Malfeasance, SCOTUS, and Flora

Greetings.  I have things to complain about.  Much of it may be boring to you, but it's of interest to me.

If you are planning to fly somewhere on a flight that has an gate change in the UK (starting in 2024), you should read this article.  Apparently, beforehand, you must pay 10pounds and fill out a form.  Three days later you'll be informed as to whether or not you're approved.  I can't answer the question of why is this, but I thought some of you should know.  Article is HERE.

Last January, we took the bikes in to Fairwheel Bikes in Tucson, so they could stop the brake calipers from rubbing on the rotors (a major reason why I hate disk brakes).  While we were there, they discovered that the olive and barb part of the brake cable were installed backwards.  The olive had been swapped with the barb in the brake cable.  The parts are labelled in the photo below.

The brake levers are to the left of this assembly.  Jim's bike was so impaired that the barb had migrated in to the brake lever and had to be fished out.  The take home of all this is to say that the brakes were assembled at the factory, and were primed to fail and leave us on a down hill with no ability to slow down - which is bad.  Fairwheels fixed it all and we paid for it.  The lead tech called Trek the bike manufacturer, to see if they would cover this under warranty, but they said no.  June 16, 2023, Jim received an email announcing a recall of our bikes and several others.  In addition to the recall there was an admonition to STOP RIDING THE BIKE IMMEDIATELY.  Guess what the problem was.  It was the thing we had repaired.  More info is available HERE if you're interested.  We called Trek, they called Fairwheels, and we got our money back.  So, we're happy about that.  However, this is a massive recall, many people will not know about it, and some people will be hurt as a result.  This is one of those things that shouldn't happen, and yet it does.

So, moving on to corporate malfeasance.  We have a Jeep Renegade car.  It's actually a Fiat with Jeep badging, but it's sold, maintained and warranted by Jeep.  We took the car in for an oil change and tire rotation last week.  Oil got changed, but tire rotation did not happen.  Why, you wonder.  It's because the stupid lug bolt decorative caps have swollen and pressed on to the wheel to the point where the lug bolts can not be removed.  They will have to be drilled out.  Think about this, you have a flat on a lonely country rode, get out of the car to replace the tire (this is a tire that you, the car owner had to pay for separately), and you can not remove the wheel.  You'll have to be towed in to a dealer or tire shop, order new lug bolts and wait for it all to be over.  Jeep knows this is a problem, but they continue to use the same stupid bolts.  Bolts that do not have the cap exist on the internet, Amazon and Renegade Ready are two such places.  Why does Jeep continue to use a part that they know will fail and they won't do anything about it?  Perfidy, malfeasance and capitalism are all I can come up with.  This is the part in question.

It's a solid piece with no pesky cap to swell and prevent removal.  So, we've ordered new bolts and will have to take the car back in to have them installed, and yes we will have to pay for the labor to do that.

Today, the Supreme court gutted Affirmative Action, unless you're a white or a legacy applicant.  KBJ wrote a rather scathing review of the decision.  I had to screen shot it, so it's big, but definitely worth reading.

She was such an excellent addition to the court.  We need more of her.

This was posted on twitter later: 

Let's see, is there anything else I want to complain about?  I guess I'm done.

The ground next to the path on the side yard has been over run by Common Liverwort.  I read that if you have it, it means your ground is always moist and is compacted.  So, yes, after a hard winter with snow on the ground for months, we are moist and compacted.  I don't mind it, it's sort of cute.

This is the girl form of the Liverwort.

This is the boy form of the same species.

They're actually very tiny, I had to use the macro setting to get these images.

Finally, here is my tomato that may or may not get eaten by us.  It's still fairly hard, but the color gives me hope.  It's going to be in the low 90's this week, so that should please the tomato.

That's it!  That's all I have to say.