the mellow tigger's musings

I think there are 3 main reasons why events are unfolding as they are in the USA today. There are some good resources for understanding these points too. If you pick only 1 thing to investigate, then I recommend watching the entire 1-hour video in point #1.

In short, Trump is here to oversee the decline of the USA economy, with our oligarchs running off with as much wealth as they can plunder by any means necessary. They clearly believe there will be zero consequences for their behavior, with them expecting that the collapse is imminent. Let the looting begin.

These points don't even get into climate change, artificial intelligence, universal basic income and GINI scores, anti-intellectualism, chemical pollutions, and other civilization-changing issues facing humanity and our planet. It's no wonder that everyone is anxious. There's more to be anxious about than usual. Past collapses of civilizations would be dire to those humans in them, yes, but they didn't affect the entire biosphere like our current crises do. It's okay to pause for mental health... which they are also targeting.

I'm pretty sure I saw 2 bald eagles flying over north Minneapolis yesterday. I was waiting for the micro-route bus to take me to the grocery store, when I took this photo of 1 of them almost directly over my house. From this vantage, you can't really see any white feathers on its head, but when they were farther away, it did seem to be there. I tried using the Merlin app from Cornell University to confirm the bird identification, but it was unable to suggest anything from this photo. All I know for sure is that these birds were big.

Earlier this week, I was woken by foot cramp. Specifically, my right big toe was trying really hard to point up to my face for several minutes. It refused to give up on its own, so I eventually used my hand to push down against the muscles and force the toe down (also painful). Eventually the muscle contraction stopped. The only real gluten indulgence I know about is a few slices of English muffin bread (which is mostly air pockets anyway) for my breakfast sandwich, because I was tired of so many months of my smoothie breakfast. I think my neurons are growing more gluten-intolerant over time. This small indulgence wouldn't have affected me so quickly in years past.

During my micro-route bus ride to the grocery store last week, I took this photo of the new JACC (Jordan Area Community Council) poster up near my part of the neighborhood. Their webpage says, "Currently, we are in the process of moving our office location to a new spot on the corner of Penn and Lowry Ave. (“the old Subway location”)." That's nice that they're so close to me now. I might get more involved again, now that meetings are within easier walking distance?

I'm not sure I realized that Subway Sandwiches had moved out. They were located behind the Aldi's grocery store that moved out in February, which is the same corner for that recent news article about the city not cleaning the blood on the sidewalk from a stabbing. Subway had removed all of the tables and chairs from that location when I visited them a few times over the years. It is the same practice at other small fast food businesses in the area. They want you to visit and order, but they don't want you to stay and eat there. That's another consequence of cities refusing to provide housing or actual poverty relief. Business don't want to deal with people seeking shelter inside their establishment. Please, can we just fix these issues rather than perpetually "kick the can down the road" so they're somebody else's problem, removed either to some other geographic location or to some future residents to deal with?