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.