Saturday--

Our mini-heatwave continues. They say we hit 93F yesterday and we can expect the same today. The temperatures should break much lower tomorrow. I harvested a bit of lavender and spearmint which is now dry and ready to be ground. I need to water things today even though we have a chance of storms later this afternoon or evening.

David Kaiser has another good post this morning. The politics of identity have been pushed to absurdity. But is there such a thing as an "American?" Like Kaiser I don't really have a tribe to return to or relate to. The only identity I have is American and I have the increasingly uneasy sense that somehow someone somewhere is trying to write me out of it. My American tribe isn't well represented by Donald Trump--or by Hillary Clinton--or by most other so-called leaders. The image in the mirror is more and more distorted as time goes on. The fun house is becoming the mad house.

Sunday--

The temperature reached 93 again yesterday. Today though is starting very cool and won't (they say) get above the mid 70s. I picked up a few fill in plants and will plant them today. I think the rain bypassed us if it developed at all.

Homestead Dreamer has a good article on The Epidemic of American Food Ignorance. I agree with everything she said.

The fact I find interesting about this situation isn't that the SNAP benefits card system has been restored. Rather it is that this is the first mainstream media story I have seen on the outage. All of the info on the outage itself while the system was down for several days came from alternative news sources. The failure hit 17 states including Illinois and California and yet the news media ignored it--until it was over. Almost every morning for some while now I will remark that "we should turn on the TV and see what news they aren't telling us."

Most of us have heard by now of the horrendous massacre of 50 (at last count) people at a gay nightclub with more than fifty wounded. Infidel753 has a couple of remarks on the story which I think hit same nails on the head. First, the assassin had no criminal record, was a security guard and had a license for firearms. He asked what kind of "common sense" restrictions on gun ownership would have made any kind of difference in this case--unless you define "common sense" as out right confiscation of firearms from everyone. My biggest disagreement with the anti-gun activists (which by no means indicates I support the NRA) is their tendency to blame the tool not the asshole who misuses it. Second, there is a tinge of hypocrisy (maybe more than a tinge) in the Repthuglicans who are "praying" for the victims when they are ardent gay-bashers. Their prayers mean less than shit.