Getcher Duck In A Row
Work with what you got
Links are at the end.
I saturated the photo a bit but it is otherwise as it came out of the camera
Yesterday was the first ketamine treatment of the year, in which the “I” went away for a while. Swish, swoosh.
How Much More Can McCarthy Take?
The one thing you can say about McCarthy is that he’s gotta have a lot of balls, because so many people have one in their pocket.
Andrew Jackson’s former secretary of war, William Cohen, and some other guy proposed bringing in an outside Speaker, a Republican, on the theory that enough Democrats could be whipped to vote for whomever to prevail with a minimal number of Republicans.1
These ancient — not so much in years, although they are old, but in world view — white guys nominated fellow white guys John Kasich and Fred Upton, who had been in the House more than 50 years of their combined 140 years of existence without holding any leadership positions, and 67-year-old Larry Hogan, the erstwhile Maryland governor and self-identified centrist.
I’m still sold on Hakeem Jeffries cutting a half-dozen never-McCarthyites out of the GOP herd and offering them sufficient blandishments to get himself elected, but that’s not much more likely than the Cohen-Whomever plan. Meanwhile, what’s the harm in exploring some alternatives to Kasich, Upton and Hogan?
(“Hooooooogaaan!” All of those guys are old enough to instantly identify that cry.)
My top pick would be Stephen A. Smith, the bombastic ESPN sports broadcasting personality. In the linked clip, he revokes basketball legend Phil Jackson’s New York passport for failing to draft Donovan Mitchell, the Cleveland player who dropped 71 points on Smith’s beloved Knicks.2
You can’t argue with Smith. The closest anyone gets when he’s in full flight is “but but but but.” I can’t watch him for more than a minute but he’d obviously make a great Republican Speaker, even though the odds that he’s a Republican are infinitesimal.
My neighbor Chris would be good. He’s stoned much of the time, not very ideological and not easy to push around. The money would be a big draw. The Speaker’s suite is way bigger than our apartments; he could live rent-free in a few of the back rooms there and still keep his place here. Federal decriminalization of weed would be a lock.
ExxonMobil. Let’s make it formal. PhRMA, the drug trade’s lobbying outfit, could be the whip.
Me. First thing is making remote work mandatory. Convert the House offices to housing-first apartments for homeless people. Subscribe to my newsletter and get a leadership position.
Scientists develop a cool new method of refrigeration
That’s their pun, not mine. Lab-coated sorts have been looking to replace hydrofluorocarbons as refrigerants for a long time, and now they’re on to something they think could eventually serve the purpose.3
Ionocaloric cooling takes advantage of how energy, or heat, is stored or released when a material changes phase—such as changing from solid ice to liquid water. Melting a material absorbs heat from the surroundings, while solidifying it releases heat. The ionocaloric cycle causes this phase and temperature change through the flow of ions (electrically charged atoms or molecules) which come from a salt.
Note that these are government scientists, who should patent the process for the people rather than for the benefit of private industry.
Today’s Music
Bartees Strange, “Live Forever;”4 Porridge Radio, "Rice Pasta and Other Fillers."5
That’s it, comrades
All I got. Take care, be well, and consider subscribing if you’ve not already.
That photo is amazing.
I wish we could stop pursuing people who want leadership positions and just anonymously select the ones we know would do the best job: more integrity, less narcissism/corruption. Maybe ranked voting of five from each party.