Baby's first Ribfest

If Cassie could (a) speak English and (b) understand the concept of "future" she would be quivering with anticipation about going to Ribfest tonight after school. Since she can't anticipate it, I'll do double-duty and drool on her behalf. It helps that the weather today looks perfect: sunny, not too hot, with a strong chance of delicious pork ribs.

Meanwhile, I have a few things to read on my commute that I didn't get to yesterday:

• Remember when psychiatrist Bandy Lee got shouted down when she warned that the XPOTUS would someday unleash violence on the country? And how the XPOTUS unleashed violence on the country just like she predicted?
• David Graham reminds us how the XPOTUS has hitherto avoided consequences for his dangerous and probably criminal behavior, and how he might finally have gone over a line not even Republicans can ignore. (David Rohde points to the line.)
• Jim Fallows once again provides an example of a Times headline framing the news in the most unhelpful way possible.
• Author Jon Henschen bemoans the decline of musical literacy brought about by the evisceration of school music programs over the past decades.
• The same decline in music programs—actually, in public education in general—happened in part because of a Christianist Republican hostility towards universal education.
• I hope no one who reads this blog needs reminding that you should never, ever plug an unknown USB device into your computer, but just in case you don't believe me, read up on the improved Rubber Ducky hacking tool.
• Most people have heard of the Chicxulub asteroid that wiped out non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago. But it now looks like that rock might have had a smaller cousin that also hit the planet.

Finally, as I ride on the UP-N commuter line in an hour or so, I can imagine what it will be like when the train gets a battery-powered locomotive in a few years.

Happy Friday Happy Friday