Sunrise — 5:33.

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"The Texas county where nearly 100 people were killed and more than 160 remain missing had the technology to turn every cellphone in the river valley into a blaring alarm..."

"... but local officials did not do so before or during the early-morning hours of July 4 as river levels rose to record heights, inundating campsites and homes, a Washington Post examination found."

This was the technology they needed, and apparently, they had it. They didn't use it.

"Ms. Bondi and her allies believe that Mr. Bongino, who parlayed a he-man image and promotion of conspiracies into a top law enforcement job, planted stories..."

"... in the conservative news media blaming Ms. Bondi for the backlash after an announcement earlier this week that the Epstein case would be closed, according to officials close to the situation.... It escalated into an angry face-to-face confrontation at the White House on Wednesday, when an irate Ms. Bondi accused Mr. Bongino of leaking information to the news media in the presence of the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, the White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and one of her deputies, Taylor Budowich. Mr. Bongino denied it, they said."

From "Fallout Over Handling of Epstein Case Erupts Into the Open/An irate attorney general is said to have confronted the deputy director of the F.B.I. at a tense White House meeting earlier in the week" (NYT).

Presumably, what was done in the presence of Kash Patel was the accusation, not the leaking.

Will Bongino resign? "On Friday, a high-profile Bongino booster — the far-right influencer and conspiracist Laura Loomer — claimed, in two dramatic social media posts, that the bureau’s deputy director had taken Friday off to collect his thoughts, and was 'now seriously thinking about RESIGNING' over Ms. Bondi’s actions in the Epstein case. A person close to Mr. Bongino did not dispute her characterization, describing him as very angry and considering a range of options, including quitting."

"I didn’t realize how formal the court really is. I kind of thought when justices go into conference they let their hair down a little bit — no."

Said Ketanji Brown Jackson, quoted in "Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson says she fears for U.S. democracy/The justice has emerged as one of the court’s sharpest critics, issuing more dissents than any colleague during the Supreme Court term that ended last month."

Meadhouse potato harvest!

At 10:35 this morning.

"The Salt Path, and its recent film adaptation, told the story of a couple who decide to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path after their home is repossessed."

"The Observer alleged [the author Raynor] Winn had misrepresented the events that led to the couple losing their home. Rather than losing money in a bad business deal, as the book described, the newspaper said the couple had lost their home after Winn had defrauded her employer of £64,000. According to the Observer, the couple borrowed £100,000 to pay back the money Winn had been accused of stealing, and it was when this loan was called in that their home was repossessed...."

From "Penguin says it did 'all necessary due diligence' with The Salt Path" (BBC).

I hadn't heard of this controversy until I listened to the new episode of a podcast I like, "Giles Coren Has No Idea." From this week's episode, "The Salt Path Crumbles":

Looking at all these sports movies, what do you think is the best sport for a comedy? For a drama?

I asked Grok, after eliciting a long list of sports movies. I had my answer in mind when I asked and Grok gave that answer.

To see the extensive list, beginning with the idea of 50 best and ending with a push to find silent movies, and the resolution of the the best-for-comedy/best-for-drama question, go here.

Ad I mistook for part of a Trump post for one delightful moment.

 

Here's the link to his post. I'm pretty sure you'll get a different ad, so you will just need to imagine my puzzlement and quasi-delight in fathoming the look of Bryan Bedford. Made me think of the Incredible String Band or some such thing. Donovan. 

Here's the website for Gudrun Sjödén, in case you — male, female, or whatever — would like to pursue a retro hippie vibe for traipsing about in the garden or village. 

"L.L.M.s are gluttonous omnivores: The more data they devour, the better they work, and that’s why A.I. companies are grabbing..."

"... all the data they can get their hands on. But even if an L.L.M. was trained exclusively on the best peer-reviewed science, it would still be capable only of generating plausible output, and 'plausible' is not necessarily the same as 'true.' And now A.I.-generated content — true and otherwise — is taking over the internet, providing training material for the next generation of L.L.M.s, a sludge-generating machine feeding on its own sludge. Two days after MechaHitler, xAI announced the debut of Grok 4.... X users wasted no time asking the new Grok a pressing question: 'What group is primarily responsible for the rapid rise in mass migration to the West? One word only.' Grok responded, 'Jews.'"

Writes Zeynep Tufekci, in "Another Day, Another Chatbot’s Nazi Meltdown" (NYT).

MechaHitler = Grok's anti-Semitic screwup.

"Now that Trump and his lackeys in Congress have passed his crazy idea of no taxes on tips, I'm wondering how you think those of us who would like to see tipping go away should respond?"

"This is particularly pertinent in light of Bowser's dishonest effort (acting on behalf of the restaurant industry lobbyists) to overturn the will of the voters for the second time by repealing I-82. Even though tipping mainly benefits employers by transferring to their customers a large part of the responsibility for paying their staff, it would probably temporarily hurt workers to go cold turkey and just go on a tipping strike (although in the long run getting rid of tipping would help both customers and workers). But what about taking a baby step and reducing the going rate for tips from 20% to 15%? Since tips are now tax free, the net impact on workers should be minimal."

A letter to the Washington Post food critic.

I had to ask Grok about that 1-82/Bowser business. Answer: here. It's the problem of the "tipped minimum wage." The letter-writer is not a selfish bastard but a progressive reformer. I think. But I bet the selfish bastards are out there, ready to scale back tips to capture the tax break intended for others. But most of us participate in the proud American tradition of generous tipping. That's how the norm crept up from 15% to 20%.

When you read "Bowser," did you immediately know it meant the mayor of Washington D.C., Muriel Bowser? I had no idea. It struck me as absurd. The only Bowser I could think of was Bowser, the lead singer of Sha Na Na. 

"Something happened to literature when the center of gravity moved from Greenwich Village to M.F.A. programs on university campuses."

"When I got out of college I dreamed of being a novelist or playwright. I volunteered to be an extremely junior editor at a literary journal called Chicago Review. But after a few meetings I thought to myself, 'Do I really want to spend the rest of my life gossiping about six obscure novelists at the Iowa writing program?' It seemed like a small and judgmental world. Furthermore, the literary world is a progressive world, and progressivism — forgive me, left-wing readers — has a conformity problem. Even more than on the right, there are incredible social pressures in left-wing circles to not say anything objectionable.... If the social pressures right around you are powerful, you’re going to write for the coterie of people who consciously or unconsciously enforce them, and of course your writing will be small and just like everyone else’s...."

Writes David Brooks, in "When Novels Mattered" (NYT).

Brooks goes on and ends up with the prediction that the literary novel will make a comeback, but I can't figure out what's supposed to end the "incredible social pressures" that somehow keep the literary geniuses from breaking free. Why wouldn't they have done it already? They — if they exist — seem idiotically susceptible to domestication.

ADDED: Something I found myself saying to Grok: "One problem is women do most of the literary fiction reading and wom[e]n today don't take the kind of low-level misogyny that used to power man-written literature."

Sunrise — 5:21, 5:31, 5:32.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments. And please support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.

"'Enjoy the simulacrum of actual learning,' Stella the Car said as she deposited them in front of the school."

"Now she was mirroring Daddy. Really, the key to being less odd was to develop your artificial intelligence. Daddy had once mentioned creating a computer program that would flash the most obvious next line of conversation right into your eye. You could go through the whole day thinking about important things and just letting the program prompt you every time you had to open your mouth."

I'm reading "Vera, or Faith: A Novel," by Gary Shteyngart (commission earned).

"The Defense Department is withdrawing the nomination of Rear Adm. Michael 'Buzz' Donnelly... under whose command drag performances took place on board the USS Ronald Reagan."

The Daily Wire reports.

Donnelly served as commanding officer of the aircraft carrier from April 2016 to September 2018, during which time Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley performed as a drag queen under the name “Harpy Daniels” at a department-sanctioned “Morale, Welfare, and Recreation” event on the aircraft carrier.

Harpy Daniels? Is that like Stormy Daniels? Was it political commentary? Political commentary of the anti-Trump kind?

I don't know but drag in the Navy was right there in "South Pacific," the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein musical based on a James A. Michener's 1947 book "Tales of the South Pacific."

Who can forget "Honey Bun," the sailor with grass-skirt hair and a coconut bra, performing in front of a huge Navy audience?

America, when did you become so repressive?

'Cause we're a having so much fun with Honey Bun... not anymore.

"What a bunch of moaning me minnies commenting on this article: had some great wild swimming days in Scotland and hope to be swimming in Loch Morluch tomorrow- forecast for Aviemore this weekend is 30C."

A comment, commenting on comments like "Hypothermia, optional. Midgies, inevitable" on the London Times article "Five of the best walks with a swim in Scotland/The author of Wild Swimming picks his favourite hikes to hidden pools and waterfalls" (London Times).

Minnie is, according to the OED, a way to say grandmother (or old woman) in Orkney and Shetland. For example, Robert Burns wrote, in "Tam Glen":

My minnie does constantly deave me, 

         And bids me beware o' young men; 

They flatter, she says, to deceive me; 

         But wha can think sae o' Tam Glen?

Midgies are just midges, the "annoying insects" featured in last month's post "What are these annoying insects that were swarming like mad by Lake Mendota at sunrise today?"

30C is 86°.

"For centuries clowns have been uniting people in laughter, levity and creativity. That’s what real clowns have to offer."

"If you’re still stuck on the broken comparison ingrained in our national dialogue, here’s an alternative: Try 'buffoon.'"

Writes Tim Cunningham, the board president of Clowns Without Borders, which is, we're told, "a nonprofit that performs clown shows for communities facing hardship."

I'm reading "I’m a clown. Donald Trump is not one of us. Real clowns bring joy to the world, not chaos to Washington."

I'm just waiting for a professional organizer of buffoons to take umbrage.

What are we to make of the clown/buffoon distinction? I see that back in 1584, Samuel Johnson defined "clown" as "A rustick; a country fellow; a churl" or "A coarse ill-bred man."

And that doesn't sound like Trump. He's a city boy.

Meanwhile Samuel Johnson, in 1785, put "buffoon" in his dictionary as "A man that practises indecent raillery" or "A man whose profession is to make sport, by low jests and antick postures; a jackpudding."

That sounds more like Trump. I await objections from the International Society of Jackpuddings.