I'm on the eternal laptop search. I can't keep putting a 7 pound beast on my lap to blog. And this time I refuse to buy a laptop without having held it , typed on it and viewed the screen first -- no more laptop buying sight unseen. Wish me luck.

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

I've been busy with work. But I am following a few things, mostly the transfer of Hector Luis "El Guero" Palma-Salazar (former compatriot of El Chapo) to Mexico upon completion of his U.S. sentence, but also, the murder of a 20 year old who worked as security at the prison Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is being held, reports about the Orlando killer, and the ISIS-inspired attack on a French policeman and his companion in France. (The killer live-streamed his allegiance to ISIS with a child in the video (reports are he spared the child.)

Check out James Corden's latest carpool karaoke with the Red Hot Chile Peppers. It's really fun. Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda were on his Late Late Show again last night. Lily said she's not keen on imitating heterosexuals (she's now married to her partner of 45 years.) Jane talked about whether she and Robert Redford ever got it on. Her story seemed very out of school -- a total kiss and tell.

I keep trying to write a post about Palma-Salazar since there is a lot of sloppy and erroneous reporting out there, but it's such a long story with so many different aspects (from his years at Supermax to the murder of his wife, whose head was sent to him in a box after she was killed by the Venezuelan trafficker who had run off with her, got her to withdraw millions of dollars from his accounts and then killed her in San Francisco, before taking El Guero's two small kids to Venezuela where he threw them off a bridge and killed them, filming the incident, to the 1995 plane crash in Mexico that resulted in his arrest) I never quite finish.

While I try again, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Still a very busy week here. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." RI.P. Muhammad Ali.

Authorities say Prince died of a self-administered Fentanyl overdose.

Weldon Angelos, who was sentenced to 55 years for marijuana, has been released after 12 years. He lost in the 10th Circuit and the Supreme Court. His clemency petition dangled for 3 years. Ultimately, his lawyer says, a prosecutor put in motion events to set him free.

He had no criminal record before he was convicted of selling $350 worth of marijuana to a police informant three times.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

We close comments at 200, so please don't hog the thread. (No one should be commenting 30 times in a single thread.)

Where has this week gone? I've am just swamped with work and have a lot to do before I can focus on the news and blogging. Hopefully, I'll catch up over the weekend.

In the meantime, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Today we justly honor the many men and women who died while serving in our Armed Forces.

This year, more than most, I'm struck by the fact that war is not a distant memory, or an occasional event, but an ever-present condition.

In war news, Iraqi forces stormed Fallujah early this morning, backed by U.S. aircraft, to retake the city from ISIS. In Baghdad yesterday, ISIS suicide bombings claimed the lives of more than 20 people.

Meanwhile more than 700 migrants, including children, may have died in sea crossings this week.

Hopefully, some of you have something cheerful to write about, even if it's just how you spent your weekend. This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Sorry for disappearing. I've been working -- or reading about El Chapo (as well as ISIS) -- all weekend. Now I have a lot of recorded TV shows to watch.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

It's a jail day for me, at least it's in the mountains.

Here's an open thread for you, all topics welcome.

Time for a new open thread.

I missed doing a Sunday Night TV and open thread last night -- mostly because I was busy watching Season 2 of the Swedish drama, 30 Degrees in February on Netflix. I only got through 1 episode of Season 1 -- it was just too depressing to watch. Then I read about Season 2 which just finished airing in Sweden, and started that. It was really good. I watched all the episodes in one day. This article does a good job of explaining the plot and characters. It's about some unhappy Swedes who move to Thailand to look for a better life. Lots of seemingly unconnected stories going on at once,n and it turned out to be very uplifting.

In welcome news from Telemundo today, Chema from last season's El Senor de los Cielos will be getting his own show in which he continues his role as a drug trafficker loosely based on Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. And Senor de los Cielos has been renewed for a 5th season. [More....]

Happy Mothers Day, to all.

I think The Good Wife series finale is tonight. I'm afraid to click on news because I don't want the ending spoiled, so I'll just turn on the TV in six minutes and find out. I hope it's a good ending to this very uneven season, especially since I'm interrupting my re-reading of the novel La Reina del Sur to watch it, and I'm at a really good part. (I've seen the series on TV at least three times, but I wanted to check some things Geraldo said about the lead character, Teresa Mendoza, and didn't have time to watch 63 episodes yet again. I started thumbing through my copy of the book, and got immersed in it again, so I went back to page 1 and am reading the whole thing again. At least my copy is in English.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome -- TV related or not. (Update below.)

The tweet by Donald Trump depicting him eating a taco bowl in his office (made at Trump Tower Grill) and proclaiming his love of Hispanics in celebration of Cinco del Mayo is hilarious. It's been retweeted 73,000 times as of now, and "liked" by 85,000 people. (There's no dislike number, which for all we know, could be in the hundreds of thousands.

I think his account was hacked. Even he's not stupid enough to think anyone would believe he loves Hispanics or would eat that Taco bowl. I don't even believe he eats food from a restaurant in his building. Do you really think he doesn't have a private chef?

Best response I've seen so far: "Can we have the taco bowl for President instead of Trump?" [More...]

Everybody's got talent. In Vietnam, voting is open for "Vietnam's Got Talent" on its You Tube channel.

Check out Nguyen Trọng Nhân, a 9 year old boy drumming to Bon Jovi's "It's My Life." The song starts at 1 minute 10 seconds in, and after a sound glitch and some pretty non-impressive vocals by the singer, the boy takes over for the rest of the song. At around 2 minutes in, he really comes into his own. By 2 minutes and 15 seconds, he owns it. There's also an adult drummer, but he can't match the kid drummer. In the last 30 seconds, the adult drummer does a solo finale, but then Trọng Nhân closes, and he knocks it out of the park. The Judges' reaction is priceless. [More...]