How's your night going?

 We have been taught to see Labor Day as the official end of summer, although it's still obscenely hot.  It's a strange holiday in a country that has been told organized labor is socialist and the solution to low wages is to get a second or third job.  But it's also a long weekend for people who get far less paid vacation than citizens of the civilized countries, so what the hell.

This is where I am:  When I read that Jean-Paul Belmondo died, my first thought was, "It would be too on-the-nose if the star of Breathless died of covid."  He was 88, I don't know the cause, and I'm embarrassed.  A little.

If you have a hundred thousand quid or so to play with, why not bid on the DNA-authenticated Napoleon hat being auctioned by Bonhams of Hong Kong.  Remember when loonies thought they were Napoleon or Jesus instead of president-for-life?  Sorry, no Jesus memorabilia on offer.

Ray Lin Howard, whose nom de rap is Fat Trophy Wife, was thrown off a flight because Alaska Airlines decided her clothing was "inappropriate."  Who do they think they are, France?  She says it was because "I'm fat, tattooed and mixed race."  Probably not tattooed.

Al Watkins, representing QAnon "Shaman" Jacob Chansley, made a sentencing plea as bizarre as his client's insurrection costume:  "He had a fondness for Trump that was not unlike the first love a man may have for a girl...The first love always, always maintains a tender and soft spot in the heart of the lover."  And they called it puppy love...also mental health issues.  Watkins is asking for time served and maybe a hug from the judge, like the one Amber Guyger got for killing Botham Jean in his living room.

A river ran through it, but not so much now.  Renowned trout streams in the Rocky Mountains are so low that the nation's billion-dollar fly-fishing industry is in jeopardy.   And we always thought global climate change was ten years down the road. 

Tomorrow we find out if Californians want to swap their perfectly competent governor for a raging nutter.  Larry Elder showed up at an anti-vax megachurch -- I'm always surprised at how quickly these new denominations spring up -- and told them sex education "has no role" in schools.  Then he went on the Candace Owens Self-Hating Black People Hour and said slave owners (and their descendants, I suppose) are due reparations for the "property" stolen from them by the Union Army.  I don't know why he wants to be a governor when there are so many people in Orange County whose shoes need polishing.

Speaking of tax-free enemies of the people, Trump has set up a National Faith Advisory Board of superstition industry operatives friendly to him.  In the inaugural conference call he whined about lack of support from Jews despite moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, which is apparently not a major concern for 75 percent of Jewish voters.  Catholics also deserted him (although he totally won the election, of course) despite all he did for them, not specified.  He's disappointed in Biden's "anti-faith agenda" and not fooled by his regular attendance at mass -- if he were truly godly, like Trump, Biden would never have to get up early on Sunday at all.  The whole thing was so clueless that the recording was yanked off YouTube by Trump's disciples, but HuffPost made a copy.  Thank you, HuffPost.

"They have a view of the world that's out of synch with modern times," Lindsey Graham informed the BBC.  But he was talking about the Taliban, not the Texas legislature, and he's itching to get the war going again.  I know what you're wondering:  Why would the BBC care what Lindsey Graham thinks?

It sounds like Jim Acosta of  CNN has had enough.  He described Tucker Carlson as a "human manure spreader" for his latest brain bubble that Democrats are rushing Afghan refugees to "your neighborhood" so they can start voting immediately, which is not how naturalization works. Human, Jim?  He also called Cawthorn and Greene "American Taliban" promoting "theocracy and thugocracy."  Just because Cawthorn preaches jailbreaks and Greene calls the President "a piece of shit," you have to go all down and dirty?  What, oh what became of civility?

  "Brazilian viper venom shows promise as drug to combat covid."  (The Hill)

Finally, something the snake-handlers will embrace.