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.
Morning Update: 08/22/24
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.
Share this:
Like this: