It’s not exactly a charm offensive. But it is offensive.

No doubt, mistakes were made and missteps taken during Covid, but this hind-sighted attempt to skewer Anthony Fauci, the point person who was trying to do his job amidst constant pushback and handcuffing from a stupefyingly ignorant administration—especially the POTUS—is a malicious, wicked witch hunt all its own.

How dare Rand Paul pursue this attack on Dr. Fauci! Aren’t there more legitimately pressing issues to tend to?

I never thought I’d see an instance where pleading the 5^th made perfect sense, where I didn’t automatically rush to judgment and declare, in my mind, that the person doing the pleading had to be guilty. In Fauci’s case, he did what he needed to do to protect himself from Paul and the rest, who simply have it out for the guy who was trying to keep people safe in the middle of a fucking pandemic.

By the way—discrediting scientists and smart people is part of Project 2025. Weaken public confidence in the very people who actually know what they’re talking about, and trained in the methods that lead them beyond missteps to important discoveries and breakthroughs.

All Paul and the rest have in their arsenal is an irrational vengeance, and a hunger for finding scapegoats on their wild goose chases. All so they can keep in the good graces of the decaying toddler at the top.

So, there was not much talk of election fraud after Trump won in 2024. Is it because he won, as opposed to losing? Is it because the fraud was negligible, the margin was fairly robust—2 million votes or so—or because Democrats took the high road and refused to follow the script Trump usually rolls out after an election he lost?

I’ve often wondered about that comment Trump made at some point during the 2024 campaign regarding how his supporters won’t even have to vote. What?

I’ve heard a few whispers since then, but nothing that would amount to a growing concern. The results were tabulated without much fanfare, and the country proceeded to gird its loins in preparation for four more years of Trumpian “brilliance.” It’s been a joyride ever since.

One win after another. So much winning. We’re exhausted from all the winning.

Do we have the right people in place at the U.S Bureau of Reclamation to tend to the current situation at Lake Mead and Hoover Dam? Is there anyone awake there who gives a shit?

I realize that this is a simmering disaster in the making due in part to 25 years of drought and an ungodly level of demand downstream. I can’t help but think, though, that no one in this current administration even knows how to address the looming disaster or even cares that it’s happening. It’s just another thing to add to the long list of time bombs and items to neglect.

Of course, maybe someone could have seen the writing on the wall, as millions of people poured into a desert and thought it would be a good place to put down roots.

Will AI be the downfall of many a 9 to 5? Will machines replace humans on a large enough scale to force a re-imagining of what it means to earn a paycheck? It seems this is the fear.

I believe Elon Musk has even suggested a guaranteed monthly income in lieu of an hourly wage, some sort of major restructuring of how we think about work, or the lack thereof, and what we’d do with all the resulting free time.

I guess what I’d like to know is if this is shaping up to be a major cart-before-the-horse event. An imaginative and powerful group of entrepreneurs develops a groundbreaking technology that is highly sophisticated and potentially disruptive, and then just tries to sell it as some sort of godsend, without seemingly much of a beta run, in the absence of long-term data collection or simple observation.

They go all-in on springing it on a public that doesn’t even know what questions to ask.

Epstein

The Trump cabal is good at creating media frenzy over mostly non-descript, though sometimes important stuff. They get the networks all riled up about something over here, while tending to the meat and potatoes of implementing Project 2025 over there.  

One might think the media would have caught on by now, but it seems they just keep falling for it. Meanwhile, Trump and the rest just laugh all the way to the bank, oblivious to actual governance.

Many realize the awfulness of the situation, shocked and dismayed and incredulous over the fact that it’s still going on, that this soulless knucklehead continues to command so much attention and seeming devotion.

Epstein

Not unlike gawking at an accident scene, I sometimes click on women’s MMA video clips, and I come away from the experience thinking that the female of our species is more tenacious and vicious than men ever could be.

For me, the overarching theme, whether it’s men or women—and whether boxing or MMA—is that these people are either desperate, angry/inordinately aggressive, always feeling as though they have something to prove, or a combination thereof.

A person can be competitive without wanting to punch or elbow or kick someone’s lights out, or render them unconscious in a relentless, merciless head lock. I know there’s money to be made, but there also appears to be an accompanying and sometimes steep cost.

And the venues themselves—the spectators, the blood lust, the cage or ring with the dueling gladiators—come across as just modern-day Colosseums. A reminder that we are more sophisticated animals who haven’t come all that far.