Month: January 2020

Athenae, Economy4 Comments

CEO Pay is Fine and Great and There Are No Problems

Allison Hantschel

Just burn it the fuck down:  Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s former CEO, left the company with $80.7 million in pay and benefits, after being fired over two aircraft crashes that killed 346 people in total. His compensation dwarfs the $50 million set aside for families of the crash victims. Boeing denied Muilenberg severance pay and forced him to forfeit stock awards worth tens of millions of dollars, but he keeps $62 million in pay and pension benefits. He also keeps unexercised stock options worth $18.5 million. Records handed to Congress paint a picture of Boeing as an organization rife with cover-ups and attempts to dodge regulatory oversight. In … Continue reading CEO Pay is Fine and Great and There Are No Problems

Free Republic, Tommy T1 Comment

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – “long slow demise of FR” edition

Tommy T

Not much of a post this week, I’m afraid. Lower back nerve issues are intensifying, and after getting an MRI to determine what they’re going to have to cut out of my spine, I just found out my neurosurgeon is no longer in my insurance network. While I frantically try to find a new one, I’m trying to strike a balance between taking so much pain medication I can’t make coherent sentences (like I ever did, anyway), and shrieking like a demon at unpredictable moments and scaring the P-waddly-shit out of Barbara. Turning over while asleep also produces interesting and … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – “long slow demise of FR” edition

Athenae, Education, So Called Liberal Media2 Comments

They Did This On Purpose

Allison Hantschel

Read this and think about what you learned about history, and why:  Here’s another example: Teenagers in both states will learn about the Harlem Renaissance and debates about the movement’s impact on African-American life. But Texas students will read that some critics “dismissed the quality of literature produced.” I get frustrated day after day after day listening to Our Thought Leaders lamenting how divided we “have become” and how polarized “things are” like a storm just moved in and nobody knows why. Children for decades have been deliberately taught different stories, for a very specific reason, and the article presents … Continue reading They Did This On Purpose

Athenae, So Called Liberal Media

Just One More Blogger Ethics Panel

Allison Hantschel

This is an old joke, young’uns, about the early days of blogging, during which Serious Journalists opined that we needed lots of review over those dastardly writers on the internet, lest they have undisclosed conflicts of interest! THE HORROR. Meanwhile, everybody was just fine partying with this fuck:  And on Wednesday (Jan 8), Mr Murdoch’s News Corp, the largest media company in Australia, was found to be part of another wave of misinformation. An independent study found online bots and trolls exaggerating the role of arson in the fires, at the same time that an article in The Australian making … Continue reading Just One More Blogger Ethics Panel

Athenae, Sports

Not Everything Sucks: Packers Edition

Allison Hantschel

My large adult football sons give each other gifts.  Turner uses the hashtag “#Irie” on many of his social media posts. The word is synonymous with “good” in Jamaican Patois and has become the focus of Turner’s positive movement of service. Turner has the Irie Project, a collaboration that includes second-grade students who help create original artistic fashion pieces based on a theme of positivity. The project blends Turner’s love of fashion and passion for spreading positive vibes. Each piece was to be given to Packers players and members of the organization Friday after practice. They’re all so cute I … Continue reading Not Everything Sucks: Packers Edition

Adrastos, Books, Diary, Film, Fog Of History, Food and Drink, Odds & Sods, Television1 Comment

Saturday Odds & Sods: Life Is A Minestrone

Peter Adrastos Athas
Campbell’s Tomato Soup Cans by Andy Warhol

It was a long, weird week in New Orleans. I’m one of the officers of the Krewe of Spank and krewe stuff ate my week. We have an early parade date, Saturday February 8th so the typical tumult and chaos have arrived early. If you’re religious, pray for me. If not, have a drink in my honor. This too will pass.

I selected this week’s theme song because all the talk in my latest 13th Ward Rambler column about Spaghetti Westerns gave me an earworm, which led, in turn, to the Warhol featured image. I seem to be more impressionable than I thought.

Life Is A Minestrone was written in 1975 by brothers-in-law Lol Creme and Eric Stewart for 10cc’s Original Soundtrack album. It’s a cheerful ditty with surreal, punny lyrics so, quite naturally, I like it

What’s not to love about a song whose chorus goes like this:

“Life is a minestrone, served up with parmesan cheese.

Death is a cold lasagne, suspended in deep freeze.”

Now that we’ve had soup and an entree, it’s time for dessert:

I had never thought of those tunes as musical kin before but they are. Surreal food wordplay reigns supreme as we jump to the break.

Continue reading “Saturday Odds & Sods: Life Is A Minestrone”

Athenae, Economy, Food and Drink3 Comments

Desertion

Allison Hantschel

Fuck this. Poverty causes poor diets, and the retail landscape reflects where the money is. This is about the upper class banning "tacky" stores to protect their property values, not "saving the poor." Y'all wanna help the poor? Pass minimum wage laws & tax your Amazons. https://t.co/crTakQneTw — Dr Sarah Taber (@SarahTaber_bww) January 5, 2020 On January 2, I signed up for two meal-kit plans and two fitness apps due to some seriously unflattering Christmas photos and also feeling generally like hell after not working out for two months and eating like garbage. The apps were free, of course, til … Continue reading Desertion

Free Republic, Law/Justice, Tommy T4 Comments

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – cofefe and yeggs edition

Tommy T

Ah – I remember so well the righteous indignation of the Freeperati when this news broke:

Oklahoma police officer gets a Starbucks cup labeled ‘Pig’
NY Post ^ | November 29, 2019 | 3:34am | Joe Tacopino

Posted on 11/29/2019, 7:31:53 AM by conservative98

A police officer in Oklahoma was dismayed when he bought a coffee at the local Starbucks on Thanksgiving and noticed the name on the label was “Pig.”

The chief of police the Kiefer, Okla. said one of his officers trekked to Starbucks to get some java for a dispatcher when he received the insulting label.

“What irks me is the absolute and total disrespect for a police officer who, instead of being home with family and enjoying a meal and a football game, is patrolling his little town,” Chief Johnny O’Mara said in a Facebook post that included an image of the “Pig” coffee cup.

1 posted on 11/29/2019, 7:31:53 AM by conservative98
Go get him, boys!
To: conservative98

 

I would FIRE this whole group of employees IF I could not get the truth of WHO did it.

I would make sure that his/her personnel record PERMANENTLY reflected that behavior. In a small town, getting another job with that resume will be tough.

The next thing I would do is buy a coffee maker for the police station along with a few cans of good coffee grounds.

87 posted on 11/29/2019, 11:02:15 AM by ridesthemiles

Yeah!!

To: conservative98
It would be A SHAME if some police emergency happened at Starbuck’s, and no cops showed up. Just Sayin’.

45 posted on 11/29/2019, 8:47:26 AM by ZOOKER (Until further notice the /s is implied…)
Even better!!
To: conservative98

 

The Chief should announce that if the police are not welcome there, then the police will not enter the store for ANY reason…attention thieves

9 posted on 11/29/2019, 7:41:27 AM by Rumplemeyer (The GOP should stand its ground – and fix Bayonets)

TrumpCopCoffee
And then…

Kansas officer faked story of expletive on Starbucks cup Chanel 9 News ^ | 1 Jan 2020 | Staff Posted on 1/1/2020, 4:25:16 PM by BlackVeil

A Kansas police officer has resigned after he admitted to making up a story that a McDonald’s employee wrote an expletive and the word “pig” on a coffee cup, the police chief announced Monday. …

1 posted on 1/1/2020, 4:25:16 PM by BlackVeil
Ruh Roh.
.
Who is to blame here?
To: Red Badger

 

It has metastasized:

This need to cast onesself(sic) as VICTIM.

Long in the ghetto, that new, weird ambition has infected cops.

6 posted on 12/31/2019, 8:34:20 AM by gaijin

To: BlackVeil

 

Eventually, everyone else learns this crap from the homos.

3 posted on 1/1/2020, 4:27:57 PM by fwdude (Poverty is nearly always a mindset, which canÂ’t be cured by cash.)

.
That was easy.
.
More embarrassed rationalization after the cream and sugar.

Continue reading “Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – cofefe and yeggs edition”

Athenae, War in Iraq1 Comment

Okay. We Gotta Do This Again.

Allison Hantschel

Fine. FINE, fuckers. “It was time to take action so that we can disrupt this plot, to deter further aggression from Qassem Soleimani and the Iranian regime…The risk of doing nothing was enormous…President Trump acted decisively last night.” https://t.co/RDdRXouzzI — Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) January 3, 2020 God, this is exhausting, at least with Vietnam they bothered to lie convincingly. But if we gotta do this again, we gotta do it again. Like I said on Tuesday night, bite down on a stick and get ready to play hurt because that’s all we ever do. The Iraq war was … Continue reading Okay. We Gotta Do This Again.

Adrastos, Bayou Brief, Carnival, Diary, Film, Krewe du Vieux, Music, New Orleans, Odds & Sods, Sports

Saturday Odds & Sods: So It Goes

Peter Adrastos Athas
Spellbound set design by Salvador Dali.

Carnival and Paul Drake’s gotcha day loom. We adopted the dear boy on Twelfth Night in 2018. I guess that means we must consume King Cake on Monday. Poor us.

I said all I have to say about the latest mess in Mesopotamia yesterday. Suffice it to say that I don’t think it’s an Archduke Ferdinand moment but it’s some serious shit,

This week’s theme song was written in 1976 by Nick Lowe for his kinda sorta solo album Jesus Of Cool, which was released in America as Pure Pop For Now People. I said kinda sorta solo album because it featured Nick’s band Rockpile on all the tracks. More about them later.

We have two versions of So It Goes for your listening pleasure: the original studio recording and a live medley with Heart In The City.

Both Nick Lowe and I picked up the phrase “so it goes” from Kurt Vonnegut. So it goes.

Before jumping to the break another Rockpile tune. This time the guys are backing up Nick’s then wife Carlene Carter:

Now that we’ve got all that crying out of our systems, let’s dry our eyes and jump to the break.

Continue reading “Saturday Odds & Sods: So It Goes”