Van Halen’s “Jump” had a synth line that Eddie wrote circa 1981 but was rejected by the other band members. In 1983, producer Ted Templeman asked David Lee Roth to listen to the unused song idea. To come up with a lyric for it, Roth remembered seeing a TV news report the night before about a suicidal jumper. Roth thought that one of the onlookers of such an event would inevitably yell "go ahead and jump". Roth bounced this suggestion off Hostler who agreed it was good; however instead of describing a potential suicide, the lyrics were written as an ontological invitation to action, life, and love.
Turkey does NOT block admission of Sweden & Finland to NATO. I wonder if a van showed up at Erdoğan's house filled with cash, dried reindeer meat, and sauna branches.
Probably Finland if Russia decides to attack either one. But even that would be foolhardy as the Russians have expended much personnel and materiel in pursuit of subduing Ukraine.
Open up a second front and pick a fight with Finland? Putin would be certifiably insane to do so.
Just back from a morning run with my (younger) doppelganger. He's almost done with a run across the country. Started in SF on May 1 and will finish at Rehoboth Beach, DE., on July 1. He's been doing just over fifty miles per day. He passed through Arlington this morning and a small group of folks joined him. https://www.facebook.com/WardianRunningHome
I'm 62 years old and I do not want Joe Biden to have a second term. It isn't just Biden who disappoints me: it's any Democrat who's been in Congress or part of that generation of electeds who came of political age when Reagan was elected in 1980. Republicans scare those Democrats. I'm fucking sick of it. In fact, I want the next POTUS to be younger than I am. I want that person to have come of political age when Bill Clinton was elected or president (which functionally means born in the early to mid-1970s or later).
I want a president who will view the following issues as non-negotiable -
Voting rights - if you're of voting age and you have citizenship you can vote. Full stop.
Direct vote for President and Vice-President. Abolish the electoral college. Full stop.
Gerrymandering – We will work to make this a thing of the past. One possible solution or guiding ethos: any state without a city whose population is at least 95% of the average population for one US representative seat (which is to day, 95% of 761,952 or 723,855) shall elect all of its US representatives on an at-large basis. A state with a metropolitan area(s) whose population exceeds that of 3 US Representative seats (2,285,856) may elect the proportional number of US Representatives for that (or those) metropolitan areas on an at-large basis.
Bodily Autonomy - women have the same rights as men. That extends to their bodies as well. Women are not incubators. Which segues into...
Individual Privacy - Stipulated: the word privacy does not appear in the US Constitution. Also stipulated: the Ninth Amendment states that issues not enumerated by the Constitution or an amendment shall not be disparaged or denied. That means that privacy is a right guaranteed by the Constitution through the areas staked out by the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
Weapons of War may not be possessed by private citizens.
Climate Change is real.
A small federal government is an idea that is not possible in this world. Re-read the Preamble to the US Constitution and realize that to fulfill the intent this is no longer 1789.
"But does such a person exist who is at all likely to be elected?"
Therein lies the problem that has defined American politics in the post-World War II era. Electability has driven the timeline and the development of American politics throughout the Cold War and beyond. Consequently, the terms of debate in presidential elections have become narrower over time and the process has become vulnerable to extreme actors on the stage of national politics. We are being influenced right now by people with an extreme agenda who currently have more sway than people who have more reasonable policy aims.
Every one of the policy points I listed is reasonable, moderate and should be seen as mainstream. And yet, it leads people to ask, what candidate espouses those points of view and how electable is that person.
Obama was 48 when he was elected and he still struggled with being timid in the face of GOP opposition. He tried to be moderate by nominating Garland and look how well that went over. He didn’t apply enough pressure to RBG to retire and look at how well that went over.
I wanted him to be bolder too, but it's worth noting that he was dealing with a Congress still largely filled with representatives from that earlier era.
Honey-harissa crockpot chicken, mint/pistachio couscous, sautéed courgetti/aubergine w/ veggie pesto, roasted beet/blood orange topped with za'atar. An uncle/aunt are coming for dinner and I fear it's the last time I'll see them due to their age + moving to Canada, so I'm cooking a proper send-off meal.
Stumbled across a netflix show called 'Fate: The Winx Saga. Basic HS drama about fairies and the boarding school they go to. Entirely predictable and not special. It is apparently based on a Nickelodeon animated show from a ways back. I watched the entire first season in one sitting. 15/19 will start season 2 when it comes out.
Episode 6 of season 3 of The Boys is definitely one of the most ridiculously entertaining hours of television I’ve ever seen. Like, ever. Wow. Just, wow!
I was somewhere last week and heard Hot for Teacher...hadn't heard it since 2000. Horrible and creepy.
(I think it was in a store in Japan. Where they play lots of nasty shit (since they don't understand the lyrics). I hear lots of F-bombs in inappropriate places.)
J6 Committee hosts Cassidy Hutchison - special assistant to Mark Meadows and first name basis with everyone in the West Wing - corroborates all the moving parts to the case that J6 will put before the DOJ. Using Trump's own people to corroborate a detailed planned Seditious Conspiracy directly to Trump and team. This is damning testimony.
Damning is an understatement. Hutchison was very credible and she allowed Cheney to link it all together - a series of people who all knew they were doing legal malfeasance despite repeated warnings - but were doing it anyways.
"Conjugal visits? Mmmm. Not that I know of. Y'know, minimum-security prison is no picnic. I have a client in there right now. He says the trick is: kick someone's ass the first day, or become someone's bitch. Then everything will be all right."
SCOTUS sides with doctors in (over) prescribing opioids. One prescribed over 300,000 prescriptions for controlled substances in Alabama, becoming one of the nation's largest distributors of fentanyl. Another wrote prescriptions with prices that tracked street prices and accepted cash and property, including guns.
will be interesting to see how he pans out. Great physical specimen but some folks on other sites believe he is a 7on7 warrior and disappears in "big" games.
Word I'm hearing is kids are weary of Wilcox and his conservative play-calling and 5 years of inefficient offenses. HS QBs don't want to toil in mediocrity, which is the ceiling in a Wilcox O.
That, and Cal is non-existent in the NIL game - like, a zero. They offer nothing - you're going to see more and more CA kids following the $$$.
I'm told that when he bought the now Commanders, he was found going through the list of season ticket holders crossing out the names of people he'd clashed with over the years, to make it clear they weren't to be allowed to renew.
Phillies radio analyst Michael Bourn says what every Phils fan thought when Bryce Harper gets hit in the thumb by a Padre's 97 mph fastball. Harper broke his thumb, will undergo surgery, and will miss a big chunk of the season
Oakland dropped the first game against the best team in baseball, losing to the New York Yankees 9-5 on Monday evening.
The starting pitching was solid considering who he was facing off against, and the lineup had a big third inning where they scored all their runs. The Yankees had a big inning of their own, though, as the bullpen let this game get away from the A’s late.
New York struck first today, getting a two-out home run in the bottom of the first off the bat of Anthony Rizzo. That bomb was the first road home run starting pitcher Paul Blackburn has allowed all year and only his sixth total. Blackburn’s pitches were working tonight, though, striking out five in the first two innings, including this one to escape a jam in the second:
The Dodgers had one of their worst offensive performances ever in Denver, getting shut out by Chad Kuhl and the Rockies 4-0 on Monday night at Coors Field.
Unable to carry over their late-rallying ways from Sunday night in Atlanta, the Dodgers instead looked more like the team that didn’t score in the first eight innings of the series finale against the Braves.
Kuhl allowed only three hits in nine innings of work. One of the hits was an infield single by Gavin Lux in the third inning, but he was erased trying to advance to second on a flyout, thanks to a perfect throw from center fielder Yonathan Daza.
I'm in no way bummed, but that's what happens when you routinely get called strikes on balls outside of the zone, especially in hitters counts. When a 4-5 pitcher throws a 3-hit shutout, there's help....
Mark Carlson was awful, especially on balls away from LHB (multiple ab's to Freeman and Muncy specifically). If you're throwing shutouts these days, there's usually a reason...in this case, per Ump Scorecards, Carlson came in at an 81% called strike accuracy, well below the league average of 88%.
Again, love seeing LA pick up an L, but poor home plate umpiring has been an epidemic for the better part of 3 seasons now...robotic strike zones can't come soon enough.
Really bad. When the ball is dead, and you’ve got long relievers wearing #’s in the 60’s throwing 100 mph in the 5th inning, you should at least be able to count on a consistent strike zone as a hitter .
Ghislaine (60) gets 20 years and $750k fine. It's a Federal sentence. See ya later, Sicko.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/us/ghislaine-maxwell-sentencing/index.html
Only 750K fine? I would've thought it would be higher.
Turkey does NOT block admission of Sweden & Finland to NATO. I wonder if a van showed up at Erdoğan's house filled with cash, dried reindeer meat, and sauna branches.
https://twitter.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1541850609271316480
Maybe he got a new fleece vest for his birthday yesterday
He is getting a van filled with all that plus some Kurdish prisoners.
who will Russia attack first?
Probably Finland if Russia decides to attack either one. But even that would be foolhardy as the Russians have expended much personnel and materiel in pursuit of subduing Ukraine.
Open up a second front and pick a fight with Finland? Putin would be certifiably insane to do so.
Never get in a land war in Asia.
Just back from a morning run with my (younger) doppelganger. He's almost done with a run across the country. Started in SF on May 1 and will finish at Rehoboth Beach, DE., on July 1. He's been doing just over fifty miles per day. He passed through Arlington this morning and a small group of folks joined him. https://www.facebook.com/WardianRunningHome
Who do you want to be the next President of the United States?
I'm 62 years old and I do not want Joe Biden to have a second term. It isn't just Biden who disappoints me: it's any Democrat who's been in Congress or part of that generation of electeds who came of political age when Reagan was elected in 1980. Republicans scare those Democrats. I'm fucking sick of it. In fact, I want the next POTUS to be younger than I am. I want that person to have come of political age when Bill Clinton was elected or president (which functionally means born in the early to mid-1970s or later).
I want a president who will view the following issues as non-negotiable -
Voting rights - if you're of voting age and you have citizenship you can vote. Full stop.
Direct vote for President and Vice-President. Abolish the electoral college. Full stop.
Gerrymandering – We will work to make this a thing of the past. One possible solution or guiding ethos: any state without a city whose population is at least 95% of the average population for one US representative seat (which is to day, 95% of 761,952 or 723,855) shall elect all of its US representatives on an at-large basis. A state with a metropolitan area(s) whose population exceeds that of 3 US Representative seats (2,285,856) may elect the proportional number of US Representatives for that (or those) metropolitan areas on an at-large basis.
Bodily Autonomy - women have the same rights as men. That extends to their bodies as well. Women are not incubators. Which segues into...
Individual Privacy - Stipulated: the word privacy does not appear in the US Constitution. Also stipulated: the Ninth Amendment states that issues not enumerated by the Constitution or an amendment shall not be disparaged or denied. That means that privacy is a right guaranteed by the Constitution through the areas staked out by the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
Weapons of War may not be possessed by private citizens.
Climate Change is real.
A small federal government is an idea that is not possible in this world. Re-read the Preamble to the US Constitution and realize that to fulfill the intent this is no longer 1789.
Those are all admirable characteristics. But does such a person exist who is at all likely to be elected? If so, who? If not, then what?
"But does such a person exist who is at all likely to be elected?"
Therein lies the problem that has defined American politics in the post-World War II era. Electability has driven the timeline and the development of American politics throughout the Cold War and beyond. Consequently, the terms of debate in presidential elections have become narrower over time and the process has become vulnerable to extreme actors on the stage of national politics. We are being influenced right now by people with an extreme agenda who currently have more sway than people who have more reasonable policy aims.
Every one of the policy points I listed is reasonable, moderate and should be seen as mainstream. And yet, it leads people to ask, what candidate espouses those points of view and how electable is that person.
The fact that this is where we are is insane.
Obama was 48 when he was elected and he still struggled with being timid in the face of GOP opposition. He tried to be moderate by nominating Garland and look how well that went over. He didn’t apply enough pressure to RBG to retire and look at how well that went over.
Obama also came of political age during the Reagan Administration. Which is evidence for my point: Dems of that era are scared of the Republicans.
Actually, I think that if Obama had a shot at a third term, he'd do it differently. Much differently.
I wanted him to be bolder too, but it's worth noting that he was dealing with a Congress still largely filled with representatives from that earlier era.
I like either Petey B or Ro Khanna. But yeah, agree re preference for the non super old
Oh wait. Booker too
Someone younger than 55.
That’s a good one.
Anyone but a Republican.
Someone who has spent some time working for a living.
Huey Lewis?
Mike Reno
Hot Girls in Love
https://d2favcmz4lf91v.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Loverboy-Mike-Reno-SunFest-West-Palm-Beach-Florida-May-6-2017-10.jpg
What's the wildest thing Oski has ever done?
Anytime Oski drinks through his eye, alcoholic libation or otherwise.
thrown a cake and hit Gary Payton II's grandma (aka, GP's mom). iirc [hoops]
Or doing a flying tackle on the Kansas Jayhawk, only to have the Jayhawk's head come off and see a woman. [football]
And tackle the tree [hoops]
I think it was an era with a much drunker Oski...
Sometimes Oski may have a woman inside.
Sober Oski is Exhibit A for "this rules exists because of at least one person made it necessary"
Every Oski up until they quit drinking was an example of why it was necessary.
DBD Test Kitchen
I'm making yoghurt marinated chicken with Nick's 26 (from Top Chef contestant Nick) and Buddha Lo's Parker House Rolls - it's a Top Chef 19 dinner.
Plum sake sorbet made in the office: great success, thanks to Jeni's recipe
Next: apricot ice cream
yum. Apricot. Berkeley Bowl has had good peaches, nectarines, and apricots last few weeks.
Honey-harissa crockpot chicken, mint/pistachio couscous, sautéed courgetti/aubergine w/ veggie pesto, roasted beet/blood orange topped with za'atar. An uncle/aunt are coming for dinner and I fear it's the last time I'll see them due to their age + moving to Canada, so I'm cooking a proper send-off meal.
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/crockpot-honey-harissa-chicken-with-chickpeas-feta-and-jeweled-pomegranate-rice/
DBD AV Club
Stumbled across a netflix show called 'Fate: The Winx Saga. Basic HS drama about fairies and the boarding school they go to. Entirely predictable and not special. It is apparently based on a Nickelodeon animated show from a ways back. I watched the entire first season in one sitting. 15/19 will start season 2 when it comes out.
It's kinda trash but it's pretty fun trash.
Episode 6 of season 3 of The Boys is definitely one of the most ridiculously entertaining hours of television I’ve ever seen. Like, ever. Wow. Just, wow!
Jump
in 8th grade we had a junior high talent show where 4 guys for our class played Jump.
it was pretty fantastic and to this day a very memorable musical experience and easily the best of the talent show offerings.
still good friends w/ one of them.
I was in JuCo when that came out and god how I hated that song!
One of my high school friend's moms played in the Van Halen's high school band in Pasadena.
For years, two of our biggest Asian celebrities, and no one ever really mentioned it.
I had no idea until Eddie Van Halen died.
I didn't know until like much much much past their peak of fame.
It's one of those insufferable 80s classics, same as "Don't Stop Believin" and "The Final Countdown"
Anything by Journey, or Huey Lewis and the News.
I like all of these insufferable classics.
Boooo this man. Huey Lewis and the News are great.
I still need to get the last album they put out, maybe 2 or 3 years ago.
Not one of my favorites either, pop - not rock.
I was somewhere last week and heard Hot for Teacher...hadn't heard it since 2000. Horrible and creepy.
(I think it was in a store in Japan. Where they play lots of nasty shit (since they don't understand the lyrics). I hear lots of F-bombs in inappropriate places.)
Today in Covid 19
Our Crumbling Democracy
Michael Flynn: Traitor
https://twitter.com/vivian/status/1541849620422316035
50 migrants found dead in trailer truck in San Antonio
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/us/san-antonio-migrants-found-truck/index.html
To quote Patrick Swayze in "Blood Brothers" (M*A*S*H, S9E18), "God Almighty."
J6 Committee hosts Cassidy Hutchison - special assistant to Mark Meadows and first name basis with everyone in the West Wing - corroborates all the moving parts to the case that J6 will put before the DOJ. Using Trump's own people to corroborate a detailed planned Seditious Conspiracy directly to Trump and team. This is damning testimony.
Damning is an understatement. Hutchison was very credible and she allowed Cheney to link it all together - a series of people who all knew they were doing legal malfeasance despite repeated warnings - but were doing it anyways.
All this evidence . . . and I suspect the consequences will be like white collar prison (if at all)
Sadly, I doubt we see any consequences at all. Garland isn’t going to do anything.
"Conjugal visits? Mmmm. Not that I know of. Y'know, minimum-security prison is no picnic. I have a client in there right now. He says the trick is: kick someone's ass the first day, or become someone's bitch. Then everything will be all right."
or probably no prison at all.
What. The. Ignorant. Fuck?
https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1541508454740885511
Just confirms that the GOP doesn’t hate ISIS, Al queda, or Iran; they are just jealous of them.
Y'all Qaeda
SCOTUS sides with doctors in (over) prescribing opioids. One prescribed over 300,000 prescriptions for controlled substances in Alabama, becoming one of the nation's largest distributors of fentanyl. Another wrote prescriptions with prices that tracked street prices and accepted cash and property, including guns.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/27/us/politics/supreme-court-controlled-substance-act.html
Other College
ACC becomes the fifth conference to drop divisions. They adopt a 3 permanent rivals + every-other-year for rest.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34161354/acc-drop-divisions-format-permanent-rivalries-starting-2023
I think they already had that for basketball. I guess divisions were needed for a conference championship game.
As I understand it, divisions were needed in the past; they no longer are needed now.
I guess that explains why Pac-12 got rid of them as well.
$8m
https://www.on3.com/nil/news/jaden-rashada-michael-caspino-nil-miami-hurricanes-football-john-ruiz-life-wallet-florida-gators-name-image-likeness/
will be interesting to see how he pans out. Great physical specimen but some folks on other sites believe he is a 7on7 warrior and disappears in "big" games.
He’ll be in the portal by 2025
Why not Cal? 8 million will buy a lot of beer. The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.
There are so many reasons for Why Not Cal....sooooo many.
Word I'm hearing is kids are weary of Wilcox and his conservative play-calling and 5 years of inefficient offenses. HS QBs don't want to toil in mediocrity, which is the ceiling in a Wilcox O.
That, and Cal is non-existent in the NIL game - like, a zero. They offer nothing - you're going to see more and more CA kids following the $$$.
Pro
Baker Mayfield, Seattle Seahawk?
https://twitter.com/cle_landon/status/1540877024675483648
Dan Snyder, still a f'ing douche canoe
http://dcsportsking.com/2022/06/25/dan-snyder-allegedly-had-milk-poured-in-nats-owner-suite-as-payback-for-business-deal/
How old are we again?
I'm told that when he bought the now Commanders, he was found going through the list of season ticket holders crossing out the names of people he'd clashed with over the years, to make it clear they weren't to be allowed to renew.
Oy.
Phillies radio analyst Michael Bourn says what every Phils fan thought when Bryce Harper gets hit in the thumb by a Padre's 97 mph fastball. Harper broke his thumb, will undergo surgery, and will miss a big chunk of the season
https://twitter.com/_piccone/status/1540898296054554625
Kyrie staying with Nets
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1541551215745581059
Westbrook picks up his 47.1 M option to build a new brick wing at Crypto arena.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/34161231/sources-russell-westbrook-plans-pick-471m-option-remain-los-angeles-lakers
Or just another car dealership on Ventura
Max Scherzer's salary $43.3m in 2022. Oakland A's combined salary in 2022: $50.2m.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/OAK/attend.shtml
Alrighty, then.
Game #75: A’s drop series opener, fall 9-5 to Yankees
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2022/6/27/23185688/game-75-as-drop-series-opener-yankees
Oakland dropped the first game against the best team in baseball, losing to the New York Yankees 9-5 on Monday evening.
The starting pitching was solid considering who he was facing off against, and the lineup had a big third inning where they scored all their runs. The Yankees had a big inning of their own, though, as the bullpen let this game get away from the A’s late.
New York struck first today, getting a two-out home run in the bottom of the first off the bat of Anthony Rizzo. That bomb was the first road home run starting pitcher Paul Blackburn has allowed all year and only his sixth total. Blackburn’s pitches were working tonight, though, striking out five in the first two innings, including this one to escape a jam in the second:
The first five innings were fine. The last few sucked.
Dodgers get shut out by Chad Kuhl in Rockies opener
https://www.truebluela.com/2022/6/27/23185924/chad-kuhl-shutout-rockies-dodgers-oof
The Dodgers had one of their worst offensive performances ever in Denver, getting shut out by Chad Kuhl and the Rockies 4-0 on Monday night at Coors Field.
Unable to carry over their late-rallying ways from Sunday night in Atlanta, the Dodgers instead looked more like the team that didn’t score in the first eight innings of the series finale against the Braves.
Kuhl allowed only three hits in nine innings of work. One of the hits was an infield single by Gavin Lux in the third inning, but he was erased trying to advance to second on a flyout, thanks to a perfect throw from center fielder Yonathan Daza.
I'm in no way bummed, but that's what happens when you routinely get called strikes on balls outside of the zone, especially in hitters counts. When a 4-5 pitcher throws a 3-hit shutout, there's help....
Mark Carlson was awful, especially on balls away from LHB (multiple ab's to Freeman and Muncy specifically). If you're throwing shutouts these days, there's usually a reason...in this case, per Ump Scorecards, Carlson came in at an 81% called strike accuracy, well below the league average of 88%.
Again, love seeing LA pick up an L, but poor home plate umpiring has been an epidemic for the better part of 3 seasons now...robotic strike zones can't come soon enough.
No 2 loves to look at Ump Scorecard. In general the umpires this year have been bad.
Really bad. When the ball is dead, and you’ve got long relievers wearing #’s in the 60’s throwing 100 mph in the 5th inning, you should at least be able to count on a consistent strike zone as a hitter .
John Wall to Clippers
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/34158737/john-wall-set-join-la-clippers-reaching-buyout-houston-rockets-sources-say
They are going to be soooooo good for 7-10 games
Cal
Go Bears!!