An epic road trip in a cyber truck

A couple of cybertruck owners are trekking from Florida to the arctic….and learning along the way that charging isn't always easy …

Sounds like fun in any case. 

https://jalopnik.com/three-tesla-cybertruck-owners-are-driving-from-florida-1851637005

the 2nd amendment

I caught this episode earlier and wanted to share. 

It articulates how we came to view the second amendment as we do today. 

It's worth some of your time. 

http://www.wnycstudios.org/story/more-perfect-the-gun-show/

A couple of thoughts: 

• The 2nd amendment was thrust into the spotlight when the Black Panthers chose to use their right to bear arms - and the government sought to disarm them, at least in part because they were black
• The NRA moved away from its initial purpose - teaching marksmanship - to become about people owning guns.  It was done by a group essentially taking over the organization. And though they don't specifically mention it, this is what led them to be 100% political and about money today
• And, there's an odd moment in the podcast where they are talking with the man who got the 2nd amendment before the Supreme Court in 2008.  He passes some white people protesting and utters words about freedom; then when he encounters some black people, he says something about going back to the plantation. 

Registered voters in Florida

For many years, registered democrats outnumbered registered republicans by a pretty big margin (I believe the difference was in the 500k range).  Independent/NPA/other parties made up a much lower percentage of voters.

But as we headed into a recent primary race, the numbers changed rather dramatically, and that became a hot topic.  Republicans now have around 1 million more registered voters than democrats, and the "others" now have a sizeable chunk of registrations. 

The governor would have you believe this is about the changing demographics of Florida, of his "free Florida" campaign.

And that just doesn't add up.  

One of the news outlets in Florida decided to dig into the numbers a little more.  And what they found were three things, none of which were about "more republicans" :

1. there was a voter purge that happened in what amounts to a red state.  Although there were voters from both parties impacted, it disproportionately impacted registered democrats.
2. there were a not insignificant number of people who switched their registration from democrat to republican. The news outlet decided to chase that down.  They contacted a sample of these people, and most of the ones they interviewed said they did it early this year, in advance of the cancelled presidential primary for the sole purpose of voting against Trump in that primary.,
3. there were a fair number of democrats who switched to other parties, independent, etc.  The news organization suggested this was out of frustration with the party sticking with Biden as the candidate.

So, while the voter roll numbers appear to tell a story, its more complicated than it seems.  But it took someone investigating it to get to something meaningful about how and why it changed. 

 

Our national anthem

The latest in a long line of stories reads:

Despite Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry's request that universities strip scholarships from college athletes who are not present during the national anthem, LSU will not be changing its beloved football pregame tradition. 

It's the strangest thing that the national anthem is played before sporting events between two American teams, at all levels of competition. 

I certainly can understand it in international competition, because one of the teams is representing the US, while the other is representing another country. 

But for domestic sports, it's strange. 

The history of why we have the anthem at sporting events dates back to World War II. The reason for it, though, is somewhat unclear. Patriotism perhaps? A draw to get people to serve their country? A reminder that even during war, sports endured?

In any case it's a silly tradition that has gone on for far too long. And gets more political all the time. You have to be present, stand, remove any head cover, and put your hand over your heart in order to be considered patriotic. Otherwise you're labeled as anti-American. 

And if the intent is to continue to make it patriotic, then why not extend it to concerts, shows, and other public gatherings?

This is crazy

RA European influencer had her "identify stolen" and put to use on Xitter to promote Trump. 

Essentially, musk is allowing fake accounts to exist - exactly what he said he would police better. 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/28/europe/fake-maga-accounts-x-european-influencers-intl-cmd/index.html

Cars land at Disney World?

There's been some discussion recently about Disney's desire to add a cars-themed land to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

But what I find weird is that the company has proposed taking the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer's Island, and repurposing them to suit the purpose.

But why do that?  You have the Tomorrowland Speedway, and a bit of surrounding land that would be a more natural fit. You could make the track different, add electric to it (as they are planning to do in DisneyLand) and theme the cars to have the eyes like in the Cars movies. Then add show elements as you like.

Maybe its too obvious?

Oh look he broke federal law, yet again!

Here he is smiling with a thumbs up on the grave of a recently interred American.  What a disgrace.  

Especially since he referred to military members who were wounded or killed "losers" and "suckers" ?