The Daily Parker

At a friend's prompting, I spelunked through a bunch of old Garmin tracks that I recorded in the aughts when I did a lot of road biking. I used to put a lot of the stats online, too, but that ended in 2007 when I switched braverman.org entirely to this blog.

Anyway, I uploaded some of the tracks to my Garmin account, and now I want to go for a very long bike ride of the type I used to do before my knees told me not to. For example, my longest rides of 2006 (120 km) and 2007 (128 km) were both in preparation for Century rides that, sadly, never happened. (In 2006, my gallbladder exploded a week before the Century, and in 2007, my mother died two days before it.)

Another cool thing: Weather Now has a lot of historical data (registration required), so I was also able to add weather notes to the old tracks.

I've also started recovering old Fitbit walks, like the 20-miler I did in July 2018. (I previously posted about this walk when it happened.) Fitbit is now owned by Google, which only has GPS tracks available through the mobile app, and a horrible interface for finding them. So I've only added a few of them to my Garmin account, but I'll continue to add them whenever I get bored.

I've gotten some progress on the feature update, and the build pipeline is running now, so I will take a moment to read all of these things:

• Radley Balko looks at the creation of what looks a lot like the OAFPOTUS's Waffen-Shutzstaffel and says we've lost the debate on police militarization: "In six months, the Trump administration made that debate irrelevant. It has taken two-and-a-half centuries of tradition, caution, and fear of standing armies and simply discarded it."
• Linda Greenhouse condemns the pervasive cruelty of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Tom Homan: "Something beyond the raw politics of immigration lies behind the venomous cruelty on display, and I think it is this: To everyone involved, from the policymakers in Washington to the masked agents on the street, undocumented individuals are “the other” — people who not only lack legal rights as a formal matter but who stand outside the web of connection that defines human society."
• Paul Krugman explains more cogently than I did why the Republicans cutting NOAA will hurt everyone: "Trump’s cuts to scientific research aren’t about shrinking government and saving money. They’re about dealing with possibly inconvenient evidence by covering the nation’s ears and shouting 'La, la, la, we can’t hear you.' "
• The inconvenient evidence includes a growing realization in Mediterranean countries that their summer resorts are no longer habitable in the summer: "Across Spain, Italy, Greece, France and beyond, sand-devouring storms, rising seas, asphyxiating temperatures, deadly floods and horrific wildfires have year after year turned some of the continent’s most desired getaways into miserable locales to get away from."
• Ilya Shapiro, constitutional studies director at the Manhattan Institute, believes both the left and the right have got Amy Coney Barrett all wrong: "She’s an originalist with a strong devotion both to constitutional text and institutional procedure. But she’s also a stickler for prudence in the face of novelty. The one thing Barrett is zealous about is upholding the rule of law..."
• A group of mayors from the Chicago suburbs has decided they don't like the very same public-private partnerships between railroads and their surrounding areas that created many of the same suburbs: "Real estate could be the recipe for long-term fiscal sustainability for [the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, making some of the current revenue mechanisms only temporary and reducing the risk of a repeat of this year's fiscal cliff. [But y]ou can’t protest government overreach of private property rights, and then defend zoning in the same paragraph."
• At the same time suburban mayors rant against better transit, their residents have clogged half the side streets in Chicago to get around Kennedy Expressway construction this summer. Of course, better transit would obviate all those car trips that cause the congestion in the first place, but let's not think too hard about that.
• In some parts of the country, though, street designs from the Netherlands have become more popular as planners and citizens see how much safer they are for everyone.
• Patrick Smith takes a look at last month's Air India crash and fears the worst: "[I]f the [fuel] switches were moved to CUTOFF manually, the billion-dollar question is why? Were they moved by accident, or nefariously? Was it an act of absurd absent-mindedness, or one of willful mass murder, a la EgyptAir, Germanwings, and (almost certainly) MH370."
• Google announced a new partnership with electric truck maker Rivian to use Google Maps for navigation.
• New studies suggest that we have crooked teeth because our diet changed: "With softer diets came less mechanical strain on the jaw. Over generations, our mandibles began to shrink— a trend visible in the fossil record."

Finally, a number of commentators have experienced a healthy dose of Schadenfreude watching the OAFPOTUS's rabid followers turn on him, including Adam Kinzinger, Josh Marshall, Dan Rather, and of course, Jeff Maurer. It's not exactly "the blood of Marat strangles him," but as a centrist, I am enjoying this part just a little. (And in fairness, Kinzinger, a Republican, believes that the administration's policies will do more damage to the party than this nonsense about Epstein.)

Economist Paul Krugman started what has become a 7-part overview of inequality in the United States: how it started, how it's going, and how it has corrupted our politics to an extent not seen since the 1890s:

Between World War II and the 1970s income disparities in America were relatively narrow. Some people were rich and many were poor, but overall inequality among Americans in terms of wealth, income and status was low enough that the country had a sense of shared prosperity. Things are very different today, as American society is beset by extreme inequality, economic fragmentation and class warfare.

What happened? The economic data show a huge widening of disparities in income and wealth starting around 1980, eventually undermining the relatively equal distribution of income we had from the 40s to the 70s. Moreover, growing disparities in income have led to growing disparities in political influence and the reemergence of what feels more and more like an oppressive class system.

But it hadn’t always been stable. People often call the period we’re living in a “New Gilded Age,” in recognition of an earlier era of extreme income and wealthy inequality. For the purpose of comparison, can we document that earlier era statistically?

[T]he 90-10 ratio (and other measures of wage inequality) suddenly declined in the 1940s, then stayed low for several decades before widening again. This is consistent with what we see in data on the share of income going to the top 1 percent. The relatively equal income distribution of postwar America didn’t evolve gradually. Instead it emerged quite suddenly, roughly during World War II, and didn’t disappear until decades after World War II ended.

Krugman planned a 2-part primer; as of yesterday, it has 7 parts. Spend the $6 on a Substack subscription and then an hour reading the series. It's worth it.

As everyone should know by now, everything the OAFPOTUS or anyone around him does is in the service of self-enrichment. We can include "enriching friends" as well. And in the grand tradition of privatizing things that government absolutely does better than industry, it looks like the Administration intends to cripple the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) so their friends can start making rents from the vital functions it performs.

Enter Neil Jacobs, nominated to head NOAA, who claimed without evidence in a confirmation hearing Wednesday to undo the damage the Clown Prince of X inflicted on the agency:

“If confirmed, I will ensure that staffing the Weather Service offices is a top priority,” said Jacobs, who led NOAA on an acting basis in Trump’s first term. “It’s really important for the people to be there because they have relationships with people in the local community. They’re a trusted source.”

The agency’s staffing levels have been in the spotlight due to the recent floods. While NOAA sent a wide range of warnings and alerts prior to the storms that caused the deadly floods in Texas, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on the Commerce Department’s inspector general to launch an investigation into the impacts the staffing cuts had on the crisis in Texas. That request is currently under review by the IG’s oversight teams, a spokesperson said.

Asked whether he supports President Trump’s proposal to cut NOAA’s budget by 27% in fiscal 2026, Jacobs confirmed that he did and suggested funding was being refocused from research to operations. The “mission-essential functions” of the National Weather Service and the National Ocean Service would continue, he said.

I'll believe it when I see it, Jake. At least Jacobs has a PhD in atmospheric science.

Another atmospheric scientist, meteorologist Alan Gerard, has a cogent and probably-correct hypothesis about why the OAFPOTUS made those draconian cuts to NOAA:

I have had many conversations with colleagues in recent weeks about the proposed NOAA budget cuts, and in the course of those discussions I have heard (and offered) many explanations, from the one that I gave to the reporter, to revenge against NOAA for Sharpiegate, to privatization of weather forecasting, etc. As I thought more deeply about all of this, though, I realized that I - and perhaps my colleagues, though I won’t speak for them - was likely looking at this from too myopic of a point of view.

I think the reality is that rather than support for weather science being caught in the flotsam of an anti-climate effort, weather and climate science are caught in the flotsam of anti-science efforts.

The administration’s own NOAA budget document states the need for an NWS that can provide “operational forecasts, warnings, impact-based decision support services (IDSS) and other life-saving products and services to the emergency management community and public as they prepare for and respond to increasingly frequent severe weather and water events (emphasis added).” The administration itself acknowledges the increasing frequency of events and hence growing societal needs for warning and forecast services. Destroying the NOAA research-to-operations structure built over decades seems all too likely to yield an NWS unable to evolve to meet those growing needs.

And yet I think the anti-science part isn't the point. As PBS reported earlier this week, administration officials from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik on down have financial interests that would benefit from outsourcing these functions to private firms. So instead of our tax dollars supporting weather research and forecasting, our tax dollars would support those things plus profits for private interests.

Again, it's all about the grift.

In a similar vein, I'm working on a hypothesis that tanking the economy through tariffs could just be about enriching bond holders, because if interest rates go up, we would pay more to the wealthiest among us in mortgages, student loans, credit-card interest, and yes, Federal bond coupons. Because to the OAFPOTUS and his friends, it's totally fine to burn everything down as long as they can profit from the ashes.

That has been the Republican Party since before Reagan was president. They've just stopped concealing it under this administration, because they're so close to everything they've ever wanted, they don't care who who knows.

Starting today's link round-up is a report that Deerfield, Ill.—based Walgreens Boots (the pharmacists/chemists, not footwear) shareholders have voted to sell out to a private-equity firm, which no doubt will destroy the company to extract every morsel of short-term value from it. Oh, well, the local CVS is closer than the local Walgreens.

In other fun news:

• Josh Barro hypothesizes that Democrats will actually have trouble running on the recently-passed Republican tax bill because of the timing and nature of the harms that the bill will cause.
• Similarly, Dan Rather frets that Republicans passed "the least popular piece of legislation in the history of modern polling" in part because they believe voters will never figure out what's in it: "The biggest political divide in this country is no longer between Democrats and Republicans or liberals and conservatives. It is between the informed and the uninformed or misinformed."
• The Post fact-checks claims about the bill.
• Adam Kinzinger shakes his head at US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and how delusional theories now drive the Republican party.
• Nathan Taylor Pemberton examines the sadistic memes Republicans post with reckless glee these days portend even worse behavior from young right-wingers in the future.
• Jack Shafer distinguishes between the OAFPOTUS's "honest graft" and other forms of corruption.
• Julia Ioffe wonders what happened to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Finally, satirist Jeff Maurer asks, "Could a drug-fueled maniac be the right person to lead a common-sense political movement?" As he puts it, "If a House or Senate race was Goebbels McIncel versus Moonbeam J. Polycule, a third party could win." But this will probably not happen in 2026 or 2028, as Nate Silver explains less satirically.

Short lifespans have plagued tech more in the last 25 years than at any point in the past. I particularly hate when a bit of tech goes obsolete for no reason other than the manufacturer decided it doesn't want to support it anymore. I want to take the CEO by the lapels and remind them that they sold these products and they had better support them for a while.

Belkin has become the latest company to exit a product line that I have used practically since it came out. They announced today that they will cease all support for their Wemo brand of smart switches, a product line they launched less than 15 years ago. Their email to me this morning sounds about as corporate and bullshitty as you'd expect:

After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to end technical support for older Wemo products, effective January 31, 2026.

This decision was not made lightly. Over the last decade, since Belkin first launched Wemo in 2011, we’ve been committed to providing consumers with innovative, simple-to-use accessories for a seamless smart home experience. However, as technology evolves, we must focus our resources on different parts of the Belkin business.

We acknowledge and deeply appreciate the support and enthusiasm for Wemo over the last several years. We are proud of what we’ve accomplished in the smart home space and are grateful to our customers for welcoming Wemo into their homes. 

We understand this change may disrupt your routines, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

I have nine of the little bastards. "Disrupt your routines" means I have to replace the nine Wemo plugs with some other brand that works with Google Home. Fortunately I already have two Gosund switches (which I should point out have never disappeared from my Google Home app), and a 4-pack of 5G plugs from the same company will only set me back $42.

I thought this might happen when Google Home could no longer reach any Wemo switches through its app or voice commands last month. The outage lasted two weeks or so, during which time I had to hope that the automation I set up could turn them on and off, else I would have to reach under furniture in the dark until I could replace them.

Of course, the economics have to be a problem. There are probably a few million Wemo devices around the world, all of which have independent connections to the Internet and thus to Wemo's back end. That probably cost them tens of thousands of dollars per month to operate. How much does that cost per device, given that people likely keep their $29 smart plugs for years?

Gosund doesn't have that overhead as their products connect directly to Google Home. And Google has a pretty good likelihood of supporting its software for more than 15 years.

Still, I'm quite annoyed. At least the new switches will probably stay connected to my automation more reliably.

It took several hours after the Gila River started rising for a general alert to go out. This doesn't appear to be anyone's fault so much as the way the alert system works, which is why a bill recently proposed in the Texas legislature would provide much-needed money to upgrade the system. Unfortunately for Texans who live near rivers, Republicans in the state house killed the bill in the most recent legislative session.

New York State has a similar problem. The Dept of Homeland Security just cancelled a $3 million grant to enhance "last-mile" alerts in extreme weather events, even as recovery workers found more bodies in Texas:

As the Empower website puts it, “By integrating advanced analytics, real-time localized high resolution Mesonet-based weather data, critical infrastructure ‘lifelines,’ social vulnerability data, and novel visualization capabilities, the Empower tool will provide a rapid assessment of changing weather conditions and their potential impacts on communities and critical infrastructure.”

But on Tuesday the grant recipients at State University of New York, Albany were notified by DHS in a termination form dated July 8th that the entire grant was being “terminate[d] for the convenience of the Government.” The order, signed by DHS contracting officer John Whipple, instructed researchers to immediately cease work on the project.

So while the Texas disaster last week wasn't the fault of Texas Republicans or the OAFPOTUS's hand-picked clown college, future disasters will certainly have higher tolls because of their actions.

My GOP friends: the Republican Party told you for decades it wanted to "drown the Federal government in a bathtub," and you either didn't believe them or thought that was just fine. At the moment, I don't care which. You will have some explaining to do later on, though.

On this day 100 years ago, John Scopes went on trial for the crime of teaching a “theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals:”

On July 10, the Monkey Trial got underway, and within a few days hordes of spectators and reporters had descended on Dayton as preachers set up revival tents along the city’s main street to keep the faithful stirred up. Inside the Rhea County Courthouse, the defense suffered early setbacks when Judge John Raulston ruled against their attempt to prove the law unconstitutional and then refused to end his practice of opening each day’s proceeding with prayer.

In the courtroom, Judge Raulston destroyed the defense’s strategy by ruling that expert scientific testimony on evolution was inadmissible–on the grounds that it was Scopes who was on trial, not the law he had violated.

[Scopes' attorney Clarence] Darrow changed his tactics and as his sole witness called [former presidential candidate William Jennings] Bryan in an attempt to discredit his literal interpretation of the Bible. In a searching examination, Bryan was subjected to severe ridicule and forced to make ignorant and contradictory statements to the amusement of the crowd. On July 21, in his closing speech, Darrow asked the jury to return a verdict of guilty in order that the case might be appealed. Under Tennessee law, Bryan was thereby denied the opportunity to deliver the closing speech he had been preparing for weeks. After nine minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with a guilty verdict, and Raulston ordered Scopes to pay a fine of $100, the minimum the law allowed. Although Bryan had won the case, he had been publicly humiliated and his fundamentalist beliefs had been disgraced. Five days later, on July 26, he lay down for a Sunday afternoon nap and never woke up.

In 1927, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the Monkey Trial verdict on a technicality but left the constitutional issues unresolved until 1968, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a similar Arkansas law on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment.

Boy, we've sure moved past all that ignorant anti-science fundamentalist religious hokum, haven't we?

Cassie had a solid night of post-anesthesia sleep and woke up mostly refreshed. The cone still bums her out, and the surgery bill bums me out, but at least she's walking at close to her normal speed. She gets her stiches out—and her cone off—two weeks from today.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world:

• Very stupid people have allowed measles, which we functionally eliminated from the US in 2000, to infect close to 1300 people this year.
• Jennifer Rubin argues that the Department of Homeland Security provides neither “freedom from danger” or “freedom from fear or anxiety,” i.e., security.
• Former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers is ashamed of the OAFPOTUS's tax bill and what it will do to the most vulnerable Americans.
• George Will praises former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel for holding the center against the loony left.
• Echoing my own thoughts, Stephanie Bai wants people to stop throwing blame around for this past weekend's Texas floods. (The blame for future disasters, however, falls squarely on the Republican Party.)
• Paul Krugman lauds victories over NIMBYs that are starting to revitalize building in urban areas.
• Cook County's practice of stealing people's homes for non-payment of property tax will likely cost us hundreds of millions of dollars once the class-action lawsuit gets going.
• Strava has once again lost control of its subscribers' location data, this time outing the Swedish prime minister's bodyguards, and thus the PM himself. Oops. (In fairness, it might be that the bodyguards themselves failed to protect the data by posting workouts publicly.)

Finally, lightning bugs appear to have made a small comeback in the Chicago area after a few years of reduced numbers. Educational campaigns have encouraged people to leave leaf litter undisturbed whenever possible, to allow the critters to breed safely. A mild winter and wet spring also helped a lot.

I've been slowly going through Buffy the Vampire Slayer again and cleaning out some boxes that I've stored for a similar length of time, so I've thought a lot about the 1990s recently. Apparently so has author Glynnis MacNicol:

Had I gone to sleep on New Year’s Eve in 1999 and waked today, Rip Van Winkle style, much of the world I left behind that night would still feel familiar. Fast-fashion hubs like Urban Outfitters are peddling baby tees and baby-doll dresses. Point-and-shoot cameras, like the one I toted into the city, flip phones and even smoking are making a comeback. Perhaps most notable, I’d still recognize a shocking number of the people currently wielding influence over our lives, not least because so many of them were prominent in New York City at the time.

It’s not just pop culture. New Yorkers still have Chuck Schumer trolling the Senate; he took office in 1999 and never left. And, of course, our president: It was in the 1990s that Donald Trump became an avatar for wealth and excess. It’s as though Generation X, of which I am solidly a member, is wreaking some strange revenge. The people we put in power and the culture we created currently have an outsize influence on the world.

Apparently author Kurt Andersen had a similar idea back in February.

I do miss the '90s. Well, the late '90s, after law school, right around the time The Daily Parker began on a small corner of my company's Internet server. But still.