Tuesday Tombstone

Wrapped up w/ a bow on it.

Rail Rocket

Continuing the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex theme.

Looks like a V-2 to this reporter.Hardly prototypical, but none of the other U.S. Army rolling stock except the tank cars is. The Navy boxcar probably is.

This certainly isn't. It's Nazi-inspired as well.

The inspriation, a composite Krupp K5, from the captured Anzio Annie & Anzio Express.

Modifications & adjustments: One of the tabs on one of the trucks was broken; had a replacement on hand.

And decided the two wooden crates w/ trefoils were dangerous, & that the V-2 would look better centered on the car. Fortunately there was little glue used, & it took mere minutes.

Three dabs of paint & replacng the string w/ chains will finish the job. Dunno if the rocket is 3-D printed, but it's very light.

Mission Accompished!

Iran's mission, that is.

“The U.S. removed all its B-1 bombers from the U.K.’s RAF Fairford air base, a decision made due to security concerns over suspected terror plots against the facility, American officials said Sunday,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The decision represents a shift for the U.S. which has used the military base northwest of London as a hub for launching bomber strikes in Iran. Until their recent departure, a dozen B-1s had been stationed at the base.”

New York Times: U.S. rushes to withdraw bombers from U.K. air base after new threats.

All you have to say is "BOO!" & Hegseth's "warriors" run like the sissies they are.

An item from digby that links to Bloody Bill Kristol quoting Eco's "Ur-Fascism", which applies both to Whiskey Pete & our previous two items:

And it’s no accident, Eco further points out, that “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”

"B-1 bombers in the ground ..."42 yrs. of increasing dread.

The End Is Near

75%+ through this annus horribilis, but it isn't over yet. Could well get considerably worse. More war losses, Election Day may be "Anything Can Happen Day", & prices & temperatures are still rising, yada.

As in temperatures of 100°F (37.8°C) predicted for tomorrow through Monday. So much for autumn in L.A., as Aug., Sep't. & Oct. are the hottest months. Guessing between poor circulation & anemia it won't bother me much.

Idle Thoughts I Barely Care About

Surely None Of You Will

Positive development: My primary care physician apparently over-diagnosed the thing on the bottom of my foot. Went all the way to Westwood to see a podiatrist, who said it was a mere callus, not the plantar wart (caused by a strain of HPV virus) the M.D. thought it was. He applied cryotherapy twice, the podiatrist simply shaved it right off. No pain, then or now.

Other non-negative note: Rec'd. both pension & Social Security today, & still had US$505.87 in the credit union & a twenty in my pants. Guess I can afford several turnouts at $30.00 each now.

Completely negative: Watching baseball on Peacock, & its few advertisers. Does NBCUniversal no longer have a sales staff? I'm more than ready for TikTok to be banned worldwide & all involved to be imprisoned if I see that effing advert once more. What a crock.If they can't get more than five or six sponsors, could the sponsors make a couple more commercials so we needn't see the same damn ones approximately 50+ times per game? Nor am I interested in any Peacock streaming series, let alone seeing the same promos over & over & over & over. And yes, we understand very well that "This copyrighted broadcast is presented by the authority of the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball. It may not be reproduced or retransmitted in any form, and the accounts and descriptions of this game may not be disseminated without express written consent." Most broadcasts only recite that once. I'm wearing out the mute button.

Good to see the Pale Hose beat the Houston Cheat-os. The South Siders might be fun in a Series w/ L.A.'s former Bums of Brooklyn. And maybe next yr. the Cubs & Sox can face off in the Series.

Burning Tree?

Or "corrected" sunset?

Summer Just Left

As The Planet Revolves

Damn, there are some cats in this one.I've no interest in petty stuff like days, wks., or months, but I do like to keep up w/ the seasons, not that any exist here.

Impressionistic

The Sky Above, The Crud Below

Monsoon Season

Or hurricane season, as this is from Hurricane Marie, now spinning off the coast. I knew those were rain clouds I saw last night. It's been raining steadily, occasionally heavily, for 13+ hrs. Mins. ago it picked up.

Must've been a last gasp, seems to be petering out.

Storm creates huge waves and dangerous currents at southern California beaches

Money-Grubbing Corporations Betray Their Workers On "Labor" Day

Fuck you, greedy Nazi pigs! Workers get to work an extra day. You think the Bosses are in their offices in their cushy chairs? And the office workers who do no physical labor or interact w/ consuming sheep daily get a day off/three-day wknd. Not that they're free: The sheep w/ time off must consume during every free moment they have, or the system breaks down. Every last one of you a sucker-ass chump who buys into the lie!

What’s open on Labor Day? Most retailers. Closed? Government, banks and the stock market.

We'll give Costco credit for closing.

Don't get you fucking lemmings who insist on travelling during holiday wknds. either. Frankly, I'd be terribly amused if there were a hideous crash between two aircraft that resulted in 1,000+ deaths, because I am reduced to a bloodthirsty ghoul who wants only to see others suffer as he has suffered. Like this:As we make America great again by returning to the 1950s, you can expect more of the above, & it'll be well-deserved!

Time Like Rope

Two-thirds of the way through yet another annus horribilis. Not at all sure I can take four more months of this shit.

"Jewish Space Lasers"?

Is this where whoever had the idea got it? If they can move hurricanes, surely they can move forest fires!Not much talk of hurricane control these days, is there? And today's eyes in the sky are looking at a hell of a lot more than weather patterns. Was this all codswallop, Walt?

Big Ball Of Gas

There's a song for everything.

Danger UXB

Hey, where's all das wasser?

Ashes to Ashes, Dust To Dust

Total Destruction

🎼It's Not Genocide, It's Just Fun!🎶

This is amongst the most impactful two minutes of broadcasting I’ve ever seen. By Emma Murphy, International Editor, ITV News. #Gaza

[image or embed]

— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) August 4, 2025 at 2:52 PM

Proud of yourselves, murdering Israeli scum?

On Google maps, whenever new satellite images replace old ones, the erasure can be seen side by side with the adjacent older photo. I don't know how frequently they update.

[image or embed]

— Sandeha Lynch (@sandehalynch.com) August 5, 2025 at 1:24 AM

Will no one stop them before they reap the whirlwind?

World On Fi-Yuh!

Asteroid Smut

Popular Science sez:

“We’re in the realm where we might be essentially killing off everything within that first hour or two,” said Brandon Johnson, a Purdue University planetary scientist and study co-author.

Chicxulub would have immediately wiped out all life within a wide radius of its impact along the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, the geological demarcation between the age of the dinosaurs and the Cenozoic era. Traveling at a rate of speed of about 12 miles-per-second, the asteroid struck Earth with the equivalent force of 100 teratons of TNT—more than one billion times the strength of the atomic blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The blast created a 62-mile-wide, 19-mile-deep cavity while generating two-mile-high tsunamis and 620 mph winds. Around 25 trillion metric tons of debris rocketed into the atmosphere, which then rained down on Earth as fiery missiles called spherules to set forests ablaze.

Bring. It. On! Two hrs. is quick enough for me.

Nowhere Is Safe: There Is No Escape

Hemant Mehta / Friendly Atheist:

Christian preachers are turning airplanes into unwanted worship services  —  Evangelists are exploiting captive audiences who can't walk away—and broadcasting it online  —  What is it about being in an enclosed space, surrounded by people who can't escape, that makes evangelical Christians even more insufferable than usual?

Tom Boggioni / Raw Story:   Evangelicals are force-feeding sermons to air travelers: ‘I just love a captive audience’

All of this reeks of Christian privilege. These kinds of stunts would never be tolerated—even for a moment—if the evangelists weren’t Christian.

It’s telling that these Christians believe a captive audience is the best way to spread their message. They’re basically admitting other people wouldn’t listen to them otherwise. The only thing they accomplish with their impromptu sermons is reminding people why they should avoid Christians when they have the option.

Are there no Air Marshals? Damn jet travel. W/ a nice four-engine turboprop the 'plane could be slowed enough that such people could be safely tossed out an open door.