Morning Update: 07/30/24

Kids are off and running again this morning, more or less excited about another day at school. Tipper had a good day, which she spent the evening endlessly discussing. She didn’t get to see either of the established friends that she knew, but she did make new friends and was happy with how the classes had gone. She was even more thrilled when she got an email from the school inviting her to participate in an art show in September! Her 3D witches hat is her current choice for that entry. She even enjoyed lunch for the first time in years, partly due to the presence of garbanzo beans in the salad line.

G didn’t have as good a day. There was an issue with the Lab’s Chromebooks, partly caused by something that happened with some of them last year. Exactly what that issue is, I don’t know, but it delays the distribution of the laptops until next week. To say that G was upset would be an understatement. By the time he got home, he was in a teenage angst that had him gruffly announcing that he wasn’t in the mood to deal with people. He retreated to his room with a bowl of cereal. This morning wasn’t starting off much better as he really wanted to put hot water in his school-supplied water bottle so that he could have hot tea. Unfortunately, the hard plastic water bottle wasn’t made for hot liquids and it began to melt as he poured in the hot water, destroying the bottle. I’m hoping that today goes much better for him.

The on-again/off-again rain kept me in bed most of the day. We were fortunate in that the more severe storms went around us. None of the animals seemed to mind that we were inactive. The dogs didn’t even bother to take note when Kat left and returned a few minutes later. The lawn really needs attention now, but as of this moment, the grass is still much too wet to do anything with it.

Speaking of things that need attention, the collapse of a coal mine in Northern Vietnam yesterday killed five, but the story is being buried. I had to go hunting to find any mention of it at all. Vietnam is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels and collapses such as this one are far too common. But no one wants to say anything about it for fear it might upset the market. This would be the same market where BP just raised its dividend as it saw a profit of $2.8 billion in the last quarter. Yet, we blame the government for prices being so high. That’s bullshit. The profit-grabbing from the fossil fuel industry is gouging consumers and putting lives in danger as it continues to cause damage to the environment. But shhhhh, don’t say anything. You might cause stock prices to dip.

The situation after the presidential election in Venezuela may well be forecasting what could happen here come November. There are widespread protests. The opposition wants a ballot-by-ballot count. And even the US is saying, “Something’s not right here,” and threatening sanctions if it’s not straightened out. The way that whole election has gone down is too reminiscent of our 2020 election that led to the January 6 criminal activity. I find it interesting that the US is making comments when we could very easily follow suit come November 6.

The UK is trying to deal with a 17-year-old with an attitude problem who attacked children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance program, killing two and injuring several others. This reeks of the kind of hate that is fermented in online chat rooms. There is no shortage of online forums that are vehemently against anything to do with Taylor Swift. None of them have any good reasons for their hate, but it gives angsty teens and dateless young adults something to complain about. Now, it’s gotten out of hand. The young man didn’t even pay for the taxi that took him to the dance studio, asking a body shop owner who tried to intervene, “What are you gonna do about it?” Such defiance would seem to be symptomatic of a hate that has been stirred and seasoned for a long time, which online forums do well. It will be interesting to see how the UK handles this situation. The last time they had a serious attack on children, in 1996, the result was a nearly universal ban on handguns.

There has been a slew of misleading and outright false information being passed around the Internet over the past week or so. We should not be surprised to find that most of it is coming from sources based in Russia, China, and Iran. Once again, Russia seems to be the largest offender. Those with decent memories will recall the degree to which the Orange Felon tried to keep the Department of Justice from investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. This time, the office of the Director of National Intelligence is trying to warn people well in advance. But will it work? The goal of the Russians is to get Americans to spread Russian disinformation without questioning its origin. I can’t imagine that being very difficult. We click “share” on any meme that echoes our opinion on a topic, not bothering to see where that meme originated. Most of us don’t know the degree to which we’re complicit. We need to be a LOT more careful.

Anti-Muslim incidents in the US are up about 70% so far this year, largely because of the war in Gaza. One thing Americans are good at doing is generating fear and hate about anything they perceive as anti-Christian. Mix in a great deal of ignorance about Hamas and the Palestinian people, and you have a dangerous amount of support for Israel’s genocide of thousands of innocent people across Palestine. What’s worse is when we start taking out our feelings on people here.

“Alarming U.S. incidents in the last nine months include the fatal October stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American child in Illinois, the February stabbing of a Palestinian-American man, in Texas, the shooting of three students of Palestinian descent in Vermont in November, and the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian-American girl in May,” Reuters reports.

So much for the US being a place where people can worship as they wish.

There are really a lot of “below the fold” stories that are cause for concern this morning. The Seine still isn’t fit for swimming. Landslides caused by heavy rains kill 70 and bury many others in southern India. Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez reveals she competed at the Paris Olympics while 7 months pregnant. Okay, that one’s just an interesting story. 7 months pregnant and she’s competing in anything makes her a champion in my book. The White House says no need to restrict “open-source” artificial intelligence — at least for now. I’m not sure I’m buying their reasoning. I’d rather see some guidelines and limitations in place. A probe of soldiers over alleged sexual abuse fuels tension between the Israeli military and hard-liners. How is this even an issue? There is NO situation, even in war, especially in war, where sexual abuse is justified. Tesla is recalling more than 1.8M vehicles due to a hood issue. The issue? The hoods will pop up at any random moment while you’re driving. Is anyone keeping count of the number of recalls Tesla has had to issue in the past two years? It’s too many for me to be comfortable even riding in one. Gunmen open fire on a vehicle carrying UN staff in northwest Pakistan.

I guess all these issues are making up for how quiet things were yesterday morning. The world is crazy, you know. There’s absolutely nothing you and I can do about 99% of it. We just sit here and watch the world burn.

At least we can listen to good music in the process.