December 4

 Good morning. It is still cold with flurries every now and then but not amounting to much more snow. I put several hexagons into the shawl before I switched to finishing the edge on the little blanket of pin loom squares and started weaving in the ends. There a lot of them. Nowadays I get them taken care of as I am working the piece. Then I decided it was time to vacuum the traffic areas of the downstairs. I don't bother with the upstairs as neither of us go up there much since mom's accident and surgery. I just published the post covering the last couple of days because I shut down the computer before I got back to post it.

Gail Tverberg at OUR FINITE WORLD has a new article posted today. I always look forward to her writing because she looks at today's problems as interlocking phenomena influencing each other to exacerbate their effects. Several economists have written over the last couple of years about our society's dependence on rising levels of debt, on increasing supplies of energy (and fossil fuels particularly), and increasing production of materials we depend on (rare earths etc.) Tverberg shows how those factors have been declining and that all the promises that been given to various people (and not just those who receive social security or other government promised benefits but those who expect private pensions, etc.) which are based on rising levels of debt, increasing supplies of energy and materiel. 

December 1, 2

 Welcome to December. Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. We are hibernating. We got quite a bit of snow but most of it has been removed. The pavement is still warm enough that the lowest levels are slushy. It looks like we are going to get several days of cold temps and sporadic snow. Welcome to meteorological Winter although I put up my wreath for the season a week ago. Well, since I pretty much ignored the news over the weekend I guess it is time for a jump into what's going on.

Evidently South Asia is feeling the fury of a monsoon cyclone with heavy rain from Sri Lanka to Thailand. They have had unbelievable flooding and land slides. Last I heard the death toll from the region surpassed 1000. In BBC interviews some residents of Ache province Indonesia compared the devastation to the massive tsunami that hit about a decade ago.

Stray thought: we really need to get back to using words in a way that doesn't stretch their meanings beyond recognition. The "terrorism/terrorist" merely means anyone you consider an enemy. Political opponents become minions of satan that need to be obliterated. Drug traffickers suddenly are narco-terrorists and our government feels free to murder them on the high seas. The latest obscenity Hegseth may have perpetrated when he allegedly gave an order to "kill them all" when survivors were seen at the wreckage of one of the boats our government blew up. One of the pundits wrote that the action was "a war crime at best" since the survivors were not a threat any longer (if they ever were.) Note our military hasn't been involved in an unambiguous war since WWII. Here are some depressing comments on where we seem to be going with our current government.

02***********************************************

Sunny so far today. I got a short path shoveled to get me from the patio door to the trash tote. I might get the path to the gate done. I had to find one of my winter caps and my gloves before I even try that. It is really cold and isn't likely together out of the 20s. I just put together a scalloped potato casserole and got it in the oven. My version adds frozen peas and sliced smoked sausage to the original recipe. I had to do some searching because so many that I found seem to think scalloped means au gratin. I like one dish meals though next time I will use the larger casserole dish. I also like to fix enough to freeze for future quick means. It is just too much of a pain to try to adjust the portions for two--especially when Mom's appetite is rather variable.

First up on my reading list was this piece from CROOKS&LIARS. I have a couple of thoughts on it. First, who can possibly be surprised. Trump is an equal opportunity "looter." I wonder where he is putting the money a rational president would have sent to Michigan. Second, another reason not to be surprised is Trump really doesn't like the lower economic orders of what ever race or ethnicity. They trend likely to put any money in his pocket. Third, I am getting really tired of the undertone of schadenfreude with the whole "people are in the FO phase of FAFO" meme. Just because some people didn't see what those who didn't vote for Trump doesn't mean they deserve the cruelty of this administration. That falls on all of us. Fourth, these stories simply solidifies my thought that we should become as independent of government programs. The old saying "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away" reflects a broader truth: whatever is given can be taken away by the giver at any time.

Stray thought: there has been a lot of verbiage spent on 1) whether the strikes on alleged drug-running boats is actually legal (as in justified by actual national or international law), and 2) whether the facts justify charges of war crimes or murder all ignores a fact which might bite good many people in their posteriors: there is no statute of limitations on the most serious possibilities. And we still have elections and the results may not be favorable to those in power now supporting blatant thuggery.

Another stray thought: the shooting of the National Guard troops a few days ago has ignored something that is important though it doesn't absolve the shooter: he was trained by and worked with the CIA as part of a "death squad" in Afghanistan. He work for our government and nobody is looking at how much culpability attaches to that government which waged that pseudo war for two decades. I say "pseudo" because there was no declaration of war to authorize the military action. Well, not everyone is ignoring the background. Corbin Trent at AMERICA'S UNDOING covers it in detail.

November 25, 28

 The fog has finally lifted. We had rain overnight. The temperature is still mild, especially for the end of November but that is expected to change starting tomorrow. The last forecast I saw, yesterday, predicted possible snow over the weekend. I think the four pots I cleaned out yesterday will be the last work outside unless it gets dry enough to sweep up leaves.

A couple of days ago Treasury Secretary Bessent appeared on one of the Sunday current affairs talk shows and tried again to convince people that they aren't really experiencing inflation. He is an economist and was relying on the idea that people generally don't know that the technical definition of inflation doesn't actually refer to prices. When people talk about inflation they us the term colloquially to refer to increasing prices for everyday items. Bessent is still trying to gaslight us into thinking we don't know what is happening in our lives.

28************************************************

Sunny so far today. We didn't get any noticeable precipitation yesterday. The next front should be moving in later this afternoon which the weather people say should drop significant snow, perhaps as much as a foot. I brought the snow shovel out of the shed and put it in an accessible corner of the patio and the sidewalk deicer which is in the house by the door. I turned off the TV news early today. I can't stand listening to Trump, Vance or Hegseth. They spew so much shit that you can fertilize every farm field in the country for a century.

We watched the Chicago and the Macy's Thanksgiving Parades followed by the Weather Channel's coverage of the winter storm marching through the northern tier of the country. The two parades were quite a contrast. Chicago highlighted local culture, or cultures, and local talent. Macy was a slicker production which would have told you very little about the people inhabiting the city. Chicago's production featured performers from local ethnic organizations which keep their music, dance and other art alive. Macy's focused on popular entertainment with several hip-hop artists, one of the stars of WICKED FOR GOOD, and other nationally popular artists. On the whole I preferred the Chicago parade. 

This NBC article has some interesting aspects. The author(s) say that attitudes toward higher education changed significantly starting about 20 years ago. My own attitudes changed slowly starting ten years before that. For the so-called GREATEST GENERATION a four-year degree was worthwhile. Many of them used the G.I. Bill to fund their educations. And those funds were available for both college and trade schools. My father used his to learn to maintain semi-truck engines though he soon found he preferred to drive rather working as a mechanic. All of the professors in the classes I took were Veterans and earned at least their bachelor's degrees through the V.A. A theme that ran through the article was that the respondents thought a college degree was too expensive for what people got was because students were not taught skill that would have prepared them for the labor market. I will ask a different question: could college programs have prepared students for modern work. I would say that they couldn't and don't for all too many students. They were geared for the economy of the 1950s not the economy of the 1980s or any time since. The economy has changed drastically and rapidly and the colleges haven't been good at turning on a dime to meet new needs. One could also ask if a lot of the programs should be offered in a college at all.

Bill Astore at BRACING VIEWS provides a good piece our military spending for your post-Thanksgiving reading: GUNS AS BUTTER. Economists often talk to the general public (or their intro ECON students) in terms of "guns vs. butter." But Astore notes that for the significant part of our economy guns are butter; spending on guns (and everything associated with them) are the butter of the military and its associated industries. And that sector is soaking up so much of the budget it limits the public access to butter (health care, food, education etc.).

November 24

Good morning. It is overcast so the sun promised by the weather people over the weekend has failed to arrive. My thermometer on the fence says the temperature is just above 50F but it certainly doesn't feel like it. I just cleaned out four pots of dead plants and moved the two from the front door to the back. That was enough garden work for today. I have some more cleanup planned but it wait til tomorrow or whenever. I decided that I won't put any pots by the front door. Our landlords insist on keeping the pampas grass (I think that is what the crap is) and I am tired of trying to keep it from falling into my flowers. The news this morning was about the same as it was on Saturday (and on Friday and on Thursday... .)

Ugo Bardi at THE SENECA EFFECT writes about "Global Dumbing: the Consequences." I don't have much faith in IQ test results. I read a bit about how they were developed and Bardi is entirely correct in saying that they were developed for Western peoples. I would go farther: they were developed by White, Western European men for White Western European men and if you aren't in that group you often don't test well. I have read even more on exactly how that works. And there were very early evidence that the level of education was a better indicator of how well a person would test than the results of the test indicating how well anyone would do academically. Those tests showed an increase in "intelligence" across generations. Immigrants scored low but their children scored higher and the grandchildren scored higher yet. The children and grandchildren had higher levels of education as well.

COP30 is winding down with so little accomplished that some question whether another should be held. I heard one report which said that meeting was better attended by the fossil fuels industry than by diplomats and climate scientists.They made sure that any proposals that would affect business as usual for them was removed. The next COP will be in Turkey, if it is held at all.

Well, something did move this morning. The judge who was hearing the Comey and James motions for dismissal of the cases because Halligan was illegally appointed to the office of prosecutor. The motions to dismiss on the grounds of "vindictive and selective prosecution" are still alive.

Stray thought: just this morning on BBC they featured the story of a very young boy who is suffering from Hunter's Syndrome which causes progressive physical and mental deterioration leading to death in the teenage years. His family went to England for gene therapy which has been in development for a couple of decades and which appears to have been successful in arresting and even reversing the symptoms. The only sad thing in the story is that his older brother is also suffering for the same condition but is too old for the trial. But just now MSNow has a segment on Tatiana Schlossberg's new article detailing her struggles with cancer culminating in her new diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia and her doctors' futile efforts to find a treatment. The mRNA research might have yielded a cure for the same condition but not in time for her. But the funds for that research has been terminated by her cousin, RFK, Jr.

The CITIZENS UNITED decision conferring on corporations the rights to use their money to express their political opinions has unleashed a plague of money on our politics. Robert Reich details a way states might erase the effects of the decision though not the decision itself. Corporations are fictional persons formed in states according to state law. The state approves the corporation and can regulate what it can and cannot spend money on and could bar the corporation from spending in political causes. After all physical persons are barred from spending on certain things at certain times. I can't buy beer, wine, and liquor before noon on Sundays. You can't legally donate to terrorist or criminal organizations. Whether you can place a bet on line (or at all) is regulated by the state you live in. Evidently Montana is introducing an initiative to regulate corporate participation in politics. That would be an interesting situation if it passes. 

November 22

Nice sunny morning. First for several days. It didn't always rain but it sure was gloomy. We are watching the soccer games and being lazy. I have washed dishes and cleaned up most of the kitchen--have a bit more to do during half times and the post game shows.

Affordability seems to be the watchword for politics now and Trump is trying very hard to claim it was his own. Unfortunately for him not many believe him. Yves Smith posted this on NAKED CAPITALISM which gives an indication of why. She cross-posted a COMMON DREAMS piece by Stephen which does a deeper dive into food prices that goes beyond Walmart's much touted Thanksgiving family meal which keeps the price down by reducing the number of components by one quarter and substituting lower priced house brands. Hey, Trump, we call that shrinkflation.

Another step in the evolution of THE UNITED STATES OF SURVEILLANCE. I wonder how long before they drop "land of the free" from the STAR SPANGLED BANNER. 

I found this article about rising rates of malnutrition and malnutrition related diseases in the UK which triggered my curiosity. A quick Google search yielded this article at USNews. The U.S. is experiencing similar conditions and increasing food insecurity. This report from the WHO indicates that food insecurity and malnutrition have reached levels not seen since 2008-9. Back in the 1980s the original "green revolution" aimed to reduced hunger by introducing new high yield crops and better farming methods. It seemed to work--at least for a while.

Just when you think you have seen the worst the Big BeautifulUgly Bill/Act included--you find there are even more nasty inclusions. According to CROOKS&LIARS, the (Formerly) Department of Education nursing is no longer a profession and post Bachelor's students won't qualify for all of the available loans designated "professions" would have received. I found other reports which claimed that the Department considers the new designation a cost cutting measure. But I also noticed that several of the re-labeled no longer professions are female dominated. Coincidence? I don't think so.

 Cloudy this morning and cool. The forecast has changed to say we won't see the sun for at least the next seven days. My fuzzy little stubborn "alarm clocks" annoyed me into feeding them about 2am. Then they started in again an hour later. They weren't happy when I ignored them for their mid-morning feeding til 9am. They still haven't adjusted to the time change. And I am sleep deprived. Oh, well.

Robert Reich makes a good point in his latest post. The CEOs of corporations like McDonalds complain the low and middle income people aren't patronizing them and their profits are falling but they are in fact part of their own problem. They pay low wages to front line workers which forces those workers to sign up for SNAP or other benefits to make up the shortfall. The CEOs "earn" hundreds of dollars more than their average workers but have been, with their corporations, of the Republicans reduction in their taxes. So we pay for the benefits for the lowest wage workers AND we pay for their tax breaks. Their workers don't earn enough to buy the goods they push across the counter to the few low and middle income patrons who are still coming through the door. (Confession here: I haven't patronized a McDonalds in eight years. That was the first time in over a decade before that and only because Mom and I were driving to Denver and couldn't find any other eatery open at the time. The food was incredibly disappointing.)

November 17, 18

 Good sunny mid-November day. Had a couple of errands this morning. Most intended to take us over next week and avoid the holiday shopping. But needed to go to Michaels for some solid color balls of crochet thread and a new winter wreath. I decided that I am not going to make any more wreaths. That has become more of a chore than a pleasure and I can do without it.

18**********************************************

Cloudy today with rain continuing, perhaps, for the next three or four. This is the time of the year when sunny conditions can be more of an irritant because the angle of the sun reflects off the table under the windows right into my eyes. That will happen again six months from now. Got the crochet thread and noticed how restricted the selections were. Almost all of it was in size 10. Luckily that matches most of the partials I have. But I found two old balls of size 30. I don't remember exactly when I got them but I guess they are more than 25 years old. I am planning on paring them with another thread for some project as yet undecided. Michaels used to have an 8 foot section of racks with threads sized from 3 through 30. Not any more. I have watched as the selections of materials for needlework has contracted. I gave up on needlepoint kits when the fashion shifted to long stitch which I hated at first sight. I remember when I began doing embroidery 60 years ago (when I was in my middle teens) I could walk into the local Ben Franklin Five and Dime (or any one of other such stores) and see full aisles of pre-stamped pieces from doilies to table cloths. And any kind of knitting and crocheting threads and yarns from lace weight to bulky. Again, no more. Mom and I have commented with sad amusement that no one sewed or did other needle crafts any more. Thankfully some do and I follow a number of crafting groups on Facebook and some of the work I see is incredible.

Major irritation over the last few days: pundits talking about Michelle Obama's comments about women in politics. She basically said that we, as a society, have a lot of growing up to do before we, again as a society, will elect a woman. A couple of the pundits tried to blame the female candidates who ran because they were "flawed." Exactly what flaws they exhibited the pundits didn't specify. Frankly that notion pisses me off. How many "flawed" male candidates have occupied the White House? UH--how about 47? And the most flawed is the current occupant who managed to be elected twice. It occurs to me that male plumbing makes up for any amount of character deficiencies in a man. And female plumbing erases any number of good qualities in a woman.

Random thought: it is interesting to see people like Marjory Taylor Green fighting with Donald Trump about what and who is MAGA. Some time ago, during Trump 1.0, some MAGA voters were claiming that MAGA wasn't Trump's creation or property. He managed to put a catchy title on MAGA and express a lot of the values of the "movement." But he wasn't inseparable from MAGA. Now some of the MAGA-verse is considering a divorce most explicitly over the Epstein scandal. The disillusionment may go deeper yet.