Only six more days however it turns out

--October 28

Five more days--damn where did yesterday go? October 29

I don't know about anyone else but I have a hard time reading or listening to anything related to #45 and the election or its possible aftermath. The only thing that strikes me as a sure bet is that the orange idiot isn't going away, He likes the limelight and adulation way too much to give that up. And to anyone who says that at least he won't be president again I suggest you read up on Grover Cleveland. Even if he is defeated things won't be back to what we once considered normal. Karen Greenberg on Tomdispatch outlines the many ways the country will not be normal again. If #45 is re-elected we are all toast.

We had a good frost a couple of days ago. Woke to frost on the cars and on the sage plants in the gardens. It didn't get cold enough for a good freeze. I should go out an get a couple of the container covered and mulched before a freeze does come but haven't got my ambition up to do it. 

I ordered four new items from Herrschners to embroider or rather seven since three were table topper/table scarf sets. I don't often see anything in their catalogs that aren't kits which I don't want because I have a whole lot of thread I want to use and the kits come with the needed thread. I am determined, however, that I will not order any more until I have completed 6 of what I already have--even if it is a half-price sale. I am trying to do the same thing with books--no more until I have finished 6 books in my unread stack. We'll see how it works out. The Herrschners order came two days ago and the last item from the Woolery, my new larger pin loom, is scheduled to arrive on Saturday.

 Seven more days before the next phase of #45's story starts

--And ours as well. We haven't watched election returns on the night but this time we plan to watch. We are hoping for, but not expecting a Repthuglican blood bath. Not much worth commenting on. I am getting so tired of all the speculation that I am not reading much of it.

 Eight more days--October 26

Well, an Administration official finally admitted what many of us suspected: they aren't really trying to control the coronavirus. That is what Mark Meadows, chief of staff to our (Faux)President, said to a reporter yesterday. Like so much else these political hacks say it is--to a minor extent--right. The virus will do what a virus does and it will continue doing what is does (infecting hosts to multiply itself) until a good preventative is developed, i.e., a vaccine. But, 1)vaccines are not 100% effective, the seasonal flue vaccines for example are only 40-80% effective, 2) the fastest development of a vaccine (for the mumps) was 4 years, 3) several other coronaviruses (SARS, MERS come to mine) still have no vaccine and nor does HIV, 4) even with an all out push to produce an approved vaccine it will take even longer and cost more to get it widely distributed especially if multiple doses over a month or more are required. By the way, the stock market was down big time this morning mainly on the news that trials of a COVID treatment had been halted. So without a vaccine or proven effective treatments what do we do? No coherent answer from the politicos. Instead we get arguments which amount to a false dichotomy: the economy or our health and it seems they want us all, us little people who don't have access to a team of military doctors at the premier military hospital complex prescribing experimental treatments at fantastic cost to tax payers, to fall on our swords and "go to work."

Part of our conversation this morning after listening to the news this morning with the story that Pence is continuing with is campaign schedule after five of his close staff tested positive: 

 Me: I would like both #45 and Pence to come down with full blown COVID the day after losing the election and be in an ICU intubated for the next 3 months. Am I vindictive?

Mom: NO.

Everyone is looking for some return to what was once normal life. I have been skeptical from the beginning of the pandemic that that would be impossible. Too many of the old "certainties" are gone and won't be coming back. Schools as we knew them? Not as long as the virus is unchecked and no coherent plan is in place to deal with it. Supply chains all our stores depend on for their inventory? Blown all to hell. Our entertainments? Who wants to go to movies, or concerts, or plays now?  Even the events staged in the outdoors (marathons, Lalapaloosa in Chicago, etc.) have been postponed or cancelled. Even Macy's has cancelled this year's parade. What about sports? There is a court fight now about fall/winter high  school sports in Illinois. Basket ball is played in "bubbles." Football schedules, truncated though they are, are tentative depending on the results of COVID tests. Same for baseball. What comes out of this won't be what we had before. Which is what Rajan Menon says in his post for Tomdispatch today.

 

 Nine More Days of our Election Hell--October 25

I wasn't planning to post anything today. Actually I never plan on posting. I just find something that tickles my mind. This morning I found this:. Boris Johnson is learning that in politics can never follow the science. Although the story is from the Guardian and involves the situation in the U.K., it also describes our own situation on this side of the Pond. The author cites Max Weber whom I haven't read (along with a lot of other writers). But the notion that don't mix rings true. So often these days I look at the same scientific reports as someone else and come to entirely different conclusions. Sometimes the problem is a matter of how the terms are used. Like "weather" vs. "climate". So often people use the terms interchangeably. Sometimes the connections are harder to see and, as authors I read who write on science remind their readers, "correlation isn't causation." Just because one phenomenon changes in a demonstrable relationship with another doesn't mean the one causes the other. But another problem is people want certainty which science rarely provides.

 October 22--12 days before this interminable election season ends

Actually it has ended for me because I voted on the first day of early in-person voting in this state. Now all that is left is waiting till the numbers come in.  We are thinking about watching at least the first few minutes of the debate tonight. The debate committee says the microphones for the candidates will be switched off during the two minutes each candidate is to speak uninterrupted. That should be interesting. A reporter covering a #45 rally noted that the 8 seconds the mic failed were the most peaceful he had experienced at #45's super spreader events.

We have had a strange and busy week. Monday as we finished our grocery shopping and filling our gas tank we heard a strange thumping sound from the engine area of the car. Mom decided we would go straight over to our favorite auto repair shop and find out what was going on. Four hours and $350 later we had a new air recycling switch and motor. That pretty much shot the day. Thankfully we didn't have much in the way of groceries that needed immediate refrigeration or freezing. Although she got the call Monday afternoon that her new glasses were in we decided to wait until mine came in to pick them up. My call came Tuesday so that was another trip.

October 23--11 days and no more debates😂

We did suffer through 45 minutes of that "debate." Frankly, neither candidate covered themselves with glory. How much noise can one make and not say anything of real substance? Evidently quite a bit. It was devolving when we bailed and went to bed. They should have cut off the mics more frequently and eliminated the cross-talk entirely. #45 was somewhat better behaved but only if you discounted the persistent lying. The best rejoinder of the night went to Biden when #45 said we just "have to live" with COVID and Biden replied that many of us are dying with it. Although the ersatz president may be right about learning to live with the virus I suspect it will be like living with the seasonal flu: we have vaccines and therapeutics that are somewhat effective. But with effective leadership we certainly wouldn't have the body count we have and are going to have.

It has been a year of firsts. Here is another: the arctic sea ice hasn't begun forming yet for the first time since records have been kept.

 October 13--half past October already!!

Saw two comments from a Repthuglican Senator to which I take exception. First that #45's "default position" is individual responsibility and outcomes, and that such a position was a sign of respect. That is a ton of BS. Number 45's default position is to take no responsibility and then snipe when things go wrong. He pushed everything off on governors and then criticized (usually) Democrat governors for less than optimum response. Oh, and let us not forget that FEMA and other Federal agencies stole PPE and other supplies from states whose governors tried to acquire it on their own to redistribute in ways that would, they hoped, support #45. His behavior throughout is a clear sign of his lack of respect. Second, that a mask mandate wouldn't have worked because he (the senator) knows several people who told him they wouldn't have cooperated. Perhaps--but then, perhaps not. We don't know. What we do know is that #45 refused to wear masks unless he could garner some political credit for doing so, refused to back common sense rules, insisted on state economies reopening before the infection rates went down. He has done everything he can to undermine the scientists and doctors. We are left to wonder what would have happened if we had a real President (instead of a showboat playing one for his version of reality TV) with some sense of responsibility, respect for science and data, and a modicum of empathy.

October 14

For some time now I have been trying to remember where a quotation that has been rattling around in my head with the various pundits laying out scenarios on how the election and the aftermath (and I am sure there will be a confused time until inauguration day). To paraphrase the quote: our country has been a democracy, an oligarchy, a republic, a dictatorship and (according to the speaker) a de facto anarchy without changing its basic constitution. I finally found it in Robert Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil and the speaker was Jake Solomon (one of many older curmudgeonly and cynical male characters Heinlein created). The so-hearing for Amy Coney Barrett brought the quote back especially her responses to the question about #45's urging his supporters to be "poll watchers" and his threat to not accept the election results. A commenter over the last few days made an interesting point: our system relies on losers accepting their loss. Number 45 isn't likely to do that. He hasn't been a graceful winner so why expect him to be a graceful loser. More than that the so-called conservatives and the religious right have not been graceful losers for the last three decades at least. No matter is ever settled if the vote doesn't go their way. I saw that when riverboat gambling came up on the ballot in Missouri. The first year the vote approved the boats but the religious interests brought it back and marshaled their forces to defeat the proposition. The battle went back and forth for about two more years before the boats were finally approved and allowed to operate.

October 15

OH, CRAP (euphemism for what I really said). I lived in Ft. Collins for almost 15 years and remember the area fondly. It has been a hellish fire season and #45's suggestion that we "rake the forest" is asinine.

October 16

I commented last week that I hadn't seen many yard signs for the presidential candidates so far. Today was only slightly different. Three houses had signs for #45 and his shadow. Four were clearly Biden/Harris. Two houses really wanted you to know their preference because they put about a dozen signs all along the road parallel to their houses. I mentioned a sign I caught a glimpse of but thought it might not be a positive for #45. Well we got a better look and it said "Tuck Frump". I think that goes into the 'hell NO!!' category.

I caught this by way of Axios this morning. Phoenix set a record with its 144th day over 100* with another such day forecast for today. Glad I don't live out that way.

October 18--Election Day only 16 days away!

And I am so ready to bid our 4-year election season goodbye. Don't forget that #45 filed his candidacy for 2020 just after taking (with crossed fingers and tongue in cheek I am sure) his oath of office in 2016. The news last night had a sound bite from him saying he just might leave the country if he loses. I can only hope. Anyone up for a Go Fund Me page to pay for his ticket? Hmmm! He is supposed to be a billionaire so he should be able to fund his own relocation hopefully taking his whole grifting family with him. I have speculated for the last year that he might relocate to Moscow or Riyadh. Given his declared love for Kim Jung Un might North Korea be on the list of possibilities?

David Kaiser has an interesting piece on politics and the Supreme Court. He points out a fact I have mentioned several times in our discussion here at home: both sides of the political spectrum have used the courts, including the Supreme Court, to get policies they couldn't get a political majority for. Some of Kaiser's comments reflect a conclusion I have articulated both on this blog and here at home: the U.S. is at a cross-roads. Since our founding two trends have been fighting: one is for a more coherent and....homogenized, might be a good word, country dominated by the Federal Government while the other is for a more decentralized union with the individual states dominating much of our economic and social life. The decentralized ideal was good when most people didn't travel frequently, when travel times were longer and when communications took an extended time. We aren't that country any more. I can get in my car any day of the week and spend the day in a different state. We are an hour away from Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, and about three hours away from Iowa, Ohio, Missouri and Kentucky. If I had a business I could easily operate in all of those states. The internet, cell phones, cable and broadcast TV all put us into a web of communications that transcends our local town, or state, or even our country. I routinely check blogs and news sources from other countries. We are no longer the country our founders created. Which is why I think the so-called strict constructionist and textualist stance of so many conservative judges and justices is utterly rediculous. 

 October 9

Poor, poor #45. He won't get a Nobel Peace Prize. It was awarded to the World Food Program. Of course, he is in good (or bad) company since his best bud, Vladimir, was also left out in the cold.

We didn't watch the vice-presidential debates. From the commentary since it followed the usual pattern for such debates. Didn't really spread much light on either party's intentions. Harris, again from the commentary, managed to effectively gut the RepTHUGlican non-program without offering more than general promises. Pence was a slightly more mannerly boor and didn't talk over Harris all the time. Just enough that she reminded him she was speaking. That evoked reminiscences for a lot of the women in the audience who also had the problem of men talking over them. The most memorable part of the debate: the fly that landed on Pence's hair. My first thought: well you know what flies are most attracted to--s#$t. I said that to the clerk at the dairy this morning and she laughed that she didn't think of that since the cows and goats produce a lot of that.

October 10

The Chicago news last night had a segment on the high turnout for early in-person voting in this area. Parts of Chicago started early voting a couple of weeks ago and all of Indiana started this last week. I noted on the October 6 post that we voted on opening day and there was quite a long line though nothing like what the news showed for a couple of other states. Evidently the crowds keep showing up, masked and generally distancing.

While we went out to the dairy Thursday I was struck by the fact that I have seen only one political sign concerning the presidential campaign. I still wonder if it was pro- or anti-#45 because it was odd and we passed too quickly for me to really read it. One woman who was next to us in the voting line commented that she had two of her pro-Biden signs vandalized. Her daughter sent her one which pictured #45's comb-over and simply said NOPE. I have seen a lot of signs for our local races.

Fall colors are developing rapidly though, perhaps, a week or 10 days away from full color. I have cut away a lot of the plant growth and dug out one of the basil roots so I could put the last mum in its place. I am debating whether I should get some mulch or just find other ways to protect the soil from any rain we might get. I also need to get the roses and a couple of other plants that might make it through the winter.

 October 6--First day of early-in-person voting.

We just got back from voting. The polls opened at 8:30am and we got there about 8:40. We finally got out about 10am--just in time to avoid a parking ticket for exceeding the time limit on the space. It wasn't as bad as that might seem and we are tired with aching backs, knees, and feet. We are old ladies after all. It was a bit chilly and we had a brisk breeze. Most of us were a bit under dressed but almost everyone stayed. At one point the line was a block and a half long but they opened up another couple of machines to move things along.

Frida Berrigan on TomDispatch this morning. I suspected early on that the pandemic, before it was recognized as a pandemic, that the virus wouldn't be going away anytime soon. I didn't expect how much of an impact it would have on our normal life: the level of unemployment, the number of deaths, the number of "long-haulers" among the survivors, or the level of incompetence among our government leaders. I had an interesting thought at the point where Berrigan writes that we thought "They'll figure it out." In a book I like a lot (Michael Greer's Retrotopia) one of the characters noted, concerning a major collapse of a vital technology, that the situation didn't need to happen. There had been plenty of warning. But everyone at all levels ignored the warnings claiming that "They'll figure something out." Who ever "they" were they never did figure out the problem.

Another thought bouncing off Berrigan's post: When George W. first proposed his notion of an "ownership society" I translated it into "a you're on your ownership" society. Berrigan puts it very well when she says she suddenly realized that we are all on our own with what ever local resources we can cobble together. George W.'s dream has become our nightmare.

While on our drive to the polling place we noticed several houses already decked out for Halloween. Mom thinks those living there are trying to recapture something that feels "normal."

 October 4

Really wet today so no gardening. Things should dry out over this next week and we have only one outside errand so I should have plenty of time to get some of my chores done.

David Kaiser has an interesting post today contrasting the front pages of the New York Times just after President Dwight Eisenhower had a serious stroke and a couple of days ago just after it was revealed #45 had Covid-19 and had been admitted to Walter Reed.

I haven't spent much time (any time really) thinking about poor #45 except to note that his behavior pretty much ensured he would contract the virus "que sera sera" as the song said or as #45 said "it is what it is." We have spent much more time thinking and talking about how we deal with the situation we have been handed. I feel somewhat like Hecate Demeter on her blog but we watched the early reports we found on Wuhan and said, between ourselves, "this is coming and it isn't going to be pretty." We always listened to the medical experts and I made our masks well before extensive masking recommendations came on line. I remember (and I think I have recounted this occurrence before on this blog) encountering a store clerk shortly after the state mandated masks and distancing in the stores that were deemed "necessary". She thought (and fervently hoped) given what she had been hearing that everything would be back to "normal" real soon. I asked her if she knew how long the 1918 flu pandemic lasted. She didn't and I told her: two years. She wasn't at all happy with that thought. I just read a piece on three epidemics that changed history and all of those were pre-1900: the Antonine Plague of 165 to 179 ce, the Justinian plague in the 540s ce, and, of course, the Black Death of the 14th century. One part of it surprised me: the Antonine Plague (possibly measles or smallpox) killed about a third of the population in repeated waves over 15 years. So much for "heard immunity."

October 5

Sunny today so I may get some of my fall jungle cut today. I don't take plants out any more because the remains act as a ground cover and letting the stubble and roots decay in the pots puts at least some of the nutrients back into the containers. I will take one completely out because I have one more mum I want to put in hoping it and the other will survive the winter.

Concerning #45's COVID John Beckett has this post and it says about all that needs to be said.

 SeptOctober 3

We have had a very busy week here and the change in the month went by almost unnoticed. We had eye exams (Monday for Mom and Tuesday for me) and veterinary appointments (Thursday for one cat and Friday for the other) as well as our usual shopping. So we were out of the house a lot this week. Other than that life has been pretty much as normal here at Chez Grumpy Old Broads. We are hope that the election will give us reason to be less Grumpy and we are going to vote on our state's first day of early-in-person voting. We hope there won't be a long line but given some of the stories I have seen from areas in the Chicago area we might.

Found this item way too early. Can that grifting family find any more ways to claim where credit is NOT due? Rhetorical question--of course they can.

With Repthuglicans this kind of chutzpah is common.