For those that would like the story told with a little stylized flair:

https://youtu.be/GFy9p1KB8SA

https://nebula.tv/videos/extrahistory-civil-war-train-heist-the-first-medals-of-honor-us-history/

The article touched on pretty much every anecdotal point I could possibly make. About 10 years ago, the decades-long pattern of “it’s hot and humid today, might get a thunderstorm in the afternoon or early evening” turned to “flash flood deluge for 20 minutes 3-4 times a week.” 3-4 years ago, we started adding droughts into the mix. Weeks without a single drop of rain, then an inch or two of water dumped in minutes. This past month was a pretty good snapshot of the general pattern:

In aggregate it cheekily masks as “about average,” but the majority of those downbursts just run off and the ground is baked back to dust a few days later.

Meanwhile, the humidity/dew point has been rising steadily, especially overnight. Clear nights that allowed daytime heat to radiate off became less common, in its place we now get weeks at a time where the temperature doesn’t drop below 70 at near-saturation. I was watching one of the PBS YouTube channels (Terra, maybe) a year or so ago and they showed a time lapse of ocean surface temperature changes. Sure enough, there was a hot spot off the coast of NJ. “Well, that tracks. 😑”

I noticed the trees started dropping leaves in mid-August a few years ago despite it being warm into October. Spring and fall are shrinking, with precious few weeks in the year where neither the heat nor the AC need to run.

People like to dunk on Florida because of the politics, and NJ because of the stereotypes. Both are in deep shit right now. The entirety of South Jersey is considered coastal plain, and a lot of the land around NYC is low elevation. The next few decades will not be pretty.

I just got “reprimanded” today for paying attention. I commented to a friend, when she asked about plans for the holiday, that I didn’t really think there was anything to celebrate at the moment. And when I tried to get her caught up on the news, I got interrupted. “You really do internalize a lot of this stuff. It’s not healthy for you.” Yeah, well, neither is any of the shit that’s been happening. Feel free to celebrate your “personal freedom” to roam the American West in your RV and volunteer at care centers and attend RV rallies. Let me know how that “personal freedom” works out if the Freedom Units in your bank accounts run dry. Forgive me if I notice that those without enough Freedom Units don’t have those same freedoms you enjoy.

This one brought back memories. I had so much fun playing these games (especially PE2) back in the day.

There’s that pesky cost of doing business again.

More of a misdiagnosis.

It’s 2am and all I have are the extended edition DVDs.

Pocket dog.

Trump likes his magnets like he likes his women: bone dry and unable to escape.

Have you checked the news? Plenty of that going around.

This, this, 1000% this. And if I do somehow manage to start, I can NOT stop. None of this “do x for y minutes, take z minute break, then go back to doing x.” If I stop, I don’t know when I’ll be able to start again. Which then feeds back into the “overwhelming” loop.

My brain is not kind to me.

…I feel seen.

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WHAT

Better cut funding since they’re not doing their job.