The news this week has been coming hot and heavy, so there’s lots of possibilities for missing things. Here are some items that we’ve read that we thought all y’all might could be interested in, too. And, you should read them, too, because there are plenty of novel plots just there for the picking! Your novel writing pivot is just waiting for you to write these best-sellers before other dirty bastard steals your story from you!
Impending Space Disaster
In case you were searching about for a plot for your international best-selling disaster book, science provides a novel idea: crashing near Earth satellites falling like dominoes in some kind of complex chain-reaction. Just another way we’re putting large segments of our population at risk in pursuit of profits. And, Elon Musk wants to put A MILLION satellites in orbit!
2.8 Days to Disaster: Low Earth Orbit Could Collapse Without Warning
Company for RFK’s Brain Worm
RFK, Jr’s brain worm is getting a whole host of friends moving into their neighborhood like Sesame Street meets a degenerative disease. I’m sure he’ll declare this latest threat to our health to be entirely our fault and if we’d just buy more supplements and follow his inverted food pyramid — apt metaphor for what the Health Department and entire country has become? — the oligarchs would get wealthier.
Scientists call for urgent action as dangerous amoebas spread globally
Billionaire Worries
What does keep your neighborhood billionaire up at night? Apparently, Trump’s tariffs! How about that! Trump’s tariffs top the list of billionaire worries. Then comes, major geopolitical conflicts! How about that! Trump’s threatening Iran AND Greenland, threatens NATO, ago done Ukraine, and invades Venezuela. Third on the list? Policy uncertainty! Oooh our very model of a modern major jenius erratic behavior keeps the billionaire class up wondering what he’ll post next on social media? And, fourth, higher inflation! So Trump’s tariffs and his persecution of Jerome Powell, Fed Chair, to get lower interest rates — and runaway inflation for a decade — are keeping our billionaires up.
What do billionaire worries have in common? Trump and his economy
What’s Worrying Billionaires the Most in World?
Space Microbes… Number Four Will Leave You Queasy
Okay, so a disaster novel isn’t your thing, how ’bout a SciFi bioterror thriller that could rival Alien? Well, sir, science has you covered. The geniuses in the ivy towers decided to grow bacteria and bacteriophages in space just to see what would happen!
They grew them together on earth and on the ISS. Then, they compared their mutations. What could go wrong, right? Well, it turns out that the space based phages became super hunter-killers of the earth-based bacteria. Phew! Bullet dodged. So, maybe no novel, hunh.
Microbes in Space Mutated And Developed a Remarkable Ability
One Person’s Bad Omen is Another’s Treasure, amirite?
I’m sure there is a novel plot in here somewhere, too. It could be a fun rom-com with a unique meet cute, a Bollywood extravaganza, a docudrama, a creature feature. The possibilities are endless! This story has it all! Bad omens! Bone swallowing! Storks! An army of women! Mad wild rescues! A come back story!
There is a stork in India that is a carion eater and swallows bones, which can distort their throats in most gruesome ways. It was long considered a bad omen, so people tried to drive them away and destroy their nests and what not, you know, like we do. With everything else, the stork was driven to near extinction.
Along comes an ornithologist who loves the birds and begins talking to the women in the surrounding villages about how great the birds are. And, what do you know, she convinces some of them to begin helping the birds. In true Ponzi scheme style, these women each recruit more women and bing-o bang-o before you know it you’ve got 20,000 women out kicking down doors and dragging evil doers from their beds in the middle of the night for destroying the birds or huge fabulous dance numbers. Take your pick.
From bad omen to national treasure: The rare bone-swallower stork saved by a female army
Image Attribution
This image was found on Animalia using a Creative Commons search.
The Psy of Life 
THere is so much floating around out there there has got to be some fall out (no pun intended)…..one needs a brain for there to be a brain worm….chuq
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Howdy Chuq!
Space junk is just another type of junk that we’re going to have to deal with sooner or later. That reminds me of an old adage of mine, there iis no problem that cannot be dealt with by completely ignoring it. We’re testing it out with climate change here in the US. Maybe we’ll live long enough to test it further with space junk.
Huzzah!
Jack
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What goes up must come down….and will be messy when it does. chuq
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I actually smiled through this one!
Now to get caught up on the back issues…😄
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Howdy Ali!
Glad to have produced a smile in these very distressing and difficult times. God I thought we had gotten past all of this, but…
Huzzah!
Jack
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All these can be filed in the “What could possibly go wrong?” drawer.
Even without the solar storms, we are well on our way to crowding the low orbit space to the point that one out of control item could start the chain reaction of collisions.
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Unfortunately, I think we’re about to find out what could go wrong, and I hope a few things will go right.
Jack
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The Tragic Flaw is and always has been Hubris, and the universe is indifferent to human ambitions.
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The saving grace of the Donald is that if you give him enough rope, he’ll shoot everyone in the gonads. I think we’re just about there.
Jack
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Well, he just ordered Congress to federalize elections. There is some bipartisan screaming as if of blasted gonads.
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Howdy Bob!
The interesting thing about he’s nationalizing the elections remarks was that he directed them to Republicans, saying that Republicans ought to take control of our elections before pivoting to saying that the federal government had to guarantee that the elections were administered fairly. He wants Congress to act, but he wants Republicans to figure a way to put the thumb on the scale for Republicans, which I’m sure Republicans are happy to do, but won’t be able to get around the Senate filibuster.
In 2020, Trump had multiple plans and schemes to take the elections. He will have multiple schemes this time, too. He’s already tried gerrymandering, which looks like it won’t pay off as well as they had hoped. Now, it looks like it will be over challenging ballots and intimidation at the polling places.
Huzzah!
Jack
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The affidavit on which the warrant to seize the Fulton County records is public. It’s a rehash of the same conspiracy theories they’ve been peddling since the election, all of which have been multiply disproved, and some just flat impossible. The County is already challenging, and the absence of any new claim should help. Trump;s DOJ may have set themselves up again by rushing in with obvious BS.
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As more information about the affidavit comes out, it becomes more troubling. How a judge could sign off on a search warrant based on the same-old-same-old from 2020. Who was the judge? How could debunked — debunked in court! — theories and speculations and arguments be used to justify an investigation?
Jack
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There are some judges who are more than happy to do the bidding of the king. Or, it could be a case of, “Go ahead guys, shoot yourselves is the feet.”
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Howdy Bob!
I can’t see any impartial judge granting this search warrant. The surprising thing is that the chain of custody has been broken despite the material legally changing hands from one government agency to another. The FBI didn’t issue an itemized receipt for the material seized. The handling of the election records is as sloppy as the “ninjas” handled the Arizona election records and their audit.
Huzzah!
Jack
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The only scenario scarier than this DOJ’s efforts to prove and/or prosecute false claims is how much worse it would be if they were actually competent.
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And yet, they will count the votes, discover that Trump actually won, and find evidence of fraud. Hopefully, a court of law will find that (a) the federal government has no role in recounting or auditing a state’s votes, so their findings are null and void, and (b) without a clear chain of custody and transparent handling process, these ballots can no longer be used as evidence of anything — they’ve been spoiled — and the certified state results stand. If we’re lucky, criminal charges will result.
Jack
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If we are lucky. Speaking of votes and voters, there is this item. It is a tool associated with the SAVE Act to identify immigrant voters. It makes a lot of mistakes. Is that a bug or a feature?
https://www.propublica.org/article/save-voter-citizenship-tool-mistakes-confusion
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Howdy Bob!
That states are using the tool, accurate or not, to manage their voter rolls with amounts to so much federal interference in what is a state function. The federal government does not have a roll in elections. Unfortunately, since our elections are for national offices, it is intuitive for the federal government to either run them or have some roll in them. Another failure of our civics education. It is ironic that the side of democracy is now allying with states rights.
The errors are much more a feature since it is far more likely to keep likely voters from voting. Perhaps we’ll have to rely on happenstance that Republicans in their eagerness to suppress votes will prevent more of their own voters from voting.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Issues of States Rights have been with us from the start, actually before the start as in the whole debate about Ratification. I think they tend to shift back and forth between the parties, generally being taken up by the party out of power. The Federal government always seems to be doing something some state level politicians don’t like.
Any scheme of voter suppression that involves paper work and personal documents is going to come down harder on the poorer and less educated.
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Howdy Bob!
That’s the thing about MAGA, especially the new voters that Trump has brought into the system, they are poorly educated and underemployed. A lot of those new MAGA voters live on the margins of society. It is one reason they only vote when Trump is actually on the ballot. Whether he can activate them for the mid-terms to save him from impeachment remains to be seen. If the SAVE Act passes, it may not matter.
It will cause issues for people like Ossoff and Crockett and keep the South solidly Republican, though. There are too many well established Republicans in former Confederate States who will be able to meet th requirements. It will remove too many Black voters there. In other places, like rural white states, it may give Democratic candidates a boost, though. It introduces such a wildcard into the election that I’m a little surprised that they are doing it, which suggest that someone at Heritage has gamed the changes out.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Getting more control over who votes and how is the only bet they have. Otherwise they’re toast. And they are being way too blatant about it, including what they are doing with the Census test.
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Howdy Bob!
They’ve gone full corruption, full authoritarian, full anti-democratic, and full white supremacy. Did you hear the dog whistles in Marco Rubio’s Munich speech? We can never trust these folks ever again. No matter what they profess their beliefs to be, their vision of our future, or claims to past actions under Trump, they will always be looking for ways to subvert our democracy and coopt capitalism for oligarchy.
Huzzah!
Jack
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That’s why a whole lot of them have to be prosecuted and ruined, not just voted out. The “THIS IS NOT OK” message needs to be clear, brutally clear, unforgettably clear.
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Howdy Bob!
Because of the politicization of EVERYTHING, but, especially, DoJ prosecutions, we’ll need an independent commission to investigate all of the corruption of Trump and Biden — just to quiet the critics. We can’t even rely on a joint congressional committee because Republicans can’t be on it and won’t be on it and the lack of confidence we have in Congress to do the right thing.
The worst thing Trump has done to us is to destroy truth and fact.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Truth and fact are Trump’s worst enemy, even facts that could help him. That’s how it is when all you have to sell is fantasy and delusion. We may well need a full on Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but only after the real ring leaders do the perp walk.
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Howdy Bob!
Trump is trying to undermine truth, facts, and all other branches and agencies in the government so that the only source of governance is him. It is how the authoritarian concentrates decision making into their own hands. The attack has to be so thorough that no fact can be used. Everything must be a lie.
His succeeded so thoroughly and rapidly that he transferred $10 billion dollars from treasury to the Board of Peace. There is no basis in law for that. It is completely illegal. Hardly a blip in the news cycle or yelp from Congress.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Sometimes, we have to wait for the authoritarian decision maker to f_ up so bigley that it can’t be hidden or blamed on someone else. 😦
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Howdy Bob!
With SCOTUS overturning tariffs, I think Trump has f-ed up bigly. He’s picked up the gun and is actively shooting us all in the gonads and blaming Biden and Clinton and anyone and everyone else for it. Overreach and hubris may finally have come to roost. Let’s hope it isn’t too early for the mid-terms.
Huzzah!
Jack
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This is a major narcissistic wound. He really does not know any other way to do “great” trade deals, and some he has done may now come undone, adding to the pain. the one thing we can count on as he flails about is more chaos. I’m afraid it also means he will attack Iran to demonstrate “strength”.
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Howdy Bob!
The only way that he knows to make deals is through uncompromising intimidating bullying. The tariffs were his ticket to bullying the world… until he guts the US economy. Being ignored and belittled by world leaders in Trump 1.0 was a narcissistic wound that he rectified by the tariffs. They had to “negotiate” with him, which he doesn’t know how to do as evidenced by his work towards ending the Ukraine War and his Board of Peace thing.
He’s already imposed new tariffs under a different scheme . The problem is that the world is quickly sidelining us economically, diplomatically, and militarily. It will take them awhile to get thier alternative infrastructure in place, but it is well underway. As he becomes more irrelevant, it will only compound the wounds he feels and make him all the more dangerous.
Huzzah!
Jack
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He’s going to be doing and escalating as much tariffs as he possibly can in answer to that particular wound, probably changing them from day to day. His relationship to that tool really looks like magical thinking. The business community on both sides of the trade relationship needs stability and predictability. He will take that away.
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