Started sunny this morning but the clouds are moving in. The weather people predict rain for later. But tomorrow will likely produce snow. It looks like we are going to have a slushy time ahead. I shoveled the short path from the back door to the gate so I could get the trash out tomorrow for pickup. And I scattered some deicer on the ice which formed under the snow. The area is pretty well clear right now. But the next ten days look to be a mess with alternating snow, ice, rain. Thankfully we don't have to go out.
11**********************************************
I'm a bit late getting started on my reading today. It's already past noon on a cloudy day that is a bit too warm to snow--yet. Most of the snow we had on the ground has melted though the piles from the plowing still persist. I got sucked into the Ancestry site and in consolidating my notes on a separate document on my computer. I have filled in a number of holes in the tree by checking other sources as well. However I am ready to check out what might be interesting that has come in by way of my e-mail.
I have seen a number of cites which try to tell us what "lessons" we should learn from the Ukraine/Russia situation. Most of those authors come from the side which say Ukraine has already lost. It is a bit too early to say who has won and who has lost. For now Europe is trying to support Ukraine and Russia is still pecking away at the eastern territory of Ukraine. Trump's efforts are text book examples of futility. He is like the donkey who starves to death because he is between two equally distant piles of hay. He can't get any where with either side because Putin wants Ukrainian capitulation and Ukraine won't give up its territory. But none of the speculators on what will happen after the conflict ends don't recognize the possibility that Russia might "win" but collapse again from the cost of the war. This armed forces have been shown to be far less formidable than originally thought. He has tapped all of the "expendable" and easily conscripted populations in Russia and tried to bring in mercenaries from North Korea and Africa. His manufacturing base isn't able to keep up with demand and he has had to call on China, N. Korea, Iran and other allies to help out. All that doesn't mean Russia can't win but rather that winning might be way too expensive especially since, even if he gets everything he wants, it won't help Russia's economy all that much.
Well, Trump has proposed a $12Billion bailout for American farmers. I heard that story right after I heard that economists estimate the loses they suffered with the tariff SNAFU amounts to between $36 and $48 Billion so it won't cover more than a third of THIS YEAR'S losses. No one has even thought about nest year.
Another story that is percolating through the news--bound up in the "affordability" debate--is another Trump suggestion: health savings accounts. Trump and his acolytes suggest the sort of plan would ease the problem which is looming as the expiration of the ACA subsidies grows closer. So people are supposed to find the money for the savings account while losing the subsidy and that somehow they will be able to cover costs for health care out of those savings. I wonder what they are smoking. I have heard of many people who couldn't afford their medicine or medical treatments without the ACA so thinking they can afford all that while siphoning off money for savings accounts is an exercise in, to put it gently, wishful thinking.
12*********************************************
I got tired yesterday before hitting the publish button. I spent a good bit of time looking at genealogical records and a bit more in Spanish lessons. That was before reading the e-mail feed and commenting on odd things. Let's see what I find today.
Well, first up is this piece by Bill Astore. I have thought for some time Trump should have labeled his "movement" MAWA (Make America White Again) instead of MAGA. That would be more reflective of his administration's efforts to erase any part of American history that isn't White, Male, and Northern European. Like Astore I am an All-American Mutt--Scots, French, English, Welsh, Dutch, Irish, and a dollop of Native American. So far in my newly started genealogical study of our family I have traced some ancestors back to Ireland and England. Haven't found the others--yet. I find Trump's vicious chauvinism more than irritating and the signs of a very little soul.
Stray thought: the Trump incompetents have failed to get a grand jury to indict Letitia James for THE THIRD TIME. I have often heard in this Age of Trump that the Justice Department can successfully indict a ham sandwich but that assumes they have competent legally appointed prosecutors, have well investigated facts, and reasonable legal arguments. It says something abysmally pathetic about the whole situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment