Stacey Campbell @stacey_campbell@aus.social

"Soccer Wearhouse says all of the shoes on its website and in its stores are non-kangaroo now."

A sentence I would not have anticipated reading today.

File this under things I didn't know.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-08-15/editorial-california-bans-the-sale-of-shoes-made-from-dead-kangaroos-its-the-law-so-enforce-it

Wisconsin Republicans have gerrymandered the state so blatantly Joh Bjelke-Petersen would blush...were he still with us.

Thanks to the gerrymander they get to run (almost) completely amok, including assembling circular firing squads.

The state is 50/50 Dem/GOP, but the GOP has a near supermajority in the state legislature. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/analysis/2022/04/28/wisconsin-redistricting-gives-republicans-lock-legislature/9559616002/

Dems^H^H^H^HGOP in Disarray.

Somewhat predictable.

This could go on for years, lol.

https://madison.com/captimes/news/government/robin-vos-fires-michael-gableman-leaving-gop-election-review-in-limbo/article_85b98224-6797-5223-8130-1fab601c6810.html

Cute marmot gave me a good looking over, then decided to head indoors.

I screen-grabbed my GPS status at the turn-back.

With my backup phone, because I'd managed to drop my regular phone in circumstances too embarrassing to mention.

White Mountain Peak is the easiest "fourteen-er" in California. It's also the only higher-than-14,000' mountain in California that's not in the Sierra Nevada.

I've been to the top twice before, but this time I conked out at near that chunk of black rock just below the summit. Was definitely feeling the effects of altitude.

The White Mountains are on the eastern side of the Owens Valley. Their far more famous relatives the Sierra Nevada are on the west side.

The #RedFire was burning in Yosemite National Park, easily visible from the Whites. That's Crowley Lake in the midground.

Took a run at White Mountain Peak in California today. Ran out of puff about 200 meters altitude short of the summit. Disappointed but legs are completely thrashed.

Lots of fairly tame marmots hanging out by the trail.

My dad was sent to Rankin's Springs to live with his grandmother during WWII. There was a concern that Melbourne might be attacked.

I took him on a trip back there in 2001, his first time there since 1944. All of dad's Campbell relatives had moved away decades ago, but a few old timers remembered dad's grandparents, uncles and aunties.

Nearby large-ish 4 lane boulevard filled up with Waze and Google Maps "rat runners" this morning because of a bad accident on the 101 freeway.

Normally that means all our neighborhood streets would be wedged with cars, but this morning it was only the boulevard.

Maybe the car nav app developers are getting the message that they shouldn't direct drivers into tiny neighborhood streets with tons of pedestrians, bikes, kids, stop signs, speed bumps, etc?

https://citymonitor.ai/community/neighbourhoods/google-maps-local-traffic

'“Whether it’s wind farms or vaccines or elections, people don’t always listen to evidence,” he said.'

Ouch. Do the best you can but you can't (always) fix stupid.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-08-05/the-senate-has-a-climate-deal-now-comes-the-hard-part

The French thought they could put a minor European aristocrat into this carriage and announce him as Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico.

Turns out that didn't fly.

Speaking of flying, the person that gave the green light to Max's eventual execution by firing squad now has _his_ name on the Mexico City international airport.

It's a funny old world.

The Angel of Independence in Mexico City. Quick dash across the roundabout to get this angle of the angel.

Yeah, so Mexico City is pretty amazing. Deffo see why it's getting overrun with Americans.

Inside the Catedral Metropolitana de la Ciudad de México for a few pesos you can crush a copper disk into a little keychain trinket of St Jude, patron saint of lost causes.

Lost causes like Saint Kilda ever winning another premiership in my lifetime.

Dogs getting goofy in the fountain in Plaza Río de Janeiro in Mexico City.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Uo246cyMbi8gqKeR6

*takes a quick run down to Mexico City anyway*

The headline under that headline.

When will it stop you ask?

When morale improves.

*thinking about a quick run down to Mexico City*

*checks newspaper*