Random Thoughts: Highs in the 80s in Texas in July

Tweets from July, 2021:

• 2021-07-01: I agree, Pete Delkus. Highs in the 80s in Texas in July are pretty amazing. Now say something about global warming. Be sure to mention that Portland, Oregon, now has a hotter all-time high temperature than Dallas, Texas.
• 2021-07-02: Headline: "Olympic sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson suspended one month after marijuana test." I didn't know marijuana was a performance enhancing drug. If it is, all the warnings about it when I was in school were a big fat lie.
• 2021-07-02: Gary Slagel has filed to run for Congress against Colin Allred. Expect Richardson to suffer a black eye as Slagel's history gets rehashed: CapitalSoft and StarTech, Richardson's bridge to Fossil Watch, Slagel's donation to Ill. Gov Rod Blagojevich before winning a govt. contract.
• 2021-07-03: No Sudden Move (2021): A heist movie set in Detroit in 1954. The object is engineering drawings. Or a mobster's code book. It doesn't matter. Neither do the plot twists. Just try to figure out who the bad guys are. The film noir feel more than makes up for a convoluted plot. B+
• 2021-07-05: I used to think American democracy was resilient. To survive 245 years, there had to be a stable super-majority who believed in democracy. I no longer have faith in that. I now believe close to half of Americans would trade democracy for autocracy to get their way in politics.

After the jump, more random thoughts.

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• 2021-07-05: The Mandalorian - Season 1 (TV 2019): Bounty hunter becomes guardian of a baby Yoda, who a galaxy bad guy wants badly. Fight after fight, our Mandalorian and his asset escape. Not so for countless storm troopers. Repetitious. It's hard to act wearing a helmet all the time. C+
• 2021-07-06: Summer of Soul (2021): Concert series in Harlem in summer of '69. After years of tragedy, the decade ends with joy, community pride, and Black power. Questlove's documentary covers all that, but especially the music. Blues, soul, R&B, gospel, jazz. I never felt so white. B+
• 2021-07-07: 30% of the land in American cities is paved over with streets, alleys, and parking lots. What's the number in Richardson? Do we even know? Should we consider adopting policies that drive that number lower?
• 2021-07-07: Texas Legislature special session is chock full of culture war issues, but not toughening the power grid or dealing with its cause (global warming), or expanding Medicaid, or increasing COVID-19 vaccinations. It's all theatre, it's partisan politics, it's NOT helpful to Texans.
• 2021-07-08: Fosse/Verdon (TV 2019): Why are so many artistic geniuses such jerks? Good look behind the curtain of musical theater. In this biopic, Gwen Verdon is the more interesting character. She endures Bob Fosse's mistreatment of her and all around him because of her own ambition. B+
• 2021-07-08: This is what the filibuster leads to.
• 2021-07-09: From my Texas legislator: "The House Committee on Constitutional Rights & Remedies will hear proposed Election Integrity Legislation, HB 3." I can't decide: irony? oxymoron? clueless? evil?
• 2021-07-11: A billionaire just completed a 15 minute joy ride 50 miles up in the sky. Yay, us, I guess?
• 2021-07-11: The International Olympic Committee gets the gold for greed, NBC Universal earns silver and Japanese Olympic organizers win bronze."
• 2021-07-11: Texas AG Ken Paxton says the quiet part out loud. Voter suppression wasn't about ensuring free and fair elections. It was always about re-electing Donald Trump.
• 2021-07-13: High on the Hog (TV 2021): How African-American cuisine transformed America. It's a food show, but it's also a history show. From Benin to South Carolina to Philadelphia to Texas, our nation's menu was created by Blacks. Stephen Satterfield finds the culture behind the menu. B+
• 2021-07-14: Uh oh. "A spokesperson with the city of Richardson said no one was available to comment on the delay at this time." Double uh oh.
• 2021-07-14: Talking about race in an American classroom in Red America is like talking about Tiananmen Square in a Red Chinese classroom. The State won't allow it.
• 2021-07-14: Healthiest county in TX" is a low bar. What would really speak volumes is if you voted to expand Medicaid.
• 2021-07-14: The two most common misconceptions about the US Constitution. 1) that there's a right to vote (this belief is most common among liberals), and 2) that there's a right to infect (this belief is most common among conservatives).
• 2021-07-14: Vertical mixed use" is a term I have needed but didn't know. I'm irritated when new projects are proposed with the claim of being "mixed use" when not a single building in the development has more than a single use. "Vertical mixed use" is the term I'll be looking for in future.
• 2021-07-16: Black Widow (2021): Half superhero movie, half dysfunctional family drama. Marvel Universe has guns but fights all turn into fist fights. The plot is messy. I kept asking, why are they doing this? Out of nowhere they rip off their faces to reveal a switcheroo and I ask WTF? C+
• 2021-07-19: Roadrunner (2021): Documentary of Anthony Bourdain. His show was the best travel show on television. Global politics disguised as a food show. Clips, outtakes, and interviews with his friends and crew give us a peek behind this complicated, flawed, and open but enigmatic man. B+
• 2021-07-20: Headline: "Sixth Texas Democrat in Washington, D.C., tests positive for COVID-19." They are d*mned fools, taking a private jet to D.C., smiling and partying, drinks in hand, none of them wearing facemasks. Doesn't anybody on the D side in Texas know how to play this game?
• 2021-07-20: It looks like Tom Brady has finally shed fanboy The Donald.
• 2021-07-21: Al Gore was an optimist.
• 2021-07-21: Sweet Tooth (TV 2021): Pandemic triggers "Great Crumble." And human/animal hybrids. All about a deer-boy's quest to find his scientist mother. Lots of adventures, but not much plot resolution. Good guys good, bad guys bad, deer-boy precious. It's a kids' tale for whole family. B-
• 2021-07-21: I went to a fast food restaurant today. Feeling good about the Bucks' NBA championship, when the clerk asked for a name for my order, I impulsively answered, "Giannis Antetokounmpo." I'm still waiting for my meal.
• 2021-07-22: Texas has seen nearly 9,000 COVID-19 deaths since February. All but 43 were unvaccinated people." The 21st Century version of "Give me liberty or give me death."
• 2021-07-22: History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce." -- Karl Marx
• 2021-07-22: Example of projection, the act of accusing others of what you are guilty of yourself. Here, a year ago, Ted Cruz accuses Dems of cynical politics. In hindsight, it reveals Ted Cruz himself was the cynical one. In fact, some people care more about public health than Ted Cruz does.
• 2021-07-22: In older news, I remember when Jeffrey Dahmer charged that his trial for serial murder was unfair because the jury didn't include any cannibals.
• 2021-07-22: Texas Longhorns' potential Big 12 exit raising concerns in state Legislature." Way to go, Longhorns. Tie up the legislature in an issue they should stay out of, so that all the other issues they should stay out of don't get passed.
• 2021-07-26: Forcing babies to wear diapers is child abuse.
• 2021-07-28: Breaking news on the Senate's infrastructure negotiations: Lucy is teeing up the football again.
• 2021-07-28: E.O. Wilson: "The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology."
• 2021-07-29: Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021): Moral is OK: Kids should be allowed to follow their dreams. But it's lost in a nonstop onslaught of CGI action and WB IP. Like watching a 2 hour infomercial. Maybe I smiled once. Lebron can't act. Don Cheadle wasted. "New legacy" is an oxymoron. D+
• 2021-07-29: If I read this right, Ken Paxton is saying he will always fight for a woman's right to choose what happens to her own body.
• 2021-07-30: Loki (TV 2021): Loki (villain, antihero, God of Mischief), branches the universe and is captured by the forces tasked with pruning him to protect the sacred timeline. Plot, sets, costumes are all absurd, but just go with it all the way to the void at the end of time. It works. B-
• 2021-07-30: Today would be a good day for Trump to release his tax returns.
• 2021-07-30: I guess the audit is over.
• 2021-07-31: Killing Eve - Season 1 (TV 2018): Eve, with British MI6, and Villanelle, a Russian assassin and psychopath, play cat-and-mouse game across Europe. But who is the cat? Shadowy group "The 12" are targets, but of whom? My only complaint is that Season 1 leaves so many loose ends. A-
• 2021-07-31: Shorter Elise Stafanik, unironically: "Keep your goddamn government hands off my Medicare."