Ah, me. Our Attorney General was on Face the Nation this morning arguing that Pepper Spray, which is identified in the Justice Department manual as "chemical irritant" and by its manufacturer on its website as a "chemical irritant" and by the Centers for Disease Control as a "chemical irritant" is absolutely not a "chemical irritant." One wonders how much of this is Trump telling his people that they must never, no matter what proof there is that news is being reported accurately, admit they're wrong about anything.
Black Lives Matter is achieving some real progress…or at least, that appears to be happening. With things like this, it's best to see more real results before you celebrate. The protests seem to be almost all peaceful, including the one near me yesterday. That's all balanced somewhat by not-very-good-news on the COVID-19 front and some pretty bad weather in parts of our nation. Still waiting for a few days in a row when all the news is good.
Things are quiet here as I try to battle deadlines and occasional headaches. The biggest problem on these premises is that Murphy the Cat (who is relatively new to my yard) keeps scaring off Lydia the Cat. Lydia has lived out there almost 24/7 for a decade now but when Murphy wanders here in search of food and there isn't anything in the dishes, Murphy gets a little growly and audibly upset. I have to keep checking to find out when Lydia's alone out there so I can feed her. I'm feeding Murphy too but I want to make sure my longest-ever feline tenant gets her chow.
It is still way too early to be looking at polls and assuming they tell us much about November. They do tell us that Biden's considerably ahead and that does affect things currently like campaign donations and Trump's mood and everyone's sense of how the momentum is going. You have polls showing Don 'n' Joe tied in Texas and I'm curious how much of that is folks who once supported Trump bailing on him and how much is new voters — many of them minorities — registering. I can't believe that in this day and age, a non-Southern Democrat can carry the Lone Star State but those polls might force Trump to use a sizeable chunk of his campaign loot down there.
Folks are asking me when I'm going to restart my Conversations webcasts and schedule a do-over of the last Cartoon Voices Panel. I dunno. I think I have the tech problems solved. It just somehow feels…well, not wrong but odd to be having an in-depth discussion of the Paramount Marx Brothers films versus the M.G.M. Marx Brothers films when people are marching over matters of life, death and equality in the streets. I'm sure I'll slowly ease back into the webcasts. Just not sure when…