January 26

Well we finally got the snow they had originally predicted for Sunday though not (yet) as much as they thought. Other areas got much more and Alabama got a really nasty tornado. They expect our snow will continue through tomorrow.

My own humble observation on the last week and what it indicates for the near future:

First--Former #45 is out of office (thank all the gods) but he is far from gone. As of now he can still run again in 2024 unless he is convicted in his impeachment trial and barred from future office. He may still command the loyalty of enough of the Republican base to tip an election and he is threatening to use it against anyone he thinks is insufficiently loyal to him. That consideration may keep enough Republicans in line to vote down the conviction. 

Second-- The Democrats have a narrower margin in the house and the Senate is evenly split. Even without Former #45 gettin meaningful legislation through will be difficult. And the parties are themselves beset by internal splits so legislation is going to be even more of a "sausage making" process than usual.

Third--The COVID situation won't be under any kind of control for the better part of this year or, perhaps, into early next year. Right now we are at an apparent plateau with respect to cases, hospitalizations, and deaths according to the latest news accounts. Which way the statistics will go from here no one knows. And no one knows how long the immunity achieved, both by way of vaccination and natural infection, will last. And the virus is mutating.

Fourth--AS the pundits have said the economic problems will persist as long as the pandemic persists. But many of the trends existed before the pandemic accelerated them. Employment won't improve any time soon. Too many small businesses closed and won't re-open. Look up the statistics for how many people the small business sector employed and you can see the scope of the problem. 

Fifth--Just as the political establishment is split six ways to Sunday the country is also split six ways to Sunday. President Biden's message of unity is nice but too many people simply refuse to accept that people may disagree but can still co-exist. There is a strong tendency (which has been growing for a long time) for too many on all sides to tell those who disagree to "do what I say and shut the F**k up."

I was going to let that thread go but I will provide another--Sometime in the 1980s or thereabout a trend arose in the child rearing philosophy that we shouldn't crush the fragile egos of children by expecting them to hold to standards. It became the thing to award trophies for simply showing up whether the children actually did anything else. It occurred to me that Former #45's administration was populated by people who grew up under that kind of regime. No one was selected for competence for the positions they held--unless you think the ability to destroy the agencies they controlled was the feature and not a bug. Many of them did that quite well.

Jan in SanFran has an interesting blog post that expresses something that has tickled the back of my brain: the overwhelming used of the word "sacred" in reference to the Capital building or referring to the mob attack as "desecration" of the "temple" of our democracy. For nearly the last three decades I have thought that with the decline of religious affiliation among Americans we have substituted politics for religion. Historians have referred the myths by which we identified ourselves over the last two centuries as a "civil religion." That has become more evident this century.

Ugo Bardi also has an interesting post which I need to think through before commenting.

Follow that Bardi post with this one from Infidel735.

Matt Taibbi has a Rolling Stone post that says much truth about the burden of student loans. I have said before that the whole program should be terminated and all the loans cancelled without any penalty to the borrowers. Lenders have been assured of payment by government guarantees. The program was based on the notion that a more highly educated workforce would benefit both the worker and the economy as a whole and everyone pointed back to the GI benefits after WWII. First problem was the GI benefits were not loans and didn't have to be paid back. Second problem was that the system was flooded with far more credentialed and/or degreed people than the economy could reasonably absorb. Third problem was the explosion of for profit colleges and universities whose business plan depended in enrolling and being paid for any and all students (suitable or not) who would be saddled with the costs whether they finished the programs or not. Taibbi says quite a bit more so I will let you read it yourself.