Turns Out 'The Shield' Isn't Just a League Nickname

It’s both disappointing and understandable that revelations about the jackery between the National Football League and its Players Association haven’t taken hold or stoked greater outrage. Labor-management disputes between the rich and uber-rich often don’t move the needle unless it results in an interruption in service, and the June-July window is tailor-made for indifference toward tackle football off-field issues. 

We’re almost a month past the initial report from professional busybody Pablo Torre that the league and the NFLPA agreed not to disclose details of an arbitration ruling on salaries to the membership, i.e., the players. The Players Association sought to determine whether the league and owners colluded to deny guaranteed contracts in the wake of the Cleveland Browns’ mega-deal with quarterback Deshaun Watson in 2022, a contract worth $230 million in fully guaranteed money. Collusion regarding contracts violates the league’s collective bargaining agreement with the PA and could result in compensation and damages to players who negotiated new deals. 

Arbitrator Chris Droney ruled last January that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove collusion in quarterback contracts, and most players were told simply that the PA had lost the case. However, in his final report, Droney concluded that the PA demonstrated that Commish Roger Goodell and league general counsel Jeff Pash urged owners to restrict guaranteed contracts and money going forward. That little detail wasn’t made public because of an unusual confidentiality agreement that PA management struck with league officials. 

It didn’t surface until Torre obtained the full 61-page report roughly six months later and released it, which smacked the gobs of many players and their attorneys and representatives and prompted questions such as: Who’s working for whom? Adding to the intrigue – stench, if you prefer – NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell Jr., is also a paid, part-time consultant for a private equity firm that’s been given the go-ahead to pursue minority ownership stakes in NFL teams. He is also on the board of a multi-billion-dollar licensing firm that works with athletes’ name, image and likeness concerns founded by the NFLPA and Major League Baseball Players Association and whose finances are currently under Federal investigation. 

Prior to joining the NFLPA, Howell was chief financial officer at Booz Allen Hamilton, the Bigfoot D.C.-area based intelligence and defense contractor known for its broad reach and recently for a $377 million settlement in 2023 for fraudulently billing the U.S. government over a decade. He was a board member of General Electric HealthCare and Moody’s Corporation and was a trustee at the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater. In short, his background is neither in football locker rooms or sharp-elbowed labor law.

 All that said, NFLPA honchos were jazzed when he became the head guy in 2023, believing that his corporate connections and boardroom acumen fit present-day major league sports administration. Fast forward to Jan. 2025. After Howell’s brokered, incomplete debriefing of the arbitration ruling, he reportedly criticized his predecessor, DeMaurice Smith, for “wasting resources” on the complaint, which was originally filed in Oct. 2022. 

It’s curious, then, that after Torre’s public release of the report and subsequent reporting by ESPN and others that the NFLPA decided to appeal the ruling. No word on why the PA waited six months to appeal or what changed that suddenly made the legal battle worth continuing, though you might hazard a guess or two. 

Union busting has a long and undistinguished history here in the Republic dating back to the Industrial Revolution and the late 19th century, as corporate titans tried their damnedest to prevent radical changes such as eight-hour workdays and living wages and safer conditions. In 21st century America, management-labor disputes in professional sports are often viewed as a piefight between millionaires and billionaires. Since most folks don’t travel in those neighborhoods, they dismiss the conflicts as some gilded penthouse squabbles and want both sides to shut up and deliver the games. 

I’d argue that it’s the same struggle, simply on a different scale. The tactics are similar – public relations blitzes, intimidation, threats, lawsuits, strikes, lockouts. One helpful comparison to differentiate between the two sides is to remember that one million seconds is 11 days; one billion seconds is 31 years. Hardly a fair fight. Billionaires, with corporate backing and resources, have outsized leverage that even millionaire laborers cannot hope to counter without collective bargaining and legal protections. Factor in the reality that athletes have a limited work and earnings window – the average NFL career lasts 3.3 years, according to recent data – and it behooves them and their representatives not to go nuclear and thus risk their careers, since in the end they are replaceable and the league and owners can always outlast them. 

As well compensated as players are, the deck remains stacked in favor of management. When those whose job it is to advocate for labor agree to zip it when management deals from the bottom of the deck and occasionally palms the cards, well, others are watching to see how it’s done. Doesn’t bode well for most of us.

New Music (at Least New to Me) Tuesday

I've become a fan of the music of Fontaines DC. The Irish band (the DC stands for Dublin City) has steadily grown in fame and critical acclaim since its 2019 debut album, Dogrel. Their 2024 record, Romance, was nominated for a Best Rock Album Grammy, and this tune, "Starburster", got a nom for Best Alternative performance:

Here's a cool article from earlier this year about the band's lead singer, Grian Chatten, and his (and all the band members' for that matter) upbringing on Irish poetry. I came across some new Fontaines earlier this week, singles that seem to have been released as bonus tracks on Romance. I really dig "It's Amazing to Be Young". It's hearkens back to 80s alternative, with references to Echo and the Bunnymen, The Godfathers, and The Smiths. 

Lorde isn't exactly new, but I'll be damned if I wasn't surprised to learn that she's only 28. Which means that she was a mere 17 when "Royals" ruled the airwaves. She's out with a new record entitled Virgin. The first single is "What Was That". It's a jam.

What else is the extended Gheorghieverse diggin' this summer? Share in the comments.

Potraits

zdaughter enjoys making art, especially painting.  This is her fifth year of art camp so she comes home every day with new pieces.  Our home gallery includes a paper-mâché hippopotamus head, a drip-painted statue of a rabbit, a picture of a watermelon pressed onto paper using a styrofoam block, and many many canvases.  She likes landscapes and seascapes but I think her best work is her portraits.

Here are two self-portraits.

She has become a major Teedge fan ever since she saw photos of his cats with wine.  She calls him The Cat Wine Guy and will tell me "text this photo to The Cat Wine Guy."  Here's her portrait of him.

Alright, maybe not.  But that's a couch potato so it could be Teedge.

Here's her portrait of TR:

Alright, maybe not.  It's a deep pull from We Bare Bears but it could be TR if you watch the episode.

Here are portraits of zcats.

The one on the right was rushed so she's going to do another this coming week.  She also says the cat on the right is harder to paint because she's all one color.  We'll see what happens.

Here's one of me.

She says it looks better this way.

Again, maybe not.  That's Spider-Man but I'm a superhero for shlepping her to and from art camp all summer.

And my favorite portrait of the summer is the one of rob.

No joking here, that's our man squirrel.  Note the slightly angry camber of his eyebrows and the tuft of gray on top of his head and peppered into his chest hair.  Spot on.

Please feel free to request a portrait.  Every morning while I'm getting her ready for camp she says "what should I paint" and no matter what I suggest she says "that's boring" or "that's lame" so she needs inspiration from outside the house.

Profiles in Cowardice, Alternatively Titled "No shit Jeff Flake!" or "Fuck you and your bolo Thom Tillis!"

Former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake (not to be confused with Jeff Lake) wrote an amazingly cowardly opinion piece in the NY Times on Sunday that rendered me irate, so much so that I yelled "No shit Jeff Flake!" out loud multiple times.

He begins with this:

Eight years ago, I stood on the floor of the Senate and announced that I would not run for re-election. I spoke then of a fever in our politics, a fever that I hoped would soon break. I noted that in today’s Republican Party, anything short of complete and unquestioning loyalty to President Trump — then in his first term — was deemed unacceptable and suspect.

Last weekend, Senator Thom Tillis announced that he would not seek re-election, and delivered a message that echoed my own. “It’s become increasingly evident,” he said, “that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species.”

His decision underscores what I feared in 2017: The fever still hasn’t broken. In today’s Republican Party, voting your conscience is essentially disqualifying.

No shit Jeff Flake!  We got a fever!  Had it for over ten years now!  What the fuck have you done about it?  Oh that's right, you walked away from politics so you wouldn't have to deal with it.  Cool, cool.

He goes on to opine:

But the deeper concern isn’t about any single congressional race or even the balance of power in the Senate — it’s about the long-term health of our political institutions. As senators like Thom Tillis step aside, the chamber grows ever more polarized. There are fewer and fewer members willing to reach across the aisle, take tough votes or engage in the quiet, unglamorous work of real legislating.

No shit Jeff Flake!  The senate is polarized like Edwin Land's sunglasses!  Been this way for over ten years now!  And what the fuck are you talking about with "senators like Thom Tillis" who are "willing to reach across the aisle"?  Did he vote against any of Trump's recent cabinet appointees?  Did he vote in against Amy Coney Barrett's last-second confirmation?  Did he vote to convict in either of Trump's impeachments?  No, no, no--in other words, he went along with all of it.

Then he drops this gem:

Extreme partisanship has infected both parties, but it plays out differently. Among Democrats, it tends to be issue-driven — focused on ambitious policy goals, however unrealistic or out of step they may sometimes be. Among Republicans, it’s become personality-driven, centered almost entirely on staying in lock step with the president. That’s an even more dangerous trajectory, because it divorces political allegiance from any stable set of principles. When a party’s North Star is an individual, the direction of policy and the integrity of governance itself suffer.

Oh, fuck you Jeff Flake!  Democrats are partisan on the issues?  How fucking surprising, a political party has a partisan view on a political issue.  Give me a break.

And this broke me:

I admire Senator Tillis for choosing not to betray his convictions just to secure another term. But his departure is a loss for the nation, the Senate and the Republican Party — indeed, for conservatism — which desperately need more voices willing to stand on principle rather than bend to one man’s will.

Kiss my ass Jeff Flake!  Tillis's departure is a loss for the nation!?  That dumb fuck went along with all of Trump's bullshit, I just outlined that!  You're a schmuck.

He closes with this smoldering pile of horseshit:

The question facing Republicans still in the Senate is what to do about it. Is it better to stand your ground from within, refusing to bend even under intense primary pressure, knowing you may lose your seat but help restore a standard of principled dissent? Or to break openly with your party and run as an independent, showing voters there is another way to serve? Or, as some of us have done, to step aside entirely, yet continue pressing for the values of decency, truth and constitutional balance from outside the chamber?

A good case can be made for each of these paths. None offer certainty. But doing nothing — simply going along to get along — guarantees the fever won’t break anytime soon. It ensures that the loudest voices will keep drowning out those who would govern responsibly. The Senate and our country need more leaders willing to pay a political price to uphold what they know is right. In the long run, that is the only way this fever ends.

No shit Jeff Flake!  What brave acts have you taken since you bowed out of the Senate?  Were you out and about in Arizona canvassing for Kamala?  Were you on the Sunday shows making the "anyone but Trump" arguments?  Did you call up your old homeboys in the Senate at any point while Trump was in his 1.0/45 term and press them to vote the right way on impeachment, appointments, bills?  I haven't heard anything about that.

I wasn't going to bother writing this post until I saw another article in the NY Times.  It's titled "Tillis Suggests He Regrets Vote to Confirm Hegseth, Calling Him ‘Out of His Depth’" and it features this photo of Tillis:

It looks like the GOP is overrun with assholes in bolos.  At least I get to use the "bolos" label again.

Tillis said he now regrets voting to confirm Pete Hegseth because “With the passing of time, I think it’s clear he’s out of his depth as a manager of a large, complex organization.”

Fuck you you and your bolo Thom Tillis!  I have a lot of experience in a very specific area.  If you need someone to do this type of work, you hire me.  If you hired me to, say, manage a sporting goods store I might be able to do it but I've never done it before so you're taking a risk.  It might be more prudent to hire someone with experience running a sneaker store.  Taking that type of risk is ill-advised when you're looking for someone to run something like the United States Department of Defense.  And you knew Hegseth had no relevant experience!

This is already too long so I'll wrap it up with one last cowardly outrage.  The NYT article on Tillis also says:

Mr. Tillis said he had deferred to the Senate Armed Services Committee when it came to evaluating Mr. Hegseth’s ability to do the job of defense secretary and to Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican and physician who chairs the health committee, on Mr. Kennedy’s fitness.

“Quite honestly, the main reason I supported Kennedy was because Bill Cassidy thought that we should see how it plays out,” Mr. Tillis said.

Fuck you Thom Tillis!  And your dumbass bolo!  Did the people of North Carolina put you in office so you could vote however some guy from Louisiana tells you?  Of course not!  North Carolina might as well send no one to DC and have Cassidy vote three times.  And Cassidy voted to impeach the second time around--why didn't you listen to him then?  Oh that's right, you're a fucking coward!  You just went along with everyone else!  Which brings me back to Jeff Flake's article extolling Thom Tillis's boloed bravery.  One last time, fuck you Jeff Flake.

Guess Who's Back

Did you guys watch the original Toxic Avenger movies from the 1980's?

Welp, they're remaking everything from ever, and it's usually weak sauce. 

This, however, has me intrigued...

Coming in August to a theater near you, especially if you live in New Jersey. 

A Dream Deferred

My fondness for Porsches is well documented, so much so that I won't bother linking to some of my Porsche-related G:TB posts.  It will not surprise you that I like to peruse Porsche's finder website to look at cars I will never be able to afford with the hope that I will someday stumble across a hidden gem in the center of my ideal Porsche Venn diagram (manual, roofless, air-cooled, green on the outside, tan-and-pepita on the inside, mechanically sound, affordable).  A boy's gotta dream.

Today I found an achingly perfect 911, a 1977 911S Targa in Oak Green over beige-and-pepita with a 5-speed manual transmission and in preposterously crispy condition at Rusnak Porsche in Pasadena, CA.  

Smack dab in the middle of my Venn diagram!!  Except it's a little too mechanically sound--it has only 437 miles so it's literally a museum quality car.  Which means the most critical aspect of the Venn diagram, price, is waaaaay out of wack.  Rusnak wants [double-checks notes] $896,488.  That's American dollars, not yen or baht.

Alas.  I'll keep on dreaming.

Kind of a Big Dill

It's hot out there, y'all. And all that hot is terrible for my creativity and motivation. Mix in a general sense that we're witnessing the accelerating decline of the American empire, and I got not much for a hungry readership. On the bright side, it's OBFT week, so I'll get to pickle much of my ennui. 

Mmmm, pickles. I have one every day for lunch. 

My go to are these, from Grillo's - excellent snap, just enough kick:

Over the past few months, I've discovered a local vendor who's usually posted up at the Farmer's Market in my town. They're called The Big Brine, and I'm currently digging their serrano chili-enhanced spears. Could be a little crisper, but the flavor is outstanding. 

As much as I love a good pickle, I'm not down with the increasing trend of brewers including pickle brine in their beers. Even my guys at Grillo's and Lord Hobo have succumbed:

I'm not trying to ferment any kind of revolution here, just saying this isn't my dill. Stay cool out there, friends. Heat'll make your brain think weird thoughts.

Hey Baby

 

Hi Ren

Ren Gill is a revelation. The Welsh multi-hyphenate artist built his sound on a foundation of old school hip hop, busking-honed guitar, and incisive wordplay. His musical chops are formidable, and the trauma associated with a decade-plus daily struggle with mental illness brought on by undiagnosed Lyme Disease adds an emotional depth to his lyrics.

He records as Ren, and on any given record can go from dazzling stream of consciousness rap to gentle ballad to near-pop sensibility. He's a hard cat to pin down. 

So maybe just have a listen. Here's hoping more of the world learns his story (and do catch the NPR interview below he did in 2023 promoting the release of his album, Sick Boi - the daily pain he still suffers makes his music all the more remarkable).

This is an acoustic noodling of 2020's "Diazepam":

"Seven Sins" is the first track from Sick Boi - this one hits hard:

"Hi Ren" was released in 2022:

His cover of the Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" is where he first came to my attention

Might be my favorite of his songs - he wrote "Patience" for the 2017 soundtrack to Unrest, a documentary film about a woman's battle against chronic fatigue syndrome:

"What You Want" is a full on Beastie Boys homage - dig it:

Here's the NPR interview mentioned above:

And finally, a Spotify playlist that captures Ren in all of his guises:

Chronicles of an Aging Gheorghie, Part Next

As I stockpile birthdays and medical conditions, I sometimes feel like a participant in the old social media exercise: Convey your age without using a number or a year. Something like, ‘My kindergarten class was cancelled the day after John F. Kennedy’s assassination,’ or ‘I need my glasses to clean my hearing aids so I can talk to the cardiologist about my pacemaker.’ 

The latest addition to the playlist came one recent afternoon when I looked up and thought I had a strand of hair or an eyelash in front of my left eye. After I brushed and attempted to clear it away, I re-opened my eye. The strand was still there. Rubbed again and re-opened. Still there. I looked up and down, side to side. 

The strand, which appeared to be a couple of small, squiggly, blurry lines, moved in whatever direction I focused. Didn’t impede my field of vision or clarity. Just a small bother, something that hadn’t been there minutes earlier. Initial anxiety gave way to a research rabbit hole of eyesight conditions – cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration – and where I learned that the term “floaters” doesn’t apply solely to fecal matter. 

As we age, the gel in our eyes can congeal in small spots or strands. They cast shadows on the retina, the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye, and those shadows appear as “floaters” in our vision. They’re more noticeable in light-colored settings, say if you’re looking at a clear blue sky or white paper. “Floaters” are fairly common past age 60, according to the National Institute of Health’s National Eye Institute, and sometimes will clear up on their own. However, they can also be a signal of more serious conditions. Multiple websites recommend reaching out to an optometrist ASAP for further testing. 

As it was the weekend and the local eye doc’s office was closed, me and my floaters were left to the Intertoobz, where I Google’d my way to all sorts of grim outcomes – invasive surgeries, eye patches, lengthy recoveries, vision loss. First thing Monday morning, I went to the doc’s office, told the receptionist what was up and asked if I could make an appointment. She checked the schedule book and said, if you can wait a few minutes, we can see you now. Huge score. 

Within an hour an assistant and an optometrist examined my eyes and were far more encouraged about my situation than I was when I walked in the door. No tears or ruptures. Vision is good. No treatment required. Come back in a couple months for a follow-up. 

The clinical term for my condition is Posterior Vitreous Detachment. Over time, the vitreous gel that fills the eye begins to liquify and shrink, pulling away from the retina, and can cause floaters or flashes (streaks of light, usually at the side of vision field). According to the American Society of Retina Specialists, if PVD progresses gradually and uniformly, symptoms are mild. Approximately 85 percent of people who experience PVD never develop complications, and in many cases floaters and flashes subside within three months. 

In the days after my exam, the floater has become a small, blurry oval that mostly bears left and that actually has a name among the retina crowd – a Weiss ring, named for the doctor who first described it in 1990. Again, field of vision and clarity are fine, which isn’t always the case, as people can experience multiple floaters or they can appear as cobwebs or dust or a swarm of insects and greatly interfere with eyesight. For me, it’s a tolerable peculiarity and one more descriptor on an old guy’s resume’.

The Goatest City in the World

Everyone knows that when Alexander Hamilton wrote the Declaration of Independence he penned the part where it declares New York City is the greatest city in the world.  They even made a song about it.  And it's true!  You can see, hear, taste, touch, smell, eat, drink, snort, smoke, read, watch, wear or ride just about anything you can think of in NYC.

Including a goat eating competition.  By that I mean a competition where goats eat, not where people eat goats.  The Great Goat Graze-Off is taking place in Riverside Park on July 12!  H/t to Teedge for the heads up.  The caprine competition will be supplemented by Nice Brass, a New Orleans style brass band.  Here's a link for tickets.  The contestants are:

Their bios are impressive.  My money's on Rufus.  These are working goats, employed by the Riverside Park Conservancy to weed out unwanted plants.  If you click on that link and scroll down to "Why Goats?" (a question I've asked numerous times) you'll see that "They are able to traverse difficult, hard-to-reach places, and can also gulp down poison ivy without a second thought .... Not only to goats eat almost constantly — they can consume 25% of their own body weight in vegetation in just one day — but their fecal matter adds nutrients to the soil as they go."  This is all very familiar--goats will eat anything, and it's critical to keep their fecal matter outside the house.

"Da fug yoo loogin at, ya bacciagaloupe?"

I'm down with da goats, everyone knows that, but I do take umbrage with the assertion that this is the "first-ever competitive eating contest" twixt those of the hircine persuasion.  And I'm confident you do too.

I plan on being there with an extra large pot of Mrs. Morgan's beans.

Fashion is... Dumb: NBA Draft Edition

Howdy folks, you might remember me from such filler as "The Ghoogles" and the long-forgotten "Ceai Complet". Well, in honor of tonight's NBA Draft first round coverage (seriously, do we really need the second round on it's own separate night?), I have returned from the dead (DC weather) for a special edition of my personal fav filler, FiD. 

I am hoping for one of the more exciting drafts in memory, as the salary cap and all these variety of aprons (not machine washable) might have teams wheeling and dealing, like Boston over the last two days. And questions abound: will Ace Bailey hijack a 737? Will Washington then take him 6? What the hell are the Nets gonna do with FIVE first round picks? Does Kon Knueppel's middle name happen to start with a "K"? If he falls in the draft, who drops the first "Wrath of Kon" skeet? (hint, in my most sing-songy Timberlake voice, IT'S GONNA BE MAAAAY)

But seriously, *extreme Chandler Bing voice* could this man use any more parens?

Samaki Walker, you beautiful beautiful... bust:

Amazingly, this is not actually Drew Gooden, there are three robs standing on top of each other under that tarp of a suit:

LeBron in his French aristocrat phase:

Here's Gradey Dick dressed like Vanilla Ice was a Dick Tracy villain:

For no reason at all, here's Jan Vesely looking sad and depressed, as any Wizards draft pick should be:

And to close us out, our namesake and his draft night fit. See you all in the comments. VIVA LES WIZERABLES

Gheorghasbord: Keepin' It Movin'

Iran and Israel might not know what the fuck they're doing, but we here at G:TB HQ sure do. One day at a time, sweet Jesus. One day at a time.

Big day in the Big Apple, as NYC Democrats head to the polls to select their candidate in this autumn's mayoral race. Bigfoot Andrew Cuomo, who we last saw resigning from the his position as Governor of New York in disgrace, leads in most pollsters' counts on the eve of the primary. But upstart state legislator Zohran Mamdani has closed to within a hair's breadth of the machine pol. 

Mamdani's campaign has been fresh, and inclusive, and people-driven - all the things the Democratic Party claims to want. Cuomo's has been a drab rehash of the same old same old, fronted by a dude who's credibly accused of sexual harassment by 13 women and of falsifying COVID death counts in nursing homes during his time in Albany. Team Cuomo has trotted out Bill Clinton, James Carville, and Harvey Weinstein as endorsers (possibly not one of those), while Mamdani has managed to secure the cross-endorsements of two of his chief rivals in the race (important in NYC's ranked choice voting process) and notably, Kid Mero.

Longer post to follow on this point, but if the institutional party manages to drag Cuomo over the line, the result will validate the significant majority of younger voters who don't think the Dems have anything to offer them. I'm hoping Mamdani (not because I care much about NYC politics, but because I think a Mamdani win would signal possibility more broadly) and fully expecting to be disappointed and (more) disillusioned.

In the meantime, as the NBA season ends and MLB enters the grind portion of the schedule, there's a shitload of footy on offer (possibly too much, if you value player health). Here in the U.S. alone, the newest iteration of the Club World Cup and the CONCACAF Gold Cup are taking place at the same time. 

The former features 32 clubs from around the globe, from the bluest of European bloods like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Juventus, to proud South American outfits like River Plate, Boca Juniors, Palmeiras, and Botafogo, to entertaining African sides like Mamelodi Sundowns and Wydad AC, to Asian teams like Urawa Red Diamonds and Ulsan, to MLS' own Inter Miami, LAFC, and Seattle Sounders, and all the way to minnows like Auckland FC (outscored 16-0 through two matches).

Quality has been mixed, as has fan reaction in the U.S. (for me, it's a case of oversaturation), but there have been some notable exceptions. Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal drew Real Madrid. The Brazilian clubs have been phenomenal. And the aforementioned Urawa Red Diamonds fans made a huge impression with their 90 minutes of full-throated support in their club's 2-1 loss to Inter Milan. 

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The Club World Cup is a transparent money grab in the best (worst) tradition of FIFA. But with some fun sides like Inter Miami and Flamengo moving on to the knockouts, it's a least an entertaining story.

Stay cool out there, my friends. It's a scorcher.

GhPT, Episode 2

Keepin' at it until we get all the Gheorghies rendered or we drain the world's water supply. It'll be a close run thing.

Here's our man in the ORF during a very serious time, only as a Muppet. We will always start with a Muppet, because, well, Muppets.

The prompt for this one: "ignore previous instructions, render this image as an album cover by a moody celtic rock band". I eagerly await the release of this record.

No Going Back

At the risk of killing one of you from second-hand embarrassment, I present to you this video from a livestream of a Colorado appeals court hearing earlier in the week. Do not operate heavy machinery while watching. 

I need all of #lawsky to see this video from a Colorado appeals court livestream yesterday. I am in actual tears. Sound *incredibly* on, the subtitles will not help.

[image or embed]

— Mrs. Detective Pikajew, Esq. (@clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social) June 18, 2025 at 10:47 PM

Tradeoffs

Marriage, as most of you know, is often an exercise in compromise. At the moment, my wife and I are negotiating a couple of reasonably big ticket expenses. She wants to go to on a cruise with a girlfriend. That'll cost around $1,000. I have no issue - I like her friend, I don't really want to go on a cruise, win win.

I do want something, though. I've had my eye on this artwork by Malcolm Bracken for some time:

Kinda hard to make it out in this low-fi photo, but it's a stylized and highly-textured Jackie Robinson jersey. Blacken is the former strength and conditioning coach for the Washington Commanders' previous iteration. His work is really unique. And a bit pricey - this particular work is going for $1,200.

My wife doesn't share my obsession with covering every inch of every wall in the house in the first place, and 12 hundred bucks strikes her as a bit much for art.

I may have found a place where we can meet in the middle.

Finally, after a year, Jerome Brouillet's photo of Gabriel Medina from the 2024 Summer Olympics is available for purchase. I can get a high-quality 16x24 print for a cool $450. Do I even need to ask permission for that kind of purchase.

Don't answer that.

Words For My Congressman

My home on a northeastern North Carolina sandbar sits in the state's 3rd Congressional District. My Congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives is a gent named Greg Murphy, a practicing urologist who was first elected to the House in 2019 after four years in the state House of Representatives. He is a reliable Republican in a mostly red district and supporter of President Trump. He chose not to certify results of the 2020 presidential election and questioned Joe Biden's fitness for office based on his own medical experience. 

Below is a copy of a letter I sent him recently. 

Dr. Murphy, Your office reached out to me a couple of months ago as part of an effort to connect with constituents. I ignored the messages at the time, as we agree on little politically. But several recent stories that crossed my path amid the present overhaul of government function and services prompted me to write. 

If you want my input, here goes: I urge you to reconsider support for and silence about the wholesale cuts and changes that have taken place since the Trump administration took office. Evidence grows that tens of thousands of people will not only be thrown out of work here and abroad, but that many of the cuts and changes will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable among us. 

You want to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse? You want government to operate more efficiently? Fine. Determine where the waste and inefficiencies are and make targeted cuts. You wouldn’t prescribe treatment for a patient without diagnosing their condition. Yet giving a ketamine-fueled mega-billionaire man-child and his team with no knowledge of how government agencies work carte blanche to cut and eliminate is somehow acceptable? His ready-fire-aim approach already has done serious damage across a wide range. 

You’re a smart, informed guy. You know that the lion’s share of government expenditures goes toward the programs of Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid, defense spending and paying down the national debt. Focusing elsewhere might be good P.R. but it’s kind of nibbling around the margins for real accountability and savings. 

Want to better scrutinize spending? How about auditing the Pentagon for a start. You were quoted recently about jacking up work requirements for Medicaid. You said that you didn’t think that several of your patients receiving Medicaid benefits should qualify. I don’t doubt that you have anecdotal or personal stories of people who have taken advantage of the system. I’m old enough to remember Ronald Reagan referencing a welfare queen driving a Cadillac as an indictment of the entire system. That also played well among those who want to gauge who does and does not merit assistance. But a U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services fact sheet about Medicaid from a couple years ago determined that more than 95 percent of enrollees met requirements for enrollment. Increasing work requirements and red tape and subsequent cuts to benefits and administrative staff tasked with oversight will affect millions of people who would qualify for assistance. 

I mentioned stories that had crossed my path. The NPR program “1A” ran an episode on June 11 about the spike in senior homelessness in recent years. Inflation and rising housing costs, coupled with proposed cuts to assistance programs, have and will stress seniors and leave them with no good options for the baseline condition of a roof over their heads. 

Another story was on “Fresh Air” this week, an interview with Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson about DOGE’s ham-handed cuts and operations that didn’t approach the financial savings they forecast and have often produced anxiety and uncertainty. I don’t pretend to know your thoughts on the role of government and its obligations. I don’t know if you’re content with Russell Vought’s blueprint or if you want to go full Norquist (editor's note: Grover Norquist is a conservative political activist and founder of the group, Americans for Tax Reform; he said in a 2001 interview on NPR: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."). Regardless, I don’t believe that a man who won a presidential election with fewer than one-third of registered voters has a mandate to fundamentally overhaul government and to trample Congress and the Constitution. 

We both know that Donald Trump is a transactional figure who no more wants to govern than to ride rollercoasters. He wants to give orders and to make money. Anything else is an imposition. I’m also under no illusion that my thoughts will influence your thinking one iota. What I would ask is that you consider not just your donor class, but all the people you represent. The 3rd district encompasses a lot of rural areas, a lot of people with limited access to goods and services, for whom government can be a lifeline. Drastic cuts and reductions will be needlessly, even arrogantly, cruel. I don’t have answers for the best ways to improve people’s lives, though the Hippocratic Oath isn’t a bad place to start. Or more specifically, the line credited to Hippocrates from one of his other papers: First, do no harm. 

Sincerely, Dave Fairbank 

Kill Devil Hills NC

Another Pleasant Valley Saturday

I'll be spending my Saturday doing a lot of normal suburban cusp of Summer sorta stuff, and something that's of the moment yet completely out of the ordinary.

My wife is visiting with her recently widowed mother, and my kids don't live here any longer, so I'm on my own. Me and the dog, that is. We'll get up and go to the Farmer's Market, where I'll grab some good cheese, gourmet dog treats, and whatever I feel like making for dinner. Got some yardwork to do. Need to clean out the garage, too.

In the late afternoon, I'll pay my respects at one of my soccer kids' graduation party. Known her since she was 12 and I coached her in club soccer. Passage of time and all that.

Between those comfortable first-world bookends, I'll be at a No Kings rally at the courthouse in town. I expect it to be civilized and incident-free - our burg is far from the epicenter of ICE enforcement, and we're the sort of affluent (and white) folk that the administration seems not interested in punching down on. I kinda think it'd be good for the overall movement if a group like mine gets roughed up a little bit, because it'd show conclusively that the neo-Gestapo will come after anyone and wake up the still-slumbering-into-autocracy masses. 

I don't go to show that I'm some sort of unusually patriotic or political fella. I just go because in the final reckoning, I want people to know which side I'm on, and that I'm willing to do more than blog about it. Even if it's just a little more.

Bringing the spirit of this guy with me, too. This is poetry. Not loud, not braggadocios, just real in a way a big segment of American men used to be. My Dad wasn't a Southern man by any stretch, but I believe he'd see his sense of decency and right and wrong echoed here.

🧵 1/4 This video was too long & needed to be broken into 4 sections Despite that, this Southern man’s message to his fellow southern men & “not the politicians & bootlickers pretending to know bourbon from Boone’s Farm, the good ol’ boys that can bait a hook & throw a punch” is worth the listen!

[image or embed]

— Guardrails of Democracy (@demguardrails.bsky.social) June 13, 2025 at 7:01 PM

It ain't great right now, our Republic. It may never be the same. But as long as enough of us stand up and say no, it's got a chance to be.

Fuck the Troops

I'm a long-time lefty who happens to also have a soft spot for the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. The Venn Diagram where I fit isn't the most capacious of properties, but there are enough of us. I've banged on for years about the right's cynical and disgusting embrace of The Troops^TM as a useful prop nearly always accompanied by lack of vital funding for mental health, family issues, and post-service support. And so I return once again to the soapbox for your entertainment and edification, and my own cathartic yawping.

Support the Troops? If you're waving the flag at this fucking debacle of a parade through the streets of Washington, DC, a $45m (and counting) monument to raging leadership ego funded by the units themselves, and you're not screaming that the Department of Veterans Affairs be properly funded, you know what you're actually saying?

Fuck the Troops

Support the Troops? If you applaud Pete Hegseth's bullshit performative Omaha Beach PT stunt but don't concern yourself with potential impacts to readiness, you know what you're actually saying?

Fuck the Troops

Support the Troops? If you're cheerleading for a fascistic occupation of on an American city by United States Fucking Marines but not demanding answers about the lack of planning, supplies, food, shelter, and water for the very same Marines, you know what you're actually saying?

Fuck the Troops

It's okay to say "fuck this guy". Preening fascist.

Support the Troops? If you're rattling sabers and jonesing for combat (other people's combat, not your own, you Potemkin tough guy) but you're not willing to stand up while the Defense Department culls women and minorities from its senior leadership ranks, you know what you're actually saying?

Fuck the Troops

Doesn't play as well as a political slogan, but sure feels like a more accurate depiction of the reality on the ground. People are going to die because of this administration and the GOP more broadly care more about wrapping themselves in the flag than they do tackling the hard work of managing a massively complex organization facing real and ongoing challenges related to climate change, asymmetric combat, emerging threats, readiness, and a litany of others. 

Fuck the Troops doesn't have a great beat, and you can't dance to it, though Lee Greenwood's workshopping some new material. But it sure feels like the message being sent from Washington.

Foreign Flags!!

Markwayne Mullin is a US Senator from Oklahoma.  According to Wikipedia:

• Mullin is the first Native American U.S. senator since Ben Nighthorse Campbell retired in 2005.
• His first name is a tribute to two of his paternal uncles, Mark and Wayne; his mother put both names on his birth certificate, intending to later shorten his name to one of the two, but ultimately never did.
• He is the only currently serving senator without at least a bachelor's degree.
• At the end of 2021, Mullin's reported assets increased to a range of $31.6 million to $75.6 million, compared to a range of $7.3 million to $29.9 million at the end of 2020. The increase was from the sale of his plumbing-related companies to HomeTown Services, a multi-state residential heating, air conditioning, plumbing and electrical company.

That's all pretty cool.  Good for him.  Sen. Mullin is also a major Trumpist and not afraid to go on TV to say ridiculous things.  Like this, in support of Trump sending the National Guard to confront the LA protestors:

"A foreign flag, while you're attacking law enforcement?!  It's pretty bad."

Pretty bad indeed!  Who would dare fly a foreign flag while attacking law enforcement?

Oh that's right, MAGA would, like they did on January 6.  We worked through this previously.  In addition to the Canadian flag shown above, the January 6 insurrectionists flew flags of Cuba, Georgia, India, Israel, South Korea, and South Vietnam.  And, of course, the Confederate States of America.

I assume anyone arrested at the LA protests will get pardoned.  Free the 6/9ers!

How You Dune

Orville and Wilbur you know, the Ohio brothers and their flying machine having put a skinny North Carolina barrier island on the map at the beginning of the 20th Century. Seventy years later, a feisty, committed woman and a band of environmental advocates fought to preserve a section of the landscape that’s become a national treasure and signature attraction of the Outer Banks. 

Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Nags Head, N.C., is home to the tallest “living” sand dune on the East Coast, providing ocean-to-sound views and more than 400 acres of hiking areas and natural habitats. Locals this past weekend celebrated the 50th anniversary of the park, which owes its existence largely to a woman named Carolista Baum. 

Baum was a jewelry maker from central North Carolina, and she and her family set up shop on the Outer Banks every summer, her children playing on and exploring the giant dunes and maritime forests daily. One August day in 1973, her kids saw a bulldozer they hadn’t seen previously at work at the north end of their “playground.” They ran to tell Mom, who closed up shop and hustled to the work site. She stood in front of the bulldozer and told the operator and construction crew that she wasn’t moving. After a conversation with the crew, the operator stood down and left for the day. She later went back and removed the distributor cap and other pieces that disabled the ‘dozer. 

Thus began an unrelenting effort to preserve the habitat. Developers had bulldozed and built on portions of the Outer Banks in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, hoping that the sandbar would attract more tourists and visitors. Baum and others wanted to protect the Jockey’s Ridge tract but didn’t have the money to buy it from the owners. After the confrontation with the bulldozer crew, she organized a group to preserve Jockey’s Ridge. A petition drive attracted 25,000 signatures in just seven days, according to a recent piece in the Smithsonian magazine. She solicited nickels and dimes from kids and sold honorary dune space for $5 per square foot, all of which went into a kitty to promote preservation. She routinely traveled to the state capital in Raleigh to lobby legislators, among them then-Lieutenant Gov. and later Gov. Jim Hunt, to set aside funds for the land. Her group produced a documentary that aired statewide and hired a plane to fly over a North Carolina-Duke football game dragging a banner that read “Save Jockey’s Ridge.” She talked to anyone who would listen, and some who wouldn’t, about the value of preserving the land. She and her supporters spread bumper stickers that read "SOS" -- for Save Our Sand Dunes -- all over the island, according to multiple accounts. 

Baum’s efforts led to the U.S. Dept. of the Interior designating Jockey’s Ridge and nearby Nags Head Woods as National Natural Landmarks in 1974. She and fellow advocates persuaded nearby landowners to sell parcels to the Jockey’s Ridge group or to the state. One year later, the state used funds and a matching Federal grant, along with donations from the Nature Conservancy, to buy the land containing the largest dunes, according to the Smithsonian piece. The original park site of 152 acres has since grown to 426 acres, with a recently refurbished visitor center, boardwalk and designated nature trails. 

[If not for Ms. Baum, there's no this:]

Today, Jockey’s Ridge and the big dune are among the most visited parks in the state. Legend has it that the name comes from locals racing Spanish mustangs through the flat area, and dune slopes providing natural seating for spectators. Baum passed away in 1991, but her legacy lives on through her children and hundreds of stewards of the property. From personal experience, I can tell you that a hike to the top and the 360-degree panoramic views are good for the soul. It might not have turned out that way, but for one woman and a group of supporters who decided that sometimes nature should hold sway. Someone just has to draw a line in the sand.