Current Events

The weather cooled off some and the recent rides to the lake have been pleasant for the most part.  Two weeks ago we were verbally abused and harassed by two people on E-trikes because we said "two bikes behind you", indicating that perhaps they would like to ride single file and stop blocking the entire trail in both directions by riding side by side.  They were very poorly behaved.  Since then, I have finally, after 50 years of riding (50!) put a bell on my bike.  I'm sick of having to ask people to please stay on the right side of the trail, and if you're in a group, single up.  So I used the bell today, started ringing it before each and every blind corner, and lo and behold, people do move over.  It was surprising. 

Flat water on the lake, and my favorite silo being reflected.

Geese and ducks.

There are two dogs in the water, wearing life jackets.  The one with the stick in his mouth is Max, and it was his first time in the lake.  He was ecstatic with joy, and barked a lot. 

We watched a family of four load a lot of stuff into a canoe.  Dad wanted to fish.  The two girls did not seem as enthused as Dad.  Here is the younger daughter sitting in a kayak.

Here is Dad's canoe stuffed to the gills with fishing poles and fishing stuff.  We didn't stay long enough to watch them launch.  I'm sorry I missed that.

In international news, it appears that the Russia shit has hit the fan.  This is excerpted from Reuters.

The U.S. on Wednesday filed money-laundering charges against two employees of Russian state media network RT for what officials said was a scheme to hire an American company to produce online content to influence the 2024 presidential election.

Justice Department officials said the two employees used shell companies and fake personas to pay $10 million to an unnamed Tennessee company to produce online videos aimed at amplifying political divisions in the United States.

The un-named Tennessee company has been identified as TENET media. 

From Joni Askola we learn:

TENET media and its content creators are facing scrutiny after being exposed as disinformation agents funded by Russia to promote pro-Russian rhetoric. Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson, and Lauren Southern are the influencers associated with Tenet media. The organization received $10 million to disseminate Kremlin talking points in the United States.  The ironic part is that the shared factor among these individuals is that they are all paid by Russia to criticize Democrats and support Trump. This serves as further evidence that Russia is attempting to facilitate Trump's election.  Many more individuals, including some close to Trump, are likely on Russia's payroll while supporting him. Trump himself could potentially be a Russian asset or, at the very least, an opportunistic useful idiot. 

From Yashar Ali we also learn:

Blaze Media has fired Lauren Chen. Yesterday, a DOJ indictment alleged that Lauren and her husband Liam’s company Tenet Media took in over $10 million from the Russian government to participate in a Russian influence operation. The indictment also alleged that they participated in a conspiracy to cover up the original source of the funds.

Tim Pool is a particularly wretched piece of pond scum.  He runs a podcast and a website actively advocating for what ever Russia tells him too.  Up until today he was anti aid to Ukraine.  Today, "upon reflection" he has decided that Ukraine is an important ally and we should fund their defense against Russia. Also interesting is the fact that neither Washington Post or New York Times have this visible on their digital issues today.   If you google "doj and russia rt" you will find other outlets reporting on it.

These people are in a world of hurt.  People suspected ties to Russia, now it's a sure thing.  Oddly enough, after all of this started making the news, Putin endorsed VP Harris.  Right.

Rebecca Cheptegei has died.  She was just at the Paris Olympics, and now she has died because a man doused her in gas and set her on fire.  She's not the first runner to be murdered.  Agnes Tirop, stabbed; Damaris Mutua, strangled.  When does this stop?

The US has yet another school shooting.  This time it was a 14 year old white boy.  Apparently, the shooter focused on a class room full of autistic kids.  Kaitlan Collins has just posted this: News -- the father of Colt Gray has just been arrested in connection with the shooting at Apalachee High School. Per GBI, Colin Gray has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.  Good.  It's time to go after irresponsible parents who buy guns for their kids.

Today the orange menace addressed the Economic Club of New York.  They asked questions, and he attempted to answer them.  In response to a question about how would he lower the cost of child care he responded with the following.  Yes, it's long, but it's illustrative of how poorly his brain is working, something else main stream media is not reporting.  This is an unedited transcript of what he said.

Well, I would do that, and we're sitting down, and I was, somebody, we had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so, uh, impactful on that issue. It's a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about, that, because, look, child care is child care is. Couldn't, you know, there's something, you have to have it – in this country you have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I'm talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they're not used to — but they'll get used to it very quickly – and it's not gonna stop them from doing business with us, but they'll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Uh, those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we're talking about, including child care, that it's going to take care. We're gonna have - I, I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with, uh, the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country, because I have to stay with child care. I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I'm talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just, uh, that I just told you about. We're gonna be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care, uh, is talked about as being expensive, it's, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we'll be taking in. We're going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we'll worry about the rest of the world. Let's help other people, but we're going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It's about Make America Great Again, we have to do it because right now we're a failing nation, so we'll take care of it. Thank you. Very good question. Thank you.

Is this pitiful or what?  President Biden had a bad debate, and the press corps hounded him out of running again.  The orange menace says something like this on television and nobody says anything.  How does this happen?  Greg Sargent has much to say on the subject.  In a separate interview JD Vance reiterated that child care in dual income homes should fall to the grandparents, or aunts.  Any post-menopausal female will do.  

So, there's more, but I think this is probably too long as it is.  I did see that NPR has identified the two campaign staffers who assaulted the Arlington National Cemetery worker when she was trying to prevent them from taking campaign photos in Section 60, which is forbidden by law.  Update: The two Trump staffers involved in the Arlington National Cemetery altercation are deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, a member of Trump’s advance team.

Ok, done now.