Let's review. America is a gun maniacal society where there are few limits when it comes to getting weapons of war into the hands of citizens. America has a uniquely disturbing school shooting problem, and so far, none of those shootings, no matter how devastating, have altered the long term trajectory of selling increasingly deadly guns. We have decided as a nation that the need for these guns outweighs the cost of nearly 50,000 gun related deaths a year. The tone of our political exchanges is heated, terrible, and often violent. This starts right at the top, with regular incitements of and praise for violence against opponents, and even the making fun of victims of heinous crimes. This violent rhetoric has not abated, even as we've suffered a recent series of politically motivated attacks. With a focus on engagement and the bottom line, our social networks encourage divisiveness, hate, and fear of the other. It's so bad that the hate, violent rhetoric, and dangerous conspiracy theories being directed toward our fellow Americans immediately increased after the latest political assassination; the bile spewing long before a suspect was apprehended—with everyone within thumbs-reach of a connected device weighing in on the broader meaning of one shot fired by one person before we even knew who that person was. And instead of tamping down this social networkization of American discourse, many of our virality-starved so-called leaders adopt it, bringing the often anonymous venomous hate speech once limited to the dark basement of the internet onto the floor of the Capitol. If you tasked a super-computer powered AI with developing an environment conducive to political violence, it's hard to imagine it could do much better than American humans have done on their own. Like other acts of murder, political or otherwise, featuring a high-powered weapon shot across a school campus, the latest example is another tragic, and in some ways inevitable, chapter in one of America's longest running stories. Because of our reaction to it, from the Oval Office to the bubbling social media cauldron of misinformed rage it mirrors, it's also sadly predictive of more violence to come. 2Democracy Decides Coups Are to Be Frowned Upon"Brazil’s Supreme Court has found former president Jair Bolsonaro guilty of attempting a military coup to stay in power after his 2022 election loss, a plot that included plans to assassinate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the man who defeated him, in a case that has roiled this young democracy and strained its relations with President Donald Trump." 3Kingdom Comes Around"The kingdom is betting that sunshine can transform its economy and bolster its coffers. It needs electricity for new tourism resorts, factories and AI data centers. Green energy could also squeeze more value from the fossil fuels that made the kingdom rich. Saudi Arabia burns oil to generate electricity; embracing alternatives frees up barrels for export. The spread of glass across the desert is one of the starkest illustrations yet of how the plummeting cost of Chinese-made solar panels and batteries is changing how the world generates power, even as the U.S. takes aim at renewables." WSJ (Gift Article): Oil Giant Saudi Arabia Is Emerging as a Solar Power. 4Here's the Rub"Gallant, sleeveless and heavily tattooed, began slowly smoothing a white sheet atop his model’s shoulders. He wore pink pants and a belt holding massage oil. A German man dressed in black lit the blanket covering his recipient on fire; orange flames danced briefly and went out. Voilà: blanket warmed. A Hungarian woman in a white jumpsuit began spreading a green substance onto a man’s bare back. Harris perched like a dancer in her hammocks, tilting toward her model’s shoulders, a beatific expression on her face. Music like a synthetic sunrise began playing. It was hard to tell who was winning." The New Yorker: Rivals Rub Shoulders in the World of Competitive Massage. 5Extra, ExtraCane Unable: "Subtropical oceans across the planet, including regions of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, have surged to record levels of warmth, and that may be having the counterintuitive effect of contributing to fewer tropical storms." This helps explain why people in San Francisco have been sweating through some very unusual (and unwelcome) humidity. More importantly, it seems to be impacting hurricane season. WaPo (Gift Article): It’s the typical peak of Atlantic hurricane season. Where are all the storms? 6Bottom of the News"The thoroughbred mare, known for donning a pink Hello Kitty face mask while racing, was once dubbed 'the shining star of losers everywhere.'" Horse famed for losing every single race is mourned.
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Thursday, September 11, 2025
This is U.S.
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