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wtgW

wtg

@wtg
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  • 25th Amendment. Seriously.
    wtgW wtg

    A singer-songwriter is refusing to perform at the Trump-Kennedy Center after the venue’s name changed.

    Kristy Lee announced Monday that she canceled her scheduled performance at the Washington, D.C., arts institution scheduled for Jan. 14, 2026. The move came days after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the former John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

    “I don’t have much power, and I don’t run with the big dogs who do. I’m just a folk singer from Alabama, slinging songs for a living,” Lee wrote on social media. “Hell, my songs are really just my own diary set to music. They’re not polished or hit songs, but they’re my truth and nobody can take that from me. I’m proud of that.”

    “I believe in the power of truth, and I believe in the power of people. And I’m gonna stand on that side forever. I won’t lie to you, canceling shows hurts. This is how I keep the lights on. But losing my integrity would cost me more than any paycheck,” she continued. “When American history starts getting treated like something you can ban, erase, rename, or rebrand for somebody else’s ego, I can’t stand on that stage and sleep right at night. America didn’t get built by branding. It got built by people showing up and doing the work. And the folks who carry it don’t need their name on it, they just show up. That’s all I’m doing here. I’m showing up.”

    Her post went viral, generating hundreds of thousands of likes, shares and comments. She thanked fans for their support and said she plans to instead perform virtually at home on Jan. 14.

    https://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/2025/12/singer-cancels-kennedy-center-concert-after-trump-name-change.html

    Kristy Lee's statement.

    https://www.facebook.com/kristyleefans/posts/pfbid0w7d3eFTsc2vLJpMs2247qxGP7aGtLBBsAWJBHYfd7HTDCxoxSyuBkuCAR5za6tN5l?rdid=Z1VFv8Fv68WWgkLY#

    Samples of her music, and a donation link.

    https://www.kristyleemusic.com/

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • 25th Amendment. Seriously.
    wtgW wtg

    Good for them.

    A planned Christmas Eve jazz concert at the Kennedy Center, a holiday tradition dating back more than 20 years, has been canceled. The show's host, musician Chuck Redd, says that he called off the performance in the wake of the White House announcing last week that President Donald Trump's name would be added to the facility.

    "When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert," Redd told The Associated Press in an email Wednesday. Redd, a drummer and vibraphone player who has toured with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Ray Brown, has been presiding over holiday "Jazz Jams" at the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William "Keter" Betts

    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/christmas-eve-jazz-concert-at-kennedy-center-canceled-after-trump-name-added-to-building

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • Rick Steves to the rescue
    wtgW wtg

    A center for homeless residents was set to close. Then Rick Steves stepped in.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/news/a-center-for-homeless-residents-was-set-to-close-then-rick-steves-stepped-in/ar-AA1SXEDv

    Steves' FB post:

    https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves/posts/pfbid0GTRpQoioZuuHAUakSptTRE7iunnk4MXqEoAAmHYE83Y9ZSkxPvQwWR5yusfKgpR2l

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • This old dog learned some new tricks
    wtgW wtg

    I made a sweater just like mine for Mr wtg; we are sweater twins.

    A friend stopped by today when Mr wtg and I were wearing our sweaters and said we should have done a Christmas card with a photo of the two of us wearing them. We said we don't have any friends to send cards to, and she came up with the brilliant idea of simply sending Christmas cards with our sweater photo to random people. We got a good chuckle out of the thought that the recipients would be trying to figure out where they know these two oldsters from....😸

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • That 60 Minutes piece about CECOT
    wtgW wtg

    Transcript of the 60 Minutes piece. Be prepared for a tough read.

    https://www.thenation.com/article/society/cbs-news-60-minutes-bari-weiss-cecot-segment-transcript/#

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • Who's cooking / baking for the holidays?
    wtgW wtg

    Christmas dinner at @bernard 's!! All the goodies look fabulous, in particular the Christmas cake.

    We're having our Lithuanian Kūčios (Christmas Eve dinner) tonight. Various types of herring, beet and bean salad, Salad Olivier, šližikai, (poppy seed biscuits with poppy seed milk), and kisielius (cranberry kissel). Tomorow is a bit up in the air.

    Lithuanian Christmas traditions:

    https://www.lithaz.org/arts/xmas.html

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • I bought myself a Christmas present
    wtgW wtg

    It just arrived!! OMG it is a thing of beauty!! I can't wait to start lifting weights cook in it....

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    Off Key - General Discussion

  • One reason they were holding up the release
    wtgW wtg

    @Piano-Dad said in One reason they were holding up the release:

    Alternatively, they're just truly incompetent.

    I cast my vote for that option.

    Details on the "how to":

    Epstein Files Hacked And Posted To X

    “Trump’s DOJ is so incompetent that they don’t even know how to properly redact PDFs,” Brian Krassenstein, political commentator and journalist, tweeted the day the agency released the files. You might be inclined to write this off immediately, given that Krassenstein is known for his anti-Trump stance. In this case, however, that would be a mistake. As well as providing the evidence in a series of tweets that showed the highly redacted documents as well as the unredacted versions, Krassenstein went on to explain precisely how the Epstein files could be hacked.

    While it is common to read about hackers using PDFs in attacks, the portable document format is susceptible to attack itself. The shocking truth is that it was ridiculously easy, employing straightforward methods that have been known for years. That the DOJ was seemingly unaware of the PDF bugs that have been exploited to do this is concerning from a national security viewpoint at the very least. I am surprised, given that the DOJ has shown technical competence in operations with the FBI in the past, such as remotely deleting files from thousands of U.S.-based computers.

    I have reached out to the DOJ for a statement, but in the meantime, here’s how the hack went down.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2025/12/24/epstein-files-hacked---all-you-need-to-know/

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • I wonder who will serve the eviction notice (and other animal antics)
    wtgW wtg

    About the bear in Altadena...a trap was set and a bear caught. Problem is, it wasn't the bear living under the house....

    https://people.com/trap-to-catch-bear-living-under-california-home-captures-wrong-animal-11873747

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • One reason they were holding up the release
    wtgW wtg

    Looking for volunteers.

    https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/23/politics/justice-department-redactions-review-epstein-files

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • Who’s decorating for the holidays?
    wtgW wtg

    @ShiroKuro Everything looks beautiful!!

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • Who’s decorating for the holidays?
    wtgW wtg

    No ornaments, but seeing the lighted tree in the screen room as I work in the kitchen is nice.

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    Tree with a fraction of ornaments that I have. In the living room.

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    Favorite ornaments:

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    Mom's favorite candle. Snowman in the background was a gift from my best friend's mom.

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    Christmas mice:

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    The caroler and pine cone candles pre-date me.

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    Mr wtg's grandma used to do ceramics:

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    Lots of sweet memories of Christmases past....

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • One reason they were holding up the release
    wtgW wtg

    The DOJ says the FBI says the letter is a fake.

    There was a request from the FBI in 2020 to have a handwriting expert look at the letter to see if it was really Epstein's writing. The result of that 2020 analysis is MIA so far. But the 2025 FBI knows it's a fake.

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • The Chicago kidnappings have begun
    wtgW wtg

    We'll take the (small) victory.

    The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a bid by the Trump administration to deploy National Guard members to the Chicago area while a legal challenge moves forward, delivering a setback to President Trump in his effort to use federalized troops in Illinois to ensure enforcement of federal immigration laws.

    The high court left untouched a judge's decision blocking the government from putting National Guard members on the streets of Chicago and surrounding areas. The Trump administration had urged the Supreme Court to allow the extraordinary move to deploy the troops over the objection of Illinois' Democratic governor, arguing that federal courts cannot second-guess the president's decision to call the National Guard into federal service.

    But the Supreme Court declined the administration's request to freeze that order in a decision that appears to be 6-3. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-supreme-court-national-guard-chicago/

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • One reason they were holding up the release
    wtgW wtg

    Here's how the DOJ releases the Epstein files and how others are making them easier to read

    https://www.axios.com/2025/12/23/epstien-files-read-search-doj-library-apps

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • That 60 Minutes piece about CECOT
    wtgW wtg

    A 60 Minutes episode investigating a brutal prison in El Salvador, which CBS News’ editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, pulled from the air on Sunday, appeared online on Monday after appearing on a Canadian TV app.

    The segment, which runs for nearly 14 minutes and was viewed by the Guardian, provides an in-depth look at the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (Cecot) prison in El Salvador. It opens with footage of the mega-prison and shows detainees being shackled upon arrival in El Salvador.

    The episode was published on a streaming platform owned by Global TV, the network that has the rights to 60 Minutes in Canada.

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/dec/23/60-minutes-cecot-appears-online

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • Ben Sasse has stage 4 pancreatic cancer
    wtgW wtg

    His post on X:

    Friends-

    This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

    Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

    I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

    Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

    There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

    Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

    A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

    Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

    Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:

    “When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

    I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

    But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

    With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,

    Ben — and the Sasses

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • One reason they were holding up the release
    wtgW wtg

    Written by Epstein to Larry Nassar (remember him?) just before Epstein committed suicide.

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    Off Key - General Discussion

  • Sleeping capsule (London edition)
    wtgW wtg

    Nope.

    Workers who moved out of London for remote work are under pressure to come back to the office in the city, and some are choosing to stay in Japanese-inspired sleeping pods for just £30 ($40).

    I travelled to Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London to spend a night in a newly opened capsule hotel, after two of my colleagues who live outside the city recommended staying there.

    Zedwell Capsule Hotel, a brand owned by Criterion Capital, opened in September and offers nearly 1,000 capsules measuring 1 meter long, 1 meter wide, and 2 meters in depth — likely the smallest hotel rooms in London.

    It has a rather unassuming exterior despite being located inside the historic London Pavilion building — originally built as a music hall in 1885. The entrance is around the corner of the busy station, through some black doors.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/20/zedwell-capsule-hotel-i-stayed-in-a-40-dollar-capsule-hotel-in-london.html

    Off Key - General Discussion

  • The inaugural...
    wtgW wtg

    Crumpets keep getting delayed...went with buttermilk sourdough bread. The perfect sandwich bread for toasting.

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    Off Key - General Discussion
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