@DougG There are a couple of pics (two piece bathing suit, not exactly a bikini) from the trip I took to Italy in the late 1970s, but mercifully they are buried in a box somewhere in the basement.

It's an evil, insidious drug. This is its nature when it's not used by doctors in medically appropriate settings. It's being mixed with several street drugs. People end up having experiences they weren't prepared for or dying. I've never been a "just say no" type of person and I despise fentanyl.

Jon: yes in the cosmic sense I suppose. But that framing takes away agency from all the people who make conscious choices to violate the law and wreak social havoc.

That's hard to read. A lot of the people at the uni where I previously worked head up to that part of NC on their days off, and as soon as it was clear what had happened at Chimney Rock, my facebook feed started filling up with photos that friends had taken while visiting Chimney Rock. And not just there, but all through that area. It was once of the most beautiful places and the scope and severity of the destruction... It reminds me of photos and video of the tsunami in Japan. The power of water is almost unthinkable.

From the article: Tobener [a tenant's rights lawyer] also said evicted tenant should keep an eye on the property to see if the owner returns to renting within five years. "The damages for wrongful eviction if the landlord returns to the rental business without offering it back to this tenant will be in the multiple hundreds of thousands," he said. After their forced move, each unit will receive nearly $25,000 for re-location assistance. $25k relocation assistance for each evicted tenant plus legal protection to prevent property owners from gaming the Ellis Act. Seems fair to me. After all, if we value power rights we have to allow property owners to evict. If we want to guarantee "no homelessness" for everyone then let's all pay more taxes and collectively fund public housing.

@Mik We have a neighbor who picks up every single motorized kid car or scooter he sees put out at the curb as garbage. He can't put his cars in the garage because it's full of them. And his huge storage shed has the overflow. After he fixes them, his two kids ( ages 4 and 7) ride them up and down the block. The scooter is a howler and can go that 15 mph or more that you mentioned. I saw the seven year old on it last week. I guess the only saving grace is that the kids wear helmets.

Yes, we'd love to hear an update

Humans eventually gravitate to what works. We will too. I share the concern about a system that relies on ever increasing consumption, but we already have social systems that balance the material imbalances out a bit. There will be more as we progress, but there are a whole lot of humans still living in abject poverty and desolation.

What a sweetheart he is.

@Quirt-Evans Would his disciples ever use the 25th amendment to remove him or is he too divine?

...or the way Trudeau stopped the truckers' strike.

Tangle's take. https://www.readtangle.com/special-edition-the-vice-presidential-debate/?ref=tangle-newsletter

Amazon actually lost them. Serves me right! I binge on sugar and I should be eating no refined sugar at all. I love it though. Organic vanilla ice cream, since I don't make it myself, and Jujy Fruits are my favorites. Who say petroleum isn't food?

There is an entire list, a long one, with Netenyahu addressing Congress while saying in which countries he wants a regime change. Openly says it, then claims "terrorism" would end. This had gone on for years. Iraq, Libya, Iran, others. Who is he to tell a sovereign nation he wants a regime change war in Iran? He's a war criminal. He had no business telling the US to go to war in the first place. It has never, not once, turned out the way he said it would, and this will be no exception.

There's unexploded ordinance all over the BLM lands where I regularly ride my horse. The feds have gone in to do a lot of mitigation, though it is unclear exactly what they were doing, and how much safer they made the area, if at all. We're right near a military base, Fort Harrison, and we hear them practicing war games on occasion. Not pleasant. But I imagine that it wasn't that long ago that nobody lived out where we are now.

Glad you liked it!

People I've known in the Midwest have been warm hearted and friendly although my experience is limited to my knowing my maternal grandfather originally from a family farm in Indiana and meeting his family. I admit when I think about it the cities are know for serial killers but this is no different than the NE, South, Pacific NW, and no doubt other places. Angry Midwestern man/ woman is a new one to me.