After a lengthy absence, Grimdork is back online! I wish I could say my sabbatical was for some good purpose, but I can only chalk it up to my idiocy, sloth and bad luck. The last two months have been a cycle of computer issues, plumbing problems and birthing classes with my pregnant wife. The birthing classes were by far the most pleasant part of the last two months.

I can assure everyone that my wife, myself and our unborn son are all healthy and doing well. We also now have all new plumbing and a higher homeowners insurance premium. Kids, if you buy a house that was built while Hitler was still alive, get a house inspection. Lesson of the day.

My problems aside, the world marches on. The Supreme Court’s fall docket will include important hearings on labor unions and gerrymandering. The gerrymandering case Gill v Whitford will decide the degree to which voting districts can be drawn to favor one political party over the other. This decision could affect the outcome of elections for years to come. Arguments will be heard October 3rd.

NAFTA negotiations are also ongoing and may or may not continue through the end of the year. So far representatives from the U.S., Canada and Mexico have agreed on updates that were previously worked out in negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Many of these items were not controversial, but upcoming talks will focus on stickier issues, such as fair labor standards, that will be more difficult to reach agreement on.

Finally, a new season of Stranger Things is set to be release on Netflix October 27th. I am not a man that expects much from his prayers but, please God, if the world needs to be destroyed by Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un let it be after that weekend. Just one weekend lord, that’s all I need. Once the credits role on the final episode feel free to irradiate us, I won’t question your wisdom. Just let me binge watch this one last show.

PS, I may ask for an extension is the season ends on a cliffhanger. Amen.

Here are the Grimreads for the week! The biggest news today that got buried was the Supreme Courts decision to take up an appeal of a lower court’s decision that the state of Wisconsin’s districts are gerrymandered beyond reason. This could end up being one of the most consequential news stories of the year, so pay attention.

At Bloomberg, Barry Ritholtz covers the remarkable end of Sam Brownback’s tax cut experiment. Republicans should study this carefully before trying to institute tax reform.

A terrifying article from The Guardian about internet addiction and young men. This kind of stuff used to be funny, but a chill went up my spine as I read the article on my iPad while laying next to my wife who was watching a Let’s Play video on her laptop as we listened to music, well into the third hour of mutual internet surfing on our Sunday morning. The first step is admitting you have a problem…

While we are talking about young men and their problems, The Onion is insightful as always.

Finally, 538 looks into their crystal ball to see what is going to probably kill you based on where you live. Death to America, as they say.

I played baseball when I was a kid and I feel like it has an innocent quality to it that other sports lack. It doesn’t have the violence of football or hockey and it is more pastoral than basketball. Players wear hats, button up shirts and belts. Excessive rudeness will result in your ejection from the game. Then there is the whole “America’s Pastime” thing, and yes I did watch all 20 hours of “Ken Burn’s Baseball”. I was never good at baseball but it is still a pocket of warmth in my mind.

Maybe that is why the shooting of Steve Scalise in Virginia on Wednesday made me feel extra nauseas. Outfield grass should not have a trail of blood on it. If one of his fellow Congressman at the practice had not been a physician and acted quickly to stem his blood loss, Steve Scalise might be dead. The annual Congressional baseball game is a silly ritual, but in fractured times like these, sometimes it is only the silly rituals that allow for bipartisanship. If Steve Scalise dies (he is still in critical condition as of this writing) the shadow of his murder will hang over this silly ritual for years to come.

In the wake of this shooting people will point fingers at whatever disease they think is eroding our republic, whether it is gun culture or “assassination porn”. But those are only symptoms, not the true disease. The real disease the failure of the American voter to open their minds and be willing to be wrong. Our politics has become a game where winning and losing takes precedence over cooperating to discover the truths that apply to all of us. The way that Americans talk to and about each other has become so saturated with bitterness and the need for catharsis over agreement that some people feel like they can’t get their point across at less than 2700 fps. In cities, street protest turn violent. In rural areas, heavily armed men practice for the end of the world and occasionally seize a government building.

We cannot blame politicians, or big business or the media (in all its flavors) before we blame ourselves. We cannot blame them because they are us. We elect the politicians, demand products and then buy them, and consume the media that stimulates us like a child with candy. None of the things we bitch about will change until we do.

This requires that people learn about issues not just as bullet points on the website they have as their homepage, but with the kind of depth that takes time and effort. Instead of spending all Saturday binging The Handmaid’s Tale, take a break halfway through to play with a federal budge calculator. If you are a Fox News junkie, try actually reading the Trans-Pacific Partnership and NAFTA before deriding them as the dumbest agreements in history. It’s probably too much to ask that people make friends across the political spectrum, but the next time you are in a group of like-minded individuals, don’t be afraid to be a contrarian! That is how arguments are supposed to make us stronger. Debate should be a collaborative effort to uncover the truth. A person should not feel humiliated when their original position is proven wrong. They should feel enlightened.

Many of the issues that face us are almost impossibly complicated and we should be cautious about making categorical statements in loud, confident voices. Temper your views with a healthy dose of agnosticism.

Bring these views into your local politics. Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican you should support candidates that speak to you like an adult and are humble. Most importantly, you need to tell them that it is okay to COMPROMISE. They will not do it unless they feel supported. Remember that they are an extension of you. Your representative will do whatever you tell them to as long as they think it will get them elected.

I confess that I myself have not done this. I have never caucused with a political party, happily calling myself an independent and therefore above the fray of such petty politics. It is a trend in American politics for people to no longer affiliate with political parties, but this is a mistake. It has left only the most passionate and partisan individuals to select candidates in caucuses and primaries. You can rest assured that I will being participating in the next caucus and casting my vote for the most moderate motherfucker on the ballot.

The alternative, after all, is this:

Congressional testi-Comey tomorrow! I will be missing it for a family funeral, which will be only slightly sadder than watching the recently fired Director of the FBI describe what a creep our reality TV president is. Don’t hold your breath for anything that is worthy of impeachment based on Comey’s notes, which have already been released, but also don’t expect anything to make Donald Trump look less grotesque. Here are today’s worthwhile reads:

Barry Ritholtz sums up our changing society, in the context of retail.

Kate Baggeley at NBC about sex, robots and sex robots. The prospect of catching HPV at a robot brothel is about to go viral.

Markham Heid with Time Magazine wants you to lift heavy and bulk clean.

The writers at the Health Affairs blog think that automatic enrollment could help keep premiums down and move us towards universal coverage no matter what plan Congress adopts.

Finally, musicians may have found their savior in blockchain. “Blockchain” would have been a great title for a Soundgarden album. RIP Chris Cornell.

The first Grim news alert is that my aunt Mary passed away on Friday from cancer. That sucks.  My mom was close with her. She was 53. She was the baby of the family.  Her husband Jim and her three kids Beth, Peter and Tom are still alive, but probably not really feeling that way right now. There is a lot of red tape to go through when one of your “immediates” dies, and you have to be kind of numb to get it all done. It’s hard to grieve when you are filling out paperwork, so the healing part comes later.

She was one of my favorite family members and I am tearing up a little bit writing this. I am thinking about Kathy’s dad who also died of cancer and never got the chance to be my father in law. I am thinking of all the dead claimants I have processed working for Social Security. And I am thinking about what a mystery this whole life thing is. I am listening to music while I write this and you know what song just came up? “Once In A Lifetime”. Very funny, YouTube.

Anyway, I am glad my aunt whom I loved is no longer suffering. I know it will take a while for her family to process the pain of their loss. Grieving isn’t a one-click process, it just has to be lived through with faith, courage and good humor which I know their family has plenty of. That’s why I love them.

And if Amazon ever comes out with One-Click Grieving, I thought of it first dammit.

Welcome to Grimdork.org, our family’s rogue website. Here you will find a voice in the dark, a platform for all the weirdos in our clan to spread their mental genes. This site is currently under construction, so feel free to stop in occasionally to survey the carnage.