Hey gang, as 'Trix mentioned, I'm on vacation for the next two weeks. I'll try as much as possible to check in and give you a link to the header info each morning, but no promises. BUT, BUT, BUT (hehe, I said "butt") I've gone ahead and written all of the daily Tabs header post "explainers" over on my personal site and I'll make sure to coordinate scheduling them with the Wonkette Tabs post, so just check on over there (https://martiniambassador.substack.com/) every weekday for the deets.
But today, you get a direct link too, 'cause I'm all service-y:
Seeing as I've done the writing, I want to get it all out there, so in fact you all would be doing *me* a service by heading over there every now and again. Thank you in advance :-)
New Wonkette hack just dropped.. Rather than the 'home' page, I've been going to the Archives page to find my articles. There, they are all listed in order, most recent at the top. Makes it easier to work your way through them, or at least it does for me. Now. Don't say I never did nothin for ya.
I just wanted to say that I got married in 1983, paid for my entire wedding myself, and it cost $5,000.
It was elaborate, too--I got married in a fancy garden in Beverly Hills, and one of my friends, after looking at my photos, said "Princess Diana has nothing on you." It's not true, of course, but I appreciated the compliment.
Try your public library or archive.org (the Wayback Machine). One other trick that works sometimes is to load the article and click the reader view button (F9 or the little picture of a book in the address line) the moment it appears.
I know it is wrong, but I drove distracted this morning. In my defense, I did not have "hundreds of baby jumping spiders swarming out of the driver's side dashboard speaker grill and onto the windscreen" on my copy of the Distracted Driver's Guide To Distracted Drivering.
I drove well enough, and managed to escort the majority of the little buggers out of the vehicle when I got home. Hopefully I can get the rest out before my wife drives it to work tomorrow, as she has a bit of a spider phobia, and will likely set fire to the car, with her and the spiders in it, or crash, if I leave 25-30 little window crawlers still in there, crawling across the window and having a generally good time webbing the fuck out of everything.
"It's so nice that so many of your classmates have been coming to the restaurant, Cayleigh. By the way, Jeff, why are we going through so many bottles of Captain Morgan and Southern Comfort these days?"
I got bad news for you: from Doctorow's other writing about cars, pretty much every car made in the last five years or so is going to come loaded up with a bunch of DRM'd crapware to turn every part of driving into a rent-extraction scheme.
RE: The Whale House, the half acre lot in Santa Barbara (just down the street from the Botanical Gardens) alone is worth a good chunk of that $3.3 million asking price. 💰
Honestly, presenting the possibility of NATO entering this war (for the several hundredth time) is bog-standard Russian Troll Farm bullshit. Just like "if you this thing, we will be forced to retaliate with nukes."
I have a ship tracker on my PC, and am pretty sure ships have been concentrating in that spot for more than two years, because Ukrainian port facilities are limited. Those ports have been heavily damaged by Russian missile attacks in the past two weeks. Do you think that might be the explanation?
A trio of civilian cargo ships—one each from Israel and Greece plus one with Turkish-Georgian registration—ran the Russian blockade in the Black Sea on Sunday and anchored at one of Ukraine’s grain ports on the Danube Delta.
and here DKos was saying, when Putin tore up the deal, that no freight company would do this because of the insurance risk. I wonder what assurances they have …
I dunno, man. Their Ukraine update posts have been some of the best reporting on the war. Better than ISW, and only bested maybe by a few top-tier twitter accounts.
But I also kinda agree with what you posted above: it's unlikely that a bunch of freighters are going to openly defy a Russian naval blockade, and are probably just loitering.
Quote of the day: "It's a sad fact that politics can ruin your life - not just when you practice it as a profession, but also when you get so wrapped up in it that you can't enjoy even the simple pleasures of life unless they flatter your ideology." -- Roy Edroso
Roy said that 11 years ago, and here it is again with even more relevance.
Hey gang, as 'Trix mentioned, I'm on vacation for the next two weeks. I'll try as much as possible to check in and give you a link to the header info each morning, but no promises. BUT, BUT, BUT (hehe, I said "butt") I've gone ahead and written all of the daily Tabs header post "explainers" over on my personal site and I'll make sure to coordinate scheduling them with the Wonkette Tabs post, so just check on over there (https://martiniambassador.substack.com/) every weekday for the deets.
But today, you get a direct link too, 'cause I'm all service-y:
https://martiniambassador.substack.com/p/its-johnny-bravo-the-one-man-army
Enjoy your vacay!
Have fun!
Bon voyage!
Have a blast! May all of the cats in your travels be friendly, but not TOO friendly.
Bonnes vacances 🌞 !
Merci!
Have fun!!!!!
Cone back tanned, rested. And ready. Pamper yourself.
Vacation pics arranged into a gif would be appreciated.
Enjoy!
I don't know how many times I've had to say to a colleague, "Why are you calling me? You're on vacation. Get back to it. BYE."
Leave this place behind and have a wonderful time.
BYE.
I’m the same way when I go on vacation. Always checking in
Have a swell vacation!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXb0SuSxZR8
Don't worry about us.. ;>(
Enjoy... ;>D
That one was an opus!
Conga, not Polka, Martini.
I am all the disappoint.
Conga?
D'oh, you are right, LOL!
Thanks, but don't worry about us.
Seeing as I've done the writing, I want to get it all out there, so in fact you all would be doing *me* a service by heading over there every now and again. Thank you in advance :-)
New Wonkette hack just dropped.. Rather than the 'home' page, I've been going to the Archives page to find my articles. There, they are all listed in order, most recent at the top. Makes it easier to work your way through them, or at least it does for me. Now. Don't say I never did nothin for ya.
I just wanted to say that I got married in 1983, paid for my entire wedding myself, and it cost $5,000.
It was elaborate, too--I got married in a fancy garden in Beverly Hills, and one of my friends, after looking at my photos, said "Princess Diana has nothing on you." It's not true, of course, but I appreciated the compliment.
And I know that 1983 is 40 years ago. But still.
Damn. Variety reports that Paul Reubens, better known as Pee-Wee Herman died Sunday.
Dozens served in Trump’s Cabinet. Four say he should be reelected
Trump sheeple: What do they know?
Anybody have a free link to the Atlantic article?
Try your public library or archive.org (the Wayback Machine). One other trick that works sometimes is to load the article and click the reader view button (F9 or the little picture of a book in the address line) the moment it appears.
Thanks…I’m on an iPad
I know it is wrong, but I drove distracted this morning. In my defense, I did not have "hundreds of baby jumping spiders swarming out of the driver's side dashboard speaker grill and onto the windscreen" on my copy of the Distracted Driver's Guide To Distracted Drivering.
Please say you were able to concentrate on driving well enough to forestall any further mishaps.
I drove well enough, and managed to escort the majority of the little buggers out of the vehicle when I got home. Hopefully I can get the rest out before my wife drives it to work tomorrow, as she has a bit of a spider phobia, and will likely set fire to the car, with her and the spiders in it, or crash, if I leave 25-30 little window crawlers still in there, crawling across the window and having a generally good time webbing the fuck out of everything.
Children serving alcohol in Wisconsin or Iowa. What could go wrong? https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/jul/31/republicans-child-labor-bars-alcohol-service-age-wisconsin
"It's so nice that so many of your classmates have been coming to the restaurant, Cayleigh. By the way, Jeff, why are we going through so many bottles of Captain Morgan and Southern Comfort these days?"
Well sure, if momma is watching. Try that at Boebert's bar, see what happens.
Sure glad I was too poor to buy a Tesla. What a scam.
I got bad news for you: from Doctorow's other writing about cars, pretty much every car made in the last five years or so is going to come loaded up with a bunch of DRM'd crapware to turn every part of driving into a rent-extraction scheme.
Peaches got creamed.
Peaches got creamed.
It's totally believable that "Peaches" is a born again Christian... nobody else would have the skills to rob an old man blind like that...
RE: The Whale House, the half acre lot in Santa Barbara (just down the street from the Botanical Gardens) alone is worth a good chunk of that $3.3 million asking price. 💰
The yellow dots here either mean:
- NATO getting pulled into active war
- Putin losing face
Every yellow dot is a civilian freighter. They are all sitting closely to the line that Russia told them to not enter.
If they decide to go further up north towards Ukrainian harbours, Putin has to go full in, or his bluff is called.
https://twitter.com/waldorf_charles/status/1685939222807470081
Honestly, presenting the possibility of NATO entering this war (for the several hundredth time) is bog-standard Russian Troll Farm bullshit. Just like "if you this thing, we will be forced to retaliate with nukes."
I have a ship tracker on my PC, and am pretty sure ships have been concentrating in that spot for more than two years, because Ukrainian port facilities are limited. Those ports have been heavily damaged by Russian missile attacks in the past two weeks. Do you think that might be the explanation?
How many yellow dots up north, in direction of Ukrainian harbours?
I think that is the whole point: at some point, the dots will start moving again.
Yes, but the explanation of why so many ships are in that spot is complete bullshit.
That is where they anchor and wait their turn to go into port.
If you've got an international border very close to some ports, wouldn't you anchor your ship on the far side of it?
It seems Putin bluffed and got called.
A trio of civilian cargo ships—one each from Israel and Greece plus one with Turkish-Georgian registration—ran the Russian blockade in the Black Sea on Sunday and anchored at one of Ukraine’s grain ports on the Danube Delta.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/07/31/nato-planes-watched-as-three-civilian-ships-ran-russias-naval-blockade-of-ukraine/
Yes, because those three ships probably got a call from the port saying, "We have space for you now, come into port."
The relevant point is: they decided to stay there, instead of going somewhere else.
and here DKos was saying, when Putin tore up the deal, that no freight company would do this because of the insurance risk. I wonder what assurances they have …
They have the assurance that DKos is almost always wrong!
I dunno, man. Their Ukraine update posts have been some of the best reporting on the war. Better than ISW, and only bested maybe by a few top-tier twitter accounts.
But I also kinda agree with what you posted above: it's unlikely that a bunch of freighters are going to openly defy a Russian naval blockade, and are probably just loitering.
Quote of the day: "It's a sad fact that politics can ruin your life - not just when you practice it as a profession, but also when you get so wrapped up in it that you can't enjoy even the simple pleasures of life unless they flatter your ideology." -- Roy Edroso
Roy said that 11 years ago, and here it is again with even more relevance.
Who's taking these polls?
https://substack.com/profile/1688073-you-should-ice-that-burn/note/c-21634480?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=106ix