The occasion for the above social media post by Mike Davis, a Trump enthusiast and former law clerk to Neil Gorsuch, is reporting about how the shutdown will end Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments starting November 1. I think I detect a whiff of racial bigotry and so would just like to point out that his opinion is, shall we say, over-simple.

I vote for the Dems, so my car radio is tuned to NPR, naturally. Older daughter drives now, and has her own car, so I don't even have to switch to FM mode from the Taylor Swift CD that always used to play soon as I started the car. The sound of the engine turning over now just modulates into the mellifluous tones of public radio.

One thing about our president, he's a hard working guy, always several boiling pots on the stove. What with the extra-judicial killings (sometimes referred to by the non-romantic as "murder") on the high seas, his demo project at the White House, the subsequent construction of a tastefully understated "ballroom" that will of course need a lot of the president's attention, and his petition to be paid $230 million by his "Justice Department" as compensation for the disappearing legal troubles that once discomfited him, it's a wonder that he has time to golf or post AI-generated vids of himself flying a fighter jet and dropping fecal matter on Americans.

I went to the No Kings Protest in Minneapolis today. Wanted to add my body to the mass of people even more concerned than Susan Collins. I don't know how big the crowd was. For sure big enough to cause traffic tie-ups in downtown for a few hours. Don't blame me, I took the bus. As to demographics, the assembled were, if my impressions may be trusted, whiter and more female than the general population, and quite a bit older than I would have predicted.

As a little kid, I was a baseball fan, but my team of course was the Twins, and the National League was almost invisible to me. The Twins never played against Willie Mays, or Hank Aaron, or Bob Gibson, or Roberto Clemente, all of whom except Gibson, who was a rising star, were settled into the back halves of their greatest years.

Asked today--unless it was yesterday--about the charming chats of the Young Republicans, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said that he doesn't know any of these people, has never even heard of them, but if the details of their jests are true, he condemns them. He said that any picture of him with them was taken at the Inauguration, and he had no idea who they were.

That's my current reading project in the picture. Pretty good chance I will at some point abort, as it comes in at just over 1250 pages, and has a companion, History of the US During the Administrations of James Madison, which is also about 1250 pages. Someone trained in actuarial science could likely confirm that, at my current rate of progress, there's a credible chance I wouldn't finish the work even if I myself never decided to quit.

When did Republicans last plausibly contend that they were the party of "limited government" and "local control"? I think my parents were alive and voting for them. Now, without a peep of protest from any Republican holding federal office, Trump is sending federal troops into cities that loudly insist they don't want them. How about letting the locals decide what their problems are, and how to solve them?

Found myself wondering idly whether Eddie Murray, Oriole star of the '70s and '80s, is in the Hall of Fame. What a stupid question. I know now that he's one of only seven players in the history of the game with more than 3000 hits and more than 500 home runs, so yeah, he's in the Hall--inducted on his first eligibility, in 2003.

Uff da, sitting at home nursing a bug and scrolling while my friends play golf on a warm fall day. It seems I "interact" regularly with math-y posts, because my feed has lots of stuff like this which today is an excuse to stay in a chair instead of cleaning the refrigerator, the bathrooms, and doing the copious laundry of my sportzing kids.

I've been trying to gauge what percentage of my unhappiness with the officiating in the Lynx semifinal series against the Phoenix Mercury can be attributed to a rooting interest. Maybe a hundred. Who knows? The rooter is not in a good place to judge. One thing for sure, though, is that the Lynx have some history of taking it up the rectum from the officials in big games.

Of course I'll wait for all the evidence to accrue, but just going to put it out there that, as of today, I'm leaning toward the conclusion that the President of the United States is not a good man. However, (public service announcement): if you voted for him, and would like something to talk about for the next several years, allow me to suggest a Sunday-afternoon grocery-shopping excursion to the Aldi store at 26th & Lyndale in south Minneapolis. Here is one of my favorite Replacements songs, an ode to several of today's grocery-getters:

According to its president, there are "fewer than ten" trans students competing in NCAA athletics. This likely explains why your MAGA friends seem to know all their names. The number of NCAA student-athletes is about 510,000, and 9 is to 510,000 as 1 is to about 56,000--which is roughly how many Americans a Harvard study estimates die in a year on account of having no health insurance.