Good morning my Glibs and Gliberinas! And what a glorious morning it is for everyone but history buffs and Catholics as Notre Dame Cathedral or as the waiter at the restaurant I had lunch at yesterday called it “some old building” burned almost to the ground. As always with these types of news stories, there are always heroes that emerge.
How’s everyone today? The pestilence is still abiding at my house, with the wife probably having strep and the oldest an earache and light fever. I ran out to pick him up from school because he didn’t quite reach the threshold for having to be sent home, and if I come and get him, I can send him to school tomorrow if he’s better. Hoping the doc has space for me to slide in and get some antibiotics. Honestly, though, with the shit a five-year-old’s fingers touch every day, I’m surprised they don’t have permanent infections.
The Day Trump Broke Cher. By which I mean, arrives at a reasonable conclusion on the limits of the welfare state.
China (who has crossed its borders to attack the US in Korea in the last century) says the US treats Latin America like its backyard. It’s called the Monroe Doctrine and its been in place for a while.
From the funhouse mirror: Sudanese protest leaders demand end of ‘deep state’. I lol’d.
Yes, I’m sure you were expecting Banjos and hence I am a severe disappointment. Along with it being Taxes Are Theft Day. Well, suck it, Cupcake, you’ve got me doing Links this morning, and the it’s the annual reminder of how viciously government is sucking away your lifeblood. Can’t be helped.
And what are Old Man Links without some curated birthdays? For one, the only mathematician who had an NFL team named after him, Leonhard Euler; Jew-hater and famous splitter, Johannes Stark; painter of heroic images, Thomas Hart Benton (who, oddly and coincidentally, SP and I were talking about last night); Steve Buscemi-imitator and all-around fun guy Nikita Khrushchev; patron saint of libertarian psychiatrists, Thomas Szasz; and hero of the 1966 World Series, Willie Davis.
On to actual news. Sorry for the paucity of Team Red bashing today, but they have wisely been quiet and allowing their enemies to destroy themselves.
Old Guys Music features someone I’ve tossed out here from time to time, Brett Newski, playing a unique style of punk folk. I love this guy’s music and it pisses me off that he’s playing near our now-former IL home and not here on this year’s tour. Anyway, great song and great performer.
Having gotten it out of my system yesterday, I’ll revert to my usual mildly coherent and highly grumpy self for links today. Starting with birthdays (you assholes disappointed me yesterday by not making comments about Dong-Dong): erstwhile-babe Julie Christie; up-and-coming quarterback Baker Mayfield; Deep Purple monster guitarist Ritchie Blackmore; and Nobel-winning chemist and nudist Alan MacDiarmid.
Old Guy Music is an extended one, a whole album, and though it’s nominally Charlie Christian, this might be the most remarkable assembly of jazz talent ever. So it’s worth hearing the whole thing.
Tendencies for explication will subordinate to fragility. That is, your cat’s beam is cloistered with pine-cones. Could someone sublime the aristocratic linen?
Buenos Tardes! Brett is currently partying down with a buddy. More details on that at his leisure….
Julian Assange is not the only one arrested for being affiliated with Julian Assange.
Interior Minister María Paula Romo did not name the man but said he had been arrested for “investigative purposes”.
An unnamed government official told the Associated Press that the man is Ola Bini, a Swedish software developer.
It comes just hours after Assange was himself arrested at the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
“A person close to Wikileaks, who has been residing in Ecuador, was arrested this afternoon when he was preparing to travel to Japan,” Ecuador’s interior ministry tweeted late on Thursday.
Senior Trump administration officials said they were rescinding an Obama-era decision that deemed Cuba’s baseball league to be separate from the Cuban government. The U.S. economic embargo on Cuba prohibits Americans from doing business with Cuba’s government, so the Obama administration’s ruling had cleared the way for an agreement between MLB and the Cuban Baseball Federation reached late last year
[…]
Under the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba passed by Congress decades ago, the administration has discretion to decide whether an entity like the Cuban Baseball Federation is too closely aligned with the government — in this case Cuba’s sports ministry — to be considered independent. Senior Trump administration officials said they couldn’t understand why the Obama administration had deemed the federation to be independent, calling it “an entity of the Cuban government.”
But former Obama administration officials said the goal of the policy had been to enable Cuban players to join U.S. teams without having to defect to the United States, which often involved dangerous journeys at the hands of human smugglers. Players would often pay to be smuggled into a third-party country from which they could join MLB.
President Trump’s call to cut aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras is raising concerns among lawmakers and national security and development experts, who say cutting aid will exacerbate the migrant crisis that is already crippling U.S. resources at the Southern border.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Agency for International Development told NPR on Tuesday that the agency is carrying out the president’s order to end foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle, the area that comprises those three Central American nations. The spokesperson said the agency is still finalizing the allocation of funds for 2019.
Trump has blamed the Central American countries for sending migrant caravans through Mexico to the U.S. border, an idea Trump has repeatedly promoted to raise the alarm about illegal immigration. In tweets on Saturday, Trump also returned to his previous threat to completely seal off the Southern border, blaming Democrats and Mexico for the turmoil at the border.
I suppose its better than a Ma-Duece.
Hi Preet.In some parts of the world, they call this “moonshine.”
For those that answered on whether or not I should shoot something yesterday, I tried in the morning, but somebody decided they wanted to shoot tracers at the outdoor range that backs a mountain. Naturally the mountain caught fire and I had to leave, lest I lob 5.56 NATO at a bunch of firefighters. I hate shooting the carbine indoors but…
For those of you that will not click any links at all, I will just leave a picture of this item I found at a local grocery store….for your…whatever.
A so-so lift in the gym, a few aches, but nothing dramatic. The coffee station is a wreck and nobody in the office bothers to reload the supplies. Feh. I’d get worked up or angry, but I cannot be bothered this morning. Lucky for the commentariat, I can still go through the motions and bring you Links…
Why can’t we be more like Europe? I guess Seattle, Portland and San Francisco are on the way. Not that it matters.
Free healthcare providing Cubans kidnapped by libertarians! See if you can spot the weirdly specific detail in the story. Or not, I don’t care one way or the other.
Illinois politician spews lies…er, gives interview. I guess I should care that my taxes are going to go up, but I have resigned myself to it a while back, because, Illinois.
Anyone remember that old 1980s song “I Love LA“? I wonder if this would change some minds? Ah, who cares.
Emperor-Wannabe Donald I … issues Executive Order mandating that executive departments comply with law to submit new rules to public comment and congressional review? Eagerly awaiting the “he’s doing it to destroy the environment” spin.
Vlade Divac is a GM for an NBA team? The guy was a hard worker and a good player, but I never really thought of him as management material.
Beresheet lunar craft didn’t quite nail the landing. Engine and communications problems on the descent doomed it. I only hope someone wasn’t figuring in cubits instead of meters for the autopilot.
Good morning my Glibs and Gliberinas and what a glorious morning it is for everyone but those who value freedom, exposure of government corruption, and true journalism, as Julian Assange has been arrested after having his asylum withdrawn.
Let’s start off with a 
Buenos Tardes! Brett is currently partying down with a buddy. More details on that at his leisure….
