Busy work day.

Turkey has taken over Jarabulus in Syria. The U.S. aided the effort with airstrikes. According to Twitter analysts, ISIS had already gone, so there wasn't much of a fight. More like they turned the town over. Still, it's the first time Turkey used its own forces for a military operation against ISIS in Syria.

Looks like it was co-leader of Sinaloa Ismael "Mayo" Zambada-Garcia (background here) who conducted the negotiations to free El Chapo's son. Most media now agree both sons were kidnapped. It's still unclear who was behind the kidnappings and what kind of ransom was paid, money or ceding of territory or neither. [More...]

The Olympics are closing tonight. I liked the women's gymnastics but really didn't care for the constant and annoying chatter by the female anchors, or the hyperventilating male anchors (on swimming) on NBC, so I didn't watch much else on that channel. The British announcers on the alternative NBC channel were much better, at least as to the soccer games and cycling.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Here's a new open thread, all topics welcome.

Has anyone seen a Trump statue in person? G-rated comments only please, or use asterisks for anatomical parts.

Here's a new open thread, sorry it's so late in coming. All topics welcome.

Here's a new open thread. All topics welcome.

Busy day here, time for a new open thread. All topics welcome.

Here's a new open thread, all topics welcome.

Melania Trump's racy photos from 1996. Trump says,

When asked about the photos, Trump told The Post: “Melania was one of the most successful models and she did many photo shoots, including for covers and major magazines. This was a picture taken for a European magazine prior to my knowing Melania. In Europe, pictures like this are very fashionable and common.”

Trump displayed his lack of foreign policy chops today on ABC's This Week when he didn't know that Russian troops were in the Ukraine -- and had been for two years. Russia seized Crimea and annexed it in 2014, resulting in economic sanctions by the U.S. and countries in Europe. He suggested Crimea might prefer Russia. [More...]

Windows 10 free upgrades end tomorrow. I've been dreading installing it on my office computer, because like everything these days, text is an afterthought to graphic icons and video. I have been using Windows 10 on my laptops for 6 months and I still waste far too much time trying to find things. I like text, not pictures. I rarely find the icons intuitive.

Here's the good news. This morning when I got the message "Your computer is ready to upgrade" and it told me all my files would be in the same place and I could switch back if I didn't like Windows 10, I took a deep breath and hit the "OK" button.

For a few hours I worked on documents while it was doing something in the background. Then I left and forgot about it. When I got back around 5 pm, there was a big message on the screen saying I was ready to go. The best part was it asked me if I wanted to use custom settings (like for Groove music and Windows photo program) and had a very small button to click that said "no, use my existing programs to open everything." So I clicked the very small button and lo and behold: My desktop looks just like it did in Windows 7, my photos open with Adobe Photoshop and my music and video is in iTunes. It also gave me the choice to turn off all the notifications to Microsoft and syncing apps and location services, which of course I chose to do. [More...]

Open Thread.

Bill Clinton tonight in the 10 o'clock hour. Also Meryl Streep and Alicia Keys.

At 8 Mothers of the Movement.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

It's hot -- 95 degrees today.

The Late Late Show with James Corden has been nominated for three Emmys -- None for Stephen Colbert or the Daily Show. Corden is so much more entertaining to watch. But I've been saying that for months. I just wish he'd come back to the show -- far too many repeat episodes lately.

The rest of the Emmy list is pretty uninspiring. I'd rather watch Senor de los Cielos or re-runs of La Reina del Sur than suffer through yet another show about O.J. Simpson or drug cops. I'm glad Lily Tomlin got nominated for Grace and Frankie -- Jane Fonda should have been as well.

There seems to be more hand-wringing than buzz about the Republican convention. It will only get worse.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.