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Monday’s Forum
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16 responses to “Monday’s Forum”
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Trump Gets Caught in a Dilemma Over a Saudi Plea for Military Help(NYT gift link). He’s up, he’s down, he’s fighting the Houthis, he’s not fighting the Houthis. Who’d he talk to last? And I love the passive voice of the headline. This dilemma just fell out of the sky on poor, innocent Trump.
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I watched Lanterns on HBO Max this weekend and really enjoyed it.
Yes, it is based on the Green Lantern comics but the super power/super hero stuff has been turned way down. It plays as a gritty police procedural in rural Nebraska. Kyle Chandler plays an aging Green Lantern while John Stewart plays his sidekick/trainee/possible replacement.
Just 5 episodes have been dropped out of a total of eight. The 5th episode seemed like climactic/conclusionary episode and I thought “only 5 episodes?”. But looked it up and there are eight to this season so will have to see where it goes from here. Maybe the 5th felt like an ending and it is just a head fake. A good one at that.
Any I recommend the show.
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It’s on my list since HBO announced it was coming some weeks ago. Prof. Taylor posted a review on the AG substack.
I kind of have to be in a mood to start a new series on streaming. Right now, I keep streaming one ep of Stargate SG-1 in the evening. I expect to be in the mood for something new once I finish this rewatch. Just two more loooooong seasons to go.
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In my 40 years of involvement with the Air Force (20 active duty) I do not recall any big public announcement on what is basically some internal healthcare initiative for the active duty force.
Pentagon updates guidance on low testosterone testing for males
The Department of Defense on Thursday released clinical guidelines for testing and treating low testosterone in male service members.
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The Defense Health Agency’s latest guideline indicates that every male service member over 30 — and some under that age, if they show symptoms of low testosterone and request testing — should be tested at Periodic Health Assessments, or PHAs.According to the new document’s executive summary, symptoms of low testosterone include “reduced libido, loss of spontaneous morning erections, erectile dysfunction, diminished energy and physical performance, impaired concentration, reduced muscle mass, and depressed mood.”
I just find it bizarre.
As Tim Walz said in 2024: “These guys are creepy and yes, just weird as hell.
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Autumn is coming. Testosterone levels in cervidae are up, often to 1000 ng/dl. This the same as levels in 18 year old human males. This high level of hormones causes behavioral changes that make bucks careless which is the reason that hunting season coincides with the hormone peak. It would be prudent to have a counsel of older, low testosterone individuals to make sure that our soldiers don’t become trophies on the bad guys walls. Being smart and cautious is useful in war.
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Saturday I made chicken in potato and onion sauce. It’s a dish I make now and then, always somewhat different. This time I began by air frying 3 chicken thighs in the combo air fryer and instant pot (omitting the crisper plate), then removed them. Next I sauteed two small onions cut in large pieces. The purpose was to just brown them a little in the rendered chicken fat. When they were done, I deglazed with a 1/4 cup of red wine.
I added about 2 liters of chicken broth, two large potatoes peeled and cut into cubes, the chicken thighs, and some dried garlic flakes. I set to pressure cook on high for 20 minutes.
After releasing the pressure, I again removed the thighs so they could cool for latter shredding. then I ladled about half the potatoes and onions and broth to the blender. I added two Tbsp balsamic vinegar, about 4-5 Tbsp cottage cheese, and liquefied everything.
Here’s where tools matter. One of the housemates got a Ninja blender. It’s bigger than the old one, and it has two sets of long, curved blades reaching from the bottom to about halfway up the blender jar. This made a very smooth sauce.
So, pour the sauce back int the broth, with the pot now in sear/sauté mode, add black pepper, garlic powder, and smoked paprika. The let it reduce briefly. I wanted something like a stew. Shred the chicken and add it back. After tasting it, I added a bit more balsamic.
I made plain rice to mix in when serving.
Next week I want to try it with beef. I’ll probably brown the beef first in the cast iron pan, because the multi pot just doesn’t get a decent Maillard. And not as much fat is rendered from beef cubes anyway. Maybe I’ll add a couple of marrow bones to the broth as well.
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My quick take on the “White House bans reporters” kerfluffle (now other news networks are skipping the press briefings in solidarity) is – good. I think press briefings under Trump are a joke and it’s long past the time we move on. The press gaggle was such a big part of reporters day and so that’s what they wrote about, which means that they simply provided a platform for lies.
Is this quick take of mine good? Who knows!
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I came up with a different sort of filibuster, a really fictional one not applicable to any states I know of.
Suppose a legislature is regularly dominated by three or four parties, with some smaller parties taking up a few seats. Now, suppose there’s a rule that a bill can pass with a simple majority provided it has at least one vote from such parties that hold 10% or more of the seats. Otherwise, it requires a 2/3 majority.
I need to simulate seat distributions and come up with four major parties. To date, I’ve three: Democrats, Liberals, and Populists. That would tell me more or less how this would work in practice. naturally the smallest party can play spoiler by refusing to approve anything, but this forces the two bigger parties to compromise. This in turn requires a low level of polarization.
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Hey! If it is OK with Don, Jr. it must be OK for others!
Huckabee’s ‘walking counterintel red flag
An influential and controversial senior adviser to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee solicited cash gifts from Israeli citizens to celebrate his upcoming wedding, Playbook has learned.
David Milstein, who holds a top-secret security clearance, sent a Paperless Post wedding invitation on Sept. 16 soliciting “monetary wedding gift[s]” in either “U.S. dollars or Israeli shekels” along with a QR code, according to screenshots of the solicitation reviewed by Playbook.
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“He’s a giant walking counterintelligence red flag,” a member of the intelligence community, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive national security matter, told Playbook.“The fact that he is blatantly soliciting donations is absolutely jaw dropping,” said this person, who had seen the screenshots of the solicitation prior to Playbook’s inquiry.
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Another person familiar with the episode told Playbook it could be the “final straw” for Milstein, who along with Huckabee, welcomed the convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard into the United States Embassy in Jerusalem last July.“He has access to some of the most sensitive intelligence that we have routed through that embassy,” the intelligence community member, who confirmed the status of Milstein’s clearance, told Playbook.
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The two people told Playbook that people are afraid of Milstein because of his stepdad: conservative radio host and Fox News personality Mark Levin, who is close with President Donald Trump, and whose name Milstein frequently drops to protect himself, according to the people.
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“If this was any other employee at this point, he would have his clearance suspended,” the intelligence community member told Playbook. -
Bad day at the courts today.
A federal appeals court allowed Missouri’s Jim Crow map, though that may change at the Fixer court for some reason.
And the 12 states lawsuit against the Paramount Warner merger has been settled.
If the settlement has no teeth, I’m 100% certain the Ellisons will do as they please and not as they agreed to do.
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BTW, XspaceS, the world’s most valuable ISP, will attempt something unprecedented when it launches the 14th flights of its Xtarship internet satellite rocket: it will attempt to put Xtarship into orbit.
Space is hard and all that, sure. But 14 flights to get to orbit means Adolf and co. have been doing iterative development, not flight testing.
I don’t recall offhand how many attempts it took NASA and contractors to first orbit a Mercury capsule with an Atlas rocket, but it was far fewer than 14, at a time when liquid fuel rockets were still an infant technology.
Even Lex took fewer tries to get his internet satellite launcher up and into orbit.
Oh, incidentally, the main purpose of Xtarship, second stage reusability and all, is not to get to the Moon, and much less to mars. It’s to orbit internet satellites cheaper than the Xalcon 9 can manage, and possibly larger satellites than the Xalcon 9 can carry. And more of them per launch.
later on, I wouldn’t be surprised if Adolf follows through and launches “data center” satellites as well. only they’ll be constellations of interconnected satellites chockful of Nvidia GPU AI chips, poorly cooled and maybe matching the lifespan of the satellites (and maybe not).
Do I seem bitter that the lofty dreams of space exploration have been reduced to increasing share value? I wonder why I should be.
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