April 2

 Really chilly today and wet. We have some weak sunshine at the moment but the morning began with thunderstorms before light with hard rain. I woke with a headache which I needed a couple of aspirin. That is unusual but it is the second time within a few days. The last really vicious storm that came through the weekend did the same. When we went out on Monday we saw several large trees blown down and splintered. I don't think the storms this morning had winds that strong.

Stray thought: isn't it wonderful Elon Musk spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $23million on a losing effort to buy an election for a MAGA candidate in Wisconsin? He made the election about himself and, secondarily, Trump's MAGA agenda. Unfortunately, though Musk was singed, Trump was unscathed if the interviews I saw with voters is any indication.

Second stray thought: although Republican candidates for the House of Representatives did win the two special elections in Florida, the news wasn't entirely good for them. Matt Gaetz, who nominated to be Attorney General but withdrew when he couldn't get the required votes,  and Mike Waltz, Trump's current National Security Advisor of Signal-gate fame, won those districts by 30+ points. The two winning candidates in this election won by only around 15 points. The seats aren't as "safe" as the Party big wigs thought.

Yet another stray thought: Cory Booker was amazing yesterday and provided an example of the kind of passion Democrats need. Heather Cox Richardson gives the highlights here.

And, again, a stray thought: I thought the whole episode of the Eric Adams predicament was BS. He may be guilty of the kind of corruption alleged but the motion by the Federal prosecutors to have the charges dismissed "without prejudice" (meaning they could be refiled at any time) so a trial wouldn't "interfere" with his ability to "cooperate" with Federal forces officials on the implementation of its immigration policies, was nothing less than a form of extortion. An honest move by the Federal prosecutors would have either moved on to trial (if they considered their case strong enough to proceed or to simply dismiss the case if they were in doubt. They wanted to put Adams on a leash and there was nothing honest about that. The judge, evidently, sees things the same way and ordered the case dismissed "with prejudice" preventing the government from refiling the charges. Good!

April 1

 Happy April Fool's Day. I guess that is why The Stable Genius decided to wait until tomorrow to announce the details of his new tariff list. I have been ignoring most of the news because it is mainly very repetitive speculation. Right now we have a Premier League game on Wolverhampton vs Westham United. Right now Wolverhampton leads 1-0.

Sunny today but storms should move in overnight. No plans so we can stay home. I hope things clear up next Monday because we have a medical appointment.

Found this post by Anne Applebaum. I could only read the first half because the rest is behind a pay wall but I think I got most of her argument that Hungary now is where the U.S. will be in not too many years. She was on Morning Joe yesterday and outlined the details: replace civil servants with loyalists, us economic pressure to destroy a free press and independent universities, reward friends and family with government funds, change the laws and the legal system to retain power and squelch dissent. Seems like the MAGA crowd is rapidly following Hungary's path.

Stray thought: the pundits are going on and on about the Stable Genius teasing about running for a third term. Most point out that the 22nd Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected to the Presidency more than twice. That amendment codified the tradition established by Washington when he left office at the end of his second term which held until Franklin D. Roosevelt successfully ran for four terms and died barely three months into his last term. Some one posited the notion that J.D. Vance could run for president with Trump in the second slot and (assuming he won) could resign immediately letting Trump succeed to the office. I see two problems with that. First, Vance is no Medvedev, Putin's loyal acolyte who traded the top offices in Russia with him to circumvent the law which, at the time, prevented the President from succeeding himself. I doubt Vance would be so accommodating. Second, the last sentence of the 12th Amendment, which formalized the workings of the Electoral College, prohibits the members from voting for any vice-presidential candidate who is ineligible for election as President. We would have to be much further down the Hungarian path to circumvent the Constitutional roadblocks.

The news readers have recited stories for some time about the tattoos which DHS have decided are indicators of gang membership and have used to justify detaining for deportation those sporting those tattoos. I just found this piece on POPULAR INFORMATION showing some of the tattoos in question. What a pile of crap. (I am TRYING to be more polite.) Most members of my family have tattoos. My sister has the most extensive array. I think Mom and I are the only unmarked members of the family. I don't think any could easily identify Venezuela on a map. Most haven't been to Mexico. None, as far as I know, have any fluency in Spanish. But I am not sure, given the thugs in DHS, that would protect anyone. About 20 years ago I found a copy of a DHS pamphlet which listed "questionable activities" which might mark a person as a "sovereign citizen" or some similar "subversive" person. Those traits included: buying supplies in bulk, using cash, buying camo gear, stocking up on guns and ammo. I have known a number of people who did all of that but were in no way anti-government or anti-American. During the pandemic Mom and I kept a full pantry and stockpiled necessary goods so we didn't have to go out very often. We have cut back since then but still keep a full pantry. We also pay cash for most purchases because the charge cards became a pain in the butt to manage on line. A couple of shops we frequent refuse to accept charge cards--cash or check only. We don't have guns and are satisfied with jeans and flannel or sweats. The kakistocracy is alive and we are not well.

Alley Valkyrie makes some interesting observations about American culture and French culture. Makes you realize just how we have come on the "enshitification" path we have gone and the attitudes which have propelled us on that path.

 

March 28

 We have partly sunny/cloudy conditions but the temperatures should go into the mid 70s. The conditions are slowly shifting toward spring. Only one day (for now) in the forecast that will be more wintery. Unfortunately that is the day I have planned for essential errands. Oh well.

Safari is giving me problems today, as it has for some time now, by refusing to load a page from my Outlook e-mail. We'll see how far I get before closing things down in disgust.

Stray thought: isn't it wonderful that some Republicans are finding their backbones (sort of but still a bit squishy) and their voices (still somewhat muted) to criticize those morons who are involved in what some (myself I am sorry to say) are calling "Signalgate." I really wish we would find a better way to designate scandals by something other than a reference to Watergate--it was 60 years ago for Gods' sake. And I would love to see some of them realize that the rot started at the top--Trump himself. The laziness, entitlement and arrogance of Hegseth, Gabbard and friends begins with the laziness, entitlement and arrogance (and malice) of the man who appointed them.

Second stray thought: does it give anybody else to watch a bunch of black clad men with face masks accosting a woman on the street. The news account said they didn't identify themselves as ICE agents initially but I didn't see any of them show a badge and nothing on their clothing indicated who they might be. And they quickly moved her out of the state to the detention center in Louisiana before a court could intervene. It looks like we have our own "secret police" just like Nazi Germany, East Germany, Soviet Union....

Charles Huge Smith describes how all aspects of our lives are ULTRA PROCESSED: food, economy, politics. 

March 27

 Cloudy this morning with rain and thundershowers predicted with temperatures in the mid-50s. The weather people say we should have a stretch of this weather punctuated by a day or part of a day with some sun.

There are times when I hate some of our technology. Three or four years ago Xfinity pretty much forced us to "upgrade" to the new "hub" or pay a "ransom" each month to keep our old system. I have never been able to get the system to network our computers and our printer. With a lot of swearing, I decided to fix up an end around and connect my laptop directly to the printer since we don't use the printer as often as we once did. We can't do without the printer because two or three times a year we have to print off forms to sign and send back to whoever. Well, today is one of those times and I had to relearn how the damned thing worked. Again, with a lot of swearing, I figured it out, printed the forms, and put the little monster to bed until next time.

I am restricting my news. I am tired of exhausting my quota of swear words with the idiocy the kakistocracy elicits from me. Especially when the incompetence is combined with the greed of the oligarchy and the kleptocrats. Jan in SanFran has a post which echoes my thoughts on Trump's cabinet picks: they were picked FOR their incompetence not IN SPITE of it.

Reading this piece by Bill Astore I remember an old saying: if all you have is a hammer, all your problems look like nails.

Heather Cox Richardson wrote an article which completely dissects what people are now calling Signalgate. I have nothing to add to it.

Stray thought: Some few years ago I read Octavia Butlers THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER and I remember a scene where the main characters are planning to go to the local police and ask for information about a missing relative and family. One would think that wouldn't be a problem but it is in a world where law and law officers are capricious (and totally self-serving). The discuss how much cash and/or valuables they should carry so that they might get some information and won't be too badly beaten. I wonder is similar discussions are taking place in our institutions of higher education and in the big law firms as Trump make his demands and they capitulate. I won't find links since the news carried the stories earlier this past week. Actually, I will give you a link because I just found Jennifer Rubin's latest post at THE CONTRARIAN which lays out the situation very well. 

Another stray thought: It seems that some of the vaccine skeptic parents in Texas (maybe other places??) decided to follow the advice of the scientifically ignorant Bobby, Jr. and give their darlings Vitamin A to "prevent" measles. Doctors in the area have reported cases of children coming in with signs of Vitamin A toxicity which include, according to the NIH,  nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, irritability, blurred vision, and muscular incoordination. To start with and can escalate to thinning bones, liver damage, skin irritation. But of course why should they trust the NIH when they have Bobby.

March 26

 Partly sunny today with temperatures predicted to reach the 50s. Until the weekend we have low chances of rain and then several days into next week when thunderstorms should rumble in. Hopefully we can evade the rain, if it comes, on Monday because we have an essential errand.

Yesterday was a very lazy day for the most part. I played, skimmed the e-mail (didn't really read much of it) and took the car in for an oil change and a check of the tire sensor which went on Monday. The oil change warning came on a bit ago and I was waiting for warmer weather but with the tire sensor also sounding a warning I decided sooner was better.

I wasn't TOTALLY idle. I got some cross stitching done, started a new doily which is proceeding nicely, started a broomstick lace lap blanket, put some more rows on the older blanket which is about one-quarter done.

March 23

 Good morning on a nice sunny day. Cool but the roller coaster of weather conditions continues. Early spring looks a lot like late winter. We had a few errands for the day: a trip to the dairy, the drug store, the grocer store and to pay rent. We are a bit fuzzy today because the cats simply wouldn't settle down and let us sleep. And even when the fuzzy little monsters weren't pestering us we kept waking up on our own. It seems that a number of people had the similar problems. Our favorite checker at the dairy mentioned a simply horrid night where even when she could sleep she had terrible dreams. I told her about our difficulties and the woman with two small children behind us mentioned how restless her kids had been. Something was definitely going on. Hope tonight is better.

We put a large stack of our DVDs on the player over the weekend. The Premier League seems to be on a two week hiatus. No games over the last weekend and none on the schedule next weekend. Just checked a the games resume on April 1. Oh well, I will head to our local library and check out a stack of their DVDs for Saturday and Sunday.

Stray thought: the Enlightenment was an era in which people thought the men could understand the mysteries of the universe and bring rational minds to bear on the complexities of human nature, the conduct of government, and social organization. I think the Enlightenment flame is burning out and the last two achievements of that era are crumbling. The United States Constitution was a rational document designed to balance human vices with human virtues to create a human and humane society. I thought a decade ago that the U.S. would see the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence (next year) but would not see the 275th. Now I wonder if we will see the 250th anniversary of the ratification of the Constitution in 2039. I might actually live to find out since my mother is 94 later this year and in 2039 I will be 90. As far as the second great achievement, understanding the universe, the tool for that was science and there seems to be less and less confidence in what science "reveals." 

March 22

 Cloudy this morning but temperatures are moderate. It looks like the big pots on the patio are thawing out--I saw rivulets of water running down from the bottom of them. 

I didn't do much yesterday because the news from the Trump circus was depressing. When Trump first announced his cabinet picks I thought he was choosing on the basis of incompetence and lack of experience but looking at what is happening I think he chose people who would do the most damage. An old saying holds that just because you are paranoid doesn't mean someone isn't after you. I never felt paranoid before but it is hard not to feel paranoid when everything I and my mother depend on is under attack. And Trump has commanded that Student Loans will be moved to the Small Business Agency which is not really equipped to handle tens of thousands of new accounts and has just had its workforce slated for a 40%reduction. And the changes to Social Security simply make sure it is as difficult as possible for retirees to navigate the system and get the money most of us were promised in return for a working life-time of paying into it.

I saw most of Trump's news conference announcing the above measures and the new F47 fighter for the Pentagon. Bill Astore has some caustic thought on the new $22billion (for now) program. This isn't the way to cut costs but then I don't think cost cutting has ever really been the goal. What they really wanted was a large pot of money they could skim or throw at their favored recipients. We didn't see a "peace dividend" from the end of the Cold War and I don't expect to see anything out of the Great Demolition.

Stray thought: I remember a scene from John Michael Greer's novel TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING where, during a succession crisis triggered by a 25th Amendment convention which placed a disollusion amendment on the table, one of the main characters says that Americans expected two thing from the Federal Government: win wars and provide services people need. And the Feds hadn't been good at either for decades.

Another stray thought: while the press conference was going on, before I got too disgusted to continue and turned it off, I wondered if all those present were kissing the Trumpian ass to his satisfaction. It clearly wasn't enough that they designated the plane to honor President #47. They all had to constantly praise Trump the Great.

I heard about the travel advisories some European countries and Canada are issuing for their citizens to NOT travel to the U.S. Here is an article on that issue. Who would have thunk it?