Morning Update: 07/30/24
We’re into day three of the new school year and I think I’m the only one who’s having trouble adjusting. Both kids were up and active at 5:45 this morning without any prompting. G is still in a bit of a sour mood, dismayed at how slowly the Lab is ramping up (giving new students a chance to adjust to their unique schedule). Tipper, on the other hand, is excited to have made a friend who is also a furry. They’ve been wearing a fox tail to school, so today Tipper is wearing hers as well. I’ll be interested to see how that goes.
There was a kerfuffle with the bus system yesterday afternoon that caused both kids to be late getting home. They need to take two buses to get home, 8 and 15. Route 8 takes them from the school to the transit center. 15 takes them from the transit center to a stop on the North side of the neighborhood. Both kids were standing at the Route 8 stop when the bus pulled up. The driver opened the door, told the kids that the bus was full, and drove on. However, the kids could see that the bus was far from being full. The driver simply didn’t want a bunch of high school kids on his bus. Fortunately, there was another bus 15 minutes later, but that was too late for them to catch the Route 15 bus. The Route 15 bus only runs once an hour, leaving the kids stuck at the transit center waiting for the next bus.
Yes, I’ve already contacted IndyGo about the matter. I’m not necessarily expecting a response. Either they’ll fix the problem or not. If this happens again, the Mayor’s office will be getting a phone call. While the two kids together make a rather formidable team, they’re still relatively young teens and still vulnerable to the actions of those with ill intent. I’ve let IndyGo know that we hold them responsible for the kids’ safety when situations like this occur. Dad’s not putting up with any nonsense.
My day didn’t go so well. I needed to do some mowing. The grass is getting tall. I went out around 8:30 to mow the right-of-way areas outside our fence. The grass was still far too wet. I had to push hard to get the mower through the grass on the West side of the house. That was as much as I could do. The North side is still waiting. I came back in, my chest tight and hurting, took my meds, and chatted with Kat until she left. I forced myself to eat lunch, which turned out to be a mistake, then went to bed. I stayed there until this morning. I was awake, mind you, long enough to talk with the kids. They kept me updated on the bus issue via text. By the time the kids were home, though, they were both exhausted. They each fixed themselves a smoothie and then went to bed. They did get up later just long enough to handle their chores, but they saved all the chatter for this morning.
The lawn still needs to be mowed. The grass on the East side of the house is getting thick. With the chances for rain dominating the forecast for the rest of the week, it will likely be Saturday before we can even consider taking a swipe at it, and by then it may be too thick to handle easily. We may need some help. We’ll see.
My first glance at my phone this morning had me going, “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!” Israel has really stepped in it this time. First, they’ve apparently assassinated the head of Hamas, Ismael Haniyeh, who was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new President. THEN, they did exactly what the US and other NATO countries asked them not to do, bombed Beirut, and killed a major Hezbollah leader. The actions have Iran’s leadership furious and vowing retaliation, further broadening the war. Already, the price of oil, which had been going down, has shot up, the prices only capped by Chinese rules. There’s no way this ends well. Iran’s been looking for an excuse to get further involved in the war and Israel just gave them two.
Matters aren’t looking any better in Venezuela. The Carter Center was unable to verify Venezuela’s election results, blasting officials for a lack of transparency. Meanwhile, President Maduro vows to detain defiant leaders of the opposition as they challenge the election results. Peru has recalled their ambassador, saying they’ll not tolerate any violation of the people’s will. Other South American countries may do the same. Chaos continues throughout the country as charges of election interference run rampant. I’m going to say it again, this is the US in 98 days if we don’t produce such a dominant turnout as to leave no question about the results. Even a 60/40 win isn’t going to be enough. We’re not too big to go under over this election.
Speaking of election interference, Republicans are claiming that Google is committing election interference by how its autocomplete finishes, or doesn’t finish, results that include the Orange Felon’s name. Google’s response is fairly technical but claims that there are protections that prohibit the autocorrect from finishing a search phrase with anything related to violence. Most of this battle is taking place on social media, though, so the authenticity of the claims is immediately questionable.
For the second time this week, Tesla is in the hot seat. This time, it appears that one of their cars was using the self-driving system when it hit and killed a motorcyclist in Seattle. Tesla hasn’t commented, probably because this could stand in the way of the company being able to launch the fleet of robotaxies that CEO Elon Musk promised would be live by the end of this year. The driver of the car told police that he was using the full Autopilot system and looking at his phone when the accident occurred. I don’t see anyone outside of Tesla thinking that the technology is anywhere close to being ready to be released unmanned on the streets.
Need some proof that your voice is being heard? Yesterday, Paul Dans, the Director of Project 2025 for the Heritage Foundation, resigned due to the severity of the backlash. Don’t think for a minute that this means Project 2025 is done and gone. It’s not. If anything, it means that a new direction of attack, one likely to be less public and more underhanded, is on the way. The Heritage Foundation is saying that they’re not backing down, merely changing direction. What this means is that opposition to the project has to become all the more vigilant, pervasive, and unrelenting to keep the issue at the forefront. We simply cannot risk electing Republicans as long as Project 2025 shows even the slightest glimmer of life.
While the Olympic Triathalons are finally being held today (the women’s race is already done, France won), there’s always some kind of controversy somewhere. This time it’s over who won gold in men’s fencing. The official result is that Hong Kong defeated Italy, but there were multiple stops as the machine that registers the hits scored for both sides at the same time. Italy says they’ve been robbed. Hong King is responding with … comments about how much they like pineapple on their pizza. I’m not making this up. This may be the silliest thing I’ve read all morning.
Those who love dark chocolate, and who in their right mind don’t, will be happy to know that the levels of heavy metal some consumer groups have reported are well below contamination levels. But hold up, those tests only hold true if one limits themselves to 1-2 ounces of the chocolate at a time. The paper in the journal Frontiers has this warning: “… if many such products are consumed fairly regularly by the average consumer, the additive exposure may be a public health concern.” Specifically, if one consumes more than one serving of the chocolate per day, you’re at risk of lead poisoning. Now, how many people do you know who have the willpower to only eat one small square of chocolate per day? I’m thinking there aren’t that many. Perhaps some caution might need to be applied.
Once again, all the animals have gone back to sleep. Kat’s not here, either, so the house is completely quiet. I’m not adjusting to this well, though it’s been exactly the same every previous year.
Maybe I’ll walk to the store and buy some dark chocolate. What are the chances I can limit myself to one ounce?
Morning Update: 09/09/24
This is going to be one of those weeks where how you dress in the morning isn’t going to be comfortable by midday. We’re at that time of year, and I’m more grateful this year than I was last year that I’m not covering anyone’s Fashion Weeks this fall. The pace and the hours would kill me. Malia Obama’s choice of Vivienne Westwood for her red carpet look in Paris is pretty smart, but few of us “normal” people have red carpets to walk, so we might want to be more careful about our choices. The kids, of course, chose slightly heavier hoodies than the ones they normally wear.
Kat is having to take the kids to school this morning. The IndyGo bus that normally picks them up was already full by the time it arrived at their stop. Waiting for the next bus an hour later would make them late for school. Over-capacity buses along school routes are a known issue that IndyGo seems to be ignoring. Drivers have complained. Riders have complained. I’m not sure what it’s going to take to get additional buses on the street, but something needs to be resolved quickly. Looks like I’ll be making another complaint this morning.
We survived the first Sunday of NFL football, which may be more than we can say for some coaches. I didn’t expect the Colts to win, so I’ve nothing bad to say about their two-point loss to Houston. They kept it close, which is saying something against a team that is already getting Super Bowl chatter. The Cowboys actually won against the Browns, which is a damn good thing given how much the team is paying Dak Prescott now. The Bears pulled off an impressive win against the Titans after being down 17-3 at the half. And the Dolphins stayed close enough to win the game on a last-second field goal against the Jags. You’ll hear a lot of armchair quarterbacking this morning, but don’t buy it. The first-week strategy for every team is pretty much, “Let’s try this and see what happens.” They’ll make adjustments and hopefully, next week will be different.
Emotionally, this could be a tough week for a lot of people. Questions are being raised as to whether or not the Apalachee school shooting might have been prevented. While the newly installed panic buttons helped alert police to a problem, questions now center around whether the entire incident could have been prevented. Of course, the ultimate prevention would have been to not give the child the gun in the first place, but no one wants to talk about that.
Tuesday is the big debate between the two major-party presidential candidates. Their approaches are vastly different and their histories could make this one of the most entertaining debates we’ve seen in many years. In the background, though, lies the fact that the Orange Felon is threatening to jail his adversaries if he wins. Be prepared for there to be a lot of emotion on both sides and the rhetoric will be impossible by Wednesday morning.
Wednesday morning, however, brings another set of emotions with it as we once again recognize the anniversary of the 9/11 bombings. Activities have morphed some over the years. The children who lost their parents that day are now adults and bring their own unique feelings to the commemorative events. The day inevitably stirs emotions for us much as December 7 did for our parents and grandparents. We can only hope that those born after that day will never have such an experience of their own.
If you’re a fan of discount stores, you may be sad to learn that Big Lots is declaring bankruptcy. I don’t think anyone familiar with the store’s history is surprised. Private equity firm Nexus Capital is acting as the stalking horse bidder. No mention has been made yet whether any stores will be closed. That likely will be the decision of whoever buys the company.
Police are under scrutiny yet again after Miami police handcuffed and detained Dolphins RB Tyreek Hill and defensive tackle Calais Campbell early Sunday morning. While those involved are being careful to not yell racism, after the arresting officer was placed on leave it’s difficult to not imagine anything else being at the center of the problem. That problems such as this keep happening shows how little is being done to correct a problem that’s been in the news for several years now. More needs to happen.
I’m not even sure what to think about the entire Middle East situation this morning. It’s a mess. On one hand, Israeli strikes in Syria left 14 dead and more than 40 wounded. Israel says they were only acting in retaliation for Syrian involvement in the war with Hamas. Syria says those killed were civilians. Meanwhile, the U.N. human rights chief asked countries to act on what he called Israel’s “blatant disregard” for international law in the occupied Palestinian territories. Uhm, stoking the fire there much? Comments like that aren’t going to push either side toward accepting a cease-fire anytime soon.
If you thought Tim Ballard of Operation Underground Railroad was an anti-trafficking good guy, you may want to think again. A number of women are accusing him of being a predator. This seems to be a pattern for conservatives who use non-profit organizations to hide their devious acts. The Latter-day Saints church last September denounced Mr. Ballard’s “morally unacceptable” activities in a statement to VICE News, which had published a series of stories raising questions about the nonprofit’s operations. At least ten women have come forward. You’ve been warned.
Speaking of nefarious conservative action, there’s an interesting opinion piece in this morning’s Times on how the state of Tennessee is preventing at least half a million people from voting. “About 9 percent of the state’s voting-age population is prohibited from voting because of felony convictions. And the effects are particularly acute among the Black population, with an astonishing 21 percent of Black adults barred from voting — the highest rate in the country.” This is shameful. This is racist as hell. And this is not surprising.
The Times also has an interesting test for you. Can you tell the difference between real videos and those generated by AI? This is going to be an increasingly difficult issue and our perception of what is real is in jeopardy.
It’s only Monday and we already need a break. This could be a long week.
Grab your coffee mug and hold on.
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