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I’m late! I’m late!

Well, not yet, but my closest gal pal is going to ring the doorbell any second.

OMWC is out of town attending some absolutely fascinating mandatory meetings on material they covered in third grade, so it’s the perfect time to have a “girls’ afternoon/night in.” We are both self-employed, so if we want to start drinking at 1500 on a Wednesday (or any other day), we can.

My spousal unit is also close with [REDACTED], who is a fellow scientist. I’ll say hi for you, dude! (Swiss, you know the woman of whom I speak, so if you wanna drop in, we’d both love to see you. Don’t forget the pizza for the pup. 😉 )

We are doing a really simple menu of Gruet Brut with snacks, then grilled vegetables and a couple kinds of panini on homemade bread, with some excellent red wine, then dark chocolate cookies with espresso gelato. Easy and perfect for summer.

All that to say, I am sorry you aren’t receiving links up to my usual standard, but, hey, you get that for which you pay!

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• I’m sure everyone has seen and/or commented on this story, but it just makes me happy, so I am posting it. What stops a bad guy with a gun?
• I’m not really a gin drinker.
• Oh, Green Party. You wacky kids.
• Never.Apologize.
• WTF Missouri. AND going for Hawley in the primary. “Show me” how you progress away from freedom.
• You know what is an enemy of corruption? Competition.
• For the material scientists and the other geeks among us. Non-geek version here.
• But how many people would admit to knowing SugarFree?

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Have a great rest of your day! I’ll lift a glass in your general direction.

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The halfway point of the (traditional) work week is here.  Congratulations.  And congratulations to the following teams for winning yesterday:  The Nationals (game 1of a doubleheader), the Braves (game 2 of a doubleheader), Red Sox (who are closing in on 50 games above .500), the MINNESOOOOOOODA TWIIIIIINS, the St Louis Cardinals, the BIG RED MACHINE, the Tampa Bay Rays (while Baltimore closes in on 50 games BELOW .500), the Rangers, the Yankees, Padres, Cubs, Pirates, Phillies, Dodgers, Angels and World Champion Houston Astros. Well done, guys.

I’d also say “well done” to the following people. But being born is hardly an accomplishment. It just happens to you.  But they did something to make them famous, so there is that.  Anyway, the birthday list for today is: “Dr Bob” Smith, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, genius physicist Paul Dirac, genius nuke scientist Ernest Lawrence, moviemaker Dino De Laurentiis, jump blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon, Soul musician Joe Tex, actor Dustin Hoffman, rocker Jay David, hockey player/politician Ken Dryden, sidekick Robin Quivers, guitarist Chris Foreman, tennis GOAT (arguably) Roger Federer, and a few other people.  Jesus, what a lousy list.

Let’s see what happened on this date…

Ponce de Leon founded the first European settlement in Puerto Rico, Henry IV was excommunicated, Brigham Young was named head of the Mormon Church, Smith and Wesson patented the metal bullet cartridge, Corn Flakes were invented, Public Law 62-5 permanently set the number of Reps in the House at 435 and undermined the founders intent of a more representative democracy, Sgt York kills 20 Germans and captures 132 in one of the most badass moves in history, the 1st national march of the Ku Klux Klan (D-US) occurs in Washington with 200,000 people, Harry Truman signed the UN Charter, the Great Train Robbery took place, the Chicago White Sox played a game in shorts, and Pete Rose began a five month prison term for tax evasion.  That was a little better, but still…meh.

OK, enough of that. On to…the links!

Barring some shenanigans with provisional ballots and absentee votes yet to be counted, The GOP will hang on to OH-12 with a slim victory in the special election. The same two people will immediately begin campaigning for the November election that will establish who sits in the seat for the next two years.  The Dom achieved a victory of sorts yesterday when he got the Libertarian candidate, who has the same last name, removed from the ballot because of one signature on his petition being from an ineligible person.

Ha, you can scour the world, but sometimes what you’re looking for is right next door. Literally.

Ohmygod. I was shocked when I saw watt was up with this current event. (I went ahead and got the inevitable out of the way with that headline. You’re welcome.)

Mueller’s star witness for the prosecution in Paul Manafort’s trial has what some would call “credibility issues”. The defense should move to have the case thrown out with prejudice after yesterday’s shit show. Lol, classic.

Is this Arab Spring 2.0? If so, let’s hope the current admin doesn’t ignore the people in Iran risking their lives to be free.  And no, I don’t want us militarily involved, but at least acknowledging their desire for freedom from a shitty regime would be better than the crickets from the WH the last time this happened.

American Airlines has had some problems as of late. And now they’re having to deal with stowaways.

Chicago police are reaping what they’ve sown. Meanwhile, the mayor wants hundreds more of them running around town.  Because, you know, $50 million a year on average in police misconduct settlements with zero convictions in the past decade isn’t enough.

That story about the compound in New Mexico is getting stranger and more disturbing by the day.

And “woman shoots masturbating bicyclist trying to break into her home” is something I’d expect to hear out of Florida. ::shrugs::

Well that’s the links. Except for this bit of awesomeness that none of you will complain about if you’re decent human beings.

Here’s to every one of you having a great day today. I know I will.

Once again, I have been asked to provide links on account of Brett being unavailable  snorting lines of cocaine  because you all just love the Spanish Shtick.

Technically, this happened in Spain, not Mexico, but it is certainly notable when others appropriate American culture.

Las autoridades de Santiago de Compostela, en el noroeste de España, calificaron como “una barbaridad y un atentado a la cultura” lo que se encontraron en la mañana de este lunes: alguien vandalizó una de las figuras que decoran el exterior de la catedral de la ciudad y la pintó como si fuera un integrante de la banda de hard rock KISS.

La imagen de la figura, que rápidamente corrió por redes sociales, causó conmoción dentro y fuera de la ciudad, declarada Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la Unesco.

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The authorities of Santiago de Compostela, in the northwest of Spain, described as “an outrage and an attack on the culture” what they found on the morning of Monday: someone vandalized one of the figures that decorate the exterior of the cathedral of the city and painted it as if it were a member of the hard rock band KISS.

The image of the figure, which quickly ran through social networks, caused commotion inside and outside the city, declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco.

In case you wanted to see a video of the drone that apparently tried to kill Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro, CNN has not confirmed if this is authentic, but they went ahead and published it anyway…

Speaking of Little Nicky, he wants to assure everyone this is clearly an attack from the far right, in both Venezuela and Columbia.  Apparently the Alt-right is run amok there too.

El mandatario venezolano precisó que los autores materiales del suceso ocurrido este sábado están detenidos. “Han intentado asesinarme el día de hoy y no tengo duda de que todo apunta a la derecha, a la ultraderecha venezolana en alianza con la ultraderecha colombiana y que el nombre de Juan Manuel Santos está detrás de este atentado”, enfatizó el gobernante. Los hechos ocurrieron en Caracas durante el aniversario 81 de la Guardia Nacional Bolivariana.

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The Venezuelan leader said that the material authors of the incident that occurred this Saturday are in custody. “They have tried to assassinate me today and I have no doubt that everything points to the right, to the Venezuelan ultra-right in alliance with the Colombian far right and that the name of Juan Manuel Santos is behind this attack,” the president emphasized. The events occurred in Caracas during the 81st anniversary of the Bolivarian National Guard.

A Colombian human trafficking baroness was arrested in Colombia.  Normally I’m not going to say that you must click the link, but you might actually want to check this one out.

Una mujer colombiana apodada ‘Madame’ era presuntamente la cabecilla de una red de trata de menores en Cartagena de Indias que llegó a tener en su poder a 250 víctimas, muchas de ellas adolescentes de la comunidad afrodescendiente y venezolanas entre 14 y 17 años. Liliana del Carmen Campos Puello fue detenida el pasado domingo en la operación Vesta I liderada por la Fiscalía, descrita como el golpe más importante contra la prostitución que se haya realizado en Colombia.

El operativo ha puesto de relieve un problema que siempre a estado asociado con esta ciudad del Caribe colombiano, la más turística de la nación. La escena de un señor blanco rodeando con su mano la cintura de una chica negra mucho más joven que él por alguno de los parajes cartageneros más concurridos, como la Torre del Reloj o la Plaza de Coches, es una imagen habitual habitual que ilustra el problema del comercio sexual en la ciudad amurallada.

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A Colombian woman nicknamed ‘Madame’ was presumably the leader of a trafficking network for minors in Cartagena de Indias that reached 250 victims, many of them teenagers from the Afro-descendant and Venezuelan community between 14 and 17 years old. Liliana del Carmen Campos Puello was arrested last Sunday in the operation Vesta I led by the Prosecutor’s Office, described as the most important blow against prostitution that has been made in Colombia.

The operation has highlighted a problem that has always been associated with this city of the Colombian Caribbean, the most tourist in the nation. The scene of a white gentleman encircling the waist of a black girl much younger than him by one of the most crowded places in Cartagena, such as the Clock Tower or the Plaza de Coches, is a common habitual image that illustrates the problem of the sex trade in the walled city

Here’s one (in English) for all you Musk haters.  In a Tweet today, he made public his intention to make Tesla private.

¿Se gustan musico con enlances? ¿No tengo otra opción aquí?

Como say what?  Need somebody to translate?  Fine, here.

Well I’m starting to wonder if all the drama in baseball is gonna happen in the NL.  We have about 50 games left in the regular season, and the closest divisional race in the AL is 4.5 games (AL West Astros up on the surging Athletics). Meanwhile, in the NL, the Cubs are enjoying the largest divisional lead at 1.5 games (over the Brewers) while the NL West is at 0.5 games (D-backs over Dodgers with the Rockies only 2 back) and the East its the Phillies 1 game up on the Braves.  Not only that, the three division leaders are only 1.5 games apart from top to bottom for best record in the NL. And that has some implications as well. I’m not necessarily ready to pick the division winners in the NL, but if forced to make a call, I’s day I think Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles will end up pulling through, with Chicago ending up pulling away with the best record in the league.

And with that, yesterday’s winners were: Cleveland,  NY (NL), Miami, NY (AL), Seattle, Chicago (NL) , Colorado, Arizona, Anaheim, and the World Champion Houston Astros.  A full slate of games today. Let’s see if it tightens up those races any more than they already are.

Anybody born on this date?  Well if so, you share it with: Hungarian serial killer Elizabeth Bathory, German spy Mata Hari, guitarist George Van Eps, pitcher Don Larsen, sci-fi author Richard L Tierney, radio personality and #metoo victim Garrison Keillor, deep-stater Robert Mueller, rocker Kerry Chater, musician Jacquie O’Sullivan, lovely actress Charlize Theron, and hockey star Sidney Crosby.

Its also the date on which Francis Drake returned to England after a year of kicking Spanish ass, Macbeth was performed for the first time, George Washington created the Purple Heart, the US created the Department of War and Lighthouse Services (which is probably now 6 different cabinet departments), Walter Johnson got his first, of 416!, wins, Jacquie Kennedy becomes first First Lady to give birth since the Cleveland admin (The baby dies three days later.), US Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin resolution, Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s home run record and Operation Desert Shield began.

OK, let’s get into…the links!

When you’re old, sometimes its fun when you’re living after midnight.

LeBron James is a hell of a philanthropist…with the money taken from the taxpayers of Akron. $8m a year is a pretty hefty bill for one school with a couple hundred kids in it.  One wonders if perhaps a private school would be a better fit for someone’s “charity”.  You know, like Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf have been doing for over a decade without any fanfare or public ass-kissing in Las Vegas. LeBron will be contributing around $2M a year when the school is at full capacity.

Apple, Youtube and Facebook delete all content posted by Alex Jones, citing “hate speech”.  Conservatives bristle at the action as do any free speech advocates with a spine.  The ACLU have remained silent, best as I can tell, what with all their energy going into the sanctuary cities defense and their efforts to follow France’s catcalling ban.  You know, because free speech isn’t important anymore.

Mueller’s prosecutors in the Paul Manafort trial continue to piss of the judge in the case and get a 10-minute scolding. Meanwhile Manafort’s “partner”, who was given immunity, admits to breaking the law.

California really knows how to make use of those high taxes.  You literally can’t get an appointment for a drivers license at the San Francisco DMV for the next three months.  Meanwhile, the state’s former teachers and police officers are seeing record high pensions.

Chicago mayoral challengers pile on criticism of Emanuel after the most violent weekend the city has seen in years. Huh, they aren’t blaming Indiana.  That’s actually surprising.  What’s not surprising is that the police aren’t having any fingers pointed at them for their systemic failure to maintain order and to not act like the biggest gang in town that operates above the law in such a way that undermines the trust of there residents.

Man, Wells Fargo continues to be the United Airlines of major banks. What are they gonna do next, find a way to kill the puppies of account holders?

Missouri voters face an important vote today.  I’m curious to see how the recent Supreme Court ruling sways people, if at all.  Either way, this will be touted as a defining moment by whichever side wins.

Don’t blame me. Blame the lack of people banging on November nights several years ago.

Have a great Tuesday, my friends!

Captain Dipshit rubbing his hands in greedy anticipation that a reporter gets murdered so he* can blame it on Trump.

Before too long, a reporter will become a direct casualty of the Trump era.

With the ever-present caveat that predictions are worthless: an American journalist is going to get murdered as a direct result of our current political climate. Hating reporters, of course, is nothing new. But neither is political assassination. Sometimes when you sense a storm rolling in, you realize that the sunny days you’d been enjoying were actually the exception, rather than the norm.

Here and there and everywhere, explicit violent threats against members of the media are on the rise. Most of these threats are bullshit, trash talk, empty venting by angry people who would never imagine doing anything in real life. But not all. As with all types of threats, some small percentage of them will be backed up by serious intent, and as the frequency of threats grows, so too does the likelihood that one or more of them becomes reality. This is all on top of the normal, latent threat level that accompanies a job in journalism—the sort of danger that accompanies any job that involves frequently and publicly criticizing, exposing, or embarrassing people. The Capital Gazette shootings earlier this year and the murder of TV reporter Alison Parker live on air were both examples of the regular kinds of risks that journalist face: angry, crazy readers or story subjects and a constant opportunity for a maniac to achieve instant publicity for a brutal act. That’s always there. Today, though, we have the whole “enemy of the people” thing. All the maniacs now have a hard-to-resist political motive. And, as always, they have lots of guns. Inevitably, someone will seize on both.

*The last I heard, Hamilton Nolan was still using male pronouns. If this is no longer the case, I apologize.

STEVESMITHLAND is in grave danger!

Where the Pacific Northwest’s “Big One” Is More Likely to Strike

The Pacific Northwest is known for many things—its beer, its music, its mythical large-footed creatures. Most people don’t associate it with earthquakes, but they should. It’s home to the Cascadia megathrust fault that runs 600 miles from Northern California up to Vancouver Island in Canada, spanning several major metropolitan areas including Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

This geologic fault has been relatively quiet in recent memory. There haven’t been many widely felt quakes along the Cascadia megathrust, certainly nothing that would rival a catastrophic event like the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake along the active San Andreas in California. That doesn’t mean it will stay quiet, though. Scientists know it has the potential for large earthquakes—as big as magnitude 9.

Geophysicists have known for over a decade that not all portions of the Cascadia megathrust fault behave the same. The northern and southern sections are much more seismically active than the central section—with frequent small earthquakes and ground deformations that residents don’t often notice. But why do these variations exist and what gives rise to them?

Damn, Scientific American, you a dirty girl…

Man on valiant quest to review all of Fargo’s chicken tenders

John Miller of Moorhead, Minnesota, wants to eat all the chicken strip baskets.

Miller is the author of the Thrills With JMills blog, where he has thus far reviewed more than 20 chicken strip baskets served around the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area.

“Chicken strips are a universal language,” Miller tells news station WDAY. “I am a man of the people; chicken strips are the food of the people.”

This deep-fried populism carries imbues his reviews. In a recent review of Old Broadway’s chicken strip basket, Mills writes: “For the most part, I enjoy simple pleasures. …That’s what the OB offers. Affordable, solid bar food. The chicken strip basket has simple elements that just taste good. It’s nothing to write home about, but I won’t complain about it.”

His criteria for judging chicken strip baskets are simple and straight-forward: “The aspects of the basket that influence the review are the chicken strips (duh), fries and ranch. Extras such as toast are greatly appreciated, but will not be taken into consideration to maintain a level playing field.”

He’s not afraid to dish out criticism when the strips fall short; of a recent chicken-strip order at Sonic, Mills writes: “It had an acceptable crispinessbut didn’t seem to be that great of quality. They just didn’t taste that good.”

“I WANT MY HILLARY TV!”

New Murphy Brown will address #MeToo, and the producers address Les Moonves at TCA

In January, when CBS announced that it was reviving Murphy Brown, we noted that the show would be modernizing its investigative journalist action with some bleeding-edge timeliness, as Candice Bergen’s eponymous Murphy Brown would be entering a world of “fake news,” Fox News (called “Wolf Network” in the Murphy-verse), and general attacks on the media. Speaking at a Television Critics Association event today, Murphy Brown executive producer Diane English noted that the revived show would have an episode inspired by #MeToo. “It’s a powerful movement,” English said, adding, “we wanted to do it justice, and the episode title is ‘#MurphyToo.’”

I’m sure that 30 minutes hectoring coming out of Candice Bergen’s 72-year-old face in 4K HD–interspersed with ads for bladder leak underwear and Vagasil–will be warmly embraced by an America hungry for a thoroughly non-erotic scolding.