Tomatoes, the NIMBY Supreme Court and Other Idiocies

Full disclosure: I love tomatoes, or to be more precise, GOOD tomatoes. For me, a summer high point is a tomato sandwich. Some may disagree on the bread, the mayo brand, and salt or no-salt, but we all agree that a slab-slice of a ripe, fresh from the vine beefsteak makes it THE summer sandwich¹.

And that means a GOOD tomato. Either home-grown (if the squirrels don’t get them), locally grown, or from Mexico. It does NOT mean a Florida tomato. Florida tomatoes are terrible. They are field-grown all year, picked green, and then gassed for color. Not joking. Like all industrial food, “flavor” is the least consideration, after shipping ability and profit. In Mexico, they grow tomatoes in hot houses, and ship them when ripe.

You can tell the difference when you smell the tomato at the store, and even more after you bring it home, slice it, and eat it.

The Orange Menace has just put a 17% tariff on Mexican tomatoes. To bolster Floridian tomatoes.

Sure, we can talk about how tomatoes used to be a fruit² you could only buy fresh in summer, but industrial farms want to be able to sell produce year round, but that’s a different conversation. And don’t get me started on peaches and other stone fruit, RUINED by industrialization and genetics back in the 80’s.

The point is that gassed green tomatoes are virtually inedible, and because of the tariffs, those of us who can afford it will continue to be able to get wonderful tomatoes, but those on limited budgets will suffer the loss. And because of the immutable law of supply and demand, prices for Florida tomatoes will also rise because there are so few of them. Why? Because they’re plowing under the crops due to a 70% decrease in tomato pickers. You know, ag workers. Like, um, migrants.

If I had to guess, I’d assume that VonShitzenpants doesn’t eat tomatoes on his McDonald’s burgers.

On to the Supremes

First, an anecdote. Yeah, I have a story. About 25 years ago, my parents bought a new house. A brand-newly built house. And for the first few months, there was a constant flow of workers finishing the punch list.

One day, dad and I were sitting at the table in the kitchen as a worker was doing something regarding the stove. Dad and I were talking about the Supreme Court, a deep dive conversation about recent rulings. The worker stopped, and just stared at us. He said: “You can list all the Supreme Court justices?”. We said of course, and asked if he wanted the names in alphabetical order or from most venal to most loved? He said that he hadn’t even known that there were nine of them. And that worker is pretty common - most people don’t know there are nine justices, and certainly couldn’t name them. I’m sure YOU can name them, but just in case, I’ve put some clues on the photo below.

We all know that “NIMBY” means “Not In My Back Yard”. It normally applies to neighbors fighting to keep certain types of people out of their neighborhood. I take a more expansive view, and I think NIMBY really means “I got mine, screw you.” And that applies to SCOTUS, especially in terms of their recent ruling regarding the Department of Education. Of the current Supremes, four received their law degrees from Yale, four from Harvard, and one from Notre Dame.

It’s like the jurists without hearts on the photo above don’t want anyone else to be able to get a great education. OK, a “great education” hasn’t served any of those miscreants well, but someone has to graduate last in the class.

Knowledge is everything. Years ago, I was a volunteer for a program that taught adult functional illiterates how to read. These people had not learned to read for a variety of really good reasons, and now they had imperative reasons for wanting to know. All of them. ALL OF THEM had found various workarounds, so that people hopefully never found out about their deficit. EACH AND EVERY STUDENT worked harder to learn the alphabet, and then basic words, and then sentences, than I’d ever worked at learning anything. People with undergraduate or graduate degrees from Ivy League institutions must know the value of knowledge, of learning.

And yet, they think that it’s okay to take opportunities away from little kids, who only want to learn. I’ve never met a kid who didn’t want to learn. Sure, some hate reading and love math, and others concentrate on one area of science (like bugs), but I’ve never met one without a thirst for knowledge.

The term “morally bankrupt” comes to mind.

Other Idiocies

• There are Democrats (I am not one of them) who want their elected representatives to get shot. With actual bullets. Or at least be willing to get shot. Not making this up. As someone who has removed bullets and fragments from human beings who have been shot, this is a really, REALLY bad idea.

• Inflation is up for June. 2.7% annualized, 2.9% less food and energy. Another step up the ladder to stagflation, especially if the 1 August tariffs go into effect, and the EU retaliates. And the Orange Moron wants to cut interest rates. That hasn’t worked out for Hungary and Turkey. Likely, this is going to mean a higher Social Security COLA in January. It won’t be enough, but it’s something.

• Fun to watch: the Rethuglicans are doing poorly on the generic 2026 Congressional ballot. Their only option, per polling, is to rescind the ending of the ACA tax credits. Here’s what makes it fun: to pull ahead in the generic ballot, they need to support that which they’ve spent more than a decade trying to kill.

• And finally, fun factoid for today: There's only one number that has the same amount of letters as its numeric value, the number four.

1. For me, it’s fresh baked potato bread, Hellman’s, and no salt, but I know others have different preferences.

2. Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing to leave it out of fruit salad.