June 19, 20

 Happy Juneteenth. Stray thought on the coverage: so often the stories end with the comment that it was the day slaves in south Texas were informed that they were free some two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Why the tone of amazement? Did they (or their writers) ever read the document? It applied to ONLY those states still in rebellion against the Union. As though the authorities in those states would publicize it. It didn't apply to states where slavery was legal but which were not in rebellion, like Kentucky.

Interesting that the failure of the 911 system in Massachusetts and elsewhere in the northeast hasn't caused more ripples in the news. I looked for reports on the cause but haven't found any yet. From what I have found the local authorities found work-arounds to allow people to get help in spite of the outage. As some "on the street" interviewees noted we simply expect these systems to work. But it feels (I don't have any "data") like so much we take for granted aren't that reliable nowadays.

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Welcome to the Summer Solstice and astronomical summer. The heat is hanging on and is predicted to continue for the next week. I went out early to water the plants hoping it would be cooler. The word "cooler" is a a comparative term: cooler than what? The thermometer already reads more that 80°F. We should get into the 90° + range.

Aurelian has some interesting observations about elections in our western world including: Part of modern democratic systems is the organisation of regular elections. In the depoliticised politics that we have enjoyed for the last generation, politics in many western countries has degenerated into nothing much but elections, generating a massive industry of consultants, psephologists, analysts, stylists and hairdressers.

The way we live now it seems the election season never ends. Not since Trump rode down the escalator at Trump Tower. From what I have seen in the bloggers I follow we, here, aren't the only ones utterly exhausted by the endless chattering.