77 Replies to “February 8, 2025: Reader Tips”

    2. This is an all time great R&R song, and the cheesy video takes you back to when MTV was still in its infancy, when the music budgets were tiny and the best videos were on heavy rotation. Good times!

    3. ralph – Somehow I didn’t hear Caught up in You until 1983. My favourite song that summer, thanks to romantic encounters with an attractive young woman. Thanks Robert for the memory trip. The video really is as bad as the song is good. LOL>

  4. Never been a huge 38 Specials fan. They kinda got lost in that radio era for my young ears (REO Speedwagon, Chicago, etc.).

    The thing that sticks out for me in the video is the explorer style guitar. I had to look it up.

    It’s Jeff Carlisi’s Rhyne Custom Explorer: Maple body (very heavy, my Gibson is mahogany), Mother of pearl eagle fretboard inlays, Rosewood pickguard inlaid to the body(!) and a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge position. Very cool.

    Gibson introduced the Explorer, Flying V, and the Moderne in ’58. Those were the days of futuristic industrial design and future looking culture. The styles didn’t really catch on until the 70’s. ZZ Tops Billy Gibbon still uses them and they sure stand out.

    Kind of a non-sequitur but I know there are some music aficionados in here so I put in my $0.02.

    A Steve

    P.S. I still miss Vitty

    1. Nice observation. A real guitar oddity. I can still remember being 8 or 9 years old drawing pictures of guitar shapes I’d seen on TV … including the rarities. I thought the shapes of electric guitars were about the coolest bit of industrial design I’d ever seen. Absolutely futuristic. And yeah I had my favorites.

      And speaking of the Gibson Flying-V … very few mainstream rock bands used it much … except Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash who absolutely mastered it and it produced a unique sound for the twin guitar band. Absolutely infectious sound.

      https://youtu.be/EeY9IRnVmk8?si=XsPFrbzxs_BAkA_m

      https://youtu.be/2wQ7KqIi6wM?si=xi3f5DlbkOAhNEJ9

      1. Thanks Kenji.
        Albert King used the V style guitar frequently. I believe he tuned it way down to a C# standard for that fat mid tone and warm bends. It’s normally tuned E (or Eb) standard.

        Wishbone Ash: The bass player/singer has a Gibson Firebird with neck through (the body has wooden wings). Another cool shape

        Thanks for widening my music library with good tunes. Crank the MC275
        A Steve

      2. I thought the electric guitar was invented by F. Scott FitzGerald’s cousin, Flying V. FitzGerald?

        2. Here’s how much I love Blind Faith and Stevie Winwood … I scored a NM (as close to pure Mint as one can get) copy of Mobile Fidelity’s pressing of Blind Faith that I could find. You should hear it on my MC-275’s and Spendor SP-100’s 🙂

          Yeah … it cost me some ducats … but it is supremely re-engineered from the analog tapes and pressed pristinely.

          https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/1691935?condition=Near+Mint+%28NM+or+M-%29

          WARNING!!! Shocking cover art!!! The Discogs webpage may not be as discrete as yours.

    2. The only thing that will bring about peace is total Ukrainian victory. The Talks were had in 2014 and led directly to war.

      2. “The only thing that will bring about peace is total Ukrainian victory.”

        And since that remains completely impossible, then I guess it will be a “forever war”.

        1. Not impossible at all. Russia is only going broker. If a uh ‘leadership vacancy’ were to open up at the top I think the entire Russian power structure would go Full Somalia.

          1. A lot to unpack here.

            1. None of Pootin’s demands from winter 21-22 have been achieved. Most went opposite way. The war is a geopolitical disaster for russia any Freddie or Loopie that measure progress in terms of ground won remind me of that guy:
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCOzqP9Dt9E

            2. Yes the russian beast is devouring itself. It is devouring itself in terms of military power, in terms of orkpower and in terms of economic power. It burned though whatever military reserves it had and is importing weapons from Iran and NK. It is importing troops from NK etc.

            So the question is what will happen to an isolated war economy when peace comes?

            Anyone asking themselves a different question should not be talking at all.

            Domestic production of consumer goods has been outsourced to Chicoms (who, truth be told, do a much better job at it than orks). The volume of russian trade has fallen to about the volume of Polish trade (yes, look it up). Russia now trades about as much as a civilized country less than third of its size in terms of population and not famous for natural resources.

            Russia lost supply chains and best customers. That loss is irreversible. The deals signed by EU with US and Arab petrochemical suppliers are years or decades long. They will not be abandoned even if sanctions were to be lifted. Which coincidently is why US is not getting out of Europe. Sorry to disappoint many.

            What will happen to the soldiers returning from the frontlines? Where will they find employment? That is another source of instability that may lead to a collapse. This alone is a pressure for russia to keep trying to escape its problems by running ahead of them and not ending the war.

            3. Trump strategy. TDS aside, none of the “Trump will blow Pootin and Ukraine is screwed” predictions of Freddie and the Merry Band of Morons have materialized. Literarily nothing they predicted occurred. Maybe some of it will, maybe not, but nothing suggests that it will. Trump lowers and Trump haters should probably ask themselves a question, why Trump’s first foreign visit was not to UK, not to India, not to China but to Saudi Retardia? Why did Trump want to meet with prince retard above all? Hint: it does not mean anything good for russia … I’ll leave it as an open question expecting stupid answers.

            4. Does any of it mean that russia is no longer a threat? The syphilic * beast keep kicking and screaming and anyone caught under it can get trammeled. Nope. I expect that any freezing of russian ambitions in Ukraine will lead to expansionary efforts around Baltic and in the Arctic. Euros seem to be trying to get in front of the first challenge, Trump in front of the second. (or you can think all this is unrelated).

            P.S. You can’t base your policy on a black swan event.
            What will happen to russia when Pootin finally kicks he oxygen habit is pure speculation. I expect more Khrushchev and less Somalia with Patrushev or someone similar briefly playing Malenkov, someone new but not new will take over, some Beria will be wrapped in a rug. The thing is, that the new leaders will have a ruined economy, demographic collapse, pisslamic conquest from within, Chicom domination, collapsed infrastructure (also resources infrastructure – you can’t just stop drilling in the arctic and expect to comeback to it when convenient) and a loss of best paying customers to deal with. Will they hold the shithole together? Even if they will, they will have to look inward and give up their imperials ambitions. Or they will collapse and slaughter each other which would be preferable.

            P.P.S. The only thing russians share with Somalis is incompetence. Russians have bred for generations into this species that loves a strong despot, that will accept any hardship or humiliation for a chance to harm and humiliate others. That sucking up to tyrants gene is different than Somalis who are basically low IQ violent thugs but oddly real world libertarian at that.

          2. * “syphilic beast” refers to an epidemic of syphilis now in full swing in russia. Syphilis is a traditionally russian disease. Typical for a country of rapists that never use contraceptives. For historical context. The 1922 syphilis epidemic was declared over in russia (aka soviet Union = russia under new management) in 1939.

          3. Let me unpack the above: you don’t know what you don’t know and predictions are the stuff of fools.

          4. Says the idiot who started the thread by predicting.

            I wasn’t predicting but the analysis I provided (dumbed down to a level that even someone with an IQ of five Freddies should comprehend), is clearly beyond you, so like a special ed kid let into an AP classroom you’re making farting noises to reassure yourself.

          5. I started the thread by linking to two stories, nothing more. But even that is too much for a shit-for-brains like you to discern.

          6. “Not impossible at all. Russia is only going broker. If a uh ‘leadership vacancy’ were to open up at the top I think the entire Russian power structure would go Full Somalia.”

            So that’s your great hope for a “total Ukrainian victory”…someone assassinates Putin?

            Good luck with that. You know as little about the Russians and their national psyche as Jessica (and she’s practically psychotic).

          7. ^^^^ Another special ed kid making fart noises.

            “Russians … national psyche”

            A fallback position for the low IQ who love to romanticize the savage. Another rendition of the “noble savage” myth. The savage is never noble, just savage. Savage to other savages, savage to civilized and utterly incapable of retrospective or compassion. A true subhuman, its life worthless.

  8. Read and weep. Dig up Sam Cooper’s “Exclusive: How the RCMP, CBSA, and Trudeau Government Lost U.S. Trust in the Fentanyl Fight” over at The Bureau.

  9. This isn’t a tip, but just wondering if Kate, et al can find and repost that SDA post from early 2020 which had video of a Chinese woman wiping down laptops in a computer store with what was speculated to be a Covid-infected substance. Sort of a five year anniversary look back at how the Deep State and the Chicoms conspired to kill millions across the planet, all to get Trump out of office.

  10. Interesting article on Trump (and Musk) shutting down funding to South Africa.

    https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/america-votes/article/why-is-trump-punishing-south-africa-and-who-are-the-afrikaners-he-wants-to-give-refugee-status-to/

    What I find most interesting is the tone of the author and certain sentences such as:

    “It was thrust into the global spotlight after Trump and his South African-born adviser Elon Musk criticized the South African government’s policies as anti-white, sometimes with false statements.”

    So Trump is making false statements but not the South African government.

    “He [Trump] said South Africa’s government was doing “terrible things” and claimed land was being confiscated from “certain classes.” That’s not true, and even groups in South Africa who are challenging the law say no land has been confiscated. The South African government says private property rights are protected and Trump’s description of the law includes misinformation and “distortions.””

    If they aren’t confiscating land why introduce a new bill to confiscate land?

    “Under apartheid, Black people had land taken away from them and were forced to live in designated areas for non-whites. Now, whites make up around seven per cent of South Africa’s population of 62 million but own approximately 70 per cent of the private farming land, and the government says that inequality needs to be addressed.”

    So the black people used to be farmers and the white people confiscated their land and took over their farms? That would be a rewriting of history.

    “Musk also accused South Africa this week of having “racist ownership laws,” an apparent reference to his failure to get a license in the country for his Starlink satellite internet service because it doesn’t meet affirmative action criteria.”

    So Musk is critical of South Africa because of a failed business deal.

    1. I didn’t get past the very first sentence of your “scholarly” article … as they say in writing class … the Topic Sentence should describe all that follows …

      EVEN BY THE LOW, LOW STANDARDS of the second Trump administration, Darren Beattie, appointed last week as acting under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs in the State Department, is a controversial pick.

      OTOH … I assume when people like you read such a sentence … you become erect, or get wet … whichever your case may be. In ALL CAPS no less.

      1. I’m sorry … I meant to say … “aroused” … as did Chuck Schumer. How indelicate of me.

      2. “I didn’t get past the very first sentence of your “scholarly” article”

        That’s because you’re an illiterate. You should really be asking for permission to even address someone like me and denied permission to vote.

        1. I’m guessing that you’re typing with one hand while rubbing one out with the other. Hey! What you do in the privacy of your 15ft.x 15ft. 15min. city cell is fine with me.

      3. “I didn’t get past the very first sentence of your “scholarly” article … as they say in writing class … the Topic Sentence should describe all that follows … ”

        I’m the same way…as well as that, any mention of ‘gender-affirming care’, ‘climate crisis’, ‘Jan. 6th insurrection’, ‘falsely claimed to win the election’ etc, etc make me immediately stop reading.

    1. Pssst … Trade ain’t “FREE” when one of “the traders” employs draconian work conditions bordering on slave labor and wages … while simultaneously trashing the environment with no regulations. I’d think anyone who believed in “saving the planet” would WANT Communist China brought to heel … would WANT Communist China’s pass-thru vassal State of Canada brought to heel.

      1. Nope it’s still free trade even when one party engages in what’s called ‘hard work’ that lazy entitled typically white losers decry as ‘slave wages’.

        1. Which is why you emigrated to our lazy, white, entitled, nation … do you people even hear yourself talk?

          1. I emigrated to improve my life and improve my new host nation. This is of course besides the point.

  15. Danielle Smith is shifting from merely mediocre to an outright disaster:

    https://financialpost.com/opinion/smith-government-hands-off-heritage-fund-investments

    ” According to the government, while the HFOC will provide top-tier investment performance for Albertans, the changeover is “about more than generating financial returns — it’s about creating a lasting and positive impact for the province as a whole,” with a “strong focus on opportunities that maximize growth while supporting areas that matter to Albertans, such as technology, energy and infrastructure.”

    “This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
    Article content

    That suggests factors other than a desire to maximize risk-adjusted returns will determine the HFOC’s investment choices. That’s a problem. From the 1970s to the early 1990s, the government became more actively involved in directing economic development by, for example, providing financial assistance to companies and projects funded by the Heritage Fund. Ultimately, Alberta taxpayers lost more than $2 billion from failed loans, guarantees and share purchases in specific projects favoured by the government.”

    She’s Peter Lougheed 2.0

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation