Caught In Joy: Music for Flow, Rest, and Reset kottke.org

The moment I clicked through to the Caught In Joy YouTube channel, I knew I was going to love it. The description: Over 80 albums designed to focus, flow and reset. Instrumental electronic music for y

levels from my in-progress game ‘mirria’

trailer/wishlist/demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3738340/Mirria/

Trump has called out the National Guard to protect his floating chunks of badly-applied and criminally contracted paint from tourists

They are the D.C. National Guard, who were deployed by Donald Trump last summer to protect the streets of Washington from marauding muggers. Now that their job is more aesthetic, they still carry sidearms. They are wear bullet-proof combat vests. And they have been assigned by Donald Trump to patrol the edges of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to protect floating slabs of freshly-applied American Flag Blue paint from being carried away by tourists as souvenirs.

I am fully cognizant that my eager coverage of the Reflecting Pool debacle might seem rather misplaced, even petty. After all, ICE agents are still out there arresting undocumented migrants and taking them away to so-called “detention centers” that resemble nothing less than a system of concentration camps around the country. RFK Jr. is still figuring out ways to either confuse people about vaccines or outright deny them to those seeking protection from serious diseases. Trump and his family are still keeping themselves occupied by enriching themselves at taxpayer expense.

But the algae growing at breakneck speed in the Reflecting Pool and the apparent disintegration of the paint that Donald Trump personally chose to cover its bottom, and which he inspected while the job was being done, is just plain delicious because it is of a piece with not only Trump’s two presidencies, but his entire life.

Someone sent me an email today with the apt reminder that everything Trump touches turns to shit. Indeed. His “college” was closed due to fraud lawsuits he had to pay $25 million to settle. Trump Airlines was a total bust. He somehow managed to run three casinos into bankruptcy, businesses that pretty much feature guaranteed profit margins. He couldn’t even make a buck from Trump Vodka. He committed massive impeachable offenses in his first term in office, a practice he continues today even more robustly.

He managed to wage a war on Iran, a pariah country across multiple oceans with a worthless currency and a military a tenth the size of the U.S., and he lost it spectacularly, signing a surrender document in the middle of a dinner in the Palace of Versailles, of all places. Even that was something of a debacle. Scheduled to do the signing at the dinner given by President Macron, Trump forgot to bring a paper copy of his surrender document, causing his Secretary of State, Marco “Too Big Shoes” Rubio, to scamper through the palace looking for a printer he could use to produce the necessary printed document.

The Reflecting Pool clusterfuck delights me because it is so reflective, if I can be given leave to reach for a poetic metaphor, of Trump’s bad taste, incompetence, ignorance, and need to put his stamp on everything he sees. A law passed by Congress finally caused his name to be removed from the Kennedy Center. This time, a one-cell organism has thrived in the waters of the Reflecting Pool and won the war Trump waged on tradition, history, and good taste.

Yaaaaay, algae! Go forth, happy pond scum, and multiply!

This White House is a circus

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MeidasTouch 

The lawsuit argues: “The event, billed as ‘UFC Freedom 250,’ is being organized by the UFC, whose chief executive, Dana White, is a close friend and ally of the President. The President is giving White and his company what none have enjoyed before: unfettered access to the White House and Lincoln Memorial to stage a private, for-profit sports event.”

The suit points to reports that UFC VIP packages are being sold for between $1 million and $1.5 million per person and notes that sponsors are “clambering over each other to see their brands plastered adjacent to the Executive Residence and Reflecting Pool.”

The lawsuit also highlights the role of Paramount Skydance, stating: “No American will be able to take in this ‘celebration of America’ without first paying $8.99 plus tax for a Paramount Plus streaming subscription.”

Plaintiffs further question whether the event is really a celebration of America or a tribute to Trump himself, noting it coincides with Trump’s 80th birthday. The suit even warns Trump may seek to keep parts of the massive structure on White House grounds permanently, citing his own comments comparing it to the Eiffel Tower.

Attorney Brendan Ballou told MeidasTouch: “The basic question we need to ask as a country is whether we want to use our most sacred national monuments to enrich the President and his allies. We think the question answers itself.”

The lawsuit seeks an emergency court order to stop the event before it takes place.