The lawn is mowed

I managed to get my lawn mowed, finally, and it was absolutely about time. I had to empty the damned bags at least 6 times.

I also ran the sprinklers for 5 minutes because the lawn is beginning to burn and the stress of being run over by a lawn tractor was probably going to make it worse. Hopefully watering it for a few minutes relieved some of the stress.

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By the way, the price of a gallon of gasoline went up $1.00 in just the last two days...

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There is an incredible amount of repeat news so other than gasoline probably going over $5.00 a gallon tonight, I don't have much new to bitch about.

This evening, Trump is giving a speech about his favorite subject: "The Election Was Stolen From Me!" so maybe I'll complain about that tomorrow. You can rest assured that I will not be watching it simply because I get a headache listening to him say things.

I'm sure that tomorrow morning the so-called "experts" will have analyzed his speech and they will be more than happy to fill me in on what they think he said. Once I digest that bullshit, I'll try and find a transcript so I can figure out what he really said.

It'll be fun.

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Here are some links:

• This kinda sounds like a bad idea.



• Mars has bees!



• When they swore in Lindsay Graham's sister 5 days after he died, I got to rememberin' this woman.

AL wins

The American League won last nights All Star game, which means absolutely nothing...

There is no benefit to winning the game other than the players on the winning team get $25,000 each.

Not sorry I didn't watch it.

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I got to thinking the other day about how great everything was going to be once Dementia Donny got elected. Then I thought about all the things he said after he got elected.

Remember when he said we would all get "DOGE" checks from all the money he was saving us? What happened to them? And what about those tariff checks he said he would be sending out? I sure could use those checks.

Remember when he said he would lower the price of prescription drugs by "1,500" percent? I would like to get paid to get medicated.

Remember when he said starting on day one of his presidency he would lower grocery prices and end the war in Ukraine? I'd settle for lower grocery prices...

Remember when he said he would release every one of the Epstein files?

Remember when he dug up the Rose Garden and Jacqueline Kennedy Memorial? And when he knocked down the east wing of the White House and said the new ball room would be paid for by private donations?

I'm sure glad I remember those things because it seems like no one in the executive branch of the federal government remembers them...

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Canada is on fire and the smoke is rolling through my neighborhood.

This is what it looked like from my front porch at 2:45 this afternoon:

They say we're going to enjoy this for the next few days.

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Here are some links:

• I know a lot of cops and not a single one of them has ever executed anyone during a traffic stop.



• Thank goodness for that.



• New York Post: The only newspaper you will ever need...

Baseball is a weird business

The winner of last night's Home Run Derby was a young man named Jordan Walker. The prize for winning that contest was $1,000,000.

Jordan Walker is a pre-arbitration eligible player which means he earns league minium. That is currently $780,000

So in one night, Jordan Walker earned more money in one night than he gets paid to play all season long.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

As for the Netflix coverage of the event, it sucked huge.

It was one of the worst broadcast coverages of any sport event I've ever watched.

I do not understand why MLB thinks putting games on pay-for-view networks is a good idea.

It's not a good idea, it's stupid idea. Baseball viewership has been declining pretty steadily for the last several years and this is one of the reasons why.

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The All Star game is at 8:00 tonight and I might watch a bit of it. FOX is carrying the game which means listening to Joe Davis and John "I wouldn't have thrown that pitch" Smoltz.

Again, I love watching baseball but the All Star game has traditionally been a joke to watch. The tv coverage kinda sucks because they keep showing everything except the ball game. They show the announcers chit-chatting about some guy who is not there, they show the field reporter interviewing some celebrity he found in the stands, shit like that.

I'll probably watch the first two innings and then flip over to the cooking channel. Who knows, maybe someone will actually be doing some cooking instead of participating in a game show hosted by Guy Fieri...

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Here are some links:

• Key line from the US Secretary of State in this story about Trump collecting tolls in the Straits of Hormuz: "No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. That’s existing international law."



• So basically the developers were flippers, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, someone had to fix that eyesore.



• I cannot say this enough: If someone calls you and says you have a problem that money can solve, hang up the damned phone.



• Damn right there should be no charges filed.

Not much happening

The Home Run Derby will be held at 8:00 tonight and I might watch a bit of it. I understand they have gone back to the old format of limited swings instead of the timed format they tried last year.

There are 3 rounds and each hitter gets 20 swings in the 1^st round. The top four hitters will move on to round 2 where they each get 15 swings. The top two from that round move on to the finals where they will have 15 swings.

There is a new rule called the "hitting streak" where if a hitter hits a home run on the last swing of the round, he will get another swing. He will keep hitting until he fails to hit a home run.

My problem is I think it's kind of boring watching a guy swing and hit meatball pitches which is why I'll probably only watch a bit of it. Contreras is up first so I'll put it on to see how he does.

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Depending on who you listen to, we are looking at another potential heat wave in my part of the world.

According to the TV dweebs, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday are all predicted to be above 90°

According to the internet dweebs, tomorrow is predicted to be above 90° but the rest of the days are going to be below 90°

I don't care because as far as I'm concerned, anytime the temps are above 80° and the humidity is above 65%, it's uncomfortable and I don't like it.

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Here are some links:

• Trump's search for something, anything, to justify his insane belief that he won the 2020 election is costing us a lot of money. I hope the next president sues him to get the money returned to us.



• Fashion: I don't get it.



• Oh Canada.



• This isn't good. Not good at all.

A 9-game winning streak

It took them 10 innings but the Red Sox beat the Mets 3-2 this afternoon, sweeping that series. This gives them a 9-game winnings streak and 3 sweeps in a row.

They are currently (as of 5:00 this afternoon) ½ a game out of the wild card:

And according to Fangraphs, they now have a 41.9% chance of making the playoffs:

The All Star break commences tonight so they are off now until Friday when they will play a double header against the Rays. This is the makeup game from a rainout in early May followed by the first game of a 3-game series.

I would like to say that my hope-o-meter is very high right now but I'm a guy who remembers that the Red Sox tend to go into a slump after the All Star break. I guess my hopes are that they have already had their slump and they will continue rolling along through the rest of the season.

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South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham died last night after to a "brief and sudden" illness. He had recently returned from a trip to Ukraine.

Another story indicates his "brief and sudden" illness may have been heart disease. I guess he was known to have a lot of plaque in his arteries.

And for the record, I always thought Graham was an honorable guy. He tended to be a little bit of a warmonger but he, like John McCain, always wanted to do what was right.

As for Mitch "Seizure" McConnell, who the hell knows what is going on with him. All we have to go on is a statement released by his office that claims to be from him. For all we know,he may also be dead.

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Here are some links:

• Key line in this story: "...insisting it alone must control the strait and potentially charge vessels for traveling through it."



• They're just making this shit up.



• This is why you never feed raccoons.