Morning Update: 07/30/24
Kids are off and running again this morning, more or less excited about another day at school. Tipper had a good day, which she spent the evening endlessly discussing. She didn’t get to see either of the established friends that she knew, but she did make new friends and was happy with how the classes had gone. She was even more thrilled when she got an email from the school inviting her to participate in an art show in September! Her 3D witches hat is her current choice for that entry. She even enjoyed lunch for the first time in years, partly due to the presence of garbanzo beans in the salad line.
G didn’t have as good a day. There was an issue with the Lab’s Chromebooks, partly caused by something that happened with some of them last year. Exactly what that issue is, I don’t know, but it delays the distribution of the laptops until next week. To say that G was upset would be an understatement. By the time he got home, he was in a teenage angst that had him gruffly announcing that he wasn’t in the mood to deal with people. He retreated to his room with a bowl of cereal. This morning wasn’t starting off much better as he really wanted to put hot water in his school-supplied water bottle so that he could have hot tea. Unfortunately, the hard plastic water bottle wasn’t made for hot liquids and it began to melt as he poured in the hot water, destroying the bottle. I’m hoping that today goes much better for him.
The on-again/off-again rain kept me in bed most of the day. We were fortunate in that the more severe storms went around us. None of the animals seemed to mind that we were inactive. The dogs didn’t even bother to take note when Kat left and returned a few minutes later. The lawn really needs attention now, but as of this moment, the grass is still much too wet to do anything with it.
Speaking of things that need attention, the collapse of a coal mine in Northern Vietnam yesterday killed five, but the story is being buried. I had to go hunting to find any mention of it at all. Vietnam is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels and collapses such as this one are far too common. But no one wants to say anything about it for fear it might upset the market. This would be the same market where BP just raised its dividend as it saw a profit of $2.8 billion in the last quarter. Yet, we blame the government for prices being so high. That’s bullshit. The profit-grabbing from the fossil fuel industry is gouging consumers and putting lives in danger as it continues to cause damage to the environment. But shhhhh, don’t say anything. You might cause stock prices to dip.
The situation after the presidential election in Venezuela may well be forecasting what could happen here come November. There are widespread protests. The opposition wants a ballot-by-ballot count. And even the US is saying, “Something’s not right here,” and threatening sanctions if it’s not straightened out. The way that whole election has gone down is too reminiscent of our 2020 election that led to the January 6 criminal activity. I find it interesting that the US is making comments when we could very easily follow suit come November 6.
The UK is trying to deal with a 17-year-old with an attitude problem who attacked children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance program, killing two and injuring several others. This reeks of the kind of hate that is fermented in online chat rooms. There is no shortage of online forums that are vehemently against anything to do with Taylor Swift. None of them have any good reasons for their hate, but it gives angsty teens and dateless young adults something to complain about. Now, it’s gotten out of hand. The young man didn’t even pay for the taxi that took him to the dance studio, asking a body shop owner who tried to intervene, “What are you gonna do about it?” Such defiance would seem to be symptomatic of a hate that has been stirred and seasoned for a long time, which online forums do well. It will be interesting to see how the UK handles this situation. The last time they had a serious attack on children, in 1996, the result was a nearly universal ban on handguns.
There has been a slew of misleading and outright false information being passed around the Internet over the past week or so. We should not be surprised to find that most of it is coming from sources based in Russia, China, and Iran. Once again, Russia seems to be the largest offender. Those with decent memories will recall the degree to which the Orange Felon tried to keep the Department of Justice from investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. This time, the office of the Director of National Intelligence is trying to warn people well in advance. But will it work? The goal of the Russians is to get Americans to spread Russian disinformation without questioning its origin. I can’t imagine that being very difficult. We click “share” on any meme that echoes our opinion on a topic, not bothering to see where that meme originated. Most of us don’t know the degree to which we’re complicit. We need to be a LOT more careful.
Anti-Muslim incidents in the US are up about 70% so far this year, largely because of the war in Gaza. One thing Americans are good at doing is generating fear and hate about anything they perceive as anti-Christian. Mix in a great deal of ignorance about Hamas and the Palestinian people, and you have a dangerous amount of support for Israel’s genocide of thousands of innocent people across Palestine. What’s worse is when we start taking out our feelings on people here.
“Alarming U.S. incidents in the last nine months include the fatal October stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American child in Illinois, the February stabbing of a Palestinian-American man, in Texas, the shooting of three students of Palestinian descent in Vermont in November, and the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian-American girl in May,” Reuters reports.
So much for the US being a place where people can worship as they wish.
There are really a lot of “below the fold” stories that are cause for concern this morning. The Seine still isn’t fit for swimming. Landslides caused by heavy rains kill 70 and bury many others in southern India. Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez reveals she competed at the Paris Olympics while 7 months pregnant. Okay, that one’s just an interesting story. 7 months pregnant and she’s competing in anything makes her a champion in my book. The White House says no need to restrict “open-source” artificial intelligence — at least for now. I’m not sure I’m buying their reasoning. I’d rather see some guidelines and limitations in place. A probe of soldiers over alleged sexual abuse fuels tension between the Israeli military and hard-liners. How is this even an issue? There is NO situation, even in war, especially in war, where sexual abuse is justified. Tesla is recalling more than 1.8M vehicles due to a hood issue. The issue? The hoods will pop up at any random moment while you’re driving. Is anyone keeping count of the number of recalls Tesla has had to issue in the past two years? It’s too many for me to be comfortable even riding in one. Gunmen open fire on a vehicle carrying UN staff in northwest Pakistan.
I guess all these issues are making up for how quiet things were yesterday morning. The world is crazy, you know. There’s absolutely nothing you and I can do about 99% of it. We just sit here and watch the world burn.
At least we can listen to good music in the process.
Morning Update: 07/30/24
We’re into day three of the new school year and I think I’m the only one who’s having trouble adjusting. Both kids were up and active at 5:45 this morning without any prompting. G is still in a bit of a sour mood, dismayed at how slowly the Lab is ramping up (giving new students a chance to adjust to their unique schedule). Tipper, on the other hand, is excited to have made a friend who is also a furry. They’ve been wearing a fox tail to school, so today Tipper is wearing hers as well. I’ll be interested to see how that goes.
There was a kerfuffle with the bus system yesterday afternoon that caused both kids to be late getting home. They need to take two buses to get home, 8 and 15. Route 8 takes them from the school to the transit center. 15 takes them from the transit center to a stop on the North side of the neighborhood. Both kids were standing at the Route 8 stop when the bus pulled up. The driver opened the door, told the kids that the bus was full, and drove on. However, the kids could see that the bus was far from being full. The driver simply didn’t want a bunch of high school kids on his bus. Fortunately, there was another bus 15 minutes later, but that was too late for them to catch the Route 15 bus. The Route 15 bus only runs once an hour, leaving the kids stuck at the transit center waiting for the next bus.
Yes, I’ve already contacted IndyGo about the matter. I’m not necessarily expecting a response. Either they’ll fix the problem or not. If this happens again, the Mayor’s office will be getting a phone call. While the two kids together make a rather formidable team, they’re still relatively young teens and still vulnerable to the actions of those with ill intent. I’ve let IndyGo know that we hold them responsible for the kids’ safety when situations like this occur. Dad’s not putting up with any nonsense.
My day didn’t go so well. I needed to do some mowing. The grass is getting tall. I went out around 8:30 to mow the right-of-way areas outside our fence. The grass was still far too wet. I had to push hard to get the mower through the grass on the West side of the house. That was as much as I could do. The North side is still waiting. I came back in, my chest tight and hurting, took my meds, and chatted with Kat until she left. I forced myself to eat lunch, which turned out to be a mistake, then went to bed. I stayed there until this morning. I was awake, mind you, long enough to talk with the kids. They kept me updated on the bus issue via text. By the time the kids were home, though, they were both exhausted. They each fixed themselves a smoothie and then went to bed. They did get up later just long enough to handle their chores, but they saved all the chatter for this morning.
The lawn still needs to be mowed. The grass on the East side of the house is getting thick. With the chances for rain dominating the forecast for the rest of the week, it will likely be Saturday before we can even consider taking a swipe at it, and by then it may be too thick to handle easily. We may need some help. We’ll see.
My first glance at my phone this morning had me going, “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!” Israel has really stepped in it this time. First, they’ve apparently assassinated the head of Hamas, Ismael Haniyeh, who was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new President. THEN, they did exactly what the US and other NATO countries asked them not to do, bombed Beirut, and killed a major Hezbollah leader. The actions have Iran’s leadership furious and vowing retaliation, further broadening the war. Already, the price of oil, which had been going down, has shot up, the prices only capped by Chinese rules. There’s no way this ends well. Iran’s been looking for an excuse to get further involved in the war and Israel just gave them two.
Matters aren’t looking any better in Venezuela. The Carter Center was unable to verify Venezuela’s election results, blasting officials for a lack of transparency. Meanwhile, President Maduro vows to detain defiant leaders of the opposition as they challenge the election results. Peru has recalled their ambassador, saying they’ll not tolerate any violation of the people’s will. Other South American countries may do the same. Chaos continues throughout the country as charges of election interference run rampant. I’m going to say it again, this is the US in 98 days if we don’t produce such a dominant turnout as to leave no question about the results. Even a 60/40 win isn’t going to be enough. We’re not too big to go under over this election.
Speaking of election interference, Republicans are claiming that Google is committing election interference by how its autocomplete finishes, or doesn’t finish, results that include the Orange Felon’s name. Google’s response is fairly technical but claims that there are protections that prohibit the autocorrect from finishing a search phrase with anything related to violence. Most of this battle is taking place on social media, though, so the authenticity of the claims is immediately questionable.
For the second time this week, Tesla is in the hot seat. This time, it appears that one of their cars was using the self-driving system when it hit and killed a motorcyclist in Seattle. Tesla hasn’t commented, probably because this could stand in the way of the company being able to launch the fleet of robotaxies that CEO Elon Musk promised would be live by the end of this year. The driver of the car told police that he was using the full Autopilot system and looking at his phone when the accident occurred. I don’t see anyone outside of Tesla thinking that the technology is anywhere close to being ready to be released unmanned on the streets.
Need some proof that your voice is being heard? Yesterday, Paul Dans, the Director of Project 2025 for the Heritage Foundation, resigned due to the severity of the backlash. Don’t think for a minute that this means Project 2025 is done and gone. It’s not. If anything, it means that a new direction of attack, one likely to be less public and more underhanded, is on the way. The Heritage Foundation is saying that they’re not backing down, merely changing direction. What this means is that opposition to the project has to become all the more vigilant, pervasive, and unrelenting to keep the issue at the forefront. We simply cannot risk electing Republicans as long as Project 2025 shows even the slightest glimmer of life.
While the Olympic Triathalons are finally being held today (the women’s race is already done, France won), there’s always some kind of controversy somewhere. This time it’s over who won gold in men’s fencing. The official result is that Hong Kong defeated Italy, but there were multiple stops as the machine that registers the hits scored for both sides at the same time. Italy says they’ve been robbed. Hong King is responding with … comments about how much they like pineapple on their pizza. I’m not making this up. This may be the silliest thing I’ve read all morning.
Those who love dark chocolate, and who in their right mind don’t, will be happy to know that the levels of heavy metal some consumer groups have reported are well below contamination levels. But hold up, those tests only hold true if one limits themselves to 1-2 ounces of the chocolate at a time. The paper in the journal Frontiers has this warning: “… if many such products are consumed fairly regularly by the average consumer, the additive exposure may be a public health concern.” Specifically, if one consumes more than one serving of the chocolate per day, you’re at risk of lead poisoning. Now, how many people do you know who have the willpower to only eat one small square of chocolate per day? I’m thinking there aren’t that many. Perhaps some caution might need to be applied.
Once again, all the animals have gone back to sleep. Kat’s not here, either, so the house is completely quiet. I’m not adjusting to this well, though it’s been exactly the same every previous year.
Maybe I’ll walk to the store and buy some dark chocolate. What are the chances I can limit myself to one ounce?
Share this:
Like this: