Thunderstruck

AC/DC - Thunderstruck (Official Video)
AC/DC

Just because. Finnish version here. If I posted a new tune every day, how long could I go on before I ran out of my favorite tunes? Might be a while, like forever.

Trump versus the American Aristocracy

Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump

The aristocrats who martyred Trump by Martin Gurri paints a pretty good picture of the current political situation in the USA. I like this line:

“He [Trump] has been transformed into a living symbol of the progressive elites’ abuse of power and contempt for the principle of equality.”

All large organizations suffer from a certain amount of corruption and incompetence. You have to expect it, after all the government is made of people, and in any large group of people there are going to be some who are rotters. That's just the way it is. We can tolerate a certain amount of corruption / incompetence. But our current government has crossed the line and someone needs to take it in hand and root out some of this rot, dial it down to a level we can live with. Biden isn't going to, he is corruption and incompetence personified. Donald may be our only hope.

Gurri has appeared here a couple of times before.

Swimming Dream

I dreamt I was in some kind of swimming club. The group was organized to perform synchronized swimming, but it was pretty casual. The group was small, maybe six people, mostly girls, we met once and then there were supposed to be a couple of practice sessions which I missed. I showed up for the 'performance'. The leader was not upset, I think she was glad that I showed up. I asked what we were going to do. She wanted a pencil and paper, but we're by the pool in our swimsuits and there's no paper or pencils at hand. I ask her to just show me by drawing on my hand with her fingers and she does. Four of us are to form a square in one corner of the pool and then swim along all four sides of the pool, maintaining our square. Then we would form two lines, one across each end of the pool and swim towards each other where we would form one line across the middle. Somewhere in here her fingers turned into colored dots and the lines she had traced became visible. After that it became very convoluted. We never actually got in the water before I woke up.

Once upon a time I used to go swimming fairly often, but I haven't been in years.

Funny?

Pearls Before Swine
Click to embiggenate

What's funny to you might not be funny to me, and vice versa. Different strokes for different folks, as the saying goes. California Bob sent me a video clip of Superfan Jake Byrd that showed up on Jimmy Kimmel Live a couple of days ago. (Beware: Kimmel is deep blue. If you like Trump you probably don't want to watch the rest of the show.) 

Anyway, Bob says: 'He's pretty goofy and made me laugh out loud.' He expected that I would think it was stupid, and he was right. It was so stupid I coulnd't watch the whole thing. But stupidity and comedy often go hand in hand. I opened up the comics this morning and Pearls Before Swine was very stupid, as usual, but it got a chuckle out of me.

Bodkin Series| Netflix

Bodkin | Official Trailer | Netflix
Netflix

Working on a story for the Guardian, our girl Dove gets tangled up with the Official Secrets Act, so her boss sends her to Bodkin, Ireland, to help Gilbert, a podcaster who is working on a story about three people who disappeared 25 years ago. The comedy, such as it is, arises mostly from a contrast of styles. The podcaster just wants to get people to tell their stories and he thinks being nice to people will get him what he wants. He comes across as a bit foolish. Yeah, betting eight large that you don't have against a local gypsy kind of seals that deal. By comparison Dove is hard nosed and rude. Emma, Gilbert's 'researcher' is a neophyte to this whole business of actually talking to strangers.

They go to poking around and talking to people and you have never met a more evasive bunch, no straight answers here. Some it is because the locals are used to talking to other locals and so assume a certain amount of common knowledge that our intrepid reporters do not have. Like, how can you not know Frank? Everyone fricking knows Frank. Well, yeah, everyone who lives here might, but our gang is not from here. It's also because many of them are old and a little befuddled, to put it nicely. But then right quick we learn there is skulduggery afoot in Bodkin and people are lying to conceal it. Dad burn criminals.

Bodkin is fictional, but County Cork is real and is the southwestern most part of Ireland.

P. S. Eels show up somewhere in the last half of the series. Weird, since I just put up a post about them.

Beriev Be-200

Beriev Be-200

What do we have here? Looks like a small Russian jet airliner, but why are the engines above the wings?

Aviation Takeoff Beriev Be-200 Altair multipurpose amphibious aircraft
Aviation Up&Down

Oh, it's a flying boat, that's why. This is the only jet powered model in the world.

Update April 2026 replaced missing video. Something about the government requested that it be taken down. Maybe something to do with the interior shots?

Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

I never understood why we picked a fight with Russia. Yes, Russia invaded Ukraine, but it was only after years of provocation by our own apparatchiks. You keep poking the bear eventually the bear is going to take a swipe at you and then you act all surprised. Morons.

From a story on RT by Scott Ritter:

It is critical to keep in mind that while Russia may have entered the conflict facing a single adversary (Ukraine), within months it became clear that Moscow was confronting the cumulative military capability of the collective West, where NATO’s financial, material, logistical, command and control, and intelligence support was married to Ukrainian manpower resources to create a military capacity designed by intent to wear Russia down physically and mentally, to strategically defeat Russia by promoting the conditions for its economic and political collapse.

I don't think the cabal of goons in White House care about winning this war, all they wanted was some kind of war that would require massive defense spending bills they could use to wet their beaks. They don't care if they destroy the country. Puts me in mind of the meme that's been floating around the net for the last few years:

An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes. - Sun Tzu

Some people say Sun Tzu never said it. I say we dig him up, reanimate him, and ask him. Of course, he's so old he'll probably claim he doesn't remember. And you know, it doesn't matter who said it. It could have been Abraham Lincoln, or Homer Simpson. It's still a good line.