January 27

 Bright and sunny with an expected temperature in the 30s, I think. Tomorrow is a shopping day and the temperature should be in the 40s. We have the TV on but the sound is muted and I have Pandora on my computer. We have seen all of the news/weather we want. Later we will catch the late afternoon/evening news which is enough. And we don't get the damned commercials. We finally put Mom's phone on silent because of all of the calls we were getting for Medicare Advantage (they were going to HELP us find out what plan was best for her), someone wanting to HELP us find out if we qualified for new programs from the state to assist us cover her final expenses (that is taken care of), wanting to HELP us take care of our back tax obligations (we don't have any.) These assholes basically hijacked her phone. Every so often I go through and erase all of them. All of the family and people (doctors etc.) we deal with are in her contact list and mine as well. Most of the doctors know to call me.

On a more pleasant note, I just finished another doily--the filet crochet piece. I haven't decided which pattern to do next. Might give it a rest since I brought out the project box with the pieces for a couple of quilt blocks. The project involves a "disappearing nine squares block." Where it will go after I do those blocks, I haven't decided.

Here is what I am reading today:

Bill Astore's new post on his Bracing Views substack. A good critique of our addiction to both defense spending and nuclear weapons in particular.

Continuing to read Madeleine Albright's memoir of her life after her stint as Secretary of State: HELL AND OTHER DESTINATIONS. Very interesting so far. She has a self deprecating sense of humor and some very pointed opinions. Far more complicated than I expected just from seeing (and sort of remembering) the news coverage.

Doomberg supplied this bit of idiocy--two bits actually. The full article is paywalled but the part that isn't describes two idiotic "efforts" to address climate change. One restricts owners of vehicles that have a remote start function from running it to warm up the engine for more than one minute if the car is unoccupied. It the driver is shivering in the car they are allowed to idle the car for 10 minutes. I have always thought the "every little bit helps" argument was ridiculous. The other mandates a study of anesthetic gasses used during medical procedures to see it they should be restricted or eliminated. Do you really think anyone wants to undergo a major lifesaving operation without anesthesia? Perhaps the legislator who proposed this bit of stupidity would like to under go a public appendectomy without an anesthetic.

Ed West's new article on WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY: "Rats." A very good short history of the 1348 bubonic plague outbreak.

Heather Cox Richardson's post on Lincoln's January 27, 1836 speech. It became known as the Lyceum Speech in which Lincoln expounded on the growing threat of lawlessness especially surrounding the issue of slavery.

Alfred McCoy posting on TomDispatch has a nightmare vision for the American auto industry. For a country that has had a "happy motoring" culture (to steal James Kunstler's phrase of long ago) our industry is woefully behind on the development of electric vehicles. China is making serious headway and our leaders have responded, as has those in Europe, with huge import duties on Chinese cars. I am not sure at all how sustainable wide scale adoption of electric vehicles will be over time given the resources it demands (cobalt and lithium among others) but somebody is eating our lunch.