djputin

As some of you know, 2024 had already been a difficult year here at Stately Dog Manor. In May of 2024, we lost our beloved cat, whom we will call “Mr. S,” to an awful disease. Ironically, this occurred when the Loquacious Pup, only 24, was herself fighting a similar disease. I am somewhat pleased to report that her fight, which involved well over a month as an inpatient and many months of other treatment, appears to have gone successfully, and she will soon be advancing her education in another city (alas, in a red state). And of course, TD...

As I frequently do, I missed the anniversary of this here blog, which turned 23 on the 18th of September. We kind of have other things going on at this time of year, and of course, this has been an eventful year here in Stately Dog Manor for lots of other reasons that need not be discussed right now. The world continues rolling on; things look “OK” as far as the United States not making the fatal mistake of a Trump Restoration, though this should be a foregone conclusion and it clearly is not at a mere 6 weeks before...

Yes, it’s 23 years after September 11th. For those who don’t know (and why don’t you?) my venue that day was at an office building on Church Street in lower Manhattan, at the job I lost that day after the building was closed for business for an inordinate period of time following the 9-11 events. I, of course, viewed the festivities from a 16th floor window. The easiest explanation for what happened is blowback from having armed Islamic militants to take on the former Soviet Union who eventually settled in perennial failed state Afghanistan, along with Islamist grievances associated with...

Apparently a plea deal has been reached between the United States Department of Justice and Julian Assange, under which Assange will plead guilty to a single count of something or other involving classified documents and be sentenced to five years time served. Assange will plead guilty to this in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Marianas, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but evidently, one of the closest American jurisdictions to his native Australia, to where Assange will promptly return. Assange has essentially been out of circulation for over a decade between a lengthy sojourn in the Ecuadorian...

It’s certainly been a while since I’ve posted anything. So we’ll post today, on this, what would be the 87th birthday of TD Dad of blessed memory. Of course, there’s an explanation for the long reticence, besides overall existential angst associated with a planet insanely and dangerously out of balance and, despite his “legal troubles,” the probable coming restoration of Mafia Grover Cleveland, which is of a very personal nature. Unfortunately, the Loquacious Pup is suffering from a rather serious illness, from which we have every confidence that, surrounded with unbelievably wonderful and generous friends and her loved ones and...

I confess to being exhausted after all these years. But imagine if you were a guest of our military and intelligence services at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Inconceivable that a human being could stand the overt torture, punctuated with the boredom, and overlaid with the uncertainty of whether you will leave the place in a coffin, as nine men have. And yet, 30 men are still there. And have been for decades. 22 years as if today. And 16 men have been cleared for transfer by our national security services. The reality is that most Americans accepted Barack Obama and his...

December 23rd only comes once a year, so let me be among the first to wish you a happy Festivus roughly 25 years after Seinfeld went off the air. Jerry is a weird role model, but of relevance, he quit while he was on top, something that neither 80 something Joe Biden nor 70 something [ptttooooyy] Donald Trump are willing to do. And so the gerontocracy/kakastocracy/kleptocracy/oligarchy that infests not only the so called United States, but also China, Russia and a lot of other apparently relevant countries, just continues, until, I suppose, it doesn’t. It’s been a while since my...

Now at 22 years on from “that day,” my first thought after traveling by subway to lower Manhattan today was “I hope that the organizers of the 9-11 memorial ceremony had the good sense to keep indicted criminal defendant Rudy Giuliani away this year.” My second was noting that the subway car appeared to be full of teenagers on their way to attend high school, probably at Stuyvesant, which was famously impacted by September 11, 2001, and of course, none of them were alive at the time. My third thought was that today is actually the 50th anniversary of the...

Yes, of course it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Part of it is the slog of caring for aged loved one, young loved one having flown out of the nest for about a year now, and a never ending litany of dental issues resulting in near total cash-ectomy, coinciding with not-inexpensive veterinary issues of concern on our now over 14 year old cats, all while trying to maintain employment, my sanity, etc., etc. Perhaps not coincidentally, because it’s always about me, just this year, aside from four marathons (including my fourth world marathon major star, in London) and...

In context, this means a couple of things. For various reasons (most of them simply our domestic living situation, as we have had a family member living with us who requires a great deal of attention, the Loquacious Pup has moved out of the house for a post-college job, my focus on my alternate persona, the never ending plague of COVID-45 and other factors), I have gone without posting for almost four months, last posting on the GTMO 21st anniversary. But the real overdue event is, of course, the release of Candace’s Algerian client, Saeed Bakhush, after almost 21 years...