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.

February 12

 Watching the snow as it finally has started here, We are in a a winter storm advisory which will last until 3am tomorrow morning. We aren't going anywhere and we have already retrieved the trash tote and collected the mail so we have no reason to go out again today.

I was reading Chris Hayes' new book, THE SIREN'S CALL, but my iPad is loosing its charge rather quickly today. That happens every now and then. I have been considering replacing the device with a Kindle. I recently got a nook for the Barnes & Noble part of my library. but can only access the Amazon part with the iPad. I am still hemming and hawing on that. With the way the economy is going and the chaos in Washington I don't know if I want to make such an outlay right now.

I find it a bit amusing that the price of eggs are rising faster than the judiciary is handing out verdicts against Trumps executive orders. Trump hasn't had much to say about the first since he admitted that bringing prices down is "hard." But he and his lackeys have had plenty to say about judges. Stray thought: I think the Dems are taking the wrong tack in criticizing Trump for not achieving his promise on egg prices. They can't really do anything either. Hitting him harder and more frequently on his attacks on our Constitutional system which deserve flaming condemnation. By the way, my shopping took me to the little independent dairy we frequent and I noticed they still have the limit of two dozen per customer. I didn't look at the eggs section at my local Meijer store. The news segments showing customers at other supermarkets and groceries grabbing up six or eight flats (not dozens) of eggs. Quite a feeding frenzy.

February 11

 Cold and cloudy with a few snow flakes. We are buttoning down for a possible winter storm due tomorrow morning through Thursday. I had thought to put off our shopping until later in the week but reconsidered after looking at the Weather Channel's prediction.  We shop about every three weeks give or take so today was a manor restocking effort. I like to keep enough staples on hand to cook almost anything I normally cook. I don't do much exotic kinds of foods. So I tend to buy a couple of what ever (two cans of baked beans for example) and then put the item on the shopping list when I use the last or next to last item. As I said--today was restocking a number of items we were out of or nearly so.

As I watched the news conference with the King of Jordan and Donald Trump a stray thought came to mind. Trump seemed unable to understand a reporter's question about what would happen to Palestinians who didn't want to relocate outside Gaza. He keept insisting that they would be so happy with new, comfortable, safe homes elsewhere. No matter how the reporters rephrased that question he repeated the same answer and insisted Palestinians would have no "right of return" to a reconstructed Gaza and wouldn't want or need to return. That Palestinians wouldn't want to leave homes that have been thoroughly demolished seemed to elude him. But that is something I have seen before. For some years now a group of Silicon Valley tech bros have been trying to buy up a large part of California and been opposed by people living there who don't want to cash. One of the partners was quoted in an article bemused because people were so attached to their homes. Trump and the Silicon Valley group a representatives of a large part of our population who can't recognize value unless it can be reduced to money or some facsimile there of. For some the phrase "home is where the heart is" isn't just a phrase. It means something tangible--a piece of earth. You don't sell your heart. You don't abandon your heart.

Simplicius made an interesting point on his blog this morning: that Trump's moves have been busily dismantling the "load bearing pillars of the globalist superstructure" which he thinks has been "suffocating the planet for decades." He sees USAID as one of those pillars. I hadn't made that connection. I viewed the extent to which our global has been globalized with a lot of suspicion. Globalization hasn't always been good for individuals or countries. The history of the last fifty years has many examples of the process being harmful to individuals and countries. The responses to COVID. The stripping of industrial capacity as manufacturing was moved to countries with lower cost labor and fewer regulations. The pollution that was exported to those lower cost and less regulated countries has overwhelmed many areas. Globalization has encouraged consolidation of industries which led to massive companies with less accountability to anyone and a lot of political power. And that is only the tip of the iceberg. However, rolling back the process will be messy, painful, and won't be complete--unless our global civilization goes the way of the last one (the Roman) and collapses.

Robert Reich posted this hilarious piece today: a letter from Nixon (in Hell) to Elon Musk.

Ian Welsh also posted an interesting but not at all hilarious article: It's the end of the American Era. Period. 

February 9

 Some sun and some cloudy and COLD. Feels even colder considering the warm January we had. We have been ignoring the news so far this weekend. Things are just so insane it takes a bit to clear my head.

Some observations:

The arrogance of the Trump/Musk administration is beyond belief. Well they did tell us what they intended. Many of us simply couldn't believe they would actually do it. And certainly we didn't think Musk would bring on barely post pubescent boys who think it is great to have been "racist before it was cool" or who seems to think using an internet handle of "big balls" really indicates he is an alpha male or competent.

The courts have, at least momentarily, slowed their assault on our politics and finances. But even if the final decisions of the courts go against them things won't go back to where they started. Either Musk, et al., will simply play the Andrew Jackson card telling the judiciary to enforce their own decisions or they will simply tell their opponents to fix things themselves. They will have broken it but we will have to fix it.

Some things, once broken, won't be fixable. How many of the organizations, governments, or people who depend on USAID will trust it or the U.S. again? How many of the farmers who sold their crops to USAID will recover from the losses they are suffering and will suffer? And how many other things will be broken because USAID has been shattered? The U.S. has become very unreliable  on several fronts. For decades we have been told we are and  have had the appearance of being the leader on the international stage. "Leader of the free world." "Leader of the world's democracies." Not so much, I think, anymore. Trump may be a big fish but his pond has become smaller. Maybe that is why he keeps hallucinating about adding Greenland, Canada, and/or Gaza to the U.S.

One of these days I might stop being surprised by the myopia of experts. A couple of days ago I was watching a segment on CNBC where their guest opined that the U.S. economy was not likely to slide into recession. He talked about a strong job market, a strong stock market and a couple of the usual metrics solely relating to the rarified economics. He never considered how Trump/Musk mucking around with the government agencies and firing people might affect the job market. Or how breached contracts might contract the economy. Or how foreign affairs cockups might destabilize the world economy and ours.

Similarly, all those who bitch about the price of eggs don't seem to realize that bird flu is raging and producers have lost tens of millions of birds over the last year alone. And that isn't something either Republicans or Democrats can do anything about. I was somewhat amused by the reports of thieves stealing 100k eggs recently. But I remember when a warm winter caused a drop in maple syrup production and thieves hit shippers for the syrup. I am sure you can recall similar episodes over the last few years.

February 5, 6

 Overcast and cold--barely above 30F right now. The weather people say we may get a wintery mix of precipitation going to freezing rain by tomorrow morning. We don't have to go out until next week.

06***************************************************************************

Overcast and icy this morning. The mail box was covered in ice and a couple of spots on the sidewalk nearly sent me sprawling on ice I didn't see. Nearly because I don't move as fast as I once did and was able to regain my balance. I spent the usual couple of hours doing some needlework, making coffee, fixing breakfast and washing dishes. That punctuated by reading. I finished Madeleine Albright's HELL AND OTHER DESTINATIONS yesterday. It was a thoroughly enjoyable autobiography. Just started Henry Kissinger's THE WHITE HOUSE YEARS. I will read that in small bites over, probably, the next year--it is 1800+ pages including all of the notes, etc. at the end. I will put a couple of shorter books in as well.

Also I still have a long list of sites I normally read when the authors post. It is a bit shorter because I spend a bit of time purging some sites that either aren't interesting to me any more or aren't what I expected them to be. 

First off this morning I found Brian Merchant's "Government by Grok" on his BLOOD IN THE MACHINE site. I am not a great fan of automation or AI. I won't be using Chat or DeepSeek or any of those programs. And I am VERY skeptical of allowing Elon Musk to run rampant in the government systems. There is simply too much information that he should have access to. I don't like the thought that he can simply turn off systems and lock people out. Unfortunately, the rapid growth and adoption of AI and other systems is probably a tidal wave we can't avoid. All we can do I try to mitigate the harm or inconvenience it will cause.

The Trump/Netanyahu press conference amazed me with its lunacy and self-serving crap. To say that Trump's notion that the Palestinians should "be moved out" and then the U.S. could build a Riviera on the eastern Mediterranean is so ridiculous you would have to laugh it anyone but the addled President of the U.S. proposed it. Of course he insisted the he had talked to the Egyptians and Jordanians and they were enthusiastic. I heard that and wondered if someone had slipped Trump something mind altering in his Diet Coke. They have consistently and strenuously refused to allow more Palestinians into their countries just as Palestinians have strenuously rejected the notion of leaving in spite of the rubble surrounding them. And for Bibi to call that asinine suggestion an example of "thinking outside the box" is even more ridiculous. It is an old way various rulers have dealt with a rebellious or fractious population. Look up the Jewish Babylonian Exile. Or look at the Roman removal of Jews after putting down the 135 c.e. rebellion. I could go on but why? The media talking heads are saying he is walking that back some.

Stray thought: the news said that about 20k workers who were offered the "buy out" have opted to take it and the administration hopes that by tomorrow that number would reach 40k. I would guess that two groups of employees might be tempted (in spite of all of the questions about legality and who is offering the money). The first group would be older workers who are close to retirement and are don't want to put up with the crap dished out by DOGE. The second would be young workers who don't have a lot invested in the job/career yet and want to cut their losses. That is just a guess but that would follow from what happened in the wake of the Pandemic and recession.

Another stray thought: I remarked some time ago that the Donald Trump who campaigned for the presidency in 2016-17 was not the Donald Trump who campaigned in 2019-29 and certainly was not the Donald Trump who ran in 2024 and is now President. It is like watching an image fading over time. He has lost more than a few levels of physical vitality and mental acuity. The only attributes that have strengthened are his sense of victimhood and desire for retribution. And his disregard for Constitutional limits.

February 3

 Hazy this morning and the temperature should go into the low 50s. Won't stay there long. Been a busy morning so far. Got some stitching done on the embroidered table cloth. And we are doing laundry. We originally thought to do it Saturday but, as we say here, you know what thought did--not a damned thing. The news this morning has been focused on the tariffs. Stock markets around the world dropped and people are speculating on what is going to happen. The speculative camps are divided between those who think that the talks between Trump and his counterparts will come to an agreement that will cancel the whole thing. Evidently the Mexican President has been satisfied enough to put her country's countermeasures on hold for a month. The two plane crashes have gone on a back burner. I looked at the stock market which has trimmed its losses in hopes that the whole thing will go away.

In the mean time, Musk has evidently, according to various stories, gained control of the government payments systems. That and the purging of various government employees (FBI as an example) is worrying on an entirely different level. Two observations: first, Trump plays the bully on the international front. Basically he punches his opponents in the gut and as they straighten up says "Now let's talk about your pretty face." I don't know how long before someone or several someones come up and smash him in the mouth, metaphorically. Second: it is all a distraction here at home because as our attention is on more distant, maybe threats his "co-president" is taking over key agencies here. There is an old saying that there are many ways to skin a cat and I would say there are many ways to create an economic catastrophe.

February 2

 Well, it is a cloudy Groundhog Day and so far the Pennsylvania groundhog, Phil, predicted six more weeks of winter. Other such rodents might have other prognostications. It is supposed to be cooler after tomorrow which should register a balmy 50F. Then we go back to normal or near normal (in the mid 30s). It has been a nice weekend so far. Yesterday we spent watching soccer all morning and a hockey game in the afternoon. Today the Six Nations Rugby Tournament begins. So far we watched France crush Wales and now Scotland came back from a near death experience as Italy tied things at the half. They won 31 to 19. We have one more game, Ireland vs. England, and then we will go to the speed skating. I noticed that the schedule for tomorrow has a Premier League game tomorrow afternoon. Anything to avoid being irritating by the so called news.

Dave Karpf has a good Substack post on how things are going to crap faster than he thought possible. Normally I wouldn't use the word "crap" but I am trying to get away from swearing. (Part of why I am avoiding the news.) Did anyone notice that Musk minions went to the government office that disperses government payments demanding that they be given access to the computers. Needless to say they didn't have clearance. The official in charge told them no and to "f---off" when they persisted before he resigned. My first thought was "Oh, s##t. They would have all of the bank routing numbers, account numbers, social security and corporate id numbers, for anyone, individual or corporation or whoever, who gets government payments." They could decide to suspend payments to anyone they don't want to pay and, perhaps, claw back payments already made. For years, decades even, presidents have asked Congress to give them the power of a line item veto and they have been denied. We don't need an unelected, unaccountable "first buddy" mucking up the system.

So Trump followed through on his threat to impose tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. From what they were saying last night 25% tariffs are to start Tuesday on Canada (l10% on Canadian fossil fuels) and Canada while China is only hit with 10%. Canada's outgoing Prime Minister announced tariffs an a number of American products we export to Canada and Mexico is mulling a similar response. Haven't heard anything about China's response. I hope some of these countries learn that the only way to handle a bully is to punch him in the face. I wonder how much Trump's minions, especially in the lower classes, like paying more for their winter tomatoes, peppers and other veggies. They are usually grown in Mexico, Southern California and Florida. With the weather problems in Florida and California not much will come from those areas. I had hoped that Columbia would have told Trump to "f##koff" on the military transports but they simply decided to send their own military planes for migrants. That only encourages Trump.

Update on the rugby game: Ireland 27--England 22.