Santa Dog

Dedicated to those who recognize living as a heroic act: the occupiers of sunup barstools; the cubicle-planted; the ghosts of Greyhounds; the reasonably sketchy. A burlap hero is one who marches—consciously or not—back to the sea in hopes of making no splash, who understands and embraces the imperfection of being, and in that way, stretches the definition of sainthood to fit.

- Nate Wooley

This map appeared in today's NY Times showing household CO₂ emissions broken down by census-block tracts. There's a lesson to be learned from the distribution here.  Downtown Atlanta, with its dense, multifamily housing, is well below the national average in terms of tons of CO₂ emitted. But as one moves away from downtown toward the less dense, single-family neighborhoods, the rate jumps up significantly to well above the national average.

The pattern is interrupted by areas close to the interstates and major arterials. Gor a long time, those have been the only places where any semblance of density has been allowed. Not always the walkable, bikeable, transit-connected, mixed-use stuff we should be building, but density none the less.

So what is that lesson?  Single-family neighborhoods are killing the planet.  Do you part - burn down a suburb today!  (Just kidding to make a point!  Don't burn down anything - that's just more emissions!)

I zoomed in on the online map enough to identify my own street (I'm on the innermost tips of one of those high-emission fingers).  The map indicated that emissions here are higher than the national average, or 40-50 tons per household, although the transportation, housing, food, goods, and services sources were about average, so I'm not sure what the driver is.  

 

The following is a viral text by an unknown (as of now) author that says it all just about as well as one can:

I really don’t owe my Trump-supporting friends an apology. I’ve been critical of the Trump presidency these last several years, and am still exhausted from the experience. But to be fair, President Trump wasn’t that bad. . . OTHER THAN 

• when he incited an insurrection against the government, 
• mismanaged a pandemic that killed a million Americans, 
• separated children from their families, 
• lost those children in the bureaucracy, 
• tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church, 
• tried to block all Muslims from entering the country, 
• got impeached, 
• got impeached again, 
• had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history, 
• pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden, 
• fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia, 
• bragged about firing the FBI director on TV, 
• took Vladimir Putin’s word over the US intelligence community, 
• diverted military funding to build his wall, 
• caused the longest government shutdown in US history, 
• called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate,” 
• lied nearly 30,000 times, 
• banned transgender people from serving in the military, 
• ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions, 
• vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers, 
• refused to release his tax returns, 
• increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion, 
• had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history, 
• called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers, 
• coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist, 
• refused to concede the 2020 election, 
• hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House, 
• walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl, 
• called neo-Nazis “very fine people,” 
• suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID, 
• abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey, 
• pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans, 
• incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic, 
• withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords, 
• withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal, 
• withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block China’s advances, 
• insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter, 
• pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op, 
• failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies, 
• called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries, 
• called the city of Baltimore the “worst in the nation,” 
• claimed that he single handedly brought back the phrase “Merry Christmas” even though it hadn’t gone anywhere, 
• forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader, 
• believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 
• berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe, 
• suggested the US should buy Greenland, 
• colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges, 
• repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people,” 
• claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we’d have fewer cases, 
• violated the emoluments clause, 
• thought that Nambia was a country, 
• told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public, 
• called his exceedingly faithful vice president a “p---y” for following the Constitution, 
• nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet, 
• nominated a corrupt head of the EPA, 
• nominated a corrupt head of HHS, 
• nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department, 
• nominated a corrupt head of the USDA, 
• praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies, 
• refused to allow the presidential transition to begin, 
• insulted war hero John McCain – even after his death, 
• spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president, 
• falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote, 
• called the Muslim mayor of London a “stone cold loser,” 
• falsely claimed that he turned down being Time’s Man of the Year, 
• considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions, 
• mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID, 
• locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones, 
• used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the “China virus,” 
• hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser, 
• pardoned several of his shady associates, 
• gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressman who amplified his batshit crazy conspiracy theories, 
• got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia (!), 
• had a Secretary of State who called him a moron, 
• forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history, 
• botched the COVID vaccine rollout, 
• tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him, 
• charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties, 
• constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate, 
• claimed that COVID would “magically” disappear, 
• called a U.S. Senator “Pocahontas,” 
• used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka’s merchandise, 
• opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling, 
• got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers, 
• claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US, 
• ignored or didn’t even take part in daily intelligence briefings, 
• blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining, 
• redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle, 
• got played by Kim Jung Un and his “love letters,” 
• threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution, 
• botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, 
• threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them, 
• pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to “find” him votes, 
• thought that the Virgin islands had a President, 
• drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane, 
• allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing, 
• rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos, 
• pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID, 
• rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers, 
• held blatant campaign rallies at the White House, 
• tried to take away millions of Americans’ health insurance because the law was named for a Black man, 
• refused to attend his successors’ inauguration, 
• nominated the worst Education Secretary in history, 
• threatened judges who didn’t do what he wanted, 
• attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, 
• promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn’t), 
• allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues, 
• struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble, 
• called an African-American Congresswoman “low IQ,” 
• threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders, 
• went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic, 
• claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were “witch hunts,” 
• seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution, 
• demanded “total loyalty” from the FBI director, 
• praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles, 
• completely gutted the Voice of America, 
• placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service, 
• claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower, 
• suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country, 
• suggested that COVID wasn’t that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public, 
• overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported, 
• reduced the number of refugees the US accepts, 
• insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames, 
• gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address, 
• named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who’d previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties, 
• eliminated the White House office of pandemic response, 
• used soldiers as campaign props, 
• fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him, 
• demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade, 
• hired a shit ton of white nationalists, 
• politicized the civil service, 
• did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the U.S. government, 
• falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts, 
• claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won, 
• insulted reporters of color, 
• insulted women reporters, 
• insulted women reporters of color, 
• suggested he was fine with China’s oppression of the Uighurs, 
• attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him, 
• summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House to pressure them to overturn the election, 
• spent countless hours every day watching Fox News, 
• refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas, 
• hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer, 
• tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him, 
• acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney, 
• attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a women who accused him of sexual assault, 
• held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present, 
• didn’t disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media, 
• stopped holding press briefings for months at a time, 
• “ordered” US companies to leave China even though he has no such power, 
• led a political party that couldn’t even be bothered to draft a policy platform, 
• claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers, 
• tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course, 
• suggested that the government nuke hurricanes, 
• suggested that wind turbines cause cancer, 
• said that he had a special aptitude for science, 
• fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure, 
• blurted out classified information to Russian officials, 
• tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida, 
• fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban, 
• hired Stephen Miller, 
• openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them, 
• interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel, 
• abandoned Iraqi refugees who’d helped the U.S. during the war, 
• tried to get Russia back into the G7, 
• held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden, 
• seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive, 
• lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated, 
• falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren’t, 
• shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies, 
• still hasn’t come up with a healthcare plan, 
• still hasn’t come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated “Infrastructure Weeks,” 
• forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID, 
• told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,” 
• fucked up the Census, 
• withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic, 
• did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings,” 
• allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act, 
• seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, 
• stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win, 
• constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president which presumably includes four that were assassinated and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump, 
• claimed Andrew Jackson could’ve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened, 
• said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake, 
• claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him, 
• claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President, 
• created a commission to whitewash American history, 
• retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain, 
• claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn’t have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there, 
• hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent Bowling Green Massacre as a reason to ban Muslims, 
• had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others, 
• bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties, 
• apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House, 
• stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians, 
• falsely claimed Biden wanted to defund the police, 
• said that the head of the CDC didn’t know what he was talking about, 
• tried to rescind protection from DREAMers, 
• gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic, 
• tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax, 
• said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn’t count blue states, 
• deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented, 
• claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln, 
• touted a “super-duper” secret “hydrosonic” missile which may or may not be a new “hypersonic” missile or may not exist at all, 
• retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile, 
• forced through security clearances for his family, 
• suggested that police officers should rough up suspects, 
• suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs, 
• tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender, 
• suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher, 
• nominated a climate change sceptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy, 
• retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden had played a song called “Fuck tha Police” at a campaign event, 
• hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags, 
• accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his State of the Union address, 
• claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on Russia, 
• mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, 
• obsessed over low-flow toilets, 
• ordered the rerelease of more COVID vaccines when there weren’t any to release, 
• called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek), 
• hijacked Washington’s July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech, 
• took advice from the MyPillow guy, 
• claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists, 
• said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition figure, 
• never seemed to heed the advice of his wife’s “Be Best” campaign, 
• falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent, 
• announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest, 
• insulted the leader of Canada, 
• insulted the leader of France, 
• insulted the leader of Britain, 
• insulted the leader of Germany, 
• insulted the leader of Sweden (Sweden!!), 
• falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues, 
• blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually, 
• continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders, 
• said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their “Sony televisions” if the US were ever attacked, 
• left a NATO summit early in a huff, 
• stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of 5 knows not to do that, 
• called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary, 
• refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise. 

Don’t forget that he took many classified & top secret documents with him when he left the White House, many of which have not been recovered & may have been compromised. I'm sure there are a whole bunch of other things I can’t remember at the moment. I'm sure none of the above comes close to whatever is on Hunter Biden's laptop.

But other than that. . . 

 

My Office Today

 

The Geology of Georgia - Part Alabama

 Notes From a Very Occasional Series

Italian protester with a rainbow flag and a t-shirt reading "Save Ukraine" on the front and "Respect for Iranian Women" on the back rushes the field during the World Cup match between Portugal and Uruguay at Lusail Stadium in Qatar.

I really can't think of anything to say to add to this, but didn't want it to go by without being included here.

From the True Crime Desk

I'll have to file it under "Things I'll Never Know," but I have no idea if the police ever found the woman walking up my neighbor's driveway yesterday, or why the police were even looking for her in the first place. Those kind of small-crime stories don't make the evening news, there are no newspapers anymore to speak of, and the whole world seems to lurch from one crisis to the next without ever reflecting on the fuller story behind any one of those crises.

The separate shooting at Atlantic Station yesterday was big enough of a story to get press coverage. That indicdent apparently started after a group of young people were escorted off the Atlantic Station property by security for unruly behavior and violating the area’s curfew for minors. Two groups among those escorted off site apparently knew each other and some sort of altercation broke out. By the time it was over, five victims, all teenagers, had been shot and a 12-year-old boy killed.

Police haven't said whether they have identified any suspects. 

Last month, two women were shot at Atlantic Station ten days apart in similar incidents after being caught in the crossfire between feuding groups. And last January, another woman was shot there, again after being caught between groups that were fighting.

The gun infestation in American culture has now gotten to the point where groups of teenage schoolchildren are now armed and settling whatever beefs they have by shooting at each other.  Second Amendment or not, we need some common-sense guns laws in this country to stem the tide of weapons in too many hands, as well as some better parenting to keep high-schoolers from packing a piece when they're hanging out with friends.

From the True Crime Desk

Do you know this woman?  This picture is from my next-door neighbor's doorbell cam.  They're real curious what she's doing in their driveway, too, especially since the police were out and about in the neighborhood looking for her.

The apparent backstory is it seems there was a nearby car robbery followed by a police chase.  The suspects fled on foot and the police caught one on my block, about five or so houses up from me.  The other suspect appears to be this woman, who was likely looking for a way to escape from the neighborhood without being seen out on the street.

The police searched my neighbor's backyard and my backyard and the backyards of several adjacent houses.  No sign of her.  She apparently found a way out, or got an Uber driver to come pick her up.  

In other police news, there was a shooting tonight in the nearby Atlantic Station mixed-use development. It's still very much an active police scene, and some news bulletins say at least one person was killed and others say several people were shot without specifying how many were shot fatally.  

Atlantic Station has been the scene recently of several violent incidents, usually involving teenagers hanging out and some low-level gang activity.  It's not at all clear yet whether tonight's gunplay is more of the same, or just the latest in the U.S.A.'s tragic tradition of mass shootings. Anyway, the "Breaking News" announcements say the police are on another manhunt now looking for the suspect or suspects, and given that Atlantic Station is very close to here, they may be back in my hood before the night is over.

From the Sports Desk

 

Thanks for the Last and Greatest Betrayal of the Last and Greatest of Human Dreams

I've posted this on many previous Thanksgivings, but this year it seems more appropriate than ever.

Uvalde last May. Colorado Springs last weekend. Chesapeake, Virginia last night.

The “good guy with a gun” who stopped the Virginia shooter, a manager in the Walmart he was shooting up, was the Virginia shooter, who put a bullet in his own head after killing five.

Thoughts and prayers aren’t working. Neither is Congress. But something has to change.

Back last May, "numerous" good guys with guns cowered outside of an unlocked door while a gunman shot fatally shot 19 school children and two teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.  The cops cowering outside the door either couldn't or wouldn't stop the bad guy with a gun from killing the children in the classroom.

Last weekend, an armed man in body amor entered a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs and opened fire with the same kind of semi-automatic gun used in Uvalde.  He killed five people before an unarmed dad (ex-military) and a drag queen quickly overpowered him, took the gun away, and gave him a damn good beating until the police arrived.

We don't need "good guys with guns."  We need more heroic dads and drag queens.

Let me put it this way: if I was in danger from a mass shooter, I'd much rather have John Fetterman than Greg Abbott watching my back.

Amy Bony Carrot needs to recuse.

Clarence Thomas needs to resign.

Samuel Alito needs to remove himself from all public discourse.

These actions won't solve all our problems, but would be a good start.

As many have pointed out, it's apparent that the incoming Republican Congress has no platform or planned agenda to improve the inflation, crime, and illegal immigration they've been complaining about all year, but are instead planning to distract the public with so-called "culture war" issues like drag-queen story hours, trans athletes, "wokeness" (whatever that is), and covid response (even though the pandemic now seems to be blessedly over).

They're particularly focused on investigations into Hunter Biden's laptop. We can expect a lot of congressional inquiries, hearings, headlines, and airtime related to Hunter Biden's laptop.

The sorry news is that the left doesn't care about Hunter Biden's laptop, nor do we feel particularly compelled to defend Hunter Biden.  Republicans mistake the "both parties are alike" philosophy to mean that Democrats have the same cultlike devotion and fealty to our titular leader, Joe Biden, that they do to Donald Trump and his family.  

Look, as I've said before, Biden wasn't my first choice for the party's nomination, and he wasn't my second, third, or fourth choice, either.  But he's the president now and I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised that he's doing not nearly as terrible a job as I had thought.  In fact, I think he's doing about the best he can given all of the circumstances. But I don't think he was sent here to Earth by our savior Jesus Christ or that he's above criticism, reproachment, and, if he broke the law, justice.

Here's what does bother me, and I'm surprised it doesn't bother more people.  I'm surprised it doesn't bother you.  The last time I checked, Hunter Biden is not a government employee, holds no elected position, and deserves the same rights of due process and presumption of innocence as any American citizen.  Isn't it a little unseemly that the U.S. House of Representatives is announcing its intention of bearing all of its investigative powers and awesome authorities on a private, non-elected American citizen? That if they really thought that there's something there, they aren't referring the case over to the Justice Department, like Biden did with the potential case against Donald J. Trump?

Republicans will retort that's not the way Clarence Thomas and Brent Cavanaugh were treated, and I'll remind them that Thomas and Cavanaugh were being considered for a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the United States. Hunter Biden isn't. Republicans will say that the theoretical case against Hunter Biden might extend all the way to his father, the President, and should therefore be investigated and I'd say fine, tell that to the Justice Department or investigate Joe Biden himself, who's very much a member of government and an elected official.

If Congress spends the better part of the next two years persecuting a private citizen as political theater or a distraction from their lack of a legislative agenda, that opens the door to them persecuting any "political enemy" they see fit, elected or not.  Look out, Stacy Abrams.  Be careful, Michael Moore.  Watch your back, Rachel Maddow.

It opens the door to a scary form of totalitarianism I'd really rather not see.

This post is for my Georgia friends.

Please don't vote for Hershel Walker (R).  If his opponent, the Rev. Raphael Warnock (D) wins instead, the Democrats will have a 51-person majority in the Senate and the yacht-dwelling, coal-loving, millionaire pictured above will lose his stranglehold on the Senate.  

A vote for Warnock, in a way, is a vote against Manchin, or at least his disproportionate influence on the White House's legislative agenda.

That, plus Walker's just a fucking idiot anyway, and has no business being anywhere near the Capitol. 

Nancy Pelosi (1961)

 

From the Gaming Desk

To jump right to the point, in the first half of the year 2022, I enjoyed playing video games.  The experience ranged from an entertaining diversion to an all-consuming passion. But in the second half of 2022, gaming became a tiresome slog, a cheerless, time-wasting grind.

I don't think the games necessarily got worse.  I think the difference was within my own self.

Between January and June, I happily worked my way through Far Cry 6, the Mass Effect trilogy, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Days Gone.  Even back then, I would have conceded that some of those titles weren't necessarily the best-written or -produced games, but damn it, I had fun playing them anyway.

Then I downloaded Fallout 3.  I enjoyed Fallout 4 and New Vegas, even the widely reviled Fallout 76, but I absolutely hated Fallout 3.  The missions all seemed pointless, and for an open-world game, way too much time was spent running around in poorly lit D.C. Metro tunnels. The NPCs were all forgettable and the gameplay mechanics felt dated.  I played through to the end, because I'm nothing if not a completionist, but it was an overall unenjoyable experience.  

And then last June, I started playing the critically acclaimed Bioshock series of games (Bioshock, Bioshock II, and Bioshock Infinity). I hated them. Far from the open-world format of many games I enjoy, playing Bioshock felt like running an endless gauntlet through a series of tubes, with little or no rest or diversion, and practically no direct human contact (NPCs were to a person all enemies to be shot or otherwise dispatched of as quickly as possible).  As some point, after I, II, and about 80% of Infinity, I just quit. I couldn't find any motivation to even open the game back up, much less jump back in and continue to play.

It's hard to convincingly argue that Fallout 3 and the Bioshock games are objectively worse than, say, Far Cry 6 and Days Gone.  The difference in my experience probably has much more to do with my own state of mind than the quality of the games.  The games didn't change - I must have changed.

For a while, I went back to Fallout 76, picking the game back up where I had left off after the final mission and "beating" the game a year ago.  I just roamed around the map for a while, my high-level character nearly indestructible, taking on the Daily Challenges and Group Events the developers came up with to keep people playing. It was fun enough - certainly more fun than completing Bioshock Infinity - but ultimately seemed pointless. What's the point when there's no longer any story or plot? It just seemed like putting oneself in harm's way for no apparent reason.

But I then went back to Fallout 4, another game I've already played through at least three or four times, again picking back up as a high-level character after my last completion.  To my surprise, I was still able to find some locations and side missions that I had somehow missed on all my previous playthroughs or had totally forgotten altogether. Replaying 4 was more fun than 76 and certainly better than Bioshock Infinity, so I decided to take yet another run through the Fallout 4 Commonwealth. 

First, though, I rolled up my sleeves and went back and finished Bioshock Infinity, because I'm nothing if not a completionist.

I read somewhere, probably a Reddit forum, that playing Fallout 4 in "survival mode" makes the game a whole different experience.  The game has several different degree-of-difficult settings, or modes - Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard, and then Survival, the most difficult level of all. In Survival, enemies are 200% stronger, meaning most can kill your character with a single gunshot (sort of like real life). Health recovery after an injury is much, much slower, meaning that during a fight, one often has to retreat and hide somewhere until the Health Bar fully recovers.  Fast travel is turned off, and as a result if you want to go somewhere, you have to get there the old-fashioned way by walking.  And most significantly, game saving is not allowed, or at least greatly restricted.  The only way to save your progress is to find a bed somewhere and sleep for at least an hour.  And even then, if you try to beat the system by sleeping too often, your character comes down with one of various diseases, inhibiting your game performance.

It is indeed a whole different experience.  You become extremely risk-adverse, as almost any encounter has at least a 50% or better chance of killing your character, and losing whatever experience you gained since your last save/sleep.  You really have to plan out every fight, playing much more of a stealth/sniper game than in the regular Fallout 4 gameplay.  And there's no reason to be a hero - in survival mode, if you see some NPCs under attack and calling for help, you're better off just ignoring them and moving on instead of charging in to the rescue with guns blazing.  Your goal is to survive, not necessarily thrive, and what were those guys thinking when entering an old "abandoned" building (or whatever) anyway? Besides, whatever enemies are in the area are focused on them, and you can sneak away more easily.

If your ethics find those kinds of actions objectionable, then survival mode may not be for you.  

On paper, the challenges of survival mode don't sound like something that I would enjoy. Why make a game harder just for the sake of difficulty? But in survival, the game becomes vastly more immersive.  You have to always be paying attention, as any chance encounter can be fatal and ruin your day. By walking everywhere, you become so much more intimately familiar with the landscape and locations, and the relational distances and directions between them.  It all becomes, in a very palpable way, to feel real.  It's the most fun I've had with a Fallout game since I started playing in 2017.

All the walking and avoiding game-advancing missions slows the game down incredibly though. According to Steam, I've put over 400 hours into the game since reloading and I haven't even completed The Glowing Sea mission and met Virgil yet. I doubt I'll ever complete the game in survival mode, and will have to eventually overcome my completionist tendencies and move on to something else.   

But at least I'm not in goddamn Rapture anymore fighting Bioshock foes.

Some people go out of their way to take the time to listen to new music because they crave hearing something new, while others like to hear familiar songs and are okay with having that experience only a few times per day. Please allow me a wonky, scientific explanation for why some people like new music while others like familiar music.

The human brain has two systems for processing music. One is called “veridical” and releases doses of serotonin when it hears familiar music that it already knows. As the process gets more and more efficient over time for a particular song, we call it “that song growing on me.” That feeling of joy or pleasure one experiences when “that song” comes on is the veridical system releasing serotonin to the brain.

The other system is called “schematic.” In this system, the brain releases that sweet, sweet serotonin when it figures out what is happening in new, unfamiliar music. It’s similar to the endorphin rush some folks experience when they solve a puzzle. It’s what’s happening when one suddenly “gets” why Thelonious Monk is playing seemingly “wrong” notes at “odd” times in melodies. It’s what’s happening when one “gets into” early Animal Collective records, or underground hip-hop, or Corsican polyphonic singing, or Indonesian trance music.

Nobody’s brain is all one way or the other, but some people are more veridical than schematic while some are the other way around. If your brain is primarily veridical, familiar music will give you the most pleasure. If your brain is primarily schematic, you’ll be constantly looking out for new musical puzzles to be solved.

A thought experiment: you’re stranded on a desert island for many years. You can choose one of two magical iPods to listen to while stranded. One will play every song you've ever heard and as often as you like, but will never play anything new. The other will always play something amazing that you’ve never heard before, but will never play any song more than once and you'll never hear your old favorites. Which you choose, and your feelings for and against each choice, tells you about how veridical or how schematic your own brain is. 

Personal experience: A few years ago, I was at a show by Alex Bleeker & the Freaks. I was familiar with Bleeker’s playing with the band Real Estate, but hadn’t yet heard his solo stuff. My schematic system was having a lot of fun processing new melodies and songs, but during one extended jam, they started playing a familiar set of chords I couldn’t quite place. The band played around with the melody, riffing and improvising on the lines, without ever spelling it out exactly. What was that song? I knew that I knew it, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it. “That sound, what is it?,” my brain demanded. My schematic system was in overdrive trying to “figure out” what they were playing. Then suddenly, as the guitar reached the chorus, Bleeker started singing, “I’m walking on sunshine (oh yeah).”

That was it! Katrina & the Waves! Walking on Sunshine!  The whole audience suddenly erupted loudly into cheers, so I know I wasn’t the only one who just experienced a double shot of endorphins  - a schematic dose of serotonin from “solving the puzzle” of what was playing, followed by a second, veridical dose as the familiar Top 40 hit was played. Felt good, man.

Listen to whatever you like as frequently or infrequently as suits you. There’s no right or wrong. It’s all just what works for you and the chemistry set in your head.

Alert readers will recall that I almost elected not to go to next year's Big Ears festival because of the way the line-up poster read.  Taken literally, the poster seemed to suggest that the headliners would be Mali's Amadou & Miriam.

Look, I love Malian music and I like Amadou & Miriam.  But as headliners for a music festival? Didn't seem to warrant the literally thousands of dollars I would have to pay for a VIP pass, hotel accommodations, food, gas, beer, etc.

But I looked a little closer and bought the ticket anyway.  Since then, my faith has been rewarded multiple times by announcements of additional acts.  It seems Big Ears is going all-out on what will be their 10th Anniversary festival.

In addition to new performers that I know (Sun Ra Arkestra, Gyan Riley, and Anthony Coleman), the new announcements included even more performers whom I had not heard before.  For instance, the duo of Justin Adams and Mario Durante.  New to me, but if this one video is any indication, they will be on my Spotify playlists for a long while.

 

 

As forecast, the remnants of Hurricane Nicole, now downgraded to Tropical Depression Nicole, passed over Atlanta way early this morning and dumped bucketloads of rain on Georgia.  I don't know yet what the total rainfall was in inches, but in terms of hours it rained pretty steadily from about midnight until at least 9:00 a.m.  

No storm damage here, no fallen trees - didn't even lose power.  The photo above was taken outside my front door shortly after the rain stopped.  I've posted different photos of this view here before - this is the scenery most familiar to me.  This is what I see each time I leave the house, this is what I see when I look outside to determine whether or not Amazon's delivered yet, this is what I see when I hear a noise outside and go to investigate. This is the image most intimately etched into my brain. In the future, when neurocyberneticists take a few neurons from my brain and hook them up to their computer, this is the image that will appear on the screen.  

Tall, tall trees, still standing after yet another hurricane here in the Anthropocene.  

Also as forecast (at least by me), I did not go to Variety Playhouse last night to hear Godspeed You! Black Emperor.  As I should have expected, today there are messages all over the Godspeed sub-Reddit proclaiming last night's show to be the best Godspeed set ever.  Fortunately, someone recorded the show and posted it online.  He claims security called backstage as he was setting up his mics, and the band said they were cool with the recording.

The set opened with Hope Drone, as nearly all Godspeed shows have for years now, followed by several songs from their recent G_d's pee at State's End! LP (Job's Lament, First of the Last Glaciers, Anthem for No State, Cliff's Gaze, and Fire at Static Valley). That was followed by World Police and Friendly Fire from their breakthrough 2000 album Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven.  The set closed with The Sad Mafioso from their 1997 debut album F♯ A♯ ∞.  Here's a playable link to the recording:

Still no word yet on the outcome of the Arizona and Nevada elections and political control of the Senate.  The outcome of these races will also determine the tenor of the Georgia runoff election, and whether or not the Peach State vote will be the final decision on senatorial control. With all 48 other states already reporting, I don't know why it takes Arizona and Nevada so much longer, year after year, to report their results.  I think they just like the attention that goes with being the last to report.

Another god-damn hurricane has figured out how to reach Atlanta. Here we go again.

Not only that, but it failed at its primary task and totally missed Mar-a-Lago, where Agent Orange was hunkered down riding out the storm.

Granted, Nicole should be downgraded to a tropical depression by the time it reaches Atlanta tomorrow, and the primary risk will be copious rainfall and flash flooding, not tree-toppling winds.  But still this late-season storm feels eerily similar to 2020's Hurricane Zeta which nearly destroyed my home, dropping a massive poplar through my roof.

Hopefully, Nicole will be like the so-called Red Wave - or Red Tsunami to some pundits - and never materialize in any significant form.  Since I last posted here, Wisconsin, one of the four, remaining seats that will determine control of the Senate, has been called for the Republicans, so the GOP now has 49 seats and the Democrats 48.  As I write, there are three remaining undeclared seats - Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia.   Incumbent Mark Kelly (D) seems to have a comfortable lead in Arizona while Adam Laxalt (R) has a slimmer lead in Nevada, but both states are still considered "too early to call."  But if the current trends hold, the score will be Republicans 50, Democrats 49 with Georgia left to determine control of the Senate.

And Georgia is heading to a December 6 run-off election between Rev. Raphael Warnock and former Georgia Bulldog running back Hershel Walker.  Georgia law requires a run off if no candidate in an election gets 50% of the vote.  Fun fact - that law is rooted in Jim Crow racism, and was enacted to make sure that no Black candidate would win public office, even if that candidate had unanimous backing by the Black community.  Ironically, the law has now forced a run off between two African-American candidates, each of whom received more votes that the entire population of Georgia at the time the law was passed.

What else? Oh, the Montreal post-rock collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor plays tonight at Atlanta's Variety Playhouse, where I've seen them at least twice before.  I didn't buy tickets to tonight's show, but even though it's not sold out, I'm not going because of. . . the weather?  Yeah, that's my excuse, I'm not going because of Nicole.  The forecast has a 70 to 80% chance of rain between 7:00 and 11:00 p.m., and who wants to get caught in a flash flood or gridlock traffic?  

The truth of the matter is I'm probably not going because of my mental state, but admitting that out loud will cause me to examine said mental state and what should be done about it, so instead, let's just say it's the weather and leave it at that.

. . . and then a real Red Wave finally appeared and struck Mar-a-Lago with hurricane-force winds and torrential rains.  And then it turned north and struck the Governor's Mansion in Tallahassee.  And then it moved into Georgia to wash away those who voted for Hershel Walker.

There's an almost poetic irony to the late-late-season arrival of Nicole to Florida right after the election.  Unfortunately, after it's through with Florida, the storm's track has it passing uncomfortably close to Atlanta.

The political Red Wave that the Republicans were predicting never materialized.  The unconventional politician John Fetterman flipped Pennsylvania blue by beating the quack television personality Dr. Oz. The races in Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona are still too close to be called.  And the Senate race in Georgia between the Rev. Raphael Warnock and former UGA football phenom Hershel Walker is virtually tied and heading to a Dec. 6 run-off election as neither candidate got 50% of the vote.  

Warnock led Walker by some 35,000 votes, or 0.9% of the total, but still came up short of the required 50% + 1 needed under Georgia law to win.  Many of my out-of-state friends have asked how people in Georgia could vote for someone as spectacularly unqualified to be a Senator as Walker over the experienced and erudite Rev. Warnock.  What they fail to grasp is that voters didn't make an assessment of the relative merits of the two candidates.  To many voters, apparently half of them, the decision was to vote for a Democrat or a Republican, and they chose the Republican, regardless of the shortcomings of the candidate.  I sincerely doubt more than a handful of the most fanatical voters actually thought Walker was more qualified for the Senate based on his experience, intelligence, or character than Warnock.

A thought experiment for my Democrat friends: imagine that the 2024 Presidential race had Ron DeSantis running on the Republican ticket.  Now imagine that by some bizarre set of circumstances, his Democratic opponent turned out to be, say, disgraced former congressman Rod Blagojevich.  Would you reject the criminal history and questionable moral judgement of Blagojevich and vote for DeSantis as the lesser of two evils? Or would you hold your nose and vote for Blago, dispite his personal shortcomings?  That's the dilema  many Georgia Republicans faced.

As it stands now, both the Democrats and the Republicans have won 48 seats each in the Senate, with 4 seats, including Georgia, still up for grabs.  Warnock's chances of winning are more dependent on the results of the other three races than almost anything else.  If the other three remaining seats all go to one party or the other, so that control of the Senate is already decided, Georgia Republicans will not be enthusiastic about turning out to vote for Walker, a dishonest, pathological liar with several mistresses and a troubling history of abandoning his children and of violent behavior.  Republican turnout will be low in the run-off election, and Warnock will win.  

But if the run-off will decide which party controls the Senate, it will be easy for the Republicans to frame the election as a referendum on Biden's presidency.  "Vote for Walker and put an end to Biden's socialist agenda."  Political ads would tie Warnock to Biden, and as Biden is deeply unpopular among Georgia Republicans, enthusiasm for Walker would be much higher and be could likely win the election.  

Red Wave, Blue Wave, whatever. In the meantime, maybe we should thank Mother Nature for sending Nicole our way.  Someday, a real rain will come and wash all the politicians off the streets.

Nature Prepared to Punish Florida for 2022 Vote

Nature understands. Nature knows.  Nature is aware that the State of Florida harbors Mar-a-Lago, Ron DeSantis, Matt Gaetz, Little Marco Rubio, and any number of Bushes.  Nature tried to wash Florida off the map over the Labor Day weekend with Hurricane Ian, yet the Sunshine State somehow prevailed.

Nature is rolling up her sleeves to finish the job after Election Day. Subtropical Storm Nicole will make landfall in South Florida on Thursday, cross the peninsula to reenergize over Apalachicola Bay on Friday, and then change direction to cross the northern peninsula toward the Atlantic on Saturday.  Almost no part of Florida will be spared Nicole's wrath.

Atlanta is not beyond the range of this storm's path, but it appears that the coastal Georgia and South Carolina low country will bear the brunt of it.

From the Sports Desk

Reddit photo by u/bat1939

Mark your calendar: Yesterday, Nov. 5, 2022, was the greatest day of your (and certainly my) life. 

The Georgia Bulldogs started the day ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll but No. 3 by the CFP Selection Committee.  Tennessee was No. 2 in the AP but No. 1 to the CFP.  Yesterday, Georgia beat Tennessee, 27-13, and will be the consensus No.1 team in the country and will also win the SEC East.  

But wait, there's more: later that night, No. 10 LSU upset No. 6 Alabama, 32-31, in OT, handing the Tide their second loss of the season, effectively preventing them from winning the SEC West, and eliminating them from the Conference Championship Game and the College Football Playoffs.

Then undefeated, No. 4 Clemson lost to unranked Notre Dame, 35-14. With the loss, Clemson most likely won't make the Playoffs, either.

And as if all that weren't enough, the Boston Celtics set a team record for 3-point buckets in a game (27) and beat the Knicks, 133-118.

Exciting, isn’t it? One last ray of sunlight before the darkness of fascism descends on this fair land.  Be ready to tell your grandchildren where you were on Nov. 5, 2022.

At an event run by the Charis Christian Center, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Dumbass) said that "little Twitter trolls" often challenge her pro-gun rights stance by asking if Jesus needed an AR-15.  "They like to say: 'Oh, Jesus didn't need an AR-15. How many AR-15s do you think Jesus woulda had?'"

"Well," she continued, "he didn't have enough to keep his government from killing him."

Rat Bastards and Thieves

I got my first on-the-books legitimate job in 1971, working as a waiter and car-hop at a drive-in root-beer stand. The pay was absurdly low, even with tips (generally about $0.25 per customer), and yet, the government still withheld a portion of my earnings from my paycheck every week. Social Security, I was told.

I paid into Social Security in 1971 and every year since then.  !971, 1972, 1973, and so on, through the 80s, through the 90s, into Y2K and beyond - you get it.  I paid into Social Security for 48 consecutive years until my retirement in 2019. It was all involuntary, but I understood that I was investing into a retirement fund, and that I would get my money back when I retired, should I live so long.

I knew better than to rely on one fund for my retirement, and generously contributed to various corporate-run 401(k) plans during those decades, or at least since 1984.  Most of the money has since rolled over into an IRA, although I still have several 401(k) accounts I maintain as "piggy banks" for when I need money.

One day in early 2019, the Human Resources Manager in the firm I worked for walked into my office and told me that since I was now eligible for Medicare, they were cutting me off from the company's health insurance plan.  I had no reasonable choice but to apply for Medicare as soon as I was eligible.

So now I find myself in 2022, retired and living off of that IRA and 401(k) "piggy banks." Social Security adds much-needed supplemental income (I'd go broke pretty quickly if I just consumed my savings) and Medicare is there for medical expenses should they come up (I'm healthy for now but know that condition doesn't last forever as we age and mature).

Republican presidents of the past have dipped into the national Social Security funds to finance Middle East wars and to balance the books for their reckless spending.  Suddenly, they claim thar the fund is insolvent or nearing insolvency due not to their mismanagement but because of greedy senior citizens demanding the money they invested back as an "entitlement."  And now, far-right forces that look as if they may take control of the House and even possibly the Senate are threatening to end "entitlements" altogether and do away with Social Security and Medicare. 

They may as well send the sheriffs over to my house and throw me out on the street, because that is what doing away with Social Security and Medicare would do to me.  Better yet, they should just send a SWAT team over to shoot me in the head - frankly, that would be quicker and more merciful.  This ROM wouldn't last long out on the street.

On top of that, my IRA - backed by Wall Street stocks - is hemorrhaging cash.  Every time the Federal Reserve announces an increase in the prime lending rate as a measure against inflation, Wall Street panics and the stock market plunges.  This year alone, my IRA has lost over $100,000 in value, and that's a lot of money to me.  On the graph of my savings over time, the trend line is heading straight to "zero."  I'm told to "ride it out," that everything's cyclic and the value will return with time, but no one's ever advised me what happens when the value hits $0.00. Or when you might not have all that much time left in your life.

My savings are disappearing and Congress is flat-out vowing to take away my sole remaining income. My health insurance may go away, too.  I've been retired for over three years now and there's really no going back to my old career - the world's moved on since I've left.  My fate is literally in the hands of a far-right Congress who has shown every sign that they really couldn't give two shits about me or my well-being.

Folks, please Vote Blue.  Not to be melodramatic, but my life depends on it.

This Message Brought to You by the Party of Family Values and Law & Order

So this is the current state of American political discourse, 2022.  Inarticulate rage at the "other side," for no stated reason other than they're the "other side."

I hate what this county has become. I despair over what's in store for the future.

Autumn Colors

 Some autumn colors here in Atlanta today.