Midweek Meh-Ness [DOT 17/6/26]

Hope your week is going well so far…


Iran’s top envoy says peace deal with US dependent on Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/16/irans-top-envoy-says-peace-deal-with-the-us-dependent-on-israels-withdrawal-from-lebanon


Georgia Rep. Collins will challenge Ossoff in high-profile Senate matchup

https://www.npr.org/2026/06/16/nx-s1-5860795/georgia-election-senate-governor-results-trump


LOL

Algae thwart Trump’s $14.2m attempt to turn reflecting pool ‘American flag blue’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/16/algae-trump-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool

RIP Mark Rothko. You would have loved how the hydrogen peroxide bleach is only turning the Reflecting Pool blue around the perimeter

derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) 2026-06-16T22:13:06.493Z

Here is a public service announcement filmed by the Dallas Cowboys in the 1980s, and I promise that you would not correctly guess who pops up at the end if I gave you 10,000 tries

Jay Willis (@jaywillis.net) 2026-06-16T20:22:00.541Z

Have a great day…

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41 Comments

  1. …if I hadn’t seen it yesterday the not with 10,000 guesses thing would still be true…but…since I did

    …uh…so…he’s always had that one-eye-doesn’t-follow-the-other thing going on?

    • I suspected who it would be, because nothing is more American than Clarence Thomas harassing Anita Hill WHILE HE WORKED AT THE FEDERAL AGENCY CREATED TO PROTECT EQUALITY IN WORKPLACES.

      People talk a lot about how crazy things are now — and truly, yes, exhaustingly so — but in so many ways the past was no less crazy.

  2. I heart Mark Rothko. MoMA has two of his color field paintings on display (or they used to, before their ill-advised rearrangement scheme where random pieces were thrown next to each other because someone thought they saw a connection where obviously none existed in real life), and I have a reproduction of No. 51 (I think that’s the number) hanging in my bedroom.

    Has David Hockney’s recent death been discussed? His “Pool” paintings are magically calming and restorative. I met David Hockney once but I can’t remember where. You’d think it would be more memorable but in the early-to-mid-90s I got sucked in to this museum/gallery vortex thanks to friends taking jobs in that world or marrying fortuitously. I also had tons of vacation time, super-cheap flights, and plenty of friends scattered around, so my meeting might have occurred in New York, or LA (which he loved and which is the setting for the “Pool” paintings) or maybe even London. Speak, memory!

  3. This is so weird to me, probably because my mother worked and actually made more than my father did. I had exactly one friend (still my friend, too) whose mother stayed at home. That was a privilege reserved for the wealthy. The only other one I know was my mother-in-law, and I didn’t meet her until I was in college.

    I would have thought the two working parents percentage was MUCH higher, and that we crossed this threshold a long time ago. Trump economy, I guess.

    Mom and dad are both breadwinners in most families for first time

    • …for some folks I know going back to work after taking leave to give birth was pretty much a wash financially

      …like that 2nd pay check went just on childcare costs incurred by being at work…it’s possibly partly bound up too in a stance among people who largely can’t pay for stuff like “a nanny” that if you aren’t the primary carer for your kid(s) you’re a failure & probably don’t love them properly…because clearly people who famously had a nanny are all like jacob rees-mogg & think children should be seen & not heard or whatever?

      • A nanny is the expensive option. My daughter went to daycare. Yes, it was a chunk of change but way less than paying for a full-time employee. You just have to be very careful and very selective about the daycare you choose. And a decent daycare is good for kids, especially only children. I will die on that hill.

        My mom stayed home with my three older siblings, but had started working by the time my little sister and I came along, so we went to daycare. You know who the most financially successful members of my family are? Yep. My most successful friend who wasn’t actually born rich went to my daycare with me. She served on the board of the Federal Reserve.

        • Oh, and one other thing. At least here, and for daycares that are not religiously affiliated, the law requires that there are two employees with children at all times, no exceptions. The horror stories I’ve heard are from “religious” daycares (almost no rules or oversight in Florida) or people who do “home” daycare and keep several kids at their house. Alone.

        • …not arguing any of that but just for clarity the eat-a-2nd-paycheck was daycare/after-school cover not nanny…although I recall a few people I knew as kids had the live-in sort though not the mary-poppins-looking ones

          …not sure there’s a universal right answer but if you can afford help you need & refuse to accept either fact I have seen that fail to particularly look like it’s as about-the-kid as advertised once or twice?

        • My parents ran their own business next to the house so they were a) always around and b) we still went to daycare a few days a week. My brother and I are 16 months apart there was no running a business with us running around all the time!

    • Economically, you’re right, it has always been required for a major amount of American families. But I suspect the change is more social — i.e. husbands refusing to let their wives work or women giving their lives to pumping out kids for God and White Evangelical Country. Now the economy is so bad, she has to do both!

  4. This Eric Trump shit blows my mind.

    Cliffs notes: Eric dms Daniel Cormier and asks if any UFC fights are rigged. Cormier posts dms on X , then deletes.

    Cormier says his acct was hacked.
    ET says images are AI. Well which is it???
    You don’t hack an account to post fake images.
    Nevermind the fact that ET is an executive VP, the presidents son, and electronically messaged someone about breaking the law.

    • The weird thing to me is why is ET trying to scam some bets on a stupid UFC fight anyway? His family has stolen billions. You need a few bucks, Eric? Daddy not paying you enough?

      My first thought was gambling addiction.

      Sadly, though, I saw writeups on the whole thing and immediately forgot about it. I’m so inured to Trump corruption that my outrage machine for petty crime on their part is broken.

      • …my gut feeling was that they just want to always feel like they get an inside track so they can brag on sure thing bets…& assume all fixes are on by default because that’s theirs?

        • It makes me think of a guy I worked with over 20 years ago. He spent an hour telling me how he stole cable. Looking up info on the Internet, buying an old computer to unscramble the signal, installing sketchy software, running cable through his attic. He was a VP, and probably made twice what I made. And I was like “cool story but I’ll just pay $100 a month.”

          I realized it wasn’t about the money, it was the thrill of the crime.

    • It’s crazy-making to me that Democrats aren’t just constantly pointing out how corrupt the entire family is, I mean, they’re just robbing the national treasury on a daily basis! Every single thing they do is a conflict of interest. It’s just … that shit plays, guys, maybe make a big deal about it!

      • …I hear you…& I don’t say this is particularly an indication that they are or aren’t but if you have one thing

        Donald Trump converted the White House into a money-making operation for himself, his family, and his closest advisors and biggest campaign donors. It's endless corrupt self-enrichment from a president who says he doesn't "think about Americans' financial situation.” No kidding.

        Rep. Jamie Raskin (@raskin.house.gov) 2026-06-17T13:45:10.529Z

        …& another

        Can the intent be any clearer?Banning officials from encouraging people to vote?Really?Such desperation.They know the majority is against them.

        Joanne Freeman (@jbf1755.bsky.social) 2026-06-17T11:37:56.263Z

        …& neither “makes news”

        …well…that can’t be a press or audience issue…so…who else could be the reason we can’t back out of the stuff that got locked in last year?

        …like…I get how it’s true “they” largely aren’t making the capital you’d think was on the table out of this stuff & that’s really hard to understand

        …but also…dems don’t “do stuff” the way labour or the tories or even the lib dems…or reform/restore “do things” because they aren’t even as closely grouped as labour & look how that’s going

        …option #welikewheneverythingsucks self-selects for high levels of “we’re all like this” but option #havewetried…doesn’t lend itself to a dovetailed platform

        …not a problem if people…ah…ok…I see where I went wrong now…nevermind?

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