Over 100 former Republican national security officials signed a statement in August saying DJT was unfit to serve another term. Among them was Olivia Troye, former Special Advisor to Mike Pence.

DJT is unfit to be President because (among many other things) he makes atrocious choices for key government positions, e.g. Kash Patel for FBI Director.

Patel didn't like some comments that Ms. Troye made about him on MSNBC earlier this week. Two days ago, Mr. Patel's lawyer sent a letter to Ms. Troye's lawyer demanding a retraction. A Bluesky post has the full response from Ms. Troye's lawyer but the key part is below.

Most rock and roll guitarists stand while performing. Robert Fripp of King Crimson and Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter of Steely Dan are exceptions. Both play while seated (and both are fine guitarists).

When Fripp said he wanted to sit on a stool, his band mate Greg Lake said no, you'll look like a mushroom on stage. Fripp sat anyway. From his journal for May 14, 1969:

A personal turning point following a discussion on presentation: I sit down after 8 gigs standing. Hendrix, dressed in white with his right arm in a sling approached me afterwards and said, "Shake my left hand, man, it's nearer to my heart."

Rick Beato posted a long interview with Jeff Baxter yesterday. Jeff explained how he got started by working in music stores in Mexico City and in New York, where all kinds of musicians would come in the stores. He said (starting at 3:41, edited for brevity),

So one day Andrés Segovia comes in because he's playing at Carnegie Hall and one of the tuning machines on his Ramirez had broken. We didn't have anything in stock so I ran across the street to Charles Ponte who was the cello and violin guy thinking, you know, maybe, maybe. He had one set so I bought those, took them back, took the Ramirez back in the room, repaired it, strung it up, and meanwhile it was Frank Zappa, Mike Bloomfield, I'm trying to think of the other guitar player it might have been, and they're all rocking away, all standing up and they're all having a great time and Mr. Segovia is just sitting there on the couch in the front room, very quiet.

So I brought the guitar out, I said hold on guys, hold on a second, so I hand him the instrument. Sitting there, he tunes it up, he plays the first 64 bars from the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo.

And it sounds stupid, but it's like all the photons left the room except for Andrés Segovia. I mean this man, whatever was going on with this guy, he had an aura about him. The place got completely quiet.

Afterwards he said thank you very much, paid Dan, and then turned to me, in Spanish he said, "Would you please tell them that you don't hang it around your neck like a canoe paddle, you hold it next to your body because it's a part of you, it's right next to your heart." And I thought, yeah, I'm sitting down, works for me.

A small fire in the mountains spread downslope overnight in strong winds. I took this pic looking south from my lot at about 4:00 this morning. Lights in the foreground are houses in my neighborhood. Fire is about four miles south. I don't see flames now but there's still smoke and a helicopter is dropping water. For now I'm not required to evacuate, just warned that I might be if things get worse. Info at

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/10/30/horseshoe-fire/

In a dream this morning, a friend had a pet llama that could understand and speak English. "But he doesn't say anything interesting," my friend told me.

This could be an allegory for AI. One of the better-known large language models is named Llama.