Mexicans are suffering from the rain and clamoring for more photos of the car. So here is one more photo.

Today I’ve been driving everywhere on my own and it’s a great thing to be able to go anywhere and do anything. I’m so coming up with more errands for myself to run tomorrow because it’s incredible fun.

I’m like the Jew with the goat from the old joke.

The King of Spain abdicated today in favor of his son Felipe. This is an effort on the part of the King to save the monarchy that has been heavily damaged by the corruption scandals involving the King himself, his daughter Cristina, and his son-in-law Iñaki Urdangarín. In the midst of a severe economic crisis, the endless revelations about the insane amounts of money acquired by the royal family through its practice of corruption have not been taken very well by the Spaniards.

Felipe has not been at the center of these scandals, and the King is trying salvage the monarchy in Spain by pushing him to the forefront.

I have to say that I find few things as barbaric as calling anybody a King or a Queen in the XXIst century. When you have a decorative monarch, like the British do, this is not a big deal. However, when you have a royal family that is actively selling  governmental favors for bribes and engaging in really outrageous crimes, it’s high time to rethink why anybody needs this monarchy at all.

The people of Spain have gotten themselves into the trap of believing that having a King guarantees their democracy. That is an outdated vestige of the events of the 1970s, however. Today, the monarchy is a threat not only to Spanish democracy but to the continued existence of Spain itself.

So you’ve heard that  the New York Times‘ Jill Abramson was fired, right? Have you wondered why?

Well, Russians have the answer for you. Apparently, she was fired for revealing the truth about the fighting in the Ukrainian city of Slovyansk, and the US government had her fired for telling the truth about Ukraine’s fascists. (The link is in Russian, of course.)