Had to pause here to say that _anyone_ who plays guitar and is looking for a nice amp should seriously consider the Carr. I have for the past decade or so owned a Carr Mercury, which is currently on loan to a friend whom I'm sure would vouch for it as well, and I cannot speak more highly of Carr amplifiers or its support.
They are hand-made with point-to-point wiring, solid pine cabinets with dovetail joints, and exceptional workmanship. Truly beautiful amps with phenomenal tone. (I realize that is subjective, but Carrs are widely beloved by those who've owned them.) And the customer service is, in my experience, superlative. I had an issue some years ago with noise in the amp; I reached out to Carr and asked about sending it in for service. They had a tech call me and, over the course of three phone calls and a total of about 45 minutes, help me diagnose and correct the problem (turns out it was a bad tube). I commented on the amount of time he spent with me - at absolutely no cost - and he told me that he prefers to make every effort to diagnose and repair by phone to avoid the expense and risk of shipping an amplifier.
I really cannot speak more highly of Carr amplifiers. Anyone looking for a boutique tube amp owes it to themselves to give this one serious thought.
You know that the project 2025 is just a propaganda ploy, right? Trump has nothing to do with it, and what's actually in it bears no relation to all the propaganda that the dems are releasing?
I mean seriously, after four years of RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA! and 81 Million votes, AND Covid killing a 100 million people, AND the most blatantly inept secret service protection in the history of the service, how in the world can you BELIEVE the project 2025 stuff?
Seriously? How can anyone believe any of that crap from a group of people who have ALWAYS LIED to us?
Despite any evidence? Where have you been? It's been proven in several courts that there WAS rigging. Also, suddenly tens of millions of votes show up after ALL the counting sites are closed at the same time and ALL of the observers are forced out, AT GUNPOINT in some cases?
Dude, there were more votes than registered voters.
It's been proven it was rigged.
It's just that there's NO system in place to deal with that, and once swore in, none of that matters - there are NO penalties for rigging and winning.
Also, most of the GOP is perfectly happy with Joe over Trump, because they get bribes from Joe, but not from Trump.
In good faith, can you please show me some of the evidence? I am legitimately curious because in the past 4 years I haven't come across anything concrete. You (and who ever else) might think mail in voting is bad but that doesn't make it illegal.
You realize that when you say the democrats are lying and everything they said bad about republican agenda is propaganda, the reciprocal is also true and democrats say the same thing about the brainwashing of the right? How can you really be so sure that YOU are right and YOUR version of the facts is the true one? It honestly seems more likely that both sides are just taking advantage of their opportunities
Are you really arguing that this list of authors, who include pretty much everyone who came out of the first Trump administration still on good terms with Trump, are all just engaged in a Dem psyop?
I've read the whole thing myself, because I'm a public policy nerd. It has Schedule F, it has mass deportations, and it has abolishing two cabinet departments. What else are you referring to?
I actually took the time look at the Project 2025 document, though I'm not going to read the entire 900 pages. It's all basic conservative Heritage Foundation stuff and is no more granular in terms of policy proposals than anything put out by left wing think tanks. Nothing really new. Just the latest boogeyman.
Hoping your daughter can have an abortion? That is a summary of what you said except you should keep the less rights singular since abortion is the only issue where the left is for more freedom (in that case to murder). Every other issue they are for less freedom for you, assuming you are an American who is not a chosen minority. Illegals can do what they want. BLM can do what they want. Etc. You/me do that, we go to jail. That is the current democrat platform.
I know almost nothing about the platform 2025 and I know you are wrong. Please actually look into it instead of copy paste from whatever leftist site you visited.
but the problem is that it isnt being used like that
its supposed to be a last ditch effort for emergencies and women decided that it was cool to use it to escape accountability and responsibility instead
Ok, I am pro choice- if a woman becomes pregnant without consenting then I agree she can chose what to do, assuming the attack is real and prosecuted. But come on, that is a tiny percent of abortions. That is not a serious argument.
The comment was essentially Trump is going to take all of women’s freedoms. And you can see where that went. He followed up with his wife or daughter could be raped and need an abortion.
At the Nat'l Black Journalist Assoc. grilling of Trump, he made it very clear that he's a moderate on abortion and that he has no problem with some states having liberal laws and some more strict. I think he referenced 16 weeks, but that's less strict than the 12 weeks most European countries permit.
Regarding the NBJA panel, they were all women. I wonder how that all played with black men, many of whom already have some issues with black women.
Project 2025 appears to be the left equivalent of "you'll own nothing and be happy", in the sense that in both cases the material is out there but has little traction with actual candidates. Trump was fairly unequivocal today regarding his distaste for it.
Correct me if I’m wrong, the piece causing all the pearl-clutching was the forbidden abortion except in exigent circumstances for the mother? (And that might be exaggerating to a degree?)
Perhaps if we didn’t have a party in control of everything (the major media, education, and culture) that didn’t want to “fundamentally transform this country,” vis-a-vis Bereft Insane Osama, we wouldn’t have an equally opposite reaction from the other side?! Who wants to keep government in its lane—you know, “provide for the common defense, ensure domestic tranquility[,] blessings of liberty” that kind of 💩, instead of telling us what kind of cars we can drive, what kind of toilets we can use, who we can worship (or not), or how to raise our kids!
It was my understanding that it was more of a road map, the director resigning seems like a figure head deflection that doesn't have anything to do with the actual implementation of the plan down the road
Trump might not like it but JD vance sure seems in favor of it, even if he tries to distance himself now. And let's be real, if they win, JD is the future direction of the party
I don't know know specifics of p2025, but I'll take Regan ere levels of conservativism over whatever is being decided by the Kamala campaign. She was notoriously one of the most progressive senators.
I was more "classically liberal" but that's just pushed the Overton window so far left that Trump( a Clinton era Democrat) is looked as right wing. Maybe we need a good snap back to Regan era conservativism. Maybe.
he coulda gotten rid of THREE cabinet positions but didn't sign the bill they'd gotten through a democrat congress. also kept the 55 speed limit. i think nancy and her astrologer were getting to him...
The authors include virtually everyone who is likely to have a mid- to high-level position in a second Trump administration. They got too cocky, they thought all of America was with their agenda, they were forthright about what it is, and now they are discovering how much of it is unpalatable to the larger public.
Absolutely! I agree 100%, pay people what it costs. McCain loved illegal immigrants because he didn’t want to pay more for a head of lettuce. I’ll happily pay more to know our economy is sustaining itself and the money is staying here and not going out of the country via western Union.
Was that $39 DVD player from Best Buy worth decimating the middle class?
However...
We can blame the CEOs too, but we did this to ourselves -- through buying cheap crap from WalMart, Target, Amazon, etc. When consumers made it clear that low price was paramount, the corporations did what the needed to do to make money.
Well, we’re eating less, at least fast food! $5 for a single Big Mac! (Edit: $5.50 minimum in Toledo, OH.)
We need to get back to the distinction of the types of jobs for which a “living wage” is justified.
Fast food was never supposed to be something you’d do for life unless you went into store management or operated a franchise. So why are we trying to do so now? You’re squeezing the juice at both ends by having to charge so much for your product that you lose revenue. Which means you can’t keep your employees! Or franchise! Vicious cycle!
It would be a boon to the citizens of the country, whom we should be foremost concerned with, and cost effects for things like farming are smaller than you imagine. Something like $.10 per lettuce head if I remember that one right.
I made a similar comment, lol. The ol’ John McCain line of “no one wants to pay more for a head of lettuce” so let’s let anyone in who wants to walk across the border.
I hope RF made a decent chuck of change from TTAC. It was a great site along with TTAG and the short lived TTAW.
My wife and I recently met our son and his friends at a bar in Boston and as we were leaving a group of girls (mid 20s) were dancing to “Let’s hear it for the boy”. We did the math like JB (re his son’s camp) did and concluded we wanted nothing to do with music from the 1950s.
I do this, i.e. calculate dates, with my kids listening to the radio in the car. There was an ad for "The Voice" with four people (hosts?) singing "Standing in the Shadows of Love" (Four Tops, 1966). The only person I recognized was Snoop (53 years old, first hit 32 years ago). And what the hell is the appeal of Neil Diamond?
A few years ago, I, who lives within earshot of our local high-school football team’s home venue, heard “Sweet Caroline,” with all of the extra crowd additions (“so good” x3, etc,) being sung during halftime after the band performed! I’ve done the same thing, especially after a few too many, and will to this day, even when stone sober!
I’ve always liked Neil Diamond, along with Billy Joel (whose semi-annual channel’s Sirius/XM run sadly comes to an end with the turn of the calendar to midnight in the Pacific Daylight Time Zone); the exception is when Neil tries to sing any Christmas songs, ESPECIALLY “Little Drummer Boy!”
OTOH, I’ve read a couple things on radio industry sites (after having Googled a topic) that indicate that instead of the “Oldies” genre passing to the ‘80s (as has happened to the Toledo radio station WRQN (93.5), whose claim to infamy was playing The Kingsmen’s “Louie, Louie” for an entire weekend back in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s during their much-hated-at-the-time switch from Top-40 to Oldies format, and much to my current chagrin, since their morning DJ, Denny Schaffer, who came back to Toledo fifteen years ago after a decade away to Toledo’s Cumulus AC affiliate, then switched from there to the now-Cumulus WRQN, and me having to listen to him on the “Oldies” channel), there’s an entirely new “‘80s Oldies” format! 🤢 IOW, they’re keeping what we Gen-Xers know as “Oldies” around on some stations, but you mean to tell me that OUR stuff has staying power??!!
Is this going to be a passing fad like the “Beautiful Music” format?! Regardless, there’s stuff like Phil Collins, Duran Duran, or Modern English, which is OK, but there’s a wide range of the crap we Gen-Xers grew of age pumping into our Walkmans that should be kept in the dustbin of history (and which I had deservedly repressed), but yet is going to be kept alive after WE start to kick over??!! (Anything by Paula Abdul or “Pebbles” comes to mind!)
I only recall a decade-long period when WRQN featured a lot of ‘70s hits in their playlists. Some of that, which has migrated to the so-called “Yacht Rock” format, is better than some of the 1980s trash! Will the ‘90s stuff get its own format, or will the popular, Top-40 stuff get combined with the 2000s-2020s, a-la Sirius/XM “Pop Rocks,” my go-to if I don’t have their rightie “Patriot” channel on? My guess is “no,” since a lot of the stuff from the 1990s on is generic [c]rap!
Neil Diamond was working as songwriter in Manhattan when Ellie Greenwich was hired to sing backup on a demo he was recording. She and her writing partner and ex-husband Jeff Barry (they wrote Do Do Run Run, most of the Crystals and Ronettes hits, and River Deep Mountain High) signed him to a 50/50 publishing deal and introduced him to Bert Berns who signed Diamond to his first record contract at Bang Records. It was Berns who changed Diamond's Latin flavored "Money Money" into Cherry Cherry and got Diamond on the charts. In time Diamond chafed against Bern's commercial tastes and his lawyers figured out how to break the contracts with his publishing partners and with Berns.
Source: Here Comes The Night by Joel Selvin (Berns also discovered Van Morrison).
The kids should play music they like. I went through a few guitar teachers until so found one who would teach me stuff I wanted to play. It’s supposed to be fun. Plus how are they going to get girls playing oldies?
i hate seeing lewis win and george robbed but mostly the former
another thing im sick of is the constant shitting on of whites by others who benefit from white inventions and cultures
also if the kids were able to pick literally anything they wanted to play what do you suppose theyd choose because i cant help but think it wouldnt be all that far off of what theyre being told to do
"The coin is flipped towards whatever side is most expedient at the moment"
This, of course, doesn't just characterize the Doublethink of identity politics... this characterizes everything - from "news" to social media to entertainment to sports to advertising - that shapes and steers the progressive american* worldview. For that "significant portion" of the readers here who intend to vote for Harris (and if you intend to Make America California Always, then MACA you absolutely should...), I'll only probe this one point into your progressive worldview force field: who is really in a political cult? Is it really the MAGA tribe? In TEN DAYS, Harris has gone from the irrelevance of the political shadow of Biden to the presumptive Party nominee, whose noble purpose is to "save democracy". The media is behind her, the federal bureaucracy is behind her, the celebrities are behind her, the activist organizers are behind her, the global political class is behind her... she has raised a quarter of a billion dollars, her campaign's ground game is in every YouTube ad, she's already hosting rallies as packed as Trump's... all without winning a single presidential primary. Ever.
Man, you are so completely delusional at this point, it's sort of not worth my time getting into it... but I'll see if you can perhaps latch onto this reality test:
Since you're such a fan of democracy, I'm assuming that means you believe leaders should be chosen by voters... So the reality check is, how many people voted for Trump to be his party's nominee, and how many people voted for Harris to be her party's nominee?
Presidential primaries are a relatively recent invention. The primary system as we know it only dates back fifty years or so. One hundred years ago, candidates would be chosen in a smoke filled room by party leaders or state caucuses. About 150 years ago it was congress that would choose their party's nominee.
As far as I'm concerned, we 'R's shouldn't get too worked up about how the 'D's picked their candidate -- this is their problem, not ours.
...here's the "coin flip", the American Left Doublethink hoping they can deflect to the most convenient narrative for the Democratic Party. Notice Alan can complain about Trump not being sufficiently democratic even as he excuses why the Democratic Party doesn't need to be democratic in literally the exact same contest... notice the face-planting own goal:
"...his general disposition that the primary process shouldn’t apply to him because he was leading in the polls"
Imagine the mental gymnastics required to write that, considering Harris completely bypassed the primary process and has never once led a poll...
As usual, the average Democratic Party voter is fully brainwashed... their idea of "democracy" is whatever process or mechanism puts their party in power.
Firstly, 'serious challengers'? Vivek and Nimrata? The only votes going to them in the primary would be from Democrats crossdressing as Republicans as spoilers. The would be assassin Crook himself was a registered Republican. Or maybe pearl clutching boomers.
Frankly, the DNC can do what it wants for all I care. Duking it out at the convention would have at least been honest and above board rather than this crooked behind the scenes after hours kingmaking. I do take issue with them making up rules as they go along and then enforcing them on the opposition.
She is backed by the same people who, eleven days ago, would have thrown you in a dungeon for even suggesting that Biden was maybe, possibly, not healthy enough to run for office. A day later they are throwing Biden in the proverbial nursing home and crowing “we told you that guy was no good, he can’t do the job!”
Man, I wish that someone was stupid enough to not realize the XB-70 was a dead end, and a lousy weapons platform, and actually put it in production. Yes, they would have been widow makers in combat, but I just can’t imagine how great they would have looked and sounded in the air. I saw the Concorde and the Vulcan at low altitude many times, and they were literally awe inspiring. How amazing would the B-70 have been? Even seeing it in its hanger in Ohio is great, but it’s just not the same.
Robert McNamara killed the B-70 singlehandedly with a personal vendetta's worth of animus. I can't see it being any less useful during the Cold War than the lower-function B-1.
The stretched passenger SST version proposed by NAA was absolutely bonkers and should have been made.
"The course of the 20th Century would have been smoother, if the first Atomic Bomb used in anger had been dropped on Harvard Yard, rather than on Hiroshima."
McNamara ordered that draftee standards be lowered so he could draft learning-disabled young men and send them to Vietnam. Where they often couldn't handle the basics of the job and ended up dead.
McNamara did that War Crime in order to try to save the Democratic Party from the backlash, if the College Deferment were to be eliminated. Pure class-based discrimination. The Founders wept.
Insiders called the Project "McNamara's Morons." They died at 300% the rate of other draftees.
Remember, though, we didn’t get the original high speed/high altitude B1A, but rather the stealthier, low speed/low altitude B1B. At the time, the speed to stealth trade off was view as a good change. The B-70 would have been a worse low altitude bomber then either the B1B or the B52. It would have had the payload of the B52, with no more low altitude speed and a lot less range. All for a lot more money.
And, was there anything after the war that McNamara didn’t screw up? The world’s highest IQ moron?
Ah yes, Good ole' McNamara whose policies personally killed thousands of soldiers because he was a complete dumbass and had no idea what the fuck he was doing.
Not because of Fast Plane Reasons, but the image of Robert McNamara burning hell alongside his good friends Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon are why I continue to choose to believe in a higher power.
You should read Disaster in Dearborn, the story of the Edsel. The Whiz Kids didn't save Ford, it was men hired away from GM, and the only good idea that McNamara ever had was suggesting a Thunderbird concept be turned into what became the '61 Continental - primarily because the T-Bird and Contin were both built at Wixom and shared hard points would save money. It was McNamara who killed the Edsel, literally as it was being launched. Ford's reputation as a political jungle had its roots in McNamara's days.
I contend a navalized next generation B1, without variable geometry wings and with some super cruise abilities like a B-70 or TU-160 would be a fantastic missile truck in a conflict with China.
Well Hell! When I saw Tuesday in the contest details I thought it meant last night. Guess I'll be listening to my Sam's Club soundbar a bit longer.
If Kamala will dress like the chick on the left on the new cover of National Lampoon with Mdm. Vice President perched on a coconut she'll get my vote. Imagine her negotiating with whoever's in charge over at Hamas now.
Think I'll download some Vulfpeck on the Tidal now and jam that while on the two runs I'm doing tomorrow with Miatas at the Gap. You and DG should risk a scratch on that orange Anniversary Edition and come down.
Speaking of Miatas, I renewed at the Platinum Level this time around to get Jack to help me with my comfort level with mine. In my FiST I felt very confident when driving with a little enthusiasm but not so much in the ND2. Listening to one of Sam Smith's podcasts he discussed most drivers drive with the front tires or the rears but only the best race all four so I thought perhaps I needed help understanding rear wheel drive.
Well before I came down to NC I had the ND2 aligned to Flyin' Miatas recommended settings and that fixed everything. The Dragon this week has been an absolute joy. If you've got an ND I can't recommend it highly enough.
The bit about more Fusions and Tauruses bringing Ford back to profitability made me chuckle. Mind you they were great cars. Class-leading in the case of the final generation Fusion, but I was in the Ford business when they were new. With the exception of the Plug-In Hybrids they all sold with massive discounts and were usually barely more than mini deals. That made them the best deal going in new sedans, but financially they were middling for the company.
And as an aside we sold every Super Duty truck we could get our paws on. At a great profit.
If nothing else, the Fusions were something that could be found in a rental lot, which still generated some revenue for Ford.
What will you find now for an actual CAR in a rental lot? Camry, Corolla, the two Hyundais and Kias, and the Nissan Versa. (Edit: forgot the VW Jetta and the Sentra.) These are mainstream “mid-size” class or “full-size” class sedans! Road warriors who are often found in the Emerald Aisle, have the sedan classes at the major rental agencies always described cars a class below? To wit: a Camry is a mid-size, not a Corolla, a Sonata, not an Elantra. A Jetta and Sentra would be compacts, not mid-sizers, as Enterprise seems to indicate. A Versa isn’t a compact either; that always seems to be the lowest tier, along with the Mitsubishi Mirage. (Are they still making the latter?) I’ve not seen Subarus offered at rental agencies—are they around in few numbers like Hondas, or does Subaru do mass fleet sales to the EnterHertzNationalBudgets of the world?
That one is going away, at least if I’ve heard right.
However, it seems like the rental companies are really milking every last mile out of every vehicle, so some of the most recent lame ducks (or dead cars driving) might hang around until they approach “hooptie” status around the rental lots!
I didn't check what year it was, but seemed in good shape. They were a family of 4, one kid still in a booster, and they did about 750 miles during the visit with no complaints.
I rented a Subaru Legacy sedan in Providence, RI from National back in 2012 and drove it to Northern New Jersey but I don't know how they acquired it. It was a fairly base model but current model year with low miles, not like many of today's beat up high mileage rental cars.
Either earlier that year or the year before I rented a Saab 9-5--new body style--from National in Detroit. I figured that might be my only chance ever to drive one and so far that turned out to be correct.
I am excited for him. I have a very high opinion of Vowles, I see a little Ross Brawn in him. I think there is potential next season for Williams to become everyone's second favorite F1 team a la Minardi or Super Aguri.
For 2026 if they have their aero department on point by this January it is anyone's game. Best choice for Sainz.
He also can get out in two years if the whole thing implodes.
Unless he gets dismantled by Albon (unlikely), he will be in the frame for desirable seats for 2027 and beyond once the pecking order for 2026+ is established. In fact, if they perform at a similar level, they will both be in the frame. There will be a number of seats available for 2027, as several of the old(er) drivers will have aged out by then.
I was going to disagree with my fellow Gen X-er about playing 1955 music, but then I looked at the Billboard top 30. Blech. I was thinking Sun Records rockabilly is 1955 music, but none of that charted.
If you asked people today to name the most-popular female vocalist of 1955, 1956, or 1957, many would guess Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, or Jo Stafford. However, according to Billboard magazine, for all three years, it was Julie London.
What was Julie's Winning Formula?
"Be a pretty White chick with a truly AMAZING rack."
That said... she was a natural talent, and, it seems, her own worst critic.
Hah! My favorite jazz vocalist is Carmen McCrae. At her peak, her voice control up and down the range, sometimes on an individual syllable, was incredible.
My boomer friend that has a guitar music show on the community radio station plays her jazz standards stuff occasionally because of the session cats that played on them.
Can we be honest? No one thought Kamala was smart two weeks ago, so let’s all agree she is still stupid. Who wants to vote for that? I guess it is better than senile, but not much. I’m on record here that I don’t like Trump, but his policies are (in my opinion) better than those of whoever is in charge on the left.
You DO kind of have to laugh at the Indian/Jamaican slaver descendant being sold as "a Black woman". As with white/Kenyan Obama, there's no actual Black American in her.
Scanning news headlines Trump waded into this today. I’m sure he’ll find a way to offend every potential swing voter in his special way of doing things, even though his point is probably legit.
The man sure can shove his own two feet so far down his fucking mouth like no one I've ever really seen. There are sometimes faint glimmers of things I don't necessarily disagree with with Trump, but it all gets swallowed up by him being the single largest egotistical, blowhard, piece of shit to grace the scene in a very long time. He is singularly unlikable as a person and a politician.
Sorry, but I disagree. Watch him and Bryson Dechambeau play golf. Most human I've seen the man. At the same time, he's no different than any 70's to 80's New Yorker I've ran into.
I don't care about how a man talks or even behaves. Can he/she run the country?
If you can try (I realize this may be tough to approach if you’re coning at it from the left, I get it) but if you can try to take it as absurdist comedy the guy is often legitimately funny.
In my discussions with friends, I’ve found that most of my friends who think he’s an insane blowhard haven’t watched a full (lengthy!) rally speech and given themselves permission to laugh
I get that there are people who will never find him funny but I wonder what the breakdown is.
Society and culture are stuck in amber now. With so many avenues for expression, there can be no broad based evolution of culture. There is no Led Zeppelin to displace the Beatles, there is no Alice in Chains to displace punk. Music’s final evolution is Taylor Swift, stepping on your face forever, at least from a popularity standpoint. That being said, there are a plethora of subcultures you can fully immerse yourself in, to the exclusion of all others. We really are all watching different movies. Won’t we be surprised when it all comes crashing down.
It's possible enough music has been recorded and we don't need anything new.
Untill a few years ago the only Gordon Lightfoot I had ever heard was Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, then YouTube music introduced me to more. Same story for a lot or artists from the last 60 years. I listen to a lot less Pearl Jam and Springsteen now because of it (although obviously I haven't stopped enjoying those artists as well)
This meshes well with my belief that “All the best cars have already been made”.
Easy to say, all the best jazz has already been made, all the best rock has already been made, all the best classical music has already been made…….and so on and so on.
Was any great art made in the late stage Roman Empire?
Is one of the most trenchant observations anyone has made on this board or any similar board. It’s very sad. Because a lot of those best cars have a shelf life. What of those of us who wanted to buy an S580 in 2028?
That said, find me in Thomas Hank’s garage in 2033, attempting to LS swap a non-running e63 (if not already in gulag)
If you like Lightfoot, may I recommend Mickey Newbury?
He's the only songwriter ever to to have Top 5 songs on FOUR different Billboard charts at once. His album "Lulled by the Moonlight" is as good an intro as there is.
Much like I'm wondering why there are so many new children's books each year? It's not like they go bad? Aren't there enough already? If you have Hansel & Gretl, Snow White, Goldilocks, Rapunzel, do you really need another kids book?
If you can figure out a way to include Mommy's new LGBTQ+~ polycule, I'm sure that the blue haired childless weirdos at the American Library Association will recommend it to outrage the normies.
The best bands today all have like fewer than six figure followers on Spotify.
There’s SO MANY good bands too. Just none of them will ever really be crazy successful because, as you say, music has evolved directly into Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and for reasons I don’t quite understand mumble rap.
Idk. Whatever. Go listen to Liquid Mike’s last two albums and enjoy some great, new music from a great little band.
There’s alot of great stuff to uncover. Khurangbin (if you’re a dirty hippie like me), the Ohsees, Tif Ginn has some great live versions of Getaway Car, Anna Tivel is great too if you’re into girl folk acts.
If you're a dirty hippie, you might enjoy this, though it is almost 50 years old. I was playing The Closing of Winterland DVD and was struck by how a song could be delicate and majestic at the same time. Like Sly said, "It might be old fashioned but it is not a fashion in the first place, it is a feeling, and if it was good in the past it is still good." I particularly like Keith Godchaux's piano on it.
Say what you want about record moguls from the 50's and 60's, but they were the gatekeepers for talent. Because of the enormous costs of production and distribution, only the best acts got any airtime.
Now any idiot with a Macbook can upload his latest "creation" to iTunes regardless of whether it has any merit. And the signal-to-noise ratio has plummeted.
It was also a very dirty business. I recommend Here Comes The Night by Joel Selvin, mostly about Bert Berns but a pretty good look at the pop music biz from the late '50s until the hippies took over.
Sade is one of the last genuinely talented female singers to come along.
Here is a powerful and damn sexy performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert. This is a song you would expect to hear in a jazz club, but she somehow makes it work in a stadium! And the live vocal performance matches the powerful studio version. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bFgv8Jq4xN0
She is also very shrewd. For her recording contract, she did not take all the money upfront they wanted to throw at her, she took a high percentage of the royalties instead, which is very unusual. Made her rich right from the first album.
I'm not going to go back and check but I believe you had almost the exact same complaint with John's band camp last year. Why do the same thing and expect different results?
Had to pause here to say that _anyone_ who plays guitar and is looking for a nice amp should seriously consider the Carr. I have for the past decade or so owned a Carr Mercury, which is currently on loan to a friend whom I'm sure would vouch for it as well, and I cannot speak more highly of Carr amplifiers or its support.
They are hand-made with point-to-point wiring, solid pine cabinets with dovetail joints, and exceptional workmanship. Truly beautiful amps with phenomenal tone. (I realize that is subjective, but Carrs are widely beloved by those who've owned them.) And the customer service is, in my experience, superlative. I had an issue some years ago with noise in the amp; I reached out to Carr and asked about sending it in for service. They had a tech call me and, over the course of three phone calls and a total of about 45 minutes, help me diagnose and correct the problem (turns out it was a bad tube). I commented on the amount of time he spent with me - at absolutely no cost - and he told me that he prefers to make every effort to diagnose and repair by phone to avoid the expense and risk of shipping an amplifier.
I really cannot speak more highly of Carr amplifiers. Anyone looking for a boutique tube amp owes it to themselves to give this one serious thought.
You know that the project 2025 is just a propaganda ploy, right? Trump has nothing to do with it, and what's actually in it bears no relation to all the propaganda that the dems are releasing?
I mean seriously, after four years of RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA! and 81 Million votes, AND Covid killing a 100 million people, AND the most blatantly inept secret service protection in the history of the service, how in the world can you BELIEVE the project 2025 stuff?
Seriously? How can anyone believe any of that crap from a group of people who have ALWAYS LIED to us?
Biden campaigning from his basement got more votes than Obama. That’s all the evidence I need.
Despite any evidence? Where have you been? It's been proven in several courts that there WAS rigging. Also, suddenly tens of millions of votes show up after ALL the counting sites are closed at the same time and ALL of the observers are forced out, AT GUNPOINT in some cases?
Dude, there were more votes than registered voters.
It's been proven it was rigged.
It's just that there's NO system in place to deal with that, and once swore in, none of that matters - there are NO penalties for rigging and winning.
Also, most of the GOP is perfectly happy with Joe over Trump, because they get bribes from Joe, but not from Trump.
Rigged like an 18th Century schooner.
In good faith, can you please show me some of the evidence? I am legitimately curious because in the past 4 years I haven't come across anything concrete. You (and who ever else) might think mail in voting is bad but that doesn't make it illegal.
You realize that when you say the democrats are lying and everything they said bad about republican agenda is propaganda, the reciprocal is also true and democrats say the same thing about the brainwashing of the right? How can you really be so sure that YOU are right and YOUR version of the facts is the true one? It honestly seems more likely that both sides are just taking advantage of their opportunities
John's gone woke. He said Dude.
"It's been proven in several courts that there WAS rigging." Citations, please.
"Dude, there were more votes than registered voters."
Sir, we address each other as sir or man here. Wipe the dude off. So. To. Speak.
Are you really arguing that this list of authors, who include pretty much everyone who came out of the first Trump administration still on good terms with Trump, are all just engaged in a Dem psyop?
See starting page xv https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
All of the stuff the dems are saying in there, ISN'T. Also, Trump has nothing to do with it. But no one wants to read it because it's boring and huge.
Well, almost no one. I know someone who has, and has gone through and pointed out all of the bullshit.
Look, Democrats lie. About everything. At this point if you're believing anything they say, you're gullible.
I've read the whole thing myself, because I'm a public policy nerd. It has Schedule F, it has mass deportations, and it has abolishing two cabinet departments. What else are you referring to?
I actually took the time look at the Project 2025 document, though I'm not going to read the entire 900 pages. It's all basic conservative Heritage Foundation stuff and is no more granular in terms of policy proposals than anything put out by left wing think tanks. Nothing really new. Just the latest boogeyman.
Hoping your daughter can have an abortion? That is a summary of what you said except you should keep the less rights singular since abortion is the only issue where the left is for more freedom (in that case to murder). Every other issue they are for less freedom for you, assuming you are an American who is not a chosen minority. Illegals can do what they want. BLM can do what they want. Etc. You/me do that, we go to jail. That is the current democrat platform.
I know almost nothing about the platform 2025 and I know you are wrong. Please actually look into it instead of copy paste from whatever leftist site you visited.
but the problem is that it isnt being used like that
its supposed to be a last ditch effort for emergencies and women decided that it was cool to use it to escape accountability and responsibility instead
I'd believe the pro life argument was in good faith a lot more if it didn't boil down to "gotta punish the sluts" quite so often.
Really ? how many women so you personally know who did this ? .
I thought so ~ mindlessly repeating the alt-right lies doesn't show you to be very clever nor smart .
-Nate
Ok, I am pro choice- if a woman becomes pregnant without consenting then I agree she can chose what to do, assuming the attack is real and prosecuted. But come on, that is a tiny percent of abortions. That is not a serious argument.
a fraction of a percent if i remember correctly
building a policy on a incredibly small outlier is a terrible idea
Someone pulled the dirty delete. Do you recall what it said? Looks like I missed something interesting.
The comment was essentially Trump is going to take all of women’s freedoms. And you can see where that went. He followed up with his wife or daughter could be raped and need an abortion.
I wish he hadn't deleted the comments. I think he was coming from a place of good faith and serious belief.
At the Nat'l Black Journalist Assoc. grilling of Trump, he made it very clear that he's a moderate on abortion and that he has no problem with some states having liberal laws and some more strict. I think he referenced 16 weeks, but that's less strict than the 12 weeks most European countries permit.
Regarding the NBJA panel, they were all women. I wonder how that all played with black men, many of whom already have some issues with black women.
So they are democrats supporting the democrat party nominee then?
Being against abortion isn't a new thing for the republican party. It was part of the platform starting in 1976, not something Trump devised.
I'm not sure what is in P2025, but I'd be surprised if it different than things the heritage foundation has been doing for decades.
P 2025 is warmed over Reagan era GOP platform apparently:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-146549204
Project 2025 appears to be the left equivalent of "you'll own nothing and be happy", in the sense that in both cases the material is out there but has little traction with actual candidates. Trump was fairly unequivocal today regarding his distaste for it.
yaaaay!!
Correct me if I’m wrong, the piece causing all the pearl-clutching was the forbidden abortion except in exigent circumstances for the mother? (And that might be exaggerating to a degree?)
Perhaps if we didn’t have a party in control of everything (the major media, education, and culture) that didn’t want to “fundamentally transform this country,” vis-a-vis Bereft Insane Osama, we wouldn’t have an equally opposite reaction from the other side?! Who wants to keep government in its lane—you know, “provide for the common defense, ensure domestic tranquility[,] blessings of liberty” that kind of 💩, instead of telling us what kind of cars we can drive, what kind of toilets we can use, who we can worship (or not), or how to raise our kids!
Project 2025 is dead. The Director of that nonsense resigned yesterday.
It was my understanding that it was more of a road map, the director resigning seems like a figure head deflection that doesn't have anything to do with the actual implementation of the plan down the road
Untrue ~
project 2025 is easily found and read, it's a major plank if every gop candidate's platform .
Because it goes against what most Americans want they of course _LIE_ about it .
pretending you don't know or refusing to read and learn doesn't make your lies acceptable, it makes you show how weak and insecure you are .
Al this bullshit makes it very hard for actual Conservatives like my self to get along .
I am _not_ a democrat, I vote across party lines whenever there's a better candidate .
-Nate
As I wrote on here on Sunday after discussing Project 2025 with a Heritage Foundation employee, it’s “a nothingburger.”
Trump might not like it but JD vance sure seems in favor of it, even if he tries to distance himself now. And let's be real, if they win, JD is the future direction of the party
Oh didn't mean this cycle but 2028 and beyond
I don't know know specifics of p2025, but I'll take Regan ere levels of conservativism over whatever is being decided by the Kamala campaign. She was notoriously one of the most progressive senators.
I was more "classically liberal" but that's just pushed the Overton window so far left that Trump( a Clinton era Democrat) is looked as right wing. Maybe we need a good snap back to Regan era conservativism. Maybe.
he coulda gotten rid of THREE cabinet positions but didn't sign the bill they'd gotten through a democrat congress. also kept the 55 speed limit. i think nancy and her astrologer were getting to him...
Which positions? I’d assume Education is one.
Project 2025 is a neocon thinktank wishlist and belongs on the bottom of a birdcage.
The authors include virtually everyone who is likely to have a mid- to high-level position in a second Trump administration. They got too cocky, they thought all of America was with their agenda, they were forthright about what it is, and now they are discovering how much of it is unpalatable to the larger public.
Killing a poison pill bill isn't really a loss.
Anyway we should deport about 20 million people in what I term, "Project It's a Start."
The price of unskilled labor will rise dramatically for sure. Which is the literal best thing we could do for Black America.
I am willing to pay more and own less to put unskilled Americans to work.
bet this would also do a hell of a lot for young and white americans too as those entry level jobs open up
Absolutely! I agree 100%, pay people what it costs. McCain loved illegal immigrants because he didn’t want to pay more for a head of lettuce. I’ll happily pay more to know our economy is sustaining itself and the money is staying here and not going out of the country via western Union.
I would rather be the most destitute member of a Good & Functional civilization than livin' large in a Rio de Janiero-style human landfill.
Me too.
Was that $39 DVD player from Best Buy worth decimating the middle class?
However...
We can blame the CEOs too, but we did this to ourselves -- through buying cheap crap from WalMart, Target, Amazon, etc. When consumers made it clear that low price was paramount, the corporations did what the needed to do to make money.
Well, we’re eating less, at least fast food! $5 for a single Big Mac! (Edit: $5.50 minimum in Toledo, OH.)
We need to get back to the distinction of the types of jobs for which a “living wage” is justified.
Fast food was never supposed to be something you’d do for life unless you went into store management or operated a franchise. So why are we trying to do so now? You’re squeezing the juice at both ends by having to charge so much for your product that you lose revenue. Which means you can’t keep your employees! Or franchise! Vicious cycle!
oh no the contractors that prop up illegal aliens might go under
who else could they possibly hire instead
almost makes you wish real americans existed
IKR!
Yes I am familiar with market economics.
It would be a boon to the citizens of the country, whom we should be foremost concerned with, and cost effects for things like farming are smaller than you imagine. Something like $.10 per lettuce head if I remember that one right.
I made a similar comment, lol. The ol’ John McCain line of “no one wants to pay more for a head of lettuce” so let’s let anyone in who wants to walk across the border.
See, I figure that after Us Normals win the American Restoration, we're gonna have to deport about a hundred million people, including:
1 - All illegal aliens AND their families (Hey, I'm not about to break up any families, here).
2 - All H1B visa holders.
3 - All convicted felons serving life or Death Row sentences for violent crimes.
4 - All elected Democrats - city, county, state, Federal - doesn't matter.
5 - All Federal Deep Staters.
6 - All those people who hate America but won't leave under their own power.
Please feel free to add to this list. I know I missed a few groups.
people who chew with their mouth open
people who walk slowly on the sidewalk and hold everyone up
people who enter the highway at 20 under and barely accelerate to merge
Ooh, that's good!
people who drive 10+ under the limit in the car pool lane (yes, thats every friggin Subaru in Seattle!)
I like that last one, @Speed! 😂
And point # 6 above: who promised after 2016 they’d GTFO! I’ll help them pack!
Send them to, hmmmm!! Venezuela?! Iran?!
Adults who say "Poop" or "Poo" instead of shit.
what a breath of fresh air!
"There’s also something to be said for matching the quality of your product to your reader"
Some feelings of irony when reading this sentence.
My readers are the best! And brightest!
Haha I see the dramattac irony
Nicely done! (::Golf clap!!::)
The Roberts would be proud (Farago and McNamara)
baruths brainlets
I hope RF made a decent chuck of change from TTAC. It was a great site along with TTAG and the short lived TTAW.
My wife and I recently met our son and his friends at a bar in Boston and as we were leaving a group of girls (mid 20s) were dancing to “Let’s hear it for the boy”. We did the math like JB (re his son’s camp) did and concluded we wanted nothing to do with music from the 1950s.
I do this, i.e. calculate dates, with my kids listening to the radio in the car. There was an ad for "The Voice" with four people (hosts?) singing "Standing in the Shadows of Love" (Four Tops, 1966). The only person I recognized was Snoop (53 years old, first hit 32 years ago). And what the hell is the appeal of Neil Diamond?
Dave Barry said he had a graven image of Neil Diamond, and prayed to it daily.
Neil Diamond is great, he's a Jewish Wagner, he taps into that orchestral power and rides it towards glory.
Good music like good art, is timeless .
-Nate
A few years ago, I, who lives within earshot of our local high-school football team’s home venue, heard “Sweet Caroline,” with all of the extra crowd additions (“so good” x3, etc,) being sung during halftime after the band performed! I’ve done the same thing, especially after a few too many, and will to this day, even when stone sober!
I’ve always liked Neil Diamond, along with Billy Joel (whose semi-annual channel’s Sirius/XM run sadly comes to an end with the turn of the calendar to midnight in the Pacific Daylight Time Zone); the exception is when Neil tries to sing any Christmas songs, ESPECIALLY “Little Drummer Boy!”
OTOH, I’ve read a couple things on radio industry sites (after having Googled a topic) that indicate that instead of the “Oldies” genre passing to the ‘80s (as has happened to the Toledo radio station WRQN (93.5), whose claim to infamy was playing The Kingsmen’s “Louie, Louie” for an entire weekend back in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s during their much-hated-at-the-time switch from Top-40 to Oldies format, and much to my current chagrin, since their morning DJ, Denny Schaffer, who came back to Toledo fifteen years ago after a decade away to Toledo’s Cumulus AC affiliate, then switched from there to the now-Cumulus WRQN, and me having to listen to him on the “Oldies” channel), there’s an entirely new “‘80s Oldies” format! 🤢 IOW, they’re keeping what we Gen-Xers know as “Oldies” around on some stations, but you mean to tell me that OUR stuff has staying power??!!
Is this going to be a passing fad like the “Beautiful Music” format?! Regardless, there’s stuff like Phil Collins, Duran Duran, or Modern English, which is OK, but there’s a wide range of the crap we Gen-Xers grew of age pumping into our Walkmans that should be kept in the dustbin of history (and which I had deservedly repressed), but yet is going to be kept alive after WE start to kick over??!! (Anything by Paula Abdul or “Pebbles” comes to mind!)
I only recall a decade-long period when WRQN featured a lot of ‘70s hits in their playlists. Some of that, which has migrated to the so-called “Yacht Rock” format, is better than some of the 1980s trash! Will the ‘90s stuff get its own format, or will the popular, Top-40 stuff get combined with the 2000s-2020s, a-la Sirius/XM “Pop Rocks,” my go-to if I don’t have their rightie “Patriot” channel on? My guess is “no,” since a lot of the stuff from the 1990s on is generic [c]rap!
Neil Diamond was working as songwriter in Manhattan when Ellie Greenwich was hired to sing backup on a demo he was recording. She and her writing partner and ex-husband Jeff Barry (they wrote Do Do Run Run, most of the Crystals and Ronettes hits, and River Deep Mountain High) signed him to a 50/50 publishing deal and introduced him to Bert Berns who signed Diamond to his first record contract at Bang Records. It was Berns who changed Diamond's Latin flavored "Money Money" into Cherry Cherry and got Diamond on the charts. In time Diamond chafed against Bern's commercial tastes and his lawyers figured out how to break the contracts with his publishing partners and with Berns.
Source: Here Comes The Night by Joel Selvin (Berns also discovered Van Morrison).
Ronnie, has anyone ever wished to do a Vulcan mind meld on you? You are a priceless treasure trove of all things! 😎👍
Hey Ronnie - do you have any stories about Ed Chalpin, who contracted Jimi Hendrix, by any chance? Thanks!
Neil be Cracklin’
The kids should play music they like. I went through a few guitar teachers until so found one who would teach me stuff I wanted to play. It’s supposed to be fun. Plus how are they going to get girls playing oldies?
i hate seeing lewis win and george robbed but mostly the former
another thing im sick of is the constant shitting on of whites by others who benefit from white inventions and cultures
also if the kids were able to pick literally anything they wanted to play what do you suppose theyd choose because i cant help but think it wouldnt be all that far off of what theyre being told to do
"The coin is flipped towards whatever side is most expedient at the moment"
This, of course, doesn't just characterize the Doublethink of identity politics... this characterizes everything - from "news" to social media to entertainment to sports to advertising - that shapes and steers the progressive american* worldview. For that "significant portion" of the readers here who intend to vote for Harris (and if you intend to Make America California Always, then MACA you absolutely should...), I'll only probe this one point into your progressive worldview force field: who is really in a political cult? Is it really the MAGA tribe? In TEN DAYS, Harris has gone from the irrelevance of the political shadow of Biden to the presumptive Party nominee, whose noble purpose is to "save democracy". The media is behind her, the federal bureaucracy is behind her, the celebrities are behind her, the activist organizers are behind her, the global political class is behind her... she has raised a quarter of a billion dollars, her campaign's ground game is in every YouTube ad, she's already hosting rallies as packed as Trump's... all without winning a single presidential primary. Ever.
...in ten days.
sounds entirely natural and not at all engineered
"Democracy!"
It is in fact *exactly* how Democracy works, why it scares you guys so much .
-Nate
that's why democracy is properly described as mob rule
We aren't supposed to be a Democracy. All democracies destroy themselves.
Man, you are so completely delusional at this point, it's sort of not worth my time getting into it... but I'll see if you can perhaps latch onto this reality test:
Since you're such a fan of democracy, I'm assuming that means you believe leaders should be chosen by voters... So the reality check is, how many people voted for Trump to be his party's nominee, and how many people voted for Harris to be her party's nominee?
The winner wins the "democracy" test...
"all without winning a single presidential primary. Ever."
All without winning a single presidential primary vote. Ever.
Presidential primaries are a relatively recent invention. The primary system as we know it only dates back fifty years or so. One hundred years ago, candidates would be chosen in a smoke filled room by party leaders or state caucuses. About 150 years ago it was congress that would choose their party's nominee.
As far as I'm concerned, we 'R's shouldn't get too worked up about how the 'D's picked their candidate -- this is their problem, not ours.
^^^..and here it is...^^^
...here's the "coin flip", the American Left Doublethink hoping they can deflect to the most convenient narrative for the Democratic Party. Notice Alan can complain about Trump not being sufficiently democratic even as he excuses why the Democratic Party doesn't need to be democratic in literally the exact same contest... notice the face-planting own goal:
"...his general disposition that the primary process shouldn’t apply to him because he was leading in the polls"
Imagine the mental gymnastics required to write that, considering Harris completely bypassed the primary process and has never once led a poll...
As usual, the average Democratic Party voter is fully brainwashed... their idea of "democracy" is whatever process or mechanism puts their party in power.
Firstly, 'serious challengers'? Vivek and Nimrata? The only votes going to them in the primary would be from Democrats crossdressing as Republicans as spoilers. The would be assassin Crook himself was a registered Republican. Or maybe pearl clutching boomers.
Frankly, the DNC can do what it wants for all I care. Duking it out at the convention would have at least been honest and above board rather than this crooked behind the scenes after hours kingmaking. I do take issue with them making up rules as they go along and then enforcing them on the opposition.
And the election runner-up used to be the VP. Which, to a degree, I don't think is necessarily a terrible thing.
" she's already hosting rallies as packed as Trump's"
They papered the hall and people started leaving after Megan the Stallion finished twerking.
At Democrat rallies the celebrities are the draw. At Trump rallies, he's the draw.
Trump's no genius but it's embarrassing to watch Democrats ritually genuflect before a mediocrity like Harris.
She is backed by the same people who, eleven days ago, would have thrown you in a dungeon for even suggesting that Biden was maybe, possibly, not healthy enough to run for office. A day later they are throwing Biden in the proverbial nursing home and crowing “we told you that guy was no good, he can’t do the job!”
Exactly.
Man, I wish that someone was stupid enough to not realize the XB-70 was a dead end, and a lousy weapons platform, and actually put it in production. Yes, they would have been widow makers in combat, but I just can’t imagine how great they would have looked and sounded in the air. I saw the Concorde and the Vulcan at low altitude many times, and they were literally awe inspiring. How amazing would the B-70 have been? Even seeing it in its hanger in Ohio is great, but it’s just not the same.
It wasn't so much a dead end as they didn't have the budget. That's what really killed it.
I do get that part also, but the high altitude/high speed bomber philosophy was dead already. And it would have been awful at low altitudes.
yeah but think how cool it would be
Robert McNamara killed the B-70 singlehandedly with a personal vendetta's worth of animus. I can't see it being any less useful during the Cold War than the lower-function B-1.
The stretched passenger SST version proposed by NAA was absolutely bonkers and should have been made.
When I see the name McNamara I usually think,
"The course of the 20th Century would have been smoother, if the first Atomic Bomb used in anger had been dropped on Harvard Yard, rather than on Hiroshima."
McNamara ordered that draftee standards be lowered so he could draft learning-disabled young men and send them to Vietnam. Where they often couldn't handle the basics of the job and ended up dead.
McNamara did that War Crime in order to try to save the Democratic Party from the backlash, if the College Deferment were to be eliminated. Pure class-based discrimination. The Founders wept.
Insiders called the Project "McNamara's Morons." They died at 300% the rate of other draftees.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_100%2C000
Rot in Hell, Mo Fo.
You too, LBJ.
john
Remember, though, we didn’t get the original high speed/high altitude B1A, but rather the stealthier, low speed/low altitude B1B. At the time, the speed to stealth trade off was view as a good change. The B-70 would have been a worse low altitude bomber then either the B1B or the B52. It would have had the payload of the B52, with no more low altitude speed and a lot less range. All for a lot more money.
And, was there anything after the war that McNamara didn’t screw up? The world’s highest IQ moron?
Ah yes, Good ole' McNamara whose policies personally killed thousands of soldiers because he was a complete dumbass and had no idea what the fuck he was doing.
He was a very bad man.
Not because of Fast Plane Reasons, but the image of Robert McNamara burning hell alongside his good friends Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon are why I continue to choose to believe in a higher power.
Ahem. I'll see your B-70 and raise you the CL-1201.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxJXw2Yctzw
You should read Disaster in Dearborn, the story of the Edsel. The Whiz Kids didn't save Ford, it was men hired away from GM, and the only good idea that McNamara ever had was suggesting a Thunderbird concept be turned into what became the '61 Continental - primarily because the T-Bird and Contin were both built at Wixom and shared hard points would save money. It was McNamara who killed the Edsel, literally as it was being launched. Ford's reputation as a political jungle had its roots in McNamara's days.
I don't know that it was dead so much. Though the B-52 mafia might have killed it, just like they killed the Hustler.
hustler was incredible
the one time you wish the govt had more money
Oh, they always have the money, they just spend it on stupid shit.
Adjusted for inflation, we have sent ukraine the equivalent of a hundred fully sorted Valkyries.
But, they need that cash to buy the votes of that wily & feral North American species, Welfarus Recipius.
can we legally hunt those yet
i dont want one mounted on my wall i just want to shore up the population
That, and Congress became enamored of ICBMs.
And submarine launched ICBMs.
Hey, I like subs but they lack a certain, I don't know...AWESOME?
I believe the entire "strategic triad" thing happened pretty much by accident.
I contend a navalized next generation B1, without variable geometry wings and with some super cruise abilities like a B-70 or TU-160 would be a fantastic missile truck in a conflict with China.
If the Air Force wouldn't allow a navalized A-10, I doubt they'd go for a non-flying-wing bomber.
The XB-70 was the word "ambition" rendered in stainless steel and jet engines.
Well Hell! When I saw Tuesday in the contest details I thought it meant last night. Guess I'll be listening to my Sam's Club soundbar a bit longer.
If Kamala will dress like the chick on the left on the new cover of National Lampoon with Mdm. Vice President perched on a coconut she'll get my vote. Imagine her negotiating with whoever's in charge over at Hamas now.
Think I'll download some Vulfpeck on the Tidal now and jam that while on the two runs I'm doing tomorrow with Miatas at the Gap. You and DG should risk a scratch on that orange Anniversary Edition and come down.
acf does matg would be a great article
Speaking of Miatas, I renewed at the Platinum Level this time around to get Jack to help me with my comfort level with mine. In my FiST I felt very confident when driving with a little enthusiasm but not so much in the ND2. Listening to one of Sam Smith's podcasts he discussed most drivers drive with the front tires or the rears but only the best race all four so I thought perhaps I needed help understanding rear wheel drive.
Well before I came down to NC I had the ND2 aligned to Flyin' Miatas recommended settings and that fixed everything. The Dragon this week has been an absolute joy. If you've got an ND I can't recommend it highly enough.
https://help.flyinmiata.com/align-your-suspension-chakras-By4oIc2zj
The factory alignment on the ND is crap. Basically the numbers that cover production tolerances.
heres another alignment source from guys that race miatas almost exclusively if youre curious
https://www.949racing.com/supermiata/tech-info/miata-race-alignment-info/
Gives new meaning to “hauling the mail!” 😂
Thanks - I've been needing to align my NC.
The bit about more Fusions and Tauruses bringing Ford back to profitability made me chuckle. Mind you they were great cars. Class-leading in the case of the final generation Fusion, but I was in the Ford business when they were new. With the exception of the Plug-In Hybrids they all sold with massive discounts and were usually barely more than mini deals. That made them the best deal going in new sedans, but financially they were middling for the company.
And as an aside we sold every Super Duty truck we could get our paws on. At a great profit.
Perhaps there *is* a case to be made for not abandoning the lower end of the market entirely, particularly given the weakening economy.
The original author failed to make that case.
If nothing else, the Fusions were something that could be found in a rental lot, which still generated some revenue for Ford.
What will you find now for an actual CAR in a rental lot? Camry, Corolla, the two Hyundais and Kias, and the Nissan Versa. (Edit: forgot the VW Jetta and the Sentra.) These are mainstream “mid-size” class or “full-size” class sedans! Road warriors who are often found in the Emerald Aisle, have the sedan classes at the major rental agencies always described cars a class below? To wit: a Camry is a mid-size, not a Corolla, a Sonata, not an Elantra. A Jetta and Sentra would be compacts, not mid-sizers, as Enterprise seems to indicate. A Versa isn’t a compact either; that always seems to be the lowest tier, along with the Mitsubishi Mirage. (Are they still making the latter?) I’ve not seen Subarus offered at rental agencies—are they around in few numbers like Hondas, or does Subaru do mass fleet sales to the EnterHertzNationalBudgets of the world?
Everything else is a wagon on stilts!
We had some house guests visit over the past 2 weeks, they had a rental Malibu. Not sure where they got it, though
That one is going away, at least if I’ve heard right.
However, it seems like the rental companies are really milking every last mile out of every vehicle, so some of the most recent lame ducks (or dead cars driving) might hang around until they approach “hooptie” status around the rental lots!
I didn't check what year it was, but seemed in good shape. They were a family of 4, one kid still in a booster, and they did about 750 miles during the visit with no complaints.
Is Rent A Wreck still in business?
I rented a Subaru Legacy sedan in Providence, RI from National back in 2012 and drove it to Northern New Jersey but I don't know how they acquired it. It was a fairly base model but current model year with low miles, not like many of today's beat up high mileage rental cars.
Either earlier that year or the year before I rented a Saab 9-5--new body style--from National in Detroit. I figured that might be my only chance ever to drive one and so far that turned out to be correct.
Didn't see Georgie in the cool-down room after the race. I rather expected Lewis to say to him "You had a fast car."
and i want a ticket to the podium
maybe we make a deal
maybe together we can get 1 - 2
On Sainz to Williams.
I am excited for him. I have a very high opinion of Vowles, I see a little Ross Brawn in him. I think there is potential next season for Williams to become everyone's second favorite F1 team a la Minardi or Super Aguri.
For 2026 if they have their aero department on point by this January it is anyone's game. Best choice for Sainz.
He also can get out in two years if the whole thing implodes.
Unless he gets dismantled by Albon (unlikely), he will be in the frame for desirable seats for 2027 and beyond once the pecking order for 2026+ is established. In fact, if they perform at a similar level, they will both be in the frame. There will be a number of seats available for 2027, as several of the old(er) drivers will have aged out by then.
I was going to disagree with my fellow Gen X-er about playing 1955 music, but then I looked at the Billboard top 30. Blech. I was thinking Sun Records rockabilly is 1955 music, but none of that charted.
If you asked people today to name the most-popular female vocalist of 1955, 1956, or 1957, many would guess Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, or Jo Stafford. However, according to Billboard magazine, for all three years, it was Julie London.
What was Julie's Winning Formula?
"Be a pretty White chick with a truly AMAZING rack."
That said... she was a natural talent, and, it seems, her own worst critic.
john
Everyone of those ladies had talent. Auto Tune not needed.
my wife said doris day fooled your ear into thinking she was singing different notes
Hah! My favorite jazz vocalist is Carmen McCrae. At her peak, her voice control up and down the range, sometimes on an individual syllable, was incredible.
My boomer friend that has a guitar music show on the community radio station plays her jazz standards stuff occasionally because of the session cats that played on them.
Judging the entire merits of 1955's music is absurd .
What's good stands on it's own and always will .
-Nate
Can we be honest? No one thought Kamala was smart two weeks ago, so let’s all agree she is still stupid. Who wants to vote for that? I guess it is better than senile, but not much. I’m on record here that I don’t like Trump, but his policies are (in my opinion) better than those of whoever is in charge on the left.
You DO kind of have to laugh at the Indian/Jamaican slaver descendant being sold as "a Black woman". As with white/Kenyan Obama, there's no actual Black American in her.
Just goes to show that power DOES change reality.
Scanning news headlines Trump waded into this today. I’m sure he’ll find a way to offend every potential swing voter in his special way of doing things, even though his point is probably legit.
The man sure can shove his own two feet so far down his fucking mouth like no one I've ever really seen. There are sometimes faint glimmers of things I don't necessarily disagree with with Trump, but it all gets swallowed up by him being the single largest egotistical, blowhard, piece of shit to grace the scene in a very long time. He is singularly unlikable as a person and a politician.
Sorry, but I disagree. Watch him and Bryson Dechambeau play golf. Most human I've seen the man. At the same time, he's no different than any 70's to 80's New Yorker I've ran into.
I don't care about how a man talks or even behaves. Can he/she run the country?
I ain't having a beer with him. That got us GWB.
Feature, not bug.
he gets things done; amazing considering the number of friendly backstabbers he had in his first administration
If you can try (I realize this may be tough to approach if you’re coning at it from the left, I get it) but if you can try to take it as absurdist comedy the guy is often legitimately funny.
In my discussions with friends, I’ve found that most of my friends who think he’s an insane blowhard haven’t watched a full (lengthy!) rally speech and given themselves permission to laugh
I get that there are people who will never find him funny but I wonder what the breakdown is.
Or the border czar issue.
"...there's no actual Black American in her."
Except for Willie Brown.
Hey-O!
LOL
Society and culture are stuck in amber now. With so many avenues for expression, there can be no broad based evolution of culture. There is no Led Zeppelin to displace the Beatles, there is no Alice in Chains to displace punk. Music’s final evolution is Taylor Swift, stepping on your face forever, at least from a popularity standpoint. That being said, there are a plethora of subcultures you can fully immerse yourself in, to the exclusion of all others. We really are all watching different movies. Won’t we be surprised when it all comes crashing down.
It's possible enough music has been recorded and we don't need anything new.
Untill a few years ago the only Gordon Lightfoot I had ever heard was Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, then YouTube music introduced me to more. Same story for a lot or artists from the last 60 years. I listen to a lot less Pearl Jam and Springsteen now because of it (although obviously I haven't stopped enjoying those artists as well)
This meshes well with my belief that “All the best cars have already been made”.
Easy to say, all the best jazz has already been made, all the best rock has already been made, all the best classical music has already been made…….and so on and so on.
Was any great art made in the late stage Roman Empire?
Western or Byzantine?
Rome not Constantinople.
“All the best cars have already been made”
Is one of the most trenchant observations anyone has made on this board or any similar board. It’s very sad. Because a lot of those best cars have a shelf life. What of those of us who wanted to buy an S580 in 2028?
That said, find me in Thomas Hank’s garage in 2033, attempting to LS swap a non-running e63 (if not already in gulag)
If you like Lightfoot, may I recommend Mickey Newbury?
He's the only songwriter ever to to have Top 5 songs on FOUR different Billboard charts at once. His album "Lulled by the Moonlight" is as good an intro as there is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Newbury
john
Now on tomorrows playlist. Hopefully I can listen to him through some Veri-Fi speakers soon if I get lucky.
Interesting.
Much like I'm wondering why there are so many new children's books each year? It's not like they go bad? Aren't there enough already? If you have Hansel & Gretl, Snow White, Goldilocks, Rapunzel, do you really need another kids book?
“Jennifer’s Mommy’s Now Her Daddy,” if some have their way!
If you can figure out a way to include Mommy's new LGBTQ+~ polycule, I'm sure that the blue haired childless weirdos at the American Library Association will recommend it to outrage the normies.
The best bands today all have like fewer than six figure followers on Spotify.
There’s SO MANY good bands too. Just none of them will ever really be crazy successful because, as you say, music has evolved directly into Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and for reasons I don’t quite understand mumble rap.
Idk. Whatever. Go listen to Liquid Mike’s last two albums and enjoy some great, new music from a great little band.
There’s alot of great stuff to uncover. Khurangbin (if you’re a dirty hippie like me), the Ohsees, Tif Ginn has some great live versions of Getaway Car, Anna Tivel is great too if you’re into girl folk acts.
If you're a dirty hippie, you might enjoy this, though it is almost 50 years old. I was playing The Closing of Winterland DVD and was struck by how a song could be delicate and majestic at the same time. Like Sly said, "It might be old fashioned but it is not a fashion in the first place, it is a feeling, and if it was good in the past it is still good." I particularly like Keith Godchaux's piano on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnnBsBQ72BQ
If you are both drunk and high, you can follow two strains of music in Dead songs at the same time. Or maybe you were just really really inebriated.
Say what you want about record moguls from the 50's and 60's, but they were the gatekeepers for talent. Because of the enormous costs of production and distribution, only the best acts got any airtime.
Now any idiot with a Macbook can upload his latest "creation" to iTunes regardless of whether it has any merit. And the signal-to-noise ratio has plummeted.
It was also a very dirty business. I recommend Here Comes The Night by Joel Selvin, mostly about Bert Berns but a pretty good look at the pop music biz from the late '50s until the hippies took over.
i remember seeing betty carter and sade on snl. them were the days.
Sade is one of the last genuinely talented female singers to come along.
Here is a powerful and damn sexy performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert. This is a song you would expect to hear in a jazz club, but she somehow makes it work in a stadium! And the live vocal performance matches the powerful studio version. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bFgv8Jq4xN0
I saw her live a decade ago. She and her band were in top form.
She is also very shrewd. For her recording contract, she did not take all the money upfront they wanted to throw at her, she took a high percentage of the royalties instead, which is very unusual. Made her rich right from the first album.
A true smooth operator! 😉
I'm not going to go back and check but I believe you had almost the exact same complaint with John's band camp last year. Why do the same thing and expect different results?
This camp cost five times as much and came much more highly recommended.
It makes me think that maybe I should get into the youth band camp business. Since I'm so clearly RIGHT about all of it!
It could be worse. Most of the 'School of Rock' kids I've seen play Journey and similar.
"When they taught rock in school, it ceased to be cool."
Sounds like a song that needs to be written.
This camp cost five times as much and came much more highly recommended.
It makes me think that maybe I should get into the youth band camp business. Since I'm so clearly RIGHT about all of it!
Your finances wouldn't survive the first "one time at band camp"
Thus, _Corporations_ .
-Nate