Age-Related Injury

The birthday present I gave myself yesterday was a reminder that I’m a year older. I went jogging (calling it “running” would be disingenuous) then, half a mile from home, I felt something pop in my left knee. It came with immediate pain, but I was able to walk home without difficulty.

If the aspirin I took before going to bed helped, it wasn’t enough to keep my knee from hurting like crazy. I kept waking up from the pain, but then I felt something pop back into place. Suddenly it was better I and slept through the night. Today it’s very stiff when bending, but the pain isn’t too bad.

I am reminded of what happened twenty years ago. At the end of a long run, half a mile from home, I felt something pop in my foot. It was my posterior tibial tendon. Today, I’m self-diagnosing an MCL injury.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/inner-medial-knee-pain

So far, I’m not feeling the need to see an orthopedic specialist. I’ve managed the PTT adequately for these many years. Here’s hoping I’ll be able to similarly manage my knee injury.


Unrelated to my physical condition, but related to what I wrote about yesterday, is Trump’s hollow promise of delivering $5000 to every adult if, and only if, Republicans hold onto both the Senate and the House in November. That’s assuming Trump doesn’t do something crazy, like declaring martial law, to prevent the elections from being held.

Let’s pretend this sad attempt at buying votes is actually real. Trump is determined to get hold of state voter registration lists. He would use them so that only registered voters would be eligible for the cash reward. Second, he would deny payment to everyone except Republicans. Third, we suffered a serious inflation spike from Biden’s stimulus payout, so a similar program would likely have the same effect. Finally, isn’t Trump supposed to be worried about Socialism and government hand-outs?

More Cons From the Con

It’s one con job after another. He just can’t stop himself.

“Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/09/trump-oil-gas-prices-midterm-elections.html


“Here is my promise: if the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate … I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/10/trump-dividend-midterms-gop.html

Besides those reckless and nonsensical promises, Trump is recklessly and nonsensically labeling all Democrats as Communists. Once again, he’s returning to the playbook that he learned from the piece of shit that was Roy Cohn.

Heating Up Oil Prices

The worst mistake of the George W. Bush administration was its “intervention” in Iraq. The worst mistake, so far, of the second Trump administration is its “intervention” in Iran. $100+/barrel for oil here we come.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/08/oil-prices-today-brent-wti-hormuz-iran-war.html

Trump’s alleged, outrageous Venezuela oil deal is pointless. The reserves are mostly asphalt oil for making roads, not light crude for making gasoline.

Diesel fuel is the most expensive it’s ever been, and it’s going to continue setting new records throughout the winter. The cost of home heating oil, that I depend on, tracks diesel. I’m going to look for electric space heaters.

Video on Demand

A few days ago, I received this missive in the DogRat mailbox:

Hi Doug — I came across your January 29, 2009 post “Category Crossover: Colbert meets McCartney.” You had captured the Paul McCartney appearance on The Colbert Report yourself and posted it as ColbertMcCartney.flv.

I’ve been trying to find that particular interview, which seems to have disappeared when Comedy Central removed the old Colbert archive. By any chance do you still have your FLV file or the original recording? I’d be enormously grateful just to be able to watch it again.

Thanks!

Daniel

My reply:

Hi Daniel,

That file wasn’t transferred when I switched to Bluehost in 2010. It should be on a backup hard drive here. I’ll look for it.

Ideally, I kept the original AVI capture format, but I didn’t always do that when storage was a lot more expensive than it is now. If not AVI, the greatly reduced FLV Flash Video file should be in there. Assuming I find either one of them, I’ll convert it to MP4 and make it available online.

I’ll get back to you in a couple of days.

Thanks,

Doug

I found the FLV file and converted it to MP4. The first ten seconds are blank, then the video kicks in and all is well. Here you go, Daniel!