The ink is barely dry on President Biden's executive order tightening border restrictions, but it's not too soon to predict that everyone will complain about it. Felonies, efforts to overturn elections, and the future viability of American democracy aside, the border is possibly the hottest hot button issue leading into the 2024 election. It was the first policy issue Trump brought up following his conviction. And a bipartisan Congressional bill to address the border was scuttled by the GOP after Trump indicated he didn't want Biden to have an election year legislative win. So today's executive order while something, is not the something we need. And getting the something we need seems impossible given a political landscape that borders on the absurd. "Facing mounting political pressure over the migrant influx at the U.S. southern border, President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order that will temporarily shut down asylum requestsonce the average number of daily encounters tops 2,500 between official ports of entry." 2A Picture is Worth 1000 ArgumentsLook, these are not the 25 photos that defined the modern age because no one could pick the 25 photos that defined the modern age without choosing or omitting images in a way that will irritate, flummox, and otherwise perturb different people for different reasons. Now that we have have that out of the way, it's certainly interesting to look at one group's selection of influential photos. NYT (Gift Article): The 25 Photos That Defined the Modern Age. 3To the Nth DegreeI regularly have one of those dreams when it's the final exam for a college class I've failed to attend all semester (and I often can't even recall where the classroom is located). I can't imagine how many of these dreams Benjamin Bolger has. "Bolger has been to Harvard and Stanford and Yale. He has been to Columbia and Dartmouth and Oxford, and Cambridge, Brandeis and Brown. Over all, Bolger has 14 advanced degrees, plus an associate’s and a bachelor’s." (And he's still only within six degrees of Kevin Bacon.) Joseph Bernstein in the NYT Magazine (Gift Article): The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Going to College. "There’s something almost anachronistically earnest, even romantic, about the reason he gives for spending the past 30-odd years pursuing college degrees. 'I love learning,' he told me over lunch last year, without even a touch of irony. I had been pestering him for the better part of two days, from every angle I could imagine, to offer some deeper explanation for his life as a perpetual student. Every time I tried, and failed, I felt irredeemably 21st-century, like an extra in a historical production who has forgotten to remove his Apple Watch." 4Cowculator"Brazil has hundreds of millions of cows, but one in particular is extraordinary. Her massive, snow-white body is watched over by security cameras, a veterinarian and an armed guard. Along a highway through Brazil’s heartland, Viatina-19’s owners have put up two billboards praising her grandeur and beckoning ranchers, curious locals and busloads of veterinary students to make pilgrimages to see the supercow." She’s the world’s most expensive cow, and part of Brazil’s plan to put beef on everyone’s plate. 5Extra, ExtraModi Operandi: "Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has claimed a historic third win in a row in the country's parliamentary elections, but his ruling alliance appears to have failed to win a large majority as predicted." It's the one thing that unites the globe: Poor polling accuracy. Here are some photos of democracy in action as the world’s largest elections come to a close in India. 6Bottom of the News"The last time Igor De Santis ran for mayor in Ingria, a tiny village surrounded by forests and mountains near Turin, he won an easy landslide victory. But he faces a tough challenge in his bid for a fourth mandate, after his mother joined a rival camp." Italian village with 46 residents has 30 local election candidates.
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