Happy 4th of July eve. Mayhaps you are headed into a long weekend or at least a day off tomorrow.
Ugh
As Trump dominated the docket, divided Supreme Court moved boldly to the right
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/02/supreme-court-2024-conservative-power-trump
Stonks!
Stock futures are little changed after S&P 500 closes above 5,500 level: Live updates
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/02/stock-market-today-live-updates.html
Sprots!
Andy Murray exits as one of the greatest with a legacy as a true fighter
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jul/02/murray-exits-as-one-of-the-greatest-with-a-legacy-as-a-true-fighter
That’s quite a headline
RFK Jr. denies eating a dog while sidestepping sexual assault allegations in Vanity Fair article
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/02/politics/rfk-jr-eating-dog-vanity-fair/index.html
Aww she’s great!
Have a great day!
This is the photo caption from the CNN article:
WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING AT THE RICHARD NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM? In the 50s, when Nixon was VP, he appreciated RFK’s tireless Communist witch hunting while serving alongside Roy Cohn on Senator McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). He probably didn’t know who JFK was, he was such a newbie lightweight in the Senate. But then came the election of 1960…Richard Nixon was many things, but a turn-the-other-cheek kind of guy was not one of them.
The brain eating worm is probably a tiny fraction of his issues, but it’s a neat symbol. Something is wrong with him.
On Sunday the NY Times ran supposed focus group results of a bunch of people who said they were voting for him, and of course the paper bent over backwards to normalize them and him. Of course anyone who consents to show up in the Times is going to spin their views as best they can to appear rational, and shady focus group organizers select for that quality.
The bad faith operators will claim they work on neutral principles such as selecting for ability to speak articulately, but what that means is really the ability to mask true feelings with the spin they learn from right wing conspiracy sites. Anyone who starts babbling right away about 5G chips implanted in brains by Tom Hanks gets weeded out.
It’s a process that went back to coverage of the civil rights movement. Interviews didn’t go to incoherent open racists, they went to people who could calmly speak the language of code words and dog whistles about “states rights” and respecting tradition.
“I’m not a church boy.”
Right, he’s a Kennedy. Best case scenario the worst thing he has done to a woman is sexually assault her.
At least she wasn’t left to drown in a car when Ted went home after an accident. Or killed in a plane crash because Bobby jr decided he was qualified enough to fly a plane.
I know, polls. But so far, it looks like Biden’s poor debate performance hasn’t amounted to much.
Honestly, I don’t think there are any “swing” voters out there. There’s nobody left to persuade. You either want fascism or democracy. I still suspect that any “swing” voters are Trump voters in disguise, and haven’t seen anything to disabuse me of that opinion.
And blue dogcollar raised a solid point earlier: Biden’s age is a known factor at this point and voters have already baked it in to their decisions. Just like they’ve baked in their opinions of the Tangerine Nightmare.
And of course my usual rah-rah: The Republicans have been losing downballot races since Dobbs. There’s no possibility anyone will vote for a Democratic congressperson and then vote for Trump.
Things seem awfully quiet so let me add something.
Last night’s episode of “Hawaii 5-0” was distinctly underwhelming. I think we picked an episode from its last gasp. First of all, my one true love, Danno Williams, was nowhere to be found. I think he left the show before its run ended. Second of all, Steve “One Shot” McGarrett has gone Friday casual. Gone are the somber three-piece suits; now it’s a sport coat and really jazzy slacks in a bold black, blue, and white plaid, and no tie.
Things pick up because Cathy Lee Crosby comes bounding onto the scene, literally. She rudely interrupts a traditional Hawaiian funeral ceremony because she is the health inspector and she wants an autopsy done because the deaths are suspicious.
In this episode, and actually this is very interesting, we are in a remote section of Hawaii. I think we’re still on Oahu, but there’s talk about “choppering” her back to Honolulu. But “Hawaii 5-0,” as I understand it, is very sensitive to Hawaiian customs and culture, and in this episode you see…well, for example, you see a small shop which seems to be the village’s men’s club, where the men get haircuts and play cards and it’s a general store. I’m surprised they never did episodes where people spoke Hawaiian, aside from the occasional “Aloha.” I guess subtitling in the 1970s would have been a very strange thing for American programming.
At some point Cathy Lee and McGarrett’s minion Kimo or Kimu must investigate something in the ocean so they scuba dive. Kimo/Kimu is pure beefcake and wears a very skimpy box-cut pair of bathing trunks. Cathy Lee is looking quite fetching in a one-piece. At this point we’re practically on the Lido deck of the Love Boat.
I cannot tell you what this episode was about. There was radiation poisoning, but who, what, why, I couldn’t tell you. And I just watched it 15 or 16 hours ago.
Just so you know, Kimo is Jim in Hawaiian. Kimu is not a word or name in Hawaiian but is a Japanese restaurant in Vancouver BC & probably a radio station somewhere.
So it must have been Kimo. My hearing is fine but our flat-screen in the bedroom has the speakers in the back so they broadcast into the wall. It’s usually fine until I’m confronted with unfamiliar words, like Kimo.
The Rockford Files would be a good followup.
When our internet glitched out recently I was flipping broadcast channels and this came up on one of the local station’s rerun subchannels.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0688000/
I showed up in the middle and quit before it was over, but it didn’t matter – the whole show is made by James Garner’s takes and reactions.
Stuart Margolin is also very good as Jim Rockford’s friend (sort of), Angel Martin. So is Joe Santos who plays Rockford’s beleagured buddy on the force, Dennis Becker.
Rockford Files is a terrific show. I watched every one and learned everything I knew about the California Central Coast from it. When I actually moved out to San Luis Obispo, I became Jim Rockford in my head for a couple of years. He’s a character in the direct lineage of California private dicks like those from Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.
Rockford Files was one of my dad’s favorites so I HAD to watch it.
Apparently, James is famous for punching Glen A Larson (or Glen Larceny as crank/author Harlan Ellison called him) for copying a Rockford Files episode almost down to the names of the characters (including the actress.) Glen Larson would be later sued by George Lucas (who could have been sued by the Kurosawa and John Campbell) for copying Star Wars.
/piece of pointless Trivia dredged up from youtube/
I’m irrationally annoyed that the Friday casual wardrobe wasn’t aloha shirts with a nice pair of slacks.
I hope Sarah’s good work enables her to leave Oklahoma. They do not deserve her.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, convicted over 1975 FBI killings, denied parole
‘Please send help’: Caribbean reels from Hurricane Beryl devastation
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/03/caribbean-hurricane-beryl-storm
Completely unsurprised about Peltier’s ruling. Such bullshit, he never should have been found guilty at all.