Has anyone heard from David Meade in the last couple of days? He's the nutcase who predicted the world would end on Saturday when the Planet Nibiru smashed into the Earth, which he figured out using "Christian numerology" (a/k/a "bullshit"). Even though many media outlets reported his prediction last week, I haven't seen one holding him accountable since then for being 100% wrong. On the other hand, there's no real upside to making a forecast like this, because if you're right and humanity is wiped out, there will be no one left to give you credit! (since I posted this, Meade now says he did the calculations wrong, and the real End Of World Day will be October 15th, after which he'll no doubt re-check his math and come up with another excuse).
It took me just a few minutes of Megyn Kelly's debut of her "Today" hour on NBC yesterday to understand why it will likely follow similar efforts by other news anchors who tried and failed with daytime talk shows (e.g. Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper, Jane Pauley, and Meredith Viera). Like the rest, Kelly is trying to go the Oprah route, but she has too much baggage from her tenure at Fox News Channel. Her fans from those years don't care about her interviewing the cast of the return edition of "Will and Grace," while those who didn't watch "The Kelly File" will wonder what all the fuss is about. Sadly, not much.
The federal government announced via Twitter yesterday that anyone on Puerto Rico who is suffering from the recent hurricane and needs help should ask for assistance at USA.gov. Apparently, the geniuses in Washington who sent that message aren't aware that no one on Puerto Rico has an internet connection after the storm. In fact, the vast majority of people there have no electricity, or clean water, or fuel, or food. A dam is in danger of collapsing and wiping out two communities. Eighty percent of the island's crops have been destroyed. Yes, the government should provide aid, but be a little smarter about it. Of course, it would be nice if we had a president who paid as much attention to the 3.4 million Americans (yes, they're citizens, too) whose lives have been turned upside down as he does to a couple of hundred NFL players silently protesting during the national anthem.
Speaking of those protests -- an issue that was 99.9% dead before Trump reanimated it over the weekend -- I have a suggestion for those of you offended by them: start watching the game a couple of minutes later and skip the anthem entirely. From then on out, all you'll see is football, without anyone doing anything to upset you. Unless the team you bet on doesn't cover the spread and your fantasy players don't score enough points -- then you'd have valid reasons to scream at the screen. I wonder how long it will take for Fox, CBS, NBC, and ESPN to go back to their longtime practice of not showing the anthem at all except during the playoffs and Super Bowl -- it's been years since they devoted airtime during the regular season to the anthem. Were they being unpatriotic by skipping The Star Spangled Banner to sell Bud Light and Cialis? Nope, that's capitalism in the land of the free and the home of the brave.