The thought had been that the drone thing would be the mid-week messaging center of gravity but there were other things. We knew something about the “Government Shut down” was going to come up and it will be fairly big, if fleeting, today. So, there was that issue and then what was passing in the info bubbles.

It was awesome. So, in addition to shutting down the government in the face of desperate overseas struggles with drones and lights in the sky, we are engaged in a war with biology. The issues at hand have terms now, new ones necessary for accurate description.

“Weight Stigma” and “Weight Neutrality” are some of the issues of concern out there in California where camping on the street has a certain cache and poor people are morbidly overweight. Unusual crisis.

Budget and stigma issues are hot here today, a mid-point in the week before things get seriously merry next week. Uncle Sam’s checkbook, or his Venmo or whatever he is using- not sure of the pronouns- runs out on Friday night, and we want to ensure there is cash to party into the official holiday.

So, like the slide with the Moon over the Patio and the Speaker, Senator and Secretary looking on to one of the issues. The budget was briefly on the table with some momentary visibility. You know the way it used to be taught in school. The House of Representatives spends most of the year talking about the things we ought to pay for next year based on how things went this year.

They are the only ones who are supposed to do that on behalf of us, and answer every two years in the term they agreed to serve. And functionally, it served to stoplight things that didn’t work. Instead of making them eternal.

This is nothing new in our nation and in fact traditional, subject to situation. But the addition of digital financial means has given the old corruption a quantum leap.

It was a basic function that existed to force discussion on spending money. Some of the national emergencies we experience require immediate attention, outside the regular process, and are dealt with in a thing called an “Omnibus.” The reference refers to public transit vehicles with multiple seats. Now it means a legislative bill filled with multiple un-related items that would not have survived regular order but are vital as to be added as spontaneous decorations.

This may be a sideshow but also could be the feature for the weekend, since the unrelated items in the budget omnibus with the amorous animals and fat-shaming are in it as well.

Something like that is happening in San Francisco with Virgie Tovar, author of ‘You Have the Right to Remain Fat” and other published works on “fat positivity and body acceptance.”

Her Instagram post on Monday said she was hired to consult for the Health Department, calling the collaboration an “absolute dream come true” with the hope that “weight neutrality will be the future of public health.”

Virgie is billed as an experienced “plus-size Latina author, lecturer, and leading expert on weight-based discrimination and body positivity.” She submits stories on the plus-size issue to Forbes, a mainstream financial feed. Her most recent articles include features about hosting “size inclusive” Thanksgivings and combatting “fatphobia” in current media messaging.

It is unclear what role Tovar will play in the San Francisco Health Department. The Department did not respond when asked about the details. Although it may be a Christmas ornament of some kind we do not fully understand, Legal tells us we are supposed to embrace it under possible UCMJ Article 88 provisions for at least five weeks and possibly longer. So, OK.

That’s why we lead this outing with the Cone Car graphic Vic scraped up when threatened to actually contribute something. It also seems to provide some context, since he found it in some stuff his Dad had done, freshly released from service as a Navy Dive Bomber pilot in the Second War, the one with the A-bombs and about how the future was going to look.

You will notice who is driving those cars and how the children are supposed to behave. He claims things have been this interesting before.

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com