September 29

We have some rain and I am glad because it is much needed. I was thinking of watering the gardens but won't have to for a bit. It is also getting cooler again. I am also glad of that. Hot weather and I simply don't go well together any more. It had been so dry I almost lost the mums I put out front for some autumnal color. I thought when I checked them they were fine but next morning they were wilting badly. I watered them well and yesterday transplanted one to an empty container after pulling the marigolds and pepper that were pretty well spent. I hope it will survive the winter and come back next spring.

My brother came by Saturday with a large bag of crochet thread and a larger bag of yarn. Yesterday I quickly pulled out the full skeins and filled one of my storage boxes with them. Then I started winding the partials into balls. I am about half done and have a large bag filled with those and another bag, a little smaller, yet to go. I think someone had gathered that yarn however they could and packed it in that bag. I had to work to untangle and unknot several. But I have quite a nice bit of yarn to work with now of all weights except the bulky. Brother likes to visit estate sales and anytime he can come up with that kind of windfall I will gladly take care of it. He got it all for $10.

I saw a lot about the possibility outlined in a New Yorker magazine article last week that the Republicans might try to persuade those swing state legislators where the legislature to invalidate the vote if #45 loses and give him the electoral votes anyway. David Kaiser has an analysis of the laws in question and has come up with an interesting conclusion.

Ah--the story of the day...again! A post on Facebook this morning read: Story of the Day--ABC, his taxes; NBC, his taxes; CNN, his taxes; FOX, Hearty Soup Recipes; Hearty Soup Recipe Channel, his taxes. 

 September 23

Almost the first thing I saw this morning was a link to this LA Times article "Why Paul Simon's 'American  Tune is the anthem for our troubled nation." I honestly didn't remember the song and looked it up. Oh, yes! It is the perfect song for our times. And a reminder that we have had similar times before.

September 25

I got to reading yesterday and completely forgot to come back here. Just as well because I didn't have any thoughts to post on anything. In case you are wondering I read The Case of the Lazy Lover, a Perry Mason mystery by Earl Stanley Gardner.

I managed to solve a mystery that has been nagging at me all summer. I had two plants I thought were Japanese indigo but they didn't match any of the descriptions or pictures I found. One was in the middle of a stand of indigo that matched perfectly and were exactly where I planted the seeds. But what the hell was the other. Well, I finally figured out how to take a picture of it on the laptop. Here it is:

I found a free plant id site and it gave me a list of possibles but none matched what I had planted. Well, none I had planted this year. It happens to be Malabar spinach which I planted last year but failed to germinate. Since it is a warm climate plant I think I must have some how gotten a couple of seeds from last year mixed in with the indigo. I will try it again next year now that I know it will grow as an annual here. It is supposed to be a good salad green and a good substitute for real spinach.

I have been looking for heat tolerant plants for the last few years. Our patio, with its white fence all around, becomes an oven that concentrates heat. The official temperature might be 85F but the temperature on the patio in the sun reads 95F or more. My cool season doesn't last long and most of the traditional greens will bolt before we get to enjoy them. I am also considering some shade loving plants for the autumn because after the autumnal equinox the entire patio is in shade.

I love the Lincoln Project ads. (Note: I got to this one by way of Crooks & Liars.) I will admit part of it is I despise #45; but I am getting very tired of the "business as usual" stance of both sides. Biden wasn't my first (or second, or ... tenth) choice but given the (insert your favorite epithet here) I will vote for him.

 September 21

As several other blogs have posted over the weekend: RIP (power or peace) RBG

My first reaction: Can 2020 get any more F*$#ed up? Well, it can. The shameless, power hungry Repthuglicans might ram through a reactionary activist judge forgetting all their pledges that if an opening on the Supreme Court came up in the last year of #45's first term they would not confirm a replacement until after the next inauguration. The "Party of Lincoln" is dead. Or, even worse, #45 might be re-elected.

I was outraged and angry when the Orange Idiot was elected in 2016. Now, I am incredibly sad and, somewhat, philosophical. Things are changing and have been for a while now. It isn't a though such drastic changes haven't happened before. The adoption of the Constitution in 1789 changed our government dramatically. The westward movement changed attitudes toward slavery and the strains on our government resulted in the Civil War and more changes. I could go on but it isn't necessary. One of Heinlein's curmudgeonly characters in a future time (I forget which one) said that the United States had gone from a representative republic (with, I would add, a very narrow representation), to a broad democracy, to an oligarchy to a dictatorship and back and forth in the list without ever changing its Constitutional framework. But I would also caution all those gleeful Repthuglicans to be careful what they wish for--they might get way more than they bargain for.

Reading today:

    Tom Englehardt at TomDispatch: A Vote For the Apocalypse.

September 20

Welcome to Fall🍂

It has been getting more and more autumnal for the last couple of weeks--since the heat broke and nights started dropping into the low 50s and 40s. I think the trees were just waiting for that because they have been turning colors--nothing close to full glory which is about two to three weeks away. The shadow of the house is almost at the top of the fence which it does around each solstice. It has me thinking about looking at shade loving plants for a fall garden next year. At the summer equinox there is almost no shade at all in the gardens except for a small strip near the house itself so all those plants have to be sun loving and very heat tolerant. I will have to think about that and do some research.

Reading today:

    Andrea Mazzarino on TomDispatch: War Zone America? When a military couple worry about a possible new civil war here, maybe we should all be worried.

    Ben Hunt at Epsilon Theory: The Welding Shut of the American Mind. Some interesting points here and has me thinking I should re-read The Closing of the American Mind which I didn't like much when I first read it a couple of decades ago.

 September 17

Cool right now. Waiting to see if we will get sun. It has been trying but not enthusiastically. I would like to clean out at least some of the shed today but not if I will get rained on.

It is nice to have a bit of humor this early in the morning. Thank you, Margaret and Helen.

John Feffer at Foreign Policy In Focus: Trump's Scorched Earth Doctrine. We have our doubts about how anyone who comes after #45 whenever he goes wherever will repair the damage he has done and will do. We will be living with this chaos for a long time--probably long enough for some of it to feel "normal."

September 18

More reading:

On Naked Capitalism: Thousands of New York "Long Haulers" Struggle with COVID-19 Months After Diagnosis. I have seen similar account but only rarely. They don't seem to make the news.

September 19

Though not exactly unexpected, was sad to hear about the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The announcement had hardly been made when Moscow Mitch insisted the Senate will vote on whichever candidate #45 nominates. Someone had it right this morning when they said that all Repthuglicans care about is power and Damnocrats had better start cultivating the same attitude. Or perhaps we, the voters should reduce both parties to minority status and support some new ones.

I have been busy cleaning out my shed and the gardening supplies. The weather is finally cool enough to make that pleasant. I don't know how cool it got outside last night but we down to about 69 inside. Time to break out the flannel nightgowns and sweats. I also took all of the gardening stuff out of the whatnot room since I won't be starting plants inside anymore.

Anyone who thinks we have "rounded the corner" on COVID is as delusional as #45. This is what is happening in Europe. And we have idiots traipsing around stores urging people to take off their masks. We shopped at three stores yesterday and everyone, including us, was wearing masks.

Ah, yes. The "new normal." We haven't had to wait in lines except at the checkout stands and we haven't visited the library even when we could have used curb side pick up.

It has been an active hurricane season and we have a month and a half to go yet. Possibly two months if hurricanes form after the traditional close of the season on November 1. We are two names into the Greek alphabet having exhausted the English list for the year.You can get more info here. Bloomberg has a piece on our horrible year of natural disaster.

 September 15

Really cool this morning but a welcome change from the heat. I haven't had a productive day so far. Only spent half an hour on the tablecloth on the embroider frame. I switched to a small crochet doily but realized near the last row that I had made a serious mistake on the second row and had to unravel it back to the beginning. The rest of the day won't be much more productive because we are waiting for a call from the auto shop that the car is done and ready for us to pick up. It went in yesterday primarily to fix a problem with the turn signals but they found a problem with the sway bars.

Reading today:

    Rusty Guinn at Epsilon Theory: The Projection Racket (part 1). How people lose their freedoms and we are well along the way.

    Treehugger: I Have Seen the Restaurant of the Future, and It Scares Me. I haven't been in a Burger King or McDonalds in 13 years (since I last had a job). We stopped going to the KFC about the same time and haven't visited a Steak 'n' Shake in at least five years--not even for their shakes. Depending on what happens with the economy and covid we may not even go to a sit down restaurant. We haven't been to one of them since January.

Mattea Kramer at TomDispatch: Isolation and Opioids During the Pandemic. Some months ago the Guardian had an article about "shit-life syndrome" and the upswing in both addiction and suicide. I looks like life has become shittier for many on the bottom. The last sentences are depressing.

September 16

We picked up the car just before 11am yesterday and it is running well. I didn't do much else. I got into Susan Wittig Albert's Death Come Quickly and then finished it this morning. I then went out and cleaned out the old 5 gal buckets that I wanted to get rid of. I am culling my gardens a bit and they are both the oldest buckets (showing the most wear and tear) and the last of the bottom draining buckets. All the others I out the drain holes in the sides. I had to cut the root mass for both the peppermint and the yarrow to pull the plants. I managed to save about two-thirds of the soil. But the process has me re-thinking my plans for what I will put in and where next spring. Both plants were finishing their second year in the garden and their roots went deep; The peppermint all the way to the bottom and the yarrow down about 8 inches. Right now I am going to catch up on all the stuff on the computer I didn't get to yesterday.

So, here is what I am reading today:

Phillip Baker at Naked Capitalism: The Rise of Ultra-Processed Foods and Why They're really bad for our health. We have been reading about ultra-processed foods for some time. About 15 years ago we eliminated as much of the processed foods as possible. That was well before the concerns about the ultra-processed foods rose. Almost everything we eat is made from scratch and what is commercially produced is as close to homemade as possible.

ProPublica: New Climate Maps Show a Transformed United States. Saw this a little earlier today and found it again.

Emily Cadman at Bloomberg: Sydney's New Suburbs Are Too Hot for People to Live In. I have seen articles about areas of the Persian Gulf, coastal India and other places where the temperatures have reached deadly levels over the last several years. Just a week or two ago places in California reached new records of about 121F. Chicago has had 20+ days at or above 90 so far this year. 

September 14--half past another month

We have had a wet first half of the month but that is supposed to break with some dry and sunny days coming up. Time to get some of the garden clean up done and get the shed squared away. The trees are quickly putting on their autumnal colors and dropping leaves.

Reading today:

    Mandy Smithberger at TomDispatch on the one continuing successful operation the Pentagon has--getting obscene levels of funding.

    At Global Voices: Are Romance languages Becoming More Gender Neutral? I had noticed that some of the commentators and news readers were using the term "Latin-x" and wondered it it was simply an attempt to follow our own notions of gender neutrality. It isn't.

    Ugo Bardi at Cassandra's Legacy: Famines as a Military Weapon, Is Europe in Danger? Modern situation complicated by the industrialization of the food supply which requires much larger imputes of fossil fuels in various forms and by the fact that Europe produces a smaller portion of their food locally.

    HuffPost: Mosquito Clouds Killing Deer, Cattle in Southwestern Louisiana. Damn!! And I found several other stories on this from other sources.

    The Siberian Times: More Than 400 Sealed "Craters" Are Ticking Time Bombs. Something else I have read about for a couple of years now.

    NPR: Is Plastic Recycling A Lie? I was totally bummed out when local stores, except for the local dairy and a health food store insisted that customers not use reusable bags. I thought the whole thing was a subsidy to the plastics industry that had faced growing efforts to get rid of single use plastics.

 September 11

Well, the commemorations of 9/11 aren't so ubiquitous that one can't avoid most of it. Don't get me wrong. We should remember those who died but the event has so twisted our politics, society, and economy that we haven't yet worked it all out of our system. The impact of 9/11 goes well beyond the nearly 3K people lost and the physical destruction. We dwell on the dead without giving much thought to what has happened to the living.

One thing we do seem to be questioning is consumerism with the growth of minimalism, slow food, farm-to-table and such movements. Recently I have seen a number of blog posts emphasizing slow fashion along with refashioning old pieces, mending, re-purposing old clothes. And even in the fashion industry there seems to be some questioning of the old business models as seen in this piece from Treehugger.

Is anyone really surprised by this article? After all the head of the administration described war dead as losers, people who volunteered to serve in the armed forces "suckers", got out of serving himself by claiming (fake) bone spurs and threatened his son with disinheritance if he signed up. His administration diverted funds for a school for soldiers' children in Kentucky to fund his "big, beautiful wall."

A couple of days ago I was reading one of the prepper blogs I frequently read where the blogger detailed an encounter with a non-prepping family member who saw her updating her "bug out bag" in case of a fire evacuation order. They live in a town and the family member asked "What? You think the city will burn?" I think this Guardian article answers that. Hell, yes, cities can, and will, burn. Also the 500K residents under evacuation orders represents one-tenth of the population.

 September 8

We had heavy rains and thunderstorms from early this morning to just a few minutes ago. We had shopping to do and found the traffic signals around that shopping area were out. Can't say about the rest of the city since we didn't go by any others on our trip and by the time we came home everything seemed to be working again. Store employees said the electricity went out about 7:30 and by the time we went in a little before 9 they had all of the dairy covered in plastic and had pulled all of the stock out of the meat department. We watched as they finally got power back and rushed to get everything open again. I did notice a lot of gaps in the shelves in other parts of the stores. A lot of open spaces in the juice aisle especially. I have read reports from other parts of the country from shoppers who had to go to several stores to get everything on their lists and sometimes didn't get it all. That is something people aren't really used to--I know we weren't but over the last few years have made an effort to find new sources and/or workarounds. 

Tom Engelhardt is back with a good post on our "Great, Great Fall."

September 9

The decline in the American oil industry is continuing. Low oil prices over the last 10 years has now been compounded by the decline in demand because of the pandemic. Gizmodo continues the story. Another concern that has received only sporadic is also mentioned in the article: the environmental damage caused by the deterioration of abandoned wells.

September 10

Another pandemic change: making appointments. Mom got an e-mail from her eye doctor three weeks before her appointment. They always contacted her a day or two before to remind her and confirm the details. This year they also gave details of their new procedures--an extensive list though nothing we haven't become used accustomed to. I called my eye care provider to get my own appointment. I usually plan mine for the day after Mom's. I was glad I decided to call much earlier than the usual week before because they were booked up solid til the 26th. The receptionist was half apologetic and very glad when I told her that I hoped for a slot a bit later. Ordinary life takes more forethought and planning.

A number of talking heads on news/commentary shows have noted that the Biden-Harris campaign is having a hard time appealing to Hispanic voters. Most have been smart and aware enough to notice that there is not a single kind of Hispanic voter just as there is not a single kind of white voter or black voter. This piece on Down With Tyranny should reinforce that idea.

 September 6

Happy Labor Day to all. Though given the levels of unemployment "happy" may not be a good term here. Anyway enjoy your long weekend--those of you who have a long holiday weekend.

First think I saw this morning. I think these guys might be contenders for the Darwin Awards. Perhaps a new category: Mass Extinction Award.

Two comments that say a lot about where we are as a country. First was last night from a retired military officer who was commented on the Atlantic article (which I haven't read yet) which cataloged #45's repeated assertions that those who serve in the military, and especially those who die in that service, are "losers" or "suckers." He did not confirm the actual statements cited in the article (he wasn't present) but said he believed them because they are consistent with #45's past statements and behavior. Same reason we tend to believe the story. Normally, we would read the account with more skepticism. The second came this morning in a story about the on-going racial unrest as yet another black person dies either from police shooting or while in police custody. It reflects a thought I had I heard #45 dismiss the statistics about the number of black lives lost: but they shoot white people, too. I wondered when the police had become judge, jury and executioner. The comment noted that we should be thinking about a culture when police kill anyone, often with impunity. Something is definitely out of wack here.

Another bit of irony: my mother received an application for a mail-in ballot in the mail yesterday. Three things are odd about this. 1) It was not sent by our local elections officials but by the Republican Party. 2) Therefore, only Mom received one. I did not. She voted in a Republican primary once in the last 20 years because she really, really disliked one of the candidates. 3) Number 45 has been waging a war against mail-in voting. Of course he hasn't said anything about our state because (surprise, surprise) we have a Republican governor and, by his lights, is "well governed." She won't be returning it because we plan to vote as early as we can when early in-person voting opens in a month.

September 7

Can you believe it?  California set a heat record of 121F. I read somewhere else that this is the second heat wave in a month. A friend who lives in Colorado noted that they are expecting 90s and then a plunge into temperatures that will give them as much as a foot of snow, one of the earliest measurable snowfalls in their history.

Kunstler has one on education that is pretty much spot on. The economics, thanks to the pandemic, are going to really change education on every level, or, rather the economic decline has been accelerated by the pandemic. I remember stories of counties where the tax revenue was so scarce they couldn't afford to fix toilets. Ten years ago I remember stories of other school districts that were going to four day weeks because the finances were so tight. I know teachers who have a massive load of student debt they probably will die with for a job that doesn't pay them enough to live on and pay their full monthly loan payment. I doubt that many of the students who decided not to return to college because of the pandemic will ever go back. By the way, while I agree with Kunstler on many aspects of the post I linked to, I don't agree with him on much of his political pronouncements.

Talking about education--I just found this bit of insanity. Perhaps I should have said "non-education."

 September 4

We have a nice crisp, sunny day today. We are debating when we should switch over to the heating but last night the temperature in the house only fell to 76F. The low outside was somewhere in the mid 50s, Evidently the weather forecasting models finally agreed on a cooling trend for the week. I was going to do some garden work but we had to make a trip to the dairy because the milk wouldn't have lasted the long weekend.

Isn't it nice how #45 screws one group of people to make it appear as though he is helping another and thereby bribe that second group to vote for him? Ronni Bennett at Time Goes By explains the implications of his "payroll tax holiday." I remember when he first proposed it he promised he would make it permanent when he was reelected. I have often thought (and said out loud) that there are a sizable group who were just waiting for a damned good crisis to weep crocodile tears, ring their hand, pretend sympathy for all us old geezers who so foolishly thought we could depend on the government to keep its promises and then cancel Social Security and all its attendant programs because it cost too much to keep it going. I half suspected they would keep the payroll taxes to spend elsewhere. Number 45 is doing his usual and going with half-assed measures that won't appreciably help anyone but making a big noise about how much he is doing. Remember he brought calm to Kenosha--at least according to himself.

This would be hopeful except every store I shop at except for the dairy insists that customers use single use plastic bags because of the coronavirus. At one the cashiers are prohibited from bagging the merchandise if customers insist on using their own reusable bags. They have only a small turntable for the bags so using your own is both inconvenient and slow. Another that has a long conveyer belt for the merchandise still insists on customers using single use bags even though the customer bags what they buy themselves and the cashier never touches the bags. We use them as liners for our trash cans and to clean out our cats' box. I am looking at using them in crafts as well. But I do wish we could use our reusables again.

 September 2

Should have welcomed you all to meteorological fall yesterday. Oh, well. Here it is a day late.

We had rain yesterday--a nice long rain. August started off wet and then turned very dry. Our area has moved into the moderately dry to moderate drought category and I doubt we got enough moisture to change that. The gardens are doing nicely though looking a bit overgrown as they do every fall. I simply don't get out enough during hot weather and July and August were on the top ten all time list for heat. I did get out long enough to pull the bee balm and empty the pot but didn't do much else.

In a bit of a departure for us we got a flu shot this year. Normally, we don't bother because we simply don't have a lot of contact with other people. No young children to carry colds and flu in. No prolonged contact with others when we go shopping. We don't do parties and even family gatherings have been few, far between, and with only a handful of people. However, with the coronavirus circulating we made a different calculation. Might as well minimize even more our minuscule risk of flu and hope we can also avoid the coronavirus.

September 3

I just finished watering the gardens. Thinking what to take out when. The catnip has almost finished blooming. I have left it in because the bees love it. A friend of mine said they like the mints of which catnip is one. The spearmint is blooming nicely and the bees are coming to it and the couple of peppermint plants that are blooming. I plan to take some of those out of a couple of the small(er) pots. However, I hope the spearmint will come back next spring in the large pot I put it in this spring. I plan to put peppermint in the other large pot in which I put lavender this year. Lavender did not like that spot so I will put next year's seedlings into another area. I am already looking at which pots I plan to give extra protection in hopes the plants will survive the winter. The weather forecasters promised us cooler weather but then had walk that back. Evidently their models simply aren't agreeing with each other. We'll have to see what happens.

We are avoiding politics as much as possible. It's inane and insane. I am at the point of muting the news whenever that faux Republican cockwobble is on. Lovely word, that; I'll let you look it up. 

Even though both of us are retired we still hate the twice yearly time changes. Our furry little alarm clocks don't adjust well either. The Smithsonian has this piece from sleep experts who advocate a single, nationwide standard. Either put it at daylight savings time or at (so-called) standard time and leave the damned thing alone. I have seen several posts that compare the procedure to cutting off the top of a blanket off and sewing it to the bottom and claiming you have a longer blanket.

 August 29

It is nice and cool today. Temperatures are in the mid 70s which feels real good after nearly a week in the 90s. I should get some garden work done but am feeling lazy. I just finished a cross-stitched table cloth and put it in the wash. I generally do small tablecloths now--no more than a 50x50 (inches). I have another stamped for embroidery that is about 3/4 done.

August 30

August 31

Welcome to the last day of August. Another month pretty well gone. This year has seemed to fly by and crawl along at the same time. I saw a post on Facebook a while ago that claimed the poster was going to stay up New Year's Eve not so much to welcome in the new year as to make sure "that bitch 2020 leaves."

David Kaiser has a good take on our current time in our history. We have a lot of rage in our country and it has been building for some time. Does anyone remember the statistics concerning the economic condition for millennials and later generations? They are, on average, well behind where their boomer parents at the same age: more indebted (thanks to student loans), lower job/career prospects, less likely to marry and start a family or buy a house. They are the first generation with such dismal prospects in about 100 years. Not that boomers have had such a wonderful time considering the number who were laid off in the last recession (only 10 years in the rear view mirror) and either never got an equivalent position or any new job at all. Remember that the labor force participation has been somewhere in the low 60%s for most of that time meaning that many exited the labor force all together. And that was before COVID. I won't even go into the racial divide. You can do that on your own. Who ever wins the election is in for a bumpy ride and we with him.

September 1

"They Choke Sometimes" so saith our miserable excuse for a president of police who use deadly force inappropriately comparing that to "missing a putt." That was on the news this morning. My problem with that--when a golfer misses a putt no one dies of bullet wounds. Nor are bystanders at risk from ricochet or pass through bullets.

Theodora Gross has an a post that resonates with me. "Walking on air" about sums up my feelings also and has for sometime although I had no words to describe the feeling. The world has a surreal, almost dreamlike, quality. The neighborhood we live in has not changed at all and all the usual activities continue. The old man across the street still walks his dog several times a day, goes out in his truck (sometimes with the dog, sometimes not), and sits outside in good weather or in the open garage if it is cold or wet. People still walk by or jog. I don't know when they stopped wearing masks on their walks/jogs. When we drive anywhere the walkers/joggers rarely wear masks nowadays. In the stores, though, almost everyone does. We haven't had any of the aggressive anti-maskers here--at least not at any time I have been out. The turmoil the news has covered elsewhere hasn't come here and I am crossing my fingers it doesn't. We have already made our decision to take advantage of the early in person voting option though the lines at the polls for the primaries were not at all long. We have no idea of what will happen in the fall with the economy, the election, or the pandemic but are sure it will be different. The ground seems awfully far down. Indiana is stuck at opening level 4.5 with about 800+ new cases per day. The governor has extended the mandatory mask requirements and the restrictions on large gatherings, bars, restaurants for another 30 days.  Those don't really affect us much. the only large gatherings we attended (with our masks) were the visitation and funeral for my sister-in-law. I did notice that almost no one at the church wore masks.

Speaking of voting--last night on one of the news segments covered a projection of a "Red Mirage" on election night: the votes from in person voting would give #45 a large electoral college lead that would be reversed as the mail in votes were counted over the next week. I went searching for the Axios story and found it here. The conclusion depends on 1) a larger share of Democratic voters than Republican voters remaining fearful of voting in person because of the pandemic, 2) a larger share of Democratic voters than Republican voters for reason #1 voting by mail, and that 3) the counting of those mail in ballots will take considerable time. Here early voting opens up in the first few days of October and our state (and, I think, Illinois from the ads on our TV) are pushing early in-person and early mail-in voting. The emphasis is on "early". And depending on how things go over the next two month we may not have as much COVID fear as projected in the study. We are all learning how to live with this thing.

As if we needed anything else to cast a shadow on a year that has been getting deeper in shade as time has gone by, here is this item. What the hell do we pay those idiots for anyway?

For a good long time, well before COVID and the shutdowns, I had been reading about "shit-life syndrome". You can see one of the articles here from January. Number 45 can, like the proverbial clock (though not always as often) be right when he talked about the COVID causing an uptick in suicides and drug problems. Glenn Greenwald at the Intercept talks about why Americans are "dying of despair" and cites a New Yorker article from March of this year which notes that our society is (and has been) fraying leaving many people bereft of social and emotional support. Unfortunately, #45's solution--everybody going back to work COVID be damned--isn't either effective or satisfying.