January 16-20--

Monday--

I think I started last week's post with "first Monday of the month." Ahhh, senior moments. It was actually the second Monday and this is the third. I won't complain about how fast the time is going by. So let's see what is interesting this third week of 2017--and, no, the inauguration is NOT interesting. I can't make any big statement about not watching it because I haven't watched any in the past.

Tuesday--

We had fog move in yesterday afternoon and evening followed by heavy rain intermittently late last night. At least the freezing rain missed us. I was glad not to share what the states west and south of us got.

Margaret and Helen has some very good points and echo a sentiment I have had ever since election day: I am an American and Trump was elected to the Presidency but he isn't my president and he doesn't either reflect me or speak for me. As for paying respect to the office I am reminded of an episode from my miss-spent youth when I was in Navy boot camp. One of the instructors heard a recruit (not me, in case you were thinking so) say that some officer or other she had the misfortune of meeting was not worthy of respect and she saluted the uniform not the person. The instructor threatened to hang up an officer's uniform and force everyone to salute it if that was how we felt. Though I didn't say it I agreed with my fellow recruit. Some officers weren't worth a bucked of warm...spit. However, others redeemed the position and were worthy of a salute. The Donald is not worthy and one can respect the office while having no use for the piece of crap who occupies it--for now. Some bloggers have promised they are going to wear black not just for inauguration day but for the whole of his term--in mourning.

Wednesday--

All of the seeds I ordered for this year are in. The Burpee order came yesterday. I will start the Patio Baby eggplant in the next couple of days. I will keep it under the grow lights upstairs. I also bought seeds for the Mitoyo eggplant but that I won't start until the end of March for planting outside. I am still waiting for the bare-root strawberries but those won't be shipped till the end of April. I noticed some nice fresh green on strawberries in the outside tower. I hope it survives. Same for the mums which are showing some green--not nearly as much as the strawberries.

Thursday--

John Michael Greer has another interesting post on the Archdruid Report. I don't like our (for another 24 hours) Bully-elect and didn't vote for him. I didn't much like Hillary Clinton but did vote for her only because I thought Trump so totally unacceptable. I am not really surprised at any of his proposed cabinet appointees, and I think the only difference between those and those Clinton would have appointed would have been superficial. We have a lot of problems that affect all people of whatever identity and I doubt that Trump's policies will help many of those (especially given the people with whom he has surrounded himself) will come up with solutions that will benefit more than the elites. I hope they manage to prove me wrong. And I would add that the politics of the past, whether of identity or of class, have failed us. We need a politics that gets us both greater social/political equality and more economic equality.

Friday--

David Kaiser has a historical parallel to Trump that most people wouldn't consider. Given where Kaiser Wilhelm II led his nation let's hope the parallel stops at an odious personality. I hope this isn't an indication of what is to come. A vision of the Red Square parades of the Soviet era and of Pyongyang's muscle flexing parades came to my mind on reading the headline. Larry Sabato provides an some historical context for what seems to our modern minds a strained transition from Obama to Trump. The phrase that permeated the second Battlestar Galactica comes to mind: All this has happened before and it will happen again.