Ten Piece Nuggets

Nuggets!  Git yer 10 Piece Nuggets right cheer!!  Hot off of the press or depressed if you prefer.

  1.  It’s important to be more open-minded these days than ever.  As you know with gender ID the country is struggling to define what a woman is.  It’s not having such problems with men though.  And, as you now know, men can get pregnant.  Keep up with the changing times, please.
  2. But, when it comes to proper identification, California, as always, is ahead of the pack.  In comes a fishy ruling from the Golden State.  A Cali court has ruled that bees can legally be considered fish.  The reversal of an earlier interpretation means bumblebees can now be eligible for listing under the California Endangered Species Act. The conservation win comes as bumblebees have faced a serious decline throughout the United States due to climate change.  How do we know that?  Well, we have heard of flying fish.
  3. Over the weekend a shootout in Tennessee and another in downtown Philadelphia left multiple people dead in both locations.  The two fracases involved multiple gunmen in each incident.  Are we as upset about this as we are when a lone deranged lunatic mows down folks in a supermarket or a movie theater?  We get the outrage in schools, but wonder why the indifference nationally on the other.
  4. Speaking of which, the Uvalde parents of the victims will apparently sue the gunmaker of the AR-15 used in the shooting.  The premise we presume is that the manufacturer puts out a product knowing it can cause death.  It seems like the landmark cases against tobacco companies in the seventies.  Can we also sue alcohol producers?  Car makers?  Plane manufacturers?
  5. We empathize with their grief certainly but wonder about this attempt.  While they have the lawyers’ attention they should sue the stand-down Uvalde police department.  We’re sure they will.  And, we’re sure that they’ll get a big settlement.
  6.  Does the country feel hopelessly split to you?  On migration, a May poll informed respondents, “By the year 2050, a majority of the population will be made up of people who are Black, Asian, Hispanic, and other racial minorities.”  Respondents were evenly split: 22% said the demographic change would be a “very” or a “somewhat” good thing,” while 20% said a “very” or a “somewhat” bad thing.
  7. How about along party lines?  Thirty percent of people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 say it would be “a very good thing,”  Just 3% of President Trump’s voters said it would be a “very good thing.”  We ask again, does the country feel hopelessly split to you?
  8.  Do you know how lucky you are to have such low gas prices? Huh?   White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to questions yesterday about high gas prices during the daily briefing by noting it was “really important” that people understood that prices were higher across the globe.  She noted that gas prices in the European Union were $8.15 a gallon, prices in Germany were $8.88 a gallon, and prices in Canada were $6.23 a gallon.  Lucky you.
  9. She repeated an earlier WH position that “everything was on the table” to deal with high gas prices but said that she did not have any information on actions the president would take to help lower gas prices.  “I don’t have anything to preview,” she said.  If we weren’t so dumb we’d be insulted.  It’s Putin’s fault anyway, isn’t it?
  10. As expected Phil Mickelson, he of foot in mouth disease, announced that he was joining the new LIV Golf series backed by the Saudi-Arabian government. It’s widely reported that Tiger Woods has turned down a low nine-figure offer to do the same.   Mickelson joins another big name, Dustin Johnson, in making the same move.  Will they still be big names in five years?  Apparently, they don’t care as big money talks and fame walks across the pond.

Enjoy the heat.