Saturday Open Thread 3/15/25: Odds and Ends
Good morning, good people!
Good: COP30 is meeting in Brazil to address climate change.
Bad: 10s of thousands of acres of the Amazon are being cut down to build a road built especially for for the officials.
I have been fortunate to travel in the Amazon several times. Lots of wildlife then. Indigenous tribes. I distinctly remember numerous cities in Brazil that are world tourist destinations that can easily accommodate billionaires without cutting down a single tree.
Good: Ground chuck beef, high in fat content, has been replaced on store shelves everywhere I have shopped this past year by ground beef with an 80% to 20% ratio of lean to fat. 4 states, iirc.
Bad: Ground beef is becoming very expensive. Surprise!
Good: Languages are adding new words and expression to keep pace with modern times. We oldsters need to keep up so we can communicate with the kids.
Bad: Old words and expressions have undergone remarkable changes in definitions. Protesting is defined as terrorism. Saying that Israel is committing genocide is defined as anti-Semitic. Genocide only happens to Jews. We shall see what the new definition of Anti-Christian is when we start raising hell about HTS butchering Christians in Syria. That may require a different word/definition. HTS is Our Guy, after all, and must be exempt from criticism.
Good: Winter has passed, spring has sprung.
Bad: Fucking pollen.
Good: 4 court hearings in one day all get settled or moved off docket by agreement.
Bad: A former probate judge, now a probate attorney, and I appeared for our 4th adversarial hearing in a very complicated estate. We each accomplished what our clients desired. However, she has worn the same dress for all 4 appearances, whether in summer or winter. I will assume she washes the thing as needed. I will also assume she has at least one other dress, given her hourly rate, and assume she is unaware of the impression she makes in public. The court clerks are having a field day with this. I am thinking Asperger's Syndrome.
Good: I didn't board a plane this week.
Bad: I won't risk flying. Pretty much ends my goal of seeing those last 25 countries on my Wish List. Must make time to find places in the US I haven't seen before. Dammit!!!
Good: Schumer made sure we don't go into gummint shutdown.
Bad: Young poor and old poor starve or die from treatable health conditions, cut in SS benes.
Oh, well, surprise---not.
Good: An old movie we watched last weekend, a clip below:
Bad: There are no Elvis Pressleys since. FWIW, my late husband met him in a bar with live music back in the 70s. They had a nice chat, Elvis was alone, said the music was awesome.
Good: we get to see the Jfk. Epstein, Seth Rich files.
Bad: We haven't seen said files. And will not.
Comments
Beware the Ides of March
Good morning folks.
You know the story. Julius Caesar was assassinated
around now in 44 BCE. Shakespeare wrote a story
about the sordid affair in one of his tragedies.
“Rome had for the couple of centuries up to the life of Caesar had been a Republic, and it had a Senate, and it had some things that sound a bit like modern American democracy, but it was basically an oligarchy, a powerful elite of inherited senators sort of dominated Roman political life. But it was unstable."
https://www.witf.org/2025/03/14/beware-the-ides-of-march/
History seems to rhyme with time.
Ah well. Thanks for the OT and enjoy the weekend!
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
Good morning, Cap'n!
Et tu, Brute? Politics then, politics now.
At least Roman Senators put on a good show of trying to save the Republic (for themselves, of course}.
BTW, do you remember the last time we didn't have the big dust up about a spending bill right up until the moment of capitulation and passing the damn thing? At least Schumer got a headline with calling out his besties "bastards".
Sail on, my friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Yeah, the game for awhile now
.
has been to wait until the 11th hour
to avoid a shut-down with the budget
so a bunch of pet riders get slipped-in
sheesh
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
Good morning...
The bad storms tracked north of us this AM, but we're due another round this pm and night.
Good and bad to see everywhere as you note.
Spring has sprung indeed. I love the flush of blooms this time of year. Of course it signals, not just pollen, but the coming mowing season. Enjoy the view through the woods while you can. Soon it will be a wall of green. The green man arrives soon.
Well, hope everyone has a good weekend! Thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
We have been watching the radar,
wondering if this storm will hit the holler, friend. Maybe it will miss you. We hope.
Dear One was out mowing last week. Some client walked in to speak to me yesterday, asked if I needed him to come mow the office lawn. I suppose he just isn't into wildflowers.
I have seen Green Men in art works, never read a word about what I was observing. I appreciate the article.
We only have 3 or 4 weeks of spring, sometimes even less. That's long enough to gunk up everyone's sinuses.
I look forward to hearing from you tomorrow and letting us all know you are ok.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Nothing like living on a fixed income
in the 21st century.
Keeping an eagle eyeball on my bank accounts regarding SS and Medicare. I've always been frugal, now just going into hyper mode. Glad I'm an old fart with no kids. The worsening international climate change crisis really makes the dimwitted human greedball antics a moot point. Appreciate the diary. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Good morning, friend!
The reason I keep working is the fear of fixed income. And now, tariffs.
Suppose a piece of Canadian lumber costs $25, and that same piece from East Texas costs $10. Does anyone believe the saw mills in Texas will keep their prices down?
Remember when it was common for kids to take their parents in to care for them? Now, kids never become financially able to leave home. And the world's richest man says Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and should be disappeared. Oh, and Medicare is bad to the bone, amirite?
Well, fwiw, most working people are living pay check to paycheck, so transitioning to the fixed income of SS is just more of the same. It is rarely enough to live comfortably without worry.
Well, let us know if you run across anything good today!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Howdy y'all
Hi OtC,
Thanks for the OT.
I can barely see so can't stay long but thought some might like this: Made my morning...
"The Pope needs to fix the church!" ROFLMAO.
https://x.com/TulsiGabbardrep/status/1900680065970528502?ref_src=twsrc%5...
Have an appointment with a laser to do one eye the 24th. Three months of delays due to what I would call equipment failures and poor communication on THEIR end. Getting this far has been a shit-show.
Fortunately our fearless leader uses a large font of open airy sort so I can still read here with a magnifying glass, unlike many other sites I can't read now.
Our hamburger here is so outstanding, it was like going 50 years back in time to the local butcher store when I was a kid. Always only from one cow, and amazingly great. Of course since deer season we have received a bunch of venison. Had some venison sausage this week on noodles with red sauce and mysdys suggested I try to get the Parmessan ON the plate. Saving the butterfly backstrap AXIS until I can see and grill it. Axis Deer is the best meat in the world. We used to have big herds of them here but since price went up to $600 for a doe when sold to a game ranch for a citiot to pay thousands to shoot, they have all been trapped.
Everyone have a great weekend!
happy trails all,
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Hey, friend!
Tell mysdys to turn the ceiling fan off before handing you the Parmesan shaker.That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
We sold our herd of cattle around 1968, so until I was 16, my family had never shopped for beef at a store. It took some time to adjust. It is wonderful you have good beef available.
I never developed a taste for venison. If we head toward a major depression, I will be learning new recipes, eating venison, eating pork from the herds of wild hogs roaming everywhere.
Dysto, the pre-op and post-op scheduled appointments were a royal pain, but the laser surgery itself was entirely pain free. What the drs. never tell you is that scarring will develop, and you will have subsequent surgery to suck out the scar tissue. All pain is in the ass, not the eyes.
I will be happy when you can see to read and see all the magnificent birds around you.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Mornin' OTC
I could add to your good/bad list but it makes my blood pressure yoyo.
Besides you did a good job on it.
Rain here for the foreseeable future. Flood watches everywhere.
2' to 3' of added snowpack in the mountains will give us a nice summer with plenty of water.
Thanks for the OT.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Tesla and Musk