All Hands on Deck

  If I only had a dollar for every time conservatives have changed their opinion regarding global warming, or climate change, or whatever you want to call it. First, they said it wasn’t happening. Then, they said it was only a natural cycle. Then, they said it was happening, but that mankind’s actions weren’t responsible. Then, they said that we may be responsible, but it would be too expensive to correct. I have no idea what they are saying now as the American conservative movement has gone from mendacious and greedy to batshit crazy.
  It seems obvious to any thinking adult who’s read a newspaper or turned on the TV in the past year that the global climate patterns have become nothing less than insane. Records in weather-related disasters are stacking up like cars in a highway pile up. Here in Spain, we’ve had the hottest summer on record, at least until next summer. How much hotter will it have to get before most plants and animals die out? Hell, I almost died a couple of times this summer riding my bike, an activity I generally relish.
   Combatting climate change should become a world-wide priority, especially in the developed countries that use much more energy and resources than the poorer nations.
   For the first time, the USA has made a major commitment to fighting climate change with the bill recently passed by President Biden. It’s a start. The biggest concern should be educating the public on the need for all of us to work together towards this end. We should be asking every citizen to do their part to work towards a goal of reducing carbon emissions and overall waste.
   I would never lecture anyone, or expect them to follow my example, but mine isn’t a horrible example to follow. I gave up driving years and years ago to the point where I hardly even bother with taxis. I shower in a container and use this water for other purposes. I walk up and down the stairs in my building, taking the elevator only when I have my bike. I recycle fanatically. The thing is, my behavior is not that out of the ordinary here in Spain where water resources are scarce and people learn to live frugally.
  What’s wrong with frugal?

  The weird thing is that I don't have kids and I won't be around a lot longer (but probably long enough to at least begin to see the shit hit the global warming fan). I just follow this path because it seems like the right thing to do.

Canícula sin Tregua

They are saying this is the hottest summer on record. It has been a relentless torrent of sunshine and heat, not even cooling down in the evenings. The Mediterranean had reached a surface temperature of 30° which scientists say will cause weird weather this autumn. We’ll see.

Update

Turd Polishing

If I could make a time machine, I’d move somewhere into the future where I’m not constantly bombarded with trailers, newspaper articles, billboards, hagiographies of Tom Cruise, and other advertisements for the new Top Gun movie. It looks pretty gruesome, and I haven’t even been blitzed with the soundtrack yet, which was the worst thing about the original. Has anyone ever been held accountable for “Highway to the Danger Zone?” It’s like the musical equivalent of a war crime.

What if the Black Lives Matter and Antifa air forces joined together to fight Maverick? I think this interactive option is available for Trump supporters in select theaters. They also have private viewing booths for those who may need a little privacy, for people whose erectile dysfunction problems require large doses of jingoism.

I won't give away any spoilers but the final dogfight between Maverick and Hillary Clinton is awesome!

From the Department of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies:

“Mission: Impossible” was a slick espionage film, directed by Brian De Palma, based on a TV series from the 1960s.

I’d call the film many things, but slick? Hardly.

How is it possible that it yielded five sequels, and how is it conceivable that the sequels keep getting better, culminating in “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” (2018), which is pretty much an unqualified masterpiece?

How is it possible that it yielded five sequels? Are you joking? A better question is how could a lame TV show from the 60s yield a single film? The only thing that made it out of the TV series was the theme music and the bit about the tape self-destructing, which is ridiculous in the digital era, and the music is a few puerile bars.

Unqualified masterpiece? Wait. Does that mean good? Is he talking about the same movie I saw? Because the one I saw made almost no sense and was merely a bunch of ridiculously improbable actions scenes linked together by an even more ridiculously improbable story, if you can call it a story and I wouldn’t. Evil man wants to destroy the world, plutonium, yawn. It’s not fit entertainment for an adult.

What difference does it make if Tom Cruise did his own stunts or not? Answer: it doesn’t and who cares? Writers have been pushing the whole idea that Tom Cruise is the movie star we all need to the point of some of them actually believe this studio propaganda.

File under “Painting a Turd” NYT style:

Though you may hear otherwise, “Top Gun: Maverick” is not a great movie. It is a thin, over-strenuous and sometimes very enjoyable movie. But it is also, and perhaps more significantly, an earnest statement of the thesis that movies can and should be great. I’m old enough to remember when that went without saying. For Pete’s sake, I’m almost as old as Maverick.

You can almost see the writer squirming in his chair searching desperately for a few words to describe this film that don't include awful, horrible, mind-numbingly stupid, absurd, and the worst.

 

JANUARY 6th COMMITTEE HEARING TAKEAWAYS FOR JUNE 28th

Further evidence that the whole "Trump Won" movement is the most vile, un-American filth to have come across the United States in over a century.

 The Lincoln Project released the following takeaways from the sixth January 6th Committee Hearing that took place June 28th:

 After six hearings, it is clear that Donald Trump directed a conspiracy to overthrow the results of a valid election and install himself as the illegitimate ruler of the United States of America. 

 His conspiracy included creating legal fictions to sow doubts about election security, reject the outcome of an election he knew he lost, team with white supremacists to cause an insurrection, and then cover it up with a story of deflection and blame to keep the truth hidden.  

 The hearing today confirmed that Trump – in the most anti-democratic action ever taken by an American President – tried to personally lead the January 6th insurrection up the steps of the Capitol and onto the floor of the House of Representatives to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election and confirming his loss.

 Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony showed without a shadow of doubt that Donald Trump and his staff were aware of the potential for violence days in advance and counted on it to provide him an opportunity to stay in power. 

 White House Counsel Pat Cipollone understood that laws were being broken. He told Hutchinson to stop Trump from going up to Capitol Hill because they were “going to be charged with every crime imaginable”. Yet Trump ignored his legal counsel and persisted in trying to lead the mob. 

 Trump’s actions on January 6th prove he had insight into the mob. At his own rally on the Ellipse, he wanted the Secret Service to shut off the metal detectors – an unthinkable act for anyone who is provided a security detail. Trump was confident because he knew they weren’t there to harm him, but were there to stop Congress from certifying the election. 

 

Read the rest here