January 24

 Bright and sunny but still very cold. That should change for the better by next week. We have no errands planned til then. Right now I have Pandora on the laptop while the TV is on mute. The screen is on but only to provide something distant to ease our eyes. We did see some news this morning but it is basically very boring. I just hope Trump doesn't decide to lob rolls of paper towels at anyone in either North Carolina or California as he did during his first term when he went to hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico. The commentators keep talking about separating Trump's "signal" from his "noise." I can't really tell the difference and I am not sure it really matters. What ever his administration and lackeys do will hurt a lot of people they don't really care about. I remember a scene in the DUNE miniseries where Paul has a vision of the Fremen Reverend Mother  who tells him "when rage and politics ride in the same cart the whirlwind follows." That is our situation right now. We are waiting for the whirlwind. And Trump et al. forget that big storms don't respect anyone and they will suffer with everyone else.

I spent the morning (so far) putting a few more rows on the new lap/baby blanket but then shifted to rolling up smaller balls of yarn from a couple of the monster size balls I want to use in the project. They were much too unwieldy to work with. I might do some more needle work this afternoon after I clear my e-mail.

Some years ago, decades really, I told some friends that economics had replace religion as a driving force, especially the economics spearheaded by the Chicago School. Anyone who dared to question the pronouncements that came out by Milton Friedman and his associates/students were subjected to withering scorn. I said that, evidently, Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with an 11th commandment: Thou shalt practice unfettered capitalism. I would have to say now that Trump and Trumpism has succeeded economics as the new religion. The thought brought to mind the Simon and Garfunkel song SOUNDS OF SILENCE:

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made

The same adoring attitude. The same slavish devotion. The same response to any perceived slight to their new "god."