WTF-Beta

Republican Sen. John Cornyn continues to block Todd Blanche's path to confirmation as attorney general, saying Thursday morning that there were "new complications."

Cornyn is demanding the Department of Justice put in writing that the nearly $1.8 billion so-called "Anti-Weaponization Fund" is officially dead, and that the scope of President Donald Trump's immunity deal with the IRS be narrowed.

"I know that Todd Blanch understands it, but I think he's probably getting some pushback from the White House, and that's making things more complicated than there needs to be," Cornyn told ABC News.

https://abcnews.com/Politics/gops-cornyn-continues-block-todd-blanche-attorney-general/story?id=135228494

Too bad it took getting primaried for him to develop a spine....

@Steve-Miller said:

You have more patience than I do.

Usually I would give up. These guys have just gotten under my skin and I'm out to make their lives miserable.

But you're right to point out that this is a waste of life energy. You may have gotten me to throw the towel in and move on.

@Steve-Miller Tell me about it.

Regarding a completely unrelated matter, I've been going around in circles with a company who a) references a 1 year warranty on their website (with no details, just "will replace free of charge within 1 year"), b) reviews my photos and says "you can buy a replacement for 50% off", and c) after repeated requests for a written copy of the warranty simply ignore me.

These young entrepreneurs are focused on branding rather than product quality and excellence in customer service. It's a company that got an investment from Mark Cuban on Shark Tank. He's known for actually reading his emails; he may be my next stop. It's not about the money anymore; I'm just POed.

Triple

My fellow Chicagoans will recognize the name...

Ann Sather's Cinnamon Rolls

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2004/01/11/on-a-roll-56/

ANN SATHER’S CINNAMON ROLLS

Makes 12 rolls

1 envelope (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees)

1 cup milk, scalded, cooled

1/4 cup (2 ounces) butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) butter, room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Powdered sugar glaze, optional, recipe follows

1. In a large bowl, stir the yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar into the warm water and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in milk, melted butter, 1/3 cup sugar, salt and 1 cup flour. Beat with a spoon or an electric mixer until smooth.

2. Gradually stir in 11/2 cups flour, keeping the dough smooth. If the dough is still moist, stir in 1 tablespoon flour at a time to make a soft dough. Cover with a dry cloth and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

3. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Divide the raised dough in half. On a lightly oiled board, roll out (with a lightly floured rolling pin) and stretch 1 piece of dough to make a 12-by-8-inch rectangle. Spread 2 tablespoons of the soft butter over the top of the dough. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Beginning on the long side, roll up tightly, jelly-roll fashion. Repeat with remaining dough.

4. Cut the dough into 2-inch slices. Place on greased and floured baking sheets. Let the dough rise (in a warm place) until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

5. Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Take the baking sheets out of the oven and place the cinnamon rolls on a wire rack to cool.

6. Top rolls with a sugar glaze immediately, if desired. Serve warm or at room temperature.

POWDERED SUGAR ICING

Makes 1/2 cup

1 cup sifted powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon milk, plus additional as needed

1. Combine sugar, vanilla and 1 tablespoon milk in a small bowl. Stir in additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until icing is loose enough to drizzle.

Alex Jones, the former owner of InfoWars, on Tuesday said President Trump must be impeached over the Iran conflict, describing the situation as “absolutely out of control” and warning that the administration is preparing for a national draft.

“The big issue is how to stop Trump. And we have to have Congress go for the war powers. They’ve tried three times to vote on war powers — they’re supposed to authorize a war. This is a war; they’re getting the draft ready. If this isn’t a war, nothing’s a war. I mean, this is absolutely out of control,” Jones said during a live segment broadcast on the social platform X.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5996424-alex-jones-trump-impeachment-iran/

zoom

Great tasting fish. Have had my share of smoked whitefish, fried whitefish, and fish boil whitefish up in Door County.

The Great Lakes’ most emblematic fish could be consigned to history books

A delicacy for centuries and a key part of Native tradition, the lake whitefish has seen its population crash. Researchers know why … but stopping it is another matter

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/29/lake-whitefish-great-lakes-invasive-mussels

@CHAS

Cool.

The topic is interesting. Death bots.

The graphics are very innovative.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/as-told-to/can-ai-keep-a-parent-alive

eta: Looks like you need a subscription to see the graphics. But give it a shot anyways....

President Donald Trump told a crowd in Michigan that the White House has ordered 250 Cadillac Escalades, the flagship sport utility vehicle in the luxury auto brand’s lineup, for his presidential motorcade.

Trump revealed the purchase in a speech delivered at a General Motors testing facility in the Detroit suburb of Milford.

“The one and only Escalade,” he said toward the beginning of a roughly one-hour-long address. “You know we ordered, I think, 250 Escalades, right? We ordered 250 Escalades…. We look sharp in those Escalades.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/07/27/we-look-sharp-trump-says-white-house-ordered-250-cadillac-escalades/91071059007/

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called on Monday for Sen. Mitch McConnell to either "verbally" show proof to Kentuckians that he can still serve in the Senate or to resign from Congress.

"Important events are happening in our country right now during your absence," Beshear, a Democrat, wrote in a letter to the Republican senator, according to a copy obtained by ABC News.

https://abcnews.com/Politics/kentucky-governor-calls-mcconnell-verbally-address-kentuckians-resign/story?id=135145243

kitchens

Just got a UPS update...the parts arrive tomorrow...woot!

We remodeled our bathrooms back in 2008. The "hall bath" (vs the en suite in the primary bedroom) has Danze plumbing fixtures. We started to have a pipe thumping problem in the Danze tub/shower valve in that bathroom when another faucet in the house is turned off; I noticed it when I turned off the vanity faucet in the same bath.

When I pulled the handle and escutcheon off and diddled with the shutoffs that are built into the valve, the cold water side was leaking a little. And some black rubbery bits came out of the spout when I turned the water on. Looks like the stops are failing and need to be replaced. Figured that out thanks to a commenter on Amazon who was trying to find the right replacement parts for his pipe thumping problem.

I have all the documentation from the original install, including the parts diagram with replacement part numbers for the various components. A lot of the part numbers changed after Danze was acquired by Gerber some years ago. I couldn't find a direct match for the Check Valve Set in question when I did my own searches, and Claude and DuckDuckGo's AI bots tried to help but I wasn't confident they were giving me accurate part numbers so I could order something.

I called Gerber this morning and a very nice CS lady (not AI) listened to my story, asked a few questions, and processed an order to send me replacement stops under warranty. Gerber didn't even require a copy of the original purchase receipt (which I have). Took less than 10 minutes and I'm pretty sure I'll get the parts I need. She said 5 to 7 days for the order to get here.

Now off to look for our infrequently used metric socket set I'll need next week to get the old leaky stops replaced and the new ones in...

diner

I think the video that's in the BBC story is only watchable in the UK. Or via VPN for us non-Brits.

On 30 July 1963, Kim Philby's defection from MI6 to the Soviet Union was made public. In 2016, the BBC broadcast previously unseen footage of his lecture to Stasi operatives in which he revealed the secrets behind his treachery.

"Almost all my life I have spent trying to avoid publicity of any kind," says Kim Philby in a 1981 video unearthed by the BBC from the archives of East Germany's spy service. It's something of an understatement. Philby was a British double agent whose defection to the Soviet Union was made public on 30 July 1963. In the video, he is seen giving a seminar to Stasi operatives on how to succeed at espionage.

As the BBC's former security correspondent Gordon Corera explained in his 2016 report on the previously unseen footage, "Philby offers a masterclass in betrayal, from his recruitment by Soviet spies after Cambridge to his joining Britain's secret service MI6, whose secrets he stole." It is the only known video in which the leading member of the so-called Cambridge Five KGB spy ring discusses his betrayal – a rare recording that is revealing on many levels.

WATCH: 'My advice to you is to tell all your agents that they are never to confess'

"I'm looking back on my career in the enemy camp, this 30-year career in the enemy camp," he says in the grainy video, standing behind a lectern in thick-rimmed glasses and a suit and tie. "Every evening, I left the office with a big briefcase full of reports which I had written myself, full of files taken out of the actual archives. I used to hand them to my contact in the evening. Next morning I'd get the file back, the contents having been photographed, and take them back early in the morning and put the files back in their place. That I did regularly, year in, year out."

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260724-the-british-double-agent-who-defected-to-russia-and-taught-enemy-spies

A small Finnish town has turned to the world’s largest commercial sand battery to tackle a major hurdle in the energy transition: intermittency.

The giant sand battery can cover almost one month of the town’s heating demands in the summer and as much as one week in the winter.

“Hopefully a big portion of those storages could be sand battery-type of storages where we don’t need rare earth materials,” Tommi Eronen, CEO of Polar Night Energy, told CNBC.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/25/finland-sand-battery-renewable-energy-storage.html