Fear & loathing in Las Vegas

As some of you may be aware, there’s a sporting event taking place on Sunday. It’s driving MAGAts crazy because they consider that American football, in which teams of large male millionaires padded to the max crash into one another and millions of people bet their beer money on which one will leave the field with higher numbers on the scoreboard—“that’s mah game, man!”

But this year they’re conflicted, because of Traylor.

That’s to say, in case you’ve been in an ashram for the past year—Travis Kelce, a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs (I don’t know what a tight end does, and I’m not sure why they don’t also have loose ends) is dating Taylor Swift.

If I have to explain to you who Taylor Swift is, we have no reason to be here. But she is everything MAGAts fear and loathe: smart, talented, powerful, successful, happy and richer than any hundred of them will be in their entire collective lives. And female.

They've also managed to cobble together conspiracy theories about how the Traylor thing is either a Pentagon psyop, an NFL hoax or a Biden manipulation. I am not making those up.

Well, not that any of them will be reading this, but today’s earworm is Swift’s “Shake It Off”.

Volume up.

 

 

 

Catering

If you wonder what you’re looking at here, it’s fat I trimmed from some meat I bought at Costco. It came off in strips, but—as I was giving it to Foxy—I cut them up into little pieces so he wouldn’t choke on the bigger chunks.

(I do the same thing with rinds of cheese.)

Which was probably a good thing, because not 15 minutes after I scattered them on the patio, they disappeared.

 

 

The front page

I made a Costco run yesterday—I was getting low on Greek yoghurt and down to eight pounds of butter, so it was time. I was gone about an hour (I do not dawdle in a shopping situation), and when I returned home, this is what the home page of The Washington Post looked like:

A few Thoughts:

The Kleptocrat will obviously appeal the D.C. Circuit Court panel’s (unanimous) decision. (The judges did not buy his lawyer’s argument that the Founding Fathers intended that a president have the freedom to order members of the military to assassinate a political opponent without worrying about criminal prosecution.) That will be two rounds of court appearances—before the full Circuit Court and then SCOTUS—and will no doubt effectively delay the federal prosecution for his attempts to obstruct Congress until after November’s election.

So it’s a win for him.

But I bet the ketchup is flying at Mar-a-Lago.

Also—I have no doubt that he’s added the names of the panel who ruled against him to his “retribution” list. That story is all about how the guy who once held the most powerful office in the world is waving his willie in the direction of anyone who hasn’t shown him sufficient adulation and obeisance. (In the end, no one will be kept off that list, because there’s never enough.) But he’s actually gearing up to use the power of that office to stomp every person on that list in the most humiliating way possible.

And there are millions of dumbasses who are happy to vote him into office for that purpose.

Third—“trust issues” in the GOP? Whatever next?

 

 

 

Sidewalk declaration

 Spotted on the path around the cluster tot lot: the alphabet person has found love.

Gratitude Monday: Partners

I spent a good deal of last week trying to deal with various aspects of getting healthcare coverage. In one case, it was the insurer wanting to charge me premiums based on my income from…two years ago. (I filled out the required form, attached proof of being laid off last may and now wait…six months for them to adjust.) In the other, it was the insurer claiming that I need to pay higher premiums for prescription coverage because I didn’t meet the prior coverage requirement. (I do, but CVS Caremark is playing silly buggers with Anthem about who needs to provide proof.)

So it was a welcome change to reconnect with a former colleague, who was laid off a year ago, to start an accountability partnership with him.

For one thing, I really like him—he’s a terrific product manager (how he won the layoff lottery when some others were left standing, I do not know), very smart and really funny. For another, he brings a different perspective to my job search from my two other partners.

Third—he’s been searching on his own for more than 12 months, and I know that having someone to check in with regularly will help reduce the sense of isolation and anxiety you feel when you’re in this cycle. And I’m grateful for his help, and for the help I can provide him.

That's not nothing these days, I assure you.