February 27

It does look and feel like winter. We may have gotten the predicted 6 inches of snow. It is hard to tell because the temperature was just at the freezing point and the pavement was warm enough that we have a layer of slush (ice with the overnight low temps) under the surface of snow. It won't last long because the forecast predicts temperatures in the 40s and 50s (F) over the next week starting Saturday.

What ever the weather it is now time to plan the seed starting schedule. I have a pot of cat grass planted already and will start catnip today. Next week I plan to start indigo, woad, madder and woodruff. I will probably also start second pots of cat grass and catnip. Then I have a two week break before I have to plant the next six varieties of seeds.

I transplanted my second miniature rose into a slightly larger pot. I would love to be able to grow miniature roses as houseplants and so far the one I got last year has come back from several "near death" experiences. I put it outside on my potting table last year but the Japanese beetles attack and heat on the patio nearly killed it. I brought it inside where it began to recover but nearly fell victim to my cats who found it tasty and my own ignorance. Through all that it has come back yet again.

I have finished some of my needlework projects and started a couple of new ones. I finished one placemat in a crochet pattern I found in the latest issue of a magazine. I changed it a bit because the original was worked as a baby blanket in a medium worsted weight yarn with a fancy border. I used a fingering weight yarn and went with a simple double row of single crochet for the border. It was an interesting corner-to-corner design and I am always intrigued by c2c patterns. I finished my Bavarian stitch shawl which turned out rather nice. I saw a picture of a piece done in a reversible Tunisian stitch. I like Tunisian crochet but had never seen a reversible piece of work. I had to wait for the double ended hooks to arrive but they did a bit over a week ago so I put a new project on the hook. Yesterday I finished the cross-stitch table scarf project and started on the four napkins to match.

We watched about 20 minutes of the Democratic debate in S. Carolina before I turned it off. It was giving me a headache. The volume and the stridency were painful. And it was repetitive. The first, short lived, attack was Warren on Bernie Sanders then she switched to Bloomberg. Problem: it was so predictable: NDAs followed by "stop and frisk" with nothing new said. Warren had a good commentary on Bloomberg's defense of his record concerning women in the Iowa debate: "Notice what he did here. He said he has been nice to SOME women." She should have hit him with something similar on "stop and frisk": "Notice what he did here. He apologized for how the program went out of control but not FOR THE PROGRAM." In my (not) so humble opinion spiraling out of control was a feature not a bug. It also shows a weakness in Bloomberg who pundits describe as a "data guy." He accepted the data which indicated certain areas were hotbeds of crime, especially murder, and then he attacked the symptom without considering the causes. The worst part of the mess: Mom said, after I turned it off, "Trump's going to win." I hope not. But I am saving some of my resentment for the press which failed totally in all of these debates as both moderators and as reporters. They focused on the gotcha moments, baited the candidates into mudslinging exchanges, and failed, for the most part, to address policy issues. And when they did--it was superficial.

February 24

OMG--here it is--the last week of the second month of the year. These first couple of months of 2020 have been unusual weatherwise. It seems to be warmer and drier than "normal." We have had snow but the warm temps have melted it. The only snow left are the rapidly shrinking piles from shoveling or plowing earlier snow falls. I saw some dramatic pictures of an island off Antarctica which has lost significant ice and significant melt pools. The temperatures there were what Los Angeles would have expected. Abnormal seems to be our "new normal."

In 2016, the man who became #45 annoyed me almost to the point of swearing a blue streak at the slightest incentive--and I had a lot of incentives. This time it is the Damnocrats. I think it was Will Rogers who said "I don't belong to any organized party. I'm a Democrat." Well, this year they are proving their lack of organization. Example A: the clustersf**k in Iowa. Example B: the incomprehensible set up in Nevada. Example C: a leadership so determined to knock Bernie Sanders out of the nomination they change the rules so a multi-billionaire Johnny-come-lately can participate in the debates.

I am not sure there is much difference between an alleged billionaire who opportunistically turned from Democrat to Republican to run for president and a certified billionaire who opportunistically turns from Democrat to Republican to run for Mayor of New York City then tuns independent to run for a third term as mayor and has recently turned Democrat to run for president. There is one difference: one can never admit he is wrong and so never apologizes for anything while the other has apologized for some of his misdeeds though his apologies have left a lot of people (myself included) unconvinced.

I am also not sure there is much difference between a party that has become a sycophantic wholly own subsidiary of Trump, Inc. and a Democratic Party that is more focused on "defeating Trump" than on the underlying reasons #45 won in the first place and might win again. Neither party is focusing on the electorate and what people need. Buttigieg said in a press conference that we didn't need a new revolution which he says is Sanders' program but reformation of the system to make it more responsive. Problem: a system that works well only for the top 1% may need a revolution to make it work for the majority it leaves out.

Andrew Bacevich at Tom Dispatch provided a good take on the events of the past month. I have often over the last several years thought of Daniel Boorstin's The Image.

All those who bray loudly about the un-electability  of Bernie Sanders I suggest should remember the 1960 election when we were told no Catholic would ever be President----or 2016 when everyone was sure #45 would never make it to the Oval Office.

The COVID-19 has become a major story. I just read Ugo Bardi's piece on it this morning. Actually, he writes about the response rather than the virus itself.

February 8

Found this early this morning. For decades we have sent our garbage to developing countries. Now one of our territories is sending their waste to us. Another sign of our descent into banana republic status.

Reviewing the Boeing situation I thought of a parallel: Pharma. How often have we seen new drugs approved by the FDA, heavily advertised and then suddenly pulled because "after market" reports revealed consequential side effects? Quite often over the last 20 years. Industries of all kinds now consider customers to be guinea pigs. Companies make as much money as they until enough guinea pigs suffer spectacularly and then they pull the product--unless they can convince the regulators to decide that the worth of the product exceeds the worth of the guinea pigs.

Naked Capitalism posted this item today. Each time the current administration gets involved in anything I always ask who expects to profit to what extent and who will be hurt. But something else caught my attention: Greer's description of the so called experts reception of individuals describing their symptoms upon consuming MSG. Basically their testimonies were dismissed as imaginary, hysterical, not at all real. Politicians evidently have the same response to anyone claiming harm from projects and enterprises which benefits them or their true masters.

I live about 40 miles south of the time of Lake Michigan and have been seeing stories on our news outlets about the devastation the high lake water levels have caused this year. And the Illinois-Indiana shoreline isn't alone.

Australia is also experiencing flooding rains. On the one hand the rains is a welcome aid in extinguishing some of the wildfires. On the other, the fires came after a two-year drought which didn't help the ground absorb the massive amount of water On a similar note a blogger I follow who lives well south and east of us wrote about flooding that is worse than any they have seen in all the time she and her husband have lived on their property. They had to wade out through water topping their boots to get their buck goats to a drier area. They have never had the goat paddocks flood before.

February 7

We have in-and-out sun and on-and-off snow. Thankfully it isn't sub-zero cold. I have begun to take a look at my seeds and planning when to start them under the grow lights upstairs. Target date for starting that process is the second week of March.

Watching the Iowa situation and its failed app for delivering the vote tallies I suddenly had a semi-deja vu moment. It reminded me of the Boeing 737 Max failure: software no one tested thoroughly and inadequate training of the people who would be using it. At least Iowa wasn't a lethal failure. But in the back of my mind I can't help thinking that those failures are more significant and, evidently Ives Smith at Naked Capitalism thinks so also:

On one level, this is an illustration of America’s descent into banana republic status. Pundits and the media keep reinforcing American exceptionalist fantasies, our brand fumes of vaunted democracy, yet we can’t even run elections competently. Is is just the grifting, that introducing more tech creates more opportunities for vendor enrichment? Or is it yet more proof that a lot of people in charge really hate democracy and are at best indifferent to doing things right?

She labels the syndrome "elite incompetence." But it seems to permeate our society and economy. I suggest you read accounts of the problems with the F-35 which is the most complex and most expensive weapons system in history and doesn't adequately do any of the functions the military wanted it to do. Or the new Littoral Combat Ship line which has been a gold-plated problem from the beginning. Tom Englehardt recently posted a piece by William Astore which argues the Pentagon's real success is getting increasing funding in spite of a record of failure. I think he might be right. In the meantime our infrastructure is falling apart.

February 6

We are still waiting for the results of the Iowa caucuses. Though we don't know who the "real" winner is we do know who lost: Joe Biden. When he announced his run he was one of four candidates I wished hadn't or hoped wouldn't entered the race. The others are Sanders, Steyer, and Bloomberg. I really wanted a new person to rise up in politics and I don't think "businessman" is a qualification for political office.

I think John Feffer had an interesting summation of this past week at Foreign Policy In Focus:

I can't even imagine how people around the world view the United States these days. 

This week, the Senate voted to acquit Donald Trump of the two charges of impeachment after failing to call any additional witnesses, including those that could clearly corroborate some of the disputed issues. 

The president delivered a State of the Union address that, in its brazen factlessness, would not have been out of place in Moscow circa 1975 or Cairo circa 2019. The president failed to shake the hand of the speaker of the House, and she in return tore up his speech at the conclusion of his remarks.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party didn't need Russia to hack the Iowa caucus vote because it was fully capable of screwing up the vote by itself. 

To err is human -- to screw up on this scale is American.

That last is my emphasis. As far as the Repthuglicans, except Mitt Romney who may merit the title of Republican, I think of a line from The Vampire Lestat where Akasha tells Lestat that the people she killed "believe in nothing. Now they are nothing." They obviously don't believe, along with their Dear Leader, that an oath that ends "so help me God." means anything. I hope their future includes political non-existence.

John Michael Greer is back after taking January off and, as usual, has an interesting take on where we are and where we are going. His comments on the "death of expertise" hits a few chords. A long time ago we stopped listening to dietary advice after noting who supported the studies on which the advice was based. Exercise? Well, we tried that and a) we didn't much like doing the exercise and b) wound up with several muscle and joint strains that made things very painful and difficult. Most of the time the advice simply doesn't fit into lives we aren't willing to change to suit the advice. We have also stopped listening to advertising. Most ads fall into what we call the "cute but..." category. Cute but we don't want the item. Cute but we have tried similar "new" things that haven't worked as promised. And we remember too many products that were heavily advertised and turned out to be harmful. And as far as the "elites" go--they seem just too far removed from my lived reality. Experts want to tell us, for our own good of course (sarcasm), how we should live. We want to make decisions for ourselves.

February 5

Well, it's been a while. Since nothing much has changed so I haven't posted anything The last 48 hours hasn't changed much. The Senate is on course to extortion on the nation-state level using our tax dollars. HMMM--maybe we should start typing that as "senate" since they certainly don't deserve the dignity of an initial capital. Number 45 lied in almost every sentence, over stated all his dubious accomplishments, stage managed a "reset" of his re-election campaign masquerading as a "State of the Union," and Nancy Pelosi tore up her copy of his speech on camera. The last is, of course, getting the most coverage on the news media. Listening to the Repthuglican sycophants and toadies seem to think the office of President somehow erases the complete waste of human (sort of) flesh who occupies it. Sorry--it doesn't. I am also sorry the office has been tarnished by his occupation of it.

We still don't know who actually won in Iowa. I am not sure it matters since it is just the first of 50+ more contests before the convention. Margaret at Margaret and Helen has a perfect summary so I won't even try to amplify on it. Well, I will add one thing--the Iowa Democratic Party couldn't effectively organize an orgy in the local bordello.

So, instead I will sho some pictures of some of my own accomplishments.