“technically_good” — Fediverse search results on home.social

Rudi @[email protected] · 2026-01-20 · 23:00 UTC

#IBM PROFS the #Productivity suite has been growing on me lately. I've been using it for reminders, #document formatting and my #calendar... It also lets us pubvm.org users send primitive #email called Notes back and forth...

Technically VM has #TCPIP but thanks to #gmail you need a lot more to be considered a "good neighbor" (and avoid the #spam folder) so I wrote a #bot in #Go to bridge NOTEs from VM using PROFS and modern email!

https://www.ibm.com/history/profs-networked-business

https://github.com/Rudi9719/RSCSMail/

#ibm #productivity #document #calendar #email #tcpip

SleepyCatten (referred for ME/CFS, but it's probably P-HSD arc) @[email protected] · 2024-11-15 · 23:21 UTC

Hey folks :FediverseSymbol:

It's trans voice Friday, so here's another rambling, tired voice recording for y'all to listen to if you want.

In case anyone cannot access the alt text, we've added the full transcript below (generated via audio-to-text).

Hey folks! SleepyCatten here. I'm just gonna do a very quick Trans Voice Friday recording as our brain is incredibly tired right now and we can barely hold any thoughts straight. Which is quite funny because we're not straight in the slightest. Anyway, I had a really nice electrolysis session today for two main reasons. One, because the numbing cream we used was so good that we barely felt anything. We've modified some J-Cain cream with some IPM, which increases the absorption and moisturization effect. Basically it's not technically a penetration enhancer, but it acts like one in many ways. And um... Also because we were talking about voice and voice feminization surgery with our electrolytist. And then we asked her, have you ever heard our voice like what it sounded like roughly before? And she said she hadn't. So I said, do you want to? We said sure. And then I just dropped my voice down here and she was like: "No way! That can't have been your voice beforehand!" And it's not quite my voice beforehand because it's an approximation. Now, it's just pushing our voice down lower and it wasn't quite where we were. But it is interesting to see how far we've come. Um, albeit it's nearly three years of voice training now and that's how far we've managed. Anyway, take care all. Bye.

#TransVoiceFriday #TransVoice #voice #VoiceFeminisation #VoiceFeminization #VoiceTraining #trans #transgender #TransFem

#transvoicefriday #transvoice #voice #voicefeminisation #voicefeminization #voicetraining

Ian Tindale @[email protected] · 2023-05-14 · 09:26 UTC

What the frediverse needs is a meme server

Basically a crowdsourced instance where memes are kept

But not just a pile of hopeful clip-art which mostly doesn’t apply anywhere specific, not just a collection of tired arbitrary animated gifs from the past 10 years or so

This would be a curated, dynamic and above all meaningful set of memes that reflect the zite-guys (oh those guys, the zite guys, they’re always on top of things, it’s as if they’re the spirit of the age)

technically, the animated gif is actually a good medium (scarred by the amount of prehistoric pixels animated gifs extant from the days of the last century)

Even the two-frame; three-frame; four-frame memes consisting of static images with burned-in text are valid stories

But we have other formats now, a simple two, three, or four step sequence of still images with dynamic overlaid SVG text and arrows and stuff could work as a new meme format (wrapped as SVG)

This could need and complement the MFM markup that Calckey promotes

But anyway, whatever the details, the idea that there’s a place to go to to refer to current memes and pull them from there would mean that individual instances don’t have to have the load to store the (by then) multiple copies of it as it spreads, it’s all canonical

The curated side of it could mean that that’s where the topicality, the currency, the finger on the button is – that’s where the pulse of the thinking of the fediverse is – that pile of memes in one place

Dangerous idea: it could also be curated in terms of thought direction, to weed out ‘poisonous’ or ‘bad’ thinking, to weed out unhelpful memes from the perspective of human potential or achievement or integrity, and promote good helpful (happy?) thinking to build on – ie weighted more to the positive than evil

#Memes #Zeitgeist #curate #stories #influence #PackagedThought #expression

#memes #zeitgeist #curate #stories #influence #packagedthought

Mad Argon :qurio: @[email protected] · 2024-08-18 · 12:45 UTC

And this happened... I accidentally left my #yubikey (this one on dogtag chain I always had on me) in friend's house :blobcatsad2:
Now I really feel naked or like I sudenly lost my weapon or my "magic powers". Have to take it back soon because it's very uncomfortable even if technically I have enough backup configurations to use other #yubikeys to access my things (all my devices/accounts are strongly dependent on yubikeys so I made good backups from the beginning).

#amulet #talisman #MagicalThinking

#yubikey #yubikeys #amulet #talisman #magicalthinking

The Theoretical Doctor @[email protected] · 2026-01-09 · 01:00 UTC

I SURVIVED My First Month Of Tagging As A Floating Medical Officer

Related Posts:

Thank God. Seriously.

I started my journey on the 21st of August 2025 and officially off-tag on the 14th of September 2025 after my last tagging oncall shift.

Technically, it was not a month but 3 weeks. Nevertheless, a very tiring 3 weeks with every other day oncalls and one sick leave in between.

The tagging oncalls were every other day (EOD), this meant an oncall shift followed by postcall and the following day is an office hour shift only to be followed by oncall again.

Overall, it was a mixture of fun and tiredness. My sleeping schedule was definitely off as I am usually disturbed in the middle of the night as the time I am usually able to sleep peacefully is during my postcall shifts.

Thankfully, I always had a senior with me to guide me. Thus, every referral I received, I would discuss on the management plan with them. It was mentally challenging as well as the learning curve is extremely steep for a junior medical officer such as myself.

Having completed my tagging period, I am still at lost in terms of management especially for extremely complicated cases. Thus, I find myself running to any of my seniors or the specialists.

Am I confident now though?

Not really. Less terrified and yes somewhat a tad bit confident than when I initially begun. However, just a tad.

The fear is still there as I just do not know what to expect on the types of referrals I will receive during my call.

Some things just don’t change. The fear that I felt during my House Officer days are still there and at times, I wish that I could just simply disappear run away from the issue but doing so, does not help.

Thus, the only solution for me is to dive head on into the issue and call for help whenever needed.

If any of you are experiencing this, just know that you are not alone and sometimes the feelings felt internally just can’t be expressed properly either via words or verbally.

If you are showing up everyday despite feeling this way, you are doing a good job. Take comfort in that as it is not an easy thing to just do. Sometimes, showing up daily in itself is a hard task.

About Me | Privacy Policy | Contact Me

#2025 #article #Articles #Blog #blogging #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1823 #dailyprompt1826 #dailyprompt1829 #dailyprompt1833 #dailyprompt1834 #dailyprompt1836 #dailyprompt1839 #dailyprompt1843 #dailyprompt1852 #dailyprompt1854 #dailyprompt1952 #dailyprompt1957 #doctor #floatingMedicalOfficer #hospitalUmumSarawak #housemanship #kuching #Malaysia #medical #medicalOfficer #Medicine #oncall #plasticAndReconstructiveSurgery #plasticSurgery #plastics #sarawak #sarawakGeneralHospital #surgery #surviving #tagging #writing

#article #articles #blog #blogging #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1823

Nate @[email protected] · 2026-03-10 · 05:37 UTC

Some fairly big #Sunstone #browser feature implementations today.

Bookmarks can be displayed at the 'sunstone://bookmarks/' uri. Clicking on the tag buttons for each bookmark card will bring up a page with all bookmarks that have that tag. There is also a search entry, which by default will search within the bookmark's name, alias, description, and url. This doesn't yet work from within a tag page, but that shouldn't take too much of a rafactor to implement.

Because the search is implemented using the 'get' method, the search query is appended to the url. Technically, this could be added as a search engine the same way other search engines are added. I need to start writing some good documentation.

I've learned a lot doing this. One thing I am not, and never claimed to be, is a web designer. But these features require creating web pages on the fly programatically, adding a custom scheme handler to WebKit, and even some css. No javascript so far.

History is going to be implemented in much the same way, but with a lot more search parameters that can be set by the user. Some of the work done so far will support the history page nicely. The handler already breaks the query string down and stores key/value pairs in a hashmap to be passed to the function which generates the page.

There's a fairly significant amount of code cleanup to be done around this last bit of hacking. For instance, originally I had a few different html templates for various uses, but I've knocked that down to one. I'll need to remove the orphans from the repository.

#sunstone #browser

The Theoretical Doctor @[email protected] · 2026-01-09 · 01:00 UTC

I SURVIVED My First Month Of Tagging As A Floating Medical Officer

Related Posts:

Thank God. Seriously.

I started my journey on the 21st of August 2025 and officially off-tag on the 14th of September 2025 after my last tagging oncall shift.

Technically, it was not a month but 3 weeks. Nevertheless, a very tiring 3 weeks with every other day oncalls and one sick leave in between.

The tagging oncalls were every other day (EOD), this meant an oncall shift followed by postcall and the following day is an office hour shift only to be followed by oncall again.

Overall, it was a mixture of fun and tiredness. My sleeping schedule was definitely off as I am usually disturbed in the middle of the night as the time I am usually able to sleep peacefully is during my postcall shifts.

Thankfully, I always had a senior with me to guide me. Thus, every referral I received, I would discuss on the management plan with them. It was mentally challenging as well as the learning curve is extremely steep for a junior medical officer such as myself.

Having completed my tagging period, I am still at lost in terms of management especially for extremely complicated cases. Thus, I find myself running to any of my seniors or the specialists.

Am I confident now though?

Not really. Less terrified and yes somewhat a tad bit confident than when I initially begun. However, just a tad.

The fear is still there as I just do not know what to expect on the types of referrals I will receive during my call.

Some things just don’t change. The fear that I felt during my House Officer days are still there and at times, I wish that I could just simply disappear run away from the issue but doing so, does not help.

Thus, the only solution for me is to dive head on into the issue and call for help whenever needed.

If any of you are experiencing this, just know that you are not alone and sometimes the feelings felt internally just can’t be expressed properly either via words or verbally.

If you are showing up everyday despite feeling this way, you are doing a good job. Take comfort in that as it is not an easy thing to just do. Sometimes, showing up daily in itself is a hard task.

About Me | Privacy Policy | Contact Me

#2025 #article #Articles #Blog #blogging #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1823 #dailyprompt1826 #dailyprompt1829 #dailyprompt1833 #dailyprompt1834 #dailyprompt1836 #dailyprompt1839 #dailyprompt1843 #dailyprompt1852 #dailyprompt1854 #dailyprompt1952 #dailyprompt1957 #doctor #floatingMedicalOfficer #hospitalUmumSarawak #housemanship #kuching #Malaysia #medical #medicalOfficer #Medicine #oncall #plasticAndReconstructiveSurgery #plasticSurgery #plastics #sarawak #sarawakGeneralHospital #surgery #surviving #tagging #writing

#article #articles #blog #blogging #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1823

The Theoretical Doctor @[email protected] · 2026-01-09 · 01:00 UTC

I SURVIVED My First Month Of Tagging As A Floating Medical Officer

Related Posts:

Thank God. Seriously.

I started my journey on the 21st of August 2025 and officially off-tag on the 14th of September 2025 after my last tagging oncall shift.

Technically, it was not a month but 3 weeks. Nevertheless, a very tiring 3 weeks with every other day oncalls and one sick leave in between.

The tagging oncalls were every other day (EOD), this meant an oncall shift followed by postcall and the following day is an office hour shift only to be followed by oncall again.

Overall, it was a mixture of fun and tiredness. My sleeping schedule was definitely off as I am usually disturbed in the middle of the night as the time I am usually able to sleep peacefully is during my postcall shifts.

Thankfully, I always had a senior with me to guide me. Thus, every referral I received, I would discuss on the management plan with them. It was mentally challenging as well as the learning curve is extremely steep for a junior medical officer such as myself.

Having completed my tagging period, I am still at lost in terms of management especially for extremely complicated cases. Thus, I find myself running to any of my seniors or the specialists.

Am I confident now though?

Not really. Less terrified and yes somewhat a tad bit confident than when I initially begun. However, just a tad.

The fear is still there as I just do not know what to expect on the types of referrals I will receive during my call.

Some things just don’t change. The fear that I felt during my House Officer days are still there and at times, I wish that I could just simply disappear run away from the issue but doing so, does not help.

Thus, the only solution for me is to dive head on into the issue and call for help whenever needed.

If any of you are experiencing this, just know that you are not alone and sometimes the feelings felt internally just can’t be expressed properly either via words or verbally.

If you are showing up everyday despite feeling this way, you are doing a good job. Take comfort in that as it is not an easy thing to just do. Sometimes, showing up daily in itself is a hard task.

About Me | Privacy Policy | Contact Me

#2025 #article #Articles #Blog #blogging #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1823 #dailyprompt1826 #dailyprompt1829 #dailyprompt1833 #dailyprompt1834 #dailyprompt1836 #dailyprompt1839 #dailyprompt1843 #dailyprompt1852 #dailyprompt1854 #dailyprompt1952 #dailyprompt1957 #doctor #floatingMedicalOfficer #hospitalUmumSarawak #housemanship #kuching #Malaysia #medical #medicalOfficer #Medicine #oncall #plasticAndReconstructiveSurgery #plasticSurgery #plastics #sarawak #sarawakGeneralHospital #surgery #surviving #tagging #writing

#article #articles #blog #blogging #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1823

The Theoretical Doctor @[email protected] · 2026-01-09 · 01:00 UTC

I SURVIVED My First Month Of Tagging As A Floating Medical Officer

Related Posts:

Thank God. Seriously.

I started my journey on the 21st of August 2025 and officially off-tag on the 14th of September 2025 after my last tagging oncall shift.

Technically, it was not a month but 3 weeks. Nevertheless, a very tiring 3 weeks with every other day oncalls and one sick leave in between.

The tagging oncalls were every other day (EOD), this meant an oncall shift followed by postcall and the following day is an office hour shift only to be followed by oncall again.

Overall, it was a mixture of fun and tiredness. My sleeping schedule was definitely off as I am usually disturbed in the middle of the night as the time I am usually able to sleep peacefully is during my postcall shifts.

Thankfully, I always had a senior with me to guide me. Thus, every referral I received, I would discuss on the management plan with them. It was mentally challenging as well as the learning curve is extremely steep for a junior medical officer such as myself.

Having completed my tagging period, I am still at lost in terms of management especially for extremely complicated cases. Thus, I find myself running to any of my seniors or the specialists.

Am I confident now though?

Not really. Less terrified and yes somewhat a tad bit confident than when I initially begun. However, just a tad.

The fear is still there as I just do not know what to expect on the types of referrals I will receive during my call.

Some things just don’t change. The fear that I felt during my House Officer days are still there and at times, I wish that I could just simply disappear run away from the issue but doing so, does not help.

Thus, the only solution for me is to dive head on into the issue and call for help whenever needed.

If any of you are experiencing this, just know that you are not alone and sometimes the feelings felt internally just can’t be expressed properly either via words or verbally.

If you are showing up everyday despite feeling this way, you are doing a good job. Take comfort in that as it is not an easy thing to just do. Sometimes, showing up daily in itself is a hard task.

About Me | Privacy Policy | Contact Me

#2025 #article #Articles #Blog #blogging #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1823 #dailyprompt1826 #dailyprompt1829 #dailyprompt1833 #dailyprompt1834 #dailyprompt1836 #dailyprompt1839 #dailyprompt1843 #dailyprompt1852 #dailyprompt1854 #dailyprompt1952 #dailyprompt1957 #doctor #floatingMedicalOfficer #hospitalUmumSarawak #housemanship #kuching #Malaysia #medical #medicalOfficer #Medicine #oncall #plasticAndReconstructiveSurgery #plasticSurgery #plastics #sarawak #sarawakGeneralHospital #surgery #surviving #tagging #writing

#writing #tagging #surviving #surgery #sarawakgeneralhospital #sarawak

The Theoretical Doctor @[email protected] · 2026-01-09 · 01:00 UTC

I SURVIVED My First Month Of Tagging As A Floating Medical Officer

Related Posts:

Thank God. Seriously.

I started my journey on the 21st of August 2025 and officially off-tag on the 14th of September 2025 after my last tagging oncall shift.

Technically, it was not a month but 3 weeks. Nevertheless, a very tiring 3 weeks with every other day oncalls and one sick leave in between.

The tagging oncalls were every other day (EOD), this meant an oncall shift followed by postcall and the following day is an office hour shift only to be followed by oncall again.

Overall, it was a mixture of fun and tiredness. My sleeping schedule was definitely off as I am usually disturbed in the middle of the night as the time I am usually able to sleep peacefully is during my postcall shifts.

Thankfully, I always had a senior with me to guide me. Thus, every referral I received, I would discuss on the management plan with them. It was mentally challenging as well as the learning curve is extremely steep for a junior medical officer such as myself.

Having completed my tagging period, I am still at lost in terms of management especially for extremely complicated cases. Thus, I find myself running to any of my seniors or the specialists.

Am I confident now though?

Not really. Less terrified and yes somewhat a tad bit confident than when I initially begun. However, just a tad.

The fear is still there as I just do not know what to expect on the types of referrals I will receive during my call.

Some things just don’t change. The fear that I felt during my House Officer days are still there and at times, I wish that I could just simply disappear run away from the issue but doing so, does not help.

Thus, the only solution for me is to dive head on into the issue and call for help whenever needed.

If any of you are experiencing this, just know that you are not alone and sometimes the feelings felt internally just can’t be expressed properly either via words or verbally.

If you are showing up everyday despite feeling this way, you are doing a good job. Take comfort in that as it is not an easy thing to just do. Sometimes, showing up daily in itself is a hard task.

About Me | Privacy Policy | Contact Me

#2025 #article #Articles #Blog #blogging #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1823 #dailyprompt1826 #dailyprompt1829 #dailyprompt1833 #dailyprompt1834 #dailyprompt1836 #dailyprompt1839 #dailyprompt1843 #dailyprompt1852 #dailyprompt1854 #dailyprompt1952 #dailyprompt1957 #doctor #floatingMedicalOfficer #hospitalUmumSarawak #housemanship #kuching #Malaysia #medical #medicalOfficer #Medicine #oncall #plasticAndReconstructiveSurgery #plasticSurgery #plastics #sarawak #sarawakGeneralHospital #surgery #surviving #tagging #writing

#article #articles #blog #blogging #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1823

@reiver ⊼ (Charles) :batman: @[email protected] · 2025-09-14 · 19:08 UTC

1/

I have spending time thinking of ways you could automatically create ActivityPub / ActivityStreams data from HTML and Markdown

Most people will probably write in plain UTF-8 text, or Markdown, or HTML

How to do you take that and get it onto the Fediverse and Social Web‽

This isn't just a question of how to technically do it — but also a question of user-experience (UX)

I.e., what are "good" ways of doing it‽

...

#ActivityPub #ActivityStreams #FediDev #Fediverse #Markdown #retejo #RDFa

#activitypub #activitystreams #fedidev #fediverse #markdown #retejo

lookitmychicken @[email protected] · 2023-04-25 · 09:46 UTC

I've been watching season 2 of #BlownAway this week.

One of the contestants, Chris, is a Big Deal. And he keeps reminding everyone of it. He's rude and dismissive of the work that the other contestants create.

He's technically very accomplished and does good work, but also has zero sense of humour, and is a miserable sod.

One week they were challenged to make cartoon characters. He said "Chris [Surname] doesn't do googly eyes."

I am SO READY for him to go home.

#blownaway

Levi00 @[email protected] · 2025-07-05 · 19:32 UTC

I'm starting (🆕) a new church (⛪) journey (🆕)

I'm 🆕 to a baptist ⛪ for the sunday worship service. It's a newer building⛪ , that was built and I believe founded, somewhere around 2015.

Check out their specific beliefs here:

https://northfwbchurch.org/im-new/

This will be my first appearance to the ⛪, while not my first ever attended ⛪. Technically it may be my 3rd,

However the 1st one I was going to I vaguely remember since I was under 5 years old then. The 2nk one I had a lot of childhood memories going there use to be my primary however since, it's an hour away, and I'm learning to ride the bus I took my time picking a good quality one that was closer for bus travel for me

This 3rd one that I'm going to, at age 26 tomorrow on Sunday. It's been nearly 10 years for me since I actively went to a ⛪, so this is why this is 🆕 for me. I can't drive (because I have slower in quick real time reaction situation) so i'l be ridding the #publicbus to it. (luckily the ⛪ is a close ride under 45 minutes. (closer to a 30 minute ride)

This ⛪ believes in the trinity, and to my knowledge (although i'l have to ask to get direct confirmation.) they'l be following the kings james bible. in other words, it's a pretty decent ⛪ they follow the word closely. This is going by the website, not in person conversation plus there more specific question i'l have to ask them in person.

If you're interested, they directly tell you *what it is they believe in the link I provided above, I feel most Christians that try to follow the word closely, might also like this ⛪ 's standings. But I'm open to any interpretation or comment if anyone finds out anything interesting that proves otherwise specifically of this ⛪

#christian #christianity #bible #trinity #thetrinity #baptistchurch #baptism #bus #travel #god #jesus #kingjames #kinsjamesversion

#christian #christianity #publicbus #bible #trinity #thetrinity

Raeyn @[email protected] · 2025-06-21 · 12:05 UTC

Stars, I am wiped out. I had a short fayre this morning, which was technically a success -- I made an entire pound in profit, ha ha. Of course, that ignores the fact I bought stuff and the kiddo with me was scarfing treats, but *anyways*. Profit! xD

So yeah, goals for the day now that I'm back in the a/c: getting my fayre boxes put away, taking photos of the UK flag cross-stitch, and getting that in my shop. Yeah, it didn't sell. What I got instead was several old ladies old and white enough to tell me they already had enough jewellery and other trinkets, which precluded them from shopping with me. *shakes head* I mean, I guess thanks?

For now though, more caffeine and not moving. Not moving = good.

#deardiary #dailylog #cats #catsofmastodon #caturday #vivithecat

Hotspur🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦 @[email protected] · 2024-12-11 · 00:47 UTC

"Famous Heroes of the Kabuki Stage Played by Frogs," Utagawa Kuniyoshi, c. 1875.

Utagawa was sometimes dissatisfied and disaffected with the shogunate in Japan, which led him to create some stunning works of caricature, which can be seen here. Here we have an assortment of scenes from various kabuki plays, all apparently dealing with dramatic deeds by samurai...only with frogs.

These were the days of the Tenpō Reforms, which cracked down on entertainment and banned luxury goods. Kabuki actors were required to wear hats outside lest they be too conspicuous, and the content of ukiyo-e art and popular literature was regulated.

The censorship had the unintended consequence of forcing Utagawa to be very creative and sneaky with his material. Caricature such as this was a veiled criticism of the shogunate, and while it technically evaded the censors, the public ate it up, along with other caricatures he did.

So we can add Utagawa to the Caricature Hall of Fame, with Goya and Daumier!

Interestingly, this print is commonly dated to c. 1875, but Utagawa died in 1861, so I assume this was a design he put together that was printed posthumously.

From the Library of Congress, Washington, DC

#Art #JapaneseArt #AsianArt #ukiyo_e #Caricature #Frogs #Kabuki #Ribbit #UtagawaKuniyoshi

#art #japaneseart #asianart #ukiyo_e #caricature #frogs

Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2024-10-06 · 14:03 UTC

Record(s) o’ the Month – August 2024

By Angry Metal Guy

August of 2024 was a pretty good month. First, it marked my return from the Injured Reserve, where I’d been nursing a high ego sprain and nagging executive dysfunction issues. These aren’t perfectly fixed, but being back on the field has shown beyond a doubt that I’m still a force to be reckoned with. Second, August of 2024 was a particularly fecund month for potential Records o’ the Month. This surprised me.

I couldn’t remember August being a particularly productive month historically and as I went back through the archive, that seems sort of true. Between 2012—when the RotM was started—and 2023, the hit rate for August Record(s) o’ the Month landing on my Top 10(ish) list for the year is 73%. Only once has an August record reached the top spot—that would be Pale Communion—with Sophicide hitting #2 in 2012 and Lör’s In Forgotten Sleep getting a #3 spot in 2017. Turisas’ controversial Turisas2013 was a runner-up in August of 2013 and ended up at #5, while the actual winner—Witherscape’s excellent The Inheritance—took the #10 spot on that list. 2020 saw Havukruunu ending up at #7, and Crypta’s Shades of Sorrow took #9 last year. The rest is a sea of -ishes and honorable mentions: Cattle Decapitation (2015), Dialith and Eternal Storm (2019), and Pain of Salvation in 2020.

And in 2024? How many of these babies will follow me to the end of the year? I’ve got an inkling, but I’m curious to see what you think.1

Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay—out August 24th from Liminal Dread Productions [Bandcamp]—is one of the biggest surprises of 2024 so far. The ‘one-man black metal project’ is a minefield of absolutely terrible music that I tend to avoid at all costs. Yet the sophomore record from London’s Ross Connell is an album notable for its pathos, rich composition, and artistry. What makes Blood & Decay remarkable is how it draws inspiration from—and comparisons to—revered bands like Agalloch, Alcest, and Panopticon without falling into the common pitfalls. Typically, such comparisons raise concerns about excessive reverb, overly long songs, and toothless riffs. Yet Connell subverts these expectations by creating a dynamic, storytelling experience filled with emotional peaks and valleys, masterfully blending black metal’s rawness with atmospheric beauty. Connell’s addition of his own vocals for the first time elevates the project. His powerful delivery—and powerful use of samples—transforms each song into a vivid emotional journey. As Itchymenace gushed in his review: “Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, it also sounds great.” A surprisingly easy choice for Record o’ the Month.

Fleshgod Apocalypse // Opera [August 23rd, 2024 | Nuclear Blast Records | Bandcamp] — Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Opera, their first album since 2019’s Veleno, has marked a significant evolution for the band. Drawing from the Opéra Lyrique style, the album features soprano Veronica Bordacchini voicing characters like life, death, and hope, while her vocals have brought fresh dynamics to the band’s symphonic death metal sound. With a more streamlined, melodic approach, Opera leans into catchier, poppier elements without losing its technical edge. Songs like “I Can Never Die” and “Matricide 8.21” highlight this shift, adding emotional depth through Bordacchini’s diverse performances. Though some longtime fans may miss the more grand operatic and technical side—Opera is not King—the album is still a genuine triumph. Opera blends new ideas with the band’s established identity, creating a fresh, cohesive record that accomplishes both a stylistic shift and adds another great record to Fleshgod’s already well-respected oeuvre. As I vigorously exclaimed and defended in the comments, “Opera is simultaneously and undeniably fun, heady, and technically impressive.”

Amiensus // Reclamation Pt. II [August 30th, 2024 | M-Theory Audio | Bandcamp] — Amiensus’s Reclamation Pt. II, the companion to Pt. I released earlier this year, has marked a standout achievement in progressive melodic black metal. The album blends melancholic melodicism, blackened fury, and progressive elements to create a dynamic and cathartic experience. With tracks like “Sólfarið” and “Acquiescence,” Pt. II offers invigorating and emotionally charged compositions, Amiensus skillfully balances moments of atmospheric beauty with powerful black metal. While initially, Reclamation seemed disjointed in places, the album’s intricate songs and layered instrumentation grow with each listen, presenting some of the band’s most versatile material to date. Despite some production issues, the album features elite composition and great songs like “Orb of Vanishing Light.” Reclamation Pt. II stands as Amiensus’s current “magnum opus”—in tandem with its predecessor—and a highlight of the year’s metal releases. As Kenstrosity opined, “Reclamation Pt. II is a more energetic, smartly edited, and exquisitely arranged work that blooms brighter the longer I live with it.” That’s a fancy way of saying that it’s a grower.

#2024 #Amiensus #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blog #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #DeathMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #LiminalDreadProductions #MTheoryAudio #NuclearBlast #Opera #ReclamationPtII #RecordOfTheMonth #RecordSOTheMonth #RotM #Veleno

#amiensus #aug24 #blackmetal #blog #bloomdecay #dawntreader

Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2024-10-06 · 14:03 UTC

Record(s) o’ the Month – August 2024

By Angry Metal Guy

August of 2024 was a pretty good month. First, it marked my return from the Injured Reserve, where I’d been nursing a high ego sprain and nagging executive dysfunction issues. These aren’t perfectly fixed, but being back on the field has shown beyond a doubt that I’m still a force to be reckoned with. Second, August of 2024 was a particularly fecund month for potential Records o’ the Month. This surprised me.

I couldn’t remember August being a particularly productive month historically and as I went back through the archive, that seems sort of true. Between 2012—when the RotM was started—and 2023, the hit rate for August Record(s) o’ the Month landing on my Top 10(ish) list for the year is 73%. Only once has an August record reached the top spot—that would be Pale Communion—with Sophicide hitting #2 in 2012 and Lör’s In Forgotten Sleep getting a #3 spot in 2017. Turisas’ controversial Turisas2013 was a runner-up in August of 2013 and ended up at #5, while the actual winner—Witherscape’s excellent The Inheritance—took the #10 spot on that list. 2020 saw Havukruunu ending up at #7, and Crypta’s Shades of Sorrow took #9 last year. The rest is a sea of -ishes and honorable mentions: Cattle Decapitation (2015), Dialith and Eternal Storm (2019), and Pain of Salvation in 2020.

And in 2024? How many of these babies will follow me to the end of the year? I’ve got an inkling, but I’m curious to see what you think.1

Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay—out August 24th from Liminal Dread Productions [Bandcamp]—is one of the biggest surprises of 2024 so far. The ‘one-man black metal project’ is a minefield of absolutely terrible music that I tend to avoid at all costs. Yet the sophomore record from London’s Ross Connell is an album notable for its pathos, rich composition, and artistry. What makes Blood & Decay remarkable is how it draws inspiration from—and comparisons to—revered bands like Agalloch, Alcest, and Panopticon without falling into the common pitfalls. Typically, such comparisons raise concerns about excessive reverb, overly long songs, and toothless riffs. Yet Connell subverts these expectations by creating a dynamic, storytelling experience filled with emotional peaks and valleys, masterfully blending black metal’s rawness with atmospheric beauty. Connell’s addition of his own vocals for the first time elevates the project. His powerful delivery—and powerful use of samples—transforms each song into a vivid emotional journey. As Itchymenace gushed in his review: “Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, it also sounds great.” A surprisingly easy choice for Record o’ the Month.

Fleshgod Apocalypse // Opera [August 23rd, 2024 | Nuclear Blast Records | Bandcamp] — Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Opera, their first album since 2019’s Veleno, has marked a significant evolution for the band. Drawing from the Opéra Lyrique style, the album features soprano Veronica Bordacchini voicing characters like life, death, and hope, while her vocals have brought fresh dynamics to the band’s symphonic death metal sound. With a more streamlined, melodic approach, Opera leans into catchier, poppier elements without losing its technical edge. Songs like “I Can Never Die” and “Matricide 8.21” highlight this shift, adding emotional depth through Bordacchini’s diverse performances. Though some longtime fans may miss the more grand operatic and technical side—Opera is not King—the album is still a genuine triumph. Opera blends new ideas with the band’s established identity, creating a fresh, cohesive record that accomplishes both a stylistic shift and adds another great record to Fleshgod’s already well-respected oeuvre. As I vigorously exclaimed and defended in the comments, “Opera is simultaneously and undeniably fun, heady, and technically impressive.”

Amiensus // Reclamation Pt. II [August 30th, 2024 | M-Theory Audio | Bandcamp] — Amiensus’s Reclamation Pt. II, the companion to Pt. I released earlier this year, has marked a standout achievement in progressive melodic black metal. The album blends melancholic melodicism, blackened fury, and progressive elements to create a dynamic and cathartic experience. With tracks like “Sólfarið” and “Acquiescence,” Pt. II offers invigorating and emotionally charged compositions, Amiensus skillfully balances moments of atmospheric beauty with powerful black metal. While initially, Reclamation seemed disjointed in places, the album’s intricate songs and layered instrumentation grow with each listen, presenting some of the band’s most versatile material to date. Despite some production issues, the album features elite composition and great songs like “Orb of Vanishing Light.” Reclamation Pt. II stands as Amiensus’s current “magnum opus”—in tandem with its predecessor—and a highlight of the year’s metal releases. As Kenstrosity opined, “Reclamation Pt. II is a more energetic, smartly edited, and exquisitely arranged work that blooms brighter the longer I live with it.” That’s a fancy way of saying that it’s a grower.

#2024 #Amiensus #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blog #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #DeathMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #LiminalDreadProductions #MTheoryAudio #NuclearBlast #Opera #ReclamationPtII #RecordOfTheMonth #RecordSOTheMonth #RotM #Veleno

#amiensus #aug24 #blackmetal #blog #bloomdecay #dawntreader

Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2024-10-06 · 14:03 UTC

Record(s) o’ the Month – August 2024

By Angry Metal Guy

August of 2024 was a pretty good month. First, it marked my return from the Injured Reserve, where I’d been nursing a high ego sprain and nagging executive dysfunction issues. These aren’t perfectly fixed, but being back on the field has shown beyond a doubt that I’m still a force to be reckoned with. Second, August of 2024 was a particularly fecund month for potential Records o’ the Month. This surprised me.

I couldn’t remember August being a particularly productive month historically and as I went back through the archive, that seems sort of true. Between 2012—when the RotM was started—and 2023, the hit rate for August Record(s) o’ the Month landing on my Top 10(ish) list for the year is 73%. Only once has an August record reached the top spot—that would be Pale Communion—with Sophicide hitting #2 in 2012 and Lör’s In Forgotten Sleep getting a #3 spot in 2017. Turisas’ controversial Turisas2013 was a runner-up in August of 2013 and ended up at #5, while the actual winner—Witherscape’s excellent The Inheritance—took the #10 spot on that list. 2020 saw Havukruunu ending up at #7, and Crypta’s Shades of Sorrow took #9 last year. The rest is a sea of -ishes and honorable mentions: Cattle Decapitation (2015), Dialith and Eternal Storm (2019), and Pain of Salvation in 2020.

And in 2024? How many of these babies will follow me to the end of the year? I’ve got an inkling, but I’m curious to see what you think.1

Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay—out August 24th from Liminal Dread Productions [Bandcamp]—is one of the biggest surprises of 2024 so far. The ‘one-man black metal project’ is a minefield of absolutely terrible music that I tend to avoid at all costs. Yet the sophomore record from London’s Ross Connell is an album notable for its pathos, rich composition, and artistry. What makes Blood & Decay remarkable is how it draws inspiration from—and comparisons to—revered bands like Agalloch, Alcest, and Panopticon without falling into the common pitfalls. Typically, such comparisons raise concerns about excessive reverb, overly long songs, and toothless riffs. Yet Connell subverts these expectations by creating a dynamic, storytelling experience filled with emotional peaks and valleys, masterfully blending black metal’s rawness with atmospheric beauty. Connell’s addition of his own vocals for the first time elevates the project. His powerful delivery—and powerful use of samples—transforms each song into a vivid emotional journey. As Itchymenace gushed in his review: “Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, it also sounds great.” A surprisingly easy choice for Record o’ the Month.

Fleshgod Apocalypse // Opera [August 23rd, 2024 | Nuclear Blast Records | Bandcamp] — Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Opera, their first album since 2019’s Veleno, has marked a significant evolution for the band. Drawing from the Opéra Lyrique style, the album features soprano Veronica Bordacchini voicing characters like life, death, and hope, while her vocals have brought fresh dynamics to the band’s symphonic death metal sound. With a more streamlined, melodic approach, Opera leans into catchier, poppier elements without losing its technical edge. Songs like “I Can Never Die” and “Matricide 8.21” highlight this shift, adding emotional depth through Bordacchini’s diverse performances. Though some longtime fans may miss the more grand operatic and technical side—Opera is not King—the album is still a genuine triumph. Opera blends new ideas with the band’s established identity, creating a fresh, cohesive record that accomplishes both a stylistic shift and adds another great record to Fleshgod’s already well-respected oeuvre. As I vigorously exclaimed and defended in the comments, “Opera is simultaneously and undeniably fun, heady, and technically impressive.”

Amiensus // Reclamation Pt. II [August 30th, 2024 | M-Theory Audio | Bandcamp] — Amiensus’s Reclamation Pt. II, the companion to Pt. I released earlier this year, has marked a standout achievement in progressive melodic black metal. The album blends melancholic melodicism, blackened fury, and progressive elements to create a dynamic and cathartic experience. With tracks like “Sólfarið” and “Acquiescence,” Pt. II offers invigorating and emotionally charged compositions, Amiensus skillfully balances moments of atmospheric beauty with powerful black metal. While initially, Reclamation seemed disjointed in places, the album’s intricate songs and layered instrumentation grow with each listen, presenting some of the band’s most versatile material to date. Despite some production issues, the album features elite composition and great songs like “Orb of Vanishing Light.” Reclamation Pt. II stands as Amiensus’s current “magnum opus”—in tandem with its predecessor—and a highlight of the year’s metal releases. As Kenstrosity opined, “Reclamation Pt. II is a more energetic, smartly edited, and exquisitely arranged work that blooms brighter the longer I live with it.” That’s a fancy way of saying that it’s a grower.

#2024 #Amiensus #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blog #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #DeathMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #LiminalDreadProductions #MTheoryAudio #NuclearBlast #Opera #ReclamationPtII #RecordOfTheMonth #RecordSOTheMonth #RotM #Veleno

#veleno #rotm #recordsothemonth #recordofthemonth #reclamationptii #opera

Mr Creosote @[email protected] · 2025-08-30 · 13:07 UTC

The creator of #Tanglewood is related to the gaming industry by profession and, according to his own statements, simply wanted to create a game for a retro console where he could give free reign to his own creativity. The game, which began as a Kickstarter project, is undoubtedly technically sophisticated, and the credits at the end testify to the many other contributors who helped Matt Philips complete it.

https://www.goodolddays.net/en/game/Tanglewood/

#MegaDrive
#IndieGaming

#tanglewood #megadrive #indiegaming

pivotal @[email protected] · 2024-05-28 · 20:21 UTC

We are back from a long weekend vacation (yesterday), which if I'm being honest, does not fully do it for me. I enjoy the things we do but it's just so draining.

We are very obviously super fortunate to be able to go on vacations at all, and I've learned over the years what I need at the end is a couple days off by myself to recharge. So I've got today and tomorrow to just paint and putter around, with a few errands as well.

Today I picked up the dogs and worked a bit on these squig's teef. I realize I've also blocked in more of the NMM since I last posted progress. More refinement to come but looking good.

Technically this is a blood bowl mini too! 😆

#MiniaturePainting #WarhammerCommunity #squigs #GloomspiteGitz #BloodBowl

#miniaturepainting #warhammercommunity #squigs #gloomspitegitz #bloodbowl

Ramin Honary @[email protected] · 2024-10-09 · 10:34 UTC

My thoughts on “The Static Site Paradox“, by Loris Cro

The article, in summary says this: more technically literate people have simpler websites, usually just static sites generated from even simpler Markdown. Less technically literate people resort to using WordPress, which requires a SQL server, a PHP server, and tons of computing power to deliver to your browser what could be done with a static HTML page with hardly any computing power at all.

This is because technically literate people can afford to do the hard stuff required to setup your own domain, including setting up the server, deciding how to produce content, and the mechanisms to keep content up to date. Everyone else is forced to use services that do all of that leg work for you, but insert a bunch of overly-complicated technology (like WordPress or Drupal), after all they had better deliver all of those flashy features that you saw in the demo, even if you never use 99% of those features. Or worse: people just use Facebook or Twitter as their homepage.

There are alternatives

Sites like https://neocities.org offer static site hosting with a very nice user interface. They have good built-in tools for writing HTML, but I think they lack a good WYSIWYG site editor.

#tech #internet #StaticSite #SimpleWeb #WordPress

#simpleweb #staticsite #wordpress #internet #tech

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2024-12-21 · 20:08 UTC

#Alabama profits off #prisoners who work at McDonald’s but deems them too dangerous for #parole

"No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama. With a sprawling labor system that dates back more than 150 years — including the brutal #ConvictLeasing era that replaced #slavery — it has constructed a template for the #commercialization of #MassIncarceration."

By ROBIN MCDOWELL and MARGIE MASON
Updated 5:10 PM EST, December 20, 2024

DADEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A storm was looming when the inmate serving 20 years for armed robbery was assigned to transport fellow prisoners to their jobs at private manufacturers supplying goods to companies like Home Depot and Wayfair. It didn’t matter that Jake Jones once had escaped or that he had failed two drug and alcohol tests while in lockup — he was unsupervised and technically in charge.

By the time Jones was driving back to the work release center with six other incarcerated workers, it was pelting rain. Jones had a reputation for driving fast and some of his passengers said he was racing along the country road, jamming to music in his earbuds. Suddenly, the transport van hit a dip and swerved on the wet pavement, slamming into a tree."

#USPol #HumanRights #Prisoners #ForProfitPrisons #USPenalSystem

#alabama #prisoners #parole #convictleasing #slavery #commercialization

((Jann Gobble)) 🏳️‍🌈 @[email protected] · 2025-07-28 · 19:19 UTC

Hey #TMobile, I couldn't care less if the beta is over! There's rarely a time that the #5g / #4g network wasn't avail. There WAS a time they were both overloaded & therefore #TSatellite didn't kick in! Cos I STILL DID TECHNICALLY have 5g/4g!

What good is #TSatellite if it doesn't take into account real-world scenarios! At least #Apple has #WiFi connection bad? Use #cellular as backup!

What we need is a #WiFi and #Cellular not going through? Use #TSatellite!

THEN I'd pay $10/mo more!

#tmobile #5g #4g #tsatellite #apple #wifi

DoomsdaysCW @[email protected] · 2023-11-25 · 22:07 UTC

Oh joy! What coverups will #ExxonLied tell about #Lithium #pollution? #Exxon does NOT have a good track record! Also, #DLE, the process Exxon is touting, "is an emerging technology, and most information about the process and its impact comes from the industry rather than peer-reviewed literature or other independent sources." (Source: Energy Research and Social Science, May 2023)

ExxonMobil is a lithium company now

ExxonMobil plans on extracting and producing battery-grade lithium from the #SmackoverFormation in #Arkansas.

By Emma Roth
November 13, 2023

“ExxonMobil is getting into the lithium production business. The company announced on Monday that it’s going to become a 'leading producer of lithium' by opening its first drilling operation in southern Arkansas.

“The demand for lithium has grown in the past couple of years, with the metal serving as a key ingredient in the rechargeable batteries that power electric vehicles, phones, laptops, and other tech. ExxonMobil plans to start producing lithium in 2027 and says it could make enough lithium to supply over 1 million electric vehicles per year by 2030.

“Earlier this year, ExxonMobil purchased 120,000 acres of lithium-rich land spanning a geologic formation — called the Smackover Formation — in Arkansas. To access the lithium, the company will first drill 10,000 feet below the surface using gas and oil machinery. From there, it will then use direct lithium extraction (DLE) to separate the lithium from the saltwater it’s mixed with. Once that’s done, ExxonMobil will inject the saltwater back into the ground.

“ExxonMobil says the DLE process 'produces fewer carbon emissions than hard rock mining and requires significantly less land.' The company will produce the battery-grade lithium on-site, which it will call Mobil Lithium. This technically isn’t the first time ExxonMobil is getting involved in the battery business, as the company manufactured the first lithium-ion battery in the 1970s.

“'Lithium is essential to the energy transition, and ExxonMobil has a leading role to play in paving the way for electrification,' Dan Ammann, the president of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions, said in a statement. 'This landmark project applies decades of ExxonMobil expertise to unlock vast supplies of North American lithium with far fewer environmental impacts than traditional mining operations.'

“In addition to ExxonMobil, Canada-based Standard Lithium also plans on extracting lithium from the Smackover Formation. Meanwhile, Lithium Americas has begun mining for the metal at Thacker Pass in Nevada, and other companies are eyeing California’s Salton Sea as a potential lithium extraction site.

“Bringing lithium extraction stateside could make a big difference for EV automakers that want to produce batteries here in the US, as most of them currently source lithium from other countries, including Australia, Argentina, Chile, and China.”

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/13/23958935/exxonmobil-lithium-drilling-arkansas

#exxonlied #lithium #pollution #exxon #dle #smackoverformation

Sky Dancing @[email protected] · 2025-08-23 · 16:54 UTC

Lazy Caturday Reads: Space Cat Visits Venus (and some news, unfortunately)

Book Cover

Good Afternoon!!

I think I’ve hit a wall this morning. I’m feeling so exhausted and overwhelmed with what Trump is doing to the country, that I just want to lie down and give up. I hope I can raise my spirts somehow as the day goes on.

Anyway, it is Caturday, and I have a new installment of Space Cat to share today. It’s the second book in the space cat series, Space Cat Visits Venus. Here is the synopsis from Amazon:

Flyball the Space Cat is back, and this time he’s living in Luna Port, the first city on the Moon. Workers at the lunar station are building a rocket to transport him and his pilot buddy, Colonel Fred Stone, to Venus. The two friends take a long voyage to the planet, where they encounter violet skies, torrential ammonia rains, and strange plants that can communicate without speaking.
This new edition of a charmingly illustrated storybook from 1955 is the second of a four-book series starring the intrepid feline known as Space Cat. Young readers will delight in taking a look at space exploration from Flyball’s point of view and following his escapades across the solar system.

It’s hard to believe these books are still in print after all this time, but I think they are really cute. See some of the illustrations scattered through this post.

As you know, John Bolton’s home and office were searched by the FBI yesterday. Below are some articles that analyze and comment on Trump’s retribution project.

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board: Trump’s Vendetta Campaign Targets John Bolton.

President Trump promised voters during his campaign for a second term that he had bigger things on his mind than retribution against opponents. But it is increasingly clear that vengeance is a large part, maybe the largest part, of how he will define success in his second term.
His revenge campaign took an ominous turn Friday as FBI agents raided the home and office of Mr. Trump’s first-term national security adviser John Bolton. They brought two broad warrants to search the “premises.” Agents showed up unannounced at his Bethesda, Md., home at 7 a.m. They confiscated his wife Gretchen’s phone because it was visible and not on her person. Mr. Bolton had already left for his office, which is where FBI agents greeted him….

Cat with Venus rocket

It’s hard to see the raid as anything other than vindictive. Mr. Bolton fell out of Mr. Trump’s favor in the first term and then wrote a book about his experience in the White House while Mr. Trump was still President. Mr. Trump tried and failed to block publication. The President then claimed Mr. Bolton had exposed classified information, though the book had gone through an extensive pre-publication scrub at the White House for classified material.
The book investigation faded away under President Biden, but now it looks as if Mr. Patel is reviving it. Whether Mr. Trump ordered the FBI probe or not doesn’t matter. Mr. Patel knows what the President thinks about Mr. Bolton, and the President’s minions in Trump II don’t serve as the check on his worst impulses the way grown-ups did in his first term. The presidential id is now unchained.
Mr. Trump made clear that he was out for blood against Mr. Bolton when he pulled the former adviser’s protective detail after his re-election. Mr. Bolton is widely known as a defense hawk, and in 2022 the Justice Department charged an Iranian national it said planned to murder him.

A bit more:

It’s unlikely that Mr. Bolton broke any laws on national secrets, and he certainly didn’t share any with us over our long association with him. But perhaps Mr. Trump intends for the process itself to be the punishment even if there is ultimately no criminal charge. Mr. Bolton has to pay for legal counsel, and his family has to endure the anxiety of being under federal government siege.
Mr. Bolton has continued to speak candidly about Mr. Trump’s second-term decisions, pro and con, including in these pages this week. The President may also hope the FBI raid will cause Mr. Bolton to shut up, though knowing him we can’t imagine that working.
The real offender here is a President who seems to think he can use the powers of his office to run vendettas. We said this was one of the risks of a second Trump term, and it’s turning out to be worse than we imagined.

Shane Harris at The Atlantic (gift link): The Bolton Raid Feels Like a Warning.

FBI directors don’t customarily announce raids in progress. But early this morning, Kash Patel celebrated the search of former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s home as agents were rolling into his suburban-Maryland driveway: “NO ONE is above the law … @FBI agents on mission,” Patel wrote on X. Agents also executed a search warrant at Bolton’s office in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump later told reporters that he had learned about the raid on one of his most voluble critics from TV news, but he took the opportunity to call Bolton a “lowlife” and “not a smart guy.” Then he added: “Could be a very unpatriotic guy. We’re going to find out.”

Flyball dreams of mice

The FBI’s actions were hard not to read as payback for Bolton’s years of criticism of the president, even as the facts that persuaded a judge to approve a search warrant remain unknown. That’s the problem with a politicized legal system—even if an investigation is legitimate, it’s easy to assume that its motives are corrupt. Trump has spent years vowing retribution against Bolton, particularly after Bolton published a 2020 memoir that portrayed the president as incompetent and out of his depth on foreign policy.
If this was revenge, it wasn’t an isolated act. As agents were still packing up boxes of Bolton’s effects, The Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had pushed out yet another senior military officer, firing Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. In June, its analysts delivered a preliminary assessment that U.S. bombers had caused relatively limited damage to Iranian nuclear facilities, undercutting Trump’s pronouncements that the sites were “obliterated.” And just three days ago, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard revoked the security clearances of more than three dozen current and former national-security officials. Several played key roles in efforts to counter or expose Russia’s 2016 election interference, what Trump calls the “Russia Hoax” and Gabbard has described as part of a “years-long coup” against the president.
Put it all together, and this may be remembered as the week Trump’s campaign against the “deep state” kicked into high gear. To some intelligence professionals I spoke with, it felt as though something fundamental had shifted in their historically apolitical line of work.
“Given the dystopian nature of it all—clearance revocations of former officials who did no wrong, forced retirements of long-standing intelligence officials, reductions in force that include junior officers who were just hired, and a wildly politicized leadership in the intelligence community—I no longer recommend young Americans to pursue careers in intelligence,” Marc Polymeropoulos, a veteran CIA officer who had his own security clearance yanked earlier this year, told me.
Purge doesn’t adequately capture what national-security experts see happening here. Chilling effect is too mild, though revoking the security clearances of two senior intelligence officers, as Gabbard did, effectively ending their government careers, will indeed send a message. Terrorizing the workforce is a phrase I heard a lot this week. And that may indeed be the point.
“Instead of being honest about what we think, now people will just keep their mouths shut or tell Trump what he wants to hear,” said one former official, who would only speak anonymously. The administration publicly identified this person as part of the “Russia Hoax,” and they’ve hired personal security for outside their home, fearing that Trump’s most fevered supporters might pay a visit.
Forget about calling out misbehavior or wrongdoing by administration officials, the person added: “Where would we go to file a grievance, or to report misconduct? Who’s going to do that?”

You can use the gift link to read rest. I wonder if they will target Hillary Clinton? I’m sure Trump would like to do that.

The Trump DOJ seems to have hit on mortgage fraud as their go to accusation against critics.

Flyball and Fred look out at Venus.

The Wall Street Journal: Mortgage-Fraud Accusations Are Trump’s New Political Weapon.

The Trump administration has a new weapon at its disposal in its efforts to take down Democrats and their appointees: mortgage records.
Members of the administration have now alleged three public officials have committed mortgage fraud, referring each to the Justice Department. The administration has signaled that it has just gotten started: U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin was recently tapped “to investigate fraud by public officials in mortgages,” according to a letter Martin sent.
The targets have denied wrongdoing, but the probes represent an aggressive new spin on opposition research that has long dug into tax records and financial disclosures public officeholders have to make. Mortgage applications go beyond the typical disclosure requirements.
Another twist is the allegations are coming from a government official overseeing an agency able to access massive amounts of mortgage data.
At the forefront of the campaign is Bill Pulte, a homebuilder heir Trump tapped to lead the government agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest players in the mortgage market.
At the historically quiet but powerful Federal Housing Finance Agency, Pulte has turned himself into a Trump attack ally, probing mortgages of prominent Democrats and a Biden-appointed official at the Federal Reserve.

So far, DOJ has announced investigations of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, Senator Adam Schiff, andNew York Attorney General Letitia James.

Heading into an election season, mortgage documents could become even more a source of contention across the country, for both sides of the aisle. Mortgage fraud allegations have also emerged against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican who is campaigning for a Senate seat. (Paxton’s campaign has declined to comment on his properties.)
Mick Mulvaney, a former chief of staff for Trump who had faced questions about taxes on his nanny when he was facing Senate confirmation, says the attacks are going to be part of the new normal for Republicans to use versus Democrats now.
“Right now it’s classified documents and mortgage applications,” Mulvaney said of the new opposition research. “Whether or not you pretend to need a wheelchair at an airport to get on the plane faster, that may be used next if that’s illegal.”

In other news, the troops (and FBI agents and ICE thugs) are still occupying Washington DC. Here’s the latest on that story.

CNN: Hegseth orders National Guard troops in DC to carry weapons.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered National Guard members patrolling the streets of Washington, DC, to begin carrying their service weapons as they fulfill President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown in the nation’s capital, according to a US defense official.

Taking off their helmets

The directive from Hegseth represents a notable shift in guidance from the Pentagon, which had previously indicated that National Guard members could be armed if the circumstances warranted, and suggests hundreds of guard troops deployed in DC will soon be carrying weapons despite serving in a support role.
“At the direction of the Secretary of Defense, (Joint Task Force) JTF-DC members supporting the mission to lower the crime rate in our Nation’s capital will soon be on mission with their service-issued weapons, consistent with their mission and training,” the official said….
It comes as other states’ National Guard members have begun arriving in Washington, DC, to be in-processed to assist the DC National Guard.
More than 1,900 troops from multiple states have been called up as part of the mission including from West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Louisiana, and Tennessee National Guards, according to a release from Joint Task Force – DC on Thursday.

What could possibly go wrong? I wonder if Hegseth has heard about Kent State?

ABC News reports that National Guard troops will now be permitted to act as law enforcement: National Guard in DC to carry M17 pistols, conduct law enforcement duties, task force says.

National Guard troops deployed on the streets of Washington, D.C., will now carry weapons for personal protection and are allowed to carry out law enforcement duties, defense officials announced Friday.
The decision is an escalation in President Donald Trump’s use of military troops to address what he insists is “out of control” crime in the nation’s capital. Since his announcement, Trump has mobilized nearly 2,300 National Guard troops from Washington, D.C., and six states with Republican governors. But troops had remained unarmed until now.
ABC News first reported Friday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had officially authorized the troops to carry weapons if their mission required it. On Friday, the joint task force overseeing the troops confirmed the move, noting that Guard personnel sent on missions would carry M17 pistols, “which are intended for person protection.” The task force said Guard members would receive proper training on how to use the weapons before being allowed to carry them.
“This decision is not something taken lightly,” said Army Brig. Gen. Leland D. Blanchard, III, the Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard, in a statement.

Flyball and the Venus Mouse.

Really? I think it is taken very lightly, considering there’s not as serious crime problem in DC and it’s illegal for the military to perform law enforcement functions in the U.S.

The task force also noted in its statement late Friday that Guard troops can carry out law enforcement duties because they are operating under Title 32 status, a law that exempts troops from restrictions under the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, because they are still technically under a state governor’s command.
Legal experts have long warned about how presidents might use Title 32 as a kind of legal loophole to Posse Comitatus, which is supposed to prevent the president from using the military as a domestic police force. Under Title 32, a president pays for a Guard mission while keeping troops under control of the governors; in this case, Trump asked red-state governors to send their troops to D.C.
While those governors technically retain control of the troops, their missions are being decided by the White House, according to several administration officials.

Reuters: Trump crime crackdown deploys troops in Washington’s safest sites.

Hundreds of National Guard soldiers in military fatigues and combat boots mingled with tourists, posed for selfies, and treated themselves to ice cream from food trucks on Thursday along Washington’s National Mall, one of the safest parts of America’s capital.
On occasion an angry local would hurl verbal abuse at them, but the soldiers simply shrugged and carried on what appeared to be an undemanding assignment.
Outside the National Museum of African American History and Culture, five members of the West Virginia National Guard were standing on the street corner far away from the city’s crime hot spots.

A grateful rescued mouse.

“It’s boring. We’re not really doing much,” said Sergeant Fox, who declined to give his first name.
Fox is among almost 2,000 troops, including 1,200 from six Republican-led states, who are being deployed in Washington as part of an extraordinary militarization inside the Democratic-led city.
The soldiers, some of whom told Reuters they did not get involved in arrests, are officially in Washington to support a federal crackdown on what President Donald Trump calls a crime epidemic. But that depiction appears to run counter to the fact that crime rates overall have shrunk in recent years.
That disconnect, combined with the troop concentration near the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and in view of the U.S. Capitol, highlights criticism by the city’s Democratic leaders that this massive deployment is more a show of power by Trump, rather than a serious effort to fight crime.

No kidding.

This is something I hadn’t heard about before. Trump is also mobilizing National Guard troops in other parts of the country. The Independent: Trump mobilizing up to 1,700 National Guardsman in 19 states to widen crime and immigration crackdown.

The Trump administration reportedly plans to mobilize up to 1,700 National Guard troops across 19 states in the coming weeks to support its immigration and anti-crime crackdowns, a dramatic expansion of the controversial operation that’s seen federal agents and Guard troops carrying out activities across Washington, D.C.
The troops, who will largely be activated across Republican-controlled states, will serve in support of the administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, as well as other law enforcement priorities, according to comment from unnamed Pentagon officials and documents obtained by Fox News.

Taking photos of the plants

The Guardsmen assisting ICE will be carrying out tasks that may include “personal data collection, fingerprinting, DNA swabbing and photographing of personnel in ICE custody,” an official told outlet.
The deployments will take place across the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming, per Fox.
Texas is reportedly slated to have the largest deployment.
The Guardsmen will be serving under Title 32 Section 502F authority, in which they technically remain under state command and control, but can assist with federal missions and are paid with federal funds. The status allows them to avoid running afoul of a federal law limiting military involvement in domestic law enforcement.

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