Happy Hour

get happy

How Many Scaramuccis

Maybe we can get another firing for my amusement.

Afternoon

busy with some life things

Then Why Did Trump Fire You

Can't say this:

“My gratitude and respect for President Trump and Secretary Rubio remain unwavering. I am proud of what we accomplished together, and I will always be a loyal supporter of President Trump and his mission to Make America Great Again,” Guilfoyle posted on X.

Paired with this:

“I also want to address the recent allegations against me,” the former Fox News on-air personality wrote.

“These allegations are false, and I intend to vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity. I have dedicated my professional life to fighting for justice, standing up for what is right, and defending the values that make America exceptional. I will not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service.”

It's an unimportant sideshow, but as I have said, Trump firing people is one of the few pleasures we get.

End of the Road

I do wonder if she has wingnut welfare tenure, or if she's in a bit of trouble here.

Kimberly Guilfoyle has been asked to step down as US ambassador to Greece, after weeks of reports that she sought payment from a Trump donor in exchange for access to administration officials.

I suppose someone has to make sure she keeps her mouth shut.

Always Thought He Was A Boob Man

Trump on Jon Husted: "I don't do this with men very often. I started examining his body, because I didn't know he was a great athlete ... I looked at his ass"

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 13, 2026 at 12:28 AM

So Much For Abundance

Abundance was basically the Silicon Valley/Big Energy Trojan Horse into the Dems, co-opting the urbanist YIMBY movement of build more housing and transit to build more data centers and trample over any resistance to various energy projects. 

Opposition to it was coded Left (juvenile, silly, ridiculous, Al Gore Is Fat stuff) - the thrust of the Abundance book - even though YIMBYism was a left-leaning grass roots project for decades.

Then rightwingers and normies also started hating the data centers.

Anyhoo, I'm sure all those Dems who, for months, starting saying "abundance" like it was some sort of Hogwarts politics incantation, will reconsider the advice of people who led them into that trap.

As thousands of new data centers have been built to fuel the booming artificial intelligence industry, escalating public resentment against both the energy-sucking infrastructure and AI itself is roiling small towns and suburban communities from coast to coast, a CNN investigation has found.

Police have been called into action to investigate dozens of threats to data centers, from bomb claims etched on bathroom walls to online incitements to “use bullets on city council members” to suggestions that protesters should “unalive” pro-development officials, according to a CNN review of more than 100 police reports filed since last year.

As the article makes clear, there's a push to make opposition an Extremists-On-Both-Sides thing, and of course highlighting the threats-and-violence aspect of opposition, as the article does, helps to do that. But everyone hates these things, often with good reason!

One good reason is, simply, why do these guys get to stampede over local laws when local businesses struggle to get permits for minor things?

President Deals

Doesn't get the concept.

Q: You said Russia and Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire, but both sides said they have not agreed to that TRUMP: Well they agreed, you know why? Because I said 'you agree.' That's why.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 12 October 2026 at 22:05

All Over But The Voting

Not quite, but absent the arrival of a giant alien squid invasion, the path to the November elections is pretty much set. The results aren't predetermined, but while individual campaigns might have some drama, basic campaign messages have been decided and ads have been purchased.

Everybody whose livelihood and reputation depends on the result will start putting in their excuses early, just in case things go a bit wrong. And if things go right, look for the puff pieces about the geniuses who made it happen. I am not even sure who the 2026 "Rahm Emanuel (2006)" is,  but I am sure that someone will step up to take credit, and some journalists will hitch their wagons to him (probably a him, it is usually a him).

Sure that all sounds a bit cynical, because I am a bit cynical about the people who work in politics professionally. The well-meaning dogooders tend to be driven out by the self-serving self-promoters, the ones who always have one eye on the next job, the next payday.

Then the presidential primary begins. Personnel decisions are good early signals.

Up With We Will Not Put

We can debate precisely how this is best communicated, but "we are not going to put up with this shit, we are not going to move on, you fuckers will pay as soon as we are back in power" needs to be understood.

And Where Do They Live

A lot of Americans imagine they are Italian or Irish or whatever, occasionally with some justification, but I am a bit curious about where Trump imagines these Italian-American voters are.

With fuel prices surging and the war with Iran dragging on, President Trump’s popularity has slipped among nearly every demographic group. So on Friday — three days before Columbus Day and less than four weeks before the midterm elections — he made his pitch to Italian Americans.

“As you know, the radical left communists hate Columbus and they want to abolish Columbus Day,” Mr. Trump told a group of several hundred Italian Americans he had gathered in the East Room of the White House.

“These lunatics that are running,” he continued, “they’re all against Christopher Columbus. But I’ll tell you what, we’re going to be here almost two-and-a-half years. He’s going to be so protected, like nobody’s ever been protected before.”

Spoiler: northern Mid-Atlantic and southern New England (mostly).

I suppose there are a few swingy congressional districts in there, but I suspect they are mostly not the 2026 battlegrounds.

 

Gavin's Ex

It's pretty hard to be too corrupt for the Trump administration, though being a woman helps of course (one does not have to see her as a feminist cause to observe this).

President Donald Trump is weighing whether to dismiss Kimberly Guilfoyle from her position as US ambassador to Greece after a string of reports about misconduct, a person familiar with the matter said Sunday.

Trump has been monitoring reports claiming Guilfoyle, who was engaged to Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. for four years, accepted lavish gifts as ambassador and sought money in exchange for providing access to administration figures before she was confirmed.

People say her problem is making it too obvious, getting caught, but these fuckers get caught every day!  Honey badgers of corruption, usually.

Seems Bad

I bet most Republican members of Congress, when asked about this, will claim ignorance and never be asked again.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal agents searched Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home on Monday morning as part of a criminal investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.

The search was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations agents, said the people, who were not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity. More details about the investigation were not immediately clear.

...sure why not.

The ​news outlet reported that the raid followed a criminal fraud investigation ⁠into the Minnesota lawmaker's paperwork, filled out by her late father when she ​was a child.

Morning

Just another...

President Deals

I am starting to think that most of his deals aren't. 

Sunday Afternoon

Weekending

Trickle

Genuinely curious if Trump does or doesn't know that the amount of diesel coming from Russia (supposedly) is small enough to not matter at all, to the US at least. It obviously benefits Russia in various ways.

Also what of our good friend Lindsey Graham? Have we forgotten that titan of US foreign policy already? 

Has a reporter asked his sister about this?

Morning

Sunday funday

Saturday Happy Hour

Get happy

Useful Tools

I'm sure this stuff has some genuine uses, but like a lot of this type of thing, it's much more for messing about on the computer for people who like messing about on the computer than it is actually useful for normal people. And the examples they come up with - the best examples! - are usually pretty bad.

The simplest kind of shortcut is just an action (or a series of actions) that happens when you trigger it. You can add a button to trigger a shortcut on your home screen, in the Control Center, or in the screen that pops up when you share something.

Some of the most helpful shortcuts work across Apple’s apps. For example, you can set an often-used timer or add a line to the end of a specific note in the Notes app without having to open the associated app. Always late? Make a shortcut button on your home screen to text your boss and say that you’re on the way.

The next step up from a shortcut is an automation, which runs automatically when your phone determines that certain conditions are met. You can create an automation to run at a specific time, such as sending a text to a loved one every morning at 9 a.m., or when you change location, such as sending a text when you leave work. There are more than 20 kinds of triggers, including when your phone’s battery level reaches a certain level, when you open a specific app, when you connect to a certain Bluetooth device, when you take a screenshot, or when you connect or disconnect your phone from power.

I'm really not sure which "loved one" is going to appreciate this automated daily text. Pretty sure that's what the block button was invented for.

Even the "automatically text when you leave work" is obviously prone to errors - what if you just pop out for a quick coffee late in the day! - which will annoy everyone involved. Of course you can probably modify it, and then modify it again, and then modify it again, to stop any such possibilities!

As I said, fun for people who like messing about on the computer.

At every stage in technology development, there are always tools and software that promise various "life hacks," and while some of these things get adopted widely and we just stop thinking about them, most of them are just time wasters for people who like wasting time that way.

There's nothing wrong with playing around on the computer, if that is fun for you, but very often these timesaving things are actually time sinks.