The Ashes of May 18th 1980 and Other Stupid News

Cross-posted at Really? Seriously?

Good afternoon from my Hunker-Bunker. I’ve been out contributing towards the inflation by shopping when the Fed clearly doesn’t want me to. Not one penny went on credit, in fact, I just paid off all of my credit cards yesterday.

This is the last day of my three-day navel-gazing. While I planned on doing some SQL-Server work during this time, it didn’t quite work out that way. A friend of mine came by yesterday with a vape pen and some distilled Sativa resin and he talked me into taking a toke.

Egads. Keep that shit away from me. I can see where I could develop a serious problem if I were to continue. I mean, pot is already three or four times more potent than the dirt-weed we grew up with in the 1960s and 1970s. This resin for vaping is an explosive high, and after one toke, you just sit there, in another world for an hour or two. I may have time-traveled…

So — No thank you. Maybe if I were back in my twenties or thirties, when I was into that kind of thing, but I’m already missing most of the brain cells I started out with, and I don’t think I can afford to lose any more without glitching out. Besides, learning how to code in T-SQL while simultaneously collecting data for the eleven separate tables, takes some logical thinking, and I don’t see where any of that could be possible with pot.

But hey, it was yet another experience I can mark off of my bucket list — Dabbing. Let me tell ya, a little dab will do ya…

Okay, it’s NOON. I’m going to toss this together, and then finish up on setting up my local instance of SQL-Server on my personal web server. I’ve emulated our network with fourteen work stations set up in my computer room. I will then start having people play with it.

Headlines That Caught My Eye This Morning

Item 1: Trump demands drug test for Biden before first presidential debate

Can we get a full-spectrum drug test from both of them? How about taking the MMPI and the CPI, along with an IQ test, and a battery of tests to determine “brain age” and cognitive ability. We’d also want a complete physical work-up of the health of both of these twats.

Item 2: We’re No. 13? That’s fine, Seattle wasn’t good at being No. 1

If I had my way, Seattle would be the number one fastest shrinking city. All of these “California transplants” and frankly, anyone else that doesn’t have at roots in Seattle going back at least four generations — can all pack up and move to wherever it is that is growing the fastest. And good riddance to y’all.

Item 3: Republicans Slam Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito

The standard, “It wasn’t me, it was my wife,” routine. I call bullshit.

Look, in addition to being a Supreme Court Associate Justice, he is also a private citizen while at home and off the clock. As a private citizen, he has the Right to say or do whatever the fuck floats his boat, and the government can’t do a fucking thing about it. It’s perfectly legal.

However. If you’ve publicly staked a position on a subject in your private capacity, then you should recuse yourself from any case in your public capacity that involves your publicly-stated bias. Justice can’t be fair if they are a member of one of the class.

Item 4: Protesters Agreed to Leave. This Is What Some Colleges Promised in Return.

Nobody got anything. If this was October, or February, this shit would still be going on. But it’s graduation time, summer break time, there are much more important plans that take precedence over social justice wars. Most students are leaving campus and going home or abroad, or wherever they were planning on going. Done and dusted, they screeched out their complaints and bellowed their demands. The schools basically said, “sure, let’s talk next fall…”; and the students couldn’t hurry up and get the fuck out of there.

Seriously? Back when students were demanding schools to divest from South Africa and Apartheid, school investment portfolios were handled by the schools, and there were opportunities to either invest or divest specifically in certain stocks. That’s all changed. Schools aren’t directly tied to their investments. The student demands were not achievable.

Item 5: OpenAI’s Flirty New Assistant, Google Guts the Web and We Play HatGPT

I have the paid version of ChatGPI4.o and it is pretty damn cool.

Item 6: Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs seen physically assaulting Cassie Ventura in 2016 surveillance video obtained by CNN

After watching this video, this asshole needs his ass severely beaten. I am surprised that the hotel didn’t see the video and immediately call the police. I’m surprised even further that the video didn’t somehow get sold to the media within hours of the recording.

Item 7: New ad taunts Trump to take stand in hush money trial – or admit he’s a coward

If Trump’s attorneys allow Trump to take the stand, they would be the worst lawyers on the planet. The judge would make sure Trump understands in no uncertain terms that Trump would lose a potential ground for appeal if he chose to testify.

As much as Trump would really LOVE to testify, if he allows himself to be taunted into doing something as foolish as testifying, then it shows he does not have the ability of self-control.

Item 8: Rudy Giuliani served with Arizona ‘fake electors’ indictment during 80th birthday bash in Palm Beach

The only thing funny about this sad-sack of a story is how he spent two hours taunting the cops — and in two hours they served him.

Now he has to appear in Arizona, where they may not take too kindly to the wild goose chase and give him a bail so high that he’d be stuck in jail because nobody could afford to bail his Penguin-looking ass out.

Item 9: What science tells us about Biden, Trump and evaluating an aging brain

There’s “old” and there’s ‘old’.

Item 10 RFK Jr. Voters Span MAGA to Liberal—Making Them an Election Wildcard

It is actually very possible that RFK Jr does get close enough to taking the office. There is still a LOT of time between now and November. That’s like two or three political lifetimes away. A lot can happen between now and then.

Need help with substance use disorder or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.

What In The Hell Did I Just Watch?

Rather – Netflix

This was a VERY good and interesting documentary. What I found amazing is that Dan Rather is more popular and respected today among younger people WORLD WIDE than he ever was while working at CBS.