This past week was, as sailors used to say, “a helluva day at sea, sir!” From the unsurprising collapse of the U.S./Iran truce that shot oil prices back up and uncertainty in the Middle East stratospheric to the unexpected death of a key Senator (and the “Weekend at Bernie” memes about another), lots of not positive things were happening. If that wasn’t enough, President Trump took to some of the airwaves Thursday night to tell Americans something wasn’t quite right with our election processes. He went on to recite a now-familiar litany of “the usual suspects” cited by both parties as dabblers in our elections. The world travelers that came to America for the World Cup is heading home, hopefully disabused of the fact that we’re not all as crazy as our politicians. Tomorrow, Argentina and Spain will settle the matter of who’s the champion. Meanwhile, those of us left behind are worrying about whether the remaining fruits and vegetables the make summer wonderful are conspiring to kill us in a most unpleasant -and explosive- manner.
Next week, the world will rehashing the World Cup and it’s new (or defending) champion as England (again without the cup) will be watching to see what Prime Minister Andy Burnham and his Labor Party have planned. Back here in the colonies, residents of the Midwest and Northeast will be choking from the smoke from the distant fires in Canada, Verizon will be detail which of their stores are among the 274 they’re selling while pink-slipping another 500 corporate types, while Taco Bell diners across five states will continue to be served meals without lettuce, tomato, and pico as the company works to wipe out the contaminated lettuce that has blasted diners with cyclosporiasis. And then there’s the continuing arguments regarding data centers and the electrical grid…enjoy the summer, but don’t have the salad.
We'll keep you posted.
– Jim Shepherd