Good morning. Hello. How are you? I am… okay. I mean, I am definitely okay, even though many horrible things happened yesterday. Because I am rich and male and white. But I am absolutely not freakin okay because I have… a sense of justice? Fairness? Common decency? Gawd.

Let’s see. Right off the bat, we should start with something that actually hasn’t happened yet, but get ready, because there’s a good chance at 10 AM ET or so today the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v Wade. Typically the Supreme Court does not release decisions on a Friday, but they added a special Friday decision announcement day this week. You could, of course, suppose that they did this because this Monday was a Federal holiday, and they have a lot of decisions to still release this year. And… sure. But also… they have a decision they gotta release that everyone knows is coming, that people are pissed about and it seems clear to me that even the Supreme Court is not immune to going for a Friday news dump. It might not be today, but I certainly wouldn’t bet against it coming out today.

And then of course in fun Supreme Court news they decided yesterday to just gut America’s gun laws that have stood for a hundred years. I’m a little surprised, but I shouldn’t have been I guess. There’s nothing they won’t do. After this and Tuesday’s ruling essentially gutting the separation of church and state, you get the real sense they’re going for a shock-therapy hat trick this week.

Oh god, never mind, they’ve already done a hat trick, I forgot they also, for good measure, gutted your Miranda Rights this week.

Somewhere in here I should acknowledge the milquetoast gun safety bill actually progressing through our congress but what’s the point. It’s a half step at best, and yes, of course we should support it, but it’s hard to imagine it’ll do enough and, now, it’s hard to imagine it will actually withstand appeal to the Supreme Court anyway.

There is only one amendment to the Constitution. The rest of the constitution does not exist. It is perfectly reasonable to consign women to slavery to carry a child to term they do not want because the thirteenth amendment doesn’t count.

Just… horrifying.

It is worth re-iterating there is a mid-term coming up where we have an actual chance to take two more Senate Seats that could maybe end this nightmare, if we took them and everyone stood up and did the right thing (lol).

And, look. I know it’s not on the same level, but the FDA outright banning Juul pods because the company didn’t do well enough on the new, bullshit, second, extra application process is completely fucking insane. Stores aren’t allowed to sell the stock they have left. They’re supposed to throw it away. Every news story out there says the truth: that this is retribution by the FDA for “marketing to kids,” even though the FDA claims it is because Juul failed to write their new application well enough. As if either of these explanations is okay? First off, if any company, anywhere, ever, in the US fails at filling out some forms, never in the history of the country did or do we just ban the company completely. That is batshit! And never have we outright banned a product, even for adults, because a company marketed to kids. I mean, have you heard of Daniel Defense?

EVEN IF, somehow, it is desireable, necessary and legal (and it is none of these!) that Juul as a company needs to stop operating in the US, as it sells exactly the same liquid a bunch of other companies do, for god’s sake, give people a little notice. Imagine if Coca-Cola was banned out of the blue and instead of Pepsi the only product out there that the addicts could replace it with was strychnine. Juul has a 70% market share in the US. There are towns where it is the only e-cigarette available, yes, even in this country of vape shops on every corner. There is only one readily-available replacement procuct for Juul in many places, and that is cigarettes.

I have a friend who lives in a small town, has smoked for years, has been successfully using Juul to quit — as millions Americans have done and tens of thousands are doing right this very second — and had to go to the one place in her town where they sell Juul and beg them to let her buy out their stock — which they are not supposed to do and made a point of saying so before winking and letting her buy it all. Yes, she can now order shit from the internet but it won’t come for at least a week: if she’s lucky. I doubt the e-cigarette industry capacity can absorb this blow. Seems an iffy proposition that in a time of supply-chain issues, FDA hounding, and the sudden disappearance of the largest manufacturer, the industry can actually step up and supply the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on this product to quit smoking in anything approaching a timely manner.

It absolutely seems possible — likely even — that thousands of Americans will start smoking again because of this ruling, because of the way it was implemented. And the FDA is 100% okay with that because they feel it necessary to ban a company that manufacturers a mostly harmless stimulant with a toxicity profile most akin to caffiene. Out of the blue. With no warning, transition, or concerns for the actual health of actual adult Americans who rely on the product to not fucking die.

I know, proportionally, spending this much time of a GMHHAY on Juul Pods, in the face of these other political monstrosities today seems disproportional, but, it’s just so galling to me.

Also I am, like, seven months into no nicotine so I’m allowed to rant about this now because it does not look self-serving.

Also, hilariously, the FDA even said there was no known immediate health risk to Juul being on the market. But so what, I guess.

It is hard not to take all of these things together and draw dire conclusions about our government, but I will resist that.

I checked the weekly NC Covid dashboard yesterday — it is still BS that they changed from daily to weekly and I am still pissed about it. Total number of cases are down. Waste water is down. Positivity rate is flat for the fourth week in a row. Hospitalizations — admittedly a lagging indicator — are up slightly. Allmost theree……

Emma and I are trying to figure out this vaccination situation for Jane. CVS only has Phizer so far — we want Moderna because the Booster #2 they are currently testing for (hopefully) soonish approval is specific to Omicron. Our doctor’s office doesn’t offer it yet. Walmart says they do but there are no appointments anywhere when you put in a child’s birthday, which is fishy since there are tons at CVS. I doubt that many people around here are dying to vaccinate their kids, let alone picky about which vaccine they’re going for. So… for now we are still waiting. There is an additional complication where in August Jane enters the 11-week pre-fifth-birthday window where she can get the regemin for 5 year-olds, which is a bit stronger and well tested. So… trying to figure out what to do. Part of me wants to go go go and just go get it for her today, but I think it’s probably more wise to wait for now. Frustratingly. Impatiently.

We get Hello Fresh twice a week and I mean, it’s cheesy, but don’t mind it. I like being cooked for twice a week and lord knows that wouldn’t happen otherwise. The meals are generally pretty good and it’s good to get a little bit of variety in your meals. God knows we eat the exact same thing each of the other five days of the week. This week, Emma got a add-on lunch mean of grilled cheese and tomato soup. Which leads me to this amazing sight:

(I’m sorry Facebook readers you’re just gonna have to check out the email version to see this glorious photo).

Ain’t that American, as John Cougar Mellencamp would say.

Speaking of John Cougar Mellancamp:

John Mellencamp @johnmellencamp

We are a country of cowards who can't find the collective courage to get rid of the politicians who sit on their bloody hands when it comes to gun control, but at the same time call themselves "pro life.” We should all be so ashamed. I painted this 15 years ago. - JM #2 of #2

XM Radio played “High and Dry” by Radiohead yesterday, I hadn’t heard it in ages. Am I alone in thinking The Bends might be the best Radiohead album? OK Computer is obviously close, but The Bends, man. The epic title track, “High and Dry,” “My Iron Lung,” “Just,” “Fake Plastic Trees,” “Street Spirit,” come on, man, there are like six banger singles on The Bends. This sounds like a regressive opinion, because, oh you boring old man you don’t like it when Radiohead went and got all experimental and avante-garde and it’s true, I don’t, but not because I don’t like that kind of music, but because plenty of other artists were already making that kind of music and they were better at it. I already have Squarepusher and Esplendor Geométrico and Aphex Twin in my life. Radiohead had something special, something that comes along once in a generation, and they decided to shelve it to be a laptop band. That bums me out.

Also I saw every tour from The Bends on and The Bends tour was the best one.

I went to Facebook to post yesterday’s GMHHAY and Facebook’s Timehop rip-off Memories feature (continued grrrr) showed me my post from 1 years ago and it was just the exact same thing as now: a long, rambling blog post with a photo of a playlist. It’s like I’m constructing a wall in time with these posts. In a Doctor Who episode, these GMHHAY posts would represent some insurmountable barrier between one phase in time and another. The person I am on this side of the barrier is increasingly decoupled from the person I was before it. I don’t want to fly anymore, going to shows seems insane. I miss my garden. Is it the pandemic, is it parenthood, is it middle age, is it North Carolina, who knows. It is a wall. I mean I guess that’s fine, I’m not actually a time-traveler so this is mostly academic but it is still a wall, it has mass, it has weight, I can feel it.

All right, Justa mix today, what do we got. First off, “Husavik,” from the Eurovision movie, because I love this song so much and it makes me almost cry every time, that plaintive, perfect yearning for the simplicity and comfort of your home town. Will Ferrell’s vocals almost ruin it and I spent a looong time listening to the ten or so covers of “Husavik” on Spotify to find a well-crafted one without Will Ferrell in it, and I found one, but you gotta wait for the next covers playlist for that. And of course the aforementioned Radiohead. New track from Plastic Mermaids, Rhain from Wet Leg’s ex’s band, the band where Rhain and Hester met. It’s really good. Neneh Cherry has a whole album of new versions of her old songs and they are for the most part really good — the “Buffalo Stance” version with Robyn, sadly, being the worst. Sad she didn’t redo “Move with Me.” But still. Solid. New First Aid Kit, Stereolab, and Jeen today all very exciting. Nick hipped me to this Sam Fender song and he’s right it is a well-crafted gem. Ending with the fantastic new single from the teenager Salem Ilise, which was in my head for a week because Felix posted the Tik Tok a month or so ago, I waited like an eager teen for its official release. And ending with a track from Thrill Kill Kult’s Sexplosion, because Wax Trax just reissued the vinyl and it is great, real underrated gem of an album. Remember that time they played the Orpheum (opening for Sioxsie maybe?) and had a bar on stage? Still up there in my life goals. Brilliant.

Okay Jane is at Grammy’s. I am working today but I’m still gonna do a Jane free morning run to the recycling center and Walmart. Exciting times. Have a lovely weekend, will see you Monday.

Webb Chatham Report

Good morning. Hello. How are you? #671