They said we didn't have much chance of rain today but by mid morning the slight chance became a certainty. So I have stayed inside. I got quite a bit of embroidery done and another two rows of my Catherine's Wheel stash buster lap afghan done. Checked all of the pots upstairs and watered those in need of water. We had planned on going to my brother's for dinner tomorrow (they celebrate Easter) but his son is home with the flu--part of the second wave of the season. Instead I will soak the big hibiscus and trim the rosemary. I plan to use the trimmings to make an alcohol tincture that I can spray on the furniture where the cats are clawing. They will hate me but we really don't want to replace any furniture--yet.

The lead article for this Bloomberg post strikes a chord with us. For several years at least once a year, we have had a discussion concerning health insurance and the price versus the benefits Mom gets. She has Medicare Parts A and B, and health insurance from her deceased husband's last employer which has a drug plan included. For years, looking at the cost of the coverage and the cost of the "services," including the drug plan, the equation came down on the side of keeping the insurance and paying the premium, which had been rising a bit at a time each year. Until a month ago when the equation shifted. She used to pay the monthly premium of about $115 plus the copay on her doctor's visits (every 6 months) plus the part of the cost of her drug (it used to be drugs but she is off all but one which is absolutely necessary) which was about $30 every three months. But CVS bought Aetna and suddenly her drug jumped from $30 to just over $100 because it was reclassified as a Tier 4 when it had been a Tier 3. The drug is a name brand but her doctor gave excellent reasons (when she asked) why a generic (which might be cheaper) simply wouldn't do. So now the equation has changed significantly. It becomes $115/month + doctor's copay + $106 every 3 months. Going without the insurance saves $345 over three months + the copay for office visits (every six months) which will cover the cost of the drugs, whatever Medicare won't pay for the doctor's visits, and the lab tests the doctor orders. What about unexpected illness, injury, whatever? We'll decide that on a case by case basis.

By the way, Bloomberg's editorial position is clear with the following

There’s plenty of evidence that having insurance is a good thing. People with health coverage spend less out of pocket on medical care and are less likely to go bankrupt. They see the doctor more often and get more preventive care. They’re less depressed and tell researchers they feel healthier. Some studies suggest having insurance reduces the likelihood of death.

People may spend less on average out of pocket but only if you don't count the premiums or the deductibles. They may see a doctor more often but I have seen studies that question the value of "preventative" care. The reports of feeling less depressed and healthier are just subjective reports that don't prove anything more than those particular people feel less depressed and healthier. As far as "reducing the likelihood of death" goes--that has a dubious value at our age (Mom at 86, me at 68) because at a certain point the likelihood of death will become the certainty of death. Bloomberg's writer is basically following, uncritically, the insurance industry's talking points.

I did get the seeds I wanted to plant done yesterday and transplanted the hibiscus cuttings. One is doing very well and was almost root bound. The other not so well but I transplanted it anyway. I put aside the sunflower and black-eyed Susan vine seeds for planting directly in the gardens in late May. Time to get the initial draft of the garden map going. (update on the garden map: I tried to start it but visualizing where everything will go is a bit of a struggle. I am taking out three large rectangular containers and one large pot. I will replace them with 5-gal buckets and a different arrangement of smaller pots. Because of all the changes I am going to get transplants from various sources for all except strawberries, tomatoes, and the other plants I have already started. I have no idea of what I will eventually have out there.)

We find articles like this and ask ourselves how long have humans been drinking coffee and now they want to label it as potentially carcinogenic. I seems to me that everything is carcinogenic in some sense. Do we really need to label everything we eat, drink, wear or otherwise come into contact with?

Isn't it interesting how the notion of "choice" masks the move to "privatization" and the looting of public funds to line private pockets? We have seen what "choice" means in the debate over education. Those who have the money can choose whatever education they want for their children: private school, charter school, or (horror) public school. Those who have less can try to get their kids into a charter school which picks the cream of the crop and rejects the rest. The rest of us are stuck with increasingly underfunded public schools. "Freedom is another word for nothing left to lose," as Janice Joplin sang and "Choice is another word for no choice at all for most of us." Yes, veterans' medical care needs to improve in a lot of ways but privatizing it isn't the answer because many veterans won't have the wherewithal to make a choice.

Showers overnight and more coming today. We have fog right now which isn't surprising since the ground is still cold and the air is saturated. Tomorrow should be cloudy but dry so I might try to clean up some more outside. I didn't sweep the patio but I did uncover the clematis. I don't know if it survived yet. We'll see if anything sprouts. I have seeds to start set out: peppers, perpetual spinach, and malabar spinach to start with.

The argument over sales taxes and internet merchants is heating up again. Amazon, of course, has become the poster demon for the issue. And, given the fiscal conditions in most states, every state wants to tap that revenue. It can be a complicated issue. In my state, only the state levies a sales tax and reciprocal agreements with nearby states if residents make large purchases in those states. But in one of those states residents pay city, county and state sales taxes. I can see Amazon and other on-line retailers being hit up by cities and counties for sales tax revenues if the states are allowed to do so. Consumers would pay the sales tax but also increased costs for their merchandise as Amazon would have to spend more on the infrastructure to comply: computer capacity, programers, people to track any changes in tax levels in any jurisdiction, record keeping for all jurisdictions, and whatever else I haven't thought of. Yeah, brick-and-mortar retailers have to do some of that but for only the local taxing entities not for 50 states, gods know how many counties and cities.

This could be interesting.

I have seen stories about cities experiencing "ransom-ware" attacks. This is from Atlanta six days and counting from the attack. Evidently the city IT systems were audited last summer and warned of significant vulnerabilities. They were addressing identified problems as they could. Given the strains all government budgets are under these days I wonder where the money is coming from. IT systems and services are not cheap.

This is interesting for its implications. For some months now I have been reading articles examining the possibility of a "guaranteed basic income." The discussion started in Europe and has come over here. Yesterday I read an article on a contrary possibility: a "guaranteed job." Both have one big problem: they rely on government funding which is precarious at best. We don't just overestimate the short term effects of technology while underestimating the long term effects we also overestimate the benefits while underestimating the disruptions. How often have we been told that automation and AI would produce as many jobs as are destroyed and that only the drudge jobs would be eliminated while more "creative" jobs would be created. Both contentions are problematic.

Cool this morning but we should hit mid to high 50s. I will see what I can clean up outside today. I should have soaked my malabar spinach seeds overnight but forgot so I will soak them tonight and start them tomorrow. We should have rain tomorrow and regularly for the next two weeks so I will have to take the good day here and there to work on the patio. Still a bit too cool but the soil in the containers was thawed enough to take out the shepherd's hooks. I had an idea of how I might arrange them outside the fence but nothing worked. I will try them in the five-gallon buckets this year. We didn't get much sun (so far) and rain is supposed to move in tonight and tomorrow. My next clear day is Friday.

I saw this almost first off this morning. Packaging seems to be the biggest part of our throw-aways. We carry our canvass bags unless we need small trash bags for the cats' box. During the summer when the farm market is open I recycle small supermarket bags I take with me for whatever I buy there. If all our stores went bagless we would shift to lunch-size paper bags for both the cats' box and grocery shopping. And smooth out and reuse the ones we use for grocery shopping.

Mom saw a reference to a similar story and I found this on Task and Purpose. Craptastic!! Now we know why the military was so favored in the spending bill that he says he signed under protest.

We had rain overnight and early this morning. We expect more and higher temperatures. Maybe--just maybe--things will thaw enough for me to get some work done in the gardens. I also need to sweep the patio because the dead leaves have piled up in various hard to reach (for me though not for the wind) spots. I checked a bit earlier and the top inch to inch-and-a-half of the soil is loose. May not sound like much but that is a big improvement.

Tom Englehardt has a good article this morning on an "All-American" cult of personality centered on, of course, #45. We have always been contemptuous of foreign cults of personality (as with Mao, Stalin, the Kims of N. Korea, etc.) but, over the time since #45 announced his run for the presidency, I have felt that we are traveling down our own road toward something all too similar.

When you combine the information in Englehardt's article with this one by Patrick Watson you have a truly depressing scene. We used to say "seeing is believing" and Missouri is famous as the "show me state," but how much of what we see can we believe. Worse, I wonder how much of what we see, though it may be "real," is really all that important or is it merely fluff (our version of "circuses") that serves to distract us from more important issues.

Our temperature is hovering around freezing but we should warm into the mid 40s. But the latest winter storm is in the neighborhood and we might get anything from clouds to a bit of snow depending on where it actually goes. I hope it stays well south and we get nothing more than clouds.

David Kaiser has a good post on television and our current political situation. His piece reminds me too painfully of three books I am slowly working my way through: Amusing Our Selves To Death, The Revolt of the Elites, and The Image. The last two I read two or three decades ago but they are worth a revisit. The third I only found recently. The trends the authors saw way back then are coming ripe and bearing terrifying fruit.

Another chilly day with sun. But they have changed the forecast and are no longer predicting snow. That system, I hope, will go south of us depending on exactly how it sets up. If the temperatures and rain show up as predicted (which the probably won't as changeable as out weather has been) I may be able to get some digging done late next week. And maybe some other stuff done as well

Well, "his" generals aren't working out too well it seems. McMaster is out and Bolton is in. I remember that idiot from when he was ambassador to the U.N. I wonder how much longer Kelly will be chief-of-staff.

Another installment of why our health care is (NOT) the best in the world.

Sunny but cold--again. I am so ready for enough warmth to thaw out my containers so I can start digging outside and get this seasons gardens set up. I found a couple of pots of the Rosella tomatoes have joined the Black Vernissage in sprouting. Now if only the Ox Hearts decide to sprout as well I will be happy.

I had heard about this story a bit ago. But the article has it wrong in one respect: this isn't the first such attack. Back in 2009-10 the United States and Israel joined forces to construct Stuxnet which they used to attack the Iranian nuclear production facilities. It was only a matter of time before someone decided to replicate that attack using perhaps a different computer "bomb." A character in a movie talked about developing a world-destroying technology and justified it by saying an enemy was developing it anyway so "we" did it first and better. Well, the U.S. government did it first in this case, so others will follow suit.

I constructed the spring wreath for the door yesterday and replaced the winter wreath. It didn't feel much like spring because, though the sun was bright all day, the wind was cold. I have a good bit more replacing to do in the gardens. I talked about the two containers that have cracked  but two more of the largest are also in sad shape. Both of them are in their, I think, third year which makes their deterioration a bit surprising. When I first started these gardens I used, mostly, found containers, often discarded plastic storage boxes. Over that time I added a few purchased containers of the same type because they were fairly cheap. The oldest ones lasted about five to six years before the plastic failed. The new ones are not nearly so well made. The storage boxes were a good idea because, as I said, they were cheap and they also provided a large space for the larger vegetables. I will replace them with five gallon buckets which are also cheap but are moveable which the others weren't when filled. On a positive note: four of my tomato seeds have definitely sprouted. All four of the Black Vernissage which were a freebee from Baker Creek. Maybe I will have another surprise when I check as I turn on the grow lights. (update: nothing else showing yet).

Another piece of history found.

Welcome to Spring--though it is hard to see it just yet. My patio gardens are still frozen. I can't get a garden fork into them much less a spade. Oh, well--on the bright side, I think I saw a couple of tomato seedlings popping out of the starting pots. I will double check a bit later. It is still quite early here--not a glimmer of sunlight. Our cats keep waking us around 3:30. Having done their "job" they are now sleeping again.

This is interesting.  As the article notes, the insurance is of the "catastrophic" type that pays out if a big destructive event occurs and doesn't cover more persistent and continuing damage that can, over time, be just as devastating. And the author quite correctly notes that most people can't justify spending time and money on something when benefit to them, personally, doesn't smack them in the face.

Grist says the interesting lawsuit pitting a couple of California cities against the five largest oil companies centering on climate change begins this week. They have an interesting analysis here.

Another entry in the pharma/medical "gouge the patient" games. I am floored by the $1500/month costs for a anti-fungal cream, by the auto-renewal of the prescription without consulting the patient, by the company raiding a Health Reimbursement account without authorization from the patient. Our healthsickcare system is totally out of wack.

Good morning on this day before the vernal equinox and the beginning of spring. I see the sun is just brushing the tops of my fence posts so my patio containers should be getting more sun and more warmth from the reflected sunlight off the fence.

Do you get the feeling that our world leaders are suffering from a testosterone overdose? I certainly do.

This is a perfect summary of the Florida bridge collapse:

Designed to withstand the biggest storms nature could throw at it, the structure couldn’t withstand a perfect storm of hasty planning, managerial incompetence, and human hubris.

 So, surprise!! Medicine still has a problem with inbuilt sexism. The article quoted once-upon-a-time Representative Pat Schroder saying "you fund what you fear" when it comes to what studies we choose (or our representatives choose for us) to study. And, I would add, you neglect to fund what you don't give a shit about.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all. We expect a wintery mix this morning. I keep hoping for more springlike weather to thaw my gardens. I want to start my peppers today along with some catnip and cat grass. We bought two pots of cat grass yesterday and discovered they really like it. Since they like it and the catnip I will grow them.

We made a quick trip to one of the garden supply stores yesterday to pick up some seed starting pots. I tried the toilet paper tubes for the second year and found them messy and disappointing. Last year I decided to be frugal to the extreme and cut the tubes in half before cutting and folding the bottom. They provided too little space for good root development. I used the full size tubes this year but a couple of the tubes came apart when the soil was moistened. I hadn't planted anything when it failed so no loss there. Just irritation at the mess. I did get four tubes planted with Ox Heart tomatoes before switching to the few pots of the 2" size I kept from my cleaning and purging efforts over the last month. I will keep the seedling pots I get this year for seed starting next year. If by some evil chance I can't get (or can't afford) whatever new pots I might need, I will go back to making the newspaper pots. They worked fairly well.

However, today I plan to get the third variety of tomato, the two cucumbers, and the eggplant started in the new pots which are biodegradable (I hope!!) and continue clearing the file cabinets of extraneous paper. I hope the temperatures will remain high enough to thaw the soil for the second time. The gardens were thawing out nicely with that heatwave we had when the temps reached the high 50s and low 60s for about a week but refroze quickly with the low temps and snow of the last couple of weeks. We picked up five new 5 gal. buckets along with the starting pots. Those will replace the 30 gal. tub that has split. I want to transfer the soil from it to the buckets directly and I need to be able to get a shovel into the soil to do that. I also want to move the shepherd's hook from the pots to try a new spot for them where they can be anchored to the fence. I hope it works. Again, I need softer ground to set the hooks in place.

John Feffer has a nice short fiction about how the #45-Kim summit might go, if it goes. Good for a chuckle.

I checked the soil in the gardens and it is all hard as ice. Frozen clear through. Oh, well--at least I can still dream of what will eventually go in them. I got all of the large plants seeds started. Just in case I started two more pots with Ox Heart tomatoes. For some reason my Ox Heart seeds failed last year. I have a nice selection of Vernissage tomatoes, Roselle tomatoes, Mitoyo eggplant. I knew I was forgetting something--I forgot to take out the peppers. I will get them done tomorrow.

Happy Pi Day everyone.

HuffPost put out a nice obituary for Stephen Hawking who died early today.

This is a court cast I will try to watch more closely. As the article says the science of climate change is settled. It is happening and has been for a while now. We can go back in the climate record and see what happened before and compare current conditions to that record. What isn't settled is exactly when changes will happen and how we will have to adjust. Perhaps that case will go the way this one has.

Mother Nature News has an article on the beneficial effects of "crafting." I can relate to the author's observation that her craft work improved her outlook and made her happy. Doing needle work always made me feel better even when everything else in my life seemed to be going down a black hole. The worst times were when that black hole seemed to suck all my time in and I wasn't doing any needlework.

Well, I'm back. Didn't see anything I really wanted to comment on or link to over the weekend. Sunday, of course, was a do-as-little-as-possible day because of the time change. I really, really, really do hate that and wish the whole thing would disappear. Yesterday was shopping and errands so little else was done.

I found this quirky little gem at Delancey Place. Fifty-five percent of the Korean population share five surnames and all trace back to a period 1400 years ago when the country was unified under one kingdom. By contrast--I looked up the most common English surnames in the U.S. and found that the top five occur in less than 5% of the population all together.

And in another quirky piece from Task and Purpose a few of the things we could provide for homeless veterans for the low-end-estimated cost of #45's ego-stroking military parade. This isn't about veterans or our country in general. It is solely about #45's vastly inflated ego and I, for one, am tired of the pandering. The whole idea is actually one step below my opinion of the "Thank you for your service" nonsense I have written about before. At least that bit of perfunctory, meaningless blather is cheaper.

Somehow, this story, also from Task and Purpose, doesn't surprise me. In fact, it reminds me of that flash-in-the-pan scandal over the contract to supply meals in Puerto Rico which was awarded to a company with only one employee (the owner) and a history of several government contracts cancelled for failure to fulfill those contracts.

Rude Pundit gets rude on Betsy De Vos who was totally incoherent on the 60 Minutes interview. I read excerpts of the interview and I rarely have ever seen such a thoroughly incoherent and unprepared interviewee. But, perhaps, that is why she is still Secretary of Education.

So--what am I reading today (3/8)?

Starting off with this piece on Tom Engehardt's blog.

*******************************************************

Well--it is now 3/9. I simply didn't get back to posting yesterday. Let's see what happens today.

It has been cold and icy with rain, freezing rain, and snow sometimes all at once it seemed. Winter is definitely reminding us it hasn't left yet. The temperatures have been just high enough that much of the ice and snow melted. At least we aren't out on the east coast. They are looking at a possible third nor'easter before completely digging out of the last two. I finally finished straightening up the all-purpose room--a good name for a storage/plant/sewing/whatnot room. I hope to start going through the file cabinet today.

David Kaiser recaps the last 13 years since he started his blog History Unfolding. Not a pretty account and not a hopeful prognosis.

It has been cold this morning. We had a sprinkling of snow overnight then a bit of rain by the time it was light enough to see outside followed by rain/snow mix then mostly snow finishing (as of now) with very light rain. Winter, it seems, has decided to remind us that it ain't out of here yet. I haven't yet begun to map out the gardens for this season which is probably just as well because my ideas have changed twice. Both times because the containers developed cracks. I plan to replace one with an arrangement of pots with a stool supporting some of them. The second I will replace with three 5-gal buckets. Both changes will make rearranging pots easier.

We had a nasty surprise when Mom got her prescription refilled. All the time we have been here the medication she still takes has never cost more that about $30 for her 90-day supply. This time is was a bit over $100. Thank you, Aetna; Thank you, CVS. She is considering options and, right now, those don't include either Aetna or CVS. Why the jump? CVS bought Aetna and moved her medication from a tier 3 to tier 4 which more than tripled her cost.

Ronni Bennett has a piece titled "Small Pleasures." Amen to almost all of it. Cat watching is particularly fun with two new young cats. A good book is always a pleasure but I think I am getting very picky nowadays. Too many fall into the "Not that again" file. Ice cream--of course!! I am not crazy about snow though. I don't have to go out driving in it but I do need to shovel it and clear off the car. One thing Ronni didn't mention: if we don't want to do something we generally don't have to do it.

We decided to check out a "natural foods" store we hadn't been in for a long time since our favorite had closed in December. We had a couple of very nice surprises: they instituted a loyalty program with discounts, they gave us a discount for using our own bags, and they are going bagless in next month. I would like to see this kind of packaging added to all our stores. And no we don't live in the Netherlands so that isn't our store.

Now for something a bit on the weird side. A plant that doesn't have chlorophyll and doesn't perform photosynthesis. It is mostly subterranean and only emerges for a short time to flower. The flower looks almost like a spider or insect.

Many years ago I was listening to the radio on a long drive and I heard the host of the show (sorry I have forgotten his name) talk about an old man in Australia who was one of the last two speakers of his aboriginal language. Though he longed to speak it with someone else he couldn't have spoken with the other surviving speaker who live in a nearby town. She was his sister and the taboos of his people prohibited direct communication between siblings of opposite sexes.  I thought it sad. I wonder how long before that story might be repeated in other places. Or how often it has been repeated since the original story.

I am used to seeing pictures like these and stories of fighting over what little is left over here but in the U.K.!!! I can't remember ever being so concerned about a storm that I rushed out to the supermarket to engage in guerrilla ops to get anything. Over the last few years we take mental not of what we have on hand and realize we don't have to worry. We either have what we need or work-arounds for whatever might run out. This op-ed deals with the fall out from the shortage of chicken that closed a lot of KFC shops across Britain recently.

Sporadic stories about the saline bag shortage most often attributed to the destruction of the production plant in Puerto Rico during the hurricane. This story from Naked Capitalism indicates the situation has been on-going for at least the last 4 years and is more the result of corporate greed in a part of the industry dominated by only three major players. And anyone who thinks this is an unusual situation is smoking something that is very bad for their brain.

It turned brightly sunny but quite cold. The weather report said it is 38F but it feels much cooler to me on the patio in the shadow of the house. The hibiscus seems to love the stronger light where it sits in the south window. So does the rosemary sitting next to it. Both are showing vigorous new growth. I don't expect much on the patio because it will be in shade until the solstice when the sun will reflect off the fence.We will get some reflected light sooner when the north east and north west corners get light early morning and late afternoon respectively.

The only bit of clean up I did today involved taking apart 2 pillows and unraveling the crochet work on the covers. I hate wasting thread or yarn so I recycle when I can. Those particular pieces of crochet started out as a bedspread but before I finished the bed I intended it for was gone and replaced by a much larger one. I continued just planning for more motif squares but was stymied by a divorce which took all my enthusiasm for that project (and a quilt) away. Bit of each have found their ways into other projects with plenty left for others also.

If this is the way trade policy is made we are in deep....trouble. While reading this article I described #45 as "petulant" and Mom questioned the descriptor. I told her that "bat-shit crazy" was more like what I had in mind but was trying to be somewhat polite.

Welcome to March. We woke to steady to heavy rain which isn't helping the flooding along our rivers and streams. The rain should help wash out any ice remaining in my containers. I got the planting area in our storage/planting/craft room cleared and in order so I can start seeds next week. I also got a bit more done clearing off the table so I can do something on it. Mom got a lot of the office supplies and other miscellaneous items sorted and arranged also. A little at a time and we are getting things done.

What I am reading today:

The new post at Tomdispatch. Remembering Chalmers Johnson and introducing the "blowback president." I don't think you need any guesses to figure out about whom he is writing.

We can add "pharmacy desert" to "food desert" to describe some city neighborhoods. This article deals with Chicago. Additional info: bus tickets run above $2 last I heard and they don't give transfers. That means Emma Washington, the elderly resident of Chicago's Chatham neighborhood, would have to spend $8 round trip three times a month to get her meds. I can remember times when that kind of expense would have broken my budget.

From the Guardian: kids entering school don't have the grip strength or dexterity to use pencils or pens effectively. I know of schools where the problem would not even be recognized because the kids use touch screens or keyboards from the beginning. Some can't even read cursive script. Though I have also read some encouraging stories of school districts bringing back cursive handwriting.

And for a bit of humor there is always The Onion.