Events

Really, this post is just a list of links, but I'm going to start with Dan Rather's latest Stack: US Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) started her 2026 re-election campaign last week by telling constituents not to worry about the proposed $880 billion cuts to Medicaid because "we are all going to die." Writer Andy Craig takes a look at the destruction the OAFPOTUS and his droogs have caused, and tries to find a path back to a constitutional republic. "Whatever eventually replaces this crisis-ridden government...

Cassie and I met with her surgeon today to discuss removing the mast cell tumor on her head. The good news is that the tumor is small, sub-cutaneous (as opposed to being in her skull or more delicate tissue), and very slow-growing. The bad news is that its location, about a centimeter from her left ear, complicates the removal a bit. The surgeon generally prefers to remove about a 3-cm circle of tissue around the tumor. Since everyone wants Cassie to retain her left ear, she'll have to remove slightly...

Welcome to stop #129 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: McHenry Brewing, 3425 Pearl St., McHenryTrain line: Union Pacific Northwest, McHenry (Zone 4) Time from Chicago: 88 minutesDistance from station: 1.3 km It finally happened: I cheated. I couldn't figure any reasonable way to visit McHenry Brewing without taking an expensive and rare Lyft part of the way home, because the UP-NW line only has three daily trains to McHenry in the afternoon with three return trains in the morning. So, not wanting...

I have had no more than 15 consecutive minutes free at any point today. The rest of the week I have 3½-hour blocks on my calendar, but all the other meetings had to go somewhere, so they went to Monday. So just jotting down stories that caught my eye: Ukraine's masterful and crippling strike against the Russian Air Force over the weekend has changed warfare forever, writes Max Boot. Jen Rubin wants to end the creeping normalization of the OAFPOTUS and his droogs because, as she says, they're all nuts....

Two photos this morning. First, Cassie tried to convince the other patrons at Spiteful Brewing yesterday that no one ever pats her: She was pretty successful with the ruse. People stopped to pat her continuously. She has us all trained. Second, here is the GOES-East visible light photo from about half an hour ago: See all that haze from Alberta and Saskatchewan in the northwest, through the US Midwest, and swooping all the way down to Jacksonville and out to the Atlantic? That's wildfire smoke from the...

Welcome to stop #128 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Black Lung Brewing, 115 Nippersink Rd., Fox LakeTrain line: Milwaukee District North, Fox Lake (Zone 4) Time from Chicago: 105 minutesDistance from station: 750 m Fox Lake isn't the farthest station from downtown Chicago on the Metra system. At 110 km, that honor goes to Harvard; Fox Lake is only 80 km out. And yet, as I discovered yesterday, it can take almost 3 hours to get back to Union Station if the aging-but-repainted SD70MACH...

Because I'm about to hit my PTO cap at work, I'm taking the next few Friday afternoons off. Today I've planned a Brews & Choos trip out to the wilds of Lake County. Check back tomorrow for the result! Meanwhile, I have more meetings...

First, an update on Cassie: her spleen and lymph cytology came back clean, with no evidence of mast cell disease. That means the small tumor on her head is likely the only site of the disease, and they can pop it out surgically. We'll probably schedule that for the end of June. I have had an unusually full calendar this week, so this afternoon I blocked off three and a half hours with "No Meetings - Coding." Before I dive into finishing up the features for what I expect will be the 129th boring release...

A three-judge panel at the US Court of International Trade has granted summary judgment to a group of states and organizations, ruling that the OAFPOTUS's reliance on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 is unconstitutional, and thus nearly all of the administration's tariffs are unlawful: On Wednesday, the Court of International Trade, the primary federal legal body overseeing such matters, found that Mr. Trump’s tariffs “exceed any authority granted” to the president by the...

On some days, I have more meetings than others. Today was a more extreme example, with meetings for 6 of the 8½ hours I put in. Somehow I also managed to read some documentation and get some other things accomplished. I also can't say that any of the meetings was a waste of time, either. Welcome back to management. Unfortunately, that meant I could only put these stories in a queue so I can read them now: William Finnegan wonders if he or Homeland Security Secretary Kristi "Dead Puppies" Noem is...