January 7

 Another cloudy day. We have had a string of those punctuated by some sun every now and then. Still much above seasonal norms for temperatures. Unlike what is happening in Northern Europe. They are getting a winter much like what we expect here.

Stray thought: throughout the Venezuela escapade a line from a song I first heard sung by the Tannahill Weavers "A PARCEL OF ROGUES IN A NATION" popped into my mind.  It is a song from the Jacobite Rebellions and decries the members of the Scottish Parliament that signed the Act of Union of 1707 betraying, in the mind of the writer of the lyrics, their country for British gold.

We're bought and sold for English gold-

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

We and the Venezuelans have both been sold to Big Oil by the parcel of  Rogues in the Trump court starting with Trump himself.

Second stray thought: A brief segment on the MORNING JOE show this morning cited a very large poll asking people in several countries what concerned them revealed that, almost universally, people are focused on the same problems: jobs, affordability, health care. And yes, the U.S. was included in the poll. That poll parallels what I have been reading from bloggers and others from Europe. Most were pessimistic about their situation improving and very distrustful of any institutions, authorities, or information.

Another stray thought: a lot of pundits have expressed outrage about the administration's attempt to sanitize and rewrite the story of January 6 especially with the new White House linked site devoted to telling the story as seen from Trump. But it is hardly a new phenomenon with the Trump administration. Remember the Attempt to purge all non-white, non-male people from the archives of what was once called the Defense Department. Nor is this phenomenon isolated to the Trump people. I remember the successful effort by WWII veterans to scuttle the planned Enola Gay exhibition at the Smithsonian for the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII. They were upset by mentions of the aftermath of the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima which noted the suffering of the Japanese. The exhibit was stripped down to the front of the plane and an insipid plaque. Politicians about that same time in Florida demanded that history textbooks in the state be purged of any historical references which depicted the U.S. in anything but a glowingly positive light so students would be taught true patriotism. Every generation struggles to both tell the story of the past and to control who tells what to whom.