Potpourri

Seems like a lot went on in the world this past weekend, but did it really? Let's see...

• White House announces war in Iran is over: Except it's not, at least not yet. All we really know is that there's a "memo of understanding" that includes a "cease-fire" and a 60-day timeline for a full agreement to be reached. Whatever documentation that has been agreed upon is still secret. Felon47 says we'll see it after a "signing ceremony" on Friday, which strikes me as more hyperbole since this is reportedly not a peace agreement but an agreement to discuss a peace agreement. A thing about which we've heard before that turned out to be baseless. So I'll believe it when I see the text and get confirmation from someone not affiliated with this corrupt and dishonest White House that all parties are on board with it. Regardless, it will shock me and most everyone who's been paying any attention at all if the end result of this fiasco is remotely close to what was the status quo before Felon47 as Fraudster45 torched the previous diplomatic agreement with Iran. No matter how he spins this, the alleged president undertook this deadly adventure for no sane reasons and achieved only negative results.
• Alleged president celebrates 80th birthday as if it's his 8th: Last year the toddler-in-chief held a military parade for himself that required massive repair to the DC road infrastructure after it was done. Almost no one attended and he fell asleep in the middle of it. This year he hosted corporately-sponsored brutality on public land, the White House lawn, where 14 modern-day gladiators-for-hire, decked out in faux-patriotic wardrobe, beat the shit out of each other in perhaps the most spot-on metaphor for the entire Felon47 regime. This was a crass, corrupt, likely illegal event which Felon47 and his sons have a financial stake in and which financially benefits corporate executives who will be expected to return the favor, yes. But it was also a spotlit image of Felon47’s id. Brutal violence as entertainment, bloodsport under advertising banners, all on grounds he does not own and does not have rights to use for profit. It combined almost all elements of the man's persona: Violence for violence's sake; grift and profiteering; spectacle, glitz, and "showmanship"; abuse of public property for the sake of flexing his own power; propaganda; mob-like dealmaking/extortion; and above all, a belief that brute force (and the threat thereof) is the only power that matters.
• American idiot leaves for G7: Felon 47 departed for Europe and a meeting of the G7 nations, a summit at which the other heads of state will have to find a way to tolerate his presence. As articulated by Ned Price, a State Department spokesman, “The bar for success at a multilateral summit like this is quite low during this administration.” Price elaborated to define success for the U.S. as the president "avoiding a massive blowup either in person or on social media." Summit host Emmanuel Macron is choosing the butter-him-up tactic, choosing to flatter Felon47’s ego to either smooth things over in general or as a means of manipulation for whatever good thing the rest of the G7 wants to achieve. I put the likelihood of Price seeing his bar for success met at maybe 35%.
• Ump works 8½ hours in the hot sun: On the micro scale, I had a five-game umpiring shift yesterday, a Sunday afternoon that reached 90° Fahrenheit, during which there are no breaks and only sporadic shade until about 6pm. As expected, by game five I was worn down, cranky, hungry, and good and ready to go home, but at least there weren't many points of conflict throughout the day. Just a couple of stupid things about balls and strikes that I never have patience for on a normal day. And now I've got to go out and do three more games tonight, and tonight's contests are playoffs. Hopefully, nobody amps up their machismo for them. I've been doing a whole lot of umping these past few weeks, and largely that's fine, but the five-gamers do make me question some of my life choices.

That's all I have time for right now. Ittekimasu.