The Humming Cloud, 60th Day of Spring, 526 M.E. (Aldebaran): For the second night in a row, I was awakened by the sound of thunder and rain. I'm glad to have sacrificed some sleep to get some much-needed precip. An inch fell yesterday, on what you would call the 29th of April, bringing the month-to-date rainfall up to to 1¾ inches. That's well below the 3⅔-inch norm for April, but we'll take whatever we can get. We're still six inches below normal for the year.

The Supreme Court's decision yesterday eviscerating what's left of the Voting Rights Act has many people asking if the United States is a racist country. That's a difficult question. Is every citizen a racist? No, of course not. Are the majority of citizens racist? Harder to answer, but I like to believe "no." 

Let's apply Ibram X. Kendi's test to determine the nation's racism. Setting aside the question of personal values and intentions, are the outcomes of the United States' actions and policies  disproportionately harmful to racial minorities or other ethnic groups?

The so-called "Kavanaugh rule," a recent Supreme Court decision that says police and immigration agents can use skin color to identify suspects for deportation and other actions, is inherently and irreducibly racist. The rule is now the law of the land, and I think most members of the Latino and Hispanic communities would say they frequently experience some form or another of racism, while the immigrant portion of that community lives with fear and anxiety almost beyond comprehension.

The African-American community regularly experiences discrimination, suffers economic inequality more acutely, and are disproportionately subject to police harassment and intimidation. Although Justice Alito and other members of the Court apparently believe that racism is a thing of the past, it's the lived experience of a great many Black Americans.

Internationally, the whole world experiences the effects of discriminatory polices of the United States. The dismantling of USAID affects African countries far more than any others. Although the Stable Genius has threatened to take Greenland away from Denmark "by any means necessary" and has spoken disparagingly about NATO, the actual counties he's used the military against include Venezuela (Hispanic), Nigeria (Black), and Iran (Islamic). I can't think of any military action we've taken yet this century against a country with a predominantly White population. 

The United States is a country founded on the twin pillars of enslavement of Africans and the genocide of its indigenous population. For 250 years, it has legislated and enshrined a long series of policies that serve the interests of the majority white (and male) population over those of others and often at the expense of those others. Any countermeasures intended to level the playing field have been called "socialism" (as if that were a bad thing) or worse, and are being systematically removed by a conspicuously Caucasian Executive Branch and judiciary. 

So even if all or even most of its citizens aren't motivated by racism, it's hard to deny that the outcomes of its laws, policies, and actions are skewed against certain racial groups, and by the measure, yes, the USA is a racist nation.

 

The Crimson Delight, 59th Day of Spring, 526 M.E. (Helios): In a landmark decision today, the US Supreme Court effectively gutted a major section of the Voting Rights Act, ruling that Louisiana will have to redraw its congressional map. In a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, the court rendered ineffective Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the last remaining powerful provision of the 1965 civil rights law that prevents racial discrimination in voting. Section 2 has long been used to ensure minority voters are treated fairly in redistricting.

“Allowing race to play any part in government decision-making represents a departure from the constitutional rule that applies in almost every other context,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority. “Compliance with Section 2 thus could not justify the state’s use of race-based redistricting here. The state’s attempt to satisfy the middle district’s ruling, although understandable, was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

To be sure, the Civil Rights Act, including Section 2, was not written to give minority voters a disproportionately greater advantage at the polls. It was designed to keep majority voters from denying a proportionate share of votes to minority communities. The Court is looking through the wrong end of the telescope. The court’s decision gives lawmakers permission to draw districting plans that further increase the influence of White majority voters, an unconstitutional use of race in government decision making.  

Within hours of the court’s ruling, Florida’s legislature already approved a new Republican-friendly map that could give Republicans up to four additional seats, and state officials across the South have indicated that they also intend to pursue changes to their maps that could take effect in time for November's elections.

The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 and resulted in a number of districts, particularly in the South, where nonwhite voters make up the majority, allowing them to elect the candidates of their choice. But Justice Alito argued that “vast social change” in the South and elsewhere made such considerations no longer necessary. Discrimination that occurred years or decades ago, he wrote for the majority, as well as certain “present-day disparities,” are “entitled to much less weight” now.

"Racism is over." That may be the privileged view of a wealthy, entitled white jurist in D.C., but does not reflect the lived experiences of other people’s lives in 2026. Racially polarized voting is still a reality in the South, as is the racial wealth gap, the educational achievement gap, and health outcome gap. Discrimination claims are still rampant in employment.

As Ibram X. Kendi summarized it, "The Court of White Supremacy reaffirmed the myth that intent—not outcome—determines if a policy is racist." The history of racism teaches us that policies should be defined as racist based on their outcome. Intent can be hidden - lawmakers can hide their intent to suppress Black political power when they try to eliminate majority Black districts. An unjust outcome can’t be hidden.

SCOTUS is now a sick and corrupt institution and there's no ready remedy. At the very least, a  progressive and activist POTUS is needed to expand the court with new appointees to overcome the racist, bigoted, and tragically out-of-touch influences of Alito, Clarence, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, et al.

 

The Taught Lists, 58th Day of Spring, 526 M.E. (Electra): I woke up to the sound of thunder around 6:00 am this morning, hopeful that some rain may have finally come to end this extreme drought here in Georgia. But apparently, the weather was just dry heaving, as no rain accompanied the thunder. All sound and fury, but no precip.

Republicans are saying that since a gunman had entered a hotel at which the president was speaking last Saturday and fired shots in the next room, taxpayers should give the Stable Genius $400 million to construct a ballroom at the White House. Never mind that the gunman never made it through security - the system worked - and there were still like 100 armed Secret Service agents between the gunman and the president when the shooter was apprehended. Never mind that the Stable Genius claimed the ballroom will be paid for by private donations when he had the East Wing of the White House demolished to make space for his ballroom.

Presidential staff and White House correspondents are all over the news talking about how traumatic it was for them to hear gunfire in the next room. Welcome to America - if you haven't heard gunfire by now, you should probably have your hearing checked. But instead of a ballroom, may I suggest the president and his staff do what they insist millions of schoolchildren have to do, and just duck beneath their desks until the shooting stops? If you're so shook hearing gunshots in a hotel, imagine what it's like for an eight-year-old under a desk at school seeing their dead classmates on the floor.

At least two-thirds of Americans agree with me that this country is on the wrong track, with some polls showing as many as 80% of Americans, particularly Gen Z adults, believe we're on the wrong track. A significant number of Americans view the economy negatively, with polls showing that 47% rate the economy as "poor" and three quarters believing economic conditions are worsening, with high fuel prices influencing their views. According to AAA, the average cost for a gallon of regular gasoline just hit $4.18, the highest price since April 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. 

Public trust in government has been low for decades, and a Pew Research poll found that a mere 2% of Americans say they trust the government to do what is right “just about always,” while 15% trust it “most of the time.” The current measures are among the lowest in the nearly seven decades of polling, and are lower than last year (22%). Only about 38% of Americans say patriotism is "very important" to them, down from 70% in 2000, and half of all adults between the ages of 18 and 29 say they are not very or not at all patriotic.

Congressional polarization has reached its highest point since Reconstruction, and threats of violence against politicians have surged. Some draw parallels between the United States and Weimer Germany, and others to the Soviet Union in its final years - a brittle gerontocracy rotting from within - while some argue that the country is on the brink of a civil war.

But sure, let's build the president a gauche, $400-million, gold-plated ballroom, because ya gotta dance, right?

 

The Ariven Power, 57th Day of Spring, 526 M.E. (Deneb): Today is a walking day, and I took it leisurely with a 5.7-mile Monroe. Thoughts while walking today:

• Can there be matter without energy? Or energy without matter? Are they interdependent entities or two expressions of the same thing?


• I always understood E = mc² as describing the energy that can be derived from matter, like, say, in an atomic bomb or a nuclear reactor, but all equations are basically two-way streets so it also describes how matter can arise from energy. 


• Matter arising from energy is a way of describing the universe turning itself inside out from nothing to become something. The physical universe arose from the limitless energy of pure Potential to form galaxies, quarks, planets, rhinoceri, humans, and today's Monroe.


• To be clear, the limitless energy of pure Potential is not the same thing as "potential energy" as commonly used in non-quantum physics. Lower-case p potential energy requires matter to manifest; upper case P Potential exists prior to and independent of matter.

I also thought about the weather, music, sex, and food, specifically: 

• Weather: Nice today


• Music: Linda Ronstadt's Blue Bayou is basically the same melody as Roy Orbison's Crying, with only minor compositional changes to fit the different lyrics, but no one ever suggested copyright infringement and no one ever should. It's okay to recycle a good melody.


• Sex: A woman wearing tight leggings passed me on the Beltline trail. What would it take, what would I have to do or say, for her to let me hold and spread her buttocks apart? What would that be like, feel like, smell like? 


• Food: The smoothie I made for lunch today is holding me over quite nicely this afternoon. 

How was your day?

Day of Vestiges, 56th of Spring 526 M.E. (Castor):  A man in Washington D.C. fired a gun at the White House correspondents' dinner in the vicinity of numerous journalists, who got a first-hand taste of the terror schoolchildren and others across America have been experiencing on a daily basis for years. Watching the Sunday morning news shows, you'd think the journalists were only just now realizing that the proliferation of handguns has made America a dangerous place.   

Speaking of danger, the two wildfires in South Georgia have now destroyed more than 120 homes and continue to threaten property and lives.  The fires are a result of a combination of extreme drought, gusty winds, and dead trees still littering forests after being toppled by Hurricane Helene in 2024.

The Highway 82 fire has been burning since Monday and has destroyed at least 87 homes. The fire started when a foil balloon hit a power line, creating an electrical arc that ignited combustible material on the ground. The fire now covers more than 14.8 square miles and it is only about 10% contained.

The Pineland Road fire near the Florida state line has burned more than 46.9 square miles and destroyed at least 35 homes. Started by sparks from a welding operation, that wildfire was also about 10% contained as of yesterday.

An unusually large number of wildfires are burning this spring all across the south-eastern U.S.  Firefighters have been battling more than 150 other wildfires in Georgia and Florida that have sent smoky haze into places far from the flames, triggering air quality warnings for some cities.

Warming temperatures and heat stress, among other issues associated with climate change, can affect human hormones and fertility. Research published in the journal Emerging Contaminants found that the impacts of climate change, coupled with simultaneous exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals commonly found in plastic, likely generates a synergistic effect that increases reproductive harm and may contribute to the global drop in fertility.

Sperm levels among men in western countries has decreased by more than 50% over four decades. Human fertility has been diminishing at a similar rate as the world approaches a low-fertility future, with more than three quarters of countries falling below replacement rates by 2050. 

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals and substances, including microplastics, bisphenol, phthalates, and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), cause a range of reproductive issues. Phthalates have been linked to reduced sperm counts in humans and PFAS are thought to impact sperm quality. Both are linked to hormone disruption and are commonly found in consumer goods.

However, ICE is planning a detention facility (i.e., concentration camp) for children and families on the former England Air Force Base in Alexandria, Louisiana. Groundwater testing at former firefighting training areas there have found PFAS at levels as high as 41,000,000 parts per trillion (ppt), vastly higher than the federal drinking-water limits of 4 to 10 ppt.  Military bases are commonly contaminated with PFAS, but England’s groundwater had the highest levels ever recorded, making it among the most PFAS-contaminated sites in the US. Groundwater was also contaminated by the carcinogen trichloroethylene (TCE) and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs).    

Groundwater is not used as a drinking-water source at the base, but exposure to PFAS in the shallow groundwater can still occur at springs and seeps and during flood events. Also, the contaminants can spread to soil, affecting children playing outdoors and anyone inhaling dust. Further, the contaminants, particularly TCE and other VOCs, can vaporize and mix with air, affecting anyone and anything that breathes. 

In happier news, a big-game hunter from California was trampled to death last week by an elephant in central Africa.

 

Cardhouse of the Awaited, 55th Day of Spring, 526 M.E. (Betelgeuse): Today, the I Ching gave me Ming Yi (Eclipsing the Light), Hexagram 36. Earth above, fire below. 

Some scholars suggest that the words Ming Yi might once have been the name for a bird. The moving line, line six, reads, "Its broken wing mended, the pheasant is released to its fate. Realizing that darkness co-exists with the light in its own heart, it transcends the bonds of good and evil, and freely roams the heights of Heaven and the depths of Hell."

These times call for a saintly effort to turn the other cheek, the oracle advises. Although you've been deliberately injured, going blow for blow will only escalate this war. Abstain from vengeance. Show all watching that you are above it. Sidestep your aggressors' headlong charge, giving them the opportunity to fall on their face.

Good advice, although I can't really think of an aggressor that I need to sidestep right now. The Stable Genius? These modern times? As I sit in this pile of bricks on a hill with tons of lumber towering over my head in the form of trees, my personal Sword of Damocles, my greatest adversary is probably extreme climate, but how do you sidestep the weather? 

The fire below: the Pineland Road wildfire down in South Georgia now covers around 32,000 acres and is still only about 10% contained. The Highway 82 wildfire and has fallen from 15% contained to only 10% contained, and has nearly doubled in size, growing to about 9,500 acres. The wind is currently pushing the smoke from the fires toward the northeast.  A cold front moving in across the state brings a slight chance of rain but will also a cause a shift in wind direction, with the wind coming out of the west tomorrow. 

The ground outside is wet right now from some trace of rain that must have fallen earlier today, although I missed it. Right now, it's overcast and cool (61°) outside, at least with regard to yesterday (83°). It's a walking day, but I don't think I'll get my steps in as the weather doesn't look reliably dry enough. Would that be sidestepping the weather?

 

Day of the High Road, 54th of Spring, 526 M.E. (Aldebaran):  The latest figures indicate that 71% of Georgia is currently under extreme drought. Only 9.87 inches of rain have fallen on Atlanta since the beginning of the year, down from the normal value of 16.76 for this time of year. Worse, only 4.16 inches of that rain have fallen since March 1, and 0.13 since April 1. It's like someone turned the spigot off.

Meanwhile, wildfires are sweeping across parts of Georgia and have burned tens of thousands of acres so far while destroying 87 homes. In South Georgia, the Pineland Road fire has burned over 29,600 acres and is only 10% contained and the Highway 82 fire is only 15% contained with over 4,438 acres burned. Meanwhile, crews were working last night to contain an active wildfire in West Georgia and firefighters in North Georgia were trying to contain a wildfire that started earlier in the day near homes close to Lake Allatoona. In all, the Georgia Forestry Commission says it responded to 34 new wildfires across the state on Wednesday, although the biggest concerns remain the ongoing wildfires in South Georgia.

With ongoing drought conditions and no significant rainfall in sight, wildfire concerns remain elevated across the state. Morning showers are currently forecast for Tuesday and Thursday of next week, with scattered thundershowers forecast for Wednesday and Friday.  The rain may dowse the wildfires, but we'll need a lot more than that to make up the deficit from the drought. 

The 2026 super El Niño may come to our rescue, at least with regard to the drought, although it will probably bring its own set of crises.  The transition to a super El Niño could potentially bring more rapid temperature variations, higher-than-normal humidity, and a reduced risk of widespread summer drought. Although we haven't seen it so far, super El Niño typically brings cooler, wetter conditions in the spring. El Niño also increases wind shear across the Atlantic, which can suppress hurricane formation, suggesting a lower likelihood of a hyperactive season. The super El Niño is expected to bring a wetter, stormier, and potentially even colder winter to Georgia, with an increased risk of heavy rain, localized flooding, and high-impact weather, driven by a stronger subtropical jet stream steering rain-producing systems over the Southeast.

 

Day of the Field, 53rd of Spring, 525 M.E. (Helios): I walked an 8.3-mile Van Buren this afternoon in 80°, sunny weather. On sunny days, people generally report feeling optimistic and positive about their lives more frequently than when asked the same question on rainy or gloomy days. 

Not to deliberately buck that trend with sad news, but scientists are warning the AMOC, a major Atlantic current that helps regulate climate, may be closer to failure than expected. If it goes, it'll mean harsher weather, sea-level rise, food stress, and wider instability. You're not hearing more about it because governments and the wealthy keep minimizing long-term risks to protect short term interests.

As The Guardian explains it, the poor pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the very rich pay lawyers, and the ultra-rich pay politicians. The more money billionaires accumulate, the greater their control of the political system, which means they pay less tax, which means they accumulate more, which means their control intensifies. They reshape the world to suit their demands. 

One of the symptoms of the pathology known as “billionaire brain” is an inability to see beyond their own short-term gain. They would sack the planet for a few more dollars on the pointless mountain of wealth they've accumulated. 

The impending collapse of the AMOC is arguably the biggest news of the year, perhaps of the century. But because billionaires own most of the media, most people never heard it. We might find ourselves suffering a civilization-ending catastrophe before we even learn that such a thing was possible.

 

Day of the Frontier, 52nd of Spring, 526 M.E. (Electra): On Earth Day, it's worth remembering that we do not stand apart from the world we inhabit. We don't live on the Earth, we are the Earth itself. We're just some of the planet's many atoms and molecules rearranged in a different system than the atoms and molecules of trees and grasses, mountains and rivers, oceans and continents. Every atom in your body came from some other part of the Earth - dust from dust, and to dust, etc.  

We're all part of an intricate global web of interdependence in which the well-being of each being is bound up with the well-being of all. A cosmic web, if he look at it from a higher level of perspective. 

To care for the earth is to express wisdom. To protect what is fragile is to embody compassion. To live simply and responsibly is a form of awakened action.

The Listening Path, 51st Day of Spring, 526 M.E. (Deneb): One of the Stable Genius' favorite sayings, which he falsely claims to be from Abraham Lincoln, is “A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.”  

The Stable Genius' problem, however, is that his friendship is little better than his animosity. Even when it is obviously in his own interest to help those who are loyal and useful, to build alliances with other nations, or to earn the trust of the voters, he cannot be relied upon to do so.

As the war in Iran enters its eighth week, the Stable Genius' declarations have grown increasingly deranged, seesawing between declarations of violence and peace, between hellfire and ceasefire, between civilizational destruction and international comity, a manic approach to negotiating that has been euphemistically described in the press as “mixed messages.” It's time to set the euphemisms aside and recognize that the president is not simply feigning madness.

His apologists and sycophants like to say that in his chaotic mind lurks the "Madman Theory” - a term coined by Richard Nixon to describe “a belief that acting crazy is a rational strategy.” However, far from a performance designed to forward American interests, never mind prevent an expensive and unpopular war, the Stable Genius' homicidal hysteria appears to be genuinely psychotic, both to voters and to America’s allies. 

His erratic behavior does not indicate a mere "high capacity for irrationality.” He is actually and wildly irrational. His behavior only makes sense if one assumes his own voters and his potential international allies are also legitimate targets of his the mad threats, if they too are to be terrorized by the specter of the deranged emperor. 

The Stable Genius’ madman act has a logic only if the president really sees both voters and allies as enemies to be intimidated.

 

The Whispering Legions, 50th Day of Spring, 526 M.E.(Castor):  Four years ago, I wrote that I don’t like the state of this world and can barely even recognize my own country. Since then, things have only gotten worse.

Climate change is ravaging the planet as levels of greenhouse gases continue to rise. The oceans, choked with plastic, are dying and we're well into the 6th Extinction. Authoritarianism and outright fascism are on the rise all over the world. And we’re closer to nuclear war than we’ve been at any time since the Cold War years of the 60s and 70s.

Domestically, half my fellow citizens, preoccupied by ludicrous claims and fictional scenarios, are accepting of the most outlandish conspiracy theories imaginable and rejecting the very principles of democracy on which this country was founded. Stupidity and ignorance are no longer barriers to holding political office, and some politicians even seem to treat them as assets to be proudly displayed. Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, islamophobia, sexism, and any other form of hatred or intolerance you can imagine are present in virtually all aspects of our lives. White Christian Nationalism seems to be the platform of at least one major political party, and cruelty their default position. And economic inequality is at an all-time high, with a small sub-percentage of the people controlling the vast majority of the wealth. It’s as if we’re teetering between “Brave New World” and “Idiocracy.” 

I’d leave the U.S., but in all honesty there seems to be nowhere that’s not infected with these modern illnesses. Frying pan to the fire in many cases. 

Life’s not all grim and there are small oases of peace, joy, and happiness out there. But they’re like small distractions from the bigger crises - “Here, look at this funny meme," while the house is burning down. 

Four years ago, I did not like the times and had great trepidation about what things would be like after the upcoming election, whichever party prevailed. Same situation today.

Day of the Overseer, 49th of Spring, 526 M.E. (Betelgeuse): Yes, this blog uses AI-generated imagery for its pictures and has for several years now. I like it, and at least for me it solves the ethical problem of appropriation of other people's artwork. If your argument is that AI is stealing the work of others, you need to educate yourself on how generative AI actually works. 

However, the writing here is 100% human generated, assuming as I do that I'm a human. How would I know, though? Does merely believing I'm human make me one? But that's a sidetrack I don't feel like following today. 

Just for laughs, just to see what happens, I asked ChatGPT to write a post for this blog. Taking the title of this blog, here's what it came up with:

Some of the most powerful transformations happen when like meets like. In a world obsessed with differences, we often overlook the quiet, almost invisible ways similarity creates change: ideas blending into new perspectives, emotions finding resonance in others, communities forming through shared experience. Just as water seamlessly merges with itself, dissolving boundaries without resistance, we too have the capacity to connect, adapt, and evolve when we recognize what we have in common. Maybe the real lesson isn’t about chemistry at all, but about how fluid life becomes when we stop trying to stay separate.

If a person had written that, I might think they were trying a little too hard to sound "deep" or were virtue-signaling a tad too much, but otherwise say a job well done. Considering how little it had to go on, just the prompt "blog post for Water Dissolves Water," it's actually not a bad attempt at all. I'm pretty sure most people couldn't do better given that small bit of input and only one minute to write a paragraph.

I'm old. My formative years were in the 1960s and 1970s. I grew up pre-internet, and computers were things that filled rooms in places like IBM headquarters and had spinning reels of magnetic tape. Now, I see self-driving Waymo cars on the street, phones have become indispensable pocket computers with all the world's information at my fingertips, and artificial intelligence can create images and write essays as good or better than I can. I didn't really think that I'd live long enough to see science fiction become reality.

In any case, I'm not turning this blog over to Sam Altman. AI hasn't and won't start writing these posts. Even if you can convince me it can do that better than me, I still need something to do, some outlet to directly express myself, and I'm not about to start outsourcing myself. 

Even if I am fairly impressed by that paragraph above.