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.