Moderately hot weather, with clear skies, somewhere north of Houston, and north of Texas.
Seeing family (wife’s father’s side) and hanging out.
Meatspace.
At least some of the kids are alright.
Plan for the day is maybe a movie, maybe just pool and people time.
Had some excellent BBQ yesterday, no sauce needed.
Hotel is very nice. Courtyard is really upping their design game. Two big tvs in the room, both with fast internet streaming services included. Watching our favorite youtube channels is nice. Lots of signs and video about how clean they are keeping everything to keep us safe. Restaurant next door had “social distancing” signs on the tables and had them set up for half capacity. Not many masks on anyone other than service people, and a few airline passengers. Definitely seeing that stratification by class/job duties. Don’t care for it in the USA.
The airport and flight didn’t suck. Waiting for the rental car shuttle did. Small problems.
n
Use the time wisely. Stack it up.
The same thing that they impeached Trump for: being repugnant to the party in control of the House.
It could happen and has been suggested a few times over the past year. If both the Pres and Veep positions are vacant then the statutory next in succession is the Speaker of the House. (Side note: succession was undefined until the middle of the last century, at which point the House and Senate passed a law stating that the most power member of the House and then the most powerful member of the Senate would be next after the VP. Funny how that works.)
There’s a question, though, of whether the Speaker would become President or Acting President, reflecting the same question when VP Tyler moved up after drooling imbecile William Henry Harrison died a month after taking offce. There was a bit of a struggle, partly legal but mostly a simple power struggle, before Tyler was accepted as the sho’ ’nuff President.
The mores and goals of the past few decades are an aberration born of wealth far beyond needs, comfort, and lack of threats. (And also born in part by domestic enemies of Western civilization funded by external enemies, but they wouldn’t have made much progress without the domestic wealth and ease.) As the wealth and comfort are reduced and as threats, or perceived threats, increase, traditional values will regain prominence and tolerance for the aberrations will diminish. Whether this will happen in time to save civilization is an open question.
Every kid has a Nintendo Switch with HDMI out these days. Mario Kart!
I don’t discount the rumors about Universal finishing the Nintendo attractions at the new Orlando property ahead of schedule and staging private events starting next year.
Kids are an automatic, but a lot of adult groups would pay to play AR Mario Kart early.
Thank Sam Rayburn for the succession scheme. Like Pelosi, he clung to that power to the point that he died as Speaker.
The Republicans actually passed the bill, however.
“All right, all right, all right”.
I’ll bet he’s regretting not running for Governor between Uvalde and ERCOT walking right up to the line of implementing rolling blackouts with four days to go until Summer officially begins.
Abbot’s baby formula plant in Michigan will be down for weeks as a result of flooding.
From US Senate testimony:
Monopsonist is new to me.
You want to commit political suicide? Create or contribute to a situation where mothers can’t feed infants. It’s fucking criminal. 😡
plugs in 2020: ‘We’re gonna end fossil fuels’
plugs in 2022: ‘Mo gas, mo gas, mod gas. Or else…’
And, in a recent interview with the SecDef: ‘National Petroleum Reserve? I know nothing…NOTHING!’
The guy responsible for the defense of the country probably thinks solar powered tanks are just around the corner. He needs to be impeached stat.
Monopoly: only one supplier
Monopsony: only one customer
Monopsony is given as justification for the very high prices charged by defense contractors and their high profit margins: they can sell only to the government or under tight-restrictions to other customers approved by the government. Dunno how much I believe that rationale, but it’s mentioned once in a while.
Headed to brunch. Indeed it is hot.
N
Yeah, dumbest:
Dumbest. Admin. EVER –> Biden White House’s SUPER GENIUS plan to offset gas costs for Americans FOILED by another crisis THEY created
I’m for suspending Federal gas taxes for a year. States need to consider at least freezing State gas taxes.
The guest villain on this weeks Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was some freakish, nonbinary, male (the Adam’s apple gave it away) actor. The performance was so over the top, vampish, queer QWERTY that I would give the episode zero stars. Keep it up Star Trek and kill another series ala Discovery.
For All Mankind on Apple+ was much better.
Update on London temperatures:
in the study, where I’m sitting, 29C and 45%. My phone says 32C outdoors, exactly where is unclear. BBC weather says 31C at 18:00 (i.e. now) but again no idea of location – possibly the London premises of the Meteorological Office.
I think it has been hotter today, but I didn’t check. It’s certainly muggy enough for your humble reporter.
G.
And I’ve got a cracked tooth. Dentist appointment made for next Thursday, the 23rd, the earliest I could get.
G.
@SteveF:
As the wealth and comfort are reduced and as threats, or perceived threats, increase, traditional values will regain prominence and tolerance for the aberrations will diminish.
From your lips to God’s ears!
@Geoff: Bueno Suerte!
@cowboystu:
Thanks.
G.
Remember the episode “The Outcast” from Season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation?
>> IIRC, tennis player Roscoe Tanner was from Cut n Shoot.
From Wikipedia:
The town of Cut and Shoot gained fame when local boxer Roy Harris, a heavyweight contender, fought Floyd Patterson for the heavyweight title in 1958. Harris appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated[10] and was featured in LIFE.[11] So much mail was addressed to “Roy Harris, Cut and Shoot, Texas” that the U. S. Postal Service granted a franchise post office to the town.[
Roscoe Tanner was from Tennessee.
“Wakers” by Orson Scott Card
https://www.amazon.com/Wakers-Side-Step-Trilogy-Orson-Scott/dp/1481496190?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number one of a one book young adult science fiction series, the Side-Step Trilogy. I read the well bound and well printed hardback published by McElderry Books (Simon and Schuster) in 2022. I plan to order and read future books in the series when they become available.
Laz is 17 years old and a side-stepper. If he does not like the universe that he is in, he just finds a side universe that he like better and steps to it. There are just minor differences between the universes. Until one day, he wakes up naked in a huge dark space in a steel coffin with small lights in it.
Laz gets the door to open by pushing every button and light in the coffin. He dresses himself in the paper pajamas that he finds in the coffin. He gets out and finds that there are hundreds of steel coffins in the dark space. He finds a light switch on the wall and discovers that most of the coffins are empty or inhabited by a skeleton. But, one coffin has a girl in it who is in a deep sleep.
Orson Scott Card has a excellent website at:
http://www.hatrack.com/
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars (419 reviews)
The guest villain on this weeks Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was some freakish, nonbinary, male (the Adam’s apple gave it away) actor. The performance was so over the top, vampish, queer QWERTY that I would give the episode zero stars. Keep it up Star Trek and kill another series ala Discovery.
So is our troll our guest villain ?
Not exactly.
There were only so many reshoots possible between November of last year and the premiere of “Strange New Worlds”. My guess is that we will never see Vampira again.
Even Sybok, Spock’s brother, begs the question “Why?” That’s from the plot of the failed “Trek” movie directed by Shatner.
The guest villain on this weeks Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was some freakish, nonbinary, male (the Adam’s apple gave it away) actor. The performance was so over the top, vampish, queer QWERTY that I would give the episode zero stars. Keep it up Star Trek and kill another series ala Discovery.
Have you ever considered that you are not the target audience for ST: Discovery ?
The wife just finished bingeing ST: Discovery and loved it. They may have directed it to the fems cause I did not like it either.
“Borders: From the First Sumerians to the Last Starfighter” by Jim Beall
https://www.baen.com/borders
“Borders are all around us, some made by nature, some by man. Below is possibly the most recognizable manmade border of them all, The Great Wall of China.”
Interesting.
I don’t think Kurtzman “Trek” (current production team) in general has a clue about who they want as a target audience.
I sort of wish Amazon had a “some time next week is cool” option. They have a option to get Prime delivery on Sunday or get a dollar off coupon for something digital with delivery on Monday.
If I can save the coupons for a few months to a year, and apply several to one purchase, that would be cool.
It’s just a $13 can crusher. The one I have popped a rivet. Not unexpected. I dug in the coffee cans ‘o stuff and found a ¼ inch bolt, drilled out one of the holes and spun a couple of nuts on. Fixed until the other side breaks.
But the way prices are going up and up, I bought a spare. I may never use it, I have plenty of nuts and bolts and I love making the buffalo bellow.
Ok, somewhat dense here. Where are y’all watching all of this StarTrek stuff? Amazon or ???
Is this some sort of Sopranos thing? I dropped HBO back in 1988 for being repetitious. How many times a day do we need to see “Clash of the Titans”?
I mean, I watch Wheel of Fortune if I watch at all and then start at 2-1 and work up to see what else is on. Over the air.
Edit:
Back to the can crusher. The local Walmart had an aisle of “stuff like that” six months ago. Same item for the same price as Amazon. That aisle has gone away like having some kind of flooring over the concrete slab. Sheesh, the joint looks like someone waxed their garage floor, oil drips and all. Ghetto ain’t the word I’m looking for.
Just got back from Topgun. Very well done. Couple things that wouldn’t detract for most people bugged me, but over all, very well done.
Thought they’d tug all the heartstrings so what DIDN’T happen at the end surprised me.
Seemed really long, I had to leave to pee during the film. I’ve gotta say that Cruise looks good for being older than me, and shorter than my 13yo. And jeez, it’s easy to forget how YOUNG our fighter pilots are.
Funny personal angle, I was on my way to see the original in the theater when I had my life changing motorcycle accident, the anniversary of which occurred last week. Bit of ‘full circle’ involved for me.
n
(nike product placement bugged me, I’ve worked at North Island NAS and at NAS Miramar when it was still Topgun, and after when it was owned by the Marine Corps, so the conflation of Topgun and NI bugged me. NI never had anything to do with Topgun that I’m aware of.)
Tom Cruise seems to be aging well.
And me? Hitting 65 in a few months and folks are like “bullshit you can’t be that old”. A bit of gray or perhaps blonde at the temples happening. That’s all.
The eyebrows trying to look like Stalin’s is wacky. How does one see with inch long eyebrow hair?
If you’re talking about the original, I’d say that once a day for the rest of your life should do it. That was one of the movies which was so bad it looped back around to good and funny.
You should have finished drinking your soda, peed into the cup, put the lid back on, and left it in the cup holder for someone to find during the next screening. Bonus points if you had a new straw still in a wrapper which you could leave on top.
Paramount+.
I was using … ahem … less legal means until I got a nasty gram from Paramount’s lawyers two episodes into the latest season of “Discovery”.
If you are willing to accept commercials, I believe Paramount+ is still < $5/month.
No endless reruns of “Clash of the Titans” in the 80s, no “Simian Chanted Evening” episode of “LA Law”, arguably the most important hour of TV drama NBC ever put on at 10PM.
Harry Hamlin in a gorilla suit seducing “Laurie Partridge” led to 20 years of “Must See Thursday”.
Brandon Tartikoff was a friggin’ genius.
Paramount+.
I was using … ahem … less legal means until I got a nasty gram from Paramount’s lawyers two episodes into the latest season of “Discovery”.
If you are willing to accept commercials, I believe Paramount+ is still < $5/month.
Dude, I am shocked !
I am viewing Paramount+ through Amazon Prime. I think that I pay another $6.99 plus tax per month for it.
ExpertVPN for the win. The various kids have and share most streaming services. The company pays for the Netflix four-pack. I torrent most since uploaders love to whack out the commercials.
“SpaceX said to have fired employees behind company-wide letter criticizing Elon Musk”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/spacex-said-fired-employees-behind-110517569.html
Criticize the boss publicly at your own risk.
LOL. D4 is watching Bob’s Burgers while I read. A commercial comes up for “Queer As Folk” starring none other than Vampira. Full Fag mode for this show.
“GOP Sen. John Cornyn was loudly booed at Texas Republican convention amid his push for bipartisan gun legislation”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-sen-john-cornyn-was-loudly-booed-at-texas-republican-convention-amid-his-push-for-bipartisan-gun-legislation/ar-AAYAMgM
So, if I want to give one of my guns to my son, I have to get an FFL dealer involved and we have to do background checks now ?
Screw you Cornyn. I sent him an email already stating that I would not give him money or vote for him ever again. I suspect many of my fellow Texans feel the same way.
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
Forget Musk. Gwynne Shotwell wasn’t about to put up with it.
The morons probably posted from their company laptops.
Cornyn was, if you will recall, the lesser of two bad choices in 2020.
When I was in Korea my mom mailed me VHS tapes with a 12-hour Star Trek marathon. Including commercials, which turned out to be the most popular part when I shared the tapes around.
I buy the DVDs to settle kharma. Three seasons of “Discovery” and one of “Picard”. Plus a couple of seasons of “Westworld”.
I don’t do movies.
My last torrent was the “Death in Paradise” season finale. I have a season pass on my TiVo for the local PBS station’s reruns.
HBO is the big torrent hypocrite if you want to point fingers. I’m a Molotov Jukebox fan and I remember the weekend Natalia Tena went “full frontal” on “Game of Thrones”, with the torrent traffic explosion saving the series from early cancellation.
The best part of the “Star Wars Holiday Special” bootleg that floats around the Internet are the commercials. Plus the great “CBS Special Presentation” intro with a piece of music from “Hawaii 5-0” — real retro.
Yup. I have a shelf of UK, EU, and Japanese DVDs which are also violations even though everyone got paid what they were due.
Former exchange student, her mother and her sister are arriving for a 10 day visit. They are taking Greyhound from Atlanta to Knoxville. Drop off in Knoxville is on the east side at a Marathon Convenience store. Not a good part of town. More crimes committed in that part of town than anywhere else. Bus is one hour late and will not arrive until 11:00 PM. I am not real happy about the situation.
Knoxville has a bus transfer station downtown but refuses to let Greyhound us the facility. When the Megabus went through Knoxville it was the drop off and pickup point. Wife and I used it to travel to Washington DC. But Knoxville got greedy, wanted a lot of money. Megabus told Knoxville to stuff it and abandoned the city. Greyhound apparently found an alternative.
A stupid city, run by stupid people, with stupid ideas.
The Megabus mostly stops at gas stations on the outskirts of the Houston metroplex around here.
Punjabi influence is lending a very interesting vibe to tonight’s activity.
And I have my earplugs in, because if you are dj and everyone is outside, even though you are playing good stuff, it’s too f-ing loud.
N
Nine of Colbert’s staffers were arrested inside the House office buildin for criminal trespass.
Seems only fair that they should be incarcerated without bail for a couple of years until the backlog of other similar cases gets wirked down.
Particularly since many of those cases are for doing not one mother loving darned thing, included trespass.
Get off my lawn!
However, I agree. Oh to be young and stoopid again, instead of old and stoopid.
>> You should have finished drinking your soda, peed into the cup,
His luck he’d get nabbed for indecent exposure. Pre-pandemic, when we still went to the theater, I used an app called RunPee to know when to go and not miss anything important. Post-pandemic I use the Pause button. And we have better popcorn.
>> no “Simian Chanted Evening” episode of “LA Law”, arguably the most important hour of TV drama NBC ever put on at 10PM.
I thought the most important LA Law episode was “The Venus Butterfly?”
The show was well established by that point. “Simian Chanted Evening” was the third (?) episode in.
The case could also be made for the Michelle Green-Amanda Donohoe kiss episode.
Or Diana Muldaur falling down the elevator shaft.