We don’t think enough about what comes after

Trump is obviously sick and grossly impaired, as everything he touches turns into a disaster and he flails about while incapable of fixing his own catastrophes. I wake up every day hoping that this is the day he finally drops dead or is so brain damaged that he has to be institutionalized, but I don’t know what happens next…President JD Vance? Republicans panicking and getting more extreme in locking in their power? Screaming mobs of MAGA fanatics? Maybe we should hope he lives a few more years in declining effectiveness and then we have a clean transition to an elected, and hopefully Democratic, majority.

There may also be some real advantages to imprisoning the Trump administration in a lame duck presidency for a few more years.

We might have a vision of what comes after in New York: the Democratic Socialists swept the primaries, led by Mamdani’s endorsements.

The mayor-turned-kingmaker had said it was a question of electing “better Democrats” who would “put working people back at the heart of politics”. All three victors are expected to win their safely blue districts, which would send three Mamdani allies into Congress next January.

The outcome was also a recognition of some wider trends in US politics: socialism is no longer a dirty word, criticism of Israel is no longer taboo and dissatisfaction with Democratic leaders in the Donald Trump era runs deep. Voters are thirsty for energy, fight and fresh ideas.

They ask: if Republicans can draw up a Project 2025 and pursue it ruthlessly, why can’t Democrats come up with a Project 2029 that promises universal healthcare, supreme court reform, massive climate investments, a war on the oligarchs and a clear-eyed approach to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu?

That’s a vision I could support. Much better than prayer.

Did you know you can join the DSA right now? I predict there is going to be an enrollment surge.

I’ve got to avoid Ed Zitron in the morning

I don’t think I can take much more of this. As someone on the edge of retirement, I have to hear the Republicans scheming to kill social security, which is bad enough, but here’s Ed Zitron predicting the complete obliteration of retirement funds thanks to the imminent detonation of the AI bubble.

Unfortunately, it all makes sense. Our economy seems to be dedicated to pumping up the fortunes of about a dozen people, and I’m not one of them.

A succinct summary of our situation

I thought this was insightful.

The reality is we keep electing shitlibs to “stop fascism” and those shitlibs take that as a mandate to pretend it’s 1994 again and go full Blairite/Clintonism/neoliberalism while purging its own left flank. And it predictably has failed with catastrophic consequences EVERYWHERE this has happened.

How about if we stop doing that?

It’s always someone else’s fault

I’ve avoided bringing up the reflecting pool debacle, because it’s just too ridiculous. Trump wasted $16 million in a no-bid contract to one of his cronies, who drained the reflecting pool, painted it badly a dark blue, which then led to an algal bloom, that they tried to correct with buckets of hydrogen peroxide, and then the paint started to peel. None of this is Trump’s fault, he’s now blaming everyone else.

Of the MANY Statues and Fountains that we rebuilt, renovated, cleaned, and fixed, the only one that was Vandalized was the Reflecting Pool, which is being taken care of, ASAP! It has been given a 300 foot long gash, chemicals have been illegally placed in the water, and the beautiful new grass field has been destroyed with a gigantic 86 47 chemically carved into it (Probably inspired by Dirty Cop, James Comey!). Please remember that there is a 10 year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things – Which will be fully enforced!

Don’t worry, Jeanine Pirro has put everyone ON NOTICE!

Weird, isn’t it, how the pool has been there since 1922, and this is when suddenly the whole thing starts falling apart, right after the president puts this guy in charge.

If they’re going to start handing prison sentences, maybe they should start with the sleazy cigar-chomping clown with the silly haircut. Or the creep who is obsessed with redecorating the US Capitol badly.

Remember the .049?

This video was a nostalgia trigger for me — back in my youth, I built model airplanes, and of course they were driven by the ubiquitous Cox .049 engine.

The video makes them sound more reliable than they actually were. The coil was easily fouled, and trying to get the dang things started by repeatedly turning them over would make that worse. Yes, there was an art to tweaking that needle valve, but when you had a finicky engine optimizing the fuel mix was a process that could kill it, and then you’d spend ages trying to get that fouled up engine restarted. I envied those people who had the nifty motorized starters — I was just using the spring on the engine to get it going.

I still remember the “brap” noise when you tried to start them, and that rewarding but obnoxious mosquito-whine when it finally caught.

You can’t get them anymore. They’ve all been replaced by easy, quiet, smooth-running electric motors. Good.

Oops, apparently you can still buy them. But why would you?

Bring on the days of stupidity!

Last year, Donald Trump tried to kill the rising wave of alternative energy sources because, for mysterious reasons, he loves coal and oil. (I lie; it’s because the petrochemical dinosaurs are shoveling money at him.)

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his administration will not approve solar or wind power projects, even as electricity demand is outpacing the supply in some parts of the U.S.

“We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar,” Trump, who has complained in the past that solar takes up too much land, posted on Truth Social. “The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!”

Ha ha, the jokes on him, the days of stupidity are flourishing in this country.

Except his King Cnut routine failed. Solar power rules!

Even as Donald Trump boosts coal over clean energy, solar power is hitting new milestones in the US and remains the leading source of new power.

Data released on Wednesday by the global energy thinktank Ember, along with a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (Seia) and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie, show the continued growth of solar and decline of coal in the United States despite federal policy. In May, for the first time, solar supplied more of the nation’s electricity than coal, or 12.8%, Ember said. Coal supplied 12.2%, its fourth-lowest monthly share ever.

Actually, natural gas and nuclear are number one and two, with solar power in third place. But it’s progress! The reason solar is defying Trump’s stupid orders is money, of course.

Cost is a big reason for the shift, Sean McKenna of the Desert Research Institute told the Nevada Independent.

“Leveled cost of electricity from solar is now the cheapest generation of electricity in many states,” he told the paper.

Cory Doctorow has a more vivid story of how solar is transforming economies, thanks to Trump.

Back during Trump I, he decided that Americans couldn’t buy Chinese solar any more, which had the double benefit of allowing him to pursue the twin goals of throwing red meat to sinophobic Cold War 2.0 freaks and delivering a giant gift to the planet-wrecking oil companies that had helped him buy his way into office.

This was really bad for America, of course, but those solar panels had to go somewhere. Mostly, they ended up in Pakistan, dumped there at such a massive discount that the country solarised virtually overnight. Pakistani solar installers learned their trade from TikTok videos set to Tamil film soundtracks, and unwired the country so thoroughly that today, the national power company is in danger of going bust because no one buys their electricity from the grid any more. Pakistani bridal dowries now routinely include four panels, an inverter and a battery.

“Bad for America”…get used to those words, we’re going to hear them a lot in the near future, as we look back on Republican policies. We’re going to remember today as the days of stupidity, all right.

Oooh, I liked this one

I watched Backrooms. It’s very good.

I’m an official member of the Morris Theater Co-Op board. I’m going to be running the projector at the theater about once a week. Pro: I get to see a free movie, in addition to my $1 discount. Con: Our scheduled projectionist couldn’t make it tonight, so I’ve volunteered to take it on at the last minute. This will be my first solo! I’m worried that I might forget to flip some essential switch and a horde of movie-goers will lynch me.

An evening discovery

So, last night I went out to the movies and left poor Mary home alone — it was a creepy movie, she doesn’t like that sort of thing — and she found her own entertainment. She found a spider in the garden! When I got home around 9 she had to send me out to take a picture of it and identify it.

That’s the Eastern Long-Legged Cobweaver, Theridion frondeum, that I’ve seen many times around here, but they’re very pretty.