28 July—With 100 days to Election Day, while taking the first sip of the breakfast orange juice and chuckling at “Yesterday’s poll results” in this morning’s Sunday Republican, I almost didn’t notice the red fox sauntering by the kitchen door. (Surprisingly, I can still multitask, even at my advanced age.) Sadly, the fox had what appeared to be the limp corpse of a grey squirrel in his mouth. I wondered how the fox was able to catch the squirrel, since the little guys never let their guard down, are faster than foxes, and can scoot up trees. Oh well, too bad foxes and other predators—especially humans, the apex predators—aren’t vegetarians.

So I was enjoying the newspaper’s poll because the results were entirely predictable: “Who will Kamala Harris choose to be her running mate as vice president?” “Frankly, I don’t care” elicited the chuckle because it garnered 63% of the respondents.

No surprise there, given the Waterbury rag’s right-wing, decidedly, stubbornly, uncomfortably pro-Trump readership; they don’t care simply because they’ll vote for Trump (and anyone else who calls himself a Republican) come what may. Happily—in Trump’s case, anyway—the rest of Connecticut won’t vote for Trump, thus giving the state’s seven electoral votes to Harris, the lesser of the evils. One would hope, anyway.

“Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona” got 16%; “Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro” came up with 10%; “U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg” drew 5%; “Other” earned 2%, as did “Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear” and “North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper”; and “Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer” came in last with 1%.

While the vice presidential candidate doesn’t ordinarily have that great an effect on a presidential ticket, Mark Kelly is probably the best choice. In all events, he should be the choice, and not just for PR—i.e., vote-attracting—reasons. For starters, he has no negatives like religion, sexual orientation, or gender. And he’s personable, popular in a swing state; a retired combat-hardened U.S. Navy captain and astronaut; and husband of assassination survivor (with considerably more than a grazed ear) Gabby Giffords.

(For the record, although irrelevant, J.D. Vance was honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps as a corporal. Mark Kelly is old enough to be his father and can doubtless put Trump’s attack prick in his place in any debate.)

Back to the local fauna, then, a woodchuck who with his family has been feasting on my Spanish radishes and assorted sweet carrots has taken a break from excavating useless holes in the meadow to survey his handiwork and contemplate how much more damage he and his sisters and his cousins and his aunts can do. The little bugger is looking right at me, smiling, and giving me the figurative finger . . .