Monday--June 5

Well, let's see what I might like to comment on today. I can report that the gardens are doing nicely. I added three "hens and chicks", a pot of arugula and some lemon mint. The hibiscus had a new blossom over the weekend. The clematis and beans have found their respective trellises and are rapidly heading upward. All of the cucumber seeds I put in the garden have sprouted and look poised for a growth spurt. All tomatoes are looking good. I put up a shade for the two that looked a bit sunburned and they have come back well. I pruned some of the leaves that were interfering with other parts of the plants and the patio eggplants. I plan to harvest some spearmint and a little of several other herbs for drying. I am still looking for small plants to tuck here and there where I still have room.

The spearmint is in the dehydrator--four trays of it. I hadn't expected that much so I won't have to fill a tray with sprigs of other herbs. They can grow a bit more. I also ground up egg shells to make about two cups of "slow-release calcium" as one gardening blogger calls it.

I hadn't intended to comment on this Kunstler piece but changed my mind. Key point #1: Putin asking "Have you all lost your mind?" I agree with Kunstler that we have and I would say that we have been slowly going insane for while. Is there such a thing as communal Alzheimer's? It feels like it. And the Russia "controversy" isn't the only part of our politics that convinces me of that. Somewhere I heard that Putin also remarked that the U.S. has frequently interfered with the elections of other countries--a remark backed up by this Washington Post article (and any good history of U.S. foreign affairs). As Kunstler points out we don't need Russia to ignite the "groaning garbage barge" that is our domestic environment We are doing a good job of that ourselves. Key point #2: I agree that the Paris accord was more of an "ass-covering" exercise than a real substantive effort to mitigate climate change. I have wondered whether we could do much since I first started following the controversy. At that time (20 years ago) we were told that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had to be kept below 350ppm. Well, I looked up the statistics. Guess what? We passed that mark in 1985. The real value of the Paris agreement was as a symbol which we shouldn't sneeze at. Symbols can be important and it provides another rallying point in the resistance to the catastrophe that is President #45. Key point #3: #45 is definitely not going to "Make America Great Again" in terms that would satisfy his supporters. We won't see the nirvana of the 1950's manufacturing age recreated. For all the reasons Kunstler has outlined in his several books.

If we aren't actually going insane then perhaps the real problem is a "sickness of the soul." This piece counts the ways such a diagnosis fits--and there are a lot of then.