Thursday, May 30, 2024

May 30

 May is almost over. Sunny today and I had to water one of the pots on the patio. It has a large plant and though we had, or seem to have had, a good bit of rain. Some of the plants will need watering tomorrow. 

Bill Astore posted this piece yesterday, I think. I lived through the late 1960s and 1970s. The situation now has echoes of that time. Different war, different protestors but similar responses. The major difference is that the police themselves have been more thoroughly militarized. We haven't had another Kent State (yet), but if we do the militarized police will probably do the shooting. Astore has another post (today's I think) that says something I thought as I listened to the news report that Biden had decided that Israel's attack on the tent camp in Gaza that 20+ civilians for each of the two (alleged) Hamas fighter claimed didn't violate his "red line." The Defense Department commentary made it plain that anything short of a mass deployment of personnel and tanks won't cross that line. This reminds me of the Supreme Court's "ethics code." The real trick for us is to realize that there is no "red line" just as there is no real "ethics code." It is all an illusion.

Medium published this article by Kelly Eden. I have read several articles about "ultra processed food" and noticed a lot of the confusion that Eden talks about. What actually constitutes "ultra processed?" A long time ago we cut out a lot of the prepared foods: microwaveable lunches, long shelf life sacks. We had several rules of thumb: how many ingredients, how many unrecognizable chemical additives, how much processing were involved. Over time we have added back several items we had eliminated partly for convenience or as a back up in case we couldn't get to the store to replenish our stores. However, those are our habits, and if someone else does something else it's their choice. 

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