PS: My walls are painted and the carpet is installed ( it looks awesome), waiting on the blinds, the lady we need to speak to to get it going, sends emails, she won't respond to replies, and Rick has left his number like 4 times, and she never calls back.
The furniture is arriving on the 26th. and I have to still purchase the mattress and new pillows and a valance for the window...lots of choices on the mattress, finding it hard to decide which one...lol
Reading about politics is escapism for me. My desk has stacks of unimportant paperwork to sort, toss, or file. I spend at least 4 hours taking calls daily from people seeking therapy, and they detail why they need an appointment—who thought helping a friend a couple hours a week would grow into a real job?—and my daughter wants me to update my Advance Directive to name people at least under 75 to make the decisions. Am enjoying coffee outside before it gets too hot, and chatting with y’all. Will be off to find Earl’s Rant soon.
Just briefly..Rick is at the hospital, they couldn't do the procedure, and his mom is dying. I stayed home in case there is something I can do to help...I feel so bad for him. And helpless to do much to help.
There won't be a showing or anything, she just wants her ashes along with her long-time BF's, and her two dogs that passed, thrown in the lake...maybe in about a month, when her nephew can be here, they might do something.
The older I get, the more this happens, and she is only a few years older than me...
85F overnight. 0.41" of rain. Going back to last August, we had 0.62" in June, 0.45" in March and that was it until last August 2024.
Not only does the Universe go on without us, so do all your and my atoms and molecules! And atoms of creatures, rocks, air...don't care!
Train rides. Done many all over. Counting say high speed rides over an hour- Europe. Enjoyed Milan-Florence @JayJ. Japan Shinkensen many routes N and S. SKorea. Slower trains; HK, Shanghai, and Heifei.
But the 1930s British built Lunatic Express!! Overnight from Mombasa to Nairobi, Kenya. Thru Tsavo, man eating lion country (they munches some railway building workers).
Flight back to the US thru Dakaar leaving at 3pm. 6am, the Steam engine breaks down in the middle of the country side. It's like 30 miles to the first communication area. 1986. Radios limited. cellphones unheard of.
Runner heads out!! Like a Kenyan marathoner! And an engine comes down and rescues us.
Classic 1930s train. Windows. no ac. Pinki loves trains, her granddad did central NJ 1915-60 ish. Same with Uncles and all.
I’m trying hard to break the news and politics cords but finding it challenging. My dad ingrained in me the importance of being informed when I was a teen and the habit is proving hard to break. Ironically he died at 95 a stressed out news junkie. I’m trying to distract myself with my hobbies of photography and guitar. I started learning to play late in life but it’s fun despite the challenge and frustration. It’s a hard thing to learn. Today I’ll restring mine, maybe edit a few photos, go to my yoga class, and tonight we’ll host my 6 year old granddaughter’s birthday dinner. If I stick to my plan, there won’t be any time for news.
Living in China gave me a perspective that changed how I think about news and politics. Most of what we get here is nonsense, not in the sense that a particular fact is wrong, or that someone is lying, or that something is entirely made up (which a lot of it is), but that it's all decontextualized nonsense bearing the imprint of the biases brought to it by the media conglomerates (including Substack nowadays) that publishes it.
It's why I ignore most of it and don't let any of it get under my skin. Photography and guitar are much better use of one's time.
Nonsense is the right word. Mindless is another. Lately I ask myself would I be any worse off if I didn’t know this news item? Too often the answer is no and I find myself tuning out more all the time.
Yes, it is. Nonsensical to a degree that can drive me crazy if I let it. So much of the "news" has no meaningful bearing on our lives. What does have bearing is reported in stunted and ignorant news bites to fill the gaping maw of public opinion.
Been in Kansas City for the last three days with my son and grandson to see our Pirates lose twice to the hapless Royals. Eaten a lot of barbecue, visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Negro Leagues Hall of Fame, the American Jazz Museum, and the World War I museum. Off today (after visiting a couple of used bookstores) to north-central Kansas, a tiny town where my Mom was born and raised. We will connect with long-lost second cousins (whom I don’t know) and visit the cemetery where my grandparents (whom I never met) are buried.
From what I can tell, my wife seems, depressingly, to be living a full and rich life back home in Rochester, NY without me.
Here's something that's far from the politics of the day. For the past few years I've been filling some of my time building my family history, first charting a full family tree (going back six to eight generations in most cases) and then doing some detailed study into what day-to-day life was like for those early generations. Ancestry.com has been a useful tool for that, particularly for building the tree.
A few months ago I took an additional step and got them to analyze my DNA. They then compared the results with their database to see if there are any matches with other customers. To date, they've identified a bunch of distant relatives (third or fourth cousins) in various parts of the world.
Yesterday, I got a message from a second cousin (once removed) that I had no idea existed who lives in Northern Ireland. Our common ancestor is one of my second-great grandfathers.
My immediate family has always been quite small. This has been an interesting way to expand that, while providing a much-needed diversion from the daily deluge coming from a certain political figure.
We haven't done DNA tests for Katie or me, but we did one for our daughter. She's roughly 90% eastern European (She was born in Cebactopol), but is roughly 5% Indigenous American (more than some senators)!
I keep wanting to do that for my bio father's side, there already is one for my mom's side, and my step dad's side ( goes back to the 1600s), but not sure I really want to know, knowing what I do about that side. I know I have relatives on both my biological father's and my mother's family as her father and my bio father were born in Italy and immigrated here.
It might keep me busy and less focused on the sad things in life, including a lot of politics.
Those DNA databases are interesting ways to find out about your ancestry, but they come with privacy risks. As long as you know what you're getting into. . .
As far as "politics of the day," hearing about dull, boring Canadian politics, instead of hyper dramatic US Politics, would be refreshing!
I know what you mean about the privacy concerns. I take some comfort from the current situation in knowing that I am just not that interesting. 🙂
Canadian politics has actually settled down quite a bit at the Federal level. We just had an election that gave us a new Prime Minister who, while being a "Liberal" is actually turning out to be fairly conservative (in a Canadian context, of course). In just a few months, one of the main things that he's done is to make it abundantly clear just how bad his predecessor was.
Meanwhile, the real excitement is that we are heading into a municipal election locally. Since this is the level of government that has the most direct effect on daily life, I'm hoping we get some decent candidates stepping forward.
It's the birthday of anthropologist Franz Boas, born in Minden, Westphalia, Germany (1858). Boaz stressed the need to study four fields — ethnology, linguistics, physical anthropology, and archaeology — before making any generalizations about any one culture.
I think that's good advice. One can't know much about anyone...or anything...else without having a baseline understanding of where they came from.
"Open Thread"....is what happens. We're not immune from what affects all the other joints, i.e., how many days in a row can one go with interesting politically aligned commentary until one just runs out of gas?
One of the really nice things about living in China is no one talks about politics. Politics is what it is, you figure out where it hits you, then you make life adjustments to minimize the hit. With the bestest of best friends, if we're all suitably imbibed, someone may let out an exasperated comment about Big Daddy, but even that has subsided since Trump was elected. Folks are realizing they might be on the smart team after all.
Actually, it is quite participatory. How one participates is structured and organized. Loose cannons not allowed, which eliminates American type participation. You got a beef, there are clearly delineated channels for that beef. We used to call that Conservative here in America.
When I say folks don’t have a clue about how China operates, it’s a statement of fact.
There are plenty of areas of Chinese governance that are stilted, weird, or otherwise contrary to our way of thinking. Lots of people don't like it. Friends of mine within the system (party members) don't like it. Some find it invigorating (other friends in non-party roles, thrilled to participate).
I didn't say I like, support, or want to be involved. I do understand how it works. What comes out of how it works is not predictable.
Just understand, if you're getting your understanding from the dweebs over at The Mothership™ (love that), you are not being informed. You are just reading what they're reading, reformatting, and reproducing. It's all nonsense.
It doesn't matter how China got to how it is. Thinking about how it got to where it is, is counterproductive. How Americans think about China is counterproductive, and Americans are trained, or being trained, to believe how it is. Yes, we're all brainwashed.
Kurt, we seem to get to the same point of talking past each other about the People's Republic.
I freely admit you know more than I will probably ever know about the history, the culture the mindset of the Chinese people, particularly at the local grassroots level. That doesn't stop me from being reasonably well informed about what the leaders of PR China are doing what they intend to do, and even the broad outlines of how they govern.
Take the issue of Taiwan. You can go on at length about hw Chinese at all level consider Taiwan as an essential part of China (and that is pretty easy for anyone to understand at some level, just from history).
At the same time, the CPC leadership has made clear its strategic ambitions to bring Taiwan under its control. That event would be a geostrategic disaster for US interests and especially the interests of our Pacific allies whom we are pledged to defend against aggression. There is also the moral issue that the free people of the Republic of China on Taiwan should not be joined to the CPC mainland absent a fully informed decision by the Taiwanese people do to so, and I have a reasonable degree of certainty they do not want to reunification with the CPC government.
That's just one example. There are many things about PR China I do not understand. But that doesn't stop me from harboring opinions about the things I do understand. I may not now how they arrived at the present and acquired their global intentions. But I can see those intentions exist, and recognize they are on conflict with the intentions of allies of the US and the US itself. I make no apologies about that.
And I fully agree that how PR China got to where it is, is counterproductive. But we seem to keep going there, and that's not my intention.
Here...chew on this for a while. Then tell me how much you know about Taiwan, China, and American involvement.
Congress created the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as a group of slush funds used to fund insurrection movements in China.
According to ChatGPT, in 2016 the U.S. Congress gave the NED $140.4 million. In addition to this $140.4 million, Congress paid for NED’s inside the U.S. administrative costs…this money is not reported in the total given the NED.
In addition the NED collected $41 million from non-Congressional sources. (Who? Other nations? FaLunGung?)
Four slush funds were given $16.2 million each.
International Republican Institute (IRI), a Republican controlled slush fund;
National Democratic Institute (NDI), a Democratic Party controlled slush fund; ndi.org/sites/default/f…
Center for International Private Enterprise, a slush fund controlled by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; cipe.org
Each of these slush funds got $16.2 million.
In addition to cash given these four slush funds the NED spent $55.4 million for discretionary grants. (I believe some of this money was used to buy the Presidential election in Taiwan)
There was also a Mid‑Long‑Term Strategic Threats fund with $13.2 million. How much of this money funded activities against China?
The NED also used a contingency fund of $7.0 million.
The NED admits funding the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, a slush fund created by the NED and by Chen Shui Bien before Chen was found guilty of corruption, taking bribes, embezzlement, money laundering and forgery. Chen Shui Bien was the NED primary partner in stealing Taiwan elections.
The NED used to have a searchable database showing where some of their money went. There was no official announcement that the NED would no longer let the public know where their money was going. ChatGPT thinks it was in 2022.
Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022. I suspect part of her visit dealt with how to hide U.S. illegal funding of the Taiwan independence movement. Some in China believe it was to receive money for her support of the Taiwan Independence Movement. The last couple points are conjecture, but believable conjecture if you have the same opinion of Pelosi that I do.
"That doesn't stop me from being reasonably well informed about what the leaders of PR China are doing what they intend to do, and even the broad outlines of how they govern.“
That sentence, all by itself in isolation, tells me you don't know what you're talking about. I don't know anyone in China, including several Party member friends, one at a fairly high prefectural level, that would say that. I don't know any "China Hands" that have lived in country for decades that would say that. I wouldn't say that.
If you want to be taken seriously, you really shouldn't say something that silly.
Participation is absolutely not mandatory. Remaining quiet is fine. Providing ideas through structured interactions is how it works. In America we used to call that government.
"It leads to the realization that following current events is a fruitless waste of energy for the most part." Yes. The less my friends and acquaintances dwell on politics the better our relationships.
My day will be a dud. I received the second Shingrix shot yesterday. I knew to be prepared to feel flu like symptoms, and boy did it deliver. I was thinking how amazing it is the many millions willingly accept this. On the other hand, I am encouraged by recent health "expert" on Russ Roberts podcast that the vaccine may even help with Alzheimers and some cancers.
I got the vaccine as soon as I was eligible, since I had the chickenpox twice. The shingles vax was no worse than the covid vax I got along side it, best as I recall. One or the other resulted in symptoms of a brief mini-flu—a half-strength one—that lasted maybe 48 hours. The good news is that it won’t be memorable in just a couple short years, most likely.
Huh. I just had a pain in my arm from the first one, and it did not call for all the whining my husband did about his. I'll get the second one in August.
Yeah, I have never reacted to any vaccines, in fact, I don't even get the arm pain, go figure...I debate about the shingles one, as I never had chickenpox, or the measles, for that matter.
Well, late breaking update - my wife went to store to get some Tylenol and it is already quite helpful. ChatGPT tells me to use Tylenol instead of Advil because NSAIDs may reduce the efficacy.
And yes, my first shot didn't seem to be a big deal. Again according to ChatGPT: "The second dose of the Shingrix vaccine often causes stronger side effects than the first because your immune system has already been primed and is responding more aggressively—which is exactly what it’s supposed to do."
That may be true (I have not taken the shingles vaccine, my doc wants me to hold off until I turn 70), but I would not trust ChatGPT. An AI is only as smart as the Internet content it was trined in. And we all know not to believe everything we read about the Internet. (So says that Internet sage, Abraham Lincoln 🙂 )
Current rec for shingles vax is age 50 and over. A severe case of shingles can be a life altering illness especially if one develops post herpes neuralgia ie pain.As a retired internist/dermatologist I dreaded having to treat shingles and post herpes neuralgia which can be refractory to treatment.You might want to research a non AI medical source on this issue.
One thing I like about ChatGPT is that it references its sources. If it gives an answer to a medical question, it will also say where it got the information. I can then check to see if it came from a reliable source or from "UncleRFKsHomeyRemedies.com" and decide for myself how much credence I want to place in the response.
I was looking for humorous way to say you are superman, but not coming together. So instead I'll share a Mohammed Ali story - maybe true, maybe not.
"Just before takeoff on an airplane flight, the stewardess reminded Ali to fasten his seat belt. "Superman don't need no seat belt," replied Ali."Superman don't need no airplane either," retorted the stewardess."
I understand many men think of the Roman Empire daily. I think of No Country For Old Men. Especially the scene with Ed and his uncle. "What you got ain't nothing new."
Right there with you. I was gradually loosening my attachment by 2015 but that year sealed it. The forces of opposing any compromise or common-sense middle ground became so powerful! Took me a little while to make peace with my homelessness.
Yesterday was mostly a good day. Today I am working on travel plans and getting pieces together for the monthly blacksmithing meeting. And I need a dress for the wedding.
What's on my mind? If you drop a wet bar of soap on the floor do you have a clean floor or a dirty bar of soap? 🤔 My students say "dirty bar of soap".
Class went well today, it was lively and playful, although the students are exhausted. They've done so much late night, they are exhausted. They'll sleep well on the 90 minute train to Florence come Friday.
I had Katie and Jen talk in my class for 30 minutes, about health care management and personality preferences (e.g. Myers-Briggs). They said the class was polite and engaged. That and I gave them M & Ms 20 minutes for the two arrived (it was a class exercise, honest!).
I've been praying for the families in the Texas flood: that has to be devastating beyond belief.
I can’t sleep on planes, and I can barely keep my eyes open on a train. Meaning when I’m tired and exhausted in either situations. Something about the steady gentle train motion is very different from the constrained seats and pressurized air of a plane.
I've taken several long (overnight) trips on the old China sleeper trains. On a couple, it was the old Green Monsters....11 bays, six bunks to a bay per car. Hanging out during the day was fun, but at night when the lights went off it was gross. Imagine sleeping in a train car with lots of farting and spitting Chinese peasants.
During my service in Germany in the 80s I have been in train sleeper cars. On one such trip I had a conversation with a Holocaust survivor, who showed me the ID number the Nazis tattooed on his arm.
Oh....way worse. But, having the experience was something that endeared me to the locals. They know I know what it was like back then, which was one of the steps in acceptance.
Good morning. 73 and cloudy here, with a predicted high in the 80s and rain later.
The mothership is covering Netanyahu's visit to the Trup white House. The comments feature Cynthia's assessment of Trump's Middle Eastern policy: "Bonkers but weirdly effective."
The FP is headlining "The Death of the Public Library" many of which are overrun with the homeless, discouraging visits from the public.
And I see CSLF is returning to its roots, just as a hangout for commenters.
Our local Union County branch doesn't have a problem with homeless people because of its location here in the 'burbs with limited access except by car. The Mecklenburg County branch we frequent has a few regulars who seem to be using it as a hangout. Sometimes construction workers on break sit in there, too. The main annoyance is when people watch videos on their phones without earphones.
Sometimes people sit in a pointless little exterior alcove - like a covered porch, only the only way to get to it is bushwhack through the shrubbery - and crib off the wi-fi signal. During the Covid shutdown, there was an Asian guy who sat there almost every day with a stool, a portable desk, and his laptop.
I suspect this is a problem more in areas like urban centers that have both homeless populations and libraries accessible to them. I'm not aware of that problem in my suburban library.
Reading that article, it's shocking that librarians, exercising misguided compassion, don't recognize that when a library becomes a homeless shelter, it ceases to be a library. Those are 2 different functions to be carried out by different institutions.
Hello! I understand the sentiment! Sometimes over on the mothership I’d swear I stumbled into The Bulwark. All the complaining is tiresome. I can go to my mom’s compound and get marginally better and reasoned conversations.
I’m about to leave for my personal trainer sesh. It’s been a good experience. Hubs is off to TN, an every 3 wk ritual since his father entered hospice. The amount of mental and physical energy expended on the circle of life is a lot; Sitter drama, sister drama, juggling chores and personalities and emotions, whew. Oh, and my washer broke. It’s just like old times. The minute he leaves a critical appliance or vehicle or a repair out of my skill zone occurs. 🥳. It’s terribly hot here. Dislike.
On the Bulwark, the complaining is not done just in the comments sections, but in the articles. I've not gotten around to deleting the Bulwark out of my Substack feed, so I get "The sky Is Falling! Democracy is Ending!" articles daily, if not multiple times a day.
Oh, Gosh. Lol, no way. Cynthia W had the very best random comment ever on this (or at least it’s my motto for such things- “I accept a certain amount of doom” 😆 if your mental health or peace is tied to whoever occupies the White House, SCOTUS, or Congress, you’re doing it all wrong.
I agree. While I am very concerned about Trump, we are stuck with him, (short of death or a disability so obvious even MAGA notices) until January 2029. We can't worry about it every single day, and I avoid that mindset.
(And I make jokes about drinking myself into a stupor).
For realz. I have a former neighbor that has not had a tv for nearly 20 years! I could not do that because I do try to stay informed but I limit social media to 1 hour a day. It’s been 6 years now and I am a lot less agitated about things in general. It’s almost like asking to become crazy when that’s your only source of info.
My ex husband just had a flooded basement while he was on vacation in North Carolina...he found some photos and stuff from as he put it "The Angie and Vic Era" he wanted to give me so we met for lunch, it was fun, we talked for two hours over old times and what is going on with our families now....( he is one of 12 children his parents had, two died as infants and one when he was 40, so there was a lot of news...lol)
I've told thousands of clients that if they want to save lots of money and take control of their lives, learn basic plumbing repairs. No one takes that advice.
Push-fittings make things so much easier these days. I tried to learn sweating copper, but that’s a nightmare, and ultimately I gave up. It wasn’t worth the aggravation.
Old plumbers have told me it’s been made trickier by the low lead content of modern flux: the workable temperature band is very narrow.
People should at least know where their main water shutoffs are, though.
I am grateful my dad taught me in the 60s & 70s how to do plumbing. Also major car maintenance, construction, troubleshooting skills for anything mechanical.
I do a lot of electric guitar modding. I refuse to use low/non-lead solder. As do most guitar techs.
I hear ya. Practical skills like that are a great thing to have. I’ve mainly resolved the issue for my personal needs by switching to PEX whenever I need to replace anything complicated, and then joining it up with the push fittings. The PEX is cheaper and more forgiving than copper, but the push fittings are considerably more. I use the crimping bands for joining PEX to PEX, though.
Same here. Sections of my farm house are probably 70+ years old. The plumbing as parts were added to the house in the past have resulted in a rat's nest of plumbing repair nightmares. PEX saves the day. At least where I can actually get to lines without cutting into structural timbers ;)
The same is true on my camper. When I can get to the sections needing repair :)
I could teach you how to sweat copper in 5 minutes. Less than 5 minutes. Seriously. The old plumber may be right in its being "trickier", but it isn't at all tricky. Everyone gets bad advice, they end up "burning" their fittings, and it doesn't work. I've done entire houses with hundreds of fittings without a single leak.
Sharkbites are now questionable; I'd not use them even though they're still available. The new copper press fittings require a very expensive machine, which no one is going to buy for a repair. So, that's why having basic copper sweating skills is part of learning basic plumbing repair.
Either my washer or dryer usually breaks during Cub Scout camp. The year it rained every day - two years ago? three? - the dryer broke, so I would wash all our clothes each day and then go to the laundromat (or send the driver-bros) to run it all through a dryer.
I have an overload of black clothing. Wife buys me white stuff, says I look good in white. Each piece lasts about one spaghetti dinner's worth of time.
Per the other, nothing compares with the comfort provided by an unfinished basement.
I also have a rear porch, but it's up on the 3rd fl. at the rear of my place. It was originally a sleeping porch, that place you dragged your mattress in hot summer weather. It's got giant windows opening up to let in the cool night air. In summer, I live out there (actually here, I'm sitting on the porch now).
Good morning. I've been out for a walk before the excessive heat arrives. I observed two cats and a few rabbits. One of the cats was an orange one that Daughter D is taking care of this week,. I'm about to go wake her up and tell her the orange cat is ready for breakfast.
PS: My walls are painted and the carpet is installed ( it looks awesome), waiting on the blinds, the lady we need to speak to to get it going, sends emails, she won't respond to replies, and Rick has left his number like 4 times, and she never calls back.
The furniture is arriving on the 26th. and I have to still purchase the mattress and new pillows and a valance for the window...lots of choices on the mattress, finding it hard to decide which one...lol
First-world problems, right? ;)
Yep...it is my first new bedroom in like 35 years, I am excited...lol
Reading about politics is escapism for me. My desk has stacks of unimportant paperwork to sort, toss, or file. I spend at least 4 hours taking calls daily from people seeking therapy, and they detail why they need an appointment—who thought helping a friend a couple hours a week would grow into a real job?—and my daughter wants me to update my Advance Directive to name people at least under 75 to make the decisions. Am enjoying coffee outside before it gets too hot, and chatting with y’all. Will be off to find Earl’s Rant soon.
Just briefly..Rick is at the hospital, they couldn't do the procedure, and his mom is dying. I stayed home in case there is something I can do to help...I feel so bad for him. And helpless to do much to help.
There won't be a showing or anything, she just wants her ashes along with her long-time BF's, and her two dogs that passed, thrown in the lake...maybe in about a month, when her nephew can be here, they might do something.
The older I get, the more this happens, and she is only a few years older than me...
I'm very sorry about Rick's impending loss. My sympathy to all who know her.
Thanks, Cynthia, I will let him know you said so.
Very sorry to hear. Prayers for solace.
Thank you...
85F overnight. 0.41" of rain. Going back to last August, we had 0.62" in June, 0.45" in March and that was it until last August 2024.
Not only does the Universe go on without us, so do all your and my atoms and molecules! And atoms of creatures, rocks, air...don't care!
Train rides. Done many all over. Counting say high speed rides over an hour- Europe. Enjoyed Milan-Florence @JayJ. Japan Shinkensen many routes N and S. SKorea. Slower trains; HK, Shanghai, and Heifei.
But the 1930s British built Lunatic Express!! Overnight from Mombasa to Nairobi, Kenya. Thru Tsavo, man eating lion country (they munches some railway building workers).
Flight back to the US thru Dakaar leaving at 3pm. 6am, the Steam engine breaks down in the middle of the country side. It's like 30 miles to the first communication area. 1986. Radios limited. cellphones unheard of.
Runner heads out!! Like a Kenyan marathoner! And an engine comes down and rescues us.
Classic 1930s train. Windows. no ac. Pinki loves trains, her granddad did central NJ 1915-60 ish. Same with Uncles and all.
I’m trying hard to break the news and politics cords but finding it challenging. My dad ingrained in me the importance of being informed when I was a teen and the habit is proving hard to break. Ironically he died at 95 a stressed out news junkie. I’m trying to distract myself with my hobbies of photography and guitar. I started learning to play late in life but it’s fun despite the challenge and frustration. It’s a hard thing to learn. Today I’ll restring mine, maybe edit a few photos, go to my yoga class, and tonight we’ll host my 6 year old granddaughter’s birthday dinner. If I stick to my plan, there won’t be any time for news.
Living in China gave me a perspective that changed how I think about news and politics. Most of what we get here is nonsense, not in the sense that a particular fact is wrong, or that someone is lying, or that something is entirely made up (which a lot of it is), but that it's all decontextualized nonsense bearing the imprint of the biases brought to it by the media conglomerates (including Substack nowadays) that publishes it.
It's why I ignore most of it and don't let any of it get under my skin. Photography and guitar are much better use of one's time.
Nonsense is the right word. Mindless is another. Lately I ask myself would I be any worse off if I didn’t know this news item? Too often the answer is no and I find myself tuning out more all the time.
Yes, it is. Nonsensical to a degree that can drive me crazy if I let it. So much of the "news" has no meaningful bearing on our lives. What does have bearing is reported in stunted and ignorant news bites to fill the gaping maw of public opinion.
Been in Kansas City for the last three days with my son and grandson to see our Pirates lose twice to the hapless Royals. Eaten a lot of barbecue, visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Negro Leagues Hall of Fame, the American Jazz Museum, and the World War I museum. Off today (after visiting a couple of used bookstores) to north-central Kansas, a tiny town where my Mom was born and raised. We will connect with long-lost second cousins (whom I don’t know) and visit the cemetery where my grandparents (whom I never met) are buried.
From what I can tell, my wife seems, depressingly, to be living a full and rich life back home in Rochester, NY without me.
Rochester has remarkably nice housing stock. Maybe not enough of it, but there's some very fine homes in Rochester.
It is true. We ourselves live in a mere cookie-cutter suburban tract, but there are some gems.
"my wife seems, depressingly, to be living a full and rich life back home in Rochester, NY without me"
That's what I would be doing.
Here's something that's far from the politics of the day. For the past few years I've been filling some of my time building my family history, first charting a full family tree (going back six to eight generations in most cases) and then doing some detailed study into what day-to-day life was like for those early generations. Ancestry.com has been a useful tool for that, particularly for building the tree.
A few months ago I took an additional step and got them to analyze my DNA. They then compared the results with their database to see if there are any matches with other customers. To date, they've identified a bunch of distant relatives (third or fourth cousins) in various parts of the world.
Yesterday, I got a message from a second cousin (once removed) that I had no idea existed who lives in Northern Ireland. Our common ancestor is one of my second-great grandfathers.
My immediate family has always been quite small. This has been an interesting way to expand that, while providing a much-needed diversion from the daily deluge coming from a certain political figure.
We haven't done DNA tests for Katie or me, but we did one for our daughter. She's roughly 90% eastern European (She was born in Cebactopol), but is roughly 5% Indigenous American (more than some senators)!
I keep wanting to do that for my bio father's side, there already is one for my mom's side, and my step dad's side ( goes back to the 1600s), but not sure I really want to know, knowing what I do about that side. I know I have relatives on both my biological father's and my mother's family as her father and my bio father were born in Italy and immigrated here.
It might keep me busy and less focused on the sad things in life, including a lot of politics.
Cool. I have relatives in Northern Ireland, too.
My friend Doris was a genealogist in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She had an incredible family tree.
Those DNA databases are interesting ways to find out about your ancestry, but they come with privacy risks. As long as you know what you're getting into. . .
As far as "politics of the day," hearing about dull, boring Canadian politics, instead of hyper dramatic US Politics, would be refreshing!
I know what you mean about the privacy concerns. I take some comfort from the current situation in knowing that I am just not that interesting. 🙂
Canadian politics has actually settled down quite a bit at the Federal level. We just had an election that gave us a new Prime Minister who, while being a "Liberal" is actually turning out to be fairly conservative (in a Canadian context, of course). In just a few months, one of the main things that he's done is to make it abundantly clear just how bad his predecessor was.
Meanwhile, the real excitement is that we are heading into a municipal election locally. Since this is the level of government that has the most direct effect on daily life, I'm hoping we get some decent candidates stepping forward.
It's the birthday of anthropologist Franz Boas, born in Minden, Westphalia, Germany (1858). Boaz stressed the need to study four fields — ethnology, linguistics, physical anthropology, and archaeology — before making any generalizations about any one culture.
I think that's good advice. One can't know much about anyone...or anything...else without having a baseline understanding of where they came from.
"Open Thread"....is what happens. We're not immune from what affects all the other joints, i.e., how many days in a row can one go with interesting politically aligned commentary until one just runs out of gas?
One of the really nice things about living in China is no one talks about politics. Politics is what it is, you figure out where it hits you, then you make life adjustments to minimize the hit. With the bestest of best friends, if we're all suitably imbibed, someone may let out an exasperated comment about Big Daddy, but even that has subsided since Trump was elected. Folks are realizing they might be on the smart team after all.
Politics is not a participatory pastime in PR China. (I hope we can agree on that much. 🙂 )
Actually, it is quite participatory. How one participates is structured and organized. Loose cannons not allowed, which eliminates American type participation. You got a beef, there are clearly delineated channels for that beef. We used to call that Conservative here in America.
When I say folks don’t have a clue about how China operates, it’s a statement of fact.
That's performative, not what I would call participatory. is that "participation" mandatory? Do you get to remain quiet?
There are plenty of areas of Chinese governance that are stilted, weird, or otherwise contrary to our way of thinking. Lots of people don't like it. Friends of mine within the system (party members) don't like it. Some find it invigorating (other friends in non-party roles, thrilled to participate).
I didn't say I like, support, or want to be involved. I do understand how it works. What comes out of how it works is not predictable.
Just understand, if you're getting your understanding from the dweebs over at The Mothership™ (love that), you are not being informed. You are just reading what they're reading, reformatting, and reproducing. It's all nonsense.
It doesn't matter how China got to how it is. Thinking about how it got to where it is, is counterproductive. How Americans think about China is counterproductive, and Americans are trained, or being trained, to believe how it is. Yes, we're all brainwashed.
Kurt, we seem to get to the same point of talking past each other about the People's Republic.
I freely admit you know more than I will probably ever know about the history, the culture the mindset of the Chinese people, particularly at the local grassroots level. That doesn't stop me from being reasonably well informed about what the leaders of PR China are doing what they intend to do, and even the broad outlines of how they govern.
Take the issue of Taiwan. You can go on at length about hw Chinese at all level consider Taiwan as an essential part of China (and that is pretty easy for anyone to understand at some level, just from history).
At the same time, the CPC leadership has made clear its strategic ambitions to bring Taiwan under its control. That event would be a geostrategic disaster for US interests and especially the interests of our Pacific allies whom we are pledged to defend against aggression. There is also the moral issue that the free people of the Republic of China on Taiwan should not be joined to the CPC mainland absent a fully informed decision by the Taiwanese people do to so, and I have a reasonable degree of certainty they do not want to reunification with the CPC government.
That's just one example. There are many things about PR China I do not understand. But that doesn't stop me from harboring opinions about the things I do understand. I may not now how they arrived at the present and acquired their global intentions. But I can see those intentions exist, and recognize they are on conflict with the intentions of allies of the US and the US itself. I make no apologies about that.
And I fully agree that how PR China got to where it is, is counterproductive. But we seem to keep going there, and that's not my intention.
Here...chew on this for a while. Then tell me how much you know about Taiwan, China, and American involvement.
Congress created the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as a group of slush funds used to fund insurrection movements in China.
According to ChatGPT, in 2016 the U.S. Congress gave the NED $140.4 million. In addition to this $140.4 million, Congress paid for NED’s inside the U.S. administrative costs…this money is not reported in the total given the NED.
In addition the NED collected $41 million from non-Congressional sources. (Who? Other nations? FaLunGung?)
Four slush funds were given $16.2 million each.
International Republican Institute (IRI), a Republican controlled slush fund;
National Democratic Institute (NDI), a Democratic Party controlled slush fund; ndi.org/sites/default/f…
Solidarity Center, a slush fund controlled by the AFL-CIO; solidaritycenter.org
Center for International Private Enterprise, a slush fund controlled by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; cipe.org
Each of these slush funds got $16.2 million.
In addition to cash given these four slush funds the NED spent $55.4 million for discretionary grants. (I believe some of this money was used to buy the Presidential election in Taiwan)
There was also a Mid‑Long‑Term Strategic Threats fund with $13.2 million. How much of this money funded activities against China?
The NED also used a contingency fund of $7.0 million.
The NED admits funding the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, a slush fund created by the NED and by Chen Shui Bien before Chen was found guilty of corruption, taking bribes, embezzlement, money laundering and forgery. Chen Shui Bien was the NED primary partner in stealing Taiwan elections.
The NED used to have a searchable database showing where some of their money went. There was no official announcement that the NED would no longer let the public know where their money was going. ChatGPT thinks it was in 2022.
Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022. I suspect part of her visit dealt with how to hide U.S. illegal funding of the Taiwan independence movement. Some in China believe it was to receive money for her support of the Taiwan Independence Movement. The last couple points are conjecture, but believable conjecture if you have the same opinion of Pelosi that I do.
"That doesn't stop me from being reasonably well informed about what the leaders of PR China are doing what they intend to do, and even the broad outlines of how they govern.“
That sentence, all by itself in isolation, tells me you don't know what you're talking about. I don't know anyone in China, including several Party member friends, one at a fairly high prefectural level, that would say that. I don't know any "China Hands" that have lived in country for decades that would say that. I wouldn't say that.
If you want to be taken seriously, you really shouldn't say something that silly.
Participation is absolutely not mandatory. Remaining quiet is fine. Providing ideas through structured interactions is how it works. In America we used to call that government.
You are wrong. You are defining the situation based on erroneous reporting and biased perception.
I didn’t say you would like how it works. I said you don’t understand how it works.
Both those things can be true.
OK. I'm certain you don't understand it and you wouldn't like it if you did.
"It leads to the realization that following current events is a fruitless waste of energy for the most part." Yes. The less my friends and acquaintances dwell on politics the better our relationships.
My day will be a dud. I received the second Shingrix shot yesterday. I knew to be prepared to feel flu like symptoms, and boy did it deliver. I was thinking how amazing it is the many millions willingly accept this. On the other hand, I am encouraged by recent health "expert" on Russ Roberts podcast that the vaccine may even help with Alzheimers and some cancers.
I got the vaccine as soon as I was eligible, since I had the chickenpox twice. The shingles vax was no worse than the covid vax I got along side it, best as I recall. One or the other resulted in symptoms of a brief mini-flu—a half-strength one—that lasted maybe 48 hours. The good news is that it won’t be memorable in just a couple short years, most likely.
Huh. I just had a pain in my arm from the first one, and it did not call for all the whining my husband did about his. I'll get the second one in August.
Yeah, I have never reacted to any vaccines, in fact, I don't even get the arm pain, go figure...I debate about the shingles one, as I never had chickenpox, or the measles, for that matter.
Yeah, mine was just some arm pain...the usual vaccine thing. I didn't feel badly at all.
Well, late breaking update - my wife went to store to get some Tylenol and it is already quite helpful. ChatGPT tells me to use Tylenol instead of Advil because NSAIDs may reduce the efficacy.
And yes, my first shot didn't seem to be a big deal. Again according to ChatGPT: "The second dose of the Shingrix vaccine often causes stronger side effects than the first because your immune system has already been primed and is responding more aggressively—which is exactly what it’s supposed to do."
That may be true (I have not taken the shingles vaccine, my doc wants me to hold off until I turn 70), but I would not trust ChatGPT. An AI is only as smart as the Internet content it was trined in. And we all know not to believe everything we read about the Internet. (So says that Internet sage, Abraham Lincoln 🙂 )
Current rec for shingles vax is age 50 and over. A severe case of shingles can be a life altering illness especially if one develops post herpes neuralgia ie pain.As a retired internist/dermatologist I dreaded having to treat shingles and post herpes neuralgia which can be refractory to treatment.You might want to research a non AI medical source on this issue.
One thing I like about ChatGPT is that it references its sources. If it gives an answer to a medical question, it will also say where it got the information. I can then check to see if it came from a reliable source or from "UncleRFKsHomeyRemedies.com" and decide for myself how much credence I want to place in the response.
Yes I agree. I mentioned ChatGPT in a sort of self deprecating intent. What kind of dummy must I be to look to it for answers 😬
Interesting. We have Tylenol because Vlad was taking it for his post-toenail pain.
I probably missed the update, did that finally resolve after the discovery of two nails on one toe?
Yes, we went to the podiatrist last Thursday, and he said it's healing successfully, just douse it with hydrogen peroxide after taking a shower.
Peroxide is easy to obtain and use. And it makes that gratifying fizz so you know something is happening.
Odd....mine didn't affect me at all.
I was looking for humorous way to say you are superman, but not coming together. So instead I'll share a Mohammed Ali story - maybe true, maybe not.
"Just before takeoff on an airplane flight, the stewardess reminded Ali to fasten his seat belt. "Superman don't need no seat belt," replied Ali."Superman don't need no airplane either," retorted the stewardess."
I've heard that story. It's a good story.
"It's true that it's a story.".....Ed Tom Bell
I understand many men think of the Roman Empire daily. I think of No Country For Old Men. Especially the scene with Ed and his uncle. "What you got ain't nothing new."
I did mine 5-6 years ago. Actually, I forget how many years. Doesn't matter. I'm glad I did.
Yeah, I'm glad too. It will be over in a day or two. There are far worse things to endure.
Right there with you. I was gradually loosening my attachment by 2015 but that year sealed it. The forces of opposing any compromise or common-sense middle ground became so powerful! Took me a little while to make peace with my homelessness.
Yes, although it took me about 11 1/2 minutes to make peace.
I deleted my Facebook account in about April or May of 2016 because of all of it.
This is the first thing I came across this morning. It provided inspiring perspective and I can use that:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/09/asia/us-navy-warship-coconut-log-bow-world-war-ii-intl-hnk-ml
Yesterday was mostly a good day. Today I am working on travel plans and getting pieces together for the monthly blacksmithing meeting. And I need a dress for the wedding.
That's a very interesting story (the ship, not the wedding dress). Thanks!
What's on my mind? If you drop a wet bar of soap on the floor do you have a clean floor or a dirty bar of soap? 🤔 My students say "dirty bar of soap".
Class went well today, it was lively and playful, although the students are exhausted. They've done so much late night, they are exhausted. They'll sleep well on the 90 minute train to Florence come Friday.
I had Katie and Jen talk in my class for 30 minutes, about health care management and personality preferences (e.g. Myers-Briggs). They said the class was polite and engaged. That and I gave them M & Ms 20 minutes for the two arrived (it was a class exercise, honest!).
I've been praying for the families in the Texas flood: that has to be devastating beyond belief.
I can’t sleep on planes, and I can barely keep my eyes open on a train. Meaning when I’m tired and exhausted in either situations. Something about the steady gentle train motion is very different from the constrained seats and pressurized air of a plane.
Though I would love to, I have never taken a train ride...But, I have no trouble sleeping on planes...especially with my neck pillow and blankie...lol
Edit to add: I would love a sleep car train ride
I've taken several long (overnight) trips on the old China sleeper trains. On a couple, it was the old Green Monsters....11 bays, six bunks to a bay per car. Hanging out during the day was fun, but at night when the lights went off it was gross. Imagine sleeping in a train car with lots of farting and spitting Chinese peasants.
During my service in Germany in the 80s I have been in train sleeper cars. On one such trip I had a conversation with a Holocaust survivor, who showed me the ID number the Nazis tattooed on his arm.
I imagine smoking too. That would kill me.
Surprisingly, smoking is banned in the train car. Nothing else though. It was pretty gnarly.
Worse than Boy Scouts.
Oh....way worse. But, having the experience was something that endeared me to the locals. They know I know what it was like back then, which was one of the steps in acceptance.
Good morning. 73 and cloudy here, with a predicted high in the 80s and rain later.
The mothership is covering Netanyahu's visit to the Trup white House. The comments feature Cynthia's assessment of Trump's Middle Eastern policy: "Bonkers but weirdly effective."
The FP is headlining "The Death of the Public Library" many of which are overrun with the homeless, discouraging visits from the public.
And I see CSLF is returning to its roots, just as a hangout for commenters.
Cynthia deserves a gold star for that analysis: succinct and on point. ⭐️
Our local Union County branch doesn't have a problem with homeless people because of its location here in the 'burbs with limited access except by car. The Mecklenburg County branch we frequent has a few regulars who seem to be using it as a hangout. Sometimes construction workers on break sit in there, too. The main annoyance is when people watch videos on their phones without earphones.
Sometimes people sit in a pointless little exterior alcove - like a covered porch, only the only way to get to it is bushwhack through the shrubbery - and crib off the wi-fi signal. During the Covid shutdown, there was an Asian guy who sat there almost every day with a stool, a portable desk, and his laptop.
I suspect this is a problem more in areas like urban centers that have both homeless populations and libraries accessible to them. I'm not aware of that problem in my suburban library.
Reading that article, it's shocking that librarians, exercising misguided compassion, don't recognize that when a library becomes a homeless shelter, it ceases to be a library. Those are 2 different functions to be carried out by different institutions.
"I suspect this is a problem more in areas like urban centers that have both homeless populations and libraries accessible to them."
That's exactly right. It's an urban phenomenon, or so it appears.
We've got a fantastic public library that has, honestly, gotten kinda stinky at certain times of the day.
Hello! I understand the sentiment! Sometimes over on the mothership I’d swear I stumbled into The Bulwark. All the complaining is tiresome. I can go to my mom’s compound and get marginally better and reasoned conversations.
I’m about to leave for my personal trainer sesh. It’s been a good experience. Hubs is off to TN, an every 3 wk ritual since his father entered hospice. The amount of mental and physical energy expended on the circle of life is a lot; Sitter drama, sister drama, juggling chores and personalities and emotions, whew. Oh, and my washer broke. It’s just like old times. The minute he leaves a critical appliance or vehicle or a repair out of my skill zone occurs. 🥳. It’s terribly hot here. Dislike.
On the Bulwark, the complaining is not done just in the comments sections, but in the articles. I've not gotten around to deleting the Bulwark out of my Substack feed, so I get "The sky Is Falling! Democracy is Ending!" articles daily, if not multiple times a day.
Oh, Gosh. Lol, no way. Cynthia W had the very best random comment ever on this (or at least it’s my motto for such things- “I accept a certain amount of doom” 😆 if your mental health or peace is tied to whoever occupies the White House, SCOTUS, or Congress, you’re doing it all wrong.
I agree. While I am very concerned about Trump, we are stuck with him, (short of death or a disability so obvious even MAGA notices) until January 2029. We can't worry about it every single day, and I avoid that mindset.
(And I make jokes about drinking myself into a stupor).
For realz. I have a former neighbor that has not had a tv for nearly 20 years! I could not do that because I do try to stay informed but I limit social media to 1 hour a day. It’s been 6 years now and I am a lot less agitated about things in general. It’s almost like asking to become crazy when that’s your only source of info.
"All the complaining is tiresome". Tiresome is the right word. Too many rabbit holes for me.
Best wishes for your husband's trip. I found that caring for my mom and dealing with family sapped me in ways I didn’t notice until days later.
And good luck with the washer. And the heat. I've been craving a Slurpee.
I drove 4 mi out of my way for a Sonic cherry limeade. I also bought a bag of their holy ice.
"Holy ice"? Is that ice made from holy water? 🙂
😍 it’s nugget ice. The very best for summer bevys. I have a portable nugget ice maker but that’s a Hubs task. So I pay $5 and go my happy way.
Mmmmmm
The biggest nightmares are plumbing failures—especially when everyone’s asleep or on vacation.
My ex husband just had a flooded basement while he was on vacation in North Carolina...he found some photos and stuff from as he put it "The Angie and Vic Era" he wanted to give me so we met for lunch, it was fun, we talked for two hours over old times and what is going on with our families now....( he is one of 12 children his parents had, two died as infants and one when he was 40, so there was a lot of news...lol)
I've told thousands of clients that if they want to save lots of money and take control of their lives, learn basic plumbing repairs. No one takes that advice.
Push-fittings make things so much easier these days. I tried to learn sweating copper, but that’s a nightmare, and ultimately I gave up. It wasn’t worth the aggravation.
Old plumbers have told me it’s been made trickier by the low lead content of modern flux: the workable temperature band is very narrow.
People should at least know where their main water shutoffs are, though.
I am grateful my dad taught me in the 60s & 70s how to do plumbing. Also major car maintenance, construction, troubleshooting skills for anything mechanical.
I do a lot of electric guitar modding. I refuse to use low/non-lead solder. As do most guitar techs.
I hear ya. Practical skills like that are a great thing to have. I’ve mainly resolved the issue for my personal needs by switching to PEX whenever I need to replace anything complicated, and then joining it up with the push fittings. The PEX is cheaper and more forgiving than copper, but the push fittings are considerably more. I use the crimping bands for joining PEX to PEX, though.
Same here. Sections of my farm house are probably 70+ years old. The plumbing as parts were added to the house in the past have resulted in a rat's nest of plumbing repair nightmares. PEX saves the day. At least where I can actually get to lines without cutting into structural timbers ;)
The same is true on my camper. When I can get to the sections needing repair :)
I could teach you how to sweat copper in 5 minutes. Less than 5 minutes. Seriously. The old plumber may be right in its being "trickier", but it isn't at all tricky. Everyone gets bad advice, they end up "burning" their fittings, and it doesn't work. I've done entire houses with hundreds of fittings without a single leak.
Sharkbites are now questionable; I'd not use them even though they're still available. The new copper press fittings require a very expensive machine, which no one is going to buy for a repair. So, that's why having basic copper sweating skills is part of learning basic plumbing repair.
It's very easy. Honest.
Hubs was going to fix it but he had to leave before the part could arrive. 😑 Water pump. For 2 people, I do a lot of laundry.
I've had the water pump replaced.
I love my washer. Bought it in 2017. Apparently it’s an easy fix but Hubs had to go. Hoping for a repair today. The part was only $100.
Good luck with all that! It's hot here, too.
Either my washer or dryer usually breaks during Cub Scout camp. The year it rained every day - two years ago? three? - the dryer broke, so I would wash all our clothes each day and then go to the laundromat (or send the driver-bros) to run it all through a dryer.
I love laundromats.
In the rental property game, installing in unit laundries is one of those improvements that advances the business.
You "love" laundromats...(?) You apparently don't wash your whites in a laundromat.
I don't have whites, other than underwear (which I don't care) and my waitress/soloist blouse.
I have an overload of black clothing. Wife buys me white stuff, says I look good in white. Each piece lasts about one spaghetti dinner's worth of time.
Per the other, nothing compares with the comfort provided by an unfinished basement.
It would be nice to have a basement, and a porch, but life didn't turn out that way.
I also have a rear porch, but it's up on the 3rd fl. at the rear of my place. It was originally a sleeping porch, that place you dragged your mattress in hot summer weather. It's got giant windows opening up to let in the cool night air. In summer, I live out there (actually here, I'm sitting on the porch now).
Good morning. I've been out for a walk before the excessive heat arrives. I observed two cats and a few rabbits. One of the cats was an orange one that Daughter D is taking care of this week,. I'm about to go wake her up and tell her the orange cat is ready for breakfast.
I also plan to clean the stove today.
Morning.
What sides are there for a serving of orange cat?
Teeth and claws.