness to learn and hula hoop fetish.
Some years ago, manatees trained lock keepers at Lake Okeechobee to open the gates so they could pass in and out of the lake.
I am always delighted to see how babies train their parents.
What seems a sensible take on North Korea. Short version: they are seeking economic growth, and they trust having nukes, not treaties. Bolton citing Libya as a fine example of denuclearization seems a major faux pas.
http://english.dailynk.com/english/read.php?num=15155&cataId=nk02500
I'll have to query my Freedom Caucus congressman those freshly drafted articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein.
May Day! May Day! OMFSM, the year's already 1/3 over, and I still have so much to do!
Anyone else suspect that the consistently leak-proof Mueller probe is NOT the source of the leaked questions he supposedly wants to ask Trump, but rather a frame-up by a Trump lawyer to try to tar Mueller falsely as a leaker (and, returning to Dave's musing, an effort to create pretext vs. Rod Rosenstein)?
BTW, NPR's Carrie Johnson reported this AM that if Trump is willing to come in voluntarily for question he can have an attorney with him. OTOH, if he refuses, he can still be subpoenaed, but not allowed to have a lawyer with him. The plot thickens...
Tony nominations are out. It's a pretty lackluster year. Mean Girls and Spongebob Squarepants tied with 12 nominations each. I'm Team Tina Fey since I saw Mean Girls during it's pre-Broadway run in DC and mrsjkt hates anything SBSP with a burning passion.
Bruce Springsteen is getting a Special Tony for his year-long Broadway one-man show which I have tickets to see in August.
The Best Actor in a Play category is a battle of the Spider-Men with Andrew Garfield of Angels in America up against Tom Hollander in Travesties.
The Times got the Mueller questions "from a person outside of Mr. Trump’s legal team." That leaves open the possibility that it was someone at Mueller's office. If so, bad.
Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke continues to me of long-ago Florida offbeat candidate "Walkin'" Lawton Chiles, who went on to a long and rather distinguished career as governor and senator. The guy's driving around in a van and doing town halls all over the place. The state's rapid growth and population profile suggest it should be a purple, if not blue state. But look at us in Florida. We're Southeast Oklahoma.
On the side, it's an Oregon thing, Beaverton x Portland: Nike's Hurley brand is hawking Pendleton blankets and matching surfy-related clothing.
I should have gotten tickets to Angels in America. Saw part 2 on video from London. Will be entering a basketball palace for the first time, ever, in Sept. for Paul Simon. Reasonably good seat.
There are two plays on Broadway right now playing in two parts, Angels In America and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Each half is a full-priced ticket but depending on the day of the week you usually have to buy the tickets in pairs. Both shows do both parts on Wednesdays and Saturdays with with a break between shows. On Thursdays they do Part One with Part Two on Friday. HPCC also does both parts on Sunday while AIA has just one matinee on Sunday, alternating weeks between Part One and Part Two.
Saw Paul Simon with Sting a few years ago and both were great.
In other Tony news, Glenda Jackson's nominated for her return to the stage in the revival of Albee's Three Tall Women. We saw her in DC many decades ago in Hedda Gabler, back before she entered politics. She's a force of nature.
Re "both parts on [the same day] with a break between shows":
I recall reading that at least *some* Wagner operas at Bayreuth are performed in sections throughout the day, with long meal breaks in between acts. Götterdämmerung seems a likely candidate for this treatment.* Does anyone here know the answer?
* IIRC, the Seattle production that aired several years ago on PBS took at least five hours, with only potty-break-length intermissions. It was so long that I was GLAD the deities were dying out!
My bad. Tom Hollander is not a Spider-Man. Tom Holland is. Very different actors, despite both being British.
I saw Paul Simon at Wolf Trap a couple of years ago. It was an excellent show and I'm very glad I went. It was a great venue to see him.
NP, the Bayreuth Festival Web site says that there is a one-hour intermission between the acts of most operas. That makes for a very long evening for Wagner's long operas, which is most of them.
https://www.bayreuther-festspiele.de/en/tickets-service/frequently-asked-questions/
Thanks for checking, PJ! How are you doing these days? Got another trip on the horizon? I'll be heading to Europe this fall, but there's nothing on my agenda until then.
Shakespeare is almost always performed with cuts to the text (especially long plays like Hamlet). Classic older symphonies get performed without the repeats that audiences expected back when. Operas get cut all the time. Wagner's been dead long enough that it should be time to bring out the scissors.
Drove to the ShipMonk warehouse to pick up a bunch of swim fins from a Brazilian entrepreneur. The facility was almost painfully hip, complete with a Weimaraner-colored pup.
My guess is nobody really knows where to begin to snip because Wagner's so plain long, it's a concert series. I suppose you could do the hit songs alone and scrap the opera.
PJ, hope retirement continues to treat you well.
Hamlet doesn't need a lot of cuts, just for time. "The Mousetrap" is the part usually pared, as well as the 2nd gravedigger scene and the extraneous political stuff about Fortinbras. But there are other ways to keep it time-efficient.
"We -- Baltimore Shakespeare Factory -- cut only 200 lines and did it in less than 2.5 hrs, and Still had time for a nice long fight scene. Just use the verse, keep the pick-ups tight, and use original performance conditions wherever possible, e.g., have entrances and lines start on the prev scene's end line without waiting for actors to clear, minimal set and therefore minimal set changes, and don't let anybody be self-indulgent."
"After previous posting, I went back and looked and I misinformed you somewhat. We did cut more like 600 lines, but on the other hand we ran in 2 hrs 10 min! So I wasn't far off in sum."
No excess strutting.
I think I agree that Trump's aggressive bluster has done well with the Republican base, so far. I guess next year's Republican members of Congress will be fewer but Trumpier. Now to see the setup for the great Middle East War. I wasn't exactly expecting the Saudi-Iran rivalry to turn into all-out conflict. There's speculation that Trump badly wants to put Korea on the back burner so Iran can be bombed, thoroughly.
Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is showing signs of possible major activity. It can be violent.
Dems held seat in special election in Florida May 1. May be hope yet.
I saw "Hamlet" when I was in high school. It was a production by Amherst College at the Folger Shakespeare Library. As I recall, it was over 4 hours long. I think that's Shakespeare's longest play and they didn't cut anything.
Speaking of things that take a long time... "World's longest nonstop flight: Airbus A350-900ULR set to enter service":
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/singapore-new-york-worlds-longest-nonstop-flight/index.html
Singapore to New York, nonstop. Almost 20 hours in the air...
Lemme see, Michael Cohen said he paid off Stormy Daniels $130K out of his own pocket. Now Rudy Giuliani says Trump reimbursed Cohen. Could this be an effort to create reasonable doubt?
At least Rudy's outlasted Da Mooch on Trump's staff (although still not long enough for milk purchased the day Rudy was hired to have spoiled yet).
Post has a story noting that Republicans are thriving in Florida. It's the white elderly vote. The Fox News demographic, for sure.
I am slightly nauseated by hearing Trump talking about God.
20 hours in the air would NOT appeal to me. I like flying but 14 hours is pushing it for me. I now prefer 5 hours or fewer.
I wonder if they have a track on the plane to prevent thrombosis.
When friends of ours flew back to their native India, they always took a break of a day or two in London before they started the second leg of the trip.
There hasn’t been a lot of trade war with China in the news recently. But I hear through an artist discussion group that many people are having trouble emailing their Chinese suppliers. It seems the Great Firewall is growing more impenetrable. Some suppliers are having to travel to Hong Kong to get communications to the US. Even for big companies, email and VPN are being shut off.
This seems like a significant change.
The Germans have a saying that goes "I am not concerned with my dumb blabbering of yesterday". That once was considered a joke.
Esp. for Dave, right now on NPR. "Surfers Head Inland To Compete On Machine-Made California Waves":
https://www.npr.org/2018/05/05/608622566/surfers-head-inland-to-compete-on-machine-made-california-waves (long summary online now, audio later)
Kelly Slater’s artificial wave is the best of several on the market. The California site, a made-over water ski lake, is the prototype and test site. Slater is from Cocoa Beach, which has a statue of him.
Today is the 100th anniversary of my Dad's birth. We held his funeral six years ago today. It makes for complex feelings - sad that he's gone but very happy that we had him for 94 years and honor those feelings on the same day. So I'll just say "Happy Birthday, Dad!" and leave it at that.
Hugs, pj. It's normal to feel lucky as well as to grieve at the same time, I think.
More hugs for pj. It's easy to say that you should focus on the many years you had your dad. In somewhat different circumstances I am trying to do that, too, but the loss you experienced weighs in heavily. Try your best.
Joel has written on a study that makes sense of bird migration. To a substantial extent, it analyzed the obvious. Northern regions have great seasonal bounties of food, great for eggs & chicks. Whales, sharks, and African savanna mammals migrate for similar reasons, and so do human nomads. Birds just have vastly better means of transportation.
Thanks Dave, that is delightful reading after months of Achenbach deprivation.
The fact checkers will be able to fill volumes with this speech. It is hard to listen to what even I easily can recognize as lies.
Adrian Higgins has a nice article about how to grow plants in containers:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/container-gardening-the-rules-to-know-and-the-rules-to-break/2018/05/07/07c20efe-4a31-11e8-9072-f6d4bc32f223_story.html?utm_term=.657b9a29e6f0
As Higgins notes, dark containers can get very hot in sunlight.
pj, what plants do you have in mind for container gardening?
On his very first day in office the new US ambassador to Germany decided to order German companies to end their business relationships with Iran immediately. The response was surprise and disbelief and one of his predecessors lectured him that this was not the way to go.
Migration-- transhumance-- is very common. Our distant ancestors did not settle year-around and moving can make use of more marginal habitat prone to drought or flood (or fire.) Hunter-gatherers probably grew and raised crops long before settled agriculture, just by replanting and enriching soil where they found good crops, and coming back only when the crops were ready.
Australian aborigines seem to have followed this pattern a bit more extreme, scattering plots across the land, to make use of a very dry land with limited water, and also allowing prey populations to replenish (they might not come back to a place annually, but every other year.) It's fascinating reading.
However birds need to stay in one place to lay, hatch, and raise offspring to fledging (altrical species especially.) so that means they need adequate resources close at hand for that period of time.
Birds are essential for many trees and plants to spread seed, and insect control (as well as being hosts for some lice and ticks.) They may have helped create rich habitat on their layovers (although water usually is a focus of these habitat), like humans created oases in the desert, as well. Marginal habitat can be enriched slowly (like arctic fox dens creating "fox gardens" through application of fertilizer, which helps to create habitat for prey, making hunting easier.) https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/160520-arctic-foxes-animals-science-alaska/
I would imagine that being able to vary habitat and move to less depopulated areas to raise young would also be useful for reducing disease, too, and give their offspring an advantage in surviving to maturity. Isolated and scattered territories help for that, too.
But birds often breed in colonies, too, more to avoid predators and take the risk of disease accordingly. That itself depends on access to superabundant food (and higher competition for the same, too.)
Common murres on the Oregon coast, trying to breed in huge colonies on offshore rocks, are being hazed by a few bald eagles, which are making for a very high failure rate.
Meanwhile, Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer, looks ruined, financially and otherwise.
Was listening to Terry Gross yesterday as she interviewed Eric Lipton (NYT) about Scott Pruitt's scandals. Eric enumerated a few more than I knew... the list is staggering. More than once EL said that Pruitt is a smart guy and he doesn't understand why he made such a basic error. Ummmm... ... Teacher, Teacher... ... 'cuz he's morally bankrupt?
Most of Pruitt's scandals have been of the waste, fraud, and abuse variety but the latest revelations of him going to a meeting brokered by public figure Hugh Hewitt walk right up to and cross actual quid pro quo corruption, trading EPA action for favorable coverage in the media.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/07/pruitt-california-cleanup-hewitt-meeting-521215
Oh, of course he's corrupt. Ruining the EPA is for profit, believe me. I just wish we could bung them all in jail tonight.
I always wonder about people like Hugh Hewitt. He appears to be intelligent but totally off the mark, like George Will. Where do these people get their attitudes? Are they purchased?
NP, my apartment faces north, so my balcony gets almost no sunlight. If I wanted to grow anything, I'd probably be limited to some herbs. What I would like to grow is some blueberries. I understand that one needs two different varieties growing close together so they can pollinate each other. (Is that right, Dave?) So that would be complicated. I should probably stick with rosemary or basil or things like that.
pj, you're correct re needing more than one variety for cross-pollination. Plus, bushes can get pretty big (late each winter, Mr. P prunes them back to ca. 5').
Do you get NO direct sun whatsoever on your balcony during summer, or only a few hours a day? If the latter, if you like Swiss chard, it fares pretty well in the heat, but needs some sun. Sweet basil is always useful in cooking, as is flat Italian parsley (which I prefer to the curly type). In late summer, leaf lettuces, spinach and arugula (rocket) seeds can be planted for fall salads. Packets of the aforementioned seeds are widely available in stores.
pj,
I am moving into an apartment too, but my balcony faces south and I intend to grow rosemary and parsley, the two things I need most for cooking. It'll be quite a different life without a garden.
gmbka, maybe you can find an apartment where rosemary is used as a ground cover. I used to get it outside the building where I worked.
Jim, that makes me smile. I live in PA. The only rosemary ground cover I've ever seen was in Corsica, where the winters are quite a bit milder.
My building was here in Southern California, climate like Corsica.
In DC rosemary has a shot of surviving the winter. I had two reasonable sized shrubs going after my first couple years in this house. But I haven't had a plant survive a winter since. A friend, who lives in suburban Austin, has major bushes of the stuff... but is allergic.
Mine was potted and usually survived indoors, shedding needles to no end. But it didn't like the neglect last year and died. Time to buy a new one.As to allergies, life is not just. I love the smell and the flavor of the plant and sometimes cannot keep it alive. Not fair.
Rosemary likes dry and sandy soil which is alkaline. Maybe that tip will help you keep it alive.
http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/2375/how-to-grow-rosemary
Thank you, HP.
I am taking off to Frankfurt tomorrow, then to different places and Jerusalem is among them. I expect to survive the latter. See you later.
Frankfurters to hummus. Happy wandering. Jerusalem has apparently become a lively city.
Bon voyage, gmbka. I'm picturing you sitting at a German café sipping your coffee or tea leisurely on a perfect Spring day, enjoying watching folks go by.
Yes, Dave, Jerusalem is a bit too lively for my taste and overall I'd be happier with less sensational news.
The EU decided to defy our tear-down-president's order of sanctions.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/11/europe-prepares-countermeasures-against-us-iran-sanctions
Bon voyage, gmbka!
Joel back on the froggy beat. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/05/17/some-endangered-frogs-may-be-jumping-back-from-extinction/?utm_term=.66b3ad14931d
Also doing the boozy walk.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/17/nih-halts-controversial-study-of-moderate-drinking/
The lava from Kilauea is moving quite fast and has now entered the ocean. There's been more area affected in the past few days than in the previous run of events for the current rift eruption.
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2018/05/20/midningt-eruption-update-lava-crosses-highway-132-enters-ocean/
If you are interested in issues that arise from how computer systems have become so intertwined with our lives (or how we have let them become...), this is always an interesting source, especially the latest edition:
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/30/69
Dafter & spouse returned from Kona region of Big Island Wednesday, the day of the big eruption. Their NW corner of the island was unaffected, although the sky was grey on the last day, and with the clouds, they didn't see the eruption from the plane while flying back. Wall to wall coverage on TV, though.
A friend of Sikh heritage got an analysis from Ancestrydna.com (b). It was different from an earlier 23andMe (a). (a) said Southern Asia 99%, (b) said 10% was from other places, which seemed to be the sources of the Southern Asia DNA, rather than that immediate ancestors were from those places. For example, 2% Melanesian might refer to one of the earliest migrations from Africa via the southern coast of Asia that ended up in Australia and Melanesia, and obviously left traces in India en route, rather than your ancestors sailed from Melanesia.
So that may give more detailed information, or misleading information, if you're interested.
Cruises have apparently begun cancelling stops at Hilo and Kona. Groups are cancelling at Kona. The tourism economy is suffering.
Right, why would you want to "waste a lot of time" for peace?
A ray of sunshine amid all the Trumpian gloom. "Julia Louis-Dreyfus to receive the 2018 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/julia-louis-dreyfus-to-receive-the-2018-mark-twain-prize-for-american-humor/2018/05/23/7e513232-5df7-11e8-b2b8-08a538d9dbd6_story.html
I guess Louis C.K. wasn't available.
You're so naughty, yello ;-) How's everything Chez Jkt nowadays? Is the arm all mended yet?
The arm is at 90% which is as good as it's going to get. Been back on the bicycle a few times but taking a year and a half off does not help with the conditioning.
On a personal note, we are going to NYC this weekend to see Jim Parsons and Zach Quinto in "Boys In The Band" and to check out the Georgia O'Keefe exhibit at the New York Botanical Gardens. I wonder if there will be any vaguely suggestive paintings of orchids.
Looking forward to your photos of the trip, yello.
Jim, have you posted photos yet of your latest journey?
SCC: DAVE. Sorry!
An overly large collection of photos from the early April tourist group trip to Japan. Almost everyone was from Portland, Seattle, or the Boise area, and of Japanese heritage. I've been traveling with various iterations of this group for years.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmhdYmHc
Thanks, Dave! Just starting, and am enchanted by the stone work in photos #6 and #7, as the rocks aren't all rectangular. Of course, I always look forward to your botanical pictures.
The most built-to-impress walls at the former Edo Castle are most impressive, very different from traditional castle walls, which featured large, often huge rocks usually separated by small ones. The new castle wall at Portland Japanese Garden is a perfect example. It was quite a project. https://flic.kr/s/aHsmi4tNJe
Dave, could you please check that URL? When I tried it, I received the message "Oops! Looks like you followed a bad link."
Our annual trek is somewhat different. HFGF & I annually visit DelFest in Cumberland on this weekend. It's Del McCoury's family festival... which is mostly, but not exclusively bluegrass & newgrass. Tomorrow looks to be the best of all 4 days with Del, Rhiannon Giddens (founder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops), the California Honeydrops, and the Infamous Stringdusters. After that we're hitting Falling Water and slowly working our way across the north of PA to a Louisiana themed festival next weekend in NW NJ. Music, Hiking, & Dancing...
Another try at the Portland Japanese Garden. I don't see any problems.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmi4tNJe
Dave: This?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/45621748@N05/
That's my full pile of photos. Flickr has some peculiarities about sharing that I have never figured out, and testing from my computer doesn't help.
It's old news that Morgan Freeman is skeevy, amiright yello? Here's a little Celebritology déjà vu:
"Morgan Freeman accused of affair with step-granddaughter..."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/celebritology/2009/06/speidi_returning_to_im_a_celeb.html
In the first comment, no less a light than Celebritologist extradordinaire Byoolin opined, "The creepiest thing about Morgan Freeman having an affair with his own step-granddaughter would have to be when she yells, 'Oh, grandpa!' during sex."
P.S. That happened to be a particularly "IckNast" day for celebrity news on Lizard Island. And quite a few of the regulars' comments still make me laugh, after all these years.
Timothy Egan's column at the New York Times: "Anyone who thought autocracy would arrive with back-room deals or sleight-of-hand machinations at midnight should think again. Trump crosses a new line every week, in plain sight. Democracy dies in sunlight."
On NPR Sunday Weekend Edition this AM (respective audios and transcripts online later today):
Especially for HF and HFGF, "Del McCoury On Bluegrass And Life On The Road":
https://www.npr.org/2018/05/27/614810144/del-mccoury-on-bluegrass-and-life-on-the-road
Bluegrass greats Del McCoury and Ronnie McCoury join NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro to talk about Del's new album, and life on the road with a band that's become like family.
Re Dave's quote of Tim Egan that "Democracy dies in sunlight":
https://www.npr.org/2018/05/27/614810154/mueller-investigation-latest
Robert Mueller doesn't speak publicly about his investigation and his office is fighting news outlets seeking information. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks.
Trump has mourned the bright, shining young lives ruined by the Mueller witch hunt.
Giuliani promises Mueller won't be fired.
We got an inch of rain during the night, lots of wind earlier this morning. Rain looks likely to resume shortly. Beach cam shows a few surfers at Sebastian Inlet (3-4 foot waves).
Further "Democracy dies in sunlight":
1. "President Trump on Saturday falsely accused the New York Times of using an unnamed source 'who doesn’t exist' in a story on negotiations between the United States and North Korea, but the official cited spoke to reporters Thursday in a briefing arranged by the White House." [my emphasis]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-falsely-accuses-the-new-york-times-of-making-up-a-source-it-was-an-official-who-briefed-reporters/2018/05/26/2d055a60-612c-11e8-8c93-8cf33c21da8d_story.html
2. Trump likes people who aren't captured, doesn't like people accused of being spies (even if they aren't spies), and doesn't like brown-skinned Latin Americans. And yet he just hosted the freed Mormon missionary and his Venezuelan wife in the Oval Office. What more is there to this story that we're not being told?
Ellicott City is suffering another catastrophic flash flood. Local rainfall amounts are unbelievable.
Thanks NP, it was a good festival. W lost part of yesterday and Saturday due to rain, lightning, & power outages. Del is always a delight. The grandson played last night for ‘Hotwired’. Another grandson, Vassar (named after Vassar Clements), always steels the show. He’s about 4 years old and plays a cello like a upright bass. Highlights: Rhiannon Giddens, California Honeydrops, Gibson Brothers, Richard Thompson, the Mandolin extravaganza, and Twisted Pine playing totally acoustic until the power came back.
Looks like the Supreme Court won't be interested in maintaining any right to abortion.
Perhaps soon the US might get applications for asylum from Irish citizens seeking abortion-free havens.
Especially for yello, "How Rodgers and Hammerstein Revolutionized Broadway" (re new book by Todd Purdum, yes, the political writer!):
https://www.npr.org/2018/05/28/614469172/how-rodgers-and-hammerstein-revolutionized-broadway
Has anyone heard from our host lately? What's cookin' Chez Jumper these days?
I saw Carousel for the first time on a trip that also included Janacek'sKáťa Kabanová. Carousel impressed me as the heavier-duty work, despite someone who was using a power tool during the performance.
Rogers and Hammerstein are the clear kings of the Golden Age of Broadway and what didn't get emphasized is that their major addition to the form is that the songs became integral to the plot in a way not true of earlier shows. Every song has to develop character or advance story.
I've never seen "Carousel" and mrsjkt doesn't care for it so I may never will. Recent reboots of R&H musicals have tended to go dark and gritty with the underlying themes to adapt to modern audiences. Oklahoma where the sexual assault is emphasized, etc.
On my own, I saw "Travesties" this weekend which is very scattershot with all sorts of Stoppardian diversions. One scene is all in limericks. There are two musical numbers and some bawdy humor about 'Ulysses'.
The production of Carousel was from the National Theatre, transferred to the West End. ft took advantage of the nice setting and bright colors, starting with a factory room full of women at sewing machines, quitting time, whee! But it had a very 20th century darkness. When, previously, would mere Billy have been the central figure?
(Sigh)
Sing, Michael, sing! "How Michael Cohen Protects Trump By Making Legal Threats":
https://www.npr.org/2018/05/31/615843930/listen-how-michael-cohen-protects-trump-by-making-legal-threats
...Once Trump was elected, Cohen found himself on the outside looking in, despite years of service.
"Nobody was screwed over more by Donald than Michael Cohen," Nunberg said. "Michael has been extremely loyal to Donald, was there from the very beginning. And Donald treated him like garbage."
Now, Cohen is at a crossroads. Does he flip and protect himself by discussing with prosecutors the private information he has from working with Trump for so many years — or does he remain silent?...
Hi, Joel is finally back on the politics beat with this story:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/giuliani-calls-it-unthinkable-that-trump-would-pardon-himself/2018/06/03/99b0a1ca-6748-11e8-bbc5-dc9f3634fa0a_story.html?utm_term=.7e166f4ce38d
He barely reported/not at all on the campaign, and his last political story was right after the election when he reported Trump was shutting out the intelligence agencies, and then BAM he virtually disappeared from reporting, doing only one story a month and being on the opiod newsbeat.
It's a shame because I think we could have used his straight reporting on Trump. I told him I still remember his cover of Fred Thompson and called it brilliant because it stripped any mystique from him and portrayed him as just a... guy, nobody special. Now let's see how his reporting goes.
This is with Ashley Parker, who DID cover the 2016 campaign.
"President Trump’s attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani publicly pressed Trump’s expansive view of executive power this weekend, arguing on two Sunday TV shows that the president probably has the sweeping constitutional authority to pardon even himself."
Oh, I love this. The kicker: Pressed on “This Week” about the shifting explanations, Giuliani said, “I mean, this is the reason you don’t let the president testify.”
Yes. We need this no-nonsense reporting.
Now we have Scott Pruitt allegedly using an EPA employee to see whether the Trump Hotel had a used Trump mattress for sale.
One of the viral photos of the week was of a "Trump van" with a Catholic-type portrait of the head of Jesus with crown of thorns next to a paean to "Trump: the man who gave up his great life to be mocked, ridiculed & humiliated to serve & protect America."
I'd think Trump hotels could do a thriving business selling their used mattresses to folks who want to reenact the (alleged) "golden shower" against him ;-)
Things I never knew I didn't know! "The Secret Language of Ships / Signs and symbols on the sides of ships tell stories about an industry few outsiders understand":
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/videos-visuals/the-secret-language-of-ships
The political season seems underway. I'm getting phone calls from around the country at an astounding rate. Not all of them can be for credit cards or mortgages. Unless I'm certain what a call is, it's unresponded to.
Reading Ramin Bahrai's May 10 NY Times essay on making a film version of Fahrenheit 451.
"After J. K. Rowling spoke out against Donald Trump on Twitter, people tweeted that they were planning to burn their Harry Potter books. So we followed suit. Famously banned books had to go: “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” “Lolita,” “Leaves of Grass” and “The Communist Manifesto.” While we were shooting the film, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a frequent target of censorship, was once again banned in some schools, so into the flames it went. For some authors, having a book burned in the film was a badge of honor. Werner Herzog and Hamid Dabashi generously donated their work to be burned alongside the best and the worst of literature."
A Trumpian stink bomb thrown at Philadelphia.
Look on the bright side, Dave: the Eagles just gave Trump the national bird.
David Von Drehle's "There will be no Trump collapse" strikes me as broadly correct.
By now, the economy's good, Trump's reasonably popular, he's separated himself from the less likable Congressional Republicans, made people afraid of Democrats, and pretty much inoculated himself against anything that might come from the Special Prosecutor who's ruined so many promising young lives.
Gun sales have boomed.
A trade war might be just the thing to show Trump loves American workers.
________________
In short, The New Yorker, the Post, Timothy Snyder, Timothy Egan, and a whole host of supposedly competent politicians haven't yet figured out how to deal with the bull in the china shop. Decency and care for the nation's good may eventually prevail, but for now the reality show goes on.
For the longer term, it's worth thinking of Austria-Hungary in 1914. Germany egged the empire into declaring war. Apparently no one in Vienna (or Budapest) realized the military was utterly neglected. It took less than a year for Russia to win. In 1939, Hitler demanded an attack on France. Never mind that the German military was nowhere near ready. The military threw together an unorthodox plan that depended on keeping the troops awake with lots of drugs. It was surprising enough to be a big success. (Norman Ohler's "Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich" gives a near-comic account).
Trump is likely to meet the same sort of fate. I can imagine the Trump clan in a hotel worthy of Wes Anderson.
BTW, my grandfather got gassed in service to the Empire.
Dave, it all depends on whether Trump's health and age allow him to survive and thrive long enough. Notwithstanding the dubiously glowing pronouncements of Drs. Harold Bornstein and Ronny Jackson, the guy is almost 72, obese with a poor diet,he eschews exercise, gets insufficient sleep, and is prone to rages. All of these factors seem like a stroke or heart attack in the making.
Jim, are there any particularly interesting outcomes in the California primary that you could note for us? BTW, did you vote in the California primary 50 years ago, which ended in tragedy?
I'm younger than Trump and wouldn't want to run anything. He's clearly into imposing his own notions of what to do, not into farming out work to other people, doesn't believe in experts, demands yes people (fawning ones, actually), spent a half hour or so screaming at his Homeland Security secretary, as if it'll be easy to find another.. At the moment, Giuliani is a brilliant success. A few weeks from now, he will merely have piled up headaches for the real lawyers.
A Post story on a photo of Confederate soldiers in Frederick, Maryland led me to wonder whether an ancestor could have been among them. Um, nope, he'd been captured by then. But the check led to Find a Grave, which has a nice picture of his grave and photos of him, and his second wife, both when quite elderly (she died at 99). Their son, my great-grandfather, lived 1866-1955. My grandfather, 1890-1979. Long turnover time.
BTW, the NY Times picked a book from Timber Press on peonies for summer reading. A co-author was a notably bright undergrad when I was a grad student.
And Hopkins has a new book on building Washington, from scratch. https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/building-washington
Just saw a cute duet with original lyrics on Stephen Colbert's show, about the Tonys, sung by Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban, which they'll be performing on the Tony Awards this Sunday. It's usually the best awards show on TV! (Evidently Springsteen will be one of the performers, as he's receiving a special Tony). An just hoping we have no emergencies, nor our electricity go out, nor the TV set decide to croak then...
The Post obtained audio of the 40 private minutes of a hurricane preparedness meeting where president Trump seemed to talk about all his old stuff and not about hurricanes. He still seems to have a tiny repertory of ideas, or at least ones he trots out when speaking to groups. At least at this meeting, the Home Security secretary had an opportunity to praise Mr. Trump, who apparently didn't scream at her in return.
Disney (Orlando) is adding 11 acres of Toy Story Land at the end of the month and 14 acres of Star Wars late fall 2019. The latter looks like quite the construction site in photos from the Orlando Sentinel. A Star Wars hotel is in the works.
NP, not much surprising in the Calif primary. The Republican governor candidate finished second, which might increase R turnout in Nov, although the Nov increase typically is more D than the primary. I'm not a fan of primaries, with many of the candidates apolitical individuals trying to claim the elephant or donkey badge, to make themselves look more substantial, like Trump or Swarzenegger. I'd rather have a Party (real card-carrying kind) come up with a platform and candidate list, then you know what you're voting for.
Thanks for the update, Jim.
BTW, were you there for the primary 50 years ago this week, which culminated in RFK's assassination? If only...
NP, 50 yrs ago I was living in New South Wales, Oz. A lot of madness happened in the decade I was away.
I accidentally backed into another car (despite all the sensors, which don't help much if you're not paying any attention and focused on the decision about where to go next). My car is new, so I have collision insurance; I'm getting info from InsCo about it. $518.67 for new blind spot sensor, only available from manufacturer, wouldn't have been on the sheet in the past. In fact, if I had done this with my long-ago 1980 VW, the bumper would have prevented any damage at all to my car for such a slow speed event, and I would have ignored the scratch on the steel bumper. These days, it's $3500 for this minor ding. All in the name of saving weight, and therefore fuel economy, I suppose. Is this why conservatives complain about gummint regulations? Do they have more minor accidents? :-)
A larger issue. Things like fuel economy standards lead to long-term changes in how cars are designed and manufactured. What is the impact of a brief (4-year) bull in the china shop?
Jim, I have seen suggestions from safety people that US passenger vehicles, the SUVs, cute-uses and pickups, tend to have poor driver visibility, meaning pedestrians and bicyclists are more likely to go unseen than in Europe, Japan, wherever.
Thinking of unseen, Charles Krauthammer's invisibility is now explained. I had thought he'd become somewhat unhinged, but he had a history of being quite a bit smarter than ordinary people like me.
Dave, taller vehicles likely do have problems with visibility down underneath. And first responders don't like the way raised-up vehicles are more prone to tip over.
My point is limited to ability to survive a straight-on collision at low speed without damage, which used to be the case, but has been designed out of cars. Nowadays there is no bumper separate from the car that can isolate a minor collision. Any sort of contact gets into the body, and with all the rear-facing sensors, is likely to damage parts that didn't exist a decade or two ago.
The body shops probably like that, although insurance companies are fighting back by various ways to restrict payments, such as require aftermarket parts even if the car is brand new.
The moral is, if youv'e gotten a seemingly good deal on car insurance recently, check the fine print, or check out your first claim in detail. It may be you have agreed the insurance company can force the auto body shop to do the cheapest possible repair. If you want better, be prepared to pay the difference, which may negate the low rate.
I am reminded of being interested in the rather practical Nissan Xterra until I discovered, very quickly, that the one being driven quite aggressively behind me couldn't beat my underpowered Toyota Corolla in disguise up an Oregon hill with two driving lanes in the uphill direction (I of course let the guy around per Oregon driving rules). Later on, the much more elaborate Toyota FJ cruiser was briefly interesting, if rather out of my price range, but a friend with one got the front fender dented by someone in the parking lot. Huge repair bill. The Xterra at least had been designed on the assumption that bumpers would be bumped and certain body panels would get banged, thus made cheaply replaceable.
In Florida, auto insurance is just plain expensive. I should move to a cheaper state. And if there's the slightest possibility of ever needing nursing home care under Medicaid, a state that's less completely corrupt, or has death with dignity legislation, or both.
Our state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services issues concealed weapons permits. For 13 months, background checks via the main FBI instant background system weren't done because the mail clerk or whoever was responsible hadn't figured out how to log in. Someone happened to notice that not a single permit application had been tagged in all that time. The Commissioner, an elected official, badly wants to be governor.
Margaret Talbot at the New Yorker has what looks like a spot-on piece, "Are evangelical leaders saving Scott Pruitt's job?" It seems most of the surviving cabinet members belong to Ralph Drollinger's prayer group, and Pruitt is a perfect Drollinger disciple. Talbot links to this Drollinger essay: http://capmin.org/coming-to-grips-with-the-religion-of-environmentalism/
I've become a hog, but this is worth sharing. Vukovar has a Times Pick comment on Bret Stephens' one-of-a-kind column at the New York Times. Here it is, in full.
I remember a phone call into the Zagreb press office one day, that came from the Imam in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka: "Please come; they are loading people on to trains to ship them out to camps. There are dead in the streets. Please come - words cannot describe what's being done."
That was 1992, after watching Milosevic's rise to power. I had wondered how someone like him turned into a monster, but nationalism is a powerful drug. I see too many parallels today.
Thank you for a somber column. People said "Never again" after the Holocaust but I witnessed a different abomination and atrocity. It can happen again.
Well, now, it seems the Normandy invasion was a waste. It cost us a lot of dead soldiers, shot down planes, destroyed equipment of all sorts, and look who gained, France and England, not the US!
I suppose the DJT plan is to score such a major victory in Singapore that Quebec will be forgotten.
Whatever happens, he and Fox will claim victory.
I am seeing references to the G-6.
It's not America first, it's America alone.
GMBKA!!! (yes, I'm shouting). Good to see you again. Hope you had an enjoyable, problem-free trip, and are now home safe and sound, with lots of great memories (and some photos?).
I'm almost beyond words re Trump any more, and try to seek solace in my work bunker (figuratively) or under the covers (literally).
Perhaps G-1.
On second thought, I think it will become the T-2 as Putin joins Trump.
Interesting, HF. Lemme see, if the "T" stands for tyrant: add Orban, Erdogan, Duterte, Xi, Kim, others?
Putin's what? Starts with T? I've heard Putin's puppy or slave, which would match with meeting Putin's goal of undoing the North Atlantic alliance. Don't know if DJT is beholden to Putin in some way (treason) or merely a "useful idiot" but it works for Putin either way.
This is always interesting, especially now: https://www.backgroundbriefing.org/
The first two topics are "Trump Forges a Global Realignment Rewarding Despots While Punishing Allies" and "The Now-Obvious Hold Putin Has Over Trump"
yello et al., your thoughts on tonight's Tony Awards? How many of the shows had you seen? Ari'el Staichel's acceptance speech moved me deeply.
And anyone who wasn't moved by the tribute to the theater program (and teacher) at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas HS needs to be checked for a pulse.
Jim, my best guess for the reason that Trump seems to be Putin's poodle has to do with Russia's program of kompromat; no doubt they've "got the goods" on the Donald in spades:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/04/24/if-putin-has-kompromat-on-trump-how-might-he-use-it
At the risk of going all conspiracy-theorist here, I likewise wonder if Trump's people have blackmailed a lot of opponents into silence, if not support, the same way. Of course, if Trump can't find actual dirt on someone (like Mueller), he just goes on a false smear vendetta anyhow.
And let's not forget the vile methods that Harvey Weinstein long employed to investigate and muzzle his accusers.
The Pulse massacre in Orlando was June 12, 2016.
FWIW, my T-# was just T for Trump.
I don't doubt Putin has kompromat, but I don't think that's it. I think Trump has a crush and is in bed with the Russian mob.
HF, your theory and mine aren't necessarily contradictory. It could be equally both.
Dave, almost two years since Pulse??? I'm not sure whether that seems like forever, or only since last week.
If Trump was running Weinstein-type operations, the Mueller investigation probably found evidence by now. So far, I doubt that Michael Cohen would have been good enough for Weinstein.
I think Roy Cohn would have figured that his acolyte did things on the cheap, second-rate.
I've been to Singapore twice, '68 (visited Tiger Balm Garden) and '85 (stayed at Raffles, visited Sentosa on the cable car), when it was still post-Colonial and then emerging from that. It's amazing how the place has metamorphosed into a modern nation of skyscrapers and international connections. The connections used to be ships that stopped there, now they are local and international companies of all kinds. Maybe it helps having a dominant nationality/culture that doesn't mind relatively authoritarian rule, but they can sure create a better subway system, etc., than any US city I can think of, especially my own. In the US we say we're better for our diversity, and I believe that, but it does get in the way at times.
From BBC:
The White House has confirmed that Mr Trump and Mr Kim met in private for a total of 38 minutes.
If you take into account time for translations, that's pretty brief.
Looks like Singapore photo-op has finished. More expensive than going to Florida for the weekend.
...and at least as hot and muggy.
Larry Kudlow dissed Justin Trudeau on TV Sunday, then had a heart attack the next day. Coincidence?
Decades ago I visited Singapore and was impressed how clean it was compared to other big cities in the area. But there also were signs everywhere announcing stiff fines for littering, which indicated a rather authoritarian government. Likewise, stiff fines for leaving water standing in the saucers for flower pots. I understood the danger of mosquitoes, but still.
We had to cut our visit short because we were hit by seemingly never ending tropical downpours. Since due to flooding buses and trains did not run any more we took flight by airplane. Long ago, sigh.
Listening to BBC about the bonding between our president and Kim Jong Un it is remarkable how our president manages to have good relationships with the dictators of the world whereas he tends to have problems with democratically elected leaders. "Show me who your friends are and I will tell you what you are." (Vladimir Lenin)
BBC's "The King of Pyongyang" by Rupert Wingfield-Hayes is a superlative intro to Kim and his world.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/king_of_pyongyang
Am awaiting an announcement by Trump of a big beautiful wall to be built along the US's northern border, and paid for by Canada ;-)
Friends living in the US but with permanent residency in New Zealand are getting the kids' passports in order.
Peninshella
Congratulations, HF, you hit a Google Nope!
It's along the lines of "God Bless the United Shates"
Cue Humphrey Bogart, shweetheart ;-)
Ack, that was mine!
The Pittsburgh Post Gazette fired their editorial cartoonist because he was critical of Trump. On your neighborhood website 3 people announced they canceled their subscription after hearing the news. Pittsburgh is not Trump-land.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/business/media/pittsburgh-cartoonist-fired.html
I wonder what Paul Conrad or Herblock would do with Trump. Or Walt Kelly.
If Walt Kelly were still around doing Pogo, Trump would definitely be one of the characters. He did Joe McCarthy (Simple J Malarkey), LBJ, Khrushchev, Castro, J Edgar Hoover, and many more. I'm trying to imagine what sort of animal Trump would be.
Pig. Actual pigs are better than Trump, but he exemplifies the stereotype. New York Magazine had a good cover a few months ago.
http://nymag.com/press/2018/04/nymag-corruption-cover.html
seasea
https://www.thetoptens.com/worst-animals/
Hi, dropping in. Dave never think you're hogging the comments. Thanks for the Vukovar shoutout.
I understand that kids kept in cages has provoked the moral folks on the remaining Trump contingent. Who now still honestly supports this administration is crazy, mobbed-up, in a total reliable media blackout, or otherwise amoral. Trump is spreading blame around everybody but himself. This backfired as anybody with a conscience could have predicted.
The proof is in the GOP congressmen who are actually speaking up. But not spineless Ryan, of course.
Practically speaking, the Trump-Russia probe has to have a lot of people scared.
Manafort is in jail, his Russian associate Konstantin Kilimnik is co-indicted with him, and he has ties to Russian intelligence, Michael Cohen may well flip soon, the feds have about all his records barring around a few hundred that a clean team deemed protected by confidentiality or irrelevant. Million plus records.
Pruitt continues to get heat, and Pence is getting heat, too, for making his office a one-stop depot for lobbyists. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pence-turns-vps-office-into-gateway-for-lobbyists-to-influence-the-trump-administration/2018/06/14/75675bfa-6424-11e8-a69c-b944de66d9e7_story.html?utm_term=.1c9e5dccc4b1
Even Southern Baptists are rethinking leadership and a significant number do not want Pence to speak to them.
I heard Sarah Huckabee Sanders (and Jay Shah) were to resign shortly, scuttlebutt said she was disgusted with Trump, but TBH, I think she saw the writing on wall with Manafort and Cohen and is cutting a deal/loose now.
On the downside, Rosenstein will not fire Mueller and rumors are that he is at high risk for being fired himself in the next month. There'll be other people to take over, no worries there.
I would like a big bunch of indictments and arrests all at once, but I hear Mueller has 300 blank subpoenas readied in recent days. (That'll be 2 copies each, so 150 people subpoenaed in total.) That will probably be to indict at least 2 people, possibly far more.
Meanwhile, these poor kids. This should have been over the day he was inaugurated, and I will never forgive the GOP for enabling all this.
Suesea-- kangaroo form a mob. Too bad they're cute.
I like "treasonweasels" somebody coined on Twitter and I would think pine marten would be apt if too cute, since they're partly orange.
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-pine-martin-head-martes-martes-england-155366994.html
They do steal eggs, so that's suitable. Bald eagle attacking weasels for stealing eggs, sounds good to me.
Ever since J. Beuregard recused himself on the Russia inquiry, Trump's been in a rage against him. Re the current outcry against the separation of undocumented immigrant children from their parents, which Sessions has backed even to the point of claiming dubious biblical support for the policy, perhaps President Macchiavelli has in fact been trying all along to push Sessions farther and farther out on that branch.
Let's recall studies finding that conservatives tend to make sociopolitical decisions based on emotion. Thus this observation might give The Donald the cover necessary to change the minds of at least some of his base (including citing Melania's recent tweet urging "heart," which Team Trump may well have scripted, for all we know). At this point all Trump needs to do is hand Sessions a figurative saw with which to cut off the branch he's perched on the far end of.
Then Trump can justify firing Sessions, and appoint an interim AG* willing to swear fealty to Emperor Donald I, who can then fire Rod Rosenstein and ultimately Robert Mueller, thus shutting down the Russia inquiry. *Would it need to be someone already approved as a Cabinet member? If so, that would tend to limit the pool of candidates.
Easy peasy.
Over at the Southern Baptist Convention, Russell Moore still has his job. A while back, I don't think informed observers were guessing about his successor, but he hadn't seemed long for his post. I'm pretty sure he won't be invited to the White House Bible Study Group.
I don't know what will happen with the Mueller investigation, except that it looks like possibly wrapping up, or nearly doing so, by the election. The report (but not indictments) will be secret, so there might be some effort to force Mueller to destroy all copies of the report other than the one sent to his superiors. Can't have any leaks.
Pence's fundraising setup seems to be what's expected of a modern Veep, at least the Republican variety. You pay generously, you get access, you get favors. Like Harding and Taft but bigger financial stakes. Interior is being run as it was under Harding, but on a vastly larger scale. Pence seems to be doing nicely as a part-time fund raiser and as the acting president for the more boring parts of the government.
Cohen and Manafort may not be especially big fish, but Trump's ability to find slime is impressive. To think Romney scrubbed a messed-up Olympics project until it was squeaky clean.
I think Trump's got much of the public believing we need our very own strongman to cut needless spending on American troops and ships far abroadosd, and to stop being victimized by unequal trade treaties and agreements. d'
P.S. Trump will keep lying to his base that this separation of immigrant children from their parents is all the Democrats' fault, and the base will believe it unquestioningly. He's hoping for a win-win, but with any luck it will all backfire on him as it deservedly should.
Thanks for the report on Vukovar. I just had an FTB sighting in the comments of radio veteran Frank Harden's obituary:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/frank-harden-longtime-dc-morning-radio-host-dies-at-95/2018/06/17/ed4ec8c2-71af-11e8-bf86-a2351b5ece99_story.html
I read a question from a person to Investopedia. This person has put weekly $100 in a banksafe for 40 years, and therefore now owns 192 K and something. He was asking if he can retire with this amount of money. He does not mention Social Security. Oy.
The person stashed the cash in the equivalent of "under the mattress," with no interest (compound or otherwise) but with devaluation of the money over time? Not astute, IMHO.
Svmer is icumen in
Lhude sing cuccu
Groweþ sed
and bloweþ med
and springþ þe wde nu
Sing cuccu
Awe bleteþ after lomb
lhouþ after calue cu
Bulluc sterteþ
bucke uerteþ
murie sing cuccu
Cuccu cuccu
Wel singes þu cuccu
ne swik þu nauer nu
Sing cuccu nu • Sing cuccu.
Sing cuccu • Sing cuccu nu
I am a bit confused about the asylum seeking procedure. Anybody can show up at the border and ask for asylum. If the border control officer thinks that the asylum seeker is credible, he or she then can be admitted and held for further inquiries. Why then can the asylum seekers now be treated like criminals and put in jail, with or without their children? Does anybody know?
Not sure how many people are being arrested for seeking asylum at a port of entry. But what is happening is that people are not being admitted at ports of entry, so then they cross the border elsewhere, get caught and arrested, even if they do say they're seeking asylum. Also heard a lawyer saying that it used to be that the asylum determination was done first, now they're being arrested and then the asylum claim is heard. It's not right.
seasea
Post a Comment