DL Open Thread Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Hunter Biden was convicted of being a gun-toting drug addict – or was it a drug-addicted gun toter? – and MAGAts, in true Old Man Yells at Clouds form, are angry about it, and in the stupidest possible way. They claim Joe Biden orchestrated the conviction of his son to justify his prosecution of Donald Trump. These aren’t just the usual internet randos and Russian bots, either. Someone’s going to have to explain to me how you can share a country with people who think that’s a rational conclusion to draw.

In further evidence that lots of people beyond RFK Jr. must have brain worms, a Florida school board banned a book about book-banning. Look, there have always been people this stupid and deluded, but back in my day we didn’t let them run things. Then again, we had Jerry Lewis movies to show us what would happen if you let a moron run, say, a laboratory.

Every so often I see an article about declining sperm counts around the world. Lots of causes are suspected, but here’s a possible clue: scientists found microplastics in every semen sample they’ve tested. It’s not just the climate suffering from our petroleum addiction.

I never much cared for Joe Biden as a politician, but I’m perplexed by the level of unpopularity for a guy who has taken meaningful steps to help consumers through antitrust actions and by eliminating the “junk fees” that businesses increasingly use to burrow deeper into our pockets. If he had done more of that – or, really, any of that – during his long Senate career I would have liked him sooner.

There’s a reason you haven’t heard from Noam Chomsky lately. He’s in Brazil, recovering from a stroke he suffered last year, according to the Brazilian wife his Wikipedia page doesn’t mention him having.

The floor’s yours.