Staying warm and inside.

The deep freeze continues but we should break into the low single digits today.  Wind chill will stay at or below zero.  The city got our streets (back and front) cleared mid-afternoon yesterday.  The snow removal crews got the parking area and the back sidewalks cleared but not the front walks.  I don't know if the mail was delivered.  I'm not complaining if it wasn't because I have no intention of going out to the mail box until the sidewalks in front are clear and I can get to the box reasonably easily.  I doubt there is anything of overwhelming importance anyway.

I am struck (again) about how removed from nature we are--until she slaps us in the face.  The highway patrols in Indiana had closed major highways to try to get them cleared and open but numerous drivers drove over or around the barriers.  And then got stuck and had to be rescued.  Officials are still urging us to remain off the roads today and inside.  We intend to do just that.

We seem to be split between excessive cold and excessive heat.  And Australia isn't the only place in the southern hemisphere.  I have read some jaw-dropping accounts from Argentina and Brazil.  Some of the pictures of high seas and flooding in eastern Britain are stunning.

The GOP has an empathy gap???  Ya think???  I have seen way too many "news" segments featuring either conservative politicians or pundits from conservative think tanks bemoaning things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and other so-called safety net programs as destroying the "moral" fiber of Americans (the poor particularly) remaking us into European socialist clones.  What I haven't heard from those moralizing assholes is any real program of how to break that system other than throwing away all the people depending on them.  What those idiots totally ignore is the fact that the vampiric capitalism we live with has failed a large number of people to varying degrees.  They also ignore the fact that while our social safety net may be detrimental to the moral character of the recipients, the extreme poverty that would result if those supports are withdrawn would be worse.