September 12

 Good morning, all. We seem to have entered into a dry stretch. The latest weather forecast says no rain and the temperatures (for now) in the mid to high 80s. The did take the 90s off but all it will take is a slight change in the wind patterns and things will change. So every other day I will need to water plants.

Sorry about my extensive use of capitals yesterday. The assignation of a conservative activist was bad enough but the responses were just as infuriating. Before any suspect has actually been identified too many were claiming the motive was political and aligned with liberals. It reminds me too much of the responses I heard after the Oklahoma City bombing. Most pundits at the time went on and on about Muslim terrorists. It turned out that good-old-boys from the militia movement were responsible for the crime. We have already seen misinformation  (to put matters gently) put out by sources we would usually trust that had to be corrected soon after. It feels like some people are so desperate to get not just the right assassin but the politically palatable assassin. Evidently the trolls on the internet are having a good time throwing out what ever crap comes to mind.

Bill Astore posted this article: The End Game For Gaza. It isn't a pretty picture. Just lately Benjamin Netanyahu announced an extensive new settlement on the Palestinian territory on the West Bank which will bisect what little land remains to the Palestinians. The announced goal, which they said out loud, was to make sure there would not be a Palestinian state. They are also planning to reestablish settlements in Gaza. When a people don't have a place to go (other states in the Middle East have refused repeatedly to take large numbers of refugees) and they really can't stay where they are what choices to they have. Is it any less genocide if you don't kill everyone in a group but simply make living impossible?

Timothy Snyder makes a good point distinguishing between "free speech" and "me speech." Too many of our political "activists" demand "free speech" but are all to happy to squelch people who say things they don't like. Free speech for me but you should shut the f*** up and get with our program. I would broaden Snyders argument and talk about the word "freedom." I remember some people (usually young men) who insisted on stealing the feminist mantra "Our bodies, our choice." They used it to insist on their right to reject masks. Interesting that many of the same type of men who insisted in their freedom concerning masks shifted the game and insisted, when the abortion debate heated up, "Your body, OUR choice." In other words they have the choice in everything and others have no choice. Nobody really asks out loud the underlying question: freedom for whom to do what? It is also interesting that most of those claiming "freedom" are white, straight me and most of those whose freedoms they want to restrict are black, brown, immigrants, women.