SMDH:
It comes from shaking my damn head and shows disbelief, disappointment, or irritation without starting a debate. The tone ranges from joking to sharp, depending on context, and it often stands alone or follows a quote. [Englishan]
Noted here; I shan’t bother to quote it as I normally would. Seems punchless in context.
… it’s gotta be close.
On Sunday night, a social media user posted a video of Trump at a party at his Bedminster club blasting “Y.M.C.A.” on his iPad for the crowd. National security scholar Tom Nichols responded: “We’re losing a war to Iran, we’re alienating our allies, we’re emboldening our enemies, our stalwart service people are being subjected to deprivations…and this is what the Commander in Chief is doing.” [Letters From An American]
Impeach, convict, hand him an ax, and send him to help former President Bush clear that old brush from his ranch. Then we can try renewing ourselves, rather than collapsing and disappearing as we seem to be doing.
CALL IT A NUMBERS GAME
Old-time blogger Paul Waldman thinks the Democrats will have a good election come November:
Wisconsin is the most closely divided state in the country; the last three presidential races were all decided there by less than one percentage point. This year, about 491,000 Republican voters cast ballots in the governor’s race, the most important on the ticket. But on the Democratic side, a whopping 792,000 people turned out to vote. [MS NOW]
Etc. etc. Democrats must be encouraged. I don’t know if independents are filled with enthusiasm, or just feel the Democrats are the lesser of two evils. Not incidentally, in the Minnesota Senate primary, the Democrats had a turnout advantage of 677,301 to 389,726.
THE BEGINNING OF THE BEGINNING, OR IS IT A PEAT BOG DOWN THAT PATH?
Alani Bankhead (D), Democratic nominee for the open Senate seat in Montana, who refused to withdraw her nomination for same despite pressure to do so, on the quasi-phenomenon of Democratic nominees dropping out and sometimes endorsing Independent candidates:
Bankhead, an Air Force veteran and a first-time political candidate, said the strategy of running independents is a bad idea that hurts Democrats in the long term.
“If you want to rehabilitate the brand, then you do it by rehabilitating the brand, not supporting independents,” she said in an interview. Undermining the voters’ will by asking the Democratic nominee to withdraw is “highly inappropriate” and further upsets voters, she said. [WaPo]
From that minimal quote I draw the inference that she’s not considered the overwhelming financial resources Republicans are reputed to have available for this election. Pundits have remarked on how the Texas Senate race is going to draw down those resources and possibly cost the Republicans a Senate seat or even two elsewhere. These Democrats who are withdrawing, assessing that the national Democratic brand is repugnant to many independents, even in the face of the downright disastrous amateurism endemic to the Republican Party, are attempting to threaten seats that, not so long ago, were considered Solid Republican, by removing themselves from the equation that would otherwise result in splitting the vote of those voters who have found Republican behavior disappointing.
Let’s add the phenomenon of dishonest polling. Below, I cite a poll I find a little unbelievable, that showing Pastor Hamilton (R) in a dead heat with Senator Marshall (R) in Kansas. If dishonest polls, which can be difficult to recognize, sway the adversary of the source of the funding for a poll, then financial resources may be expended by the adversary where unnecessary, while starving another race of needed funds.
And could this lead to new political Parties that might replace the doddering collective dementia patients now dominating the political landscape? Former Republican and former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard is starting a new Party, so the answer is a definite maybe.
RUN DOWN THE AISLE, CONTESTANT!
This is Jeopardy! and you’re running for the Senate Campaign news! Is that a mixed metaphor or just game show dementia?
The statewide poll of 586 likely Arkansas voters, conducted in late July by the 2040 Strategy Group, was also able to quantify something you probably already knew: The bloodthirsty and charisma-deficient automaton that is Tom Cotton is just not a very likeable guy. [Austin Gelder, Editor, Arkansas Times]
I assume this is considered an opinion piece by Gelder. More importantly, not knowing 2040 Strategy Group, and the poll being sponsored by an interested party, implies to me a high doubtfulness quotient. I’ve never cared for Senator Cotton, so it’s nice to see it’s a shared perception and not just a personal quirk on my part. But believing these results are accurate for the late July timeframe is a bit of a stretch.
Donald Trump won Ohio by 11 points in 2024. Still, a vulnerability for Husted is his connection to Trump, as 51% are concerned that he’s too close to the president. That’s up 5 points from 46% who felt that way about Husted in June. Plus, fewer voters, 44%, are worried Brown is too closely tied to the Democratic Party establishment.
Some entity called Wedgewood Polls gives Brown a smaller lead of 48% – 44%. Take that for what you will.
What does an endorsement get you these days? I rarely hear it noised about as any kind of factor, unless it’s Trump, who endorsed Senator D. Graham a couple of weeks ago. This may not mean much at all.
“Mary isn’t seeking endorsements from anyone from the Lower 48 – her focus is and always will be Alaska,” a Peltola spokesperson said in a statement. “That’s why she’s proud to have the endorsement of AFGE, the Alaska AFL-CIO, Alaska IBEW Local 1547, and more than 10,000 Alaskans who have signed up to volunteer with the campaign.”
Yes, there is a poll out for Alaska, but Change Research had a poor rating from FiveThirtyEight, so I’ll be ignoring it. But this is worth mentioning:
Amid reports of a campaign shakeup on the eve of Tuesday’s primary election in Alaska, a spokesperson for Democrat Mary Peltola acknowledged that she has changed top staff as she faces a pivotal race against Republican U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.
“The campaign has undergone staffing updates as we transition into the general election and we appreciate the contributions of everyone who built the winning campaign to send Mary to the US Senate this November,” a spokesperson for Mary Peltola’s campaign said in an emailed statement. [Anchorage Daily News]
Interesting, but I think Peltola is guaranteed a spot in the general election, as four are available.
Suffolk University gives Senator Markey a substantially smaller margin of 52% – 38% over Representative Moulton. Back when they existed, FiveThirtyEight gave Suffolk a rating of 2.9/3, so Suffolk was in the highly respected category.
Planned Parenthood’s political action committee Monday announced new ads attacking Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the first of a campaign totaling more than $600,000 to oppose the vulnerable Republican incumbent.
The ad buy is the largest investment from Planned Parenthood Votes across any state this cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records. Planned Parenthood Votes will use the campaign to hammer Collins on her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, one of the three justices nominated by President Donald Trump who helped form the majority that would later overturn Roe v. Wade. [WaPo]
I have not kept up with Planned Parenthood, so I don’t know if they’ve followed some other liberal organizations so far off the far end that they’re repellant to independent voters. That will affect how independent voters react, even though the presented concern is directly connected to Planned Parenthood and I expect should have a strong effect on pro-choice voters, especially those whose loved ones were put at risk through pregnancy.
TODAY IS …
… 18 August 2026, and it’s primary day for a few States. For Senate, Florida, Alaska, and Wyoming will be the focus of the political sorts; South Carolina’s special primary is next week.
Ask and be answered. Yesterday, I wondered if DJT’s cryptocurrency treasury still existed. Today, Dominic Basulto on The Motley Fool (TMF) answered (paywall):
Last summer, Trump Media & Technology Group (NASDAQ: DJT) — the social media company majority-owned by President Donald Trump — made headlines when it announced plans to transform itself into a Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) treasury company. Trump Media now holds 12,062 Bitcoins, worth nearly $755 million at today’s prices, so it followed through on its promise.
However, that Bitcoin position is currently deep under water. Trump Media recently reported a $190 million paper loss on its crypto holdings, due largely to the fact that the price of Bitcoin has been in decline for more than 10 months now. As a result, Trump Media will pivot away from Bitcoin and back into its core business of media and advertising.
DJT is still in Bitcoin, working on getting out. Depending on how they invested in Bitcoin, it might take a while. Basulto has further thoughts on Bitcoin and suggests keeping an eye on a company named Strategy (MSTR). As TMF is a pay service these days, I shan’t quote more.
But I continue to expect the entire cryptocurrency industry to shrink back from its currently bloated position, and it could, in several years, POP! out of existence. While the industry has cultivated allies in Congress, of whom I do not keep track, and that’ll help it survive, on balance it seems the risks of using cryptocurrencies far outweigh the conveniences.
For those investors who are stubborn, DJT’s price is, as of 9:55 AM here in Minnesota, below $8/sh, and $TRUMP is at $1.40. The latter has been down as far $1.37. None of this is promising for the conventional & conservative investor, or so this guy with an opinion thinks. Remember, I’m not an investment advisor.
The newly confirmed Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanche, in his first speech to Department of Justice employees:
“I promise you that I will lead this department with integrity. I promise you that I will focus on our core mission, which is to uphold the rule of law fairly and impartially, to keep this great country safe and to protect the rights of every citizen in this country. And I think about integrity, … it’s a promise that we’re going to uphold the law without fear or favor,” he said. …
“I think disagreement is extraordinarily healthy. I think disagreement is the only way that we make the best decisions as a department, … and I want to encourage everybody to do that,” he added. [Politico]
It’s hard to see anything wrong in the speech, but past actions do not match the speech.
“Under his leadership, hundreds of DOJ’s career workforce have been fired because of their backgrounds, their perceived politics, and for fiercely pushing back in conference rooms throughout the country. Thousands more have left because leadership has consistently violated the principles Blanche articulated: prosecuting defendants based only on the facts and the law; holding those who attack law enforcement accountable; and respecting the courts,” Stacey Young of Justice Connection, a group of former DOJ employees, said in a statement. “Attorney General Blanche’s platitudes will only resonate if his actions start matching his words.”
There’s potential in his words, but if he continues the Bondi tradition at DoJ, then all that potential will be wasted. I admit to being intrigued.
In the week since my last note on Trump Media & Technology Group (stock symbol DJT), the price of a share terminated its brief sojourn above $10 to $8.27 in what must have been a discouraging turn of events for the amateur investors who are known to have initially crowded onto this leaky boat.
I’ve not seen any evidence or announcements of their cryptocurrency “treasury” being liquidated, and I’d interpret this report to confirm that perception:
Falling cryptocurrency prices took a heavy toll on Trump Media & Technology Group during the second quarter, saddling the Truth Social parent company with a $238 million net loss—a steep increase from the $20 million it lost a year earlier.
In its second-quarter earnings report, Trump Media said the “vast bulk” of the loss came from non-cash charges rather than money spent or assets sold. Those included more than $190 million in unrealized losses across digital assets, pledged digital assets, and equity securities. …
The report did not disclose how much of that quarterly hit came from Bitcoin alone. [decryptvia yahoo!/finance]
The drop in the value of bitcoins and $TRUMP may have also contributed to the short term drop as well as not auguring well for the future. Here are their trailing seven day charts:
A contributing factor for DJT’s sudden slump? Last week I mentioned the corruptive potential of their new Truth API offering; this week …
On Wednesday, The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, targeting Truth API, a service launched by Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. (NASDAQ:DJT) on Aug. 1.
The service charges between $60,000 and $100,000 a month for early access to posts from 10 prominent Truth Social accounts, including Trump’s.
The plaintiffs argue that the arrangement effectively places presidential communications behind a pay-to-access system and violates constitutional protections that require equal access to government information. [BENZINGA via yahoo!/finance]
Will the judicial system buy into the argument? I don’t know. But this confluence of events surely doesn’t favor DJT, now does it?
Belle of the Ranch suggests this entire episode was scripted to control the news cycle. Is Trump’s War going badly? Well, rather than having news about shrinking missile stockpiles and morale, imply the nasty ol’ Iranians threatened the President, and he ended up waving most of his staff and the covering news reporters around as a decoy.
It certainly reduces the coverage of the news implying Trump is an incompetent, doesn’t it?
Today we made it to only a single Minnesota Fringe Festival show, probably the last we’ll see this season.
Is That Why? is one of those shows that has to work to find its home, and the Fringe is probably that home. In this show, Ari Hoptman, who teaches classes concerning the German language at the University of Minnesota as his day job, presents a number of interesting, unconnected facts and explanations – or mysteries – about linguistics in a rapid fire manner for a good hour. I don’t know where he gets the energy for this, because I was exhausted but fascinated when he finished. He covers mostly Germanic languages, such as the true difference between High and Low German, but also occasionally treks off into Finnish and more obscure corners of the linguistic world. If this sounds interesting and you’re considering seeing his final show for this season’s Fringe, which is tomorrow (Sunday 16 August), be warned this is only of smallest venues of the Fringe, so show up early and put away that claustrophobia doll – there’ll not be room for it.
Steve Benen remains mystified by the habits of President Trump:
“We totally control the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said. “We have control over it. Nobody else, only us.” He added soon after, “We have total control over the Hormuz Strait right now. They don’t have control. We have total control. We own it.”
A day earlier, the American president similarly insisted that the Strait of Hormuz is “open now,” adding that the U.S. is “the only one that has control” over the waterway.
I am mindful that “Trump says false thing” is not a headline that generates a lot of attention, but this is qualitatively worse than the Republican’s usual nonsense. In the midst of a war, the president is (a) aware of Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz; (b) negotiating with Iran in the hopes of ending its control over the Strait of Hormuz; and (c) bragging incessantly about Iran’s lack of control over the Strait of Hormuz. [Maddowblog]
Trump’s behavior is quite the denial of reality, isn’t it? And then, as CNN reports, it goes even further:
Iran said the key waterway “cannot be seized with a tweet” after President Donald Trump claimed he would declare the strait US territory after the war.
My bold.
Now, claims that President Trump is waging a one-man propaganda war against Iran are certainly plausible, as are assertions that this is part of an effort to blunt the numerous Trump’s War criticisms, and their authors, in preparation for the mid-term elections. Less noised about, but, again, within the realm of possibility, are satisfying his need, generated by the undeniable pathological narcissism afflicting him, for acquiring public glory through conquering territory and growing the American Empire, such as it is. It might be successfully argued that the repetition is a little difficult to rationalize in this scenario.
But, to my mind, the explanation which covers the facts best was, and I apologize to long-term readers who tired of my repeated references, provided by Chad Bauman in 2020.
With diffuse roots but emerging most forcefully midway through the twentieth century in Pentecostal and charismatic circles, prosperity theology draws selectively on biblical passages (chief among them John 10:10, in which Jesus says, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”) to insist that God desires our physical and financial prosperity. Our task, in a phrase popularized by the movement (and its detractors), is to “name it and claim it.” …
The president’s admiration for prosperity theology is well-documented. He was raised in Manhattan’s Marble Collegiate Church, which was pastored by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, whose The Power of Positive Thinking, was a key text in the prosperity movement and took the nation by storm. [Religion Dispatches]
Trump’s naming and claiming the Strait of Hormuz, quite literally. If he does it enough, God will capsize to his desires and reward him. Yep, I do think he believes that. Or is, at least, so frankly desperate enough to take a shot at it.
Do I take Trump seriously in this matter? Not at all. No one else should. But we can expect some more empty-headed chanting from our morality-free President.
Leucism:
- Leucism is a condition with a partial loss of pigment in the skin, fur, or feathers.
- The eyes remain unaffected, retaining normal pigmentation (typically black or pigmented).
- This condition is caused by a genetic anomaly, usually recessive in nature. [GeeksForGeeks]
Noted in this news report, “Photographer captures rare white loon in Canada,” Jeff Wagner, CBS Minnesota:
Dale Gentry, the director of conservation for Audubon Upper Mississippi River, said it’s shocking to see a loon with such a color. “I’ve never seen one in person, and I’ve only seen pictures on the internet,” said Gentry. “Albinism and a leucistic bird, they have some sort of genetic change that influences the genes that code for a pigment in their feathers called melanin.”
Pictures at the CBS Minnesota link, above. If you know loons, the photos are a trifle shocking.
A poll from The Economist/YouGov is not encouraging for those few still on the side of the President. This would be Question 3, Do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as President?:
Total Approve 33% ... Disapprove 62% ...
Then there’s Question 23, If the elections for U.S. Congress were being held today, who would you vote for in the district where you live?
Total The Democratic candidate 40% The Republican candidate 32%
And on and on. Those clouds you’re trying to touch? Your plane is in a death spiral.
THE MORE THINGS DON’T CHANGE
… the deeper the swamp becomes? The AG position at the DOJ has been officially filled by Todd Blanche, formerly personal attorney for the President, who mysteriously worked hard to be approved by a skeptical Congress. Republican Senators Murkowski and Collins voted against him.
Collins called Blanche “a capable lawyer,” but she said the Department of Justice (DOJ) under his leadership [as assistant and later acting AG] has “become increasingly political.”
She cited several actions that she believe have “further eroded the department’s independence” as “the basis for my vote to oppose his confirmation.” [The Hill]
President Trump was furious with Murkowski, but not Collins.
Trump’s War continues to burn, U.S.S. Lincoln is setting records for deployments and consequential drop in morale, public disapproval of the President continues to mount, and VP Vance looks like a deer in the headlights, when he’s seen at all.
Who wants to vote for chaos?
NATIONAL UNDERCLOTHES
Try not to have accidents, unlike last time.
In other news, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) is endorsing Senator D. Graham for the seat, while businessman Mark Lynch, who came in fifth place in the primary, endorsed Rep Norman.
Mz Tafoya, as I heard on MPR, proclaims herself beholden to neither Party nor President, and supports abortion rights. I see this as a necessary beginning in a State in which most voters consider the President to be a moral and practical failure, but I doubt Tafoya will win the Senate seat.
On The Issues: Gov Roy Cooper (D-NC).
Elon University is giving former Gov Roy Cooper (D) a 53% – 42% lead over Michael Whatley (R) in the race for the open North Carolina Senate seat. I am not familiar with Elon University, but those numbers seem plausible. Along with those are numbers indicating the President is underwater in the job approval department in the estimation of North Carolina voters by 18 points, so it’s no surprise the Republican candidate, Mr. Whatley, is trailing badly. Gov Cooper (D) is not a moderate, see right, making the general run of North Carolina Senate polls even more interesting, and suggesting the GOP has really shot itself in the foot by following Mr. Trump, rather than tossing him out on his ass.
VoteVets Action Fund is going into Alaska, launching a $225,000 ad buy against Sen. Dan Sullivan for his votes against reining in President Donald Trump’s Iran war powers, according to details first shared with Semafor.
It’s the start of what’s expected to be a larger VoteVets campaign against Sullivan, who is facing former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola in a highly competitive race.
The ad ties Sullivan’s Iran votes to rising costs in Alaska: “Nine-dollar-a-gallon gas in Dillingham, nine bucks a pound of ground beef in Anchorage. That’s not the cost of living. That’s the cost of Dan Sullivan’s votes,” the ad says. “Sullivan voted a dozen times for this war in Iran.” [Semafor]
I do have to wonder if there is a quid pro quo, stated or not, when these independent entities intrude on races. But dollars are a necessary-but-not-sufficient component of a successful campaign.
Recent statewide polling of likely 2026 voters in Idaho shows Independent Todd Achilles in an exceptionally strong position against incumbent Republican Senator Jim Risch. Achilles trails Risch by just 4 percentage points while boasting a stellar net favorability rating and huge room for growth.
Why not? My posts from 2024 indicate Bullfinch had poor accuracy and might have been partisan. Such problems can be reformed away, of course, but I have no reason to assume such reforms have taken place.
ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?
Not really. I don’t have to be entertaining or profound in every Campaign Update.
We made it to two more shows, which I’ll review in a hurry as the first has only one more showing, scheduled for tomorrow [Friday].
Latin Papi [Latin Daddy] is a two dancer presentation of hot Latin dance offs and interpretations. A bit loud for the sensitive, but this is why I go to the Fringe – I won’t see something like this at a cinema or theater. And it’s fun. In fact, over the years I’ve seen maybe a dozen dance shows, from modern, such as Latin Papi, to ethnic dancing, such as, if memory serves, Thai. Only one, in a modern tradition and from many years ago, didn’t work.
Watership Down is, I’m guessing, a straight recounting of the classic kid’s story concerning rabbits, their leader, their mystic, and their quest to survive. It’s not really Fringey, but it was really an excellent show. My Arts Editor practically exploded as we walked out, excited by the singing (“they all know how to sing!”), the acting, and the big, scary dog. Come for the dog, stay for the story, as it were. Recommended, if you liked the book, or think you would. My only complaint was that the characters would have benefited from more differentiation.
We still have another show left on our pass, so we hope to use that up over the next three days. On what? We don’t know.
I don’t recall seeing these orange things before. iNaturalist suggests it’s a goldenrod soldier beetle, as does at least one friend.
I gotta say the roiling concerning the President’s recently being transported from Turkey to the UK in a plane other than Air Force One, and secretly at that, strikes me as a trifle artificial. After all, the President is the President, and the occasional subterfuge to keep him safe from attempts by national adversaries to assassinate him doesn’t strike me as a terrible crime.
Not like sending goons in ICE uniforms to Minnesota to try to spread terror.
Or continuing his lifelong grifting ways.
Or endangering NATO.
It feels more like his protectors did something unusual, but not criminal, and the critics had a freakout.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it was a terrible crime. But no one’s made an intelligent argument affirming that position, yet, on the matter.
Hadestown: The Musical (2026) is a movie of one production of the aforesaid show, Hadestown. The tale interfaces the romantic tale of Hades and Persephone with that of Orpheus and Eurydice. The former concerns Hades, brother of Zeus, falling in love with Persephone, but her absence causes mother Demeter to send the world into sterility. In the end, Hades permits Persephone, now his queen of the Underworld, to return to the surface for six months of each year.
The latter concerns the kidnapping of Eurydice, beloved of Orpheus, and her travails in Hades. Orpheus boldly descends to find and rescue her, but it’s perilous and tricky.
I enjoyed all the aspects of the movie, from acting to singing to special effects. It is very much a Broadway musical, so if you have a particular allergy to that style of musical, or to Greek tragedies, you should avoid this; otherwise, it’s not bad at all.
This would be fun as an impromptu graffiti.
Day the World Ended (1955) is a messy, grimy take on a messy, grimy subject, when mankind takes that unconscious decision to end it all through the unplanned aggregate of selfish actions that results in a most deadly war.
Throw in some zombies, symbolic of the consequence of the un-wisdom exercised by those who couldn’t tolerate their rivals, whether it be because of honest self-interest or faux-divine, present in this very cul-de-sac of survivors, and it’s something of a complete traversal from the fellow trying to save this little chunk of mankind, to the hot head who can only think of himself, to the creatures waiting to destroy them in the hot zone above them.
Salt with way too much literal power for the individual, whether it’s the guy with the gun or with the nuclear weapon, and this is your favorite soup, metaphorically seasoned with arsenic.
Unfortunately, sympathizing with the characters is a little hard, and I’m not sure why. It may simply be the fact that the movie was made in an unfamiliar era, a time when we were transitioning from a more communal society to a more individualistic society, so it’s harder to slip into the personas of these characters.
Or maybe they’re not well-presented by the script, or well-portrayed by the actors.
But it’s a raw take, to be sure, thrusting the audience into an unfamiliar scenario and watching the various personality types react. It’s interesting, and yet a bit horrifying.
If you do stumble across this, enjoy.
Establishment strikes back in Wisconsin and other takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries
Dolts. This is an election, meaning a collective third party, the voters, made their preferences known. The Democratic establishment didn’t go roaring across the street with steel pipes and crowbars in hand.
Perhaps surprisingly, in the Case of the Reflecting Pool Fiasco, US Attorney Pirro as not been fired for doing the right thing in this Trump Administration, namely dropping the charges of vandalism against David Hearn for want of evidence, as well as evidence that the contractor botched the job.
Not yet, at least.
This failure to victimize a leading member of MAGA, former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, lowers the chances of the Trump Administration imploding, as a core of MAGA will remain loyal until Pirro, or someone of equal prominence, is unfairly victimized by the childish bully leading the Administration. That existential danger may be why Pirro is still in her job, although I’d guess an ally told Trump not to fire Pirro, rather than he figured it out himself.
But the drama continues until either she’s gone, or she files plausible charges against someone else for either this case, or some other.
You may have heard of Trump’s Golden Fleet of Trump-class battleships. You may have heard they’ll be expensive, and that they won’t have a use.
But of course they’ll have a use.
They’ll make for fine target ships.
Last week we saw our first two Fringe plays of this season’s offerings.
It’s-a-Me, a Musical! is based on SuperMario Brothers, games and movies and merchandise, stripped of enough detail to discourage lawyers bearing trademark infringement paperwork. It being a first-night presentation, it suffered from the usual technical glitches; but it also needed several rewrites of the script. As is, despite the earnest efforts of the performers, it’s not compelling, and my Arts Editor wants that hour of her life back. The one real plus? The production program was the best I’ve ever seen at a Fringe show. Alas, that didn’t save this production.
The second production of the night was the mystifying Fly Tape. Three siblings, speaking mostly in cliched slang, are rummaging through their late mother’s lifetime accumulation of stuff, discovering uncomfortable secrets along the way. Sadly, these performers, despite efforts that, again, can only be described as earnest, cannot overcome the script. I think that it’s a lack of chemistry, with a consequential glacier pace that did the presentation no favors. The mystery is the intermittent presence of a character who is auctioning off, through a puppet he carries, some of the mother’s possessions to the audience. If you choose to see this production, on entry keep an eye out for a basin of coins and scoop up one or two. You can use them to participate in the production.
Another visit on Thursday, we hope.
It’s classic Tuberville…
“I’m going to go back to Alabama and, hey, we might build a 30-foot wall around our state, because I know what’s coming. I can see it coming, I can hear it coming. You can just smell it out there, that they want to take this country over.”
“They’re a lot more aggressive than we are as Americans,” Tuberville said.
A spokesperson told AL.com Tuberville was referring to “radical Islamic terrorists who want to destroy America.” [AL.com]
At least the Senate won’t be putting up with him after next January. He’s running for Alabama governor in November.
Caping:
A cape is a sleeveless garment, tied around the neck from everyone from bullfighters to superheroes. Caping is slang for “defending or supporting” someone, especially someone considered unworthy of it. [Dictionary.com]
Ah. Noted in “Rep. Jim Jordan is meddling in South Korea’s war on disinformation,” Ja’han Jones, MS NOW:
One can easily read that excerpt and presume Jordan and his colleagues are just caping for Trump-aligned social media companies — such as Elon Musk’s X platform and the Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta — that have been known for spreading misinformation and disinformation and could face scrutiny under South Korea’s new law.
This sort of feels like the spastic actions of a failing empire, doesn’t it?
House Judiciary Committee Republicans sent a letter to the South Korea’s Media and Communications Commission on Thursday expressing their concern over recently adopted online regulations they say could allow the government to censor free speech and attack opposing viewpoints.
The letter, reported first by CNBC, calls for a briefing from South Korean officials on their plans to enforce an amendment to the country’s existing data privacy law, which took effect in July and has been dubbed the “fake news” law. It allows the government to issue fines to media outlets and content publishers with more than 100,000 subscribers if they intentionally spread false information.
“This amendment serves as a major threat to online speech and expression and would allow the KMCC to punish American companies and their users for exercising their constitutionally protected rights,” the lawmakers, including House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote. [CNBC]
Trying to dictate another country’s actions, impose American laws on foreign lands, and all that rot. It almost strikes me as pathetic.
“How to project Ugly American while never leaving home Washington!”
