Morning Update: 08/25/24

Cancer Update / Current Issues / Morning Update / News & Comment / Personal / Social Commentary

Morning Update: 08/25/24

August 25, 2024

There’s nothing I’d rather do this morning than go back to bed and back to sleep. I’m tired. I know the kids are tired. The dogs are so tired they didn’t even touch their breakfast this morning. The cats… well, they sleep all day anyway so it’s rather difficult to tell. Nonetheless, it would be nice to have a day off, but we can’t. We’re not done with the yard. There are at least two to three more hours of work to be done. We were hampered yesterday by my short-sightedness. The cord I had purchased for our electric mower was too short and only allowed us to reach about half the yard. When I realized the problem, I ordered a new cord but it didn’t get here until after 11:00 and by then it was already too hot to safely be outside. So, we get to finish everything today.

I was also wrong about college football starting yesterday. I mean, technically, it did as Georgia Tech and Florida State played in Dublin. A good friend and Tech alum was in Ireland for the game and kept everyone updated with Facebook posts as Tech won the game with a field goal in the fourth quarter. Everyone else doesn’t start until next Saturday, though. Perhaps I’ll be able to clear my calendar and watch some games live this time.

After napping for a couple of hours, my friend Emily picked me up, and we went to her house out in New Palestine for a party honoring the demise of her breasts as she’s facing a double mastectomy in the morning. On the way over, we talked about all the emotions that come with such a decision and perhaps the biggest question of all, “Is it worth it?” There’s no way to treat cancer without inflicting some manner of trauma on the body. For her, it’s surgery. I chose two years of chemo. Everyone’s experience is different, but the emotions and questions are all the same. Fighting cancer involves sacrifices you never wanted to make. We cry. We scream in anger. We feel depressed. And all those admonitions to “keep going” and “stay strong” feel meaningless and useless when you can literally feel life draining from your body.

Not everyone survives. We all know that. We trust our doctors to guide us toward the best decisions. They all tell us what the success rate is. But we know those numbers mask individual tragedies. Before my father started radiation for melanoma, the oncologist told him there was a 96% success rate. Six months later, he died. He was one of the four percent who didn’t make it. I know others, former classmates, friends, spouses of friends, all who did exactly what their doctors told them and they still didn’t make it. Every cancer patient knows someone for whom the medicine wasn’t enough. Those stories linger in the back of our minds and even when we’re trying to be brave, when we’re trying to put on a good face for family and friends, those stories still nag at us and cause us to wonder if maybe we’re next.

Cancer treatment has come a long way since Poppa died over 20 years ago. I’m not sitting here with an IV of poison stuck in my arm. Success rates are higher than ever. Treatment options have expanded greatly. Even when radiation is necessary, it takes half the time that it used to. But for people like Emily and Rich and me, there will always be moments when we ask ourselves, “Is it worth it?” And we’re never quite sure of the correct answer.

There is tragedy everywhere. Israel and Hezbollah traded heavy fire before pulling back, jolting a region braced for war. I think it’s safe to say that efforts to avoid the war expanding have failed. Thirteen are dead after a boat capsized off Yemen, a migration agency says. But there were no billionaires on board, so it’s not likely that anyone will open an investigation. 2 separate bus accidents in Pakistan left at least 35 people dead. A flash flood on Indonesia’s eastern Ternate Island swept away buildings and left 13 dead. The shooting death of a 16-year-old girl by police is among a spate that’s upset Anchorage residents. A Mudslide in Thailand’s Phuket kills 13. Wildfires rage in sugar cane fields in Brazil’s southeast. Asian migrants have been trapped for weeks in Brazilian airport limbo. Uganda confirms two more cases of mpox. Those are just from today. There will be more tomorrow.

So, we look for things to distract us. The Sunday edition of the New York Times is always a good source of distractions. Here are some stories from today’s paper:

The Christian Persecution Narrative Rings Hollow (6 min read)
Daffy Donald, Turning Pea Green With Envy (4 min read)
Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Tradwife? (5 min read)
What Sex Therapists Wish You Knew (5 min read)
David Copperfield Vanished. The Problem of His Penthouse Remains. (7 min read)
Battle-Hardened Poets Fuel a Literary Revival in Ukraine (5 min read)
Nude Diplomacy: ‘Whatever Happens in the Sauna Stays in the Sauna’ (4 min read)
Soaring Insurance Costs Could ‘End’ Affordable Housing, Developers Warn (6 min read)
The Bitter Fight Over the Meaning of ‘Genocide’ (6 min read)

All of those articles together still won’t eat up an hour of your time. We look for movies to watch, books to read, games to play, and chores to do (if we can’t find anything else). These serve little purpose other than to take our minds off pain, misery, and the increasing feeling that existence is futile. Eventually, usually when you’re lying in bed trying to fall asleep, the questions come back. How many times will I fall down tomorrow? Will I still throw up everything I eat? Will I ever feel “normal” again?

Cancer sucks.

It’s a damn good thing there’s coffee.

Cancer Update / Current Issues / Morning Update / News & Comment / Personal / Politics / pop culture / science / Social Commentary

Morning Update: 08/24/24

August 24, 2024

On The Town [2011 original with AI background]

Friday was a better day, healthwise, than was Thursday, but my stomach was still a bit tentative so we were careful and stayed close to the bed to be safe. The animals certainly don’t seem to mind and I suppose it does a good job of keeping me out of trouble. I’m having more trouble maintaining a sense of time and place, though. Most frequently, I forget what day it is and have to consult my watch or my phone to keep me somewhat grounded. Even this morning, I first woke thinking it was Friday, not Saturday. I don’t think I was the only one, though, as both of the kids were up shortly after me.

Perhaps it’s just a sign of age, but I’m concerned about how rapidly friends are being diagnosed with cancer. Another friend revealed yesterday that he has stage-3 colorectal cancer. He’ll start five weeks of radiation soon. The husband of another friend was recently diagnosed as well. He’s looking at five-and-a-half weeks of radiation. Perhaps we’re paying for all the red meat we’ve eaten, the lifestyles we’ve lived, or other not-so-wise choices we’ve made. Maybe the natural course of being human has us caught in the cancer web. As I prepare for another colonoscopy this week, I find that I’m hoping all the chemo I’ve been taking has kept anything from growing anywhere else. I’m not sure chemo works that way, but until someone tells me differently, I’ll hope.

There’s a lot on the docket today. First up is the lawn. No one gets out of helping. Everything has to look neat and clean by Monday. That work will necessitate an overdue shower, which I’m rather eagerly anticipating. Depending on how schedules work out, I’m going to enjoy the first Saturday of college football and watch at least part of the Akron-Ohio State game. Finally, I hope to spend some time with a dear friend who’s facing a double mastectomy on Monday. That sounds like a lot when I list it, but trust me, I’ll be sure to get my naps in.

One of the things I look for when going over the morning news is what events are most likely to affect me or those I care about. Lately, every time I see the word Oklahoma in a headline, my heart sinks. I grew up in Oklahoma. I still have many friends there. This morning, it popped up in the AP feed twice. The first story is how Oklahoma classrooms seem to be ignoring the State Superintendent’s order to teach the Bible in all classes. School districts have been offered guidance from law firms that represent them, the state’s Attorney General, and the state’s largest teachers union, the Oklahoma Education Association, that the superintendent doesn’t have the unilateral authority to issue such a requirement and that the edict is unenforceable.

At the same time, though, an Oklahoma teacher lost her license to teach after giving her students the QR code to the Brooklyn library as a source for reading banned books. The firing was more performance on the part of the state board of education. The teacher involved now works for that same Brooklyn library in New York, so revoking her license to teach is mere pettiness, which the state’s superintendent is good at. What’s sad in all this is that students are the ones losing. Oklahoma education is near the bottom of the country now. It didn’t use to be that way. When we graduated 45 years ago, being from Oklahoma was a source of pride. Now, it’s a liability.

I did get a little excited when Nestle, one of the biggest food companies in the world, unceremoniously dumped Mark Schneider as its CEO yesterday. Schneider has been vicious in raising the cost of food since the COVID-19 pandemic, but that hasn’t been enough to satisfy greedy board members. Mind you, don’t look for any prices to drop voluntarily. Nestle is bound and determined to squeeze every cent out of every resource they can find. They are one of the primary reasons Kamala Harris is targeting price gouging in her campaign. Anything bad that happens at Nestle makes me happy.

Space is in the news a couple of times this morning. NASA will announce today whether the Boeing capsule is safe enough to bring its astronauts back home, or if they’re stuck up there until next year. I can only imagine how nerve-wracking this ordeal has been for the two astronauts and their families. The first private spacewalk is on the schedule for next week as SpaceX is sending up a new crew with new technology. There’s definitely reason to be concerned for their safety. In addition to new “slim” spacesuits, there’s no freaking airlock on this spaceship. The fact that one of the “astronauts” is a billionaire probably doesn’t bode well for the crew, either, as the universe seems to have a habit of slapping their egos back into place when they do something stupid. Let’s hope this doesn’t end in tragedy.

The sadistic side of me is laughing at a story in this morning’s New York Times. It seems that as women continue to make great strides, now earning more college degrees and being the breadwinners for their families, Many Gen Z men feel left behind. Actually, it’s pretty much those young men without college degrees who are complaining. They feel that the economic odds are stacked against them. As a result, they’re turning to the excuse-maker-in-chief, the Orange Felon, as their hope for the future. They want a more “traditional” patriarchy, with all the misogyny and sexism that their grandfathers exploited. Perhaps you can understand why I’d just as soon give the bunch of them a middle-finger salute.

Okay, there’s too much to do today for me to continue sitting here. There’s still plenty to read this weekend, so enjoy the time where you can!

Cancer Update / Current Issues / Morning Update / News & Comment / Personal / Politics / Social Commentary

Morning Update: 08/23/24

August 23, 2024

Midwest Morning [2011 original with AI background]

Somewhat to my own surprise, I’m still alive this morning. There were moments yesterday when I wasn’t convinced that would be the case. I’m assuming at this point that I contracted some manner of stomach bug that left me thankful that the bathroom is right across the hall from me. I’m feeling tentative still this morning, but I’ve been up for an hour now and haven’t puked, so let’s take that as an improvement. Since I spent most of yesterday either in bed or in the bathroom, I have no idea how the kids’ day went. I’m pretty sure we were all three asleep by the time Kat got home last night.

The dogs, however, managed to provide a story to share this morning. As construction on the house next door continues, the pups have a habit of running over to the fence and checking out what’s going on. There was extra noise yesterday as heavy equipment was digging trenches for the gas and water meters to be installed. So, I wasn’t surprised when I let them out the back door and they bolted around the side of the house. But then, I heard a different kind of barking than what they normally give the construction workers.

“No, no… Gigi! Come back!” was what I heard. I stepped around the house in time to see a young Irish setter running as fast as she could back toward her home. The sudden appearance of our dogs scared the living daylights out of the pup and she wasn’t going to stick around to see what happened next. She slipped her collar and took off. As a young woman chased after her, a man was trying desperately to keep a second setter from doing the same thing. In desperation, he yelled, “Why did we come this way? The sign on the gate says ‘Beware of Dog!'” He finally got his dog under control and headed back home.

The boys, of course, came trotting over to me with smiles on their faces, proud of themselves for having scared off what they saw as potential intruders. I could only laugh. I can’t count the number of times our dogs have been the ones who slipped their collar and started running. That’s the primary reason we use front-fastening harnesses on them now when we take them for walks.

Naturally, all the news this morning is focused on Kamala Harris and the last night of the DNC. There were some highlights, such as Kerry Washington and Harris’ grandnieces teaching DNC attendees how to pronounce Kamala. But there were some slips and problems as well. There was also a lot of attention on Tim Walz’s son, Gus, after Ann Coulter, a wicked bitch if ever there was one, made fun of the young man for openly crying as his Dad accepted the vice presidential nomination Wednesday night. Advocates for special needs individuals came out of the woodwork in support of Gus all across social media. The convention was the easy part, though. Now, the real work begins to convince fence-sitting voters to vote for the Democratic ticket, and that may not be an easy sell.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. tried to take some of the attention away from the DNC by hinting that he would drop out of the race today and support the Orange Felon. While the press did take note, it doesn’t seem that voters cared. It also raises the question as to whether increasing the number of crazy people in the GOP’s campaign is going to increase or decrease the entertainment value.

What seems to have slipped past most major news outlets is the Secret Service’s abrupt interruption of an interview the Felon was giving. While the story popped up all over aggregator’s feeds yesterday afternoon, none of the mainstream outlets picked it up, raising the question of whether it actually happened or not. None of the websites still carrying the story this morning can exactly be trusted, and NewsNation, who was conducting the interview, is far from being above creating a sensational headline for their own benefit.

The security detail that is concerning comes from Germany where security was stepped up at a NATO airbase in response to an “Increase in threat level.” This came just a day after the FBI Director said that he’s never seen so many different kinds of threats. Put the two together and perhaps there’s reason to be lowkey worried about what’s going on. At the moment, there’s a lot of focus on Iran, partly because of their hacking of both campaigns and also because of the continuing war in Gaza. That doesn’t mean they’re the reason for the status change at the airbase, though.

Religious tyranny jumped to the forefront yesterday as the Taliban published new laws that bar not only women’s faces but also their voices in public. Are we surprised? No. This is a return to the exact situation that existed in Afghanistan prior to 9/11 and the subsequent invasion by American forces that temporarily toppled the religious extremists. What bothers me is not only the severe human rights violation but the fact that it was in this environment that the whole 9/11 plan was formulated. We have to be on alert and not be so cocky as to think it can’t happen again.

In lighter news, The biggest diamond in over a century is found in Botswana — a whopping 2,492 carats. The rock’s as big as the palm of your hand, so trying to put it on someone’s finger is probably a bad idea. And a second set of giant panda cubs has been born in Berlin. This means that within a couple of months, we should be seeing plenty of videos of the cuddly little cubs rolling around and making us smile.

Okay, I still haven’t puked this morning, but I’m questioning whether it’s safe to eat breakfast and take my meds. Nothing hurts quite as much as vomiting up a chemo drug. I’m weighing my options carefully.

Hey, it’s Friday! Smiles, everyone! Smiles!

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Morning Update: 08/22/24

August 22, 2024

The letter we’d been dreading all summer finally came yesterday. Its message is too familiar: clear the weeds from your yard or we’ll charge you $2,000 to do it. Kat looked for our lawn shears and couldn’t find them, forcing us to buy more. She and G then took to the lawn while Tipper finished cleaning the litter boxes and I stayed in bed trying to not puke. They got a lot done, but there’s still more along the outside of the fence line that needs cutting. I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do with everything they’ve gut down. Some of the polk weeds had gotten rather large.

I’m not sure what’s up with all the nausea of late. There was a widely-published story yesterday about an article in Lancet stating that eating red meat more than twice a week may be a primary cause of type 2 diabetes. If this proves to be true, my death may be more imminent than previously imagined. While we’ve been substituting ground turkey for much of the ground beef we use, I still like a good, old-fashioned hamburger. Mexican food? Yeah, there’s going to be beef or pork there, too. And who can go without barbecue ribs in their life? I definitely need to make some kind of adjustment somewhere, though. The number of days where I struggle to eat is becoming too frequent.

This morning I’m fighting a headache on top of the nausea. Solaris is helping me type, taking on some of the proofreading duties. The only problem with that is his tail keeps moving the mouse across the screen, causing extra windows to pop up. Of course, part of the issue is that there’s no good way of knowing whether my symptoms are from the chemo, the diabetes, the hypertension, or something that has yet to be diagnosed. They all blur together in this mess where the symptoms are too common across everything to pin down a specific cause. There’s a lot of trial and error going on here.

Get ready for prices to take another jump and no, there’s nothing the Biden administration can do to stop it. This time, it’s caused by a work stoppage on Canada’s rail lines. We’ve seen this coming all week but were hoping that they might find a last-minute agreement. They didn’t. This is going to affect a lot of US shipments for everything from food to construction materials. Since this disruption was telegraphed, my guess is that some prices have already increased to offset the slowdown. We can only hope that the matter is resolved before we start seeing shortages in critical supplies.

Misinformation reared its ugly head again yesterday, and this time it was so convincing that even Reuters and NPR were fooled. The story, which was seen all over social media, claimed that the Orange Felon was in talks with Benjamin Netanyahu, the former asking the latter to not sign a cease-fire agreement until after the election. Another variation had the same conversation taking place with Russia’s Putin. Both are completely false. NPR’s veteran reporter Judy Woodruff apologized for repeating what she had assumed to be legitimate news. Mind you, this did not come from either of the presidential campaigns. These are foreign players who are doing their best to create chaos. Yesterday, they won.

Misinformation is only one of the challenges the US currently faces. FBI Director Christopher Wray said yesterday that he is “hard-pressed to think of a time in my career where so many different kinds of threats are all elevated at once.” Cybercrime, AI, deliberate misinformation, and outright terrorism are all on the table at levels that would probably keep everyone awake at night if we only knew what was happening. The question in my mind this morning, though, is why Director Wray chose now to make such a statement. Be sure that he has a reason. I would assume it’s a fear that with such a firehose deluge of threats, something could slip through. Issuing an open warning now gives the FBI an excuse if something does happen.

Speaking of warnings, a US government report says fluoride at twice the recommended limit is linked to lower IQ in kids. First, let’s say this again, IQ tests are not a solid measure of a child’s capability. Their validity is severely limited and plenty of children who score low go on to do great things. Something else to consider: report findings are not based on a survey of anything in the US. Tests were conducted in Canada, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Mexico. Floride in the US water supply is tightly controlled to not exceed recommended levels. However, the report is still important as children can still get an “overdose” of fluoride from other sources. One more thing for parents to worry about.

Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz sounded exactly like what he is, a football coach, as he spoke at the DNC last night. Phrases like, “Leave it all on the field,” and “It’s the fourth quarter and we’re down a field goal,” were just a few of the football references in a speech that was reminiscent of a half-time pep talk in a championship game. The crowd in Chicago was excited, as they had been all week, making the news that the Harris/Walz campaign raised four times as much as the Orange Felon in July almost unsurprising. I know the text messages requesting donations have been hitting my phone relentlessly since Biden dropped out. They’re definitely making a strong push.

The Felon, on the other hand, is already laying the groundwork to challenge the results of the November election. Speaking in North Carolina, the Felon repeated false claims about the 2020 election and challenged the outcome of the November vote before anyone has had a chance to cast a ballot. “When, if, but when — I have to always say ‘if,’ you know, because they cheat,” the Felon said of Democrats. “I would say ‘when’ if they didn’t cheat, but they cheat. That’s the one thing — they’re great at cheating in elections.” This type of rhetoric sounds as though he’s already giving up campaigning on the issues. We’re in for a rough road between here and November 5.

Adding to the confusion is this story, hidden below the fold on page three or four: Former Oath Keepers Lawyer Pleads Guilty to Tampering With Jan. 6 Evidence. Who’s cheating now?

Let’s end this morning with this bizarre story. A passenger has been arrested at an Australian airport after he left a stationary airliner through an emergency exit, walked along a wing, and then climbed down a jet engine to the tarmac. The plane had just landed and apparently, this dude couldn’t wait to get off the plane. An understandable amount of chaos ensued. This proves that people are crazy no matter where you go.

Solaris has fallen asleep on the job, but Frankie, the smashed-face wheezer kitty, says we’re done. You have a good day and I’ll see if I can stand and walk.

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Morning Update: 08/21/24

August 21, 2024

Step Outside To Smoke [2012 original with modified background]

What would we do, you and I, if we woke one morning to suddenly find that everything was, in our opinions, perfect? Would we know how to react? There are plenty of things for us to complain about as it is now. The kids and I disagreed this morning on whether they sufficiently completed yesterday’s chores. The dogs didn’t like my decision of when to get up this morning. Queen Bit argued loudly that I stepped too close to her tail. I’m sure Kat and I disagree about something, I just don’t know what it is yet.

I know I’m not necessarily in the mood to argue matters that I’ve spoken about before. Standards for completing chores have been sufficiently outlined. Those standards were not met. I’m not going to stand in the hallway arguing the matter with a 14-year-old at 6:00 AM. They’ll get the chance to lick their calf over when they get home this afternoon. Today is an early release day, so they’ll have plenty of time.

We can’t take that approach to everything, though. I wish we could tell Congress to, “Go back and do it over until you get it right,” but that doesn’t seem to work. We’ve really only one option for punishing elected officials and waiting until the next election rolls around doesn’t necessarily send the message as strongly as we might like. Approval ratings and polls carry no real clout. We need the ability to exercise more immediate consequences for stupid actions.

For example, the Orange Felon decided that it might be a good idea to release AI-generated images of Taylor Swift endorsing him. This is a feeble, less-than-successful attempt to turn the media spotlight on himself when the Democratic Convention is getting all the attention. One would think that fakes like this would be illegal. There have been multiple attempts in Congress to regulate such material, but opponents scream that it’s squashing their First Amendment right to free speech, so nothing has passed. Meanwhile, the confusion over what is real or fake only grows deeper.

Maybe Congress is fake. They don’t really exist.

What’s not fake is the way Michelle Obama tore apart the Orange Felon at the DNC last night. The ultimate quote from the night is, “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs?'” One could make the argument, if prone to do so, that Mrs. Obama’s speech was stronger than the one her husband gave after her.

Sometimes people do realize their mistake and correct it. Disney has decided that using its Disney+ Terms of Service to block a wrongful death lawsuit is, in a word, wrongful. They’ve dropped that particular objection and will likely limit their defense to more realistic information. While Disney never has been up for sainthood, it’s nice to see them admit their mistake for once.

Former Detroit Lions’ Offensive Tackle Gosder Cherilus is realizing he made a mistake after being arrested for urinating on a passenger aboard a Delta flight headed to Dublin. He has apologized, saying, “The flight was unexpectedly delayed for approximately four hours, and it did not take off until after 12:30 a.m. In preparation for the unexpected overnight flight, I took a sleeping medication that I don’t normally use, which resulted in behavior that is not representative of my character, and I would like to apologize to the passengers and flight crew.” I doubt the apology will prevent him from being hit with a hefty fine, though. Some actions can’t be reversed.

Everyone makes mistakes. A perfect world requires perfect people and those don’t exist. What matters is how we respond to those errors, both our own and those of others. Project 2025 is a mistake. Electing a felon is a mistake. How are we going to respond?

Your call.

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Morning Update: 08/20/24

August 20, 2024

A Lovely Moment [2010 original with AI adjustments]

Coffee isn’t going to be enough to keep me awake this morning, even though I made it super strong. There was a battle for bed space between the cats and dogs and I was the loser. Add to that some really strange dreams (including a coupon for $3 off the tail-end of a movie), and I woke this morning feeling anything but rested. Fortunately, nothing is demanding my attention today. The dogs are already signaling that they’re ready for a nap. I’m happy to oblige.

G spent most of his school day applying the new point-driven merit system he developed for The Lab. He was tired enough that he skipped playing D&D with his friends, came home, and crashed. Tipper went to the robotics club for the first time after school and discovered that she’s very good at assembling wheels. If she was tentative going in, she was thoroughly convinced that the club is a good thing by the time she left. She’s looking forward to staying again today.

Something must have happened on the bus last week, though. Tipper had been fine with riding the bus home alone, but now she doesn’t want to if she can’t take the first bus right after school. The reason? She doesn’t want “creepy old men” touching her. I know every woman on the planet can relate. Her solution would be to carry pepper spray, but that is totally prohibited at school (for understandable reasons). My solution is for me to take the bus down to the transit center on days she stays late and ride the bus home with her. She likes that idea because, in her words, “it gives us more Daddy/Daughter time.” I’m going to talk with the school’s Dean about the situation first, though, and see if they have any suggestions.

The news this morning is focused on President Biden’s “handoff” speech at the Democratic Convention last night. US intelligence officials say Iran is to blame for hacks targeting Trump, Biden-Harris campaigns, which confirms what already seemed evident. Taiwan flexed its missile firepower on rare trip to sensitive test site, sending a warning to China. I’m just waiting for that whole South China Sea situation to blow up in everyone’s face. And a magnitude 5.3 earthquake shook parts of Pakistan and the Himalayan region of Kashmir early Tuesday, panicking residents.

There are a couple of “below the fold” stories that I find interesting. Earlier this year, Stephen Chamberlain and Mike Lynch were co-defendants in a fraud trial over the sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard. Both men were acquitted of the charges in June. But then, earlier this month, Chamberlain was killed in a traffic accident in London. That might not have raised many eyebrows were it not for the fact that Lynch is among the missing after a yacht sank off the coast of Sicily last week. The circumstances of the yacht’s sinking are still a mystery, which raises the specter of the two “accidents” being related, if not to the Autonomy deal, then perhaps some other business dealing gone wrong. There’s not enough information about either incident at the moment to form a firm link between them, but given the situation, it seems a stretch to look at them as just a coincidence.

The second story comes from Nicaragua where 1500 NGOs, including a number of churches, were forcibly closed without warning yesterday. What it comes down to is authoritarian President Daniel Ortega is eliminating any space that might include dialogue he can’t control. He’s especially concerned about churches preaching against his atrocious human rights record. While he’s been closing Catholic churches for a while, this round included several Pentecostal and Baptist churches as well. As the situation in Nicaragua continues to deteriorate, immigration away from that country to the US inevitably increases. Can you blame them?

Indy’s summer violence continues even as temperatures have cooled down for this week. Among the headlines this morning:

Instances of violence may be decreasing elsewhere in the country, but Indianapolis seems determined to keep the numbers high.

The animals are telling me that nap time is at hand. I’d be a fool to not join them. Ya’ll stay safe.

Current Issues / Morning Update / News & Comment / Personal / Politics / Social Commentary

Morning Update: 08/19/24

August 19, 2024

Another Monday [2011 original with AI background]

Cats are flinging themselves at each other as I try to read this morning’s news updates. The noise from the laundry room sounds as if one of them may have fallen into the washing machine for a while. Don’t worry, they’ve done it before and they can get themselves out. This is the kind of chaos we can expect for today, though. Brace yourself because there are enough on-the-edge events that it feels as though anything could happen at any time. In fact, if I had a fraidy hole, I might just go ahead and jump in it to be safe.

With all the pop-up showers and brief downpours yesterday, we once again lost out on being able to do any yard work. That doesn’t mean the kids were satisfied with the downtime. Tipper decided that the dogs needed a bath. Outside. Oh, this was entertaining. She was especially concerned about Hamilton. Hamilton doesn’t like water on his skin. He refuses to stay in the tub if we try to bathe him inside, but the kids figured if they put a leash on him they might be able to get the job done with the hose. I stood under the tree and watched, knowing exactly what was about to happen. The instant water hit his back, Ham slipped out of the leash and shook hard, sending water everywhere. This went on, back and forth between the two dogs, for almost twenty minutes. By the time they gave up, I’m not sure who was wetter, the dogs or the kids. Of course, the dogs immediately went and rolled in the dirt.

We’re starting the fourth week of school and I need to make some adjustments to accommodate the kids’ changing schedules. What it boils down to is that most days neither of them will get home before 6:00 PM, and some days could be even later. This means they’ll be coming in exhausted, frequently in less-than-positive moods, and prioritizing sleep over eating. They will eat, eventually, but sometimes that may not be until after I’ve gone to bed. We’ve tried different things, but both inevitably go for what’s easiest. For G, that means Ramen, with zero nutritional value. Tipper usually chooses a fruit smoothie, which is better, but still not giving her all the nutrition they need. Neither of them will touch leftovers. I’m grasping at straws for the moment trying to find a reasonably healthy solution.

This was a rough weekend for Indianapolis. Take a look at these headlines:

Those last three hurt my soul because this isn’t the first weekend we’ve seen headlines like that. We’re not watching our little ones. We’re not protecting them and keeping them safely out of harm’s way. We’re being careless and there’s no way to police carelessness. Child Protective Services is already overwhelmed with the number of cases they have, to the point that they cannot be the solution for every kid who lives in danger. The solution is for adults to wake up to the problem, and help out overwhelmed and overstressed parents who are working two and three jobs to barely pay rent. No, it’s not convenient, but children’s lives are on the line.

There was some positive local news. Caitlin Clark broke the WNBA rookie assists record as the Fever beat the Storm 92-75 last night. The well-hyped rookie is living up to her reputation, but she’s facing a one-game suspension if she doesn’t get her temper under control. She was charged with her fifth technical of the season after punching the pads at the bottom of the goal post. Two more, and she gets to sit out a game. I’m wondering if the WNBA and NBA are possibly being a little over-reactive, though. Look at tennis. Portuguese tennis star Christiano Rinaldo has thrown so many tantrums on the court that the New York Times has ranked them by severity. Why is it okay to display such childish behavior in one sport but not another? Make it make sense.

Of course, all eyes are on the Democratic Convention opening today in Chicago. They’ll try to keep it light and lively so that they come out of it with a nice surge in the polls. History paints a different picture, though. Democratic conventions can be rough. Already, anti-war protesters have gathered and are making noise that won’t go unnoticed. Moderates be warned, 3 Women With Harrowing Pregnancy Stories Will Speak at the Convention. While the goal is unity, I think we can expect a lively exchange, though probably not to the extent of the 1968 riots.

Secretary of State Blinken is warning both Hamas and Israel that they may be looking at their last chance for peace. What bothers me, and likely bothers the Secretary, is the fact that there are too many people on both sides who are more than willing to keep on fighting. I don’t see how the people of Gaza can handle much more. They’ve already lost their homes, their families, access to food and clean water, and the constant bombardment of medical facilities. If a cease-fire isn’t reached, Iran is almost certainly going to enter the war, making a bad situation worse. I’m not sure the innocent people even stand a chance.

Like I said at the beginning, the day is made of chaos. There are so many potential eruption points around the world that it’s impossible to list them all or guess which one is going to explode next. What can we do?

Eat well. Stay safe.

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Morning Update: 08/18/24

August 18, 2024

After a night filled with rain, we’re slowly getting around this morning. The kids came in from the PowWow earlier than I expected, which isn’t a bad thing, but both went straight to bed and only reappeared briefly for a snack. Even the dogs were restless last night, and at least one of the cats decided that the litter box was too far away to bother finding it. I’m not sure what this means for the rest of the day. I’m inclined to let the kids chill. While I had planned on doing yard work this morning, it’s far too wet. I’m beginning to wonder if we’ve been underestimating the toll that their long school day takes on them.

I do need some help with the yard, though, especially along the fence line. The problem isn’t so much the weeds, but the trees growing there, their branches intertwined with the fencing. Last Sunday, a young man coming through the neighborhood offered to clear the fenceline for $20, but it was too late in the day for him to start. I told him to come back on Wednesday, but he never showed up. With at least six more weeks before the first chance of a heavy frost, we need to clean it up now.

Both kids enjoyed the PowWow in different ways. G took advantage of the raffles, winning three times. I’m not sure what he’s going to do with the shawl, but all the items are rather nice. Tipper, being the furry that she is, was drawn to the various pelts. She convinced Kat to buy her a new tail since her existing one had broken after being yanked too many times. She explained to the person running the booth how her tail was treated by people at school. As she was walking away, the man came over to Kat and handed her a pair of heart-shaped earrings to give to Tipper so that she would know “Not everyone is mean.”

There are too many people who are mean, though, and the fact that one of those people is running for president is bothersome. The Orange Felon went completely off the rails yesterday, resorting to calling Vice President Harris names and throwing insults. He also complained, again, about the Olympic Boxers, vowing to “keep men out of women’s sports.” This is more than mean, it’s insane. Why are we giving such a poor example of humanity any kind of stage to spread such filth? His continued presence at the top of the political dung heap boggles my mind.

Meanness grabs eyeballs, though. It always has. A New York Times reading group has been taken with Emily Wilson’s 2023 translation of the Iliad, the epic poem attributed to Homer. War, wickedness, and revenge are strong themes throughout the work that keep readers coming back generation after generation. While there is ostensibly something to be said for learning from war, I wonder if too often we’re taking in the wrong lessons. Instead of learning how to avoid the foolishness of war, we seem to be paying more attention to the tricks and strategies used to win one.

I’m bothered by the fact that Vietnam’s new leader, To Lam, chose China as his first international visit. There’s no question that we botched that war in every way possible. Did the thousands of US troops who died there do so in vain? Looking at the mean side of that equation, it’s reasonable to make the argument that US leaders were less concerned about Communists taking over the small Southeast Asian country and used the war as a way to stop the uprising of the common people that was taking place. While war protests were loud and strong, the fact is that forced military service took away thousands of young men from lower- and middle-class neighborhoods that could have forever changed the direction of American politics. We’ll never know for sure, will we? But using a foreign war sure was a mean cover, wasn’t it?

Some people enjoy being mean. A Chechen warlord invited Elon Musk to Russia after he was filmed driving a machine-gun-mounted Cybertruck. As Ukraine takes advantage of its unexpected incursion into Russia, Russian officials are resorting to increasingly mean tactics in an attempt to regain the upper hand. They’ve bombed schools, children’s hospitals, and residential neighborhoods, much in the same way that Israel has continued to bombard Gaza in that senseless war. Both wars should have been over months ago and could have been, but leaders on all sides have their heads too far up their asses. They equate peace with weakness. In their view, being mean is a strength.

We are crazy if we think that our children, especially teens, aren’t paying attention and noting the actions we condone. We spent all their formative years telling them to be nice and to play well with others, but then they see the adults around them supporting leaders who are anything but nice and certainly don’t know how to play well with anyone. What lesson do you think they’re taking away from that?

I find it interesting that today is the anniversary of women in the US gaining the right to vote. So much of the mean rhetoric coming from right-wing conservatives is directed at women. In fact, the New York Times has a piece this morning on how “masculinity is on the ballot.” What is defining that masculinity? How men treat women. How women vote this November will be a voice for whether they want men to still dominate and abuse them or move toward a more equitable and just society.

The amount of misinformation and outright conspiracy theories regarding migrants is still a problem as well. Do you want to truth? Migrants are not the reason wages have stagnated. Migrants are not taking anyone’s jobs. And, when one balances the number of migrants coming in with the number leaving, total immigration is actually going down. Ask farmers in the West and Southwest, and they may tell you that the problem with immigration is that we don’t have enough migrants. Economically, we are dependent on migrant labor and without it, the economy collapses. So, why are we treating them so mean?

Our Indigenous brothers and sisters have long been a voice of reason against the seemingly inbred hate of the white man. Their society was built on caring for each other, respecting people regardless of gender, and preferring peace over conflict. That was what the kids saw in action as they attended the PowWow yesterday. I hope it is a lesson they take to heart because so much of the rest of the world is only showing them hate.

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Morning Update: 08/17/24

August 17, 2024

You don’t mind if I kind of take today off, do you? Readership has been declining all week and there’s nothing excessively important in this morning’s news that would warrant elaboration. Kat and the kids are heading off to a PowWow today, a trip too long for me to go with them. I feel as though I’ve been sucker punched repeatedly during the night, so I’m most likely going to spend most of the day in bed.

There are a few things worth mentioning. Space telescope data reignites debate over how fast the universe is expanding—and whether ‘new physics’ is needed. I’ve seen Neil deGrasse Tyson mention the problems with how we currently do physics, so this article is an interesting read. The results could dramatically change how we view the universe.

Vice President Harris has offered a string of new economic proposals. It’s worth your time to take a look at them.

The New York Times is looking at how the Orange Felon Would Use Soldiers Against Riots, Crime, and Migrants on U.S. Soil. I find the idea terrifying. This is how dictators act.

FTC sues Asbury Automotive, says it charged Black, Latino customers more. I had to look at this article twice. I find it unbelievable that such blatant racism is still an issue.

San Francisco is going after websites that make AI deep fake nudes of women and girls. On one hand, I’m thinking, “It’s about time someone did,” but at the same time I’m wondering, “Why is this not a federal issue?”

Finally, am I the only one who finds this absolutely hilarious? Lawmakers in Turkey draw blood in a brawl during parliament debate on jailed colleague. Watch for yourself and let me know.

Okay, I’m done. Have a good day. I’m going back to bed.

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Morning Update: 08/16/24

August 16, 2024

Yesterday was one of those days that just existed, nothing more. I spent most of the day in bed (no big surprise). The kids cleaned out all eight litter boxes and refilled them (no small feat). Kat came home early, too exhausted to stand. We have days like this. You have days like this. We all keep going, doing our best, content with the fact that at least nothing horrible happened. Any day where the ground isn’t burning under our feet is a good day.

The headlines in this morning’s news are interesting though not necessarily consequential. The death of actor Matthew Perry has resulted in the arrest of five people, including doctors and dealers. Perry died ten months ago from a ketamine overdose so large that it aroused immediate suspicion. All five of those arrested are looking at severe jail time, possibly even life in prison. While that’s all well and good, I have a question:

Why do we only leverage this level of investigation for celebrities? The same thing happened with Michael Jackson’s death, where his doctor was eventually convicted. When Elvis Presley died on this day in 1977, officials immediately looked at his doctors and blamed them for his overdose. Why don’t we apply the same rules and the same level of inquiry to the overdose deaths of “normal” people? How famous does one have to be to warrant such an investigation?

I know, I know, cost is the primary factor in deciding which cases get more intense treatment. There’s no small amount of PR involved as well. People, for some reason, care who killed a celebrity more than they care about who/what killed the addict down the street. Was Perry really any better than anyone else? He had struggled with addiction for years. If we were to observe the same behaviors in anyone else, we would have considered their death an inevitability.

Where’s the ProLife crowd on this issue? Absent, of course. They’ll happily pass laws that deny women autonomy over their bodies to save a barely-developed zygote while ignoring the guy on the street corner who has someone constantly pushing a stream of harder and more dangerous drugs at him. Heaven forbid we provide public Narcan stations where people can actually get help. The way that our society prioritizes one life over another is nothing short of disgusting.

Speaking of lives, file this one under “I didn’t know they were still alive.” Peter Marshall, the original host of Hollywood Squares died yesterday at the age of 98, well after most of the people who appeared in those squares have long passed. X gets the square and the game, Mr. Marshall. Well played.

I normally don’t pay a lot of attention to changes in heads of state for countries that don’t generally have a dramatic effect on anyone outside their own borders. However, when Thailand’s parliament elected Paetongtarn Shinawatra as the country’s new Prime Minister yesterday, it was a bit like if a fourth member of the Bush family were to become President here. Most famously, her father, Thaskin Shinawatra, who was elected to office three times, was overthrown and exiled in a coup orchestrated by the royal family in 2006. Since then, both her sister and brother-in-law have served as PM as well. This time, though, the royal family exerted its influence to prevent the liberal Move Forward Party, which finished first in a national election, from coming to power.

How does this affect you? Probably not at all. At least, there’s no direct effect. Paetongtarn says she’s going to double Thailand’s minimum wage and improve its public transit system, among other popular things. What’s most likely to happen is an effort to rebuild Thailand’s influence in the tech sector, which could increase competition for companies such as Nvidia. Expect there to be a push to increase tourism as well since the Shinawatra family’s fortune comes from the hotel business. Thailand is a beautiful country full of ancient history. This could be a good time to book a trip, but be aware that should Paetongtarn cross the royal family, she’ll be gone quickly.

Among the more insipidly stupid things you’ll see in today’s news, the Orange Felon says he’s ‘entitled to personal attacks’ on Kamala Harris because of the multiple charges against him. Felon says what? The statements came during yet another rambling and almost incoherent press conference yesterday, which, as we’ve come to expect, requires fact-checking because the Felon doesn’t seem to know the difference between truth and the fiction he creates in his head.

Here’s an interesting story: An association of Indian doctors called for more than a million colleagues nationwide to provide only essential services on Saturday, in a protest over the brutal rape and murder of a medic that is set to be the biggest such strike in recent times. The 31-year-old doctor was found dead on a blood-soaked mattress in the medical college where she worked in the eastern city of Kolkata. She had settled down for a short nap on a carpet in a college lecture hall after working for nearly 20 hours of a 36-hour shift.

Women account for a significant majority of medical professionals in India. While an arrest has been made for the crime, doctors say it highlights the dangers they face just being at work in hospitals across the country. In calling for a shutdown of all but emergency services, more than a million doctors could be absent as part of the strike on Saturday.

What an interesting perspective to have compared to the conditions in the US where women in the medical profession are still routinely abused, denigrated, passed over for promotion, and generally treated as inferior caregivers. In a July survey, a shocking 64% of participants reported a higher prevalence of all forms of gender-based violence for women, including sexual violence, verbal abuse, discrimination, bullying, and physical violence. If the American Medical Association were to suggest a nationwide shutdown in protest, there would not only be an outcry against them, legal action would likely occur in an effort to force them back to work. The US is so far behind other developed countries on this issue that presidential candidates won’t even acknowledge that it’s an issue. We’re not progressive. We’re not a leader in women’s rights. We need to improve dramatically.

Let’s end on a more positive note this morning, shall we? Panda twins were born in Hong Kong to Ying Ying, the world’s oldest first-time mom. By “world’s oldest” we mean that she’s 19 years old, which I guess is almost geriatric for a panda. The twins are still pink, furless little bundles for now, which means we won’t see them in public for a few weeks, but adding two more of the world’s most adorable creatures to the population seems like a very good reason to celebrate.

There are six cats and two large dogs currently sleeping in my bed, so I guess I’m staying up for a while. Good thing there’s more coffee.

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Morning Update: 08/15/24

August 15, 2024

There are mornings when I struggle with how to start this update. This is being one of those mornings. At 4:00 this morning, Frankie, the smashed-face wheezer kitty, decided that he needed to give himself a bath. For any of the other cats, that wouldn’t be a big deal as they’re rather quiet about it. Not Frankie. Thanks to his collapsed sinus, Frankie’s baths sound more like a piece of cellophane trapped at the end of a vacuum cleaner. It’s loud. I’ve been awake ever since and my brain is having difficulty forming words, let alone sentences that make any sense. We’ll see how far we get this morning.

Yesterday afternoon was exciting as Tipper brought home her new friend from school. We’ll call them R for now. R is the friend who took her to the fair last Saturday, and the one who threw up at school on Monday. While they’re older than Tipper, they are several inches shorter and incredibly thin. They do have some cool piercings, though. They hung out in Tipper’s room until after G’s violin lesson, then Kat took them to her favorite hiding spot at Eagle Creek. I’m not sure what time they got back as I was already asleep, but Tipper’s report this morning was that R had a really good time.

The only issue we had was that Hamilton really wanted to be R’s friend. I’d kept the dogs in the Recovery Room when the kids first got home so that they wouldn’t jump on anyone and that worked well for Belvedere. Not so much for Hamilton. He knew that someone new was here and he was desperate to meet them. I took the pups outside and the kids joined us. Hamilton refused to leave R alone, not in an aggressive way, but more of an “I love you please pet me,” manner. Even after we came back in and they retreated to Tipper’s room, Hamilton sat right outside the door, waiting, in case they might come back out.

We all like R, but the details of their life are… challenging. Having Tipper as a friend is good for them. She takes extra snacks to school to share and gives them emotional support when they’re having trouble. It will be interesting to see how their friendship develops.

G is finally getting into the full swing of school. The D&D gang is back together. He likes what he’s working on in class. He’s getting back that rhythm and structure that he missed during the summer. He’s often exhausted by the time he gets home. His days are long, starting at 5:00 AM and often not getting home until after 6:00 PM. We’re having to re-think the whole chore and dinner scenarios because both kids tend to want to hit their bed when they finally get home.

There’s an interesting amount of news related to kids today, too. Associated Press is reporting this morning that chronic absenteeism remains a problem, having never recovered after COVID-related school closings four years ago. Every state except Arkansas has absentee rates that are still higher than they were before COVID. Different schools are trying different things, such as “recess” for high school and paying students for perfect attendance, but not all of those programs are sustainable. I think there are probably a lot of places that could benefit from a micro-school model such as what G has at PPHS, but even that isn’t going to work for everyone. One universal thing, though, is that it takes highly qualified teachers to keep kids in their seats and you’re not going to get that for the meager wages teachers are paid. Schools need more funding. Period.

What happens when kids get bored? One Detroit girl ended up in jail clothes and wearing handcuffs. The scenario is that the girl’s class was on a field trip to a Detroit courtroom. The judge, Kenneth King, saw the girl falling asleep and was offended, finding her inattentiveness disrespectful. The judge told a Detroit TVV station, “I wanted to get through to her, show how serious this is and how you are to conduct yourself inside of a courtroom.” Obviously, that action didn’t go over well with the environmental group that sponsored the field trip. The Greening of Detroit released a statement, saying the “young lady was traumatized. The group of students should have been simply asked to leave the courtroom if he thought they were disrespectful.” The judge talked to the girl’s parents and offered to be a mentor, but something tells me this situation is far from over.

Not all kids get to go on field trips, though. The World Health Organization has, for the second time in two years, declared MPOX a global public health emergency. This comes after an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo spread to other countries. A new variant, clade Ib, appears to spread more easily through routine close contact, including sexual contact, and is being blamed for the problem. Without a coordinated international response, the disease could easily spread over the African continent and beyond. Yes, doctors and scientists are a bit frightened by how easily this strain is spreading, so expect it to stay in the news for a while.

Sexual abuse is in the news again, too, because we still haven’t fixed the systems that allow for it to happen. The Vatican expelled the founder of Peru’s Sodalitium movement after severe charges of abuse and corruption. While we appreciate that action was taken, it took the Vatican over ten years after first being made aware of the problem before reaching this decision. Why? “… canon law didn’t precisely cover his alleged misconduct.” What the fuck? Perhaps God needs to throw a brick at someone’s head to convince them that abuse is not acceptable. Ever. Period.

This date, August 15, has some history to it. Macbeth was killed in battle in 1057. Panama Canal opened on this day in 1914. And in 1969, this was the first day of the Woodstock Music Festival! Ah, those were the days!

There’s more stuff but my brain has reached its limit for combing through any more stories. I’m thinking that an early nap is absolutely mandatory. Coffee alone just isn’t cutting it.

Weather’s moving in, too. I think the worst is going to our South, but there’s enough here to have me feeling miserable.

Leave a message at the tone.

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Morning Update: 08/14/24

August 14, 2024

One of the things that is interesting around here is how much more noise there is around the house when Kat’s not home. When Kat’s here, we all try to be as quiet as possible. The kids understand that she rarely sleeps well during the night and avoid turning on lights and speaking loudly. When she’s not here? This morning G was up and in the shower at 5:00. Tipper was up shortly thereafter and it wasn’t long before the lights were on and the chatter was going. The dogs went out, the cats were fed, and there were plenty of conversations before they headed out the door for the day. I think I prefer the quiet days because the intensity of the chatter is a bit much for this early in the morning.

I talked so much about Tipper yesterday that I forgot to mention that G is now one of the Lab’s three student ambassadors. He’ll represent the Lab at other schools and different events, and he’s in charge of administering a program that gives points to students for positive behaviors. This is a fantastic leadership opportunity for him and it’s nice to see how seriously he’s taking his responsibilities. He’s overcoming his fears and learning to speak up on issues that are important to him. I’m looking forward to seeing how this year develops.

Yesterday was the last Two Dollar Tuesday of the Indiana State Fair, so I had to go. My hope was to get some selfies with draft horses. Tipper had talked about how many of them were there on Saturday, and I just assumed (an error) that there would still be some there yesterday. Nope. The horse buildings were completely empty. Not a horse of any breed in sight. I was severely disappointed. I did get a picture with the lovely gentleman you see at the top of the page. I figure we black sheep need to stick together, you know? I also made my way around to the DNR building and asked them what I’d need to do to get more bears, wolves, and elk back into state parks. For some reason, they weren’t amused by the question. I put in nearly 10,000 steps for the day, which is probably the most I’ve walked since starting chemo. When I got home, I took the dogs out and then collapsed into bed for a nap.

The dogs really don’t like it when I’m gone all day. They barely left my side when I took them out, and when we came back in, Belvedere tried climbing into my lap while I sat in my office chair. They both have been extra snuggly anyway. I’m a little concerned that they’re sensing something that I’ve yet to grasp.

I know we talked a lot yesterday about women’s autonomy, but over the course of the day, two more states, Arizona and Missouri, put abortion on the ballot for this fall. This brings the total to seven states that are putting some form of abortion measure to a vote. No matter where you live, this is an important matter that requires everyone to get out and vote. Again, these issues are totally separate from the races for president and members of Congress. And while the number of people registering as Democrats has increased over the past three weeks, we have to realize that prior to that point Republicans had been registering significantly more people since last December. It’s going to take a lot of effort in every state to prevent the dangerous and undemocratic policies of Project 2025 from taking effect. There’s no sitting on the sidelines or trying to avoid being political. Everyone needs to speak up and let their position be known. Silence almost certainly leads to disaster come November 5.

Interesting story out of New Zealand where a food bank accidentally distributed potentially lethal doses of meth disguised as candy. Disguising drugs as food items to get past border customs isn’t new, but the question is how they became donated to the Auckland food bank. With a street value of over $600 US per candy, it seems unlikely that this was a deliberate attempt to poison low-income and homeless people. The food bank is trying to get all the candies back, but four people have already been hospitalized for taking the drug.

Folks in Japan are a little on edge after the Japan Meteorological Agency issued its first-ever “megaquake” advisory. Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone places in the word. While last week’s 7.1 quake stayed offshore and provided little threat to the island nation, concern is growing that there’s now a 70-80% chance of a significantly larger quake in the 8-9 range on the Richter scale. Such a large quake could prove devestating. Unfortunately, the announcement didn’t come with any instructions on how people might prepare for such an event. This has led to considerable confusion and criticism of the agency. What may be worse is that without specific planning instructions, people are more likely to disregard the warning, leaving them completely unprepared should such an event occur.

I posted about this on Facebook yesterday afternoon, but I want to get a little more into it this morning. The United Auto Workers Union has filed a complaint of worker intimidation with the National Labor Relations Board against the Orange Felon and Elon Musk after their glitch-filled chat on Monday. While the Felon’s campaign is trying to pass off the complaint as “frivolous” there could be some real meat to the story. Back in June, eight former workers at SpaceX, Musk’s rocket company, sued the company and Musk, alleging he ordered them fired after they challenged what they called rampant sexual harassment and a hostile “Animal House”-style work environment at the company. In Monday’s chat, the Felon told Musk, “I look at what you do. You walk in and say, ‘You want to quit?’ I won’t mention the name of the company but they go on strike and you say, ’That’s OK. You’re all gone.’” That statement would seem to be a direct attempt at intimidation against unionizing efforts at Tesla and elsewhere. If you needed another reason to not vote for the lying, cheating, swindling, rapist felon, there you go.

Mornings like this, I kinda wonder if we’re all not a little bit crazy for living in a society as messed up as ours. The economy is questionable, climate change is progressing faster than anyone predicted, and it seems that politicians suck no matter what country one lives in. We can change this, you know. Young people in Bangledesh proved that last week. The question is what will it take for us to get serious about anything?

Maybe I just need more coffee.

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Morning Update: 08/13/24

August 13, 2024

How well do you know your kids? As parents, we want to think that we know our kids pretty well. We’ve taught them what to do in different situations and we’ve seen how they’ve reacted to surprise and change. Yet, all that can disappear in a moment when you get a text from the school saying, “Your child is marked present to school, but absent from advisory. Please talk with them about following their assigned schedule.” That hit my phone at 12:15 yesterday afternoon. Fortunately, I was awake and able to respond quickly.

“Why are you marked absent from advisory?” I messaged her. Sure, they’re not supposed to have their phones out at school, but I assumed that if she was skipping for some reason she would at least take her phone with her.

What was eventually revealed was that one of her friends, the one that took her to the far Saturday night, had gotten sick. Part of her message said, “…I had to watch him literally empty his stomach which was literally only water. I was scared for him.” We chatted briefly and soon after that I got a call from her support coach. She confirmed Tipper’s account and said that Tipper’s level of empathy left her exhausted. The coach recommended we pick her up. Unfortunately, Kat was booked and, of course, I had no way to go get her. Kat gave her permission to leave early and ride the bus home.

When she got home, I gave her a big hug, she cried a bit, and then she went to lie down.

Yeah, this is our child. We’re proud of her. And while her absence will be probably unexcused, her continuing education in caring about other people is just as important. Her empathy is immense and learning how to respond in a caring and appropriate way is more important than immersive Spanish.

Situations like this, however, are why I’m infuriated that women don’t have complete autonomy over their own bodies. The Associated Press ran a story yesterday about how hospital emergency rooms are turning women away despite federal law requiring them to be treated because of punitive state laws promising severe penalties, including long jail sentences if they end a pregnancy for any reason. This is the direct result of allowing Republicans to be in charge of anything. This also emphasizes why it is just as important to vote for Democrats down ballot as well as at the federal level.

We’re at this point where doctors and hospital administrators are afraid to do their jobs because we were lazy at the ballot and let Republicans win. We’re okay with autonomous cars, autonomous volocopters, and autonomous robots, but not autonomous women? As much as we can’t let Republicans grab control of Congress and the White House, we must wrestle control of state houses away from them as well. At the state level, dangerous plans such as Project 2025 are more likely to be successfully implemented. States are more likely to gut education systems, prohibit the teaching of critical race theory, eliminate DEI programs, ban books, limit or eliminate medical funding for poor and elderly people, cut or eliminate food assistance programs, and generally make the world a less tolerable place to live.

I find it interesting that both presidential candidates and President Biden support cutting taxes on tips, but no one’s talking about the fact that the minimum wage for servers remains at the bottom of the barrel where their work is being exploited by restaurant owners. Perhaps we’d rather have a nation where teens are so hopeless and angry that they don helmets and bulletproof vests and then randomly stab people.

The US stands at a tipping point. How we vote in this fall’s election will drastically shape the future and no one is going to be more affected than our children. What happens if empaths like Tipper help a trans friend get the gender-affirming medical care they need? That’s on the ballot this fall. What happens if schools provide a safe space for LGBTQ+ students? That’s on the ballot this fall. What happens if the rules requiring overtime pay are gone? That’s on the ballot this fall. What happens if water becomes undrinkable? That’s on the ballot this fall. What happens when people lose the right to organize at work? That’s on the ballot this fall. What happens when 48 million women lose access to contraception? That’s on the ballot this fall.

Are you beginning to get the picture? This year’s election is much more than winning the White House, which we must do. We have to win at the state and local level as well. Otherwise, living conditions in the US will inevitably suffer. Labor shortages will become common. Safety at every level will decline. More police violence as training programs are cut. Less aid for small businesses after a weather disaster. It’s all on the ballot this year.

Yes, there’s a lot of other news this morning, including the disastrous interview between Elon Musk and the Orange Felon. But you know what? Almost every issue comes down to how you vote this fall. Israel/Gaza. Russia/Ukraine. Global warming. Space exploration. Almost every corner of the globe is going to feel the effects of your vote.

Let’s not let up on the focus on this election. Even when the news seems positive, we must continue pushing all the way through November. Remember, a week before the 2016 election, polls held a 93% certainty that Hillary Clinton was going to win. We see how horribly that turned out. Apathy is a killer. We must keep up the pressure and make sure everyone votes.

We have great kids. Let’s not give them a shitty country.

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Morning Update: 08/12/24

August 12, 2024

Being awake is overrated. I’m convinced of that fact this morning after going through yesterday with nothing more than a 45-minute nap. There were things to do, Amazon deliveries to catch, repeated trips outside with the dogs, and conversations with G about the new game he was playing. By the time we finally finished dinner, I was ready to collapse but waited until after 8:00 so I could take the dogs out one last time. That didn’t work. At 1:30 this morning they informed me that they needed to go out again. The only upside of that was getting to see a bit of the Perseid meteor shower while we were out. I’m still tired this morning, but again, there are things to do, Amazon deliveries to catch, and inevitably repeated trips outside with the dogs.

Tipper had another “date” yesterday afternoon with her BF, Gio, and his family. I think they ended up going to a mall or shopping center of some sort. She came back with loot, again, this time being most proud of an energy drink that had a picture of her favorite anime character on it. This time, Kat picked her up, which gave her a chance to visit some with Gio’s mom. The result is that she’ll be cutting Gio’s hair later this week. No word yet on whether Tipper will arrange to be at the salon that afternoon or not. Any way you slice it, it’s cute.

High blood pressure continues to be an issue this morning. No severe dizzy spells yet, but I can tell that one is just lingering behind my eyes. If this continues, we’ll be making another visit to the doctor. I have a feeling they’ll want that a bit more under control before the colonoscopy scheduled for later this month. I’m wondering if this could partly be a sleep issue, considering that I’ve been well off schedule over the weekend. Unfortunately, today may not be much better.

The Olympics are over, the handoff to LA has been made, the flame has been extinguished. Yet, controversy remains. Jordan Chiles has been stripped of a gymnastics bronze medal, but the USOPC says it will appeal. Apparently, there’s video evidence of some kind and you know that whole conversation is going to get messy before a final solution is reached. Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif filed a legal complaint for online harassment against her because people are fucking stupid. I’d love to see her punch one of those trolls who won’t drop the subject of her gender.

One moment that many may have overlooked was when the US Women’s Basketball Team received their gold medals. Tears flowed hard down Britteny Griner’s face as the national anthem was played. She didn’t bother wiping them away. After spending 10 months in a Russian jail for weed possession, she didn’t think she’d get this opportunity again. The moment was one of the most moving I’ve seen from this Olympics.

While I’ve been purposefully avoiding talking about the Israel/Gaza war, I guess there’s no escaping it this morning. On one hand, Israel is widening evacuation orders for southern Gaza. Where the fuck they expect people to go, I don’t know. Every time people move to get out of the way of battle, Israel just bombs them in the places they told them would be safe. However, tolerance of the war is shrinking as more countries are demanding that a cease-fire be reached. Netanyahu is a stubborn old man so I’m not sure the international pressure will be effective, especially with the US continuing to send them money for weapons. Meanwhile, a nuclear submarine is being sent to the region because threats of the war broadening won’t go away and those on the ground are saying that tensions have never been higher.

Speaking of money, you know how there’s not supposed to be any of it flowing into Russia? Well, guess what Reuters discovered? Not only is both US and EU cash getting through, there’s a lot of it; roughly $2.3 billion worth. While sanctions prohibiting the exchange of cash have been in place since 2022, hard currency is still preferred for a number of businesses, including some arms sales. And while the Chinese Yaun is the dominant currency, individuals still prefer the dollar for small investments, traveling, and international purchases. Now that the situation has been brought to light, it will be interesting to see how, or if, the State Department responds.

Today is the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, the rules put in place after WWII to, theoretically, help police violent acts committed by governments and avoid the type of genocide committed during that war. The problem is that no one is paying any attention to those rules. It doesn’t help any that none of the world’s major players, the US, Russia, and China, are members of the International Criminal Court which prosecutes war crimes. So, while the rules exist, there’s no enforcement that has any meaning. We’ve seen countless charges levied against Russia, Hamas, and Israel, but they’ve all fell flat. This leaves us to question whether there’s any point in having the rules at all.

We now know that the plane that crashed in Brazil over the weekend was carrying a group of doctors on their way to an oncology conference. The cause of the accident is still in question. Meteorologists have said there was icing in the Sao Polo region at the time of the crash, but experts warn against jumping to any conclusions. Both black boxes have been recovered, so everyone is hoping that will answer some of the lingering questions.

I’m going to go out on a limb and disagree with some local meteorologists who’ve downplayed today’s chance for rain. I’m looking at the radar now (8:01 AM EDT) and what appeared to be a weak system last night has grown considerably this morning. While severe weather isn’t in the works, I think we could see more than just “a sprinkle” or two this afternoon.

There are some other points of interest sitting out there this morning, but it’s Monday and that alone carries enough weight to be depressing. I’m going to just end it here and strongly consider going back to bed for a little while. The first Amazon delivery for the day has already arrived, so I should have a few hours before the trucks are rolling through the neighborhood.

Today’s goal is to not let the day become overwhelming. I wish us all good luck.

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Morning Update: 08/11/24

August 11, 2024

If I were a church-going person, and I’m not, I would be struggling this morning. Tipper did end up going with her school friend to the fair, but it was almost 7:00 PM before they picked her up and they stayed until the fair closed at 11:00. The trip almost didn’t happen. Her friend was dependent on their mother to drive and Mom didn’t seem to feel the same urgency the kids did. Tipper was close to canceling when she finally got the message that they were on their way.

It was almost midnight when she got home, and, of course, I couldn’t go to sleep until I knew she was back safely. She was excited, having won a stuffed elephant and purchased a unique water bottle. She wanted to pet all the cats and talk about the trip, so it was after 12:30 this morning before I crawled under the covers. I’m only awake now because the cats are on a schedule and demand to be fed on time. The dogs need to go out before I type the next paragraph.

[Hoo boy. Took the dogs out for about 10 minutes. Tipper joined me and we talked more about the fair. When we came back in, though, I was hit with really strong dizziness that has yet to go away. I’m sitting down and am safe for now, but if this doesn’t get better I’ll have to cut things short.]

G spent a large part of yesterday sprawled across his bed doing math; multiplying polynomials, specifically. What are polynomials? They’re letters and numbers all mixed up and doing stuff. Technically, an expression which is composed of variables, constants, and exponents, that are combined using mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. You know, the kind of math that causes mere mortals to go insane. G was doing them on purpose. All morning. He then took a long nap cuddled with a cat. He likes it when the house is quiet. He also likes it when he’s not forced to interact with anyone else. So, I’m guessing it was a pretty good day for him, too.

I’m not seeing a lot of news this morning that warrants any comment. Of course, I’m sure there are people who are upset that Jordan Chiles has to return her bronze medal. I get it, but the Romanians were quick to challenge the decision and the matter was adjudicated by a court, so I’m not surprised. I’m not saying it’s fair, but I’m not surprised.

With the Olympics ending today, all eyes turn next to Los Angeles for the 2028 Summer Games. LA is already making the games interesting by announcing that the entire Olympic venue will only be accessible by public transportation. No cars. Given how horrid LA traffic is, I can see where this decision makes sense. They’re going to have to greatly improve their transit system, though, if they want things to go smoothly. Like many urban transit systems, the vehicles are dirty, smelly, and unreliable. If they don’t step up their game considerably, the whole thing could be a disaster.

However, there could be some alternatives. If you were watching early this morning, US time, you might have gotten a glimpse at the Volocopter, an autonomous air taxi, as it provided a test flight over Paris. They couldn’t get all the paperwork done in time for the service to be available for these games, but backers are anxiously hoping to have the service operational for the LA Games. I see some challenges, to be sure, but they have four years to work those out. Tesla’s autonomous taxis, though, still won’t be allowed even if they work without killing someone or blowing up.

The New York Times is boring today as well, which is disappointing. Normally, I head straight for the Times Magazine, but it’s a rare yawner today. There is an interesting article about the “orgasm gap” that women still experience but I would have liked a little more science and depth to the piece. So much of what I’m seeing seems redundant, remixed leftovers from what we’ve been reading all week. Even the opinion pieces feel “meh.”

Maybe I’m just difficult to please.

I’m still not feeling great, though. I may go back to bed after checking in with the kids. I should probably check my blood pressure, too.

There’s always something wrong. Fucking cancer.

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Morning Update: 08/10/24

August 10, 2024

Here it is 7:30 AM, I’m just sitting down to write, and there’s no other sound in the house. Kat and both kids are still asleep. Animals are all asleep except for Belvedere lying here on the bed watching me, wondering when he’s going to get breakfast. This is the tone set for the weekend. I think Tipper may have tentative plans with a friend but I’m not sure. She came in from school and crashed hard. G is, unsurprisingly, planning on getting some schoolwork done. He’s still a bit upset at how long it took them to get started. Kat will go to the salon and then head North for the weekend. I’m just here in case of an emergency.

It’s a chilly 57 degrees outside at the moment. Skies are clear. Not much different than 2:00 AM when the dogs decided they needed to go out. That’s really my own fault. Normally, I take the dogs out for the last time around 8-8:30 in the evening. That typically gets them through until 6:00 the next morning. I fell asleep shortly after 7:00 last night, though, which didn’t give them a chance to go out that last time. Thus, come 2:00, someone was needing to go pee quite badly. I slipped on my shoes and took them out only to be surprised by how cool it was. I’ll have a jacket on when I take them out again this morning.

Weekends like this are for reading and there’s plenty to read. Of course, dominating headlines this morning is the crash of an ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is a story you’ll want to come back to off and on over the weekend as more details become known. All that’s certain at the moment is that the plane went into a flat spin before crashing inside a gated community, killing the 61 souls on board.

We’re also just finding out that a Serbian competitor in the CrossFit Games died while competing in a swimming event Thursday morning at a Texas lake. Again, details are sketchy. An official with the Fort Worth Fire Department said they were called out around 8 a.m. to assist police because there was “a participant in the water that was down and hadn’t been seen in some point in time.” No cause of death has been given and CrossFit isn’t answering any questions.

Boxer Imane Khelif won gold to cap an Olympics marked by scrutiny over her sex. After all the ridiculous fuss, it only seems fitting that she should walk away with the top prize. Sha’carri Richardson was able to finally capture her first gold as the anchor in the women’s 4×100 relay. But 60-year-old swimmer Jim Dreyer apparently gave up after two days trying to cross Lake Michigan. Actually, no one’s sure exactly what happened. Dreyer isn’t responding to questions and the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed he’s no longer in the water.

Making Mars inhabitable seems to be a big issue this morning. The easy-to-digest version is on Reuters’ home page, but the more scientific version is in this week’s Science magazine. What it all boils down to is the possibility that soil samples from the planet can possibly be used to make rods that would warm the planet enough for it to terraform itself. Don’t hold your breath, though, Elon. Even in the best possible conditions, we’re still decades away from even thinking about putting people up there.

There’s an interesting feature in this morning’s New York Times that has cool graphics to go with it if you read it online. It seems that China has been building new villages and relocating people to live all along its Western border, including some disputed territories with India. This is interesting for a number of reasons. One, it feels an awful lot like it did when Israel first did the same thing along its West Bank border, and we see how disastrously that plan worked. Two, the previously uninhabited regions were uninhabited for a damn good reason. Villages in the Himalayas are subject to severe winters with roads impassible several months of the year. Other areas are too rocky for any type of agriculture to take place. China is digging in, though, saying that the towns are critical to the country’s defense. The article is worth the read.

Everything else this morning is war and politics and I’m not inclined to give any more oxygen to those situations when those who could do something constructive sit on their hands or make the situation worse.

I’m crossing my fingers for a nice, quiet weekend. We’ll see if that’s possible.

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Morning Update

August 9, 2024

For all the early-morning angst I had yesterday, nothing horrible happened. At least, not here. Kat was sick enough to stay home all day. She’s feeling some better and will be at the salon this afternoon, but it’s still questionable whether she’ll attend an event planned for this evening. The kids were over an hour late getting home because the bus broke down and they had to wait for a replacement. Again. They were exhausted when they did get home and when I went to bed at 8:00, I was the only one awake. They did have dinner, but there was no conversation. Days like this pass as a blur.

What did happen yesterday was that the Orange Felon held a press conference from Mar-a-lago. Supporters will say he was “forceful.” Everyone else will say it was unhinged with the most ridiculous moment coming when he claimed that the crowd at his Jan. 6 2021 speech was larger than that of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. There was a lot of looking back at his first term and exaggeration of numbers. He admitted he lost in 2020, which was startling. Remember that when he reverts back to the lie later. What’s possibly most relevant, from my perspective, is that the Felon hasn’t been out campaigning this week. At all. He’s sent Vance, who hasn’t brought the numbers he was supposed to bring. The optics lean into the fact that the Felon is 78 years old. He would be the oldest President ever, and there are already plenty of warning signs that he’s losing what little mental faculties he had. As Nancy Pelosi has said, we can’t let “that man” win.

ABC News reports that the September 10 debate is back on. The Felon says he wants more, but there’s been no comment from the Harris/Walz campaign. In fact, the Vice President hasn’t been giving interviews, either. She’s sticking to campaign speeches where her message is well defined and there’s little chance of misspeaking. How long will that strategy work?

Microsoft is saying that Iran has accelerated cyber activity which is most likely a sign of increased interference in the US election. Be on the lookout for attacks against Harris/Walz that are completely unfounded. Don’t be afraid to call them out. Their whole purpose is to create chaos and disenfranchisement around the election. Please, again, check your sources carefully.

You may be seeing holiday displays even earlier than usual. Reuters reports that retailers are rushing holiday shipments on anything imported out of fear that their could be disruptive events in the near future. Both the fluctuations of the stock market and threats of terrorism are to blame. This could mean early discounts as excess inventory crowds stores, but also be aware that this year’s prices are already higher than last year as companies look to pad their profit margins as much as possible.

If you use a nebulizer for asthma or migraines, you know how clunky and unwieldy those devices are. That may be about to change. Companies are again testing vape-like devices that would be considerably easier to use. The delay comes from having to convince the FDA and other medical professionals that the devices a) actually work, and b) don’t accidentally encourage other vape use. There are also the optics. Imagine being in a restaurant, almost all of which are nonsmoking now, and needing to use a nebulizer. Cue conflict over convincing your server that no, you’re not smoking. The new devices would be considerably easier to use, but they’re still not likely to be available any time soon.

There are clusters of international stories taking up space this morning, but nothing that currently raises severe concern. Internal struggles are just that: internal. They have to be worked out by those affected.

One last thing, though, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Hall of Fame golfer known for antics on the greens, has died. Now, I’ve never been a huge golf fan, and had it been any other golfer I might not have bothered to mention the passing. But people of a certain age will remember a famous episode of the television show, “WKRP in Cincinnati” where the station’s news director, Les Nessman, played brilliantly by Richard Sanders, completely bungles the golfer’s name while on the air, to the horror of Johnny Fever, played by the late Howard Hessman. So, we say goodbye to Chi Chi with thanks for being a good sport. Here’s the clip:

I’m not making any firm weekend plans as both kids have mentioned possibly doing things with their friends. These are the moments we have to step back and give them room to grow beyond academics. Letting them out of our sight is something that’s never quite comfortable. When the Citizen app issued an alert yesterday that someone had been hit by a truck on Lafayette Road, Kat was quick to have both kids check in, making sure they were safe. We hope that we’ve given the kids enough guidance and support to be able to make safe decisions, but we also know that teens test boundaries and often think that past rules no longer apply. So, I’m going to sit here and try to be flexible and supportive and encouraging, and no, I’m not crying. You’re crying.

Kat’s finally sleeping. The twins are snuggled up together at the foot of the bed. Both dogs are back to sleep. Queen Bit plopped herself down right smack in the middle of the bed, defying anyone to disturb her. All the rain chances are along the East Coast and remnants of Hurricane Debby continue to make life difficult.

Maybe I’ll just have another cup of coffee and sit here quietly. Because I can.

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Morning Update: 08/08/24

August 8, 2024

Something feels off this morning, though I’m clueless as to what it might be. Yesterday was largely uneventful. Kids went to school and came home without issue. G had his violin lesson. We fixed dinner but only the kids ate as Kat and I were both feeling nauseous. Bedtime came early (again) and I didn’t hear anyone up during the night. After such an uneventful day, I’m sitting here wondering where today’s big news might drop.

But even the news is a bit off this morning. We’ve been hearing for years about the various dangers of mylar balloons, right? Yesterday, one caused a boil water alert in New Orleans after intersecting with a power line. The dip in power caused four water pumps to turn off. Yet, I’m still not seeing any outrage or movements to ban mylar balloons. I guess we’re just going to accept this as “one of those things.”

Where there is outrage is the UK. After days of racist right-wing protests and violence, people are starting to call bullshit and confront the protesters. It’s about damn time. Police haven’t had any effect on the protests at all. When it comes to flagrant character flaws such as racism and bigotry, perhaps having your neighbors in your face is a better solution than policing. We’ll see.

Oklahoma never fails to disappoint in the arena of strange news. This time, a dog chomping on a lithium-ion battery sparked a serious house fire in Oklahoma, footage taken from the home shows, as the dog bit down and sparks began to shoot from the battery. (AP video: Javier Arciga) This highlights two critical issues. 1. Dogs will eat anything, so stop leaving shit lying around. 2. Lithium batteries, even those that seem “dead,” are fucking dangerous! Treat them accordingly.

Stocks are slipping again this morning, mostly in the tech sector. Between you and me, I expect this volatility to continue until the Fed cuts rates, which may not happen until September. The test is whether investors have the stomach to wait out the ride.

Talk about bad luck. Imagine getting to go into space, two weeks about the International Space Station. The capsule that got you there (barely) breaks and your trip is extended to 30 days. Whee! But now… NASA says it’s looking more like they’re going to be there until FEBRUARY 2025! They’ll most likely be coming back on a SpaceX rocket. Who knows what the fuck will happen to the Boeing mess that now feels like a metaphor for the entire company’s performance.

Bad luck also hit Swifties hoping to see their idol in Vienna as three shows there were canceled because of a terror threat. Two have been arrested and Austrian officials claim one of the men, a 19-year-old, may have ties to the Islamic State. If you think threats against music venues are growing, you’re not wrong. The past decade has seen a frightening escalation in attacks, including 140 killed in Moscow this past March, and 260 killed at a music festival in Israel on October 7, sparking the current war.

Interestingly enough, US abortion numbers, which had been in decline, have risen slightly since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Expect those numbers to escalate as more women grow fearful of antiquated religiously-fueled laws that endanger their well-being. At the same time, however, more abortion providers are scaling back. Planned Parenthood in Manhattan says it will stop providing the service after 20 weeks. All the more reason for women to make this election all about them, their rights, and their autonomy.

Speaking of the election, it was predictable that there would be misinformation about Tim Walz coming out. Know the facts before you open your big mouth. Remember, a lot of the misinformation is coming from international enemies. Don’t help them spread it.

There’s no chance of rain today, or any time in the near future. Morning temps will be almost chilly by Sunday. There’s really nothing earthshaking going on outside of the 7.1 rattler off the coast of Japan. The tsunami warning isn’t getting a lot of attention, though.

So, maybe we just have a nice, calm day. What do you think? Can we make that happen?

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Morning Update: 08/07/24

August 7, 2024

Lesson learned: Don’t eat bacon and then go out in the heat for a prolonged period of time. My stomach strongly disagreed with that decision and, wouldn’t you know it, I was at the Indiana State Fair when my body decided to process that fateful act. Fortunately, there were plenty of open restroom stalls. Still, my stomach never really settled down, foiling my plan to cheat on my diet for the day. I had a $4 bottle of water, instead.

My motivation for going to the fair on such a hot day, besides the fact admission was only $2, was the desire to check out Travis Little’s newest work. Health issues have prevented Travis from being able to paint and this is his first work since regaining use of his hands. Spectacular? Uhm, of course! If you’re going to the fair, you’ll find his work in the Arts building, lower part of the first floor, in the “Professional” room, and in the watercolor section. Yes, watercolor. While Travis mostly uses pastels, he used watercolor for this piece, and that resulted in the unique placement of his work.

Those of you who’ve been around for a while know what I’m going to say next. STOP MAKING ART A COMPETITION! As I walked through both the art and photography galleries I was deeply disturbed by the degree to which superior works received no attention at all. And who the fuck decided to post the photographs with no attribution? Whose work was I looking at? Yes, it matters! I have different expectations for someone who has been snapping for 20+ years than I do for someone who is just starting out. My complaint applies double to the youth sections where failure to acknowledge strong work could result in the artist giving up and setting their tools to the side, causing the world to lose out on a spectacular talent that is just getting started.

Art is and always will be subjective, no matter the medium. The “purists” who strive to put rules and fences around art are detrimental to the open creativity necessary to move art forward. There are some amazing sculptures on display, for example, but the one given the blue ribbon was a cliche that was almost insulting to the works around it. In fact, there were a lot of cliche themes throughout the galleries, perhaps because the selection committee was too afraid to let through pieces that “break the rules.” All artists deserve a platform and the state fair should be the place for that platform.

They should also improve the air conditioning in the building.

I walked through all the animal barns, but there wasn’t a lot to see. Only a few Herefords, Angus, and Highland cattle were present in the cow barn and only 4H horses were present in that building. Both the sheep and swine buildings were all but empty. I did grab a handful of pictures, but I haven’t gone through any except one at the top of this page. I think another trip is in order next week, but it will have to be a lot cooler and I’ll have to be more careful of what I eat in advance.

Getting home, one might have thought I’d been missing for months with the way the dogs greeted me. I don’t know what might have happened in my absence, but both pups were more interested in seeing me than in going outside. Even when I let them out, they wanted all my attention and only left my side long enough to bark at the mail truck, which is, apparently, a requirement. When we came back in, I sat down at the desk, and Belvedere (the hound) was having none of it. He knew I needed to lie down and didn’t stop pestering me until I did, at which point he curled up as close to me as he physically could.

Kids came in, we ate food, and then everyone went to sleep.

Of course, the big news yesterday was Kamala Harris’ choice of Tim Walz as her Vice President pick. Cue the usual, “Yeah, but…” chorus. The fact is that Walz probably balances Harris better than any of the other potential nominees. Sarah Smarsh in an opinion piece for the New York Times says that Democrats Have Needed Someone Like Tim Walz for Decades, and she’s probably correct by most counts. What could be most important, though, is Walz has a surprisingly strong pull with young voters. This could be critical in a race that is going to be analyzed and picked at from every possible direction.

What else? Hamas names Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks, as its new leader in a show of defiance. If we were hoping for a more gentle response to the assassination of the group’s leader, this wasn’t it. Expect the war to grow more heated and most likely expand to Lebanon and possibly Iran. The entire situation there is not looking good.

Global shares rose and Japan’s Nikkei gained 1.2% as markets settled after a wild start to the week. Tesla has issued yet another huge recall, this time in China. And Thai court dissolved the progressive Move Forward Party, which won the election but was blocked from power. So much for democracy.

The Justice Department says a Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil. That one’s a bit scary to read. The question now is whether they only sent one or are there more.

And your stupid ass GOP move of the day? Louisiana governor tells parents against Ten Commandments in classrooms: ‘Tell your child not to look’. Not kidding. Let this be a sign of what’s coming, though, if we allow Republicans to have any level of power after this election. They’ve gone off the deep end. I’m not sure labeling them as weird is enough.

Today needs to be a rest day. I’m going to eat breakfast, check on a few details, and then most likely nap the rest of the day. If you need me you’ll need to wake the dogs.

Good luck with that.

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Morning Update: 08/06/24

August 6, 2024

Surviving The Heat [2019 original with AI background]

Good morning! It’s Tuesday and, so far, everything is going pretty much the way we would want it to. The kids were up and out the door without making much sound, possibly because they both knew they hadn’t finished their chores yesterday. We’ll have to address that when they get home this afternoon. Everyone was tired and not feeling especially well yesterday afternoon, though. Kat even came home early and curled up in bed. She ordered soup for dinner and the kids and I all had smoothies. No one could handle anything heavier.

But on the home front, that’s it. Nothing spectacular happened. Just a normal day in a normal city in a normal summer. I’ve no reason to expect things to be much different.

This morning we have Tipper’s IEP meeting. We’ll be talking with her primary support coach who happens to be one of the top 10 finalists for Teacher of the Year. I met her at the back-to-school event a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty easy to see why she’s in line for such an honor. I think the meeting will go well and help to ensure that Tipper gets all the help she needs to be successful this year. G is anxious to actually get started on classwork. They finally got their Chromebooks yesterday, but he can’t bring it home without a note from a parent. I sent the email to his advisory coach last night so that matter should be resolved. I’ve never seen someone so anxious to do schoolwork.

There’s nothing especially earthshaking in the news this morning, either, unless you’re Google. The ruling that Google holds an illegal monopoly over search sounds more frightening than it actually is, though. Microsoft went through the same sort of ruling roughly 20 years ago, just before Google popped on the scene. Google’s only guilty of doing some of the same things Microsoft did to keep their Windows operating system dominant in the industry. For there to be any significant change there has to be someone with a better alternative and at the moment that alternative doesn’t exist.

Of course, everyone’s anxious to find out who Kamala Harris is choosing as her VP candidate this evening. The sitting Vice President secured the Democratic nomination yesterday via virtual roll call. This means that the Democratic Convention can be more about platform building and political hype. We’re 91 days away from the election, though, and something tells me we won’t have to wait until October for both parties to look for political bombshells against their opponents.

Remnants of Hurricane Debby are soaking the Georgia and Carolina coasts. This is pretty much what was forecasted, so hopefully there aren’t too many people caught off guard. Flooding is the primary concern at this point, and cities along that part of the coast have experience in dealing with this problem. Support teams from other states, including Indiana, are in place so hopefully they’ll have the mess under control soon.

If you’re looking at headlines about the Nikkei index having a 10% bump this morning, you’re looking at old news. The Japanese market ended up sliding back down as the day wore on. European markets so far are mixed (as of 7:30 AM EDT). No one is sure what’s going to happen over the next couple of days, so we’ll all have to watch together and find out.

To no one’s surprise, the hot summer is yielding a lot of unrest across the Northern Hemisphere. The UK, Brazil, Italy, Bangladesh, and Nigeria all have their trouble points that are internally significant but not yet bleeding beyond their borders. Summer does this every year. The heat intensifies unrest over perceived injustices and emotions explode into violent actions. Sometimes, the change created is ultimately good, but the loss of life and damage to property is often a high price for moderate results.

One of the most exciting Olympic moments yesterday may have been when a whale decided to join the surfing competition in Tahiti. None of the surfers were in any danger as the whale breached the swells and this type of occurrence isn’t that unusual around the better surf areas. However, in April, Pacific Indigenous leaders— including some from Tahiti— signed a treaty recognizing whales as “legal persons.” Perhaps the whales are taking that as a sign that they’re welcome to join some of our water-based games.

Those are the highlights. I’m sure there will be more excitement in the morning when we know who the Democratic VP nominee is. In the meantime, I hope everyone stays comfortable and happy.

Oh, and Frankie says “Hi.”

Current Issues / Morning Update / News & Comment / Personal / Politics / Social Commentary

Morning Update: 08/05/24

August 5, 2024

The Machine Isn’t Working [2019 original with AI background]

Weekends, especially Sundays, go by entirely too quickly. I tried fragmenting my naps so I could spend more time with the kids, but even with that, there wasn’t enough time to get into all the conversations we wanted to have. G did a complete washdown of the kitchen, complaining about how much grease was everywhere. I tried explaining to him that without a working ventilation hood, which we’ve never had, the spread and accumulation of oil droplets is inevitable. I’m not sure he believes me. Still, he did a fantastic job!

We got most of the mowing done. Tipper was working on the last part when she somehow ran over the electric cord. How she did that “accidentally” is still a mystery to me even after she attempted to explain it. All she would have had to do was let go of the handle and the blade would have stopped. Color me suspicious. I looked at the cord this morning and with all the other cuts it has had I think it best to just replace the whole thing.

G is getting into watching the stock market, so that enabled a fun conversation this morning about recessions, how they happen, and how they help correct over-inflation in the market. While the US markets aren’t open yet, the Nikkei is down 13%, the lowest since 1987, and European markets are at six-month lows. He has a list of stocks he’s watching and none of them have done well this past week. This could end up being a very interesting lesson for him, even if it is bad news for the elections.

Debby finally became a category 1 hurricane yesterday and is taking out her angst all over Florida and the Southeast. While no one is expecting extended power outages like what we saw in and around Houston earlier this year, the storm could still cause a great deal of damage not only in Florida but Georgia and South Carolina. Worst case scenario: the storm could quickly cross Florida and reform out in the Atlantic, wreaking havoc all up the eastern seaboard. We’ve seen it happen before. No one’s completely ruling out anything.

The rest of the world is simply insane. I’m not going to elaborate on any of these headlines, but they’re all important:

Australia lifts terrorism threat level from ‘possible’ to ‘probable,’ but says no specific threat. They say there’s a 50% chance of a terrorist event within the next year.
Mexican journalist who covered one of the country’s most dangerous crime beats has been killed. Alejandro Martínez covered the city of Celeya, which has been labeled the most dangerous city in Mexico.
Noah Lyles wins the Olympic 100-meter sprint by five-thousandths of a second. Blink and you’ll miss it moment.
Olympic boxer Imane Khelif calls for an end to bullying after backlash over gender misconceptions. She says the furor “harms human dignity.” She’s not wrong.
Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina resigns, interim government to be formed. And still, the unrest there is not getting any better.
Musk-backed PAC under investigation for potential violations of Michigan laws. Is anyone surprised? I doubt it.

I will take some time with this one because it’s important. If you thought Project 2025 was going away, think again. One of the document’s architects, Russel Vought, is stepping up to the podium and saying some things that should send chills down your spine. Among the highlights: “We’re not going to save our country without a little confrontation.” He wrote in 2016 that Muslims “do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ his Son, and they stand condemned.” This fool could become the President’s Chief of Staff should the Orange Felon win a second term. Keeping up the pressure on Project 2025 and everyone connected with it is important. It’s not going away. Vought and others like him are dangerous threats to our democracy and must be stopped.

It’s a Monday, so you know the chances for everything to become all the more chaotic. Maybe we should all take some time to calm ourselves, have an extra cup of coffee this morning, perhaps some ice cream this afternoon, and try to find some time to breathe.

And maybe we won’t look at the headlines again until in the morning.

Current Issues / Morning Update / News & Comment / Personal / Politics / Social Commentary

Morning Update: 08/04/24

August 4, 2024

Sunday Morning Lite

Yelling Into The Echo Chamber [2019 original with AI background]

Music from the 1973 Disney animated feature, “Robin Hood” is running through my head this morning, and has been pretty much all night, after hearing a young woman cover Roger Miller’s original song. The lyrics, “Robin Hood and Little John, walking through the forest, Laughing back and forth at what the other’n has to say. Reminiscing this and that and having such a good time. Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, golly, what a day.” That verse summons an image of an idyllic summer stroll through animated woods, wandering along without a care, enjoying time with a best friend. When you think about it, isn’t that pretty much what all of us want from summer? If only we could make it happen. Unfortunately, for too many of us, there’s a Sheriff of Nottingham lurking in the shadows waiting to spoil everything.

Yesterday was just kind of there and I see no good reason to dwell on it. I was in bed. The kids were doing their own things. Even local news is rather boring. The biggest thing to happen is that Frankie, the smashed-face wheezer kitty, almost spun out as he took a corner too fast just now. He seems largely unaffected by the near mishap. I’ve told the kids we have to mow today and they’ve both agreed, but we’ll see how much actually gets done.

Much of the world news is a continuation of previous topics. Taiwan’s Yu-ting beats Staneva to ensure medal amid boxing gender debate. And then, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif clinches a medal at the Olympics after an outcry fueled by gender misconceptions. Remember, the IBA is a Russian-backed machine and probably doesn’t need to exist anymore.

The Orange Felon is still lying. VP Harris is still flexing her muscles. I don’t think anyone is surprised by either of those statements. The Felon is trying to claim “home turf” for a September debate, The VP is saying, “Nope.”

Tropical Storm Debby is looking to give most of West Florida and Cuba a hard time today. The storm hasn’t been able to maintain hurricane-force strength, but it could still cause a lot of damage and upset lives and vacation plans.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff acknowledges affair contributed to the breakup for his first marriage, but is this even an issue when the Orange Felon has cheated on all his wives, including the present one while she was pregnant and no one seems to give a fuck. Open this can of worms and the Felon takes the most heat.

There are a couple of good reads if you have the time. The Associated Press takes a look at how adult children in India are abandoning their aging parents. This isn’t a pretty picture and yeah, I think we have to worry about the concept spreading.

Then, the New York Times has a really interesting story about the intersection of commercial development, segregation, and Islamaphobia … in Minnesota, of all places. Yeah, you’ll need a subscription to read it, but damn, this is a captivating story. In the end, we see how legitimate concerns too easily dissolve into dirty politics and name-calling. It’s definitely worth the subscription price.

While you’re at the Times, there’s also an interesting story about how abandoned church buildings are being converted into commercial space. The vaulted ceilings are a big draw. This isn’t just a New York thing. I know we’ve seen similar conversions to downtown church buildings here in Indy. The allure of religion may be fading, but the architecture is pretty cool.

Everything else hasn’t dramatically shifted all that much since yesterday. If anything, some of it is becoming a bit of an eye roll. Today’s a good day to sit back and catch up on some of that reading you keep saying you’ll get to “when you have the time.”

Pour another cup of coffee. There’s no rush.

Cancer Update / Current Issues / Morning Update / News & Comment / Personal / Politics / pop culture / Social Commentary

Morning Update: 08/03/24

August 3, 2024

The AI Edition

Having finished the first week of school, everyone is exhausted this morning. I’m the only one awake at 8:00 and even I slept until 7:00, The cats have been fed, the dogs taken outside and fed, and it occurs to me that, to a limited extent, taking care of them isn’t that much different than working with a small herd of cattle and a couple of horses. The biggest difference is that I don’t have to trudge all the way out to the barn and shovel shit. The kids are still adapting to going back on their meds for school. Kat never gets enough sleep. I know she was up in the middle of the night, around 4:00. We’ll let them rest as I focus on other things.

I don’t know what to do about the lawn. It’s still too wet this morning, thanks to last night’s rains. The East side is growing so thick it’s going to be tough to get the lawnmower through it. I’m not much help, either. If I get much weaker, I’m going to have trouble sitting upright. As it is now, I’m leaning on the armrest to help keep me steady as I sit here and type. I thought we were getting better, but this past week has been a major setback. I’m wanting to go to the fair next week but I’m not sure I should risk it. Even if someone goes with me, I can’t be sure that I’ll make it past the first row of buildings. Knowing that Travis Little has a new art piece on display requires that I at least make an attempt to go see it.

I don’t know if it was an act of collusion or what, but AI seems to be on everyone’s mind this morning. Reuters is leading with a story about how lawsuits filed by major recording labels to stop AI platforms from stealing opens up some severe holes in Copyright Law. Reuters starts the story by telling how easy it was to create a song “in the style of (country star) Tift Merritt) on the Udio platform. You can hear the song here. While Merritt said the AI-generated song would “never make the cut” on one of her albums, it underlines the danger of a world of AI-generated sound as the technology continues to grow. We’ve long known that there’s a strong relationship between math and music. That relationship makes it pretty much just a matter of time before AI can generate music faster and better than any human. I gotta tell you, that hurts my feelings.

This new story comes as video game actors have been on strike all week saying that AI endangers their jobs. “The models that they’re using have been trained on our voices without our consent at all, with no compensation,” “Persona 5 Tactica” voice actor and video game strike captain, Leeanna Albanese, told Reuters on the picket line. This is just the latest AI-related work stoppage. You’ll remember that union actors and writers went on strike last fall for similar reasons. Anyone in any creative field is concerned about the degree to which AI is going to endanger their jobs.

The NY Times is asking if AI is going to take over “meaningless” jobs and, if so, is that really a bad thing. They’re looking specifically at jobs in areas where rote copy/paste bores workers to tears, or software development that’s ultimately never used. One might see an argument for letting AI take the pain away, but where, then, do those workers look for more substantial employment? We’ve been talking on Facebook about a WRTV story romanticizing the days when local teens spent their summers detasseling corn. The general assumption is that modern equipment, most likely AI-based, would do that job now. After hearing one friend talk about how he sprained both wrists in that job, it’s difficult to see any AI development there as a negative.

But at the same time, there’s the story of Sabrina Javellana, a young Florida woman whose political career has been upended by deep fake AI-generated porn that uses her face. Trolls and political enemies have made her life a living nightmare. After talking with attorneys that specialize in revenge porn cases, she was told that there was little she could do that would stop anyone from continuing to produce material that was ruining her career. It’s impossible to defend AI producers in situations such as this.

Good solutions? They don’t exist. Music AI startups Suno and Udio slammed record label lawsuits in court filings and it seems likely that courts could find some merit in their arguments. AI is popping up everywhere. Even as I sit here typing, there is a prompt on the right-hand side of the page offering to “help” me write. Or re-write. I don’t use it primarily because AI doesn’t tend to curse about really bad situations and I like having the ability to say “fuck” whenever it feels appropriate. But does that mean that one day in the future AI could save me a couple of hours’ worth of time? Probably so. We’re going to have to keep working out the kinks and finding some common ground on this issue. AI is not going away, so we have to find ways to work with it.

Moving on, I want to wade into the international argument about Olympic boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan. A lot of people are upset because the Russian-led International Boxing Association, which has been banished from the Olympics by the IOC in a yearslong dispute, banned the two boxers claiming that their unproven and unspecified gender-based tests disqualified both women. Allegations have been flying around social media claiming that Khelif is trans and that her short-lived fight yesterday against Italian competitor Angela Carini was unfair. Some of the most ridiculous comments have come from known transphobes such as J.K. Rowling and the Orange Felon, neither of which should ever be taken seriously ever again. IOC President Thomas Bach came to the girls’ defense last night, saying that the comments were unacceptable, but then the IBA announced that it was awarding the promised $100,000 prize to Carini. This Olympics has really brought out the worst in conservatives worldwide and friends, we’ve gotta call them out on it. Both Khelif and Lin were born women. End of story. To suggest otherwise is nothing short of ignorance and stupidity that doesn’t deserve an audience.

Okay, it’s after 9:00. Here are some other things worth noting. Children of freed sleeper agents learned they were Russians on the flight to Moscow. Seriously. They thought they were Argentinian. Imagine the culture shock the poor kids have coming to them, and the conversations around the dinner table now that they know their parents were Russian spies. Aerosmith retires from touring, citing permanent damage to Steven Tyler’s voice last year. Are we surprised? No, but there’s still this nostalgic feeling of loss as we deal with the fact that the musicians we love are … old. Some Yankee Stadium bleachers fans chant `U-S-A!’ during `O Canada’ before the game against the Blue Jays. This is just stupid. The Jays have been a part of MLB for over 50 years. Such distasteful displays of nationalism need to stop. A Florida attorney has pleaded guilty to using a rifle to try to detonate explosives outside the Chinese embassy last year in Washington, D.C. Why? Because Florida breeds insanity. That’s the only logical reason. I think it’s something in the water down there.

Lastly, you may remember the fuss I made a couple of days ago about the three inmates at Guantanamo getting a plea deal. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday revoked plea deals agreed to earlier this week. Susan Escallier, who oversees the Pentagon’s Guantanamo war court, was relieved of her authority to enter into plea deals. Austin says he’s handling the matter personally now. Goddammit, we finally do something sane and this fool gives in to conservative backlash and cancels it. At the same time, President Biden is reiterating his intention to close the facility at Guantanamo before he leaves office. Something’s going to have to give somewhere.

Okay, we both need to move on with our days, you and I. There’s still other news, but perhaps we’ll cover that tomorrow.

Cancer Update / Current Issues / Morning Update / News & Comment / Personal / Politics / pop culture / science / Social Commentary / Travel

Morning Update: 08/02/24

August 2, 2024

Rain, rain, everywhere, rain. The lawn may never get mowed at this rate. At least not before temperatures are back up in the 90s next week. We had so much rain yesterday, that a part of Interstate 465, which goes around the perimeter of the city, was flooded and stopped traffic at rush hour. You can imagine the mess and backup that caused. There was more rain off and on throughout the night and there’s a pretty decent chance we’ll see more this afternoon/evening before a low-pressure system moves through. That could make things a little dicey if you’re planning on hitting the Foghat show on the free stage at the Indiana State Fair tonight. Personally, I’ll be staying in, close to the bed, ready to curl up and metaphorically die. Again.

Between downpours yesterday afternoon, G helped me move some things out to the curb for heavy trash pickup that is, allegedly, supposed to happen today. In theory, the first Friday of every month is supposed to be heavy trash pickup, but for both June and July, that Friday fell on the week of a holiday, which pushed normal trash pickup out a day. For whatever reason, when that happens there is no heavy trash pickup. Of the things we set out, scavengers picked up the old refrigerator that died back in May. Good luck getting the damn thing to work, guys. We’ll see how long it takes for the rest of the stuff to disappear.

Tipper is proving to be a good friend. When her new furry friend was pulled out of class for an IEP evaluation, she was asked to sit in the room with him to help him stay calm. They’ve created a very fast bond that allows them to watch out for each other and be each other’s confidant. Someone tugged at Tipper’s tail yesterday and word got back to the school’s Dean. He promptly facilitated an apology from the student responsible, something that Tipper was not expecting. Again, this strongly reaffirms our decision that PPHS is the best high school for her. Her first week has been surprisingly positive all around.

Not every school is as safe as PPHS. Topping local news this morning is the story of yet another teacher/pastor being arrested for producing child porn. Seriously, is no one catching the trend here? The number of cases of sexual assault and child porn being committed by pastors and other church leaders has been off the freakin’ charts! I know pedophilia is a big issue among conservatives, but people, the problem is not with drag queens or trans people. The problem is right there in your own churches! Wake up and smell the bullshit! Just two days ago, Christian Post announced that one of the founding elders of Gateway megachurch was forced to leave amid allegations of child sexual abuse. Increasingly, it’s becoming obvious that the least safe place for your children is at church!

There’s bad news from the American Cancer Society this morning. A study published in Lancet Public Health shows that cancer rates among Gen X and Millenials are increasing, sometimes dramatically, for 17 different cancers. No one seems to be able to understand why. What is especially bothersome is several of these cancers have been in decline among older people. Specifically, the increases in the following cancers are disturbing:

Colorectal
Endometrial
Non-cardia gastric
Gallbladder
Ovarian
Testicular
Anal
Estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancers
HIV-linked cancer called Kaposi sarcoma

Endometrial cancer is not only the fastest growing in terms of diagnosis, but it’s also the highest in terms of mortality. This shit is kinda scary, kids! With there being no firm explanation for why these cancers are increasing within these two age groups, you’re pretty much on your own in convincing your doctor to screen for tests. Don’t be afraid to stand up and advocate for yourself!

Of course, the big news this morning is the Russia-US prisoner swap that happened early this morning. It’s the largest post-Soviet prisoner swap to date and has been forever in the making (almost two years). You’d think that this would be something everyone would agree is a good thing. Nope. The Orange Felon has decided that the prisoner swap was “bad.” The guy who hates cat ladies is desperately trying to give the Orange Felon undeserved credit for the swap. If you haven’t figured it out by now, the GOP knows no low that they’re not willing to exploit in this election. The head of the GOP in Kansas has vowed to rid the state of the “Democrat infestation.” They’re grasping at straws as the Felon’s own words are rapidly sinking the ship. There’s little question in my mind that the hate speech coming from the right side of the aisle is just getting started. Race, gender, and even Judaism are being set up as targets. This is going to get nasty.

The situation in Venezuela isn’t likely to get better soon. The US has officially recognized opposition candidate Gonzalez as the winner. Maduro still swears that he won, and is likely to manipulate the courts to keep control. Expect more chaos there over the weekend.

If you travel with your kids, you’ll be interested to know that a proposed US rule would ban airlines from charging parents additional fees to sit with their children. Why this isn’t already a rule doesn’t make any sense to me, but then, the airline industry as a whole strikes me as being rather clueless. If you’re traveling anywhere remotely close to the Middle East, though, you might want to check with your carrier. More airlines are either canceling or diverting flights over what are considered dangerous regions. Tensions are high as it seems almost certain that the entire area is about to blow up.

Oh, this just popped up: Police are investigating hate speech targeting the Olympics opening ceremony artistic director Thomas Jolly. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times he tries to explain that there was no intended mimicry of DaVinci’s “The Last Supper,” right-wing idiots around the world are still issuing death threats, public insults, and defamation at a level that is illegal in France. This just further proves how intolerant, weird, and frankly, stupid the far-right is no matter which country they’re in.

Ugh. Why has this taken so long to write? Well, there might have been a rabbit hole or two along the way. When one consumes as much news as I do, it’s easy to become distracted. Let’s get on with our Friday, shall we?

Party on!

Cancer Update / Current Issues / Morning Update / News & Comment / Personal / Politics / Social Commentary

Morning Update: 08/01/24

August 1, 2024

Here it is, August 1, 97 days until the election. IPS starts today, but apparently, the number of little ones we have in the neighborhood has gone down. Previous years, we’d see over a dozen buses running through the neighborhood. This morning has been pretty quiet. I’m not saying there haven’t been any buses, but the number is considerably less than what we’ve seen before.

G and Tipper got off to a good start this morning. G is trying to endure despite the pain of sitting in class and doing nothing as all direction is focused on new students. Tipper, on the other hand, is thrilled with her new furry friend and left this morning armed with her tail, her fox mask, and two favorite plushies to show her friend. She’s delighted to be in an environment where she’s free to express who she is without retribution. Let’s hope that enthusiasm continues once they get into more detailed instruction next week.

I was an idiot yesterday. Okay, there’s an argument to be made that I’m an idiot every day, but yesterday was especially stupid. Looking for a respite from the quiet of the house, I decided to walk to the store. I didn’t really need anything, I just wanted to get out. I wasn’t halfway there before I knew I’d made a mistake. I should have turned around, but didn’t. Mind you, the full trip there and back is only 1.06 miles, not exactly a major trek. I’ve gone a lot further. But this hasn’t been the best week for side effects and by the time I got back home, even leaning on my cane, I could hardly stand. That was it for the rest of the day. I normally don’t use my cane inside or out in the yard with the dogs, but I couldn’t get out of my chair without it. Fortunately, Kat and G took care of dinner. I stayed in/near the bed and was asleep by 8:30. I’ll be careful to not make that mistake again any time soon.

We’re looking at rain most of the afternoon/evening, so I’m not risking anything today. Groceries will be delivered later this morning. Once that’s done, I’m crawling under the covers and hiding between the dogs… and Solaris. So help me, Sol thinks he’s one of the dogs. I could probably put him in a kitty harness and take him outside when I let the dogs out, but something tells me if I put him in a harness, the dogs would want their harnesses, and then I’d have to take everyone for a walk. I don’t have that kind of energy.

What has my attention this morning is the headline that the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, along with two others, has agreed to a plea deal. While some are praising the deal and others are criticizing it, my larger concern is the degree to which justice has been screwed sideways for the past 23 years. Former President George W. Bush established the prison at Guantanamo, Cuba, in 2002, and with it came a severe miscarriage of justice as almost every member of the Taliban with a passport and no small number of Iraqis were rounded up and tossed in the jail. The special circumstances of Guantanamo allowed the government to label the prisoners as “enemy combatants” and hold them endlessly without trial, or even access to representation. They have been tortured endlessly. Alleged mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was waterboarded over 180 times before that particular method of torture was outlawed. At one time, the population at the prison was over 800 thanks to the mass roundup. Now, only 30 prisoners remain.

The fact that the prison is still running is a disgrace. If, after 23 years, the government doesn’t have enough evidence to convict without torturing them into a plea-deal confession, then they simply do not have the evidence to charge any of these men. Period. At this point, whether they are guilty or not is irrelevant. They have been held without legal representation and tortured endlessly for over twenty years! THIS IS NOT JUSTICE! Holding anyone this long under these circumstances is a violation of human rights no matter how one turns the issue. While details of the plea deal haven’t been released, the assumption is that they’re trading the death penalty for life in prison if they’re convicted. The government is assuming that their confessions, which would automatically be thrown out under any other circumstances as being obtained under conditions of duress, will be enough for the special court to convict. What happens, though, if it doesn’t? Will we let them go? Somehow, I doubt it because, again, the intention here is not justice but retribution.

Mind you, I certainly think that the people responsible for the tragic events of 9/11 deserve punishment, and possibly even the death penalty, though I’m no longer convinced that such an exchange of life-for-life is ever justified. However, what our government has done to these men over the past twenty-three years is inhuman. That the special circumstances around the prison at Guantanamo were ever established in the first place is inhuman. This is not the United States at its best. This is evil at its worst. Give them a fair trial. Either convict them on the evidence or let them go. That’s the way justice works. Anything else is simply evil.

Of course, one could make the argument that we are fully engaged with evil. That’s why evil is running for president in the form of the Orange Felon. I’m sure that by now everyone’s aware of the grotesque and racist remarks the fool made to a group of black journalists yesterday. Vice President Harris correctly responded that this is the same tactic of divisiveness and disrespect that he’s always used. That this felon has the support of roughly 46% of the people in the US demonstrates how comfortable we’ve become lying in bed with evil. We cannot claim to care about justice, we cannot hold any claim to fairness, and we cannot even begin to claim any grasp on freedom, as long as this FELON is running for the highest office in the country. His previous election and his current campaign are both a permanent stain upon the ideal of democracy. To not defeat him soundly, with an overwhelming majority in both the electoral college and popular votes, is to embrace the exact same type of evil that planned and carried out the 9/11 terrors. There’s no difference in the mindset, only the methods of their actions. You wouldn’t vote for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would you? The Orange Felon is the same type of person only dressed in a suit and painted orange.

Why am I feeling tired already? I’ve been sitting here guzzling coffee and yet my body is feeling pain and exhaustion as if I’d put in a full day’s work. I can’t go to sleep yet, though. Groceries are being delivered between 10-11. I hate feeling like this.

I’m going to get more coffee. I hope you have a good day.

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The AI Edition

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