Well I hope y’all have had a good week so far.  Its certainly been a long one, full of interesting things.  What wasn’t interesting (to me) was the performance of Justin Verlander last night.  I haven’t seen him have an outing like that in years.  Oh well, can’t win (or no-decision) them all.  So yes, the Mariners beat the Astros last night.  The other winners were: Washington, Cleveland, San Diego, New York (AL), Toronto, Tampa, LA and Pittsburgh.

A logjam at the top of the leaderboard at the PGA Championship, with long-hitter Gary Woodland at -6. Rickie Fowler is positioning himself well for a weekend meltdown and sits one back. Zach Johnson is two back and a host of players including the ever-intense Ian Poulter, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, and Justin Roseanother stroke back.  Tiger and Bubba, two of the least likable people in the game, are both even, which is the current cut line.

There was also a bunch of preseason NFL going on, but I don’t care to report on it since the games mean less than nothing at this point.

My son and his proud father after his swearing-in ceremony.

Before I get into the birthdays and historical events for this date, I want to give a special shout-out to my son.  He took his oath yesterday and is now officially in the U.S. Army.  He was floundering after high school and wasn’t really too jazzed up about college, so he did his work, got great scores on his tests and after much consideration (and pressure from the number of people who served in his family and a few family friends to choose the correct branch), he chose the Army.  He ships out to basic on September 6th.  I couldn’t possibly be prouder of him.

Famous birthdays today include: William Howe, whose ass the United States kicked to gain our independence, Mexican revolutionary and second presidente Vicente Guerrero, chocolate man Henri Nestle, oil tycoon Edward Doheny, inventor and zeppelin pilot Hugo Eckner, average to below-average president Herbert Hoover, poker wizard Doyle Brunson, Bush crony Harriet Miers, musician Ian Anderson, actress and weirdo family member Rosanna Arquette, actor Antonio Banderas, musicians Jon Farriss and Dan Donovan, boxer Riddick Bowe, and Palestinian Prime Minister (and terrorist sympathizer or employer) Rami Hamdallah.

It was also the date on which Titus set fire to the second temple in Jerusalem, the Declaration of Independence reached London, Mozart completed “A Little Night Music”, the Louvre opened its doors, Ecuador declared independence from Spain, Missouri became a state, badass Nat Turner led his uprising, the future pope John XXIII became a priest, Japan said they were ready to surrender, “Sunset Boulevard” premiered, so did “Psycho”, the US launched its first lunar orbiter, David Berkowitz was arrested for the “Son Of Sam” killings, Billy Martin’s number was retired, and RBG was sworn in to there Supreme Court.

My favorite bit of that was the DoI reaching London.  I would have loved to see the look on the faces of George and his courtesans as it was read to them.  Priceless.  Anyway, on to…the links!

Wow, that story of the kids “saved” from that compound in New Mexico gets weirder as it looks like they were training for Islamist terrorism.

Sounds like a hell of a party.  I don’t understand why they would have been arrested since they weren’t bothering anyone. But that’s the state of things in America.  Maybe he’ll dump some of those billions into educating the general public on minding their own freaking business, but I would imagine his attorney will tell him that’s not a very sound plan.

The SEC is taking interest in Elon Musk’s tweets. Its still to be determined if he has the juice to take the company private, but if I were a shareholder and someone offered me $75 a share more than its currently trading at (and probably double or triple what its really worth), I’d be jumping at the offer.

The Kansas GOP primary for governor is turning into a fiasco. If only some Democrat poll worker would show up with a few cases of ballots in a car to settle this matter once and for all, we could move on.

Team Blue can choose between this…

Team Blue is worried that Nancy Pelosi could drag them down during the midterms.  Yeah, they should definitely hang on to her, in my opinion.

…and this. Best of luck, lol.

But they should give equal time to people like Occasional Cortex, who dismissed Ben Shapiro’s offer of $10,000 for a debate as the equivalent of catcalling her. Because, you know, asking a nominee to debate you on the issues is akin to whistling at a chick’s legs.

As Courtney Smith’s mother, former mother-in-law and local police start to throw shade at her in the football saga, the former Ohio State wrestler who had accused Jim Jordan of knowing about sexual abuse walks that story back.  Huh, I guess the latest check from Perkins-Come didn’t clear the bank yet.

Prominent leaders in the black community are stepping up calls for Rahm Emanuel’s resignation in the wake of Chicago becoming a national disgrace.

This is what patchwork drug legalization looks like. And those state and local officials were right there with the feds doing their work.  Because that’s what cops do.  SO if you want drugs to be legal, you’re wasting your time until the federal government unschedules it at a minimum.

Not happening yet

Iranian officials say there’s no reason for Rouhani and Trump to sit down. I await the tweetstorm from the White House that’s coming in response to that statement.

If you don’t enjoy this, then you suck.

Now go have a great Friday and a better weekend, friends.