Archive for 2024

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS…?

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF (SENILE, DEMENTED) HANDS:

STEPHEN GREEN’S POST-SOTU WRAPUP:

Related:

UPDATE: Yep.

IT DOESN’T SEEM TO BE GOING WELL. But the press will tell us it was brilliant, even while commiserating with one another about how bad it really was.

OPEN THREAD: Who am I? Why am I here?

BUT WILL THEY ACTUALLY DO IT? House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told a weaponization subcommittee hearing today that House Republicans will push for reforms to the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 and related laws and regulations to require federal officials to get judicially approved search warrants, consistent with the Fourth Amendment, before getting search data from the private accounts of banks and other financial institutions.

As things presently stand, the Feds don’t have to get search warrants or demonstrate to anybody anything remotely resembling probable cause to justify searching your financial data.

MY CONGRESSMAN COMMENTS:

A friend emails:

You really have to hand to the Israelis here, they’re absolutely maneuvering the United States into doing their will. Third-country postwar responsibility for the Gaza Strip is a major strategic goal for the Israelis, and we’re going to give it to them, in exchange for — well actually pretty much nothing.

The Michigan polling must be terrible.

The gratitude of the people of Gaza for the United States Armed Forces’ humanitarian efforts on their behalf will express itself just as did the gratitude of the people of Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Lebanon when we we made comparable efforts on their behalf: they will take the aid and make strenuous efforts to slaughter as many Americans as they possibly can.

Hey, nobody messes with Joe. Barack Obama said so.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? Desperate Biden Signs off on U.S. Military Building Infrastructure for Hamas.

‘The President will announce that he’s directing the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a port in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water medicine, and temporary shelters,’ a senior administration official said on a briefing call with reporters on Thursday.

‘The planning involves the presence of US military personnel on military vessels offshore but does not require US military personnel to go ashore to install the pier or causeway facility that will allow to the transportation of humanitarian assistance,’ a senior defense official said.

‘We’re not planning for this to be an operation that would require U.S. boots on the ground,’ an official noted.

Pardon my skepticism but do we trust this administration on any “planning” going on by this incompetent lot? Remember the withdrawal from Afghanistan? Since then American bases in the Middle East have been attacked by Iran and its proxies while Joe Biden twiddles his thumbs and goes for ice cream cones.

Exit quote: “This is how desperate Joe Biden is to win the state of Michigan in November. The Uncommitted movement has taken him by surprise and a victory in Michigan is not certain for Biden. It is hard for Biden to win in November without winning Michigan.”

As I said, what could go wrong?

I RAISED THE INSTA-DAUGHTER WELL: She was just telling me how she made homemade mayo with avocado oil, but then added bacon grease at the end for flavor. Genius. Like homemade Baconnaise, but better than the storebought version. Which isn’t bad.

UPDATE: Due to many requests, here’s her recipe:

I fry enough bacon to suit my heart. You want it crispy. Let cool.

Then mix an egg yolk with 1tsp dijon mustard and very slowly add 1/2 cup oil (I use a mild olive). Once it’s thickened, stir in a spoonful or two of bacon grease to taste, chop up and add a couple slices of bacon (I just eat the rest), and voila. Delicious on toast with tomatoes or stirred into pasta salad.

“I just eat the rest.” Did I raise her well, or did I raise her well?

FOUR YEARS AGO WAS OUR LAST NORMAL WEEK, AND NOBODY KNEW IT. Well, some of us had an inkling. I took my seminar out to a bar on the Thursday before spring break, and told them it might be the last time we were all together in one place, which turned out to be true. And Helen and I rented an Airbnb downtown for the weekend for a little getaway. A week later everything was locked down. Fortunately, I had plenty of supplies, and toilet paper.

RIP: Legendary entertainer Steve Lawrence, of Steve and Eydie fame, dies at 88.

Steve Lawrence, a singer and top stage act who kept Tin Pan Alley alive during the rock era as a solo performer and in tandem with his wife Eydie Gorme, died Thursday. He was 88.

Lawrence, whose hits included “Go Away Little Girl,” died from complications due to Alzheimer’s disease, said Susan DuBow, a spokesperson for the family.

Lawrence and Gorme — or Steve & Eydie — were known for their frequent appearances on talk shows, in nightclubs and on the stages of Las Vegas. The duo took inspiration from George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and other songwriters.

He’ll always be Maury Sline to me, though.

MCONNELL OUT, BUT EARMARKS ARE BACK IN, BIG-TIME: More than 6,000 of them with total value of $12.7 billion in the spending bill now before the Senate and passed yesterday by the House. No, $12.7 billion is a tiny portion of a $460 billion spending bill, but, as Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) often said: “Earmarks are the gateway drug for Federal Spending Addiction” among senators and representatives.