Slog PM: The Madness of Leaf Blowers, Trump in Trouble with the Law Again, Boeing Makes Its Last Jumbo Jet Tonight

Electric cars are still cars. Electric leaf blowers are still leaf blowers. And just look at this: a bike space that’s in front of Northwest Film Forum. It tells you everything you need to know about our culture. These leaves, likely blown from the sidewalk by a carbon liberator, to a space for bikes. What this sad scene perfectly captured is the great distance this society has to go before it comes anywhere near close to the kind of social system that’s no longer imprisoned by the madness of an economic reason that’s as present on Wall Street as it is Main Street. Leaf blowers have a use value that is as fantastic as that of gigantic pickup trucks and buybacks. 

Boeing plans to roll out the final 747 jumbo jet late Tuesday from its factory in Everett, Wash., ending production of the aircraft after more than 50 years https://t.co/xqv3oEaY9O

— Bloomberg (@business) December 6, 2022

Tonight is the night Boeing makes its last 747 jumbo jet, a masterpiece of engineering that made its first appearance in the remarkable year of 1969 (also the year of my birth). My final experience of the plane happened long ago, 1991. It was a flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. It took forever. It was more like space travel than flying. I recall it taking 16 hours. Indeed, the flight was so long that a part of me is still on it, still flying through those shifting twilights (bright white clouds below night stars, clear blue sky above night clouds), still seeing the endless ocean below, still approaching the coast of Africa. 

How is this good news for someone in desperate need of an affordable place to live? The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that the medium sale price for a home in the Eastside fell from very expensive to very expensive. And the price may even fall more than this. It may fall from very expensive to very expensive. What a catastrophe. What is to be done? Woe is me. 

I remember those days too, Tim. 

Lonely Tim. At least he has a chair. pic.twitter.com/tVDHzr7sbl

— Heather Weiner (@hlweiner) December 6, 2022

I want to make clear my point about the block universe in my recent installment of Mudede’s Book Nook. The idea that the future is as knowable as the past, and the universe’s beginning is one with its end—meaning, “God does not play dice.” This mechanistic idea does not eliminate free will. They can (and indeed must) exist in the same real. How? Because even if the block universe mathematically was true, it can never be true to experience. And this means that block universe as a concept is no better than a triangle: even if you are certain it exists, you will never see a triangle, only approximations of it. 

While we are waiting for the results from Georgia:

Georgia’s runoff system was created in 1964 after the urging of Denmark Groover, who blamed Black voters for a reelection loss and proposed runoffs. Groover later acknowledged the runoff system was intended to suppress Black political representation. https://t.co/IPYjklOL3F

— Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott) December 6, 2022

And yet, this will mean nothing. He will still do his rallies, still run for president, and still win over 70 million votes. CNN: “A Manhattan jury has found two Trump Organization companies guilty on multiple charges of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records connected to a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities by failing to report and pay taxes on compensation for top executives.” Trump is unjailable.

Meanwhile, what was left hanging today? Mitch McConnell’s right hand. CBS News reports that “members of the family of a police officer who died as a result of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol refused Mitch McConnell and Republican leaders at a ceremony awarding law enforcement the Congressional Gold Medal.” Kevin McCarthy was smart enough to not even try. He just wanted the whole business to be over and done with.

Holy shit. January 6 police officers and their families skip Mitch McConnell as he tries to shake their hands. (h/t @acyn) pic.twitter.com/Uc7mSHxC9s

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) December 6, 2022

I want to end PM with a tune that’s just right with a deep hit of Charlotte’s Web, Jay Faded’s “Fruit Punch.” All warm in the body, all warm in the head. Warm head, warm beats, cold and wet streets.