December 21--Happy Winter Solstice

--though it doesn't feel like winter. We still haven't had any real snow--some flurries that didn't stick. And the temperatures are between 15 and 20 degrees (F) above normal. 

I just saw the news that the Omicron variant has now become the dominant variant in the U.S.--in only 2 weeks. And the first death related to Omicron in the U.S. I read this morning that my state has identified its first case 2 days ago. A number of the talking heads sounded almost despairing while commenting that we seem to be back where we were a year ago--before we had vaccines and before new treatments proved effective. Well, some of the more thoughtful commentators have mentioned those facts. And at our level we know very well that this is not then. Last year we read about the pandemic but it hadn't really hit us. Our shut downs were't as severe as some I read about. We could still go out and get what was needed. I made our own masks--the first six were two layer but all the next ones were triple layer as are the ones I am sewing now. I don't think we will be putting masks aside soon.

But over the last year the pandemic has come closer. My brother, his son and a grandson, and a niece in another branch of the family have all had COVID (ages range from about 12 to 70). None died. The woman who works at the little farm store associated with out small local dairy told us that she is hearing from a lot of their customers that this has already been a bad season and not just for COVID. Many have had serious cold and flu that have hit hard. Mom just got out of the hospital after a five day stay getting treated for viral bronchitis. Not COVID--they tested. I think I mentioned a statistic I saw that the death rate for a group of "respiratory" infections (COVID, flu, and colds) is, nationwide, 17.5%.

Listening to the accounts over the Manchin public F-you over the BBB talks--and make no mistake that is exactly what he did--I have several thoughts. First is recognizing how utterly fractured and, worse, infantile our politicks have become. Manchin had a reasonable concern that the White House statement which included his name (and his alone) was justified. Reports of death threats and harassment of politicians come almost daily and reveals the infantile and emotionally inflamed environment we are living with. But deep sizing the bill he and others had worked on, negotiated on, for months strikes me as another infantile move. And then there is the account which said that Manchin had expressed misgiving about those poor recipients of the child tax credit using the funds for drugs or some of his West Virginians misusing their family leave to "go hunting." OMG--shades of Hillary talking about "deplorables" and Obama talking about those desperately clinging to "God and guns." If true, Manchin indulged in a spate of sanctimonious moralizing. Another thought: so many of those both politicians, voters, and other Republican allies express a "concern" over the way the measures in BBB would change American culture and society. Unfortunately, those same people fail to recognize that our culture and society have changed drastically over the last century thanks to economic changes and it isn't going to go back to the 1950s (or 1930s) any time soon.

 December 13

Well, it is half past December and less than two weeks from our yearly exercise in mass gluttony: Christmas. And just more than two weeks from the end of another miserable year--one not quite as bad as last year but certainly not a good one. I wish I could say I look forward to 2022 and expect better--but I don't.

Why not? Because all of the economic, social, political and legal trends so strong this year are still in play and have much further to go before they hit bottom. David Kaiser has a good post this morning that reflects my own thoughts and illustrates our current condition through his commentary on a classic film: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. We both here remember the film. Mom saw it when it first came out and I from its re-runs on TV. It is indeed a good metaphor for the last 90 years.

The news just announced that COVID has claimed a little over 800k Americans. That is within the range the heads of the health agencies were predicting at the beginning of the pandemic and a far cry from the optimistic predictions (50-100k) if we, in the words of Dr. Debra Berx, "we do everything right." I doubted that we could get enough of our fractious population to agree on anything to manage to get "everything right."

 December 11

Rainy and windy this morning. I have been thinking of changing out our door autumn door wreath for the winter wreath. It just doesn't feel like winter yet. We did get a smidge of snow that stuck around for a few hours but nothing significant.

I found this item on Crooks & Liars this morning. The writer is most worried about right wing agitation for an Article V convention but given how much discontent (to put it mildly) on both sides of the political divide we might worry about the left wing as well. About 30 years ago I heard the same notion from a colleague (a black woman) and mentioned that once that convention met many of the rights we have come to rely on might be excised or drastically rewritten, for instance voting rights for minorities or property ownership for women. She blithely claimed that "they wouldn't dare." However, we said the same thing about Roe v Wade until the latest Supreme Court decisions.

Just woke up to the horrific news of the tornado storm that has cost at least 50 deaths in one city alone. The story keeps getting worse as the emergency services can now work in daylight. We looked at the initial story, which hadn't yet incorporated the damage and death info, and noted that this is a springtime pattern. I commented that just as the west now doesn't have a discrete "fire season" the Tornado Alley states no longer have a discrete tornado season. The meteorologists and reporters have made similar observations and noted how abnormal the weather pattern has been.

 December 9

Well, it has been a while. I have busily ignored most of the political news. It looks like half of the politicians in Washington are very happy to stymie all activity so the majority party and Biden won't have any more achievements the voters might favor--while they tout the benefits of those achievements Biden has as if they themselves were responsible though none of then voted for the measures that benefit their constituents. The other half are increasingly frustrated with the intransigent opposition some of which comes from their own.

Pundits keep talking about the "labor shortage" or the Great Resignation, as some call it. Most attribute the phenomenon to "overly generous" government support (most of which have ended over the last few months). Of course, in the Repthuglican political theology, those lazy bums won't work unless they are hungry, or need some hovel to crouch in, or some rags to wear. Jan In SanFran quotes from a New Republic article on doctors who are both moving from their traditionally Republican orientation to Independent or, heaven forbid!!, to Democrat. The author made a point that most doctors are now employees of medical conglomerates and not independent small business people. We have watched that shift happening in our area. And that though half of medical school graduates are women they suffer from the same gender pay gap that afflicts women in other sectors--something like 30% of the pay their male counterparts in the same specialities with similar education and experience. Most of the pundits want to ignore those inequities. Nor do they want to recognize the difficulties of balancing familial obligations (a.k.a., child care or elder care) which fall most heavily on women. The old normal, where women worked outside the home and the family could afford child care, isn't going to come back. People are fed up with the notion that they should work themselves to death to make a living in an economy in which that has become work themselves to death to not make a living.

And the situation is made worse by widespread theft. I don't mean the recent spate of mass invasion of stores by gangs of shoplifters who make off with goods worth an amazing amount of money. Nor with the individual shoplifters like the one featured in this article. The article is only tangentially about that shoplifter. The far more egregious theft is from workers in the form of wage theft. (In case you wonder, I don't approve of theft on either scale. Whether "only" hundreds or thousands of dollars is involved or millions, the theft is wrong. But it is sad that the latter goes both unreported and, often, unpunished.)

 November 26

Well, it is Black Friday.  No we aren't going to do any shopping today. That isn't anything unusual because we have always avoided shopping from Thanksgiving through New Year's. Simply don't like the crowds. I once worked in a store in the largest local mall and had to work during that stretch of time. One day I was scheduled for an 11am start but the traffic was backed up for at least five miles and even though I left home in time to be half an hour early I wound up an hour and a half late. I only had one other retail job after that one--at a small party supply store in a strip mall. Even that store was slammed at times during the season. Nowadays I am very glad to be retired.

Thanksgiving was quiet and we stayed home. Mom fixed an almost traditional meal. The turkey was leftovers from a breast we fixed about a month ago. That provided two meals then and several packages of meat in the freezer. The sweet potatoes, dressing, and green bean casserole were all made from scratch. We will be eating on it today also--maybe even tomorrow.

The big family get togethers over Thanksgiving and Christmas went by the boards about five years ago. My sister and brother usually hosted those but each were getting to the point that their energy wasn't up to it. Sister turned 62 last year and my brother will be 71 this coming year. Besides the nieces and nephews were breaking off into their own family groups and usually showed up long enough to say "Hi," give us all a hug and leave.

I noticed all the people on the news/talk shows (including the Macy's parade coverage)--both the talking heads and the interviewees gushing about the "near normal" feeling of the holiday. Everyone is so desperate for something that seems normal even if only for this one day--or two if you throw in our post-gastronomic-orgy shopping orgy.

The one cloud coming late yesterday was the news that a new COVID variant has popped up in Southern Africa with more mutations of the spike protein than any previous variant have shown. They don't know yet how those mutations will affect the virus but several European countries have already announced travel restrictions on those coming from several countries in the area. (Update: they gave the variant its Greek letter this afternoon--Omicron.) Very early last year I wondered if masks would become part of our everyday dress and distancing an automatic behavior. As rapidly as COVID mutates that might still happen.

 November 5

The weather people say we will get a stretch that is dry and a bit warmer than normal. Sounds like a good time to get the plants I hope to keep through the winter mulched and protected.

We had to make a quick trip to Michaels to pick up some yarn I need to finish an afghan (or something else, I haven't decided for certain) done up in granny squares. It is a great way to use up leftovers. But the color is the one I am using to edge the squares and to edge the finished project. Didn't have near enough. Of course, I don't know how long ago I acquired that yarn (or any of the yarns) so there was no exact match but I did find something close. I got the last two large cakes and lucked into a buy-one-get-one-half-off sale. I also found a small quilting ruler (marked in quarter inch measures) in a set with a small rotating cutting mat. I am hand piecing my current project and need to cut some small (or smaller than usual) pieces in a small place (my lap desk).

I found this piece on Crooks&Liars concerning that most cited study on the efficacy of ivermectin. It has been pulled by the authors because the data is entirely bogus. They blame a research assistant for mistakenly incorporating a dummy used to train new assistants set of data into the experimental data. It reminds me of the oft cited study which supposedly showed a link between childhood vaccines and autism. It was also totally bogus.

My first thought on seeing the headlines on this story was a sarcastic "Oh, I guess he has been hanging out with Elvis somewhere in an alternate dimension." That JFK Jr. faked his death is absurd to begin with but to think he would come back to play second fiddle to be the vice-presidential candidate on a new run by  the Former Guy is even more absurd.

Just saw an interesting interview on Morning Joe which supports my gut feeling about the last election. The question concerned why last Tuesday's election results were so dismal for Dems. Susan Del Percio cited statistics which indicated that policy didn't drive the debate; personality did. Her statistics said that about 37% of the Former Guy's voters approved of his policies (I always wondered what policies they perceived in his verbal diarrhea) and another 6% (if I remember correctly) voted for him because he wasn't Biden while 27% of Biden voters voted for him for his policies and another 30% voted for him because he wasn't the Former Guy. First point: more than a third of voters chose based on their dislike of the candidates not because they liked the policies. Second point: the Former Guy wasn't running and was mostly absent from the campaign in Virginia, but the Democrat tried and failed miserably to paint his opponent as "Former Guy lite".

The Rittenhouse case might be with us for some time if this piece by Crooks&Liars is an accurate foretelling.

 November 3

Another cold but sunny day. We saw frost on roofs, cars and grass when the sun came up this morning. I won't do any more gardening today.

A blogger I read regularly posted just before Halloween that the pandemic and its various work-from-home schemes or lockdowns etc. pushed him to a pattern of comfort reading or comfort movie viewing. He decided to break that by choosing movies and books he had on his to-read (-view) list but hadn't yet read (or viewed). We have had a similar pattern but the pandemic isolation isn't the primary factor pushing the emphasis on comfort books or movies. We just haven't found very many items that interest us. I have been reading old favorites, many of which I hadn't read in a long time: The Lord of the Ring trilogy, Dune, The Emberverse series and others. I do have a number of non-fiction books I have been nibbling on including histories of Egypt, the Civil War, Roman Britain.

I just finished reading John Michael Greer's latest post on Ecosophia. He always makes fascinating connections and conclusions. He is right that people of modern industrial societies dismiss the notion that history has anything to teach us. Pay particular attention to his last paragraph.

 November 2

Beautifully sunny bit a bit on the cold side. We just broke 40F and it is almost noon. We aren't likely to pass 50 at all today. But I did get out and cut down the three sunpatiens, the impatiens and the last dahlia. All looked pretty bad. Everything else will stay and provide some cover over winter. The roses are looking somewhat better though I will be cutting some of their growth before I bring out the straw bale and pack them. The red one survived last winter without any protection but we had quite a bit of snow piled up over them last year during the worst of the cold. I don't trust the weather. One of the pots had some spindly peppermint trying to grow. I will leave it alone and see if it comes back next year.

We are listening to Pandora today. I have really had enough of the coverage of the various off-off year elections. All I heard over the weekend was speculation over what the consequences of a Republican (or a Democratic) win would be in New Jersey or Virginia. One or the other will win and long term consequences won't be known for some time. I am at the "pox on both your houses" stage right now.

I have said for some time that the official statistics on inflation (or anything else) tell any kind of accurate tale about what people at my level of the economy experience. This piece on NPR explains part of why we have that disconnect. The statistics have been weighted with various adjustments to make inflation seem less than it really. However, all the adjustments fail when we are faced with tactics like "skimpflation" or shrinkflation as another author has termed it. For the last 50 years economists have been concerned with changes that they thought enhanced buying power like computers that are faster and can do more functions or cars that have more bells and whistles. I noticed that much of the shrinkage we experienced (4 lbs of sugar for what 5 used to cost or 14 oz cans of a product for what 16 oz cost before) never got into the equations. Now, however, too many goods and services are being skimped or shrunk.

 Welcome to November--

Hope you all had a good Halloween (or Samhain or what ever you call the day). We had no trick-or-treaters--at all. We haven't participated in the tradition for several years. After the last big scare over contaminated or sabotaged candies the numbers of children coming around dropped precipitously. Instead various civic associations and parents put together alternative parties--which I think was a good thing. Covid, of course, put a nail in that coffin last year. But also we don't like having left over candy--even candy we like. Our tastes have changed and most isn't as enjoyable as it once was.

I have remarked in political conversations here that we are entering a post Enlightenment era. That age has been dominated in our faith in reason and the ability of the human mind to understand anything. The United States Constitution was the epitome of that philosophy. It was the result of the application of reason the the problem of how people should be governed. That whole ethos is disintegrating. David Kaiser's latest post is primarily a summary of the latest Covid data but his last paragraph basically says what I said in slightly different words.

The early morning news/talk show we watch noted that the Oxford English Dictionary people have announced their word for 2021: Vax (or Vaxx). Given how the Covid vaccines roll out and controversy over them have dominated the news for this year, that is appropriate. About a month ago I mentioned that we might be as glad to see the end of this year as we were to see the end of last year. I just wish I felt next year would be better. It will be different but not necessarily better.

The Rittenhouse trial  starts today. The Judge decided that the victims can't be called victims or alleged victims but can be called rioters, looters, or arsonists (if the defense can produce proof). That last is a restriction without real teeth. I will make my summation here: that 17 year old crossed a state line with a gun he had no legal right to have in the state to which he traveled, proclaiming he was "protecting" people and businesses though he wasn't in any way authorized to do so (in other words he was a fucking vigilante, and when three people try to stop him (at a time when no looting, arson, or riot was taking place) he shoots them killing two and wounding one, and his lawyers are claiming "self defense." By the way the three victims had no weapons. I think the judge's ruling is a way to stack the deck so the little F-ing idiot gets a free pass.

We just finished a small shopping trip. We were out (or almost out) of several kinds of meat we use quite frequently and we needed lettuce for todays chef salad. We noticed that the meat prices were a bit higher that we have seen in the recent past. Not a surprise. This Financial Times article gives a good recap of trends we have been seeing in other media.

I haven't seen it in a long time but I remember an auto repair outfit whose ad finished with "You can pay me now or pay me later." That is the basic message of this ProPublica story "There Is No Cheap Way To Deal With The Climate Crisis." I heard a bit ago that we had already had 18 $1billion+ weather/climate events in this country as of early October. I tracked down this piece from NOAA to check my memory. Another article had a graph which indicated that this year has been the third most expensive year ever behind only 2005 and 2017. But the projections indicate worse to come and the price of doing nothing and merely repairing some of the damage (because not all of it will be repaired).

 October 29

It has been dreary yesterday and today with rain and chilly temps. I got a couple of items pulled from the garden and some more on my list along with some rearranging of the containers. It hasn't been dry enough for long enough to completely dry out the cement so I will have a bit of sweeping to do hopefully before snow falls. None is in the forecast for the near future and we haven't had another frost yet. I want to see what seeds are in my ca    che but I don't think I will place any orders for the spring--just rely in the local nurseries for plants and the seeds on hand.

The little clinic we went to for our covid vaccination back in March just opened up appointments for the boosters early this week and we got our slots for yesterday afternoon. Since they had all three vaccine types we didn't have to think about mixing or matching. We just matched what we had already. Interesting--there was no delay for appointments and no packed waiting room this time. Another interesting change--we had less reaction to the vaccine. Last time we had a sore arm and a bit of heat at the injection site. This time less soreness and only for a couple of hours and no warmth at the site.

Annoyances:

1) Several pundits spent their time on the morning talk/news shows arguing that the Democrats should just accept the "bipartisan" infrastructure deal because "something is better than nothing." The whole process leaves a sour taste in my mouth. The original package was $6 trillion which was then shaved to $3.5 trillion and now shaved again to $1.85 trillion--maybe. I say that because the key senators haven't yet agreed. To be fair, the only part of the reconciliation bill already produced has been an "outline." And as they say the devil, and any angels there might be, is in the details of the language. Isn't 50% of something better than 100% of nothing, you ask. Well, Joe Manchin supposedly told Bernie Sanders that he would be quite comfortable with $0 for that bill. I have always said that the old notion of something being better depends on whether the something is distinguishable from nothing and the trajectory of the negotiations is tending towards the indistinguishable.

2) Another aspect of this process that offends me is the whole process that has pushed the so-called "hard" infrastructure into one bill while relegating the "soft" (human) aspects into another which some people are trying to whittle down to nothing. It seems to me that the bridges, roads, broadband, etc., that people need to work and function is much more important than the people, the individuals, that will use that hard infrastructure.

3) I have seen, more frequently than I like to think, an ad insisting that the proposed tax increases (which are now in limbo, I think) would cripple our businesses especially with respect to overseas competition (a.k.a. China). The spokesman insists that we can't let our politicians continue to devastate business as they did when "they" sent our manufacturing and its jobs overseas. Point: the biggest factor sending manufacturing and jobs beyond our borders was the drive for profits. Decisions on that came from the CEOs, CFOs, stockholders not the politicians. The worst you can say about the politicians was they did nothing to stop the process.

4) Talking about the supply chain situation Yves Smith asks "Will the Supply Chain Crisis Lead to More Onshoring?" Spoiler alert: not likely.

 October 26

Sunny but cool today. I got out on the patio and pulled the marigolds which looked very sad. We haven't had a frost yet but they obviously don't like how chilly the nights have been. They also didn't like the wet weather of the last several days. We had rain, sometimes heavy, for three days from late Saturday through late yesterday. The soil in the pots I emptied was very wet. I still have the geranium, the sunpatiens, and the last dahlia to pull soon.

The covid boosters are rolling out. The clinic where we got our vaccinations back in March sent an e-mail telling us we could get our appointments. Mom called and set us up for Thursday. They have all three booster varieties--Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J. We got the J&J vaccine originally so we are staying with the J&J for the booster.

This post on TomDispatch this morning makes one ask if Jan 6 was a dress rehearsal. A supposed quote from Benjamin Franklin has made the rounds over the past months. Asked what kind of government we were setting up he allegedly replied "A republic, if you can keep it." Keeping it requires people have faith in the system and I wonder how many of us have that faith any more.

October 27

I didn't get back to post this yesterday--obviously. I don't know yet what the weather will be because the sun isn't yet up. I take the weather forecasts with a big dose of salt.

Well when the sun came up we saw frost on cars, roofs and grass.

I haven't had much to say about the politics because the whole mess makes me feel we are on a treadmill--getting no where not very fast. The notion that they are "close" to an agreement on that very stripped down reconciliation bill is getting to be as much of a joke as the Former Guy's "infrastructure week." Given the lack of movement the various poll results that show broad dissatisfaction with President Biden, dissatisfaction with and lack of trust in the election process, and a feeling that the economy isn't really as good as the so-called experts say it is.

On that last point--we did our shopping on Sunday morning. We don't usually shop on Sunday but we normally do shop early. We like to avoid crowds (even before the pandemic) and were surprised at the number of shoppers also out. Most of them had heavily loaded carts. Hadn't seen that since the first three or four months of the pandemic. We needed dish soap and saw big gaps on the shelves with signs limiting individual customers to two items posted. More big gaps in the juice aisle in the cat food. At times over the last year we have noted bare shelves for certain brands of cat food but never were two major brands almost completely missing. Stopping to fill up the gas tank our total $30+--one third more than we have ever paid before with our current car. The "experts" tell us that the shortages and the inflation we see are only temporary. I don't know about the shortages but I have never seen price increases that were ever temporary.

 October 23

Labor shortage or employers not wanting to pay? I thought it hypocritical when all of the powers that be hailed as heroes the medical personnel, the retail clerks and such who showed up to work throughout the pandemic but have now decried the lazy wretches who don't want to work. When I was young I absorbed the message "If you work hard you will succeed." After years of working and succeeding--sort of--I realized the old strategy wasn't working. But I didn't abandon it; I simply shifted the goals. Later I had to recognize that working hard simply let me stay in place and a tenuous place it was. Over the last 20 years the old mantra completely broke down. Instead of working hard to make a living we are working ourselves to death without ever making a living. A large number of us are experiencing the industrial economy's version of a subsistence economy and it isn't at all satisfying.

David Kaiser asks "does democracy depend on literacy?" He makes an interesting point about the inability of modern Americans to  engage in real intelligible debate on complex issues. In a world of sound bites and tweets who spends much time in critical reading on our modern problems. Using that term, "critical," and I remember a piece on the controversy over "critical race theory" which noted that many people hear the word and think it is a negative evaluation of our institutions and people. One of the people interviewed accused the reporter of "telling lies about my ancestry." 

Charles Hugh Smith just coined a new mash-up word: kleptocrapocracy. It goes along nicely with Yves Smith's notion of "crapification." In other words, what isn't stolen is going to shit rapidly.

 October 22

OMG--two thirds through October and it has been a month since I last posted anything. Though Autumn can be a pretty time and the cooler temperatures are a definite relief after this Summer's heat, it is also a depressing time. The days are shorter and darkness comes sooner and lingers longer--or so it seems. It has been busy with appointments with eye doctors and trips to pick up glasses (mine haven't come yet), the cats are due for their vet visit, and Mom finally had appointments with an audiologist and was fitted for hearing aids. She is amazed by what she hasn't been hearing.

Autumn is the mirror image of Spring in the gardens. In Spring we wait for the shadow of the house to recede so the fence can reflect heat and light onto the containers which happens increasingly after the Vernal Equinox. Then we wait for the soil to thaw completely and warm up to planting. And finally we plant. Before we get things growing the space is bleak and depressing. In Autumn it is reversed. The sun travels up the fence until the space is shaded most of the day. The plants that don't like shade are first to droop followed by those who don't like the lower nighttime temperatures. I have already removed three. We have had unusual rains lately so I detached the hose and put it away for the winter. I am looking at the roses wondering if I will try to keep them. They have suffered from recurring infestation of mosaic. The spray I have been using has helped but applying the spray with the rains we have had would have been useless. A couple of other plant I plan to protect for the winter. I have a small straw bale for that purpose. The end of the season will find the gardens almost as bleak and depressing as early Spring.

I finally finished the crochet tablecloth--after nearly 10 months. That includes the the time I lost because I had to pull everything out because of a major, catastrophic, pattern busting mistake. However, I persisted and the finished piece is now on the table. My major aim was to use up as much of my stash of crochet thread as possible. It was a mix of reclaimed thread from a bedspread project I never finished, partial balls from long ago projects, and a couple of balls of new thread. Not all were the same color but I decided that the final effect of white/ecru/cream was attractive and won't dye it. I have also finished two cross stitched table toppers and a table scarf.

September 25

It looks like the weather will be cool, dry, and sunny today. I plan to sweep up and tidy up on the patio. Some of the plants were torn up by the high winds we had a couple of days ago but the rain kept me indoors. I need to spray the roses again as well.

Yesterday I straightened up a small corner of my What-not Room because I lost my quilting rulers in the jumble. That is now done and the rulers are on an improvised wall mount using command-strip hooks and a length of gardening twist-tie. I want to cut the pieces to start a 'disappearing nine patch' quilt. That bug is biting again.

I have seen several economic articles that refer to the "Great Resignation" because of the numbers of people who have or are leaving jobs for new ventures. And then there are the "Take This Job And Shove It" articles though this one is probably the one from the most pissed off (now former) employee. Having spent way too much as a retail clerk (I never felt like an "associate") I sympathize totally with the woman who posted her resignation delivered over the Walmart intercom.

As if we needed any more proof that Texas Republicans are batshit insane look at this. They are not alone. Some of their ilk in Arizona want yet another "full signature" audit after the "Cyber Ninjas" (fr)audit  found that Biden did win and my a very, very slightly larger margin. Oh, I almost forgot--Texas Republicans are going to do an audit of the votes in four of their largest counties after the Loser In Florida demanded one.

I wonder if this is a sign of times to come. Earlier today Mom got sucked into a poll that asked a lot about her attitudes toward marijuana and what the state should do about it. We think it was for politicos who want to continue criminalizing it and heavier state intrusion. Mom disagreed with most of the positions described.

 22 September--cold, windy and wet

Very chilly and wet. We can always tell the temperature by looking across the street as the old man who lives there walks his dog. If he is wearing shorts and no shirt it is very warm. If it is just warm he will add a t-shirt; longs sleeves and long pants if it is cooler. This morning he was wearing a jacket. The temperature was about 58F when we went out shopping. I am not ready for really cold weather but cool, or even a bit chilly, is nice after the heat of late June through early September.

A commentator on one of the news/talk shows remarked on the anger in the "vaxed"vs."unvaxed" split. The anti-vax people have always been on a hair trigger but he thought the rising heat of the people who have been vaccinated was new. They seem to have gone from bewildered to ballistic in record time. The speaker quoted the Roman orator Seneca that anger is a person's response to frustrated expectations. Everyone waited anxiously for the vaccines to come out thinking that all would be well when we all dutifully lined up and got our jabs. He said he shared that view and was surprised and angry that it hasn't  come to pass. I was a bit amused by that reaction and realized that I was amused because I hadn't shared the expectation. I had noticed the response of our group of anti-vaccination idiots (not much covered and easily passed over) and had looked up the percentages of people who get flu shots every year (only about 45%). So when the stats came out that 65% of those eligible had received at least one shot I was pleasantly surprised.

This is an interesting article posted on Naked Capitalism about the trend of fewer men enrolling in both 2 and 4 year colleges. I have argued for some time that the cost of tertiary education far outweigh the benefits for most people. And too much of that cost is covered by debt.

 16 September

Another sunny day with mild temps. I got out and watered everything and filled the bird feeder. The birds are back and feeding like crazy. We hadn't seen many at all since we have had this streak of high 80s and 90s. I might get back out and dead head some more plants. I am also thinking about what needs to be taken out and which pots need to be emptied. The biggest containers I never empty and for the last couple of years I haven't even cleared the dead plants out. The remains provide a good ground cover which prevents the rain from splattering soil out of the pots. The smaller ones I empty and pile up under the table/planting bench for the winter season. Last week I cleared out the shed and threw away a whole lot of pots that came with the larger transplants of the past few years. I have plenty of more sturdy and attractive pots left.

I still have a bit of a mental stutter when I go to the stores and see empty shelves. While shopping we went into the pet department and saw almost NO Friskies canned cat food. The shelves were bare. And this isn't the first time for that brand and has happened with other brands as well. I won't even go into the gaps in the cleaning, paper goods and other aisles. It isn't nearly as bad but I did see a couple of signs limiting the number of certain item people can purchase at a given time. Our little dairy was out of string cheese and lard. Their suppliers are short on supplies. I remember when you would never see a gap on the shelves. The first time I remember seeing that kind of thing was about four years ago at a CVS drug store waiting for Mom to see the RN on duty. The shelves opposite the waiting area had some gaps and a lot of places where only three or four items were displayed. That was before the pandemic and its consequences. I did two stints as an inventory counter--the last about 20 years ago--and I almost never saw bare shelves. Most were so packed it made counting accurately difficult. How times have changed.

 September 15

Another nice sunny day but very little in the way of rain. We had to do our grocery shopping so the watering will be delayed until tomorrow.

I was somewhat bummed out way back when in the early days of the pandemic the stores backed up by the health departments and the state banned our reusable grocery bags. They claimed that it was a health issue because (at that time) contaminated surfaces were thought to be the major route to the spread of the virus. But even after studies showed that the virus was actually spread by droplets (and later aerosols) the bans remained. Things have loosened up a bit. We are back to taking our bags to the grocery store and the dairy. I might begin to use them again at other stores soon. This little item came through my news feeds that touches on the problem. California probably soon have a law that forces the packaging manufacturers to use the recycling symbol far less often since most plastics may be theoretically recyclable but aren't really in the real world. Of course the industry is pissed and resisting with all its might. The pandemic was a godsend for them and they loudly proclaimed how much more sanitary their single use bags were. Things have changed and the pollution from those plastics is moving back into focus.

John Michael Greer has a new post on Ecosophia on what wealth really is and it isn't gold or dollars or blips in a bank's computer.

 September 14--half past another month

They promised us rain today and we haven't had any yet. It might show up later. Mom got her reminder to renew the car tags and her license. We went to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles office first thing this morning and got it done. The clerk who took care of her drivers license wanted her to take the paperwork over to the self-serve kiosk to finish off but she refused. Didn't see why the clerk couldn't do it right there while they were doing the rest. The staff are trying to move people as much as possible to the do-it-yourself model. After balking the clerk did finish the transaction.

I wonder if the BVM is having the same trouble we are seeing in the stores. I think most have signs up saying they are hiring. We stopped off at the grocery store to pick up a few items we needed ahead of our regular shopping at the regional big box chain store (not Walmart or Target) at the end of the week. Mom asked if I had seen the notice on the door as we went in. It asked for customer patience as the lines were likely to be longer because of the "labor shortage." I hadn't seen that one but while we were in line at the BVM waiting to get in one of the other people said that that grocery was going to put the self-check-out stands back in. They had taken them out several years ago after a run of three or four years because the customers refused to use them. We were among those who didn't like to use them. We like to gossip a bit with the clerks many of whom we had seen and talked to for years. But the clerk we talked to this morning noted that those clerks had quit in droves over the last few months. She gave the usual litany of reasons: low pay, long and/or uncertain hours, and a lot of very rude customers. Since most could qualify for Social Security the decided they could do without the job and its headaches.

I think about that situation at the grocery store and articles I have read, often by former wait staff or store clerks, which describe the same thing all over the country and in other countries. On flatly told the pundits (if they bothered to read her article) that people wanted to work but for themselves and not for the employers who paid little and demanded much. I also think of the article from last year in the Guardian which talked about the roots of the opioid crisis which the author described as "shit life syndrome." But it is so much easier for the politicians to declare that people are simply lazy. Sen. Joe Manchin demonstrated that when he said the the "child tax credit" people are now getting and the Biden Administration wants to make permanent should be contingent on people working. I guess he doesn't realize that to get a tax credit you have to file taxes which means you have to have an income which means you are already or have been working. How f***ing clueless can you be?

TomDispatch has another good article dissecting our misadventure in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, I think it will go into the same memory hole that similar articles on Vietnam went into. It is obvious that we really didn't learn anything then and probably won't now and in the future. If you change the names, it reads the same.

I read something about this yesterday. A new report from 18 experts have issued a report which calls into question the notion that most of us don't need to get COVID booster shots. A few with specific conditions are an exception. I remarked to Mom that the decision to get a vaccination was an easy compared to the decision to get a booster since jury is still out.

 September 13

It is still too early to see what is happening outside. Last weather I saw predicted sunny and dry. We'll see.

Found this item this morning. Some people can't accept the notion of climate change but if insurance companies and animals do perhaps we should also. I have seen articles for some time about animals changing their behavior, diets, and ranges. I remember an example from a history of the industrial revolution in England involving the color shift in moths in the industrial cities in the mid 1800s.  They originally displayed a whiteish color that blended with the trees and over a couple of decades they changed to a sooty gray because it blended in better with the soot covered trees. It didn't take long at all.

12 September--What we remember

I tried, and for the most part succeeded, in ignoring the 9/11 memorials though the TV was was super saturated with them. It was one of the handful of incidents I will always remember where I was and what I was doing as it happened. I was driving to morning classes and listening to the news on the radio. Normally it would have been music. When I got to my destination they had already put a TV outside the offices and people were crowded around it. That remained the situation for the rest of the day with people cycling in and out as they went to class or met other demands. I felt somewhat disconnected from the events and surprised by some of the reactions even months later. On woman who was finishing her program and was interviewing for jobs balked at going to work for a company whose offices were in a Chicago skyscraper. Another didn't want to go into Chicago at all she was so afraid of another attack. I didn't share that fear which seemed so pervasive and I wasn't enthusiastic about rushing into either Iraq or Afghanistan. And I became less enthusiastic as time passed and more details were revealed and much of the "evidence" supporting the wars turned out to be utterly fraudulent.

I always thought a "war on terror" was ridiculous like so many other so-called wars over my lifetime. Terror had no territory for us to conquer. Just as poverty had no territory and communism has no territory. There were people who were poor or who believed in communism or used terror to achieve their political ends but those people could be anywhere. Ideas, strategies, and conditions have no borders. We invaded Afghanistan because its Taliban government allowed Al Qaida to set up shop there but didn't do much about Pakistan even though Osama bin Laden found refuge in the western part of the country and lived there for years before U.S. forces killed him in a raid that strained relations further with an allegedly allied sovereign country.

David Kaiser's latest post makes some astute observations on the impact of the "war on terror" on our government, defense industry, and society generally. Spoiler: none of it is good.

Now that President Biden has declared the end of the "forever wars' one would think we could reorder our financial priorities and scale back on the defense spending which already exceeds, if I remember rightly, the next ten big military spenders in the world. But, as Alfred McCoy at tomdispatch notes, the administration is proposing another almost $750billion for the Defense Department. That at the time when certain legislators are balking at a "human infrastructure" bill that comes in a $3.5 trillion for years which comes out to $350 billion per year--in other words half the Pentagon spending. Our Powers That Be are far more comfortable buying bombs and sexy high tech toy (many of which don't do what was promised) than make sure we have child care, elder care, medical care, and education for our citizens.

 9 September

Another nice cool day with more clouds than yesterday and a chance of showers. We noticed that the local Walgreens had their flu vaccines in stock when we stopped on our last shopping trip. We went in to get the shots today. It took a bit longer today than it did last year perhaps because we were so early in the season but also, I think because several people were signed up to get Covid shots. The store didn't have a general mask policy except for the small room where the shots were administered. They would have given us a throwaway but we always carry one (or more) of our own nowadays. 

I found this on TomDispatch today. Jane Braxton Little tells her story of evacuating as the Dixie Fire took out much of the old Gold Rush town of Greenville. She lost her office as that building and most of the downtown burned but her house survived. We are used to seeing news stories/pictures of refugees in other parts of the world. I guess we should get used to seeing our own people as refugees in our own land.

 8 September

It is another nice day today. Sun, dry, and mild temps. Yesterday was hot and muggy which warmed the house to the point where I decided to turn on the air. We did finally get some rain over night--enough so I don't have to water plants today. The clean up in Louisiana and other places hit by Ida even as more rain is predicted to hit those same places. I remember a remark by one of the anchors on one of the news programs talking about the costs of these storms. He has a friend who works as a risk analyst for an insurance company and said he doesn't do much of that any more--he is too busy writing checks to cover the insured damage. I remember reading several times that, whatever the politicians and others might say about climate change, the insurance companies are taking the threat seriously. It is costing them a lot of money.

Tom Engelhardt is back at TomDispatch after a two week holiday. As usual his post today encapsulates much of what I have been thinking as I watched the sloppy withdrawal from Afghanistan, the legislative games in Washington, the cruel legislation passed and signed into law in Texas which other red state governors are salivating to replicate, and so much else that would once have been unthinkable.

 September 3

Cool and bright today. Looks like it will be dry. I got out to do some trimming in the gardens and took out the dyers woodruff as well. I still want to get a handle on the roses and the chamomile. I put the marigolds in small pots in the wire holders on the fence. That gets them out of the way so I can more easily move things around. I say "more easily" because there is nothing easy about moving 5gal buckets full of dirt and plant.

Watching the news is painful and infuriating. The responses to the pull out in Afghanistan was bound to be messy and it was. The Republican are showing their boorish, self-serving, stupid partisanship. The only thing the want is back in power. The Democrats aren't quite as bad but they are letting their fixation on the perfect get in the way of getting the best out of the situation that can be gotten. We could have gotten out after we kicked the Taliban out, or after we killed bin Laden and had a legitimate claim to a victory. As it is we have a muddle--neither victory nor outright defeat--with a load of broken promises that probably could never have been kept. One thing I hope comes out is that we put a stake into that vampire ideology of "nation building."

I noticed that President Biden noted the toll the long mess in Afghanistan has taken on the 1% of our population who served there. Several commentators noted that all those advocating for continuation had no children in the military. That is the weakness of our current system. I think that all citizens should serve a three year tour of duty in the military (what ever service) when they turn 18, with a further three years in the reserves. No exemptions. If you are bound for college--wait til after your service. If you married young or had children young--you still serve. Women serve equally with the men.

Hurricane Ida did a job on Louisiana, Mississippi and all states between there and Maine. The best news our of New Orleans was that the levy system held but the electric grid is almost a total loss. It will take weeks to get that back and I wonder if parts of it will never be rebuilt. One of the news reporters asked one of the politicians why they didn't bury the electric lines after Katrina. Answer: too expensive. I wonder how expensive rebuilding the system to what it was before will be.

We have had a couple of new peeves lately. Over two days this week Mom received seven e-mails from politicians begging for gifts--and not a one is from our state or had declared for a national office. One was Ted "Cancun" Cruz. And no, he is not one of our senators. Then she got requests from charities she has already donated money to in the last month. She is getting rather tired of the constant pleas and is refusing to give any more. They used to be satisfied with a single yearly donation but now want monthly gifts that they will be glad to relieve you of the need to actually write a check and post it.

 September 2

We decided to go up to our favorite dairy yesterday. It was an impromptu trip brought on by our realization that our milk would not last til next week when we were going to go anyway. They had their yearly offering of mums so I picked up the new plant I planned on. It is now transplanted into one of my empty 5 gal buckets. Then, since we were out already, we went to our favorite butcher shop and stocked up. After the freezer died we decided to use up most of that stock (we did save all of the meats and most of the other foods) and then replenish after we had decided what what we really needed. We wanted to simplify what we kept on hand. Needless to say--we didn't do much after we got home and got everything back home.

On the drive I noticed a number of trees already turning. It seems a bit early. I don't know if the trees are reacting to the hot temps, lack of rain for the last three weeks or so, or the cooler temps especially at night. We have been able to shut off the air and open the windows and doors. The cats are happy and have spent a lot of time in front of the open windows.

 August 31

Well, August is gone. I will have to change the door wreath sometime in the next couple of days. Change out the summer wreath for a fall wreath. It has cooled down enough for me to turn off the air and open windows. The breeze feels real nice. What ever systems the weather people saw either fell apart or jumped around us. Not enough moisture to fill a thimble. I got out in the gardens today and took out the peppers and the poor little dahlia that has looked sickly for the last couple of weeks. I also got the white rose transplanted. I wanted to give it plenty of time to get rooted in its new container before winter. I called it a day out there after I got everything watered and making mental note of the things I want to get done tomorrow. I finally identified my mystery plant which has begun to flower. It is Japanese indigo. I didn't plant it this year so I think it seeded itself and the seeds germinated when the soil warmed in the spring. I will leave it alone and see if I get more next year.

August 30

The weather people say we will have a break from the high temps starting this week. I hope so. We were supposed to get some rain last night but I don't see any evidence of it. I will have to water the containers this morning.

My morning reading started with an article in The NY Times questioning the data behind the recent push for COVID booster shots. We have listened and read what has shown up on our feeds but remain skeptical. We have learned that initial news reports are often unreliable. I did think that the Israeli trend might be replicated here at least as far as the spread of the Delta strain of COVID and the rapid full approval of the Pfizer vaccine. I expect that the Moderna and J&J vaccines will soon follow into full approval. I expect that COVID will (if it hasn't already) become an endemic virus we have to deal with every year. That will probably mean we will need new vaccines periodically like we do for the flu. But I don't care to be pushed into getting a booster  sooner than it is needed just to bolster the bottom like of drug companies.

My reading was interrupted because we impulsively decided to do our shopping today instead of tomorrow. Neither of us had anything planned that couldn't be postponed. It was a fairly big shopping trip because we hadn't really restocked after the last freezer failed. Just sort of holding off to really check what we needed and what we are phasing out. We were low on veggies, wet cat food, cat litter and a few other items. We had to go to our alternate grocery story because we couldn't find any beef bologna. The alternate store had it but it is weird when something you could always find suddenly not there. (We go with the beef because we have never liked the kind the chicken or turkey varieties even if they are mixed with pork.) That made it a very exhausting morning especially as we found a sale on a local brand of cat litter--2 35lb-buckets for $20.

This morning, during one of the news segments on the masking controversy, the doctor being interviewed made a very important point that was passed over without much comment. The politicization of masking has drowned out the hygienic arguments for masking--the fact that the masks minimize, not eliminate but minimize, all viral respiratory infections. I remember how surprised when the medical establishment was pleasantly surprised that flus and colds were much lighter last year while, it should be noted, when we were masking and distancing because of COVID. 

 August 28

Almost the end of another month. It is early yet so nothing visible outside other than a few house lights. The weather people say it will be another warm and sunny day with possible thunder showers later. Thankfully, we aren't on the gulf coast. I hope I have some time to do a bit of garden maintenance before it gets too warm.

The political blame games are intensifying as the pull out from Afghanistan winds down. At least on the Republican side where those (sort of) human moral pretzels are bleating that Biden should resign and mewling about impeachment. They conveniently forget (and hope we will forget) that the debacle started under George W. and the withdrawal was "negotiated" between the Taliban and The Former Guy without any consultation with the Afghan government our supposed ally. Soon we will hear pundits talking about the "lessons" we should "learn" from the mess. Actually that may be starting already as seen here. What David Kaiser describes is a program for failure for both putative allies and for ourselves.

 August 26

We have had hot, humid, sunny days that have brought evening and overnight thundershowers for the last couple of nights. We saw pictures of the lightning show over Chicago last night and on our side we had lightening bright enough to light up the room as though we had switched on a light momentarily--through the closed curtains. It is hot and humid now and I wonder if we will get more thundershowers tonight.

Mom read something on problems with the Former Guy's "big, beautiful wall" a couple of days ago. I found this item on Gizmodo which goes into more detail. It looks like he was as good at finding competent engineers and builders as he was at finding lawyers to work on his "stop the steal" legal cases. I wonder where all the money really went.

Saw a couple of good political cartoons on the Direct ezine this morning. I especially like the one showing the Four Horsemen (War, Famine, Pestilence and Death) joined by a fifth horseman punching something into his smartphone. "And your are?" the four ask. "Misinformation" replies the fifth. Oh and the one with Hubris and Folly marching along with Hubris saying "We're rich. We're powerful. We can do anything we want." and Folly saying "We should take over a backward tribal country and remake it in our image. What could possibly go wrong?" That last echoes a comment on one of the commentaries on TV a couple of days ago which declared our "adventure" in Afghanistan as being like a Greek tragedy. Anybody remember which human failing was at the bottom of most of those plays? HUBRIS. An overweening pride. 

 August 21

It is very early here on this Saturday. I have been awake--sort of--for a couple of hours already. Our cats simply did not want to settle down so I am now waiting for my kettle to come to temperature and I can get my coffee made. The weather people promised us rain today but I'll wait and see. Those promises are more often broken than kept. The weather is so much more unpredictable nowadays.

Well, the War on Terror has suffered a major blow if not a total defeat. It was always a stupid idea in the first place. Terror is a technique, a tactic, just as saturation bombing or machine guns. It is not territory you can occupy (for however long), or bodies you can kill or maim, or "hearts and minds" you can try to "persuade". Now the blame game and spin games are going at full speed. Oh we didn't really lose because there hasn't been an attack on the "homeland" in the last 20 years. (No, we grew our own terrorists which no Republican it seems wants to call terrorists.) Or The Former Guy was right but Biden botched the whole thing converting a glorious "negotiated" peace agreement into an ignominious and chaotic retreat. (Pure crap.) Or hand wringing over the plight of Afghan women. This piece in Gods and Radicals pretty much describes what self serving non-sense that is.

My feeling that our society is spiraling into insanity keeps intensifying. It isn't just the schizophrenic responses to the pull out in Afghanistan. It is also the responses to COVID. Remember the couple last year who decided to take hydroxychloroquine formulated for aquarium use? Both landed in the hospital and one died. Well, here is another COV-idiot. This time a guy took veterinary ivermectin which is a cattle  dewormer. Or this unbelievable bit of insanity. I can, sort of, understand an ordinary Joe, but for an EMS director to offer ivermectin to his firefighters is totally bonkers.

August 24

Well, it is warm and heading to hot. I did get out on the patio early and did some deadheading and checking on the moisture in the containers. They are all doing very well though we haven't had any rain and I haven't watered for the last four days. The weather people keep promising rain but it all goes north or south or falls apart. I think I will go out early again tomorrow and water things a bit unless we do get some rain.

I saw that the Pfizer vaccine has full approval. But given the response the Former Guy got at his rally I doubt any of his hard core supporters will follow his advice and get the vaccine. The FDA and other medical groups are still considering boosters for all the currently used vaccines. Nothing definite has been announced as of this moment.

I have been trying to ignore the clusterf*&k in Kabul. All of the critics of the pull out annoy me. I don't know if Biden's people had a plan but the old saying that battle plans never survive the first contact with the enemy goes for any kind of plan with a tweaking: no plan survives first contact with reality. Robert Reich's post today says what I have been feeling: too much news on some items (Afghanistan, Cuomo, the Olympics) and not enough on what is of urgent importance here and now.

 August 20

It is bright and sunny today--and hot. The patio was already touching 90F just after we finished breakfast about 8am. I had thought I would do a bit of tidying up but decided not. Mom had some banking to do this morning and we decided to take a side trip to a little local bakery for some sweets. I am just hanging out reading the feeds in my e-mail.

I found this piece on Naked Capitalism that is interesting and not in a good way. I have been reading stories about the declining efficacy of COVID vaccines for the last couple of weeks including one from Israel about two weeks ago which reported that they are advising boosters for all people over age 50. I wondered at the time when we would get that advise over here. Over the last few days the CDC has issued that advise for those who got the Modern and the Pfizer shots when the reach 8 months after their last shot. I noticed that cases in my state have gone up though my county isn't as bad as places south of us. We still wear our masks and are "getting religious" about it. We have noticed lately that most of the employees of stores we have gone to are wearing masks. Today many of the customers are also.

We have noticed the rising food prices (and prices of almost everything else) for some years. Our usual joke is that the government economists don't shop for their own food because the inflation we saw never seemed to get into the official figures. According to Bloomberg the phenomenon is world wide and has gotten worse with the pandemic which drastically reduced incomes and disrupted supply chains.

Researchers at the University of Washington have reported that heat related deaths have increased by 74% since 1980 and deaths related to extreme cold has increased by 31% since 1990. I would love to see a graph of the year by year deaths put against the increasing global average temperature. Also did the researchers take into account population increase?

 August 19

Well, I'm back again. We have had a hectic week. Saturday we woke up to find that the sewer had backed up into our apartment. Enough sewage water came in to soak at least a third of our rug. We didn't lose much when we cleaned out the closet to see what we could keep. Almost everything came out dry. The landlords did get a guy to rout out the sewer line from the house to the street and a carpet cleaner out to shampoo and suck the water out of the rug--in all four of the units on that line. Everything seemed fine until Monday morning when I checked and found the rug soaked again though not as much of an area as before. Our neighbor discovered the problem about 10pm the night before--long after we had already gone to bed. The maintenance man came out again and removed the clog. It is just now drying out again. 

But our whole schedule for the week got compressed and I didn't do much in the gardens. Although I hadn't watered anything and we hadn't had rain since sometime last week nothing dried out and died. I did water all containers this morning and have a mental list of things that need to be done starting tomorrow morning.

For several years I have read various pieces by several authors about whether the world has entered a new geological era and what to call it. A couple argue that no new name is necessary because on a geologic scale the era of humans (prehistory and history) is a mere blip. Others insist that the human passage on this earth, especially since the beginning of the Industrial Age, has so impacted the earth that some new designation is needed. The term "Anthropocene" has often been used and now I find a new candidate "Pyrocene". This piece from Grist reviews a new book by that name.

I read a long article this morning about the repercussions of the Federal declaration of a water emergency in the Colorado River basin as the levels in Lake Meade and Lake Powell have declined to the lowest level since they were first filled in the middle of the last century. Concerns over water  however, isn't limited to the Colorado River and this article hit home for me. I lived in Fort Collins for about 15 years, attended Colorado State, and took frequent day trips along the Poudre Canyon through with the Cache la Poudre River flows. It is a major source of water in northern Colorado so a Denver suburb wanting to build a pipeline to tap it won't go down very well.

 August 15--officially half past the month.

Time to take a break. Yesterday has been a time of chaos and trying to get things back to a bit of normal. Our landlords had to get a blocked sewer pipe cleared but before we realized there was a problem we had water backing up from our utility closet and half of the living room rug soaked. Then we had to have the carpet cleaned. But a large part of the day was taking care of those problems. Today we had to get all of the things we had in the under-the-stairs closet checked out and put back after it dried out. Mom just finished mopping the bathroom floor--the water that went that way soaked the rugs and made the cat litter the little monsters threw out a mass of sludge. That is all taken care of  now and our normal pattern has been re-established. I also got out for about two hours in the gardens. I pulled the fading and tattered petunias, replaced them with the calibrachoa sunbells. Those should do well there since they don't mind the full sun. Some of the plants now have to deal with partial shade because the shadow of the house is traveling back toward the fence.

Axios is reporting that the Afghan president has left the country. One of the Taliban demands has been his removal from office. Now they are talking about "unconditional surrender." I wonder "How do you 'negotiate' such an uncompromising demand?" I don't think you do.

According to the news reports the FDA has authorized a third COVID shot for Americans with compromised immune systems. My niece just said that she had already received hers. She has several conditions which weaken her immunity and has been taking steroids for sever pain associated with them. The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel, which has persistently been ahead of the curve on vaccinations, has authorized a booster for all over age 50.

The insurance companies are, according to this story, starting to get tough on the unvaccinated. The story concerns individual health insurance but I would expect the push will also target corporate customers soon--if it has't already. That is pretty much what happened with smoking. They basically gave breaks to companies that took a tough line on encouraging employees to quit. Some even refused to hire or retain smokers.

 August 9

It is one of those days when I don't really want to do anything at all. We stayed up to watch the Olympics closing ceremony which kept us up past our normal bed time. That has thrown off my rhythms somewhat. I got out to give my gardens a light watering because we were hoping for rain which has been hit and miss (most often miss) lately. However, as it is now raining heavily it is a hit today. I traced and cut out the pattern for the new style masks so I won't be using the original pattern I pieced together from the downloaded pattern. Dealing with one solid piece of paper will be so much better than working with a pattern of four pieces taped together.

We watched quite a bit of the games. They provided an acceptable background noise to help relieve Mom's tinnitus and a relief from the interminably repeated "news." We were pleasantly surprised by the coverage. They showed a greater variety of sports from the last time I watched. We tuned in at the right time to see the archery finals, skeet shooting finals, one of the cross country equestrian heats (wish we had caught the dressage), women's canoe 100 (new this year) and skateboarding (also new). I was utterly amazed by women's skateboarding where the winners were all under 15. Thoroughly in awe Molly Seidel's bronze performance in the women's marathon which was only her third marathon ever. The opening and closing ceremonies were brilliantly staged. Successful all the way around.

August 11--almost half past another month!!

We had thundershowers and heavy rain pass through very early this morning so I won't be gardening today. I finished another cross-stitched table runner this morning--one with a fall theme. I am still in the doldrums where I don't really want to do much at all. We'll see if I find anything worth the energy to comment on this morning. 

I guess the Senate finally got off its collective butt to pass the "hard" infrastructure bill with 19 Republicans joining the majority and an outline for the "human" infrastructure bill (not fully written yet) on strictly Democratic votes (49-50). Now it all goes to the House where nothing is sure.

The news media has subjected us to an interminable series of stories (with more to come I am sure) on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Most involve a large dose of second guessing because of the advances and atrocities of the Taliban. All of that handwringing and moaning falls flat with me. All of the analysis ignores several factors and fails to ask several basic questions. First, much of the current situation derived from our Cold War against the Soviet Union. We funded and supplied the Taliban (among other groups) asking only if they opposed the Soviets. We didn't ask how they felt about the condition of women or democracy. Of course, we were shocked (SHOCKED) when the Taliban established a repressive, medieval, fundamentalist Islamic government. Second, we went bonkers when a group of hijackers who were mostly Saudis and led by a Saudi expat living in Afghanistan took down the World Trade Center, part of the Pentagon, and crashed one plane in rural Pennsylvania. We invaded, expelled the Taliban, and supported a nominally democratic government without asking how much support that government or its leaders had in the country generally. Rather reminds me of our support for the Diem family inVietnam which turned out so well. Third, what our leaders (and most of our society) knew about the history, society, and culture of Afghanistan and its surrounding countries wouldn't even fill a small thimble. And our knowledge hasn't really increased over time. We never asked ourselves if we could even achieve whatever goals we wanted to do. I am not sure we had any besides killing Osama bin Ladin. The Taliban were unlucky enough to stand between us and our revenge. We never questioned the use of military force or whether some other means might have achieved better results. I think I will let this goal before it gives me a headache.

We live in a crazy country. We have at least two governors who are insisting they won't impose mask mandates and will forbid any one else from imposing as in cities and school boards and individual schools. Of course the two I am thinking of particularly are governors of two of the most populous with the highest rates of COVID-delta infections and hospitals near or exceeding capacity. But we also have a couple of other governors (I forget which ones) advising doctors to administer third or booster shots and a number of people clamoring for such shots on their own while a lot of others are refusing even after people near and dear to them have died of the disease. 

 August 6

I haven't posted for a few days--nothing much interesting to say. The gardens are in minimal maintenance mode right now--just deadheading and grabbing a weed that decides to poke its head up where it is noticeable and watering of course. Some of my energy is going to deciding what I will need to clear out starting in early September. That is when the garden shops and others start carrying mums. I need to clear a space for them. I am also thinking about a different arrangement for the containers next spring--something I hope will allow me to reach all of the plants more easily. Over the last week I have been collecting a couple of sweet peppers every couple of days and six pretty red peppers were ready to harvest. Over the last week the temperatures have been a bit lower and didn't rise high enough on the patio to make just watering the pots exhausting.

I just cut out the pieces for a new face mask--one based on scarves. We are not going to put the masks away. Why? you wonder. New variants of COVID, the possibility of breakthrough infections, and a flu season coming on. 

We have been following the fires in Idaho and California. It is easy to forget that other areas suffering catastrophic fires also. Just this morning the news mentioned one that had already burned over 6000 hectares (14000+ acres) on the Michigan upper peninsula. (The story was on BBC, surprisingly, which is why the area was in hectares). However, another story just along with that one was this. Yesterday I read a piece which said that people in tourist areas of Greece and Turkey had taken to the ocean to get away from the flames. One report described the Mediterranean as ringed fire from Spain through Greece and Turkey.

I listened to one of the economics pundits this morning touting the employment numbers and insisting that the current inflation was transitory because (they think) it is driven by a few sectors--cars, hospitality and housing. Pardon my skepticism. Another reporter noted that the Dixie fire in California has gone from 8th largest to 3rd largest fire in California. One just now noted that parts of California (and I assume other fire prone areas) will soon be uninsurable. They thought that would make them uninhabitable but the insurance problem didn't really affect the coastal areas because powerful interests pressured the federal government to change the flood plain maps so their expensive buildings could qualify for government flood insurance. I wonder if something similar will happen to support the real estate market in California. The problem though is the hit the local economies will take because of the destruction and loss of wealth and income. And the ongoing drought is affecting a much wider area. Already dairy farmers and cattlemen have reduced or eliminated their herds. Other farmers are giving up or plowing under crops that are dying for lack of water. Remember the groundwater is increasingly difficult and expensive to acquire. To say that the COVID will be gone and the economy will continue to bounce back ignores other factors that will drag on economic growth.

Another "sign of the times" appeared on my Facebook feed yesterday. Our favorite tea/spice/bulk grains store is going to close for good in early September. The owner's husband lost his job two and a half years ago and after failing to find a new job in the area decided to try out of state. He found one and after six months with the job appearing likely to be a stable, good fit his wife will close up her shop and join him. Damn! that is the only such shop in the area.

Gail Tverberg at Our Finite World has a long (and I did read it) on the push for vaccination against COVID and the serious questions involved. Pay special attention to the part on antibody-dependent enhancement. I checked it out an found among the virus categories noted for this phenomenon are SARS, HIV-1, and influenzas. Note also that no effective vaccine has been developed for HIV or SARS. And influenza vaccines have to be recalibrated each season.

For another long read that makes some interesting conclusions on our political condition take a look at Richard Heinberg's recent Museletter #341. And it I did read it as well as posts by Peter Turchin before. 

 July 31

It looks like we might have a nice fairly cool and sunny day. I hope so because I really need to get some trimming done on some of the plants and perhaps some watering. Have to check that out. I collected the first three ripe peppers yesterday. My lavender, petunias, and rosemary especially need pruning and shaping. A couple of other plants need to have spend blossoms cut.

Jan In SanFran has a good post this morning which I think tells the truth about politics today. I have been perplexed for some time about the utter lack of conviction in too many Republicans especially--at least those that seem to command the news cycle. But the notion of an election-industrial complex makes a lot of sense--and not in a good way.

Gizmodo/Earther has a slide show that is astounding--and somewhat troubling. We hear a lot about the fires in our western states but go just a little north into Canada to see another large fire; or head over the Mediterranean and see fires burning all around from Sardinia to Lebanon; or go further east to Siberia and see the same. For the last couple of weeks I noticed that I can't really tell if we have clear skies until the sun if well up because of the haze. On some days what should have been clear blue is marred by a dirty, rusty tinge. Note--I live over 1000 miles away from the big fires making the news.

I found this WiskeyandGunpowder post by way of Naked Capitalism. There is a saying that generals prepare to fight the last war and this analysis of a failed war game confirms it. If you want a fictional demonstration read the first half of John Michael Greer's Twilight's Last Gleaming. 

This CNBC story also came by way of Naked Capitalism and my only comment is "Ouch." Even though we are fully vaccinated here we still keep our masks with us.