Last full week of May. I didn't do much yesterday. It was nice but didn't really have the energy to do more than plant the lavender we picked up Friday. Today has been more productive. I got the freezer organized so I know what we have and where it is. We generally have to do that twice a year. I have also had to change how I use my iPad and MacBook. Recently they have not kept a charge the way they used to. I think the batteries are nearing the end of their useful life. But to get some more use out of them I won't be playing any games on the iPad and I won't keep a many windows open on the MacBook. Hopefully that will keep them going.
I found this post this morning by Thomas Zimmer. He makes an interesting point that the media is asking the wrong question concerning The Former Guy. They seem to have decided that they do have to cover him because he is, unfortunately, a viable candidate to be the Republican Nominee. Zimmer says that the question should not be DO they cover hime but HOW they cover him. Towards the end of his administration many outlets were deciding to curtail their coverage especially considering the clown show his COVID "briefings" had become. And a good many also were more selective about what of his rallies, press conferences, town halls, and so-called debates they actually covered. Even his favorite Fox News was curtailing his screen time. Most are continuing the policy. Zimmer makes several more good points. The article is a bit long.
The Free Press has a long article concerning the attempts of parents and children to deal with social media and other tech. The effects of social media on kids have been a major story on most of the news media for a while now. Some parents, like the ones featured in the article, are trying to limit their kids exposure to the technology but that is a bit of a struggle when it seems to be pervasive. The kids who don't have the smartphones are isolated in a society where most do.
Robert Reich sums up the current stand-off over the debt ceiling. I have a deep antipathy toward blackmail which should tell you where I stand. They say that it take two to to end a fight but only one to start one. I would say the same for negotiation. At the moment we don't have two willing parties to the talks. Some say that Biden is unwilling but unwilling for what? Unwilling to yield to Republican demands which will only become more extreme if he yields anything. They are holding a refusal to pay debts already amassed unless Biden agrees to shred the small part of our country's already passed budget that deals with the day to day operations. They should pass the debt ceiling and then fight over the next budget. What really pisses me off is that they threaten to put sand in the gears of government now and then to do it again with the budget. We have had more deadlocks and government shut down in the the past four decades from the failure to pass a budget. So lucky us; we get a twofer this year.
I have been reading something on the problems of big box retailers expecting to take big hits on their bottom lines because of "organized retail crime." Target alone said in a new release that they expected to lose $500million from such theft alone. The retail industry, individual chains, and allies in state legislatures are busy putting through new legislation for tougher penalties. Interestingly, people who may not actually be part of an organized theft ring are getting swept up and (surprise, surprise) the darker members of the poor populations are getting charged more frequently under the "OCR" laws because those carry harsher penalties. And according to other reports, a couple of which are detailed, the stores are blaming theft for their own failures adjust to a changed retail environment, their overenthusiastic expansion and their customers' shift to online retail.
John Ganz says he has been banished from Twitter. I remember the item he thinks might have gotten him banned. I followed a link to it though I don't follow Twitter. I saw nothing wrong with it. He didn't actually threaten anyone. No one seems to understand sarcasm or conditional constructions. But Ganz is definitely not sympathetic toward a gun toting, (supposedly) conservative philosophy that the new management is supporting.
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