November 21

 Good morning. We are getting a good snowfall that is picking up for now. The weather forecast was a bit tentative on whether we would get any snow at all or whether the system would set up to give us some lake effect snow. Evidently it set up for the latter. We decided to do our shopping Tuesday before the precipitation would move in so we wouldn't have to go out in it. Hopefully it will all move out by tomorrow when we have an appointment.

I have been ignoring most of the speculative news. Most of it focuses on what they think Trump will do and how he will do it but no one will really know any of that before he is inaugurated.

Reading List:

    Bill Astore posted a repeat of an article he wrote in 2013 and updated in 2017. I remember when sporting events began with a rendition (sometimes good--often bad) of the Star Spangled Banner and half-time entertainment featured a marching band and cheerleaders. But the displays have become more elaborate and more martial especially for championship games and the "Super Bowl". The change always made me somewhat uncomfortable as have the frequent expression of "Thank you for your service" both of which, thankfully, has become less frequent. I considered it a very cheap way of "appreciating" the military and its members that required very little of us. Certainly it didn't mean we had to ensure the veterans got the medical care for injuries then needed or assistance with housing and food when that was required. Nor were we encouraged to question where our service people were deployed or for what purpose. "Bread and Circuses" might be very apt.

    A second post from Bill Astore repeating an article he published in 2022 makes an interesting point especially considering Trumps plan to appoint Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. But a thought occurred to me as I read both of these articles: maybe this explains the misogynistic attitudes that have ramped up with Trumps rise. Hegseth has proudly proclaimed that women don't belong in combat. The news has recounted recent nasty episodes of men at rallies and on campuses yelling at women "Your body, MY choice" or "go back to the kitchen."

John Michael Greer has an explanation for why Harris lost and Trump won. Most of the other dissections begin and end with what each of the campaigns and the candidates did or said. It rarely and superficially mentions the voters as anything beyond an amorphous non thinking blob. I will make only two observations here: 1) Greer is absolutely correct to say that the Democrat message basically followed the dominant cultural narrative and demonized anyone who dared to say otherwise, and 2) A lot of disparate groups joined to make Trump's victory a reality either directly by voting for him or passively by staying home. However, the Republicans can't rely on those groups to stay together for whatever Trump plans or for the 2028. 

I noticed yesterday that Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution for a cease fire in Sudan. Today I saw a headline that the U.S. vetoed a resolution for a cease fire in Gaza. I don't really give a good god damn why these governments vote against cease fires; it just galls me that they do  what they have always done almost as a reflex.

Pet Pieve: We have found that a lot of the appliances we have are becoming real annoyances, aggravations, and frustrating time sucks. The latest such involves Mom's cell phone. Because she signed up for a Medicare Advantage program the phone has rang 20-30 times a day. Those fall into three groups: calls from a phone farm which drums up business for the insurance companies who provide the Part 3 programs, shills for insurance companies selling burial policies, another class of shills claiming that "the state" has a program which will give us money for expenses like food, utilities, or rent. All of these have the same patter: Hello! My name is "X". How are you today. Most of the time they are men speaking with an Indian accent but all too often I suspect they are really AI bots mimicking a friendly person. Today I told one of the perky girl callers that I was fine but I suspected she was a bot and she went into the spiel as if I hadn't spoken at all. I totally resent these calls. Those companies and people are getting paid for their time: I'm not. We have recently had another phase to this pattern: total silence--not even background noise--perhaps punctuated by a single beep after which someone may or may not talk. I have begun blocking the numbers. All of our family members and those we have business with are in the contact list. I think Dante's hell should have another level for the telemarketers.

November 15

 Quite Chilly today and cloudy. The temperatures have been near normal for the season but it feels colder because of how warm it has been. I haven't been paying much attention to the news or the commentary because it is the same old mush. Right now the only firm facts on the political scene are 1) Joe Biden lost and will leave office on January 20 AND 2) Donald Trump won and will be taking the (sort of) oath of office on January 20. The stock markets are all over the place sometimes euphoric over the Trump victory and at other times depress over speculation about what his cabinet nominations will mean for American business.

Stray thought: about half of Americans have been skeptical of our health care system. A couple of the bloggers I follow refer to it as the "sick care system." I call myself a "medical minimalist." I see a doctor at our urgent or immediate care clinics when I feel the need to get a medical opinion. We don't have a "family physician" because we haven't found one we have been comfortable with. Mom went to one her endocrinologist recommended but the doctor seemed to pay more attention to her computer than to her patient. And after noting that there was nothing anyone could do about the shingles except treat the symptoms she prescribed a whole bunch of tests for everything else. One could tout the system as geared to finding problems while they are small but I get the feeling it is geared to ensuring a steady stream of income.

Stray Thought #2: If half of Americans were skeptics before Trump named Bobby Kennedy, Jr., to be his Secretary of Health, the other half will become skeptics because no one will be able to have any faith in medical science. Trump promised that Kennedy would "return" the department to the "gold standard" of scientific procedures but Kennedy has no experience or education in medical sciences. 

Unfortunately, some of the crazies have returned to Washington. Example: Lauren Boebert fresh from being elected in a new district after deciding that the old one wasn't likely to re-elect her. She seems to be intent on protecting us from an alien civilization under the sea.

Stray thought #3): Most of the commentators I have heard are appalled by the cast of characters Trump plans to nominate. They foresee catastrophe piled upon more catastrophes. Their prognostications may come true or they may not and I have read some other bloggers who think at least a few nominees, if confirmed, may actually (accidentally ?) do something positive. Who knows--I don't and my cats knocked over my crystal ball which was never very clear anyway.

November 8, 11

 Nice and sunny today with temps staying in the 60s. We won't get more rain til Wednesday--maybe. It is always maybe with the weather. I should be cleaning up the patio and planters but I simply don't have the energy. This year the time change has hit me harder than it has before. Between the change of the clocks and how it has upset my sleep patterns, I am just plain washed out. I hope by next week I will be back to normal.

I have managed to get some things done: finished one crochet piece and started another. I started another which is going pretty well. Actually, I started two but unraveled one because it wasn't working well. I will try that one again sometime. I finished one embroidered dresser scarf and by Monday I should be finished with the cross-stitching on the last of the quilted placemats. I will be so glad to finish them. Have I said before how much I HATE pre-quilted pieces. Thankfully, I don't have any more of them.

The post-mortem on the election continues on the Democrats side while the Republicans are crowing about how well they did. I read/skim them all with a skeptical eye. I don't see it as either an utter Democrat disaster or a sign of a Republican eternal Heaven on earth. Although Robert Reich starts his post today with the claim that it was a disaster, he writes that many are "learning" the wrong lessons from it. He goes through six such lessons which I agree are exactly wrong. The major lesson he draws is, basically, the same one James Carville proclaimed thirty years ago: it's the economy, stupid.

11**********************************************************************************

I finally finished the quilted placemats and their napkins. Stitched on them about three hours on Saturday, most of Sunday, and another two and a half hours this morning. I spent part of this morning getting the left over bobbins from several projects sorted and some skeins not yet wound put on bobbins, sorted and ready to be merged into the rest of the stock. I pulled out the table cloth I will start after my hands have rested for a couple of days.

We had guests on Saturday: my sister's son, two of his children, and his year-old grandson. So Mom has another great-great grandchild and I have a great nephew to go with the great-niece in my sister's other son's family. Little Anthony was quite a pistol. I sent them home with a small crocheted blanket for another grandchild expected early next year.

I am skimming or ignoring most of my political blogs and most of the news. So much of it is just speculation about what the new Trump administration will bring and no one really knows. I suspect even he doesn't really know. When he was elected last time a pagan blogger I read took exception to another who referred to Trump as "Loki in the White House." I can understand her objection since, as a pagan, she venerates several gods including Loki. However, trickster gods are featured in all pantheons I can think of and I would call them "features" not "bugs" in the system. They all upset the staid order and cause change--often uncomfortable change. Trump is certainly an agent of chaos and things are going to change. I would remind people who voted for him that they should have been more careful about what they wished for because they might get much more than they bargained for.

Stray thought: a lot of the commentary on the election criticize Harris for failing to provide voters with a "story" they could relate to. That is much too simplistic. Both Republicans and Democrats lost votes and it wasn't voters moving from one to the other or to a third party. Most of the missing voters simply stayed home. A significant part of the electorate rejected what the major parties offered. They didn't buy Harris' contention that the economy was really great and they didn't buy Trumps claims that the economy was catastrophic.

Another stray thought: however there is an economic story out there. Leigh at Five Acres and A Dream has raised Kinder goats for several years and has always had a brisk demand for her excess kids--until this year when the demand simply went away. She also mentions people she knows who are having to give up their pets and making other cuts to their expenses. Charles Hugh Smith at Of Two Minds notes a part of the home ownership equation that isn't much mentioned in the media. Most of the focus is on the escalating prices and difficulty of getting a mortgage but other costs are also going up: insurance (mortgage, property, flood/fire, liability), maintenance, utilities and other services.  And then there is the increased cost of transportation. Like to take a bus or train or subway--fares have been increasing. The costs of owning a car (loan payments, maintenance, insurance, parking, and fuel) have also gone up. The economic statistics may be good but those numbers really don't support the Harris story that everything is good and Trump hasn't got a magic wand that can do much about them.

November 7

 Ah, yes--Election Day plus 2. A couple of the commentators this morning noticed the data I saw yesterday about the "lost" voters. They confirmed that Trump (though winning) lost 1million voters compared to 2020 and Democrats lost about 17million. I did take exception with the notion that Trump "increased" his support in traditional Democratic demographics. It can look like increases when you simply lose fewer than the other guys. Another set of commentators noticed also that working class voters had a case for their economic angst which neither candidate really addressed. And Trumps proposal to massively increase tariffs of imports aren't really a solution. I saw one amusing post on Facebook, one of the few posters I follow, which suggested that we go out and stock up on any imported goods we normally rely on in the few weeks before Trump's inauguration and the threatened tariffs kick in. Most of the commentariat is claiming he won't follow through on any of the extreme policies he promised like mass deportations or huge tariffs. We'll see.

Don Moynihan at Can We Still Govern asks "What will happen next?" He presents a very black picture of what Trump and his cronies might do. We have received two mailings from organizations dedicated to preserving Social Security and Medicare asking for donations to help them fight any attempts to cut or end them.

 

November 6

Well, I'm back. Welcome belatedly to November and to the post election. Most of the commentators I saw and read reminded everyone that the polls were all within a "margin of error" which meant that Harris and Trump were essentially tied. Now the postmortem dissections begin. I find most of the so-called experts are giving explanations which don't really explain anything. I will be honest and admit that we didn't vote. We started out to vote but the line stretched halfway across the a six aisle parking lot. The last time we saw such a line was 2020 during the pandemic when we stood in line for almost two and a half hours. This time neither of us could physically stand that long. We drove by twice more but the line stayed as long. If I were wearing a hat I would tip it to the college students the news correspondents interviewed standing in such a line. Next election we will get mail in ballots.

I saw something interesting in the coverage and had to check my memory which I found was pretty accurate. I thought I remembered the vote tallies for Trump and Biden in the last election as 74+million for Trump and 83+million for Biden. The figures I saw for Trump this time was about 71+million and 66+million for Harris. I checked a couple of different sites and they all came in with about the same figures. That means that Trump lost between 2 and 3 million votes while Harris lost around 17million. Question: where did about 20 million voters go? Jill Stein and RFK, Jr. together only pulled in about 1.1 million votes. That was a harder datum to find.

Stray thought: the results of the election reveal, to me at least, a serious disconnect between the so-called political leaders and the people they try to convince to vote for them. While Trump talked down the economy insisting it was so much better for ordinary Americans when he was President, and Harris and her surrogates insisted that the economy was humming along very well if only all the critics would simply look at the statistics, the voters looked at things from their own experience and drew different conclusions. From my level neither described my experience. For all Trump's touting his economy it was never all that great for me and his tax cuts never touched my life. I have been criticizing the statistics for a long time because they usually paint over what happens to me every time I go to the store or pay a bill. Although the inflation rate is (supposedly) down what I pay keeps going up and I don't give a damn what the technical economist definition of inflation is because it doesn't touch me where I live. The unemployment rate is supposed to be declining to an acceptably low number but I still see numerous commercial establishments with "help wanted" signs. Where are the workers looking for work? How many discouraged, longterm, or detached workers aren't even counted any more? Take a look at Shadowstats to get an idea of what the published stats are covering up.

I saw a number of commentators trying to smooth out what Trump, and surrogates like Elon Musk, have promised for our future. I tend to follow Maya Angelou's advice: when someone tells you what he is, believe him the first time. Dave Karpf evidently follows that same advice.

Stray thought: anybody else notice a very self-satisfied, sanctimonious Elon Musk telling an audience that when Trump's economic plan (perhaps administered by Musk himself) we will experience a lot of pain but eventually we will experience a far more prosperous economy. That is the same promise Argentina's president offered and which people are now very upset with. It is similar to what the EU, ECB, etc., foisted on Greece as the price for loans (an increase in their debt) to help them with a debt crisis. Or that Macron proposed to French workers which raised the retirement age. That didn't go over well either.

Infidel753 posted this today and I totally agree. I turned off the commentary on the election early because it was largely a litany of complaints that the Trump aligned voters are racist, sexist, selfish, and other adjectives. The commentators didn't really try to understand their opponents especially since Democratic down ballot candidates (male and female, white and ethnic) won while the top of the ticket (Harris) lost.

October 22, 23

 Heather Cox Richardson posted a good article today. I have listened to too many of Trump's sycophants this last week dismissing Trump's remarks. Whether the were challenged with his  lewd remarks about Arnold Palmer, or his promise to go after the "enemies within," or promising to "deport" tens of millions of immigrants, or (insert any other examples you remember). They insist he didn't really say what the tape shows him saying. They insist that he didn't really mean what the tape shows him saying. They insist that the Constitution and Federal law will prevent him from doing any of the heinous things his critics say his words foretell. Well, Richardson recounts exactly how Hitler did all of that and more within the year he took the oath to respect the German Constitution. I also read the Bitecofer article Richardson cites in her piece. They are both illuminating.

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I am going to take a break from the blog until after the election. See you after.

October 18

 Good sunny but cool morning to you all. I got out on the patio and continued the process of putting the gardens to bed for the winter. I cleared out spent plants from three buckets and finished clearing out the stalks of sunflowers. I cut down the plants a couple of weeks ago. I started taking down trellises but too many still flowering plants are vining up the remaining support. I tried to detach the hose but, like last year, I couldn't move the connecting piece. I will have to call our landlord and ask if one of the handymen can swing by for a couple of minutes between other calls. We gave all of the wrenches that were of a sufficient size to my brother and nephew. They have more use for that kind of thing.

The news announced that the Israelis killed Yahya Sinwar the "mastermind" of the October 7 assault last year. Everyone hopes that will induce the Israelis to go back to negotiations to end the war and release the remaining hostages. Netanyahu has coyly said that this is only the "beginning of the end of the war" but no end is in sight. Stray thought: who is left for the Israelis to negotiate with? Hamas has been decapitated and its organization shredded. The Palestinian Authority has been invisible in this entire fiasco, its octogenarian leader (Abbas, I think) totally silent, and the organization has never had much clout in Gaza. It has even less now in the West Bank given the actions of rogue Israelis who the government either supports or has no power to stop. Point to remember Hezbollah is NOT Palestinian; Saudis, Omanis, Syrians, etc. are NOT Palestinian. Who can truly speak for the Palestinians?

The last "full scale" Target store in the U.S. is slated for closure. The retail giants I grew up with are dwindling. Sears, Penneys, K-Mart are all ghosts of what they once were--if they still exist in some form at all. We often drove down to the large mall and started at Sears then strolled past the small stores to finish up at the Penney at the other end.

Concerning Israel's aims (or Netanyahu's aims) Bill Astore has some opinions that parallel my own: the real aim has been to annex both Gaza and the West Bank and for Netanyahu to short circuit the corruptions indictments against him and remain in power. Astore is quite cynical about the role the U.S. is playing. I don't know if our government is really on board with the Israeli program or if our politicians really can't adjust to the fact that the Israel of today is not the Israel we originally supported. Or perhaps the problem is a residual sense of guilt for not doing anything much to counter the Final Solution and did quite a bit to trap Jews in Europe as the Nazis killed 6 million of them.

Charles Eisenstein has an intriguing post on "political bypassing" which derives from the notion of "spiritual bypassing." Both are tactics that allows individuals to evade deeper and perhaps intractable problems by either spiritualizing it or politicizing it. I have it on my list to reread. I am not sure yet what I think of the idea.

October 16, 17

 Sunny day today after a stormy night. If the weather forecast is accurate we should have some dry, cool, and sunny days before the temperatures go back to above normal again. The cool nights have taken a toll on the warm season plants. I plan to start culling the gardens and rearranging things before things freeze.

Stray thought: I don't expect the election result to settle anything. No matter who wins or loses no one will be satisfied or accepting of the results. A lot of words have been bandied about concerning "our democracy" and the importance of voting. But no one is mentioning directly the importance of respecting the outcomes whether you voted with the winning side or agree with the results. We are seeing the intensification of a trend I first noticed about 30 years ago when a ballot initiative concerning gambling came up over and over again in successive local elections. The pro-gambling side would win and the anti-gambling side came back to rally their side to defeat the resolution the next time--and on and on it went till finally the proponents of the measure won back to back elections by very large margins. Even then the opponents tried to undo through the legislature what the voters had approved. We have seen that repeatedly over the last couple of decades. Voters in Florida approved an initiative to restore voting rights to felons who had been released from prison. The Republicans in the Florida legislature passed add-ons which basically reversed the intent of the voters who voted for the initiative. We watched as the Republicans in Ohio tried to rig the electoral process to prevent the likely approval of a Constitutional amendment protecting a woman's right to decide on abortion. They are still trying to nullify legislatively the amendment voters approved by a nearly 60-40 vote. We have a large part of the electorate who respect voting ONLY if the results of what they support wins. That ISN'T democracy. 

Aurelian has an interesting post this morning that I think touches on the stray thought above. I have kept the post on my e-mail to read again because it is quite long. But several points resonate. For instance, the growth of what I have called "rampant individualism." Our society is geared to producing psychopaths who are utterly self-centered. The former (and hopefully not future) president is the prime example. There is much more in the post which I need to ponder.

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Another sunny but very cool day. I have been chilling out with a couple of computer games and my needlework. But it is now time to go through the blogs I find in my e-mail.

Reading Bill Astore's post today I had a couple of stray thoughts. First, I like the title and subtitle on his post: Remember When Politicians Made Promises? Want Meaningful Change? Forget About It. He basically says that Trump and Harris are sticking with a status quo program while Stein is the only choice for, as he puts it, "meaningful change." But the source for the graphic is the Stein campaign and it deliberately paints both Trump and Harris with the same black brush. Harris has proposed universal health care, capping medical costs, dealing with the high cost of housing and education among other proposals. Two, Astore evidently tells us to forget about "meaningful change" because only the candidate he prefers is proposing the changes he (and I would guess a lot of other Americans) want. But the only way Harris or Stein can get their programs enacted is if enough of the legislators to be elected in November also agree. The chances of Stein being elected are low to non-existent and the chances of a Harris winning with a majority in both the house and senate aren't much better. I don't expect "meaningful change," by any definition of "meaningful" or "change," no matter who occupies the White House.

Another Stray Though: many of the problems listed in that political ad will be solved or made meaningless over the next decades simply because people will act on their own to find their own solutions. College is too expensive? Over the last decade or so various universities/colleges have found their enrollment figures going down among their traditional pool of "customers:" recent high school grads. Actually the problem has been on the horizon for at least three decades because that is marks the time when they made efforts to bring in middle aged adults. But that hasn't made up for the loss of younger people. Housing too expensive? A lot of younger people whose jobs are in cities started some time ago to rent. Or, if they are really intent on buying a house, the follow the maxim that became popular about 15 or so years ago: drive till you qualify. And their needs are being accommodated. Our city has bus service connected to the commuter rail system going into Chicago and commuter bus service into the Loop during the rush hours. Cost of living too high? Well, multigenerational households have been increasing for the last two decades. Young people who find their incomes don't cover rent and other expenses (like student loans) have been moving in with parents who may also have grandparents living in the same household. That, however, doesn't bode well for the politicians because, if people find their own solutions, they will start wondering what the hell good is government and why the hell are they paying so much in taxes.

October 15

 Sunny today but we expect pulses of lake effect rain today. We had almost constant rain. I hope things out in the gardens will dry out enough to get some more clean up done. It turned quite cool last night--enough that I turned on the heat. But the weather forecasts call for a rollercoaster of temperatures for the next week or two. 

Bill Astore covers a controversy I have seen revisited often over the last thirty or forty years: whether it is better to vote for the better of two "evils" or to "waste" your vote on a third party candidate whose proposals better align with your values. I debated this very question often over that time. I didn't really want to vote for Clinton but Trump, even in 2016, was totally unacceptable. I didn't really want to not for Biden but all the other candidates I preferred fell by the wayside and Trump was even more unacceptable in 2020. The last four years have only solidified my assessment of Trump. In fact everything he has said and done has intensified my disgust. Considering how the party "leaders" in positions of power have rallied around him I will not vote for almost any Republican candidate at any level. I have said before that the only one who has done anything to earn my vote is the Republican Mayor of our town who is running for reelection. The candidate for Governor was our Senator who voted to "acquit" Trump at his impeachment trial which makes him unacceptable. The Representatives voted against the impeachment and are similarly unacceptable. What I do  know now is we have a choice between a Democrat whose policies probably diverge from what I think are needed or a "putative" Republican who respects no boundaries, no laws, no traditions. And he has people around him who will facilitate his policy or push what ever of his buttons that will lead him to enact their policies--policies I find offensive. I don't think in terms of "wasting" my vote. I think in terms of who has a chance of being elected and will follow customs and laws--or one who also has a real chance of being elected and won't. I like voting (even if my choices are rarely successful), I like living in a country where laws are usually supreme (not psychopaths), being able to criticize without wondering if someone with power will sic the Justice Department or the IRS on me. I simply hope enough of my fellow citizens agree--that is what democracy is all about. And we will have it, as Benjamin Franklin may have said, as long as we can keep it which means as long as we value our democracy to elect people who won't destroy it. If both of the candidates would support our Constitutional order and abide by our laws we can indulge in supporting third party candidates who are more philosophically palatable.

October 14

 Welcome to half past October. Evidently today is Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day. As usual didn't do anything to "celebrate." I am surprised that I didn't see any reminders. I don't know if there were any parades but they would have been overshadowed by the Chicago Marathon yesterday.

No wonder Trump and Musk are such good buddies. It's all about the grift. A "free" star-link internet service he says he is accelerating for disaster hit regions comes with a big cost: $400 star-link starter kit and, after thirty days, an automatic shift from a free service to a $120/month subscription. Such generosity!! (Sarcasm alert)

Pissed Off Thoughts: the news today said that the administration is sending an advanced "defense system" with its missiles to Israel and, evidently, U.S. troops will be sent also. Israel seems to have been able to create a wasteland in Gaza without more U.S. weaponry. It seems to be able to attack putative Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon, suspected remnants of Hamas in the rubble of Gaza, perceived enemy commanders in Tehran and Houthi enemies in Yemen without more U.S. weapons. Or U.S. personnel whose "mission" isn't at all clear. It is past time for our government to stop being the world's arms merchant.

October 10

 Good morning. We have another sunny and dry day predicted. I checked the gardens and didn't find anything needing water. The cooler temps help with that. I cleaned out one of the vegetation in one of my buckets yesterday--not a hard thing because it was growth from the seeds the birds scattered. I plan to put a layer of newspaper over the soil to prevent any hard rain from splashing the soil out. I have several in mind to clear but I will wait till late next week because the paving work continues and trash pickup is a bit hindered. Next week we should be able to put the large tote out for collection. 

With Hurricane Martin leaving a mess and the mess left by Hurricane Helene not yet cleaned up some of the commentators on the news/talk shows are starting to talk about insurance--as in what the claims will be. I have seen estimates of damage ranging up to  $150+BILLION. The insurance industry has been under stress for more than a decade. Companies have been leaving states with very expensive risks and states have been trying to either force them to stay or backstopping the insurance premiums for customers. This article goes into the tactics companies are using to stem their losses while ensuring their shareholders get a return on their investments. De Santis in Florida pushed a "reform" of insurance and property laws that have limited company liability and made it more difficult for their customers to sue to enforce the policies. More than 20 years ago I noticed that the insurance industry along with several other big industries were quietly taking actions to mitigate the cost of climate change for themselves while politicians and pundits on the right insisted climate change was a hoax. However, the number of multibillion dollar weather and other disasters is rising. This article notes 19 confirmed such events this year alone before Martin and Helene visited our shores. I did a quick and dirty search for information on the costs per year and found an interesting graph which shows that the costs have increased astronomically over the last 15 years. I wonder how long before this whole country will be uninsurable.

October 9

 Still dark out here with a bit of light appearing in the sky. We are recovering from two days of doctors' appointments--especially yesterday which began very early to accommodate an 8:30 appointment. Although the session itself didn't last very long getting there meant being wake and moving sooner than normal. We like slow and gradual not fast and immediate.

Right now we aren't going anywhere until the paving of the street at the back of the building and a couple of connecting streets is finished. Monday we went out an saw NO PARKING  signs "by police order" while the paving is done. Our designated parking area borders the street and everyone was supposed to move their cars. Some didn't and will not be able to get out until the job is finished--maybe tomorrow. It was amazing to see the cars lining the front street. We have about two dozen four-plex units with most having two cars attached to each. Streets nearby also had cars from our complex lining the curbs. We were lucky to get a close spot which was still open when we got back from the appointment.

Don't think I am complaining. About four years ago we complained to our landlords that we were dodging Volkswagen-eating potholes. After trying to get the city to repave then they hired a paving company to repair the worst affected areas directly in front of their buildings. The repairs were breaking down and potholes had become a problem again. But this time the city came through. For the last fifteen years or so we have had a couple of very capable Republican mayors and their administrations have made infrastructure improvements a priority. Streets we had long complained about have been repaired over time with the politicians actively informing people of where the money was coming from and being spent. These Republicans are the ONLY Republicans I have voted for and will vote for this time around.

I commented a couple of times on the changes we noticed in the lawn signs this election cycle. This piece from Patheos reflects what we have seen: a decrease in the number of signs for the presidential candidates. Yesterday we noticed a couple of new Harris/Walz signs and I noticed a number lawns sporting signs supporting local democrats but not including Harris/Walz. I have no idea of how people are planning to vote but far fewer are announcing their preferences by way of yard signs.

October 7

 Sunny today. I watered the gardens yesterday so the plants should be good for a couple of days. The weather forecast predicts moderate temperatures (low 70s) so that will help. I also did a bit of sweeping and moved a couple of my 5-gal planters. Still deciding what to take out and how to cull my pots. Over the last few years I have made changes that make upkeep easier but I still want to change the arrangements to make more room around the air conditioner and around the pot that has the bird feeder anchored in it. Birds are messy feeders and I want to be able to sweep up their leavings more easily. We'll see what happens. I have always found reducing garden spaces difficult but I don't have the energy I did even five years ago.

Dan Moynahan has a post on CAN WE STILL GOVERN which hits the story I have been following lately: the lies around the Federal Government's response to Hurricane Helene. It really irritates me that they call that shit "misinformation." It is outright LIES. A long time ago Supreme Court Justice said that freedom of speech did not cover "yelling fire in a crowded theater. That was refined by a later court ruling to prohibit speech that directly incites violence. Some of what Moynahan points to is incitement to just such violence. But I would say speech which impede the actions of emergency workers or which encourages people to take action which are potentially harmful, to themselves or others, should also be outside Constitutional protections.

Robert Reich published an interesting article titled HOW DID THE GOP BECOME THE PARTY OF CRANKS, CRACKPOTS, AND FRUITCAKES? He says it all. No need for my comment.

Stray thought: as we drive around we notice the lawn signs. In 2020, we saw a lot of Trump/Pence signs and nearly as many Biden/Harris signs. This year we have seen very few signs for any of the presidential candidates but significantly more for Harris/Walz. Only a couple for Trump/Vance. The paucity of yard signs might indicate people are simply not that engaged. However, a large number of people are putting out yard signs but they are for the down ballot candidates without any for the top of the ticket. I wonder how many of those voters will vote but only for the candidates below the presidential level which they plan to leave blank.

I have seen several headlines on early voting and out of curiosity checked on my state. Early, in person voting begins tomorrow (October 8) here. Absentee ballots can be re quested as late as October 28. That is really nice. Also, our system now allows a person to cast an in person ballot at any precinct in the area. We plan to do our usual and visit the polling place in a local church that is only two blocks away.

Robert Lipsyte writes on GROWING OLD IN THE AGE (AND THAT IS THE APPROPRIATE WORD) OF TRUMP. 

Sunny today but the forecast is for falling temps. I will have to water the gardens a bit and the meteorologists say we won't get any significant rain for the next week. We are looking at a busy week with two doctors' appointments and a trip to the license bureau to renew the car registration.

So Trump went back to Butler, Ohio. I saw about a half hour of his rally. I got the feeling that his handlers told him that Harris is mopping the floor with him with her hopeful rhetoric and he needs to tone down the gloom and doom. Unfortunately I came across as totally faked. The man is not at all authentic unless he is spewing out grievance. At least the start I saw didn't disintegrate into the usual pity party. I don't know if that came later because I switched the channel.

So the Oklahoma Secretary of Education put out a contract for bid. He mandates that a Bible will be in every classroom and all teachers are to "teach from the Bible," what ever the hell that means. Will students learn math in terms of "cubits" or "shekels?" Will they learn meteorology or physics by studying the Red Sea crossing in Exodus? The details of the bid are interesting. The Bibles must 1) be the "authorized" (by whom) King James Translation, 2) must include the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Pledge of Allegiance, and 3) must be leather bound. My, my--does any one else notice how nicely tailored that list is? It is the Trump Bible which comes in at $60/a piece. Takes care of two birds with one stone: force feeds students Christianity while filling Trumps pockets.

Found this article first thing this morning. I thought from early on that the Israeli aim, what ever they said, was vengeance pure and simple. And they weren't interested in distinguishing between Hamas and "civilians." And though the passages of the Bible cited in the article seem heavily weighted in the "vengeance is mine saith the Lord" I remember all too well the preachers reminding their flocks that He acts through men. Unfortunately, our government in recognizing the "justice" of Israel's cause have failed to recognize the lust for vengeance that has overtaken the thirst for justice. In a sense they have erased the difference between the two words. And we, through our government, are shackled to vengeance whether we want to be or not.

Charles Hughes Smith posted a pretty good overview of our current social/political mess.  I would add a couple of comments. Those at the top of the social/political/financial pyramid do have a "kick the can down the road" mentality--in other words, business as usual. But they also have a selective view of what constitutes a crisis. They may see inflation as a problem but not extreme weather, obesity but not our food supply system. And when they do recognize a problem they always see someone else as the villain of the crisis. Inflation is all because of THOSE workers who want wage increases never thinking that when wages go up prices do too. Obesity would not be a problem if THOSE glutinous idiots simply stopped stuffing themselves but the powers-that-be never consider how industrial food production has engineered their products 1) addictive, 2) contain maximum fat, salt, sweeteners, and 3) minimally nutritious. They also fail to see how the various crises are interconnected and exacerbate each other. Simply kicking the can down the road doesn't help when the interconnected crises eat away the road.

October 3

 Good morning on this sunny day. We expect mild temps in the mid 70s and no rain. I am debating when I should unhook the garden hose for the season. Average first frost here is about October 15 and a good freeze could come before the end of the month. However, I have seen seasons where we didn't get a hard freeze until January. I should cut back some of the petunias and take down the sunflowers. Both are pretty well done for the year. It is time to consider what to plant next year.

Erin Brockovich has a long post today on the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. She covers some concerns that the news (even the Weather Channel) coverage doesn't mention much at all: the pollution the comes from industrial site being flooded. Considering the scope of the devastation recovery will be a very long term project. Some of those areas and people will never recover.

Stray thought: I watched a part of a "conversation" last night that included a couple of committed Trump supporters. One had broken with Trump after Jan. 6 but has now returned because, in his opinion, the Biden Administration's policies were so damaging to the country he was "forced" to pivot back to Trump. He remarked that once the Republican Party regained power they could return the focus to policy. That struck me as odd because they seem to be ditching their principles which support their policies in the pursuit of power. Without the principles the policies are ephemeral and I doubt they can regain the principles after they have gained power. That pundit is like the man who sells his soul to the devil expecting the bill will never come due.

October 1

Welcome to October.  Only three months left in this year and only one and a few days before the election. We had errands to run this morning so I am only now getting to my reading. The Vice Presidential debate goes on tonight. I don't know whether we will watch. 

Right now the news is covering the Iranian missile attack on Israel which isn't really surprising after the leader of their ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah, was killed during Israeli bombing over the last few days. And Israel is sending ground troops into southern Lebanon. I don't expect this to end any time soon no matter how you define "end." 

First news this morning involved the longshoremen's strike at the ports on the East Coast and Gulf. Most of the stories seem to balance the workers' demands against the consumers of the goods being shipped into the ports. The increasing use of automatic against the kids Christmas gifs. One of the reports said the employer's offers included a really big pay bump over the six years the proposed agreement would run. But I rather sympathize with the workers because what good does that increased pay do you when automation takes the job away. Another story claimed that the shipping companies made a huge profit during the pandemic but little of that windfall fell to the workers. We'll see what happens.

This piece by Meaghan Ward on Medium is interesting. Some teenagers are refusing to go to school. And, according to the author, refusing to "participate in life. I have heard of similar situations in Japan and China. It was bad enough in China that the government tried to wage a propaganda campaign against the trend. The really interesting comments came at the end of the article. Asked what the kids will do if they don't go to school, what work will they be able to get, one mother said she thought her daughter has watched how hard she work and how little she got for the work--and has decided she wants none of it. When I was young, more years ago than I care to think, I was assured hard work would let me get ahead in life. Working hard in school would lead to a good job which would pay for a good life. By the 1990s or so, I summed up where that philosophy had gotten me: working my self to death to barely survive. By the time I retired thirteen years ago I modified that: working my self to death to not survive at all. I wasn't surprised when a lot of workers took early retirements (when they could) during the recession of 2007-9. I wasn't surprised when those who could did the same during the pandemic or jumped at arrangements for working from home. They decided to step off the treadmill.

September 27, 28

 Hello on an overcast day. No sun but, according to the forecast, no rain either. Until tonight when storms are supposed to come through. It is a bit cooler which the plants like and they are all getting a nice new growth after the summer heat.

As you can probably guess I have been ignoring most of the political news. If it isn't repetitive it is irritating or infuriating or irrelevant to my life. I was going to list some examples but who wants a futile and boring exercise.

28************************************************************************

Overcast again today. The weather segment on the news said we have been getting the remnants of Helene's rains. That hurricane did a job on several states in its passing. I was surprised when they listed the names already used and saw that Isaac and Joyce have also been used. The coverage of Helene absorbed all of the weather news. Those two storms are far off land, expected to strengthen but not (yet) threatening land.

Just looked at this post by Bill Astore. His title (There Will Always Be A Donald Trump) is right but somewhat superficial. Astore is writing again about his contention that the Democratic Party has been infiltrated by and will soon be controlled by Dick Cheney Republicans. I have said before I think that is a bit overblown. Right now the Dick Cheney Republicans are making common cause with Democrats against the Donald Trump "MAGA" Republicans. The two groups agree on one thing: defeating Donald Trump. Why do I describe the piece as "superficial"? Parties appeared from the very beginning of the U.S. The political class separated into Federalists and Republicans (Jeffersonian Republicans to be specific) during the debates over the Constitution. The divide solidified during the Washington and Adams, Sr., administrations. There won't always be someone as crude, crass, greedy, abusive as Trump. But there will always be someone heading a party (by what ever name it will be called) who believes in the Federal Government is supreme over the states and over the other branches of government.

The basic difference is how the parties to the Constitutional Convention viewed what they were creating. The Federalists believed that they were welding the various states into a unified country to be ruled by the Federal Government. The states were to be reduced to mere administrative unites like English counties or French departments. The Republicans believed they were establishing a union of equal sovereign states with a Federal Government strong enough to defend the union, to deal with foreign affairs for the states as a whole, and settle disputes between the states but not with the power to control them. The Article of Confederation is hardly (if ever) even mentioned in our history classes below the college level. The history as fed to us in the lower grades jumps from Yorktown to Washington as though nothing important happened.

September 16, 20

 Another sunny Monday. I will water the plants but we have errands to run so I won't do much other work. Besides the forecast calls for temperatures in the mid 80s which means it will hit 100F or better on our patio.

Well, Trump has survived another assassination attempt. Has it occurred to anyone else that both the attempts, even the one that resulted in a nipped ear on the former president, have been halfassed? I'm not minimizing a serious matter. Even a screwed up, amateurish attack can succeed. I despise the man but I don't wish dead by anything but natural causes, which given his age is possible. I hope we aren't approaching a "bleeding Kansas" moment in our politics where violence is almost normal and expected.

Heather Cox Richardson has a very sane post this morning. I love her description of the latest from a cartoonist she follows.

20************************************************************************************

As you can see I didn't have much of interest to post for a few days. I am sorry but, for the most part, politics has become extremely boring. And , unfortunately, our news media is fixated on it almost to the exclusion of everything else. Even stories like the turmoil in Springfield, Ohio, is covered largely from the perspective of politics which boils down to who is spouting idiotic nonsense and who is outraged. I will let you guess which is which.

Stray thought: JD Vance did say something that few have really picked up on. Two things actually. Asked why he didn't check the facts behind the story he circulated of "illegal" (NOT) Haitians stealing dogs and cats to eat he said it was the media's job to check the facts not his. And asked why he continued to spew the false stories he simply said those stories were what he "chose to believe." This seems to be the attitude of a lot of the Trump base--they have their beliefs and no facts shake their belief.

Another stray thought: one of the bloggers I read expressed a worry that the endorsements of the Chaneys and other prominent Republicans is a stealth take over of the Democratic Party.  None of them have joined the Democratic Party they nor are they expressing support of Democratic policies. They are simply expressing their lack of support for Trump. We have a Republican mayor in our city I have voted for for years because he had done a good job getting things done we needed. I haven't voted for any other Republican. I bet that all those Republicans will be glad to go back to debating policy once (if) Trump loses.

Although I said politics are boring I find political history (any history actually) is fascinating. David Kaiser has an interesting review of a book (THE FRAMER'S COUP) that I have put on my reading list along with another I am half finished with (FEAR OF A SETTING SUN) which deals with the writing, and ratification of the Constitution. The latter also describes the fears of many of the founders in the decades after ratification that the scheme they established wouldn't last and, perhaps, was breaking before it was well established. I have thought for some time that we aren't taught nearly as much history as we should be taught. Over the last two centuries the Constitution has become a mythical construct that, like any other "holy" text, is used to justify contradictory beliefs. It is accepted as uncritically as the Bible.

September 15

 Nice sunny morning. It should get warm but I have done everything out on the patio I wanted to do. I took the 3-tier planter apart, and cleaned out and discarded the lower two tiers. The top tier makes a nice large lobed pot with its own drip pan--and the begonias are doing very well and have bees visiting. I transplanted the best of the portulaca into individual pots. I try to conserve the soil as much as possible. Next year I will mix the old soil with potting mix for the season. Tomorrow I want to trim several of the plants that have become more than a bit over grown. With the lower temps, especially in the morning, I can get out there more. I simply can't take the heat any more. I have to make a list of plants I don't want to put in next year. I think I mentioned several a while back.

I finished two crochet pieces yesterday and today. One is the fillet pattern dragon which I plan to stitch onto a backing to better display the dragon. The other is a pineapple pattern doily. I left it for several days because I knew I didn't have enough of the red thread I was using to work the last row of pineapples. That presented a problem because I am trying to work down my stash and don't want to get more. I also didn't want to change colors in the middle of the pattern. So I simply pulled the stitches back to the base of the pineapples, which is a nice fan, and finished with a row of single crochet stitches. The smaller pattern is still large enough to make a pretty doily.

********************************************************

I started this yesterday but never got around to posting. Oh, well--Welcome to Half-Past September. We are a week away from the Autumnal Equinox and astronomical fall. I was out on the patio a bit earlier and got a bit of the mess the birds, messy feeders that they are, left. I plan to rearrange things a bit so I have a nearly clear space around the feeder. That should make cleaning up a bit easier. I also cut back a couple of plants. The weather forecast predicts a whole week of sun with no rain so I can plan to do a couple of small (or smallish) chores done each day. 

Bill Astore at Bracing Views picked up on a story originally from NBC concerning the soaring levels of medical debt even for people who have health insurance. I am not surprised. We did some math a few years ago. If you only have Medicare (as I do) a $1000 medical bill will leave you on the hook for $200 asuming Medicare pays the full 80% (which isn't always the case.) For me, that wouldn't be a problem because I do have a bit of savings. However, statistics I have seen say that a large percentage of Americans can't cover a $400 emergency. A couple of years ago Mom, who has Medicare Advantage had a $2000+ bill for a bout of pneumonia which had her in the hospital for four days. That is what neither Medicare and the Advantage supplement didn't cover. Luckily, mom is even better situated for emergency expenses than I am. As Astore mentions medical debt isn't the only kind of debt burdening Americans and it is adding up. We have an economy which is fueled by debt. Our economic "growth" is propelled by debt. If a significant number of debtors can't pay the whole system will seize up.

Stray thought: John Ganz, in a long post covering several topics, cites an observation that the Israelis "under the guise of destroying terrorist infrastructure" have destroyed about 70% of the civilian infrastructure as well. So that leads to a question: what distinguishes civilian infrastructure from "terrorist" infrastructure? I had that question in my mind reading stories about the problem of getting "humanitarian" supplies in when Israel would allow an item in at one time and refuse at another claiming in the latter incident that it would support Hamas. I wondered then what items could be allowed in that wouldn't support Hamas if they got their hands on it. Can anyone tell if the person eating the food is Hamas or "civilian" or if the person using the medical supplies is Hamas or "civilian" or... . You can continue this and I challenge you to mention ANYTHING that can be used only by civilians.

Found this after reading Last Week in Collapse. I didn't know there were toxic varieties of yams.

Another stray thought: I do read some "conservative" blogs. Sometimes they cover topics I find interesting that don't involve politics. However, I have noted that they see "facts" somewhat differently than I do. Or rather they see facts that I don't. For instance, the people who insist that Haitian immigrants they claim are illegally here (they aren't) are taking local pets and eating them (again they aren't). As you can see from the construction of that sentence there is a basic disagreement on what is a "fact." I have also noted that "conservative" bloggers are far more willing to disregard what I have long thought was a serious mental decline in Trump. I said in 2020 the he wasn't the man who ran in 2016--he seemed fuzzy; he wandered and he had trouble putting a coherent sentence together. This time around it is worse. But they have been willing to ignore that while really keying in on Biden's mental lapses which were far fewer. And any attempt to point that out sets his supporters off on a convulsive rant about how unfair the critics are. There seems to be no moderation and that scares me. It scares me even more when people, who may or not be Trump supporters, start calling in bomb threats or swatting perceived "enemies." I say "may or may not" because there are idiots who are happy to make trouble for the hell of it regardless of politics. I hope they are identified and prosecuted. 

September 11

 Another hazy day but I don't think we will get rain. I will have to water plants tomorrow. Otherwise everything is doing well. I will have to find the insecticidal soap because one of the diplodenia has some aphids. I haven't had many problems with pests over the last few years.

We started watching the debate but turned it off after about half an hour. I think Trump lost in the first few moments as they walked onto the stage. Harris promptly walked straight over to Trump (in front of his podium) to shake hands. She established her dominance right off--as one of the commentators said this morning she was "the alpha female." And he clearly was not alpha anything. That was clear during the first question. He rambled; she answered clearly. He looked old, tired, and confused; she was alert, active, and quick witted. During the last debate he benefitted by being the most alert of the two old men on stage. This time he was the only old man on stage and it wasn't a good look for him. Harris suggested more debates and Trump said he would like a "friendlier" news outfit (FOX) and "friendlier" questioners (Hannity or Ingraham for example). For "friendlier" we can read "more obsequious."

Stray thought: I wonder what difference the debate will make. Harris' supporters think she performed very well and Trump performed about as well as Biden did without the excuse of illness. Trump supporters will try to drag up reasons why Harris failed and Trump showed his usual mastery. How many uncommitted voters are really out there?

Another stray thought on another topic: I usually ignore the commemorations of the 9/11 attacks. Today I couldn't because it was intertwined with the debate commentary. As I watched I the scene in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING came to mind. Bilbo was writing about Hobbits in his journal and ended with the observation "It is no small thing to celebrate an ordinary life." These commemorations celebrate almost 3000 ordinary lives and a few extraordinary lives (the passengers on Flight 93). That deserves remembrance.

Rebecca Gordon has a good article on retirement. Not advice about how to prepare but about the recent complaints that too many older people aren't retiring and blocking the paths to career advancement for younger workers. As she points out large segments of the older population don't retire because they aren't financially able to do so. Not everyone is in the enviable position to have had a career that provided sufficient income for the them to put aside enough money to live on. Not everyone had a job with an employer who provided a pension plan (or enough income of the worker to pay into the plan). Not everyone were members of a union with an adequately funded pension plan. And Gordon didn't mention a situation I have read about over the last few years involving the number of state pension funds that are drastically underfunded. 

September 8

  Somewhat hazy today. I don't know what the forecast is because I haven't looked. It doesn't really matter since we aren't going anywhere. I spent most of the morning working on a crochet piece that suddenly wasn't working any more. It is very easy to shift your focus from the row you are working to one nearby on the chart. I finally took out two rows to a point where the pattern looked correct and then reworked that part plus a couple of rows. Now I have only ten more to do to finish the pattern.

I had an additional problem--my iPad wasn't charging. I have had that problem before but I could always check the connections and the battery would charge again. I use the iPad for my crochet patterns and to access both the nook (Barnes&Noble) and Kindle (Amazon) libraries. I broke down the last time the iPad had this problem so I would still be able to read some of my books. It turned out that the problem was a failing plug --the one that goes into the power strip or wall plug. My new MacBook has a plug with two USB ports to I connected the iPad there and it is now charging very nicely. I might get a replacement for the dead plug and, maybe, a Kindle. Back-ups are always a good idea, as we found out when we lost Mom's glasses. The two weeks waiting for replacements were no fun. And, yes, we did get back-up pairs for her--and for me as well.

Bill Astore has some comments on the presidential campaign and the recent endorsement of Biden by Dick and Liz Chaney. Although I can agree with him on most of what he says I have a somewhat different take. First, though I am disappointed that certain promises Biden made during his campaign weren't kept, I don't think he should have made them in the first place. No one should make promises which require other people's cooperation to fulfill. Harris is making the same mistake in her campaign now. Most of those promises rest on the hope that she will have a cooperative congress (and nowadays cooperative courts) to fulfill. Second, not all Democrats were anti-war (not even the Vietnam War). My family was solidly working class Democrats and believe me when I say they had no qualms at all about the war at the time. They thought most of the anti-war "agitators" were entitled brats who didn't realize how good they had it and should have silently attended to their class work. Or obeyed the draft laws and served in the military. It took me a long time to come to the conclusion that most of the premises on which our wars were based were wrong. Third, for me, the question is which likely-to-win candidate is most likely to follow our laws whether she wins or loses and which will do everything he can to overturn the results if he doesn't win.

I think David Kaiser sums up the conundrum of our politics at this moment:  Harris is not the problem, but she is unlikely to be the solution. I will vote for her. The problems Kaiser described developed over time and have a lot of inertia. It will take more than a couple of elections to change directions. Right now there is no real majority who recognizes the each of the problems or agrees on a solution. 

September 5, 6, 7

 Sunny day for now but the weather people say rain may move in later and last through tomorrow. I did some work in the gardens: pulled five plants and transplanted 2. We did some grocery shopping yesterday and our favorite dairy had its yearly offering of mums. I bought four. The two red were the transplants for today but that was tiring enough I quit for the day. If the rain holds off I will place those red mums beside the front door and get the yellow ones transplanted. They will stay on the patio. The forecast is for some cooler weather which, if we get it, will be good for some outside work.

Ed West at THE WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY posted an interesting article on "History's greatest crossovers, part 3." He starts off describing the events which occurred during the lives of two "supercentenarian." But now-a-days you don't even have to be a centenarian or supercentenarian to have lived through significant changes. My mother is 93. She remembers when telephones were rare and the only one in her apartment building was in the landlady's apartment to be used for emergency and short calls. During her life phones have become ubiquitous, cordless, and capable of much more than voice communication.

06************************************************************************************

Nice and cool today. Forecast temperature should only reach the mid-60s. It is welcome. Sunny right now but rain should move in. But I got the gardening done. The mums are in place and watered. I have a bunch of clean up planned for the next couple of months. Thankfully, I don't have any pressure to do it fast.

Somehow this isn't surprising. What does surprise me is, given the number of cyber crimes including some that have exploited weaknesses in various banking and finance systems world wide, that some still try to push a cashless society. People simply don't recognize the need for some redundancy in their systems. Using cash as well as electronic monetary transfers provides a bit of a safety net.

Well, Colin Gray has joined the Crumbly couple as parents in legal jeopardy because of their sons' actions. The Crumbly parents and son have been tried and convicted in the murders the boy committed at his school. Colin Gray is also accused in his son's assaults and murders at his school. The parents in both cases gave the boys the guns used even though they had discussions with authorities over the sons' suspect activities and failed to supervise them.

Oh, my--what an earthquake on the Republican side of our politics. Liz Chaney has endorsed and will vote for Harris. And she said, in answer to a question from the interviewer, that her father, Dick Chaney, will do the same. I heard some of the pundits saying that a number of powerful Republicans "secretly" hope Trump loses. I hope the Chaneys' pronouncement makes other Republicans come out in the open.

07*********************************************************************************

The promised rain finally arrived. My plants all seem to be perking up with that and the cooler weather. I am taking things easier today because my right forefinger is a bit painful.

September 3

 Lovely sunny day and the cats have each found pools of sunlight in which to snooze. For the moment (barring any sudden changes) we don't have any more appointments. The last two weeks have been filled with medical appointments of one kind or another. Now the only errands will be regular visits to the grocery store.

We are watching the Paralympics which are fascinating. It is amazing what people can do and not in the sense of amazing that what they do is done at all. I am able bodied but I doubt I could have competed with any of them even in my long ago youth. These athletes are truly inspirational.

I was wondering what NPA attached to an athlete meant. I couldn't make any connection to a country designation. Well, I found this article about the NEUTRAL PARTICIPATING ATHLETE designation which allows Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete wearing neutral uniforms without any reference to their countries' symbols or colors. The medals they win aren't counted in any country totals.

As the games play in the background I am going through my e-mail. Here is what else I am reading:

Bill Astore has a bit of history which has echoes for today's world: WWI Made Adolf Hitler. I had noted how what is happening in Ukraine and Gaza bear unsettling resemblance to what happened in WWII and not just in the devastating destruction. A passage in a history of Leningrad described the targeting grids the Germans used for their bombing of the city. Those grids included every hospital, every school, every factory, every energy/water/food storage facility, and every cultural site in the city. The Russians are doing the same for the entire country of Ukraine and the Israelis are using that playbook in Gaza.

Stray thought: Mongolia refused the request from Brussels to honor the ICC's arrest warrant against Putin who is on an official visit. Mongolia is a member of the compact creating the Court and does have an obligation to honor such arrest warrants. However, I think I side with Mongolia. I don't know what explanation they issued though the news media is citing economic reasons since Putin is there to get the proposed gas pipeline from Russia through Mongolia to China approved. My thoughts travel along a different track. Do we really want to start a practice of tit-for-tat arrests of heads of state and senior governmental officials?

August 31, September 2

Welcome to the last day of August. Tomorrow meteorological fall begins though it still feels like summer. I have noticed the first faint tinge of color changes in some of the trees but the real change willl start when we get much cooler nights.

Jan-in-Sanfran blogging at CAN IT HAPPEN HERE? posted an interesting piece: The Baby Boom Endures? Some time ago, when the presidential race appeared to be between Biden and Trump (again!!), I thought the contest would mark the last such "Baby Boomer" contest. We (because I am a boomer myself) would be moved off because of age. I never thought of Harris or Walz as Baby Boomers but they are. I am three yeas younger than Trump and seven younger than Biden (who is not actually a boomer). However, Harris was born in 1964 generally defined as the last year of the boom generation. She is two years younger than my youngest brother and four years younger than my youngest sister. Neither one has the physical vitality of either. Harris or Walz. As Jan notes the idea of a "generation" is very fuzzy just like the historical notion of "centuries" or "eras."

WIRED published an article on a problem I heard about a decade ago when a blogger I used to read, who has since died, reported on the problem when she had to have her fingerprints taken that hers were unreadable my the usual ink-and-press method. Fortunately, her police department had a new hand print scanner which was able to read her prints. I never could get my last MacBook to work with my finger print but the iPad and my current MacBook set up nicely. My mother has to use her password.

Sept 2******************************************************************************

I was totally lazy yesterday. We did have one errand to pick up our new glasses. Mom is especially glad her's came in because she has been totally without for about two weeks since we lost her old pair. We still haven't found any sign of them. We got two pair for her so she has a spare pair as well as a spare for me.

It was chilly this morning when I went out to water plants. A few degrees less and I would have been able to see my breath. While I did that I pulled the dahlia which has pretty much given up the ghost. I will replace it with a pot of mums soon. I haven't pulled the one pot of spindly petunias but they will also be replaced by mums. That gives me some fall color.

Bill Astore has written a post outlining his objections to Harris. I can understand and I agree that her backtracking on opposition to fracking and reversing her support of Medicare For All in favor of the status quo of Obamacare. He does note that Trump's positions (for the moment) aren't any better and may be worse but he doesn't see that as any reason to vote for Harris even as he doesn't plant to vote for Trump. Unfortunately, I don't see an acceptable third candidate I could vote for that wouldn't likely ensure the worst bad (Trump) will win over the less bad (Harris). Astore mentions Jill Stein in this post and he makes a good point: the argument that a vote for Stein is the equivalent of a vote for Trump might as easily be be considered a vote ensuring Harris a win. He is quite right and the Green Party's platform is more in line with a lot of policies I would support. However, would enough she have enough support in Congress and the Senate? I rather doubt it. And there is the problem of where the Supreme Court will end up because many of policies, if passed politically, will end up contested in the courts. Democracy requires honest debate and a willingness to compromise. Both of those qualities appear to be in very short supply.

CROOKS AND LIARS posted a piece concerning the proposed merger between Kroger and Albertson's grocery chains. The two are engaged with the Federal Government in an anti-trust lawsuit. It reminds me of a story back in the darkest days of the pandemic which described comments made by some CEOs at a meeting who gloated about being able to jack up prices well above inflation because they could always blame inflation anyway. 

August 29

 Good morning on what look like a nice sunny day--at least for now. The temps are predicted to reach the high 80s. Unfortunately, we do have to go out in it for a medical appointment. But I don't think I have to water plants after the soaking they got a day ago. The weather people think we have a good shot for more thundershowers tomorrow.

I found this article on Medium which reminds me of something I read about forty years ago in a book on the history of technology. The author wrote the purpose of technology (broadly defined) is to render processes invisible. His example involved modern electric lighting. The consumer merely flips a switch and gets light. What is hidden is the whole complex of processes which makes that happen: the wires (and the whole industrial line of production from digging the ore to the smelting to the forming of the wire to the packaging to the distribution centers to the installation), the light bulbs (similar chain from materials to production to sale to final placement), the transportation (map out the supply chains involved for your self). All except the final flipping of the switch and light are hidden from the consumer. Out of sight, out of mind. What the Medium article focuses on is the chain which takes the waste "away" from us and our vision.

Is my memory faulty or are these  stories becoming more frequent and more costly? Just to check I found this site that lists major incidents targeting governments, defense and finance industries, and/or causing losses of more than $1million. It may be time to go to a lower tech backup which can't be hacked. And we have to remember that our computerized systems aren't vulnerable just to malicious people. Weather and accidents can also totally interrupt our digital lives.

August 27, 28

We have a series of very warm days continuing. They started over the weekend with high 80s. Today is nearing 90F and a couple of more are in store. It will cool down, the weather people say, by Labor Day. By then we will be saying goodbye to August and hello to September.

We had an appointment yesterday so I didn't get much reading and no posting done. Right now the political news is largely the "same old-same old" and it is very old. I remember a comment someone (I can't remember who) made about the difference between "predicaments" and "problems." Problems have solutions but predicaments don't. Right now we have continuing predicaments--in Ukraine, in Gaza, in our relations with Russia and China, an economy which has tilted more towards the already obscenely wealthy. And we have contending parties on all of the various sides (there aren't simply two sides) which have made finding a consensus on what actions to take difficult.

I did make some progress on a crochet piece I started a week or so ago. I had to pull it all out and start again because I didn't get the original count right. I seemed to make good progress on it only to find that I miscounted somewhere along the way and had to take out all but the first three rows. I am thoroughly amazed and disgusted with my inability to count single digits consistently. I now count two or three times the next set of stitches and, when I have a long stretch of the same pattern, use safety pins to mark my stitches. Making progress on the last of a set of pillow cases was much easier.

28************************************************************************************

We had a very hard thunderstorm move through last night. Still too early to see if anything in the gardens was damaged. I have several summer plants that are pretty much done for the year. I will replace them with mums for the fall. And I am beginning a list of plants I won't plant next year for various reasons. Cosmos--I planted these simply because I had an empty large pot and Mom got a packet of free seeds in a charity pleading for donations. Bee balm/monarda--I want to find a different plant to feed bees. I have planted this one for several years but it is time for a different plant. Dahlia--in the last couple of years they have suffered from powdery mildew so it is time to consider more resistant plants. Mints--I used to plant mints to harvest for tea but kept putting them in to attract bees. Valerian--just time for a change.

Stray Thought: the Harris/Walz bus tour in southeastern Georgia revives a good strategy. I have long thought neither party has addressed the needs of people living in rural areas. Ever since, and before, Earl Butz (then Secretary of Agriculture) told farmers they had to "get big or get out" the only rural interests Washington politicians paid any attention to was industrial agriculture. Going out and meeting people in small towns is a good start.

Another Stray Thought: a passage in Liz Cheney's OATH AND HONOR ties into that first stray thought. She described talking to two of her Wyoming constituents who were both ranchers during the turmoil of December when the Electoral College was preparing to meet. Both mentioned as their first comment that Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts had a child-sex ring running in his basement. She disabused them and then went on to their other concerns over how and under what terms the Biden administration would administer the land and resources in Wyoming the federal government controls. The constituents voted Republican because they viewed Republican administrations as friendly toward their economic interests while the Democrats were more likely to push economic or environmental measures that would hit them very hard in the pocket book. I wonder how many Democrats actually went out to talk to such voters.

August 25

 The Democratic Convention was entertaining but I am glad it is over. Note that I didn't watch ANY of the Republican Convention. I only saw snippets the news channel I usually watch put up to contrast to what the Democrats did. I gave some observations elsewhere. I will make observations every now and again. For instance, the complaints from Republicans and Republican "adjacent" pundits that Harris isn't giving interviews with reporters--especially "conservative" pundits and outlets. Their biases are showing. I have noticed that Trump isn't giving interviews except to sympathetic interviewers. Second instance: conservative complaints that Harris isn't putting out policy statements. Again that largely shows their biases. The Democratic policy statements are actually more comprehensive than anything the Trump people are putting out--when they aren't trying to back away from unpopular statements as fast as they can.

An interesting report, or rather a snippet of a report, indicated that the Republicans have shifted money away from the 'ground game,' from knocking on doors or making calls. They have decided to put their resources toward lawyers. Being somewhat cynical and suspicious I conclude that they have decided to contest the election in the courts. They don't care what the election results will be, or they suspect it will go against them, and want the courts to erase the results and give the "victory" to Trump. The late Maya Angelou supposedly said that when someone tells you (or shows you) who they are--believe them. Trump bleated that the 2016 election was going to be stollen almost as soon he stepped off his escalator and continued through the entire campaign. He won that one thanks to the Electoral College. But he claimed that he actually won the popular count as well thought all the evidence said otherwise. He made the same claims during the 2020 campaign and when he lost both the Electoral College and the popular count launched more than 60 lawsuits all of which failed to change the outcome. I won't comment on January 6 since it is still in the courts but I did notice that he couldn't muster the courtesy to attend the Biden inauguration. Our history of "peaceful transfer of power" took a bit of a knock. We are seeing the third repeat of the same tired old Trump story and it isn't wearing well.