Events

One of the things I like about dogsitting Butters is her ability to sleep. I'm envious. This dog doesn't have a care in the world: She also follows the Rule of Cat: "If it fits, I sits:" She also snores, which didn't bother me at all until about 5:15 this morning. She goes home this evening, though.

My friends just dropped Butters off, and so far she hasn't complained too much after a bit of whining when they left. I'm sure she's going to find the next hour objectionable when I take Cassie for a half-hour walk after I take Butters around the block. Since Cassie walks about 3x as fast as Butters, it's possible both walks will take 30 minutes. Meanwhile, I commend to you Julia Ioffe's latest observations on "the art of getting played," in which she breaks down how the OAFPOTUS and US Special Envoy...

Author Chris Armitage makes an uncomfortable observation: Here's what I found: Once fascists win power democratically, they have never been removed democratically. Not once. Ever. I know that sounds impossible. I kept digging, thinking surely someone, somewhere, stopped them. The actual record is so much worse than you think. The pattern is so consistent it's almost funny if it weren't so terrifying. Every single time it goes like this: Conservatives panic about socialism or progressives or whatever....

As I showed yesterday, this summer we've had significantly higher temperatures and dewpoints than last summer. Finally, around 8 this morning, the dewpoint dropped below 20°C and has kept dropping, while the temperature peaked at 23.4°C just after 1: The dewpoint is now 17.7°C, which feels so much better than 20°C that I almost feel giddy. Autumn begins in 10 days. This is a lovely preview.

I have grumbled and complained a lot this summer about the dewpoint, and it turns out I was right all along. Examining over 23,600 readings from Inner Drive Technology World HQ's weather station from 2024 and 2025, I found the following: Jun 1 to Aug 21/19 (UTC) 2024 2025 Avg temperature 22.6°C 23.5°C Avg dewpoint 17.9°C 19.2°C (June) 16.8°C 16.8°C (July) 18.9°C 20.8°C (August) 18.4°C 20.5°C Total days dewpoint ≥ 20°C 27 41 Total readings dewpoint ≥ 20°C 3791 5624 Total readings 11317 11317 This is an...

I have a chunk of work to do this afternoon, but I'm hoping I can sneak in some time to read all of these: Dan Rather cheers on the Democratic Party for finally finding the fight. Francis Fukuyama says: move over Berlusconi; the Clown Prince of X has done considerably more to harm Western civilization than you ever did. David Daley puts responsibility for the exploding fight over Congressional maps squarely on US Chief Justice John Roberts. Jennifer Rubin wants us to stop using the word "guarantee" when...

Even though I put aside Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism for the moment because it was just too depressing, I do still think about the ongoing destruction of the United States from within. Over the weekend I realized that one way the billionaire class have approached their accelerating theft of our collective wealth is to attack the base of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. By undermining the lowest two levels, physiological needs and safety needs, they render entire communities unable even to...

The OAFPOTUS met with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, yesterday. I can't overstate that Putin won on so many levels, from getting the OAFPOTUS to agree to meeting on US soil in the first place to getting the OAFPOTUS to stomp on a rake on international television right at the end of it. Let's start with the location. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Putin that most ICC signatories have said they will honor. We're not signatories, in part because...

The OAFPOTUS has moved to federalize the Washington, D.C., police force under the DC Home Rule statute that gives him a little more than a month to do so before Congress has to consent. As with many of his more dramatic trolls, this has sent everyone to the left of Mitch McConnell into varying degrees of outrage. Asawin Suebsaeng and Ryan Bort warn that the "military crackdowns are only going to get worse:" The president and his top government appointees are publicly stressing that this will not end...

Ninety years ago today, FDR signed Social Security into law: In his public statement that day, FDR expressed concern for “young people [who] have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age” as well as those who had employment but no job security. Although he acknowledged that “we can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life,” he hoped the act would prevent senior citizens from ending up impoverished....