Another bold move by climate change, a flash flood in Nepal and Tibet that has killed, as of this writing, unknown numbers of people. But it’s going to be a LOT. 579 known dead, 2,500 still missing so far. On the upside, 3,700 people have been rescued. Official word is that a landslide dumped ice and rock into a tributary, sending a surge of water downstream.

It was a chunk of ice. 2,000 feet wide! It broke off a glacier and fell nearly 4,000 feet into a valley, setting off the avalanche. So, what causes a huge piece of ice to break off from a glacier? The same thing that’s melting glaciers around the world; the global warming aspect of climate change.

These are the kinds of natural disasters conservatives blew off during the fight to encourage (the right’s position) or defeat (the left’s position) climate change. Conservatives “won.” Now climate change is coming for all of us, like it or not. I guess we’d better get used to these kinds of stories. It’s not like there are no other cities, towns, and hamlets all over the world built at or near the base of glaciers…

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Now we’ve lost Tim Curry, too. 80 years old. Same age as Dolly. It’s such a bummer. I’m a fan of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show.’ I went several times in high school. It was quite the event. I went once, later in life. Nostalgia, you know? I didn’t enjoy it. The energy of the audience had changed.

When I went in my youth, the movie had developed a call-and-response with the audience. There were certain places people had come up with clever lines to yell back at the screen in response to certain dialogue. It was fun. When I went back later, the call-outs had become so pervasive, you couldn’t hear the movie anymore. People were just shouting throughout. Too much of a once-good thing.

None of that is about Tim Curry of course. I don’t know much about him, other than that he starred in a movie I enjoyed. Still, I was saddened to see he had passed. It’s just not the death announcement I’m waiting for, praying for, dreaming of.

Here’s a joke from the old Soviet Union: Each day, a man stops by a newsstand, looks over the front pages of the papers, then leaves. One day, the newsstand operator asks the man, “What are you looking for?” The man replies, “I’m looking for an obituary.” The newsstand operator tells the man, “The obituaries are in the back of the paper.” The man replies, “Not the one I’m looking for…”

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So, wait a minute. You’re telling me that META, the whole time they were insisting they were carefully watching and managing the safety of our youth, was actually trying to addict and control them? They were mouthing comforting words while engaged in disquieting activities? They were…lying to us? Oh, heaven forfend. Who knew? Besides everyone, I mean.

Sure, we couldn’t prove it. We just knew it. But someone has proved it. It took the power of several states. Now META has promised to actually do what they lied they were doing before. THIS time, they pinky-swore. That seems trustworthy. They also have to pay a fine of as much as $18 billion dollars. For some people, that’s a lot. It’s certainly a dollar or two more than I have in my accounts. But for META? Last year, alone, they reportedly took in $201 billion dollars in revenue.

Call me crazy, but I suspect that a greedy corporation that gets fined less than 10% of one year’s revenues might not feel enough pain from that fine to actually and honestly change their behavior. I’ve long held that a law should be passed requiring a minimum fine of twice the amount earned through illegal activities. But when a company brings in $201 billion and has to give $18 billion back? Hell, in this corrupt, greed-filled nation, that’s just a good, profitable business model.

I’m expecting a facade of positive words covering negative actions – exactly the same as before…

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So Jed York, the owner of the Santa Clara 49ers, got arrested in Ohio for solicitation of prostitution. He was on his way to meet his “date” when he was pulled over and arrested. None of this is any of my business. He had already filed for divorce, so he wasn’t cheating on his wife. He HAD secured the services of a rather affordable sex worker. THAT part surprised me. $140 dollars? $160 according to some reports. He’s worth, like, $500 million dollars. He could have gone as high as $250 bucks. Maybe more!

I’m not really writing about him, though. It’s things around this case that bother me. First, there was no woman. Police had posted the listing inviting clients to show up and do illegal things. There was a time, in my lifetime, when cops enticing otherwise law-abiding citizens to engage in criminal activity was called ‘entrapment.’ It wasn’t allowed.

Then some clever sod came up the idea of calling it a ‘sting,’ instead. See, unlike entrapment, where cops entice otherwise law-abiding citizens to engage in criminal activity, a sting is when cops entice otherwise law-abiding citizens to engage in criminal activity. So, clearly, that’s, um, okay? The cops added a second charge, possession of criminal tools. What, like lock-picks? A gun? A ski mask to hide his identity? No, nothing like that. His cell phone. He used his phone, see, to arrange the “date.” He had it with him when he showed up. Possession of criminal tools.

A larger issue, for me, is why, in this god-forsaken, greed-driven, so-called Capitalist society, is a simple, straightforward business transaction illegal in the first place? I have never availed myself of a professional, but I’ve never really understood why sex work should be criminalized, either. And it’s such a fine, arbitrary line. I can rent your womb for nine months as a surrogate, but I can’t rent your vulva for a few minutes for the “girlfriend experience?” Explain that to me like I’m in kindergarten. Well, no, not kindergarten. This isn’t a conversation for kindergartners. So just…explain it in a way that makes sense.

I can understand how public safety may have once been a consideration but our medical services are (slightly) better now than they were 100 years ago. Nevada has solutions to those kinds of problems and could serve as a national model. Besides, in a society awash with guns, like ours, it’s pretty clear nobody gives two figs about public safety. Thoughts and prayers.

Sex trafficking? I believe sex trafficking would be easier to identify and eliminate if people could go to cops without risking their own arrest. The sex workers would have a personal interest in shutting down the competition from illegal operations. Then again, look at all the names so far associated with the limited release of the Trump/Epstein files. These are some high powered, very wealthy people. Why would they want to make sex trafficking easier to identify and eliminate? Yeah, I don’t get it…