A Bob's Life: Monday Musings

Monday, August 18, 2025

Monday Musings - August 18, 2025

1. The third Monday of August has arrived! Wow--we are surely slipping through the month in a wild fashion. There are only 19 Mondays remaining in the year.

2. Too little too late for the Orioles. They have had a couple of great series, including taking 2 of 3 from the Astros over the weekend. With 38 games remaining in the season the O's must win 24 (.632) just to get to .500 for the season. They are 6-4 in their last 10 games.

NordicTrack S22i Partially Assembled
Tequesta, FL
August 17, 2025

3. One reason Chris and I drove the truck north on our recent trip was to retrieve our NordicTrack S22i Exercise Bike. We had given it to family, but it no longer fit into their exercise plan and so we brought it to Florida to ride on rainy days. It seemed to have arrived in good shape, although I have not fully reassembled it yet. It needs a new control board, which I ordered last evening. I hope to have it up and running by next week.

4. A commentary on the republican approach to governing as evidenced by the disaster in Alaska is as follows: That’s the kakistocracy part: government by the most incompetent, ill-suited people. If kakistocracy is the shot, then kleptocracy is the chaser (though it might be the other way around; I can’t quite decide). The corruption—the willingness to pursue personal profit and political gain at the expense of principle—that now defines the former Republican Party is just jaw-dropping. (Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance)

5. I hear Putin has a bridge for sale that Trump wants to buy. It is in San Francisco. I also saw a small stand in the background of and image selling Russian Kool-aid.

6. Today in History. On August 18, 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest during a coup by high-ranking members of his own government, military and police forces.

Since becoming leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1988, Gorbachev had pursued comprehensive reforms of the Soviet system. Combining perestroika(“restructuring”) of the economy—including a greater emphasis on free-market policies—and glasnost (“openness”) in diplomacy, he greatly improved Soviet relations with Western democracies, particularly the United States. Meanwhile, though, within the USSR, Gorbachev faced powerful critics, including conservative, hard-line politicians and military officials who thought he was driving the Soviet Union toward its downfall and making it a second-rate power. On the other side were even more radical reformers—particularly Boris Yeltsin, president of the most powerful socialist republic, Russia—who complained that Gorbachev was just not working fast enough.