Man this guy is stupid, so much so he doesn't even know it. He should since he is a failure at so many things. Whoever he sent to Switzerland has been set up for the failure. He tells them exactly what to say and they better not deviate from his script which is so well thought out that it cannot fail. My ass, everything about this war (cluster fuck) was doomed to fail he couldn't see it and it is easy to see he does not eveer acknowledge his own failures, they are many.
The 30% will not let go even after this debacle. Is it selfish gangsters or did our educational institutions fail to teach our peoples? We lost lives and our military starved on ships. Our allies funding cleanup on aisle 45. Repulsive to think our guy linking funds with Iran. 30 bullion cubes. The signing of the axis agreement with ru China NKorea and Iran yet our guy can’t say enough about these governments… sometimes I feel like we are in a sick looney tune film for 2026 adult only viewing. No conditions and monster palates of cash to make it stop. I know what is going down thanks to BlackmanSpy yet it is so completely unfathomable. Hugs please
Great analysis today Rick. Just makes everything so much worse in the light of day. The hawks wanted a war, fed the war machine, and we paid for it. And we will be paying for generations. MAGA and trump never made America great and it never will be again. Congress is complicit with every bit of this bullshit
More on the woes of the Lincoln memorial reflecting pool...
See yesterday's cartoon by Ann Telnaes...she's our 20th/21st century Thomas Nast!
And...
That's why the American flag blue was another poor decision by the Loser in chief...the light blue bottom reflects the sun and stops alae growth...dark blue absorbs the sunlight...converts it into heat. This elevates the water temperature. Because algae thrive in warm, sunlit water, dark bottoms can actually accelerate algae blooms and make the problem worse
Lighter-colored surfaces (which the pool had, ante trump) reflect the sunlight and help keep the surrounding water cooler, which helps to slow down the rapid growth of algae.
Just another example of Rick's Maxim: ETTD....red letter, cannon law to us Ricksters...
Rick, the bon mots fall from your pen, er..keyboard here in this post, bravo...however, Sen Kennedy , a Louisiana Republican has a good one of his own... when asked by a reporter whether he was confident Iran would give up its nuclear ambitions the Senator, answered:
“Unless you were homeschooled by a day drinker, no one’s confident that Iran is going to do anything.”
I have fallen in love with 2024's Taking Umbrage (nice title ;) so unbelievably hard. Doug Truhlar here is so right; this is as close as we'll get to the mad, calculated polytonal anarchy of Captain Beefheart's epoch-making Trout Mask Replica (1969). Yowie's focus is relentlessly narrow. It is non-referential and non-postmodern. It is a transcendent rock music original at the molecular level.
Everyone needs to listen to this. Everyone needs to feel originality this deep (at least once ;).
From St. Louis, MO, Yowie hail from the proud 30-year tradition of Midwestern math rock, a movement that began just as the suits made sure that Seattle grunge sucked up all the oxygen. So they've been likened to the usual suspects, Hella, Don Caballero, Dazzling Killmen, US Maple, Lightning Bolt, etc. But this immaculately produced and recorded album is Mathcore 2.0.
And oh my goodness is Midwestern mathcore different than French mathcore ;) (I love both!)
All of the tunes on Taking Umbrage have their delicious WTF moments; I chose Museum Fatigue to study in depth for awhile because the opening is a little less frenetic and more slithery. Don't ask me what that compound time signature is and don't ask me to spell out all the incredibly subtle ways it changes thereafter. It's a commonplace of reviewers to say that Yowie's music "doesn't repeat" but that's not entirely true. On the smallest cellular level, Yowie's music is tonal and riff-based but the riffs never congeal into vamps with verbatim repetition. Fragments of riffs are repeated with constant variations so that the riffs don't feel like riffs. The repeat structures are so complexly interleaved that they dissolve time for the listener in a sort of sacred arbitrariness, a hoary modernist technique pioneered by Stravinsky in the Sacrificial Dance.
And they play this stuff with an incredible group feel you get by shlepping it around in small clubs and art rock tours for a living and without any studio trickery. The amount of muscle memory it takes to play this stuff accurately (and there are well-shot and recorded live vids of some of these tunes) is mind-boggling. Truly a classical musician-level of proficiency. And all without anything like melody or functional harmony, for that matter. I haven't squinted hard at his axe, but the guitarist is a microtonalist and no doubt he's crammed some extra frets in there. Without uncorking music theory to explain what microtonality is, I'll just say that he plays out of tune on purpose ;). Who needs melody when the sounds themselves are so interesting?
And they do this all without fuzz and metal histrionics. The guitar may have the tiniest glaze of overdrive, but it sounds at all times like an instrument with steel strings you pick and strum to make sound, clear and ringing. Compositionally, for me anyway, it completely defies analysis, brute-force intuition putting the enormous number of fluidly evolving sections together. And in this way it defies the standard critique of hypercomplex rock music that it's overbaked or overthought. This intuitive, force-of-will method either works or it doesn't; YMMV.
It worked for Captain Beefheart. And It works for me _very, very_ hard here ;)
Through all of Trump's grifting activities, it's the bold-faced theft of taxpayer money that angers me the most. Never before have I been so focused on presidential expenditures, mostly because we never had a such a blue ribbon criminal behind the Resolute desk. The gall, the entitlement, the imperiousness of Trump and his regime of greedy, power hungry, incompetent creeps is beyond the beyond. In the end I wonder: Is it possible to ever claw back any of the funds Trump has literally stolen? Could we legally force him to pay back at least some of the billions he has stolen and wasted on his idiotic and disasterous whims? I would delight in a government raid of his finances to forcefully take money from him. Of course, this is something Trump would do, and basically has done to we, the people. It's illegal, I know, however I admit that I want revenge, and if Trump doesn't live long enough to experience our wrath directly, his children, specifically the three eldest, should get the full bore of our society's financial retribution. The entire family is a scourge on our country AND the world (ask Armenia).
Sadly it’s all so true. Obama’s JCPOA had stringent inspection and monitoring protocols to ensure Iran wouldn’t enrich. Trump has a promise - in fact, the exact same promise the Iranians made regarding the JCPOA.
And then the Mullahs actually feared American military might. Now, they know, as the rest of the world knows, America, especially under Trump, is a paper tiger, if not on the side of tyranny itself.
"He handed power to Iran and China in ways only Trump could accomplish, and while they’re grateful, they also simply have to pinch themselves to believe it’s true."
The Mullahs aren't the only people pinching themselves!
Xi is now sashaying around the world, sporting the ermine robes of the Wise Elder Statesman. He is mightily motivated to demonstrate restraint for now, to make all of Asia reconsider their fear and take the hand he is offering them. Paradoxically, I'm guessing that Taiwan is actually safer now, at least in the short run. Xi knows that yes, he could seize it, but he has soooo much more to gain by playing a long game, letting Trump continue to flame out, and realign the entire planet around China. He's stable, rational, and has virtually infinite resources.... wouldn't you rather be doing business and alliances with him?
I hope your reading is correct George - the long-game is the Chinese way, but in the case of the Trump decline there is little need for extended patience, let him sleep ...
"For now" is my escape hatch. I have no special knowledge of when or how Xi would cash in his chips. The Chinese could continue to consolidate for a century, quietly weaving themselves into the economics and security of the entire planet. Or they could pounce once Trump is gone and cripple the US.
special knowledge, no did not suspect you did, unless your surname is Kushner (or Trump!) .... as for cashing-in-the-chips, one wonders of the plans at TSMC for relocating ...
"the attention span of a goldfish at a rave" made me laugh so hard. I will remember and use this one often. Not only does he have the attention span of a goldfish, he is looking more and more like a goldfish that is about to go belly up.
Another great article, that nails what is going on with such accuracy! Thanks for the morning read and the laughs throughout.
Man this guy is stupid, so much so he doesn't even know it. He should since he is a failure at so many things. Whoever he sent to Switzerland has been set up for the failure. He tells them exactly what to say and they better not deviate from his script which is so well thought out that it cannot fail. My ass, everything about this war (cluster fuck) was doomed to fail he couldn't see it and it is easy to see he does not eveer acknowledge his own failures, they are many.
The 30% will not let go even after this debacle. Is it selfish gangsters or did our educational institutions fail to teach our peoples? We lost lives and our military starved on ships. Our allies funding cleanup on aisle 45. Repulsive to think our guy linking funds with Iran. 30 bullion cubes. The signing of the axis agreement with ru China NKorea and Iran yet our guy can’t say enough about these governments… sometimes I feel like we are in a sick looney tune film for 2026 adult only viewing. No conditions and monster palates of cash to make it stop. I know what is going down thanks to BlackmanSpy yet it is so completely unfathomable. Hugs please
Great analysis today Rick. Just makes everything so much worse in the light of day. The hawks wanted a war, fed the war machine, and we paid for it. And we will be paying for generations. MAGA and trump never made America great and it never will be again. Congress is complicit with every bit of this bullshit
More on the woes of the Lincoln memorial reflecting pool...
See yesterday's cartoon by Ann Telnaes...she's our 20th/21st century Thomas Nast!
And...
That's why the American flag blue was another poor decision by the Loser in chief...the light blue bottom reflects the sun and stops alae growth...dark blue absorbs the sunlight...converts it into heat. This elevates the water temperature. Because algae thrive in warm, sunlit water, dark bottoms can actually accelerate algae blooms and make the problem worse
Lighter-colored surfaces (which the pool had, ante trump) reflect the sunlight and help keep the surrounding water cooler, which helps to slow down the rapid growth of algae.
Just another example of Rick's Maxim: ETTD....red letter, cannon law to us Ricksters...
Because science is woke. Just ask the relatives of all those poor massacred birds, birdicided by windmills :(
Rick, the bon mots fall from your pen, er..keyboard here in this post, bravo...however, Sen Kennedy , a Louisiana Republican has a good one of his own... when asked by a reporter whether he was confident Iran would give up its nuclear ambitions the Senator, answered:
“Unless you were homeschooled by a day drinker, no one’s confident that Iran is going to do anything.”
ROTFL !!
That's the Oxford schooled Senator for ya...
Somebody's gonna make a fortune selling HOMESCHOOLED BY A DAY DRINKER T-shirts, since self-hating addiction humor is a Spencer's Gifts specialty ;)
I'd imagine that most of the MAGAloids were homeschooled by day drinkers.
The Trumpenproletariat, you could call them in a Marxist kinda mood ;)
Trump's fetish for making deals is to strategy what tic-tac-toe is to gaming.
Now playing (on repeat!): Yowie, Museum Fatigue
I have fallen in love with 2024's Taking Umbrage (nice title ;) so unbelievably hard. Doug Truhlar here is so right; this is as close as we'll get to the mad, calculated polytonal anarchy of Captain Beefheart's epoch-making Trout Mask Replica (1969). Yowie's focus is relentlessly narrow. It is non-referential and non-postmodern. It is a transcendent rock music original at the molecular level.
Everyone needs to listen to this. Everyone needs to feel originality this deep (at least once ;).
From St. Louis, MO, Yowie hail from the proud 30-year tradition of Midwestern math rock, a movement that began just as the suits made sure that Seattle grunge sucked up all the oxygen. So they've been likened to the usual suspects, Hella, Don Caballero, Dazzling Killmen, US Maple, Lightning Bolt, etc. But this immaculately produced and recorded album is Mathcore 2.0.
And oh my goodness is Midwestern mathcore different than French mathcore ;) (I love both!)
All of the tunes on Taking Umbrage have their delicious WTF moments; I chose Museum Fatigue to study in depth for awhile because the opening is a little less frenetic and more slithery. Don't ask me what that compound time signature is and don't ask me to spell out all the incredibly subtle ways it changes thereafter. It's a commonplace of reviewers to say that Yowie's music "doesn't repeat" but that's not entirely true. On the smallest cellular level, Yowie's music is tonal and riff-based but the riffs never congeal into vamps with verbatim repetition. Fragments of riffs are repeated with constant variations so that the riffs don't feel like riffs. The repeat structures are so complexly interleaved that they dissolve time for the listener in a sort of sacred arbitrariness, a hoary modernist technique pioneered by Stravinsky in the Sacrificial Dance.
And they play this stuff with an incredible group feel you get by shlepping it around in small clubs and art rock tours for a living and without any studio trickery. The amount of muscle memory it takes to play this stuff accurately (and there are well-shot and recorded live vids of some of these tunes) is mind-boggling. Truly a classical musician-level of proficiency. And all without anything like melody or functional harmony, for that matter. I haven't squinted hard at his axe, but the guitarist is a microtonalist and no doubt he's crammed some extra frets in there. Without uncorking music theory to explain what microtonality is, I'll just say that he plays out of tune on purpose ;). Who needs melody when the sounds themselves are so interesting?
And they do this all without fuzz and metal histrionics. The guitar may have the tiniest glaze of overdrive, but it sounds at all times like an instrument with steel strings you pick and strum to make sound, clear and ringing. Compositionally, for me anyway, it completely defies analysis, brute-force intuition putting the enormous number of fluidly evolving sections together. And in this way it defies the standard critique of hypercomplex rock music that it's overbaked or overthought. This intuitive, force-of-will method either works or it doesn't; YMMV.
It worked for Captain Beefheart. And It works for me _very, very_ hard here ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_QSuUKzFco
Bob... Schoolin' da peeps on Capt. Beefheart...the good Captain...R.I.P.
Thanks for da link, sir...it's in my queue.
You left out one of the three big lies, in addition to the check’s in the mail: “the Benz is in the shop.”
Wait a minute—he’s going to use an AUTOPEN?!?!
DocuSign, LOL
No matter what you think of astrology, this is so fucking correct it is scary—published in 2007! https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/2007/1/special-alert-horoscope-usa
Oh, that Barbara Tuchman were alive to see all of this. We would get The March Of Folly Part Deux, this time devoted to just one idiot.
Through all of Trump's grifting activities, it's the bold-faced theft of taxpayer money that angers me the most. Never before have I been so focused on presidential expenditures, mostly because we never had a such a blue ribbon criminal behind the Resolute desk. The gall, the entitlement, the imperiousness of Trump and his regime of greedy, power hungry, incompetent creeps is beyond the beyond. In the end I wonder: Is it possible to ever claw back any of the funds Trump has literally stolen? Could we legally force him to pay back at least some of the billions he has stolen and wasted on his idiotic and disasterous whims? I would delight in a government raid of his finances to forcefully take money from him. Of course, this is something Trump would do, and basically has done to we, the people. It's illegal, I know, however I admit that I want revenge, and if Trump doesn't live long enough to experience our wrath directly, his children, specifically the three eldest, should get the full bore of our society's financial retribution. The entire family is a scourge on our country AND the world (ask Armenia).
Amen, Jen.'The entire family is a scourge on our country AND the world (ask Armenia).'...! and they aren't having any of it.
Sadly it’s all so true. Obama’s JCPOA had stringent inspection and monitoring protocols to ensure Iran wouldn’t enrich. Trump has a promise - in fact, the exact same promise the Iranians made regarding the JCPOA.
And they know that with very little effort they can shut the Strait of Hormuz and throw the World Economy into disarray.
And then the Mullahs actually feared American military might. Now, they know, as the rest of the world knows, America, especially under Trump, is a paper tiger, if not on the side of tyranny itself.
"tired old man" says it all
"He handed power to Iran and China in ways only Trump could accomplish, and while they’re grateful, they also simply have to pinch themselves to believe it’s true."
The Mullahs aren't the only people pinching themselves!
Xi is now sashaying around the world, sporting the ermine robes of the Wise Elder Statesman. He is mightily motivated to demonstrate restraint for now, to make all of Asia reconsider their fear and take the hand he is offering them. Paradoxically, I'm guessing that Taiwan is actually safer now, at least in the short run. Xi knows that yes, he could seize it, but he has soooo much more to gain by playing a long game, letting Trump continue to flame out, and realign the entire planet around China. He's stable, rational, and has virtually infinite resources.... wouldn't you rather be doing business and alliances with him?
Study Mandarin.
I hope your reading is correct George - the long-game is the Chinese way, but in the case of the Trump decline there is little need for extended patience, let him sleep ...
"For now" is my escape hatch. I have no special knowledge of when or how Xi would cash in his chips. The Chinese could continue to consolidate for a century, quietly weaving themselves into the economics and security of the entire planet. Or they could pounce once Trump is gone and cripple the US.
special knowledge, no did not suspect you did, unless your surname is Kushner (or Trump!) .... as for cashing-in-the-chips, one wonders of the plans at TSMC for relocating ...
"the attention span of a goldfish at a rave" made me laugh so hard. I will remember and use this one often. Not only does he have the attention span of a goldfish, he is looking more and more like a goldfish that is about to go belly up.
Another great article, that nails what is going on with such accuracy! Thanks for the morning read and the laughs throughout.