A pleasant mansion and garden in Sintra: Biester

by philg

Elon Musk frets about our planet being underpopulated, a point of view likely to be confusing to anyone who has visited Sintra, Portugal. A garden built for quiet reflection, such as Quinta da Regaleira, will be packed with more than 1,000 tourists at a time in the shoulder seasons. It looks good from some angles, e.g.,

but to get into the most famous part, the “Initiation Well” (an underground tower), it was a 1.5-hour wait on June 12, 2024, less than two hours after the attraction opened:

How typical is this degree of crowding? Google said that we visited on an unusually quiet day:

Unless the city starts charging a $200 per person daily decongestion fee, there is no way to recreate the experience for which these palaces and gardens were built. You’ll be sitting in traffic and/or walking long distances up and down hills and waiting in line to get into even the smallest garden feature.

We found an exception to the above rules.. Biester Palace, the mansion that tourists haven’t learned about yet. Built with a banking fortune at the end of the 19th century, the palace appears to be in shabby condition in The Ninth Gate, a 1999 Roman Polanski (pregnant wife killed by Manson family) film starring Johnny Depp (future cash cow for Amber Heard until she made the mistake of partnering with the ACLU). There’s an entrance right next to Quinta da Regaleira and if you do decide to brave the Pena Palace you can exit via the top entrance to catch the bus there.

Here’s the view from the top of the park (mansion on the right side of the frame):

The interior hasn’t been redecorated to its former glory, but the rooms aren’t bare:

There are some great views of the Moorish castle above Sintra (Muslims controlled and colonized Sintra from about 722 AD until 1147):

Stop at the tea house for a friendly service, almost-free prices (about 1 euro for a coffee; 3.5 euros for a massive fresh-squeezed orange juice), and delicious pastry.

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A Constitutional amendment to impose an age limit of 67 on the President?

by philg

An immigrant physician friend, simply based on videos that she watched in 2020, diagnosed Joe Biden with dementia four years ago and referred to him as “the senile puppet” long before the New York Times editorial board noticed that anything was wrong. Democrats now believe that Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities are insufficient to handle the job of U.S. President. Democrats also hate Donald Trump and there are at least some Republicans who prefer Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley to Mr. Trump.

I wonder if these groups could get together and do a quickie amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would impose a mandatory retirement age of 67 (the current Social Security full retirement age for those born after 1960) on the job. We need three-fourths of the states to ratify such an amendment and then both the Republicans and Democrats would have to nominate younger politicians for the November election.

We’ve already got a minimum of 35:

Why not a maximum?

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Maintainability of cork seats on subway trains?

by philg

Here’s something that I wouldn’t have expected to work: cork seats on subway trains. The Lisbon Metro, June 2024:

Apparently, the seats used to be covered in cloth and they started a mass conversion about four years ago (“Lisbon Metro already running 100% coated with cork” (2022)).

By Palm Beach County standards, at least, Lisbon is plagued with graffiti. The Metro, however, seems to be an exception. I didn’t see any evidence of vandalism.

How long would cork seats last in the NYC subway system? Would every seat be defaced with carved initials within a few days of installation?

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Closing out Pride Month in Massachusetts

by philg

From the big animal hospital in Boston:

Let’s have a closer look at the 2SLGBTQQIA+ pit bull, which we’d be unlikely to see in Palm Beach County partly due to the cruel repression of Dictator Ron DeSantis and partly due to the fact that pit bulls are banned by most apartment complexes and HOAs.

Maybe the pit bull will reappear in his/her/zir/their rainbow garb for Nonbinary Awareness Week, which starts July 8.

And down in New York City’s Greenwich Village….

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We’re suffering a “climate crisis”, but it isn’t so critical that we’d want to discourage driving and spewing CO2 while stuck in traffic

by philg

Today was the day that New York City was supposed to be decongested (with about $700 million in tax dollars spent in prep, according to the Wall Street Journal).

From New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s web site:

As Governor, Kathy is committed to ensuring that New York leads the transition to a clean energy future and advances climate justice. Since taking office, she has led efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions … She has also invested millions in climate justice fellowships for historically disadvantaged communities. Governor Hochul is working tirelessly to ensure that New York is a global leader in the fight against climate change, and she will continue enacting policies to protect our communities and the next generation of New Yorkers from the growing threats of the climate crisis.

From her official governor’s site:

“We have a moral obligation to leave this extraordinary planet better than we found it,” Governor Hochul said. … These issues, if not addressed collectively with great urgency, pose existential threats to humans and other living beings, as well as the ecosystems they depend upon.

CNN, June 5… “NY Gov Hochul delays controversial NYC congestion pricing plan ‘indefinitely’”:

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday she is indefinitely delaying the implementation of congestion pricing in New York City’s borough of Manhattan just weeks before the plan was set to take effect, … New York’s congestion pricing would have been the first of its kind in the United States. Similar programs have been implemented in London and Stockholm. The New York City version has been years in the making and was scheduled to begin June 30th. As part of the plan, drivers would have paid $15 to enter Manhattan south of 60th street, with commercial vehicles and trucks paying steeper tolls.

So humanity is doomed if we don’t stop spewing out CO2 while sitting in massive traffic jams and also we shouldn’t do anything to discourage people from spewing out CO2 while sitting in massive traffic jams. We’re in a “climate crisis” that isn’t one of those critical crises in which we might want to take action.

Related:

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Jamaal Bowman, art, and Hitler

by philg

International Jewry is responsible for Dr. Jamaal Bowman, Ed. D.’s recent defeat in New York. The Hill:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for pouring tens of millions into fellow Democratic New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s divisive primary race Wednesday after Bowman lost the primary to a more moderate Democrat.

Bowman, a second-term progressive, faced tough opposition from the pro-Israel political advocacy group AIPAC because of his criticism of the Israeli government.

Who else had superior ideals and blamed International Jewry for obstructions to their implementation? From The Women Who Flew for Hitler:

Over tea that afternoon, Hitler once again ‘leapt up in a fit of frenzy, with foam on his lips, and shouted that he would have revenge on all traitors’. Interrupted by a call from Berlin, he screamed orders ‘to shoot anyone and everyone’ before announcing, ‘I’m beginning to doubt whether the German people are worthy of my great ideals.’ [this was following the aristocratic assassination and military coup attempt against Germany’s democratically elected leader]

Blaming the war on Jewish incitement, and defeat on the betrayal of his officers, Hitler ended his last statement with the injunction that his successors should ‘above all else, uphold the racial laws in all their severity, and mercilessly resist the universal poisoner of all nations: international Jewry’. [from the bunker]

In one of the few parts of Porto that isn’t mobbed with tourists, maybe due to the outrageous-by-Portuguese-standards 24 euro entry price for the Serralves Foundation (mercifully free for the kids), I found the following artistic collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Dr. Jamaal Bowman, Ed. D.:

Kusama is 95. It’s a shame that she wasn’t born in the U.S. or she could run for President.

Circling back to Dr. Jamaal Bowman, Ed. D., could the reason that progressive Democrats haven’t managed to take control of the entire U.S. be that Americans aren’t worthy of great ideals, e.g., stopping climate change, providing asylum to 8+ billion humans if they want it, ending homelessness, liberating Al-Quds and establishing a river-to-the-sea Palestinian state, a living wage for everyone who attempts to work, eliminating the acquisition of unnecessary wealth, etc.?

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Queers for Palestine merchandise at Amazon

by philg

Pride is almost over and there won’t be any 2SLGBTQQIA+ holidays for an entire week (Nonbinary Awareness Week begins on July 8; International Nonbinary People’s Day is July 14; International Drag Day is July 16 (GLAAD)).

Perhaps is it time for us to purchase our Queers for Palestine merchandise before everything is sold out. The selection was good on June 5:

If you’re spending a month or two walking the Camino de Santiago you could wear this so that your fellow Christian pilgrims didn’t have to wait until the end of the hike to see a Queers for Palestine display (the one below is close to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela and directly on a pilgrimage route; photo from June 23, 2024):

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New York Times elite admits to having no better access to information than peasants have?

by philg

We’re supposed to follow the guidance of the New York Times because the people on their editorial board have better access to information than we do. We wear cloth face coverings as PPE against aerosol viruses if they tell us to because they have direct access to the Science. We vote for whomever the NYT recommends because they have direct personal contact with America’s top politicians. We buy Teslas because they tell us that they’ve done the analysis and concluded that a 4,750 lb. electric car will heal our planet while a 2,500 lb. gas-powered car will destroy it.

We’ve been getting guidance from the NYT for at least five years regarding Joe Biden, a man whom an immigrant physician friend, after reviewing what was available to the masses, characterized as a “senile puppet” back in 2020. Using their elite connections, the NYT found “a professor of psychology and neuroscience and the director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California, Davis” to tell peasants to ignore what they might be seeing in videos. “I’m a Neuroscientist. We’re Thinking About Biden’s Memory and Age in the Wrong Way.” (February 2024):

As an expert on memory, I can assure you that everyone forgets. … age in and of itself doesn’t indicate the presence of memory deficits that would affect an individual’s ability to perform in a demanding leadership role. … Many of the special counsel’s observations about Mr. Biden’s memory seem to fall in the category of forgetting, meaning that they are more indicative of a problem with finding the right information from memory than Forgetting. … Mr. Biden is the same age as Harrison Ford, Paul McCartney and Martin Scorsese. He’s also a bit younger than Jane Fonda (86) and a lot younger than the Berkshire Hathaway C.E.O., Warren Buffett (93). All these individuals are considered to be at the top of their professions, and yet I would not be surprised if they are more forgetful and absent-minded than when they were younger.

NYT reminded peasants again in March that age is an irrelevant number when you’re propped up by elite advisors… “The Overlooked Truths About Biden’s Age”:

The presidency isn’t a solo mission. Not even close. It’s a team effort, and the administration that a president puts together matters much, much more than his brawn or his brio. … But he’s not Atlas; he’s POTUS. And the president of the United States is only as good as the advisers around him, whose selection reflects presidential judgment, not stamina. … Yes, Trump is about three and a half years younger and often peppier than Biden. Biden is about 300 times saner and always more principled than Trump.

While I was traveling back to the U.S. from Portugal yesterday, the NYT’s Editorial Board published a radical about-face:

Based on their elite access, they had full confidence in Joe Biden until Thursday morning. After watching a TV show intended for peasants on Thursday evening, they’ve decided that their great leader should retire to a Memory Care unit. Doesn’t this undermine their claim to having better information than the masses? If they wanted to throw Genocide Joe under the bus, shouldn’t they had said that their withdrawal of support was based on private conversations with top officials who requested anonymity?

(The Wall Street Journal did this right. “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping” (June 4, 2024). Their journalists got behind doors that are closed to peasants, at least via interviews with the elite, and brought back the truth. Ergo, if you want to know what is really happening in the U.S. and elsewhere you need to keep paying for a WSJ subscription. You can’t just watch TV.)

Who would you all like to see as a replacement? My dream is Michael Avenatti with Hunter Biden as VP. “Avenatti’s actions on potential presidential run speak louder than his words” (CNN):

Michael Avenatti, the boisterous lawyer who has risen to national fame in recent months by publicly pestering Donald Trump, will continue his public flirtations with running for President in 2020 by headlining two more Democratic Party events this weekend, sources tell CNN.

Avenatti’s near constant presence at Democratic events over the last two weeks has caused some Democrats to reconsider their belief that the lawyer’s run is a publicity stunt aimed at annoying the President.

After each speech, he has been asked to speak at more Democratic functions. He will follow up that appearance on Sunday – after an early morning flight – by appearing at “Hillsborough County Democrat’s Summer Picnic” in New Hampshire, a crucial state for presidential contenders.

Avenatti has made two trips to Ohio in as many weeks, where he met with David Betras, the chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party, and had dinner with Rep. Tim Ryan, another possible 2020 Democratic contender who represents Youngstown.

“I think he is a phenomenal guy and I have gotten to know him a bit in the last week. We went to dinner last week, he was in Youngstown and I really like him,” Ryan told CNN after commending Avenatti’s work against Trump over the last few months.

So that’s a President that Democrats can love and follow. What about Hunter Biden as VP? Americans love recovery stories. See half of Hollywood films (The Lost Weekend (1945); Flight (2012)) plus tons of books (see Dave Pelzer, for example). Hunter Biden has already written a bestseller about his “years-long battle with drug and alcohol addiction” that was favorably reviewed in the New York Times as “ineffably sad and beautifully written” and it “tears the tabloid face off the story about an American family that has experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows” (i.e., if you don’t pay for a NYT subscription and buy the book you might be mislead by headlines from the Daily Mail suggesting that $millions were collected from China and Ukraine because of and for “the big guy”).

If I had to use a wish from an omnipotent being before choosing a dream Democrat line-up I would wish that the most-frequently-praised-by-Democrats American be resurrected and selected as the Democrat presidential nominee:

If I got a second wish and had to use it, I would wish that the Constitution be changed so that someone born outside of the U.S. could serve as President and that Palestinian leader Yahya Sinwar be selected as the Democrats’ VP candidate. A Floyd/Sinwar candidacy would encapsulate the dreams of Democrats who’ve taken to the streets since 2020.

Related:

I asked claude.ai to write a pitch:

Dear Supporter,
President Biden needs your help to continue fighting for our shared Democratic values. While some have raised questions about the President’s age, what truly matters is his decades of experience, unwavering commitment to progressive policies, and the strong team he has assembled.
The role of President is about leadership, vision, and surrounding oneself with capable advisors – not about personal cognitive ability alone. President Biden has demonstrated he can effectively delegate and lean on the expertise of his administration to govern.
Your donation will help ensure we can continue pursuing vital priorities like combating climate change, protecting reproductive rights, and expanding access to healthcare. Every contribution, no matter the size, makes a difference.
Stand with President Biden and donate today to keep moving America forward.

I think Anthropic AI did about as well as a human fundraiser! Note that Americans love to hear promises to “fight” from their politicians and this ends up in the first sentence.

Those closest to Joe Biden say that he’s the smartest person in the room. Here’s the open border guy:

Update, July 2: the New York Times NOW tells us that they have inside information and Biden is on a mental decline. “Biden’s Lapses Are Increasingly Common, According to Some of Those in the Room” (they’re in the room with the President of the U.S. and don’t have to rely on watching TV as the rest of us do):

People who have spent time with President Biden over the last few months or so said the lapses appear to have grown more frequent, more pronounced and, after Thursday’s debate, more worrisome.

In the weeks and months before President Biden’s politically devastating performance on the debate stage in Atlanta, several current and former officials and others who encountered him behind closed doors noticed that he increasingly appeared confused or listless, or would lose the thread of conversations.

The most serious lapse:

On June 10, he appeared to freeze up at an early celebration of the Juneteenth holiday.

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A celebration of electrical and mechanical engineering in Lisbon

by philg

What if the electric company ran an art museum? In Lisbon, they do! The result seems to be a celebration of electrical and mechanical engineering in an old riverside powerplant. The process of charging a Tesla is explained to the lay visitor:

A detail of the boiler:

Babcock and Wilcox, an American company (apparently with some production in the UK), made these state-of-the-art products for about 150 years and their work included contributing to the Manhattan Project, thus helping to end World War II on America’s terms. The company was then sued into bankruptcy by asbestos lawyers. (“A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.”)

I would have liked to see more technical explanation and maybe a model steam-powered generating plant (with a mini Tesla at the end?), but this still qualifies as a great monument to the achievements of engineers over about 200 years (starting with pioneering female Jamesina Watt).

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