March 28

 We have partly sunny/cloudy conditions but the temperatures should go into the mid 70s. The conditions are slowly shifting toward spring. Only one day (for now) in the forecast that will be more wintery. Unfortunately that is the day I have planned for essential errands. Oh well.

Safari is giving me problems today, as it has for some time now, by refusing to load a page from my Outlook e-mail. We'll see how far I get before closing things down in disgust.

Stray thought: isn't it wonderful that some Republicans are finding their backbones (sort of but still a bit squishy) and their voices (still somewhat muted) to criticize those morons who are involved in what some (myself I am sorry to say) are calling "Signalgate." I really wish we would find a better way to designate scandals by something other than a reference to Watergate--it was 60 years ago for Gods' sake. And I would love to see some of them realize that the rot started at the top--Trump himself. The laziness, entitlement and arrogance of Hegseth, Gabbard and friends begins with the laziness, entitlement and arrogance (and malice) of the man who appointed them.

Second stray thought: does it give anybody else to watch a bunch of black clad men with face masks accosting a woman on the street. The news account said they didn't identify themselves as ICE agents initially but I didn't see any of them show a badge and nothing on their clothing indicated who they might be. And they quickly moved her out of the state to the detention center in Louisiana before a court could intervene. It looks like we have our own "secret police" just like Nazi Germany, East Germany, Soviet Union....

Charles Huge Smith describes how all aspects of our lives are ULTRA PROCESSED: food, economy, politics. 

March 27

 Cloudy this morning with rain and thundershowers predicted with temperatures in the mid-50s. The weather people say we should have a stretch of this weather punctuated by a day or part of a day with some sun.

There are times when I hate some of our technology. Three or four years ago Xfinity pretty much forced us to "upgrade" to the new "hub" or pay a "ransom" each month to keep our old system. I have never been able to get the system to network our computers and our printer. With a lot of swearing, I decided to fix up an end around and connect my laptop directly to the printer since we don't use the printer as often as we once did. We can't do without the printer because two or three times a year we have to print off forms to sign and send back to whoever. Well, today is one of those times and I had to relearn how the damned thing worked. Again, with a lot of swearing, I figured it out, printed the forms, and put the little monster to bed until next time.

I am restricting my news. I am tired of exhausting my quota of swear words with the idiocy the kakistocracy elicits from me. Especially when the incompetence is combined with the greed of the oligarchy and the kleptocrats. Jan in SanFran has a post which echoes my thoughts on Trump's cabinet picks: they were picked FOR their incompetence not IN SPITE of it.

Reading this piece by Bill Astore I remember an old saying: if all you have is a hammer, all your problems look like nails.

Heather Cox Richardson wrote an article which completely dissects what people are now calling Signalgate. I have nothing to add to it.

Stray thought: Some few years ago I read Octavia Butlers THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER and I remember a scene where the main characters are planning to go to the local police and ask for information about a missing relative and family. One would think that wouldn't be a problem but it is in a world where law and law officers are capricious (and totally self-serving). The discuss how much cash and/or valuables they should carry so that they might get some information and won't be too badly beaten. I wonder is similar discussions are taking place in our institutions of higher education and in the big law firms as Trump make his demands and they capitulate. I won't find links since the news carried the stories earlier this past week. Actually, I will give you a link because I just found Jennifer Rubin's latest post at THE CONTRARIAN which lays out the situation very well. 

Another stray thought: It seems that some of the vaccine skeptic parents in Texas (maybe other places??) decided to follow the advice of the scientifically ignorant Bobby, Jr. and give their darlings Vitamin A to "prevent" measles. Doctors in the area have reported cases of children coming in with signs of Vitamin A toxicity which include, according to the NIH,  nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, irritability, blurred vision, and muscular incoordination. To start with and can escalate to thinning bones, liver damage, skin irritation. But of course why should they trust the NIH when they have Bobby.

March 26

 Partly sunny today with temperatures predicted to reach the 50s. Until the weekend we have low chances of rain and then several days into next week when thunderstorms should rumble in. Hopefully we can evade the rain, if it comes, on Monday because we have an essential errand.

Yesterday was a very lazy day for the most part. I played, skimmed the e-mail (didn't really read much of it) and took the car in for an oil change and a check of the tire sensor which went on Monday. The oil change warning came on a bit ago and I was waiting for warmer weather but with the tire sensor also sounding a warning I decided sooner was better.

I wasn't TOTALLY idle. I got some cross stitching done, started a new doily which is proceeding nicely, started a broomstick lace lap blanket, put some more rows on the older blanket which is about one-quarter done.

March 23

 Good morning on a nice sunny day. Cool but the roller coaster of weather conditions continues. Early spring looks a lot like late winter. We had a few errands for the day: a trip to the dairy, the drug store, the grocer store and to pay rent. We are a bit fuzzy today because the cats simply wouldn't settle down and let us sleep. And even when the fuzzy little monsters weren't pestering us we kept waking up on our own. It seems that a number of people had the similar problems. Our favorite checker at the dairy mentioned a simply horrid night where even when she could sleep she had terrible dreams. I told her about our difficulties and the woman with two small children behind us mentioned how restless her kids had been. Something was definitely going on. Hope tonight is better.

We put a large stack of our DVDs on the player over the weekend. The Premier League seems to be on a two week hiatus. No games over the last weekend and none on the schedule next weekend. Just checked a the games resume on April 1. Oh well, I will head to our local library and check out a stack of their DVDs for Saturday and Sunday.

Stray thought: the Enlightenment was an era in which people thought the men could understand the mysteries of the universe and bring rational minds to bear on the complexities of human nature, the conduct of government, and social organization. I think the Enlightenment flame is burning out and the last two achievements of that era are crumbling. The United States Constitution was a rational document designed to balance human vices with human virtues to create a human and humane society. I thought a decade ago that the U.S. would see the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence (next year) but would not see the 275th. Now I wonder if we will see the 250th anniversary of the ratification of the Constitution in 2039. I might actually live to find out since my mother is 94 later this year and in 2039 I will be 90. As far as the second great achievement, understanding the universe, the tool for that was science and there seems to be less and less confidence in what science "reveals." 

March 22

 Cloudy this morning but temperatures are moderate. It looks like the big pots on the patio are thawing out--I saw rivulets of water running down from the bottom of them. 

I didn't do much yesterday because the news from the Trump circus was depressing. When Trump first announced his cabinet picks I thought he was choosing on the basis of incompetence and lack of experience but looking at what is happening I think he chose people who would do the most damage. An old saying holds that just because you are paranoid doesn't mean someone isn't after you. I never felt paranoid before but it is hard not to feel paranoid when everything I and my mother depend on is under attack. And Trump has commanded that Student Loans will be moved to the Small Business Agency which is not really equipped to handle tens of thousands of new accounts and has just had its workforce slated for a 40%reduction. And the changes to Social Security simply make sure it is as difficult as possible for retirees to navigate the system and get the money most of us were promised in return for a working life-time of paying into it.

I saw most of Trump's news conference announcing the above measures and the new F47 fighter for the Pentagon. Bill Astore has some caustic thought on the new $22billion (for now) program. This isn't the way to cut costs but then I don't think cost cutting has ever really been the goal. What they really wanted was a large pot of money they could skim or throw at their favored recipients. We didn't see a "peace dividend" from the end of the Cold War and I don't expect to see anything out of the Great Demolition.

Stray thought: I remember a scene from John Michael Greer's novel TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING where, during a succession crisis triggered by a 25th Amendment convention which placed a disollusion amendment on the table, one of the main characters says that Americans expected two thing from the Federal Government: win wars and provide services people need. And the Feds hadn't been good at either for decades.

Another stray thought: while the press conference was going on, before I got too disgusted to continue and turned it off, I wondered if all those present were kissing the Trumpian ass to his satisfaction. It clearly wasn't enough that they designated the plane to honor President #47. They all had to constantly praise Trump the Great.

I heard about the travel advisories some European countries and Canada are issuing for their citizens to NOT travel to the U.S. Here is an article on that issue. Who would have thunk it?

March 19, 20

 Good morning. We finally got some of the sun they promised late yesterday. It is sunny now and fairly warm--mid 50s. But that is supposed to change starting a bit later with high winds and storms coming in--rain that should change to snow. That will go through tomorrow morning. We don't have to go anywhere. The conditions the Weather Channel is showing from Iowa are brutal. And they say that is coming our way. Hope it won't be that bad.

I stepped out on the patio to take advantage of the warm and sunny day while it is warm and sunny. About half of the rearrangement is done and the buckets on the west side of the patio are cleaned out. I swept most of the leaves and seed hulls swept out though the wind insisted of moving a bit of it back onto the patio.

20**********************************************

Well the storm that gave Iowa and other plains states blizzard like conditions finally arrived here. Some areas west of here lost power. A school in Gary (about 40 miles from us) lost its roof and some buildings were damaged in the area along the Indiana/Illinois border.The reports of the storm's impact are still coming in. We have snow and gusting winds now but the air and ground temperatures are too warm for it to stick. I went out to get the mail stepping very cautiously in case there was some not very visible ice but found only wet pavements. I checked for damage but found only one pot with the remains of one of last year's plant and a 5 gallon bucket overturned. Nothing I had to brave the conditions to remedy.

We didn't spend much time on the news since it had nothing new. 

By the way--HAPPY EQUINOX. Yesterday the shadow of the house on the fence was a smidge below the top which told me that the event was only a day or two away. I always look forward to that because the patio planters will begin to get stronger light. It will soon be time to plant. I saw the chives definitely reaching for the sun and turning a nice green.

Bill Astore posted this morning that he is "already against the next war." I say "amen" to that. I noticed that the only department of government that isn't on the DOGE chopping block is Defense. Could that be to preserve Musks DOD pork?

March 18

 Cloudy for the moment. The weather forecast predicts PARTLY CLOUDY so I guess I can hope for some sun sometime today. We'll see.

First on the news this morning covered Israel's renewed bombing in Gaza. The cease fire is officially dead. Actually I didn't expect it to survive the first phase. And I definitely didn't think it would move into an HONEST negotiation where both sides are willing to compromise. Bill Astore was also skeptical and not just about the Israel-Hamas situation. In his latest post he notes the administration's renewed bombing of the Houthis in Yemen and wonders when the political leadership will go full  "1984."

Continuing along on the theme of an administration going "full Orwell" read this and try not to weep.

I have a long (76 years) memory and, as I am sure you all have noticed, it is quirky. As I read the piece Heather Cox Richardson wrote (link above) I remembered a bit of an upset on the other side of the pond (the Atlantic) when a series appeared on U.S. television titled DESERT RATS. It featured American soldiers fighting the Germans and Italians in--North Africa. Well, most of that phase of the war was conducted by--the BRITISH. They didn't much like Americans stealing their glory. It was amusing at the time and I was a bit too young to fully understand. I am no longer young and now, with the erasure of the accomplishments of Black, Hispanic, Native American, and female Americas to bolster the glory and tender egos of white men, I fully understand--and I am PISSED.

By the way did anyone remember the rash of "stolen glory" stories of a short while ago. We used to get upset by people, usually men, who claimed military exploits and honors they didn't experience or earn? How very far we have fallen.

March 17

 After a day of mixed precipitation we have sun today. It is a bit too cool (not yet 40F) to do anything outside. Watching the Weather Channel and the damage from the storms that passed through over the weekend. As far as I know right now we haven't had much damage here but southern Indiana had several tornadoes.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Stray thought: since Inauguration Day a theme in the slightly left leaning press has when we might actually have a Constitutional crisis. The question surfaced when Trump on his whim closed USAID which had been established by congressional legislation. As his administration threatens other agencies and tries to bring independent parts of the government (i.e., Department of Justice) under the control of the Executive. It has come up again with current tussle between the Judiciary and Executive over the "deportation" of alleged Venezuelan gang members allegedly in the U.S. illegally to El Salvador after a judge ordered a stay of deportations under the "Alien Enemies" law from the 1790s. I put DEPORTATION in quotes because from reports the proper word might be "kidnaping," I use the word ALLEGED and ALLEGEDLY because NO PROOF has been offered and no court has rendered judgement. So far the "experts" say it isn't really a Constitutional crisis because the Administration is in court arguing the details of timing--whether the order came before or after the deportees arrived in El Salvador to a beautifully stage reception. In Robert Heinlein's novel I WILL FEAR NO EVIL Jake Solomon and Eunice Branca where he says that the U.S. has, over its history, been a constitutional republic, a limited democracy, an almost universal democracy, and an oligarchy--without ever changing its Constitution. Are we there yet?

Another stray though: the 1798 law Trump used was supposed to be a "war time" measure. As far as I know we aren't actually at war with any country. But since Lyndon Johnson declared a "war" on poverty we have used the term more and more loosely. We haven't been in a declared war against an enemy country since World War II.

Marcy 15, 16

 Good morning today, if you ignore the crazy world away from my little bubble. Sunny right now but becoming partly cloudy later. Temperature yesterday reached about 80F--definitely not normal for mid March. Forecast temperatures should top in the high 60s before plunging overnight. They expect a wintery mix with a slight accumulation of snow (less than 0.1 inch). 

I washed down the wall of the shed behind the air conditioner. It was pretty bad but it has been too hard to get to since I can't move the AC unit and had several large containers lined up there. I intended to move the pots anyway and wanted to move the patio table/planting bench into that area so it seemed a good time to wash the wall down. I got most of it and it looks a lot better.

The corner where the table had been has a couple of areas of fence that need to be washed down so I will try to get to that and the gate today before moving some more of the buckets pots. A future project will be cleaning off the top of the fence inside and outside. We feed birds and they perch on the fence doing what birds do so often--creating a mess. I need to do that before I bring out the over-the-fence pot hangers. Luckily I have most of dinner cooked already.

I am a bit slow getting going this morning because thunder storms rolled in last night with high winds and heavy rain along with the thunder and lightning. Mom says they woke her frequently and I know I woke up twice. It was NOT a peaceful night.

Stray thought: I saw a small snippet of news that Musk is planning to launch a Starship rocket to Mars next year. He thinks that, if the tests between now and then go well, a manned mission could launch in 2029 or 2931. I only hope he is on the first manned flight.

Another stray thought: Musk claims to have saved about $115B or $700 per taxpayer. Funny, I didn't see any of it. How about you? I would bet that we won't either.

16**********************************************

Winter is back--but not with a vengeance. The temps are in the mid 30s and won't be going much lower over night. Rain fell early but now snow has replaced it. Not heavy and I don't expect it to stay--if it sticks at all. Needless to say, I won't be getting any more clean up/rearrangements done outside.

A pleasant St. Patrick's Day eve. We watched the end of the Six Nations Rugby Championship which France won running away. The games today were very lopsided affairs with England beating Wales by 50+points and France beating Scotland 35 to 16. We are watching speed skating right now. It is a pleasant change from the politics of today. And I just took a pan of brownies out of the oven.

On that note: we are officially no longer a "nation of laws." Our uncrowned, unanointed king has flown Venezuelan prisoners to El Salvador AFTER a judge extended the suspension of the administration's plans to use that "enemy aliens" wartime measure that saw Japanese Americans sent to Manzanar and other camps during WWII. This story provides more information. According to another story the Judge issued his extension AFTER being informed that a flight was preparing to leave and BEFORE  it had. 

I followed the links on this story to see where it came from. The intermediary story ran on FUTURISM which got it from Jen Griffin at Fox on her X page. So we might have some bomber taking an explosive through the line because someone at DOGE simply doesn't understand what the entry on a spreadsheet means. What did the barely post pubescent nerd who found this bit of "fraud" think? That the TSA dogs were someone's pets? And this just after the (formerly) Golden God celebrated our "heroic canine vets."

Don Moynihan has a good (but long) piece on the administration's attempt to erase parts of American history. Moynihan cals it "Stalinist" and it is; though the fact that Stalin's erasure of parts of Soviet history failed. It was still there and in people's memories.

In the wake of the nasty weather system that carried high winds, thunderstorms, tornadoes and flooding across the center of the country Joyce Vance reports on the administration's determination to reduce the staff of NOAA by 1000 employees. Updates this morning put the death toll at 34. We haven't entered hurricane season, but, as the wildfires already burning have shown, there is no season to any weather pattern nowadays. We did get the thunder, lightning and rain but the tornadoes hit about 30 miles west of us. I don't know what local damage might have happened. And right now: the snow is falling faster but still not sticking.

I found this story by way of LAST WEEK IN COLLAPSE recounting the largest wildfire in Japan is 50 years. Like the L.A. fires the Iwate Prefecture fire came after a hot summer and dry fall which dried out the vegetation that grew up after two wet seasons.

March 12

 Looks like we will have sun for a while at least. And Temperatures in the mid to high 60s. If it stays dry I will do some more rearranging on the patio and, perhaps, get some of the dead plants out. They have done their last job and kept soil from splashing out in heavy rains. I might get some of the smaller plants filled from the large planters and start some of my cold tolerant seeds--carrots and beets, etc.

Bill Astore asks a question I have asked for a while now: where's my country? As a former military officer he looks at the question from the angle of military and foreign affairs. I always looked at it from my perspective as a woman as the so-called "men's rights" movement got going and deeply penetrated the Republican Party. I have felt increasingly like some people are trying to erase me and other women. We see that in the more and more draconian anti-abortion which basically erases women's agency in medical matters. We see it in the increasing attacks on accomplished women (and black/brown women and men) as DEI hires. And I feel increasingly under attack as both old and female with the attacks on Social Security and Medicare. I made an observation the other day that the Nazis were at least honest when they euthanized the infirm, elderly and otherwise, because they called them "useless eaters." Our politicians are not often that honest.

I did notice the stories about Trump's environment appointees and their plans to, as Bill McKibben writes, MAKE AMERICA FILTHY AGAIN. MSNBC had a segment on Rachel Maddow's show last night about the Federal case against the petrochemical plants in part of Mississippi which has been scrapped in light of the new directives from both DOJ and the EPA (no longer protecting the environment). I had read about the area ten years ago in an article because of the high levels of cancer--a "cancer alley." The situation still hasn't changed. The company is still insisting that the solution is for the people, who have lived there all their lives and whose families have lived their for generations often since it was a plantation in the Civil War era, to move away. I have noticed this mind set in the business class before. Most of them have no attachment to place and don't understand that others might have a strong attachment. The "solution" the propose is one that protects their "interests" (meaning profits) but does nothing for the people to be displaced. Trump had that attitude when he couldn't understand why Palestinians wouldn't want to move the "nice, safe" new homes elsewhere while he and others like him build a middle eastern Riviera.

Another memory that goes along with the above piece: I grew up in the northwestern part of Indiana and about 45 years ago I attended Indiana University's northwest campus. One of my teachers told my friends and me about driving back from somewhere in the south. He could see the brown dome of pollution over the area when he was still more than 50 miles out. I made similar drive from another direction a couple of years later and saw a similar sight. I have no idea what was in that cloud. We had refineries, steel mills and power plants and businesses I can't even remember now. And I was breathing that s##t all my life. I was born in Chicago and lived in various places in Lake and Porter counties.

It looks like the Trump supported continuing resolution which isn't "clean" as Mike Johnson tried to convince everyone. Johnson managed to get the Republicans who have NEVER voted for a continuing resolution to get on board. Trump and his economics officials promised that any additional spending in the bill will be ignored and the bill won't hamper them from continuing to cut people, agencies, and spending as they wish. Joy Reid has a good dissection of the situation. Schumer contends that accepting the horrendous bill the Democrats can preserve the Democrats power in the Senate and House. He claims that if the bill fails and the government shuts down Trump and his minions can decide what is shut down, who is considered "nonessential" and there is no clear road out of a shutdown. Problem I have is one Reid seems to have. I don't see any difference in the distinction. Either way Trump et al., will do as they will with feeble pushback.

March 13

 Another nice day though tomorrow should be wet. I won't complain. I am looking for some green in the landscape. Not much hopeful in the patio containers. I moved a bunch of containers, and cleared off the patio table I use as a potting bench and moved it to its new home. I moved the trash tote yesterday. With the moving, sweeping and clearing I am done for the day.

Found David Kaiser's post and you can read it here. I think a lot of what he says is right and with what is going on with the Federal government I think much of what he describes will go away. It will make a lot of people very unhappy, especially the overpriced administrators. Unfortunately, some of what I am hearing indicates that I will be one of the unhappy ones--those who trusted the "experts" who told us that getting the student loans was a "wise" choice that would lead to good jobs and the debt was "good debt" because of the low interest rates. But the rates have gone up and I never got a job (much less a career) that allowed me to even pay the interest accruing. I expect that the American education will look much more like what it did before 1980. I only hope it won't look as white and male as it did then.

Stray thought: I saw way too much of the tussle between the Republicans and the Democrats over the continuing resolution. None of the parties involved has said anything about Trump's treasury secretary who told the Republicans that they could vote for the bill because it really didn't matter--the administration would ignore it anyway and spend, or not spend, what they wanted. That basically allowed the Republicans to vote as a block and pass it with only (unnecessary) Democrat. Now it is in the Senate and the Democrats are obsessing, pearl clutching, and whining about who will be blamed if the bill isn't passed and the government shuts down. It doesn't matter whether they keep the bill from passing or they help it passed. The rest of us lose. I am well past giving an F##K about our perennial s##tshow.

Another stray thought: Mom and I listened to Trump's idiotic musing about the U.S.-Canada border (how it is unfair, how its very straight line is evidence that it was proof that some unspecified person simply drew a line with a ruler on a map). I am sorry but I had American history in grade school, four times in high school, and several courses in my college/university studies and I know how cockeyed his notions are. I said that if he had double the brains he has he would be a halfwit. Mom disagreed. She thought he had a half halfwit. My last comment: it would insult birds to call him a bird brain.

MARCH 12

Good morning on what looks to be nice sunny and somewhat warm--mid 50s perhaps. I have begun the process of cleaning up the patio, pulling the dead plants, and rearranging the containers. I did find that the chives in one of the containers is pushing up green shoots. I still have room in front of the chives clump to put some small pants. Doing a little at a time I should have the entire process done my mid April and can decide when to start some of the seeds I have. Transplants won't come until late April or early June. The weather is so crazy deciding when to put in the more sensitive plants is a bit of a crap shoot. I did get some needlework done over the last couple of days but, for some reason, my hands started aching so I cut the stitching time short.

So much of the news is ephemeral. Tariffs now, but a few hours later not. We haven't had to be too careful with how much we spent on what for several years. However, with the current political situation we will be paying close attention to costs. That isn't an unusual situation here. We have discussed often what we would do if we ran into economic difficulties. We'll see how long the new tariff war continues. Already the E.U. has announced that they are answering the $26B in tariffs Trump announced will be answered by Euro24Billion on specified goods. I half expect to see some signs in the grocery stores apologizing for a lack of product because their suppliers couldn't get tin cans. And I will be looking more closely at the prices of the goods they do offer.

Well, half the employees of the U.S. Department of Education have been put on leave which may turn out to be permanent. I am neither surprised nor shocked. I have been a reader and learner since I was in early elementary school and my mother taught me phonics, much to the annoyance of my teachers. They stuck to the "sight reading" techniques which frustrated me. Education for me meant learning new things or going into old things more deeply. I have had a love hate relationship with schools all the way through from elementary through high school through bachelor's degrees and master's degrees. I have hated those situations where the teachers tried to micromanage what I did. That was boring and I have a low tolerance for boredom. Those situations in which and teachers who let me direct what I learned. I never really fit in the system. And for some time I have thought that the education system doesn't really fit the country.

During the colonial and early Federal periods children were taught at home or through apprenticeships. Some more prosperous parents might higher a teacher to teach basic reading and arithmetic. It was very haphazard. I remember a movie about the life of President Andrew Johnson (TENNESSEE JOHNSON). He started out as a runaway apprentice who knew enough to be a somewhat successful tailor but he was illiterate. He learned to read late in life.

Catherine Beecher worked hard to establish formal, graded schools especially in the frontier areas. She and many other educational pioneers believed fervently in the "civilizing" power of education by which they ment that those being civilized would adopt white, middle class, and Christian values. Later the same fervent beliefs were applied to "Americanizing" new immigrants from eastern and southern Europe often from backward agricultural societies ill suited to an industrial society. However, the movement for universal education was supported by the social, financial, and industrial elites because the wanted a specific kind of worker: sober, punctual, literate enough to understand directions and obedient.The American system of education did a good job of turning out such workers in large numbers.

But the U.S. has long since gone from the industrial age to a post industrial economy which doesn't need so many "educated" employees. Though our elites may give lip service to education they don't really need the massive numbers of literate, obedient, punctual and sober employees. The economy we have needs subsistence workers who will accept low wages and can be dispensed with easily. Isn't it interesting that there are hard right politicians who are trying to lower the age at which children are allowed to work even in dangerous lines of work. In the late 19th century working poor families eked by on the labor of a low paid man, his wife earning half his wage, and their children (often as young as 6) who got a quarter of the man's wage. We have politicians and industrialists who wouldn't at all mind if that situation was recreated in the here and now.

March 8, 9

 Sunny again and warm enough that all of the snow is gone. I still have some of the ice on the patio which is still in shade and will be until the coming equinox. But if it gets warm enough for me to feel comfortable I will start cleaning out those pots that have thawed enough to let me pull the dead plants out.

Well the Musk-Rats are at it again. Chewing through contracts an agencies they don't understand and don't give a s##t who is hurt or inconvenienced. Here is another in that on-going saga. I wondered if Main was the only state affected and found this article. I think the chaos is the goal and screw any "savings."

09************************************************

Nice and sunny again. The forecast says we will have temperatures between upper 50s and 70. Not at all what we expect in early March.

We have had a nice quiet weekend with a full line up of soccer (3 games) yesterday and the Six Nations Rugby (3 games). We look forward to weekends for a detox from politics and other dismal news.

Just finished setting the microwave clock and a regular clock in the living room to the "spring forward" time. This and the fall time change are my least favorite times of the year. It is harder and harder to adjust as I get older. Even though we don't have any job or appointments to go to I just feel so discombobulated and out of sync.

CROOKS & LIARS posted this report of a man who was a Trump voter but was confronted by ICE agents looking for someone else who had given (falsely) his address. He is an American citizen who had ID which he couldn't provide until after the agents had him out of his vehicle and in handcuffs. He did have an hispanic name. I remember discussing the administration's renewed efforts to deport an unbelievable number of "assumed" illegals and saying that Americans with hispanic names would be targeted as well.

And the rest of the shambolic s##t show continues. Details posted by Heather Cox Richardson.

Another example of DOGE stupidity: the Defense Department  is purging a lot of its sites and articles for supposed DEI transgressions. As a result pictures of the Enola GAY, of servicemen whose name is GAY. Reminiscent of the AP trying to use its program's editing functions to change GAY to HOMOSEXUAL with hilarious effect including labeling an athlete whose name was GAY as HOMOSEXUAL. These people are far too reliant on technology to do their thinking for them. A brainless system is run by brainless people.

Mach 7

 Cloudy and w have snow flurries right now. I don't think it will amount to much and won't stay long. I spent a while working on the embroidery table cloth. Finished the corner motif and got a good start on the side patterns and working toward another corner. I also put together the floss for a pair of embroidered doilies I received when my sister-in-law died and my brother distributed her stash. It was designed to be painted but I will stitch it. I will start them tomorrow.

I am skimming most of the e-mail. I feel a bit sluggish today and almost everything involves the Administration's deconstruction of the U.S. government. I caught a tiny sliver of Bessant's interview on CNBC where he compared the body politic to a human body suffering toxic effects of a drug addiction. The addiction the country is suffering is government money and we need a "detox." My thought was that the detox has to be done in a careful and measured way because, just as with the human drug addict, the detox might cause serious problems itself--even death. But the process the Trump/Musk people are employing is anything but measured and careful. It reminds me of the report of Trump's J6 pardons. He promised to do a case by case examination but got bored and said "fuck it; pardon them all."

March 6

Yeah!! We have sun today. It might just be a lull between rounds of wintery weather. The mixed precipitation yesterday and over night have left our patio with a coating of ice. I tried to put some stuff in the shed and, after sliding a bit, found the door frozen shut. It will remain that way until everything thaws again. It has been a busy morning so far. I spent a couple of hours on the cross-stitch remains of that damaged table cloth. 

Then I fixed some French toast for breakfast and, simultaneously, started on a rearrangement of our pantry shelves. I am reassessing what we keep on hand. Our patterns have changed drastically and I have to figure out how to use up things we are phasing out. A remark from a former official who ran Social Security resonated with us. He suggested that, with the personnel cuts the administration plans to make at the agency, they might not be able to send out SS checks in the usual timely manner as soon as the end of the month. He advised recipients to "start saving" now. I say that is a bit late. Mom and I have both been on Social Security for the last almost fifteen years and it has taken us that long to save enough to cover about two, maybe three, months expenses. We also have plans of expenses we can cut if things go badly. And the political mishigas isn't the only threat on the horizon. Best to have alternatives.

By the way, this article indicates that the crypto insanity isn't just infecting our "President." Several states are also infected.

March 3, 4, 5

 Busy morning already. It was a shopping day and I had a fairly long list. But that is done and most of the items are inside and put away. I only have a bag of bird seed, 4 gallons of water, a gallon of white vinegar, and a case of canned cat food to bring in. I will do that later if my back will stop hurting or tomorrow if not. The weather forecast says that some nasty weather is coming with a possible mix of all forms of precipitation.

04************************************************

We have solid rain today. The temperatures are still in the 40s and are expected to stay above freezing so the grass should start greening. The trees are starting to show leaf buds. I still have some items from yesterday's shopping to bring in but I am not in any hurry because none of them will be hurt where they are.

Trump is going to give a speech to a joint session of Congress. I plan to ignore it. The news tomorrow will have the high (low?) lights and I will get the gist then without having to spend time listening to his whining and bellicosity.

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

Another rainy day but it let up enough for me to get the items I had left in the car into the house. That was enough heavy lifting. I am now taking a break. I put a couple of rows on another lap/baby blanket just started. I get bored and I grab some of what is in my stash and start another project. The other crochet project still on the hook is almost finished I have a few more rows and the edging. I haven't started a doily project again. I tried a couple of "vintage" patterns but haven't figured out the author's crochet dialect yet. I still have the two embroidery pieces on hoops. Right now my get up and go waved bye-bye a while ago.

I was thinking of changing my mind and watching Trump's address with my finger hovering over the mute button but at one point the commentators observed that Vance and Johnson had bent their microphones down as Vance told Johnson he didn't see how anyone could stand up and deliver a 90-minute speech. It was already 8:30 so I turned the boob tube off and continued reading. As it turned out the speech lasted 100 minutes and, from the accounts I saw this morning, it met my expectations, whining and bellicosity with a dash of grandiose claims of "accomplishments."

I was mildly amused by an episode of news reader cluelessness yesterday. I think it was on CNBC and immediately after the segment I switched the channel. The female talking head wondered why the tariffs were causing such a furor because, of course, we would have time before they really hit. My first thought was she obviously didn't realize how perishable fruits and vegetables are or that we get a large part of our summer favorites from Mexico. Our supermarkets have to be resupplied at least a couple of times a week. Before the end of THIS week we will be feeling the increasing prices. I thought that just before their economist expert mention these facts of our life to her. My allergy to stupidity is getting worse.

Joyce Vance has, evidently, had a higher tolerance for BS than I and watched some of THE SPEECH. Here are the two things she took away from it.

So Trump proposes a "Crypto Strategic Reserve" for government "investment." Another lame brained notion from the stable genius who tanked a couple of casinos, whose Trump themed products (steaks, water, vodka, etc.) failed, whose Trump University was adjudicated a fraud for which he paid a hefty fine. I have a standard rule when I, infrequently, play games on Facebook: I never pay real money for digital goods. The idea of exchanging cash (which is a bit more substantial than blips in the ether) for digital (which is simply blips in the ether. A few of the bloggers I read rail against "fiat" currency (which is really backed only by our belief in the "full faith and credit of the U.S. government" since we went off the gold standard long ago). They usually talk about keeping some kind of silver and/or gold. My problem: "hard" currency is only valuable IF you can exchange it for something you can wear, eat, or use. My problem with the notion of digital currencies is not the it is entirely ephemeral but how easily it can disappear. I have read of several instances over the last few years of gangs, some associated with adversarial states, breaking into banking systems and disappearing the contents, both crypto and fiat. It is very hard to trace the thefts and much of the funds haven't been recovered. Establishing a "Crypto Strategic Reserve" strikes me as NOT strategic, possibly corrupt (how much will be in $Trump family "coins," and how much will be in the "currencies" whose founders have paid him in some way. Check out this article on POPULATION INFORMATION.

CROOKS & LIARS has an excellent cartoon showing our leaders since 1980.

March 2

 Sunny today and I hope it will be warm enough to melt the bit of snow we got over the last couple of days. It looked bad for a couple of rounds but didn't really amount to much. I am planning what I will plant this year and how I will rearrange the containers. We have some of our DVDs playing. I have heard more than I wanted to of the "news." It isn't new for the most part and it is alternately infuriating and depressing. I can read from multiple sources without hearing the politicians pontificate.

It will be interesting to see how Europe reacts to the changed circumstances. For years (decades?) our leaders, their leaders, and pundits of all stripes have referred to the U.S. as the "indispensable" country. Our government was involved in all the decisions and actions since the end of WWII. Now other countries and blocks have to think seriously about whether the U.S. is truly indispensable. they have to consider whether the promises our government makes can be relied on from one administration to the next. If those premises are no longer true U.S. influence will decline. Good? Bad? Who knows?

March 1

 Welcome to March. The winds have been doing their usual March thing: howling. I stepped out yesterday to get the mail and the wind almost tore the door out of my hand. Temperatures nearly hit 60F yesterday but this morning we have snow on the ground--perhaps a quarter of an inch so far. Not much of a surprise because the Weather Channel predicted "more normal" temperatures today before another warm up.

Did anyone REALLY enjoy the S-show in the Oval Office yesterday? I was disgusted by it. Grown men acting like five year old bullies--and I DON'T mean Zelenskyy! A number of thoughts cycled through my mind. First, the scene from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA where Starbuck, in the brig, asks Lee Adama if everyone "kissed your ass to your satisfaction?" The second was the scene at the end of BRAVEHEART where the English forces are lined up facing the Scots expecting to receive the Scottish surrender and one tells the other "I hope you washed your arse because it's about to be kissed by a king." Instead the Scottish king throws William Wallace's sword into the space between the armies and the Scots attack. It is obvious to me that Trump and Vance expected Zelenskyy to well, thoroughly, and abjectly kiss their butts and were surprised he didn't. However, another thought also came up. I read a lot of history among other subjects. Back just before 1453 the emperor and his court at Constantinople saw the writing on the wall as the city was being surrounded by a massive Muslim army. They wrote to the Pope asking for aid. Instead of giving help to fellow Christians the Pope demanded total submission to the Roman Church and their acceptance of Papal Supremacy. The Byzantines wrote back: Better the turban of the Sultan than the tiara of the Pope. The city was sacked, much of its population slaughtered and it remains an Islamic city along with the rest of Anatolia (modern day Türkiye). In case you are wondering, we aren't turning on the TV. We don't have our morning soccer and tomorrow we won't have the morning rugby games. I don't want to see any of the "news" today. We are doing a LORD OF THE RINGS marathon instead,

Stray thought: Biden, unfortunately, paved the way for Trump when he decided to run for a second term. His continuing mental decline was evident and he looked as physically frail as one would expect of someone in his early 80s. Trump's decline from 2015 to2020 and then 2024 was evident to anyone looking but it was easily dismissed by his sycophants who pointed at Biden. Without Biden on stage the decline, mentally and physically, is evident but the Republicans are intent on securing their own power by clinging to Trump's coat tails. Zelenskyy was right when he said that Trump lives in an information bubble which tells him what he wants to hear but his followers also live in that bubble. Many writers have said the we now live in a post-truth world.

Another stray though: some of the headlines I have scanned say that Ukraine's fate is even more tenuous with the Oval Office meltdown but even if the meeting ended on a more "positive note" and the minerals agreement it's situation would not have been more secure. Trump was intent on "getting something for nothing." He wanted those mineral concessions but without giving Zelenskyy any assurance of U.S. aid if Putin attacked again. Trump repeatedly dismissed the possibility that Putin would violate any agreement claiming that the presence of Americans working the mines in Ukraine would deter him. He was incensed that Zelenskyy, with his back against the wall, would refuse.

Last stray thought: isn't it sad that our foreign relations have been reduced to who is kissing Trump's ass and whose ass Trump is kissing.

February 27, 28

 Cloudy and a bit hazy. We woke up to find we had no water. It went off sometime between midnight when Mom got up to fill up her water cup and 4am when I tried to fill the coffee pot and found no flow. I finally found a small local news site which reported on a water main break that affected the Eastern part of the city. About 5am the water began flowing again but a boil order is in effect. I used to keep a supply of water on the shelf "just in case." I think I begin keeping a smaller supply again from now on. This is the first such problem since we came her 25 years ago.

I saw yesterday that Joann Fabrics is shutting down entirely. I remember that the company had been in bankruptcy for a while now. Too bad. In my area the choices for fabric lovers is Hobby Lobby (I refuse to support their Christian fundamentalist platform with my dollars) and Michaels which has recently started carrying cloth on the bolt again (perhaps with the Joann closures in mind. Right now I am still working my way through my stash so won't need any new fabric for a while. But I did like having a local alternative.

28************************************************

Looks like a sunny day today. Temps are supposed to be in the high 50s. I think I will get a couple of things cleaned out on the patio. We are still in a boil advisory. I looked and didn't see any update on the situation saying otherwise.

Stray thought: some years (decades?) ago I read a sci-fi novel in which a very rich man secretly funded the development a fast spreading disease and the vaccine to neutralize it planning to spread the disease but protect particular groups of people. He believed that the human had to be reduced to a level the earth could sustain. I don't think the MAGA/DOGE idiots in D.C. have any such coherent thought but many of their cuts seem designed to accomplish the same goal Their actions couldn't better constructed to cull the human herd. We are watching the largest outbreak of measles for decades here in which one child has died, two dozen are hospitalized, more than 120 people have tested positive for the virus, and which has now spread to ten states (and counting). But the Federal agencies which would normally have responded haven't and the committee of experts that should have met to consider the date from the southern hemisphere and decide what flu strains should be included in next seasons flu vaccines didn't meet because the meeting had been canceled. Because USAID has been dismantled we aren't sending resources to identify and develop treatments for the new, recently discovered hemorrhagic fever that is exploding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But that aid was axed along with that for ebola treatment and AIDS treatments, and the Musk was totally clueless. He promised to reverse the freeze but according to the news hasn't yet.

Another stray thought: another bit of fiction I re-read recently involved how a technological civilization might lose that civilization over three generations. The last vignette focused on an old man who, in his youth, trained as an engineer while there was some hope that the high tech society could continue. He and a few friends cobbled together a small generator that actually produced enough electricity to keep a small refrigerator running. However, other aspects of our technology were beyond them. Electric lights? They didn't have the industrial infrastructure to create a vacuum or to produce a tungsten filament or some of the other parts needed to build light bulbs. And keeping the one bit of technology, the fridge, was impossible because parts broke that, without the supporting industrial infrastructure, couldn't be replaced. Trump's lawyers, fighting a lower court and appeals court order to unfreeze the funds USAID distributed to combat disease and hunger in various parts of the world, appealed to the Supreme Court raising the argument they hadn't raised in the lower courts that they couldn't comply because it would take months to restart the funds flowing. USAID provided the "infrastructure" for the funds to flow through a web of contractors and other organizations. The freeze blew up that up. The USAID "infrastructure" shriveled and couldn't be rebuilt as quickly as the DOGE bros were able to destroy it.

Heather Cox Richardson posted a long article on the actions of the DOGE wrecking crew and their effects on us here at home. It isn't pretty.

Wildfire Labs substack published a very long article on the potential economic effects of GLP-1 drugs--Ozempic and others in that class. Our consumer economy is based on impulse. Our stores and malls are laid out to trigger impulse buying. But GLP-1 drugs depress impulses. And it isn't just impulses around food but in other areas as well.

February 26

https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-fraud-fraud?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=310897&post_id=157957491&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=cfres&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email Cloudy with rain off and on. Most of the snow is gone. The 10-day weather forecast has only two days below 40F. The rest are 40s and 50s. Saturday is the first day of meteorological Spring and, if the forecast is accurate, I should be able to start the garden/patio clean up. I plan to change the arrangements of the pots drastically. Also I have the remains of last year's plants to remove and get the pots filled and fertilized. But I won't be doing it all at once. I have time since I don't intend to plant til middle April or first of May.

Stray thought during the news/commentary shows last night: more talking heads are taking to task those who wish Trump/Musk would "show some compassion" for those whose jobs are either cancelled or at risk or whose health care is at risk if proposed cuts to Medicaid are enacted. They rightly note that the prime movers in the process "don't care." One came out and said bluntly that Trump's "revenge tour" has broadened to include all Americans. I recalled something I read a long time ago that described Hitler's state of mind a short time before he committed suicide. People around him begged him to allow serious negotiations with the Allies, especially the British and U.S.. He supposedly said that if Germans weren't willing to fight to the last person they didn't deserve him and didn't deserve to survive. Around that time he issued the Nero Decree ordering the destruction of German infrastructure and resources. I get the feeling that Trump might feel the same way. He won the first time by capturing enough Electoral College votes but lost the nationwide popular vote. He lost the second time in both the Electoral College and the popular vote. He won both the third time but neither he nor Kamala Harris won 50% of the vote. He didn't really win the landslides he claims and he knows it. I wonder if he isn't intent on burning the whole thing down since he can't get unqualified love. However, my natural tendency to look at different sides lead me to note that the kind of spite described above doesn't look much different from someone absolutely convinced of the righteousness of his beliefs/actions even if people are hurt. You can justify any atrocity if you think the end justifies the means. I forget which Holy Roman Emperor said he would rather rule a desert than a kingdom of heretics and proceeded to try to create a desert. It was called THE THIRTY YEARS WAR.

Timothy has an interesting piece on his substack site describing the heavy lifting the word "fraud" does in the administration's program. Of course the EVIDENCE for fraud of any kind is rather thin or nonexistent.

My mind often makes strange connections. It feels like the Trump/Musk administration is intent on breaking our social/political/economic systems. It is very easy to become depressed at the thought and somehow afraid of what is to come. It can't be good. But I suddenly remembered a video I saw of a Japanese art form, Kintsugi, in which an artist takes broken pottery, some incredibly beautiful before it broke, and recreates it by piecing it back together with glue which includes gold, silver, or platinum dust or dusting the glued seam with the metal dust. You can read about it here. Or take a look at this YouTube piece. I hope that somehow our fractured society can be repaired and become a thing of beauty.

On a sad note: a child has died of measles in the Texas outbreak which is still expanding.

Ed West at WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY posted this article about geography and political attitudes, including voting patterns. I read about the phenomenon in both the Brexit vote and a closely contented election in Germany during Angela Merkel's tenure as Chancellor. 

February ?, 25

Very sunny today with warmer temps. I can see some grass popping up in the snowy lawns. I just finished a bit of embroidery and almost completed one of the corners in the tablecloth. It is a Saturday so we are taking a break from the usual TV offerings and watching the Premier League games. The Manchester United vs. Everton game just finished with a 2-2 tie. So far, 23 minutes in, the Ipswich-Tottenham game stands at 1-0 in favor of Tottenham. Ooops. Score went to 2-1 in Tottenham's favor.

Well, King Donald I has started cleaning house at the Pentagon. I noticed he is rapidly making the world safe for white men. He plans to replace the head of the Joint Chiefs, the second black man to hold the post, with a white man. And he has dismissed the first woman to lead the navy. Earlier they fired the first woman to head the coast guard in as brutal and humiliating way possible--giving her three hours to vacate her quarters while she was out of town on official business.

Ruben Bolling has a very apt cartoon I found by way of THE CONTRARIAN.

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

Another sunny day and the temps are definitely climbing. I think I missed a couple of days here. There simply isn't much to comment on that I haven't already written about.

Well, it seems we are now on the Russian side with "our" president unable to acknowledge Putin is a dictator and "our" representative at the UN refusing to vote for any proposals that criticize Putin. Hell--the "secretary of Defense" on weekend news shows couldn't even come out an acknowledge that Russia started the current iteration of the war. According to Hegseth "it's complicated." The newly elected chancellor of Germany has said that his country will increase defense spending AND will look at options that don't include the U.S.

The spectacle of politicians of both parties going home and being confronted with boos and jeers from their constituents at town hall meetings. A couple of commentators made a some good observations. First, though it was good to see the pushback at the local level all too many were angry because of the protestors were unhappy because of the hit they or their local area was taking. When it became personal they suddenly are taking notice. I remember a popular observation during the past recessions: it is a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it is a depression when you lose yours. Second, some noticed how the main focus seems to be on Musk's activities.. They want the elected officials to "do your job." They are hoping that the Senate and/or House would take back its right to determine spending. But this ignores the fact that Musk wields the powers Trump ceded to him. Musk it the lightening rod deflecting criticism from Trump and Trump protects Musk. 

 Sunny today with the temps a bit higher and projected to go higher by the end of next week. Not much going on except for the usual round of needlework and reading. And watching the demolition of the U.S. as we have known it. My dad, long dead now, often said when he heard any "liberal" criticism of the country said "Our country; love it or leave it. The wrecking crew in D.C. say "hell no--whether you love it or not we're kicking it down. Don't like it? Tough shit!" According to some of the news coverage a number of Republican House members are getting push back and loud criticism at "town hall" meetings in their districts.

Stay thought: only two people, a commentator and the writer he quoted, have noticed that the focus now is on the immediate effects of the administration's actions (job losses, immediate cancelation of contracts, etc.) but the real damage is in the secondary, tertiary and quaternary effects (and even further down line). Those will last decades. Because of the medical research that is never undertaken and so never produces needed treatments. The young and highly trained people who have had their careers cut off before they began and decide to go to other countries. Once upon a time we benefited from a similar "brain drain" which brought highly trained and motivated people from abroad to our shores. Now the pump is going to go the other way.

Heather Cox Richardson published a good piece today which I think is right on point. As the lyrics of BIG YELLOW TAXI says it 

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

I have often said, while listening to people criticizing Social Security or labor unions or some other government function, they either have forgotten what it was like before those functions or organizations came into being or never knew what it was like to begin with. And our education system has failed us miserably by not teaching our history as it was not as some fantasize it was.

Stray thought: though people seem to think that Trump's pivot toward Russia and against Ukraine is sudden there were signs during his first term that he was tilting that way. The speed was definitely surprising but, perhaps shouldn't have been. He has had several years to prepare. Someone said that a failed coup is simply a dress rehearsal for a successful later. Trump's first term and the miserable mess of the riot at the capitol was preparation on both the foreign affairs and the domestic actions. And yet so many thought he didn't really mean what he said or that someone would stop him. Well, he did mean it and no one has been able to stop him.

February 20

 It has turned into a sunny day but still cold. We should be getting warmer over the next week. I am still recovering from the vacuuming yesterday. My back continues to say it hates me. So far most of my activity has been cleaning up the mess from yesterday in the kitchen, fixing breakfast, putting a few more inches on a crochet piece and screaming at the computer. I don't know why but first thing in the morning it objects to going on Outlook. I try to go in repeatedly and, after the second (or third, or fourth) time trying, swearing all the while, I finally get in. It make me really angry when things don't work--especially when the malfunction is something new. DAMN!!!

Oh well, I have simmered down a bit now. Watching the Weather Channel and thinking, once again, that we are lucky. We have some bitter cold and we had that episode of lake effect snow that gave us five or six inches but we don't have to go out right now. We are well enough stocked for food here and, so far, the power has been steady. Our local power company has done a good job. We did get a text message during the last storm from our internet provider that the internet was out. But they provided a time they expected the outage to be fixed and kept to that time.

Stray thought: Trump has shown that the United States government , at home and abroad, is unreliable. What one administration establishes the next might abruptly pull out of. During Trump 1.0 Angela Merkel responded to Trumps threats and bombast by suggesting that Europe blaze its own separate trail and, with the latest demonstration of U.S. quixotic changes of direction, Europe may be getting serious about doing that. In this country people are beginning to look at what they can do to live without government programs they have relied on since before most of us were born. At some point Trump will find himself a "leader" without a following at home and abroad. I wonder if at some point our fifty states will become forty-nine, or forty eight, or....

Jennifer Rubin at THE CONTRARIAN has a good piece on the consequences of the actions of the current administration.

One of the institutions we all depend on without really thinking about it much is the legal system. But it is also being undermined by the Trump/Musk administration. Barbara McQuade, also at THE CONTRARIAN, describes the problem well.

February 9

 We have weak sun after a cloudy early morning and snow flurries. It is cold and won't warm up until the weekend. I don't think we will need to go out until maybe next week. I say maybe because it depends on whether we run out of something we need right away. Not really likely. Been busy this morning. I vacuumed the carpet and throw rugs down stairs which is getting more and more difficult as I get older. We say we do things when the spirit moves us and are thankful it doesn't move us often. However, a point comes when that damned spirit hits us in the head with a 2x4 and yells DO IT ALREADY. Before I got busy on that I put a bit of Swiss steak in the oven with diced tomatoes and some other stuff. It is done now. I left it in the oven and it will wait til we want to eat supper. 

I only worked about an hour or so on my cross stitch piece--one of the motifs that didn't get ruined in the mess I mentioned a while back. But now it is time to get my reading done.

Starting off my reading for the day with this piece by Reed Howard at MAVERICK. I heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer from several of the bloggers I read regularly. He sounds like someone our politicos could take a lesson in courage from. Most are very lacking in that department.

Well the Texas measles outbreak continues to build. And there are now cases across the border in New Mexico. An interesting comment in the article says that though 58 cases have been identified (of which only 4 were among unvaccinated children) as many as 200-300 may be infected but haven't been tested. That puts Trump's contention during COVID that more testing cause more cases. The cases are there just unidentified.

I don't think much of RFK, Jr. but I can't blame hime for this mess. Vaccination rates have been falling for around 40 years. People have become very skeptical of all science--even that which has had a good track record.

John Ganz at UNPOPULAR FRONT has an intriguing post which describes a shift in the "American right" from a "Gramscian" philosophy to a "Sorelian" phase in its struggle. I will keep the post on my feed for a second reading.

February 16, 17, 18

 We have had a "lake effect" snow storm. We haven't had one as heavy as this one for some time. It has been a lazy day. I tried to do some crochet work but I had trouble with the pattern. It just didn't build well. I decided to take it all out and will do a different pattern. And then just started playing some of my favorite games and reading.

I am sure most people have heard that the Trump administration and some of its legislative supporters want a huge cut of Ukraine's mineral wealth to cover our costs in aiding its struggle with Russia. Ugo Bardi has an interesting take on the situation. He looks at the situation from a historical perspective and economics. I remember when we went into Iraq and Afghanistan and so many were giddy about the oil bounty we were about to receive. It never came. Bardi starts with the Roman invasion of Dacia to secure the gold reserves they supposedly had. The gold was there but the technology didn't allow those reserves to be tapped economically. The military operations cost more than the resources gained. Kakistocracy married to kleptocracy.

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

Sunny today but temperatures below freezing so not much snow will melt. We aren't going anywhere. No appointments and nothing to shop for. I decided to let the needlework go for the day and simply read. I am continuing with Bacevich's AGE OF ILLUSIONS and Chris Hayes' SIREN'S CALL interspersed with my e-mail.

And this piece by Bill Astore (posted on Tomdispatch) started off the morning. Since so many Americans are historically illiterate I don't think many realize how far back Trump's notion of MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN goes. I have read recent posts by several writers who think that we are looking at the end of one era and the birth of a new era which is as yet undefined. I only hope that not many of the conditions of that earlier age are brought back.

18***********************************************************************************

Sunny and below freezing again today. We expect our temperatures to only get up to about 13F. But the people our landlords have doing snow removal have already been out an took care of the sidewalk and even cleared the small segment of walk going out to the mail boxes. We left the mail delivered on Saturday in the box while the lake effect snow built up. I dug out my winter boots which I haven't had to use for the last two or three seasons and cleared snow on a path to the gate. There was a layer of ice under the snow so I spread some pavement deicer which I also haven't had to use for the last couple of seasons. It didn't take long so I didn't need my coat. My flannel shirt with turtleneck underneath was enough with my gloves and hat.

I have had a disappointing day with the crochet today--following the disappointment on Sunday. Neither pattern I tried out of the book I was working out of worked out. I will put that book in the cloud so it won't clutter my "library." I have several e-book items in various crafts of I have other choices. But--DAMN. So on to reading.

First up this morning is this article by Richard Haas at his HOME AND AWAY site. I agree with a good part of it. I notice that most of the pundits I listen to would also agree. I could agree with the notion that we should root out "fraud," and "waste." But right now I don't see any 1) definition of either term or 2) proof that any given program or agency is riddled with fraud or waste. That tendency is one I have yelled at for years now. Words are bandied about without specifying what they actually mean in the context of the discussion. They have simply become placeholders and emotive buttons to be pushed. Verbal opioids that simply drug the mind and make it incapable of coherent thought.

I would ask that another word bandied about in the frenzy of firings and resignations be better defined: efficiency. What is efficient about firing people in the department that oversees maintenance and safety of our nuclear weapons and installations and then suddenly realizing that you actually need their expertise but can't ask them to return because no one thought to get contact information after disabling their e-mail accounts? What about some of the other agencies that are being dismantled or disabled but that do serve a vital purpose, like federal firefighters? What is efficient about having to rebuild those agencies from the rubble? Hey, inquiring minds want to know.

February 15

 Welcome to half past February. It has been a very busy time since Trump's second inaugural--for the U.S. and the world. It will be a long 47 months til the end of his term. I stopped the crocheting early this morning because my hands were a bit achy. Best to rest them. I have an Italian sausage soup on low heat until we want to eat. That pot will probably last for at least three days. I struggled for several years to cut the recipes down to something for two people and decided to give it up. I fixed pork chops with fried cabbage and apples yesterday which will take care of dinner tomorrow. The soup will take care of supper today and Monday. I put out some deli ham for sandwiches for Tuesday. Then I have a Swiss steak thawing in the fridge which will make another two meals to slot into the queue. It gives us variety and a lot easier on the cook. 

We are watching the Premier League games today which gives us a needed respite from the news. I don't know what we will put on after the third game. We have a choice of the 4 Nations hockey tournament pitting Sweden and Finland or the alpine skiing. We'll see.

It is fascinating watching our current Sec. of Defense and VP V stumbling their way through the Munich security conference. Kakistocracy in action. They managed to call into question our relationship with NATO and Europe. I feel like I need to take a shower after hearing that Trump has demanded a 50% ownership of Ukraine's minerals in return for U.S. support. How does it feel to be a nation of mercenaries? Our services are for sale and the price may be your country's resources or might be as little as stroking Trump's ego. Actually, I think our services can only be rented and will be withdrawn if a higher offer comes in.

Another pitiful scene was the humiliation of Eric Adams who is getting a dismissal of the federal charges (with prejudice) in return for being a good little lap dog for Trump's immigration policy. So New York now has a mayor in name only since his loyalty is to the Trump administration not to the citizens he is supposed to work for. The whole mess led to the resignations of several senior DOJ prosecutors who refused to put their names to a motion to dismiss which ignored evidence and normal procedure. It wasn't done for reasons of justice but simply to have something to hang over Adams so he will do what they want. It seems that the services of our kakistocracy aren't just being bought on the international scene but here at home as well.

February 14

 Partly cloudy today. Still cold and the ground is still snow covered. I spent the morning doing some stitching and cooking supper. It is sitting on the back of the stove until we are ready to eat. Otherwise I am settling down to reading what is in my e-mail.

Starting off with this piece by Leighten Woodhouse. He makes a good point toward the end of his long (but very readable) article. Americans are a people who share a territory but aren't really a nation. Once simply being over here was enough to define us but over the last century and especially over the last 60 years the American identity isn't enough to bind us together. But neither the left nor the right have the answers to our problems.

Timothy Snyder writes about the parallels between the Munich Agreement of 1938 and the latest security meeting in Munich today. As Mark Twain is supposed to have said: history doesn't repeat, it rhymes. I hope the point of divergence will be a better outcome for Ukraine than Czechoslovakia had. Unfortunately, Trump is an even more unreliable  negotiator than Chamberlain. Snyder also has some good observations on Trump here. However, the weak "strongman" can create hell here for those of us who aren't white, putative Christian, male, and supposed billionaires.

February 12

 Still snowing. The weather prediction says it should pass by sometime this afternoon. I was feeling fairly good until I got five phone calls in about 40 minutes. Four of them had absolute silence for several seconds before a beep and the call broke off. The one where someone answered wanted my social security information so they could find out if I was eligible for a new program that would pay for my funeral and final expenses. I have also, over the last couple of days received calls trying to get me into the Medicare advantage program that would give me the most "free" services I am "entitled to." Which is a crock of shit because we pay for it through Medicare fees. I am afraid I was very rude. I really am tired of these computer driven calls which are hijacking my phone just as they have hijacked Mom's. Both are now on silent which I don't like because we might miss an important alert or calls from family. End of Rant!

First long piece I read today is this one. I wish I could say that this is the first time I have seen such stories but it isn't. Unfortunately, what is happening in D.C. isn't going to help matters. Before COVID achievement scores for U.S. students had been falling. We have been at the bottom for a long time. Obviously, when people think we are #1 they aren't thinking about children's reading, math, or science proficiency.

So, from the news reports, Trump and his kakistocracy, have thrown Ukraine under the bus Russian tanks and drones. It doesn't surprise me. When the war began I thought an Ukraine win was unlikely just looking at economic and population metrics. Russia had three times Ukraine's population and a larger economy. At the time pundits thought the Russian army was far more effective than it proved to be. Russian ineptitude and countries willing to assist Ukraine financially and militarily allowed the war to continue. Trump has blown a very big hole in that support. But he may, at the same time, chipped a larger hole in our alliances.