Home » Open thread 4/12/22

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Open thread 4/12/22 — 24 Comments

  1. Very interesting. Getting a water permit here in Northern California is much like that described in ancient times. I once read in a book on ancient Rome, that the madness of the later rulers could be attributed to lead exposture as indoor plumbing was newly available to them.

  2. Just another public-service announcement that has nothing to do with Roman aqueducts. My angry letters to the editor will resume momentarily.

    The last episode of “Dumpster Fire,” Bridget Phetasy’s comedy for the politically homeless, went live today on Rumble (https://rumble.com/c/phetasy). A very pregnant Phetasy has finally started her maternity leave, but old shows are still available on both Rumble and the evil YouTube. Bridget says she’ll be back in June.

  3. And to think that all the math used to build all these very impressive aqueducts, tunnels , roads, structures, etc., was Roman Numerals.

    Not to sound like a real pessimist but every civilization before and since the Roman Empire has crashed and burned.

  4. The lieutenant governor of NY was arrested earlier this morning for an alleged campaign finance scam: “[Brian] Benjamin, who Gov. Kathy Hochul chose in August as her No. 2 and running mate for this year’s election, faces a federal bribery conspiracy indictment in connection with a scheme to funnel phony campaign contributions to his unsuccessful bid for city comptroller, according to a Southern District of New York indictment.”

    Press conference with the feds scheduled for noon.

    https://nypost.com/2022/04/12/ny-lt-gov-brian-benjamin-arrested-in-campaign-finance-scheme/

    It’s almost as if Cuomo never left . . .

  5. It’s almost as if Cuomo never left . . .

    A scion of one of the political families in New York once said, “The Cuomos have always been thugs at heart”. The commentator in question was of the view that the Cuomos failed to respect the courtesies political playahs habitually granted each other, and were resented as a result. I’ll wager you papa Cuomo at any rate was a lawyer sufficiently careful to avoid flatly illegal conduct and had a regard for appearances such that he avoided flagrant buckraking not sure about the son.

    IMO, Democratic pols only get indicted when (1) they do something quite crude or (2) they’ve run afoul of a faction in the Democratic Party which has influence over the prosecutor or (3) both. The capsule description of the charges leads me to believe that (1) might be what’s up here. The petition period begins in May or June, so she has time to find another running mate.

    One curio about the forthcoming election is that it looks as if New York has a satisfactory chance of electing an Upstate pol to the governor’s chair. The last time that happened was when Franklin Roosevelt was returned to office in 1930.

  6. When I was in Kavala, Greece, I made sure I got a picture taken of me with the massive aqueduct in the background. Probably once in this lifetime opportunity for me.

  7. But why a duck?
    _______________________

    Chico: That’s the Jewish neighborhood?

    Hammer: (pause) Well, we’ll Passover that…You’re a peach, boy. Now, here is a little peninsula, and, eh, here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland.

    Chico: Why a duck?

    Hammer: I’m alright, how are you? I say, here is a little peninsula, and here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland.

    Chico: Alright, why a duck?

    Hammer: (pause) I’m not playing “Ask Me Another,” I say that’s a viaduct.

    Chico: Alright! Why a duck? Why that…why a duck? Why a no chicken?

    Hammer: Well, I don’t know why a no chicken; I’m a stranger here myself. All I know is that it’s a viaduct. You try to cross over there a chicken and you’ll find out why a duck.

    –Marx Brothers, “The Cocoanuts”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHMrLpDHXc0

  8. “Biden’s Sister Blames Trump For Hunter Biden’s Legal Problems”—

    We know Biden’s brother James has been enmeshed in Hunter’s grift and graft for 20 years or more. Do the other two siblings not have the sense to shut up, or are they implicated too?

    Joseph Biden, Sr had 10 grandchildren, one of whom died in early childhood and one of whom died of cancer in 2015. That leaves Hunter and Ashley with six cousins. How much truth are they telling themselves about the character of those closest to them? How about the younger generation?

  9. Lee Smith in Tablet mag on the recent arrest of two Iranian agents

    John Bolton was in office for just 18 months and has been out of office for 30 months.

    If they wanted to kill John Bolton, why not case his neighborhood to scope out where the security cameras are (in order to plan an optimal escape route), tail him to figure out his habitual comings-and-goings, manufacture a set of fake license plates, steal a car, and execute a drive-by shooting at a time of day when his corpse would be least likely to be noticed by neighbors or family members. Why infiltrate the Secret Service? I don’t think the Secret Service provides protection for quondam officials or even officials in service.

  10. While tossing in the occasional non sequitur it additonally occurs to me to ask — where is Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri? And why isn’t he dead yet?

  11. I would imagine that since they found these guys pretty much by accident—-they’ve been “embedded” now for several year and were throwing money around pretty freely—protecting Bolton or anyone else for that matter, wasn’t exactly a priority.
    Then there are the wags who think that someone else (rather inconvenient at the moment) was the target.
    Why a duck, indeed…

  12. “Then there are the wags who think that someone else (rather inconvenient at the moment) was the target.”

    Count me into the wags. In for a dime, in for a couple billion inflated funny bucks.

  13. was Roman Numerals

    They used an abacus.

    Went to the Utah Symphony last Saturday to hear Hilary Hahn play the Ginastera concerto and the Carmen Fantasy. I was surprised to find myself tapping my feet to the Ginastera, don’t know if Hahn or Ginastera was responsible for that, but it sure surprised me 🙂 Good fun and no dressing up expected. I’d estimate about a quarter of the audience was masked.

    Hilary Hahn first played in Salt Lake when she was 12, Joseph Silverstein brought her in.

  14. Moreover, why Bolton?
    He didn’t order the hit on Suleimani (IIRC).
    Seems like the threat on him by Khameini is probaby misdirection….not that it matters who the target is, really, as long as it’s a successful operation….

    So who DID order that hit on Suleimani?
    …And therein may well lie the answer to the target of this pair of real friendly dudes….

    Not that it may matter all that much.
    Getting these guys actually placed so high up is a coup of the first magnitude.
    Makes one wonder who else is creeping around up there…wandering around the halls of various and sundry government agencies…
    (Also makes one wonder why they didn’t use aliases….)

  15. Fab aqueduct in Segovia. Flush alongside, Meson de Candido — tenderific suckling pig. Neat town. But skip the haircut, which I didn’t — got a trainee, a doozy: coke bottle specs, dead ringer for Henry Kissinger. And muy nervioso: couldn’t commit to that first snip, scissors darting hither and yon, including in the vicinity of my carotid. Finally the fed-up boss took over, did me proud. That was ’82, when Spain hosted World Cup. Bought a liqueur for father-in-law back home — thematic bottle, just like a soccer ball. Top came off in the suitcase. Good clean fun.

  16. Biden gave a speech in Menlo today. No, not Menlo Park. Menlo Iowa. Population about 340. It was at an ethanol producing plant a modest distance from Des Moines (a Dem stronghold). The government is now allowing us to burn E15 gasoline even in the summertime. Whoo hoo!

    Of course Biden droned on and on about “the Putin price increases.” Repeat something often enough and … I watched about half of it before my mind began to space out the blather.

    What was most amusing to me was the theatrics of the set design. This was a big and mostly empty warehouse of a building at the ethanol plant. In addition to the gigantic US flag backdrop, there were two green John Deere tractors each with big hood ornaments that said IOWA, rows of hay bales creating something of an arced stage front, and a thin layer of field corn grain strewn around on the floor for added color.

    How many tractors do you need to run an ethanol plant? Answer: 0.
    Trucks and maybe railcars, yes.

    How many tractors have been factory produced with IOWA hood ornaments? Answer: 0.

    How much hay do you need to run an ethanol plant? Answer: 0.

    While it is possible that corn gets spilled on the warehouse floor, I’d wager that it almost never happens.

  17. Another fun night in East Texas with the weathermen all breaking into regular programs and saying “ get into a windowless, interior room”….

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