A damp, drizzly November

 I wonder if the short days and miserable weather cause suicide rates to rise.  I refuse to look it up.

Which of you is in charge of the lightning up there?  Some deity nailed the wrong Trump.  Judge Maryanne Trump Barry has died at 86, unremarked by her kid brother who is too obsessed with his revenge fantasies to notice much else.  They did not get along.  ("Donald is cruel.")  But she was a true Trump, promoted to the federal bench with the help of Roy Cohn and forced to resign when rumors of tax impropriety emerged.  

Tony Blair has offered his services as a Middle East peace negotiator.  The response was more or less "Don't call us, we'll call you."

Another ex-PM with baggage, David Cameron, has accepted the job of foreign secretary in return for a peerage.  He seems an odd choice, being largely responsible for the Brexit disaster.

France has pledged to spend a billion Euros researching the causes of melting polar ice caps.  I think we already know what's causing it:  ocean temperatures are, in the words of one scientist, "gobsmackingly bananas."  What do we do about it?

He's an anti-science paranoid who swallows whole every conspiracy theory but according to somebody called Justin Haskins, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is not fit to be president because he walked to the bathroom barefoot on a flight from Portland to Dallas.  (Are all the wackaloons gathering in Dallas ahead of the return of Junior's cousin and/or uncle next week?  Stay tuned.)

Jacob Chansley -- you may know him as the QAnon Shaman -- has served his time for his part in the insurrection and plans to run for Congress in the Arizona 8th.  Felons can't vote in Arizona but they can hold office.  Good to know.


Hours after introducing his girlfriend, Tim Scott ended his presidential campaign.  It must be love.

Trump used Veterans Days to spew Nazi rhetoric and the New York Post used it to trash the way Joe Biden laid the wreath at Arlington (and Kamala Harris just for being there).  So business as usual.

Pope Francis took the unusual step of removing Joseph Strickland as bishop of Tyler, Texas.  Strickland is an anti-vaxer and strident critic of the pope, accusing him of not being cruel to LGBTQ and trans people.  If only Pius XII had silenced Father Charles Coughlin before 1942.  Despite poor health the pope plans to spend three days in Dubai for the COP28 conference next month.

Fagradalsfjall is the name of the volcano expected to blow in Iceland any time.  Good luck on that Icelandic pronunciation.

Another volcano is threatening to erupt next to Vesuvio near Naples -- Campi Flegrei, last heard from in 1538.  Just when you think it's safe...

Of course volcanoes happen every day in Indonesia.  They're not in Europe so we don't care.






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