@enhydra lutris

It’s in French Camp between Manteca and Lodi on highway 99. It’s just a little one, but has some good wine. My parents would stay at the RV park just across the road and we’d stock up when they came to visit.

The golf course used to be hell to play. Just a little executive 9 and mostly 3 pars, but boy was it set up wickedly! Water on every hole and they used to give a sleeve of balls if you made it through without going in the drink.

After I hurt my back I was able to stay out of the water. I couldn’t hit as far, but I was always straight. Fun memories.

It rained overnight and is supposed to rain off and on all day. This is wonderful for the natural world, backyard agriculture, the water table and all that, but it can also be a PITA. We generally each have various events and activities that occur on certain days and decided to quasi-organize the weeks, taking those things into account, by assigning certain days to certain activities and vice-versa. Thursday is "travel day", set aside for purely recreational travel, wine pick-ups, picnics, and all other "day-trip", type activities, explorations and such. Today was supposed to be a wine tasting and pick-up in Sonoma. Much less pleasant in the rain, so we have to make the "go or not" decision within the next hour or two.

Syria is a mess and somebody shot down a US reaper drone there. Belarus will be getting Oreshnik missiles. The US is generally batshit crazy and BRICS may be in trouble. Not much I can do about any of that.

So, FWIW, it is a "go", take the car because the rain isn't heavy enough to require the truck and gas the car at Costco on the way because, as Rudyard Kipling once said, "A man can never have too much Red wine", or something to that effect, and sauce for the gander is also sauce for the goose. Zo, I have little further to add at this point:

As an old codger, I long ago lost track of what is "current" in the music world except, maybe, the "world music" genre, but I think these guys are one of those "new" groups.

be well and have a good one

@snoopydawg

about a half mile from our apartment that has been exploring the limits of the pricing-elasticity curve for a while now. They are not Krispy Kreme- they are a local mom and pop shop. I used to occasionally go there and buy donuts for my group at work, but they got too expensive for me several years ago. Hadn't been in for a while.

There was a post on Nextdoor this morning from a person who walked in and saw their pricing for the first time, in the last couple of days. Their regular glazed donuts are now $47 per dozen, frosted cake donuts (like maple sugar) are $59, and "specialty" donuts, whatever those are, are $75/doz.

Now, maybe it's just me. But even if they have a one-legged Latvian dwarf baker individually placing each grain of some high-zoot imported sugar with tweezers under a microscope while singing opera arias, there's no freakin' WAY I will pay $6.25 for a donut. Their donuts are just fine, mind you, but they are not earthshakingly fine. You might be able to somehow get away with pulling that sort of shit in LA or NY, but not in suburban CO.

I got nuthin'. I'll just wait for the inevitable going-out-of-business sale, unless they've somehow managed to get the local pro athletes addicted to their wares. Gawd only knows that you'll never see a cop car in their parking lot...

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Just absolutely ridiculous! I went to the store yesterday and most of the things I bought were on sale and yet the bill was $135. The only thing I bought that wasn’t needed was 2 coffee because they were on sale for $4 off. I only buy eggs for camping and so I easily passed the ones I get that were $5.25. They’re usually under $3. Closer to just over $2. Eggs here have never bought into the bird flu scam until this month when Utah killed a million birds.

This half cart of food used to cost around $55 or a tad more. This has now become more than twice the amount. This is for one person. Sam’s food is going up too.

Gas has stayed up over $3 until just recently and now it’s a low, low $2.95. Other parts of the country have been lower for months, but Utah gas is usually the highest outside California. Even though we have 5 refineries just outside SLC.

The gas company wants to raise the price by 30% until they decided on 20%. Gawd knows how much the electric company wants to raise theirs. It’s been in the low 20's all month so gawd only knows how much my gas bill will be.

Luckily I got a less than 2% increase in SS, but then Medicare part B went up more than that. Yay.

@soryang
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share your distaste of western media presentations
bracing for a visit to the dentist - butchers and thieves
if the wait time exceeds patience will scribble a screed
hope sanity prevails in So.Ko, sure ain't here

I had arrived too early and had some time to kill, so I glanced at the magazines neatly arranged on the table. One side of table had several magazines about rich people living in style. zzzzzz. The second row was covered with about dozen "people" magazines. The covers seemed all media figures or movie stars of one kind or another. I spotted one with Liam Neeson on the cover, and recalled his movie Taken, the last American movie that I had gone to see in 2008.

I think I told the story before that it was preceded with some propaganda musical performance short by Kid Rock which turned my stomach. I almost got up and left but for Ms. So's sake I stuck around, thinking maybe the movie will be okay. Wrong. The movie Taken was an action flick with hero dad, ex Cia of course, having to save his daughter and the world from terrorists who kidnap young women, abuse, rape, sell, and murder them for profit. This plot was used to justify torture and murder to achieve his laudable mission on behalf of the affected young women.

At some point, probably the first torture scene, I told Ms. So, I had to leave I couldn't stomach any more justifications for the US war on terror, and the associated torture campaign, intended to terrorize the public into supporting more wars, "surges," Gitmo, Abu Graid, etc. This was an attempt poorly chosen perhaps, to try to watch watch a western made movie, after a hiatus of a few years already.

I have to say, there wasn't a single cover story on the people magazines that interested me in the least. To say I'm alienated from this "cultural" scene would be an understatement. I literally have not watched any US "entertainment" in the form of dramas, movies, etc., since. Most of the music I like in the English language comes from my younger days. So, I appreciate the music videos posted here of all types, that may introduce me to something worth listening to, that I haven't heard before, due to my own limited tastes.

I watched about half of the totalitarian mass psyche job, video someone here posted a few days back. US media is obviously deeply involved. "Entertainment" as well as "news." Hannah Arendt was one of my favorite social critics, so I learned about the mass mind decades ago. Also, there was Bernays book, propaganda. His thinking played a key role in preparing USians for war in the 20th Century. Goebbels thought highly of Bernays. I know there is a lot more out there. There are books by Chomsky and Hedges that address this as well. There are other books that I've read on this topic, but I lost them in the Ian flood ( edit: and can't remember the titles).

So who else believes his own propaganda? Crazy Yoon, still CinC of one of the largest armies in the world, who is absolutely bonkers.

Yoon rejects calls to step down, vows to ‘fight to the very end’

Opposition figures reacted to the president’s televised address by calling Yoon a “madman,” and calling for his arrest

The article is worthwhile.

When Yoon began his campaign for president, he had the support of a younger generation conservative politician Lee Jun-seok. Lee had a mass following among younger males because of "favoritism for womem," which purportedly ruined their lives. So Yoon adopted the Ilbe meme and promised to do away with the department of women and families. Getting this young male vote was key to his election by the tiniest margin. His only other solid support was among over 60, and over 70 year olds. Yoon betrayed Lee Jun-seok, forced him out of the party, threatened him with prosecution, his usual MO with potential rivals etc. His other policies worsened the economy, followed by the Itaewon crush disaster (edit: and the subsequent coverup). He completely lost the support of the younger generation. The (recent) attempted coup d'etat was the icing on the cake. Now tens of thousands of young people come out on the street calling for his arrest and impeachment. 89 percent of the 18 to 30 crowd want Yoon gone. This is a spectacular reversal and indicative of Yoon's complete unawareness of insensitivity to political reality.

Supreme Court affirmed Cho Guk's 2 year conviction by a lower court for a bunch of bs charges about bribery, forgery, destruction of evidence etc., to support his daughter's admission to college. Cho Guk was obviously presidential timbre, so Yoon determined to get rid of him, as soon as former president Moon Jae-in, made him Justice Minister. Cho, a respected law professor, was a major advocate of prosecution reform. Yoon had to stop that immediately. That's where all his power came from abusing prosecutorial authority, and professional ethics. This is one less vote for impeachment, conviction deprives Cho of his assembly seat or any other political office. Mission 50 percent accomplished. Lee Jae-myung is next.

Thanx for the OT Sima!