Congo Trip Report, Olympic Marathons, Trump Whites, Flacca

We bring you the most incredible Congo trip report, some unique tidbits about Olympic Marathons, learn more about Trump whites, freak out with flacca and not much more.

TBB Blog Mission: To Entertain. Educate. Inspire. In That Order!

 

Keeping it short again while enjoying one of the few last remaining summer weekends…

We are going to host a friend’s daughter from my hometown in Greece for a few weeks, she gets here this coming Tuesday. We of Greek heritage are proud of and known for being great hosts. Which translates to my blog taking a secondary role around here during these two weeks while we try to give her a great time introducing her to the United States of America and Michigan. Thanks for your understanding. I may have some surprises though…so keep clicking!

Nothing miles & points related today, just some links that blew my mind and adhere to my blog’s mission. Click on the headlines!

The long and bizarre history of the Olympic marathon

Amazing tidbits from marathons in previous Olympics. Read about what happened in the 1904 Marathon in St. Louis, wow! I am going to pick the best one in the article from the Stockholm Olympics in 1912 to highlight:

But perhaps the best story is of Shizo Kanakuri, one of the first Asians invited to take part in an Olympics—this one in Stockholm in 1912.

But the Japanese endured a horrid 18-day journey by ship and the Trans-Siberian railway to get to Sweden. He arrived to a 32°C heatwave, causing most of the runners to suffer from hyperthermia. Kanakuri, running in traditional Japanese tabi (two-toed canvas shoes), was already struggling with the local food and lost consciousness midway through the race.

Taken in by a local family, he fell asleep on their couch and woke up later in the night. Embarrassed, he neglected to tell race officials and simply returned to Japan. Though he competed in subsequent Olympics, Swedish authorities had him listed as missing for over 50 years.

Kanakuri did eventually finish his race—invited back to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the 1912 Games, he crossed the finish line to record the longest-ever official marathon time of 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds.

“It was a long trip,” he told reporters. “Along the way, I got married, had six children, and 10 grandchildren.”

The Plight Of The White Working Class Isn’t Economic, It’s Cultural

We have touched on the Trump phenomenon here and the fact that there is indeed a section of the population that feels very angry about what is happening to the country, etc. This is an article that attempts to explain what is going on.  I find myself agreeing with most of the author’s arguments. A few excerpts for your viewing pleasure while you sip your coffee thanking this weird TBB dude for being so balanced 🙂

Here we come to the crux of the matter. Trump supporters are not in fact suffering disproportionately from the flight of manufacturing jobs overseas, or competition from immigrants. They might not be poor themselves, but they live in places that are in a state of crisis, where the pathologies of the white working class are manifesting themselves in visceral ways: heroin overdoses, single-parent families, rampant opioid addiction, vast swaths of adult men on disability and out of the work force. It’s no wonder they feel like something has gone horribly wrong in their country. It has—but not quite in the way they suppose.

A lot of people in down-scale communities aren’t destitute or in danger of starving like those in early eras, so they’re less motivated to uproot their lives. But plenty of people do leave, and those who are left behind tend to be the least ambitious. “It creates pockets of people who aren’t upwardly mobile,” Winship said. “They’re doing well enough that they don’t have to move.”

The truth is, entire swaths of working- and middle-class white America are now afflicted by something much worse than foreign trade or immigration. Their communities are in the throes of a moral and cultural crisis—a breakdown of the family and social institutions that has given rise to drug addiction, welfare dependency, and simmering resentment. Trump supporters who live in these places are understandably frustrated, but they’re wrong to pin the blame on NAFTA, or George W. Bush, or the Obama administration.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Lubumbashi to Kinshasa

HT to Personal Finance Digest for recommending this mind blowing trip report! I got a little busy so it took me a few days to get to it & finish it. I suggest you bookmark it and enjoy it at your own pace. If you think you are adventurous, you are a joke! Compared to these completely nuts Belgians. Never in a million years I would do something like this! Just blown away. Wow to infinity!

How the War on Drugs Makes People Eat Other People’s Faces After Stabbing Them to Death

Sorry for getting on a macabre tone in this beautiful Sunday while you are about to have some BBQ and down some beer. Or whatever you are into. I heard of this flacca synthetic drug but this article brings you all the horrors of it. Please talk to your children about this! The video showing what people do when they are under the influence of it will give you nightmares. Chalk this down for fulfilling the education part of my blog’s mission. Choose weed, go natural. No chemical shit in your body, WTF!

And I leave you with this…

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TBB
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