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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.