Today is the Summer Solstice which marks the longest day of the year. From today on the days will get shorter until the Winter Solstice which is the shortest day of the yar. But along with this year's Summer Solstice is something that only happens every 70 years. We will also have a full moon. To ancient cultures, this means that the apocolypse is coming and the end of the world is nigh. It does feel like that these days. However, if this has been happening since the beginning of observable human existance, I wouldn't get too worked up and max your credit cards or anything. Though you might hold off on buying a new carton of milk for a few days.
But then again, I have to tell ya', Sweet Meteor O' Death (a/k/a SMOD) has been getting a little more aggressive in his (her? its? their?) political-slash-destroy-the-world-as-we-know-it rhetoric on Twitter lately. Personally, I don't take that seriously. Meteors can be so testy and unpredictable. Just when you need one, they disappear. Why here is an example:
For those who do not recognize them (or don't want to admit you do), these are the "ladies" (I use that term loosely) of one of those Housewives reality shows. We came upon them while on a walking tour on a tiny, cobblestoned side street in Dublin. Honestly, if ever there was a moment for a small, pin-point meteor to strike, it should have been then. But no matter how I pleaded to SMOD, none came.
Anyway, just in case the end of the world IS nigh or not, let's free-form it today and talk about anything you want.
But then again, I have to tell ya', Sweet Meteor O' Death (a/k/a SMOD) has been getting a little more aggressive in his (her? its? their?) political-slash-destroy-the-world-as-we-know-it rhetoric on Twitter lately. Personally, I don't take that seriously. Meteors can be so testy and unpredictable. Just when you need one, they disappear. Why here is an example:
Anyway, just in case the end of the world IS nigh or not, let's free-form it today and talk about anything you want.
24 comments:
Ok, I had to say... one of these bimbos is getting divorced. Only one, you say? Apparently. Anyways, this led to the question: "Are the RHWOWhereever cursed?"
No. They are not cursed.
What they are, is people with lousy values who do the kinds of asinine things that people with lousy value do. The result is that they are paying the consequences of being idiotic *ssholes. That is not a curse... it is self inflicted.
I recently read a fascinating book by Thomas Sowell written in the early 1980s titled Marxism, and it is about the Marxism espoused by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Worth a read, if you can find it.
Just finished! Three quotes from the last 4 pages:
“The Marxian vision took the overwhelming complexity of the real world and made the parts fall into place, in a way that was intellectually exhilarating and conferred such sense of moral superiority that opponents could be simply labelled and dismissed as moral lepers or blind reactionaries.” —Thomas Sowell (p. 219)
“The supreme irony of Marxism was that a fundamentally humane and egalitarian creed was so dominated by a bookish perspective that it became blind to facts and deaf to humanity and freedom.” —Thomas Sowell (p. 221)
“People who could never be corrupted by money or power may nevertheless be blinded by a vision.” —Thomas Sowell (p. 221)
Dennis Hastert is reporting to prison soon. The judge did him the favor of sending him to a prison with a lot of pedophiles. If something unpleasant happens to him anyway I'll manage to contain my grief.
http://townhall.com/news/us/2016/06/21/inmate-no-47991424-hastert-to-report-to-prison-soon-n2181425
The facility, despite its name, has all the features of a prison. It is surrounded by razor-wire fencing and holds around 800 inmates from all security classifications, including convicted killers. Among them is Jared Lee Loughner, who is serving a life term for killing six people in the 2011 shooting that targeted and injured former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords.
During sentencing, Durkin pointed to the prison's large population of child molesters, saying it should lessen the chances Hastert would be singled out for attacks in a prison culture in which those who hurt children are considered the lowest of the low.
The Obama administration's initial attempt to censor the Islamic terrorist's transcript was a new high water mark for bizarre incompetence for it, which is saying something.
Lucky for Obama the Trump campaign spent yesterday publicly divesting itself of its two top staffers and announcing that it was going in a new direction.
Talk about performing well under pressure. For those golfers out there, what Dustin Johnson (home boy BTW) did at the US Open final round was the height of emotional control. Not only was he leading another major on the final day.....where he had lost all the others so far.....but the idiots on the USGA Rules Committee decided to let Dustin play the final 6 holes not knowing if he was going to be assessed a stroke penalty for a b.s. rules infraction that took place on the 5th green!
The fact he played on and actually played even better is a testament to his focus and ability to control his emotions in one of the most emotionally dependent sports out there. And yes, if you've ever golfed before, you know how your emotions can play havoc with your thought process and swing, as every shot in golf is different. As someone once said, "If you think hitting a ball coming at you at 90 mph when 40,000 people are screaming is difficult, try hitting a smaller one when no one says a word."
Anyway, a true definition of coolness under pressure.
Oh, what a hangover. Strange. It still feels as though millions of Cleveland jokes cried out in terror...and were suddenly silenced. Is this moon somehow related, Bev?
BTW, was that brimstone from the SMOD I just saw outside the window?
Ah, let 'em have their fun. Parade's not gonna be as great as the one the Pens had last week. And besides, I'd like to see how long those smiles last when they remember their football team is still the Brahns.
I certainly had my fill of O.J. Simpson this week. I binge-watched both FX' American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson and ESPN's O.J.: Made in America.
The FX series was generally excellent. Sarah Paulson and Courtney B. Vance deserve every award for playing, respectively, Marcia Clark and Johnnie Cochran. Travolta is good as Robert Shapiro - it's certainly the best work he's done in a decade though the eyebrows are a bit distracting at first. David Schwimmer is also good as Robert Kardashian and there are a couple of winks and nods to the future of that particular family. And I had never heard of him beforehand, but Sterling K. Brown certainly makes you feel for the position Chris Darden was put in.
Always-dependable character actors like Christian Clemenson and Bruce Greenwood are also excellent. Ironically, the weak link in the cast might be Cuba Gooding Jr. himself as O.J. He's not bad, but his voice isn't nearly deep enough and he's not as interesting as everything going on around him.
The ESPN documentary takes a macro view of things, looking at O.J. through the lens of Los Angeles, USC culture, and the LAPD's race problem, with many insisting that the not guilty verdict was "payback" for Rodney King. One of the jurors even admits as much. This is covered in both series but I'm still beside myself at the thought of O.J.'s legal team going to his house the day before the jury visit to make it more "black-friendly" (i.e. replacing photos of white friends with black friends, bringing in African art, etc.).
The OJ Simpson thing was embarrassing. At least he was stupid enough to commit another felony after he escaped justice the first time.
Hillary's hope says he gets more support from Democrats than Republicans. Funny that.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/trump-blames-republicans-for-campaign-woes-i-get-more-support-from-the-democrats/
When asked about his lagging campaign’s deficits in fundraising and the polls, Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump blamed the lack of support he was getting from other Republicans.
“I need support from the Republicans,” Trump told Fox & Friends. “I mean, in some ways I get more support from the Democrats than I do the Republicans.”
Anthony, but is he wrong? Trump's best angle is to triangulate against both parties, since they are basically both against him.
I will say honestly that what happened to OJ is wrong. Yes, I think he killed his wife and he should have been convicted. But once the system blew it (bad attorney work by the prosecution), that should have been the end of it. Instead, it strikes me that his second conviction was way over charging. Someone other than him would have gotten a year tops.
I don't feel bad for OJ because he's a killer, but I don't like the system working to get someone.
tryanmax, There have been three other candidates in my memory who ran against both parties... Reagan, Clinton, and Obama. None was as nasty about it, but these are much nastier times. Of the three, both Clinton and Reagan faced a similar level of hate from their own sides. Both were ridiculed as stupid outsiders who were a danger to the system and "don't represent our values." Both ended up drawing significant support from the apolitical public and both faced venomous pundits the whole time.
Reagan ran against the country clubbers and was torn apart by the media and the party elite and found himself facing John Anderson as a third party "Save the GOP" candidate. Clinton was attacked as one of the "Seven Dwarves," a corrupt fool from hillbilly land. He was attacked for lack of orthodoxy on many issues including race. His campaign invented the term "triangulation." He lucked out that Perot joined the race to beat Bush, and that the Democrats were just not enthusiastic about him rather than actively tried to beat him.
Obama was dismissed as a child who shouldn't be in the race and faced constant attacks from the Clinton machine, which ran the media and held the levers of power in the Democratic Party. In his case though, the party came around after Clinton gave up the race and he had their full support by election time.
Trump is most similar to Reagan without the Anderson challenge (so far).
Bev, your Sweet Meteor is testy and unpredictable? Not much of a meteor, then! Meteors are suppose to be slavish to the cold, predictable laws of nature, unwavering in their determined path.
If testy and unpredictable is what appeals to you, might I suggest Cthulhu? I know I keep trying to bring you over, but it sounds like you're partway there.
Tryanmax,
I suspect Trump's fundraising and PR problems have more to do with idiocy (he takes a different position every time he opens his mouth) and possibly corruption than anything else.
Donald Trump's campaign has been paying an ad agency that exists only on a tv show.
http://www.mediaite.com/election-2016/donald-trump-campaign-appears-to-be-paying-a-fictional-ad-agency/
In their most recent FEC filing, the Donald Trump campaign revealed that they paid $35,000 to an ad agency that, by all appearances, doesn’t actually exist.
ThinkProgress’ Judd Legum caught the odd detail when poring over Trump’s financial statements.
Draper Sterling is the name of the ad agency in AMC’s Mad Men. But Legum is right; Trump’s financial filings show that he made several payments to Draper Sterling in April of this year for web advertising.
Anthony - I saw that this morning about the Draper Sterling and other expenses paid to Trump entities Trump Travel, Trump steaks, Trump etc. I wonder if the Draper Sterling filing is why two of Trump's top people were fired yesterday? Why do I get the feeling that this whole campaign will be airing a a reality show on the new Fall Season on CBS...
Btw, did you hear that someone tried to "assassinate" Trump at a rally in Las Vegas by trying to grab a gun from police officer? No? Well, it turns out the would-be assassin was also an illegal from UK who has overstayed his welcome. Good news i that he was white/non-Muslim. There seems to be no cry from the Dems to stop illegals from getting guns by putting them on "No Papers/No Buy" list.
Bev, He's apparently an autistic kid who builds robots, and his parents warned the police that he might be dangerous.
I posted some Comic-Con advice and thoughts at the Film Site if anyone is interested...
Scott, Anthony, and Andrew - I am with ya' on the whole OJ debacle. It was a mess all the way around. And it didn't help at all that the Judge allowed it to be televised.
Patriot - I read about Dustin Johnson's victory at the US Open. And that is what makes a true winner in any single-person sport like golf and tennis - the amount of concentration it takes to stay in the zone when all around is chaos.
Tryanmax - I am slowly warming up to Cthulhu, but honestly, I kind of like the unpredictability of SMOD. One day, he/she/it may or may not destroy the entire Earth and then the next day the same. However if you can assure me that I will be able to call on Cthulhu to destroy those like the RHWOEverywhere, then it might just push me over the edge...I mean push my over to the Cthulhu camp.
Rustbelt - Did something exciting happen in Cincinnati? ;-)
Nice pic of Stonehenge for this! The solstice and the full moon has made for some interesting creative stuff with a friend. As for the topic that usually dominates open threads, well, all I'll say is that I think I was less depressed after the 2008 rout than I am about the pending election in November.
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