November 29, 30

 Well, we are two days from December.

So--another day and another cryptocurrency firm files for bankruptcy. 

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We are now one day from December. Some people already have their lights up and the stores have had Christmas merchandise up since Halloween. The seasonal ads touting all the junk people can spend their money on are all over the TV. So are the adds for Medicare Advantage plans. At least three times the same ad was played back to back to back. Yeah, three times in a row. We have become increasingly irritated by seeing the same ad either back to back or twice within the same commercial block.  I am getting to hate being sold to.

My reading and commenting was interrupted because Mom thought it would be a good idea to do our shopping yesterday. The supermarket where we do our usual shopping sends out some coupons that are actually useful targeting products we normally use. We didn't have much on our shopping list but used the coupons and took advantage of the sales for things we would use soon anyway. They had a nice sale on boneless, skinless chicken breasts at about half the regular price (or what has become regular price). I have to get them packaged for the freezer today. We also got some cabbage for a couple of favorite recipes. They also had turkey breasts. We haven't bought whole turkey for a long time because it is way too much for just Mom and me.

Blockfi was the crypto company I mentioned yesterday. I read early today that the company has filed law suits against FXT for deceptive business practices. Interesting note though: one short story mentioned that Blockfi has ties to mainstream finance companies which would send some tremors through out that industry.

November 24

 Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you all have a good holiday. For some years I have seen articles about achieving a "Work/life balance" or "work/family balance." Usually, I have read (some) and had a very familiar feeling: they didn't seem to know anything about the lives of people at my level of the economy--not quite the bottom. I just finished Robert Reich's Thanksgiving post and it is worth a read. I am glad he was able to make a choice in balancing his family and work he loved. He writes about people who love their work more than their family, love their family more than their work, or those who love both intensely. That's nice but most people I know don't love their but can't leave it or cut back on it because they have to provide for the family they do love. Worse all too often the work they do don't love doesn't even provide an adequate living for the family. 

Gizmodo provides the current "Oh, S$#t" moment. Add the Rio Verde Foothills community to the list of communities facing water crises.

I am not as ungrateful and curmudgeonly as you might think. We do have a lot to be grateful for. We are in reasonably good health. We live in an area that has pretty much escaped the weather disasters so many other places have experienced. The heat wasn't much more or longer than usual though we are grateful for the air-conditioning that made it bearable. We have been able to afford all of the food we need (and some treats we didn't but at our age who cares?) We could afford the gas to get us to and from where ever we had to go and our rent is still affordable for us. Hope we can say the same next Thanksgiving.

November 22

Sunny again today and should be a bit warmer. The snow is gone even from the north sides of the houses.

Oh, happy day. The Former Guy's Supreme Court decided the Senate can have his tax returns and other financial documents. They have been trying since 2019 to get the records to look into possible violations of the emoluments clause of the Constitution.

A major rail worker's union rejected the recently negotiated contract which puts the whole thing in jeopardy. I have seen a large number of articles on the collapse of the agreement and its potential for causing economic damage but I really had to search to find out what caused the rejection. I think I remember the news stories ballyhooed the proposals for increased wages and hefty bonuses. What wasn't addressed were the working conditions and "quality of life" proposals the unions demanded. Obviously money doesn't buy everything.

November 11

Sunny but cool after a cold night. The snow on the southern sides of the houses but not on the northern side.

The elections aren't really over yet. We do know that the Democrats won the Senate with 50 + the Vice President to the Republican 49. One seat is still open with the runoff in Georgia scheduled for the 6th (I think) of December. The Republicans have won the House but by how much is still not known. The count last I heard was 219 Republicans to 212 for the Democrats with about 4 seats undecided. Both margins are very thin. But that isn't stopping Kevin McCarthy from acting like his leadership role has been decided. It hasn't. Several Republicans have said they won't vote for him--period. He has promised to kick Omar, Swalwell and Schiff off their committee. He may or may not get the opportunity. Tit for tat is so petty. 

November 18

 We finally got snow that stuck but not all that much and certainly not the 3+feet around Buffalo, N.Y. According to the weather forecasts we will have cold and snow through Monday and then will have more seasonal temperatures for the rest of the week.

We had medical appointments yesterday and today. And today, after meeting with Mom's new GP, we went shopping. Partly we had a list of thing we had run out of and then, considering the increasing food prices and the situation in the world generally, we decided to bulk up our pantry a bit. We had used our stash down for the last almost year but reversed course considering everything going on. All the prices are higher, sometimes much higher. We don't expect them to come down any time soon. Isn't it interesting that none of the Republicans are talking about inflation anymore. Instead it is all about investigating for any imaginary reason anyone with the name "Biden." 

Nancy Pelosi gracefully announced her intention to not run for a leadership position in her party. She will remain a member of the house representing her San Francisco district. What was totally graceless and spiteful was the Republican response. Most couldn't even be bothered to attend. Few applauded any part of her speech. And as soon as she finished they held a press conference promising to investigate everyone who opposed them, including Nancy Pelosi. The Former Guy isn't the only one imagining themselves to be "victimized."

The Behavioral Scientist has a good article on the difficulties trying to change societies and, although a primary focus is on changes that may affect our environmental footprint, can be applied to any major crisis. The author brings in the responses to 9/11 and to the various big oil spills as examples. I liked the discussion of two primary blocks to change: faith in market capitalism and faith in technological change.

I have one hope for the political situation over the next two years: Perhaps any attempts at impeachment of anyone will fail because there are half a dozen sane Republicans who will vote against. I can't imagine any Democrats would go along so handful of Republicans voting "no" would sink such crap.

November 16

Cold and cloudy. The snow didn't even stick around long enough to become a memory. The Weather Channel was talking about heavy snow for the southern shores of the Great Lakes and for the Finger Lakes area of New York thanks to the lake effect. They are talking about snow falls in feet not inches. We'll see.

Well, The Former Guy finally made his "big announcement." I don't know what time it was supposed to be on. I don't think the channels we watch carried it at all though they were all mentioning it this morning. At one point the commenter said that even Sean Hannity broke away from the ramblings. We now have non-stop election season.

I guess winter has decided to slip in. We are getting snow now with a brisk west wind. I don't think any will accumulate yet.

I wonder how soon TFG will have to foot his own legal bills. The RNC Chair McDaniels said the day before the election that if he did run they couldn't do that. She also said that on the day of the election. Will they actually cut him off.

The last time we went shopping we were stunned by some of the prices for what we bought. I wonder what those prices will be when we shop on Friday. Hopefully they will be nothing like some of those described here. 

John Michael Greer on Ecosophia has a post on education which makes points similar to those I have made over the last several years. The education industry was designed to turn out obedient, punctual, and sober workers for the factories. It wasn't designed to teach critical thinking or to encourage questioning of anything. He talks about reading and how children are ready to learn to read at different times. I had difficulty with reading when we started in 1st grade. Finally Mom got mad and taught me phonics which made the teachers mad. She wasn't a teacher and didn't have a college education so she wasn't qualified to teach me anything. Mom was polite, so she didn't give them the middle finger salute they deserved, and went on doing what she had been doing. I never looked back and became a voracious reader. Even today, in my 70s, I read around 200 books a year. That is considerably less than when I was a history grad student.

An interesting notion: charging a hefty tax on water intensive crops exported to other countries. The article does a nice job of covering some of the obvious problems with the scheme. I have another question: shouldn't information be considered as a "crop" considering how much water is used by the server farms in the west? And the author is absolutely right in wondering how in the world you can get a handle on the amount of water a given export requires. This site gives the water burden various foods require and Stanford University says each computer chip requires 10 gallons of water.

November 15

 Cold but sunny yesterday. As far as I can see (at 4:45am and well before the sun is up) we haven't had any snow either. Temperature is, at the moment, 32F and not expected to break 40F.

The news this morning provided a detail about The Former Guy's new court filing against the January 6 Committee and it was hilarious. The argument presented simply says that just because TFG claims certain documents he stole and moved to Mar-a-lago are "personal" they are and should be returned. Sounds a lot like Tricky Dick's argument that "because the President does it it is legal." I believe that went down in flames 50 years ago. For those who too young to remember or haven't read enough unredacted history that was President Richard M. Nixon who received a "get out of jail" card in the form of a pardon from President Gerald Ford who thought the nation should move on from Watergate and heal. I was of two minds on the question of the pardon when it was issued and as time has passed I am leaning more toward the conclusion that it was a mistake. We basically let Nixon off the legal hook for his alleged crimes and the wound only festered to give us TFG and the current mess.

Robert Reich has written a blog expressing a notion I have been thinking over the last couple of weeks: Elon Musk bought Twitter to destroy it. I can't believe a guy who is supposedly so smart couldn't foresee the result that would come when the famous blue check went on sale. Or that, given his disdain for curbing the violence and rabid lying on line, that political hate, misogyny, and violence would spike. But notice: Reich makes a connection to the FTX meltdown and Peter Thiel's attempt to purchase two senatorial seats (one failed and one succeeded.) I guess if you are big enough and/or rich enough you can cause all kinds of pain for people lower on the economic/power food chains than you and get away with it.

According to the U.N., sometime today the world's population will reach 8 billion. The article gives a lot more detail. However, I looked at the historical pattern wondering when we might expect 9 billion and found that the last few cycles of adding 1 billion (11 to 13 years) we can expect to reach that figure by 2035 and might reach 10 billion by 2050. Also note that the last ten years have had numerous wars and civil conflicts, at least two serious economic downturns, one serious disease pandemic and an "epidemic" of drug suicides often called "deaths of despair and world wide natural disasters. But that hasn't done much to curtail the growth of the growth of the human population.

Update: we have snow but nothing much is sticking. Intermittent high winds.

November 14

Here we are at half past November. The cold overnight temperatures have shriveled the top leaves of my hibiscus plants. The rose is still doing ok but I expect it will go to sleep soon. If it warms up I will sweep the remaining leaves off the pavement on the patio. I have a few seeds I want to think about ordering for the spring. My main question is whether I go more for transplants or more for seeds. I noticed higher, often much higher, prices for the seed packets. I expect that the transplants will also be much higher. Many of the plants I might grow are perennials in my zone but whether they can survive on my patio in containers is another question. We'll see what happens.

The post mortems on the election continue and they are as self serving as ever. Rick Scott moaned that they would have won if their pesky voters had just turned up and voted like good little robots. He never asks WHY they didn't. What about the Republican messaging failed to resonate? Was it the fact they had no real program of what they wanted to do if they were returned to office? Mitch McConnell told a reporter who asked to wait and they would reveal that "after we win." Was it that so many of the more extreme position on abortion post-Dobbs came from Republicans? They thought that the heat over the Supremes assholery had passed because women simply couldn't hold a grudge. Well, boys (and it is mostly boys), we can and we have votes and know how to use them. Was it the constant complaints that a past election considered to be the most fair, open and accurate in history (2020) being corrupt and that the one that hadn't happen yet (2022) all delivered without ANY proof at all?

I had another thought after hearing that two election deniers, one who lost big and one who is trailing with votes yet to be counted) have walked their rhetoric back. The one conceded and supported the integrity of the election he lost. The other is softening her claims of corruption in the counting. Question: when were they lying? Were they simply spouting election conspiracy screeds they didn't really believe because they hoped for political advantage? Are they now reversing course because they see advantage to that? What do they really believe? How can anyone trust them?

OMG!!! The latest Democrat to win in Washington State, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, just said what I said yesterday concerning the electoral map. Rural Democrats are an endangered species because the Party has not paid any attention to the needs of rural voters. She addressed those issues and won.

November 13

 Really chilly this morning but the prophesied snow hasn't materialized yet. They have moved it to Monday and Tuesday. Thankfully we don't have to go anywhere until the end of the coming week.

For the morning laugh--I found this Onion story. No explanation needed.

I keep hearing talking heads telling me that the economy is doing just fine but stories like this one make me question that. Actually these stories make me ask how much of our economic growth of the last ten years was a mirage.

The maps of the election results again show a problem with our politics I have noticed for several election cycles. The Democratic Party has its strength in cities while the Republican Party is strongest in the more rural areas. That fact has led to  two presidential elections since 2000 (George W. in 2000 and The Former Guy in 2016) beening won by candidates who lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College. I voiced that observation that shortly after TFG won and one of my male relatives asked why should a vote in Wyoming count for less than a vote in California. I asked why should 100k votes in Wyoming count for more that 1million in California. But the map with blue islands in a sea of red means that the needs of rural people aren't being met or even addressed by the Democratic Party proposals. The question the politicos of both parties have to answer is how they develop programs that appeal to both groups.

We have seen repeated stories about drought and heat in our west along with the depletion of rivers and reservoirs across the country. This story about the current conditions in the Aral Sea area should, perhaps, be a cautionary tale for us.

We are being treated to the spectacle of the Republican Party cannibalizing its own. The fingers are most often pointing at TFG himself. There seems to be a brewing rebellion among Republicans against McCarthy and some, timid, agitation against McConnell who, at best, will remain Minority Leader. However the Rude Pundit has spread the blame around in this post with his usual profanity streaming rant. His basic assessment, stripped of the profanity which I did enjoy, is the blame goes from the rotting head alway down to the flipping tails (like "Dr." Oz) and all too many who should have been defeated, like Indiana's own Todd Young and Michigan's Ron Johnson, were re-elected. Now we have to deal with the aftermath and a very good question was asked by one of the interviewees on a news program: what will all those who expected and felt entitled to win will do now that they have lost? The s---storm may continue for a good while longer.

November 12

Overcast again this morning but the weather forecast indicates we won't clear off. We are also heading into a colder than normal stretch with possible snow. I guess I got the patio swept and plants mulched just in time. I am never ready for two things: time change and snow. And I can't do anything about either.

Just saw an interesting piece on the news this morning where the head of the Michigan GOP offers a spot on analysis of the election that delivered most of the offices to Democrats. The GOP offered up extreme candidates who turned off their usual donors. That seems to be appropriate for so many of the Republican candidates this year. Those who tied themselves to The Former Guy, trumpeted the Great Lie, and espoused extreme positions lost for the most part. I really hope the results foretell a more balanced approach and willingness to negotiate and compromise. 

Kevin McCarthy has been interrupted in his measurement of the drapes in the Speaker's office by a building rebellion among members of his conference. He wanted to have a quick election, perhaps before all the results are in, but the rebels want it delayed until after they know who will actually be in their conference and have a chance to talk to leadership candidates to find out what they might want to do.

Anyone thinking about "investing" in cryptocurrencies should read this article before they do. I have never seen the attraction of crypto. And now the third big crypto company, in the last 6 months, has filed for bankruptcy. I wonder how well "investors" have fared in these proceedings. I put those words in quotes because I can't see the difference between crypto "investors" and those who pull the handle of the one armed bandits in the casinos.

Oh, goodness!! The nannies strike again. The Daily Mail reports that some scientists say that foods like donuts, pizza and chips should be classified as drugs. Supposedly they are as "addictive" as nicotine. I keep wondering when the "experts" and the politicians will learn the lessons of Prohibition and marijuana. To quote Ken Burns (in his miniseries Prohibition) the bans created a "nation of scofflaws." 

The same could be said of the screeching voices wanting to ban abortion, contraception, same sex marriage and same sex sex. Clarence Thomas, in his concurrence in the Dobbs decision) suggested revisiting those issues. Of course the one decision he didn't flag was the Loving v Virginia which legalized multi-racial marriages (that would have hit to close to his house.) All were argued on the same Constitutional grounds. 

I am not at all surprised by this N.Y. Times story. Masks do work to slow the spread of COVID. It is also interesting that the schools did not track the kinds of masks or whether the masks were worn correctly. The schools were in poor neighborhoods, were old with out dated ventilation systems and crowded class rooms. But those schools showed much less transmission than newer schools in wealthier neighborhoods. Way back when Indiana eliminated mask mandates and left the matter to individuals and various business and other establishments. The local hospitals kept the mask mandates and, when we asked why, we were told that they noticed not only that they had fewer COVID cases but fewer colds and flu as well. We wear our masks in the hospitals because it is simply polite but not most other places because we avoid crowds and did so before COVID.

November 11

 Well I did get out yesterday to sweep up leaves on the patio. I put a fair portion around the two hibiscus, the two lavender and the rose. I also covered the pots with bee balm and asiatic lilies with them. The rest I swept out the gate to the lawn the landlords take care of. I also moved the lilies and bee balm closer to the north side of the patio where they will get sunlight sooner next spring. I also turned the bird bath upside down to protect the cement from freezing damage when we finally get snow and freezing temps.

The Former Guy provided a good laugh yesterday. He claimed that Ron DeSantis has been lucky because he became governor (because, of course, of TFG's support) of a state that has so much sunshine the governor didn't have much to do. Guess he never heard of Ian or Nicole. I don't care much for DeSantis but he has been getting high marks for handling the disaster Ian left.

The skies were gloomy for the morning but have cleared now. It is still a bit warm for this time of the year. And the geese are still here and feeding before they head further south. When we first moved here 20 years ago they would already have moved on.

I think it is amusing how so many of the talking heads are ecstatic over the "drop" in the inflation rate. It only dropped from about 8.3% to about 7.7%. At my level of the economy all I can say is "big hairy deal." What we pay for food, gas, electricity etc. are still going up. 

November 10

 Good Morning. The temperature is much more fall like. The leaves are nearly done and down. I have been thinking for several days that I need to get out and sweep up the leaves to mulch the plants I hope will survive the winter. We have had a series of medical appointments lately and a new family physician after several years of disappointments--doctors who don't take Medicare only patients, doctors not taking new patients at all, doctors who didn't listen, and those with whom Mom didn't connect. Those took time and energy. I did go out and pull the remains of the impatiens and dahlias.

The election results aren't fully in yet. Even so some things are fairly clear: the Republicans have a very narrow majority in the House and may (may) get a narrow majority in the Senate but may have another two years of an evenly divided chamber with VP Harris as the tie breaker. Many of the Big-Lie boosters and those who pledged they would invalidate election results (past, present, and future) they disagreed with lost. Three states put the protection of abortion in their constitutions and another refused to put an abortion ban in their's. And so many of the pro-Dobbs candidates lost. The "Red wave" turned into a "Red puddle" for which I am very glad. 

It will be interesting to see what kind of a pretzel spineless Kevin McCarthy will have to twist himself into to get the Speakership (if he gets it at all.) And at least one Senator has come out opposing Mitch McConnell's leadership so that might turn into a donnybrook. There is also a question of how the Democratic leadership will shake out. It might be a good time for Pelosi and the other octogenarians in leadership to step aside and take the role of elder advisors to a younger crop.

This is an interesting development out of the election: Three states have passed constitutional amendments banning "involuntary servitude" (a.k.a., slavery) as a punishment for crime. I didn't realize that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution banned involuntary servitude EXCEPT as punishment for convicted criminals. That is how the infamous "chain-gangs" (e.g., Cool Hand Luke) which provided cheap labor for states and private individuals (a.k.a., large landowners). Evidently four other states have passed similar bans previously. Maybe by the 200th anniversary of the 13th Amendment most, if not all, of the states will ban servitude entirely.

The one thing I draw from the election is that neither party got an endorsement from the electorate. In other words, few people feel any great love for either party because neither is really meeting our needs. And I don't think voters are impressed by screeching about a problem but offering no realistic plan for dealing with it. Or even a bit of humility in noting that, perhaps, the problem did not originate with either party or entirely from within our own country. A big example of that is the "discussion" of inflation. So many of the economic problems are beyond the ability of politicians to ameliorate.

Although I think calling this election over is a bit premature since Georgia has a senatorial run off, and Arizona and Nevada are still counting. However, I agree with almost all of what Infidel753 writes here.

November 2, 6, 8

 I am going to start this but I probably won't finish it today. I found this piece on Slate which is interesting. I have two basic problems with legal originalism, the notion that judges have to make decisions concerning applying the law based on what the text meant at the time it was drafted. First, we are two centuries removed from the men who wrote the Constitution and the first ten amendments. The conditions of our society are not the conditions they lived under and most would probably be horrified about the conditions they would find if they could time travel to our era. The legal interpretations should be able to take the current ideas, values and conditions of this time. Second I wonder who their medium is conducting the seances in which the ask the ghosts of the founders what they meant when they drafted the Constitution. And the same arguments also apply to the subsequent amendments. The judge who decided to appoint an historian to help him has thrown a good monkey wrench into Thomas' spokes. But different historians see the past and interpret it differently. We all see the past through the lenses of today.

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I hadn't intended to let this go this long but....

Finally, we are almost through this mid-term election. I am so very tired of the coverage. It will be interesting, not comfortable but interesting, to see what comes of the only poll that matters. I will be honest--given the Republicans on the ballots (those we hear about anyway) I really hope the Democrats clean their clocks. I have heard some say (or read what some have written) that they hope any Republicans who get in are moderate or move in the moderate direction. I am not hopeful. I think we are in for a rough two years that will make the COVID years look like "the good old days."

The bloodbath at Twitter has begun. It really doesn't matter to me because I have never used it and only rarely read anything on it at all unless as a repost on a blog or news story I was reading anyway.

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We both went out and voted today. We generally do wait til Election Day to vote though we did do early voting in 2020 because of the pandemic. That was a very cold day with a very long line. Today the line was long but it moved quickly. Our county has made it possible for us to vote at any polling place not just at the assigned precinct. It hasn't affected us since our precinct is located about three blocks away. 

This Responsible Statecraft article asks a good question at the end. I have heard for years about countries buying U.S. agriculture assets. China bought at least one of the largest pork processors a couple of years ago. Saudi Arabia and the UAE were buying up land so they could ship the produce home to secure their food supplies. The Saudis tried for more than a decade to use the water in their aquifer to irrigate wheat crops but stopped when they realized they were quickly depleting their water supplies. From what I have read over the last few years water may become (or is becoming now) the new oil.

November 2

 It is nice and sunny today. Wouldn't you know--all the kids who went out trick-or-treating did so in the rain. We had rain all day with times when it came down heavily. Thankfully the temperature was high enough for comfort. We didn't get any kids coming by that I saw but we don't put on our light and don't give out candy. I think most parents here take kids to some collective party where they can be sure the treats aren't adulterated in any way. We stopped giving out treats several years ago when we had a couple of years in a row with nasty incidents of that kind.

Robert Reich continued his series of posts with THE GREAT POWER SHIFT (PART II) today. I have said for the last several election cycles that we don't really have two political parties. We have one with the Corporate Republicans contending with the Wall Street Democrats to see who will redistribute power and financial goodies to their prized donors. The ones left out are the bottom 90% of the economy. I have read some pundits who think we should have a third party. I have thought so at times but have since reconsidered for two reasons. First, we have had a couple of alternatives that got strong enough to scare the Dems and Reps out of their britches but the best they have been able to do is play spoiler--usually of Democrat chances. Second, we don't have a good way, at the national level and perhaps at the level of some states, of dealing with a split electorate whose votes don't give a clear winner. We had something like that in 1860 when the southern wing of the Democratic Party nominated a pro-slavery candidate, the northern wing nominated a status quo candidate and the Republicans nominated Lincoln. Lincoln wasn't even on the ballot in the most southern states but the Democratic vote split between the two slates giving Lincoln the win. The Progressive movement of the late 19th century fizzled out when the Republicans peeled off the votes of western farmers while the Democrats brought in the urban working class.

Naked Capitalism has a post today which includes a piece originally posted on THE OIL PRICE. We haven't seen much in the "mainstream press" but the shortage doesn't surprise me. About 10 or 12 years ago we were driving somewhere and passed a gas station sign that stunned me. I mentioned it to Mom because the price of diesel had crossed and gone higher than the price for gasoline. It hasn't dipped below since though the gap fluctuates somewhat every now and then. I remember when the lower cost of diesel was a major selling point for diesel cars. And I remember the push for biodiesel which is almost off the radar now.