December 22

 Good morning. Only three more days til Christmas. The weather forecast predicts above "normal" temperatures which should get rid of the snow we have now. We are supposed to have a couple of days of rain but nothing more. I put that word in quotes because the weather over the last couple of decades has been anything but normal. We aren't planning anything special.

I finished another embroidery piece--the second of a pair of pillow cases. I completed the other a month or so ago. That will probably be the last completion for the year. Next year will be devoted to finishing some projects that are a bit too far along to finish quickly. The whole purpose of doing hand work is to slow down. I wouldn't have said that a couple of decades ago when I was still in the rat race they call life in this country--doing everything as fast as possible and getting on with the next thing or trying to juggle four and five things at the same time.

Well, the clowns in congress finally got a continuing resolution to keep the government in operation for another quarter. The new shitshow same as the old shitshow. And the same as all the other quarterly or semiannual shitshows for I forget how long. It is getting a bit boring and very irritating. It isn't even a full budget. They (past and present members of the House especially) haven't been able to get an agreement on a real budget for the last four administrations--if not longer. This time we had the added spectacle of Elon Musk's self-serving interference which had a lot of commentators (inside and outside government) wondering who is the real President-in-waiting. Trump came in with his own two-cents only after Musk created his twitter storm and raised his ruckus.

Bill Astore has an acerbic post this morning on the mess in the Middle East. He takes exception to the New York Times editorial opining on finding a "nuanced" position on the "Hamas-Israel" war because he can't really see such a position. Frankly, I can't either. The response to the October 8th Hamas attack on Israel has been to destroy the Palestinians under the guise of destroying Hamas. In the back of my mind was something I had read about the aims of the ultra-conservative Jewish groups aims to create a Greater Israel that approximates the territories of the Jewish kingdom under Solomon and other kings. It totally incorporates the West Bank, Gaza, parts of Lebanon, Jordon, and Syria. As Astore points out the actions Israel has undertaken amounts to a one state "solution" which leaves the Palestinians without any state at all.

Another aspect of the shitshow in Washington is that to keep up our government's support for Israel they keep increasing the aid to Israel and cut things like support for research and treatment of childhood cancer. Death in one hand and death in the other and death all around.  

December 17

Sunny today and unseasonably warm. I am taking things easy. I am still tired and stiff from yesterday. I had to take the car in for new tires and a replacement for a burned out headlight but, as the saying goes, one damned thing after another kept me waiting there for five hours. And I am not complaining about the service--that was great. The mechanics found that the headlight assembly was shot because the insulation on the wires had disintegrated and the wiring corroded. They had to order the parts which took time. Then they found a similar problem with the wheel assembly and was dangerous enough that it really had to be fixed immediately. More parts had to be ordered and more time. So I wound up spending five hours there because I had no alternate transportation. If we had realized so much had to be done to simply get the original things fixed (new tires and headlights) I might have been able to arrange something so I could leave the car and pick it up next day. I took my NOOK reader with me so I could read a book but sitting there that long left me so stiff that I could hardly write the check. We did spend much more than anticipated but it wasn't anything we couldn't cover and the repairs probably mean the car will last past when neither one of us are driving any longer.

Bill Astore linked to a George Carlin skit from 2005 which is well worth a listen, or read since Astore included a transcription. Sounds an awful lot like what I have been hearing from the coterie around the Once and Future President. 

December 15

 Cloudy, foggy, and a bit warm for mid December. We had rain overnight and may be getting a light mist in addition to the fog. We have a nice soccer day today with three back-to-back games. I changed out the Fall door wreath for a Winter wreath. I had intended to make some changes but I will wait until I take the wreath down for Spring.

Bill Astore has a good post on the American health wealth care system. Another blogger has called it the "sick care" system. Both get to the same point: the system is designed to make sure the medical insurance industry, corporate medical service industry, drug industry, and medical devices industry stay wealthy and get wealthier. They do that by 1) denying service whenever possible, 2) charging as much in fees (like co-pays) and creating service limitations (lifetime limits) and 3) pushing drugs or treatments which don't rally cure diseases and keeps patients on the hook for their lives (weight loss drugs which work but which you can't stop if you want to maintain the weight loss). 

I will make a couple of observations. First, the insurance industry AS A WHOLE has problems. With the number of weather related/environmental disasters property insurers are also having profitability problems which they deal with in the same way the health sector does: denying claims, paying claimants as little as they can if they can't deny payments all together, refusing to renew coverage (which may lead mortgage holders to call the loans), or jacking up the premiums into the financial stratosphere. And so much insurance is required: auto insurance by law, homeowner's insurance by mortgage holders, property insurance for business by lenders and law, etc. But insurance is becoming an unsustainable financial burden and major time tax for the insured. Second, That some parts of the social media ecosystem seem to consider Mangione something of a hero is hardly surprising. We can't really say how widespread the phenomenon is because social media is a very opaque system. You can't tell legitimate sentiment form rabble rousers or even how many posts are discrete individual and how many are repeaters of some kind. But the outlaw hero is an old theme going back at least as far as Robin Hood who robbed the rich to support the poor. The unpopularity of the railroad robber barons whose business screwed small farmers while giving wealthy industrialists sweetheart deals gave rise to Jesse James and similar bandits. And, long before Willie Sutton said he robbed banks because "that's where the money is" predatory practices by bankers made some bank robbers outlaw heroes. It is an old tradition in western culture.

I would have laughed at this CROOKS & LIARS article if it didn't say something so truly angering about the avarice of the medical industry. If you can make more money doing "surgery" then defining as much as possible as "surgery" is way to pad your bank account.

The ANCIENT MARINER complained about "water, water every where and ne'er a drop to drink. According to this Guardian article the island of Sicily there is too little water anywhere. The mariner was surrounded by sea water (not good to drink) while Sicily is in the midst of an unprecedented drought. The reservoir featured in the article saw the water level drop from 30m cubic feet to 290,000. When the government ordered the local towns to send water to towns in neighboring provinces the local people said "NO" and turned up to guard the distribution center.

December 12, 13, 14

Good Morning. We had snow flurries yesterday though little, if any, stuck. We had to take the car in because we got a "check tire pressure" warning light. We don't have the tire pump any more--another thing we don't do ourselves. While there we asked the service people to check all the tires for wear. The last time they were checked was about five or six years ago. As I told Mom, if we followed the milage recommendations for maintenance we would never have any maintenance done. We just don't drive much any more. Well, we an appointment next week to have all four tires changed. We will also have a burned out head light replaced.

I finished a large crochet doily yesterday. It will be the last crochet project for this year. Not a bad tally for this year: four doilies and four lap/baby blankets. I changed things a bit putting all the needlework in progress in the 5-drawer dresser we rescued from a neighbor's trash and put the crochet blankets which had been in the dresser in the ottoman where the needlework had been. In the process I found several pieces that were half finished. I should get the almost completed pillow case done before year's end. I finished the mate to it a couple or three months ago.

Another episode in the on going saga of American "crapification" comes from Robert Reich. 

13**********************************************************************************

It looks like in and out sun today. I am a bit sluggish today. Didn't sleep well last night and decided to read a bit rather than toss and turn. I finally got to sleep somewhere between 12:30 and 1am. At least I finished reading THE VOYAGE HOME by Pat Barker. It continues her story of the Trojan War told from the perspective of the Trojan women which started with THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS and continued with THE WOMEN OF TROY. Historical novels are chancy for me--I either like them or hate them. These I like.

Stray thought: evidently Trump has walked back a couple of campaign promises in a couple of interviews recently. He told his interviewers that lowering grocery prices and negotiating an end to the Ukraine-Russia war were "complicated" and would not be done on his first day. I wonder who gave him a dose of reality.

14********************************************************************************

Well, here we are--half past December. It started out sunny and cold but the clouds have moved in. I spent the morning starting another scrap lap/crib afghan. It will probably be finished sometime in the new year. Like a lot of fiber crafters I keep several projects going at the same time using several different techniques. The new scrap project is in Tunisian treble and Tunisian single stitches. I learned the basics of the stitch when I was 14 or 15 and a very nice lady working the sewing/notions counter in an old Ben Franklin 5 & 10. Most of that chain are gone now.

Stray thought: evidently one of the people vetting possible employees of for the Department of Health and Human Services if RFK, Jr., is confirmed is a lawyer who is noted for doing the legal work for anti-vax groups and has filed a petition to make the FDA rescind its approval of the POLIO vaccine. He claims that the process was flawed because there were no null groups in the trials. The idiot was born long after the vaccine was approved and long after the last big polio outbreak in the U.S. in the early 1950s. I doubt he knows any person who has had polio--unless he knows Mitch McConnell. I am 75 and in my life time I have known only one person who had contracted polio. The girl was in my 8th grade class and had just emigrated from one of the Eastern European countries which tried to throw off Soviet control and been suppressed by the Red Army. Usually she was in a wheel chair and her clothing was a couple of sizes larger than she would normally wear so it covered her body brace. She also had heavy leg braces and used crutches to stand. The 1952-55 outbreak infected a bit less than 60K and killed a bit more than 3000 with many of the survivors paralyzed. The vaccines (Salk and Sabin versions) were introduced in 1956 and incidents of polio have almost disappeared in this country. I call that effective.

Second stray thought: RFK, Jr., and his ilk seem to have an absolutist definition of "effective" which ignores the fact that no medical technique or medication is absolutely 100% effective. It is always a matter of percentages: what percent of people exposed to a disease get it if they have no vaccine vs. what percent of vaccinated people get the disease if exposed and what percentage of vaccinated people have side effects of what severity. 

December 10

 Good morning. Temperature is still above normal at about 40F and it is likely to hit over 50 before the day is over. The forecasters say another round of very cold weather is coming later in the week. We haven't had much precipitation. Most of the plants on the patio are done but I am not cleaning them out because they can keep the soil from blowing or splattering out.

Most of the news is repetitious noise. Trump's nominations for various positions dominate with the reporters/commentators trying to handicap their chances for confirmation. Things are going to change and the only question is whether the changes will be bad or worse. I really don't expect them to be good for ordinary people. The congress has about a week to get a new continuing budget resolution in place before the government shuts down. Speaker Johnson will need Democrats to help him get it through and the Dems are insisting on a "robust" funding for disaster relief across the country in exchange. We'll see what happens.

The situation in the Middle East just got far more complex with the sudden collapse of the Assad regime. As Hemingway said of how he went bankrupt "slowly, then all at once." That seems to be how dictatorships fall as well. Everyone is waiting on what the HST will do and hoping it aligns with their promises of moderation and inclusiveness. I hope that our own government takes a largely hands-off approach and lets the people there take care of their own business.

Reading today:

    1) Ed West has an interesting post detailing the history of immigration in Europe and its consequences--intended and unintended. A couple of thoughts popped up while reading it. First, the old saying that "assume makes an ASS of U and Me." The history of immigration is riddled with assumptions and many were very mistaken. Second, though West concentrates on Europe, much of what he says has parallels on our side of the Atlantic.

    2) Richard Haas at AT HOME AND AWAY assesses the Syria situation. Considering how many different ethnic/religious groups occupy various regions creating a unified "Syria" might be a pipe dream. The complexity goes beyond just Kurds, Shi'ia, Sunni divisions. Both of the Islamic groups have splinter groups. And there are Christians and Druse populations as well. And the Alawite Shi'ites aren't very popular being the group who most supported Assad and benefited most from his rule. Then you have the other countries: Israel (who are currently bombing what remains of the Syrian military facilities and occupying the Syrian Golan Heights, Türkiye who took over two Kurdish villages in the north of Syria and are totally opposed to any Kurdish power in that area, Iran (who supplied much of Syria's armaments but suffered from Israel's operations against their military), Russia who supported Assad militarily and economically but who are a bit stretched by its war in Ukraine. I could go on but Haas does a good job.

December 4, 5, 6

 Good morning on another cold but sunny day. No snow yet. It is still going north or south of us. I'm not complaining. I am not a kid hoping for a snow day and I am not a worker whose boss expects me to go through hell and high water to come in for my assigned shift. I can choose to stay home and keep comfortably warm.

Reading today:

Dave Karpf writes several things I can whole heartedly agree with. I also don't really care much about Hunter Biden. I agree he should have been treated as most other criminals charged with similar crimes AND he wasn't because of who his father is. I also agree that the umbrage expressed by both Republicans and Democrats is CONTRIVED. As Karpf says the media and politicos care more about the APPEARANCE of order and propriety than whether there is really order and propriety. I will add that the issue of OPTICS and PRECEDENCE is an illusion. The Harris campaign hammered home how much more moral, more upright, more honorable they were than the opposition--and it fell flat. And the pardon doesn't provide a precedence for Trump to do anything he wouldn't have done any way. To argue that Biden should have swallowed the injustice done Hunter by malicious prosecution (persecution) so the Democrats would look good and could shame the Republicans. Point--Trump and his people don't have a "shame gene." I saw a nature program once that showed the excavation of a small herd of mammoths that appeared to have starved to death without moving away. Further study of the geological history showed that an earthquake had occurred at the same time the mammoths died. Earthquakes can cause the soil to liquify. That appears to be what happened to the mammoths who became trapped in the suddenly liquid morass. We have been in the middle of a political/social/economic quake for a long time and the ground we thought was solid is now quicksand in which we are trapped.

Stray thought: the argument that what Biden wrote justifying the pardon will dent the public trust in our institutions, especially the Justice Department is ridiculous. Public trust in most institutions a is almost so low it can hardly go lower thanks as much to the actions of Trump during his last trip to the Oval Office and his pet Supreme Court.

05***************************************************************************

Cloudy again today. Yesterday we actually had brief periods of sun. Right now I see some very, very light snow. Most of the news/commentary this morning concerns 1) will Hegseth survive (betting is on NOT) and who Trump replace him with, 2) the no confidence vote in France which led to the resignation of the Bernier government and who Macron will nominate next, 3) the failure of the South Korean president's plans for martial law and the move in the legislature to impeach him, 4) the Syrian rebels' rapid move into major cities. Right now I don't see much worth commenting on but I have just started looking at my on-line reading.

Robert Reich makes a very good point that most commentators don't: the difference between "loyalty" and "subservience." Most stress that Trump wants "loyal" subordinates when the evidence seems to show that he really wants "subservient" underlings.

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

Bright and sunny today. Still cold but we do have to go to go out for a few items we are short of or out of. We will go to the closest grocery because they have all of the items. I finished the last woven square for the next strip and put the 12 pieces together but when I tried to put the two strips together I found they didn't match in the way I had planned. I put it aside for the moment to think it out. I could take one strip apart to reposition some of the blocks but that will create a whole lot of small lengths of yarn I don't have a use for. I HATE that. I am thinking that I might just play with another strip with another pattern but the same colors and just make the piece a bit scrappy. I am using the 4" loom and thinking of taking out the 2" loom and see how many of the scraps I can use. I need to locate the needle for that loom.

I found this article that seems to belong in the "what goes ground comes around" folder. I love the idea that Russia is getting back some of the drones/missiles they have sent into Ukraine.

The murder of the Brian Thompson, CEO of United Health Care, and the discovery of shell casings with "deny," "defend," and "depose," written on them has focused attention on the health insurance industry. Heather Cox Richardson notes that there is little sympathy for either the victim or the industry as major companies are removing the pictures of their executives from their internet pages. We have had our own difficulties with health insurance companies and are not fans of the system.

Stray thought: the DOGE committee (mainly Elon Musk and Vivek Ramiswamy) is supposed to identify waste and make government more efficient. I haven't heard any clear definition of "waste" or what constitutes "efficient." From the their pronouncements it seems like waste is anything that benefits the poor and efficiency is anything that lines their pockets.

Second stray thought: anyone else tired of obscenely rich men promising their proposals will be painful but we will see a wonderful prosperous future. I am sure it will be painful BUT NOT FOR THEM. And prosperous times are already here FOR THEM.

Another stray thought: it seems that changing your mind, if you are a politician, is the same as lying. Really?? I think you can guess that this thought is about the criticism of Biden for deciding to pardon Hunter after saying he wouldn't during the campaign. There are a lot of reasons why Biden would change his mind starting with Trump's election. Like a number of people whose blogs I read I think that he wouldn't have issued the pardon if Harris had won. He could be sure, if she had won, that she wouldn't have set "her" justice department on Hunter. There have been too many examples of "Trump's" justice targeting people who pissed him off. And his nomination for head of FBI, Kash Patel, has promised just such targeting of perceived enemies.

December 3

 Sunny at the moment. We have been fortunate so far--most of the lake effect snow went east of us. It must be very cold because the frost on the roofs hasn't disappeared yet and we have had sun for about 4 hours. We don't have any errands until Friday at the earliest--probably next Monday. During cold (or hot) weather we don't go outside much. I managed to get some more squares woven over the last couple of days (for a new scrap buster lap/baby blanket) and a couple of rows of crochet on a doily. I had to remove some stitching because of mistakes. The last was earlier today because the pattern just didn't look right. That took me a bit to realize that I was misreading the pattern. Crochet patterns can be as eccentric as their designers especially working with patterns written more than 50 years ago. Luckily I don't have to translate from British notation to American though I do have a few patterns following the British scheme.

I follow various stories on NAKED CAPITALISM especially their coverage of the efforts of governments and central banks in various countries to abolish cash. Those have been most successful in parts of Europe especially the Nordic countries. This article indicates that a more aggressive Russia is forcing the powers that be to rethink the utility of cash. We still keep cash on hand here because 1) we patronize a couple of small businesses that take cash or checks but not credit/debit cards, 2) we might have an electrical or internet outage just when we have to purchase something, 3) most of the credit card companies we have had recent experience with are more trouble than they are worth. If the communications are out and our debit card won't work our cash will. The author noted that the worst electronic payments outage wasn't due to Russian cyber attack but because of system "botched internal processes" at banks and other financial institutions.

File this one under "if you didn't have bad luck you wouldn't have any luck at all." In the midst of an mpox epidemic the Democratic Republic of Congo has discovered an unknown disease that has killed 67 in two weeks.

The early news this morning noted that Rep. Jamie Raskin (age 61) is running to replace the long time ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler (age 77). This Punchbowl article indicates that not only are a number of younger Democrats seeking to replace much older Democrats on various committees but there is also a move to replace older Democrats with long seniority on committees.

 Good December 1 to anyone out there. I was a good morning for me until we got four calls within half an hour about "new" "benefits" from Medicare and all the agent has to do is "confirm" that we have Social Security, and Medicare A and B. Bullshit!! They don't have to "confirm" anything and what ever "benefits" they are offering we have already been informed about and few "new" (if they are really new) "benefits" are things we find useful. I am so utterly sick of these calls. What really burns me up is there is NO WAY TO TELL THE BASTARDS NOT TO CALL US. Yeah, I am shouting. I am tired of being abused by this damned system. I tried being polite when this all started but I found that, if there was an actual person on the other end, they simply didn't understand the concept of NO. They usually tried to talk over me. Lately I have had the feeling that it isn't an actual person but some damned computer programed to mimic a person. Damn, Damn, Double Damn!! I have begun simply hanging up but simply closing the flip phone isn't nearly as satisfying as slamming the handset down on the base was when we had rotary phones.

Ah, GIZMODO has a perfect article for my mood today. "Enshitification" has become the big word of the year for the national dictionary of Australia. That term refers to the frustration we all feel dealing with the technology that seems to run our lives. Or ruin them. But I think Ives Smith at NAKED CAPITALISM had a broader term: crapification. And that perfectly encapsulates my feelings about more than just the tech itself. Has anyone noticed that the commercials on TV have become really weird? One commercial starts and suddenly, only a second or two into the spiel, it gets cut off for an entirely different one. Or, have you seen the commercial breaks in which the same commercial appears two or even three times in the same sequence? Or how badly the program gets cut up by the commercials? Or how producers change their products without much notice? A while back I read a blogger who complained that a batch of pickles didn't work out and found that the vinegar she customarily bought was no longer 5% acetic acid which is required for pickling. I thought I would check it out at our supermarket and sure enough the vinegar was 4%. Though the store did have the usual 5% as well, I was struck by the fact that the prices weren't very different. Crapification/enshitification basically describes things very well.

November 30

 We have made it to the last day of November. Somehow all the wild weather that hit the Pacific Northwest and the east coast almost totally missed us--so far. Meteorological winter starts tomorrow so we have plenty of time to get hit. Astronomical winter is December 20 (or thereabouts). I am just starting to think about what next spring's garden will contain and how the containers will be arranged.

The best comment I heard lately about the incoming administration was from a guy named Grant. He was interviewed on MORNING JOE early last week promoting his article (I forget where) and it was, to paraphrase the title of the article, if you think you know what is going to happen--you're wrong. It looks like there might be a fight over confirming some nominees and one has already thrown in the towel. Trump seems to have decided to nominate serious candidates for the departments he, or his oligarchic supporters, like. But he is nominating people with serious character flaws and very limited experience and/or expertise for those departments he hates. How well they will work together is a question and whose advice, if anyone's, Trump will take is another. Although Trump constantly extolled his "promises made, promises kept" slogan, his first administration promised much and delivered little. And he has to deal with a very closely divided Senate and House.

I have watched MORNING JOE for several years and was surprised when Joe and Mika announced a couple of days after the election that they had gone down to Mar-a-largo to meet with Trump. However, I am not, like some, going to stop watching. I can agree with them on the subject of the toxic nature of politics nowadays and that the rhetoric should be tamped down. I notice that they promised that they will still criticize Trump when they disagree with his policies. I heartily agree with that also. Unfortunately, over the last 12 years or so ad hominem insults have passed for reasoned debate on both sides of the ideological divide. Trump has been a master of the form and the Democrats have been sucked into the pattern. I haven't seen anything to indicate that Scarborough and Brzezinski have "kissed the ring" as alleged by this piece in CROOKS & LIARS and some of the commentators at the end. I follow a number of bloggers and commentators who espouse conservative views, many of whom supported Trump and expect good things of him. I don't intend to stop reading/watching them either.

This piece is a nice change of pace. Not everywhere is a carbon copy of New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, or San Francisco or any other highly urbanized place. Not all of our borders border Mexico.

November 29

 Happy day after Thanksgiving. We stayed home. It was a last minute decision because my brother invited us to an "if you can make it" dinner. We make a lot of those last minute decisions. We wake up feeling energetic but my the time we have our coffee and breakfast all the energy has dissipated. Or we say we need to do laundry on Monday but by Wednesday we still haven't done it. Thankfully very little in our lives is of any great urgency or need to absolutely accomplished at any given time--except doctor appointments. We planned to go up to the dairy we patronize on Tuesday. It was supposed to be the only shopping that day but we suddenly realized that we were already in the last week of the month and we had rent to pay. So we  put all of our errands into that day--dairy, grocery store, bank and rent. We were totally wiped out.

Bill Astore makes a number of points about our military, our use of the military and the military budget I have thought for some time. First, the Pentagon is the poster child for unaccountability. The problem is that there aren't any real measures by which to measure the Pentagon's performance. Our military hasn't won a war since WWII--and that was a coalition effort which we rarely recognize. Korea wasn't won--we, the Chinese, and the North Korean politicians merely agreed to go back to the pre-war boundaries and have maintained a de-militarized zone to separate the combatants. We didn't "win" the Vietnam conflict--Nixon merely "declared victory" and we left. We won battles in Iraq and Afghanistan but eventually lost the wars. We spent a hell of a lot of money for no real gain by any definition of "gain." Second, Astore mentions that many of the weapons systems were obsolete fifty years ago. However, the Pentagon has spent billions on new systems that have failed to perform as advertised. Third, too much of our foreign policy relies on the threat of military force. As the old saying goes " if all you have is a hammer all your problems look like nails." Unfortunately, that isn't likely to change since the incoming administration relies on threats of force--whether military or economic (tariffs). Fourth, I think our leaders need to rethink our relationships with foreign countries and entities. Unfortunately, I don't think the new administration is going to do that in any really constructive way. Simply getting out of NATO or abrogating our participation in the climate talks, etc., won't be constructive.

Jan in SanFran at CAN IT HAPPEN HERE has a good post for Thanksgiving.

Stray thought: news this morning reported bombs threats against both Republican and Democratic politicians. The time line in one of the stories I found indicate that the threats against Republican proposed members of Trump's cabinet were followed by threats against Democratic congresspeople. One would think that some Democrat-aligned idiot decided to swat Republicans and some Republican-aligned idiot decided to reciprocate. I guess I am a total skeptic and I wonder if there isn't a different party (or parties) playing both sides.

November 22, 23, 25

 The snow is gone. The temperature rose to between 45 and 50F. That pretty well took are of all the snow and slush. We have an appointment today so the clear sidewalks and streets are welcome. I got my two new embroidery projects set up and started. They are small table cloths so I might finish them by the end of 2025 or, more likely, in 2026.

Well, Trump has already picked a new candidate for the Attorney General slot after Matt Gaetz pulled out. It seems there are some senators who do have a limit to what they will accept--enough that only a few can sink his agenda. I wonder if those Republican senators would have swallowed the sex with under age girls (for which he paid a hefty amount) at drug fueled orgies if he had been even marginally qualified for the job. At least the new nominee, I will remember her name if she is confirmed, has practiced law for more than five minutes and was Florida's Attorney General.

23****************************************************************************

I didn't have much time after the appointment yesterday and Mom wanted to stop by Michaels to see if there was an embroidery project she would like to do. We found one that is fairly simple since she hasn't done any needlework for about 20 years. It is cloudy and cool--not yet quite cold though that is coming. I spent about five hours on one of my table cloths while mom tried to make sense of the pattern kit she had. Michaels has changed again and I am deciding whether I like. They don't have any needlework pieces for me because I don't like kits and I prefer working more advanced pieces. But they have brought back fabric on the bolt and sewing patterns. That might be interesting.

25************************************************************************************

Yesterday was Sunday soccer--two Premier League games and cooking. I did a nice beef roast and a cake. Part of the roast was put into containers in the freezer for future meals. I got some more done on the cross stitch table cloth. However, it was a "do as little as possible" day. Today is a bit different. I put away the clothes we washed over the weekend  and straightened up more in the What-Not Room. I can actually use the table now. I have a new winter wreath in mind so I needed the space to lay things out. After that I have some quilt pieces that have languished for some time. I want to get it started again.

Reading list:

    Ugo Bardi has a few things to say about "green bashing." I think that people can be relied upon to follow business as usual until it goes off the rails. It is difficult to change an established pattern. We have been trying to shift away from plastic but it is difficult to do. Almost everything at the grocery store is in plastic containers. We have managed to eliminate most bought plastics. We also reuse what packaging is suitable. However, eventually we run out of room to store those containers. The plastic grocery bags we use to clean out our cats' boxes and line our trash cans. We push our set pattern beyond their usefulness or fail to recognize changes that make them no longer useful. Bardi is also right to observe that when things go wrong we tend to look for scape goats. No one wants to admit that they might be part of the problem.

Stray thought on the end of the COP29 talks: the delegates finally negotiated a "deal" that doesn't mandate a shift away from fossil fuels (a Saudi demand) and "commits" the developed countries to pay $300billion/year and gives them til 2035 to make good on the promise. Too little and too late. (Side note: That was what the initial summary was of only two of the major issues. More may come out later.)

Another stray thought on the end of the COP29 talks: the most vulnerable nations and developing nations wanted a guarantee of somewhere north of, I think I heard, $3trillion. The advanced countries offered only $250billion which sent the opponents into a snit. I noticed the reporters on BBC (note: the U.S. news media barely mentioned the meetings) reported that many of the so-called rich countries are having financial problems. The incoming administration is proposing a department of "government efficiency" dedicated to cutting "waste" (which isn't specified.) I read that the Canadian government is planning measures to relieve its citizens of some financial pressures. EU countries are also having various fiscal difficulties. Where the money is going to come from is a good question. "Rich" is a matter of perception and most countries aren't feeling rich right now.

I am calling it day. I am having a very hard time with my e-mail feed. It is slow and sometimes refusing to load the items.

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.

23***************************************************************************

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.

17**************************************************************************************************************

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.