August 29, 29

 Good morning. I had an errand that started out frustrating but ended well. One of my cats thought she was skinnier than she is and knocked over my glass of water trying to get between it and my computer. Of course the water went just where we didn't want it to go--right into the charging dock for our cell phones. I hoped it would dry out and be useable but no joy. So I went to the store where we got the phones but they don't cell the accessories for those phones--another no joy. But, as a last resort, I went to the website for the company and, great joy, quickly got a new charger on order which will arrive in a few days, We don't use our phones much so that shouldn't be a problem. There are times, though, when I hate modern technology.

29************************************************

I don't know what I will find worth commenting on or if some stray thought will intrude on what I am reading but we'll see. Right now it is cool and a bit more than partly cloudy. Will we get more rain--no idea.  But my hibiscus are loving the cooler and wetter weather and blooming like crazy. I have rarely seen so many buds on hibiscus plants.

I saw a piece describing how Angelenos are uniting to help those impacted by ICE raids and I thought of part of Ken Burns' miniseries PROHIBITION. He noted that enacting of Prohibition and the measures to enforce it created "a nation of scofflaws." The anti-alcohol forces won a major battle but in the end lost the war. Some people's response to mask requirements, economic shutdowns and restrictions on social gatherings during COVID was of the same kind which wouldn't have survived any one if they knew the history of the Spanish Flu of 1918. Americans during the flu epidemic responded the same way--resistance sometimes violent. I remember when Trump gushed about how strong a leader Xi Jinping was because when he commanded his people came to attention and did what they were told. Of course Trump doesn't read history and it is clear that his minions read select  parts which tell them what they want to believe. Americans have never liked to be told what to do or to have their lives negatively impacted by a distant power whether kings in Europe, bankers in New York, or presidents in Washington.

Another thought came to me while watching some of the Weather Channel's coverage of the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The segment focused on the recover of one of the parishes which was almost wiped off the map. Every school in the parish had been destroyed and they tried to bet Federal help to rebuild but were told funds weren't available and wouldn't be for a couple of years which would likely delay rebuilding for at least three (or even five) years. They said "no thanks, we'll do it ourselves." The first learning center was up and running by the start of the start of the 2006 school year and it was open for students from the entire affected area. It is becoming clearer since 2005 that we can't really depend on Federal help even for big disasters. I remember the wrangling over sending Federal funds to New York to assist with cleanup and rebuilding after Superstorm Sandy. A certain Florida politician railed against sending "their" money insisting the people in NY should do it all themselves. I remembered that when Florida politicians demanded help after later hurricanes. Hypocrisy reigns.

Every time the administration claws back funds already appropriated I ask my self "WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING?" Then I remember a segment on the news which said that the cost to keep the National Guard in DC is $1MILLION/day. I don't remember what the costs to day for "ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ" and in a few days it is supposed to hold 0 inmates. All of those deportation flights cost a pretty penny as well. The administration might as well stack up the money and torch it for all the real good it is doing.

August 28

 Sunny and cool at the moment. We had rain overnight and earlier this morning. Should be dry for the next few days with temps in the 70s. I hope to get a but more cleaned up on the patio.

Well, the chaos administration continues. Jennifer Rubin asks "Is The Trump Regime Trying to Kill Us?" Mom and I were talking about the recent employee exits at the CDC and concluded that people are going to have to be more thoughtful about their health care while consulting sources of information outside the government. I don't know about anyone else but I wouldn't accept any information as true from RFK, Jr. He has no expertise at all. But we also have to be prepared for the real possibility that medical procedures (like vaccines) may not be available or, functionally unavailable due to cost because insurance companies citing CDC recommendations refuse to pay.  Women are already having to consider such eventualities with the policies concerning abortion and women's health care. Who do you trust in the modern information environment.

I think quite a few pundits discussing Trump's actions are asking the wrong question. Generally, they ask CAN he do THAT (fire the head of the Federal Reserve, or a Fed governor, or send troops into a state or city without the consent and against the wishes of either governor or mayor) He can do or try to do anything he damned well pleases. All he has to do is decide that he doesn't need permission or legality to do it. It is like my teachers said in distinguishing between "can" and "may." He might not have legal permission but he has the ability as his many executive orders (many of which are unconstitutional and hence illegal) have shown. 

Infidel753 posted a good summation of our current situation. He doesn't see a way out of a government that isn't even a mediocracy but an idiocracy. 

August 25

 Good morning on this sunny and wonderfully cool day. I have been busy already. The weekly grocery order has already been delivered and I got it put away without much effort. While I made the coffee in our drip through system I got the dishes done. Whenever I see the ads for dishwashers that promise energy and water savings. Only two of us here so our dishes don't mount up and I wash every other day. We found that using the dishwasher just left us with crusty dishes that didn't get clean. I got the sink area in the kitchen thoroughly scrubbed and both toilets cleaned up. I got out on the patio and emptying one 5 gallon bucket entirely adding the soil to a couple of the containers I am keeping and got most of the soil out of another both went into the trash tote for collection Wednesday. I only got most of the soil out of the second one because the soil at the very bottom is hard and very heavy. It was not worth conserving it. Then I took another unmodified bucket (didn't punch drain holes in it) I started clearing/organizing the shed by collecting all the support poles and trellis pieces into that bucket. By that time my back hated me so I took a couple of Advil. Right now supper is in the works but I can spend a good bit of time sitting at the computer.

I found this GZERO interesting article. When I was young (about 50 years ago) I was told that the road to success ran through college and a degree. I was told that a student loan was a smart way to go because over your working life you would have a significantly higher income. I was told that the interest on that debt was "good debt" because your higher income would let you pay it off more quickly and easily. They lied and I was naïve. None of that happened and I was an early victim of the higher education scam. Along the way I had some faint evidences of how much of a scam was building. I followed the employment and open positions information in the Chronicles of Higher Education and saw numbers article by people who were seeing the market for their skills drying up: new lawyers who had to take paralegal jobs or well published historians not able to get appointments. That continued through the 1990s. In 2001 I was beginning to look for a paralegal position (having gotten the appropriate degree) and watched as the job listing is the Chicago papers shrank from a page to a column. And many specified that they had paralegal positions but wanted a new lawyer to fill them. Every time I zigged the labor market seemed to zag. I have talked to two young grandnephews about what to do after graduating high school. I have given the same advice: no loans, know what you want to do and tailor your education to your goals, don't assume the college is appropriate for you or your goals, and be able to pivot quickly to something related to your program. So far neither will have much, if any, debt. I forget which government secretary in which department told young people 40 or so years ago to "kick the tires" when considering education. I agree. 

August 22

Sunny morning which should stay comfortable as far as temperature goes. I might get out and do some more clearing and cleaning up on the patio. While I am at it I should also straighten up in the shed. We'll see how things go. I don't have to cook today because I have a big pot of beef/vegetable soup in the fridge. I made that up Wednesday using a chunk of leftover roast added to a package of stew beef. Part of today is going to be recovering from yesterday. We had a checkup with one of the neurosurgeons associated with the surgeon who did mom's neck surgery about six months ago. Thankfully he had good news after reviewing her x-rays. He thought they were really good and she has recovered very well. Better than they expected given her age and the severity of her injury. He saw no reason for further follow up appointments. No more days thoroughly taken up with a minimum of 2 hours driving plus however long we have to be in the office. That really destroys a day. We have managed to move all her medical needs to the local area.

I have watched Trumps assault on the D.C. museums (while promising that other such institutions across the country would be given his attention soon) and some memories resurfaced. Three are from thirty years ago. 

First, while I was a teaching assistant in an history department a new professor arrived on a temporary one year appointment. Two of my friends were assigned to be his TAs and they were totally pissed when they saw his lesson plans which did not mention slavery at all in the period leading up to and after the Civil War. He thought the issue was not relevant. They made sure their sections got a thorough grounding in the issues. I agree with them. Slavery wasn't just a moral issue or a religious issue. It was involved in economics, society beyond the south, and politics. There is no way to present the history without mentioning slavery. Ever hear of the FREE SOIL, FREE LABOR platform especially of the new Republican Party? Why did the Whig Party die? Why did the Democratic Party split into Northern and Southern factions which allowed the Republicans win the presidential election of 1860 and Lincoln to enter the White House?

Second, around the same time the Smithsonian Museum made the news in a not very good way. They planned a major exhibit as we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII around the Enola Gay. The Museum planned a comprehensive exhibit which involved not just the plane and the men who flew her but also the political decision to drop the bomb (which wasn't by any means a unanimous decision) and the effects of the bomb on the cities and people who experienced it. Various veterans groups went ballistic because they felt that any reference to the effects of the bomb on the Japanese somehow exonerated their government starting the war and with the attack devastating attach on Pearl Harbor. Their indignant firestorm of complaints finally cause the Smithsonian to scrap the event and only display the plane with a small sign noting that it dropped the bomb. It is interesting that this year Hegseth's Defense Department tried to scrub mention of the Enola Gay because their algorithm searching their site flagged the word GAY as DEI. 

Third, in the same time period a fellow grad student criticized our history club for inviting a historian who was deeply involved in the New Western History (as in American West) which she hated because those historians focused on the roles of women, native Americans, Mexican Americans, blacks and other people who were involved in and, sometimes, bulldozed by the westward movement of American civilization. My colleague preferred the prettified picture what saw it as a grand adventure and Manifest Destiny as the civilizing of an untamed wilderness.

Another memory from a decade later: Florida politicians trying to scrub the school curriculum of anything they saw as disloyal, disparaging, and damaging to the development of children's sense of patriotism. At least they haven't gone so far as Athens did when they convicted Socrates of impiety and corrupting the morals of the youth (look up Socrates and hemlock). Although that might not be too far off if the attitudes of the Superintendent for Pubic Education in Oklahoma become more widespread. He want's to subject any teacher moving into the state from a "woke" state to an ideological purity test before certifying them to teach. And Oklahoma has a big teacher shortage.

A little bit ago the Weather Channel teased a program to be aired tomorrow and Sunday saying they would cover a water shortage that would "affect 40million people." I asked Which One? Erin Brockovich posted this piece mentioning several cities world wide that are tipping into scarcity if not into a total lack of water. She doesn't try to either minimize or simplify the problem. And gives some good ways individuals can prepare in case their water supply is interrupted.

Well Texas Republicans jammed through their mid-decade "redistricting" plans. One lawmaker was bluntly honest that the whole measure was designed to "improve the party's performance." California is going to put its plans to the voters shortly. I would laugh long and hard if, after all this controversy, the Republicans wind up losing enough seats to shift the balance to a narrow Democratic majority. As the poet said "the best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry."

August 20

 Cloudy right now but only a small chance of rain. That might change as it has often over the last few days. It is nice and cool outside so I spent a bit of time shifting my patio bucket planters around. Also deciding which I will empty and get rid of. Downsizing is absolutely necessary but not something I really like. It reminds me that I simply don't have the same level of energy any more. With the cooler weather the hibiscus and other surviving plants are perking up.

The CONTRARIAN posted a summary of the most recent economic data--good and not so good. I wonder what kind of jobs numbers will be released Friday especially since Trump has fired the person who released the data he didn't like not long ago and nominated a man to replace her who is unsuitable for many reasons. Another episode in the MAKE AMERICA SAFE FOR MEDIOCRE (MAYBE) WHITE MEN. However, if anyone watched this morning's BBC broadcast they would have heard the report that the U.K. inflation was over 3.5% or more than double our latest figure. Inflation is everywhere so why should we think we are immune.

Simplicius on his post has an assessment of the Oval Office meeting with Trump and the European leaders plus Zelenskyy. He isn't portraying anyone involved in a flattering manner. And the regular media coverages echo his scathing descriptions. For all of the coverage nothing much really happened. But reading Simplicius I had to wonder how long would it be before Europe gives Trump a "middle finger" salute and goes its own way. It is a thought I have often had over the last ten years.

August 19

 Much cooler but yesterday afternoon and through the night thunderstorms rumbled through the area. It is cloudy right now but we don't expect more rain though a stray pulse of rain might come by.

I don't know what I will find reading so I will make some observations.

1) The various European leaders and Zelensky met Trump in Washington yesterday. There were some nice visuals but not volcanic eruptions. Also no real agreements and what looked like sort-of agreements were very short on details, And Putin has not really agreed to anything.

2) Several bloggers have written for some time about our "cult of progress." The don't argue that in some ways life today is better than in past ages: economic prosperity which a broader part of the population can experience, a democracy which encompasses more people, legal rights that enables the political and economic participation of more groups of people (minorities and women), education that is available to more people of various classes. What they argue is that progress however it is defined is not a linear process always pointed in a desirable direction. We now see two factions of the cult of progress. One faction believes that the movement of the last century was desirable and should be pushed further. The other believes that the changes of the last century was not real progress and want to erase as much of it as possible. Both factions are likely to be disappointed.

3) So Trump claims that crime in D.C. is "out of control" and he can tame it by "surging" federal officers and national guard troops into it. However, he is putting those assets into very odd places. The Mall and monuments, the museums and other tourist spots. Those aren't the high crime areas but they are the most photographed places. This is political theater and won't really address the "crime problem." But so much of the Trump program is producing the illusion of addressing our problems while more often exacerbating them.

4) How can Europe and the U.S. really "guarantee" Ukraine security given Putin's history of breaking every agreement in the past? These become "gentlemen's agreements" where there is no gentlemen on either side.

Good morning on a hazy Sunday after a stormy night. I don't know if our town and surrounding area has had any damage but parts of Chicago certainly did. One hopeful indication was the weather report which showed not a single 90F day for the next ten days. I hope it remains that way.

I don't know about any one else but I watched Trump's performance in Alaska with a sinking feeling. Our alleged president never looked so much like a dummy to Putin the ventriloquist as he did then. I have let the thoughts percolate in my subconscious since then and that feeling of looking at an approaching crash has only intensified.

The major problem most societies the histories of which I have been reading faced was the problem of succession. The Roman Empire from 200-500CE experienced repeated episodes of ambitious generals who staged coups (sometimes successful) with the backing of an army. This added to the instability during a period of climatic uncertainty, economic stagnation, and threats from powerful enemies on the frontiers. During the Merovingian and Carolingian Frankish kingdoms in what is now France and part of Germany the kings always faced succession problems of having too many sons or too few. Given the infant mortality at the time the kings sons might not survive to inherit which opened up contests for succession among cousins and other relatives. If too many survived the kingdom would also be roiled by contending claims among the brothers.

It is easy to dismiss all that by saying that is the past and doesn't apply now. But there is another failure that has persisted into modern times: the incompetent successor. The history of monarchies from the Renaissance, Enlightenment and Modern period is litterd with examples. And can we say that democracies of any age have done any better? Someone quipped the MAGA movement is really about making America safe again for mediocre white christian males. Our current president and the majority of his minions is a superb example of that.

Actually, I just had another thought: Trump isn't totally incompetent. He is superbly competent in aggrandizing himself, in enriching himself and his sycophants, in seeking vengeance on whoever he feels has opposed him. In all that he is totally competent. Unfortunately that doesn't do anything positive for the 99.99% of the American people outside his concerns.

Richard Haas has some interesting comments on his AT HOME AND AWAY site. 

August 14

 Good morning on a sunny day which should be in the 80s again before we begin another small stretch of 90s. We have to go out on an errand this morning. It shouldn't take so long. The plants will have to wait another day before I water them.

I saw an interesting piece this morning about U.K. and water shortages. Several parts of the U.K. are in drought and others are suffering the worst dry period for more than 50 years. While imposing "hosepipe" restrictions some are also encouraging people to delete pictures and other materials they have stored in the "cloud"--that is in data centers. I mentioned the controversy in this country over the data centers which seem to be popping up like mushrooms. All of them slurp up energy and water often driving up electric costs for their neighbors and depleting water supplies. But, as usual, the situation is a bit more complicated as this article notes. Governments, including the U.S. and U.K., are putting a lot of their economic hopes on using AI to "turbocharge" their economies--which means more data centers. People need water but so do industries--and not just the tech industry. We seem to be reaching a point where not all needs can be met and a contest is pitting people against business. And that contest is being exacerbated by a warming climate.

Rachael Bitecoffer posted this article this morning that should make a shudder run through anyone reading it especially given what we see starting up in D.C. And consider the edict issued by our would be king that directed the Smithsonian Institution to do a thorough "review" of all its displays to make sure they reflect Trumps "view" of American history and culture. I remember trailers for a series titled "The Story of US." Trumps view is "The Story of HIM" as in the white heterosexual Christian MALE. Everyone else are merely bit players.

Tim Snyder gives us another good assessment of Trump this time relating to his usual playbook: make grandiose promises (with no means of or intention to follow through) and bullying. However well the tactics have worked aside the U.S.  (and the jury is still out on this) it doesn't work at all with foreign leaders and peoples.

August 13

 Good morning all on a hazy day which may remain int the 80s. The humidity though still make that moderately uncomfortable. We finally did get the promised rain/thunderstorm but I don't think it will really do much. I will have to water flowers tomorrow. The longer term (next 10 days) show little or no rain. 

So our would be dictator has decided to "nationalize" the DC police department to "combat crime" which he claims is running rampant. Some of the comments are mildly amusing, when they aren't totally irritating. The most critical not that the crime statistics don't show a crime wave. In fact the numbers show that crime has actually been going down. The supportive side dismiss the numbers and lean on the anecdotal evidence: people who have experienced crime themselves, or personally know people who have experienced crime, or people who have simply heard the reports and FEEL unsafe.

However, I am going to complicate that a bit. I remember a study from thirty or forty years ago which noted that the fear of crime went up when the news media concentrated on crime. Many of the subjects of the study hadn't been victimized by criminals and didn't know anyone who had been but were frightened by the news coverage which followed the old publishing adage: if it bleeds, it leads. And it leads for days on end. Under these conditions it doesn't matter what the statistics reveal. The fear is real and is constantly fed.

But the problem may also lie with the statistics. Stats can conceal as much as the reveal. I have often noted that if you add my income to any billionaire's income and average them I am an ef-ing billionaire. NOT!! But that is what the numbers say. Some crimes are reported straight: so many murders, so many assaults, so many mass shooting incidents. But many other stats are reported in numbers per units of population: 10 per 1000, 100 per 100K etc. If the population increases but the numbers remain the same the crime RATE GOES DOWN. If the population falls but the numbers remain the same the RATE goes up. The number of crimes hasn't actually changed. I don't know how many times the news shows from Chicago ballyhooed a drop in the crime rate but people interviewed on the street called BS because they either experienced crimes, saw crimes, knew people affected by crimes. It didn't FEEL like anything had improved.

I won't even go into the problem governments have had with funding for the police and for any other service. DC has an additional problem because the city's money is controlled by Congress and the Administration recently cut over $1BILLION from their money.

To shift into something similar on a different topic: Trump is proposing a Heritage Society "economist" to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics. His nominee has floated the notion of "suspending" the employment statistics "for a few months." I put those last two terms because I wouldn't be surprised it the "suspension" last for the rest of Trump's term. This is another statistic I have often questioned because of what they leave out: the long term unemployed among others. However, at my level of the economic pyramid (which is getting narrower and sharper at the top) experience has often veered sharply from the picture the statistics supposedly showed. It doesn't matter a bit if the unemployment statistics are going down when you don't have a job, have a part time job when you really want and need a full time job, or if you are stuck in a job you don't want but can't find another.

August 11

 Another hot day shaping up with possible thunderstorms later. We'll see. One of the weekend Chicago news broadcasts reported the city had already experienced 24 days which exceeded 90F. The normal number is 17. And the summer is only half over. Did anyone see the reports of flooding in parts of Wisconsin where some areas had 10-12+ inches of rain in a very short time. Very much outside the normal range. "out of the normal range" is becoming a frequent observation lately.

I got a crib blanket in the Bavarian pattern going well this weekend and I think I mentioned the Tunisian double stitch blanket I started as well. I also got some embroidery on the table cloth done with a second corner finished. I am beginning to get an itch to work on a quilt that has been on a very low back burner for several months. I am piecing everything by hand but plan to do the quilting (whenever I get to that point) with my sewing machine which is probably feeling like an orphan now. Soon I will have to wake it up and give it some attention.

So on to reading.

First off was this piece on BOONDOGGLE about the city of Tucson pulling the plug on a data center. The local citizens were up in arms because they had no information on who exactly was going to run the center or on what effect it would have on electric rates and water supplies. All politicians from the state house down to the county level were muzzled by NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS. Those who knew couldn't say and those who didn't know were pissed. I can sympathize. I have seen signs against a data center being considered in this area but I couldn't find any real information when I went looking. The article indicated that my state officials are also covered by NDAs.

August 9, 10

 Well, my plans for today got shot down by a quick trip to the bank. I had an e-mail alert for a withdrawal I didn't remember for an amount I didn't remember. The matter was resolved quickly and my memory was at fault abetted by my sloppy record keeping. But I think an easy not-doing-much day is in order. I don't know what I will find to comment on but let's see what else is in my e-mail.

10***********************************************

Another hot day. I got out early and watered my few plants. I won't be clearing any more pots til the temperature drops to real fall levels. The local news has been focused on the back-to-school precursor to fall. The gradual closure of beaches and pools, the fall events and music, and so forth. A couple of bloggers I read who are rural have, as one put it, "called fall." They see the small changes which indicate to them that things are changing. One of them are speeding up their winter preparations like getting in hay, feed and fire wood. They have a long standing rule that they will have at least a three month supply of everything they need to cover the very real possibility of being snowed in so thoroughly that they won't be able to go into town.

I haven't seen any of the local changes yet but I haven't been out as much as I used to be. We live in a moderate sized city where the roads are reliably cleared and our landlords have crews who take care of the shoveling. 

Is any one really surprised by this post from CROOKS & LIARS? Some of us are increasingly unable to recognize what  the country we used to claim is becoming. By the end of this presidential term I doubt any one will recognize it. Even if the Republican political machine is stymied in the next off year elections I don't thing we will get back to what used to be normal. The new normal will be very painful. Bette Davis delivered a line usually misquoted as "Buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride." Yeah but most of the jackasses giving us that bumpy ride feel entitled, sanctimonious, and won't feel the pain.

August 7, 8

Good morning on a sunny but hazy morning. We have been under pollution warning for the last couple of weeks thanks to the Canadian wildfires. Considering the fires in our western areas they make an interesting counterpoint to Trump's "drill, baby, drill"--BURN, BABY, BURN. Oh, I'm sorry!! I forgot that climate change is a hoax.

It has been a frustrating week for the most part. I finished the granny square scrappy afghan and was looking for a new idea. However all of the patterns I saw were frustrating. They were supposed to be in American notation but trying to make sense of the instructions was confusing. After three tries, on each of the two patterns I tried, I gave up on them. The patterns are really pretty to look at but are a pain in the posterior to work. I finally got out my Tunisian hooks on a long cable and started another in a double Tunisian pattern with the background being the charcoal grey yarn I just got. It will show off the colors of the remnant yarns I am trying to use up. I have got that going nicely along with the Bavarian stitch piece in soft thin thread.

But I was generally lethargic so it wasn't just the needlework making me grumpy. I started perking up yesterday and made up a nice pot (small pot) of chicken soup. We'll finish that off today.

08********************************************

The heat is ramping up again. The temperature is already at 87F and expected to go into the low 90s. I got out this morning about 9am and it was already oppressive. I would have gone out earlier if the library opened earlier. No work on the patio today but I watered well yesterday so the plants will be fine til tomorrow. I managed to clean out two buckets, a large planter and a medium pot. I might be able to get a bit more done tomorrow early. We'll see.

Bill McKibben posted an interesting but long piece. He covered more information than I can really comment on but a couple of points hit me. His rather somber mood is something I can relate to. I look out at what should be a bright blue sky and bright sun and feel like some one hit a dimmer switch. Bright blue is dirty and washed out. The sun is not nearly as bright as it should be. Everything this year feels out of kilter. McKibben had a link to this story which reinforces the surreal feel of today's events. The notion that Canada can somehow get all those fires in a very remote area just because some self-important Republican politicians threaten them is so painfully depressing you have to cry not to scream. 

For the last 25 years or so events and people in high positions have had me shaking by head in disbelief and thinking of the old saying: those whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad. The phrase has been echoing in my mind more and more frequently over the last decade. Trump's second administration has made it an almost daily refrain.

Rachel Bitecoffer updates us on Trump's tariffs. Is anyone surprised that we are paying for his obsession? We paid when he put tariffs on China during his first term and the government forked over a nice chunk of cash to soybean farmers when China cancelled contracts deciding to deal with Argentina instead. That is the weakness in Trumps "strategy". In a world market the countries he hits with tariffs can find other sources and markets. I saw headlines this morning (on BBC) that India and Brazil are meeting to strengthen trade ties in the wake of Trumps policies. 

So Trump fired the person who released the unemployment statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for unverified, unsubstantiated, and unproven bias against Republicans and him personally. And this morning he trotted out some economist with the Heritage Society. I trust the Heritage Society even less than I trust the Federal government (before Trump's purge.) I can look up the criteria the BLS uses to calculate the unemployment rate and rate of job creation. I have no idea of how the guy from the Heritage Society came up with his figures. Note: I just looked up information on that last point and it will take me another reading or two to figure it out. I will note that they take the Bureau's figures as a base and then starts massaging the data. I am always cautious about statistics because, as Dad always said, figures don't lie but liars can figure.

Robert Reich has this post concerning the "Gerrymander War." Texas "fired" the first shot by trying to redistrict their Congressional boundaries to move five positions from the Democrat column to the Republicans. California and New York have threatened to counter that move to at the least maintain the current balance of power or even enlarge the Democrat power in Congress. I have several observations. First, No Mr. Trump. You are NOT entitled to five new Texas Republican congress critters. NOBODY  is entitled to any such thing. Second, Governor Abbott, your voters already can vote for the candidate of their choice where ever they live. Democrat, Republican, or Mickey Mouse. They just can't insist that the person they vote for be declared the winner no matter what the vote count reveals. It is inane to assert, as you did on an interview I saw this morning, that you and your cronies are pushing the redistricting through because you want to ensure the voter can vote for whom they want. Actually what you really want is to ensure that Republican candidates win in as many engineered district as possible and as few Democrat candidates win in a (very) few other districts. Third, the situation resembles all too closely that which preceded the Civil War. The South wanted to maintain a balance of power in the Senate to ensure that any measure voted on to restrict slavery in a House in which Southern congressmen were outnumbered by Northern congressmen who were increasingly against the expansion of slavery. According to the histories I have read that didn't end well.

August 2

Nice to have cooler weather. I pulled a lot of the weeds in the containers. I have a lot more to pull. I emptied a couple of the buckets conserving most of the soil. I filled two large pots I will keep for next year, topped off one of the largest pots, and brought up the levels in a couple of the other buckets I plan to keep. Those buckets I empty I will simply put in the trash tote for pick up. Those I want to get rid of but don't have room for the soil I will ask my landlord to take away for me. They said earlier that they would do that. I have the small pots I want to put in the fence hangers that need to be filled. I started to pull the weeds and found that the soil was a solid root ball. It was easier to empty the entire ball. I have started looking at what I want to plant next year. I have a couple of major criteria: high heat tolerance and full sun for most. I have only a small couple of spots for plants that prefer less than full sun. They still need to be heat tolerant. I also want plants that can be started from seed in the pots.

Dan Moynihan at CAN WE STILL GOVERN? posted these comments about Trump's firing the woman who headed the Bureau of Labor Statistics claiming the figures she published were "false" and intended to embarrass him. Moynihan is right that this marks another step on the way to an authoritarian America. But the statistics have become less meaningful for the last fifty years or so. The published employment figures ignores long term unemployed since 1994 when the Bureau stopped including those workers. If you look up ShadowStats you will see that the measure of unemployment would be about 25% if you use the formulas used until 1994. The figures for inflation have likewise been "massaged" several times also mainly to make inflation look better (that is, lower) especially when the Federal government wants to keep their borrowing costs low(er). I wonder where we will get even sort-of accurate statistics in the future.

A related observation from our grocery shopping. We had been buying our eggs from a small dairy where we also got our raw whole milk. The eggs came from local farmers and really did taste better though because they were from hens fed organic feed and raise free range. Those eggs were more expensive but we were willing to pay the cost. Also the eggs were labeled "large" and actually were large. We had to shift to a locally based large grocery because the distance to the dairy was becoming too much to handle as Mom's stamina declined. Recently I got a two dozen carton of "large" eggs but found that all were much smaller than what we were used to for large eggs. I showed one to Mom and asked what size she thought it was and she confirmed my observation: medium at best. That is "shrinkflation" with a vengeance. I have to adjust the number of eggs I use in my cooking. And this kind of thing doesn't show up in the inflation stats. Remember when cans of veggies shrank from 16 oz. to 14.5 oz. but the price was the same. No inflation here--a can is a can is a can.

And speaking of inflation: this piece on CROOKS&LIARS reports that Procter & Gamble are raising their prices on a lot of their products (which aren't specified) because Trump's tariffs will cost the company $1BILLION. 

Aug 1

Welcome to August. Another month has gone but I don't think we'll miss it. The weather channel reporters said that July was the warmest July on record. Looking at our electric bills I can believe it. 

 Cool, dry and sunny today. Got some of the clothes we had on the beds upstairs sorted. Some I folded and put in drawers or hung up. A couple of bags went into the trash. They were "gifts" from charities wanting donations. We really wished they would stop sending those things. We don't need them and aren't good enough to donate anywhere. Thankfully most of those charities aren't sending so much of that. Now if only most of them would stop sending note pads, stickers, address labels and calendars.

I finally got out on the patio and started cleaning out the containers and sorting out the ones I am getting rid of. So far only one container has been discarded but I managed to save about half of the soil after pulling the root bound top layer out. Several of the small pots in the fence hangers are now empty and ready for washing and storing for the season. I will start earlier outside tomorrow.

Bill Astore has a very good post making the case that the real "enemy" the U.S. has isn't China, or Russia or any other nation we have to interact with. It is the persistent, perpetual, and permanent war or preparation for way. This year the military budget, the part they tell ys about, broke the $1TRILLION level and will probably stay at that and even increase for the foreseeable future. I have asked before how soon that budget will rob funds from all other parts of the so-called budget and then how soon after will we be bankrupt as a country.