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Hooray for me! The ginormous, finger-mummifying cast has finally been swapped out for a sleeker, keyboard-friendly model. My fingers no longer resemble Vienna sausages crammed into a Ziploc (Vern’s favorite snack), though this new contraption still isn’t exactly launching me back to my Olympic-level typing speeds (100 words per minute… give or take half of that). Anyway, I can now resume answering the reviews I owe—oh, and prepare some good old-fashioned retaliation… er, I mean, reciprocity. Totally reciprocity.

Happy trails,
MJ

“Thanks all,” said one sad little Vienna sausage.
“See ya soon,” another one blabbed.
Bernice the cat walked across the laptopppppppppppppuuutrdcewsw.

mj

I get the optimism—we really need it. But hope alone won't save us. Every time someone pushes for real change, there's a crowd of people who are too lazy, too cynical, or too entitled to help. They'll argue online all day but won't actually do anything. They act like they know everything but won't plant a tree, clean up trash, or even recycle. They expect someone else to handle it.

Well, those "someone elses" are gone. We've pushed away the people who kept our food system running—field workers, laborers, the people who actually do the work—and now farmers can't find help. The privileged class won't step in because they think manual labor is beneath them. They'd rather complain online than get their hands dirty. Our supply chains from other countries no longer exist thanks to a man who never got past page 1 in Economics 101, the part where tariffs are explained in detail... that says tariffs levied on other countries only mean higher prices for the consumers of those products, which of course are you and me. Example: Mexico just cut off their supply of tomatoes to the US due to imposed tariffs, while the US sits with fields of tomatoes rotting on the vines because there are no workers to pick them. Wonder how that happened? This only means that for Thanksgiving dinner, you can expect to pay $10 for one tomato, if you can find one.

We've got a "leader" (somehow that word doesn't feel right) whose only plan is "drill, drill, drill," selling off public lands to the highest bidder. Goodbye, Yellowstone. He doesn't care about conservation or climate change—just money and power. And we've got corrupt judges, including Supreme Court justices, who've been bought and paid for. Corruption is so bad it's basically official policy now. And goodbye, Big Bird and Ernie... PBS was just slashed because it didn't feature anyone with an orange face. Kids grew up on Sesame Street, which taught them how to do good, how to be neat and tidy, how to care about others, how to be a friend, and how to live in these times. For some kids, that's all they had because their parents are too busy for them. But no more. No more Public Broadcasting System. Gone by the wayside, soon to be replaced with only one TV station, and for those of you who are smart, you know who that TV station will feature non-stop. Ask North Korea what that's like.

So yes, George, you're right in that we shouldn't give up. But let's be honest: we're not just fighting climate change and trash. We're fighting greed, laziness, entitlement, and a system that's falling apart because nobody cares anymore. If we don't start being real about what we're up against, we'll just sit here watching everything fall apart, wondering how it happened.

Where is that asteroid when you need it most?

Oh, yes, about those temperatures... we are back to normal today, but that's because it rained last night and it's raining here today with thunderstorms, gigantic cracks of thunder and lightning.

Call it what you will, but this heat is unprecedented. I've lived in this same place for thirty years, and I've never experienced anything like this July. Since August is typically our hottest month, I'm dreading what's coming next.

Today was slightly better—"only" 105 degrees, a full five degrees cooler than yesterday's record-breaking 110. We're still looking at another night of thunderstorms with lightning and dangerous winds, which has become the nightly routine.

The only comparable year I can remember was 2007, when we went more than three months without rain. That summer, I watched our hay fields turn brown and crisp, leaving me scrambling to buy hay from south Georgia where they'd actually had rainfall. By summer's end, I was trucking hay in from Texas because the entire East Coast looked like it had been torched.

If this July is any indication of what August holds, we might be looking at 2007 all over again—or worse.

And you're only about 50 miles north of me. I heard we were supposed to be cooler, too... maybe it will be 105 today instead of 110. Wow, it's a scorcher. I've given up on my garden... can't keep it watered enough and everything is dying.

If there was ever a time to impeach a senator or a representative, now is the time. If we could get these do-nothings out of office and get someone in who will stand up to this fat jerk, we'd be better off. If you or I went to work at the railroad everyday and did absolutely nothing, and the train ran off the track, we'd be fired from our job. These Republican senators need to be kicked out the door. Impeached. That's where we have to start... on the local level because they have done nothing. Trump illegally got us in a war without going through Congress. That is a reason for impeachment at the highest, but they do nothing.

This country truly needs a third party. I personally am a fan of Bernie Sanders, but he'll never win as long as he's an Independent. Plus he's getting too old now. But he keeps his rhetoric going year after year, and he's made enough money off politics for his entire family to live happily ever after. Looks like Gavin Newsome may take a stab at it in the next election... if there is one.

Changing the subject, but did anyone watch the opening of the G7? I was so embarrassed to know that big orange buffoon represented our country. All he could talk about was his BFF Putin, but Carney shut him down. I knew he'd leave before it was over because the attention was on Carney and not trump. He can't stand being around anyone smarter than him, so he had to get back home so he could be Boss Hogg in the comfort of his oval office, surrounding himself with the resident idiots.

I can't believe the general public is okay with all these major companies that are leaving the US because of the idiot's tariffs. GE announced today it's leaving. When they do there will be hundreds of thousands of people unemployed, thanks to the hatchet Musk took to jobs, Walmart's decision to leave, Amazon's threat, and now GE. Why isn't there a hunting squad out somewhere ready to end this nonsense? I don't get it. And I can guarantee you the CEOs of all those companies voted for trump. The other news I heard today is that Canada has said they will cut off all the power they are now supplying to the northern states. They at first put a 25% retaliation tariff on it, but now Mark Carney is saying he's going to cut it all off. Do you think any of these states will start an open rebellion? I've worked for a power company before, and building a power grid takes years, not days or weeks. Those huge transmission lines are not built overnight, and neither are the substations needed to power up the neighborhoods.

And, yet today, trump reiterated his tariff bullshit. I don't know when this madness will stop. And, Vern, I agree that trump never backs down once something is underway, but his advisors may have told him to back off Musk. We know Musk bought the election... he said so... when will we stop that kind of thing from happening again? We have to put limits on how much a company and an individual can give to one campaign. That's totally ridiculous because little peons like myself have to live with the candidates the rich people buy. We haven't been a "democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people" in decades, but it's worse now than ever.