The sincerest form of flattery

Madonna in the Church
van Eyck, c. 1440

Diptych: Virgin and Child, Abbot Christiaan de Hondt
Master of 1499, c.1499

Madonna in a Church
Gossaert(?), c. 1510

Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix

Joe diGenova: Walls closing in on Obama DOJ officials

This video is a keeper. A lot of great quotes, such as this one about James Comey, by Joe diGenova, former US attorney for the District of Columbia:

"He's going down. The dirty cop is gonna go down."

Who dunnit?

Over at Evi's, with great images:

"Yesterday the New York Times printed an op-ed by a supposed "resistance" mole in the Trump Administration.  My guess it is a minor and cowardly Beta NeverTrump "player" trolling the President. Don Surber suggests perhaps it is Trump himself (the letter does in a way help Trump more than it hurts him). While not a fan of this stunt, it is sort of fun to speculate (Ben Shapiro suggested sarcastically maybe it was Ted Cruz's dad or that Mueller himself wrote it)."

Drudge has a link about Rand Paul suggesting lie detector tests to find attention seeker.

I canna hae it!

https://www.brecks.com/product/Louis-Cotton-Dwarf-Canna-

Because it's out of stock.

I hate it when that happens

http://www.messynessychic.com/2016/04/01/the-mysterious-art-of-the-falling-panties/

This guy is pretty good

Understatement of the year

As the Syrian Army has taken back land, or defended it, from ISIS and al-Qaeda it has been transporting the surrenderers to Idlib Province in northwest Syria. 

"According to the UN, there are currently about 10,000 members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and other al-Qaeda-linked factions in the province of Idlib. All of them as well as members of their allied militant groups are deeply concerned by the expected Syrian Army advance in the area."

https://southfront.org/syria-map-update-military-situation-in-northern-hama-southern-idlib/

Things wot I saw and thought of Chip

Swedish Death Cleaning

"Paring life down to the essentials and focusing on creation serves multiple purposes: It liberates us from awareness of self and time; it allows us to become immersed in an activity that we experience as extrinsically meaningful. Along with Jacques we can say that it allows us to come symbolically to terms with our mortality, while at the same time, it sustains our defenses against mortality awareness."

https://zdoc.site/paring-down-life-to-the-essentials.html

I've heard of Swedish Death Cleaning. I think it might be something they do in Sweden. Getting rid of  years of accumulated crap so your kids don't have to deal with it. Sounds like plan.

The coming backlash against #MeToo - advice for young men

Good clean fun

Overheard: rhhardin

"The third world desparately needs new moves, some commenter said
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVAU52G7ork&feature=related&gl=GB&hl=en-GB "

Notice anything?

https://maps.southfront.org/us-carrier-strike-groups-locations-map-august-13-2018/

Law #1 Never outshine the master

Not quite the same as Chip's summary of Ptahhotep's first maxim:

"It's pretty good actually. It's saying if your superior is mouthing off then hold your tongue and don't let your advanced knowledge trip you up. Let him go on and restrain yourself then he will get the reputation of being a know-nothing."

It worked for a young person I know. He was counseled by an older relative to not complain about his boss to her superiors, but to give her enough rope. He followed the advice and ended up with a promotion.

In the service it's called following the chain of command. Now what was that movie where someone defined the chain of command as something they would beat you with if you did not follow their order? Really, I'm asking.

Laxity in the Ukrainian nuclear industry

"Ukraine has been experimenting with American-made clones of Russian fuel assemblies since 2005. That was the year that Energoatom shipped six TVS-WR assemblies manufactured by Westinghouse to the South Ukraine nuclear plant and began their pre-installation inspection. As a result of their experiments, it was concluded that the American fuel assemblies were defective. However, they still decided to proceed to the next stage of the experiment – the annual loading of the reactor using this fuel. In 2008, Energoatom and a Swedish subsidiary of Westinghouse signed an agreement to supply the South Ukraine nuclear plant with enough American fuel for the scheduled annual partial refueling of the three reactors from 2011 to 2015.

However, as early as April 2012, malfunctions in the American assemblies were noted at the reactors of the South Ukraine nuclear plant. In an emergency procedure, all the TVS-WR assemblies were completely unloaded from the reactors after they were found to be damaged, mainly due to structural flaws in the spacer grids. As a result, in 2013, following a thorough inspection, Ukraine’s State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate instituted a total ban on the use of American fuel at Ukrainian nuclear plants.

But the victory of the Revolution of Dignity has once again cleared the path for American TVS-WRs to be used in Ukraine. In April 2014, Kiev carefully reassembled the torn-up scraps of its old contract with Westinghouse and decided to give things another go. The media reported that American fuel was subsequently loaded into reactor no. 3 at the South Ukraine nuclear plant (March 2015), reactor no. 5 at the Zaporizhia nuclear plant (June 2016), and reactor no. 2 at the South Ukraine nuclear plant (August 2017). The consequences were soon evident."

https://southfront.org/get-ready-new-chernobyl-ukraine/

Alan Watts on piano lessons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv9zocKASsM&feature=youtu.be&t=3871

Must be nice

"Illinois is broke and continues to flirt with junk bond status. But the state’s financial woes aren’t stopping 63,000 government employees from bringing home six-figure salaries and higher.

Whenever we open the books, Illinois is consistently one of the worst offenders. Recently, we found auto pound supervisors in Chicago making $144,453; nurses at state corrections earning up to $254,781; junior college presidents making $465,420; university doctors earning $1.6 million; and 84 small-town “managers” out-earning every U.S. governor.

Using our interactive mapping tool, quickly review (by ZIP code) the 63,000 Illinois public employees who earn more than $100,000 and cost taxpayers $10 billion. Just click a pin and scroll down to see the results rendered in the chart beneath the map."

https://straightlinelogic.com/2017/07/27/why-illinois-is-in-trouble-63000-public-employees-with-100000-salaries-cost-taxpayers-10b-by-adam-andrzejewski/

Alexa, press my Tide Dash Button

imgur

"[Amazon] Prime shoppers who know exactly which products they buy regularly should check out Amazon’s Dash Buttons. For $4.99, you get a Wi-Fi-enabled gizmo that places orders for you. For example, you can buy the Tide Dash Button and attach it to your washing machine. When you’re running low on laundry pods, just push the button, and your order is placed on Amazon.

You get a $4.99 statement credit for each Dash Button the first time you press it, essentially making the button free. Dash Buttons are available for household items, health and personal care products, pet supplies, groceries, and kids’ and baby needs."

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/making-the-most-of-amazon-com-prime-store-card/

ricpic made me do it