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.
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.
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