Relatively busy day, glad I have windows that open

I just got back from a 30-minute walk with Cassie in 22°C early-autumn sun. We suffered. And now I'm back in my home office and she's back on the couch. She will spend the next several hours napping in a cool, breezy spot downstairs, and I will...work.

I will also read a bit, which is a skill that I'm glad Cassie does not have after encountering the day's news:

• It's official! The June jobs report showed a decline in US employment for the first time since December 2020, making President Biden the only president in history to have 48 consecutive months of job growth during his term.
• Dan Rather adds his voice to the chorus advising Senate Democrats to actually bring a knife to the knife fight they're about to have over a looming government shutdown on October 1st.
• Meanwhile, the OAFPOTUS continues driving the United States into a Perónist-style economic collapse for no reason other than his own incompetence. Paul Krugman worries that the OAFPOTUS's cratering popularity might not be enough to stop this.
• Matt Ford castigates Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts (R) for doing exactly what he tells other judges not to do: defying Court precedents. Jen Rubin rounds up reports of lower-court Federal judges saying similar things: "This intra-judicial fight is just the latest installment in the MAGA justices’ record of misbehavior and overreach."
• Pro Publica spent 15 hours with Leland Dudek, who oversaw the looting of the Social Security Administration after being illegally installed as part of the DOGE team by the Clown Prince of X.
• Jeff Maurer wishes people had known that RFK Jr is completely mental: "if only there had been signs that he’s an unqualified loon with out-of-the-mainstream views."
• Bruce Schneier questions the benefits of "AI in government," at least in the US.
• Because of Earth's axial procession, the Zodiac has shifted almost a full sign to the right in the last 2,000 years, making me a Leo and not a Virgo! (It's almost as if star signs are nonsense.)

Finally, the Chicago Dept of Transportation has published plans to designate Wellington Avenue a bike greenway from Leavitt Ave in North Center to the lakefront path. The project will include protected counterflow bike lanes on one-way segments of Wellington, traffic calming, signage, and a number of other features to protect bicyclists. The greenway will allow bikes to avoid Belmont and Diversey, two busy streets that aren't fun to ride on. CDOT expects to finish the project this fall.

Oh, and today is the 50th anniversary of Welcome Back, Kotter premiering on ABC. Let me tell you I'm Gen X without actually saying the words, right?

"It's almost as if star signs are nonsense." I'm an astronomer. If you really want to annoy astrologers, remind them that the Sun spends 19 days each year (30 November to 18 December) in the constellation Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer, which isn't even one of the 12 classical zodiacal constellations. By contrast, it spends just 6 days in Scorpius.

Take a look at the linked Times article: they graphically demonstrate the Ophiuchus problem. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/upshot/zodiac-signs.html