World Cup and Stuff

Late to the party here, but it sure is tough for a second-tier team trying to make it to the elite level getting preferential treatment from FIFA and still shitting the bed against Belgium.  Does the USMNT ever live this down?  We'll find out in four years at the earliest!

But we already knew everything Trump touches turns to shit.

Meanwhile, I'm rooting for Norway and Morocco.  If I was betting, I'd put it all on France -- they look really good, and they look like they haven't really played their best games yet.

Pet-sitting continues.  Maryland had a killer heat-wave last weekend but it's died down to thunderstorms and cooler weather.  I'll take it.

We're at war with Iran again and this strikes me as much of a forever war as Iraq II and Afghanistan were.  Worse, actually, because instead of fighting insurgents Trump has basically declared war on a prominent global geographic feature.

Not All Experiments Succeed

America is facing a pretty essential question right now -- What happens when a Democracy has a critical mass of folks (roughly one-third) who are too dumb to act and / or vote in their own self interest?  Who will vote for somebody hurtling towards dementia with his only goal being to loot the US treasury for himself and his family?

Granted, even Socrates knew this could be an issue.

An Educated Populace and Freedom of the Press!

It's 2026 and major news outlets (even the so-called liberal ones!) still breathlessly report Trump statements as if they were facts and / or factual.

It's almost charming at this point.

Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

Republicans are allowed to gerrymander as they please.  Democrats are not.

Any Democrat worth his or her salt must now realize a) there is no "going back" to the way things were before Trump and b) to follow rules that the GOP no longer abides by is to capitulate and appease.

Epstein Epstein Epstein

Another war with Iran, all to cover up millions of unreleased Epstein documents.  Also, to somehow re-"eradicate" their nuclear program.

Sad!

My Two Cents

With everything going on politically with and within Ukraine the basic calculus is the same: Putin won't give up, and Ukraine would be stupid to take a deal that just means Russia waits a year to rearm and invades again.

It is good to see the UK and EU stepping up, but hopefully they realize it's fight in Ukraine or fight in ten years in Poland and the Baltics.

So It Begins

Two Democratic state legislators were shot in Minnesota, one fatally and one critically.

Cue the New York Times telling us both sides are responsible.

Slava Ukraini

Ukraine destroyed a significant number of Russian bombers with drones and the equivalent of rented U-hauls.

There are a lot of things to be upset about right now as an American, but the fact we aren't giving full support to Ukraine as they fight Russian occupation is up towards the top for me.

"likely never read well without explicit instruction in sounding out words⁠"

I've been teaching for nearly 20 years now, albeit in some unconventional places and spaces, primarily 12 years teaching ESL in South Korea.  These days I'm a substitute teacher at all grade levels and many subjects (including P.E.!).  Anyhow, the debate over phonics or not-to-phonics kind of escaped me while I was living in South Korea, and this article (while seeming a bit biased) was fascinating to me:

"In first grade, these 'independent reading' hours were torture for my kids, who, I would eventually learn, were among the roughly half of all children who, research shows, will likely never read well without explicit instruction in sounding out words⁠. My kids’ reactions to being expected to sit quietly each day pretending to read ran along stereotypical gender lines. My daughter silently berated herself for not being able to read; my son acted out, once attempting to push over a bookshelf."

The whole thing is downright amazing.  All I have to add is that graduate school education programs struggle to justify their own existence every ten years or so by developing entirely new paradigms and approaches, even when existing ones seem to work pretty well.  That's true for other departments as well, but only Ed Schools use children as guinea pigs.

Anyhow, I teach a fair amount of reading intervention classes and phonics and blending are definitely back.  I guess I didn't realize they'd ever gone away.

Really?

So the right-wing president of South Korea thought he could declare martial law and rally some support to a sinking presidency?

I emailed my former boss, a political moderate, and he told me Yoon "lost his mind."

South Korea?

What the hell is going on in South Korea?

Everyone's An Authority

 

Husker Du, "In A Free Land"

Prescient!

I don't blame Kamala.  She ran a good race.  I do blame decades of FOX News basically telling people to be afraid, to be scared of their neighbors, to want daddy back to solve all our problems.

Vote!

Last Saturday I worked as a poll judge for Maryland early voting.  I'll do it again this Wednesday and Thursday (Halloween!).

It's interesting, but also exhausting.  We go from roughly six in the morning until nine at night.  No phones.  We cannot leave the building 

On Election Day, November 5th, I'll also be working.

I'll admit, it's a nice pay day.  I'm still substitute teaching as well but I'd be crazy not to work as many days of early voting as possible.

For what it's worth, Saturday was extremely busy.

North Korea Enters Ukraine

North Korean troops are apparently about to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine.

I don't see how this changes much.  Do they get thrown into the meat grinder, or kept back as reserves?  Do they speak any Russian re: integrating into the larger forces?

If anything, it strikes me as desperate, or a stunt at best.  And Kim Jong-un will expect to be paid handsomely.

The Trouble With Ernest

I've mentioned that me and my nephew did some summer reading together, including The Nick Adams Stories by Hemingway.  I figured short stories would be nice as opposed to something longer and heavier.  Additionally, I have fond memories of reading it on a suggestion many years ago in college.

Anyhow, I guess it's my own fault for forgetting just how many times Hemingway uses -- relies on! -- the n-word.

I won't bother to quote, but there's a story called "The Battler" about an aged and senile former boxer.  It's a good distillation of EH at his best and worst -- sublime pacing, subtle character details, etc.  The problem is how he describes the boxer's black caretaker.  If it was as simple as "he was an n-word" it wouldn't stand out too much for a story first published in the 1920s.  But it's an obsession with him, describing black bodies with the ugliest of words -- "his n-word legs," "his n-word hair," "that n-word smell."

Do I regret choosing this book?  A little!  I think a better approach would have been just to focus on a few of the stories -- "The Killers," "Indian Camp" at the very least -- rather than have to hash out the language debate every half page.

Literature, man.

Do You Remember The Summer of 24?

I'll come clean -- I thought Joe should just stick it out.  But it's clear the decline is real, and as I know from first-hand experience with taking care of my dad, old age creeps up on you then attacks like a tiger.

The good news is that the Dems are lining up behind Kamala, and there won't be a messy convention spectacle (to the great disappointment of the New York Times and Washington Post.)

The election was always going to be close.  And frankly, Harris is now the underdog, albeit a much younger and energetic and coherent one.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden should and will go down as one of our greatest presidents.

Let's do this!

LOL Nothing Matters

Of course a Trump appointed judge follows the Supreme Court's Trump appointed judges paving the way for a literally lawless presidency.

Yawn

I didn't watch the debate.  I'm genuinely terrified of another Trump administration, but I also can't spend my mental health on this stuff any longer.

To paraphrase, people get the government they want in a Democracy, and they get it good and hard.

I can say with authority none of this spectacle stuff matters on election day.  Register, vote.

Optimism?

Recent polls don't look good for Biden!  Then again, we all know 2024 is going to be close no matter what.

Here's two reasons I'm still optimistic that Biden will prevail though:

1) Trump taking over the RNC as his own piggy bank is going to really hurt GOP candidates all down the ballot, including himself.  That money is going to pay off bills, not buy advertising.

2) It's somewhat clear that Trump never expected to win in 2016, and maybe didn't want to.  Standard disclaimer -- we all have to vote, donate, and do our part.  That said, if I was Trump and now staring down the debt incurred with losing multiple lawsuits (not to mention paying lawyers), what would be better than losing closely this November, then spending yet another four years fund-raising off of that for a 2028 run?

Totally hypothetical I realize.  But to put it another way -- Trump makes a lot more money out of the White House than he does inside of it.

Who knows.

Poll Judge!

Last Tuesday I spent the day (6 am to 9:30 pm) as a poll judge for the Maryland primary election.  It was a great experience that I obviously can't say too much about, other than to say that the full-time elections board folks I was trained by and worked with are really dedicated public officials.  The idea that they would try and cheat any election is risible.

That said, there's a lot going into the security protocols to make sure every ballot cast is counted properly.  There's simply no easy way to count the vote of hundreds of thousands of people either perfectly or quickly.  Working as a very small cog in the machine made this beyond clear.

And yes, I was paid.  And I'd like to do it again depending on how my schedule shakes out for this November.