Interesting Crime Spree

The President of the United States is not supposed to profit from the Presidency. My Republican friends who are always on the lookout for anything equating to a Democrat doing something like this seem to be VERY quiet about this President. After listening to them bleat about Whitewater during the Clinton era (a land deal the Clinton’s lost $40,000 on) and their belief that somehow Joe Biden (long reputed to be one of the most honest members of Congress) was crooked, it seems MORE that a bit hypocritical to ignore all this. But, there it is…

Live Music in 2025

Last night I saw The Black Keys at Blossom Music Center. They put on a great show. Opener Gary Clark Jr. was okay but a bit too loud. My main beef was with the crowd. First, if you paid to see a band or artist, how about shutting up when they play? This is the second show I’ve been to recently where a group behind us felt the urge to shout to each other while the band was playing. Both time the folks, who were nice enough stopped when asked, but why do it in the first place?

My second complaint has been a problem for quite a while. It’s fine to stand when a band takes the stage, or during the finale, or even during a performance of a hit song, but standing for the entire concert is rude. Especially at a Blossom show on the lawn. For goodness sake the folks behind you are mostly sitting on blankets and the rest are on very low (and expensive) rented beach chairs. You have effectively blocked everyone’s view that is unfortunate enough to be up to 40 feet behind you.

My last complaint is with the venue itself. My God the prices! Two beers ran almost $40 and the two lawn chairs we rented topped $40.

But the band was great. Two hometown boys who made good. Guitarist and vocalist Dan Auerbach used to work at Blossom when he was young. So it must be very special for him to play there. No fault with the band.

Smartphones and Kids

The rise in teen suicide, juvenile crime and child anxiety can be traced (at least in part) to the use of smartphones. I have heard child psychiatrists acquaint giving a smartphone to a child with giving them a heroin needle. So why would a loving parent get one for their kid? The answer, of course, is peer pressure, and a contest of wills between parent and child.
‘My Fellow Parents Have Betrayed Me’ How it feels when your allies in the fight for a phone-free childhood buy one for their fifth-grader.

The answer, must be legislation. Give parents a break and allow kids to only have “dumb phones” until eighth grade. Only if we do this as a culture, do we have a chance at saving out kids. Ohio just passed and is implementing a “no phones” in school policy. We will see how that works. If behavior and academics improve, then I see no reason to not implement a kid smart phone ban.

The Corruption of Our Government

Data generated by the U.S. government has been the gold standard of data for well over 100 years. Long before there was a “Data Age”. The world relies on it. Now this. As he continues to dismantle our government and indeed, our society, I am amazed that this is what the MAGA morons wanted.

How Trump is reshaping government data

I love this one…

White House now wants NASA’s woke satellite destroyed

The most anti-science administration in U.S. history.

RFK Jr. halts $500 million for mRNA vaccine research

Jesus wept.

The Age of Plastic

Plastic causing “disease and death from infancy to old age” that costs $1.5 trillion a year, report warns

Every time I go to Costco I see someone pushing a cart loaded with disposable plastic bottles of water. Why? Buy a filter for your tap and get the same result for a lot less. Why did people go out and buy all those fancy reusable water bottles if they going to buy disposable ones? Why can’t soda and beer come in deposit returnable bottles again?

If we are risking early death and dropping fertility rates, maybe some thing should be done. Like we did with with climate change. Oh, wait, I forgot, we haven’t addressed that either. Sometimes I forget that humans are stupid, selfish, wasteful and self destructive.

Move Along, Nothing to See Here

Fox News Had Only 3 Minutes of Epstein Coverage in the Last 4 Days – and 85 Minutes of Sydney Sweeney’s Jeans Ad

No, no, I mean NOTHING to see here.

Smithsonian removes Trump from impeachment exhibit in American history museum

If you pretend it isn’t there, it will go away, right? I’m personally looking forward to when he rewrites the dictionary. If we don’t have the words…

Donnie Tries to Dodge

As the Epstein scandal refuses to go away, Trump is starting to fear that some of his fawning masses might find out he’s not a nice guy. So, how about some lies in exchange for a pardon?

The DOJ to Ghislaine Maxwell: ‘Pardon me, do you mind lying and denying for Donald Trump?’

That must have gone well for her…

Child trafficker Maxwell scores cushy prison upgrade following mysterious interview with Trump official

Declining Cognitive Ability

Trump Just Blamed Biden For Something He Did Himself And The Internet Is Not Letting Him Get Away With It

Normally I would never post anything related to Buzzfeed, but it shows the lack of reporting on this. The thing is, Trump says crazy stuff so often, it isn’t news. He openly and brazenly lies, or says batsh*t crazy stuff, and his fans just lap it all up. Weird. Or as Trump might tweet, “Sad”.

R.I.P Felix (and Col. Joe K. too)

Skydiver Felix Baumgartner, known for record-breaking jump from stratosphere, dies in paragliding crash

He jumped from 24 miles up in 2012, when I was just 51 years old. But we should also remember that an Air Force officer named Joseph Kittinger jumped from 19.45 miles up, THE YEAR BEFORE I WAS BORN! He passed away in 2022 at the age of 94.

Joseph Kittinger

It should be mentioned that Joe was the technical consultant to Felix on his jump.

Wait, What?

How do Trumpers keep swallowing this?

Donald Trump Says Obama, Ex-FBI Director James Comey ‘Made Up’ the Jeffrey Epstein Files

So a few high level Democrats invented a fake file to implicate Trump in the Epstein thing, then did not release it when he ran for President, then did not release it again when he ran for President again? Jeeze, these red hats are morons if they buy that. Remember, Epstein said in an interview that he was Trump’s closest friend. They were neighbors, he was a member of Trump’s Mar-a-lago, he had fourteen different contact numbers for Trump in his infamous “little black book”. And, of course, he introduced Trump to Melania. Supposedly they were first intimate on Epstein’s private plane, upon which Trump was a frequent flyer. In fact, no one is as associated with Epstein as much as Trump except for convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell whom Trump wished “all the best”.

Hmmmmm. Wonder why Trump doesn’t want to release the files?
Update: Mike Johnson Says GOP Should Put “Everything Out There” on Epstein, Then Votes No to Release Epstein Info (WARNING PAYWALL)
Seems Speaker Johnson was all in, as was Majorie Taylor Greene, until Trump had a private word with them. Now they don’t want the files released. Wonder why?

Update: Sure, not guilty at all… Trump Threatened Legal Action to Block Publication of Embarrassing WSJ Jeffrey Epstein Story

Really, not guilty! Honest Injun.

Epstein brother: White House claim ‘blatant lie’

Pascal’s Wager and the Collective Good

(Two examples of modern Republicans inability to understand logic)

I have friends who have evolving opinions on climate change. Long ago, their opinion was “It’s a hoax”, because a political pundit they liked told them so. I think that because they didn’t seem to have any convincing evidence for their opinion. I should mention that these friends aren’t of limited intelligence. These are intelligent, educated men. Their opinion then evolved to, “Maybe it’s real, but it’s stopping an ice age, and that would be worse.” Then, “Just because it’s getting warmer, doesn’t mean it’s because of carbon emissions.” And finally, “Okay maybe, but China and India aren’t doing anything so why should we?” That year China became the world leader in Solar cells and it had already been leading in batteries. All their arguments were designed to allow them to vote for the party they wanted without feeling that maybe they were making a mistake.

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