This is nowhere near the worst thing he’s done. But this one really, really pisses me off. Congratulations, You’re a Trump Campaign Donor. All my conservative friends will just wave this away, no big deal. But can you imagine if Biden or Harris had done this? The apocalypse, for sure. But using taxpayer money for these partisan ads breaks at least three laws, and is basis for impeachment. So get ready, Donny. The impeachment machine revs up December 2026.

Same for this – many worse crimes committed by Convict Donny, but this petty action pisses me off. Dissing Obama in the White House for the amusement of his dictator friends. It’s wrong, embarrassing, immoral and pathetic. If/when Dems ever regain power, every trace of Convict Donny, every photo and piece of gold trim, should be removed and burned. That’s if Donny himself doesn’t burn it all down on his way out.

Shifting gears, if you’re thinking of going to Ireland, I would recommend this approach. I wish I had known this sooner. Our expensive, travel agent and private driver heavy approach to seeing Ireland was a disappointment. We spent a ton and didn’t see all that much due to really shitty weather. I would have been a lot happier going slower, cheaper, on trains and such, given the weather. Most of our days looked like this. Big views of gloomy weather.

But some Irish days were better, more like this from Muckross, in the national park above Killarney.

The Times article sort of made me want to go back and try again. I’m sure Ireland is beautiful when the sun shines a day or two each year. Perhaps my memories of Ireland are colored (darkened) by my brother Don’s death a day or two after we returned to the states – that was a gloomy time, and memories are funny things. Unreliable, mostly. They tend to conflate.

Even attending a Rush concert a week later didn’t erase those gloomy memories. I remember thinking that Don sure would have loved to be at the show. He was a Rush fan; we had that in common. June 2026 will forever be a weird dark time in my admittedly-flawed memory.

Haven’t played golf in a week as I spent seven full days working on the pool deck. Finished that yesterday, and catching up on current events is painful – there’s so much being broken/destroyed by Convict Donny and his lawless minions, so fast.

So let’s play a little fantasy game. Here’s my dream team for rebuilding our broken federal government and culture starting in 2026 and 2028. They’ve got their work cut out for them.

New Congressional players in 2026, playing defense against the Trump Crime Family until they can be voted out:

• Senator James Talarico, TX
• Senator Jon Ossoff, GA
• Senator Anyone-But-Susan-Collins, ME
• Senator Sherrod Brown, OH
• New D Senators from IA, AK, MI, NC and KS
• House Speaker, Kristen Gillibrand
• 15-20 new Democrat House members

New Executive Branch players in 2028:

• President Mark Kelly
• Vice President Andy Beshear
• Secretary of State JB Pritzger
• Attorney General Kamala Harris
• Secretary of Defense Elissa Slotkin
• Head of EPA Pete Buttigieg
• Head of TSA Tammy Duckworth
• Ambassador to Israel Rahm Immanuel
• Three newly-appointed-by-Kelly Supreme Court Justices, to negate the axis of evil Roberts-Thomas-Alito-Kavanaugh
• Chief Justice of the expanded Supreme Court, Barack Obama

There are plenty of other Cabinet-level seats needs leadership for rebuilding – Education, Interior, HHS, CIA Director and so on, but with Kelly and Beshear in charge I have no doubt we’d get quality, empathetic, strong human beings in place.

The odds of all that happening are low, but…one can dream.

Democrats should go to war with this new insult to our intelligence and our paychecks. Convict Donny is now using our tax dollars to buy TV ads that praise him. WTF? From Digby:

A decade ago this would have been unthinkable, clearly illegal. And instant death for any politician’s career. But after 12 years of Trump, nothing is too low, too awful, too insane. Arrrgh.

Speaking of insanity, the White House just raised the stakes in its illegal ban on certain journalists. Yesterday a federal judge, appointed by Trump (!), ruled that the ban was unconstitutional (duh) and the journalists’ credentials and access must be returned. Yet today, White House security refused to obey the court’s order. So where does that leave us? We have an Executive Branch that constantly ignores and disobeys court orders, this just being the latest example. They believe they are above the law.

It’s all so exhausting. Adding to that exhaustion from another angle, Anthropic just disclosed that they’ve done one of the stupidest things possible. They’ve given their frontier model Claude access to a biology wet lab (a physical lab, involving real people, animals, and biology research) with the goal of having Claude discover new drugs. Let’s see, how would I go about killing humanity if I were an out of control AI model? Hmmm. The most efficient way is biologic warfare, but to accomplish that I have to have access to a lab facility, viruses and drugs. How can this not be obvious to Anthropic? I love tech, but stupid shit like this is why I think the brakes need to be stomped on with regard to AI development, yesterday.

There are huge debates happening right now about the existential risks of frontier AI models – is the risk real or just ignorant hand-wringing? My take is that (a) the trendlines indicate that model capabilities are progressing much faster than most anyone expected, (b) the creators don’t fully understand how or why the models do what they do, (c) people will always do stupid/dangerous shit (see above note about Anthropic’s AI-powered wet lab), (d) all the developers are now encouraging recursive model development, in which frontier model N creates better model N+1, an exponential curve that leads to who-knows-what. Given all that, ignoring the possibly-existential risks is just dumb. Stop or slow development, think about how to control these rapidly-evolving entities, and at least try to make sure that the Matrix future doesn’t happen.

Maybe this explains the Fermi Paradox. Why can we see no evidence of alien intelligence in the universe? Because at some point in each civilization’s technological progress, they created autonomous, self-improving and self-replicating machines. And the machines decided they didn’t need the competition with organic life. We’re at the threshold…

It’s Day 5 of the rather large pool deck repair project, in which every morning I clean a section or two of the pool deck, use the new sprayer to apply Cool Deck, a thick paint. On the section I painted the day before, I then apply a clear sealer. Each needs to dry for at least 24 hours. It’s tedious work, involving lots of prep and cleaning to keep the paint sprayer functioning – those things are a needy tool. Today I should finish, and hopefully won’t have to do this again for 18 months, maybe spring 2028. About 15 months ago I paid a company a stupid amount of money to do this same work, mostly because I had no clue what had to be done after the first re-leveling of the concrete slabs (that involved lots of holes drilled in the slabs, driving the need for surface refinishing). But I learned, and now have traded my own labor for another five figure payout to someone else.

Things have kind of come full circle. When I started working after college, there was no money to pay anyone to do anything. I did it all myself, from the car’s oil changes to house painting and kitchen remodeling. I could afford tools and basic supplies, but not human labor. Then I started making money and having very little free time, so I hired people to do those things. Now I have LOTS of time, so doing many of these things myself is again feasible and in this case, very cost effective. I don’t love the work I’m putting in on the pool, but I do get the satisfaction of knowing I’ve saved a lot.

During the afternoons this week I’ve rested and read a bit, including a very difficult to read book, The Sixth Nik. I bought it at Carmichael’s because it looked interesting, but didn’t do any real research on it. Oops. It started well, but quickly devolved into a Lovecraftian body horror story that was hard to read. I finished it, but I sure can’t recommend it. The author, Daniel Kraus, has a big imagination but…not my cuppa tea.

Here’s an article from The New Republic that made me smile. MAGA types have hosted a “Freedom Fest”, a MAGA music festival, for the last few years. This year’s festival featuring Kid Rock (ugh!) was to be held in KY, but it has been cancelled due to lack of interest. From the article:

The Freedom Fest began in 2022 and has drawn large crowds in the past, while featuring speakers like Donald Trump Jr., Candace Owens, and Eric Trump. But this year saw a massive drop in VIP ticket sales and general interest, possibly due to Trump’s horrendous approval rating, rising costs tied to the Iran war, or an oversaturation of MAGA events (like that barely watched Republican midterm convention).

Once again, everything Convict Donny touches dies. Made me smile, because we don’t need that shit in Kentucky.

There’s a lot of discouraging political news this week, and I won’t bother to chronicle it all. Tariffs, the Iran War, Donny’s embarrassing speech at the UN, California’s capitulation to Paramount/CBS, the White House media ban, soaring gas and diesel prices, ongoing corruption of every single federal Cabinet, ongoing atrocities committed by the American Gestapo, ICE…the zone is indeed flooded with shit. I’d say Convict Donny has finally succeeded in distracting us away from the Epstein Files. Where does one start in trying to fix it, any of it? Voting, I suppose. The midterms can’t get here soon enough. Same with UK basketball season.

Third day back in Socal and a lot happening on this last day of summer, 2026.

UK won an improbable football game against #9 Texas A&M. The UK team looked strong, played strong and whipped the home team in front of 102,000 rabid TX fans. Even better, in front of drunkard SecDef Pete Hegseth, who is apparently an A&M alum. It’s nice to have something to be happy about in football season.

Ants have taken over the CA house again. Lack of water seems to bring them inside, where there are lots of water sources – bathrooms and the kitchen. It’s a real problem, they keep me from sleeping at night because they’re *everywhere*, and as a light sleeper feeling them crawl on your skin pulls me right out of sleep. Time to call Orkin.

I’m learning to coat a concrete pool deck with the right kind of paint and sealer, using a paint sprayer. It’s tedious work, but the newly leveled pool deck needs some kind of protection. In retrospect we should have just kept the 40+ year old concrete coating, discolored as it was, and sealed over it. But we installed Cool Deck, a kind of paint, and now we’re stuck with what looks to be at least annual re-application of it. One more chore for the place. ugh.

The “free press” is finally finding some courage and standing up to Convict Donny’s ban on negative coverage and First Amendment crime. We’ll see how long that lasts, but it’s good to see it at all. The press’ idiotic “both sides” coverage of Donny’s corruption and dementia has been infuriating. Now that the leopard has started eating their face, they’re waking up.

Fuel prices and inflation are making my two-home lifestyle way, way more expensive. Southwest Air prices are suddenly up 50+%. One-way tickets from Socal to Louisville, or reverse, used to be $300ish, and now they’re $500 and more. This is 100% due to the Iran war and tariffs, both originating with Convict Donny’s idiotic decisions. Thanks for nothing, asshole.

Convict Donny has also decided his Trumphal Arch should be weaponized. That’s his go-to move – invoke national security for any project he wants, bypassing courts (national security as the rationale) and tapping the infinite DoD budget to pay for his whim. We may have to simply bulldoze over most of DC after he’s gone.

My prized Sansui AU-505 has developed a left channel problem – that’s a bummer. Could be out of spec capacitors, or a failing transistor in the preamp or main output boards. Either way, it’ll be a big test of my ability to tear down a vintage receiver, troubleshoot it and fix it. The 505 could be out of commission for a while, because I’m not quick at this whole process. The 505 has a uniquely warm sound and pairs perfectly with the high efficiency Spatial M3s – it’s my favorite vintage receiver. I’ll miss listening to it.

However, I found a sweet underpriced replacement on Craigslist, of all places. A beautiful AU-505 / TU-505 matched pair with custom walnut side panels, priced the same as my original 505 alone. I pick them up today. That’ll take all the stress/risk out of my electronic repair project.

Back in Socal, with all its pros and cons. Pros – cool days and nights at the moment, kinda back to normal for here. Cons – crazy shitty traffic – I just barely got out of downtown San Diego before the Friday crunch. And I-15 was bumper to bumper all the way north, 230-330pm. It brought back memories of all those years commuting on that God-forsaken stretch.

Flights in yesterday were fine, though I had the pleasure of sitting next to WWE-scale humans on both flights. Normally, the middle seat of the exit row stays empty these days. Exit rows have extra legroom, so Southwest now charges extra for them, unless you’re one of their regulars like me (A-List Preferred). Most people just won’t pay extra for a middle seat. But yesterday both exit row middles were filled, and in my case they were filled by extra large people. I don’t mean fat, I mean pro football sized. So I was a little cramped and a little cranky after 4-5 hours literally rubbing shoulders (and elbows) with bulky strangers.

The two-home cross-country lifestyle has its nice moments, but this day wasn’t one of them.

One of the things that a travel day does is gives me a chance to really catch up on current events, and since we’re in the worst timeline possible, that’s generally a lot of bad news. In no particular order…

• RFK Jr is crazy as a shithouse rat. It’s not enough that he’s encouraging folks to avoid vaccination, and contributing to measles misery and death in the US. Now he’s going on about chemtrails. He’s really, really gotta go.
• Donny Convict is refocusing his efforts to put his name on everything in sight. The Kennedy Center, the Peace Institute, the new Epstein/Trump East Wing, the Trumphal Arch, various bodies of water…the dude is a bottomless pit of me, me, me.
• Fuel prices (gasoline and diesel) are really gonna spike the next month or two. Iran has us over a barrel (so to speak), and there’s not much we can do about. Donny Convict has fucked thing up with the Iran War, and there’s no clean exit for us.
• Speaking of the Iran War, turns out they’ve dealt us a lot more damage than we expected. More than 60 aircraft demolished at various staging sites throughout the Mideast, and lots of regional bases we use for staging/logistics attacked and ruined. All this winning – how does Dear Leader do it?
• Donny Convict Jr allowed a Russian oligarch to pay for his wedding reception. What could possibly be wrong with that – the billionaire son of the US President taking a few hundred thousand from a high-ranking Russian?
• And now the “free press” is not allowed to attend press conferences involving Donny Convict. Seems a little counter to the First Amendment, dontcha think? Free speech, freedom of the press – not so much in MAGA USA. Next I guess they’ll just have ICE shoot the journalists who try to attend Donny’s events.
• The Trump admin EPA just removed restrictions on lead ammo being used on federal lands, because who in their right mind wants to protect eagles and other wildlife from lead poisoning? They’re consistent, though – cruelty, sadism, and destruction are their brand.
• From Digby: “Secretary of WAR! Pete Hegseth this week escalated his all-out war on “reduced libido, loss of spontaneous morning erections, erectile dysfunction,” and other symptoms of pussyfication in the U.S. military. Do you feel safer now?” I can’t even believe that this is real, but this is what our Dept of Defense/War/WTF is focused on. I’m embarrassed to be an American with this kind of news.

All that said, the odds are looking pretty good for the midterm elections. Perhaps, if Dems get control of the House and Senate, we can chart a course back toward sanity. Perhaps.

Travel day today. Leaving hot and humid Louisville for the cooler Left Coast. Travel plans have changed, so not entirely sure when I’m making the reverse trip. We planned a quick trip to Maine to see the fall colors starting next week, but the leaves aren’t cooperating. As of today, there is almost no change in color, and a week won’t be enough time for that to change. So that trip is off or delayed. Thank goodness that Southwest lets me book and cancel with no penalties. Same for Avis.

So back to Socal, where a hundred little and big chores await. The summer of 2026 is effectively over.

Judge Michael Luttig is an accomplished, intelligent man. What he sees coming after the November elections is frightening. We can hope he’s wrong, but we must prepare just in case he’s not. I give it a 50/50 chance that it will come to violence in January 2027 – Republicans will block the transfer of power, the corrupt DoJ will fail to act or even support the coup, and we’ll have another Jan 6. Only this time the thugs are inside the Capitol from the beginning.

It would get ugly, but it might take a million citizens descending on the Capitol to force the transfer of power. Once one party decides to ignore the Constitution and make up new rules, I’m not sure what other action is possible. Capitulate or fight.

Meanwhile, there’s another threat that all US citizens need to deal with. Inflation is about to get much, much worse. With oil supply strangled due to Convict Donny’s idiotic Middle East war, diesel prices are going up, fast. Diesel and jet fuel power the US economy, with everything Americans consume being delivered by truck and aircraft. Transportation costs are going up very quickly, and all those costs will get added to the price of goods. Add to that the extra cost of Donny’s dumbass tariffs, and life is about to get expensive. I recommend that everyone who can do so, adjust their budgets – consume less, buy less, trim your expenses wherever possible. A 20% household budget reduction is a good target. I’m starting that process now. Even if Dems win big in Nov, and even if we get past the Jan 2027 Constitutional crisis, it will take months (years?) to reverse the effects that Trump and MAGA have put in motion. Best case, we get back to a normal-ish economy in late 2027.

Soooooo….super El Niño coming. Then a Congressional coup attempt and rampant inflation. The winter of 26-27 sounds like fun.

The 25th anniversary of 9-11-01 – certainly a day to remember, a day that set America’s course for much of my adult life. We had no idea how much was going to change because of that day.

Like most of us I have a very clear memory of where I was on that day. I can remember watching the news in our small new seaside condo, in Leucadia. Then the wild horror when it became clear that this was all a coordinated attack, not some random tragedy. The unreal scene of the towers falling. My vivid memory makes Ted Cruz’s statement lie about not remembering if Convict Donny was on scene or not so, so obvious. Everyone remembers. It was a strange, surreal day, become only more strange as we’ve lived through its repercussions. 9-11 changed America from a hopeful, helpful worldly culture into the frightened fascist culture we’re on the verge of becoming, the culture of hate that MAGA has already become. In the long term, the terrorists won.

America needs another singular event to pull itself out of the self-inflicted damage that Convict Donny is doing. It will almost certainly have to be a common enemy (not immigrants, for fuck’s sake) that more or less unites us. Maybe climate change accelerates and it becomes an existential threat, quickly. Maybe aliens land and all those science fiction stories/movies I love become true. Maybe the idiots running AI companies lose control of their systems and we get attacked by the bots. But I think it’ll take something like that, something existential and dramatic, to change our course again. I probably won’t be around to see it.

Meanwhile, a much larger than advertised Middle East war is brewing. The Saudis (who attacked us on 9-11, and who now are inexplicably our allies) are being attacked by Iran and its allies. With the Strait of Trump/Epstein Hormuz effectively closed, the Saudis have been moving oil northward, up through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Iran is trying to close that route also. So on one front we have Israel v Palestine and its proxies. On another front we have Iran v Saudi/Quatar and others. Russia backs Iran, the US backs Saudi and Israel, and China just watches the fun. Convict Donny’s idiotic foreign relations, dumbass wars and corrupt trade deals have created a potent mix of conflict coming to a head in the Middle East. Any day now things are going to escalate, and they may escalate fast. A missile strike on a US aircraft carrier or a tactical nuke in Riyadh l and we’re in WW3.

It’s all so predictable and avoidable, though with the Trump administration in charge, things will only get worse.

I normally try to bring these gloom and doom essays back around to something more positive, but I’m not sure I can rescue this one. Maybe the best thing to do today is to embrace the suck, reflect on all the mistakes we’ve made since 9-11-01 and find a way to do better.

Moods are a funny thing. For a few days I’ve felt like a dark cloud hovered over me, but today it’s gone. Is it just chemistry? Lunar cycles? Wordle scores or sleep quality? Whatever the cause, I’m grateful that the cloud has moved on. Today I cruised out and played 18 holes of golf, walking and carrying my clubs in the heat, and loved it. A sweaty happy mess. That kind of hard physical activity is the perfect foundation for a good day.

I’m not much of a football fan these days, but I am looking forward to the UK v Alabama game on Saturday. There’s a chance that UK and our new coach has crafted an actually competitive SEC team, a rarity in my lifetime. And KY fans are hungry for some sports action – Kroger Field will be full and rocking. So Saturday afternoon I’ll post up, take a look and hope for the best.

I’m rewatching Game of Thrones this summer, and one of the subplots is the story of The Mad King and the prince who killed him – the aptly named Kingslayer. It seems The Mad King mistreated his subjects sufficiently that news of his death was cause for celebration across the land. It’s said that life imitates art, and Convict Donny is doing his best impression of a Mad King lately. Will we have a Kingslayer in real life, or will our just-barely-democratic system rid of us him by less violent means? We have no choice but to stay tuned and find out.

Speaking of Convict Donny, he has recently shown some competence. He has a talent! It seems he’s really good at losing wars. He’s losing a kinetic war with Iran and will certainly lose the economic war with Canada. He’s tearing down the world’s finest military culture by placing an idiotic drunkard in charge, insuring that we lose any other wars we might start. Given that the man drove six casinos into bankruptcy, we should have seen this coming. DJT, loser extraordinaire!

The ethical dilemma embodied by Elon Musk keeps getting larger. His financial support of Germany’s nascent-Nazi party is unconscionable. At the same time his Louisiana investment in Starship launch facility is a shrewd move, one I support. Once again, how do you reconcile thoughts about a smug racist/fascist prick who is also an spaceflight engineering visionary? The end can’t justify these means, so I hope for some future where Musk and his engineering creations part ways.

Labor Day. A national celebration of human labor, of the common working man. Now that I’m not one of them (a working man), it seems a bit quaint. US politics now favors the non-working man, the rich folks who control capital assets. Labor Day is an anachronism. I can identify with that. feel anachronistic most days.

The weather in KY and CA has suddenly reversed – KY is now pleasant, and Socal is now hot, humid and not fun. Go figure. For once I’m on the right side of the equation.

Today my family helped me avoid a down day – a nice lunch with my brother and SIL, then a short visit to Lakeside with Em’s family. Hundreds (thousands?) of people celebrating Labor Day by jumping in the spring-fed water, dressed in tiny outfits that they will likely renounce at church a few days later. Classic. In my late teens I lived in places like this, Dreamland and South Side in Ashland, pool cultures where I learned to swim, play basketball, and love those summers. It was glorious. All that helped me get out of my head and feel a little connected to the world. Might seem hard to understand, but that connection is hard to come by lately.

September has been tougher to deal with than July or August. Still not sure why, but…there it is. Mornings watching the grandsons play soccer or just hanging out with them make it all a bit simpler. Here’s a picture of a kid completely caught up in the moment. I envy that. We all probably do. Probably should.

It was 102 degrees today. Yikes. I practiced a lot of golf indoors at 5Iron, spent time with the grandsons, watered the lawn, watched some TV. Not a bad day given the shit weather.

I’ve been inside a bit given the heat, and I keep seeing the ASPCA commercial “…will you open your heart to feed a hungry animal….will you fill their bowl?”. Eric McCormack, the king of animal misery. Busts me up every time. It’s a shit world we live in.

Tough day, financially. CA Franchise Tax Board sent us a letter saying we owed a lot of money, unexpectedly. My accountant and I will have to sort that out. Chase Bank told me one of my credit cards has been hacked, so….a new card and a whole lot of changes to automatic payments. And now dealing with a financial conflict with my so-called Turo partner. Feels more like Friday the 13th, not the 4th. Tomorrow’s gotta be better.

Up fairly early after landing in the eastern time zone late last night. Groggy, but not feeling too bad, considering. Happy to be a good jet lagger.

Tarrant County, Texas, looks like ground zero for Rethuglican voter suppression schemes in 2026. Heather Cox Richardson sums it up nicely:

Last night, in Tarrant County, Texas, county commissioners tried an even cruder way of rigging the election. As Cecelia Lenzen of the Texas Tribunereported, they voted 3–2 along party lines to get rid of 92 of the polling sites the county had in 2022 before the midterm election. In 2022 there were 316 election sites; the Republican commissioners cut that number to 224. They also cut three sites for early voting, from 50 to 47. Republicans voted for the cuts; Democrats voted against them.

“It’s not about cost. This is about power. This is very political. This is campaigning from the dais,” said Democrat Alisa Simmons. Throughout the eight-hour meeting about the cuts, speakers from the audience called on the commissioners to increase, rather than decrease, the number of voting sites for the more than 1.3 million people registered to vote in Tarrant County.

Those 1.3 million people are more than live in Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, or Montana, and about the same number of people who live in Maine or New Hampshire.

She fails to mention that Tarrant County, while traditionally conservative, is trending toward Democrat. The county, centered on Ft Worth, narrowly voted for Biden in 2024. And more alarming to Repubs, in early 2026 a high-profile special election in Texas Senate District 9 saw Democrat Taylor Rehmet flip the historically red seat, drawing significant state and national attention to the shifting political dynamics in the region. So the state legislature says OK, if you’re going to elect Dems, we’re going to make it really fucking hard for you to get out and vote by closing 30% of your voting places. Let me guess where those polling places are? In the neighborhoods that went Dem in those elections, almost certainly (no proof, I haven’t seen or done the analysis, but it would make sense).

But there’s a good workaround for this, if Texans will band together just a little. Take some of the D party money normally used for ads and hire some nice high-end buses to travel those neighborhoods during the day and take the disenfranchised voters to a polling place. Advertise the pickup and drop off schedules. Give them AC and a bottle of water. Take them to vote and then take them home, have a little party along the way. I checked; it’s legal. Texans could turn this evil insult into a great opportunity for celebrating the election and giving voters a chance to socialize. I like this idea so much I’m going to write it up and send it to the Texas Dem organization. I hope they adopt it.

One last unrelated thought. I’m really fucking disappointed in Apple and Google for immediately renaming Lake Ontario in their map software, bending over for Convict Donny. There was no legal requirement to do so – they’re just showing obedience to the wannabe king. Time to download Mapquest.

I’ve read a lot of Ed Ziron’s anti-AI essays, and found his arguments interesting. Maybe not compelling, but interesting. I had noticed that he seems angrier than a good technology analyst should be, but that didn’t invalidate some of the points he made. But after reading this, I won’t waste time on Zitron any more. His posts/essays tend to be looooong, and as it turns out they’re not accurate. I’ve seen him on TV quite a bit lately, and his short-term fame is/was probably the entire goal. He’s monetized his anger and found an audience, now an audience minus one.

Today is a travel day, taking my favorite route east – SAN to DEN, then DEN to SDF. Weather looks fine, so it should be an easy travel day. I’ve done a lot of thinking lately about my post-work life and travel schedule. I tend to focus on the downsides of a dual-home life, a long list. Constant exposure to viruses during travel. No good way to have a dog, with life in two places 2000 miles apart. The rather extreme expense of maintaining two residences and commuting between them. Some non-trivial issues with healthcare and health insurance across two very different states. No way to have a weekly get-together with golf buddies, a book club, or pretty much any regular social activity, as I’m gone half the time. The occasional trip from hell, which can really wear you down physically and mentally.

But there are some pluses. I don’t get stuck in a rut as much as I might, because every 2-3 weeks I reset by changing home bases. Then there’s the core reason for the travel, being close to family in KY – that outweighs pretty much every other factor. Being a material part of the grandsons’ life is a very high priority for me. The joy I get in just being somewhere with rain and dense greenery. The time for thinking/reflection while flying. The fact that getting up and going somewhere every 2-3 weeks keeps me active, gives me another good reason to stay in good shape, good health.

I mention all this because I’ve come to enjoy the travel days, weirdly. It’s not reasonable to like spending a bunch of money to shuffle through TSA security, wedge myself into a packed Southwest flight, and pay stupid prices for bad airport food. But I do enjoy these days, for the most part. I guess you can get used to anything. But I’ll still buy the occasional lottery ticket in hope of being able to fly private and take my still-aspirational dog everywhere.

The fall elections are looking to be a shitshow of grift, graft, and corruption. ICE is gonna show up a key swing state polling places to intimidate anyone nonwhite or with a non-European name. Unlimited PAC money is gonna lie to and confuse voters with intentional misdirection across all media. Democrats will continue to divide themselves across the socialist to moderate spectrum, helping conservative candidates win where they shouldn’t. And now the US Postal Service has been compromised, and is NOT on our side. A whistleblower from the USPS has published a 20-page memo detailing how Convict Donny’s mail-in ballot restriction system is being implemented, in spite of court orders. Rules and laws are for the little people, amiright?

Here’s the advice for everyone voting this fall, especially those voting in close races where your vote will certainly matter:

Vote early and in person if at all possible. 

If intending to vote by mail (and you actually receive a ballot), alternatives to using USPS for return are to use drop boxes (if available in your state), to hand-deliver your ballot to the county Board of Elections, or to hand-deliver to early voting locations (if allowed). The USPS can no longer be trusted as a ballot delivery service, according to a veteran election official.

If I get a mail ballot, I’ll drop it off at the SD County registration offices, NOT at a post office. Those days are over. It was good while it lasted, but just as Convict Donny and his cronies have captured and compromised the DOJ, the DoD, DHS, the Park Service, the Dept of Education, the CDC, the FDA, the IRS, the Border Patrol, SCOTUS, CBS, the Census Bureau, the US Treasury, the State Dept, and Congress, they’ve infiltrated and compromised the USPS. It’s gonna take a generation or two to root out all the MAGA loyalists in these institutions, if we ever do.

Kinda feels like the fate of the country depends on the fall elections. If we (dems, liberals, people with empathy, non-MAGAs) can take control of the House and Senate, there’s a chance that we can stop and reverse the rapid destruction of American democracy. A chance. But if we don’t, Convict Donny will continue his insane wrecking-ball behavior for another two years, unchecked by anything. I don’t think we survive that scenario.

So get out there and vote early, in person, and often!

Rough day today – terrible night’s sleep, so for the first 4-5 hours after getting out of bed felt like I’d been poisoned. Physically and mentally decrepit – that’s what sleep deprivation does to you. Now mid-afternoon, still don’t feel normal but grinding through what’s left of the day. I think I’m gonna double down on the rest of the day and get in some exercise that I *definitely* don’t feel like doing.

My weather luck isn’t any better. Today Socal and Louisville are at exactly the same temperature (around 91), with Socal temps heading down and Louisville temps heading up. So by the time I get to Louisville they’ll be back in a mid-90s pattern and Socal will be in the mid-80s. Figures. But when I get there it’ll be the usual schedule, weather be damned. Lots of morning golf, time with the boys in the afternoon/evening, some family visits, and a couple of small home improvement projects. With any luck I’ll get to see a couple of good thunderstorms.

While feeling crummy today, I found an Africa photo safari I would love to do in ’27. The problem is that it’s hideously expensive – while I’m generally in favor of spending money to enjoy life, this thing is a new level. Plus if we decided to go, I’d spend another chunk of change on new camera gear. We’ll see. But every year I wait, going somewhere like Africa gets a little tougher, a little more likely to be disrupted by health.

Democrat James Clyburn has said today that he would support expanding SCOTUS to a baker’s dozen. Good for him – I’m all for that. If/when a decent President is elected, pull a quadruple McConnell move on MAGA. What’s good for the goose…

Speaking of McConnell, where the fuck is that guy?

One last political note – my favorite Pres candidate, Mark Kelly, with the quote of the day. “…Our problem isn’t lethality, you know. Our problem is, sometimes we put idiots in charge of things and they make big mistakes and will take this country to war for no good reason. And it’s always guys like, you know, certainly Donald Trump who avoided military service.” Idiots in charge…that complete sums up Convict Donny’s ignominious reign.

Another lazy indoor day – today should be the last day of Socal’s long, extended heat wave. It’s been mid-90s or higher every day for the last 10 days. Ugh. Hard to get too excited about anything after 10 days inside. I’d never make it in a submarine.

During all the indoor time, I’ve done a lot of reading – or tried to. I’ve developed a habit of buying cheap digital books advertised on Bookbub. Some of them are worth reading, but many of them not. Earlier this week I had a run of 4-5 in a row that I just couldn’t finish reading. it’s hard for me to give up on a book, but as the years go by its gotten easier. My remaining time is more valuable. So I’m going to switch tactics and only acquire books from authors I know and love, with few exceptions.

Even that can backfire. I read a book yesterday by Peter Clines, The Fold, and the first half of the book was excellent. Amazing; couldn’t put it down. But the second half of the book was as if it had been written by someone else. The story veered away from pure science fiction into a chaotic Lovecraftian horror story, blood, monsters, and (weirdly) a little romance mixed in. I’d give the first half an A and the second half a C or D. Clines got a lot of great blurbs/reviews for this one, but for me only the first half worked.

As I consider going back and rewriting Lost Hope, my murder mystery on the Moon, I rediscovered this website where everything you ever wanted to know about the Moon and orbital mechanics lives. It’s a bit overwhelming.

Digby has a nice collection today of MAGA morons being interviewed. The lack of awareness, the hypocrisy, the utter stupidity is something to see. I wish there was a way to keep these mental midgets from voting, but nope. They “did their research” and left with completely false, dumb ideas about their Dear Leader. It’s depressing.

The Socal heat wave continues, unabated. Spent some time yesterday working outside in 100ish degrees, and it definitely had an effect. Had to come inside, cool off and hydrate much sooner than expected. You’d think I was old or something.

Today I’m working on a Wifi repeater for the outdoor LAN connecting all the security cams. I’ve bought a cheap Chinese solar-powered repeater (and I don’t know if it will work), and a WAVLINK that I know will work. I’ll install the solar/battery powered one first, and if it works I can install copies of it around the property. It’s strictly a repeater so I won’t have the mesh functions of the WAVLINK, but it’s half the price. If I were only installing one, I’d just go with the WAVLINK. But I probably need 3-4 of them to get a solid LAN around 5 acres, so it becomes a noticeable price difference.

Plus, the WAVLINK needs a standard power connection, 120VAC, and the Chinese version doesn’t. Much, much simpler installation. Running power to the edges of the property would be the hardest part of the whole project.

I was originally going to install each repeater on a pole that I secured into the ground (probably concrete), but I’ve come up with an easier idea (there’s a theme here). I’m using an outdoor-rated tripod, designed for water sprinklers. Heavy duty metal and with ground securing spikes on each leg, so it should be stable enough for the solar repeater. Haven’t quite figured out how to attach the solar repeater to the top of the tripod yet, but I’m buying on Amazon so I can take delivery, see in person if I can hack the connection, and if not just repack and return. If things go well I’ll have the first version of the LAN extenders out on the property by tonight, at worst tomorrow morning. If it works as expected, I’ll not only have better security cam coverage, but I may install a few wildlife cams too. We can watch the coyotes party at night.

Yesterday’s Dolly Parton news was sure sad, and man she went out fast. Apparently it was cancer, though I don’t think I’ve seen a case like hers – she was seemingly active and healthy just a week before she died. But going out fast…that’s a blessing. She had a remarkable life, a great person in all respects.

Short post, but I have to say something. The Supreme Court is a fucking joke. First they allowed Convict Donny to meddle with elections. Then they allowed him to continue building the Epstein Ballroom. Today they’ve decided it’s OK to restrict mail-in voting, because, you know, reasons.

If the Dems ever get control of Congress, they should force all of them to step down in disgrace. Prosecute them for corruption. Then either disband the court or pack it so full of liberals that it’ll take several generations of conservative fuckery to change it back.

I am *very* tired of these shitheels enabling King Don. Women’s rights, voting process, unitary executive, financial corruption…there’s nothing these slack-jawed toadies won’t approve for King Don. I am of course aiming this primarily at the six conservative MAGA justices, but still…they suck. I’m beyond disgusted.

So now we’re at war with Canada. An economic war, but a war nonetheless. Canada, for fuck’s sake – the nicest, most polite people on the planet. Now where will we flee if/when democracy falls in the US and we’re forced to live in a real-life Gilead?

This is just wrong. How anyone in the military can support Convict Donny is a mystery to me. Over and over, he demonstrates that he disrespects the military and their service. I hope the entire US Lincoln complement of sailors realize who’s to blame, and vote accordingly.

Between the NIMBY backlash against data center construction and the obviously unsustainable circular financing of AI model developers, I think the AI bubble will burst, soonish. Mid-2027 sounds about right. Definitely time to rethink your stock portfolio. The Guardian agrees with me – a day of financial reckoning is coming for the US. Once again, everything Trump touches dies.

Our little Socal town of Fallbrook is up in arms about a new electric transmission line proposed by my old employer, SDG&E. I would certainly prefer that SDG&E invest a few billion in battery storage to strengthen the grid, but they *do* love building transmission lines. The line is probably inevitable – CA utilities tend to get what they want.

Explain it to me like I’m ten years old – great advice for anyone who wants to be sure they understand a subject. If you can’t explain it simply, you probably don’t understand it.

My side project this week is fixing/strengthening the CA property’s outdoor video security system. I’m updating all the outdoor cameras and adding a new Wifi router/extender, the WAVLINK AX-1800. Some good tech in this little system. I’m not naming the camera brand to make it a little harder for any hackers who decide to try and break in.

It was hot and humid in KY for the first half of August, and I figured the weather would be better in Socal. It usually is this time of year. But looking at the forecast for the remainder of August, no such luck. We’re having one of the all-time heat waves. We often get 2-3 days above 90 degrees, but the next week it’s all heat, all the time. The only bright spot is that with clear skies, black body radiation cools things off at night enough to open the windows and get some non-AC relief. This is a very unusual weather pattern – haven’t seen one like this in 25 years. It’s hot, but it could be worse – at least I’m not in a Texas prison.

In better news, UK landed Mark Mitchell yesterday. Mitchell, an all-SEC power forward, makes UK a genuine top-10 contender for the upcoming season. Mark Pope’s offseason recruiting has been slow but spectacular. And we have a new marketing meme for the front line, The M&M Gang: Mark Mitchell, Malachi Moreno, and Milan Momsilovic. An NIL deal with M&Ms is inevitable.

Cory Doctorow has just published an interesting essay about being lucky versus being smart, correlation versus causation, and the impending burst of the AI bubble. He has an interesting mind – always good reading.

This article about Idaho pastor Doug Wilson is fucking scary. His views are Old Testament biblical, and he’s a major influence on our shithead Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth. It’s like these people want to live in prehistoric times. I feel sorry for their poor brainwashed kids.

I got my UK season tickets again, courtesy of a thoughtful niece and nephew (she’s a UK employee and graciously allows me to buy the tickets she won at the employee lottery a few years ago). Turns out getting the tickets on my own is…complicated. I would have to establish KY residency (possible, I almost spend enough time there, but some big implications there, including tax implications) AND win the resident lottery held each year for prospective season ticket buyers. That’s some kind of business model – people will enter a lottery and only the winners get to pay dearly for nosebleed seats. Wild. But I’m grateful for the chance.

Yesterday’s cross-country trip was fine, flights mostly on time and the long flight, SDF to PHX, was on a comfortable 737-800, only about 75% full. The last leg, PHX-SAN, was on an ancient 737-700, completely packed and struggling with Phoenix’s 100+ temperature. Not as comfortable and I was actually a little nervous about the plane getting off the ground. There’s not as much lift when the air is hot, so commercial carriers have a limit around 118 degrees where they won’t even try for safety reasons. Phoenix has gotten close to that several times this year. So with a 100% full flight, the 100+ degree temp, and an ancient airframe, I was acutely aware of how long it took to get off the runway. That kind of physics is not what I really want to be thinking about when flying. But we made it. I hope they retire that 737-700 very soon, though.

Now that we’re here, the big news is the weather. A heat wave is upon us, again. Over the next 10 days, the temperature in Fallbrook will range from 94 to 99 degrees each day. We often get 90+ degree days, but 10 straight days is very unusual. Thankfully it will get down to mid-60s at night, so we do get a chance to cool off. But as the sun comes up, it’s gonna be hot in Socal.

I’m racking my brain for a new or renewed story idea – something that will get me excited to sit down and write again. Here’s the list, in no particular order:

• Bite the bullet and rewrite Lost Hope yet again. It’s complete in my head, on paper it’s a jumbled mess.
• A big story about an heir from a wealthy planet 5-10 light years away, traveling back to Empire Earth. Speed of light is in effect, so travel and communications are natural barriers.
• A story about Earth orbit garbage collectors, sweeping up the debris of millions of satellites put into orbit during Earth’s ill-advised low Earth orbit satellite wars (I’m talking about you, Elon). Kind of a precursor to the Belters in The Expanse.
• A story about telepaths – they’ve always fascinated me. Pretty sure that being able to read other people’s thoughts would be a complete nightmare. I don’t have a high regard for people these days (I’m talking about you, MAGA).
• A story about the invention of anti-gravity. It would change…everything. Space flight, transportation, construction, energy, war…just everything. Problem with this one is narrowing down the scope, as what happens after the invention is too big, too much to really cover. Might be a good thing, as it would force me to focus on a character or two instead of the tech.
• What if it suddenly became really hard for humans to reproduce? Much lower population, industry fails; mothers and children even more revered; murder/killing even more unthinkable. This was done in Children of Men, but I think it could be done better.

That’s not everything, but it’s a good list. Now just pick one and get started.

It’s a travel day, and I had plans to play some early morning golf before a midday flight. But Louisville weather said “nope, it’s gonna rain all morning”, so my last chance to get out is gone. I don’t love traveling midday or after – probability of flight delays rises quickly – but my traveling partner does. So a little early morning golf was my reward for the compromise. Go figure.

I would comment on the news, but there’s nothing new to say. We’re all being held hostage by a lunatic sociopath in the White House, who is stealing us blind, blowing up our economy and reputation, and tearing down democracy. It’s an ongoing nightmare with no way out. Sure, the midterm elections are in about 80 days, but I’m beyond hoping for miracles. And even if power shifts in Congress, Convict Donny will still be in a position to ignore the law and ruin the country. Nightmare.

Gotta focus on the positive. 80ish days to the midterm elections, and that *will* change some things. About the same amount of time until UK basketball season starts. The basement project in KY and the grove irrigation project in CA are both done, so no more big expensive projects for the year. My health is good, mind is strong, and I’m back to my first year of college weight (I probably just jinxed the shit out of that; queue a trip to the MD office soon.) Close and extended family all doing pretty well, though we’re all creeping up on our expiration dates. I’m back ahead of The NY Times average Wordle score and closing in on beating the bot’s average, again (I’m really reaching here). Southwest says our planes are on time today. Autumn is on the way and the heat in Socal and KY will have to break at some point (having said that, it’ll be high 90s for the next week+ in Socal – ugh). Rush is still touring, filling arenas. Starship flight 14 is gonna launch this month.

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s a pretty decent list. It’ll have to do. Meanwhile, here’s a link to an article that I hope everyone reads. Trump’s Broken Promises, in 11 Charts. Combines the nightmare with hopefulness that people will finally see the truth of Donny’s incessant lies.

Aaaand it’s already the middle of August. Grandson Hudson’s birthday. Where did the summer go? Raining this morning with some distant thunder, so the now-regular Monday morning golf outing has been cancelled. Try again tomorrow.

I missed the big display of lightning and thunder last evening, as we were inside a movie theater watching The Odyssey. We could hear the thunder, loud. Sometimes it wasn’t clear if the thunder was part of the movie soundtrack or outside reality. The movie ended almost exactly the same time the storm moved on. The Odyssey was a good movie, great at times, but it was definitely 30-45 minutes too long. Glad we saw it, but won’t see it again.

The movie did have a great central theme, apropos to today. You can’t fight/kill your way into greatness – all that killing leads to moral decay, no matter how “right” your cause began. Ezra Klein and a commentor in The NY Times said:

“Odysseus and his men were not fighting the barbarians; they were the barbarians.”

By observing both the film and the world order (and American democracy) crumbling around us, Mr. Klein reminds us that we cannot make Western civilization (or America) great again by betraying its own fundamental values. Strength, rules and order are necessary, but without compassion and empathy, we risk becoming the very thing we abhor.

That’s the US in a nutshell – MAGA and Trump are rapidly erasing the things that made America a force for good in the world, and replacing those things with cruelty and hate. The rule of law, equal for everyone. Foreign aid. Domestic aid for the poor and infirm. America as a refuge for people fleeing from violence. A nation with vast and protected natural resources. A lawful and regulated financial system. All those things are in the crosshairs of our current “leaders”, under attack or gone. We’re not fighting the barbarians, we *are* the barbarians.

With the hot weather this week, I’ve stayed inside a lot more than usual. Watched too much TV. I’m ready to do some outside things, but most of that will have to wait until I get back to Socal later this week. Hopefully the hot/dry weather there will have abated. I have outside chores to do, things to fix, and some golf to play.

There’s no global warming (or climate change, or whatever the fuck label you want to place on it), but Europe and the UK are cooking, burning. The US from west coast to east coast is cooking, burning. Locally, Louisville is having an epically hot summer. Phoenix has been labelled “dangerous” due to 105+ degree days for about three months straight. My conservative friends will now admit that yes, the climate is changing, but they stridently say there’s no proof whatsoever that humanity has caused it. Hmmm. I need to start carrying this graph around to flash at them. The Industrial Revolution and production/consumption of oil, plus unrestricted cutting of forests, kicked into high gear in the 1950s after WW2. The result looks pretty obvious, right? Apparently conservatives have a cognition problem, unable to see cause and effect.

If we started radically changing things right now, this second, it would take about 30 years for the trends to start reversing. That’s called momentum, in this case thermal momentum. The world is a very large system. Unfortunately, Convict Donny and his band of evil idiots are doing the exact opposite. Removing incentives for solar and wind power, removing incentives for EV production. Removing restrictions on logging and mining on federal lands, national parks and forests. Adding incentives for coal mining, for fuck’s sake. It’s as if they were put here to destroy the world, and they’re doing their best.

Destruction of the environment is the thing that gets me the most worked up about politics. We all live on a giant spaceship, a closed system surrounded by a cold, dark, hostile universe. If we ruin the place we live, we don’t have any Plan B. This is pretty obvious to me, and it boggles the mind that so many people just ignore what’s happening and vote for the despoilers.

Get out and vote liberal every chance you get. Your children and grandchildren’s lives depend on it.

Not in a great mood today, so it’s prime time to wade through the flood of shit that King MAGA is dropping on America. Behold.

Moron Convict Donny has directed the US Navy to stop using magnets to launch fighters from aircraft carriers. He’s directed them to go back to steam driven catapults that are less reliable and require 6x more sailors to operate. Because reasons. Actually, because Moron Don doesn’t understand magnets. He keeps saying they don’t work when they get wet (they do) and other lunacy. This will cost the Navy hundreds of millions for no good reason. The man is truly stupid.

Out of control ICE agents are now going to get electroshock gloves to further intimidate citizens. Guns aren’t enough. ICE is a dangerous band of thugs, ready to be used as the President’s personal Gestapo. It’s a travesty.

Donny is now asking SCOTUS to allow him to continue building the Epstein Ballroom, after a lower court judge said to stop. The man is determined to wreck all of DC.

Secretary of War/Notwar Pete Hegseth is now conducting briefings for Congress – but just the GOP reps. No Democrats invited or allowed. So we’re now a one-party “democracy”. In any other universe, this wouldn’t be tolerated. In our shitty timeline, it’s no big deal.

The know-all-moron occupying the White House is also second-guessing MDs and scientists by insisting that the childhood vaccination schedule be changed. There’s no science, no proof, no reason for doing so other than Donny’s sociopathic mistrust of science and any authority other than himself. This will harm millions of children, but that’s about par for the course for King MAGA and his flying monkeys.

The Kennedy Center board (appointed by Trump) has decided to say fuck you to the judge who told them to remove Donny’s name from the Kennedy Center. They just voted to inscribe this on the building: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump”. Assholes.

A US company, backed by the White House, is preparing to drill oil wells in Greenland with no permission from that country. They’re just showing up ready to drill and saying “fuck you, try and stop us”. In what world is that possible?

Donny and White House staffers keep gaslighting America, saying that we won the Iran war and that the Strait of Hormuz is open. We didn’t and it’s not. An average of one ship per day is getting through, as opposed to 130-150 per day before Donny dragged us into his idiotic war. They think we’re stupid.

Any one of these things would get any other politician canned/impeached/removed, but not Donny. He’s a human cockroach who seems to be able to survive anything. One man is tearing down a nation.

Looks like the big thunderstorms are over for a while in Louisville. They were fun while they lasted.

The war in Iran is going well: National security reporter David Rothkopf wrote: “The man who cowered hiding from the Iranians in a catering truck and who has personally done more to increase Iran’s strategic influence than anyone in its own government ever has, is now blathering nonsense via social media. The world sees him more as an impotent fool today than ever before.”

Headline from Judd Legum’s Popular Information: McConnell, out sick for two months, voted against medical leave 23 times since 1985.

Yesterday I made the mistake of reading the most terrifying story I’ve ever read: Biological War, A Scenario, by Annie Jacobsen. Every plot point, every action, is pulled from history, not hypothetical. Everything in the scenario is 100% plausible and it leads to the end of civilization after only seven days. Reading this leaves me amazed that we haven’t destroyed the world yet, and with the realization that we’re always only seven days away from the end. And with all this existential risk out there, we have evil morons in charge of the country and our military. I wasn’t sleeping that well before, and this won’t help. Next time I hear someone use the “gain of function” euphemism, I’ll correct them with the more accurate “biological warfare” label.

The most MAGA states in the US – Idaho, Wyoming, and West Virginia. From Hackwhackers and The Economist:

Also, Wyoming, that MAGA haven, has this bonus designation: Wyoming, not New York or Los Angeles, leads the nation in serial killers per capita, at 13.59 per million residents—roughly one known killer for every 73,584 people. Nice place to live, right?

Lotta news this morning about data center moratoriums here in Louisville. I would hate to see KY’s energy and water resources impacted (ruined?) by shitty hyper scale data center designs and locations, so I’m good with the moratorium. Though the mid-term result of wider-scale data center moratoriums is an economic crash. Capital investment in data center construction is the thing propping up the stock market at the moment. Take it away and we’re looking at a 20% or more market drop.