Welcome to the Cruelest Day: August 12, 2025, and World Elephant Day. Here’s a panoramic view of a herd of wild elephants drinking from the swimming pool at our tent camp at Manyeleti Park in South Africa. It was a great treat to see this almost every day. Click to enlarge:
The babies had a hard time drinking from the main pool, but there was also a “baby pool” (an overflow tank) where they could get water. I don’t think the water was chlorinated.
It’s also Baseball Fans Day (did you know that last week the first female umpire started working regularly in Major League Baseball?), National Julienne Fries Day (I like mine thicker), and Vinyl Record Day (does anybody still use these?) Here’s umpire Jen Powell in her first game; she’s put in her dues, which requires many years umpiring in the minor leagues before entering the Big Show:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the August 12 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*As part of his plan to “take over Washington, D. C.” because of a supposed epidemic of crime, Trump has ordered the National Guard into the city to act as police, adding that he’s gong to “take over the police”. .
President Trump significantly escalated his efforts to exert federal authority over the nation’s capital on Monday, saying that he was taking control of the city’s police department and deploying 800 National Guard troops to fight crime there. The president painted a dystopian picture of Washington — including “bloodthirsty criminals” and “roving mobs of wild youth” — that stood in sharp contrast to official figures showing violent crime in the city is at a 30-year low.
Mr. Trump said Attorney General Pam Bondi would oversee the federal takeover of the capital’s Metropolitan Police Department and, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at his side, added that he was prepared to send the military into Washington “if needed.” He also threatened to expand such efforts to other cities, including Chicago, if they did not deal with crime rates he claimed were “out of control” during a White House news conference.
It was not immediately how long Mr. Trump’s takeover of policing in Washington would remain in place. He declared a public safety emergency and invoked a section of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act that grants him the authority to temporarily seize control of the department.
Charles Allen, a member of the District of Columbia Council who represents Capitol Hill, said that the president’s declaration of a public safety emergency was not grounded in reality. “He’s doing this because he can,” Mr. Allen said.
That last sentence sums up nearly everything that Trump has done. And the only reason he can get away with it because since D.C. is not a state, it has no governor who can prevent deployment of the National Guard. In fact, the Manhattan Institute’s graph, below, shows that, at least through 2024, the crime rates are mixed: some rising and some falling. But there’s no general trend for an overall increase in various crimes.
However, the NYT graph shows that in the last two years overall violent crime has decreased:
But of course there need be no trend to get Trump to act. He might have “heard something” and just decided to act. As you see above, the 2025 figure isn’t over yet, but the overall trend has been one of a decline since 2011.
*There is a huge world outcry after Israel killed four Al-Jazeera journalists on Sunday night, though it’s not clear whether the IDF was targeting one of them as a member of Hamas.
From the NYT:
An Israeli strike near a hospital in Gaza City on Sunday night killed five Al Jazeera journalists, the network said on Monday.
The Israeli military confirmed that it had conducted a strike targeting one of the men killed, whom it accused of being a Hamas fighter posing as a reporter, an allegation that he and the network had rejected.
The Government Media Office in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, said in a statement that a strike on a “journalists’ tent near Al-Shifa Hospital” killed five members of the news media — Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qraiqeh Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed Noufal — and called the attack “deliberate and premeditated.”
The director of Al Shifa hospital, Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, told The New York Times that an Israeli drone strike on a tent in front of Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, which was housing journalists, killed seven people, including five journalists and two others, and wounded eight.
But the Times of Israel adds in the headline that al-Sharif was accused of being a Hamas combatant and cell leader, something the NYT doesn’t mention until the sixth paragraph. From the ToI:
Following Gazan media reports about Sharif’s death, the IDF on Sunday confirmed carrying out a strike that killed him, saying he was a “terrorist operating under the guise of a journalist.”
“The terrorist Anas al-Sharif served as a cell leader in the Hamas terror organization and advanced plans for rocket fire against Israeli civilians and IDF forces,” the military said in a statement.
The IDF noted that in October, it published documents seized in Gaza that it said “unequivocally” confirmed Sharif’s “military affiliation with Hamas.”
Here’s an IDF tweet with its supporting documentation, including dates of birth, which can be verified:
🎯STRUCK: Hamas terrorist Anas Al-Sharif, who posed as an Al Jazeera journalist
Al-Sharif was the head of a Hamas terrorist cell and advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops.
Intelligence and documents from Gaza, including rosters, terrorist training lists and… pic.twitter.com/ypFaEYDHse— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 10, 2025
Canada’s National Post, reprinting an article from the Jewish News Syndicate, says this:
The IDF previously released intelligence and recovered many documents in Gaza that confirmed al-Sharif’s “military” role within Hamas. These materials include personnel rosters, records of terrorist training courses, phone directories and salary documents, all substantiating his involvement as a combatant and commander in Hamas.
The evidence also highlighted al-Sharif’s integration within Al Jazeera, despite the media network’s efforts to distance itself from his activities.
The documents detail al-Sharif’s position as a fighter and cell leader since his enlistment in Hamas in 2013, including his leadership in rocket units and participation in elite Nukhba battalions. These records not only show clear affiliation with terrorist operations but also outline attempts to use journalistic credentials as a cover for operational activity.
Now if the other journalists weren’t affiliated with Hamas, their deaths are tragedies. But if Al-Sharif was a terrorist, the world can’t accuse Israel of targeting journalists. Journalists who are members of Hamas are particularly influential because they—especially Al-Sharif—have a big voice. I suspect the IDF was right about Al-Sharif as they usually are, but it’s still arguable whether killing four other people was justifiable to get rid of one terrorist journalist.
*Jonathan Mahler, a staff writer for the NYT, has an op-ed suggesting that the Democratic mayoral prelim victory of Zohran Mamdani may well be a bellwether for what’s happening in the rest of the U.S. In fact, Mahler says this:
What’s happening in New York today is not just the political triumph of youth and charisma over age and cynicism. And it’s not just the prospect of a dynamic progressive leader rising up from the smoldering remains of an unpopular Democratic Party. Whatever transpires with Mr. Mamdani’s political career, his emergence signals the end of a momentous chapter in American history.
Really? So what’s going on? The problem is that NYC became unaffordable for many, a “luxury city” as the op-ed calls it (and adds that this same feature helped elect Trump). Mamdani is a reaction to that (Bolding is Mahler’s):
Now that same backlash has produced Mr. Mamdani, with his bold proposals to turn back the historical tide with an old but familiar playbook: big government and high taxes. It’s a radical plan for a city that has been, for four decades, the beating heart of global capitalism. And there are practical realities and powerful forces arrayed against him. But if history is any guide, what’s happening in New York right now may be a bellwether for the rest of the country.
. . . . The numbers speak for themselves. The vacancy rate for rental housing is 1.4 percent — as low as it has been since 1968 — and the median asking rent of $3,491 has gone up more than 18 percent in the past five years. While wages are rising, costs are rising faster, and the gap between rich and poor is only growing. Between 2019 and 2024, the top 3 percent of New York City earners saw their wages increase more than 34 percent; for every other income bracket, the increase was less than 10 percent. The city’s poverty rate recently hit 25 percent, nearly double the national average.
Mr. Mamdani has given these problems a name — unfairness — and identified a culprit: the rich. His platform promises relief with more than a hint of revenge: a rent freeze, free child care and buses, a doubling of the minimum wage, 200,000 new units of affordable housing for the poorest New Yorkers and expanded public services, paid for in large part by higher taxes on the wealthy. It is not so much a platform designed to realign New York’s priorities or shift its resources as it is a rebuke of the city’s identity for the past 40 years.
His system-is-rigged narrative is aimed at the poor, and they are the ones who would benefit most from his policies. But what may be most telling about the Mamdani phenomenon — in terms of both New York’s and America’s political future — is that his core supporters are college-educated New Yorkers who earn roughly $70,000 to $140,000 a year. As with Mr. Trump’s political rise, Mr. Mamdani’s has signaled the arrival of a new and powerful constituency of the disaffected.
We shall see: the midterms are a bit more than a year away, and this might be right. But whether Mamdani can actually turn the city around in this respect is unclear (I’d say “dubious”). The last paragraph underlines the problems:
Just as industrial automation brought the city to its knees in the ’70s, forcing it to abandon one social order and embrace another, new technology is at the root of today’s convulsions. The outcry of college-educated professionals is being expressed as “the rent is too damn high,” but their fears and underlying anxieties are about something more existential: the dawning realization that huge numbers of jobs are no longer secure and that more and more of us can be replaced by machines.
It’s too early to say exactly what New York’s next political cycle will bring. But the city is clearly hurtling toward a new social and economic order, much as it was 40 years ago. If Mr. Mamdani intends to lead New York — and maybe America — into this uncertain future, he’s going to need much more than rent freezes and free buses.
*The NYT has a longish story, richly illustrated with photos, suggesting that the daughter of Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, may be in line as his successor. He seems to be pretty unhealthy.
Kim Jong-un introduced his daughter to the world in November 2022 with a show of affection and menace, holding her hand in front of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Since then, state media has shown Kim Ju-ae more and more prominently next to her father, the leader of North Korea. Now she is being hailed as a “great person of guidance” — a sign, experts say, that she is perhaps being groomed to take the reins of the isolated, nuclear-armed regime one day.
She holds no known official title in North Korea. The outside world has never heard her voice. The North’s state media has not even named her, referring to her only as the “most beloved,” “respected” or “dear” daughter of its leader.
But intelligence officials and analysts consider her to be her father’s most likely successor. She is believed to be just 12. We studied Ju-ae’s public appearances since her debut three years ago to trace her transformation from a shy girl by her father’s side to a poised public figure who shares center stage with him.
Have a look at all the pictures, like one of a general bowing to the 12-year old. And get a load of how unhealthy the Supreme Leader is:
South Korean intelligence officials believe that Kim likely has two children. There are also unconfirmed reports that he might have a third child. But only Ju-ae has made public appearances. If she is her father’s designated successor, she would be in line to become the first woman to rule North Korea’s deeply patriarchal and highly militarized society and the world’s newest nuclear power.
Kim is just 41, but preparing a successor makes sense: He has a family history of heart trouble; he’s about 5-foot-7 and weighs about 310 pounds, according to South Korean intelligence officials. They added that he had unhealthy habits, including chain-smoking, heavy wining and dining, and frequently staying up until early mornings to surf the internet, where he likes to browse weapons websites.
For a long time I’ve thought that Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, who often appeared with him, was next in line, but she has been out of the picture for about two years, and I suppose that the Supreme Leader wants to keep the line of direct inheritance going.
*I detest the concept of “influencers,” people who get famous on the Internet simply for posting videos, many of them underwritten by companies wanting advertising (though you aren’t told that). Lee Tilghman agrees with me, although she was one of the most prolific and popular influencers—until she gave it up. Now she’s written a book about the “dark side” of being an influencer and, guess what?: she’s promoting her book on social media. See the WaPo story, “She was one of the first influencers. It nearly ruined her life” (archived here).
. . . Tilghman, as the inventor of the viral smoothie bowl and peddler of philosophies and products that, when done together, she now admits were extreme, has been through the gamut of online women’s experiences. She became a celebrity followed by many but known only to a niche audience. She received free stuff from famous millennial brands — and then was paid to post about it. She invented a viral food, the aforementioned smoothie bowl. She was canceled. She logged off forever. She logged back on, revealing a crazy new haircut, and people unfollowed her. She shared her story of feeling limited by her personal brand to such an extent that it led to an eating disorder relapse. She got a normal job. She became a deinfluencer.
And now, what has brought Tilghman back to the internet is not a brand deal, or an irresistibly pretty (and free!) vacation, but something as old school as the rotary phone: she wants you to buy her memoir. It is about her traumatic (and it is, indeed, very traumatic) years as an influencer.
It is called “If You Don’t Like This, I Will Die.” (Sad emoji.)
It does not have a sad emoji on the cover; the parenthetical words are snark.
“It’s not a manifesto on whether or not you’re online,” she said. Instead, Tilghman said, it’s a book about seeing influencers beyond their one-dimensional personal brand.
“Most people can only handle one side of a public figure. They can’t handle a whole person. I kind of describe it as a hexagon. We’re all hexagons. We all have multiple sides, multiple facets,” she said, immaculately groomed in a Doen x Gap top, a Gap skirt embroidered with sea creatures and Tevas, a much different look than her previous wardrobe of gifted workout gear.
“But when you’re an influencer, you have to be, ‘What are you in one sentence? I am a wellness girl. I am a travel influencer. I do makeup in under five minutes. I do beach skin care. I do New England. I’m coastal granddaughter. I’m Rodeo Malibu Barbie influencer.’
“And that has not changed. The public’s necessity to have you be your elevator pitch person.”
Here I have to pull out and play the world’s smallest violin, for Tilghman is still pitching—only this time it’s her book. One gets the feeling that this is simply an extension of her need to be liked. I feel sorry for her eating disorder and other non-influencer problems, but not for the issues involved with being an influencer. That comes with the territory. But do read about the woke conflagration that ultimately made her leave her online inflencing!
*As we’ve heard before, starfish all over Pacific coast of North American have been dying from a wasting disease, and this has been happening for a decade. Now scientists have learned what causes the disease. As many suspected, it’s a bacterial infection.
Starting in 2013, a mysterious sea star wasting disease sparked a mass die-off from Mexico to Alaska. The epidemic has devastated more than 20 species and continues today. Worst hit was a species called the sunflower sea star, which lost around 90% of its population in the outbreak’s first five years.
“It’s really quite gruesome,” said marine disease ecologist Alyssa Gehman at the Hakai Institute in British Columbia, Canada, who helped pinpoint the cause.
Healthy sea stars have “puffy arms sticking straight out,” she said. But the wasting disease causes them to grow lesions and “then their arms actually fall off.”
The culprit? Bacteria that has also infected shellfish, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
Here’s the article; click it to read it:
Part of the abstract:
More than 10 years following the onset of the sea star wasting disease (SSWD) epidemic, affecting over 20 asteroid species from Mexico to Alaska, the causative agent has been elusive. SSWD killed billions of the most susceptible species, sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides), initiating a trophic cascade involving unchecked urchin population growth and the widespread loss of kelp forests. Identifying the causative agent underpins the development of recovery strategies. Here we induced disease and subsequent mortality in exposure experiments using tissue extracts, coelomic fluid and effluent water from wasting sunflower sea stars, with no mortality in controls. Deep sequencing of diseased sea star coelomic fluid samples from experiments and field outbreaks revealed a dominant proportion of reads assigned to the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida. Fulfilling Koch’s postulates, V. pectenicida strain FHCF-3, cultured from the coelomic fluid of a diseased sunflower sea star, caused disease and mortality in exposed sunflower sea stars, demonstrating that it is a causative agent of SSWD.
You’d think that finding the cause was pretty useless, but in fact it can help save other starfish. From the AP:
Prentice said that scientists could potentially now test which of the remaining sea stars are still healthy — and consider whether to relocate them, or breed them in captivity to later transplant them to areas that have lost almost all their sunflower sea stars.
Scientists may also test if some populations have natural immunity, and if treatments like probiotics may help boost immunity to the disease.
Such recovery work is not only important for sea stars, but for entire Pacific ecosystems because healthy starfish gobble up excess sea urchins, researchers say.
Starfish are good guys; they don’t deserve to have this happening to them. Imagine your arms turning to goo—and then falling off!
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is needling Andrzej.
Hili: Do you think moving old papers from one pile to another counts as work?
Me: Yes, and a very important one at that.
Hili: If you say so.
Hili: Czy przekładanie starych papierów z jednej kupki na drugą jest twoim zdaniem pracą?
Ja: Tak i to bardzo ważną.
Hili: Jeśli tak myślisz
*******************
From the The 2025 Darwin Awards!!!/Epic Fails:
From Things with Faces; one of the cats is sick:
From Jesus of the Day:
Masih is doing podcasts (oy!). so we turn to her substitute JKR. This is rich, read the conversation Julie Bindel recounts between journalist Julie Etchingham and Nicola Sturgeon, member of the Scottish Parliament and former First Minister of Scotland:
‘We’ve lost all sense of rationality in [the gender] debate,’ said Nicola Sturgeon.
Only one side has lost rationality.
Only one side pretends there’s more than two sexes.
Only one side lets male rapists into women’s prisons.
Only one side supports child sterilisation.Yours. https://t.co/HavwzXYXST
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 11, 2025
From Luana; more evidence of the true aims of Islamism:
BREAKING: At a pro-Palestinian rally in Australia, they reveal their true intentions.
“Just like Israel, Australia does not have a right to exist.”
It’s never been about Israel, it’s been about destroying Western civilization.pic.twitter.com/miYnyyz2NU
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) August 7, 2025
From Alex Byrne, who goes after one of many misrepresentations of a review of the anthology The War on Science. It’s a thread.
.@onesarahjones reviews @LKrauss1‘s edited anthology The War on Science for @NYMag. Predictably, she doesn’t like it. All the chapters are “pockmarked by omissions, misrepresentations, and, sometimes, obvious lies.” Let’s look at the one by me and Moti Gorin. /1
— Alex Byrne (@byrne_a) August 10, 2025
From Malcolm, a tweet posted August 3. Remember this explosion?
Happened 5 years ago Today, the ‘Beirut Explosion’ is considered one of the most powerful artificial non-nuclear explosions in history. It was equivalent to around 1.1 kilotons of TNT and generated an M3.3 earthquake
[editing: davitoqro]pic.twitter.com/q1OrI6wgcp
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 4, 2025
One from my feed. It is interesting!
Pakistani buses with “business class” seats, which are located instead of a luggage compartment.. pic.twitter.com/5krkf28hKn
— Interesting As Fuck (@interesting_aIl) August 10, 2025
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This French Jewish girl was gassed to death along with her mother immediately upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was just two years old.
— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-08-12T10:06:39.140Z
Two from Herr Doktor Professor Cobb. First, Cat Man!
— Comics Covers (@comicscovers.bsky.social) 2025-08-06T20:14:58.339Z
Matthew’s comment: “Oops!”. If this hermit crab can move and eat, he’ll grow into his new shell:
This hermit crab may have been a bit ambitious with the choice of shell. #hermit #crustacean #invertebrate #Indonesia #Komodo 🦑 🦀
— Michael Middlebrooks (@secretsluglab.bsky.social) 2025-08-07T16:29:25.509Z
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought — that is to be educated. -Edith Hamilton, educator and writer (12 Aug 1867-1963)
I ran across Edith Hamilton’s writings on early Greece when I was in the fifth grade in the 1950’s. It was in a trade paperback from our library booksale. The writing was so clear and simple to read. I later learned that she was a scholar in the area. Over the years I would seek and trust her writings to give me access to a world I never really saw as an engineer.
Her paperback on Greek mythology, encountered in primary school, fostered my lifelong interest in the subject. Thank you, Ms. H.
I suspect that Kim Jong-un will die within a few years, and that his sister, Kim Yo Jong, will knock off his daughter, take the reins, and rule with a fury that will make her three predecessors look rather benign.
Since Jerry cited Kim Jong-un’s height and weight, I calculated his BMI. It’s 48.65. That’s quite a morbid type of obesity. And it is said that he chain-smokes. So yeah, he’s probably going to die within 15 years. He’s 41 years old now.
For a normal guy, probably. But “Fatty the Third” (as the Chinese call him) will be around for a loooong time.
First is he has the very best care and monitoring.
But mainly b/c of the Whitehall Study (1970s, replicated variously) which posits the higher on their social hierarchy a person is, the longer they will live (on average). The numbers even beat smoking and obesity. One of the most interesting studies ever done.
It explains why royalty, presidents, and general big shots often live so long. Even tribal chiefs. Lots of medical reasons why, some to do with glucocorticoids, predictably.
Hard to imagine anybody on “their hierarchy” higher than KJU.
DavidAnderson_JD_NYC
@DavidandersonJd
Of course, for news outlets that are dedicated to the proposition that Trump can do nothing right, obviously what he is doing in D.C. is wrong. Unsurprisingly, people disagree, including the union that represents the MPD. At the same time, there are reports that D.C. has been fiddling with its crime numbers to make them appear better. Finally, Trump can do this under the DC Home Rule Bill, which has a clause for emergency control of the police by the Federal government. For myself, I’ve been against Home Rule since I lived in D.C. in the late 80s. If people don’t like that, they can move to a State.
Further on D.C. crime:
It would have been interesting if Muriel Bowser, the Mayor of Washington, DC., gave a speech that welcomed the help that the Trump administration is providing to reduce crime in the city. I wonder it such a move might have caught the administration off guard. Just wondering. But, of course, she didn’t do that. The administration correctly predicted Bowser’s and the Democrats’ response.
Of course she would never do that. Fighting crime is racist, don’t you know?
I just had an interesting exchange with a friend who’s ex-MPD (DC cop). Here’s what he had to say: “These are interesting times. As you know, he can only take over the MPD for 48 hours before he needs to go to Congress. Furthermore, the speed at which he acted, along with the fact that it seems the DC leadership was unaware, indicates that there is no coordinated approach to the crime reduction effort. An example is everyone is on different communication systems. Also, all this effort will be for nothing because the juvenile court system is broken.” And so it goes in our nation’s capital, as it always has…
Per 100K numbers are vital. Above about 40 murders you’re not talking about anything else.
El Salvador’s were around 100, now safer than Canada thx to their president.
US rates are around 4-6 from memory, WILDLY divergent depending on race.
White America’s murder rate is a touch above W. Europe (prob higher due to guns), black America’s is worse than most 3rd world countries.
Australia is around 2, Japan’s lower.
Numbers matter.
I lived in DC when I came to America to study (Middle East pol) at Georgetown and I loved it. It is one of my favorite cities and safety there is (was, I assume similar now) dependent on where in the District you are. A walk in Georgetown, NW, is a different proposition to a walk in Anacostia, SE.
DavidAnderson_JD_NYC
@DavidandersonJd
I see that the NYT has casually ignored the fact that homicides, robberies, motor vehicle theft (aka violent carjackings) & “other” crime is up. As a resident of DC, I can say without a doubt that whatever the statistics say, it certainly does not feel safe. All of us adjust our movements anymore – I no longer wear earphones while walking anywhere, so I can stay aware of my surroundings; one of our favorite restaurants now has valet parking, which means we can keep going as the previously longish but pleasant walk there traverses an area that now sees regular robberies; I only drive to my bank branch ~3/4 mile away if I’m withdrawing cash; etc., etc, etc.. Where the DOGE guy got carjacked & beaten is less than a mile from my house. I don’t think the problem is the police, it’s more the court system and children’s services that continually let criminals, especially juvenile criminals, out on their own recognizance every time. (The fact that Congress drags its feet in approving judges for DC is another ongoing problem, which contributes to the constant backlog.) All that to say, that while I’m no fan of Trump’s tactics on pretty much everything he does, I’m not all that bothered by what he’s trying to do here. I’m also willing to bet that there are many cops who may welcome his intervention.
I’m not trying to minimize your anecdote, but this all reminds me of the famous Franklin quote: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
I also see it as a staging experiment for future federal activities in other American cities. LA was a similar experiment. This is a slippery slope, and knowing the authoritarian nature of Trump and his toadies, I can’t imagine a net positive coming from patrolling cities with military personnel. And I wonder how much it will cost taxpayers?
I agree with you to some extent. I’d probably be more disturbed if this were happening in a normal city with a normal government. The weird nature of DC’s Home Rule, plus heavy oversight by Congress (which loves to gang up on DC to score political points), renders this town very dysfunctional in many ways, with much of the more affluent Northwest quadrant enjoying decent neighborhoods with lots of civic involvement, while the other three quadrants are more akin to Trump’s crudely described shithole countries. And of course the problems of those places find their way to the nicer neighborhoods, in the way of robberies, carjackings, shootings, etc. It’s an odd place, in many ways. I love my immediate neighborhood, but couldn’t care less about the rest of DC. And my husband can’t wait to get out of here.
Thanks for your added insights and perspective. I can see how DC can be a political punching bag, and not having representation would be odd. You shouldn’t be taxed! 🙂 Cheers.
An essential part of liberty, from my perspective, is the ability to travel through public spaces without being robbed or murdered.
Also, that particular Franklin quote is almost never presented within the context that it was intended.
From my reading, Franklin was generally opposed to “insiduous Attacks of small Parties of skulking Murderers”.
My idiot country of birth to recognize “Palestine”. Won’t matter – Chad, Algeria and Yemen also recognize it. Close to 100 countries, mainly third world, mostly losers, do.
Doesn’t make a dime’s worth of difference to Israeli flourishing and victory.
This happens when your immigration system tilts towards Islam, and your idiot woke kids get their news from TikTok. And you elect a retarded PM.
Good for you Aussie morons, go screw a ‘roo!
Onwards Israeli heroes,
D.A.
NYC
ps NZ also, which doesn’t matter at all.
NYC
Umm. . . . not a civil comment about Aussies, there! Let’s tone down the rhetoric, including “retarded”.
No worries, boss. I was in the midst of a rage outrage at the terrible news and embarrassed by my (former) people’s betrayal.
Apologies.
D.A.
NYC
Greetings from Oz! You are exactly correct – it is all about Labor shoring up their imported Muslim voter base. But of course it won’t be enough, as evidenced by the recent takeover of the Sydney Harbor Bridge by people waving flags of Hamas, ISIS, and Hezbollah, carrying placards depicting the Ayatollah, and proclaiming that Australia does not have the right to exist. One brave guy tried approaching this mob with an Australian flag and was immediately assaulted and beaten.
Meanwhile, in Russia, lots of things! They are giving up on their only remaining aircraft carrier for a variety of reasons, the recent earthquake on the Kamchatka peninsula seems likely to have had a severe impact on their nuclear sub dock, Ukraine announced that it has obtained schematics of Russia’s new nuclear subs, and Russia canceled a big naval parade in S:t Petersburg after Ukraine flew a single drone over the area, unintercepted.
Thanks for these regular reports! I do hope that the Russian side of the war is brittle in the sense that their will to fight will collapse.
Also, in covering the shooter at the CDC in Atlanta last wk, who was said to have bought into COVID misinformation and attributed his depression to a COVID shot, over at Fuxx News they put misinformation in quotes in the headline, suggesting that it’s so-called misinformation. None of the other coverage that I saw that used the term in their headline did that.
Trump has gone after judges who rule against him, has weaponized the federal system to target minorities, has states undergoing redistricting to preserve the GOP majority in the House, has turned the White House into his own personal merchandise outlet, and rage-tweets in the middle of the night. Deploying the National Guard in D.C. is just the latest move in the slow makeover of the country into his personal kingdom. Trump and his supporters see the Constitution as an impediment to their goals. I wish the press would stop using the term “possible constitutional crisis” and acknowledge the crisis is happening and soon will be irreversible.
And the latest from Dr Paul Offit, MD, on the antics of RFK Jr:
https://pauloffit.substack.com/p/rfk-jrs-scienze
Free to read.
Yes, it has felt to me that we’ve been in a constitutional crises for some time. I remember when republicans complained bitterly that Obama was abusing executive orders and they may have been right. But the pretense was that they were arguing on principle. Instead, unsurprisingly, they were just arguing against eo’s that they personally didn’t like. Sadly, politicians of all stripes play this game far too much.
If you’re going to argue on principle you should actually hold that principle.
Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, tit-for-tat game theory tends to undermine holding on to principles.
Vinyl records? Yes, there are still many who listen to vinyl records. The market pretty much dried up with the advent of the CD in 1983, but the vinyl record has staged a pretty good comeback: https://www.statista.com/chart/7699/lp-sales-in-the-united-states/. Some people prefer the sound quality; some like the album art; some like the ritual of dropping the needle on a vinyl record. Of course, sales of all physical media—vinyl LPs and CDs—have declined dramatically with the advent of streaming. After all you can’t listen to vinyl on the bus.
I have an LP collection of about 1000 vinyl records. With the right equipment—which is expensive—they can sound amazing. They do not have the dynamic range that is possible with digital formats (for reasons I could get into but won’t), and they do have more noise than digital media (after all, you’re dragging a rock through the vinyl groove in order to make sound), but they nonetheless can have excellent fidelity and be very rewarding to listen to. New LPs are being pressed in large numbers every day, and today’s vinyl pressings are better than ever.
Do I listen to my vinyl records often? No. Streaming is so much more convenient, and the sound quality is excellent—again, with the right equipment. To me, digital recordings sound better, but only if they are uncompressed. That’s critical. Only a few streaming outlets offer music that is uncompressed. (Compression purposely compromises fidelity to reduce file size and bandwidth. If you listen on your phone through earbuds, compression doesn’t matter.) Tidal and Qobuz are the standard sites for uncompressed digital streams. Objectively—by the numbers—digital recordings are higher fidelity than those on vinyl LP, but lots of people, young and old, love their vinyl!
I too have a pronounced nostalgia for vinyl. I still have a good number, but only about a fifth the size of your collection. Quite the CD collection too. But these days I almost never play vinyl or CDs. Now I have an “audiophile” grade DAC that feeds directly into my sound system and all my music is digital.
Started out by ripping my own CD collection, and then started buying digital downloads. Mostly from Amazon. Grew to hate that. Crappy quality, DRM, and they started playing games with what kinds of files their player would read.
And then I found Qobuz. No DRM or other games. Full fidelity, lossless downloads, huge catalog, no bullshit.
I had 2000 CDs, but ripped then all to (lossless) FLAC so I can save shelf space and use JRiver to catalog, search, and play what I want. (I gave the physical CD collection to a friend.) Even if I have the FLAC file, I still usually stream it from Tidal. It’s the same FLAC file, except when Tidal has a high-res version available (word-length > 16 bit; sample rate > 44.1 KHz).
Yes, the catalog available online is monstrously huge, so huge that I have a great deal of trouble choosing what to listen to, and I rarely listen to anything more than once. Otherwise, I won’t get to the end of the catalog during my lifetime.
Tossed my vinyl decades ago when CDs came out.
I have now moved to iTunes. I didn’t have to buy a third version of the music thanks to “iTunes Match,” although there’s an annual fee for the match program.
Like the Benny Hill Show, cassette tapes will never come back or be rebooted.
Not a bad thing to let BH be forgotten, but I’ve got a huge box of tapes if anybody wants them! I won’t list them …because nobody will want them!
DavidAnderson_JD_NYC
@DavidandersonJd
No. They won’t be back. They were never a good technology. It took a great deal of processing (in analog) to make a tape moving at 1 7/8 inches per second sound passable. That’s what put Dolby on the map.
I knew that people still listen to LPs since I have a neighbor who bought himself a new record player a few years ago. Until then, I didn’t even know that record players were still being made. And until I read your comment, I didn’t know that new LPs are still being made, either. (I somehow assumed that all the LPs that people listen to today were the ones from decades ago.)
Sadly, I did a very poor job of storing the LPs that I myself bought decades ago. When I took a look at them a few years ago, I discovered that they were so warped and mildewy that I had to throw them all away.
I’m really interested in trying out those sites that provide uncompressed music. But before I give them my credit card, I have a question for you, if you don’t mind answering: you mentioned that “the right equipment” is important.
However, the sum total of my ‘sound’ equipment is a laptop and earpods. Is that good enough to enable me to appreciate the difference between compressed and uncompressed digital recordings?
I have close ties to Lebanon. My family lived in Lebanon for years. My cousin even worked for the national airline (MEA). What happened in Beirut was a tragedy. However, it had many precedents. In 1948, a ship exploded in Texas City, TX. Casualties were heavy. Even before that, there were several Ammonium Nitrate explosions. Note that the Beirut disaster and the Texas City disaster were both accidents. Ammonium Nitrate has also been used in war and for terrorism (Timothy McVeigh was a big fan).
Didn’t know that about you, Frank. MEA was a great airline.
Despite being a fanatical Zionist I also have a soft spot for Lebanon and happy memories of the place. The year I was born 1971 Lebanon was half Christian, now 1/3rd. And almost no Jews now.
The explosion, which occurred many years after my time there, was entirely due to the corrupt (Hizb) militia controlling the port in a lax manner. There were repeated warnings. And even a legal accounting, arrests, trial were suppressed so nobody will pay a price.
Incidentally, according to a friend there the locals were blaming “the Jews” for the explosion. I’ve visited poorer, and more horrible, but I’ve never been to a country so sad as Lebanon and its story.
DavidAnderson_JD_NYC
@DavidandersonJd
Once known as the Paris of the Med but no more.
The lesson I take from that video is when you see a big explosion, of any sort, don’t marvel at it but immediately duck and cover. Shockwaves.
I grew up in the small coastal town of Crescent City in far Northern California. And by northern I mean 350 miles north of San Francisco just south of the Oregon border. As small kid I thought SF was in Southern California.
Back then you could not walk a rocky beach at low tide without seeing hundreds of Ochre Starfish. You would have been hard pressed to find any large rock that didn’t have some on it. It was beautiful but we didn’t think much of it.
After graduating high school I moved inland for about 30 years and then, about 10 years ago, I moved back. One of the first things I noticed was how few starfish there were. And in the time I’ve been back it’s gotten worse. You can now walk a rocky beach without seeing a single star. It’s very sad and I do hope they can recover.
Same in the Puget Sound. It’s terrible.
Ah, the Puget Sound. What a magnificent area! I haven’t been there in many years but went there with my parents every summer as a child. I had many relatives on Orcas and some on Lopez. There are old remains of a homestead on Sucia and they were my Great Grandparents place. Harnden island in Sucia’s Fossil Bay is named after my Great Grandpa Harnden.
Harnden island is 1.9 acres and is for sale right now. I don’t know who owns it but you can have it for $895,000. But I don’t know that one can do much with it as every time I’ve looked it up in recent years it’s been for sale. Nobody seems to be biting. Sucia Island itself of course is now a state park.
I should add that Ammonium Nitrate is a mostly harmless fertilizer. Factories have been built in many countries (the US, Russia, Norway, etc.) to make it. The factory in Norway was famous (infamous) for a very different reason.
Here’s a list of ammonium nitrate incidents:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ammonium_nitrate_incidents_and_disasters