You have to feel sorry for the ticket holders, fans, and players of the LA Clippers.
Team owner, ex-Microsoft executive, Steve Ballmer worked with team sponsors to funnel compensation to star Kawhi Leonard beyond the amount allowed by league rules. Ballmer’s behavior violated the rules of professional sports. In order to maintain a reasonable level of fair competitiveness among teams, professional sports leagues require multiple methods to prevent those teams with the most money from simply buying up the best talent. For example, the yearly draft of new players gives those teams with poorer records more favorable picks. Teams also operate, with some exceptions, under a cap on the total of team member salaries. The idea is that no matter how much money owners and supporters might have, they cannot pay significantly more than other teams.
As a penalty, the league:
Stripped the team of 5 years of first round draft choices
Fined the organization $30 million
Blocked Ballmer from league activities for one year (e.g., he cannot attend games)
Leonard, who argued he did not know where the money given him came from – payed a fine.
Ballmer is just one of several from a group with these values
Ballmer is just one more individual I have added to my list of the pathological wealthy – those who are not just greedy, but someone who believes that the rules do not apply to them. They seem to believe that their money should not be viewed as a privilege they happen to have, but a reason they feel that the constraints on others can be negotiated. I read somewhere this might be explained as penalties are simply operating costs, rather than strikes against their character. When winning, preserving a competitive advantage, or protecting a personal legacy become the only things that matter, rules become obstacles to be managed.
Whether it be sports, politics, or massive corporations, we all are fans and potentially complicit in the corruption that has not only spread, but is now quite visible throughout our country. I have no idea if Clippers fans support Ballmer and his corruption or see themselves as powerless victims. The situation with the Clippers seems so similar to the AI tech bros, some politicians, and other ultra-wealthy business leaders. It is hard to find leaders to look up to anymore. Playing by the rules used to be a thing. Winning used to mean something.
If you are a coffee lover, even if you consider yourself a connoisseur, it is far too easy to fall into a routine. You visit the same neighborhood café, order the exact same roast, and rarely venture beyond your comfort zone. Coffee Crawls offer a remedy to this routine engaging you in an adventure exploring both coffee options and the culture of nearby neighborhoods.
A Low-Pressure Approach to Exploration
Spread across an entire month, the experience allows participants to wander at their own pace without the pressure of a ticking clock. It’s natural to see how many shops on the list you can check off in a given month, but that is not what the organizing company says the goal is. The idea is to explore and experience, and perhaps find a new shop to visit frequently. Of course, the shops’ goal is to attract new customers who might not visit under other circumstances.
Customers pay $25 for the monthly pass and receive a $5 credit at each shop they visit. This credit applies one time only.
Curated Diversity and the Digital Pass
Coffee Crawl, the company responsible for the service, makes an effort to put together an interesting and diverse collection. I guess I don’t know exactly how it works – do they contact shops, or do the shops volunteer and are then selected? Coffee Crawl then builds the digital backend, describing the shops and providing an app that delivers this information and supports the sign-in you use when arriving at the shop. The embedded maps also link to mapping services on your phone.
Once the month concludes, the company says it shares anonymous data and behavioral insights with participating venues, helping the owners better understand patron habits and optimize their future community engagement.
ScreenshotScreenshot
Did I find a new favorite shop I will now visit frequently? Probably not. The Twin Cities and suburbs cover a large area and we often drive 15 or so mile through city traffic to get to one of the shops on the list. The crawl was interesting, but convenience will likely keep my frequent visits focused on more local shops.
This was probably my favorite as the barrista/owner was very knowledgeable and we shared stories of the coffee plantations we had visited (mine in Hawaii) and our common interest in peaberry coffees.
This is perhaps the largest venue with the capacity for many of us who like to spend most of a morning reading and writing in coffee shops.
One Complaint
While the digital ecosystem brings substantial value to both shops and explorers, one issue for me was the mandatory post-visit feedback requirements. After visiting a given selection from the list, the app requires the customer to submit feedback on that visit before the app will in essence allow the next shop to be selected. Streamlining this process—perhaps by allowing optional, delayed reviews or quick rating prompts—would preserve the relaxed, unhurried atmosphere that makes self-paced exploration so appealing.
I discuss (argue about) political issues with people on Facebook. This is my only use of Facebook, no matter the more general activity I engaged in previously. I find it a maddening experience, but I do it because of the very reason I find it frustrating. I believe it is important to respond to what I consider obvious lies and misinformation because I don’t want this content to go unchallenged or be consumed by others. Yes, this just adds to the overall time spent on this platform, benefiting the company’s finances and this poor-quality argumentation, but this is the online world as we must experience it.
One of my major annoyances at present is the use of vague labels that are deliberately applied to influence others who react emotionally and fail to recognize how they are being manipulated. More specifically, my concern is with the labels “socialism” and “communism” used to raise fear and opposition to government programs intended as a social safety net for those in need of a variety of services, including health care and basic nutrition. Aside from identifying and describing this issue here, my focus is on how I think it could be addressed in a more honest and fair way.
The situation
Right-wing commenters frequently brand progressive policies, politicians, and cultural shifts as “communist” or “socialist.” From critiques of wealth redistribution and expansive government programs to attacks on identity politics and speech regulations, the term appears regularly on platforms like X, Facebook, and Reddit. The question is whether this reflects a precise understanding of the ideology or serves as loose, inflammatory rhetoric that weakens meaningful discourse.
Right-wing social media users often apply the label when they see a wide variety of government programs. Examples include calls for heavy wealth taxes, government-directed industrial policy, expansive welfare programs that they see as discouraging personal initiative or responsibility, or cultural campaigns that frame traditional institutions, such as higher education as oppressive and biased. They argue these trends erode personal rights and free expression in ways that parallel historical communist or socialist strategies.
However, the usage frequently stretches beyond accuracy. Many right-wing posts equate standard social democratic policies—such as universal healthcare proposals, student debt relief, or environmental regulations—with communism or socialism. These overlook fundamental differences from the forms of government that have or continue to exist in countries such as Russia, China, or North Korea.
What we are now forced to deal with is a degraded public vocabulary where present labels no longer specifically denote regimes or movements committed to total state dominance. Over-application also ignores that many on the American right once supported elements of the New Deal or other interventions without becoming communists themselves.
I am not claiming progressive politicians never engage in a similar use of vague terms to attack their opponents. I simply find the labels of “socialist” and “communist” as particularly disingenuous.
A better approach for meaningful and honest debate
I am, by training and past occupation, an educational researcher. I understand that academics are often accused of using abstract terms and ways of speaking that ignore commonsense and are difficult to understand. We do use terms and ways of communicating that may be off-putting when interacting among ourselves, but this is largely about efficiency. In practice, our methods are precise and focus on clear communication.
I make these claims based on a process I will here describe as operationalization that is required in our research and communication. We also use vague labels, and it is telling that the public picks them up and throws them around. We all talk about concepts such as intelligence and motivation. The difference is that when such terms/labels are used in research activities or in the formal sharing of research results, they must be operationalized. This means the research must describe how a concept was measured or defined. Rather than just claim a study contrasts the behavior of students of high and low intelligence, we must explain how these groups were differentiated. We might say one group had a score of less than 90 on a certain intelligence test and the other group had scores above 110. The method or basis of operationalization might be challenged. Some may argue that these scores lack sensitivity to the economic conditions in which children are raised, but these critics focus on specifics rather than vague concepts.
I hope you can see where my proposal is going. When I read an online complaint about liberal socialism or communism, my immediate response is to ask what specific policies or programs the author of that post finds objectionable. Are they opposed to SNAP benefits for a single-parent family of three children with a yearly income of less than $30,000? Are you against government programs that require lettuce to be inspected for cyclosporiasis? Provide examples of socialist or communist policies of our government that you believe should be changed.
You don’t need to use the word “operationalize” when challenging someone’s use of a vague label in an inappropriate way, but you should be able to ask for examples.
It is July 4. Not only that, but it is the 250th July 4th for the United States. It seems like somehow this day should have a special feeling. I am afraid for me it does not. It seems more like the feeling I get now when I see a giant pickup with a couple of giant flags or a flag lifted high by a crane the workers have abandoned for the weekend. It is a feeling of annoyance based on a sense that others are calling attention to themselves just because they want attention. It is certainly not a sense of patriotism. Who gets to appropriate patriotism anyway?
I have a sense that suggests patriotism has become contested political property rather than a shared civic virtue. Patriotism seems associated with selfishness and elitism.
We seem unable to draw a distinction between patriotism and nationalism
Patriotism generally means:
affection for one’s country
commitment to its ideals
willingness to improve it
Nationalism often means:
superiority over other nations
loyalty to the nation regardless of its actions
defining insiders and outsiders
Just what in this unique time would we argue are our ideals? Are we about equality, assuring that all are brought along to experience health, respect, and opportunities? Do we honestly identify and reward merit beyond the advantages of sex, skin color, inheritance, and unique circumstances each of us did not create for ourselves?
Claiming greatness is more than a slogan. Patriotism belongs to citizens not parties.
Perhaps patriotism should be measured less by slogans than by commitment to democratic institutions and the constitutional principles that allow citizens to disagree peacefully. Patriotism is about political efforts to move everyone, not just those in your political party forward. Perhaps patriotism should be used to label those willing to improve the lot of others rather than accumulate more for themselves. With accelerating income inequality, a disregard for the facts of science, challenges to the health of the environment, and the lack of basic necessities throughout the world, there are plenty of opportunities for contributions that could be labeled as the pursuit of greatness, but we seem to have become distracted by the glitter of gold and the exercise of unequal power to dominate others.
The label of patriot should not be self-assigned.
I apologize to those who follow me for writing about other topics. Sometimes, higher principles and more pressing needs must be addressed at a specific point in time.
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Time for Cindy and me to take a little time off. We have taken our camper to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We have explored the area before and found it far less crowded than many other summer vacation destinations. If you are interested in our travels, I have kept a travel blog for quite a few years – international trips (e.g., Russia, Japan) and trips throughout the U.S. This blog can be found at grabetravels.blogspot.com.
Back in the 60s (I think), Malvina Reynolds wrote a song called “Little Boxes” which was about conformity in society. I flashed on the lyrics when I saw and photographed this image of mailboxes at the end of our road.
We own a lake property in northern Wisconsin. In general, the county provides wonderful services for our remote location with an asphalt road leading to our house. I grew up in Iowa, and these and many more traveled roads would have been gravel. I read or perhaps imagined that this commitment in Wisconsin was because of the dairy industry and the need to reach rural farms no matter the weather.
The mailboxes used to be much closer to our house. There was even a side road along this deserted road and the mailboxes were at the intersection of this road with the main uninhabited road. Not only that, but USPS and FEDEX would deliver packages directly to our door just like in the big city. Near Christmas time, we used to have AMAZON and other online shopping providers ship to our rural location because there was no possibility of porch pirates. We would go up on weekends and there would be a pile of boxes next to our door. It worked great unless we or someone shipped something that might freeze.
Then it all stopped. I blame Trump, but I think it happened before then. We had to move our mailbox down to where our road departed from the highway. We did. Then, the USPS stopped delivering packages because the parcels were undeliverable. What this meant was that our mailbox was too small. They would not drive the extra half mile to our door, as was originally the case. The undeliverables were not returned, but held at the post office and we may or may not receive a notice that we had to pick something up. I liked the pile by the door better. Most of the mail we received was junk, making it difficult sometimes to find the notice that a package was available. FEDEX still delivers, but AMAZON seems to use both systems, so you never know for certain when something will be delivered and when you will have to remember to go search for your package. The post office lady always glares at me when I ask if I have received any packages. She has to sort through a giant pile to see if something for us is there. Sometimes I can’t remember our house number and that seems to really annoy her. This was never an issue when I grew up, and each farm had a mailbox. We have given up having packages sent to the lake. It was getting old trying to explain to the post office lady about my life and why I am not aware of the house number of what is now my second home in the country. She did not seem that interested.
Many of our neighbors adapted and bought giant mailboxes (see photo). These folks must feel silly most of the year if they are like us. They have a giant mail box and get one small local shopping paper each week. We (mostly me) have not given in. I bought a brand new, regular-sized black mailbox, and I am not about to let the government pressure me into getting anything larger.
Yes, our mailbox does look lonely and sad. I like to think of it as proud and resolute.
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We have made a visit to the Amish greenhouses since 2019 with the exception of the COVID year. As I have noted in a few of my other posts, the original post attracts more posts every other year than any other posts on this blog. My guess is that people are interested in visiting these greenhouses but can’t find much information about them. Recently, a few more local ones have appeared, but the early popularity of my initial post has racked up many Google hits, which prioritize my link over others. My original post has a map, which is still what they give you at the local gas station, and that is also of some value.
St. Charles sits in Winona County, straight south of Minneapolis. Amish communities have established themselves in this part of the state over the past several decades, drawn by the availability of farmland and the opportunity to build tight-knit agricultural communities. Unlike large commercial operations, these farms tend to be family-run, with knowledge passed down through generations. Many of houses on these farms are large and often extended to allow for multiple families under a single roof.
Greenhouses have become an important extension of that tradition, allowing Amish farmers to start plants early, extend the growing season, and provide products that are in high demand among gardeners. Prices are somewhat lower than we experience in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area, but the current price of gas would not justify the trip unless you came with a large vehicle and purchased a large number of plants. I like to start my own vegetables, but my wife invests heavily in flowers.
One of the biggest reasons people return year after year is simple: quality. Plants from Amish greenhouses seem hardy and and we have always had good luck with both vegetables and flowers. There’s also something intangible at play. The experience is quieter, slower. You are exploring a different culture with different clothing, a religious lifestyle emphasizing contributions to the group, education for children only through 8th grade, and an agriculture-based economy emphasizing hand and horsepower.
First and most importantly: bring cash. Many Amish businesses operate on a cash-only basis. No credit cards or Venmo. In many greenhouses, a teenage girl will list your purchases at checkout on a receipt with a carbon paper generated copy, add the cost of each item by hand, and check the required tax against a sheet specifying the required allocation for totals of different amounts. She may seem shy and many not have much to say. The greenhouses will not be open on Sundays.
I have now made this trip to many times I try to find something unique to write about each time. I grew up in a small town in Iowa and have enough background to have had some interesting conversations about the equipment they use and my personal experiences. There is not much difference between a 5-horse hitch pulling a 2 or 3-bottom plow and what I use to pull with our old John Deere B.
As I mentioned, I start my own vegetables and have always been interested in their greenhouses. These structures don’t have the heating sources or thermostats that control modern greenhouses. I tried to do some research on their wood stoves. My online sources suggested that these greenhouses are normally heated with a boiler system that circulates water warmed by the external wood fired furnace. I so now heat source of this type in the greenhouses we visited. In most cases, each structure had two large wood stoves that function as a source for convection heat.
Just for kicks, I submitted the following photo and asked the AI tool I use to provide a description.
This is a box-style wood-burning stove with a firebox and chimney, designed to produce a lot of radiant and convective heat:
The main chamber (firebox) is where wood is burned
The smaller lower door is likely for ash removal and airflow control
The upper door allows loading larger pieces of wood
The vertical stovepipe vents smoke and creates draft
This design is very typical of traditional Amish heating: heavy steel or cast iron, simple controls, no electricity, and built to last decades.
A few additional comments.
I think sometimes they cheat. I have observed chainsaws in out-of-the-way places and this gas-powered water pump for the greenhouse. I also learned that the “rules” do vary, perhaps at the level of even an individual church.
It’s easy to view Amish communities through a lens of curiosity, but it’s important to approach with respect. These are working farms and family businesses, not tourist attractions. One issue concerns photography. I have asked in previous years and took photos without the Amish individual I had talked with, who had willingly stepped aside. I admit I took the following image, which I found so unique, without asking, but I waited for the horse and equipment to pass so as not to reveal the individual in a recognizable way. You don’t see too many horse-drawn lawn movers.
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In 2021, we on our way to our lake place in Northern Wisconsin and stopped for gas. On the pump near the price to pay for my gas, there was a sticker with President Biden’s face and a message “I did that”. I wrote a post commenting on the fairness of the logic of whether the President was responsible for the price of gas which I note was $3.19.
Today we were again driving to our lake place and again we stopped for gas.
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I am not in total agreement with my previous post. Without the backing of Congress, President Trump sent the military to Iran, spiking the price of gas. The $3.89, which I hope is a short-term price, has a straightforward explanation. As far as the public’s response, I hope those responsible for the 2021 stickers give some thought to their motives.
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Earth Day 2026 seems the time to reflect on the deterioration of the commitment to our environment. My accompanying image was generated by an AI prompt asking for an image that focused on the recent federal decision to end protection for the Boundary Waters of Minnesota.
A recent Senate vote, championed by Representative Stauber of northern Minnesota, passed largely along partisan lines and allows Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of Chile-based mining giant Antofagasta, to mine within the watershed of the Boundary Waters, though not directly within the federally protected wilderness zone.
This decision is in keeping with the positions taken by Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has reduced the agency’s budget by 65% and eliminated its Office of Research and Development.
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