I'm not saying this was the plan from the beginning

...but Harris 2024 is still brilliant for the following reasons:

1) Republicans win elections largely by running smear campaigns. Their platform is a hodge-podge of incompatible self-interests, and they can't run on THAT. So, Joe has been out there as a honeypot attracting all the flies since the start of this campaign. All that money spent on negative ads and the like which don't carry an actual constructive political message of any kind has been wasted. All that focus on Hunter has been for nothing.
2) Republicans are now glued to the position that being 80 is too old to be president. The Democrats have flipped the script.
3) This gives Harris the advantage of knowing Trump's VP pick before choosing her own.
4) This nullifies the boost Trump got from the Republican National Convention.
5) This shakes up the election and may motivate independent voters (or disconnected non-voters) to take a second look at the Democrats.
6) This apparently unlocked a lot of big doner money.
7) Harris still has the incumbent advantage and Joe will work tirelessly on her behalf.
8) Some voters seemed to be asking for another choice, and the Democrats have now responded. The Republicans can only offer warmed-up leftovers which were largely passed over in 2020.
9) Joe is a staunch supporter of women's rights, but a woman at the top of the ticket strengthens that position even further.
10) A former prosecutor versus a convicted felon is a clear differentiator.
11) Any publicity is good publicity. This gets the Democratic ticket back at the top of the headlines in a good way.

Trump feels safe because God is on his side

Okay let's say we grant that God deflected the bullet, so it only grazed his ear. Wouldn't a maximally powerful entity capable of deflecting bullets deflect it another inch or two as to avoid hitting him altogether?

Dow 40,000!

We were there briefly back in May and have taken the perch again. The street likes the cooling inflation indicators, among other things.

Can you un-smash a loaf of bread?

I have a new vehicle with a small trunk that I am still adjusting to. I've hastily and carelessly stacked groceries in there and have squashed the last three loaves I've purchased with heavier items like milk. Un-smashing them seems to defy the second law of thermodynamics. Is there a quantum loophole I can exploit?

Follow-up question: are there any uses for hopelessly ruined loaves of bread besides making ridiculous looking sandwiches for lunch that my coworkers laugh at? French toast perhaps? Fish food??

The Ents would perform badly in primetime debates

Tolkien's Ents are famously wise but slow-paced in their deliberations. During an Entmoot, (a meeting of Ents), they sometimes deliberate for three days—which, from their perspective, was considered quite swift—before deciding to take action. Managing a forest doesn't require split-second decisions, which is many ways is similar to setting the course of a country at the highest level. The Ents would reject any requirement to respond to important matters within two minutes. They would prioritize responding correctly over responding quickly.

One of the candidates will have gotten JACKED before the presidential debate.

Musicians you love who are (or were) stuck in bands you hate

This is one of those things that can happen that can drive you a little crazy. Here are a few of my notable examples:

John Sykes/Thin Lizzy: I can give Sykes a pass for his first tour in Thin Lizzy. Phil Lynott was alive, and he hadn't broken through yet. Then he struck gold (or more like 5X platinum) with Whitesnake and unleashed his signature wall of guitar sound. He stepped out as frontman in Blue Murder and continued to be a force in the hard rock world. Then he mysteriously stepped out of the limelight and went back to Thin Lizzy to mostly just tour covering their old material. He milked that gravy train off and on until 2009.

Jeff Loomis/Arch Enemy: Loomis is a top-five guitarist for me and has reached the pinnacle of playing in his signature style. He reigned with Nevermore until 2010, a decade after the Y2K boundary when many hard rock and heavy metal bands went into extinction. After a messy breakup, Loomis left Nevermore and joined Arch Enemy. Warrel Dane's melodic, operatic vocals and epic themes were replaced with cookie monster vocals. He finally left in 2023, however Dane passed away in 2017.

Ritchie Blackmore/Blackmore's Night: I don't see how a guy who was instrumental in the creation of heavy metal can turn his back on it. I'm just not a fan of him playing folk rock instead.

Jake E. Lee/Red Dragon Cartel: Jake is another top five guitarist for me. The monstrous sound he developed during the Ozzy years was dialed back a bit for Badlands, but still kicked ass. I saw Red Dragon Cartel once and they are just an above-average bar band who withhold the Ozzy covers.

George Lynch/Lynch Mob: I saw them once and they were OK but were not in the same league as Dokken. These days Lynch seems to be doing one-off projects with seemingly everybody else from the genre.

Joe Bonamassa/Solo: Black Country Communion was one of coolest supergroups ever and seemed to come out of nowhere. Glenn Hughes pushed Joe to play better and rock a LOT harder. Solo, he's just another laid-back blues guitarist (but a good one). He's just better in a band context.

Questions we've asked in 2024

And to think the year isn't even half over.

1) Can a convicted felon run for President?
2) Can somebody in prison be the President?
3) How does the Secret Service protect a former president (or current president, see question 2) in prison?
4) Can a sitting president pardon his or herself? (carryover question from 2023)
5) Is a sitting president immune from prosecution for any and all crimes?

Don't bother dispatching ChatGPT into the muck to find the answers here.

Trump's trial was skewed!

This is a tautology, as ALL trials in the US are skewed...in the defendants' favor. These trials are in some ways similar to the scientific method. Charges brought against a defendant essentially form a hypothesis. This hypothesis is tested mainly by the questioning of witnesses which introduces additional evidence. The hypotheses either stands or falls on its merits in light of these tests. The jury independently makes this determination, which is similar to the concept of "reproducibility". However, the jury deliberation phase then diverges from the scientific method. The scientific method will go where the evidence is clustered, however the jury assumes a default position of innocent and has to meet the bar of "beyond a reasonable doubt" to move to guilty.

This built-in bias feature didn't produce the result Trump desired, so he has had to make an appeal to the even more biased court of public opinion.

What is vegetable broth's problem?

It has a shelf life of four months but warns that it should be used within a week after opening (and refrigerated). Can a shelf-stable pantry item really lose its flavor after a mere week?

I use it to make rice and beans but can't seem to use up a whole 32-ounce container within a week. That's a lot of rice and beans!