Here’s something I saw on the sidewalk while walking the dog. Also: the dog.


The Patriotism Trap: Accepting the premise leads inevitably to the outcome. Hamilton Nolan


At 77, she’s as fit as a 25-year-old. What her body tells us about aging. The Washington Post


The evolution of the alpha male aesthetic. Bloomberg — Derek Guy walks through male style, from 19th Century bodybuilder Eugen Sandow to Joe Rogan and Andrew Tate. My style is best described as “are you sure you want to go out wearing that?”


“The Pitt’s” very horny fandom swallowed the web. Garbage Day — I love “The Pitt” but have not shipped anyone.


Please Enjoy These Images Of The 2025 Corgi Derby. Defector


Under Hegseth, Chaos Prevails at the Pentagon. NYTimes


An inside look at the New York City subway’s archaic signaling system. NYTimes — Fascinating article, beautiful photos and graphics.


How is it possible that we have lived in San Diego more than 25 years and have never been to the Creation & Earth History Museum?

The Creation and Earth History Museum is dedicated to the Biblical account of science and history. The museum showcases a literal six-day creation and young earth, including a human anatomy exhibit, life-size tabernacle display, age of the earth cave, dinosaur discovery zone and more.


For now at least, I’ve chosen to concentrate my social media activity on mitchw.blog and Facebook. I often just use Mastodon and Bluesky to send notifications that I have a new post up. I accept that costs me followers. But I don’t like it.

The platforms where I see the most activity are Facebook — which I just returned to in full force — and Tumblr. I just don’t seem to have gotten much traction on Bluesky and Mastodon.


I never was a Harry Potter fan but I admired J.K. Rowling enormously. It saddens me to see how her mind has become stunted and hateful

She has herself become like a character in a fantasy novel or comic book: a hero who became a supervillian.


I now go to an AI chatbot if I have a question, where formerly I’d do a Google search, find a website and look for the answer there. I still use a search engine if I’m looking for a particular website, which I often do.


10 TV character deaths that shocked fans. NYTimes — The death of Colonel Blake on “M*A*S*H” was and is the GOAT. It will never be topped.

But Adriana’s murder on Sopranos was respectable too.

Article author Jennifer Vineyard includes Buffy’s fake death. If I recall correctly, Buffy fake-died twice in the series. But the article fails to include the far greater death on that series: Buffy’s Mom.

This article includes a huge spoiler for a currently airing popular series.


Americans Are Obsessed With Protein and It’s Driving Nutrition Experts Nuts — The Wall Street Journal


The Republican wrecking ball is already battering San Diego

Trump and his Republican cronies are already inflicting pain on San Diego County, damaging veterans, education, public health, business, the homeless, migrants and more.

I recently started bookmarking articles chronicling the damage that Trump and his Republican lackeys are doing to us and our neighbors here in the county. Not hypothetical damage, or harm done elsewhere in the U.S. — I was looking for concrete financial, physical and emotional damage that Trump and his Republican supporters are doing here and now.

I had no trouble finding examples. Very soon, I found myself with 50 open tabs, and my browser crashed.

This article compiles all the information I’ve been able to find. It is a looooooooong article. I’ve broken everything up into sections for easier reading. Even as long as this article is, I’m sure I missed a lot.

I originally planned to headline this article “The Trump wrecking ball…. " But this isn’t just about Trump. The entire Republican party is complicit in the damage being done to the U.S. Sadly, that includes your nice Republican city council candidate who comes to all the PTA meetings. The Republican Party has demonstrated universal obedience to Trump. Local Republicans may have been able to resist quietly, for now, in some matters, but if Trump is allowed to continue, local Republicans will soon be brought to heel.


15 photos from Saturday’s Hands Off rally in El Cajon (San Diego), California

The rally got a few hundred people. There were a dozen events throughout the county and the rally in downtown San Diego reportedly got thousands of participants. Protesters rallied nationwide


I keep forgetting you can buy prints of historical photos from Shorpy.com, unframed or framed. I think I’m going to just forget it again, on purpose.


I rebooted my Mac and the Vivaldi browser deleted about 50 open tabs in a workspace. Argh. I think I’m going to take a little break from Vivaldi for a while. And I wish software was a solid object so I could stomp on it and throw it out the window.


Ezra Klein: The Emergency Is Here

Klein:

The president of the United States is disappearing people to a Salvadoran prison for terrorists. A prison known by its initials — CECOT. A prison built for disappearance. A prison where there is no education or remediation or recreation, because it is a prison that does not intend to release its inhabitants back out into the world. It is a prison where the only way out, in the words of El Salvador’s so-called justice minister, is a coffin.

On Monday, President Trump said, in the Oval Office, in front of the cameras, sitting next to President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, that he would like to do this to U.S. citizens, as well.

Klein goes into some detail on the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration itself admits was mistakenly sent to CECOT. The Trump administration itself admits Garcia is no terrorist or gang member. But they won’t lift a finger to get him back.

If Trump can do this to Garcia, he can do this to anyone. You, me, anyone.


Once Trump’s dictatorship is established there is no way back within the current US system. When his regime finally collapses the models for reform will be those of post-war reconstruction of a defeated and discredited state, a process which is sometimes successful, sometimes not, but always painful.

— Crooked Timber, The point of no return: Only days left to stop a totalitarian state in the US