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.
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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.
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