Lessons

I doubt there are many who thought the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan wouldn’t end disastrously. As the president, Quid Pro Joe bears the responsibility but, in fairness, remember that Trump also favored withdrawal. It was a no-win situation from the start. Would it have been handled better under DT? That is an unfair question. Maybe this will serve as a lesson going forward, although, given man’s folly, I doubt it. Billions squandered, thousands killed, little gained. The greatest concern now is that it will evolve from a local to a global problem, terrorists emboldened and again exporting their madness.

Precise headline from nypost.com: “Biden’s energy idiocy: Kneecap US oil but beg OPEC to pump more.” Remember what Forrest’s mom said.

NYP sports media critic Phil Mushnick ended his column today with this anecdote: “Marv Albert recalls throwing a family dinner upstairs in a restaurant, with Mr. Met the invited entertainment: ‘When Mr. Met tried to enter the small room where the kids and grandkids were, his head didn’t fit through the door. So he had to remove it. The kids freaked out, crying and screaming. Very traumatic.’”

RIP country music artist Nanci Griffith, 68, whose songs celebrated the south. I’m not familiar with her work, but she won the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Here’s a live, five-minute solo BBC clip of her most famous song, Love at the Five and Dime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syLfC-VWhuQ

Headline from foxnews.com: “NJ inmate freed early due to COVID is charged with murder 2 days later.”

When pot first started becoming legal nationwide, I wondered what the unintended consequences would be. An increase in vehicle crashes was easy to foresee. I did not expect the following. Here are snippets from an FN article attributed to Staff, quoting Smart Approaches to Marijuana CEO Dr. Kevin Sabet: “… marijuana is an extremely thirsty plant. It takes extreme amounts of water indoor and outdoor. Outdoor about twice as indoor to grow it. We are seeing major water depletion in states like California that are already struggling with water issues. And by the way, this is happening to both the state’s legal grows but also in the state illegal grows… industry essentially consumes the same amount of electricity as the computer industry — as home computers. Everyone owning a home computer, or laptop, and using it in the house or apartment. It’s much more than even cars and energy-efficient cars…” I expect leftists to give a no-look pass on this, to be as selective in their outrage as they are on many issues. Ganja takes priority over the environment

Today the old Hyundai was in the second best spot regarding the floating book shop. There, I lose rather than gain shade as the afternoon progresses. I packed up a half-hour early. My thanks to the lovely Tatiana, who bought a paperback in Russian, and to the burly gentleman who purchased a DVD of The Man with the Golden Arm (1955); and to Nadine, who took home one of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951); and to local porter Rob, who donated three books in Russian; and to the sweet elderly library volunteers who delivered another. If the forecast is correct, the brutal heat should end tonight — not a moment too soon.

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