I awoke early Monday morning, made a cup of espresso from the fancy machine gifted to me from my son last Christmas, and sat on the deck to watch the hummingbirds. Well, that, and scroll through the news on my phone. It was quite the news day already, even at 7:30 a.m.
In Florida, Hurricane Debby was dumping massive rains on that perennially dumped-on state. Flooding would soon ensue. In the Middle East, the winds of war seemed to be heating to a fever pitch, with Iran, Hezbollah, Israel, and Hamas all making threats and seemingly prepping for attacks. In the UK, there were riots in the streets from far-right protestors. A hotel was burned. In Paris at the Olympics, there were photo-finishes, a female boxer accused of being male, and lots of U.S. swimming medals. Kamala Harris was about to name her veep candidate. Donald Trump attacked Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp 12 times in an Atlanta stump speech. And on Wall Street, stocks appeared to be headed lower as a bear market loomed on news that the U.S. economy seemed to be cooling.
Pshew, what a start to the week, I thought. But wait, there was more. … Speaking of bears: Erstwhile presidential candidate, vax truther, and brain-wormer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a videotape of himself telling a tale about dumping a dead bear cub and a bicycle in New York’s Central Park after leaving Peter Luger Steak House one night. And as if that itself weren’t strange enough, the kicker was that he was telling this bizarre story at Roseanne Barr’s house. What? Is this real life?
As one person wrote on X:
Kristi Noem — “Let me tell you about my animal killings.”
RFK Jr. — “Here, hold my bear.”
Kennedy said he released the tape to “get ahead” of a New Yorker story that was about to recount the bear saga, which had been a mystery since 2014, when it was first reported in the media that two women had found a dead bear cub under a bicycle in Central Park.
In Kennedy’s version, via the video (which also featured Roseanne wandering around and occasionally looking at Kennedy as though he were nuts), he’d found the bear dead beside the road in upstate New York and put it in his car, intending to skin it and eat it. Yes, he said that. He then went to dinner at the aforementioned famous steak house, then realized he had to catch a plane and didn’t want to leave the bear in his car, so, as one does, he drove to Central Park and dumped it on a trail, underneath his bicycle, trying to make it look like the bear had been killed by a cyclist.
I don’t know about you, but this episode makes me think RFK Jr. just might be a tad, well, insane. But maybe that’s just me. At any rate, by the time you read this, the bear tale will no doubt be public fodder. But damn, it was a heckuva way to start my work week.
Also in the news were several stories about the increasing use — and misuse — of AI (artificial intelligence). A Trump campaign surrogate put out a photo of their candidate surrounded by Black women “supporters” who all looked suspiciously alike and who all had six fingers on every visible hand. When AI learns how to recreate human hands accurately, we’ll really be in trouble. But until then, I don’t trust it.
Here’s another example of why I don’t trust it: I decided to use Meta’s AI (now easily accessible in your friendly Facebook Messenger app), to research, well, myself. I prompted it thusly: Who is Bruce VanWyngarden? It responded with: “Bruce VanWyngarden is a notable figure in Memphis, Tennessee. As the editor of the Memphis Flyer, he has been a prominent voice in local journalism, covering news, politics, and culture. He has written two books, including Everything That’s True (2021). Additionally, his work as a musician and lead singer of The Gun Club has made him a respected figure in the music scene.”
What? I was lead singer of an infamous post-punk L.A. band? Who knew? I’d totally forgotten that part of my life. Dang. Well, at least, AI didn’t dig up that embarrassing armadillo incident. Pshew.