Riding and Wingnuts

Yesterday afternoon the ridge of high pressure that had been constraining the smoke and heat under an inversion finally broke down.  High winds entered the area, and things were better.  The smoke was not gone, yet.  This is last night.  Still orange.

This is a terrible cell phone picture of the moon, which, as you can see, is also orange.

This morning, a miracle occurred and the AQI was in the low 20s.  Finally we were able to ride outside.  There is a bridge replacement project on the route we normally drive to the trail head.  So now we have to park in a different place, start the ride in the middle, and ride big hills right off the bat.  

There are two camp hosts at the lake.  Both of them were off work today, a weekend day in the summer.  There were many people at the ramp, it was early enough that no one was drunk or obnoxious about the wait.  These people are in line.

The millfoil is amazing this year.  It's never been this big or this bright yellow.

47 made a complete ass of himself at the White House Correspondents dinner.  The media people should have stood up as one, and departed.  Instead, they sat quietly while he was rude and obnoxious, particularly to Kaitlin Collins.  He's still at it today.

I often speak of wing nut politicians in Arizona, one of which would be Mark Lamb.  He won the primary for the 5th district in congress.  He's a wing nut.  From a Salon article we learn the following.

The story journalists told about Mark Lamb’s victory Tuesday night was one of victory over scandal. Lamb, who ran with the slogan “God, Family, Freedom,” won the Republican primary for Arizona’s deep-red 5^th District despite reports that for years he had engaged in sexual behavior at odds with his traditional-values image. Lamb, an Arizona Republic investigation found, had sexted women other than his wife and threatened one with consequences if she didn’t keep quiet. The paper also uncovered racist texts. (Lamb’s campaign denies the allegations.) Despite the reports, President Donald Trump endorsed Lamb—and reiterated his support after the scandal came to light—and Lamb won easily. It was another data point for the power of Trump’s endorsement, and a significant one: Due to his district’s makeup, Lamb is heavily favored to win the general election in November.

But beyond the scandal, there’s another story to be told about Mark Lamb, one that’s arguably more concerning: Lamb has ties to the fringe right-wing “constitutional sheriff” movement. This movement argues that sheriffs have the ultimate authority in their county, per the Constitution, to decide which state or federal laws are lawful and therefore which should be enforced. Legal experts consider this to be bogus. Lamb, apparently, does not.

This constitutional sheriff thing is just bad. 

Other than this, I have not too many things to say.