Good morning my Glibs and Gliberinas! And what a glorious morning it always is!
This is a classic case of she said/reality said.
Border crossing shutdown between El Paso and Mexico.
Oklahoma Woman caught on camera shooting a gun at a neighbor’s house and then firebombing it.
Job recruiter accidentally sends racist email to Asian applicant.
That’s all I got for today. I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.
I started baking as part of my half-assed, slow-motion, car crash of a mid-life crisis. I needed a creative outlet. My first decorating attempt was truly pathetic.
It was a peppermint cake and I wanted to make it look like a peppermint candy. I failed. I lacked technical skill (and proper tools) in decorating. So, I regrouped and focused on making the cakes impressive on the inside by figuring out how to make checkerboard cakes.
But, I really wanted them to be pretty on the outside as well.
I decided to focus on what I was capable of doing. I bought basic tools, an offset spatula and basic tips and a pastry bag. With just these tools, you can make impressive cakes if you think carefully about what you are doing.
Before we get to decorating, I do want to tell you about ermine – or boiled– frosting. This is the best frosting I have ever tasted. It is fluffy, light, and just sweet enough. It’s made by combining 5 T flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk (you can use coconut milk or almond milk to make it vegan) in a saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, until it has the texture of mashed potatoes. Let that cool, then beat it a little at a time into 1 cup of butter (or margarine) with a pinch of salt and vanilla or other flavoring.
It will seem to curdle, keep going, and it will turn into something with the texture of whipped cream. Now, we’re ready to talk about decorating.
First, you can make a swirled frosting, then sprinkle stuff on top. I made a coconut lime cake with lime curd between the layers. I used coconut milk to make the ermine frosting and balance the fresh lime curd between the layers. I used the offset spatula to make it swirly. It really takes no skill at all – just smear it on the cake. Then I sprinkled dried coconut on top along with a few lime slices. I think this is a pretty and inviting cake.
I’ve also made an almond cake with raspberry between the layers. I decorated this one with sliced almonds and fruit. I toasted the slivered almonds and used them to make ‘flowers’ with a berry in the center. Just stick them into the frosting in a circular pattern – it’s hard to mess up. I smoothed out the sides, and I’ll explain how I got it smooth in a moment, but you don’t have to do that. You could leave it swirled. I pressed toasted almonds around the bottom of the cake as well. Again, I think this is a pretty and inviting cake.
You can make a very cute or a very elegant cake just by making blobs of frosting. When I do this, I leave the sides unfrosted. This is for two reasons: I like the look, and I use butter cream and the blobs are thick. That is a lot of butter cream on the top of the cake and I don’t want the sweetness of the butter cream to overwhelm the cake. I made this cake (along with StraffinRun who never posted pics – glares) back in October. I just made blobs using different tips and colors and then added candy eyes.
The simplicity of the idea inspired me. I thought instead of cute, this could be used for an elegant cake. And, you don’t actually need tips to make the elegant version. It can be done with just a Ziploc bag. Put the frosting into the Ziploc, cut off part of one corner and go to town. I made a lemon cake and put cherry jam between the layers. I just made blobs and then sprinkled a little colored sugar over it. I think it looks elegant.
Lastly, drip cakes are very popular and hip these days and they are easy. I made a peanut butter cake and put chopped peanuts between the layers
For a drip cake, you want the frosting smooth on the top and sides. I made a peanut butter butter cream, and smoothed it over the cake.
You make it smooth by putting frosting on the outside of the cake. It doesn’t need to smooth at that point, but you’re not trying to make a swirled cake. Then, put the offset spatula under hot running water. Use it to smooth the sides by running it around the outside. It takes repeated efforts, under the hot water, smooth, repeat until you are happy with it. Once it is smooth, stick it in the refrigerator to chill. A drip works best over a cold, frosted cake.
Next make the ganache for the drip. I made chocolate ganache which is equal weights of chocolate and cream. Do weight it, it makes a difference. Chop up the chocolate then pour hot cream (heated in the microwave) over it and stir. Add a little corn syrup (1 tablespoon or less) to make it shiny.
Pour a little ganache on top, then smooth it toward the edge of the cake. When you reach the edge, give it a little push to make it drip over the side. It’s that easy. You can add more decorations, like chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups or other candies if you like.
I’m enjoying learning to decorate cakes. It gives me a creative outlet and has pushed me to think about how to get an effect within my skill level. I hope you enjoyed seeing these easy methods and take inspiration for your own cakes.
Man, I had an epic nap this afternoon. I’ll, err, totally be making up the time this evening. It’s amazing when your body just goes “okay, we’re taking the server down for emergency maintenance, find a comfy place”. An hour and a half later, all processes are running better.
Willie Brown stabs his old side-piece in the back, and speaks truth
Republicans “lie in wait” to POUNCE
Syria to Cyprus: My bad, we were shooting at (((them)))
Let’s move that victory parade to the 4th of July and go home. Whatever good we have done for Afghanistan is in the past. Let us leave the future of Afghanistan to the Afghans.
From a different channel on which some Glibs put this in my head: War(ren), what is she good for?
Appearances Can Be DeceivingSee that handsome, rugged fellow to the right? Looks like the very picture of an old-time mountain man, doesn’t he? Hirsute and tough, yet still ruggedly good-looking; no doubt a wilderness gentleman, a man of good breeding and manners.
Of course, he’s nothing of the sort. That is, of course, Robert Redford, in his role as Jeremiah Johnson, from the movie of the same name. His character was based on a man who was none of the things described above, save perhaps hirsute and tough. He was John Jeremiah Garrison “Liver-Eating” Johnston, and his story is quite different than the movie version – and a lot more interesting. Johnston was no heroic figure; in today’s world he probably would have landed in prison. But it’s an interesting contrast, between Redford’s noble character and the unsavory, drunken, violent lout on whom Redford’s character was based.
Johnston was born John Jeremiah Garrison. He emerged into the world in Little York, New Jersey, in 1824, and if anyone could be said to be living proof of the maxim “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”, it is the young Johnston. His father, one Isaac Garrison, was a violent, abusive alcoholic who sent his young sons to neighboring farms to labor to pay off his drinking and gambling debts.
It didn’t take long for the young John Jeremiah to tire of this treatment. At age twelve or thirteen – the record is unclear – he signed up to be a crewman aboard a whaler, which occupation he followed until the outbreak of the Mexican War, when he signed up with the U.S. Navy.
It was during this tenure that the course of young John Jeremiah’s life changed. He had matured into a massive, intimidating figure; six foot two inches tall, heavily bearded, two hundred and sixty pounds of solid muscle. His Navy service ended when an officer reprimanded a friend of John Jeremiah’s with the flat of his sword; Garrison knocked the lieutenant ass over teakettle and, facing court-martial, fled ashore.
Now he faced a crossroads. Twenty-two years old, with his only skills being sailing and fighting, he decided to head inland, making the obvious choice for a youth in his position: To make a living in the Rockies. He adopted the surname “Johnston,” because why not, and struck out for the West.
Johnston surfaced in 1846 in Alder Gulch, Montana Territory, working as a woodcutter supplying the steamboats on that Missouri River port. One story of Johnston from around this period describes him lounging on the Missouri River dock with a partner. Johston was wearing only mule-ear trooper boots and “a filthy red woolen union suit that he had apparently been living and sleeping in for several years.” While he was thus occupied, a riverboat arrived bearing wealthy tourists from St. Louis who were taking in the sights, of which Johnston and his partner were not the least. Several prominent ladies of that city found Johnston and his unnamed partner fascinating, and invited him into the steamboat’s parlor for luncheon, with the understanding that he put on some trousers first.
Johnston and his partner were nonplussed by the luxurious dining salon, and their confusion was heightened at the end of the meal, when dishes of ice cream were passed out.
“John, what is this stuff?” the partner asked.
“Don’t look ignorant,” Johnston told him. “It comes in cans.”
1863 found him signing up with the Second Colorado Cavalry, to serve as a scout. He was with the cavalry for only a few days before going AWOL to spend his enlistment bonus on a drinking binge, but eventually returned to the regiment in time to ride east, where he took part in the battles of Westport and Newtonia. Johnston was shot in the leg but recovered and continued to ride with the Second until his discharge in September 1965.
Set at liberty again, Johnston returned to the Montana Territory, where he worked at almost any occupation that would make money: Trapper, fur trader, woodcutter, carpenter, whiskey trader. He viewed the law as only a set of mild suggestions, engaging in running liquor to the various Indian tribes and selling Indian skulls to tourists. In 1868 Johnston formed a partnership with one J.X. Biedler to run liquor to the Indians in an extremely hostile area known as the Whoop Up Territory, which had the reputation of being extremely dangerous for white men; that information bothered Johnston not a jot, and he continued in the illegal whiskey trade until 1873, when he executed an adroit 180-degree turn and got himself appointed as Sheriff in Coulson (now Billings) Montana. Johnston worked as a lawman more or less consistently – again, the record is not complete – until he retired in 1894 at age 70.
Incidentally there is no record of Johnston’s preferring the Hawken rifle. The movie not only got that wrong, they got it badly wrong; a “.30 caliber Hawken gun,” as referenced in the film, would be suitable only for rabbits and squirrels. The only armed photos of Johnston I have found shows him with what appears to be a Sharps rifle and, later, an 1876 Winchester.
As to the source of those Indian skulls, that is the part of Johnston’s legend that is best known.
Legend has it that, in 1847, Johnston took a woman of the Flathead tribe to wife, only to have her killed by a man of the Crow nation; in this respect, the story is much like the one in that movie. But Johnston’s revenge on the Crow was far more brutal than Hollywood’s imaginings.
According to the book Crow Killer: the Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson, taken from the accounts of people who knew Johnston, this one-man vendetta claimed the lives of over three hundred Crow Indians over the course of twenty-five years.
One account has it that Johnston was captured by the Crow. Held prisoner in winter in the norther Rockies, stripped to the waist, tied with thongs and left in a tepee with a single guard, Johnston managed to work himself free of his bonds. He knocked his guard senseless with a kick, took the brave’s knife, scalped him, then proceeded to cut off one of his legs. Taking the guard’s leg with him, he fled shirtless into the winter wilderness with only the Indian’s leg for provisions; he lived by this act of cannibalism to reach his partner Del Gue’s cabin, some two hundred miles away.
The appellation “Liver-Eating Johnston” derives from this vendetta, during which Johnston was said to have eaten the livers of the Crow he killed. He may have fostered this reputation, as to the Crow it was a deadly insult, as they could not go to the afterlife without their livers; but reportedly the incident dates to the early days of the quarter-century conflict when Johnston and several other men fought a Crow war party. Johnston later claimed to have shot an Indian, and then ran his knife into the brave to finish him. When he withdrew the knife, there was a bit of the Indian’s liver stuck to the blade; Johnston noticed a young tenderfoot watching, so he pretended to nibble at the liver, then extended it to the young man, asking if he wanted a bite. The tenderfoot, as Johnston put it, proceeded to “sick up his guts,” to the amusement of the other members of the party. However, other than this account, there is no actual record of any acts of liver-eating.
Johnston’s taste for revenge (and human legs) ran out in the early 1870s, when he formally made peace with the Crow, referring to them thereafter as his brothers. After that he limited his killing to members of the Sioux and Blackfoot nations.
Johnston’s health declined after his retirement. His former great strength was eroded by alcoholism and the several wounds he had received in the Civil War and his years of fighting Indians. He moved into a veteran’s hospital in Los Angeles in 1899, at age 74, and died a year later.
John Jeremiah Garrison Johnston was a much more interesting sort than Redford’s far less colorful depiction. He was a product of his times, as are we all, but even for his times, he was a violent, profane man. A thoroughly unsavory character, he did nevertheless possess determination and great tenacity, traits of which we should all study up on. And again, even for his times, his career of adventuring seems like one big caper across the most dangerous areas of the West, where he fearlessly engaged in the most dangerous occupations around.
We should not overlook the contemptible parts of Johnston’s personality. He was not a man to be respected or held up as a role model. But we shouldn’t overlook his courage and tenacity, either. Maybe, one day, some Hollywood producer will make a movie that more accurately depicts Johnston as he was, one of the toughest, roughest, shootin’est, most colorful characters our nation has ever produced.
This morning I can barely form a coherent thought greater than “Wannafud?”….and I come into Glibs HQ and find I already have mail. Joy, it is from STEVE SMITH. This cannot be good.
TO CHEESE PERSON,
STEVE SMITH STILL SORRY HIM THROW CHEESE PERSON ACROSS ROOM IN CRYPTID TAKEOVER. HOPE BYGONE IS BYGONE. STEVE SMITH IS PROMINENT FOREST LAWYER, BUT NEED HELP. HIM NEED LABOR LAW ADVICE. HIM KNOW CHEESE PERSON IS ALSO LAWYER. IF CAN HELP, STEVE SMITH ENCLOSE RETAINER. STEVE SMITH CONTACT SOON. BY CONTACT, MEAN…WRITE.
STEVE SMITH, ESQ.
Grand. Just what I need. Well, there was a “retainer” enclosed. 5 birds nests, 3 possum skulls and about 5000 oak leaves. I guess I will find out what he is up to. After I find a dumpster for this “retainer”. Best do this one pro bono.
Oh, yeah… you all probably want your links. Here you go then:
I leave the music links to the commentariat, as I think I had better go refresh myself on current labor law developments.
Not to confuse all the late-nighters with an unexpected post, but now that the last of our house guests have hit the road, I have a little time to let you all know what’s happening on the site this week, courtesy your fellow Glibertarians.com community members.
As always, links provided by a rotating cast: OMWC, Banjos, Swiss, Brett L, Spud, and assorted cryptids, perhaps. There might be last minute substitutions because of the holiday. Hey, we don’t want to become too predictable!
Tomorrow (let me be the first to wish our Canadian Glibs a Happy Canada Day!), Animal brings us a new shitlord’s bio and Tulip proves that even YOU can decorate a cake. Well, maybe not Sloopy, but the rest of you.
Tuesday, Ozymandias has a post about Science! and Mythical is back with a Woke Charmed recap.
Wednesday, well, you know what happens on Wednesdays. We *think*, based on some hints thrown out this weekend, that there may be a SugarFree double header this week. Stay tuned!
Thursday is Independence Day here in the States. Leap brings us a piece on liberty, and in the evening, Leon stops by with a thought about taxation.
On Friday, get a jump on the weekend and go kayaking with Tonio. We suspect a cryptid might be along in the evening.
The weekend features entertainment from Mexican Sharpshooter and Not Adahn, in addition to the usual links.
Want to see your name in lights on the Contributing Writer page? Submit an article.
Ok, I’m off to do another load of dishes and start the linen laundry. We had a super fabulous weekend. A sincere thanks to everybody who joined us!
Here it is, sorry about the paywall gents.
I’d like to make an important announcement to New York retailers: NEW JERSEY HAS AGREED TO IMMEDIATELY BEGIN BUYING LARGE QUANTITIES OF WHITEFISH SALAD FROM OUR GREAT PATRIOT GOURMET MARKETS.
What’s that you say? There was no such agreement? New Jersey doesn’t even have any kind of centralized purchasing mechanism for food products? I say fake news! Conspiracy by the deep state!
*Crosses legs. Pulls skirt down slightly*
Listen asshole! I live in Jersey and own/operate a somewhat legitimate business there, you have any idea what I can do with such a deal? I’d corner that (((Market))) with cheap, plentiful whitefish and bagels to sweeten the deal. I’d make a killing!
OK, you know that I’m not serious. But Donald Trump was serious when he tweeted this: “MEXICO HAS AGREED TO IMMEDIATELY BEGIN BUYING LARGE QUANTITIES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT FROM OUR GREAT PATRIOT FARMERS!”
This tweet raises two immediate questions:
1. Why, like so many Trump tweets, does it read like a bad translation from Russian?
2. What the heck is he talking about?
Listen, I only pick on you every so often. I don’t have that kind of time to go after everything you write, and quite frankly you have a long history of saying stupid things. Nobody goes through every damn thing you throw into the ether, every twat, every article behind a fucking paywall, and asks you to explain this shit. Is it not possible the President ate 6 pounds of cold McNuggets at 4 am and twatted out horseshit half asleep on the shitter?
There was, after all, no mention of agricultural products in the statement of agreement. And Mexico, while a big buyer of U.S. farm goods, is a market economy: Private businesses, not government officials, decide how much Iowa corn Mexico will buy in a given year.
For what it’s worth, my guess is that Trump vaguely remembered the terms of an abortive trade deal with China, which he claimed included a commitment by China to buy 5 million tons of U.S. soybeans. If my guess is right, Trump is confusing Mexico with China and has forgotten that talks with China have broken down.
Think about how much events like the Mexican standoff weaken America’s position in the world.
That’s racist.
To be a great power, of course you need the material basis for power — a big economy, a military big enough to make you a force to be reckoned with. But you also need to be a country others can take seriously — a nation that stands by its promises but also makes good on its threats.
So think about what just happened.
First, Trump recently negotiated a trade deal with Mexico — a deal barely different from the previous deal, which Trump called the “worst in history,” but put that on one side. The whole point of trade deals is that they’re supposed to provide some certainty. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, like NAFTA, amounts to a promise by all three participants that they won’t arbitrarily impose new barriers to cross-border trade.
Then Trump went ahead and threatened major new tariffs on Mexico, not because it had violated its trade agreements but because he didn’t like something that was happening on the border, a situation that has nothing to do with trade policy. So the USMCA appears, in practice, to be a solemn promise by the U.S. government not to impose tariffs on Mexican products — unless it feels like it.
The wisdom of such as action is debatable, and one I not about to straddle my legs across. Playing Russian Roulade with tariffs and reneging on trade deals is not the most practical or even ethical way to go about this. That said, it did produce a result that in some circles is desirable. That necessity of that result of course, is also up for debate.
If that’s what you get out of making a deal with America, why bother?
And then, after all the dire warnings of what would happen if Mexico didn’t give Trump what he wanted, Trump appears to have backed down in return for a declaration that Mexico will do pretty much exactly what it had already promised to do before the threats.
Like shoot Micaraguans? You heard it from Winston’s Mom first. Telemundo: Mexican Army guns down migrants!
Now, the business world is extremely pleased that the trade war appears to have been called off. But it does look as if a Trump threat is worth about as much as a Trump promise: There’s no particular reason to believe that he’ll actually go through with it.
The only thing we can be sure of is that whatever happens, Trump will claim to have achieved a great victory.
Yeah, that has pretty much been his MO since the 80’s.
In the case of the Mexican standoff, this may not seem too bad. But think about what it means when foreign leaders know that the president of the United States is: (a) gullible (b) easily susceptible to flattery and (c) eager to proclaim victory and unwilling to admit that he didn’t actually get anything significant.
That’s still racist, you cock-tease.
Basically, this turns America into a systematic chump. Hold a summit, flatter Trump’s vanity, let him issue a communique claiming vast achievement, then go on doing whatever you wanted to do. Just ask North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, who snookered Trump into thinking he’d made major concessions, went right back to building up his nuclear attack capacity and still gets praised by Trump as our allies watch in horror.
You mean like Iran did with Obama?
Again, it’s a good thing that we seem to have avoided a Mexican trade war for now. But the China trade war still appears to be on. And I’m worried about confrontation with Europe, partly because European nations are democracies with free presses, which makes it harder for them to give Trump the kind of imaginary victories he craves.
In any case, the bottom line from the Mexico fiasco is that the U.S. is now significantly less credible and less respected than it was a few weeks ago. And things will probably keep getting worse.
I’m sure it’s not the Diet Coke that keeps Trump up at night. Obviously, its deteriorating credibility he holds with European “Allies” and the wailing of journalists from Der Speigel think…because he doesn’t speak any German. Now maybe he lies awake on the shitter thinking about the Guardian and how much they hate him…Now wait just a goddamn minute, that’s what journalists do here!
This week we have a classic alignment: Saturn (retrograde) aligned with Mars through the earth. This is the alignment that was used in that ur-example of how to make unfalsifiable prophecies “if you invade, a great empire will be destroyed.” Since then, this alignment now has the additional reading of “don’t take the advice of an astrologer.”
The sun and Mars in cancer indicates that there will be trouble arising from being put in an uncomfortable situation. Mercury in Leo bring royal proclamations and sudden mood swings between affection and disdain. The moon and Venus in Gemini indicates variability and duplicity, and it also indicates that success in dating comes from lying. Because it is very difficult to distinguish between objective and subjective cases in astrology, I’m uncertain as to whether this is advice for someone who wants to be more successful, or a warning for someone that their (potential) partner is full of shit.
As for the cards, there will be warning signs on Monday, which may be easy to disregard. The reason you might overlook them is that things will go really well at the beginning of the week, but those hinted-at problems will become a full-blown shitshow by the end. However, there is a definite path that winds up with you being successful bigly.
Cancer: Ace of Coins reversed – Mo’ money, Mo’ problems; bad intelligence
Leo: Ace of Wands reversed – Fall, decadence, ruin, perdition
Virgo: 5 of Cups – Loss but something remains, focusing on the negative of a situation, inheritance, frustration in marriage
Libra: The World – Assured success, voyage, change of place
Scorpio: 2 of Swords – Conformity, courage, affection, intimacy, concord in a state of arms
Sagittarius: The Hermit reversed – Concealment, disguise, unreasoned caution
Capricorn: 2 of Cups reversed – False love, folly, misunderstanding
Aquarius: Ace of Cups reversed – False heart, mutation, instability, revolution
Pisces: King of Cups reversed – Dishonest man, roguery, injustice, vice, scandal
Aries: 10 of Coins – Gain, riches, home, family matters
Taurus: 4 of Wands reversed – increase, felicity, beauty, embellishment
Gemini: Knight of Swords – Skill, bravery, capacity, wrath, destruction, defense, ruin, resistance
Florida Man doing links on a Sunday? Well, OMWC and SP threw a party and the Old Man might actually sleep past 4am, so I’m paying off some help.
Trump’s definitely got Kim in his pocket. How else do you explain this little PsyOp?
Proud Boys jumped by Antifa throwing milkshakes full of quick drying cement, which is basically liquid rocks. Aggravated assault charges are warranted. Disrupting a lawful demonstration seems the harshest charge leveled.
Congratulations Wichita Falls, I hereby declare you spiritually part of Florida.
I’ve been on an electronic kick lately.
I mean seriously, round two of the Democrat follies this week produced some comedy gold. But being Saturday night, I think we’ll bypass covering the batshit crazy group that is the Democrat Presidential candidates, and talk about things that really matter.
Never change, France. Never change.
Six months of dark, an indigenous people that have zero tolerance for alcohol, and abject poverty. How could this possibly happen.
Just stay out of the Saudi embassy.
I’m thinking he’s a shithead.
Come oonnn, Yellowstone!
Sheer. Epic. Trolling.
A little mellow Muzak. Time to snark, go off topic, and inject links that someone may actually care about.