Gromnir

on fox news at least six hours every day. much as with the gop outrage over the mara logo search, the furor 'bout hunter is manufactured outrage. as we mentioned years ago, hunter is a "train wreck," but bill barr and the trump admin had the infamous hunter laptop for a year and there were no big reveals. same as it ever was-- hunter is being investigated for tax evasion. oooh. meh. HA! Good Fun!

have no reason to believe the following, but we nevertheless assume our hair is gonna go grey w/i a comical short period o' time. am in fifties and we got a few white hairs which you will notice if you are standing uncomfortably close to Gromnir. however, 'cause our eyesight went from better than 20/20 to distinct far-sighted over the course o' a couple years, we irrational believe our hair will do something similar, going from almost uniform dark to colorless w/i a year. HA! Good Fun!

just a reminder... simple rule: don't share your privates via the internet. is so much americans, as well as the foreigners preternatural invested in american politics & law, get wrong 'bout rights and law in this country. separation of church and state? free speech? privacy? police duty to serve and protect? as often as not, people know the aforementioned. is disconcerting just how confident is people in their knowing given just how few is correct. equal disturbing is how some people can't grasp the reality that all too often there is a gulf 'tween what is legal and what is right or wise. just 'cause is legal to do something is hardly equivalent o' a recognition you should do. speaking o' difference 'tween legal and right, those states which for years had not been seeking felony prosecutions for those who violate abortion laws now sudden choosing to do so may be legal, but... HA! Good Fun!

has been unseasonably nice the last couple days, and the ca wildfires ain't affecting local air quality which hasn't been the case in august the past +3 years. afternoon high were a mere 91F. rode our bike early and then walked the dogs lateish morning. a late morning dog walk in august? is always too hot for such... but it wasn't. picture o' casa de Gromnir and our yard... second-story roof level. an utterly lovely day. HA! Good Fun!

taco tuesday. ... if am being honest, it were also taco sunday, but as we made half a pork shoulder worth o' carnitas (our lazy man instant pot recipe,) today were taco tuesday and is more than a couple days worth o' carnitas remaining. our preferred taco is a corn tortilla with carnitas and a mixture o' poblano/monterey jack. am charring a poblano stuffed with jack cheese over a gas burner and then rough chop the blackened pepper/cheese thing which we then use to top our carnitas. finish with a fire roasted tomatillo or roma tomato salsa. we got a house guest who is a big fan o' our fire roasted salsa(s) and we don't have the heart to tell her the ingredient which makes it so yummy is the onion from the carnitas cooking fluid. the onion, infused with well-spiced liquid lard, makes our salsa extra mouth watering. the tuesday taco spread included a black bean/healthy alternative to the carnitas 'cause the crispy pork is too fatty, or somesuch? nevertheless, we keep forgetting to mention how the salsa, which our guest believes is so fantastic we should bottle and sell it, is likely the least healthy item on our dinner table. if our guest's objection to pork were a religious thing, we would mention the "secret" ingredient, but as is simply a preternatural fear o' fat am admitted being a smidge dishonest. character flaw. speaking o' character flaws, am using store bought tortillas. HA! Good Fun!

am not sure how to make predictions 'bout the damn-worthiness o' evidence which were maybe collected. at least one fed judge thought there were probable cause to be finding evidence o' some kinda criminal violation by somebody somewhere at mara lago. probable cause in the US is actual a relative tough hurdle to overcome in spite o' what tv shows and some pundits would have you believe and am suspecting the judge in this case were not unaware o' how bad would be political fallout if a search he/she signed resulted in nul. however, have not seen the warrant. can't even say for certain if the search is related to trump's failures to respond to archive requests for missing documents or perhaps something else. wait and see. failure to wait and see is exact the calculated "error" gop made in an effort to shape the narrative before there is any sorta basis for reaching reasonable conclusions. trump could extreme easy dispel much o' the cloud o' uncertainty by posting a copy o' the warrant as well as his receipt for what the feds took. hasn't done so which tells us trump prefers not to have truth known. smaller than some expect? bigger than others is trying to make? best advice is, "wait and see." HA! Good Fun! ps darn auto correct-- dispel, not display. sheesh

could also be a nifty halloween costume, no? doesn't seem particular complicated neither, though would not stand up to rain 'course. @Raithecould probable see hurdles to costuming, but wrap shady jr in a couple led light strips hooked up to a portable battery and then cover him in copious amounts o' poly-fil. ambulatory storm cloud, yes? HA! Good Fun!

you don't need work hard to convince Gromnir that manchin isn't the real problem. heck, we remain a conservative in many respects even if we refuse to vote for any republican who hasn't distanced themselves from the new gop platform... whatever that is. am not a fan o' manchin 'cause he pretends as if fossil fuel lobbyists ain't holding his leash and 'cause he has curious red lines for legislation which involve making the lives o' kids better, but just as we don't blame the filibuster rules for failed democrat legislative efforts, we don't blame manchin for being the same guy today he has been for a long time. we said after the 2020 elections that many democrats were missing the most important lessons o' the then recent local and national contests. trump lost but there were a whole lotta republicans winning where such wins were unexpected and democrats lost ground with various segments o' minority men they could not afford to lose. since 2020, even in places such as nyc, progressives have been taking a beating and in virginia, a state moving decided purple, glenn youngkinn won with trumpy maga appeals and crt myths. many virginian conservative women who could not stomach the thought of another four years o' trump were nevertheless okie dokie with youngkinn's brand o' maga appeals. add historic inflation which were mostly not biden's fault, but the President in power has near always shouldered the blame for previous stoopid. etc. how many signs were needed, eh? expecting paradigm shifts given the current reality were utter divorced from reality. taking back the senate were huge for democrats not the least 'cause biden has been on a tear with fed judge replacements, eclipsing even trump and mcconnell's efforts during the first two years o' the previous admin. nevertheless, is baffling the kinda fantasyland expectations voiced by many liberals given the razor thin majority democrats enjoyed and the reality o' elections 'cross the country post 2020. trump with his fearmongering, portraying the democrat threat as an existential crisis and using petty and demeaning language to describe political foes as irredeemable enemies, represents a serious threat to the Constitution. is disappointing to see and hear same trumpy nonsense from liberals on this board and elsewhere, eh? however, to make perfect clear, am not suggesting a false equivalency 'tween maga extremists (seeing orban feted by the rnc at cpac, is increasing arguable those extremists is mainstream) and those youngish firebrand liberals who can't even manage better than 50% voting rates. as loopy as is a few liberals, and as much as we continue to criticize the abject stoopid which is antifa and the like, there is no organized movement on the left to overthrow democracy or to mow down personal liberties... with the possible exception o' some empty rhetoric 'bout proposed firearms bans via executive order and the like. is not a, they are all bad scenario. manchin ain't the problem for democrats, but even for a reagan era compassionate conservative/libertarian such as Gromnir, who admitted were one o' those firebrand liberals before we taught in europe for a few years and saw the alternatives firsthand, the senator from wv offends our delicate sensibilities. HA! Good Fun!

y'know, that sorta reasonable behaviour is so last century. nobody is gonna take you seriously in 2022 unless you express your outrage at them. being practical and recognizing the need for compromise might as well make you one o' them. curiously, is ok if your fury and indignation at the designated injustice or villain dujour is limited to frequent social media posts. voting and grassroots activism or volunteering is swell and all, but nowadays is all 'bout getting followers and accumulating likes from witty tweets. HA! Good Fun! ps as he is from wv, am getting why manchin defends the fossil fuel industry and coal in particular. am admitted having a bit more difficulty understanding why he seems to hate kids, particularly poor kids.

Sandy Hook Parents’ Attorney Tells Judge ‘Various’ Federal and ‘Law Enforcement’ Agencies Want Access to Alex Jones’s Inadvertently Disclosed Data Judge Gamble denied the mistrial motion and indicated that Jones’s legal team likely would not be able to stuff the proverbial toothpaste wholly back into the tube. “I’m not going to seal the quantity of information without knowing what’s in it,” she said. Medical records, she indicated, likely would remain sealed. “We can have a little bit of time while we’re waiting to research whether there’s some reason I should not allow Mr. Bankston to make those two disclosures,” she added, referring to the Jan. 6 Committee and plaintiffs’ lawyers from the Connecticut litigation. after a brief in camera viewing, expected outcome is all those texts 'bout which alex jones took the 5th regarding post election voter fraud nonsense and january 6th is gonna end up with the january 6 committee and the doj. HA! Good Fun!

she is reasonably popular with independents, and arizona is an oddball state with ~30% identifying as independent. 'course for primaries sinema's popularity with independents and republicans is immaterial. only registered democrats vote in democrat primaries. her behaviour the past couple years is just so... weird. if there is method to the madness, we don't see it, and she ain't having any sorta consistency which would make these kinda moves predictable; can't even chalk it up as her being an idealogue. am admitted perplexed. HA! Good Fun!

Kyrsten Sinema Is Demanding Democrats Keep A Tax Break For The Super-Wealthy am not sure how many times on this board we has mentioned the hedge fund exception as one o' the few ez and obvious ways to address US tax issues. is not as if am particular insightful neither as guys like bill gates, warren buffett and a host o' other billionaire but not hedge fund managers has identified the hedge fund exception as a clear abuse which needs be addressed. nevertheless, sinema is backing the wall street guys which would be ok for a democrat in the nineties and if your name were clinton. take a quick peek at the calendar and see it is most certain not 1994. point is, am not certain how this doesn't add to the admitted long list o' reasons why arizona democrats is looking to primary the senator in a couple years. ... previous to 2004 when she joined the democrats, she were a spokesperson for the green party. makes us wonder what sorta infernal bargain were struck by the arizona politician. HA! Good Fun!

the most obvious solution is to get folks good paying jobs and health care coverage 'cause exploiting anger and fear is what folks such as steve bannon and limbaugh were doing extreme successful for the last couple decades. is far less outrage from folks who have financial security for themselves and their family. also, the more education a constituency enjoys, the less likely they is targets for radicalization. is largely correlative evidence supporting the tendency to see lower radicalization rates as education increases, but so what? get people more education and economic security and the crazy element decreases. so insofar as the radicals, all shady need do is reverse the trend o' red states to teach base approved curriculum via a pedagogy designed to not offend those who is already radicalized while simultaneous fixing the income disparity problem which has been growing for decades. ez peasy. am not seeing any fix for the complicity o' the vast majority o' gop moderates. you are correct in recognizing the truth that calling self moderate is dubious if you are willing to go along with the radicals. nevertheless, the radicals is at least 33% o' the gop in 2022 and to win in races 'gainst moderate democrats in battleground states, the radicals cannot be alienated if the gop wants to get republican candidates elected. is a transactional decision on the part o' moderate republicans to look away from the rot in the party. how do you fix complicity if there is no practical bridge too far? the crazy o' january 6 and fed troops in portland kidnapping protesters didn't result in change? Donald Trump: 'I Could ... Shoot Somebody, And I Wouldn't Lose Any Voters' wasn't true in 2016. maybe not true in 2022... but am far less certain. HA! Good Fun! ps win no matter the cost is a US 2022 problem.

the kansas abortion numbers is the reverse o' the trump v. biden results from the 2020 election. is not a win issue for republicans. however, given the US tribalism and polarization we see today, am unsure how much meaning we derive from the results in kansas save for as an issue-specific concern. sure, a whole lotta republicans is obvious reluctant to support a few o' the draconian abortion bans we are seeing implemented by republican controlled legislatures in numerous states, which would appear to reveal a disconnect tween the elected and the voters. even so, how many republicans in kansas, texas, ohio, mississippi or elsewhere will now vote for a democrat 'cause o' their personal pro choice stance? the republican party needs the increasing radicalized and angry base to win elections, but moderate republican voters, and many independents, will ignore or accept any gop excess as long as the alternative is voting democrat. HA! Good Fun!

the only interweb cooking site we got bookmarked and check regular is american test kitchen. am mentioning 'cause we saw a video on the atk site which we found interesting... well, at least a minute or so were interesting as tomato water intrigued us not at all. am thinking were 'bout 3:30ish is what were new for us. has to do with tomato jelly, and is not some kinda tomato preserve but is a method to return concentrated tomato flavour back into long simmering tomato dishes. is probable less useful if you use roma tomatoes for your sauce (romas has less jelly and seeds than other tomato varieties) but am suspecting we may use this technique to infuse fresh tomato jelly goodness into sauces when using canned or romas as the base. clarification-- what we meant were if we make sauce from can or am using romas, then we could also squeeze out the jelly from a few fresh and vine-ripened beefsteak tomatoes which we then add to our sauce after a period o' long simmer. ... kinda makes obvious what a food dork/nerd we is that we found a tomato video worth sharing, but so it goes. gonna embrace our truth. HA! Good Fun! ps (late edit) one o' the reasons we add a small 'mount o' worcestershire sauce to our tomato based sauces is 'cause o' the high glutamate levels o' tomatoes. nucleotides functional turbo charge the flavour from glutumates and am not exaggerating as is a 30-40x enhancement. the anchovies in worcestershire, when using small quantities, is gonna go unnoticed in a large pot o' tomato sauce, but the neucleotides make a big difference to the umami quality o' the tomatoes.

begs the question: will the enhanced edition release also be delayed? regardless o' answer, am likely gonna wait 'til a week or so post enhanced edition to try more wotr. HA! Good Fun!

sure weren't particular helpful to bush. as we noted, at the time the President took serious political heat for the move which were unpopular with evangelicals and conservatives. am s'posing the idea is bush were willing to undercut his own political leverage to possible future enrich his defense secretary? after 2001 rumsfield was no longer a board member o' a pharmaceutical company, but he did have financial interest in gilead and gilead has a history o' shiesty shenanigans... and rumsfield sold most o' his gilead stock in 2005 making media worthy money by taking advantage o' the avian flu scare and the resulting explosion o' stock value 'cause o' tamiflu patents. the patents gilead acquired on hiv drugs didn't happen 'til 2003, the same year pepfar legislation became law, which is gonna trigger the conspiracy folks but ignores actual timing o' relevant events. fauci were sent to africa by bush in early 2002 which were some time after bush had discussed the issue with other cabinet members. so, a complex bush scheme to enrich not himself but rumsfield by supplying sub-saharan africa with life saving antivirals requires a bit o' conspiracy theory manipulation as well as all too common post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacies. tough sell. HA! Good Fun! ps am recalling a couple stories from ~2011 referencing a complaint from 2007 directed at gilead vis a vis hiv treatments. the underhanded stuff didn't involve the hiv drug patent per se but beginning in 2006 gilead were implementing functional forced licensing agreements. am uncertain what became o' the complaint, but am admitting if gilead were involved our starting (and admitted not complete fair) assumption is that they were doing something unabashed terrible to a mind boggling number o' people for an improbable amount o' time.

is plenty o' reasons to dislike President bush, but he went against party and gained the ire o' many conservatives by not only caring 'bout a disease which at the time were considered a curse on homosexuals by too many in this country but by sending money to africa with almost no short-term roi prospects. sure, in 2022 we got kinda/sorta bipartisan support for pepfar, but such were most assured not the case at the time. you and Gromnir can do little 'bout the hiv problem which continues to plague too much o' the world, but you may vote for representatives, senators and Presidents who care 'bout the same stuff you do, and those people collective may bring 'bout the changes you believe is appropriate. and sometimes, as in the case o' bush, determined individuals may bring 'bout monumental change. you caring might mean as little as self-educating and then voting for national level government folks who are capable o' making the world a better place, or at least a world a bit less terrible. is a flood in bangladesh which kills hundreds or thousands tomorrow or next year. we have empathy for the dead and those survivors who must rebuild... again. however, unless we know somebody who actual died, is unlikely we weep over the bangladesh deadly floods. at the same time am forced to decide just how concerned we actually are 'bout the dead and future dead in places like bangladesh. how do we change our votes based on candidates who could do something? am honest enough to admit a Presidential candidate's position on infrastructure aid to bangladesh is not a priority. chilloutman is unlikely to be concerned 'bout anything bad happening in south america. *shrug* converse, while the khashoggi murder represents the death o' one reporter we never met, we would/will change vote depending on how our elected officials responded. ... am also gonna recognize how at the time we were ambivalent 'bout bush's efforts to combat hiv in africa. helping were the right thing to do but the help were also representing a whole lotta money and while we ain't a maga proponent am gonna concede we prioritize homeless US veterans over nameless and faceless multitudes in sub-saharan africa. is perhaps unfortunate a US President has more power to help those in africa than he does homeless and/or mental ill in topeka. even so, while pepfar were not a voting priority for us in the early 2000s, am glad bush were more caring o' the suffering o' those in africa than were Gromnir. HA! Good Fun!

self-lawyering all too often results in self-harm and we highly recommend avoiding such conjecture. regardless, the school board released a single statement to the public stating that teachers got first amendment freedoms which need be observed but the board were nevertheless suspending the teacher and investigating him 'cause o' his reported presence at the Capitol on january 6. turns out the teacher were never at the Capitol-- just some douchey twitter nonsense posted while he were in DC for the stop the steal rally... posts which seemed to advocate insurrection . school board does investigation which clears the teacher o' any actionable malfeasance and tells him he should return to work. teacher's complaint is two-fold: 1) he wants a public apology to clear his name. 2)the board were wrong to public release info regarding their investigation o' the teacher's january 6 activities. 'ccording to teacher, as a member o' the teacher union collective bargaining agreement provisions, the board were precluded from discussing the matter o' his investigation until he had been provided a process to defend himself. having not read the agreement, we cannot say what is the school board duties. however, as the matter o' the teacher's january 6 activities were a matter o' public interest thanks in large part due to the teacher's questionable social media practices, the rules for board behaviour is likely not as cut-and-dry as teacher's lawyer might claim. whatever beef the teacher has with the board is largely a contract issue related to his collective bargaining agreement. media pundits latched onto a rando story and skewed the narrative a bit so that it fits whatever is their chosen point o' view, but is less substance to the story than one might assume based on reports from cnn or fox or wherever. HA! Good Fun!

twice-baked taters is a good start. am original from the midwest so we got family who has no doubt found a way to add gravy and deep fry... probable add a pickle o' some sort as well. not a criticism. am personal a proponent o' the Cheese and Meat school o' cooking. every meal leaving our kitchen needs promote cheese and/or meat with both being the ideal plating solution. bread and sweets is swell and all, and am understanding vegetables and fruits have nutritional value or some such. that said, from our pov, most o' those other "foods" is platforms or vehicles for cheese and/or meat. ... gonna admit we also require garlic. is a handful o' garlic-free recipes in our regular rotation, but those is outliers. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna take "whataboutism" for $800, alex. HA! Good Fun!

am also a fan o' brisket, but am also cheap and brisket has become scary expensive o' late, so we found an alternative. we do not smoke meat too often, but when we do we got the little chief. as an alternative to brisket we use a 4-5lb chunk o' chuck at least 4" thick with as much intermuscular connective tissue as we can find and a fair amount o' internal fat. trim off all the external fat. might be difficult to find such thick cuts o' chuck w/o speaking to your butcher and requesting. regardless, we cook virtual the same way we would brisket with low and slow smoke for hours ('bout 5-6 depending on how long it takes to reach right internal temp o' 'bout 145F.), then wrap in foil (tight) for an additional +3 three hours in a regular oven at 225F. goal is to get to almost fall apart tender, but not quite. is art and not science so is no specific time or internal temp which is gonna enlighten you as to when is actual done. regardless, once we hit almost fork tender, we remove meat from foil and then put back in the oven for another twenty minutes so the surface crust gets dry and sets up a bit. take outta the oven and tent for another twenty minutes before slicing. takes a long time to cook not-brisket this way, but is almost complete hands-off for +90% o' total time. we didn't mention what kinda chips we use for smoke 'cause everybody has their own preference and nobody is right. only seasoning is dalmatian-- salt and pepper. we go heavy on the salt. is 4" cuts, so you want extreme salt and is best to let sit in fridge overnight after seasoning. am too cheap to do brisket nowadays particular when the chuck turns out so great. HA! Good Fun!

short answer "On Sunday, a ruling party member of Serbia’s parliament even tweeted that Serbia may “also be forced to begin the denazification of the Balkans,” invoking the same spurious framing through which Putin justified his invasion of Ukraine." *shrug* sock puppets. HA! Good Fun!

is worth noting 'bout half o' oglala is christian, most o' those is catholic. during and particular after the so-called "indian wars," more than a few o' the christian missionaries, at great personal risk, placed themselves 'tween the US government and native peoples. is also easy to forget just how many US military officers and enlisted men vilified the treatment o' indigenous peoples, and the basis for such vocal rejection o' US policy were typical rooted in the christian beliefs o' those military men. we always hear stories o' massacres and violence, but we rare hear 'bout the ordinary line officers who open criticized President grant and others. the oglala o' the late 1800s were understandably less concerned with the history o' christianity than they were with the actions and behaviour o' those claiming to be christian. elanor is a passionate young woman, and we applaud her efforts, but try and imagine the nineteen year-old criticizing the faith o' black elk and others who converted to catholicism. one o' the great powers o' the young is the ability to see the world in black and white with stark contrasts 'tween right and wrong. the bad guys is often obvious to young people: the government, republicans, the church, boomers. fight with absolute certainty you is right and that the people you are fighting against is bad is a strength and young people has brought 'bout important change in this world 'cause they often/usual fight with absolute certainty they is right... even if they ain't so right as they thought. am not a fan o' organized religion, but am personal reluctant to curse any major faith. most o' us recognize the manifest unfairness o' damning all muslims 'cause o' the actions taken by individuals on 9/11, yes? that would be wrong. am not gonna do same for christians and blame 'em for the many transgressions o' the christian faithful over the centuries. black elk saw wisdom in catholic teachings that he did not believe invalidated his own beliefs. am personal not believing Gromnir is up to the task o' judging black elk or the many other oglala who found value in their earnest held christian faith. *descends from soap box* HA! Good Fun!

Update 1.4.0d BETA is more than a few significant changes. however, am not gonna help test this release-- will wait for the enhanced edition and the post release plague o' bugs which follows. ... might take a quick peek at the dlc scheduled for august 11, but for now am anticipating no new wotr gameplay for us 'til september 29... or maybe a week or so post september 29 as past experience suggests the initial enhanced edition release will be rough. HA! Good Fun!