Droplets

 There's no point in waiting for the broadcast "news" to change the subject -- Trump's "sniffles" have squeezed out every other topic for now.  Diagnosed on Wednesday, he spent the better part of the next two days infecting as many people as possible -- herd mentality, best thing for it.  Only kills old people with bum hearts, right?  Clear out the dead wood and rake the forests.  As of today, the lucky winners include Chris Christie, Hope Hicks, Kellyanne Conway, campaign manager Bill Stepien, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Ronna McDaniel, and Rev. John Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame University.  The only time this crew got together was the Rose Garden announcement of the Barrett nomination, where masks were de trop even for Barrett's children, and there was much hugging and kissing to celebrate the coming demise of Roe and Obamacare.

Statistically, one of them will die.  The book is now open and unlike the Trump Taj Mahal Asbestos Depository we will not go broke.  If it's Johnson or Tillis a Democratic governor will name a replacement senator before the body is cold.  If it's Stepien Trump will probably make it official and put Kushner at the head of his crumbling campaign.  If it's Christie, no one will notice.  Place your bets.

Meanwhile, life went on.

In Texas, frightened Republicans pushed Gov. Greg Abbott to remove most ballot drop-boxes from populous (and largely Hispanic and Black) counties like Harris (Houston) and Travis (Austin).  One box per county, although Harris County is larger than Rhode Island.  Needless to say, the lawsuits have already been filed.  

Rick Moranis was walking on Central Park West when a man came up and punched him.  The assault is being called "random and unprovoked," though I believe it was someone who has been angry for years about Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.  "It's shrank, you asshole!"

A group of Saudi expatriates chose the anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi's murder to announce the formation of a new National Assembly party.  If they succeed in bringing representative democracy to Saudi Arabia, there may be hope for the United States.

Nearly four million acres of California have been burned this year, and the fires rage on.

Jemel Roberson tackled a gunman at the bar where he worked as a security guard in 2018.  He was holding the shooter down when Officer Ian Covey walked in and shot him.  Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx has now decided that Covey should face no charges for killing Roberson.  

Coronavirus has killed a million humans but it's been a blessing to other species.  Remember those cool videos of monkeys runnin' wild in a Thai city, kangaroos hopping along empty Australian streets, deer wandering out of urban parks in Japan?  The latest beneficiaries of the unpeopling are humpback whales off the coast of Alaska.  Unpestered by cruise ships, they are singing their hearts out while folks from the Sound Science Research Collective quietly listen and try to understand.  Nature moves in mysterious ways.  (Killer whales trying to go about their lives in the Seattle area are envious.)

American tourist Wesley Barnes didn't enjoy his stay at the Sea View Resort in Koh Chang, Thailand, and said so on Tripadvisor.  Now he's looking at two years in prison under the country's "extremely strict" defamation law.  He probably won't enjoy that either.  Tripadvisor deleted his review but the disparaging comments have now been seen all over the world thanks to this prosecution. 

In a largely meaningless resolution the House voted 371-18 to condemn Q and all other conspiracy traffickers, for which the co-sponsor Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) is now getting death threats.  The ugly eighteen included the usual suspects (King, Gosar, Brooks, Amash) and our very own Earl "Buddy" Carter.  When I wrote to condemn his action I found that Earl "Buddy" had disabled his email.  There was a bland, sniveling statement about "mistakenly" voting Nay because apparently Earl "Buddy" hasn't figured out how the voting thingie works since entering Congress in 2015.  Let's hope he'll be exiting in 2021.  (You can donate to his opponent Joyce Griggs here.)  I had a dog named Buddy who sometimes forgot to lift his leg when he peed.  He would have made a better Congressman than this clown.

Spare a thought for Melania Knauss Trump.  She tested positive for covid, though apparently didn't require hospitalization.  She found out she just negotiated a new pre-nup with someone who can't afford a copy of the Failing New York Times.  And she's been identified as a fifth columnist in the War on Christmas:  "Who gives a fuck about the Christmas stuff and decorations?  I say that I'm working on Christmas and planning for the Christmas and they said, 'Oh, what about the children that they were separated?'  Give me a fucking break."  How now, Braun Knauss?