Bobservations

You know it’s been said that 50% of all marriages end in divorce and ours is no exception.

It happened like this: one morning over breakfast Carlos began talking about Rosita; since he’s home more often than I, the two have bonded and while she sleeps between us she will only sit in his lap, but this isn’t about that. He began talking about how much like a dog she is because she roams the house checking on her people; he said she came out to the kitchen to see him, and then she disappeared down the hallway to find me. I said:

“Tuxedo used to do that. He used to come to the door, like a dog would, whenever we came home from somewhere.”

And Carlos said:

“Well, Rosita seems smarter than Tuxedo.”

Yes, he did; and he meant it, and so I said:

“This is going to sound crazy, and I don’t care cuz it is, but don’t you ever say a negative word about Tuxedo again.”

“Well, I was only—”

“BAH!!!!!”

“I just meant—”

“BAH!!!!!!!!!”

And because he saw the look on my face, with the glimmer of a tear in my eye, he said:

“Sorry.”

And all was right in the house again.

This week’s Tuxedo Memory is a quickie … from May 2012, just Tuxedo posing for a photo; he did love to have his picture taken!

"Caturday TuxedoDay

The Most handsome Cat Ever."

Note to self: remind Carlos of this.

Ryan Basye owns an Omaha, Nebraska apartment building and when he asked his daughters, ages five, seven, and nine, what color he should paint it, they all wanted the colors of the rainbow.

While his daughters were motivated by a love for colors, Basye was intrigued by the idea because of a 2022 conversation he’d had with a fellow property owner, during which the person made anti-LGBTQ+ remarks. So Basye painted the house rainbow and, in addition to making his daughters heroes at school, the house has brought joy to more people than he ever predicted:

“It puts a smile on my face knowing that neighbor has to see it every day [and] this place is right by an elementary school so we get lots of kids walking by with smiles on their faces. It has been about 99% positive.”

Basye—who owns about 25 properties and has been a realtor for 20 years—offered to help his tenants move out if the attention got to be too much but his tenants love the building.

So do I.

X, formerly known as Twitter, could lose as much as $75 million in advertising revenue by the end of the year as dozens of major brands pause their marketing campaigns after X owner, Elon Musk, endorsed an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory this month.

Oh Elon, now buy Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby! And Walmart.

Neo-Nazis gathered in the town of Wunsiedel in Germany last week and found themselves the target of an anti-fascist prank when they inadvertently raised $12,000+ dollars [€10,000] for an anti-extremist organization.

After years of far-right extremists marching through Wunsiedel this year the organizers of Rechts gegen Rechts [Right against Right] took a different approach and had local residents and businesses sponsor the 250 participants of the march. For every meter they walked, €10 went to a program called EXIT Deutschland, which helps people escape extremist groups.

Campaigners hung posters to make the march look more like a sporting event, with slogans such as “If only the Führer knew!” and “Mein Mampf” [‘My Munch’] next to a table laden with bananas. They even hung a sign at the end, thanking the marchers for their “donations.”

And this is how Nazi’s donate to anti-hate groups! You know, cuz Nazis are stupid.

Fox News idiot Jason Chaffetz got roasted on X for claiming he spent $90 on a Thanksgiving turkey all thanks to Bidenomics:

“I mean, we went to go buy a turkey today. It was $90 for a turkey! It’s all a choice by Joe Biden. That is what Bidenomics is.”

To prove his point, Chaffetz posted a photo of the “premium young turkey” he bought from Meiers for $114.02—even more than the originally claimed $90—but failed to note in his idiotic snowflake rant that his turkey was “thoughtfully raised on sustainable family farms” and was “100% vegetarian fed, raised without antibiotics, no preservatives, minimally processed.”

Yes, this Fox News lying, rightwingnut MAGAt went out on bought himself a woke turkey!

This week Mr-Former-Fake-One-Term-Twice-Impeached-Currently-Four-Time-Criminally-Indicted-Not-My-President-Gurl came to South Carolian for the Palmetto Bowl game between Clemson and USC. And because he can’t control crowds he doesn’t hire, Thing 45 was soundly booed as he arrived and given many one finger salutes, at the game.

Even better is that billboard erected in downtown Columbia reminding him that he’s a loser.

Sometimes South Carolinians get it right.

PS Notice that the sign was sponsored by “Radical Leftist Vermin.”

On the flip side of South Carolinians,  this was the temperature yesterday morning when I woke up and believe me, you never heard so many people complaining about the first really cold day of the year.

Oh, people wait until February …

Marcus Freeman is thirty-seven, a former linebacker and currently the head coach at the University of Notre Dame. Would You Hit It?

My Thought: a friend who is a Notre Dame football fan posted his picture on her Facebook page and I commented:

“Oh my … ::::thud:::”

And I meant it.

Architecture Wednesday: St. John Street Loft

I love a  good loft and this one, a Victorian warehouse loft apartment in Clerkenwell, has been sensitively remodeled by Emil Eve Architects to create a rich and layered dwelling that retains the industrial character of the building while bringing it into the 21^st century.

The apartment was purchased as a large empty shell, consisting of an industrial palette of exposed brickwork walls and columns and board-marked concrete ceiling slab but then the architect created a series of contemporary rooms: a library foyer, dressing room, bathroom, primary with en suite, kitchen and pantry, and great room. Each was conceived as an independent room with bespoke timber joinery and ceramic tiling, while the existing brickwork and concrete ceilings and posts were left exposed.

You enter the apartment directly into the library space, with bookshelves and hidden storage lined entirely in solid European oak cabinetry; large format terrazzo tiles pick up the warm oak tones and align with the oak paneling. There are shifts in floor surfaces at each threshold to delineate a change in both atmosphere and function; there is oak chevron parquet in the living and sleeping spaces and a lighter terrazzo tile in the bathroom. Sliding oak pocket doors enable these doorways off the library to be opened fully, creating lateral views from one end of the apartment to the other; when closed, the library interior becomes a book-lined sanctuary.

At the west side of the apartment is a large open-plan kitchen, dining, and living space that enjoys afternoon light and a view of busy St John Street. The kitchen is designed to be distinct from the existing brick shell with its lime-washed birch and a large gray Valchromat island and stunning green tile backsplash.

On the east side, a spacious bedroom and flexible second bedroom, which doubles as an office and home-gym, face the sunrise, and a quieter  residential street. The use of lime-washed birch cabinetry, as in the kitchen, set against the rich oak parquet flooring, continues in the dressing room and bath; in the primary bedroom a natural clay plaster softens the exposed brickwork walls.

It's old and new, rustic and sleek, historic and modern and if I had the coins …

Click to emBIGGERate …

Dwell

Emil Eve Architect

Meme Dump

Vote. Vote Blue. Here's A Slew of Reasons Why

Here we are again, with a wee taste of the lunacy, racism, criminality, and bigotry and hate inside the GOP …

Back in 2004, Mike Johnson, current GOP House Speaker, was the lead attorney for Stockwell Place Elementary, a school being sued for pushing Christianity on its students. A set of Jewish parents claimed the school held prayer sessions, taught Christian songs in class and promoted a teacher-led prayer group called Stallions for Christ that met during recess.

Johnson warned his congregation at the Airline Drive Church of Christ in Shreveport that the lawsuit by the Jewish family was to keep Christian activities out of a public school:

“The ultimate goal of the enemy is silencing the gospel. This is spiritual warfare.”

No, it’s a family trying not to have another religion foisted upon their children without their consent. Imagine Mike Johnson’s reaction if Islam was pushed on his children at school.

Mike Johnson is a Christian Nationalist; trust.

This week, Governor Ron “Lifts” DeSantis awarded more than $28 million through the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund to expand semiconductor manufacturing and chip manufacturing through five workforce development projects.

To be clear President Biden made the funds available to Florida, where the Governor there will assign the funds, but DeSantis had nothing to do with the money coming in and offered zero thanks to the man who did.

President Joe Biden.

Shortly before Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina, United States Representative, and Republican, María Elvira Salazar praised the country as having everything, including “only one culture, only one religion and only one race, completely homogeneous.”

Christian Nationalist and racist ideals propagated by the GOP.

A 56-year-old man from western NY crashed his car near the Rainbow Bridge border checkpoint from the US into Canada. He was reportedly supposed to be at a Kiss concert that was cancelled, so he decided to go to a Niagara Falls casino in Canada with his wife in their $300,000 Bentley; they both died in a fiery crash.

But Fox News and right-wing Republicans, who have been waiting for a terror attack related to border security, to blame on Biden, began spreading disinformation that the vehicle was “full of explosives” and that it was a “terrorist attack.”

The man was pissed because KISS cancelled a concert and rightwingnuts and Fox News used that story to lie about a terror attack.

Back to Tiny Ron DeSantis who, in his latest appeal to MAGAts and racists, threatened to send “Kamala [Harris] back to her liberal homeland.”

Her homeland is California, but the racist tome of this remark seems to suggest that because of her skin color, Harris is not an American.

Racist. GOP. Ron DeSantis.

In Arkansas, GOP Governor and former Liar-In-Chief to Inmate # P01135809, Sarah Huckabee Sanders held kickoff party for the Arkansas Razorbacks 2023 football season which cost the people of Arkansas over $13,000, including $1400 for gingham tablecloths, $600 for pom-poms, and $450 for buttons that read “Best Gov/Best State;” it costs a lot to feed Aunt Lydia’s ego.

It was invitation-only and I guarantee the people of Arkansas did not sign off on their money being used to feed Huckleberry Cronies.

Is Joe Biden too old to be president? I’m not sure, though I’d prefer handing the reins off to someone younger, like Inmate # P01135809, who used Veterans Day to honor our troops by quoting Adolf Hitler:

“In honor of our great veterans on Veteran’s Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country, lie, steal and cheat on Elections … “

Hitler once said:

“We pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country,.”

Is Joe too old? Maybe, but between the choice of too old and someone who quotes Hitler I choose age over a traitor.

Speaking of Demented, here again is Inmate # P01135809, confusing President Biden with President Obama:

“The head of Hungary ... Viktor Orban, did anybody ever hear him? Probably, you know, considered very powerful, very powerful within his country and outside of his country, not exactly loved by some of the European nations ... he didn’t allow millions of people to invade his country ... so he doesn’t have crime and he doesn’t have the problems that they’re having in other countries where millions of people who are allowed to go in. But they were interviewing him two weeks ago and they said, ‘What would you advise President Obama? The whole world seems to be exploding and imploding.’ And he said ‘It’s very simple. He should immediately resign and they should replace him with President Trump, who kept the world safe.'”

Liar and demented.

And speaking of crazy, Ron DeSantis is telling Iowans that in the unlikely event the Bahamas got warlike and attacked South Florida, he would obliterate the island:

“And I thought to myself like if the Bahamas were firing rockets into Fort Lauderdale, like we would not accept that for like one minute. I mean, we would just level it. We would never be willing to live like that as Americans.”

Like I guess he like thinks Hamas and like the BaHamas are like the same place?

A vast majority of Republicans say they support installing deterrents such as razor wire and deadly buoy barriers in rivers to prevent immigrants from entering the country illegally, even if people are endangered or killed.

They are okay with murder.

Mississippi Governor, and Republican Tate Reeves’ top campaign contributors, who gave his campaign at least $50,000 received a total of $1.4 billion in state contracts or grants since he took office in 2020.

Quite a bargain. The GOP is for sale, clearly.

Some central Florida lawmakers are considering “all legislative, legal and executive options available” to stop business owners in a small town from voluntarily displaying rainbow decals in their windows indicating that they are “safe place” for LGBTQ+ people who feel threatened.

You can’t say gay, and you certainly can be gay-friendly, or even a safe place for LGBTQ+ Floridians.

The Houston Independent School District, the largest in Texas and the eighth-largest in the country, will eliminate librarian positions in 28 schools in order to turn the libraries into “discipline centers.” The move does not appear to be budget related, as librarians will be allowed to apply for other positions and the state has a $32 billion surplus.

No books; no study aids; detention centers.

Hung Cao, a Republican running for US Senate in Virginia, is warning voters that “witchcraft” has “taken over” in some parts of California because a place in Monterey, California that was once called ‘Lovers of Christ Point,’ is now called ‘Lover’s Point.'

“They took out the Christ, it’s ‘Lover’s Point,’ and it’s really—Monterey’s a very dark place now, a lot of witchcraft, and the Wiccan community has really taken over there. We can’t let that happen in Virginia.”

And so he’s running on the “There’s Witches In California” platform.

And that’s just a small taste of GOP lunacy.

Christian Nationalism; racism; anti-LGBTQ+; banning libraries; lying, cheating, g rifting; fearmongering.