June 23

I don't have to water anything in the gardens today. We got a deluge of rain yesterday. Thankfully no damage from the high wind and hard driven rain though it did lay my pepper down. I put in a stake and tied it back up since it wasn't actually broken. I staked the tomato yesterday to keep it away from the morning glories that are reaching for the trellis. I found two rose buds opening up and another two buds developing.

Food for thought: Andrew Bacevich at Tomdispatch.

#45 insists that the statues coming down are part of "our magnificent heritage." Unfortunately, the heritage he honors is basically a whitewash of history. Women, enslaved Africans, Native peoples, hispanic Americans and so many others are whitewashed out of existence. Infidel753 makes the case for keeping the monuments but insisting the full story be told. Yes, Andrew Jackson was a president but he also refused to enforce a Supreme Court ruling against Georgia's removal of the Cherokee and he did own slaves. We aren't responsible for our history but we are the beneficiaries of it and it is time to acknowledge that not all of us benefited (or were harmed) to the same extent. It is also time to honestly acknowledge that our leaders (in all aspects of our society) have and have had both flaws and virtues. Nor should the failings erase the good that had been done.

Another story for the "Anyone Who Thinks It Will All Return To Normal Post-Covid" file" from Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism.  Many cities were still feeling the effects of the Great Recession ten years ago. Some had begun to dig their way out of the financial morass but are now back in the soup because of Covid. States are in similar straits. Some are betting on the Federal legislature to come up with a "bailout" package but I wouldn't take that bet at least until we see what is going to happen in the election coming up.

Some more food for thought on the food industry. I don't know how many people remember Nixon's Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz who told farmers in the early 1970s to "get big or get out" but it seems we are experiencing the downside of that philosophy. 

June 22

Well, Tulsa was a bit of a bust for #45 and the blame game on. No, I didn't watch. I can't stand sight or sound of him especially when he is on full whine as the commentators have described. I have much better things to do like pet my cats, admire the rose blooming in the gardens, staking my tomato and training the marigolds onto the trellises. I also noticed that the creeping Jenny has some pretty yellow flowers opening up.

One of the gardening bloggers I follow noticed, as I had, how time this year seems to be an indistinguishable lump. We were looking at the calender trying to figure out when we need to go and get her lab work done for her upcoming doctor's appointment. She felt like it was both a week later and three weeks earlier than it is. She doesn't need to get her lab work until next week and we voted three weeks ago. Days pass and they all seem to blend.

Not seeing much else I want to comment on. Bye for now.

June 20--Welcome to Summer

This month has felt like summer with many more days with temperatures above normal. I think we touched 90F yesterday and should get to almost the same temp today before the showers come in. I checked the containers in the garden and they had plenty of moisture so I decided not to water--at least for now. I harvested basil, sage, rosemary and spearmint yesterday. All that is now dry and waiting for me to put it in jars. I noticed that the tomato, pepper, and sunflowers should be staked so that is my list for tomorrow--if the rain doesn't extend into tomorrow.

What I am reading today:

John Mauldin's Thoughts From The Frontline. Basically, this post outlines where Mauldin thinks we are and where he thinks we are going. For the most part, his thoughts agree with mine on our current situation except mine are a bit gloomier. I think the timeline to "recovery" (however you want to define it) will be a lot longer and some of us won't recover.

The New York Times posted this piece which declares climate change may just spell the end of the 30-year mortgage. I would say that it is just another nail in that coffin. The uncertain job market of the last 20 years or so, the greater mobility of the more affluent segments of the labor force who can work from anywhere they have a good internet connection, and other factors also enter into the discussion. It is interesting that the insurance industry is holding the hammer. But when changes affect profitability business takes notice and action quickly.

I have stopped asking if #45's administration can sink to a new low on any measure. This is another new low. His middle initial should be I--for Incompetence. Works for Imbecile, Insensitive, Ignorant, Idiot as well.

June 18

It has been a quiet few days here though not so much in the wider country or the world. We evidently had some demonstrations here but none in any places we usually go. We did visit the summer market but didn't find anything we wanted. It is still too early for local tomatoes. I did find three little cherry tomatoes on my single plant so we have some hopes for a few of our own. Most people wore masks and the venders had to make sure to limit how many customers were allowed under their tents at any given time. The supermarkets, which we visited Monday for our usual shopping, had opened up both doors for both entry and exit, and were no longer counting customers to ensure they were adhering to the capacity limitations. Somewhat more than half of the customers in both stores were wearing masks and the signs designating the direction of travel along the aisles had been removed. The new cases of COVID-19 in my state have been at a steady level for a couple of weeks, neither increasing nor decreasing. At least as of my last visit to the site giving the statistics.

Tom Englehardt has a good post. He usually says things I am thinking but far more eloquently. In this case he provides a comprehensive obituary on the American Century.

I love this--the second rebuff of the #45 Administration this week. It wasn't as big a victory as it might have been since it only ruled that the Administration had not given sufficient justification for ending DACA.

Well, #45's (in)Justice Department has asked the courts to stop publication of John Bolton's book after it has already been shipped to news outlets and bookstores worldwide. I won't link because it is all over the news. The move seems "a day late and a dollar short" like so much else with this worthless excuse for a government. Our pale imitation of the Sun King believes that anything he says to advisors is a state secret. L'estate c'est moi. No, I won't buy it or read it. The media is giving enough excerpts and it only confirms what I concluded a long time ago: the alleged man is a complete waste of allegedly human flesh.

Jan in San Fran at Can it Happen Here  uses an interesting term taken from a writer she follows: omni-crisis. Articles she quotes note that construction, though coming back from abysmal levels, is still only 58% of the pre-pandemic levels. while residential rental properties are sprouting "For Rent" signs and small businesses haven't seen business pick up and may not be able to hang on for the end of the pandemic, and the protests over the recent police murders of blacks have all combined to create an environment unlike any we have seen before. And, as she points out, we have elections coming. Omni-crisis seems a good description.

Ives Smith has a good article that should throw some ice water on #45's notions that the economy will come roaring back. It won't. The only reason that the economists will declare the depression we entered in March (or maybe February) over is that the numbers will show an increase from a very low level. It won't be normal in any way, shape, or form. 

June 10

We have the tail end of Christobol passing today. It started to come through yesterday afternoon with hard rain and very strong winds. I was a bit worried about the gardens but none of the tall plants and vines are high enough to be badly affected and all of the recently emergent seedlings came through just fine. I had thought to harvest some peppermint and spearmint but I will put that off till tomorrow. We went out for an unscheduled shopping trip yesterday (before the storm) because Mom needed some new slippers--her's are falling apart. We strolled through Walmart, a store we normally don't frequent, and Target, which we do shop at on occasion. The Walmart stop was fortuitous not for the slippers, which it they didn't have, but because they had a sale on sleep t-shirts in both our sizes. Our old ones are falling apart and we couldn't find replacements that weren't absurdly expensive. It was also just as well we stopped at Target though they didn't have the slippers we wanted either. We forgot to get the large size tea bags we wanted at Walmart but Target had them. Summer is here so we will be making tea by the gallon for iced tea.

Both stores had traffic controls (designated entry and exit doors, traffic arrows for one way aisles, and employees making sure the number of customers didn't exceed the allowed maximum) and a majority of customers wore masks as did all the employees. I did notice a sign in Target which told customers not handle the merchandise or try anything on. I didn't see such a sign at Walmart. I am at the point though that anything we can't try on we aren't going to buy. I have been burned too many times in the last few years by buying something labeled in my size only to find it didn't fit when I got it home. Target had a sign at the entrance noting items they were short of or even out of. Most of those items were cleaning/disinfecting supplies.

A random thought about the handling of the pandemic: all the advice from the experts fail to take into account human nature and social/economic realities of our lives. In a society/economy when a large majority of people don't even have $400 cash reserve for an emergency, most of us can't afford to be out of work for two weeks much less two months (or longer). Schools and daycares shut down leaving parents scrambling for child care. And many of those parents worked in low income jobs which suddenly were deemed "essential" and faced the likelihood of being terminated if they took off to take care of the kids. And people are social creatures for whom isolation is something akin to torture. Little wonder then that some protested the stay-at-home orders.

Random thought about the effects of the pandemic: I have seen a number of stories about what actions/habits people intend to maintain when the pandemic is over. I will let you look those up if you want to. Thinking about it I realize that we haven't really changed our patterns much at all. We will probably keep wearing some kind of face covering. Given our ages a bad case of the flu would not be a good thing and masks would be as much protection (for ourselves and others) against regular flu as against coronavirus.

June 8

I got a whole lot of transplanting done yesterday. The last of the polka dot plants are in place. I thought I had six plants but didn't realize that what I picked up was two 8 packs. Oh well, all are in and seem happy. Most of the transplants I started had good root systems but the soft pack fell apart when I took them out of the pots. Thankfully, all of the plants are doing well, so far. I still have some seeds so I might directly plant some of those. It is already warm outside so I didn't do any gardening today other than looking at what I put in yesterday and cutting some grass that was growing under the fence that the mowers never seem to get at. We expect temps in there low 90sF with possible rain later on and over night.

David Kaiser at History Unfolding has an interesting post on governmental models and where #45 fits in. (Spoiler alert: he doesn't) I have been skeptical of the "rational actor" model even before I knew there was a name for it at least since the Nixon administration. He was famous for presenting himself as an over-the-top person who might do something insane. Also the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) policy of nuclear deterrence assumed that, of course, nobody really wants a nuclear war. Basically that all the parties are a) rational and b) rational in the same way. I always asked (and not at all silently) what happens if some leader decides "WTF! I figure that my people will be the majority of the survivors and will rule whatever comes after" or "Fine! I will obliterate the world and let my God sort out the dead souls." Either leader would be entirely rational by his/her lights. By the way I don't believe that the Homo Economics so beloved of economists is entirely rational either. If humans were rational economic actors propaganda and advertising wouldn't work so well.

William Astore at Tomdispatch also has a good post today. I have noticed the tendency to describe our military as "warriors" and wondered why it has become so pronounced. Why isn't the simple designation "soldier" enough. To go along with that, I have been bemused by the overuse of the term "hero" lately. And I have been very concerned by the militarization of the police that seems to go along with a "shoot first, ask questions later (if at all)" attitude. Someone this weekend who was interviewed on one of the news shows on TV noted in the discussion of police violence a phrase that "if all you have is a hammer, all problems look like nails." We have militarized out police so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that they have behaving as an occupying army.

June 6

We have a hard enough time remembering what day of the week it is much less anything more significant. It passed right over my consciousness this morning when MSNBC had a retrospective piece with Tom Brokaw on the 76th anniversary of D-Day that today was, indeed, June 6. I have seen a number of bloggers and commentators noting that over the last 3 or 4 months one days is so much like another that one does lose track. The only things that have stood out to mark days has been Election Day and doctor's appointments. Otherwise things are fluid.

I had a bemused thought this morning about how little we really know for sure about the SARS-Cov2 virus (a.k.a., Covid-19). We really don't know for sure how many people have it, have had it, have recovered from it, or have died from it. We don't know for sure how long it was circulating in communities before the first recognized cases or deaths. There was also a curious question of whether people died but had co-morbidities could properly be said to have died from Covid or with Covid, or even why that mattered except to politicians who wanted the Covid death count to be as low as possible. A lot of people with those underlying conditions might have lived another 10, 20, or 30+ years but Covid killed them first. Then there was the question of whether hydroxychloroquine was effective, ineffective, or possibly dangerous either way. There is no definitive, uncontroversial study as of this moment with respect to Covid. Over the last few days I have seen one series of articles in which researchers say the virus is mutating into a less infectious and lethal form and another series just yesterday and set of stories today which says neither is true--it isn't mutating and isn't declining in lethal effect. I read all studies and pronouncements now with a "wait and see" skepticism.

The writer of May Dreams Gardens is enthusiastically hoping that we are really seeing a new "golden age" of gardening. Perhaps. Then again, perhaps not. I was also surprised at the number of seed suppliers I normally deal with that had to temporarily stop taking orders because the demand had depleted their stocks. I visited one this morning to see about seedlings but found they were having problems keeping up with the orders. I did see the seeds in our local supermarket had already been picked over by mid May. I didn't really need any more seeds because my orders were sent in shortly after January 1. I have several pots waiting to be set out. One blogger I like to follow had sworn off veggie gardening last year for the same reason I swore not to plant veggies this year: the weather is so chancy that I seemed to get very little for all my work. The herbs and flowers do better for me. But this year the blogger decided to go back to veggies because of the supply chain disruptions thanks to the pandemic and I decided to plant one tomato and one pepper. Only one of each. But then we noticed that three churches which had once had thriving community gardens were reducing their allotments. One eliminated the gardens all together. Those churches may have older congregations whose members are not feeling up to the work, or members whose jobs still demanded their physical presence, or they may have had increased child care responsibilities with the schools closed. Some people may be taking a new interest (or renewed interest) in gardening while others find they simply can't fit it into their new normal.

June 4

Overcast today and we may get rain. The rain from yesterday didn't amount to much so I was glad I watered the plants. I may need to do that again tomorrow. I had thought I would turn off the air and open the doors but it is so humid outside I decided not to.

We went to the dairy today as we always do when our milk runs low. They are still short on some things. Today they were out of the 2# rolls of butter and had no meat at all. The owner was waiting for his supplier to call to tell him his order was ready. We also went to our local meat market since we were out or nearly out of some items we consider staples. They had several gaps on their shelves and the prices have gone up. We liked the turkey tenders but they had none at all. They also had signs limiting certain high demand items (ground beef and boneless/skinless chicken breasts for example). We didn't need chicken and we only wanted 5# of ground beef which didn't exceed the limits. I hope the prices will come back down but I don't really expect them to.

June 3

I have a brief time before we are supposed to get rain. Thankfully the predicted temperatures should be cooler than the 90+F we had yesterday. I went out to water things and to plant another 3 buckets with convolvulus, Hopi black dye sunflowers, and chocolate morning glories. (update: we now have a light rain)

We went out to vote yesterday and did our major shopping. We could have gotten a mail in ballot but we were curious about how things would go though Indiana has eased the pandemic restrictions. A lot of people either decided to skip the primaries or did vote by mail. Everyone was making sure of their distance but there were no lines so it really didn't matter. All the poll workers had their masks though their seats were not 6 ft apart. Our system is a combination of electronic and paper. They scan your ID, have you sign on the capture screen, and then print out a blank ballot which you take to the voting machine. After you insert the ballot and make your choices it prints the ballot and you take it to the reader which tabulates the votes. If any of the results are challenged they can pull out the paper ballots for confirmation.

We made a stop at the city open-air market but arrived way too early. Some venders were just setting up. We checked the hours but a late change cut the time from the announced 8-2 to 9-1. Since no one had tomatoes yet we scanned the set up and went on to finish shopping at our usual supermarket. The rules on masks were never all that stringent and only about 25-30% of shoppers were wearing them. We were. We plan to go back to the market Saturday which has always been the more active day.