Ist kaput.

This would be a lengthy post, except digging backwards in time led to so many loose ends that it becomes a shorter one. "Short" being a relative term.

In an earlier post, an online item from The Awl was linked; a site that now, ist kaput. How many others we used to read?

Dump Bachmann. There are details, but with Bachmann retired, the site in its way also is.

Ripple in Stilwater, ist kaput because Karl Bremer ist so too, and he is missed.

Etherfarm is a site that was unique, and may yet begin anew.

The list could get longer, but, why? For nostalgia, two items.

FIRST: Here is text of a post from Etherfarm:

Embracing Dude
Evening, Wednesday, July 20, 2005 • 7 responses

I’m approaching my six-year anniversary of moving to California. Given the new job and some new digs, it looks like it’ll probably be close to a decade-long tenure before I and the wife (and whatever other beings for which we become legally responsible) start looking to move elsewhere on the ol’ globe. I have mixed feelings about this; there are many things to like about (northern) California, but in no way do I consider it the pinnacle of civilization that its real estate prices would suggest. The fact that real estate prices in the Bay Area rose 22% last year evinces the kind of self-delusion a place which serves a tofu-everything can induce. It won’t be too long until the only people who can afford to live in the Bay Area are the CEOs of Apple, Oracle, Google, Adobe, Industrial Light & Magic, and Yahoo, all of whom will feast daily on a diet of ego and wheatgrass, and use the houses of regular schmucks like myself as mere parking sheds for their fleet of Segways.

Much has happened to me while in California throughout the last six years. I no longer check the “Single” box on forms asking for my marital status, for starters. My thoughts on the academic humanities were whittled from idealism and passion down to cynicism and kind of embarrassment for the whole profession. I drove a car and rode a couple of bikes. I gained a few pounds, started a little website called etherfarm, made and lost a few friends, developed an almost criminal affinity for Vietnamese food, and um, gained a few pounds.

Most surprising, though, is that in the last few months, I find the word “dude” causing hairline fractures in my anti-California-culture protective shield. There was a point in time when I preemptively asked people not to call me “dude” and when I wouldn’t respond to sentences beginning with, ending with, or containing “dude.” The first postcard I sent from Santa Cruz read something like this:

“Dude,

Dude. Dude? Dude!

-dude.”

I was using the term in jest, of course, but the sad truth is that in Santa Cruz, I’ve overheard whole conversations which consist almost entirely of the word “dude”. It’s said that eskimos have eleven words for snow. Similarly, there exist myriad inflections of the word “dude”, all of which apparently have a specific meaning and appropriate usage, none of which made sense to me until recently.

A month or so ago, I caught myself using the word “dude” without any irony whatsoever. It just rolled off my tongue without shame and without warning. Then about a week later I used the term “dude” in writing during an online chat with a colleague. The last two weeks of my linguistic activity have been peppered with “dude”. Just last week someone told me that they never thought they’d hear me say “dude”, and they told me as if they were proud of me, the way a parent might praise a child for speaking their first word.

Anyway, I think I’ve come to terms with dude. I can’t say it’ll make it into my lexicon as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, a preposition, and as a gerund, as it has for many other residents of California. I can say this, though: if the first word out of any future child of mine is “dude”, dude, they’re going straight to an orphanage.

SECOND: Here is an image posted years ago, Dump Bachmann, an image that speaks for itself. It is between a State Senator and a fan, one with a name and his fifteen minutes of fame of a sort, from the past much as we'd years from now want "Doug Wardlow" to be a comparable quaint relic:

[Clicking the image or opening it in another tab will de-fuzz it, but at its posted/saved size it requires good eyes to read. Using the browser enlarge feature will help, but you lose resolution. At least it is readable and undeniable proof birds of a feather do flock together.]

Here is a way to end the post. Remember how "BLOGROLL" sidebar listings were used; well, let's experiment. Blogroll listings from Dump Bachmann, same 2005 time as the letter/image was posted, (list formatting lost, all run together as a paragraph, but each link preserved):

Blogs

Lloydletta at Outlet Radio Andrew Gettis Citizen Wig Gay Patriot Legacy Freethought Filter Marty Andrade Downtown Lad Carpe Bonum Mnspeak Blog Aggregator Minneapolis Park Watch Ridor's Blog Eaton's GLBT weblogs Minnesota Politics Podcasting Central Front Chuck Muth's Lawfully Wedded Yowling from the Fencepost Mediasoul (Stacy Harp) STRIDE Site Ken Avidor's PRT Skeptic Blog Moderate Republican Culturewatch Retire Geoff Michel Representative Ray Cox Another Gay Republican New Patriot MN Speak City Pages Blotter The Pryhills Tim Turner's Blog Gay News and Opinion Blog Powerliberal Minnesota Blogs Gay Orbit Booker Rising MoxieGrrrl.com Dump Michele Bachmann Stitch in Haste SistersTalk Razormouth Dump Cheri Pierson Yecke Pharyngula Confederacy of Dunces North Dallas Thirty MinnPolitics Rebecca's Pocket Read Menace (Rake Magazine) Dump John Kline Christian Grantham Knowledge (BJ Hokanson) Blogs by Women Moderate Republican (Legacy) GayPatriot Pam's House Blend The Prodigal Sheep Raucous Caucus Michael Brodkorb Minneapolis Confidential Powered by BlogRolling

Readers are urged to click a few and see what's still alive, what ist kaput. Here is one from the list; still online, kaput as of 2012, with its own BLOGROLL, so if there is time to play, have a look.

A RETROSPECT IN THE LIFE OF THE WEB, might be an alternate title for this post. Nothing in particular triggered nostalgia, there is no anniversary date to today, but after taking time and looking back, the subject seemed worth posting.

LAST: From the 2005 Dump Bachman blogroll, one site noted now, as a hat tip to Spot, the blog's author, perseverance being its own reward:

https://retiregeoffmichel.blogspot.com/ 

Some readers may remember how Geoff Michel retired himself, along with Amy Koch. 'nuf said?

Looking for a job with a long-term future? Try counting ballots in Florida.

Just saying . . .

Pioneeer Press online touts: "Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer to lead House GOP campaign wing"

House GOP campaign wing follows at a respectful distance.

PiPress, early item excerpting:

The third-term Minnesota congressman was appointed chairman of the NRCC by his GOP colleagues on Wednesday after running unopposed for the position. The NRCC is the campaign arm of the House GOP; it raises money for incumbents and challengers and develops campaign strategy.

“It’s going to be a different world here in Washington for … Republicans in the House for the next couple of years,” said Emmer, who represents Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District. [...]

He previously served as deputy chair of the NRCC, and will succeed U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio as chairman.

Stivers congratulated Emmer in a statement Wednesday: “Tom served us ably this cycle as a Deputy Chair and leading our record-breaking March Dinner. He’s the right man to lead this committee and take us back to the majority in 2020.”

[...] Emmer said the task is not insurmountable, but added that Republicans will have to unite behind a common message to win back suburban voters.

Not only a good March Dinner man, he gives a hell of a parade. With a "common message to win back surbaban voters."

________________________
image credit: The Awl. Worth reading. Who he was, who he is, a disconnect; with learning or lipstick on a pig? Let's cut slack and say it's an upward sloping learning curve. It's best that way, given the mood of the district.

UPDATE: A third possibility, not entirely unlikely, the individual discussed in The Awl item may have been playing to a perceived audience, at a time of Tea Party ascendance, and now may be proving brighter than back when Michele Bachmann and Bachmannistani hijinks played well in CD6. With the district Republican and tending to return Congress critters until they decide to move on, Mark Kennedy/Bachmann being examples, Emmer can keep his head down and schmooze the DC crowd, money and pundits, with a downplayed talent level. Also, with Stanley Hubbard on the team, a sober voice is there to urge restraint and good manners. Then there is the Emmer Cuba position, Cargill wanting to sell, with Emmer respecting Cragill to his advantage. It is speculative, but he sure knew back then how to come across as a dunce, and has looked better by being less apparent after taking the seat where, after Bachmann, anything looks good sane.

Posted Oct. 9, first tour stop Nov. 18, tickets may still be available - check it out: "Bill and Hillary Clinton Announce 2018-2019 Arena Tour: Dates, Tickets [...] The BIll and Hillary Clinton tour will be known as 'An Evening with The Clintons' and is billed as an up close and personal live event"

All you may want to know link.

Tune time.

Trump supports sentencing reforms. However much criticism he receives, that step has to be recognized as a favorable reform, with his support.

An AP item carried by Strib begins:

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced his support for the first major rewrite of the nation's criminal justice sentencing laws in a generation.

"Today I'm thrilled to announce my support for this bipartisan bill that will make our communities safer and give former inmates a second chance at life after they have served their time," Trump said at the White House, hailing the deal as proof that "true bipartisanship is possible."

Lawmakers reached an agreement this week on the bipartisan legislation that would boost rehabilitation efforts for federal prisoners and give judges more discretion when sentencing nonviolent offenders, particularly for drug offenses.

Criminal justice reform has been a priority of Trump's son-in-law, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, who has been working on the issue for months. Trump pushed for swift passage of the legislation, potentially during the lame-duck session of Congress.

"I'll be waiting with a pen," he said.

Is there a downside? Of course. There always is one, this time:

The House approved a prison reform bill in May, but the Senate package makes additional changes and adds the sentencing component.

The Senate approach would allow thousands of federal prisoners sentenced for crack cocaine offenses before August 2010 the opportunity to petition for a reduced penalty. It would also lower mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses. The life sentence for some drug offenders with three convictions, or "three strikes," would be reduced to 25 years.

Roughly 90 percent of prison inmates are held in state facilities and would not be affected by the legislation.

It's like DC tax cutting - at most ten percent benefit. We have a fortunate minority sitting in unfortunate circumstances -- in the slammer. But at least it is a federal slammer for the luckier ones.

Just plain unlikable. Generations apart. Different gender. One bond of unappealingness. Unlikability personified.

Politicians are aplenty, two stand out:

Different parties, different levels, comparable qualities of ugh, gag, choke.

Is it an authenticity deficit disorder of each, alone? Or more?

With Wardlow there is consistent vile agenda, with Clinton, policy du jour. One with James Dobson. The other with Goldman Sachs.

Neither with grace.

___________UPDATE___________
Looking and thinking, imagine that lipstick on Wardlow. And the eye makeup.

John McCain gets credit he does not deserve, from Jason Lewis, no less.

Lewis says McCain responsible for Democrats doing well days ago. But while it is good to see him praising McCain for doing good, it is undeserved. Jason Lewis lost on his own, for being himself, and McCain had no part in that. Also, in fairness, there was Angie Craig who did a lot too. May her term in Congress prove to be all she hopes for, with good health and without disappointment.